April 2, 2019 at 17:26Case: get off the needle of contextual advertising on free SEO-traffic
This case can be divided into 2 parts. The first part is short - in it is the essence. The second part is the details of the work. Those who have experience in the field can only get acquainted with the first part. For those who are interested in the details (someone will seem obvious and banal) - for you the second part.
We worked with a client for 45,000 p. per month. This amount mainly consisted of site software changes + SEO support (initial optimization, usability work, news optimization and other minor improvements).
The budget was distributed as follows: 90% - site improvements, 10% - SEO. Subject - plastic windows, region Udmurt Republic.
In parallel, another company was working on contextual advertising. This is how traffic was distributed.
It should be borne in mind that some of the clicks from search engines are the same traffic from Yandex.Direct, so there was less actual SEO traffic.
So we worked a year. We were engaged in edits, did small-scale SEO optimization of news and other materials.
Contextual advertising has proven to be an extremely expensive tool. I don’t know the budgets, but the company decided to stop working with directors and focus on SEO traffic.
What we did as part of the traffic buildup:
As a result, we received about the same 300-400 users a week and completely replaced contextual advertising, thus saving a decent amount for the client.
After a complete rejection of advertising, I saw a “breakdown” on the chart). It’s probably just that the ad doesn't let go. This is visible on the chart. After this outbreak, there was no relapse).
The situation at the start looked promising:
Almost immediately after indexing, traffic went to the site. Why?
The main reason is that advertising began to work actively. Other reasons:
1. Good site structure. Products and services are divided into separate pages:
2. Availability of add. functionality, calculators, window visualization, etc. In the subject matter, this is more likely not additional. functional, and standard.
3. Clear, unloaded design.
We will not go deep into the wilds of design. Everything is subjective.
4. Commercial factors
A) The ability to make an order / measurement - clear positioning as a commercial resource;
B) Product cards, a detailed description of all the characteristics;
C) Discounts and promotions;
D) Availability of price. Not “from 10,000”, not the “Get a price” button, namely the price.
E) The presence of all certificates, details, any documents that can be shown. It is important to make a separate page for this.
E) Do not forget about the user agreement and personal data.
I) Examples of work (if any).
You can continue for a long time. I’ll give you two relevant sources, something like a “Checklist”.
1) Link to an article with research from Ashmanov and partners - for more advanced ones. There is everything in detail
2) www.seonews.ru/analytics/predpoletnaya-podgotovka-chto-nuzhno-sdelat-s-internet-magazinom-do-nachala-seo-prodvizheniya - for the owners themselves. Suitable for tasking performers. The article is boring, but the information is relevant. I recommend you to familiarize yourself.
Next, primary optimization was performed. This is preparation for advancement. Absolutely necessary for all websites. Did everything 20 working days.
You can do the initial optimization yourself, for this there is a lot of “Check-lists”. Google “SEO Checklist 2019”. Optimization will take from 10 days of your time (provided that you do not know anything) to infinity. An average SEO specialist will do it in 1-2 weeks (depending on the site).
1. Get started with SEO BEFORE building your site. Here is the procedure:
1) The semantic core (a list of queries on your topic from wordstat.yandex.ru);
2) Site structure (using the x-mind program or analogues);
3) Design (for computers and mobile devices, which is obvious);
4) Layout (do not forget the micro-markup, more details here yandex.ru/support/webmaster/schema-org );
5) Primary optimization (what I wrote above);
6) Promotion (links, reviews, content).
2. There is an Yandex algorithm - a multi-armed bandit ( you can read hereor just google it), which temporarily throws your site in the TOP for high-frequency queries. If the bounce rate is low, the site remains in the TOP. The conclusion is obvious - we try to please users immediately.
3. An ideal combination at the very beginning of work - SEO + context. In the first couple, advertising gives a good impetus to behavioral factors, which at the moment is one of the most important metrics of search engines.
Recommendation to any business (especially a beginner) - make cases from everything. Put a window - take pictures, sell training - take feedback, etc.
In the first month, the site had only 2-3 photos of finished work on installing windows / loggias / balconies.
Prepared a content plan for the placement of works. Short:
Posted articles on the landing pages (not all, but only on the landing page). With the texts are not pinched. They did not set strict TK for copywriters, in some they did not even prescribe keys. We tried to make it as clear as possible to people. Our opinion is that texts do not play a big role in this topic. Everyone understands what a plastic window is. 500-700 characters will be enough, we indicate in them the features of a particular model and how easier it is to purchase it.
Started collecting feedback. In our case, everything is 100% real, indicating the contract:
If you are just starting out, you can post fake ones. Only not 100 at a time. And not necessarily positive. Dilute neutral. Negative is better not to post.
There is no blog on the site, but I would highly recommend it to all business owners. The best content is made by a regular phone and photos + description of objects.
Unusual situations at the conclusion of contracts, curiosities, pitfalls, subtleties of pricing. All this makes your company live. This is better than any congratulations on the New Year and other holidays (although this is good).
A few guidelines for blogging as an SEO tool:
Our goal (if we are talking about SEO) is to increase the viewing depth and time spent on the site and reduce the bounce rate.
Yandex viewing depth is the number of pages a user viewed in one visit to the site (https://yandex.ru/support/metrika/general/glossary.html)
Google viewing depth is similar.
Google bounce rate - In Google Analytics, a session is considered a failure during which only one request to the Google Analytics server was activated (for example, if a user opened one page of a site and left it without activating other requests). (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009409?hl=en)
Yandex Bounce Rate - A visit is considered a failure if the following conditions are simultaneously met for it:
1) during the visit no more than one pageview was recorded;
2) the duration of the visit is less than the time set for the calculation of failures (15 seconds by default);
3) the official event “failure” was not recorded.
(https://yandex.ru/support/metrika/general/glossary.html)
In a simple way - if a person reads only the previews on your blog and then closes the site - Google will consider this as a refusal, and Yandex as a visit if he It has been on the page for more than 15 seconds.
We checked the sites in Google-business and Yandex-directory (a small instruction how to place it in this article vk.com/@nfdude-11-otvetov-pro-yandex-spravochnik ). Briefly:
1) Is the address correct?
2) Is there a logo;
3) Are all the required fields filled out;
4) Are there any reviews.
Purchased links. Only about 40 pieces. How we buy links is written in the article (by the way, you can also read it on the official GGL blog - one of the link exchanges ).
Each niche has its own forum / website / social network where a large number of audiences are concentrated. The window niche is no exception.
www.oknamedia.ru is the largest portal where window companies and reviews about them are concentrated. From all over Russia. It would seem - write fake reviews there, get leads and everything is in chocolate. But no.
However, we still used this portal as best we could. It turned out about 10 reviews per month. Used two services:
1. Workzilla.ru;
2. Advego.com.
The problem statement is a separate topic for the article. This is a whole science that we have yet to understand.
An SEO link is a link created to influence search algorithms. The ability to place SEO links on intermediary sites is often bought on special services - link exchanges or aggregators. Therefore, they are often called “purchased” or “corrupt”.
SEO links are an attempt to trick a search engine by artificially increasing the credibility of a site. They do not improve the quality of the site and do not carry a positive signal for ranking. Therefore, Yandex considers SEO links search spam. (https://yandex.ru/support/webmaster/yandex-indexing/algorithm-minusinsk.html).
There was an unpleasant moment. The domain was with history (unfortunately, we did not check this).
You can check with any service, for example, serpstat.com/ru or the same checktrust.
No filters were found, but there were a lot of junk links.
A garbage link (our definition) is a link from a substandard in terms of design, usability, content and meaning in the whole resource. An example is www.krasland.ru/cat/?n=29160&kt=1 .
Often such sites are created specifically for placement of rental links. Probably, the site was previously functioning, and then it was abandoned for several years. Perhaps then these links were bought.
Pros: the site has a link mass, with an adequate anchor list (anchor is the link text). What is an adequate anchor list will be discussed in the following articles.
Cons: if these are cheap eternal links, they are extremely difficult to remove:
If these are rental links, things are even worse.
After the funds run out on the link exchange, the links become “Sleep”.
SLEEP - the link is blocked due to the zero balance of the optimizer. The link is not placed and does not take up space.
Money for a link with this status is not credited. (https://help.sape.ru/sape/faq/36)
I had one old case on this topic (output from under minusinsk), a screen from it:
This is the interface of the SAPE system. Links can be in this state for months (I don’t know what rules SAPE has, I talk about what it was).
In a simple way - Yandex saw these links, but they were not. It's like a red rag for automatic pessimization algorithms.
So far, no sanctions have been found on the site, but we continue to search for access to exchanges in order to subsequently remove all this disgrace.
The article is not intended to reduce the effectiveness of contextual advertising, it is obvious that the direct is no less effective tool when it comes to business in general.
I emphasize the importance of constantly searching for new, effective sales channels. Often I hear from acquaintances and clients that contextual advertising works at zero or minus. Many survive only at the expense of large revolutions and are afraid to climb off the "needle". Previously, a similar situation was with reference exchanges, such as SAPE. The client was moved to the site by rental links, and then he paid a monthly fee and support, being held captive by the system. It’s especially scary when the site is your entire business asset.
In order not to fall into this situation, continue to test new marketing tools, do not pour the entire budget in one direction. If the site is your store and a source of income - budget not only for advertising, but also for continuous improvement of usability, technical factors and external optimization.
Hope it was helpful. Thank you for attention!
Contact information:
Email: 10@toptop.guru
Vkontakte: vk.com/10toptop
Phone: +7 (3412) 32-24-34
WhatsApp, Viber: +7 (965) 842-24-34
Stage 1 - the context suits us
We worked with a client for 45,000 p. per month. This amount mainly consisted of site software changes + SEO support (initial optimization, usability work, news optimization and other minor improvements).
The budget was distributed as follows: 90% - site improvements, 10% - SEO. Subject - plastic windows, region Udmurt Republic.
In parallel, another company was working on contextual advertising. This is how traffic was distributed.
It should be borne in mind that some of the clicks from search engines are the same traffic from Yandex.Direct, so there was less actual SEO traffic.
So we worked a year. We were engaged in edits, did small-scale SEO optimization of news and other materials.
Stage 2 - go to organic traffic
Contextual advertising has proven to be an extremely expensive tool. I don’t know the budgets, but the company decided to stop working with directors and focus on SEO traffic.
What we did as part of the traffic buildup:
- Once again revised the primary optimization, made some adjustments (obviously);
- They performed the linking (you can write about the types of linking for a long time, but to be honest, it's boring);
- Checked all content for spam and uniqueness (obviously);
- Actively worked with crowd links (important);
- Actively posted feedback on the company's work (important);
As a result, we received about the same 300-400 users a week and completely replaced contextual advertising, thus saving a decent amount for the client.
After a complete rejection of advertising, I saw a “breakdown” on the chart). It’s probably just that the ad doesn't let go. This is visible on the chart. After this outbreak, there was no relapse).
Stage 1 - usability + contextual advertising = behavioral factors
The situation at the start looked promising:
Almost immediately after indexing, traffic went to the site. Why?
The main reason is that advertising began to work actively. Other reasons:
1. Good site structure. Products and services are divided into separate pages:
2. Availability of add. functionality, calculators, window visualization, etc. In the subject matter, this is more likely not additional. functional, and standard.
3. Clear, unloaded design.
- Sans serif fonts, readable large size;
- Light background (background image);
- In 3 seconds, you can understand what the company is doing and what can be done on the site (buy, calculate, call a measurer, call, etc.)
- Everything is done in one color style.
We will not go deep into the wilds of design. Everything is subjective.
4. Commercial factors
A) The ability to make an order / measurement - clear positioning as a commercial resource;
B) Product cards, a detailed description of all the characteristics;
C) Discounts and promotions;
D) Availability of price. Not “from 10,000”, not the “Get a price” button, namely the price.
E) The presence of all certificates, details, any documents that can be shown. It is important to make a separate page for this.
E) Do not forget about the user agreement and personal data.
I) Examples of work (if any).
You can continue for a long time. I’ll give you two relevant sources, something like a “Checklist”.
1) Link to an article with research from Ashmanov and partners - for more advanced ones. There is everything in detail
2) www.seonews.ru/analytics/predpoletnaya-podgotovka-chto-nuzhno-sdelat-s-internet-magazinom-do-nachala-seo-prodvizheniya - for the owners themselves. Suitable for tasking performers. The article is boring, but the information is relevant. I recommend you to familiarize yourself.
Next, primary optimization was performed. This is preparation for advancement. Absolutely necessary for all websites. Did everything 20 working days.
You can do the initial optimization yourself, for this there is a lot of “Check-lists”. Google “SEO Checklist 2019”. Optimization will take from 10 days of your time (provided that you do not know anything) to infinity. An average SEO specialist will do it in 1-2 weeks (depending on the site).
Conclusions on the first stage
1. Get started with SEO BEFORE building your site. Here is the procedure:
1) The semantic core (a list of queries on your topic from wordstat.yandex.ru);
2) Site structure (using the x-mind program or analogues);
3) Design (for computers and mobile devices, which is obvious);
4) Layout (do not forget the micro-markup, more details here yandex.ru/support/webmaster/schema-org );
5) Primary optimization (what I wrote above);
6) Promotion (links, reviews, content).
2. There is an Yandex algorithm - a multi-armed bandit ( you can read hereor just google it), which temporarily throws your site in the TOP for high-frequency queries. If the bounce rate is low, the site remains in the TOP. The conclusion is obvious - we try to please users immediately.
3. An ideal combination at the very beginning of work - SEO + context. In the first couple, advertising gives a good impetus to behavioral factors, which at the moment is one of the most important metrics of search engines.
Stage Two - Content
Cases
Recommendation to any business (especially a beginner) - make cases from everything. Put a window - take pictures, sell training - take feedback, etc.
In the first month, the site had only 2-3 photos of finished work on installing windows / loggias / balconies.
Prepared a content plan for the placement of works. Short:
- Photos of real objects (because there was an opportunity)
- Collection of reviews (real) in the corresponding section of the site;
- Several info-articles, texts on landing pages.
Texts
Posted articles on the landing pages (not all, but only on the landing page). With the texts are not pinched. They did not set strict TK for copywriters, in some they did not even prescribe keys. We tried to make it as clear as possible to people. Our opinion is that texts do not play a big role in this topic. Everyone understands what a plastic window is. 500-700 characters will be enough, we indicate in them the features of a particular model and how easier it is to purchase it.
Reviews
Started collecting feedback. In our case, everything is 100% real, indicating the contract:
If you are just starting out, you can post fake ones. Only not 100 at a time. And not necessarily positive. Dilute neutral. Negative is better not to post.
The blog
There is no blog on the site, but I would highly recommend it to all business owners. The best content is made by a regular phone and photos + description of objects.
Unusual situations at the conclusion of contracts, curiosities, pitfalls, subtleties of pricing. All this makes your company live. This is better than any congratulations on the New Year and other holidays (although this is good).
A few guidelines for blogging as an SEO tool:
- Write in your own words, thematic jargon and specific words are also keys that are often not used in the “official” texts on the landing pages, but people are looking for them;
- No need to bother with high-quality pictures if it is laborious. Take a picture on the phone;
- For uniqueness of photos it is recommended to insert a neat watermark;
- The headline is 90% success. What is interesting to your audience? Banal example:
- Another double-glazed window in an apartment building - wrong
- Double-glazed window No. 647: why the installation price was reduced - right
Our goal (if we are talking about SEO) is to increase the viewing depth and time spent on the site and reduce the bounce rate.
Yandex viewing depth is the number of pages a user viewed in one visit to the site (https://yandex.ru/support/metrika/general/glossary.html)
Google viewing depth is similar.
Google bounce rate - In Google Analytics, a session is considered a failure during which only one request to the Google Analytics server was activated (for example, if a user opened one page of a site and left it without activating other requests). (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009409?hl=en)
Yandex Bounce Rate - A visit is considered a failure if the following conditions are simultaneously met for it:
1) during the visit no more than one pageview was recorded;
2) the duration of the visit is less than the time set for the calculation of failures (15 seconds by default);
3) the official event “failure” was not recorded.
(https://yandex.ru/support/metrika/general/glossary.html)
In a simple way - if a person reads only the previews on your blog and then closes the site - Google will consider this as a refusal, and Yandex as a visit if he It has been on the page for more than 15 seconds.
Third stage - external optimization
Yandex Directory and Google Business
We checked the sites in Google-business and Yandex-directory (a small instruction how to place it in this article vk.com/@nfdude-11-otvetov-pro-yandex-spravochnik ). Briefly:
1) Is the address correct?
2) Is there a logo;
3) Are all the required fields filled out;
4) Are there any reviews.
Purchased links. Only about 40 pieces. How we buy links is written in the article (by the way, you can also read it on the official GGL blog - one of the link exchanges ).
Crowd links
Each niche has its own forum / website / social network where a large number of audiences are concentrated. The window niche is no exception.
www.oknamedia.ru is the largest portal where window companies and reviews about them are concentrated. From all over Russia. It would seem - write fake reviews there, get leads and everything is in chocolate. But no.
- The service is closely related to Yandex (to be honest, I don’t know if it belongs to them or simply cooperates with it), but sometimes clients wrote to Yandex from support and scolded for posting “wrong” reviews;
- Strict review requirements . Contract number, city (calculated by IP!) And so on.
- Even with real reviews there are difficulties. You cannot post from one account.
However, we still used this portal as best we could. It turned out about 10 reviews per month. Used two services:
1. Workzilla.ru;
2. Advego.com.
The problem statement is a separate topic for the article. This is a whole science that we have yet to understand.
SEO links
An SEO link is a link created to influence search algorithms. The ability to place SEO links on intermediary sites is often bought on special services - link exchanges or aggregators. Therefore, they are often called “purchased” or “corrupt”.
SEO links are an attempt to trick a search engine by artificially increasing the credibility of a site. They do not improve the quality of the site and do not carry a positive signal for ranking. Therefore, Yandex considers SEO links search spam. (https://yandex.ru/support/webmaster/yandex-indexing/algorithm-minusinsk.html).
There was an unpleasant moment. The domain was with history (unfortunately, we did not check this).
You can check with any service, for example, serpstat.com/ru or the same checktrust.
No filters were found, but there were a lot of junk links.
A garbage link (our definition) is a link from a substandard in terms of design, usability, content and meaning in the whole resource. An example is www.krasland.ru/cat/?n=29160&kt=1 .
Often such sites are created specifically for placement of rental links. Probably, the site was previously functioning, and then it was abandoned for several years. Perhaps then these links were bought.
Pros: the site has a link mass, with an adequate anchor list (anchor is the link text). What is an adequate anchor list will be discussed in the following articles.
Cons: if these are cheap eternal links, they are extremely difficult to remove:
- Site owners do not make contact;
- If by some miracle you have found a webmaster - there is no guarantee that he will not ask for money to withdraw (in 90% of cases he will ask);
- There is always a risk of a minusinsk filter .
If these are rental links, things are even worse.
After the funds run out on the link exchange, the links become “Sleep”.
SLEEP - the link is blocked due to the zero balance of the optimizer. The link is not placed and does not take up space.
Money for a link with this status is not credited. (https://help.sape.ru/sape/faq/36)
I had one old case on this topic (output from under minusinsk), a screen from it:
This is the interface of the SAPE system. Links can be in this state for months (I don’t know what rules SAPE has, I talk about what it was).
In a simple way - Yandex saw these links, but they were not. It's like a red rag for automatic pessimization algorithms.
So far, no sanctions have been found on the site, but we continue to search for access to exchanges in order to subsequently remove all this disgrace.
conclusions
- SEO + context = perfect start;
- Other things being equal - content decides;
- Check domain history;
- If the links are only eternal (or better crowd);
- Analyze your traffic and expenses for it, choose the most profitable one.
The article is not intended to reduce the effectiveness of contextual advertising, it is obvious that the direct is no less effective tool when it comes to business in general.
I emphasize the importance of constantly searching for new, effective sales channels. Often I hear from acquaintances and clients that contextual advertising works at zero or minus. Many survive only at the expense of large revolutions and are afraid to climb off the "needle". Previously, a similar situation was with reference exchanges, such as SAPE. The client was moved to the site by rental links, and then he paid a monthly fee and support, being held captive by the system. It’s especially scary when the site is your entire business asset.
In order not to fall into this situation, continue to test new marketing tools, do not pour the entire budget in one direction. If the site is your store and a source of income - budget not only for advertising, but also for continuous improvement of usability, technical factors and external optimization.
Hope it was helpful. Thank you for attention!
Contact information:
Email: 10@toptop.guru
Vkontakte: vk.com/10toptop
Phone: +7 (3412) 32-24-34
WhatsApp, Viber: +7 (965) 842-24-34