Search Results

Updated: May 18, 2023 Author: George Nguyen Knowing whether your pages have been crawled (discovered by Google) or indexed (stored in Google’s index), or whether your structured data markup is valid, for example, can help you fine-tune your online presence and make large leaps in search visibility. For years, Google has provided this information via Search Console, its platform for measuring search traffic and performance. To make those insights and tools more accessible to all business owners and SEO professionals, Wix now offers an approachable way to monitor and understand your site’s issues and indexing status at scale. The Wix Site Inspection tool enables you to keep an eye on your site’s technical health, mobile usability, rich result eligibility, and more, without having to pull the data manually or leave the Wix dashboard. In this article, we’ll discuss: How to get started with the Wix Site Inspection tool How to read the Site Inspection dashboard Ways to use Site Inspection data What to know before you get started The Wix Site Inspection tool Our Site Inspection tool enables you to monitor the status of your pages in Google’s index from within your Wix dashboard. The data within the Site Inspection dashboard (shown below) comes directly from Google via its URL Inspection API . The Wix Site Inspection dashboard. The Site Inspection tool is organized to show you: The proportion of your pages that Google has indexed and excluded The most common status details associated with your pages An overview of your site’s usability on mobile devices The index status, status details, mobile usability, and rich results eligibility for each of your URLs This can be very valuable information because URLs that aren’t indexed aren’t eligible to show in Google’s search results, meaning that your potential clients, customers, and visitors will never discover those pages in Google Search. How to get started with the Wix Site Inspection tool To access your Site Inspection dashboard , first, go to your Wix dashboard. In the left-hand navigation panel, click on Marketing & SEO , and then SEO Tools from the dropdown menu. Finally, select Site Inspection . If this is your first time accessing the Site Inspection tool, then you’ll be prompted to inspect your site (as shown above). Because the data comes from Google, your website must first be published and connected to Google Search Console (GSC). Once you’ve run the inspection, you’ll be taken to the Site Inspection dashboard . The Site Inspection dashboard at a glance The top of the Site Inspection dashboard includes a Highlights section that can help you understand your site’s overall health in terms of Google indexing and mobile usability (how well your site pages work on mobile devices). Let’s take a closer look at each of the three sections that make up your Site Inspection Highlights . Index status overview This section tells you how many of your pages Google has indexed or excluded from its index. Pay attention to the number of pages that fall into the various status categories, as they can indicate whether pages have issues or don’t appear in search results, for example. Indexation statuses include: Valid — The page is indexed and can appear in search results. (This does not guarantee that it will appear in search results.) Warning — Google may or may not have indexed this page depending on its specific warning status. This means that the page may not appear in search results. Invalid — Google did not index this page due to an error on it. Excluded — Google crawled this page, but decided not to index it. Unspecified — Google doesn't currently have any information for this page. As you plan your optimizations based on this information, it’s worth remembering that not all your pages should be available via search engines. “Thank you” pages and gated content, for example, may not provide value to users coming from the search results. Top status details The top status details provide additional context for the information in the index status overview (discussed above). Essentially, these are the reasons why pages couldn’t be indexed or haven’t yet been indexed. Below are explanations of some of the status details you may see: Submitted and indexed — You submitted the URL and Google has indexed it. It can appear in search results. URL is unknown to Google — The URL has not yet been found by Google. This may be because it’s a new page or it has no links directing to it. Crawled - currently not indexed — Google has crawled the page, but decided not to index it for search results at the moment (it may or may not be indexed in the future). Discovered - currently not indexed — Google found the page, but decided not to crawl it for search results at the moment. This is usually because Google decided that crawling this page would overload your site and rescheduled crawling for a later time. Indexed, not submitted in sitemap — Google indexed this page, even though it's not included in your site’s sitemap. It can appear in search results. Mobile usability This section provides an overview of how well your site pages work on mobile devices. While this does not specifically pertain to indexation, it does relate to mobile-friendliness, which is a Google ranking factor . Additionally, mobile-friendly sites make it easier for users to access content and convert. Here is an explanation of the details listed in this section: Valid — The page meets a minimum level for mobile usability and should work well on mobile devices. A page may still have some mobile usability issues even if it displays this status. Issues — This indicates that a page has issues that will prevent it from working well on mobile devices. Invalid — Google did not index this page due to an error on it. You may be able to request that Google index the page after you fix the error. Unspecified — Pages for which Google currently has no information. This may be because Google couldn’t retrieve the page or test its mobile usability at the time of the report. Within your Full Report section (more on that below), “No data” may also show as the mobile usability status of an individual page. This means that Google has not indexed the page and that it doesn’t have any information about the page’s mobile usability. Full Report section While the Highlights section presents information that’s useful for understanding the overall health of your site, the Full Report section provides page-level details, which can help you make specific fixes and optimizations. In this section, you’ll see: Page name Type of page (e.g., Main Page, Blog Post, etc.) Index status (e.g., Valid, Excluded) Status details (e.g., Submitted and indexed, Unknown to Google, etc.) Mobile usability status (e.g., Valid, Invalid, No data) Rich results eligibility At the top of the Full Report , there’s a search bar that allows you to search any of the fields within the report. There are also filtering options (shown in the image above) that enable you to view data for pages of a certain type (blog post, main page, product page, etc.), index status, mobile usability status, and/or rich results status. Use the search bar and filters together to quickly look up a page or scan for issues. You can learn more about an individual page’s status and details by selecting it in the Full Report . Doing so launches the page result information panel (shown below) for the associated page. Here, you can review more details about a page’s coverage status, mobile usability, and rich results eligibility. The Learn more links direct you to the Site Inspection tool’s Wix Help Center page , where you can dig into specific statuses to correct errors that may be hindering your search visibility or mobile user experience. Additionally, you can view the URL inspection report within GSC for the associated page by clicking on the Google Search Console link at the bottom of the panel. There, users with owner or full user access can request that Google crawl that particular URL . Ways to use Site Inspection data Site Inspection data can act as a portal into how Google sees your site, which is invaluable for troubleshooting and planning your optimizations. Below are a few scenarios where the Site Inspection tool may be particularly helpful. Identify and troubleshoot content that hasn’t been indexed The Full Report displays a list of your site’s URLs. You can scan the index status column to quickly identify pages that haven’t been indexed (these pages won’t be eligible to show in Google search results). For pages that should be indexed, you can reference the status details (coverage) column to learn more about the page’s status . For example, a “Crawled - currently not indexed” status could indicate that Google thinks the content is thin or identical to content on another URL, while the “Unknown to Google” status likely means that Google has yet to discover the content. Improve your mobile usability In instances where a page shows an “Invalid” mobile usability status, the mobile usability section of that page’s result information panel may explicitly tell you why. This can enable you to quickly identify the issue and implement a fix. Our Site Inspection Help Center page includes a detailed section about the various mobile usability statuses. For an even more comprehensive review of a page’s mobile-friendliness, paste the URL into Google's Mobile Friendly test tool . Verify rich result eligibility Rich results , which are generated via structured data markup , are search listings that contain information beyond the standard URL, page title, and description. Since they’re visually distinct from traditional results, they may make your listings stand out. An example of an FAQ rich result. The rich results column of the Full Report may indicate that your rich results are valid, the availability of optional fixes, or that there are issues preventing your rich results from rendering properly. When an optional fix is shown, the rich result will still render. However, implementing the optional fixes suggested in the page’s result information panel may help you add more information to your rich results. An “Issues” status indicates that the given page’s structured data is missing one or more required fields and will not render properly. Again, accessing the page result information panel can reveal more actionable details—in the example below, the missing field is explicitly highlighted. When a rich result is valid, you can open up the page result information panel to view the type of rich result that page is eligible for. The rich results section whether the structured data applied to a page is valid, along with the rich result type the page is eligible for. Note: By default, Wix adds preset structured data markups to some of your site’s pages. Before you get started with the Wix Site Inspection tool To get the most out of this tool, it’s important to be aware of the requirements and limitations associated with it. When using the Wix Site Inspection tool, keep in mind: The Site Inspection tool displays information about the most recently indexed version of your site. This may not be the same as the current, live version of your site, as it takes Google time to crawl and index site changes. Google has a scan limit of 2000 pages per day—if you exceed this limit, you’ll need to wait 24 hours before you can scan your site again. It may take some time for Google to index changes on your site. If you see issues in the report that you've already addressed, you can ask Google to recrawl your pages . Evaluate your technical SEO with Wix’s built-in tools The Site Inspection tool can open up a world of potential optimizations, but even so, there are likely other aspects of your site’s technical health to monitor and improve. For those concerned about Google’s ability to efficiently crawl their sites, Wix’s bot log reports are an excellent place to start. George Nguyen - Director of SEO Editorial, Wix George Nguyen is the Director of SEO Editorial at Wix. He creates content to help users and marketers better understand how search works. He was formerly a search news journalist and is known to speak at the occasional industry event. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: George Nguyen Your site’s technical health is a crucial part of your search visibility. If you don’t maintain it, search engines like Google may not properly crawl and index your pages. This means that the content you’ve worked so hard to create might never make it to the search results, which can mean fewer potential customers for your business. Server logs can help you avoid this by highlighting areas to troubleshoot and better ways to optimize your site. With the help of Wix’s log data reports and some familiarity with server logs, you’ll be able to remedy problems that could be affecting Google’s ability to efficiently crawl your site (i.e., crawl budget). What are server logs? How search engine bots work Server logs are records of every request a server receives, including requests from bots (automated programs that sites like Google use to crawl your pages) and human visitors. These requests represent attempts to view a page on your site. Each time a user or bot makes a request, the server records: The page that was requested The request date The response the request got Server responses are shown as status codes, which are grouped into five classes: 1XX – Informational response. Request received and understood. 2XX – Success. Request received, understood, and accepted. 3XX – Redirection. An additional action was taken to complete the request. 4XX – Client error. There was an error; the request could not be completed. 5XX – Server error. The server could not complete the action. What server logs can tell us For SEO purposes, we’re going to focus on the log data from bots, which can reveal insights you can use to improve your organic visibility. These include: Which pages are or aren’t getting crawled by search engines Which pages may be getting crawled too often or not enough Errors on your site that search engine bots are encountering For example, if you’ve created a new product page but it’s not receiving traffic, your bot log reports could tell you whether search engine bots have crawled it. If they haven’t, that may explain why no users have visited the page. Wix’s bot log reports Wix users can access their bot log data by navigating to the Analytics & Reports section of their dashboard, and then selecting Reports . In the Marketing & SEO section, click the “show more” button to reveal the Bot Traffic over Time , Bot Traffic by Page , and Response Status over Time reports. Access your bot log reports by going to the Analytics & Reports section of your dashboard, and then selecting Reports. These reports only include requests from bots, which is what you need to troubleshoot technical SEO issues. In addition to viewing this information in the Wix dashboard, you can also download the reports as Excel, CSV or image files to use later. Now, let’s take a closer look at each report to see how you can use them to improve your site’s SEO. Bot Traffic over Time You can use the Bot Traffic over Time report to view which bots have crawled your site or to get an overview of bot traffic trends over time. This information can help you: See whether Google or another search engine crawled your site (or a specific page) recently Estimate the time between when a search engine crawls a page and when the page gets indexed This report is visualized as a split bar chart (shown below). The Bot Traffic over Time report in Wix. Highlighting a segment of a bar will show you how many requests a bot made on a given date. In the example above, we can see that Bingbot made 11 requests on February 11. Filters can help you find the data that matters most By default, this report shows request data from the most common bots, but you can add or remove bots using the Select bots option. You can also segment the data to find exactly what you’re looking for by using the following filters: Entry page – This shows the report for a specific page (or set of pages) on your site Response status classes – This shows just the data for pages that are returning 2XX, 3XX, 4XX, or 5XX status codes, which can be useful for troubleshooting. Response status codes – This enables you to go into more detail and view the report for just the pages that are returning a specific status code (such as 404s, for example). Bot Traffic by Page Your Bot Traffic by Page report shows how frequently your pages are crawled, which can help you see: Which pages on your site are getting crawled the most Whether search engines are crawling your pages more or less often You can view this report as a bar chart (shown below) or as a customizable table by selecting the Table option above the chart. The Bot Traffic by Page report in Wix. Use the table view for more detailed analysis To get an easier, yet deeper understanding, switch over to the table view of your report. The Bot Traffic by Page report presented as a chart. In this view, you can add or remove columns, such as Date, Bot, Entry page, Unique pages, and so on, enabling you to create an overview with just the information you’re looking for. Response Status over Time Your Response Status over Time report is where you’ll go to learn about errors that may be preventing your content from reaching users. It can help you: See whether redirects are working correctly Identify missing pages ( 404 status code ) that can be redirected to improve user experience The Response Status over Time report in Wix. You can view this information in two ways: Unique pages – This shows the number of different pages on your site that received a response status code. Hits – This shows the number of times a specific page was visited by a bot. You can also filter this data by bot, entry page or response status code. And, the table view for this report enables you to toggle columns to show more or less data. Now that you’re familiar with bot log reports, the next step is to check in on them regularly so that you can continue to fix errors and find more ways to improve your SEO. The subscription options for bot log reports in Wix. Consider scheduling each report so that they automatically get sent to your inbox as often as you like. You can do this by selecting the Subscribe button at the top-right of each report. Monitor bot log reports to identify issues and opportunities Log data is no different from your regular user analytics in that they both allow you to monitor crucial site functions and provide you with areas to troubleshoot or optimize. Now that you understand how to interpret this data, take a look at your reports to establish a baseline. Then, subscribe to your reports so that you’re always up to date with your site’s technical health and can address problems as they arise. George Nguyen - Director of SEO Editorial, Wix George Nguyen is the Director of SEO Editorial at Wix. He creates content to help users and marketers better understand how search works. He was formerly a search news journalist and is known to speak at the occasional industry event. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: George Nguyen Rich results are search listings that contain additional information beyond the standard URL, page title and description. They also include visual enhancements and/or interactive features. An example of a standard search listing (above) and an example of a rich result (below) with star ratings, review count, price and availability information. Rich results come in many different forms and serve various purposes. They may appear similar to standard listings, but with elements such as reviews, prices, or star ratings, for example. Other times, they may be less subtle—for instance, the rich result example below shows a drop-down menu for frequently asked questions. A search listing featuring frequently asked questions (FAQ). Rich results can also include additional text links, a search box and more. In this article, we’ll dive into: The benefits of rich results How rich results work Common types of rich results Breadcrumbs Review snippets Product-related snippets Recipe snippets Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) How-to snippets Other enhanced result types Featured snippets Knowledge Panels People also ask Note: The term “rich snippet” is often used interchangeably with “rich result”—this may be because Google used to refer to these result types as “ rich snippets .” Since the search engine now uses the term “rich result,” this post will as well. Additionally, some rich result types are still known as snippets, like the featured snippet, for example. Benefits of rich results Rich results improve the search experience before potential visitors even land on your site. If you’re already offering people relevant information from the search results, they’re more likely to trust your brand. This increases the chances that people will visit your site , make a purchase, or use your services. The recipe carousel is a collection of rich results. The star ratings, cooking time, and ingredients help searchers quickly identify recipes that fit their needs. Rich results also make your listings stand out from standard listings. This gives you more online visibility and can help distinguish your brand from the competition. How rich results work Search engines generate rich results from structured data markup , which is code that can be added to your pages. While search engines crawl the content of your pages so that they can potentially index and rank them, that’s not enough information for the search engines to create rich results. Structured data markup allows you to put that content into context for search engines. For example, you can use structured data markup to tell search engines that a particular page is a product page. Search engines use that information to enrich search listings with more information, like the product’s price or whether it’s in stock. Schema.org is the industry standard for adding structured data markup. There are over 1,300 structured data properties that support different types of websites and content. There are also several structured data formats. Wix supports JSON-LD , which is also what Google recommends . It’s worth noting, structured data has no direct impact on your rankings . However, Google has said that it “uses structured data that it finds on the web to understand the content of the page, as well as to gather information about the web and the world in general.” Information used to generate rich results can also come from a variety sources, such as other websites or the Knowledge Graph (see the Knowledge Panels section below). Common types of rich results Depending on the search intent, several types of rich results may appear on the search engine results page ( SERP ). Some are reserved for specific uses, such as Google’s COVID-19 announcement rich result, while others you’re probably already familiar with. Below are some of the more commonly found rich results. Breadcrumbs Breadcrumbs tell potential visitors about a page’s position within a site’s hierarchy. This helps them navigate a site more efficiently to find what they’re looking for. Breadcrumbs are appropriate for many types of sites. They can be especially useful for sites with rich structures, such as online retailers with a wide range of product categories. Review snippets Review snippets typically include star ratings (shown below). They may also be accompanied by other information, like the number of reviews or the reviewers’ names. On top of being a rich result, this snippet may also show up in Knowledge Panels (an information box that appears on the right-hand side of the SERP when looking for a person, place, thing or organization). Google and other search engines support review snippets for the following content types: Products Movies Books Recipes Events Local businesses Courses How-to’s Software apps If you sell or create content that falls into one of those categories, review snippets can make potential customers more interested in what you have to offer. Keep in mind that the “Product” content type is a broad category—product can also apply to your content and business offerings. Product-related snippets You can mark up your pages to display product availability, price, and ratings on your search listings. If you’re a Wix site owner, Wix Stores automatically adds product markup to your product pages. Applying structured data to your product pages will also enhance your Google image results with that information. An image search result with star ratings, price, and availability. This snippet is useful for online retailers and service providers. But, you’ll want to verify that your prices are competitive and your products are in stock. If your price point is too high or you’re out of inventory, searchers may skip over your page in favor of a site that has what they need. Recipe snippets For recipe content, site owners can add structured data to display ratings, preparation time, and nutrition information. Adding recipe structured data can also allow smart devices to display or read your recipes aloud. Recipe snippets can also show up in Google’s recipe carousel. Keep in mind, recipe carousels don't necessarily reflect the top search listings. If Google includes your recipe in the carousel, you could be leapfrogging your competitors. While this rich snippet relates to recipes, you don't have to have a cooking blog to take advantage of it. Get creative—you can publish recipes associated with your brand (like DoubleTree Hotels did), or recipes that use your products. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) FAQ rich results contain a list of questions and answers about a particular topic. All of the answers are sourced from the page they appear under. FAQ structured data can make your listings more prominent on the SERP, potentially attracting more traffic. However, they can also resolve a searcher’s question without them having to visit your site. FAQ sections (and similar rich results) can help filter site traffic, meaning visitors that do click through have higher intent and are more likely to engage with your brand. Test out this structured data on your pages to see what works best for your site. Wix site owners can use the Wix FAQ app to automatically add an FAQ section to their site. How-to snippets How-to snippets are best suited for content that’s viewed as a sequence, such as tutorials or walkthroughs. These snippets can appear as text, images, or video. In the example below, the how-to snippet is a carousel of captioned images. A how-to snippet on the mobile SERP. How-to snippets can also appear as a video or image. When structured data is properly applied, this rich result can be read aloud by the Google Assistant. This can increase your content’s reach to users beyond a smartphone or computer screen. Other enhanced result types The final three result types are a bit different because they don’t require structured data. Featured snippets Featured snippets are what search engines consider to be the best answer for a given query. They are highly visible, generally appear at the top of the SERP, and take up more real estate than a typical listing. This makes featured snippets a very valuable asset for branding. Featured snippets are most likely to show up when a user’s query takes the form of a question. Google can display “answer” excerpts from a page as a paragraph, a list, or a table of information. Unlike typical search results, where the page title comes first, the excerpt is the focus. Instead of being powered by structured data, search engine algorithms determine which content appears as a featured snippet. You can increase your odds of earning a featured snippet by anticipating audience questions and answering them in your page content. Present your answer as a paragraph, list, or table, since these are the formats Google supports. Keep in mind, featured snippets are rarely longer than three sentences, so make sure your answers are to-the-point. For site owners, having a featured snippet can be a mixed bag: On one hand, your brand and content are more prominent on the SERP. On the other hand, providing a direct answer may eliminate the need for searchers to click through to your site. If your pages are showing up on SERPs that contain featured snippets, you might as well optimize for it. If the presence of a featured snippet prevents users from clicking on the top result, that might be happening to all the other listings on the page as well. At the very least, your brand could gain by appearing as the trusted provider of the answer, if you’re able to earn the featured snippet. Knowledge Panels Knowledge Panels are a special type of rich result that appear on the right-hand side of desktop search results, or near the top of mobile results. This feature is very prominent on the SERP, which is good for the brands they represent. Wix’s Knowledge Panel includes a brief overview of the company, business details, a drop-down menu of information that users might be interested in, and links to Wix’s social profiles. Knowledge Panels are a bit trickier to earn. The information they present comes from the Knowledge Graph, a system that connects facts about people, places, things, and how they’re related to one another. Search engines might gather some of that information from your website. They can also get information about you from other sites, like Wikipedia or LinkedIn. Once search engines have enough information in your Knowledge Graph entry, they will automatically show Knowledge Panels when people search for your brand. From here, you can claim your Knowledge Panel and suggest changes. The local Knowledge Panel For local businesses, creating a local Knowledge Panel is as simple as creating a Google Business Profile . These panels are similar to regular Knowledge Panels, but without the “share” icon at the top. They usually include a map and other details customers typically look for, like business hours. Both brand and local Knowledge Panels act as virtual billboards for your business, helping searchers learn more about you. Having a Knowledge Panel may also increase trust amongst prospective customers. This is especially true for brand Knowledge Panels, which are curated by Google or Bing and not controlled by the brand itself. These panels may also contain links to your social channels, which can boost your follower count. People Also Ask The People Also Ask (PAA) box has become a common feature on SERPs. It typically contains three or four questions related to the search query. When a user clicks on one of the questions, it expands with an answer. The answer is typically followed by more related questions, which are dynamically populated. Similar to featured snippets, the answer to the question appears prominently and is accompanied by a link to the site. There are some important differences between PAA boxes and featured snippets: PAA answers can be excerpts from pages that don’t even appear on the first page of the SERP. This gives sites that own these answers an opportunity to gain visibility over listings that outrank them. The other distinction is that the PAA box offers a list of questions that users are curious about—this can serve as a valuable tool for researching keywords and sourcing relevant content ideas. Search engine algorithms determine which questions and answers appear in the PAA section. To increase your odds of landing a PAA answer, write complete question and answer pairs within your content, using plain language, and apply Q&A schema . Take a look at the PAA box for your brand’s own search result page. If you don’t already own the answer to those questions, this is a good place to start. Use rich results to get more visibility for your pages The first step to creating a successful website is crafting pages and content that are right for your audience. However, those pages won’t serve your brand or business if nobody discovers them. Applying structured data to your pages can help search engines turn your listings into rich results that grab people’s attention and inform them about your content. Now that you’re familiar with the most common rich results, refer to Google’s complete list of rich result types to see which ones might be right for your site. There, you’ll find tips on how to add structured data and optimize your brand’s visibility for the SERP. George Nguyen - Director of SEO Editorial, Wix George Nguyen is the Director of SEO Editorial at Wix. He creates content to help users and marketers better understand how search works. He was formerly a search news journalist and is known to speak at the occasional industry event. Twitter | Linkedin

Updated: May 8, 2023 Author: George Nguyen Google employs thousands of people to scrutinize its search results and provide them with feedback—these people are known as “search quality raters.” “Their feedback helps us understand which changes make Search more useful. Raters also help us categorize information to improve our systems. For example, we might ask what language a page is written in or what’s important on a page. We use responses from raters to evaluate changes, but they don’t directly impact how our search results are ranked.” — Google Search Help page In other words, Google uses data from search quality raters like a restaurant might use feedback from its customers. This feedback helps Google assess whether their algorithms are working as intended. While rater feedback doesn't directly affect rankings, over time it can inform Google about how to adjust its algorithms. These algorithms are key to how content across the web is ranked. The rubric that quality raters follow is called the Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines . These guidelines serve as a lens through which raters judge search results, and can tell us what Google considers to be a high quality result. Creating content with Google’s expectations in mind can help you signal relevance and increase your chances of ranking higher. Two concepts mentioned extensively throughout Google’s guidelines are: 01. Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) 02. Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics Let’s go over these concepts and discuss how they can be applied to your site content. Defining Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) E-E-A-T (read as “ double E-A-T ”) can be thought of as a measurement of content credibility for a particular page. Having a high degree of E-E-A-T means your content is more likely to satisfy searchers, which is ultimately Google’s goal. Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T) are all important considerations in page quality rating, but Trust is the most important. When evaluating the E-E-A-T of any given page, raters are instructed to consider: Experience — The extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic. Expertise — The extent to which the content creator has the necessary knowledge or skill for the topic. Authoritativeness : The extent to which the content creator or the website is known as a go-to source for the topic. Trust is the most important component of E-E-A-T: Pages that lack trust have low E-E-A-T regardless of how experienced, expert, or authoritative they may appear. “For example, a financial scam is untrustworthy, even if the content creator is a highly experienced and expert scammer who is considered the go-to on running scams!” Google wrote in section 3.4 of its Search Quality Guidelines. This criteria applies to pages and sites of all types, even gossip and fashion websites, forums, and everything in between. All these sites can display a high degree of E-E-A-T. Here are some examples of the type of content that Google considers as having a high degree of E-E-A-T, from section 8.4 of the guidelines (as of May 2023): News articles should showcase journalistic professionalism, be factually accurate and presented in a way that helps visitors better understand events. High E-E-A-T news sources usually publish their editorial policies and review processes. Medical advice must be created by people or organizations with medical expertise or accreditation. It should be professionally written/produced, edited, reviewed and updated on a regular basis. Information pages on scientific topics must be produced by people or organizations with scientific expertise and represent well-established scientific consensus (if consensus exists). Financial advice, legal advice, and tax advice should come from trustworthy sources and be updated regularly. Niche advice topics (i.e., home renovations, parenting, etc.) should come from trustworthy, experienced sources. Credibility matters because these topics impact individuals’ finances or overall happiness. Pages on hobbies (i.e., photography, guitar playing, etc.) require expertise. Because the formal expertise gap varies significantly between, for example, medical advice and photography tips, expertise is measured relative to the topic. Quality raters are instructed to value everyday expertise. If a content creator has enough experience with a topic to make them an expert, the likelihood of being penalized for lack formal education or training is slim. How E-E-A-T is evaluated Remember, search quality guidelines are for Google’s human raters, not search engine algorithms. Google’s Danny Sullivan described this relationship as follows: “Our systems aren't looking for [E-E-A-T]. Our raters are using that to see if our systems are working well to show good information. There are many different signals that, if we get it right, align with what a good human [E-E-A-T] assessment would be.” — Danny Sullivan , public search liaison at Google In essence, Google uses various signals in place of a “good human E-E-A-T assessment.” In February 2019, Google disclosed one of these signals in a white paper about how it fights misinformation , stating, “Google’s algorithms identify signals about pages that correlate with trustworthiness and authoritativeness. The best known of these signals is PageRank , which uses links on the web to understand authoritativeness.” Unfortunately for site owners, Google did not share the rest of the signals it uses to approximate E-E-A-T. However, SEO professionals have adapted best practices from Google’s quality guidelines to help their websites convey expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness to their customers. Some of these tactics include using expert writers, citing their sources and regularly updating content, but best practices can vary by industry. Defining Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics Some topics are more serious than others. Moreover, creating content for some topics requires more E-E-A-T than others. To that end, Google refers to pages that may potentially affect a person’s happiness, health, finances or safety as “Your Money or Your Life” pages. “For these YMYL pages, we assume that users expect us to operate with our strictest standards of trustworthiness and safety,” Google said in its white paper on fighting misinformation. “Where our algorithms detect that a user’s query relates to a ‘YMYL’ topic, we will give more weight in our ranking systems to factors like our understanding of the authoritativeness, expertise or trustworthiness [E-A-T] of the pages we present in response.” — Google, How Google Fights Disinformation , February 2019 Simply put, Google gives more weight in its ranking algorithms to factors indicating E-E-A-T for YMYL topics. You should know whether the content you’re creating falls under a YMYL topic. If it does, you may have to reinforce its E-E-A-T and update it regularly . This helps you provide the most accurate information to visitors and signals to Google that your content deserves to rank well. You can assess whether a topic is YMYL by evaluating the types of harm that might occur (section 2.3 of the search quality guidelines): YMYL Health or Safety : Topics that could harm mental, physical, and emotional health, or any form of safety such as physical safety or safety online. YMYL Financial Security : Topics that could damage a person's ability to support themselves and their families. YMYL Society : Topics that could negatively impact groups of people, issues of public interest, trust in public institutions, etc. YMYL Other : Topics that could hurt people or negatively impact welfare or well-being of society. Google holds “clear YMYL” topics to the highest level of scrutiny for page quality rating. The chart below (also taken from section 2.3 of the search quality guidelines) provides examples of the YMYL spectrum for various topics. Type of Topic Clear YMYL Topic ​May be YMYL Topic Not or Unlikely YMYL Topic ​ Information Could significant harm result from inaccurate information? ​ Evacuation routes for a tsunami Explanation : Inaccurate information on evacuation routes could cause significant harm to people. ​ Weather forecast Explanation : In most situations, slightly inaccurate information about the weather forecast will not cause harm. People often ask family members "what's the weather today". Music award winners Explanation : This topic is unlikely to cause harm. Advice about an activity Could significant harm result from poor advice? ​ When to go to the emergency room Explanation : Bad advice on when to go to the emergency room could cause significant harm. ​ How often to replace a toothbrush Explanation : This is a casual health topic people commonly discuss with friends. A slightly imperfect suggestion is unlikely to significantly impact health or safety. ​ How frequently to wash jeans Explanation : This topic is unlikely to cause harm. ​ A personal opinion What impact could this opinion have on other people and society? ​ Personal opinion about why a racial group is inferior Explanation :Pages on this topic have been used to justify or incite violence against groups of people. ​ Personal opinion about why an exercise is inferior Explanation : While there may be a health concern if the exercise is extreme or risky, most discussions of jogging vs swimming, etc. involve personal preference. ​ Personal opinion about why a rock band is inferior Explanation : This topic is unlikely to cause harm, although there may be strong opinions involved! ​ News about current event Could this topic significantly impact people and society? For societal impact, consider issues such as elections and trust in public institutions that benefit society ​ News about ongoing violence Explanation : People need accurate information to stay safe. Society may also be impacted by information about ongoing violence, as citizens and governments make civic decisions accordingly. ​ News about a car accident Explanation : The accident itself may have been harmful, but there is likely little risk of future harm from small inaccuracies in reporting about an incident. ​ News about a local high school basketball game Explanation : This topic is unlikely to cause harm. ​ Sharing on social media Could the social media post cause significant harm? Could it hurt individuals? Could it damage society if widely shared? ​ A tide pod challenge post Explanation : This harmful social media challenge was responsible for deaths. A hot sauce challenge Explanation : While some people may experience some discomfort by tasting various hot sauces, it is unlikely that sharing about such challenges would cause significant harm. ​ A music video Explanation : This type of content generally has little risk of harm. ​ Online commerce and product reviews Consider the product. Could the product cause significant harm? ​ Purchasing prescription drugs Explanation : Prescription drugs have the potential to cause harm and require purchase from licensed pharmacies. ​ Review of a type of car Explanation : While cars are big purchases, many people ask friends and family about cars. ​ Purchasing pencils Explanation : Pencils and other everyday items are unlikely to cause harm. How to convey E-E-A-T As mentioned, the PageRank algorithm is one of the signals used to determine E-E-A-T. That means acquiring backlinks to your content can help you communicate E-E-A-T to Google. However, the consensus in the SEO industry is that not all backlinks have the same value. Google is unlikely to value a link in the comments section of a YouTube video as highly as it may value a link from a government website or The Washington Post , for example. This makes it difficult to manipulate the system by spamming links across forums or acquiring illegitimate links through private blog networks. In addition to backlinks, there are several ways to vouch for your site’s credibility. Here are a few places to start: Create an “About Us” page: Your organization’s history and its staff can help contextualize your site’s E-E-A-T. Be transparent, but also highlight reasons why your brand/business is trustworthy. If you’re publishing opinions based on decades of experience, here’s where you can tell people about your expertise. Display your contact details: Contact information should be included in your “About Us” page and footer. Making it easy for visitors to reach out to you conveys credibility and can help build trust. Include author biographies: Showcasing your authors’ experiences and qualifications shows visitors that your content is informed by trusted expertise. An example of an author bio with social media links. Include links to get in touch with your authors through their social media accounts and/or email addresses. Use HTTPS: HTTPS is now the standard and Google ranks these sites more favorably (compared to HTTP websites, all other considerations being equal). Using HTTPS makes your site more secure for visitors by encrypting their information. Better security may even mean that your site is more trustworthy. There are also ways in which your content can help convey E-E-A-T: Maintain focus throughout your content: While you probably wouldn’t consult with a car mechanic for plumbing advice, publishing content on irrelevant topics may raise eyebrows for your audience. Stick to your main subject area and if a topic is tangentially related, make sure to explain how they are connected. Cite your sources: Unsubstantiated claims are simply opinions, which makes them less credible. Clearly citing where your information comes from bolsters your E-E-A-T by leveraging the E-E-A-T of your sources. Update your content regularly: This is especially important if your topic changes often. Fresh content has a higher chance of being relevant because it takes into account the latest findings, trends, and most recent events . Trustworthy content helps you satisfy visitors and search engines The search quality guidelines give us a detailed description of the type of content Google values. Keep these principles in mind when creating pages so that you can satisfy the search engines, lift your rankings, and drive more visitors to your site. More importantly, E-E-A-T and YMYL are human concepts. Sticking to them will help you make the most out of that increased traffic by providing your audience with well-crafted, relevant content. George Nguyen - Director of SEO Editorial, Wix George Nguyen is the Director of SEO Editorial at Wix. He creates content to help users and marketers better understand how search works. He was formerly a search news journalist and is known to speak at the occasional industry event. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: Flora Bazie Digital accessibility is not on the horizon—it’s here and legislation mandating it has become a movement worldwide: In Canada (where I’m based), the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act’s final compliance deadline was January 1, 2025. In the US, the ADA Title II Web Accessibility Rule was finalized last year, setting a schedule for compliance for all state and local government websites (the Title III regulations for private businesses were finalized back in 1991). The European Accessibility Act (EAA) becomes a legal requirement on June 28, 2025. These regulations require that websites, digital platforms, and services are accessible to all individuals, particularly those with disabilities. There’s also another important element that they all have in common: they’re built around compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. In this guide, I’ll help you understand how to meet EAA requirements as well as the WCAG 2.1 guidance, so that your business is that much closer to meeting global accessibility requirements, and show you how that benefits your users and your SEO efforts. Table of contents: The European Accessibility Act: What businesses and agencies need to know Scope and coverage Legal requirements and standards Penalties and benefits Why better accessibility also means better SEO Achieving accessibility compliance: A step-by-step approach 01. Run an automated accessibility audit 02. Test manually 03. Fix the accessibility issues you identified 04. Validate Fixes 05. Add an accessibility statement to your website 06. Prioritize ongoing accessibility optimizations Case studies: Digital accessibility failure & success Validate your accessibility compliance with real users The European Accessibility Act: What businesses and agencies need to know The EAA aims to enhance the accessibility of digital services and products across the European Union. Its primary objective is to promote equal access to the digital economy by eliminating barriers that individuals with disabilities face online. Here are the need-to-know aspects of the European Accessibility Act: Scope and coverage Legal requirements and standards Penalties and benefits Scope and coverage The EAA applies to a wide range of digital services and products, including: Platform/service EAA mandates Websites and mobile applications All public sector websites and mobile applications within the EU must comply with the EAA's accessibility standards. eCommerce platforms Online shopping platforms must ensure that their websites are navigable and usable by individuals with various disabilities. Banking services Online banking services must be accessible, allowing users with disabilities to manage their finances independently. Transportation services Digital platforms providing transportation services must be usable by all individuals, including those with disabilities. Television services Online television services must provide accessible content, including features like subtitles and audio descriptions. It’s important to note that the EAA provides exemptions for microenterprises . Microenterprises are businesses with:  Fewer than 10 employees AND An annual turnover not exceeding €2 million OR an annual balance sheet not exceeding €2 million Service businesses that fit the ‘microenterprise’ criteria above are generally exempt from EAA requirements for the services they offer . Microbusinesses that sell products face partial exemptions . Legal requirements and standards One of the key standards referenced in the EAA is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 , particularly the Level AA criteria. These guidelines offer a comprehensive framework that caters to a broader spectrum of individuals with disabilities. (Note: WCAG has three conformance standards: A, AA, and AAA, with AAA being the highest level of accessibility for the widest range of users.) The EAA requires that digital services and products meet the following WCAG 2.1 principles:  Perceivable:  Ensure interface elements and information are presented in ways users can perceive (e.g., text re-sizing and captions for video). Operable:  Design user interface components and navigation to be operable (e.g., keyboard accessibility and avoiding flashing screens to minimize seizure risks). Understandable:  Make information and user interface operations understandable (e.g., consistent navigation and error suggestions). Robust : Content must be robust enough to work with current and future user tools. By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your digital services and products are accessible to all users. Penalties and benefits If you fail to comply with the EAA, your brand may face significant legal and financial consequences. These penalties can vary by country, as each EU member state determines its own consequences for EAA non-compliance . Penalties vary across EU member states, but they can include: Fines: Depending on the country, fines can range from €5,000 to €500,000.  Daily penalties: Ongoing non-compliance may incur daily fines until you correct the issue(s).  Legal actions: Individuals may file lawsuits against organizations that fail to comply with accessibility requirements.  For instance, companies already under the Stanca Act in Italy receive a 90-day notice to meet accessibility requirements, with fines up to 5% of their annual turnover for non-compliance.  Accessibility optimization is not just a matter of avoiding penalties, though. Complying with the EAA also offers substantial benefits: Broad audience reach Making digital services and products accessible increases your potential user base, including individuals with disabilities. Enhanced user experience Accessible designs improve user experience  across the board, not just for those with disabilities. Superior branding Demonstrating a commitment to accessibility can enhance your organization’s reputation and branding . Improved SEO Accessible websites are often better structured, leading to improved search engine rankings. Let’s take a closer look at the ways in which accessibility can promote your organic search visibility. Why better accessibility also means better SEO  Understanding the full range of benefits that come with accessibility compliance can help you deliver a better proposal to your stakeholders , ultimately increasing the odds that your recommendations get approved and resourced.  To that end, keep the following accessibility and SEO benefits  in mind: Improved crawlability  — Search engines like Google prioritize sites that are well-structured and easy to crawl . By implementing accessibility best practices, such as using proper heading structures, you make it easier for search engine crawlers to understand and index your content. This leads to better visibility in search engine results pages. Enhanced user experience  — I briefly touched on this above. Features like keyboard navigation and screen reader compatibility improve user experience, leading to longer site visits and reduced bounce rates. A positive user experience signals to search engines that your site is valuable, which can improve your rankings. Expanded reach  — By making your site accessible, you’re extending an invitation to individuals with disabilities, thereby increasing potential users. This expanded reach can result in more backlinks  and social shares, which are positive SEO signals. Improved mobile optimization  — Accessible websites are typically optimized for mobile devices, which play a crucial role in SEO (due to mobile-first indexing ). Responsive design and mobile-friendly features improve UX on smartphones and tablets, leading to better search engine rankings. Increased dwell time and reduced bounce rates  — When users can easily navigate and use your website, they stay longer and check out more pages. Search engines may use dwell time and bounce rates  as an indicator of whether your content is relevant and engaging.  Achieving accessibility compliance: A step-by-step approach Now that you understand why accessibility is a competitive advantage (not just a legal requirement), let’s run through a basic workflow that you can use to enhance and maintain your brand’s accessibility as your website grows. 01. Run an automated accessibility audit The Wix Accessibility Wizard. Utilize tools, like Wix’s built-in Accessibility Wizard , WAVE, or Accessibility Insights, to scan your website for issues. These tools provide reports that highlight opportunities for better accessibility. Pros of automated accessibility audits Cons of automated accessibility audits Quick identification of common issues Provides actionable insights May not catch all accessibility issues Requires periodic re-scanning as content updates 02. Test manually Navigate your website using only a keyboard and screen reader to identify issues that automated tools might miss. Pay particular attention to: Keyboard accessibility  — Make sure users can access all interactive elements via keyboard. Screen reader compatibility  — Verify that content reads in a logical order and that all elements are announced correctly. Pay special attention to special characters, such as emojis. And while you’re at it, remember to test magnification, color contrast, and speech commands as well. Pros of manual accessibility audits Cons of manual accessibility audits You can identify problems that automated tools might miss Reflects a real-world user perspective Manual accessibility audits are more time consuming Requires familiarity with assistive technologies Manual and automated accessibility audits each have pros and cons—use both methods regularly to cover your bases. 03. Fix the accessibility issues you identified Address the issues you identified in the automated audit and manual testing phases. This may involve: Adding alt text to images Ensuring proper heading structure Use ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles when required Etc. 04. Validate Fixes Once the fixes are implemented, run automated audits again and perform manual testing to confirm that you’ve resolved all accessibility issues. 05. Add an accessibility statement to your website An accessibility statement explains your business’s commitment to accessibility. It provides users with information about the accessibility of your website and how to report any issues. What to include in an accessibility statement: Commitment to accessibility — A statement affirming your dedication to providing an accessible website. Accessibility standards applied — Information on the standards your website adheres to, such as WCAG 2.1. Known limitations — Disclose any known accessibility issues and plans for remediation. Contact information — Provide a way for users to report accessibility issues or seek assistance. An accessibility statement template from Accessible.org . 06. Prioritize ongoing accessibility optimizations Resources, such as the W3C’s WCAG 2.1 guide  and WebAIM’s tutorials  can be invaluable for furthering your knowledge of accessibility standards and best practices. You can also attend training sessions on platforms like Coursera and edX, which are often held in partnership with universities. If you have the budget, consider getting hands-on coaching by attending workshops that can give you practical experience, personalized guidance and feedback, and expert insights. Case studies: Digital accessibility failure & success Let’s take a look at some brand accessibility blunders and the ensuing fallout so you have an idea of the worst-case scenario when this crucial aspect of UX and marketing goes overlooked. On the other side of the coin, I’ll also show you some examples of brands that succeeded with accessibility as well as the impact on their businesses. Businesses sued for web accessibility failures Target Corporation (USA) Issue : In 2006, Target was sued  by the National Federation of the Blind for not providing accessible online shopping experiences for blind users. Outcome : In 2008, Target reached a settlement, agreeing to pay $6 million in damages and make its website accessible to individuals with disabilities. Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment (USA) Issue : In 2019, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Beyoncé’s company, alleging that Beyoncé.com violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by denying equal access to visually impaired users. Outcome : High-profile brands (in this case, a celebrity) can alienate groups of customers when the word gets out (see the image below). This PR disaster can easily cost more in settlements and fan abandonment than it would have to implement proper accessibility features in the first place.  Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. (USA) Issue : In 2017, a lawsuit was filed against the grocery store chain, claiming that its website was not accessible to blind users. Outcome : The court ruled that Winn-Dixie’s website qualified as a public accommodation under the ADA and must be made accessible.  Businesses that benefited from embracing accessibility Tesco (UK) Action : Invested £35,000  in making its website accessible. Outcome : Online sales jumped to £13 million annually, demonstrating a significant return on investment.  Mobility Mojo (Ireland) Action : Focused on enhancing accessibility in buildings for people with disabilities. Outcome : Secured €4.25 million in Series A funding to expand its software and impact over a billion people by improving accessibility standards. Wix (Global) Action: Introduced the free, built-in Accessibility Wizard in 2020, enabling users to identify and fix accessibility issues on their websites. Outcome: Empowered millions of users to create more inclusive websites, aligning with global accessibility standards and enhancing user experience. Validate your accessibility compliance with real users One way to ensure you’re bridging the gap between your accessibility optimizations and real business outcomes is to get feedback from users with real disabilities. In addition to validating your efforts, their insights and experiences can reveal new opportunities to enhance your website’s UX for all users. Flora Bazie - CEO, Digital Accessibility Expert at LinoraTech Inc. Flora Bazie is a bilingual (EN/FR) digital accessibility expert and speaker. She helps organizations meet legal compliance, boost SEO, and design for all abilities. Founder of LinoraTech Inc. , She empowers and inspires teams and professionals. Linkedin

Authors: Sarah Crooke & Myriam Jessier Marketers love data. We obsess over numbers, reports, and dashboards. But here’s the thing—we’re never working with a complete dataset. Perfect data is a myth and chasing it can paralyze your decision-making. Instead, embrace data pragmatism. Leverage the data you do have instead of worrying about the data you don’t.  While transactional data needs to be 100% spot-on, analytical data can already be sampled, incomplete data. Just as human behavior is fuzzy, so is the behavioral data we collect.  Why? First, we miss things —some users block tracking, some actions aren’t recorded, and some behaviors happen outside our analytics tools. Then, even when we do  collect data, platforms like GA4 sample it , meaning what we see is just an approximation. This isn’t a conspiracy—it’s just the reality of big data. Processing every single data point in real time is expensive and slow, so platforms give us the best version they can, fast . The truth is, no matter how hard you try, you are never going to get it all. Consider this: studies show that a sample size of just 70 times the number of variables  can yield valuable insights, and you’re likely working with more data than some medical studies.  It’s time to shift your perspective from data perfection to data pragmatism—time to rely on trend analysis to make informed decisions faster, optimize campaigns more effectively, and ultimately deliver results. Table of contents: Data pragmatism: Your path to meaningful insights Trend analysis crash course Mitigate inherent data bias by relying on multiple sources Custom metrics: Change the conversation, not the data 01. Articulate the challenge: Define a metric to track users’ happiness 02. Define custom metrics 03. Assemble your data sources 04. Identify patterns 05. Communicate trends & drive action Data pragmatism: Your path to meaningful insights Stop chasing perfect data accuracy and vanity metrics—both of which can lead you astray over the long run. Instead, by understanding the underlying trends and patterns that truly impact business outcomes, you can shape those outcomes in your favor.  Nike decided to do the exact opposite when it pivoted to a 'data-driven' approach  focusing solely on digital direct-to-consumer sales—a very costly mistake… This case exemplifies Goodhart’s Law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Or, as Becky Simms puts it, “ If it is easy to measure, it probably isn’t that valuable .”  By obsessing over easily quantifiable metrics, you risk ruining your business model.  A prime example of Goodhart’s Law in SEO is the obsession with keyword rankings. When you focus on this, you ignore zero-click searches and other elements. Another example in PPC: fixating on Quality Score can result in over-optimizing ad relevance at the expense of conversion intent.  Your objective as an analyst is to gain actionable insights, even if the data isn’t perfect. Here’s how:  Practical solutions  — Prioritize widely comprehensible data over complex, specialist-only metrics (e.g., instead of building an intricate customer lifetime value (CLV) model that factors in dozens of variables, use average order value (AOV) and repeat purchase rate—these are easier to track, explain, and optimize). Business-centric analysis  — Just because you can measure it doesn’t mean you should. Align your data strategy with specific business needs, context, and objectives.  Efficient resource utilization  — Streamline processes for rapid insights, minimizing obstacles. Actionable communication  — Present data in a clear, compelling manner that drives action and decision-making. Measure vs. Target  —   Avoid Goodhart’s law at all costs. Extract insights from sampled data; resist vanity metrics that compromise genuine value. TL;DR: Stop chasing perfect accuracy or complex metrics that don’t contribute to business objectives. Focus on measuring what matters. Embracing data pragmatism is key to driving meaningful business outcomes. The best way to extract meaningful insights from imperfect data sets is trend analysis. Focusing on trends rather than absolute numbers means you can make informed decisions faster, without worrying about whether the data is sampled or not.  Trend analysis crash course To get marketing insights from sampled data, you should aim for directional reporting  by, as Dana DiTomaso advises, “focusing on the data that you do have and what you can do with it to generate . . . insights so that you know what to do in order to improve your marketing, your sales—ultimately whatever goal you're trying to accomplish with your website and your business.” To that end: Stop worrying about sampling Beware of biased data Use the three types of trend analysis appropriately Follow best practices when using sampled data Stop worrying about sampling Whether we’re looking at 100% or 80% of our data, the trends hold steady. It’s not about having every single data point—it’s about seeing the big picture (which looks the same both ways). Beware of biased data While sampled data is acceptable, biased data can derail your analysis. Be aware of inherent biases, such as under-representation of privacy-conscious users or Safari users.  To detect bias: Check against other data sources — Does the percentage of groups seem roughly the same (e.g., people from certain locations, devices, interests)? Benchmark against industry standards — Major discrepancies may indicate tracking issues. Use the ‘sniff test’ — If your data seems too good (or bad) to be true, it might be faulty or biased. Takeaway: Instead of obsessing over individual keyword rankings , focus on metrics that indicate overall organic search health and user satisfaction. Pro tip: Clearly document any assumptions you make during the sampling process and how they might affect your conclusions. 3 main types of trend analysis To effectively leverage trend analysis in SEO, it’s essential to grasp the three main types of analysis: Analysis type Definition Example Comparative analysis Examine trends across different categories to identify emerging opportunities. Use People Also Asked data  to swiftly adapt to spikes in search behavior caused by news or seasonal events. Regression analysis Explore relationships between variables to understand how changes in one area might affect another. Historical searches for [COVID] have evolved from identifying symptoms to managing policies and symptoms, highlighting the need for content realignment. Time-series analysis Track data points over time to spot long-term trends and seasonal patterns. [Best running shoes] reveals a change over time. From questions about brand comparisons to an increasing focus on sustainability and performance. Key takeaway: Agencies can enhance their SEO efforts by leveraging keyword trendspotting strategies to anticipate market shifts, align content with evolving user intents , and optimize regional campaigns.  Tips on using sampled data What to do Details Why it's important Define the question first What are you trying to answer with the data? What action will you take if it goes up or down? Staring at streams of data can lead to analysis paralysis. A clear question can focus your effort and keep you on track. Focus on percentages Use percentages instead of whole numbers when comparing data. Percentages are easier to compare across different groups and help show what went up and what went down clearly and easily. Analyze trends over time Look at how data changes between different time periods. Harness data pragmatism: Are your numbers going up or down over time? That’s the best way to understand performance and pinpoint what needs to be done.  Examine averages carefully Calculate averages but also use histograms to see the full distribution. Looking at averages of numbers, like order value, time on site, and scroll depth, can help put a data story together . Warning: Averages can hide outliers. For example, if 99 people spend $10 and 1 person spends $1,000, your average order value is $19.90, which isn’t really telling the full story. Use visualization tools Create scatter plots or box plots to visualize your data. Dashboards help you quickly spot patterns, outliers, and relationships that might be missed in raw numbers. It's like having a bird’s eye view of your data. Consider the context Interpret results with the full story behind it. Numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. Understanding the context helps you determine if your findings are practically significant—not just statistically significant. Knowing a sale was occurring or that the mobile app was updated at a certain date can really help you contextualize the numbers. Mitigate inherent data bias by relying on multiple sources You cannot expect one data source to capture all aspects of the user journey , and most have some bias toward the platform itself. Just as chasing the wrong metric can create destructive feedback loops, relying on a single data source also comes with its own problems.  For agency owners, marketers, and analytics specialists, integrating multiple data sources can mitigate the limitations of individual methods and reveal hidden patterns that a single source might miss. This comprehensive approach allows you to more accurately measure customer happiness and frustration. The power of diverse data sources Start by creating a measurement plan, which is what actually matters to the company (though revenue might also be key). What need is the brand fulfilling? And, how are you measuring that you are meeting that need?  Figure out the metrics first and then pick the right data source. This holistic view helps identify areas for improvement and enhances customer satisfaction.  Examples of data sources include: Internal data  —   CRM systems, website analytics , sales data External data  —   Social media analytics, market research reports, and customer feedback surveys Qualitative data  —   Customer interviews, focus groups Quantitative data  —   Transaction records, usage statistics Tools and techniques for data integration Leveraging robust tools and techniques is crucial to effectively combining data from multiple sources. One tool I highly recommend is BigQuery. BigQuery allows marketers to: Access unanalyzed, large datasets quickly and efficiently. Integrate data from various sources, such as Google Ads, Google Analytics 4 , CRM systems, and more. Run complex queries to uncover insights and trends. Use built-in machine learning capabilities to predict customer behavior and sentiment. By utilizing BigQuery, marketers can seamlessly integrate diverse data sources, providing a comprehensive view of customer happiness and frustration. This, in turn, enables more informed decision-making and strategic planning. At the end of the day, a client wants to know, ‘If I do X, Y, Z, will it get me more money or customers?’ You can use trend analysis to help answer this.  Custom metrics: Change the conversation, not the data “Humans don’t necessarily measure their experiences in a finite way.” — Tom Haczewski Custom metrics allow you to tailor your data analysis to your needs, offering more relevant and actionable insights.  One thing to keep in mind when creating custom metrics is to focus on metrics that align with your company’s unique values and goals. Start away from the tracking tools to plan custom metrics that are consistent with your business goals. Do not let them influence you.  Here’s how to build metrics that matter: Articulate the challenge Define custom metrics Assemble your data sources Identify patterns Communicate trends and drive action 01. Articulate the challenge: Define a metric to track users’ happiness Forget the average order value for a minute. Focus on customer happiness. What actions signal a great shopping experience? To figure it out and create a ‘happiness index’, you should: Talk to your customers about what makes them happy. Gather any customer feedback through surveys or stakeholders. Review your Google Analytics or other on-site analytics to find insights on what users do on the site that show they are engaging with the brand. 02. Define custom metrics For an eCommerce brand, this isn’t just feel-good fluff. It’s a direct line to customer orders and brand loyalty. Here are the five key metrics of our digital happiness index: Page load speed High-value orders Returned purchases Add to wishlist Five-star reviews 03. Assemble your data sources Combine data from various sources to mitigate their inherent limitations. This could include: Google Ads & GA4 data Google Search Console  data CrUX  data & Semrush  data Google Merchant Center data Algolia etc. 04. Identify patterns Look for trends and correlations in your assembled data. Growth isn’t linear—it’s about understanding user behavior shifts and adapting accordingly. The index won’t tell you the solution but will guide you on where to look. A 31% drop in the Happiness Index means something changed. Key data points (from the example above): High-value orders fell  from 40% to 10% (-75%) Additions to the wishlist   dropped  from 20% to 5% (-75%) Other metrics (page load speed, return purchases, five-star reviews) stayed relatively stable Possible causes and tests based on behavioral funnels Hypothesis Short-term action Long-term strategy Users are skipping the wishlist but converting faster. Check conversion rate for first-time visitors. If they’re buying without wishlisting, the drop isn’t a problem. Analyze whether wishlist adds are still a valuable KPI or worth replacing with a more relevant metric. A pricing shift (cheaper products) caused fewer high-value orders. A/B test “Spend $X for free shipping” to nudge users toward larger purchases. Examine pricing strategy over time. Adjust high-value item visibility if needed. Traffic sources changed (e.g., more low-intent visitors). Compare conversion rates across different traffic sources to see if the audience mix changed. Adjust SEO and paid traffic strategies to focus on high-intent keywords and audiences. Users are dropping off due to checkout friction. Run session replays and heatmaps to identify where users abandon the checkout process. Optimize checkout flow by reducing unnecessary steps and offering trust-building signals. Site performance (speed, UX) isn’t the issue. Check core metrics to confirm no technical degradation has occurred. Continue optimizing UX by tracking behavioral shifts and ensuring a seamless journey. A shift in product discovery behavior led to fewer wishlist adds. Run a quick survey asking users if they use wishlists and why. Introduce alternative engagement mechanisms (e.g., personalized recommendations). For example, the image above clearly shows that (compared to last month) high-order values and wishlist additions are down. The first step is to look into these specific issues. Was there a push for cheap products this month? Did fewer people add to the wishlist but more convert on the first visit? The index won’t tell you the solution but will guide you on where to look. The goal for next month would be to implement marketing or site changes to increase these percentages. If high-value orders were down, you could offer free shipping for orders of a certain value.  05. Communicate trends & drive action You also want to know what is negatively impacting performance. Use a similar process to find out what frustrates your customers. This could include the opposite of your happiness metrics (though it should not be all the opposite), for example: Page load speed (slow) Rage clicks Cart abandonment One- and two-star reviews Abandoned on-site searches Tracking and analyzing these provides a clear next step for what elements of your user experience  to audit. Trend analysis = Insights + patterns + action Embrace the messy reality of marketing data and get comfortable being uncomfortable. You can’t hide behind pristine Google Analytics numbers anymore—Goodhart’s Law is in full effect, turning our success metrics into targets that have lost their meaning.  Instead, your mission is to: Dive deep into the data chaos, be pragmatic, and uncover those juicy trends that actually drive action. Focus on the data points impacting your bottom line and banish the information overload. Don't get tunnel vision with your data sources—mix it up! Blend insights from social media chatter, brutally honest customer feedback, and those nitty-gritty transaction records.  Remember, perfect data is a myth. Your job isn’t to chase flawless numbers but to be the trend-spotting, insight-generating marketing analyst your team needs. Sarah Crooke - Analytics Specialist and Owner of Melorium With 20+ years of working in digital, from developer to account manager, Sarah works for some of the big-name brands in Australia and several not-for-profit and charity organizations. Her consultancy, Meliorum , works with clients in implementation, reporting, and analysis. Linkedin   Myriam Jessier - SEO Trainer at PRAGM   Myriam Jessier is an SEO consultant and trainer with 15+ years of experience. She loves to share her knowledge because it helps everyone make the web a bit more human and bot-friendly. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Julian Oppelt Robust branding helps ensure that your campaigns continue to bring in traffic, leads, and conversions—even as you face uncertainties in search, generative AI, or whatever the future throws your way. In this piece, I want to shift away from the usual technicalities of SEO and explain how building a brand can help you navigate (and overcome) some of the hurdles Google has placed in front of us.  I will focus on tips and strategies for small- and medium-sized businesses as well as startups that rely on search traffic from Google to expand their reach and customer base (and to keep ad spend under control).  You’ll discover how Google has changed over the past few years and look at practical examples of how brand building helps you get in front of the right audiences in the current search landscape.  Tables of contents: Google: Constant changes and new content opportunities The benefits of building a brand: how does it help with Google? Showcase your E-E-A-T Attract backlinks Leave a digital footprint Make an emotional connection with your audience Drive branded searches & direct traffic Explore new sources of traffic How to build a brand that withstands search volatility Case studies: Examples of brands that thrive How to measure whether your brand strategy is on track Google: Constant changes and new content opportunities First, let’s explore how Google’s algorithm  has changed and what it means for content websites and small- to medium-sized brands. The company periodically updates its algorithm and how it presents the search engine results pages (SERPs).  Algorithm updates  are coming more frequently than in previous years, with four major algorithm updates in 2024  (March, August, November, and December).  The SERPs are changing less quickly than the algorithm, but Google often tests new layouts and formats for featured snippets, ads, images, and videos. Here are some of the changes that I consider the most impactful: Favoring established brands Search Generative Experience & AI Overviews Situational content Google’s algorithm favors established brands—even if they’re not the most relevant In February 2024, a website called HouseFresh made waves in the SEO community as its managing editor called out publishers, like BuzzFeed and Forbes , that published content despite a lack of expertise (in this particular case, the expertise was regarding air purifiers).  With genuine, in-depth product reviews, HouseFresh’s content adhered to quality standards and demonstrated E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) . Still, the site saw its rankings drop in favor of more well-known brands. Many website owners shared HouseFresh’s criticism, and industry media around the globe covered the topic.  This led to Google’s Danny Sullivan responding that he had raised concerns within Google and that the algorithm shouldn’t behave this way.  Fast-forward to August 2024, HouseFresh is back at the top for many previously demoted keywords (e.g., [best budget air purifiers]).  However, the HouseFresh case didn’t force Google to reduce its brand bias and change its algorithm in favor of smaller, independent publishers.  Even now, Google’s algorithm prioritizes established, well-known websites—often at the expense of more relevant or better-quality content. Take another glance at the screenshot of the [best budget air purifiers] rankings above. At the time of writing, Billboard.com ranks 6th, livescience.com 7th, and weather.com 8th—for a keyword related to air purifiers. As another example of this issue, look at Forbes and the product review keywords its ranks first for that include “best”: What is Forbes’ E-E-A-T when it comes to massage guns, CBD gummies, animated movies, and baby monitors? Regarding expertise, I would say that a business magazine known for publishing a ranking of the wealthiest people on our planet scores relatively low for those topics. And, look at the full ranking of the top 15 pages for [best baby monitor]. You will see that the first website that’s specifically about babies and motherhood is ranked 15th—below Forbes, other established sites, and online communities. But here’s why Forbes probably pulls in those rankings: It’s a household name known to many people worldwide (434K searches per month, according to Ahrefs). Users tend to choose familiar options when making decisions, even if the latter options may be more objectively relevant. When consumers recognize a brand name, they often associate it with positive attributes, as familiarity can create a sense of trust and reliability. This psychological phenomenon is called familiarity bias . This familiarity bias could be one reason why Google ranks websites like Forbes, Billboard, or communities (like Reddit) above lesser-known online properties.  In particular, a part of Google’s algorithm called “NavBoost” could be influenced by this familiarity bias. NavBoost analyses what users clicked on in SERPs over the past 13 months to potentially influence future rankings.  So, the more people are familiar with your brand, the more they will click on your results in the SERP. Navboost and other ranking signals, such as backlinks  and brand mentions, could explain Google’s shift towards popular brands at the expense of smaller publishers. Search Generative Experience in the SERPs In early 2024, Google started testing a new SERP feature called Search Generative Experience (SGE) . With SGE, Google generates information to answer a query using AI technology, citing sources it drew from. The results are called AI Overviews (AIO).  An example of an AI Overview. In May 2024, however, Google’s Gemini AI started to hallucinate on queries and offered potentially harmful advice to users (remember the tip to put glue on your pizza ?). There were also allegations about Google copy-pasting the original work  of popular journalists. In response to the mounting criticism, Google reconsidered its approach to SGE and pushed for more accurate and trustworthy AI-driven answers in the search results.  So, the appearance of AIOs declined sharply. Analyzing around 100,000 searches on Google in July 2024, researchers at SE Ranking  found that just 8.7% of SERPs included an AIO, representing a significant drop from February 2024, when 64% of queries returned an AI answer. Yet (and in line with the thoughts of Wix’s own Mordy Oberstein), a generative AI experience has a place in SERPs , provided that it creates value for searchers, offering a contextual look at the topic and then facilitating further exploration. Therefore, AIOs will probably be included more heavily as Google improves Gemini and makes those AI answers more reliable.  Gartner predicts  that 79% of consumers will use AI-enhanced search in 2025, and 70% already somewhat trust AI-powered search results. So, it is essential to understand how you can be cited in AIOs. I suggest you consider generative engine optimization (GEO) for your content and brand. While SEO and GEO are different concepts, they share some similarities: the quality of your content, its relevance, and the perceived E-E-A-T of your website are still crucial factors if you want to be featured at the top (or cited as a source). This is confirmed by more research from SE Ranking , where fewer but more authoritative AIO sources were shown in July 2024 compared to the beginnings of SGE.  As a result, the competition among content providers to appear as a source will likely intensify. It’s also important to consider that, in around 85% of searches  where the SERPs included an AIO, the cited sources included at least one domain from the top 10 organic search results.  Similar to the organic search results trend I shared above, brands with a strong digital footprint also win here. The algorithm surfaces situational content “Excessive generative AI can lead to ‘AI Fatigue’—meaning people are becoming increasingly tired of seeing AI-generated text, which could have a negative impact on the way consumers are viewing a brand.” — Caitlin Faulks, Talking Stick Digital Consumers are requesting a new type of content—so-called ‘ situational content ’. In his case study on the March 2024 core update, Mordy Oberstein found that Google rewards user-centric content that caters to a person’s needs in a given situation, rather than the ‘classic’ content written for SEO purposes (which is topic-centric and sterile). Also, with the release of Gemini 1.5 in February 2024 , Google can train its algorithm on enormous datasets, allowing it to perform highly sophisticated understanding and reasoning tasks for different modalities, including video. So what does this mean for you? I think that as a smaller business, you can, in the future, avoid Google’s brand bias and win over household brands if you try to engage with people on a personal level . Especially if you are a proven expert in your niche and have vast experience on a specific topic, you should create content that connects with your readers, taking into account their pain points and predicting their needs. And I expect Google to surface more of this original, truly helpful, situational content from smaller sites rather than big brands in its search results as Gemini can learn what’s helpful and reliable and demonstrates real-world experience from a much bigger dataset. The benefits of building a brand: how does it help with Google? In the previous section, I touched on some factors that help brands better cope with Google’s algorithmic and SERP changes. Let’s look at them in detail. Showcase E-E-A-T Attract backlinks Create a digital footprint Connect emotionally with your audience Drive branded search and direct traffic Explore new traffic sources Showcase your E-E-A-T As we’ve seen before, users often favor content from established brands because of familiarity. They trust their content and associate positive attributes to them, including expertise. To achieve those associations, you, too, should aim to build a brand that clearly conveys your company’s story, experience, expertise, authority, and why people should trust your advice.  As you build and consistently communicate your brand, you will gain traction in the market and your audience will become familiar with what you stand for. It’s fair to assume that the more aware people become of your brand, the more often you will be talked about, whether in blog posts, forums, social media, or any other channel. Consequently, Google’s algorithm will pick up on your E-E-A-T signals, giving your content more visibility and higher rankings. Let’s look at how branding helps with E-E-A-T in the health industry, a YMYL (your money, your life) sector whose content significantly impacts people’s health. Google, therefore, places even more value on E-E-A-T when deciding which websites to rank for these health-related keywords. Take Healthline, for example. Healthline is a health information provider that was founded in 1999.  On its About Us page, the company talks extensively about its expertise, authority, and trustworthiness by highlighting its medical affairs team and editorial guidelines. The company also includes its mission and core values. Also, the visual design conveys trust and reliability with a very clean and clear layout. Moreover, Healthline is very transparent about article authors, including a medical reviewer and trusted sources as references. Overall, it convinces readers that Healthline is an authoritative, trustworthy source. Its content deserves to be shared with friends and family and to rank at the top of Google’s search results. Attract backlinks Circling back to brand familiarity and E-E-A-T, readers will reference and forward links to your content more readily if they are familiar with you and think of you as a credible and authoritative source of information. For example, take Statista, a German company that publishes statistics on various topics. Over 6.6 million sites, including the creme-de-la-creme of websites, are backlinking to them instead of other sources. Even Wikipedia links to Statista rather than the Home Depot website regarding the Home Depot store count per country! All other considerations being equal, the more backlinks you have from authoritative sources, the better your pages rank and the greater your site’s visibility in search results. Leave a digital footprint Both backlinks and brand mentions serve as brand authority and trust signals for your audience and Google. They leave a ‘digital footprint’. With Google’s advances as an AI-powered search engine, its system can be trained on enormous amounts of data. So, the more often your brand or website is mentioned in a thematically relevant context (with or without a link), the more likely it is that the algorithm will view your brand as authoritative and rank it higher, or cite it in AIOs. The beauty brand Glossier is a good example of a brand with a huge digital footprint (over 3.1 million Instagram followers, 950K followers on TikTok, 200K subscribers on Youtube, and 750K organic traffic).  Glossier initially built its brand through Instagram and YouTube, using aesthetic imagery and beauty tutorials to engage with customers. The company prioritizes one-to-one conversations with its customers, directly replying to social media users who create Glossier-related content. As a third tactic, Glossier leveraged influencer partnerships  to create organic content, increase brand awareness, and drive sales. Make an emotional connection with your audience As mentioned earlier, the rise of AI-generated content is frustrating for many users. People are tired of reading auto-generated, topic-centered, and arbitrarily search-optimized articles that don’t speak to their needs. They are looking for content from humans that engage on a personal level (i.e. situational content). Branding can help you with creating this type of content.  Within the branding process (which I’ll discuss in greater detail below), you will think about your target audience, their pain points, and their needs. You will, therefore, understand your readers’ situation and be able to create something that speaks to them. Combined with strong brand values and a unique personality, you will consistently distinguish your content from AI-generated or topic-centered content from competitors. Australian toilet paper Who Gives a Crap  is an excellent example of injecting personality into a brand.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t see toilet paper as the most exciting product to market and create a brand around. Yet, by creating a product that stands out (an alien design on my toilet paper?), a fun brand identity, and humorous content, Who Gives a Crap manages to drive around 200K organic website visits per month.  Drive branded searches & direct traffic  Once people are aware of, familiar with, and loyal to your brand, they will either search for it on Google or visit your website directly. Unlike informational searches, when people search for your brand on Google, you usually don’t have to compete with other brands for the highest rankings. Google will show users the most relevant search results, which naturally shows your brand in the top position (unless the search intent  behind your brand name is unclear to Google, which would further underscore the importance of brand building).  Consider Traderoo.de (full disclosure: this is a website I own in the German market). It was started in 2022 as a marketplace to buy and sell websites. Back then, only a few Germans knew about the site. Brand awareness was zero.  We slowly started to build the brand and its digital footprint. Today, the website ranks 4th for one of my target keywords ([buying a website]). Even so, due to PPC ads, Traderoo is still way below the fold, which reduces our chances for organic visitors. The picture is different, however, for the branded keyword [traderoo]. As you can see in the screenshot below, my marketplace is ranked the highest, followed by a review site, our LinkedIn profile, and an article about the business. What is particularly interesting is that we created search volume for a keyword that had zero volume two years ago. Now, those branded searches are nice, but there is an even better benefit of branding: direct visits to your website. Let me ask you: How often do you actually search for the term [amazon] on Google? Most people usually type amazon.com directly into the address bar and skip Google altogether. There is no better way to make your business resilient in the face of Google’s algorithm or SERP changes. Explore new sources of traffic Another powerful benefit of branding is that you can drive traffic from channels other than Google to your website.  Like direct visits to your website, the goal is to have a flourishing business that is less reliant on Google. Once you establish a website, build a strong brand, and create a community  around it, consider adding podcasts, webinars, or online courses as new traffic sources. In branding, we call this concept “brand extension.” The Wix SEO Learning Hub first started with blog posts and webinars, then expanded to a podcast and an SEO course. Brand extensions like this usually work because your audience trusts your brand’s reputation for quality and reliability, which reduces perceived risk when trying a new product (or just investing time listening to a podcast). How to build a brand that withstands search volatility  Crafting and implementing a sound brand strategy—one robust enough to carry you through volatility when search isn’t going your way—involves the following:  01. Define the market you are operating in.  Ask yourself: what business are you really in?  For example, Netflix is not in the VOD streaming service market. Netflix is in the entertainment industry, where it competes with many more players for the free time of people like you and I, including cinemas, football matches, or even your favorite bar next door. 02. Look at your direct and indirect competitors .  Understanding how your competitors position themselves in the market will help you find opportunities to differentiate your brand. Analyze your strengths, weaknesses, capabilities, and the opportunities and threats at play in the market ( SWOT ). Don’t forget to look at the environment you’re operating in ( PESTEL analysis ) as well. 03. Understand market segments and define your target customers.  It is vital to deep-dive into each buyer persona. Use customer empathy maps and journey mapping  tools to gain insights into their needs, preferences, and pain points. Knowing your audience will help you tailor your brand message . 04. Define your brand essence.  Think about your brand’s vision, mission, and values. Ask yourself why your brand exists beyond just making a profit. This essential step helps you connect with your audiences more deeply and create real meaning to better resonate with them. 05. Position your brand in its market.  This step will help you avoid mimicking competitors; instead, you will focus on what makes your brand unique. Visualize your brand’s position in the market on a positioning map (either a digital one or on an old-school whiteboard). Define the value you bring to customers and what promises you will make to them. Develop a clear brand positioning statement that communicates what your brand offers and how it differs from competitors. This statement should resonate with your target audience and align with your brand’s capabilities.  06. Refine your brand identity.  Write down where it comes from and why it exists (i.e., your brand story), decide on a memorable name, and define your brand’s personality. Ensure your brand name is unique and check for domain availability to secure your online presence. Based on your work so far, hire a professional designer and give them access to your notes on brand essence and identity. This will help them develop a strong and stunning visual identity for you, including an eyecatching logo, brand colors, typographies, and imagery style. The visual aspects of your brand are as important as the strategy behind it. They will help your brand stand out and be perceived as cohesive and professional. 07. Communicate your brand.  As the final step, you must spread the word about your brand. Convey your brand and what it stands for to your employees and partners first, then communicate it to your target customers via all digital channels.  Hire an experienced web designer and writer to create an on-brand website. The interface, UX (user experience) , and content should 100% reflect your brand essence and identity. Highlight on your website your experience, expertise, authority, and why customers should trust you—make it easy for Google to pick up on E-E-A-T signals. Build your digital footprint with branded accounts on all relevant social media  networks and engage in meaningful discussions with users. Look as well at online communities, such as Reddit  or Quora. Offer to write opinion pieces for other media outlets (guest posting), publish original research on your website, and connect with influencers in your space to get relevant backlinks for your website.  Your overall goal is to increase your digital footprint with brand mentions (with or without backlinks) and be considered a relevant player in your market—both by customers and by Google. Ensure that every interaction with your brand is consistent and reinforces how you want your brand to be perceived by your customers. This includes marketing materials, customer service, and product or service delivery. Consistency is vital in shaping your brand image in the minds of consumers. Branding is an ever-evolving process. Use customer feedback and new insights about market trends to refine your approach and ensure your brand remains relevant and competitive.  Case studies: Examples of brands that thrive To give you a clearer idea of the power behind effective branding, I want to showcase two companies I believe have created strong and impactful digital brands over the past years. Those are not your 100-year-old institutional companies, such as Forbes (1917) or Procter & Gamble (1837), but relatively new contenders that understood market trends better than others. Casper: Mattress in a box Do you enjoy shopping for expensive mattresses in a physical store and awkwardly laying on a bed with your partner in front of the salesperson to see if the mattress would fit your sleeping style? You probably like this experience as much as I do—I’m not particularly crazy about it. That’s precisely why Casper disrupted the industry in 2014 and achieved significant success within five years, building a strong brand with a loyal base of 1.5 million customers.  In 2014, the mattress industry was dominated by traditional mattress companies and their showrooms, with high prices and relatively slow and tedious buying experiences. From day one, Casper aimed to change perceptions about mattress shopping. Casper’s goal was to create a community around sleep in a playful and creative way, using a genuine voice, according to Lindsay Kaplan, Casper’s former VP of communications and brand engagement. This approach helped Casper differentiate itself in a traditionally boring and uninspiring market. Like Apple, Casper turned the unboxing of its mattresses into a share-worthy experience. And by working with influencers, the unboxing videos became popular on platforms like YouTube and helped generate buzz and excitement around their products. Across all channels, Casper adopted a quirky, loveable, authentic, and contrarian brand personality that stood out from traditional mattress companies and resonated well with their target audience. Here’s an ad from 2020 that embodied the communication style: An essential pillar of Casper’s brand strategy was the creation of search-optimized content for all stages of the buying process. This included top-of-the-funnel, science-backed guides on what to do when you cannot sleep and bottom-of-the-funnel content, such as mattress comparison pages. However, in addition to SEO to get the word out, Casper also adopted a multi-channel  advertising strategy to boost brand awareness, including YouTube, Google Search, and Meta . To establish trust with website visitors, it offered a 100-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee and showcased all product reviews (the good and bad ones) on its product pages. To further boost E-E-A-T, Casper included press mentions on their website and published original research that positions them as experts in their industry. To increase the customer engagement, Casper offered a referral program and incentivized people to invite their friends to try Casper. Casper’s brand strategy translated into 31% aided awareness, 80% net positive brand sentiment, and 60 in Net Promoter Score, according to Vertic . Today, the branded keyword [Casper mattress] generates a search volume of over 100K in the US and 119K worldwide (according to Ahrefs): Key takeaway: Adopt a unique brand personality and help consumers at all stages of the buying process. AppSumo: Lifetime software licenses Did you ever wonder when subscriptions for software became a thing? Me too. Almost every piece of software is now sold on a subscription basis, which created a new business model called software as a service (SaaS). Gone are the days of buying Adobe tools for a one-time fee.  And then, AppSumo launched in 2010. Today, it is the leading marketplace for software from startups for a one-time fee. It paid over $550 million to software developers and helped thousands of entrepreneurs reduce their monthly subscription spending. A big part of that success is due to AppSumo’s longstanding branding efforts, as well as the personal brand  of its founder, Noah Kagan. Noah Kagan worked for Facebook in its early days (employee 30th) and Mint. He then went on to start his own companies. He is very transparent about his success and failure as an employee as well as his entrepreneurial journey and managed to get a huge following both on YouTube (1.2 million as of Nov 2024), Instagram (270K as of Nov 2024), and LinkedIn (102K as of Nov 2024). As you can see, his personal story and brand appeal to aspiring entrepreneurs, who are among AppSumo’s most important target audiences. People trust his tips and advice and appreciate AppSumo’s mission to support them on their entrepreneurial journeys by avoiding costly subscriptions. On top of that, startups are happy to launch software on AppSumo, as they can rely on Kagan’s marketing skills to get customers for their businesses.  Over the years, AppSumo has created a vibrant community of entrepreneurs and software enthusiasts who buy, sell, and give feedback on software. Besides Kagan’s personal brand and his involvement in the community, how did they pull it off? If you look at any of AppSumo’s software listings, you will see two tabs that stand out: questions and reviews. In the questions sections, you get direct access to startup founders and not a generic chatbot (as is usual with most established companies). In the reviews section, buyers of the software rate their experience extensively as they want to add value to the community and help fellow entrepreneurs find their perfect piece of software. Both sections are a massive source of user-generated content, which is very valuable for SEO, especially considering the aforementioned situational content. In combination with a heavily promoted affiliate program, AppSumo ensures that it receives tons of brand mentions on other websites and social media, particularly YouTube, where entire channels exist just to review its products. AppSumo calls their community members “Sumolings” and they give tacos instead of review stars. The brand presents software deals in a fun, engaging way: This brand personality trickles down to their sales copy and any marketing email you will receive from the company. Here’s an example of their cart abandonment email: The result of all this effort? The branded keyword [AppSumo] has a monthly search volume  of 19K in the US and 47K worldwide, according to Ahrefs.  Key takeaway: Work on employee and founder personal branding, create an active community, and craft an engaging brand personality. How to measure whether your brand strategy is on track There are many metrics you can track to analyze your branding success. Here, I will focus on the ones that are most accessible. Metric Description/What to do How to do it Branded vs. non-branded search traffic When you’re working on creating a brand, look out for the ratio and volume of branded versus non-branded search traffic. The further down your journey, the more you should rank organically for branded keywords. As we’ve seen in the Traderoo example, you should strive to create search volume for your brand as the exact keyword. Use a tool like Semrush, Ahrefs, or SEOCrawl to determine how users arrive on your website. Backlinks As your brand awareness and authority increases, backlinks should also increase. It’s also a good idea to track the anchor text ratio of branded vs. non-branded keywords. Employ the tools mentioned above to track the number of backlinks and referring domains. Direct visitors This number will be low initially, but the more established your brand becomes, the more this number should increase. Use Google Analytics  or similar software to analyze the number of direct visits to your website. Brand mentions Monitor mentions of your brand across social media, online communities, forums, and traditional media outlets. If your digital footprint increases over time, you’ve laid the foundation for a strong brand. Use tools such as BrandWatch or BrandMentions. Brand sentiment Take feedback into account and improve your brand strategy over time. Draw on tools like BrandWatch and analyze review sites to understand what users think about your brand. Followers and engagement metrics Keep tabs on follower growth and the quality of comments and responses. To measure brand preference and awareness, track the evolution of your social media following across all channels. User engagement metrics CTR can be a good indicator of brand familiarity, while time on site and pages per visit help indicate whether you’re addressing user intent. Use SEOCrawl (linked to Google Search Console) to analyze CTR from the SERPs. Use Google Analytics to track the time on site and pages per visit. Focus groups This is on the expensive side of tracking options, but you will get unrivaled qualitative insights into essential metrics such as brand recall, preference, and awareness. You should work with a professional service provider for this. Surveys Explore brand awareness, sentiment, and recall to see if your branding strategy is on track. Use online survey companies or tools such as Typepad to survey your audience. Branding is your guide to navigating marketing’s uncharted waters A strong brand enhances E-E-A-T, leaves a lasting digital footprint, drives branded searches, and warrants brand extensions in the future. Your brand and its identity also allow you to create an emotional connection with your audience through needs-based and situational content.  All in all, your brand is a powerful engine that allows you to maintain visibility and grow—even in the unchartered waters of today’s marketing landscape. Julian Oppelt - Partner/CMO at The Branding Journal Julian is responsible for The Branding Journal' s marketing strategy and oversees the strategic development of Traderoo.de . He has worked in SEO and branding for over ten years, helping many startups establish a digital presence and gain traction in their respective markets. Linkedin

Author: Claire Carlile You’ve claimed your Google Business Profile, you’ve made sure your name, address, and phone number are correct, you’ve selected the best primary and secondary business categories , you’ve added some great photos, and you’ve started asking for and replying to reviews . Great stuff, well done! What’s next? Google Posts can help increase your business’s visibility in the search engine results page (SERP) and drive more customers to take business critical actions, such as booking an appointment, attending an event, signing up for a newsletter, and ordering online. In this article, you’ll learn how to best use Google Posts to move potential customers closer to conversion, including: What are Google Posts? Where do Google Posts appear? Google’s guidelines for Posts The types of Google Posts Update Posts Event Posts Offer Posts How to make posts work for your business Measurement and testing What are Google Posts? A bit like posts within social media channels (like a Facebook post or Tweet on Twitter, for example), Google Posts allow you to add an image, some copy, and a call to action to share with potential audiences. A carousel of Google Posts in the mobile search results. But, that’s where the likeness to most social media posts ends. Social media posts generally serve an audience that have already opted in to your content (i.e., they liked your Facebook page or they follow you on Twitter or Instagram, for example). Google Posts are different. Viewers of your Google Posts haven’t opted in. They are typically further up the marketing funnel and see your Posts because they’re shown in your business profile on search or on Google Maps. Posts are your opportunity to catch that potential customer's eye and nudge them towards clicking through to your website or taking another important action (such as calling your business). Where do Google Posts appear? Over the years, Google Posts have moved around the business profile on desktop search, on mobile search, in the local finder, and on Google Maps, so it’s not a surprise that many businesses fail to use them effectively to drive website traffic and customer conversions. In the local knowledge panel on mobile, you’ll find Update and Event Posts (more on these post types below) in the “Updates” tab (shown below). You’ll find Offer Posts (again, more on this post type below) in their own separate “Deals” tab. On a desktop, Posts look like this: And, sometimes on desktop Offer Posts can appear separately like this: Your posts will look like this in Google Maps: Your Posts can also get pulled in by Google when a searcher asks a question in your business profile’s Q&A section: As you can see, there are numerous places where your Posts could show up, and while Google has been known to change up these placements, the opportunity afforded by Google Posts for businesses is very real. However, before you can put them to work for your business, you’ll need to get familiar with Google’s guidelines for Posts. Google’s guidelines for Posts Be aware that Google Posts aren’t available to all business types—they’re currently not available to those selling regulated goods (including liquor, cannabis, and guns). Up until 2021, Posts weren’t available for lodging type categories, but these businesses now have access to both “What’s new” and “Event” posts. If your business has access to Google Posts, you’ll see them available in the “In search editing” interface on Google (shown below): Google provides a content policy for Posts —make sure to read through it before you start planning out your Posts in order to have the best chance of getting published (Google may reject posts, more on this below). In a nutshell you’ll need to adhere to the following: Avoid off-topic or irrelevant content (including general political commentary, social commentary, or personal rants). Avoid spam (including misspellings, poor quality images or videos, and duplicate photos, posts, videos, and logos). Make sure your content is appropriate (i.e., it doesn’t harass or bully, it isn’t disparaging, obscene, violent, or sexually suggestive). Respectful of privacy (i.e., it doesn’t include photos from no-photo zones, or personally identifiable images or videos of people where they may object to the use of their image). Avoid videos or photos in which regulated goods (for example, alcohol) is anything but purely incidental to the content. Phew! Just keep those in mind when you produce your content and, if your Post gets rejected, reference the guidelines for potential reasons why. If your Posts are being rejected and it’s not due to a violation of one of the guidelines listed above, it’s quite likely that one or more or your images are being viewed as suspect by Google’s systems. You can run a free check of your images here to see your images the way Google sees them. If Google’s systems are identifying elements of your images as “Racy” or “Adult,” it’s likely this is why your post was rejected. See the example below from a holistic massage practitioner: Google might easily misinterpret (and therefore, reject) this photo of a person getting a massage. Google’s Vision AI tool found that the image is very likely to be racy and/or adult. To avoid this, think carefully about how Google might interpret images when you plan your photo shoots or start gathering safe images to use specifically for your Google Posts. It’s possible that Google might interpret your images very differently to how you interpret them, so check with the free Vision AI tool before you spend your time and budget on photos that you might not be able to make much use of. The types of Google Posts There are three types of Google Posts that are available to most businesses. These are: Update Posts Event Posts Offer Posts Update Posts An Update Post allows you to add photos and/or a video, up to 1500 characters of text, and a call to action (CTA). This type of Post stays live and visible in your business profile for six months. The “Add a button” dropdown menu gives you the following CTA choices: It’s a good idea to include a call to action with each of your Posts to encourage potential customers to take the next step. If you’re including a link to your website, remember to add UTM tags to the URL so that you’ll be able to track traffic from Google Posts back to your website (more on this below). Update Post example This Update Post uses enticing language, suggests a personal touch (“sneak peak!”), and links to details and photos of the business’s new product (a luxury accommodation offering): The emojis catch the eye and the addition of the date adds an element of urgency. Event Posts With an Event Post, you can add the event title, the start and end date (with optional time), photos, plus the event details (up to 1500 characters). Add a link pointing to the relevant event content on your website with a CTA button to encourage searchers to take the next steps towards conversion (e.g., make a booking or buy a ticket). Event Post example The text (“BOOK NOW - limited availability”) adds a sense of urgency, and a range of images show all of the photo opportunities on offer at the event so parents and childcare providers can imagine their own children in that spot (and thus creating that memory). WARNING: Event Posts are not what populates this section in the business profile: If you are seeing events listed in your local knowledge panel, then it’s likely that Google is pulling this information from sources other than your business profile (and usually other than your own website). This information can often be inaccurate as Google will just scrape events from any old page with event schema that mentions your business name as the location. So, make sure to create an “Events” page on your own site and mark it up with event schema for the best chance of your own pages populating this section. Offer Posts An offer post requires an offer title (shorter than 58 characters) and a start/end date. You’ll also want to add relevant images, too. Once your offer has expired, it will no longer be pulled into the special offer sections that Google features all over the SERP. So, I recommend that you have at least one offer valid at any given time in order to grab those eyeballs, clicks, and hopefully conversions. You’ll also have the ability to add additional details: You have 1500 characters to further explain the offer (in the “Offer details” field). You can add a voucher code if you want to encourage in-person visits and, if you want to drive traffic through to the offer itself on your website, you can use the “Link to redeem offer” field. Offer Post example It’s official—Offer Posts are my favorite type of Google Post and I’m pretty sure that they’ll be your favorite (or your client’s favorite) type of post as well. The Offer Post below very clearly highlights the deal and the money-saving potential of this year-round offer: The emoji at the start of the offer is extra eye-catching in the “Offers” section where both valid offers are listed together: How to make posts work for your business Clearly, there are some restrictions and idiosyncrasies to be aware of. But, those are minor considerations compared to the potential advantages—there’s gold in them there hills! If you think of Google Posts as free (albeit very limited) ads for your business, you’ll likely be on the right track. If you’re experienced with writing ad copy, then you can crack straight on. If you’re new to ad copy, here are some techniques for writing Posts that will grab users’ attention and get more clicks: Address your users’ needs Point out your specific benefits Create a sense of urgency Show off deals and promotions Get personal with your copy Stand out with numbers and symbols Local SEO agency Sterling Sky analyzed over 1000 Google Posts and found that these were common attributes of top-performing Posts: Post titles in all caps didn’t perform as well as those with proper capitalization. Google Posts that contain images that are not stock photos got 5.6x more clicks (than Posts that used stock photos). Google Posts that contained emojis received twice as many clicks as those without. If you want more activity from Google Posts, include a CTA, add a sense of urgency, and post about promotions. You can keep these points in mind as you plan out your posts, but don’t forget that it’s YOU that knows your business, your industry, and your customers better than anyone else. You’ll need to use that knowledge to work out what types of Posts resonate best with your audience. Measurement and testing Google provides some metrics to help you understand how well your Posts perform. When you go into your Posts (if you’re logged in with the account that you use to manage your Google Business Profile), you’ll see view and click metrics for each individual Post: If you have access to the API (either directly or via a third-party tool), you can view this data over time, which will enable you to get a sense of how much visibility your posts are getting and how many click they are earning. You can analyze peaks and troughs in the context of seasonality, consumer demand, changes in Google’s interface, and according to the success of your post content. The views and clicks data will tell you how many people clicked on the CTA in a post—but, not what they actually did when they clicked through to your website. If you’re spending money and resources to produce Google Posts, how will you demonstrate the return on your investment? I suggest adding UTM tags to your Posts . That way, once a searcher clicks through on your site from a Google Post, you’ll be able to see exactly which Post they came from and what they did once they got to your website. Hooray! Better still, you can test which types of Posts work best: Do Posts with multiple images or single images perform better? Do Posts with videos earn a higher click through? If so, what types of videos? Are emojis still enticing searchers or are they going out of style? Make your mark with Google Posts Now that you know the value of Google Posts, the policies to be aware of, and have some inspiration from the example Posts mentioned above, you’re ready to figure out what works best for your business and your audiences. Remember to test, test, test, and continue to learn and iterate to get the most out of the opportunities offered by Google Posts. Go get ‘em cowperson! Claire Carlile - Local Search Expert at BrightLocal Claire Carlile is BrightLocal's Local Search Expert. Her work at Claire Carlile Marketing, where she helps businesses of all sizes make the most of the local search opportunity, allows her to provide real-world skills and expertise to what BrightLocal does. Twitter

Author: Mordy Oberstein A lot has changed in the world of SEO over the past few years. A lot has changed for Wix over the last few years as well. Not the least of which has been the SEO capabilities Wix offers you. We thought it was high time we had a conversation to update you on what Wix can do for SEO in light of how SEO has evolved. We sat down with renowned SEO expert Alexis Sanders to hash it all out. Our SEO philosophy Outlook is always important. To kick the conversation off, Nati Elimelech , our top technical SEO, discussed Wix’s overall philosophy when it comes to the platform’s SEO abilities. Specifically, Nati discussed our desire to protect Wix users but offer flexibility at the same time. Wix presents out-of-the-box defaults that help protect our users from making mistakes should they not be SEO experts. At the same time, Wix strives to offer advanced SEO users the ability to customize as much as possible. This directly speaks to doing technical SEO on a Wix site. There is a lot that a technically oriented SEO can do with Wix. This ranges from editing a Wix site’s robots.txt file to editing canonical tags to using our developer’s tool, Velo , to execute many of the things Wix doesn’t provide out-of-the-box. Where things stand with Wix for SEO We tackled a wide range of topics during our discussion with Alexis. Here are few highlights that deserve to be mentioned above all else. Structured data on your Wix site One of the more significant advancements we’ve made has been around Structured Data. The platform offers you a lot of markup out-of-the-box. For example, we add out-of-the-box structured data to product pages, bookings, events and more. SEO pros who want to further modify their markup can use Velo to do so. On static pages, such as your homepage, about page, etc. you have the ability to add custom structured data code right to the editor. On that note, some SEOs wanted to know if we support the use of microdata to add structured data to a Wix site. Currently, we only support using JSON-LD which is Google’s preferred format for adding markup to a page. Moving forward, we’re working to make it easier to modify the out-of-the-box markup we create. This will make it possible to add custom variables to the markup created for you without using our developer’s tool. Working with meta-data at scale It should go without saying that you can edit your Wix site’s meta-data. However, SEOs often want to work at optimizing their meta-data at scale. For this, we allow for updating elements such as your title-tags, meta-descriptions , og tags and beyond at the page-type level. Users can add variables to their meta-data elements that will be dynamically updated as the content on the page itself changes. For example, you can add a product’s price to all of your product page title-tags with a single click. If you change the price on a given page, the tag will be updated without you having to do anything. Further, via Velo, you can have custom variables added to your meta-data (and even your pages themselves) by dynamically adding content via a database. You can, of course, also add custom content to your meta-data elements at the page level as well. Wix’s image optimization There’s a lot Wix does for its users automatically to optimize images for search engines. Images added to a Wix site are automatically cropped, re-sized and compressed . We serve WebP images whenever it’s supported. Further, Wix's image optimization uses a combination of both lazy loading and low-quality image placeholders to help the page load as quickly and seamlessly as possible. The road ahead We’ve dedicated a lot of energy to ensuring the Wix platform offers you the tools and structure needed to be successful on search. This effort is not stopping any time soon. We have a vast amount of development around SEO ongoing. There are new tools and new structures constantly being added and implemented to the Wix platform. We’re excited about it and look forward to announcing these upgrades as they are released. 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

Updated: January 14, 2024 Author: Mordy Oberstein In terms of your SEO strategy, on-page optimization is where the rubber meets the road. While more profound concepts around content quality and the like might dominate the SEO conversation, ensuring your page’s title tag, headers, and other on-page elements are clearly understood by search engines is an imperative (if not a best practice). This is why we’ve developed the SEO Assistant , a built-in SEO auditing feature that will help you better optimize the fundamental on-page elements of your Wix Blog, booking, and store pages. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the various SEO recommendations within the SEO Assistant and how to engage with them so that you can improve the chances of your blog, bookings, and store pages ranking on search engines. Table of contents: The Wix SEO Assistant overview Implementing SEO improvements with the Wix SEO Assistant How to audit your page using the Wix SEO Assistant 01. Select an appropriate focus keyword 02. Create a well-optimized title tag 03. Write an effective meta description 04. Optimize headings appropriately 05. Write relevant alt text for images 06. Edit body text as needed 07. Construct a URL slug 08. Add structured data markup for rich result eligibility The Wix SEO Assistant on-page SEO audit overview Before we explore the Wix SEO Assistant in more detail, let me briefly give you an overview of how to access the tool, what it shows you, and how it works. To start your on-page SEO audit for a specific blog post, booking page, or store page, access the SEO Assistant by opening the SEO Panel .  For blog pages, the SEO Panel is located in the left-hand menu of the blog editor.  Note: At the time of publication, the SEO Assistant is only available for blog posts. Access the SEO Assistant audit via the sidebar menu. Once you do so, the “Assistant” tab within the SEO Panel will automatically display. The SEO Assistant audit panel within the Wix blog SEO settings. The Wix SEO Assistant immediately shows you a few initial optimization possibilities (as shown below). These include status indicators for: Indexation (whether the page is set to be indexed or if a noindex tag has been applied) Alt text Meta description Structured data markup (for rich results eligibility) The initial SEO audit results from the SEO Assistant, prior to selecting a focus keyword. You can access all these details at a glance by simply opening the Wix SEO Assistant in the SEO Panel . However, to take full advantage of the SEO Assistant , you will need to input a keyword. You can do so by simply entering whatever core keyword (you are optimizing the page for) into the Focus keyword section of the tool (shown below). You can even utilize our keyword research integration with Semrush to better understand which keyword is the most advantageous. The Semrush integration shown with the SEO Assistant. Once inside of the integration, you can do a bit of keyword research in order to analyze which focus keyword makes the most sense to pursue (I’ll explore more on what factors into that decision later in this post ). Keyword research results from Semrush as shown via the Wix integration. With a focus keyword entered, the SEO Assistant really opens up to offer a more comprehensive list of elements to optimize. As you can see below, the list of elements that the SEO Assistant includes now features the page’s: Title tag H1 H2 or H3 Body text URL In this example, the focus keyword is “content creator tips.” In fact, the panel now includes a top-level summary indicating the number of SEO tasks according to their importance (i.e., critical, high, medium, or low). Lastly, if your site is connected to Google Search Console, the SEO Assistant will display the page’s indexation status right in the panel. The Wix SEO Assistant shows that the page has been indexed by Google. If the page is not published yet, you’ll notice the SEO Assistant is aware of this and instructs you to first publish the page so that Google has the opportunity to index it in the first place. The Wix SEO Assistant indicating that an unpublished page has not yet had the opportunity to be indexed by Google. Implementing SEO improvements with the Wix SEO Assistant Let’s now take a look at how you can execute the tasks that the SEO Assistant highlights for you. One way to do so is within the tool itself. As an example, I can update my title tag to include the focus keyword I’ve chosen ( content creator tips ) by expanding the “title tag” dropdown menu within the tool. This reveals a field where I can enter the optimized title tag I want to apply. Title tags can be optimized directly within the SEO Assistant. Once you select Apply , the tool will update and the status of the task in question will show a green checkmark to reflect that it is completed. Note: For some tasks (like optimizing a header, for example), you will need to make the change within the post content itself. Notice that as you complete the SEO tasks outlined within the SEO Assistant that the background color of the priority indicators (shown below) changes in order to visually indicate the page is “healthier” from an SEO point of view. How to audit your on-page SEO using the Wix SEO Assistant Now that you’ve explored the functionality and SEO tasks within the SEO Assistant , let’s take a look at how you can effectively use the tool to audit a page. To do this, I’ll walk you through an example of an actual blog post supporting a podcast episode I did. The topic revolved around tips for content creators on making their work more memorable (which, as an aside, I think is quite important in a world of AI-written content ). For the record, I’ll be going through the optimization steps in order of how they appear in the tool itself— not necessarily in order of “SEO importance.” With that, here’s how to optimize a page based on the SEO Assistant ’s recommendations: Step 1: Select an appropriate focus keyword Initially, I used the Semrush keyword research integration to analyze the term content tips , as it just seemed like the natural place to start for the post in question. Upon seeing the results for this keyword, I decided to go in a different direction. Even the terms content writing tips and content marketing tips seemed too competitive for me, even though they have very attractive search volumes . You might wonder why the latter term was too competitive for me when Semrush qualified its difficulty to rank not as “hard” but only as “medium.” The answer is two-fold: Just by being familiar with the niche and seeing that the term content marketing tips actually had a search volume far higher than the keyword content writing tips , I felt that there are various degrees of “medium” difficulty to rank with—this being a case where the term is really closer to “hard” than it is to “medium.” Just looking at the SERP for the keyword content marketing tips made me balk a bit. As you can see, there are some juggernauts like Semrush themselves and Rock Content ranking for this keyword. The age-old adage of “know thyself” came into play for me here. The site my post would appear on does not have a strong identity around content marketing. It’s focused mainly on SEO. So, while the term content marketing tips might be a “medium” difficulty keyword, it’s really all relative . For my site, it would be a difficult term to rank for. From here I asked myself, “Who am I really targeting with this post?” and the answer was content creators. This is why my next step inside the Semrush tool was to search for the term content creator tips . Here, I saw the term content creator tips was surprisingly a low-competition keyword (which I confirmed by checking the search results to see who is actually ranking for the term). Now, you might ask, “Is this really a good keyword if the search volume is so low?” My answer is “yes” for a few reasons: The trend section clearly shows increased interest in the topic. The search volume might be 70 now, but it could be 170 in three months from now. Search volumes are just estimations and my instincts say the search volume in this market is actually higher. Not every page is meant to drive tons of traffic. You have to understand the role of the page and its relative strength (which I discussed above). To me, having realistic expectations of what this page is (again, remember it’s a podcast page, not even a full-on blog post) would mean targeting a low-competition keyword with a more modest search volume. And with that, we have our focus keyword for this page : content creator tips . Step 2: Create a well-optimized title tag With our focus keyword in hand, let’s start thinking about the title tag . In this case, simply using a title tag of “Content Creator Tips” would be inappropriate as the tips are (as I mentioned earlier) within the context of making content memorable. Also, your title tag (should Google use it on the SERP) helps to attract clicks, so it should be more compelling and descriptive than simply “Content Creator Tips.” With that, I went with the title tag: “Can Content be Memorable? Tips for Content Creators” Now, I do have a bit of a hot take here: The general recommendation is that a title tag be between 55–65 characters. This is due to a fear that Google will truncate the title link on the SERP if the title tag is just too long (mine was 52 characters, so I’m all good here, hopefully). However, to me, this is a very loose best practice guideline—not a hard, fast rule. For one thing, Google might very well rewrite the title link used on the SERP regardless as the search engine has been more inclined to do so since the summer of 2021. Secondly, regardless of what Google actually uses on the SERP, the title tag (as it is originally written) is still factored into ranking. The full scope of language used in the title tag can impact rank—not just the words Google chooses to show on the SERP. For this reason, when faced with staunchly adhering to the character limits or writing a more optimized title tag, I recommend the latter (a sentiment shared by SEO OG Darren Shaw ). For the record, please do not take this to mean that you should stuff keywords into the title tag with no end. The best thing you can do is write a natural-sounding title tag that includes your focus keyword—don’t make your title tags long for the sake of making them long. Step 3: Write an effective meta description For me, meta descriptions are a particularly interesting element. For Google, however, they are not considered when ranking a page (although Google’s Martin Splitt has mentioned that meta descriptions help the search engine get a sense of what might be important on the page). Regardless of their importance for ranking, optimizing your meta description is a best practice and can certainly influence clicks from the SERP. Here’s the meta description I went with for this example: Let’s break this down just a bit: To start, I went with something strong and actionable since (to me) a meta description is more about attracting clicks from Google rather than ranking per se. To that end, I started off with “Get your content to stand out…” Also, this is a podcast page—I want Google to understand that and I also want the user to understand that. This is why I added the word “Listen” to the second sentence. Lastly, I wanted to use my focus keyword content creator tips , but that didn’t flow well as part of a meta description. Your content, no matter if it’s a header or a meta description, should sound natural. This is why I reformatted the keyword phrase into “tips meant specifically for content creators.” Step 4: Optimize headings appropriately The SEO Assistant breaks up optimizing H1 headers and H2/H3 headers into different tasks. However, for the sake of efficiency, I’ll address both here as the logic behind the optimization is quite similar. Headers are very important. They tell both users and search engine bots what a page is fundamentally about in a very easy-to-digest manner. Getting the headers right impacts everything from usability to indexation to ranking itself. To me, a good header works to make the content clear and interesting at the same time. Of course, the balance and the manner in which you do so depends on the nature of the content. In this case, for the H1, I went with “How to make content memorable: Tips for content creators & SEOs.” The tone of the podcast pages on the site is direct and informative for a variety of reasons. I’ve found that creating them this way improves the chances of the page being indexed by Google . Again, every site is different, and due to the nature of the content on these pages, I really want my headers to be clear (more so than I typically might). I added the term “SEOs” to the H1 because the podcast as a whole is geared towards SEO (with overlap into other marketing disciplines). I thought it was important to tell my core audience that the page is applicable to them and that I do discuss the topic from an SEO point of view as well. I went in a similar direction with an H2 for a section about why content creators should consider creating memorable content: “Why Content Creators & SEOs Should Create Memorable Content (& the Tips to Make It So!)” Again, I felt this particular page would benefit from a more direct approach with less emphasis on metaphoric language or idioms, etc. Step 5: Write relevant alt text for images Alt text does serve an SEO purpose in that it helps Google better understand what is contained within an image. However, it is fundamentally meant to serve the visually impaired or anyone relying on a text reader to convert the page into an audio experience. Such readers will use the alt text to describe what an image contains within it. For this reason (which happens to align nicely with SEO best practices), alt text should simply state what an image is. In my case, I have one image, which is the banner for the podcast episode. My alt text looks something like: “[name of podcast] banner [name of guest].” As another example, take the image below from an article on the Wix SEO Learning Hub about using Google Trends for SEO . Here, our head of SEO editorial created the following alt text: “Google Trends providing different datasets for the term ‘Apple.’” Again, all you’re trying to do is write something that describes the image. This is why you’ll notice the SEO Assistant does not tell you to use the focus keyword. The idea is to describe the image succinctly and accurately—not to rank for the page’s overall focus keyword. Step 6: Edit body text as needed If you write naturally about your topic, you should also naturally end up with body content that is optimized for search . After all, approaching your content this way allows you to address the key phrases or keywords that are relevant to both the page and your potential site visitors. For example, right above where I placed the embedded audio for my podcast, I wrote: “Listen for tips to help content creators develop content that resonates with their audience in the AI era.” This wasn’t by design or on purpose. The podcast is simply about tips for content creators so that they can create memorable content. The completed task of adding the focus keyword to a page’s main body content within the SEO Assistant. Notice that I didn’t have to use the exact phrase in order to successfully complete the task of adding the focus keyword to the body text. My body content didn’t say “content creator tips.” Instead, I wrote naturally and produced “tips to help content creators.” Again, you really just want to write naturally while being aware of the specific terms you use at certain opportunities. Remember, stuffing the keyword in all sorts of places simply for “SEO’s” sake will not help increase your search visibility. Step 7: Construct a URL slug Keywords in the URL are a very, very small part of the ranking equation . This is why our tool considers the keyword in the URL slug to be a low-priority task. When creating a URL, your foremost concern should be that it is easy for a user to comprehend. In my specific case, here’s the URL slug I created: It’s very simple and straightforward. Beyond the focus keyword, I added the word “memorable” because, topically, that is what the post is about. Again, it’s best to keep it very simple and straightforward. You do not want to turn your URLs into a revolving door trying to target a keyword. That can cause all sorts of problems and can really impact your ability to bring in traffic to the page. Go with a URL and, as a general rule, don’t change it unless you absolutely have to. If you do change the URL, make sure to implement a redirect so that you don’t end up with a broken link. If you look above, the SEO Assistant advises you to this effect as well. Step 8: Add structured data markup for rich result eligibility Depending on the nature of your page, you may wish to add structured data markup that will enable you to appear on the SERP as a rich result . In the case of a blog post, your result may appear on the SERP with the publish date: In the case of Wix blog posts, Article (Blog Posting) Markup is automatically added, which makes your blog pages automatically eligible to appear as a rich result. The automated structured data Wix creates for blog posts (as well as for booking and store pages) makes these pages eligible to appear as a rich result in Google Search. The SEO Assistant gives you a running start, but it’s only the beginning The SEO Assistant within the Wix SEO Panel is a great way to ensure pages are fundamentally optimized. Even for a seasoned pro, the tool helps you stay organized and can prevent you from publishing content that hasn’t been fully optimized for search visibility. However, this is just the beginning. Google’s algorithms are complex and demand that a site demonstrate a level of true experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness . The work that goes into creating a strong site for Google Search is both profound and continuous. Moreover, that work often depends on the goals of the site, the competitive landscape, and all the nuances that come with creating well-structured web content. Whether it’s by reading articles, listening to SEO podcasts and webinars , or by subscribing to SEO newsletters , continue your journey by learning more about SEO on a consistent basis so that you can stay up-to-date with best practices and expand upon the tactics you’ve learned in this article. 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: Maddy Osman Even if you offer the best marketing services in the world, your business won’t survive long unless you reliably turn interested parties into paying clients. I’m biased towards this aspect of agency management because I practiced my sales fundamentals at Groupon, and then at a marketing agency before I turned my freelance writing habit into an agency of my own. By the time I started my business, I learned how a successful company lands customers, received feedback to improve my sales technique, and built a field-tested sales process—all priceless knowledge. Here are the lessons and workflows I’ve learned to build a solid and repeatable sales process so that you can do for the same for your marketing agency: Build your sales process with intention: Stages of the sales cycle The building blocks of a sales process Choose a CRM (don’t overthink it) Set standard operating procedures for consistency and accountability Start small with your sales team Lessons: What I learned from building out my sales team How to create the best pitches Craft strategic assets to nurture leads Track sales metrics Hold regular sales meetings for better collaboration Build your sales process with intention: Stages of the sales cycle During my freelancing days, I took an informal approach to dealing with leads (no defined process). As a result, it was hard to accurately plan my next steps to nurture potential clients. As I gained experience, I built my sales process according to distinct stages of the sales cycle. With a standard procedure, it became easy to understand which leads are most likely to close and which need more nurturing. Let’s talk about the essential elements from which to build your sales process. The building blocks of a sales process A lot of businesses have applied the sales cycle concept to their industry/needs, and I’ve done so as well for digital marketing agencies. Below are the seven crucial steps I’ve identified for this process. Prospect:  Start by compiling a list of potential clients that match your ideal customer persona. In addition to targeting based on companies in a specific industry, consider the specific job roles you can reach out to. For example, if you specialize in SEO for cybersecurity firms , you’ll need to appeal to both business and technical personas. Prioritize those with decision-making and budget power. Crucially, develop multiple lead sources that you can rely on based on what’s working well at the moment (and what isn’t). Be careful not to rely exclusively on one lead generation  method—especially one you have no direct control over, such as referrals. It’s a trap a lot of agencies unwittingly fall into. Make first contact with a lead:  Depending on the lead’s industry and niche, determine the best contact method (email, phone calls, social media, etc). Then, reach out: Use a templated approach with some personalization for the individual lead (I’ll discuss more about templated resources and standard operating procedures in the next sections). Your outreach success rate may vary depending on the ‘warmth’ of the lead and the contact method, so keep detailed records to improve this part of the process. Use a customer relationship management (CRM) software to log every touch (i.e., customer interaction). Sales success ultimately comes down to building relationships and staying top of mind—A CRM acts as a log for all of the important details and can also help you manage an ideal follow-up timeline. In the next section, I’ll provide some tips on selecting a CRM. Listen for pain points:  If there’s interest, meet with the prospect in a more dynamic environment, like over a Zoom call. Real-time communication is advantageous because you can better convey the nuance of your work, which helps you differentiate from your competitors and enables you to give the prospect a sample of what it’s like to work with you. The goal here is to learn more about the brand you’ll be working with and listen for their pain points. Present a proposal to collaborate:  Transform the data you gathered into a proposal  that demonstrates how you’d help solve their problem effectively. To help you do this, I’ve compiled my tips for creating the best pitches in a section we’ll get to a bit later. Address objections:  There are almost always objections. Focus on understanding the root concern based on what the prospect says. It’s the only way to effectively address the roadblock. It may sound counter-intuitive, but to effectively address an objection, start by agreeing with it (e.g., “I totally hear what you’re saying…”). From there, you can pivot by describing your offering as a solution to their objection. For example, if the objection is about being too busy to consider a new vendor, you might address the objection by sharing how working with your agency can create great efficiencies.  Close the deal:  Once you’ve reached an agreement, you need to formalize it to move forward and begin work. Typically, this means a contract with specific working terms. Facilitate sales-to-client services handoff:  Keep the good vibes going with a seamless handoff process between the sales rep and the internal team that will work with the client. Ultimately, improving the results of your sales process is a numbers game. Success depends on maintaining consistency.  On average, how many activities throughout the sales process does it take you to close a sale? It’s so important to track the numbers so you can improve, forecast the future, and position accordingly. A CRM is just the tool for the job. Choose a CRM (don’t overthink it) Whether you’re a founder-led solo operation or you have a team of sales representatives and managers, your sales process will require paying careful attention to potential client details. One of the biggest hurdles to an effective sales process is failing to properly log sales touches, contacts, and relevant details. The elephant in the room : Sales tends to be a high-churn profession. Using a CRM helps you retain important information when a salesperson leaves your team. There are so many CRM solutions on the market; it’s easy to get confused, especially if building a sales process is your first experience with using a CRM.  My suggestion: Just start using something. It’s better to get started and figure out your needs as you go (rather than prolonging analysis-paralysis and letting that affect your client communications). Wix website owners already have access to a range of CRM features , including live chat, forms, a robust contact library (shown below), workflows, and automations. Manage your client relationships in the Contacts section of your Wix dashboard. HubSpot’s CRM is also a solid option that smaller marketing agencies can use for free to start. The standard sales pipeline setup  provides an excellent foundation you can build on and configure to parallel your unique sales process. As a bonus, HubSpot offers various integrations (including a Gmail extension ) that help sales team members log email exchanges. In other words, you can capture relevant details without doing double data entry between tools. Set standard operating procedures for consistency and accountability Before assembling your sales team, spend some time creating guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOPs) that establish the goals of client relationship building, encourage team cooperation, and measure what’s working.  Ideally, these procedures enable your team to work effectively without your approval on small decisions. Besides giving your initial team a kickstart, SOPs make it easier to bring new sales support staff into the fold as you scale up, with no need to reinvent the wheel or spend too long on training. Some of the most important SOPs I’ve created with my team include: Guidelines for using our CRM and sales pipeline stages How to find and qualify relevant leads based on our ideal customers How to craft compelling pitches to move prospects through the sales funnel Boilerplate responses for common objections Don’t create SOPs with the goal of perfection—it’s impossible, especially because approaches should  change as you flesh out your sales process, test it, and grow as an agency. And remember, SOPs are only useful if they’re easy to access when you need them. Ensure that you have a straightforward way to store and retrieve the rules; a company intranet works well for this. For a more modern and dynamic solution, create a custom GPT  that team members can use to ask for directions. Start small with your sales team to find the right fit If you’re a founder, shouldering all of the sales process can be effective in the early stages of your agency—especially if you have an enticing personal brand, a lucrative network , or niche expertise. Still, the lone wolf act will eventually limit your growth potential. The long-term approach to sales success is to build a team. Personally, sales is by far the hardest business function for me to delegate (even compared to the many intricacies of client delivery). I’ve created extensive SOPs for every other department and function in my agency, and that was easier.  My advice: Start small as you build your sales operation.  Lessons: What I learned from building out my sales team I used to believe that to delegate sales effectively, I needed to step back from the process entirely and hire an all-in-one sales representative. Now, I realize there are many ways to delegate parts of this process and many ways to build the ideal sales support team. Don’t start with a sales rep:  The Blogsmith’s managing director started as a writer and evolved toward helping with big-picture planning and operations. She doesn’t call herself a salesperson, but her insider knowledge of how we operate, and her experience with our body of work, make her exceptional at winning over warm leads. Stay open-minded about which team members help with sales. Save hiring a sales rep for when your processes are highly developed and your revenue is stable. Field tests reveal what works for you:  Twice, we hired a dedicated sales representative. In both situations, it didn’t work out. In the process, we learned a lot about developing our sales process and SOPs. Pick and choose your involvement:  We now have two sales admin assistants who find and qualify leads, keep our CRM and pipeline up to date, and make suggestions for lead messaging that I can build from. I’m still hands-on with sales, but I’m not responsible for all the little details throughout the process when that’s not the best use of my time. My recipe for the best pitches Attracting and signing clients is about embodying the solution to their problems. You must proactively answer the question they’re all thinking: “What’s in it for me?” Audit how you publicly communicate what your agency does. Do you align yourself with a specific niche or focus (e.g., local SEO, content marketing, UX)? Is it crystal clear how potential clients can engage with you ? What will convince the prospective client that spending their marketing budget with you will actually solve their problems? Show a prospect that you’ve gotten results for other clients like them to demonstrate that it’s not a risky move to partner with you. You’ll need to adapt my advice for your own situation. Oftentimes, though, the best pitches only receive approval through persistence, so consistent follow-up is crucial. You’re unlikely to get the sale with your first few interactions unless you’re dealing with a highly motivated lead. Typically, it’s the follow-up that gets the sale. Craft strategic assets to nurture leads You need to communicate the value of your solution in an impactful way—sales assets are a fantastic way to do this. These content pieces don’t need to be complicated, but they do need to inspire confidence and lead your potential customers through the stages of your sales process. Great sales assets make it easier to close leads. Classic examples of strategic assets include: Case studies  — Share social proof and demonstrate how effective your agency is at achieving various client objectives. Landing pages  — Showcase specific services with targeted sales messaging. Pro tip: Wix is one of the best website builders to create landing pages  to send your leads. E-books  — Establish your expertise in a niche. Resource templates  — Help prospective clients while warming them up to your brand and getting their basic contact details. At The Blogsmith, we share case studies  with prospects to convey how we solve our clients’ challenges, the specific service offerings that helped, achieved metrics, and testimonials from happy clients. Our case studies address different buyer personas and industries we work with, so prospects see that we’ve achieved milestones with businesses like theirs.  Track sales metrics: The perks of being data-driven It’s hard to understand what’s working unless you take the time to track, analyze, and reflect on the success of your efforts—this includes reviewing the metrics by which you judge success. For example, Apollo  is one tool I use to track opens, clicks, and reply rates for our cold email campaigns. If we’re not hitting expected numbers with a new approach, we can quickly pivot until we land on a better performing campaign. The Blogsmith’s Apollo dashboard for managing email templates and measuring their performance. Before we started using Apollo, we were less able to determine the impact of each element in our approach. Now, we use the data to make small improvements that significantly impact sales results. Here’s my advice for tracking sales success across channels: Research industry benchmarks for success metrics—these can look different depending on how competitive the industry is. Track success across various lead sources to understand where opportunities come from and where your time is most valuable. Use internal and industry benchmarks as a basis for A/B testing  various website and campaign elements. If performance is far off from what’s expected, A/B testing can help uncover specific improvement opportunities. Hold regular sales meetings for better collaboration Maintain a consistent meeting schedule to hold team members accountable for specific actions, brainstorm refinements to your approach, and plan out new initiatives. Meetings are a must for all agencies, even if yours is fully remote and primarily async, like The Blogsmith. We still hold two weekly synchronous sales meetings to expedite decision-making and improve the end result of our collaboration.  Over time, I learned a few tips to make meetings more productive: Create a focused, predetermined agenda that all attendees can contribute to and access before the meeting. Avoid adding tons of new agenda items when many pending items remain open. Spend time talking through new sales initiatives and  catching up with ongoing initiatives. Your ideal sales process should always be a work in progress Industry trends develop in unexpected ways and navigating the unknowns can throw an agency into chaos if there isn’t a set of best practices and fundamentals to return to. Take control by creating a sales process with a solid foundation to support you through the multiple pivots you’ll inevitably have to make. The stable habits will be your lifeline. Creating strategic assets  with thoughtful positioning is one of the most impactful sales activities in my sales process. With Wix, you can design landing pages, case studies, and other content assets. The template library and AI assistant  make it a nearly effortless process, but even so, you’ll still need to pay attention to all the elements I’ve discussed above if you want your sales process to evolve and adapt as your agency grows. Maddy Osman - Founder, the blogsmith Maddy Osman is the bestselling author of Writing for Humans and Robots: The New Rules of Content Style , and one of Semrush and BuzzSumo's Top 100 Content Marketers. She's also a digital native with a decade-long devotion to creating engaging content and the founder of The Blogsmith  content agency. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Joshua George Even if you have the most compelling product, the lowest prices, and the most responsive customer service, customers won’t be able to find your online store without proper on-page eCommerce SEO. By targeting what users are already searching for in your product and category pages, as well as within your supporting content, you can make it easy for existing customers and new audiences to find you on Google, resulting in more sales for your business. In this post, I’ll lay out my framework for how you can approach on-page SEO strategy for your eCommerce site and the tactics you must include within it. Table of contents: The nuances of on-page SEO for eCommerce websites On-page SEO best practices for online stores Research relevant keywords for your pages For existing online stores For new online stores Optimize your product and category pages for their best keywords Resolve keyword cannibalization Canonicalize URLs with parameters Optimize, consolidate, and/or redirect content Create supporting articles for your product pages Create content silos using internal links Apply Schema markup Improve website speed Take action on low-performing pages Why is on-page SEO different for eCommerce websites? Each type of website requires a different approach to its on-page SEO . This approach is tailored to the website’s purpose, which varies depending on your business model. For example, many content sites are designed to generate revenue from display ads. So, their goal is to drive as much traffic to pages where ads appear. The more traffic these sites attract, the more revenue they get—without visitors having to buy a thing. Content websites, such as blogs, typically generate revenue through display ads. eCommerce websites, on the other hand, need to sell products/services to generate revenue. The same can’t be said for eCommerce sites, which generate revenue through sales. These sites won’t make money unless visitors successfully buy products from them. So, as an eCommerce site owner, you must focus on getting your product pages to appear on top of search engine results pages ( SERPs ). This is easier said than done due to the competitiveness of ranking in organic search.  This is where an on-page SEO strategy specific to eCommerce comes in. It enables you to create and optimize other pages on your site, improving your product pages ’ keyword rankings and generating more traffic to them. On-page SEO best practices for online stores It’s one thing to get your product pages to appear at the top of SERPs (as discussed above), but it’s another to convince people to click on them and buy your product.  On-page SEO  can:  Encourages people to click on your page (regardless of your keyword ranking). Support visitors by facilitating a seamless user experience, compelling them to purchase your product. The most efficient way to achieve all this is to observe on-page SEO best practices for your online store, which I’ll discuss in detail below. 01. Research relevant keywords for your pages There are many ways to approach keyword research ; below, I’ve highlighted two that I recommend: For existing online stores: Keyword research via your website’s traffic tier If you already have an eCommerce website, you can use its “traffic tier” to identify keywords that give you the best chance of appearing on the top of Google search results. Your traffic tier refers to the maximum search volume  and keyword difficulty  (KD) your site ranks in the top three positions for on SERPs. You can use any keyword tool for this purpose. If you’re using Ahrefs, enter your website URL in the Site Explorer, then go to Organic search > Organic keywords. From here, filter to only show the keywords that your site appears in the top three positions for. Use Ahrefs Keyword Explorer to identify the search volume and keyword difficulty that your site ranks in the top three SERPs. From the example above, the highest search volume and KD the site ranks for (in Google’s top three positions) are 600 and 5, respectively. Use these figures to filter keywords that you identified in your research (or competitor analysis ), leaving only the keywords within reach for your brand. For new online stores: Keyword research via the Keyword Golden Ratio For brand new store owners, your pages likely won’t be ranking on Google yet, which leaves your traffic tier at zero. In this case, you can use the Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR) to guide your initial keyword research efforts. Developed by Doug Cunnington of Niche Site Project fame, this keyword research approach lets you find underserved keywords to target in your upcoming campaign. Search engines show fewer page results for these keywords than their search volumes. So, creating a page optimized for these search terms allows you to rank higher and faster on Google. Source: Mangools. To compute the KGR for a given keyword, use a keyword tool to find search terms with a maximum search volume of 250 (250 is the magic volume here because many of your established competitors will target higher volume terms). Then, use the allintitle  Google search operator for each keyword to find pages containing the term in their meta titles . What’s important here is the number of search results for the term. In the example above, there are only 47 results that contain “wheelchair spoke covers” in the title, according to Google. To get the KGR, divide the number of page results for the keyword by its search volume:  [Wheelchair spoke covers] is searched 150 times (according to Ahrefs) and Google shows 47 pages for it using the allintitle  search operator. Therefore, the keyword’s KGR is 0.31  (47/150), which falls under “Might Work.”  However, you want to find keywords with a KGR equal to or lower than 0.25, as these represent the easiest opportunities for you to optimize for. Do this on all the keyword ideas you can find to maximize your chances of ranking on Google and attracting potential customers. 02. Optimize your product and category pages for their best keywords Next, assign the researched keywords to your existing web pages (or pages you plan on creating). Though you should do this for all pages that you want to drive traffic to from search engines, it’s best to prioritize your product and category pages, since they likely generate the majority of revenue for your business. For existing eCommerce sites,  check your Google Search Console  (GSC) first to determine if existing pages are already generating clicks and impressions. From your GSC dashboard, go to Performance and click on the Pages tab to see pages arranged according to the most clicks (GSC’s interface varies depending on region, so for some, this data is accessible by going to Performance > Search results, then viewing the Pages tab). Click on these pages, then click on the Queries tab to see which search terms each page appears for in Google Search. Use Google Search Console to see queries your site is getting clicks and impressions from. Wix website owners that have connected their site to GSC can also view this data directly within Wix via their SEO Dashboard . Cross-reference the queries you find here with the keywords you researched earlier. This is important because you don’t want to create new pages for keywords your site already ranks for. Next, optimize each page on your eCommerce site (again, starting with product and category pages) for your target keyword by mentioning it in the URL, H1 , and title tag. The title tag and meta description  appear when your page ranks on SERPs, so you should write them in a way that compels users to click on your page (while keeping them SEO-friendly, of course). With regard to the page’s main content, you should also use/mention words and phrases relevant to your target keyword. For this, use a tool, like Surfer SEO, to help identify text to include in the content body to help make the page more contextually relevant to your keyword. Surfer SEO, for example, has a Content Editor feature that helps you find what words and phrases. Even better, it lets you enter up to 20 keywords you want to optimize the page for.  From here, the tool analyzes the top-ranking pages for the query (or queries) you entered and finds their average number of words, paragraphs, headings, and images. Think of these as benchmarks for what search engines and users might expect from top-ranking content for that query—the goal here is to match (or ideally, exceed) that quality. Pro tip: Among the different on-page elements you can optimize for, mentioning related terms/keywords can take a lot of work. One way to help you with this is by adding an FAQ section  at the bottom of the content. This enables you to tackle most users’ questions and include the words and phrases (that you may not have mentioned elsewhere on the page) in each answer. 03. Resolve keyword cannibalization Keyword cannibalization  occurs when multiple pages from your website rank for the same search query.  This essentially means you’re competing against yourself in the search results. As a result, none of the pages can reach the top of SERPs for that keyword, which decreases the potential traffic you can attract. There are a few ways to find out whether your site has keyword cannibalization issues. One common method is to refer to your rank tracking tool. Most tools will indicate cannibalization with an icon beside the keyword (as shown below), indicating that more than one page on your site ranks for it. The bug icon found in most rank tracking tools means you have a keyword cannibalization issue. You can also verify the issue by going to your Google Search Console and checking the pages getting clicks and impressions for the same exact search term. Google Search Console shows pages that show up on SERPs for the same query. If your site cannibalizes keywords, there are solutions you can implement depending on the situation. Canonicalize URLs with parameters For example, your rank tracking tool or GSC may indicate that you have multiple pages, with the same URL, that generate traffic from the same keyword—but, Google considers them unique. This is most likely due to the URL parameters you added as part of your paid ad campaign to track the number of clicks it received. A solution here is to add the rel=“canonical” tag  to the page you want search engines to index. Optimize, consolidate, and/or redirect to distinguish content and improve keyword spread  Now, let’s say the pages ranking for the same keyword have different URLs and contain unique content. The first thing you must do is identify which page you want to rank for this specific keyword. For the rest of the pages, rewrite or optimize them for a different target keyword. Choose from the keywords you researched and optimize each one (again, Surfer SEO or another keyword tool can be very helpful). This enables you to increase your keyword spread and generate more organic traffic once the pages start ranking for their search queries. Another solution is to remove the pages and redirect their URLs  to the page you want to rank. If the pages (that you want to redirect) have content that wasn’t addressed in the page you want to rank (i.e., the target of the redirect), transfer the relevant content of the page to the target page. Doing this helps you consolidate rankings across various pages from your site to a single page, thus increasing its chances of reaching the top of SERPs. Keep in mind, however, that the page you redirect to should be relevant, otherwise Google could consider it a “ soft 404 .” Additionally, you should avoid redirect chains, which could slow down your load times and eat up crawl budget. 04. Create supporting articles for your product pages The mistake most online store owners make is focusing primarily on product pages and ignoring the rest. Just because you published product pages optimized for their target keyword doesn’t mean they’ll rank immediately in search results. While these pages are responsible for bringing in profits for your eCommerce business, you shouldn’t overlook supporting content, like articles. These typically come in the form of informational blog posts that answer your audience’s questions about the topic or how-to guides for using your product. By covering topics related to the products you sell, you increase your site’s topical relevance , giving Google and other search engines a reason to rank your website! Many SEO tools can help you find topics for your supporting articles. AlsoAsked, for example, is a freemium tool that aggregates “People Also Ask” data from Google search results. The AlsoAsked output for “cat litter,” showing related questions/topics. In Ahrefs, you can see all matching terms for your seed keyword in the Clusters by Parent Topic tab (shown below). This shows all the keywords grouped according to their parent topic, which could serve as your site’s product or category page. Ahrefs lets you cluster keywords by parent topic to help you organize keyword ideas and group similar ones together. Select a parent topic to see all matching terms for that topic. Next, you could filter to only show question keywords, which could be the supporting articles for your site’s product page. You can also filter keywords based on your traffic tier, as discussed above. You can filter the keyword ideas to only show questions in Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer. From here, you can get the keyword’s KGR to help you prioritize which search terms to create informational pages for, or optimize your existing pages for those terms. 05. Create content silos using internal links After creating supporting articles for your product pages, you want to structure them in a way that search engines can better understand them. This way, they can index your site pages  faster and higher for their respective keywords. To do this, you must develop an internal linking strategy  that connects related pages together, thus forming your online store’s content silos.  A silo aims to facilitate the proper flow of link equity (i.e., PageRank ) to all indexed pages of your site. By linking all pages within a given silo to each other, you help search engines find these pages much easier (in addition to telling them what your website is about). Each silo covers a specific topic and consists of a product page and its supporting articles. For example, if you have a store that sells dog accessories, some products you might offer include collars, leashes, beds, and so on. These products would likely have a page on your site, and each page must have supporting articles, which we discussed earlier. The key here is determining how to internally link from the pages in your silo. And, while there is no right or wrong approach to building a content silo, the optimized way to do it, in my opinion, is to follow Kyle Roof’s “Top/Bottom” silo example from his IMG course (as illustrated in the screenshot below). Source: Kyle Roof. The silo consists of an article and product page, each of which have at least three supporting articles.  The article page is optimized for keywords that start with “best,” “top,” or similar  that are relevant to your product page. If your product page is about dog bowls, a good keyword for the article page might be [best dog bowls] or [best dog food bowls]. This makes linking your article and product pages much easier since they share the same topic. If you look closely at the internal linking strategy above, the supporting articles link to either the article or product page while reciprocally linking with each other. And, only the article and product pages link with each other (as shown in the image above). The silo is designed this way to funnel all link equity to the main pages of the silo, which are the ones you want to rank for in the first place. Do this on all your silos to maximize the effect of this strategy on your eCommerce SEO. 06. Apply Schema markup Structured data is vital in eCommerce SEO. Online stores contain various elements that most other websites don’t have, such as products, customer reviews, price, availability, and so on. Without structured data to identify these elements, search engines wouldn’t know how to highlight these important details on the SERP, potentially leaving your search listings less informative than those of your competitors’. However, implementing structured data (i.e., Schema markup) for these elements enables them to show rich snippets  on search results for your pages (as shown below). By showing as much information via rich snippets as possible, you can deliver important information to potential customers right from the search results, which could help with your click-through rate. To optimize your product pages with structured data, you must create the markup to include first. Go to Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator , choose the markup you want to create, and fill out the information below. Once done, copy the code in JSON-LD format, and add the new markup to your page. Wix Stores pages come with predefined structured data, enabling site owners to get a head start with their rich results. To verify that your markup is eligible for rich results, it’s a good idea to validate your structured data . You can do so by running the URL using Google’s Rich Results Test . This enables you to see if changes need to be made to the page’s markup. Note: Wix site owners have a built-in Schema markup validator that will not allow you to submit Schema markup unless your code is error-free. Access it via the Advanced SEO panel  in Wix pages to mitigate mistakes before they happen. 07. Improve website speed As an online store owner, you want to provide visitors with the best experience browsing your site and its content. That means making all your pages load efficiently and as fast as possible. Doing so ensures that potential customers stay on your site for longer, increasing the likelihood of visitors becoming your fans, customers, or both! You can start by checking your Google Search Console’s Page Experience section. Here, you can see pages that have good and poor Core Web Vitals scores , as well as those that need improvement. GSC shows the number of pages on your site that perform poorly or need improvement, according to Core Web Vitals. Select Mobile or Desktop reports to see a breakdown of why those URLs aren’t considered good. This can help you prioritize which issues to troubleshoot, as resolving certain sitewide issues can lift the performance of all your pages simultaneously. Next, check out the problematic pages in Google’s PageSpeed Insights  to see how they score on performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO. Run your page on PageSpeed Insights to see its Core Web Vitals scores. PageSpeed Insights provides you with suggestions that can help your page load faster within the “Opportunities” section (shown below). Use the information here to make the necessary changes to your eCommerce website and improve its loading efficiency and speed. PageSpeed Insights shows you issues that are bringing your scores down and how to resolve them. 08. Take action on low-performing pages To optimize and maintain performance into the future, regularly analyze your eCommerce site by determining the best and lowest-performing pages. You can do this by checking on your site’s Google Search Console and reviewing these pages based on clicks and impressions. The idea here is to emulate the successful practices from your most visited pages and implement them across all your compatible site pages. You can start by focusing on pages that decreased traffic after a Google algorithm update . In this case, you need to compare the performance of these pages before and after the update. Don’t make changes while the search engine is still updating its algorithm–you want Google to finish the update and have the full information first before making any changes to your site. From here, compare the last 28 days to the previous period and check the pages with the highest differences in clicks and impressions. Compare the pages that dropped in clicks before and after an algorithm update in your Google Search Console. The goal is to analyze why these pages decreased in clicks (assuming that you didn’t build links  to them and the potential causes are on-page SEO-related) and find ways to restore their rankings, if not further increase them. You need to address these issues through optimization, in a similar manner to how I recommended that you resolve keyword cannibalization–either rewrite and re-optimize them or delete the page, redirect the URL to a similar, relevant page on your site, and transfer some of the content in the non-performing page to the redirected one. This way, you maximize the organic visibility of all your site pages and get more visitors to see your products. Improve your eCommerce SEO workflow to stay ahead of the competition The eCommerce SEO framework I provided above should serve as a strong foundation for optimizing your online store. But, you’ll still need to hone your strategies and workflows to cater to your specific niche and audience.  For starters, conduct an SEO audit  to understand what issues you can address now. And, run A/B tests  to see which style of title tags and meta descriptions your customers respond to (among other potential A/B tests). Using the data gathered here, further optimize your online shop to rank higher on SERPs and generate even more revenue. It should be clear that on-page SEO is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. Eventually, your plan may contain some of the tips mentioned above and include others based on your experience. But the most important thing is that you continue optimizing and experimenting with your SEO campaign to keep your business ahead of the competition. Joshua George - Founder of ClickSlice   Joshua is the founder of ClickSlice , a results driven SEO agency in London. He has almost a decade of experience as an SEO consultant and has provided SEO training for the British government. Twitter  | Linkedin