To prevent unwanted impressions or clicks from certain search terms across multiple campaigns, advertisers can create a negative keyword list at the account level and then apply it to relevant campaigns. This will save you the effort of adding the same negative keywords to individual campaigns and make it easier to manage future changes to negative keywords across campaigns. How it works. Creating a list of negative keywords allows you to block your ads from showing for specific irrelevant terms for your brand, making it easier for your ads to reach your desired audience and resulting in more successful conversions. As an example from the Google Ads Help doc, if you own a sporting goods store that specializes in workout clothes, you can create a negative keyword list that includes terms such as “dress pants” or “blouses” to prevent your ads from showing to people searching for those terms. Why we care. Negative keyword lists help to ensure that their ads are only being shown to the most relevant audience. By excluding irrelevant search terms, negative keyword lists make it more likely that ads will be seen by people who are actually interested in the products or services being advertised. This can lead to higher click-through rates and conversion rates, resulting in a better return on investment for the advertiser. Additionally, it can save on Ad spend by avoiding showing ads to people who are not interested in the product. Setting these lists at the account level saves advertisers a lot of time if they have an account with multiple campaigns. Dig deeper. You can read the full announcement from Google here. The post Google Account-level negative keywords are here appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/LZ8XEfP
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SEO professionals can access many free and paid platforms, tools, and software. But if you and your competitors are all using the same tools, data, and approaches – how can you set yourself apart? At SMX Next, I shared the SEO tools that will make up my toolkit in 2023. If you missed the session, read on as I share some highlights. Before we dive in, it’s worth noting that true to the fast pace of SEO, there’s already been a change in how you might think of one of the tools – but we’ll get to that shortly. So what will we be covering in this article?
Let’s get started. Why do we use SEO tools?As with virtually every decision we make, when it comes to tools, it’s good to think about the ever-present question – why? Why do we use tools in the first place? We generally use SEO tools for one of the following tasks:
Essentially, we use tools to save time. When you think of most of the tools you use or want to use, they generally speed up the collection of information or present it in a way that’s easier to draw conclusions. Take a moment and think of one of the tools you use and one of the tasks you use it for. Guaranteed it will fit one or more of the purposes above. But, of course, there are hundreds of tools to choose from. I’m not going to pretend that the list below is fully exhaustive. I’ve only included tools I use myself and only those that would apply to most people. That said, they’re tools that have proven themselves invaluable to my regular routine. So what are they? The usual suspectsYou can probably guess what my list of usual suspects is now. But let’s cover them anyway. SemrushWhy does Semrush make this list? Semrush is a solid all-in-one toolset covering multiple areas of SEO, SEM and SMM and generally does them well. Some of the key tools within the suite I use regularly are:
You’re probably familiar with much of what it does and if not, I’d suggest a trial. Semrush is generally pretty affordable for the variety of purposes it serves (though it can get pricey if you need to add users, white label reports, or use add-ons). And since it’s generally well known, knowing how to use it is a marketable skill. Screaming FrogHands down, this is the best value tool on the market. Screaming Frog, for the three of you who might not know, is a crawler. Give it a website or a list of URLs and configure how you want it to crawl (depth, user agents, paths, etc.), info on the data you want to collect, plus a bit of time, and it’ll return an audit of the site with various visualizations and filters. There’s a free version that’s good for up to 500 URLs, though it has limited customizations. For a paid version, you’ll have to pony up a “whopping” $210/year. As I said, best value tool on the market. It’s good for:
And I don’t have to dive into the remainder of my usual suspects as you hopefully use them already: All I’ll say about Bing Webmaster Tools is this: It’s like Search Console, but with far more details and information, making it the unsung hero of SEO tools. The unusual suspectsTechnical SEO toolsJet Octopus is another technical SEO suite. (And no, I don’t know where these companies get their names.) The interface includes screens like: It’s similar to Semrush but with different filtering options and of course, a different crawler. As you can see above, Jet Octopus lets you easily group issues into the sections of the site you’ll find them in, like a combination of Semrush and Bing Webmaster Tools. I also find it gives me a different way of looking at a site structure, though I wouldn’t give up Semrush for it, making it one to add to the mix if you have the budget and need to make sure you have an easy-to-use different way of looking at things. And some additional unusual suspects for technical SEO: Merkle: Various free SEO tools covering everything from schema to prerendering. Structured Data Testing Tool: For testing your schema. Mobile Moxie: Free and paid tools for testing your mobile SEO. Uptime Robot: For making sure your site(s) are up. Content toolsBut all the technical SEO in the world won’t get your ranking without great content. So let’s look at some unusual suspects on the content side: A huge favorite content-related SEO tool of mine is the shockingly inexpensive Infranodus (though it arguably isn’t a content tool, it’s what I use it most for). Within Infranodus, you’ll find an array of tools for a whopping €9/month (about the same in USD). My most commonly used tools help me dig into the concepts included in the top Google results, and how the concepts connect to various pages within a list. In short, you can enter a query and it will produce an interactive mapping of how the terms in the results connect to each other, which I find helps me not only better understand how Google might see a concept, but a user as well. Here it is in action: And of course:
Link-related toolsOf course, I have tools I use for keeping an eye on links and competitors’ links. My favorite tools in this category are: Ahrefs While technically Ahrefs is a suite of tools one might compare to Semrush, it’s in links that I find it really shines. I find it catches new backlinks faster than other tools, and generally has a more robust database. So when I’m keeping my eye on new links, looking for gaps in link profiles, or just researching competitors, this is my first (though not only) stop. Majestic I haven’t used Majestic in a few years, but I wanted to include it in the list as it’s a solid backlink tool worth your consideration. At one point, I hit a threshold and had too many tools, so I made a “one in, one out” policy to keep it under control. I had a lot of duplication in the link category so I had to get rid of some tools. But for those who don’t have this problem, Majestic is a solid option to consider (and might even be worth revisiting myself). Search Console I hope I don’t have to tell you why Search Console is an important tool for monitoring your backlinks, but here it is summed up in a Stable Diffusion-generated image. Some AI toolsOf course, we can’t forget about AI. There are all sorts of AI-driven tools and I’m not going to tell you which is best as I haven’t tested them all and am far from deciding which one(s) I’ll land on yet (though Jasper has taken an early lead). That said, you can access some of the core tech for free! While there’s been a lot of hype around ChatGPT, I still prefer accessing the technology (GPT-3) in the OpenAI playground. It’s the same technology with (IMO) better flexibility and interface. Simply sign up for an OpenAI account, and then you can access the API to perform all sorts of NLP-related tasks, or just play around in their playground. It can be used for:
AI tools for image generation are also popular nowadays. I’ve used text-to-image generators for:
You can see some good examples of the power of image generators in my previous article, What the new wave of machine learning libraries means for SEO, marketing, which include: The major tools you can use for text-to-image generators include:
Plus, a forecasting toolI built a forecasting tool that you can run as a Google Colab. It lets you connect with your Google Analytics (only Universal Analytics for now, as most people don’t have over a year of data in GA4, which is required for decent forecasting). You can even choose a specific segment of your analytics (organic, for example) and forecast the next few months to give you something like: It’s nice to be able to know in advance what things are going to look like in the future. I wrote a full tutorial on how to use it (very easy) in a previous Search Engine Land article, Forecasting web traffic using Google Analytics and Facebook Prophet. The task of our toolsThe above tools are not the only ones I use. (I have 39 in my bookmarks alone!) But these are the ones I’ve found to work for me over the years. Of course, you may use different tools as your situation or budget may differ. What’s important is that you have tools for all the main tasks. Watch: How to build a winning SEO tool stack for 2023Below is the complete video of my SMX Next presentation. The post How to build a winning SEO tool stack for 2023 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/rlRw6mG In the early 2000s, web search was mostly limited to search engines and online directories available at the time. But we have come a long way since then. Optimizing for search remains important today. But users no longer solely rely on traditional search engines to look up information. I believe it’s time for SEO professionals to think beyond Google and search engines and start looking at search holistically. Beyond Google: The reality of today’s search landscapeAs the competition online increases, the best way to do right by our clients is to ensure we’re working to improve their visibility, not just on search engines like Google, but also on social media platforms where their target audiences are searching. Nowadays, a substantial share of web searches happens on social media platforms. More than social networking, these websites and apps are where many of today’s web users knowingly – or unknowingly – search via hashtags, trending topics and the like. While we’ve gotten used to the term “SEO,” it’s about time we talk about “search optimization” instead of the limiting concept of “search engine optimization.” Search campaigns should focus on overall search presence rather than only giving importance to search engine results. Yes, there is already a concept of social media optimization (SMO). But this generally refers to creating and sharing content on social media with the goal of making it viral. What I am talking about is optimizing for searches done by social media users within social media platforms that have search functionality. The mere fact that social media platforms have search features that are constantly enhanced is compelling proof. Brands must take their presence on social media search seriously – and as search marketers, our strategies should help set them up for long-term success. Social search: What it is and why it matters“Social search uses elements of user behavior, implicit and explicit, to improve the results of searches inside and outside enterprises. Such elements are typically stored as metadata, making social search a type of metadata mining. It also enables users to disambiguate results from their queries more effectively,” according to Gartner. Showing up in social media search results is vital for brands. Here are 12 reasons why.
Searching on social media platformsTo get a better idea, let's explore the search features of popular social media platforms, such as:
There are many ways to use the search function on Twitter. You can:
Just like traditional search engine results, Twitter search results for users who are logged in differ from the ones who are not. Advanced search is also available when you’re logged in, letting you get customized search results for specific date ranges, people, and more. This makes it easier to find specific tweets. The platform also has a FAQs page about search results displayed on Twitter. LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network on the web. It is a platform for anyone looking for varied career opportunities, including people from various professional backgrounds, such as small business owners, students, and job seekers. LinkedIn members can use the platform to tap into a network of professionals, companies, and groups within and beyond their industry. LinkedIn search has great filters to help narrow your search for more relevant results. You can use filters like:
Additionally, the platform is widely used by job seekers and recruiters. HR professionals use it for headhunting and background checks on applicants. LinkedIn is surely a social media platform, but with a focus on professional interactions, as well as knowledge-sharing. From a search perspective, people use LinkedIn for professional development and seeking job opportunities. Hence, being found in the search results on LinkedIn is crucial. In 2021, there were 1.21 billion monthly active users on Meta's Instagram, making up over 28% of the world's internet users. By 2025, its user base is expected to grow to 1.44 billion, accounting for 31.2% of global internet users. Hence, sharing innovative content regularly and using the correct hashtags can surely boost the chance of your profile showing up on Instagram search results. Instagram content is usually in the form of images, videos, live conversations, reels, and stories. (And there’s a shopping feature, too.) As a rapidly growing platform, you simply cannot ignore this social media platform – especially if you want to be in front of Gen Z users. Instagram interactions are measured in likes, shares, and follows. If your client is in retail, fashion, food, baby products or grooming, then this is a place where their prospective buyers are searching for options. YouTubeYouTube search prioritizes three main elements to provide the best search results:
Optimizing for YouTube search is like optimizing a website, but here the content is in video format. Thus, your video title and description have to be very relevant so that they can match the search query of the user. On YouTube, prospective buyers can discover your brand. You can also create videos that answer frequently asked questions customers may have after buying your product or service. Hence, making it a great platform for sales and after-sales. Optimizing for search beyond search enginesPeople are no longer limited to searching on search engines and online directories. Multiple tools are at their disposal to satisfy their need for information. Thus, our search campaigns should not merely revolve around showing up on search engines like Google – but for every type of search, regardless of the platform. In the past, we have seen how the search on directories became redundant. The future may see popular social media platforms having more sophisticated search capabilities – and people using them more than the actual search engines. To future-proof our clients’ businesses and set them up for long-term success, start optimizing for search where their target audiences are – not just on Google but also on social media platforms. The post Moving on from search engine optimization to search optimization appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/lt5Scwp Google AdWords API launchesIn 2005, Google launched the Google AdWords API. Google said API usage would be free, though activity was capped via a quota system. Those with larger accounts or spending more with Google would be allowed to have higher activity. Google described the AdWords API as a:
The Google AdWords API had a good run. It wasn’t until April 29, 2021 that Google would tell developers using the AdWords API they would need to upgrade to the Google Ads API by April 27, 2022. That’s the date when Google AdWords API officially sunset. Also on this dayGoogle SERP analysis: PAA appears 10x more than featured snippets2022: The number of featured snippets shown in Google SERPs continued to decrease. Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to be transitioned to Performance Max by end of September2022: Google would also launch a “one-click” self-service tool for advertisers that would like to transition their campaigns ahead of the deadline. Twitter launches Site Visit Optimization goal and Aggregated Measurement for campaigns aimed at driving site traffic2022: Also, Events Manager, where advertisers can manage their Twitter Website Tag and associated web-based conversion events. New Google mobile search feature: People Search Next2022: The feature was meant to “help people more easily get to and see popular next searches based on what they’re searching.” Google Search Console logging issue may cause drop in image search performance data2022: You may have seen a drop in the number of clicks and impressions in Google Search Console Performance reports for images. Gmail campaigns to stop running on June 282022: Nearly a year after standalone Gmail campaigns became “read-only.” WordPress 5.9 launches with full site editing2022: WordPress made enhancements to the block editor and stretched no code capabilities. Google allows ads for sports betting in Louisiana2022: Advertisers first had to be state-licensed and certified by Google to run gambling ads. Google may not display Web Stories that are teasers2021: Google said its users want to see the full story and not have to click through to see more. Google’s SEO job description highlights importance of collaborating with multiple teams2020: Google posted a job opening to hire an SEO. What local SEOs should focus on in 20202020: Four experts offered their top three recommendations for local search marketers. Video: Thom Craver at CBS Interactive on the importance of schema and a bit on Google News2020: In this installment of Barry Schwartz’s vlog series, he also chatted with Craver about how he gets blamed for some perceived bias within Google News. Tick-tock: Expert findings, testing tips & resources for success after Jan. 312017: Findings and advice meant to provide some anxiety relief and motivation for paving the way with ETAs. Search in Pics: Warrior helmet, Google auto rickshaw & colorful lockers2017: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more. Math! Now Available Right In AdWords Custom Columns2016: Google introduced an addition to custom columns: custom formulas. Microsoft Pulls Funding For Anti-Google Lobbying Group FairSearch2016: Microsoft was no longer listed as a member. Bing Adds Lottery & Powerball Numbers To Search Results2016: You could now check Bing’s quick answer box to see if your lottery ticket matched the winning lottery numbers. Is Apple About To Launch A Competitor To Google Street View?2016: Apple was driving vehicles around the world to collect data to improve Google Maps. Google Seeking Testers For Search Queries Report In Webmaster Tools2015: Google was looking for some volunteers to test out an early version of the updated search queries report within Google’s Webmaster Tools. Google Mobile Search Descriptions Now Say If You’re Blocking Google2015: Google’s mobile search results snippets started showing a message to searchers when Google was unable to show the snippet to searchers because the webmaster was blocking their crawlers. Download Legacy PLA Product Target Data Prior To March 232015: If advertisers wanted to keep a record of that older data. Google Analytics Rolling Out “Trash Can” Feature To Help Users Recover Deleted Data2015: The feature would save views, properties and accounts for 35 days after they have been deleted. Thanksgiving Drove Retailers’ Highest Paid Search Revenue Gains Of The Holiday Season [Report]2015: Revenue rose 50% year-over-year, just beating out Black Friday’s revenue gains of 49%. Bing Ads Reduces Campaign Reporting Lag To 1 Hour2015: Impression and click performance data were delivered much faster. Google’s Latest Search Trick: “As The Crow Flies” Distance Calculation2014: Google’s OneBox could answer how far it was between two remote locations. Israel Wants To Tax Google To Support Local Content Publishers2014: Nicknamed “Google Law” it would assess a tax of 7% on search engine ad revenues to subsidize local content publishers. Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users2012: Bing said its market share was 20% of active internet users in Germany. However, several third-party sources disagreed. Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar2012: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Google Testing Display Ads In Gmail2011: Google started experimenting with image ads on messages with heavy image content. Larry Page And The Reinvention Of “The Google”2011: The primary meme that emerged in the week after the Google’s CEO switch: Page’s ascension was about streamlining decision-making at Google and helping the company be more “nimble.” Bing’s Chief Scientist, Alek Kołcz, Joins Twitter2011: Microsoft’s Principal Scientist of Bing left to join the Twitter team. The New York Times, Demand Media Edition2011: When Demand Media, widely described as a “content farm,” went public it quickly racked up a valuation higher than the New York Times. Schmidt Downplays Google’s Competition With Facebook, Apple & Well … Almost Everything2011: He said his new focus would be on external things like “customers, partners, deals, M&A, government, press, publicity and marketing.” Google Social Search Goes Live, Adds New Features2010: It was a way of seeing customized search results based on the people in your social network. Finally! Yahoo Search Weather Report : January 20102010: Yahoo was rolling out updates to crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms. Yahoo Gains “Default” Search Deal With Ubuntu2010: The Firefox browser that was shipped in Ubuntu would be configured to use Yahoo as the default search engine. AT&T Planning To Launch Yelp-Like Site Buzz.com2010: It aimed to be a place where people could get and share recommendations about local businesses. How Search-Like Are Social Media Sites?2009: For search marketers looking at social media, how did it measure up? Which social media sites were most “search like?” Yahoo Q4 Shows Operating Loss; CEO Bartz: ‘This Is Not A Company That Needs To Be Pulled Apart And Left For The Chickens’2009: Revenues were $1,806 million for the fourth quarter of 2008, a 1 percent decrease compared to $1,832 million for the same period of 2007. Search Biz: Yahoo Earnings, Google Lobbying, Tech Stimulus, Best Places To Work & Making PCs ‘History’2009: Google was set to ramp up lobbying and other political efforts to push its agenda through the labyrinth of Washington policymakers. Google Logs Help Convict Husband Accused of Murdering Wife2009: The search queries were used as evidence of the husband’s guilty mind. From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
< January 26 | Search Marketing History | January 28 > The post This day in search marketing history: January 27 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/UOoCYbl I get excited when I hear someone wants to start a service business. I love when people: But I don’t... The post Service Business 101: Impress and Score Your Next Client appeared first on Copyblogger. via Copyblogger https://ift.tt/xARUmFk Twitter just launched a beta program that’s available to all advertisers called Search Keyword Ads. The announcement was made on Twitter. How it works. Twitter says “Now advertisers can bid to insert Promoted Tweets solely among specific search results, reaching people with high real-time intent & improving ad relevance.” “Search Keywords Ads differ from other Twitter Keywords campaigns in that they only reach people who are searching for targeted terms when they are searching, offering a stronger signal of intent.” Why we care. If you’re one of the remaining few advertisers left on Twitter, give Search Keyword Ads a try. The new ads can be an effective way for marketers to reach their target audience at the right time and with the right message, potentially leading to better conversion rates and ROI. Additionally, this feature provides more specific targeting options to reach audiences, it can help to improve the effectiveness of campaigns and lower the cost of reaching targeted audiences. The post Twitter has launched a Search Keyword Ads beta test to all advertisers appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/aIVl5cv Interest in AI technology and, more specifically, OpenAI’s ChatGPT product has skyrocketed in recent weeks. People are looking for information about both topics. Thousands are writing about ChatGPT across the web… …and talking about it in various communities. And as you can tell from the graphs, all of this happened quickly. Whether your Twitter and LinkedIn feeds have been inundated with threads and posts about ChatGPT (like mine) or you’re just stumbling on the topic, you may want answers to two questions before investing your time and energy into learning ChatGPT:
In this article, I’ll help you answer these questions by telling you:
What is ChatGPT?ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot created by OpenAI that can be accessed at https://chat.openai.com/. As of this writing, ChatGPT offers a free version of the tool that users can access, but there have been indications that they will be charging $42/month for a pro version. OpenAI has also indicated that they’ll make an API for the tool available soon. The interface is simple, with an empty dialog to enter a prompt. The tool can perform various tasks and return text in response. Some examples of tasks ChatGPT can execute include:
ChatGPT launched in late November 2022, on the heels of AI Content Generator Jasper.ai receiving $125 million in funding at a $1.5 billion valuation earlier the same month. The tool reached a million users in less than a week. But each session has a specific cost associated with it: In the interest of helping fund those costs (and further growth) Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI at a $29 billion valuation. A move which, combined with ChatGPT’s growth and word of mouth, might be fueling Google’s reported concerns about ChatGPT as a possible threat. OpenAI has also indicated that there will be a “professional” version of the tool and Greg Brockman the President & Co-Founder of OpenAI shared a link to a Google Form to get on the waitlist: Some users have reported seeing an option to upgrade to a $42 free version when logged into their account. Even with the Microsoft investment, ChatGPT has continued to experience outages and even had to limit new users on the platform: And ChatGPT is starting to face criticisms over the accuracy of some of the output of the tool, while also staring down competition from rivals (which one would have to assume will only increase and intensify in the wake of the platform’s early success). Now that you know what ChatGPT is, it’s also helpful to understand a bit more about how it works and who built it (and what their goals and motivations may be). How does it work and how was it trained?If you’re an SEO looking for ways to leverage AI in your everyday work, you don’t need to know how to build your own chatbot. That said, when using tools like ChatGPT, you will want to know where the information it generates comes from, how it determines what to return as an answer, and how that might change over time. That way you can understand what level of trust to put in the output of ChatGPT chats, how to better craft your prompts, and what tasks you may want to use it for (or not use it for). Before you start to use ChatGPT for anything, I’d strongly recommend you check out OpenAI’s own blog post about ChatGPT. There they have a nice graphic explaining how it works, along with a more in-depth explanation. AssemblyAI also has a detailed third-party breakdown of how ChatGPT works, some of its strengths and weaknesses, and a number of additional sources if you’re looking to dive deeper. One of the most important things to remember about how ChatGPT works is its limitations. In OpenAI’s own words:
Another that’s important to highlight:
As many people know, the ChatGPT was fine-tuned on a GPT model which finished training in early 2022 – meaning it won’t have knowledge of more current events. It is also trained on a “vast amount” of text from the web, so of course answers can be incorrect. From ChatGPT's own FAQs:
Who built ChatGPT?Similarly, understanding who built the application and why is an important background if you hope to use it in your day-to-day work. Again, ChatGPT is an OpenAI product. Here's some background on the company and their stated goals:
Notable elements here if you’re interested in ChatGPT either as an SEO or as a viable alternative to Google are obviously:
Why should SEOs care about ChatGPT?While it’s possible that ChatGPT or another AI-powered chatbot could become a viable alternative to Google and traditional search, that’s likely at least far enough away that most SEOs won’t be primarily concerned with the tool for that reason. So why should SEOs care? ChatGPT has a variety of functionality that can be helpful for SEOs. Additionally, given the platform’s ability to generate AI content, it’s important to understand both what the tool is capable of on that front, and how Google talks and thinks about AI content generally. What follows are ChatGPT's use cases for SEO. AI content generationBy far the “buzziest” early 2023 SEO topic has been AI content broadly, and ChatGPT has been at the center of that discussion since it launched. From creating blog posts whole cloth to selecting images, generating meta descriptions or rewriting content, there are a number of specific functions ChatGPT can serve when it comes to content creation generally and SEO-focused content creation specifically. But, of course, an important concern here is how Google thinks about AI content in general. SEOs need to identify the specific instances where ChatGPT can make them more efficient or enhance their content. At the same time, it's crucial to understand the potential risks to rankings and organic traffic when using ChatGPT-generated content in different ways (particularly if you’re relying on content created by writers you don’t have a relationship with). Keyword research and organizationSimilarly, there are a number of specific tasks ChatGPT can execute related to keyword research and optimization, such as:
A key consideration for SEOs is how this relates to your current and optimal processes for these tasks. ChatGPT isn’t designed to be an “SEO tool,” so won’t have the emphasis on search volume, competition, or relevance and co-occurrence that more focused keyword research or organization tools will. Code generation and technical SEOChatGPT is helping people generate code and build things, and it’s no different for specific technical SEO tasks. Depending on the prompts, ChatGPT can help with things like schema markups, robots.txt directives, redirect codes, and building widgets and free tools to promote via link outreach, among others. As with any type of content creation, you must QA the code that ChatGPT generates. Your site’s template, hosting environment, CMS, and more can break if the code ChatGPT generates is incorrect. Link buildingChatGPT can generate lists of outreach targets, emails, free tool ideas, and more that may assist with link building work. Here again (you may be sensing a theme) two things to keep in mind:
How to think about ChatGPT as an SEOUltimately, given its early functionality and reception along with OpenAI’s founding team and investors (and level of investment), ChatGPT is likely to have longevity as a tool. It’s highly useful, with a high potential for getting folks who misuse it into trouble. I would encourage SEOs to become familiar with ChatGPT (and tools like it) and get used to carefully checking its output. The post What is ChatGPT and why SEOs should care appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/4OYdFe7 Google strong-armed ecommerce marketers into Performance Max campaigns in 2022 by deprecating Smart Shopping and Local campaigns in favor of fewer levers and more AI-driven results. As I wrote in a column looking back on Google’s biggest 2022 moves, most advanced search marketers begrudged this direction since more controls provide good marketers more room to outpace their peers, giving their brands a competitive edge. B2B marketers weren’t nearly as broadly impacted by the move to Performance Max, since their old campaign structures remained unchanged by Google. There’s no denying, however, that the writing is on the wall. Google is moving hard toward machine learning and AI, which means Performance Max may well be the lay of the entire Google search land in the near future. So as we get into the teeth of 2023, how should B2B marketers approach Performance Max? Failing to plan might be planning to failIf I were a betting person, I’d put down some money on the idea that Google will begin steering B2B campaigns toward Performance Max this year. If that happens, marketers who are more aggressive in familiarizing themselves with the ins and outs will have a leg up when Google takes away other campaign options. If your search campaigns are in a position to do so, I’d suggest you begin to test Performance Max ASAP. That said, here are some conditions I strongly recommend you meet before you devote any budget to testing:
If you meet all these conditions, you’re good to go – with some additional caveats and best practices I’ll spell out now. 1. Stay skepticalThe idea behind Performance Max is that it delivers your ads to the right people wherever they are – Discover, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Display Network, etc. You’re using automatic bidding and trusting that Google’s algorithm can discern valuable levels of intent. That said, Google’s algorithm is still learning, and it has built a history of optimizing for spend over efficiency. As you approach Performance Max, look for ways to strong-arm the algorithm into doing what you want it to. 2. Get your first-party data readyCRM data is vital for Performance Max campaigns in general for a couple of reasons, both of which apply in force for B2B – audience quality and offline conversions. Let’s tackle offline conversions first. If we simply rely on pixels that fire for leads as signals for Performance Max, we’ll set ourselves up for failure. Consider the lead spam most B2B campaigns have to sift through, then understand that Performance Max will take the path of least resistance to get the “desired” action. Without integrating a layer of CRM data and telling Performance Max to optimize toward MQLs, SQLs or opportunities (essentially, whatever your most valuable stage is that also carries enough data volume for PMax to use effectively), the system will optimize toward leads, using up your budget to keep bringing in ROI-unfriendly amounts of spam. On the audience side, remember, Performance Max uses the signals you give to find the right users. Signals might incorporate audience lists like current customers, closed/won opportunities, etc. Performance Max, like Similar Audiences, isn’t constrained to the audience lists you give Google. It might even be a little broader than Similar Audiences, given that it extends across GDN, Gmail, and YouTube. So, button up your lists and make sure the common attributes are clear enough for Performance Max to read and react to in its targeting. The upshot? Google doesn’t have great built-in B2B targeting, so stay away from using their audiences and give it enough volume and clarity to work with. 3. ExperimentWhen approaching Performance Max setup, keep in mind that you can do experiments. But there's a caveat – you only have visibility into results at the campaign level. Thus, I recommend testing at least two Performance Max campaigns, each relying on different audience signals, to see which is more effective. Note: To make the two-experiment setup work, you’ll have to be able to carve out enough budget to make the findings clear and actionable. 4. Get familiar with reporting – and act on results quicklyOne of Google’s better releases in 2022, Custom Columns, allows advertisers to see offline conversions at the campaign level, even for Performance Max campaigns: Beyond that, Performance Max reporting diverges from familiar ad group-level reporting and breaks everything into asset groups, providing a view of all provided assets and possible combinations. We’ve found the campaign-level view to be most helpful, which is why I recommend starting with at least two campaign-level experiments. Once you’re relatively fluent with the reporting structure, keep a close eye on quality and opportunities to add negatives, whether keywords or placement exclusions, to shore up efficiency. Making Performance Max work for B2BMy overall take on Performance Max is that Google hasn’t yet put much effort into making the product work for B2B or lead gen. Make sure to keep a close eye on results and quality, using any levers in your control to keep Google focused on your best potential user. Establish clear goalposts and standards for when to pull the plug. In a best-case scenario, Performance Max will be a pleasant surprise and enable you to access a larger pool of valuable users at reasonable CPLs. But if you take my advice, even a worst-case scenario with some fruitless spend will give you valuable insights into the future of Google for B2B. The post Performance Max for B2B: 4 best practices appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/PHRlqoz Google is opening access to the local car inventory beta feature to all US dealerships using the cars for sale feature in Google Business Profiles. Greg Gifford reports that Google has opened this beta feature now to all US-based dealerships. Cars for Sale open. Google has opened up the “Cars for Sale” feature in Google Business Profiles to any product with a vehicle identification number (VIN). “Until this week, only US-based car dealers could list their inventory on their Google Business Profiles. Now, anything that has a Vehicle Identification Number is eligible to be listed. That means motorcycles, RVs, powersports, and Commercial vehicles are all allowed now,” Gifford explained. What it looks like. Here is a GIF of this cars for sale feature in action while in beta: More details. Google has a dedicated section about this feature over here, where it is called “vehicle listings.” Google wrote, “Vehicle listings on Google allows businesses to display their for sale vehicle inventory on various Google surfaces, including dealerships’ Business Profiles and Google Search. Google users can then search, filter, and easily learn more about vehicles for sale such as availability, pricing, and key information about the vehicles for sale, potentially directing customers to your business.” To manage vehicle listings through your Business Profile account, perform the following steps:
To manage your vehicle listings through a Google Search, perform the following steps:
Why we care. You probably want to jump on this feature if you work for an auto dealership. Listing your vehicles in Google Search and the local search results may help you get more customers in your showroom and potentially lead to more sales. The post Google rolling out cars for sale in Google Business Profiles appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/thGNWuY LinkedIn Ads launchesIn 2011, LinkedIn Ads officially launched. Advertisers could now target by exact job title, company name or LinkedIn Group. LinkedIn’s self-service PPC ad offering launched in beta in July 2008 under the name LinkedIn DirectAds. Originally, advertisers could only target by geography, job function, industry, company size, seniority, age and gender. Although marketers liked LinkedIn Ads’ extensive ad targeting, they were critical of how expensive it was on a per-click basis. Also on this dayGoogle Ads scripts rolls out support for asset-based video ads2022: Advertisers had until Feb. 28, 2022, to migrate their code from the previous media-based video ads. Google’s Topics API: Advertisers share concerns about topic diversity and other potential challenges2022: Search marketers applauded Google’s proposed user privacy measures, but also highlighted its shortcomings – particularly the number of topics in the initial design. Microsoft Advertising now offers Filter Link Extensions2021: Filter Link Extensions gave advertisers more visibility and the opportunity to tell customers more about their business offerings. Insights from our 2017 holiday retail survey2018: Holiday budgets rose across most platforms, plus what retail marketers did differently. Google Bulletin: Hyperlocal news, Nextdoor competitor or both?2018: Google described it as a “lightweight app for telling a story by capturing photos, video clips and text right from your phone, published straight to the web.” Survey: People becoming less inhibited about using voice search in public2018: Texting was the most common use case for voice. Men used voice search more than women. Analyst firm: Google Home gains ground on Amazon Echo, now 44M total devices sold2018: Google Home accounted for about 40% of the units sold in the US during the holiday period. Search in Pics: Google bison, bowling balls & game controller tables2018: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more. Wilder Penfield Google doodle spotlights neurosurgeon once considered the ‘Greatest Living Canadian’2018: Google’s doodle included an illustration of Penfield and highlighted his research on how smells could impact memory-recall. iProspect: 2016 mobile CPCs up 26%, Shopping spend up 41%2017: Mobile CPCs were expected to rise and CTRs to fall as competition and impression volume increased. Google Maps will tell you how hard it will be to find parking2017: You could plan enough time not just for driving to your destination but also the time it would take to park at your destination. Google “spinner” Easter Egg returns interactive spinning wheel at top of results2017: You would get an interactive spinning wheel that let you choose anywhere from two to 20 numbers when you searched Google for [spinner]. Bessie Coleman Google doodle celebrates 125th birthday of first African-American female aviator2017: The Doodle included an animated image of Bessie, or “Queen Bessie,” as she was known during her exhibition flying career. AdGooroo Launches Competitive Insights For Local Paid Search2016: The new tool provided keyword, ad copy and budget insights at a city level. Google Introduces Candidate Cards In Search For Presidential Election Season2016: Google created a prominent placement for the candidates’ own messages and content in a horizontal carousel in search results. Who Invented The Mechanical Television? John Logie Baird Google Doodle Marks TV’s 90th Anniversary2016: The Doodle marked the 90th anniversary of the first demonstration of a television. Video Of Matt Cutts Talking About The Early Days At Google2015: A 34 minute video of Cutts giving a talk at UNC Chapel Hill. Cortana Expands The Boundaries Of Search, But Will It Eventually Eat It Too?2015: With Cortana, Bing was “creating new user paradigms and bringing search into the context of what you’re already doing.” Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search2012: That time when Google’s supposedly sophisticated Universal Search algorithm picked a cartoon video on YouTube created by a company pitching its SEO software to Rick Santorum. Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed2012: This was only a data refresh. Now Test Your Sitemaps Before Submitting Them To Google2012: Google Webmaster Tools added a feature that allowed you to test your sitemap files prior to submitting them. FairSearch.org Introduces Anti-Google “Good To Know” Ad Campaign2012: The ads argued that Google unfairly promoted its own products, delivered search results that weren’t objective or in the best interests of users and didn’t respect user privacy. Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content2012: The groups proposed a “Code of Practice” for how search engines could better encourage consumers to locate legal content on the web. Google’s “Trusted Photographers” Turns Business Photos Into A Self-Serve Product2012: Local businesses that were interested in having interior photos taken could use the Business Photos website to find a “trusted photographer.” Report: Click Fraud Rate Drops to 19.1% In Q4 20102011: This was the first decline in click fraude reported since Q2 2009. Google Will Drop Real Estate Search & Listings From Maps2011: Few people used it. A Lesson From the Indexing of Google Translate: Blocking Search Results From Search Results2011: Google confirmed that the Google Translate team has been unaware of the issue and said they would resolve it. Google Removes Piracy-Related Terms From Instant Search2011: That includes searches involving the word “torrent” as well as “BitTorrent.” But Google’s move seemed to catch some unrelated terms in the process. Upstart DuckDuckGo Challenges Google With Strong Privacy, Cool Tools & Quackpot Name2011: DuckDuckGo started more aggressively marketing the search engine with a campaign aimed squarely at Google, with the slogan “Google tracks you. We don’t.” Reports The Self-Service Twitter Ad Platform Is Live May Be Greatly Exaggerated2011: It actually required advertisers or agencies to work with an in-house sales representative. Twitter planned to test a self-serve ad product later that year. If Google Played Jeopardy: Smartest Search Engine, But It’s No Ken Jennings2011: How several search engines fared when asked to answer “Jeopardy” clues. Google Expansion Plans For Southeast Asia2011: Google would be opening a new office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Google Leases 100,000 Square Feet In Historic Venice Beach Buildings2011: They would begin moving into the offices that year. Disabling The Google Toolbar Doesn’t Stop Google From Tracking You2010: Google said it was only an issue until a user restarted the browser, and it only affected the open tabs for a small number of users. Yahoo’s Q4 2009 Revenues Down Only 4%, Search Ads Down 15% YoY2010: Most of that decline came from a 15% drop in search ad revenue from Q4 2008 compared to Q4 2009. Google Trying To Remain In China, Even If Search Engine Doesn’t2010: Google CEO Eric Schmidt seemed to “walk back” some of Google’s prior strong statements about leaving China. Google Acting Like A Carrier, Being Treated Like One By The FCC2010: The regulatory body sent out requests for information to wireless carriers about the adequacy of their consumer disclosures associated with early termination penalties. Collecta Widget Brings Real-Time Search Results To Any Site2010: It included several customization options. Search Market Share 2008: Google Grew, Yahoo & Microsoft Dropped & Stabilized2009: In short, it was a 6% gain for Google. Google Confirms Testing Favicons In Search Results2009: The favicon only appeared when you did a site: command search. Google (Finally) Addresses FeedBurner Problems2009: The problems were associated with the migration of so many publishers to the new platform. Microsoft Lowers Search Growth Expectations2007: Microsoft lowered those expectations from as high as 11 percent to as low as 3 percent growth. Google Checkout Blogs On Recent Promotions2007: Some of the promotion they were doing was designed to react to consumer demand Google, YouTube, & Wikipedia All On Top 2006 Brand List2007: Question: “Which brand had the most impact on our lives in 2006?” Answer: Google. Google Book Search & Google Maps Team Up2007: It showed “places mentioned in this book” on the Google Book Search page. Intel Wins Back Google’s Server Business2007: Google had begun purchasing Intel processors for their servers. Dan Cohen, Ex-Yahoo Lead, New CEO of Pageflakes2007: Pageflakes was an easy and free way to “build a dynamic personalized home/start page.” From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
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