I went up to Eric Enge’s (@stonetemple) office in Boston to talk to the former US Search Personality of the Year, and prolific writer, author, research and speaker in our industry…
Google Rolls Out Key Moments “In This Video” Timelines
Several weeks ago we saw Google testing “in this video” timelines, which they announced later as “key moments” in video. Well, Google may now be rolling it out for more videos than just a test group.
Google Ads Responsive Search Ads Officially Live
After over a year of testing and being in beta, Google has announced that the responsive search ads are now available to all advertisers to try out. Responsive search ads will automatically test different combinations and learn which combinations perform best of your ad headlines and descriptions and put the best together for you, automatically.
A Redesigned Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft announced this morning that it has redesigned the Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing ads, formerly adCenter) interface. Microsoft said it released a “series of changes to modernize the look, feel, and functionality of our product.”
Google: Noindex & 404s Go At Same Speed
Google’s John Mueller asked if a 404 page was noindexed, would that make it drop out of the Google index. John Mueller said no, he said “No. If we crawl and see a 404 or a noindex, it’s all the same.”
Google: Auto-Translating Content Won’t Lead To Google Manual Action But…
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that if you automatically translate your content from one language to another, using automated translation services, it likely will not lead to a Google penalty or manual action. He did add that the content might not come out great after you translate it and thus not rank well.
Google Safety Vests
It looks like some folks at the Google European offices went out to pick up trash off the street. They even spent money making these custom Google branded safety vests to do it.
A post from a former Google search engineer, Kevin Lacker, from 2006 recounts a conversation this engineer had with the former head of Google search Amit Singhal. It discusses how sometimes these engineers just tried trial and error to see what works, even if it didn’t make logical sense.
Kevin Lacker worked for Google as a software engineer building search algorithms from January 2005 through November 2009, so for almost five years working under Amit. When Amit left the company he posted on Hacker News shortly after that “This is certainly a loss for Google.”
But he also added that he was so good at helping engineers keep things simple and not overthink things. He said “One conversation we had about when it made sense to take the square root of things, which I still recall which whiteboard it was on, in my noob-cubicle in building 43, was really the time when I realized, aha I get how to design search algorithms now.”
He added not only was using square roots a good method for smoothing but “more so that a it’s trial and error thing.” “When I started out after dropping out of grad school I was working on search algorithms and a bunch of my coworkers had a background in informational retrieval and I did not, and I was kind of thinking about it in the wrong way. I was thinking about it like it was a math puzzle and if I just thought really hard it would all make sense,” he said.
Kevin said “one day I was stumped in how to make this signal useful and Amit suggested, hey why don’t you take the square root. I was like, why a square root, it doesn’t make much sense, nothing is getting squared ever, and he went up to the whiteboard and just drew a square-root-ish-wiggle-arc-shape and said look you just want something that looks like this. Square root, log, whatever.
I was like, oh… am I allowed to write code that doesn’t make any sense? I thought I wasn’t supposed to do that. And he was just like, well, just don’t worry about it, you are overthinking it, you can take all the square roots you want, multiply by 2 if it helps, add 5, whatever, just make things work and we can make it make sense later.”
It was “at that point I realized that real world software engineering was much different than research had been, and also that this was going to be way more fun,” he said.
Fascinating isn’t it? Hat tip to @fighto bringing up this old topic from the graveyard. Super interesting!
Businesses have always enjoyed a comfortable position when it comes to planning and preparation.
Sadly, this isn’t the case anymore.
Due to the competitive digital landscape, business owners need to chalk out entire outlines, strategies, and implementation within weeks – or even days.
So if you can’t keep up with this accelerated pace, somebody else will.
The best way to stay ahead in the competition? Having a carefully drafted digital strategy.
Think of the whole thing as the guiding light.
Without it, companies will be stuck with their old-fashioned efforts and won’t be able to take advantage of moving online. Plus, a result-driven approach serves as the basis of digital strategy, which can be very beneficial for your company.
If you think that the ongoing pandemic has changed things, you‘re wrong.
On the contrary, experts at DMEXCO predict that 70% of executives expect the pace of digital strategy to boost further during these unique times.
So yes, you do need a comprehensive digital strategy that works foryou.
And what better way to develop this other than enlisting the help of an expert digital strategy consultant who can do a broad set of activities, each of which is directed towards helping you meet your goals.
In this guide, our team at Neil Patel Digital will take you through the whole process of hiring the best consultant, along with the benefits of seeking a consultancy for your business.
Let’s begin!
5 Ways a Digital Strategy Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business
What is your primary objective for launching a business?
Profit and long-term growth, right?
Well, identifying your digital strategy is the most crucial aspect for attaining both goals.
After all, it’s a high-level overview that defines and outlines where you are currently and where you would want to be. It also includes milestones set throughout a specific course of your journey, making it a reliable long-term plan.
Keeping this in mind, digital strategy consulting can help you recognize new technologies and services suitable for your platform. And hiring a consultant will make sure you‘re taking advantage of everything that’s out there and reaping the profits.
Boosting Efficiency and Increasing Margins
If there’s one thing that companies want, it’s consistent improvement in efficiency. Whether it’s targeting employee collaboration and performance or better delivery to customers and clients – everything counts.
You’ll be able to jumpstart your company‘s efficiency with the help of a digital strategy consultant.
You see, being an expert gives them the knowledge to use cutting-edge digital tools that can ensure precise and fast communication within your company. The data they offer will be more accessible and polished.
Plus, there’s zero risk of anything being lost or repeated due to clear and carefully designed strategies that have been optimized for efficiency.
Getting a consultant can be useful for streamlining client communication too. As a result, you can build long-lasting relationships by giving customers higher value for their investment.
Happier clients translate to higher profit margins and more referrals, so it’s only positives for your company.
Staying Relevant and Important
Turning digital means you‘ll have several competitors – nay, several tough competitors.
Entering a digital culture means your customers do everything digitally, from transactions to information gathering to investing.
You can stay ahead in your niche industry by offering a unique product that no one else offers, but it still isn’t the endgame.
A consultant will guide you with the digital changes that are happening around us, equipping you with the newest technologies as they arise, and incorporating the latest market developments into your business direction.
Essentially, the expert will make your business digitally competitive right from the start and establish you as a digital leader.
Give You the Biggest Bang for Your Buck
You must already be on the lookout for investments that can maximize ROI – or get rid of bad investments altogether.
But this isn’t a perfect world.
You have to be careful about the decisions you make and how you run your company.
Working with a digital strategy consultant does require investment, but it’s one that has a greater possibility to pay off – in fact, some might say it’s guaranteed too if you have the right man for the job.
They give you access to a lot of crucial information and are ready to do all the hard work to provide you high value in a short period.
And not only that, you get a clear idea of the path you should take for your company to maximize your revenue and ensure success.
Moreover, having a consultant also eliminates the need for other employees, hence, cutting down costs in the long run. This will then contribute towards a boosted ROI in the end.
Gaining New Partnerships
Partnerships with business and corporations are a necessity for long-term growth, no matter how old your business is.
In fact, you can transform your company vision and enter a new frontier in your niche if you choose your partnerships carefully. This, in turn, can relatively increase your customer base as well as present a lucrative alternative to going solo.
In other words, a consultant will point you in the right direction to become digitally competitive.
You might also receive invites from organizations that want to enter into a mutually beneficial partnership, and ultimately, achieve digital leadership.
Let’s not forget there is also a possibility of turning your competitors into partners that can increase market demand and customer base as a consequence.
A Successful Digital Transformation
Remember all the dinosaur processes that will only be you down today?
Digital transformation will help you bid farewell to all of them, as well as cut down unnecessary costs for employees, products, and services.
Since a consultant makes you more available and accessible for your customers, you’ll be able to maximize user experience, allowing you to climb to the top of your industry.
A digital strategy will lay down the stepping stones that you and your team can follow to become digital relevant.
How to Get Started With a Digital Strategy Consultant
Good digital strategy consultants have a similar style of working with the odd exceptions as they primarily focus their attention on your customer and company goals.
Hiring the Right Digital Strategy Consultant
Before choosing a specific candidate, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
Does digital technology impact the businesses you are in?
How could digital technology improve the way you add value to the businesses?
Is it possible for digital technology to change your target customer?
Does digital technology affect the value proposition to your target customer?
Can digital technology enhance enterprise capabilities, helping you differentiate your brand from your competition? How?
Look for a prospective consultant that can refine your understanding of the above questions further. In addition to this, you should ask to see a list of samples, references, reviews, and case studies to determine their competency.
Holding Meetings to Streamline Strategy Development
A consultant won’t be able to create a digital strategy for your company if they don’t have an in-depth understanding of your business.
So the first thing that they do is ask you a lot of questions to gain a clear understanding of how your business functions and its objectives. For instance:
Questions regarding your current benchmarks, overall goals, and objectives for every segment and as a whole.
Questions about KPIs and metrics that you used to measure performances.
Questions about tactics used to achieve your business goals and objectives and the marketing channels you used to attract customers.
Customer expectations.
Questions about platforms with the highest customer engagement.
Don’t shy away or get irritated by these probing questions. After all, your digital strategy shows you your current situation, tells you where you’re going, and devises ways to help you get there.
Chalking Out the Final Game Plan
After you answer their questions, you can expect the consultant to show you a cohesive strategy that has been tailor-made to suit your business needs.
The plan should include details about the following:
Media advertising, which includes TV commercials, streaming services, and so on.
Public relations that focus on strategies to increase visibility and publicity for your business.
Digital marketing, which includes local search, organic search engine optimization, advertising, and content marketing.
Direct response tactics like hyperlocal print advertising or geofencing – whichever is a better fit.
Possibility of future partnerships.
The expert will show you a proposed digital strategy or examples from previous client campaigns, and how they plan on moving forward with your campaign.
You can use this as an opportunity to evaluate the consultant’s work and skillset. Don’t be afraid to suggest specific tweaks and adjustments if you deem it fit.
Here’s what you can do:
Request performance data for evaluation purposes.
Carefully observe the campaign elements they consistently prioritize.
Identify knowledge gaps, holes, or weak points in the strategy.
Another alternative would be to pick a specific part of your business, such as advertising or content, and ask the consultant to build a strategy to accommodate a specific goal. This can be to increase sales for the worst-performing products, double the traffic within a month, etc.
Supplying the Necessities
If you’re happy with the consultant after analyzing their approach, the next step would be to provide them with necessary documents and give access to things that could help them implement the strategy effectively.
This includes an official agreement, brand content (brochures, flyers, images, logos, content), relevant photography (company photos, portraits of key people, location, office space, event photos), and social proofs.
The Final Implementation
Having your consultant create an effective digital strategy is crucial, yes. But it isn’t as important as its successful execution.
So just having a great strategy isn’t enough.
Your consultant should have the experience, expertise, and team back up to implement the strategy and produce results.
After execution, you should ask the consultant to collect, analyze, and provide you with useful insights about the launched campaigns. You can incorporate their suggestions and increase your budget to drive results, if required, as well.
Measuring the ROI of Digital Strategy Consulting Services
Consider this: How will you be able to conclude whether you‘re on the right path without knowing the ROI?
Luckily, figuring out the right KPIs for your business can help you measure the success of a business strategy.
The following are a few KPIs that allow you to analyze the overall performance of your digital campaigns:
Brand Engagement on Website
Your brand is necessary for building customer loyalty, creating a competitive advantage, and just… long-term survival.
It’s what distinguishes you from your direct competitors.
To properly measure brand engagement on your website, you need to consider the more refined KPIs that provide valuable metrics, such as:
Number of unique visitors
Number of return visitors
Popular pages and how customers get there
Total time spent on the website
Number of people registering for a specific offering
Traffic Source
Knowing where your customers come from is key to developing a powerful digital strategy since you know exactly what or who is driving visitors to your website.
For this purpose, you need to consider four main traffic sources:
Direct visitors who visit your website by typing the URL into their browser.
Referral visitors who ended up on your website after clicking a link on another website.
Organic visitors who arrived at your site after searching in a search engine.
Campaign visitors who visited your site via an advertisement or campaign.
Inbound Marketing ROI
Of course, you want to see a return on your investment.
However, it can be difficult to see the full potential and value of inbound marketing if you don’t have KPIs. For this purpose, consider the following formula:
ROI = (Sales growth – Marketing Investment) / Marketing Investment
Social Media Traffic
Social media is an integral part of every digital strategy. If your consultant doesn’t include it, know right away that they don’t know what they’re doing.
At the same time, simply creating accounts on popular social media platforms isn’t enough for success. In this case, the KPIs are as follows:
Number of leads generated from every social media channel.
Number of conversions generated from every social media channel.
Number of customers who reach out to your company via every social media channel.
Overall percentage of traffic that advance from social media channels.
Landing Page Conversions
You should check whether your landing page is sending your customer on the right path, which is why KPIs are crucial here.
The tricky part here is this metric is a little difficult to measure since the consultant may have a different goal for landing pages. Nevertheless, you can ask the expert to use Google Analytics to gain access to reports that help you measure organic traffic as well as per search traffic.
You can also make changes to your CTA, CTA buttons, revise written content, or add reviews and testimonials depending on the results generated after A/B testing.
4 Point Checklist For Finding the Right Digital Strategy Consultant
If you’re still figuring out how to find the right digital marketing consultant for your company, take a look at our short checklist to know where to start.
Familiarity With the Digital Landscape
Whether it’s setting short-term goals or long-term goals, the digital strategy consultant should have demonstrated knowledge about the market to think of strategies that can enhance your inbound marketing and outbound marketing efforts.
Creating a plan will always differ according to your business. For instance, some businesses require CRMs, while some need ERPs. The expert should know the right way to proceed to help you achieve your business objectives and streamline campaign processes.
We would highly recommend working with industry thought leaders who understand the digital world and have the credentials to back it up.
Processes to Develop and Execute Effective Digital Strategies
As mentioned before, knowledge of custom tools is important for delivering satisfactory results. More so, in the ever dynamic landscape of digital marketing.
You want to hire a consultant that uses relevant marketing techniques which include:
Content creation
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Social media marketing
Responsive web design
At Neil Patel Digital, for instance, we have an in-house SEO program powered by content marketing, that can be useful for enhancing the effectiveness of digital campaigns.
Combination of Experience and Expertise
While it’s true that you can find several freelance digital strategy consultants, your main lookout should be to identify the extent of their experience and expertise.
Yes, they say that they can triple your conversions, but do they have the brain and muscle to back their claims?
It’s best to work with seasoned professionals who understand your current marketing strategy and can identify weak spots that require improvement.
Broad Industry Knowledge and Diverse Portfolio
A digital strategy expert must have expertise across several different verticals. The idea here is to make sure the professional knows the technical foundations of different things where they can use their marketing know-how and promote your offerings.
The best way to ensure this is by choosing a consultant who has worked with diverse clients. Working with a reputable digital marketing agency, for instance, will give you access to a team with several specialties that can be beneficial for your campaigns and other operations.
Wrapping Up
Now more than ever, businesses had to adjust their plans and offerings to meet customer expectations.
Digital strategies that played out over the course of years may now be over in a matter of days, which is why hiring expert help can be useful to keep up with this dynamic arena.
Having the right digital strategy consultant will ensure your company adapts smoothly to rapidly changing markets and remain ahead of your competition.
Thinking of the next steps? Get in touch with our experienced professionals here.
Many like the idea of being able to outsource content writing, but some brands struggle to implement the process for a number of reasons.
We wanted to dig deeper and find out why so many felt that some aspect of content marketing was either inaccessible or challenging — so we did.
Our Research
We surveyed 485 respondents, who we broke down into two groups: those who outsourced, and those who didn’t.
With those who outsourced content, we focused on their biggest outsourcing bottlenecks so we could find solutions to overcome them.
When it came to those who didn’t outsource, we looked at what was preventing them from getting started and how it could be made more accessible if they changed their minds.
Those Who Do Outsource
When it came to respondents who did outsource, there were two main goals that they focused on: boosting organic traffic (90%) and scaling content (60%).
Both of these goals require three things that not everyone has:
The ability to consistently produce and publish new content, which 69% cited as the reason they outsource content (lack of time for writing).
The expertise needed to create SEO-optimized content, which 34% of our survey respondents cited as the reason they outsource (lack of copywriting skills).
Human resources. 33% of respondents said they have in-house writers, but needed to outsource to scale.
We found that there were five common bottlenecks that we saw over and over that made the outsourcing process more difficult or ineffective. Let’s look at each one and how to overcome them.
Lack of Understanding of Brand Voice or Business Values
69% of survey participants named a lack of understanding of brand voice or business value as their biggest bottleneck.
Some brands struggle to find freelancers who can develop a solid understanding of either their brand voice or the value that their business offers their customers. This can prevent the freelancer from properly conveying either in the content.
How to Prevent This
We recommend taking the following three steps to tackle this concern:
Create a brand style guide. This should include information about your audience and buyer personas as well as your brand voice and general communication tone (which can be funny, conversational, or formal).
Share examples. By sharing samples of content that have the same communication style you’re looking for, whether it’s yours or someone else’s.
Have your in-house team review the content. The best option if you have an in-house expert to check the accuracy of technical details. If not, then hiring a provider with expertise in your industry will help you to ensure the article is accurate from a technical perspective.
Choosing Topics and Content Tasks
We found that 28% of respondents struggled with choosing topics and content tasks. Many marketers feel overwhelmed trying to develop or select topics, or to create content tasks and assignments for freelancers. This slows down or stops the process altogether.
How to Prevent This
The solution here is to create a content plan with a list of topics once and then just invest your time in creating a brief, which is much easier and faster when you know what you want to write about. There is a step-by-step approach to generating new topics for content. Here are just a few of them:
Start with your product value and target audience. Think of the main feature of your product/service. Then define your audience’s pain points that this feature solves. Generalize it into a concept and write it down as a list of pillar topics (e.g. content outsourcing, SEO copywriting, content writing services).
Define 5-10 pillar topics. Make sure your pillar topics are searched for online. Check this list with a keyword research tool to make sure each topic has a substantial search volume (1,200 to 6,400).
Expand your topic list. Based on discovered pillar topics, look for more ideas under each of them. Use multiple sources like brainstorming, competitors’ keywords, search, and social media trends.
Slow Turnaround
24% of our survey participants said the slow turnaround was their biggest challenge with outsourcing content.
How to Prevent This
First of all, it’s good to keep in mind that standard turnaround times may be one to two weeks, as writers need to spend time researching audiences and keywords, structuring the article, and then writing.
When outsourcing, you always want to be clear about all deadlines involved in a project, including when they’ll send a title, first draft, and/or revisions.
Discuss delivery times in advance. Before you start reaching out to freelancers or content providers, it’s helpful to know how quickly you need the article. If you happen to need something faster than their standard turnaround time, see what’s possible. They may be able to expedite the post for a rush fee.
Factor revisions into the deadlines. Determine how long you’ll have to provide feedback for revisions, and how long it will take to receive them.
Filling Out the Brief
19% of survey respondents named creating a brief as their biggest challenge with outsourcing. Creating an outline or brief can be very time-consuming because you need to provide a lot of details about the audience, targets, tone of voice, and so on.
How to Prevent This
Streamline the process by creating a brief template. About half of the information on the brief will be similar each time (including the audience personas, goals, tone of voice).
A brief should include the following:
The specific audience niche that you’re targeting
Your goals for the post
Any keywords that you want the writer to incorporate into the content
An outline that includes the general structure and the key points you want to be covered
Here at SEMrush, we believe that creating the most detailed content briefs possible is your best bet if you have something particular in mind that you’re looking for.
We have combined our expertise in content creation, content outsourcing, and product development to provide you with the perfect content brief template.
Feel free to use our content brief template — it is available…
13% of those surveyed said that completing paperwork — which includes handling invoices or negotiating contracts — was a major struggle with outsourcing.
How to Prevent This
If you’re looking for a content provider urgently, content marketplaces are a great option. They usually have standard terms of service placed on their site. All you need is to just proceed with payment when the brief is ready, no contracts required.
Those Who Don’t Outsource
Out of all the survey respondents who don’t currently outsource content, 60% have considered it at some point.
We found that 63% are currently writing the content themselves, and 39% have an in-house team of content marketers. Only 2% said that they didn’t need content at all.
Since over half have considered outsourcing, we wanted to know what prevented them from doing so, and what could be done to make outsourcing more accessible. Here are the reasons that we found:
Fear that Writers Won’t Understand Brand Voice or Business Values for the End-User
42% of users feared that freelancers wouldn’t understand their brand voice or business values. It’s perhaps not surprising that the biggest pain point associated with outsourcing content is also the most common reason why some choose to forgo it altogether.
How to Prevent This
As we mentioned above, clear guidelines (which you can reuse!) are the best way to prevent this from becoming an issue.
It’s important to acknowledge that while there’s no 100% guarantee that a freelance writer will fully understand your business by their first draft submission, strong writers with solid experience are typically able to incorporate direct feedback. Try two or three articles as long as the overall quality is strong, providing feedback along the way.
Even if it takes time to get into a smoother workflow with a writer, the time you save by outsourcing even part of your content can be worthwhile once they “feel” your brand.
Quality
42% of survey respondents who don’t outsource content say that their concern about quality is the reason behind their decision.
“Quality” here can mean any combination of the following:
How well the article is actually written, both overall and in value to the end audience
How well the company values and target messaging were communicated
Choosing either an experienced freelancer who understands your industry and strategy or a content marketplace that pre-vets writers for you can help mitigate potential problems with low quality.
Outsourcing is essentially establishing a partnership, and if you want a good outcome, you need to put some effort in on your end as well. Make sure that you clearly explain anything that’s important to you, which can include anything from keywords you want to be incorporated to specific image dimensions.
Here are a few examples:
If you’re worried about the article structure or the value to the end-user, then working with a subject matter expert is a safe bet.
If you’re concerned about the messaging, provide detailed guidelines, and explain business values.
When you’re concerned about the quality of SEO, you can include target keywords and clearly state that you want this post to increase organic traffic.
Some services may offer a trial article. Many established freelancers require payment for trial articles, though they may offer a discount on these.
Looking to hire a content writing service? Check out our 21 Tips for Finding a Content Writing Service to see the top criteria our audience has listed for choosing content writing services and actionable tips to help you along.
It’s Too Expensive
31% of survey respondents said that they choose not to outsource because of a common misconception that it’s too expensive to be affordable. Many prefer to try to write the content themselves, not realizing that by outsourcing, your time could be better spent on other, more strategic tasks.
Keep in mind that content outsourcing comes in a very wide range of prices:
Novice writers trying to break into the industry will typically be cheapest.
Options like content marketplaces offer good quality for competitive pricing, designed to be accessible to most businesses.
Established, expert freelance writers with their own brand or agency will be the most expensive.
How to Prevent This
If you’re worried about costs, there are a few steps you can take to plan accordingly and find content that fits your budget:
Consider how many articles you need upfront. Do you need four posts a week, or are you okay relying on one great post per month? This will impact what “per-word” rate you can afford.
Research costs from different providers. Pricing for a 1000-word article can range from $30 to $1000 depending on the provider that you work with. Finding the right provider who aligns with your budget is essential.
Consider doing a 50/50 split. Are you able to do some of the writing yourself, and outsource a percentage to content providers? This can reduce your overall costs while increasing the scalability of your content overall.
Conclusion
There are so many benefits that come with content outsourcing when it’s well-executed. Survey participants named the following benefits they discovered after outsourcing:
72% said that it freed up time for strategic tasks.
60% said there was a new ability to scale content.
37% said that they got fresh and authentic content from professionals.
34% said that there was a streamlined process of content creation.
22% said they received content with added expertise.
Content creation doesn’t have to be difficult or overwhelming. See for yourself by testing out our Content Marketplace today.
Two recent surveys sponsored by BritePool show a high level of consumer concern about privacy and, if given the option, that a majority would decline to allow online publishers to sell or transfer their personal information. CCPA, which takes effect on January 1, requires sites governed by the statute to include a prominent “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” link on their homepages.
Most would choose ‘Do Not Sell.’ In September, BritePool and the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations found, in a survey of 1,004 U.S. adults, that nearly 90% of respondents would select a “Do Not Sell” option if they encountered it on a website. The survey specifically asked the following:
“A number of new regulations have been proposed to help strengthen consumer online privacy. In the state of California, when consumers arrive at a new website, they will have the option to select ‘Do Not Sell My Personal Information’. Would you select ‘Do Not Sell My Personal Information’, or just go on to the website?”
I would select Do Not Sell My Personal Information” — 87%
I would just go on to the website — 8%
Don’t know — 6%
The September survey was a follow-up to an earlier more general survey about attitudes toward online privacy and personal data. Conducted in March with 1,513 U.S. respondents, that survey posed several questions about the sharing and sale of personal data:
“I am unhappy that companies are profiting from my personal data.”
Strongly agree — 46%
Somewhat agree — 33%
Somewhat disagree — 11%
Strongly disagree — 5%
Don’t know — 5%
“I am concerned about companies selling my data to advertisers and other companies.”
Strongly agree — 47%
Somewhat agree — 35%
Somewhat disagree — 10%
Strongly disagree — 3%
Don’t know — 4%
“There is no good reason that a website should ever share my personal data.”
Strongly agree — 51%
Somewhat agree — 29%
Somewhat disagree — 12%
Strongly disagree — 4%
Don’t know — 4%
Consumers not happy about personal data sharing. Though some consumers have indicated they’re open to a value exchange. It’s worth noting that the March survey gave consumers the additional choice of giving their personal information in exchange for a reward. Roughly 1 in 5 consumers chose that option.
“A number of new regulations have been proposed to help strengthen consumer online privacy. In the State of California, when consumers arrive at a new website, they will have the option to select ‘Do Not Sell My Personal Information’ or they can select ‘Reward Me for My Personal Information’. Would you select ‘Do Not Sell My Personal Information’, ‘Reward Me for My Personal Information’, or just go on to the website?”
I would select ‘Do Not Sell My Personal Information’ — 61%
I would select ‘Reward Me for My Personal Information’ — 21%
I would just go on to the website — 7%
Don’t know — 10%
Drilling into the responses by different age groups, younger consumers were more open to data sharing than older respondents. The people most receptive to sharing were those in the 18-34 age category, only 49% of whom said they would choose “Do Not Sell.”
Bob Perkins, COO of BritePool argues, based on these findings, that CCPA is actually going to have a bigger impact than GDPR. “You’ll see 3% to 4% decline in publisher revenue” because CPMs fall when targeting signals aren’t available. He also believes that as privacy laws develop across the U.S., “CCPA will be the floor not the ceiling” when it comes to rules around data collection and sharing.
Why we should care. The results of these surveys should be very concerning to publishers and martech providers. However, there is always a difference between attitudes and behavior. So the actual number of opt-outs could be less. But there are also encouraging results and data for those companies affirmatively embracing consumer privacy.
In addition, the findings about being rewarded suggest a meaningful percentage of consumers could be convinced to not opt-out in exchange for specific benefits. This echoes many other previous surveys that have similar findings.
About The Author
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes about the connections between digital and offline commerce. He previously held leadership roles at LSA, The Kelsey Group and TechTV. Follow him Twitter or find him on LinkedIn.
The People Also Ask (PAA) feature has become an important facet of SEO and content strategies over the past few years. As our recent study demonstrates, the prominence of PAA boxes has increased radically since they were first tested in April 2015 (based on SEMrush Sensor data, the average percentage of SERPs with PAA has grown to about 40-42% for both desktop and mobile).
The SEMrush study examined 1,000,000 keywords of US desktop results (random subset from the SEMrush US database) to provide unique insights into the changing landscape of Google search features, as well as an action plan for how you can implement an effective PAA strategy for your own SEO.
The random dataset was chosen for this analysis to represent general trends in search results, so keywords were not filtered by volume, length or any other parameters.
The Key Findings of Our 2020 ‘People Also Ask’ SEO Study
PAA boxes are present in almost half of all searches within our 1,000,000 keyword dataset and are continuing to grow.
Google is using PAA at least in part for query refinement, giving websites the opportunity for first-page visibility on search terms that were previously too broad to target.
A PAA SEO strategy is applicable to almost all sectors (industry-specific breakdowns can give you a guide to how much of your overall effort should go into PAA optimization).
There are opportunities and risks for big brands to control answers where PAA questions are shown on branded search terms.
Unlike featured snippets, it is possible to both appear in a PAA box and hold a standard organic ranking on page 1 of Google.
75% of the time a PAA result appears, it is within the top 3 results in Google, providing a good chance of high visibility.
Question terms on average will generate PAA 86% of the time.
Google is mainly taking web text content for PAA results, with 48 % of all PAA boxes being exclusively from text in paragraphs.
There are still untapped opportunities for video content within PAA boxes, where Google cannot find any suitable results.
As with other types of rich results, brevity is key with paragraph results averaging only 41 words.
What is the ‘People Also Ask’ Box in Google?
The People Also Ask box is an interactive, universal search result from Google that will display a box of questions that other searchers have asked in relation to your original search.
Clicking on PAA results will slide open a snippet answer from a website, along with a link to the page providing the answer, whilst simultaneously triggering new questions to be dynamically added to the PAA box.
Usually, the initial PAA feature box will contain 4 questions, but sometimes there are only 3 at a time.
Since 2012, Google has been very clear about its mission to “move from becoming an information engine to becoming a knowledge engine”, which means answering users’ queries as quickly as possible within the search results pages, rather than forcing them to click on multiple results and wait for the relevant website to load.
This “Time To Result” is a key metric that Google uses to determine how they are performing. To reduce this time and remove friction from the user’s search, Google has deployed a number of in-SERP features to serve this function, primarily through its knowledge graph, but also through other features such as rich snippets, featured snippets, and, of course, People Also Ask results.
Our study highlights the importance of PAA results, showing that they are currently six times more likely to appear within a SERP than a featured snippet result.
As we can see from SEMrush Sensor (apart from the adjustment Google made in March 2020), the frequency of PAA results has been consistently rising on both mobile and desktop.
How Often Do PAA Results Appear in SERPs?
Within our keyword dataset, PAA results appeared in 49.37% of search results for desktop and in 52.27% for mobile.
Splitting these data across 25 industries, we can see that the appearance of PAA results varies from a minimum of 9.5% in the Real Estate category to a maximum of 64.2% in Computers & Electronics.
This represents the most common intent of searches within these categories and, therefore, which search features Google might be expected to use.
For instance, the “News” category demands that search results are as fresh as possible, so Google will often enrich these results with “Top Stories” and Twitter card features to reflect this.
A large proportion of searches within “real estate” will be along the lines of “apartments in [location]”, which have very clear intent and are one of the few types of search term that primarily return “ten blue links”. We examined 6,000 “apartments in [location]” phrases, and discovered that only 2.5% of them produced a PAA result.
Understanding the prominence of PAAs within your industry’s search space can help you determine how much you might need to leverage related tactics in your content and SEO strategies.
Brand Protection With People Also Ask
We took a list of brands from other studies and checked how often we can see them in keywords that trigger PAA. We got the following top-30:
Our data showed that most ‘big’ brands will trigger PAA, regardless of the industry they are in.
With these questions showing on almost all major brands, it is worth auditing who ‘owns’ these answers for both your brand and your competitors, from a brand protection standpoint.
Where do ‘People Also Ask’ Boxes Appear?
Over half (58%) of the time, the PAA block can be seen after the first organic result, whether it is a standard blue link or another type of result, such as a featured snippet.
In fact, over 75% of the time, a PAA result will feature in the top 3 results of Google, making it one of the most consistent and visible search features of all.
Can PAA Boxes Help You Rank Twice on Page 1?
Unlike featured snippets, which count as a standard top 10 ranking, it is possible to have a presence inside a PAA box and rank on the first page of results. Our data showed that 13% of sites that were present inside the PAA box also had a top 3 ranking.
However, the majority of sites (74%) that were present inside the PAA were not present on the first page, indicating that there may be opportunities for less authoritative sites to gain a presence on the first page with this feature (much like featured snippets).
How Does Search Query Length Affect PAA Boxes?
PAAs appear a bit more often for longer keywords and more complex search queries. More than 72% of keywords with 10 words trigger PAA, while only 47% of keywords with 3 words trigger such results.
Query Length with PAA and Featured Snippets
The featured snippet will take “position 0” within a search result in most cases, as it is Google’s attempt to immediately answer the searcher’s query. Our data showed a marked correlation between the length of the search query and the appearance of both a featured snippet and a PAA box.
As the number of words and specificity of the query increases, the complexity of Google’s job also increases, as it will be likely to have fewer sources to get the answer from and the question may be more nuanced.
In these situations where the query is more specific, the occurrence of People Also Ask boxes also increases, which is likely to be a query refinement exercise and an attempt from Google to answer clusters of questions within the SERP.
What Types of Queries can Trigger PAA?
The most common types of queries that trigger PAA boxes are those that start with question words, such as “what”, “why”, “when”, “where” and “who”.
Queries starting with these terms trigger PAA 86% of the time.
As with featured snippets, the PAA data suggest it is worth structuring content around the question it intends to answer, rather than relying on the reader to understand the context of the article.
This format makes questions digestible in a “standalone” format that can then be used both within featured snippets and People Also Ask boxes.
Query Refinement with People Also Ask
Google has tested and introduced multiple avenues for query refinement, such as “People also search for” links and Google Suggest within the search bar. The “People Also Ask” box is designed for precisely this purpose, too.
It is needed when a user conducts a search that either is not specific enough to identify their true intent, or perhaps has multiple meanings of which the searcher is unaware.
There are some instances (<1%) when Google chose to show the People Also Ask feature as the number 1 result for the query. This presents a unique opportunity for websites to get a visible presence within search results that were once too broad and would otherwise fall to “authority” sites by default as Google links these topics to more specific questions.
We collected our keyword data based on question searches we knew contained a featured snippet, and then tested which percentage of these terms also included a PAA box.
The opposite data were also collected by pulling question keyword results we knew contained a PAA box, and then checking which percentage of these results contained a featured snippet, too.
The data show that featured snippets are more targeted and generated less frequently than PAAs, which often appear alongside other features such as maps for “where” queries. This supports the idea that PAAs are, at least in part, being triggered as query refinements for the kinds of questions that Google might struggle to interpret.
What is Contained within PAA Boxes?
Our data show there are 4 types of blocks that can appear when you click on a PAA question.
As with featured snippets, the vast majority (79%) of PAA boxes are paragraphs taken from website content, followed by lists, with both videos and tables combined comprising 7.6% of PAA results.
A total of 97.3% of initial PAA results are either exclusively paragraph-driven (48.3%) or contain at least one paragraph result combined with other content (49%).
These data reflect the availability of such content, suggesting that paragraph text is far more readily available and optimized than unordered lists, tables, or video.
As we have seen with other types of search results, Google may favor video as an alternative to a text answer. This suggests that a mixed-format content strategy, working from “video-down”, could be beneficial.
PAA Text Length Analysis
PAA paragraph. The longest paragraph answer within a PAA block within our dataset was only 132 words and the shortest was a single word. Much like with featured snippet optimization, the average number of words in the paragraph (41) suggests that being able to succinctly answer a question is vital to being eligible to appear in a PAA box.
PAA list. There were no lists in our dataset that exceeded 8 items, with the minimum being 2. It is worth keeping in mind that a list size >8 is unlikely to appear.
PAA table. Our data showed that the table results within PAA boxes, while appearing less, did allow for more data to be shown. Up to 14 rows of content with 3 columns can be contained within PAA results.
PAA boxes showed tables with a minimum of 1 column and 2 rows, which makes them almost identical to lists and potentially allows more data.
Leveraging the ‘People Also Ask’ Feature
Turning a website into the go-to destination for users searching for solutions similar to yours or asking general questions related to the industry could help turn more of them into paying customers.
With the rise of PAA and ever-increasing competition for the spot in SERP features, you need to roll out a viable action plan for appearing within the PAA box.
Here are the key steps to follow to leverage the power of PAA:
Get an Overview of Existing SERP Features
Equipped with a tool like Position Tracking, begin with assessing whether your target keywords trigger any SERP features. Make sure to use filters and choose the PAA feature in particular.
If you compare several competitors’ websites, you’ll be able to see an overview with a position of each site for your target keywords, and whether or not it occupies a specific SERP feature.
Find Missing PAA Opportunities
Check if your site is missing any PAA opportunities by using Organic Research to identify which of the keywords your domain already ranks for are not generating PAA results for you in Google.
The report features the SERP copy for each keyword, so you can see which related questions you can potentially target with your content to get into the given PAA table and improve your visibility.
Steal the Spotlight From Competitors
In cases when it’s challenging to beat competitors to organic positions, getting a PAA feature can solve the puzzle.
With the help of Organic Research, you can spot which of your competitors’ high-ranking keywords don’t make them appear in SERP features, and optimize for occupying the vacant space.
Get Content Ideas to Win PAA SERP Features
To gather ideas for creating content, you can use the AlsoAsked.com tool, which automatically presents Google’s PAA data, including the tree of subsequent results when questions get clicked.
Search for ideas for certain keywords: after copying and pasting a keyword you want to target into the Keyword Overview tool, you will see the option to get SERP copies with PAAs generated for this keyword.
Use the phrases you find within the PAA box as a source of ideas for content creation.
It’s not always a matter, though, of crafting content that precisely repeats the phrasing found within the PAA box.
Keyword Magic Tool is a goldmine for more headline or content ideas for phrases and questions that trigger a PAA table, as long as you are applying the right filters:
Pro tip: You can benefit from switching from “All” to the “Questions” tab to see which questions generate PAA to kill two birds with one stone, namely to optimize for both PAA and voice search (keeping in mind people usually formulate their requests as questions when using voice search).
Check If Your Content Meets SEO Requirements
Creating content for the sake of it will not cut it if you want to trigger a SERP feature.
To increase the likelihood of your content making it into PAA boxes, make sure your copy addresses a specific user query from an SEO standpoint.
SEMrush’s SEO Writing Assistant automatically analyzes the top 10 ranking pages for your given keywords in a specific location to offer suggestions for proper Search optimization.
Defining a Specific PAA Strategy
Satisfying user intent is a core theme in any SEO activity, but with almost 50% of all searches showing PAA results, it is clear that having a specific strategy for increasing your visibility within these features is vital.
Like featured snippets, PAA features can be won quickly, too, so it can be worth leading an SEO strategy with these tactics to earn placements ahead of traditional “blue link” rankings.
A clear part of Google’s strategy for satisfying user intent has been mapping entities and their relations to build knowledge graphs. In the case of answering questions, Google can build knowledge graphs from search results to meet users’ requirements.
Having your digital presence embedded, included and understood within this graph is a way of future-proofing your search strategy, as the search experience broadens into intelligent personal assistants that want to get the right answers at the first time of trying.
