Fibre Marketing

Year: 2020

Back to Basics: Building Your Content Marketing Strategy

Posted on by Chloe

Developing a rock-solid content marketing strategy is essential when it comes to marketing your business online. It helps you to focus on the unique needs of your customers, allows you to connect with them more effectively and get the results that you are looking for.

Without it, there’s simply no way you can be sure of success.

Even if your content is smoking hot and provides a ton of value to your target audience, there’ll be no way of knowing if you’ve invested your time and money wisely. It’s akin to playing roulette with the future of your business.

However, we understand that it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the mere thought of building a content marketing strategy. That’s why we’ve decided to put together this short guide for you. You’ll learn how to get the fundamentals of building a content marketing strategy so you can reap the rewards.

Here’s what’s we’ll cover:

Step 1: Outline your goals

Step 2: Decide how you will measure your performance

Step 3: Create buyer personas

Step 4: Assess your current position

Step 5: Decide on your content channels & content types

Step 6: Identify and allocate resources

Step 7: Create a content calendar

Let’s look at each of these in more detail.

Step 1: Outline your goals

Start by deciding what is most important to your business and developing a set of content marketing goals.

Do this and you’ll develop a laser-like focus on what matters most to your business and increase the chances of achieving what you set out to do. You won’t waste time. You won’t waste money. But you will get results.

Your goals depend entirely on the unique needs of your business and where you currently are in terms of growth. Startups, for example, will often develop a vastly different set of goals to an established business with a great reputation.

That’s why it’s so important to consider what matters to you at this point in time. Do you want to increase revenue? Drive more business to your website? Boost engagement? Build authority in your field?

Whilst doing this, it’s a good idea to consult your team for suggestions on how you can grow your business. They usually have insight into specific areas of your business that you might not.

Once you have put together a few ideas, also consider how these could potentially benefit your clients and your business.

Step 2: Decide how you will measure your performance

The only way to understand whether you are achieving your goals is to develop a series of KPIs (key performance indicators) that will tell you whether all that hard work is paying off. These usually include measuring things like:

  • Mentions, shares, likes and comments
  • Time on page
  • website/ webpage traffic
  • Newsletter sign ups
  • Lead magnet signups
  • Revenue targets

By tracking this data, you will also be able to better develop your content marketing strategy and display the right information if you need to develop regular reports.

Step 3: Create buyer personas

You’d never try to teach a 10-year-old kid about the water cycle by using the kind of language or even content you’d find in a university lecture hall for adults, would you?

The same goes for when you create your content.

You need to understand exactly who you’re talking to and what they need so you can create your content with them in mind and become more strategic. It also vastly improves your chances of getting results.

This idea is echoed by content marketing experts The Content Marketing Institute who say;

“In light of what your customers likely look for in the content they choose to consume — not to mention Google’s ever-changing algorithms that aim to keep online content relevant and of a high quality — you can’t go wrong if you follow this golden rule: Write compelling content about the things your target audience would be most interested in.”

In content marketing, you do this by creating something called a buyer persona or customer avatar.

By gathering data on a range of factors such as key demographics (age, gender, education, income, etc) and factors such as interests, problems, preferred social media channels and so on, you’ll be able to better understand your customer and create content for them. You can find this kind of information from any analytics your business currently uses. Customer feedback, reviews and surveys also play a big part in the process.

Step 4: Assess your current position

By now you’ve figured out your goals, key metrics you want to track and who your customers are. Your next step is figuring out where you’re starting from.

Conduct a content audit, looking at what you already have including blog posts, guest posts, videos, and so on. Then consider how effective this content is by asking yourself:

This will enable you to better understand what improvements need to be made and help you identify your strategy moving forward.

Step 5: Decide on your content channels & content types

By doing this research, you should now understand who your audience is and what their needs are better. This will help you develop your content marketing strategy further and decide what type of content you should create and where.

Technology is continually developing, so trends are likely to come and go. However, blogging should remain a core part of your content marketing strategy, provided that you’re always creating highly actionable, high-quality and very useful content.

It’s also worth considering video marketing and live streaming as these look set to grow over the coming months and years.

Step 6: Identify and allocate resources

There’s no point creating a rockstar content marketing strategy if you don’t end up delivering the goods. That’s why you should make sure you plan the delivery phase as much as building your content marketing blueprint.

Yes, it might be dull, we know. But it’s the only way you can ensure you achieve those content marketing goals and continue to grow your business. Consider the following:

  • Who will be in charge of producing and maintaining the content?
  • What tools and resources will you need?
  • What will the workflow look like?
  • Are there any tools that you could use to simplify and streamline your workflow?

Step 7: Create a content calendar

The final step in building a content marketing strategy is planning the content itself. But beware- it’s not enough just to throw a few content ideas onto a spreadsheet and be done with it all. You need to be strategic.

Decide first how often you want to publish this new content and what channels you will be using to market this content. Once you’ve done this, you can plan exactly what to plan and when.

Many businesses are tempted to skip this step and end up struggling when they realise that they have just a day or two to come up with an idea and to create it. Don’t let this happen to you!

First gather your content ideas by brainstorming, looking at customer feedback, reviewing your FAQs, looking at keyword search terms and asking your colleagues. Then you can slot them into your content calendar and stay ahead, reduce your stress and be more likely to crush those content marketing goals.

Building a content marketing strategy can be complex and time-consuming. But any investment you make at this stage pays off significantly in the long term. Work through these steps and you will create a robust content marketing strategy that gets you results.

If you’d prefer to hire an expert, reach out to our team here at Fibre Marketing. We’d love to help.

A Day In The Life Of Search Marketing Specialist, Jamie Smith

Posted on by Chloe

We’re now into the third instalment of our ‘day in the life’ series. Our Search Performance Manager Ed and Content Marketing Specialist Chloe have shared their days with us, so now, it’s the turn of Search Marketing Specialist, Jamie Smith.

Local SEO plays a significant role in any search marketing strategy. In fact, 86% of people look up a business’ location on Google Maps, while 61% of mobile searchers are more likely to reach out to a local business if they have a site that’s mobile-friendly. And this is set to grow; last year saw the rise in Google My Business (GMB) features, a rare local SEO update, and only this past month did Google confirm that all sites will switch to mobile-first indexing by September. It’s therefore critical that a local search strategy is implemented for your business.

So without further ado, let’s hear from Jamie what it’s like to operate within the Local SEO sphere.

What does your morning routine look like?

The first thing I do when I get into work is go through my emails to check for any client queries. I read through industry newsletters and check for any important updates, paying particular attention to anything local-based.

Then, I review my clients’ ranking positions, assessing areas across each of my clients, and focus attention where required. As I specialise in Local SEO, this review will include both organic and Map Pack rankings.

What are you responsible for?

I’m responsible for monitoring each of my clients and am the head of Local SEO at Fibre. I regularly set objectives to ensure consistent good performance, ensuring that we are pursuing the correct keywords, optimising on-page content, and managing a site’s local presence.

Another of my core responsibilities is keyword research, which includes assessing key terms that users will search for and formulating a plan to target them, ensuring first position rankings.

What does a typical day at work look like for you?

Each day brings a new challenge – there is never a consistent day due to the constant changes within the industry.

Most of my days consist of assessing client websites; articles and on-page optimisation; reviewing of current strategies, and optimising for Local SEO (including GMBs, Bing Maps, and others).

There are many days that require full attention of keyword research or local planning, which includes reading around those topics and developing my knowledge around them.

What’s your most memorable work moment?

Watching a client improve organically due to my work is always memorable.

For this particular client, their website URL structure was changed in the previous year, resulting in a decline of organic sessions. After I picked the client up, I managed a strategy to restore and improve their organic sessions, which included on-page optimisation, building backlinks, and improving their local online presence.

The client is now 20% up for the period shown YOY (March – Feb), and saw their biggest month yet in Feb 2020!

What do you get up to after work?

I like to wind down from the day by socialising with friends, usually with a few drinks at the pub. Cheltenham’s great because it’s a thriving town that has lots to offer – The Miller is one of my favourite locations right now.

What do you want to achieve in your career?

Growing with Fibre has been a fantastic experience so far, and continuing to progress within the company is a core career goal. I want to be able to lead my own local team and continue to develop and further my knowledge of Local SEO.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone wanting to work in SEO?

Read! There are so many things that you need to know to work within SEO. The only way you can do this is to follow the industry experts and improve your knowledge, listen to podcasts, watch videos…try and learn as much as you can.

If you’re interested in SEO and want to know more about working in the industry, follow us on LinkedIn to see what we get up to here at Fibre. You can also find us on Twitter, where we share the latest updates within the search marketing industry.

Recent Events That Have Impacted SEO

Posted on by Chloe

The world of SEO is always changing. It’s developing and adapting to make sure that it keeps up-to-date with what’s going on in the world – ensuring that the public can get all the information they need as quickly and efficiently as possible. That is the point of search engines, after all!

It is important to know how the on and offline world interact with each other, and how this will affect your website’s traffic and conversions.

When events impact search engines, you must be prepared. Some of these changes can happen organically, over a long time, and some are reactions to more specific events. To be able to market your business properly, having a good understanding of SEO is vital, knowing how people search at different times and how it can help you attract customers.

Here are some examples of recent events that have impacted SEO and the way that the internet is – and will be – used.

Google SOS Alerts

One of Google’s features is known as an SOS Alert. When something happens in the world where information needs to be given out, Google creates special search results which help spread this information. Recent situations that have warranted Google SOS Alerts include the tornados in Tennessee and Coronavirus.

A typical SOS Alert features a red box at the top of the screen, followed by ‘top stories,’ then a series of useful links followed by either  local Twitter updates or the usual search results (pictured below), with authoritative sources taking the top rankings. They can also display information about how to donate to help to support relief efforts. All of this information is made clear, so that it’s easy to see and share with those also searching for the particular ‘SOS event.’

Coronavirus

Coronavirus is having a much more significant impact on the virtual world of SEO than you might have thought. This is due to how it’s affects on the outside world.

Some of the effects of Coronavirus on search and SEO include:

  • More people searching and buying online as people self-isolate, spending less time outside
  • Changes in what people are buying – face masks and hand sanitiser sales, for example, are going through the roof
  • More people looking into how to stream events and communicate with colleagues online, from home
  • An increase in people working from home
  • Predictions of a slump in the travel industry, with fewer people searching for travel information and people looking into travel insurance
  • The impact of a slower economy

All of this means that the trends of the search terms are different than usual, and you should try to take this into account when you are considering your content marketing strategy.

Elections and Political Advertising

In a world of fake news, micro-targeting and social media, political advertising can have a massive impact on society – especially in the outcome of elections and referendums. With the targeting of certain demographics of people, we have seen some political parties or viewpoints having a massive impact and the internet is really only just beginning to get to grips with this.

Media in its many forms has always played a big part in affecting how people see the world and ensuring that the media that we consume online is fair and true is vital.

In November 2019, for example, we saw Google announce that they were to ban political advertisers from targeting British voters except on characteristics of gender, age, and a rough geographical location in an attempt to create a balanced perspective for people.

Another way that elections have affected search trends is the nation’s quest for information. During the last election, for example, Google saw massive rises in searches for information about Jeremy Corbyn, party manifestos and what certain political parties stand for. It also saw surges in searches regarding how to leave the country after the election…

Changes in Copyright Law

The online use of content is an issue which the internet has never really got its head around. Whether it is a blatant forgery, the use of art and music without paying for it, or illegally downloading films, there is nowhere else in society where this is happening to such a level.

The EU has laid out a set of rules which are designed to help to prevent these – what many people consider to be – unethical practices, through their copyright reforms. The laws involve those who display snippets of material having to pay licensing fees, as well as forcing companies to police the content that they publish. It is important if you are carrying out any sort of content marketing, that you are fully up-to-date with these new laws.

Google had tested new SERPs to ‘try to understand what the impact of the proposed EU Copyright Directive would be to our users and publishing partners.’ The results looked sparse, like they hadn’t finished loading.

It’s predicted that the new laws will full roll out in 2021, meaning that next year will certainly be a memorable one for the internet.

As the world moves forward, we will always be coming up against new challenges. Whether it is a long or short term issue, it is important that for your business to succeed online, you keep updated on how these issues are impacting SEO.

How to Perform a Site Audit

Posted on by Chloe

How do you know when it’s time to perform a website audit? Well, if you’ve never done one before or even thought about it, the time is probably now. Even a very basic website can have many moving parts, which means there’s plenty to go wrong. If you’ve ever found a broken link or similar on another site, you know how frustrating it can be – but site issues can also undermine your SEO efforts and end up costing you money.

Firstly, realise that there are an endless number of optional steps, but we’ll be covering only the basics here. Here at Fibre we offer a free internet marketing audit and can also take a more detailed, technical audit of your site to see what’s working, and what isn’t. But if you’d like to have a go at it yourself, here’s a few key steps to get you started with your audit.

Is your design fresh and functional?

Yes, your design matters. Don’t put customers off with a dated looking site. Get an external opinion or try looking at your site in Google’s incognito mode to see what your customers are seeing. Kill popups, obnoxious ads, illegible fonts, and boring colours. Next, scan the copy. Are your CTAs clear, above the fold and repeated throughout? You need to be able to glean everything you need to know about your company from the images, colours and branding alone. Finally, double check that everything is looking as it should on mobile – there are now some apps available to help you do this quickly.

Is your navigation easy and logical?

Again, put on the perspective of a visitor and see how quickly you can navigate around the site. Your menu has to be visible, make sense, and preferably be quite minimal. Be honest about what your customer really wants to read (authentic reviews!) and potentially downplay things like blog posts, About Us sections or news.

Are you using HTTPS?

A site audit is also about safety – you need to make sure that potentially sensitive data going to and from your site is encrypted so it can’t be intercepted by others. Using HTTPS (or getting an SSL certificate) is a non-negotiable if you’re selling on your site or collecting customer info, but it will also result in better Google rankings.

Is your loading speed OK?

It’s not fair, but visitors have very little patience and will simply click away if made to wait too long for your page to load. Google’s PageSpeed Insights is free and can tell you how you’re faring, as well as give you recommendations for how to improve.

How good is your content?

After you’re happy with the overall design and user experience, making sure your content is performing well might take the bulk of your audit time. You’ll need to make sure your content fits your overall strategy (is it offering unique, genuine value?), that it’s structurally sound (grammar, spelling, formatting) and overall high quality (skimmable, with other media mixed in, at the right reading level). Add proper headings and be honest about how well-written and informative each piece is. Could you reuse the content in an updated format like a social media post or video instead? Perhaps it’s time for an edit.

Do you have any broken links?

Dead end links or error pages can make a site feel neglected. Do this manually if your website is small or try a professional service or specialised software to help you weed out broken pages.

Is your SEO up to scratch?

Doing a site audit necessarily means appraising the performance of your SEO strategy. Are your titles for each page descriptive, unique and optimised? Make sure you’re including your keywords here where possible. For a thorough SEO check, you might need the advice of an industry professional to help you examine your organic search ratings, your LSI, and any buggy code to see how you compare to your competitors. A more in-depth exploration can check on the health of your meta-descriptions, images, overall site architecture, URLs, tags and backlinks. You need to gain a comprehensive idea of exactly how “healthy” your site is, inside and outside, and how it’s performing out in the market.

You may be surprised by what a comprehensive audit turns up – some people are shocked at the hidden ways their rankings were being lowered, or how many ways they were losing customer interest. Maintaining smaller websites is not too difficult with a little know-how, but you can make the process even easier by scheduling regular automated site “crawls” to do the work for you, or getting some expert human eyes on the site once in a while.

Site Security: How to Keep Your WordPress Site Safe

Posted on by Chloe

It’s a sobering fact: Google blacklists tens of thousands of sites every single day for malware or phishing. Getting hacked is something many of us would like to believe can’t really happen. But if you own a website, it’s your responsibility to make sure you’re up to date with site security.

Why WordPress, specifically? Simply, it’s the biggest CMS (content management system), arguably the most popular (28% of all global websites are WordPress hosted, with 60% market share!) and the best platform we know of for optimising SEO.

But hackers can interfere and seriously damage your business reputation, jeopardising your revenue or even stealing customer information. Though WordPress is pretty secure already, you can always reduce risk, even if it seems a little intimidating and you’re not 100% tech-savvy. Here we’re sharing our 10 must-have safety tips as a great place to start.

Keep WordPress updated, and back up, back up, back up!

WordPress is open source and will automatically install smaller updates, but needs your say-so to go ahead with more major ones. Make a habit to install updates diligently, including any third-party plug-ins or themes.

And, as always, regularly do backups. There are free WordPress plugins that will help you backup to a remote cloud location such as Amazon or Dropbox on a (at minimum) daily basis.

Use strong passwords

Take the time to change to stronger passwords across the board. Limit who can access the account (think guest posters or freelancers) and if you must, use a password manager and commit to regularly refreshing passwords.

While you’re at it, change the default “admin” username!

Change your WordPress Admin URL

A simple but effective way to discourage minor hacking. If you’re worried about compatibility issues, you can always use a separate plugin to hide your login URL and convert it to a personalised one.

Rethink your WordPress hosting service

The right shared hosting provider can shield you from significant risk at the backend, on the server-level. Consider Bluehost, Kinsta or Siteground, which will continuously monitor activity, offer automatic updates and provide more sophisticated protection. A good host can detect attacks and automatically ban suspicious IPs, but also offer support in worst case scenarios.

Use a plugin

It’s not enough to rely on built-in WordPress security mechanisms. Yes, you’ll have to pay for these (sometimes quite a bit) but it’s worth taking the time to understand exactly the functionality you’ll get, and whether it’s appropriate for your site and business.

Security Ninja, Google Authenticator, Vaultpress and Jetpack are all popular options and will monitor your files, record failed logins, blocks bots and spam, or scan for malware. Sucuri is also a great option for those wanting a free plugin. Chat with your SEO team to hone in on what’s most important to you – easy to use interface, value for money, simplicity, two-factor authentication or an advanced, comprehensive solution?

Choose HTTPS

If this is not installed, then you run the risk of sharing your login details. When submitted on HTTP your sensitive information is simply passed to the server in plain text and so can be intercepted. Enable SSL encryption (Secure Sockets Layer) and use HTTPS when possible.

Enable WAF (Web Application Firewall)

A firewall blocks suspicious traffic before it can do any damage; there are two main types – DNS level or application level, the former being a little more robust. DNS firewalls send your site traffic through a cloud proxy server first so only genuine visitors land up at your site.

Disable file editing

WordPress has a default code-editor that lets anyone tweak the themes and plugins from the admin dashboard – an obvious risk when it comes to hacking. Disable it with a simple addition of code.

Limit failed login attempts to 3

WordPress default is unlimited failed logins, giving hackers endless time to guess. Instead, visit Settings > Login Lockdown and choose the retry number, the retry time period and the period your site will lock for after that. You could alternatively consider a plugin for this.

Also consider automatically logging out idle users, and add security questions to your login screen.

Change your WordPress database prefix

The default is “wp_” but change it to something that’s less easy for hackers to guess your table name.

For those starting out, or the self-confessed tech-phobes among us, tightening up online security can seem like an daunting prospect. Luckily, there’s plenty of support available and our experts at Fibre are always at hand to answer your questions. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Take it a step at a time and put yourself in the shoes of someone trying to get in – how can you make it as difficult as possible?

A Day In The Life Of Content Marketing Specialist, Chloe Price

Posted on by Chloe

Last month, we kickstarted our ‘A Day in The Life’ series with Search Performance Manager, Ed, taking centre stage. This month, we’re gaining an insight into the day of a Content Marketing Specialist.

Link building is one of the top three ranking factors and yet can be one of the hardest things to master. As more content marketers and webmasters work to improve their backlink profile, more and more barriers are installed, and so the need to adapt and create new strategies is essential in this role. Link building also requires a lot of time, something that not everyone has – which is why many businesses turn to SEO professionals.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at a day in the life of our Content Marketing Specialist, Chloe Price.

What Does Your Morning Routine Look Like?

The first thing I do is check my emails from both my primary accounts and outreach accounts. I reply to all that I can or note down what needs doing in order to move on to the next stage. I run our social media accounts, so I also schedule posts, join in with online discussions and see what’s trending. Following this, I’ll read SEO newsletters to see what’s happening in the industry.

What Are You Responsible For?

I manage our link building team, so I’m responsible for making sure that all clients meet their targets each month. This involves arranging their monthly outreach schedule, arranging brainstorming sessions for content, testing new strategies, and liaising with the rest of the team to make sure that we’re exceeding our clients’ targets.

As well as this, I manage our team of freelance writers, so I pay their invoices, check availabilities, edit content, and keep an eye on client budgets.

I’m also responsible for social media and our search marketing blog.

What Does A Typical Day Look Like for You?

I try to split my day into halves. I’m more awake in the morning, so I focus on link building. I could be pitching titles for guest blogs, useful link building, going through competitors’ backlinks, or pitching news-worthy titles to journalists. A lot of time goes into creating a natural link profile for a website, so it’s essential that I do this whenever I can.

In the afternoon, I work on a variety of tasks such as editing content, working on the Fibre Marketing blog, social media tasks, paying invoices, and responding to any emails that have come in over lunch. It changes every day.

What’s Your Memorable Work Moment?

When I first started, a team member saw on mobile that a SERP featured fourteen Ads on the first page. We posted this on Twitter, and it went viral! We even featured in Search Engine Journal and SERoundtable. As I was the only one working on social media, I had to spend a fair amount of time responding to comments and retweets. It was pretty exciting for my first month!

My other most memorable moment was building my first link from my trial shift – I wasn’t even working for the company at that point!

What Do You Get Up to After Work?

Alongside my work at Fibre, I also have a few ongoing projects. I read people’s novels, collaborating on edits before they send to literary agents, and review books for publishers and indie authors.

Alongside this, I take photos for my Instagram account, which involves me awkwardly posing with piles of books in public places and receiving quite a few stares in the process. I also run my own blog.

When I’m not doing any of the above, I like to take day trips with my family and friends, exploring different places throughout the country that I’ve never visited before.

What Do You Want to Achieve in Your Career?

I want to improve my link building – I’d love to get a client on the BBC one day!

I also want to expand on my knowledge of content marketing and try out new things, and even conduct my research into the world of digital marketing, seeing what businesses can do to build their brand.

What’s One Piece of Advice You’d Give to Someone Wanting to Work In SEO?

Follow as many social media accounts as you can. Most of my inspiration comes from trending topics and discussions, and it’s also where most of my SEO knowledge comes from. You learn what’s important and why, and the different tactics needed to conquer the many aspects of search engine marketing.

One of the reasons why I enjoy working in SEO is because it’s such a supportive community – everyone shares advice and quick tips, content that they’ve enjoyed reading or tools that make their lives easier, which really shows through social media. It’s what makes the SEO landscape an exciting environment to be a part of, as you can progress quickly and build strong relationships across the industry. 

If you’re interested in SEO and want to know more about working in the industry, follow us on Linkedin to see what we get up to here at Fibre. You can also find us on Twitter, where we share the latest updates within the search marketing industry. 

 

A Breakdown of Google’s Featured Snippet Deduplication

Posted on by Chloe

On the tail of their Core Update, the 22nd January 2020 saw Google make some rather large changes regarding featured snippet duplication, and, being rolled out without much warning, these updates have been met with some confusion, to say the least. Here we’re looking at what featured snippets are, what the new changes realistically mean for your SEO marketing strategies, and how best to respond.

What are featured snippets and how have they changed?

Simply, they’re the textboxes that show on Google search results above the result listings, answering users’ questions quickly; they’re now officially part of the main organic search results. Previously, if a site held a featured snippet, they would still be listed on the first page of search results as well. However, with the new change, sites can only gain either a featured snippet or a first page ranking, i.e. it’s been “deduplicated” so only one or the other appears. The regular listing will still appear along with a featured snippet, but it will now be on the second page, usually position 11.

What does this change mean for SEO?

Naturally, this has shaken a few things up, proving yet again that staying ahead amidst constantly evolving SEO trends is a skill that can no longer be underestimated. As more and more updates have followed, and Google’s Danny Sullivan answers concerned questions, people have begun to wonder which ultimately has more benefits for a webpage – a first page ranking or a featured snippet?

The answer is: it depends. If you’ve used snippets before, the change might mean a disadvantage since your URL will now only appear once instead of twice. If you haven’t used snippets, however, your competitors will essentially now have half the URL presence they had before.

Since the changes occurred, many studies have been published analysing the difference having a featured snippet can make, and if it’s worth it. Marie Haynes asked her non-SEO friends (who aren’t considered to be ‘tech savvy’) if they click on the featured snippet or if they scroll down – interestingly, many of the respondents stated that they avoided featured snippets as they thought it was an Ad.

Some more details


Google is overall attempting to declutter and streamline front page results, and the change makes sense for users, even if it has caused some upheaval for marketers. The updates now mean that snippets are counted as “position 1” in the ten positions on the SERP, and if a URL is in the featured snippets, Google actively prevents it from appearing elsewhere in the core search results. But it is possible to have a joint featured snippet and a front-page listing, so long as they both direct to different URLs.

Similarly, featured snippet images are not deduplicated, provided they have a URL different from the snippet text. Carousels, People Ask, Answers, top stories, local listings, Bubbles and other refined featured snippets are not deduplicated. Neither are vertical search integrations (these are not featured snippets), direct answers or knowledge panels. The updates will have no impact on your Search Console performance.

It gets a little tricky, however: right side featured snippets originally were deduplicated (reported as a bug) but as of this article they are not, and will eventually be positioned at the top left.

How to respond to the featured snippet deduplication

SEO marketers are no strangers to rapid changes like this one – after all, Google makes hundreds of updates a year. Skilfully keeping a close eye on traffic and performance will allow a swift response and the appropriate action, which will naturally need to be unique for every company. Featured snippets are a coveted “zero-click” spot and reach your audience even without them seeing your URL. However, there will be times when users actually prefer to click on a URL, and where a main listing would perform better than a featured snippet.

There’s no easy answer to predict which strategy will work best; as with any other SEO update, trial and error is inevitable, and experimentation will show your SEO team which position benefits you most. It’s not a given that a featured snippet will be valuable your site, and it’s not a foregone conclusion that Google’s new changes will damage your SEO marketing efforts. If you do decide to opt out of featured snippets, try to reduce the size of your snippet to prevent Google from displaying it. If you lose a featured snippet, you should be able to revert to a normal first page listing on the SERP.

Not including a few bugs and erroneous results as the updates were initially rolled out, the changes look set for now, with more likely to come regarding moving snippets from the right sidebar and into the main column. However, there’s no need for panic – SEO is all about creatively adapting to new challenges, and there are always intelligent ways to work around any limitation.

 

Your Next Biggest Competitor Is Google: What You Need to Know About Zero-Click Search

Posted on by Ella

The search engine results page (SERP) stands firmly at the centre of organic traffic generation. If you have a top-notch SEO team behind you and you’re lucky enough to land a placement on the first page of Google, you will likely be reaping the results. However, the SERP is changing, and it’s changing fast.

We had the arrival of black ‘Ad’ labels on mobile and the ‘How-to’ structured data markup in May 2019, not to mention the featured snippet deduplication change earlier this month, improved knowledge panels, and suggested content for long-tail search queries. Add to the mix video carousels and related product recommendations, and you’ve got yourself a very saturated SERP offering minimal visibility and poor click-through rates (CTR) for deserving websites.

As a result, for the first time, zero-click search (searches that end on the SERP because the user successfully found the answer to their query) has exceeded the number of searches resulting in organic clicks, at 50.33% to 45.25%. It’s not the best news we’ve heard, but not the worst either – it just means us SEO’s will have to work that little bit harder, and who’s not up for a challenge?

Crowded SERPs and zero complacency

SEO’s and digital marketers need to be one step ahead when it comes to SERP updates. If you think optimising your Google My Business profile once, or drafting your meta descriptions and incorporating a key term or two will earn you that top spot, you are mistaken. The Google SERP is a merciless territory, and you need to either adapt your strategy to suit users’ needs or face falling into the abyss on page 2…3…10…67!

Google is going to do what Google does, and that’s moulding the SERPs to maximise user convenience. If that means whipping a couple of websites off the first page and onto the second then that is what they will do. However it is important to stay resilient and have faith in the ability of your website. If it hosts the right content, is optimised correctly and technically sound, you might be ok.

There is also some comfort in knowing that this tech giant can only go so far. Back in June 2017, the European Union handed Google a €2.42bn fine for manipulating the SERP to favour its own comparison shopping service. Lyric website, Genius, also instigated a lawsuit for $50 million, claiming that Google had violated antitrust law by copying song lyrics from its website through a clever watermarking scheme.

Evidence that the SERP ship will keep on sailing

Amazon

Despite Google already dominating 90% of search engine market share, there has been increasing concern over the majority of product searches starting on Amazon, and unsurprisingly, Google is now working to follow suit. The search giant recently launched a new shopping platform that aims to be the go-to when finding items not available on Amazon. This comes after the revelation that only 22% of consumers are satisfied with their online shopping experience – a fact that Google has decided to improve in its own way.

Google lists similar products together with their prices encouraging the consumer to opt for the cheapest offer. When the user clicks on the product (through the shopping widget) they will be directed to the Google shopping platform. From here they can further click to view the product, see price comparisons and buy the product directly (all while being covered by a Google guarantee). There is no need to visit the retailer site at all.

Google’s BERT algorithm update

The long-term effects of the BERT update back in November are only just beginning to rear their heads. BERT was partly designed to target the results derived from long-tail searches and have since increased the number of featured snippets in 25 different languages. Featured snippets (FS) are special boxes where the format of a regular listing is reversed, showing descriptive content first. They usually hog the first part of the SERP and push organic results further down the page.

Furthermore, since Jan 2020, if you do succeed in obtaining a snippet, that URL will no longer be shown in the organic listings underneath. SEO’s have to choose between one or the other, depending on how much value each brings. This deduplication has resulted in severe drops in CTR for many sites across the board.

Growing Google SERP accessories

  • Ads – Up to four ads can be displayed at the top of the SERP and up to four at the bottom, leaving a lucky few organic results sandwiched between the two.
  • Rich Snippets – A rich snippet sits below the blue title on the SERP. It can include a picture, rating and extended description. They stand out from other results and usually generate a higher click through rate.
  • People also ask – This box is full of related queries to your original search and appears on the first page for pretty much all searches no matter the length of the query. When clicked it can answer your questions with no need to delve further to find the information’s original source. Written a short essay on how to boost your organic traffic? The likelihood is that the user will only read the most relevant paragraph regurgitated in the designated slot on Google and move on – that is, if your content is lucky enough to be featured in the first place.

The SERP epidemic is spreading to all corners of industry. Google job listings, flight price comparisons, hotel suggestions, Google thesaurus and dictionary not to mention the weather and Google reviews are all piled on the first page, distracting your target audience from executing your desired call to action.

What can you do to combat zero-click search?

Combating the zero-click epidemic is no easy feat. It takes a dedicated SEO team, a deep understanding of your niche, constant analysis of the changing SERP and the realisation that content must be produced for the user, not the search engine.

Get this right and you’re on the right track to effectively compete with Google and win back lost organic traffic. Contact us to talk about getting your metrics right first time around and help set your website on the right track for SEO success.

 

 

 

All You Need to Know About Google’s Jan 2020 Core Update

Posted on by Chloe

Google brings out around a thousand updates every year. Some of them, however, have more of an impact on the order of their search results than others.

Recently, a core algorithm updates, known as the January 2020 Core Update  was rolled out internationally and was ‘mostly done’ by the 16th. Known as a ‘broad update’, it’s an update that doesn’t apply specifically to any type of website, industry, region or language.

Reports have been coming in from many webmasters that saw a major impact on the rankings of their websites, and this is why here at Fibre we make it our business to fully understand Google updates and how they can affect our clients. Some of the industries which looked like they were seeing the biggest impact are arts & entertainment, finance, games and news & sports.

What Has Changed with the January 2020 Core Update?

Google’s main aim is to make it as easy as possible for its users to access the information that they are looking for and their updates to the search algorithms are mainly aligned to this. In the past few years, it has been mainly about content – following their E-A-T mantra: Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.

The January 2020 update builds on their other updates to ensure that websites that offer relevant, insightful and expert information get rewarded with higher rankings. If your website has slipped down the rankings it doesn’t necessary mean that you have done something wrong – just that someone else might be doing it better than you.

What is interesting to note is that there were fewer changes than the previous core update, which rolled out in September 2019. These decreasing fluctuations indicate that Google is becoming confident in how they assess a site’s quality and therefore, will not deviate as much from previous updates – they’re just furthering the changes they’ve been making over the past few years.

YMYL

One of the most common speculations is that this update involved yet another reassessing of YMYL (Your Money Or Your Life) sites, as reports across Twitter suggest that websites belonging to this category were victimised, particularly if they had thin content. As mentioned earlier, sites operating within the finance industry were affected, along with those involved in the health sectors.

If Google was targeting sites with Trust issues, then it only makes sense for YMYL sites to be hit as hard as they were. There were mixed results across the board – some saw improvements while others did not. Either way, it’s highly likely that they’ll be impacted again by future updates that will undoubtedly occur sometime down the line.

What Can You Do to Improve your Google Ranking?

According to Google, “One way to think of how a core update operates is to imagine you made a list of the top 100 movies in 2015. A few years later in 2019, you refresh the list. It’s going to naturally change. Some new and wonderful movies that never existed before will now be candidates for inclusion. You might also reassess some films and realize they deserved a higher place on the list than they had before. The list will change, and films previously higher on the list that move down aren’t bad. There are simply more deserving films that are coming before them.”

This means that there isn’t much that you can do that is new to ensure that your website is ranked up there near to the top of Google’s all-important search ratings. However, the same principals apply as before and making sure that your website is optimised is vital. An SEO consultant can help you to make your website effective and easily found by your customers and potential customers.

Content

The main key to having a good google ranking in January 2020 is all about content. You need to make sure that your content is reliable, authoritative and that you know what you are talking about. To need to make sure that your content is accurate and information taken from expert sources.

You also need to make sure that your content is completely original and not a re-hash of other content that already exists. Try adding a new perspective, one which uses information taken from a range of reliable sources, with concise titles – and titles that are accurate in the description of the body of your content. It appears that those websites which have been the most affected by the algorithm changes are those with content that is lacking in quality.

Links

You should also consider links in your content. Try linking to your ‘About Us’ page – showing that you are an authority in your field – and make sure that you ‘About Us’ page clearly states how you have grown to be experts as well as any credentials that you have.

Furthermore, if you don’t have one already, it would be a good time to implement an external link building strategy.

Mobile

It is also important, of course, to ensure that your website is fully functional for those who are using mobile devices – both in its navigation and display of content.

Although these changes in algorithm might seem to be disruptive, they are just an extension of Google’s quest to give their customers the best experience that they can. With a good content strategy and attention placed on the quality of your website, you can make sure that you don’t suffer from these changes.

 

How to Effectively Track Your Organic Conversions

Posted on by Chloe

Any time a customer visits your site and carries out your desired call to action – make a purchase, sign up to a newsletter – it’s called a conversion. Organic conversions are those that come from traffic generated from search engines due to their relevance rather than paid advertising. Since this is the essence of your business, properly understanding your organic conversion rate is essential.

Google Analytics is one of the primary tools that SEO professionals use to track conversions. If you’ve previously found the idea intimidating, don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as it first seems, and gets much easier once you dive in and start experimenting. You can even play around with dummy data in a Demo Account so you don’t have to worry about making mistakes with real data.

The success of your campaign comes down to understanding the available data to track conversions, i.e. determine if your efforts are actually working. For example, if you’re experimenting with content marketing, you’ll need real insight into how often to publish new material, which articles are being read, by whom and at what time of day, and whether these readers ever progress to making a purchase or signup. Here’s how to get started using Analytics to get a handle on your conversions.

Google Analytics, step by step

Before you start, you’ll naturally need a Google account, and to sign up for Google Analytics (which is free and pretty easy to do). Once you know what your tracking ID is, the tracking code is embedded into the HTML of every page of your site so it can send information to Google.

You could essentially stop there and get a third-party tool to analyse your data for you. However, it’s worth taking the time to do what you can yourself, since every business is going to be unique, and a more tailored approach will yield a better result.

Create conversion goals

Before you can get started, you need to set up concise and realistic conversion goals. Think carefully about what you consider a conversion in the context of your site.

  1. Find the Admin tab and locate the “View” column, then click on “Goals.”
  2. Choose “New Goal.”
  3. Under “Goal Setup,” you’ll see plenty of options, but you want to scroll down and choose “Custom.”
  4. Next, you’ll be prompted to name and describe your goal – select “destination” as the type for now.

Add your tracking code to your web page headers

What you have to do next is link this to your “thank you” page – the page that appears to your customer after they’ve made a purchase, signed up or any other desirable call to action.

  1. After “Goal Setup” and “Description,” enter the URL of the page into “Goal Details.” You can optionally add how much each signup or purchase is worth to you (this requires a separate calculation using average customer lifetime value and customer acquisition rate).
  2. Remember that if you have multiple campaigns, you’ll need to set up separate goals for each of them, so take your time. Each should have its own thank you page (or equivalent) so you can separate them out when you analyse the data.
  3. Once you’re happy, turn the recording status to “on” and Google will start tracking!

View your data

  1. Select “Acquisition” > “Overview” > “Conversion,” and your new goal to take a look at the data – at first there won’t be anything. In time you’ll be able to see the channels that perform the best, and how many times someone has visited your site.
  2. Check the third column, “Conversion Rate,” to see which channels have the highest conversion rates – these are the channels you obviously want to focus on. The more data you collect over time and the more you fine-tune your methods, the more you’ll understand exactly how customers are behaving on your site and adjust accordingly.

Think in terms of customer journeys

Once you get a handle on your conversion data, you might start to become curious about more than just the very last click on your customer’s path to that final sale or signup. The Attribution tab on the left side will give you more insight into the different ways you can track and analyse the customer journey, so you can give credit for the conversion where it’s due. This allows you to focus your efforts where they really matter and optimise correctly.

If you’re new to using Google Analytics, the key is to start small and take your time. There’s plenty to wrap your head around, but thankfully you can get started right away with just a few principles in place. As most SEO experts will tell, the best way to learn how is to jump in and ‘trial-and-error’ it for yourself.