Introducing UpDog: Untangling the World of Social Media Barketing

Posted by DavidPierce

[Estimated read time: 3 minutes]

Technology makes it easier than ever to learn about people and the world around you. Despite significant progress, however, the tech community has left a gaping hole unaddressed: the tools available to our dogs to engage in social media marketing are completely unsatisfactory.

So, what's UpDog?

UpDog is our new company-wide initiative to bring the benefits of human social media marketing to the canine world. If you haven't noticed, we love dogs here at Moz.

A photo posted by Moz (@moz_hq) on Aug 26, 2015 at 1:01pm PDT

We're uniquely positioned to hear and empathize with the needs of our aspiring barketers. Now that we have finished our second-quarter planning, we're ecstatic to share that the future is looking up for dogs! We intend to strategically fold canine marketing tools into all of our platforms.

Feeling skeptical? Not sure this is right for your social media barketing strategy? Well, check out what Moz's founder has to say:

"Every day, when I walk to work, hop on a plane, or speak at a conference, I see them. Thousands of humans, buried in their phones, swiping for hours through potential dating partners or friends' baby photos or short videos surrounded by crayon scratches. It made me realize — it's not fair that only our species gets this privilege. We need to be thinking about Earth's other inhabitants too, especially our best friends, dogs."
– Rand Fishkin

#InternetOfDogs

Before we can make progress on improving the landscape of marketing tools for dogs, we have to improve the state of content creation itself. That's why we're hereby announcing the Moz Bark-Activated InstaShot Pro tool!

We developed this sophisticated technology in-house so we could precisely meet the needs of our furry friends in the office. Each device is uniquely associated with your dog, and connects to WiFi to upload photos to the cloud.

Simply bark, upload, and watch the Likes and Hearts roll in for days. Want a taste of the kind of 10x content YOUR dog can start creating without the help of opposable thumbs? Take a look!:

Choose from your favorite filters to give your canine perspective that modern human touch!

Gratuitous pictures of breakfast, lunch, and dinner have gone to the dogs!

Duckface? Welcome to the new obsession to sweep millennial pups — dogface!

Seriously, watch out — dogs love selfies.

This whole new perspective is sure to draw tons of new followers, likes, and shares!

Beautiful design for beautiful dogs

The device itself is sleek and beautiful. Our design team turned to the past to inspire the device of the future.

This led us to a design that seamlessly blends with all shapes, sizes, and colors. Moreover, our innovative strategy for collar customization means no dog will have to compromise to match their (probably broodingly artistic) mood on any given day.

We'll launch with our original RogerPup model, and are working on partnerships with top designer brands to innovate on iterations of future collars.

Looking ahead

As the year progresses, keep your eyes out for improvements, integrations, and renewed focus on shaping our tools for the barketers of the world! Here's what we have in the pipeline for the coming months:

• Followerwonk – Explore the success of your top Treats on your Twitter account. Compare your main competitors, animalyze trends, and track scents!

Click to open a bigger version in a new tab!

• Moz Local – Understand what drives traffic to your favorite park benches, fire hydrants, and light poles.

Be sure your local search barketers know what a zip code is first, though.

• Moz Content – Support both the analysis and posting of blog posts powered by our top-notch Bark Translation Team.

Our newest product will turn over an even newer leaf with cutting-edge bark-to-speech software!

The possibilities are as limitless as an off-leash dog park!

We're confident this is only the beginning, and we can't wait to see what the future holds as we continue to evolve our business model to meet the avid marketing demands of our furry comrades.

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Do Most Americans Check Their Smartphones in the Bathroom?

What percentage of Americans adults uses smartphones while in the restroom? To find out the answer to that essential question, Phrasee polled 940 people age 18 and older in the United States. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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How to Achieve 100/100 with the Google Page Speed Test Tool

Posted by FelixProOptimization

Website loading speed is a priority for the overall user experience, and it’s also one of the hundreds of SEO ranking factors. Truth is, nowadays people don’t have the patience to wait more than five seconds for a page to load. If your website is not loading fast enough, you will lose potential customers.

With more than 50% of online traffic coming from mobile devices, everyone expects a site to load almost instantaneously. With that in mind, in this article, I will show you how we managed to score 100/100 with Google PageSpeed Insights Tool for Monitor Backlinks for both desktop and mobile.

The motivation

Our site was loading quite fast already, but we knew there’s always a way to make it even better.

One day, while playing with the PageSpeed Tool, I noticed Google’s website had a terrible score for mobile devices, 59/100. The desktop version was doing better at 95/100.

Maybe they should use their tool to improve their website, right?

That’s what pushed us to make our site load faster and prove you can get 100/100. It’s not an obsession; it’s aiming to be perfect.

We started at 87/100.

Here’s the result we got after implementing some of the techniques I’m about to share with you.

How to make pages load faster

Before I start showing the exact steps we followed, let me tell you that the PageSpeed tool is only a guideline for best web performances practices. It provides recommendations for optimizing your website for page load speed, and achieving favorable results depends on how your server environment is set up.

While some of these steps require technical expertise, others do not. Note that they can be followed using almost any content management system (CMS).

Step #1: Optimize images

The PageSpeed Insights Tool suggested that we optimize our images to load faster by reducing their file size. To solve this problem, we did two significant things:

• Compressed all images using tools like Compressor.io and TinyPNG. These tools are free and can reduce image file size by more than 80% in some cases, without decreasing the quality of the image.
• Reduced the size of the images to minimal dimensions without decreasing image quality. For example, if we wanted to have a picture at 150x150px on our website, that’s exactly the size the picture should have been on our server. You should never have larger images than what you want them to render at, nor reduce their size using CSS or HTML tags.

We downloaded each of our images, then manually compressed and resized them. After optimizing these images, it’s best to make a habit of optimizing all the new images you upload to your server. Each new image should be compressed and resized.

Google also offers the option to download your already optimized images, and you can just upload them to your server. You can do the same with JavaScript and CSS.

Step #2: Minify CSS & JavaScript

Google was now telling us that we had to minify our JavaScript and CSS files.

The minifying process reduces the sizes of your files by eliminating unnecessary white spaces, characters, and comments from your CSS and JavaScript files. Programmers will often

leave many spaces and comments while coding. These can even double the size of your CSS and JavaScript files.

To fix this problem, we installed Gulpjs on our server. The tool automatically creates a new CSS file and removes all spaces. It also creates a new CSS file automatically for all the new changes you are making. In our case, it helped us decrease the size of our main CSS file from approximately 300kb to 150kb. The difference was all in unnecessary characters. For more instructions on how to remove white spaces, check Google’s guide.

If you are using Wordpress, I recommend you to install the plugin Autoptimize.

You can also download the optimized files from the PageSpeed Tool. Here’s an example:

Below is the result we got after minifying CSS and JavaScript.

Step #3: Leverage browser caching

For many website operators leveraging browser caching is the most challenging part.

To fix this problem, we moved every statical file from our website to a CDN (content delivery network).

A CDN is a network of servers located at various sites around the world. They are capable of caching the static version of websites, such as images, CSS, and JavaScript files. The CDN stores copies of your website’s content on its servers, and when someone lands on your site, the static content is loaded from the server closest to them.

For example, if your website’s main server is from Texas, without a CDN, a visitor from Amsterdam would have to wait for the server to load the site all the way from the U.S.A. With a CDN, your site is loaded from a location that’s closer to the user. In this case, this is a place closer to Amsterdam. Therefore, the website will load faster.

Here’s a visual representation from GTmetrix of how a CDN works.

We moved all images, JavaScript, and CSS files onto the CDN and kept only the HTML file on our main server. Hosting your images on a CDN will make a big difference in how fast your pages load for website visitors.

After we did this, the PageSpeed tool still annoyingly suggested that we leverage our browser caching for some third-party resources. Here’s a screenshot:

We fixed the social media scripts problem by replacing the counters provided by them with some static images hosted on the CDN. Instead of having third-party scripts that were trying to access data from Twitter, Facebook, or Google Plus to get the followers count, we hosted these ourselves and fixed the problem.

Even more frustrating than the social media scripts problem was that the Google’s Analytics code was slowing our website.

To solve the Google Analytics script problem, we did something rather difficult. As we didn’t want to remove Analytics from our website, we had to find a different solution.

The Analytics code is rarely modified by Google more than once or twice per year. Therefore, Razvan created a script that runs every eight hours to verify when the Analytics code was last modified. The script downloads the Analytics code again only if new changes are found. This way, we can host the Analytics JavaScript code on our server without having to load it from Google’s servers on every visit.

If no changes have occurred, then the Analytics code will load from the cached version on our CDN.

When Google modifies its JavaScript code again, our server will automatically download the new version and upload it to the CDN. We used this script for all external third-party scripts.

Here’s a screenshot from Pingdom Tools showing how everything loads from the CDN, including the Analytics code. The only file loading from our server is the homepage file, which is only 15.5 KB. Eliminating all third-party scripts hugely improved the overall loading speed.

Step #4: Eliminate render-blocking resources above the fold

Eliminating render-blocking is one of the most complicated parts of improving page load speed because it requires more technical knowledge. The main problem we had to deal with was moving all JavaScript code from the header and the body to the footer at the bottom of pages across the website.

If you are using Wordpress, the Autopmize plugin I suggested above should help you with this task. Check its settings, then uncheck “Force JavaScript in <head> and check “Inline all CSS.”

Step #5: Enable compression

Implementing the enable compression suggestion can be done simply in your server's settings. If you are not very technical, you can ask your technical support team to enable GZIP compression for your server.

Step #6: Optimize the mobile experience

The mobile experience is all about showing a responsive mobile version for all different types of resolutions, using correct fonts, and having a good navigation system.

You can test how your website looks in different mobile versions using Google Chrome. Click on the hamburger menu on the top right side, and then on “More Tools - Developer Tools.” On the left side, you can select to see what your website looks like in different mobile resolutions.

In our case, there weren’t many changes to be made.

Conclusion

These are the most important steps we’ve followed to make Monitor Backlinks score 100/100 with Google’s Speed Tool. We didn’t optimize only the homepage. We also optimized an internal page, the free backlinks checker.

The three most important actions you can take to improve your website are:

1. Use a CDN (content delivery network).
2. Fix the render-blocking issues. (Avoid having JavaScript in the body of the coding. Your JavaScript code should be placed at the bottom of the files.)
3. Optimize the size of images and compress them.

Has your team undertaken such a project for your website? If so, what were your results?

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The Healthy Skeptics and the AdWords Redesign: Weekly Forum Update

Skepticism is a healthy thing to have in the SEO world. If there’s one thing I learned from Fathom, it’s that you should always be hunting for the truth with your own hands and eyes.

That’s not to say that you should never listen to anyone else…too much skepticism turns to paranoia. But this week, we’ve got some great threads with a healthy amount of skepticism in them. They’re simply dripping with juicy morsels and a sense of progress.

Let’s take a look!

E.U. Considering a Tax on Google Showing Snippets

Sound ridiculous, right? Well, the war between Google and the E.U. is being fought on many different fronts – some of them are bound to be strange and arcane. According to an article from Ars Technica, the tax

“…would require search engines and possibly others to pay for using short extracts to link to articles on other sites.”

WebmasterWorld user topr8 says that

“I should think it [has] nothing to do with snippets but more working out a way to try and tax Google and other big players.”

Another user, Andy Langton, provides some context:

“This is primarily targeting Google News. Spain already introduced a law, which is why Google closed Google News in Spain.”

Ahh, yes – you may remember that announcement as a blip on the news radar. Traffic to Spanish publishers fell through the floor and Google packed up its toys and went home.

Other WebmasterWorld users suspect the same thing will happen across the E.U. if this tax goes into effect. But big E.U. publishers are still eager to have it passed – perhaps as a way of absolutely crushing their smaller competitors.

Is A Higher Bounce Rate Inherently Bad?

As the admin of a forum myself, this is a topic that I find to be particularly fascinating! There are many blog posts and forum dwellers out there who say that you should strive for a high bounce rate – but the concept has never struck me as being black and white like that. Cre8asiteforums user Robert_Paulson writes,

“My hypothesis is that some sites…have pages that adequately answer a visitor’s question in a single page.”

User Black_Knight says that bounce rate is not always bad. In two specific cases that he outlines, bounce rate can be good. But otherwise, it is very often bad

“…because you are completely in the dark. You have no idea who they were, or what impression they took away.”

The solution is to gather more data – and you can do just that in this fascinating thread! One of the best I’ve read in a long time on the topic..

How SEO Best Practices Become Irrelevant

Remember our theme of healthy skepticism? Here’s a great thread all about it from WebmasterWorld. When you believe that the rules of SEO were set in stone decades ago, you lose your flexibility.

User martinibuster writes that

“SEO is very much like scripture. The original authors and reasons behind SEO Best Practices are buried in time. As one generation… handed down best practices to the next… these practices were accepted because they have always worked, yet without actually knowing how the best practices came about.”

In other words – we work with things that we blindly accept to be true. And in this masterfully written post, martinibuster will tell you why you should never do that.

As an example, there’s the idea that linking out to .gov and .edu sites is a good idea. But linking out to them in excess, and for the sole purpose of improving SEO, makes no sense.

“Link because it makes sense to link. Don’t write an article and drop a handful of links…because that is the definition of rote SEO.”

Due Diligence In Affiliate Promotion

If you’re promoting a product or creating affiliate pages, it stands to reason that you should be diligent. But how, asks Cre8asiteforums user Robert_Paulson, do you do your research?

Do you purchase and use the product yourself? How can that be a sustainable practice? User EGOL speaks about being frugal:

“I don’t spend a lot of money outside of work… I don’t spend much on clothes…But, if you take anything away from what I have written here [it] should be that I don’t hesitate to spend whatever it takes when publishing content.”

Here’s an excellent thread about managing money, producing quality, and being diligent!

Facebook Testing “Anti-Impersonation” Tool

Ever been impersonated on Facebook? If you’re like me, you never dreamed that it could happen. But it can and it does. Facebook is now developing a tool that will alert you when someone steals your name and face on their platform. WebmasterWorld user bill writes

“There’s an entire industry revolving around fake profiles.”

Part of the new tool will be asking users to identify themselves. Bill asks, is it possible that this tool’s structure indicates the scope of Facebook’s problem with fake profiles? What’s your experience?

AdWords is Getting a Redesign

For 15 years, the interface of AdWords has stood like a Sphinx in the sands…ancient and mysterious. Well, Google will be putting the nose back on that sphinx throughout 2016 and 2017.

The entire interface of AdWords is getting a cosmetic overhaul. Google says that all the functions and inner-workings will stay the same, though. It will just be easier to use.

Supposedly, they’ll be taking webmaster feedback into account and claim that the new Adwords “will be focused on marketers’ needs and objectives” instead of Google’s own products and features.

You can check out a discussion of the issue on WebmasterWorld as well, where users are somewhat skeptical of Big G’s intentions. User tangor wonders where additional data will be collected from and what it is.

“Will it impact users (bandwidth/privacy/etc)? This almost sounds like a let’s fix something that ain’t broke kind of thing….”

User shri says that nothing will fix AdWords for them:

“For me, no amount of redesigning will replace the trust I’ve lost in their ‘Quality Score’ and the 1000%+ increase in CPC over the years and precise geo ip targeting.”

Google Finally Reveals Top 3 Ranking Factors; Surprises No One

You’ll never believe what Google considers to be the top three ranking factors! Well, ok, you will. They are, in order,

“Links, Content, RankBrain.”

Hardly a shocker – but perhaps the details in this Threadwatch story will help you prove something to your clients!

Has Traffic Dropped Since The Removal of Sidebar Ads?

SEO Chat user JSTucker says that

“One of my clients has experienced a 24% drop in organic traffic over the last 28 days…[with] no obvious explanations.”

They’re an ecommerce business, so JSTucker wonders if the removal of sidebar ads could be part of the problem. A few days later, they report a sudden boost – wild fluctuations tend to spook us all.

Users in this thread are still investigating whether it’s a sidebar issue or just a normal part of advertising on Google. Have you seen any fluctuations?

Is Something Fishy Happening To Google SERPs?

Stay skeptical – but some users on WebmasterWorld are reporting weird activity in the SERPs lately. Searches seem to be returning extremely non-relevant results.

On March 28, WebmasterWorld admin engine wrote

“I ran some searches today and, wow, the SERPs look awful. So many non-relevant sites appearing. .ru, .com, .fr, appearing and none were what I was looking for.”

User aristotle speculates that it could be RankBrain:

“RankBrain is supposed to improve relevance, but it probably needs some time to self-learn from its mistakes. So the results might have to get worse before they get better.”

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The post The Healthy Skeptics and the AdWords Redesign: Weekly Forum Update appeared first on Internet Marketing Ninjas Blog.

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North Korea officially blocks Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

North Korea has officially announced it is blocking Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and South Korean websites in a move underscoring its concern with the spread of online information.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications announcement was posted this week at the country's main mobile service provider, Koryolink, and other places serving Internet users.

Very few North Koreans have Internet access. Typically they can see only a sealed-off, government-sanctioned intranet. But foreigners had previously been able to surf the Web with almost no overt restrictions, though most likely with behind-the-scenes monitoring of their Internet activities. Read more...

More about Social Media, North Korea, and Tech

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Introducing Google Tag Manager for Real World Tags

Google Tag Manager is great for easily deploying and organizing all your site and app tags. But what about the complex problem of tags in the real world? Libraries, dentist offices, and college universities are a big mess of file folders with complex tagging systems. (The Dewey Decimal System for example dates all the way back to 1876!) Street artists have to manually spray paint their tags, and retailers have to keep track of tags on their wares. Conservationists and marine biologists tag animals such as sharks in order to fully understand their behaviors. But how to wrangle your universe of real-world items is the question.

The Tag Manager team thought deeply about this issue and decided there had to be a better way to manage the broad spectrum of real world tags. Finding things like folders by numerical sorting in stacks of thousands is simply too difficult. What if one is out of place? That’s why today we’re excited to announce Google Tag Manager for real world tags!

Simply place the patented Google Tag Manager RFID tag on what you want to manage, such as the above LP, and we’ll do the rest.

Feature Overview 
Google Tag Manager for real world tags seeks to automagically inventory, categorize and help manage your real world tags no matter what variety they are. And by using the power of the cloud, the hard work will get done for you!

Inventory
Once placed on the desired item, Google Tag Manager for real world tags will create a record of that item in your Tag Manager dashboard. Now you have a record of this item from your mobile device or workstation, so you can manage it from anywhere in the world.

Automatic Categorization 
We’ll automatically determine what’s going on with your items and scan their contents in real-time. So whether you’re tagging a shark, or just tagging your lunch in the break room refrigerator, our tag management technology will discern what’s being tagged appropriately, and help you easily turn on the set of functions specific to your use case (for example, tracking down your missing leftovers). 

Edit & Create Rules 
You can create rules for your tags without having to even go back to your physical item. For example, are you a street artist? Simply stick one of our RFID stickers on the wall next to your tags, and change the color or style from anywhere in the world through our easy to use interface.

Speaking of sharks, are you a marine biologist? We've got you covered. No longer do you have to manually tag each animal you're tracking one by one. With our new fleet of Google Tag Manager Real World Drones, simply setup a trigger for the animals you're working to protect, and the drones will gently and humanely deploy the necessary tags to all relevant animals:

How to get started ... 
We’ll be releasing Google Tag Manager for real world tags in the coming weeks, and shipping 10,000 physical tags to each registered user of Google Tag Manager to get started. The first release will require you to manually update your tags, but of course you only need to re-tag your items once - after that, it’s smooth sailing.

Happy Tagging!

Posted by the Google Tag Manager Team .
...and yes, April Fools.

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