We hear a lot of talk about SEO and Paid Search living together in perfect harmony, side by side on your search engine results page, but how do we? The cost of unnecessary paid brand clicks quickly adds up. Especially if you’re already dominating your SERP (search engine results page). This can feel like an uphill battle for you and the team as economic sentiment continues in uncertainty and spend efficiency is still top of mind. Join Gary Galloway, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Adthena, as he covers how you can support growth strategies and help your brand achieve SERP while also decreasing costs Register today for “Skyrocket your results with organic and paid search harmony,” presented by Adthena. The post Webinar: Paid and organic search harmony can skyrocket your results appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/6mOTPZg
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When we talk about creating a video strategy, people usually see it as getting found on YouTube. And for good reason – billions of users access the platform every single month. And then comes an inevitable argument: “I don’t think my product or service is a good fit for YouTube.” Yet, creating and marketing videos goes far beyond YouTube findability. Videos can make your content better, your product easier to understand and your brand more credible and relatable. Further, videos continue to receive exposure on Page 1 of Google’s search results for an increasing number of queries. Even beyond that, a well-shaped video strategy can boost your overall SEO efforts. Here’s how. 1. Deeper understanding of your customers’ buying journeysVideo keyword research allows for discovery regarding which queries your target audience is using when searching for videos. Knowing how your target audience is searching for related videos can give you a better understanding of their buying journeys, problems they are struggling to solve and tasks they are trying to complete. When we turn to video content, we tend to look for informational or entertaining content, but we may also be able to uncover content opportunities that naturally solve the customers’ needs best in video format: how-to videos, product demonstrations, comparisons, and so on. A solid marketing strategy should always include both of these parts of buying journeys. If you compare Google and YouTube auto suggestions, you will notice that YouTube search attracts a specific type of audience. If you search Google for Google Chromebook, for example, the top suggestions will be Google Chromebook laptop, Google Chromebook charger and Google Chromebook price – all three clearly signaling a commercial intent (i.e., start of a buying journey). Some of YouTube’s top suggestions for Google Chromebook are Google Chromebook won’t turn on and Google Chromebook tutorial for beginners, which reflect an informational intent, possibly for a current owner of the product. Not all YouTube suggestions have an informational intent, though. Based on YouTube autocomplete, people use the platform to find reviews of products from current customers of the brand, unboxing videos, as well as information on specific models. And yet, YouTube-driven buying journeys seem to be very different from those that happen in Google, which makes YouTube suggestions such a powerful addition to any keyword research strategy. A similar pattern applies to Google Video search, which often reveals a different angle or buying journey your target audience may take when researching their options. Like Google’s regular search, the Google video section generates “related search” suggestions underneath organic search results. Here again, video-related searches differ from those you will see when using Google’s main search showing that people use Google videos for different purposes: This way, Google Videos’ related searches allow you to discover keywords you’d miss if you were only relying on Google’s regular search results. To sum up, when you start researching video-driven search queries, you get a better understanding of your target market and where your product may fit in. Your overall SEO strategy becomes better informed than that of your competitors. Talk about a good way to find new “helpful content” opportunities! 2. Better on-SERP visibility through video carouselsGoogle’s search engine results are much more diverse, visual and interactive than they were a decade ago. These days Google’s SERPs include related images, instant answers, popular questions, and more. One of the most visible sections is the one that includes related videos. Videos have gained huge visibility in organic search results, mainly through video carousels. Based on Mozcast data, videos show up in at least 30% of Google’s SERPs: In many cases, video results are “blended,” i.e., they are included in a standalone section that is not an organic listing but is added within SERPs as a standalone element. This section is called a video carousel. What is a video carousel?A video carousel is a separate search element within Google SERPs that contains related videos. Video carousels are often included on the first page of search results, but the location of the section may vary depending on the specific searcher’s intent. Sometimes video carousels show up right on top of SERPs: Try searching for “how to tie a tie,” for example. The video-only search snippet and the video carousel dominate the whole above-the-fold part of the screen, especially if you search from a mobile device. For other queries, the section may be included lower on a search result page. In some cases, YouTube videos are not included into a carousel and simply act as organic results. This is different (a video actually counts towards the ten organic links that are allowed on page one) but still rewarding: You are able to see a huge thumbnail of the video, which is hard to miss, likely increasing the click-through rate for that rank position. In both cases (carousels and organic results), when accessed from a mobile device, this video can be played right within search results. In other words, in both of these cases, well-optimized and hence high-ranking videos that are branded provide additional visibility to a brand helping it dominate its target search result pages with more than a single organic listing. 3. More visibility in organic search with video-rich snippetsWhile YouTube video pages may act as organic listings giving you additional visibility, earning video-rich snippets allows you to get your own page ranked in the same SERPs. Video rich snippets are enriched organic search results that include a video thumbnail from the page, making the result that much harder to miss: Unlike video carousels that provide brands with indirect exposure (people clicking a video in a carousel normally land on that YouTube page or watch that video right away from within Google’s search result page), video-rich snippets trigger a direct click to your site. To earn a video-rich snippet, publishers need to embed a video on that page and use video schema. Another benefit of earning a video-rich snippet is that it creates an expectation: People seeing a video thumbnail and clicking through to a page expect to find a video on that page, so they are more likely to stay on the page and watch the video. This, in turn, increases the probability that they will continue their journeys through the site, engage with your brand more, and dive deeper into the conversion funnel. ConclusionA video marketing strategy is more than making your brand or product findable on YouTube. When you start researching video opportunities, you’ll get to understand your audience better and uncover more SEO opportunities. Additionally, you make your brand stand out in search by having your video show up in related carousels, ranking your YouTube page in organic search and/or earning video snippets. Google has created a lot of opportunities to make your SEO strategy better informed and more diverse by including videos into your digital marketing routine. If you’re unsure where to begin or don’t have the resources to implement a video strategy yourself, a comprehensive video creation and marketing service can help transform your digital presence, improve brand sentiment & trust, and increase sales & conversions across the web. The post How video SEO can boost your overall digital marketing strategy appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/LqJEQUR PPC campaign managers have had tight control over their account management, data insights, and optimization tactics for almost two decades. But everything is changing. Query data is already scarce, keyword match types are blending into an amalgam of broad match, and signal loss continues to impact performance data and audience management. With campaign types such as Performance Max and the lack of visibility into performance, PPC managers need to utilize every available targeting and optimization tool in their arsenal. Dedicated audience strategies can provide additional control and specified targeting that delivers results. In my previous article, we reviewed the benefits of a well-defined audience strategy. Now, let’s review your options for creating and managing privacy-focused audiences for PPC campaigns. Adjusted timeline for cookie apocalypseIt’s worth noting that your timeline for the cookie apocalypse has been extended. The Google Chrome/Privacy Sandbox Team previously stated that third-party cookies would retire sometime in Q3 of 2023. Now, they have extended that timeline to 2024. According to the announcement from Chrome:
Google needed more time to prepare properly for the retirement of cookies. They are still working on the framework for a post-cookie world. Also, with their stock price fluctuations, I think Alphabet (Google’s parent company) did not want to negatively impact the product (Google Ads) which drives close to 80% of their operating revenue. Whatever the reason might be, the result is still the same: you have more time to plan for the post-cookie world. However, this doesn’t mean that you should stop building your measurement and audience frameworks, because this will happen eventually. PPC audience-building optionsThere are a few ways to build your audience data within Google and Microsoft. PPC platform third-party pixelsThe most direct way to build audience data is via each platform’s tracking pixel. Third-party cookies currently have a shelf life of about two years. I encourage you to start creating a new privacy-focused framework. But for now, if you want to rely on tracking pixels, you can – but the clock is ticking. Google has recently released a new version of the Google Tag. The new version of the universal tag will serve as the core implementation pixel for all Google marketing properties including Google Ads, Google Analytics, and SA360. Currently, you can use Google Ads and Google Analytics to configure your Google Tag. Microsoft Ads also provides their Universal Event Tracking (UET). This universal tag provides analytics data for websites, such as conversions, sales, and revenue. Also, you can use the UET tag to build audiences within the Microsoft Ads platform. Direct upload of audience dataBoth Microsoft Ads and Google Ads support direct uploads of audience data into their platforms. On both ad platforms, advertisers can upload a CSV file that contains first-party customer data. Many advertisers are not yet using this method to create audiences in PPC. They are still creating audience segments and remarketing lists based on their website pixels. As I mentioned, this strategy will work for the next 18-24 months approximately. But advertisers need to start building an audience framework that is durable when cookies are not available. First-party audience targetingOnce you have audience data propagating into the ad platforms, then you need to create audience segments to target your ads to the right people. Customer match in Google and MicrosoftUploading a CSV with your customer data is only the first step in creating an audience strategy. The PPC platforms use your customer profile data to discover user accounts created within those ecosystems.
Google Analytics 4 audiencesI’m focusing on Google Analytics 4 (GA4) because Universal Analytics (UA) will sunset on July 1, 2023. Historical analytics data will not transfer into your new GA4 account from UA. Even if UA remains your source of truth for a while longer, you should start building performance history in GA4 right now. Audience segments can also be created within GA4. Advertisers can build audiences based on website user behavior tracked in GA4. These audience segments can be ported into Google Ads when the two platforms are connected. Audience expansion tacticsOnce your customer data is populating within the PPC platforms and you have created audience segments based on this data, then you are ready to expand on this foundation. Similar audiencesBoth major PPC platforms provide ‘similar audiences’ segments. Using your existing customer segments, Google and Microsoft will find users with similar habits and browsing histories to your target audience. According to Google:
Similar audiences is a third-party audience since it relies on profile data from the PPC platforms. However, these audiences should be relatively durable even after cookies retire. The profiles are built on numerous data points based on search history, account profile data, and browsing history that should maintain post-2024. Affinity and in-market audiencesThese two audience types also rely on data from the PPC platforms. These segments:
In-market audiences refer to individuals who are in the market for a product or service currently. These are usually needs-based or short-term interests that could align with your brand. Often these individuals are actively searching for your product or service but may not have discovered your brand yet. On the other hand, affinity audiences are usually based on someone’s long-standing passion, interest, and engagement with specific topics. These two types of audience segments are similar but they do perform differently. If these audience types are not part of your strategy, you should test each to see which works for your campaign. GA4 predictive audiencesGA4 has some unique capabilities around audiences. One of the interesting features is predictive audiences. These segments blend your onsite audience data with predictive algorithms within GA4 to determine potential actions that users could take. Here is the current list of available predictive audiences in GA4.
Topics API and the privacy-first futureTopics API is an entirely new way of curating and creating audience segments. This feature is still being beta tested within the Privacy Sandbox. There have been a few cookieless tactics proposed by Google, but I think this has a good shot of making it to the general public. There are two parts to how Topics API functions:
According to Google, Topics API is privacy-safe:
Hopefully, the algorithms that determine an individual’s topics of interest have improved. Google Ads offered a previous version of topics/interest targeting within the Display Network and performance within those campaigns was usually much weaker than other audience-based targeting options. Start crafting your first-party PPC audience frameworkAdvertisers have received an extension on their pixel-based audience strategies. This does not mean you should become complacent when crafting your first-party audience framework. Keep moving forward toward a framework that is not solely reliant on third-party pixels. PPC managers always want more control over their campaigns and a structured, thoughtful audience framework is the backbone of successful PPC accounts. The post A PPC guide to privacy-focused audience targeting appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/xvI6nk9 In order to retain and grow existing customer relationships, leading organizations are betting on first-party data solutions that can drive impact for both acquisition and retention initiatives. Join ActionIQ and Hearst’s VP of acquisition and conversion as they discuss how Hearst is unlocking value by leveraging its first-party data to drive conversion across both subscriber and e-commerce products. Register today for “Harness Your First-Party Data For Customer Acquisition & Conversion,” presented by ActionIQ. The post Webinar: Harness first-party data for conversion appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/wR7n5N0 Retail businesses can now add in-store products to their Google Business Profile listings. How it works. When customers search for a Business Profile they can find a products carousel (on the Maps mobile app), or a carousel and “Products” tab if they’re using Google Search. With the “Products” tab, customers can:
How to add products. There are two ways to add products to your Business Profile.
To preview how products will appear to customers on Google Search, managers can click See it on Google about a minute or two after uploading. Required guidelines. retailers and advertisers who want to add products to their Business Profiles must follow Shopping Ads policies. Additionally, Google does not allow regulated products such as:
Read more. The new Products section was spotted on Twitter by Stefan Somborac. You can learn more about setting up products on your Google Business Profile here. Why we care. Allowing shoppers to browse items and prices before walking into a store can help increase visits and sales from both new and returning customers. With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, retailers and advertisers who can add products to their Google Business Profiles, and want increased visibility, should do so as soon as possible. The post Google Business Profile guidelines updated to include products appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/iGm4wfa Instagram announced two new features to help users control what they see in their feeds. Mark as Not Interested. The first feature is the ability to mark multiple posts in the Explore section as Not Interested. Those posts will be hidden and users won’t see similar posts in the future. Keywords, phrases, and emojis. The second new feature is the ability for users to tell Instagram you don’t want to see suggested posts with certain words, phrases, or emojis in the captions. See more of what you want. To see more posts you’re interested in, Instagram suggests some best practices.
Why we care. Social media users don’t like being inundated with too many advertisements or promotions, especially if that content isn’t helpful or relevant. These new features give Instagram users more power to dismiss or hide content they find irrelevant, overly promotional, or spam. Advertisers and brands that use Instagram to promote their content may want to reconsider the types of posts they publish. If the content is relevant, followers will be more likely to engage. Brands should look at their Instagram stats and evaluate whether the content they’re posting is well received among their audience. The post Instagram is testing 2 new ways to control your feed appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/EpYFyNf “Something more” could be Copyblogger’s unofficial content editing motto. That’s what Copyblogger founder Brian Clark was getting at years ago... The post Content Editing: The Art of Revising From Basic to Brilliant appeared first on Copyblogger. via Copyblogger https://ift.tt/JCsOmwD Twitter has begun testing Tweet Tiles, a new display format for tweeted links. The tiles will have larger images and text and a visible CTA button. What Twitter says.
Another new Tweet format. Twitter’s new “Quote Tweet with reaction” option is another new format they have been testing. It features an updated text editor that allows users to add more color to their comments. Expected launch date. There is no expected launch date for these new Tweet features. Not all users will see the new formats, as Twitter is rolling these out to selected publishers. Why we care. Twitter is known as a discussion platform, as Social Media Today points out. Twitter may be attempting to drive more engagement and clicks with updated visual CTAs. Publishers who use Twitter regularly should test these new Tweet formats and analyze their engagement stats. The new formats do look familiar, though. While Tweet Tiles look a lot like Pinterest boards and native Facebook ads, Quote Tweets remind us of custom Facebook post backgrounds. Is Twitter trying to blend in and look like other social platforms? It will be interesting to see how users react to these new formats as they’re rolled out to the public. The post Twitter is testing a new “Tweet Tiles” display for publisher links appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/08jbgS7 Ahead of the holiday season, Google just announced four new features for advertisers to implement in their ad campaigns and merchant feeds.
Conversion value rules for store sales and store visits. Advertisers can now set store visits or sales default values at the campaign level. Google says searches for “store open” have grown by over 400% YoY, so advertisers should optimize their in-store shopping experiences as well as online. To make it easier for shoppers to find your store, Google suggests keeping your Google Business Profile up to date with your store address and hours. Then grow your store foot traffic by promoting your location to shoppers in the area using Performance Max campaigns for store goals – such as in-store promotions or specials. Smart Bidding can be used to set goals for visits and/or sales. Product-specific insights. Product-specific insights are available at the account level and help advertisers spot underperforming offers, identify products with missing feed attributes, and compare bidding with your top competitors. Product insights work on shopping and Performance Max campaigns and are intended to leverage ads performance data to optimize products and provide visibility on what actions to take to fix issues. Deals Content API. Google says that 55% of shoppers surveyed planned on holding off on buying items until they were on sale. The Deals Content API is intended to make uploading and managing deals easier at scale. Merchants and advertisers can now add their sales and promotions to their listings via the Content API, which makes it even easier for merchants to upload and manage their deals at scale. The Deals Content API had already been launched, but Google had not officially announced it. Shipping & Returns Annotations. Merchants will now be able to list the expected delivery date (dynamic) (“Delivery by XX/YY”) and free returns right on their ads. Google notes that 3 in 10 consumers are concerned about stock issues. Adding estimated delivery times can alleviate these concerns and help shoppers stress less and convert more. Advertisers can also easily add their return policies. Shopping campaign best practices. Google has also outlined some best practices to help advertisers and merchants get ready for the holiday shopping season. To get the most out of your shopping or Performance Max campaigns, Google suggests:
Read the announcement. You can read the full announcement from Google and learn more information and best practices here. Why we care. Ecommerce merchants and advertisers who sell during the holidays should start setting up and testing these new features right away. Don’t wait until the holiday season is already here to begin planning and implementation. Expected shipping and delivery dates will be especially important as shoppers worry about supply chain issues and an uncertain economy. The post Google announces 4 new Shopping campaign features appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/l5UVQfq Hiring is one of the hardest jobs you have as a manager, team builder and even coworker. I have a distinct memory of hiring my first SEO employee at Uber over five years ago. The search took months, and the pressure to fill the headcount was overwhelming (lest it be taken away). The fact of the matter is I just take hiring with great care. And it looks like I’m not the only one. One of the hottest Twitter topics this year was when Lily Ray, Senior Director, SEO and Head of Organic Research at Amsive Digital, shared her favorite hiring question during the Search Central NYC Meetup. Ray revealed that when interviewing potential employees, they asked them to explain the difference between a few critical search engine processes: crawling, indexing, ranking and rendering. While the onus of hiring at first felt daunting, I now love identifying and interviewing special SEO talent many years later and have contributed to finding a large portion of the SEO teams at Uber and Square. Hire the right team and I believe you can surmount any SEO challenge. Hire the wrong teammate, and the whole team and morale suffer. So how do you weed out SEOs in a 30- to 60-minute interview and figure out who is all bark and no bite? What if they’re more of a snake oil salesman than a spider crawling expert? I asked some of my favorite SEOs their favorite SEO interview questions. Find out the answers below. 10 SEO interview questions to ask and why1. “Have you done this before? How did you overcome the biggest challenges?”– Kevin Indig, Former SEO Director at Shopify Why Indig likes this SEO interview question
2. “Imagine we wanted to rank #1 for <insert keyword>. What should we do?”“…and then every time they answer say something along the lines of, “and what if that didn’t work? What would you do?” And see how long they keep going.” – Tyler Reardon, Global SEO Lead at Chewy Why Reardon likes this SEO interview question
3. “You’re a vending machine repair specialist. You walk into a room and see a dark vending machine. What’s the first thing you do?”– Jamie Indigo, Senior Technical SEO, Deepcrawl Why Indigo likes this SEO interview question
4. “How do you go about making sure your recommendations get implemented?”– Areej AbuAli, Head of SEO, Papier / Founder, Tech SEO Women Why AbuAli likes this SEO interview question
5. “How would you set up an SEO test?”– Jackson Lo, Sr. SEO Lead, Growth, Shopify Why Lo likes this SEO interview question
6. “Organic traffic is down – walk me through how you would diagnose its cause.”– Victor Pan, Head of Technical SEO, Hubspot Then follow up with: “You checked x, y, and z and that wasn’t it – what else could it be?” I keep going until they hit the bottom of the barrel. I want to know how they respond to uncertainty. So I throw a hint e.g., “so I noticed our rank showed Y, so the interviewee has a chance to react to new information. I get to understand how they approach problems (bonus points if they look at it differently from the team).” Why Pan likes this SEO interview question
7. “Describe a complex SEO challenge you’ve encountered, and walk me through step by step how you approached trying to solve it, and why you chose the route you did.”– Kyle Faber, Founder and Head of SEO, Snark Digital Why Kyle likes this SEO interview question
8. “Tell me about a project that you’re particularly proud of, why you’re proud of it and what you learned from the project.”– Niki Mosier, Director of Digital Marketing and Content, AgentSync Why Mosier likes this SEO interview question
9. “What’s the most important SEO initiative?”– Eli Schwartz, Author, “Product Led SEO” / Former SEO Lead, SurveyMonkey Why Schwartz likes this SEO interview question
And my personal favorite question to ask when interviewing SEOs is… 10. “What was your most difficult technical SEO project and what was the business impact?”Why I like this SEO interview question
Best case, I’ll selfishly learn something interesting during the interview about something I didn’t know was possible. I’ll also learn if they understand how to look at analytics, how they think through attribution and other critical skills related to being part of a successful SEO team. Worst case, they’ll reveal that they do not focus on the business metrics or do not understand how to tell the narrative of their business impact, disqualifying them from a senior role in the organization. The post 10 SEO experts share their favorite interview questions appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/ZJ3fCAN |
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