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10 Optimization Tips to Build a Mobile-Friendly Site

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10 Optimization Tips to Build a Mobile-Friendly Site

A majority of all website visits worldwide are attributed to mobile devices. Optimizing your website for mobile has never been more important in SEO.

In this article, I’ll kick things off by explaining what mobile SEO is and why it’s important. I’ll then get to the core focus of this article, sharing my top 10 tips for effective mobile optimization.

Mobile SEO is the process of optimizing the mobile version of a website to drive organic traffic from search engines. Mobile optimization is focused on providing the best experience on mobile devices where technical implementations, such as using responsive design, play a key role.

Why is mobile optimization important?

According to Statista, mobile devices generated 59% of worldwide mobile traffic in the final quarter of 2022.

It’s not just users that predominantly view your site from a mobile device, but Googlebot too.

In 2016, Google announced mobile-first indexing. As a result, Google predominantly crawls the web via the Googlebot smartphone user agent. This means that Google will primarily use the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking. 

Mobile-first indexing began rolling out in 2018. By 2021, a majority of sites moved over to the new format of crawling. 

For many years, this was a hot topic among SEO professionals. However, mobile-first indexing is now “part of life,” as put by John Mueller from Google.

10 tips to make your website mobile-friendly

So now we know why mobile optimization is so crucial, here are my top 10 tips to ensure you effectively optimize for mobile.

Tip 1. Use responsive design

When it comes to picking your approach to serving content to different devices, you have a few options to choose from.

Responsive design (recommended)

With responsive design, you serve the same HTML file regardless of the device. CSS then alters the rendering of the page to suit the dimensions of the device’s viewport. This also means that you use a singular URL to serve all versions of your content.

Responsive design ensures you can effectively load the same piece of content, oriented to suit your device.

Page content adapts responsively to viewport

Responsive design is the recommended choice, not just among SEOs but in Google guidance too.

Back in 2019, John took to Reddit to state, “At some point all of these sites with separate mobile URLs should just move to a responsive design.” 

Ultimately, there’s no SEO gain by using responsive design. However, it is much easier and cleaner to maintain. For example, you won’t have to worry about canonical issues or Googlebot misunderstanding which URL to serve in the mobile/desktop rankings.

Separate domain/URL structure (not recommended)

An approach used commonly in the past is to serve the mobile version of a page via a separate URL or domain structure. A common example of this is the m. structure.

Desktop: example.com/page

Mobile: m.example.com/page

When a user loads your page, the server will have to determine which device the user is using and then direct them to the appropriate URL.

Separate m. URL structure for mobile sites

This approach is not recommended, as using multiple URLs for a single page leads to a messy scenario of URL management. 

Even with the correct signals in place, there is the added risk of Googlebot not interpreting these signals appropriately. This can lead to indexation issues or even Google identifying the pages as duplicate content.

If you currently work with this setup, you should ensure you follow the below canonical tag structure.

Desktop: Self-referencing canonical tag

Mobile: Canonical tag to target desktop URL

You’ll also want to implement a rel=”alternate” tag on the desktop version.

<link rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)" href="https://m.example.com/">

That said, the best solution in the long term is to move to a responsive design setup.

Dynamic serving (not recommended)

Similar to responsive design, with dynamic serving, you’ll be serving content suited to different devices via a singular URL.

However, the main difference with dynamic serving is that you’ll serve different HTML files pre-defined to suit the respective device.

Dynamic serving serves separate HTML files by device

This approach certainly trumps the separate URL/domain structure option, as you have the advantage of serving content to multiple devices via a single URL.

However, dynamic serving is not recommended. History teaches us that this approach is renowned for technical issues.

With dynamic serving, it’s up to your web server to determine which device the user is browsing on. Quite often with dynamic serving setups, the desktop version of the page is accidentally shown to users on a mobile device.

Tip 2. Optimize for page speed on mobile devices

In the era of Core Web Vitals, you could argue that strong page speed performance has never been more sought after by SEO professionals.

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In fact, when Google first rolled out Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor in 2021, it focused solely on mobile performance. Google then waited until February 2022 before using desktop Core Web Vital performance as a ranking factor. It’s clear to see which device Google prioritizes.

Google applies mobile and desktop Core Web Vital ranking signals to the respective search results. So for mobile search results, Google will focus on Core Web Vital performance from mobile devices.

A great starting point to see how your site performs against Core Web Vitals is to head to the dedicated report in Google Search Console (GSC). You can navigate to this report via left-hand navigation under the Experience section.

CWV performance graph

Clicking into the mobile report, you can see how your site has been performing against each Core Web Vital metric over the past three months. This data is gathered via CrUX (Chrome User Experience Report) from real users on your site who used a mobile device.

CWV issues segmented by issue type and category of performance

What’s great about this report in GSC is that the issue URLs are bucketed together into groups of similar pages. This means you can note down a list of key page templates that you need to work on.

Search Console bucketing similar page types

For a more detailed insight into issue areas and potential fixes, PageSpeed Insights is always worth a check.

PageSpeed Insights is simple to use. Just enter in the URL of the page you wish to test and hit “enter.” By default, the tool will automatically review the mobile version of your page.

Selecting mobile view in PageSpeed Insights

You’ll initially be presented with some insights under the heading “Discover what your real users are experiencing.” This report is the main one I focus on, to start with.

This report utilizes real user data via CrUX. Not only is it important to understand the experience of real users as opposed to bots, but Google also uses this data source within its ranking algorithm.

Here, we can see that Ahrefs’ homepage has passed all three Core Web Vital metrics.

Passing all three Core Web Vitals

Further down the report, you can also find some actions under the “opportunities” and “diagnostics” sections. These make for some great starting points when having conversations with developers about improving Core Web Vital performance.

Page Speed Insights actionable page speed opportunities

When using PageSpeed Insights, don’t forget to test the URLs of multiple page templates within the tool. Page speed performance often varies considerably across different page types.

We’re only scratching the surface here, though. GSC and PageSpeed Insights are only great starting points for auditing page speed.

Check out Patrick Stox’s dedicated guides on page speed and Core Web Vitals to take your page speed knowledge, analysis, and action plan to the next level.

Tip 3. Test and monitor your site for errors

It’s good practice to regularly test your site for key mobile usability errors.

There are multiple tools for this, but a great place to start is via GSC with a dedicated “Mobile Usability” report. You can find this report under the Experience section of the left-hand navigation.

Here, you can keep track of the number of URLs with mobile usability issues. GSC provides a three-month velocity graph. This is handy for identifying spikes in errors, allowing you to correlate them with development releases.

Mobile usability graph comparing usable and not usable URLs

By scrolling down, you can see the exact mobile usability issues that occur on your site. By clicking through to the individual reports, you’ll also be able to see which URLs are affected.

Summary of mobile usability issues

Outside of Search Console, you can also use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to uncover mobile usability issues. 

This is especially useful if you don’t have GSC access to the site you wish to review. Gaining access is recommended though, as you’ll automatically have a wider range of URLs covered.

To use the Mobile-Friendly Test, simply enter the URL (or code) for the page you wish to test to see if your page is deemed as mobile-friendly.

In this case, the tools show that the Ahrefs homepage has passed the test.

Page passing the Mobile-Friendly Test

On the other hand, if your tested page isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ll be hit with a message saying it’s not usable on mobile with a list of reasons why.

Issues for page failing the Mobile-Friendly Test

Keen to read more about specific mobile usability issues and how you can address them? Google has some great documentation that goes into more detail.

Tip 4. Make your content mobile-friendly

Making sure your website is optimized for mobile isn’t all about technical foundations. You’ll want to ensure your content is produced with mobile users in mind too.

Many SEOs prefer to use shorter paragraphs and sentences. This aligns nicely with mobile optimization practices.

This approach ensures that your content is readable on mobile devices. Who lands on an article and wants to read a big wall of text? Not me.

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As a general guide, aim for a maximum of three sentences per paragraph. If a paragraph naturally just has one sentence, that’s OK too.

Example of a short sentence in a single paragraph

When proofing copy drafts, it’s good practice to break long sentences into shorter sentences where possible.

The same rule applies to introductions. In fact, you should apply these rules most strictly here. These should be short, snappy, and to the point.

Example of a short and snappy article introduction

To further enhance readability, you’ll want to break your copy up by including various elements and media.

These can include:

  • Bullet points
  • Numbered lists
  • Quotes
  • Images
  • Videos

See what I just did there?

When using different types of media, you’ll want to make sure these display correctly on mobile devices. It’s so frustrating for users when an image loads way out of proportion.

Tip 5. Optimize for mobile SERPs

Mobile SERPs (search engine results pages) can vary quite considerably between the mobile and desktop versions.

When browsing the SERPs for a chosen keyword, it’s important to manually check both the desktop and mobile results.

Here’s an example. Let’s take this wikiHow search result for the query, “how to fry an egg.”

On the desktop search results, we have a pretty standard search result. 

Basic desktop search result

On the mobile results, however, we can see that Google has included the how-to images rich result.

Mobile search result with how-to rich features

SERP estate is crucial. Gaining rich features like in the example above helps your result stand out from the crowd. 

This shows how important and relevant schema markup is for mobile optimization. In this example, wikiHow did a nice job by including how-to schema.

Looking to switch device in the search results but don’t want to grab your phone? With Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar, you can load the results from another device directly in your desktop browser.

Selecting a device, via Ahrefs' SEO Toolbar

Tip 6. Include mobile-friendly navigation

One of the biggest considerations when optimizing your site for mobile devices is the choice of implementation for the header navigation.

This is quite easily one of the most complicated areas of the site to get right for a mobile device.

The hamburger menu has become a popular option in the mobile-first world. It gets its name because the button often looks like a hamburger (apparently).

Here’s an example of the hamburger menu in action on Amazon.

Hamburger menu icon on Amazon

Once you click on the “hamburger” icon, usually located at the very top of the page, the menu will then open out.

In this case, the menu opens out from the left-hand side with options to further expand into navigation subcategories.

Amazon hamburger menu expanded from the left

Hamburger menus are hotly debated among SEOs and UX professionals. In my opinion, however, you can’t beat the hamburger navigation when it comes to optimizing for mobile.

Not only is this approach clean and compact, but users are also becoming more accustomed to these types of menus on mobile.

It’s OK to go with the “mega menu” approach for your desktop site and switch to the hamburger menu for your mobile site. 

The number #1 rule is to ensure that the links within both menus are the same. You’ll want to make sure that you include the exact same links on both your desktop and mobile navigation.

Here, we can see that Apple displays the mega menu on desktop.

Apple navigation on desktop

And on its mobile site, it uses the hamburger menu but shows the exact same links seen on the desktop version.

Apple navigation on mobile

For e-commerce websites, faceted navigation is a big consideration too. 

Let’s take a look back at Amazon. It has tons of filter options on its product listing pages.

To keep the faceted navigation compact for mobile users, it uses a similar approach to the hamburger menu.

Faceted navigation on Amazon

Allowing the faceted navigation to expand on a simple button click keeps your page neat and compact. Perfect for mobile users.

Keen to learn more about site navigation? Be sure to check out Sam Underwood’s article on mastering website navigation

Tip 7. Keep your content the same

Parity between your site’s mobile and desktop versions is essential. As we mentioned earlier, Google will predominantly crawl the mobile version of your website. 

If you were to remove content from the mobile version of your page, you’d run the risk of weakening your content in the eyes of Google.

This rule should be applied to all types of content, from the copy itself to imagery. This rule also applies to technical items, from canonical tags to internal linking.

A great way to test mobile parity is to run a crawl on your mobile site and compare it against a crawl on the desktop version of your site.

Setting up a crawl via Ahrefs’ Site Audit, you have the option to switch between the mobile and desktop user agent. 

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You can locate this setting under the “Robots instructions” section of the crawl settings.

Selecting user agent, via Ahrefs' Site Audit crawl settings

To test mobile parity via Site Audit, start two separate crawls. One with the user agent set to “AhrefsSiteAudit (Desktop),” and the other with “AhrefsSiteAudit (Mobile).”

You can then compare these crawls in the project history side by side to check for parity between the desktop and mobile crawls.

Comparing Ahrefs' Site Audit crawl results

Notice significantly more errors on the mobile crawl compared to the desktop crawl? This can indicate that your technical elements aren’t being implemented correctly on mobile.

In Site Audit, it’s well worth comparing the HTML source code between your mobile and desktop crawls. This allows you to easily identify any unexpected differences between the mobile and desktop code of your page.

In the example below, we can see that the header menu code has changed between the mobile and desktop crawls. Luckily in this case, this code difference is expected.

Comparing HTML source code, via Ahrefs' Site Audit crawl comparisons

You should also consider rendering JavaScript in the crawl settings for websites that heavily rely on that. You can then compare the rendered HTML between the crawls with different user agents. Check our guide to JavaScript SEO for more information.

Tip 8. Avoid intrusive interstitials

Interstitials (also known as pop-ups) that are intrusive and distracting are frustrating for users. This is often an even stronger frustration for mobile users, as pop-ups often take up an even bigger portion of the screen.

Not only could you be decreasing your conversion rate with annoying and intrusive pop-ups, but you’d also get a thumbs-down from Google.

As part of Google’s Page Experience set of ranking signals, Google approves more subtle interstitials as opposed to the large interstitials that cause great frustration.

Acceptable interstitial practice

The big exception to the rule here is that the interstitial may be required by law. Common examples include cookie consent and age gate pop-ups.

For example, on alcohol-related content, the supplier could land in hot water if they didn’t force a user to enter their date of birth before accessing the content.

Age gate on alcohol website

Tip 9. Review mobile performance

It’s good practice to regularly review the devices that drive your website’s organic traffic.

Starting off with GSC, you can filter by device type in the search performance report.

Simply add a new filter by clicking the “+ new” button above the report and select “Device…”

Filtering by device in Google Search Console's Performance report

Here, you can filter your organic performance report via device, allowing you to see just how much organic traffic you’ve acquired via mobile devices. You also have the option to compare traffic by device.

Comparing traffic by device in Search Console

Similar to the “Mobile Usability” report in GSC, it’s worth keeping an eye out for any unexpected fluctuations and traffic drops in mobile traffic. This can be a sign of mobile optimization issues that need further investigation.

You can also view traffic by device in Google Analytics 4. Head to the “Device Category” report by loading Reports > User > Tech > Overview. 

Here, you’ll want to click “View platform devices” for the full analytics by device.

GA4's Device Category report

You’ll then be presented with data tables, charts, and graphs based on traffic by device type. Don’t forget to add an organic traffic filter to ensure you’re looking purely at “SEO traffic.”

GA4 table comparing traffic by device category

Tip 10. Track rankings on a mobile device

When it comes to tracking keywords, it’s easy to forget that rankings can vary between the desktop and mobile SERPs.

Luckily, switching between desktop and mobile on Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker is simple, making it super easy to see how your site is ranking on either SERP.

What’s also great about Rank Tracker is that you don’t need to specify a device as a setting when you first track your keywords. Keywords are automatically tracked within both the mobile and desktop SERPs.

Simply load your keyword report and switch between mobile and desktop reviews in the top left corner.

Switching between mobile and desktop rankings in Ahrefs' Rank Tracker

Final thoughts

You may be wondering, “Should I just ditch the desktop version of my site and focus on mobile optimization?”

Steady on. It’s true that mobile is now the dominant device, but you won’t want to completely disregard the desktop experience. 

Not only will some of your users visit your site via desktop, but Googlebot will also crawl via a desktop user agent from time to time (just not as frequently as the mobile version).

In fact, many websites continue to predominantly drive traffic through users on desktop. This is particularly the case for SaaS companies and many B2B-focused websites in general. For example, the Ahrefs Blog has over 70% of organic traffic coming from users on desktop devices.

High organic traffic to Ahrefs via desktop devices

To sum it up, the key takeaways are to:

  • Show the same content on your mobile site as you would on your desktop site.
  • Understand that responsive design is the way to go.
  • Prioritize your mobile pages for page speed optimization.
  • Not be afraid to use the hamburger menu for mobile devices.
  • Regularly monitor and track mobile usability and mobile traffic/rankings.

Have any questions? Ping me on Twitter and let me know.



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11 Tips For Optimizing Performance Max Campaigns

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11 Tips For Optimizing Performance Max Campaigns

Performance Max campaigns are the pinnacle of automation in PPC, so it’s no surprise they continue to be a major topic of debate for PPC professionals looking to balance time savings with peak campaign performance.

The primary goal of Performance Max campaigns is to drive conversions, such as sales, leads, or sign-ups, for your business while maintaining a competitive cost-per-action (CPA) or return-on-ad-spend (ROAS).

By utilizing Smart Bidding strategies and dynamically adapting ad creatives, these campaigns help advertisers reach a wider audience and boost the results obtained from traditional, single-channel campaigns.

But their high dependence on AI doesn’t mean these are set-it-and-forget-it campaigns.

Automation can still benefit from the touch of an expert PPC manager. But because they are so different from traditional campaigns, there are unique ways to optimize Performance Max (PMax) campaigns.

PMax optimization broadly falls into three categories:

  • Setting them up for success.
  • Monitoring that the AI is driving the right results.
  • Tweaking the campaigns to further optimize their performance.

Read on to learn how to get the most out of your PMax campaigns by addressing each of these three areas of opportunity.

How To Set Up PMax Campaigns For Success

Let’s start with what can be done to set up Performance Max campaigns to be successful out of the gate.

Remember that one big risk of automated PPC is that machine learning algorithms can eat up a significant amount of budget during the learning phase, where it establishes what works and what doesn’t.

Many advertisers don’t have the patience or the deep pockets to pay for machines to learn what they already know from their own experience.

1. Run It In Addition To Traditional Campaign Types

This advice is straight from Google, which says

“It’s designed to complement your keyword-based Search campaigns to help you find more converting customers across all of Google’s channels like YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.”

And while running Performance Max as a stand-alone campaign is better than not advertising on Google at all, for professional marketers, it should be seen as a supplement to existing campaign types.

Running PMax campaigns in conjunction with traditional search and display campaigns offers advertisers a more comprehensive and diversified marketing strategy.

This approach allows businesses to capitalize on the strengths of each campaign type while mitigating their limitations, resulting in a more balanced and effective promotional effort.

Traditional search campaigns are particularly effective at capturing user intent through keyword targeting, ensuring ads are shown to users actively searching for relevant products or services.

Traditional display campaigns, on the other hand, are excellent at raising brand awareness and reaching audiences across a vast network of websites and apps.

PMax campaigns complement these traditional approaches by utilizing machine learning to optimize ad targeting and placement across multiple Google platforms.

This broadens the reach of advertising efforts, tapping into new audience segments and driving conversions more efficiently.

Combining these campaign types allows advertisers to cover all stages of the customer journey, from awareness and consideration to conversion and retention, while maximizing their ROAS.

2. Exclude Brand Keywords From Performance Max

One keyword-targeted search campaign you should always have is a brand campaign.

Then, ask your Google rep to exclude your brand keywords from all PMax campaigns so they don’t cannibalize traffic from your brand campaign.

Brand traffic should be inexpensive because it’s leveraging the power of your own brand. When users search for that, your ads will be the best match with the highest Quality Score and hence should be discounted significantly.

But because Performance Max’s mission is to generate more conversions, it may actually end up bidding on really expensive brand-adjacent queries.

For example, if I bid on the keyword “optmyzr,” I’ll pay around $0.10 per click when someone searches for exactly that.

(Disclosure, I am the co-founder of Optmyzr.)

But if I show ads for the keyword “optmyzr ppc management software,” I’m competing against every advertiser who bids for ‘ppc management software,’ my brand discount disappears, and those clicks will cost several dollars each.

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In a branded search campaign, I can control exactly which traffic to target using positive and negative keywords. But in Performance Max, there is no easy way to manage keywords, so Google may use the really cheap brand traffic to subsidize the much more expensive brand-adjacent traffic.

Ultimately, you will get results within your stated ROAS or CPA limits. And while that may be acceptable to some, many advertisers prefer to manage their brand campaign separately from everything else.

3. Create Multiple Performance Max Campaigns To Target Different Goals

The same reasons why you would run more than one campaign in an account without Performance Max apply to why you should consider having multiple PMaxcampaigns.

For example, online retailers often set different goals for different product categories because they have different profit margins. By splitting these products into different campaigns with different ROAS targets, advertisers can maximize their profitability.

Image from author, April 2023

Maintaining multiple campaigns also supports seasonal advertising plans that may require different budgets at different times of the year.

Google supports up to 100 Performance Max campaigns per account, so that indicates that it, too, agrees there are many different good reasons why an advertiser would want to maintain more than one campaign.

4. Manage Final URL Expansion

When you create a PMax campaign, you tell Google what landing page to send traffic to. But you also get to decide if Google can expand to other landing pages on your domain.

Think of it a bit as dynamic search ads (DSAs), which automatically match your site’s pages to potentially relevant searches and automatically generate the ads to show.

Final URL expansion should be used cautiously.

At the campaign’s onset, consider focusing all your budget on the landing pages you care most about. If the results are good, then expand to more final URLs automatically.

And always be sure to use rules and exclusions to ensure Google doesn’t show your ads for parts of your site you don’t want advertised. For example, exclude your login page (assuming that one is ranked high in SEO).

You can also exclude sections of your site that are the focus of other campaigns. A retailer could exclude all pages that include the path ‘electronics’ in their apparel campaign to ensure consumers interested in electronics are served ads from the most relevant campaign.

5. Add Audience Signals From The Start

Adding audiences to a Performance Max campaign helps enhance the targeting and performance of your marketing efforts.

While PMax campaigns already utilize machine learning to optimize ad targeting, incorporating audience information provides additional context that can further improve the campaign’s efficiency.

Adding audience information enables the machine learning algorithms in PMax campaigns to make more informed decisions when optimizing ad targeting and placements. This can lead to better campaign performance and a higher ROAS.

By specifying particular audience segments, such as in-market, affinity, or remarketing audiences, advertisers can tailor their campaign messaging and creative to resonate better with their target users. This enables more personalized and relevant ad experiences, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates.

Advertisers should also attach their own audiences to Performance Max campaigns. For example, by attaching a list of all their existing customers, they can choose to have the PMax campaign prioritize new user acquisition.

Because it is generally harder and more expensive to find new users than to convince existing users to make another purchase, adding this setting can better focus the ad budget on what is most valuable to the business.

How To Monitor Performance Max Campaigns For Success

Even when campaigns are well set up, monitoring AI is always a smart idea because it can sometimes make questionable decisions.

When I accidentally turned on automatically applied recommendations from Google, I found that my brand keyword ‘optmyzr’ was removed by Google because the AI felt it was redundant to some other keywords in my campaign, particularly some misspellings of our brand name.

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I investigated and found the keywords Google preferred delivered fewer conversions and had a higher CPA than the keywords it removed. So not only was AI semantically wrong, but it also made a bad decision for my bottom line.

So let’s look at some ways to monitor Performance Max campaigns.

6. Report Where Your Performance Max Traffic Is Coming From

Just like you may have monitored clicks and impressions by device types or from different geographic areas, in PMax you should care about the performance of the various channels where your ads are shown.

If you only look at the overall performance of a PMax campaign, you may be falling into the trap of averages.

Relying solely on averages can be misleading and might not accurately represent the true nature of the underlying data.

Averages can oversimplify complex data, reducing it to a single value that may not capture important nuances or patterns within the dataset, and this can mask the variability or range of values in the dataset, leading to false assumptions about the consistency or homogeneity of the data.

a reporting widget showing where google ads performance max ads are showingImage from author, April 2023

For example, is low performance on the display network made up for by the great performance of ads on YouTube?

On average, the campaign drives the results you want. But by eliminating some wasteful portions, results could be even better than what you asked for.

Even if the campaign is delivering the desired results, knowing about possible inefficiencies puts you in a better position to address those and tilt the playing field back in your favor.

Tools like Optmyzr make it easy to see where your budget is spent in PMax, and there are also Google Ads scripts that will add this type of clarity to your data.

7. Monitor For Cannibalization

Because PMax campaigns don’t include the traditional search terms reports and only include part of that data in insights, it can be difficult to know when it is cannibalizing the other campaigns you’re running in parallel.

When it comes to standard shopping campaigns and PMax for retail (which replaced Smart Shopping campaigns), the PMax campaign always takes precedence over the traditional shopping campaign. For this reason, it’s important to segment products to avoid overlap.

For example, you could advertise shower doors in one campaign and bathroom vanities in another. But if there is any possible overlap, even segmenting campaigns may not lead to the desired result.

For example, shower wands advertised in a traditional shopping campaign may be closely enough related to shower doors and get mixed into the PMax campaign for shower enclosures.

Regarding keyword cannibalization, Google says if the user’s query is identical to an eligible Search keyword of any match type in your account, the Search campaign will be prioritized over Performance Max.

But if the query is not identical to an eligible Search keyword, the campaign or ad with the highest Ad Rank, which considers creative relevance and performance, will be selected.

And even a keyword that is an identical match may be ineligible due to a variety of factors and still get cannibalized.

The best way to monitor for cannibalization is to monitor campaign volumes and look for shifts. Does an unexpected drop in a search campaign correspond to an increase in traffic to the PMax campaign? If so, dig deeper and use our optimization tip for managing negative keywords that we’ll cover in the next section.

Optimizations For Performance Max

While PMax promises to optimize itself on an ongoing basis thanks to AI, there are some proactive ways you can still help the machines deliver better results.

8. Use Account-Level Negative Keywords

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to add negative keywords to a PMax campaign without the help of a Google rep. And even then, they will generally only add negative brand keywords to help prevent cannibalizing a brand campaign.

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But PMax campaigns can work with shared negative keyword lists if you email Support and ask them to attach one of your shared negative lists to your PMax campaigns.

From that point forward, you can simply add negative keywords to the shared list, and they will instantly take effect on the PMax campaign that is associated with the shared negative list.

While Google doesn’t share full search term details for PMax the way it does for search campaigns, it will show keyword themes under insights. This is one good source for negative keyword ideas.

You should also leverage data from traditional search campaigns you’re running in parallel to PMax.

So mine your traditional search campaigns for negative keyword ideas, for example, when users search for things like ‘free’ ‘login’, etc., that never convert well. Add these as negative keywords to the shared negative list that is attached to your PMax campaign.

9. Use Account-Level Placement Exclusions

When it comes to placements, Google has a predefined report that shows placements where your Performance Max ads were shown.

image of reports in Google Ads showing what placements performance max ads appear onScreenshot from Google Ads, April 2023

 

This is a great starting point to find ideas for placements to exclude.

To exclude placements from PMax, you’ll need to exclude them at the account level, since it’s not possible to add negative placements to individual PMax campaigns. You’ll find this ability under the “Content” section of the Google Ads account.

The Google Ads interface for excluding account level placementsScreenshot from Google Ads, April 2023

 

Just like with negative keyword discovery, consider using your account-wide placement data from all campaigns to find placements to exclude in PMax.

And if you run multiple Google Ads accounts, you can get even better results by finding money-wasting sites and apps in the display network to exclude across all the accounts you manage.

Or when working with a tool provider, they may even be able to help you find negative placement ideas from their own vast network of data.

10. Exclude Non-Performing Geo Locations

Even though PMax uses automated bidding, which doesn’t support geo bid adjustments, you can still leverage geo data in two ways.

You can either exclude locations that don’t drive conversions or use conversion value rules to manipulate the value you report for conversions from different regions so that the bids will get adjusted accordingly.

For example, if you report conversions as soon as someone fills out your lead form, but you know that people in Munich become paying customers at a higher rate than people who fill out the same form from Berlin, you can set a conversion value rule to value conversions from Munich more highly.

This helps automated bidding make the right decisions about what CPC bid will likely have the desired ROAS.

And that leads to our final optimization tip, which is a big one.

11. Feed Correct Conversion Data

AI can only do a good job for your account if you tell it what the goal is.

And the goal should be precise.

It shouldn’t be to get the most conversions possible if your real goal is to drive profits.

Or to get as many leads as possible if you want leads that turn into customers.

Setting up goals correctly can make a huge difference in how well PPC automation will perform.

Updating goals with margin data or with data from your sales team can be a significant effort, and that’s why I’ve listed this as an ongoing optimization strategy rather than an up-front setup task.

Get PMax up and running with the conversions you’ve already been operating with, and then work to constantly enhance that conversion data.

Conclusion

With these 11 tips to optimize your Performance Max campaigns, you can expect better results while also benefiting from the time savings promised by automated campaign types.

There are many more tips I didn’t cover here that you can discover by joining the dialogue online.

And there will be many more tips to come as PPC automation continues to evolve.

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A Strategy For Ranking Local Search Terms

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A Strategy For Ranking Local Search Terms

Location landing pages don’t get enough respect.

You set them up with your name, address, phone number & hours. Maybe you embed a Google Map for driving directions.

Perhaps you write some copy that no one will read, and if you have multiple locations, you repeat the same copy on each page and just change the location name.

If you’re feeling cocky, you put a call to action on it – maybe.

You set it, then you forget it.

And guess what? That actually works pretty well for local SEO.

I mean, what more does a potential customer want from a location page? Maybe an appointment scheduler?

But who cares about the customer? We smug SEO types all know Google is our #1 customer.

So, what does Google want from a location page? Let’s start with the basics.

1. What Is The Purpose Of A Location Page? (PAA FTW)

I can’t believe I have to explain this, but ChatGPT isn’t going to train itself. (At least, I don’t think it will.)

For retailers, location pages come in four basic types:

1. Location Detail Page

This typically represents the physical location of a business (e.g., SideTrack Bar & Grill at 30 W. Angela St. Pleasanton, CA 94566,).

2. Location Service/Department Page

This typically represents a specific service or department category available at the physical location (e.g., SideTrack Bar & Grill Catering).

3. City Page

This typically represents the city (#duh) where various physical locations are located (e.g., Pleasanton, CA),

4. State Page

This typically represents the state (#duh2) where various physical locations are located (e.g., California).

Depending on your industry, you may also want to consider County Pages (or Boroughs, Provinces, Prefectures, or whatever nomenclature your particular country uses).

For example, attorneys specializing in the laws of a specific county may find it useful to set up a page for that county.

There are likely infinite other options, but these are the main ones that 99% of you with location-based businesses need to consider.

For service area businesses (aka “SABs”), it’s basically the same setup, except you will typically want to create additional City Pages for the various areas you serve (e.g., Plumber in Livermore, CA, Plumber in San Ramon, CA, etc.).

This will help you target these queries in the Local Organic search engine results pages (SERPs) – those results that typically show up below/above Local Packs – and they can help your Google Business Profile (GBP) be more relevant for queries for those areas.

2. Why Do Location Pages Matter For SEO?

Despite their simplicity, location pages can play a big part in SEO for brands.

There are two basic types of search queries these pages are tailor-made for:

Brand Queries

These are perhaps the most important queries to show up on Google for.

When a searcher queries [Starbucks], [Starbucks near me], or [Starbucks Pleasanton], Google typically wants to show a location page for that brand.

If you don’t have a page for the specific location, Google may show your homepage, a nearby City Page, or perhaps a page for a third-party site like a local business directory that uses your brand name, plus the location for SEO purposes.

And, of course, there are all sorts of related queries like “Starbucks hours,” “Starbucks address,” etc.

Non-Brand Local Queries

These are the money queries where you can attract potential customers who may have never heard of you – or thought of you for the specific query.

Consider queries like [pizza], [pizza near me], [best pizza in Pleasanton], etc. Single-location businesses can often rank for these queries with just their homepage, which basically acts like a location page.

But multi-location businesses will typically need a page for that specific location to rank for these high-value queries in the organic results.

Links

Outside of the homepage, location pages are typically the best source of a site’s external links. Numerous local business directories link to these (aka “local citations”) and they tend to accumulate backlinks from local media sites and others over time.

They can then spread the link mojo throughout the site.

3. How Do Location Pages Affect Local Pack Rankings?

This is pretty straightforward. If you have a Google Business Profile (GBP) linking it to a location page for the area in which you are trying to rank is a critical ranking factor for Local Packs.

I have done plenty of tests where we changed the link to go to a page that did not target the city we wanted to rank in, and the Local Pack rankings suffered. When we switched it back, the rankings recovered.

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It’s important to note: your homepage may have more location mojo than your location page for a given location, so you’ll want to test which one works better for GBP.

And as mentioned above, having a page for a given service area can help you rank for queries for those service areas.

4. What Are the Basic Elements Of A Well-Optimized Location Page?

Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP)

Your location’s business name, address, phone number, and hours. Make sure the name, and all other info, you use on this page matches the info on your business’s GBP.

Last year we looked at 100,000 SERPs and found that pages on local directory sites that exactly match the business name and other info of the relevant GBPs tended to outperform those that have partial or no matches.

Structure Your Data

Mark up all of the NAP elements in LocalBusiness schema. There are a number of specific business category schemas, so if there is something more targeted for your business, you’ll want to use that.

For brands with multiple related brands (e.g., IHG, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, etc.), you’ll want to acquaint yourself with Organization schema to help our robot overlords sort things out correctly.

And don’t forget breadcrumbs linking up to parent City/State URLs marked up with Breadcrumb schema.

Use Targeted Meta Data

The page’s title tag and H1 should ideally target the business name and location (e.g., “Starbucks Pleasanton, CA”).

You can certainly test adding additional targeting to see how it affects performance (e.g., “Starbucks Coffee in Pleasanton, CA,” “Starbucks Coffee Near Pleasanton, CA”).

Our research suggests that outside of the target category (e.g., “coffee”), the city is the most important element to be included in the title tag for “near me” searches – then the state.

Using the word “near” appears to help, but at the margins. Still, an extra 1-2% clicks couldn’t hurt, right?

Title tag factors Image from author, May 2023

5. Engagement Intangibles

“Engagement” is one of the fuzzier of the many fuzzy SEO factors.

So think about what else a potential customer might need to find a location page useful.

Calls-to-action (CTAs), like the ability to make online appointments, order something online, etc., likely send positive signals to Google about the usefulness of the location page.

6. Advanced Location Page SEO

This isn’t rocket science, so when I say “advanced,” I really mean “SEO tactics for someone who somehow got buy-in from the rest of the org to prioritize updates to the location pages that everyone forgot we even had.”

Here are some things we have seen work over time. Your mileage may vary, of course:

Optimized Copy

It’s perfectly fine to start with a basic copy block with a find and replace for the location name/city that explains what your business offers.

It’s relatively cheap and easy, and you can always go back and update the copy later. See what that gets you before spending more time or money on it.

That said, we tend to see more targeted copy outperform instances of using the same copy on each page. I recall a client site not moving in rankings for six months until we updated the copy on the location pages to be unique.

As with everything SEO, try to test this at a small scale before you make a bigger investment.

Hopefully, it goes without saying, but I’ll say it: using phrases relevant to the topic you are targeting in your copy couldn’t hurt.

Certain businesses may also benefit from adding “Points of Interest” (aka “POIs”) to the copy. For example, people often search for hotels with modifiers like “near the airport.”

So adding those phrases and POIs to your location pages can make your page more relevant for these queries while also improving the relevance for the target city “entity.”

That’s a fancy way of saying that because you mention JFK Airport, Google may think you’re relevant to the great borough of Queens, NY. Mentioning the neighborhoods you serve is also a good one.

Link To Nearby Locations

Multi-location businesses should link to nearby locations (the distance depends on what you think is best for customers) from their location pages.

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There are two good reasons besides customer convenience to do this:

  • The more locations you have, the harder it is for Googlebot to find them, so linking to them from these pages creates more reasons for Googlebot to crawl them.
  • Adding the other location names to the copy of the location page may make it more relevant for Google. For example, if there’s a link to “Starbucks Livermore” on the “Starbucks Pleasanton” page, the phrase “Livermore” might give Google more confidence about the Pleasanton location, since Livermore is the next town over.

Use Topically Relevant Images And Videos

Since these lowly location pages get no respect to begin with, they often are launched with copy only.

But check this out: We have found that for some niches, merely adding relevant images to the pages can help with ranking improvements.

For example, if you have a truck driver school, consider adding a picture of a person driving a truck (#duh3). If you are a remodeler, maybe add some shots of recent projects.

A good rule of thumb is to look at the top-ranking pages in the Local Pack for your query and make sure you have just as good, if not better, images and/or videos on your location page.

Use Google’s Vision API to ensure it understands what your image is about.

Link To Product/Service Category Pages

Last year we looked at Local Packs across 10,000,000 keywords for 40 ecommerce categories in 5,000 U.S. markets (the things we do for SEO…).

One of our key findings was that location pages that linked to category pages (e.g., Target.com’s Dublin, CA page linking to its Video Games Category Page) tended to outrank those sites that didn’t do this.

This simple tactic can have a significant impact.

Pick the categories you want to prioritize and link away.

Add Local Reviews

Adding a feed of customer reviews to these pages, particularly if the reviews are from the page’s target area, can often improve performance.

One of my theories is that a regularly updated review feed gives Google a good reason to visit the page often and prioritize it.

Before you implement this, be sure to bone up on Google’s guide to user reviews and its rules for marking up “self-serving” reviews.

Note: I have rarely seen a site penalized for violating these rules, but you may not want to be Patient Zero on this one.

Meet The Team!

We recently did a project for a moving company where we observed that many of the best-ranking pages in their markets had pictures of the local team.

According to my friend Carrie Hill of Sterling Sky,

“Any time someone goes into a client’s house, car, or business, I advise putting employee faces on websites, confirmations, and reminders.”

The Kitchen Sink

Other items that could make sense on your location pages and improve engagement include:

  • Philanthropy and community connections.
  • Local sponsorships.
  • Hiring and careers info.
  • Pricing info (marked up with Price schema, of course).
  • Business license/insurance info.
  • Social proof and trust signals like BBB accreditation for each location and/or “Voted Best Boba Shop in Pleasanton!”

Use Google Merchant Center Data To Increase Conversions

If you are running product listing ads (PLAs) you likely have a ton of data in Google Merchant Center that can give you hints on how to improve conversions on your location pages.

The TL;DR: Check your Google Merchant Center (GMC) to see what products get the highest impressions and click-through rate (CTR) when they are connected to your GBP in the SERPs.

This can be found in the “Local Surfaces” report. These products should be featured on the relevant location page.

see whats in store: google searchScreenshot from Google, May 2023

Google is showing you that people are already interested in them.

See Google Merchant Center: A Local SEO Goldmine for Retailers for more detail on this wacky trick.

7. What Should I Not Do With Location Pages?

Over the past decade or two, we have tried pretty much everything you can think of with these things. Here are a couple of things you’ll want to be wary of:

Unnecessary Location + Service Pages

We’ve seen many brands launch location + service/department pages linked off the location detail page. For example, Home Depot has these pages for Home Services, Truck Rental, and its Garden Centers.

There are plenty of good non-SEO reasons to have these pages. If you are looking to rent a truck, having a specific page about renting a truck in your city might be helpful.

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But be clear that this will often not be a net-new traffic play.

Why do I say this?

Because, after looking at organic traffic data to tens of thousands of location + service pages, we have observed that most of the time, 90% of the organic traffic to these pages is brand traffic, and they are likely cannibalizing searches you were already getting.

Local dept service pagesImage from Semrush, May 2023

This is not the case in every situation, and it may be worth it to roll these out merely to improve conversions.

But you should be aware that these may not be a net positive in terms of organic traffic, and they may even have negative SEO effects due to increasing the number of “thin” URLs on the site.

Multilocation SEO problemsImage from Semrush, May 2023

In one case, we had a client with about 100,000 URLs launch these pages, which created about 1,000,000 new URLs. Guess how well that went.

Our rule of thumb is that if a department or service can get a GBP, it may be worth creating a local page for SEO purposes. This doesn’t apply to all cases, of course.

Location Pages With No Location

We recently worked on a retailer site that created pages for cities that were near their locations, but where they had no locations.

The pages looked like every other location page, but instead of presenting NAP info for a relevant location, it linked to the nearby locations.

This was a national site, so they had over 130,000 of these. And, of course, they were getting virtually zero organic traffic.

For SABs, this tactic is necessary if you want to rank outside of your physical location’s area (more on that in a moment). But it seems that, for queries that imply a searcher is looking for a physical location, Google doesn’t want to show you these types of no-location pages.

Oh, and don’t add insult to injury by creating local pages for every brand you carry (e.g.,/ca/pleasanton/flaming-hot-cheetohs). This client had about 500,000 of those and, you guessed it, virtually no organic traffic.

Beware Thin Content Location Pages

A common tactic for service area businesses or SABs is to create a ton of location pages for the areas they serve.

They may even make the content on them super unique.

Manual actions: issue detected on GSCScreenshot from Google Search Console, May 2023

The challenge is that we are starting to see these types of plays get manual actions for thin content.

Of course, Google does not seem to apply this across the board. I still see plenty of “thin” location pages for various queries.

So what can you do? It’s the same challenge every other SEO has.

Look at what type of content is doing best for a particular query type and create a better page. Let’s face it: when it comes to location pages, the bar is pretty low.

Only Create Pages When There Is Clear Local Intent

We just finished up a project for an attorney with practices in 30+ cities. They have 54 practice areas and have created location + practice pages for each. That’s 1,620+ pages for Google to figure out.

The first thing we did was to determine how much “local intent” there was for search results for each practice area.

“Local intent” can be determined by what % of a SERP has “local” content (e.g., Local Packs, cities or states in the titles, suggested or related searches, etc.).

You don’t need a location page for a query with relatively low local intent. This particular attorney had 300+ location pages targeting queries that had no local intent.

In these cases, it would be better for SEO to redirect these pages to a single “national” service page.

So before you invest a lot in creating location pages, check for local intent first. It might save you a lot of time and cash.

I could keep going.

These deceptively simple pages have near-infinite possibilities for SEO, but my guess is that if you have made it this far, you now have plenty of JIRA tickets to prioritize.

Gunga galunga.

Special thanks to Carrie Hill, Amy Toman, Mike Blumenthal, Joy Hawkins, Brandon Schmidt, and Will Scott for providing feedback.

Special thanks to the LSG team for yelling at me like they were my mother when I was procrastinating while writing this article.

More resources:


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AI Domain Name Generator & AI Writer Announced by Web.com

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AI Domain Name Generator & AI Writer Announced by Web.com

Web.com, the all in one web services destination, announced two new AI-based tools that help users choose a domain name and provide content ideas.

While the AI Writer tool is for customers, use of the AI Domain Name Generator is free and available for anyone to use without having to sign up for anything.

Web.com AI Tools

Web.com is a provider of hosting, domain, website building, SEO, security and email services.

It’s also an ecommerce platform, essentially a one-stop destination for everything needed to launch a website.

So it’s a natural fit to introduce an AI-based tool that helps customers at the beginning of their website journey when choosing a domain name.

Content ideas for product descriptions, article excerpts, and content for blogs is also a useful addition that should help their users leverage OpenAI technology.

AI Writer

Web.com’s AI writer is a tool that’s exclusively for their customers.

The tool works with an easy to use step by step interface.

First a user selects the the type of content that is needed and then it prompts selections for contextually relevant options like important keywords or the tone of the content.

It creates the following kinds of content:

  • Article
  • Landing page
  • Meta descriptions
  • Meta titles
  • PPC ad
  • Product description
  • Product details page
  • Services page
  • Social post
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The AI writer also works in the following twelve languages:

  • Arabic
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Hindi
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Mandarin
  • Polish
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Ukrainian

I asked Web.com if the tool can automatically insert product descriptions and meta descriptions.

They answered:

“Not yet, the in-product AI Writer feature generates the copy for you, you can customize it to your liking and then you copy and paste it.

However, that kind of integration within the website builder will be coming in the next phase of the product.”

This is how the tool works:

“It was developed for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking for an easy way to create content for their websites, social pages, blogs, product descriptions, and digital marketing campaigns without having to write it themselves.

The AI-powered tool offers a variety of content prompts and interfaces depending on content needs, making it easy to tailor content to specific needs (e.g., emojis for social posts).

Other customizable elements include design tones, keywords, and multilingual content generation in over 10 languages, including English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin, so creators can create websites even in a language they aren’t fluent in.”

The AI Writer tool is based on OpenAI, so it’s a convenient way for customers to access these tools within their workflow.

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AI Domain Name Generator

The AI domain name generator is a public tool that helps users brainstorm domain name ideas.

It leverages OpenAI technology so anyone familiar with prompting ChatGPT will immediately feel comfortable using this tool.

But the tool is so easy to use that someone who is new to generative AI should be able to use it.

What makes this tool interesting is that the AI domain name generator is open for use by anyone, you don’t have to be registered user or customer to take advantage of it.

I gave it a try and by describing the kind of business the domain name is for and it generated some pretty good keyword-based domain names.

My preference tends toward brand name domains.

So I updated the prompt by adding, “Don’t use keywords for the domain name but rather give me an evocative brand name.”

And it worked!

Web.com described their tool:

“Traditionally brainstorming and manually searching for available domain names can be time-consuming and labor-intensive.

By combining AI with our expertise and experience as one of the largest domain name providers in the world, Web.com offers small businesses a more efficient, creative and tailored approach to finding the best available and relevant domain names.

A customer can provide a few words to describe their business, and the AI-powered Domain Name Generator gives the best ideas on domain names, significantly reducing the time and effort required to find a relevant domain name.”

The AI domain name generator is available here.

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