Table of Contents
This month's Searchlite intro was written by SEO Manager, Abby Reimer.
Hello hello,
It’s officially Minnesota State Fair month! Or as some call it, August. Really, where has the summer gone? On our end, our team has gotten up to some serious vacationing these past few weeks. Cabin trips in Michigan and Wisconsin, pontoon days, and team happy hours at local breweries. It’s been a good summer so far!
On the work side of things, we’ve been busy as well. So busy in fact, that we’re hiring for a few positions! See open SEO roles here. If you or someone you know is interested, please don't hesitate to reach out!
And speaking of hiring… if your team is looking for that next SEO superstar, but is struggling to find them, you’re not alone. Hiring search marketers right now is tough due to the high demand. SEO Manager Abby Reimer recently wrote a guide on Moz to find and support entry-level SEOs. Check it out!
Now onto this month’s Searchlite content. Learn how to convince your boss to invest in SEO, how to optimize for user intent, and (hot take) the Dumpster fire that is Facebook Ads. Read on to find out more!
How to Write Blog Content Readers Care About
by Ryan Law, for Animalz
- Informational articles can often fail because authors lack the authoritative voice that proves to readers that they know what they’re talking about. Understanding what voice to use comes from getting content reviewed by your ideal reader, reading what your audience reads, and not over-polishing your jargon.
- “Teasing” a reader in an introduction is not always effective for increasing retention rates. Highlight the benefits of reading an article in the introduction, don’t leave them guessing until the end. What new processes, ideas, or stories will be outlined in the article? What will the reader hopefully take away from them?
- Not all great content ideas come from keyword research, they can also be inspired by customer feedback, internal conversations, social media, past articles, and other literature.
Knowing how to write in a persuasive and authoritative manner is what separates average content from content that truly connects with readers. The harsh reality is that while the majority of content on the internet is written to be read, not all of it is even glanced at by readers. The good news is that great writing can be taught.
How to Convince Your Boss to Invest in SEO
by Joshua Hardwick, for Ahrefs
Key Takeaways:
- Making a long-term investment in SEO usually requires buy-in from leadership
- As a marketer, it’s your job to ensure your boss understands the value SEO can bring to your organization (and its bottom line)
- By constructing a data-backed argument that ties SEO directly to positive business outcomes, you can leadership excited to invest in SEO
Why it Matters:
One of the key reasons it’s often easier to get buy-in for paid search than SEO is that it’s easy to see how investing in ads leads to a positive ROI. SEOs, on the other hand, have a poor track record of effectively communicating the business value that SEO can bring to an organization. Rather than speaking in terms that executives care about, there’s a tendency to speak in terms of links, traffic, rankings, and so on.
If you’re trying to convince your boss to invest in a new SEO program or maintain your existing one, this article’s for you. You can and should pitch SEO in a way that gets leadership to see SEO as an opportunity for growth, not just another dent in the bottom line. It may not be easy but the juice is worth the squeeze.
Page Experience Update After One Month - What Happened?
by Johannes Beus, for SISTRIX Blog
Key Takeaways:
- Google instated a new metric of measuring relevance for SERPS - an updated “Core Web Vitals.” They allow the user experience to be measured and include three main components for identifying performance:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) - measures how long it takes for the main content to be visible to the user
- First Input Delay (FID) - measures how quickly the user is allowed to interact with the content on the page
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) - measures how long it takes for all elements of a page to become visible to the user
- Because the only new metric is the addition of the Core Web Vitals, any changes made in the SERP metrics can be assumed to be a result of the CWVs new tracking.
- Since the rollout of the new metric system in June 2021, there has yet to be any significant decrease in systematic rankings for all sites that do not meet the updated Google requirements.
Why it Matters:
Google has rolled out some new ways of measuring which pages should be boosted and which should be less relevant. They have established a new mode of measuring and assessing these pages including a new “Core Web Vitals” metric, with the rest of the 5 measurements already existing.
What is User-Intent? How to Optimize it Like a Pro?
by Kevin Indig
- User intent is a simple concept, but that concept has become almost lost in the over-analyzed SEO world. Simply, user intent is the goal a user has when they engage with search engines.
- User intent changes over time, which means your website has to be a living, breathing thing that you can’t set and forget.
- Optimizing for user intent doesn’t have to be difficult - in fact, Google can do the work for you! Reverse engineer the intent of the collective “user” by seeing what’s ranking on Google and creating content to reflect that intent.
Why it Matters:
User intent is the name of the SEO game. As Kevin Indig says, if something doesn’t meet the user intent, it won’t rank! Intent isn’t static, so SEOs must be on the ball when we look at content and website performance, always considering intent when looking at ranking pages. Using the top-performing results on SERPs, SEOs can identify the intent of each term and create content that meets and exceeds the searcher’s needs. As tech evolves, it’s critical to come back to the fact that SEO is all about connecting humans to human answers.
Other Interesting Stories:
Free Tools of the Month:
You may already be familiar with the popular SEO tool Ahrefs. However, they’ve released a new feature that you have to test out. The new Keyword Cannibalization finder quickly identifies instances of cannibalization - meaning two or more pages ranking for the same keyword. Cannibalization can cause confusion for your audience and lead to lower click-through rates.
To test this feature out, go to Site Explorer > Organic Keywords 2.0 > Toggle the “Multiple URLs Only” button. Then, you’ll see a list of keywords with multiple ranking pages. So test out the tool, find those competing pages, and consider consolidating or differentiating.
Need to brush up on your SEO skills? Hubspot now offers a free certification course that covers all things SEO. From backlinks to keyword research, you won't want to miss out on the amazing insights this course has to offer. Check it out today!
If you find Searchlite useful, please consider sharing it with a friend. And if you're not already a subscriber, signup here!
