How to Add Google Rankings to Google Analytics

Post from: SEO

This post will cover how to add Google rankings into your Google Analytics.

This post does not cover Bing/Yahoo ranking tracking.

Basically, we use the search ‘referring url’ to find cd=# of where the keyword was ranking when it was clicked on.

Here’s an example

When you go to google and search for SEO, you’ll get a page full of listings.
The 3rd listing (in this case) is seo.com
When I click on this listing, there is referring url that contains a lot of useful information like ranking.

www.google.com/url?sa=T&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CHcQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seo.com%2F&ei=JJPtTeqbLMPZgQefrrylBw

CD=3 means that this listing was ranking #3 when it was clicked on.

Does 3 really mean #3 listing all the time? No.
Why? Google may have CD = 1-20 (an example) for just page 1.
Why? because they may include sitelinks, maps, images, videos, etc as listing. So if you have universal results, there maybe 15 listings on page 1.

Does Google always have the cd parameter in the URL? No. I’m not sure why they dont have it but I see it about 30-40% of the time

With Google Analytics we can setup filters that can extract parameters from the Google referring URL, and place them right next to the keywords list (in Google analytics).

So you have 2 options.
1. Create a new profile for yourdomain.com
2. Add a filter to yourdomain.com

I’m not going to cover which one you should do, but this post will be on how to setup on a current yourdomain.com profile.
*Creating a new profile for the same domain isn’t that hard to do.

 

Step 1.
Go to Google Analytics and click on EDIT

 

 

 

Step 2.

Click on Add Filter

 

 

 

Step 3.
a. Add a filter name (it can be any name)
b. Click on Custom Filter
c. Click on Advance
Add the following in the fields
d. Campaign Term – (.*)
e. Referral – (?|&)(cd)=([^&]*)

f. Campaign Term – $A1 (Rank: $B3)
Instead of ‘rank’ you can put position or anything you want.
If you leave the word ‘rank’ then your keywords will look like
seo (rank: 3)

If you remove the word ‘rank’ and just want to show the ranking in parentheses then you can use
Campaign Term – $A1 ($B3)
This will equal
seo (3)

g. Make sure to put all Yes for the 3 radio buttons. Click on NO for Case Sensitive

 

 

 

 

 

 

This will NOT update all of your analytics. This is a filter that will affect future rankings that have the “cd=” in the referring url.
You can setup a separate profile for yourdomain.com to test it out.
If you receive tons of visits, then you’ll start seeing it in minutes.

Side note – as a reminder make sure to write in an annotation in your Google analytics of when you added this filter.

Affiliate Summit Tips for First Timers

Post from: SEO

I went to Affiliate Summit East 2010, and hopefully will be speaking at Affiliate Summit West 2011 Dominate Page 1 with all 10 listings (Please Vote)

There are a few things I learned from going to this conference, and I wrote down some tips for first comers

1. Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program – …you NEED to sign up for this program. You’ll be assigned to an Affiliate Summit veteran that can show you the ropes of Affiliate Summit. You have to sign up for this before the conference so make sure you do this well in advance. One of my friends was assigned to an veteran who was doing really good for himself. They ate lunch (my friend paid) and are now emailing each other to share tips. Remember that you should BUILD a relationship with the veteran and not try to squeeze every ounce of information from the person from the first visit.

2. Agenda – Read it…..BEFORE you come to the conference. Remember if you’re a Platinum or Diamond pass holder…you will be able to watch the recordings of the sessions. This gives you more time to network, and meet new ad/affiliate networks. Make a plan on what you want to hear and write it down. Some of the info on campus didn’t have the speakers name, so I missed out on a session. I knew the speaker and knew they always give great info…and was searching for their name instead of the title of their presentation. Needless to say..I missed their session.

3. Pick up your pass – They open the registration a day before the conference, and it’s normally between 4p-8p. To avoid lines…go get your pass. Wear it around your neck! Other conference attendees in the hotel will probably introduce themselves to you because you’re going to the same conference or it’ll be easier for you to meet others wearing the same badges.

4. Networking Events – you’ll hear a lot of big parties going on during the conference but the best parties are kept quiet. They’re usually invite only, and invitations are given out before the conference. I recommend going to wickedfire.com, abestweb.com, and even asking @affiliatetip (Shawn Collins) on twitter. Some of the events are not held in the same hotel as the conference

5. Twitter/Facebook- Check the twitter stream to see what’s going on LIVE at the conference. Affiliate Summit’s East 2010 hashtag’s was #ASE10, and Affiliate Summit West’s hashtag is #ASW11. One of my friends followed the live stream on twitter to pick his session he wanted to listen to. He went to the sessions that were being raved about on the twitter stream. A lot of people will also tweet what event they’re heading to. Affiliate Summit also has a Facebook Group which I recommend you joining.

6. Foursquare – check in to the venue you’re at. I went to one of the networking events and saw one of the conference speakers checking in 10minutes before I did. I found him hanging out with some other speakers, and was invited to hang out. Needless to say…we talked shop for a few hours. P.S. don’t use foursquare to stalk people

7. Hotel – Book early and book the same hotel that the conference is being held at. Chances are they’re giving a great deal on the room. I even recommend getting a double bed, and seeing if another conference attendee would split the cost of the room. That saved me a lot of money. Also, if you’re tired from walking all day…you can just go to the elevator and straight to your room. Having a room in another hotel will mean that you will need to catch a cab or walk to the hotel. AND if you’re having stomach problems then ….you’re going to have problems.

8. Restaurants – search out the area BEFORE going to the conference. Chances are you’re going to meet other attendees who haven’t been to the conference and also don’t know the area. Don’t spend 20-30 minutes trying to figure out where there’s a place to eat! Also, check twitter and foursquare. I saw that the founders Shawn and Missy went to O’Connors in NY, and I went to try it out myself the next day. Food was good.

9. Clothes – wear comfortable sneakers! If you’re not speaking or have a booth…you really shouldn’t be all dressed up. Wearing shoes/loafers can be VERY uncomfortable when you’re walking through the long halls or standing talking for a few hours. Most of the veterans know this and this is why you’ll see them jeans/sneakers. Generally, you’ll see everyone dress up for the night networking events but not for the actual conference.

10. Business Cards – Don’t shove them in other people’s faces. Offer them if they ask for it….otherwise it’ll probably end up in the garbage. Now if you get a nice business card like Shawn Collins, I doubt anyone will be throwing that metal ninja card away. Stand out, and make sure your elevator speech is short and concise. Business cards should confirm what you say….not a spam card where you list all of your services. Also, make sure to followup with the cards you collect….otherwise you went for nothing.

Here’s a great video of Shawn offering a First Timers Guide

Using the Hash in your Back Links

Post from: SEO

So recently I have been receiving a lot of inquiries for a keyword I don’t care to rank for.

At first I thought it was an SEO friend playing a practical joke on me, but after doing some extensive research I found out exactly how it was done.

So first let me show you the keyterm…. (vulgar words were whited out)

Yes I know…you’re probably laughing your head off…cuz I’m ranking at #4, and yes I am receiving about dozen visitors A DAY!

Well as you can see…. my title tag or description does not contain the key term.

I first checked the page and thought the key term would be in the comments, but I found nothing. I also check the cache of the page to see if Google had an old copy of the page, and didn’t find anything.

I checked the file manager (FTP/cPanel) for the site and didn’t find anything suspicious.

Ok……so now I knew I had to check my back links. For those of you that don’t know….you can rank a page AND the content doesn’t even have to be on the page. GASP! Yes it’s true…..but we’ll save that for another post for the ‘SEO is all about content’ google brainwashed readers.

So I ran a ‘back link check’ on Yahoo (and other services) link:centuryhouse.net/lower-bounce-rate/and found nothing unusual.

I started running other commands to see if my site was hacked, and found NADA! (site:centuryhouse.net/lower-bounce-rate/ keyterm)

So I ran an allinanchor check to see if my page had any back links with that key term as the anchor text
allinanchor:”keyterm” – my site again appeared on page 1.

I reran the back link check on my whole site and found no such keyword!

So right about now I was upset….and started tweeting to @MattCutts (Peon at Google). He used to reply to my tweets and even answered a 3-4 questions on Youtube GoogleWebMasterHelp. I figured he was still upset after he manually devalued my back links, and knocked my site from being in the top 12 for the keyterm SEO to I dont know where after I posted Google Just Killed Your Online Business and I asked him to Sphinn it.

anyways….back on topic.

So after a couple of days of ranting on @RobertE I thought about running the URL in quotations. Here’s what came up

At first I was a bit sad after seeing that nobody was running any PPC on my search term, but then I saw something weird.

I already know that spammers build back links to a profile page but now they were building back links to their spam comment on my page!

So I went on Yahoo just to see if any of their back links showed up to the spam comment left on my blog (that included the key term)

as you can see…they built at least 9 back links to the comment page.

Now for those who don’t know why a site uses the ‘#’ on a url….here’s why

If you give someone a link, and you don’t want him to read through the hundreds of comments…you can give him the exact comment link w/hash which will take him DIRECTLY to the comment on that page. Site owners also use it to take you to a particular section of a website. For example, the Back to Top link/button normally has a hash ‘#’ in the URL that will take you to the top of the page.

So the spammers were hoping to rank their comment page on Google, and have individuals go directly to the comment instead of having to read the whole article to get to the comment. Makes sense?

SEOs/Search Engines on the other hand use it for another reason. The ‘#’ aka hash is used to have all the link juice point to the URL that is before the hash

centuryhouse.net/lower-bounce-rate/#comment-21718 If any back links point to this URL, all the juice will go to the green URL

This is very useful if you have affiliates or you are an affiliate promoting a site, and you’re using tracking ids.

centuryhouse.net/?tid=21718 all back links pointing to this URL will have the juice flow directly to this page which is NOT recommended (especially if all the tracking id pages are the same)

The tracking ID page should use the hash so if any back links point to it then all the juice will go towards the main URL not the tracking URL

centuryhouse.net/#?tid=21718 is the correct way to use the hash so all the juice points to the green URL.

Sooooo
the spammers messed up because they forgot about the SEO factor of the hash. They also forgot that Search Engines do NOT index what follows a hash. They only index what comes before the hash.

So I’m thinking if you want to hide your back links from your competitors, you can build back links to yourdomain.com/#whatever and you’ll know that domain.com will get all the juice. LOL Ok j/k I’m not recommending that but I’m sure it’ll work.

So here’s my dilemma. I’m still ranking for this and still getting hits from this key term.

I’m trying to figure out a way to 301 centuryhouse.net/lower-bounce-rate/#comment-21718 to http://twitter.com/MattCutts

It seems the htaccess file is not recognizing the hash and not properly redirecting it. (I tried already)

Affiliate Summit East Thoughts & Review

Post from: SEO

I just received a survey to fill out from my recent experience with the Affiliate Summit Conference, and I think blogging about it will help me express my ideas better.

First…I was given a free Platinum Press Pass by the conference, and I am really thankful for that. I spent some time live tweeting the sessions, and will be posting it on my next blog post.

Let’s go to Question 1 of the Survey

I picked HIGHLY likely. I haven’t registered yet because I’ll probably be submitting a speaking pitch for SEO site reviews or something SEO specific.

2. Here’s your chance to share your opinion, positive or negative, about Affiliate Summit East 2010. What did you like or dislike? Favorite or least favorite things about the conference? This applies to anything… sessions, staff, venue, etc.

Here’s what I disliked – Some speakers didn’t offer any valuable information. There was this one session about PPC that was supposed to be advanced, but it was more like a basic course. The speaker just went over what’s the difference between Search Engine PPC and 2nd tier PPC networks. The session was supposed to cover strategies….I don’t remember him uncovering anything of the sort. People left early…

Here’s what I liked – Wil Reynolds….very good speaker and very good content. It isn’t quite often where you have both combination. He had over 30mins to speak about SEO Linkbuilding, and from START to FINISH it was awesome. He speaks at Affiliate Summit every year, and his session isn’t one you would want to miss.

Strategies for Marketing to Women by Kim Salvino, Tricia Meyer, Kristin Kinsey, and Laura Connors.  AWESOME! It’s not often where every speaker on the panel delivers really good information. I learned a lot about how/why women shop, and tips in how to capture their attention. I rate this 2nd best session of the conference. This was the last session of the conference. MAKE SURE you stay to the end of a conference otherwise you’ll be missing out on good info!

3. What topics would you like to see covered in the future?

Facebook is great, but there are other platforms like POF that need to be addressed or have someone cover it. Would also like to see topics on self serve ad networks

Media Buys -  large/small …what to look for, and what to avoid. Dropping 10k w/out any help or insight can have your spouse kill you for losing all that money in just a few minutes!

4. What was the primary reason you attended Affiliate Summit East 2010?

Networking!! Meeting and seeing people again was awesome! I met Wil Reynolds, ShoeMoney, Michael Gray GrayWolf, Carolyn Shelby, Michael Martin, and even Shawn Collins (who took a whole bunch of us to eat steaks at Spark’s restaurant….and we went in a limo.) I also hung out with Jon Henshaw (Raven Tools), Rae Hoffman SugarRae, and Emilio and Lauren (Blogvertise)

I saw Markus, Ben, and Sheena from POF. They spent some time talking about their ad network, and how I could tweak my campaigns. I had about 20 questions, and every question was answered to my satisfaction. Great network…great people

Here are some suggestions - There were a lot of networking events going on and I didn’t see it on Twitter. (Maybe I missed it due to a lot of ppl tweeting with the #ASE10 at the same time). Most people come to the conference to network. This was my first time back in NY in 18yrs, and I didn’t remember anything except for Ray’s Pizza. I follow Shawn Collins (founder of Affiliate Summit) on Foursquare, and saw that he went to Connolly’s so that was my first pick to go eat lunch. Most new ppl to the conference or to the area need to know where they can eat lunch/dinner outside of the hotel or conference. I spent about 20 mins wondering where I was going to eat….. Suggestion – post favorite spots for lunch/dinner or have users do it. Also, post nearest Starbucks or coffee place.

Not sure why this wasn’t done but I recommend putting the speakers name next to the topic on the Conference agenda sheet. I missed out on session (Search Marketing Campaign Review) that I was planning to see (before I left Charlotte), and I totally forgot about it. I really wanted to hear the speakers Kate Morris and Scott Polk and forgot about the topic.

Overall – If you’re getting into affiliate marketing, you NEED to come to this conference. There are a lot of super affiliates, and you’ll meet a lot of great people. Some of the networks told me stuff they would never mention over the phone or via email <<there words exactly. Signup early so you don’t have to pay hefty increases……….and make sure to go Platinum so you have access to all the sessions.

Google Just Killed Your Online Business

Post from: SEO

Google has been making a lot of changes to the SERPs, and it seems they are pushing a lot of well known brands to the top of the listings.

One of their recent updates which I will coin as “Google Brand Links” can have a negative impact on online businesses.

Online traffic visitors will generally search for keywords (not brands) to find a product online, and online businesses rely heavily on these ‘unbranded keywords’.

If you were to search for ‘underwear‘ on Google, you’ll notice the first listing is freshpair.com. You’ll also notice that this company is not trying to go after branded keywords like “Victoria Secret”, “Joe Boxer”, “Hanes”, “Fruit of the Loom”, and “Calvin Klein” (even though they probably sell these brands)

Before, if I was looking for ‘underwear’ online, I would’ve probably been checking out freshpair.com before looking at the other sites on page 1. Now, Google has added these Google Brand Links to the top of the SERPs which will grab a person’s attention before they even see freshpair.com.

If I was a woman looking for underwear online, then I would probably click on the Victoria Secret link. If you click on the link, you’ll see that the Victoria Secret’s home page comes first which is no surprise. The problem is that Victoria Secret has an ECommerce site just like freshpair which means that fresh would more than likely lose the sale.

Now that’s just the first part…..it gets worse.

Let’s suppose you’re an ecommerce company that is selling a brand of an electric blanket that is not well known. Before the Google Brand update, you relied heavily on the organic visitors. Now that Google added the branded links, your chances of getting your product noticed has become very small.  Not only have the big brands taken over the Shopping Results, they are now in the top under the Google Brand links .

That poor guy ElectricBlanket.net will probably lose a lot of traffic to Sunbeam, Beautyrest, Martex, Sealy, and LL Bean …and of course the Shopping Results. Sunbeam and other companies may not sell products directly, but when you click on their links…..guess who shows up? Amazon and JC Penney.

Now the online visitor will probably end up with one of these 2 companies, and electricblanket.net will never see them come to their site.

If you search for TV Wall Mount, you’ll notice that the brands are at the top again. If I were to buy a tv wall mount online, I doubt I will look at the brand as they’re probably all made in China by the same manufacturer. Since more than 50% of the online traffic click on the first link, they’ll probably end up click on the Sony Google Brand link.

Does Sony have it’s own Ecommerce store? Yep. I probably won’t buy their $899 TV wall mount, but since I’m already on that page….I’ll probably buy it at Amazon or hdtvsolutions.com. Amazon doesnt lose anything but standsandmounts.com which was part of the first query will lose a lot of visitors.

The only recommendation I can probably offer may not be the best possible solution since you may get slapped with a cease and desist letter.

Either way I’ll offer it and you can do it at your own risk.

If I were the TV Wall Mount company, I would try to offer the Sony brand and the other brands of wall mounts. I would also look into optimizing the Sony Wall Mount product page to rank on page 1 right next to the Sony website. Even if Google takes down the new brand links, you would still get the visitors who search products by brand name.

Update: Google posts about the Brand Refinements here