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As we bid Google Universal Analytics (UA) its final adieu, we caught up with Product Director of Google Analytics, Steve Ganem, about its successor — Google Analytics 4 (GA4). We wanted to know how its meeting the needs of digital marketers, its privacy compliance, and what’s on the roadmap for enhancements. (The interview was edited for brevity and clarity.)

Q: Why GA4?

A: Universal Analytics was built for a different time and a different internet. Universal Analytics was released more than 10 years ago. Think about how much the internet — and the way people behave — has changed in the past five years, let alone more than 10. 

In 2012, we were in a world where people interacted with businesses through their websites and advertisers could count on cookies and fully observable journeys to get the information they needed. That’s just no longer a reality — and it shouldn’t be. Not only has the way people interact with and consume content changed, but so have their expectations for privacy. 

GA4 was built for this new reality — and to be durable into the future as things continue to evolve. Designed with privacy and AI at its core, GA4 can measure customer journeys that span a variety of devices and touchpoints, without compromising user privacy. People aren’t just using websites and clicking on display ads any more — it’s a complex journey, moving from screen to screen, with all different formats, and we need measurement that measures just as nimbly.

Additionally, GA4 is durable to privacy and regulatory changes, built to handle increasing data sparsity with innovative, privacy-preserving technology. 

Q: What features of GA4 do you think are underutilized?

A: As I mentioned above, GA4 was designed for the world we are living in and the features are much more capable and powerful than its predecessor. GA4’s audience builder, as an example, can be used to orchestrate marketing campaigns across ads, push notifications (via Firebase), SMS, email and others through the Audience Export API. Additionally, it includes predictive capabilities to help advertisers reach the right people at the right moment. 

We also find that businesses aren’t using the reporting features to their fullest potential. GA4’s reporting is fully customizable and businesses can tailor the experience to meet their specific needs. With features like Business Objectives, customers can easily set up out of the box, customized reporting based on their specific business and goals.

With Explorations, businesses can get even deeper, actionable insights about their customers. Previously only available to Google Analytics 360 customers, in GA4, Explorations are available to all customers and can be set up to help businesses do things like create segments and audiences, focus on the most relevant data with filters and segments and perform ad hoc queries to dig into specific queries.

And, for 360 customers, there is now an option to assign distinct reporting experiences to different users within an organization based on their specific goals and needs.

Overall, the reporting in GA4 — for both standard and 360 customers — has become much more sophisticated and it’s a great opportunity for businesses to explore.

Q: What is one of the biggest challenges you hear from customers as it relates to GA4? How are you addressing that challenge?

A: Universal Analytics was around for a long time and so it is natural that people became very accustomed to the way it worked and “looked.” People became used to where things were and how they were measured, which is completely understandable. But, as I mentioned earlier, UA was built for an older world — one where the way people interacted with businesses was completely different from the way they do today. 

So, because of that, we often hear from customers that it can be challenging to find the same use cases in GA4. There are a few reasons that this can be challenging. First and foremost, it’s new, and it takes time to get used to new things. Second, and most importantly, GA4 was intentionally designed to measure differently in a way that reflects the way people now engage with businesses and content — hits and sessions aren’t reflective of today’s reality. 

That means that use cases aren’t always 1:1. The information and insights are still there, but they may look different than they did in Universal Analytics because we’re measuring different things — with good reason. 

The Setup Assistant was created with businesses of all size in mind. It was designed specifically to help customers get setup with GA4 and make sure they have all of the right pieces in place to get the information they need. This doesn’t have to be a one-and-done situation; it’s a helpful resource and I urge customers to go back to it as they continue to get accustomed to GA4.

In addition to creating more educational materials (some helpful links here, here and here), we’re also investing in AI-based solutions to help customers find features and get their job done more efficiently. 

For example, Analytics Insights are something GA4 customers can already take advantage of. They use machine learning to help businesses understand and act on their data. For example, with automated insights, Analytics Intelligence detects unusual changes or emerging trends and notifies businesses automatically. These AI-generated insights live throughout GA4 and you can click the “Insights” icon at the top of any Report to see suggested questions and insights to help you better understand what’s happening and what your next steps should be.

We are always looking for opportunities to make GA4 as intuitive as possible and are excited about how that will continue to evolve. 

Q: What does the future of GA4 look like?

A: Google Analytics has long helped businesses understand user engagement on their websites and apps, as well as the performance of their marketing efforts. Google Analytics 4 does this in a more complete, holistic way. Not only does it bring together web and app into one, seamless experience, but it also gives businesses even more cross-channel insights, enabling them to understand their efforts across more than just Google. We will continue to make it easier to bring in offline data to give businesses a complete picture of their customers and improve their ability to measure and activate. 

Built with AI at its core, Google Analytics 4 will continue to use best-in-class modeling to give businesses the insights they need to make strategic decisions, all without compromising user privacy. We will build on our stable of intelligence features to help businesses identify important trends and help them capitalize on growth opportunities. 

We’re excited to move into this future where GA4 is our only analytics platform — one where we can continue to innovate and invest in making it the most effective, holistic and durable analytics solution for our customers.

Q: One big issue advertisers had with GA4 (and UA) was conversion reporting discrepancies. How does Key Events solve this? Is it working?

A: Yes, by unifying the concept of Conversions between Google Analytics and Google Ads, we have finally addressed a long-standing customer challenge that the numbers in Google Analytics are not consistent with the view in Google Ads.  We will continue to build on this concept, offering more advertiser features powered by Conversions in our Advertising Workspace. 

Solving this required us to distinguish between important customer interactions (“Key Events”) and those driven by your marketing efforts (“Conversions”). We plan to also invest more in Key Events reporting to help product development teams optimize important flows in their customer experiences.

Businesses can easily neglect the optimization of organic traffic. This happens because stakeholders often don’t understand how it works or its impact on company goals.

Continue reading and learn how to translate SEO concepts into business terms so you can onboard your business partners and secure their buy-in for organic projects.

Improving customer experience

Customer experience is one of those aspects of the business that almost all leaders agree is super important. And it can’t be different when 52% of customers say they will switch to a competitor after a single negative impression.

But which SEO factors have an impact on it?

1. Broken pages and redirects

Broken pages (like 404 or 500 errors) and implementing redirects are usually business priorities. This is because stakeholders are also online users who likely encounter these issues and understand the frustration they cause.

Cleaning up redirects, however, is another story. Users don’t see the change, but as SEOs, we know that excessive redirects can hurt a website’s performance.

Redirects consume search engines’ crawl budget, dilute page authority and negatively impact speed performance. But how do you explain this in business terms?

One of the easiest ways to explain this is with everyday examples, which people can easily relate to and probably have experienced.

In the 301 case, imagine you have a shopping list, but when you arrive at your local grocery store, you find the store has moved, adding 20 extra minutes to your shopping trip. Even though you’re “redirected” to the new location, you’re frustrated by the extra step. 

The same happens with search engine bots when they encounter redirects. Too many redirects can frustrate them, leading to a potential negative impact on your site’s ranking. Similar to a negative customer review. 

We all know the impact of negative reviews – the next potential customer will see them, and it may influence their decision to buy from you.

2. On-page SEO

The concept of optimizing individual webpages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic is a key one in SEO. It is very similar to merchandising practices in the offline world, and its goal is to keep users and bots engaged with your content. 

The higher the engagement, the lower the bounce rate, which can improve your rankings (or at least we have a strong reason to believe this after the recent Google documentation leak).

Keeping users engaged increases the time spent on the page and the visibility of important elements like CTAs. 

This is similar to how supermarkets place essential items like bread at the back so customers can see other products as they navigate the store, enhancing product visibility.

Just as customers might end up with a basket of unplanned items in a supermarket, good on-page optimization can lead to increased leads and a healthier sales pipeline.

3. Page speed

Page speed is another important factor for SEO and overall user experience. 

Slow-loading pages can lead to higher bounce rates, as users are likelier to abandon a site that takes too long to load. We all know how frustrating it is to see how the images load or to need to wait too long to be able to click or scroll.

It is the same as when you walk into a coffee shop for a quick morning coffee on a street full of coffee shops. If your order takes too long, you will probably go elsewhere the next time. 

The same principle applies to your website. Just as efficient service in a coffee shop enhances customer experience, a fast-loading website ensures that visitors stay engaged and are more likely to return. And search engine bots are like picky customers who won’t tolerate slow service. 

Optimizing your website for a good page speed can increase the loyalty from both humans and bots and can likely lead to higher rankings and sales.

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Enhancing lead quality and conversion rates

Good customer experience is not the only factor in having a successful business.

You need to make sure that you attract the right customers – the ones with the highest chance to buy from you and that you give them enough reasons to do so. 

On the online front, you have a couple of SEO allies to help you in this effort.

4. Meta titles and descriptions

By the clothes, they greet by the mind they send. This proverb is also true in the search engine world. 

Making a strong first impression online is as vital as in any business setting and your meta title and description are the key players here. They are crucial for how bots and users perceive your webpages.

The title tag is the first thing users see and serves as your digital business card. It should be concise and clear and immediately convey your page’s value. The meta description is your elevator pitch. It offers a brief summary that should give users a reason to click on your result. 

Just as a good introduction can lead to business engagements, well-crafted meta titles and descriptions enhance click-through rates and improve search engine visibility. 

They also ensure that potential customers see the best of what you offer at first glance – the same as a very well-designed and decorated shop window.

Better meta tags can improve the conversion rate of leads entering the sales pipeline, as they set the right expectations. In some B2C businesses, where purchase decisions are quicker and emotionally driven, effective meta titles and descriptions can also increase the number of closed deals.

But good meta titles and descriptions can’t be created without preliminary research.

5. Topic research and content strategy

Understanding market trends and customer needs is crucial for any company and usually starts with deep-dive groundwork. 

For example, when you plan to launch a new product or service, you have a preliminary discovery phase. Its goal is to clarify the details around your offer and launch something that has a good chance of being bought by your customers. 

The same approach applies to your online presence, but instead of market research, you conduct topic and keyword research before creating your content strategy. 

You can create relevant content that meets its needs by understanding what your audience searches for. 

Effective topic and keyword research improves traffic quality, increases conversion rates and MQLs and nurtures leads through the sales funnel.

6. Structured data

Structured data is another powerful SEO tool that can enhance lead quality and conversion rates. These pieces of code are not directly visible to users, but they provide search engines with clear, specific information about your website’s content. They are like nutritional labels on food packaging.

Structured data enables search engines to display richer and more relevant search results, including enhanced snippets, product details, review stars and other elements that make your results more attractive to users. This leads to higher click-through rates and potentially higher conversation rates.

Building brand reputation

Improving lead quality and customer experience is crucial for businesses’ everyday survival. But to set the stage for long-term success, you need to invest also in building your brand reputation.

The reason is simple: the purchasing decisions of 63% of consumers are impacted by the company’s reputation, according to Qualtrics. 

7. Internal and external links

Creating unique connections through internal and external links is essential for a website’s SEO. Internal links structure information and help users and search engines navigate through it. 

The concept is similar to 360-degree reviews and how they help managers and company leadership decide which employees deserve promotion because you can’t promote everyone. 

The same is true for Google and other search engines. Their mission is to organize the world’s information and display the best results on top. This won’t be very useful if you see 1 trillion results on page 1. 

External links, on the other hand, signal the credibility of your website. They act like professional endorsements, similar to positive customer reviews or media mentions that validate your business’s stability. 

External links build a positive image, making your site appear trustworthy, leading to growth opportunities, enhanced brand reputation, higher deal sizes and a stronger sales pipeline.

8. Anchor texts

Another element that has an impact on the website’s trustworthiness is the anchor texts. They are the clickable words in a hyperlink and serve as the invisible handshake between your content and the users. They are very similar to a good introduction at a networking event. 

Just as a handshake can set the tone for a business relationship, well-chosen anchor texts guide users and search engine bots to understand the context of your linked content. They should be clear and descriptive so they can ensure a smooth transition to the linked page. 

Targeted use of anchor texts can boost the relevance of your pages for concrete terms and serve as authority factors on a webpage level. They set the right expectations for the linked pages and naturally build trust with your users.

Simplifying SEO speak for business stakeholders

SEO is often seen as a mysterious process done by experts rambling about Google’s algorithms. Business stakeholders may view it as a black box where money is spent without clear results. 

Explaining SEO concepts in business terms is crucial for website optimization success. This helps stakeholders see SEO’s impact on growth and success, leading to more support and resources for SEO efforts.

Google Colab has been around since 2017 but has gained more popularity recently from SEO professionals sharing code samples. 

SEOs love Colab because, unlike GitHub, you can actually run the code directly on the platform.

What is Google Colab?

Google Colab is a tool that allows users to quickly run Python directly on the platform with little to no setup. Google Colab is a hosted Jupyter Notebook that uses Google’s hosting services in the cloud.

In case you’re new to Python, a Jupyter Notebook is a free online tool you can use online to write code, solve math problems, make graphs and show your work. It’s like a digital notebook that helps you keep all of your project parts in one place and share them easily with others.

The best part about Google Colab? It’s free.

If you require more computing power, there is a tier pricing system. As of writing this, I pay $9.99 per month for the first paid tier. The next tier is $49.99 per month and then there’s a custom enterprise version.

Benefits of Google Colab

I’ve personally reaped the benefits of Google Colab for several years and am pleased to share what I’ve found to be its biggest benefits for SEOs. 

Fast to start

If you’ve ever installed Python on your local machine, then you know firsthand how annoying it is to get Python set up. Also, if you’re trying a new bit of code, then you’re likely having to install new libraries to get your code to run. 

The best part about Google Colab is that most common Python libraries are already installed on Google Colab. If something is missing, you can simply run:

!pip install new-library

The one nuance here is that you need the exclamation point before pip to install a new library. 

Doesn’t use your computer’s bandwidth

I often use Python to compute large datasets, which can take quite a bit of time. I’ve run some bits of code that take hours to compute due to the size of the data. 

In SEO, we often run crawls and other analyses in the background while we work. Have you ever run a Screaming Frog crawl that completely slows down your computer, making it nearly impossible to do other SEO tasks?

With Google Colab, you can seamlessly run compute-intensive code and work on other SEO tasks while the code runs.

Shareable

Google Colab is meant to be easily shared with collaborators or the world. As someone who believes in the power of open source, I believe that Google Colab is great for me to share code with the SEO community.

AI integration

Google has integrated Gemini directly into Google Colab. So, if you’re struggling to build a new feature in your code, you can leverage AI to help generate new code features.

I would urge caution when doing this, as you may find yourself debugging more than helping yourself.

Dig deeper: Can AI perform technical SEO analysis effectively?

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How to use Google Colab

Let’s dive right into how to use Google Colab. I’ll run you through the eight most important features to get you right to coding for SEO.

How to run code

Probably the most simple step here is to know how to actually run the code.

Once you’re ready to run your code, click the play button. 

How to open the folder pane

To run code that relies on any source data or exports results into a file, you’ll need to be able to open the folder. Luckily, just like running code, this is just one button, specifically the one that looks like a folder.

How to connect to Google Drive

One of the great things about Google Colab is that it’s part of the Google suite of tools, allowing you to connect directly to files in Google Drive and even save your results to Google Drive.

To connect to Google Drive, you first need to mount It by clicking the button shown in the screenshot below.

Once Colab finishes mounting Google Drive, your Google Drive folder will appear in the files pane. 

From here, you’re able to reference any of those files by right-clicking on the file, selecting a copy path and pasting it wherever you reference a file in your code.

How to upload files manually

Before uploading files, note that anything you upload will not be saved and will only be used as temporary files. Those files will disappear once you refresh the page or close it.

If you want the files to stay available, you’ll need to use Google Drive and connect to them that way (see previous steps). 

If you’re OK using files temporarily, then you have two options. You can drag and drop your files from your computer to the files pane or click the upload button.

How to create new files directly in Google Colab

Sometimes, I find it easier to create new files directly in Google Colab.

For example, if I have a bunch of keywords I want to analyze, it’s easier for me to copy them and paste them into a file in Colab rather than create a new file locally on my computer and upload it.

To do this, just right-click on a blank space in the files pane and click New File. From there, you can name it whatever you want, and paste your data and then save it with your hotkeys (Command + S or Control + S).

How to download results

Once you’ve run the code, you may have an exported file created in the process.

You can preview the file by double-clicking on it, but if you want to download it, all you need to do is right-click on it and select Download.

How to connect to a runtime

If you’re running code that may take a more heavy compute load, you may want to experiment with a faster runtime.

To do this, select Runtime in the top menu and then in the dropdown, select Change runtime type.

From there, you’ll see some options that you can change. 

Please note that if you’re going to change the runtime, any files in the file pane will disappear. 

How to use the AI integration

One of the latest features in Google Colab is the integration of Gemini. Google has made it easy to take advantage of this new feature by adding a Gemini button in the top right of the screen.

By clicking that, a sidebar will appear for you to ask it prompts. 

Free code to get you started

Now that you’ve taken the crash course to getting started with Google Colab, it’s time to try some code! 

In one of my previous articles, I’ve provided five Python scripts for SEO that you can try right now in Google Colab.

In that article, you will be able to see the context of the scripts, how to set them up and I provide the actual code for you to try.

It’s never been easier to get started in Python for SEO. Happy coding!

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PPC advertising can be challenging, especially when your product or service falls into a sensitive or difficult category.

Whether you’re promoting pharmaceuticals, financial services, adult content or other regulated industries, advertising – especially on Google Ads – requires a balance of creativity, compliance and ethical consideration.

Google Ads remains one of the most powerful platforms for reaching potential customers. However, with great power comes great responsibility.

Advertisers in sensitive categories face unique hurdles, including:

• Strict policy restrictions.
• Heightened scrutiny.
• The constant risk of ad disapprovals or account suspensions.

Seasoned marketers might be frustrated by frequent suspensions, but these policies are in place to maintain a safer advertising platform. 

Recent Google Ads data shows the extent of this effort. In 2023, they blocked or removed 5.5 billion ads and suspended 12.7 million advertiser accounts, nearly doubling their enforcement actions from the previous year. However, many businesses suffer from incorrect suspensions and misclassified compliance cases due to automated reviews.

This article aims to guide you through the advertising of sensitive categories on Google Ads. We’ll explore strategies to effectively promote your products or services while adhering to Google’s policies and maintaining high ethical standards.

Understand Google Ads policies

Google’s comprehensive policies ensure a safe and positive experience for users, advertisers and publishers. Knowing these policies is the first step to successful advertising in challenging niches.

Google Ads policies on sensitive categories

Google Ads policies are designed to protect users from harmful, deceptive or inappropriate content. 

For sensitive categories, these policies are often more stringent and specific. They cover various aspects of advertising, including ad content, targeting and landing pages.

Key policy areas for sensitive categories often include:

• Restricted content: Products or services that can be advertised but with limitations.
• Prohibited content: Products or services that cannot be advertised at all.
• Editorial and technical requirements: Specific guidelines for ad copy, imagery and website content.

Commonly restricted and prohibited content

While the full list is extensive, some common examples of restricted or prohibited content include:

• Pharmaceuticals and healthcare products.
• Financial services (e.g., loans, cryptocurrencies).
• Gambling and games of chance.
• Adult content and services.
• Weapons and explosives.
• Alcohol and tobacco products.
• Political content.

Each category has its own set of rules. For instance:

• Pharmaceutical advertisers must be certified by Google and can only promote in certain countries. 
• Financial services advertisers often need specific licenses and must provide additional disclosures. 

The list of restricted categories is not exhaustive, as many subcategories and industries have unexpected policies. 

For example, in the IT service industry, working on IT hardware may be prohibited unless you are a certified partner, which can be problematic for many computer repair shops or IT freelancers who lack certification from major manufacturers.

Why you must stay updated with policy changes

To stay compliant and effective in sensitive advertising categories on Google Ads, it’s essential to proactively monitor and adapt to policy changes. 

Regularly review Google’s advertising policies, subscribe to their official policy updates and engage with industry forums or groups to gain insights on policy interpretations. 

If you have a Google Ads representative, maintain open communication with them to escalate issues quickly.

Remember, policy violations can lead to ad disapprovals, account suspensions or even permanent bans. Staying informed and compliant is not just about avoiding penalties – it’s about building a sustainable, long-term advertising strategy on the platform.

Conduct thorough research

Thorough research is a must before launching your Google Ads campaign in a sensitive category. This groundwork will help you navigate policy restrictions, understand your audience and develop effective strategies within the given constraints.

Identify the specific restrictions for your category

When diving into Google Ads for sensitive categories, it’s crucial to go beyond just skimming the general guidelines. Dig into the specific policies that apply to your industry. 

You’ll want to look out for any special requirements, like certifications or pre-approvals, that Google might need before you can run your ads. 

Don’t forget to check for any geographical restrictions on where you can advertise. This can be a big deal, depending on your product or service.

Next, try to get a feel for how Google interprets and enforces these policies in real-world situations. 

Take a look at the enforcement examples they provide and spend some time browsing industry forums to see what experiences other advertisers have had. 

If you’re lucky enough to have a Google Ads rep, pick their brain for insights. They can be a goldmine of information.

Finally, don’t overlook the legal side of things. Make sure you’re up to speed on the laws and regulations in the markets you’re targeting. 

Your ads and landing pages need to meet Google’s policies and adhere to the law. 

It might seem like a lot of work upfront, but trust me, it’s way better than dealing with account suspensions or legal headaches down the road.

Understand the target audience and their needs

When you’re navigating the tricky waters of advertising in sensitive categories, understanding your audience becomes absolutely crucial. 

Here’s the thing: with limited reach due to stricter policies and restrictions, every single interaction with a potential customer carries much more weight. 

You can’t afford to cast a wide net and hope for the best. You need to make every impression count.

That’s why it’s important to dive deep into your target audience’s psyche. Crafting detailed buyer personas isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s essential. 

You need to understand not just surface-level demographics but also your potential customers’ underlying motivations, concerns and online behaviors. 

What specific pain points are they grappling with? How do they search for solutions? 

These insights can help you create hyper-targeted ads that resonate on a personal level. Also, make sure to get the full picture of your target audience’s search behavior. 

In sensitive categories, your audience might not be using the most obvious keywords but also a mix of alternatives, synonyms or abbreviations used in the industry.

Don’t underestimate the power of direct feedback, either. Surveys and interviews with your target audience can provide golden nuggets of information that might not be apparent from broader data analysis. 

These firsthand insights can help you fine-tune your messaging to address specific concerns or highlight benefits that truly matter to your audience.

Lastly, mine your existing customer data relentlessly. Those customer service logs, reviews and FAQs are treasure troves of information. They reveal the real questions and concerns your audience has, allowing you to craft ads that speak directly to these issues.

Analyze competitors and their strategies within the constraints

Instead of fixating on copying what’s currently visible, focus on understanding the broader landscape. 

Look at businesses offering similar products or services, but also consider alternative solutions that might be competing for your audience’s attention. This gives you a more comprehensive view of the market.

When analyzing competitor ads and landing pages, look for patterns in messaging and structure rather than specific tactics. 

How are they communicating value while navigating policy restrictions? What themes seem to be consistent across multiple competitors? 

This approach helps you understand the industry’s general direction without getting hung up on potentially non-compliant examples.

While it’s tempting to emulate competitors who seem to be pushing boundaries, always prioritize compliance. 

If you notice competitors potentially breaking rules, use that as a reminder to double-check your own practices rather than as inspiration to follow suit. 

Your goal should be to find ethical, compliant ways to stand out in a tightly regulated space.

Craft compliant ad content

Creating effective ad content for sensitive categories requires a delicate balance between compelling messaging and policy compliance.

Tips for writing ad copy that complies with Google Ads policies

When crafting ads for sensitive categories, navigating the fine line between effective marketing and policy compliance is crucial. 

Familiarize yourself with prohibited terms in your industry and create a list of approved alternatives. Focus on highlighting factual, verifiable benefits without resorting to superlatives or unsupported claims. 

Transparency is key. Be clear about your offering and include necessary disclaimers directly in your ad copy.

Maintain a professional tone throughout your messaging, avoiding sensationalism and using industry-appropriate terminology. This approach aligns with the seriousness of sensitive categories and helps build trust with your audience.

Make smart use of ad extensions to provide additional, compliant information. Sitelinks can offer more context, callouts can highlight key features or certifications and structured snippets can showcase your product categories or services.

Selecting appropriate visuals and media content

When creating visual content for sensitive category ads, aim to balance attractiveness with policy compliance. 

Thoroughly review Google’s image policies for your specific niche, avoiding anything graphic or overly sensational. Always ensure you have proper consent to feature individuals in your visuals.

Focus on high-quality, relevant imagery that accurately represents your product or service. Consider using lifestyle images to provide context, but make sure they remain professional and appealing. 

Don’t forget to incorporate necessary disclaimers or warnings directly into your visual content, ensuring they’re clearly legible.

When exploring different ad formats, such as responsive display ads or video content, proceed with caution. Every element must adhere to platform policies, from the opening frame to the closing shot.

Finally, leverage A/B testing to optimize your visual strategy. Create multiple versions of your ads with different images, then monitor their performance to identify what resonates best with your audience while maintaining strict compliance. 

This data-driven approach allows you to refine your visual content strategy over time, maximizing impact within the bounds of platform regulations.

Examples of compliant ad content in sensitive categories:

• Pharmaceutical ad
  • Instead of: “Miracle cure for all your ailments!”
  • Try: “FDA-approved medication. May help manage [specific condition]. Consult your doctor.”
• Financial services ad
  • Instead of: “Guaranteed approval for high-interest loans!”
  • Try: “Personal loans available. Rates from X.XX% APR. Terms apply.”
• Adult content ad
  • Instead of explicit imagery or text.
  • Try: “Adult entertainment. Age-verified. Secure, discreet service.”

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Design effective landing pages

Ensuring landing pages meet Google’s policy requirements

When it comes to landing pages for sensitive category ads, transparency and compliance are paramount. 

Include comprehensive, accurate details about your product or service, with all the necessary disclaimers, terms and conditions. 

Don’t shy away from clearly stating any limitations, risks or potential side effects associated with your offering. This upfront honesty builds trust with potential customers and helps you stay on the right side of advertising policies.

Make sure your business information is easily accessible. Display your company name, physical address and contact details prominently. Include clear links to your privacy policy and terms of service, typically in the footer. 

For certain industries, consider adding a visible customer support phone number to further enhance credibility and meet specific policy requirements.

Pricing and billing information should be crystal clear. Display all costs upfront, including any recurring charges or additional fees. Explain your billing process in simple terms. 

Avoid any hint of hidden charges or misleading pricing structures. These are quick ways to violate platform policies and consumer trust.

Lastly, pay close attention to industry-specific requirements. If you’re in financial services, include necessary licensing information and disclaimers. 

For pharmaceuticals, ensure all claims are approved and include required warnings. Adult content requires robust age verification systems.

Dig deeper: PPC landing pages: How to craft a winning post-click experience

Provide high-quality, relevant content that aligns with the ad

When crafting landing pages for sensitive category ads, focus on creating a seamless, trustworthy experience. 

Ensure your page content aligns perfectly with your ad claims, maintaining consistency in language and tone. 

Provide comprehensive, valuable information about your offering, including FAQs and policy-compliant testimonials if possible.

Use clear, concise language throughout, avoiding jargon unless necessary. Organize content logically with headers and bullet points for easy digestion. 

Incorporate trust signals like relevant certifications, security badges and reputable reviews to build credibility.

Leverage advanced targeting options

When advertising in sensitive categories, precise targeting becomes even more crucial. It helps ensure your ads reach the right audience while minimizing the risk of policy violations. Here’s how to leverage advanced targeting options effectively:

Utilize demographic and geographic targeting to reach the right audience

Set appropriate age restrictions based on your product and policy requirements to optimize targeting, ensuring adult content targets users 18 or older. 

Use gender targeting for gender-specific products but avoid unfair discrimination. Employ geographic targeting to comply with regional regulations and exclude prohibited locations. 

For financial or luxury products, target by income level to reach interested users while adhering to fair lending laws. Utilize parental status targeting for family-oriented products, ensuring content suitability and compliance.

• Website visitor remarketing
  • Create lists based on specific page visits to target users who’ve shown interest.
  • Exclude converters to avoid unnecessary ad spend.
• Customer match
  • Upload customer email lists to re-engage past customers.
  • Ensure you have proper consent to use customer data for advertising.
• Similar audiences
  • Use this feature to find new users similar to your existing customers.
  • Be cautious with sensitive categories to avoid targeting inappropriate audiences.
• Dynamic remarketing
  • Show ads featuring products or services users have viewed on your site.
  • Ensure all product images and descriptions comply with policies.
• Remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA)
  • Adjust bids for past visitors when they search for relevant keywords.
  • Use this to bid more aggressively on high-intent searchers.

Dig deeper: How to combine Google Ads with other channels to retarget, nurture and convert

Use custom intent audiences to target users based on their search behavior

• In-market audiences
  • Target users actively researching or considering products/services in your category.
  • Be selective with in-market categories to ensure relevance and compliance.
• Custom intent audiences
  • Create audiences based on keywords, URLs and apps your ideal customer might search for or use.
  • Focus on intent signals that indicate genuine interest without crossing policy lines.
• Affinity audiences
  • Target users based on their long-term interests and habits.
  • Choose affinities that align with your offering while respecting privacy concerns.
• Life events targeting
  • For relevant products/services, target users going through specific life changes.
  • Ensure your messaging is sensitive and compliant when using this option.

Tips for compliant and effective targeting in sensitive categories

To optimize ad targeting, use layered targeting to combine multiple methods for specific audience segments, ensuring ads reach the most appropriate users. 

Implement exclusions with negative keywords and audience lists to avoid inappropriate contexts, regularly updating them. 

Use contextual targeting in display campaigns to ensure ads appear in relevant, brand-safe environments. Apply frequency capping to limit ad exposure and prevent fatigue. 

Schedule ads based on the time and day when your audience is most receptive. Regularly review and optimize targeting performance, staying alert to any policy or regulatory changes that might impact your strategy.

Spammy advertising methods to steer clear of

Black hat marketers use deceptive tactics to bypass platform policies. These include cloaking, redirect chains, multiple accounts, coded language and URL shorteners. Some also use rapid ad rotations or slight variations to evade detection. 

While these methods may temporarily work, they violate terms of service and can lead to permanent account suspensions, legal issues, and reputational damage. These practices are risky, unethical and strongly discouraged by advertising platforms and professionals.

Cloaking is a deceptive technique where different content is shown to search engines or ad reviewers compared to regular users. It detects when a page is accessed by a crawler or review system and shows compliant content, while regular users see potentially non-compliant content. This is often achieved through:

• IP detection: Identifying known IP ranges used by search engines or ad platforms.
• User-agent sniffing: Checking the browser or device information to spot crawlers.
• JavaScript-based cloaking: Using scripts to alter page content based on user behavior.

Advertisers using cloaking promote policy-violating products or boost rankings with hidden, keyword-stuffed content. This serious violation often leads to immediate account suspension or blacklisting. As detection methods improve, cloaking becomes increasingly risky and unsustainable.

Such techniques are especially dangerous for real, established companies:

Long-term consequences for legitimate businesses

While black hat marketers often operate with disposable websites and temporary accounts, real businesses have much more at stake:

• Brand reputation damage: Once exposed, black hat tactics can severely tarnish a company’s reputation. In today’s interconnected digital world, news of unethical practices spreads quickly and can be nearly impossible to overcome.
• Loss of customer trust: Consumers value authenticity and transparency. Discovering that a trusted brand engaged in deceptive practices can lead to a mass exodus of customers and long-lasting negative sentiment.
• Permanent platform bans: Major advertising platforms like Google Ads or social media sites may permanently ban offending businesses. This can be catastrophic for companies relying on these channels for customer acquisition.
• Legal ramifications: Depending on the nature of the deception, businesses might face legal consequences, including fines or lawsuits from misled customers or regulatory bodies.
• SEO penalties: Search engines can apply severe penalties or completely de-index sites caught using black hat SEO techniques, effectively erasing years of legitimate SEO efforts.
• Financial losses: Beyond immediate revenue drops, companies may face long-term financial repercussions from damaged reputation, legal fees and the cost of rebranding efforts.
• Industry blacklisting: In some sectors, being caught using black hat techniques can lead to industry-wide blacklisting or loss of crucial partnerships.
• Decrease in employee morale and retention: Ethical employees may leave when they discover their company engages in deceptive practices, leading to brain drain and internal turmoil.

Unscrupulous marketers may quickly abandon a project after being caught, but legitimate businesses have established customer bases and long-term goals.

The risks of unethical marketing far outweigh any potential short-term gains for companies focused on sustainable growth and customer trust.

Instead, ethical marketing practices ensure steady, reliable growth and protect valuable assets like reputation and customer loyalty.

If a client is considering unethical tactics, emphasize the long-term consequences. For a legitimate business, it’s never worth it to engage in unethical marketing.

Google’s June 2024 spam update rollout is now complete. The spam update started June 20, 2024, about 7 days ago.

This update was a general and broad spam update, it was not a link spam update and did not automate the site reputation abuse policy, which is still only done via manual actions.

Google wrote this morning, “The rollout was complete as of June 27, 2024.”

Here’s our past coverage of confirmed Google spam updates:

Why we care. If you noticed your rankings changed during this time frame, it may be related to the June 2024 spam update. Maybe your rankings improved because your competitors were hurt by this update. Maybe your rankings declined because Google thinks you were going against its spam policies.

Spam updates. Here are the official Google spam updates documentation:

While Google’s automated systems to detect search spam are constantly operating, we occasionally make notable improvements to how they work. When we do, we refer to this as a spam update and share when they happen on our list of Google Search ranking updates.

For example, SpamBrain is our AI-based spam-prevention system. From time-to-time, we improve that system to make it better at spotting spam and to help ensure it catches new types of spam.

Sites that see a change after a spam update should review our spam policies to ensure they are complying with those. Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all. Making changes may help a site improve if our automated systems learn over a period of months that the site complies with our spam policies.

In the case of a link spam update (an update that specifically deals with link spam), making changes might not generate an improvement. This is because when our systems remove the effects spammy links may have, any ranking benefit the links may have previously generated for your site is lost. Any potential ranking benefits generated by those links cannot be regained.

Google Chrome for Android has added new local places features to Chrome Actions, that will allow Chrome users to quickly call, get directions and read reviews from a local business directly from the Chrome search bar.

What Google said. Google announced it added “new Chrome Actions to help you save time when you’re trying to engage with places like a local business. For example, when you search for a restaurant, you’ll see shortcut buttons in the search results to quickly do things like call, get directions and read reviews.”

Android first. This is first launching on Android today and will be coming to Chrome for iOS later this fall.

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot showing those Chrome Action shortcut buttons. You can see it shows a mobile phone screen doing a search for “verdant valley,” with options underneath the Chrome address bar to “call,” get “directions” and read “reviews.”

Why we care. This may lead to more visibility for local businesses within the Google Chrome Android and, in the future, iOS platforms. Searchers would be able to click to call the business, get driving directions or read reviews a bit faster than when performing a full search in Google.

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Amazon’s Sponsored Brands have always been a central component in showcasing brands and capturing customer attention on the platform. Today, many exciting new features are available to revolutionize your advertising strategy.

This article tackles the latest updates on this Amazon ad format and strategies to maximize its potential. With recent advancements in targeting, ad formats, analytics and optimization, there’s never been a better time to refine your approach and achieve outstanding results.

What’s new in Amazon Ads?

Enhanced targeting options

Amazon has significantly upgraded its targeting capabilities for Sponsored Brands campaigns. These enhancements allow advertisers to pinpoint their ideal customer segments with extraordinary precision. 

Expanding criteria to include specific demographics, purchase behaviors and detailed interest categories allows advertisers to reach a broader, more relevant audience. This enhances the impact and efficiency of your campaigns.

Improved ad formats

Amazon recently launched several new ad formats designed to capture and retain customer attention. Among the most notable are video ads and interactive ad formats. 

• Video ads enable the delivery of visually compelling messages, helping to communicate your brand narrative more effectively. 
• Interactive ads provide an immersive experience that can boost engagement and drive higher conversion rates. These new formats offer innovative ways to connect with your audience and increase brand visibility.

Advanced analytics and reporting tools

Amazon’s latest updates have introduced advanced analytics and reporting tools for Sponsored Brands campaigns. These tools present deeper insights into campaign performance, helping you identify which strategies are working and where there’s room to improve. 

Detailed metrics on engagement, click-through rates, conversion rates and more are now readily accessible. This data lets you make informed decisions, optimize your campaigns in real time and achieve superior results.

AI-powered optimization

AI is at the forefront of Amazon’s latest innovations. The new AI-powered optimization features automatically adjust your bidding, targeting and ad placements to maximize performance. 

AI analyzes large data sets to find hidden patterns and emerging trends, helping you stay ahead. Using AI can significantly improve efficiency and ROI.

Integration with Amazon Marketing Cloud

Amazon Sponsored Brands now feature deeper integration with the Amazon Marketing Cloud, providing a comprehensive view of your marketing efforts across the Amazon ecosystem. 

It facilitates seamless data sharing and analytics, allowing you to synchronize your ad campaigns with other marketing activities. With this integration, you can create a more cohesive and impactful marketing strategy that elevates your brand presence across Amazon.

1. Leverage enhanced targeting

With the launch of more sophisticated targeting options this year, refining your approach to audience segmentation is crucial.

• Start by analyzing your customer data to pinpoint the most relevant demographics, behaviors and interests that align with your brand. 
• Use these insights to create highly targeted ad campaigns tailored specifically to your ideal customers. For instance, targeting health-conscious individuals who frequently buy wellness products can notably improve ad relevance and engagement if you sell fitness gear. 
• Continuously monitor and fine-tune your targeting parameters to ensure you’re reaching the most valuable audience segments.

2. Create compelling ad content

The latest ad formats offer exciting opportunities to craft more engaging content. 

• For video ads, focus on creating visually appealing and concise messages highlighting your brand’s unique value. Use storytelling techniques to captivate viewers and leave a lasting impression. 
• For interactive ads, design immersive experiences that encourage user participation, such as quizzes, product demos or interactive catalogs. The key is to make your ads eye-catching, informative and enjoyable, ultimately increasing engagement and conversion rates.

3. Leverage advanced analytics

Advanced analytics tools are more powerful than ever, providing better insights into your campaign performance.

• Make it a habit to regularly review these analytics to better understand how your ads are performing. 
• Identify trends in engagement, click-through rates and conversion metrics to pinpoint successful elements and areas for improvement in your campaigns.
• Use these insights to inform data-driven decisions, tweak your ad content and target and bidding strategies as needed to optimize performance.

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4. Embrace AI-powered optimization

AI-powered optimization eliminates much of the uncertainty in managing ad campaigns.

• Set up AI-driven features to automatically adjust bids, targeting and placements using real-time data analysis. This saves you time and guarantees optimal campaign performance. 
• However, don’t just set it and forget it.
• Regularly review the adjustments to ensure they align with your overall marketing goals. Make manual tweaks when necessary to refine performance and maintain a competitive advantage.

5. Capitalize on Amazon Marketing Cloud integration

Integrating with Amazon Marketing Cloud allows you to create a more holistic marketing strategy.

• Leverage the data and analytics from the Marketing Cloud to comprehensively understand your customer journey across different touchpoints. 
• This empowers you to synchronize your Sponsored Brands ads with other marketing efforts, such as email campaigns, social media advertising and in-store promotions.
• By aligning these efforts, you can foster a unified brand experience that strengthens customer relationships and boosts overall marketing effectiveness.

Tips and best practices for ongoing success

Stay updated with Amazon’s changes

Amazon frequently enhances its advertising platform with new features and improvements. Staying informed about these changes is vital for maintaining a competitive edge. Here are some steps to ensure you’re always up-to-date:

• Subscribe to Amazon advertising’s newsletter: It provides regular updates on new features, case studies, and best practices.
• Join industry forums and groups: Engage with communities on platforms like LinkedIn, Reddit and industry-specific forums where professionals share insights and experiences.
• Attend webinars and conferences: Amazon and other marketing organizations often host events that can provide in-depth knowledge and networking opportunities.
• Follow thought leaders: Identify and follow experts in the Amazon advertising space. Their blogs, social media posts and publications can offer valuable insights and tips.

Experiment and iterate

The digital advertising landscape constantly evolves, making experimentation and iteration essential for success. Here’s how to effectively test and refine your strategies:

• A/B testing: Regularly conduct A/B tests on various elements of your ads, such as headlines, images, calls to action and targeting options. Analyze the results to determine which variations perform best.
• Pilot new features: Whenever Amazon releases a new feature, consider running a small-scale campaign to test its effectiveness before fully integrating it into your strategy.
• Monitor competitors: Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing. Analyze their ad formats, messaging and targeting strategies. Learn from their successes and mistakes to improve your own campaigns.
• Review performance metrics: Set up a schedule to review your campaign performance metrics regularly. Look for trends, spikes and drops in engagement and use this data to make informed adjustments.

Actionable strategies for continuous success

Building a sustainable strategy requires actionable steps that can drive ongoing success. Here’s how to ensure your campaigns remain effective:

• Regularly update your product listings
  • Ensure your product listings are always up-to-date with accurate information, high-quality images and optimized keywords.
  • Make sure your titles, bullet points and descriptions are clear, concise and compelling.
• Optimize bids and budgets
  • Regularly review and adjust your bids and budgets based on performance data.
  • Increase funding for high-performing campaigns and decrease spending on less effective ones.
• Leverage seasonal trends and events
  • Plan and execute campaigns around major shopping seasons and events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Prime Day.
  • Customize your ads to align with seasonal trends and special promotions.
• Utilize negative keywords
  • Regularly update your negative keyword list to exclude irrelevant searches that don’t convert.
  • This helps to optimize your ad spend and improve your ROI.
• Enhance customer reviews and ratings
  • Actively seek customer feedback and encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews.
  • Address any negative feedback promptly and use it to improve your products and services.
• Implement retargeting campaigns
  • Use retargeting to reach customers who have previously viewed or interacted with your products.
  • Craft personalized ads that remind them of the products they are interested in, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

These practical tips in your marketing strategy will enhance your Amazon Sponsored Brands campaigns and support continuous improvement. This proactive approach keeps your brand competitive and successful.

Whether you’re seasoned in selling on Amazon or new to the platform, these insights are designed to help you secure a competitive advantage and maximize the opportunities presented to you now and in the future.

One of the greatest failings of a PPC specialist is being unable to take a step back and see the big picture.

You can get lost in the weeds of account management and focus too much on vanity metrics, bidding strategy testing and reporting to forget about what the client ultimately wants from the account. 

To be fair, the client is often not great at communicating what that big picture looks like, and they, too, can often get lost in CTR and Search impression share metrics. 

I’ve had more conversations over the years with some clients on why average CPC is up year on year, why they aren’t top of the SERP on certain searches, or why the bounce rate is so high on a Shopping ad compared to a Search, rather than discussing how our overall business objectives are progressing. 

Campaign goals and objectives should be regularly discussed because they are the ultimate measure of success, vary among different people in the company and change over time.

With this in mind, I’ve come up with five considerations for setting up and adapting your PPC goals and objectives 

1. Alignment with overall business goals

Agencies often promise to improve campaign performance but may not know how the client defines performance. Sales teams who are involved in early discussions may have questionable PPC experience since they don’t regularly manage accounts.

Audits are carried out, recommendations are made and account management is handed over. Some conversations are had along the way about the account objectives, but often, this is done after an audit. 

This is odd to me, as without the goals, how do you have context for campaign goals, bidding strategies and account structure? 

Even when objectives are clear, different people involved in the discussions can cause the details to get lost in the setup and week-to-week management.

Those business goals must be the center of your initial campaign strategy and roadmap. Before handling an account, you need to answer the following questions:

• Is the measurement in place to track all the priority and secondary goals the client wants to track? 
• Does every campaign currently running, or planned to be built, have a specific goal that is aligned with the overall objective?
• Is the account structure proportionally reflective of these objectives?
• How does the business track the success of these objectives and goals? Can we have access to it (Shopify, HubSpot, etc.)?

There will be more specific questions to ask, which may have been covered in the briefing stage, but ensure these are documented and recorded as a reference point for future conversations.

Dig deeper: Setting PPC goals: How to tailor KPIs and metrics for each funnel stage

2. Channel and audience research

With the business priorities and sub-priorities set out, you now have to identify the biggest PPC opportunities that are available to match those priorities.

Research your audience and match their profile with a channel that will produce results based on each priority. Your budget and the client’s available resources will also dictate what channels you decide to invest in.

For example, a new insurance company may have a limited budget to generate brand awareness (priority) and initial leads (sub-priority). 

The first go-to strategy may have been Meta Ads to build awareness and Google Search ads targeting specific keywords for leads. However, the markets using these channels are notoriously competitive, and the average CPC/CPM is very high.

As a new company, they lack a strong brand name and the trust that comes with it. However, they have a young, savvy marketing team and a product targeting a younger audience.

Their team creates high-quality, engaging video content, evident from their YouTube channel, which has 10 times more subscribers than their Meta accounts.

YouTube suits their longer, product-focused videos, and their audience engages better there. Based on this, they decided to focus their advertising budget on YouTube with video in-stream ads for brand awareness and demand gen campaigns for leads.

Dig deeper: Un-silo your PPC campaigns: 4 tactics for more cohesive marketing

3. Enhanced measurement strategy 

It all goes back to your initial conversations. Once priority and sub-priority objectives are agreed upon, identify what needs to be tracked for each objective. Ensure the client agrees with this measurement strategy. 

If the main goal is to generate more revenue, set up revenue tracking for optimization and measurement. This defines success for the account, so client alignment is crucial. Secondary goals might include acquiring new users or increasing average order value (AOV).

Make sure new user acquisition is tracked in both the sales platform (overall) and search ads (platform-specific). This allows you to measure and report on new acquisition bidding strategies.

To measure AOV, implement basket-level data tracking to identify products with the highest AOV. This lets you test bidding on these products separately and measure any uplift.

Often, brand awareness is the most difficult objective to track, and each client will have different ideas on tracking it (e.g., clicks, sessions, views from videos, reach, impressions, etc). 

Some will look deeper, such as brand lift studies (limited to high spenders), direct traffic growth, returning user growth or brand traffic growth. 

It’s likely a combination of these factors and others. The key is to discuss these options with the client and, once agreed upon, make them the focus of advertising measurement, optimization and reporting.

Dig deeper: How to track and measure PPC campaigns

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4. Reporting

With clear and measurable goals and objectives agreed upon, reporting should reflect this as transparently and plainly as possible.

The CEO, CFO, head of sales or any member of the marketing team should be able to understand and interpret a report in the context of the priority and sub-priority objectives agreed upon.

A real-time dashboard is ideal because stakeholders can access reports from any time period without needing frequent email requests for specific data. It should reflect the agreed-upon KPIs for each campaign and metrics related to important objectives like profitability. Organize priority objectives on separate pages to avoid confusion.

You can use a simple test by asking a colleague not involved in the account if they can clearly identify the campaign objectives just by looking at the dashboard structure. 

If someone who also creates dashboards for clients can’t recognize the objectives within 30 seconds, CEOs and CFOs who don’t regularly view dashboards will likely struggle, too. 

Be patient with client feedback on the dashboard’s appearance and data content. Once they’re satisfied, your job is done. It’s also helpful to clearly state specific goals on the dashboard and define where each campaign stands in the sales funnel. 

This transparency is crucial, especially for new team members or those who don’t frequently review dashboards.

Dig deeper: 3 steps for effective PPC reporting and analysis

5. Consistent and structured communication 

With reporting nailed down, you have the foundation for consistent and structured communication among the different client stakeholders.

Carry out monthly report check-ins with your own interpretation of the report, as data alone will rarely tell the whole story and provide context. 

This can be communicated through regular weekly or bi-weekly comms with your day-to-day contact, most likely with the client’s marketing team. 

If possible, build in quarterly and annual reviews. This enables you and the client to regularly take a step back and monitor the overall progress of the objectives. 

Make sure that finance, sales and other leadership stakeholders within the company are brought into these meetings/calls to discuss the overall strategy and reconfirm on their side if their road map hasn’t changed. 

Don’t just rely on the marketing team to keep everyone updated. Often, there will be new members of the leadership team who weren’t involved in the initial discussions, so regularly reaffirming objectives and strategies will be welcomed. 

How often have you left annual reviews with the business leadership team feeling disappointed due to negative feedback? 

It was supposed to be a moment to celebrate the year-on-year increase in conversions and lower CPA, which you thought were the main campaign goals. 

However, it turns out the increased leads are low quality, and there are fewer sales conversions (thanks to the sales team for the updated information). Without their input and involvement, this issue wouldn’t have been identified.

These meetings require more preparation and can be stressful, as opinionated individuals, some of whom have bad memories, will scrutinize everything about the campaigns. However, your consistent and transparent reporting on agreed-upon metrics will serve you well. 

Issues like low-quality leads would have been caught earlier when setting primary objectives. (Remember, you should’ve gained access to the client’s HubSpot account initially, integrated it into our measurement setup and included it in our comprehensive report dashboard.)

As we’ve seen in the past few eventful years for online advertising, markets can significantly fluctuate. As the business goalposts shift, then so should your campaign approach. 

In the case of the insurance company mentioned earlier, after a year with their initial strategy, the annual review showed increased brand recognition and a small number of high-quality leads. 

Market analysis revealed that many competitors had exited the search markets, leading to a 30% decrease in average CPC compared to the inflated numbers of the previous year. 

After reviewing forecasting data, the company decided to pivot and revise its main objective to focus more on increasing lead numbers while preserving quality, with brand awareness becoming a secondary priority.

To achieve this, they decided to increase their marketing budget. Previously, their budget wasn’t sufficient for testing search ads. While lead generation was a secondary priority, they now have enough funds to give paid search a fair trial and increase lead volume to align with their primary objective. 

Their successful brand awareness campaign on YouTube over the past year featured innovative, engaging video ads that bolstered the company’s market reputation and established a stronger authority bias. 

This led to higher conversion rates and a more efficient return on investment from paid search than if they had launched the ads a year earlier, when they had minimal market presence and trust, resulting in higher average CPCs.

The scenario happened because of direct communication and clear reporting of primary objectives with senior stakeholders. It’s crucial to have everything agreed upon set up and performing well through the first four steps. 

However, if this isn’t regularly communicated to company decision-makers, you won’t be able to react swiftly and capitalize on market opportunities as they arise.

Dig deeper: How to deliver PPC results to executives: Get out of the weeds

In 2023, Google’s Gary Illyes stated that links are no longer the third most important Google ranking factor.

Was he lying?

A recent study by Internet Marketing Ninjas showed that over 96% of websites in the Top 10 search results have more than 1,000 backlinks from unique domains.

And only 0.3% have less than 100.

Clearly, websites that rank well in Google Search tend to have more high-quality backlinks.

What is the key to earning those precious nods from other websites?

Content-based link building.

What is content-based link building?

Content-based link building is a strategy used in SEO to acquire backlinks by creating and promoting high-quality content.

Instead of actively soliciting links from other websites, which can be seen as spammy or manipulative, content-based link building focuses on creating valuable, informative or entertaining content that naturally attracts links from other sites.

What types of content tend to earn the most links?

There are two critical elements: relevance and value.

Your content should resonate with other websites, filling a gap in their content or sparking a new idea.

Think long-form content – comprehensive guides, groundbreaking research, visually stunning infographics and forward-thinking opinion pieces – content with a certain “stickiness” that encourages other sites to link back to it as a trusted authority.

Content that attracts high-quality links often falls into certain categories, including:

• Case studies
• Industry reports
• Controversial or opinionated pieces
• Interviews with industry experts

How to write link-worthy content

Creating content that attracts links isn’t rocket science. You simply need to focus on providing helpful information that answers the burning questions of your target audience.

When you do, you’ll become the default authority in your industry.

Readers respond to engaging headlines, subheadings and eye-catching visuals that segment the text.

To add credibility, illustrate your points with specific data and relatable examples that resonate with your audience.

Dig deeper: How to create linkable assets with ChatGPT

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7 effective content-based link building strategies

Want to turbocharge your website’s visibility? Focus on building quality backlinks with these seven strategies.

1. Create linkable assets

Develop valuable resources like infographics, whitepapers or interactive tools that naturally attract links. These linkable assets provide unique value that other sites will want to reference and share with their audience, helping you earn valuable backlinks.

2. Guest posting

Reach out to relevant websites in your niche and offer to write a high-quality guest post. This lets you tap into their audience while earning a backlink to your site. But make sure to choose only reputable sites that are aligned with your target audience.

3. Broken link building

Find broken links on relevant websites, then reach out to the site owner and offer your content as a replacement. This technique helps site owners fix their broken links while allowing you to earn a valuable backlink and demonstrate your expertise.

4. Skyscraper technique

Find popular content in your niche, then create an even better version. Reach out to sites linking to the original piece and let them know about your improved resource. If your content is truly valuable, many of these sites will update their links.

5. Expert roundups

Create a roundup post featuring insights from industry experts. Reach out to these experts and let them know they’ve been featured. Many will share the post with their audience, driving traffic and earning natural links.

6. Resource pages

Many websites have resource pages that link to helpful content on a specific topic. Find relevant resource pages in your niche and reach out to suggest your content as a valuable addition. If your resource truly adds value, you can earn a high-quality link.

7. Digital PR

Create newsworthy content like original research, surveys or industry reports. Pitch this content to journalists and publications in your niche, and if they cover your story, you’ll earn authoritative links from trusted media sites.

The key to any link building strategy is to focus on providing genuine value. Your content needs to be link-worthy – something that other sites would want to reference and share with their audience to enhance the user experience.

Dig deeper: How to use digital PR to drive backlinks and business growth

The role of social media in content-based link building

Today’s social media landscape offers a unique chance to build relationships and earn links.

Get your audience buzzing by asking thought-provoking questions, sparking lively discussions and responding to comments.

As your social engagement rises, you’ll naturally attract links from people who stumble upon your content.

Another tactic is to mention influencers and thought leaders when sharing your content. If you’ve referenced their work or included their insights, tag them in your social posts, and many will reshare the post with their followers, expanding your reach and increasing your chances of earning links.

Connect with journalists and publications in your industry. Engage with their posts, and when the timing is right, pitch your content for a chance to land valuable backlinks and boost your brand’s visibility.

Remember, link building is about more than just creating great content – it’s about getting that content in front of the right people. Harness the power of social media to promote your content, build relationships and get those high-quality links pointing to your site.

The future of link building: Adapting to the rise of AI-generated content

The future of content is being rewritten by AI and the landscape is shifting rapidly.

These days, artificial intelligence is cranking out incredibly realistic content at lightning speed, making it easy for marketers to whip up social media posts, blog articles and ad copy.

But while this tech is undeniably cool, it’s also making link building a bit of a puzzle.

The web is awash with AI-generated content, making it tough to cut through the noise and earn those prized high-quality backlinks.

What will give you a unique advantage is your human touch. It’s all about tapping into people’s emotions, sharing real-life experiences and offering genuine perspectives – things that AI systems are still struggling to master.

With AI-generated content on the rise, creating truly exceptional content is more crucial than ever. Here are three things to keep in mind when generating link-worthy AI content.

• Prioritize E-E-A-T: Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines are more important than ever. Create content that showcases your unique expertise and experiences to build trust with your target audience.
• Focus on user intent: Instead of just targeting keywords, create content that addresses the underlying needs and questions of your target audience. Use tools like Answer the Public to uncover the topics and queries that users are searching for.
• Experiment with new formats: While long-form content can be great for link building, don’t be afraid to experiment with shorter, more visual formats like infographics, videos and interactive tools. These can be highly shareable and help you stand out in a sea of text-heavy content.

AI may be wreaking havoc on the link building landscape, but it also presents new opportunities for those willing to adapt and innovate.

By focusing on creating unique, valuable content that meets the needs of your target audience, you can continue to earn high-quality backlinks and establish your website as a go-to resource in your industry.

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Google is rolling out Local Services Ads on its Maps app, starting with iOS, to help advertisers generate more leads directly from the navigation platform.

Why it matters. This expansion brings local business ads to a highly-intent user base actively searching for nearby services, potentially increasing lead generation for advertisers.

How it works. Google will automatically create and display ads on Maps using businesses’ current Local Services Ads data.

The catch. Advertisers can’t opt out of Maps placement without also pausing their Search ads.

Why we care. This could be good news for advertisers with a chance at increased visibility on Google Maps, providing exposure to users actively searching for local services, potentially at the moment of need. However, advertisers should also be aware that this bundling limits flexibility in campaign management and may affect budget allocation strategies

Key details.

• Launch limited to iOS version of Google Maps mobile app
• Uses existing ad data and user reviews to create ads
• No additional data required from advertisers
• Billing and pricing remain the same as Search ads
• Advertisers only charged for qualified leads
• Existing bids will be used for Maps ads

First spotted. This announcement was spotted on Matt McGee on X. He shared the email he received:

Examples of it live. Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz spotted a few examples on a search:

Between the lines. This move leverages Google’s dominant position in local search and navigation to create new ad inventory.

The bottom line. For local businesses, this update could increase visibility to potential customers when they’re looking for services, but it also binds Maps and Search ad placements together.

Google seems to have a bug where it has not indexed new content across both large and smaller publishers over the past several hours. The issue seemed to have started at about 5 p.m. ET, when Google Search was not showing most of the new content that content creators were publishing to their websites.

What are we seeing. Sites as large as AP News, CNN, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Fox News, CNBC and even small sites like the Search Engine Roundtable, are all seeing issues with new content not being shown in the Google Search results.

This can be a Google Search bug with indexing or serving or maybe some rendering issue with the Google Search interface.

Here are some examples of the Google Search results filtered to show content published in the past hour from some of these publications that publish dozens of stories per hour. You can see some sites have no pages shown for content published on them in the past hour, some have one, some have three and so on:

Checking Google Search tools. So when I was debugging this after covering this issue a few hours ago on the Search Engine Roundtable, I noticed the story I published on this news was not indexed by Google and is still not indexed a few hours later. The content published on this site normally gets indexed within minutes by Google Search.

Google Search Console’s URL inspection tool still says the URL is not indexed, hours later:

When I search for the story headline, filter by content published recently, or even search by the URL of the story, Google Search is not returning it.

No word from Google yet. I have reached out to Google but have still not heard back on this issue. Google has still not published an issue update on the Google Search Status dashboard – I suspect they will eventually.

Spam update the issue. Is it possible that the June 2024 spam update broke Google Search? That is hard to say and it is, of course, just speculation. But we know with the last core update, Elizabeth Tucker from Google said their main goal was to ensure that algorithm update did not break Google. We also know that sometimes Google experiments cause issues in Google Search.

Others having issues. I posted the news on social media, including X and there are a lot of folks noticing this issue now. Just click through to my post on X and you’ll see a lot of the replies and quotes:

Why we care. If you produce content, like a news publication, and notice a drop in Google traffic over the past several hours – this may be why.

Hopefully Google will fix it and reply with more detail. Google clearly wants to ensure searchers can find the content, especially new content, that they are looking for. So I am sure Google takes these reports seriously.

Google is aware of the reports, but has not yet replied with any details. We will update this story when we hear back.

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White-label link building can transform your SEO strategy. It allows you to focus on other crucial parts of your digital marketing or an SEO agency.

How? 

You simply outsource your link building to a professional team while keeping full control. 

Sounds easy, right?

Specialized agencies create backlinks for your brand. They handle the entire process, often including creating content and linkable assets.

Why is this important? 

Picking the right white-label link building agency is key. A team of experts will deliver results without compromising your brand.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• How to wisely select the best white-label link building services.
• How it works.
• What to look for in a service provider.

What are white-label link building services?

White-label link building services involve a specialized agency building backlinks on behalf of another agency. The primary agency then presents these links to their clients as their own work.

These services are essential for SEO campaigns but require specialized skills, which many digital marketing and SEO agencies lack.

This is where white-label services come in.

Who benefits from white-label link building:

• SEO agencies without a dedicated link building team. They need to deliver high-quality links but lack the resources to do so internally.
• Independent SEO experts. They may need to scale their efforts without the time or manpower to handle link building themselves.

White-label link building services include everything from guest posting to securing high authority backlinks – or, simply, websites that have demonstrated credibility and trustworthiness and are typically rewarded with organic visibility by search engines. The main goal is to boost a client’s search engine rankings through effective strategies.

Here’s why you might consider white-label tactics:

• Your client demands high-quality links, but your team lacks the expertise.
• Your in-house team is overwhelmed with requests.
• You want to offer link building services without the overhead of hiring a full team.
• Testing the waters with such services before committing to an in-house team.

Professional services allow you to access experts who know how to build effective links quickly and efficiently.

How white-label link building works

The white-label method involves a specialized agency managing the entire process of acquiring backlinks on behalf of another agency. This allows the primary agency to offer comprehensive link building services to its clients without having to build an in-house team.

Here’s how a professional white-label link building team operates:

Step 1: Understanding client needs

The process begins with understanding a client’s product, service and goals. 

The primary agency provides this information to the white-label partner, outlining the target landing pages and desired outcomes.

Step 2: Identifying relevant opportunities

The white-label agency identifies the most suitable websites. They focus on sites that align with the client’s goals and industry, ensuring the links are relevant.

Step 3: Creating content and outreach

Next, the agency creates high-quality content. This can include guest posts, linkable assets or other types of content. 

They then contact publishers, collaborating to secure placements and ensuring the content is published on authoritative sites – sites that are helpful, useful and trusted and respected by other websites, people and search engines.

Step 4: Reporting and analytics

Once the links are placed, the agency provides detailed reports and analytics. 

The primary agency can then present these results to their clients under their own branding, maintaining full transparency and control.

Why hire a white-label link building agency?

Here’s a list of only a few advantages you can get from hiring a professional white-label link building agency:

• Expertise: These agencies hire experienced outreach specialists who know all the ins and outs of getting effective links. Their expertise ensures high-quality results that meet the specific needs of different industries.
• Connections: Pro agencies have built relationships with trusted publishers and websites. They have the tools and connections to secure high-quality results faster than an in-house team.
• Quality links: Professional agencies use best practices to get quality backlinks from reputable sources, boosting your SEO.
• Scalability: A good agency can easily adjust to your requirements. Whether you need a few high-quality links or many, they can manage it effectively.
• Full service: Such agencies often go beyond just link building. They can create content and offer other relevant services, such as SEO audits, keyword research, and social media management, adding value for you or your clients.

By hiring a team of experts, SEO firms and independent specialists can deliver excellent link building services, improving their clients’ SEO results.

How to choose a white-label link building agency

As you may already have guessed, choosing the right team is essential for delivering top results to your clients. 

Here are key factors to consider before making up your mind.

Case studies

A reputable agency should have a portfolio of genuine, successful case studies that showcase their expertise and specialization in your niche.

Look for detailed examples of their past work and verify their authenticity to gauge the agency’s ability to deliver the results you need.

Reviews

Client reviews provide insights into an agency’s performance. 

Platforms like Clutch and G2 offer scores and detailed feedback from previous clients. Checking these reviews will help you assess the agency’s reliability and effectiveness.

For example, if you search “top link building companies” on Clutch, here’s what you’ll see:

Realistic guarantees

A reliable agency will give you a clear idea of the results you can expect. 

They provide realistic expectations and focus on delivering quality links rather than quantity. Therefore, they should specify how many links they can build and their quality. 

Steer clear of agencies that make unrealistic promises.

Safe link building practices only

Ensure the agency uses only no-risk or low-risk methods.

These can be, for example:

• Guest posting: Writing and publishing valuable articles on reputable websites in your niche to build authority and reach a wider audience.
• Skyscraper technique: Creating high-quality content that improves upon existing popular content and reaching out to sites linking to the original.
• Connectively (ex-HARO): Providing expert quotes to journalists which can potentially result in backlinks and increased visibility.
• Linkable assets: Creating valuable content like infographics, videos and comprehensive guides that attract natural backlinks.

Using these methods indicates they focus on proven tactics for building backlinks.

Getting just what you need

Depending on your business niche and requirements, you can get links only from websites suitable for your needs. This helps you maintain control over the quality and relevance of the links being built.  

Many agencies skip this step, but it’s a valuable feature to look for.

That’s why we have it at Editorial.Link.

Note: Once you choose an agency, remember that detailed reporting is crucial. The agency should provide clear and comprehensive reports that show the progress and impact of its efforts. This transparency helps you keep track of the campaign’s effectiveness.

Choosing a white-label agency: Red flags

Knowing what to avoid when choosing your perfect white-label agency will help you make a smart choice and safeguard your investment. 

Here are some red flags to keep an eye on.

Low-quality link building

Low-quality link building can damage your SEO efforts. To ensure a white-label agency avoids these practices, ask for their methods, request case studies and inquire about their approach to maintaining quality and compliance with search engine guidelines.

Avoid agencies that use link farms, which are sites created solely to host paid links. These sites often have poor content and low relevance. 

For example, Google has deindexed many websites for deceptive link schemes, excessive link exchanges, paid links and other manipulative practices that violate its guidelines.

Similarly, beware of Private Blog Networks (PBNs) and forum links, as they offer minimal to no SEO value and can even result in penalties.

Unrealistic guarantees

Be cautious of agencies that make grand promises, like guaranteeing top rankings or a massive number of backlinks quickly. 

These “pie in the sky” promises are often too good to be true.

Low prices

Quality comes at a price. And obtaining high-quality links requires significant effort and resources.

Attractive offers like “600+ links for $10” on platforms like Fiverr.com often result in low-quality links that do more harm than good. So your best bet is to stay away from such “experts.”

Building a solid link profile requires investment; cheap solutions rarely deliver the desired results.

By avoiding these pitfalls, you can select a team that provides genuine value and supports your SEO goals.

Conclusion

White-label link building is a smart move for agencies and SEO experts. It lets you offer top-notch services without overextending your resources. This approach ensures quality results and allows you to focus on other important things.

A good white-label program is flexible and can be customized to fit your needs and your clients’ requirements, making the process smooth and efficient for everyone.

Partnering with a reputable team of experts at Editorial.Link means you can provide your clients with an added service that enhances the work you’re already doing.

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Traditional search engines like Google, once the uncontested gatekeepers of online discovery, are now sharing the stage with the likes of TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest. These social platforms are becoming new hubs for information discovery. 

This shift, which I call the migration to social search, is largely driven by Gen Z and millennials, who prefer the visual, interactive and community-driven nature of these platforms. 

For brands, this means rethinking strategies to meet audiences where they spend time and engage most.

This article tackles the factors fueling social search, from user-generated content (UGC) to the power of authenticity. We’ll also discuss how you can adapt your brand’s marketing approach to thrive in this changing landscape, offering practical insights for leveraging social search effectively.

How social search is redefining online discovery

Social search is a major change from traditional search engines, focusing on social signals, user-generated content and community-driven discovery of information and brands.

Unlike traditional search engines like Google, which use algorithms to index and rank webpages by factors like keywords and backlinks, social search uses data from social platforms to provide more personalized and relevant results while still considering traditional search factors like keywords at times. 

Traditional search engines operate by users entering a query and getting a list of results based on the algorithm’s relevance. It can also be a friction-filled experience where publishers and brands are concerned with sending signals to Google instead of focusing on meeting audience needs. This can be frustrating for late millennials and Gen Z, who grew up with social platforms at the forefront of their online experience.

Social platforms, on the other hand, integrate users’ preferences, behaviors and interactions. This means search results are influenced by what the user regularly engages with, leading to a more personalized and dynamic search experience than traditional search.

For example, searching [best restaurants] on Google typically shows results based on online reviews and search rankings.

On social platforms like Instagram or TikTok, the same search emphasizes restaurants that friends, favorite creators and top influencers in their demographic have visited and tagged or are trending within their engaged communities.

Dig deeper: How to leverage social search for effective on-site optimization

The rise of social search among Gen Z and millennials

The move toward social search is led by Gen Z and millennials, who are digital natives and avid social media users. They tend to prefer social platforms’ interactive, visual and community-focused aspects for finding information and making choices.

Platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest have become essential tools for these audiences. TikTok, for instance, is not just a platform for entertainment but a powerful search tool where users can find everything from cooking recipes to travel tips, all delivered through engaging short-form videos. The hashtag system and algorithm-driven feed ensure that users constantly discover new and relevant content based on their interests and the latest trends.

Instagram, with its visually rich environment, serves as a search engine for lifestyle content. Whether looking for fashion inspiration, home decor ideas or dining options, users rely on the visual content and influencer recommendations that populate their feeds.

Pinterest operates similarly but focuses on idea generation and project planning, making it a go-to for DIY enthusiasts and hobbyists. It has also become a place users turn to when they are ready to buy but seek inspiration, meaning it can be leveraged to gain conversions quickly when other platforms move users through the buyer journeys at a much slower pace. 

The preference for these platforms is rooted in their ability to provide instant, visually engaging and socially validated information. 

Gen Z and millennials trust recommendations from peers and content creators they follow, influencing their choices of brands and products. This makes social search a powerful tool for discovery and decision-making.

As these generations dominate digital engagement, social search’s influence will grow, compelling brands to adapt their strategies. 

Your brand must create content optimized for both traditional search engines and social platforms, leveraging UGC, engaging with communities meaningfully and repurposing content to ensure wide coverage across this emerging search universe.

Factors driving the migration

User-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is key in enhancing search relevance and engagement on social platforms. Brands like Gymshark have effectively used user-generated content on TikTok and Instagram to create a more engaging and authentic connection with their audience.

By encouraging users to share their own content featuring Gymshark products, the brand amplifies its reach and enriches the pool of content available for search marketing queries.

This user-driven content includes workout routines, progress photos and testimonials, all tagged with the brand’s hashtags and shared widely within the community. This enables Gymshark to gain visibility for searches it wouldn’t ordinarily rank for.

Gymshark’s use of UGC, especially during Gymshark66, has turned its customers into brand ambassadors who generate buzz and foster community around the brand.

This content boosts the brand’s visibility and authenticity, making it more relatable and trustworthy to potential customers while continuing to develop fanatics and advocates​.

Trust and authenticity

Social search thrives on trust and authenticity, leveraging peer/creator/influencer reviews, testimonials and real-life experiences to influence purchase decisions.

Unlike traditional search results that may feel impersonal, social search results often include personal endorsements and experiences from real users. This peer validation is crucial for users who highly value the opinions of their peers and favorite influencers. 

Instagram and TikTok excel at providing these authentic experiences. When users search for product reviews or recommendations on these platforms, they often encounter genuine, unscripted content from everyday users. The algorithm will also return influencers they trust. 

This layer of social proof is powerful, as it builds credibility and influences purchasing behavior more effectively than traditional advertising ever could​.

Dig deeper: Search, social and retail: The future of digital brand experiences

Visual and interactive content

The appeal of visual content and short-form videos is a significant driver of the migration to social search.

Younger audiences, particularly Gen Z, are drawn to visual content’s dynamic and engaging nature, which is more immersive and easier to consume than text-heavy formats.

Social platforms cater perfectly to these preferences by prioritizing video content that demands attention and conveys information quickly.

Short-form videos, in particular, are highly effective for social search. They offer concise, engaging snippets that are easy to watch and share. This format aligns well with the fast-paced consumption habits of younger audiences. 

For example, TikTok’s algorithm curates content based on user interactions, ensuring that the most relevant and engaging videos surface at the top, thus enhancing users’ overall search experience​ .

And here is where an “ace” of social search emerges. Social algorithms can show users relevant content before they even search for it. This means brands can engage users earlier in their journey, placing themselves at the center of the conversation from the start – something traditional search can’t do.

Additionally, social platforms’ interactive elements (e.g., likes, shares and particularly the extension of conversation via comments) further boost engagement and content visibility. 

Users are more likely to trust and act on content widely endorsed by their peers, creating a feedback loop that continuously elevates the most relevant and popular content within social searches.

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Implications for brands and marketers

Adapting SEO strategies

As social search gains prominence, you must adapt your brand’s SEO strategies to include platforms beyond Google, embracing this search universe.

This means understanding the unique algorithms and search behaviors on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest. 

Traditional SEO practices such as keyword optimization, link building and on-page SEO remain relevant but must be integrated with social search techniques alongside this, allowing you to amplify what is possible with search marketing.

Brands should create content optimized for both traditional search engines and social platforms. This requires thorough research to understand platform-specific keywords and hashtags and integrate them into content. 

Engaging with trending topics (e.g., “challenges”) further enhances visibility and relevance in social search results through continuous trend monitoring.

Dig deeper: How to navigate SEO in a multi-platform world

Content creation and distribution

To succeed in social search, you must develop a robust content creation and distribution strategy.

• Leverage influencers/creators: Collaborate with influencers aligned with your brand values to amplify reach. Their endorsement can enhance engagement and credibility, especially when integrated as contributors to your online blog content.
• Engage with communities: Actively participate in relevant online communities to boost brand presence and cultivate an engaged fan base. Respond to comments, join discussions and share UGC.
• Content quality is key: Prioritize high-quality visual and video content that is engaging, shareable and visually appealing to capture audience attention.
• Repurpose and recycle content: Extend reach by repurposing content across platforms. For instance, a blog post can be transformed into Instagram stories, a Pinterest infographic or a TikTok video. This strategy maximizes content value and effectively reduces SEO and marketing costs by leveraging each activation.

Dig deeper: Why creator-led content marketing is the future of search

A social search case study: Sephora’s ‘Black Beauty is Beauty’ campaign 

Sephora’s “Black Beauty is Beauty” campaign exemplifies the effective use of social search to enhance brand engagement and authenticity.

This initiative celebrates Black beauty and amplifies Black voices, leveraging social search strategies to create a resonant and inclusive movement at a time when traditional search missed the intent of audiences.

UGC

• Sephora encouraged customers and influencers to share their beauty stories using the hashtag #BlackBeautyIsBeauty on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. 
• This strategy boosted campaign visibility and fostered a sense of community. Customers shared authentic content, such as photos and videos of their beauty routines, which increased the campaign’s credibility and relatability.

Trust and authenticity

• The campaign’s success hinged on trust and authenticity. By partnering with Black influencers alongside black-owned brands, Sephora ensured that the campaign message reached a wider audience through trusted voices. 
• This peer validation was critical in building credibility and influencing purchase decisions, making the campaign more effective than traditional advertising.

Visual and interactive content

• Sephora utilized visually rich content, including a short film, to demand audience attention. Makeup tutorials, product reviews and personal beauty stories were shared widely, enhancing user engagement. 
• The visually appealing content ensured the campaign was both informative (meeting search needs also) and captivating.

Sephora’s “Black Beauty is Beauty” campaign showcases the power of social search. By leveraging UGC, fostering trust and authenticity and creating engaging visual content, 

Sephora successfully connected with its audience and amplified its inclusive message. This case study highlights the importance of adapting to social search trends and building meaningful community connections.

Adapting your brand strategy to the era of social search

The migration to social search represents a fundamental shift in how audiences discover and engage with content online. As platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest continue to redefine the search landscape, brands must evolve to meet users where they are most active and receptive. 

By embracing user-generated content, fostering authenticity and creating visually engaging experiences, you can tap into the power of social search to build deeper connections with your audiences.

The key takeaway is clear: social search is not just a trend but a transformative force in digital marketing. Brands that adapt quickly, prioritizing community engagement and platform-native content, will be best positioned to thrive in this new era. 

As we navigate this search universe, the opportunities for meaningful interaction and impactful brand storytelling are boundless. The future of search is social, and the time to embrace it is now.

Dig deeper: Search universe analysis: A deep dive

As technology advances and high-speed internet connects more people, businesses of all sizes are realizing the power of video content to build their identity and engage with audiences.

This article explores how brands are leveraging video to stand out in a crowded market. We’ll look at why video is so effective, examine case studies of successful video marketing strategies and discuss the various forms video content can take.

Video: The secret weapon for brand differentiation and growth

Video is a powerful medium because it leverages human-to-human connection.

From my experience, there is nothing more convincing than a founder or CEO putting their heart on the line to educate a consumer on why they built their service or product, combined with a demonstration to help showcase the advantages. 

Video can also take on many other forms to drive conversion/sales, such as one of my personal favorite case studies, Purple.

Before developing my own agency, I worked for Molio. In this YouTube creative and media buying agency, Purple blessed us with the opportunity to iterate their current creative while also applying deep analysis.

I’ll never forget spending $50,000 in month one to $500,000 by month three during a very unique time for YouTube advertising in 2017.

The results were staggering, as we had the Goldilocks product demonstration video to drive intent while leveraging our Sasquatch videos to drive user engagement through earned views and subscribers. Both were instrumental in delivering top-funnel reach, bringing users into the brand while generating intent through the egg test.

What I find most interesting about brand building with video is how long top-funnel engagement can last. In consulting with Purple, we were able to grow past Casper in search, but what I think is more impressive is how people search for Purple on YouTube even today. 

The insight garnered from the YouTube Ads helped us scale our investment into Sasquatch as a core character, bringing him back for Christmas and many key holidays throughout the year to drive additional earned media.

Dig deeper: How advertisers can capitalize on vertical video

Scaling video in B2B and B2C markets

Depending on various factors, video can have a profound impact or sometimes fall flat, but no other medium offers the same level of consumer feedback. 

In my experience with B2B and B2C brands, video is particularly effective for B2C, especially ecommerce. However, B2B brands that master video gain a significant advantage.

Despite being harder to scale, video is essential due to its popularity, engagement and receptiveness. If you believe in your brand, using video is a must.

If you’re unsure about video, consider that every major ad and social platform continues to heavily invest in it, like TikTok and Instagram Reels. 

As Gary Vaynerchuk said, “Every business is a media company,” and I fully agree. This sentiment has only deepened over the last 10 years. 

Producing diverse content formats

From consulting for numerous brands, I’ve seen my clients all operate as media companies with diverse strategies. Running an agency and working with small businesses offers a unique view into how each brand manages its media, even within the same industry.

A common question from clients is about the type of video content they produce and how much is done in-house versus outsourced.

The most common type of video content aligns with the study below, which showcases primarily social media and short-form content followed by video ads. 

I would probably rank tutorials and education higher than short-form content. Tutorials and education are extremely important in the beginning phases as you reach new customers.

The most important factor in video content development is variation. I recommend creating multiple variations of your content to understand audience engagement and feedback, allowing for better future iterations. 

This approach should also apply to production, using different creators and outlets to gain the best insight into consumer engagement. 

The more varied the content, the better you can understand and reach your consumers, ultimately driving the KPIs your brand aims for.

Viral video marketing in action

I’m fascinated by those focused on building a brand identity through video. For example, “Nicole The Intern” impressed me by successfully growing the #smasharmy and rebranding @mixoloshe, a non-alcoholic mocktail, during a challenging time to go viral.

Nicole’s goal was to get 500,000 followers to keep her job. She used video, consistently uploading clips of smashing drinks, which created the #smasharmy. 

Now aiming for 1 million subscribers, her impact is clear: the website has a “Here for Nicole The Intern” pop-up, showing she drives major traffic. 

Her story has become central to the brand’s strategy. Small businesses can learn from her use of video, consistent uploads and perseverance. A visually appealing product helps, too.

Building brand identity through strategic video content

Building brand identity takes time. There’s no perfect formula, but most brands start with or need video to reach and engage a large audience. 

Every company is a media company to some extent, whether working with top agencies or having an intern go viral. The key is to prioritize video and try different approaches. 

This variety allows for analyzing what works, giving an edge when everyone can easily make videos. Ultimately, varied content and analysis help brands scale across platforms.

Pinterest is rolling out new AI-powered ad tools and measurement partnerships to drive better performance and brand safety for advertisers.

The big picture. Pinterest is investing heavily in generative AI capabilities for more engaging, personalized ad formats and automating campaign optimization.

What’s new. Pinterest is launching an “Ad Labs” innovation program to test prototypes like:

• Personalized background generation using its visual search AI to create aesthetically tailored lifestyle backgrounds for Product Pins.

• Interactive, shoppable collage ads that let users curate brand imagery, with early tests driving strong engagement.

It’s also expanding brand safety validation through partnerships with measurement firms IAS and DoubleVerify.

Why we care. These AI-powered updates show a desire for Pinterest’s to evolve their ad platform with cutting-edge technology that can drive performance, effective personalisation, efficiency, improved brand safety and unique experiences for advertisers aiming to effectively reach its audience.

The AI boost. Pinterest Performance+, currently in closed beta, uses automation and AI to optimize campaigns for better cost efficiency.

• Early tests showed 10%+ improvements in cost per acquisition for conversion campaigns.
• It also reduced campaign setup time by 50% thanks to automated inputs.

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What they’re saying. “We saw the unique opportunity with collages to take customers from inspiration to action with a single ad creative,” said Wayfair’s Sandro Corsaro, an early Ad Labs partner.

Brand safety matters. Pinterest says 99% of measurable ad impressions were rated brand safe by IAS and DoubleVerify during testing.

Limitation. The collage ads are initially limited to select brands like Nike, Wayfair and NYX Cosmetics, with more advertisers to come.

What’s next. Expect further AI-powered upgrades as Pinterest aims to stand out through automation and personalization at scale.

Google is making it easier for merchants to pull in product listings from their sites through automated “website crawl” feeds in Merchant Center.

How it works. Google uses structured data markup on merchant websites to automatically extract up-to-date product information like titles, pricing, availability and images.

The big picture. The automated feeds aim to reduce the work required to keep product listings current as assortment and pricing changes – a challenge with traditional feed file uploads.

Why we care. This update could help reduce manual grunt work when it comes to updating product listings in the Merchant Center, although there may be a learning curve to ensure all products have the correct schema markup, which may not be the advertisers’ role in the marketing team.

The details. To use automated feeds, merchants must implement required schema.org markup for product details like:

• Title Google streamlines product listings via website crawl
• Price [price]
• Availability [availability]
• Image [image_link]

Additional attributes like GTIN, brand, size and condition can further enrich listings when provided via markup or supplemental feeds.

What’s new. Some merchants now see an alternative “Website” feed experience that allows them to simply toggle automated product ingestion on/off in the Merchant Center.

Products get automatically added or removed from the Merchant Center based on the website crawl.
It complements other product data sources without duplication.

The challenges. Proper structured data implementation is key, as is managing crawl directives via sitemaps and robots.txt to avoid indexing issues.

What they’re saying. “Supplemental feeds provide additional information…and you can refresh [them] more often,” per Google’s automated feed documentation.

Between the lines. Automated feeds align with Google’s push toward entities and structured data as core to its modern “AI-first” approach across products.

First spotted. This update was first spotted on Thomas Eccel’s profile:

Bottom line. By reducing manual feed labor, automated product ingestion could lower barriers for merchants to participate across Google’s growing array of surfaces like Search, Shopping, Images and more.

Google is notifying some advertisers that they must transition away from paying for Google Ads via credit or debit card by July 31 or face account suspension.

The big picture. The move is part of Google’s effort to steer high-spend advertisers toward more automated payment methods better suited for scaling ad investment.

Details. Impacted advertisers will only be allowed to use bank-based payment options going forward:

• Monthly Invoicing (Google’s recommended approach) with 30-day payment windows
• Direct Debit for Automatic Payments, where available

Cards will no longer be accepted for these accounts, which Google says provides “flexibility” and “control” benefits for high-growth spenders.

Why we care. While this creates a system for more frictionless, automated monetization for Google, this could lead to account suspension and cashflow issues for advertisers.

The catch. While more automated, the change eliminates a popular payment option that provides cashflow flexibility via cards for some advertisers.

Who is affected. Google is notifying impacted “high-growth” accounts throughout 2024, though criteria like spend thresholds are unclear. Manager accounts must also update billing centrally.

The email & reaction. Jeremy Brandt founder of We Buy Houses shared the email he received:

Brandt isn’t happy with this update:

• “This change will cost us $250k+ per year. It does not benefit the customer in any way. In speaking with other business owners, I think this is going to cause a lot more negative press/blowback than may have been expected.”

What they’re saying. “The Monthly Invoicing billing method is best suited for your account(s) given the flexibility it provides high-growth customers,” Google told impacted advertisers.

Ginny Marvin, Google Ads Liaison, posted about the update on X:

• “We notified a small segment of advertisers that the billing options available for their Ads accounts are changing. This means that some customers will move to bank payments via monthly invoicing or direct debit from a bank account. To make this transition as easy as possible, we already launched new tools and features to help customers through this process and to ensure minimal disruption to their accounts.”

What’s next. July 31 is the deadline for impacted advertisers to update billing methods before facing potential ad account suspensions.

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Google is rolling out an update to attribution models in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to more accurately credit paid search campaigns for driving conversions.

Why it matters. The change addresses an issue where conversions that should be attributed to paid search clicks were sometimes incorrectly assigned to organic search, especially for single-page applications.

Why we care. This attribution adjustment in GA4 is aimed at giving advertisers more accurate data to make informed decisions, invest efficiently and optimize based on actual paid search performance – which is critical as measurement and attribution grow more complex.

How it works. Currently, the ‘gclid’ parameter that identifies a paid search click doesn’t always persist across pageviews.

The upcoming update will adjust how GA4 captures campaign data on the first event of each new page.
If users leave and return through a different channel, the attribution will update accordingly.

What to watch. The attribution fix may increase the number of conversions counted as coming from paid search campaigns.

This could have an impact on advertisers’ Ads campaign budgets and spending. Google recommends reviewing and adjusting budget caps before the update rolls out over the next two weeks.

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Between the lines. Accurate attribution has long been a challenge as user journeys grow more complex across multiple sessions and channels. This update aims to resolve a specific blind spot in how GA4 tracks paid search conversions.

The big picture. As Google moves toward a cookieless future with initiatives like Topics API, robust first-party analytics and attribution capabilities across its products will be crucial for advertisers.

Losing your job in SEO can happen for various reasons, such as redundancy, a shift in the company’s focus or performance issues. However, the reason doesn’t change the outcome.

What you need now is a well-crafted, step-by-step plan to not only survive but thrive in this situation. Here it is.

The SEO reality check you need to take

In May, my friend Nick LeRoy, who runs SEOJobs.com, wrote an article that shocked a lot of people in the SEO world.

The article’s first line raised a question, followed by a sobering thought: “Is SEO Truly Dying? SEO job listings are down -37% in Q1 of 2024 compared to 2023.”

A 37% reduction in job roles is a staggering difference.

We live in a tough economic time, and SEO is a growth marketing tactic, not a survival one.

Brands investing in SEO are doing so as part of a long-term plan to increase revenue for their business. However, in the current tough economic situation globally, growth is not on the minds of many businesses; survival is.

In addition, the recent Google algorithm updates have negatively affected thousands of websites in the publishing sector.

The reality check you need to take is a simple one.

SEO jobs are fewer.

This means that more SEOs are fighting for fewer roles, and we will lose many of them as they leave the industry.

There simply aren’t enough SEO roles to support an industry that surged thanks to a post-COVID boom in digital marketing demand.

And this is part of the issue.

Post COVID, we saw a huge rise in demand for SEO and related services as people realized the importance of digital marketing.

This saw a rise in agencies, fast growth for many and massive salary inflation.

However, a large part of this boom was that governments printed money to stay afloat, and people sat at home and spent their money online.

Today, things are different.

All of this is a nice way of saying, “It’s not your fault.”

And here we come to the first choice you need to make.

Are you going to stay in SEO?

People are often shocked to learn that I have only been a professional SEO for nine years. I’m 45 and spent 20 years of my life in the police.

This is my second career, and considering that the government will probably make me work into my 70s (unless I get filthy rich), I have become comfortable with the fact that I will likely have several other careers before that time.

Search engines of the future will not be the search engines of today.

SEO (as we know it) will probably not exist at all.

If you need a job in SEO, your first decision needs to be whether you want to stay in this business.

Or do you take this as an opportunity to reinvent yourself and your career?

You can reinvent yourself. I did it.

The day I left the police, I built a business from scratch that replaced my income in days.

And it wasn’t SEO.

I wrote blog posts, built websites, ran social media accounts… I did it all.

So, you should take a few days to consider what you want to do.

Is it time to make a shift? 

If it is, then this would probably be where we went into a different article entirely.

But we’re going to focus on getting you back into SEO.

So, let’s build that plan.

Dig deeper: The SEO career path: What it may look like and how to level up

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To freelance or not to freelance?

Freelancing can be a wonderful option for many in SEO.

It gives you absolute freedom and can save you a lot of money.

No commute to an office. You can also be more tax efficient if you set up your business as a company.

But you need to build up your clients, which can be hard. 

Freelancers generally charge less than agencies, and clients know this. Many people hate hiring agencies and seek freelance support because they won’t be tied into a contract.

But this can lead to a feast or famine approach as a freelancer.

Today, you have work. Tomorrow you don’t.

That can be the freelance life.

This is why so many freelancers are so active on social media. Because it lands them work.

Now, the thing is, you might have to freelance for a while before you land your next SEO role.

So, be prepared to set up freelance profiles for work on the usual freelance sites.

The more, the better.

But I want to focus on getting a job in SEO. Freelancing is great, but making money is a priority when you have bills and money leaving your bank.

So, let’s get back to it.

Update your CV and LinkedIn profile

This is kind of obvious, so I won’t dwell on it. Update your CV and LinkedIn profile.

If your CV includes links to work websites or social channels such as LinkedIn, ensure the links work.

Dig deeper: LinkedIn SEO guide: Optimizing your profile for more connections, better leads

Draw a timeline

You’ll need to set up a timeline based on your notice period.

If you have four weeks to find a new role, this will be tough, and you’ll have to make every day count.

With a two- or three-month notice period, you have more time and options.

However, if you have less time, such as a week (which can happen during redundancy or a probation period), you must make every hour count.

I suggest a timeline because there comes a point when you need to decide what route you’ll take. And how furiously you reach out to people.

I’ll also add this. Be prepared to walk away from marketing for a time.

My friend worked in a warehouse for nearly a year before landing his next marketing job.

Should you announce it?

We’ve all seen it. The social post announcement on X or Linkedin, where people tell others they are in the market for a new job.

We also see the ones where people are “starting to freelance,” and we equally know that it is possible that they lost their jobs and are now trying to start on their own.

If you are going down the freelance route, then announce it.

But I believe that if you are looking for a job, I have two views.

If your timeline is small (i.e., a week or a month), announce it.

Every day and hour counts.

But if you have longer, then don’t.

There are a few reasons for this, but when you announce you’re in the market, people know your exit will likely not be one you control. 

This is you saying, “I have no job. Can you help?”

If you have many connections, you’re bound to receive two things: messages of support and people wanting to know what has happened.

As great as these messages are, you should focus on getting a new job, not having your inbox full of goodwill and questions. 

There are pros and cons to this, but you never lose the ability to announce that you’re in the market for a job.

And if you have time on your side, make it count in your favor. 

Recruiters: Your first call

There are now some specialist recruiters in SEO, such as SEO For Hire. And yes, you should make a specialist agency your first call.

The reason is that these have already built up specific connections with people looking for SEOs. 

Next, make a list of local and large city recruitment agencies that you can call.

They might have vacancies, but they might not.

This is why we did the CV first; they’ll want you to send yours.

Message connections

This is where you reach out to as many key connections as possible on LinkedIn to get the ball rolling.

Here’s the message I used when I was in the market for a new job.

I advise starting with people you know physically and then moving to online connections.

Agency owners, heads of HR and heads of departments are people to message.

The aim here is to tell people that you’re now in the market for a job, and the next move is up to them.

You don’t know what’s going on inside their business.

• Issues with current staff.
• They landed a big client last week.
• They just had someone resign.

This is why you should reach out to as many as you can.

It’s also why you should keep your social profiles active.

Posting online is a small safety net as it gets you on the radar of others in your sector.

Use job sites

Job sites are great, but when you use these, you lose the advantage of connection. 

If you use recruiters or leverage your network, you have the advantage of people speaking with you and learning who you are and what you do, think and speak like.

This gives you an advantage.

Now, I’m not saying don’t apply for roles.

You’ll need to move quickly in your first few days, and you might find a perfect job.

Several specialist SEO job sites list the roles, and many SEO newsletters post roles they know exist.

Dig deeper: The latest jobs in search marketing

It didn’t work – what next?

For whatever reason, perhaps time or just a lack of luck, you have run out of road, and now, next month, you have no income.

This is not a great situation to be in.

Firstly, as I’ve said earlier, you might need to do something other than marketing for a while.

However, there is another route.

Audit your skills

Go through your skills and break them apart.

For example, my list would look like this:

• Website building
• SEO
• Social media marketing
• Newsletter building
• Copywriting
• Marketing 
• Blog writing
• Graphic design
• YouTube marketing
• AI 
• Prompt writing

Make a list and then start building some offers.

For example, I might create an offer such as “Website for $1,000, SEO for free.”

I might offer to build websites for $1,000 and then offer the basic SEO for that site for free.

Yes, this is cheap, too cheap. But that’s the point.

It’s an offer too good to say no to.

You can offer several low-cost, high-value offers and reach out to people.

Remember, when you reach out, you need to give them a reason behind your offer.

An example could be:

“Hi, I’m one of the most experienced digital marketers in the UK. I recently left a seven-figure agency to start my own business.

To celebrate, I’m offering deals on my services that would normally be charged at a far higher rate.

I’ve noticed that your (insert the problem they have).

Well, I can sort that out for you (insert fee and offer).

If you’d like to chat more, then let me know.

And here’s a link to some examples of my work.”

That message needs work, but it’s where you can start.

Build your offer and reach out to people next.

However, ask for 50% deposits upfront to build trust and cash flow. Or, in a service-based business, ask to be paid in advance.

If this kind of thing is not what you’re used to, that’s fine. You don’t have to do this. But if it is and you are struggling with offers, head over to an AI tool and use a prompt like this:

“I’m trying to launch my own freelancer business selling websites and SEO services. List some offers and package titles that would be good to pitch. Make the offer catchy and think of upsells and side sells we can offer once we’ve pitched. List me 10 offers that are low priced but high value and provide the name of the offer, the upsell and a recurring payment option for both SEO and web development services and suggested prices for each service, starting at £1,000.”

Here’s what I got:

This is just an idea.

You can change it, alter it and adapt it to your needs and skills.

Look, no one wants to be in the situation where we are unemployed.

It is a vile place to be.

If you’re here right now, what matters is that you take some time to think.

This might take an hour or a few days, depending on your situation.

But once you’ve had that time to think.

Now is the time to act.

Dig deeper: Will AI replace SEO professionals?

A short while after Google announced it would pause low-activity keywords, the Optmyzr team ran a study and got reactions from paid search experts to figure out how marketers may be affected, what shifts (if any) it would cause in advertiser management styles and what risks come with this update.

The big picture. Google’s plans to automatically pause long-idle ad keywords have sparked debate among marketers – some see it as overreach, while others say it’s overdue account maintenance.

What’s happening? Google will start automatically pausing search ad keywords and ad groups that have gone 13+ months without any impressions or activity. The change, initially met with mixed reactions, aims to streamline the management of stale entities.

The concerns. Some advertisers believe leaving dormant keywords maintains account history and relevance signals. Others fear prematurely pausing viable terms that see sporadic bursts of traffic.

The data. The Optmyzr study of over 9,400 Google Ads accounts found:

• 84% of accounts had 50%+ keywords with zero impressions in 13+ months.
• Pausing those terms likely won’t hurt performance for most.
• Only 145 large accounts (1.5%) risk potential performance loss.

Why we care. While most small account advertisers may welcome the account clean-up, larger brands with established keyword-level control may face challenges adapting to increasingly automated, opaque Google Ads management

The upside. Most accounts stand to gain streamlined structures and simpler budgeting after the pauses, aligning with Google’s push for automation over manual management.

What they’re saying. “Google continues to blur the lines between platform and ad partner” by making organizational calls like this, marketing consultant Kirk Williams, owner of ZATO, told Optmyzr.

Bottom line. While valid fears exist around losing viable keywords, most advertisers likely have little to lose – and may see gains – once long-dormant terms get automatically parked.

Knowledge bases are powerful self-service features that improve customer satisfaction, enhance user experience and reduce customer support costs. The knowledge base can also be an SEO goldmine if given proper attention. 

Follow this guide to make your knowledge base a hit with both users and search engines.

What is a knowledge base?

A knowledge base is a comprehensive collection of organized, searchable, easily accessible information about a company and its products and/or services. The primary purpose of a knowledge base is to anticipate and answer user questions. 

Some companies use the terms “knowledge base” and “help center” interchangeably. Others consider the help center a repository of information from various sources, including knowledge base articles, contact information and live support options.

Dig deeper: Why your website needs a resource center and how to create it

What types of content should you include in a knowledge base?

Meeting diverse user needs requires comprehensive documentation in a variety of formats. The finer details of your knowledge base content will depend on your product and audience, but common knowledge base content types include:

• A getting started guide: Guide new users through basic setup, navigation and admin features.
• FAQs: Provide answers to the most common user questions.
• Product documentation: Include specifications, features, use cases, version history and release notes.
• A glossary: Define brand- or product-specific terminology and industry jargon.
• How-to guides: Use a variety of formats, including text, images and video tutorials.
• Best practices and pro tips: Suggest ways to enhance, optimize or simplify usage.
• Troubleshooting guides: Offer step-by-step solutions to common user roadblocks.
• Community forums: Highlight helpful user-generated content and give users a space to help each other.

How to leverage site search data to choose knowledge base article topics

Your Google Analytics Site Search report will give you insight into what users are looking for on your site.

• Do their queries lead them to timely, relevant content?
• Do you notice any common themes among the queries?
• Are users looking for information but coming up empty-handed? 

Your internal site search data is immensely beneficial for identifying potential knowledge base articles and aligning your SEO and content strategy with your audience’s language. 

To identify what users are searching for on your site, create a Free Form Exploration report.

Add Page path + query string as your dimension variable and select it as the row of your report. For your metrics, which will also be the values in your report, add Views, Exits and Bounce rate. 

To limit your data to only contain site search queries, create a Page path + query string filter using your search term query parameter.

To check your parameter, perform a search on your site. Your parameter will be the text between the question mark and the equal sign in your search term’s URL.

For example, the parameter in the Google merch store is “keyword.” To ensure your results only contain site search data, include the surrounding question mark and equal sign in your filter.

Now, turn your report into a heatmap by changing its cell type. Look for search terms with a high number of views, but also a high bounce rate and exit count.

Try searching for these terms on your site and see what comes up. If it isn’t what you expected, consider building them into your knowledge base.

Other places to look for knowledge base content inspiration

If you don’t have any site search data yet or have already optimized your knowledge base based on the data in your exploration report, here are a few additional places to look for knowledge base article ideas.

Find troubleshooting needs on social media and review forums

Customers frequently flock to online communities and review outlets to express their confusion or frustration.

Social listening can help you identify your audience’s troubleshooting needs.

Even if a dissatisfied customer doesn’t directly engage with your company’s social media accounts, they may still air their dissatisfaction on a third-party review site or submit their question to an online community like Reddit. 

Gain tutorial ideas from influencers and industry experts

No matter what your industry is, chances are you can learn something new about it from a TikTok or YouTube video.

Following influencers or experts in your industry can give you some great ideas for your own content.

While their tutorials may not be specific to your product, you might be able to apply some of the concepts they discuss to your own how-to guides.

Look to your competitors for inspiration

When was the last time you performed a content gap analysis?

Your knowledge base can help you fill content gaps you might not be able to fill with your blog alone and can also enhance the value of your existing blog posts by offering actionable next steps.

The best keywords for knowledge base articles are “how to” questions with informational intent. 

Ask for (and respond to) user feedback

Direct user feedback can uncover some surprising insights you might not find in your analytics data.

Review feedback form submissions, look for common themes in customer support tickets and ask your customer-facing teams (sales, customer support, customer success, etc.) if they find themselves answering any questions over and over again.

Responding to user feedback with knowledge base articles will make your customers feel heard, enhance your onboarding process and improve your brand’s relatability.

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How to create an SEO-friendly knowledge base

A knowledge base with logical and intuitive information architecture (IA) simplifies a user’s quest for answers while also jumpstarting the next stage in their self-education.

From a technical SEO perspective, a clear IA helps search engine crawlers find, index and contextualize your content. A few best practices for knowledge base IA:

Make your knowledge base easy for search engines to crawl

• Establish a clear knowledge base taxonomy with categories, subcategories and tags.
• Help crawlers (and users) navigate and contextualize your content with breadcrumbs that follow the structure of your URL path.
• Create a web of interconnected content and prevent orphan pages by adding a “related articles” section at the end of each article.
• Preserve crawl budget and avoid keyword cannibalization by consolidating similar content and canonicalizing duplicate content.

Bonus tip: If you have a large knowledge base or want to build in scalability, consider using a subdomain like help.yourwebsite.com.

Make your knowledge base easy for search engines to understand

• Build a knowledge graph to optimize for entity-based search. (See: “Entity-oriented search: The evolution of information retrieval, explained” for detailed instructions.)
• Implement structured data markup to give search engine crawlers explicit details about how to classify your knowledge base content.
• Maintain recency by updating your knowledge base to reflect new products and features.
• Maintain relevancy by updating your knowledge base to include version updates and changes to processes.

How to create a user-friendly knowledge base

Because users visit your knowledge base looking for specific, actionable information, your knowledge base content should get to the point quickly and simply.

Save the conversational introduction and flowery language for your blog. Reduce time to value by providing answers upfront. To build a knowledge base your users will love:

Make your knowledge base easy for users to find

• Make your help center accessible from your website’s navigation menu and customer support page, link to it on your social media accounts and online communities and integrate it with your onboarding process.
• Optimize your knowledge base articles for site search by incorporating user query keywords.
• Prominently display your most popular knowledge base articles under your search bar. 
• Implement a chatbot to suggest knowledge base articles based on user queries.

Make your knowledge base articles easy for users to read

• Standardize and templatize your different article types, creating a predictable and chronological structure of headings and subheadings. For a troubleshooting article, for example, you might follow the following format: X problem, X solution, step-by-step instructions to get from problem to solution, related articles.
• Include anchor links in a table of contents to help users quickly navigate long articles.
• Follow web accessibility best practices, including ensuring proper contrast ratios, including alt text on all non-text media and using descriptive text for links.
• Offer multilingual support if you serve users in multiple countries (but don’t forget to follow hreflang best practices!).

Knowledge base examples to inspire you

Ready to take your knowledge base from ideation to creation? Check out these best-in-class examples for some additional guidance. 

Information architecture: Shopify

The Shopify help center offers a delightful experience for both users and search engine crawlers. Their categories and subcategories are easy to understand and organized logically within a minimalist interface.

They also prominently display a chatbot to help users find what they need or connect them with a member of customer support.

The articles in each section of Shopify’s knowledge base act as categories with high-level information. Each article includes a dropdown menu with a table of contents guiding users to subcategories with more specific information.

For example, the Migrate to Shopify article’s dropdown menu allows users to choose platform-specific migration instructions.

As users continue navigating the help center, Shopify leaves breadcrumbs so they can return to previous pages if desired.

They also include previews – in the form of a table of contents – of the step-by-step instructions their articles will cover.

The virtual assistant remains on screen the entire time in case additional help is required.

Site search optimization: Dropbox

Dropbox clearly designed its knowledge base around what users search for in their help center. Their FAQs come up the moment users click on their help center’s search bar.

As a user begins to type, Dropbox auto-suggests potential queries. Their suggestions don’t just show up in alphabetical order based on what you type in the search box, either. They’ve clearly put thought into displaying queries based on internal search data.

The ‘getting started’ guide: Trello

Your “getting started” guide should provide new users with basic setup instructions without overwhelming them. This resource from Trello, for example, covers all the essentials for using their project management platform, including:

• A brief welcome message.
• Basic product features (and how to locate them).
• Account settings (and how to modify them).
• Onboarding instructions.
• Top tips and tricks.

Take note of the navigation menu on the left side. When the user views different chapters within the guide, the navigation menu expands to include anchor links matching the headings of the questions answered within the chapter. The articles are also enhanced with screenshots and related article suggestions.

Trello highlights “pro tips” in purple boxes to encourage users to try additional workflow optimizations once they’ve mastered the basics.

The FAQs: Airbnb

Your answers to the most common user questions should be displayed in a prominent place within your help center. Making these knowledge base articles easy to find creates a better user experience by shortening the user journey within your knowledge base.

Airbnb’s FAQ integration is a standout example of how FAQs can be used to establish brand loyalty by making users feel heard.

Airbnb segments their help center resources by their different audiences: guests, hosts, experience hosts and travel admin. With the click of a tab, the featured guides and top articles change to match the intended audience.

For guests, the Airbnb journey starts with finding the perfect lodging and how to check the reservation status.

For hosts, getting paid is most important, so it makes sense for cancellation policies to be a host FAQ.

The multimedia how-tos: Canva

Given its purpose as a visual design tool, it’s no surprise Canva offers an extensive array of multimedia how-to guides, product documentation and tutorials to help both new and experienced users master their tools.

Canva’s design school contains thousands of courses and tutorials. Videos include text transcripts and give users the ability to skip ahead to a specific step in the instructions, making them both accessibility-friendly and easy to navigate.

Building an SEO-friendly, user-friendly knowledge base requires careful thought and planning. Skillful implementation, however, can improve user satisfaction and boost your brand’s search engine visibility.

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Google updated its search performance report within Google Search Console to include a breakdown of your merchant listings within the Google Search Image tab. This means you can now see how well your merchant listings are performing when a searcher clicks on the image tab within the Google Search results.

What it looks like. Google posted this screenshot of this report on X:

What are merchant listings. Google explained that Merchant listings are an extension of the Product snippet item that enable more full-featured search results and always include a price. “For example, they might appear in a carousel of similar products from different sellers, or in a knowledge panel in search results,” Google wrote.

What Google said. Here is the post from Google:

“New to Search Console Performance report you can now see merchant listings performance in the Google Search Image tab.”

Why we care. If you use merchant listings, now you have one more data point to analyze when doing your SEO and performance reports. This report will show you how much exposure your merchant listings are gaining from the image tab in Google Search. You can make tweaks to better optimize your performance in the image results (which can take time) and then see if those tweaks are paying off, or not.

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For any SEO professional, staying focused and productive can be a challenge.

With constant algorithm updates, changing trends and a barrage of emails and notifications, it can feel like you’re always playing catch-up.

That’s where deep work sessions come in.

Like any skill, developing deep work sessions takes practice.

At first, you might find yourself really struggling to retain focus. It can feel unnatural for many of us, especially if you are used to regular interruptions during your workday. Here are some tips to get started.

Schedule deep work sessions

Scheduling deep work sessions is the cornerstone of protecting your focus and productivity. One of the first things to do is understand your peak productivity times.

Everyone has certain times of the day when they feel most alert and productive.

For some, it’s the quiet hours of the early morning; for others, it might be later in the day.

Start by identifying when you are naturally most focused. You can track your energy levels and productivity weekly to find patterns.

Once you know your peak productivity times, block these periods out in your calendar specifically for deep work. Treat these blocks as non-negotiable appointments with yourself.

Just as you wouldn’t skip a meeting with a client, don’t skip your deep work sessions. It can be really helpful to have your deep work sessions at the same time each day or week.

Consistency helps train your brain to enter a focused state more easily.

The length of your deep work sessions can vary but if you are just starting out, then build it up slowly.

Create a distraction-free environment

Creating a distraction-free environment is essential for maintaining focus during deep work sessions. This can be the hardest part of curating your deep work sessions. 

If you are in an office environment, you might need to negotiate time in a quiet office or even hybrid working, where you can spend time at home with fewer interruptions.

If you work in an SEO team, then setting boundaries is key. Let your colleagues know when your sessions are, and ask them not to disturb you unless it is urgent. They can also help protect this time for you.

You could agree to a team rota so that each of you can have this valuable time on a daily or, if not possible, at least a weekly basis.

Once other people are not going to be an issue, the next biggest culprit is notifications. Here’s how to manage them:

• Mobile devices: Put your phone on “Do Not Disturb” mode or silence it completely during deep work sessions. Consider placing it out of reach to resist the temptation to check it. Give it to a colleague or put it in a drawer where you can’t see the screen. For lots of us, simply putting it next to us in easy reach is too tempting – a bit like having your favorite treat in eye-shot when you are trying to be healthy.
• Computer alerts: Disable notifications for emails, social media and other apps that aren’t essential for your deep work. Many operating systems allow you to customize these settings easily.

Dig deeper: 10 things to eliminate from your life to be more productive at work

Use focus tools and apps

As an SEO, you will likely need internet access during your deep work. Use a tool or app (e.g., StayFocusd, Freedom) to block distracting websites.

Apps like Forest or Focus@Will provide a structured approach to maintaining concentration, either by timing your work sessions or providing background sounds conducive to focus.

You could also try noise-canceling headphones to block out noise, play background music or keep things quiet, depending on what works best for you.

Set clear goals

Setting clear goals is a fundamental step in ensuring your deep work sessions are productive and effective. Plan ahead so that when you start your deep work session, you know what tasks you will tackle. 

You might want to use this time for more strategic type work or to deal with a specific problem. For example, if you work for an agency and one of your clients’ websites has lost rankings and traffic recently. 

You might use this time to try and work out why and devise a plan to improve performance.

Break down larger goals

Be wary of setting goals that are too large for these sessions.

Large goals can be intimidating and lead to procrastination. Break them down into smaller, manageable tasks.

For example, if your goal is to conduct a complete site audit, break it down into:

• Crawl the website: Use tools like Screaming Frog to crawl your site and identify issues.
• Analyze site speed: Use Google PageSpeed Insights to evaluate and improve load times.
• Check mobile usability: Ensure your site is mobile-friendly using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
• Review on-page SEO: Assess and optimize meta tags, headings and content.

Not all goals are equally important. Once you’ve broken them down, prioritize them based on their impact on your overall SEO strategy. 

Focus on high-priority goals during your deep work sessions to ensure you’re making the most significant impact.

Balance your goals between short-term tasks that provide immediate benefits and long-term projects that contribute to your overall SEO strategy.

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Take regular breaks

Taking regular breaks is crucial for maintaining high levels of productivity and focus during deep work sessions.

Breaks are essential for several reasons:

• Preventing burnout: Continuous work without breaks can lead to mental and physical exhaustion. Regular breaks help prevent burnout by giving your mind and body time to rest and recover.
• Improving focus: Short breaks can help you maintain high levels of concentration and prevent attention fatigue.
• Boosting creativity: Stepping away from your work can give your subconscious mind time to process information, often leading to new ideas and insights when you return.

Dig deeper: How to avoid search marketing burnout

Use the Pomodoro technique

The Pomodoro technique is a popular method for incorporating regular breaks into your work routine:

• Work for 25 minutes: Focus intensely on a single task for 25 minutes.
• Take a 5-minute break: Step away from your work, stretch, get a drink, or simply relax.
• Repeat the cycle: After four cycles, take a longer break (15-30 minutes).

This technique helps maintain focus and productivity while ensuring you get regular short breaks. If you are new to deep work, you might start with one session of 25 minutes and gradually build up the blocks of time.

Learning a new skill can be exhausting. Deep work is no exception.

If you find yourself losing focus, then that can often be an indication that you need to take a small break.

Review and adjust

While creating habits is important, regularly reviewing and adjusting your deep work strategies is essential for continuous improvement and sustained productivity.

Schedule regular reviews

Set aside time to review your deep work sessions:

• Weekly reviews: At the end of each week, spend 15-30 minutes reflecting on what you accomplished during your deep work sessions. Identify what worked well and what didn’t.
• Monthly reviews: Conduct a more in-depth review at the end of each month. Assess your overall progress toward your SEO goals and evaluate your deep work habits.

Track your progress

Keeping track of your progress helps you understand how effectively you’re using your deep work time:

• Task completion: Note which tasks you completed during your deep work sessions. This helps you see patterns in your productivity.
• Time tracking: Use tools like Toggl to track your time spent on various tasks. This data can reveal how efficiently you’re working and highlight areas for improvement.

Identify obstacles and distractions

Pinpoint the obstacles and distractions that hinder your deep work:

• Common distractions: Identify recurring distractions (e.g., phone notifications, noisy environments) and consider how you can mitigate them.
• Interruptions: Note any interruptions that occurred and think about how to prevent them in the future. This might involve setting clearer boundaries or improving communication with colleagues and family.

Adjust your schedule

Based on your reviews, adjust your deep work schedule to better suit your needs:

• Optimal times: If you find you’re more productive at certain times of the day, adjust your deep work sessions to those periods.
• Duration: Experiment with different session lengths. Some people might find 60-minute blocks more effective than 90-minute ones, or vice versa.

Refine your goals

Regularly revisiting and refining your goals ensures they remain relevant and achievable:

• SMART goals: Make sure your goals continue to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Adjust them as needed based on your progress and changing priorities.
• Short-term and long-term goals: Balance your focus between immediate tasks and longer-term projects. This helps maintain momentum while ensuring progress toward bigger objectives.

Seek feedback

Feedback from colleagues, mentors, or peers can provide valuable insights:

• Peer review: Discuss your deep work strategies with colleagues and ask for their feedback. They might offer new ideas or highlight areas for improvement.
• Mentor guidance: If you have a mentor, seek their advice on optimizing your deep work practices. They can provide perspectives based on their own experiences.

Dig deeper: Effort shaming: Balancing work ethic and burnout in marketing

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The May 2024 Google leak has shed light on the growing importance of author and publisher entities in SEO. 

This article explains how the Google leak confirms that the search engine can identify content creators and website owners. It also shows why this is a great opportunity for SEOs to optimize author and publisher entities in their strategies.

Expanding SEO: Beyond websites to publishers and authors

For over 30 years, SEO has focused on website and content-level optimization.

We can keep that. It is valuable and it works. 

However, SEO needs to add two new layers of optimization:

• The website owner (publisher).
• The content creator (author).

This allows Google to assess each related entity and gives Google confidence in the brand, so it awards each entity a kgmid, and a place in Google’s Knowledge Graph – the cornerstone of search and generative AI.

Since 2015, I have optimized thousands of website entities, website owner entities and author entities to create Knowledge Panels and optimize brand SERPs (the search results for a brand name search).

Google identifies and assesses the credibility of the content, the entity behind the website and the content creators on the website.

How do I know? I have the data.

The Google leak does not list ranking factors or machine learning elements that drive Google Knowledge algorithms. Still, it reinforces what I see daily – that Google’s algorithms successfully detect and evaluate the credibility of website owners and content creators. 

And this is an enormous opportunity for SEO.

A new three-tiered approach to SEO

Tier 1: Optimizing website content with traditional SEO

Continue to focus on website-level optimization – technical SEO, links and content. This will drive traffic to the website and convert visitors. 

The two tiers below provide a holistic SEO strategy that will thrive and survive in generative AI results and contribute to the wider business digital marketing objective of acquiring clients and making sales.

Tier 2: Optimizing the website owner (publisher)

Google leak: isPublisher

The isPublisher element in the leak corresponds directly to the Search Quality Rater guidelines changes between December 2022 and September 2023.

Mentions of “website” were replaced by “website owner” (a.k.a. publisher). There are now 20 mentions of “website owner.”

This website owner entity is the “guarantor” of the content, standing firmly behind it. Who is putting their reputation on the line by publishing this? Is that entity trustworthy? 

Note: The publisher will often be an organization (including a corporation, local business or educational organization), but it can also be a person. In this article, I am assuming a corporation.

The isPublisher variable is boolean, so the game is zero-sum. The algorithms understand who the publisher is, or they don’t. If they don’t, Google loses confidence in the website and content because it doesn’t understand who has their reputation on the line.

Optimizing for website owner/publisher entities

Step 1 of tier 2: Understandability

Understandability is the foundation of website owner optimization. Without this, the rest won’t work. You absolutely cannot skip this step.

Educate Google’s knowledge algorithms so that they understand the entity that published the content: who they are, what they offer and who they serve.

Focus on the clarity, consistency and accuracy of all information on the entity home and company profiles, creating an infinite loop of self-corroboration. Google identifies isReferencePage for entities, which is similar to sameAs and subjectOf in schema markup. 

Your KPI in step 1 is obtaining a kgmid in Google’s Knowledge Graphs for your website owner entity. Once you have a kgmid, you have started your entity optimization.

But don’t stop there. Keep building confidence in Google’s understanding. Confidence is key. 

Google is more likely to prioritize entities when it is confident it understands who they are, what they offer and which audience they serve. 

Expand the footprint with references on relevant second and third-party websites to build confidence in understanding.

Google identifies reference pages from all across the web with the website owner entity through inbound links, explicit mentions and even implicit mentions, as these variables show.

Your KPIs for confidence in understanding will combine the items listed below. 

• The confidence score in Google’s Knowledge Graph. (WordLift’s score of 197 in the screenshot above is solid.)
• The stability of a Knowledge Panel (when it 100% reliably triggers on a brand SERP).
• The entity home is displayed in the Knowledge Panel.
• The presence of related entities in the Knowledge Panel, such as a People Also Search For section.

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Step 2 of tier 2: Credibility

Google refers to credibility as E-E-A-T. At my company, we use an extended version: N-E-E-A-T-T (adding Notability and Transparency, both vital to entity optimization).

Demonstrating N-E-E-A-T-T credibility requires that you communicate the following things to Google.

• Notability: The company is a recognized market leader cited by multiple leading resources inside the industry (and, where possible, generalist resources such as major media sites, Wikipedia, etc).  
• Experience: The company has visible, historical and recognized involvement in the topic.
• Expertise: The company provides topical content that aligns with generally industry-accepted facts across owned sites, social platforms and third-party sites. The content provides relevant solutions to common problems faced by the target audience.
• Authoritativeness: The company has mentions and links back to its Entity Home from multiple relevant authoritative websites. It has recent and historical relationships with market-leading companies and influential people in the industry.
• Trustworthiness: The company is regularly cited positively by leading industry resources and the target audience (clients and users) on forums and across the web.
• Transparency: The company provides clear, up-to-date and accurate information about itself and its products on its website and across the web. It interacts openly and clearly with users and clients web-wide.

Your work as an SEO is to use traditional SEO tactics to ensure that this information is discoverable for Google and provided in a format that Google can digest easily and analyze confidently. 

Don’t focus only on the company’s website. You must look wider and work on second-party websites such as social media platforms, profile pages and review sites (see isReferencePage above).

Your KPIs for credibility will be a combination of the following things. 

• The quality (information-richness) of a Knowledge Panel.
• The number, relevancy and confidence scores for related entities in the Knowledge Graph. WordLift has 345 entity associations in the example above (but be wary when too many are irrelevant).
• The quality and richness of the brand SERP.
• The quality and richness of SERPs for queries that include the company name.

Step 3 of tier 2: Deliverability

Deliverability is not directly the responsibility of SEO, but a marketing, funnel and acquisition strategy. 

It ensures your content is strategically placed across the right online platforms to reach your target audience. Having the right content on the right platforms for the right audience across the entire market digital ecosystem. 

Ideally, the company achieves omnipresence for its ideal client and shows up everywhere when looking for solutions to their problems. 

SEO is essential in supporting work by “packaging” this content for Google to understand.

Your KPIs for deliverability will be a combination of the following things. 

• Brand search volume. 
• Brand SERP click-through rate.
• Positive sentiment and accuracy of assistive engine descriptions (ChatGPT, Bing Copilot, Google Gemini, etc.)
• A presence in the top and middle of the funnel results.  
• Proto-measurements in search and assistive AI results.

Dig deeper: Modern SEO: Packaging your brand and marketing for Google

Tier 3: Optimizing the content creator (author)

Google leak: isAuthor

Like isPublisher, isAuthor corresponds directly to the Search Quality Rater Guidelines changes between December 2022 and September 2023 when mentions of content creator (author) escalated. The guidelines mention content creator 140 times.

The content creator entity is responsible for the information in the content and stands behind it. Google wants to know who is creating the content and whether they are trustworthy. 

The isAuthor variable is boolean, so the game is zero-sum. The algorithms understand who the content creator is. Or they don’t. If they don’t, you aren’t even in the game for tier 3.

Optimizing for content creator/author entities

The three-step process for a website owner/publisher I described above works similarly for a personal entity and personal brand strategy, so I won’t repeat everything here; I’ll just identify different aspects.

Step 1 of tier 3: Understandability

Google’s knowledge algorithms have been focusing almost exclusively on person entities since the first Killer Whale Update in July 2023, so getting a place in the Knowledge Graph and triggering a Knowledge Panel is significantly easier for a person than a company. 

The process is the same. Create an infinite loop of self-corroboration.

• Identify an entity home.
• Make all references to the person clear, accurate and consistent across the web.
• Link from the entity home to the corroborative source and back to the entity home.

Your KPIs for confidence in understanding will be the same as for the website owner/publisher/corporation entity.

Step 2 of tier 2: Credibility

You need to be transparent to demonstrate to the algorithms that the content creator is an expert, has experience and is authoritative and trustworthy.

If you want to be at the top of the results, you must make that entity notable in its field. This is niche notability. Trusted and famous in a niche beats trusted every day of the week.

That is how you can get an author or person entity to the top of an entity list like this:

Your KPIs for confidence in credibility will be the same as for the website owner/corporation entity.

Step 3 of tier 2: Deliverability

Optimizing an author entity or a personal brand means maintaining a consistent presence wherever the audience may be online. The message and content are distributed across the digital landscape to engage with the target audience. 

By aligning their content with the platforms the author or person’s ideal audience naturally uses, the person shows up at every stage of their online journey, offering insights, solutions, or services related to their interests and needs.

Deliverability is not SEO’s direct remit. SEO leverages maximum value from digital content assets wherever they appear online by ensuring they are discoverable, digestible and attractive to Google. 

Your KPIs for deliverability will be the same as for the website owner/corporation entity.

Incorporating author and publisher entity optimization into your SEO strategy

The May 2024 Google leak is a definitive signal for SEOs and business leaders to embrace an expanded approach to optimization. 

By recognizing the importance of entities – specifically authors and publishers – you must adapt your strategies to align with Google’s evolving ability to understand the world and evaluate the credibility and authority of the players. 

The traditional focus on website and content optimization remains the essential foundation, but adding entity optimization at both the publisher and author levels is vital.

The three-tiered entity optimization strategy – encompassing understanding, credibility and deliverability – ensures that you are not just optimizing for search engines but establishing a clear identity for all related entities within the relevant market’s digital ecosystem.

As you progress with your SEO efforts, remember that it’s no longer just about climbing SERP rankings; it’s about building trust with users and search engines through insightful entity optimization. 

This holistic approach will future-proof your SEO and provide greater visibility, user engagement, and, ultimately, sales and revenue for your company or clients.

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Do you ever feel like the world of paid search evolves faster than you can keep up?

With constant updates and the push to accept AI and automation, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and discouraged as a paid search marketer. But you aren’t alone. 

In a dynamic field like paid search, success lies not in clinging to what worked yesterday but in adopting a growth mindset.

Thriving in PPC isn’t about what you know now; it’s about your willingness to learn. 

This article explores the concept of a growth mindset and highlights conversations within the paid search community that exemplify this mindset.

What is a growth mindset? 

It’s the belief that your abilities and knowledge aren’t set in stone. 

Through hard work, learning and openness to feedback, you can continuously improve and achieve your goals.

Imagine perceiving challenges as opportunities for learning and growth rather than as obstacles. That’s the power of a growth mindset!

A contrast to a growth mindset would be a fixed mindset.

With a fixed mindset, people believe their talents and intelligence are fixed. 

If you’re “not good at math,” you’ll never be good at data analysis (a crucial skill in PPC). 

This example of a fixed view can hinder your progress and leave you feeling discouraged when faced with setbacks while working on accounts.

A frequent misconception is that you lack the skills to explain or create presentations effectively on campaign strategy. This skill can be learned and developed through practice.

Why a growth mindset matters for PPC marketers

Whether you’re a seasoned expert or thinking of a career in PPC, understanding the key qualities of successful and happy paid search professionals can be helpful. 

We often hear about the technical skills and campaign optimization tricks, but let’s be real: happiness is pretty darn important, too. 

A growth mindset will not only help you succeed in your career but also contribute to a more enjoyable work life.

Imagine spending all day looking at data, writing ad copy and trying to stay current in PPC while feeling unhappy. If you aren’t feeling fulfilled and enjoying the work, you can feel seriously unmotivated.

Dig deeper: Becoming a world-class PPC ad buyer: 8 key lessons

What a growth mindset may look like in action

Paid search experts with a growth mindset believe their skills and knowledge are constantly evolving. This translates to:

• Continuously analyzing data to understand new audience needs and search trends. 
• Testing a new campaign type that the industry has yet to adopt.
• Actively participating in industry discussions and posing insightful questions, even if they feel uncomfortable.

Questions often emerge within the community, and it is through these discussions that we gain deeper insights, uncover hidden opportunities and enhance our understanding of the platforms.

Perhaps you might be interested in pitching and speaking at a paid search conference. While you might feel nervous or unprepared, a growth mindset reminds you that you can successfully present to your peers with practice and preparation.

A fixed mindset may hold you back from taking on new challenges and pushing the boundaries of your knowledge.

It’s easy to get comfortable in our routines and stick to what we know works. However, this limits our potential for growth.

Advertisers need professionals to be growth-minded as well.

Brands don’t want the same old tricks year after year. A growth-minded expert will test new strategies, discover fresh ways to engage audiences and remain receptive to emerging market insights.

Human expertise and machine power mean the future of paid search is here.

Consider, for instance, automated bidding or recent advancements in AI.

Some may see these changes as a loss of control, but a growth mindset frames them as opportunities to enhance account performance and dedicate more time to improving landing pages and customer experience.

This willingness to learn, experiment and adapt keeps paid search experts at the forefront.

Dig deeper: How to advance your SEM career: 9 attributes to master

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Collective paid search conversations: Exploring how the paid search community fosters learning and adaptability

Let’s look at the conversations happening on LinkedIn within the paid search community. Here is part of Julie Bacchini’s viral LinkedIn post with 225 reactions: 

In the post, Friedman Bacchini acknowledges the limitations of data and the value of alternative approaches, both hallmarks of a growth mindset.

Sharing a hard truth, even if uncomfortable, can expose areas for improvement, leading to better outcomes in the long run. Conversations like this spark productive conversations and promote accountability in the community.

Her post does a great job of differentiating between a hard truth and negativity. A growth mindset approach involves delivering the truth in a constructive and respectful way, which she does very well here.

Another example comes from Jordan Brunelle. In his post, Brunelle highlights the importance of understanding the audience. 

He also points out that different clients need different strategies.

Both points demonstrate that he is a growth mindset professional, adapting his approach accordingly.

A last point highlights that continuous learning ensures they can cater to “super niche” audiences and identify hidden problems customers might not even know they have.

The paid search community also gives collective advice for new marketers entering the field.

Amalia Fowler recently shared a LinkedIn post celebrating graduation season, encouraging fellow professionals to share their advice for aspiring marketers.

In her advice, Charley Brennand advocates for focused learning and adaptability. One key piece of her guidance is concentrating on a niche. This aligns with a growth mindset by promoting deep learning rather than attempting to be a jack-of-all-trades.

Jyll Saskin Gales has built her entire business model around growth. As an early pioneer among Google Ads coaches, she stands out in the industry.

She frequently shares on LinkedIn how she meticulously studies Google documentation to deepen her understanding of the platform.

In addition to actively seeking out new information, she is willing to find weaknesses and areas for opportunity, even in established resources like the Google Ads Help Center.

Cultivate a love for learning and experimentation

The paid search industry thrives on a collaborative spirit, where we learn from each other’s triumphs and challenges to stay ahead of the curve.

The industry is dynamic, and the experts who succeed embrace the power of a growth mindset. 

So, ditch the fixed mindset and cultivate a love for learning and experimentation. 

In the long run, you’ll find PPC more enjoyable if you have a passion for growth and learning.

No matter how much you’ve learned, there’s always more to discover and improve upon in the constantly evolving world of paid search.

So keep an open mind, be willing to take risks and try new things and remember that your abilities are not fixed – they can always be improved with effort and determination.

Dig deeper: Broad vs. deep expertise: How to decide which is right for you

AI-powered search engine Perplexity introduced a new product – Perplexity Pages – to select free and paid users on May 30. Content from these Pages has started appearing in Google’s AI Overviews and featured snippets.

What are Perplexity Pages. Perplexity called it a way to share your knowledge with the world, via in-depth articles, detailed reports or informative guides. You can even select the audience type (beginner, advanced, anyone) when you have AI generate your content. You can also add sections, videos, images and more.

As TechCrunch explained it further:

• “All these pages are publishable and also searchable through Google. You can share the link to these pages with other users. They can ask follow-up questions on the topic as well. What’s more, users can also turn their existing conversation threads into pages with the click of a button.”

Pages in Google. These pages are being indexed by Google and included as citations in AI Overviews and appearing in featured snippets.

Here are examples showing this, shared on X by Kristi Hines:

Spam? This definitely seems like a case of one search engine spamming another search engine. Or, as Ryan Jones put it on X, “An AI overview of an AI overview in search results pages in my search results page.”

Aside from that absurdity, Perplexity Pages are ripe for abuse by those who will probably try to use it to hack their way into AI Overviews.

A big question is how Google will handle this new AI-generated content in its Search results long-term. This tactic could be short-lived, as pointed out in an X thread, started by Glenn Gabe. From the thread:

Perplexity’s announcement. Introducing Perplexity Pages

Search engines continue to evolve, but SEO strategies have failed to keep up.

For years, we have relied on keyword research to choose specific searches to target. However, keyword research often prioritizes the wrong goals.

Executed well, keyword research helps you craft a balanced keyword strategy for your target market and personas. It prioritizes keywords that attract traffic that converts into customers.

Executed poorly, keyword research focuses on high-volume, low-intent searches instead of purchase-intent searches that are most likely to convert.

Conversion-focused SEO campaigns aren’t right for every situation. But conversion should be the primary goal for ecommerce, service businesses, lead generation and any other SEO campaign that aims to impact key business metrics.

The keyword research trap

Too often, marketers pursue keywords with high search volume, resulting in a list of keywords that are merely relevant but don’t convert.

This is the keyword research trap – chasing relevant keywords with volume while ignoring the intent behind the search.

Years ago, I worked for a company specializing in corporate team-building events. They offered one program called “Write a Country Song Like Taylor Swift.” The page for this service attracted plenty of organic traffic. However, most organic visitors wanted information about Swift’s music, not corporate team building.

The Swifties visiting the site would never book a corporate team-building event. They are precisely the wrong audience for corporate team-building events.

The disconnect between the audience and the offer is obvious. However, the disconnect is often less obvious or even ignored by marketers.

The keyword research trap will only become more dangerous as consumers adopt generative engines for search, like Google AI Overviews and Perplexity.ai.

Keyword research is overrated

Early search engines simply looked for keywords on web pages – returning a list of pages that mention the keywords.

Modern search engines are much more sophisticated. They understand the relationships between the searcher’s intent and the pages that best satisfy that intent.

It’s time to modernize SEO methods, including keyword research, developed for the first generation of search engines.

For example, we advised a bank offering donor-advised fund (DAF) accounts. DAFs allow wealthy donors to accelerate tax deductions for charitable contributions.

After keyword research, the bank wanted to target the keyword “donor-advised fund.”

This keyword is relevant in a broad sense. But who is searching for this keyword? And, most importantly, what are they searching for?

We did some research. It turns out they are looking for:

• General information about DAFs.
• A CPA who understands DAFs.
• How to file their DIY taw return with a DAF.
• A donor-advised fund account.

The bank should target searchers looking to open a donor-advised fund account. These keywords are searched by people who intend to open a DAF account. Instead, the vast majority of the searches the bank wanted to target had no intention of opening an account.

There are better keywords, like “open a donor-advised fund account,” that are more likely to generate high-value traffic. However, they have much less search volume than “donor-advised fund” and higher competition.

Dig deeper: Beyond search volume: Future-proofing keyword research for SEO

Substituting relevance for intent

Many marketers misunderstand the relationship between relevance and intent.

Relevance and intent are both important, but prioritizing intent is crucial for attracting qualified traffic more likely to convert into customers.

Keywords have both relevance and intent. Search intent is related to relevance, but it’s an entirely different concept.

Relevance is the similarity between keywords and the content or products you offer. Intent is the momentum that will carry the searcher to the next step in their journey.

Intent describes the trajectory of the search. It captures what the searcher wants to achieve with the search.

The momentum behind a search is both a blessing and a curse. If your content satisfies the intent, the momentum will push the visitor to the next step in the buying process. If your content doesn’t satisfy the intent, the momentum makes changing the searcher’s direction difficult.

Search intent captures what post-search outcomes are possible.

Understanding the possible outcomes of a search is critical. For example, it’s unlikely that Taylor Swift fans will book corporate team-building events. They’re more likely to purchase a concert ticket.

Keyword research and analytics tools help you choose relevant keywords. However, they offer less guidance on selecting keywords with the right intent.

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How keyword research fails

Like most marketers, you probably start your SEO campaigns with keyword research. You compile an exhaustive list of relevant terms and prioritize them based on search volume and competition.

Let’s be clear. While it’s important to consider keyword relevance, volume and competition, this approach can mislead you and blunt your SEO campaign’s targeting.

How keyword research selection criteria can mislead you:

• Relevance: Relevant keywords may not be searched by your best customers with intent to purchase. They might just be relevant. For example, the keyword “skiing” is relevant for an ecommerce site selling skis and a ski resort.
• Search volume: Many different intents often drive high-volume keywords. The actual search volume for the intent you are targeting is sometimes a tiny fraction of the total volume for a keyword.
• Competition: It’s hard to rank for competitive keywords. But competitive keywords are competitive precisely because they convert well. Conversely, low-competition keywords usually don’t convert well.

Keyword research is more challenging than most marketers think. These metrics can lead you astray if not applied correctly.

You must skillfully balance the trade-offs between relevance, volume and competition to avoid the keyword research trap. Otherwise, you might invest significant resources into optimizing SEO content for keywords that drive traffic but fail to convert.

Fixing keyword research with intent

Many SEO campaigns are doomed from the start, especially when marketers choose keywords BEFORE identifying the search intents that are most likely to convert.

Don’t start your SEO campaign with keyword research. 

Start with customer research.

Before selecting keywords, you must understand your best customers’ search intents and which of those intents is most likely to convert.

The order of operations is essential: Identify search intents, then select keywords.

Use search intent as a filter. Select keywords with intents that align with your target search intents.

Once you understand your customers’ search intent, you can choose keywords and create content that aligns with your customers’ search intent. You must choose intents you can satisfy with content or a product.

Start your SEO campaign by collecting customer insights from customers’ conversations, sales calls, or social media to understand:

• The customer journey
• The questions your customers ask
• The information your customers need
• What triggers customers to convert

These insights will help you understand what information your customers search for when making a purchase decision. These are the search intents you should target.

Here’s a better approach to keyword research:

• Start with customer research
• Map the customer journey
• Identify search intents
• Compile relevant keywords
• Filter keyword list based on intent
• Develop content for each intent

Prioritizing search intent over keywords leads to more effective content that speaks directly to your audience’s needs and increases conversion rates.

Dig deeper: How to optimize for search intent: 19 practical tips

Conversion-focused SEO

Traditional keyword research involves optimizing for metrics that can mislead you.

Well-targeted SEO campaigns deliver content and brand messaging to prospects actively researching a purchase. Precise campaign targeting improves conversion.

Focusing on intent has benefits beyond just lifting rankings and traffic:

• Higher conversion rates: Targeting high-intent keywords improves organic conversion rates by providing visitors with content that satisfies their query.
• Marketing efficiency: Focusing your attention on searchers actively searching for your products reduces resources spent on broadly targeted content.
• Cross-channel insights: Search intent analysis provides valuable insights into customer behavior that can be applied across all your marketing channels, not just SEO.

High-impact SEO campaigns optimize for conversions and sales, not just rankings and traffic. They look beyond keyword relevance, volume and competition by targeting search intents first and keywords second.

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Redirects are a way of moving a webpage visitor from an old address to a new one without further action from them. Each webpage has a unique reference, a URL, to enable browsers to request the correct information be returned.

If a browser requests a page that has a redirect on it, it will be instructed to go to a different address. This means that the content on the original page is no longer available to request, and the browser must visit the new page to request the content there instead.

Essentially, redirects are instructions given to browsers or bots that the page they are looking for can no longer be reached and they must go to a different one instead. 

Types of redirects

A website can indicate that a resource is no longer available at the previous address in several ways.

Permanent and temporary

When identifying that a redirect has been placed on a URL, search engines must decide whether to begin serving the new URL instead of the original in the search results.

Google claims it determines whether the redirect will be a permanent addition to the URL or just a temporary change in the location of the content. 

If Google determines that the redirect is only temporary, it will likely continue to show the original URL in the search results. If it determines that the redirect is permanent, the new URL will begin to appear in the search results. 

Meta refresh

A meta refresh redirect is a client-side redirect. This means that when a visitor to a site encounters a meta redirect, it will be their browser that identifies the need to go to a different page (unlike server-side redirects, where the server instructs the browser to go to a different page). 

Meta refreshes can happen instantly or with a delay. A delayed meta refresh often accompanies a pop-up message like “you will be redirected in 5 seconds”.

Google claims it treats instant meta refreshes as “permanent” redirects, and delayed meta refreshes as “temporary” redirects.

JavaScript redirect

A redirect that uses JavaScript to take users from one page to another is also an example of a client-side redirect. Google warns website managers to only use JavaScript redirects if they can’t use server-side redirects or meta-refresh redirects. 

Essentially, search engines will need to render the page before picking up the JavaScript redirect. This can mean there may be instances where the redirect is missed. 

Server-side redirects

By far, the safest method for redirecting URLs is server-side redirects.

This requires access to the website’s server configuration, which is why meta refreshes are sometimes preferred. If you can access your server’s config files, then you will have several options available.

The key differences in these status codes are whether they indicate the redirect is permanent or temporary and whether the request method of POST (used to send data to a server) or GET (used to request data from a server) can be changed.

For a more comprehensive overview of POST and GET and why they matter for different applications, see the W3schools explanation. 

Permanent redirects

• 301 (moved permanently): A redirect that returns a HTTP status code of “301” indicates that the resource found at the original URL has permanently moved to the new one. It will not revert to the old URL and it allows the original request method to change from POST to GET. 
• 308 (permanent redirect): A 308 server response code is similar to 301 in that it indicates that the resource found at the original URL has permanently moved to the new one. However, the key difference between the 308 and the 301 is that it recommends maintaining the original request method of POST or GET.

Temporary redirects

• 302 – found (temporarily displaced): A 302 server code indicates that the move from one URL to another is only temporary. It is likely the redirect will be removed at some point in the near future. As with the 301 redirect, browsers can use a different request method from the original (POST or GET). 
• 307 (temporary redirect): A 307 server code also indicates that a redirect is temporary, but as with a 308 redirect it recommends retaining the request method of the original URL. 

Why use redirects

There are several good reasons to use redirects. Just like you might send out change-of-address cards when moving house (well, back in the early 2000s anyway, I’m not sure how you kids do it now), URL redirects help ensure that important visitors don’t get lost. 

Human website users

A redirect means that when accessing content on your site a human visitor is taken automatically to the more relevant page.

For example, a visitor may have bookmarked your URL in the past. They then click on the bookmark without realizing the URL has changed. Without the redirect, they may end up on a page with a 404 error code and no way of knowing how to get to the content they are after.

A redirect means you do not have to rely on visitors working out how to navigate to the new URL. Instead, they are automatically taken to the correct page. This is much better for user experience. 

Search engines

Similar to human users, when a search engine bot hits a redirect, it is taken to the new URL.

Instead of leaving them on a 404 error page, it can identify the equivalent URL straightaway, negating the need for the search bot to try to identify where, if anywhere, that original URL’s content might now be housed.

Demonstrating equivalence

Search engines will use redirects to determine if they should continue displaying the original URL in the search results.

If there is no redirect from an old, defunct URL to the new one, then the search engines will likely just de-index the old URL as it has no value as a 404 page. With a redirect in place, however, the search engine can directly link the new URL to the old one. 

• If it is redirected permanently, the search engine will likely begin to display the new URL in the search results. 
• If it is a temporary redirect, they may continue to display the old one. Google and other search engines may pass some of the ranking signals from the old URL to the new one due to the redirect. 

This only happens if they believe the new page to be the equivalent of the old one in terms of value to searchers.  

There are instances where this will not be the case, however, usually because the redirects have been implemented incorrectly. More on that later. 

Typical SEO use cases for redirects

There are some very common reasons why a website owner might want to implement redirects to help both users and search engines find content. Importantly for SEO, redirects can allow the new page to retain some of the ranking power of the old one. 

Vanity URLs 

Vanity URLs are often used to help people remember URLs. For example, a TV advert might tell viewers to visit www.example-competition.com to enter their competition. 

This URL might redirect to www.example.com/competitions/tv-ad-2024, which is far harder for viewers to remember and enter correctly. Using a vanity URL like this means website owners can use short URLs that are easy to remember and spell without having to set up the content outside of their current website structure.

URL rewrites

There may be instances when a URL needs to be edited once it’s already live.

For example, perhaps a product name has changed, a spelling mistake has been noticed, or a date in the URL needs to be updated. In these cases, a redirect from the old URL to the new one will ensure visitors and search bots can easily find the new address. 

Moving content

Restructuring your website might necessitate redirects.

For example, you may be merging subfolders or moving content from one subdomain to another. This would be a great time to use redirects to ensure that content is easily accessible.

Moving domains

Website migrations, like moving from one domain address to another, are classic uses of redirects. These tend to be done en masse, often with every URL in the site requiring a redirect. 

This can happen in internationalization, like moving a website from a .co.uk ccTLD to a .com address. It can also be necessitated through a company rebrand or the acquisition of another website and a desire to merge it with the existing one. 

There may even be a need to split a website into separate domains. All of these cases would be good candidates for redirects.

HTTP to HTTPS

Not as common now the internet has largely woken up to the need for security is the migration from HTTP to HTTPS.

You still might need to switch a site from an insecure protocol (HTTP) to a secure one (HTTPS) in some situations. This will likely require redirects across the entire website.

Dig deeper: What is technical SEO?

Redirect problems to avoid

The main consideration when implementing redirects is which type to use.

In general, server-side redirects are generally safest to use. However, the choice between permanent and temporary redirects depends on your specific situation.

There are more potential pitfalls to be aware of.

Loops

Redirect loops happen when two redirects directly contradict each other. For example, URL A is redirected to URL B; however, URL B has a redirect pointing to URL A. This makes it unclear which page is supposed to be visited.

Search engines won’t be able to determine which page is meant to be canonical and human visitors will not be able to access either page.

If a redirect loop is present on a site, you will encounter a message like the one below when you try to access one of the pages in the loop:

To fix this error, remove the redirects causing the loop and point them to the correct pages.

Chains

A redirect chain is a series of pages that redirect from one to another. For example, URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects to URL C, which redirects to URL D. This isn’t too much of an issue unless the chain gets too big. 

URL chains can start to affect load speed. John Mueller, Search Advocate at Google, has also stated in the past that:

• “The only thing I’d watch out for is that you have less than 5 hops for URLs that are frequently crawled. With multiple hops, the main effect is that it’s a bit slower for users. Search engines just follow the redirect chain (for Google: up to 5 hops in the chain per crawl attempt).”

Soft 404s

Another problem that can arise from using redirects incorrectly is that search engines may not consider the redirect to be valid for the purposes of rankings. 

For example, if Page A redirects to Page B but the two are not similar in content, the search engines may not pass any of the value of Page A to Page B. This can be reported as a “soft 404” in Google Search Console. 

This typically happens when a webpage (e.g., a product page) is deleted and the URL is redirected to the homepage.

Anyone clicking on the product page from search results wouldn’t find the product information they were expecting if they landed on the homepage.

The signals and value of the original page won’t necessarily be passed to the homepage if it doesn’t match the user intent of searchers.

Ignoring previous redirects

It can be a mistake not to consider previously implemented redirects. Without checking to see what redirects are already active on the site, you may run the risk of creating loops or chains. 

Frequent changes

Another reason for planning redirects in advance is to limit the need to frequently change them. It is important from an internal productivity perspective, especially if you involve other teams in their implementation. 

Most crucially, though, is that you may find the search engines struggle to keep up with frequent changes, especially if you incorrectly suggest the redirect is permanent by using a 301 or 308 status code. 

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Good practice for redirects

It is helpful when considering any activity involving redirects to do the following to prevent problems down the road.

Create a redirect map

A redirect map is a simple plan showing which URLs should redirect and their destinations. It can be as simple as a spreadsheet with a column of “from” URLs and “to” URLs.

This way, you have a clear visual of what redirects will be implemented and you can identify any issues or conflicts beforehand.

Dig deeper: How to speed up site migrations with AI-powered redirect mapping

Assess existing redirects

If you keep a running redirect map, look back at previous redirects to see if your new ones will impact them at all.

For example, would you create a redirect chain or loop by adding new redirects to a page that already is redirected from another? This will also help you see if you have moved a page to a new URL several times over a short period of time.

If you do not have a map of previous redirects, you may be able to pull redirects from your server configuration files (or at least ask someone with access to it if they can!) 

If you do not have access to the server configuration files either, or your redirects are implemented client-side, you can try the following techniques:

• Run your site through a crawling tool: Crawling tools mimic search bots in that they follow links and other signals on a website to discover all its pages. Many will also report back on the status code or if a meta refresh is detected on the URLs they find. Screaming Frog has a guide for detecting redirects using its tool.
• Use a plug-in: There are many browser plugins that will show if a page you are visiting has a redirect. They don’t tend to let you identify site-wide redirects, but they can be handy for spot-checking a page.
• Use Chrome Developer Tools: Another way, which just requires a Chrome browser, is to visit the page you are checking and use Chrome Developer Tools to identify if there is a redirect on it. You simply go to the Network panel to see what the response codes are for each element of the page. For more details, have a look at this guide by Aleyda Solis.

Google Search Console

The Coverage tab in Google Search Console lists errors found by Google that may prevent indexing.

Here, you may see examples of pages that have redirect errors. These are explained in further detail in Google’s Search Console Help section on Indexing reasons. 

Alternatives to redirects

There are some occasions when redirects might not be possible at all. This tends to be when there is a limit to what can be accomplished through a CMS or with internal resources.

In these instances, alternatives could be considered. However, they may not achieve exactly what you would want from a redirect.

Canonical tags

To help rank a new page over the old one, you might need to use a canonical tag if redirects are not possible.

For example, you may have two identical URLs: Page A and Page B. Page B is new, but you want that to be what users find when they search with relevant search terms in Google. You do not want Page A to be served as a search result anymore. 

Typically, you would just add a redirect from Page A to Page B so users could not access Page A from the SERPs. If you cannot add redirects, you can use a canonical tag to indicate to search engines that Page B should be served instead of Page A. 

If URL A has been replaced by URL B and they both have identical content, Google may trust your canonical tag if all other signals also point to Page B being the new canonical version of the two.

Crypto redirects

A crypto redirect isn’t really a redirect at all. It’s actually a link on the page you would want to have redirected, directing users to the new page. Essentially it acts as a signpost.

For example, a call to action like, “This page has moved. Find it at its new location.” with the text linking to the content’s new URL. 

Crypto redirects require users to carry out an action and will not work as a redirect for search engines, but if you are really struggling to implement a redirect and a change of address for content has occurred, this may be your only option to link one page to the other. 

Conclusion

Redirects are useful tools for informing users and search engines that content has moved location. They help search engines understand the relevance of a new page to the old one while removing the requirement for users to locate the new content. 

• Used properly, redirects can aid usability and search rankings.
• Used incorrectly, they can lead to problems with parsing, indexing and serving your website’s content. 

Site launches are arguably one of the most risky SEO endeavors. You can go from pure SEO bliss to catastrophe at the flip of a switch.

I’m sure any experienced SEO you ask could tell you a site launch horror story or two; whether it was their own doing due to lack of knowledge/experience or something completely out of their hands.

My hope with today’s article is that you may learn something from some of the lessons I’ve learned launching websites over the past decade. At the very least, perhaps it’ll help prevent one less site launch horror story.

Below are some of the major lessons I’ve learned and aren’t in any particular order of importance.

1. Excluding low-traffic pages from redirects during a site launch is risky

I learned this lesson the hard way when working at an agency years ago.

For whatever reason, at the time, we only redirected the top 500 pages of a site based on traffic, links and overall page authority.

If it was a CMS page (like category pages), those also got redirected.

As for the rest, if we could find a way to mass redirect chunks of them beyond that, we did. If not, we cut it off there.

When managing an ecommerce site with thousands upon thousands of pages, low search traffic to a specific page or set of pages can still add up to hundreds or thousands of visits overall. This can lead to a significant decrease in total traffic after launch.

If you want to avoid any type of traffic loss, make sure you set up a time with your web team in advance to discuss a 301 redirect strategy so that you can redirect the majority, if not all, of your old pages to your new pages.

Dig deeper: SEO during website development and post-launch: Key considerations

2. Issues with redirects can cause major technical problems and traffic loss after a site launch

Even the most perfect 301 redirect strategy can go awry.

Not only is it important that you have a good strategy and list, but it’s almost just as important to test that redirects are working properly immediately after launch.

You’ll want to check for things like:

• Redirect chains.
• Loops.
• 302 redirects.

To do this, I recommend using Screaming Frog’s list mode feature to audit your redirects by uploading your redirect list and checking the final destination of each URL. I also use a tool called WhereGoes to check for redirect loops and chains. To me, it’s never a bad thing to use more than one tool for testing.

3. Changing the user experience can tank your new site’s traffic for months

I once worked on a furniture site. All kinds of changes were being made – from the overall site design to the navigation, filters and the checkout experience.

Making these changes is not bad. However, without the proper testing, things can go wrong quickly.

After launch, we experienced traffic loss and conversion rate drops. Customers also had issues at the checkout. There were a lot of problems, to say the least.

As time went on, things got slightly better, but I’m not sure they ever fully recovered. 

You can expect issues with any launch, but when the conversion rate tanks, that is a major sign of user experience issues. Especially when you roll out changes like navigation updates, different filters and a new design. 

This experience highlighted the importance of having a skilled user experience team for a successful site launch. It can make or break your site!

Dig deeper: 12 SEO pitfalls to avoid during a website platform migration

4. Not involving SEO from the beginning is a recipe for disaster

I was initially brought in only to collaborate with an outside agency on the redirect strategy (and some other SEO details) for the furniture company site relaunch I mentioned earlier.

I wasn’t included in site launch meetings. I had no access to wireframes, designs or related materials.

In hindsight, I should have requested more information. I assumed those aspects were being handled.

What I’ve learned since: it’s in your best interest to proactively involve yourself in any area that might impact SEO.

Many people often overlook your work as an SEO. You’re often better off assuming people don’t know what you know than assuming it is being thought about or taken care of because it likely isn’t.

If it is being thought about and being taken care of properly, that’s amazing. You’re one of the lucky few. At least you know you did your due diligence.

Here are things you should be involved in for a site launch:

• Strategy meetings
• Wireframe / information architecture reviews
• Design / UX discussions
• Keyword research for new pages
• Staging site access and reviews
• 301 redirect strategy
• Post-launch review

You can improve this process more through better cross-team collaboration and communicating the importance of what you do and why you do it.

This can be done through better processes, documentation, training and simply educating other teams. Oftentimes, in SEO, you have to be your own advocate.

Dig deeper: How to use SEO education for stakeholder management

Navigating the perils of site launches

Site launches are inherently risky endeavors for SEO, but proper planning and cross-functional collaboration can help you avoid potential pitfalls.

While not an exhaustive guide, learning from the hard-earned lessons outlined here can spare you from common site launch blunders that set SEO efforts back months or even years. 

One size certainly does not fit all in PPC advertising. The strategies that drive success in ecommerce often differ from those required for effective lead generation. 

Lead generation through PPC is more challenging than ecommerce.

There are more obstacles and numerous sales funnel strategies to navigate.

Additionally, major ad networks often favor ecommerce brands because of their new features and educational resources.

This article wasn’t written to complain but to explore the nuanced approaches needed for each, highlighting key strategies for lead generation such as fraud prevention, monitoring micro KPIs and navigating the complexities of revenue tracking.

The challenges of lead fraud

Lead generation campaigns face the persistent challenge of lead fraud, which can skew performance data and drain budgets. This can be true for display, video and cross-network campaigns.

Unlike ecommerce, where the end goal of a transaction requires a credit card payment, lead generation can be susceptible to fraudulent leads due to the naturally low barriers to entry. 

Because placement targeting and bidding are mostly algorithmically based, shady content publishers have realized that generating fake conversions for an advertiser will cause the algorithms to serve more ads on their websites and YouTube channels and even bid higher.

For the advertiser, even if Google catches and credits the invalid click activity, fraudulent leads generate false signals, making it difficult to optimize and ascertain a campaign’s true performance. 

Effective strategies to counteract fraud leads and keep your data clean include implementing advanced verification techniques. Using CAPTCHA should be a given.

Look at including complex conversion criteria, manually excluding spammy placements and avoiding hot beds to improve lead quality such as children’s apps and parked domain websites.

Run an analysis of placements where your ad showed on Google Ads and sort by conversion rate. Manually copy and paste the channels or websites into your browser. In lead gen, if the performance is too good to be true, it probably is.

Additionally, despite Google’s claims otherwise, using video enhancements to extend your video’s formats has been found to lead to low-quality placements and leads. As a best practice, turn off this Google Ads setting for Video campaigns.

Dig deeper: Paid search for lead gen: Tips for new accounts with limited budgets

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Funnels and micro KPIs

Ecommerce funnels are typically straightforward. A potential customer enters the funnel, browses products and adds to cart. The simplicity of this funnel allows for clear-cut strategies and optimizations. 

In contrast, lead generation funnels are far more complex. They can include various lead capture tools, such as free downloads, assessments, webinars and form submissions, each industry requiring a different approach.

Whether in ecommerce or lead generation, the importance of email capture as a micro KPI cannot be overstated. Capturing an email address provides a crucial touchpoint for re-engagement and long-term relationship building, especially considering that most visitors will not convert on their first visit. 

Micro KPIs, as defined here, are incremental goals leading to the ultimate goal (i.e., revenue in the bank). However, they are just as important because they lead you to the end result. Micro KPIs can include email captures, email-to-buy conversion rates, marketing qualified leads and add-to-carts. 

In ecommerce, capturing an email can lead to purchases through follow-up marketing. Lead generation is the starting point for nurturing leads through the sales cycle, gradually building trust and moving leads closer to conversion.

Especially if your lead generation goal is in-depth, such as an application form or assessment, consider prioritizing an email capture or lead magnet to gain more potential for relationship building.

Whether ecommerce or lead generation, micro KPIs should be measured and campaign-focused. For example, a top-of-funnel campaign will contribute more effectively to the end goal of revenue generation if it is optimized toward a micro KPI versus purchases or sales-qualified leads. 

For ecommerce, a top-of-funnel campaign optimized for add-to-carts will fuel more fire for remarketing and total new customers. For lead gen, the conversion optimization goal for a top-of-funnel campaign should be email opt-ins. 

If revenue is the objective at the end of the day, micro KPIs will get you there, but they will differ for ecommerce and lead gen.

Dig deeper: Top 5 paid search B2B lead gen strategies

Revenue tracking

One of the most significant advantages ecommerce holds over lead generation is the straightforwardness of revenue tracking. In ecommerce, the transaction of the purchase takes place online, making it easier to measure and make informed adjustments. 

In contrast, lead generation involves multiple steps and interactions before a lead even potentially results in revenue. The sales cycle can be long and is often completed offline, which introduces a level of complexity in tracking and attributing revenue. Lead quality tracking is vital for adjusting strategies and ensuring that each lead generation effort is cost-effective.

The steps or integrations needed to incorporate your CRM and offline data into your PPC campaigns will pay dividends due to the improved insights. The ability to analyze performance that you gain can be used to pinpoint where customers are coming from and, more importantly, where your ad buying is not resulting in leads.

Effective lead management systems and CRM integrations are essential for analyzing lead quality. They help bridge the gap between online marketing efforts and offline sales results, providing a clearer picture of campaign effectiveness and areas for improvement.

Adapting your approach to PPC success

PPC advertising for ecommerce and lead generation requires distinctly different strategies and mindsets. 

While ecommerce benefits from straightforward transactional metrics, lead generation demands a deeper engagement with potential customers over a more extended period. Both require a keen understanding of the customer journey, a strategic approach to new customer development and meticulous attention to micro KPIs. 

By mastering these elements, marketers can tailor their PPC campaigns to meet the unique demands of their targeted outcomes, whether immediate sales or cultivating potential leads for future revenue.

Dig deeper: Driving lead generation with paid media: What’s new and what’s next

Brave Search now offers Search Ads on a managed service basis.

Brave Search Ads. Here’s what Brave announced:

• Ads are sold on a cost-per-click basis.
• Rates are negotiated on a fixed basis before paid campaigns launch.
• Eligible brands can get up to 14 days of complimentary advertising.

What Brave Search Ads look like. Here’s a screenshot:

Available now. Brave Search Ads are available in the U.S., Canada, the UK, France and Germany. Brands must meet certain eligibility requirements – Brave called this a “minimum threshold of eligible ad impressions in their desired region.”

Testing, testing. The launch follows 18 months of testing, Brave said. Amazon Ads Sponsored Products, Dell, Fubo, Insurify, Shutterstock and Thumbtack were among the brands that tested Brave Search Ads.

What Brave is saying. The company is pitching this as a way that brands can augment their paid media strategy and reach “highly qualified—but otherwise unreachable—audiences”:

• “As of April 2024, a third of the top search advertisers in the US by media spend are either currently testing or have moved to paid Brave Search Ads campaigns. Since the beginning of the year, 89% of customers who started Brave Search Ads campaigns have continued to advertise in consecutive months.”

About Brave Search. Brave has an independent search index (it doesn’t rely on Google or Microsoft to serve its search results). It now has 65 million monthly active users and processes over 10 billion annual searches. For context, Google processes roughly that many searches per day.

The announcement. Brave launches Search Ads in key markets, after successful test phase with leading brands.

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Google is having some technical difficulties this morning with its news engine. Google News, the news tab in Google Search, Google Discover, Google Trends and other Google services that use news publications, are currently not returning results for many searchers.

The issue I believe started a couple of hours ago but is now getting worse and happening for more and more Google searchers.

What it looks like. Here are some screenshots of Google News taking down parts of Google Search, the Google News homepage, Google Discover feeds and more.

The last screenshot is from @Rakesh0522.

Why we care. This may result in less traffic to news publishers, while Google works to address these issues. Google News, the news tab in Google Search, Google Discover and Google Trends all send a significant amount of traffic to publishers.

If you notice a decline in traffic this morning – this may be why.

Google responded to the bad press surrounding its recently rolled out AI Overviews in a new blog post by its new head of Search, Liz Reid. Google explained how AI Overviews work, where the weird AI Overviews came from, the improvements Google made and will continue to make to its AI Overviews.

However, Google said searchers “have higher satisfaction with their search results, and they’re asking longer, more complex questions that they know Google can now help with,” and basically, these AI Overviews are not going anywhere.

As good as featured snippets. Google said the AI Overviews are “highly effective” and based on its internal testing, the AI Overviews “accuracy rate for AI Overviews is on par with featured snippets.” Featured snippets also use AI, Google said numerous times.

No hallucinations. AI Overviews generally don’t hallucinate, Google’s Liz Reid wrote. The AI Overviews don’t “make things up in the ways that other LLM products might,” she added. AI Overviews typically only go wrong when Google “misinterpreting queries, misinterpreting a nuance of language on the web, or not having a lot of great information available,” she wrote.

Why the “odd results.” Google explained that it tested AI Overviews “extensively” before releasing it and was comfortable releasing it. But Google said that people tried to get the AI Overviews to return odd results. “We’ve also seen nonsensical new searches, seemingly aimed at producing erroneous results,” Google wrote.

Also, Google wrote that people faked a lot of the examples, but manipulating screenshots showing fake AI responses. “Those AI Overviews never appeared,” Google said.

Some odd examples did come up, and Google will make improvements in those types of cases. Google will not manually adjust AI Overviews but rather improve the models so they work across many more queries. “we don’t simply “fix” queries one by one, but we work on updates that can help broad sets of queries, including new ones that we haven’t seen yet,” Google wrote.

Google spoke about the “data voids,” which we covered numerous times here. The example, “How many rocks should I eat?” was a query no one has searched for prior and had no real good content on. Google explained, “However, in this case, there is satirical content on this topic … that also happened to be republished on a geological software provider’s website. So when someone put that question into Search, an AI Overview appeared that faithfully linked to one of the only websites that tackled the question.”

Improvements to AI Overviews. Google shared some of the improvements it has made to AI Overviews, explaining it will continue to make improvements going forward. Here is what Google said it has done so far:

• Built better detection mechanisms for nonsensical queries that shouldn’t show an AI Overview, and limited the inclusion of satire and humor content.
• Updated its systems to limit the use of user-generated content in responses that could offer misleading advice.
• Added triggering restrictions for queries where AI Overviews were not proving to be as helpful.
• For topics like news and health, Google said it already have strong guardrails in place. For example, Google said it aims to not show AI Overviews for hard news topics, where freshness and factuality are important. In the case of health, Google said it launched additional triggering refinements to enhance our quality protections.

Finally, “We’ll keep improving when and how we show AI Overviews and strengthening our protections, including for edge cases, and we’re very grateful for the ongoing feedback,” Liz Reid ended with.

Why we care. It sounds like AI Overviews are not going anywhere and Google will continue to show them to searchers and roll them out to more countries and users in the future. You can expect them to get better over time, as Google continues to hear feedback and improve its systems.

Until then, I am sure we will find more examples of inaccurate and sometimes humorous AI Overviews, similar to what we saw when featured snippets initially launched.

If you’ve been following SEO trends over the past two years, you’ve probably heard the term “AI” more than enough times already. While I’ll admit it is getting a tad bit repetitive, it’s not without good reason. 

AI technology will set the trajectory of nearly every industry in the modern economy. Some industries are further along the adoption curve than others, but at some point, the world we see today will be seamlessly woven together with AI.

With that imminent future in mind, it’s important to discuss how we use generative AI effectively.

My agency has dealt with clients on both ends of the AI spectrum. Some wish to avoid it in their content production at all costs, while others think it can do everything for them.

Unfortunately, neither is true.

This begs the question, “How should we use AI for our SEO content production?”

Here are six principles to ensure you’re getting the most out of the technology while still producing effective, Google-friendly content. 

1. Know your desired outcome

Whether your content is AI or human-drafted, the creation process should always begin with an understanding of why it’s being created.

I’ve encountered a wealth of useless content produced without a real end goal and no connection to a brand’s larger marketing objectives.

With the rapid adoption of AI, the number of brands mass-producing useless content will grow. Some are adopting the mantra of quantity over quality, using AI to simply produce larger volumes of content. 

But more content isn’t always the answer if there’s no goal tied to that content.

Different forms of content have different goals, and each and every piece, whether streamlined with AI or not, should serve a purpose and have a supporting strategy.

Here is a breakdown of content types and the strategy behind them:

• Core site content: The goal of this content type is to educate prospective customers about products or services.
• Blogs and informational content: These pieces aim to reach new audiences related to your products or services. A blog topic that’s relevant to your audience, products and services and that has proper promotion behind it can expose your business to new market sectors. 
• Shareable content: Use these deliverables as a way to grow authority and reach through backlinks and social engagement. To be effective, this type of content usually approaches a trending topic in your industry from an interesting perspective or shares proprietary data in a unique or fun way.
• Thought leadership content: Leverage this type of content to position a person or brand as a leader or pioneer in their space. You can strengthen the strategy behind this content by including subject matter expert (SME) quotes or interviews.

Dig deeper: AI content creation: A beginner’s guide

2. Leverage audience insights

Your content creation process should always lean heavily on audience research and knowledge. Just as it’s critical to know why you’re creating content, it’s critically as important to think about who you’re creating it for, especially if you’re going to be leveraging AI to help.  

Some methods for gaining insight into your audience are:

• On-site surveys 
• CRM data
  • Data on “most valuable” customers and/or customers with the longest relationship with the brand
  • Data on brand new customers (became customers within the last week)
  • Data on customers who entered the funnel but did not convert
• Analytics data (audience, demographics) 
• Social data
• Client intel
• Survey data of ideal target audiences: Look for commonalities beyond demographics – psychographics

Once you have data points from several areas, you can create a customer persona. This persona is a detailed description of a person who embodies your ideal customer. 

Creating this customer profile and keeping it in mind as you write your content serves as a constant reminder of who you’re speaking to, keeping tone and voice accurate and effective. 

When leveraging AI, this persona information should be tied directly into your prompts to help ensure the output is less generic and more closely tied to your customer persona.

To integrate your persona attributes with your content even more, you can have AI generate your personas completely. If given the opportunity, this might make more sense.

Most generative AI platforms are designed to comb through vast amounts of data. While crawling these large datasets, the algorithms look for patterns.

If you can work with a more sophisticated platform and feed it as much customer data as you have available, you may be left with a better persona than you ever dreamed of to start. 

3. Get a paid account

Privacy and security should be a major consideration for anyone looking to incorporate AI into their daily lives. This is especially true for content creators who want to leverage AI. 

As you can see above, knowing your audience and leveraging your proprietary data insights for content production are critical to your content’s performance.

But with the wrong plan type, what you’re inputting into your AI tool of choice could be leveraged as training data and made public. You can get around this by signing up for a plan such as ChatGPT Team, which costs $25/month.

At our agency, before using any AI platform, we thoroughly review the terms and conditions to ensure our use complies with them and that our data – and, by extension, our clients’ data – is not used to train the platform. 

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4. Don’t expect to find one silver bullet all in one prompt

Contrary to popular belief, there usually isn’t one “holy grail” of a prompt that will get AI to give you the desired results.

For the best results, your team should continuously prompt throughout each stage of your content production process.

The help AI provides may look different at each stage. For example, you can use AI prompts for content to inform your research during the content ideation and outlining process. These platforms can help with research, such as giving lists of keywords and suggesting headings and subheadings that might perform well in the SERPs. 

AI can also be helpful at the drafting stage. Starting with your customer persona as an input, query a generative AI platform with an appropriate question for each section of your blog.

The output generated will serve as a great starting point for your writing. However, it’s important to make sure you fact-check and edit that content to give it the ever-necessary “human touch.”

Certain AI platforms, such as Claude and Gemini (from Google), will allow you to upload your outline as part of your prompt. Simply attach your outline file and frame your prompt in a way that instructs your platform to write based on the uploaded file. What you’ll get won’t be perfect, but it will be a solid foundation for you to work from. 

What if you’re not generating new content?

If you need to edit and refresh existing content, you can and should still use AI. The right AI platform can trim fluff, bring more clarity to your content and identify what can be added to strengthen your content.

These refreshing tactics could help give your current content the facelift it needs to perform well in this new era of Google AI Overviews.

5. Enhance E-E-A-T

In a nutshell, Google wants to reward content from people who have and demonstrate first-hand subject matter expertise and experience.

Yes, we’re talking about E-E-A-T, which stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.

Many companies are already using generative AI platforms to mass-produce blog content. So E-E-A-T could become even more important as we ride the wave of AI technology.

To set your content apart, and provide a superior user experience to a competitor’s robot ramblings, work with:

Experienced authors

Hire an expert in the field to help with your content production or leverage an expert to review your content. If you work for an agency, ask your clients to provide a dedicated subject matter expert to formally review your content when needed. 

If you’re in-house, ask who has the depth and experience needed to weigh in on the subjects you’re covering. You can also develop standard interview questions to ask your client about each topic, ensuring you have a bank of expert insight to improve content performance. 

LinkedIn is also a great platform to identify and hire experts within certain fields to help write or professionally review your content.  

SMEs

Strengthen your content with SME insights, quotes, resources or statistics.

If you can’t get in direct contact with an in-house SME or one on a client’s team, there are other ways to gain insights and quotes. 

You can leverage sites like Connectively (formerly HARO) or respondent.io to farm questions directly from an industry expert. You may have to verify their credentials, but it’s an easy, low-cost way to add depth to your content.

Your client’s YouTube channel (if they have one) can also be a veritable gold mine of quotes. 

Data

Leverage custom or proprietary data. Access to unique data in your space positions you with experience that Google will value.

Either internally or using a third-party data collection company, conduct a survey. Brainstorm a unique perspective on topics within your industry and develop a questionnaire. 

6. Human touch is essential

AI can help you achieve 60-70% of the goals with specific tasks, but a human touch remains essential throughout the process. Although technology is advancing, glitches like AI hallucinations leave us at a point where a human touch is essential to producing stellar content. 

Your aim should be to use AI to set your piece up for success, enhance the content and save yourself some time. But it’s critical to ensure you have the proper staff to check for plagiarism, optimize readability and edit for final spelling and grammar.

The important thing to remember is that AI isn’t perfect. It takes a human hand to oversee content and ensure it hits all the major benchmarks of good internet writing, like E-E-A-T, and polishing the piece to sound conversational, on brand and provide the user experience your readers and the SERPs are after. 

Dig deeper: How to survive the search results when you’re using AI tools for content

Take an interest in AI

Keep feeding your interest in AI.

Take it upon yourself to be the AI pro on your team.

AI isn’t going anywhere. It’s growing more intelligent with every passing day. 

Stay ahead of AI news and trends, become familiar with new platforms and continue to responsibly explore new and exciting ways to implement AI to transform your workflow. 

Google has confirmed a “logging error” that affected the product snippets reporting within the Google Search Console performance report. The issue occurred between May 15, 2024 until May 27, 2024 and resulted in an increase in clicks and impressions for the Product snippet search appearance type within the search performance report and impressions overlay in the product snippet rich result report.

This is just a reporting issue and has no impact and real Google Search rankings.

More details. A week ago, we noticed a weird spike in impressions and clicks for product snippets. Some thought it might be related to AI Overviews, but John Mueller from Google said it is unlikely related to that. He wrote:

The folks here are looking into the details of this, and it does look like a bug on our side in Search Console reporting (and FWIW it doesn’t seem to be related to AI Overviews at all, but I can see how that would be tempting). Once we know more (and ideally have fixed it), we’ll likely add an annotation in Search Console & an entry in the data anomalies page.

Google details. Google then posted an update here, confirming the reporting issue. Google wrote:

A logging error affected Search Console reporting on product snippets from May 15, 2024 until May 27, 2024. As a result, you may notice an increase in clicks and impressions during this period for the Product snippet search appearance type in the performance report and impressions overlay in the product snippet rich result report. This is just a logging issue, not an actual change in clicks or impressions.

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot showing the spike for this report:

Why we care. If you noticed this unusual spike, you were not alone. Just note that this was a reporting glitch in Google Search Console so that you know what happened.

It would be best to ignore that data, within that date range, for client and internal reporting purposes.

Understanding all the features of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is essential to making the most of it. Doing so allows you to configure the tool to analyze data accurately and efficiently. It also lets you draw the best conclusions for designing, refocusing and defining your digital strategies.

GA4 users can configure many functionalities, including custom dimensions, which allow for more detailed and personalized data analysis.

What are dimensions in GA4?

Google defines a dimension as an attribute of your data. It describes your data, and it’s usually written in text rather than numbers.

An example of dimensions would be source/medium, which shows how a user arrives at a website:

Another example of dimension would also be the Event name, which shows the different events that happen on a website and how the user interacts with it:

When creating the GA4 account, the tool preconfigures a wide list of dimensions automatically by default.

However, if this is not enough for your strategy’s analysis and you need to analyze attributes in more detail and specifically based on the website’s objectives, you can create custom dimensions.

Events and event parameters

To understand custom dimensions and how to create them, you must first understand some GA4 concepts – events and parameters.

• Events are the metrics that allow you to measure specific user interactions on a website, such as loading a page, clicking on a link or submitting a form. 
• Event parameters are additional data that site information about those events (i.e., additional information about how users interact with a website).

There are two types of event parameters in GA4, depending on how they are captured by the tool:

• Automatically collected parameters: These are preconfigured by GA4, which automatically captures a set of parameters (e.g. page_location, page_referrer or page_title). Google provides a list of all these event parameters created automatically or enhanced measurement.
• Custom parameters: These allow you to collect information that is not captured by default. This applies to recommended events and custom events, where custom settings are required.

What are GA4 custom dimensions?

Custom dimensions are attributes that allow you to describe and collect data in a customized way. Essentially, they are parameters you create in GA4 to capture information that is not automatically tracked by the tool.

Types of custom dimensions

Depending on the information that you want to collect in a custom way, you can create different types of custom dimensions, as indicated by Google:

When is it recommended to create custom dimensions?

Before creating custom dimensions to analyze data in more detail, it is advisable to check whether these attributes already exist as automatic events predefined by GA4 or as options within enhanced measurement events.

To determine if the data you want to analyze is already provided by automatic events, you can consult the list that Google Analytics offers under Automatically collected events. These events are collected automatically, so the user does not need to perform any additional actions.

This is not the case for the enhanced measurement events, these must be activated within the GA4 account if you want to collect this information.

To activate these attributes, you will do it inside Admin > Data streams > Events > Enhanced measurement.

If the information you want to analyze is not included within these automatic events, it is recommended that you create it as a custom dimension.

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How to set up custom dimensions

Regardless of the type of custom dimension, it must be created via Google Tag Manager. Below is a step-by-step guide for configuring an event-scoped custom dimension.

Before getting started, make sure the GA4 and Google Tag Manager accounts are properly configured and linked.

Next, you need to define and create which event parameter you want and send it as a custom dimension in GA4.

In this case, you are going to show in the following image how to create the event parameter to analyze the URL of the video that a user plays on your website:

As it is a manually configured event parameter only included in Google Tag Manager, it will not be enough for GA4 to include it in its reports automatically. You will have to notify GA4 about it by going to Admin > Data display > Custom definitions.

Then, click on Create custom dimension.

Create the custom definition with the information from your event parameter:

Now that your custom dimension is created, use DebugView to check if it is being collected correctly and is properly configured.

In parallel, within the Custom definitions section, under Quota information, you can monitor the total number of custom dimensions created in your GA4 account.

How many custom dimensions can I set up in my GA4 account?

The number of custom dimensions that a user can create is limited, although it is often difficult to reach this limit. 

To ensure you create only the most useful dimensions, first define the highest-priority KPIs for your website or app and then create and configure only those dimensions that are truly of interest. To avoid exceeding this limit, use predefined dimensions and metrics whenever possible.

How to analyze custom dimensions

Custom dimensions will provide you with additional information about your data. This information can be analyzed within GA4.

In the case of GA4, you can analyze the custom dimensions through the same reports that the tool offers in a customized way, either in the traffic or events panel, for example: 

Custom dimensions can also provide more information about your data when using the explore section:

Creating custom dimensions is a valuable method for enhancing your analytics with valuable insights for your business.

Google will be shutting down the Google Business Profile chat and call history feature on July 31, 2024. Google will stop allowing new chats to be initiated starting on July 15, 2024 and then will totally disable the chat and call history features on July 31, 2024.

What Google said. Google sent out numerous types of emails to businesses, depending on if they uses the chat or call history feature. The email says:

“We are reaching out to share that we will be winding down Google’s chat and call history features in Google Business Profile on July 31, 2024. We acknowledge this may be difficult news – as we continually improve our tools, we occasionally have to make difficult decisions which may impact the businesses and partners we work with. It’s important to us that Google remains a helpful partner as you manage your business and we remain committed to this mission.”

Important dates. Here are the upcoming dates you need to be aware of:

• July 15, 2024: Searchers will no longer be able to start new chat conversations with your business from Google Maps or Google Search. However, searchers that are already in existing chat conversations will be notified that chat will be phased out.
• July 31, 2024: The chat functionality in Google Business Profile will end completely and you will no longer receive new chat messages. You will also no longer be able to see your Google Business Profile call history in Google Business Profile.

History download. You can download your chat and call history from Google Business Profiles, so you can store them somewhere. At some point, Google will delete the history.

The email. Here is a screenshot of the email I received:

Why we care. If you used these features for your business, please be aware they are going away soon. You may want to download your chat and call history before the deadline, so that you can archive that data in your CRM software and database.

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Conversion is usually preceded by several interactions with a website or an app.

Attribution determines the role of each touchpoint in driving conversions and assigns credit for sales to interactions in conversion paths.

Therefore, it’s crucial to understand attribution in Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

(If you are new to attribution, read the Google Analytics help article on attribution first.)

How Google Analytics 4 attribution works

Universal Analytics reports attributed the entire credit for the conversion to the last click. A direct visit was not considered a click, but for the avoidance of doubt, this attribution model was also called the last non-direct click model. Other attribution models were only available in the Model Comparison Tool in the Multi-Channel Funnels (MCF) reports section.

GA4 offers a wider availability of different attribution models, but it depends on the scope of the report – whether it is the user acquisition source, session source or event source. 

In Universal Analytics, the source dimensions had session scope solely. The MCF reports made it possible to analyze the sources of all sessions on the conversion path. The three scopes of source dimension in GA4 (user, session, event) are the most important and fundamental changes in the attribution area.   

This guide will use the term “source” in a broader meaning as any dimension that indicates the origin of a visit (e.g., channel grouping, source, medium, ad content, campaign, ad group, keyword, search term, etc.).

In 2024, Google modified the terminology in Analytics, and what were previously known as conversions are now called key events. The term “conversion” in Google Analytics will be reserved for Google Ads conversions imported from Google Ads.

Session source

Session-scope attribution – unsurprisingly – determines the source of the session. It is used, among others, in the Traffic acquisition reports in the Reports section.

The session source is the source that started the session (e.g., social media referral or organic search result). However, if a direct visit started a session, the session source will be attributed to the source of the previous session (if there was any). 

Quick reminder: A direct visit means that Analytics does not know where the user came from because the click does not pass the referrer, gclid, or UTM parameter.

The session source will be direct only if Analytics cannot see any other source of visit for the given user within the lookback window. The default lookback window in GA4 is 90 days. We will return to the lookback window matter later in this article.

By the way, what is a session?

A Google Analytics session is not the same as a browser session.

In GA4, a session begins when a user visits the website or app and ends after the user’s inactivity for a specified time (30 minutes by default – see this Analytics help article).

Closing the browser window does not end the session. If the browser window is closed, another visit to the website within the time limit will still belong to the same session – unless the browser deletes cookies and browser data after closing the browser window, for example in incognito mode.

If a visit from a new source occurs during a session, a new session will not start, and the source of the current session will remain unchanged.

It does not mean that the visit from the new source is ignored. GA4 records the source of this visit, and the event-scope attribution reports (more on that later in this article) will take into account all sources of all sessions. (See this Analytics help article.)

A new visit during an existing session may happen, for example, if a user returns from a payment gateway or a webmail site after password recovery or registration confirmation. These visits will not artificially inflate the number of sessions. 

Nevertheless, sources of these visits are so-called unwanted referrals and should be excluded. Visits from excluded referrals are reported as direct visits.

In GA4, these visits are de facto ignored because the session source and the session count remain unchanged. The non-direct attribution modeling in GA4 will assign no credit to this (direct) source (as described later in this article).

First user source 

First user source (source of the first visit) is new to GA4. It shows where the user came from to the website or app for the first time.

It is a part of Google’s new approach to measurement in online marketing, which no longer focuses only on the classic ROAS (revenues vs. costs), but also analyzes the CAC vs. LTV (customer acquisition cost vs. lifetime value).

This approach reflects the app logic: we have to acquire the app user first, and after the app is installed, further marketing efforts engage and monetize the user. However, for the web traffic, it also makes more sense. 

The new customer acquisition goal in Google Ads, available in Performance Max campaigns, also represents a similar approach. In this case, the focus is on the first-time buyer, not the first visit. 

In GA4, the first user visit is recorded by the first_visit event for the website or the first_open event for the app. The naming is self-explanatory.

Therefore, the source of the first visit is a user attribute and indicates where this user’s first visit to the website or application came from.

The first visit source is attributed using the last non-direct click model. Of course, this attribution applies only to interactions before the first website visit or the first open of the app (interactions following the first visit or first open are not taken into account).

Once assigned, the source of the first visit remains unchanged – of course, as long as Google Analytics can technically link the user’s activity on the website and in the app with the same user.

The first user source will be reset if the tracking of the user is lost, for example, if the user does not visit the website for a period longer than the Analytics cookie expiration date.

We will return to the Analytics cookie expiration period and other data collection limitations in GA4 later in this article.

Event scope attribution

In GA4, events replaced sessions as the fundament of data collection and reporting. Google Analytics makes it possible to report attribution using a selected attribution model only for key events.

The model is set in the Attribution Settings of the GA4 property. There are several pre-defined models to choose from (see the screen below).

The default data-driven model can be changed at any time. This change is retroactive (i.e., it will also change the historical data).

A common belief is that Google Analytics 4 no longer uses the last-click attribution model. But is that the case?

In practice, it applies only to customized reports that use event-scope dimensions and metrics, for example, Medium – Key events.

The default traffic and user acquisition reports use session source and first user source, respectively, and these dimensions use the last click model. It is indicated in the dimension name (e.g., Session – Campaign or First User – Medium).

Remember: source, session source and first user source are three different dimensions where different attribution models apply.

Scope	Attribution Model	Where available
Session	Last click	E.g., traffic acquisition reports
User (first user source)	Last click	E.g., user acquisition report
Event	Model set in the GA4 property settings (data-driven by default)	E.g., in the Explore section

Attribution settings

The attribution model set in the property settings applies to all reports in the property.

There are several attribution models (described in the earlier mentioned Analytics help article), to choose from. However:

• All the models do not assign value to direct visits unless there is no other choice because there is no other interaction on the path. In other words, they all use the non-direct principle. 
• The Ads-preferred models assign the entire value of the key event to Google Ads interactions if they occur in the funnel. There is only one Ads-preferred model available: the last click model. In the absence of Google Ads interactions on the funnel, this model works like a regular last-click model.
• In addition to clicks, models take into account “engaged views” of YouTube ads, that is, watching the ad for 30 seconds (or until the end if the ad is shorter) and other clicks associated with that ad (see this Google Analytics help article for more details).

Again, a change of the attribution model settings works retroactively (i.e., it applies to the historical data before the change). Saved explorations will be recalculated when viewing them.

Lookback window

Google Analytics property settings determine the length of the lookback window. The lookback window determines how far back in time a touchpoint is eligible for attribution credit. The default lookback window is 90 days, but you can change it to 60 or 30 days.

According to Analytics documentation, the lookback window settings apply to all attribution models and all key event types in Google Analytics 4 (i.e., it also applies to session-level attribution and attribution model comparisons).

The lookback window of the first user source has a separate setting (30 days by default, and it can be changed to 7 days). Are you wondering why it is defined differently? 

Well, first of all, it is worth considering why there is any lookback window for the first visit at all.

Moreover, why are we talking about the first user attribution model, which is always the last (non-direct) click?

After all, GA4 knows the source of the first visit when this visit happens. As it is the first visit, there are no previous visits, and thus no other sources to consider.

So, what is the point of looking deeper in time than the first interaction with a website or app?

Google Analytics 4 is designed to blend data collected by the website’s tracking code with information known by Google about the users, especially if they are logged in to Google services.

For example, Google may know that the user had an engaged interaction with our YouTube ad on a different device before the first visit.

Similarly, the user may use the app for the first time (first_open) during a direct session, but the install itself may result from a mobile app install campaign in Google Ads, clicked a few days earlier. 

Therefore, if the source of the first visit session is unknown (it is a direct visit), Google Analytics may try to assign the source of the first visit to the earlier known interaction if it occurred during the lookback window period.

In other words, GA4 may potentially record ad interactions before the first user visit.

Lookback window changes do not work retroactively. It means that they only apply from the moment of the change.

The engaged views of YouTube ads, however, always have three days lookback window, regardless of the property settings.

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Bye to cookie logic?

Universal Analytics’s default lookback window for the acquisition reports was six months. Any change to this period was also non-retroactive. 

Such a change, however, did not apply to conversions (now key events) but to interactions that had taken place after the change. It reflected the logic of the _utmz cookie, which was responsible for storing the source information.

Its expiration time was set when the cookie was created or updated (i.e., upon a visit from a given source).

For example, changing the lookback window in Universal Analytics from 30 to 90 days did not immediately include interactions from 90 days ago in the acquisition reports for the visits since the date of the change because the virtual “source cookie” for interactions older than 30 days has already “expired.”

There was a transition period (in this example, 90 days), after which all key events were fully reported under the new lookback window. 

Google Analytics 4 uses a different data model. They could therefore break with this past and stop using the cookie logic.

For example, they could apply changes to all key events that have taken place since the change, as it is now in Google Ads. Interpreting such would be much easier. They could, but they did not. 

In GA4, the change applies to interactions still in the lookback window. 

For example, if the lookback window is increased from 30 to 90 days, the key events will not immediately be reported in the new, 90 days lookback window. It will be reflected in the reports after 60 days from the date of change (the interactions from the initial 30-day lookback window will be remembered).

Reducing the lookback window (e.g., from 90 to 30 days) will apply the change immediately (i.e., all key events will be reported in the shorter, 30 days window). 

Yes, it sounds exotic. Fortunately, in practice, the analysts do not change the lookback window often. 

Cookie expiration and data retention

The Google Analytics 4 cookie has a standard expiration time of 24 months, but it can be changed to a period between one hour and 25 months (or the cookie may be set as a session cookie and expire after the browser session end).

Subsequent visits may renew this time limit. This will be the period in which Analytics will be able to recognize a returning user and remember the source of the first visit – see this GA4 help article).

However, it does not automatically mean that GA4 will “remember” user data that long.

In addition to the cookie expiration, we also have to deal with the GA4 data retention period. It is set by default to only two months, but you can (and basically, you should) change this setting to 14 months. (In the paid version, Google Analytics 360, it can be up to 50 months.)

After this time, Google deletes user-level data from Analytics servers. To keep this data, you must export it to BigQuery (see this GA4 help article).

It means that reports in the Explore section can only be made within the data retention period (please note that in the Explore section, you cannot select a date range beyond this period).

These restrictions do not apply to standard reports in the Reports section that use aggregated data. GA4 will store this data “forever.” 

In the unpaid version of GA4, the first user source data are deleted after 14 months of inactivity. After that, this user will be recorded as a new user.

Therefore, there is no point in, for example, changing the cookie expiration time from default 24 months to a longer period, unless you use Google Analytics 360. 

Conversion export to Google Ads

Exporting conversions to Google Ads is often used as an alternative to the native Google Ads conversion tracking as the fastest and most convenient way to implement conversion tracking in Google Ads. 

However, this time-saving seems illusory in the era of Google Tag Manager. 

In GA4, the conversion import has flexible options so it is important to understand the differences between available settings. 

In Universal Analytics and the earlier versions of GA4, the conversions were solely exported using Analytics’ last-click attribution model, regardless of the attribution model selected in Google Ads. 

This methodology had problematic implications, particularly if the imported conversions were to be used for Google Ads optimization: 

• It reduced the number of conversions observed in Google Ads because, as a matter of principle, Analytics attributes conversions to all traffic sources, not only to Google Ads.
• Such attribution is difficult to interpret, especially if Google Ads uses other attribution models for the last-click conversions imported from Analytics.
• It is vulnerable to unforeseen Google Analytics configuration and link tagging errors, such as unwanted referrals or redundant UTM parameters, which may suddenly increase the credit attributed to other sources. 

Google engineers probably understood this issue and recently added more options. 

Today, if you import conversions from GA4 to Google Ads, the conversions will be imported using the attribution model selected in the Google Ads conversion settings. 

Additionally, it is possible to choose which channels are eligible to receive conversion credit for web conversions shared with Google Ads. You can decide whether your GA4 conversion export attributes conversions: 

• Only to Google Ads.
• Or across all channels.  

Attributing only to Google Ads makes the conversion export very similar to native Google Ads tracking. 

The conversions are attributed solely to Google Ads clicks on the attribution path, and no credit is assigned to other channels.

As of June 2023, it is the default setting for properties creating a link between Google Ads and GA4 for the first time. 

Attribution across channels is the previously existing method. 

If you linked GA4 and Google Ads before June 2023, it should apply to your GA4 property until you change it. 

If you use this option, you should remember that the number and value of conversions will likely be smaller than in the first option or when using native Google Ads conversion tracking. 

This is because conversions will be partly attributed to other interactions on the conversion path (e.g., social media campaigns or organic traffic). 

If you choose the last-click model for imported conversions, the value attributed to Google Ads can sometimes even be zero. 

It is because you will only import conversions whose Google Ads source has not been overwritten by subsequent clicks from other sources (similar to how it worked in Universal Analytics). 

Regardless of the property-level attribution settings, Google Analytics allows comparisons of different attribution models in the Advertising section.

Currently, the available models are the same as those available in the property settings, and it is impossible to create custom models. 

GA4 allows reporting in two attribution time methods:

• Interaction time.
• Key event time.

The interaction time method is typical for advertising systems, where ad conversions are attributed to clicks and, thus – costs. It allows a correct match between costs and revenues.

Otherwise, the reports might include key events attributed to a given campaign after the end of the campaign, in a period when there is no ad spend.

On the other hand, the interaction time method may cause the total number of key events to change depending on the attribution model, as different models may attribute key events or their fractions to clicks outside the reporting period.

Moreover, the key event count and revenue for a given reporting period may grow over time until the lookback window closes.

In other words, we may observe more key events for the recent period if we look at the same report in the future – which is not the case when key events are reported in the key event time.

Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages, so it is good that we can now use both.

Attribution paths report

The GA4 attribution paths report is rich with data: days to key event and the number of interactions for a given path (touchpoints to key event).

It partly compensates for the lack of time lag and path length reports, which were separate reports in Universal Analytics.

The ability to choose an attribution model for this report may be surprising at first sight.

The attribution model does not affect attribution paths. They remain the same, and their length (number of touchpoints) and number of days to key event do not change.

In GA4, the path visualization also includes the fraction of key events assigned to a given interaction or their series in the selected attribution model.

In the last click model, the last interaction always has a 100% share in the key event, but in the other models, the distribution will be different.

This feature also allows a better understanding of how the data-driven model worked for the interactions in this report. 

Additional bar graphs are placed above the funnel report, visualizing how the selected attribution model assigned a value to channels at the beginning, middle and end of the funnel.

The early touchpoints are the first 25% of the interactions along the path, while the late touchpoints include the last 25%. The middle touchpoints are the remaining 50% of the interactions. 

If you feel that the distribution between early, middle, and late touchpoints does not look as expected for the multi-touch models, please note that if there are only two interactions, there is one early, one late, and no middle interactions.

If there is only one interaction, for the multi-touch models, it will be reported as late interaction – which distorts these reports the most. 

Probably, it would be better if the only interaction was considered as 33.3% early, 33.3% middle, and 33.3% late interaction.

Thus, the attribution model will only affect the bar charts at the top of the report and the percentages shown in the funnel visualization.

The table figures (funnel interactions, key events, revenue, funnel length, and days to key event) will remain the same, regardless of the attribution model.

By default, the attribution paths and model comparison reports include all key events in the GA4 property. Therefore, it is worth remembering to select the desired key event(s) first. 

Use of scopes in the reports

Again, the source dimensions in GA4 can have one of three scopes: session, user, and event.

• In the case of the event scope, the attribution model specified in the property attribution settings is used.
• The session source (session scope) is assigned to the last non-direct interaction at the session start and remains unchanged for a given session, even if there is a visit from another source during the session. It’s the “first source” of the session, although assigned in the last-click model.
• Similarly, the first user source (user scope) is assigned to the last non-direct interaction before the first visit and remains unchanged.

In Google Analytics, all dimensions and metrics operate within their own scope. For example, the Landing page dimension has the session scope, and the Page dimension has the event scope.

Although technically possible, using dimensions and metrics of different scopes can sometimes lead to confusing or difficult-to-interpret reports. There is typically little point in making such reports in GA4.

However, some reports using dimensions and metrics of different scopes will make sense. For example, for source dimensions in GA4:

• The number of events (event scope) paired with the First user source dimension (user scope) shows how many events were generated by users whose first visit was from a given source.
• The number of events (event scope) paired with the session source dimension (session scope) shows how many events were generated by users during sessions with a given source.

The GA4 documentation fails to indicate how to interpret the number of sessions or users matched with the event scope. Such explorations, although possible, often contain many not set values.

However, creating such reports doesn’t make sense. (See the previously mentioned GA4 help article on scopes.)

Modeled and blended data

Finally, it is worth emphasizing the fundamental change in Google Analytics 4, where reports include data collected by the tracking code enriched with modeled data.

The modeled data uses information collected in the cookieless consent mode for users who have not given consent to tracking and data for users logged in to Google. This data is fragmentary, but Google can fill in the missing data using extrapolations and mathematical modeling.

Modeled data is available only for GA4 properties using blended reporting identity.

Thanks to blended data in GA4, we can see an approximate but more complete picture of the user’s journey.

For example, Universal Analytics recorded an iPhone user who visited the website from a YouTube ad using Safari and never returned. Universal Analytics also saw an event made by another user who came from a direct visit on the Chrome browser for Windows.

Google knows these events belong to the same user because this user was logged into Gmail and YouTube. 

This is how Google Analytics 4 can model the cross-device users’ behavior. It makes the reported number of users more real (reduces it) and improves the attribution accuracy.

In the example above, the key event from the direct session can be correctly attributed to the YouTube ad.

Not all users are always logged into Google – many do not even have a Google account.

Therefore, to make the picture more complete, Google Analytics will assume that users who are not logged in behave similarly.

Consequently, GA4 sometimes will supplement the missing sources (e.g., assign certain sources to key events that were previously assigned to direct).

The behavior of users who have not given consent to tracking is estimated similarly.

Analytics knows the number of page views and key events from the non-consented users and can model how many users generated these pageviews and conservatively attribute key events to sources.

Enriching Analytics data may take up to a week. Therefore, the recent data may change in the future.

Various privacy-oriented technology solutions, such as PCM by Apple or similar solutions proposed by Google (the Privacy Sandbox), randomly delay event reporting by 24-48 hours.

Therefore, we must get used to the fact that the full view of analytical data will only be available after some time. 

In GA4, we can also enhance the reports using the 1st party data, namely the User-ID.

GA4 reports combine the User-ID data with the Client-ID (the Analytics cookie identifier) and user provided data, which makes the data more complete, especially in the cross-device aspect and LTV measurement. 

The complexity of these processes may cause greater or lesser discrepancies between the data in different reports.

We should get used to it, but hopefully, as GA4 improves its algorithms, these discrepancies will become less and less significant.

It is worth remembering that Google Analytics is not accounting software.

Its objective is not to record every event with 100% precision but to indicate trends and support decision-making – for which approximate data is sufficient.

Author’s note: This article was written using Google help articles, answers given by Analytics support and results from my experiments. 

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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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I’ve learned through experience to be cautious when using the words “content” and “scale” close to each other in SEO because it’s usually coded-speak for creating content in large volumes, primarily for search engines.

We’ve seen time and time again this approach ending in disaster when the search engines work out what is going on.

When used correctly, however, AI can be a powerful assistant for SEO and help work out how to improve the quality of our content.

What we’re going to do

Our goal is to use an automated process to find “intent gaps” in our content.

To do this – all in real-time – we will:

• Crawl our content URLs.
• Analyze the text content on the page with ChatGPT.
• Compare this to an intent map of Google’s People Also Ask data to determine where we have gaps in our content.

The result will be a spreadsheet that potentially saves us hundreds of hours by automatically listing questions that our content does not answer, which Google has already determined are related to the page’s intent.

• Screaming Frog SEO spider: This popular web crawler recently released its v20, which, among other things, includes a new feature we will use to execute custom JavaScript while crawling, meaning we can extract data as we go.
• OpenAI API: The OpenAI API will allow us to programmatically interact with ChatGPT for content analysis. Summarizing and reviewing content, rather than creating it, is one of the strongest uses for Large Language Model systems.
• AlsoAsked API: AlsoAsked is the only tool with an async/sync API which allows us to programmatically query and access People Also Asked data in any language/region supported by Google. 

Why this approach is so powerful

People Also Ask (PAA) data

We’re using PAA data for this project because it has several distinct advantages over other types of keyword data:

Intent clustering by Google

Google uses PAA boxes to help users refine queries, but they also serve as an induction loop of interaction data for Google to understand what users want from a query on average.

The term ‘intent’ generally refers to the overall goal a user wants to complete, and this intent can consist of several searches. Google’s research has shown that for complex tasks, it takes, on average, eight searches for a user to complete a task.

In the above example, Google knows that when users have the intent of learning how to change a car battery, one of the most common searches they will perform on this journey is asking which terminal to take off first.

We also know that Time To Result (TTR) is one of Google’s metrics for measuring its own performance. It’s essentially how quickly a user has completed their mission and fulfilled their intent. Therefore, it makes sense that we can improve our content and reduce the TTR by including searches that are in close ‘intent proximity’ to the topic of our article.

If we can make the content more useful, we’re improving its chances of ranking well. No other source of keyword data can provide such detail on queries that come up as ‘zero volume’ keywords on traditional research tools.

Recency

No other sources of search data give queries and updates as quickly as People Also Ask data. As I write this, GPT-4o was released 4 days ago. However, major keyword research tools (incorrectly) still say there are 0 searches for “GPT-4o”:

For the same search term, you can see that Google’s People Also Ask feature has already been updated with numerous queries about GPT-4o, asking if it’s free and how it’s better.

Being the first to publish on a particular topic is a huge advantage in SEO. Not only are you almost guaranteed to rank if you’re one of the first sites to produce the content, but there is usually an early flurry of links around new topics that go to these sites that will help you sustain rankings.

The recency of the data also means it’s an excellent way to see if your content needs updating to align with the current search intent, which is not static.

Step-by-step approach

1. Update Screaming Frog to >v20.1

Before we begin, it’s worth checking that you have the latest version of Screaming Frog. CustomJS was introduced in v20.0, and since v20.1 the AlsoAsked + ChatGPT CustomJS is packaged with the installer, so you don’t need to manually add it.



Screaming Frog can update directly from the program while only one instance is running. To find this option, go to Help > Check for Updates, which will require a restart.

2. Crawl site URLs

Although we will not run this process on all URLs, we need a list of URLs to choose from. The easiest way to achieve this is to start a standard crawl of your website with Screaming Frog and select the HTML filter to view pages.



If your site requires client-side JavaScript to render content and links, don’t forget to go into Configuration > Spider > Rendering and change Rendering from Text Only to JavaScript.

3. Select content URLs

Although this process can work on all different types of pages, it tends to offer the most value on informational pages. We must also consider that each URL we query will use more OpenAI tokens and AlsoAsked credits.

For this reason, I would recommend starting with your content URLs. For this example website, I will look at blog posts, which I know all have /blogs/ in the URL.

Screaming Frog offers a quick way to show only these URLs by typing ‘/blogs/’ into the filter box at the top right.



Your URL pattern may differ, and it doesn’t matter if there is no obvious URL pattern, as Screaming Frog offers a powerful Custom Search to filter based on page rules.

For this example, I will simply select and Copy the URLs I am interested in, although it would also be possible to export them to a spreadsheet if you have a large amount you want to work through.



4. Import CustomJS

The new CustomJS option can be found under the Configuration > Custom > Custom JavaScript menu.



This will open the Custom JavaScript window. In the bottom right, click the + Add from Library button to load a list of pre-packaged custom JavaScript that ships with Screaming Frog.

Scroll down and select (AlsoAsked+ChatGPT) Find unanswered questions and click Insert.

5. Configure API keys

We’re not quite ready to go yet. We now need to edit the imported JavaScript with our API keys — but don’t worry, that’s really easy!

Once the CustomJS is important, you need to click on this edit icon:



You should now see the JavaScript code in the editor window. There are two parts you need to edit, which are in capitals: ‘ENTER CHATGPT API KEY’ and ‘ENTER ALSOASKED API KEY’.

OpenAI API key

You can create an OpenAI key from https://platform.openai.com/api-keys



When you click Create new secret key, you’ll be prompted for a name and the project it’s attached to. You can call these whatever you like. OpenAI will put a secret key (be careful never to share this!) on your clipboard, which you can paste into your Screaming Frog CustomJS edit window.

The cost of ChatGPT will depend on token usage, which also depends on which pages we provide. Before deploying anything, it’s worth double-checking the spending limits you have set up to make sure you don’t unexpectedly go over budget.

AlsoAsked API key

AlsoAsked API access requires a Pro account, which provides 1,000 queries every month, although you can buy additional credits if you need to do more.

The costs here are much easier to predict, with a single URL costing $0.06 or with bulk Pay As You Go credits as low as $0.03. This means you could fully analyze 1,000 URLs of content for as low as $30, which would take days of manual work to achieve the same.

With a Pro account, you can create an API key.



Once again, give the key a name you will recognize, leave the ‘environment’ set to ‘Live’ and click ‘Create key’.

This will generate an API key to paste into the Screaming Frog CustomJS edit window.

6. Review settings

Configure PAA language and region

AlsoAsked supports all of the same languages and regions that Google offers, so if your website is not in English or targeting Great Britain, you can configure these two settings within the JavaScript from line 25 onwards.



You can use any ISO 639 language codes and ISO 3166 country codes. Google’s coverage with People Also Asked data is much lower in non-English languages.

Occasionally, English results will be returned as a fallback if no results for the region/language combination are provided, as there are often intent commonalities.

Customize the ChatGPT prompt

The current prompt used in the script for ChatGPT is:

• List the questions in this JSON array ${JSON.stringify(questions)} which are not answered in the text content of this page, but would make sense to answer in context to the rest of the content. Output the questions that are not answered in a JSON array of strings within an object called unanswered_questions.

There may be ways to improve output with more specific prompting related to your content by editing the part of the prompt in bold. This can be worth playing around with and seeing where you get the best output for your website.

To improve the output of the prompt, we have also asked ChatGPT to filter not only the unanswered questions but also the unanswered questions that might make sense to answer given the rest of the content on the page.

Warning: The beginning and end of the prompt, which are not highlighted in bold, specify specific formats, variables and objects that are used elsewhere in the script. If you change these without adjusting the script, it will likely break.



Check H1 inputs

We are prompting for People Also Asked data with the contents of the Header 1 (h1) on the target URL.

This means that if the page does not have a readable H1 tag, the script will fail, but I’m sure that, as we’re all SEOs, nobody will be in that position.



With a little coding, it is possible to change this variable to pass other parameters, such as a title tag, to fetch People Also Ask data, although our experiments have shown that H1s tend to be the best bet as they are a good description of page content.

7. Run List crawl for selected URLs

Use the Clear button at the top of the Screaming Frog interface to start a new crawl, and then select the Mode menu and change the crawl type to List.



Important: As you will be running Custom JavaScript, you must ensure your rendering mode is set to JavaScript in Configuration > Spider > Rendering or the script will not execute.

The Upload button will now let you import your list of URLs. You can simply select Paste if you copied your URLs to the clipboard as I did. If you exported them to a file, select From a File…



8. View results

Your results will be in the Custom JavaScript tab, which you can find either by clicking the down arrow to the right of the tabs and selecting Custom JavaScript’



Here, you will find your URLs, along with a list of questions based on PAAs that ChatGPT has determined have not been answered within your content and that might make sense.

Once the crawl is complete, you can use the Export button to produce a convenient spreadsheet for review.

Fit this in with your current SOPs

There are many ways to gather data to improve your content, from qualitative user feedback to looking at quantitative metrics within analytics. This is just one method.

This particular methodology is extremely useful because it can give some inspiration based on actual data while leaning into the strength of LLMs by summarising instead of generating content to put it into context.

With some extra tooling, it would be possible to build these kinds of checks in as you are producing content and even on scheduled crawls to alert content creators when new gaps appear.

Google looks stupid right now. And AI Overviews are to blame.

Google’s AI Overviews have given incorrect, misleading and even dangerous answers.

The fact that Google includes a disclaimer at the bottom of every answer (“Generative AI is experimental”) should be no excuse.

What’s happening. Google’s AI-generated answers have gained a lot negative mainstream media coverage as people have been sharing numerous examples of AI Overview fails on social media.

Just look at all the coverage:

A few examples of Google’s AI Overviews:

• Google described the health benefits of running with scissors:

• Google described the health benefits of taking a bath with a toaster:

• Google said a dog has played in the NHL:

• Google suggested using non-toxic glue to give pizza sauce more tackiness. (This advice apparently was traced back to an 11-year-old Reddit comment.)

• Google said we had one Muslim president – Barack Obama (who is not a Muslim):

• Google said you should eat at least one small rock a day (this advice can be traced back to The Onion, which publishes satirical articles):

Google looks stupid. My article, 7 must-see Google Search ranking documents in antitrust trial exhibits, included a slide that feels most appropriate at this moment following all the coverage of Google’s AI Overviews in the last couple of days:

What Google is saying. Asked by Business Insider about these terrible AI answers, a Google spokesperson said the examples are “extremely rare queries and aren’t representative of most people’s experiences,” adding that the “vast majority of AI Overviews provide high-quality information.”

• “We conducted extensive testing before launching this new experience and will use these isolated examples as we continue to refine our systems overall,” the spokesperson added. 

This is absolutely true. Social media is not an entirely accurate representation of reality. However, these answers are not good and Google owns the product producing them.

Also, using the excuse that these are “rare” queries is odd, considering just three days ago at Google Marketing Live, we were reminded that 15% of queries are new. There are a lot of rare searches on Google, no kidding. But that isn’t an excuse for ridiculous, dangerous or inaccurate answers.

Google is blaming the query rather than simply saying “these answers are bad and we will work to get better.” Is that so hard to do?

But this seems to be Google’s pattern now. They are telling us to reject the evidence we can all see with our eyes. It’s Orwellian.

Why we care. Google AI Overviews and Search have severe, fundamental issues. Trust in Google Search is eroding – even if Alphabet is making billions of dollars every quarter. As that trust erodes, people may start searching elsewhere, which will slowly trickle down and hurt performance for advertisers and further reduce organic traffic to websites.

History repeats. This may feel like déjà vu all over again for those of us who remember Google’s many issues with featured snippets. If you need a refresher or weren’t around in 2017, I highly suggest reading Google’s “One True Answer” problem — when featured snippets go bad.

Goog enough. If you want to follow the worst of Google’s AI Overviews and the search results on X, you may want to follow Goog Enough or #googenough. AJ Kohn said he is not behind the account, but knows who is. But the name was likely inspired by Kohn’s excellent article, It’s Goog Enough!

I’m going to wash down the rocks I just ate with some urine – thanks #googenough

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 24, 2024

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SEO today is more complex and challenging than at any other point.

Once upon a time, not too long ago, links were the most important thing in SEO.

But is that still true?

This article will examine the significance of link SEO today. It will include various perspectives within the industry, analyze empirical evidence and consider Google’s recent statements and updates on the role of links in their ranking algorithms.

Backlinks and SEO: Confusion in today’s landscape

Links matter. The volume and quality of external links to a webpage can influence its search rankings.

Beyond the number of links, other factors that play a role include:

• Link diversity (do your links come from multiple sites?).
• Relevance.
• Quality.
• Authority.

Technical aspects and Google’s preference for editorial (non-paid) links further impact effectiveness.

Links create PageRank, which helps elevate keyword rankings. Although Google no longer shows PageRank publicly, it still influences its algorithm.

How much? Opinions vary. Some believe PageRank is crucial, while others think its importance is all but dead.

Just check out this LinkedIn post:

Such posts can lead to interesting discussions that surface interesting views:

Opinions on the importance of links vary widely, leaving many confused.

If you’re among the confused, know you aren’t alone.

So – are links as crucial as sellers claim? Or are links an industry scam costing thousands for unnecessary links?

The truth, as is typically the case, is somewhere in between.

Let’s further examine these perspectives and measure them against the facts.

Google’s statements and updates

Before we proceed, it’s probably prudent to check recent comments from Google.

Let’s start with comments from Gary Illyes, a webmaster trends analyst at Google, from September, as reported here on Search Engine Land:

• “I think they [links] are important, but I think people overestimate the importance of links. I don’t agree it’s in the top three. It hasn’t been for some time.”

Then, in March, Google released a Spam Policy update, removing the word “important” in reference to links as a ranking factor. This change coincided with the March 2024 core algorithm update.

In April, there was a bit of a storm when Illyes indicated that links were less important at a search conference:

• “We need very few links to rank pages… Over the years we’ve made links less important.”

John Mueller, a Google search advocate, also made these comments:

• “My recommendation would be not to focus so much on the absolute count of links. There are many ways that search engines can discover websites, such as with sitemaps. There are more important things for websites nowadays, and over-focusing on links will often result in you wasting your time doing things that don’t make your website better overall.”

Some parts of Google’s documentation still mention links and PageRank as core aspects of its ranking systems.

Within their documentation, Google states that PageRank is:

• “one of our core ranking systems used when Google first launched. Those curious can learn more by reading the original PageRank research paper and patent. How PageRank works has evolved a lot since then, and it continues to be part of our core ranking systems.”

So, even if Google is reducing the prominence of link data within its ranking algorithms, it seems that will be a gradual sunset.

And here’s what Google’s philosophy page says:

• “We assess the importance of every web page using more than 200 signals and a variety of techniques, including our patented PageRank™ algorithm, which analyses which sites have been ‘voted’ to be the best sources of information by other pages across the web. As the web gets bigger, this approach actually improves, as each new site is another point of information and another vote to be counted.”

This suggests that links and PageRank are still important in 2024. However, if you read further:

• “We never manipulate rankings to put our partners higher in our search results and no one can buy better PageRank. Our users trust our objectivity and no short-term gain could ever justify breaching that trust.”

The statement that “no one can buy better PageRank” indicates that Google aggressively defends this part of its ranking algorithm.

It also suggests that Google believes, or wants us to believe, that paid link building services are ineffective. If such services were effective, Google couldn’t claim that no one can buy better PageRank.

This doesn’t mean links are unimportant. But Google invests heavily to make simple link building strategies ineffective.

Despite Google’s efforts to reduce reliance on links and prevent backlink exploitation, the SEO industry still promotes link building as a valid tactic. The industry continues to generate business and educate those they see as uninformed.

These practices will persist unless Google makes radical changes to its ranking algorithms and clearly communicates them to the industry.

Google aims to move away from links to better rank content, but what could replace PageRank?

For now, nothing.

However, with Google’s AI capabilities, this could change.

If Google can evaluate content usefulness directly without external links, they won’t need to rank webpages anymore. Instead, responding to search queries will become an exercise in AI-driven, technical content extraction and surfacing.

This shift seems inevitable.

Empirical evidence and studies

The key question to ask when it comes to your SEO efforts is: “Do links work right now?”

Let’s look at findings from Ahrefs, Backlinko and MonsterInsights:

Study 1: Ahrefs backlink statistics and findings

Ahrefs – a platform for backlink analysis, keyword indexing, content optimization, and cloud-based technical SEO auditing – updated its SEO Statistics for 2024 on March 18.

Ahrefs found a positive correlation between the number of sites linking to a page and that page’s ranking and SEO traffic performance. Most top-ranked pages gain between 5% and 14% more followed links per month.

Many other stats from Ahrefs reference publishers like Authority Hacker and include survey-based data.

Study 2: Backlinko search ranking findings

“A site’s overall link authority (as measured by Ahrefs Domain Rating) strongly correlates with higher rankings,” according to a Backlinko study, updated on March 24.

Google doesn’t use SEO tool scores in its algorithms, but it still uses PageRank. Ahrefs Domain Rating is designed to simulate PageRank, so a correlation is expected if Ahrefs is accurate.

Backlinko’s study also said:

• “Pages with lots of backlinks rank above pages that don’t have as many backlinks. In fact, the #1 result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions #2-#10.”

However, correlation doesn’t imply causation. High rankings can make a page more visible, leading to more backlinks and citations. Still, the correlation between link authority and higher rankings is strong.

• “We found no correlation between page loading speed (as measured by Alexa) and first page Google rankings.”

The point above is slightly misleading. Google doesn’t adjust rankings based on Alexa page-speed ratings. Instead, they use Core Web Vitals to assess page performance. Therefore, this statement might be based on poor input data.

On to the next point:

• “Getting backlinks from multiple different sites appears to be important for SEO. We found the number of domains linking to a page had a correlation with rankings.”

The importance of link diversity is generally accepted within the search community.

Study 3: Monster Insights Ranking Factor Findings

Monster Insights, a WordPress plugin provider, determined that backlinks “have a huge influence on Google’s ranking algorithm,” in January.

Monster Insights concluded that sites with higher volumes of backlinks usually achieve higher Google ranking positions (on average):

• “All in all, backlinks from high authority websites are more valuable, and will boost your rankings more, than links from lower rated sites. Acquiring these links sends a signal to Google that your content is trustworthy, since other high-quality websites vouch for it.”

Making sense of link data and associated claims

While most studies show a correlation between links, rankings and search traffic, they don’t address causality.

Do links cause pages to rank higher, or do high-ranking pages attract more links?

This has been a major debate in SEO for over a decade.

Some have had success with link building, while others have seen no results or even received a manual action from Google.

I trust Ahrefs’ study the most because it provides tools and data without selling link building services, reducing bias. They have a massive index of over 14 trillion live backlinks.

Understanding the role of backlinks in 2024

Your main takeaway is that links still matter now.

However, traditional link building, which often produces poor-quality links, has been ineffective for some time.

Success requires creative ideas and real-world events that garner high-tier editorial coverage.

Don’t “build” links. Earn and attract links. Producing links isn’t as simple as stacking blocks.

While backlinks are becoming less important, they are still an important part of SEO.

Adopting a holistic and quality-focused approach in link acquisition and broader SEO strategies will likely yield the best results in this changing landscape.

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