What is keyword clustering, and who cares? (Hint: you should!)

Are you still optimizing for “keyword strings”? You are not alone!

The problem is, the industry is moving on, so don’t fall behind and learn to implement a smarter approach to keyword research: Keyword clustering.

Single-keyword SEO has been a staple for a long time. Remember how we used to have a separate page for every tiny variation of a keyword? At that time we’d optimize for [restaurants in Italy] and [Italy restaurants] using two different pages, one for each keyword string. It is how we all probably got our start and saw (and still see) our traffic flourish and ranking climb.

It was a fun time, but deep down I am glad it has passed.

Google’s search algorithm has outgrown that method of optimization. Sure, it may still work. In fact, most of the newest and most popular WordPress SEO plugins are still based on that “single-string” method, so most bloggers rely on it. But the more sophisticated algorithms expanded beyond the scope of a single-topic focus.

Even keyword research that finds the perfect sweet spot between popularity and saturation is no longer a guarantee for success. In-depth content covering a variety of related concepts and entities is winning more and more often these days.

More and more we are seeing the use of keyword clustering from sites that are making it beyond the scope of mediocre search results and traffic margins. In other words, the big guys are bringing out the big guns, and we should be following in their footsteps.

What is this keyword clustering?

OK, so this isn’t really new. I for one described a tactic of keyword grouping back in 2007. Back then, however, I didn’t know the term “keyword clustering”, and used Excel instead of much easier tools.

A better way of explaining it would be that it is gaining traction with more people (and growing buzz terms around itself).

So what is it?

Simply put, it’s keyword grouping categorized by (1) a common secondary keyword modifier which is how most tools approach it or (2) Google’s search engine results similarity (which is something I’ll describe below).

At the heart of it, keyword clustering is what it sounds like: you are taking relevant keywords and clustering them together into groups. Those groups work together to give your website a more thoroughly categorized theme, which in turn helps to establish its purpose and attract those crawlers that tell Google that page is one they should bump up the list.

It’s easier when you look at an example

Let’s say your core term is healthy diet plan, which is pretty tough to compete for. So you run it through keyword research tools and come up with the list of hundreds of “long tail” “keyword strings” that make your head spin:

How on earth are you going to optimize your content for all of these phrases?

Don’t worry, figuring this list out doesn’t have to be a manual process. There are some keyword grouping tools out there that make it much easier to get through.

I personally use Serpstat because it provides one of the best SEO tools in the market in my opinion. [Disclaimer: Because I blog on them so much, Serpstat reps approached me and gave me free access to their PRO tools]. However, other providers such as Wordstream and Spyfu offer keyword grouping tools, so choose the option which fits best with your existing tools and workflow.

With Serpstat, you can copy-paste the keywords into their clustering tool and it groups the list for you:

It is a keyword clustering automated system that does a lot of the work for you. But unlike most other tools, it doesn’t bog you down with centralized terms that impact your clusters.

Instead of simply grouping the keywords by the centralized term (like most clustering tools do, and like I did in my Moz article from 2007 referenced above), Serpstat also uses their own “connection strength” metric which looks at how many identical URLs those multiple search queries trigger.

You can choose between soft and hard clustering to determine how closely related terms should be within one group – a very unique approach to clustering keywords. To get into more detail about how the tool works, read this article describing their method.

How should you optimize your content now?

Let’s make it clear: No, you don’t need to take one of these groups and fill your content with all the keywords from within it.

What you can do instead: Look at those keywords and take main concepts to cover in your content. Each group can become your separate guide, or it can be a subheading within a more comprehensive article.

Keyword clustering isn’t the optimization technique, nor does it bring anything fundamentally new into a SEO strategy. You still need to create high-quality well-researched content targeting users’ demand.

What keyword clustering does is help you make sense of your keyword strings and turn them into meaningful concepts.

How can this method help me?

Any time you cluster your keywords, you are improving your SEO, period. Instead of trying to compete with a single phrase, you will be targeting keywords page by page based on a collection of phrases for each theme.

How this helps you is pretty obvious: better ranking and more traffic. Specifically, it is better ranking and more traffic against competitors who are almost certainly already using this method of SEO, which is one of the reasons they are doing better than you are.

This also diversifies your tactics. Where once consistency in a single model was key, things have changed. That more sophisticated algorithm mentioned above means better, more complex strategies are needed to keep up.

My favorite way to put it: Grouping keywords helps you get a better grasp of your niche. It forces you to cover more concepts and answer more questions within one page than you’d think of without going through the process, so the most important benefit of keyword clustering is that it makes your content (and hence) your site better, more useful, more trustworthy and more comprehensive.

Know a tool that should go on this list? Let us know in the comments!

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Amazon gets top net-promoter score among SMB vendors according to survey

There are literally hundreds of companies, publishers and agencies trying to sell digital marketing and other services to US small businesses (SMBs), which represent more than 95 percent of all US businesses. But the market is mostly opaque to these small companies.

There’s almost no place that SMBs can turn to get objective information about service providers and their performance. Sure, you can search on “company name” and get some information, but it’s pretty hit or miss.

Business networking site Alignable is trying to remedy that by collecting net promoter score (NPS) data from its SMB user base. It regularly polls thousands of its members about their perceptions of dozens of brands. For better or worse, it doesn’t require respondents to be verified customers.

Ultimately, Alignable aims to be a marketplace where business owners can respond to one another’s questions and ask for referrals.

For the past couple of years, the company has been producing a quarterly Small Business Trust Index, according to its members’ NPS (“would you recommend”) ratings. The company believes that as these ratings become more visible — in the same way that consumer reviews impact purchase behavior — there will be a material impact on the fortunes of some of the companies rated.

CEO Eric Groves, one of the early executives at Constant Contact, believes that vendors with a better NPS ultimately have lower customer acquisition costs. That hasn’t been shown empirically but makes sense.

According to the company’s Q3 NPS ratings, Amazon is the most trusted SMB service provider in the US, followed by Stripe, Google and Apple.

The NPS ratings scale runs from 80 to negative 80, and companies are grouped into categories but not graded on a curve; they all get scores that can be compared to companies in other categories. Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, most of the companies providing digital marketing and lead-generation services to SMBs fall on the negative side of that scale, presumably reflecting SMB dissatisfaction and disappointment (and maybe some unrealistic expectations).

Though Google the search engine was number two on the list, Google the ad platform (AdWords) had a negative 27 rating. Facebook Ads scored a negative 14, and, as a hiring tool, the site received a negative 47.  Bing advertising had a negative 48 rating. Yext saw a negative 61 and Yelp a negative 65.

As indicated, some of this is based on experience, and some is based on perception or reputation. Alignable doesn’t drill into the data or follow up to see specifically what’s driving these ratings. Still, it’s important information that reflects whether business owners would recommend these services.

You can see the full NPS list and discussion here.

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About The Author

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog,

Screenwerk

, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on

Twitter

or find him at

Google+

.

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How to Create Amazing Facebook Audiences You Can Actually Sell To

Creating Facebook audiences isn’t rocket science, but with the seemingly endless waves of targeting options available, it sure can feel like it.

Getting ROI from your Facebook spend is all about focusing your budget so only relevant, qualified audiences see your ads. So how do you find the right audiences on Facebook, whatever your industry and business type?

Today, I’m going to teach you how targeting on Facebook works, how to optimize your ad sets for success, and how to use Facebook Audience Insights to learn more about your prospects.

Introduction to Audience Targeting on Facebook

Most people don’t wander around on Facebook with their intent to purchase stamped across their foreheads.

When it comes to AdWords, the opposite is true, right? Usually, someone who types “buy fine point Sharpie pens” into Google is on the hunt for some insanely dope, reasonably priced writing utensils. But on Facebook, while a ludicrous array of information can be leveraged to create hyper-granular audiences, the intent component usually isn’t there.

In fact, Facebook doesn’t even offer keyword targeting. You have to define an audience to show your ads to.

 

Now, this doesn’t mean that Facebook advertising isn’t useful. Quite the opposite. It’s a wellspring of opportunity for B2C and B2B advertisers alike. Facebook allows you to get reasonably interested eyeballs on your product or service and nurture them through dynamic, engaging content from initial exposure until the day you can close a deal (sell a widget, etc.). It’s amazing for building brand awareness and feeding your funnel.

Of course, doing so effectively requires a nuanced understanding of who you’re targeting and, more importantly, how you’re targeting them. This means striking a balance between broad and specific audiences, effectively turning your Facebook advertising efforts into a self-contained marketing funnel.

Let’s take a closer look at what I mean by “broad” and “specific” audiences.

Targeting Broad Audiences with Facebook Ads: Best for New Campaigns, Brand Awareness, & Gathering Data

You can use Facebook ads to target all two billion (and counting) users with a single offer. This is not what I mean by “targeting broad audiences.” This is just “dumb.” Instead, I’m referring to using core audiences—those created using Facebook’s suite of targeting options—to put your brand in front of new prospects. Here’s an example of a broad, top of funnel content offer:

 

By broadly targeting people on Facebook with tertiary interest in digital marketing and presenting them with this ad, we can learn about their needs and begin to build more relevant audiences.

How does this work? Simple: you just gotta trust Zuck.

Targeting broadly gives Facebook a good chunk of power. It requires that you trust one of the planet’s wealthiest entities (in terms of straight cash and user data) to algorithmically determine which subsets of humanity could be a fit for your product or service. While it can be scary to cast a wide net, this approach can help you find potential customers you’d never have known existed otherwise. You can also use the data you glean from broad audience targeting to formulate more specific audiences further down the funnel.

Targeting broadly then digging into Audience Insights—check out this killer post from Moz about using this resource to create audience personas—and your reporting will allow you to paint a better picture of the Facebook users who interact with your ads in a positive way. Using their overlapping demographic and psychographic characteristics, you can pair new, optimized core audiences with targeted ad creative to incite more conversions.

Broad Facebook Audience Targeting in Action

Let’s say you sell high-quality winter hats to people in the United States. They’re woven from the silkiest alpaca yarn. They’re affixed with a neat little leather patch emblazoned with your hipster-bait logo. They retail for $59, a steal, really, when you consider the artisanal steeze dripping from each cross stitch.

 

You’re looking to take your luxury winterwear brand to the next level. It’s time to start spreading brand awareness, and there’s no better way to do so than by advertising on Facebook.

Now, it would be foolish to target people of all ages across the United States…

 

While your creative might appear in the newsfeed of an unsuspecting Iowan grandmother in search of the perfect Christmas gift for her Somerville-dwelling grandson, Braxton, odds are your ad creative won’t be particularly relevant to every American. This total lack of targeting is akin to showing a football-themed Budweiser commercials during The Bachelorette. 

But launching a branding initiative in select areas, to a targeted age range…

 

…is a phenomenal way to enhance brand awareness among potential prospects.

Now, some caveats.

You’re not going to run with just this targeting in perpetuity. You’re going to use it to inform the creation of more targeted audiences to whom you’ll advertise with engaging, audience specific ad creative. Think of this wide but informed net as the Facebook equivalent of the Display network or a well-placed billboard. Pairing this information gathering/brand building strategy with more sales-centric targeting further down the funnel will help you to create a steady stream of prospects for your business. It shouldn’t occupy a large portion of your overall advertising budget, but allocating a small percentage of your Facebook spend to broad audiences like this one will allow your business to benefit from the intelligence of Facebook’s advertising algorithm.

Who should target broadly on Facebook?

Everyone!

Provided you’re not ballin’ on an extremely tight budget, broad audience targeting will expose your brand to net-new prospects: people who’d never have known about you otherwise.

That being said, your ad and offer need to align with your broad audiences’ lack of intent. Your goal here isn’t to sell a hat or close a deal today: it’s to gain exposure and fill your funnel. From there, you can create new core and custom audiences, steering Facebook users towards making a purchase as you learn more about their characteristics, wants, and needs.

Even though you’ll likely see higher engagement using broad targeting (simply due to the number of folks you’ll reach), the majority of your Facebook advertising budget should still be assigned to targeted audiences that can be tied to actual business value. Speaking of…

Targeting Specific Audiences with Facebook Ads: Best for Driving Cost-Effective Conversions

Targeting specifically means, well, just that.

You give Facebook a strict set of parameters. They serve your ad creative to a smaller subset of users than you’d reach with broader targeting. They purchase your wares. You laugh all the way to the bank.

Here are a few of the ways you can define these more specific audiences:

• Curate a list of job titles your prospects tend to hold, pairing it with an affinity for vegan pizza and The Clash, then layering these atop specific locations
• Leverage custom audiences based on actions taken on your website, like webinar registration or content downloads
• Create a 1% lookalike audience using your top-spending customers as the seed audience

These (and literally an infinite combination of other specific targeting methods) can help you skip a few stages between a prospects thinking “hmm, this looks neat” and  punching in a credit card number.

Per Facebook, specific audience targeting “may lead to a potential audience that's smaller, but hopefully also to one that's more interested in what you're advertising than a larger and broader audience would've been.”  

 

By significantly reducing the number of people in each audience, you can cater your creative to the characteristics of and actions taken by a group of prospects, improving your chances of success. Of course, you also significantly decrease your ability to reach large swaths of Facebook-using public. This is why it’s so important to pair broad and specific audiences, using the former to funnel new prospects towards the latter.   

Specific Facebook Audience Targeting in Action

As you already know, there are an uncountable number of ways through which you can define an audience in Facebook. “Specific” does not explicitly refer to the use of custom or lookalike audiences but, rather, a well-defined set of Facebook users. Basically, anything that takes control away from Facebook and can ratchet this:

 

Down to this:

 

Can be defined as “specific” audience targeting. The three main ways to accomplish this are using layered targeting, custom audiences, and lookalike audiences.

Layered Targeting

Facebook allows you to layer myriad targeting options on top of one another to create new, granular core audiences.

The advantage of doing so is obvious: you can tailor your ad creative to the overlapping characteristics of small audiences to show prospects how your product or service addresses a specific need.

 

For example, if you sell homeowners insurance, you’ll want to target people who purchased a home recently. But more specifically, you can use layered audience to create variations of the new homeowner audience based on characteristics like home type (apartment, condo, single family, multifamily), home value, and household composition.

 

This ad, for example, would be great for folks who’d just bought a bungalow, but completely wasted on apartment-dwellers.

By breaking recent home buyers into segments using layered targeting, you can serve completely different ads to the pair of twenty-somethings buying a one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, the Midwestern family of eight, and the recent divorcee with a beachfront condo in Malibu. This persona-specific creative can be an excellent way to account for Facebook’s lack of intent, bolstering conversions in the middle of your sales funnel.

Custom Audiences

Facebook’s core targeting options can feel limitless but sometimes, the best way to create an audience isn’t through latent characteristics. What’s better?

Action, people. Action.

Custom audiences allow you to target Facebook users based on:

• Customer file (email addresses you upload)
• Website traffic (provided the Facebook Pixel is on your website)
• App activity (pretend this doesn’t exist)
• Engagement (explicit action taken on either Facebook or Instagram)

Of the four possible sources for custom audiences, the most valuable are, without a doubt, customer file and website traffic. (Note that custom audiences are often the smallest audiences you can create on Facebook. This makes it difficult for Facebook to serve your ads unless they attain supreme levels of engagement among your audience—as reflected in your Facebook ads’ relevance scores)

 

The “customer” component of customer file audiences is, uh, negotiable. You could feasibly upload any email list and reach Facebook users whose email credentials match. Use these custom audiences to upsell existing customers, offer a product demo to people who downloaded a specific piece of content: the possibilities are endless. Ditto for custom audiences generated based on website traffic; use Google Analytics to determine which pages people tend to visit, ensure the Facebook Pixel is on those pages, create an audience, and serve creative that elaborates on the content prospects viewed.

It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

Lookalike Audiences

Lookalike audiences are the cream cheese frosting atop the nut-packed carrot cake that is Facebook advertising. This is fact, not opinion.

While custom audiences are generally limited—since you need to upload a list or supply users based on on-site in-app actions completed—lookalikes are simply aggregated users whose characteristics mirror those of a selected source audience. The degree to which they match can be altered (with 1% representing a near-facsimile and 10% being more like a second cousin).

 

The “source audience” for your lookalikes can be any Facebook audience you’ve already created; to maximize their value, though, you should use converters (based on the Facebook Pixel) or customer email addresses.  It’s no use to create a lookalike of people who, after seeing an ad as a member of one of your broader audiences, have told you to [expletive] yourself.

Who should use specific audience targeting on Facebook?

Everyone (for real this time, though)!

Lookalike audiences are one of the most effective ways to derive immediate value from Facebook ads. Layered audiences are a great way to glean some value from Facebook’s inherent intelligence without spending a ton of cash. And custom audiences are the perfect way to implement mid and lower funnel audiences into your Facebook advertising strategy.

***

Now that you’ve got a handle on the differences between broad and specific Facebook audience targeting, here are three tips to help you use them both more effectively.

Tip #1: Achieve (and Act On) Statistical Significance ASAP

Statistical significance refers to the point at which you’ve accrued enough data to make an educated decision regarding performance. It’s integral for both broad and specific audiences, but for vastly different reasons.

With broad audiences, you need to determine and act on statistical significance quickly to avoid hemorrhaging ad spend on massive swaths of tangentially interested Facebook users. This is where Audience Insights can really become an invaluable tool in your arsenal.

 

When it comes to your more specific audiences—the ones that stand to garner conversions quickly—tweaking your targeting and ad creative based on performance will allow you to ensure that small, valuable audiences aren’t growing frustrated with your efforts. This is the best way to determine whether an audience is working or not and, subsequently, begin the never-ending process of Facebook conversion rate optimization.

Now, it can be tempting to split your campaigns into dozens of ad sets based on this information. According to Facebook, this is a big no-no:

“You want to segment your campaign into many small ad sets to see which one performs best and then use that as a model for future ad sets. However, with that many ad sets, you're unlikely to get a statistically significant number of results for any one of them anyway.”

Too broad and you’re white noise. Too narrow and significance is unattainable. Instead, use engagement data from broad and specific audiences to inform your ad creative. If something flat-out isn’t working, use those Audience Insights to tweak your targeting and reengage your prospects.

Tip #2: Base Lookalike Audiences on EXTREMELY Valuable Sources

As I touched on earlier, sources like post comments, Facebook business page engagement, or random email addresses scrawled in a notebook you found in a TGI Fridays are not viable foundations for your lookalike audiences. There’s no way of knowing whether their characteristics represent discernable business value that you’d like to mirror. But that’s not the only issue. Lookalike audiences tend to be smaller than the broad, core audiences we talked about a thousand words or so ago.

 

As such, their use can hamstring Facebook’s ability to serve your ads to the most relevant users in each audience. This isn’t a problem if you know most of an audience is comprised of bona fide prospects, but don’t hustle backwards when you can avoid it. Instead, use the most valuable sources you’ve got to create lookalike audiences. Leverage the Facebook Pixel and proprietary data from your CRM to distinguish between your “oh neat, a link [click] eh” people and those who have already paid for your product or service.

If you’re an experienced advertiser with boatloads of data, you can take this discerning attitude a step further. Distinguish between customers and great customers (top spenders, etc.) and make lookalike audiences of both groups. The former can function as a broad audience. The latter, a specific audience. As soon as they populate, you’re cookin’ with gas.

Tip #3: Quality Is More Important than Size (Particularly with Custom Audiences)

This ties in with my last point, but it’s worth repeating: quality beats quantity. Period. One key way of determining quality (outside of, you know, conversions and revenue) is by checking Relevance Scores.

 

Relevance Score is Facebook’s measure of the quality and engagement level of your ads. Your Relevance Score is important because it determines both your cost per click on Facebook and how frequently Facebook shows your ad.  While it can be difficult to maintain a solid Relevance Score in an ad set with broad targeting, it isn’t impossible: it just requires an understanding of your audience and perpetual testing.

Paired with a compelling offer and engaging ad creative, a quality audience of 100 people is better than 10,000 randos any day of the week.

Final Thoughts

Remember: Introduce your brand to an array of prospects with broad audience targeting, then sell to them with specific audience targeting.

Facebook ads aren’t easy to wrap your head around, but with an understanding of audience creation and a cohesive targeting strategy in place, you’ll be well on your way to paid social success.

About the Author

Allen Finn is a content marketing specialist at WordStream. He enjoys couth menswear, dank eats, and the dulcet tones of the Wu-Tang Clan.

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MarTech Today: ABM at Dreamforce, Ad-mageddon ad blocking and more

Here's our daily recap of what happened in marketing technology, as reported on MarTech Today, Marketing Land and other places across the web. From MarTech Today: 3 ABM themes to expect at Dreamforce 2017 Oct 31, 2017 by Peter Isaacson More people are paying attention to Account-Based Marketing, and the conference attendees at Dreamforce are no exception. Columnist Peter Isaacson discusses three ABM themes that will dominate the event. From Marketing Land: Ad-mageddon! Ad bl[...]

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The Great #SMX East Recap: 2017 Edition

And another SMX East is in the books! Last week’s show was a success, and we want to thank everyone who helped make it happen — speakers, sponsors, vendors, staff, organizers, and of course, our invaluable attendees. Right off the bat, we want to invite everyone — whether you were or were not at the conference — to check out our full archive of SMX East 2017 speaker presentations on SlideShare.

Now, on to some of our favorite SMX East moments.

Top 10 SMX East 2017 highlights

1. The Meet & Greet is always a fabulous way to kick off the conference. Attendees and speakers mingled at Stitch Bar & Lounge to ring in another SMX East over cocktails and snacks. Big thanks to Bruce Clay Inc. for sponsoring the official launch of the show!
2. Bright and early Tuesday morning, Google’s Kishore Kanakamedala took the stage to unveil a series of online-to-offline solutions and products just ahead of the holiday season. We livestreamed the entire event, which you can watch here. A full recap of the session can be found here.
3. Excel With Bing set up shop in the Classroom on Tuesday, hosting an array of sessions aimed at amping up paid search strategies. Attendees got to meet the team and get one-on-one support for different Bing Ads issues. Catch up with some tweet coverage here.
4. Janes of Digital returned to New York City with its usual stylish flare and spirited conversation. This year’s topic of discussion: the Power of Vulnerability. The dynamic panel featured Alice Han, performance marketing analyst at EveryMundo, Amelie Glon Werner, senior business manager at Microsoft, Cameron Klitz, senior strategist at Reprise Media and moderator Frances Donegan-Ryan, senior marketing manager at Bing. The four online marketers were joined by FDNY firefighter Jackie-Michelle Martinez, who lent a unique and passionate perspective beyond our professional community. Bing Ads, the event host, livestreamed the panel discussion, which you can watch here.
5. Scott Brinker’s keynote Wednesday morning charged the audience for a fresh day of learning. Scott has evangelized the emergence and growth of martech (marketing technology) for over a decade, and his keynote was a summons for the search marketing community to lead in the new “martech era.” Catch up with our full keynote coverage here.
6. Learn With Google brought attendees to the Classroom all day Wednesday for best practices and advice straight from the mouths of Googlers. As the Big G puts it, the “one constant in AdWords is change,” so sessions and speakers aimed to educate attendees on the ever-changing platform. Catch up with some tweet coverage here.
7. The third annual Search Engine Land Awards were hosted at the scenic 230 Fifth venue on Wednesday evening. Together, we celebrated individuals, agencies and internal marketing teams who have demonstrated excellence in executing organic and paid search marketing initiatives. The rooftop bar, complete with a stunning view of the illuminated Empire State Building, was straight-up glamorous. See the winners here: Search Engine Land Awards Gala spotlights top performers in the SEO & SEM industry.
8. For the first time ever at SMX, Amazon Marketing Services set up shop in our Expo Hall and led a well-attended session on Customer-First Advertising. Amazon team members demonstrated how Amazon Marketing Services helps connect brands with a wide and engaged audience through timely, targeted, high-impact ads. Attendees walked away with fresh insights, as well as a pretty sweet tote bag.
9. A beloved SMX staple, the Google AMA took place Thursday morning. Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes sat down with our own Barry Schwartz and Michelle Robbins to answer any and all questions moderators and audience members had for the search giant. Catch up with full coverage from the AMA here.
10. The Clinic track ran all day Thursday, offering attendees a unique opportunity to ask experts case-by-case questions for the entire duration of each session. There were 75 minutes (per clinic!) of 100 percent Q&A. Each clinic had a specific focus; between links, SEM, SEO, social and analytics, there was something for everyone.
    

    Photo credit: @qcait on Twitter

Coverage from around the web

Next up, we wanted to share a roundup of some coverage from around the web, including recaps contributed by some of our own speakers. We’ll update this list as more coverage rolls out!

Looking ahead: SMX East 2019

The next time SMX East is coming to town will be 2019. Moving forward, we will alternate shows between coasts each year; in 2018, we will host SMX West in San Jose, Calif., and in 2019, we will host SMX East in New York City. SMX Advanced will continue to be held every year in Seattle.

Thanks to all once more for a fantastic SMX East. See you guys in San Jose and Seattle in 2018!

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Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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About The Author

Lauren Donovan has worked in online marketing since 2006, specializing in organic social media, cradle-to-grave community management, search and social creative, real-time journalism, holistic social befriending, as well as content aggregation, creation, and strategic syndication. She currently serves as Community Editor for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. You can find her on Twitter

@beebow

.

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Google Shows Emojis Again For Some Search Results

Back in 2016 Google enabled you to see emojis in the search results if that was your intent when searching. Previous, they banned them from showing up but promised not to penalize for using them. In any event, it is now rare to see emojis in the Google search results, unless you specifically search for emojis in Google.

So when Dayne Richards shared with me on Twitter a search result for a query [autographed baseballs] returned a baseball emoji for one of the search results snippets, I was a little surprised.

Personally, I cannot replicate the emoji from coming up in any device or browser I try. But he was able to bring it up:

I love emojis but they can pollute the search results and some publishers were really taking advantage of them.

So I liked Google's approach to only show them when people specifically wanted to see them in the search results.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

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Google: When to Remove & When to Improve Low Quality Content