Testing: does my website work?

Is it even possible to convert from a mobile device? You want to add the following points to your test:

• Are the elements large enough? People have to be able to use their finger on a small screen.
• Is everything displayed regularly? Render errors cause problems.
• Does everything work properly without JavaScript? Especially older browsers do not support JavaScript.
• Does everything work properly with limited JavaScript support? Many mobile devices do not fully support JavaScript.
• Does everything work properly without Adobe Flash? Many mobile devices do not support Flash.
• Do you use many large images or videos? Take into account that a mobile internet connection is slower than a regular internet connection. When it takes long for the page to load, the visitor will leave.

When the website works properly, the barriers to the normal use of a website are smaller.

Mouse, stylus or finger?

The first touch screens were from a different type then the ones mostly used these days. These were resistive screens. These screens needed pressure in order to record a touch. When using these screens, the use of a stylus is recommended. The operating systems were also focused on this: smaller buttons, because the stylus could easily touch them.

These days, almost all modern smart phones have capacitive screens. These screens do no longer use the stylus, but can be controlled using your fingers. For this reason, the operating systems (think iOS for the iPhone and Android OS) have changed too: They have got bigger buttons that can easily be controlled using your finger.

Because people use their fingers to navigate a website, the buttons have to be adapted to this. You do not want you ordering process to create a barrier for mobile users that want to place an order. A negative experience remains top of mind. This is something you want to prevent!

Lightbox, Thickbox or other variants

On a regular computer it’s often better to show a Lightbox pop-up with for example a larger version of the product picture. On a smart phone, this is a little different and can create irritations:

• Both Lightbox and Thickbox are not centered properly
• Opened images are, when zoomed in, not displayed well on both Android and iOS.
• When rescaling the screen, the pop-up is repositioned.

As you can see, this form of pop-ups are at all user friendly for mobile devices. Do you want mobile conversions? Make sure your users are not confronted with Lightbox/Thickbox/Fancybox/Shadowbox.js and other variations.

Flash video

Besides the limits presented by JavaScript, you also want to minimize or ban the use of Flash video. Flash video never works on iOS devices and has its limitations on Android devices. Do you want to show video anyway? Make sure you offer it in MP4 format, as these are supported by most smart phones and tablets. YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo videos work on all modern mobile devices. Hosting your videos externally is therefore also an option.

Convert on the spot or later?

Payment methods

In the Netherlands iDeal is the most widely used form of online payments. On a mobile device, however, this is more difficult, because you usually don’t have a random reader (a device that generates login codes) with you, which makes it impossible to use iDeal. In the (near?) future, a mobile version of iDeal will be launched, but before this is the case, you are depended on whether your visitor brought his/her random reader.

So, you want to offer alternatives:

• PayPal can be used anywhere, because all you need is a combination of e-mail address and a password
• Offering the possibility of paying by pre-printed giro credit slip usually increases conversions. On a mobile device, this only requires a small effort by the user. When the order is received, the user can pay the credit slip via a normal computer.

Mobile webshop

Bol.com is one of the few web shops that has already taken the step of creating a separate mobile platform. Creating such a separate platform is a logical one in most cases, and especially for larger web shops. They offer the basic functionality of a web shop in a format that fits with needs of the mobile user: buttons that are easy to use and the possibility to make a purchase.

Delaying the purchase

When designing a web shop, you should take into account that fact that the barriers for making a purchase via a mobile device are higher than for a normal PC. Because you want to make it easy for your visitors (and of course because you want to make as much money as possible), it is recommended that you offer your visitor the opportunity to delay the purchase. You can do this in several ways. Which one you use will depend on your target group:

- Email: Almost anyone with an internet connection will have an e-mail address.
– Wishlist: useful, but it requires users to have an account (which creates another barrier, especially for unknown and small websites)
– Cross device shopping car: useful, adding stuff via your mobile device and pay when you get home! However, just like a wishlist, this is difficult to implement.

The problem is NOT offering these possibilities. Your visitor arrived at your website via a search query in Google. By the personalization of search results and the fact that mobile results are often influenced by location and the use of the mobile device, it is not likely that your visitor will be able to find your website again. By adding the above mentioned examples you van make sure your visitors will find you again.

Testing

The above mentioned examples are meant to put you in the right direction. They should lead to a website that is more easily accessible via a smart phone or tablet. However, the real challenge is taking the next step: Testing! What works on my mobile website and what doesn’t? What leads to conversions (direct or later)? Do the USPs of your regular website and products also work via mobile?

Fact is that mobile traffic is increasing rapidly, on technology related websites to more than 25% of total traffic! I think this is an indication of what is about to come on other websites. For this reason, it is wise to have your website function properly not just for regular users but also for mobile users (however small that percentage might be). The screen estate on a smart phone will always be limited, after all, you have to be able to carry the device in your pocket.

Conversion optimization for mobile is a post from: Onetomarket

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Social Media Monitoring tools are mushrooming. This often makes it difficult to know which one to use. We have listed a few of them below:

Radian6

Radian6 is a very advance social media monitoring tool and is seen as a leading international player in the field of social media monitoring and engagement. This tool has been developed with the idea that companies should listen to the signals from the social web. It allows companies to enter into a dialog with their target group. Radian6 covers more than 100 million sources, including news websites and social networks such as Hyves and Facebook. Based on a list of keywords, all mentions of these keywords can be monitored. An important advantage of using Radian6 is the ease with which customized dashboards can be created.

Messages measured via Radian6 are automatically sorted based on their source. This makes it easy to see the size of the impact regarding a certain topic and what is being said about it. In addition, it is possible to receive realtime pop-ups so that you could, if necessary, take action immediately.

Raventools

Originally, Raven is an SEO tool. Raventools can be used to monitor keywords and rankings for SEO purposes. Meanwhile, Raventools is being used extensively for social media monitoring. Raven’s social media tools offer wide-ranging possibilities for measuring communications about a brand via the internet, for instance on blogs, Twitter and Facebook. As soon as selected keywords are mentioned on a blog or social media platform, Raven will notify you about the source and what is being said. It is possible to link sentiments (positive, neutral, negative) to these messages. This is especially useful for being alerted on any negative news.

Hootsuite

To a certain extend, Hootsuite looks a lot like well known Tweetdeck. Hootsuite is a social media management tool to manage multiple social media profiles simultaneously. The basic version of Hootsuite is free and allows you to manage a maximum of 5 profiles. Their dashboards are clear and can be fully customized based on your own wishes. This social management tool allows you to send messages to all channels at the same time or to separate channels, all from within the same interface. In addition, Hootsuite allows for sending automated updates on preselected times.

Hootsuite also enables you to analyze the performance of several accounts through reports. You can link these reports to Google Analytics which could result in some very interesting insights.

The ‘Klout’

But what do you do once you find out that negative news about your product, service or brand is being spread via social media? When should you respond in order to prevent further negative word of mouth from spreading? People say a lot on Twitter. An opinion or remark of an influential person can be a lot more valuable than the same opinion or remark coming from a person that no one follows or someone that is considered totally irrelevant. The reach and importance of a person can be measured by the number of followers. However, this is not the only important component. What is at least as important is the value of the opinion of the person. How often has this tweet been read, retweeted, answered, and how influential is this person’s network? In order to determine the true value of a person on Twitter, a score called ‘Klout‘ has been created. This score can be interesting for customer relationship management. It allows you to determine which of your customers are the most influential. Knowing this allows you to involve them in the development of you website, or use them to attract new customers by using special offers.

As you can see, it is not just important what is being said, but also by whom. For this reason you should monitor what is being said about your company, brand, product or service and respond when needed. Surely there are many more social media monitoring tools that you can use. Would you like to know more about such tools? Please contact Onetomarket.

Social Media Monitoring is a post from: Onetomarket

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If any of these issues applies to your website it is probably wise to start thinking about Conversion optimization. Where SEO, SEA and Bannering are all offsite channels, Conversion optimization is purely to increase the conversion Onsite. By increasing your Onsite conversion rate, you will get more from conversions from your website.

Conversion optimization, what is it?

Conversion optimization (CO) is the trajectory that will be entered to improve the conversion rate of a website. It should be noted that conversion optimization is not the same as usability, where the main focus is on improving the user experience. CO looks at which pages show possibility of improvement, then tests alternate pages using a tool like for example Google Website Optimizer. This allows both A/B (two different pages) and multivariate tests (multiple variants within a page) to perform. After the final test phase there will be determined which pages actually have performed better. The final goal in mind is to raise the conversion rate, by so allowing more site visitors to turn into real buyers/leads.

How does Conversion optimization works?

After having determined to start a conversion trajectory, there will be a number of steps that have to be taken to achieve a final result.

• Persona Creation: What does a number of average users of the website looks like, what are their needs and how are they developed in their internet skills?
• Analyze bottlenecks using Webanalytics: Here the goal funnel (ordering process) will analyze the content of the pages, what pages are popular, important pages for the purpose funnel, pages with high bounce rates, etc.
• Personas and Expert Opinions: By using the personas and expert opinions alternative pages for A / B testing and Multivariate testing will be determined.
• Testing Website Optimizer: By using the Website Optimizer the test will be prepared, the script will be placed and the different landing pages will be used.
• Analyze Results: Over time, the Website Optimizer will pick a winner based on statistical significance.
• Implementation winner and testing: Once the page is determined that it has the best performance, it can be implemented and further tested using a multivariate test. Moreover, the choice can be made for a new process in which another part is optimized.

Case Mens & Relatie

Mens & Relatie is an online dating service that brings singles together. The goal is to convert more visitors into actual leads. To achieve this, the Website Optimizer was used which measured both multivariate test as an A/B test with three variants.

A/B/C Test
The A/B/C test has the same approach, to see which side the boxes would generate most conversions. There was also investigated whether a bold text works better than a text which is not bold printed.

The three variants and the original were as follows:

• Original: Boxes right + normal text
• Combination 2-3 Boxes right + bold text
• Combination 3-4 Boxes left + normal text
• Combination 1-2 Boxes left + bold text

The final results showed that in particular the bold text largely improved the conversion rate. Moving the box to the left had some impact but not so much as making the text bold.

De final results show that the bold text in particular largely improved the conversion rate. Moving the box to the left had some impact but not so much as making the text bold.

Multivariate test

It started with a multivariate test on the homepage. Here are two variations for each box created. This gives a total of eight combinations plus the original. The difference with the original text is that the new texts are more similar to the Adwords ads. Important is that your Offsite marketing activities match your Onsite statements, in this case there was a match between a clear call to action text in both boxes and in Adwords.

Eventually combination one proved to be the winner, which was a text that was used in box one in combination with the original text of box two. This was a quite recognizable statistical significance in the fact that the variation would beat the original but not all the other variants. The goal was to improve the conversion rate, and therefore combination one has to be implemented. The results show what the impact can be on the conversion ratio with just a simple test.

For Mens & Relatie the final testing ensured a substantial increase in conversion rate on the site. A single conversion optimization trajectory made clear that they were structurally assured of a higher conversion rate and therefore more leads.

Why invest in Conversion Optimization?

Conversion Optimization is an ideal way to improve the conversion rate on your website. A one-time investment are quickly earned back and the gains are permanent. Even better is to keep testing and fine-tuning in order to achieve an optimal conversion rate which will earn in the long run. Google Website Optimizer can therefore be an ideal tool to improve this in a significant way.

What also must be taken into consideration is that the results do no only improve the website, but benefit all the offsite channels, as the conversion rate on the website increases. This will decrease the CPA within the SEA campaigns due to a higher conversion rate. Result is that besides the initial increase in conversion with SEA there is a further increase in volume terms from SEA conversions. It can be achieved by creating multiple keywords to start advertising. In addition, an investment in SEO now might be interesting since the conversion rate has improved and the changes to your website now can be recouped. In short all channels will benefit with a conversion trajectory.

Conversion Optimization: Must Have For Onsite & Offsite Conversion Improvement is a post from: Onetomarket

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This year, on the first day of the event Martijn Beijk gave a presentation about the relationship with another client of Onetomarket; Conrad Electronic. He explained the successful implementation  of conversion optimization for shop.conrad.nl

There were several interesting speakers who spoke that day, but in this blog I will only post about the presentation of Mike Moran (Chief Strategist, Converseon), Simon Sundén (Digital Director, Honesty) and Martijn Beijk (SEO & Web-analystics consultant, Onetomarket).

On the second day of the event Theo Lentjes (Marketing Manager, Onetomarket) gave a presentation about Conversion optimization,  important matters like ‘what are the bottlenecks’ and ‘how can you convince visitors and convert them into taking action’ were discussed during this presentation. At the end of this post you can read more about this presentation.

Why white hat SEO is ‘the way’ for you

Mike Moran spoke during his presentation about why white hat SEO is ‘the way to go’.

SEO should be about the long term influence and the long term benefits for the client. By terms as pagerank sculpting and the upcoming social media he explained his assumption.

Google has changed his algorithm several times the past years, and the will not stop changing.

Every technical update will eventually get old and be replaced by the newest update, a process that goes on and on and on.

That is why he explained the term pagerank sculpting. In the early days of Google Pagerank sculpting was a common used technic to create excellent page rankings.  Today Pagerank sculpting doesn’t work anymore, because Google changed the page rank values. One of the things that are becoming more and more important is social media. Moran showed an example in the US were he created a query which generated only Universal and paid search results on the whole page. In other terms; there was no ‘normal’ website indicated on the first page of the Google results. What means a major change for SEO. Eventually this will lead to a triangular relationship between search, Google and you.

Moran thinks you should follow a strategy based on SEO tactics which will have benefits for everyone within the triangular relationship.

Social Media Marketing – Killer Tactics

Simon Sundén gave many tips and tricks for Social Media Marketing during his presentation. He presented the most important ones in a top 10 list:

10 Things you should do in Social Media Marketing.

1. Start a blog!
2. Optimize and ping it.
3. Link out like madness.
4. Set up a Facebook page.
5. Monitor Search words
6. Make sure you get a Facebook like button.
7. Twingly blog links. You will love it.
8. Let your ‘Social Media Naturals’ do the job.
9. React and discuss with others.
10. Change your blog in a natural social blog.

It was an interesting presentation with a lot of Swedish social media elements, though useful in many countries.

Conversion optimization: Conrad Electronic

The relationship between client and consultancy firm and how to accomplish goals was the main subject of the presentation. The use of SEO and Conversion optimization were explained. You can find the presentation via the link below.

PPC Blackhat and how to protect your campaigns against them

The subject of this presentation is Blackhat PPC. The presentation was not about showing how to trick Google, but to think as a so called ‘blackhat’ and be able to detect them. For instance; it is difficult to understand ‘ad hijackers’ without knowing how they work, or without understanding how to eliminate them. Affiliates who are generating traffic via Adwords, will cost you your traffic. The merchant pays a compensation for every sale of the affiliate. If an advertising of a brand leads to a sale for the affilate because of the name and reputation of the brand, the merchant pays for traffic that already saw the advertisement.

Sometimes the law approves certain matters, but Google doesn’t and vice versa. Mikkel deMib, a former blackhat explains that a couple of years ago he recognized that his actions caused serious problems for the ‘SEM world’ and for the people acting in this world. Mikkel deMib didn’t want to be the reason for these problems.

Conversion Optimization – Visitors, barriers & persuasion

Conversion Optimization is not about doing some tricks, but more about analyzing your costumers. Who are they, what moves them, and how can I help them to easily make a conversion on my website? How can you convince them and what is the best location to start testing. During the presentation all of these aspects were discussed.

Search Marketing Expo Stockholm is a post from: Onetomarket

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To test this, we took a domain with no history (never registered, no backlinks) and made a page with 250 links on it. Those links refer to pages with also 250 on it (and so on…). The linktext and URL’s were numbered from 1 till 250, In the same order as they appeared in the source code. We submitted the URL via “addurl” and waited.

On the first visit of Googlebot it only visited the root page (http://example.com/). After a few hours it returned and visited all the 250 pages it found on the root page. At first it seemed that Google was dividing all the links on the pages into three blocks:

• Block1: links 1 till 9
• Block2: links 10 till 99
• Block3: links 100 till 250

If Googlebot visits a page there is a good chance that it will follow links from one or more of the blocks. The links are crawled in a batch per block in a random order. The chances that block 1 is crawled is three times greater then block 2 and even 6 times greater then block 3. In block 3 there are two links which have a slightly higher chance to be crawled: link /100/ and /200/.

With only the results of this test it is to early to conclude that Google always divides a page into these blocks. It is possible that Google bases its blocks on the length of the link text, on the length of a URL, on the position of the link etcetera. To exclude al the other possibilities we have set up some other tests.

The test which gave us the decisive answer was a test with the length of URL’s in random order on a page. Those links linked to similar pages with also links with various lengths in random order (etcetera). Googlebot seems to crawl links in order of length. A good thing to know if you want to do some advanced site structure sculpting.

Takeaways

With these insights choosing the length of your URL’s becomes more important. It is a good way to influence Googlebot so you should choose the length of each URL wisely. Google crawls short URL’s before it crawls the longer URL’s. It doesn’t help to make all your URL’s short. If they all have an equal length they will get crawled at random. Always consider the need for indexation and the need to be crawled if you choose your URL.

So it’s good to take it into account when you are designing your site structure. Probably it is even more important for linkbuilding. We have not tested it yet, but there is a good chance Google crawls external links the same way. This would mean that if your URL is on a page with hundreds of other links, you may increase your crawl chance if you have the shortest URL.

note: This insight is part of a thesis, more to come soon. (link will be placed here.)

Google’s crawl order is a post from: Onetomarket

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Last year, in April, the Onetomarket Crew was at SMX Munich where they met Jens and Andreas.

Both work at T-Online, one of the biggest webportals in Germany. Jens also runs the blog Inhouse-SEO.de.

T-Online uses the Google Custom Search for its own search engine on the webportal. The team from T-Online have developed a keyword tool that is linked to the search queries. This way they are able to analyze all the search queries and clickthroughs from these searches. By doing this they are able to discover and monitor evolving trends. This very useful data can be used to optimize websites or various campaigns

In 2008 the total market share of search for T-online was estimated at 2.1%. This is quite a piece of marketshare when you take a look at the search market in Germany.
But in the end, because the portal uses the Google Custom Search, the 2,1% will be accounted to Google.

Now we can bring you the full interview with Jens and Andreas about the keyword tool!

Full-length English version: Interview Keywordtool with T-Online

Full-length German version: Interview Keywordtool mit T-Online

Interview with T-Online about the inhouse keywordtool is a post from: Onetomarket

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After using Google Insights for the search term ‘financial crisis’ some interesting insights show up. As of 15 September one can see that the search traffic for the term ‘financial crisis’ increases, which is a logical response to the bankruptcy of Lehman brothers on that specific day. This increase in traffic on ‘financial crisis’ remains until the 19th of September. On this day the US government announced that it was working on a rescue plan for the financial sector, which caused a higher closing of Wall Street and above that a certain amount of trust was spread that lead to a decrease in search on ‘financial crisis’. Also the Google news result at [B] refers to this event. What though has to be taken into caution is that less financial searches are being performed during the weekend. After the weekend the worries about the financial crisis rose again as some critical notes were made about the rescue plan. This trend continued until the 26th of September, when the weekend started and President Bush made a statement that something had to be done to cool down the crisis in the financial world (Google News Result A). Now that on Monday the rescue plan was turned down by the parliament, there is no doubt that the increase in searches on financial crisis will keep on rising.

Until the rescue plan is fully approved, it looks like there will be enough rumor and so searches concerning the financial crisis. Next to that one can say that although the fact that it is only an indication, there sure is a certain amount of commotion that lives around the topic financial crisis that can be seen with Google Insights.

Also the Netherlands was hit by the financial crisis in the US. The increase in searches on the term ‘kredietcrisis’ (financial crisis) appears to be the same as in the US. But what is the thing that Dutch people do in the event of a financial recession? They return to old Calvinistic values in which the secure savings account becomes more important compared to the insecurity of investing in stocks. Google insights show that at the moment that the Dutch Economy start showing signs of a recession, the consumer starts looking for security and so searches on savings accounts (*sparen) etc. started to take off compared to risky investments (*beleggen). Anyway this is the time for banks to go loose in the search engine with saving related products as the consumer is now looking for this.

Financial Crisis & Recession: Consumers decide to choose for a savings account is a post from: Onetomarket

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The SearchWiki enables people to vote a single search result up or down on the search result page, or actually remove it within your personalized results. It also gives you the possibility to add a personal, public note in which you say something about the result of website. Google states that this data won’t be used in the ranking algorithm. Since we all know Google is able to do very smart things with data, this eventually will be used in their ranking algorithm of course.

A lot of rumors are floating around, about this being an SEO killer, or this being the end of SEO as we know it. Internet is changing, Google is changing, and society in general is changing. This is happening rapidly and the result of it is a more social, a more semantic and better user experience. Shift happens! And this is a good thing. Since we like to keep you ahead of your competition we’ve changed the basics of our optimization advice a while ago.

Onetomarket walks the right path of the force since 2004. We’ve successfully transformed from a company with smart technical tricks to a company that helps you with you on line business and visibility with a solid foundation in SEO and SEA. Since we’ve seen this coming a long time ago we already chose to help our clients creating valuable and likeable content. This content advice always had the customers of our clients in mind at first. Ergo, good content and social media in general has been on our agenda a long time.

We, as Onetomarket see this as a great opportunity for Google to weed out even more ‘bad’ websites and improve the user experience with search. This will also enlarge our role which we have for our clients, by taking care of even better content and advising them how to think, work and actually do the job for best user experience. We know it’s not the easiest route to take, but by being critical and user focused you will be prepared for the future.

By only using technical tricks like ‘landing pages’ your website probably shouldn’t rank that high. On site optimization is still getting more important everyday. Al your pages should have a purpose and this purpose should be measured and even optimized. Therefore our services like Web analytics, on site SEO, Blended Search and conversion optimization.

The Searchwiki option from Google brings our clients, their customers and Onetomarket closer together and therefore we fully embrace the SearchWiki functionality Google officially launched as of today.

Google’s SearchWiki and Onetomarket’s point of view is a post from: Onetomarket

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what is linkbait? According to Darren Rowse of Problogger.net, the term “linkbait” stands for a variety of practices, which are all searching for a way to generate incoming links to a website or blog from other sites. Linkbait is content on a website which is specifically aimed at an audience that is willing to link thru.

Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz – a large American SEO Company – distinguishes two types of linkbait:

1. The first is to create content with the aim to launch it through a platform which sees value in the content.
2. The second concerns the collection of links by controversy.

Is linkbait Viral Marketing?
Opinions differ about the question if linkbait is a form of viral marketing. According to Rand Fishkin linkbait combines the practice of Viral Marketing with popular technical trends.
According to Todd Mali Coat of Stuntdubl link baiting is not the same as viral marketing, because the goal is different. The purpose of linkbait is link building, while viral marketing is designed to generate exposure and branding. Of course this goes together often.

Where does linkbait come from?
The article that the concept of linkbait probably be the first called in is written by Nick Wilson and dates from 2005.

The term “bait” ( “aas” in Dutch) is already used in a textbook on copywriting from 1933, the “Robert Collier Letter Book”:

Hundreds of books have doubtless been written about the fine art of fishing, but the whole idea is contained in that one sentence: “What bait will they bite on?” Thousands of articles have been written about the way to use [sales] letters to bring you what you want, but the meat of them all can be compressed into two sentences: “What is the bait that will tempt your reader? How can you tie up that thing you have to offer with that bait?

Where can you find linkbait?
Linkbait is often placed on so-called social media sites. These are sites where you can post links to news articles. If enough people vote for the message, the article floats upwards and it will be more in the picture.

• Social news sites like Digg, eKudos or NuJij
• Social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, Tagmos or watvindenwijover.nl
• Meme trackers like Techmeme or Blognicient

Of course, the linkbait can also be found on the site that has placed the linkbait on other blogs. Like the previously mentioned SEOmoz, they brought out a SEO quiz, which was publicized through the RSS readers of SEOmoz.  Subsequently, many bloggers wrote about this quiz and the linkbait showed to be successful. Currently, the quiz has returned more than 1,500 backlinks.

Is linkbait good or bad?
Linkbait as a concept has a negative tone for some and linkbait actions may come close to spam sometimes. For others it is a consequence of good quality content. Matt Cutts, someone who often acts as spokesman for Google, reports on his blog that he does welcomes linkbait.

The goal of linkbait
The main goal of linkbait is obviously gaining backlinks. A way to achieve this is to relate your subject to the needs of linkerati, for example, people who often express their opinions online.  Linkbait does not have to correspond 100% to your product, but in a way that it seems justified. Linkbait is the way to save huge amounts of  money on link authority. For a small amount  of money you can  use linkbait to realize link building. Most linkbait is not mend to obtain links from experts and authorities, but rather to speak with people with a certain interest in the topic and to get references from them.

1.1 linkbait Types

It is important to distinguish the possible hooks. A hook is a sort of perspective on which you would trigger your people to link to your site. There are several articles that deal with this and the possible hooks are:

News Hook

• Make sure you are the first who brings the news
• A compilation of news
• Unmask fraud or serious errors

Contentious Hook

• Enter a recalcitrant opinion in your niche. If the majority likes something, explain why you do not like it.
• ” Make posts as “Why <enter name> is wrong about ….”

Attacking Hook

• Like the contentious hook, only sharper!

Shocking Hook

• Try to shock through language
• Extreme views
• Contentious / tantalizing images or videos

Reference Hook

• A comprehensive list of blogs in your niche (assuming links  generate incoming links)
• A “How to” based on your niche (also eg .. Tips, Tutorials, etc.)
• Or rather a “how not to”
• A compilation of news articles on a particular theme (with analysis)

Tools Hook

• A practical, useful or just a funny tool for your niche

Humour Hook

• Look at flickr or elsewhere for a bizarre picture of your subject
• Post “10 things I hate …”
• ” Post “You are a <fill in> if you …”

Quiz Hook

• A quiz or test is always good, especially if the design is good

Contest Hook

• Organize a contest in which people can participate
• Care for funny, good prices that are worthwhile

Award Hook

• At the beginning and end of each year in the blog circuit a lot of awards are granted; make your own. You get the links of the nominees anyway.

List Hook

• top 5, top 10 top 20, etc. lists work well. They are quick to scan, concise, look neat, are easily able to link to and they give a good overview. Moreover, they are convincing – Number results!

Awareness Hook

• Use the name of a greatness to raise your story ” For example, use the title “Why Bush is right with his vision …” Then explain your vision on the basis of  Bush’s vision.

Design Hook

• For example, a theme or template for WordPress

Huff and bluster Hook

• A well-written document that sets something passionately gives a thrill to people. If you write a rant, know that people will react both positive and negative.

Research & Statistics Hook

• Examination of a useful and popular topic
• Show statistics in which many people are interested

Give something away Hook

• Giving gifts may cause a buzz. For example, Oprah, it yielded a huge buzz when she gave away free cars a few years ago.

Many of the above Hooks should be useful and / or ‘cool’:

Usability
The more your site content is useful, the faster it will be passed through. Examples of usability are:

• Show how you do something
• The transmission of knowledge
• Improve their lives
• Be better at something

Cool factor
If something is not immediately “usable” make it “cool”!

2. Advantages and Disadvantages

2.1 Benefits of linkbait:

Linkbait is relatively easy to spread. It is usually quick to imagine, but it takes a little longer to implement.

Linkbait provides immediate and direct traffic
The most rapid advantage of an incoming link is the direct traffic that the link brings you. This first traffic growth can lead to some consequences:

• Increased income (earnings) to a commercial site
• New subscribers (RSS and / or newsletter)
• New loyal readers (thru bookmarks)
• Secondary traffic (After you received a link from a site, you’ll see a secondary round from links from others, who are coming out of the first links and have their own sites. In their turn, they send traffic and so on.)

Linkbait is a search engine booster
A long-term benefit of incoming links (after the first ‘avalanche’ of traffic) is that these links will ensure that your search engine rankings will increase.

Even though there are many factors that contribute to the ranking of a web page, the number of links that refer to it remains one of the most important ranking factors.
Most linkbait techniques are very good for SEO, because the links are not reciprocal and because the links usually contain a good link text. It also concerns links which not have been purchased but are obtained in a natural manner. Links which are obtained by linkbait are often related to the topic of your site, so that the link will be more valuable.

2.2 Disadvantages of linkbait:

Permissible time
Some types of linkbait can be time consuming, such as the news hook and the reference hook.

Damage to reputation
Some types of linkbait can affect the reputation (This is where Search Engine Reputation Management looks around the corner), for example in the controversial hook, or the attack hook.

3. How To’s

3.1 Content & Presentation:

Make good titles and make a good formulation
A good presentation is important. Build the presentation in a way that people can identify and connect with it. Think about human emotions and develop a sense of empathy.

Another point in determining your title and URL is the fact that this is probably the anchor texts of backlinks. Here you want to fill in relevant keywords as much as possible

Brainstorm on good content
A good tool is the roadmap of SEOmoz:

• Write up everything, no censorship, how bizarre or stupid it may seem.
• If you have clear ideas, is it a good thing to make an overview and to determine the concept (the form) of each idea and content (subject). So what is the concept of the proposed linkbait (tool, widget, top ten list, how to, blog post, etc.) versus the subject (content) of the proposed linkbait (eg Wiki, iPod, PPC ads, pigs, etc .).
• Evaluate the content. Ignore your concept list, and look critically at your content list. Are they labour intensive, Do they cost a lot of time, should it wait or is it a relevant piece of news? Are there any ideas you really want to write about? Are there ideas that you can store, and expand later?
• Mix and match. Once you’ve added priorities to the content list, mix and match them with the draft list. No story / content should have been kept to the original format like you had brainstormed it. Is your story something for Digg?
• What concepts are doing well?: top ten, how to … the best .., etc. By linking the best subjects to the best concepts you will achieve the best effect.

Content structure
The most of what you write is excessive, because much of what you write should be shorten.
By creating an ordered lists with facts an incomplete story may seem well researched, even though it is not. Eg.

if you make a list of “101 Ways to xx” people will give you a few ideas and feedback, but will anyone ever make “383 Ways to xx”?

Quote / related content
Quote investigations, stimulate further reading, and link to related content from your sources. It makes your story well researched and associates your work with other well-known names or brands in your field. You can also consider to quote a couple of persons from who you want to receive links.

Decoration of linkbait
Make use of good design for your linkbait and / or use photographs of relevant sites as Istockphoto.

Use good titles
According to SEOBook good linkbait always starts with a good title! What works well is to express an opinion, so be partisan. Show opinions as facts. Linkbait is about emotional reactions, as expressed in comments and quotes. Be precise with your titles. For example do not use completed numbers but use exact numbers. Write your titles with the intention to distribute them widely. Put the focus on writing something that provokes emotional reactions and put the focus less on the keyword-targeted (SEO) writing.

Given the fact that social media sites do have a voting mechanism that does not require people to read the article, the title is enormously more important than the actual content of your linkbait.

See for example 10 title formulas Copy Blogger:

• Who would also <fill in>?
• The secret of <fill in>?
• This method helps <fill in> in <fill in>.
• Less well-known ways to <fill in>.
• Save you once and for all from <problem>
• Here is a quick way to <solution problem>
• Now you can <something wishful> <good condition>.
• <Do something> as <first class example>.
• Make a <or> Create a <fill in> where you can be proud of.
• What everyone should know about <fill in>

Be biased / partisan
You may want to display your idea polarized, so it attracts and / or divests a special group. If other people are arguing about what your intention is, you’ll get good quality links.

Make people talk
It is good to write in a way that the reader likes to pass it true, like newspaper stoke up discussions.

Choose smart topics or think out of the box
Choosing the right subject that many people are interested in just works better. Try to relate news from outside your niche to your site, in a creative way. If your niche is saturated, try a subject from a different niche.

Valuation of your content
On the web your content will be valued in the following ways:

• It is attention worthy, based on a general topic and credibility and authority related
• People want to subscribe, it is worth to re-visit or to add a feed.
• It is advisable, thru a link, instant message or email.

History
Look in your existing statistics, what has worked out and what not. Use Yahoo! Site Explorer to see how many backlinks your individual pages have.

Syndicate
Write articles of good quality at other sites. This is good for credibility, link popularity and it generates traffic.

3.2 Release

Make it simple to pass your page / content thru

For example use plug-ins for Digg, REDITS, eKudos, NuJij.nl etc.
Put the content code on your site, so that another can display the content on his / her site (such as YouTube or like in cartoons or quizzes)

Release timing

Think about the best time and location of the launch. For example, if friends and acquaintances are present. It is also good to ensure that you come online at the beginning of a day at sites such as Digg. Many people are surfing through this site and it is handy if you top.

Make yourself known
A few short tips as a summary of the mentioned words above

• Create accounts on social media sites / social news sites
• Digg your own post
• Send emails to relevant blogs
• Let a friend or yourself post your best ideas on the sites with the most authority and relevant social news
• Please note that your story has a good title and that it is easy to vote on
• Please note that your story will be spread at an appropriate time

If you won’t do it quickly after you’ve put it on your site, it’s likely that someone else will spread it under a dumb title or stupid content

Beg by friends / acquaintances
Let your friends and acquaintances help you by email and instant messaging, but do not post the direct URL of a voting location in your instant messenger (referrer is recognized and potentially seen as spam). Also make use of network features that sites like del.icio.us and ekudos offer.

Be careful here: do not compel your friends to vote, but let them decide.

Ask for feedback
Ask for feedback from people who may be interested in your idea and are willing to improve or to help you with marketen.

Pitching
Build up a good relationship with the market, before you put your linkbait on the market Make sure you know relevant bloggers and media sources who may be interested in your linkbait, so you will be quickly followed with the linkbait you launched.

Launching a new site
If you want to launch a new site, you could do linkbait in this way:

• Ask for favours from people you’ve helped in the past
• Unite community ideas with your idea
• Spread your ideas, for example, if you’ve formed a new partnership, you will have a threefold advantage:

1. Interview partners through a different channel
2. Announce the launch
3. Add the linkbait to the site at a later date

Take in mind that the Web is selfish
People find themselves important. Many bloggers search several times a day for links to their blog on Technorati or Google Blog Search. Making an appeal to certain people, caught in humour, is a simple way to collect links. Digg has often stories about Digg or Digg users. People believe (and spread) stories that reinforce their worldview earlier.

Involvement in a community is important to identify others with your linkbait
published his’ Search Engine Ranking Factors’, he collected feedback from dozens of prominent members of the SEO world. Many of them are active community members which have helped disseminate the article.

Asking for feedback can provide that others get involved and make it their own. And it is a good way to try out your own ideas.

Keep your linkbait manageable
Launch your story on an important channel in a way that your message or your offer can change, depending on the feedback you get. If you do not have a large channel to your launch your idea, try to give a popular channel as Tech Crunch’s exclusive rights to your story.

Try to get a lot of confidence and attention of the market before you launch your message.

Think in advance about reflection: Do you want to make your message easily wrong interpretable (as much buzz) or make it clear, depending on the importance of your message and brand strategy.

Make general landing pages. Don’t throw away links where you have the right to on having them. For example, authors who don’t have official pages of their book on their site, receive less links and give them away to top online booksellers.

Don’t compete with yourself
Be careful with the naming of your linkbait ideas. SEObook.com has a tool called “SEO for Firefox.”. The page where this tool is located almost outranks the homepage for the term “SEO”.

Roadmap for high competition in a blog post

Create a new and fresh point of view, ask your self:

• Is there a way to turn the story?
• In what other way can the story be told?
• What impact has this story on my niche?

Be quick
Bloggers in Australia have an advantage of the time difference with Europe / America. Just try to respond as quickly as possible. This applies especially to the news hook of course.

Be controversial or funny
Whether it’s funny or controversial, both can ensure that your story is booming.

Use striking images
Do not use the standard images which are usually used by the subject, but create a new, more targeted picture  which is specified to the case.

Promote your post / content and send your link to other ‘key’ bloggers,
Hold on to the following:

• Look after themselves whether they have already written on the subject in the past.
• Do not be offended if you do not get a response
• Be sure your link is relevant and useful, be selective
• Send a personal message
• Maybe you’re not the only one who sends tip
• Introduce yourself
• Keep it short and informative
• Give something away, such as the use of an image
• Original content is the best

Monetizing: how you earn money with link building
Put no ads until you have some authority, in an entirely new site, Too many ads quickly loaded means no authority and no authority means no income.

If links are profitable, link for conversions from your content
If you’re planning to sell ads directly, it may make sense to place a couple fake ads in the sponsored section. If a company has repurchased, more will follow because they see that their competitors also do it.

Put AdSense as the standard method if you do not want to deal with ad sales. Mix the ad colours with those of your own content and place ads in your content area, so they seem to form part of your content. Think about everything what may effect your click trough rate. View the ads after you’ve written a page. Make sure that your page is about the topics that the ads refer to or make more target pages that better reflect that kind of ads

Analyze the ad click trough rate per page and see what keywords deliver the ad clicks. Turn on channels to test different formats / sections of your site on income. Let your site grow to where the most income comes from. The deeper you dive into a topic, the more specified traffic you will get, but don’t forget to build your site authority if you make a big site.

4 Examples

Below are some examples, categorized to “hook”:

Research and Statistics hook

• For how many of the global warming are you responsible? Make for example a calculator, or let visitors compare with an average in their own city or country. Make sure that this tool is easily and quickly to fill in and that the numbers are clearly interpretable.
• What’s in a McDonalds French Fry that you do not find in a real potato?
• How well are those recommended shares in the spam mails doing? Can you really get to earn that much?

Humour hook

• Bush gives an argument about global warming is good for seals, polar bears fall through the thin ice. You can make a great cartoon of it. For example, especially if you pull on, for example Blog Action Day, this can be fun linkbait.
• You can also send through a hoax to do linkbait. An example is http://www.stillfree.com/. In the video vandals are spraying graffiti on Air Force One.

Tool hook

• How many pesticides have you eaten today? Here is a calculator again which is used to be filled in so that a summary can be made in addition to the potential effects there are.

News hook

• Some time ago, the search engine Sekko was established. Sekko became fairly large attention, because they were very ambitious about the fact that they wanted to compete the search engine Google away.
• After a few days was announced that Sekko only was a copy of Google in a new jacket.

List hook

• Now Rita Verdonk is a big topic, you can make a nice list with all typical and characteristic rulings of Rita Verdonk, such as “I’m not left, I’m not right – I’m straightforward.”

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