A Deep Dive into Google MyAnswers

Posted by gfiorelli1

A few months ago I published here on Moz SEO in the Personalization Age, where I explained why, once and for all, SEOs need to be aware of the personalization of SERPs and the mechanisms by which Google customizes our search results. I also suggested some ways to convert what at first sight is just a complication into a competitive advantage.

This post is the ideal continuation of that one.

Here, however, I won't dig into SEO theories and patents, but I will try to put order in all of the existing information about the elements that compose MyAnswers, highlighting some clarification that many - wrongly - absent-mindedly forget, and suggesting actions that can mean the difference between winning or not the personalized SERPs.

You can call this post "Guide to MyAnswers" if you want, although I do not pretend to have written a real guide.

Finally, this post is also the result of conversations I had with Giorgio Taverniti, one of the leading experts on this topic and the creator of the most important Italian SEO Forum.

Personalized private search

When we speak about personalized search results, it would be more correct to use the term private search results.

It is not just semantics but how Google refers to them, and is also a result of the confrontation with the European Community.

Private is slightly different from Personalized, since it implies that a SERP is personalized only by our web history and only by the direct contacts on Google Plus and Gmail.

Keep in mind this detail, because it will explain a point I will affirm later in the post.

A classic example of Private Search is this:

Private Search consists of two elements:

1. Google Now, or our offline activities moved into our own online life;


2. Google Plus, or anything that I or people in my Circles share by G+.

Google Now

Right now you should be quite used to this feature offered by Google also in the desktop search.

Usually we refer to it for things like flight reminders, hotel and restaurant reservations, packages' deliveries, and for geo-targeted contextual suggestions.

Google Now generally operates in two eco-systems:

1. Mobile (and for that reason every example Google offers is mobile);


2. Vocal (you can create Google Now reminders with a voice command).

The fact that it is now also present in the classic desktop search is just a sign of the times (and of the shift from desktop search to "everywhere" search, thanks also to the instant synchronization of the Google account information in different devices).

As I wrote in SEO in the Personalization Age, everybody can ask to be integrated into Google Now. Be advised that it is not an immediate inclusion, as a nine-step process is needed to obtain the approval from Google).

The integration is possible using one of these Schema for Gmail:

• RSVP actions for events;


• Review action;


• One-click action;


• Go-to action;


• Flight interactive cards.

This video from the last Google I/O explains well all these options:

Every Schema for Gmail is interesting, but the most immediately useful ones are:

Review action, which offers us the opportunity to ask and let our clients to write reviews of our product, hotel, or service (or simply to evaluate them with the classic starred system) directly from their inbox. As you can see, it can be a big help in obtaining more reviews, as it responds to the old classic "Don't make me think" principle;

One-click action, which can be especially useful for eCommerce sites. Imagine you have users subscribed to your coupon/offers newsletter. When they will receive the newsletter with the One-click action SaveAction Schema implemented, they will be able to save the coupon in their Google Offers account.

If you want to dig more into the integration with Google Now, you can check out these two great posts:

• How Gmail’s Schema.org Support Changes the Game for Email Marketers;


• Email Schema: 6 Things You Need To Know Plus Some Conspiracy Theory.

Google Plus

I must admit that I still see many SEOs confused about how Google Plus influences Private Search.

To be honest, the fact that Google presents both Google Plus and Knowledge Graph (and sometimes Answers cards) in the same positions, or even mixed (i.e.: Google Plus Profiles enriched with Knowledge Graph information) is not helping to dispell this confusion. This, among other things, reflects something that still not everybody understands: Google Plus is a multi-platform product, and not only a Social Network.

Google Plus directly influences Private Search in three different ways, each one depending on the visibility we give to the message we share on G+:

1. Only You (or "shared privately")

As you can see, the visibility in SERPs is practically immediate (10 seconds is the time I needed to switch accounts).

Privately shared Google Plus posts can be also images, as Giorgio pointed out to me:

Opportunities in sharing privately

Imagine you did a good job building an authoritative profile on Google Plus, so that you have been circled by influencers.

When you don't have a close relationship with those influencers and your outreach emails may very well bounce back or be ignored, then sharing a private post with a link to content you think they may may like and share is a great alternative.

Thanks to this sort of inception marketing, the influencers will quite surely find that post in the first page for those keywords you are targeting them for and about which you have created the content you want them to promote.

If you have wisely crafted the post in order to have a catchy tagline (the first words, which will compose the title of the search snippet) and a convincing description with a strong call to action just after, then your post has a strong opportunity for being clicked, discovered, and shared by that influencer.

2. Limited

There are two kinds of limited Google Plus posts in SERPs.

1. Posts that are shared with us because we are part of a Circle (not publicly shared), and we have the person/business page sharing it circled too;


2. Posts that are posted publicly by people/brands, who are not in the Knowledge Graph but whom we have circled

For instance, Rand is not a node in the Knowledge Graph (yet), so what I see in the right sidebar of the SERPs is his information taken from his Google Plus profile and his latest post there in a limited-labeled box.

Opportunities in limited sharing

Usually people tend to share posts only using the Public option. By doing so, they lose the opportunity to obtain more SERP real estate for branded searches.

3. Public

A posts is public when a user or a brand shares it with all the Google Plus users. These posts are presented as organic search results, and they can rank as if they were a normal web page and even reach the first positions and remain in the SERPs if they earn links.

They aren't tagged with Public as it was once, but they present authorship data, and we always see them in the first page if we have circled that user/brand.

Opportunities in sharing publicly

The opportunities are obvious in this case.

The more people who have circled your profile or your business page, the more they will see your publicly shared posts in a outstanding position in the SERPs, including for very competitive head tail keywords.

Follow those simple rules about Google Plus posts' search snippets, and you will be able to obtain important volumes of organic traffic to your G+ profile and, from there, to your site.

Be aware, though, that Public shares tend to suffer when the Freshness effect decays and, if the post is not reinforced with backlinks, it will tend to slip out of the first page and, ultimately, from the SERPs.

The difference between Search Plus Your World (SPYW) and MyAnswers

This snapshot above is an example of how SPYW was working.

As you can see, Google was declaring how many personalized results were pulled in, enhancing them with the styled person icon, and showing the photo and name of the person who socially shared the content. It even offered us a list of people and pages on Google+ related to the search we did.

Now, with MyAnswers, this is not so anymore:

No indication of how many search snippets are personalizing the SERP. No person icon.

Of note, there is also no sign of the name of the person who socially shared the content if he is not in our Circles. The SERP, then, is personalized just with those Google Plus posts that were shared by people we have in our Circles.

Finally, there's no sign of "Suggested people and pages" in the right column.

These differences show one extremely important difference between SPYW and MyAnswers:

In SPYW, if we shared something with a friend, it was seen in a preferred position in SERPs by his friends, as well. In MyAnswers it is not.

Giorgio and I did a very simple experiment, with me sharing a post with him and "Extended Circles." The result was that Giorgio could see my post in a SERP when logged in with his personal account, but not when logged in with a test G+ profile that didn't have me circled but did have his personal account circled.

What does this mean? That sharing something with "Extended Circles," as Google itself explains in a somewhat involute way, offers an opportunity to make the post visible to un-circled profiles only in Google Plus, but not in SERPs.

As I was saying in the very beginning of this post, this is why we should speak of Private Search and not of Personalized Search.

And, as we will see, there's just one way to show something shared on Plus to friends of friends: the Google +Post Ads.

The MyAnswers catalogue

The version of the catalogue I outline here must be considered just a snapshot in time of the actual situation. As Dr. Pete taught us with his #MozCast updates, Google is continuously experimenting with new formats and layouts.

MyAnswers elements are present in the SERPs both in the right-hand column and in the main body of the SERPs.

On the right we can find:

Personal profiles of users we have circled

Personal Gmail contact information

This is "Only You" information pushed into the SERP from our Gmail, and Google shows it if the contact we have in Gmail doesn't have a Google Plus profile. Note that if he/she has a Google Plus profile, this one with an "Add to circles" button will be shown instead:

Business pages

If the brand is not a node in the Knowledge Graph, the business page will be shown only if we have circled it.

If we haven't, that space on the right will be empty:

Please note that this particular example is quite strange, because Moz is present with a page in Wikipedia, so the absence of a Moz Knowledge Graph box, or of Knowledge Graph information in the Google Plus business box seems quite odd and is something we should investigate further.

Google Plus local pages

There are three cases, and in all of them the box is visible whether or not you're signed in. The biggest difference is that we won't see whether our circled friends have reviewed a local business if we are signed out.

1) A non-verified G+ local page, as in the case of the Osteria Satyricon in Bolonia (click and you will see how the "verified business" icon is absent).

2) A verified but not circled page, as in the case of the restaurant of a friend of mine in Valencia:

3) A verified and circled page:

Another possibility: A Knowledge Graph and Google Plus page/business page:

The box, as can be easily seen, is a composition of Knowledge Graph information (extract from Wikipedia and "People also search for") and Google Plus (number of followers and recent posts).

This box is also visible if you're not logged in.

Pay attention, though, that it doesn't seem working in international Google searches, such as the Spanish or Italian ones. At least, though, in the majority of cases on Google.com it does.

Knowledge Graph, Google Plus, and Google Now

Substantially similar to the previous case, but with the "Keep me updated" button, which functions to push posts by the followed profile in our Google Now Cards.

It seems it is only shown if the person is a node in the Knowledge Graph and it is not available for Business Pages (at least I wasn't able to find any).

Google Plus Hashtags Search

Since last September it has been possible to search for hashtags in Google.

That means that if you tag a post on Plus with a hashtag, your content may have the opportunity to be shown in Google searches to people who have not circled you and are not signed in.

It would be worth an independent analysis of how Google chooses which public posts to show for a given hashtag, but what it is quite clear is that freshness is an important factor, as the posts shown tend to be the ones most recently shared.

Also pay attention to the hashtags you decide to use, as it seems that the hashtag must have at least a minimum of usage in order to be shown in Google search. For instance, I tried to search #MozCast and this was the result:

Opportunities

The only way to be always visible with a box in the right-hand column of the SERPs when people are not logged in and/or have not circled us is being present in the Knowledge Graph and having a Profile/Business Page on Plus, or having a verified Google Plus Local Page.

In the first case:

1. If we already are a node in the Knowledge Graph, then we must have an active page on Google Plus. There are tons of Brands that doesn't know this and are missing a wonderful opportunity to lend visibility to their content.


2. If we are not present in the Knowledge Graph but have an active Google Plus profile/business page, we can try to earn/force inclusion in the sources that the Knowledge Graph uses: Wikipedia and Freebase.

If you have a Google Plus Local Page, then you simply should start posting updates.

In the main body of a SERP we can find:

Shared Google Plus posts

As I mentioned previously, the Google Plus posts are visible both to people who are signed in and to those who are signed out if the posts are public, but they only easily rank in a top position for head-tail keywords for people who have circled us.

And, keep in mind that freshness has a key role.

URLs shared on Google Plus

If someone we have circled shares a URL in Google Plus, the web document shared will be shown on the first page in our private searches even if it isn't in a neutral search or in a more prominent position that actually is ranking:

Note that only one person needs to share the URL, which obviously means that if we were able to earn followers on Google Plus, the simple act of sharing the URL with them will make that page stand out in their SERPs, even for very competitive keywords.

URLs that have earned +1s

If someone we have circled +1s a web document, we will see that same page excel in the SERPs for all the keywords that page may rank for:

Google Plus local reviews

This represents a great opportunity for local businesses. If a business has been circled by an influencer, it should have to try being reviewed by him on Google Plus Local (Remember: You can do it using the Schema for Gmail, too).

If he agrees, all his followers will see your search snippet enhanced by his annotation, and if that is 4 or 5 stars...

YouTube

We should not forget that Google Plus and private search are also influencing our YouTube experience when signed in.

If we click on the Social link in the left menu, we will see all the YouTube videos people we have circled have shared on Google Plus:

Also remember that if someone we have circled not only shares a YouTube video but also comments about it on Google Plus, then we will see his comment in the YouTube page of that video too. Just check the latest Matt Cutts video about Paid Links, and you will see a good example of this. Note, though, that that same Matt Cutts video doesn't show any "Google Plus activity" in the SERPs.

+Post ads

Last December Google launched the Beta of +Post Ads.

+Post Ads may be defined as the Google version of the old (and now dismissed) Facebook Promoted Posts.

For Google they also are:

1. A way of selling ads on Plus without publishing them on Plus;


2. 
   

   A brilliant idea, because it is a way to bring more people into Google Plus but making them pay to advertise.

   
   

The +Post Ads are included in the Google GDN, therefore we can easily target the right audience and do really targeted inbound marketing with practically every kind of content we can create on Google Plus:

• Images+text


• Videos


• Hangouts on air (pre, during, and post-HOA)

Users can interact with the +Post Ad directly in the site where it is published without the need to visit our Google Plus page. Obviously, they need to have a Google Profile.

From an SEO point of view, +Post Ads are a great opportunity. In fact, the more people who share and +1 the ad (and comment on it if it is a video), the more all the people in their Circles will start seeing our post standing out in SERPs (and YouTube) even for the most competitive keywords.

Conclusion

Private Search, with its combination of Google Now and Social Search (aka: Google Plus) represent a big percentage of the SERPs users see, and its majority in case of mobile search users on Android devices.

Google Plus, then, due to its cross-product platform nature, influences the search experience also of the users not using it as a Social Network.

For these reasons we must understand how Private Search works, recognize its elements in the SERPs and take advantage of the opportunities it offers to us..

Maybe it's time to start optimizing our Google Plus content, don't you think?

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Scaling Up the Effort: The Process Behind Great (Contracted) Content

Posted by MackenzieFogelson

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that it's hard work to build great content that:

a) people want to read

b) people remember and will be motivated to share

c) helps you further increase the reach of your brand

This becomes especially true when you're building content for a company that's not your own.

This post isn't about Lesson #12,753 we've so valiantly learned here at Mack Web as we grow our small (but mighty) integrated web marketing team.

It's about you and the exceptional content you need to be building on behalf of the clients you work for.

That said, if you're like us, you find solace in, and learn a great deal from, the trials and tribulations other companies face. I've broken this post into three parts, each of which tackles a big question you might be wondering about:

1. How do you build great content when you're not the expert?

2. How do you make content generation more efficient and scalable?

3. How do you build great content with contract writers?

Sit tight. I've got some ideas.

How do you build great content when you're not the expert?

We've got a content generation process that has been working pretty well for us now, but it took a ton of failing to develop it.

For a while, we were treating content generation like a factory. We had clients. They needed a strategy. That strategy called for content. We gave the specs and details for the content to our writer. She generated the content. We optimized it. It went live. We did outreach. Rinse. Repeat.

It's not that the content we were producing in our "factory" was bad. It wasn't thin. It just didn't serve a purpose beyond meeting preconceived frequency expectations for their blog. Although it was intended to add value to the conversation, it wasn't going to rise above the ever-growing noise and help them build their business and further their brand.

Our factory approach was fine for a short while, but as we started to grow, level-up, and recognize that the lack of effectively executed, fully integrated content marketing strategies would make it increasingly difficult for us to earn audience engagement, we realized our content had to be better. It had to serve a higher purpose for the brand and it needed to integrate all the appropriate channels.

Which meant, of course, that we couldn't create it in a silo anymore.

General brand stuff vs. expert content

We've found that, for the most part, our clients have needed our help with two distinct types of content in order to build their audience: general brand stuff and expert content.

General brand stuff is the content that—if you've really done your diligence to fully understand the company, their industry, their persona, and the story they're trying to tell—you can essentially create content without putting too much extra work on their plate.

You still work together throughout the process (which I'll get into more in just a bit), but really you're taking the lead, doing the majority of the work, and ensuring you have approval as you move through the different stages in the content generation process.

Expert content is content that requires the knowledge of a subject matter expert (which hopefully you will find inside the company) to produce. The expert stuff places a great deal of the content generation responsibility on the client. Your job is to act as a guide, facilitator, and editor so that you're ensuring strategic alignment, brand integrity, and that the content actually gets created and connected to its intended audience.

When you're working with a subject matter expert to develop content, it's really important that you're taking as much weight off the expert as possible, and you're also earning their trust. You can do this in a few ways:

Allow the expert to drive

You may suggest trending topics and direction based on strategy and goals but, depending on your expert's writing prowess, you don't want to get in the way by controlling the process too much. Their time is extremely limited so you want to make the process as enjoyable and efficient as possible.

If the expert is driving, your goal is to cater to their needs and aid them in any way possible. Take the time to listen, observe, understand their writing process, and how you can fit into that. As facilitator and editor you'll be providing feedback on basic grammar, transitions, focus, and depth, but you're also working to keep them on task and accountable for deadlines.

Provide the expert with the structure

Maybe the expert doesn't necessarily want the freedom to drive, but they could use your help getting the structure together. It really depends on the expert, what they're comfortable with, and what their schedule will allow.

If they need your help getting the ball rolling, you can interview them for the key takeaways, write the outline for them, and provide them with anything else they need to get that first draft going.

We've also had great success writing the first draft for the expert so that they have something to take apart, integrate their expertise, personal anecdotes and voice, and then we help them put it back together.

In general, expert content will take longer to come together. You're usually talking about people with extremely busy schedules, and unless they find value in what content marketing is doing for their brand and company, it could take months to get content out of them.

What we've found is if you're properly balancing the creation of both expert and general brand stuff, you can fill any production gaps with minimal involvement on the client's part. That way you're still getting content out and you won't have lengthy time lapses in the execution of deliverables from your content strategy.

---

How do you make content generation more efficient and scalable?

As we've been growing our team and our content department, we've been working to get more out of less. We have found that investing in processes that document the stages of our everyday operations (like our client on-boarding process and the base ongoing monthly stuff we do for nearly every client) has really helped us to be more efficient, but that hasn't always been the case.

Don't get me wrong; I am a very systems- and process-oriented person. I like things to be neat, organized, and, well, systematic. As much as I believe in investing in them, I've come to learn that you can waste a lot of time and precious resources on processes that don't work, don't get used, and don't help you become more efficient.

With processes, it's not about developing something that stands the test of time (because they never do). It's more about providing guidance and suggestions for a more efficient workflow. That tends to come in the form of checklists that you're continually iterating as living, breathing, dynamic entities inside your organization.

As such, this is what we've discovered to be incredibly helpful when developing our processes:

1) Determine the problem the process is going to solve

Clearly you're taking the time to develop a process so that you can make something you do every day (or something you repeat quite often) a whole lot easier. For us, we knew we needed to create better content and work more collaboratively with our clients in order to do that. We thought a process for managing content generation might help us make those improvements.

2) Identify the people who are going to use the process

This is key. If you yourself will not actually be facilitating a process you develop, it will almost certainly die. You need the specific, relevant individuals on your team to not only believe in it, but own it, or it will go unused.

I no longer develop processes for the company and simply present them to the team to be used. I now work with the team to develop processes and the team figures out what checklists and supporting documents they need to make the process work.

3) Find the tools that will allow you to run the process

These tools don't have to be expensive. We use a lot of free software like Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and Trello. Your tools don't have to be fancy; they just need to be accessible so that the people on the team who are using them can get to them easily.

4) Use the process

We've realized that every time we use a process it's going to change. That's just how it goes. There will be specific parts of your processes that won't get altered for long periods of time, but in general, as you use them, be attentive to contrast, taking note of the stuff you'll want to take some time to analyze and eventually change.

5) Modify the process

At some point, you'll need to dedicate the time to analyze your processes, make the adjustments, and then test those modifications. This is a continuous cycle if you want your processes to really work for you and provide a return on spending the time and resources to create them in the first place. Make sure it's your team who's taking ownership of this, not management.

Some pieces to facilitate the process

As we've developed a content generation process to produce better content, we've discovered that engaging the client and using these pieces have really made a big difference:

1) Use Strategy & 2) Pitch Content

We're trying to remove as much content responsibility and workload from the client as possible. We definitely need them invested and involved, but they've hired us as an extension of their team with the hopes that we'll free up their internal resources.To that end, we use the "unless we hear differently" model as often as we can throughout the content generation process.



Whether we're developing general brand or expert content stuff, we always take the initiative and pitch the intended direction of the content to the client. We use the goals we've set and the strategy we're working from, as well as trending topics, in order to determine the content we'll be writing.

3) Collect Data

When we're ready to collect data for the content, the client is familiar with the strategy that has been developed and what we're working toward. We've already done a great deal of listening so that we can come to the client and say (with confidence), "Hey, here's how we'd like this to go. Can we have your feedback?"

Once we've worked through some of these initial conversations, we send over a data collection (a template, if you will) that looks like this:

This data collection doc communicates our intent and requests the information we need. The "unless I hear differently" part comes into play in the suggested key takeaways and then asking the client to help us come up with additional details, photos, and anecdotes to support them.

This requires less work from the client, but involves them in the process. We've found that this also puts more meaning into the content because the client is participating by contributing the stories and first-hand experiences that we don't necessarily know (and that they sometimes forget to tell us during interviews and conversations about content).

4) Develop an outline with key takeaways

Once we get all of the information we need from data collection, we create a more thorough outline of the post to get another level of approval from the client before we proceed to first draft state. This saves a ton of time. From data collection to outline, things shift from the initial, proposed direction, so providing an official outline gives us the opportunity to once again communicate exactly what the client can expect and earn their feedback and approval.

In the official outline, if we have them available at that time, we will integrate all resources and media so that we're clearly communicating what we'll be writing about and what we'll be referencing. This provides the client with an opportunity to investigate the proposed resources and provide any direction change before we fully draft the content.

5) Provide a first draft with diagramming

Once we're ready to present the first draft of the content, there's a couple really important things we do before sending it across:

Indicate key takeaways (and feedback)

This part takes me back to my English teaching days. When we turn in the first draft, we actually diagram the post to illustrate the pieces of the original outline and where the key takeaways ended up. And, if the client provided some very specific direction or feedback to us, we make sure to indicate that they were heard by pointing those out in the diagramming.

This has really helped to reduce revisions because it's a subtle way to remind the client that what we are presenting in this content is what we've all agreed to throughout the process. And, as we're drafting the content, if we feel the need to go in a different direction, we use the diagramming as an opportunity to justify the change.

Provide the entire experience

When we provide the first draft of the content to the client, we sell it. We provide it in ready-to-publish form complete with links, videos, and photos embedded so that the client gets the full experience of what it would look like live.

Writing is a very personal thing and it's very easy to get emotionally invested in the content. Using data collection, outlines, and diagramming first drafts removes the emotion and keeps everyone accountable and focused on the content. If we're reminding the client why things are the way they are throughout our interactions, they're less likely to be distracted by new ideas or different approaches. We can rely on the process to keep the client (and, honestly, sometimes the writer) focused on the intent of this piece of content. And ultimately, this helps us create better content.

These deliverables have also streamlined the way we produce content and they really show the client that we get them and are trying to make life easier for them. Even though they are more involved in the process, we're displaying more initiative and skill which further reduces the burden on their end.

Working with the client in this way has earned more trust and flexibility. We're able to demonstrate better leadership, confidence, and how much we know (and care) about their business.

The more trust we earn and the more efficient the process becomes, the more we accomplish for our clients. But even with improved efficiency, there's only so much a small team can do in-house. In order to scale, we've got to recruit outside help.

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How do you build great content with contract writers?

Like I mentioned, a team like ours is too small to effectively write all of the content for our clients in-house. Using contract writers has allowed us to conveniently scale our content department and provide better content for our clients.

There are three really important things we've discovered as we've been building our base of trusted writers:

1) Find writers who are a value match

You've got to be willing to do your due diligence and hold out for writers who are a match for your values and expectations as a company.

2) Set them up for success

You need to spend time getting the writers invested in the client they are going to write for. Set them up for success by providing them with as much information about the client that you would expect your in-house, full-time team members to know.

3) Invest in their growth

Just like an employee, you need to be willing to help your writers grow. Writing is hard and even the best writers struggle. If you want to develop lasting relationships and continue to get great content from your contract writers, you've got to be willing to invest time in their growth and development.

As we're looking for great writers, we use a Google spreadsheet to keep track of the writers that we're interested in working with.

We review writing samples, check their references, and interview them in person or via video so that we can get a feel for whether they're a value match for us and that their writing style and voice will match up with one of our clients.

Once we've selected a writer, as they write for our clients, we assess their work. After they complete a few pieces of content for us, we can get a feel for their strengths. We can also identify trends. Do they honor their commitments with us? Do they communicate well? Are they responsive? Are they willing to learn? Maybe they're not a match for the client we have them paired with but they'd be great with another. We use the same Google spreadsheet to keep track of this stuff and also include any patterns we're noticing or feedback we're getting from clients about the content.

Helping your writers grow

No matter how well you qualify your writers, there will be a trial-and-error period with every single one. If you want long-term relationships with them, you've really got to invest the time (beyond this trial period) and continue to help them grow.

When we receive a piece of content from a writer, our in-house content strategist reviews it before it's handed off to the client for feedback. She reviews for quality, alignment of purpose, and also basic editing stuff. She diagrams the key takeaways to ensure that the content is on track with what the client approved in the outline/key takeaway part of the process.

If the post needs a little bit of work, our content strategist determines whether the edits are minor enough just to make them as she's diagramming, or if she needs to schedule time with the writer to have them adjust the post.

We are diligent about communicating with our writers. If they're learning and improving along the way, we're spending less time on revisions and providing our clients with the content they need to build their brand.

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An ongoing challenge

Content plays such a huge role when building a brand and a business. Trying some of these things in our content generation process has really helped us to create better partnerships with our clients, and certainly, better content.

This stuff may be working for us now, but we realize that building great content is always going to be hard (especially as the saturation problem gets worse). It's our job to continue pushing beyond what could just get us by and discover what's really going to make a difference in our clients' businesses.

Of course, this addresses just one small part of that challenge. I certainly have not covered everything that would help you build great contracted content for your clients. Share your secrets with me below.

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Mobile Site Audit Checklist

Posted by Kristina Kledzik

Now that it's 2014, the question isn't "should I build a mobile site?" It's "how do I build a good mobile site?" Mobile sites are, at their core, just sites; but redesigning your site for very small screens and linking your mobile site to your desktop site gives you a lot more to think about.

I've put together a checklist of a) aspects of mobile sites that are often broken yet overlooked, and b) optimization options that many people miss. Where you need more information, I've included a link rather than a full description, so that people smarter than me can help you with the details.

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Connecting your mobile site with your desktop site

Check your redirects

• Are redirects set up to get visitors to the specific page they were trying to view, not the homepage?


• Are mobile visitors redirected to the mobile version of the site?


• Are desktop visitors redirected to the desktop version of the site?

Allow mobile visitors to see the desktop version of the site

• Is that option easy to find?


• Once mobile visitors choose the desktop version of the site, will they remain on that version as they browse the site? Or will your redirects send them back to the mobile version of the site each time they click on a page?

Dynamically served sites: Check the Vary-HTTP header

• Have you set up a Vary-HTTP header to tell Google and browsers that you vary the HTML by user agent?

Separate URL sites: Check rel=alternate/canonical tags

• Are desktop pages set up with a rel="alternate" tag pointing to the mobile version of that page?
  
  
  
  • In the header, add: <link rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)" href="http://m.domain.com" />
  
  
  
  


• Are mobile pages set up with a rel="canonical" tag pointing to the desktop version of that page?
  
  
  
  • In the header, add: <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.domain.com" />
  
  
  
  

Technical issues

Use Google Webmaster Tools to see if Google is having a hard time crawling your mobile site

Check Crawl > Crawl Errors and choose the Smartphone tab. This only shows URLs that are a problem for mobile crawling, but not standard desktops:

(We have one error. :( )

• Google will return pages that it's having a hard time crawling.

Check/add the mobile XML sitemap

• Have all mobile pages been submitted to Google via an XML sitemap in Google Webmaster Tools?


• Keep mobile pages separate from desktop pages; Google Webmaster Tools reports on the number of pages indexed by separate sitemap. If you keep the two separate, you'll be able to see if fewer mobile pages are indexed than desktop pages.

Review the mobile site as you would review any site

• Geoff Kenyon's Technical Site Audit Checklist is a great place to start.

Check the site speed for mobile devices

• Google offers an excellent page speed tool that gives a list of recommendations based on its crawl of your site.


• This is a more important step than it is in desktop optimization, since phones have less computing power and heavy coding and/or images will lead to an even slower mobile user experience.

Use server-side redirects

• Server-side redirects are generally faster, since they don't rely on the weaker computing power of a phone.


• On mobile websites, 301 and 302 redirects send the same message to search engines, so you can use either type, though Google recommends 302s whenever possible.

Design

View the site on a variety of mobile devices

• Does it look good on a number of phones?
  
  
  
  
  • Check the top phones on the market. Good examples are the iPhone (iOS), Samsung Galaxy S4 (Android), Nexus 5 (another Android), and Nokia Lumia 520 (Windows).
  
  
  • Check the top phones that your visitors use, as reported by your web analytics.
  
  
  
  


• Does it look good on a number of tablets?
  
  
  
  • Check the top tablets on the market. Good examples are the iPad (iOS), Samsung Galaxy Tab in multiple sizes (Android), Kindle Fire (Amazon), and Asus Transformer Book (Windows).
  
  
  • Check the top tablets that your visitors use, as reported by your web analytics. Pay attention to the top tablet sizes as well.
  
  
  
  

Check the size of links

• Are all links given a 28x28 pixel margin between other links, so they're easy to click with a finger?

Check that no elements rely on Flash

• iPhones can't render it at all, and it's slow on Android.


• Look for sneaky uses of Flash, like Flash Player for video.

Make sure the mobile site design matches the desktop site design

Use a viewport tag

• Set up a viewport tag to let mobile browsers resize pages so they fit devices perfectly.

Don't use pop-ups

• They're too easy to accidentally click and completely take the visitor away from the page s/he wants to be on.


• They slow down loading time.

Responsive sites: Review where elements end up

• On mobile versions of the site, are the most important elements at the top? Make sure you don't move important right hand elements, like the "add to cart" button, below all other content.


• On tablet versions of the site, does everything still make sense?

Navigation

Make sure visitors can reach all pages on the mobile site

• Often, navigation will be minimized due to space constraints. Don't let that happen; you just need training in how mobile navigation works.

Separate sites: Link to desktop-only pages as well as mobile pages

• Only offering a small portion of your desktop site to mobile visitors is frustrating.


• If visitors aren't interested in that content, including a link won't cause a problem because no one will click on it.


• If visitors are interested in that content, you can use analytics data to show that mobile visitors choose to click on that link.

Content

Map mobile to desktop pages

• There should be an equivalent mobile page for every desktop page.


• There may be more mobile than desktop pages, since it's often easier to navigate mobile sites if you break up the desktop content into multiple pages.


• In some instances, you may have extra mobile pages based on location capabilities, but it's still best to offer them in both versions, so visitors never feel like they can't find something they remembered on your site.

Edit wordy content

• Mobile visitors have to deal with small screens, and are often on the go and have less patience.


• Get the same message across as briefly as possible.

Remove unnecessary images

• They slow down page loading time and aren't needed to fill up extra screen space.


• Ads are particularly annoying on mobile screens, so if ads are a side business and not your primary source of revenue, consider cutting back on them on your mobile site.

Video

View videos on the mobile site to make sure they load and run properly

Use an HTML5 video player

• It's lightweight and easy for phones to render.


• If you're using a major hosting platform, you're probably already using an HTML5 video player.

Make your videos responsive

• Necessary if you have a responsive site, but still recommended if you don't. Since phones are different sizes, you want the video to snap to fit the screen width.


• If you're hosting YouTube, Vimeo, or your own videos, you can add a bit of code to make them responsive.


• If you're using a paid platform like Wistia, they may offer code to make videos responsive (Wistia's is Video Foam).

SERP differences

Does each page title look good on two lines?

• Google still gives you approximately 70 characters (512 pixels) in your page title, but the width of the screen forces the page title into two lines.

Does your meta description still work with only 120 characters?

• Google cuts off mobile meta descriptions at approximately 120 characters rather than 150 characters in their SERPs.

Is your mobile URL user-friendly and keyword rich?

• Google displays the mobile URL rather than the desktop URL for mobile searches, as long as redirects have been set up properly.

Final check

Run pages through the W3C's mobileOK checker to make sure you haven't missed any small coding errors. It's fairly finicky, but that makes sure it finds a lot of issues you may have overlooked.

Further reading on building a great mobile site:

Building Your Mobile-Friendly Site, a Distilled guide by me and Bridget Randolph

How to do a Mobile Site SEO Audit by Aleyda Solis

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