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Ranking data during the December 2022 Google helpful content update and link spam update

Wednesday, December 21st, 2022

Google is now rolling out two different Google search algorithm updates simultaneously, the December 2022 helpful content system and the December 2022 link spam update. The helpful content update started on December 5th, and the link spam update started on December 14th. Both updates are not finished rolling out, in fact, Google said that the helpful content update “is going to take longer” to complete than the two-week timeline previously given.

I asked several data providers to send me data on what they are seeing with the Google search results during these updates, keep in mind, it is somewhat hard to look at data in aggregate and say this ranking volatility is related to one update over another. But nevertheless, I wanted to share what the data providers are noticing.

Data providers

RankRanger. Let’s start with RankRanger who sent us data broken out by the start of each update. Generally, but not always, the first few days after an update is rolled out by Google is where you’d see the most volatility. So they went with that premise and sent us data on each update.

Here is an overview of the RankRanger risk index showing volatility by day:

The December 2022 helpful content update was less impactful and less volatile than the first helpful content update, according to RankRanger. You can see from the chart below the average position change was less in December than in August.

Diving deeper, you can see that the average top three, top five and top ten search results, the data says the December update fluctuations were lower in the top five results and substantially lower in the top three.

RankRanger also showed the volatility of the December helpful content update by niche or industry:

The December 2022 link spam update was less impactful and less volatile than the July 2021 link spam update, according to RankRanger. You can see from the chart below the average position change was less in December than in July 2021.

Diving deeper, you can see that the average top three, top five and top ten search results, the data says the December update fluctuations were lower in the top five results and substantially lower in the top three.

RankRanger also showed the volatility of the December link spam update by niche or industry:

Semrush. The folks at Semrush did not try to break it out by the helpful content update versus link spam update, and I don’t blame them for not doing that. They just had their data for the past few weeks since that is when the two December algorithm updates began.

The Semrush sensor has been pretty calm, with a little blip today into the “high” volatility range:

If you drill into each niche or industry, you will see some categories were more impacted than others. It is interesting to see it differ by mobile and desktop search:

SISTRIX. SISTRIX also sent over some data in a different format. Steve Paine from the company told us that they did find evidence of volatility in their data for the link spam update but when it came to the helpful content update, finding such evidence was harder. He said “overall there isn’t a huge movement in SERPs,” the company posted some examples on their blog.

SISTRIX sent me these two additional examples of specific sites hit by these updates:

Moz. Dr. Pete Meyer from Moz told us, “I’m seeing some pretty heavy algorithm flux over this past weekend,” but he has not have had enough time to dig through all the data. Overall, Moz data shows that it has been “a noisy month, Google-wise,” he said. The issue is that it “hasn’t been easy to separate things,” like the other data providers showed as well.

You can see that Mozcast showed a lot of hot weather on December 14th, which is likely related to the link spam update.

seoClarity. The folks at seoClarity sent me a graph showing the day-over-day change in Google search results they calculated across all the keywords in their data. They noticed a spike on December 2nd and then “gyrations” on the 7th, 8th, and 9th and then a massive change on December 15th.

Other data providers. Here is a list of other data providers charts that are available publicly.

SERPmetrics:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Accuranker:

CognitiveSEO:

Why we care. As I said above, both updates are still rolling out at the time this was published. It is very hard to accurately say that one ranking change in aggregate is related to a specific ranking update when both are rolling out at the same time. That being said, it is likely easier to look at individual sites and know if the site was hit by a link algorithm versus a helpful content algorithm, especially if you look at the links and content for that site.

So you will need to do the due diligence and dig into sites impacted by each update on an individual basis. This just shows you that it appears that these updates did show movement and did cause ranking volatility in aggregate.

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Google updates Ads Policy Requirements

Wednesday, December 21st, 2022

Google has just released updated policy requirements for the month of December.

Their help page reads:

On February 21, 2023, the About Our Policies section of the Google Advertising Policies Help Center will be updated to include the following language:

Advertisers have a responsibility not to promote content or engage in behavior that risks harm to our users, employees, or the Ads ecosystem. If we see such content or behavior, we may take action, including but not limited to restricting or blocking your ads or suspending your account.

Why we care. All advertisers, even those for Display and Video 360 must adhere to the policies or risk their accounts being suspended. You can review the full policies here.

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Google Search testing search in video

Tuesday, December 20th, 2022

Google is testing the ability to search for spoken words in a video through a new “Search in video” feature. This is officially being piloted in India, but some are also seeing this feature being tested in the United States.

The announcement. Google posted this news on the Google India blog, writing, “besides images, videos are also a rich source of visual information but it’s often hard to find something buried inside a long clip. For example, perhaps you’re watching a long video about Agra, and you’re curious if it also covers Fatehpur Sikri. With a new feature we’re piloting, you’re now able to search for anything that’s mentioned in a video, right from Search. Simply enter a search term using the ‘Search in video’ feature and quickly find what you’re looking for.”

“Use the ‘Search in video’ feature beneath a video, enter a term, and quickly find what you’re looking for within the video,” Google added.

What it looks like. Here is a video showing this feature in action:

Like Google key moments. This, at least to me, isn’t too far off from the technology Google uses for key moments in a video. Google is able to isolate what sections of a video are talking about, without even having to be fed chapters these days. Plus, with YouTube’s advanced transcriptions, it is no wonder Google Search is able to do this.

US searchers. Searchers in the United States are also seeing this feature. Glenn Gabe tweeted that he saw it as well:

Why we care. Besides this being simply cool and, for some, mind-blowing, it also shows how far search technology has come over the years. It also may mean that marketers who post videos should ensure the language used is clear and that Google is able to properly and accurately transcribe the words spoken in the video.

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How to set up a Google Ads account

Tuesday, December 20th, 2022

Advertising on Google Ads is a no-brainer for many brands. 

Between the mammoth market share, the proven ROI on time and monetary investment, and the innovations in creative/targeting – it’s never been a better time to scale Google Ads.

Getting started can be a bit more complex than it used to be. You’ll need to make some key decisions on what kind of account you want and make sure you have your verifications ready. 

This article is a step-by-step guide to setting up your Google Ads account. 

Note: While there will be some strategic advice, the goal is to keep it as universally applicable as possible. In addition, we will not be going over setting up Local Service Ads or Merchant Center. 

Getting started with Google Ads

Setting up a Google Ads account requires an email (can be Google or not). 

If you don’t already have an email you planned on using, you can create a quick account before the ad account is set up. 

Once you designate the email account you want to be affiliated with your ad account, you’ll be prompted to use a Google Business Profile as a starting point. 

However, if you do this, you’ll be locking your account into being a Smart Campaign account. 

While Smart Campaigns can be useful for some brands, locking in the account to only support such campaigns is not ideal for most advertisers. 

Be sure to select “Are you a professional marketer? Switch to Advanced Mode.”

Once you’ve transitioned to a normal ad account, you’ll be prompted to create your first campaign. If you’re not ready, you can proceed to create the account without a campaign. 

Google will look for assets associated with your email address (like YouTube channels). You can connect them for additional audiences and placements or leave them off for now. 

If you are promoting your app or using it as a landing page, you can also connect it during this step. You’ll also be allowed to connect your phone number. 

Ideally, if you’re using call tracking, you’d have that number ready. However, you can always adjust it later.

Conversion tracking is a critical part of any Google Ads account. You can choose the marketing objective of your campaign (conversions or brand lift) and set up the conversion tracking after. 

Note that you should not opt into multiple conversion goals in a single campaign. 

Asking one campaign to be responsible for leads and sales will have too many variants in conversion values. 

The next step is to decide if you will build a single-channel campaign or opt into Performance Max (PMax). 

The campaign goals you select will influence which campaigns you are prompted to create. If you don’t select any, your options will be search and PMax. 

PMax needs visual creative to succeed. If you do not have images and videos ready, it is best to start with a non-PMax campaign. 

Opting for a search campaign will prompt you to begin filling in the following:

• Keywords: You can either manually enter them or get suggestions based on your site or themes. 
• Search ad text: You’ll be prompted to enter headlines, descriptions, and the final URL for one responsive search ad.
• Assets (formerly known as extensions): Site links, structured snippets, callouts, calls, price extensions, promotions, lead forms, apps.
• Bidding strategy: During this stage of campaign setup, you will only be able to opt into Smart Bidding or automated bidding.
• Campaign settings: Aside from naming conventions, you’ll be able to set location targets, ad schedules, audiences, ad networks, and languages. 

PMax campaigns focus on all Google Ads channels, so the lion’s share of the setup revolves around supplying creative. 

While you won’t be bidding on keywords, you can add a custom intent audience in the Audience signals. 

Be sure you have video creative otherwise, Google will create a video on your behalf. 

Budgets are critical to the success of your Google Ads account and campaign. 

Setting one that’s too low will turn all spend into waste because there won’t be enough clicks to lead to conversions. Going too high might allow for budget misallocation.

When you set your daily budget, be sure you’re setting one that you’re OK with doubling daily. Google will attempt to make your monthly spend average out to your daily spend across 30.4 days. 

It’s important to note that your billing profile does not need to be the same as your main ad account. 

For agencies, you can set up the billing profile under your client or yourself. Google Ads will take most credit cards, PayPal, and direct deposits from bank accounts. 

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Follow-up steps

Congratulations, your Google Ads account is set up! However, you’re not completely done yet. 

Once you finish the initial setup, you must verify your account and set up two-factor authentication. 

Verifying your account means requesting and sending back a postcard confirming your business is real. If you do not complete this step, your ad account will be canceled. 

Additionally, if you don’t incur charges in the first few days of the account, you risk suspension. 

A great way to mitigate this is to link your Google Ads Console to Google Analytics.

Setting up conversion tracking doesn’t need to be a code-heavy experience. Codeless options include:

• Connecting your conversion tracking with Google Tag Assistant.
• Copying your conversion tracking code into your site’s analytics section.

You can also send conversion tracking setup to your developer.  

Conversion actions will either be primary or secondary actions. 

• A primary action will factor into reporting and the Google Ads algorithm. 
• Secondary actions will just report the data and are not factored into cost per acquisition (CPA).  

Setting up your Google Ads account

Campaign structure and ad creative choices can be part of account setup. However, if you’re not ready, do not force the first campaign. 

Make sure you’re setting yourself up for success by having your linking accounts ready (Analytics and Search Console) and your creative on hand. 

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Customer segmentation models to improve the performance of loyalty marketing campaigns by Comarch

Tuesday, December 20th, 2022

Creating a loyalty marketing strategy is critical to understanding that every customer is unique. Every member has different needs, preferences, communication channels, behavior and emotions. Approaching all these unique members as one via mass communication is a big mistake when trying to scale your business. Segmenting your customers is critical to your success. But what is customer segmentation, why is it important and which segmentation models should be considered?

1. What is customer segmentation?

Customer segmentation is the practice in which marketers divide their customer base into specific groups in order to deliver more effective communication and a personalized experience. These segments can be based on one or several characteristics that clients have in common, such as demographics, psychographics, preferences, or even behavior.

For example, customers can be split based on demographics such as their age, gender or location – then these characteristics can be combined with preferences such as how they want to be contacted –  in addition to account history, say the number of transactions made in the last few months or their lifetime value. Segments can be as simple or as detailed and granular as you prefer.

Defining a customer segmentation strategy requires your organization to understand who your audience is, as well as their needs and behavioral tendencies. This will allow the right allocation of budget and resources to provide more personalized communication and make your business grow faster.

2. Why is customer segmentation important?

Defining a customer segmentation strategy will bring many valuable benefits to any business. Here are some examples of why customer segmentation should be a top priority:

• More effective communication
  Brands that understand the importance of customer segmentation have the greatest chance of hitting their target. The messaging used for a 20-year-old female shouldn’t be the same as for a 60-year-old male. A deep analysis of your customers will lead to a more personalized experience considering the segment group and the channel they are being communicated through. Ultimately, this will translate to higher response rates and engagement.

  It is also important to consider the number of times per day and days per week a customer should be contacted. Optimizing the communication time will prevent overcommunication and its potential consequence of losing the customers’ trust.

• Improve marketing ROI
  Effective customer segmentation also helps in allocating internal human and capital resources. Companies can determine which groups will be more and less profitable and decide which ones deserve more or less attention. The final result – your revenue will grow while simultaneously stabilizing your customer base.

• Increase customer lifetime value
  Improving the customer experience naturally leads to increased engagement. The key is to then maintain this engagement over extended periods. Some techniques to achieve this include custom offers tailored to the preferences of specific groups. This, together with recognizing their loyalty to your brand with incentives (coupons, rewards or promotions), all lead to gaining a larger share of your members’ wallets and spend.

  While most brands tend to target their top-spending customers to reward them and maintain their engagement, it is imperative not to forget about your underperforming members. Those who gave the company a high benefit in the past and whose purchasing trend has dwindled over time can receive special attention to bring them back to their old spending habits

  Personalizing these communications depending on loyalty segments and/or trends also improves customer service and the way the business assists in customer loyalty and customer retention.

• Product improvements
  By understanding what motivates customers to buy your brand’s products, you can tailor offers to suit client needs better. This will maximize customer satisfaction and in turn, create brand ambassadors. What is better than a happy customer recommending your brand to their friends?

• Separate your brand from the competition
  All the customer segmentation benefits detailed above enhance clear distinctions from your competitors and prepare your brand to adapt to any and all market changes. Clients can be impulsive, and their opinions, behavior and needs can vary often. Executing customer segmentation means being ahead of the curve in terms of upcoming trends, understanding the clients’ new priorities and adapting to them.

3. Actionable strategies to implement customer segmentation

When embarking on your customer segmentation journey, you must first ask yourself, “What is the goal?” What are your brand’s unique selling points? How many members of the marketing team will be involved? Once this is established, the focus shifts to your customer base. Some tasks could include determining the audience size, the number of potential segments needed, identifying which customer will spend more and which will spend less, etc.

Then, decide what data needs to be collected and how it will be collected. Remember that this information is crucial when creating your segments and will be the foundation of the marketing campaigns and initiatives. To execute any of these segmentation exercises, you must ensure you have access to the most important piece of it all… the data!

Data can be collected in different stages throughout the loyalty lifecycle, whether mandatory upon enrollment or optional after the fact, in the form of a survey. Now, all information received will come directly and voluntarily from clients. This is what is known as zero-party data.

What’s more, these data points can be compiled into segments. It is recommended to start with a broad focus and continuously narrow them down over time. AI and ML can do wonders in unearthing and analyzing behavior and trends, as well as shaving time and resources off the shoulders of your workforce. While defining these customer segmentation models, set up the main strategy to retain and gain customers loyalty, and after that focus on acquiring new ones. 

5. Defining customer segmentation models

Customer segmentation models are the different ways in which a company decides to divide its customers. In loyalty, there is a wide spectrum of customer data points to consider, but the most relevant across the industry are:

1. Demographic
   Demographic segmentation is when customers are divided by their social characteristics as part of the population. Some examples include age, location, gender and birthday.
2. Psychographic
   Psychographic segmentation considers an individual’s personality, attitudes, aspirations, interests, and values. For example, in customer segmentation for fashion, the audience can be divided depending on their size, favorite store, product, and even their concern for recycled clothes. For a Veterinary clinic, it will be more interesting to know what type of animals their clients have at home. Each industry will have very distinct data points that are more important to its unique business.
3. Customer behavior
   Customer behavior is one of the most important attributes when building customer segments. This division will allow a deeper knowledge of customer trends, habits, and product usage. Some examples are the total amount spent on transactions, the total number of transactions, the date of the last purchase, the number of points spent in the last month, the number of redemptions completed, etc. Here is where customer engagement with the loyalty program can be measured.

   Now, member activity can be tracked, and trends can be identified automatically. Thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning, segments can be created according to customer lifetime value (CLV) trends. Just to give an in-practice example, retail customer segmentation models should focus on targeting their best performers in stores whose lifetime value is greatest, but also send out communications and promotions to those members who have had a high spend in the past, but their trend is now decreasing.

4. Campaign responses
   Campaign response segmentation can be set up according to, for example, the way your members wish to receive communication -email, SMS, push notifications, etc.-, the channel used to enroll in the loyalty program – mobile app or web portal – or the number of referrals made to a friend. The response to the program awarding customers with different recognition tiers can be another factor to consider for segmentation.
5. Multiple conditions
   Customer segmentation can apply to multiple different characteristics simultaneously. For instance, companies can target members by a condition as simple as membership type or by their membership in combination with their location and a purchase of a specific product. The most effective segments are as narrow and specific as possible to small groups to personalize the campaign at its lowest level.

6. Summary with CTA

Understanding your members needs, preferences and behavior is the beginning of your customer segmentation journey. Defining goals, resources, unique selling points and crucial data points will prepare your business for all segmentation possibilities. Customer segmentation helps target the right clients, who present more profitable opportunities at the right time and in the most efficient way. With it, their retention and satisfaction will be ensured, as well as the maximization of sales and revenue.

To learn more about customer segmentation models and how to build the most effective loyalty marketing strategy, request a demo with our Loyalty Experts! They will match you with an experienced Loyalty Consultant with experience in your unique market space and industry.

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Google search retires Web Light, Google’s method to serve faster, lighter pages to people

Tuesday, December 20th, 2022

Google has retired Web Light, Google’s mechanism to serve pages and content faster, using a more lightweight version of that page, to those with slower internet connections. Google said, “while this feature has worked as intended and enabled broader access to the richness of the web, increased affordability of more powerful smartphones has diminished the need for such functionality.”

What was Web Light. Google launched Web Light in 2015 as Google Lite, which was designed to help those with slow mobile connections on their search results page. Google would take the page, remove a lot of the heavier images and media and just show the searcher the text of the page. In 2018, Google even added a Search Console filter to see what pages were being served over Web Light.

Google’s message. As noted above, Google said, “We introduced Web Light to enable us to serve faster, lighter pages to people searching on entry-level devices. While this feature has worked as intended and enabled broader access to the richness of the web, increased affordability of more powerful smartphones has diminished the need for such functionality. We remain committed to evolving and refining the Search experience to meet the changing needs of our users.”

Web light user agent retired. With this news, Google retired the user agent for Web Light named “googleweblight.” So you should no longer see this user agent showing up in your log files.

Documentation removed. Google has also removed the help documentation for web light, so the only way to access the docs is to go to the Wayback Machine.

Why we care. A lot of publishers were not huge fans of Web Light because some felt it resulted in less revenue or no revenue. Plus, publishers do not like when their web pages and content do not look as they expect. In any event, this feature has been retired going forward.

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Google Ads updates in 2022: The good, the bad, the jury’s still out

Friday, December 16th, 2022

In 2022, Google made several announcements, updates, and not-so-subtle nudges that shifted the paid search landscape. (Google’s announcement page is a helpful and relatively objective compendium.)

This article will break down: 

• The major moves from the past 12 months.
• How they impact paid search marketers.
• What they mean for the future of Google Ads.

A quick recap of major announcements

The change that got the most attention (for good reason, which I’ll explain briefly) was Google sunsetting Expanded Text Ads. This forced advertisers toward Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), which the platform announced in August 2021 and took effect in July 2022.

Other big updates included a big push toward Performance Max. Released to all advertisers in November 2021, it has taken over most ecommerce accounts with Google’s heavy-handed push away from Smart Shopping.

A similar trend with RSAs, Performance Max encourages marketers to advertise across YouTube, Display, Gmail, and Maps aside from search and signifies less control for advertisers as bidding and ad placements are automated. 

It also means expert advertisers have fewer ways to give their campaigns an advantage over those run by beginners. (Lowering the barrier of entry seemed to be a big theme for Google in 2022.) 

On the brighter side, Google released useful reporting upgrades with Custom Columns. They introduced nuance and flexibility within the Google Ads UI and took the burden of off-UI reporting workarounds from advertisers.

The last significant shift was the rise of image extensions (now called “assets”), which Google released to desktop en masse at the end of 2021. Currently, image assets include a “dynamic” option that automatically uses the most relevant image from the ad’s destination landing page.

This change shows Google’s directional push toward a more interactive SERP which they highlighted at Search On 22​. 

While image assets do often result in a lift in CTR (which makes sense since images draw attention), I haven’t witnessed much of a performance difference in my client accounts in regard to conversion.

Advertisers can control images by adding them at the ad group or campaign level. If you only add one, Google will only serve that one. As with any other asset, there’s no guarantee it’ll show every time. 

I recommend turning off the “dynamic” option unless you fully trust Google to pick the most appropriate image from a multi-image landing page.

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The most helpful release of 2022

Let’s start with the good news: Custom Columns have made the reporting part of our lives easier. 

Before the Custom Columns upgrade, Google reports only supported one conversion column that lets you segment by conversion actions without associated metrics like spend.

This produced a not-all-that-useful view.

Now, Custom Columns features a higher-level look that actually associates metrics with different conversion types, which looks like this.

Along with the new view, Custom Columns offers enhanced spreadsheet functionality (i.e., more calculation options that compare different time periods). The ability to compare time periods is very helpful for identifying fluctuations and trouble spots. 

Set up indicators to give yourself a dynamic roadmap of priorities identified by data. My favorite creation here is a static 30-day look back of performance, regardless of the time period you’re using in the Campaign Manager.

The skeptic might say that adding this functionality within the UI and removing the need for advertisers to create their own custom reporting is another way Google is leveling the playing field for all search marketers, regardless of experience. 

My take is that marketers who were taking the extra reporting step are relatively advanced, and now there are competitive advantages to be had from using the functionality to its fullest.

The least helpful release of 2022

A couple of caveats here:

• My accounts are weighted more toward B2B than ecommerce, which means Performance Max doesn’t personally affect me as much as the shift from ETAs to RSAs. 
• I believe most experienced search marketers prefer more manual control to a faster, automation-heavy setup where Google has removed many of its former levers. More junior search marketers and/or people without much time for account optimization may disagree.

That said, Google sunsetting ETAs in favor of RSAs on June 30 was, for me, the biggest setback of the 2022 updates.

It’s not necessarily that RSAs always perform worse. There are accounts where RSAs are outperforming old ETA numbers.

But there were accounts we haven’t yet restructured wherein legacy ETAs continued to outperform tons of RSA combos no matter what we tried. 

In general, we usually see an increase in CTR and CPLs when we switch to RSAs, which means they’re effective at getting the right people to click but don’t tend to convert as well.

The real issue, for me, is that advertisers just don’t have as many options for ad formats. You can technically recreate an ETA by using pinning mechanisms in the UI.

But this always results in a warning saying your ad strength is horrible, making me suspect that its ability to serve is limited.

Essentially, Google will get its way here – less advertiser control, higher CTR, and potentially higher CPL. In an economy with a big premium on efficiency, that’s not great news for advertisers. 

Looking ahead

Ultimately, 2022 is the year when Google leaned even more heavily into AI and machine learning. Time will tell whether those tools get more efficient over time. 

For now, Google is walking a fine line between pulling in revenue (efficiency doesn’t help their bottom line, after all) and alienating advertisers who will seek more profitable engagement elsewhere.

For advertisers, the upshot is that while Google has made the barrier to advertising low, we can still distinguish our accounts by:

• Understanding when to test and optimize in less-controllable environments.
• Not simply trusting that Google has our best interests at heart.

Heading into 2023, I believe the most important skill to differentiate yourself as a Google Ads expert and get better results is a combination of platform experience and critical thinking. 

I’ve run into plenty of advertisers pining for the more manual days of yore. The trick will be to draw on our experience and think critically. Let’s use the limited tools Google gives us to adapt as much as possible and work with automation.

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Google says don’t expect a new core update by year-end

Friday, December 16th, 2022

With the Google December 2022 link spam update and helpful content update both still rolling out, SEOs are worried that Google may have one more Google algorithm update up its sleeve before the year’s end. Well, it will not happen, said John Mueller from the Google Search team.

No more core updates this year. John Mueller said on Twitter, “FWIW, just to be clear, there’s no core update lined up for the rest of the year.”

Rankings might not be stable. But like I said before, the link spam update and helpful content update both still rolling out, so ranking volatility may still occur until those are done rolling out. And of course, rankings are never static, new content is being added daily, and Google is crawling and indexing those new web pages and the signals that come from those pages.

John added on Twitter, “that doesn’t mean there won’t be visible changes; the linkspam & HCS updates are still rolling out, and, Search continues to reflect changes across the web.”

So SEOs still may have their work out for them throughout the next couple of weeks leading up to the holidays.

The tweet. Here is John’s tweet:

FWIW, just to be clear, there's no core update lined up for the rest of the year. That doesn't mean there won't be visible changes; the linkspam & HCS updates are still rolling out ( https://t.co/wgdE0g7SDr ), and, Search continues to reflect changes across the web.

— John Mueller is mostly not here (@JohnMu) December 16, 2022

Why we care. With many SEOs and marketers already starting to take off for the holidays, some may be doing so with a little anxiety as these updates finish to roll out. That being said, core updates tend to be the most volatile updates and so far, the helpful content updates and even this link spam update, seem relatively minor in terms of the footprint it had across the web.

Sure, if your site was hit by an update, you will feel the ranking declines and traffic, but it seems like most sites were not yet impacted by these updates. And with no core updates scheduled for the next couple weeks, hopefully some of you can enjoy the holidays and new year.

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The enterprise business of SEO: Communicating to the C-suite

Friday, December 16th, 2022

Change is the only constant in SEO. At the moment, change is the only constant in the economy. 

Adapting to SEO shifts, reduced paid spending, and the general consensus of having to do more with less have hit marketers hard. 

As C-suite members look to reduce costs and improve efficiencies, SEO has risen to become an essential boardroom agenda item.

SEO is impacting website performance across every type of industry. It provides vital business insights into consumer behavior and intent while helping content get discovered and measured.  

With this in mind, and as we look toward 2023, how SEOs communicate to key stakeholders across their organization will be of the most critical importance. 

Additionally, as competition for digital marketing budgets intensifies, the importance of SEO success and performance must be recognized and rewarded.

As SEO becomes engrained in many parts of a business – from providing insights for sales and product and optimizing content to partnering with digital media teams – it is critical to address the following.

• “What key metrics matter to the CEO?”
• “How best do I talk to my CMO and the CFO on budgets?”
• “When and how should I communicate SEO performance across the organization?”
• “How do I handle multiple requests for insights from other departments?”

Here are some insights and tips to help you communicate to the C-suite.

SEO in the boardroom: Challenges and opportunities

Conversations at the C-level are constantly pivoting due to changes in the economy, fluctuations in demand and supply, and organizational changes. 

Companies of every size across every industry face the constant challenges of innovating for the future and meeting the demands of tomorrow’s customers. 

Understanding the needs of the customer and their experiences has become the number one focus for every business.

The organic channel is perfect for helping key members of the C-suite to:

• Stay ahead of market trends with vital business insights.
• Determine competitive pressures.
• Identify new opportunities.
• Glean an overall better understanding of the customer across the whole business.

C-suite conversations are also highly focused on performance. However, it is not about driving performance at all costs. 

Instead, it is about driving performance in the most efficient way possible with the best gross margin possible.

When it comes to the organic channel and SEO, C-level executives appreciate the ROI of the organic channel. 

Organic search drives over 51% of website traffic – a percentage that has held constant for nearly eight years. This is a great starting point when building conversations with C-level executives.

However, the challenge that many SEOs have is twofold:

• Getting visibility.
• Getting buy-in through clear reporting and communication. 

And you cannot get one without having the other.

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Understanding the C-suite and key business metrics that matter

The C-suite drives the company’s business strategy and manages employees. However, not everyone in this position has an equal amount of knowledge about digital marketing techniques.

Some may be more skilled than others in technical skills like coding or designing websites. 

At the same time, another person could specialize in product strategies instead. 

Regardless of their SEO knowledge levels, all members work toward common goals:

• Results (revenue).
• Performance metrics (how well we’re doing relative to our competitors).
• Organizational impact.

Regarding organic search, measures of one campaign’s success do not always translate directly into what members in your organization view as a victory. 

To bridge this gap between communication and understanding for everyone involved, you should begin by establishing how vital SEO is on an individual level with those who can make decisions based on these numbers. 

You can also show them how your efforts are helping promote other digital marketing channels while boosting customer retention rates through more personalized offerings based on understanding the customer experience.

As media budgets are reduced, organizations are being asked to do more with less with more. There has never been a better time to communicate the importance and value of SEO.

Your goal here is to establish that:

• Search plays a role in our lives, regardless of economic conditions.
• Unlike other channels, search doesn’t fluctuate with consumer behavior.
• Good SEO drives the most cost-effective type of revenue.
• SEO is good for brand awareness, equity, and visibility.
• SEO provides vital business intelligence at a macro (market) and micro (intent) level.
• SEO drives the content that fuels other marketing channels and does so more efficiently.
• SEO insights help the broader business, such as product development and sales.

SEO is an investment that provides compounded interest from short-term wins to long-term incremental gains. 

The time and effort that goes into it are sticky. 

It does not go away and builds over time. It is durable and provides exponential growth.

These are things a C-suite member loves to hear!

Every organization has different hierarchical structures and titles. However, for illustrative purposes, below are a few examples based on a generic enterprise C-level structure.

CEO

The chief executive officer (CEO) is always interested in overall performance. CEOs:

• Want to understand the contribution SEO makes to the top line of the business and whether the contributions are completed efficiently. 
• Can make only a limited number of investments to grow the company and need to know that their investment in SEO will pay off. 
• Want to see the sales numbers and how the company stacks up against its competition.

Metrics that matter: 

• ROI.
• Sales.
• Market share.
• Share of voice.

CMO

The chief marketing officer (CMO) is interested in the overall demand generation portfolio. Organic search is exciting because of its sheer size. 

Every CMO:

• Wants to grow traffic and revenue from organic search.
• Wants to know how well it converts and the role it plays (assists) alongside other marketing channels such as demand generation, event strategy, industry influencers, social, and PR.

Metrics that matter: 

• Conversion rates.
• Acquisition costs.
• ROI compared to other channels.

CFO

The chief financial officer (CFO), like the CEO, is interested in overall performance. 

However, the CFO will also be interested in budgeting and forecasting.

They will want to determine:

• Where new investments can be made.
• Where best to allocate SEO budgets and technology spending for the coming year. 

With so many fluctuations in the economy and pressure on budgets, ensuring the CFO understands the why of what you are doing related to the end result is essential. 

Metrics that matter: 

• Operational costs.
• Budget efficiency.
• Forecasts and ROI compared to other channels. 

CTO

A chief technology officer (CTO) is pivotal in modern-day SEO. 

CTOs:

• Are involved and interested in data, insights, integration, and product development.
• Must be able to keep up-to-date on all technical advancements to make informed decisions about future products or services for their company’s roadmap.

Metrics that matter: 

• Site performance.
• Product development.
• Adoption 

COO

The chief operating officer (COO) will be interested in:

• How SEO contributes to other aspects of the business, such as recruitment, branding, sales, retention, and upsells. 
• Associated costs across the business (such as design).
• How SEO structures, people, and processes are integrated across the organization.

Metrics that matter:

• Operational costs.
• Compliance.
• Business intelligence.
• Contribution to cross-functional goals and objectives.
• Cost savings with automation. 

Collectively, the C-suite wants to know the following:

• The size of the competition.
• The value of the market.
• Their share of voice in the market.
• The maximum possible return vs. the actual return.

Mastering communication

Remember that your time with the C-suite will be limited. Hence make sure you choose your words wisely and make them count.

To evangelize and elevate your SEO work, remember who you are talking to, and remember to speak their language. 

For example, a CMO would rather hear about revenue than rank because they are more concerned with how well an SEO campaign translates into tangible results for their company’s bottom line.

You should always strive to speak “their language” when communicating effectively – which means understanding how to translate. 

CEOs are less interested in seeing keyword ranking changes (outside of your crucial core terms) and more interested in seeing your share of voice, revenue from organic campaigns, and success within the competitive landscape. 

This offers you the chance to elevate SEO and the importance of your role. Again, language is key to communication.

Here’s how to frame what you say and what it means to the C-suite.

SEO language	C-suite language
SEO	The organic channel
Algorithm updates	Google changes
Keywords	Topics that customers are searching for – intent
Rank and rank change	Where content is performing
Optimizing	Attracting and converting customers online
SERP CTR	Share of voice for an online search query
Data	Business insights
Share of voice	Versus the competition

In addition, use reports and visuals that quickly and clearly communicate your progress and the direct benefit to the company.

Elevate SEO by being transparent 

SEOs have a history of making SEO esoteric and exotic, implying that there is a bit of dark magic involved. 

But, unfortunately, that serves neither the SEO nor the executive audience.

Take the opposite approach by:

• Increasing transparency on progress. SEO usually takes longer than paid channels or even sales to bring in results, but include SEO progress reporting at least monthly in the standard management report vehicles. Also, don’t forget that SEO investments bring compound (interest-like) returns that no other channel can.
• Being curious but also focused on critical wins. Sales would not share the tactical minutiae of every deal with management – and SEOs should not, either. Instead, they identify repeatable patterns and tell the executives how they will scale it out to other reps and deals.

Communicate SEO’s value to the C-suite

The role of SEO is continually rising. It has become an active participant in business planning and part of many companies’ business intelligence. As a result, alignment with multiple stakeholders is becoming critical. 

Ensure your strategies are sound while creating alignment across various stakeholders across the C-suite as your organization advances. 

Most of the time, SEO teams are expected to do more and provide more value with fewer resources than other areas of the business may have. 

While that speaks to the value and importance of SEO in an organization, it also means you have to be methodical in approaching your work if you’re an SEO in this scenario. 

Use your time to showcase success and manage expectations. Traction takes time, so balance strategies to make incremental gains while focusing on long-term success

Keep elevating your success by building appropriate dashboards and presentations that tie SEO strategy and tactics to business objectives. This will directly help you position and promote your success. 

Continually engage with C-level executives and help them understand the value of SEO and its role.

Use data, AI, and deep learning to share powerful insights, tell content-rich stories, and develop new skill sets that help you understand and adapt to the broader digital and marketing technology landscape.

The ability to communicate effectively in meetings is a crucial part of your success as an SEO. 

Invest some time developing valuable meeting room traits like confident speaking abilities or compelling storytelling so that you can engage with leaders. 

This will allow you to engage with your organization’s leaders and help them understand the value of what you and the organic search channel offer.

The post The enterprise business of SEO: Communicating to the C-suite appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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E-E-A-T and major updates to Google’s quality rater guidelines

Thursday, December 15th, 2022

Google has made significant changes to its Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG) for search.

While Google updates this document several times per year, the latest version, updated today, came with notable changes to the structure of the document, with many new sections and tables added and a total of 11 new pages worth of content. 

While there are dozens of important details about what changed, arguably the most important change was the introduction of the letter E to the start of the popular acronym E-A-T. 

Introducing E-E-A-T

Google is now introducing the concept of E-E-A-T, which stands for

• Experience.
• Expertise.
• Authoritativeness.
• Trustworthiness. 

The addition of “experience” indicates that content quality can also be evaluated through the lens of understanding the extent to which the content creator has first-hand experience in the topic.

With this reframing of E-E-A-T, Google also states that “trust” is at the center of this concept and is the “most important member of the E-E-A-T family.” 

Google also provides many more clear examples of important concepts, such as:

• Evaluating the reputation of websites and content contributors.
• The extent to which E-E-A-T matters and how it should be evaluated.
• What it means for content to be harmful. 

More inclusive language and granularity

Google appears to be evolving its language to be more inclusive and keep up with the times. It added many new mentions of social media platforms, influencers, and how content can take different forms, such as video, UGC, and social media posts.

In this version, Google also takes a granular approach in answering many common questions about how E-E-A-T works and how much it matters for different topics. Google spells out what content should be considered harmful and whether everyday experience is sufficient to produce trustworthy content for the topic at hand. 

There are many more changes than what is outlined below.

All SEOs should take time to read through Google’s new guidelines, as they serve as a representation of where Google wants its algorithms to go. 

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The most significant changes to the QRG

Below are some of the most significant changes to the Search Quality Guidelines in December 2022, broken down by section.

Understanding the Website - Section 2.5 

Google updated its guidelines around identifying who operates a website. In the new QRG, Google added the following new guidance:

“Start by finding out who is responsible for the website and who created the content on the page… Then, look for information about the website and/or content creators on the website itself.” (page 15)

This addition implies that it’s important to know who actually owns and operates the website, even if that relationship is not directly clear on the site. 

Google also began to refer to the reputation of the “website and/or content creators” instead of just the website, indicating that the reputation of the people contributing content to the website should also factor into consideration when evaluating that website. 

Finding Who is Responsible for the Website and Who Created the Content on the Page - Section 2.5.2

When identifying who is responsible for a website, Google states it should be clear who owns the website.

In the previous version of the QRG, Google asked raters to look for which “individual, company, business, foundation, etc.” is responsible for the site.

In this version, Google replaced “foundation” with “organization” and “government agency.” 

Google also added: 

“…for pages on websites such as forums and social media platforms, people may post content using an alias or username in order to avoid sharing personally identifiable information online. In these cases, the alias or username is an acceptable way to identify the content creator.”

Google also added a brand new table to help quality raters identify who created the main content on a webpage. 

This table helps raters identify who is responsible for the content on various types of sites, given that some websites entirely control their own content, while others are comprised primarily of user-generated content or contributions from authors.

Google seems to be focused on distinguishing the website owner from the content contributor(s) on that site. 

Overall Page Quality Rating - Section 3.0

Google significantly shifted around the order of some of its advice related to rating page quality and analyzing reputation information. 

The updated QRG offers a new 3-step process for assessing Page Quality:

1. Assessing the true purpose of the page and how harmful/deceptive it is
2. Assessing the potential of the page to cause harm or otherwise be untrustworthy or spammy

(If the rater determines the pages are harmful, untrustworthy or spammy, they should rate them Lowest quality)

3. If the page is not harmful, the quality rating is based on how well the page achieves its purpose

Google also added a new table to consider when evaluating page quality: 

The third consideration asks the rater to consider the “extent to which the topic of the page is YMYL.” This refers to the spectrum of YMYL topics referenced in the previous version (based on their ability to cause harm to the user). 

Google introduced a new consideration for understanding the type of website. Some of these considerations include whether the website:

• Is a hobbyist site or corporate.
• Involves financial transactions or requires payments
• Is supported by volunteers or by professionals. 

Different types of websites have different page quality expectations

Google also indicated that while ads are necessary for many sites to monetize, the “ways in which ads contribute to user experience” are a consideration for page quality.

As stated in previous sections, the reputation of the website and its content creators contributes to page quality.

And lastly, we have the most significant reveal of the updated Quality Rater Guidelines: E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, and Authoritativeness and Trust. 

Quality of the Main Content - 3.2

Google made some important changes to how raters should assess the quality of a page’s main content. 

In the previous version (page 24), Google stated: 

“For all types of webpages, creating high quality MC takes a significant amount of at least one of the following: time, effort, expertise, and talent/skill.”

In the new version (page 22), Google removed the word “time” and added the word “originality.” 

“For most pages, the quality of the MC can be determined by the amount of effort, originality, and talent or skill that went into the creation of the content.”

Given Google’s focus on original content this year, this addition is not surprising. 

Google also added a new table to this section, outlining how to assess page quality: 

Google’s increased focus on effort with a clear explanation of what effort looks like (and doesn’t look like) is a big update to this version of the QRG.

Google seems to be asking raters to focus on how much actual work went into building the content, as opposed to tactics that use automation without oversight or manual curation. 

Google is also increasingly focused on the originality of the content and the presence of insights not found elsewhere. 

As with previous versions of the QRG, Google also states that accuracy and alignment with expert consensus are important for YMYL topics. 

Reputation of the Website and Content Creators - Section 3.3

Google enhanced its recommendations for understanding the reputation of both a website and its content creators. 

One important addition is that reputation research depends on the topic of the page content. Google asks raters to think about the reputation of the content creators “in the context of what the page is about.”

The below paragraph is important for understanding this concept:

Google also added an important new detail about websites or content creators that create content across many different websites.

In these cases, the quality rater should consider the “underlying company or the content creator,” which means they can look across different websites to obtain reputation information. 

Reputation of the Content Creators - 3.3.4

Google expanded its guidelines around identifying the reputation of individual authors and content creators.

This entire section is new and shows how much Google is focused on the reputation of individual content creators (they even mention influencers!):

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T) - Section 3.4

Google’s E-A-T has been a hot topic in the SEO community for the past few years. This version of the Quality Rater Guidelines introduces a new, evolved version of E-A-T: 

E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust

Along with introducing an extra letter – E for experience – Google now also places “trust” at the center of this ‘family’ of important considerations for page quality. 

According to Google (page 27):

“Trust is the most important member of the E-E-A-T family because untrustworthy pages have low E-E-A-T no matter how Experienced, Expert, or Authoritative they may seem.”

Trust is the mechanism by which raters determine if the page is “accurate, honest, safe, and reliable” (page 27). The amount of trust a page requires depends entirely on the nature of the page. 

Google provides the example of online stores, which require secure online payment systems and good customer service. It also mentions product review sites – a trustworthy review would help searchers make informed decisions rather than just try to sell the product. 

Google introduced a new table to help raters understand how to approach experience, expertise and authoritativeness:

The introduction of “experience” to the concept of E-A-T is consistent with many of Google’s updates and communications throughout the past couple of years, particularly related to product review content. 

Google focuses on the extent to which content creators have “necessary first-hand of life experience for the topic.” Having significant experience lends itself to trust.

Google uses the example of a product review – someone who has personally used the product has more experience than someone who has not, therefore creating more trust. 

For evaluating Trust, the most important “member of the E-E-A-T family,” raters should consider: 

• What the website says about itself on its About Page or other profile pages.
• What others say about the website or its content creators (third-party reviews or references).
• What is visible on the page – actual evidence on the page that the content creator can be trusted (e.g., real evidence of them doing the thing they claim to be an expert in).

Google also adds a new important detail about conflicts of interest. A review by the product manufacturer is not trustworthy, nor is the review of an influencer paid to promote the product. 

YMYL Topics: Experience or Expertise? - 3.4.1 

Google introduced a new table to distinguish when Experience or Expertise is needed for YMYL content. This table aims to answer whether everyday experience or actual expertise is needed for various topics, such as medical conditions, voting, and saving for retirement:

This new section indicates that just because a content contributor is not a bonafide expert on a YMYL topic, this does not make the content inherently untrustworthy.

People sharing their stories based on first-hand experience can be considered trustworthy content in certain situations. 

Harmful to Self or Other Individuals - Section 4.2

In the previous version of the QRG, Google introduced the notion that YMYL topics are determined based on their ability to cause harm to the user. 

In this new version, Google provided a detailed table with examples of what is considered harmful or not:

And a similar table explaining what it means for content to be harmful to groups:

These nuances are interesting, given much of the public discourse about freedom of speech across various social platforms in 2022.

Google appears to be drawing a clear line between free speech and violent/harassment speech in its definition of harmful content. 

Google also provides clear examples of “harmfully misleading information,” including several popular internet conspiracy theories that are either clearly inaccurate, contradict well-established expert consensus, or are unsubstantiated:

Lacking E-E-A-T - Section 5.1 

Google provides examples of what it looks like to lack an appropriate level of E-E-A-T for the topic or purpose of the page. These are the examples provided (page 51):

• “The content creator lacks adequate experience, e.g. a restaurant review written by someone who has never eaten at the restaurant
•  The content creator lacks adequate expertise, e.g. an article about how to skydive written by someone with no expertise in the subject 
• The website or content creator is not an authoritative or trustworthy source for the topic of the page, e.g. tax form downloads provided on a cooking website.
•  The page or website is not trustworthy for its purpose, e.g. a shopping page with minimal customer service information” 

These examples help conceptualize the distinct roles that each letter in E-E-A-T play in evaluating the page quality. 

Language updates throughout the document

Throughout the document, Google appears to be editing its language to be more inclusive, such as changing “webmaster” to “website owners” and removing some gendered pronouns (”himself/herself” becomes “themself”). 

Pay attention to where Google is going with the QRG

The Quality Rater Guidelines are a crucial document for anyone who works in search marketing because they give us a guidebook for where Google wants its algorithms to go. 

Reading between the lines of the language in this document can help inform what Google is looking for in terms of content quality, user experience, and E-E-A-T of websites. 

Following these guidelines will help ensure your site and company can achieve visibility in Google search and, ideally, not be negatively impacted by any of their algorithm updates or other penalties. 

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