Searchlite: Why Buyers Hate Your Website Copy + Other Search News

Hello hello - Happy September!

We know everyone says this, but we really can't believe summer's almost over. But with all endings come new beginnings, and speaking of...

Just over a year and a half ago, we were 2 employees, and now we welcome our 7th. Say hello to Uproer's newest team member: Cristiana Hawthorne! Cristiana will be joining our SEO team as an Analyst, which is perfect, because there's nothing she loves more than the chance to solve a tricky problem.

Cristiana is a passionate learner and has been known to spend hours locked in her room working on a project or following a research topic down a rabbit hole. We can attest to this: Cristiana's latest claim to fame was co-founding the amazing BoundarylessMN program. Boundaryless was an agency simulation which allowed students and recent grads to regain experience while internships were canceled or on pause. Pretty amazing stuff, right?

On days off (though we're not sure she takes any), Cristiana can be found curled up with a good book or new Netflix series, or off on a trip around the world.

7 Reasons Why Your Ideal Buyers Hate Your Website Copy

by Impact

The Story: This article covers the 7 deadly sins of web copy. Some of the most egregious? Not explaining your benefits loud and clear (think of how it can make life easier for the customer), not being up front about pricing (people want to know how much something costs before they buy it) and not proving that real people use your product (social proof is everything - make sure to incorporate it.)

Why it Matters: Your copy has the power to make or break conversions. Seriously. So yes, design is important. UX is important. But behind all of that will always be your messaging. Let the copy come first, and success will follow.

Free Google Shopping Listings: What We’ve Learned Three Months In

by MetricTheory

The Story: Last April, Google made free shopping listings available for retailers. At that time, many businesses and search marketers wondered what the move would actually mean for e-commerce stores. Robert Shultz of MetricTheory breaks down what his team has learned and what opportunities lie ahead for SMBs.

Why it Matters: The results analyzed in this article suggest there’s more opportunity than many originally thought. One client saw as much as 28% of organic traffic coming from free Google Shopping listings. While that’s not typical, it proves that the free placements can generate an appreciable amount of traffic.

If you’re an e-commerce retailer, here are the main opportunities, according to the Shultz:

• Use the free listings as a way to advertise low-profit margin products that wouldn’t be viable options for paid ads
• Use the data from free listings as a hint to which pages might be ideal candidates for organic optimization
• Improve overall e-commerce margins so that you can invest even more in paid advertising (if advertising is set at percentage of revenue)

7 things CMOs need to know about SEO

by DeepCrawl

The Story: SEO has seen increased popularity in recent months, with businesses around the world search for ways to capture more traffic as consumers move online. However, it’s important to start your SEO engagement with eyes wide open. In this article, Arron Westbrook of DeepCrawl lays out 7 critical things that CMOs in particular need to know about SEO.

Why it Matters: We agree with Arron that a major part of SEO success is setting the right expectations from the get-go. Here are our important takeaways from the article:

For SEOs: Take ownership of setting realistic goals and expectations for your clients or employer. Be willing to be an educational resource and help them understand that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint, and that they’ll likely encounter many misconceptions, misunderstandings, and caveats along the way.

For CMOs and executives: Understand that SEO is a channel that often takes time to fully activate and begin seeing results. Rather than a one-time project or a channel you can turn on and off, think of SEO as something you integrate into your organization for the long haul. Finally, hold your SEOs accountable for delivering meaningful metrics that speak to tangible results.

Niche Down to Scale Up: A Case Study in Ecommerce Content Marketing

by Animalz

The Story: Sometimes it’s hard to find your content niche, but Animalz argues your unique selling point is your product - even if there isn’t much search volume. These guys recommend targeting product-specific long-tail search terms, riding the wave of growth created by emerging e-commerce technology, and aligning content strategy with product messaging - and they provide a cool case study to prove it.

Why it Matters: All industries have problems with content marketing saturation - everyone wants to write the next great blog post every single day. When you’re in an industry that’s dominated by heavy hitters, it can pay to avoid those big ticket content hubs and really niche down in your industry terms.

Facebook is Removing 1,000+ Ad Targeting Options Because of Low Usage

by Impact

The Story: Facebook recently announced its plan to remove over 1,000 advertising targeting options, which it states were rarely used either because, “some of the targeting options are redundant with others or because they’re too granular to really be useful.” Among the targeting options slated for removal or restructuring this year are ‘Multicultural Affinity’ and ‘Military Personnel.’

Why it Matters: We don’t think this will turn the industry upside down, but we're watching how Facebook evolves it’s advertising platform over the coming quarters. That said, these changes reinforce the trend that Facebook Ads success (and general marketing success) depends more and more on how well you understand the psychographic & behavioral details of your consumer.

Use these changing tides of targeting to gradually shift focus away from interest-based audiences options and begin to focus on strategic layered audiences & lookalike lists that reflect your end consumer, as these will only become more valuable for prospecting as well as for new customer acquisition.

Other Interesting Stories

COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerated Shift to E-commerce by 5 Years, New Report Says

by TechCrunch

EU: Google Analytics, Facebook Connect use could warrant legal action

by Impact

Free Tool of the Month: Web Vitals Leaderboard

This month's free tool is a fun visualization of Google's new Core Web Vitals metrics. Punch in your site's URL and that of a few competitors to see how you stack up!

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