I am seeing signs from both the SEO chatter in the community and the tracking tools that the past day or so there may have been a Google search ranking and algorithm update. It might be just tremors or small tweaks to the Google May 2020 core update or it might be something totally unrelated.
Kevin Indig posted a poll on Twitter, which I retweeted, asking how much does position number one on Google matter today vs 10 years ago? I am a bit surprised to see the responses to this question. In short, it seems SEOs are super split on this.
In February we covered some complaints about Google showing “uploaded by” in some of the search result snippets. Often, the upload by will cite the person who uploaded the video and not the person who wrote the content on the page where the snippet is coming from. An SEO named Stephen said he was able to remove the uploaded by section with a meta tag.
April 2010, Matt Cutts who was working at Google on search, was asked how does he see search working in a decade from now. It is always fun to look at predictions from the past and see how they came out.
It sounds like the Google Search Relations team, aka John Mueller, Gary Illyes, Martin Splitt and others have started a podcast, in addition to the YouTube channel. The podcast was probably Gary’s idea, since he is camera shy.
Roombas are cool, well, they look cool. I owned a few over my lifetime and they tend to work for a while and then just stop. But hey, this is not a Google Partner Branded Roomba review. Here is a ph
Implementation of SEO changes can literally make or break a website’s growth. Yet 65% of respondents say it takes at least one month to get their changes made.
In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about how to successfully get your SEO recommendations implemented.
Paid advertising is a great way to guide more traffic to your site and increase business, but it can become expensive quickly if you aren’t careful. How do you make sure you are getting the most out of your paid ads?
A few weeks ago, I was talking to a business owner in my community. They recently started an aggressive Google AdWords campaign that was working, sort of. They getting tons of new leads, but the leads were for services they didn’t offer! The problem was their campaign was way too broad, and they were paying tons of cash for useless leads.
Don’t let that happen to you. Here are five simple things you can do to make sure you are getting the most out of your paid advertising campaigns.
What Is Paid Advertising?
Paid advertising usually refers to online methods a company uses to attract more customers by paying for ad space on search, other websites, or social media.
There are many types of paid ads but the most common ones are:
Paid Search: Businesses can bid to appear at the top of search—above organic results—for certain keywords. There are a few types of paid search ads, such as PPC ads, responsive ads, display ads, etc.
Social Media Advertising: Businesses can run ads on different social media platforms that are popular with their audience. The ad offerings and format varies by platform. The top social media platforms to advertise on are:
Banner Ads: Businesses can pay to put a “banner” at the top, bottom or sides of webpages. These are usually in the shape of a rectangle that looks similar to a header or footer.
Native Ads: Businesses can pay to run ads on other websites that have a similar look and feel to the “native” content on their own site.
Why so much? Well, there are many reasons you should invest in paid ads.
With paid advertising, you’re able to target your ads to very specific audience segments. In a survey with over a thousand respondents, 80 percent of said they are more likely to purchase from companies that run personalized ads. Paid advertising allows you to do this.
Furthermore, if you don’t advertise online, you’re likely giving your competitors an advantage. After all, the most common advertising formats for small businesses are social media (64 percent of small businesses) and other online mediums like search engines and other sites (49 percent of small businesses).
1. Understand (and Use) Long Tail Keywords
Longtail keywords are keywords that are several words long. Rather than targeting “plumber,” you might target “emergency plumber near me” or “plumber to unblock a drain.” These are critical because they are more likely to match the words searchers use and they also indicate the searcher is ready to hire or buy.
Ubersuggest is a great resource for discovering keywords in your industry.
When using Ubersuggest, remember that you aren’t necessarily looking for the highest-traffic keywords. You are looking for the words your customers use to look for you.
Be on the lookout for long-tail keywords that are longer, more specific keywords that make up the majority of search-driven traffic.
Here’s a simple system you can use:
Step #1: Enter Your Head Keyword and Click “Search”
Step #2: Click “Keyword Ideas” in the Left Sidebar
Step #3: Analyze the Results
In the example above, the term “social media marketing” is considered a “head” keyword, which means it is searched for very frequently. The much less popular term “social media marketing strategy” receives fewer searches, but indicates the searcher is looking for something more specific.
You might go even further and try something like “the best social media marketing strategy.”
To find even more keywords, click the “Related” tab next to “Suggestions.”
For this particular keyword, doing so gives you nearly 16,000 more keywords, the majority of which are long-tail. For example, here’s what you see as you scroll down the results:
Once you find a long-tail keyword that piques your interest, click on it for a better idea of your competitors, both for paid ads and organic search.
The big mistake that many first-time marketers make with SEO or pay-per-click advertising is choosing the wrong keywords.
When you purchase head keywords like “social media marketing,” you will spend significantly more money and reduce your ROI dramatically.
The key that you have to remember is you get a lot more bang for your buck by targeting a large number of lower-traffic terms than by targeting a small number of higher-traffic terms.
Finally, the best source of keywords can come from your own website. Consider using a survey tool like Qualaroo to find out what your customers are looking for or why they decided to do business with you (after checkout for example). The language they use can be very effective ad copy for internet advertisements.
2. Understand the Different Types of Paid Ads
There are a lot of places to buy ads and each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses. Before getting started, you should understand the major types of paid advertising as well as their pros and cons.
Display Ads or Banner Ads
Banner ads immediately come to mind when we think about online advertising because they stand out. They are very common and come in a variety of sizes. These ads can be effective, but they tend to target customers who are not actively looking for something new.
For example, a person may be reading a newspaper article and not be interested in a new social media course. Display ads can be successful, but they need to be used properly. Display ads can be purchased using a pay-per-click model or they simply can be displayed for a certain length of time.
Text ads are the type you usually see on the primary Google search page. These ads generally are less expensive than display ads and target customers that actually are looking for something specific. They can be very effective but depend heavily on good keyword research and A/B testing (a topic we will discuss later in this post).
Here are a few of the places you should try listing your ads, though there certainly are many others:
Google Ads
Google Ads (previously Google AdWords) are an obvious choice for many businesses. They offer display and text ads in association with highly targeted keywords. AdWords are a clear choice for any campaign.
Bonus Tip: Your Google Adwords ads will produce a better return on investment the longer you use Adwords. Google rewards long-term customers with better “quality scores”.
Bing or Yahoo
Bing and Yahoo both offer alternative ad platforms that work similarly to Google’s. They combine display and text ads with targeted search terms. Some brands find that, while these options bring less traffic, the overall ROI is a bit better.
Social Media Ads
Social media advertising has grown enormously in popularity over the last few years. These ads combine text and display elements and are targeted based on user preferences, demographics, and location. Depending on your business type, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok are valid options to consider.
BuySellAds or Direct Buy
BuySellAds.com is a great place to go to find additional display ad opportunities. These usually allow you to “rent” space on a site or a blog for a fixed cost. Additional opportunities like this can exist if you contact some of your favorite bloggers directly.
Can’t decide between Facebook or Google (two popular options)? Then check out this video for some guidance:
Start by trying several of these options and use hard data to make final decisions about where you want to put your money. Rely on hard data, not guesses, to understand what platforms provide the best return.
3. Track Your Paid Ad Results
If you aren’t able to see how each of your ads is performing, then you shouldn’t be buying paid advertising at all. The beautiful thing about online advertising is that you get the opportunity to track everything. Google Analytics is an absolute must when it comes to online ad buying. This analytics package is free and easy to install.
Once you have it set up, you should become very familiar with Google Analytics Custom Campaigns. These options allow you to create a customized URL for each ad that will help you see overall performance for all of your advertising. Using Google Analytics in this way will give you a single dashboard for comparing all of your advertising campaigns.
4. Create a Landing Page
It is important to send incoming visitors to a unique page (called a landing page) on your website, rather than your homepage. This may seem counter-intuitive, but there are three very good reasons for using this strategy:
Landing pages allow you to customize your message for incoming visitors. This means that you can continue the message you started with your ads, which creates a more cohesive experience.
Custom landing pages allow you to push visitors toward specific actions, such as downloading a free ebook. (Displaying traditional navigation may distract your visitors.)
Landing pages make tracking your visits very easy. This is especially important.
When you combine this strategy with easy funnel-tracking tools, you quickly can gain a lot of information about how to reach and sell to your new visitors.
In some cases, you can create a single landing page for an entire ad campaign. In other cases, you may want to create a specific landing page for each keyword that you purchase.
This landing page helps us track who comes to the page and exactly how effective our ads are.
It is important to remember to block your custom landing pages from search engines. This can be done with a simple edit to your “robots.txt” file. This is an important step that will make your ad tracking more reliable. If you allow Google and Bing to send non-paid visitors to your page, you may get a false sense of how your page is performing.
Here are two more tips to create high-converting landing pages associated with your paid ads.
Create a Call to Action
Once you have a visitor on your landing page, how do you convert them into a lead or a customer? Every page you send them to should have a clear call-to-action. Think about this one carefully, because it’s the difference between a sale and wasted money.
I like to decide what the “number one” desired outcome for each page is before I design a landing page. Simply ask yourself, “What do I want them to do the most?” Then create the page accordingly.
A good call to action will tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do.
Everything on your page should push your visitors toward the action you want them to take. Without considering this, you’re throwing money away.
Use A/B Testing
You may have launched your page, but you aren’t done yet. Small tweaks and adjustments can make a huge difference in your overall conversion rate. If you’ve followed the tips above, you should have the proper landing page and conversion tracking to make this task very easy.
A/B testing is being scientific about testing which methods work best. When you go about A/B testing, it is important that you make only a single, testable, change each time. For example, you could test the effectiveness of your page’s headline or button placement, but not both at the same time.
By testing a single change, you will be able to see conclusive results about what works best. A/B testing is an ongoing process, too, so don’t stop. Keep testing and modifying your page. You might be surprised at what it does to your overall conversion rate on your paid ads.
5. Review Your Paid Ad Results Regularly
Whatever you do, don’t look at your results every day. This practice can lead to hasty changes based on incomplete data. It is best to wait so that your analytics have time to accumulate accurate trends and information. Then determine a set time period for reviewing your statistics and making changes. It might be monthly, it might be weekly. Checking monthly is a good plan for picking up broad shifts.
Consider setting up spreadsheets to track your statistics. It’s easier to pick up on trends and understand what you’re seeing when you dig into your analytics to pull out the numbers for your spreadsheet.
Use simple spreadsheets to track your incoming ad traffic.
Be prepared to kill keywords that are under-performing. Remember, conversion rates are your most important statistics for paid advertising, not clicks. Clicks just waste money if they aren’t driving leads or sales.
In paid advertising, the longer you run your ads, the better your rates and quality score will become. This will be true particularly if you rely heavily on good A/B testing and are constantly refining your ad buy.
5 Steps to Getting Started with Paid Advertising
Time needed: 6 minutes.
Not sure how to get started with paid ads? Here’s five steps to make sure you don’t waste your investment.
Understand (and Use) Long Tail Keywords
Long tail keywords are less competitive and mimic the way people search.
Understand the Different Types of Paid Ads
Each type of ad has different costs, audiences, and reaches. Understand the difference so you don’t waste ad spend!
Track Your Paid Ad Results
If you aren’t able to see how each of your ads is performing, then you shouldn’t be buying paid advertising at all. T
Create a Landing Page
Landing pages help drive conversions and make it easier to track. Don’t forget to add a CTA and use A/B testing.
Review Your Paid Ad Results Regularly
Check your results weekly or monthly to make sure your ads are driving results, not just clicks.
Conclusion: Benefits of Paid Advertising
Paid ads are not a get-rich-quick scheme. Don’t expect to be finished in a week or two. Give your ads time and finesse your plan to get the best results. Cumulative trends and information will give you a clearer picture of which ads actually convert.
Start by setting a small budget, and increase it as you gain confidence in your paid advertising strategies. If you need help getting started, feel free to reach out to my team. We can help create an advertising plan that works for your business.
Are you considering adding paid ads to your online advertising strategy? What is holding you back?
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that the “nofollow is not a dampening factor.” Meaning, when you put a nofollow attribute on a link, it does not dampen the value of the link, it totally does not give any credit or value to that link at all.
Last month we spotted Google testing an audio based listen and translate feature for the local panel. It seems Google is now trying this out for standard knowledge panels. These will play an audio clip of the knowledge panel text in English or your local language, even if the language is written in English on the search results page.
Google promised to let us know when they expand when they use MUM in search and Google did just that yesterday with this new announcement. Google announced how they are using MUM for better detection of queries around personal crisis. And Google also said the search company used BERT to reduce unexpected shocking search results.
Investments in marketing technology continue to be a priority for businesses across the board, as they strive to meet increased demands for personalization and a need to collect, authenticate and analyze rapidly increasing amounts of consumer data to improve the customer experience (CX).
Overall marketing budgets dipped slightly to 10.5% of company revenue in 2019 as compared to 2018, as CMOs and VPs of marketing operations continue to focus on ROI and efficiency, according to Gartner’s annual CMO Survey for 2019-2020. Still, optimism for 2020 was high at the time of the survey, with 88% of CMOs stating they believed the future impact of the global economic environment would be positive, with more than half (53%) believing the impact will be strong.
The advent of COVID-19 wasn’t foreseen at the time of the survey, however, and it has already had a significant economic impact globally. That said, it remains to be seen how long the impact of the novel coronavirus will dominate headlines and mindshare, as containment or other factors could bring worry down to the level we see with the seasonal flu.
More about Marketing Automation
Digital marketing — which has the ability to reach remote workers and the self-quarantined — could benefit in the short term as people seek alternatives to in-person meetings and conferences. However, a general economic slowdown and continued uncertainty will certainly negatively impact businesses in general.
Martech still a budget priority
Though the proportion of the overall marketing budget going to marketing technology in 2019 slipped to 26%, as compared to 29% in 2019, martech continues to overshadow other areas of spending. Only media spending equaled martech investments, with labor costs (25%) and agency budgets (22%) attracting smaller amounts.
Global marketing automation spending is projected to reach $25.1 billion by 2023, up from $11.4 billion in 2017, representing an implied annual growth rate of 14%, according to Forrester’s Marketing Automation Technology Forecast, 2017-2023 (Global), published in April 2018.
Pamela Parker is Senior Editor and Projects Manager at Third Door Media’s Content Studio, where she produces Martech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today and Digital Marketing Depot. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She’s a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a masters degree in journalism from Columbia University.
According to PEW research, 58 percent of U.S. adults say in general, calling out others on social media is more likely to hold people accountable. While there are various shades to cancel culture, I dive into understanding the crux of this phenomenon and what brands need to do to safeguard their reputation and identity online.
Source: PEW Research Center
What is “cancel culture”?
Cancel culture is the contemporary movement of expressing public disapproval of someone’s public statement or action.
When canceling refers to a brand, people are basically encouraging the public to stop buying from them. Canceling means boycotting a brand.
Obviously, social media provides a perfect platform for the cancel culture, giving anyone a voice and the means to unite people around one common outrage.
The idea of cancel culture is controversial.
On one hand, it raises a lot of legal questions. Public shaming goes back to the concept of public square trials when an individual could have been punished without their guilt being proved.
On the other hand, cancel culture is considered to be an important tool in achieving social justice.
How to keep your brand safe?
1. Develop thorough communication policies
Anyone who can publicly speak or publish content on your behalf should follow strict rules as to what they can or cannot say, which topics to avoid, who to alert of public feedback, etc.
It is helpful if the company’s executives are following that document as well because in many cases CEOs cause all the trouble.
For example, American University has avery detailedmarketing and communication policy listing all kinds of rules their employees need to follow when sending email newsletters, posting on social media channels, and using third-party content, like pictures and videos.
Here are their communication guidelines for posting on social media – this will give you a sample of what your brand’s communication policy can look like.
Think twice before posting: Privacy does not exist in the world of social media. Consider what could happen if a post becomes widely known and how it may reflect on both the poster and the University… If you are unsure about posting something or responding to a comment, ask your supervisor for input.
Strive for accuracy: Get the facts straight before posting them on social media.
Be respectful: Understand that content contributed to a social media site could encourage comments or discussion of opposing ideas.
On personal sites: Identify your views as your own.
Photography and comments: Do not post any comment or picture involving an AU employee, volunteer or student without their express consent.
A communication policy is not something you can build in a day. It should tackle different scenarios, provide policies for different channels and explain clear steps on:
How to implementmarketing tactics like emotional marketing and create case studiesbecause these should be handled with extra care to protect your customers’ feelings and your clients’ privacy.
How to ensure smooth communicationwith email automation(to avoid being called out for spam)
Set up your policy as an internal andsearchable knowledge baseto be able to expand it as you discover new and new situations and processes.
2. Avoid controversy (if you can)
As a founder and member of society, you may be tempted to use your public image and following to support what you feel is right and fair.
It may come at a high cost, so think twice before you do so.
Your public words may end up working against your brand and cause a crisis your team may be unprepared to handle.
When in doubt, keep silent.
Yet, it is getting increasingly harder to remain neutral
In today’s polarized world customers often demand their brands take one side and publicly define their stance. We’ve seen this happen in front of our eyes when Coca-Cola and McDonald’s were both forced to leave the Russian market after what seemed like a silent hesitation.
In many cases,silence is not an option. These days, remaining neutral means being complicit, and not many brands can afford that.
When confronted with the need to react to a political climate, consider taking an action over releasing a statement. Areportclaims that customers tend to be more forgiving to brands that took action instead of trying to please their audience with empty talk.
In other words, instead of condemning any side, start a fundraiser or donate money to the cause you’re supporting. At this point, whatever you say may backfire on you but at least action will be respected.
3. Admit and own up to your mistakes
While cancel culture may seem really scary, we see lots of examples of brands recovering from any crisis by simply apologizing.
If your company is facing public outrage
Arrange a meeting with your employees and discuss whether you may have been mischarged in your previous statement and what is the best way to address the accusations.
If you don’t feel you did anything wrong, your PR, communications, and legal teams may have a different opinion, so listen to them.
If your case seems bad enough and the accusations are mounting rapidly, consider hiring a crisis manager. In some cases, you need an outside perspective.
4. Invest in a sub-brand
For years we’ve been giving the same advice over and over again: Don’t create multiple brands. Focus on one.
Well, the recent years of an immediate cancellation threat over a possible clumsy public reaction have clearly demonstrated one thing: Your (personal) brand may be ruined within a day.
Of course, most brand names may be restored with enoughreputation managementefforts but it can take months for the public to forgive mistakes and become loyal again.
In this climate, having another brand name to lean on in case of a possible reputation crisis seems like a good idea.
We’ve seen lots of examples of a new brand name saving a business
To name a few, we’ve seen Rowling take onanother penname to continue writing, and McAfee changing its name to Intel Security to distance the company from its founder. There arenumerous othercase studies proving one definitive point: You may have invested your life into building a strong brand but it remains vulnerable, especially now that your brand’s cancellation may go viral.
Even if you are a small business or an independent entrepreneur, considersetting up an anonymousdigital entity earlier to start building up yourorganic visibility. If anything happens to your main brand, you will have a backup to switch your focus on.
Worst-case scenario, your sub-brand will be never used but you will be able to use the site rankings to drive additional sales and leads.
5. Prioritize data privacy and security is a must
Privacy and security remain the biggest threat to any brand’s welfare. Even giants like Google Plus were forced to shut down after their data leak became public.
Cyberattacks may cause your customers to lose money and identity, which is very hard to overcome. It is especially dangerousin B2B marketingbecause it often involves working with a lot of sensitive data.
Create ahealthy culture of securitywithin your business for all your employees to be aware of data security protocols and protect customers’ private data.
Ensure a culture of transparency to keep your employees informed on the latest risks and growing security threats as well as to list steps onwhat to do after a data breach.
We live in interesting times when everyone has a voice and we are still learning how to live in a world where any argument can go public and become viral. It is both scary and exciting to navigate these unknown waters but the good old “hope for the best, get ready for the worst” is almost always a good strategy. Good luck!
Ann Smarty is the Founder of Viral Content Bee, Brand and Community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas. She can be found on Twitter @seosmarty.
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