SEO is filled with the notion that there are shortcuts. When I first started SEO consulting it felt like the reason a large percentage of companies were interested in SEO was because they believed it was a shortcut to online marketing success (it was free, right?). They forgot the time element that factored into the cost of “good SEO”.

Examples of SEO shortcuts:

• Trying to optimize pages without a keyword and marketing strategy in mind
• Ignoring the SEO details (like cross-links, ALT properties, filenames, etc) even though the opportunity presents itself for implementation
• Buying links purely for keyword rankings

Even today, we get asked what are the simple tactics, the “quick wins”, that a budget conscious organization can implement to “push the needle” in their search efforts. Can we help some of them? Absolutely. But in other cases, there are no shortcuts for creating something measurable out of a short-term SEO campaign. Sometimes significant technological or organizational factors need to be overcome before SEO can really become a part of the marketing mix.

Why You Can’t Start With SEO Shortcuts

The primary reason those interested in SEO, either as a profession or in selecting business partners, would not find it wise to start with SEO shortcuts is simple. Shortcuts impair the ability of the SEO professional or partnership to fully understand what or why results in SEO (negative or positive) happen.

The challenge (or opportunity) with SEO is that there are many experiences required to be truly effective over the course of a complete SEO program. The high level examples include (but are not limited to):

• Search Algorithm Understanding
• Technical Site/Web Expertise
• Traditional Marketing Comprehension
• Communications

The examples above don’t specifically define disciplines within each experience that need to be learned as well. For example, what about becoming a good writer or adept at graphics tools, in order to develop effective communication strategies for social and link building outreach? Disciplines within a strategic objective have to be learned and understood as well.

The point is that if you don’t understand the details and steps which can (not will) create good results, it is not really possible to know whether an SEO shortcut will work, hurt, or why it could do either. Will the next search engine algorithm update hurt you today or in the long-run? Understanding the steps, mechanisms, and tactics that brought your site to where it is now with SEO will help answer that question.

Google Penguin Updates and SEO Shortcuts

Google’s recent Penguin Update comes at a perfect time for a post like this. Google’s goal with the Penguin Update was simply stated:

…we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s quality guidelines. This algorithm represents another step in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.

For advocates of quality content, quality link outreach initiatives, and tying SEO more concisely into the overall strategic marketing mix, we will hopefully find a major win in client results with this update. But if your organization or strategies were more heavily invested in SEO shortcuts, this is a concrete example of why they should be avoided.

Don’t Confuse Good SEO Tools for SEO Shortcuts

The difference between SEO tools and SEO shortcuts is their place in the overall search engine optimization campaign. SEO tools help make the job of the search marketing professional more effective, either in analysis, productivity, or management (one, both, or all three). SEO shortcuts attempt to create results in search visibility, at the expense of investing in the use of good SEO tools and practices.

Some of the tools I am fond of using for SEO campaign development.

• SEO Reporting and Management: RavenTools, SEOmoz, Advanced Web Ranking, Google Analytics & Webmaster Tools, (and exploring Search Metrics)
• SEO Campaign Development: Screaming Frog, SearchStatus for Firefox, Web Developer for Firefox, Majestic SEO, Scrapebox, Rex Swain’s HTTP Viewer
• Social Media & Outreach: HootSuite, Contax.io, ManageFlitter, FollowerWonk, Rapportive, Knowem, USPNL, Facebook Ad Manager, SocialMention
• Productivity & Management: Basecamp, Dropbox, Google Docs, Microsoft Excel, (and exploring Confluence)

Don’t mistake SEO tools for SEO shortcuts. Tools make our job of analyzing trends, obtaining data, and aggregating information more productive. It still takes human analysis and experience, good decision making, and understanding of the target markets to execute a good SEO program.

SEO Resources That Tend to Avoid Shortcuts

Learning SEO is a challenging task. That is an understatement. To that end, here are a few resources and publications I find valuable for understanding the fundamentals and keeping up to speed on current events. A warning perhaps that while many of these resources may seem long winded to the uninterested or semi-interested party, there also will be a tremendous amount of insight and care taken towards their depth.

SEO Tutorials

• Search Engine Land Guide: What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization?
• SEOmoz: The Beginners Guide to SEO
• SEOmoz: SEO Ranking Factors
• SEO 101: Everything You Need to Know About SEO (But Were Afraid to Ask)
• Google: Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (PDF)

SEO Blogs, Forums, and Places for Ongoing Learning

• Search Engine Land (offers daily email recap called Searchcap as well)
• Search Engine Watch (offers daily email aggregating top daily columns)
• SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog (particularly appropriate for SEO consulting)
• SEOBook (particularly appropriate for the site owner’s perspective on SEO)
• Search Engine Roundtable (aggregates important search forum discussions)
• There are certainly others, but I think writing style preference, frequency, topical relevance, can all come into play at an individual level. TopRank’s Big List of SEO Blogs is a good place to start.

What thoughts do you have about SEO shortcuts? I would love to read your comments below and feel free to engage the discussion even more on Facebook or Google+.

Author Note: Thanks Dan Shure for reminding me to check into Seth Godin’s blog this week for the inspiration for this post.

It is interesting how our teams use different metrics in evaluating opportunities, but still seek to provide similar outcomes. We all want our clients and organizations to receive quality traffic, provide visibility in appropriate markets, and drive measurable results (leads, visitors, etc). As the KoMarketing Associates’ team reflected on why we chose specific sites and publications for outreach, we discussed the following criteria leading to our recommendations for link acquisition.

Link-Specific Metrics

• Location of the link opportunity – will the link be placed in the main body of text or some navigational location (like a blog sidebar or footer area)
• Text used for and around the link (even though Google has acknowledging changes to how they handle anchor text this past month, obtaining keyword relevance should still be a focus where possible and applicable)
• Accessibility of the page where the link will be placed – how easily search engines and users can access the page where the link will be located (by clicks and navigation from the home page)
• Coding used in coordination with the link (IE, making sure rel=nofollow or JavaScript will not be used, impacting a search engines’ ability to crawl and understand the link)

SEO-Specific Metrics
There are SEO-specific link building tools that mash-up various metrics such as those listed above to create scores for links, and pages and domains that links are located on. These scores help evaluate future link opportunities and prioritize strategies.

• Open Site Explorer Domain / Page Authority, mozRank, and mozTrust
• Majestic SEO ACRank and ACRank Spread
• Website’s number of domain-specific links (via Open Site Explorer)
• Website’s total number of inbound links (via Open Site Explorer)

I recommend understanding the factors involved in SEO scoring, at least at a high level, for both Open Site Explorer and Majestic SEO, or whatever commercial / free link building tool used to measure link importance.

Site Popularity-Specific Metrics

• Compete Metrics (Visitor Traffic, Rank)
• Quantcast Metrics (Traffic, Rank, Demographic Information)
• Alexa Metrics (Reach, Rank)
• Domain Age/History
• Google Toolbar PageRank (More so for cross-referencing sites for outreach prioritization, but toolbar PageRank is not a regularly updated metric and has very limited value)

Social Media-Specific Metrics

• Number of social media profiles being managed and general activity in those social media communities
• Twitter-specific metrics (followers, follower/following ratios, frequency of updates, influencer metrics such as Klout score)
• Facebook-specific metrics (likes, interaction ratios)
• Google+ specific metrics (number of included circles, interactions)
• Additional, publicly accessible popularity/success metrics based on specific social media site activity
• Frequency of blog posts
• Interactivity of blog posts (comments as well as shares in social sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, etc)
• Significance and reach of contributing writers, bloggers, and site network as possible to identify

Site Owner-Specific Metrics
Are we able to find and determine the following details about the site owner, publisher, blogger, editors, etc:

• Appropriate contact (name, title, etc)
• Email address, phone number perhaps
• Social media profile information
• Editorial calendar or identification of the type of content assets the site owner is interested in

Business-Specific Metrics
There are certainly times when paying for a link is appropriate. Examples could be sponsorship, charitable donations, organizational memberships, or even direct sales/advertising opportunities in industry-specific sites. In this sense, consider how the link and visibility will have an impact beyond SEO. Some of the possible benchmarks include:

• Cost per impression
• Expected cost per lead or cost per visit
• Traffic and demographic reports provided by site owner
• Position and location on website or web page

Final Thoughts and Considerations
Are we able to evaluate every one of the metrics listed above?  That is pretty unlikely. Even when using link building tools, ranking systems, and prospective link scoring systems, common sense and market (and SEO) competence still dictate outreach and recommendation priority.

For example: It would be easy to get so weighed down in ranking data that a link builder ignores time investment in outreach or that the client already has easy to reach contacts that can be leveraged (but might not be the most valuable link from a scoring perspective)

The key is in evaluating search engine specific metrics (traffic, keyword visibility, leads) to make reasonable determinations on whether link building initiatives are having a positive impact on the website. What are your thoughts and perspective? I would love to read your comments below or let’s have a discussion on Facebook or Google+.

Not only can an infographic explain the value of content marketing, but also illustrate tactical recommendations associated to the B2B marketers’ strategy with content development initiatives.

The following is a small compilation of graphics including insight into testing and building successful content, as well as some startling statistics related to content marketing initiatives. Feel free to use the list below to jump to various infographics of interest and make sure to check out our original compilation of content marketing infographics as well.

• Understanding the Content Marketing Explosion
• The Anatomy of Content Marketing: The Heart of Online Success
• How Do Colors Affect Purchases?
• Slideshare: The Quiet Giant of Content Marketing
• The Complete Guide to Successful Landing Pages
• Website Testing: Move Beyond the Landing Page
• 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue
• The History of Content Marketing | Corporate Storytelling is Not New

Understanding the Content Marketing Explosion

There’s no denying the rise of content marketing, and its emergence into the spotlight as a tactic that delivers results. Even major corporations like Coca-Cola are betting on an integrated content strategy. In order to illustrate this growth in content marketing, the team at BlueGlass created the following graphic.

Source: Understanding the Content Marketing Explosion
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The Anatomy of Content Marketing: The Heart of Online Success

Content marketing is a way of creating and sharing content to promote ideas, engage targeted audiences and encourage them to take action. Just as the heart powers the body, content powers online marketing success.

Source: The Anatomy of Content Marketing
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How Do Colors Affect Purchases?

There are many factors that influence how and what consumers buy. However, a great deal is decided by visual cues, the strongest and most persuasive being color. To learn more about color psychology and how it influences purchases, Kissmetric put together the following infographic.

Source: How Do Colors Affect Purchases?
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Slideshare: The Quiet Giant of Content Marketing

Content marketing is a marketing technique that involves the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging customers. Column Five Media’s infographic takes a deeper look at Slideshare, to see how they’re become the quiet giant of content marketing.

Source: The Quiet Giant of Content Marketing
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The Complete Guide to Successful Landing Pages

Pardot assembled a collection of landing page-specific posts and other resources into a comprehensive infographic to help you create a landing page that will take your lead generation to the next level.

Source: The Complete Guide to Successful Landing Pages
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Website Testing: Move Beyond the Landing Page

Smart marketers understand the value of testing. In a relatively short period of time, website testing has evolved from changing the color of a “submit” button to building intricate multi-page testing campaigns, with the ultimate goal of delivering an engaging online experience to customers.

Source: Website Testing: Move Beyond the Landing Page
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22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue

This infographic demonstrates how to repurpose existing content in a different media format, get more bang from your archives, and reach new and different audiences in the process.

Source: 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue
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The History of Content Marketing | Corporate Storytelling is Not New

From John Deere to Coca-Cola, the power of story has never been stronger, or more important for brands and its customers. Brands have been telling stories to attract and retain customers for hundreds of years. The difference today is that the barriers to entry (content acceptance, talent and technology) no longer exist for brands to get into the publishing arena.

Source: The History of Content Marketing | Corporate Storytelling is Not New
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Spurred by the Federal Trade Commission’s final report on consumer privacy, which outlined best practices for businesses to protect the privacy of American consumers and to give them greater control over the collection and use of their personal data, Google announced late last month its Account Activity feature.  According to a recent blog on the topic, “The Account Activity feature is part of Google’s broader effort to make sure users are more comfortable with the company’s new privacy policies,” which makes it sound as though Google is more concerned about putting out the hysteria fires and less concerned about protecting user privacy.  In that sense, it’s a small step toward addressing a much larger issue—how much control we have over our personal information stored and later used to customize the ads and search results we see without giving our express consent—but it’s a step nonetheless.  Here’s how it works:

• Step One: Sign-up via Google’s Official Blog to receive a monthly password-protected report of your data and usage.

• Step Two: Open the Account Activity report to view account sign-ins, authentication changes (application-specific passwords, connected sites, apps, and services), and number of emails sent versus received.  Google asserts such information may help you better manage the privacy and protection of your data (for example, if the report shows sign-ins from locations where you don’t visit or from devices you don’t own, there may have been unauthorized activity on your account).

• Step Three: Manage your account settings, updating password information, email addresses and usernames, and connected accounts.  An important feature here is the “Services” tab, which allows you to view, enable, or disable your web history if you’re uncomfortable with Google tracking such information.

According to Google product manager Andreas Tuerk, “Every day [Google aims] to make technology so simple and intuitive that you stop thinking about it—we want Google to work so well, it just blends into your life.”  For those who would prefer to think about it—to ensure they’re monitoring the safety and security of their personal information and cross-linked accounts—Google’s Account Activity may offer a suitable alternative to users throwing their hands in the air and hinging their hopes on the outcome of the various lawsuits under debate.

How do you feel about Google’s Account Activity feature?  Has it changed your opinion of the recently released privacy policy?  Why or why not?

While they were new and trendy, Google+ Pages had several flaws. Most of the immediate flaws have since been addressed, including the ability to add multiple page managers and verification with site and organization. However even though Google claims 90 million Google Plus users and a 60% engagement rate, these numbers feel suspect.

A recent article from eMarketer highlighted the fact that users spent an average of 3.3 minutes on Google+ in January 2012, a drop from 5.1 minutes in November 2011 and 4.8 minutes in December. Could the shine be wearing off?

Still, the article identifies the fact that 62 of the top 100 brands according to Interbrand (as determine by financial performance) have verified pages with Google Plus. These organizations contributed over 5,000 updates over the past 90 days (November 11, 2011 through March 13, 2012) and 250,000 points of engagement (comments, “pluses”, and shares).

The article infers that as “users get settled into their desks and check in on various social networks, they are starting to include Google+ in the mix.”. Google+ as a mainstream social media platform has a way to go, but any reports of its demise are certainly exaggerated.

Our latest newsletter focused on Google+ Pages for Business.  We believe Google+ Pages for Business will become significant, and require the B2B marketer’s attention. Not necessarily because of its impact on B2B marketing, but because it represents a fundamental shift in the search engine marketing landscape.

Below are some key takeaways:

• KoMarketing Recommendation: KoMarketing Associates recommends the creation, marketing, and ongoing management of Google+ Pages for Business, but it is also important to understand that there are several key factors involved.
• Google+ Page Significance: What makes Google+ Pages for Business significant to search marketers is the impact Google+ pages, individual page updates, and even Google+ profiles associated with that page or company could have on organic keyword visibility over the long term (traditional and personalized search engine results).
• What About Google+ Profiles? Google+ and Google+ Pages for Business are two different but directly-related entities. Unlike Facebook Pages, the network between Google+ Pages for Business and individual Google profiles can be much more closely connected, particularly when it pertains to search engine optimization and overall marketing communication.
• The Search Algorithm: Google is trying to lessen its emphasis on what SEOs understand to be the “link graph” (roughly how a domain or site is seen by search engines) as it pertains to the site/domain’s overall importance, in comparison to other sites and domains. This is one of the fundamental principles that has guided Google’s ranking algorithm through the last decade.
• Links versus Social Networking: By developing a social networking platform and garnering widespread integration, Google is better able to change its search algorithm to be less reliant on how links work, as well as understand how people search and how they interact with their “social network.”
• Social Networking for B2B Marketing: The development of any social networking community—Google+ Circles, Facebook Fans, etc.—could become a potential alternative to the traditional communication channels (online and offline) marketers have been leveraging for years—newsletters, email, direct mail, advertising, etc. When users add you to their circles, or indicate that they “Like” your Facebook Page, they are “opting in” to receiving your message.
• Strategic Decisioning: From the long-term perspective, Google is making a strategic business decision to develop a competitive social networking product, blending elements of social profile information (business and personal) with implications on both organic and paid search engine marketing initiatives.
• Business Impact: The reasons for Google’s direct objective are simple: Google is an advertising platform that now has immediate competition with organizations of significant financial resources and user reach. Competitors like Facebook and Apple cut into user attention, putting limitations on the opportunity for users to click into advertisements run on Google networks.
• The Long-Term Impact: The big question is whether searchers will embrace this platform enhancement, spending more time and attention on Google, or if we’re seeing the slow decline (or at least stabilization) of Google’s influence as technology and user preference shifts and evolves.

A complete PDF document of our analysis and recommendation can be found here and we would welcome your subscription to our free newsletter, published on a quarterly basis. Our newsletter provides insight into our company’s well-being and growth, and recommendations based on current trends and opportunities in the B2B search engine marketing and social media space.

Even still, we are seeing significantly increased mobile device usage percentages year over year and period over period for the majority of our clients. Through two recent client presentations, users accessing their websites via mobile devices had increased 50% and 33% respectively between Q4 2011 and Q1 2012.

The significance of the growth in mobile device adoption fueled my interest in attending and covering mobile marketing sessions this year at Search Engine Strategies New York. Here are four key takeaways from those sessions.

Clearly Define Mobile Marketing Goals

This could be said for both broader B2B marketing goals and specific mobile site or application goals. Brian Klais, of Pure Oxygen Labs, presented it best when he explained how mobile marketing is a three-dimensional opportunity.

Links and content have to become device aware and then operating system aware and then application aware. “Time to kick off training wheels since marketing becomes that much more complex.”

• At a tactical level, consider conversion actions such as application download, click-to-call, how to create effective form submissions, etc
• From a strategic perspective, how will mobile marketing impact lead generation, the sales pipeline, brand visibility, etc

Just making the decision to build a mobile site experience or mobile application only scratches the surface to a much more complex marketing decision and opportunity.

Avoid Assumptions

Simply stated but not as obvious as one would believe, desktop and mobile search and browser usage are different. Some of the discussion points presented:

• Conversion actions are different. It seems unlikely a user will want to fill out a long form submission. More complex B2B sales funnels need to take that into consideration, tying lead nurturing programs much more explicitly into the process of mobile strategy.
• Time on device versus time on desktop are different. For advertising campaigns, consider how peak times might be impacted as a result
• Mobile searchers are looking for “instant gratification” (call, buy, or download now) and want to see 1-click actions
• 85% of visitors look at the top 2 AdWords results (iProspect Study): For PPC, build out separate mobile campaigns for keyword targeting and ad development

Keep It Simple & Back to the Basics

The notion that mobile searchers are looking for “instant gratification” emphasizes the fact that usability and clearly defined navigational (and conversion) paths are essential. Points to consider:

• Advertising needs to be short and directive. Avoid long winded messaging and “sell the click” more than ever (but as effectively as possible)
• Fundamental SEO elements become that much more critical to scrutinize, including HTML titles, meta descriptions, keywords, page headings, and ALT properties of images.
• From a usability perspective, Avi Wilensky pointed out how adding extra padding to buttons and navigational menus will help minimize “fat fingers” and added user frustration.
• “Do you like typing URLs in your smartphone?” That is why QR Codes could become more impactful down the road
• Mobile consumers want shortcuts: social media connectivity and QR codes essentially become mobile link building

Track and Evaluate Over Time

While in a previous post I indicated how the percentage of our client base impacted by mobile device usage is certainly increasing, B2B marketers still need to compare the urgency of mobile with needs in other marketing areas.

Ways we’re beginning to look at mobile different from a reporting perspective.

• Mobile device usage reports (example: Google Analytics dashboards), including overall numbers, comparison between desktop usage, and breakdown of top devices.
• How the competitive landscape per client is adopting mobile applications and site information, and its impact (if able to realize) in search results and link acquisition.
• Note that mobile apps and QR codes do not pass “referrer” traffic data so it becomes important use tracking URLs in the process.

Final Thoughts and Considerations

B2B mobile marketing represents a much more direct method to connect offline and online marketing strategies. Consider how four of the top ten strategies B2B marketers place budget are more traditional channels, with trade shows comfortably at the top, as cited in the MarketingSherpa B2B benchmark report referenced above. Mobile marketing provides an even greater opportunity for search engine marketers (and internet marketers in general) to entrench themselves as a vital part of B2B marketing strategy.

Here is a copy of my part of the presentation panel on Landing Page Optimization.

Some of the key highlights from the presentation:

• Understanding the need to define conversion opportunities at the start of B2B landing page development
• Breaking out and outlining landing page factors based on user impact, SEO/PPC impact, or both
• A handful of examples of landing page successes, challenges, and opportunity

As they become available, I’ll look into linking to Matt, Greg, and Dan’s presentations as well.

• Dan Shure’s Presentation: Are Your Titles Irresistibly Click Worthy?

It was a fun and rewarding experience (too bad we were dropped from the traditional program information however!) that I was glad to be a part of. Thanks as well to Ryan Ricketts for offering his websites for review during the SEO audit portion of the panel discussion.

Photo courtesy of Sherwood Stranieri.

Over the course of the next few months, we plan on putting blog posts together emphasizing various aspects of the new Facebook fan page design, page recommendations and perspective, and examples of effective B2B organizations leveraging these changes. Today we’re writing about, and providing examples of, the Facebook Fan Page cover image.

Facebook Page Cover Images

The most dramatic change to Facebook’s new page design is in the emphasis of images and photographs. The fan page cover is the best example of this. Centered at the top of the Facebook fan page, the cover image provides the first piece of information and impression that a Facebook user will have of the organization.

While the only size requirement from Facebook is to use an image at least 399 pixels in width, leveraging the exact dimensions (851 pixels in width by 315 pixels in height) appears to work best, at least from an image width perspective. When using a different size, Facebook might distort or negatively impact the image that is used.

Cover images are public, so anyone visiting the page will have access. As a result, Facebook emphasizes that cover photos must not “be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property“. Via Facebook’s terms of service on pages, cover photos may not include:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it on socialmusic.com”
• Contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section
• References to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features
• Specific call to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”

Page Cover Considerations for B2B Marketers

Since covers cannot be overtly promotional, B2B marketers will no longer be able to emphasize specific conversion requests to new (or existing) audiences. That said, creativity should still play a part in crafting unique and memorable cover photos.

Facebook Cover Image Suggestions and Recommendations

Here are four examples of effective B2B Facebook covers, and why we think they could be successful.

Additional Examples of B2B Organizations’ Cover Photos

Since the official changeover will not happen until the end of the month (and it will be almost guaranteed B2B organizations will not all immediately adapt), we are certain to see more examples and innovation in the coming weeks. Until then, here are five additional examples of cover photos from B2B organizations thus far.

Profile Photos and Cover Images

Finally, because the profile photo takes on a more pronounced position in front of the cover photo, savvy organizations can seek to leverage the two in one creative design. Here is an example of the Butterfinger Facebook fan page. While it was challenging finding a B2B example of this creativity, we’re certain at least a few will crop up in the near future.

From a requirements standpoint, profile photos should be 180 pixels in length by 180 pixels in height and will still be the picture that represents the organization in news feeds.

Final Thoughts

The rollout of the Facebook Timeline into fan page design and functionality adds unexpected (and perhaps unwanted) complexity for the B2B marketer. However B2B organizations invested in Facebook must pay attention, and the custom fan page cover is the first place to start.

What are your thoughts and perspective with this change? I’d love to read them in the comments below, and feel free to send us links to additional examples and creative ideas you come across as well.

Related Posts and Links

• B2B Facebook Marketing: 20 Recommendations, Tips, & Resources
• KoMarketing Associates Facebook Page

B2B marketers should consider leveraging this opportunity, for applicable individuals of the organization, since thought leadership, public relations “buzz”, and marketing to a growing number of people involved in the buying process are B2B marketing goals.

Here are the requisite steps right now for (potentially*) enabling this opportunity.

Preliminary Step: Make sure to have a list of all of the key places and web addresses that authors have contributed to and/or help to showcase their expertise.

Step 1: Create a complete Google+ Profile for the Designated Author

Creation of a Google Profile can be done in a few simple steps. What appears to be most directly important for authorship is a high quality headshot image that Google can use as a thumbnail in search engine results. One would surmise a relative weight of “importance” might also have an impact, but this must be tested over time to determine significance.

At the very least, the following information should be entered when creating a complete Google+ Profile.

• Tagline (Recommend trying to incorporate keyword strategy in this section)
• Introduction (Which can be formatted and include regular hyperlinks)
• Occupation, Employment, and Education
• Links to other social media profiles and websites of interest, as well as links in the “Contributor to” section (see next step)
• Photos, Personal Interests, etc can and should be also added to create a more complete social networking experience. Similar to Facebook, the level of openness will be subjective for each user.

For more information, Social Times has compiled a series of video tutorials (from Google and other third party sources) on creating and managing a Google+ Profile.

Step 2: Add links to applicable author pages in the “Contributor to” section of the Google+ profile

Google indicates the following preferences for links, but we are testing variations for effectiveness.

• Links to author pages are preferred
• Link to specific articles (especially if a link to the applicable Google+ profile can be made)
• Link to publication home pages, if no Google+ link can be made

Step 3: Add requisite Google code to the same author page listed in step 2

The most critical step, which requires greater coordination from third party, or often outside sources, is obtaining the appropriate type of links back to the Google+ Profile. There are a few common options for doing this.

• Option 1: Link directly to Google Profile by adding the personal badge to your site Google+ Badge Generator
• Option 2: For multiple authored sites, add the following type of link/code on each author page (that has a Google+ Profile):
  <a rel=”me” href=”[website]“>Read more about [Name]</a>
• Note: Make sure all published content from the author (individual articles) links back to this author page with the following HTML markup:
  <a rel=“author” href=”LINK TO AUTHOR PAGE”> AUTHOR NAME</a>
• Google provides more detailed recommendations on how to handle multiple authored website integration which can be passed along to website support teams, as well information for site owners using WordPress.
• Option 3: You can also add a work email address to your profile. Google will send a verification email to that address, with further instructions for verification. While this seems easier, authors published in multiple locations might not have requisite email information to enable this.

Time to Production:

Once implemented, Google provides a Rich Snippets Testing Tool, which allows website owners to check whether Google can correctly parse your structured data markup and display it in search results.

There is also form submission that can be sent to Google for additional review (but ensuring the code works via testing tool above seems to work just as well).

In limited experience, it appeared to take roughly thirty days, once the correct code was in place, for author information to appear in search engine results. We have heard from other industry professionals of it taking shorter time, but no less than two weeks. What have your experiences been like? I would love to read your feedback and perspective via comments below.

*Unfortunately but predictably, Google provides no guarantee of authorship within search results or for all publications, which is what leads me to suspect more than just basic profile information is required. Weight of profile, publication, and individual articles may all have an impact.

That said, it is important to realize that internet marketing, search engine marketing, and social media marketing, are moving rapidly to browsers and applications on the mobile device. Last month I illustrated how mobile device usage was increasing in our clients’ web traffic reports. This trend is also happening across the third party platforms that drive traffic and leads to the organization.

The content marketing assets B2B marketers are using to acquire leads are being accessed at an increasing rate through mobile browsers and sites with greater mobile accessibility.

Still not sold on these development? Here are over 44 telling statistics from recent mobile marketing surveys and research worth bringing into the next marketing strategy meeting (the last one is a quick video from Google). These statistics support the reasoning that mobile marketing strategy needs to be considered in 2012 and beyond.

Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2011–2016

1. Global mobile data traffic grew 2.3-fold in 2011, more than doubling for the fourth year in a row.
2. Last year’s mobile data traffic was eight times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000.
3. Mobile video traffic exceeded 50 percent of all video traffic for the first time in 2011.
4. Average smartphone usage nearly tripled in 2011.
5. By the end of 2012, the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of people on earth, and by 2016 there will be 1.4 mobile devices per capita.

2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus

6. At the end of 2011 there were more than 400 smartphone device types on the market in the U.S., providing a wide range of options for the consumer
7. Android and Apple dominated the smartphone narrative in 2011, with a combined market share of more than 75 percent in December 2011.
8. Apple accounted for 29.6 percent of the smartphone market in December 2011.
9. A look at some of the top mobile activities for smartphone and feature phone owners in 2011 found that nearly 3 in 4 Americans texted in December, while 3 in 5 used their phone for taking photos and slightly more than 1 in 4 captured video on their mobiles.
10. In December 2011, 28.5 million mobile users accessed online retail content on their mobile devices, up 87 percent from the previous year
11. It took seven years to reach nearly 40 million smartphones compared to less than two years to reach nearly 40 million tablets

Pew Research Center Mobile Internet Reports

12. The share of adult cell phone owners who have downloaded an app to their phone nearly doubled in the past two years – rising from 22% in September 2009 to 38% in August 2011 (source)
13. Half of U.S. adult cell phone owners (50%) now have apps on their phones. (source)
14. 19% of United States adults own a tablet device and 29% own either a tablet or E-Reader. (source)
15. Tablet and e-reader ownership increased by nearly double over the holidays, and more than 1 out of every 4 Americans now has one of the devices. (source)

The Growth of Mobile Marketing and Tagging

16. Of the world’s 4 billion mobile phones in use, 1.08 billion are smartphones
17. By 2014, mobile internet usage should take over desktop internet usage
18. Half of local searches are performed on mobile devices
19. On average, Americans spend 2.7 hours per day socializing on their mobile device, which is over twice the amount of time they spend eating
20. 91 percent of mobile internet access is to socialize, compared to 79 percent on desktops
21. Over one-third of Facebook’s 600+ million user base uses Facebook mobile
22. 200 million plus YouTube views occur on mobile devices per day

Smartphone Usage Statistics 2012 [Infographic]

26. 80 percent of the world’s population now has a mobile phone
27. 91.4 million smartphones in the U.S.
28. There are 5 billion mobile phones in the world
29. 62 percent of adults aged 25-34 own smartphones

New PQ Media Forecast on U.S. Mobile & Social Media Revenue

30. U.S. Mobile & social media revenue surged 30% to $45.4 billion in 2011
31. Mobile & social media revenue growth is expected to continue in 2012 accelerating at a 30.8% annual rate
32. The mobile media sector alone reached the $1 billion revenue mark faster than any communications industry in history in 2008, taking only five years compared with 16 for the internet

Mobile Enterprise Spending Projected to Double in Next 18 Months

33. U.S. and U.K. businesses are embracing mobile technology at an unprecedented rate, more than doubling their investments in the next year and a half.
34. A third of companies surveyed planned to launch four or more mobile projects in the next 12 to 18 months.

Marketers: What Mobile Users Will and Won’t Put Up With [INFOGRAPHIC]

35. Nine in 10 young adults spend between one and five hours on their mobile devices daily.
36. 66% don’t want brands to know about their whereabouts but 30% think that it is important that offers are close to their location.
37. 56% of those surveyed were worried their credit card details being stolen.
38. Nearly one in three would like brands to send them promotions via mobile device.

2012 Mobile Future in Focus

39. 8% of total U.S. Internet traffic comes from mobile and connected devices
40. In the U.S. and EU5, mobile app audience growth exceeded that of mobile browser growth
41. Facebook app ranks as #3 most popular app for iPhone and #4 for Android users
42. More than half of the U.S. smartphone population used their phone to shop while in a brick-and mortar store
43. In the U.S. and EU5, more than half of mobile users accessing social networks did so on a near daily basis

The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Consumers

Final Thoughts
The discussion on how B2B organizations market to their customers and prospects via mobile device will continue to gain intensity in 2012.

What are your thoughts and perspectives on this change and how is your organization planning? We hope to explore these topics in future blog posts but I would love to discuss your feedback via commments below as well.