The Department of Justice’s laid out a damning case against Google in the antitrust lawsuit closing argument. Search Engine Land Managing Editor Danny Goodwin highlighted some of the damaging evidence – including how Google has been increasing costs for advertisers – in How Google harms search advertisers in 20 slides In light of the revelations, I contacted search marketers to get their thoughts on Google Ads to evaluate the current confidence level. Spoiler alert: it’s not good. Clearly, trust is a major issue – and in the court of public opinion among advertisers, Google has already been found guilty. Here’s what advertisers told Search Engine Land: Manipulation and deceptive practicesSarah Stemen (Paid Search Specialist and Founder):
Boris Beceric (Google Ads consultant and coach):
Dids Reeve (Freelance Paid Media Specialist):
Chris Ridley (Paid Media Manager, Evoluted):
Robert Brady (Founder and PPC Expert):
Amy Hebdon (Google Ads Conversion expert):
Google’s prioritization of profit over fairnessJyll Saskin Gales (Google Ads Coach):
Charley Brennand (PPC Consultant & Founder):
Hebdon added:
Julie Friedman Bacchini (Founder of NeptuneMoon):
Nick Handley (Head of Paid Media Performance at Impression):
Trust in Google is quickly collapsingKirk Williams (Founder of Zato):
Stemen added:
Reeve added:
Ridley added:
Brennand added:
Handley added:
Impact on advertisers and clientsGales added:
Brennand added:
Handley added:
Perceived (un)fairness of ad auctionsWilliams added:
Gales added:
Ridley added:
Other reactions of shock and disappointmentStemen added:
Reeve added:
Bacchini added:
Why we care: The breakdown in the relationship between Google and advertisers may start with trust – but it goes beyond that. It becomes harder or impossible to trust advice from ad reps, having seen that Google is prioritizing revenue over fairness via manipulative practices. It means advertisers have an even harder job of ensuring they are not just throwing advertising budget down the drain but actually gaining incremental conversions with their ad spend. Dig deeper. Has Google Ads lost all credibility? Why one advertiser says it’s time to leave via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/advertisers-google-trust-collapse-440543
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TikTok is testing a new 60-minute video upload limit, which could unlock new content possibilities for brands, marketers and content creators. Why we care. TikTok is already a powerful discovery engine, but the ability to upload 60-minute videos opens up TikTok’s potential as a platform to host long-form branded video content – rather than breaking up videos into multiple parts. Why TikTok is testing this. TikTok wants to give creators more flexibility and the ability to experiment with new types of long-form content (e.g., cooking demos, beauty tutorials, educational lessons, comedic sketches) that don’t fit well into shorter videos. Not widely available. This new 60-minute video upload option is being tested with a limited number of users in select markets. It is not available to all users yet and TikTok has no “immediate plans” for a wider rollout, TechCrunch reported. Longer videos, more ads? This development could also lead the way to TikTok offering more advertising, in the form of pre- and mid-roll ads. Keeps getting longer. In January, TikTok started testing 30-minute video uploads. That followed increases to 15 minutes in 2023 and 10 minutes in 2022.
via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/tiktok-testing-60-minute-video-uploads-440588 As the traditional search box becomes obsolete and the vast majority of searches shift to the extreme long tail, SEO will invariably evolve in the future. It’s actually not such a bold prediction if you have been in the search space for a while. Data has shown time and time again that searchers don’t want to “search” but “find.” AI will finally make that happen, which is why every major tech company is shifting its focus to it. Those of us who have been around for a while remember the PC war, the OS war, the first browser war, the smartphone war, the second browser war, the search engine war and the smart speaker war. The AI wars will make them all pale in comparison because AI is the future to which all of those technologies pointed. Who will win the AI wars?At this point, it’s anybody’s guess. We know the ones who captured the early buzz, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, X’s Grok and Anthropic’s Claude. But don’t count out Apple and Amazon, which late in 2023, realized how annoyingly unintelligent Siri and Alexa were and what a goldmine they’d have if they could make them smarter. They announced their own LLMs, Ferret (now MM1) and Project Olympus. Don’t count out the countless other AI companies. Will one of them ultimately build a better model than the big companies and either compete with them or be acquired by them? Or will the AI landscape eventually fragment so people learn to go to different LLMs depending on the subject they’re looking for? While we don’t know exactly who the winners will be just yet, anyone who’s been in search marketing for a while knows exactly what the winning AI will eventually look like. Follow the yellow brick roadIn L. Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy finds herself lost and encounters three other lost souls: the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion. Each of them is missing something.
All these also happen to be what AI is missing now. ‘If I only had a brain’: Knowledge
While chatbots seem impressive today, if you ask them anything more than a surface level of questions, you’ll quickly find where they lack. Here’s an example. As a parent, I love the idea of buying toys made in America. It supports local manufacturing jobs, local communities and I find the quality and safety to be better than toys made overseas. I asked Google Gemini for suggestions for toys made in the U.S. Here’s what it told me. Here’s the strange thing. The Manhattan Toy Skwish is made in Thailand, the Nuby Comfort Plush Turtle in China and Mega Bloks, which used to be made in Canada, are now made in Mexico and China. K’NEX labels read “made in China of USA parts.” In other words, out of six toys that Google Gemini recommends that are made in the USA, only one is. It’s the Green Toys My First Stack Cup. OK, Google. In fairness to Google, none of the other AI chatbots got it right. The problem is the age-old problem of “garbage in, garbage out.” Google Gemini is tapping Amazon as one of its “authorities” on the subject. But when you go to Amazon’s own toys made in USA search results page (which happens to have ranked in the top 10 of Google’s organic results since the May 2020 core update), you’ll see that out of 75 product listings, nearly half of them are not made in the USA.
While Google may have gotten away with ranking sites in organic search based more on their perceived authority than objective truth, users of their AI won’t be as forgiving. There’s a reason Google has been stressing E-E-A-T for years, and it hasn’t just been out of the goodness of their hearts. They need E-E-A-T to survive. For a query like this, a retailer like FatBrain, which has been accurately cataloging and displaying the country of origin for all its products, will have an outsized advantage over less precise user experiences like Amazon’s. AI models that can pull from the most accurate information will have an outsized advantage over their competition, and brands that can produce this information will, too. ‘If I only had a heart’: Empathy
Let’s say you had a question and you know two people who knew the answer. One is brilliant but tends to be pedantic, smug and self-absorbed. This person might give you the right answer but definitely isn’t the most pleasant person to talk to. The other person may not know quite as much as the first, but takes a genuine interest in what you’re saying, is open-minded, patient and respectful, asks meaningful follow-up questions and doesn’t just deliver you a right answer but does it in a way that you understand and appreciate. Which of the two would you go to for the answer? Which of the two would you want around you 24/7? Everyone knows that SEO requires E-E-A-T. But in the coming world of AI, there’s going to be another “E,” which may be the most important factor of all: empathy. The winner of the AI war will be a great communicator. While you can see the early attempts of AI companies to give their chatbots a “personality,” all the funniest jokes and most clever side comments will be nothing but annoying if the chatbot can’t – or won’t – understand your question. ‘If I only had the nerve’: Courage
In 1998, when Yahoo was at its pinnacle of power, Rick Skrenta and Bob Truel created GnuHoo in response, which later became DMOZ. Yahoo was dominant at the time, and many of us feared that the free and open nature of the Internet would be threatened by any one corporation controlling it. In 2002, Dave Hyatt, Joe Hewitt, and Blake Ross started what would become Firefox in response to the increasing pressure of Netscape’s commercial requirements. It later became a bulwark against Microsoft when Internet Explorer won the first browser war. Ironically, Google eventually controlled and shaped the web by dominating both. Today, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft (through OpenAI) seem to be looking to control and shape AI. Those of us in the search space have witnessed how Google has evolved. While updates like Medic in 2018 did a lot of good in suppressing potentially dangerous YMYL sites, there are lingering questions of whether Google has too much power to elevate established (“authoritative”) voices and drown out legitimate voices in the minority. Google’s recent missteps with Gemini further illustrated the potential of what might happen if Google’s internal biases have too much influence on the training and testing of its AI. When the United States was established, its founders rooted it in classical liberal principles. All humans are created equal. All humans are born with certain rights, including the freedom to speak, assemble and worship as they please. Those on earth who wielded the greatest power were not to infringe on these rights. With direct control over the information that 99,000 people a second ask around the world, Google arguably has more power than any government on earth today. The power that whoever wins the AI War will have will be much greater. Will the winners of the AI war set their principles on classic liberty (i.e., “I may not approve of what you say but I will defend the right to say it”)? Or, to maintain “order,” will they do what so many totalitarian regimes have done in world history by suppressing voices that don’t agree with them, especially those who challenge their power? Just as it took courage for America’s founders to do what they did – and 250 years later, we are still enjoying the blessings of liberty that they put in place – it will take courage for the winner of the AI war to do the same – or for another DMOZ or Firefox to arise to challenge them. Home
I’ll end with the same bold prediction I started the last article with. Traditional search is going the way of TV, newspaper and radio advertising. At one time, those were the dominant advertising media. They’re still relevant today, but they have a small fraction of the influence they once had. What will the “new search” look like? It’ll be people asking their robot for an opinion and the robot giving them the best possible answer. No clicks, no SERPs, no ads. Oh, AI companies will try to inject ads into their answer, but you’ll drop that AI faster than you drop your friend, who takes every conversation to try to sell you into their latest MLM venture. How do you compete in this new world? How do you survive and thrive as a brand in a world where all searches are zero click, all SERPs are a single result and people won’t be able to skip or block your ads because there won’t be ads to skip or block? The ultimate solution is to go back to 1993, the year before Yahoo was founded. Build your brand. Search engines like Google were always just supposed to be a way to get customers into your door. From there, it was really up to you to win them over to your brand and earn their loyalty so the next time they search, they’ll bypass Google and go directly to you. In online marketing terms, if you look at your website traffic and see that your direct traffic is growing, you’re in good shape. But if your direct traffic has been shrinking while your traffic from other channels is growing, you’re in trouble. In 1993, businesses grew by building great products, taking care of their customers and relying mostly on word-of-mouth to promote their brands. In 2024, the most successful businesses still do it this way. When I asked ChatGPT, Grok and Gemini where the best place to buy books is, they all mentioned Amazon. Why? Because they’d look foolish if they said anything else. Amazon didn’t pay the AI models to mention them, and the latter didn’t arbitrarily decide to promote Amazon. These AI models looked around them and saw that more people buy books from Amazon than anywhere else and that people generally have good things to say about their experience. There is one thing that will always be more powerful than AI, and that’s free and independent human thought. If you want to be known as the best widget company, your job is not to convince AI or even Google that you’re the best. Your job is to convince your customers. Like any other expert, AI’s opinion will be questioned if it capriciously contradicts public opinion. In fairness to Google, every bit of SEO advice they’ve ever given was always about building your brand, from title tag optimization to Core Web Vitals to building links to E-E-A-T. These are all things you should have always been doing as a brand, not for Google’s sake but for your customers. Assuming that the winner of the AI wars has a good brain, a good heart and courage, we’ll be back home to a place where building your brand is back to being the most important ranking factor – which it always was. Dig deeper: Modern SEO: Packaging your brand and marketing for Google via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/navigating-ai-wars-winning-seo-strategies-for-brands-440564 Another Google Analytics 4 migration project deadline is fast approaching, and this deadline is hard set. On July 1, Google will delete all historical data from Universal Analytics properties. This deadline also affects Analytics 360 customers. With little more than a month until the deadline, if you have not done so by now, your organization needs to prioritize archiving your historical data. There are three main phases I recommend for approaching this project. Phase 1: Make a planBefore archiving data, it’s important to decide: What specific data is important to you?
How many years of data do you want to keep?
At what cadence do you review data?
Phase 2: Choose an archiving methodThere are three main options available for archiving your Universal Analytics data. Each has its own pros and cons, so choose a method based on your team’s resources and skills. Option 1: Manual file downloads
While this is the easiest process to understand, it is also time consuming. Following your plan for years, cadence and data points, you’ll need to go into each report in the Google Universal Analytics interface, set the date, dimension and metric settings as needed. Also, remember to change the number of rows from the default of 10 to the maximum of 5,000 rows to ensure you capture as much data as possible. Click the export button and export data to a Google Sheet, Excel or CSV. Repeat this process until you have downloaded all of the data identified in your archive plan. Option 2: Download data to Google Sheets using the Google Analytics add-on (best option for tech novices)
This option is fairly simple for most users to perform. Create a new Google Sheet and add the Google Analytics spreadsheetadd-on. The add-on essentially uses the Google Analytics API to download data to Google Sheets but doesn’t require API programming knowledge to operate. Google has compiled a basic overview of this approach in this help document. The first time you use the add-on, you’ll build a report using the add-on’s interface. But after the first report has been run, you can also simply update the Report Configuration tab and create additional reports directly in columns of that sheet. You can also conveniently use formulas in the Report Configuration sheet. Use the Dimensions and Metrics Explorer to find the proper API code to enter into each field. One drawback of the Google Sheets method is that you may encounter sampling if you pull too much data at once (e.g., your entire 20-year dataset for sessions) or your report is too detailed (too many dimensions pulled together for a high level of granularity). When you run a report, you’ll see the sampling level on the report’s data tab in cell B6. If your report contains sampled data, you may want to consider reducing the amount of data in this particular pull, for example, you might split the pull into two time frames. However, if you just can’t avoid sampling, check the data sample percentage on the report. Then, on the Report Configuration tab, unhide rows 14-17 and the sampling size on row 15 to this level so that your data remains consistent. Tip: The add-on defaults to 1,000 lines of data in a report. Simply delete the 1,000 under the line labeled “Limit” (typically row 11). Another drawback of the Google Sheets option is that each file is limited to 10,000,000 cells. Typically, each sheet starts out with 26 columns (A to Z) and 1,000 default rows (or 26,000 cells). If your downloaded data exceeds the 10,000,000 cell limitation (which can very likely happen), then you may need to have multiple Google Sheets to download all of the data. Option 3: Download data using the Google Analytics API
If you have web development resources that can work on the archiving project, they can pull the data detailed in your plan using the Google Analytics API directly. This works similarly to the aforementioned Google Sheets add-on option, but it’s a more manual process in programming the API calls. To learn about how to use the API for this project, visit Google’s archiving information page and review the second bullet, which details several resources and considerations for using the API for this data export project. Option 4: Download data to BigQuery (best option overall)
The main benefit of archiving your Universal Analytics data to BigQuery is that BigQuery is a data warehouse that allows you to ask questions of the data set through SQL queries to get your data very quickly. This is especially useful in accessing this data for reporting later. Analytics 360 users If you are an Analytics 360 user, Google provides a native export to BigQuery. I recommend this method. See instructions from Google. Everyone else If you’re not an Analytics 360 user, then you’ll need to approach the BigQuery backup differently because Google does not provide innate BigQuery backup options in Universal Analytics for non-360 users. Here are the steps you’ll want to follow:
Because you only need to transfer the Universal Analytics data one time, you can also change the schedule on the transfer to On demand and then run the transfer now. Phase 3: Ensure you’ve captured it allBefore you consider the project complete, be sure to double-check your archived data to ensure you’ve captured everything you planned to archive. On July 1, you will no longer be able to access Universal Analytics data, either by API or through the interface. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/archive-universal-analytics-historical-data-440552 Google has added two new crawlers to the Googlebot family of web crawlers:
Google said these two new crawlers are versions of GoogleOther optimized for fetching image and video bytes. GoogleOther was added in April 2023 to be used internally by Google teams to crawl the public web and free up some resources for the main Googlebot crawlers. GoogleOther-Image. GoogleOther-Image, according to the documentation, is the version of GoogleOther optimized for fetching publicly accessible image URLs. It will go under the user agent tokens of GoogleOther-Image and GoogleOther and the full user agent string will be GoogleOther-Image/1.0. GoogleOther-Video. GoogleOther-Video, according to the documentation, is the version of GoogleOther optimized for fetching publicly accessible video URLs. It will go under the user agent tokens of GoogleOther-Video and GoogleOther and the full user agent string will be GoogleOther-Video/1.0. Why these new crawlers. Google said, “the new crawlers were launched to better support crawling of binary data that may be used for research and development.” More on Google crawlers. The types of Googlebot crawlers include:
Google also has listed IP address ranges and reverse DNS mask for each type:
Why we care. Many of you check your crawling activities and bot activity on your website and in your log files. When you see this new GoogleOther crawlers, do not be alarmed. It is a real Googlebot. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/google-adds-two-new-googlebot-crawlers-googleother-image-and-googleother-video-440573 With rising data restrictions, Snapchat says “Execution, Experimentation and Evaluation” are the key pillars marketers need to focus on to ensure strategic measurement evolves with the times. Why we care. While Google keeps delaying deprecating third-party cookies, it will happen. So it’s important for advertisers to maintain accurate campaign insights and revenue accountability to conduct effective marketing measurement with tighter data privacy laws. How it works. The framework aims to create a cycle of constant testing, learning and iteration.
What they’re saying. “Advertisers who adopt this robust measurement approach see better advertising outcomes,” per Snapchat. Between the lines. The real emphasis is on evaluating actual results over chasing vanity metrics.
Zoom out. Snapchat’s push is part of a broader industry reckoning as user privacy changes upend traditional digital measurement. The bottom line. As ad measurement evolves, Snapchat is encouraging a more holistic, cyclical approach centered on continuous optimization and tying performance to real business outcomes. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/snapchat-execution-experimentation-evaluation-440555 I don’t know for a fact that people are searching less on Google. I just know it’s true. During Google I/O, Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai told us AI Overviews have resulted in an “increase in Search usage.” Pichai said the same thing during Alphabet’s Q1 2024 earnings call. But if that’s the case – doesn’t that mean AI Overviews, or the artist formerly known as Search Generative Experience (SGE), isn’t solving a problem it was supposedly invented to fix? Namely, giving users the answer or information they want, faster? Yes, in the same week that OpenAI basically created Samantha, the AI virtual assistant from the movie “Her,” Google’s tagline became “Let Google do the Googling for you.” Well, if Google is now doing the Googling for you, Search volume will likely go up when Google can’t find what Google is Googling for on Google! No blue linksGoogle’s Search in the Gemini era video was telling. Watch this: What did you notice was missing? The subheading already gave it away, but there are no blue links in sight. Former Google CEO said Google is not about blue links. Clearly, he wasn’t wrong. In Google’s Gemini era, apparently, links will now live in a Web filter. If you’re lucky, Web will be the fourth option you can choose (after All, Images, Video and News) – or you may have to hunt for the Web filter under the More options. We knew this was coming. For two decades, Google has talked about Search being like the computer from “Star Trek”:
That quote, from former Google Chief Technology Officer Craig Silverstein, is from 2003. It didn’t take 300 years. It took just 20. The future is here. Search was already fragmentingWe don’t know exact data on overall Google Search usage in 2024 and how it compares to previous years. Google doesn’t reveal that. But reporting an increase in Search usage is like reporting on Domain Authority. It’s a meaningless vanity metric. Google claims user satisfaction has also gone up during the same time. But I can’t remember an extended period of sustained negativity around the quality of Google’s Search results as I’ve seen over the past two years – both inside and outside of the search marketing industry. Google’s own data has shown that younger Internet users going to TikTok and Instagram instead of Google. While Google is a monopoly general search engine, people are searching on other platforms – Amazon, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and more. Meanwhile, we’ve been hearing rumors about ChatGPT search – and I fully expect OpenAI to launch a search product in the near future. Dig deeper. The modern search landscape: How and where to reach your target audience AI Overviews apocalypseThe inevitable SGE doomsday we’ve been warning you about since last May has finally arrived. Publishers who weren’t already freaking out about losing traffic from Google’s helpful content or core updates – or Gartner’s prediction that traffic from search engines fall 25% by 2026 – are definitely starting to freak out now as AI Overviews start rolling out. Here are just a few headlines we’ve seen following the launch of AI overviews:
This quote from Owen Meredith, CEO of the News Media Association, is a variation on one that we’ve heard in recent months from content creators who have recently been frustrated by Google algorithm updates:
Relying entirely or mostly on one platform like Google to send you traffic via clicks on links isn’t a business model. It’s gambling. Because anytime Google changes something, you risk losing everything. Ten blue links were a transitory way to provide answers. Now we have AI Overviews. Tying a bow on itSo we don’t know for a fact that people are searching less on Google. We just know it’s true. People are unhappy with Search. Google remains a monopoly but people are searching elsewhere. AI Overviews are designed to reduce the number of Searches – but again, the whole message from Google is “Let Google do the Googling for you.” That itself indicates users should have to do less searches. Although Google has definitely seen an uptick in the number of Searches for how to turn off AI results. Oops. Google seems to be increasingly detaching itself from reality. In this brave new Google world, advertisers should expect costs to increase (hello, tuning and squashing), websites should expect less organic traffic, while Google sends Searchers down rabbit holes of follow-up queries to inflate Search usage stats nobody cares about – or uses agents to complete tasks like purchases (where I’m sure Google will tack on some hidden Ticketmaster-type fees that turn what should be a $50 purchase into $120). via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-overviews-searches-satisfaction-440551 Netflix’s ad-supported tier is rapidly gaining traction, reaching 40 million monthly users globally, the streamer announced at its 2024 Upfront presentation. The paid ad offering, initially seen as a risky move, has quickly become a hit for Netflix as it seeks new revenue streams amid intensifying streaming competition. Why we care. Netflix’s platform offers advertisers a large and expanding pool of potential customers. If you’re looking for new advertising opportunities, you may want to explore streaming audiences. Driving the news. Just six months after hitting 5 million ad-supported subscribers post-launch in late 2022, that number has now swelled to 40 million.
Between the lines. Netflix is doubling down on the ad business by bringing its ad tech in-house.
What they’re saying. “Our ad membership has been an overwhelming success,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said during the presentation. “We’re just getting started on that journey.” The bottom line. Netflix’s ability to rapidly scale its ad business demonstrates the power of its brand and content – signaling a secure new revenue pipeline as it branches further into advertising. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/netflix-ads-tier-hits-40-million-subscribers-440549 B2B advertising, with its long sales cycles and relatively thin data density, has never been easy. And the tracking upheaval from cookies disappearing is about to make it harder. That means that some of the pervasive flaws I’ve seen in inheriting B2B lead gen accounts over the years are about to produce even shakier results. Even without talking about cookies and alternative measurement set-ups, there’s a better path forward for lead gen in 2024. This article will examine:
What brands are getting wrong about lead genThe single biggest mistake I see brands making with lead gen is misjudging (or ignoring) the intent of the lead. A common example here is asking a cold prospect to request a demo, which is a leap of faith that will very rarely be rewarded with positive ROI or pestering prospects that download content to engage with sales. The second big mistake is that brands will stop measuring beyond the lead, which leads to misappropriating budget and clear blind spots in performance. Movement between funnel stages, lead quality and lead progression to MQLs > SQLs > opportunities > closed deals are all vital for lead gen marketers to understand. This lets you assess your campaigns’ performance and optimization priorities – and spend your budget where it will have the biggest impact on the bottom line. Dig deeper: Top 5 paid search B2B lead gen strategies for 2024 How to align your offer with the user’s funnel stageI use this chart all the time with my clients (and sometimes in my articles for Search Engine Land): The top of the funnel is about educating and relating to the user:
At this point, it’s about relating to their pain points and starting to build trust more than what they need to solve than they do about who’s solving it for them. The middle of the funnel starts tying solutions to problems and introduces your brand as the option:
This stage assumes the user has their head around their challenge and is now actively researching solutions to help. The bottom of the funnel brings in more emotion and third-party proof. This stage assumes the users have a shortlist of solutions in mind and are looking for reassurance, from case studies and testimonials, that yours is the one for them. This is also when you can start leaning on urgency, with limited sales windows or expiring promotions. The most important thing to remember from all of this is that thoughtful nurturing is key to good lead gen. If you’re using bottom-funnel tactics for people who haven’t heard of you yet, you’re only wasting time and possibly turning users off from your brand. How to align the channel mix and the funnel stageTop-of-funnel channelsStarting with awareness/top-of-funnel targeting should mean starting on LinkedIn (and, for some brands with access to the right audiences, possibly on Facebook). My first option is always to start with LinkedIn prospecting because:
LinkedIn is a great place for educating users and positioning your brand as a thought leader; people go to LinkedIn to consume content, perhaps in the form of thought leader ads, and are open to high-quality, informative engagements. I approach Facebook prospecting with caution, but it can be worth testing depending on the audience. Middle-of-funnel and retargeting channelsOnce someone has engaged with your brand and content, you should have started to narrow your audience. Whether you’re retargeting content engagers or focused on accounts that have engaged with sales in some way or piped-in audiences from tools like Clearbit or 6Sense, I recommend choosing the following combinations of ad types and channels:
Given my thoughts on Facebook prospecting, you might be surprised at my preference here. But you’ve already defined the audience. Facebook/Instagram can help expand your audience matching scope beyond LinkedIn (where we’ve seen plenty of audience match degradation), and retargeting costs tend to be lower. Bottom-of-funnel channelsFocusing on users who have engaged with high-intent content or visited your site multiple times is a crucial audience for this stage. Ensuring coverage for paid search and high-intent SEO queries are the bread and butter for capturing intent at this stage, but paid social is a great way to generate that last step of intent by using social proof like case studies, testimonials, etc. – and sealing the deal with demo offers. These will be your highest engagement costs of the campaign, and they should be, since leads at this stage are (assuming you’ve qualified them along the way) extremely valuable. Dig deeper: How to implement a full-funnel PPC marketing strategy How to qualify users with contentThis happens throughout the funnel, and lots of this work is done with the type of content you’re offering. For instance, your content should help the platforms’ bidding and targeting algorithms identify the audience’s pain points, solutions, etc. (Facebook’s algorithm can do this, but it doesn’t have the all-important layer of company targeting that LinkedIn does.) There can also be ways to increase engagement within your ICP by speaking directly to them in your copy. Identifying opportunities to call out your audience in messaging is a great tactic. For example, if you’re targeting CFOs, try “CFOs’ Favorite Answer to {Challenge} in 2024” or something similar that lets them know your content is for them. The bonus here is that the more tightly you align your messaging with your ICP, the more you can delineate who falls outside your ICP and shouldn’t bother engaging with your ad. Dig deeper: Paid search for lead gen: Tips for new accounts with limited budgets Aligning tactics to intent: A better B2B lead gen approachAbove all, remember to consider the user’s mentality when developing your lead gen campaigns. Don’t:
Cookies or not, adhering to those principles will help you eliminate a lot of waste from your lead gen campaigns and keep your brand from developing a pushy reputation. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/b2b-lead-gen-better-approach-440540 A site migration can feel like packing up your entire house and moving across the country. There’s much to keep track of, and you don’t want to lose any valuable possessions (or, in this case, SEO progress) along the way. When done right, a site migration is a chance to improve site performance, enhance user experience and boost search presence. However, with countless moving parts and multiple teams involved, having an organized plan is essential for a smooth transition. To nail it, you need a rock-solid plan and a dedication to doing things right. In this article:
What is a site migration?A site migration refers to the process of making major changes involving a website. This might include moving a site to a new domain or hosting provider, switching to a different content management system (CMS) or merging multiple websites into one. Why is SEO important in site migrations?Some people may wonder what SEO has to do with moving a site. A site migration with SEO built into it can preserve rankings, avoid traffic loss, retain link equity, improve user experience and uncover new opportunities to improve the site. A site migration without SEO is laced with assumptions and poor decisions and can lead to a near-death traffic loss. To illustrate how, when done right, SEO built into a site migration can massively impact search performance, see the image below. After this client’s site migrated about mid-April 2023, they experienced the following results when comparing February 2023 to August 2023:
Preparing for your site migrationBefore you jump into the deep end, take the time to plan:
Google gives some additional best practice tips for managing a site move, including splitting your move into smaller steps, changing only one thing at a time and timing the move to coincide with lower-traffic times. Dig deeper: 12 SEO pitfalls to avoid during a website platform migration Managing and optimizing the new site structure and contentHow people and search engines access your content, and what type of content you publish are both important to your SEO program moving forward. Site structureA well-organized site structure enhances user experience and helps search engines understand the relationships between your pages. Think about how you might restructure and streamline your site’s navigation for the relaunch. This will require taking a look at your target keywords and mapping them to the navigation and content. Group related content together in a logical hierarchy, making it easy for website visitors and search engines to find exactly what they need. I call this SEO siloing, and the benefits include:
The goal is to have the top of each silo (navigational category) be based on the more generic keywords and to build a hierarchy of subpages that support that keyword topic. The picture above shows a sample structure for SEO siloing on a fictional power tools website. The main categories are cordless power tools, electric power tools and gas-powered tools. The supporting subpages are shown underneath. ContentNow onto the content that fills the pages on your site. As you head into a site migration, it’s a perfect opportunity to make improvements. The goal is to ensure the quality of your content when you relaunch. Here are some tips as you review the content on your site:
If you need to add new content before the site migration, consider using AI content tools for efficiency—but be careful to follow search engine guidelines. See my article on how to survive the search results when you’re using AI tools for content. Improving user experiencePrior to a site migration is a good time to assess user experience factors on your site and make any adjustments moving forward. Review Core Web Vitals
Mobile-friendliness
Improving accessibility
Enhancing security
Managing linksProperly mapping and redirecting URLs is essential for maintaining SEO value during a site migration. Without careful planning, you risk losing link equity. Create a detailed spreadsheet that lists every old URL and its corresponding new URL. This redirect map will serve as a blueprint for implementing 301 redirects and ensuring no pages are lost in the transition. Be sure to account for changes in site structure, URL naming conventions and content consolidation. A thorough redirect map is your best defense against broken links and lost SEO value. Work with your development team to ensure that redirects are configured correctly:
Mapping your 301s is just one part of managing your links before a site migration. This is also a good time to review your inbound link profile. Get rid of any links that may not serve your site well moving forward and identify new link opportunities for the site. Monitoring technical SEOMonitoring all aspects of technical SEO before and during a site migration is vital for site health and search engine visibility. Here are some tasks to check off your list: Review design modifications
Audit your tracking tools
Back up your existing site
Establish a test environment
Validate structured data
Review metadata
Review robots directives
Create and manage sitemaps
Carry out launch day tasks
Managing post-launch activitiesYou’ve made it through the site migration process, but the work isn’t over yet. Keeping a close eye on your site’s performance in the weeks and months following the move is important. TestingThe first step in post-migration testing is to conduct a comprehensive review of your site’s functionality. This means testing every page, link, form and feature to ensure that everything is working as intended. Give your website a thorough once-over by focusing on these vital areas:
As you test, make note of any issues or errors you encounter and prioritize fixing them based on their impact on user experience and site performance. Watching key metricsWith your tracking tools in place, it’s time to monitor your site’s performance and organic traffic levels. Keep a close eye on your daily and weekly traffic in Google Analytics. It’s normal to see some temporary fluctuations after a migration, but if you notice a sustained drop in organic traffic, it’s time to investigate further. Another key metric to monitor post-migration is your site’s keyword rankings and overall search visibility. Use SEO tools like Ahrefs to track your rankings for target keywords and monitor any changes over time. Enhancing user experienceBeyond functionality, it’s important to take a holistic look at your site’s user experience and engagement post-migration. Are visitors finding what they need easily? Are they engaging with your content and converting at the rates you expect? You can use your analytics tools to dive into behavioral metrics such as goal completions, bounce rates and more. If you notice a drop in conversions or engagement, dig deeper to identify potential issues or roadblocks. Is there a particular page or step in your conversion funnel where users drop off? Are there certain user segments or traffic sources that are underperforming? Consider reviewing the following areas that may need user experience improvement:
You can use things like heat maps and surveys to get inside your visitors’ heads. Look for trends and sticking points, then use that data to fine-tune your site’s user experience. Continuously refiningOnce you’ve completed a successful site migration, the real adventure begins. You’ll continue to keep a close eye on your site, run tests and make tweaks to ensure that it’s always performing at its best and delivering an exceptional user experience. With a commitment to improvement, you can ensure that your migrated site survives and thrives in its new home for the long haul. via Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/site-migration-plan-440535 |
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April 2023
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