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Happy Thursday, everyone!
This past week our team did a little work and a little play. We held our first-ever webinar focusing on how to reach customers online with Google and met up for a social distanced happy hour at beautiful Minnehaha Park.
On the SEO side of things, an algorithm update may have taken place around June 23, so make sure to take a look at your Analytics and rankings for any fluctuations.
For more search news, check out the highlights below: We cover new articles on the importance of site speed, SEO for Pinterest and how to maximize PPC revenue when your demand skyrockets. Read on to find out more!
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How To Maximize eCommerce Revenue When Demand Skyrockets
by PPC Hero
The Story: This article walks through one agency’s paid media tactics they used to capitalize on increased demand during the recent stay-at-home period. They offer tips and strategies to help keep ads accounts flexible and efficient, in order to maximize revenue in light of sustained uncertainty.
Why it Matters: The overarching theme of these tips is to ‘keep things flexible,” which we believe is more important now than ever. Much of the recent demand shifts stemmed from evolving searcher behavior. And in many cases, businesses may well have still seen success if they continued with their same, old strategies.
But just as we troubleshoot performance when things go south, we need to navigate unexpected spikes as well. In the age of automation, these can throw off a bidding algorithm, and when things inevitably slow, the whiplash can undo all the gains we might have seen.
Does Website Speed Really Impact Search Ranking?
by iPullRank
The Story: A study of how over 3,500 users interact with featured snippets shows that featured snippets get 35.1% of all clicks, compared to regular listings, which get closer to 44% of all clicks. The study takes a detailed look at user behavior across different types of searches (commercial, informative, etc…) and considers some of the main reasons users do -- or do not -- click on snippets.
Why it Matters: The key takeaway from the article is that, in general, many users trust traditional organic listings. Users tend to believe snippets are ads, and they’re just more comfortable with the “normal” layout. However, what’s interesting to us is that the proportion of users who avoided snippets varies across different types of searches.
Many users really do click snippets, because they’re informative and link to good content. This calls into question a blanket strategy of “optimizing for snippets,” and it reaffirms that SEO is not a one-size-fits all game. The challenge becomes understanding the SERPs on which you’re competing and strategically evaluating the role of snippets in your overall strategy.
SEO For Pinterest
by Uproer
The Story: There are so many tactics you can employ to get your content on Pinterest seen by people who matter. Using tried and tested SEO-type methods, we take you through what the Pinterest algorithm does, what it takes into account, and how to optimize your pins, profile, and boards to get your brand on the front page of Pinterest.
Why it Matters: Pinterest is the third largest social media platform available in the US, overtaking Snapchat in 2019, and is growing every day across all markets. With so much going for it, it’s a mystery why only 28% of marketers use Pinterest, and even more of a mystery as to why people aren’t using SEO best practices for their pins and profiles. Pinterest could become the cornerstone to your digital B2C campaign.
Why Redirect?: The Value of a Redirect
by Uproer
The Story: We home in on why redirects are necessary by exploring a client example using revenue, digging through Google literature on the subject, looking at what Google has to say about PageRank and 301 value, and looking at who else is researching the value of redirection.
Why it Matters: Redirecting old products sounds like a no-brainer so it’s not often we stop to think about what the alternatives are. Some popular, well-performing stores like Anthropologie keep all out-of-stock pages live and appear to do just fine in SERPs.
This article encourages SEOs and small businesses to really think critically about their resources and to understand that while one tactic may work for one competitor, it may not work for you.
Nextdoor Rolls out Free Business Posts, Best Practices Advice
by Search Engine Land
The Story: Nextdoor is continuing to build resources to support small and mid-sized businesses. Over the last two weeks, the platform has rolled out several new, free-and-paid post formats and best practice guides for businesses and advertisers. These are available to businesses who have claimed their local business listing.
Why it Matters: Small businesses need to pay more attention to Nextdoor. National businesses, too. The platform has been working to build out its advertising features for several years now, and it’s been working. It’s got a real shot at becoming a real powerhouse in local.
Last year, 2 million small businesses were on the platform. That’s likely doubled now. It’s hyper-local reach and wide-range of formats and resources make it an amazing opportunity to reach a focused, engaged audience. If you’re interested -- and we hope you are -- check out our guide to Nextdoor advertising.
Guest Blogging for SEO: How to Build High-quality Links at Scale
by Ahrefs
The Story: This guide walks you through actionable tips for identifying guest blogging opportunities and getting your articles accepted by publishers. Our favorite piece of advice? If the publisher tells you that you can't link back to your website, then link to a guest post you previously wrote for another publisher. You'll likely reap some SEO value after all.
Why it Matters: Guest blogging has long been a popular - and often abused - tactic to build high-quality backlinks for SEO benefit. Google recently made another effort to dissuade guest blogging by claiming that they're able to identify and devalue these types of backlinks.
So, should you stop guest blogging? No. There are other benefits to this tactic, like building your brand reputation and driving referral traffic. And, we're skeptical that the SEO value has really gone away.
Other Interesting Stories
Free Tool of the Month: SEO N-Gram Tool
SEODataViz's free N-Gram tool lets you extract the most commonly used words from a keyword list or piece of content. Export your Google Search Console keywords or paste an article to see the most popular terms.
Think of it like a fancy SEO word cloud. This helps you quickly understand a piece of content or keywords at a high level, and potentially gather new words or topics to add into your content. Give it a try!
