Top Stocks 2014, Best Stock Market 2014, Hot Stocks Investing: 12/15/13

Kenshoo: Global Paid Search Sales Revenue Grows 19% [Report]

The 2013 holiday season saw record-high increases in clicks, impressions, and revenues. A big part of this growth was driven by mobile devices and product listing ads (PLA), according to the 2013 Global Online Retail Seasonal Shopping Report by Kenshoo.

Global Increases in Spend, CTR and Revenues

Retailers prepared early this year for the shopping season, due to there being six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This led to a 34 percent year-over-year (YoY) increase in paid search spend, the report says.

The heightened investment in paid search enabled retail advertisers to achieve 26.9 percent YoY growth in clicks, as well as a 12.8 percent YoY increase in CTR. As a result, online shopping revenues were up 19 percent from last year.

A deeper look at specific regions reveals that U.S. marketers allocated 48.1 percent more in paid search spend in 2013 than last year. They were also able to spend more efficiently this year, with a 14.1 percent increase in CTR.

As expected, U.S. paid search retailers reaped the benefits of the uptick in paid search spend, as revenues during shopping season reached a record high, up 37 percent from 2012.

Tablets Gain Momentum

In 2013, paid search marketers allocated 34.4 percent of total spend to mobile devices, a 66.7 increase YoY.

Mobile devices also drove 36.7 percent of all global paid search clicks in the 2013 shopping season, up 32.1 percent from 2012. At 16.3 percent of total clicks, tablets became the biggest driver, 8.7 percent more than last year. In comparison, Phone clicks jumped 7.5 percent YoY to 20.4 percent of total clicks.

Tablets also saw a doubling in revenues, up from 7.8 percent of total revenues in 2012 to 18.9 percent in 2013. With almost one-fifth of total revenues coming from tablets, this shopping season marks a major turning point in the importance of this device for retailers and consumers, the report says.

Nevertheless, 77 percent of total revenues still came from desktop computers this year.

PLAs Experienced Enormous Growth

Retailers were more adept at using PLAs and nearly doubled their spend on this ad format in 2013. Click-through rates on PLAs reached an average of 3.3 percent, up 30 percent from last year. The increased efficiency enabled businesses to generate 115.6 percent more clicks from only 65.4 percent more impressions YoY, according to the report.

PLAs performed better than traditional paid search ad metrics, with CTR 26.7 percent higher while the average cost-per-click was 15.3 percent less.

Meanwhile, total global revenues from PLAs increased 417.4 percent YoY, translating to nearly a nine to one ($8.62) return for this investment.

Kenshoo also provided advertiser suggestions in this report, including:

Anticipate consumer shopping behavior and react to market activityCapitalize on the PLA opportunityEmbrace the mobile shift and establish a cross-device strategyDon't be afraid to go big during the peak shopping season

Kenshoo analyzed data from its clients (advertisers and agencies), who conducted paid search programs for retailers from November 1, 2012 through December 9, 2013. Download the full report from Kenshoo.

This article was originally published on ClickZ.

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A New Direction for SEO in 2014: The Secure Search Manifesto

SEO marketing finally matured in 2013. With more than 500 algorithm changes a year, keeping pace with innovation was a source of confusion and frustration for some people, yet provided great clarity for others.

The rapid pace of change in our market, fueled by the convergence of earned, owned, and paid media has meant that the traditional SEO mindset moved from keyword-centric methodologies toward new content-centric, and key revenue based strategies.

Google's move to make 100 percent of search keyword data "(not provided)" in September finally forced SEO marketers to rethink their strategies. Some people failed to identify trends, and struggled to adapt, while others took a giant innovative leap into the world of secure search.

In 2014 we'll see a new content and page-centric SEO workflow form the backbone of, what I like to call, a new "Secure Search Manifesto." This new manifesto allows you to actually match your SEO and content marketing strategies to measurable business outcomes.

2013: The Year SEO Changed Forever

SEO changed forever in 2013. The evolution of SEO and the focus on content started a long time ago. Google's Hummingbird update "rubber stamped" the essential need to focus on quality content marketing and, in conjunction, secure search did the same with regard to "adapt or die" pure keyword rank checking philosophies.

Google began giving SEO marketers signals about how their model and algorithms would change in 2011. Panda and Penguin gave clear signals on the shift to content and relevancy and the removal of "black hat" strategies. The gradual rise in the number of keywords "(not provided)" signaled an impending paradigm shift in the keyword model market to a content-centric model.

In September 2013 marketers witnessed the single biggest change to happen in this industry since the introduction of off-page factors and backlinks. Secure search ensured that adapting to change was no longer an option but a necessity.

The Dangerous Perception: Old school strategies can still work

Any fundamental shift in a market brings with it opportunity but also resistance and fear. Many marketers still maintain the misconceived perception that SEO is dead – a very mute and irrelevant topic.

A far more dangerous perception is that although SEO has changed, the way you work doesn't have to change. Let me be clear:

In a pre-"(not provided)" world, marketers had the luxury of having access to traffic, conversion, and revenue data by keywords.In the new "(not provided)" world, marketers no longer have access to this data.Continuing to look at just keyword data won't work for your business.Marketers that still focus on an outdated dependence on rank checking tools will see their SEO performance decline rapidly.Moving from old school to new school tactics across page, content, search, and social sets you up for success in 2014.

The Reality: Content, Page and Analytics Integration now are King and Key Strategy

A renewed importance and focus on quality content was reflected in the Hummingbird change that ran in parallel to the move to secure search. For the forward thinking marketer this was a clear signal that SEO is in fact more alive than ever.

Forward thinking marketers have been evolving and developing content and on-page strategies in line with Google innovation. They changed the way that they work and now look to innovative ways to integrate analytics data to restore visibility no longer available with secure search.

Organizations that can mirror and adapt to a new SEO workflow stand to benefit at the expense of their competitors.

2014: The New Secure Search Manifesto

Adapting to the epic change and shift in our market requires adapting to, and focusing on, a new direction in SEO. Here are four key truths about secure search that you can use as a guide to formulate your strategies in 2014.

1. Analytics is the Source of Truth

Secure search changed the way that we think about SEO forever. In 2014, new SEO reporting requires a shift to measuring real (not estimated) business metrics at a page level. This includes making sure that you measure traffic, conversions, and revenue.

In 2013 many marketers viewed secure search shift resulting in a technology or integration problem. The best marketers saw this as a logical outcome of a shift to page-centric SEO. Your web pages, are what will attract visitors, drive conversions and help you measure organic revenue in the New Year.

2014 Tips and Tactics:

The most effective way to manage your SEO programs going forward is to make pages the center of your SEO world.Pull actual data from your web analytics at the page level in order to do this.Understand what is happening with your traffic, conversions, and revenue as a result of secure search and prioritize you work accordingly.2. Rank Still Matters

In 2013 the meaning and focus on "what rank is" changed rapidly. The convergence of earned, owned, and paid media was reflected in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The integration of search, social, mobile, global, and local, and the growth and adoption of mobile, changed the way content appeared in the SERPs.

SEO success is now the gateway to measuring the ultimate business impact of your content – driving a greater keyword rank for your page's is essential and tracking your keyword performance still matters. Rank still matters in 2014. It always will.

2014 Tips and Tactics:

Focus on accurate rank in 2014 – this means having a robust methodology in place that takes account of spikes and drops in traffic and not focusing on generic rank reports that do not take into account these shifts.Make sure that you measure rank and performance by device type – research shows that rank and conversions on tablets, phone, and desktop vary dramatically.

Ensure that you are measuring and tracking universal/blended rank. This includes looking at Carousel results. Remember, there aren't always 10 results per page.

In 2014, rank means ensuring that you have complete visibility into how content appears in the SERPs by device type (mobile, tablet, desktop) in universal listings, and by location (city and country).

3. Page and Content are the Center of the Universe

It's essential that your approach to content in 2014 is done the "Hummingbird way." Content on your pages are what attract visitors, drive conversions and bring in revenue. The most effective way to manage SEO programs in 2014 is to make pages the center of your SEO world.

2014 Tips and Tactics:

Think like a content marketer, analyze like an SEO.Analyze your content and data at a page level in 2014.Integrate and work closely with GWMT to correlate page and keyword data.Use this data to understand your SEO and content performance across revenue, conversions, and traffic at a page level.Set up and report on individual and group pages total performance.

"The industry has become overly dependent on keyword referral as a data point," said Chris Keating, VP, SEO, CO and Data Feeds, Performics. "We will continue to leverage other search engine-provided data, but our main source of advanced metrics will cover page-level performance, share of voice, and other enterprise measurements."

4. All Data is Relevant and Connected

In 2014, you'll need to utilize a rich set of data sources to ensure that you have a complete, 20/20 vision, on how your content and SEO is performing. Secure search brought about challenge for some but opportunities for many.

All structured data has a meaning and is connected across search, social, and digital marketing. The opportunity manifests itself in analytical integration and how you connect the search, social, and content dots on your web page.

2014 Tips and Tactics:

Utilize all your data from multiple data sources (such as Majestic SEO and Google Analytics)Ensure that you utilize Google Webmaster Tools data to restore partial keyword visibility.Integrate this data to form new format keyword reports.Build comprehensive dashboards that collate all rank, keyword, social, and content data in one place – do this at a local and global level.

You can download the Secure Search Manifesto and checklist from BrightEdge here.

Conclusion

Old habits die hard in SEO. However, adapting to change is the new imperative that marketers in our industry have to follow in 2014. SEO has always been the most predominant channel in online marketing and it always will be.

So, what has changed? People's perception of what SEO is has changed.

SEO is contentSEO is socialSEO is analyticsSEO is marketing

Google's shift toward 100 percent secure search meant that the metrics and methodology SEO practitioners had been using needed to change.

The role of SEO as the driver of earned media has become even more important as part of the content marketing revolution. The key to unlocking this potential lies in gaining a 360-degree view of how your content is performing across all your web pages and attributing this to revenue.

It's time to build a new dashboard – a content performance dashboard.

Facebook Likes, Shares Don't Impact Google Search Rankings [Study]

Eric Enge, president of Stone Temple Consulting, has done a groundbreaking study on the impact of Facebook Likes and Shares on SEO, specifically Google, as well as what role profiles play on content shared via status updates.

While there has been a lot of speculation over the years about whether Facebook activity is a factor in Google's rankings, there's been no real hard evidence either way. Enge's new study changes that.

Enge did two separate studies on the impact of Facebook. The first dealt specifically with Likes while the second dealt with Shares.

Facebook Likes 'Not in the Picture'

After creating two different web pages on three different domains, he had friends and Fiverr users drive likes to each of the pages. Despite each of those pages being liked nearly 900 times each, Google never crawled are indexed any of the six pages. So Google clearly is not using Facebook likes to discover or index new content.

There are couple reasons why Google doesn't seem to be using Facebook Likes when it comes to discovery and indexing. While Googlebot can execute the Facebook Like script, it has no idea which people Liked it. When looking at links, for example, Google is able to assign trust to the links based on who is doing the linking. But when it comes to Likes, Google is unable to assign a similar kind of "score" based on who is doing the liking because it simply doesn't know. Therefore it can't determine that one page may be liked by very influential people while a second page is liked by only fake Facebook profiles.

"Likes are simply not in the picture," Enge said. "The only data Google can possibly get is the number of Likes on a page if the page has a Like widget on it, but they have no idea as to who has Liked the page. For that reason there is no value to that information to them. I think it is pretty conclusive that they don't use it for discovery, indexing, or ranking."

Facebook Shares 'Inconclusive'

Google indexing based on Facebook shares was also tested. They asked over 50 people to share different sets of pages, however each page only ended up being shared about 10 times each, although some of the shares were made by fairly high profile people in the industry, people you would expect would have a bit more influence for ranking factors.

Again, although the sample size was fairly small in terms of the number of shares, Google didn't crawl or index the shared pages either. However, the results could possibly have been different with a larger sample size.

"The data on Facebook shares is less conclusive," Enge said. "It suggests that Google does not use it for discovery, indexing, or ranking. I believe that this is in fact true, but others can choose to point out that we don't have a comprehensive data set here, and they would be right. However, our conclusion (that they don't use shares) is also consistent with what Google says about Facebook signals as a ranking factor."

Crawling & Indexing of Facebook Profile Pages

Profile pages are also looked at for potential ranking factors. Google has the ability to crawl public profiles and see who your friends are when crawling the mobile version of Facebook.

To get more Friends shown, you need to scroll the page down, and when you do that, Javascript executes that pulls some additional Friends up and displays them. As you scroll down more, more and more Friends are loaded. It is possible for Google to get the entire Friends list in an automated way, but they probably don't because of the nature of the Javascript. There is no separate version of the page for users without javascript.

However, on the mobile version of the Facebook site, there is a clean link on the Friends page to "show more friends". This is a simple text link and it is not scrolling dependent. We can't conclusively decide that Google is pulling this data, but clearly if they are motivated to get this data they can. For that reason, for purposes of this article, we will assume that they do!

While there's no clear-cut evidence whether Google is or isn't doing this, the opportunity is there, which also means that it is potentially beneficial for users to be friends with high profile users, and those with strong profile pages in Facebook.

One interesting thing was that Enge also discovered that Google has indexed a large number of Facebook posts – 1.87 billion to be exact. So next they looked at those with high PageRank profile pages, from people linking to their profile page, to determine the frequency that those higher authority users saw their post content indexed. However, while the results showed that some of their posts were being indexed, the percentage of content indexed from the profile page was in the neighborhood of 60 to 70 percent, depending on the age of the post.

On those profile pages, images seem to be the least likely by far to be indexed by Google, while links and text did very well. Videos vary depending on the age of the post, and while they were ahead of images, they were far behind to both link and text. But even for these prominent profile pages, Google doesn't seem to be crawling every single thing on the page and indexing it, but there doesn't seem to be a specific reason for the inconsistency.

All the data collected was made available publicly for full disclosure purposes and can be viewed in the spreadsheets here.

Conclusion

While Google has the ability to use Facebook influence in their algorithm, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that Google is using it to discover, index, or rank any content on the web at this time.

This shouldn't dissuade people from using Facebook for marketing purposes, because shares and updates clearly can deliver traffic and exposure.

But from an SEO perspective, you don't need to worry that you need to share every new piece of content on Facebook in hopes you rank higher. Of course, Google being Google, they could change the role of Facebook in the algorithm at any time, but right now there is no influence by using Facebook strictly for SEO value.

6 Reasons Why BuzzFeed Destroys Your Content Strategy

Buzzfeed. That horrific amalgamation of Internet drivel. That endless stream of GIFs, "Top 21" Lists (please note the tasteful choice of only six points on this list), memes, and complaints about every age between 16 and 30. That guilty pleasure, just a click away from your Facebook feed to distract you during work hours (wash your hands afterwards).

There is much to disparage about the content that BuzzFeed spews out, crowdsourcing the college generation to in turn entertain that same age group. What makes it worse, truly, frighteningly, maddeningly worse, though, is the next part.

BuzzFeed's content strategy is far, far better than yours.

Oh, you can make complaints, raise your nose – your brand or product is higher class – above this nonsensical drivel that somehow manages to show up on your Twitter or Facebook, or perhaps by some twist of fate your Google+ the one time you checked it in the last three weeks.

But, here is the sad truth of the matter. That drivel did make it into your feed. And it likely does so regularly. Buzzfeed is doing something more than 90 percent of brands completely fail to do – executing an effective content strategy.

How is this possible? Here are six reasons why Buzzfeed destroys your content strategy:

1. BuzzFeed Isn't Afraid to Take Risks

BuzzFeed editors aren't spending hours checking whether fonts in images match approved brand guidelines. They don't fuss about with color palettes or whether someone will be offended by a picture choice. They post what they think will work.

2. BuzzFeed Has Something for Everyone

BuzzFeed may have a target demographic (likely early 20ish aged college students), but the scope of their topic choices shows they are not afraid to chase down engagement wherever they can find it. Forget customer profiling; they don't discriminate.

3. BuzzFeed's Content Can be Digested in a Matter of Seconds

Internet attention spans being what they are; this is a serious plus. You can scroll through an article in second and determine whether you want to give it more attention.

4. BuzzFeed's Content has Strong Visual Hooks

When you boil it down, BuzzFeed is probably 90 percent pictures, 10 percent text. This is a magical ratio for viral content. Even if animated GIFs were outlawed tomorrow, the image-heavy style of BuzzFeed articles would still work.

5. BuzzFeed's Site is Highly Social

If you want to interact with BuzzFeed, your only real choices involve social platforms. Social buttons are front and center in the UI, and even comments are driven with Facebook profiles.

6. BuzzFeed's Content is Endless

We all know that a regular content schedule improves engagement over time, but BuzzFeed takes this to a completely different level. New content is pushed out several times an hour during peak periods. At this scale, it doesn't matter if half your posts fail because that still means two posts an hour are succeeding. (See point number 1.)

Google 'Let’s Go Caroling' Easter Egg Turns Your Smartphone Into a Holiday Karaoke Machine

Google has created a very festive Easter egg for smartphone users. On your mobile browser, simply do a Google search for [let’s go caroling] and a menu will pop up allowing you to select from five different carols and turn your smartphone into an instant karaoke machine.

There are five carols currently included, "Jingle Bells", "Up on the House Top", "Deck the Halls", "O Christmas Tree", and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". When you select one, the cursor bounces along with the lyrics just as it would on a karaoke machine.

The Easter egg isn't Android specific. It works on all mobile browsers.

Google has a long history of doing hidden surprises in their search results, such as [do a barrel roll], which produce "Star Fox" inspired results. Typing in [google in 1998] allowed searchers to see Google search results as they appeared back in 1998. Google has also included Easter eggs in search results for [the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything] (the answer is 42), as well as [define anagram}(“Did you mean nerd fame again”?)

Image Credit: Phandroid

Report: Google PLAs Deliver 4X Revenue Lift For Retailers In Early Holiday Season

It’s probably not too surprising to hear that retailers have doubled their year-over-year spend on Google product listing ads this holiday season thus far. After all, the paid format of Google Shopping had just rolled out in the fall of 2012. What is stunning, however, is the four-fold increase in revenue that retailers have realized from PLAs versus 2012, according to a holiday retail�report from Kenshoo out this week.

ROAS reached $8.62 in the 26 days ending with Cyber Monday that were analyzed for the study. Yes, PLAs delivered a nearly 9 to one return on investment in the early holiday shopping season.

PLAs also outperformed traditional paid search text ads across most metrics: 27 percent higher click-through rates, 15 percent lower CPCs and 40 percent higher average order value. Conversion rates remained 20 percent higher on traditional paid search ads, however.

Also interesting is that impressions increased by just 65 percent, but led to a 115 percent increase in clicks for advertisers. The click-through rate rose 30 percent this year to an average of 3.3 percent globally, up from 2.6 percent in 2012.

PLA impressions and clicks peaked on Black Friday, with Cyber Monday trailing slightly behind the traditional kick off of the shopping season. Revenues also peaked on Black Friday.

According to research from investment bank Jefferies, 63 percent of searches are return a PLA in the US this holiday season, up from 49 percent in October. The firm found that in UK PLA usage is accelerating quickly, with 7.9 thousand advertisers running 192 thousand ads. UK PLA penetration levels are now roughly 6 months behind the US.

8 Tips for Building Your Internal Content Marketing Strategy

You know that story about the cobbler's children not having shoes and walking barefoot uphill in the snow? It's a heartbreaker and it's one we can all relate to. We all know what it feels like to kill ourselves for someone else, only to let our own needs go unmet.

Whether you work in an agency setting writing content for others all day while your own blog sits dry, or you're in-house writing content for every department but yours, it can be difficult to keep your own content marketing goals on track when competing with other business goals. But having a strategy helps.

Your content strategy will get your car back on the road and power you toward where you need to go. But only if you build it.

Determine Your Goals

Align the content you're creating with the goals of your business, whether the goals are to:

Generate leads.Shorten the sales cycle.Retain customers.Build your brand.Show off your voice.

By matching your content to the customer lifecycle, you ensure you're hitting customers with the right message, at the right time, when it's mostly likely to make an impact and have a positive effect on your business. This is the goal of your content. All of the engagement and shares are a means to this.

Determine your goals and know what you want to accomplish. Once you identity that, you can focus on creating the content you need.

Determine Your Resources

If you have a small internal content team tasked with creating content – from blog posts, to scripts, to billboards, to ebooks, to animated cartoons and beyond – you have to be smart about where you're spending your time and what you're working on.

How many people are on your team? How many can be dedicated (or almost dedicated) to content and how many can pitch in at various intervals?What are they strengths? Words? Video? Speaking? Technical writing? Illustration?How much of an investment do you need? How many times do you want to blog? How many newsletters do you want to create, at what intervals? What else is in your pipeline?

Create your Wish List and your Must Haves to find the middle ground between what you want to create, and what you can realistically create without straining your resources. By taking stock of what you have at the beginning, you can set proper expectations and ward off frustrations that may come later.

Understand Your Audience

It's time to get down and dirty with your customers. It's not enough to only know the basics. Instead, we need to invest time into developing customer personas and creating stories around who they are, what they want, how they view the brand, and how you can best serve them.

Analyze your analytics, survey your audience, do social research, interview customers – do it all and create the stories you need to base your content from. This is what will make your content marketing successful.

Without this step, you're creating content for a dark room and hoping there are people biting. With personae in hand, you not only get to see the people you're writing for, you become their best friend.

Create Your Stories

Hey, guess what? Your customers aren't the only ones with stories to tell. Your brand has one, too. By understanding your customers' stories you can identify which of yours are most relevant and important.

Does your sustainability focus and "made in the USA" stance matter to customers? Will your international shipping hit home with your audience's needs? Is it your attention to detail or customer service that's going to fulfill their desire?

Forget what your mother told you, you don't know what's most special about you until you know what's special about your customer and you fit in.

Once you identify your brand stories, how can you incorporate that into everything else? How does it affect your voice, how you look, the way you present information? Start putting the puzzle together.

Look Through the Archives

No one said your 2014 content marketing strategy couldn't include bits and pieces of years past. Take a stroll through your company's content assets to see what already exists, what just needs the dust blown off and what in your catalog is up for reuse.

Has your company been sending out newsletters or direct mail pieces for three decades? Do you still have access to the old ones? Scan them and put them online and give your customers a nostalgic look at what once was.Have a controversial blog post from last year that really got under people's skill? Can you host a panel discussion on the same topic and invite some of the conversation's big players to attend and speak?Have you published an interesting case study that would make a great infographic?Is there evergreen content created last year that didn't get the promotional push it deserved?

Use these items. Help reduce the amount of fresh content you need to create by utilizing what already exists. Catalog what you have and what you can build from it.

Create an Editorial Calendar

We're starting to think about the types of content we can get to creating. Awesome. Take that list of what you have and use those customer stories and persona to figure out what's missing.

What stories aren't you telling? What needs aren't you meeting? What parts of your funnel still need back up?

Look for opportunities to leverage holidays, industry tie-ins, and your business calendar.

Once you have it, chart it. Create an editorial calendar (Google Spreadsheets work wonderfully) and map out your content for the next three months. Take into consideration your resources, your team's strengths and how much content you can realistically create.

Create accountability by listing out when drafts are due, when final versions are due, who is responsible for writing, what the content themes are, the format, etc. Make the calendar accessible and viewable to everyone on your team. Put these deadlines in with the rest of your work deadlines. Make yourself a client.

Create a Plan For Reuse

Don't be content to use it once and let it die. Develop themes that can be pulled together and expanded upon.

Anoint a Content Evangelist

Create a respect for, and culture of, content in your organization by putting someone in charge of it and giving it a face. Someone whose job it is to high-five the creator of that kickass blog post or to congratulate the design team on the interactive infographic they stayed late to put together.

Making someone directly responsible for celebrating internal success will help keep internal buy-in. This person should also be the one tracking the metrics behind the organization's content and tweaking things as needed.

It's cold outside. Make sure you and your children have shoes by putting a plan in place now to ensure it happens.

Google Reveals Top Searches of 2013: From Nelson Mandela to Twerking

What did you search for on Google in 2013? Were you curious about “twerking” like the many others who pushed that search query to the top of Google’s “what is” search list? Or perhaps you wanted to learn more about Nelson Mandela who garnered the No. 1 spot in Google search this year.

Whatever you searched, we lived, and Google once again made memories come alive in its end-of-year Zeitgeist video.

Curious what people on the other side of the globe or in your hometown were searching for this year? Find out what searches trended worldwide each month in 2013 with this interactive 3D globe:

Here’s what made the Top 10 list worldwide:

Nelson MandelaPaul WalkeriPhone 5sCory MonteithHarlem ShakeBoston MarathonRoyal BabySamsung Galaxy s4PlayStation 4North Korea

By the way, the Harlem Shake at No. 5 had more than 1.7 million video versions uploaded on YouTube in 2013, according to Google.

The Zeitgeist portal takes us down memory lane with images that represent the Top 100 global searches of the year. Click on an image to discover the search.

This is always fun: Check out what was on the minds of searchers each year, starting in 2001, in the Google Trends Zeitgeist.

And Google invites us all to share what made our year memorable on Google+ with the #my2013 hashtag, which shows up on both Google+ and the Zeitgeist site.

You can learn about the 2013 search trends in Bing, Yahoo and Ask, here.

11 Untapped Content Promotion Strategies

Is your content getting you the traffic and inbound links that it deserves?

If not, then you probably have one question burning on your mind: "why not?".

After all, you work your tail off to provide fresh content that solves your audience's problems.

So what's going on?

It might be because you've overlooked that oft-ignored second word in the phrase, "content marketing". Yes, I'm talking about marketing your content just like a new product or service.

The fact is, with 2 million blog posts published every day, hitting the publish button simply just doesn't cut it anymore. If you want your content to get you results in 2014 (and beyond) you need to actively promote it.

Here are eleven untapped strategies that you can use to get better results from every blog post, video and guide that you publish.

1. Industry Forums

Because forums were created back in the days of dial up modems and AOL CDs, most marketers ignore them in favor of "the next big social media network."

That's a huge missed opportunity.

Forums are one of the few places online where you have hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of captive audience members interested in your content's topic.

For example, the marketing-focused Warrior Forum has at least three thousand members on the forum at any given time:

To promote your content on a forum, simply start a new thread with a condensed version of your article.

It may sound self-promotional, but as long as you're also answering questions and participating in the community, your thread will be received with open arms.

2. Thank Influencers on Google+

Whenever you mention an influential blogger in one of your blog posts, give them a shout out on Google+ by adding a +TheirName in your post.

You can say something like "Thanks to +Danny Goodwin for the tip about anchor text".

When you do, they'll get notified via email (if they have email notifications enabled) and from that little bell icon in the corner of Google.

Either way, they're very likely to see your shout out (and your content).

3. Ask Readers to Share

One of the easiest ways to get more traction from your content is to ask existing readers to share it.

Sound simple?

It is.

Derek Halpern at Social Triggers is a master at this. Here's a call to action from his latest post:

You can do the same thing by adding a friendly but specific call to action that encourages readers to share what they just read.

4. Quote an Expert

This strategy takes advantage of the built-in promotion of roundup posts, without having to go through the hassle of organizing one.

First, find a place in your article where an expert perspective would add value. For example, if you were publishing a post about the Paleo Diet you'd reach out to an influential person to ask them what they think about a sub-topic of your post. Then, publish their insights.

After you publish, email them to thank them for their contribution. Because it's an ego boost for a blogger to get quoted somewhere, they'll usually be happy to share it with their followers.

5. Time Your Emails

You may already know that your email list is one of the best places to get traction for your epic content.

Knowing that, are you timing your emails to maximize your open and click-through rate?

Send your emails in the early afternoon when people are bored and more likely to click through and engage. That typically beats first thing in the morning when your email is a drop among a tidal wave of messages that your subscribers are combing through.

Although the afternoon works in most cases, you want to test different broadcast times to see which land you the best CTR for your list.

6. Tap Into Roundups

Link roundups are a frictionless way to get the word out about your new content.

The great thing about roundups is that you're reaching out to people that are actively looking for content to share. It's just a matter of sending them a quick message to give them a heads up.

Not only do you get targeted referral traffic from a roundup message but a nice contextual link to go along with it.

7. LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn groups are a high-tech version of a forum. And like forums, they're teeming with people that are hungry for fresh content.

You can easily find LinkedIn groups in your industry by choosing groups from the search menu and entering a keyword that describes what you do:

Then add value while sharing your content with the group.

8. Find Content Curators

If you have something truly special to share, seek out content curation posts from blogs in your indus. These are similar to roundups, but are more evergreen. That means you can promote content that didn't get the exposure it needed the first time around.

For example, search for "best Twitter posts 2013" or "best fitness videos on YouTube". Then pitch these curators your awesome content. Because their post gets better with every quality addition, you're actually helping to improve their content with your pitch. So there's no need to be shy.

9. Paid Content Syndication

Paid syndication services like Outbrain and Taboola are relatively cheap ways to drive traffic to your new content.

Just set up an account, add your URL and set a CPC and budget.

Your content will be suggested on sites related to your content's topic. Like with most non-AdWords paid traffic sources, expect high bounce rates and low engagement. However, when you test and experiment, you can generate a ton of buzz with the help of paid content syndication.

10. Content Curation Sites

Sites like Paper.li and Scoop.it exist for one reason: to give people a place that they can share great content that they find. Not only do these curators share content with their followers within the platform, but they usually share generously on social media too.

All you need to do is find influential curators and send them your content. Scoop.it even has a built-in "suggest" feature where you can send curators your content directly through their system.

11. Social Sharing Communities

Communities like Social Buzz Club and Triberr are (free) communities of bloggers looking to get more exposure for their content.

They all work with some sort of karma system. The more you share other people's content, the more people will share yours. So start joining and sharing today so you can tap into these communities the next time you publish something great.

Are there any strategies that I missed? Leave a comment below.

Microsoft Photosynth Creator Agüera y Arcas Joining Google

Last night, the NY Times reported that the man primarily responsible for Microsoft’s�Photosyth product, Blaise Ag�era y Arcas,�is joining Google.�Ag�era y Arcas is not simply an engineer or technician, he offers a rare combination of technical expertise, design and product vision.

Ag�era y Arcas�joined Microsoft when his 2003 startup, Seadragon, was acquired by Microsoft Research in 2006. The next year, that technology launched as Photosynth, one of the most innovative software tools or products�Microsoft had then produced to date. Unfortunately, the Photosynth never caught on among mainstream users and its promise was never fully realized by Microsoft.

One imagines that if it had launched as an app a few years later, in the mobile era, it might have seen greater adoption and usage by “ordinary people.”

In roughly 2008, Photosyth and its image rendering capabilities�were integrated into Microsoft’s mapping platform, then Live Maps. A version of�Photosynth’s functionality was essentially copied by Google and integrated into Google Maps in 2009.

Ag�era y Arcas’ last title at�Microsoft was “architect of Bing Mobile and Mapping.” He was also a Microsoft Distinguished Engineer. Ag�era y Arcas has also�worked on wearable computing, augmented reality and natural user interface design. He was a central figure at Bing Maps.

The�NY Times says he “will work on machine learning at Google, according to several people with knowledge of his plans.” I’m sure his role will be more elaborate than that suggests.

I’ve always been quite impressed by�Ag�era y Arcas when I’ve heard him speak. But it’s unclear to me how much of a practical loss his departure is to Bing Maps and Microsoft. The reason for his departure wasn’t revealed.

Below is the 2007 Ted Talk in which Ag�era y Arcas first�introduces Photosyth.

Google Squashes Backlinks.com, Another Link Network Outed By Google’s Matt Cutts

Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, announced on Twitter that Google has gone after another link network, this one is named Backlinks.com.

Like with Anglo Rank, the link network Google outed the week prior, Matt Cutts took a line from their marketing material and then said “Au contraire!” This is the way Matt Cutts tells the SEO industry that Google is actively going after link networks and to stop participating in them.

Here is Matt’s tweet about Backlinks.com:

“Our installation code/software used to publish the sold links is not detectable by the search engine bots.” Au contraire!

� Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) December 13, 2013

Here is the tweet the week before on Anglo Rank:

“There are absolutely NO footprints linking the websites together” Oh, Anglo Rank.

� Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) December 6, 2013

Will there be a tweet late on Friday this week about another link network?

Anglo Rank Rebuilding?

I reported at Search Engine Roundtable that the owner of Anglo Rank, the link network Google penalized the week before, has decided to rebuild the network and start again. I said that this is how black hats operate, they build sites that they expect will get penalized and then do it all over again after the penalty. Is it recommended? No, you can’t build a long term business around this cat and mouse game. But some like to live life on the edge.

Over the past year or so, Google has been going after link networks at greater speeds. Here are some of the reports we have on those stories over a year or so:

Google Busts Yet Another Link Network: Anglo RankGoogle May Have Penalized Another Major Link Network: Ghost Rank 2.0Did Google Just Penalize Another Link Network? SAPE LinksGoogle Eliminates Another Link Network, BuildMyRank.com � Just One Of Several?Google Zaps Another Link Network, �Several Thousand� Link Sellers Hit�Text Link Ads� Was Latest Hit By Google�s Actions Against Link Sellers

TopRank Liveblogging Schedule for NMX BlogWorld 2014

It�s official�we�re breaking one of the cardinal rules of Las Vegas. You know the one, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. But at TopRank Online Marketing, �just can�t bring ourselves to do that.

This year�s NMX conference is taking the city (and the New Year) by storm. Full of bloggers, digital marketers, and industry experts this new media conference promises to deliver so much information we just won�t be able to keep it to ourselves! Which is why I’m joining Nick Ehrenberg and Ben Brausen to jet off to soak up as much as we can, and share it with our readers (even if it means breaking the rules).

Along with liveblogging, our own Lee Odden will also be at NMX giving one of the keynote presentations along with Scott Stratten, Amy Porterfield and several other top blogging pros.

For those who can�t attend, or for attendees who missed a session and want to catch up, here is a preview of our liveblogging schedule. These aren’t all the sessions we’ll be covering, so be sure to follow along @TopRank to see when new posts are published.

Ben Brausen:
Taking Your Pinterest Account to the Next Level: Strategies for Attracting Followers and Driving Traffic to Your Blog
Pinterest drives more traffic than Twitter, LinkedIn, and Reddit combined. In this session by Cynthia Sanchez we will learn how to :

Create a Pinterest account that attracts followersLeverage Pinterest to drive traffic to your blogOptimize blogs for PinterestCreating pinnable content

By the end of the session, I hope to have a live blog that readers will happily pin on their own boards.

The Power of Niche Podcasting � Three Reasons You Should Narrowly Focus On One
There are a million podcasts out there. So how do you find your niche? In Kenn Blanchard�s presentation, we�ll learn how to find your podcast focus, how to define your audience so you know where to find them, and how to tap into a highly engaged audience. We�ll learn how to find our place in the world of podcasting and how to stand out among all the others.

15 Social Media Tools to Become a More Productive and Effective Blogger
Social media is a great tool for connecting with your target audience. We could spend all day working our social channels (out of necessity and losing track of time). Though some of us would love to do that, we don�t all have that luxury. For those of us that can�t, there are tons of tools out there to make the most of your time spent on social. Ian Cleary�s session will look at 15 social media tools to make the most of your social efforts. The presentation will cover new tools, as well as existing ones that could be more efficient than ones you�re currently losing. Cleary will also present how to best use these tools for the best return on your time investment in social and blogging.

Nick Ehrenberg:
Crowdsourcing Influence: Brands and Influencers get Hitched in a Big Way
Brands frequently discuss leveraging thought leaders in their content strategies, but what is the best way to collate and utilize these sources? Dino Dogan, founder of Triberr, believes that hiring 100 brand ambassadors � bloggers and content creators each with their own small but loyal followings � will boost online brand awareness. His session will teach how to connect brands and influencers in a creative way. We�re hoping to learn how to make it work for smaller B2B clients that may not have the same resources as a large brand.

How to Create a Mobile Content Marketing Strategy
Businesses cannot ignore mobile content marketing, but they also must understand customer mobile habits in order to create relevant, shareable content. What are customers looking for with mobile content? What are B2B businesses looking to deliver? How should mobile be integrated into an overall content strategy � and are we nearing a future where mobile become the dominant platform for content delivery? Greg Hickman, founder of Mobile Mixed, will teach NMX attendees how to create a mobile content marketing strategy that will allow you to create an amazing experience for your consumers regardless of the device they use.

Thousands of Fans in 6 Months or Less: 5 Easy Steps to Get your Facebook Page off the Ground
Almost everybody � individual and brand alike � has a Facebook page. But if you want to register more that incremental growth on that page, (and have little funds available for paid advertising), the tips from this session should help create authentic growth. Andrea Vahl plans to highlight 5 essential elements that an effective Facebook page has, as well as teach how to set up a Facebook Page strategy and find the best content to post.

Eliza Steely
How to Work with Bloggers and Influencers
Influencer marketing has been a hot topic this year, and promises to continue being important in 2014. But when you�re not quite sure how to work with influencers, or even other bloggers, it can be a hard thing to tackle. Tara Salinas has had incredible success working with bloggers. Her NMX session promises to leave attendees with confidence by teaching:

What to look for in a pitchHow to check to see if the blogger is hitting your demographicsHow to make a blogger criteria that works for your company

How to Convert Your Casual Readers into a Thriving Community of Raving Fans
Let�s face it, most of us would rather listen to friends and family than marketers�it�s why word of mouth is so popular. In his session Pat Flynn will demonstrate (and help us discover) what to do to turn regular readers into �ridiculously supportive fans who will wear your team colors with pride!�. Some key takeaways include:

The science behind what makes a raving fanSpecific strategies, and examples, to use to cultivate a growing audienceMagic-like techniques to get people to quickly root for you and your brand

Monetizing on a Global Scale through Content
Lately, marketers have shifted to focusing more on the customer experience and ensuring it�s optimized, relevant, and as memorable (yet unique) as can be. It�s essential to balance that with your own objectives which has raised a huge question, �how can you make money from advertising and not degrade the consumer experience?�. Matthew Alecock and Dave Zinman plan to review principles that lead to their success in this arena. They will also highlight why it�s important for publishers to offer advertising solutions that successfully operate on a global scale, the importance of targeting customers in real-time, and how to enhance the user experience with advertising.

Like every other great conference, these sessions are a miniscule representation of the helpful, interesting sessions scheduled throughout the three-day conference. Check out the conference program for the full schedule of presenters and topics!

If you can�t attend NMX, don�t worry�we�ve got you covered! Ben, Nick and I will be live-blogging the sessions above, and a few others, to share key insights and actionable tips along the way. You can always stay up-to-date on the conference via Twitter by following @TopRank as well as our individual Twitter accounts:�@BenBrausen,�@NickEhrenberg, @elizalynnsteely or by tracking the hashtag #NMX.

What are you most excited to learn from NMX? Are there any sessions you’d like us to cover?

Microsoft Photosynth Creator Agüera y Arcas Joining Google

One imagines that if it had launched as an app a few years later, in the mobile era, it might have seen greater adoption and usage by “ordinary people.”

The�NY Times says he “will work on machine learning at Google, according to several people with knowledge of his plans.” I’m sure his role will be more elaborate than that suggests.

Below is the 2007 Ted Talk in which Ag�era y Arcas first�introduces Photosyth.

Canada’s Competition Bureau Escalates Google Antitrust Investigation

Canada�s Competition Bureau (CCB) has indicated that it will proceed with a formal antitrust investigation against Google. The CCB had been engaged in a preliminary inquiry.

A new CCB court filing requests a range of documents that will potentially show, according to the CCB, Google’s alleged abuse of market power and anti-competitive behavior in Canada. The claims in the investigation are similar to those raised by the now concluded FTC investigation and the current European Commission investigation.

The Financial Post in Canada first reported the action by the CCB.�The filing asserts that Google “substantially or completely controls” the Canadian search market, with more than 90 percent share. StatCounter shows 88 percent.

The following are the primary claims of anti-competitive behavior against Google:

Exclusive search syndication and distribution agreements, including “default search” agreements with hardware makersUniversal and vertical search results that “favor” its own content and properties (this is the center of the European action as well)Anti-competitive terms and restrictions on the use of AdWords API data by third parties (despite the fact that these were removed after the FTC settlement)

The CCB court filing seeks to compel production of Google Canada documents relevant to each of these claims.�Various fines and other remedies are available to�Canadian authorities to restrain the practices in question if Google is found to have violated Canadian antitrust laws.

Below is the CCB’s court filing.

Commissioner of-competition-v.-google-canada-corp from gesterling

New Facebook Like-Share Buttons Now Available to All

Back in November, Facebook announced a redesign to its Like and Share buttons to unveil the new Like-Share combo button to select brands. This week, Facebook announced the new buttons would be available to all, saying tests of the functionality have boosted sharing.

From Facebook:

In early tests over the past month after launching the new Like and Share buttons, we've seen more than a 5% lift in Likes and Share across the web. This is significant, given that both buttons are viewed over 22 billion times daily. Based on these results, we've rolled out the new design to everyone and extended it to the Follow and Like Box plugins as well.

Sharaholic released its data for Facebook referrals over the past month, and showed referring traffic from Facebook was up 47 percent.

Although Shareaholic does not offer the new FB buttons among our own share buttons, we still track inbound traffic on sites that use any of our other offerings (analytics and related content). Some of our publishers have adopted the new Like and Share buttons from Facebook and are obviously reaping the benefits. Others that use our share buttons still see gains in Facebook referral traffic.

"I think this is a very positive change for users and brands," said Danny Wong, who oversees growth and marketing at Shareaholic. "The buttons perform well, increasing engagement, which means more sharing across the web. Users now have an easier time acknowledging they 'like' a story and can easily 'share' things they think their friends would love, too. Brands benefit because their earned, owned and paid media will continue to attract more eyeballs."

New Facebook Like-Share Buttons Now Available to All

From Facebook:

Sharaholic released its data for Facebook referrals over the past month, and showed referring traffic from Facebook was up 47 percent.