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Adwords Keyword Details Auction Insights Report

Adwords has introduced a new addition to its keyword details button with addition great competitor detail.

All you have to do in order to access this is:
1. Click on a single keyword on the checkbox (only one allowed per auction insight)
2. Click on Keyword Details
3. Click on Auction Insights (single keyword only)

You will then see a list of all major competitors for this keyword with the following columns and data:
Display url domain
Impression share
Average position
Overlap rate
Position above rate
Top of page rate

Please see Google Explanations below for each field:

Display url domain – The visible URL included in the participant’s ad in the auctions. This column identifies the participant.

Impression share – How often a participant received an impression, as a proportion of the auctions in which you were also competing. Impression share is the percentage of impressions you received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive. Eligibility is based on your current ads’ targeting settings, approval statuses, bids, and Quality Scores. This number is updated once a day.

Average position – The average position for the participant’s ads when they received an impression (all successful auctions).

Overlap rate – How often another participant’s ad received an impression when your ad also received an impression.

Position above rate – When you and another participant received an impression in the same auctions, how often the other participant’s ad was shown in a higher position on the page than yours was.

Top of page rate – When a participant’s ad received impressions, how often it appeared at the top of the page above the search results.

Recommendations (still testing and playing with this data as this feature has only gone online in the past 2 days (as of May 2012)

1. Learn from your top competition – sort by impression share and learn from the ads that your top competitors build and how you may learn to improve your quality score.

2. Download in excel – Use and sort multiple columns at once for more data, such as, sort by “Top of page rate” and then sort “Overlap rate”.

3. Find new places to promote your products – In one of our cases for an ecommerce site, we take a look at the domains in “Display url domain”, look at these sites and find new shopping sites that we can advertise our products on.

Examples are: amazon.com, bizrate.com, , ebay.com, shopzilla.com

Hope you liked this article. Share your experience with this new feature.

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10 Ways to find content ideas for your SEO efforts

For most of our SEO efforts we have dealt with the need to find ideas for content and writing for our client blogs and websites on a regular basis. We typically prepare monthly tasks for our writers and sometimes it happens that we have trouble with unique fun content to write (especially for those clients that don’t sell space travel and that we have been working with for a long time).

This article will explain a few ideas of how to find new content and a walk-through of a sample website and keywords to showcase how easy it can be.

Website Topic – Ecommerce Site Selling Yoga Mats (we choose this because we do not have a client in this field and it is the first idea that popped up in mind)

Strategy #1 – Using Google AutoSuggest

We would like to begin with a variation of the terms you all learned in preschool, The 5 W’s OR The six W’s and one H’s:
Who
What
When
Where
Why
How

Our tip is to take the 6 terms and add to them. For example “who sells …”, “what is a…”, “when is the …”, “why do …”, etc.

Please see real live examples of ideas that we have found:
#1 Why are:

includes: why are yoga mats so expensive, why are yoga mats so thin, why does my yoga mat smell

#2 Why do:

includes: where do i buy a yoga mat, where to buy yoga mat

#3 What is:

includes: what is yoga mat made out of, what is yoga mat material, what size is a yoga mat

#4 How does:

includes: how does a yoga mat help, how long does a yoga mat last, how much does a yoga mat weigh

* NOTE – ofcourse this strategy gives you content ideas for your blog as well as new things to add to your site, products descriptions, reviews, etc.You can go on and on for this.

Strategy #2 – Use Twitter Content Ideas, Suggestions and Funny Topics

Using a quick search for “yoga mats”, https://twitter.com/#!/search/yoga%20mat we have found a few topics to play with:

a. Funny or not, this is your decision: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2012/05/28/every-dog-has-its%E2%80%A6-yoga-mat/
b. “Walking around with a yoga mat is the new borrowing your friends dog.”
c. “Lately there’s been an improvement in my wife’s trustworthiness. Now she even takes her yoga mat when she goes to yoga class.” – Suggested topic learned form this post – “Becoming serious in yoga, invest in a quality mat”
d. “mat cleaning tips” link

Strategy #3 – Google Insights for Search

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=yoga%20mat&cmpt=q – Use Google Insights for information such Country searches and trends.

found sample articles such as
The McRib Sandwich and a Yoga Mat: What Do They Have In Common?
Fangtastic! Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev turns contortionist as she uses Conan O’Brien as a human yoga mat
An 8-months pregnant Lara Dutta on the yoga mat

found terms such as:
best yoga mat
manduka mat
jade yoga mat
yoga towel

DON’T FORGET – to add the search terms and rising searches to your igoogle if you are like me and you load igoogle multiple times a day once you load your browser.

Strategy #4 – Search Social Sites

Compare and get ideas of what works – We typically use reddit, digg and delicious to start with but you can search for both yoga related or any other desired site. Please see a few topics we have found:
– Yoga 30 Day Challenge (Starts Friday 4/20!) Join us!
– Border yoga event stretches boundaries at U.S.-Mexico fence
– Five Reasons You Can Thank Yoga for Better Sex

Strategy #5 – Look at Video Content

Search for ideas of videos that work – for example on youtube.

Use you have come up with ideas for videos, if you don’t have budgets to create videos, search sites like fiverr or craigslist for help with videos.

Strategy #6 – Use customers questions to write content

In addition to updating your FAQ, try to write specific detailed content on your blog about the most frequent emailed questions.

Strategy #7 – Write an annual summary report

Some users love to use the year in their search terms. Try to include the year in your content for the year in review and the upcoming year. We have found that in many cases these terms as much less competitive.

For example – Yoga Mats Reviews 2012 or Upcoming Yoga Mats 2012

Strategy #8 – Use Google Adwords Keywords Tool

This is a pretty obvious tool to use while completing keyword research but finding long tail terms is great for content ideas.

Ideas found: model numbers, coupons (coupon code), personalized, materials (cotton, plastic, bamboo, etc), non slip, thickness, shape (round, rectangle, square?), colors (pink, green, red, etc)

Content from above idea: what are the colors …., what is the best material, …. can a yoga mat be round?

Strategy #9 – Finding Niches from Article Submission Sites

A quick search on ezinearticles shows new topics to read about and learn from including:

– 5 Yoga Mats for an ECO Friendly Practice
– How to choose a yoga mat
– Improve Yoga by Learning How to Clean a Yoga Mat
– What Does an Ashtanga Yoga Mat Provide?

Strategy #10 – Experimental and Photo Galleries

With the entire inventory of products, try to be creative and photo shoot unique products, products together and be creative.

Examples just made up:
– Rainbow yoga class pictures
– Create a quiz for “What does your yoga mat color mean about you”
– Yoga mat kite flying in the air
– Red Carpets photoshop changes at Academy Awards with yoga mats.
Etc Etc.

Hope you loved this article from Astral Web. Also see our Yoga SEO Link List. Share the love and spread this on Twitter, Google + and Facebook.

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Advanced Segments Examples in Analytics

Revenue above $400 transaction (Advanced Segment)

See below image on how to setup
Click to Enlarge

First-time buy visits (Advanced Segment)

See below image on how to setup
Click to Enlarge

Return buy visits (Advanced Segment)

See below image on how to setup
Click to Enlarge

More Than 5 Days to Transaction (Advanced Segment)

See below image on how to setup
Click to Enlarge

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Mark Google Shopping in Analytics

The following article explains the steps on how to Mark Google Shopping in Analytics for at least currently, Google Analytics does NOT separate organic and shopping traffic. GREAT for ecommerce sites.

Screenshot
How to Mark Google Shopping in Analytics

See Steps Below:

Filter Type:
Custom Filter
Advanced

Field A -> Extract A:
Campaign Medium
organic

Field B -> Extract B:
Referral
(?|&)tbm=shop

Output To -> Constructor:
Campaign Source
google shopping

Field A Required:
Yes

Field B Required:
Yes

Override Output Field:
Yes

Case Sensitive:
No

That’s it. EASY!

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Google Search Operators

The following article explains the use of common search operators that work with Google’s search engine.

allinanchor:
Anchor text is text on a web page that serves as the actual link text for another web page. For example, the search “allinanchor: android developer” will return web pages that have links on their own page which include the words android or developer. Do not include any other search operators when using allinanchor:.

allintext:
Starting your search with allintext: will restrict Google results to those which contain your search term in the text of the web page. It is similar to allinanchor:, but doesn’t restrict the results to only web pages with links that match the search terms.

allintitle:
The title of a web page is the text that is displayed at the top of the browser or is the text that populates a certain tab of a browser. Using this search operator will return web pages that contain the search phrase in the title of the web page.

allinurl:
Using the search operator allinurl: will provide results with the words you specify only in the URL of the returned web results. For example, if you query “allinurl: android seo”, you may see the following web page in your results: http://www.promoteseo.com/android.php. URLs frequently use run-together words, but you don’t need to worry about this when using allinurl: because Google will look for your search characters throughout the whole url.

author:
If you include this search operator, Google will restrict Google Groups results to include articles by the author you specify. The author can be a full or partial name or even email address. For example, “android author:john author:doe” will return articles that contain the word “android” with the author John Doe. As another example, “android author:[email protected]” will return articles containing “android” by [email protected]. Google will only search exactly what you specify meaning “author: “John Doe”” (with quotes) will not return articles by Doe, John.

cache:
The search operator cache: allows you to view a Google-cached copy of a given website as opposed to the current version. NOTE: do not include a space between the operator and URL. Google will highlight any terms on the cached site if you include them after the URL. If you search for “cache:www.promoteseo.com/android assault alarm”, you will be taken to the cached version of the site with “assault” and “alarm” highlighted.

define:
Starting your query with “define:” will return definitions from pages on the web for the word that follows. For example, “define: android” returns “(in science fiction) A robot with a human appearance.”

ext:
This is an undocumented alias for filetype:.

filetype:
Including filetype:suffix in your query will restrict results to pages whose names end in suffix. For example, (android developer checklist filetype:pdf) will return Adobe pdf files that match the terms “android,” “developer,” and “checklist.” You can broaden your search by using the OR operator (android developer checklist filetype:pdf OR filetype:doc).

group:
Including group: in your search will restrict Google Groups results to newsgroup articles from certain groups. For example, (nexus group:android.developer.bugs) will return results for “nexus” in the group android.developer.bugs. The query (nexus group:android.developer) will return “nexus” results from the group android.developer.

id:
This is an undocumented alias for info:

inanchor:
Including inanchor: in your query will restrict Google results to pages containing the terms that you specify in the links or anchor text of the page. For example, (android inanchor:development) will return pages with links that include “development” and whose page text contains “android.”

info:
The query info:URL will return some information about the particular webpage that you specify. There must be no space between the operator and the URL.

insubject:
Including this operator will restrict articles in Google Groups to those that contain the terms you specify in the subject. For example, (insubject:”android development”) will return articles that contain the phrase “android development” in the subject. It is equivalent to intitle:.

intext:
The query intext:term restricts results to documents containing term in the text of the document. For example, (developer intext:”android”) will return documents that mention the word “android” in the text and “developer” anywhere in the document (text or otherwise).

intitle:
The query intext:term restricts results to documents containing term in the title. For example, developer intitle:android will return documents that mention the word “android” in their title and mention developer in their text.

inurl:
If you include inurl: in your query, Google restricts results to documents containing that word in the URL of the website. For example, (inurl:android site:www.droidforums.com) will return pages on Droidforums.com which contain the term “android” in their URL. If you want to search multiple terms in the URL, just use allinurl:.

link:
The search link:URL shows pages that link to that URL. For example, to find pages that link to Astral Web’s home page, type in (link:www.promoteseo.com). To find links to Astral Web’s home page not on Astral Web’s own site, type (link:www.promoteseo.com -site:www.promoteseo.com).

location:
Including location: in your search on Google News, only articles from the location specified will be returned. For example, (android location:canada) will return articles that match the term “android” from sites in Canada. Two-letter US state abbreviations match individual US states, and two-letter Canadian province abbreviations (like NS for Nova Scotia) also work – although some provinces don’t have many newspapers online, so you may not get many results. Some other two-letter abbreviations – such as UK for the United Kingdom – are also available.

movie:
If you include move: in your query, Google will find move-related information. The possibilities are great for the movie: operator. Examples include searching for a movie from which a quote originates, finding the movie in which “Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball” (movie: Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball), and more.

phonebook:
If you start the query with phonebook:, Google shows all public U.S. residence telephone listings (name, address, phone number) for the person you specify. For example, searching (phonebook: John Doe Los Angeles CA) will return phonebook listings for all named John Doe in Los Angeles, CA.

related:
The query related:URL will list web pages that are similar to the web page you specify. For example, related:www.promoteseo.com will return other websites that deal with search engine optimization (SEO) and other internet services. Don’t include a space between the operator and the term.

site:
If you include this operator, it will restrict Google results to the site or domain you specify. For example, (android site:www.promoteseo.com) will provide all results of “android” on the site specified. You can also specify the domain (android site:gov) which will return all results of “android” on .gov sites. Additionally, you can specify to look everywhere but a specific site (android -site:google.com).

source:
If you include the source: operator, Google News will restrict results to articles from the news source with the ID that you specify. For example, (android source: new york times) will return articles mentioning “android” from the source New York Times.

weather
If you enter a query of the word weather with a city or location name, if Google recognizes the location, it will show forecast for that location. Weather is not an advanced operator like the others that are mentioned here.

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Htaccess Page Translation

Htaccess Page Translation

Use Google Translate to enable auto translation for foreign speakers to use your site. NOT CLOSE TO PERFECT but a nice feature with htaccess.

Step 1: Add language code to end of URL’s – for example this URL would be https://www.astralwebinc.com/htaccess_page_translation.php-he

Step 2: Add to htaccess file

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)-he$ http://www.google.com/translate_c?hl=he&sl=en&u=http://example.com/$1 [R,NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)-fr$ http://www.google.com/translate_c?hl=fr&sl=en&u=http://example.com/$1 [R,NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)-de$ http://www.google.com/translate_c?hl=de&sl=en&u=http://example.com/$1 [R,NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)-es$ http://www.google.com/translate_c?hl=es&sl=en&u=http://example.com/$1 [R,NC]

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SEO with GooGle Alerts

Use Google Alerts to find out new links gained by your competition, do research and help your SEO efforts in a tremendous way. Setup on an ongoing basis web alerts without you ever needed to move a finger.

Go to Google Alerts and try it yourself.

New Links By Competition

Enter in search query field
competition.com -site:competition.com
Enter in How often field
As it happens
Enter in How Many field
All Results

Find Sites to Submit to

Enter in search query field
“subject” intitle:submit OR “subject” intitle:add
Enter in How often field
As it happens
Enter in How Many field
All Results

Find Data to Write Content About

Enter in search query field
“subject” filetype:txt site:.gov
Enter in How often field
As it happens
Enter in How Many field
All Results

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Speed up site with Gzip

Gzip is used for compressing your text files including text, html, php, js and css. There is no need to gzip images for they are already compressed and gzipping them will cause extra server work.
Speed up site with Gzip & PHP

Use the following code at the top of your php files to gzip your page.

Place this at the top of your htaccess file. BE SURE TO REPLACE EXAMPLE.COM WITH YOUR DOMAIN ON LINE 2 & 3:

<?php
ob_start(“ob_gzhandler”);
?>

Speed up site with Gzip & Htaccess

Use the following code in your Htaccess file: (linux and unix servers ONLY)

#Gzip
<ifmodule mod_deflate.c>
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/text text/html text/plain text/xml text/css application/x-javascript application/javascript
</ifmodule>
#End Gzip

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301 Redirect www with Htaccess

301 Redirect Non-WWW to WWW URL’s with Htaccess

It is important to decide on a consistent URL formatting from the beginning of your site.

Place this at the top of your htaccess file. BE SURE TO REPLACE EXAMPLE.COM WITH YOUR DOMAIN ON LINE 2 & 3:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

301 Redirect WWW to Non-WWW URL’s with Htaccess

It is important to decide on a consistent URL formatting from the beginning of your site.

Place this at the top of your htaccess file. BE SURE TO REPLACE EXAMPLE.COM WITH YOUR DOMAIN ON LINE 2 & 3:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.example.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

NOTES…
* Htaccess redirects works only with linux and unix servers (not IIS)
* After completing redirect check at least two pages (homepage and sub-page) with our server header tool – Look for 301 redirect