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Author: Lazarina Stoy Keyword research is the starting point of all organic marketing projects. It unveils how, why, and when your target audiences search for (and discover) businesses like yours, and what their needs are.  For many years, this process focused on direct keyword targeting. Nowadays, keyword research aims to understand users’ content and information needs, and to pair that with brand content (in search results as well as on other platforms).  As an industry, we're transitioning to a more holistic and integrated approach that marries three critical components:  A user-focused strategy for interpreting search context as well as explicit and implicit search intent An insightful analysis of queries, pinpointing the topic and other indications of how the user wants information served to them A strategic decision-making process on content creation, informed by pre-existing knowledge, topics, and entities In this article, I’ll show you how semantic and traditional keyword research methods can come together to address these considerations so that you can create user-first content that also ranks well in today’s search landscape. Table of contents: Traditional keyword research: Still useful, but outdated Semantic keyword research uses context cues to modernize traditional techniques Traditional vs. semantic keyword research: What’s the difference? Semantic keyword research: Concepts and how to integrate them into your keyword process Entities, entity attributes and entity attribute values Search query sequences and query paths Query augmentation Query context and session context User search behavior Information gain Traditional keyword research: Still useful, but outdated With the introduction of semantic search, traditional keyword research needs to evolve. Traditional keyword research generally begins with identifying seed keywords, which you run through SEO tools to discover related terms. From there, you apply different criteria to filter out irrelevant terms, laying the groundwork for a keyword universe.  Of course, each of these steps can vary in complexity, influencing the quality of your keyword data. For example, to identify seed keywords, you can turn to sources like user surveys or first-party data, product or service research, competitor research, and so on, which can result in a more comprehensive data gathering process. Similarly, when sorting and filtering your keywords, you can incorporate additional data points, like keyword intent  classification, SERP features , and topical and brand relevance to ultimately create a higher-quality keyword universe. Even so, this approach is potentially heavily skewed by incomplete or flawed data and metrics, like search volume  and traffic potential, keyword difficulty  and competitiveness.  Traditional keyword research is metrics-driven and backward-looking, when it now needs to center around the user, their search journey, and content needs.  These practices worked for a long time, as many of Google’s ranking systems are based on text evaluation. In this context, keyword matching between on-page text elements (like the title or URL) and the search query was a pretty significant sign to search engines that the content would likely satisfy the user’s needs.  You still need some of the basics of traditional keyword research, though, as they provide essential context for subsequent steps in your content strategy. For instance, breaking down your keyword universe by different query characteristics (e.g., search intent, brand mentions) enables you to identify patterns of search behavior to understand how they relate to metrics like competitiveness and search volume. This granular analysis allows for more precise content targeting and optimization, ultimately enhancing your user engagement and satisfaction. Moreover, traditional keyword research excels at uncovering related keywords (semantically connected terms, synonyms, jargon, local expressions, or other language variations). This helps you better understand and align your website copy to the way  your potential customers express themselves, which can also make your website more discoverable in the process. F or example, if a region-specific term like ‘fizzy drink’ is more commonly used than of ‘soda’ in a particular market, incorporating this local expression can significantly improve search relevance for those audiences. In short, while search engine algorithms  have changed, the principles of traditional keyword research remain foundational. And, with the integration of semantic understanding in the content ranking process, SEO keyword research requirements have also changed.  Semantic keyword research uses context cues to modernize traditional techniques Incorporating semantics into SEO research has been a consistent theme in the work of researchers, like the late Bill Slawski , for more than a decade. These concepts are directly extracted from technology patents that Google and other search engines filed. Semantic keyword research evolves our understanding of user search behavior and context—as well as how to leverage it. This approach goes beyond traditional keyword research by integrating concepts like entities, knowledge graphs, the context of searches, the intent behind search queries, and so on—rather than just relying on the keywords the user puts into the search bar. Traditional vs. semantic keyword research: What’s the difference?  Unlike traditional keyword research (which prioritizes metrics), semantic keyword research focuses on real-world user behavior, placing the searchers thoughts and actions at the center of your keyword research practices. Semantic keyword research adds real-world context to the keyword process by emphasizing the user's search journey (i.e., the sequence of queries and platforms used) and the context surrounding searches.  Traditional keyword research Semantic keyword research Keywords Keyword length  Keyword search volume  Keyword difficulty  Traffic potential  Competition Entities, entity attributes, entity attribute values Query sequence Query path Query augmentation Query context Session context User search behavior Information gain Search intent  Knowledge graphs Semantic keyword research: Concepts and how to integrate them into your keyword process There are several concepts that inform how I approach semantic keyword research. They include: Entities, entity attributes, and entity attribute values Search query sequences and query paths Query augmentation Query context and session context User search behavior Information gain Entities, entity attributes and entity attribute values Keywords represent phrases or specific words that hold some value from an SEO perspective, while entities reflect things that exist in the real world. Sometimes these two things overlap in the context of keyword research.  Entities are distinct and well-defined concepts , such as people, places, things, or ideas. (E.g., Barack Obama, The Louvre, a smartphone, etc.) Entity attributes are characteristics or properties of entities. For example, for the entity ‘dog’, attributes include ‘breed’, ‘ fur color’, etc. Entity values represent the specific values of entity attributes, such as ‘Labrador’ for the attribute ‘breed’ for the entity ‘dog’. Let’s contrast this understanding against how SEOs traditionally considered keywords.  From the context of a user typing a search query into a search engine like Google, the query is composed of keywords of varying importance for SEO, some of which might also be entities. Let’s look at some examples. Search query Keywords and importance Entities and type [Shop online Nike Jordan Air force one] Shop  — Transactional intent Online  — Navigate to website or store Nike  — Branded search  Jordan air force one  — Product search Nike  — Organization Air force one  — Product (Michael) Jordan  — Person [Beginner guide to SEO research] Beginner  — Level of complexity need, introductory content Guide  — Content type need, informational intent SEO  — Main topic Research  — Subtopic Beginner -  other SEO research  — other Guide  — other Understanding entities is essential as it aligns your content with the way modern search engines interpret queries. Google uses entities in many of its ranking systems to: Interpret content and evaluate its relevance, prioritizing pages that comprehensively address the user/query’s context. Connect entities in its knowledge graph  to deliver richer, more personalized, and contextual search results (as both are used to improve recommendations for search results and SERP features).  When researching keywords, instead of just taking them at face value, incorporating entities can help you:  Understand different ways people refer to concepts. Identify entity attributes that people commonly search for and their most popular variants, indicating potential content and site structures. (E.g., when referring to ‘dog food’ people might often search for specific types like ‘kibble’ or ‘canned’, so for the entity ‘dog food’, an attribute would be ‘food type’ with variables ‘kibble’, ‘canned’, and so on.) Detect information gaps that you can address to create more comprehensive content. (E.g., If you identify that web content commonly discusses kibble and canned dog food, but not raw or semi-moist, researching and writing about these food types on the web can set you apart from competitors). Improve the contextual relevance of your content, enhancing user intent alignment. It’s also worthwhile to consider entities, entity attributes, and values whenever your website can potentially help out users—even if such search terms are not widely popular .  To start extracting entities from your keyword lists with Google’s own Natural Language API , use this free, no-code, beginner-friendly template in Google Sheets .  Search query sequences and query paths In semantic keyword research, you should also aim to understand the sequence in which users perform search queries. The aim here is to grasp (in the same way that search engines do ) the relationships and sequences of queries performed in a single session, and use this information to enhance the content you produce.  This involves analyzing how users refine their searches, the progression of their queries, the number of queries they conduct, and how their search behavior evolves during a session.  Here are just a couple of ways to achieve this:  Run important keywords for your business through Google Autocomplete to see the searches that Google is recommending to users (related to their original search).  Scrape data from the Google SERP for your important keywords, specifically the modules (e.g., Related Searches, People Also Ask, People Also Search For, People Search Next), as these indicate queries that are semantically related in terms of topic, intent, and session context. Tools like Semrush  can help you do this for individual searches, while DataforSEO  can help you do it at scale. Query augmentation Augmented search queries  are queries where the user incorporates additional information derived from entity references within a query. The concept of augmented search queries involves recognizing specific entities, such as people, places, or things (or a combination of them), mentioned in a user's search query.  For instance, if someone searches for Blake Lively (Person) and Ryan Reynolds (Person), the search results would recognize the entity references in the query, and would suggest augmentations to the query to introduce new information to the user, like movies they starred in together, or whether they have kids. Google can then generate additional queries based on these entities and their attributes, integrating the results with the original search query outcomes. These fused results ensure users receive a richer and more detailed set of information. To incorporate augmented search queries into your keyword research process: Ensure that your content clearly identifies and references significant entities relevant to your topic. Understand how different entities can be logically combined with one another in searches. For instance, the entity Kamala Harris (Person) might be logically combined with Douglas Emhoff (her husband; Person), but it might also be combined with ‘2024 US elections’ (Event). Pay attention to search queries that reference entities that appear in your Google Search Console  data. Analyze all queries that contain the same entity and ensure that there are different pages on your website that reference said entities, and that they are linked . Understand and incorporate thematic searches. For instance, around Coachella (music festival), people might search for festival wear, sparkly tops, boho shorts, or simply search for [Coachella outfit]. With that same logic, you can also improve your product category structure, adding pages based on interests, not just product characteristics. Query context and session context Contextual search leverages natural language processing to optimize search results based on the context the user provides in their query or in their overall search session.  For example, if a user asks Google something along the lines of [What’s the capital of France?] followed by [What are some popular tourist attractions there?], the search engine uses the context from the first query (query context) and the sequence of interactions (session context) to answer the second query accurately.  In this example, even though the second query does not contain the query context (i.e., in France), Google suggests query refinement and incorporates the query context in the search results to better address the searcher’s intent. Query 1: [capital of france] Query 2: [popular attractions] Note the suggestion at the top: “This search may be relevant to recent activity: popular attractions  in france ” To incorporate query and session context into your keyword research process:  Use Search Console to understand the co-occurring queries related to your website’s key entities. Especially if you have similar types of pages, like tutorials or guides, researching the query patterns on how these are found by users can help you adjust the on-page content to better reflect user search patterns. For instance, a tutorial might rank for a query containing the term [how to fix ‘problem X’], but it might also rank for a query containing the term [how to ‘desired outcome’].  Session query 1 Session query 2 Analyze the SERP  and the top-ranking pages to find co-occurring entities and keywords that might help those pages rank for more terms. Understand subtopics of the content that ranks well in your niche. This can help you incorporate context in your content (in places like headings, anchor text, and on-page text ) and understand the context you need to add when discussing certain entities. User search behavior User behavior data like click-through rate (CTR), dwell time, and bounce rate can impact search rankings. High CTR and long dwell time can signal quality content, while low bounce rates and reduced pogo-sticking can lead to improved rankings over time. Google may also use SERP interactions  and user feedback to re-rank pages. Positive interactions enhance credibility—this can be anything like the actions a user takes on the SERP or the queries typed in after the page visit. To incorporate this data into keyword research:  Merge data in Looker Studio, combining ranking queries from Google Search Console, entity data from those queries, and GA4  metrics like bounce rate, exit rates, and other user engagement metrics to monitor for patterns or any glaring issues. For instance, you might notice that all pages that rank for queries containing a certain entity are failing to engage users. Utilize tools like Microsoft Clarity  to identify which page elements or content sections cause negative user interactions. Then, compare these findings with the elements and sections of better-performing competitor content to gain insights and make improvements. Information gain Information gain refers to how much additional useful information a new document (web page) provides to  users who may have already seen other pages on the same topic. As you may have already gathered, Google has a patent  on information gain scoring and ranking pages based on this concept. Put simply, pages with higher information gain scores may get ranked higher because they provide more unique and valuable information. This helps prevent users from seeing repetitive information across multiple documents, thereby enhancing Google’s search experience. You need a thorough grasp of entities, their attributes, and attribute values, along with a keen understanding of the current information available in the search landscape in order to effectively apply this concept in your keyword research.  Focus on presenting new or proprietary information—not just replicating the articles that currently rank. Incorporate user research  and first-party data to validate new keyword variations without compromising quality and search experience.  This is where semantic keyword research departs from traditional methods: Instead of only focusing on metrics from third-party tools (like search volume), understand the information gaps and fill them through your content. For instance, before Zapier created their templated ‘integrations’ pages, the keyword volume for connecting niche tools with one another was likely negligible. Yet, as the product addressed this need, the demand grew, validating the importance of focusing on user intent and behavior, rather than just keyword metrics.  This approach shows that understanding the entire search journey, including the sequence of queries and the entities mentioned, leads to better content strategies and improved user satisfaction. In keyword research, the semantics matter Traditional keyword research still carries value, but there are more advanced concepts that search engines use to understand users that you should incorporate into workflows to ensure your pages are competitive.  Instead of relying solely on keyword suggestions from third-party tools, incorporate different data points from user research, SERP analysis, entity analysis, and topic research.  Understand the topic that you’re planning to cover and the subtopics that make it up. Research the entities your content is about, their attributes, and the values that are commonly mentioned alongside them to advance the existing information landscape. In terms of practical steps and tools to incorporate in your process, I’ve prepared a handy checklist  that features the steps needed to conduct semantic keyword research, the tools you can use to get started, and additional resources to help you grasp the concepts mentioned. Lazarina Stoy - SEO & Data Science Consultant   Lazarina  is an organic marketing consultant specializing in SEO, CRO, and data science. She's worked with countless teams in B2B, SaaS, and big tech to improve their organic positioning. As an advocate of SEO automation, Lazarina speaks on webinars and at conferences and creates helpful resources for fellow SEOs to kick off their data science journey. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author:  Abby Gleason Fact: People want advice from Reddit. Searchers have been appending [Reddit] to Google search queries at an increasingly high rate (especially since late 2021), and Google has been rewarding the platform with massively increased SERP visibility. But what is it about Reddit that searchers (and Google) like? As an SEO , I’ll admit I didn’t think forum sites had the potential to be SEO powerhouses:  There’s no clear, immediate indicator of contributors’ expertise. Spam and sometimes offensive speech crops up. The content itself doesn’t follow typical on-page best practices, like scannable headings and summarization.  Despite all of this, it turns out that forum sites like Reddit are exactly what some searchers are looking for. Put simply, their content is incredibly human . Reddit threads exist for nearly every topic, filled with helpful, firsthand advice and the signature candid remarks of frequent forum lurkers. With AI-generated content and “SEO-ed” affiliate content flooding the SERPs, users are getting wise and turning to the realest corners of the internet when they need advice they can trust. This is why it’s more important than ever to have a human touch in your content strategy .  In this article, we’ll dive into:  Reddit’s massive increase in SEO traffic Why searchers add [Reddit] to their queries  How you can incorporate Reddit’s best practices into your own strategy (and no, you don’t have to be a forum site to do this) The meteoric rise of Reddit’s SEO Reddit hasn’t always been an organic powerhouse. In fact, prior to mid-2023, SEO traffic had been incredibly flat since the site launched in 2005. In June 2023, Reddit was attracting about 80 million monthly visitors from Google, according to Ahrefs. In March 2024, it brought in nearly 500 million  monthly visitors. That’s more than a 500% increase in less than nine months. In addition, Reddit shows up 97.5% of the time in Google Search product review queries  and takes up nearly two-thirds of the space reserved for Google’s “Discussions and forums” SERP feature. Put simply, Google is heavily prioritizing Reddit in search results. Why did Reddit’s traffic increase so dramatically?  Google announced its “ Hidden Gems” helpful content update  in May 2023, right before Reddit started seeing the traffic increase.  In Google’s own words , it tweaked its search results to “focus on content with unique expertise and experience… created from a personal or expert point of view.” Reddit is chock-full of these “hidden gems.” “Helpful information can often live in unexpected or hard-to-find places: a comment in a forum thread, a post on a little-known blog, or an article with unique expertise on a topic. Our helpful content ranking system will soon show more of these ‘hidden gems’ on Search, particularly when we think they’ll improve the results.” — Google , May 2023 My personal hypothesis is that Google’s Hidden Gems update occurred in part due to more searchers appending [Reddit] to their queries over time. For example, see the increase in popularity of searches for [best protein powder reddit].  I, myself, add [Reddit] to quite a few queries, primarily when I want advice from real people. I want to avoid affiliate link-filled articles written by generative AI —basically, I want to read suggestions from experienced people who aren’t incentivized beyond wanting to help. Others feel similarly. I asked folks on  why they add [Reddit] to queries and got some similar responses. Generally, searchers prefer Reddit when they want an unbiased opinion, social proof, or are searching for a particularly niche topic. In terms of topics, this can span pretty much anything from product recommendations to life advice and everything in between. Google itself  even gave “product recommendations” and “travel advice” as examples of two key topic areas in which searchers frequently turn to Reddit. Side note : The reason I think people search on Google for Reddit threads (instead of searching directly on Reddit) is because Google’s algorithm does a better job of surfacing relevant threads—not necessarily because users want more Reddit in all their search results.  How to use Reddit’s best practices in your own content strategy You don’t have to run a forum to replicate Reddit’s best SEO plays for your own website. You can add unique, human elements to your content to instill trust with users the way Reddit does by: Hiring writers/editors that have firsthand expertise Adding a rating system for your content Fostering a healthy comments section Prioritizing UX by getting to the point quickly Writing with a distinct voice Hire writers and editors that have firsthand expertise with the topic I’m not burying the lede—this is the most important tip in this article, and the number one reason why I think people turn to Reddit: users with a variety of real experiences can share their experience to help others learn. Searchers want to trust that the content’s writers and/or editors have firsthand expertise in the topic they are writing about. For example, if you are searching for [best travel backpacks], you want advice from someone who has personally tested out several travel backpacks and can recommend the best ones based on price and quality. Do your due diligence—hire writers and/or editors that have firsthand experience in what they are recommending. It’s obvious when advice is generic, and your audience will sniff that out right away. If you don’t have a writer with personal experience in your topic, you may be able to find other ways to crowdsource that expertise. For my previous client, for example, my team crowdsourced ideas from the client’s Facebook group and embedded them into the content. In one blog post that we applied this tactic to (about what to bring a friend in the hospital), the comments really added value for our audience because they knew they could trust other people who’d been through the same thing—it developed instant trust and rapport. You can also interview subject matter experts and include their quotes in your content. Whether your writer has the expertise or you source it elsewhere, ensure that the reader knows why they can trust your advice. Add a rating system for your content The comment rating system is something I love about Reddit—even though I can’t prove that the commenter has expertise, I gain trust from others upvoting (or “liking”) and replying to the comment. Social proof builds trust. Sorting content by “likes” provides additional validation that the advice is sound. Sure, I’d be willing to trust one person giving me advice if they clearly had experience… But I’m more willing to trust the advice when I have other readers’ endorsement as well. In your own content, you could allow readers to “like” the sections in your listicles. Next to each list item, you could either show the number of likes or clearly mark “#1 most liked” to prove its been validated by other readers. Consider setting the post to automatically sort by the most liked sections, or frequently update it manually.  In its simplest form, try including a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” button on your articles so readers can see how much others liked it. This can also help you learn about what types of content your audience prefers . Foster a healthy comments section Reddit is basically one giant comments section. Reviews and article comments can be a great way to add relevant on-page content that provides additional expertise. For example, the New York Times Cooking  recipes have one of the best comment sections I’ve seen. Recipe testers share their feedback and offer tweaks that worked for them. It adds a lot of value to the content and is one of the reasons I subscribe. Or take The Sill, an eCommerce plant company. In its plant care guides, the brand features a comment section where readers can ask additional questions—the company answers nearly every question. Pro tip: The questions your audience asks in the comments can provide helpful insights for your product or future content as well. Get to the point—fast Reddit gives you answers, fast. The first answer in a thread is often the most upvoted and may give you the advice you need. Strive to provide a similar experience with your content. We all dread the recipe blogs where you need to scroll for half a minute to get to what you’re looking for. So instead of burying the answers and frustrating your readers, include clear answers and takeaways that they can easily scan. You should also evaluate the design and experience of your page. Reddit has minimal interruptions, like ads or pop-ups, making helpful comments the main content on the page. Write with a distinct voice Reddit is notorious for featuring snarky voices. The witty, humorous responses make for an entertaining reading experience. The storytelling and raw, “real life” anecdotes certainly add some flavor when looking up product recommendations. Obviously I’m not suggesting you add cuss words or emojis to your brand’s messaging . But consider the essence of what makes Reddit readable:  Straightforward advice Personable tone Not afraid to have a bit of fun Brand voice will differ for every business, but don’t be afraid to use the language you know your audience resonates with. That’s what makes your content not just informative, but memorable. Take a page from ‘the front page of the internet’ Searchers love Reddit’s content so much they search for it by name. By incorporating human elements, like firsthand expertise, into your content or fostering a healthy comments section, you develop trust with your audience—and trust is the real  SEO best practice. Abby Gleason - SEO Product Manager     Abby Gleason is a content-focused SEO with 6+ years experience leading successful organic search strategies for SaaS and eCommerce brands. She loves to share her learnings and has been published on Moz, Semrush, Search Engine Land and more. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Krystal Taing Every so often, consumer preference shifts reshape the retail scene, emphasizing speed, convenience, and experience—both on and offline.  COVID-19 amplified various shopping trends, such as curbside pickup and contactless delivery. At the heart of these online-to-offline trends is BOPUS (Buy Online, Pick Up in Store).  Prior to the pandemic, these services were mostly limited to big-box retailers. In a post-COVID landscape, however, shoppers expect these services from all businesses, both large and small. Initially adopted on a large scale by major retailers, BOPUS has set new standards for the online-to-offline shopping experience. This tactical guide is tailored for businesses exploring the BOPUS model for the first time. Let’s take a look at the nuances of BOPUS, its benefits, and actionable insights for seamless implementation. Table of contents: What is BOPUS Why shoppers prefer BOPUS Understanding the customer journey in BOPUS How to promote BOPUS for your store Via Google Business Profile Via Google Merchant Center Enable BOPUS on your Wix website BOPUS best practices What is BOPUS? BOPUS stands for “buy online, pick up in-store.” This fulfillment option allows customers to purchase products online and pick them up at a physical store, often within the same day. This model offers convenience, saves shipping costs, and reduces wait time for customers. BOPUS’s key benefits include: Enhanced customer experience  — Shoppers appreciate the ease of browsing and purchasing online combined with the speed of in-store pickup. Reduced shipping costs  — BOPUS eliminates shipping fees for both the business and the customer, offering a cost-effective alternative to traditional online shopping. Increased foot traffic  — Drawing online customers into your physical store can lead to additional in-store purchases. Improved inventory management  — BOPUS streamlines stock levels by moving products faster from the warehouse to customers. Greater customer satisfaction and loyalty  — BOPUS offers a flexible shopping experience that meets modern consumer expectations, encouraging repeat business. While BOPUS is now a common option amongst big box retailers, its adoption amongst smaller local businesses is relatively sparse (especially outside of takeout food pickup), meaning that adding BOPUS to your website may help distinguish your business. Why shoppers prefer BOPUS These stats highlight BOPUS’s growing popularity among consumers across numerous markets. This trend represents a lasting change in consumer behavior, highlighting the need for businesses to adapt to these new shopping preferences. Shoppers are drawn to BOPUS for several reasons: No shipping costs:  Eliminating shipping fees is a significant incentive for many online shoppers. Immediate product acquisition:  Customers can enjoy their purchases within hours of buying. Easy returns:  BOPUS simplifies the return process, as customers can return items directly to the store if necessary. The customer journey with BOPUS Adding BOPUS (or “click and collect” in some regions) to your delivery options modernizes your online and in-store customer experience, but to extract the most value from it, you need to understand and map the customer journey from start to finish.  The customer journey begins the moment a visitor discovers your online storefront. Here, they can view your products and purchase items online for in-store pickup.  When the customer checks out, they’ll provide their details and select “Pickup In Store” as their delivery method. Upon completing the purchase, customers should receive a confirmation email or text message that includes order details, pickup instructions, and business location.  Your business prepares the order for pickup, ensuring it’s ready by the specified time.  Upon arriving at the store, customers are guided by clear signs to a designated pickup area. Here, a welcoming staff member confirms their order details and provides them with their purchase. The customer journey above is a fairly uniform experience across stores that offer BOPUS, so it’s likely the frame of reference that your customers have when evaluating your BOPUS checkout experience.  To provide a seamless experience that promotes repeat business, follow the advice in this article by contextualizing it with respect to where the potential customer is currently at (within the overall customer journey). How to promote BOPUS for your store If you want the business benefits that come with BOPUS, then you need to make your audience aware that you offer it. Utilize social media , email marketing, and your website to highlight the convenience and benefits. Create compelling in-store signage and online content to drive awareness and adoption.   This includes highlighting delivery options in your Google Business Profile (GBP)  via Google Merchant Center, and on your website, which I’ll explain next. Showcase BOPUS on your Google Business Profile Local businesses looking to get started with BOPUS should leverage their online business listings—specifically, their Google Business Profile. Setting in-store pickup as an attribute To ensure that your business profile is eligible to show up in searches filtered for “in-store pickup,” you need to enable the “in-store pickup” attribute. Add the “in-store pickup” attribute to your GBP by following these steps:  Sign into your Google Business Profile : Visit the Google Business Profile website and log in using your business account. Select your business : If you have more than one business, select the one you want to manage. Edit your business information : Click on “Edit Profile,” navigate to “More” and click the edit pencil icon under “Service Options.” Set your options  and save them. Managing and adding products to GBP Small businesses that want to publish products directly to their GBP can use the Products Editor. This feature does not connect to live inventory and is best used to highlight unique and new products and product categories.  You can add information within the product description about availability and pickup options. Additionally, you will want to include a link to this product on your website, where customers can make their purchase (as users can’t transact directly in GBP this way). As you introduce new products or run out of some of your inventory, remember to manage your products in GBP regularly so that online shoppers know what’s available for in-store pickup. Similar to the steps for adding the in-store pickup attribute (above), you’ll first need to sign into your GBP and select your business. From there:  Navigate to your products : Find the “Products” section in the menu. This is where you can manage your inventory. Add a product : Click on “Add Product.” You’ll be asked to provide details such as the product name, category, price, description, and photos. Save your product : Once you’ve added all the necessary details, save the product. It will now be visible to customers viewing your business profile. Google Merchant Center: Getting started with BOPUS For businesses that have an inventory feed and would like to highlight live inventory and pickup options on their Google listings, Merchant Center is likely your best option.  Merchant Center connects directly to your GBP account, allowing you to set availability and pickup options by product. Once connected, the inventory feed will enable a feature on your Google listing called “ See What’s In Store ,” which creates a mini shopping experience directly within the Google search result page where the pickup options are highlighted on each product based on your settings. How to set in-store pickup with Google Merchant Center Create your account : Go to the Google Merchant Center website and sign up for an account. Follow the setup process, which includes verifying your website and agreeing to the terms of service. Set up a local products feed : Provide the platform with a feed of the products available for pickup at your physical location(s). Enable local inventory ads : Within Google Merchant Center, enable local inventory ads . This feature allows you to show that your products are available for in-store pickup. Specify pickup options : In your Merchant Center settings, specify that you offer in-store pickup. Include any relevant details, such as how quickly items will be ready for pickup after a customer places an order. Update regularly : Keep your product availability up to date to ensure customers receive accurate information. Enable BOPUS on your Wix website You need to indicate that you offer BOPUS everywhere customers can transact with you—especially on your own website. You can add BOPUS to your Wix website  by following the instructions below.  Access your Wix dashboard : Log into your Wix account and select the site you want to edit. Navigate to Settings > Shipping : On the left-hand side of the dashboard, click on Settings , then select Shipping . Select +Add Pickup . Configure your pickup settings : After selecting the pickup option, you’re prompted to fill in details such as the pickup location, pickup instructions (like time slots, specific location within a building, etc.), and whether you want to charge for this service. Save your settings : It’s a good idea to review all the details to ensure accuracy before proceeding. Inform your customers : After setting up in-store pickup on your Wix website, consider updating your content to inform your customers. You might add details to your FAQ page, product pages , or checkout page about the availability of in-store pickup, instructions for pickup, and other relevant details. Test your in-store pickup workflow : Before officially launching, it’s crucial to test your new pickup option. Make a test order on your site and go through the checkout process as a customer would (selecting in-store pickup). This will help you identify any issues or areas for improvement in the customer experience. Success with BOPUS: Best practices Adding BOPUS to your GBP or website is just the setup process. To make BOPUS work in lockstep with your offerings and the rest of your business model, you’ll need an intuitive online interface, clear communication, and a smooth pickup process. By focusing on these areas, local stores can ensure a positive BOPUS experience that encourages repeat business. When creating your BOPUS experience, focus on:  User-friendly website design:  Ensure that your online store is easy to navigate, with clear categories, product descriptions , and images. This facilitates the shopping process, making it more likely that customers will choose the BOPUS option. Personalized communication:  From the moment a customer places an order to when it’s ready for pickup, personalized communication can enhance the customer experience. Consider sending personalized emails or text messages that confirm the order, provide pickup instructions, and thank the customer for their purchase. Efficient pickup process:  Design a pickup process that is quick and hassle-free. This could involve dedicated BOPUS parking spots, a designated pickup counter, or even a drive-thru pickup option. Comprehensive employee training:  Train your staff to ensure they are equipped to handle BOPUS orders and deliver exceptional service. Merge digital convenience and in-person retail with BOPUS Implementing BOPUS goes beyond merely aligning with retail trends; it involves strategically elevating your business to meet and surpass customer expectations. By adopting BOPUS, you can: Leverage your store’s physical presence : Use your storefront to provide a quick and personal service that online-only competitors can’t match. Capitalize on impulse purchases : Increased foot traffic from BOPUS pickups can lead to additional sales from customers browsing in-store. Strengthen customer relationships : Personal interactions during pickup create opportunities for feedback and personalized service, deepening customer loyalty. Stay competitive in a digital-first market : Offering BOPUS positions your business as customer-focused and responsive to consumer preferences—essential qualities in today’s retail landscape. As you embark on integrating BOPUS into your business, start small and focus on the core benefits to streamline the process. Test, learn, and adapt based on customer feedback and operational insights. The journey towards BOPUS is an exciting opportunity to innovate and grow your business in ways that resonate with today’s consumers. Take the first step today and unlock the potential of blending digital convenience with the tangible, rewarding experience of in-store shopping. Krystal Taing - Global Director of Pre-sales Solutions, Uberall Krystal Taing is the Global Director of Pre-sales Solutions at Uberall. She is a Google Business Profile Platinum Product Expert and faculty member at LocalU. She helps brands at managing hybrid customer experiences. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Mordy Oberstein Google’s core updates can be anxious, frustrating times. But, they’re also filled with hidden gems about how search has changed.  Analyzing the fallout of a core update helps us better understand:  What Google can do algorithmically  What Google is looking for from our content While I love analyzing Google algorithm updates in aggregate (and have written dozens of articles on this), diving deep at the page level can offer a more qualitative look at what drives visibility changes on the SERP.  Below are two cases that make me think Google has turned another corner in how it deciphers quality and “helpfulness.” Yes, they are just two cases, but they really stood out to me in my analysis of over 300 SERPs (and diving deep into more than a dozen “ranking cases”).  Both cases present a very similar and substantial theme. They show how Google is looking to move past sterile content and instead present the user with content that accounts for the context of the query—as in, the user’s particular situation.  Let’s see how these varied content approaches played out as Google’s March 2024 core update reshaped the search results. Table of contents: Case 01: Topic-centric content for ranking wins [Bankrate] Why brands and SEOs should adopt situational writing Case 02: Situational content pushes past keyword-specific pages on the SERP [Yale Medicine] 01. Bankrate moves past topic-centric content for ranking wins Let’s start with Bankrate. I noticed the site improved for the keyword [payday loan fees]   and it took me down an entire rabbit hole. Prior to the March 2024 Google core update, this page ranked at position 7 but jumped up the SERP to position 3 by the time the update finished rolling out. Looking at this page (and then the wider performance of similar content) led me to revisit situational content . Why brands and SEOs should adopt situational writing To be honest, when I looked at Bankrate’s page  relative to similar ranking pages (such as the one from LendingTree ) I didn’t see much differentiation.  I couldn’t quite understand why Google didn’t reward Bankrate’s page with a top-three position prior to the update, but suddenly did post-update.  That’s why I went to the Wayback Machine (Internet Archives) to see if the page had been updated  since the previous Google core update back in November 2023—sure enough, it had and the improvements were significant.   Two noticeable changes were: 1. A new key takeaways section to summarize the main points of the page 2. An expert insight section (which, in this case, was written by the author of the content) While these changes are “nice,” I don’t think they qualify as “extensive,” and I don’t think they fundamentally make the page substantially more valuable.  So what then? What changes did Bankrate make to the page that significantly increased quality (and rankings)? For starters, Bankrate reorganized a good bit of the content. For example, the old version of the page had separate headers for “ What is a payday loan?” and for “ How payday loans work, ” whereas the updated version combines them into “ What are payday loans and how do they work?” In and of itself, that isn’t a big deal. The difference in approach that perhaps led to this change, however, is a big deal. Here’s how the old version broke down the section on how payday loans work: It’s entirely topic-first, which is typical. If I had to speculate, some SEO tool  told the Bankrate’s team that if they want to rank for the keyword [how payday loans work], they need to have both a separate H2  and must include content on credit checks, repayment, and fees (as shown above).  This looks and feels very much like “SEO-first content.” It’s both sterile and predictable.  Compare that to the updated section:  This updated content is far more user-first (and far less topic-first). For example, the paragraph that immediately follows the main summary of what a payday loan is (highlighted in yellow) explains to site visitors what they can expect to happen if they take out such a loan. The old version had none of this: And that’s the real story with this page.  The updated page adopts what I’ve been calling “situational writing.” It takes the context and situation of the user into account. Fundamentally, it means predicting what the user will experience at some level. So while both pages cover the risks of payday loans, only the new version has a section about when payday loans are a logical option:  Why? Because discussing if they are worthwhile (unless some SEO tool told you to do so) only becomes relevant when you start thinking about the end user’s situation and when that situation may call for taking out a payday loan.  This also means realizing that you need to emphasize the human considerations inherent to your particular topic as well as the implicit intent  that drives users to your content. In the example above, the creators of the page predicted that (unless there was reinforcement around how to pay the loan back) readers might possibly end up in a tight spot.  That’s why the section ends with a warning about repaying the loan in full and offering some surface-level ideas of how to do that (considering the financial constants already implied in the loan type).  The search visibility improvement here was for the entire folder that the payday loans page belongs to. Bankrate has an entire corpus of content dedicated to loan information and that section of the site saw huge ranking gains with the update (shown above). I had a look at about a dozen or so pages within the folder and all of them had been rewritten since the last core update in November.  To that point, the domain overall did not see the same increase: Further investigation is needed, but this could signal the value of the content overhaul we’ve examined above. 02. Yale Medicine’s situational content pushes past keyword-specific pages on the SERP In the opening of this blog post, I referenced “sterile content.” Sterile content: Content that doesn’t live within the confines of the user’s experience. It simply presents a topic.  Sterile content is topic-centric—not person-centric. It presents topics as topics, instead of presenting them through the lens of fulfilling a need.  I think we might be seeing Google beginning to understand this. Momentous.  Let’s have a look at the ranking trends for the keyword [labrum hip surgery]   and two URLs with opposite rank trajectories. As you can see below, a URL from yalemedicine.org  went from position 9 (before the update) to position 6 after its conclusion: At the same time, a URL from mymosh.com  (an orthopedic hospital in Wisconsin) went from flirting with a top-ten ranking to being removed from the top 20 results altogether by the time the March 2024 core update completed.  So, what happened here?  What I think occurred with these two pages is very similar to the example I shared earlier with Bankrate’s content: the Yale Medicine site (which I do not believe is a subsidiary of the ivy league school) took a far more situational approach than most of the other sites on the SERP.  Look at how the page addressed how labral tears are diagnosed: Like the Bankrate page, this page does not take a purely sterile topical approach. It offers information in the context of what the reader will likely experience.  The page doesn’t just tell you how tears are diagnosed , but what happens to the user as they undergo the diagnosis .  In addition to the page being topically comprehensive, it speaks to the site visitor on a deeper level and, in doing so, transcends the topic itself.  At multiple steps along the way, the page tries to consider its audience’s situation. Another quick example is how it discusses treatment. It essentially considers a scenario where the treatment is not 100% linear, and where multiple repairs might occur during one surgery:  It’s very simple and subtle, but this example is a case where the content tries to understand (by predicting) the reader’s life situation.  I want to contextualize the rankings on this SERP a bit to show you how powerful I think this approach is. The top of the SERP is dominated by the super-authorities of the health space:  I don’t expect a “regular” site to compete here. If we look a bit further down, where the Yale Medicine page does rank, the results are pretty much filled with your typical, sterile sort of content:  How does this bode well for my argument that the Yale Medicine page is strong? Shouldn’t it rank above some of these more “old school” pages?  Yes, except to me, the Yale Medicine page is strong despite only covering surgery on a limited basis. It ranks among pages where all they talk about is hip surgery.  In fact, you can see the power of user-centric, situational content when you look at the performance of the mymosh.com page that lost rankings. For starters, the content here isn’t bad:  The problem (to me) is that it doesn’t have much going for it (aside from bulleted lists). For example, the UX here is not great. There’s a lack of proper spacing and so forth that just makes the content hard to consume.  At the same time, while some of the information is good, other tidbits of content are too thin (too many bulleted lists without much context, if any):  This page is a pretty good example of what I consider “typical web content”—it’s a bit on the thin side in some areas, lacks a user-first focus, perhaps tries too hard to rank for keywords, and as a result, has absolutely zero flow to it.  Pro tip: A good way to see whether your content is user- or topic-centric is to ask yourself if it flows. Does one subject or section flow easily into the next? If so, you might be on the right track.  You really see this shine through when you look at the overall ranking changes for both sites.  With the March 2024 core update, the Yale Medicine site not only saw an overall ranking boost, it now also ranks well for some serious and competitive keywords: Google likes the site and (as I mentioned above) ranks it for keywords even when the page’s content isn’t entirely dedicated to the keyword per se. In fact it ranks for 19.7K featured snippets!  While the mymosh.com sites does have some interesting keywords, they are not only far fewer but mostly uncompetitive:  When you start looking at what else ranks for some of the keywords I reviewed, it’s not a testament to the site that they rank well as much it is a knock at the web overall. (For the record, the mymosh.com site only pulls in 30 featured snippets).  The bottom line is having strong, situation-centric content can open up the possibility of ranking on SERPs when the competitors are ranking with keyword-specific pages. That’s a lot more bang for your buck. The move past sterile content—we’re getting there No, I am not 100% convinced the move past sterile content is pervasive across the web.  What I think we’re seeing here is not the conclusion of the process, but the very start of it. Google is doing the equivalent of dipping its toe in the “moving past sterile content” waters.  But isn’t that why we look to analyze Google algorithm updates ? To see what Google is beginning to do—to see what Google is starting to become capable of?  For all the criticism around the Google SERP these days, seeing a move to limit sterile SEO content is almost momentous. It’s also a reminder that getting the SERP right is a process that ebbs and flows for Google.  Mordy Oberstein - Head of SEO Branding, Wix   Mordy is the Head of SEO Branding at Wix. Concurrently he also serves as a communications advisor for Semrush. Dedicated to SEO education, Mordy is one of the organizers of SEOchat and a popular industry author and speaker. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Lazarina Stoy Visitors generally come to your site looking to learn something or perform an action. The more intuitively they’re able to get what they came for, the more likely your business will also benefit. However, locating a resource or a piece of information on a site can be frustrating if the right signposts aren’t in place. CTAs present one way to guide those visitors, turn them into leads, followers, or even nudge them towards the final step of buying your product or service. It can also help them become brand ambassadors post-purchase. In this guide, we’ll discuss what you need to know to begin creating compelling CTAs that benefit both the business and its strategic growth objectives, as well as the visitors of your site, including: What a CTA is How CTAs help your business and your audience CTA types CTA types based on business goals CTA types based on desired user action CTA types based on medium How to choose the right CTA Other elements to factor into your CRO strategy Key takeaways Frequently asked questions about CTAs What is a call-to-action (CTA)? The CTA acronym stands for call-to-action, which is a signal or prompt to a user to perform a desired action. The action the user is encouraged to take typically aligns with the business or strategic goals of the brand or website and often is considered the next logical step of the user journey. Some might say that CTAs should always encourage an immediate sale or other type of conversion (e.g., sign-up). This is a misunderstanding, as most sophisticated conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategies use various combinations of different CTAs according to the stage of the funnel that the user is in . This enables a smoother approach to nurturing leads —one that is mindful of the different needs of users with different intents and fosters a trust-based relationship between the user and the business. What are the benefits of a good CTA? Having a good call-to-action can benefit every online space (not just websites) as it helps alleviate decision fatigue for users by broadcasting the next step in the journey (for those interested in taking it). At the same time, well-crafted CTAs also encourage users to take actions that are beneficial to the business, such as signing up for a newsletter or buying a product, for example. Here are some of the benefits of creating good calls-to-action for your users: Better understanding of potential avenues to take as a visitor Quicker access to important content Improved user experience and quicker navigation Less stress and frustration from decision-making and self-navigation, in turn promoting better website and content usability Creating strong CTAs is also beneficial for your business as well. They can help you: Increase engagement, which can help you improve website metrics such as bounce rate , time on page, session duration, and pages per session. If you’re working with videos as a medium, they can help bolster metrics such as watch time and click-through rate , all of which are associated with improved organic performance. Improve your understanding of users’ online behavior Improve performance of targeted goal completions CTAs can be applied to almost any content or online space, including in different places within a website, throughout social media pages, or even in videos, such as on YouTube or TikTok. So, at this stage, you might be wondering what a good call-to-action looks like. Let’s go through some examples from different domains and for different use cases, but first, let’s break down all the different CTA types. What are the different CTA types? One way we can break down CTA types is based on the business goal. In other words, what is the call to action trying to achieve and how does it help the business strategy? Here, we have summarized a number of different CTA types, but will go into further detail in the sections that follow. CTA type Aim Suitable for User acquisition Turn a visitor into a user Any business that allows users to sign up to a service using the website or allows users to purchase a product through the website Lead generation Turn a visitor into a lead Any business that can save customer service costs by allowing users to become better informed about a product or service through the website, submit a purchase order form through the site, or get their main questions answered through the site Lead nurturing Turn a lead into a qualified lead Any business that has a multi-step funnel (purchase process) and/or can offer something to the user (such as a downloadable resource or discount, for example) Promotion Generate awareness about something, such as a product launch, services, your brand, or its unique competitive advantages Any business, regardless of size or structure CTA types based on business goals User acquisition A user acquisition CTA aims to attract users directly by turning a visitor into a paying customer. This can be achieved via a complex CTA setup (which may be more appropriate for mature brands with greater resources), but can also be achieved via a simple button, a compelling, consistent business proposition, and a good user experience. What user acquisition CTAs can achieve User acquisition CTAs aim to attract users or paying customers. For an eCommerce website, that would be someone purchasing a product via the website. For a service website, that might mean someone booking a consultation and purchasing via the site. And, for SaaS companies, this could be someone subscribing to a service (with or without a trial period). What businesses user acquisition CTAs are best suited for This CTA type is suited for businesses and organizations that have a self-service product, service, and/or payment process (for example, a SaaS company with a self-sign-up product, like Asana or Monday.com, or an eCommerce organization like Amazon or PrettyLittleThing.) Examples of user acquisition CTAs Retail giant Amazon’s instant purchase tactics are one of the most recognizable examples of this type of CTA. The site’s buy now and one-click checkout buttons make it as easy as possible for visitors to become users. In other niches, user acquisition CTAs would typically include “sign up”, “get started,” or “create an account” buttons, but can also be CTAs based on the proposition of a free trial. Where to place user acquisition CTAs User acquisition CTAs are the money makers, so they should always be placed in prominent locations throughout the website. One common placement is in the top navigation menu, but these CTAs can appear in multiple different ways throughout a blog or resource section, as well as in service (or equivalent) pages. Lead generation A lead generation CTA is a broad CTA group encompassing elements that enable visitors to fill in their contact information, whether it’s through a form, signing up for a newsletter or something similar, effectively turning a visitor into a lead. What lead generation CTAs can achieve Lead generation CTAs can help you achieve just that—generating leads. This sounds simple enough, however, a crucial component of any worthwhile CRO strategy will ensure that lead generation has a purpose and the data that users provide will be utilized by the business in some form of value exchange—not for the purposes of irrelevant communications, solicitations, or for selling to third-parties. What businesses lead generation CTAs are best suited for Lead generation CTAs are used by small and large businesses alike, as each business (regardless of size and function) can benefit from having a self-service lead generation model via their website or other channel that enables user data collection. Examples of lead generation CTAs One of the most popular examples present on almost every website is a subscription pop-up or nudge. These can include direct email entry boxes, as shown below. Alternatively, they can also be a lot more creative, yet achieve the same purpose. Where to place lead generation CTAs These types of CTAs are most often placed within the content of a page. You can also choose to make this CTA type ever-present by adding it to a side menu or the footer menu, however, bear in mind this may hinder its effectiveness, as some visitors might not make it to the footer of the page. Nevertheless, that can be a good place to get user information via a simple email subscription form, or your last chance to make a good value proposition in return for lead information. One way to calculate the potential effectiveness of the email sign-up form (or any other CTA placed in the footer) is to reference historical page-scroll data across your website and make an evaluation based on the percentage of visitors that make it down to the end of your pages. To summarize, lead generation CTAs can be placed throughout the website, in the content body, in a side menu, or in the footer. Some brands have also experimented with placing their lead gen CTA in their expandable menus (as shown in the example below). Lead nurturing Lead nurturing is the process of lead cultivation for audiences that are not ready to commit to a purchase straight away. To put it otherwise, lead nurturing targets top-of-funnel users or users with an informational intent , and anticipates that not every visitor of the website or platform will be immediately ready to buy. A winning lead nurturing strategy accounts for needs of the visitor based on who they are (using profile characteristics, such as title, role, industry, search patterns, interests, and so on) and where they are in their buying journey, adapting the strategy as needed. What lead nurturing CTAs can achieve Through lead nurturing, a business can ensure that it steadily grows its lead portfolio, despite being aware that a percentage of this portfolio might not make a purchase immediately (or even ever). What this strategy achieves is, in part, investment in the future potential of the collected leads as well as building brand awareness and positive brand associations with target consumers. What businesses lead nurturing CTAs are best suited for Lead nurturing CTAs are typically used by organizations that require a degree of education about their product or service or would benefit from getting potential customers more familiar with their brand to make those prospects more likely to commit to a demo or purchase later on. Examples of lead nurturing CTAs Here is an example of lead generation using a downloadable resource, which targets a niche audience. Where to place lead nurturing CTAs Similar to lead generation CTAs, there is no limitation to where you can place these, but each placement will likely have a different impact on the CTA’s effectiveness. What matters more than the placement is the copy and incentive used to entice the lead. Ideally, this should be something relevant to the visitor’s interest, search patterns, and persona. This information can typically be gathered via a combination of your first-party data from Google Analytics and Google Search Console . For larger organizations, collecting data about which landing page your leads were first introduced to and what enticed them to make a purchase can also inform this decision. Promotional А promotional CTA is a call to action that does not aim to collect any type of information from the user or nurture them down the funnel. Instead, this type of CTA acts as a signpost to promote something else on the website or channel. To give you an example, an info card within a YouTube video pointing to another YouTube video is a type of promotional CTA, and so is internal linking in the SEO world. Both essentially amount to you promoting something else that you believe would be useful to the user, based on their search intent and profile, without expecting anything else but the click in return. Promotional CTAs can be both buttons and links , but they can also be static visuals (e.g., an image or banner), or an auditory message delivered through a video or podcast. What promotional CTAs can achieve Promotional CTA can facilitate cross-pollination of resources across your channel or website. They often help promote smaller website goals that are not directly tied to revenue, such as increasing page views or subscriber count. What businesses promotional CTAs are best suited for Whilst helpful and necessary, promotional CTAs alone do not form a cohesive conversion strategy. Yet, without them, a cohesive strategy could not exist. Both small and large businesses alike rely on them, though they are not generally enough for hitting revenue-related goals, such as product or service purchases. Examples of promotional CTAs “Read more” buttons are one common example of promotional CTAs, despite there being a lot of research that suggests these buttons are ineffective from both a CRO and SEO standpoint . Specifically, such generic promotional buttons are not great for accessibility, nor do they clearly and cohesively communicate the link destination (thus, being misaligned with SEO best practices ). And, they don’t typically provide a clear call to action. Despite this, they are still prominent, as you can see below. Another, better example are buttons that are organized based on a clear aim the user might have, or a value proposition, such as “find a solution” or “start for free.” Promotional CTAs are also very common in eCommerce. Below is a great example of such a CTA in action. Where to place promotional CTAs Promotional CTAs can be placed anywhere on your site, including in menus and content. However, considering the prominence of the top-level navigation or main menu, it might be better to reserve the spot for lead generation or other conversion-related CTAs. CTA types based on desired user action Now that we have learned the main types of CTAs, let’s take a look at CTA tactics that can be used for completing common objectives and how they relate to the business goals we discussed in the previous section. ​ CTA tactic ​ Description Business goal Example Form completion Form completion CTAs require the user to provide you with their contact details (among other relevant details you can ask for). This can be used for things such as a newsletter subscription, to request contact, or solicit feedback/reviews, depending on the nature of the data collected. Lead generation Free trial/demo Free trial or demo CTAs are typically offered in the SaaS and cloud industries, wherever there is a self-service or sales-assisted model. Lead generation, user acquisition Free download ​Free downloads prompt the user to download a resource either in exchange for contact information or to promote user satisfaction and positive brand awareness. Lead generation, lead nurturing Sign-up/ create an account The sign-up CTA is intended to encourage people to sign up for a service or to an online community like a social media site, for example. This is only suitable for websites that have an in-site experience, such as an eCommerce, social media, SaaS, or other service sites. User acquisition Social share Social share CTAs encourage sharing on different social platforms. This CTA type is suitable for content that is highly shareable, and some websites even enable users to directly highlight snippets of the content. Promotion Social follow ​Social follow widgets are typically displayed in the footer menu, can be added as prompts, or appear as side-menu pop-ups. These social follow prompts can urge people to follow or subscribe, but the aim is establishing a connection between the brand’s business profile and the potential customer. These CTAs can be visual, but they can also be verbal as well in podcasts or videos on the site. Promotion Message/ live chat ​The message or live chat CTA is a nudge. It can be considered an extension of the contact form and a replacement of (or addition to) calling the business directly. This CTA is great for lead nurturing but can also be used for lead generation, depending on the degree of support that is required. Lead generation, lead nurturing Leave a review This type of CTA urges people to leave a review, testimonial, rating, or any other feedback about their experience. This helps businesses build trust via social proof, which also helps to build authority . Such signals can also be utilized by search engines for understanding whether a brand is a real or fraudulent subject matter expert, and whether it should be recommended to new users. Promotion This list above is not exhaustive but covers all the basic tactics that can support a business’s strategic action-based goals. One thing to note is that, while we have covered examples of CTAs with different structures, calls to action can be delivered through a variety of mediums, including audio, video, text, image, or a combination. Let’s now take a deeper look at CTAs by medium. CTA types based on medium Image CTAs Image CTAs are not uncommon in conversion rate optimization strategies. Oftentimes, the image, button, and surrounding text work collectively to achieve the goal. There are also cases where businesses use an image that looks like a combination of CTA elements, such as text, other images, and a button, yet is structured as one clickable creative that takes the user to the destination page to complete the desired action. While this can sometimes enable an easier user experience, it might limit SEO value as the text CTA is contained in an image, thus not parsed by crawlers, and the internal link is processed as a no-anchor (also referred to as a “naked”) link . These CTAs might look like a banner ad and contain an image of the offer alongside copy explaining the value. Image CTAs could also be an image of the offer itself, which makes sense if promoting a template or a tool. HubSpot has shared its approach to generating more conversions on its blog via image CTAs by incorporating two of them per article, which are hyperlinked to the landing page with the relevant offer. Text CTAs Text-based CTAs, while often overlooked, can be very efficient for SEO purposes, but can also be pivotal to the success of a CRO strategy. For instance, HubSpot’s frequently referenced case study explains that the company uses anchor text with different styling as part of its blog to help captivate readers’ attention (as shown below). Below is another example from Alaya. The same tactic is used as part of a sentence in the text, highlighting the value proposition via the link and the relevance to the user via bold text. Video CTAs Video CTAs can be longer, compelling the user to take an action through the art of storytelling, or they can be shorter and more to the point. A video, created with the purpose of attracting users (user acquisition), would often have other CTAs within it. For instance, a video about the story, vision, and aims of a brand might contain a product demo, which is lead nurturing, as well as call for a social follow on the platform where the video is hosted. Video CTAs are extremely rich in potential and, when constructed with thought and care, they can garner great results, not only by generating revenue for the organization but also by decreasing the need for sales assistance. GIF or short videos are also possible CTA types, depending on how they are aligned with surrounding elements. Short clips (like the one below), whilst meaningless out of context, can be positive for conversion rate optimization when positioned around a strong, compelling message and quick access sign-up links. Hybrid CTAs Within the hybrid category, there are a few notable mentions which essentially cover different combinations of CTAs across different mediums. One great example is the in-post banner by Alaya, which combines image, text, and a button to deliver a compelling message. How to choose the best CTA for your website and your visitors? There are different factors to consider when choosing a CTA type. First, it’s important to use a variety of CTAs to keep things interesting for your users. Depending on your business goals, and the specific locations (sections, pages, or resources) on your site or channel that you might want to promote, you can shortlist different CTA tactics to test across different mediums. When thinking about CTAs and actions that the user should complete, it’s important to take into account the user’s search intent and the particular stage of the customer journey that they’re in. Looking at first-party data can be a great way to start building behavioral models for your current and ideal personas. This can help reduce tension between the business and the consumer and ensure that the latter does not create a negative association with the brand. Considering search intent when designing your CRO strategy can also ensure that the website is organized with a cohesive intent-driven architecture , and each action is aligned with the interest of the user. Ultimately, it will be the visitors of your site that determine the effectiveness of your CRO strategy, so it’s important to monitor and measure the performance of your CTAs and adapt them as needed. What other factors should you keep in mind when designing your CRO strategy? In addition to your CTAs, there are three important components that you should keep in mind when designing your conversion rate optimization strategy: the copy used, performance tracking, and whether you will implement testing. When writing copy for your CTAs, you should keep in mind the principles of good copywriting , as well as ad copy best practices . When thinking about performance measurement and testing, consider whether you have the capability to A/B test your CTAs. If your traffic performance does not yet allow A/B tests to be implemented and show statistical significance, rest assured that you can still work on CRO initiatives. You can still implement custom tracking via platforms like Google Tag Manager , and self-report on the performance of different events (e.g., button clicks, banner clicks, image clicks, etc.) via Google Data Studio through its integration with Google Analytics. The aim of such a report would be to monitor the differences that result from the changes you make to the site, such as swapping button text, whilst you work on improving traffic. Key takeaways There are many different avenues that your conversion rate optimization strategy could go in, even just based on the types of CTAs you choose for your site. This article mentioned a number of different CTAs, split into three groups: CTAs based on business goals CTAs based on desired user action CTAs based on medium To choose the right CTAs, you should consider what would benefit the business, how this can be communicated to the user, how the user can also benefit from the interaction, and how and where the nudges will appear to best encourage action. When implementing CTAs it’s also important to consider aspects like copywriting, A/B testing, and performance measurement. Calls to action FAQ What does CTA stand for? The CTA acronym in marketing stands for a call-to-action, which is a directive that is used to provide a signal or prompt to a user to perform a desired action. The desired action the user is encouraged to take is often one that aligns with the business or strategic goals of the organization, and often is considered the next logical step of the user journey. What does call to action mean? A call to action refers to an explicitly communicated nudge by a business or organization to the consumer of their content to perform an action that would benefit either the user or the organization, or both. Common examples of calls to action include “buy now,” “sign up,” or “read more,” for example. How do you write a call to action? To write an effective call to action, you must have a good understanding of: Your audience’s needs and how they can be best addressed What your business offers to address those needs Any overlap between your business goals and your audience’s needs When you are ready to write your call to action with regard to these considerations, it’s best to also keep ad copywriting best practices top of mind. What are the main CTA types based on business goals? There are four main types of CTAs based on business goals: user acquisition CTAs, lead generation CTAs, lead nurturing CTAs, and promotional CTAs. What are the main mediums for CTAs? CTAs are delivered via four main mediums: text, image, video, and audio CTAs. Oftentimes organizations will combine different formats, generating hybrid CTAs to improve their conversion performance. Lazarina Stoy - SEO & Data Science Consultant   Lazarina  is an organic marketing consultant specializing in SEO, CRO, and data science. She's worked with countless teams in B2B, SaaS, and big tech to improve their organic positioning. As an advocate of SEO automation, Lazarina speaks on webinars and at conferences and creates helpful resources for fellow SEOs to kick off their data science journey. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Lazarina Stoy For small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), on-page SEO is absolutely essential because it’s the lever that site and business owners have direct control over to enhance their organic visibility. While other strategies do exist (and are largely complementary, like PPC or link building ), they may not have the long-term ROI of on-page optimizations. In addition, SMBs often have another distinct advantage over larger businesses: proximity to their target audience. Combining insights and feedback from customer relationships with on-page SEO best practices is something that all brands should do to maximize their online presence and serve potential customers in ways that competitors just aren’t. In this guide, I’ll discuss three broad, effective strategies for implementing on-page SEO, what the strategies aim to achieve, and the specific tactics you can use to implement them for your SMB. Table of contents: Create content that addresses and fulfills user intent Tactics that can help you align with search intent Create content that is easy to comprehend for both users and search engines Tactics that can facilitate easier content comprehension Link to authoritative sources and other topically relevant content on your website Best practices for effective links SEO tools to help with your on-page optimizations How to measure the value of your on-page enhancements Key takeaways Create content that addresses and fulfills user intent Search intent refers to the intention a user has when they visit a search engine to perform a search (i.e., what they’re looking to achieve when they search a given keyword or phrase). Most search intents can be classified into one of four categories: Informational queries Transactional queries Commercial evaluation queries Navigational queries So, why do you need to address search intent? There are multiple reasons: Topical relevance Search engines like Google use query matching (among many other factors) to determine which results to show. Previously, this meant that it was important to mention certain keywords on the site. Today, this notion has evolved into topic relevance and entity-relationship matching . The words you use still matter, but it’s more important to write about a topic in both a coherent and competitive (to other content that exists out there) manner. To do this, focus on explaining the relationship between other related entities, while also aligning the language you use to the language your potential audience might be using. In other words, this means creating content that’s relevant to your audience and answers the potential questions/pain points they may have, and meeting them where they’re at using language and perspectives that they’re already familiar with. Search engine results page diversity Search engines want to surface different types of content on the first page of search results (both in terms of content type and domains) so that users can always find what they are searching for quickly, even if their query is ambiguous or might be answered with multiple different search results. This means that there is more competition for the top positions, and certain spots are “reserved.” For instance, definitions are often served by Oxford Languages or Wikipedia, reviews might be sourced from G2 or another review platform, and image or video packs might be a mainstay on search engine results pages (SERPs) for certain queries (e.g., informational searches). A robust focus on search intent (in each page and piece of content) means that Google is more likely to prefer your site to address searches that match your content. User experience Addressing search intent also means offering a good user experience. If someone is searching for something and they find it on your website, this may signal to Google that your website offers a good experience that satisfies visitors. Conversely, look out for short, non-descriptive pages and/or doorway pages , as these often lead users to jump quickly onto another page or go back to search—both of which signal poor user experience. Tactics that can help you align with search intent Now that you know why it’s important for your content to match the appropriate search intent, let’s talk about the tactics you can follow to ensure that they do. Perform intent-driven keyword and topic research Aligning search intent starts with keyword and topic research so that you know the intent search engines attribute to the keywords you’re targeting—after all, you’d be wasting your time if you wanted to rank an article about fixing iPhones for the query buy new iPhone , for example. To get the most insight from your keyword research, you must have a complete understanding of your business’s/product’s unique selling points, but also how your audience searches for products (and whether there are any differences in how users might search for what you offer based on their language, location, or culture ). Instead of simply collecting keywords and targeting them based purely on search volume (for example), identify patterns in the way users might find your product and business at different stages of the user journey . For instance, when buying an iPhone, people might first research product specifications, using informational search queries that contain the words “what” or “how” (e.g., how many MP iphone 13 pro max ), while at a later stage, they might inquire about product comparisons and the commercial landscape (e.g., differences between iphone 13 and 14 , best phone 2023 ), before finally searching for terms related to pricing, places to buy, or discounts. Informational search examples Commercial search examples Transactional search examples Once you identify your keywords and group them based on possible user intent, you will be better equipped to create content that is aligned with the desired user experience—and have a clearer understanding of which intent buckets are more prominent for your products and service. When doing intent-driven keyword research, avoid dismissing keywords entirely based on search volume alone (or other metrics that third-party tools might provide). Instead, focus on the user, their experience, and the user journey. As an SMB owner, you might find greater success targeting longer, niche keywords instead of competing for short, ambiguous queries with search volumes in the hundreds of thousands. Address all entities and concepts that might help the digital user journey In addition to researching for keywords and topics to center your content around, strive to explain the entities that make up the subject matter and the relationships between them. These are important as they often are used by audiences to make purchase decisions. For instance, a person would not purchase a car without an understanding of the major concepts that form the basis of this decision, such as the different types of cars available, the different types of fuel that power cars, concepts such as manual or automatic controls, and even different finance options. A prospect might have information about all of these things before starting the purchasing journey, however, their knowledge might be limited or they might not know enough to make a decision. Here is where the website, its pages, content, and organization, should act as a digital salesperson to help with the educational component and enhance the decision-making process. Similarly, if you sell a service or product, ensure the content you create addresses all potential questions users might have about it . Organize your site to facilitate visitors’ search intent This could mean a few different things, but mainly it pertains to leading users to their next intended step (which is ideally closer to converting). Here are some examples: Inviting them to learn more about a topic by suggesting a related post Prompting them to learn more about your services after inquiring about your brand Showing related products after they’ve expressed interest in purchasing something from your site This can also be approached from the opposite direction: Are there any potential blockers that might cause prospective customers to abandon their journey? Anything from subpar site security to questionable grammar to a lack of diverse product images could hold back your business—it’s up to you to identify and remedy those issues. Continuously collect and analyze first-party data for insights Utilize your first-party data sources (e.g., feedback forms, customer service conversations, user research, etc.) to create content, pages, and experiences that align with the needs of your users. Below are some other examples of data sources you can use to satisfy your existing or target customers: YouTube and/or TikTok comments can help you discover new blog post ideas. Forums and discussions in online community groups can help you understand how users speak about products like yours. Amazon (or other platforms’) reviews of your product (or products like it) can help you understand your audience’s main pain points, which you can address when discussing your product on your site (following the necessary improvements, of course). Create content that is easy to comprehend for both users and search engines Creating content that positively impacts your business isn’t just about what you know and what the audience is searching for—it’s also about how you present it. Let’s now discuss some basic considerations to help out both search engines and potential customers. The fundamentals of site discovery In order to show up in search results, your site must first be crawlable and indexable (i.e., visible to search engines). This will indicate to search engines that the site can be crawled and included in their index. Note: By default, Wix sites allow search engines to crawl and index them . After ensuring crawlability and indexability , the next step is to create page structures that enable search engines to easily comprehend the content and match it to user queries. How to structure content for easy consumption At a bare minimum, this means ensuring that each page has a consistent and easily digestible heading structure, including: A title that cohesively explains what the content is about An H1 heading that expands on or contextualizes the title to help indicate the page’s purpose H2-H6 headings that indicate the hierarchy of the different page sections and the content within them, enabling skim-ability for high-intent users At a more advanced level, this includes ensuring that content is written in the language that audiences use to discover your business. This involves both writing and adapting content to the way your target customers express themselves, but also researching and validating your brand voice with both these groups. At an expert level, this involves adding structured data , which search engines use to contextualize your pages. Adding different types of structured data (depending on your page or content type) can make it easier for Google to understand what your pages, products, and your website are about. It will also help your site appear in rich results in Google Search , which can help improve the click-through rate by making the result more enticing to click on. Tactics that can facilitate easier content comprehension Here it is important to understand that your aim as an SMB is to maximize the opportunity for user engagement on the site, whilst also providing the ability for users to consume only what they need. The strategies below will help you do just that. Set your content to be visible for search engines Ensure that all public-facing content (more on this below) is published and set to enable search engines to crawl and index it. Check that your sitemap is active and reflects all the pages on your website (or otherwise, does not contain broken pages, redirected pages, or other status pages besides live pages), and is accessible via the URL: domain name + “/sitemap.xml” (e.g., https://www.mywixwebsite.com/sitemap.xml) You should also verify that your robots.txt file is accessible via the URL: domain name + “/robots.txt” (e.g., www.mywixwebsite.com/robots.txt). You can use your robots.txt file to block pages that you don’t want to show up in the search results (like a “thank you” page or your entire site if it’s under construction, for example), but you’ll also need to ensure there are no live links on the site to sections that have not been published to avoid errors or a bad user experience. Improve user engagement from the SERPs Use a keyword-rich, descriptive, and enticing title to encourage clicks to your site. Your meta descriptions should communicate value and promote action from the search results. To get more potential visibility from the content you’re already creating, add structured data to your pages (where suitable) to enable your content to appear as a rich result on relevant SERPs. Whenever appropriate, add images to your pages, as these can also be displayed in search (e.g., in author pages or blog posts). Whenever you add images (not simply decorative graphics or icons), ensure that they are compressed before uploading them, and add alt text and descriptive captions to reflect the contents of the image. Organize content coherently Your titles should be based on the primary purpose of the content/page. If a page you’re publishing is primarily a tutorial, but it has a conceptual introduction, try to write a task-based title instead (for instance, “How to select the right SUV” is probably more aligned with your target audience than the more ambiguous “Selecting the right SUV”). Likewise, section headings are also written based on the type of content in that section. As a basic hygiene check to avoid duplication, make sure that there is no repetition between the title and headings. And, when writing titles and/or headings, avoid using the -ing verb forms as the first word where possible (words like “billing” or “pricing” are exceptions to this). In terms of formatting, Google has surfaced a number of best practices : Write headings and titles in sentence case. Delete numbers in headings that indicate a sequence of sections. Use punctuation in headings sparingly. When using an abbreviation in a heading or title, spell out the abbreviation in the first paragraph that follows the heading or title. Finally, make sure there are no empty headings or headings with no associated content beneath them. Remember, heading tags are used to structure content hierarchically. To change the visual formatting of a heading, it’s better to use CSS than a heading level that doesn’t fit the hierarchy. Don’t make up your own formatting for headings. There are also no skipped levels of the heading hierarchy. For example, H3 heading tags should only go under an H2 heading tag (or follow other H3 tags if it’s a list). H2 through H6 tags should similarly be used to structure the rest of the content and correspond to the semantic structure of the page (as this formatting is used for more than visual purposes). Additionally, including links within headings is not a good practice, as this can easily be confused as a style applied to a heading instead of a link, so avoid placing links in the heading text. To assist users with specific intentions, consider adding a table of contents (where appropriate) to aid quicker content discovery and a better user experience. And to maximize conversions, ensure that all call-to-actions are clear and strong , prompting the user to take the desired action—whether that’s signing up to a newsletter, downloading a resource, buying a product, or signing up for a service. Link to authoritative sources and other topically relevant content on your website Links don’t just take you from one page to another—with the right execution, they can guide your users, add authority to your content, and help search engines discover your pages. Let’s take a closer look at how links can support all these goals. User experience improvements Linking to authoritative sources within your own content allows you to cite the claims you are making within your copy. This is important as it highlights that your content is informed by trustworthy, credible, and authoritative sources . Despite popular belief that Google uses outbound link quality as a metric to determine rankings or that there’s a magic number of authoritative outbound links required to gain more traffic, these claims are not substantiated by Google . Instead, Google spokespeople emphasize that such links, when appropriately used throughout the content, can improve the user experience by informing the audience of other resources that may be relevant to their search intent. In its guidance on creating helpful content , Google also advises creating content that “presents information in a trustworthy way, with clear sourcing, evidence of expertise, and background information about the author or the publishing site.” Discovery improvements for relevant pages and queries on your site Linking to other relevant content on your site means that you are enabling visitors to discover more of your pages that are relevant to their interests, which could lead to engaging with new blog posts, products, and/or services. Internal linking also helps Google (and other search engines) discover new pages and new ways that these pages can be served to users via the text you use to link to the content (referred to as anchor text). These links also help indicate the relative importance of pages on your site by distributing link equity. Besides the anchor text, the surrounding text can also be used for hints on what potential queries the linked page can be matched against. Best practices for effective links First of all, avoid generic anchor text. Everything in the realm of “read more,” “learn more,” and “click here,” will not serve your search engine visibility goals. Ensure all linking text is descriptive of the link destination and provides enough context for the user. This is true for both internal and outbound links, as both should strive for wording that describes the destination page. In terms of link settings, below are some quick best practices to follow : Ensure there are no links pointing to redirected or 404 pages. Set all internal links using the “follow” link setting . When linking internally, set links to open in the same window. When linking externally, set links to open in a new window. This enables improved user engagement tracking for internal link interactions, while also providing a better user experience for those that click on external links as they can always quickly come back to your site by returning to the original tab in their browser. SEO tools to help with your on-page optimizations Here is a selected collection of tools I use to do on-page optimizations, keyword research, and other enhancements, suitable for people with little or no prior experience in SEO and for SMB owners. For intent-driven keyword and opportunity research, you can use any SEO platform like Semrush , Ahrefs, etc. They come at a heavier monthly cost, but can help with a wide array of SEO research and opportunity identification tasks. There are also free alternatives for identifying relevant keywords, such as: Google Keyword Planner to identify broad match keywords (which contain the term you enter to start the search) and semantically related keywords (which contain other similar terms) Autocomplete Keyword Tool by PEMAVOR to bulk-export terms that Google suggests based on a given keyword SEO Minion browser extension to bulk-export PAA (people also ask) question and answer pairs from the SERP, quickly identify organic competitors, and analyze headings, titles, and other on-page SEO elements. To identify the structured data that your competitors are using, try the Ryte Structured data helper browser extension . To speed up the process of creating the structured data for your website, use a structured data generator (e.g., by ClassySchema or Merkle ). For creating content briefs, there are multiple tools to choose from, depending on your budget. Paid options include tools like Keyword Insights , but to get started for free, test Contenteum ’s content generator (which is based on the URLs and titles ranking within the SERP) or Dashword ’s AI-powered content generator. If you just want to conduct a quick spot check of existing content, you can use a tool like the SEO Pro Extension for Chrome to get an overview of the title tag, meta description, canonical tag, word count, headers, links, and so on. If you're a Wix site owner, you can use the built-in SEO Assistant to ensure that you've already optimized aspects of on-page SEO (like headers, alt text, structured data, meta description, and more) before you publish your blog post. How to measure the value of your on-page enhancements How can you determine whether your strategies are having an impact ? Here аre metrics you might want to monitor to ensure that the tactics you’ve implemented are serving search engines, your visitors, and your business. Organic keywords and traffic Review the keywords your site is ranking for and ensure that they are aligned with your target keywords, topics, and entities. Consider whether these are also aligned with your business proposition and whether they help further your company’s goals. User engagement Review metrics like: Average time on page Bounce rate Exit rate Average number of pages per session Average session duration Etc. Improvements in all of these (with a decrease in bounce rate) are a good indicator of intent alignment and effective site architecture. Site engagement events Review metrics such as: Page scroll Button clicks On-page events (shopping, browsing, social follows, etc.) Improvements here indicate that the experience on the page is enticing for users and content is organized in a way that promotes engagement. Search performance If you’ve added structured data to some of your pages, you can also monitor for improvements in clicks and click-through rate, as well as overall search visibility (namely in the Rich Results and Enhancement reports in Google Search Console ). Key takeaways Greater search visibility often correlates to greater revenue for your business. Although there are many tactics that can help you get more visibility in the SERPs, on-page SEO elements are the ones that are under your direct control. While I’ve discussed many considerations in this article, it’s important to see the forest for the trees. In short: Create content that addresses and fulfills your audience’s search intent Make that content easy to comprehend for both users and search engines Link to relevant content internally and authoritative content externally By focusing on these three areas, you’ll make your site more user-friendly for potential customers and more easily understood for search engines. Lazarina Stoy - SEO & Data Science Consultant   Lazarina  is an organic marketing consultant specializing in SEO, CRO, and data science. She's worked with countless teams in B2B, SaaS, and big tech to improve their organic positioning. As an advocate of SEO automation, Lazarina speaks on webinars and at conferences and creates helpful resources for fellow SEOs to kick off their data science journey. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Lazarina Stoy I n a landscape where online presence is paramount, taking proactive steps to optimize your website  by eliminating duplicate content can significantly improve your brand’s success at multiple stages of the customer journey. For instance, at the start of their journey, users browse search results for the most relevant, high-quality websites, but duplicate content can reduce your brand’s search visibility and competitiveness.  And, as users proceed down the marketing funnel, duplicate content threatens the conversion once again due to a fractured/frustrating user experience, making it difficult to locate all the information about a given product, service, or topic on a single page. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the nuances of content duplication, show you how to identify duplication on your website (and other properties on the web), and share some fixes you can implement to resolve any content overlap. This article primarily focuses on the type of duplicate content you have control over—on your own domain—however, external duplicate content can also diminish your search performance, so I'll also address that as well. Table of contents: What is duplicate content? Types of duplicate content When is duplicate content a problem? Duplicate content metrics How to identify duplicate content How to check for internal metadata duplication How to check for internal duplicate content How to check for external duplicate content How to fix duplicate content issues Fix internal metadata duplication Fix internal duplicate content Fix external duplicate content Takeaways What is duplicate content?  Duplicate content refers to content that’s very similar (or identical) to other content on the web, either on another website (i.e., external duplicate content) or another page of the same website (i.e., internal duplicate content).  You can flag a page as duplicative if you see that it has one (or more) of the following characteristics:  Significant content overlap  — The content portions of a web page are either exact copies or very similar versions of the original content. Structural and semantic similarities  — There are substantial similarities in the overall structure of the page, including the on-page metadata (e.g., URLs, headings , subheadings, paragraph structure, etc.), as well as semantic similarities  (e.g., entities mentioned, arguments made, etc). Content in which minor subtleties are the only differentiator can signal that the pages are trying to appear different, but actually serve the same purpose. Lack of thought originality  — The content is informed by the same sources and presents similar perspectives.  Similarities in ranking queries  — Both pages are ranking for an identical set of keywords (signaling a lack of unique content) and target the same intent and audience. Types of duplicate content In addition to the internal and external duplicate content classifications I mentioned above, you can also examine duplicate content through the lens of similarity (i.e., exact duplicate or near duplicate). Duplicate content type Exact duplicate Near duplicate Internal duplicate content Duplicate on-page meta data Parameter URLs that are indexable and non-canonicalized, leading to the same page Feed content pages (e.g., blog archive, tag pages, category pages) Paraphrasing copy/pasted content Content cannibalization Boilerplate content, like on-page banners and CTAs, product descriptions, or info boxes, that are very similar or identical across many pages Using a similar page and heading structure across multiple pages Overlapping phrasing, sentence, and paragraph structure over multiple pages External duplicate content Syndicated content published on multiple sites Unauthorized republishing, scraped, or “cloned” content (copied without permission or proper attribution) Cross-domain duplication Partial copying (e.g., when affiliate websites use similar or identical product descriptions, borrowing from the original website’s product description) Paraphrased content, content structures, and website architecture (e.g., websites, created to manipulate search engine results and not add value for user) Fully AI-generated content  is also inherently unoriginal, especially when paired with site structure copied from another website It’s useful to assess whether a page is an exact duplicate or a near duplicate for the sake of prioritization, but also to understand how Google will perceive and rank the page.  To elaborate, exact duplicates (when left unmanaged) almost certainly will result in lower rankings, worse user experience, and harm your website’s search performance overall. On the contrary, near duplicates are considered with nuance, depending on the context and the degree of similarity. When is duplicate content a problem?  Duplicate content isn’t always a cause for concern. In some instances, content duplication can be harmless and even intentional, like in the case of news syndication.  In general, problems occur when content duplication is malicious, misleading, hinders the user experience, and/or does not serve a specific purpose. When duplication is responsible and strategic, it can help you promote your content to a wider audience or serve other business functions. Here’s a breakdown of when content duplication is (and isn’t) problematic. Content duplication can be harmless when: Syndication and repurposing are enabled —   This allows you to share content across platforms (like social media or news aggregators) with permission and proper attribution. This can expand your content’s reach and enhance your overall brand. Fair use is implemented —   Duplicating content under fair use or licensing agreements is acceptable (e.g., quoting source material, educational materials, etc). Canonicalization and URL management govern distribution —   Use canonical tags  and proper URL management to specify the original version for search engines. This applies to both re-publishing content on a platform like Medium and managing URLs with parameters internally. Content duplication is problematic when: Copy/pasted (or exact duplicate) content accounts for the majority of the content on a page —   Word-for-word repetition across multiple pages or websites hinders search engine indexation  and confuses users. Purposefully copying content from other websites without attribution is also punishable by law. Paraphrased (or near duplicative) content accounts for the majority of the content on a page —   Similar content with overlapping phrases, similar structure, or semantically-related arguments can frustrate users and worsen the search landscape. Republishing is unauthorized or attribution is missing  —   Copying content without attribution or permission violates copyright laws and Google has said it “reserves” the right  to penalize such websites. “Duplicate content does happen. Now, that said, it’s certainly the case that if you do nothing but duplicate content, and you’re doing it in an abusive, deceptive, or malicious, or manipulative way, we do reserve the right to take action on spam.” — Matt Cutts, Google Duplicate content metrics There are several metrics that can show you whether your website’s content is duplicated internally or externally. Here’s what to look out for.  In Google Search Console : Metric Why Pages indexed Indexable pages that Google chooses not to serve can indicate poor content quality (i.e., duplicate content). Look out for high numbers of the following status issues :  “Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user” “Crawled - currently not indexed" Erratic or declining traffic performance Traffic fluctuations or sudden drops can indicate duplicate content, cannibalization , or external content surpassing your own website’s content. Monitor for drastic changes in positions and clicks from search to help identify pages that are potentially affected. Ranking query overlap for internal pages Significant overlaps in ranking queries for internal pages can indicate lack of unique content and perspectives, causing diminished search traffic for one or both pages. In Google Analytics 4 : Metric Why Bounce rate on pages with similar terms or structure High bounce rate on these pages could suggest that users are struggling to differentiate between the pages, causing a poor user experience. Session duration declines for pages with similar terms or structure Noticeable drops in session duration for pages in the same topic cluster  could signal duplicate content problems. Time on page Track the average amount of time users spend on each page of your website. A longer average time on page suggests that users are engaged with the content and find it valuable. How to identify duplicate content To identify duplicate content internally, you’ll need to evaluate your website’s pages against one another. To check for external duplicate content, you’ll compare your pages against other pages on the web. In the following sections, I’ll take you through the process of doing exactly that. How to check for internal metadata duplication If you are concerned about duplicate pages on your website, the quickest way to validate the issues is to run a duplication analysis on your metadata. Check for similarities in elements like page titles , page headings and subheadings, meta descriptions , and URLs.  This is a simple, straightforward duplication analysis and can be performed with freemium crawlers like Screaming Frog, which extracts data for all the aforementioned elements on all your site’s pages.  To scan for duplicate metadata on your website, download and install Screaming Frog  and start a crawl. Once the crawl is complete, export all internal data to a Google Sheet and paste it into the first sheet of this template  (you’ll need to make a copy of the template first).  Next, click on Extensions > AppScript in the top-level menu, then select findanddisplayduplicateswithURLs.gs  from the list, and click on RUN, which will automatically sort the pages to show duplicate titles, headings, and URLs, as well as a summary, in the sheet titled “Summary of on-page duplication.”  You can also take your analysis a step further by analyzing your metadata for semantic similarities. This is useful for identifying patterns that might qualify as near duplicates, like abusing title or heading patterns, which can become tedious for users. While Screaming Frog doesn’t currently offer this semantic analysis for on-page data, there are workarounds you can use in Google Sheets. Once you have entered your data in the Google Sheets template I provided above, the template will automatically run a fuzzy matching (string similarity)  formula to weed out titles or headings that are similar but not exact. You can review these semantically-related on-page elements in the “Near Duplicates” tab, alongside the number of potential matches and most similar alternatives. This can help you pinpoint whether you’re abusing any particular title or heading formats or structures, e.g., “# Ways to connect {tool} with Looker Studio” or “Ultimate guide to X,” like below. This type of duplication analysis is suitable for sites of any size/age. Ideally, you should conduct this analysis as part of regularly scheduled reporting processes, especially in organizations where: There is more than one person (or team) creating content There is no tracking in place for new content/web pages  The website/publication is more than a year old These scenarios can lead to duplicate content (as a result of human error or lack of coordination and tracking), so you’ll need to be more vigilant if your website (or your clients’) falls under one of these scenarios. How to check for internal duplicate content If you have concerns about duplicate content on your own website, go a step beyond metadata analysis (mentioned above) and evaluate the written content on your website for self-plagiarism and duplication.  Here are my favorite, beginner-friendly, and readily available methods to quickly identify duplicate content on the same domain (according to website size and budget):  Method 1: Similarity assessment based on ranking queries Using the Search Analytics for Sheets Google Sheets extension  (free, with paid option for larger exports), pull out a report for organic ranking queries, grouped by Query and Page. Ideally, set the report to be extracted into the same Google Sheet template , in the Sheet tab titled “Query-based duplication,” as shown in the image above.  Ensure that the OverlapSummary sheet is empty, and navigate to Extensions  (top-level menu) > AppScript  > CalculateQueryOverlap.gs . Run the script. The template will automatically apply a formula that sorts the data to show only the duplicated queries, the number of pages ranking for each of these, and the corresponding URLs. In the sheet titled “OverlapSummary,” data will populate (via a custom AppScript formula) with a summary of the pages that overlap on ranking queries. Review pages that rank for more than 80-90% of the same queries, as you can either consolidate the content on these pages  or further optimize them, because, as is, they are not ranking for unique queries.  Method 2: Run your website’s content through a plagiarism checker Use a paid tool (like Siteliner , for example) to get a self-plagiarism report on your entire website. Siteliner provides a summary based on the page’s importance (how many internal links it has) and the degree of copied content on it. Siteliner also shows you the exact content that is duplicated on each page and the URLs of other pages containing the same content. You can even scale this approach for larger websites via Siteliner’s API. Method 3: Duplicate content analysis via crawling tools You can also check for duplicate (and near duplicate) content with Screaming Frog . By default, the crawler identifies exact duplicate pages. For smaller websites (under 500 URLs) duplicate content detection is free and automatic for every crawl.  Before starting a crawl, you can instruct the tool to also detect near-duplicate pages, based on a threshold of your choice (i.e., a percentage number, such as above 90% similarity). This feature requires a paid license and will return a custom duplication report.  Other crawler tools, like Sitebulb , offer similar duplicate content detection features. Here’s a summary of the methods you can use for internal duplicate content detection, with regard to their respective costs and advantages: Method Tool Cost Advantages Query-based analysis Google Search Console Free Quick and easy way to identify non-direct duplication Offers a view of your site as Google sees it Plagiarism checker Siteliner Paid (free for sites under 250 URLs) Great for getting a snapshot of issues on medium or large-sized websites Detailed analysis Hands-on interface Good for ad-hoc analysis Crawling tool Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or any other crawling tool  Can depend on the tool, but generally free for smaller sites and exact duplicates Great for getting a snapshot of issues on medium- or large-sized or large websites Detailed analysis Great for enhancing ongoing reporting  Additional metrics enable a more holistic analysis Historical comparison How to check for external duplicate content In addition to auditing for duplicate content on your own website, you should also actively search for instances where your content has been used (or copied entirely) elsewhere without your permission.  While external content duplication can sometimes be unintentional and harmless to your organic search performance (e.g., someone directly quoting a snippet from your blog), it can also be malicious in cases where the creator of the duplicate does not add any new information, is monetizing the copied work, or has not credited your original work.  One tool that I like to use for external content duplication analysis is Copyscape , which offers a straightforward and low-cost way to discover if your web content appears on other sites. There are several ways to use the service, like submitting a URL or sitemap, pasting a batch of URLs for analysis, or even via an API.  The tool then scans the web for any pages that contain similar or identical content, identifying the number of matches for each page, the degree of risk for the given page, top-matching sites, and even flagging any errors it encounters with the URLs provided. It not only identifies full copies (i.e., exact duplicates) of your content but also finds instances where parts of your text have been used. You can also set up automatic monitoring, which alerts you when the tool finds new copies of your content. By proactively monitoring for duplicate content, you protect not only your intellectual property but also your site’s rankings on search engines, as duplicated content can chip away at your organic search performance. How to fix duplicate content issues  Once you’ve identified duplicate content (using any of the methods listed above), you can take the following steps to reduce similarities in your website’s metadata or content.  Fix internal metadata duplication Use unique heading tags:  Headings help organize the content of a page and provide context for search engines. Similar to title tags, heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) should also be unique for each page.  Canonicalize product URLs:  For eCommerce websites, product URLs with parameter variations (like color, size, etc.) should be canonicalized to the main product URL. This tells search engines that the main product page is the authoritative source for product information. Fix internal duplicate content Aim for mostly unique content:  Ensure the content on each page is at least 70% unique. While some repurposing is expected in a website, there shouldn’t be patterns of content abuse with the aim of gaming the search algorithm. Consolidate and redirect, don’t delete:  When merging content, implement a 301 redirect  instead of deleting the obsolete page to avoid loss of link equity and 404 page status errors . Diversify your content portfolio:  Avoid writing in the same style, the same structure, or format for all your website content. Diversify the types of content you create by experimenting with listicles, case studies, tutorials, and so on. Fix external duplicate content Signal originality to Google:  Implement canonical tags on your website and make sure all content has a publishing date, revision dates (if any), and E-E-A-T -establishing information. Improve your content further:  Consider further enhancing your content by adding new perspectives and insights as a way to set it apart from the duplicated instances. Get in touch with the other website’s owner:  Some website owners would prefer to simply remove your content when requested, instead of risking escalation (more on that below). Report infringing content to Google:  In a video on content duplication , Google stated that, in certain circumstances, you can file for a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown. This only applies if copying your content is illegal (such as in the case of music, for example). Take legal action:  In case you have evidence of intellectual theft, take legal action under the DMCA or European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) (depending on your location). The goal for all of these content deduplication initiatives is improving your website’s organic search performance (by improving your content quality and improving user experience). As you progress towards that goal, you should also see improvements in the metrics I discussed earlier . How to audit your website for duplicate content: The takeaways Content duplication, while not always problematic, can be difficult to identify or manage, especially on larger and more established websites. It can manifest in several cases: internally or externally, by exact or partial duplication, or sometimes even unintentionally. In all cases, duplicate content issues should be monitored and, where possible, addressed to ensure optimal search performance and user experience.  To identify duplicate content issues, review your traffic patterns, search performance, and indexation in GSC data, as well as your page experience, engagement rates, and time on site in GA4.  Regularly audit your website  for duplicate on-page metadata like titles and headings, but also utilize tools like Siteliner for internal duplicate content analysis and Copyscape to identify copies of your content on the web.  If you identify duplicate content internally, implement the necessary actions to make pages and their respective content unique. In the case of malicious copies of your content elsewhere, try to get in touch with the website owner before reporting it to Google or the relevant authorities in your area.  By implementing systems to monitor and audit your content for duplication, and taking corrective action when needed by producing unique and helpful content, you are ensuring that your website and business are operating sustainably now and into the future. Lazarina Stoy - SEO & Data Science Consultant   Lazarina  is an organic marketing consultant specializing in SEO, CRO, and data science. She's worked with countless teams in B2B, SaaS, and big tech to improve their organic positioning. As an advocate of SEO automation, Lazarina speaks on webinars and at conferences and creates helpful resources for fellow SEOs to kick off their data science journey. Twitter  | Linkedin

Updated: February 27, 2024 Author: Abby Gleason When’s the last time you switched up your keyword research process ? For the first couple years of my SEO career, I accepted that there was an established, “go-to” method for keyword research, and I relied primarily on keyword data from popular tools to be my guide. This process might sound familiar: Go to an SEO keyword research tool and plug in a topic Filter the highest volume keywords that seem realistic to rank for Create content based off that list And you know what? This method can work just fine. If done correctly, you might be able to drive some significant traffic to your website this way. However, over time I realized there are a few key problems with this method: It prioritizes search volume over everything . This data is merely an estimate, and these tools usually do not provide context for search trends or seasonality. High search volume usually = high competition. This often means only the highest authority websites can rank. If you’re using a keyword research tool others can access, then your competitors can see all the same keywords you do. There’s no chance for first-mover advantage. Yes, paid keyword research tools can prove very helpful in informing your topic selection. But relying solely on these tools leaves a gap in finding highly relevant topics for your website—a gap that only additional research can fill. Harnessing trending keywords for SEO is an excellent way to fill that gap while also signaling topical relevance to search engines and potential customers. Table of contents: What are trending keywords in SEO? The benefits of emerging keywords Ways to integrate trends into your topic research Monitor current events and pop culture Scale your social listening Identify your customers’ expectations Find breakout terms in your user data Tools for discovering trending SEO topics Defining trending keywords in SEO In SEO, trending keywords are search terms and phrases that have emerged recently and do not have historic search volume. Tools may show these keywords as having low (or zero) search volume , but they could actually be driving thousands of searches every month. Benefits of using emerging keywords The most successful SEOs and content marketers recognize that finding trending keywords is one of the best uses of their time. This “trend-driven” research process can result in some pretty compelling advantages: Your content “skips the line” (i.e., first-mover advantage). The competition may ignore or completely miss keywords that don’t show up in keyword research tools, which provides you an opportunity to be an early contributor to the conversation. The first-mover advantage can mean that your content ranks better on Google (and other search engines) than it would for more competitive terms. Addressing trends can help you build positive brand perception amongst your customers and prospects—it’s a positive signal for your brand to cover highly relevant topics and provide a unique, authoritative perspective. Disclaimer : This article is not suggesting your business should write about every trending topic. I’m not promoting a bandwagon approach where every business needs to take a stance on, say, trending political topics. The point is to consider trends in your product area or in topics that your audience is interested in, and create product-relevant content that you have authority on. Ways to integrate trends into your topic research So where does one find these coveted, trending keywords? And how can you build it into your existing keyword research process? Let’s dive in. 01. Keep an eye on current events/pop culture Culture drives demand and new searches. If a singer releases a new album, for example, it can increase searches on Google for a particular style of makeup, clothes, or even furniture featured in the music video. Take Taylor Swift’s Midnights , released in late October 2022. The new album catapulted searches for every aspect of the singer’s life, from makeup to clothes to even her pets. Major cultural events create an opportunity to predict what searchers will be interested in. Go beyond the scope of what’s just happened and consider all interests related to the trend. You can think of this as a PEST analysis for potential content. Some common aspects of pop culture that play out in trending searches include: What’s being released/trending on popular streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc. Movies that are generating buzz as Oscar contenders What’s popular in music, sports, fashion, video games, etc. For B2B companies, the same idea applies. What’s happening in the world, and how does it impact your industry? This could include reviewing: Upcoming regulations Legislation that impacts your industry Politics The economy There is an element of relevance and brand safety that you must also prioritize, so make sure the connection between the topic and what your brand does/sells is apparent. Tip: If you’re not sure what your audience’s interests are, try an audience research tool like Sparktoro . It can show you behavioral info like what websites your audience visits, social accounts they follow, hashtags they use, and more. Qualitative audience research is best, but this can be a good place to start. When it comes to trending searches, the goal isn’t just to write about what’s currently happening, but to anticipate questions that people will search around that topic. Let’s use ChatGPT , the AI tool that took the world by storm in 2022, as an example. For months into its meteoric rise, ChatGPT was a zero volume keyword in popular tools. Yes, really–and there’s examples to prove it, like this case study from Sara Taher. But with 100 million users within the first two months, it’s safe to say there’s interest in all things ChatGPT. With this swarm of interest, opportunities arose to anticipate other questions that might pop up around this tool. Some low competition content ideas around ChatGPT include: How to use ChatGPT ChatGPT alternatives ChatGPT detector ChatGPT prompts for [industry] This is just one dramatic example of a rapidly trending topic that drives (and sustains) millions of searches, yet there was very little authoritative content in search results for it. How to stay up-to-date with current events: Set Google Alerts for when new results for a topic show up in Google Search. Consume news, especially news that is relevant to your industry/audience. Subscribe to industry newsletters to stay up-to-date on what’s happening. Maintain general awareness of what’s trending in pop culture (specifically as it relates to your audience). Twitter’s explore section and Reddit are two places to look, but your best bet is to follow the same publications/sites that your audience follows. 02. Scale your social listening Social media is a powerful search engine. Want to know what’s trending? Scroll through social media and you’ll be bombarded with whatever’s most popular at the moment. While you don’t need to spend hours a day on each platform, it’s worthwhile to follow hashtags in your space and regularly review threads related to your topic/niche. My sneaky favorite social media platform to get topic ideas from is Reddit. You can sort comments by “Best,” “Top,” “New,” “Controversial,” and more. Tip : Reddit’s search function leaves a lot to be desired. I like to Google my topic and append “reddit” to the search to get the most relevant threads. Social listening is simple and can be incorporated into your research routine without much effort. Follow your hashtags and topics across different platforms your audience engages on, and check in to see what’s getting buzz. Follow relevant influencers on these platforms and monitor what they (and their audience) share. And no need to become obsessed—schedule it during your work day like you would any other research. 03. Identify your customers’ expectations How better to learn what your audience is interested in than to hear it from the source ? If you have the opportunity to speak directly with customers or customer-facing teams, absolutely make that part of your research process. For example, I once worked with a women’s fashion client who connected us with two of their salespeople. We spoke for an hour about common customer pain points, what types of clothes they were most interested in, and the questions the salespeople most frequently received. After a one hour call, we had 100 new content topics for their website. Yes, 100. Many of which we never would have gotten from traditional keyword research. The simplest version of this could be putting out a poll on your owned channels (like email or social) and asking your audience what questions they have or what types of content they’re most interested in. Regardless of how you do it, speaking with customers or customer-facing teams at least a couple times per year can be extremely fruitful for your content efforts. 04. Find break-out terms in your user data Your data tells a story. It shows you what’s working, what’s not, and can even show you what people are trying to find but can’t (which indicates an opportunity). Here are a few ways you can use your own data to inform your topic selection: Internal search data : Examine the search terms users are searching for on your website. Are there terms that are increasing in popularity? What content do they find when they search for this? Consider creating educational content or product pages specifically for these searches to move them further along the customer journey. Top performing content : What content is driving the most engagement recently? Look for patterns. Are there certain topics or content formats that perform the best? Can you double down on your efforts here? Google Search Console queries : Review your top performing content from the past few months. See what queries you’re being found for that you don’t expressly mention or target in your content. Optimize for those, or create a separate article targeting them. Here’s a quick case study of this in action: Here’s the chart from the tweet above: Tools for discovering trending topics for SEO As the cliché goes, the best things in life are free. This can also apply to your keyword research process. Free (or very low-cost) tools are available to help you catch trending search terms quickly and reliably. Google autocomplete suggestions Google autocomplete suggests popular long tail search terms related to a given keyword/topic. It’s essentially a free idea generator, as the predictions reflect popular searches and search patterns across the web. Google notes that while autocomplete looks for common queries, it also considers trending interest in a query. This allows autocomplete to show the most helpful predictions unique to a particular location or time, such as for breaking news events. Here’s an example: As you can see, a few days after Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show, searches related to her performance (and her surprise pregnancy announcement) appeared at the top of Google’s autocomplete suggestions for her name. You get instant access to trending searches for your topic. Tip : Tools like Answer the Public can streamline this for you, although I like to do manual searches using my browser’s incognito mode as well to validate the tool’s suggestions and gather additional ideas. Google’s People Also Ask feature In Google’s results, the People Also Ask feature surfaces popular questions related to your search. Similar to autocomplete, this section shows common (and trending) questions people are searching for on this topic. Using Rihanna as our example search again, you see a mix of trending and common questions. As a side note, there are indications that Google will make it easier to identify trending terms in PAA boxes by adding a handy “Trending” label to questions. Google appears to be testing this as of February 2023 , but I have not seen one of these tests myself yet. Tip : Tools like AlsoAsked can streamline this for you as well, but again, I also recommend manually searching in incognito mode to see results in real-time. Keywords Everywhere I’m a big fan of this tool , which is a paid (but very inexpensive—my subscription breaks down to less than $1 USD/month) keyword research extension you can add to your browser. When I conduct a search, it shows me estimated search volume, competition level, and related keywords right in the SERPs. One of my favorite features is the Trend Data chart. Despite being a basically free tool, I find Keywords Everywhere to more accurately capture trending topics than traditional keyword research software. Remember the example above, citing ChatGPT as a zero volume keyword in popular (paid) SEO tools? Keywords Everywhere is one of the tools that showed otherwise. Trend analysis tools Free keyword trend tools are also available to help you quickly identify search trends across a variety of topics. These include: Google Trends Exploding Topics YouTube Trends TikTok Trends Pinterest Trends I find the trending “Related queries” section in Google Trends particularly useful, like in the example below for “plant care.” So many ideas! In general, I’ve found that these related topics don’t often have much competition in the SERPs, so there’s a lot of opportunity to rank. Glimpse If you like Google Trends but want more out of it, Glimpse  is your new best friend. Their freemium Chrome extension, Google Trends Supercharged, adds trendlines, volume data, and more keyword insights right into Google Trends. You can see a great example of how Glimpse works with their COVID-19 Consumer Impact tracker , which tracked some surprising search trends at the height of the pandemic. Glimpse offers insights on every topic, so you’re not limited to a few categories. My favorite feature is the weekly email alerts, which send me trending topics in my niche. I’ve sent many ideas to our editorial team based on what Glimpse suggests is trending. Your intuition Finally, one of the best keyword research tools you have at your disposal is yourself—trust your instincts. If you are actively engaged in your industry and are generally aware of what’s going on in the world, you’ll catch wind of trends, no tools necessary. One example we’re all too familiar with is COVID-19. When the pandemic started, many could relate to familiar questions like, “what do I do?” and “how can I help?” These types of questions fit into my former healthcare client’s content strategy, so we created articles to address them. This LinkedIn post summarizes the success of one of these topics. Tools estimated zero volume, but our intuition suggested otherwise. The bet paid off. Breathe life back into keyword research The process I’ve outlined above may seem like extra work compared to relying on paid tools to do it for you. And you’re right, it is more work. But if you add a few of these tools into your regular process, or schedule a quarterly brainstorm where you do a deep dive, you’ll find that it doesn’t add up to that much extra work after all. What matters most is if the impact is worth the extra effort, and I can say from experience that it definitely is. And going beyond performance: maybe, just maybe, this process will even make keyword research fun again. In my opinion, that alone is worth the effort. Abby Gleason - SEO Product Manager Abby Gleason is a content-focused SEO with 6+ years experience leading successful organic search strategies for SaaS and eCommerce brands. She loves to share her learnings and has been published on Moz, Semrush, Search Engine Land and more. Twitter | Linkedin

Author:  Alla Avgustinov Display ads are a popular revenue source for many websites (e.g., blogs, news websites, social platforms), but they can also be a supplementary, low-maintenance revenue generator for just about any website that attracts visitors. Google AdSense enables you to display ads to your website visitors, which helps you get the most value from those visitors while diversifying your site’s revenue stream. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know to get started with Google AdSense on your Wix or Wix Studio website.  Table of contents: What is Google AdSense? How Google AdSense integrates with Wix & Wix Studio Get started with AdSense & Wix in 3 steps Set up the Wix AdSense app on your website Create ad units in the Wix Monetize with AdSense dashboard Place ad units in site widgets Bonus: Place ads in Wix Studio’s global sections Strategies for maximizing AdSense on Wix & Wix Studio Show ads on your website’s high-value page types Create monetizable content for high-value audiences Add AdSense to high-traffic posts in Wix Blogs What is Google AdSense? Google AdSense is a display advertising platform that allows website owners to show ads  on their website(s) that are aligned with their site content and audience.  The ads themselves are provided by Google and all you (as the site owner) have to do is to designate an area on your web pages to place the ads. The more impressions the ads get, the more the revenue these ads will generate for your site.  How Google AdSense integrates with Wix & Wix Studio Wix’s Google AdSense integration was developed through Embedded Connect , which streamlines the connection process and helps you start earning faster by enabling you to sign up for Google AdSense without leaving your Wix Dashboard. You’ll need to connect a custom domain name  before you get started. Once you have, you can connect Google AdSense to your Wix & Wix Studio websites.  To include AdSense in your page templates, you can use the Wix Monetize with AdSense  app from the Wix App Market. Blog owners may also choose to monetize individual blog posts with ads . For this, you can use the native Wix Blog integration to build ad placements as you create your blog posts. Now, let’s dive a bit deeper on how you can get started and best practices to optimize revenue. Get started with AdSense & Wix in 3 steps To generate revenue from AdSense display ads on your Wix or Wix Studio website: Set up the Wix Monetize with AdSense app on your website Create ad units Place ad units within your site widgets Wix Studio users can also place ads within global sections for efficiency and scalability as they build (more on this below). 01. Set up the Wix AdSense app on your website After you’ve connected your domain, add the Wix Monetize with AdSense app to your site by installing it from the Wix App Market .  Next, you’ll need to configure the integration from your site’s dashboard: Click the Wix Monetize with AdSense  page in your dashboard (under the Apps section).  Click Get Started . Click Connect Account .  Sign into the Google account you want to use with AdSense or create a new Google account to use with AdSense.  Complete Google’s steps to either create a new Google AdSense account or connect your existing account. Once you connect your site to your Google AdSense account, Google needs to approve it (the verification process might take up to 4 weeks ).  During the verification stage, you can head to your Google AdSense  account and check up on the process. This is also a great time to organize your content and strategy to maximize potential revenue from AdSense before you actually start displaying ads. 02. Create ad units in the Wix Monetize with AdSense dashboard Ad units display content (from other websites) on your website. The ad is the visual content that is displayed in the ad unit (and what your site visitors see when they visit your site). When creating ad units, you can decide the dimensions of the ad that will be displayed inside the ad unit. To create an ad unit: Go to the Wix Monetize with AdSense  tab in your site’s dashboard. Click New Ad Unit . Enter a name for the unit under Ad unit name .  Choose what type of ad unit you want to create: Responsive ad : The ad unit size adjusts to the width of your screen.  Fixed ad : The ad unit remains the same size on all screen widths. Click the drop-down and choose the size of the ad.  Click Save . 03. Place ad units in site widgets  Once you’ve created an ad unit, open the App Market and add a Wix Monetize with AdSense widget to your site (a widget is already in place if you installed the app from the Wix or Wix Studio Editor). Once this is done, you can connect an ad unit to the app widget and place it in a section on the page. Bonus: Place ads in Wix Studio’s global sections Wix Studio site owners can save time by applying the same ad formatting across multiple pages, which is ideal when you have a lot of pages of a certain type (i.e., blog posts, product pages, etc).  To do this, use Wix Studio’s global sections feature :  In your Wix Studio editor, select the layers panel. Find the section where you added your ads, then click the three dots and scroll down to Set as Global . Select the relevant option (i.e., header, section, footer). Now, when you edit another page, you can select your pre-designed ad section to adjust and add to the page. Once the above steps are complete, your ads are live on your site! Strategies for maximizing AdSense on Wix & Wix Studio Getting started with AdSense is already straightforward, but you can put in just a bit more effort to ensure that your display ads scale with your website and generate as many impressions as possible.  Here are some tactics to get the most value out of AdSense for Wix and Wix Studio website owners: Show ads on your website’s high-value page types Create monetizable content for high-value audiences Add AdSense to high-traffic posts in Wix Blogs Show ads on your website’s high-value page types According to Google, some of the best performing site types for Google AdSense include : Blogs Forums Tools pages Content strategy and user intent are important factors for success with AdSense, so each of these page types should be engaging, optimized for keywords, and helpful to users.  These types of sites are easily created and managed on Wix and Wix Studio: Page type Example AdSense placement Wix & Wix Studio Apps Blogs Blog posts and/or post footers Wix Blog Forum Sidebar Wix Forum Tools pages Top of the site and/or sidebar Wix Studio Custom Apps Wix & Wix Studio have tools to support SEO , community, and content distribution , which can help you create engaging content that drives traffic to monetized pages. Create monetizable content for high-value audiences Use the Google AdSense calculator  to understand how much money you could make on AdSense, depending on your website’s industry and region. Average ad revenue can vary depending upon the region and interests of your audience, so if your business model is dependent on display ad revenue, then this research can help inform your overall content strategy (and potentially your business model as well). For example, Google’s AdSense calculator shows that for a site with 50,00 page views, the average potential earnings is around $1,696 per month (or $0.03 per view) for a site with an audience based in the Americas region (as of September 2024). But, these earnings vary greatly depending on category and region. For instance, if you have a website that attracts an audience interested in finance, it could be worth cultivating a following in Asia to improve revenue.  Category Region Potential earnings for 50K page views Finance Europe, Middle East, Africa $2500 Finance Americas $2000 Finance Asia and Pacific Countries $3100 However, if you were creating content within the ‘Home and Garden’ category, there is potential to see earnings of up to $8,000 per month for audiences in the Americas, but around $2,400 in APAC regions. Category Region Potential earnings for 50K page views Home & Garden Europe, Middle East, Africa $3000 Home & Garden Americas $8000 Home & Garden Asia and Pacific Countries $2400 Your earning expectations should align with content topics and market potential. Carry out research to find the best fit for our site. Add AdSense to high-traffic posts in Wix Blogs If you would like to use AdSense directly in the body of your Wix blog posts , you can add your AdSense code to that blog post with the dedicated panel (shown below) as you create your articles. Once you have live ads to display, generate the HTML code snippet for a ‘fixed’-sized ad (within Google AdSense) to use in the blog. Then, in your Wix Blog post editor, click Add + ,   scroll to the bottom of the panel and select Wix Monetize with AdSense . Here, you can add the code for the ad you want to appear in the post. This can also enable you to add additional monetization fields to individual blog posts, which is particularly valuable for high-traffic pages. Get more revenue from your website traffic with Wix & AdSense Whether display ads are your primary or secondary source of revenue, follow the guidance and tactics above to ensure that your Wix or Wix Studio website is helping you get the most value from your traffic. For more information, check out: Wix Monetize with AdSense on the Wix Help Center Google AdSense Help Center Alla Avgustinov - Product Manager, Wix Alla is product manager at Wix. Best known for leading Wix’s integration with Google AdSense, she is dedicated to helping users maximize their business and online presence. Alla also collaborates with various teams and contributes to the development of multiple products and features. Linkedin

Author: Giuseppe Caltabiano Visual content has the power to break through the noise and grab the attention of our audiences in a way that words alone simply can’t. It goes beyond mere aesthetics, too—the human brain processes visual information much faster than text, making visual content a powerful tool for conveying complex ideas quickly and effectively. In content marketing, visual content enhances engagement, improves brand recall, and can significantly influence consumer behavior. And, when your visuals are optimized correctly, they can help new users discover you in Google Search. For all these reasons, visual content is an indispensable tool for marketers looking to capture and retain audience attention in an increasingly crowded content landscape (which has become even more nuanced with the introduction of AI-generated content). In this blog post, I’ll cover every aspect of modern visual content marketing, including: Understanding your audience to create more effective visual content Connecting with your audience’s emotions through visual storytelling Maintaining visual consistency for better brand recognition Choosing the right format for your visuals Embedding accessibility and inclusion into visual content plans Optimizing visuals for your audience’s favorite platforms Attracting audiences on Google with visual content SEO AI and visual content: What you need to know How to measure visual content success Leveraging user-generated content for marketing and product feedback Understand your audience to create more effective visual content Knowing your audience helps you tailor your visual content to meet their needs and interests, ensuring it resonates and engages them effectively. Before diving into visual content creation, you need to gain a deep understanding of your target audience. This step isn’t just important for visual content—understanding your audience should be the first phase of any solid content marketing  strategy.  This involves identifying your audience’s:  Demographics Preferences Interests Pain points Online behavior Etc.  If you don’t have this audience data, new generative AI tools can help. For example, Rock Content’s AI Persona Creator GPT  can help you learn more about your audience simply by providing a website domain.  Or you can go with an ‘old school’ approach and conduct thorough market research and audience analysis  to gain insights into the type of visual content that resonates the most with your audience, enabling you to plan and tailor your content accordingly. Just ask yourself these key questions: Who are you trying to reach?  Consider factors like age, location, occupation, and income level for a B2C audience. For B2B audiences, get a good understanding of the job profiles and responsibilities, sales cycle, and the brand decision-making process (for purchases, in particular). What are your ideal customers’ passions, aspirations, and pain points?  Identifying these allows you to tailor your visuals to address their specific needs and desires. Where do they spend their time online?  What kind of content does your audience consume? Which content influences them? Understanding which social media platforms or publications your target audience frequents lets you optimize visuals for those specific channels. Once you understand your audience, the next step is to create visual content that aligns with their interests and preferences. This means selecting the right narrative, choosing specific themes, design schemes, or types of visuals that appeal to them. Let’s take a deeper look at those considerations in the following sections. Connect with your audience’s emotions through visual storytelling  Posting an image or video online and waiting for the audience to engage is not a strategy. Like with any other content format, you need a compelling rationale for visual storytelling and a clear plan for turning views into meaningful marketing results. Ben Horowitz, a startup founder and VC expert who has invested in the next generation of leading tech companies (including Airbnb, Facebook, and Twitter), was asked in an interview some years ago about companies insisting that products are the only thing that matters. His answer was enlightening: “Companies that don’t have a clearly articulated story don’t have a clear and well-thought-out strategy. The company story is the company strategy ”. — Ben Horowitz via Forbes Humans are wired for stories. Stories evoke emotions, create connections, and leave a lasting impression. Stories help us to connect with our audience and, on a biological level, they make our brains light up, meaning that information is wired in more reliably . Stories help create memory structures , which are the foundation of all brand building activities. Visual content marketing unlocks the power of storytelling, allowing you to craft captivating narratives. Whether through a series of captivating images or a narrated video, storytelling can humanize your brand, foster emotional connections with your audience, and distinguish your content from competitors, de facto making your message more memorable. The key is to ensure that your visuals tell a story that is aligned with your brand message and values. To craft compelling visual stories, focus on creating a clear narrative flow, use consistent visual elements, and incorporate emotions that resonate with your audience. Below are a few examples of effective visual storytelling techniques. Explain complex topics with infographics and motion design:  Visualize complex datasets and statistics through interactive or animated infographics . These enhance knowledge absorption and engagement by using charts, graphs, and illustrations to make information easier to understand and retain. Convey complex topics and concepts that are paramount to your brand narrative with motion design and animation techniques for even greater visual impact.  Highlight customer success stories:  Showcase positive customer experiences using visuals that illustrate testimonials or case studies. Customer stories build trust, demonstrating your brand’s value. Unveil your company culture with humanized content:  Offer a glimpse into your team, work environment, and core values through engaging photos or short videos (like in the example below). This fosters transparency and helps your audience connect with the human element behind your brand (in addition to building your brand as an employer). By weaving storytelling into your visual content, you move beyond mere information dissemination and create an emotional connection with your audience. Maintain visual consistency for better brand recognition Your visual content should reflect your brand’s identity through consistent use of colors, fonts, logos, and imagery. Visual consistency not only reinforces your brand message but also helps establish a cohesive brand image across various marketing channels and touchpoints.  When your audience encounters your visuals across various platforms, they should be able to instantly associate them with your brand. You can achieve this by maintaining a cohesive visual style across all your content. Here are some visual branding elements for you to consider: Color palette:  Establish a specific color palette that reflects your brand personality. Use this color palette consistently across all your visuals, from website design to social media posts. Fonts:  Choose a set of fonts that complements your brand identity and ensures readability across different platforms. Maintain consistent fonts throughout your visuals. Logos:  Your brand logo is a visual representation of your company. Ensure proper and consistent logo usage across all your visuals. Moodboard : When brainstorming branded video content, begin by collecting all visual and sound references as well as media assets you want to use. This visual mind map is called a “moodboard,” and it helps you consolidate your visual concept and align it with your brand guidelines.  By maintaining a consistent visual style, you create a recognizable brand identity that reinforces brand recall and recognition for your audience. Choose the right format for your visuals With a myriad of visual content options available, it’s essential to select visual content that aligns with your content goals and resonates with your audience. Whether it’s eye-catching images, informative videos, or interactive infographics, select visuals that effectively convey your message and evoke the desired response from your audience.  Each visual content format has its particular strengths. Let’s explore some of the most common and powerful types of visual content. Images:  Images are the main pillar of visual content marketing. From captivating photos and product illustrations to informative charts and data visualizations, images offer a versatile way to grab attention, communicate ideas, and enhance content. Videos: Videos come in various styles and formats, including brand stories  (excellent for branding campaigns), explainer videos  (such as the one in the example below), tutorials, product demonstrations, testimonials, and vlogs . Short, highly engaging, and shareable video content is key to expanding your audience on social media and shaping brand awareness. Infographics: Infographics are visual representations of data, information, or knowledge presented in a concise and visually appealing format. They combine text, graphics, and imagery to simplify complex concepts, explain processes, or communicate statistics and trends effectively. Interactive content: Interactivity allows users to actively engage with and participate in the content (rather than passively consuming it). This includes interactive infographics , quizzes, polls, surveys, games, calculators, and interactive videos. This style of content can enhance user experience, increase engagement, and provide valuable insights into audience preferences and behavior. I cover interactive content in more detail in the next section of this post. Branded images:  These are images that incorporate a company’s branding elements, such as logos, colors, or fonts. Branded images help create a consistent visual identity across various platforms and marketing materials. Consider your content goals and your audience’s preferences to narrow down the right visual formats. For example, infographics may be more suitable for educational content, while videos could be better for storytelling. Engage your audience with interactive content You can design visual content to encourage interaction through calls-to-action , polls, quizzes, or clickable links. This not only engages your audience, it can even foster a sense of community and return valuable feedback and user behavior data. Interactive content  is a form of content that enables marketers to create a digital dialogue between a visitor and their marketing automation platform. Integrate interactive elements (e.g., polls, quizzes, clickable links, etc.) into your content to encourage participation and conversation. These elements make your content more dynamic and can provide insights into your audience’s preferences. They let you engage with your potential customers in real-time, respond to comments, and solicit feedback to create a dialogue and build deeper connections that promote repeat business. Creating interactive content is easier when you have a platform that won’t require custom development and coding for every experience. There are a few options on the market, including Rock Content’s Ion , a robust platform that allows companies to create engaging interactive experiences with just a few clicks. Embed accessibility and inclusion into visual content plans Accessibility  is about removing barriers that may prevent people with disabilities from accessing your website or content. Inclusion is about going a step further and ensuring that people with disabilities are included as valuable members in all aspects of society. Consider the following: Today, 15% of the world’s population experiences some type of disability.  Nearly seven out of ten participants (69%) opt out of using websites because of accessibility issues, according to a study conducted by Click-Away Pound .  In addition, 86% mention that they would spend more time in online stores that were more accessible. This makes accessibility crucial for visual content marketing. Fundamental optimizations include using alt text for images, captions for videos, and ensuring color contrast is sufficient for those with visual impairments. When planning your content, make sure to also reflect the following accessibility best practices to ensure that all members of your target audience can understand and appreciate your visuals: Video transcripts:  Include transcripts alongside videos to ensure that individuals with hearing impairments can access the content. Transcripts also benefit users in noisy environments or those who prefer reading over listening—and they are filled with keywords  that can help signal relevance in Google Search. Keyboard navigation:  Make sure your visual content is accessible via keyboard navigation, allowing users who rely on keyboard-only or assistive technology to interact with your content seamlessly. This includes interactive elements, such as buttons and links. Screen readers:  When creating visual content, consider how it will be interpreted by screen reader technology used by individuals with visual impairments. Structure all textual content, including captions, overlays, and alt text in a way that can be accurately conveyed by screen readers. Color contrast:  Employ good color contrast to ensure visuals are discernible for viewers with color vision deficiencies. Audio descriptions:  For videos or animations that contain important visual information, provide audio descriptions that explain the visual elements to blind or visually impaired members of your audience. Audio descriptions should be concise, descriptive, and synchronized with the corresponding visual content. Accessibility testing:  Regularly test your visual content using accessibility tools and guidelines to identify and address any potential accessibility issues. Conduct user testing with individuals with disabilities to gather feedback and ensure that your content is truly inclusive and accessible to all. Optimize visuals for your audience’s favorite platforms Different social media and digital platforms have unique requirements and best practices for visual content. To maximize engagement and reach, adapt your visuals to fit the specifications of each platform. Whether it’s Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter/X, Reddit, or LinkedIn, optimize your visual content’s format, size, and presentation to ensure it resonates with your audience and stands out in their feeds. You should follow platform-specific guidelines for format and size, as well as keep up-to-date with competitor activity and trends to maximize the impact of your visuals. This may involve creating multiple versions of a visual to suit different platforms or adapting them to different formats.  In addition to understanding platform demographics, consider the following optimizations: Aspect ratio:  Each platform has its preferred aspect ratio for images and videos. Ensure your visuals display correctly across all channels. For instance, Instagram Stories utilizes a vertical format (9:16), while YouTube videos typically display in a horizontal format (16:9). Duration : Adapt your content to each platform’s output duration. While Youtube Shorts are up to 60 seconds long, TikTok has been pushing  for more lengthy content and currently allows up to 10 minutes of video.  File size:  Large file sizes can lead to slow loading times, hindering user experience. Utilize formats that deliver reasonable image and video quality with mild compression loss, like JPEG for standard images, PNG for transparent images, and MP4 for videos.  Attract audiences on Google with visual content SEO SEO for visual content focuses on enhancing your brand’s visibility in search engine results pages ( SERPs ). Key aspects include:  Using descriptive file names and alt text Optimizing image size and format for faster loading Sharing on social media and obtaining external backlinks Mobile optimization via responsive design To optimize visual content for SEO, it’s essential to follow a few key guidelines. First, ensure that your content is relevant to your target keywords and complements the surrounding text on the page. Use descriptive filenames and alt text for images to provide context for search engines and improve accessibility for visually impaired users.  It’s crucial to use relevant keywords in file names, alt text, and captions. This practice helps search engines understand the content of the images or videos, making them more likely to appear in search results. Additionally, optimizing file sizes and formats ensures that visual content loads quickly, improving page load times and user experience, which are key factors for search engine rankings as well as conversions. Implementing structured data  for images and videos can also enhance visibility in search results through rich snippets.  Furthermore, creating high-quality, original visual content encourages shares and backlinks, which can increase a site’s authority and ranking.  AI and visual content: What you need to know Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming visual content creation, offering solutions for generating personalized content, enhancing images, and even creating entirely new visuals.  While AI-powered tools can streamline workflows and enhance efficiency, you need to understand their capabilities and limitations. Even though some tools have been able to successfully automate visual content creation processes and techniques, such as removing backgrounds (Canva, Photoshop ), generating subtitles ( Opus Clip , CapCut ), and voicing video narrations ( Eleven Labs ), they still require a human professional’s touch for consistency, content accuracy, as well as art and visual concept direction.  It’s important to note that the technology still cannot generate original and branded content. It can, however, still serve as visual inspiration in the ideation phase. One of our designers tested one such tool, Firefly , trying to duplicate branded images. It’s important to be aware of these limitations and ensure that visual content generated by AI aligns with your brand values and messaging. Use AI responsibly to streamline, rather than replace, human creativity in visual content creation.  How to measure visual content success Track key metrics to accurately evaluate how your visual content is performing and optimize your strategy for better results. Here are some additional metrics to consider alongside engagement, reach, conversion rates, and return on investment: Click-through rate (CTR) : Measure the percentage of users who click on a call-to-action or link within your visual content. A high CTR indicates that your visual content is effectively driving user engagement and prompting action. Time spent on page:  Analyze how much time users spend interacting with your visual content. Longer times suggest that your content is engaging and holding your audience’s attention. Social shares:  Track the number of times users share your visual content across social media platforms. Social shares serve as a measure of content virality and audience engagement, indicating how well your content resonates with your audience. Heatmaps and scroll depth:  Use heatmaps and scroll depth analysis  to visualize how users interact with your content. Heatmaps can highlight areas of high engagement or interaction within your content, while scroll depth analysis can reveal how far users scroll down the page and which sections are most engaging. By incorporating some of these additional metrics alongside traditional KPIs, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your visual content’s performance and identify areas for improvement.  Leverage user-generated content for marketing and product feedback Encourage your audience to share their own images related to your brand/products and showcase that user-generated content (UGC) across your marketing channels to engage new potential customers and provide authentic content that enhances your credibility. In addition, highlighting user-generated content helps build a sense of community and trust. It shows that you value your audience’s contributions and can lead to increased loyalty and engagement. One of UGC’s lesser-known benefits is its ability to improve your brand’s visibility within search results. Not only does it increase the amount of content pertaining to your brand, but UGC is also often keyword-rich content, which may increase the number of keywords your content ranks for. There are many examples of UGC in B2B and B2C. Among them, LEGO is probably the most significant and my favorite case. At the heart of LEGO’s user-generated content is LEGO Ideas —this is where aspiring LEGO designers can submit their own LEGO designs (as shown above).  LEGO’s user-generated content strategy contributes to many of its crucial business priorities and marketing channels: Direct product development X/Twitter marketing YouTube marketing Niche marketing Influencer marketing LEGO has essentially made any of its fans a potential independent LEGO content creator. The fans play the role of both designer and marketer. This puts LEGO at an extreme advantage as it helps the company tap into new niche markets with ready-made influencers eager to help and show off their own creations. See the bigger picture with visual content marketing When used strategically, visual content marketing can significantly enhance your content marketing strategy, offering boundless opportunities for brands to engage, inspire, and connect with their audience on a deeper level.  By implementing the best practices I’ve outlined above, you can unlock the full potential of visual content marketing and propel your brand towards greater engagement, visibility, and success.  Giuseppe Caltabiano - Senior Director of Marketing at AVK   Giuseppe is a global marketing leader with 20+ years' experience. He excels in crafting content and marketing strategies for B2B enterprises. Recognized as 2-time influential European B2B marketer, he has an MBA from SDA Bocconi and is trained in M&A at London Business School. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Gemma Fontané Beyond being a marketplace with its own algorithms and search results, Etsy is also a website that appears in Google search engine results pages ( SERPs ). That means creating a store on Etsy can benefit your online shop in two important ways:  Selling your products on the Etsy platform  Increasing the visibility of your store on Google However, Etsy results in the SERPs can also put you at a disadvantage if you already have your own website. It can be a challenge to compete with a marketplace like Etsy for search rankings. So, how do you determine if Etsy is your ally or competitor? And, as an ally, how do you maximize its potential? Let’s analyze a few different scenarios to evaluate whether creating an Etsy store can be an effective strategy for your business. Table of contents: Etsy: What it is and its impact on eCommerce How Etsy results work Etsy in Google SERPs Determine if Etsy is the right strategy for your online store Identify your business’s most important search terms Conduct your market and SERP analysis Assess Etsy in Google SERPs Implement your strategy to leverage Etsy’s Google SERP visibility for your products Optimize your Etsy store page Optimize your Etsy product listings Automate your Etsy listings with Wix Become an Etsy Star Seller How to become an Etsy Star Seller Advertise on Etsy to boost visibility So, when is it worth creating a store on Etsy? Etsy: What it is and its impact on eCommerce Etsy  is a global marketplace for handmade, handcrafted, niche, or vintage products created by independent sellers that manage their own orders and inventory. As an eCommerce platform, Etsy offers a wide range of product categories, with some types more popular than others. For example, in several marketplaces, shops in the ‘Jewelry’ and ‘Art & Collectibles’ categories were common among the top Etsy sellers  last year. Etsy’s significance and market share varies from country to country, with its most active markets being English-speaking. When it comes to Etsy’s users, the United States accounts for the vast majority  of traffic to the platform, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Australia (as of June 2024).  These markets don’t just account for the most Etsy users, they’re also where Etsy has more visibility in the SERPs. Contextualizing where and your potential customers use Etsy and how it shows up in search results is crucial for defining and developing your digital strategy.  How Etsy results work Etsy operates differently from Google—in particular, there are specific features that make some products appear in higher positions and with more visibility in its marketplace than others.  While we don’t know all the parameters of Etsy’s algorithm, there are certain factors that we do  know can increase your products’ visibility  within Etsy’s platform. For example, Star Seller  status, among other considerations, can boost your visibility, as we will cover later in this article. Etsy in Google SERPs As a website, Etsy also appears in Google search results—and with high impact in certain product categories and regions. Some of Etsy’s category, subcategory, and product pages achieve very relevant positions in Google SERPs: So, how do you take advantage of Etsy to boost the visibility of your products in Google SERPs? Let’s take a look. Determine if Etsy is the right strategy for your online store In this section, I’ll cover the factors you need to assess first to decide if building a store on Etsy actually helps your visibility on Google, or if the benefits are limited to Etsy’s platform. These factors include: Your product’s search terms The market and SERPs your products will compete in Etsy’s placements in Google SERPs that are relevant for your store Identify your business’s most important search terms First, you need to  identify the search terms you want to rank for online  (these typically relate to your business’s main product). Understanding these keywords helps you assess how you can leverage Google, Etsy, both, or neither. It’s important that you be very concrete and specific during this initial stage. For example, if you sell stone rings, you need to conduct keyword research  on this specific type of product—not generic jewelry. This allows you to identify the most potential search terms for your business, based on factors such as search volume  and keyword difficulty . Etsy does not provide any tools for keyword analysis. Therefore, to gather information about search terms, we will use SEO tools that provide data from Google SERPs. Using the results from these tools, evaluate the volume of users searching on Google SERPs for the products you offer. From this data, conduct a market analysis and a Google SERP analysis . Conduct your market and SERP analysis After you define your main search terms, conduct market research to determine if Etsy has enough search presence in your target region and how that visibility relates to your products. You should analyze how relevant products display in Google SERPs. Analyze the following to evaluate your product’s Etsy market fit: Etsy’s market share in the target region:  Analyze whether Etsy has sufficient market share  in the potential regions where you want to sell your product, as the marketplace may not be commonly used in some regions.  Etsy’s presence in Google SERPs for your products in target regions : As you can see from the examples below, Etsy does not appear in Google SERPs in Spain at all for the term [gold bow earrings], but it’s the first result in the US. For more data on Etsy’s prevalence on Google SERPs for each region, check out Semrush’s web traffic stats for Etsy . The main SERP competitors  for your Etsy products in target regions:  It’s important to know whether search results are led by large retail stores with a wide range of categories/products or by small artisan stores.For example, when selling [multi stone rings], the main competitors in the Google SERPs for Etsy are large retailers with a wide array of categories and products. On the other hand, for [Tió de Nadal] or [Caga Tió] (a traditional Christmas product from Catalonia, Spain), the main competitors are small artisan stores. In the second scenario, if you are a small- or medium-sized business, you might be able to compete in Google SERPs against Etsy with our own website. In the first scenario, however, if you want to sell multi-stone rings and have limited resources to allocate to your website, achieving top rankings will be very difficult. Assess Etsy in Google SERPs  Once you verify that Etsy appears for your potential product in Google SERPs, you must also study how those results display: Product-related Google SERPs — Look at how Etsy products stand out in the SERPs. For example, Google might show a product carousel, a specific product, or even entire product category pages, as Google’s results can vary significantly across markets. Multimedia content — Beyond the traditional search listings, study what type of multimedia content Google prioritizes for your product type (images, videos, etc). This analysis also helps you define your content strategy within Etsy to maximize its potential. Paid or organic listings  — Finally, analyze whether the products that appear in the Google SERPs for your target region show up through organic rankings or through paid advertising via Etsy marketplace (as shown below). These analyses lead to two main scenarios that will help you decide whether Etsy is the best place for your products: When you search your main terms on Google… Why What you should do Etsy results rarely or never appear This may be because Etsy does not include this type of product or does not prioritize it. It could also be that in this region, Etsy does not have enough presence in Google compared to other competitors and is not competitive enough. The best option might be not to create a store on Etsy for your product and to consider other channels, especially if you have limited resources and are a small store. Etsy results frequently appear in the top search results This suggests that there is a significant volume of user interest in Etsy for this product type in this region. This scenario shows that Etsy is competitive for this product and market, so it can be very advantageous to create a store on Etsy to sell products and increase your visibility in Google SERPs. Etsy can complement your online shop’s website, especially if you find it challenging to compete with the websites that appear in the top Google results. However, for your products to appear via Etsy in Google SERPs, it’s not enough to simply create a store on Etsy. You must optimize our products within the marketplace to ensure they surface for the right potential customers. Let’s look at some of the main strategies you can implement to achieve this. Implement your strategy to leverage Etsy’s Google SERP visibility for your products There are different factors to consider when creating your Etsy store to achieve strong visibility. That visibility benefits you by helping your products not only appear on Etsy but also in Google SERPs.  These factors include: Your store page Your product listings Star Seller status Advertising on Etsy Optimize your Etsy store page Each Etsy business has its own store page. The first thing you must do is validate that all necessary store information is filled in to provide users—and Google—with the complete details of who you are. Make sure to provide: A description of the business  — Origin story and foundation, location, manufacturing processes, product development, etc. A description of the seller:  Within the store page, there is a specific section where, in addition to describing the business, you can introduce yourself as the seller. In this section, provide detailed information about who you are, years of experience, awards, and so on. Legal details  —   Information on shipping policies, legal aspects of the product, credentials, etc. Images and videos  — Visual content  to help describe the store in a complementary manner. For example, include a promotional video of the store, videos or images of the workspace, or multimedia content showcasing the product creation process. Links to your profiles on other platforms : Social media, your homepage, and other relevant sites. For the experienced SEOs reading this, filling out a detailed Etsy merchant store page helps show experience, expertise, authority and trust . Optimize your Etsy product listings Create complete and detailed product listings to improve your visibility within the Etsy marketplace as well as help your products appear in Google SERPs. To optimize Etsy product listings: Perform keyword research to appeal to target audiences  —   Although Etsy does not provide a way to analyze search volume and competition data, you can study potential keywords your audience uses by reviewing marketplace results (data from which is shown in the image below) and conducting keyword research on Google (the process I covered above). Identify potentially valuable and relevant terms for each of your products and use them within the product listing . Don't just target generic and competitive keywords—also focus on long tail keywords  that can help you show up in high-intent results. Once you build up some historical data, you can analyze how users find different products in your store. Title — Include a clear and concise title that accurately defines your product. Highlight what makes it unique using terms your potential customers are likely to search. Photos and videos  — Add multiple images and videos showcasing your product, including its user experience and manufacturing process. The cover image is key to attracting clicks from users on the Etsy results page. It’s also important to: Include the product name within product image alt text. Include a short description of the image, describing the color, materials, etc. Complement images with videos whenever possible.  Description  — Describe your product thoroughly, detailing the manufacturing process, functionality, usage, and shipping details.  Include the main search terms for the product within the description. Organize information coherently, using paragraphs so that Google understands your product.  Use bullet points when listing out features or specifications. Product details  — Classify your product within the most appropriate category and include all relevant attributes. This helps achieve visibility for your product within its category. Use tags to highlight search terms and descriptive phrases for your product. E.g., material + name of the product (i.e., natural silver rings). These labels must be accurate and aligned with the product. You can include a maximum of 13 tags for each product and they can be up to 20 characters long. It’s best to add some variety and avoid repeating search terms. Shipping  — Specify the shipping time to provide a good customer experience, especially for international shipments that may take longer. Offering free shipping can help you stand out in Etsy  search results. Discounts  — Discounts and promotions can also boost your visibility in Etsy search results. Automate your Etsy listings with Wix There are ways to optimize and automate these processes to save you time when uploading products to our Etsy store. Wix users can add the following apps to automate their Etsy listings: Etsy integration by Webkul :  This app a llows you to export Wix products to your Etsy account, making it easy to manage inventory across both your website and Etsy.Inventory synchronization adds extra convenience by reflecting accurate stock levels, whether sales happen on your site or Etsy. LitCommerce Multichannel Sell by LitCommerce : This integration not only allows you to list products on Etsy, but also on other platforms (eBay, Amazon, TikTok Shop, etc). With this app, you can centrally manage all your products from one dashboard, ensuring that the latest version of your catalog appears everywhere your customers are likely to convert. Become an Etsy Star Seller An optimized product listing certainly helps for visibility on Etsy, but in order to reach the top positions, your store must aim to become an Etsy Star Seller . Star Sellers are sellers recognized by Etsy for their demonstrated customer service experience. For merchants, becoming a Star Seller means: Increased Visibility:  Higher chances of being featured in Etsy’s top rankings. Search result distinctions:  Etsy provides badges for prompt responses and timely shipping, helping sellers stand out from the crowd. More traffic and sales : The Star Seller recognition demonstrates a seller’s expertise, experience, trustworthiness, and authority, leading to more traffic and sales. How to become an Etsy Star Seller To be eligible to become a Star Seller, your shop must have at least five orders and $300 in sales within a three-month review period. Additionally, your store must have been on Etsy’s platform for at least 90 days since your first sale. Once you’re eligible, you must achieve and maintain the following: Quick message response rate  — Respond to at least 95% of initial messages from users within 24 hours. On-time shipping and tracking  — Ship at least 95% of orders on time with tracking or with a shipping label purchased on Etsy. High average ratings  — Achieve and maintain an average rating of 4.8 or higher on your Etsy store. Advertise on Etsy to boost visibility You can also advertise on Etsy to achieve more visibility for our store’s products. I recommend this in two main situations. New stores : Advertising on Etsy can help you generate initial sales. Early sales are often more challenging to earn, but they are very important for increasing visibility in Etsy’s search engine. Without sales and reviews, it will be very difficult to compete organically in Etsy. Highly competitive products : In highly competitive verticals, paid listings can increase visibility on Etsy but also boost the chances of your products getting selected for ads in Google Search through the Etsy marketplace. So, when is it worth creating a store on Etsy? Etsy can be a powerful tool for your business, depending on your circumstances and goals. On one hand, Etsy’s authority can help you ‘outrank’ bigger brands in Google search results. Optimizing within Etsy’s own ecosystem can be highly beneficial when there is a market opportunity for your products, especially if you lack the resources to compete against big brands for top rankings. Even within Etsy’s own marketplace, there is great potential. If there’s a market for your goods, optimizing your listings and store within Etsy can be profitable. Etsy’s own search algorithms can drive traffic and sales directly from the marketplace to your store. By achieving Star Seller status, utilizing effective keywords, and creating engaging product listings, you can maximize your visibility within Etsy, leading to increased sales and brand recognition. On the other hand, if smaller brands are outranking you for potential search terms, consider focusing on your website in tandem with your Etsy store to target the SERP from all angles.  Each industry, product, and region may have unique characteristics. Experiment to identify where customers are coming from and seize those opportunities, but remember the importance of a multi-channel strategy. While Etsy can significantly boost your visibility and sales, leveraging multiple platforms can enable a more stable and diversified business. Gemma Fontané - Co-founder and Director at Orvit Digital Gemma Fontané is an SEO consultant, co-founder, and director of Orvit Digital , where she leads digital strategies for B2B and eCommerce clients. She is also a teacher, industry speaker and author, as well as a co-founder of two international Christmas eCommerce stores. Twitter  | Linkedin

Recorded December 13, 2022 It’s been a momentous year of product development for Wix’s SEO team and we are excited to recap on the latest additions and updates to our product portfolio. Join Nati Elimelech, Head of SEO, and Einat Hoobian-Seybold, SEO Product Lead, for a demo of our new features and a sneak peek of what’s to come. Check out the webinar's deck This webinar will cover: Our latest SEO tools and features How to use them Upcoming product releases Meet your hosts: Einat Hoobian-Seybold SEO Product Lead, Wix Einat began her SEO career by developing organic strategies for top global brands and later discovered her love for product development. As the Product Lead for Wix SEO–Einat builds impactful products that make SEO accessible and approachable to over 200M users around the world. Twitter | Linkedi n Nati Elimelech Head of SEO, Wix With over 15 years of experience and a focus in large scale website optimization, Nati was the CEO of a prominent SEO agency catering to some of Israel’s biggest brands. As the Head of SEO at Wix, he focuses on helping platforms be search-engine friendly and building SEO products. Twitter | Linkedin Mordy Oberstein Head of SEO Branding, Wix In addition to leading SEO branding at Wix, Mordy also serves as a communications advisor for Semrush. Dedicated to SEO education, Mordy is one of the organizers of SEOchat and a popular industry author and speaker. He also hosts the SEO Rant Podcast and Edge of the Web’s news podcast. Twitter | Linkedin Crystal Carter Head of SEO Communications, Wix Crystal is an SEO & Digital Marketing professional with over 15 years of experience. Her global business clients have included Disney, McDonalds and Tomy. An avid SEO Communicator, her work has been featured at Google Search Central, Brighton SEO, Moz, DeepCrawl, Semrush and more. Twitter | Linkedin