Table of Contents
This month's Searchlite intro written by SEO Analyst & Copywriter, Skye Sonnega.
Hello, hello,
The busiest season of the year is upon us! Holidays, shopping sales, and cooler weather are in full swing. It’s been a warm start to the winter for our Minnesota-locals, but we have our snow boots on standby for the storms to come.
2021 has been quite an exciting year for Uproer. Since January, we’ve had five full-time hires, and two awesome interns join the team! We’ve also continued to cultivate new and existing relationships with clients, and we’re so grateful for the amazing people we get to work with on a daily basis. This year has been one full of learning and growing, and we can’t wait to see what 2022 brings.
So what’s new in the world of SEO? On November 17th, Google rolled out another broad core update. This update will be making major organizational changes to search results. Read more about what to expect with the update here.
In other search news, learn more about Youtube’s Ad growth, the importance of technical SEO, and more in our latest issue of Searchlite. Check it out below:
What High Impact Consulting Looks Like
by Ross Hudgens, for Siege Media
Key Takeaways:
- Good SEO consultants are ones who focus on providing value, not fixing issues for the sake of fixing issues
- SEO recommendations should be backed up with some measure of what the expected impact will be once they’re implemented
- A strong SEO strategy has a bigger focus on bottom-funnel, rather than upper-funnel, opportunities
Why it Matters:
I was speaking with a prospective client recently who was frustrated with their current SEO agency. They said, “I want to stop the ‘random acts of SEO’!” I loved that phrase so much that I’ve been using it in conversations ever since. It’s the perfect way to describe low-impact SEO consulting that is ultimately a waste of time and money.
In his article and companion video, Ross articulates the difference between low-impact SEO consulting (reactive, issue-focused, best-practice-fixated) and high-impact SEO consulting (proactive, opportunity-focused, business-minded). If you’re not working with the latter, then consider a change in your agency partner.
Architectural Audits and What’s Costing Your Site Conversions
by Dmytro Spilka, for PPC Hero
Key Takeaways:
- Architectural audits consider how the organization, flow, and quality of content on a website influence your website’s conversions.
- A well-done audit dives into URL structure, ease of navigation, and the structure of your on-page content.
- These audits are useful for troubleshooting where users might be falling out of the funnel. They have spillover effects for both paid and organic performance.
Why it Matters:
How you organize content on your website is important. How that content flows to guide a user to buy, submit a lead form, or reach out is mission-critical for any good website. This article outlines the how and why behind website architectural audits. These audits trace the user journey and help you find places to reorganize or update content for more conversions.
We like this article for a few reasons. One, it has a really good visual that illustrates page architecture (click the link to check it out). And two, we stand by architecture audits. They are a really powerful way to patch content holes and improve overall UX. Together, that can boost organic and paid performance by improving conversion rates and opening the door to new or updated content.
Plus -- and maybe this is just us -- isn’t there just something really satisfying about a clean site structure?
Technical SEO: Foundations of Your Website’s Organic Performance
by Sam Underwood, for Advanced Web Ranking
Key Takeaways:
- Technical SEO is foundational to your site’s organic performance
- Sound technical fundamentals are what allow great content to rank
- It’s dangerous to assume technical SEO will simply take care of itself
- Businesses should ensure they’re doing what they can to promote crawlability and indexability through technical SEO best practices
Why it Matters:
If search engines can’t crawl, render, and index your site efficiently, you’ll be hamstrung in your SEO efforts. It’s that simple. Without sufficient attention to technical SEO, you’ll be working at a permanent disadvantage when it comes to the rest of your SEO efforts.
When we’re building out strategies for our clients, we virtually always start by evaluating the state of their technical SEO. Our recommendation is that businesses adopt the same mindset: technical SEO isn’t an afterthought. It’s the linchpin upon which all other SEO initiatives depend.
YouTube Ads Are The Breakout Star of Google’s Q3 Earnings Report
by Carolyn Lyden, for Search Engine Land
Key Takeaways:
- Google’s parent company, Alphabet saw Q3 revenue increase 41% over the same time in 2020.
- Google’s ad platform continues to drive the bulk of revenue for the company.
- Among its ad channels, YouTube saw the largest increase in revenue. The platform is up 43% from Q2 2021.
Why it Matters:
Google is continuing to grow. As part of that growth, the tech giant is pushing advertisers to embrace a broader scope of channels, even as many shoppers flocked back to stores this Black Friday. And quarterly growth in YouTube is a good indication that many advertisers are getting the message.
This means that we can expect more competition across Google’s ad environment, so it’s more important than ever to diversify your strategies within the Googleverse. YouTube and Discover have become increasingly important in our mix. And we’re making plans to trial the new Performance Max campaign type in several of our accounts.
It also means that whatever your strategy, and whatever your opinions of Google, it is still a giant. This article makes a great point that while Google platforms might be integral parts of our paid media strategies, we need to use our ad spend to hold it to a higher standard, and we need to keep our eye on up-and-coming channels.
Building A Keyword Strategy For Comparison Content
by Dan Taylor, for Search Engine Journal
Key Takeaways:
- Comparison keywords aren’t going away, even if your inclination is to ignore them. People are out there searching for “alternatives” to brands, and capitalizing on this search volume is a great way to open up Mid to Bottom of funnel content.
- Your comparison pages should have a quantitative comparison element, where the consumer can clearly see the differences between products.
- This is a great tactic for SaaS companies and software-based products as it gives the consumer something tangible to hold onto.
Why it Matters:
Every day, consumers are searching for something more, better, best, and there aren’t many companies capitalizing on comparative content to fill this need. Instead, we see sites like G2, Capterra, and other review-based sites take the lead in SERPs over makers. While search volume may not be as high as other primary keywords, these pieces of content make great wildcard content, which can elevate your quality content without running to the ends of the earth for content ideas.
Comparison content comes in many forms, but it’s important to recognize that you will have to take real stock of your product before comparing it to other products on the market. This article talks about having qualitative metrics to compare against, and this means being able to lay it all out on the table, for you AND your competitors. Of course, there are ways to do this that elevate your brand and make it look more enticing, but your users will appreciate your transparency. This tactic requires you to really believe you have the best product on the market.
Free Tool(s) of the Month:
Stuck on what to title your next piece of content and need some creative ideas? Type your subject into the Portent Idea Generator for some fun suggestions on how to kick it up a notch. This is a great tool for getting the ideas flowing, but not something to always take at face value (type “dogs” into the generator and see what you get!).
Other Interesting Reads
