Advanced Snippet Optimization - SMX Stockholm 2012
16 likes4,532 views
The document presents an online marketing workshop focused on optimizing webpage snippets for enhanced visibility and click-through rates (CTR). It outlines strategies for crafting effective page titles, URLs, and meta descriptions, as well as utilizing rich snippets and structured data to improve search engine result presentation. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of testing various approaches to maximize effectiveness in SEO and CTR outcomes.
Advanced Snippet Optimization - SMX Stockholm 2012
- 1. - Tweak those Snippets - How to get maximum visibility & CTR! http://gdig.de/smxsnippet Stockholm, October 2012 Bastian Grimm, Managing Partner - Grimm Digital - @basgr
- 2. About me Background: PHP & Java – Dev. CMS, shops & forums – Wazap! Game Search Engine Online Marketing since 2004 – SEO strategy consulting, in-house trainings & workshops, WordPress @basgr SEO, bla bla… Links, Links, Links…need some? Stuff to play with…
- 3. Get the Slide-Deck http://gdig.de/smxsnippet
- 4. Google SERP CTR Study by SlingshotSEO Full study available here: http://gdig.de/10
- 5. CTR according to leaked AOL data Source: redcardinal.ie Infos & Download: http://gdig.de/12
- 6. CTR is influenced by more than position! Star ratings + votes Rich snippet movie mark-up Video snippets: Preview img, publishing date, playtime, etc. Publication date Blended Google News listings
- 7. Think about what you give away! Seriously… WHY would I need to visit IMDb? All the info is right here! Image Credits: http://bit.ly/SZXUcu
- 8. Right now: Rich Snippets in SERPs = WIN! But: You have to act FAST! Image Credits: http://flic.kr/p/bBo2yB
- 9. Have you seen Google’s “App-Search”? BTW: Purely based on Rich Snippet mark-up!
- 10. <title>Jeremy Renner - IMDb</title> #1: Page Titles
- 11. Consider title length limitations! Titles will be cut off, if too long – which results in less CTR! 52 vs. 32 characters will be displayed as page title in SERPs Make sure, your titles won’t get cut off! In general, 50-55 characters is pretty much safe…
- 12. The real deal: Pixel width! 107 chars & no cut-off! Google cares about how wide your title is (measured in pixels). Image taken from the post on seomofo.com Screengrab in FF on Sept. 22nd 2012. Test & background: http://gdig.de/11
- 13. Google SERP Snippet Preview Try it out at: http://gdig.de/13
- 14. Use character savers! <title>Buy Choclate Cookies and Cakes online</title> Replace “unnecessary” words whenever possible. <title>Buy Choclate Cookies & Cakes online</title> Get rid of unimportant words to save room for keywords & USP. Also consider word-order!
- 15. Use strong Calls-to-Action CTAs are strong verbs, unique selling propositions (USP) or “non-concrete” promotional words!
- 16. Play around with UPPERCASE words! Don’t uppercase multiple words or even the full title - it will raise spam flags! Test capitalizing the single most important word in the title for maximum visibility.
- 17. Change titles to match seasoning patterns! Depending on your niche: Try playing with seasonings. Pre- / Appending seasonings to generic titles might give a short-term boost.
- 18. Debug Page Title Rewriting Google might change your page-title … … if they feel it’s not “good” enough. Use pipes or mid-dots instead of hyphens It’ll make large-scale title debugging is WAY easier! Official Google announcement: http://gdig.de/14
- 19. Let Google tell u what that page is about! No “real” page title is given – but Google also displays the sites name! Considering Google does page title rewriting… Why not launch without title & work with the result?
- 20. Tip: SeoTools for Excel by Niels Bosma =HtmlTitle("http://www.domain/my/url.html") =HtmlMetaDescription("http://www.domain/my/url.html") Get titles into Excel with a single function call! Download & Documentation: http://nielsbosma.se/projects/seotools/
- 21. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719637/ #2: URLs
- 22. The obvious: Do speaking URLs Speaking URLs will get SERP highlighting Also make sure you keep them short to prevent cut-off, again!
- 23. Breadcrumb Setup is simple! Breadcrumbs still stand out – use them! Use BC mark-up if Google doesn’t recognize yours. Breadcrumb Setup Info: http://gdig.de/16
- 24. GWT Geographic Target Settings Geo-Settings are only available for gTLDs If you set up a geo target in your GWT account, it’ll be shown right to the URL & give some more real-estate.
- 25. <meta name="description" content="Jeremy Renner…" /> #3: Meta Description
- 26. Basics: Keywords, Targeting, etc. Proper keyword targeting! Strong CTA present! Non-cut off due to proper length! Make sure to get the basics right: Keyword usage, length limitations and call-to-action!
- 27. Make use of Images when-ever possible! Images are available for: Software, products, recipes events & more! Images really stand out in SERPS, therefore they do have a massive impact on CTR (30-40%+)
- 28. How to implement recipe images? <div itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Recipe" > <h1 itemprop="name">Grandma's Holiday Apple Pie</h1> <img itemprop="photo" src="http://domain.com/my/apple-pie.jpg" /> By <span itemprop="author">Bastian</span> Published: <time datetime="2009-11-05" itemprop="published">November 5, 2009</time> <span itemprop="summary">This is my grandmother's apple pie recipe.</span> Prep time: <time datetime="PT30M" itemprop="prepTime">30 min</time> <span itemprop="nutrition" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Nutrition"> Serving size: <span itemprop="servingSize">1 medium slice</span> Calories per serving: <span itemprop="calories">250</span> Fat per serving: <span itemprop="fat">12g</span> </span> Ingredients: <span itemprop="ingredient" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/RecipeIngredient"> Thinly-sliced <span itemprop="name">apples</span> - <span itemprop="amount">6 cups</span> </span> <span itemprop="ingredient" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/RecipeIngredient"> <span itemprop="name">White sugar</span> - <span itemprop="amount">3/4 cup</span> </span> </div> schema.org provides structured mark-up using pre-defined HTML attributes. Rich Snippets Image Mark-up: http://gdig.de/17
- 29. Verify your mark-up w/ Google Google’s Structured Mark-Up Tool does provide valuable info on your status-quo. Testing Tool: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
- 30. Ratings will get you an extra line in SERPS Ratings can either be single rated items but also aggregated ones… Ratings do suggest trust – even though some sites may not be THAT trusted… It still does massively increase CTR (and on-site conversion)!
- 31. Authorship Mark-Up is a killer! Can either be implemented on page- but also on root-level! It’s about personal branding as well – make your-self known to the (your) audience! A Searchmetrics study shows ~17% of US SERPs include authors already. Searchmetrics Data: http://gdig.de/18
- 32. How to implement Authorship mark-up? 1) <link rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/YOUR-ID" /> 1) Implement “rel-author” into your <head> section 2) 2) Add “contributor “ URL to your G+ profile 3) Check Google's structured mark-up tool to verify! Using the rel-author is 3) simple – but don’t game it, otherwise it’ll be gone… fast! Authorship Info: https://plus.google.com/authorship
- 33. Hidden benefits of authors: More Links! Test, Test, Test… Also try different image colors, consider seasonings, etc. Kudos to Matt McGee: http://gdig.de/15
- 34. Videos? Why not!? Make sure to have video XML sitemaps in place and provide as much details as possible! Even better CTR as with pure image results due to some more details in SERPS. You can also get publishing date & play time.
- 35. BTW: Video preview the “Creative” Way… “Call Pathway Insurance for a Customized Quote: 513-662-7080” How many people will call directly vs. clicking out to that (less) relevant YouTube channel? If you’re REALLY good: Setup a dedicated phone line!
- 36. Use GWT to submit & verify your sitemap GWT allows you to submit and verify XML video sitemaps. Use it! Video XML Sitemaps: http://gdig.de/19
- 37. Pro Tip: You can also just ping Google Use PHPs cURL library or GNU wget to call the URL & verify the response header. www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ping?sitemap=sitemap_url A successful request does return HTTP 200. Make sure to URL-encode the sitemaps URL and limit to 1 req./hour Sitmaps Ping How-To: http://gdig.de/1a
- 38. Meta Description: Date Snippets Make sure the timestamp will be updated frequently, outdated snippets can negatively impact CTR! Google tries to extract publishing dates from your site. It’ll be pre-pended to your SERP snippet.
- 39. #4: Some fancy stuff!
- 40. HTML Entities Standing out vs. over-doing is probably the biggest issue – but some “creative” approaches do work well!
- 41. UTF-8 Entity Encoding Use with care – it might get you in trouble! UTF-8 Snippet Generator: http://gdig.de/1b
- 42. OMCap 2011 - Online Marketing Konferenz Berlin Finally! … 13.10.2011 Well, well… one more! 42
- 44. Thanks! Questions? mail@grimm-digital.com twitter.com/basgr linkedin.com/in/bastiangrimm facebook.com/grimm.digital http://gdig.de/smxsnippet Bastian Grimm, Managing Partner - Grimm Digital - @basgr