We recommend watching from minute 43 to 53 here:

What was perhaps most striking and impactful in Google’s keynote to the future of search is the upcoming inclusion of a generative AI text response as an expanded top organic result that will summarize multiple website results. Think of this as a much higher quality ‘featured snippet’ – but instead of scraping raw text, it will be an intelligent summarized answer to users’ complex  queries.

What does this mean for the future of organic search ranking, traffic, and SEO?

Our initial take is as follows:

SEO:

1. Traditional organic listings are not going away. They are and still will be a significant opportunity for traffic and conversion in the near and mid-term future. However, it’s important to watch how user behavior may change with the inclusion of Google’s search generative experience. Depending on user adoption, we could see a dramatic shift in how the Google SERP looks in the coming 12-24 months.
2. So long as Google is using web-content to train the generative AI answers, there will be ways to optimize to improve the chances of our own content being used in the generation of the answer responses. At the moment, from our initial observations, Google’s search generative experience responses typically are using sources that are already ranking at the top of the organic results. Therefore, for now and likely the near future, our focus will continue to be ranking as well as we can in traditional organic listings hoping to bring in organic traffic and be best placed for generative AI response inclusion.
3. Given that Google is (and likely must) include a reference and link out to the sources that helped generate the response, there are still major opportunities for website traffic as part of being included in the generative AI response. This is not dissimilar to optimizing to rank in a featured snippet currently.
4. For many years, Search Engine Optimization has been moving away from only optimizing towards traditional ‘ten blue link’ listings, and towards a more integrated holistic approach of trying to show up across ‘vertical search’. Be it featured snippets, people also ask, organic shopping, images, local maps, or any of the other seemingly endless array of search elements that pop up – SEO will continue to be about optimizing for the entire SERP experience. Google’s search generative experience response box will be yet another piece of real estate for which to optimize.

Performance Marketing (PPC):

1. The backbone of Google’s revenue are ads on the SERP (search, shopping, etc). We don’t see this changing. We’re quite certain that any widespread rollout of the search generative experience would have already included CTR testing from Google to ensure that ads get similar clickthrough as they do now. While CTR might fluctuate, we don’t foresee the opportunity for leveraging Google search ads materially changing any time soon.
2. There may be added opportunities to have sponsored listings inside the generative response. In other words, if the content on your advertised site or landing page is good enough to be included organically in a generative AI response, perhaps it might be eligible to be listed as a ‘featured’/’sponsored’ source of the response. To be clear, this was not demonstrated on stage at Google I/O, but it’s a possibility of how ads may start to show up inside this new technology. Another way to think about how this might work is similar to how Dynamic Search Ads campaigns work now.
3. The potentially elongated, conversational nature of search that may come about from having a conversation with a generative AI search bot may actually increase the amount of impressions or chances to serve an Ad. It’s obviously very early days, but it’s worth considering that each re-query to the chatbot may act like a brand new search, effectively retriggering new ad-units and thus driving more opportunities for advertisers.

To be clear – these are all quick ‘hot takes’. The situation is extremely dynamic and fluid. However, one thing is for certain, generative AI will be a major part of search engines in the near future and we at Kahena are excited to see how we’ll be able to leverage our experience in search engine optimization and marketing to help our clients play in this new playground!

Some further reading:

• https://searchengineland.com/new-google-search-generative-ai-experience-413533
• https://searchengineland.com/ads-new-google-search-generative-experience-413651

The post Google’s New ‘Search Generative Experience: SEO/PPC Takeaways Following the Google I/O 2023 Keynote appeared first on Kahena.

In this blog, we will discuss the variety of linkable assets that are must-haves in your content marketing strategy in 2023. Plus, we’ll even give a brief overview on how to best leverage these types of linkable content to boost your overall strategy and attract more backlinks.

Why Creating Unique & Shareable Content Is No Easy Task

Challenge #1: Content Saturation in Market

Aside from the challenge of competing against literally all already-existing content on the web, there are only so many ways to produce original content that stands out and appeals to your target audience. As such, it’s essential to focus on creating useful assets that not only engage readers but also help them discover and learn in a memorable way. 

In 2023, every piece of content produced should be centered around user intent, quality of information presented, and memorability. That’s why content creators need to be creative and think outside the box to generate linkable assets that will reach the right people.

Challenge #2: Provide Value While Aligning with Your Brand’s Goals

Generating the right linkable assets that align with your overall content marketing goals is only half the battle. You must consider how they will provide value to your audience to achieve a favorable outcome through your efforts. Your goals for your linkable asset strategy should define what type of content you create. 

Moreover, creating shareable content can lead to increased brand awareness, and reinforce brand messaging and awareness. For these reasons, linkable content assets should be a key part of any successful content strategy in 2023.

The Basics: What Makes Content Shareable?

When creating linkable content, it’s essential to consider what content types are the most likely to get shared and by whom. In doing so, you should be coming from your target audience and linkers’ perspectives. There are a few basic elements for creating shareable content:

• Well-researched, accurate content

While it may seem obvious, your content should be well-researched and contain accurate facts to resonate with your audience while simultaneously building your credibility. With all of the misinformation on the internet today, we can’t stress this enough!

• Offers value to your readers

Most importantly, linkable content should offer legitimate value to the reader, whether that’s helpful advice or an entertaining experience. The content you create should interest your readers and provide information that they might not know and find important to pass along.

• Eye-catching, correctly-formatted content

Linkable content should be attractive and easy to read, regardless of the type you choose. It should also have an eye-catching headline and a solid call to action that encourages linkers to share your content.

Content that is linkable and shareable should also be formatted in such a way that it can be easier to digest, engage your audience, and offer visual appeal. Linkable assets can be presented in various ways; through blog posts, podcasts, infographics, videos, webinars, or case studies. So, how can you attract shares?

The last step in creating linkable content is bringing it to the forefront of your audience. This means sharing your content on social media, optimizing for search engines, generating email campaigns, and more. Ideally, relevant and highly credible websites will link back to your content, in turn boosting your keyword rankings and boosting your domain authority. 

11 Types of Linkable Content Assets

Without further ado, let’s take a look at 11 different types of content that are helpful for creating shareable content.

1. Free Tools

Free tools provide value to users while giving them a solution to their immediate problem. Think calculators, quizzes, estimators, or tutorials, as well as printables. The more value you offer your audience, the more likely they are to eventually convert to your service, or share the tool with other like-minded audiences. 

Moreover, your free tool could be included in different listicles pertaining to your services. Meaning, credible websites are linking back to you and are boosting your authority in the process.

2. Infographics

Infographics provide a great way to quickly and easily package data-driven information. They help explain complex topics in an easy-to-understand visual format, making them ideal for sharing across various platforms. 

Because of this, infographics naturally have greater potential to go viral. Viral content drives organic traffic and high engagement back to your website, making your audience more likely to convert. 

In addition to driving website traffic and conversions, infographics can also be an ideal linkable content asset for link building. By providing high-quality, linkable infographics, you can attract link opportunities from other websites interested in your topic or data visualization.

3. Statistics

Latest and up-to-date statistics are both insightful and engaging. They can be used to back up claims or provide insights into the topics at hand. Statistics from either first- or third-party data are both great, as when businesses perform research, they will generally look for compelling data points that can be used. 

Statistics can be used with almost any topic or industry, making them highly versatile while simultaneously building your credibility and authority.

4. Listicles

Listicles are linkable content assets that can be used to capture the attention of readers and answer some of their most pressing inquiries on a topic. They present information in an engaging and concise manner, making them perfect for link-building as well as viral shareability. You can attract link opportunities from other websites with related interests by providing curated listicles on compelling industry topics. 

Additionally, listicles are great for SEO readability, as they break up long chunks of text into digestible pieces (such as this article!). The more simplified your content is, the easier it is for search engines to index it.

5. Store (Or Service) Locators

Store and/or service locators are invaluable for businesses in the retail or service industry. Store and services locators help customers find the nearest store or service provider in their area, making them a great way to improve customer experience and loyalty. 

Geographical location is a key consideration in local organic rankings, and the more information you have available on your business’s physical location/s, the easier it is for Google to serve relevant search results for your audience. Couple this with more credible websites sharing your locator, and you’ve got a serious local SEO strategy.

6. Press releases

Press releases can be used to announce new products, services or business developments. They’re used in marketing and PR strategies and provide link-building opportunities to link back to your website from other websites and publications. 

When your press release reaches the right size publication, you can attract link-building opportunities from other websites with similar topics and interests. News outlets often pick up press releases, increasing the visibility of your linkable content asset and helping you reach a wider audience.

7. Ultimate Guides

Ultimate Guides are comprehensive, in-depth resources on specific topics. This type of shareable content can help content creators with their Skyscraper content strategy, as they can link other content assets back to the Ultimate Guide. 

The more links back to your piece of content, the better it does in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). A great way to showcase industry authority, Ultimate Guides offer high-value content that can drive organic traffic over the long term.

8. Research Papers & White Papers

Research papers and white papers help add authority and credibility to your business, especially if your audience requires more in-depth information on specific products or services. The more data-driven content you have, the greater your chance of websites picking up on your research and sharing it. In addition, you can leverage performing direct on-page optimization in order to boost organic traffic from search engines. 

9. Webinars

Webinars are an excellent way to showcase your expertise and link your video content to your website. They provide linkable content assets like slides, audio recordings, and transcripts that can be shared with other websites that house content on related topics. 

Key pieces of webinar content, such as quotes and snippets, can be repurposed across social media channels, your website, and paid ads. Most importantly, however, webinars allow you to engage with your audience more personally and build relationships with influencers within your industry.

10. Downloadable Templates

Downloadable Templates include high value content such as free Excel spreadsheet templates and step-by-step personalized guides. This type of content is valuable because it has done all the heavy lifting already – provided data and facts in an easily shareable format. 

Often times, your readers are searching for content that will solve a problem for them. Downloadable templates, like free tools, make it easy for them. The more valuable your templates are, the more likely other relevant websites are to link back to you.

11. Podcasts

Last but certainly not least, podcasts help you reach a wider audience and position your brand or business as an expert within your industry. They provide a personality and tone for your brand or business, while allowing you to generate linkable content assets in the form of audio recordings and transcripts. 

Podcasts are great because they are easily shareable across social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Youtube. Episodes can also be broken down into smaller segments for various social media platforms and repurposed for blog posts and e-books. Podcasts can be extremely versatile if created and leveraged with enough consideration for their purpose across platforms.

Time to Get Started

No content marketing strategy is complete without a comprehensive linkable asset profile. Whether it’s a research paper, podcast, ultimate guide or webinar – shareable content assets can help you attract link opportunities from other websites, improve your organic keyword rankings, as well as build relationships with influencers within your industry. In addition, shareable, linkable content assets also help you to stand out in the crowded market and attract audiences that are well-versed in your product or service.

The linkable content assets discussed provide a good starting point for creating shareable and linkable content. By combining these linkable assets with your overall content strategy, you can attract link opportunities, grow awareness and solidify your brand’s presence in the market come 2023.

The post 11 Shareable Content Ideas to Power Your 2023 SEO Strategy appeared first on Kahena.

A Year After Google Rolled Out Its Page Experience Update: A Retrospective.

In May 2020, Google flipped the SEO world on its head when it announced the new Page Experience Update. They utilized a phased rollout approach, eventually implementing the full mobile update with all its bells and whistles in August 2021. As a company with a reputation for providing users with the best search results possible, Google constantly strives to create a better user experience. In addition to regular ‘micro-updates’, over the years, the company has made several key changes to provide a more enjoyable, seamless search experience for those who take to its search engine with every musing, concern, and question under the sun. The Page Experience Update is an example of these savvy alterations. Google incorporated three factors into its ranking algorithm:

•       Mobile Responsiveness
•       HTTPS
•       Core Web Vitals

Fortunately, most sites today have achieved the once unfamiliar mobile-friendliness and secure HTTPS status, so gone are the days of users screaming at their devices to “PLEASE BE A WEBSITE THAT WORKS” when clicking through from search results—or at least, those days are more limited now. However, Core Web Vitals (CWV) were a new set of metrics that also impacted the ranking algorithm. As a result, Google now encourages all site owners to monitor their Core Web Vitals and has divided the metrics into three categories: LCP, FID, and CLS. Let’s take a look at each metric.

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

LCP stands for Largest Contentful Paint. This score measures the time it takes for pages on your site to load. The ideal score is a speedy 2.5 seconds or less. If your loading times surpass 2.5 seconds but remain less than 4 seconds, you fall into Google’s Needs Improvement score. Finally, if your site takes longer than 4 seconds to load, Google considers your LCP score to be Poor.

First Input Delay (FID)

FID is the second metric. This acronym stands for First Input Delay. The metric looks at interactivity. Specifically, it measures the time elapsed between when a user first interacts with a page (clicking a button, for example) and when that page responds to the user by processing the event. The ideal target for this category is 100 milliseconds or less.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

The third core web vital is CLS or Cumulative Layout Shift. The goal of this metric is to identify the level of visual stability that the site provides. This measure is meant to prevent the common and irritating experience of attempting to click something and having the screen change just before you do, causing you to click the wrong button. Simply put, it measures the number of unexpected layout shifts that occur during the lifetime of a page. A good CLS score is 0.1 or less.

How Important are LCP, FID, and CLS?

In Google’s eyes, these metrics are essential because these scores are used to rank your site in search results and in terms of user experience benefits. Simply put, a good CLS score equals happy users who are more likely to engage. Users don’t enjoy having to deal with slow pages, unexpected layout shifts, and other issues. These issues can make them less likely to convert and negatively impact your sales. Furthermore, research has shown that most users never click on a single result past page one. (A result of our shorter attention spans, or need for instant gratification, perhaps?) Even moving up a few rankings can help drive significant results in terms of organic traffic. Because of these facts, SEO professionals have been scrambling to get the best scores across these metrics.

 However, what impact are CWV scores really having on SEO? Could SEO professionals be putting too much emphasis on them to achieve perfect scores? Let’s get into the data.

What Does the Research Say?

It has now been over a year since the complete rollout of the Page Experience Update to Google’s algorithm debuted. That’s plenty of time to see results, if any emerge, from all the attention given to Core Web Vital scores. Ahrefs’ study in January found that the overall number of sites passing Core Web Vitals thresholds is up 10% and that high FID scores seem to be easier to achieve than LCP or CLS scores. This data shows how much attention has been given, especially in recent months, to these CWV scores. The question is, are these scores crucial to your overall search engine ranking?

According to recent research done by Advanced Web Ranking, the short answer is a resounding and underwhelming “no.” They analyzed a whopping 3 million web pages and found that most sites fail to meet the minimum requirements for CWV scores. Furthermore, the research data showed that LCP scores correlated the highest to improved site rankings, while other metrics did not have a clear impact whatsoever. Although this information may cause us to deduce that CWV scores aren’t crucial, they cautioned readers to remember that correlation is not causation. However, the conclusion we may still draw emphasizes what researchers from Perficient already found: “Our data confirms what Google has been telling us: CWV scores are not a large ranking factor”.

In September of 2021, Perficient concluded a study that looked at the top 20 results across six industries for 200 keywords each. They tracked healthcare, technology, finance, home improvement, eCommerce, and energy industries. The study ran for several months and explicitly focused on Core Web Vitals and search ranking. Their data showed little performance difference between sites that concentrate on improving their CWV scores and the overall control groups.

Despite the general importance attributed to these CWV scores, several studies have shown that high CWV scores have minimal impact on SEO – at least the key studies that I have seen. The data still does not demonstrate causation, even where a positive correlation appears to have been identified. As you’ll recall from that stats class you probably took in high school; correlation merely indicates that two factors share a positive relationship. Whether this means CWV performance impacts SEO or the relationship is merely a coincidence has not been made clear by statistical data, so those who place great value in CWV may want to focus their efforts elsewhere. 

What Do Results from The Wild Say?

Let’s get personal. At Kahena, we have partnered with a wide range of businesses to achieve world-class results in their search engine marketing. For me, SEO is a passion, not a theory. Our experiences serving clients over the last year has allowed us to gain a bird’s eye view into the potential impact of these Core Web Vital scores. These insights have shaped my professional perspective on SEO practices; although I cannot provide absolute facts in support of CWV’s being an important ranking factor, I believe that I possess a somewhat well-informed point of view on this matter.

The on-the-ground results seem to confirm the statistical data. Personally, I’ve yet to see any direct ranking impacts across several different clients. Based upon these direct observations, I offer the notion that CWV performance does not significantly influence SEO. Even after focusing on and optimizing for CWV scores on both mobile and desktop, I did not see any relevant increases in keyword ranking. Even with excellent CWV scores, the SEO performance of sites did not change in any meaningful ways. In fact, some sites achieved better keyword ranking despite having poor scores. Below, we’ve shown the top ten results for three HIGHLY competitive keywords, “noise canceling headphones”,  “cheap flights”, and “life insurance”.

Using Reddico’s SERP Speed Tool, we can see that most top-tier performers are failing CWV scores, yet they’re performing well for the keyword. How curious. These outcomes mean that Google users who search for this term are more likely to see these sites despite having poor CWV scores. In a domino effect, these sites experience more significant traffic—so what is the point here? Sure, correlation does not equal causation. But correlation can be telling, and, hey, there’s a heck of a lot of other evidence pointing to this conclusive point: CWV scores do not significantly impact SEO performance.

But… When Is Optimizing Core Web Vitals Worth It?

Although CWV scores may not make a massive difference in your general SEO performance, there are times when it’s worth it to focus on improving your Core Web Vitals. Luckily, several improvements to these metrics can be successfully implemented in a short time. If your SEO team has been going through a dry spell, achieving high scores across these metrics can be quick wins your team needs to keep morale up. CWV scores can sometimes be low-hanging fruit you can pursue to improve your site’s usability and potentially its ranking quickly.

It is may be worth focusing on Core Web Vitals if your site is completely failing or has issues that significantly detract from the user experience. For example, slower sites with unexpected layout shifts are not what users enjoy interacting with. Consequently, some of these issues can negatively affect your sales and conversions by driving customers away from your site.

If your site is in a position where it would be worthwhile to improve your CWV scores, good news – these websites often have the most effective optimization opportunities from a technical perspective! There are several ways to achieve this. For example, looking at some of the most common issues, you can optimize your JavaScript code to ensure rapid execution and minimal resource use. You could also implement lazy loading for your site. Lazy loading means that visible page content is prioritized in the loading process over images that the user cannot see. This means your site can operate faster, and images will load as the user scrolls past them. Fun fact: Images are often the largest pieces of content that browsers must load. By optimizing and compressing them, you can significantly reduce load times. (And users-screaming-at-their-devices’ loading times.)

Although they are not the end-all-be-all of SEO, Core Web Vitals are still important factors to consider when working to improve your site and increase your conversions. Even without better ranking performance, an improvement in the experience of using your site can drive an increase in sales.

Drawing The Line: When You Should Not Obsess

If your site is already in the moderate or high score ranges across the Core Web Vitals, it’s probably not worth it to continue working on improving them. The law of diminishing returns applies here. Continuing to get those few extra points won’t deliver the results that would make these efforts worth it. The other time you shouldn’t obsess over CWV scores is if your SEO strategy is in its early stages and there are many other things to do. There are so many other factors that can make or break your site’s SEO performance. You must complete those first and then return to your CWV scores when you have the time to do so.

Back in February of 2021, John Mueller, Search Advocate at Google, had this to say about Core Web Vitals: “So just because your website is faster with regards to Core Web Vitals than some competitors doesn’t necessarily mean that come May you will jump to position number one in the search results.” He talked about how relevance is still one of the single most significant ranking factors, and—what a shocker after everything we’ve discussed—this makes sense! Ultimately, there is very little value in having a fast site with a great experience that doesn’t actually answer questions or help users find what they’re looking for.

Relevance measures how well your site’s content matches the searcher’s intent. For example, if a searcher is looking for a new iPhone case, whether your site clearly provides information about that topic will impact its relevancy. That’s why content still reigns as king when it comes to SEO. Although technical scores and improvements can improve the UX, it is still crucial to ensure that your site has relevant content that meets the needs of Google’s users. So, back to the basics, as they say.

Admitting Personal Defeat and Looking to the Future

To wrap up, I want to note that I myself was one of the many SEO professionals who used to obsess over these scores. Yes, I would optimize websites in search of proof in favor of the importance of CWV. At the time, Core Web Vitals were one of the most critical elements of SEO to me. However, I recognize now that the time I spent focusing on these metrics could have been spent working on tasks that would actually move the needle. For example, creating good quality content and building a comprehensive internal linking strategy would have had a more positive impact on SEO performance. Experience can be a brutal teacher, but I believe it is vital to learn from your mistakes. By accepting that other tasks were more beneficial in the long run, I learned more about SEO and the metrics that really matter. 

At the end of the day, there are many, many good reasons for the Page Experience algorithm update. The update encouraged many sites to put more work into creating a better user experience. Research shows that, across the board, loading times did improve. And—most importantly—there’s less frustration on the user end when things aren’t working correctly. As the update did accomplish other notable progressions, I must emphasize once again that my views on CWV are based on personal experience. The algorithm may well be more prevalent in areas which I have not yet explored, and I look forward to further research and development that is sure to come with time. Ultimately, the results of this update demonstrate yet again that Google cares about its user experience and wants to help users achieve their goals, which bodes well for future updates and changes to the algorithm.

Disagree with me? I’d love to see where Core Web Vital optimization has improved keyword rankings for you! Hit me up to discuss more.

The post It’s Time to End Our Unhealthy Obsession with Core Web Vitals Optimization appeared first on Kahena.

The short answer is – no, it is definitely not a waste of time. Let’s move to the long answer and understand the benefit of low-volume keywords:

How Low is Low?

As Einstein discovered, “everything is relative”, which is especially important to remember when talking about search volume. When thinking about searching for keywords with good search volumes, the “good” differs between websites and brands according to their potential audience and market.

For example, when marketing a website that is intended for a specific, small country (like Israel), then obviously the search volumes will be lower in comparison to websites targeting the whole world. And marketing Consumer Packaged Goods is entirely different from marketing a B2B product for a very specific business niche. So an average monthly search volume of 250 searches might seem too low for popular e-commerce websites but can be a great opportunity for a new niche startup.

Zeros Are Not Nothing

When using Google Keywords Planner for keyword research, some keywords may show a search volume of 0 or even just a dash (“-”). But that doesn’t necessarily mean there are no searches for these keywords. Some of these keywords may have less than 10 monthly searches, which may still mean very few searches by highly relevant users.

See the following example – the keyword “deep learning in customer analytics” has no monthly searches in the US (an average monthly volume over the last 12 months), according to Keyword Planner:

In order to check if it really has no search volume, we can try and search for this keyword on Google. Just begin to type it, and once Google automatically suggests this query we can identify it as an existing and legit search query.

*Tip – even if Google doesn’t auto-complete the query, having a magnifying glass next to the query tells us someone else already searched for it before.

In addition, if Google Search Console displays this keyword as having impressions in a certain period of time, then it means it was definitely searched for, even if Google Keyword Planner and Auto Suggest beg to differ.

Summing Up the Small Numbers

Many in the industry may suggest that SEO best practice is to target one unique set of keywords for every page (seed keyword and other variations/close terms). Sometimes there can even be up to 10 keywords targeted on a single page.

Now let’s say we have 10 keywords targeted on one page, and each of these keywords has a search volume of 10 monthly searches. Cumulatively, that means we have a potential of 100 monthly searches! Adding to the advantage of low-volume keywords, they are often long-tail and not very competitive. Therefore, there’s a better chance for good rankings and a higher CTR (Click Through Rate). Theoretically, we can see more clicks from the accumulated keyword searches than we could have seen from one keyword with 100 monthly searches. So don’t just think about each individual keyword, but examine the strength of targeting an entire family of long-tail keywords.

Better User Intent Fit

It’s tempting to use the highest-volume keywords to gain high traffic, but sometimes these keywords are too general. Let’s say, for example, that your company offers different services for small businesses, one of which is CRM. If you have a page focused on selling this CRM service, using just the “crm” keyword with 165,000 monthly searches might not bring you any traffic if you’re aren’t ranking well, and certainly not the right traffic – users searching for such a general keyword are often just trying to find the term definition or some general information about this topic. They are not necessarily interested in such services, especially not for small businesses. They will probably click on one of the informational results or just read information in the SERP snippets. The users who have a more converting intent will probably need to refine their search again anyway. The “crm services” keyword is much more B2B oriented, and will probably attract the users that are interested in purchasing this service. On the flip side, targeting the long-tail keyword “crm services for small business” is even more likely to bring more accurate organic traffic – users that are much lower in the marketing funnel and may turn into quality leads.

Rank High to Get Results

It’s not just about the user intent – low-volume long-tailed keywords are usually less competitive, and therefore are easier to rank well with. Position 1 with 20 monthly searches can often bring more traffic than position 18 with 20,000 monthly searches.

Small Traffic – Big Money

B2B businesses usually work with high price labels. Instead of selling a few t-shirts for each e-commerce customer, they may be selling the room-sized printer that produces them. So sometimes even one new client every few months can cover the quarterly business marketing budget.

To sum it up, consider using low-volume keywords, especially if you’re offering niche B2B services, or if you’re targeting a very small audience. If your website has many content pages, don’t hesitate to target multiple related long-tail keywords per page. , The more keywords on the first page, the more organic traffic your website receives. More importantly, remember that sometimes even just a few more targeted users can make a large impact.

The post Who Needs Those Low Search Volume Keywords Anyway? appeared first on Kahena.

Query Deserves Freshness (QDF)

We don’t really need to speculate as to whether having new or “fresh” content is an important ranking factor in the SERP or not. Ever since the freshness algorithm update back in 2011, QDF, or “Query Deserves Freshness”, has been an official ranking factor in Google’s algorithm. Content freshness is important because Google wants to provide users with the most recent and relevant information available. Updating content and regularly adding important information to your site will indicate to the search engines that your content is up-to-date, maintained, and likely useful to your users.

When QDF Is Most Important

It’s important to note, that QDF isn’t necessarily applied equally to all searches on the web. For example, your blog post about ‘The History of Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination’ probably doesn’t need the same content freshness boost as your report on ‘The Latest Trends In The Shipping Industry.’ In fact, Google experts have even outlined when QDF is most important. According to senior experts at Google, QDF is most relevant for time-sensitive searches, such as recent events or hot topics, regularly occurring events, and topics that require frequent updates. The intent of the searcher plays a big role in QDF. The more ‘recency’ is important to the user’s specific search, the more likely QDF will be an important ranking factor in the SERP.

Take for example, one of the probably more frequently asked questions these days – ‘when will COVID end?’. New data surrounding COVID-19 and its variants are constantly being brought to the surface and people around the world are looking for the most accurate and up-to-date information to guide them. If there is any search that should require QDF, this is it. Now take a look at the SERP.

Most of the results are within the last week! Almost all of them don’t go any further back than a month ago. Now, this may be an extreme example, but more and more often we are seeing Google serve posts and articles that are recent, updated, and meet QDF criteria where relevant. If you want your pages to rank well moving forward, it’s best to understand how to optimize your site for QDF content. Below we’ve outlined six strategies you can take to ensure your site is serving the most relevant and updated content and enable you to compete in even the toughest of markets.

1. Crawl Your Site For Old Content

Where to begin? Performing a site audit for old content is a great place to start. We recommend using a crawling tool like Screaming Frog to search for old dates in URLs, title tags, headers, and content and to filter by publication date. Content that is out-of-date, no longer relevant, or doesn’t receive significant traffic can either be redirected to more recent and relevant pages on your site or can be updated and even rewritten to match current industry data and trends.

2. Refresh Your Content Instead Of Creating New Pages

Updating content on an existing URL is a great way to optimize for QDF. Instead of creating a new post on the same topic, which could potentially cannibalize your rankings and confuse your readers, you can update your existing content to be more relevant. By keeping the same URL, you can also take advantage of the backlinks and “Page Authority” that the URL has built over time. Take for example the client case below: We created a URL that would be applicable across time. In this case ‘/marketing-trends/’ as opposed to ‘/marketing-trends-2021/’

This way we can update the headers, metadata (title tag/meta description), content, and publish date for the current year while still maintaining page authority and backlinks.

As seen in the example below, there is going to be a seasonal dip as the search around ‘2020/2021’ becomes less relevant. But by utilizing the same page and URL in January, we were immediately able to rank and capture traffic surrounding mobile marketing trends in 2021.

3. Regularly Update Your Pages

Updating a single page regularly with the newest industry coverage provides you with the ability to maximize your page authority while optimizing for content freshness. This includes updating your page with relevant statistics, current dates, newest industry trends and information, old and broken links, and industry happenings.

During the pandemic, for example, we saw a lot of volatility across a particular client’s industry and a lot more news-type posts ranking in the SERP. As a result, we recommended our client create a news page for industry updates and changes. With new relevant information regularly being added and updated to the page, Google ended up ranking this page at the top of the SERP, and the updates page ended up being the company’s highest organic traffic page moving into 2022.

Regular updates can even be valuable for older posts as well. If there is something to update and new information on a topic that is useful to your readers, regularly updating older posts will signal to Google that your post is still very much relevant too.

4. Update Title Tags For Improved CTR

According to SEO Clarity’s 2021 Research Study (the largest CTR study ever conducted), including the date in the title tag may not only benefit your ranking position but may even improve your click-through rate in the SERP. Including the date in your title tag shows the searcher that your content is up-to-date and potentially more relevant than the other options in the SERP. If you are in a competitive industry, this can really separate you from the pack.

When we added month and date to one of our client’s pages, we saw an immediate increase in CTR.

We had so much success, that in months following the title tag update, we even began to see a number of our competitors trying to replicate our strategy.

5. Use The Date In Your Content

For experienced SEO professionals, this one may seem obvious, but if you want to rank for keywords with the date as a modifier, you need to target these keywords in the text. This means including the date in your title tag , H1s & H2s, in the context of your text, and as alt text where relevant.

Using this strategy, we began to start ranking for keywords with ‘2022’ as a modifier as early as mid-December 2021 and these keywords contributed significant traffic to the site. If users are searching for keywords with the year as a modifier, it just makes sense to try to optimize for those terms.

You will likely start to lose traffic for 2021 modifiers, but as these modifiers become outdated and start to lose impressions, they will become less relevant anyway. In the case below, we actually only had a slight temporary dip in overall traffic for keywords with the date as a modifier and then total organic traffic was even stronger than before (see below)

6. Republish Your Posts

Republishing old blog posts is yet another great way to get more traffic to your posts, and it’s fairly easy. All you need to do is log into your site’s CMS, find your old blog post, change the publish date, and hit update.

Sounds too good to be true? Well, that’s because, in reality, it is a little more complex than just hitting the update button. Disclaimer: Republishing a post without updating the page itself won’t do much to improve your performance and it is even frowned upon by Google. However, combining this tactic with refreshing your content, updating title tags, including the date in your content and many of the other strategies we discussed in this post, can end up significantly improving your likelihood of ranking better (see our client case below)

In the same vein, updating and refreshing the content of a post from 2014 without republishing your page may limit your ability to compete with more recent publications in the industry.

Wrapping Up

With so much happening in today’s world, it’s important to serve users with the most accurate and updated information available. If you are able to keep your site up-to-date and offer quality and relevant information, the Google algorithm is likely to reward you.

Of course, ensuring that you are offering the best and most relevant content is easier said than done. We’ve used the above-mentioned tactics described below:

• Crawl Your Site For Old Content
• Refresh Your Content Instead Of Creating New Pages
• Regularly Update Your Pages
• Update Title Tags For Improved CTR
• Use The Date In Your Content
• Republish Your Posts

Follow these strategies, and you’re likely to see the same growth and impact that we did.

The post Google’s Freshness Algorithm & How You Should Be Updating Your Content appeared first on Kahena.

In many industries, however, these assumptions no longer remain true and both SEOers and rank tracking platforms need to adapt.

The Problem With National Rank Tracking

If you or your client are B2C (and particularly in a service industry) then you are bound to find that close to 100% of all revenue-generating keywords imply local intent. For example, if you are a Car Repair Shop – all your important keywords such as ‘car repair’, ‘car mechanic’, ‘repair shop near me’ all have local intent. If you are in brick & mortar or eCommerce, then this may be an important subset of keywords i.e ‘furniture near me’, ‘furniture in new rochelle’, ‘furniture stores’. If you are in B2B you will find fewer local intent keywords that are relevant, but it would be worth, at least, considering if this is relevant to you. The issue is that the search results for local search intent keywords are becoming more dominated by hyperlocalized results in Google and, therefore, national rank tracking for these keywords have become meaningless.

For example – take the keyword ‘car repair’. This is the scraped results being reported from SEMrush:

If you take a close look, you will notice 2 important things:

1. The local pack is showing results in Coffeyville, KS. This is because Google displays the centroid of the entire USA if a rank tracking bot is crawling from outside of the US.
2. The traditional “blue link” results do not show any localized content. It is all nationalized content.

Now compare the results of the same query mimicking a search (spoofing lat-long coordinates) from my home city, New Rochelle, NY:

This is a completely different search result from what we saw in the SEMrush scrape. In this search, the results are all hyperlocalized to the “New Rochelle” location where we searched from. This highlights the major problem with National rank tracking. Rank tracking platforms will show results based on the IP location of the scraper and will differ entirely from the results that will be seen by a real customer that is searching from a location that is meaningful to the business.

The result is that National rank tracking for local intent searches will not provide useful information to understand ranking performance.

The Solution

So how can you and your rank tracking platform resolve this issue? The simplest solution is to stop tracking nationally for local intent keywords and instead track at a local level. We recommend setting up separate tracking for the local pack and traditional “blue link” results. Now that mobile-first indexation has rolled out for most businesses, we also recommend tracking using Google Mobile. Many rank tracking platforms offer the option to track at a local level in this way, whether this is down to the ZIP or City.

Things get a lot more complicated, however, if your client is at the enterprise level and has dozens to thousands of locations around the country. If this is the case, you may have to track a sample of locations for the same keyword. It is best to make this a representative sample, by choosing a spectrum of low to high-performing stores, as well as a mix of rural, suburban, and urban locations. The method of choosing a representative sample is really important, and we always advise involving business intelligence/analytics folks to best represent the overall business.

So now you have a sample of locations and you’ve set up tracking in your rank tracking platform. This is now where most, if not all, rank tracking platforms fail. Most platforms can provide you with fancy graphs to display your ranking across the various locations. But, what you need to be able to make decisions and track performance is a high-level view of this data. For each keyword, you need a dashboard that shows how many locations are ranking in positions 1-3, 4-10, and 11+. And you need to be able to view performance month over month. If your rank tracking platform doesn’t provide this, then you may need to export the data (via API or otherwise) and build your own dashboards in Google Sheets. Below is an example of a dashboard we built at Kahena.

This type of dashboard allows us to understand month-over-month keyword performance over time. This way, we can make an SEO change and see how it impacts rankings across relevant geographical markets.

TL;DR

• National Rank tracking is not an accurate way to measure keyword performance for any queries that have local intent i.e keywords with ‘near me’ or ‘store’ modifiers.
• The solution to this issue is keyword tracking at a local level. If you have multiple locations, ensure that you have a way to consolidate this data and view it at an aggregate level so you can make real-world business and SEO decisions.

The post The End of National Rank Tracking & How To Adapt appeared first on Kahena.

But again, if you’re anything like me you’ll gaze upon all the splendor that lies ahead, and as your excitement settles clarity will hit, and you’ll realize that the pressure cooker developer life may not be the right fit for you.

Don’t panic! Breathe. Like that time you figured out that one of your functions was calling a variable that was out of scope, there is a solution. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Like web development, there’s a profession that, in the best way possible, challenges your ability to problem solve, think outside of the box, and constantly learn as you go. This profession has a wonderful culture of sharing tips, tricks, and working together to solve each other’s pain points.

You may even build some really cool tools along the way.

Your knowledge of javascript will set you apart from the pack. Your tactful ability to use dev tools will give you superpowers. You’ve read the title of this blog so you know where I’m going with this. That’s right, I’m talking about SEO.

Coding Bootcamp Graduates and SEO, The Perfect Match

SEO, for the uninitiated, stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s an interdisciplinary profession, existing somewhere between marketing, analytics, product, and UX. It’s a noun, adjective, and a verb – Can you please tell that SEO over there to SEO the SEO for me?

Put simply, SEO’s ultimate goal is to improve a website’s ability to reach its target audience by appearing on search engine result pages like Google. And who knows the inner workings of a website better than a full-stack coding bootcamp graduate?

Because SEO is a dynamic discipline, those with diverse professional backgrounds are at an advantage. The ability to synthesize lessons learned from other industries and apply them to SEO helps propel the SEO industry forward. Challenging conventions and “best practices” are not only celebrated in the right SEO environment but encouraged. SEO, like web development, is constantly evolving. And with that evolution, technical SEO professionals with dev backgrounds (and even data science backgrounds) are in high demand. The web is only getting more complex from a technological standpoint and companies need dev-focused SEOs to help guide their websites into the future.

Should Full-Stack or Data Science Bootcamp Graduates Work in SEO?

Agencies like Kahena are constantly looking to hire SEOs with dev and data science backgrounds. With the amount of data SEOs deal with on a daily basis, someone with a data science or BI background can really shine. Technical SEOs are a valuable commodity as well, especially when clients are hampered by limited dev resources. Our ability to QA and respectfully hold developers accountable is worth its weight in gold – or Bitcoin.

Technical SEOs can bridge the communication gap with devs by effectively communicating technical SEO requirements and help translate technical issues into plain English to non-technical stakeholders.

All Paths Lead to SEO

I didn’t have the most traditional path to SEO, but I’m learning more and more that few people do. Before I found SEO, I graduated from university with a degree in psychology, worked in the service industry, worked in the music industry, taught English as a second language, sold assistive technology devices, quit my job to go backpacking in South America, then worked as a front-end developer after graduating from a full-stack coding Bootcamp.

My colleagues’ professional backgrounds are diverse as well, ranging from IT, fashion, finance, banking, baking, and everything in between. There are even a few with marketing degrees, but I try not to judge. Heck, my high school math teacher found a third career as an SEO. She even used to work at Kahena – small world!

Everyone brings with them their own set of experiences and perspectives and there’s a lot to learn from them. I’m grateful to work in a profession that celebrates that type of sharing and diversity of thought. Learning from others broadens your thinking, challenging your assumptions on how things are done. And if SEOs are good at one thing, it’s challenging our assumptions with data, only to find a golden nugget of insight that provides clarity and direction.

Is Coding Bootcamp Worth it?

Do I regret putting my life on hold, joining a five-month coding bootcamp, and not ending up working as a developer? No – it was totally worth it! I learned so much from that experience. Not just about how to create a website or code my own web app, but I also learned a few life lessons along the way.

I learned that I’m more resilient than I thought and that having a strong support network of friends and family is the key to getting through stressful times.

Since starting at Kahena, I found a passion for SEO and a way to use my dev background as a launchpad for success. I’ve worked on websites of companies that range from Fortune 500s to non-profits. I’ve overseen multiple site migrations, diagnosed and fixed technical issues missed by professional developers, and helped improve my client’s site speed and Core Web Vitals.

I’ve helped implement code changes of my own design on websites that are visited by millions of people. I couldn’t have done any of that without the time I spent at my bootcamp.

In the office, I’m elevating my team by showing them how to utilize dev tools to scrape internal links with 1 line of code. Ya, I would say it was worth it. And with only two years of SEO experience under my belt, I’m only getting started.

Wherever your professional career takes you, don’t forget to bring the skills you learn with you along the way. When you need to get buy-in required from a group of stakeholders, remember the elevator pitch you gave at your bootcamp’s hackathon that got you a standing O. When you need to run an A/B test, search the back of your brain for anything you can remember from Stats 101. You may even get lucky and increase your client’s landing page’s goal conversion rate by 70%.

There’s no such thing as a wasted experience. Your experience is valuable. You are valuable. And if you’re not sure where to put that value, consider SEO.

The post Recent Coding Bootcamp Graduate? Consider a Career in SEO appeared first on Kahena.

Google provided much advance notice for this change; more than typical. While I can only provide theories as to why they gave lots of notice, this isn’t the focus of the blog. Needless to say, it gives marketers ample time to prepare.

What’s staying?

Existing expanded text ads in accounts will continue to serve, and reports will still be available. Marketers can pause, resume and remove any of these ads. Phew, you can breathe a sigh of relief!

While expanded text ads can run simultaneously with responsive search ads, we’d expect the overwhelming majority of impressions to be served to responsive search ads. Google will favor these ad types, and the data will show that.

What are responsive search ads?

“Google Ads Tutorials: About responsive search ads” video and photo by Google Ads

Since we will have to adapt to using responsive search ads, let’s learn more about this ad type.

Responsive search ads are like multiple ads in one. Users can enter multiple headlines and descriptions, without the designation of which position it will appear. An assortment of headlines and descriptions are entered, and Google will use its algorithm to determine the top-performing combination for each search query.

Users can “pin” a copy to ensure that a certain headline shows every time. For instance, “Free Shipping On All Orders” can be pinned to ensure that the headline is displayed consistently as headline three, or pinned sparingly so that it shows in one of the three headline positions. Remember that if you pin a version of copy in each category, it will be no different than expanded text ads, and will not give the AI tool an opportunity to run.

There is a limit of up to 15 headlines and four descriptions for a single ad, and a maximum of three responsive search ads for each ad group. Ad strength is ranked qualitatively, such as “poor”, “good” or “excellent”. With time, Google will learn the best performing combination, and learn which version is most relevant for different queries.

What are the potential limitations?

Some limitations of this change include less control over ad copy. Click-through rate definitely could be increased with the best performing combination, but that doesn’t mean that conversions and conversion rate will be higher. A close eye will have to monitor these metrics to ensure that performance isn’t declining.

It is unclear which metric Google will use to optimize ad copy, however, it is assumed that several factors will be taken into consideration, such as click-through rate, conversions, conversion rate and cost per conversion.

Another limitation is that the headlines and descriptions can appear in any order. Be mindful of this when writing ad copy to ensure that the value proposition is still being delivered to the user. The workaround would be to “pin” headlines and descriptions to specific positions, which was discussed above. You can pin more than one copy to each category, and it will be guaranteed that any of the pins will show. For instance, if “Free Shipping On All Orders” and “Customer Service 24/7” are both pinned as headline two, then either of these will show.

Similar to expanded text ads where headline three and description two don’t always show, the same is true here. Make sure to include critical information in the first two headlines, and first description. Also important to note, as seen in the image below, not all headlines will be served impressions.

Time to get started

In the months leading up to this change, I know we will be testing responsive search ads alongside expanded text ads. We have the time to prepare, so let’s get ahead of it.

We can start testing the ads on a couple of campaigns at a time, while we evaluate the results. This will give plenty of time to adjust to the inevitable change.

Go ahead and write compelling ad copy, and see how responsive search ads perform!

The post Everything You Need To Know About Google’s Responsive Search Ads appeared first on Kahena.

What Are Audiences?

One of the interesting concepts to consider about advertising on pages that are not google.com is how Google can possibly know to serve someone one image ad over another when visiting a website. The answer is that we know that Google collects our information, and therefore they can safely guess which ads are most likely to appeal to us and get us to click.

Audiences are made up of segments, or groups of people with specific interests, intents, and demographic information, as estimated by Google. Google groups people together based on information that they have in common, and gives advertisers a buffet to choose from based on those characteristics. This is useful to advertisers because they don’t waste ad spend or energy on irrelevant targets, and also because when they can zero in on their niches, they are able to adapt their messaging, offers and budget to segments as specific as they want to make them.

Can this style of data collection be harnessed for google.com searches? Why would we even want to do that?

Yes! When a person is searching one of your keywords on google.com, they are more in the mindset for completing your funnel than they are if they are on any random page on the internet. For example, if you sell security cameras, and your potential buyer is browsing for baby clothing on an e-commerce site, they might be relevant but they are not currently in the mindset because they are in baby clothes shopping mode. However, if this same person finishes what they were doing on the e-commerce site and then starts Googling for security cameras, you and Google both are able to identify them as someone who is relevant to you – they are definitely interested in what you are selling.

Breaking Down Keyword Searches By Audience

Sophisticated Paid Search marketers know that not everyone who searches for a general sounding keyword is going to be relevant to your business, and therefore they will want to winnow the wheat from the chaff. For example, you might be a company that makes satellites and rents capacity on the satellite to companies who need to broadcast. However, if you bid on “satellite services”, you might be capturing people who want to sign up for satellite TV services to watch TV at home! That would be a total waste of ad spend for your business.

Layering audiences onto keywords is most valuable for high volume keywords. Niche keywords, which usually have low volume, typically shouldn’t be layered with audiences because limiting niche keyword impressions means reducing how many clicks you will get too drastically. Use this strategy for high volume, short tail keywords.

Here is an illustrated example of what layering means:

If A represents all of the searches for your keyword or set of keywords, B represents the people who are more relevant to your business. You can capture B and not bother targeting A if you can layer an audience onto your search campaign.

What Kinds Of Audiences Can We Layer?

Google groups the audiences into 5 main categories.

• Affinity – groups of users gathered based on their interests
• In-market – are users who are actively researching or comparing products or services across the GDN
• Remarketing – users who already completed an action on your website
• Matched Audiences – retargeting users based on their email address
• Similar Audiences – users who are similar to the users who fulfilled an action on your site

These audiences fall into different places on the typical marketing funnel, as illustrated here:

Depending on the goals of your marketing strategy and your campaign, you will want to choose different audiences to layer.

A famous example of a use case here is called RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads). This is not Remarketing by serving image ads to your website visitors to remind them to come back. RLSA campaigns serve ads on google.com to people who have visited your site once and find themselves still Googling. Maybe they are in the research phase, maybe they are looking into your competitors – there could be many reasons why they are still searching your related keywords. This is an opportunity to target them with a specific second message. For example, if you sell a cybersecurity software, you might choose a specific first ad that they see and then a different second ad which reflects that they are already familiar with you and might want to choose your software

Let’s look at a real-world example. Here are two campaigns containing the exact same keywords, where the only difference is that the second one has an In-Market Audience layered on it. Otherwise, the keywords, bids, bid strategy, ads and landing pages are exactly the same.

Of course it delivered fewer impressions because as you will remember from the first illustration, the In-Market Audience is by definition only a slice of the pie of the total keyword traffic. However, it is very interesting to see that the CTR increased 133.14%, the CPC decreased 18.97%, conversions increased 25%, cost per conversion decreased 92.93%, and conversion rate increased by 1,044.78%! That’s a hefty improvement for a little bit of optimization effort.

Remember that Google has a wealth of data to make your campaigns outstanding. Even though Google Ads’ requirements and demands are constantly changing, there are ways to harness available information to improve your campaigns’ performance if you want to squeeze more juice from the fruit that you already have!

The post Google Search Campaigns are Juicier With Layers – Adding Audiences on Paid Search appeared first on Kahena.