1. Perform Competitive Research & Find Relevant Keywords

Look at your competition to see what their successes and mistakes are. See if any successful design elements or body copy tone that can be tailored to your unique company brand. By researching their negative reviews, you can avoid any obvious mistakes that have already been done by other companies your similar industry. Also use Google’s Keyword Planner to discover search engine friendly keywords you can use in your website’s headings and body copy. Incorporating relevant keywords will not only separate you from the competition but increase your value to Search Engines like Google and your potential clients searching from products or services like yours. 

2. Optimize Your Website’s Content for Mobile

Most searches come from users on their phone. Google also uses mobile-first indexing that prioritizing mobile-friendly design. If you want rank higher on SERPs, your website must be responsive and load fast. While most web templates come already responsive, it is still wise to check on your phone to see if any content or photos gets cut off or if your website loads slow. You may need help from a digital marketing agency if you can’t fix any cut off content on your own or if the template you chose is buggy and loads slowly. 

3. Set up Google Search Console

 Google Search Console is a tool that allows you to submit your website to be indexed, as well as view data about your website’s traffic and performance. This is useful for successful long-term SEO plans, digital marketing, and performance of your website. It allows you to view items such as user click-through rate and other performance elements. You can also keep track of any site errors that will help keep your website functioning optimally and prevent unsafe web practices. The data you gather will help you create comprehensive plans that don’t waste your money and maximize you ROI. 

4. Create a Sitemap and Submit It 

A sitemap contains a list of all the pages on your website in a single file. If you have a sitemap, this helps search engines index your website quicker and easier. Google has a tool that can help you create one or you can ask a digital marketing firm to help. It is also wise to include a link to your sitemap in your website’s footer. Once you submit your sitemap using web master tools, search engine crawlers will find your website and index for SERPs. The quicker this can be done more likely you will increase the rank of your website, thus gain more users and clients.

5. Add Structured Data Markup 

Structured data markup is a code that you can add to your website’s HTML code. It is used to help search engines understand the information on your website. This helps when trying to attract organic traffic. Structured data is a standardized format for classifying page content. For example, on a recipe page: what are the ingredients, the cooking time and temperature, the calories, etc. This will help your website become more engaging to your users leading to rich results. The more interaction users have with our website, the more value search engines register it as and keep it high on SERPs. 

Let us include a SEO plan with your new website. Call 248.528.3600

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How do I create a Google Business Profile? 

You can create your profile through Google Search and Maps. First, sign into your business’s Google Account. Then go to “create a profile”. Next up, you enter the name of your business or select your business from the list of suggested businesses as you type. After that search for your business category. Once that is done, click “Next” and enter whether you have a location customers can visit. Follow that task up with entering the service area of your business, phone number, and website URL. After that you should be finished and all that is left is to choose a verification option. For more details visit Google’s Support Page or contact us, we’d be happy to help in addition to any Google related services. 

Bonuses to Have that Help Your Business  

Google Business Profile lets you select various attributes to let customers know special details about your business. These attributes also appear on your products in the Shopping tab when you add then to your Merchant Center account. Examples of attributes are women led business, black-owned business, LGBTQ+ friendly, etc. 

Performance Max campaigns help bring buyers to your stores by promoting your locations to shoppers when they are browsing on Google Maps, Search, YouTube, and the Google Display Network. This advertising strategy formally known as local campaign can help drive foot traffic by sharing store openings, special in-store promotions, updated business hours, and specific products that are available in nearby stores. Pair this with local inventory ads. Local inventory ads let potential clients know whether the products they’re looking for are available before coming into stores. You can showcase products that are available in your nearby stores on Google Search and highlight your fulfillment options like curbside pickup, pickup today, and pickup later. 

Measuring the impact your online ads can be done with Google’s Smart Bidding. This part of measuring in-store visits is vital for meeting your business goals. Use “Smart Bidding for store visits” or “Smart Bidding for store sales” to maximize total sales. Bid the right amount to attract the right customers. It does not matter whether they end up purchasing online or in your store. This is an important tool for helping increase sales and ensure you continue to be a business. 

Need help with using Google Business Profile or Google Ads? Call 248.528.3600.

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Review Snippet 

Recipe Snippet

Music Snippet 

Product Markup Snippet 

Movie Snippet

Events Snippet 

Use Structured Data to Get Rich Snippets

Structured data is a type of standardized code format that communicates information about your business’s web page content to search engines. It must contain two important factors to be successful: Schema and the format. Schema is the vocabulary that tells the search engine about the entity elements on your page and the format is the type of markup code that communicates schema to the search engine. These formats are JSON-LD, microdata, and RDFa with JSON-LD favored by Google. An example of creating structured data for a Rich Snippet would be:

Say you have a recipe for chocolate chip cookies on your bakery’s website. You could add structured data for the recipe:

• Cooking duration
• Nutritional information
• Ingredients
• Instructions, etc. 

Schema.org is a site dedicated to the universal vocabulary for structured data. You can use the website to help you write and test your structured data snippets, regardless of format. Additional tools like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper can generate the markup code instead of writing it from scratch and Google’s Rich Results Test tool to see which rich results Google generates from your markup code.

Need help adding Rich Snippets to your website’s code? Call 248.528.3600.

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According to Google’s Retail Marketing Guide 48% of consumers in surveyed countries around the world say they get inspiration for purchases when they are online. Shoppers browse across Google and YouTube to discover new brands and products that are relevant to them. Their methods go as follows:

• Inspiration forms when watching YouTube Videos. 
  • 78% of people surveyed in the U.S. say they feel they get the highest-quality info about products when shopping or browsing on YouTube

• Browse Google Images

• Scroll through Google Discover to catch up on interesting topics

Engage Customers as They Research 

Before making a purchase, customers seek information from trusted sources to compare products and narrow down their options. Best in category, prices, and the latest reviews are important factors customers look for. 89% agree that YouTube creators give the best information about products and brands. YouTube reviewers hit all the important factors and more trusted due to the fact the person is visible vs a star review that is faceless and could be interpreted as a bot. Consider YouTube reviewers when coming up with a social media marketing plan. 

Consumers also look up information and articles on Google Search. 40% of shoppers go to Google when researching a purchase they plan to make in-store or online. It is important that your SEO strategy is up to date. Check your website’s ranking on Google SERPs. If it not where you want it to be you may need to work with a digital marketing agency on your on-page and off-page SEO techniques. And if your budget allows, invest in Google Ads. 

Convert Customers Looking to Purchase

Convincing potential clients is key. Shoppers buy from brands that can provide a seamless experience. 31% of consumers in surveyed countries say they are researching online more before purchasing to avoid out-of-stock situations, inventory blockage, and shipping challenges or delays. They want to be able to buy a product online as soon as they find it or see what a local store has in stock. 

Utilize Google Maps, especially for local business traffic. Google Maps searches for “shopping near me” have grown globally by over 100% year over year. Maps also use to be GoogleMyBusiness app. Currently you can set a profile using Maps. Create and maintain your profile so you can be found easily. 

The Shopping tab is an underrated tool business often forget about. Almost half (49%) of consumers in surveyed countries expect to be able to buy from any store online. You want your online store to show up in the Shopping tab. Make sure in your website’s CMS your product details like name, price, and description are accurate and visible. 

Update your marketing plan based on these tips today! Call 248.528.360 

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Keyword Research

Google Autocomplete can be a useful keyword research tool. Type in a keyword that is relevant to your niche or target market and look at the predictions. You will discover valuable long-tail keywords. Then, use an SEO tool like Ahrefs, or Moz Pro to analyze those keywords and identify ones that are worth going after. If you don’t like any of the predictions that you got, type in your keyword, then just go through every letter of the alphabet to see what predictions come up. If you are having a hard time using these SEO tools, hire an agency to assign you a consultant to help you understand your findings and obtain the correct keyword you need. 

Google Can Fill in the Blanks

Tom Dupuis from Online Media Masters suggests using the underscore character “_” in a phrase so that Google would complete it. “Instead of having Google complete only the last part, this can show you a better selection of keywords depending on what type of phrase it is,” explains Tom.

For example, type the keyword “web design _ agency” and these first 3 suggestions pop up: “website design agency near me”, “web design and marketing agency”, and “web design and digital marketing agency near me”. Experiment with the underscore’s position to see what new Google Autocomplete predictions show up. You could also try both the singular and plural forms of the same keyword to see if it leads to different Google Autocomplete predictions.

Online Reputation Management

A useful tool for researching results about your branded terms, such as company, executive, or product names. Google Autocomplete can present a serious threat to your public image of your company and brand if an unflattering search term appears in the predictions using your brand terms. You have several options to try to prevent this from happening:

• Address the Problem

If the negative prediction refers to something true, fix the problem. Don’t try to hide mistakes, this can hurt trust amongst your customers. The resolution won’t make the autocomplete issue go away immediately, but if the problem is solved, people will eventually forget about it and stop searching for it, feeling that you handled the issue responsibly. As the volume for that search term goes down, it ultimately will drop off the prediction list.

• Work on Your Brand Image

If the prediction is about an incident, you can help people forget whatever happened faster by giving them something positive to focus on. First, make sure to reassure existing loyal customers that this incident was a one-time thing, and you are working on preventative plans for the future. Then, you can feature these loyal customers on your website, do a giveaway, or organize an event as a “thank you” for sticking buy your company during tough times. Directly engaging with your customers on various social media platforms can go a long way towards creating a positive brand image as well. It reassures the public that you are not running away from your problem and are still willing to interact with them. 

Other Ways to Use Google Autocorrect Research:

• Uncover Key Words for Local SEO
• Create a User-Friendly E-commerce Website
  • Shows which categories are most popular
  • Uncover popular brands
  • Get ideas for your FAQ page
• Content Inspiration:
  • Key term for who, what, where, how, why of your business
  • Use action verbs
  • “Key Term and…”

Use Google Autocomplete in your SEO marketing strategy today. Call 248.528.3600

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1. Name Your Images Properly 

Give descriptive names to any images before uploading them to your site. Google recommends using hyphens rather than underscores to separate words.

2. Resize Images to the Display Dimensions

User experience is positive when the page speed is fast. One way to improve this is to adjust your images for exact size. Most smartphones take photos that are at least 4032 pixels by 3024 pixels, which is important for a mobile-friendly website design. 

3. Compress Images 

Reduce image file sizes is another good way to decrease web page load times. Minimize the file size without compromising the quality to an unacceptable degree. This will remove any redundancy in the image data in favor of efficiency and faster loading speeds when you use the image.

4. Choose the Right Format

• JPEG
  • Online photos or artwork
  • Useful for emailing preview images
  • Can be compressed to very small sizes
• PNG
  • Use if there is transparency in the image background
• WebP
  • Higher compression than a JPEG or PNG
  • Supports images and animated images without sacrificing color depth, animated frames, etc.
  • Doesn’t work with older browsers.
• SVG
  • For icons or logos

5. Create an Image Sitemap

An image sitemap is a lot like a regular XML sitemap, except that an image sitemap only includes the URLs to images.The URLs of all the images on your site can help Google discover those images and include them in image search results.

6. Use a Content Delivery Network

A content delivery network (CDN) is a group of servers located at different locations around the world and allows for quicker distribution of content to separate locations. This makes images and other content load more quickly creating a better user experience globally. 

7. Implement Lazy Loading

Use “lazy loading” to tell web browsers to wait to load an image until it is needed. The page loads much more quickly when the user first lands on it and it’s not just used for images; assets like JavaScript can be loaded this way. According to Google, you should avoid lazy loading above-the-fold images. This would create a poor user experience. Use it for images further down your website or for images of non-vital importance. 

8. Leverage Browser Caching

Browser caching is when files are stored by a visitor’s browser and assets load faster when they next visit the page. Browser caching is noticeably impactful on sites where users frequently revisit the same pages. This is important if your website requires repeat visitors such as an ecommerce business website.

9. Add Image Structured Data

Structured data is a data vocabulary that helps search engines understand your site’s information more clearly and using it also increases the chances of your images showing up as “rich results.” This enhances your image search listing and if you plan to use structured data to support an image, make sure that the image is relevant to the page it appears on. Keep in mind all image URLs must be crawlable and indexable. Otherwise, Google won’t be able to find them and show them on results pages. Currently, Google Images supports the following types of structured data currently:

• Product
• Video
• Recipe

10. Optimize for Open Graph & Twitter Cards

Open Graph tags allow you to choose how a social media post preview appears. This is an off-page SEO technique that means you can choose the preview title, image, and more for social posts appearances. An example of this would be to ensure your image of choice shows up when you share a page, include this image tag in the <head> section of your page’s HTML

Conduct a site audit with us to check if your images have alt descriptions. Call 248.528.3600

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Why Care about Google? 

According to the digital marketing agency Reliabilesoft, Google commands the majority share of search traffic worldwide at just over 91 percent of global searches. The Microsoft Bing search engine share, depending on the country, is between 2.83 percent and 12.31 percent of global searches. Most professional digital marketing agencies focus on ranking for Google versus other search engines. Google uses an algorithm to establish what website shows up when a searcher types in a specific query. Previously, Google updates had humorous names like Penguin, Panda, BERT, and even Fred. Currently, most Google updates fall under one umbrella term: Google core algorithm updates. According to MarketMuse, Google updates its core search algorithm on an almost daily basis to provide “search results offering the best and most relevant content for every query.”

Why care about SEO?

Understanding how search engines work and how to rank content for them is a critical part of the success of your business website. Here are a few reasons to care about SEO:

1. Web content can bring in highly qualified visitors to your brand’s website and improves your content’s reach.
2. Grows into a valuable “evergreen” asset. Meaning it has long lasting effects after you take the time to create it. 
3. When optimizing your website for Google, you’re offering a valuable resource for those seeking information related to your industry.
4. Prompts users to enter the sales cycle without paying for lead generation.
5. Quality content has a compounding effect. It will keep visitors coming back and even referring others down the line.

Optimize your web content for search. Call 248.528.360. 

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1. Changes to responsive search ads as Google focuses on automation

In August 2021, Google announced that automation should be a key focus for businesses. From June 30, 2022, responsive search ads (RSAs) will be the only search ad type that can be created or edited within standard search campaigns. Expanded text ads (ETAs) will no longer be an option. RSAs allow multiple headlines and descriptions for ads. Google uses machine learning (ML) to automatically test different combinations to find the highest-performing ad.

There are a few clear benefits for advertisements using RSAs v ETAs:

• Increased engagement from customers due to improved click-through rates
• Lower costs due to improved ad copy
• Testing in limited volumes: higher click-through rates and lower cost-per-click

Prepare your business by ensuring RSAs are in every ad group, and review performance of these ads to ensure they’re of the highest quality in line with Google’s scoring.

2. The start of keyword-less world: Performance Max

Google announced that Performance Max will replace Smart Shopping and local campaigns by the end of Q3 2022. Rather than the usual keyword-based search campaign, Performance Max uses:

• Your creative assets alongside business goals and automated bidding
• User signals and data-driven attribution to tailor ads to potential customers across the Google ecosystem (search, display, YouTube, Gmail, and Discovery)

This goal-based format helps target customers at the right stage of their purchase journey, depending on the goal of the campaign. Performance Max campaigns will be built from any existing smart shopping and local campaigns. Existing settings will remain, but they will be automatically upgraded from July onward. Create new campaigns and pause any relevant activity (such as Smart Shopping), then start working through the new additional creative assets. Have clear units of measures of success with GA4 that provides the most detail on performance. 

3. The re-introduction of broad match

Google has been changing keyword match rules since 2014. This always brings unpredictability around budget and performance. Previously, broad match meant that if the search query was contextually like the keyword being targeted, your ad could show. Modern search is an evolution of broad match and focuses on the meaning of your keyword and the intent behind it. This can include searches that don’t contain the original keyword terms.

Google’s BERT algorithm technology helps interpret queries, language, and search intent. It also makes keyword matching behavior more closely aligned Broad matches more relevant. There have been great results from testing, with important to web traffic and revenue. Ensure you’re live with automated bidding, as the new broad match needs this to work effectively. Start by testing any previous broad match modifier keywords. Choose campaigns to switch to broad match and run a test. Test this on stable campaigns, using robust testing methodologies such as Google’s built-in testing functions.

4. The removal of third-party cookies and the influence of audience

Brands have used cookies to help them target ads to the right audiences. With the removal of third-party cookies, Google is now focusing on the intent of people’s searches rather than audiences. This will capture people on the likelihood that they will meet a campaign’s objectives.

Measurement and optimization will be impacted. Review your platform’s initiatives to mitigate and understand whether they align with business goals and objectives.

Google recently announced that it will be sunsetting Universal Analytics from July 1, 2023. Think about the way you’re tracking to be able to capture and measure effectively moving forward. Find out what the platform you use is doing to enable continued measurement and reporting. 

First-party data also becomes important in targeting an engaged audience. Contextual targeting will again rise to the frontier for display/programmatic activity. Make sure you’re working closely with your provider and review targeting options for future activity and how to capture your target audience. Loss of third-party cookies and how to combat this should be a key talking point across all brands to make sure you’re not left behind when the change is made.

Update your paid search strategy now. Call 248.528.360.

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Now, let’s throw in PPC (Pay-Per-Click) in addition to SEO and SEM. PPC is another term for SEM or part of SEM. Pay-per-click and search engine marketing means paid digital marketing advertisements on search platforms. Pay-per-click can also be referred to CPC (cost-per-click), paid search, or search ads. This is used in paid search marketing, typically through search engines like Google and Bing. Marketers optimize content and websites for search engines (and humans), so they can better understand, access, and direct searchers to your website. PPC marketing and SEM overlap because:

• Both are paid initiatives.
• Both need a budget.
• Both make search engines like Google and other advertising platforms a lot of money.

SEO is not a component of SEM. PPC is typically the largest and most demanding component of SEM. Both PPC and SEM are paid initiatives that offer real-time data, ROI, and protected data that can only be accessed by advertisers on certain platforms. SEM includes PPC ads on not only search engines but also on third-party platforms like Amazon and YouTube, as well as industry-focused platforms like Houzz, Thumbtack, or Yelp. It also includes display ads and remarketing efforts.

Should you use SEO or SEM? Ideally, you would want to utilize both, but if you only have the compacity to use one here are some questions to help guide a decision:

• What are your goals?
  • SEM: drive web traffic quickly, promote a sale, more website exposer.
  • SEO: long-term growth, future results, and compounding value.
• What is your budget? 
• How is your site currently performing? 
• How much visitor data do you have or need?
• How is you online reputation? 

We provide both SEO and SEM service! Call 248.528.360. to get started. 

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What is a Typical ROI for SEO?

There are several different metrics you can use to measure the return on investment (ROI) of your SEO for your website and ad campaigns. You can measure using these items:

• Organic search – your page’s ranking in Google or other search engines.
• Organic traffic – your share of non-paid search engine traffic.
• Business metrics like backlinks, impressions, or clickthrough rate, among others.
• Business profitability – conversions into sales (though you may also find value in opportunities and/or qualified leads).

How Much Should You Invest In SEO?

Depending on where you’re starting from and where you want to go to meet your goals, there’s a huge amount of variance in terms of price. You should budget for a minimum of six months to see results. Beware of the many SEO scammers with “Guaranteed First Page Results!” only to fall victim to a bunch of black hat tactics that end up getting you penalized and effectively erasing your site’s visibility. If you don’t have a massive SEO budget, that is okay! You can still focus on these important factors:

• Site architecture: Ensure good crawlability with Google Crawl, follow webmaster guidelines, and pay attention to user experience.
• Good content: Regularly add fresh, keyword-rich content that matches search queries and satisfies user intent.
• Quality backlinks: Natural backlinks (not link farms) from high trust-high authority sites can help you shoot up the rankings.

How Do You Invest In SEO?

Are you looking to expand your sales funnel? Increase customer awareness? Show up in a specific number of searches per day? Figuring out your what your goals are with the service will help prevent wasted money, time, and energy. Using SEO tactics will help you meet small goals while a comprehensive SEO strategy will help with more robust goals. There are several paid SEO tools that are well worth the money and can help you with keyword research to evaluating backlinks. These programs can provide you with clearer insights into your campaigns and help you boost overall SEO efficiency.

Should You Invest in SEO or PPC Ads?

SEO has a better average ROI than pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, however, both are valuable. Ideally, you should have a mix of paid and organic search campaigns that make sense for your company and your current assets.

Advantages Of SEO: 

• Website traffic: SEO can help increase the total number of people who visit your site & land more clicks overall.
• ROI: More cost-effective than PPC, though be warned: Neither is cheap or easy.
• Branding and awareness: Organic search put your business in front of potential customers based on search queries, increasing visibility around search terms, & exposing people to your brand.
• Credibility: Ranking highly in SERPs can play a large role in building trust. Many users skip right past the paid ads & click on organic results instead.
• Longer-lasting results: While SEO takes some time to begin seeing results, it also takes longer to drop off. An optimized site can maintain a high ranking long after a PPC campaign has been deactivated.
• Stability: Similarly, whereas PPC ad positioning can change according to bids from the competition, a site with good SEO will hold a relative position even if you forget about it for a while.

Advantages Of PPC: 

• Faster results: Once you launch a paid campaign, you should begin seeing more traffic, clicks, and conversions right away.
• Algorithm changes don’t affect positioning: PPC is bidding for the top spots on a SERP, which means you don’t have to rethink content and strategies every time Google updates its search algorithm.
• More control: Because you have control over your spending, you’ll always know what kind of returns you are getting, which in turn makes budgeting easier.
• More accurate targeting: Paid search ads let you target based on an entire range of factors including demographics, geography, and time of day, so you can more accurately go after an audience.
• You can use visual ads: People are more likely to click on images of the product they’re searching for. You can do this with PPC, but not with organic search.

Your SEO Investment

Spending your budget with an SEO campaign is worth it when you focus on website architecture and content. Evaluate your site to ensure its well-built. Check to see is your website has crawlability and structural issues. Create good user experiences, make sure it loads quickly, and doesn’t have 404 links. You want to ensure your website has the information your targets are searching for. Effective and meaningful content will drive the traffic you want and improve your overall ROI. If you don’t know your way around code or having trouble with developing a content marketing strategy, you should be able to hire a professional agency to handle this for you. 

Read to invest in successful SEO services? Call 248.528.3600.

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