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WordPress pages or posts: Which should you use?

Written on June 9, 2022 at 9:37 pm, by admin

Since its launch in May 2003, WordPress has become the most-used website platform globally. The WordPress platform powers almost 37% of the top 1 million trafficked websites, according to BuiltWith data.

Given the low cost (you really only pay for hosting), ease of installation and use and flexibility, WordPress is ready for websites of all sizes, from personal blogs to enterprise businesses.

Count me as a fan. I’ve advocated for its use, going back to nearly the beginning of its existence in 2003.

I’ve worked on many WordPress websites, and one of the most common questions I still get is about pages versus posts – which one should be used?

Before answering that question, let’s review how WordPress pages and posts differ.

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WordPress pages

Pages in WordPress are intended to hold content that may be considered more “evergreen,” such as the home page, product/service pages, or about us-type content.

Pages can be nested to create a directory structure by making one page the “parent” of another.

Generally, pages cannot leverage categories, tags and authors and are usually not included in RSS feeds from the website.

WordPress posts

Posts in WordPress link the platform back to its roots as a blogging platform. Posts were intended to hold news-related, time-sensitive, and other content that might be associated with websites that are strictly blogs.

Posts are time-driven and can leverage categories, tags, and authors for archive pages and on-site search. Posts are included in RSS feeds.

Content authors can make posts appear in a directory structure by setting up categories, which can be in parent/child relationships, and creating the structure in the Permalinks settings in the WordPress settings.

One crucial thing to remember: Both pages and posts are content for your users and the search engines.

The website owner sets their appearance and use. Pages and posts can be used interchangeably for any purpose – though it’s a terrible idea to mix similar content between the two formats.

WordPress pages	WordPress posts
Intended for evergreen content	Intended for news or “blog” content – very time-driven
Can be nested together in parent/child arrangements to create a directory structure	Can fit into a directory structure using categories that can be nested in parent/child relationships
Cannot leverage categories, tags or authors	Leverages categories, tags, and authors
Cannot use RSS feeds to share content	Can use RSS feeds to share content
Can be styled any way the website owner wishes	Can be styled any way the website owner wishes
Is considered content to the website visitors and search engines	Is considered content to the website visitors and search engines

Evolving recommendations

In the past, I most often recommended that “evergreen” content be created as pages. These would include items like the home page, product/service pages and “about us,” etc.

Other news-related, time-sensitive, instructive, blog-type content would be created as posts. As mentioned above, this follows what most consider the intention of pages and posts.

Although this way of working is still quite valid, I’ve been rethinking this advice lately.

Why?

A large number of websites I’ve worked on lately have had terrible information architecture.

For many of these sites, most, if not all, content is in the website’s root folder. Some sites have content on the same topic mixed between pages and posts. The former issue is relatively easy to fix, the latter, not so much.

Part of the problem is that WordPress is set to put all content at the website’s root by default. Another part is a misunderstanding of how pages and posts are intended to function.

My recommendations now are slightly different if a site is being built from scratch or undergoing a significant reorganization.

In that case, I have two recommendations based on the type of content that will comprise the majority of the website:

• For sites with a majority of evergreen-type content, I recommend the site be all pages.
  This allows pages to be built and nested together in parent/child relationships to construct a logical folder structure. Even if there is timely blog-type content, pages will work quite well unless there is an absolute need for tag or author connections.
• For sites with a majority of timely, blog-type content, I recommend the site be all posts.
  This allows for content to be organized along category lines. Posts also allow for tag and author archives to be used. This type of setup also allows for easy RSS feeds. The home page can be set up to show the latest posts to help keep it fresh with the newest information.

Either of these arrangements would work well because pages and posts are just content to website visitors and search engines. Both content formats can be styled to suit the needs of the website.

If forms and other interactive features are needed, they can be applied equally well to pages or posts.

From an SEO perspective, the content format on the back end is irrelevant – it’s what is presented to users and search engine spiders that matters.

Should I uproot everything and change the structure of my site?

As I mention above, I recommend building this type of structure on a new site or if a site is undergoing significant work like a re-platforming onto a new theme or migration to a new design.

If your website is working well and you don’t notice any significant problems, it’s OK to take an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach.

Final thought

The main reason for my changing recommendations is the lack of a logical directory structure on many sites I support. While it is quite possible to create a logical structure with a mix of pages and posts, it is certainly much simpler to set up and maintain if the site is set up with all one type of content.

The post WordPress pages or posts: Which should you use? appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Google expands financial services verification policy to Australia, Singapore, Taiwan

Written on June 8, 2022 at 6:35 pm, by admin

Google announced today that it is expanding its Ads Financial Products and Services policy to Australia, Singapore and Taiwan. 

Last year Google announced the implementation of measures aimed at verifying the legitimacy of advertisers in the financial services industry in the UK. These measures were added to prevent financial product scams and scammers from exploiting the Google Ads platform for their benefit.

As Search Engine Land reported last year, the verification process included proving that the advertiser is “authorized by the UK Financial Conduct Authority,” or must qualify for an exemption.

Verification requirements for advertisers. As part of the verification process, “financial services advertisers in these markets will need to demonstrate that they are authorized by their relevant financial services regulator and have completed Google’s advertiser verification program in order to begin promoting their products and services.”

Launch date. Advertisers will be able to apply for verification at the end of June, and the policy will go into effect on Aug. 30. Advertisers that have not completed the new verification process by this date will no longer be allowed to promote financial services.

What Google says. “We work tirelessly to make sure the ads we serve are safe and trustworthy, and we know that partnering and collaborating with government regulators is critical to our success,” said Alejandro Borgia, Director, Ads Privacy and Safety. “That’s why we’re closely coordinating with regulators in these three markets to make sure this program is effective at scale. In the coming months, we plan to further expand these verification requirements to advertisers in additional countries and regions.”

The results are in. Google launched the verification program in the UK in September 2021. Since then, Google states that they have seen a “pronounced decline in reports of ads promoting financial scams.” According to Google’s 2021 Ads Safety Report, they blocked 58.9 million ads for violating their financial safety policies. 

Why we care. Although nothing is 100% foolproof, it’s a good effort by Google to combat financial scams. If you’re running ads for financial services in Australia, Singapore or Taiwan, mark your calendars and keep an eye out for a notification inside your Google Ads dashboard. Review the procedures for exemptions and start the verification process ASAP so your account doesn’t get suspended. 

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Webinar: Build a unified keyword strategy across Google, Amazon and YouTube

Written on June 8, 2022 at 6:35 pm, by admin

Search behavior is no longer limited to a single space. So, how can you build a unified keyword strategy across Google, Amazon and YouTube?

In this webinar, you’ll see how consumers interact with each search engine and what type of content resonates most effectively with different audiences. 

Register today for “Build an Integrated Search Strategy Across Google, Amazon and YouTube” presented by Similarweb.

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Google Ads launches v11 of API

Written on June 8, 2022 at 6:35 pm, by admin

Developers take note. Google Ads just announced v11 of their API.

What’s new. This version includes updates to the following client codes:

• Campaign performance max upgrade status
• Added support for Smart campaigns using business profiles optimized for ads as landing pages
• Accepting the resource names of the Google Business Profile location
• Support for Manual CPA, maximize conversions bid strategies, and ad schedules for local services campaigns
• Added asset source to show the source of asset or asset link for whom generated the entity
• Added new fields to support retrieving co-viewing metrics in Reach Forecast

View the complete list of updates. View the full list of updates and read the announcement here.

Launch date. The updated client libraries and code will be published next week.

Why we care. Developers who use API’s to manage and report on Google Ad campaigns will have an easier time making changes, migrating campaign types, and preserving budgets, assets, and settings. Further updates also allow more functionality options regarding the use of Business Profiles as landing pages, and ad schedules for local services.

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YouTube Shorts guide: How to get noticed

Written on June 8, 2022 at 6:35 pm, by admin

In the era of short attention spans and social media bombardment, it’s no surprise that quick, entertaining video clips perform well.

After the seemingly overnight success of social media short-form video app TikTok – and all of the platforms that offer Stories, Reels or other variations of short-form, mobile-first content – YouTube has released their own micro-video product, YouTube Shorts. 

What are YouTube Shorts?

Here’s how YouTube describes Shorts:

“Shorts is the spot to shoot, share, and binge short videos (think 60 seconds or less) on YouTube. It’s where you can go to start trends, try out a dance challenge, bring your hilarious ideas to life, and more.” 

Much like TikTok, Shorts have seen a quick rise among viewers and creators alike since their introduction.

In fact, many audiences prefer quick videos over longer-form content and shows.

While this may have initially had older generations scratching their heads in confusion, it’s no secret that these apps and their content are wildly popular among users of all ages.

YouTube has proven repeatedly that content does not have to be long to get, and keep, people’s attention. It appears that after decades of working to remove commercial breaks from television shows and other entertainment, we’ve come full circle and are now even seeking them out. 

What is the point of YouTube Shorts?

While professional video often requires time and budget for filming and production, YouTube Shorts were developed as a mobile-friendly way for creators to share short content on a whim. This encourages them to quickly film and share right in the middle of everyday life, which helps creators promote and grow their channels without the effort of a full-scale video.

If your audience is viewing content from their mobile devices, you should be creating Shorts.

Users love this content because it is quick and to the point, and because they feel that they are getting to see the creators in their real, everyday environments.

While this may not always be the case, it helps increase trust in an audience, which increases loyalty, which increases income.

Qualifying Shorts channels generate anywhere from $100 to $10,000 per month from their Shorts. Creators love this content because it’s quick and easy, and they often see substantial increases in overall channel traffic in addition to increased revenue.

Shorts are a new product, so the platform is giving them a lot of attention in an effort to ensure they are successful.

Why not jump in and grab some of that increased attention for your brand as well?

Creating YouTube Shorts

Because YouTube Shorts are designed to be quick, on-the-go content, creating the videos is relatively simple.

YouTube breaks it down into six easy steps:

1. Log into your YouTube account from the app. Tap the Create (+) button, and select Create a Short or Upload a video if you already have the footage you’d like to use.

2. Add audio. Once you’re all set up, you can select music or other YouTube audio to use as the soundtrack to your video.

3. Record the video. Creators can start and stop recording, adjust recording speed, set a timer and even merge various recorded clips together.

4. Edit your Short. Add filters, captions, and text snippets to videos. When you’re happy with your editing, tap Next, and add a title.

5. Select your audience. Add any restrictions, and share it with the world! Once you’ve filmed, edited, and gotten your video where you want it, it’s time to get it out to your audience.

6. Upload. Tap “Upload” and you’re all set!

General tips for success with Shorts

Content length

While you have 58 seconds, don’t feel like you need to use them all.

Most of the highest viewed shorts are 30 seconds or less.

If you can get your point across or tell your story more quickly, do it.

And remember to eliminate dead air or unnecessary footage. 

Be consistent

Try to keep length relatively consistent among videos if possible.

Users like to know what to expect. That familiarity can help increase trust in your brand. 

Entertain and inform

How is your content benefitting the viewer? What might make them want to come back for more?

Provide valuable information while entertaining to keep users coming back for more. 

Set expectations with value

At the beginning of each video, briefly tell users who you are and what you’ll be sharing with them.

Custom thumbnails matter

Shorts can also be viewed as regular YouTube videos, and users will see video thumbnails if they happen upon your shorts in their normal feeds.

A title screen or something eye-catching can be the difference between views and new subscribers and someone scrolling right past your content.

If you do not specify a thumbnail, YouTube will pull a still from your video. Do you want to take that chance? 

Incorporate catchy titles

Use your title to attract users and let them know what your video will be about.

Keep it interesting and informative.

Bonus points if you can make them laugh.

Utilize stories

Create YouTube stories that highlight your top shorts, and ask users to subscribe and comment.

Keep it simple

Users are most often going to be on mobile. Don’t expect them to be able to see fine detail or read big blocks of text.

Consistency is key! Maintain consistency in:

• Style.
• Length.
• Post frequency.
• Subject matter.
• Overall tone and voice.

People want to feel like they know your brand. So make it easy for them.

How to increase view counts on YouTube Shorts

Remove the intro

For a longer video, intro music and/or screens are great. For a short, they steal valuable seconds that could be used to get a new viewer’s attention and curiosity. 

Shoot vertical

Viewers are expecting vertical content, do not annoy or confuse them by changing what they’re used to seeing.

Jump right in

Just like in TikTok videos, jumping in and getting to the purpose of the video will likely increase views and engagement on Shorts.

Utilize captions and text effects

Add subtitles or text effects to increase interest and engagement.

Loop your shorts

Increase watch time by looping your shorts.

If your videos do not have a clear beginning and end, many viewers will watch your video more than once – especially if they’re not paying close attention.

You may have more than one opportunity to gain that subscriber this way.

Just remember: the longer a video is, the less likely a viewer is to watch multiple loops.

It never hurts to ask

Ask users to like and comment on shorts, and to subscribe to your channel on every video. 

Start with one still frame

YouTube has a one-second delay at the beginning of each short.

Take advantage of this by replacing your intro song with a single frame still with your thumbnail image at the beginning and end of each video.

Incorporate a catchy title and image to attract more views.

Use pinned comments

Add a pinned comment to each video to encourage viewers to check out your channel or website.

People like clear direction. Again, it never hurts to ask!

Be careful with music

Timing music in Shorts can be hard.

An abrupt cutoff makes looping obvious and can be jarring to users, causing them to scroll on to the next video.

If you’re using music, make sure it flows well when looped.

Set thumbnail

What’s one thing that many Shorts with low view counts have in common?

They don’t show the user what they’re about or set an expectation for the viewer.

Let viewers know what you want them to get from your video so their expectations are set properly from the beginning.

Hashtags

Hashtags are important with shorts, especially the #shorts hashtag.

Include this in your description, and at the end of your title if it makes sense.

Take a shot on YouTube Shorts

Between the explosive audience growth, ease of use, mobile-friendly format, and potential for extensive reach, it makes sense to give Shorts a try.

Add in the fact that you don’t need expensive equipment or time-consuming production and it feels like a no-brainer.

However, YouTube Shorts are not a magic bullet. They may not be a single element solution for most brands. But they’re a fantastic way to increase brand and product awareness, reach and conversions. 

YouTube is a massive brand, and has more staying power than newer platforms, so it is a relatively safe place to invest time and resources into creating content for their platform.

Shorts are likely going to be around for a while, so dive in and see how they can help your brand’s marketing efforts.

The post YouTube Shorts guide: How to get noticed appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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What is your least favorite part of PPC? [POLL]

Written on June 7, 2022 at 3:23 pm, by admin

Love it or hate it, PPC isn’t going anywhere. At least not for a while.

As PPC experts, we get to deal with everything from new platforms, added features, disappearing metrics (we’re looking at you, Facebook), angry clients, privacy issues and baffled relatives who ask “what do you do, again?”

For example, doesn’t it just frustrate you to no end that Facebook got rid of nearly all of their targeting options? The exact thing that made Facebook a goldmine for businesses in the past is the exact thing that’s forcing advertisers away from the platform in 2022. Ugh!

But we want to hear it directly from you, whether you do PPC on the frontline at an agency, in-house, or as a freelancer.This is your chance to let us know: What is your least favorite thing about PPC?

Be honest: tell us what you find frustrating, difficult, tedious or even downright painful – and why. We may include your answer in our write-up of the poll results.

Submit your response below. We may include your quotes in a write-up of the poll results!

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WebPageTest’s new Opportunities and Experiments: test practically anything

Written on June 7, 2022 at 3:23 pm, by admin

There’s never been a better time than now for a web developer’s approach to SEO.

The pace at which tools and resources, both new tools and anything familiar, innovate and open options for us also demand that we keep up. Recently, that has meant more requirements for performance optimization as Google releases algorithm updates and changes to metrics calculations.

One tool that you should be familiar with is WebPageTest. They recently released some incredibly useful new fully integrated test tools.

WebPageTest now proxies real-time user-specified HTML modifications through Netlify to run comparison tests right inside their user interface. No coding is required.

Genius makes sense

Smart application logic in three huge areas of concern bubble findings up for you, but not just with text blurbs, with re-test options prepped for you to run combinations of variations for comparison. The array of tests available in WebPageTest now means there will be no more setting up tests using third-party proxy tools that duplicate what you can test directly.

This was all technically possible before and the original approach continues to have importance.

Although impressively comprehensive, there will always be tests you will need to run using a proxy host of your choice. This requires handling JavaScript and Cloudflare, however.

With WebPageTest you get to point and click.

Pesky lab data

Always keep in mind the best possible combination of numbers from lab tests may not yield the same numbers in the field. It can actually result in broken website features.

Scripts and styles have developer-defined load order where any change can mean a breaking change that is not suitable for production. A proxy host can provide access for QA as part of the optimization process.

With that warning out of the way, let us tell you how great it is having a testbed for demonstrating HTML optimizations. It’s been the basis of our workshops and conference sessions now for well over a year.

Our Search Engine Land guide articles can help you set up a testbed. We’ll be using an updated version at SMX Advanced. Join us live if you can make it.

Opportunities

WebPageText’s Opportunities text is available to everyone in reports.

You won’t need JavaScript skills to run HTML variation comparisons anymore. Instead, you will need a paid account to run built-in proxy tests labeled Experiments.

The free account gives you better access to reports and history, but not running Experiments. You can still write JavaScript and proxy your own tests for free.

It’s just nowhere near as handy and it takes up way too much time.

Free opportunities. Paid account for experiments.

Experiments

Select the Opportunities & Experiments menu item in a WebPageTest report and you will be presented with a comprehensive list of findings.

Opportunities here are derived from real-world test conditions (simulated with hardware where possible). Our test indicated an opportunity to re-test experimenting with render-blocking resource variations (typically JavaScript and CSS), lazy loaded images, self-host third-party script and much more.

Pro Account Required for Variations

Test async, defer, or even inline scripts and stylesheets using the interface. We’ve been writing Cloudflare Worker JavaScript to proxy these tests and we also added inline style rules to defer loading content towards the bottom of the page, including the footer. The initial array of WebPageTest integrations can handle most, but not all, of our original tests.

It’s a snap to put tests together now.

Modify test settings and start running variations to hone in on the holy grail of green Core Web Vitals across the board. The offering is amazingly comprehensive and covers far more than what affects a webpages’s performance.

You’ll find three categories which group opportunities to experiment by the following questions:

• Is it quick? Quickness categorizes and groups performance optimization experiments.
• Is it usable? Usability groups HTML validation errors that can mess with screen readers and things that affect layout shifts.
• Is it resilient? Resiliency goes to security concerns including mixed protocols. Modify test settings with a checkbox interface and start running variations. You will get refined options in the comparison report.

Dashboard for a test suite

WebPageTest has to resemble a dashboard for a test suite and manage to do that inside reporting that provides more detail than Lighthouse, and with far better waterfall chart representation than Chrome Dev Tools.

Although it’s true with point and click you can run HTML experiments in a “no-code” environment, the detail provided and navigation requires experience – and coding experience is best.

A new built-in Experiment replicates another Cloudflare worker task by removing all JavaScript. Having stuff like that so accessible is exceptionally handier than writing a script for test variations.

Advanced Experiments allow us to insert HTML in key locations, test tactics to change load order, fail to load, or modify, including minify, resources.

There’s literally nothing technically stopping us from testing practically anything on any page.

Fall into the pit of success

Comparison reports themselves serve to funnel you into selecting and re-testing more variations. The result metrics banner includes color-coded improving and worsening scores between control and experiment.

A remaining opportunities section with a subset of experiment switches appears below. You can click your way through to significant improvement.

We’ve done the hard work to write tests for demonstration at SMX Advanced and when we’re live you can expect us to cover this major update to the very tools we used. It’s going to be so much easier.

We will see if the rapid text cycle of WebPageTest experiment integrations gain what we were already preparing to deliver. Let’s see if we can get to green across the board.

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Meta rumored to develop ‘Basic Ads’ in response to recent privacy changes

Written on June 7, 2022 at 3:23 pm, by admin

Meta Platforms’ Facebook is reportedly in the early stages of planning a Basic Ads product. Basic Ads would be aimed at advertisers who are looking to build awareness around their brands. 

What are Basic Ads? A Basic Ads product would offer and report only the simplest metrics such as engagement and video views.

With the release of iOS14 in 2020, and the option for users to opt-out to having their data collected, Facebook advertisers are having a more difficult time reporting on performance.

The initial response. Since Meta hasn’t officially announced the new product, little has been said about it in the advertising community. But Facebook veteran Curt Maly of Black Box Social Media, who is aware of Meta’s plans, said it’s interesting to think how a basic product with no targeting and no objectives would be beneficial. 

“More than 90% of all the online marketers I know are focused on direct response where efforts can be directly tracked… with this basic ads platform, it appears that tracking will be rather difficult,” Maly said. “Branding and awareness are used by larger companies with deeper pockets, most small businesses can’t compete with a brand who spends money ‘branding,’ small business owners need/want to drive results now.”

He added that brand new online advertisers and ad vets flock to Facebook to see fast results from targeting, conversion objectives and tracking results.

“If these three major goal lines are moved, I think we will be seeing a lot more people flock to Google/YouTube ads, TikTok ads and Apple’s new ad platform,” Maly said. “I mean Apple didn’t update iOS to ‘help protect users.’ Apple collects all the info they block on Facebook, Apple is about to get into the ad platform game once again and this is yet another reason for people to flock to a better ad platform.”

Privacy changes impact on Meta revenue. Meta estimates a $12.8 billion hit to their revenue in 2022 due to the Apple changes. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also reports “unprecedented levels of competition” from new platforms such as TikTok.

In April, Meta laid out a three-tier plan to save its ad business in the wake of Apple’s privacy crackdown. At the time, Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg described the strategy as “doing more with less data.”

Meta’s response. Facebook declined to comment on the new product. There has not been a release date for a rollout, though Business Insider reports testing to start in the EU ahead of the U.S.

Why we care. The Facebook ads platform was previously known for its wide range of targeted audiences and demographic options. As of late, it seems like a lot of advertisers and businesses are moving away from the platform, reporting a decline in performance. Basic Ads could be a good alternative if they’re able to follow GDPR regulations while still providing useful targeting options.

Basic Ads may work well for household names such as Nike or Netflix whose goals are engagement and awareness. But smaller businesses that rely on more granular targeting and lead generation, such as courses for business owners, or youth soccer camp registrations, may have a more difficult time and may abandon Facebook for good. 

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How your PPC conversions will be impacted without privacy-first measurement

Written on June 7, 2022 at 3:23 pm, by admin

Within the next 12-15 months, third-party cookies will retire across digital marketing channels.

Savvy advertisers know they need to begin developing a game plan for the cookieless future, but what will happen to those who don’t adapt to these changes?

Above all, marketers will suffer from signal loss, which will negatively impact how we measure campaign performance, optimize campaigns over time, create audiences for ad distribution and drive growth within our digital channels. 

The industry sea change with the lion’s share of attention is the retirement of third-party cookies in Google Chrome.

Sure, other browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox, have previously restricted third-party cookies. Chrome is more monumental simply because of its market share.

SimilarWeb recently released a study that showed Chrome was the world’s most popular browser with 62% of web traffic. 

To recap from my previous article, Google Chrome will retire third-party tracking cookies around Q3 2023. That is an approximate timeframe for this monumental change, but it gives us a target to make sure that our digital marketing campaigns will be ready.

This might sound like the distant future, but many of the measurement solutions needed to replace the functionality of third-party cookies could require significant time and effort from development teams.

This type of support usually requires a few cycles to be prioritized on project roadmaps.

Getting started in the next couple of months will be beneficial in the long run.

Look at it this way: your future self will thank you for being thoughtful and proactive!

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What happens when marketers do not build new measurement frameworks?

For over two decades, marketers have utilized third-party publisher cookies to track their media performance. This method isn’t perfect, but it’s been a standard practice that’s set to evolve in a major way during the next 12-15 months.

From a digital marketing perspective, one of the most significant impacts is the loss of conversion measurement. This loss of performance data includes sales, sign-ups, purchases, revenue and other engagement metrics since those actions are likely to be restricted.

If marketers do not evolve their measurement practices, their accounts will rely on algorithmically-driven modeled conversions. 

Successfully enabling automation within PPC is critical to driving positive results.

One of the most potent algorithmic elements is smart bidding. Algorithms that drive cost-per-acquisition (CPA) and return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) bidding need strong data signals to optimize performance.

The data that feeds these algorithms must be reliable so that accounts are optimized toward the most valuable actions and this conversion data needs to have enough volume to drive machine learning.

Data loss means bid algorithms will not function properly, which will result in decreased PPC performance. Let’s try to avoid this!

More conversions will be algorithmically modeled as a result of signal loss

There is too much at stake (i.e., money) for ad platforms such as Google and Microsoft to leave marketers without another option to gain back lost data.

When marketers forge new measurement frameworks via Enhanced Conversions (EC), Google Analytics 4 or Offline Conversion Tracking, those are considered Observed Conversions.

This mix of first-party data and user-matched data (EC) is generated by registered actions taken by our website visitors.

Try to collect as much observed conversion data as possible.

The alternative is Modeled Conversions in Google and Smart Goals in Microsoft Ads. According to Google, Modeled Conversions is:

“When Google surfaces modeled conversions in Google Ads, we are predicting attributed conversions. In most cases, Google will receive ad interactions and online conversions but is missing the linkage between the two. The modeling we perform is modeling whether a Google ad interaction led to the online conversion, not whether a conversion happened or not.” 

Even after these large-scale privacy shifts, Google will continue to acquire mountains of data per user: search history, browsing history, and any other online activity when someone is logged into their Google Account, especially when those signed-in users are on a Google property.

Google will not be able to install a tracking pixel for that user specifically, but they should have enough data to algorithmically predict which media interactions lead to a conversion for an advertiser. 

Microsoft Ads is working on a version of conversion modeling. This product is called Smart Goals.

According to Microsoft:

“Smart Goals use Microsoft Advertising machine learning models to identify the best sessions on your website. If you have the UET tag set up correctly, the smart goal will examine all your website sessions and determine which of those sessions can be considered a ‘conversion.’ Smart goals use multiple signals to identify conversions. Some of the signals that are used include session duration, pages per session, location, device and browser.”

In essence, they are similar to Google’s modeled conversions. They both rely on machine learning at scale to understand user behavior and potential reactions to paid media exposure.

Marketers need to provide numerous additional signals to make any modeled conversions as accurate as possible.

With the loss of user-level data, modeled conversions will be part of the measurement landscape going into 2023.

This brings us back to creating a strong framework for supplying as much Observed Conversion data within the platforms, which will help inform the Modeled Conversion algorithms. 

Marketers have time and tactics to forge new measurement frameworks

The prospect of rebuilding your measurement framework can feel daunting, but you have the next couple of quarters to determine which solutions work best for you and your business.

Now is the time to start evaluating your current processes, review the new measurement tactics that are currently available and begin building a plan. 

In my last article, we laid the groundwork for what this metamorphosis means for the digital marketing landscape and approximately when it should occur. This article has addressed why adapting to these changes needs to be a strategic priority.

Next time, we can begin drafting a plan on how you can build a privacy-centric measurement and audience framework for 2023. 

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Ahrefs reveals its new search engine: Yep

Written on June 6, 2022 at 12:11 pm, by admin

Did you forget that SEO toolset provider Ahrefs announced plans to build its own search engine in 2019?

If you answered “yep,” you aren’t alone. 

Ahrefs has been busy in those three years since, investing $60 million of its own money into launching a new search engine, called Yep. 

What is Yep? 

Yep is a general-purpose web search engine. Yep will soon be available in all countries and in most languages. 

Ahrefs is positioning it as a Googe competitor. However, we’ve seen plenty of Google competitors and Google “killers” come and go over the past two decades. So for now, let’s just call it a Google alternative.

So what is Yep banking on to become a true Google alternative? Two things: 

Privacy

Yep will not collect personal information (e.g., geolocation, name, age, gender) by default. Your Yep search history will not be stored anywhere.

What Yep will rely on is aggregated search statistics to improve algorithms, spelling corrections, and search suggestions, the company said.

“In other words, we do save certain data on searches, but never in a personally identifiable way,” said Ahrefs CEO Dmytro Gerasymenko. “For example, we will track how many times a word is searched for and the position of the link getting the most clicks. But we won’t create your profile for targeted advertising.”

What Yep will use is a searcher’s:

• Entered keywords.
• Language preference received from the browser.
• Approximate geographical area at the origin of the search at the scale of a region or a city (deduced from the IP address).

Profit-Sharing

The plan for Ahrefs’ search engine is a 90/10 profit-sharing model, where Ahrefs shares 90% of its advertising profits with content publishers. 

The reason: Google displays content in its search results, without the need to actually click through to the website. That means websites are losing traffic. And for many sites, less traffic means less revenue. 

“Creators who make search results possible deserve to receive payments for their work,” Gerasymenko said. “We saw how YouTube’s profit-sharing model made the whole video-making industry thrive. Splitting advertising profits 90/10 with content authors, we want to give a push towards treating talent fairly in the search industry.” 

Here’s what Yep says:

“Let’s say that the biggest search engine in the world makes $100B a year. Now, imagine if they gave $90B to content creators and publishers.

Wikipedia would probably earn a few billion dollars a year from its content. They’d be able to stop asking for donations and start paying the people who polish their articles a decent salary.

There would be no more need for paywalls and affiliate links, so publishers who’ve had to resort to chasing traffic with clickbait articles and filling their pages with ads would be able to get back to doing investigative pieces and quality analysis. A citizen journalist uncovering corruption on the side of a full-time job could get compensated without having to spend time trying to monetize content.

And the best thing? You don’t have to be an expert to benefit.

Let’s say that you love pancakes more than anything else in the world. Now you have an incentive to grow that passion – imagine getting fairly paid to share creative recipes, publish photos of your creations and teach the rest of the world how they, too, can make the fluffiest pancakes ever. Independent creators everywhere will finally be able to flourish.”

All of that sounds nice in theory. But Yep is just launching.

DuckDuckGo, which launched in 2008, gets as many searches per year (~15.7 billion) as Google gets in about two or three days. Even Microsoft Bing – which is owned by Microsoft, the third-largest company on the planet by market cap – has failed to make a significant dent in Google’s search market share since 2009.

How Yep works

What really matters is search quality. That means Yep will have to satisfy the wants and needs of searchers. So how are they going about putting together those search results? 

Crawling

Yep collects website data using AhrefsBot. Ahrefs said it plans to replace AhrefsBot with YepBot in the “near future.”

AhrefsBot visits more than 8 billion webpages every 24 hours, which makes it the second most active crawler on the web, behind only Google, Ahrefs said.

For 12 years, AhrefsBot has been crawling the web. They had just been using the AhrefsBot data to power its link database and SEO insights, 

Indexing

The Yep search index is updated every 15 to 30 minutes. Daily, the company adds 30 million webpages and drops 20 million.

Other technical details

Ahrefs said its Singapore data center is powered by around 1,000 servers that store and process 100 petabytes of web data (webpages, links between them, and the search index). Each server uses at least 2x 100GB connections. Some servers use multiple GPU cards to train big transformer models. Before the end of the year, Ahrefs plans to open a U.S.-based data center.

Ahrefs ultimate goal?

In 2019, Gerasymenko said the goal of its then-hypothetical search engine was to attract the attention of a larger company (e.g., Microsoft) that could afford to bring the idea to scale.

“Considering the platform only generates a fraction of the company’s $120 billion revenue, the organization could easily revamp Bing under a profit-share model. It’s my prediction that the positive public sentiment alone would have greater ROI than existing ad revenue. If we succeed in our endeavors, Google will finally get some long overdue competition for search.”

Ahrefs CEO Dmytro Gerasymenko, “Investor money vs. public interest: did Google fail to build a non-evil platform?“

Yep search results

Yep’s search result pages (SERPs) are minimal. It’s not quite at the level of the old days of 10 blue links, but it’s not far from it.

Your options are web or news results.

There are also “knowledge” boxes on the right side of some SERPs, featuring content pulled from Wikipedia, about your search.

Here’s an example search for [apple wwdc]:

You’ll notice the Apple Events page gets six sitelinks. Many of the other results also have additional links under the search snippet.

And the news results for [apple wwdc]? Well, it seems something went wrong:

Yep also gives you the option to try your same search other search engines – Google, Bing, Mojeek and DuckDuckGo.

Of note: the first organic result for all four other search engines is Apple’s official WWDC page, unlike Yep. That’s a fail. And Yep’s results are much staler than all the competitors it points to, aside from Mojeek’s (which are pretty atrocious).

For comparison, here’s what those look like:

The [Apple WWDC] results for Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo are all much fresher, featuring links to news stories published within the past few minutes or hours, published by CNN, CNBC, MacRumors, TechCrunch and others.

Bottom line: Yep’s stripped-down version of search results aren’t a dealbreaker. And if you don’t care about fresh results, perhaps these results are passable – especially where this is a broad search term. But clearly, Yep has some work ahead of it before it will be a serious alternative and convince searchers to use it over Google.

More to come

I’ve reached out to Ahrefs to answer several more questions about their search engine. I will update as those answers come in. 

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