Knowledge Is King!

Below I present to you a list of the major ranking factors in Google Products, in no particular order. I’ve not done enough research to determine which are more important than others:

Title

Having your keyphrases placed strategically in your title tag can help you rank, just like with regular SEO.

Price

If you sell a product cheaper than your competition, you stand a better chance of ranking higher than places which sell it more expensively. Capitalism ftw.

Description

Having a well-thought-out and keyphrase rich description is important. As far as I can see, Google doesn’t crawl the URLs you submit to them for any ranking factors – they take all the information from your data submission, so a description can help you rank for long-tail phrases which you can’t cover in your title tag.

Data-Stuffing

Data stuffing is so the new keyword stuffing. What do I mean by data-stuffing? Well, in Google Base you have the options to upload data for all kinds of fields. Only the bare minimum are essential, and most are optional. In my experience, however, I’ve seen that adding more data-fields helps you rank higher and for more varied queries.

Fresh Data

This is actually a ranking factor which Google recommend to get higher rankings, so it would be remiss of me to not include it in this list!! Fresh data, as in updating your feed as often as possible or setting the scheduler to crawl your feed frequently, helps both your rankings and the accuracy of your data. Since Google doesn’t crawl your pages, it’s important to ensure your feed is up to date with the latest descriptions, prices and names.

Positive Reviews

Notice how I’ve not included pagerank (or mR) on this list? That’s because I’m not sure how important it is to have a trusted domain in the traditional SEO-sense. More importantly, I think, is having a trusted domain in the traditional sense of the word. How does Google measure that? With reviews. Getting positive reviews for your site helps a lot with Google Local, and it’s the same principle for Google Base. Although I’ve not listed these tips in order of importance, I think this is definitely one of the strongest ranking factors, particularly for competitive queries. So, to help you out with your Google Base rankings, I’ve listed below all of the sites which Google permits as review sites for use in Google Base. Before I list them though, I should point out that there’s one site which Google seems to favour above all others for trusted reviews. There’ll be no prizes for guessing who it is…. Yep, Google Checkout.

In my experience and research, Google Checkout reviews seem to count for more than reviews left on 3rd party sites. This does seem to make sense since these reviews are presumably more trusted by Google (since it controls the spam filtering and authentication) than 3rd party reviews. That said, it does mean you have to have Google Checkout enabled to profit from them!

An interesting aside here: it’s not something I’ve tested, but if I were building a ranking algorithm based on reviews, I would make the raw number of reviews count as a ranking factor, positive or negative. Why? Because this signifies trust and brand awareness. The more people that are leaving reviews about you, the bigger your brand is. Given Google’s shift towards brands recently, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a factor so bear this in mind when getting reviews.

Anyway, if you can’t get Google Checkout reviews, try some of the sites on this list (separated by US and UK sites, as they’re different!).

US Google Base Review Sites

dealtime.com
pricegrabber.com
cashbaq.com
epinions.com
flamingoworld.com
mrrebates.com
readprint.com
resellerratings.com
shopzilla.com
rateitall.com
reviewstream.com
mouthshut.com
pricespider.com
dooyoo.co.uk
mtbr.com
viewpoints.com
merchant-reviews.com
couponclock.com

UK Google Base Review Sites

pricegrabber.co.uk
reviewcentre.com
shopzilla.co.uk
ciao.co.uk
dealtime.co.uk
truste-marketing.co.uk
webuser.co.uk
maxxsave.co.uk
dooyoo.co.uk
resellerratings.com

From analysis of the top sites across many different searches, these are the sites which Google is reporting as trusted review sites. I’ve reviewed over 50 Google Products searches and probably at least 100 domains, and this is a list of all the review sites listed. There are probably others but they’re either very small sites or aren’t particularly trusted. These are the major ones.

There are plenty of ways of gaining reviews for your site, and I’m not going to go into detail on them here, but David Mihm has a solid post on getting local reviews and the process is exactly the same for products. Check it out, he links out to some great sources there too.

In conclusion, if you’re selling something, you should definitely be investing some time in Google Base as it can bring some great results pretty quickly.

Random Musing: by the way, while researching Google Base, I noticed that you can submit all kinds of stuff to them, from jobs to recipes to events to cars. As far as I can see, most of these uploads won’t net you much benefit, but I think it can only be a matter of time before we see Google Base results ranking in the main results for job queries, events and all manner of other queries. How long before getting reviews for your site becomes an integral part of the SEO process?

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Bloggers and webmasters are constantly wondering why Google is such a bully to some websites and why they are so positive toward others. What are the keys to building a successful presence on the search engine results pages? What are the most important SEO factors for getting your site discovered by Google’s search bot and how can we get in on the action?

If you’ve been wondering these things then this article is exactly what you need. Listed below are the 30 most important SEO factors. Pay attention to these factors and you’ll see a drastic improvement in your listings on Google, Yahoo and Bing.

THE 30 MOST VITAL & IMPORTANT SEO FACTORS

Don’t just debate which factors are the most important. Make it your goal to be the best that you can be in each of these 30 SEO factors.

1. Keyword anywhere in the title tag. Having a keyword or phrase in the title tag is the first step to letting the search engines know what your page is all about.
2. Keyword used as anchor text from external links. Inbound links from other domains that use your keyword as the anchor text are essential for SEO.
3. Authority of the domain. Google recognizes domains that have built a strong online presence and weighs their articles higher by default than others.
4. Genuinely high-quality, unique content on a page. This SEO factor is vital. The key to success at your blog is to create awesome content that people enjoy.
5. Page Rank of the domain. Domains with higher page rank are a sign that Google’s algorithm recognize that domain as having a strong online presence.
6. Keyword near the beginning of the title tag. It can be enough to simply place the keyword in the title tag. It can be even better to have it at the beginning of it.
7. A fresh, recently created page. Search engines are working to provide fresh, relevant content. Often old articles will eventually fade off of their listings.
8. Keyword anywhere in the domain name. Sites often rank well for the keywords that are contained in their domain name.
9. The number of external links to a page. Every link to a page is like a vote. The more links that your site gets, the more popular Google knows that your site is.
10. Keyword anywhere in an H1 tag. Google knows that the most important information on the page is in the heading tag. Take the time to make yours count.
11. Diversity of external link sources. It’s great to have a dozen links from another site. It’s even better to have one link each from a dozen sites.
12. Links from social media sources. Search engines perk pay attention when they see you creating content that your followers enjoy so much that they share it.
13. Keyword as anchor text in in your internal links. It’s great to use other pages on your site to link to the page in question using your keyword as the anchor text.
14. A good ratio of text vs. html. Google is looking for content to give to their users. Not just html. Write great articles with real content.
15. Keyword as anchor text to outbound links. Search engines like to see you linking to other relevant sites. Your keyword as the anchor text is a great way to do it.
16. The page rank of the page. The Page Rank of a page is the numerical representation of the overall authority that Google views your page as having.
17. Keyword used within the first 100 words on the page. Those concepts and terms that are used early in an article are viewed as the most essential.
18. Length of the remaining domain registration. Spammers often register domains for very short periods of time.
19. Keyword in the page URL. Google pays attention to sites with keywords in their permalinks. Make yours contain terms that describes the content of each article.
20. Relevancy of external sites linking to the page. Links from other sites that are on the same or similar topics are more valuable than random links from anywhere.
21. Keyword in smaller headlines like H2 – H6. Although these are less important than the H1 header tag, they are still very important.
22. The existence of a meta description for your page. Providing a meta description is a great way to show Googler’s what the page is about.
23. Keyword as the alt text for an image. Using a key phrase as the alt text of an image is a tried and true way of earning better listings.
24. A page that is HTML valid to W3C Standards. Some independent studies have shown that Google favors valid code.
25. Keyword repeated throughout the content. Have the same phrase repeated throughout an article makes it clear what the page is about.
26. Links to trustworthy external pages on the domain. Search engines like it when our articles are filled with links to good, reliable resources.
27. Keyword in the and tags. Words and phrases wrapped in these tags are considered as more important than standard text.
28. Internal link popularity. A page must be important if dozens of articles across it’s own domain are pointing toward it.
29. Keyword density. How often is your keyword used in comparison to how much text is on the page?
30. The presence of an XML sitemap. Google likes it when you provide them with an easy-to-read overview of all the pages on your site.

Reflecting on the Most Important SEO factors

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SUMMARY: Need inspiration for your next email test? Here are five examples of successful tests shared by presenters at our recent Email Marketing Summit.

Read on for five ideas you can incorporate into your 2010 testing plans. Includes tests to help improve:
o Opt-in tactics
o Personalization
o Design and layout
o Video links
o Frequency
It’s still early enough in the year to plan a series of tests that can improve the effectiveness of your email marketing programs. To get you started, we’ve compiled five test ideas to consider, which were shared by a presenter at our recent Email Marketing Summit in Miami.

Some tests focus on simple changes, such as personalizing “from” lines and subject lines. Others require a little more work, such as email template changes and frequency tests. But each test described below delivered meaningful improvements in a marketer’s key metrics, such as opt-in rates, open rates, clickthroughs and revenue.

Here are five tests to consider:

Test idea #1. Opt-in incentives

Although your email newsletters, alerts and other programs should provide enough value to attract subscribers, you also can offer an immediate reward for new opt-in registrations.

Consider providing a tangible incentive for new opt-ins, such as a coupon or free gift. Adrian Olvera, Sr. Marketing Consultant, Dell, and his team tested the impact of a coupon incentive for new opt-ins during the holiday shopping season.

They offered 20% off select products for new opt-ins. Result:
o 14x lift in average opt-in rate during the holiday season

Test idea #2. Personalization

Multiple speakers at the Summit reminded attendees about the value of personalizing email communications. The closer marketers can get to creating a sense of one-to-one communication with their email messages, the better the response is likely to be.

To know for sure, test personalizing your messages for both the sender and the recipient.

John Mast, VP Marketing, Expedia CruiseShipCenters, shared the results of his team’s personalization tests:

- First, they began sending emails from a real consultant in their travel agent network — i.e., from “Cathy Cruiser” rather than the from the generic Expedia CruiseShipCenters email address.

Results:
o 5.5% higher open rate
o 23% higher clickthrough rate
o Less likely to be unsubscribed, or flagged by subscribers as spam

- Next, they personalized the subject line with the recipient’s first name — “Dave, Your 7 Day Alaskan Cruise Awaits.”

Result:
o 10% lift in open rates

Test idea #3. Call-to-action placement and button size

Email design and layout tests are another prime area to find improvements. Moves as simple as increasing the size, shape or color of buttons, and the placement of those calls-to-action, can often deliver a meaningful boost in key metrics.

Shinn Chen, Marketing Manager, Salesforce.com, shared the results of his team’s template redesign. As part of a broader redesign, they made two changes to highlight the calls-to-action:

- Call-to-action was moved from a small box on right side of messages to just below the message’s headline and subhed, in line with the rest of the body copy.

- Clickable buttons were made much larger (see Creative Samples below).

- Results:
o CTR increased 26%-27%

Test idea #4. Video links

Video content is an important element to test in your email campaigns. Watching online video is one of the most popular activities on the Internet: In 2008, there were more videos watched online than there were searches on Google, according to MarketingSherpa’s “Marketing with Video Report.”

Technical issues and deliverability hurdles make embedding video directly into email a significant challenge for marketers, but you can still promote video content in your messages by:
o Displaying a screenshot of the video
o Embedding a link for video playback

Rick Chin, Solutions Marketing Manager, Interactive Intelligence, described how his team has been including video screenshots and playback links in their email newsletters. The new content has proved exceptionally popular with subscribers:
o Video links receive double or triple the number of clicks as text links

Test idea #5. Email frequency

Many marketers establish their email frequency based on assumptions and industry best practices, such as monthly newsletters or weekly product offers. But best practices are a starting point for further tests — not necessarily the best approach for your programs.

Testing can determine the optimal frequency for a specific email program: The point at which you maximize revenue from those messages without increasing the rate of unsubscribes.

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Director, MarketingExperiments, described a test his team performed with an ecommerce partner selling special-occasion gifts:

- They identified a highly motivated and loyal segment of the partner’s email list for the test.

- Over the course of 60 days, they tested various message frequencies to that segment, ranging from one message every other day to one message every three weeks.

- They monitored monthly revenue from email along with unsubscribe rates.

- Results:
o Sending an email once every other day increased revenue 3x compared to sending email once a week
o Unsubscribe rates on a per-message basis did not rise significantly

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