SEO
SEO and The Pandemic: Adapt Your Marketing During COVID-19
While some brands have had to put little to no effort into SEO marketing throughout the Coronavirus, others have had to readjust some, if not all, of their content to be able to reach even a minuscule amount of customers to their eCommerce sites. For example, the grocery industry has had an overbearing amount of consumers flocking to their stores and online sites, as highly searched phases during the peak of the pandemic were already embedded into the field’s content. This industry had had search terms such as hygienic items, disinfectant, hand sanitizer weaved into their sites’ content, as opposed to retail brands that have had no initial need for these terms or even have the inventory, as it doesn’t relate to their targeted consumer needs and overall business purpose.
All sorts of industries have had to redirect their content to a pandemic focused marketing approach but as time carries on, brands begin to wonder of the importance of SEO during COVID-19.
Managing SEO In Crisis
As mentioned previously, stores that revolved around selling essentials have ultimately come to a halt with their SEO efforts as this industry is already having a hard time keeping up with customers’ needs and inventory. The health and wellness field specifically has also seen a surge with people in need of these necessities, as well, with people in need of medicine, vitamins, supplements, etc.
In contrast, the brands that should be focusing on their pandemic strategies and how to better manage SEO during the crisis include fashion and beauty, travel and hospitality, and restaurants. While these sectors have previously looked at materialistic and entertainment-focused content, they’ve never had to think of incorporating terms and phrases related to crises into their messaging.
So, answering the question: should you pause SEO during COVID-19? The answer will depend on how successful or in-need of business your brand is.
SEO Tips During The Pandemic
Especially important for SMB’s that may have been having a hard time gaining an audience on their online platforms, SEO during coronavirus, and after, will be crucial for the success of the business. For your own company, SEO is a great way to adapt your marketing during COVID-19. Below are several tips your business can consider:
Shift Your Content: Without having to start over with all of your content to cater to more pandemic-related SEO terms, using existing content may be a smart approach your business can easily accomplish. This can be as easy as changing product and service descriptions or adding an extra sentence or two related to the current situation at hand. Overall, this will help your SMB extend its reach and search result ranking.
Think Long-Term: Your company should be thinking long-term when it comes to the use of SEO. This is a time where your brand should be researching different keywords and phrases that are growing in popularity and not just of seasonal use. For example, adding the keyword “masks” with inventory will likely have longevity compared to the keyword “fall outfits” which by next season will no longer have the same popularity. Your business should also keep in mind that not only pandemic-related content will have longevity, so performing research and finding phrases that already relate to your business’s content will help with extending reach, as well.
Research: Your business should be performing keyword research often and staying updated on keywords that have steady popularity throughout several months. The more of these keywords and phrases your company implements into its content, the longer your brand’s searchability is likely to remain. Your eCommerce site should also be looking for words that are rising in popularity as this is a great way to improve the ranking of your platform before competitors.
Post-COVID SEO: Post-pandemic keywords and phrases should be integrated into your content as consumers are looking for answers past the current chaos everyone is dealing with. Your business should consider adding keywords that will help confirm the customer’s hope for the future, as well as show empathy during the current times.
Additional Offerings: Offering new services to consumers is a great way to attract people to your online business. Along with these new offerings should come along SEO-keywords that relate to your services. For example, restaurants moving online in crisis periods may want to add keywords and phrases, such as “curbside pick-up” to attract customers to your website. Retail brands could add phrases such as, “buy-online-pick-up-in-store or BOPIS” to reach new consumers and help with sales.
All industries should be aware of the importance of SEO during COVID-19 as this will affect everyone. These tips are especially useful for SMBs and the sectors that have been impacted hard in response to the chaos caused by COVID-19, however the industries that solely offer essentials may also need to reconsider the use of SEO-friendly content, and possibly work on restocking inventory and other issues at hand.
Key TakeAways
The pandemic has ultimately led to immense changes with SEO-content. All industries should have this as a priority, whether companies are flourishing with their reach using SEO keywords and phrases or having to find ways to incorporate this strategy into their business plans. From the article, businesses can learn the following:
● Companies should consider pausing SEO-growth if their eCommerce site already has a solid reach. This should be a time where a business can focus on inventory and restocking, instead.
● Businesses should be thinking long term when creating an SEO strategy.
● eCommerce companies should be doing in-depth research on the longevity and popularity of SEO keywords and phrases before integrating anything within their content.
● Pandemic related content should be integrated throughout an eCommerce site and its platforms to help reach its consumers in an empathic manner.
● Instead of a business changing all of its content to better reach consumers, companies can work with existing content and alter it slightly to include SEO keywords and phrases.
● Companies should keep away from keywords and phrases that fluctuate in popularity or have a constant decreases in searches.
Overall, SEO will continue to have a large impact on the future of businesses’ success, meaning all industries should be prioritising this within their marketing strategies.
About Author:
Hannah O’Brien is a passionate content writer, she writes for creative agency Appnova, which specializes in luxury branding, bespoke digital marketing strategies and ecommerce solutions.
SEO
YouTube Extends Shorts To 3 Minutes, Adds New Features
YouTube expands Shorts to 3 minutes, adds templates, AI tools, and the option to show fewer Shorts on the homepage.
- YouTube Shorts will allow 3-minute videos.
- New features include templates, enhanced remixing, and AI-generated video backgrounds.
- YouTube is adding a Shorts trends page and comment previews.
SEO
How To Stop Filter Results From Eating Crawl Budget
Today’s Ask An SEO question comes from Michal in Bratislava, who asks:
“I have a client who has a website with filters based on a map locations. When the visitor makes a move on the map, a new URL with filters is created. They are not in the sitemap. However, there are over 700,000 URLs in the Search Console (not indexed) and eating crawl budget.
What would be the best way to get rid of these URLs? My idea is keep the base location ‘index, follow’ and newly created URLs of surrounded area with filters switch to ‘noindex, no follow’. Also mark surrounded areas with canonicals to the base location + disavow the unwanted links.”
Great question, Michal, and good news! The answer is an easy one to implement.
First, let’s look at what you’re trying and apply it to other situations like ecommerce and publishers. This way, more people can benefit. Then, go into your strategies above and end with the solution.
What Crawl Budget Is And How Parameters Are Created That Waste It
If you’re not sure what Michal is referring to with crawl budget, this is a term some SEO pros use to explain that Google and other search engines will only crawl so many pages on your website before it stops.
If your crawl budget is used on low-value, thin, or non-indexable pages, your good pages and new pages may not be found in a crawl.
If they’re not found, they may not get indexed or refreshed. If they’re not indexed, they cannot bring you SEO traffic.
This is why optimizing a crawl budget for efficiency is important.
Michal shared an example of how “thin” URLs from an SEO point of view are created as customers use filters.
The experience for the user is value-adding, but from an SEO standpoint, a location-based page would be better. This applies to ecommerce and publishers, too.
Ecommerce stores will have searches for colors like red or green and products like t-shirts and potato chips.
These create URLs with parameters just like a filter search for locations. They could also be created by using filters for size, gender, color, price, variation, compatibility, etc. in the shopping process.
The filtered results help the end user but compete directly with the collection page, and the collection would be the “non-thin” version.
Publishers have the same. Someone might be on SEJ looking for SEO or PPC in the search box and get a filtered result. The filtered result will have articles, but the category of the publication is likely the best result for a search engine.
These filtered results can be indexed because they get shared on social media or someone adds them as a comment on a blog or forum, creating a crawlable backlink. It might also be an employee in customer service responded to a question on the company blog or any other number of ways.
The goal now is to make sure search engines don’t spend time crawling the “thin” versions so you can get the most from your crawl budget.
The Difference Between Indexing And Crawling
There’s one more thing to learn before we go into the proposed ideas and solutions – the difference between indexing and crawling.
- Crawling is the discovery of new pages within a website.
- Indexing is adding the pages that are worthy of showing to a person using the search engine to the database of pages.
Pages can get crawled but not indexed. Indexed pages have likely been crawled and will likely get crawled again to look for updates and server responses.
But not all indexed pages will bring in traffic or hit the first page because they may not be the best possible answer for queries being searched.
Now, let’s go into making efficient use of crawl budgets for these types of solutions.
Using Meta Robots Or X Robots
The first solution Michal pointed out was an “index,follow” directive. This tells a search engine to index the page and follow the links on it. This is a good idea, but only if the filtered result is the ideal experience.
From what I can see, this would not be the case, so I would recommend making it “noindex,follow.”
Noindex would say, “This is not an official page, but hey, keep crawling my site, you’ll find good pages in here.”
And if you have your main menu and navigational internal links done correctly, the spider will hopefully keep crawling them.
Canonicals To Solve Wasted Crawl Budget
Canonical links are used to help search engines know what the official page to index is.
If a product exists in three categories on three separate URLs, only one should be “the official” version, so the two duplicates should have a canonical pointing to the official version. The official one should have a canonical link that points to itself. This applies to the filtered locations.
If the location search would result in multiple city or neighborhood pages, the result would likely be a duplicate of the official one you have in your sitemap.
Have the filtered results point a canonical back to the main page of filtering instead of being self-referencing if the content on the page stays the same as the original category.
If the content pulls in your localized page with the same locations, point the canonical to that page instead.
In most cases, the filtered version inherits the page you searched or filtered from, so that is where the canonical should point to.
If you do both noindex and have a self-referencing canonical, which is overkill, it becomes a conflicting signal.
The same applies to when someone searches for a product by name on your website. The search result may compete with the actual product or service page.
With this solution, you’re telling the spider not to index this page because it isn’t worth indexing, but it is also the official version. It doesn’t make sense to do this.
Instead, use a canonical link, as I mentioned above, or noindex the result and point the canonical to the official version.
Disavow To Increase Crawl Efficiency
Disavowing doesn’t have anything to do with crawl efficiency unless the search engine spiders are finding your “thin” pages through spammy backlinks.
The disavow tool from Google is a way to say, “Hey, these backlinks are spammy, and we don’t want them to hurt us. Please don’t count them towards our site’s authority.”
In most cases, it doesn’t matter, as Google is good at detecting spammy links and ignoring them.
You do not want to add your own site and your own URLs to the disavow tool. You’re telling Google your own site is spammy and not worth anything.
Plus, submitting backlinks to disavow won’t prevent a spider from seeing what you want and do not want to be crawled, as it is only for saying a link from another site is spammy.
Disavowing won’t help with crawl efficiency or saving crawl budget.
How To Make Crawl Budgets More Efficient
The answer is robots.txt. This is how you tell specific search engines and spiders what to crawl.
You can include the folders you want them to crawl by marketing them as “allow,” and you can say “disallow” on filtered results by disallowing the “?” or “&” symbol or whichever you use.
If some of those parameters should be crawled, add the main word like “?filter=location” or a specific parameter.
Robots.txt is how you define crawl paths and work on crawl efficiency. Once you’ve optimized that, look at your internal links. A link from one page on your site to another.
These help spiders find your most important pages while learning what each is about.
Internal links include:
- Breadcrumbs.
- Menu navigation.
- Links within content to other pages.
- Sub-category menus.
- Footer links.
You can also use a sitemap if you have a large site, and the spiders are not finding the pages you want with priority.
I hope this helps answer your question. It is one I get a lot – you’re not the only one stuck in that situation.
More resources:
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
SEO
Ad Copy Tactics Backed By Study Of Over 1 Million Google Ads
Mastering effective ad copy is crucial for achieving success with Google Ads.
Yet, the PPC landscape can make it challenging to discern which optimization techniques truly yield results.
Although various perspectives exist on optimizing ads, few are substantiated by comprehensive data. A recent study from Optmyzr attempted to address this.
The goal isn’t to promote or dissuade any specific method but to provide a clearer understanding of how different creative decisions impact your campaigns.
Use the data to help you identify higher profit probability opportunities.
Methodology And Data Scope
The Optmyzr study analyzed data from over 22,000 Google Ads accounts that have been active for at least 90 days with a minimum monthly spend of $1,500.
Across more than a million ads, we assessed Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), Expanded Text Ads (ETAs), and Demand Gen campaigns. Due to API limitations, we could not retrieve asset-level data for Performance Max campaigns.
Additionally, all monetary figures were converted to USD to standardize comparisons.
Key Questions Explored
To provide actionable insights, we focused on addressing the following questions:
- Is there a correlation between Ad Strength and performance?
- How do pinning assets impact ad performance?
- Do ads written in title case or sentence case perform better?
- How does creative length affect ad performance?
- Can ETA strategies effectively translate to RSAs and Demand Gen ads?
As we evaluated the results, it’s important to note that our data set represents advanced marketers.
This means there may be selection bias, and these insights might differ in a broader advertiser pool with varying levels of experience.
The Relationship Between Ad Strength And Performance
Google explicitly states that Ad Strength is a tool designed to guide ad optimization rather than act as a ranking factor.
Despite this, marketers often hold mixed opinions about its usefulness, as its role in ad performance appears inconsistent.
Our data corroborates this skepticism. Ads labeled with an “average” Ad Strength score outperformed those with “good” or “excellent” scores in key metrics like CPA, conversion rate, and ROAS.
This disparity is particularly evident in RSAs, where the ROAS tends to decrease sharply when moving from “average” to “good,” with only a marginal increase when advancing to “excellent.”
Interestingly, Demand Gen ads also showed a stronger performance with an “average” Ad Strength, except for ROAS.
The metrics for conversion rates in Demand Gen and RSAs were notably similar, which is surprising since Demand Gen ads are typically designed for awareness, while RSAs focus on driving transactions.
Key Takeaways:
- Ad Strength doesn’t reliably correlate with performance, so it shouldn’t be a primary metric for assessing your ads.
- Most ads with “poor” or “average” Ad Strength labels perform well by standard advertising KPIs.
- “Good” or “excellent” Ad Strength labels do not guarantee better performance.
How Does Pinning Affect Ad Performance?
Pinning refers to locking specific assets like headlines or descriptions in fixed positions within the ad. This technique became common with RSAs, but there’s ongoing debate about its efficacy.
Some advertisers advocate for pinning all assets to replicate the control offered by ETAs, while others prefer to let Google optimize placements automatically.
Our data suggests that pinning some, but not all, assets offers the most balanced results in terms of CPA, ROAS, and CPC. However, ads where all assets are pinned achieve the highest relevance in terms of CTR.
Still, this marginally higher CTR doesn’t necessarily translate into better conversion metrics. Ads with unpinned or partially pinned assets generally perform better in terms of conversion rates and cost-based metrics.
Key Takeaways:
- Selective pinning is optimal, offering a good balance between creative control and automation.
- Fully pinned ads may increase CTR but tend to underperform in metrics like CPA and ROAS.
- Advertisers should embrace RSAs, as they consistently outperform ETAs – even with fully pinned assets.
Title Case Vs. Sentence Case: Which Performs Better?
The choice between title case (“This Is a Title Case Sentence”) and sentence case (“This is a sentence case sentence”) is often a point of contention among advertisers.
Our analysis revealed a clear trend: Ads using sentence case generally outperformed those in title case, particularly in RSAs and Demand Gen campaigns.
(RSA Data)
(ETA Data)
(Demand Gen)
ROAS, in particular, showed a marked preference for sentence case across these ad types, suggesting that a more natural, conversational tone may resonate better with users.
Interestingly, many advertisers still use a mix of title and sentence case within the same account, which counters the traditional approach of maintaining consistency throughout the ad copy.
Key Takeaways:
- Sentence case outperforms title case in RSAs and Demand Gen ads on most KPIs.
- Including sentence case ads in your testing can improve performance, as it aligns more closely with organic results, which users perceive as higher quality.
- Although ETAs perform slightly better with title case, sentence case is increasingly the preferred choice in modern ad formats.
The Impact Of Ad Length On Performance
Ad copy, particularly for Google Ads, requires brevity without sacrificing impact.
We analyzed the effects of character count on ad performance, grouping ads by the length of headlines and descriptions.
(RSA Data)
(ETA Data)
(Demand Gen Data)
Interestingly, shorter headlines tend to outperform longer ones in CTR and conversion rates, while descriptions benefit from moderate length.
Ads that tried to maximize character counts by using dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) or customizers often saw no significant performance improvement.
Moreover, applying ETA strategies to RSAs proved largely ineffective.
In almost all cases, advertisers who carried over ETA tactics to RSAs saw a decline in performance, likely because of how Google dynamically assembles ad components for display.
Key Takeaways:
- Shorter headlines lead to better performance, especially in RSAs.
- Focus on concise, impactful messaging instead of trying to fill every available character.
- ETA tactics do not translate well to RSAs, and attempting to replicate them can hurt performance.
Final Thoughts On Ad Optimizations
In summary, several key insights emerge from this analysis.
First, Ad Strength should not be your primary focus when assessing performance. Instead, concentrate on creating relevant, engaging ad copy tailored to your target audience.
Additionally, pinning assets should be a strategic, creative decision rather than a hard rule, and advertisers should incorporate sentence case into their testing for RSAs and Demand Gen ads.
Finally, focus on quality over quantity in ad copy length, as longer ads do not always equate to better results.
By refining these elements of your ads, you can drive better ROI and adapt to the evolving landscape of Google Ads.
Read the full Ad Strength & Creative Study from Optmyzr.
More resources:
Featured Image: Sammby/Shutterstock
-
SEO7 days ago
How to Estimate It and Source Data
-
SEO6 days ago
Yoast Co-Founder Suggests A WordPress Contributor Board
-
SEO5 days ago
6 Things You Can Do to Compete With Big Sites
-
WORDPRESS2 days ago
WordPress biz Automattic details WP Engine deal demands • The Register
-
SEARCHENGINES4 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 30, 2024
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days ago
Google’s 26th Birthday Doodle Is Missing
-
SEO7 days ago
9 Successful PR Campaign Examples, According to the Data
-
SEARCHENGINES5 days ago
Google Volatility With Gains & Losses, Updated Web Spam Policies, Cache Gone & More Search News