According to Google’s marketing retail guide, 40% of U.S. holiday shoppers say their holiday shopping experience has made them consider shopping much earlier for other milestones this year. This means your holiday gifts offers, specials, and other deals should be ready a couple months in advance. With consumers combining online and in-store shopping, preparing an omnichannel holiday strategy early will be critical to reaching shoppers along their purchase journeys. Have both your supply chain and digital marketing plan ready before November. 

If fact, it might be best to have new strategy right after the current holiday ends. According to the guide, June 2021 reported 31% of U.S. shoppers had already started their holiday shopping and 37% of shoppers who shopped the previous holiday season wished they had started earlier. During COVID-19 and currently, a lot of business’s supply chains had stock issues, causing over 50% of U.S. shoppers surveyed to say that they would start holiday shopping earlier to avoid an item being out of stock. This is especially important if you are an ecommerce business or a product-based company. Several suggestions from Google to include in a marketing strategy are:

• Use the Insights page in Google Ads and best sellers report to keep up with consumer demand. 
• Notify customers with promotions, sales, free and fast shipping options, and return and refund options directly to your product listings.
• Create a Business Profile and run a Local campaign to connect with local shoppers. 

If you are struggling with any of these items Miller Media can help with Google Ads and provides Google Analytics Consulting to create a marketing strategy that is successful. 

Multichannel Shopping is the Main Way People Shop

Omnichannel or multichannel shopping has led to only 4% of U.S. holiday shoppers not using digital channels for their shopping according to the retail guide. This means have a digital presence is a requirement for your business. Have a website, create social media accounts, and GoogleMyBusiness Profile for your business. If you are missing one or more of these avenues and can’t manage them yourself a digital marketing agency can help you. Also, convenience is key for people around the holidays. Minimize stress for last-minute shoppers, who rely on local and nearby stores. In Google Maps, searches for “gift shops near me” have grown globally by over 60% year over year. Make sure your on-page and off-page SEO is effective, so new or returning customers will see you first on Google’s results page. Other ways Google suggests helping shoppers see your business is with: 

• A Performance Max campaign, and through your app (if you have one) by deep linking to reach the right customers. 
• Smart Bidding for store visits or store sales. 
• Listing your products for free across Google Shopping 
• Local inventory ads and adding  Pointy  to your Business Profile to reach nearby customers by promoting available inventory. 

People Use Google for Holiday Inspiration

Google states that 43% of U.S. holiday shoppers that used Google said they did so to get gift ideas, and 64% said they did so for discovery and inspiration. This is very important for retailers. Search visibility is critical to capturing these shoppers. Include gift guides in your company’s blog. In addition, promote your products to your target audience at the right time across Google surfaces, like Search, YouTube, Gmail, and the Shopping tab. This takes SEO, website optimization, PPC, Google Ad creation, social media marketing, and other digital marketing services. All this can be overwhelming to maintain. If you are struggling to market your business while trying to run it, let the team here at Miller Media do it for you. 

Need help preparing for future holiday marketing strategies? 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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Perfect for a quick website audit, Grow My Store gives a comprehensive report on your website. That report includes competitive benchmarking, recommendations, and tailored insights to help you optimize your customer/user experience. You should also check out Test My Site for developer-friendly tips on boosting site speed. It is important to have a fast-loading website to decrease bounce rate. Any corrections suggested may require you to hire a professional web agency for help. 

Do you have an app version of your company’s website? App campaigns help reach mobile shoppers and encourages them to make a purchase, or take action, for example, installing the app itself. Embedding deep links provides better mobile experiences by taking your app users from your ads directly to the corresponding app page of your app. This is key to the customer journey and the path to purchase. It makes it easier for them to complete their desired action, which is essential for good user experience.

Showcase Product Information Across Google

On Google, the Shopping tab helps to showcase your products across many places where customers turn to shop and directly integrates your product within an ad experience. You can increase your exposure at no cost by listing your products on Merchant Center or directly through your e-commerce platform such as WooCommerce for WordPress websites. 

With video increasing popularity, you now can include an interactive product feed directly within the ad unit to turn viewers into customers. Think of the product feed  as a way to turn your ad into a digital storefront. Well design ads that display your company’s brand properly will attract new customers and flag down existing customers to your product or service. Create a seamless path to purchase between brand awareness and the call-to-action.

Increase your click-through rates and conversions by adding information about promotions, sales, free and fast shipping options, and return and refund options directly to your product listing. Shoppers are constantly on the hunt for good deals and want to know all relevant information up front, so it is best to have these pieces of information clearly visible.  

Engage New Customers

Customers shop across multiple Google surfaces every day. Google avenues are Search, Discover, YouTube, Maps, and the Shopping tab. To grow your online sales, it’s important to know which ad campaigns are right for your target market. Reach the right person and convert them into a loyal customer with Google Ads.

Back in April, Smart Shopping and Local campaigns gained an upgrade to Performance Max campaigns. Performance Max campaigns allow you to promote your products or services across all of Google’s advertising channels and inventory by creating one easy-to-manage campaign. This should be less stressful for small businesses due to fact they now can focus on one area of Google analytics instead of multiple analytics for separate campaigns. With new ways to discover, research, and purchase, customers are engaging across an ever-growing number of channels, and it is important to appear on most of them. 

As mentioned earlier videos are big in advertising right now. A Video action campaign is a simple, cost-effective way to drive more conversions on and off your company’s YouTube channel. This campaign helps you drive engagement with your video ads by scaling them across the YouTube Home feed, watch pages, connected TV, and more with a clear call-to-action button. These are perfect for businesses that require demonstration of their product or service.  

Inspired to start a Google Ad Campaign? 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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Where Do Google Autocomplete Keywords Come From?

Danny Sullivan, a public liaison for Google search, explains it in his blog post on Google Autocomplete:

“How do we determine these predictions? We look at the real searches that happen on Google and show common and trending ones relevant to the characters that are entered and also related to your location and previous searches.”

Are The Predictions Different in Various Countries?

The country you are in also effects what predictions Google Autocomplete generates. For example, you travel to Michigan, USA for a business conference and need a hotel. The top 3 perditions Google Autocomplete suggests are “hotels in Detroit”, “hotels in Traverse City”, and “hotels in Ann Arbor”. If you change locations, Google will “follow” you, and your Autocomplete options will adjust accordingly. 

Are Google Autocomplete Predictions Different for Various Languages?

Predictions differ based on the language(s) you are using to enter queries into Google. If you set your default language to English, you will be shown English predictions. If you decide to add other languages that you understand, say, Spanish and Arabic, you’ll also be shown predictions in those languages.

Does Your Search History Affect Google Autocomplete Predictions?

Google considers your search history when showing predictions when you are logged into your Google account. When you see a prediction that has a “Remove” option next to it, know that this is a prediction based on your search history. If it is removable it shows up as an “X” on the far right. Google remembers that you searched for whatever query but recognizes it may have been a one-time search.

What is the Google Autocomplete Guidelines?

Not all search queries are appropriate to display as predictions. Here are the types of predictions go against Google Autocomplete policy:

• Violence and gore
• Sexually explicit, vulgar, or profane language, though medical and scientific terms are allowed
• Anything related to hate speech or approval of hateful acts
• Sensitive information or terms about named individuals
• Dangerous predictions, meaning searches for things that could allow serious harm to people or animals to happen

Google admits that while they do their best to remove inappropriate predictions. They don’t always get it right and provide a way to report a prediction.

Create a SEO marketing strategy with Google Autocomplete in mind. 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. 

The post How Organic Search Is Changing appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

Sitelinks:

Over 66% of SERPs in the U.S. are sitelinks. Sitelinks are links that will allow search users to find specific content beyond the homepage. Google displays a sitelink search box followed by four sitelinks to popular pages. 

People Also Ask:

This feature can appear anywhere on a SERP. It typically displays 5 of the top questions asked about a search query. When someone clicks on a question under the “People Also Ask” section, it will display the answer to the question, along with a link to the source for the answer. It will also automatically generate additional questions related to the one the user just clicked.

Reviews:

You see in the ratings in the local pack for local business reviews. The stars you see in shopping ads. Google may also display star ratings and review counts within organic search results.

Images:

When Google anticipates that a search query would best be answered visually, they use the images feature. This feature can appear anywhere throughout the SERP. When clicked upon, the link goes to Google image search results for the query with additional details about the image clicked.

Videos:

Like the image feature, the video feature of SERPs can appear anywhere throughout the page. Google displays a section of videos from YouTube after four ads, a featured snippet, People Also Ask, and five organic search results.

Knowledge Panels:

Knowledge panels are automatically generated boxes of useful information, compiled from various sources around the internet by the Knowledge Graph. They generally appear on the right side of search results.

Local Packs:

When there are local results that match your search query, you may see them appear in a local pack. Listings in a local pack typically appear with reviews, an address, and hours of operation. According to the Local Pack-O-Meter, 35.7% of approximately 60 million search queries in the U.S. contained a local pack in March of 2022. Over the past year, it has fluctuated from 33% to 33.9%. If you have a local business this feature is extremely important to you. 

Featured Snippets:

Featured snippets generally appear at the top of SERPs, offering a portion of content from one of the top organic search results for a particular query. For example, a search for [how to update my WordPress website] may generate a featured snippet with a video from YouTube that answers the query. Other formats of featured snippets include numbered or bulleted lists. Featured snippets sometimes fall below Google Ads for certain search queries and can also come in table format. 

Google Ads: 

Sponsored results from advertisers using Google Ads may appear at the top and bottom of SERPs. After organic listings, a People Also Ask section, and top stories, Google displays an additional three ads, followed by related searches.

Shopping Ads:

In addition to standard text ads, Google also offers retailers the ability to create shopping ads for their products. Shopping ads often display the name of the product, price, retailer, and product rating.

Carousels: 

Carousels generally appear at the top of SERPs, offering fast answers to the search query.

For example, a search for [computers] results in a carousel of images with the most popular computer brands that other Google users search for.

Instant Answers: 

Instant Answers is a search feature Google uses to display answers to a search user’s query at the top of the SERP. Google may also provide instant answers at the top of SERPs for the following types of queries:

• Weather.
• Movie locations.
• Calculator.
• Translating a word or phrase.
• Calculating the number of days until a specific date or upcoming holiday.
• Finding out the score of a recent sports game.
• Determining the age of someone based on their birthdate.
• Getting the dates to popular events, like conventions and festivals.
• Seeing the current share price and market summary for popular stocks.

Top Stories:

If a search query has related news stories, Google may display a section of top stories from media outlets. In this SERP for MacBook, Google displays the top stories after shopping ads, organic results, People Also Ask, and more shopping results.

Tweets:

A small percentage of SERPs will feature tweets relevant to the search query. After the first organic search result and a people also ask section, the latest tweets from your official Twitter account appear.

Apps;

Google search users on mobile devices may see features that are only available on mobile. Google displays apps from the Apple store after three ads and a list of apps from sources across the web.

Product Comparisons: 

Google can take product information and display it in search results for users looking to compare products. You can see a side-by-side list of the product images, reviews, price, and additional details. When search users click on the detailed comparison link, Google displays additional details about the products compared, along with the option to add additional products for comparison when relevant.

Top Products:

Unlike shopping ads, the top products feature showcases unadvertised products related to a search query. When you click on a product, additional details about the product appear. Google displays reviews from third-party sites, prices from multiple retailers, top insights from media outlets, and reviews from multiple retailers.

Jobs: 

Google helps job seekers by aggregating jobs from various sources across the web and displaying them within SERPs for queries like [jobs near me].

Wondering how these features can help your business? Call 248.528.360.

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A variety of factors including whether they are logged into their Google account, their location settings, language preferences, and search history can affect what type of search results a user can see. At the beginning of the search results, Google displays the approximate number of search results for the query and the time it takes to deliver the SERP. For example, there are approximately 828,000,000 webpages indexed for the keyword SEO, and results were delivered in 0.59 seconds. Pay-per-click Google Ads that target the keyword SEO can be seen at the first four results starting with an Ad label. 

The first organic listings that appear in this SERP for Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. After this organic listing, Google includes a “People Also Ask” section. Search users click on a question and additional related questions appear. The answers typically link to a webpage for further information. 

To the right of the Google Ads, organic listing, and “People Also Ask section”, is Google’s knowledge panel for search engine optimization. Knowledge panels can vary based on the entity they describe. After these factors, the next portion of the SERP for SEO contains two more organic listings, followed by the local pack featuring SEO companies. 

Following the local pack, Google displays the top news stories about SEO from the past 24 hours. After another organic listing, Google places three videos from YouTube about SEO into the SERP, followed by another four organic listings. When the bottom of the SERP page is finally reached, Google has more organic results and related searches.

Note if you are on a mobile device, Google doesn’t make you click through to the second page of results. Instead, after a listing of related searches, the next page of search results will automatically appear as you scroll down. This makes it even more important for your business to be first on the results page. Users will only scroll for so long before they click on a competitor or search for something else. 

Get your business on Google’s first page of SERPS by calling 248.528.360. 

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1. Site Traffic

Look at Users or Sessions to help you measure site traffic. Users represent an individual who visited your website and Sessions represent “visits” or the different times a user visited your site. To view site traffic metrics, open the Life cycle > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition report. The report should automatically report using default channel grouping. If user counts don’t match, it is because Google Analytics 4 shows “active users,” whereas Universal Analytics focuses on total users, and the default channel groupings are defined differently.

2. User Engagement 

View user engagement metrics for article pages so you can learn what types of content to produce more of and which topics require further analysis. Google Analytics’ engaged sessions provide more context to understanding users’ behavior on-site by including any user that has spent at least ten seconds on a page. You can adjust this length of time from the default 10 seconds up to 60 seconds within Data Stream > More Tagging settings. Engaged sessions are great for blogs and publishers or news websites because it accounts for when a user may have had a positive experience reading or watching a video without triggering a secondary hit. 

3. Events 

An event measures a user’s interaction with your website. Enable enhanced events by clicking he gear icon in the bottom left of your screen and select Data Streams located under the Property column. Then, select your data stream and click the gear icon under Enhanced measurement. Toggle all current and future relevant events for your site. To view user event metrics, open Life cycle > Engagement > Events report. The events report shows all automatically collected events and any enhanced measurement events you’ve added.

4. Conversions 

Use conversions (in UA this was named goals) to measure user activities that contribute to the success of your business. Examples of this would be if a user completes a form, interacts with a chatbot, or downloads a file. To mark an event as a conversion, click Configure > Events. Locate the desired conversion in the existing events table and click the toggle on the far right to mark the event as a conversion. Gray means the user interaction will record as a regular event and blue means that the event will also display as a conversion. Then, open the Life cycle > Engagement > Conversions report. You will see automatically collected events and any event that you manually marked as a conversion. Analyze conversion events in-depth, afterwards, click on the blue event name to view conversions by marketing channel or page. It shows which pages had the most conversions and which marketing channel the user came from.

Still struggling to understand Google Analytics? Call 248.528.3600 to consult an expert. 

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