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Google is upgrading Vehicle Ads to Performance Max

Thursday, August 24th, 2023

Google will automatically upgrade vehicle ad campaigns to Performance Max (PMax) from September.

PMax with vehicle feeds uses Google AI to help marketers “reach their conversion goals, including qualified leads and dealership visits.”

Why we care. The upgrade will enable car advertisers to reach customers across more touchpoints in their research and shopping journey, such as YouTube, Display, Gmail and Discover.

How it works. Your campaign settings, structure, audience signals, vehicle feeds, and assets will automatically be transferred over to this new campaign to maintain consistent performance. Afterwards, you will no longer be able to create additional campaigns for vehicle ads through Smart Shopping campaigns.

For advertisers not already using vehicle ads, PMax with vehicle feeds will be available in open beta in the US and Canada, and closed beta in Australia.

Why now? Vehicle Ads, which are only available in open betas in the US and Canada, and a closed beta in Australia, are currently running on Smart Shopping campaigns. Since they were upgraded to PMax last year, Google has said it is “following suit” for this format.

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What has Google said? A spokesperson for the search engine said:

• “Automotive advertisers are turning to Performance Max to unlock new Google Ads channels, reach more customers, and drive more qualified leads and visits.”
• “Performance Max unlocks new Google Ads channels and inventory for your campaign, including Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, and Gmail.”
• “Through Performance Max, you can now optimize for both online conversions (leads) and offline conversions (store visits) within a single campaign, enabling strong omnichannel bidding optimization.”
• “With the Insights page for Performance Max, you will now have access to new insights that can help inform your business and marketing strategy. These include insights about your audience and current search trends that relate to your business.”

Deep dive. Read Google’s Vehicle Ads announcement in full for more information.

The post Google is upgrading Vehicle Ads to Performance Max appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

How generative AI will change SEO as a profession

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2023

Generative AI is going to revolutionize the SEO industry, but perhaps not in the way you think.

Yes, your day-to-day job as an SEO is most likely going to look different in a few years’ time. But are bots going to replace you?

“Absolutely not,” said Britney Muller, Marketing & SEO Consultant at Data Science 101, and Dave Davies, Amplification Team Lead at Weights and Biases. But there’s no denying the industry is evolving.

So how will generative AI change SEO as a profession and what can you do to stay ahead of the curve? Muller and Davies shared their thoughts on generative AI and the future of SEO at SMX Advanced.

AI is not replacing SEO

Muller was adamant that AI would not be coming for SEO jobs. However, she did note that the industry would have to adapt depending on how Google incorporates AI into search results:

• “AI is not the be-all and end-all. In fact, I think the shine will start to wear off as we continue to see the limitations of large language models (LLMs) and how much additional work is required to do things well.”
• “LLMs have so many issues that the researchers building this technology have yet to figure out. They are based on a probability distribution and are consistently not factual.”
• “Google has done information retrieval very well within search and I think LLMs could be a nice addition to really better define the questions that people have and surface additional information.”

Technical SEOs will have an advantage

Davies added that technical SEOs may be better positioned to handle the change that generative AI brings than those specializing in content SEO:

• “John Mueller from Google said that as long as machines read websites, technical SEO will remain as important as it is. I think that summarizes exactly what sort of world we’re heading into now.”
• “I think technical SEOs are going to have a bit of an advantage – but content SEO will eventually follow. It just just has to change. The structure that they’ll be optimizing for I think will change.”

Links may evolve

Both Davies and Muller agreed that links may change form and not be such a significant ranking factor in the future. Things like mentions or references to a site may become more valuable signals than traditional links. As Davies explained:

• “I’m not saying link building is dead, but I think its value is about to be significantly adjusted. It will evolve and might not look like the traditional links that we know and use today – but some version of that instead.”
• “Think about the way LLMs are constructed in this linguistic space. They use tokens and they use relationships to make connections. Those things are still very important.”
• “The whole mission of neural networks is to establish understanding between different things and so I believe that will still carry weight – but it might not look as specific as links and link building. Perhaps it could be mentions instead? Perhaps it could take the form of something else and just evolve.”

Prompt customization is key

SEOs will need to master prompt customization for AI to deliver the best results, according to Muller. Fine-tuning based on goals and data is crucial vs. a one-size-fits-all approach.

• “You really need to customize prompts, learn about prompt engineering and implement those things strategically. I know Andrew Ng just came out with a really great quick and easy course, partnered with Open AI, on that very topic and does a beautiful job explaining those key concepts. So I would definitely check that out,” Muller said.
• “ChatGPT actually has an API that you can use to customize prompts. It makes things a bit easier for the people that I work with, for my teams, for my clients, and it kind of puts the power in their hands as far as here’s how we need to approach this with an iterative process.”

Saving time on content creation

Numerous SEOs are exploring generative AI for content creation, including headlines, product descriptions and articles. There are current concerns with the quality of responses, however, these issues could potentially be resolved over time, as Davies pointed out:

• “Generative AI can write quite well. Is it right all the time? No. It’s just a little hack right now. But moving forward, this will speed things up – like with tasks that I was previously doing manually such as looking at what entities were on a page.”
• “I still need to use my brain and go OK, [generative AI] missed this and that. I then also need to fact-check. But this saves me probably half an hour per piece of research.”

Search may expand beyond webpages

In the future, search may move beyond webpages into new environments that don’t yet exist on the web today.

• “In the next five years, I think we’re just going to see a move into two different sorts of landscapes. I think search will diminish a little bit and move into, I don’t want to say Metaverse, but into different environments that don’t exist right now,” Davies said.

Simplifying code

Muller already uses ChatGPT extensively as a code assistant, highlighting that it’s particularly adept at tasks like generating Python scripts:

• “I think it’s important to make note that code in its nature is supposed to be unambiguous, unlike human language, and so generative AI is a lot better, in my opinion, at generating accurate code outputs for things I’m trying to accomplish, whether it be a Python script for a program or just pandas to clean up data. It’s phenomenal at those tasks.”

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Judicious use is required

Although generative AI will transform SEO as a profession, careful application is still essential due to the potential for incorrect uses – and this is the reason Muller doesn’t believe that this technology represents the end of SEO as a career. At least not yet.

• “Remember, generative AI is a prediction model based on a probability distribution. So if you imagine that it only read let’s say 100 books that were in the realm of sci-fi, and you ask it a medical question, it’s not going to do so well. But it might do really well with generating a new sci-fi character,” Muller said.
• “Given that context, generative AI is only as good as the text and information it’s trained on, which is inherently problematic because ChatGPT and LLMs are essentially trained on all of the Internet, which isn’t the best place to grab completely factual information or have representation across marginalized groups of people and topics.”
• “These models don’t have emotions. They aren’t reasoning. They don’t have common logic like humans do. And so you have to be really, really, really careful about how you use them, because it’s very easy when you enter a prompt to automate the bias that you already have by the sheer nature of how you ask a question, it’s going to follow that train of thought.”

The post How generative AI will change SEO as a profession appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

[September 1 deadline] Are you an “award-winning” marketer?

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2023

The post [September 1 deadline] Are you an “award-winning” marketer? appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Reddit launches first-party measurement tools

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2023

Reddit has launched two first-party measurement tools, Reddit Brand Lift and Reddit Conversion Lift. These are meant to help Reddit advertisers more efficiently monitor campaign performance.

Why we care. Advertisers can now access improved campaign performance data, empowering them to validate investments, optimize strategies more efficiently, and enhance their attribution models. Ultimately, this could lead to maximizing impact and achieving higher returns on ad spend (ROAS).

Reddit Brand Lift. This tool gauges the added effect of Reddit Ads on brand perception using a randomized controlled survey overseen by Reddit’s in-house Marketing Science team. The survey examines campaign particulars, including:

• Ad format, creative
• Audience targeting
• Ad Placement
• Engagement prompts
• Audience calls to action

It also analyses campaign objectives, such as:

• Awareness
• Favorability
• Recall
• Consideration

The study looks at all of the above to understand overall brand perception after people see a campaign on Reddit.

Reddit Conversion Lift. This tool analyzes the next steps taken by users after viewing a campaign on Reddit, using the Reddit Pixel, Conversions API and/or Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) integration. It analyzes campaign conversion metrics such as:

• App install
• Page visits
• Leads
• Add-to-carts
• Purchases

How it works. The new features work in conjunction with Reddit’s existing third-party measurement tools to give advertisers a more detailed insight into the performance of their campaign.

Reddit Brand Lift and Reddit Conversion lift are available to all Reddit managed advertisers based in the following countries:

• Australia
• Canada
• Germany
• UK
• US

Reddit Conversion Lift is only compatible with the Reddit Pixel, Conversions API, or Mobile Measurement Partners.

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What Reddit said. Understanding impact beyond traditional signals like clicks has become increasingly important to understanding campaign effectiveness, said Jim Squires, Reddit EVP of Business Marketing and Growth:

• “Through Reddit Brand Lift and Reddit Conversion Lift, we’re proving what we’ve long known to be true: that advertising on Reddit is highly measurable and highly effective, and when paired with our comprehensive suite of third-party measurement tools, our advertisers have access to holistic insights that support their investment on Reddit.”

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Reddit doubles interest targeting categories for ads

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2023

Reddit is significantly expanding its interest targeting categories for advertisers.

The platform is increasing its current offering from 66 to 152, with additional topics and subjects also set to be rolled out in the coming weeks.

Why we care. The expansion will create more opportunities for brands to serve ads to relevant audiences, which could improve reach and campaign performance. With the holiday season on the horizon, now may be the ideal time to start experimenting and see which interest categories are most effective for your ads.

What is interest targeting? Reddit interest targeting shows your ads to people based on what they are interested in. Instead of you having to figure out what Reddit communities or subreddits are relevant to your ads, the platform does that work for you.

Simply pick interests from Reddit’s list that match what your ad is about, and the platform will automatically serve your campaign to relevant audiences based on that data.

When is the expansion happening? Reddit has not given a specific timeframe but has confirmed that the update is being rolled out to advertisers over the next few weeks. When granted access, you should see the update in new and existing ad groups.

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What has Reddit said? A spokesperson for Reddit explained:

• “Interest targeting is our most popular form of targeting. That’s why we’re providing you with more control and transparency of your ad targeting and expanding the number of interests available to target.”
• “We have made interests more granular, and broke many interests into multiple new interests. These new interests shouldn’t have any significant effect on your targeting, but if you want to revisit your targeting, you can edit your ad groups.
• “For additional reach, consider enabling expansion, increasing bids, or pairing with additional relevant interest groups or communities.”

Deep dive. Read Reddit’s announcement in full for more information.

The post Reddit doubles interest targeting categories for ads appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Google on ranking updates: Focus on big picture, not individual signals

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023

The key to your SEO success is publishing authentic content and thinking about ranking in terms of concepts, rather than individual signals.

That’s according to Googlers Martin Splitt, John Mueller and Danny Sullivan in the latest Search Off the Record episode. The group discussed ranking updates and systems, content, the importance of user-centricity and more.

Why we care. Google’s algorithm is a recipe and we want to know all the ingredients (signals) that will help us rank better and drive more traffic and conversions, no matter what Google says we should do. However, in the chase for SEO success, it remains critical to always provide quality content for your target audience (your users, customers, clients or readers) and make sure you satisfy them first.

The big picture. Many SEOs get obsessed with knowing all the individual search ranking factors. While SEOs try picking everything apart, Mueller said there is a better way:

• “For a lot of the guidance that we have, it’s a lot more now about the bigger picture, because it feels like from a technical point of view, things are often pretty reasonable. And now you really need to get that bigger picture into the right shape, so that when users come, they’re like, ‘Oh, this is actually a helpful site,’” Mueller said.

Because Google’s algorithm is made up of multiple systems, Sullivan advised continuing to focus on the big picture:

• “Know that we’ll just try to share more information, so that you can understand more about the systems that are out there and, you know, hopefully be successful with them.”

Authentic content. The term “authentic” came up a few times during the discussion, with Mueller specifically noting how authentic content can be a differentiator when competing against AI content:

• “But I think now more than ever, having that authentic content that you created because you have
  an actual audience in mind that you know would come to it directly, that is your way forward as you try to navigate this world of how ranking systems are evolving with Google,” Mueller said.
• “And I think also generally, as we go into this world of AI content and so on, that it will have places
  and it’d be useful, but I think the bedrock will be to continue to point people towards authentic information. There’s a big craving for that, and that’s going to be your key to success,” Mueller said.

User-centricity. You should “put yourself in the shoes of someone who arrives at that content and what they’re going to be thinking about,” Sullivan said, adding some helpful context from a personal travel experience:

• “It’s like, I just wanted to know, like, where do I park? How do I get to the place? How long do I need to be there? And that you’ve actually been there,” Sullivan said.
• “… I think more of just sitting back and thinking, ‘If I were a person coming into this, would I actually be satisfied?’ ‘Did I really write this for an actual person, that I’m thinking about my audience?’
• “And if you’re doing that, you really feel like the way you do it works and you’re getting the feedback from your audience that it’s all great. Do it. Just do it. Keep going that way, right?”

The point of SEO is not to dress up pages in the hope it will rank in the first position of Google, Splitt added:

• “… are you trying to make something for your users and make it better, so that even a search engine, which is hopefully a less intelligent being than the people using the website can actually understand the goodness of the page?”

Listen to the episode. Search Off the Record: Let’s talk ranking updates

The post Google on ranking updates: Focus on big picture, not individual signals appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Google releases August 2023 broad core update

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023

Google is now rolling out the August 2023 broad core update.

This is the second broad core update of 2023; the previous core update was the March 2023 core update that started on March 15, 2023, and ended on March 28. It has been just over five months since Google’s last broad core update.

The announcement. Google announced this on Twitter and updated its search updates page:

• “Released the August 2023 core update. The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete.”

The rollout may take up to two weeks to complete, Google said.

What to do if you are hit. Google has given advice on what to consider if you are negatively impacted by a core update in the past. There aren’t specific actions to take to recover, and in fact, a negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.

However, Google has offered a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update. Google said you can see a bit of a recovery between core updates but the biggest change you would see would be after another core update.

Why we care. Whenever Google updates its search ranking algorithms, it means that your site can do better or worse in the search results. Knowing when Google makes these updates gives us something to point to in order to understand if it was something you changed on your website or something Google changed with its ranking algorithm. Today, we know Google will be releasing a core ranking update, so keep an eye on your analytics and rankings over the next couple of weeks.

Reviews update. As a reminder, the April 2023 reviews update was the last confirmed Google update we saw. That update started on April 12 and finished on April 25. Previously there was February 2023 product reviews update, it started on Feb. 21 and ran for 14 days, ending on March 7. This was a significant update.

Previous core updates. The most recent previous core update was the the March 2023 core update that started on March 15, 2023 and ended on March 28. Then we had the September 2022 broad core update which was less impactful than previous core updates and finished on Sept. 26. The May 2022 broad core update was a significant and fast update.

We also had core updates prior including the November 2021 core update and prior to that was the July 2021 core update, before that it was the June 2021 core update and that update was slow to roll out but a big one.

Before that, we had the December 2020 core update, which was very big, bigger than the May 2020 core update, and that update was also big and broad and took a couple of weeks to fully roll out. Before that was the January 2020 core update, we had some analysis on that update over here.

The one prior to that was the September 2019 core update. That update felt weaker to many SEOs and webmasters, as many said it didn’t have as big of an impact as previous core updates.

You can read more about past Google updates here.

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

The 5 degrees of link relevance

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023

SEO is easy enough, in theory. The strategies are obvious if you’ve been around the block.

What’s hard about SEO is the actual execution and implementation. The consistency. On a daily basis. 

Nowhere is this more obvious than link building.

This article will explain why.

You’ll also learn how to use the “5 degrees of link relevance” framework to craft the best theoretical strategy and the best path to consistently build high-quality, relevant links over the long run.

The 5 degrees of link relevance

Quickly jot down a list of the “best” and “most relevant” links in your space.

Go ahead. I’ll wait.

• What are their characteristics? 
• How are they similar?

Here’s the thing most people misunderstand about link building:

You need both quality and quantity to compete in the most lucrative spaces against online behemoths. 

Just one or the other isn’t good enough.

And that poses a problem. 

Because it forces you to redefine commonly held preconceptions, like “link relevance,” into a more practical definition.

You see, “relevance” isn’t binary. It’s not black and white. 

Yes, it can be completely “not relevant.” A link from a Viagra site is definitely not relevant to an insurance broker. 

But beyond that, there are often different “degrees” of relevant links. It’s more of a fluid spectrum, where links can be both “highly” or “slightly” relevant.

And when shooting for scale, you need both!

So let’s break this down even further, using my framework, to show you how to prioritize link relevance based on the strategies and tactics that best suit each.

You’ll see that the bulk of link building strategies and tactics you use should fall into the middle zone vs. getting stuck at either extreme end.

First degree: The ‘most’ relevant, yet often least scalable

When you ask people what the “most relevant” links are in your space, they often give you First Degree answers.

But here’s the problem with those.

Counterintuitively, first-degree links usually aren’t highly scalable.

The most highly relevant sites and SERPs in your space are often bad for link building because they’re: 

• Direct or indirect competitors.
• “Pay to play” (advertising and affiliate).
• Nofollowed.
• Unscalable (limited number and likelihood to naturally link).

Another way to think of this problem is through the lens of a simple matrix. Each axis balances “quantity” and “quality.”

And first-degree links, while certainly high quality, are very low quantity by definition.

That’s because the sites often ranking at the top of the most competitive SERPs in your space already fall into one of the following categories:

• Competitors won’t link to you. 
• Pay-to-play sites are expensive to scale.
• Nofollowed sites have some benefit, but not ideal.
• And they’re “unscalable” by definition.

Unpacking this last point, consider a major media brand like The New York Times. 

There’s both a tiny finite number of sites like this, and also, the likelihood of them linking to you (without an eight-figure sponsorship deal) is very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very low.

So, yes. You should look for and get as many of these as possible. For instance, sponsoring a nonprofit in your space is an easy win-win. 

But…

There’s only so many of these to go around!

And on a comparison basis, the effective “cost per link” (even if it’s a traditional or flat-fee sponsorship) becomes prohibitively expensive to scale into the thousands (if not tens of thousands of referring domains) needed to compete in the Major Leagues.

For instance, how much do you think this content syndication costs between NerdWallet + CNBC?

No clue. But I also bet it’s significantly more than your company’s entire marketing budget.

So instead of fruitlessly floundering around with major media sites or direct and indirect competitors already ranking, you need to readjust your definition of relevance to become something more easily attainable. 

Second degree: Highly relevant and scalable

Second-degree links are high quality, relevant and scalable.

This is your sweet spot!

Second-degree links are topically or thematically relevant and highly scalable (meaning: many sites like these are highly likely to link to you). 

Here are a few of the characteristics you’re often looking for:

• Higher DR ranges (70+)
• Lots of traffic
• Credible brands
• Editorial-based

In other words, this is your high-quality and high-quantity focus!

Why is this seemingly semantic difference important?

Because thinking in this fashion helps you uncover the optimal tactics you should be using to get as many of these links as possible!

For instance, generally speaking, certain tactics are better (or worse) to use to reach sites of a certain size (and prestige). 

If you broke it down by Domain Rating (DR) or Domain Authority (DA) ranges, it would look something like this:

In other words:

• DR/DA 0-30 sites? Don’t bother actively chasing links.
• DR/DA 30-60: Outreach-based methods tend to scale better in this low-to-medium-tier of sites.
• DR/DA ~60-90: Whereas you’ll often need an editorial-based strategy and partnerships to reach this sweet spot of sites that move the needle.
• DR/DA 90+: And these are your first-degree links above that might be simply unattainable or too expensive (you need good personal relationships or LOTS of $$$).

A perfect example of second-degree link building would be Candor’s “Hiring Freezes” link magnet play at the height of COVID-19. 

They created a valuable resource, rounding up real-time employment status during an uncertain time:

Then, they leveraged that resource to get attention and visibility and some high-quality links from editorial-based sources like VentureBeat (an industry publication vs. mainstream media).

This strategy has the added bonus of leveraging long-term. 

Here’s how:

• Instead of spending more on the expense (or distribution, like cost per link building, CPC of an ad or CPL for affiliates, etc.), you
• Spend more on the asset (the content!), bringing down the effective cost per link or click or lead on the expense side of the balance sheet.

This last point is super important. Write it down.

Because the good news is that most of your competitors will ignore and invert it.

You shouldn’t. 

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Third degree: Audience relevant and still highly scalable

OK, now for the fun section.

Third-degree links are critical in driving quantity during a link building campaign.

The trick is to find enough of them that are still relevant, even though they purposely won’t be the “most” relevant (like the first or second degree examples above).

So here’s how you think about these.

Third-degree links are audience-relevant, even if not directly topically relevant. These can be alternatives to a product or service, too (i.e., an alternative solution to your primary product or service). And they’re still highly valuable and scalable!

Examples here include:

• Mid-to-high DR ranges (50-70)
• Sites with consistent traffic
• Known brands in that niche or vertical, despite not mass market appeal
• They’re directionally relevant to audience or category alternative

Let’s take a step back and think of your buyer’s journey for a second.

Most first and second-degree links are closer to the bottom of the funnel, focused primarily around who you are or what you do for people (i.e., the product or service you have, the primary audience that needs you right now, etc).

As an example, let’s say you sell Pet Insurance. So most people think “relevant” is something around “insurance” or “people looking for pet insurance.”

Yes. And no.

Again: you have no scale there! 

Do you think anyone else talking about “pet insurance” on the internet is likely to link to you? The answer is no, because they’re probably already a direct or indirect competitor.

Plus, it’s super niche.

So instead, you need to move up-funnel.

Ask yourself: What kind of big, active online audiences would buy pet insurance?

Mom blogs!

Are mom blogs “highly relevant” to pet insurance?

• From a classic, old-school, traditional SEO standpoint, maybe not. 
• But from a broader marketing and actually revenue-driving position? Yes, of course! 

Who do you think spends money on new pets, takes care of existing pets, and spends the bulk of their time taking care of them? 

Moms and their kids!

(Stereotypical, I know. But this is still directionally accurate across the world. Moms usually still do most of the hard work with kids and pets.)

So instead of trying to get other insurance companies to review your product – ‘cause, they won’t – you get (or incentivize) mom blogs to talk about your pet insurance.

This gives you a relevant link and can potentially drive more revenue.

The link is audience-relevant, even if it’s not directly relevant to your space or product (insurance).

Most product reviews of all shapes and flavors honestly fall into this category. 

An organic skincare brand, then, would target every single “natural,” “sustainable” and “eco-friendly” blog in the world.

The key with second and third-degree links is to realize:

• These sites don’t need to link to you, so…
• You need to help them first by solving a need they already have.

Uncovering what they need first and then supplying that paves the way to reciprocation.

Fourth degree: Extremely scalable but less relevant

Now we’re moving into the gray area.

On the one hand, fourth-degree links are often extremely scalable. But on the other, they’re usually a lot less relevant, too.

Fourth-degree links are less relevant for audience or theme, or as an alternative to your product or service. Think: links for links sake with no other value.

You can spot these by the following warning signs:

• Sites tend to be lower DR ranges (think: <40)
• Paid-for links (“sponsored” and similar)
• Artificial / abused tactics (scholarships, widget/embeds, and more)
• Other “gray” tactics (second-tier link building, expired domains, etc.)

These are your old-school, SEO 1.0-style tactics. You already know the kind. 

Basically, anything that looks like this:

As a general rule, the more scalable a link building tactic, the less desirable (low quality and less relevant) it is.

So. 

Should you still use these?

Possibly, yes! 

You need both quantity and quality in the long run to succeed. 

This real-world acceptance separates the link building pros (who see what actually works) from all the empty, hollow, fauxfluencers out there who never descend their privileged-ivory-tower positions.

So should these 80% of your links? 

No! Unless you want to be penalized one day or don’t care about the site long term.

But. 

Should these be <10-20% of your links? Sure, why not. 

If you reverse-engineered your biggest competitors today, I guarantee you’ll often find a worse ratio.

So keep reality in perspective.

Fifth degree: Not relevant and low quality (yet still extremely scalable)

Last but not least, fifth-degree links (and beyond) are typically very low quality and highly risky (i.e., they are ignored completely or risk penalization through manual action):

These include:

• Outright spam sites
• Vices (Viagra, gambling, etc.)
• DR <20, no traffic sites
• PBNs

These are the ones you avoid like the plague! 

Not only because they’re truly “not relevant,” but more importantly because they aren’t likely going to drive you buyers, either.

We don’t really need to beat this dead horse anymore, do we?

The degrees of link relevance

Link relevance is fluid. It’s a sliding scale or spectrum.

So while it’s true that some links are “not relevant,” more common is that links can be “highly” or “mostly” or “slightly” relevant.

And you commonly need all of those to achieve scale!

‘Cause often, the “most” relevant links are also the hardest to get, build, land, or pay for. 

If the biggest competitors in your space have tens of thousands of referring domains at minimum (which most lucrative spaces all do), then you can’t be overly picky.

You’ll still need tons and tons of “mostly” relevant and “slightly” relevant links.

These audience-focused ones might seem “less relevant” at first glance.

But they’re also what helps you eventually balance both quantity and quality in the long run.

The post The 5 degrees of link relevance appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

5 ways to improve PPC lead quality

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023

Online leads are not all equal. The quality of those leads ultimately matters in driving meaningful business outcomes.

Focusing on high-quality leads in your PPC campaigns increases your return on investment for your marketing dollars. 

Additionally, improving lead quality allows salespeople to focus on more promising opportunities, streamline their sales process, and cultivate a loyal customer base. 

Here are the tools and strategies you can employ to drive better leads and more ideal customers to your doorstep:

Key 1: Teach Google what a good lead looks like

Google’s ad bidding algorithm is a sophisticated system determining whom to target and how much to pay for a click. 

The algorithm considers many factors, such as the bid, the ad and landing page quality, the expected click-through rate, and other historical performance data. 

The better quality data you can provide to Google, the better the algorithms will do your bidding (literally). 

You can do this by providing Google the following:

• Clean conversion tracking, depending on what clean means for you.
• Customer lists that are filtered for your highest-quality customers while meeting the 1,000-user threshold.
• Conversion values for designating more highly profitable leads from others.

Positive feedback loops

Algorithms like Google’s ad bidding system are designed to continuously improve performance by leveraging a feedback loop. This loop allows the algorithm to learn from past decisions and adjust its strategies for better outcomes. 

When the algorithm receives accurate and high-quality initial inputs, it establishes a strong foundation for this learning process. The algorithm can make increasingly precise bidding decisions as it refines its understanding of user behaviors and preferences. 

Fueled by the right inputs, this positive feedback loop results in more accurate learnings and better bidding decisions, enhancing campaign effectiveness and improving return on investment.

Key 2: Don’t neglect offline conversion tracking

One of the best practices for improving your PPC lead quality is offline conversion tracking or Enhanced Conversions for Leads.

Offline conversion tracking in Google Ads lets you link online ad interactions with offline actions, like in-store purchases or phone orders.

Doing so better informs Google’s bidding algorithms on what and who to optimize for increased profits and offline sales. 

Here’s how it works:

High-quality lead data curation

Compile your online leads that generated revenue offline with an average volume of 30 or more per month and an average lag of 90 days or less.

Consider creating a database of all of the high-quality leads generated, whether they purchased or not. This is recommended because we aim to inform Google of the ideal lead candidates and to generate more of these, whether they become customers or not.

Integration with CRM or database

Next, integrate your offline data with Google Ads. This can be done by collecting and associating a Google Click ID (GCLID) with your leads.

Alternatively, consider using Enhanced Conversions for Leads for less technical and more streamlined implementation.

Ideally, you will have an automatic upload of this data into Google Ads regularly. If you use Salesforce or HubSpot, Google Ads has an easy and direct integration for uploading these offline sales conversions.

Attribution and reporting

Once Google matches the lead with the originating click ID, it can attribute the ads, keywords, campaigns, etc., that drive these valuable offline actions. 

You can see reporting on the associated metrics like conversion value, conversion rate, and return on ad spend (ROAS).

Identify optimization opportunities

This data lets you understand which keywords, ads, or campaigns drive the most valuable offline conversions. 

These insights will help you to make informed decisions about budget allocation, keywords, ad creatives, and targeting to optimize your campaigns.

Key 3: Exclude low-quality lead sources

Once you can identify what is generating your best-quality leads, you want to use these insights to pull spending away from your low-quality lead sources. 

Audience demographics such as age and household income levels will come to light.

For example, you could discover that conversions are from 18- to 24-year-olds but not revenue. Use this discovery to exclude those age demographics from accruing ad spending in your campaigns. 

Placement exclusions

Regularly check your placements report for low-quality websites, apps, and YouTube channels where your ads showed. 

This can be tedious, but it will allow you to exclude placements that do not align with your brand or match your targeting. This is a great strategy to exclude low-quality lead sources. 

Turn off demographics expansion

If you use demographic exclusions to improve lead quality, it is crucial to understand that Video Action campaigns using optimized targeting will ignore these exclusions. 

Be sure to submit a request to your Google rep for whitelisting to turn off the demographics expansion.  

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Key 4: Attract high-quality leads who want to do business with you.

How good is your brand at attracting your ideal prospects, and does this high-caliber lead want to work with you? 

If you’re facing challenges in attracting quality leads to your brand or would like to improve overall, start by evaluating and enhancing your brand strategy. 

Consider refreshing your brand identity, including your website, ads, logos, and colors. Be sure these are all effectively resonating with your desired customers.

Revisit your target audience and ensure your brand’s messaging aligns with their preferences and needs. Clarify your value proposition, highlighting how your brand addresses users’ specific problems. 

Last, embrace personalization to connect with different segments of your audience and resonate more deeply. 

Examples include personalized landing pages, dynamic website content based on the visitor’s preferences and behavior-based retargeting ads.

Key 5: Disqualify leads before they reach a salesperson

I learned this from Perry Marshall, who has a story from John Paul Mendocha about “racking the shotgun,” and it’s about applying the 80/20 rule to your prospecting.

Ideally, you would disqualify folks before they click on your ad, costing you money. You can apply these other techniques after excluding your low-quality lead sources.

Use price as a disqualifier

Some prospecting strategies include concealing the price. I recommend using it as a disqualifier. You will likely prevent the leads from entering your funnel who cannot afford what you offer. 

Disqualify leads with your online form

If displaying your price doesn’t make sense, use your online form to ask a qualifying question about the budget or how much they plan to invest. Doing so allows you to route leads with more profitable follow-up tactics based on their response.

Urgency is another qualifier that can be asked online, such as how significant is this problem they are trying to solve? One way would be to ask for their timeframe. 

Alternatively, they can rank the importance of finding a solution from one to five. 

Disqualify leads over chat

Similarly to the online form, use chat to help disqualify potential leads just as much as you would try to convert them. Ask the same qualifying questions to identify if your solution doesn’t fit their needs.

Bonus key: Get targeting feedback directly from salespeople

One bonus point for improving your PPC lead quality is getting targeted feedback directly from salespeople.

As PPC marketers, we tend to work in a black box. Getting insights directly from salespeople can help inform our targeting and exclusion strategies. 

Not only can this make our direct campaigns more profitable, but sending through more highly qualified leads improves the results for the salespeople, increases retention, enhances your brand reputation, and reduces wasted resources. 

Increase lead quality to increase your resources

Improving lead quality can significantly impact a business across various aspects. This impact will be more significant if most of your leads come from PPC sources. 

Ultimately, focusing on lead quality can lead to more efficient resource allocation, better customer relationships, increased conversion rates, higher revenue and overall business success. 

The post 5 ways to improve PPC lead quality appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

SEO KPIs to track and measure SEO success

Monday, August 21st, 2023

If something can be measured, it can be improved. 

By carefully measuring your SEO with metrics that matter to your business, you can understand where you are currently and what value SEO brings to your marketing. 

SEO KPIs bridge the gap between your business and marketing objectives and the data available in SEO tools and web analytics. 

This article outlines the many SEO metrics and KPIs and how to tailor a set of SEO KPIs to your business. 

What are KPIs?

A KPI is a key performance indicator. This is a quantifiable measurement of performance in relation to a specific objective. KPIs help you define targets and milestones and measure progress toward those goals.

What are SEO KPIs?

SEO KPIs are metrics used to measure SEO performance. 

Typically, SEO KPIs track visibility or traffic and how it fares in relation to your goals. 

Such metrics will quantify traffic from major search engines like Google and Bing and the real-world results of SEO strategies and tactics (leads and sales).

Using SEO KPIs

Careful measurement and tracking provide a control system to ensure your tactics deliver results and your time and effort are spent on productive tasks.  

Diligent measurement also provides feedback if your tactics are not working and inform you of how changes in the search landscape or algorithm impact performance. 

KPIs can be tiered to provide understandable metrics for all stakeholders. The marketing team will need more detail to ensure time is spent wisely on SEO vs. PPC, but the board may only need to see top-level performance figures. 

Tailoring the KPIs to your situation is the key to creating truly useful SEO KPIs. 

Objectives and KPIs

Your SEO KPIs should act as an extension of your overall business and marketing goals. 

You ensure you aim at relevant goals by considering your SEO goals as an extension of your overall marketing goals. Your SEO KPIs then track performance toward that goal. 

The key is in the name (literally and figuratively): KPIs are key performance indicators.

They force you to ask whether your SEO approach drives performance. If not, what can you do about it?

This is really important but all too often overlooked.

SEO can be so complex that you need clear objectives and ways to measure progress toward those goals to ensure your time and effort are spent wisely pursuing the right goals. 

SEO KPI Process 

The following is a simple process that you can use to determine your SEO goals and KPIs. 

Step 1: Determine your SEO goals

The first job is to identify your SEO objectives. What are the important tasks you need to achieve now, in a month, three months, six months and a year?

The SEO goals should connect to established organizational goals, and you should clearly articulate how the SEO goals drive the overall business goals. 

I suggest three to five goals initially to keep focus. 

You should then define your SEO goals using the SMART goals system. 

Alternatively, you can use the OKR approach to objectives and key results detailed in “Measure What Matters” by John Doerr. This simple system was used by Google, Microsoft and many other huge companies to simplify goal-setting to drive massive growth. 

The right approach will depend upon your business, but whatever you choose, your goals should be relevant, measurable, achievable and time-bound.  

Step 2: Define what you will measure 

The next step is to define what you will measure. 

Your measurement metrics can be thought of as steps, and each should take you closer to the overall goal. As with the goals, you want, at most, three to five measurement metrics for each goal. 

When your goals are achieved, you should be able to measure performance to determine if your strategy here is valid. 

Step 3: Decide on the length of your cycle

As a general rule of thumb, SEO metrics are tracked monthly. 

There are exceptions to this rule. Keyword rankings may be tracked daily (but reviewed monthly), and you may also want quarterly, bi-yearly and annual reports. 

Remember, with SEO, you may only see tangible results like leads and sales when your keywords rank highly and drive traffic. Factor progress toward the goal into your overall cycle length.  

Step 4: Review and reflect

The goal is to review each KPI and, ideally, score performance. 

• What is working? 
• What can you do differently next month? 

The purpose of KPIs is to help you review your approach and think critically about what is or is not working. 

A highly ranked organic keyword in modern search may not drive the expected traffic numbers. 

Think of this as an experiment. Your KPIs are there to test the validity of your hypothesis. 

Be flexible, and be ready to adapt and adjust your tactics based on the results.  

Example

• Objective: To sell more kitchens. 
  • KPI 1: Increase rank for kitchen keywords. 
  • KPI 2: Increase organic traffic on kitchen pages.
  • KPI 3: Improve engagement rates.
  • KPI 4: Increase organic conversions.

Here we have a simple objective measured with four simple SEO KPIs. This does not have to be complicated!  

Following this approach, you will create three to five relevant SEO goals that you can easily measure with three to five SEO KPIs each. 

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Example SEO KPIs

There is no shortage of SEO metrics for tracking your campaigns.

You can find data points from free SEO tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics to the many commercial SEO tools. 

Unfortunately, while we have lots of data in its native format, commercial SEO tools and even Google Analytics often do more to confuse than deliver insight.

The purpose of SEO KPIs is to make those metrics useful.

We do that with the four-step model, where we connect SEO metrics to SEO goals connected to the broader business and marketing goals. 

The following is a categorized list of SEO metrics to build your SEO KPIs. 

Remember, don’t just blindly use the metrics below. Connect them to your SEO goals in groups of three to five to drive insight and understanding.  

1. SEO keywords

First up is the old SEO stalwart of keywords. 

Tracking keywords for SEO is complicated nowadays as search results have so many elements. 

But it is still important to show progress toward your goals and get a sanity check on how much traffic a given keyword will deliver. 

Track keywords for progress and verify your strategy. 

Modern search results will include:

• Local pack
• Organic listings
• Featured snippets
• Sitelinks
• Knowledge cards and panels
• Videos
• People also ask
• Video previews

You may also want to consider:

• By location 
• By country
• Search Console CTR
• Search Console Average Rank
• Search Console Clicks
• Search Console Impressions

When tracking keywords, combine multiple factors to give the complete picture. 

At the very least, track rankings, organic impressions and clicks (from Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tool). Depending on the SERP layout, a top 5 keyword can still do very little in actual clicks.

As time progresses, with this level of detail in your keyword KPIs, you will learn what works and what does not, which will feed into your strategy and goal setting. 

Tip: Remember rankings are just one factor, and ensure when working on your web design and SEO that the content that ranks is a good fit for the intent behind the keyword!

2. SEO metrics 

These are the traditional SEO metrics provided by various SEO tools. 

Most of these metrics grew out of the hysteria around Google PageRank and aim to provide a general authority score at a site and page level. 

These metrics can be helpful, but they mean very little alone, and they need to be compared to competitor values to provide accurate context. 

You should measure that your site’s perceived trust and authority will correlate with an increase in the rank for your main search terms and the amount of organic traffic received.

These metrics are important but do not talk in the language of the business, so their prioritization in your reports will depend upon the stakeholder’s understanding of SEO. 

• Majestic Citation Flow
• Majestic Trust Flow
• Majestic Trust and Citation Balance
• Moz Domain Authority
• Moz Page Authority
• Moz Spam Score

Tip: Remember that these specific SEO metrics should be tied to the overarching goals and strategy. 

For example, suppose you want to build traffic to your upper-funnel marketing content. In that case, you may want to improve site authority but remember to sanity check improvements against real-world metrics (rankings, traffic, etc). 

3. Real-world SEO KPIs

While many SEO KPIs relate to perceived authority and keyword rankings, what really matters is whether this is making a difference. 

• Are we getting more traffic? Is that generating more leads? 
• Is the cost per lead coming down vs. other channels? 
• Are we seeing more branded searches due to raised awareness? 

This is where the SEO rubber hits the SERP road, folks, so these metrics are essential.

• Increase in organic traffic
• Increase in the number of pages on the site that generate traffic
• Increase in non-branded search traffic
• Percentage increase in traffic from specific geographic regions
• Organic Impressions (Search Console)
• Organic Click-Through Rate (CTR) (Search Console)

Tip: We would also like to see real-world SEO metrics increase as SEO metrics improve. 

This ensures the work you do is helping move the dial rather than just satisfying the whim of an SEO tool. 

4. Conversion KPIs

The most important SEO KPI, in most cases, is conversion. Tracking conversions from organic search should be at the top of your list.

These KPIs need to be customized around your specific goals. Some examples here include:

• Conversions from organic search
• Percentage increase in conversion rate
• Organic search conversion rate
• Sales conversions 
• Lead conversions
• Downloads 
• Email clicks
• Phone number clicks
• Form fills
• Cost per acquisition (CPA)* 

Note: Calculating and tracking CPA for organic search allows you to compare the return from organic with other channels. This helps determine if you are spending your precious marketing budget wisely. 

Tip: The specifics here really depend on the specifics of your business and your marketing objectives, so ensure you track these in GA4. 

5. Engagement KPIs

Google Analytics 4 has three key engagement metrics:

• Average engagement time (over the date range)
• Engaged sessions per user
• Average engagement time per session

Tip: Tracking engagement as a general KPI but also for all channels allows you to evaluate the quality of traffic from SEO vs. PPC, social etc. Again, this helps determine if you are spending your time and efforts on the right tactics! 

6. Referral traffic 

A solid SEO campaign can impact your business beyond driving more organic traffic. 

If content and links are a vital part of your strategy, then this exposure can drive more high-quality referral traffic, so it is prudent to demonstrate the extra value here. 

This helps to illustrate how your SEO strategies have multiple marketing benefits. 

Often, solid referral traffic can convert at a better rate than organic search traffic, so ignore this at your peril.

• Percentage increase in referral traffic
• Percentage increase in referral conversions
• Percentage increase in engagement metrics (bounce, pages, time)

Tip: The links that will build authority will also drive referral traffic, so factor this into your qualitative measurement. 

7. Brand impact

Improved search visibility equates to improved overall visibility – advertising by another name. So we should also look at the increase in branded search traffic and brand mentions and how this correlates to your work.

• Percentage increase in branded search traffic
• Percentage increase in brand mentions
• Visibility on third-party sites *

The visibility on third-party sites is another way for your audience to discover you. 

For example, more people will discover me and my business by writing and publishing this article here on Search Engine Land. 

If you do this kind of marketing, then ensure you measure the impact.  

Tracking how many people search for you by name helps you understand and measure overall recognition. Comparing these values to your main competitors helps you measure relative market awareness. 

8. Link building KPIs

Links are still one of the primary drivers of search engine visibility, and links (plus content) are often the main tangible element of a long-term SEO campaign. 

Therefore, we must still report on the total number of links from authority sites and those from highly relevant sites. These will generally be pulled from our link wishlist and should be customized around your client’s industry.

• Total links
• Total links gained this time period
• Number of links from authority sites
• Number of links from relevant sites
• Links lost 

Tip: To determine the relative value of your link building, compare your link profile with your competitors’ using one of the many SEO tools on the market. 

9. Soft conversion KPIs

Leads are vital to your overall digital marketing, yet the classification of leads and the sales funnel gets ever more complex. 

As such, we should measure our SEO efforts’ impact on lead generation, whether social signups, newsletter signups or some other download or lead gen specific to your business.

• Percentage increase in newsletter signups
• Percentage increase in social followers/likes and so on
• Business-specific lead generation goals (data sheets, white papers and so on)

Tip: Try to understand the customer journey and the steps required, from awareness and a visit to a paying customer and lifetime value. 

SEO may drive most of your email signups, and the email campaigns drive sales. Customize this to your situation and measure what matters. 

10. Business objective-specific KPIs

This category is a little more challenging to create a generic example for. However, it’s important from a reporting perspective. 

We must do all we can to connect the business strategy with our SEO strategy via KPIs. 

Often, the KPIs detailed above will give you what you want here, so this is more of a case of structuring them to align with your goals and reporting them meaningfully. 

Remember, the higher-ups may only want a very low-resolution overview, but the marketing team may need more detail. 

To provide some direction, if your goal is to build awareness of a new product, then you want to focus on awareness metrics: impressions, average position, keywords, clicks and so forth. 

If you want to drive more signups, we want to track the number of people looking at the signup and pricing pages. 

If we look at more traditional conversions, we must look at the total number of sales/leads/inquiries.

The point here is that you already have the SEO KPIs, but remember to:

• Frame them around your business objectives.
• Clearly highlight that you are helping move the business forward and not just providing a set of esoteric SEO tracking metrics. 

Your SEO work has much more value than simply moving a keyword ranking. It adds real value to the business, reduces marketing costs, builds the brand and more. 

Just remember to let the right people know in a way they can understand. 

Tip: If you are struggling with how to categorize your SEO KPIs, there are two approaches that we have found helpful over the years. 

The first is to group your KPIs along the marketing funnel: 

• Awareness.
• Engagement.
• Conversion.

 An alternative approach is to use the VQVC model, which stands for: 

• Volume.
• Quality.
• Value.
• Cost. 

If you are struggling, investigate these options to ensure you build truly insightful SEO KPI reports. 

Understanding builds trust and confidence

It is tempting to think of SEO tracking as just another job, but that is underselling things. 

You know that your work delivers real value to the business beyond just moving up the search results for a few keywords. 

SEO KPIs provide a way to track and demonstrate SEO results and then communicate those improvements so everyone in the business can understand. 

Key to this is to structure your goals hierarchically:

• Business Goals > Marketing Goals > SEO Goals 

You can then clearly articulate how improvements in SEO metrics lead to improvements in marketing performance which drives business growth. 

If you can create hierarchical goals and SEO reporting that feed into tha, then the reporting has real strategic value. 

SEO KPIs help you:

• Understand what is working.
• Understand what tactical elements drive results. 
• Build a strategic understanding of marketing throughout the business.

SEO reporting then becomes an actual strategic process. This helps develop critical thinking, a problem-solving mentality and a creative approach to your SEO.

The post SEO KPIs to track and measure SEO success appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing