What do click fraud, ‘Ghosting’ Yelp reviews, and black hat SEO have in common?
There’s usually some kind of motive at play – for a company to get it’s way without doing it the right way, and despite the long term consequences.
Get the low-down on these somewhat strange – but common digital marketing terms so you can speak intelligently about them around the water cooler:
Digital Marketing Urban Dictionary:
1. Click Fraud
Refers to the experience of having a competitor click your Google ads over and over again, in an effort to drive up what you pay – usually in an effort to get you to stop bidding on those keywords!
2. ‘Ghosting’ Yelp reviews
Ghosting in dating refers to someone not calling or texting back, after everything seemed to be good. Ghosting for yelp reviews means the reviews just don’t show up! Usually this is because the reviewer didn’t have enough reviews, and was perceived as a ‘low quality reviewer.’
How to get your Yelp reviews to stick
3. Black Hat SEO
Black hat SEO refers to SEO that’s done at the long-term expense of your overall traffic. The worst examples include ‘injecting Russian pharmacy links into the bottom of websites’ maliciously – more inane versions refer to spamming message boards and forums. In other words – strategies that actually use to work, but which are now very easy for Google’s algorithm to identify and categorically dismiss.
Examples of black hat SEO, and some takeaways
Why take the long route?
While we learn from black hat strategies – and take whatever is useful, our whole ‘content marketing’ focused approach to SEO is to help companies find what people are actually looking for – and make more of that.
Yelp – is looking to get more people on it’s ad platform, and so vigorously (and perhaps overly stringently) filters reviews.
Your asshole competitor – clicks your ad over and over again, because they have nothing better to do with their life than try to drive up the price, and use up your ad budget.
Short-term SEO companies – don’t have a long-game approach to SEO and thus can create problems for your digital presence if they make your site look spammy.
But you – on the other hand, are willing to focus on creating better and better products and services. You’re not going to sacrifice for the short-term, but rather on your long game of creating a meaningful brand as well. Yes – having a dedication to growing your company means taking every reasonable advantage possible (but not at the expense of others.)
The Other Weird Digital Marketing Words and Phrases:
4. Fat Finger
If someone says “I didn’t mean to press that, I’ve got a fat finger” – this usually means someone clicked or tapped something on their phone that they weren’t trying to tap. It could mean they tapped an ad and then had to go back, or it could mean they are having a hard time navigating around a website or app. Overall, the takeaway is to make buttons easy to press (45 pixels by 45 pixels is Apple’s suggestion for ease-of-use), and not put things too close to each other.
Here are 5 ways you can delight visitors with a positive user experience
5. Jab Jab Jab Right Hook
Popularized by Gary Vaynerchuk, this phrase means ‘Give, Give, Give, Ask’. It’s referring to an effective rhythm for using your social media marketing effectively, where ‘Jab’ or ‘Give’ means posting with the intention of sharing value, and ‘Right Hook’ means asking for business or selling.
Buy the book
6. KPI’s
Refers to ‘Key Performance Indicators’ – i.e. the things that matter when you’re tracking your digital marketing efforts. Common examples might include ‘Traffic or Website Visitors’ and ‘Conversions or Contact form Submissions.’ Tracking these things over time has been known to lead to leadership unrest, and the inevitable decision to increase marketing efforts.
How to identify and track your top KPI’s
