What is an Infographic? Simply put, it is a visual representation of information and data.  If done correctly, Infographics can be very beneficial to your website and its organic rankings in the search engines. Infographics are used in link building efforts to get links back to the Infographic, and essentially drive traffic to the website that created it.

Infographics can be divided in these four categories: educational, humorous, controversial, and newsworthy. To create an Infographic, you need a concept. Once you have decided on the information that you would like to include, have a designer take the information and put it in to a thematic, fun, and entertaining visual presentation. When it’s done, the most important part of creating a successful Infographic begins, PR.

Just because you built it, does not mean that they will come. This is true for any website or Infographic. First, you need a platform in which to easily share your Infographic. At Wpromote, we create an Infographic distribution page for our clients. This is usually set up as follows: the title of the Infographic at the top, a smaller version of the Infographic on the left, a description on the top or right, and code that can be copied and pasted on to another website or blog. This code links not only to the Infographic image, but also has a link back to your website. These links are what make an Infographic so valuable in the SEO world, as they are driving traffic from the Infographic to your site.

Now you are ready to begin seeding and distribution. A cheap and easy way to do this is to make a Press Release, which is always beneficial. However, reaching out in a personal manner is much more effective. You can do this by identifying a list of bloggers, writers, and news outlets that might benefit from the interesting and useful content that you have created. Other ways of sharing your Infographic include blogging about it, “tweeting” about it, sharing it on Facebook, and emailing it to clients and friends. Get it out in any way you can. Hopefully other blogs and sites, such as TechCrunch and Mashable, pick up your Infographic and link back to your site, sending you traffic.

Case Study:
In January 2011, Wpromote’s Infographic titled “Which Female Tech Influencer Are You?” went viral.  It was a parody of the quizzes often found in women’s magazines such as Cosmopolitan. The goal of the Infographic was to highlight a few incredibly successful women in the field of technology, such as Marissa Mayer, Sheryl Sandberg, and Caroline McCarthy. It ended up becoming controversial when some people thought it set back the women’s rights movements. The Infographic was being shared on fashion blogs, tech blogs such as TechCrunch, and news sites like CNN’s technology homepage. Whether people hated it or loved it, they were talking about it and sharing it, which led to more links and in turn, more traffic. In the end, Wpromote’s Infographic had generated a considerable amount of traffic: 17,000 page views with an average of 9 minutes spent on their site.

That just goes to show you the real power of creating valuable content and the importance of sharing it with the right people.

More of a visual learner? Check out the video presentation on how to create an Infographic below!

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And the drumroll please…

1.    Google “Do a Barrel Roll” – Type this phrase into Google and don’t look away! This was developed by an advanced Google programmer who wanted to show how advanced browsers are today.

2.    Slay The Dragon  – In Google Docs, open any spreadsheet and when you press Shift+F12 (Shift+Function+F12 on a Mac), a message will pop up announcing “Dragon slain! Congratulations, you’ve slain the dragon!”

3.    Google “Askew” or “Tilt” – I wonder how much more traffic “TILT” branded products and locations are receiving these days?

4.    Gravity Trick – Visit MrDoob.com, do a search and have some fun watching your Google page crumble due to gravity.

5.    Creative Google Map Recommendations – Get directions from Bejing, China to Tokyo, Japan. You won’t be able to read most of the results but check out number 30!

6.    Google “The Answer to Life the Universe and Everything” – If you are ever feeling lost visit Google and they will help point you back in the right direction.

7.    SPAM – This is an oldie but a goodie. Log into your Gmail account and visit your Spam folder to find the latest and greatest recipes for, you guessed it, SPAM.

8.    Google ”What is the Loneliest Number” – We all know the answer but in case you forgot, Google will blatantly point this out for you.

9.    Pig Latin – Although Google can change settings to many popular languages, this one just seems so much funnier than all of the rest. Anyone know how often this is used by people that can actually read Pig Latin?

10.    Google “Recursion” – Recursion by definition is the process of repeating terms in a self-similar way. Very witty, Google.

All but one of these tricks were developed directly by Google, the exception being the Gravity Easter Egg that was too cool to leave off of this list.

There are a lot more of these tricks and Easter eggs out there, even some that are seasonal like “let it snow,” which I hope will return next holiday season. We would love to hear about any Google related tricks that did not make our list, post a comment below!

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And, of course, being a link builder, I could not help but first wonder: “How many drugs are the dudes at BBDO on?”. But then I wondered, “hmm… which (if any) of these respected advertising behemoths is screwed together tightly enough to actually maximize such a ridiculous amount of user engagement into bonafide links?”

First up to the competitive analysis gallows is Cravendale and their excellent “what if cats grew thumbs video” (Wieden Kennedy London).

Aside from the fact that W+K may have done the impossible and made a cat video worth watching, the capable crew did the smart thing and embedded the video into a landing page on the Cravendale site, complete with Facebook and Twitter accounts so you can follow the online exploits of “Bertrum Thumbcat,” the rather formidable looking tabby who is undoubtedly well on his way to becoming the leader of be-thumbed feline world domination.

YouTube Views to Date: 5,128,330
Inbound Links Gained: 762
*Link Leverage Score: A-

Next up on the chopping block is Snickers and the admittedly awesome “Shark’s in a Focus Group” (BBDO, New York).

Now, while the concept of sharks eating humans is nothing to laugh about, the concept of sharks eating humans because they taste like a Snickers is downright vaudevillian in its comedic genius. And while this video and concept certainly both deliver in their promise to make you crave a four by four of peanut-buttery goodness… it ain’t doing nothing for Snickers.com’s link equity. In fact, the Snickers video page on their website has a re-direct in place that sends you to YouTube!

I for one would be appalled that no one took advantage of this sensational piece of link bait if I hadn’t stumbled upon this page on the BBDO website proudly showcasing all of their clients’ videos. All I can say is thank goodness somebody at BBDO knows something about SE… Oh wait… the URL is hidden from search behind a hashtag… nevermind.

YouTube Views to Date: 1,056,877
Inbound links Gained: For BBDO? probably a few… none for Snickers… sorry Snickers.
*Link Leverage Score: D

Next up to be taken to the off site SEO woodshed comes all the way from France with Canal+’s Epic “Bear Rug Director” (BETC Euro RSCG).

Now I love this. A stupendous piece of content that is just dying to be shared all over the bloody place created as a promo spot for what is now essentially the French version of YouTube, Canal+. They had to have leveraged the links here a bit for themselves, right?

Wrong… mostly…

The majority of any relevant links (I counted 2,500 going to the player via Majestic) go straight to the Canal+ video player which sorts all of the videos behind a hashtag and a bunch of ugly numerical permalinks. Basically that all boils down to this:

Well that’s a crying shame. According to the search engines (i.e. according to Google) this Canal+ video doesn’t even exist… and we all know you can’t link to something that doesn’t exist… just ask Yahoo Site Explorer. (ooohhh burn!)

YouTube Views to Date: Hundreds of Thousands over Several Different YouTube Versions
Inbound links Gained: No Idea. Could be substantial, probably isn’t… definitely not utilizing best practices for link bait. 
*Link Leverage Score: D-

Finally we come to what was indubitably the gold medal winner in terms of Super Bowl halftime brand recognition, ladies and gentlemen… a video which hardly needs any introduction… I give you “adorable little squirt in Darth Vader costume” (Deutsch L.A.).

Millions of views, hundreds of thousands of likes, a handful of dislikes (seriously? who on earth could dislike a kid dressed as Darth Vader using the force on his dad’s Volkswagen?), this video is literally the “Star Wars” of big brand viral videos. And since it was a video for a car company, and we all know car companies love their search results, there is no earthly way this opportunity could have slipped through the cracks, right?

Wrong! Very Wrong! Like, dark side of the force wrong. More wrong than replacing C-3PO as a comedic sidekick with Jar Jar Binks wrong.

Volkswagen did house this video on their website. But their efforts were anything but stupendous. It was on a subdomain, blog.vw.com (link juice lost)… within a blog post (archived within days)… without using “the force” as a title tag (eliminating any good SERP positioning).

And considering that (even now, months after the spot has run) people are still actively searching for the video…

That means the opportunity for missed traffic by not ranking for their own video is an ongoing problem for Volkswagen… and probably always will be. They aren’t even on page one for either search term. (Insert “clever ‘Star Wars’ pun about totally dropping the ball with the words ‘the Force’ in it” here)

Youtube Views to Date: Approaching 50,000,000
Inbound Links Gained: I found 16 going to the blog post…  and that’s probably being generous.
*Link Leverage Score: F+ (the + is for the effort and because I can’t totally blame them… it’s tough to outrank YouTube, but definitely NOT impossible)

So there you have it, a sample of the 2011 major advertising link bait winners and losers. More losers than winners this year, but hey… there’s always next year, right?

*Link leverage score is based on integration of campaign into web property, and promotion of said web property with SEO in mind… and also from a magical excel spreadsheet that I will never share with anyone… and also from science.

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2012 is already ticking by, so let’s get started. In this article, we’ll talk about different ways to improve your PPC Clickthrough Rate (CTR). CTR refers to the number of people who click on your ad out of the overall number of people who view your ad (CTR = Clicks/Impressions x 100). This rate gives advertisers an idea of the effectiveness of a particular ad.

So, What is a Good CTR Score?
What is considered a “good” CTR will vary widely across industries, keywords and campaigns. This question does not have a simple nor exact number. We’ve seen CTR’s range from below 1% up to 30% and higher. Rather than fixating on finding this “good” CTR score, it is more important to find out what CTR you need in order to have a profitable campaign. If you determine the ROI you can earn from each click, then you can work backwards to find what CTR’s you will need in order to achieve profitability.

What Affects Your CTR?
Before getting to the tips, let’s talk about some of the factors that affect CTR. There are several factors that can contribute to your CTR; things like how well your ad is written, how targeted your keywords are, and where your ad is placed.

Competition is also one of the biggies. If you are selling iPhone cases and you use the keyword iPhone Cases, you’re going to have a lot of competition. You may get a lot of impressions, but there will be so much competition that you aren’t likely to get very many clicks. And, if you focus on common words, it’s more than likely that you will have to pay much higher bids to have your ad placed somewhere it will be seen, like the first page of search results. Focusing on your keyword strategy is a good way to start improving your CTR.

What Are the Benefits of a good CTR?
Having a good CTR has a number of advantages, the main one being that when you have a high CTR, your cost per click will be reduced. When your CTR is high, search engine ad platforms recognize this and will rank your ad higher at a lower cost per click to reward you for a quality ad. And if your CTR is high, there is more likelihood that those clicks will turn into conversions.

How to Improve Your CTR:
Here are some good ways to improve your CTR.

Focus on your Keywords – As we mentioned above, one way to improve your CTR is by avoiding common keywords that are highly competitive. Instead, use targeted keywords that actively describe your product or service. For the iPhone case example you could try something like, Pink Sparkly iPhone Case. You may get fewer impressions, but your CTR will be higher because you are targeting people looking for a specific product. And, your bid for more specific keywords will be less, which means cost savings. Creating your ads around highly targeted keywords is a good way to start improving your CTR rate.

Rewrite your Ad – Make sure your ad is written clearly and includes a strong call to action. This can be done by using words and phrases like: Save Today, Buy, Sign Up, Order Now or Book Now, depending on what you are wanting your customers to do. Using incentive-based words helps encourage people to go from passive viewers of an ad to active clickers.

Know Your Goals – Just like getting in shape, getting a higher CTR is easier if you keep your goals in sight. Take the time at the outset to define your PPC goals, evaluate the clarity of your landing pages, know your keyword strategies and then be ready to track and test different variations of your ad.

Happy New Year, here’s to keeping those resolutions!

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Yes, today is finally the day you’ll actually have a reason to dust off those Encyclopedia Britannicas folks. If you are still in the dark about the blackout protest that is going on today, I will simply refer you to the SOPA Strike page.  For the rest of you that are well aware of the censorship strike, Wikipedia is just one of 100’s of protesting SOPA and PIPA Internet censorship bills by blacking out their websites for the day.

Instead of getting into all the nitty gritty details of the politics behind the SOPA and PIPA bills, which will be going before congress on the 24th, we thought it would be fun to show you a few of our favorite sites of blackout Wednesday supporters.

Wikipedia

Not only is it blackout Wednesday, today has also become a “snow day” for college students as they won’t be writing any research papers without their trusty online resource Wikipedia.  Wikipedia site’s simply shows the clean phrase “Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge” which exemplifies precisely what could take place with Internet censorship bills in place.

Google

A simple, yet bold censorship statement can be found on Google today.  Google has also made it simple for blackout day supporters to sign a petition against the SOPA and PIPA bills, and share this information with friends on Facebook and other social sites.  SOPA beware, Google is not a force to be reckoned with.

Wired

Wired also went with the censorship theme, but took it to the extreme.

Mozilla, Buzzfeed & Twitpic

While Mozilla, Buzzfeed and Twitpic didn’t shut down completely, they showed their support by adding censorship bars over their logos.

Reddit

Reddit joined in with a true blackout, blacking out their site for a full 12 hours.  Their blackout page is also a great resource for more information on the Bills and upcoming events around them. Note the time clock next to the logo, indicating when their site will be live again, a nice added touch.

The Raw Story

 The Raw Story posted a creative video on their blackout page comically depicting their thoughts on censorship.

The Daily What

And because we have a slight cheeseburger obsession here at Wpromote, I had to include TheDailyWh.at on this list and their fight to keep Cheezburger uncensored.

Those are just a few of the blackout Wednesdays sites that we came across, and it appears their support is already having an affect.  A few of the Bills co-sponsors have already backed out in their support, and with protestors such as Mark Zuckerburg speaking out, these Bills are going to have a tough time come January 24th.

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In an effort to increase awareness of the new social site, Google+ announced some exciting news for all you die hard Galaxy fans (and those of you who just enjoy a little eye candy).  International superstar David Beckham is taking a day off from the soccer field to hold an exclusive Google interview, which will be streaming live on YouTube this Thursday, January 19 at 9am PST.  Fans who have a question for the soccer player/model can now post it on his Google+ profile and include the hashtag #googlebeckham. And if that wasn’t enough, you can also “hang out” with him on his Google+ profile at 10:30am PST.

What questions would you ask him?  If we had a chance to interview David Beckham, here are a few questions we’d ask him:

- How would one bend it like Beckham?
- Do you say “football” or “soccer” in America?
- What’s your favorite Spice Girls song?
- Where’s your favorite English pub in LA?
- Would you ever consider coaching a professional team?

To find out more about the interview and hangout, watch the video below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E-rlXdv0Kc

Be sure to check out Wpromote’s Google+ profile and add us to your circle!

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Challenges:
The biggest challenge in bringing an overall cohesiveness to EagleRider’s social media profiles was that a Facebook user and a Twitter user had already obtained the name “EagleRider.” The Facebook vanity URL, www.facebook.com/EagleRider and the Twitter URL, www.twitter.com/EagleRider, needed to be reclaimed by the company.

Strategy:
To begin, Wpromote was able to reclaim the EagleRider vanity URL for their Facebook profile by reaching out to a contact at Facebook. This way a consistent brand name could be maintained to enhance search results across the web. A new badge was designed including more information, utilizing maximum space and effectively branding the page. A fan gate was created which does not allow non-fans to view content without “Liking” the page. Daily engagements were posted, including posts that coincided with current tours and bike events. To ensure positive reputation management, all comments and posts by fans were responded to in a timely manner. An event page was created to project the number of people interested in attending this year’s EagleRider Customer Appreciation Party in Birmingham, England.

Other Facebook efforts included Facebook Advertising. Two ads, both with an estimated reach between 400,000 – 600,000 Facebook users, were ran to supplement organic growth on their profile page. The goal was to target the company’s core demographic that had not yet connected, with the potential to become fans.

An audit of EagleRider’s Twitter profile uncovered additional opportunities for optimization.  Wpromote’s first step in optimizing EagleRider’s Twitter profile was requesting to reclaim their username. They were successful in obtaining the name and establishing an official account by providing the proper trademark documents. Next, they implemented a new avatar and skin to keep cohesive brand identity. Daily engagements were posted and friendly and informative responses were generated for all those tweeting about EagleRider. To optimize the profile, a reciprocal follow policy was maintained, which means that a 1:1 following to follower ratio is kept.

Although a branded YouTube channel had already been established, Wpromote utilized this feature properly by redesigning the banner and adding links to EagleRider’s official website, Facebook fan page and Twitter profile. All YouTube videos were also promoted on their other social media profiles to encourage views.

Results:
In the first 3 months of EagleRider’s social media campaign, there were tremendous improvements across the board.

Through daily engagements on their Facebook profile, the number of impressions increased which created more fan interaction. This led to an astounding 80% increase in fans. This was also due in part to the advertising campaign ran on Facebook. An impressive 90% of users who clicked on the first advertisement made a connection, and 89% of users who selected the second advertisement made a connection.

EagleRider went from not having a Twitter presence at all, to establishing a solid foundation of loyal followers and brand ambassadors. Through this outreach we have been able to hone in on valuable conversations and supply direct links to EagleRider’s website, respond to inquiries, and encourage friendly interactions between EagleRider and other Twitter users.

EagleRider’s branded YouTube channel was optimized, which facilitated additional traffic to their official site and social media profiles. New videos were added and disseminated across Facebook and Twitter in order to increase views and encourage fan engagement. Within the first three months, their total views had increased to almost 14,000.

Due to the overwhelming success of their social media campaign, EagleRider was recently honored with the prestigious award of “Most Improved Business” for their social media integration in 2011 by Heartwood Digital at Motorcycle Live. Heartwood Digital recognized that before EagleRider had partnered with Wpromote, their site had no social media integration whatsoever, and now their profiles are above average in their levels of activity, fans and followers.

About:
EagleRider offers the world’s largest selection of adventure vehicle rentals. EagleRider was founded in 1992 by four long-time Harley-Davidson owners and enthusiasts who wanted to build a business that was an extension of their own passion for riding and adventure. They now market the “American Dream” to destination minded vacationers, adventure travelers and motorcycle enthusiasts by offering over 2,500 dirt bike, ATV, motorcycle, watercraft and snowmobile rental vehicles, as well as full-service tour resources.

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VINCE (2009): Placed an emphasis on brand signals and social engagement with the site users, leading to more perceived authority for large brands.

TAKEAWAY: If you are a brand that is socially engaged with your users, those ‘social signals’ will help your SEO and the ability for pages from your site to be found easier in Google.

MAYDAY (2010): Lots of content alone no longer guarantees rankings for long tail keywords.

TAKEAWAY: In order to be found in Google, your content and the link anchor text must contain related terms and phrases to support a themed contextual

CAFFEINE (2010): Page load time and site speed are more important, also pages across the internet are indexed more rapidly.

TAKEAWAY: Rewards site that publish new unique content, “ie: Articles, Blog Videos and Images” on a regular basis because the perception is they are staying current with their market and their users.

SCRAPE AND PANDA (2011): Duplicate content is even more detrimental than before. Google is identifying and filtering out low quality pages and sites. This is more of a filter than an algorithm update. Google has ran this filter seven times starting on February 24th, 2011 with the last time it was ran on September 28th, 2011.

TAKEAWAY: Repurposed or reused content is not as valuable as unique content which is well themed and aligned with the sites contextual footprint. Sites that do not provide valuable informative content to their users will be filtered out of the index.

GOOGLE+ (2011): Builds upon personalized search and recommended content.

TAKEAWAY: A sites social graph, “the global mapping of everybody and how they’re related”, has an influence on what a user seeing in their search results. If the site is socially engaged with their user base, they will see more results from that site. This also means, that a sites user’s friends will see more results from sites that their friends are engaged with.

FRESHNESS (2011): Part of the Caffeine Update, this will impact roughly 35% of search queries, so that current content, topics and events that are updated

TAKEAWAY: Fresh content is a must, site must continually publish content.

SEARCH PLUS YOUR WORLD (2012): Google’s algorithm now finds both the content that’s been shared with you privately along with matches from the public web, all mixed into a single set of listings.

TAKEAWAY: Personalized search is the new “normal”. Social signals play a much bigger part in Google algorithm. This move was done to defend against spam and reinforce quality content as the driving force for SEO. Content that is of quality and pertains to target markets will now get extra lifts in Google based upon your social networks and recommendations.

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Our efforts were not in vain. Wpromoters were able to make Christmas a little brighter for 30 children this year!

Aside from the Olive Crest toy drive, I was involved in a Toys 4 Tots toy drive, and I purchased a Transformers toy (Optimus Prime) that I know I would have loved when I was younger. Did you participate in a holiday toy drive this year? If so, what did you buy?

If you’re considering organizing a toy drive next year, be sure to keep Olive Crest in mind. Happy holidays!

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How are ads triggered, and what determines their placement?
First, a quick recap of the basics of AdWords: When web users search for something on Google, their search results are accompanied by a series of advertisements on the top, right and sometimes bottom side of the page.  These ads are populated with keywords related to the web user’s search terms, so that only ads relevant to the user’s search appear on screen.  Over the years, factors that determine ad rank have changed.  Previously, the most coveted ad positions simply went to the highest bidder for a given keyword. Today bidding still plays a role, but ad position and cost-per-click are determined in much larger part by the Google Quality Score, which evaluates ads on a broader and more complex set of criteria to provide better results for viewers.  Things like keyword clickthrough rate, ad clickthrough rate, and account clickthrough rate are taken into consideration, along with the historical clickthrough rate of the display URLs within the ad group and the quality of the landing page.

How do I improve my Google Quality Score?
Google Quality Score (from here on referred to as QS) is based on criteria as broad as the long-term history of the account, at intermediate levels like performance of groups of keywords within a specific ad campaign, and down to specifics like the relevance of individual keywords.  With so many levels to consider, improving QS becomes a question of prioritization.  Here are a number of first steps that can be taken to strategically and effectively improve QS.

1.) Improve Your Clickthrough Rate
Clickthrough Rate (CTR) is considered by many experts as one of the primary factors influencing QS.  Since poor CTR numbers are a result of inaction by potential customers, here is how you can increase customer interaction with your ads:

• Target customers most likely to click by calibrating keywords: try to target only those customers who are likely to click on your ads.  Hone in on select groups of potential customers by using targeted keywords sorted by time, location, and phrase constraints.
• Write compelling copy: Be sure to fill your copy with strong calls to action, which have been proven to attract clicks results in higher CTR.

When focusing on CTR, keep in mind that some observers have found they cannot predictably surpass a QS of 7 even with CTR optimization.  Thus, instead of shooting for perfect 10‘s across the board, it is more important to focus on achieving a high average QS across ad groups.

2.) Make Ads Relevant to Keywords
High-quality and/or enticing ad copy is important, because even a perfectly targeted keyword may miss the mark if it’s written in a bland or robotic style.  When working on optimizing keyword relevance, when possible you should embed the primary keyword in the ad title, ad text, and/or display URL.

3.) Provide a Good User Experience
The user experience starts with good ad copy and ends with a transaction on your landing page.  In order to bring this process to completion, you should:

• Start by making sure your keywords and ad copy are targeted to specific customer groups based on your keyword research.
• If these are good enough to entice users to click through, then make sure users get what they’re looking for in a landing page.
• The content of landing page should contain content coordinating with the keywords and ad copy.
• Use clear calls to action and unambiguous site layout to seal the deal.

Overall, try to make the user’s experience on the landing page simple and easy so that they can follow through on their initial interest and turn that click into business for you.

Why should I care about my Quality Score?
Achieving a high QS sets a virtuous cycle in motion: it gives your ads higher placement in search results, it lowers the cost you pay per click, and it’s all happening because the user finds your content relevant.  The user rewards this relevance by clicking through and patronizing your business.  High Quality Score begets high exposure and low cost, which in turn lead to improved ROI.

At the end of the day, it’s all about your results.  If you have a low Quality Score and your ROI and results are great, then don’t obsess too much over it.  If there are ways you can improve your Quality Score without sacrificing results, then it’s something you should by all means work on.

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