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We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.By Regina Gilloon-Meyer. correspondent
Mar 26, 2016 at 9:21 am | Print View
Finding the Holy Grail is the stuff that movie legends are made of but, apologies to Indiana Jones, the recent angst over losing Google's right rail for paid search ads — now that was real drama.
The Google Adwords program was one of the original forms of paid advertising on the Internet, and it long has been a stalwart in the digital marketing world. The idea was simple: Potential customer enters a search phrase or question related to a business or service and, for the right price, an ad for your business pops up on the first or second search engine results page (SERP).
The look of those SERPs has changed over time, and each incarnation has sparked speculation and apprehension. Dropping the right-rail ads is no exception.
Moving Targets
Before the most recent change, the standard layout on the desktop for paid search ad results was three ads on top, four on the right rail, and maybe one or two on the bottom. Then one day a couple of weeks ago, the right-rail paid ads were gone. Poof! Cue shock, awe and major drama among some marketers.
In the new format, Google is placing four ads above the organic search results (as opposed to three) and three ads at the bottom, below the organic search results.
Google says the changes are all about a better user experience for both desktop and mobile users. In reality, the right-rail ads haven't been showing on mobile search results for quite a long time now.
Pay to Play
When search engine marketing specialists saw Google's latest shenanigans, heads began exploding all over the Internet. What would it mean? Would cost-per-click go up? Will rankings drop?
Will the consequences match the hype? Probably not. It's true that if you want the top spots on the SERP (and you do), you have to pay the piper. But so far, marketers haven't seen dramatic increases in the CPC for the top positions.
As far as the right-rail positions go, those positions haven't been getting as much attention as the top three spots for quite some time anyway. Eye-tracking studies have shown that the top left corner of the SERP was getting more attention than the right side of the page.
So if meaningful clicks and measurable conversions are your goal, losing this real estate won't have that much of an effect on your pay-per-click (PPC) performance.
SERP Burp
Those that rely only on search engine optimization (SEO) for most of their marketing instead of perhaps incorporating both SEO and paid search might find their visibility affected. A good SEO strategy still is important, but the fourth PPC ad on top will push organic results that much farther down on the page.
This is not to say you should abandon your SEO strategy. Businesses should keep an eye on both their SEO ranking and PPC budget as this little drama continues to play out. If anything, the change makes using both tactics more important than ever.
As always, it's important to strive for a good mix of tactics. Complement your SEM and SEO with social media marketing, targeted display and video marketing. Digital marketing demands that businesses continually adjust their strategies to adapt to new technology and innovations.
When Google changes the treasure map, don't give up — just move the "X" for your holy grail.
Regina Gilloon-Meyer is a content marketing specialist for Fusionfarm, a division of The Gazette Company; (319) 368-8530, regina@fusionfarm.com, @Regiimary
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The challenge in an integrated search and social strategy is leveraging popular social platforms to increase website positioning on search engines.
Using social media to promote local brand awareness is critical when working to be the leader among competitors in the digital landscape. You want to make sure your brand (or the brand you manage as an SEO) is regularly utilizing these channels — before they become completely obsolete.
If you've been doing online marketing for any significant amount of time now, you're probably already using the two major social media platforms, Twitter and Facebook. If you're B2B, you might be using LinkedIn, too. And if you're in the tech world, perhaps Google+ is a part of your local marketing strategy.
However, there are tons of other social platforms out there that local businesses can use to boost their local SEO. So how can you use these to broaden your local presence?
Today, I'm going to discuss micro-strategies for leveraging two popular social media platforms that aren't as commonly used for local search: Snapchat and Quora.
SnapchatLocal SEO strategy: Use Snapchat Geofilters to promote your brand, then use local press, PR and social media campaigns to generate buzz and links.
How to use: Snapchat "On-Demand Geofilters" are now available for local brands to utilize in any way that suits the business best. You create your own filter design, then select the geographical parameters that you want the geofilter to reach and the dates you want the geofilter to run. Snapchat will review it, and your design should be approved within one business day.
These filters work for local brands that want to draw brand awareness, but I see it mainly promoting local business-specific events. For example, a university that prides itself on its football team can create a geofilter surrounding the game, have it displayed the day of the game and spark engagement in the digital landscape via Snapchat by targeting the university's students and alumni.
Snapchat doesn't create web content, of course, so to leverage this for SEO, I recommend reaching out to local news stations about the event and promoting the Snapchat Geofilter in the process.
Garnering links from these local news stations will help increase a website's credibility which, over time, will strengthen search engine positioning. Additionally, it will likely also increase local traffic to ther site, which will ultimately increase the likelihood of conversions.
If you get enough engagement, you can further your SEO strategy by requesting that the audience save their Snapchats with the geofilter and enter them to win a caption/random/best photo contest through a social media outlet like Facebook or Twitter.
QuoraLocal SEO strategy: Elevate your local brand by answering industry-relevant questions within the expertise of your business.
How to use: Though not a completely fresh digital source, Quora has revolutionized the concept of complete personalization through an open community forum. The site allows users to follow specific topics of interest and view questions people are asking about those specific topics. It also provides an outlet for the user to ask questions by seeking the help and responses of the Quora community.
Consumers want to engage with personalized content. Local brands that can deliver personalization throughout each step of the buyer's journey have a higher likelihood to convert a lead — and ultimately drive more traffic to the site to breed a stronger SERP position.
The first step to building a local presence on Quora is building out your profile. Follow topics that relate to your brand, and answer questions that you have expertise in while also linking back to a page on your site or blog that expands on the question asked.
This strategy also drives your content creation because you are able to see what people are interested in regarding your industry. You can then tailor content on your site to speak to trends in questions you see on Quora.
Just like any social platform, you won't want to inundate with branding, but occasionally you can find questions regarding your industry that you can use to drive traffic back to your local website.
Hone your opportunitiesSocial networks can be difficult to integrate into a local brand SEO strategy. However, with careful thought, you might find an interesting and engaging way to use such platforms to further your conversion goals.
Keep in mind that new social networks turn over quickly, as most have an inherently short life cycle. Yet this natural ebb and flow allows for immense opportunity in local branding. When new networks arise with unique capabilities, be the first company locally and within your industry to capitalize on the excitement of a new digital service.
By discovering and exploring these opportunities, you may find an entirely new audience that had previously gone unrealized.
Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
About The Author Lydia Jorden is a SEO and digital marketing expert with a passion for helping both small and large companies compete in the digital landscape through local listing optimization, PPC strategy, experimenting with conversion optimization techniques, and utilizing various digital strategy involving SEM. (Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)Buy AutoTrafficRSS script now for $27 only!
We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.Buy AutoTrafficRSS script now for $27 only!
We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.Buy AutoTrafficRSS script now for $27 only!
We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.