Starting out in the world of SEO can be a bit daunting, especially when you’re working on a new site. Nevertheless, getting just a few basics right can be enough to start seeing real results, whatever your marketing goals are. A good rule of thumb is to begin by tackling the fundamentals first, and leave the more complex SEO techniques for your SEO marketing team – especially since the more exotic methods tend not to have as great an effect on your results as simply doing the basics correctly.
Here’s a list of things you can do when working on a new website.
Understand what SEO is
In a nutshell, SEO is Search Engine Optimisation, so any techniques and methods you use to improve your visibility to search engines like Google. You can pay for traffic and clicks (PPC), but SEO is largely used for organic results. People tend to click overwhelmingly on the first few highest-ranking results and ignore the rest – hence the need for SEO to make sure you appear in these top coveted positions.
The main goal is to make sure that search engines can easily find your page. Your content, keywords and technical SEO will affect how you show up in search results, but you need to understand exactly how a) the search engine is viewing your site and, more importantly, b) how your visitors are viewing it.
Both search engines and users are looking for content that is actually relevant to their search terms. Though keywords are important, the overall quality and richness of content makes the difference. Your content should be posted regularly, and needs to be trustworthy, useful, authoritative (i.e. you’re an expert voice or link to one) and somewhat novel.
Setting up Google Analytics
Whatever SEO methods you end up using, you’re going to need a way to track and monitor their effectiveness so you can adjust as needed. The most popular (and free) way to do this is via Google Analytics. You’ll first need to create and then sign into your account. Set up what’s called a “property” (i.e. your website) and then set up a reporting view for this property – the app itself will guide you through this process. Finally, you’ll need to add a tracking code to the website so Google can begin gathering and analysing data from it.
Once you’ve acquired some data, you can look at how your site is performing. Take a look at your main page and click “All Sessions.” Look at the audience overview and select “organic traffic.” From these menus you can customise which data stream you look at.
Using Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a fantastic free tool that tells you how often your site has been crawled, what Google thinks of your site, and any issues that it may have. Here you’ll find valuable data such as how often your site appears in Google’s search results, which search queries conjure your site, and how often users click through for those queries. You could also use a rank tracker to see how specific keywords are performing, and adjust as you go, making sure that you’re staying relevant compared to your competition.
Keyword Discovery
Keyword research is another thing you can get started with even as a beginner, bearing in mind that a huge proportion of sites ever created are never actually searched for. Understanding your niche and what your customers want can help you brainstorm keywords, but you can also check what words work for your competitors, or use a keyword discovery tool. Here, you put in “seed keywords” (broad terms relating to your niche) and it generates some ideas to further investigate.
Starting a Blog Page
A simple way to begin creating useful content (with keywords) is to start a blog page. Whatever platform you’ve used to create your site, simply spend some time making a well-indexed blog page with content that genuinely addresses your readers’ problems and adds value. A blog is a great way to build content and increase your ranking and visibility. To brainstorm topics, think of your visitors search terms, and use these as keywords to organise an article or guide.
Once you’ve generated some content, you can begin to optimise those keywords, and build in internal and external links. Take the time to include keywords in titles, meta descriptions, and title tags – and don’t forget to include them in your image tags and captions, too.
The next steps
As you begin to feel more comfortable with various SEO tactics and your new website starts to flourish, you can also start various other tasks, such as:
Schema markup, which will improve the search result appearance – for both search engines and humans.
Signing up to Google My Business (GMB), to help ensure that your local area can find your business online, so they can visit you later.
Submitting your sitemap.
Optimising your site for mobile and ensuring that it loads quickly for your online visitors.
As your website continues to grow, the number of SEO strategies to use will increase. But by applying the tips above, you’re already on the right track.
Most people are only ever going to look at the first page of search results, with most of their clicks going to just the first three hits. Since keywords are used by search engines to decide who ranks within search results, it makes sense to optimise keywords to get as much organic traffic as possible. We’ve compiled a few practical ways you can do this below.
Firstly, a keyword is any word or phrase that describes your content. These are (or should be) the words that users type into a search engine, and they’re also the words that a search engine is going to use to index your site, so it knows exactly what to show people when they make a search query.
Knowing this, it’s clear what the overall goal of keyword use is to make your content seem as relevant as possible.
Devise a focused content strategy
It’s never enough to simple stuff content with keywords you guess are appropriate. Each piece of content ideally should focus on one keyword. The keyword discovery process can be done on your own or with a marketing team – look for “people also searched for” for some easy clues. You could also access your Google Search Console to find out what keywords people are already using when they arrive at your site.
Single word keywords may be more natural, but you’re facing enormous competition with them – try to think of some long tail keywords as well (for example, “best affordable wedding venues Devon”), to really hone in on your site.
Think about where to place your keywords
An SEO marketing team can help you with the technical SEO side of things, but you can get started by adding keywords to titles. A title summarises the page and is the first thing people will read. There are apps and software to tweak titles for maximum potential in search rankings (such as Yoast) or you can simply take care to make sure your keywords are appearing as early as possible in the title.
Meta-descriptions fall underneath headings in the search result, and need to contain keywords. You’ve taken the time to craft high-quality and value-adding content, now you need to summarise it clearly. You may also choose to structure your subheadings so they appear in a featured snippet or question box – these need to be very relevant to your content and the search query.
Your keywords obviously have to appear in the content itself. It’s worth being careful here, since unnatural tactics like keyword stuffing can actually damage your rankings. Use your primary keywords in both your title and preferably within the first and last 200 words or so of the text. If you can, keywords in the very first paragraph are even better.
Finally, make sure you have some keywords in your various subheadings, and also in the anchor text of your links – but try to keep it varied. Put keywords in your image-alt tabs, and in your website URL. Depending on your content marketing strategy, you may like to highlight keywords in any social media posts you make.
Decide on how many keywords to use
Aim for around 5 to 10 keywords per piece. To make this easier, brainstorm just one primary keyword and then think of some additional secondary keywords. If you’re unsure if you’re using too many, the test is simple – if the flow seems unnatural or forced, you need to remove keywords. Another rule of thumb is to distribute keywords so there’s one every 100 to 150 words, or about one per paragraph.
Use keywords naturally in high quality content
Your main goal with a sound content creation strategy is to produce content that is high quality and extremely relevant to readers. You need to appeal to potential customers while making it easy for search engines to rank you highly.
It’s your primary keyword that should appear in the most obvious and prominent locations, with your secondary and additional keywords appearing more dispersed throughout the rest of the content. When in doubt, always prioritise your human readers above the search engine algorithms.
Some keywords are just naturally more awkward than others, but you have some wiggle room and can use stop words to make things flow better. For example, the keyword “marquee hire Devon” can also be “Marquee hire in Devon” without affecting how it appears to Google’s web crawlers.
With these few basic tips, you’re well on your way to creating an effective keyword strategy.
Since it started back in 1997, Google has dominated the world on online search, currently holding a massive 87% of the market.
However, several developments over recent weeks suggest that this could soon be coming to an end with the potential development of a search engine by Apple. These rumours are nothing new. When the Applebot was announced back in 2015, the SEO world got excited this could point to something big.
So what is all the fuss about? Why are SEO experts getting excited about a potential Apple search engine, and could it be true? Let’s take a closer look at the evidence.
1. Applebot has become more active
According to several SEO experts such as Jon Henshaw from Coywolf, Applebot has suddenly become much more active, crawling websites much more frequently than it has done in the past.
“Checking my server logs on WP Engine revealed that Applebot had been regularly crawling my sites daily, something I haven’t noticed until now,” he said.
The Applebot is used for Siri and Spotlight Search to search websites and rank them in much the same way as Google, so this sudden increase could suggest something is indeed in the works.
2. Apple have announced more job vacancies
A quick look at the Jobs at Apple web pages show an increase in the number of job vacancies for search engineers across Siri Search, Apple Maps and the app store itself. As one such advert reads;
“The App Store engineering team is looking for engineers dedicated to improving the search experience across the platform in order to aid content discovery and acquisition.”
However, this isn’t necessarily cause for excitement- most large companies continue to recruit new staff when developing and improving new platforms, features and tech.
For example, back in 2013, Apple acquired the entire social search firm, Topsy to help with indexing and searching expertise, and ended up developing Spotlight Search as a result. An increase in recruitment could simply point to their continued desire to improve Apple products for their customers.
3. Apple have recently updated their Applebot support page
The Applebot support page has been completely revamped over the last few months, with information on web ranking factors also updated. This include the following changes:
New information on how to verify traffic from Applebot
Expended robots.txt rules
New section on search rankings and ranking factors they use
Expanded information on Applebot user agent with information on desktop vs mobile versions
New section to say they don’t only crawl HTML but render pages in a similar way to Google.
Like the increase in search engineer vacancies at Apple, these could simply suggest that they continue to improve and refine their existing tools. Having said that, these changes are focused on search rankings, crawling and performance…
4. UK and European regulators aren’t happy about Google’s dominance of the market
The deal that Google has with Apple that makes it the default search engine on Apple products such as Safari for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS could soon be coming to an end.
For a long time, both users and regulators across Europe have expressed their frustration about the way in which Google dominates the search market.
Back in July, Google were forced to create a ‘search choice’ screen for android users setting up their new devices. Given greater choice, more users could make the switch away from Google, creating a gap in the market that Apple could fill. Could this already be part of Apple’s plans?
5. Apple have already bypassed Google search with Spotlight Search
Spotlight Search is the Apple tool that allows you to find information stored on your phone or on the web and aims to help you find what you need faster. In the past, this has led the user through the Google search engine to their result.
However, the new version of Spotlight Search for iOS and iPadOS 14 completely skips Google and takes users directly to the web pages they need. As explained on Apple news website, Mac Rumors, “…you can hit the “Go” button to open the website directly without having to tap a link in the search results.”
Combined with the other developments we’ve seen recently, this is perhaps the most interesting of them all and does seem to suggest we’ll see more from Apple search.
Final thoughts
Apple is famous for always being visionary, putting privacy first and going beyond user expectations. If the rumours about Apple developing their own search engine are in fact true, this could potentially reshape the world of search, open the market up to further competition and change the way that website developers and SEO experts achieve the best results.
This can only be a good thing, pushing towards new technological advancements and a better overall user experience for us all.
“Black Hat” tactics are the dark side of SEO, and, as you can guess, they’re frowned upon across the board, since they violate Google’s terms of service in order to improve rankings. Any competent marketing team will tell you that good SEO takes time and constant adjustment. While black hat SEO may appear to be a useful cheat code that helps cut corners, you’ll want to stay vigilant. By being familiar with the many different underhanded tactics out there, you can ensure you’re playing fair and avoiding the penalties and damage to your site reputation.
Black hat link building techniques
Being one of the most important aspects of search engine algorithms, links are understandably one of the most frequently manipulated aspects of SEO. Beware of links that are bought, sold, traded or exchanged, and especially avoid private blog networks (PBNs) or “link farms” created solely to supply links.
Unnatural links or automated programs are a red flag, as are over-optimised internal links, “linkbait” or spammy links, particularly those crammed into footers. A routine site audit will give you an idea of how links are functioning on your site. The solution for any kind of iffy linking is simple: always focus on excellent content, genuine relationships with industry experts and natural links to active, reputable sites – err on the side of caution for anything else.
Black hat content tactics
Content quality is another important factor when it comes to determining rankings. The “white hat” SEO approach is to create up-to-date, high quality, trustworthy and authoritative content, and as long as this is your focus, you’re unlikely to fall foul of Google’s terms of service.
Be aware, however, that certain practices are dodgy even if they seem relatively harmless. Keyword stuffing is unacceptable, especially if it’s obviously unnatural. “Cloaking” happens when a site shows different content to the searcher than it does to the search engine – the latter being packed with keywords. The same can be done with white words on a white background or by hiding text behind an image. Always remember that the main function of keywords is to make your user’s life easier, not to manipulate a search engine.
Article spinning is essentially rewriting content to distribute all over the web, to avoid creating duplicate content. While this can be a legitimate white hat practice, it’s important that every version actually adds some value or relevance, and is not simply churned out to create links. Responsible content syndication makes efforts to create meaningful, varied pieces and not near-copies. Avoid auto-generated content if it sounds obviously unnatural – remember, your goal is to add value to the reader.
It goes without saying, but “malicious content” (viruses, malware, unwanted downloads, spyware, and annoying pop-ups) are a definite no-no. Scraping content or plagiarising other people’s work is likewise unforgivable – always give appropriate credit where it’s due.
Finally, clickbait is an easily avoidable black hat technique, as are “bait and switch” tactics where a link leads somewhere other than where it promises. Make sure your links lead to relevant content and that you aren’t piggy backing on unrelated traffic.
Black hat social network methods
Bots used to spam Facebook, YouTube or Instagram with fake comments or likes are obviously underhanded. It’s important to have a clear social media marketing strategy, so you know precisely what you’re doing, and to report and avoid any suspicious activity. If you’re unsure, consult an SEO team for guidance. Guest posts, for example, can be problematic if they’re low quality and add no value. Tailored, carefully researched content and collaborations are always preferred.
More serious tactics
Things like rich snippet markup spam (marking up content that is irrelevant or misleading), automated queries to Google to query rankings (via specialised software) or negative SEO aimed at decreasing the rank of other pages are all more sophisticated techniques that you’re unlikely to fall into by accident.
Nevertheless, it’s wise to be on the lookout for such attacks on your own site, including having your content stolen, fake reviews, unwanted spammy links or URL injection spam (where a hacker creates new spam-filled links and pages on your site).
While these and other black hat techniques may offer a temporary rankings boost, in the long term you risk serious penalties that are simply not worth it. Unfortunately, other people using black hat tactics are a fact of life, but it’s not too difficult to make sure you’re avoiding them completely and staying in the clear. Regular site audits and a sound marketing strategy will help you get the results you want, without breaking the rules.
If you’re a business owner or entrepreneur, you know that SEO is essential when it comes to getting noticed. You know that it will help improve your search rankings, attract more potential customers and help you to grow your business.
But there’s one tiny problem.
You don’t have a clue when it comes to the difference between off-site, on-site, and technical SEO, let alone why they matter.
So let us help out. In this article, we’ll break down what each of these are and what’s involved, then share a few tips on how you can get started with each.
Off-site SEO
Off-site SEO refers to anything you do outside of your website to improve your search rankings. This includes link building,content marketing, social media, podcasts, Google My Business, reviews, and citations.
When you do this, you’ll be building connections between your website and business, and the rest of the digital world. Your brand or business will be mentioned and linked to online, which will help drive traffic towards your business, help your customers discover you, and help build your brand.
As we mentioned a few months back in our post on brand building; “Building your online brand can have a number of significant benefits such as creating awareness and interest in your business, attracting new customers, growing your business online, and securing repeat customers. All of these are important factors in any successful business.”
But that’s not all.
It also shows Google that you have authority in your field, that your audience/customers trust you and that you are relevant to your topic. In short, this greatly impacts on your potential search rankings.
According to SEO software creators, Moz, “…data from our Search Engine Ranking Factors study show that off-site SEO-related factors likely carry more than 50% of the ranking factor weight.”
How to improve your off-site SEO
If you want to improve your off-site SEO, you need to invest time in marketing your business. This includes building connections within your local community and industry, creating guest posts, using social media, optimising your Google My Business page, creating natural links and getting people to share your content.
On site SEO
As you’d expect from the name, on-site SEO refers to everything you do on your website. This can include creating and optimising content, internal links, title tags and meta tags, featured snippets, image optimisation, keyword optimisation, and so on.
Although Google uses a range of ranking factors these days, Google does still use this stuff to rank your website. By getting this stuff right, you will significantly improve your website ranking and so improve your visibility online.
But let’s not forget that great SEO isn’t just about ranking highly. If you optimise these elements correctly, you will also make your website much more user-friendly. It will be much easier for your audience to find the information they need and enjoy the overall experience. Again, this converts to a better overall user experience and greater brand loyalty.
How to improve your on-site SEO
Start by looking for any problem and then fixing them immediately. This might include creating meta tags and descriptions, using keywords in your content, optimising your images and so on.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO related to the more complicated elements of SEO. It’s the stuff that directly impacts how the search engines index and crawl your website. This includes things like site speed, structured data, and sitemaps.
You’d be right if you’re thinking that there’s a certain amount of overlap with the other types of SEO. But technical SEO takes this to another level to further optimise your website’s search performance.
It’s important to get this right because these factors play an important role in getting organic traffic. After all, if a search engine can’t crawl your site, it can’t share it with your potential audience and customers.
How to improve your technical SEO
Start by performing a site audit to analyse your website and highlight areas for improvement. For example, how quickly do your webpages load? Is your website mobile-friendly? From this information, you can devise a plan then systematically work through each element. This can be complicated, so it’s usually best to hire an expert unless you’re very tech savvy.
Summary
To quickly recap, off-site, on-site, and technical SEO are all vitally important when it comes to optimising your website.
Each refers to different aspects of the same game.
Off-page SEO refers to those general digital marketing activities you do outside your website.
On-page SEO refers to what you do on your website.
Technical SEO refers to the detailed optimisation for the search bots.
Many of the tweaks and improvements you’ll need to make to optimise your website are relatively straightforward to do yourself. But to get it right, it’s better to hire an expert.
It seems obvious to say that excellent product pages should have two characteristics: they should appeal to your customer and be optimally tuned for SEO. It’s simple in theory, but a little trickier to put theory into practice. A product page is like any other content page in terms of SEO, but it’s the crucial moment when your customer decides to make a purchase. Cultivating trust requires a smooth user experience, consistency in design and layout, and well-indexed reviews and product information that will make it easy for your customer to find exactly what they need, as fast as possible.
Get the basics right
User experience is paramount. You’ll need a captivating title that showcases the product name, being as specific as is comfortable and appropriate. Product descriptions should be unique – don’t use the manufacturer’s content as this will appear all over the web (i.e. it’s duplicate content).
The word count is not as important as the relevance; spend time considering what your customer actually wants to know about this product. What’s the shelf life? Which colours, sizes or types are available and what are the different prices? Is assembly required? What’s included in the package? Is it compatible with other products? Can you think of creative, suggested uses your customer hasn’t? Is there a seasonal or time-limited aspect? Your description should speak to your customer’s desires and offer concrete, appealing solutions they can imagine in their own lives.
Finally, don’t forget a meta description, also unique, or risk Google defaulting to using strange text. Bullet lists, proper paragraphing and videos will go a long way. Your URL should be simple to remember, and your images should be high quality with ALT text, so you appear better in visual searches.
Structure your data using the “Product” schema in your page code will make sure you appear with rich results. Do the same with the “Review” or “Rating” schema. This means that search engines will be able to recognise the key elements of product pages, index them properly, and generate rich snippets in search results that clearly show price, star rating, number of reviews, stock availability etc. This is great for users and shapes their expectations of your product before they even land on your page.
Optimise category pages
Customers are most likely to search for board, category level terms than more specific items. In any ecommerce page hierarchy, category pages rank highly, yet they may be the least optimised because they have the least content. An expert team can help you do the keyword research necessary for category-level SEO.
Check on your site speed
It’s a shame to spend so much effort and money to get a customer to click on your page only to have them wander off when they feel they’ve waited too long for it to load. Page loading speed is easy to overlook, but every second matters. Check with your SEO team to see whether site speed could be hindering your SEO efforts, and find ways to fix it.
Make sure your reviews are up to scratch
Customers love reviews. Most will put enormous weight into the number and quality of a product’s reviews. Actively court reviews from buyers and put the reviews you have front and centre. A negative review is a blessing in disguise: reach out to the user and see how you can solve the issue, and possibly convert them into a positive rating. At the very least, customers enjoy seeing a genuine and thoughtful response to any valid criticism – perhaps even more so than they trust uniformly excellent ratings!
Conduct user testing to see how people interact with your page
Your user experience may be worse than you think. The Baymard Institute released a study showing that the average site has a whopping 24 structural UX issues, with most earning only “poor” or “mediocre” UX ranking. Poor images, out of date or irrelevant shipping information, image inconsistencies and the like erode trust and credibility.
Scanning your Google Analytics data will help you understand how people are finding and navigating around your pages, but an expert SEO team can help you really dig into the details of your typical user’s experience and how it could be improved. You might like to switch to search terms and descriptions more favoured by your customers or reword FAQs.
As part of your routine site audit (i.e. checking your sitemap, structure, internal links, breadcrumbs, design, UX, overall SEO performance etc.), it’s worth taking the time to fine-tune your product page SEO.
The topic of disavowing links has always been a hotly debated one, with SEO experts disagreeing on whether to disavow “bad” links, and how this might affect site rankings on Google. Though the extent is debatable, ranking algorithms still do factor in link quality, so a poor link could very well damage search rankings. With all the changes and challenges bought by 2020, we are finding it wise to regularly audit links for their relevance and quality. Let’s take a closer look at how and why to disavow backlinks – and how to determine whether you need to do it at all.
A brief intro on disavowing
In the past, Google ranked pages by link quality via PageRank, but this system was quickly exploited. The Penguin algorithm update in 2012 aimed to discourage sites with an abundance of spammy links. These sites could only recover by removing those bad links, and hence Google’s Disavow tool was born. Later, Penguin 4.0 saw an important change: Google wouldn’t penalise low quality links so much as devalue them, meaning you only needed to disavow a link if you’d received a notice to this effect, i.e. a “manual action.”
Fast forward to today, and Google maintains that disavowing links will not do much to help your site’s ranking. The unofficial position, however, is a little more ambiguous, with Google’s John Mueller claiming that disavowing may in fact benefit some sites. Ultimately, disavowing can help in some cases, but Google makes it rather difficult to use the necessary tool – and going too far can definitely backfire.
Understanding manual actions
You can find out your site status by looking in the Google Search Console under “manual actions.” This is simply when Google lets you know that it plans to omit/penalise certain lower quality content from search results. Penalised links can include anything from keyword stuffing or hidden text, unnatural or inorganically received links, automated links, PBNs, comment and forum spam, influencer-inspired/paid links, suspicious redirects, thin content and the like.
Is it a good idea to disavow?
As with most things SEO-related, it all depends. Just how low quality are the links and how much are they affecting rankings? A good rule of thumb is to only disavow when you literally have no other option. For example, first reach out to the owners of low-quality links pointing to your site and ask for them to be removed, using disavowal only as a last resort. Ultimately, it’s an advanced feature that should be used carefully since it could cause more harm than good.
What if I don’t have a manual action?
Before you do anything, you need a comprehensive link audit to properly understand how your links are performing. Rest assured that Google will ignore all but those links that your SEO team are directly responsible for. In appraising link quality, look for anything that violates Google’s terms, such as paid links, link schemes and reciprocal linking/swapping, suspicious anchor texts, articles with links to dodgy sites, malware and cloaked sites, or “pills, poker and porn.”
If these links don’t generate revenue and also don’t affect your organic search traffic, then the solution may be as simple as removing the page completely.
Tips for effective disavowing
Naturally, remove any links you’ve received a manual order for.
Focus on creating links with value to human readers, and which will boost your site’s domain authority and trust.
Unless you’re ultra-confident with SEO, use a backlink monitoring tool or consult an SEO team for expert advice on exactly which links to disavow as part of your routine site audit.
Check that you’re receiving links from high-authority, industry relevant sites.
Links to expired domains or overly regional content may slip through ordinary filters, so keep an eye out for them.
Generally, the most likely culprits are links that have over-optimised anchor text, links that are not industry relevant or links that seem spammy, so start with those.
Don’t assume that removing any old link will automatically improve rankings – it may just do the opposite.
Finally, there’s plenty of wiggle room, and many links will fall in a generous grey area.
The best strategy
Overall, your focus should be on maintaining the highest quality outbound links possible and disavowing those that are obviously and significantly harming your organic search results – otherwise tread carefully. Keep an eagle eye on any incoming links that could be harming your site’s reputation. Even scrupulous link audits can miss a few bad links, but this relatively small risk should be weighed up against your overall SEO priorities, the risk of disavowing incorrectly, and your marketing strategy in general.
Several months into lockdown and the country is still cautiously trying to navigate its way into the post-COVID world. Some industries have been massively and permanently altered by the pandemic, while others are scrambling to find creative ways to stay afloat in changing times. How has the SEO world been affected, and more specifically, what lies in store for SEO workers and for the way businesses show up in searches?
Google’s Gary Illyes recently set up four Twitter polls and asked SEOs around the world how the virus had impacted their work. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results were mixed, with some reporting barely any change and others reporting massive differences.
Almost half claimed that the pandemic actually increased their SEO-related workload; just 20% claimed it had decreased, and 30% noticed no change. When asked whether it was harder to convince decision makers on the value of SEO services, the results were again mixed – 37% said it had gotten harder, but 31 and 32% said it had gotten easier, or there had been no change, respectively.
Did this happen because SEO workers were pitching differently during the crisis? When Illyses asked about this, the result was split three ways, with roughly a third each claiming they spent less time, more time, or roughly the same time pitching as before. Perhaps the most revealing result came when people were asked about their experience working with developers on SEO projects. A full 55% said it had stayed the same, 30% said it got harder, and only around 15% said it had gotten easier.
What are we to make of these results? As with most things in SEO, there is seldom a simple, straightforward answer. Polls like this go to show that SEO’s range is so broad that it can be challenging to pinpoint trends sometimes. In the end, exactly how any one industry or business is affected will depend heavily on their marketing strategy before the pandemic, the nature of the business, and how swiftly that business responds to the new challenges.
The virus has changed what people search for. For example, e-commerce is experiencing increases across the board, but less so for more non-essential items. Health and wellness sites are seeing traffic boosts as are some recipe sites, but the travel industry is a little more complicated – searches for flights may be up, but could be simply due to people seeking cheaper deals. Most restaurants are having to pivot into home delivery (making things like Google Posts useful for updates).
Ultimately, the answer to how the Coronavirus has affected SEO marketers and their clients’ campaigns is: it depends. The virus has affected every industry differently. The job of any SEO expert is to understand these unique changes and respond accordingly.
What have we been doing at Fibre Marketing?
When the pandemic hit, we had to adapt quickly and as efficiently as possible. Our client portfolio spans across a variety of industries that were affected in different ways. Because of this, each strategy we crafted was unique and adaptable, as the growing uncertainty resulted in almost daily updates and advice on what to do next.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the ways we helped navigate our clients through the Coronavirus crisis:
Google My Business Listings (GMBs)
One of the first major changes to search was the sudden release of GMB features, which allowed businesses to inform customers of their situation more accurately, as well as holding back on others. The option to mark your business as ‘Temporarily Closed’ was long-awaited, so we implemented this feature across clients’ GMBs ASAP. We also published a post for each one to ensure their customers and clients that they were operating smoothly, and how they were opening/closing.
As well as this, we made sure that any contact details were updated so that customers could reach the client as easy as possible – especially after Google temporarily suspended the posting of new GMB reviews.
As the pandemic changed search behaviour, we needed to ensure that our clients were making the most of any opportunities that arose. Monitoring the rapidly evolving trends and search frequencies, we worked with our clients to create content that suits the users’ interests, answered their questions, and capitalised on new, untapped searches to bring in organic traffic.
This was done in the forms of dedicated COVID-19 sections, which included resources designed with customers in mind. For our elderly care client, this section included: arranging support during lockdown, how carers and customers are keeping safe, and even a video on setting up a Zoom account so family members can stay in touch with their loved ones.
A shipping container client’s section is catered towards medical facilities that urgently require extra storage or modular hospital buildings. The content section explores the options available, offering discounts to both medical and charitable organisations. The portable hospital page, which is linked in this guide, now ranks 2nd for the term ‘portable hospital.’
Link Building
As more and more news updates, theories, and advice emerged daily, the type of content that users found valuable changed drastically. So, we had to quickly change our link building strategies to ensure that we’d continue building great backlink profiles.
To do this, we shifted the focus of our content to suit users’ demands and needs, including working from home and mental health. We also monitored Twitter for story requests from journalists and bloggers, recommending our clients as a valuable resource for their articles. For example, a journalist was on the hunt for recruitment experts who could provide tips on writing CVs. One of our clients – an engineering recruitment company – had a blog article already on their site, providing the information the journo wanted, so we reached out, shared our blog with her, and thus gained a link on a top-tier site.
This wasn’t the only campaign we created. Other campaigns included a guide to making care packages, a dedication to home carers to name a few – all of which positioned our clients as experts.
The coronavirus outbreak has changed everything for businesses across the world.
Some sectors have had to close their doors, send their staff home, and cut costs as much as they can. Others working in sectors like online learning, delivery services and conferencing tools have seen a surge in growth that has exceeded business forecasts.
But one thing is certain, digital marketing has changed overnight.
Numerous businesses have slashed their marketing budgets and paused their contracts as the lockdowns, social distancing and economic strains take their toll.
And given such an uncertain future, who can blame them?
However, this is a huge mistake that could haunt them for years to come.
By neglecting their marketing, they’ll allow their business to fall behind. They’ll miss out on this opportunity to tweak their SEO efforts, build their brand, and create a solid, loyal customer base that will drive future success.
In this short article, we’d like to share with you some effective ways you can work with a smaller marketing budget during times of coronavirus and continue to get results.
1. Stay calm
Even though we certainly have seen the markets fluctuate wildly over the last few months and some industries crash, things will return to relative normality eventually. For this reason, you definitely shouldn’t panic and pull the plug on your marketing efforts.
Instead, see this global crisis as an opportunity. Refine your existing marketing strategies. Learn more about what your customers want and need, then go about putting your knowledge into action.
That way, when normality does return, you’ll be ahead of your competition and ready to hit the ground running.
2. Make Google Trends your friend
Search behaviour, engagement and conversion rates are always in fluctuation, even more so at unstable times like these.
That’s why it’s even more important than ever to keep your ear to the ground and find out what people want. What problems do they have? What are they searching for? What are they buying?
Use Google Trends to monitor search habits and you’ll understand current market conditions as they happen. By doing this, you’ll be better able to make key decisions that relate to the marketing of your business.
This includes where to focus your marketing efforts, how to invest your budget, which tools you will use to reach your goals and even what kind of content you could create to meet these changing needs.
The same applies to keywords. Monitor Google Search Console and Keyword Rankings more closely than you otherwise would to understand the nature and volume of searches.
3. Consider reducing your PPC budget
If your research has shown that search volume is significantly decreased for your industry or niche or that your business is currently closed, it can be worth reducing your PPC budget for the time being.
This allows you to funnel your existing marketing budget into other marketing strategies that provide a better ROI, such as SEO.
If you absolutely don’t want to cancel your Google Ads, Facebook Ads or other PPC ads, consider how you could refine your efforts to make them perform better. Ask yourself the following questions:
Which campaigns are providing the best results?
Can we review our CTAs and update copy to become more relevant to the current situation?
Do we need to add new information to our ads? This includes changes to opening hours, delivery, pickup options.
4. Invest in SEO
To maximise your marketing efforts, consider allocating a greater portion of your budget to SEO.
When you do this, you’ll be marketing to those who already intend to buy. For obvious reasons, this means that every penny you invest is more likely to lead to conversions and profit for your business.
Effective SEO also makes it much easier for you to connect those potential customers with your product, even if they’re currently stuck at home and unable to physically buy your product or service at the moment.
Remember, your customers haven’t suddenly stopped wanting your product or service. It’s only their buying behaviour that has.
Tailor your marketing to them in a way that solves these problems and offers solutions and you will continue to build your brand and improve your organic visibility, regardless of what the market is doing.
If you can adapt to these current conditions, switch, or grow your SEO strategy and become as flexible as possible, you’ll be in a much better place to ride out the storm.
Here are a few ways you can improve your SEO marketing strategy
Conduct a content audit. See what you have of value and see if you can repurpose this content, rework it to meet your customers’ current needs or make it more relevant.
Tweak your on-page SEO. Can you optimise your CTAs? Could you add more internal links? [Request a free website audit here].
Create new content. Create new blog posts, videos, webinars, and other content to expand your audience, grow brand loyalty and help solve your customers’ problems. [More on Building Your Content Marketing Strategy here.]
Invest in link building. Build connections with others in your industry to increase your exposure and expand your audience. [Read more about this in our article ‘Link Building During the Coronavirus Outbreak’ here.]
Summary
Despite what your social media feed might be telling you right now, the downturn many businesses have faced thanks to the coronavirus won’t last forever. But how you react now will influence the success of your business for many years to come.
So stay calm and try not to react. Invest wisely in SEO to maximise your ROI. Be flexible, refine your efforts and you’ll be more likely to bounce back.
While we await the total for 2019, it is still clear to see that, when it comes to managing your website, you should not sit idle. Studies have shown that between 70-80% of users research a business online before making a purchase, meaning that being found online is vital for your company. As Google continues to roll out algorithm updates, it’s important to adjust your website as needed in order to boost your search visibility and gain first page rankings.
But with so many changes being made throughout the year, it can be hard to keep up. So, we’ve compiled a list of all algorithmic changes of 2020 so far, including the winners and losers, which we’ll update as time goes on.
January 13th – January 2020 Core Update
The first update of the year was announced by Google on January 13th, rolling out across the world and affecting all languages. Tracking tools showed high volatility for three days, with Google confirming that the update was ‘mostly done’ rolling out on the 16th.
Core updates do not target a particular industry, and anyone can be affected. They are designed to improve how Google’s systems rank content. The search engine giant explains this in more detail on their blog:
“…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.
Winners and Losers
Towards the end of 2019, most updates saw YMYL (your money or your life) sites as the most affected. This update was no different, particularly for the health and finance sectors. Very Well Health was one of the top winners, according to multiple sources, as was Yahoo Finance. A few dictionary sites came out triumphant, too. Meanwhile, a further group of healthcare sites fell victim.
Overall, this update has been duped by many as large and fierce, causing great tremors throughout top ten rankings.
January 23rd – Featured Snippet Deduplication
While this wasn’t exactly an algorithm update, the deduplication of featured snippets was still a considerable change that majorly affected websites’ click-through-rates (CTR).
Previously, featured snippets (pictured below) were counted as their own, stand-alone search engine results page (SERP) feature, not an organic search listing. If a site obtained a featured snippet, the same URL would also appear in the listings below as an ordinary listing.
On the 23rd, Google announced that, if a URL is featured in a snippet, it would not appear on the first page of search results. Thus aligning this SERP feature with Google’s claim that a featured snippet is an organic entity, counting as position number one. Before this deduplication, a featured snippet counted as position zero.
Winners and Losers
In this case, there were no obvious winners and losers to be precise, but many sites did report losses of traffic. This deduplication led to many site owners having to decide which they’d rather lose: a first-page ranking, or a featured snippet. Moz tried conducting a CTR study to see which loss would have a bigger impact, but unfortunately, it is impossible to decipher if clicks to a URL were from the featured snippet or the organic listing.
Overall, this major change was met with confusion and outcry and sparked much discussion over the future of featured snippets.
February 9th – Unconfirmed Search Ranking Update
While a core update has been denied by Google, we have decided to include it in this blog as there were significant amounts of chatter and tracker tools were off the charts for five days – longer than the standard algorithm updates.
From the February 9th, discussions of a suspected search update started to arise on Twitter and various web forums. SEO spokesperson Barry Shwartz reported the fluctuations as ‘really big, maybe even massive’ changes that were taking place. Many sites experienced severe traffic drops and spikes.
On the 13th, Google’s Danny Sullivan stated, ‘We do updates all the time’ in response to this speculation. This suggests that algorithmic changes were made during this time, just not on the same scale as a core update.
Winners and Losers
Unfortunately, it’s hard to decipher a clear sector that either benefitted or suffered the most following these changes. The suggested update occurred across the globe, and there were both winners and losers in a range of industries. There was even some speculation that several updates actually took place, as many of the sites that saw drops then experienced traffic increases a few days later. The one thing that was certain following the confusing five days was that some sort of changes were made – it’s just unclear what exactly those changes were.
May 4th – May 2020 Core Update
The second core update of the year began rolling out on May 4th and appeared to have mostly ended by the 7th. Rank Ranger dubbed this update as an ‘absolute monster’ as the effects appear more brutal than those which occurred in January. Furthermore, this update took place amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, which had already significantly affected a wide range of sites and caused a change in search patterns.
Winners and Losers
Unlike many other updates, the May core update appeared to have less focus on typical E-A-T areas and was broader than usual updates, making it harder to detect a clear winner or user. Marie Haynes claimed that Google is getting better at recognising which links are ‘truly recommendations for your content and which are self-made for SEO reasons.’
It was interesting to note that Spotify took a hit, despite it progressing steadily over the last few years.
As of today, 15th May, information surrounding this update is still rolling out, and so we will continue to update our blog with our findings.
June 23rd – Suspected Federal Update
On June 23rd, there were reports of another algorithm taking place, although Google is yet to comment. The SEO trackers were showing high volatility in the SERPs, and many reported significant gains.
What’s interesting about this update is that it seemed to target .gov sites, along with other YMYL industries, a trend which appears to be mirrored across the globe. This pattern is what led Barry Shwartz to label is update as ‘The Federal Update.’
Winners and Losers
.gov sites were not the only winners of this update; health and news sites were also affected. But it is clear to see that government sites were the ones impacted the most. It’s possible that Google now prefers these sites over other domains, due to their authority. Authority is part of the E-A-T metric that Google refers to in its Quality Rater Guidelines, so it’s only natural for .gov and .org sites to experience a boost in search visibility.
July 6th – Small Search Ranking Update
A small search ranking update may have taken place on 6th July, lasting until the 8th. While there wasn’t as much chatter surrounding this update as the last, some webmasters still detected some changes in their site traffic. This algorithm update targeted niche websites, and our SERP volatility tracker reported nothing more than a slight increase in movement amongst rankings.
Winners and Losers
It’s harder to say who the winners and losers were with this update, as only a small number of sites were affected. Education sites reportedly saw some movement, but it’s highly likely that a particular niche of sites was amongst those most affected, due to the small amount of volatility.
July 24 – Suspected Search Ranking Update & What SEO’s Get Wrong About Google’s Updates
Not long after the previous suspected update, another one came along. Only this time, it was much bigger, with our volatility tracker showing fluctuations amongst the SERPs for most industries.
To add to this, a few days later (28th July), Barry Shwartz published an article on Search Engine Land exploring what SEO’ers often get wrong about Google algorithm updates. Shwartz promotes the idea that we should stop obsessing over what Google is changing each time an update rolls out and focus on our websites instead. This is because most people blame their drops in traffic on updates, when, in reality, it’s because their websites usually aren’t up to scratch. The time spent trying to crack the algo updates should be spent on improving content, UX, link profiles and other ranking factors.
This coincides with a statement Google made in August 2019. They stated that, when it comes to improving your site following updates, ‘There’s nothing to fix.’ Nothing really changes when Google rolls out updates, only how they assess content. The search engine giant then followed this up with ‘We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward.’ Shwartz’s advice, therefore, aligns with Google’s own – but what do you think?
Marie Haynes chimed into this discussion, offering a few tips to help you decipher if any traffic losses are the result of a recent update. You should start by looking at any recent changes made to your site, as well as the number of pages that were affected. If a noticeable drop in traffic occurred within 48 hours of an algorithm’s start date, then that was likely the cause.
Winners and Losers
Many industries experienced some fluctuations, according to our volatility tracker. The sports, news and arts & entertainment industries saw drastic changes. According to SEMrush, victims included WorkingTitleFilms.com, Marvel and Talk Sport, whereas winners included GuitarWorld, Teen Vogue and TheStage.com.
August 10th – August 11th – 2020 Google Glitch
On Monday afternoon, Barry Schwartz reported one of the largest Google updates many had seen for a long time. He commented that it looked like there was “a big Google search ranking algorithm rolling out”, although it was not confirmed by Google.
By Monday night, many in the SEO community were noticing huge discrepancies in search results. Content that was once high-ranking suddenly seemed to drop several pages, while other low-ranking sites started popping up in the first pages of the SERPs.
However, it was soon revealed that this was not an update, but in fact a glitch.
On August 11th, Google commented on the glitch, “On Monday we detected an issue with our indexing systems that affected Google search results. Once the issue was identified, it was promptly fixed by our Site Reliability Engineers and by now it has been mitigated.”
Winners and Losers
Technically, there weren’t really any winners or losers in this scenario – as it was a glitch – but it was certainly interesting to see which sites temporarily ranked higher.
According to Marie Haynes, sites who experienced a boost in traffic included medical articles that did not include supporting references or links to authoritative sites. These articles referenced natural remedies that were not backed by scientific facts. Haynes also commented that many of the sites that started ranking high included unnatural links.
But, on August 15th, it appeared the glitch trauma was not over. Strong amounts of chatter picked in the SEO community following significant changes being reported in the SERPs, similar to those seen during the initial glitch. But by the 16th, things seemed to have calmed down, leading to speculation of another issue from Google’s side.
The amount of fluctuations were captured by our volatility checker, which was off the charts throughout the 15th.
If this is another glitch, this mirrors the pattern that’s been forming recently when it comes to indexing. Speculation was rife in May with more indexing issues, although Google’s John Mueller stated that there wasn’t a bug, at most a few minor glitches. There were also reports in June, when Google experienced more problems. Furthermore, throughout 2019, there were many problems with content being de-indexed, and at one point, new content wasn’t being indexed at all.
If your website has been affected by an algorithm update and you’re struggling to find a solution, get in touch with us at Fibre Marketing, and we’ll help you get back on track.
