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Which One Is Best For You?

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Which One Is Best For You?

Back in October 2013, Snapchat made a big update to their platform with the addition of Stories.

Due to the success Snapchat was having, Facebook made a move to purchase the platform. But ultimately, the $3 billion offer was turned down by Snapchat’s founder and CEO, Evan Spiegel.

In an effort to compete, Facebook launched its own version of Stories through Instagram in August of 2016.

The Snapchat versus Instagram Stories debate was officially off to the races.

Brands and creators found themselves wondering which platform they should be posting on – Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories, or both?

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Even now, many still have this same question.

What Are Snapchat & Instagram Stories?

Overall, the premise for Snapchat Stories and Instagram Stories is the same.

Stories on each platform are comprised of pictures and videos that expire after 24 hours.

Disappearing content creates that fear of missing out (FOMO) and a sense of urgency, prompting people to check back often for new content.

When it first launched, Instagram Stories was bare bones.

It took some time before they had a large library of filters, stickers, and GIFs that competed with what Snapchat already had.

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Fast forward to 2021, and their features are mostly the same because whenever one platform adds something new, the other seems to follow suit.

How To Choose The Right Platform For You

So, how do you decide which one to use when they’re so similar? Well, there are two key questions to ask yourself before committing to one or the other.

Here’s what you need to figure out.

1. Where Is Your Audience Spending Their Time?

The key to succeeding on social media is to be and create content where your audience is hanging out.

Otherwise, you’ll be creating content for all the wrong people.

And what’s the point in that?

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Figure out if your audience is more likely to use Snapchat Stories or Instagram Stories.

Factoring in each platform’s demographics will help you out with this. Another option is to simply ask them.

Send out a survey to get to know your audience better and ask which social media platforms they use the most.

Post a LinkedIn or Twitter poll survey.

That’ll tell you where you need to be!

2. Which Platform Will Play To My Strengths?

One thing that a lot of people don’t consider when choosing which social media platforms will be part of their strategy is how they can play to their strengths.

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Some platforms favor certain types of content and styles over others.

Because Snapchat and Instagram Stories are so similar, look at the features each platform offers to determine which one will be the best for you.

Have fun, play around, and experiment.

If one clearly sticks out as playing more to your strengths, pick that one.

Now, let’s talk about each individual platform and some of the benefits each one has to offer.

The Case For Snapchat Stories

Snapchat paved the way for the platforms that now offer Stories that expire in 24 hours.

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After Snapchat led the way, Instagram, Facebook, and even Twitter all created their own versions of this in an effort to compete with the social networking giant.

Even though Snapchat is still performing well according to the data, it does seem to be faltering a bit when compared to its competitors.

As of late 2020, Snapchat had 530 million monthly active users around the world as of April 2021 with over 210 million “snaps” being created on the platform every day.

Snapchat’s users are 58% female and 40% male. The largest age group on the platform is 13–34, making up 75% of the Snapchat community.

Although it seems like it isn’t talked about as much, Snapchat did see significant growth over the course of 2020.

Screenshots taken by author

Before you start recording new content with Snapchat, you have the ability to add lenses (or filters).

You can also set a timer to make filming easier or add music ahead of time to sync your content to a chosen song.

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On Instagram, you can’t add music until the editing stage. Snapchat provides you with access to a variety of popular songs and access to your own custom sounds.

To brighten up and add to your Stories, there are plenty of playful stickers to choose from.

Here are some benefits of Snapchat Stories:

It’ll help you connect with your younger audience.

If you’re trying to reach those who are on the younger range of your target demographic, they’re likely on Snapchat.

By being active there, you have plenty of opportunities to show your brand’s human, playful side and form new connections.

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There’s less competition.

Many brands appear to have moved away from Snapchat in favor of Instagram Stories, but that doesn’t mean you should abandon it, too.

This simply means you have less competition and could use the app to stand out from others in your industry.

Geofilters help you reach local audiences.

Snapchat allows users to create custom geofilters that can be placed as decorations on top of Story posts.

It’s a great way to draw attention to local, brick and mortar businesses and events in the area.

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Plus, people can find you on the Snap Map and watch your Stories, again helping to generate more exposure.

The reality is, Snapchat is still thriving.

And if your competitors aren’t active on the platform, this is your opportunity to jump on board and start connecting with your target audience.

Sharing fun, creative content will help you attract people and build the all-important Know, Like, and Trust Factor.

The Case For Instagram Stories

Over 1 billion people use Instagram every month, making it the sixth most popular network just behind Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat.

Instagram reaches 140 million users in the United States.

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And in 2020, users spent an average of 30 minutes per day using Instagram.

In terms of demographics, females make up 57% of Instagram’s users, while males make up 43%. The largest age group actively using Instagram are those aged 25–34.

But what about Stories? Well, 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day, with Stories from brands seeing an 86% completion rate.

Those stats make it an Instagram feature you’ll want to take advantage of since the average user is watching brand Stories and even making purchases from there.

Instagram stories.Screenshots taken by author

In the screenshots above, you can see some of the features that Instagram Stories has to offer when creating content.

Before you start filming, you can choose different modes like Boomerang, Layout, Hands-Free, and Photo Booth.

You can use also pre-made templates (found under the “Create” option) like the “Quick Draw Challenge” to have a little fun with your followers.

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When editing, you can add stickers, a timestamp, the temperature, and even GIFs.

Here are some highlights of Instagram Stories:

They’re part of a bigger platform.

On Instagram, there are so many ways you can create permanent content. You can publish photos or videos to your feed and upload videos to IGTV or Reels.

Instagram Stories are able to complement everything else you share without all of your hard work disappearing in 24 hours.

The stories feed promotes recent posts.

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You’ve probably noticed that Instagram puts the Stories of those you watch often at the front of the list.

However, you’re also seeing them based on timeliness, as in how recent the posts are. You can generate more views when you’re front and center.

Stories are great for instant feedback.

Getting to know your audience can shape your content strategy not just on social media, but for your blog, YouTube, and your podcast.

Adding a poll, quiz, questions box, or slider can help you get feedback.

Don’t forget to check your analytics too to learn more about your followers. That’s something Snapchat lacks.

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Overall, most brands already have a built-in audience on Instagram. That means they don’t need to start all over with building an audience from scratch on another platform.

If you’re already using it as part of your strategy, it’s worthwhile to share a few Stories throughout the day.

Which One Deserves Your Attention?

The battle of Snapchat versus Instagram Stories really comes down to where your audience spends the most time.

Sharing content on social media isn’t going to do you much good if you aren’t reaching your desired audience.

So, where are they really spending their time? And where are they most likely to watch and engage with your content?

If you see the value in using both platforms, the good news is that you could easily cross-post content.

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For instance, you could film content in Snapchat (taking advantage of their better video editing options), save it to your camera roll, and then upload it to Instagram.

This way, you can be on Snapchat and Instagram Stories without having to do twice the work.

Give both Stories features a go and see how they work for you!

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Featured Image: Eugenio Marongiu/Shutterstock




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Content Pruning: Why It Works, and How to Do It

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Content Pruning: Why It Works, and How to Do It

Content pruning sounds pretty appealing: delete a ton of content and see your organic traffic improve. But pruning has risks (like deleting useful pages and useful backlinks), and benefits are not guaranteed: So how does pruning actually work? And when

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8 Free SEO Reporting Tools

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8 Free SEO Reporting Tools

There’s no shortage of SEO reporting tools to choose from—but what are the core tools you need to put together an SEO report?

In this article, I’ll share eight of my favorite SEO reporting tools to help you create a comprehensive SEO report for free.

Price: Free

Google Search Console, often called GSC, is one of the most widely used tools to track important SEO metrics from Google Search.

Most common reporting use case

GSC has a ton of data to dive into, but the main performance indicator SEOs look at first in GSC is Clicks on the main Overview dashboard.

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As the data is from Google, SEOs consider it to be a good barometer for tracking organic search performance. As well as clicks data, you can also track the following from the Performance report:

  • Total Impressions
  • Average CTR
  • Average Position
gsc-performance-overviewgsc-performance-overview

Tip

If you’ve signed up for AWT using Google Search Console, you can view your GSC performance data in Ahrefs by clicking “GSC Performance” from the main dashboard.

But for most SEO reporting, GSC clicks data is exported into a spreadsheet and turned into a chart to visualize year-over-year performance.

organic-traffic-graph-showing-clicks-year-over-yearorganic-traffic-graph-showing-clicks-year-over-year

Favorite feature

One of my favorite reports in GSC is the Indexing report. It’s useful for SEO reporting because you can share the indexed to non-indexed pages ratio in your SEO report.

google-search-console-indexed-pages-reportgoogle-search-console-indexed-pages-report

If the website has a lot of non-indexed pages, then it’s worth reviewing the pages to understand why they haven’t been indexed.

Price: Free

Google Looker Studio (GLS), previously known as Google Data Studio (GDS), is a free tool that helps visualize data in shareable dashboards.

Most common reporting use case

Dashboards are an important part of SEO reporting, and GLS allows you to get a total view of search performance from multiple sources through its integrations.

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Out of the box, GLS allows you to connect to many different data sources.

Such as:

  • Marketing products – Google Ads, Google Analytics, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360
  • Consumer products – Google Sheets, YouTube, and Google Search Console
  • Databases – BigQuery, MySQL, and PostgreSQL
  • Social media platformsFacebook, Reddit, and Twitter
  • Files – CSV file upload and Google Cloud Storage

Sidenote.

If you don’t have the time to create your own report manually, Ahrefs has three Google Looker Studio connectors that can help you create automated SEO reporting for any website in a few clicks

google-looker-studio-partner-connectorsgoogle-looker-studio-partner-connectors

Here’s what a dashboard in GLS looks like:

ahrefs-seo-audit-dashboardahrefs-seo-audit-dashboard
Ahrefs Google Looker Studio integration

With this type of dashboard, you share reports that are easy to understand with clients or other stakeholders.

Favorite feature

The ability to blend and filter data from different sources, like GA and GSC, means you can get a customized overview of your total search performance, tailored to your website.

Price: Free for 500 URLs

Screaming Frog is a website crawler that helps you audit your website.

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Screaming Frog’s free version of its crawler is perfect if you want to run a quick audit on a bunch of URLs. The free version is limited to 500 URLs—making it ideal for crawling smaller websites.

screaming-frog-user-interface-screenshotscreaming-frog-user-interface-screenshot

Most common reporting use case

When it comes to reporting, the Reports menu in Screaming Frog SEO Spider has a wealth of information you can look over that covers all the technical aspects of your website, such as analyzing, redirects, canonicals, pagination, hreflang, structured data, and more.

Once you’ve crawled your site, it’s just a matter of downloading the reports you need and working out the main issues to summarize in your SEO report.

Favorite feature

Screaming Frog can pull in data from other tools, including Ahrefs, using APIs. 

If you already had access to a few SEO tools’ APIs, you could pull data from all of them directly into Screaming Frog. This is useful if you want to combine crawl data with performance data or other 3rd party tools.

screaming-frog-api-accessscreaming-frog-api-access

Even if you’ve never configured an API, connecting other tools to Screaming Frog is straightforward.

Price: Free

Ahrefs has a large selection of free SEO tools to help you at every stage of your SEO campaign, and many of these can be used to provide insights for your SEO reporting.

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when-to-use-ahrefs-free-tools-across-the-seo-process-illustrationwhen-to-use-ahrefs-free-tools-across-the-seo-process-illustration

For example, you could use our:

Most common reporting use case

One of our most popular free SEO tools is Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT), which you can use for your SEO reporting.

With AWT, you can:

  • Monitor your SEO health over time by setting up scheduled SEO audits
  • See the performance of your website
  • Check all known backlinks for your website
ahrefs-overviewahrefs-overview

Favorite feature

Of all the Ahrefs free tools, my favorite is AWT. Within it, site auditing is my favorite feature—once you’ve set it up, it’s a completely hands-free way to keep track of your website’s technical performance and monitor its health.

If you already have access to Google Search Console, it’s a no-brainer to set up a free AWT account and schedule a technical crawl of your website(s).

Price: Free

Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar is a free Chrome and Firefox extension useful for diagnosing on-page technical issues and performing quick spot checks on your website’s pages.

Most common reporting use case

For SEO reporting, it’s useful to run an on-page check on your website’s top pages to ensure there aren’t any serious on-page issues.

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ahrefs-seo-toolbar-overviewahrefs-seo-toolbar-overview

With the free version, you get the following features:

  • On-page SEO report
  • Redirect tracer with HTTP Headers
  • Outgoing links report with link highlighter and broken link checker
  • SERP positions
  • Country changer for SERP

The SEO toolbar is excellent for spot-checking issues with pages on your website. If you are not confident with inspecting the code, it can also give you valuable pointers on what elements you need to include on your pages to make them search-friendly.

If anything is wrong with the page, the toolbar highlights it, with red indicating a critical issue.

severity-highlight-ahrefs-seo-toolbarseverity-highlight-ahrefs-seo-toolbar

Favorite feature

The section I use the most frequently in the SEO toolbar is the Indexability tab. In this section, you can see whether the page can be crawled and indexed by Google.

indexability-tab-ahrefs-seo-toolbarindexability-tab-ahrefs-seo-toolbar

Although you can do this by inspecting the code manually, using the toolbar is much faster.

Price: Free

Like GSC, Google Analytics is another tool you can use to track the performance of your website, tracking sessions and conversions and much more on your website.

google-analytics-screenshotgoogle-analytics-screenshot

Most common reporting use case

GA gives you a total view of website traffic from several different sources, such as direct, social, organic, paid traffic, and more.

Favorite feature

You can create and track up to 300 events and 30 conversions with GA4. Previously, with universal analytics, you could only track 20 conversions. This makes conversion and event tracking easier within GA4.

Price: Free

Google Slides is Google’s version of Microsoft PowerPoint. If you don’t have a dashboard set up to report on your SEO performance, the next best thing is to assemble a slide deck.

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Many SEO agencies present their report through dashboard insights and PowerPoint presentations. However, if you don’t have access to PowerPoint, then Google Slides is an excellent (free) alternative.

google-slides-screenshotgoogle-slides-screenshot

Most common reporting use cases

The most common use of Google Slides is to create a monthly SEO report. If you don’t know what to include in a monthly report, use our SEO report template.

Favorite feature

One of my favorite features is the ability to share your presentation on a video chat directly from Google Slides. You can do this by clicking the camera icon in the top right.

share-video-chat-google-slidesshare-video-chat-google-slides

This is useful if you are working with remote clients and makes sharing your reports easy.

Price: Free

Google Trends allows you to view a keyword’s popularity over time in any country. The data shown is the relative popularity ratio scaled from 0-100, not the direct volume of search queries.

Most common reporting use cases

Google Trends is useful for showing how the popularity of certain searches can increase or decrease over time. If you work with a website that often has trending products, services, or news, it can be useful to illustrate this visually in your SEO report.

Google Trends makes it easy to spot seasonal trends for product categories. For example, people want to buy BBQs when the weather is sunny.

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Using Google Trends, we can see that peak demand for BBQs usually happens in June-July every year.

bbq-google-trends-graphbbq-google-trends-graph

Using this data across the last five years, we could be fairly sure when the BBQ season would start and end.

Favorite feature

Comparing two or more search terms against each other over time is one of my favorite uses of Google Trends, as it can be used to tell its own story.

google-trends-comparison-examplegoogle-trends-comparison-example

Embellishing your report with trends data allows you to gain further insights into market trends.

You can even dig into trends at a regional level if you need to.

regional-trends-via-google-trendsregional-trends-via-google-trends

Final thoughts

These free tools will help you put together the foundations for a well-rounded SEO report.

The tools you use for SEO reporting don’t always have to be expensive—even large companies use many of the free tools mentioned to create insights for their client’s SEO reports.

Got more questions? Ping me on X 🙂

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Study Reveals Potential Disruption For Brands & SEO

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Study Reveals Potential Disruption For Brands & SEO

A new study by Authoritas suggests that Google’s AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE), currently being tested with a limited group of users, could adversely impact brand visibility and organic search traffic.

These findings include:

  • When an SGE box is expanded, the top organic result drops by over 1,200 pixels on average, significantly reducing visibility.
  • 62% of SGE links come from domains outside the top 10 organic results.
  • Ecommerce, electronics, and fashion-related searches saw the greatest disruption, though all verticals were somewhat impacted.

Adapting to generative search may require a shift in SEO strategies, focusing more on long-form content, expert insights, and multimedia formats.

As Google continues to invest in AI-powered search, the Authoritas study provides an early look at the potential challenges and opportunities ahead.

High Penetration Rate & Industry-Wide Effects

The study analyzed 2,900 brand and product-related keywords across 15 industry verticals and found that Google displays SGE results for 91.4% of all search queries.

The prevalence of SGE results indicates they impact a majority of websites across various industries.

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The research analyzed the typical composition of SGE results. On average, each SGE element contained between 10-11 links sourced from an average of four different domains.

This indicates brands may need to earn multiple links and listings within these AI-curated results to maintain visibility and traffic.

The research also suggests that larger, well-established websites like Quora and Reddit will likely perform better in SGE results than smaller websites and lesser-known brands.

Shifting Dynamics In Organic Search Results

With SGE results occupying the entire first page, websites that currently hold the top positions may experience a significant decrease in traffic and click-through rates.

When a user clicks to expand the SGE element, the study found that, on average, the #1 ranked organic result drops a sizeable 1,255 pixels down the page.

Even if a website ranks number one in organic search, it may effectively be pushed down to the second page due to the prominence of SGE results.

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New Competition From Unexpected Sources

The study revealed that SGE frequently surfaces links and content from websites that didn’t appear in the top organic rankings.

On average, only 20.1% of SGE links exactly matched a URL from the first page of Google search results.

An additional 17.9% of SGE links were from the same domains as page one results but linked to different pages. The remaining 62% of SGE links came from sources outside the top organic results.

Challenges For Brand Term Optimization & Local Search

The study reveals that SGE results for branded terms may include competitors’ websites alongside the brand’s own site, potentially leading to increased competition for brand visibility.

Laurence O’Toole, CEO and founder of Authoritas, states:

“Brands are not immune. These new types of generative results introduce more opportunities for third-party sites and even competitors to rank for your brand terms and related brand and product terms that you care about.”

Additionally, local businesses may face similar challenges, as SGE results could feature competing local brands even when users search for a specific brand in a regional context.

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Methodology & Limitations

To arrive at these insights, Authoritas analyzed a robust dataset of 2,900 search keywords across a spectrum of query types, including specific brand names, brand + generic terms, brand + product names, generic terms, and specific product names. The keywords were distributed across 15 industry verticals.

The study utilized a consistent desktop browser viewport to quantify pixel-based changes in the search results. Authoritas also developed proprietary “alignment scores” to measure the degree of overlap between traditional organic search results and the new SGE links.

While acknowledging some limitations, such as the keyword set needing to be fully representative of each vertical and the still-evolving nature of SGE, Authoritas maintains that the insights hold value in preparing brands for the new realities of an AI-powered search ecosystem.

Why We Care

The findings of the Authoritas study have implications for businesses, marketers, and SEO professionals. As Google’s SGE becomes more prevalent, it could disrupt traditional organic search rankings and traffic patterns.

Brands that have invested heavily in SEO and have achieved top rankings for key terms may find their visibility and click-through rates diminished by the prominence of SGE results.

SGE introduces new competition from unexpected sources, as most SGE links come from domains outside the top 10 organic results. This means businesses may need to compete not only with their traditional rivals but also with a broader range of websites that gain visibility through SGE.

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As Google is a primary source of traffic and leads for many businesses, any changes to its search results can impact visibility, brand awareness, and revenue.

How This Could Help You

While the rise of SGE presents challenges, it also offers opportunities.

Taking into account what we’ve learned from the Authoritas study, here are some actionable takeaways:

  • As SGE favors in-depth, informative content, businesses may benefit from investing in comprehensive, well-researched articles and guides that provide value to users.
  • Incorporating expert quotes, interviews, and authoritative sources within your content could increase the likelihood of being featured in SGE results.
  • Enriching your content with images, videos, and other multimedia elements may help capture the attention of both users and the SGE algorithm.
  • Building a strong brand presence across multiple channels, including social media, industry forums, and relevant websites, can increase your chances of appearing in SGE.
  • Creating a trustworthy brand and managing your online reputation will be crucial, as SGE may feature competitors alongside your website.

Looking Ahead

While the long-term impact of SGE will depend on user adoption and the perceived usefulness of results, this study’s findings serve as a valuable starting point for businesses and SEO professionals.

By proactively addressing the challenges and opportunities SGE presents, you can increase your chances of success in the new search environment.


Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

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