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Location pages in Google’s crosshairs after October spam update

Written on December 6, 2022 at 6:32 am, by admin

Within the last few months, service area business (SAB) websites started to see rank fluctuations aligned with the rollout of Google’s helpful content and spam updates around late August through October.

Chatter around those fluctuations picked up in the local SEO community during this period in various forums, including the Google SEO Mastermind Facebook group.

The common theme with sites that were impacted the most seemed to be related to duplicate content, specifically location pages – in other words, doorway pages.

However, sites weren’t getting directly penalized by rank. Instead, pages were being automatically deindexed, which in turn caused ranks to drop for queries related to the corresponding location pages.

Deindexing of location pages

Schieler Mew, admin of the Google SEO Mastermind group on Facebook, posted this video explaining what he saw with over 200 SAB sites.

In the video, he explains that sites with relatively low authority or a lack of helpful content throughout the site saw a deindexing of their “duplicate content” location pages en masse.

Scheiler and I jumped on a Google Meet, where he shared some data and screenshots below of what had happened in Search Console to these sites.

The first thing that was noticed was a large shift in the middle of September regarding indexed pages. This seems to line right up with the completion of the helpful content rollout.

Digging into it, the next screenshot is all the pages that were deindexed seemingly overnight.

Finally, the report on the timeline of the affected pages.

The mass deindexing of pages that heavily contributed to geographic ranking vanished, taking the rankings with it.

This seemed to be the case for numerous other pages, although there were a few outliers.

Websites with seemingly higher authority or location pages that used unique content weren’t deindexed.

This leads me to believe that the helpful content and spam update algorithm seem somewhat unfinished. In this case, it tackled the easiest target – duplicate content location pages on sites with low authority.

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How the helpful content and spam updates contributed

Most SEOs were under the assumption that these updates were targeting AI-generated content. (Recall that in an office-hours hangout in April, John Mueller referred to it as “spam” and made it clear it was against Google’s policies.)

On November 7, Danny Sullivan squashed this in a tweet, stating:

• “We haven’t said AI content is bad. We’ve said, pretty clearly, content written primarily for search engines rather than humans is the issue.”

This is when I started putting two and two together.

SAB sites are dropping in rank right around the rollout of both the helpful content and spam updates, and we know it’s primarily targeting pages that have content written for search engines rather than humans.

What kind of pages would a local SAB have that almost every SEO in the industry creates?

Location pages.

Understanding doorway pages

A doorway page is essentially what Danny Sullivan was talking about in the above tweet. It’s a page written to rank for a specific keyword but provides little to no value to a user.

An example of doorway pages in the local SEO industry is location pages. In other words, a page that exists for the sole purpose of ranking [city #1] + [service A] multiplied by the number of cities and/or services the business is trying to rank for.

These can be created faster if the content is duplicated and only the keywords are swapped out. Additionally, you can write custom content for each page, but it’s still a doorway page.

SEOs in this sector hate to admit it, but location pages are doorway pages. Mueller confirmed this in February.

Doorway pages have always been against Google’s policies, but there had never seemed to be a way to suppress these algorithmically.

The only punishment seemed to be manual actions, and until this year, SABs seem to have been put on the Google backburner – so no one really ever saw any consequences for doing this.

Recent Google updates to local SEO

In the last few months, waves have been made within the local SEO community, not just with doorway pages, including:

• Google Business Profiles requiring video and photo verification.
• Reviews going missing.
• Complete profiles being suspended for seemingly no reason.
• Plummeting rankings.

For the most part, Google has addressed a few of these issues, such as the suspended business profiles and reviews hovering in purgatory – usually giving credit to “bugs.”

At some point, SEOs have to ask themselves why suddenly there are so many bugs in a specific sector.

Aside from the bugs with GBP profiles, Google has also made some obvious and strict changes to how profiles are now verified.

It started with the default verification method switching from postcard to video. Then, in some instances, video being the only way to verify.

This, mixed with business profiles suddenly being suspended over minor issues, started to raise flags that Google was finally tackling the SEO spam in the SAB community.

Fast forward to September this year, SEOs in communities and forums started to see declining rankings for location-dependant keywords and pages.

All of this being said, it looks like Google is seriously cracking down on local businesses that are violating their spam policies.

Can location pages still work?

The short answer is, “yes”, but it’s only a matter of time before location pages fade into archaic SEO practices like hidden text or meta keyword stuffing.

Google deindexing duplicate content location pages is just the first step in the conquest to punish sites for using doorway pages that don’t benefit humans.

It’s unclear whether or not Google will institute rank penalties for doorway pages in the future or continue to not index the pages.

My theory is that this is a temporary fix. Location pages are something local SEOs should be leaving in the past.

At the end of the day, Google wants content to exist to provide a positive user experience, not to influence rank.

As a consumer, I’ve never found a location page to benefit my user experience. This is how we should think when creating pages and content.

First, think about how it can help the user and then how it can be optimized to help your rank – in that order.

Alternative optimization options to rank in nearby cities

Suggesting that location pages may be coming to an end isn’t cause for local SEOs to throw their hands up on optimizing for neighboring cities and areas.

There are alternative things we can do that put the purpose of the content back in the direction of helping humans first.

Target your primary service area in your H1s and page titles

Chances are you or your client have a number one area they want to target.

Make sure this city is mentioned in your H1s and page titles. This will make it clear to Google from a content standpoint where your primary area of service is.

Make sure to have a general service area page

Make sure to have a general page that tells users where you or your client serves.

List out all counties, cities, or neighborhoods and include a map that visualizes that service area.

Create project pages

This is my favorite. If you or your client have project-oriented work like landscaping, roof repair, construction, etc; create pages for specific projects that were completed.

Treat it similarly to a blog or gallery. Add before and after pictures, explaining the job or project details.

Mention what city it was located in, how much it cost, some challenges, etc.

This method will not only show potential customers what your company is capable of and the type of work you do, but it’s also a great way to rank your service and the city where it was performed.

An example of a project page for a landscaper could be titled “Modern Highland Stone Retaining Wall in Minnetonka, MN.”

Local newspaper press releases

Reach out to local newspapers in the surrounding areas and issue a press release.

Brag about your company regarding a past or upcoming charitable contribution or discount you give. Newspaper and local publishing sites typically link back to your website.

Join multiple local Chambers of Commerce

These typically have an annual fee associated with each one you join, but each city you or your client is targeting has one.

If it’s in your budget, join them for the location-relevant links and geographic authority.

Where do we go from here?

Google’s enforcement of service area businesses is long overdue, but it seems like the action is now being taken. 

Some location pages still work as long as the site has high authority and good overall content. It’s duplicate content location pages that are getting deindexed.

Overall, SABs are now under Google’s magnifying glass. If SEOs aren’t getting hit with penalties yet, I would put money on it being something that will be happening in the very near future.

It’s important to remember that Google is always evolving. Even though something like unique content may still work for location pages, I bet that Google will tackle this next.

Google’s SpamBrain AI is updated every now and then. This time, it may be evolving to target easily distinguishable doorway pages.

It’s only a matter of time before it understands a location page as a standalone doorway page with unique content.

As SEOs, we must review our local business sites, stick to the core principles of local search,  and do some housekeeping per Google’s policies – before their algorithm team pays us a visit. 

The post Location pages in Google’s crosshairs after October spam update appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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

Webinar: Drive smarter engagement across the customer journey by Cynthia Ramsaran

Written on December 6, 2022 at 6:32 am, by admin

Customers have grown to expect tailored, timely offerings and marketers are challenged with delivering these real-time, personalized experiences to respond to their needs.

As a result of this shift, enterprises are leveraging customer-centric strategies to drive smarter engagement across the full customer journey, capture revenue opportunities and foster long-term loyalty. Those that are truly succeeding are making access to data a movement across their organization, not just a marketing initiative.

Learn how The Washington Post is executing personalized customer experiences as a key engagement driver to power use cases from acquisition to win back.

Register today for “Drive Smarter Engagement with Hyper-Personalization Across the Customer Lifecycle,” presented by ActionIQ.

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YouTube year in review: The top 10 ads of 2022

Written on December 2, 2022 at 6:31 pm, by admin

If you’re still on the fence about whether or not video ads are a good idea for your brand, you shouldn’t be. Coming into 2023, it’s more important than ever to consider all platforms and ad types; and video advertising should be at the top of that list. Here are three reasons why you should be creating video ads for your brand.

• Video ads are more engaging than traditional ads
• Video ads reach a larger audience than traditional ads
• Video is an effective way to communicate your brand message

But creating a good video ad is easier said than done. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out the top 10 most-watched YouTube ads from 2022. From funny commercials to moving stories, these campaigns definitely left an impression.

Why we care. Video ads are more relevant than ever. Bottom line- if you’re not creating videos, you’re missing out on more than just views.

Amazon Super Bowl LVI Ad with Scarlett Johansson, Colin Jost (U.S.)

69 million views

Telecom Egypt Ramadan 2022 Announcement (Egypt)

65 million views

Clash of Clans: Clan Capital (U.S.)

52 million views

Apple: MacBook Air (U.S.)

41 million views

Hyundai Worldwide: Goal of the Century x BTS (U.S.)

40 million views

Imagine Your Korea (Korea)

102 million views

HBO Max: “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts” trailer (U.S.)

27 million views

Netflix: “All of Us Are Dead” trailer (U.S.)

22 million views

Chevrolet Brasil: Zé & Zê – Feita Pra Mim (Brazil)

21 million views

Squarespace: Sally’s Seashells Super Bowl ad (U.S.)

21 million views

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Twitstorm timeline: The latest on Elon Musk’s Twitter 2.0

Written on December 2, 2022 at 6:31 pm, by admin

Ever since Elon Musk took over as CEO of Twitter, there have been a lot of changes to the platform.

Some people love it. Others are not so sure. Many marketers have even said their goodbyes to Twitter.

As far as brands are concerned, many have left the platform or temporarily paused ads due to increased hate speech, safety concerns, and Musk’s overall lax approach to content moderation, account suspensions, and other issues.

Here’s a rundown of all the changes that have happened so far. Whether you’re a fan or not, it’s worth keeping up with what’s happening with Twitter 2.0.

The latest in the Twitstorm:

• Twitter Offers Advertisers Generous Incentives After Many Marketers Left Platform (Wall Street Journal). “Under the new Twitter plan, advertisers who book at least $500,000 in incremental spending will qualify to have their spending matched with a “100% value add,” up to a $1 million cap.”
• Twitter Says That its Moderation Policies Have Not Changed in Light of Musk Takeover (Social Media Today). Musk is quoted saying “None of our policies have changed. Our approach to policy enforcement will rely more heavily on de-amplification of violative content: freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.”
• Twitter stops policing Covid misinformation (Wall Street Journal) Twitter is loosening moderation guidelines and has stopped enforcing policies aimed at stopping Covid misinformation.
• Apple has “mostly” stopped Twitter ads (Mac Rumors) “Apple has cut back on its Twitter advertising, according to Twitter CEO Elon Musk. In a tweet, Musk said that Apple has “mostly stopped” its Twitter ads, asking if Apple hates “free speech.”
• Are we officially saying goodbye to Twitter? It depends on who you ask The evolution of suspended accounts, fired executives, and Musk’s terrible jokes.
• Twitter adds Official badge, then Musk immediately kills it Exactly what it says.
• How brands and agencies are reacting to Elon Musk’s radical changes at Twitter Many, including GM, General Mills, and Apple have suspended their accounts.
• Elon Musk taking over Twitter, but most marketers not worried Did we speak too soon?

What happened:

• In January, Elon Musk started investing in Twitter, securing a 9.2% stake, making him the largest shareholder in the company.

• Musk reached an acquisition deal with Twitter in April but raised concerns over spam accounts on the platform, claiming Twitter had not provided him with an accurate estimate of their number.

• Also, in April, Twitter announced that Musk would join the company’s board of directors. Shortly after, Musk said he would not be joining the board after all.

• By mid-April, Musk offers to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share, valuing the company at about $43 billion, according to a securities filing.

• Twitter adopts a poison pill provision to prevent the Musk acquisition but then accepts Musk’s offer to acquire the company and values the deal at $44 billion.

• In May, when Musk said the deal was on “temporary hold” over bot concerns. Musk posted a Reuters report about a public filing from Twitter earlier in May that said fake accounts made up less than 5% of users on the platform. Musk then says he wants “details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts represent less than 5% of users.” Two hours later, Musk says he’s “still committed” to the deal.

• Fast forward to July, Musk moves to terminate his acquisition of Twitter, pointing to the issue of fake accounts. Twitter sues Musk to force him to complete the deal.

• By October, after a months-long effort to terminate the deal, Musk proposes to complete the deal at the original offer price of $54.20 a share at a total cost of roughly $44 billion.

• At the end of October, Musk closed a deal to acquire Twitter on the final day before the trial would have moved forward. Additionally, many of Twitter’s top executives were fired, including CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sam Edgett, according to a source.

• Musk said that he would forgo any significant content moderation or account reinstatement decisions until after forming a new committee devoted to the issues. “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints,” Musk tweeted. “No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”

• In November, Twitter began massive layoffs, cutting its staff of 7,500 to nearly half.

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YouTube SEO: How to find the best traffic-generating keywords

Written on December 2, 2022 at 6:31 pm, by admin

Video marketing is not a “nice-to-have” marketing strategy anymore. It has become a digital marketing necessity for almost every business – from financial planners to physicians.

If you haven’t jumped into the video-making pool yet, now is the time to take that plunge.

Why?

People love to watch videos. No matter what type of business you have, videos can help you sell more products or services. And if you think that video marketing doesn’t fit your industry, it’s time to put your creative mind to work. 

For example, if you’re a plumber and you post videos on simple plumbing hacks that people can use to solve their minor plumbing issues, what plumbing company do you think they will call when they have a big plumbing problem? Yup. You! (See how that works?)

And you’ll find that many YouTubers are die-hard fans. They’re watching all sorts of videos about how to jimmy a locked door, make the perfect smash burger, and everything in between. 

You can find a video about how to do almost anything on YouTube. And if you look, you’ll find that most of these videos are tied to some type of business – like a locksmith or a burger joint.

So if you want people to watch your videos and take action – whether it’s to look at more videos on your YouTube channel or to go to a link that’s in your video’s description – you need to get people to your video.

That means you need to attract YouTube’s algorithm to your video.

Like Google’s algorithm, YouTube’s algorithm comprises hundreds of factors that determine a video’s ranking position.

But just like a search on Google, everything starts with words – keywords and keyword phrases.

To get your video found on YouTube, you need to master finding the right keywords to target for your video and then put those keywords strategically where they need to go. 

How to do your YouTube keyword research

Keywords are an important ranking factor for YouTube videos.

Similar to Google’s search engine, YouTube wants to show people the most relevant videos according to the keywords or keyword phrases people are searching for. 

When doing keyword research for YouTube, you want to find keywords that will drive traffic to your video – phrases that people are searching for frequently.

One of the best (and free) places to look for keywords is YouTube itself.

When you’re on YouTube and start a search, YouTube will offer up “search predictions.” These are keyword phrases that people on YouTube are actually searching for. 

If you’re on a tight budget, this is a great way to find some keywords as a starting point! (It’s also a good way to get video content ideas.)

But if you’re serious about ranking your videos on YouTube, you should use paid keyword research tools (like Semrush, SE Ranking, Moz or others.)

These types of tools will give you more robust information about the keywords so you can be more strategic about the keywords you’re targeting.

Let’s take a look at SE Ranking as an example. This is a traditional SEO software tool, but we can still glean some great insights on what types of keywords we should focus on for our YouTube videos.

For instance, when we enter “how to unclog a kitchen sink” as a keyword phrase, we will get keyword ideas and semantically related keyword phrases. 

When you click on View detailed report, you’ll see a ton of information about each of the keyword phrases.

Even though this info is related to Google search, you can still extrapolate it and use it for YouTube. 

One important thing to look for in this view is videos that appear in the SERP features. 

You can see live results or copy to the clipboard and paste the SERP results in a new window to see what types of videos appear in Google search results. 

If videos show up on the first page of Google, then those are great keywords to target. (If you check out the videos on the SERPs, more than likely they are YouTube videos.)

These are perfect keywords for optimizing your YouTube videos because you know that Google is already showing videos in search results.

Not only can you rank your videos on YouTube, but you also have a chance of getting your videos to show up on Google search results.

Now all you have to do is make your video better and more informative than your competitors and optimize your YouTube video options more strategically to (hopefully) take over their spots in the Google SERPs.

Using traditional SEO tools can make your keyword research for YouTube life a lot easier.

Use YouTube SEO tools to find the right keywords for your video optimization

If you want to find the right keywords for YouTube videos, try out some tools specifically created for YouTube marketing.

Keyword Search

You can discover keywords using Keyword Search’s “AI algorithm,” developed by a top YouTube marketing expert.

The tool:

• Bases all its data directly on YouTube search results from the user’s perspective.
• Scrapes and analyzes YouTube data to help you find the best keywords to use when optimizing your videos on YouTube.

And because your top-ranking rivals often know something you don’t, you can even conduct “Competitor Research” on their keywords, rankings, YouTube channels and videos.

This lets you better develop your video marketing content strategy and plan which keywords you’ll target.

You can also use the tool’s “Collections” feature to keep track of all your keywords, videos and the competitors you’re tracking.

At its most basic level, using Keyword Search is as easy as entering a keyword phrase in the search field:

You’ll then get a slew of keyword phrases to review and see the average monthly search volume on YouTube for each keyword.

As you’re analyzing the keyword results you get, if you see keywords with “trends,” click on the down arrow to see the trends in detail – the high and low points. 

As you’re analyzing the keyword results you get, if you see keywords with “trends,” click on the down arrow to see the trends in detail – the high and low points. 

If you spot a hot and trending topic over the past month (or now), get behind your camera, do a video, and optimize for those trending keyword phrases.

Creating and optimizing a video for a trending topic will boost the chances of your video getting searched for and found on YouTube!

To get some semantic keywords to target, Keyword Search also uses its algorithm to give you similar keywords.

These are additional words to consider optimizing your videos for. You can see:

• How similar the word is to your original search query.
• The average search volume.
• Trends, if any.

Another handy feature is the “Find Placement Videos” feature. When you click on this button under a keyword, a new window opens up showing the top-ranked videos for that keyword phrase.

This information is invaluable because you can see:

• The videos ranking for the keyword phrase.
• The number of views each video received.
• Their video titles and a partial description of the videos.

All this without having to go to YouTube.

As an extra special bonus, clicking on the title link opens a pop-up where you can watch the video.

Keyword Search is one of my favorite YouTube keyword research tools by far. But there are other YouTube-specific software tools you should also check out.

vidIQ and TubeBuddy

Both used in the YouTube platform, vidIQ and TubeBuddy have a free version and several paid options. Each tool has pros and cons, so if you can afford it, I recommend you use them both.

TubeBuddy and vidIQ are great for finding the keywords – and related keywords – you should use to optimize your YouTube videos.

When looking at your high-ranking competitors’ videos, both tools show you keyword information that will help you determine what keywords you should target for your video.

For example, in our “how to make the best smash burger” example, vidIQ shows us the “top related opportunities” keywords you should consider targeting.

And if you click “Show all 44 keywords” you will get even more details about:

• The keywords you might want to work into your title, description and tags.
• Which keywords might be too competitive to target.

(As you can see, trying to rank for the keyword “smash burger” by itself is just too competitive at a High Competition score of 77.)

TubeBuddy also shows you related keyword search phrases and tags for your video keyword optimization strategy.

In vidIQ’s Keyword Inspector, you can:

• Enter keyword phrases you want to evaluate and see related keywords, the score, search volume, competition, and the top ten trending videos.
• Search up to five keywords at a time.

When determining which keywords to target, look for the high-scoring keywords. 

In the example below, “Edit My Google Business Profile” had the highest score of 70/100:

To test out this keyword strategy, I used that keyword phrase in the title of my recent Google Business Profile YouTube video:

Within three days, my Google Business Profile video ranked third for the keywords “how to edit my google business profile.” Boom!

TubeBuddy also has a Keyword Explorer feature. When you start typing your keyword, TubeBuddy shows possible keywords you may be targeting.

Just continue entering your keyword phrase or select the one you’re interested in from the dropdown.

In TubeBuddy’s Summary page, ignore the overall score and focus more on the Score Analysis, Interest Over Time and Related Searches sections.

Let’s delve into TubeBuddy a little deeper. 

When you look at YouTube search results for “How to Find Keywords for YouTube Videos,” you can see that there’s only one exact match in the top search results – and that happens to be Brian Dean’s video.

Clicking on Dean’s video, you can see TubeBuddy’s analysis of the video – which is quite extensive.

From this, you can see what his video is doing from a YouTube optimization perspective and what he’s missing so you can try and improve yours.

VidIQ also provides an extremely comprehensive analysis of the video.

By using TubeBuddy or vidIQ (or both), you can:

• Find awesome keywords.
• Evaluate your competitors and their weaknesses.
• Capitalize on those flaws to make your video optimization stronger. 

These tools go way beyond just keyword research, which will give your YouTube videos and channel a great advantage.

Where to put your keywords on YouTube for ultimate optimization

Once you find about 2-6 targeted keywords (and a few semantic keywords that complement those targeted keywords), it’s time to put those keywords to work in your video marketing.

Let’s talk about where you should strategically put your keyword phrases on YouTube.

Put keywords in your video’s title on YouTube

Your video’s YouTube title gives YouTube’s algorithm, users and search engines a “first impression” of your video and tells everyone what your video is about.

A well-optimized video title will make YouTube’s algorithm happy and attract more traffic, which can turn into more views.

When optimizing your title, include the most important keywords people are searching for as close to the front of your title as possible – this helps your video get ranked and suggested.

The keywords you most want to rank for should be included within the first 60 characters of your title. (Your title can be up to 100 characters, so the closer you put your keywords to the front of the title, the better.)

When writing your title, be as concise as possible. Five words or less is best. 

If possible, use words in your title that connects the video to other videos in the same category.

Also, having a title that is catchy, compelling, and accurately represents the contents of your video can also help attract searchers. (No bait and switch, please.) 

Strategically work keywords into your video’s description

With so many videos on the same topic, it’s often hard for your video to stand out.

Your video’s description is one way to make your video jump out among the crowd – and help your video rank.

Write a short – but detailed – description of what the video is about, what the watcher will learn and how your video is different or stands out from the other videos on the subject.

When it comes to keywords, putting the right keywords in your description will help your video get more views and visibility. 

Remember that partial descriptions can also appear in search results, so be sure to put your keywords as close to the beginning of the description as possible.

That means:

• The main keywords you’re targeting should be within the first 200 characters of your description.
• The most important keywords should be in the first 25 words of the description because partial descriptions can appear in search results.

(Your video description can have 5,000 characters total. But if it is too long, it probably won’t be read in its entirety anyway.)

Throughout your description, it’s key to include partial matches of your targeted keywords in the description, too.

So write a description that is an overview of your video writing naturally using related and similar keywords to your targeted keywords.

That means breaking the words up, using semantic – or similar – keywords and using them individually in addition to the main target keywords you’re aiming for.

YouTube (and Google) use your text descriptions to determine the content of your video.

So if you don’t include a description, the search engines (and viewers) won’t know what your video is about. This will negatively impact your rankings.

In the description, you can also link to other related content you have (i.e., website, blog, social media channels, etc.). Remember to include your full URL (including the https:// or http://).

And if you’re at a loss for what to write, you can get a jumping-off point by using vidIQ’s AI Description Generator Feature.

Hashtag it!

Many people like to search with hashtags. So for those people, adding appropriate hashtags in your description helps them find your videos when searching for specific hashtags.

Add a few appropriate hashtags to your description.

When you start typing in the hashtags, YouTube will show you the number of videos and channels that use each hashtag. That way, you can scope out your hashtag competition.

Ironically, no matter where you put hashtags in your description, the hashtags you entered show up directly under your video.

Keywords in tags: Do tags matter?

Tags can help categorize your video by keywords or phrases, but they’re primarily meant to help correct common spelling mistakes or synonyms (i.e., Google Business Profile vs. GBP or U-Haul vs. UHaul.)

Other than that, tags play a negligible role in helping people find your videos, according to YouTube. (Still, you want to include tags when optimizing your YouTube videos!)

YouTube allows you to include Tags to help categorize your video by keywords, but it limits the number of tags you can include. (There is a character limit of 500 characters.) 

When you’re using tags, you should include your most important exact target keyword (or keyword phrase) as the first tag. That lets YouTube know what keyword phrase is the most important one.

It’s also recommended that you include partial matches of your target keyword as tags.

You’ll also want to include multiword tags (i.e., long-tail keywords) that relate to your video’s topic.

You should also use single-word and broad-term tags that relate to your video’s broader topic. 

(Note: Do not use trademarks or copyrighted material unless you have explicit permission from the owner to use it.)

YouTube is effective at semantically understanding your tags – so you don’t need to go overboard.

One great way to get tag ideas is to look at the top-ranking YouTube videos that directly compete with your video. However, YouTube hides the video tags, which makes it more difficult to “spy” on your competitors and see their keyword/tag secret sauce.

Luckily, vidIQ and TubeBuddy lets you see the tags competitors are using to get their videos to rank high.

Get your video keyword and optimization strategy in place

By having a YouTube keyword research and optimization strategy in place, you can increase the chances of your videos showing up in YouTube’s search results.

Play your cards right, and you might even reach the top of Google search results.

Video marketing will continue to grow. Mastering YouTube’s ranking algorithm is a great way to kick your efforts into high gear.

The post YouTube SEO: How to find the best traffic-generating keywords appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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What it takes to be a subject matter expert in search marketing

Written on December 2, 2022 at 6:31 pm, by admin

Search marketing continues to be a rapidly evolving space. 

There is a great demand for search marketing talent – specifically for people with subject matter expertise. 

I always hear it from recruiters and colleagues: “There just aren’t enough people who truly know what they are doing.” 

But is this true?

What does it take to be a subject matter expert?

What is a subject matter expert?

A subject matter expert, or SME, is a person who has a deep understanding and specialized knowledge of a particular topic.

SMEs develop and demonstrate competence through years of professional experience and continuing education. 

So what does it mean for search marketing? I think there are three components to this:

• Years of experience.
• Certifications.
• Talent.

The combination of these three areas (not just one) can define a subject matter expert. Let’s break down each in more detail.

Years of experience 

This is probably the easiest to identify from afar and the hardest to manipulate. Simply put, how long have you been doing this specific skill? 

Regardless of the line of work you are in, the more time you spend on a field, the better you become at it. This is true of chefs, athletes, carpenters, software engineers, and search marketers. 

You have the advantage of seeing more situations and knowing how to respond. 

What do you do if your account’s CPC starts to spike or your rankings decline overnight? 

With more on-the-job experience, you will have had the opportunity to go through these situations. 

The longer you are in the game, the more opportunities you will have to go through that same situation multiple times and know how to ensure the optimal outcome. 

Certifications

Many search marketing platforms offer a way to become certified in that skill, platform, or subject matter.

Earning and maintaining certifications is a great way to demonstrate that you have mastered the skill, at least academically. 

While earning a certification doesn’t necessarily mean you understand how to apply those skills and knowledge to a real-world problem, I feel this is necessary to maintain for most search marketers. 

The platforms and tools are evolving so quickly. Earning and maintaining certifications is one way to force yourself to validate that knowledge, so it doesn’t become stale. 

You can provide these certifications to a potential employer or client to show you have done the hard work necessary to be certified in that field or tool. 

Here are a few certification examples that are worth looking into:

• Amazon Ads
• Google Ads
• Facebook
• Digital Marketing Association
• The TradeDesk
• Snapchat

Talent

This is the hardest to identify in an interview and yet the most important. Some people are just built to do a certain thing. 

You could send LeBron James to the worst high school or college, training camp, and basketball strategy class, and he would still be LeBron James. He was built to play basketball at an elite level. 

This is true for every other skill as well. You can’t teach talent.

In an interview, you can sometimes sense a person’s talent by the depth they answer your questions.

The details they provide give clues to how much a person has a grasp of that specific area. 

Subject matter experts can see a problem before it happens and think through ways to tie business objectives to the strategies and tactics available in a specific platform. 

Talent also has the widest amount of gray area to it. It’s not you are either talented or not talented. There is every permutation possible available. 

You can also evolve and maximize your talent level with hard work and strong mentorship. I’ve seen people who aren’t as talented as some of their coworkers outwork and out-hustle their peers. 

You can argue that this work ethic is a part of one’s talent, but even so, it’s a key element. You can use the tools available to you to improve your subject matter expertise. This means online resources and the network around you (or that you build). 

Don’t forget that no one who is a subject matter expert did it by themselves. There are always support systems helping someone find the right resources, get the right opportunities, and push them to improve their craft.

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So, are you a subject matter expert?

You might ask yourself, “Am I a subject matter expert?” or “How can I identify a subject matter expert?” 

I think you should consider the combination of the three areas – years of experience, certifications, and talent – in the context of what you are looking for and/or where you are in your career. 

If you are just starting and looking to break into an area, you have to compensate for your lack of experience with certifications. 

If you are more seasoned in your career and have let your certifications expire because of the experience you have, you can still call yourself a subject matter expert. 

Not everyone needs someone who has a Google Ads certification, has been doing paid search for 10 years, and was dropped on this planet to optimize a keyword list. 

Budgets and team structure don’t require all those areas in every circumstance. Sometimes just being certified is enough. 

How to grow as an SME in search marketing

Subject matter experts evolve as they progress in their careers. 

Ultimately, given the pace of change and innovation in search marketing, you must continue to stay a practicing professional, read the latest blogs, and test new platforms and betas. 

Keeping those elements going and maintaining your subject matter expertise will be key to growing your search marketing career.

But before establishing a level of expertise and gaining technical proficiency in a domain, the challenge can be deciding which direction to take and what opportunities to pursue.

There’s also apprehension that if you are an SME in just one area, you can get typecast and stuck in that specific skill. 

On the other hand, if you choose to grow broader, you will lose what got you to this point – subject matter expertise. 

There is no right or answer to this decision. The image below is helpful as you think about these types of decisions. 

While it may seem to close some opportunities, many more are ahead of you.

Here are a few tips to help you navigate your search marketing career as a subject matter expert.

• Define what subject matter expertise means based on the role.
• Think through what motivates you day in and day out.
• Identify what the business needs the most.
• Don’t feel any pressure to conform.
• Keep learning.

Define what subject matter expertise means based on the role

Subject matter expertise is relative to the role. 

For example, explaining how PPC works can be considered subject matter expertise if you are talking to someone unfamiliar with paid search. 

But, let’s say you are talking to someone who has been in paid search for even a few months. Then sharing such information is not subject matter expertise. This is important to grasp because you might lose perspective as your career evolves. 

Since at one point, you could log into Google Ads and know exactly where all the levers and knobs are, but now the UI is different since you last logged in. 

You suddenly don’t feel like an expert, but in exchange for losing touch with Google Ads base details, you have gained subject matter expertise into how paid search impacts total web traffic or merchandising. 

This is important to wrap your head around when thinking about your career and your level of knowledge. There is too much to learn about any specific discipline to expect yourself to be a deep expert. 

Think through what motivates you day in and day out

You probably already know the answer to this question. 

You know if you love to get into spreadsheets or data visualization tools. 

You know if you like to know a little about many topics, but go deep into one area. 

You spend a lot of time at work. The more you like what you are doing, the better you will be at it. This is fairly cliche, but it is true. 

Understanding your strengths and weaknesses and what motivates you is important on this subject matter expertise journey.

Identify what the business needs the most

Depending on the company that you are working in, the opportunities to grow will be a good indicator of the type of knowledge and skills needed. 

For example, some companies will have a search department that includes SEO and PPC. 

Others will separate PPC and any other type of paid media. Some will keep it all together as one “paid media department.” 

The type of organizational structure gives good clues at the level of depth of skill in any one discipline that will be needed to advance your career. 

Don’t feel any pressure to conform

I have had many conversations with team members who felt they needed to expand broader to grow their career. 

However, once they did that, they felt unfulfilled in that role. They didn’t enjoy the subject matter expertise. They didn’t have an appreciation for what motivated them. 

They were instead chasing something they think they wanted. This is not easy to avoid and, in some cases, might even be worth trying to better understand your interests. 

Taking a risk and trying something new will teach you something. Even in failure, you will learn and grow.

Keep learning

The other thing to remember is subject matter expertise is fluid. 

Things are changing rapidly. Search marketing overall is still in its infancy. 

It’s hard to remember that text ads had a fixed number of characters for headlines or bids were set manually. Things are constantly evolving. 

So even if you are in a broad job encompassing many areas, you must still learn and evolve. 

This can be through keeping base certifications current, sitting in on a webinar on a new topic, or just reading the newsletter from a publication like Search Engine Land. 

These are all ways to keep up with what is happening in the space and refresh your subject matter expertise. 

You don’t need to be able to actually tweak the dials to know they exist. Keep learning, and you will be rewarded with new opportunities and knowledge that will inform your future plans.

Subject matter expertise: What comes next?

Being an expert in anything is hard. Most people are just trying to keep up and know just a little more than the person they are talking to. 

To grow and develop your career, be open to new opportunities and continue your quest for new information. 

We are lucky to work in such a dynamic space that is rapidly growing and evolving. 

This forces us all to learn and push the entire industry forward, whatever your subject matter expertise path may be.

The post What it takes to be a subject matter expert in search marketing appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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

Views per Session and Average Session Duration now available in GA4

Written on December 1, 2022 at 1:46 pm, by admin

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) now has two new metrics available in Explorations and Reporting Customization.

Google Analytics Product Manager Carly Boddy tweeted about the two new updates yesterday.

Why we care. Advertisers and brands should take notice of the new metrics available and utilize them however they see fit to measure performance for their own accounts.

The post Views per Session and Average Session Duration now available in GA4 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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

Google is updating its Display and Video 360 Account Level Suspensions policy

Written on December 1, 2022 at 1:46 pm, by admin

This month Google is updating its policy regarding Display and Video 360 suspensions at the account level.

The following update was provided by Google and is available on their Advertising Policies Help page.

In December 2022, Google will update the Disapprovals and suspensions page so that there is a dedicated policy article for Display & Video 360. The dedicated policy page will specify that violation of the following policies will lead to an advertiser’s account suspension:

• Circumventing systems
• Coordinated deceptive practices
• Counterfeit
• Promotion of unauthorized pharmacies
• Unacceptable business practices
• Trade Sanctions violation
• Sexually explicit content

The new policy page will also detail that a partner account will be suspended if advertisers within the partner have repeatedly or predominantly engaged in egregious policy violations.

Both partners and advertisers will be entitled to appeal account suspensions, and a link to the appeals form will be included in the new article.

Why we care. Display and Video 360 partners should ensure that their ads comply with the new policies so their accounts are not suspended or in violation.

The post Google is updating its Display and Video 360 Account Level Suspensions policy appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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In-house vs. agency SEO work: The pros and cons

Written on December 1, 2022 at 1:46 pm, by admin

Roughly half of the Twitter DMs I receive are attempts to sell me “high-quality guest link posting.”

The other half are lifelong agency SEOs looking to move in-house, asking me how to make the move and to review their resumes. 

While I started my career in a link building agency (the real trenches of SEO) and have the utmost respect for agencies, I’d like to share insights into how I feel about in-house vs. agency life.

Disclaimer: This is my experience and not reflective of everyone’s truth. If you’ve decided to make the switch in-house, I recommend speaking to those who made the move, as this article is just one data point.

The benefits of agency life

Truthfully, I wish every SEO started their career at an agency. Like a boot camp, the pace of agency life early in your career will be very formative. 

Being in-house your entire life (especially at just one or two companies) can give you a tunnel-vision view of the world. 

The exposure to sites of different sizes and the SEO savviness one can get inside an agency are unparalleled. 

Experience is a superpower in SEO, so while now in life I (clearly) enjoy in-house life, I highly recommend SEOs work at agencies, even if just for a few years.

Here are other advantages of working in an agency:

• Exposure to many clients and verticals.
• Learning incredible project management skills.
• Many senior people mentoring you in what you do.
• Quickly learning a repeatable playbook of best practices for each vertical.
• Company incentives (i.e., sending you to SEO events or allowing you to speak).
• A more developed career ladder (i.e., an opportunity to be Director or Sr. Director).
• Fewer meetings and easier transition to consulting.

Exposure to many clients and verticals

One of the biggest shortcomings I see in SEO hires is a lack of experience working across sites of different sizes with different resources. 

Even if you can spend your entire SEO career at a highly competitive SEO-driven company (e.g., Tripadvisor, Condé Nast), that won’t necessarily translate well into doing SEO for a new SaaS company with limited resources and no bespoke or custom tooling. 

In an agency, you get to use a variety of the clients’ homegrown tools and off-the-shelf SEO tools your clients may already be bought into, so you’ll know the right tool for the job.

Learning incredible project management skills

A lack of project and stakeholder management skills can often cripple your career.

I suggest SEOs focus on these soft skills if they ever want to move in-house. 

It’s a survival skill most agency SEOs pick up as they juggle client work and relationships.

Early mentorship and a repeatable playbook

In an agency, assuming SEO is a commonly sold service, there might be a lot of senior SEOs with vast experience around you. 

Generally speaking, every vertical has best practices that are fairly repeatable and usually work. 

Having this wealth of knowledge and experience around you can quickly uplevel you and compensate for your own lack of experience. 

In-house, you might be the only SEO trying to figure it out while teaching yourself. 

I’ve often found completely self-taught SEOs to be a little undisciplined if they never received feedback early in their careers from other SEOs. 

Company incentives to send you to SEO events or allow you to speak

Public speaking can be an incredible platform to build your SEO career. It’s also great for networking and discussing SEO tactics privately with other SEOs.

Quite frankly, they’re also quite fun if you’re social like me! 

But being in-house, it is rare that companies will pay for you to do public speaking or attend SEO events. There’s simply little incentive to do so. 

Agencies need new business, so sending employees to events and putting themselves in front of companies looking to learn about SEO makes fiscal sense. 

It’s a great way to build your agency’s brand and bring in inbound leads.

Within some organizations, sending SEO employees to speak is sometimes seen as a double negative. Not only is it costly, but the talent is also likely to be poached and they won’t be able to easily anonymize their data. 

No company wants their secrets openly shared with the world to live indefinitely on SlideShare, where competitors can easily see them. 

The best companies I’ve been in allowed for a single conference each year. Generally, you need to speak about the work of other companies to qualify for speaking engagements.

A more developed career ladder for SEO

If you’re the only SEO in your company or one of a few, and SEO is not a major lever, it is unlikely SEO will have a well-defined career ladder.

For example, you might need to champion the creation of a senior position like Director of SEO – and, likely, it might never happen. 

Due to the number of SEOs and the customer-facing aspect of agencies, I feel that agency SEO roles at Director and VP levels are much more common than in-house. 

The key exception I’ve seen is for SEO-driven companies, such as Booking, Yelp or Tripadvisor.

Most in-house SEO roles top out at “Lead” or “Head of SEO.” 

Some circumvent this by taking on other teams, like SEM. But more commonly, companies will give an SEO team to a paid search lead than give paid search to SEO. 

When millions of dollars of budget are on the line, prudent budget spend is generally optimized for rolling search teams under a single search lead.

Fewer meetings because you’re a consultant and an easier transition to consulting

I have a lot of meetings. In my experience with an agency and my own consulting friends, many can have just ~2 meetings maximum per day. 

As an SEO lead in a multinational company, it is not unusual for the most senior SEO to be in 5-6 hours of meetings a day. This is especially common as you start taking on more projects or products within the company. 

It is also much easier to transition from being an agency SEO into consulting because you:

• Have the playbook.
• Know how to pitch clients. 
• Understand the nuts and bolts of running a business that sells SEO. 

Consulting is an attractive proposition if you have the best clients. I know many of the best SEOs who easily generate incomes of several hundred thousand a year with just a few clients. 

I’ve seen lifelong in-house SEOs struggle with this transition. In contrast, it seemed second nature for my agency SEO friends to begin side hustles and eventually transition into working full-time for themselves.

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The benefits of being in-house

Becoming an in-house SEO has various advantages which I really enjoy. Some of them include:

• Having a better quality of life (for me, at least). 
• More opportunities for consistent, deep work.
• Not caring if clients fire you.
• Going into tech or SEO product.

Better quality of life

I know some agencies have a high quality of life. But by their nature, I have always found the work to be more reactive depending on who the client is. 

I’ve also witnessed some clients being abusive to agencies, as they can be an easy scapegoat when things go south. 

It is almost always painful for me to join a new company. There’s a level of needing to “prove yourself” initially. 

Yet over time, I find the familiarity and friendships I’ve built within a company allow me to have a high quality of life I am not confident I could find in an agency with new companies, teams and stakeholders all the time. 

This level of peace and comfort usually happens at around the 1.5-year mark, when you’ve had some wins and finally feel “settled.” 

My quality of life is pretty exceptional, and I have no complaints at most of the large companies I worked for.

More opportunities for consistent, deep work

When you think about just one customer (your company) every day, getting the buy-in needed for meaty, big multi-year projects becomes much easier. 

It also enables you to be a real subject matter expert on your products, allowing you to take on exciting and out-of-the-box SEO ideas and not just execute best practices. 

A lot of my agency friends find this lack of variety boring, but I personally love being able to think deeply about a smaller portfolio of products.

Not having to care if your clients fire you 

Oftentimes, agencies might have a big client representing a disproportionate share of revenue in the agency. Losing clients like this often can mean layoffs will quickly follow. 

This is quite stressful for me because now I have to worry about doing SEO and keeping all of the clients. 

Worrying about SEO results and impact is enough for me, and I don’t like having my job security tied too heavily to a single customer.

Going into tech and/or SEO product 

Tech has been a career-changer. I get to do what I love in combination with working on products I use daily and receiving some widely lauded industry perks such as:

• Stock packages.
• Generous benefits.
• World-class snacks.
• A fine education in big company vernacular (i.e., “taking a step back” to produce results that really “move the needle”). 

I recognize that I got incredibly lucky with my timing at Square. Most tech companies fail, and it’s a highly tumultuous industry at the moment. But I am deeply satisfied and appreciative of my experience in tech, and it’s an incredible way to build wealth. 

Working for a tech company also means there is usually a large product management organization. 

This means you might be able to join and transfer into a more traditional tech ladder and, eventually, a more well-rounded growth leader who perhaps no longer even does SEO. 

If you want to go into product, working for a tech company is likely the easiest way to eventually transfer into this role style (if it doesn’t exist yet).

Improving your chances of getting hired in-house

Interviewing for an in-house role? 

The most common mistake I see agency SEOs make is spending too much time discussing new business when in-house companies simply don’t care. 

Here are my suggestions:

Change the number of clients to the number of sites you owned

In-house hiring managers don’t care how much you billed or how many clients you managed. They want to know the results you produced for any particular client.

Focus on quantitative growth numbers, the size of the sites, and the tools you have familiarity with. Remove anything related to selling/closing clients.

If you were a team manager, say it!

Mention how many people you hired and/or managed. Hiring is one of your most important jobs as a leader, so if you’re a great people manager, let them know.

Name drop

Big companies like knowing you worked for other big companies, especially if they’re competitors or companies like them.

If you had an attractive client base, let them know, and it will help your resume stick out to the hiring manager.

Don’t be nervous

Remember, the company wants to fill this role the most. It is in their best interest to like you.

If the company treats you poorly, this is not the right company for you, and you should move on.

The post In-house vs. agency SEO work: The pros and cons appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Instacart has launched Coupons and Stock Up & Save promotion campaigns in Ad Manager

Written on December 1, 2022 at 1:46 pm, by admin

Instacart advertisers now have more options to promote their products on the platform. This week, Promotions were launched in the Ad Manager, giving brands access to Coupons, and Stock Up & Save campaigns.

Soon, Instacart will improve on the new Promotions offering with Free Gifts, and Buy One, Get One (BOGO).

What Instacart says. Ali Miller, vice president of ads product at Instacart, believes ordering groceries online should not be a luxury or convenience for some, but an option for everyone — no matter what the budget.

“With the launch of our new Instacart Promotions, all of our brand partners now have the ability to set up coupons and promotions that can drive meaningful business results while also passing on more savings opportunities to consumers,” Miller wrote in a post. “We’re proud to continue expanding our portfolio with additional self-service capabilities, ad formats that drive results, and measurement that brands need to understand the true impact of their campaigns on Instacart.”

Instacart’s new streamlined ad creation process. In October, Instacart launched an easier way for advertisers to create and manage their campaigns. You can read more about the new setup on their blog.

Why we care. New campaign types give advertisers and brands another way to promote their products to consumers and help them save money on a variety of items. If you have or manage a grocery or retail brand, you should test the new ad types in your account as soon as they are available.

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