Search Results

Author: Miriam Ellis It used to be that a simple Google search would typically deliver a wide enough array of results to help you find what you were looking for. This was a passive experience on the part of the searcher—enter a keyword phrase and you’d have the world at your feet.  This is no longer the case for two reasons: We use the internet for so many more activities than we did 20 years ago. Multiple sources indicate that Google’s search result quality has worsened in recent years. Gut-check my statements by thinking about your own phone and laptop use. Do you spend most of your screen time searching, or doing something else these days? Are you satisfied with Google’s top organic results, or do you have to dig deeper to find what you want?  When you look at your own usage and realize that many of your potential customers are likely hanging out somewhere other than the search results, what you’ve learned must become central to your digital marketing strategy. The days of your top goal being a spot in Google’s top 10 results are fading fast. As internet users become more active in their habits, your brand must catch up with them.  Let’s take a look at how you can adapt your marketing to support the active search journeys your potential customers are actually embarking on.  Table of contents: The decline of passive search Why passive Google search is broken Active search: How users actually use Google today How to embrace active search Support your audience’s active search journey: Best practices Do not mistake other platforms for Google Structure your team to reflect your audience’s active search journey Monitor brand mentions and distribute content The decline of passive search Passive search is the act of typing your keyword(s) into a search engine and being adequately satisfied with whatever ranks (or appears high up on the search results page).  While passive search is a good fit for basic functions (like checking a weather forecast, the time in another country, or converting US dollars into Euros), it has significant limitations for modern day users—limitations that other platforms are actively looking to fill. In some ways, recent Google’s algorithm updates  even discourage passive searches by forcing users to dig deeper on other platforms, which I’ll discuss more in the next sections.  Why passive Google search is broken In the past, the public was largely satisfied with the assets Google ranked highly for more complex search terms. Now, hardly a week goes by without new studies , surveys, and articles expressing and explaining why so many people no longer find the Google Search experience acceptable. There are almost as many theories for the cause of this dissatisfaction as there are Google users. Here are three factors to keep in mind: Google is losing the quality battle  — Google has allowed content from big brands (presumably created by content farms) to take up too much space in its index, according to Greg Sterling , co-founder of Near Media. When authoritative domains publish large volumes of low-quality content that have little or nothing to do with the brand’s recognized fields of expertise, searchers are unlikely to be well-served. All too often, weaknesses in Google’s algorithm  are simply allowing large players with the ability/budget to produce encyclopedic content to outrank smaller publishers with genuine authority. “I am no fan of Forbes and am often dismayed by what it ranks for, but one could argue that its strategy and choices are an entirely a rational response to Google’s algorithmic biases.” — Greg Sterling, Co-Founder at Near Media Google’s UX has become too cluttered  — Recently, I was talking to a fellow SEO who was so befuddled by Google’s current search experience that they suddenly realized they had been unintentionally clicking on ads . Not only are paid advertisements difficult for both novice and adept searchers to distinguish from the organic results, but the plethora of SERP features  has resulted in a mess. Commercial-intent searches, such as [organic fair trade coffee beans], are now met with a wall of product grids and shopping features that make finding a simple website link like wandering through a house of mirrors. Not long ago, the UX was so much simpler than this, and Google’s index served as a table of contents for real businesses that real people could understand and use with little trouble. Above the fold, there are more filters, tabs, and ads than there are organic search results for this query. Google has forgotten it’s a part of the search journey, not the destination — With the exception of easily answered searches that fall into the [what’s the weather like] category, Google-controlled assets do not satisfy most search intents . The problem is, Google has decided that it wants to be the end point for too many queries (in order to keep users on Google and increase its revenue potential). In the past, the SERPs acted as stepping stones on your journey to relevant content—the thing the user was searching for, be it a product, a local business, an informational resource, or anything in between. By contrast, the results nowadays increasingly feel like the only thing Google wants you to discover is…Google. Earlier this year, a US District Court ruled that Google violated antitrust law  and acted as a monopoly at the expense of competitors. As we can see, it has also been at the expense of users, like your potential customers, who want to find you and not just another self-preferenced Google asset. Active search: How users actually use Google today Active search refers to when the user has to dig deeper than a search engine’s top-ranked results or transition to a completely different platform to satisfy their search intent.  Here are three examples of how users must now search actively to find what they’re looking for: 01. A searcher is looking for [how to restring an acoustic guitar].  Google’s top results feature an AI overview scraped from sources of unknown quality, followed by a long list of low-quality sites that are riddled with ads and popups. The dissatisfied searcher either keeps digging or finds the nearest link to transition out of the SERPs to YouTube, where a video from a genuine expert will walk them through the process, step-by-step.  Google’s AI overviews have rolled out to a mixed reception due to questionable quality and integrity. This example recommends drinking urine to help pass a kidney stone. Source: Search Engine Roundtable. 02.   A searcher is looking for [organic linen drawstring capri pants],  but none of the shopping results Google features on its first page (or even within the top 50 results) match all aspects of this user’s long-tail query . The searcher abandons Google and goes to Instagram to find a product that exactly matches their specific preferences, perhaps from a boutique seller. 03.   A searcher queries [why did JRR Tolkien dislike tape recorders].  There may be some relevant content returned in Google’s top-ranked results, but the searcher will not feel fully satisfied unless they can interact one-on-one with real people who have a track record of demonstrating authority in this genre of fiction. They head to Reddit  and either jump into an existing discussion or start their own.  In all three cases, the searcher has made a significant transition from being spoon-fed by Google’s results (i.e., passive search) to becoming an active seeker of the specialized solution that uniquely satisfies them. This is the transformation we are witnessing today that requires a major marketing adjustment on the part of businesses, organizations, and publishers. How to embrace active search While the rise of active search is specific to the era we are currently marketing in, the potential solution may be a familiar one for veteran marketers, and it requires you to determine where your brand’s ‘home’ is (in addition to your brand’s domain/homepage). To that end, Rand Fishkin, co-founder at SparkToro, urges brands to market like it’s 1964:  “What I’m suggesting to you is that digital marketing in 2024 is a lot like marketing in 1964. It is getting the right message that appeals to the right people in the right places and at the right time to the right audience.” — Rand Fishkin , Co-founder at SparkToro He’s specifically referencing how difficult attribution has become in a zero-click dynamic, but a top takeaway that’s applicable to nearly every scenario is this: in 1964, marketing depended on being wherever your customer was.  It meant constructing your futuristic supermarket in the most densely-populated neighborhood in town. It meant getting your holiday catalog into households before anyone started shopping. And, it also meant going to business lunches, sponsoring local sports teams, and socializing within your community so that you became known (and liked) by the people you wanted to serve.  The task ahead of you is to translate mid-century marketing to the web, actively engaging with (and establishing a presence in) your potential community.  For local businesses , all the old-school, offline community involvement remains smart, but whether local or virtual, organizations should start spending a little less time worrying about ordinal organic rank and a lot more time hanging out with their customers.  If what Fishkin is saying (and what I’m suggesting) sounds like radical change, you’re right—keep reading! Support your audience’s active search journey: Best practices Your audience’s active search journey can look very different from that of other audiences (even those shopping for similar products or services). So, you’ll need to build up your own rules of engagement for your audience/business.  Here are some of my best practices to get you started: Do not mistake other platforms for Google Structure your team to reflect your audience’s active search journey Monitor brand mentions and distribute content Do not mistake other platforms for Google I’m not suggesting that search engine rankings are unimportant—they still matter. For local businesses, your Google Business Profile  is still critical. But, how you think about where your business fits is rapidly changing.  You can’t be one of ten blue links in Google’s SERPs anymore and call it a day. Instead, bring the maximum creativity your entire team can muster to figure out whether the best fit for your business exists on one of the following platforms, where you can socialize one-on-one with your potential customers: TikTok Reddit Discord Patreon Substack YouTube Instagram Facebook X/Twitter If your organization already knows that there is a better match for you on a platform not listed above, you’re ahead of the game, but most enterprises are struggling to find the right home-away-from-home page. In most cases, the right platform is waiting for you somewhere in my short list. But there’s a twist to all this. If we look back at the past two decades in SEO and marketing, you can see that we developed a habit of throwing everything at Google to see what would happen. Some of the content we threw in there was not good, and a lot of it didn’t deserve to see the light of day in the SERPs. This is not an approach you can take with the social platforms where you need to establish yourself.  Experimentation is definitely necessary, but if you annoy the public with low-quality marketing tactics, you risk being blocked by other members and even banned from communities . You’ll still put on your SEO hat to look at rank tracking reports  and the like, but you’ve got to find a different hat for joining the party at Reddit or Substack. In those environments, audiences will judge you by how well you socialize, and in some of them, behaving like a salesperson will get you booted. The secret ingredient to succeeding is being deeply passionate about whatever the topic is that you have in common with a particular community —rather than being there to sell, you are there to participate in a shared interest. The shared interest could be a physical town or city if your business is local, or if virtual, your passion might be the music associated with the instruments you sell. Maybe it’s the homes that can be beautified by the lamps you manufacture, or the photography that can be captured by your specialized lenses.  And here’s my most radical advice of all: if you do not genuinely feel passion for what your business offers, you need to employ people who do. This may sound ironic, given that developments in AI are causing major enterprises to lay off staff on the notion that having fewer employees will make a more attractive picture for shareholders. Be wary of this trend, because in order to sustain profits, focus belongs on how appealing your brand looks to customers (not shareholders). If the emerging social aspects of doing 21st-century business like it’s 1964 are outside your comfort zone as a business owner, find and hold onto staff who are willing to hang out, help out, and build relationships.Treat each environment with respect, because social spaces are akin to other people’s homes.  Embrace the zeal of posting images and videos. Engage in the comments section and comment on other people’s work. Give away free advice. Be there for others and demonstrate your expertise, authenticity, and trustworthiness.  It must happen every day on Nextdoor that someone hires a house painter who shares their interest in making Halloween costumes for cats, just like it used to be common for mid-century people to hire a contractor because they attended the same bridge club. Structure your team to reflect your audience’s active search journey Once you’ve established where you’ll be socializing with your community, organize your staff to build and maintain a presence.  In this scenario, your social media managers will likely take on a more emphatic role. Duties will include: Social media monitoring and participation Social content ideation and creation Social content distribution Social media analysis and reporting If your brand develops its own social hub (like a Discord server), you’ll need all of the above, plus additional roles like: Community moderators Account managers Technical support staff Monitor brand mentions and distribute content The more complex your business model is, the more likely it is that you’ll need tools to scale both monitoring your social channels and distributing content to them. Whether you have multiple business locations to promote  or multiple social channels to manage, software can help you: Monitor mentions of your brand on topics that are relevant to it. Organize and format content appropriately for each channel. Popular software choices include Sparktoro, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite. Future-proof your digital marketing with more humanity and authenticity I’m not pleased with what’s happened to Google’s SERPs and I hope it can improve, but I confess to being open to any trend that helps businesses be more real with more people. If you can see the positives in this change from passive to active use of search and the web, you’ve got some real opportunities ahead of you. Miriam Ellis - Local SEO Subject Matter Expert at Moz   Miriam Ellis is a local SEO columnist and consultant. She has been cited as one of the top five most prolific women writers in the SEO industry. Miriam is also an award-winning fine artist and her work can be seen at MiriamEllis.com . Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Veruska Anconitano Google’s algorithm updates  can throw even the most well-optimized businesses into chaos, leading to sudden drops in rankings, traffic, and revenue. For companies that rely heavily on SEO, these changes can feel like moving goalposts, making it difficult to maintain consistent visibility.  While you can’t outsmart every update, you can lessen the impact by turning to a powerful tool: market research. When you deeply understand your audience and diversify your digital strategy across multiple channels, you reduce the risk of algorithm changes taking a toll on your business. In this article, I’ll show you how integrating market research into your strategy can help stabilize your performance, minimize dependency on SEO, and build a more adaptable, future-proof business. Table of contents: Market research 101 How to conduct market research for your business and audience Omnichannel marketing: Sustain growth without relying on SEO How to integrate market research into your digital strategy 01. Define clear research objectives 02. Gather data from multiple sources 03. Create feedback loops across departments 04. Analyze and prioritize insights 05. Implement findings in an agile framework 06. Channel-specific implementation 07. Create a regular research schedule 08. Integrate tools and technology for real-time insights 09. Align research with KPIs and business objectives Market research 101: What it is & why it’s essential Market research is more than just data collection; it’s a practice rooted in social science that seeks to understand human behavior, preferences, and needs. Drawing from fields like psychology, sociology, and behavioral economics, market research helps explain why customers make certain choices and how they interact with products and services. Understanding your audience, their target market, and the socioeconomic conditions they navigate is crucial to your success. Brands that excel at knowing their target audience—its needs, pain points, and underlying motivations —are the ones that thrive over the long run, while those that overlook this fundamental process usually struggle to gain traction.  Studies have shown that businesses that prioritize customer-centric strategies  outperform those that don’t, with  one report by Deloitte  indicating that customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than those that aren’t. By using   qualitative research methods , such as interviews or focus groups, you can gain deep insights into customer motivations and emotional triggers.  This is particularly useful for uncovering the underlying reasons why people feel a certain way about a product or service. For example, focus groups often reveal emotional drivers, like the need for belonging or status, which may not be immediately evident from quantitative data alone. On the other hand, quantitative methods , such as surveys or data analytics, focus on gathering measurable data that you can use to identify trends across larger populations.  Quantitative research is essential for confirming patterns observed during qualitative research and allows businesses to make strategic adjustments based on clear, objective feedback. For instance, statistical analysis may reveal  that customers who engage with a particular feature of a product are more likely to become repeat buyers, guiding future product development and marketing strategies. By combining both qualitative and quantitative research, you’re able to gain a more complete understanding of your target audience, which helps your team make informed decisions that align with customer preferences. In the face of Google’s frequent algorithm updates, market research provides a clear understanding of what your audience needs, helping you build strategies that are less affected by search algorithm  changes.  After all, even if you please the search engines and chase rankings, Google, Bing, or whatever generative AI  engine will never be your customers—it’s your human audience that you actually need to convince. The benefits of effective market research Effective market research delivers actionable insights that influence every aspect of your business, from content strategy to product development. Thoroughly comprehending your audience’s needs and preferences means more informed business decisions that lead to:  Improved content Enhanced user experiences Stronger product-market fit Together, these elements contribute to sustainable business growth and adaptability. Let’s dive a bit deeper into exactly how this should play out. Improved content strategy When you create content with audience insights in mind , that content is more likely to perform well across channels and less likely to be negatively affected by changes in Google’s algorithm updates.  For example, if your research indicates that your audience values sustainability, you can focus your content on eco-friendly products, positioning yourself as a brand that aligns with their values. From an SEO perspective, this represents a long-tail strategy  that appeals to high-intent customers while minimizing competition for more generic terms that are less relevant to your product/services. And, by understanding where your audience consumes content, you can distribute it across multiple channels (e.g., social media, email, PPC) rather than relying solely on SEO for visibility. This ensures your message reaches your audience on platforms they frequently engage with, reducing dependency on search engine traffic alone. Better user experience Market research directly informs user experience (UX) design by identifying how your audience interacts with your website and digital products. This allows for more intuitive design choices that enhance engagement and  leads . For example, if research shows that your target audience prefers simplified navigation and quick access to information, you can design your website accordingly, leading to lower bounce rates  and higher conversion rates. Microsoft Clarity (available for Wix) can record user interactions and generate heat maps to help you improve UX. Source: Microsoft. Improved user experience also indirectly benefits SEO . Search engines may prioritize websites that deliver positive user experiences, as measured by metrics such as time on page, click-through rates, and bounce rates. When you design your website to meet the needs of your audience, these engagement metrics improve, potentially strengthening your search rankings. Enhanced product-market fit Beyond content and SEO, market research helps businesses refine their product offerings by identifying unmet customer needs . For example, by surveying your audience, you might uncover demand for a feature you hadn’t considered, allowing you to tailor your product to meet market demands. Once you’ve gathered insights, you can  adjust your product or service  to align more closely with what your target audience values. Whether this involves changing a product feature, adjusting pricing strategies, or altering your brand messaging , market research ensures that your offerings stay relevant to your customers’ evolving needs. How to conduct market research for your business and audience As you’ve probably gathered, actionable market research can leverage both qualitative and quantitative approaches to gain a comprehensive understanding of your audience. While market research can get more complex in execution, it’s conceptually straightforward: Select the right approach(es) Gather and analyze data Phase 1: Select the right research approach(es) The most appropriate approach depends on what you’re looking to learn about your potential customers. Market research method Description Example techniques Example use case Qualitative This approach involves gathering in-depth insights into customer behaviors and motivations. Interviews Focus groups Ethnography Interviews with target customers can reveal emotional drivers behind purchase decisions, giving a deeper understanding of why certain products resonate more than others. Quantitative This method involves collecting numerical data to measure and analyze at scale. Surveys  Website analytics Data mining Analyzing survey data could help you identify trends, such as the growing popularity of specific product features or the influence of price points on purchasing decisions. While qualitative and quantitative research often complement each other, there are cases where you can apply them independently.  For instance, you might exclusively use quantitative research when a business needs to gather broad statistical data about customer behavior at scale, such as analyzing website traffic or purchase trends. On the other hand, qualitative research might be your sole focus when you’re exploring the emotional drivers behind customer loyalty through in-depth interviews or focus groups. Phase 2: Gather and analyze data To generate actionable insights, you must effectively gather and interpret data. Data collection techniques:  There are many ways to collect data, including surveys, social media monitoring, and analyzing customer relationship management (CRM) systems. For example, social media monitoring allows you to track customer sentiment in real-time , helping you adapt quickly to changing preferences and behaviors. Interpreting results : Once you’ve collected the data, you need to interpret it to surface trends and actionable insights—this step is critical to translating raw data into business strategies. For example, by analyzing web analytics, you might notice a trend of increasing mobile traffic, signaling the need to prioritize mobile-first design in future content creation and product development. Platforms like Wix Analytics (shown above) and Google Analytics 4 can show you data trends over time, like sessions by device, time on page, etc. Omnichannel marketing: Sustain growth without relying on SEO Today, even though SEO is a foundational marketing strategy, relying solely on it can expose your business to risk. By adopting an omnichannel marketing strategy that distributes content across multiple platforms, you can reduce your vulnerability. Market research plays a key role here, guiding the creation of content and strategies tailored for multiple channels. This ensures that you can maintain consistent traffic and engagement regardless of search algorithm shifts. When thoughtfully executed, you can expect to: Reduce your dependence on SEO  — Instead of relying solely on SEO to drive traffic, brands should develop a more well-rounded digital presence by leveraging various platforms. Channels like social media, email marketing, paid campaigns, and direct customer engagement can act as alternative traffic/revenue streams, providing stability during inevitable search algorithm fluctuations. Zalando , the European online fashion retailer, is a prime example of this approach.  While Zalando benefits from strong SEO, the company heavily invested in its mobile app, social media channels, and personalized email campaigns to ensure it reaches customers wherever they are. This brand’s app allows users to shop seamlessly, offering exclusive features that incentivize engagement outside of traditional search, including an exclusive shopping club called “Lounge” (shown below).  Improve and adapt your SEO strategy —   With a deep understanding of your audience, you’re not only insulated from search reliance, you’re also better positioned to adapt to algorithm updates proactively. Instead of reacting to a drop in rankings, businesses can adjust their SEO strategies in anticipation of customer behavior shifts and search intent. BuzzFeed  is an excellent example of a company that pivoted its strategy to meet its audience’s increasing video content consumption. As research began to show that audiences were spending more time engaging with video, BuzzFeed adapted its content production accordingly.  By shifting to video-based SEO , BuzzFeed maintained strong visibility and engagement despite Google algorithm changes. This pivot helped the company capture a broader audience and ensured that it stayed ahead of SEO trends . Position your brand for better recognition  — Another key advantage of market research is the ability to  refine your brand’s positioning , making it more memorable (and less dependent on search algorithms for visibility). One company that exemplifies this approach is  Oatly . Initially, Oatly needed more clear differentiation in the oat milk market. Through in-depth market research, the company discovered that consumers were drawn to their mission of creating a sustainable, healthier alternative to traditional dairy. By aligning its messaging with this mission, Oatly successfully repositioned itself as a brand dedicated to environmental and personal well-being. This new brand identity resonated deeply with consumers (particularly those interested in plant-based diets). As a result, Oatly’s recognition grew, allowing it to thrive across various channels and minimizing its reliance on SEO. Today, Oatly is viewed as a leading brand in the plant-based movement, a status that shields it from the fluctuations of search engine rankings. Promote sustainable growth  — Businesses that prioritize diversified strategies have the best shot at steady growth and predictable revenue, regardless of the latest search trends. Patagonia , the outdoor clothing brand known for its commitment to sustainability and social activism, is a great example of this approach. It has effectively used market research to understand its target audience’s values and behaviors, enabling the company to build strong customer loyalty across platforms. The brand actively engages its audience through social media campaigns, purpose-driven email marketing, community-building initiatives, and partnerships with environmental organizations. For instance, Patagonia’s ongoing environmental campaigns  resonate deeply with their eco-conscious audience, driving engagement across social media and other channels. Its strategy also includes producing high-quality content that aligns with its brand’s values, such as documentary films about environmental issues, which it promotes through various platforms outside of traditional SEO.  Improve product development with a customer feedback loop — A multi-channel approach also facilitates faster feedback loops, allowing businesses to gather real-time data from customers across platforms. For example, by monitoring customer reviews , social media interactions, and direct email feedback, you can continuously refine your product offerings. This real-time engagement helps you stay aligned with customer needs, making it easier to adapt quickly to market changes and improve product-market fit. A great example of this is  Glossier , a beauty brand that built its success by engaging with its community through social media and customer reviews, using this feedback to inform new product development. For instance, its popular  Milky Jelly Cleanser  was developed based on insights gathered from customer feedback about their skincare needs. This constant interaction with its audience allows Glossier to stay closely aligned with customer preferences, refine their offerings, and continuously innovate while maintaining a loyal customer base. How to integrate market research into your digital strategy Now that you know the basics, it’s time to gain some firsthand experience by actually applying this concept within your strategy.  Assigning clear responsibilities to each team is essential. This ensures that research insights are correctly implemented and drive decision-making across all departments.  Follow these steps as part of an ongoing process: Define clear research objectives Gather data from multiple sources Create feedback loops across departments Analyze and prioritize insights Implement findings in an agile framework Channel-specific implementation Create a regular research schedule Integrate tools and technology for real-time insights Align research with KPIs and business objectives 01. Define clear research objectives Responsibility: Marketing leadership The marketing leadership team (in collaboration with department heads and stakeholders) should establish the specific goals of your market research. Determine what insights the business needs regarding audience, competitors, and market trends. For instance, are you trying to understand customer pain points, explore new market opportunities, or optimize content for better engagement? Setting clear objectives will guide the entire research process. 02. Gather data from multiple sources Responsibility: Market research team The market research team collects data through qualitative and quantitative methods. To gather qualitative insights, conduct customer surveys, focus groups, and social media listening. Quantitative data will come from analytics tools , CRM systems, and third-party reports. The research team should also work closely with the analytics team to ensure a comprehensive data-gathering approach. 03. Create feedback loops across departments Responsibility: Cross-departmental collaboration (marketing, product development, customer service) Marketing, product development, and customer service teams should establish regular feedback loops with the research team.  Marketing can share engagement metrics. Product development can share user data. Customer service can report on customer queries and issues.  This collaborative process ensures that research findings continuously influence decisions across departments. 04. Analyze and prioritize insights Responsibility: Market research and data analytics teams With support from the data analytics team, the market research team should analyze the findings to identify actionable insights.  Prioritize insights based on relevance to business objectives and potential impact. Communicate high-priority insights to relevant teams (e.g., content, product development) for immediate action. 05. Implement findings in an agile framework Responsibility: Marketing and product development teams The marketing and product development teams should implement the findings in an agile framework, setting up pilot projects, A/B tests , or experimental campaigns to apply research-driven strategies. For instance, test new content or product ideas across digital channels, measure results, and adjust strategies based on performance data. 06. Channel-specific implementation a. SEO Responsibility: SEO team The SEO team should use market research insights to refine keyword strategies  and optimize content based on search intent. This includes creating content that addresses the needs and questions identified during research . b. Social media Responsibility: Social media team The social media team should tailor content to align with the platforms your audience frequents (based on research). They should create visually engaging posts and interactive content using real-time feedback from social media monitoring tools. c. Email marketing Responsibility: Email marketing team The email marketing team is responsible for segmenting email lists and personalizing campaigns based on research findings. They should ensure that email content speaks directly to the interests and needs identified for different customer segments. d. Paid advertising Responsibility: Paid media/advertising team The paid advertising team should leverage insights to create targeted ad campaigns on platforms like Google and Meta Ads . They should optimize ad copy, visuals, and targeting settings to align with customer preferences discovered through research. e. Content marketing Responsibility: Content marketing team The content marketing team should develop content assets like blog posts, videos, and infographics that align with audience needs and trends identified through market research. They should regularly evaluate content performance and adjust strategy accordingly. 07. Create a regular research schedule Responsibility: Market research team The market research team should schedule regular research intervals (quarterly, biannually, or annually) depending on business needs and market dynamics. This ensures continuous insight gathering and helps the business adapt to market changes in real time. 08. Integrate tools and technology for real-time insights Responsibility: Analytics and IT teams The analytics and IT teams should implement and maintain the technology to track and report key data points . They should ensure that platforms like Google Analytics and CRM systems are integrated with the market research process to provide automated, real-time insights to relevant teams. 09. Align research with KPIs and business objectives Responsibility: Marketing leadership and business development teams Marketing leadership should coordinate with business development teams to ensure that outcomes (from your marketing research implementation) align with broader business goals and KPIs. Hold regular review meetings to assess the integration of research insights into the overall business strategy. Market research: Let customers tell you how you should adapt your digital strategy Market research isn’t just a tool for reacting to changes; it’s a proactive approach that you should integrate into your digital strategy to drive continuous improvement. Focusing on audience insights enables you to create content that stays relevant and resonates no matter how algorithms change. This forward-thinking use of market research enables you to diversify traffic sources, reduce reliance on SEO, and develop strategies that evolve with your audience’s needs. To maximize its impact, ensure that market research informs all channels—SEO, social media, email marketing, and paid ads. This multi-channel approach enhances customer engagement and strengthens relationships while refining your product-market fit through real-time feedback. By incorporating regular research, agile testing, and cross-department collaboration into your process, your business can stay adaptable and future-ready. Investing in market research lays the groundwork for long-term growth and stability, driving success across all areas of your digital strategy. Veruska Anconitano - International & Multilingual SEO Consultant   Veruska is an SEO consultant  that works at the intersection of SEO and localization to help companies enter non-English-speaking markets. She follows a culturalized approach to SEO and localization, leveraging cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and data. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Krystal Taing Service area businesses (SABs) are one of the most common types of local business, but unlike traditional brick-and-mortar locations, they don’t have a physical storefront to help them increase awareness. So, they rely on local SEO  to help get them in front of potential customers. When it comes to optimizing search visibility for SABs, there’s a lot of nuance to master (compared to brick-and-mortar businesses). In this blog post, I’ll walk you through that nuance, how to leverage third-party platforms to extend your local SEO, as well as advanced tactics. Table of contents: The fundamentals of local SEO for SABs Navigating Google, Facebook, and Apple guidelines for SABs Advanced local SEO tactics for SABs Measuring your local SEO success Additional resources for SABs Local SEO: Service area businesses vs. brick and mortar stores Service area businesses provide their services at the customer’s location, which could range from residential homes to commercial establishments. Examples include plumbing services, home repair, and cleaning services.  The broad geographical area SABs cover, coupled with the lack of a physical storefront, pose specific SEO challenges—the most prominent challenge being how to effectively target and reach potential customers scattered across different locales. The absence of a physical store location is what makes local SEO for SABs so important. It ensures that these businesses appear in search results when potential customers in their service areas look for relevant services. This targeted visibility is essential to driving inquiries and leads, and securing business. While local SEO for both brick and mortar businesses as well as SABs is essentially the same discipline, SABs will have a more specific set of considerations to optimize for (in addition to following established local SEO best practices ). The fundamentals of local SEO for SABs Local SEO for SABs revolves around several key factors:  Relevance (i.e., how well your business reflects the searcher’s intent) Distance (i.e., physical proximity to the searcher) Prominence (i.e., the popularity of your business) These factors help search engines determine which businesses to show in local search results.  Furthermore, setting up and optimizing a Google Business Profile (GBP)  is vital for SABs. It allows businesses to specify their service areas and ensures they appear in Google searches from those regions.  Hiding your business address in Google Business Profile. In addition to GBP, SABs must manage their listings on platforms that allow them to hide their business addresses (while still showing the area they serve), such as certain local business directories (e.g., your local Chamber of Commerce  and Manta Business Directory ). Use platforms to promote your SAB: Google, Facebook, and other local listing guidelines Each platform has its own guidelines for how SABs should represent themselves. Typically, if the platform supports search-based functions, it will also support listings or profiles for SABs. However, some platforms that are more focused on maps and driving directions, such as Apple Maps, will have different guidelines or may be unable to support SABs.  Here are some platform guidelines that every SAB owner should know: Google Business Profile An example of a service area for an SAB. Source: Google. Google Business Profile provides specific functionality and guidance for service area businesses . Most notably:  SABs can only create one profile for the metropolitan area that they serve. SAB owners can specify their service areas by city, postal code, or another type of area. Each listing can serve up to 20 service areas. The boundaries of your overall service area should not exceed about two hours of driving time from where your business is based. Avoid listing virtual offices unless they are staffed during business hours. An example of a prototypical SAB that fits the criteria above could be a cleaning service that operates from a central office and serves a specific area. This listing should have one profile for the office, clearly stating the service area. Hybrid businesses  (i.e., businesses with a physical location that also provide on-site services, like an auto repair shop with a garage and roadside assistance), on the other hand, can designate a storefront address as well as a service area.  Google will show searchers your address as well as highlight your service areas on your profile (as shown below). Google uses your business details and other sources to decide how to show your address. These sources can include additional content found on the web about your business and areas it serves, as well as customer feedback directly from Maps. For individual SABs (not multi-location), this is pretty straightforward to understand and manage because your business is represented by (and limited to) one service-area business profile. For businesses with multiple different locations  (i.e., chain businesses/franchises; like a chain of pest control service branches with separate offices in different cities), you can have one profile per location. As is the case with an individual SAB, the service area for each profile shouldn’t extend more than two hours’ driving time from your base (though some businesses might need larger areas).  If you run your business from home  (like a plumber might), make sure to hide your home address on your GBP. When you hide your address, Google will display an outline on the map showing your service area. The ‘directions’ action button will also be removed from your profile.  Facebook Facebook also supports service area businesses. The platform only provides very light guidance to users managing their business pages, stating:  “If you don’t have a location where people can visit your business, edit your Page info to hide your street address on computers and mobile devices.” — Facebook Once you configure this setting, you will see only the city and state displayed on your business’s Facebook page.  Additional sites and platforms One of the challenges facing service area businesses is that many sites require an address in order to list your business. This means if you have an address that you do not want customers potentially showing up at (such as a residential address), then you are limited in terms of the sites and platforms you can use to represent your business.  SAB-friendly platforms include: Yelp Angi Nextdoor Yellow Pages CitySquares DexKnows Avvo Thumbtack Unfortunately, even though iPhones account for a massive share of mobile devices, Apple Maps currently only supports businesses with a published address , so only storefronts or hybrid businesses can publish their business listings here.  Recently, however, Apple introduced some support for SABs . Now, these businesses can register with Apple Business Connect , a platform that allows them to manage their brand visibility on iPhones and other iOS devices. Through Apple Business Connect, SABs can display and customize their business name, logo, and other branding elements in Apple applications, such as Mail, Phone, and Tap to Pay. Advanced local SEO tactics for SABs To further enhance local SEO, SABs should focus on the following tactics: Build local citations  — Getting listed in industry-specific directories boosts SEO and places your business in front of potential customers looking for specific services (meaning those customers may be more likely to convert). Based on your industry, you can build citations on sites like Yelp , Avvo , and Thumbtack . Look at your website referral traffic (in Google Analytics 4  or your analytics platform of choice) for a helpful indicator of where customers are already discovering you. This can help you prioritize which sites to focus on first.  In this example, a landscaper in San Diego might prioritize Yelp and Houzz over other local business platforms. Build up and manage your customer reviews  — Customer reviews  build trust, influence rankings, and are crucial to your local SEO success. Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews and respond promptly to any feedback. Businesses that provide services to their customers (as opposed to a product), cannot overlook the impact and importance of consistent and positive reviews. Creating and optimizing local pages —   This is crucial for enhancing visibility and customer engagement for service area businesses, especially if you operate multiple locations in different regions. In order to build local service area pages that rank and convert, you should: Create unique local pages for each service your business offers (e.g., a catering service might create pages for each of the types of events they cater). Highlight local-specific information that resonates with the audience, including details about local landmarks, events, and community involvement. Add unique photos that are relevant to that location and its services. Encourage customer reviews and testimonials specific to each location. An example of a local landing page for a multi-location service area business. Measure your local SEO for continued success The only way to know that your optimizations are paying off is to measure your efforts. Focus on KPIs such as: Local SEO metrics Metrics that SABS should also focus on Search rankings Local search traffic Conversion rates Website calls and chats Scheduled appointments Online form submissions Service area businesses typically want to drive new customers or bookings, so in addition to ranking, track and optimize how many inquiries you are driving. Even as an SAB, you can utilize common SEO tools to monitor your performance: Google Analytics — Track and analyze website traffic from local search queries, helping to understand how users find and interact with your site. Google Search Console  — Monitor and report on local search visibility, keyword rankings, and issues affecting performance in local search results. Google Business Profile Insights  — Measure customer interactions, such as calls, direction requests, and views on Google Maps and Search. GBP Insights show you how many calls originate from your GBP listing. Interpreting the data from these tools is essential. Regularly review metrics to identify trends and areas for improvement. Use this data to refine your strategies, ensuring continued SEO success. By consistently analyzing these KPIs and using the right tools, you can optimize your local SEO efforts effectively, leading to improved visibility and customer engagement. Unlock local SEO potential for your SAB As is the case with traditional SEO, you’ll need to adapt best practices for your particular business and niche. There’s always an element of trial and error involved, but you can maximize your efforts by familiarizing yourself with tips and guidance from local SEO experts. For further reading, here are some additional resources that can help your service area business increase its organic search visibility:  Google Local Service Ads Understand how your address impacts ranking for your SAB Should SABs show or hide their address? Krystal Taing - Global Director of Pre-sales Solutions, Uberall Krystal Taing is the Global Director of Pre-sales Solutions at Uberall. She is a Google Business Profile Platinum Product Expert and faculty member at LocalU. She helps brands at managing hybrid customer experiences. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Miriam Ellis One of the greatest things about a career in local SEO is that it doesn’t require a degree, making it accessible to just about anyone with a passion for the trade and an interest in educating themselves. A ‘textbook’ knowledge of local search optimization, however, is just the beginning.  You’ll need a game plan—covering ongoing education, the type of business you want to work for, and everything in between—if you want to enjoy the benefits and day-to-day duties that a successful career in local SEO affords you. Consider this your starter kit to understanding this role and career path. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a much clearer idea of whether a career in local search marketing is right for you, as well as a set of steps to follow to kickstart your development. Table of contents: Local SEO expertise: Master the craft First-party guidelines for local SEOs Local SEO guides written by experts Resources for ongoing local SEO career development Find the right work environment for your local SEO career Work for yourself Work at a major local business brand Work at a small local business brand Work at a marketing agency Work at a local SaaS company How to set yourself apart in the local SEO industry Where to get help with your local SEO career Local SEO expertise: Master the craft Because major players like Google and Apple continuously evolve their local business platforms, expect to do a lot of learning on a regular basis to keep up with the changes.  Bookmark platform guidelines (the first-party documents on how to achieve visibility within an ecosystem) and local SEO guides written by established practitioners, and schedule time for ongoing professional development by keeping up-to-date with industry news and developments. First-party guidelines for local SEOs Create a bookmarks folder so that you can easily access these essential references: Guidelines for representing your business on Google  — Google is the dominant player in local search. Mastering its guidelines for how to manage Google Business Profiles (GBP)  is critical to your potential clients’ visibility. Local SEOs basically memorize these guidelines because they come up in day-to-day work. Google’s prohibited and restricted content guidelines  — Familiarize yourself with Google’s restricted content guidelines and pay special attention to what the platform prohibits with regards to local business reviews . Apple Business Connect user guide  — Apple’s platform and guidelines are not nearly as extensive as Google’s, but they can still be valuable for your clients because of the iPhone’s popularity amongst consumers. Don’t ask for reviews on Yelp  — Many of Yelp’s policies and guidelines are similar to other platforms, with one notable exception: It prohibits review solicitation. There’s not much to memorize or bookmark here, so instead, be mindful of this policy and inform your local clients so that their reviews don’t get flagged. Local SEO guides written by experts While the major local platforms will tell you what rules to follow, they don’t provide an overview of local SEO as a whole and won’t necessarily tell you about all the ways you can optimize your clients’ online presence—this is where local SEO guides by experienced practitioners come in to fill the gaps and give you a career kickstart. There is no shortage of guides for local SEO (and more get published or updated every year). Here are my top recommendations: An Introduction to local SEO  by Krystal Taing  for Wix The Comprehensive Guide to Local SEO  in 2024 by BrightLocal The Essential Local SEO Strategy Guide  authored by me for Moz The Local Search Ranking Factors Report  from Whitespark If you put in the time to read all of these, you’ll build up your familiarity with core local SEO best practices  very quickly. In particular, your clients will expect a mastery of: Google Business Profile Review management On-page SEO Keyword research Local citations Link building Multi-location SEO Analytics and reporting Resources for ongoing local SEO career development Once you establish your base of local SEO fundamentals, you’ll need to regularly monitor industry news and trends to deliver results for your clients.  Below is a short list to which you should add your own preferred publishers as you progress in your career. Each of these resources feature different local SEO experts and industry leaders, most of whom you can find and follow on X/Twitter or LinkedIn.  The Wix SEO Learning Hub’s local SEO section The Near Memo Podcast Search Engine Roundtable Search Engine Land’s local marketing column The Sterling Sky blog The GatherUp blog The Whitespark local SEO email course The Local SEO Guide blog BrightLocal’s blog Many of the companies above also feature newsletters that deliver local SEO developments right to your email inbox. Some of these entities also host in-person and virtual conferences and workshops that you can attend to further your education and meet industry peers (which can also be vital for your local SEO journey).  Find the right work environment for your local SEO career As a local search specialist, there are five main scenarios in which you can work: Work for yourself (e.g., a consultancy, freelancing,) Work at a major local business brand Work at a small local business brand Work at a marketing agency Work at a local SaaS company Let’s look at each of these and cover the key pros and cons of each work environment.  Work for yourself (e.g., consultancy, freelancing) You can start your own consultancy, agency, or software business. For example, you can launch a business that serves small-to-enterprise-level local business clients. Or, you can even offer your services to existing agencies that have their own clients.  Pros of starting your own local SEO business Cons All the work you do goes towards building up your own reputation and authority as a local search professional Direct control over how you want to serve clients and grow your business Set your own schedule, your own fees, and be the decision maker in your own career Gain tons of hands-on experience working directly with clients and, if your company is successful, you will get to decide whom you wish to hire to expand Working for yourself is the only true ‘job security’ Responsibility for your success rests entirely on your shoulders No guaranteed paycheck when you work for yourself Likely to face heavy taxes as an independent contractor Pay for healthcare out of your own pocket Home loans may be harder to secure since the mortgage industry is prejudiced against self-employed professionals May struggle with work/life balance Sole proprietors sometimes suffer from a sense of isolation If you enjoy working independently and can manage your time well, starting your own local SEO business can be very fulfilling. To evaluate whether this might be right for you, monitor how other consultants market and talk about their businesses. A few examples include: Greg Sterling  (Near Media/Dialog) Andrew Shotland  (Local SEO Guide) Joy Hawkins  (Sterling Sky Inc.) Work at a major local business brand You can seek employment in the marketing department of a large brick-and-mortar or home services brand with hundreds or thousands of locations/service areas. Think businesses like U-Haul, BestBuy, Roto-Rooter, REI, etc. Pros of working as a local SEO for major local brands Cons Experience how local search works at scale, gaining insights into enterprise-level operations Work with a team (rather than alone) On-the-job training Get acquainted with enterprise-level tools, software, and techniques. If the brand is engaged in publishing, you can begin building your reputation by blogging or podcasting for them You can gain depth of expertise by focusing on local SEO for one niche/business (rather than various client businesses) A regular paycheck and benefits The quality of your work life depends on how well the employer manages operations and treats employees Career growth depends largely on the employer’s decisions (i.e., periodic review process that determines whether your salary grows, etc.) Employment can be terminated at any time, regardless of your contributions, if the employer instigates a layoff, merger, or acquisition Larger businesses tend to have more layers of decision making, which can bog down your work After working at an agency, it’s common for local SEOs to move to major local brands. While they no longer have to juggle multiple client priorities and generally enjoy more stability, it’s worth noting that these enterprise environments tend to vary greatly, with some lacking resources or led by management that does not value SEO. Work at a small local business brand Instead of seeking employment within a department of a big brand, you might prefer to become one of just a few members of a marketing team (or even the only member) for a smaller local business. For example, there might be a small restaurant chain, a boutique hotel, a non-profit organization, or a winery near you that needs your skills.  Pros of working as a local SEO for a small local business Cons Your contributions may be more easily seen and appreciated when you work within a smaller organization (i.e., easier to prove the value you bring) You can become indispensable to a small brand more easily than within a larger one More opportunities to branch into other marketing disciplines (social media, PPC, etc.) If the employer is too small, you may struggle with adequate compensation Benefits are unlikely to be competitive with major brands Small employers frequently need to be sold on the value of marketing services (instead of automatically understanding the value as larger employers tend to). This means your career growth may be limited by the smaller scope of the business In this scenario, you carry more of the responsibility for the brand’s success. You may also have to wear more marketing hats, which can add to your skills but can also detract from the core local SEO work you wish to focus on. These are both pros and cons, depending on your outlook. Work at a marketing agency You can seek employment as the local SEO for a marketing agency that offers a variety of digital services, such as consulting, copywriting, link building , SEO, etc.  Pros of working as a local SEO for a marketing agency Cons Reputable agencies recognize the value local SEOs provide and offer competitive compensation Working across a range of clients can help you learn many useful skills in less time You may enjoy teaming up with talented co-workers to deliver success for the agency’s clients Agency work can provide valuable first-hand experience with all of the components that are involved in professional marketing campaigns A regular paycheck and benefits When poorly managed, agencies can suffer from an over-emphasis on meetings and an under-emphasis on work-life balance for employees and delivering results for clients Work load can vary greatly—even between teams within the same agency Algorithm updates  and other widescale Google changes can generate significant workloads overnight (especially if many clients that are affected) Your satisfaction here largely depends on how well the agency is structured and managed. Some local SEOs spend their entire careers working at agencies because they enjoy the challenge and variety of client work, which can be very useful if you want to position yourself as an expert. Work at a local SaaS company You could go to work for a software-as-a-service brand that sells tools to its local business customers. For example, a SaaS company might offer review management or citation building software.  Pros of working at a local SaaS company Cons A wider variety of potential positions (e.g., guiding product development, evangelizing the product via a variety of marketing campaigns, client services) can allow you to try something new or make a lateral career move SaaS companies often need to engage in more B2B marketing activities, which could mean opportunities to represent the brand (and build your personal profile) at conferences, on webinars and podcasts, etc. A regular paycheck and benefits Depending on the nature of your work, you may be less hands-on with SEO implementation If it’s a newer SaaS company, funding and revenue issues may result in periods of instability Many SEO and marketing agencies offer a SaaS tool as a secondary line of business. This can cause an identity crisis within the organization, where the services side is at odds with the SaaS side The goal of many software brands is to get acquired by larger brands, eventually leading to acquisitions and mergers which can result in the original staff being replaced Some popular local SaaS companies include: Whitespark GatherUp BrightLocal Before we move on to how you can set yourself apart in a crowded industry, take a second to acknowledge that no job is without its pros and cons, and there’s a good chance you’ll work in a variety of situations over your career. If you become dissatisfied with a scenario, look for ways to either improve it from the inside or move on to a better opportunity.  How to set yourself apart in the local SEO industry Whether you plan to work for yourself or for an employer, you should do all you can to accrue relevant experience—this is important for both career longevity and prosperity. While you can take a trial-and-error approach by taking on as much work as possible, it’s better to start by listening and studying what’s already out there, as local SEO expert Claire Carlile advises: “Immerse yourself so that you can understand what exists—what is done well and by whom—and where exists the ‘need’ or ‘requirement’ ... Being part of the local SEO community has been one of the most rewarding and fulfilling aspects of my work, so if you want to contribute at a community level, remember to LISTEN for a while, and then perhaps reach out to someone in that space that could be a useful sounding board to help you identify, shape, and refine the nature of your contributions.” — Claire Carlile , Local Search Marketing Advocate at Jepto To take your local SEO career to the next level, you’ll need to consistently demonstrate your expertise—and what better place to do that than where local SEOs and local business owners congregate, as Colan Nielsen of Sterling Sky suggests: “Seek out the places where local SEOs and business owners are active online and insert yourself into conversations, providing as much value as you can. At first, you will observe more than you participate, but as your confidence and knowledge grows, you become more vocal.” — Colan Nielsen , Vice President at Sterling Sky In addition to this excellent advice, each of the following steps will assist your career development: Get your hands on at least one local business to optimize — If you’re just starting out, actively seek an opportunity to market a small local business. You may charge a very low rate (or even work for free) for a short time because the experience you’ll gain is invaluable. Good options include a business owned by a friend or relative. If no one in your circle owns something like a bakery, a food truck, or a landscaping service, other options could include a local place of worship or a community center that has little or no marketing budget. Be transparent that you are a novice and will abide by the guidelines of the platforms you experiment with, and thank the business owner for helping you earn skills.  Share the results of your work  — Get yourself some dedicated social media accounts to promote your work. LinkedIn and X are good bets in the SEO industry, but if you enjoy video, don’t overlook TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. As you work on your first client’s local SEO, document what you do and your results. For example, if you teach a client how to earn their first ten Google Business Profile reviews and their business moves up in the rankings, make a social post about this small success. Little by little, you’ll learn from your experiments and if you generously share what you learn with others, you’ll attract followers and industry connections.  Don’t be intimidated by more experienced practitioners that know more than you do. There are always people at every level of learning on the internet. Be transparent that you are a beginner, admit when you make mistakes, and maintain your commitment to ongoing learning. Nearly everyone in the local search industry, regardless of seniority, shares this commitment.  Build your professional profile  — As you take on paying clients or secure employment with a brand, find ways to grow your online profile. This could include: Building your own website and blog Creating a podcast or Substack Speaking at (or hosting) workshops, webinars, or conferences Being a guest on someone else’s podcast Contributing articles to a variety of industry publications Developing free and paid training materials Developing your own tools or software Pay attention to what interests you most about local search marketing and work hard to build a reputation for knowledge in a particular area. Some local SEOs specialize in technical aspects, like audits, structured data , or troubleshooting. Others specialize in an industry, such as hospitality, realty, or legal.  Make time to explore things that fascinate you, because you can bring a level of energy to certain topics that will help you stand out in the industry and to prospective clients and employers. Develop a local search marketing philosophy  — Over time, your experience will likely culminate in a philosophy from which you operate in the local search marketing industry. Your stance on how you approach work will not only help you make decisions in a variety of scenarios, but will also be felt by others with whom you work and communicate.  Some local SEOs emphasize volunteerism, devoting hours of their time to helping business owners for free on forums like the Google Business Profile Community . Some have a socio-economic stance that inspires them to work only with independently-owned small businesses because they believe in the benefits of the Buy Local movement  or hold environmental beliefs that inspire them to take Clean Creatives’ pledge  not to work with fossil fuel businesses. Alternatively, you might work only with large enterprises in hopes of localizing their messaging so that it’s more useful to communities. Some bring healthy skepticism to the job, investing time in helping others to navigate some of the less pleasant aspects of local search, like review fraud , while others continuously publish studies that shed light on confusing aspects of working within Google’s system .  You can be a very pro-Google local SEO, have feelings of ambivalence about aspects of their operations, or vigorously challenge their messaging and positions. It’s all up to you, and as long as you’re coming from an authentic position, your voice can be of service to your peers and clients. Build authority over time  — The more you contribute to both clients and the industry, the more authority you will build as a professional local search marketer. In the process, respected peers and publications will hopefully begin to cite and link to your work, request quotes and articles from you, and invite you to speak at events. As you become better-known and liked, you may even begin creating your own events at which others would be proud to participate. You may author e-books or try your hand at traditional publishing. Some local SEOs have ended up in online and television news pieces, providing commentary on aspects of local search that intrigue or baffle the public.  Where to get help with your local SEO career It’s part-and-parcel of working in local search marketing to continuously run into problems you’ve never seen before. This is, in part, because so many different scenarios and problems exist, but also because new ones always crop up. This is what makes participating in the larger industry invaluable, because there’s a good chance that if you’re not sure how to respond to an emerging issue, a peer will already have ‘been there and done that’!  Bookmark these excellent resources for when you inevitably come across an issue that you need help with: The Sterling Sky Local Search Forum  is a public forum you can join for free. Members are welcome to ask questions and engage with posts from others. When experiencing serious technical issues with Google listings, the Google Business Profile Community  is where you can post full details of a problem in hopes of receiving advice from volunteer Product Experts—when an issue is severe, these volunteers have the ability to escalate a report to Google. Grow your career by attending the on-going in-person or online LocalU  events, where you will be taught by some of the most respected experts in the local search industry. Always be on the lookout for interesting webinars that focus on growing your agency or career. The larger SEO industry has multiple traditional conferences throughout the year  and some (but not all) feature sessions on local search marketing. It’s always important to remember that everything about organic SEO plays a big role in local SEO, so studying the former is still critical to doing a good job with the latter. In addition to these public spaces and events, you may find private local search groups on Slack channels, Discord servers, or via email chains. You may even start your own group one day and invite others to join.  A career in local SEO: Online communities, local values One of the aspects of the local SEO industry that I’ve found most appealing for 20 years running is that it is a genuinely friendly, shared work environment where openness, generosity, and humility are core values.  None of the best local SEOs claims they ‘know it all’. Respected practitioners understand that we are always all learning together and trying to help one another adapt to the continuous changes in search marketing that impact us and our clients.  Being amiable and down-to-earth is a good attitude to bring to this large, global community of local search specialists. Best of luck as you further explore this career path! Miriam Ellis - Local SEO Subject Matter Expert at Moz   Miriam Ellis is a local SEO columnist and consultant. She has been cited as one of the top five most prolific women writers in the SEO industry. Miriam is also an award-winning fine artist and her work can be seen at MiriamEllis.com . Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Lazarina Stoy Anyone that works on a medium- or large-sized website for long enough will inevitably run into keyword cannibalization—which refers to competing against yourself for website rankings (i.e., two or more pages competing against one another for the same set of keywords ). Cannibalization can be harmless in some cases, but it can also lead to negative consequences for your organic performance. In particular, it can: Lead to frustration and poor user experience for your site visitors, who may end up visiting multiple pages before finding the information they need from your business Indicate duplicate content issues to both search engines and users In this guide, I’ll help you understand the different types of cannibalization that can occur on your site, the various issues they can cause, and how to identify them. I’ll also share strategies for diagnosing, fixing, and preventing cannibalization issues altogether. Table of contents: Common types of cannibalization Keyword cannibalization Search intent cannibalization Content cannibalization Potential impacts of cannibalization on website performance How to diagnose cannibalization issues Metrics to help you identify cannibalization issues Beginner-friendly tools to identify cannibalization issues How to fix cannibalization issues How to prioritize to resolve cannibalization issues Best practices to fix cannibalization on your website Content consolidation Content enhancements New content creation What to avoid when fixing keyword cannibalization Page deletion Page deindexing Key takeaways and advice on preventing cannibalization FAQ: Keyword, search intent, and content cannibalization Common types of cannibalization Generally speaking, cannibalization problems occur when pages on your website lack unique focus. Those pages might target the same type of user or keyword, or contain the same perspectives and content (or all of the above), and as a result, compete with your other pages. Despite the many misconceptions floating around about cannibalization issues making it more difficult for search engines to discover or rank pages, Google spokespeople have clarified that this is not the case ( 1 , 2 , 3 ). Even so, cannibalization can add unwanted friction to your user experience and is more of a strategic concern, as per Google, which can in turn impact search performance (and site performance, which I’ll discuss a bit later). Let’s now go through different examples of cannibalization issues to see which ones you should pay attention to. Keyword cannibalization Keyword cannibalization refers to multiple pages on your website targeting and ranking for the same keyword. This type of cannibalization isn’t always problematic—after all, pages always appear for multiple keywords, so some degree of query overlap is common. Keyword cannibalization becomes an issue when it hinders the user experience. Consider the scenarios below. Multiple pages on your website target the exact same keywords and have a similar on-page structure: Let’s imagine that there are three pages on your site targeting the keywords [customer onboarding mistakes] in the titles, URLs, and page headings , and all of them are listicles. This might lead to multiple pages with different (but synonymous) titles, like “5 Customer Onboarding Mistakes That Lead to Early Churn” or “4 User Onboarding Mistakes That Threaten Retention.” Even though the advice in these lists might be different, splitting the message/content into different pages compromises the user experience. Multiple pages on your site target the same audience and the same keywords with the same offer: An example of this would be creating three similar resources on the same topic (e.g., “New Client Onboarding Template”, “New Client Onboarding Guide”, and “New Client Onboarding Manual”). Regardless of the subtle differences, the core message and intended audience of all three resources is the same, causing frustration for users. Search intent cannibalization Search intent cannibalization happens when a website has multiple pages that are optimized to satisfy exactly the same search intent . This could manifest as keyword cannibalization, but may also be a bit more nuanced than that (and more difficult to detect). Search intent cannibalization is a sign of an uncoordinated or inefficient content strategy, and can occur regardless of website size (but is more typical of mid to large or enterprise websites ). Here are some examples of problematic search intent cannibalization: There are pages on your website that outrank the most appropriate keyword-match content, despite satisfying less of the searcher’s intent. An example of this would be if a website has a page that directly addresses the query [what is structured data validation ?] in an informational blog post. However, when a user searches this query in Google, this page (which is the most relevant to their search intent) is shown beneath other content on the site which also provides a definition for structured data validation as part of the content. There are pages on your website that outrank other pages better suited to satisfy the searcher’s intent due to authority, technical, design, or UX differences. This issue is common for large organizations, where different teams run different site sections and a particular team/department “owns” query performance. An example of such a problem would be a SaaS company’s product or service page outranking their documentation page for a branded query containing the term [API documentation] (e.g., [Google Search Console API documentation]). In this instance, the query already indicates the user’s desire to navigate to the documentation (which is a sign they either need to validate that the API can resolve a particular problem they have before they purchase or that they already have API access). The reasons for this cannibalization might be related to the on-page content or keyword cannibalization, but they might also be a result of more backlinks and/or better technical SEO or UX on the product or service page. Content cannibalization Content cannibalization is when the content on two (or more) pages are fairly similar, even when search intent or target keywords might differ. Content cannibalization can occur when you’re programmatically generating pages (as a result of a small database of content) or when a page isn’t targeted/focused correctly. Below are some common examples of content cannibalization. User-selected parameters generate different indexable pages that serve the same content and are populated from the same database. You can see this quite regularly on real estate websites, where there are indexable search category pages for different locations (such as states, cities, school districts, postal codes, and neighborhoods). In this case, these pages are likely populated from a sales property database. If there is a small number of properties per location, and there’s no additional unique content on the pages, content cannibalization can occur. In the left example (below), there is no content cannibalization as each of the pages has a different number of properties in them, and there is no keyword or intent cannibalization either. In the right example, all of the properties for sale in the larger district are all located in one neighborhood, leading to content cannibalization, despite there being different on-page keywords and search intent. In the image above, the circles represent the number of unique entries in your database for the different location levels—state (Texas), city (Dallas, Ausin), postal code (78751) or school district (Austin Independent School District). Programmatically–generated listicles are identical to indexable site search pages. Looking at travel websites, where we might find programmatically-generated listicles targeting the keywords [adjective + property type + location] (e.g., [cheap hotels in Barcelona]). In some cases, these pages might cause content cannibalization with indexable, filtered property search results. Here’s a concrete example from Booking.com, in which the title and search intent might differ, but the content is the same. The first search result is a listicle and the second is an internal search page, filtered with the appropriate parameters, as per the URLs. Before moving on, it’s important to mention that not all instances of keyword, search intent, or content cannibalization cause problems. Problematic cannibalization could look different for each website, though once present, its impact on the site and its revenue could be considerable. The potential impacts of cannibalization on website performance Cannibalization issues (regardless of the particular cannibalization type) can impact your website’s organic search performance, revenue, and user experience. Below are some examples of how problematic cannibalization can hinder performance in these areas: The top-ranked page is not optimized for the expressed search intent. For instance, going back to the Booking.com example, the blog listicle outranking the property listing (or listing category) page might be problematic as the user experience on the blog is not optimized for conversions, meaning that users would need to take additional steps to book a property (if they first landed on the blog). This might cause your potential customers to leave the site and perform another search, potentially sending them to book elsewhere (hindering both your user experience and your website’s revenue). The top-ranked page does not correspond to the search intent. Simply put, this is when another page addresses the search intent more robustly, but that page is not ranking first. This hinders the user experience and could signal to search engines that the page ranked at the top is not suitable to satisfy the intent of the query, resulting in diminished organic performance (i.e., higher bounce rate, fewer conversions, and the page that you created to rank for this topic/intent isn’t doing its job [wasted time/effort]). Multiple pages that are slightly different from one another rank and could possibly address the search intent. When it comes to keyword and search intent cannibalization, your website might present users with multiple content choices, leaving them unsure what to select or whether to go back to the search results to click on another result from your site. This could hinder the user experience, create frustration with your brand, and inflate certain metrics related to search performance (such as click-through rate, bounce rate, and returned users). In many such cases, these pages would likely struggle to capture high rankings on their own and would perform better consolidated. While there are many ways you can end up with cannibalization, it’s certainly worthwhile to resolve it when it affects important pages. Multiple case studies have demonstrated the positive impact that can come from this—one SEO agency even recorded a 110% uplift in organic sessions after they consolidated efforts on a real estate website. How to diagnose cannibalization issues The first step in fixing cannibalization issues is identifying them. Based on the different cannibalization types I defined earlier, here are a few different approaches you could take as a first step: 01. Find pages that target the same keywords , which would signal keyword cannibalization. 02. Find pages that speak to the same target user with similar keywords, offers, and messaging , which would signal search intent cannibalization. 03. Find pages that contain similar content, but may differ in terms of page and content structure, target keywords , and so on, which could signal content cannibalization. Let’s look at more concrete examples to identify cannibalization between such pages, including metrics and tools to use. Metrics to help you identify cannibalization issues To diagnose cannibalization, use the following metrics: Metric What to do Keyword rankings Map pages to their target keywords and monitor position changes. If other pages start overtaking the main page that’s supposed to “own” the keyword, then cannibalization is occurring. Organic traffic Check for traffic loss associated with certain keywords or pages that compete against one another in search. Click-through rate (CTR) Monitor changes in CTR for pages you think may be competing against one another. This metric could signal user confusion when two or more pages from your site are shown in the same set of search results. Backlinks Check anchor text on backlinks for similarities and alignment between your target keywords and the text referring sites are using to describe your page. Big discrepancies can signal misaligned content, which could work against the page. On top of the metrics mentioned above, there are additional elements you can review to diagnose the specific nature of your cannibalization problems. When diagnosing search intent cannibalization , also consider: Bounce rate and exit rate — These metrics can hint at the quality of the content on the page (i.e., breadth, depth, E-E-A-T , etc). Search intent alignment — Does the content and its structure align with the expressed search intent of the queries it ranks for? Conversion rates and intended page engagement — Lack of user engagement (like scroll or conversion events , for example) can signal low page quality or a fragmented user journey . When diagnosing content cannibalization , also look into: Instances of content repurposing — This can give you a sample to work with in identifying problematic content repurposing practices that could lead to cannibalization (e.g., using the same content database to create a listicle-style blog post and an indexable internal search page to target the same keyword with the same search intent). Internal linking practices — Do pages that are part of the same user journey or topic cluster link to one another? If not, this might cause them to show separately in the search results (i.e., not as “indented” search listings, but as separate listings altogether), causing confusion for users. Beginner-friendly tools to identify cannibalization issues You can review most of the metrics I’ve discussed in Google Analytics (GA4) and Google Search Console (GSC) . However, even if you can access the data, you still need to analyze it to identify the cause of your cannibalization problems—something many beginners struggle with. One common way to do this is via Google Sheets and/or Looker Studio. Fortunately, there are great time-saving, beginner-friendly templates you can use. Here are my favorites for identifying keyword cannibalization: Hannah Rampton’s Looker Studio cannibalization dashboard and associated spreadsheet , instructions for which can be found in this setup guide . With this resource, you can import Search console data (in Google Sheets or Looker Studio) and sort out pages that compete with one another for one or multiple queries. You can also quickly identify the degree of self-competition for certain queries. The Meta Blog’s easy-to-use cannibalization spreadsheet and associated checklist . With these two actionable resources you can not only identify competing internal URLs in Google Sheets but also resolve the identified issues following the suggested framework. If you already have a third-party SEO tool like Semrush or Ahrefs, you could easily find cannibalization using the position tracking report and keyword gap tool, the latter of which helps you identify shared keywords between two site sections (or subdomains on your site). How to fix cannibalization issues If you are positive any of the cannibalization types mentioned above are happening on your site, instead of acting at the keyword level, evaluate your strategies for content, on-page optimization, and internal linking to find the right place to start. Before doing anything, determine whether the competition between pages you’re observing is problematic and prioritize your efforts accordingly. Next, let’s discuss prioritization before jumping into examples of good and bad cannibalization solutions. How to prioritize to resolve cannibalization issues Regardless of the particular type of cannibalization, you should prioritize these two instances of problematic cannibalization and monitor the rest: When your main page for the keyword, intent, or content ranks lower than other pages on your site (but shouldn’t) — Enhance the content and improve the user experience for the main page. I’ll discuss options for the other ranking pages a bit later. When a page that’s of low relevance to the keyword, intent, or content outranks the main page — Consider taking actions to fix the cannibalization, such as content consolidation, content enhancements, or make edits to distinguish both pages. And, research changes in the SERP that might contribute to diminished search performance (such as Google showing new types of rich results for this particular query). Page status/issue Action Description High page importance, low position in search Enhance ​Your main page ranks worse than other pages for the keyword or intent. Implement search intent alignment changes and content edits to improve page performance. Consider consolidating pages if there’s similar content. Action needed: Implement content edits to enhance the content and improve user experience. High page importance, high position Monitor and protect Keywords in which you're ranking as expected (high position) with the main page for the keyword or intent. Action needed: Monitor and optimize as needed to defend your rankings. Low page importance, low position Monitor and do nothing Keywords where you're ranking low with a page that's of low importance for this keyword or intent. In most cases, this is non-problematic cannibalization as the page likely has other keywords of higher importance, and those are the rankings you should be concerned with. Action needed: Monitor and do nothing. ​High position, low page importance Consolidate Keywords where you’re ranking higher with a page that’s of low importance (compared to the page that “owns” the intent or keyword). In most cases, this is problematic cannibalization and you should consider consolidating the two pages or implementing appropriate internal linking. Action needed: Consolidate this page with a page that’s more important for this term or intent. Best practices to fix cannibalization on your website Now that we’ve established when it’s prudent to act on cannibalization issues, here are some approaches I recommend for resolving it. Content consolidation Consolidating content means combining multiple overlapping pages into a single, comprehensive page. It involves merging the relevant information, removing any duplicate or overlapping content, and ensuring that the consolidated page provides the best user experience and the most comprehensive topic coverage. This solution is both simple and efficient as it tackles cannibalization issues in multiple ways that help improve search performance: Improves the user experience by reducing confusion and creating a single source of truth on your site for a given topic or intent Simplifies internal linking as well as backlinking for external sites that want to reference your content Boosts authority and overall search performance as a result of improving the quality of the page with more comprehensive topic coverage When consolidating pages, make sure to also tackle the technical details, such as implementing page redirects and updating internal links , so that users and search engines can find the page. Content enhancements As I previously highlighted, there might be cases where page consolidation is not possible (or simply not recommended as pages may have a unique purpose and role). Enhancements, such as content editing, search intent re-alignment (perhaps even factoring in implicit search intent ), and on-page changes can really help you resolve keyword cannibalization in cases where it makes sense to keep all versions of the content. This approach works because it helps differentiate pages about the same topic by enhancing subtopic coverage while also keeping the authority of the pages intact. New content creation Throughout your cannibalization audit, you might discover that your content on a given topic gets discovered by users that are also interested in something not fully addressed by it (i.e., a query or search intent that is not fully covered by your existing content). This essentially represents a new subtopic or content idea for you to pursue so that you can capture that audience. In such cases, the best approach might be to create new content to fully cater to this search intent (assuming it’s relevant for your business/website). What to avoid when fixing keyword cannibalization In the section above, I addressed what you can potentially do to resolve cannibalization on your website—now, I’ll discuss what not to do. The practices I mention below fail to account for the nuances of cannibalization discussed earlier and are often a blanket solution that ultimately ends up hurting organic performance and user experience—which is bound to end up impacting your revenue opportunities as well. Page deletion Page deletion is not a good solution for cannibalization as it often ends up negatively impacting organic performance and user experience, causing more issues than it resolves. In particular, it can lead to: Loss of valuable content, which would otherwise generate search traffic Diminished search rankings due to loss of topical authority Disruption of the user experience (in cases where the page previously generated traffic or earned backlinks), such as users encountering 404 status errors Decreased authority for pages that previously earned backlinks Other potential technical SEO issues (such as broken internal links, etc.) Again, if you have no choice but to delete a page, at least put a 301 redirect in place so that you might side-step the risks mentioned above. Page deindexing For many of the same reasons why it’s bad practice to delete a page, page deindexing (asking search engines to drop the page from their index and not show it in search results) is often not an efficient way to resolve cannibalization issues. The main issue with this approach is that, at its core, it’s not user-centric. Site visitors can still navigate to the deindexed page via internal links, yet the value of those links from an authority standpoint is lost after you implement the noindex tag. Page deindexation does not resolve the issues that caused cannibalization, it only masks them from search engines. Key takeaways and advice on preventing cannibalization Cannibalization issues occur when pages compete against other pages on your site—for keywords, to satisfy an expressed search intent, or because of content similarities with other pages. Although not all instances of cannibalization are problematic, the ones that impact a website’s search performance and/or user experience also tend to affect profitability. You can use multiple approaches to diagnose and fix cannibalization issues, but the best way to handle it is to be strategic and prevent it from the outset. Here’s how to prevent problematic cannibalization from occurring: Create content and internal links strategically (as opposed to sporadically). Routinely monitor organic keywords ranking reports for instances of cannibalization and make appropriate changes to ensure that the content on your pages fully satisfies search intent. Regularly update and expand your keyword universe to find ideas for new content or to enhance existing content. Regularly monitor the SERP for changes in what Google considers the appropriate content type to satisfy search intent for different query types. For larger websites, implement systems to ensure that no keyword, search intent, or content cannibalization is accidentally introduced as a result of poor research or lack of communication between teams. By eliminating problematic cannibalization, you can save potential site visitors from the confusion of multiple similar pages ranking in search (or the wrong page ranking for the given query), helping users navigate to their desired destination. When your strategy and content are implemented properly, that potentially means better search visibility and more conversions for your business. Keyword, search intent, and content cannibalization FAQ What is keyword cannibalization? Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages from your website rank in the search results for the same search term. This confuses users and hinders their user experience, especially if the top-ranked page from your site is not the most appropriate page to satisfy their search intent. Is keyword cannibalization bad for SEO? While keyword cannibalization, search intent cannibalization, and content cannibalization are not inherently bad for SEO, they can lead to diminished search performance. These problems often signal an inefficient or uncoordinated on-page and content strategy, poor page-intent matching, or poor site structure. Keyword cannibalization can hinder user experience and decrease visibility in the search results, which is the opposite of what you want from your SEO. How can you tell if you’re cannibalizing keywords? Research the main search queries that visitors use to discover your existing pages/content—if you create content on a similar topic, for the same audience, it’s likely to cause some competition with these existing pages. Also, when creating a new page, consider the content you want to put on it. If this content exists in a similar arrangement elsewhere on your website, your new page may cause some cannibalization. Can you avoid keyword cannibalization? You can avoid keyword cannibalization by developing a good content strategy and workflow, implementing content enhancements to distinguish pages from potentially duplicative content, and routinely researching user search practices, the SERPs of popular search engines, and organic keyword rankings for your website. Lazarina Stoy - SEO & Data Science Consultant   Lazarina  is an organic marketing consultant specializing in SEO, CRO, and data science. She's worked with countless teams in B2B, SaaS, and big tech to improve their organic positioning. As an advocate of SEO automation, Lazarina speaks on webinars and at conferences and creates helpful resources for fellow SEOs to kick off their data science journey. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Andrew Cock-Starkey When planning new content or reviving older assets, proper keyword research can mean the difference between success and failure. While many keyword research tools can help with this process, Google Search Console  (GSC) stands out for its accessibility, price point (free), and because the data comes directly from Google itself, making it an industry standard.  In this guide, I’ll show you how to go further with this tool (well beyond the limitations of its standard web interface) to power-up your keyword research efforts. Table of contents: Pros and cons of keyword research in GSC’s web interface The Google Search Console API for more data Search Analytics for Sheets Filtering for actionable insights Regex for advanced data filtering 3 ways to use your GSC data for keyword research Pros and cons of keyword research in GSC’s web interface Google Search Console’s interface is often a good place to start your keyword exploration. If you’re thinking, ‘Wait, there are other  ways to use this data aside from tracking rankings and clicks?’ you’re going to love what’s coming up. GSC’s web interface is clean, clear, well-designed and once you know your way around, it’s pretty useful. In addition, Google often adds new features, elements, and improvements (hats off to the team that finally  added the ability to use regex in filters—more on them later). However, there are some caveats on data in Google Search Console’s web interface that I would be remiss not to mention at this early stage: Google redacts data in Search Console GSC only shows data for queries you already rank for GSC only shows the first 1,000 rows of data Google redacts data in Search Console The explanation around this is that Google’s systems remove any data that could identify individuals, so [Why does Andrew the SEO have such terrible dress sense?]   may never show up in your queries (thank goodness!). In Search Console when you apply filters (any filter), the great data redaction starts. Here’s an example by Mark Williams-Cook  showing a site with 148,000 total clicks—39,700 clicks from branded terms with 30,800 clicks on non-branded terms. So, what about the other 77,500 clicks? The answer: data redaction. Source: Mark Williams-Cook. This can be frustrating, but some of the tools I’ll show you in this article can help you address these issues. GSC only shows data for queries you already rank for If you’re doing keyword research around a brand new topic area or for a product in a niche you’ve never even operated in, Search Console may not be the best place to start. GSC does not give you details that other third-party keyword research tools typically provide (e.g., search volume , keyword difficulty , search intent ). It may be that you rank 85th and no one ever sees your site, but if you don’t rank at all  there won’t be any data there. But even when there is data, it’s limited—literally, as you’ll see below. GSC only shows the first 1,000 rows of data Investigate any issue in Google Search Console and you soon run into this: You get 1,000 rows of data—that’s it, no more. You want to see which queries you’re ranking for? Cool, you can see the first 1,000 rows. Which pages on your site are ranking? Okey-dokey… but only the first 1,000. Investigating an indexing  error or issue? Google says you have over 2,000 URLs that are not indexed because they’re a “Soft 404” (for example), but dig in and you can only see the first 1,000. If you’re working on a small site or you’re DIY’ing your SEO for a small business , maybe you’ll never even get near the 1,000 row limitation in Google Search Console. Only have 20 pages on your site? The likelihood of you needing 1,000 rows of data is pretty low. But if the site you’re working on has many thousands of pages, ranks for tens of thousands of queries, and is potentially throwing up many more thousands of errors and indexing issues, then that 1,000 row cap will get frustrating pretty quickly. You may be thinking, “Ah, but I can just add filters in GSC. Once I get below 1,000 rows the data is all good.” If, for example, you filter to just show queries that a specific page on your site ranks for, you can get fewer rows… and if you limit the date window to just the last seven days… and maybe filter to show only mobile device searches… And you can use the export button in Search Console to put all this in a spreadsheet. Sure. That kind of works. You can see where this is going: You’re just hamstringing your own efforts to get usable, actionable data—data that can actually help you make your site perform better. What if I told you there was a way to get 50x more data?  Or maybe even more? The Google Search Console API for more data Introducing the Google Search Console API (Application Programming Interface, but don’t worry, you don’t need to be a programmer to get the most out of them). If you want to dive into the API, great. Here’s the documentation . The key part for me, though, is this: “All use of Google Search Console API is free of charge. However, it is subject to usage limits.” That’s right. It’s free (my favorite price) and so long as you don’t go wild, you’re unlikely to run into those usage limits (and even if you do, waiting a minute or a day usually sorts things out). There’s nuance and exceptions here, but broadly speaking, you can make 40,000 QPM (queries per minute) and 30,000,000 QPD  (queries per day)—that last number is thirty million. Per day.  If you’re approaching those limits, you probably do need to dig into the documentation a bit more and start coding your own systems (or paying someone to do it for you). The Search Console API is “limited to 50K rows of data per day per type (web, news, image, and so on) per property” . So that’s 50,000 queries you could get. Or 50,000 pages. Or 50,000 URLs affected by an indexing error. Instantly, we’re in a different ballpark from that hard cap of 1,000 rows of data in GSC’s web platform. With the API, you can even get beyond that 50,000 limit too with some clever ‘stitching’ of data (but that’s a topic for another time and another blog post). Hopefully, you’re now thinking: “Show me how!” There are lots of tools out there, built by very clever people that will do all sorts of cool stuff with the Search Console API ( Shaun Anderson at Hobo’s  work is worth exploring—he’s built dashboards you can connect to your own data, saving you a ton of build time ). Some are free, some have a price tag, others work on a ‘freemium’ model ( SEO Stack  is an interesting new player in the paid-for tools area). My favorite tool for leveraging the GSC API for keyword research falls into the freemium category. It’s called Search Analytics for Sheets , by the very smart Mihai Aperghis . As the name suggests, this is an add-on that works in Google Sheets and you don’t even have to generate API keys to use it. It’s also free for up to 10,000 rows. Let’s assume that, like all discerning shoppers, you’d like to try before you buy. Let’s take the free version for a spin. Search Analytics for Sheets I’m not going to give you a ‘How to’ guide on Search Analytics for Sheets (mostly because Aperghis and his team have already done a far better job  of it than I can). Instead, I’ll show you some of the ways I use it and how it can help you get loads of useful information to help you with your keyword research. Once you install Search Analytics for Sheets  from the Google Workplace Marketplace (like the Chrome Store for stuff that isn’t in Chrome!), open up a new Google Sheet. Pro tip: Type “ sheet.new ” in your browser to do that from your browser bar. Then, in your new Sheet, look along the toolbar until you see “Extensions”. In there, you’ll now find Search Analytics for Sheets with the option to “Open Sidebar”: That will open up a sidebar that looks like this: Most of this is self-explanatory so, again, I’m not going to explain every single step. If a particular field isn’t obvious, there are handy question mark icons (shown above) that you can hover over them with your pointer for more details. Key things to note here are: Verified site  — if you don’t see the site you want to work on in the dropdown list, chances are you don’t have the right permissions. Go check. If it’s a client site, you may need them to change your Google Search Console permissions . If you do see the site you want in there, make sure you choose the right one: With or without the “www”? HTTP or HTTPS ? And domain-level properties work here too, so choose carefully. Date range — Too many times to mention I’ve tried to pull data on a site with a good idea of what I’m looking for, only to realize I set the wrong dates. Search type — You can use the tool to bring back data on Images, Video, Google News, or the web (default)—most times, most people want that one. Group By — This is basically asking you, “What columns do you want on your data?” You’re going to get clicks, impressions, CTR (click-through rate), and average ranking position by default. Let’s look at the dropdown choices. What else do you want? Probably at least one of Page or Query. Without those, you get something like this: Total clicks, impressions, CTR, and position for the entire site during the chosen date window. Lovely, but not all that useful. Add in Query and you get something like this: Now, you can see which search queries drove those clicks, impressions, etc. Go one step further and add Query and Page to get this: Now, you can see which of your pages is getting all those clicks and impressions. Note: In these examples, I’m just showing the first five rows of data so the screenshots make sense and are legible, but we’re up to 25,000 rows in most of these examples. You can  add in Device and Country too (and get something like this): But be careful—there are limits (even if they’re big numbers) and each data point or column you add is another query against those limits. Only draw down the data if you actually plan to use it. Back to our sidebar; remember, there are still a few more bits to review: Filter by — I’ll explain this in more detail in its own section. Aggregation Type — There are just two choices here: By Property or By Page. If you’re experienced with Google Search Console data, you may be familiar with these already. Basically, it’s asking: If you have two or more pages ranking for the same query, do you want to see that data rolled-up into one (‘By Property’)? Or do you want it split by page (‘By Page’)? Rows returned — How many rows do you want? 1,000, 10,000 or 25,000? (Or more if you’re willing to pay for a subscription.) Results sheet — Don’t skip this last one. Options here will look something like this: The default is to create a new sheet. In this field, you’re choosing where you want Search Analytics for Sheets to put   all the data it fetches you. Eventually, you may end up with a row of tabs along the bottom of your Sheets that look a bit like this: These aren’t as confusing as they may look. They’re all called “SAS” (Search Analytics for Sheets) and then the date and time: 2024_10_18_13_42_16 (the 18th of October 2024, at 13:42:16, which was when I pulled this data). Personally, I maintain this naming structure as knowing when   you did these data runs can be super handy, but you can change your tabs to whatever you prefer for your own workflows. When you run a new query, be sure to designate where you want the data to go. If you make a mistake and want to fetch the data again, you can get the tool to write over the top of your old Sheet (choose it by name from the drop-down or pick Active Sheet). Otherwise, stick to Create New Sheet—it’s easy to move or rename it later. There is likely to be a lot of data in these spreadsheets so eventually things are going to run very slowly if you have multiple tabs open in Google Sheets. This is worth bearing in mind (it’s also worth looking at tools like SEO Stack  that’ll do the data storage side for you). Lastly, hit the big blue “Request Data” button at the bottom of the sidebar and leave the tool to do its thing. It usually only takes a minute or two, but this may depend on the complexity of the search you’ve set it to do. You should now have around 25,000 rows of data. Lovely, lovely, data. Just by ordering, the columns you can uncover some interesting stuff: Which pages get the most clicks? Which queries have the most impressions but the fewest clicks? Which pages have zero search impressions? Etc. And now, you’re doing it with up to 25x more data than you can see directly in Search Console. Filtering for actionable insights Twenty-five thousand rows is too much data for anyone to take in and analyze, so like all good SEO folks, we’re going to pan this data for the gold. We’re looking for patterns and trends. Filtering is going to do a lot of heavy lifting for you here. You can easily create filters to provide you with actionable intel, such as showing all the pages with low impressions or queries with lots of impressions but low/no clicks. How to filter out…  Brand filters are useful for many types of businesses. If you’re not already ranking at the top of results for your own brand name, you probably have bigger issues to address than keyword research. The thing with branding is, when it’s working well, it can create a lot of noise in your data as a byproduct. That issue can be compounded by typos and spelling errors: is it [Starbucks] or [Starbux]? And what about [starbuck] or [strabucks] (common typos). If a user goes through the trouble to punch into Google [Starbucks near me] or [Starbucks central Cambridge], they’ve pretty much already decided where they want to go. All data is useful, but if we were working for the famous mermaid coffee shop brand, maybe we don’t need to do a lot of work around our rankings for branded search terms. With a filter, you can screen all those searches out of your data. To give Search Console it’s due, you can do this right in the online interface: The “+ Add Filter”  button does just that. And, thanks to the addition of regex filters, you can set up filters like this: That will screen out all the examples above (note the “Doesn’t match regex” option). Search Console uses the RE2 syntax for regex and has its own guide on how to use it GSC . But remember, you’re only getting back a maximum of 1,000 rows of data here. You can also do this in the Google Sheet, but with all   the data you’ve pulled through. There are some basic filters available out of the box: You can also use the “Custom formula is” option to get your regex jam going again using the REGEXMATCH formula (layering it up with “If” commands, you can do some crazy useful stuff in Sheets but that gets a little complicated a little too quickly for this post). You can do this with Search Analytics for Sheets too—even before you fetch the data. You can set-up a filter that does/doesn’t match regex and get up to 25,000 rows of data narrowed down to your area of focus: You can even add multiple filters to really hone in on the data you want. Conversely, in Search Console you can add filters, but only one per type (so you can have one Query filter and one Page filter; but not two different Query filters). With REGEXMATCH, layering up filters can get very complicated and a misplaced pipe (|) or parenthesis can break everything. In Search Analytics for Sheets, you can add multiple filters like this: In the example above, I’m looking to pull all the queries that don’t mention my brand name (or common misspellings) but also queries that don’t  mention SEO or Search Engine Optimisation (spelled with an s or a z for my American friends!) and  the page URL has to contain the word “google”. So I’ve got two Query filters and one Page filter—something you cannot do directly in Search Console. You don’t have to go far to find top SEO experts reinforcing the importance of brand in SEO . So filtering out your brand searches from non-branded searches is only going to get more   important for most businesses (and the SEOs that work for them). You can expand this beyond your own brand too. Use these filters to screen in/out competitor brand names. Are you ranking for a competitors’ name? Perhaps in searches around comparisons (e.g., [Is brand x better than brand y?] or [Alternatives to brand z])? How to filter in… Filters can work to include terms, too. Something that’s great to do for all sorts of reasons (including SEO), is to answer questions your customers have . Using a smart bit of regex, you can grab all the question-based search queries your site ranks for a question: /\b(how|what|why|when|where|can|do)\b The /\b ensures the regex matches “how” but not “show” or “however”. You could add an /i at the end to make the whole lot case insensitive, so it would match queries with [How do I…] and also [how do i]—very handy when lots of folks searching aren’t very particular about their grammar (especially when using mobile devices!). However, it’s worth noting that Google Search Console makes all query data lowercase. I include the tip around making regex case insensitive because capital letters can (and do) show up in URLs. If you want to filter to find your ‘About’ page and you set up a regex filter like this: (about) It is not going to find it if your about page lives here: optimisey.com/About-us This is because of that capital letter after the slash. So that /i can come in handy for those sorts of regex filters. Regex for advanced data filtering There are a ton of regex guides out there ( JC Chouinard’s  is a great starting point) so this isn’t the place for another one. The best way to work with regex is often trial and error (and the various GPTs and AI bots are often pretty great at helping you write or correct regex!) but below are some good examples to get you started and hopefully get your brain working to come up with even more. Regex What does it do? How does it do it? /\b(how|what|why|when|where|can|do)\b Finds all the queries with questions that include the words who, what, where, why, when, etc. / specifies the start of the string. \b is used to mark a word boundary. This example ensures that the words we look for are just those words, so “how” and not “show” or “howitzer”. | means ‘or’. In this example we’re telling it to look for how OR what OR why, etc. .*\/$ Looks for anything that ends with a forward slash. Handy for finding your URLs that end with a slash. If you use the filter “does not match regex”, you can also use it to find all the URLs that don’t end with a slash. . means any character. * the previous thing any number of times. \ ‘escapes’ the next character (i.e., use the character as a character instead of as a regex command). \/ in this example would make the filter literally look for the forward slash. $ means ‘this is the end’, so in this example the / would have to be at the end of the URL. .*(best|alternat|vs|versus|review|compar).* Looks for commercial comparison terms. Useful for finding queries from potential customers that signal commercial intent. . means any character. * the previous command (in this case, ‘.’) any number of times. In this example, we want queries with “alternate” OR “alternative” and “review” OR “reviews” and “compare” OR “comparison”, so we want to leave them open-ended. 3 ways to use your GSC data for keyword research Congratulations! You’re now awash with data and you have the knowledge, tools, and the regex skills to do amazing analyses with it—analyses like: Find content to merge/consolidate or update Refine and improve existing content Find new content ideas Find content to merge/consolidate or update Sort your sheet of URLs by impressions and clicks to find all your pages that have low (or no) search impressions and clicks. You’ve now got a list of pages that you should review:  Why aren’t they getting any search traffic?  Have they dropped from the index because of a technical issue?  Are they outdated now and have been overtaken by something new—maybe even something new still on your own site ? Ashwin Balakrishnan’s guide on content consolidation  can help you put some of these issues to rest. Refine and improve existing content By focusing on a subfolder or page, you could extract a huge amount of data on that particular section of your site. Perhaps your /blog/ or all your /services/ pages, or even just a single specific page (such as your highest- or lowest-converting page). With the huge amount of data about those specific pages, you can now zoom in on all your customer questions (our how|why|when… filter above). Then, find the questions that you don’t  answer very well and update those pages so they do satisfy your visitors. Find new content ideas Taking this idea further, there may be enough questions left unanswered by your existing content that it warrants creating a new piece of content. Perhaps there are some queries that an existing piece of content gets lots of search impressions for but does not rank very well. Alternatively, it may perform well on lots of commercial queries, but does much poorer on informational queries. This could demonstrate a gap in your content funnel . You’re getting searchers nearer to the point of purchasing (the commercial queries), but not when they’re still exploring or looking for answers (the informational queries) or vice versa. Build out new content around those informational queries to help put your brand top of mind when those searchers later move on down the funnel. And internally linking  from one to the other could help the rankings for both  pages. Matching searcher intent  can make a world of difference to your rankings and conversion rates. The more keyword data you have, the better your optimizations will be These are just a handful of the things you could do with the huge range of data you can now unlock from your Google Search Console setup. Data-driven decisions are often the best decisions, so make sure you’re getting all the data you can to inform the choices you make based on your keyword research. Andrew Cock-Starkey - SEO Consultant at Optimisey Andrew is an SEO consultant and trainer at his company, Optimisey . He's one of the specialist instructors on the Wix Studio SEO learning course and loves dreadful puns and rambling analogies. Linkedin

Author: Mordy Oberstein Brand and SEO, it’s all the rage—and when I say ‘rage’, I don’t mean the sudden popularity that ‘brand’ has within the world of SEO. Rather, I’m referring to the rage I have about how performance marketers of all kinds interpret branding.  As someone who has straddled both sides of the fence over the last decade, I’m in a unique position to view the topic of brand marketing with regard to SEO from a slightly different vantage point.  With that, I’d like to explore where SEO fits into brand marketing with a level of conceptual nuance that I feel has yet to be presented to the industry.  It’s all the rage...  Which comes first, SEO or branding? Why SEO is a poor way to build a brand Why brand logically comes before SEO The two phases of marketing: Where brand & SEO fit in Branding defines the foundational phase of marketing Set your brand identity Establish your market positioning Craft authentic brand messaging The momentum phase: Where performance & SEO enter the picture The net result and the great SEO connection Which comes first, SEO or branding?  For me, this is the seminal question: How does your brand help SEO? Or, how does SEO help your brand? I ask this because the general sentiment I’ve come across within the SEO industry is that SEO helps you build a brand. As organic marketers, we see SEO as the primary starting point that holds the keys to the kingdom and success on the internet. Why SEO is a poor way to build a brand I’d like to tell you that, while SEO can help with your brand efforts, it's terribly ineffective at this. In fact, the opposite is true: brand power helps SEO, not the other way around. But before we get into how brand marketing amplifies your SEO efforts (which I will get to later on), let’s rock the boat with why SEO is a bad way to build a brand.  Before we do that let me loosely define what ‘brand’ is. Different marketers will take this in different directions.  For me, brand is the connection between your identity and your audience’s ‘self’ (or identity). The point of contact between who you are and who your audience is—that is your brand. Brand is the intersection of who you are and what you do in the context of who your audience is and what they need/want. At its very core, branding is connective. In that regard, how does SEO stack up? Not very well.  SEO lacks narrative: The primary issue with using organic rankings to build a brand is that it is impossible to purposefully build a narrative. If brand is all about connection, then it’s also all about persona (or more technically, brand identity).  In terms of branding, search is entirely piecemeal. You do not control any narrative because there is no narrative. From a brand POV, you’re getting a random person landing on a random page.  It’s not only possible, but also likely that users who land on one of your pages will not understand who you are as a brand. Search leans towards utility. Its users want an answer or a product/service and then they want to move on.  Yes, they may enjoy your content, see you on other SERPs  and build an affinity towards your brand. But what happens is that SEOs co-opt this scenario and use it to define the effectiveness of SEO on brand building, when, in truth, this is more the exception than the rule.  Not only does a lot have to go your way for this scenario to play out, it's not even strategic. Even if you had a brand strategy that included staunch brand identity, strong positioning, and crisp messaging, you would hardly be able to communicate that via search. You don’t know what page the user will end up on or which keyword you will even rank for in the end (or for how long). So even if you had a brand strategy, I’m not even sure why you would rely on SEO to be the vehicle to communicate it? (Let alone the sheer amount of time it would take.) We’re already touching on my next point… SEO as a vehicle for branding is inconsistent:  You can’t build a brand strategy around something as inconsistent as search because determining who will see what content (and when) is not very straightforward. Google may see your site as relevant for one subset of keywords, but not for another. Your site may excel at bringing in clicks from the SERP for a certain subtopic, but not for another. Or, just when you’re ranking for a certain cluster of keywords , an algorithm change  occurs and that advantage diminishes for a few weeks until Google’s testing phase is over and you go back to normal (if you’re that lucky).  This is a terrible way to build a brand. It’s far too inconsistent and piecemeal—after all, consistency is the only way your brand will have any cache amongst potential customers. None of it speaks, at its core, to being able to communicate a certain narrative in a logical and methodical way.  Can it happen with SEO, though? Like I said before, yes, but doubling down on how SEO will build your brand is literally ignoring the conceptual structure of what brand building is.  Which leads well to my next point... SEO is not connective: Fundamentally, there is a barrier between you and the audience—that barrier is the search engine. You are not connecting with them directly. It’s very hard for you to be seen with any vitality or even as an entity  when you ‘build your brand from SEO’. It’s not hard to see why this is: Leaving the medium (which is a big factor) aside, you’re not creating content for an audience. Unlike assets (e.g., a podcast, newsletter), when you create content to rank, there’s an extra layer between you and the audience. This makes it harder to take feedback or follow up with questions using your SEO strategy than it might be with something like a podcast or a newsletter. For the SERP’s Up podcast , we’ve taken listener questions from previous episodes and created new ones to answer them. That’s communicating. Even if you did follow up with a new piece of content, under an SEO-led initiative, the user would have to Google the query and then find you again, which is very unlikely.  Lastly, you’re writing content in an effort to rank . Yes, of course, you have your audience in mind, but you’re fundamentally trying to rank—not resonate.  That last point is more powerful than most people appreciate. It’s trying to build your brand with your arms tied behind your back.  So no matter how many SEOs tell you that you can build a brand via SEO, you can’t. It’s just not how brand marketing conceptually works.  Why brand logically comes before SEO  Let’s look at this question (of whether brand marketing or SEO is primary) from another angle: logic. Thinking of a brand from an SEO-first perspective assumes that folks here, there, and everywhere will see  your content, come to your site, and you  will become a ‘brand’ that they are now aware of.  But let me just ask, who is this ‘you’  that we’re referring to? Who is this mysterious ‘you’ that ‘your’ audience is going to become aware of? SEO, from a purely logical point of view, cannot be the starting point for brand building. You have to establish who the brand is, and that happens way before SEO is even a consideration. This means you need to develop who ‘you’ are at the brand level.  What is your brand’s overarching purpose and mission? What is its core identity? Does that identity have enough depth, clarity, and differentiation?  How does your brand’s identity align with (and hopefully connect with) who the audience is?  There has to be a ‘you’ that is firmly established before a particular strategy is put into place—SEO included.  And no, an SEO strategy  will not answer these questions or deal with these topics with enough depth. There is a process to marketing and if you take a closer look at that process, the notion of brand being built by SEO becomes an inept one. The two phases of marketing: Where brand & SEO fit in A lot of what I advocated above has to do with the fact that marketing has a process that is more or less universal. While you can break down the marketing process into an infinite number of parts, at minimum, there are two: the foundational phase and the momentum phase. Branding defines the foundational phase of marketing As I alluded to above, before  you  can get into specific strategies (such as an SEO strategy), you need to define exactly who this ‘you’ actually is.  The building blocks that form the rest of your marketing efforts come together throughout this process. Unfortunately, it’s a process many companies do not invest in enough. In fact, I would say there is a tendency to skimp on the foundational phase (or skip it altogether) because we’d all love to jump straight to building some momentum.  Unfortunately, that’s not usually possible. So, let’s first define what we are trying to do in the foundational phase.  For our purposes, let’s view this process as three major stages: identity, positioning, and messaging (with messaging being the smallest of these three, as I’ll explain). Set your brand identity Absolutely everything starts from here. If your brand isn’t in touch with who it is and what it wants and needs, it’s going to lack direction that will have a negative butterfly effect on all things marketing and sales.  There are few things to keep in mind when trying to set your brand identity. First and foremost, you cannot ‘put lipstick on a pig’ (although the notion sounds incredibly entertaining). Just like in real life, you are who you are. Your brand identity has to be rooted in reality.  Truth be told, this process should almost be therapeutic in a way. You’re not a marketer at this point, you're a therapist trying to help the brand see itself for who it is.  In that sense, you are not creating brand identity as much as you are simply tapping into it.  In my opinion, this mindset is make-or-break.  On a more pragmatic level, here are a few things you want to ensure:  Depth of branding  — Brand identity without meaning is utterly pointless. If your brand lacks meaning, it inherently lacks the ability to connect.  The concept that your brand represents—that it basically lives—has to have some sort of emotional depth (existential depth is even better). What does that even mean? There are emotional concepts and constructs that are more or less integral to the human experience (e.g., community, connection, support). Your brand identity should be attached to and framed in a way that speaks to one of those more integral human experiences.  The example I always give is ‘fun’. I didn’t have fun today. I probably won’t have fun tomorrow (I’m writing this on a Sunday). I may not have fun until the weekend, and I can live with that because ‘fun’ is a surface-level human experience.  Connection, on the other hand, is not surface-level. I need to feel connected to something or someone each and every day. If I don’t feel connected, I won’t be able to function.  So imagine your business is an amusement park and you say “We’re all about giving our consumers a fun time”—you’re basically saying that you are not integral. If you were to reframe how you thought of yourself and, instead of being about ‘fun’, you said that your mission is to “help people reconnect to who they truly are by being joyous,” that’s a heck of a lot more substantial than ‘fun’, isn’t it? Clarity of identity  — To effectively communicate who your brand is, the underlying concepts must be refined and crystallized. A vague sense of brand identity, no matter how meaningful, won’t translate. The more crisp and clear your vision of your brand is, the more effectively you will be able to impart that to an audience.   Differentiation of branding  — The brand meaning you establish for yourself should also have market differentiation (it’s entirely possible to create something that is meaningful, but not differentiated). So before you lock down your brand identity concept, have a look around just to make sure you are distinct enough. I do not advise starting the brand identity process here at all. So many brands make this mistake. I cannot tell you how often I see people recommend starting the branding process with competitor analysis . However, like I said earlier, you are who you are and that’s regardless of the competition.  If you start here, as counterintuitive as it sounds, you’ll most likely end up sounding just like your competition. It will have the exact opposite effect.  Establish your market positioning The second stage of the foundational phase of marketing is when you set brand positioning. Positioning is when the identity of your brand and its products/services are contextualized by the needs of your audience.  In English, that means positioning is how you (and your offering) slide into the context of your audience’s lives. It transcends your USP.  A USP is simply a proposition. It’s a reason why your audience may choose your product or service. Positioning is how your audience associates to and connects with you and your offering once the proposition has been made.  Your brand identity and positioning should naturally flow into each other.  Using our amusement park example from earlier, if your business is about rediscovering the joyous part of who you really are, then you are positioning yourself as a place to reconnect.  That assumes your audience wants to reconnect, sees you as a way to do so, etc.  Thus, the first step after establishing your identity is to understand your audience’s life context: What are your audience’s life experiences?  What’s happening around them so that they experience life this way?  Within this context, what are their needs? Does your offering speak to these needs? If so, how? In what way?  Does this reflect a layer of market differentiation? This line of thinking will help you create and cement your positioning. Again, the goal is to create an intersection between who you are, what you offer, who your audience is, and what their emotional needs are.  In my honest opinion, positioning is where your brand actually lives. It encompasses brand identity and is where the connection between your brand and your audience begins.  It also naturally (and latently) speaks to the specific messaging you’ll use to communicate.  Craft authentic brand messaging  I always felt this was the least important stage to focus on. Not because messaging isn’t important per se—rather, if you get the brand identity and subsequently the brand positioning right, your brand messaging  should be obvious.  Ironically, messaging is where many brands tend to spend the most time. This isn’t because they value brand fundamentals (i.e., identity and positioning), but because there is no way around it.  If you’re going to promote your offering or create content assets of whatever variety, you’re going to need wording and phraseology.  So, brands will spend a lot of resources and effort on messaging—but messaging without establishing identity and positioning beforehand is likely to flop.  Again, let’s continue with the case of our fictional amusement park. If the brand, as we’ve said, is all about ‘reconnecting with joy’ (i.e., the brand identity) and helping people rediscover their joyous selves (i.e., the brand positioning), what should the messaging be? It’s kind of obvious (as it should be).  Whatever it may be, the messaging should revolve around ‘forgetting the stress of daily life for a day and rediscovering yourself’.  The goal then of the messaging phase is to pin down the exact tone and phraseology you think will be most effective (and that can often depend on the asset, medium, etc).  The main point is that your messaging aligns with the positioning you established. Oftentimes (and this is something SEOs need to watch out for), the brand will veer away from positioning-aligned messaging in order to incentivize a click or conversion , for example.  This is an extremely slippery slope because in no time flat your entire messaging construct can become misaligned. That leads to inconsistency and fractures your branding efforts. It makes good sense to audit your messaging at regular intervals to determine how aligned it is with your brand. Misaligned messaging Partially aligned messaging Aligned messaging Strongly aligned messaging Completely aligned messaging Contradicts brand identity Secondary elements align but the core messaging as a whole does not Messaging generally aligns (even though secondary elements may be misaligned) The messaging clearly and distinctly advances the brand’s core goals  All facets of messaging promote brand identity in a way that deeply resonates with the audience (it may even take your branding to the next logical stage of its evolution) The momentum phase: Where performance & SEO enter the picture All of the work I outlined above in the foundation section is meant to be the catalyst of your momentum. I abide by the outlook that marketing is all about momentum—and that momentum allows for performance marketing tactics to take hold. Momentum relies on connection.  It’s fundamentally about making people feel engaged by your brand and connected to you. Think about it like a podcast: We get all sorts of comments, requests, and interactions when we share the SERP’s Up podcast on social media. It gives the show a certain momentum, but that momentum came from the connection Crystal Carter  (my co-host) and I established with the audience.  Momentum is the outcome of a brand strategy that has substance. Like your core brand strategy, it relies on connection and engagement to gain traction, which means you can’t genuinely generate momentum if you skip the foundational phase of the marketing process.  For your brand to generate momentum, there are some ‘prerequisites’ that you need to meet.  Ensure your ‘gaps’ are filled and that you are consistent across the board. Do your creative assets resonate with your audience? Is your design collateral, from your website to media kits, aligned with your brand? Are you focused on the channels where your audience actually lives ? Do you have the right infrastructure in place? Topic focus At this point, you need to create a very tight topical plan. If the topics you address are all over the place, the identity you established early on will become diluted. Asset creation Now is the time to get into the nitty-gritty of the assets and activities your brand will engage in. What is their purpose? Where will they live? Who will they target and when? What balance of sales content versus educational content will you produce? Cadence and distribution So you know what you’re going to say, where you’re going to say it, and to whom… But, how often? And more importantly, how will you get it out there without just peeing into the wind? I do want to pause for a second and point out that the ‘marketing strategy’ (as we traditionally refer to it) is starting to take shape. It’s all part of the plan.  To the latter point about cadence and distribution, momentum is about engagement. This is where your marketing strategy is going to really start getting into the weeds—it’s where your hardcore marketing strategist shines the most, in my opinion. At this stage, you really have to understand what does (and doesn’t) resonate and when and where it does (or doesn’t) resonate.  You then need to hunt for opportunities (with the goal in mind that more momentum will produce more opportunities). This is where you have to get a bit creative with how you can engage with an audience.  I break down this process into four core elements:  Offline activities — It’s incredibly important to think about real-world marketing activities. All sorts of opportunities develop from real world connection and the ability to resonate with an audience is off the charts relative to digital.    Community engagement   — Getting into the weeds of your industry’s community is at the core of generating engagement. It’s possible to do this as the brand itself, but is generally more effective when representatives or advocates from the company can jump in.  Educational content — Creating educational content (not informational content— educational content because it has to be genuine and not part of a marketing ploy) should be at the absolute core of every brand’s strategy. As a former teacher, I will tell you there is only one relationship that comes close to the power of a parent-child dynamic, and that is the teacher-student relationship. You are not only positioning yourself to be an authority, but more so you are creating trust and connection. You are genuinely helping your audience and that matters so much. Your educational content is what allows you to create sales content that can resonate.  Partnerships — To expand your reach and ability to resonate, you need to get out of your own bubble. Partner with other complementary brands. However, be cautious because who you partner with says a lot about you. Partnering with the wrong person or organization (putting reputation issues aside for now) could signal that your own offering is for a specific audience (which it may not be). There are a lot of latent signals sent here, so thoroughly consider the implications your partnerships may have on your audience. In April 2024, we combined a partnership with offline activities by recording a live episode of the SERP’s Up podcast at BrightonSEO. For the record, these elements can all overlap. You can partner with someone to conduct an offline activity that is all about education. That should be obvious, but I felt I had to reinforce it.  The net result and the great SEO connection You mean we’re finally going to talk about SEO? Yes, my deepest apologies for creating a knowledge scheme and not starting off with ‘ 5 Ways Your Branding Efforts Build Up Your SEO ’. Forgive me.  Let’s recap what we outlined until now and then discuss the likely outcomes: Establish a core brand identity that has depth and meaning. Identify audience needs and how brand as well as product/service identity addresses those needs (i.e., positioning).  Develop specific messaging to communicate the established positioning. Ready the brand to develop momentum by ensuring brand alignment, etc. Set topical focus(es) Develop a strategy to engage and resonate with an audience (i.e., achieve momentum) Now before we get into the outcomes, I want to remind you that we already established that both brand and momentum demand connection. So there’s no shortcut or easy way out. You have to go through some version of the process I laid out here.  OK, now we can talk about outcomes. If all goes according to plan, your brand will have: Produced assets for specific channels around targeted topics with messaging that deeply resonates with your audience Engaged in offline activities that created new connections and new levels of resonance Integrated (at some level) with your industry’s community and began to create a direct conversation with your audience Developed educational content that positioned you as a trusted authority and overall helper Expanded your reach and resonance by strategically collaborating with a variety of partners  Let’s talk about these outcomes in a more practical way, with a bit more marketing lingo sprinkled in: You chose a target audience and refined your topical focus. You created content and messaging that resonates with them.  You began to develop awareness via community engagement. You developed trust and authority via your educational content. You added to that authority, but this time with additional reach via collaboration.  What practical goals does this help you achieve?  If more people are engaged with you because you have a core identity, strong positioning, are partnering with more people, and producing targeted content that has value, then you should see: Increased mentions across the web  Increased backlinks   Increased branded searches Increased topical focus Increased authority and trustworthiness around your topic  I could go on.  Brand or SEO—Who is the primary helper?  Let me ask again: Is it SEO that helps branding? Or, maybe it’s branding that helps SEO? With what I’ve outlined above, your overall digital presence increases as a result of brand marketing, thereby increasing the chance for Google to pick up on a variety of signals (i.e., links, mentions, branded searches, etc). At the same time, the process should refine your topical focus and give you an air of authority. SEOs may know this as E-E-A-T , and in reality, E-E-A-T is the by-product of months (if not years) of foundational work, much as I’ve described in this article.  Now, please go ahead and tell me that brand does all of this, yet SEO is what helps brand because some random searcher might find some random page and repeat this process until they come to the epiphany that you are a noteworthy brand related to whatever it is you do.  *Scoff* 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: Naomi Francis-Parker Product categorization is fundamental for any eCommerce website. However, once these categories are set, I find that most brands rarely think about them again or, rarer yet, regularly review them to make sure they’re still aligned with their customers’ needs. In a competitive, ever-evolving digital landscape, shoppers are constantly finding new ways to describe and search for the things they want, so it’s crucial to ensure your online store’s product categories resonate with searchers and add value to your SEO. In this guide, I'll show you why embracing a customer-centric approach to product categorization is essential for delivering a better user experience and how this can lead to improved visibility and increased revenue, whilst gaining an edge over your competitors. Table of contents: Before you get started: ‘Traditional’ product categorization The technical side of faceted navigation Customer-first product categorization 101 The advantages of customer-first product categorization Increased visibility through long-tail keywords Leverage internal data for a competitive edge Act on emerging trends Customer-first categorization: How to get started 01. Choose a category 02. Find the demand 03. Plan your new categories 04. Publish your new customer-centric product categories Remember to account for facets in your user journey Before you get started: ‘Traditional’ product categorization This guide will mainly focus on faceted navigation because I believe it’s an undervalued and underused tool—especially in technical SEO , as I’ll discuss in the next section. For context, product categorization for most eCommerce sites typically looks like this: Parent categories:  These usually make up the site’s main navigation and are broad product listing pages (PLPs) that contain all products in one category (e.g., sofas). Source: loaf.com. Subcategories:  These are more refined PLPs that contain products grouped by a common feature (e.g., corner sofas). Source: loaf.com. Faceted navigation: This is used within a PLP to help customers further filter their results to find the exact products they’re looking for. Source: loaf.com. The technical side of faceted navigation When it comes to faceted navigation and filtering, there are some strict technical recommendations that most SEOs adhere to avoid over-indexing, cannibalization , and duplication—all issues that can seriously impact your online store’s performance. The strictest of these recommendations is to noindex all filtered categories   so that the only pages that search engines crawl are your main product categories. While it is incredibly important for brands to noindex  product variations (e.g., color and size) to avoid the issues mentioned above, I believe this has also caused most eCommerce brands to ignore their faceted navigation altogether, resulting in a ‘set and forget’ mindset that hampers innovation and exploration into new product categories that may be more aligned with your customers’ needs. The consumer online shopping experience is becoming increasingly personalized, making it easier for customers to find what they want almost immediately, but also causing them to be less patient with sites that aren’t as facilitating with their user experience. Customizing your product categories to align with your audience’s needs—and the language they use to search for those needs—is an effective tactic to personalize your online store and appeal to any number of potential customers. Source: McKinsey & Company. Customers are looking for personalization, convenience, and they want to find products while putting in the least amount of work possible.  The problem with the ‘traditional’ way SEOs categorize products is that it requires customers to do a lot of work by manually filtering a page before they even see a list of products that matches their needs. Customer-first product categorization 101 Customer-first product categorization simply means aligning your product categories with what your customers are actually looking for. This is where your faceted navigation goes from being a simple filtering system to a data tool that can provide insight into your customers’ needs. Faceted navigation provides a great user experience because it allows customers to filter PLPs so that they’re left with a list of products that exactly match their search parameters. The concept is simple, highly effective, and is the closest you can get to personalization for new or logged-out users. The problem, however, is that it still requires work from the user. Customer-centric categorization takes the personalized approach of the faceted navigation one step further by removing this additional work and allowing the user to land on the page they want directly from the SERP. You can achieve this by creating PLPs that are more tailored and aligned with the products your potential customers are looking for. The running industry is generally good at this. For example, if you search [trail running shoes] on Google, most of the pages that rank are specific to trail running shoes (rather than just running shoes), which would require the user to perform more filtering once they’ve clicked on the page. Every time a user filters results on a PLP or searches for something using internal site search, it indicates that the product isn’t as easy to find as they would like. The beauty of a customer-centric approach is that these products are usually frequently searched for and therefore have the potential to drive a lot of traffic and revenue for your online store. The advantages of customer-first product categorization A customer-first approach makes sense when you consider that 15% of Google searches are unique ; this is equal to around 1.275 billion unique queries every single day. That’s 1.275 billion potential new ways to search for (or describe) something that already exists. Couple that with the trend towards more personalization (mentioned above), and it’s easy to see how your parent categories (or even subcategories) are potentially no longer the most relevant pages for your customers. By embracing a customer-centric approach to your product categorization and faceted navigation, you can: Increase visibility through long-tail keywords Leverage internal data for a competitive advantage Act on emerging trends Increase visibility through long-tail keywords By their nature, long-tail keywords  are more descriptive and more specific than head terms. In the past, long-tail keywords were typically understood to reflect informational intent and were therefore better suited for blog content. However, there are many instances where users are searching long-tail keywords with commercial intent (i.e., when the product is more complicated or technical) and this is where the real opportunity lies. For example, a searcher might be looking to buy a green velvet two-seater sofa. In this instance, they could search using several different keywords: [Green sofa] [Green velvet sofa] [Green 2 seater sofa] [Green velvet 2 seater sofa] These keywords have thousands of monthly searches each, even [green velvet 2 seater sofa] (which is very long-tail/descriptive) has 110 searches per month . But, most companies focus on the broadest terms and pass on the work of filtering for specifics to their customers. This is evident when you look at the search results for this keyword. By creating categories that focus on longer-tail keywords with high commercial intent, you can gain more visibility and outrank competitors whose pages aren’t as relevant or optimized for these niche product searches. Leverage internal data for a competitive edge It may not surprise you to know that very few companies reported learning from site search data  and using it in other areas of their business. That means that a huge proportion of businesses have informative internal data that they’re not even looking at—these businesses are likely to include your competitors. Businesses that rely on third-party data for user behavior insights tend to overlook the value of internal data. While it is worthwhile to use third-party tools  to understand industry trends and keep an eye on competitors, internal data provides an even greater competitive edge because it’s the data that no one else has access to and it’s specific to your audience. Customer-first product categorization makes the most of this concept by combining your internal data with keyword data to provide insight into what your customers (and potential customers) are actually searching for. It can also help you understand whether a behavior is specific to your business or a part of a wider industry trend yet to be capitalized on. By looking more deeply at user behavior, you can begin to understand whether or not your existing categories are still aligned with your customers’ needs, or whether the landscape has changed and your categories need a refresh to ensure continued visibility and relevance. Act on emerging trends In certain industries, like fashion, the ability to anticipate and react to emerging trends  is critical for success. This is where a mix of internal data and external search data can make a big impact. Most brands have a good sense of which of their products perform the best during certain times of the year, and there can often be short-term trends that are sprinkled throughout that time. By analyzing your internal data and coupling that with search data, from tools like Google Trends , you can spot new, popular search terms and react more strategically. ASOS is a great example of this. The online clothing retailer frequently updates its navigation by incorporating internal search data and industry trends to build new trending categories that capture a specific audience. Source: asos.com This is a relatively easy way to show you’re in tune with your customers and can provide them with what they want (without them having to work for it), which is more likely to result in more returning customers and higher revenue. Customer-first categorization: How to get started Before we get into the ‘how,’ understand that the easiest way to start analyzing your internal data is to get good tracking in place so you can see how your customers are using your faceted navigation and which facets they are most interested in. There are plenty of paid tools you can use to set up tracking for events like this, such as Tealium . I prefer to use Google Tag Manager  because it’s free and it’s relatively easy to set up events, especially if you’re already using Google Analytics  to track and monitor your website. Once you have tracking in place, it’s much easier to gain insights going forward and will make ongoing category maintenance and review easier as well. If you don’t already have tracking in place, then you can still start working towards customer-centric product categorization by using keyword data coupled with the expertise you have within the business to understand your customer’s needs . Speak to your sales teams, your customer service teams, and, if you have physical stores, speak to the sales assistants and managers. These are the people that interact with your customers the most and they will have a deep understanding that you don’t always get behind the scenes. 01. Choose a category While it’s tempting to refresh all of your categories at once, it’s much more efficient to choose one and focus on optimizing that before moving onto the next. This way, you can see what works and what needs improvement and apply those learnings to the next category. An example of product category listings. I recommend choosing a category that has an extensive product list and a faceted navigation that gets a lot of use. Try to pick a category that you know customers like to get specific with, as this gives you plenty of options to explore. 02. Find the demand This is where your internal teams (or tracking if you have it) come into play. Look at the data and speak to your teams to understand which features your customers are most interested in or filter for the most. For example, if you’re a sofa company, you might find out that, after size, color is the most important product attribute that customers look for and so you might want to start there. Create a list of the top three to five product attributes and prioritize them based on what you feel is most important to the business, and then do some keyword research to find out which of these attributes get the most searches. Once you’ve done this, you should have a list of potential subcategories to create that you’re confident align with your customers’ needs and will likely have the biggest impact on revenue. For instance, if we continue with the sofa example above, we would likely find that the top three attributes that customers are most interested in are: 01. Color: [Green sofa] — 9,900 searches per month [Grey sofa] — 9,900 searches per month [Cream sofa] — 8,100 searches per month 02. Material: [Leather sofa] — 22,200 searches per month [Fabric sofa] — 3,600 searches per month [Velvet sofa] — 6,600 searches per month 03. Type: Corner sofa] — 110,000 searches per month Two seat sofa] — 2,600 searches per month Sofa bed] — 22,000 searches per month Each of these has significant search volume and reflects exactly what customers are looking for. Now, with the keyword data to back them up, you can start to plan your new, customer-centric categories. 03. Plan your new categories Before we continue, a word of warning: You must  consider the current structure of your site before you make any changes. Part of your planning needs to include how these new pages will fit into the current structure of the site and how customers will arrive at these new pages from elsewhere on the site. If you overlook this, you risk messing up your site structure—and for this approach to work well, you must have a robust site structure and a clear user journey. Once that’s all done, you can start planning the categories that you want to create. This is where you will need to not only work on the PLPs themselves, but also the supporting content  that goes with it. Nothing in SEO works as well in a silo, so make sure you’re considering the other key areas of your site so that your new pages go live in the best possible shape to help your rankings. I find that the blog is typically a good place to start because building a content strategy that supports your new categories can help you identify additional customer considerations to address. It can even help you discover complementary products that you may want to include on the PLP to drive your average order value. All of this can help when it comes to building your PLPs and it will make elements like internal linking  and FAQs easier. This is why I would advise against  building the PLP first because you will likely overlook the key elements mentioned above, which can leave you feeling as though the page is never ready. 04. Publish your new customer-centric product categories Once you’re happy with the strategy and have created the new pages, the only thing left to do is publish your new categories and start monitoring your visibility . If you thoroughly researched and executed well, then you should start to see your visibility improve and you can start to take notes for the next category! Remember to account for facets in your user journey While new categories are relatively simple to implement, there are important technical aspects to consider, including:  The user journey and site structure (as mentioned before) The role your faceted navigation will play once your new subcategories are in place Be mindful that users can arrive on your pages in many different ways, and your website’s functionality and structure need to cater to that. Using the sofa example from before, consider this scenario: You have identified a need for new subcategories that combine sofa color and type, and have created a new ‘green corner sofas’ page as part of this strategy. A user searches for [corner sofas] and lands on your ‘corner sofas’ page and then decides they want a green corner sofa, so they filter for the color green using the faceted navigation. What is the next step in their user journey? This is important as it will shape how you plan the technical side of your categories. You have a couple of options: When the user selects ‘green’ from the faceted navigation, they are taken to the new ‘green corner sofas’ category page. When the user selects ‘green,’ the products are filtered on the existing PLP and the user remains on the same page. The right choice is entirely dependent on the capabilities of your platform, so I’d recommend speaking to a developer to find out what’s possible. No matter which option you choose, you must ensure that the facets adhere to best practice and aren’t indexable, otherwise you’ll end up with a ton of randomly indexed, cannibalized pages . Improve SEO and increase revenue with customer-centric product categories By now, it should be no surprise that the more tailored your website is to your audience’s needs and vernacular, the more likely it is that they will buy from you. Not only that, but (as evident from the green sofas example above) there are thousands of people searching for these more specific products and attributes that many brands are simply overlooking. A customer-centric approach is about focusing on your customers’ wants and tapping into their mindset when they’re shopping online. Thousands of people want what you’re selling, but if you’re not making it easy for them to find it, then you’re leaving money on the table. Naomi Francis-Parker - SEO Manager Naomi is an SEO expert with over 5 years of experience working with eCommerce brands. Her passion comes from a holistic approach to digital marketing that encourages growth through the collective use of content, PR, social media, and SEO. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: James Clark It’s said that 25%–30% of content on the web is duplicative, meaning that the content is very similar to another piece of existing content. For search engines, like Google, serving all that duplicate content isn’t particularly useful for users. That’s why search engines will choose one of the two (or more) versions to show in search results. Canonicalization can help you tell search engines which version is the original one, which can help your most important pages rank better and improve crawl budget. In this post, I’ll walk you through: What canonicalization means What is a canonical tag?: How to canonicalize URLs Why canonicalization is important Common scenarios that require canonicalization Canonicalization on Wix What is canonicalization? When managing a website, canonicalization is the process by which you declare a web page or URL to be the original (or canonical) version of your content. It allows you to tell search engines which version of the content is the most authoritative, and that anything canonicalized to it is simply another version of that content. This makes canonicalization an important part of both your site management and your content strategy. Without canonicalization, you’d have no control over which URL a search engine chooses to show in relevant search results. Once you add a canonical tag to a URL, you are, in effect, telling search engines that this is the original version of the content and the one that should appear in search results. Search engines can choose to ignore this canonical tag, but generally, canonicalization is considered to be an effective way of managing your duplicate content. Let’s explain this with a working example: You're browsing an eCommerce website looking to buy some shoes. To locate shoes in your desired price range, you use the sorting options to show the most expensive shoes first. As you do this, you notice that the URL of the page changes. It was https://example.com/shoes, but it's now https://example.com/shoes?price=high. Is it the same page as before, or a different page? You could argue it's the same page—the block of text about shoes at the top remains the same, the header and the footer are the same, the filtering options on the side of the page are the same. The page may even show the same shoes, just in a different order. But, to Google and other search engines, it's a different page because the URL is different. So, this website now has two different pages with the same content—or, as it's called in SEO, ‘ duplicate content .’ This poses a problem for the site owner. Google won't want to show both pages in its search results because it’s not very valuable for searchers, so it will choose just one. But, what if the site owner wants the “price=high” page and Google chooses the other page, or vice versa? Here are two different category pages from the same commerce site. Both are sorted by price, but one is low to high, and the other is high to low. Canonicalization is a way of telling Google which version of each page to choose. Enter canonicalization, a grand word for quite a straightforward concept. Where you have duplicate content, it's a way of telling search engines which page is your main or “canonical” version. Google also uses the phrase “ most representative .” There are lots of reasons why a site might have duplicate content, and we’ll look at the most common ones later in this article. Duplicate content doesn’t necessarily mean identical pages: “Minor changes in sorting or filtering of list pages do not make the page unique," Google said—just like our shoe search results example. Here are some other phrases that Google uses to describe duplicate content: “appreciably similar” “largely identical” “similar content” You may well ask, “How similar is ‘appreciably similar’?” Well, that’s up for debate in SEO circles, so use your best judgment. However, if you apply a canonical tag to a URL (more on this below) that search engines deem to be dissimilar, they may ignore the tag. What is a canonical tag?: How to canonicalize URLs The most common way to designate a canonical is to add a meta tag  called the ‘canonical tag.’ The canonical tag looks like this: A canonical tag can point to any URL, either on the same website or on a different website. If it points to a different website, it’s called a ‘cross-domain canonical tag.’ But, in most cases it will point to the current URL, indicating that the current URL is—you guessed it—canonical. This is known as a self-referential canonical tag because the page is referring to itself. Wherever the tag points, Google says the URL should include the domain name. In other words, it should be something like https://mysite.com/page rather than just /page . While Google has strong opinions on canonical tags, it still sometimes ignores them . This might happen if the canonical tag points to a page with significantly different content, or if the page loads so slowly that Google has trouble indexing it, for example. While canonicalization is straightforward from a technical point of view, it isn't always clear why or when you should do it. Let’s look at both of these considerations. Why do you need canonicalization? Now, we know that canonical URLs are important to search engines like Google. But, search engines don't just use them to decide which pages to index and show in their search results—they also use them to decide how often to crawl (visit) a page. This means canonicalization can help you optimize your crawl budget (the number of pages a search engine bot will crawl and index on a given site, within a given time period). If you have a site with thousands of pages (such as an eCommerce site), it might take Google a long time to crawl all of them. You certainly don’t want Google to waste your crawl budget on lots of pages that have the same content and potentially leave out other important pages. By using the canonical tag, you are telling search engines which pages are duplicates so it will crawl those ones less often . This means canonicalization frees up Googlebot to crawl your other pages, finding and indexing new content more quickly. That’s not all: canonicalization can actually help your pages rank higher in Google Search. Although the exact algorithm that Google uses is a secret, we know it's influenced by lots of different factors. These factors include (but aren’t limited to) the content of your page, whether your page is user-friendly, and how quickly it loads on mobile. Links are particularly important: so-called “inbound” links (also known as backlinks) from reputable sites tell Google your page is high quality as well. But, if you have duplicate content, the different versions of a page may have different inbound links. For example, the first version could have five links from various sites, and another version might have only two. Sometimes this happens if you run a marketing campaign that uses a special URL to help with tracking. For example you might run an email newsletter campaign with a URL that looks like this: https://www.mysite.com?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=christmas The parts of the URL after the question mark are called “URL parameters” and, in this case, are just there to help with campaign tracking and reporting. But, other sites might link to this special campaign URL rather than just to https://www.mysite.com . So, the benefit gets diluted across the different versions of the page. Canonicalization helps you address this by consolidating the benefit of those links. With proper canonicalization, the version you want to appear in search results benefits from all the links to all versions of the page. This can potentially give that page a boost in search engine rankings. When do you need canonicalization? Canonicalization is useful in lots of different situations, not all of which are obvious. Here are some common scenarios. 01. Republishing content across sites First, think about canonicalization whenever you publish the same piece of content across multiple sites. Although this may seem like something only larger publishers do, it happens surprisingly often with smaller and local businesses, too. For example, an osteopath writes a useful article about the common causes of back pain and publishes it on the website for their clinic. They then open a new clinic across town and set up a new website specifically for this second location. The article is relevant here as well, so they also publish it on the second site. In this case, the osteopath would be well advised to canonicalize one version of their choosing rather than rely on Google to make the choice for them. (In an ideal world, of course, each site should have its own unique content.) 02. Syndication Another similar scenario is syndication. If you run a blog, you may have chosen to syndicate your content on third-party sites. This is often done using RSS feeds and can be an effective way to reach new or larger audiences. You may want to ask your syndication partners to add a canonical tag to any republished post, specifying your original blog post as the canonical version. You’ll definitely want to include a self-referential canonical tag on the original. Otherwise, you may find that the syndicated version is the one that Google decides to index—and your original blog post doesn’t appear in search results at all. Canonicalization of syndicated copies help the original in Google News as well: “Publishers that allow others to republish content can help ensure that their original versions perform better in Google News by asking those republishing to block or make use of canonical.” But, even with a canonical tag in place, the syndicated copy may outrank your original in search results. This is more likely to happen if “there’s a lot of other content around that page that is completely different,” according to Google’s John Mueller . 03. Parameterized URLs Canonicalization is also important whenever a website has parameterized URLs. Many websites use parameters for: Marketing campaigns, like our Christmas email example above Search filters, as we saw with the shoe results page example Keyword searches on content such as blogs Whatever the reason for them, parameters create a new URL. These versions should have a canonical tag pointing to the original (and the original should have a self-referential canonical tag). 04. URL variants You may have noticed that some web addresses contain “www” and others don't. Similarly, some end in a slash (/) and others don't. And, some are secure (starting in https) and others aren't (starting in http). In a worst case scenario, these three factors give us eight different versions of the same URL: https://www.mysite.com https://www.mysite.com/ https://mysite.com https://mysite.com/ http://www.mysite.com http://www.mysite.com/ http://mysite.com http://mysite.com/ In an ideal world, seven of those variants should automatically redirect the user to the eighth. (There are lots of different types of redirects, but the most appropriate one here would be a permanent 301 redirect .) However, if redirects aren’t in place, a canonical tag could mitigate the problems that these different URL variants cause. Canonicalization on Wix Wix automatically adds a self-referential canonical tag to every page on your site. While parameterized URLs aren’t particularly common on Wix sites, they do appear in a few situations ( collections on Wix Stores make use of parameters, for example). Wix automatically adds the correct canonical tag to these pages so you can be confident you won't have any problems with this type of duplicate content. A canonical tag pointing to the original version of a URL. Notice that, while the URL in the browser’s address bar has parameters appended to it, Wix canonicalizes to the non-parameterized URL. Additionally, Wix URLs follow the format https://www.mysite.com/ . All other variants will automatically 301 redirect to this. This is also the format used in the canonical tag. In most instances this is all you need. But in some very particular situations (for example, if you’ve already published a similar piece of content on an external site), you may want to change that default canonical tag. Instead of being self-referential, it should point to the canonical version of the content. How to customize the canonical tag on a Wix site To customize a page’s canonical tag on Wix , click on Menus & Pages on the left-hand side of the Editor. Next, click the Show More icon next to the relevant page and select SEO Basics , as shown below. Then, go to the Advanced SEO tab and click on canonical under Additional Tags . Click on the Show More icon and select Edit to customize the tag and select Apply to save the change. For vertical pages, such as blog posts, you can customize the canonical tag by navigating to the desired post within the Editor. Next, click on SEO in the left-hand menu and go to the Advanced tab. Similar to the workflow above, the Additional Tags section is where you can customize your canonical tag. If you do delete a custom canonical tag, the page will automatically revert to a self-referential tag. This removes the risk of accidentally having no tag at all. Even though Wix offers the ability to customize your canonical tags, in most cases, you’ll be just fine relying on the self-referential canonical tag that Wix adds for you. Use canonical tags to manage duplicate When used properly, canonical tags allow you to present Google and other search engines with one, canonical, version of each page. Make sure to use them with the best practices outlined above so that search engines and, ultimately, users land on the right page. James Clark - Web Analyst James Clark is a web analyst from London, with a background in the publishing sector. When he isn't helping businesses with their analytics, he's usually writing how-to guides over on his website Technically Product . 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Author: Solomon Thimothy Succeeding as a marketing agency takes work—economic uncertainty, client acquisition and retention, and scaling are some of the biggest challenges you must overcome if you want to stick around. The good news is that these are not totally new challenges in the agency world. Having run agencies for two decades, I can tell you that it’s still very much possible to run a successful one.  However, to survive and remain profitable over the long term, your agency must be agile and adaptable. This means embracing innovation and getting on the automation bandwagon.  No, it’s not a buzzword or just another trend with a limited shelf life. Automation and AI could be the life support you need to make headway in the coming months and years. Let’s take a look at how automation can help pick up the slack so you can focus on impactful, strategic decision making. Table of contents: Agency automation: What it is and why it’s worthwhile The impact of automation on agency growth, success, and profitability How to implement automation for your marketing agency The top 5 marketing agency processes to automate Lead generation Client onboarding, communication, and billing Project management and workflows Social media management Analytics and reporting Agency automation: What it is and why it’s worthwhile Agency automation is when you use technology to streamline and optimize processes within your agency. It may include tasks like client communication, project management, reporting, data analysis, sales prospecting, and so on. The end goal is to increase efficiency, reduce manual labor, and improve overall productivity, allowing agencies to focus more on client success while maintaining or improving revenue. Automation is critical for smaller agencies as it allows you to get more done with fewer resources. It can also dramatically reduce or eliminate laborious but unchallenging tasks from your to-do list. For example, at my agency, as the business grew, tasks began to pile up on my plate. I found myself wasting time on menial tasks, like updating our leads list and client records. Reporting too, can be a time sucker—the time spent creating reports  and explaining them could be better spent executing a new strategy.  By delegating and automating these repetitive tasks, I avoided getting pulled away from crucial decision-making and other high-priority responsibilities. Automation not only helps eliminate human error, but also saves significant time and resources. It allows agency owners and team members to focus on tasks that require critical thinking, creativity, and strategic planning—areas where human input is irreplaceable. The impact of automation on agency growth, success, and profitability  Every agency owner’s dream is to run a growing, successful, and profitable agency. But what exactly does that look like? And, how exactly  does automation get you closer to that dream? Let’s examine the top agency performance criteria as well as how automation can bring about the highly desired trifecta of growth, success, and profitability. Enhanced productivity and scalability  — You can deploy solutions to automate some of your daily operations, like updating client data in your CRM. By automating these processes, you free up staff to focus on tasks that require higher levels of problem-solving or creativity. Think about updating a CRM contact record versus coming up with your newest product’s sales pitch—what’s likely going to make you (and the client) happier in the long run? Automation also helps to eliminate human error, which is another way it promotes productivity. After all, this is why banks have bill and coin-counting machines. The other clear benefit of agency automation is that it facilitates scalability. Regardless of what type of agency you run, if you’re growing, payroll is one of your biggest expenses. Automation allows you to do more with a smaller team, even if your client base expands. Streamlined processes, resources, and workflow optimization  — Repeatable processes are key to servicing clients, maintaining quality standards, and scaling your agency. Automation can accelerate just about any of your processes with little to no errors.  Take client onboarding, for example. Need to notify accounting? Need to send that welcome email? How about creating a login for the client? These are just a few examples of typical tasks that you can automate to expedite your overall time to execute and deliver a seamless client experience. Improved client communication and relationship management  — With support automation, you can be there for your clients even beyond your operating hours. You can implement automation at every stage of the customer journey: simplify client onboarding, expedite query resolution, and provide satisfactory service to every client, even at scale. A great example is deploying chatbots that are trained to address frequently asked questions and common customer problems. Your support team can also save time by focusing on truly significant client issues, instead of being consumed by the same daily requests.  Overhead cost reduction, increased profit margins, and efficiency  — Strategic automation saves time, human resources, and budget. These factors affect your bottom line, ensure you work at optimal capacity, and make tangible financial gains.  In fact, research shows marketing automation alone can reduce overhead costs by 12.2% . Not significant enough? Process automation as a whole can save agencies 25–40% in business process costs, according to research from Deloitte . How to implement automation for your marketing agency You can implement automation across all your agency’s departments: sales, marketing, customer service, support—you name it. Every department has tedious tasks that don’t amount to much when it comes to overall impact. However, they’re still critical and someone has to do them. When you add up all these tasks, you’ll be surprised what you can do with that time, talent, and energy.  If you need help finding a place to start, follow this simple roadmap:  Identify automation opportunities Analyze your workflows to pinpoint repetitive, time-consuming tasks. Prioritize processes that, if automated, would significantly impact efficiency and client satisfaction Assess your current systems Evaluate existing tools and workflows for automation compatibility. Determine if upgrades or changes are needed to support automation. Define your automation strategy Identify stakeholders responsible for overseeing the process. Establish an implementation timeline. Set specific, measurable goals for your automation efforts.  Allocate a budget and research solutions  Determine your automation investment budget (this will be spent on tools and implementation). Research cost-effective automation tools that meet your needs and offer scalability. Implement your new automated workflows and train your team Roll out automation changes gradually to minimize disruption. Provide comprehensive training on new tools and processes. Encourage feedback and address concerns to ensure smooth adoption. Remember, team buy-in is essential for successful automation implementation. Whether it’s higher-ups or the actual employees doing the work, understanding the role and benefits of automation are key to a win-win situation.  On the one hand, you need to get buy-in from leadership to invest in automation tools and software. On the other hand, you need to work with the team to identify what processes or tasks are best suited to automate and what new tool or method is most effective. Involve your team in the process, highlight the benefits, and address any concerns they may have about how automation will affect their roles and their growth potential.  The top 5 marketing agency processes to automate The best tasks or processes to automate are those that are highly repetitive, manual, and time consuming. Below are the most common processes that you can automate for your agency:  Lead generation Client onboarding, communication, and billing Project management and workflows Social media management Analytics and reporting Lead generation  Generating new leads is always critical as every agency needs a consistent pipeline. Artificial intelligence and machine learning advancements now enable tools to significantly automate lead generation  to identify, nurture, and convert prospects into paying customers. You can automate parts of the process or all of it, depending on your immediate goals.  There are plenty of options for automating lead generation, including email campaigns, social ads, lead magnets, pop-ups, forms, and more. At Clickx , we’ve been successful at scaling our prospecting efforts using lead generation tools, like Instantly , that make it easy to send prospect emails and follow-ups at scale.  However, if you have not used tools for lead generation before, here are some tips before you get started: Start small — Begin by automating one aspect of your lead generation process, such as email campaigns or social media ads. This allows you to learn and adjust without overwhelming your team. Utilize lead scoring — Implement an automated lead scoring system to prioritize your leads based on their likelihood to convert. This helps your sales team focus on the most promising prospects. Test and iterate — Regularly analyze the performance of your automated lead generation efforts and make adjustments as needed. What works for one agency might not work for another, so be prepared to fine-tune your approach. For prospecting and appointment setting, I recommend (and co-founded) Clickx , an AI-driven tool for automating lead generation and increasing sales. It can do everything from appointment scheduling to client servicing and email marketing. It’s easy to use and ideal for agencies gearing up for rapid growth and revenue generation.  The Clickx leads dashboard. Client onboarding, communication, and billing  Post-sales processes are crucial to developing long-term customer relationships. After all, the promptness of your response shows your dedication to your clients, and they will surely appreciate your commitment.  At our agency, we know that the first few days or weeks of a new client are critical for a long-term relationship. Below are some tremendously useful automation methods to ensure on-time delivery and a smooth onboarding process.  Zapier This is a dedicated workflow automation solution for small- to medium-sized businesses. You can integrate third-party apps into a host of other SaaS solutions (as shown below). You can also choose to automate certain parts of your client onboarding workflows or the entire process, per your needs.  An example of setting up a Zap when a session is booked via Wix Bookings. You can use Zapier to do things like integrate your email marketing tool with an existing system by creating a ‘zap’ to connect them. Need to send notifications when a lead comes in? Easy, create a zap that connects to your CRM or sends an email notification. It’s that simple. Choose Zapier  if you’re new to automation and want a flexible option to scale implementation in the future. There’s even a Zapier app for Wix  that offers over 50 trigger events for Wix’s most popular apps. A ‘zap’ that creates a monday.com item whenever a user fills out a form on your Wix website. Wix Automations A feature of the popular website builder Wix, you can use Wix Automations  for email campaigns, workflows, lead nurturing, and more. By sending a ‘next steps’ email when a visitor submits a form or an email notification when an invoice is overdue, Wix Automations enables you to be proactive with your clients without relying on to-do lists and reminders. Custom APIs Rope in a developer to create custom APIs to integrate automation apps specific to your requirements. While custom APIs are expensive compared to off-the-shelf solutions, they offer complete control over your automation processes. For instance, some agencies develop custom APIs that integrate their CRM, project management tools, and billing systems. This allows for a seamless workflow where client information is automatically populated across all systems, tasks are created based on the client’s package, and invoices are generated and sent without manual intervention.  At our agency, we have used the open APIs of major tools like Google Ads, Meta Ads , LinkedIn Ads, and others to simplify reporting, provide better data, and ultimately create our own multi-faceted marketing reporting app.  While working with APIs can present a significant upfront investment, it often pays off in terms of time saved and reduced errors. Stripe This SaaS solution centralizes and automates your billing operations. You can integrate Stripe with your existing databases for billing records, invoicing, and payment processing. It’s great for businesses operating globally and looking to scale.  An example of a statement on Stripe. Source: Stripe. As a bonus, using Stripe means you don’t have to invest in additional security tools because this payment gateway uses high-level encryption and industry-leading safety protocols to ensure your client’s safety. Project management and workflows  Creating new tasks, task allocation, follow-ups, and submissions—project management automation tools can help you effortlessly organize, manage, and maintain even the most complex workflows. This will help you stay at the top of your game, especially if you work with multiple clients with tight deadlines.  Automating project management can be a game-changer. Some have reported reducing their project kickoff time by 50% and virtually eliminating missed deadlines. It also literally takes the project out of the black box—everyone is aware of the steps, the deliverables, and the timelines, making it easy for everyone to stay on task.  For agencies just starting with project management automation, look into popular tools like Asana or Monday.com . These platforms offer pre-built automation recipes that are easy to implement and can significantly streamline your workflows. Social media management  Social media management is an integral offering of any marketing agency worth its salt. You can leverage these platforms for ads, leads, revenue generation, reputation management, etc. Using dedicated tools to automate scheduling, ad campaigns, sentiment analysis, and the like, ensures you work smarter, not harder. Tools like Buffer  for scheduling posts across multiple platforms and Hootsuite  for social listening and sentiment analysis have allowed agencies to manage social media for more clients without proportionally increasing team size. For agencies looking to automate their social media management, starting with a tool like Sprout Social  or Later  could be beneficial. These platforms offer comprehensive features that can grow with your agency’s needs. Analytics and reporting Automating analytics and reporting has obvious advantages—it’s always up-to-date, eliminates human error, and makes data visualization easy. While you could likely use your existing analytics platforms’ reporting features , a centralized dashboard facilitates greater and more frequent use of data because anyone can access it anytime.  Many agencies found success developing custom dashboards that pull data from various sources ( Google Analytics , social media platforms, ad platforms, etc.) and present it in an easy-to-understand format. This approach can save teams countless hours and improve client communications by providing real-time updates and facilitating data-driven decisions . For agencies looking to automate their reporting, tools like Databox  or Supermetrics  are popular starting points. These platforms integrate with a wide range of data sources and allow you to create customized, automated reports. Automation: The best and only option for competitive marketing agencies Agency automation is not simply ‘nice to have’ anymore. You need to implement it if you want to match or exceed your competitors’ efficiency and capabilities (especially on a budget).  So, whether you’re a startup or a big marketing agency with teams across geographies, find ways to use automation across every department and role. It’s the key enabler you need to continue doing what you do: providing the best possible services for your clients.  Solomon Thimothy - Co-founder at Clickx Solomon Thimothy is a digital marketing expert with 17+ years of experience helping businesses scale through SEO and growth strategies. As the founder of Clickx, he’s worked with companies to drive organic traffic and dominate search results. Learn more at Clickx.io . Linkedin

Author: Ross Simmonds Businesses that rely on social media marketing know that there’s rarely enough hours in the week to research your audience, plan content, publish and promote it, and subsequently engage with your followers about it. Generative artificial intelligence has the potential to change that. But for all AI’s capabilities, it’s still too risky for brands to let it run your social media presence without active human guidance. Over the last three years, I’ve worked closely with some of the top brands in the world to understand how AI can support their workflows and processes. I’ve spoken at conferences around the world on the power of AI and how marketers can use it to drive better business outcomes—outcomes that include:  More efficient and productive teams More agile creative processes More velocity for content production Better return on investment on social media And in this essay, my goal is to share all of that with you.  Let’s get into it:  Should you use AI for social media? Strengths and weaknesses Prompt engineering: Tap into the full potential of AI for social media AI for customer engagement on social media: Proceed at your own risk AI for social content production and distribution Wix AI tools for social media Add AI to your social media workflows: Considerations and suggestions Should you use AI for social media? Strengths and weaknesses Social media and artificial intelligence have a long relationship. After all, AI and machine learning power the algorithms that determine what content shows up on your customers’ feeds. As digital marketers, it only seems logical to consider AI within our own workflows and systems for creating social media content. But, how do you do that? What are AI’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to social media? And, more importantly, how do you match its strengths to your brand’s marketing needs? The first thing I want to specify is: AI’s efficacy depends on the particular use case. Your success with AI for social media depends on how well you can blend its strengths with your own, as the human expert, marketer, or business owner. I’ll also add that in a few years, it’s very possible that everything I’m saying you shouldn’t use AI for today will be 100% feasible to use AI for at that point (but, I’ll probably have updated this content by then).  However as it stands right now, I avoid using AI for the following social media tasks and advise that others avoid it for these use cases a well: Audience research Strategy development Social account management Unedited long-form social content Unsupervised customer service Why?  ChatGPT and most LLMs currently do not have the capability to research audiences, conduct keyword analysis, analyze communities , or dive into the qualitative and quantitative data associated with your email list and use that to figure out a plan. These are still tasks that require human intuition, experience, and common sense (remember, ChatGPT  is just putting words together based on relationships with other words—it doesn’t actually do any ‘thinking’). It’s also quickly becoming obvious to customers when a brand creates and distributes AI-generated content . The best brands include a human layer in the process before publishing to ensure that the content is actually what human customers might want to see. Not to get redundant, but remember, AI does not shop for products or services so it’s really unlikely to generate the best (unedited) content for those purposes. But that doesn’t mean you should avoid AI at all costs when running your social media presence.  AI can be effective for… Because… Creating first drafts Short social content Brainstorming ideas Short Q&A responses Repurposing content AI handles a variety of lightweight tasks (e.g., short Q&A responses, brainstorming ideas) quite well. It can also perform well as part of a workflow (rather than to simply generate content that users will see) because of the human oversight inherent in bigger tasks/projects. So, how can you do these things? Let’s dive in. Prompt engineering: Tap into the full potential of AI for social media What’s the best way to create content for social media? It’s the combination of great prompt engineering and creativity.  You’re probably familiar with striving for creative excellence, but prompt engineering might be a newer concept for you. Here’s how it works: Prompt engineering  is the process of crafting and refining the instruction or query you feed to a generative AI tool to improve its output. Prompt engineering probably won’t get you ‘perfect’ results, but it can vastly improve your starting point.  When you’re creating content for social media, it’s not enough to write a simple (or ambiguous) prompt like:  Create a LinkedIn update promoting my brand.  You need to optimize your prompts for the content you’re looking to generate. Here are the four most important things to remember when crafting AI prompts for social media assets to use in your marketing material:  Define your goal or objective: Your prompt must clearly define what the AI should produce (e.g., the desired format, target audience, tone of the content). Set the context:  Provide relevant background information to help the AI model grasp your expectations, leading to more accurate and pertinent responses. Offer examples and guidance:  Include examples in your prompts to give the AI a clear template to follow, especially when you want it to adhere to specific structures or guidelines. Continuously iterate and refine your prompts: Just like any solid communication strategy, prompt engineering is iterative. Test different variations, evaluate the results, and refine your prompts to align them with your evolving objectives. Here’s an example of how to create a great prompt using the techniques I mentioned above:  The prompt above excels at providing the AI with: The role it needs to play (i.e., copywriter) Which creators to take inspiration from (i.e., Ann Handley and Seth Godin) A clear framework to use (i.e., AIDA) A series of examples to use for inspiration And then at the end of the prompt, it tells the AI exactly what it wants:  The results?  Social media posts that attract attention, align with the ideal voice, and ( with some editing ) can be scheduled to go live immediately to drive some engagement and buzz.  AI for customer engagement on social media: Proceed at your own risk Replying to customers, fans, and followers is one of the most common AI use cases on social media. When I first started in digital marketing, I worked in ‘social media newsrooms,’ where social media specialists monitored Twitter (now X) for posts about companies and replied to these posts in seconds. Today, AI is tackling this task on behalf of some of the largest companies in the world. Rather than outsourcing this type of work to a call center or social media communications firm, many organizations use AI-generated agents to manage replies, responses, and criticism.  Does it always work? Not a chance.  There’s a lot of examples and press about AI-generated responses  that miss the point of the customer's (sometimes even influencers) original social media posts.  This is why it’s important to be careful with how far you go in deploying this technology. Can it help you write replies faster? 100%.  But, should it be 100% automated? That’s a risk and you have to decide whether you’re willing to take it or not.  AI for social content production and distribution As technology advances, so does its impact on industries and professions. Do not overlook the ways in which generative AI influences how designers, writers, videographers, editors, etc. do their jobs.  In recent years, there’s a growing trend of using AI tools to assist in content production tasks, such as writing, designing, animation, editing, and even recording video (as I’ll show you later). For example, Midjourney (shown above) is an independent research lab that provides AI-generated images based on text prompts, similar to other AI image generators, like OpenAI’s DALL-E.  As you can see from the image below, the text doesn’t always come out perfect (which is incredibly common with AI-generated images at this point in the technology’s maturity) but the output looks pretty good:  One of the use cases I’ve experimented with quite a bit on social media is using generative AI to create video content. Here’s an example of a video of me (kind of) and me:  I used HeyGen , one of my favorite AI tools for this. Can you tell which is human and which is AI-generated?  I’ve also used AI tools for content distribution , turning blog posts into tweets and crafting social media posts to promote podcasts. Tools like Distribution.ai (which is my own)  make it possible for me to upload audio files from my podcast, Create Like The Greats , and then create LinkedIn posts and X content from that audio file in a matter of seconds.  This is what works for me and my business at this point, and while I recommend these tools, I encourage you to test and take advantage of free trials and demos to figure out what’s feasible (and just as importantly, sustainable) for your social media marketing goals. Wix AI tools for social media Starting with what you already have access to (or can access for free) is a great, low-risk way to experiment with AI. Wix website owners can access a range of AI-powered features  to expand their online presence. The AI image creator  is a great example: You can even use the Photo Studio feature to upscale resolution, erase an object, extend the image, remove the background, etc. Additionally, one of the most common AI uses for digital marketers is generating copy for social media posts. AI tools , like ChatGPT, now give social media managers the ability to create this copy 10x faster.  As an example of this in action, instead of me thinking for an extra 10 minutes about this blog post’s title tags  and meta descriptions , AI can do the heavy lifting. Wix’s AI meta tag creator  makes it easy for me to generate this content in seconds. While this feature is typically used for web content, you can set your og:description (social description) and og:title (social title) to mirror your title tag and meta description so that the AI takes care of even more for you. Of course, you should still review the outputs and seize any opportunities to further optimize it (with a CTA , for example) before publishing. Add AI to your social media workflows: Considerations and suggestions The opportunities to incorporate AI into your workflows as a social media marketer are significant. It can be a go-to for so many parts of your job, including your research, creation, and optimization processes. But, here’s one area that most people overlook: AI as a brainstorming tool.  One of the best ways to avoid writer ’ s block is to treat AI like a creative partner. Start a dialog directly with your favorite LLM tool to discuss some of the things that you’re thinking about as it relates to possible content ideas. One way of doing this is to find a social media idea that works in one industry and then ask your favorite AI tool to use that for inspiration in creating new ideas.  Let’s use the HVAC company again as an example. I could take a post from Semrush (the SEO rank tracking  tool) which talks about a marketers ‘dream 24 hours’ and ask ChatGPT to use it for inspiration on a ‘dream 24 hours’ post for an HVAC professional:  And in a matter of seconds, it responded: “Why do we love working in HVAC? Sure, there are the technical skills, the challenging repairs, and the customer satisfaction... but let’s be real, we’re here for the good stuff: comfort and efficiency! The dream 24 hours of any HVAC pro: 09:00  - Kicking off the day with a successful repair, leaving a customer’s home warm and cozy. 10:00  - Learning new energy-saving tips to share with clients. 11:00  - Installing a high-efficiency system that cuts energy bills in half. 12:00  - Getting a 5-star review  from a happy homeowner. 14:00  - Diagnosing issues in record time with the latest HVAC tools. 16:00  - Wrapping up a commercial project ahead of schedule. 18:00  - Celebrating the day’s wins over coffee with the team. 🔥 BONUS : All service calls booked today get a 20% discount! 👉 Watch out : This offer is only valid for the next 24 hours! Not bad eh? While you’re probably excited about the potential of AI for your social media strategy, it’s very important to take a step back and assess your current social media plans.  Before you start signing up for tools, you need to understand:  How much time you can actively invest on this channel  Your potential budget for AI tools The tasks that stand out to you as the most worthwhile/relevant for utilizing generative AI That having been said, one recommendation I like to make (that almost every creator and business can benefit from) is to use an AI tool that schedules content to publish at optimal times. A lot of the social networks offer scheduling directly on their platforms, but tools like Hootsuite provide a depth of features that go above and beyond the scheduling functionality built into LinkedIn, Facebook, X, or any other network.  AI isn’t about perfect outputs—it’s about incremental efficiency gains for your social media workflows “AI will do 95% of what marketers use agencies, strategists, and creative professionals for today.” — Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI That’s quite a bold statement, especially from my position as a marketer.  So, here’s my take: I’m not sure how close we are to a superintelligence that can do all the things we do. But, I do know that some of the tasks we focus on today will eventually be completely irrelevant thanks to generative AI. That’s not a prediction—it’s a fact.  My suggestion to social media marketers and managers is simply to experiment with the technology and look for advantages and opportunities. Look for ways to do more with less and see how AI can facilitate your workflows to be more efficient, but just as creative and human. Ross Simmonds - CEO of Foundation Marketing Ross Simmonds is the founder of Foundation Marketing, a B2B SaaS Marketing agency that works with some of the worlds most successful brands. He's also the author of Create Once. Distribute Forever: How Great Creators Spread Their Ideas and How You Can Too . Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Ray Martinez Early in my SEO career, I would stare at a Raven Tools or Google Analytics report as if staring at an unsolved math problem. There were so many metrics measuring so many things. I struggled because I didn’t understand how each metric contributed to the overarching story of digital marketing performance.  At that time, I didn’t understand a simple but powerful concept…  Value is added by the story we tell using data—not on data alone.  In this article, I’ll walk you through why data-driven storytelling matters for digital marketers, with examples from my own experiences, and how it adds value for your stakeholders.  Table of contents: What is data storytelling? Step 1: Define clear goals and choose KPIs that tell the story Step 2: Collect diverse data points for a comprehensive story Step 3: Analyze patterns to highlight key insights Step 4: Use your key insights to build a narrative arc Step 5: Create visualizations that make your data accessible Step 6: Showcase ROI in real-world terms What is data storytelling? Data storytelling uses channels, segments, dimensions, and metrics to build a compelling narrative  that can guide strategic decisions. Simply put, it connects real-world actions to online performance by using data to tell a story. For example, a former client (a D-I university that won a national football title) would see spikes in impressions, clicks, and users during game days throughout the season. There was also a rise in ‘direct’ traffic.  When I asked the client if they had done anything else to advertise, they said they had little banners with their domain printed across the stadium. Those banners appeared on nationally televised games, resulting in millions of impressions and weekly traffic spikes, which skewed data and obscured progress.  Understanding these real-world spikes helped me measure my partner’s ad’s effectiveness (by measuring branded traffic via organic search and user spikes for the ‘Direct’ default channel group). That additional information provided a complete picture, which helped me better understand and position gains and losses for the client.  Having that context also helped me do something else important—it helped me avoid looking foolish by wrongly taking credit for other channels’ and team’s efforts.  So, how do you craft an effective data story? The following steps discuss the critical components of creating a compelling narrative: Define clear goals and choose KPIs that tell the story Collect diverse data points for a comprehensive story Analyze patterns to highlight key insights Use your key insights to build a narrative arc Create visualizations that make your data accessible Showcase ROI in real-world terms Step 1: Define clear goals and choose KPIs that tell the story Do you know what you’re measuring and why you’re measuring it?  Early in my tenure at Archer Education , the SEO team and I spent much of our time educating partners on why ranking improvements, impression and click growth, and earned links  should matter to them.  Simply put, we weren’t discussing what mattered to our partners.  What did matter to our partners? As a team, we often asked ourselves this question. We had different partners with different needs. Some partners focused on application volume, others on enrollments, and some on leads. Some metrics were consistent across all clients, while others were more niche. Adjusting to client needs is not only a best practice, but also a must for practitioners who work across various industries with varying objectives and goals.  Pro Tip:  Take the time to learn what success looks like from your client’s perspective. At Archer, we schedule in-depth discovery calls to align with stakeholders on their goals. My thought process around this is simple—ask what success looks like in your stakeholder’s role and the larger organizational goals. If they meet monthly with the board, create a report that gives them key points or an executive summary to highlight value. That type of added value goes a long way in retaining clients.  Step 2: Collect diverse data points for a comprehensive story As digital marketers, we have a wide array of metrics to review. So, we mapped our key metrics according to what our partners cared about. Looking at metrics across various platforms, we tried to align each metric with a ‘why’ statement (e.g., why should the client pay attention to this metric?). It looked something like the table below: Metric Definition Why it matters to clients Example goal Impressions The total number of times an ad or content is displayed to users. Indicates brand visibility and the reach of marketing efforts. Achieve 100,000 impressions per quarter for program ads. Clicks The number of times users clicked on an ad, email, or content link. Measures user interest in programs and marketing content. Increase clicks by 20% on organic program pages. Total users (GA4) The total number of unique users that interacted with the site within a given timeframe. Reflects the overall reach and ability to drive traffic to the website. Grow total users by 15% YoY for specific program pages. Engagement rate (GA4) The percentage of engaged sessions (active interactions lasting 10+ seconds, with a conversion or 2+ pageviews). Demonstrates the quality of user interactions and relevance of site content. Maintain an engagement rate of 60% for core program pages. Leads (GA4 or CRM) The total number of users that completed a desired action (e.g.,filling out an inquiry form). Highlights initial interest and potential for future enrollments. Generate 500 leads per quarter through inquiry forms. Applications (CRM) The total number of completed applications submitted by prospective students. Measures intent and indicates a lead’s transition to a more serious prospect. Receive 200 completed applications per program each quarter. Enrolls (CRM) The total number of students who enroll in a program. The ultimate success metric is tied to revenue and program growth. Enroll 15 students per program in each cohort. When selecting your metrics, consider what you need to build your story. Including too many metrics and data points creates a convoluted message. Refer back to the goals you agreed upon with the client to determine the necessary metrics. If you’re looking at lead-based goals, you’ll want to understand traffic and conversion  (versus an awareness-based goal, where you might want to look at metrics like impressions or page views).  You should also look at other data points outside the various reporting platforms. At Archer, Admissions and Retention teams guide prospective students through enrollment. The Admissions team’s role is similar to that of a sales team—their metrics help dissect lead quality. This level of granular conversion data helps us understand what our prospective students (customers) need.  Think about what your process looks like: If you’re a lead generator, do you have regular feedback and down-funnel performance tracking on lead quality? If you’re in eCommerce, did you see an uptick in traffic or cart abandonment?  Knowing your process will lead you toward your richest sources of data.  Step 3: Analyze patterns to highlight key insights Now that you’re armed with metrics, you want to benchmark your metrics and measure against that as a baseline. For some clients, you might look at year-over-year data, quarter-over-quarter, month-over-month, or all of the above.  In higher education, universities will see seasonality -related traffic lulls from June until mid-August and mid-November until late January. These periods are breaks for many industries, while the busiest time of year has anomalous traffic and conversion spikes for others.  Do you see drops or gains in traffic for a page or channel? How was conversion impacted? How did your competitors fare? Asking the right questions leads you from reading metrics to gathering insight. Pro Tip:  Ask your partner about other efforts they’re working on. This can help you gain deeper insight into what’s happening from a site traffic standpoint. For example, I’ve witnessed partners that ran out of “Yellow Ribbon” funding (a government-funded program designed to enroll veterans) see their branded search volume and clicks halved overnight. What looked like a major loss in traffic was anticipated by the partner.  Step 4: Use your key insights to build a narrative arc Now that you’ve gone from metrics to critical insights that can guide your data story, see how they fit into the overall picture. In higher education, we look at the student journey. Degrees are an extended sales cycle product. Prospective students often interact with multiple channels on their journey. At Archer, we achieved stakeholder buy-in once we could highlight the impact of cost per acquisition via organic efforts. Sharing these metrics with our internal paid team created efficiencies that spread across channels. For example, if our SEO efforts drive higher enrollments for a particular program, our paid team can pull back on spending. This especially matters when transactional keywords have a high CPC or CPL.  Look at your metrics and what they tell you about your users. Learning about their age or location indicates lifestyle, interests, and other pertinent information that tells your story. Where did the conversion points happen? How many touchpoints did they hit along that path?  Another great indicator of the narrative arc is content. An omnichannel approach  to content translates to varied content types along your customer journey. For example, users landing on a paid landing page are conversion-oriented traffic, whereas users landing on a blog post will be spread across the various stages of a conversion funnel. In higher education, prospective students that don’t convert on paid ads translate to branded search. They’ll interact with Meta Ads , Google Ads, blogs, faculty profiles, and social media posts. Each channel plays its part in moving the prospective student towards applying.  Step 5: Create visualizations that make your data accessible Now that we’ve discussed gathering your data and translating it into a narrative arc, how do we illustrate that value? I’ve seen performance decks fall flat with unclear or cluttered charts that added little to the conversation.  Anything that doesn’t add value is a distraction. Always remember what you’re trying to convey when creating a data visualization. What is the information pertinent to your narrative?  I created a table below to highlight different types of visualizations and when they are applicable. These are canned, but create an organized picture of the purpose and use case. (The table itself is meta because it’s an effective example of visualizing data clearly.) Visualization type When to use it Purpose Examples Bar chart Comparing discrete categories or tracking changes over time. Highlight differences or trends in performance. Compare engagement rates across campaigns or leads generated by channel. Line chart Showing trends or performance over a continuous period. Identify patterns or seasonality. Track monthly impressions or click-through rates trends. Pie chart Representing proportional data to show composition. Understand the percentage breakdown. Show the share of traffic from different channels or device types. Stacked car chart Comparing parts of a whole across multiple categories. Compare contributions to a total. Visualize contributions of social media platforms to total conversions. Scatter plot Identifying relationships or correlations between two variables. Explore relationships between data points. Correlate ad spend and conversions or analyze user engagement vs. session time. Heat map Visualizing data density, intensity, or performance variations across multiple categories. Spot patterns or high-performing areas for design, conversion, and user experience. Analyze click performance across a webpage or traffic. Create compelling visualizations that establish visual focal points for each step along your user/customer journey. I often liken data visualizations to storyboards from the golden age of advertising—a good storyboard sold clients on the big idea.  “Truly great images make all the other millions of images you look at unimportant. You gotta look at an image and understand it in a nanosecond.”  — George Lois Step 6: Showcase ROI in real-world terms Now, it’s finally time to illustrate value to your client. Showcasing ROI corresponds with step one of this process . What’s your goal and track to get there? Did organic conversions go up? Do you have access to backend analytics from a CRM or eCommerce platform? Returning to my earlier example, my team and I discovered that our old reporting format wasn’t showcasing the success we brought to our clients—we were shouting into the void about traffic, while our partners were interested in enrollments.  SEO Manager Sean Taylor, Vice President of Analytics Cherie D’Souza, and I took on the task of working with our clients to better understand their requirements. The reality was that every partner had overlapping needs with various levels of customization. It’s a process we’re still refining and working on.  In our efforts, we had regular discussions with clients around lead mapping, goals, and sources to learn their requirements. This is valuable because it creates a framework for what stakeholders/clients prioritize. This exercise requires and encourages collaboration across client and internal teams. It shouldn’t be a conversation that only occurs once—it should be an ever-evolving dialogue around conversion and business goals.  Review and refine your data story for maximum impact and client retention After you've crafted your story, it's time to practice and present it. Focus on showcasing the value you bring to your client at every step. As you deliver your narrative, leave room for questions and discussion. Clients often provide valuable data or insights during these conversations, which can help refine and strengthen your reporting to better reflect your value and encourage client retention down the line. Ray Martinez - VP, SEO at Archer Education Ray Martinez is the VP of SEO at Archer Education, where he leads a dedicated team comprised of senior analysts, specialists, and project managers. Together, they craft, implement, oversee, and evaluate SEO strategies for prestigious higher education institutions across the globe. Twitter  | Linkedin