Google Strikes Again

We survived Mobilegeddon in 2015 and the most recent resurgence of Mobilegeddon 2.0, but recently Google has again changed the way their algorithms are scanning content and producing search results.

Enter, topic clusters. A topic cluster is a collection of content that cover smaller themes within an overarching topic. Though topic clusters is not a new concept, Google’s algorithm changes, are making them increasingly important.

Google search algorithms now understand phrases and topics not just individual keywords. For example, previously you might search for “content marketing” hoping to get an article explaining what is content marketing; where today you would search “what is content marketing?” and you would hope the first search result would answer your question exactly.

How Will This Work?

Think of topic clusters as umbrellas that house individual sub-topics and keywords. If we continue with content marketing as the topic cluster some of the other ideas that fall under this would be: blogging, case studies, lead generation, etc.
If you have content pages around the keywords such as “5 Tips to the Perfect Blog Post” or “Get the Leads You Want – Lead Generation Tips”, then those pages would link back a main page that explains what content marketing is and how it breaks down. That main page is called a pillar page.

Still confused? Check out the image below from HubSpot that shows the visual relationship of pages on your website with the pillar pages:

How Can I Get Started?

First, take a breath. Then comb through the pages and content on your website and start to make a list of the keywords and topics of each page. Once you can see what you have written about see if there are any overarching topics of themes that can be your cluster topics. Next, determine if you have adequate pillar pages for those cluster topics or if you need to create new content to anchor the other smaller sub-topics.

Remember, the pillar pages should answer any overarching topic question (what is it, how can I use it, etc), but also makes sense for other pages to link back to this page.

Why Should I bother?

While you may initially think about making this change just for the sake of search result pages, it’s also a good exercise to review what content you have and what could be added. If you see you have a lot of similar content, see what page could be a pillar page to link it all together; or conversely if you have a lot of random topics on your website, think about creating more pillar pages to root the content under a few umbrellas.

Not only will it boost your search engine standings, it will provide more relevant and helpful content for your readers and those people are why you created the content in the first place.

To simplify local search engine optimization (SEO), think through every couple’s favorite argument: what should we order for dinner?

Though the battle may be long, ultimately, a cuisine is picked. What’s your next move?
Likely, you hop on your phone, and search: “Italian food near me,” “Thai nearby,” or “Greek restaurant open.”

In SEO land, that’s called “searching with local intent.” When you’re quickly searching to find dinner before your spouse pitches a fit, you don’t want Google to return a restaurant three states away. You want the restaurant closest to you, preferably one with good reviews.

Google understands that searches with local intent (referencing specific geographic areas or using keywords like “near me,” “nearby,” “open,” “closest,” etc.) value information differently than a researcher seeking historical documentation.

Continue reading SEO Tip – 6 Steps to Local Search Success →

The Skinny

In order to improve the mobile experience for users, Google will demote websites that use intrusive interstitials (and pop-overs) on mobile after January 10, 2017.

Wait, what is an interstitial?

Commonly known as pop-over, interstitials are an overlay page that the visitor must take an action in order to view the website content. Usually these overlay pages ask you to sign up for a newsletter, enter your email for exclusive content or discounts, or provide your age or login for secure web content.

Continue reading Search Tip – Using an Email Pop-over? Google Changes that Impact You. →

The Skinny

Google announced that Expanded Text Ads will be available to all advertisers later this year.

Why is Google Doing This?

Remember when we explained the new Google Search Result Page layout? (Get a refresher, here.) So with this new layout and the removal of the right side bar ads, there is more room for longer text in advertisements.

While the layout has a lot to do with this new release, guess what’s also the catalyst for this change? If you said, Mobile, then you’d be right! Google’s Senior Vice President, Ads and Commerce, Sridhar Ramaswamy explains that this update is for, “[…] the on-the-go mobile consumer that wants to know exactly what you offer before tapping into your website.”

So What’s Happening Exactly?

The single headline field becomes two headlines fields separated by a dash. Both headlines can be up to 30 characters. The description of the offer is now expanded to 80 characters and you can customize the URL used in the ad up to two paths (www.whereoware.com/about/careers , /about (path1), /careers (path2).

Still confused? Check out this handy chart from Search Engine Land:

How Does This Impact Marketers?

Start optimizing your text ads now for this new roll-out of expended capabilities. Then when it comes available to all: test, test, test. See if having the two headlines + longer description helps or hurts your paid ad conversions. As with the old text ads, don’t just set them up and forget about them. Check your analytics to see how they’re performing and make any necessary changes as needed.

This week, we welcome a guest post from our Search Manager, Zoe Zhang. Zoe is a PPC + SEO whiz and keeps us up-to-date with the latest + greatest in Search Marketing.

So What’s Changed in Search Marketing?

When performing Google searches recently, have you noticed the page looks a little cleaner + less cluttered? Google debuted a new ad layout at the end of February, eliminating the right side panel text advertisements – this space is now reserved for Google Product Listing Ads.

You will now see that four ads have been added to the top of the search engine results page (SERP) + up to three at the bottom of the SERP, for a total maximum ad count of just seven ads (compared to 11 previously).

Continue reading PPC Tip – Goodbye Sidebar: New Google Ad Layout →

Organic search drives 51% of all visitors to business-to-business and business-to-consumer websites, a study by BrightEdge found. If your goal is to get your website in front of fresh eyes, you need to get comfortable with search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO is a combination of art and science, but for every marketer with 1,000 other things to do, SEO is a worthwhile priority. To help you get started, we’ve laid out a simple list of 5 things busy marketers can do today to improve SEO efforts.

SEO Recap

Quick recap for all you SEO newcomers – before you sign up for a service or buy a product, what do you do? You Google it, or use another search engine like Yahoo to look at product reviews, compare prices, or check out the firm’s reputation.

After inputting keywords into the search engine, you likely click the first, second, or third search result, oftentimes skipping over the paid results. In fact, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll click one of the results on the first page, instead of navigating to page two to see more options. The best, most reputable results are on page one, right?

THAT, right there, is why you need SEO. SEO is a collection of best practices to shape your web pages and copy into orderly and descriptive preferences set by popular search engines (namely, Google) to help boost your webpage to the top of search results.

You can perform SEO on web pages, blog posts, or any online content you want people to find. Follow our 5 SEO basics to get started.

SEO basics 1: Create Unique Page Titles

A webpage title is a brief page description that tells search engines what your page is all about.

For example, let’s say we Google “Omaha Steaks.” We used a name brand, as opposed to just searching “steak,” so it’s no surprise that Omaha Steaks is the first search result.

If I click the listing to land on their homepage, I can see the first part of their page title in the browser tab: “Buy Steaks, Gourmet Food…”. If I hover my mouse over the title, the rest of it shows up: “Buy Steaks, Gourmet Food Gifts, Wine, and Lobster Tails Online {Omaha Steaks}.”

Navigating back to the search results, you’ll see these same descriptive keywords in the page title, shown in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Continue reading SEO Tip – 5 SEO Basics to Do Today →

Now’s the time to think about your paid search strategy for the upcoming holiday season. What did or didn’t work last year? Do you have the budget? Follow these 7 Steps to optimize your PPC plan for the holidays to increase ROI this year.

1. Lookback to Last Year

When looking back to last year’s paid search plan, what combination of keywords, bids, and timing were the holy-grail?

Note the keywords, ad copy, or promotions that targeted the most relevant traffic and the time of day or day of the week traffic times peaked. Use this combination of keywords and timing to bundle the perfect paid search plan and adjust your budgets for bidding accordingly.

2. Start Early

Once you review last year’s strategy, it’s time to kick it into high gear for this season — and we mean now.

Continue reading PPC Tip – 7 Steps to Optimize PPC for the Holidays →

Today, we’re taking a break from Mobilegeddon to share another Google mobile enhancement you might have missed. Google is rolling out an update to its search algorithm to change the URL structure of websites for mobile search results.

Who cares about URLs?

Google wants to make it easier for mobile users to find the best websites for their searching needs. Google also realizes that users aren’t reading and comparing every search result’s title, URL, and description to pick the best one.

Instead, they quickly scan results and then select the option that seems best. Well-structured, descriptive URLs assist this quick-scanner in their decision.

For example, if you’re browsing for a new video game, you’ll be more likely to visit the site www.videogamedepot.com then you would www.toydepot.com. The first URL offers context that the video game seeker will find exactly what they’re looking for, instead of taking the chance that Toy Depot carries video games.

Google Updates URLs to be Mobile-friendly

Google is updating the algorithm that displays URLs for mobile search snippet results to deliver more context clues than a poorly structured URL. Instead of displaying the full URL, mobile searchers will see the site’s name and breadcrumbs showing where the information is found within the site. Google defines a breadcrumb as a set of links that help a user understand and navigate your site’s hierarchy, like this:

Webmaster Tools › Help articles ›  Creating Google-friendly sites

Do a quick search on your mobile device, and you’ll notice a change:

Google will be showing both the breadcrumb URL structure and the name of your website, instead of the domain name and full URL. For example, if your URL is www.company.com/spring/blue-shirts.com, Google would split the URL into something like, company > spring > blue-shirts. Alternatively, they may use the breadcrumb structure of the page.

Don’t like how your URLs look? Well Google is supporting schema.org structured data to allow you to specify the website name to be used in the place of the domain name and the URL structure of the breadcrumbs.

Here’s some info on the update, including your site name in search, and the breadcrumb mark up.

Takeaways

Now is the time to look at your site’s URL structure. Site names and descriptive, user-friendly URLs (instead of arbitrary numbers and letters) are imperative to help mobile users find what they’re seeking and have a better experience with your brand. This change further cements the importance of thinking through your mobile users’ experience. It’s important to make searching for and interacting with your site as easy as possible from small smartphone screens.