Top 10 SEO New Year's Resolutions for a Successful 2014

It's been quite a year for SEO folk everywhere.

As 2013 shutters its doors and 2014 beckons, it's an opportune time to reevaluate, reassess, and revisit SEO tactics.

In the spirit of a New Year's Eve edition, I'm presenting some of the most popular (according to the US Government) New Years Resolutions through an SEO lens, in the hope of spreading some good cheer and great strategy along with a very happy new year to you and yours!

Without further ado... below are the top 10 SEO resolutions for your 2014 success!

1. Drink Less SEO Kool-Aid 

In the SEO world, there's a fire hose of information. It's easy to drink the Kool-Aid of popular industry experts.

Although there are some folks who are worthy of quoting and following, I'd lay off the hard-liquor-high until you've actually tested "expert" recommendations and seen the results for yourself.

It's easy to get intoxicated with the SEO practice du jour, but it's sobering when you're trying to justify a bad outcome to a client by saying, "but [enter SEO expert name here] said it worked for [enter big brand website name here]."

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2. Eat Healthy SEO Fare

The Internet is fueled by great content, and the healthiest of content is unique, valuable, authoritative, and share-worthy.

Google's Matt Cutts said recently that 25-30 percent of the content on the web is duplicate. Although that might make you feel a little peckish for some long form articles, you need to focus on the best in healthy snacks; link-inspiring user-generated content, educating prose, expert opinion, multimedia munches and share-demanding content desserts.

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3. Get a Better SEO Education

With great resources like Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Land,Moz, and Google themselves, there's no reason not to better educate yourself as to the trends and updates in the SEO industry.

Set up an RSS feed of your favorite resources and spend the first 15 minutes of the day reviewing, interacting, asking questions, and learning a little more about the constantly evolving landscape of search, social, display and paid search.

The future is cross-channel attribution, and learning more about more is a sure way to stay on the cutting edge and in demand.

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4. Get Your Site Fit, Lose Excess Code Weight

2014 is sure to (finally) be the year of mobile, right after the year of mobile that was 2013. And if your business relies on localized, mobilized, and focalized customers, then a mobile optimized site is a necessity!

To get your site fit, focused, slimmed down, and ready for a mobile push, get implementing responsive web design, a specialized mobile site, or app based experience. Whichever you chose (and Google recommends in most cases a well-engineered responsive site), make certain to trim excess code, optimize images, squeeze scripts, and lighten server loads to deliver the best (and fastest) mobile experience you can.

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5. Manage SEO Stress

As SEO professionals, I'm not sure we're ever not stressed with Google updates, client requests, deadlines, and migrations where redirects were "overlooked" by tech teams, but that leads to the best stress management recommendations: stress testing every recommendation and implementation! Twice. At least.

SEO isn't an exact science, but it is something that requires technical savvy, sophistication, and strategy to ensure alignment with search visibility goals.

The best way to manage technology stress is to test, test, and keep testing, everything from user site engagement, to site usability, to server stress tests, to guarantee an optimal onsite experience.

Managing stress is easy... you just have to plan to do everything perfect.

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6. Give Up Bad Habits 

Everyone has vices, easy "go-tos" when the going gets tough; the link schemes, overseas outsourced content, or short cuts for short-term gains. Now's the time to resolve to "never puff again" by implementing long-term strategies via sustainable tactics to ensure online success.

Go cold turkey and you'll find the world of fresh thinking (and fresh air) opens up, and you can return to the fundamentals of:

• Understanding the customer's journey.
• Creating content that connects with individual intent.
• Leveraging engagement to drive loyalty, visibility and discoverability.

Give up the bad habits, and adopt a fresher, longer-term outlook!

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7. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The popular resolution to "reduce, reuse, and recycle" might very well be made for eco-friendly reasons, but applies equally well to your website content strategy.

Panda bought us thin content awareness, and recent messages in Google Webmaster Tools underscore the need to reduce or remove content that isn't user-focused, user-useful or share-worthy.

As for reusing and recycling, for content that connects with core intent (and context), your focus should be on intelligent repurposing of content copy, content elements, content themes and content ideas, to create unique and aligned articles, rejiggered for different platforms, mediums, formats and audiences.

No piece of written content is an island. If you aren't promoting worthy content in the most appropriate formats across your social channels, then 2014 may not be your year!

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8. Save SEO Money 

Many folks look to the New Year as a time to be frugal, put some cash away for a rainy day, and generally be more careful where they spend.

The goal for SEO professionals isn't to save money. Rather, it's to leverage data, metrics that matter, and broad analytics to spendsmarter and/or justify budgets and efforts.

Although the initial outcome may be more less money in the bank, investing in data-informed areas of opportunity will almost definitely pay off in the long term, through additional revenue, valuable insights and happier customers.

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9. Take a Trip to an Industry Conference

I can't put a value on the information, networking or camaraderie I've experienced through some of the great industry events I've attended (including SES conferences!) It's one of the easiest ROIs in SEO to return from 2 or 3 days of intensive learning and impart the knowledge gained to work colleagues and your boss.

Taking a little trip doesn't have to be expensive either. With conferences that offer East and West Coast venues (and everything in between), inexpensive airfares when you book in advance, and advanced conference ticket deals, you'll find the value of taking a learning trip gives you the tips, knowledge, and tools to help both your site or your clients sites succeed.

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10. Help Other SEO Folks

It's simple. Give back!

For those starting out in search, you have a unique perspective and valuable insights in the questions you ask. For those seasoned folks, it's important to realize that your experience has value to the industry as a whole.

Some of the best information I've learned has been from both these groups, beginners asking hard questions, and SEO pros sharing a trick I hadn't thought of. In a season of giving, write a blog post, conduct a webinar, share some survey results, or take an SEO newbie under your wing to share the wealth of knowledge!

Google Shopping Expanding 360 Degree Product Images, Making New Hire

                                                                                                         

Last year, Google began adding 360 degree product views to Google Shopping ahead of the holiday season. This year, the search giant continued to tout the 360 views and have expanded from toys to other consumer products that consumers typically like to examine closely such as cameras. Users can move the images around to see all sides, top and bottom of a product and theoretically “feel as if they’re picking up products off the shelf”.

The company appears to have hired or be close to hiring a new partner technology manager for the program. A LinkedIn posting now states the job is no longer accepting applications. The person in this position will join the gTech Partner Solutions team which actually creates the images in-house, partnering with manufacturers who supply product samples for image capture. It’s quite an undertaking, scalability is part of the team’s focus according to the job description: “We also design and develop tools to scale partner onboarding process.”

Finding products with the 3D view is still tough, but presumably a good number of manufacturers are signed-on to the program. The sign-up for Google posted last year is now closed. We can expect Google to ramp this program as it continues to build up Google Shopping and take on the likes of Amazon for product search dominance.

PPC Excel Tips For Every Level: Part 3, Advanced Level Keyword Research And Data Visualization

We close out our three-part series of Excel tips from Bing Ads Evangelist John Gagnon today with some advanced level tools that, in fact, even beginners can start using successfully today. While many of the tips we’ve covered can also help SEOs as well as PPC practitioners, today’s focus on keyword research is particularly relevant to both camps.

Advanced Tip: Bing Ads Intelligence for deep-dive keyword research and Power BI for big data analysis and visualization.

Bing Ads Intelligence is an Excel add-in for keyword research that enables Excel to integrate directly with your Bing Ads accounts. However, you can use this tool for keyword research outside of Bing Ads campaigns as well.

Once you download the add-in, you’ll see the Bing Ads Intelligence tab in the top navigation. If you want to download your campaign data, sign in to your Bing Ads account by clicking “Sign In” icon to the far right. You can then see your keywords along with performance metrics.

These are John’s top 3 features in Bing Ads Intelligence:

1. Keyword Suggestions: Keyword recommendations fine-tuned from Yahoo Bing Network data.

What’s also interesting about the Keyword Suggestion tool is that it will give include suggestions for match types not currently in our account along with the performance data and estimated bids for mainline and sidebar positions. Not only that, but you can run the Keyword Suggestion tool for any list of keywords, not just those already in your account, and it will show the broad, phrase and exact match statistics for each variation. Don’t want to look at phrase match types? Just use the filter to hide them from the list. 

2. Traffic: See the number of searches users conducted on the Yahoo Bing Network for a specific query.

The Traffic tool can be used to look at multiple keywords or one. The cool thing about this feature is you can see historical trending and you can break out performance by device. In the example below, I’ve chosen to see the traffic performance of the keyword “classic cars sale” on Desktops and Laptops and then on Smart phones by week. In this example, Desktop and laptop traffic trended down closer to Thanksgiving, while Smart phone traffic actually ticked up slightly in that final week of November. You could break this down by day if you wanted as well.

3. Keyword Performance: For any keyword, it will show you a snapshot of keyword performance by position. This can be powerful when trying to estimate traffic and set bidding strategies, says John. Again, these don’t need to be words you are currently bidding on in your account, and you can separate results based on device type and match type. To see the performance stats for a keyword by every position, select “All” at the bottom of the Ad Position drop down menu as shown below.

Quick note: You’ll notice the shading in several columns in the tables above. This is done using Conditional Formatting, found under the Home tab. Conditional Formatting allows you to shade and color cells based on their values to be able to better visualize opportunities and problems.

In the Keyword List Generator template shown below, conditional formatting rules are set using the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager to show a different color in each metric column. In this table you can quickly see that, while the search volume for “buy new laptop” is relatively low, the CPC and Average Bid are high. With this template, you can add any sequence of keywords you want. Hitting the “Refresh All” button under the Bing Ads Intelligence tab will update the data keyword variations.

You can find this template and others for download by clicking the “Keyword Research Templates” button under the Bing Ads Intelligence Tab. There is much more to explore with this tool, so if you haven’t done so, download it and start experimenting.

Power BI

For those with the right software, Microsoft’s new Power BI tools for Excel offers advanced-level tools for data analysis. Here is the feature set for Excel in Power BI

• Power Query – Connect to data from public and corporate data sources including databases, web pages, even Facebook graph data.
• Power Pivot – Data Modelling tool that can handle nearly 2 billion rows of data
• Power View – Create reports and analytical views with interactive data visualizations
• Power Map –Visualize your campaign (or other) data geographically in 3-D within Excel

John is especially excited about Power Map for search advertisers. With it you can take the “geographic location” data from the dimensions report in Bing Ads and put it into Power Map to see where clicks are coming from by geographic location, for example.

There is a barrier to entry here, however. You will need Office Professional Plus 2013 or Office 365 ProPlus to run Power Map.If you’re working with huge amounts of campaign data, Power BI tools could give you the bandwidth you need. Power Map also has broader applications beyond your own campaign data. You can import third-party or your CRM data to map out and see where your current customer and prospect bases are located for clearer insights into content development and campaign targeting. Think about the types of data sources available to you and how they might be able to inform your marketing efforts in new ways using Power BI tools.

6 Major Google Changes Reveal the Future of SEO

The last few weeks have been amazing. Google has made some big changes and they are all part of a longer term strategy that has many components.

In short, Google is doing a brilliant job of pushing people away from tactical SEO behavior and toward a more strategic approach.

You could argue that "tactical SEO is dead", but that's not quite right. And don't run around saying "SEO is dead" because that is far from the truth, and I might just scream at you.

Instead, let's take a few steps back and understand the big picture. Here's a look at the major developments, some of Google's initiatives driving this change, and the overall impact these changes will have on SEO.

1. '(Not Provided)'

Google made the move to make all organic searches secure starting September 23. This means we've lost the ability to get keyword data for users arriving to our websites from Google search.

Losing Google keyword data is sad for a number of reasons. This impacts publishers in many ways, including losing a valuable tool for understanding what the intent of customers that come to their site, for conversion optimization, and much more.

For tactical SEO efforts, it just means that keywords data is harder to come by. There are ways to work around this, for now, but it just won't be quite as simple as it used to be.

2. No PageRank Update Since February

Historically, Google has updated the PageRank numbers shown in the Google Toolbar every 3 months ago or so, but those numbers haven't been updated since February. This means 8 months have gone by, or two updates have been skipped.

In addition, Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts has said Toolbar PageRank won't be updated again this year, leading many to speculate that PageRank is going away. I won't miss it because I don't look at PageRank often and I normally don't have a Google toolbar in my browser.

However, a lot of people still use it as a crude measurement of a site's prominence.

For sites with a home page that has PageRank 7 or higher, it may in fact be reasonable to assume that the site has some chops. Correspondingly, sites with a home page that has a PageRank of 3 or lower, it is either new, or probably a low quality experience. Stuff in the middle, you just don't know.

If Google shuts off this data flow entirely, which wouldn't be surprising, then they will have to rely on other real world (and better) measurements instead. This would actually be better than using PageRank anyway, because Google says they don't use it that way themselves, so why should we?

3. Hummingbird

There are a few elements to Google's Hummingbird algorithm, announced in time for Google's official birthday, but like Caffeine before it, this is really a major platform change. Google has built a capability to understand conversational search queries much better than before.

For example, submit a query to Google such as "show me pictures of Fenway Park", and it does:

Then you can follow that query with this one: "who plays there", and you get this result:

Both of these show conversational search at work (but note that the Boston Beacons folded in 1968 after just one season, so that is an error in that result – shows that they have much work to do!).

Hummingbird really changes the keyword game quite a bit. Over time, exact keyword matches will no longer be such a big deal.

The impact of this algorithm is likely to be quite substantial over the next 2 or so years. Net-net, they have drastically reduced access to the raw data, and are rolling out technology that changes the way it all works at the same time!

4. Google+

OK, this one isn't new. Google launched Google+ June 28, 2011.

While it seemed to get off to a slow start initially, many argue that it has developed a lot of momentum, and is growing rapidly. The data on Google+'s market share is pretty hard to parse, but there are some clear impacts on search, such as the display of personalized results:

In addition, you can also see posts from people on Google+ show up in the results too. This is true even if you perform your search in "incognito" mode:

And, while I firmly believe that a link in a Google+ share isn't treated like a regular web link, it seems likely to me that it does have some SEO value when combined with other factors.

How Google+ fits into this picture is that it was built from the ground up to be a content sharing network that helps with establishing "identities" and "semantic relevance". It does this quite well, and in spite of what you might read in some places, there is a ton of activity in all kinds of different verticals on Google+.

5. Authorship

OK, authorship also isn't new (launched on June 7, 2011), but it is a part of a bigger picture. Google can use this to associate new pieces of content with the person who wrote it.

Over time, this data can be potentially used to measure which authors write stuff that draw a very strong response (links, social shares, +1s, comments) and give them a higher "Author Rank" (note that Google doesn't use this term, but those of us in the industry do).

We won't delve into the specifics of how Author Rank might work now, but you can read "Want to Rank in Google? Build Your Author Rank Now" for my thoughts on ways they could look at that.

That said, in the future you can imagine that Google could use this as a ranking signal for queries where more comprehensive articles are likely to be a good response. Bottom line: your personal authority matters.

I also should mention Publisher Rank, the concept of building a site's authority, which is arguably more important. Getting this payoff depends on a holistic approach to building your authority.

6. In-Depth Articles

Google announced a new feature, in-depth articles August 6. You can see an example of this here:

The Google announcement included a statement that "up to 10% of users' daily information needs involve learning about a broad topic." That is a pretty big number, and I think over time that this feature will become a pretty big deal. Effectively, this is an entirely new type of way to rank in the SERPs.

This increases the payoff from Author Rank and Publisher Rank – there is a lot to be gained by developing both of these, assuming that Google actually does make it a ranking factor at some point. Note that I wrote some thoughts on how the role of in-depth articles could evolve.

Is There a Pattern Here?

Yes, there is. The data they have taken away has been historically used by publishers to optimize their SEO efforts in a very tactical manner.

How do I get higher PageRank? What are the keywords I should optimize for? Taking these things out of the picture will reduce the focus on these types of goals.

On the other side of the coin, the six major Google changes listed above are all moves that encourage more strategic behavior. Note that I didn't bring up Google Now, which is also a really big deal too, and it's another big piece of the Google plan, just not a major driver of the point I'm trying to make today.

All of these new pieces play a role in getting people to focus on their authority, semantic relevance, and the user experience. Again, this is what Google wants.

For clarity, I'm not saying that Google designed these initiatives specifically to stop people from being tactical and make them strategic. I don't really know that. It may simply be the case that Google operates from a frame of reference that they want to find and reward outstanding sites, pages, and authors that offer outstanding answers to user's search queries. But the practical impact is the same.

The focus now is on understanding your target users, producing great content, establishing your authority and visibility, and providing a great experience for the users of your site. Properly architecting your site so that the search engines can understand it, including using schema and related markup, addressing local search (if that is relevant to you), and work of this type still matters, too.

But, the obsession with tactical items like PageRank and keywords is going to fade away. As Google tweaks the way their service operates, and look for ways to capture new signals, they do things that naturally push you in that direction. It isn't going to stop. Expect more of the same going forward!

Why Content Marketing is a Definitive Method for Success in 2014

Over the course of the past year, content marketing has really taken the spotlight. While the importance of quality content has been preached for a long time, in 2013 it proved to be the talk of the digital marketing industry and beyond.

A regular marketing tool for many companies, content creation became a prime method for success in 2013 and will become a definitive one in 2014.

While "content" is a common term, the past year has consisted of truly digging in and finding the precise definition and methods that go along with it. As a result of this yearlong brainstorm came a good amount of content strategy insights.

What We Realized About Content in 2013

Content is More Than Just Text

Content doesn't just have to be text. In fact, it can be a lot more than that.

Think about the various ways people learn. Some individuals are kinesthetic and hands-on while others are auditory learners and can take something straight from what they here, while a great many are visual may prefer to read something straight from a page or on a screen.

Content marketing is no different. It should be a mixture of types that can adhere to diverse learning styles.

For example, using video or even an infographic as a form of content can be an extremely beneficial and noteworthy way to communicate your brand and help you stand far apart from your competitors. Not only are you encompassing the auditory piece, but you're also providing a visual outlet.

We've also learned that shorter content isn't necessarily the be all and end all, but rather as long as you are communicating your message and your brand, content can be any length necessary for what you're trying to accomplish.

Mobile is a Go!

In 2013 we've really started to confirm the importance of mobile, and this includes content as well. How many people out there search for things via their mobile browser, specifically when on the go? I know I do.

Creating content that is effective on a mobile device can absolutely increase your chances of success overall; by being represented properly on the devices and platforms that individuals have access to, the better success rate you will have in the long-term.

Creating distinctive content that is suitable for specific devices while sticking with your niche and holding the interest of your followers, you'll be that much more likely to achieve a content marketing victory.

Content is a Piece of the Big Picture

In the past year, we've realized that content isn't a lone unit and as such, many have begun to implement it as a part of their digital strategies as a whole.

Rather than creating content and simply hoping that your customers will be attracted to it, we've begun to truly look into the heart of our followers, in turn discovering the content best suited to them and creating it and from there, delving into promotion via social and beyond.

Tell Your Story With Content

Not only that, but we've realized that content isn't just about discussing a product that you may carry. Rather, it's about using content to communicate who you are as a brand.

You can easily tell your story by way of content; write a blog post with a personal touch, create a video showing your daily grind. By being transparent to your followers, you will likely gain and even greater audience by making known who you are and what you want to accomplish with your business.

Keep Promoting Your Content

While 2013 has been a year of new and interesting content, we've realized that just because something may be older and created a while back doesn't mean that it won't be of interest currently. By re-promoting your older content, you'll be able to bring your audience back to something that they may have forgotten about or missed entirely.

So just because something may be considered "outdated," don't let it fall to the wayside; keep on promoting it and see where it goes.

Where Are We Going in 2014?

Content is Worth the Investment

In 2014, the realization of the dire importance of content within business models is going to continue. Budgets are have already allocated more funds to content strategies both in the U.S. and around the world, and content budgets for 2014 have already shown total increases.

While some may assume that since content marketing is newer and more unique than traditional marketing, that it will cost more. But, this isn't the case.

Content marketing doesn't necessarily cost as much as traditional marketing does. Plus, you will most likely give you even more leads and sales as a result.

Right now many businesses are taking a look at their content efforts from 2013 and deciding upon which strategies worked, which didn't, and how they can improve upon their tactics in the New Year.

We're going to start looking more into our audiences and finding more locations in which to promote our content. Many people are seeking to just get their content out there and aren't necessarily digging deep to find out who the best followers would be.

Also consider the number of content-specific conferences out there. This number has skyrocketed; and what does this tell us? Simply that people want to learn about content; how to create it, how to be successful, and how it can help their businesses to prosper.

'Content Combat'

With so many companies increasing their content investments in 2014, it could become a true battle for search visibility, even if the content you create is of high quality. So what can you do?

Make sure that your content is unique and the true voice of your brand. Make sure you know the ins and outs of your audience and are speaking directly to them and their interests with each and every piece of content that you create.

Strategies on the Way

Rather than aimlessly throwing content out on the web, people and businesses are going to start working with actual strategies for content creation and promotion. This includes documenting and tracking everything in order to locate successes and failures.

Use an editorial calendar to keep track of your content in 2014. By planning everything out on a calendar, you'll ensure that you keep everything in line with your goals.

If you weren't before, measure your results; whether you do this with an old-fashioned spreadsheet or with the help of Google Analytics. By measuring and analyzing your success, you'll be able to decide where you want to definitively go with your content in the future.

Google's Influence on Content: Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird

All of Google's updates in 2013 have proven how important content is, and how important it will continue to be as we enter into 2014.

Content in 2014 is going to be a lot more like a good old conversation that you might have with a co-worker in the hallway. Thanks to the Hummingbird algorithm, Google searches are akin to the way that we naturally speak, so content is going to be forced to adjust to these conversational searches.

Here's to Content in 2014

No matter what day, month, or year it is, content is in the works, and in a big way. A big picture word nowadays, content has truly driven the industry into new realms in 2013, and 2014 will be sure to be another adventurous year. So here's to content in 2014 and the many places it will continue to take us.

What are your predictions for the year to come?

PPC Excel Tips For Every Level: Part 2, Faster Campaign Analysis For Intermediates

Today we have more handy Excel tricks from Bing Ads Evangelist John Gagnon. This second installment of PPC Excel tips focuses on intermediate level techniques for speeding up campaign analysis. Paid search managers will benefit, but really anyone using Excel for data analysis will find good information or a helpful refresher here.

Intermediate Tip: Get more out of Pivot Tables with calculated fields and by fixing #DIV/0 errors.

Pivot tables are truly a must-have Excel skill for marketers. If you haven’t used pivot tables yet, don’t be timid. You can’t damage your data set when working with pivot tables because they simply aggregate the data you are working with in a separate area, typically in a separate sheet. For more on getting into pivot tables read this earlier post from Annie Cushing.

Calculated Fields: For those with pivot table experience, you know that once data such as impressions, clicks, spend are aggregated, you still need to calculate metrics like CPA and CTR as you do with regular campaign exports. In other words, you can’t Sum cost/conversion or click-through data, you have to calculate them from the aggregated cost, click and impression data. This is what Calculated Fields do for you with just a little set up work. I have to admit, for years I calculated these metrics in cells outside of pivot tables not knowing about the magic of calculated fields.

A great thing about calculated fields is the data columns you want to use in your formula do not have to be included in your current pivot table. For example, in the demo below, John shows how to calculate CPA to find the total cost per conversion, but only spend is included in his pivot table, not cost/conversion.

One note, your calculated fields can’t use duplicate names from fields already in your data set. Thus the “CPA” field name in this example.

The calculated field will append a new column to the right in your pivot table. You can then sort and filter based on this new column.

Fixing #DIV/0 Errors: Whether you’re using calculated fields or not, if you divide a number by zero in Excel it returns the dreaded #DIV/0! error. This can obviously skew your analysis if you’re looking at CPA data.

“If you ignore the error, you’re missing out on valuable information — a keyword can spend thousands and still not convert a single time,” says John.

The solution: Use the IFERROR() formula in the calculated field to return “spend” or “cost” when there are 0 conversions. Open the Calculated Fields dialog again, go to the CPA field in the Name dropdown, and change the formula to: =IFERROR(Spend/Conversions,Spend)

John is using the 2013 version of Excel. If you’re using Excel 2010, you’ll find calculated fields under the Options tab in PivotTable Tools.

IFERROR can be used outside of calculated fields as well. It’s a good function for marketers to know, particularly for cost analysis. The logic of the formula basically says, if the calculation returns an error (#DIV/0! in this case) then return X, and X can be your total spend, or it can be a specific number or even text. Essentially, you can customize what the formula returns by putting what you want after that comma in the formula.

If you have any pivot table questions or tips you’d like to share, please do so in the comments below. Stay tuned tomorrow for the last segment in this series when John shares some advanced level Excel tips for PPC marketers. And be sure to check outPPC Excel Tips For Every Level: Part 1, Huge Time Savers For Beginners (And Beyond)

Reduce Bounce Rate: 20 Things to Consider

Bounce rate is one of those quality metrics that gets tossed around a lot in the search engine space. People are almost always talking about absolutes in terms of "this is how XYZ will reduce your bounce rate," and so on.

I don’t subscribe to this school of thought; bounce rates need to be looked at subjectively.

While there are some general best practices, for the most part certain activities prescribed as absolute can both hurt and help websites.

Hence the title of this post. I don’t want to stand on my bounce rate soapbox and preach to you that everything in this post is going to help you, so I’m approaching this from a more realistic standpoint; the items on this list are worth thinking about, and probably trying – but this isn't some magic wand from the land of unicorns and bounce rates under 5 percent.

A high bounce rate can be indicative of a number of things but usually falls into one of two categories:

1. You're acquiring the wrong kind of traffic to your page(s), or
2. You're acquiring exactly the right kind of traffic to your page(s).

Did number 2 throw you for a loop? Most people forget about the second scenario, since most websites tend to fall victim to the first.

But think about this for a second: if a user comes into your site and finds exactly what they were looking for; an answer to their question or solution to their problem, why should they stay a moment longer or look around on other pages?

Websites that are excellent at solving information problems quickly often have high bounce rates, for example here is a website that is designed to rank for question queries, offering specific and succinct answers:

Users come in, get the answers they need, and leave; but come back often.

On the Flipside

You have websites where it is critical to get your visitors to stick. You want them to spend time clicking around the site, perusing content, and build toward a conversion.

In these instances high bounce rates are a conversion killer, and anything you can do to increase the time on site and number of pageviews will most likely directly correlate to your site’s success and your bottom line.

Before we can approach improving something, it is important to make sure you have a firm grasp on what it is.

Bounce rate is often confused with exit rate, and the difference is important; bounce rate is a measure of people who bounced off a single page (i.e., they did not visit any other pages within your website), whereas exit rate is simply a measure of the percentage of visitors who left your site from that page.

Why It’s Important to Reduce Your Bounce Rate

Reducing the bounce rate on pages that have the highest volume of traffic from your highest converting sources means more engaged visitors and a greater chance of conversion.

What follows is a list of 20 considerations for reducing your bounce rate. These are by no means absolutes and are relative to everyone’s unique value propositions and audience, but generally speaking, these are worth thinking about.

1. You Should Probably Avoid Pop-ups

Pop-up ads annoy people. In some rare cases they offer something worth the roadblock, but usually they disrupt the user experience.

2. Use Intuitive Navigation for Important Items

Don’t make your visitors feel dumb (or think you’re dumb) for not providing them with clear and obvious paths to get the content they may be looking for.

The most common reaction to not being able to find something that should be obvious is frustration – and if you’ve ever been on a web page where you can’t figure out how or where to navigate, this is exactly how you feel.

Heatmaps are a great way to gain visibility into where user’s might be trying to click, giving you insight into what should be clickable. A great tool for this is Crazy Egg.

3. Poor Design is Increasingly Less Tolerable

I’m not just talking about gradients and drop shadows; design now transcends the whole user experience. Your content needs to be attractive; both in terms of graphical treatments and readability.

Design for your target audience, which may not necessarily be the audience you already have, or at least not the majority of it. Design has become a legitimacy signal and the lack thereof can directly impact visitors (and prospects) perceptions of the quality of your business and services.

4. Speed

This pretty much goes without saying these days but nothing really effects bounce rate like having a web page that takes 10 seconds to load.

Not only is this a confirmed ranking factor and lends directly to user experience, but it can cause your follower reach to stall, negatively impact your search rankings, and destroy your conversion rate.

5. Is Your Website Mobile Usable

I realize that is far from proper English, but I feel it makes my point. Being mobile friendly is ideal, but being mobile usable is critical.

Websites can still be effective as long as content can be accessed and used from a mobile device or tablet.

Furthermore, mobile usability does not necessarily mean from a design compatibility and accessibility standpoint, in many cases it means is the language on your site simple and clear enough that people on the go (on mobile devices) can still make sense of what they need to do to find information and at the very least contact you if necessary.

6. Design Information Around Priorities

This comes back to the last consideration, are your target conversion or content points clearly presented on your pages? Can users immediately get a sense of what they should expect to find or are expected to do while on the page?

Websites tends to have two paths to conversion:

• Landing pages (short direct sales path)
• A conversion funnel (longer process of qualifying visitors through a collection of pages that drive toward conversion)

Are you effectively managing the expectations of your visitors? A good litmus test for this is if you are able to trigger your primary page conversions more than 20 percent of the time.

7. Segment Information

This is another perspective on creating content that is designed to be digested and consumed. Readability is important here but so is the idea of grouping content into segments or categories – this is most often seen in blog posts where header tags are used to break apart large walls of text.

8. Optimize For Intent

This is a more detailed take on information design, and ensuring that based on the keywords your visitors are using to get to your pages, you are serving them an experience that address their expectations.

This is often talked about in paid search and display advertising, where the highest bounce rates are created from advertisers not closing the loop between the ad copy and the landing page copy and design. The experience needs to be consistent from start to finish or you risk breaking the user’s intent loop.

9. Be Mindful of Ad Placement

This is still a bit of a new idea (especially to advertisers) but if possible avoid the standard ad units. Not only have web users developed ad blindness but Google has also started penalizing pages that have too many ad units above the fold, and hint: they are looking for standard ad unit sizes.

Furthermore, from a publisher perspective, I can understand it's great to squeeze an extra handful of impressions in per pageview, but if you look at some of the high performing niche ad networks, you will notice there publisher websites have a general lack of intrusive ads.

10. Lazy Load Third Party Content

Lazy loading, in case you’re unfamiliar, is a design pattern process for deferring the loading of objects until they are needed. Mashable is a fantastic example of this in action, notice how their pages load almost instantly and then new content is loaded as it is needed (as your scroll position advances toward those pixels).

This is done both for speed and user experience, and can be specified programmatically on a component by component basis.

11. Color Contrast

Readers need contrast. Contrast between colors can make a dull story into an exciting one and conversely can turn the most exciting content in the world into a palette of indiscernible whites and grays if not given proper consideration.

Contrast is important to consider as the web moves faster towards different mediums of content, with more and more happening on the pages, it is important to use colors and patterns to draw your reader's eyes toward the important parts of the page.

12. Messaging is Blatantly Obvious

This is another consideration when it comes to focus and attention. Remember you only have a few seconds to translate value to a new visitor, so don’t make them guess.

Taglines are a great way to quickly translate purpose, but if you don’t have one another simple way is to place your site’s purpose in plain text in an obvious place (like the header or the top of the sidebar). If you sell something, say that.

13. Cut Out Distractions

I wish I could say this goes without saying, but I still run into website on a weekly basis that autoplay audio and video. These are distractions and intrusions that aren't expected and break the experience.

Cutting out distractions not only leads to better bounce rates, but usually dramatically increases your conversion rates.

14. Offer Related Content Based on Personas

If you don’t offer related content on your pages, or intuitive navigation (hopefully with some sort of hook or teaser) then you're missing out on a substantial number of pageviews and the opportunity to be more of a sticky resource.

Related content gets really powerful when you're able to target it within the same categories or tags, as these segments of content tend to be attractive to visitors who make it through related posts in the same content stack.

15. Leverage Internal Search

If you don't currently offer search functionality on your website or if you don't regularly review internal search analytics, then you're missing the boat. Web users have become so used to search that it is an easy behavioral pattern to accommodate and leverage for improved experience.

To take this a step further, you can use newer tools for crowdsourced FAQs to literally create a content roadmap for what matters most to your audience.

16. Open External Links in New Windows

This is an incredibly simple concept that is still often overlooked, but if you're going to link out to a resource on your website, make sure you have it open a new window instead of redirecting the user off your site.

The best (and easiest way) to do this is to simply add target="_blank" into the link’s <a> tag. So for example; <a href="http://example.com" target="_blank">anchor text</a>.

17. Prominently Display Your Search Box

This is a separate consideration from leverage internal search that has more to do with number 2 on this list; if you are going to offer helpful functionality like site search on your website, don’t make users have to search for your search box.

18. Offer a Helpful 404 Page

Nobody likes to think of instances where their website or pages may greet users with a 404 page, but these things happen.

The best thing you can do to turn a negative experience into a potentially positive one is a few things:

• Use Google’s suggestive snippet for creating useful 404 pages. Visit the "Enhance 404 pages" section in Google Webmaster Tools, which allows you to generate a JavaScript snippet.
• Add a search box and a link to the homepage
• If nothing else, add a bit of design and humor.

19. Keep it Readable

This isn't a duplicate of number 3. In this consideration I'm talking specifically about your page’s Flesch-Kincaid score, or the level of difficulty for comprehension of your content.

There are two tests used to determine both the ease of reading and the average grade-level required for comprehension. Both of which have been baked into a very helpful index calculator.

20. Split Up Long Posts

People have shorter attention spans than ever before. So when they see long posts they are immediately reminded of times in high school trudging through massive texts of traditional English literature.

Consider instead splitting these up either into separate posts in a series or adding pagination to break up the content into smaller and more digestible chunks. This New York Times piece does a fantastic job (with an absolutely incredible story) of consolidating their story into chapters and breaking up a substantial and engaging experience across several views and interactions.