The Ellerman Search Engine Ranking Scores
One question I’ve received from executives many times when talking about SEO is “How is the site ranking?” On the surface, this sounds like an easy question to answer. But when managing a large website, which may be ranking for millions of keywords across many different search engines, it’s sometimes difficult to answer.
The site may have moved up for half a million keywords and down for half a million keywords. Of those, you may have the budget and resources to be tracking the 10,000 most important, which turns into 30,000 rankings across the three largest search engines.
To answer the question at hand of “How is the site ranking?”, you could provide a simple answer such as how many ranking increases there were since the previous day, week or month, how many decreases there were and how many rankings stayed the same. But this doesn’t account for the fact that some keywords are much more important than others regarding visits and revenue. Additionally, this doesn’t account for the fact that there are multiple search engines, each with a different market share of searches.
Providing a complete list of 30,000 keyword fluctuations will often also not be an acceptable answer as it may be too much data to process. Additionally if you provide just the hundred most important keywords, executives may complain that it’s such a small portion of the total number that it doesn’t represent the bigger picture, especially on very large websites.
For this, I’ve invented three search engine ranking scores grouped as the Ellerman Search Engine Ranking Scores.
1. The simple search engine score.
2. The search volume search engine score.
3. The Revenue Based search engine score.
The simple score treats all keywords equally and only looks at movement across a large set of keywords. The search volume score takes into account how many searches there are for each target keyword and weighs the score based on keywords (KW Search Volume X Positions Moved). The revenue based score takes into account KW Search Volume and RPV(KW Search Volume X Positions Moved X RPV).
We will look at each search engine score below:
1. Simple Search Engine Score:
Here is the basic formula for the simple search engine score in one search engine:
A = (((((ranking increases X 3)) + positions held) – (ranking decreases X 3)) / Total Number of Rankings Tracked ) X Most Recently Published Percent Market Share of Search Engine
You then process this for each search engine that you deem important and then add up your scores and divide by the total number of engines to determine your comprehensive search engine ranking score.
So let’s say A = Google Score
Google Score = (((((ranking increases in Google X 3)) + positions held in Google) – (ranking decreases in Google X 3)) / Total Number of Rankings Tracked in Google ) X Most Recently Published Percent Market Share of Google.
You would then calculate the same for Yahoo and Bing if you were concerned with those three engines and then sum them up and divide by 3 to show the total score.
Total Simple Score = (((((((ranking increases in Google X 3)) + positions held in Google) – (ranking decreases in Google X 3)) / Total Number of Rankings Tracked in Google ) X Most Recently Published Percent Market Share of Google) + ((((((ranking increases in Yahoo X 3)) + positions held in Yahoo) – (ranking decreases in Yahoo X 3)) / Total Number of Rankings Tracked in Yahoo ) X Most Recently Published Percent Market Share of Yahoo) + ((((((ranking increases in Bing X 3)) + positions held in Bing) – (ranking decreases in Bing X 3)) / Total Number of Rankings Tracked in Bing ) X Most Recently Published Percent Market Share of Bing)) / 3
2. Search Volume Search Engine Score:
For the search volume search engine score, let’s set some variables to values to make it simpler.
W = Number of Positions Moved Up X Search Volume For Keyword
Y = Number of Positions Held X Search Volume For Keyword
Z = Number of Positions Moved Down X Search Volume For Keyword
L = Total Number of Keywords Tracked X Search Volume Per Keyword
U = Most Recently Published Percent Market Share of Search Engine
In the below example, A = Google Search Volume Search Engine Score
A = (((((W X 3)) + Y) – (Z X 3)) / L) X U
B, would then calculate the same for Yahoo and C for Bing.
The total keyword search ranking score would then be (A + B + C) / 3.
3. Revenue Based Search Engine Score:
The revenue based search engine score would then include revenue per visit.
W = Number of Positions Moved Up X RPV (Average or per page depending on data available and preference) X Search Volume For Keyword
Y = Number of Positions Held X RPV X Search Volume For Keyword
Z = Number of Positions Moved Down X RPV X Search Volume For Keyword
L = Total Number of Keywords Tracked X RPV X Search Volume Per Keyword
U = Most Recently Published Percent Market Share of Search Engine
In the below example, A = Google RPV Search Engine Score
A = (((((W X 3)) + Y) – (Z X 3)) / L) X U
B, would then calculate the same for Yahoo and C for Bing.
The total RPV search ranking score would then be (A + B + C) / 3.
Once you have the number, you can then monitor the daily fluctuation. Assuming you held values at a constant, which could be kept in addition to an updated score if anything changed, a large increase would show very positive SEO results, factoring out things that it can’t influence like seasonal fluctuations, major spikes or drops in demand and other things outside the scope of what SEO can control.
A large decrease would show negative SEO results for the things SEO can usually be accountable for but factoring out seasonal fluctuations, demand shifts, Google landing page layout changes and other things outside the scope of what SEO can control.
If the score remains relatively consistent, it would show total search presence is being held well but not increasing or declining.
I would encourage and appreciate feedback from the SEO community on further iterations of the formula or other feedback about how it could be altered or improved.
Do a Barrel Roll Google
Cool little trick by Google. If you do a Google search for do a barrel roll, the screen will spin in a circle. I don’t know how long they will leave it up for, so give it a try now if you want to.
Anon (May Have) Announced Planned Attack on Facebook on Nov. 5th
The Hacker Group Anonymous who is associated with Wiki Leaks and responsible for infamous successful hacktivism attacks on Wiki Leaks investigators, and companies such as Visa and MasterCard may have announced that it will attack Facebook on November 5th 2011.
The Hacktivism group claims that they will destroy the social networking site and have listed non transparent privacy policies and sharing of data with public officials as key reasons for the planned attack.
Please keep in mind that these announcements came from a new youtube account, a new twitter account and an online post all from new accounts so some speculate that this is a hoax either by Anon or by an unrelated third party pretending to be associated with Anon.
Assuming it is not a hoax and the attack will happen, the question remains, will Zuckerberg and his team be able to stave off the attack.
Here is the announcement on YouTube which was linked to from the above mentioned twitter account and the text of which was scribed in the above mentioned post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWQTS8zqYXU
You can read more about Anon here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_%28group%29
The Google +1 (Plus One) Button – Should You Use It?
Post Updated Here:
The Google +1 button is out, so the question arises – should you include it on your site?
First, let’s take a minute to consider what it does. The plus one button allows you to share content with friends in your network. If you click it on a page or next to a result in search (such as at the bottom of this page or in the search result shown in the screen shot), friends in your network (ie your Google account contacts) will be able to see this if the page shows up in search engine results. As of today Google has not given any indication of whether it will impact search rankings: you can read Google’s description here. It is indeed a play on behalf of Google to gain more social graph data and to make search results more interactive.
But they have in the past indicated, and tests have shown correlation that sharing links on Twitter and Facebook Likes do impact search rankings.
My take on this is that Twitter and Facebook buttons are still much more powerful in driving traffic than the Google +1 button due to their viral effect and especially Twitter’s correlation with search rankings. But if you want to install a third button, Google +1 would be a good one to consider. In addition to making a result stand out a bit more in the SERPs, it may in the future impact search rankings. Although at this point in time it is not possible to show relevance to a given search term with an on page +1 button, its use would make a good popularity metric.
Therefore we can consider that it is at least a possibility that Google will make +1 button clicks a factor in search ranking algorithms in the future as a popularity metric once the button is out of beta test mode. If they do in fact go this way, you can get ahead of the competition by adding the button now. At a minimum it will make your current rankings slightly more visible to certain people.
Why Facebook and Google Were Successful and Why MySpace Lost Momentum
Neither Facebook nor Google would have been successful if they were built within a major company. They had to be upstarts to live. And Bing is proof that Microsoft has learned this lesson.
One business mentality to avoid online, that is used all too frequently: Immediate profit maximization without regard for the long term sustainability of a business, would have destroyed both of those companies. They would have been immediately infected with popup ads and banners galore and people would simply stop coming.
The Proof Is MySpace
Myspace was acquired for a large sum of money and long term sustainability or hope for growth was abandoned when someone made the call to make the investment back ASAP, to leverage the traffic immediately for every dollar that could be sucked out of it. And the result is the current difference in value between Facebook and MySpace. Is it important to leverage traffic to you website for revenue? Of course. But you need to ease into it, slowly increasing the ad space as we are seeing Google do, rather than go from no ad space to massive amounts of ad space.
If Facebook would have been acquired as MySpace was, Facebook’s fate would have been the same. It would have been loaded with massive ads and banners galore, many of which would not be relevant to those who view them.
Instead, Facebook and Google have both gotten one critical thing right in developing a mega success website. They have maintained the integrity, “coolness” and usefulness of the site keeping the main focus on the site functionality and useful features and only dedicating a small portion of the page to monitization factors or distracting advertisements when most people aren’t there for the ads but for the other features.
Myspace went the opposite way and loaded up the home page and internal pages with advertisements that are not relevant to most site visitors. News Corp made a large investment and then some executive said holly crap. We need to get our money back quickly. And they paid dearly in the long run for that short sighted type of thinking.
People don’t mind a few relevant ads mixed in with their online content. In fact, sometimes the ads even enhance that content. But if the ads overpower the content, people will leave. As of late, Myspace has toned down their advertising significantly, but still are less relevant and show ads with more frequency than similar websites.
Being ultra leveraged works for e-commerce sites like ebay and the same concept works for brick and mortar stores like Walmart but not for sites that make their money off of drawing users in with great content or functionality and then monetizing the traffic or making money off data collection or ad serving. In this case, they are coming to the site to for a specific purpose, not to see ads. But it is ok if the ads are in the background. A site like Facebook, Google or Myspace must be thought of more like a rock concert or baseball game where people are there to see the main event. You can stick a hotdog stand or beer garden off to the side, but not in front of the stage (OK, maybe a beer garden in front of the stage would be cool).
There is one key difference that separates my online analogy from a rock concert or anything in real space for that matter. In the case of the internet, anyone can access the data at any time from anywhere on the planet. Image if a rock concert or ball game could get that type of visibility.
Back to MySpace. When I log into my account I see an advertisement for a motorcycle maintenance class, an advertisement for a speed dating site, in fact several dating site adverts and an advertisement for marine mechanics intsititue. But if they used the data in my profile (like Facebook does), they would know I’m likely not interested in these things.
Not only that, but they display these ads in large colorful banners that take up the portions of the site that should be dedicated to internal navigation. And they should not display any ads on the home page because I’m only valuable to them and I’m only going to keep returning if I’m logging into the site. Not if I’m clicking on an ad and going somewhere. Sure, advertise once I’m in the site, but use your data to make it relevant to me and non intrusive.
Pull marketing destroys push marketing in the digital world.
- William Ellerman
Napoleon Bonaparte Quote
“We are at a time when you need to double the resolve, & double the vigor of ordinary times. Lead by example. Be the first to put yourself in danger. And with the troops that you have, I expect you to defeat double of theirs.”
-Napoleon Bonaparte
The Best Quick and Dirty Usability Test
To judge the usability of your website in a quick and dirty way that’s light on your wallet, the best test is to sit your mother down at a computer and see if she can find what she’s looking for on your website. If she can, try the same test with your grand mother.
- William Ellerman
Ten Things You Should Be Testing In Your Email Marketing Campaign
- The time of day you send your email (people respond differently at different times.)
- How frequently you send emails
- How useful is the information or offer presented in your email
- How many links do you include in your email
- Who does your email come from? Maybe an email from your CEO might see a higher ctr than one from your brand name
- Are you tracking the results of your email marketing campaign with tagging and analytics
- Is there a clear call to action
- Is there a clear way to immediately respond to the call to action
- Do you use spam words in your email or title that are likely to be filtered into junk folders
- Is your email conversion optimized in a way that attracts attention and focus to conversion elements
