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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Step 1: Create a List of Keywords 

Depending on the industry your business is in, the topics, and access to research tools could be flooded. Here are some of the most common ways to create a keyword list: 

• Google’s Keyword Planner or SEMRush used for researching competitors’ keywords
• Check for common keywords with Ahrefs or AnswerThePublic

• Use your website data from Google Search Console
• Look in suggested searches on search engines and brainstorm ideas

Step 2: Sort Keywords into Groups

Group keywords using an automated tool such as Keyword Insights or manually plug the terms into a excel spreadsheet based on good search volume, same search intent, items your think you can rank on, or are appropriate for the marketing funnel stage you are currently in. After that, you will need to identify keyword modifiers around the cluster you formed. This can be enhancement terms, for example, you are researching search intent for strawberry jelly. Some repeat terms that show up might be “healthy” or “organic”.  

Step 3: Other Ways to Cluster by Topic

When you have identified the keyword clusters that answer the questions your audience asks the most, you can start creating a content plan around those clusters you have discovered. Some clusters have subjects in common and can be further grouped into topic clusters. Use the hierarchy of most to least relevant to create a page structure or sitemap for your business’s website. In the middle of every topic cluster, place a piece of content that can target a large number of keywords and phrases. Then surround the larger content withsmaller pieces of content. These content pieces are usually blog posts. This will allow you to focus more on certain topics, build up internal linking, and generally explore the various aspects of the topic that may be too rich to fit on one page without exhausting the reader. You could also use these keyword clusters for Google ads and other marketing campaigns if you fear your website is getting too crowded. 

Struggling to cluster keywords? Our SEO service term can help! Call 248.528.360

The post How to Cluster Your Keywords on Your Website for Better SEO appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

Take a Different Approach to Keyword Search

Many marketers take a keyword-first approach to content marketing. They often focus on what keywords to target based on which keywords have the highest volume that has traffic potential and which ones are easiest to rank for with low competition. However, this is strategy is not practical in the long run. It is better to focus on your target’s pain-point and build your keywords around that. Here are 5 ways to help you get started research and coming up with ideas for content:

1. Comparison posts – Compare your product or service to your top competitors.

2. Best product or service lists – Searchers discover the best products or services in the category they are searching for. Make your content quality is worthy to appear in said category.

3. Alternatives to ‘suggested product/service’ – Searchers discover alternatives to your competitors’ products or services. Make sure to show up as an alternative to other like yours. Think about a feature you have that other don’t.  

4. Articles that talk about pricing – Write about the pricing of your own product or service, even if you have it hidden. You can point out ranges and compare to your competitors.

5. Product or Service use cases – Searchers figure out how to solve a problem they have and presents your product or service as a potential solution.

Ask Directly to Identify Conversion Focused SEO Topics to Write About

If you are stuck, sometimes it is best to ask your target audience directly. Social media, email surveys, phone calls, and in-person and virtual interviews are great ways to get the answers you seek. Here are 5 questions you can ask to get to know your customer and gain essential SEO keywords to boost your content:  

1. What was the problem you were looking to solve before stumbling across our product or service?

2. If our product/service were no longer to exist, what product/service would you use as an alternative?

3. How would you describe our product/service to a friend who knew nothing about us?

4. What are the top 3 benefits that you receive from our product/service?

5. If you were to research our product or service, what would you search for?

Still struggling to come up will a SEO strategy? Call 248.528.360 

The post Use Pain-Point SEO Strategy to Drive Conversions  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

How Do You Identify Content Spam?

1. Analyze Ranking Losses
2. Conduct an SEO Audit 
3. SEO Analysis to Narrow Down Problem 
   • Auditing your domain
     • Analysis of backlink gains or losses
     • Backlink audit
   • Auditing competitors 
     • Analysis of backlink gains or losses
     • Analysis of competitors’ content
   • Check your on-page SEO & technical SEO
     • Site Audit & technical issues
     • On-page check (page titles, subheadings, etc.)
   • Check for Google Updates

How Google Detects Duplicate Content 

Google is great at identifying duplicate content and detecting on which pages the content appeared first. So why do so many spam sites rank? John Mueller of Google provides some insight to why that might be:

“But even if we know which one is the original and which one is the copy, sometimes it makes sense to show a copy in the search results…And one of the situations where I have seen this happen consistently is if a website is of lower quality overall, where when our systems look at it they’re like, well we can’t really trust this website. But if a higher-quality website were to take some of this content and publish it, we would say, well we know more about this website and actually maybe we should show this content in the search results.”

— John Mueller, Google Web Trends Analyst, June 2021

Translation: Google believes that copied content should sometimes show up in search and may work better on some else’s domain rather than the original website. So, making sure your website is updated in design, function, and content is extremely important. Spammers duplicate the original content until the original page ranks worse and destroys the original website’s authority. The original site usually has fewer backlinks and is often overall smaller that the, while the spammed content aims for ranking on a national level. If you find your business’s website is under this spam attack, Google provides a dedicated form for reporting spam websites. In addition, if the spam site is spreading malware or aims to steal data, you can report these phishing attacks through Google Safe Browsing.

How is Stolen Content Used on Content Spam Websites?

1.7 million websites, 1.5 million images, and more are imported into the hijacked Search Console via the sitemap. The hacked page was also can be accessed via a WordPress to exploit. Once a site has been hacked, a thorough expansion of subpages begins. For Example, 25,800 Google results for a small pipe cleaning website that is distributing dangerous malware attacks on hacked websites. Spammers’ websites use plagiarism to not only place is search results, but in post snippets for easy SEO wins on social media platforms as well. 

They use backlinks alongside known, relevant text content in social media linking to completely different domains to boost these domains and entire sentences are taken from third-party content to post on Facebook to enhance their own content. Sometimes text content is taken from a webpage with a top 3 ranking and appears on a competitor’s Facebook profile. 

OnlySpams.expert by Seybold found 17% stolen content on a website at the top 3 Google SERPs Page. That may not sound a lot, but for a 10,000-word article, 17% is 1,700 stolen words. When attackers’ websites are removed from the index after a webspam report is sent to Google, rankings may recover, but a complete recovery under continued DDoS attacks and restoring an online store’s top rankings can take up to 7 months with considerable SEO skills. That is a lot time taken away from authority and brand building. 

Avoid negative SEO tactics and create an ethical SEO strategy with us. Call 248.528.360 

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1. Title Tags 

Title tags appear within the search engine result below the URL and above the meta description. Create on-brand and eye-catching titles with optimized keywords. Target 51-55 characters for the best odds that Google won’t rewrite your title tags. Try to use the language of your target audience with an exact-match keyword. Make sure it matches the intent of your audience. Also make sure it is descriptive of the content because if inaccurate your bounce rate will increase instead of decreasing. An example of an effective title tag might be if a manufacturing company searches “web design near me and your title reads “Stunning Websites for the Industrial Market”. 

2. Detailed Snappy Headings

Putting target keywords in page headings and subheadings is a simple, but a surprisingly forgotten way to optimize your page’s search results. Your H1 should be crafty, compelling, clear, concise, and front-loaded with keywords to draw your target audience into the main content. Utilizing descriptive keywords in your H2s and H3s is also a great way to break up long content, making it easier for the user to find what they are looking for. Any and every type of page can benefit from optimizing subheadings, including templatized pages like ecommerce product detail page and other standardized listings, not just information websites. 

3. Rich Content (no matter the length)

On Page SEO relies on semantic search and natural language processing. Great content should answer the query, anticipate the user’s next questions, and answer those in advance. Make the most of shorter content by being intentional with every word. Make sure your content is rich with terms semantically related to your target keyword. Try swapping out pronouns like “it” for words that are more descriptive. Make sure your writing is easy to read by people and machines. Resist fragments and run-on sentences.  

4. Internal Links with Optimized Anchor Text

Internal links are easy high impact on-page SEO optimization. It anchors text to a destination page and facilitates a path to purchase. Optimize anchor text with your target keywords or semantic terms. Also choose link placement wisely because links with related content will reap more benefit to your target landing page. 

5. E-A-T Signals 

E-A-T is a way Google measures the value of your content and stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Add high-quality external citations to informational content, long-form articles and other sources with an author that is reputable. E-A-T signals are not only there for users but for quality Raters, awards, testimonials, and studies that can all add value for your target audience. Establishing beneficial purpose and demonstrating trustworthiness is important for rankings, conversion, and thus overall lead generation. Visitors are more likely to choose to company that looks like they know what they are talking about vs one with no expert opinion. 

6. FAQs & “People Also Ask” Content 

Research on SERPs and the People Also Ask (PAA) box based on your target audience. PAA allows Google to increase the number featured on Snippets, which means answering an important question will increase the chance on SERP longevity. Target PAA that have weak answers that can be improved upon. If the current PAA results are accurate and you don’t expect to unseat the current ranking page, you should still incorporate these questions in your content to be seen as an authority. Directly ask the relevant questions in subheadings and answering in list or paragraph format as appropriate. For long form articles, put this directly in an H2. For ecommerce pages, create a dedicated FAQ section.

7. Descriptive Image Alt Text 

Make sure your alt text is optimized and falls into the “truly essential” grouping. Descriptive alt text is always critical for visually impaired users, especially if they rely on a e-reader. This does not only apply to photos, but infographic as other flat images as well. Google and other search engines value descriptions due to its ability to target a wide range of users.  

8. Valid Schema Markup 

Schema Markup is a collection of code snippets that can be placed on any page of a website. It is used to call out specific aspects of the page in the search results. Pages with structured data tend to receive higher click-through rates than those without, as the snippets are more engaging and attractive to searchers. A good example are recipes. Google any recipe and the top will show a photo, link, rating, time, and mini description of the subject. This is very important to ecommerce business as it will entice more users to click on your partner. 

Need help with your on-page SEO strategy? Call 248.528.360 

The post 8 Essential On-Page SEO Factors for Fast Impact  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Keyword Research 

2. Great Content Writing 

3. Content Re-Optimization 

4. Audio/Visuals in Blog Content

5. Pillar (landing) Pages 

6. Pop-Up Form 

7. Sticky Sidebar 

8. Inline Subscribe CTA 

9. Dedicated Newsletter Sign-up page + Nav Link

10. Downloadable Content & Webinars

11. Surveys

12. New Layout for Better User Experience

Need help implementing these steps? Call 248.528.3600. 

The post 12 Actionable Steps to Drive Newsletter Growth with SEO Content appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Ensure Your Account is a “Business” Account 

Business accounts have features that make marketing easier: audience insights, options to add more valuable info to help potential clients find or contact outside the app, and the ability to promote posts that reach more people on top of SEO practices.

2. Double Check Your Branding

Branding on all social media channels including Instagram should be consistent. Keep presence recognizable and memorable. For example, maybe all you post have your logo in a certain corner. Make sure your profile picture, style of posts and bio look like they belong to the same company.

3. Stay Consistent & Provide Value

Post regularly, whether it is a static or carousel post in addition to Reels and Stories. Try to avoid overly sales-y posts. This turns many people off or could come off as a scam. Showcase the value of the product or service will provide for the potential buyer. You can include links to buy, but make sure they fit organically. Audience engagement builds trust. Reply to comments and questions in the comment section of posts. 

4. Create High-Quality Posts

What does high-quality posts look like? Have high-quality high-resolution imagery that blends with the vibe or feeling of your brand. Make sure the information contained on the post image itself and in the description is valuable and relevant to your industry or give your audience something to think about. 

5. Post Reels Addressing Pain Points 

Specifically address the problem your potential client may have and have your product provide the solution which you can link in your bio and mention in the Reel itself or the caption. Skincare companies are excellent examples if you need an idea of how to create Reel content,

6. Use “Link in Bio” Strategically 

Instead of linking to the home page of your website, link to a targeted landing page where customers purchase said specific item. Add calls-to-actions to your “link in bio” on static posts. An example is to say something like this: “Discover more through the link in our bio.”

7. Link to Products/Services in Stories 

Stories allows you to directly link to your product or services with a sticker. Use it to show off your product directly with your camera or tell a short story of success a client had using your service, then add the sticker right on top pointing directly to page you want them to go to. Add additional stickers that draw attention or entice people to click, be careful not to add to much. 

8. Save Stories to Highlights 

Any product or service that sells well you can save as a Story Highlight. Make sure the content is clear and customers can easily identify which product/services is which. These will stay connected to you profile instead of disappearing.

9. Promote Posts Featuring Products/Services

Promoting (sometimes called boosting) a post is a way of creating an Instagram ad. As an ad it will gain more visibility which is great for lead generation. Don’t overuse this feature, only promote posts with the best engagement. 

10. Use Hashtags wisely

For your business to be discovered, research hashtags that are relevant to industry, target demographics, and customers’ needs. Tag the hashtags to posts, Stories, and Reels accordingly. 

11. Sell with Instagram Shopping 

Not many know that you can enroll and connect your online store to Instagram. Create a “Shop” on the app and link directly to your products/services in your shop in posts, Reels, and Stories. 

Need help set up your business for Instagram?  Call 248.528.3600

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Embrace these topics to encourage more search traffic

From 2020 to 2022, all search traffic grew by 4%. According to the data when broken down by industry, travel and leisure saw the greatest increase in search (20%). Then it was followed by food and restaurants (12%), financial services (11%) and logistics (9%). Only online education (-8%) and education (-5%) saw a negative trend. 

While these trends offer insight into topics that may be worth folding into your content strategy, it’s important to embrace these categories holistically. When creating a social media ad or google ad make sure when craft content around these categories it makes sense. It should not be disingenuous to the core function of what your content or what your business is trying to communicate or sell. Google and other search engines evaluate rankings based on a domain’s entire site architecture. The best way to engage with trending topics is to integrate them into your entire ecosystem using a tool or agency with SEO services to determine what keywords you want to rank for.

How many keywords are effective and how long should they be?

As Semrush and other SEO tools became more popular “keyword stuffing” became a too popular tactic to use and eventually became ineffective. Since then, search engines tweaked their keyword crawlers to identify these opportunists and keep their content from floating to page 1 of search results. The Semrush study referenced the company’s database of 160 million keywords and rankings for U.S.-based website to determine what number of keywords performed best in search. Overwhelming majority (83%) of unique queries contained five words or fewer, with 3-5-word queries comprising 67.1% and 1-2- word queries making up 15.9%.

The study demonstrates the popularity of what are called “short-tail keywords” with over 94% of all searches contained between one and five words. Semrush points out that short-term keywords aren’t always the best phrases to include, however longer-tail keywords over five words are often more highly targeted to the niche topic your audience is searching for. Longer-tail keywords can also be more likely to generate conversions, or actions that searchers take on your site like signing up for a consultation, buying a product, etc.

Why your keywords should answer a question

The study also points out that 60% of unique search terms seek an answer a specific question or query, aka “informational intent.” The author of the study informs us that informational queries, e.g. ‘coffee calories,’ tend to be more nuanced than most, in that the same topic or search intent can be phrased in a number of different ways to trigger specific results.  

“Commercial and transactional queries tend to rely on other factors without the extra details you might find in informational queries. For example, a parent may search for ‘pants for kids,’ but may be less likely to search for ‘blue pants for an average height 10-year-old.’

“By contrast, most informational pages don’t have the filters you might find on, say, an apparel store’s product category pages, so the user needs to be much more specific with often lengthier queries and more unique keywords. The sheer number of informational keywords becomes clearer when you put the intent categories into the context of market share.”

In conclusion, think about how your content can include phrases from one to five words, the shorter the better. Also, ensure that the search phrase points to a specific question or need that your content offers a solution to.

Create a SEO strategy with these trends today. Call 248.528.3600.

The post SEO Trends That Can Help Your Content Rank Higher in Search appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

Backlinks

When you use YouTube to host your video you have more opportunities for backlinks. Someone might link to the YouTube video and/or the page that the videos lives on, which will give you the backlink you want. If they link to just the YouTube video then users still have the ability to click to the webpage that the videos lives on, since you will have links to the page in your description. Having the video on YouTube simply gives users more options to find you.

Ranking on Google & YouTube SERPs

Having a YouTube presence will automatically rank you on their SERPs. When you’ve embedded the video onto your website, you can be ranked on both Google and YouTube. Users use both search engines, and it will create a great avenue for exposure on both platforms. Ranking on both search engines also gives you a boost in authority. Users are more likely to trust a company that is available on multiple platforms. 

Hosting on Videos on YouTube 

Hosting your video on YouTube is free. This can be a huge help to small businesses that may have a tight marketing budget. You have access to analytics for your video right away and do not need to integrate any third-party apps. You can tailor videos based your market and grow and audience that in turn can become potential clients. This is helpful and imperative to a successful video marketing strategy. 

Hosting Videos on Your Website

While it’s great that YouTube is free, you unfortunately have no say in what advertisements will pop up in and around your video. You also might not be the one to appear on the top of the results page. Hosting on your own website will always take the user to your page, not a third-party site. They will be able to focus on your video, not competitor ads or videos. Regardless of where a video is hosted, the bottom line is that a video on your website will likely increase engagement and that’s what we want for a successful SEO strategy.

Have a video you want to embed? We can help! Call 248.528.3600.

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What Is TF-IDF and How Is TF-IDF Calculated?

TF-IDF is a text classification score that highlights how each word in a document is relevant. The relevance is based on the number of appearances of that word in the document. This is often used for large research documents like white papers, with demonstrations using words from large novels. The score is a product of two separate calculations. The first calculation is the term frequency, a ratio that examines the keyword count against the overall word count.  

The second value is the inverse document frequency, a log scale calculation that compares the keyword against the total words from a document or corpus.

How TF-IDF Benefits SEO

TF-IDF has seen increased usage in marketing due to the digitizing of commercial text. This is quickly becoming the technique for applications on website pages, landing pages, social media posts, hashtags and even translated text. Identifying how frequent a word is being applied across an entire set of text is how Google, along with other search engines, uses a variation of TF-IDF in its algorithm. When developing a SEO strategy, TF-IDF gives an overview for adjusting keyword placement within a webpage copy or landing page content. This can also help when trying to identify content gaps among pages, where current keywords may be better placed on another page that can better rank in the top search results. Placement adjustment can prevent keyword cannibalization between similar page content and avoid keyword stuffing on one page.

Need help using TF-IDF for Advance SEO Strategy? Call 248.528.3600.

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