How to optimize your free product listings in Google Shopping

If you’re a brick-and-mortar or ecommerce retailer, you’ll want to ensure your inventory appears as part of Google Shopping’s free product listings. 

Below are key tips for retailers looking to optimize their free listings for search. 

What are free product listings on Google?

Google Shopping search results have consisted primarily of free product listings since April 2020, marking a major shift for the formerly purely paid product. 

This change, which initially took effect for U.S. merchants only, was mirrored worldwide later in 2020. 

Free product listings have been a win-win-win situation for shoppers, sellers, and Google alike. 

Consumers now enjoy improved access to a diverse range of products and convenient purchasing options. 

Sellers benefit from an expanded organic reach without any additional costs on their end. 

And for Google, the move allows them to better compete with other major players in the online shopping sphere.

While, as the name implies, participation in the program is free, retailers must ensure they follow SEO best practices to enhance their product listings.

Doing so is the best way to maximize your chances of reaching various potential buyers across various Google destinations.

Getting started with Google Shopping and free product listings

Just as businesses don’t need to pay for inclusion in Google’s search index, displaying products online through Google is also a complimentary service.

Users traditionally access Google Shopping by clicking the “Shopping” tab on a results page. 

But free product listings can also appear within:

• Google Images, including Google Lens.
• YouTube mobile or desktop.
• Rich result types like popular products or shopping knowledge panels. 

All retailers with a Merchant Center account are eligible for free listings regardless of their participation in Google Ads. 

Simply opt in when creating an account. Ensure the Show your products in free product listings on Google option is selected within the Manage Programs menu. 

Free product listing types

Free listings can have a standard or enhanced appearance depending on the amount of product data you provide.

Standard free listings

With only basic product data provided, Google’s standard free listings appear similar to a standard search result with some additional product-specific information. 

This type of listing may include a product description, price, user ratings, reviews, and stock availability. 

Google may source this information from your Merchant Center data feed or, if it is not present, from your website via structured data markup. 

Enhanced free listings

These visually engaging and content-rich listings can appear across the Shopping tab and other Google destinations outside the results page. 

They require retailers to upload additional attributes, such as high-quality images, but can also boost traffic and drive more sales than the basic standard listings. 

Free local product listings

Local listings can promote your in-store inventory and drive traffic from searchers within your geographic region. 

Free local listings help small businesses connect with shoppers in the area who are actively considering products within a relevant category. 

This is an excellent way to drive traffic for products that shoppers might want to try on or view in person before purchasing.

Other than purchasing at a local store, shoppers can buy products from free listings by checking out on your website. 

While shoppers can also purchase products directly on Google via the Buy on Google feature, this option will no longer be available starting September 26, 2023. 

Instead, Google has announced plans to pilot a new streamlined buying journey for shoppers across Search and YouTube. 

Free product listings requirements

Before we can optimize, merchants must meet several requirements to have their products eligible to display in any capacity.

For both standard and enhanced free listings, the following elements must be set up in Merchant Center:

Claimed website

Merchants must verify they have authorized ownership of their website by adding an HTML tag or verifying via Google Tag Manager or Google Analytics. 

When a website is claimed in Merchant Center, already created feeds must be reset.

Website information

Google wants shoppers to have the most seamless experience when purchasing from a product listing. 

They require sites to contain:

• Contact and payment information.
• Return and refund policies.
• Billing terms and conditions.
• A secure checkout process protected by a valid SSL certificate. 

Approved product feed 

This can be manually built or automatically synced via integration options with ecommerce platforms. 

This list of all your products also includes the individual attributes of each product needed to generate free and paid listings.

Minimum product data

Standard listings require each product’s ID, title, price, description, availability, link, and image_link attributes. 

For enhanced listings, the following information is also required:

Additional product attributes

• Condition, brand, gtin, mpn, multipack, is_bundle, color, size, age_hroup, gender, item_group_id. 
• Note that these can vary depending on the specific product type and category.

Shipping

• Specify your products’ shipping method and associated fees and rates within Merchant Center or the feed itself.

Tax

• Note the sales tax for each geographic region you serve in Merchant Center or your feed.

---

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing…Please wait.

See terms.

---

Optimizing your free listings for better search visibility

Google’s free product listings can boost the reach of your inventory and get your products in front of potential customers with demonstrated purchase intent for your category or brand. 

Enhanced listings, in particular, are an excellent opportunity to display your offerings visually. 

Like traditional SEO best practices, a Google shopping ecosystem optimization strategy begins with effective keyword research and competitor analysis.

Keyword research and competitor analysis

Start by identifying the most relevant and high-performing search terms used to find products similar to what your business offers. 

Consider what product attributes and details are most commonly used by searchers to discover products within your category. 

Let’s turn to the jewelry category. 

You may discover volume around shoppers looking for items by color, material, brand, or specific item type. 

How might a “diamond gold necklace” perform on impressions and clicks basis versus a “stone-cut gold classic diamond tennis necklace?” 

Descriptors like “artisanal” or “handcrafted” could additionally help match your products with shoppers with higher purchase intent. 

Overall, strategically integrating these keywords into the product titles and descriptions can increase the chances of your products appearing in relevant search results.

Competitor analysis complements keyword research by enhancing your insights with findings on what other businesses do in the same sector. 

Analyze your competitor's product listings to understand their keyword usage, pricing strategies, or other factors contributing to their success. 

If you notice your competitors appearing in searches you’d like to be in, fine-tune your product listings, building on their strategies.

Optimizing feed data and product attributes are the most effective ways to positively impact SEO performance. 

Think beyond the minimal amount of required information. Hhighlight any and all differentiators like color, material, technical specifications, or unique features.

Take advantage of the space Google offers, especially within the product description field, to offer an appealing sell to potential buyers.

Selecting and optimizing product images

High-quality and compelling images can also significantly impact your product listings' click-through rate and overall performance. 

Above all, ensure that your product images are of the highest quality possible while complying with Google’s size and formatting requirements. 

• Clear and well-lit photographs that showcase your products from different angles will give customers a better understanding of what they can expect.
• Use descriptive file names and alt tags. Google extracts information about your images using these attributes, and including alt text is also a requirement for ADA compliance. 
• Google Images also supports structured data, such as product, video, recipe, and image metadata.  Including this information makes your images eligible for Google’s rich results, as long as you include the "image" attribute.

Also, depending on your product category, consider incorporating lifestyle images to demonstrate your products in real-life scenarios. 

For instance, if you're selling outdoor camping gear, show images of people using the equipment in a camping setting. 

This type of imagery helps differentiate you from your competitors. It also enables customers to envision themselves using the product and evoke emotions that drive them to make a purchase.

External optimizations: Landing page performance and customer reviews

Moving beyond your product listings, Google may also assess your landing page speed and experience to rank your products. 

Regularly evaluate your product pages to improve user experience and consumer purchase journey. 

• A high bounce rate could indicate a mismatch between your product listings and your site's offerings. This could also be a sign of poor or misleading descriptions on your listings, non-competitive pricing, or even a buggy or slow website experience. 
• Load time and page experience correlate with user time spent on site and Google rankings. 

Another external method of expanding your reach is by opting into Google customer reviews. 

Third-party reviews are a powerful strategy for ecommerce merchants looking to enhance their online presence and build trust with potential customers. 

Customer reviews are crucial in the decision-making process of online shoppers, and their presence can increase the visibility of products in search results. 

Star ratings can help you attract clicks as buyers look to make informed purchase decisions. 

Google offers the ability to display both seller and individual product ratings.

• Seller ratings are sourced from Google customer reviews (if the merchant opts in) and aggregated independent review websites. 
• Product ratings require a minimum of 50 reviews across all your products and can be submitted manually in Merchant Center or via a supported third-party review aggregator. 

Reporting and insights for free product listings

Tracking the performance of your free product listings is essential to understanding the impact of your optimization efforts. 

Fortunately, Google Merchant Center breaks down valuable metrics like clicks, impressions, and click-through rates in dedicated tabs for free and local listings.

You can also use Report Editor to compare metrics side by side across paid and free shopping activity, or segment traffic by product, brand, or category.

Listing your products for free alongside paid shopping ads is a powerful way to maximize visibility across Google platforms and add value to your brand. 

Since the introduction of free listings, merchants using free listings and ads together saw a click increase of 50% and doubled impressions, according to Google internal data.

The insights obtained through tracking the performance of your free product listings directly impact your marketing reporting and inventory planning. 

With a clear understanding of which products are gaining more visibility and engagement, you can fine-tune your free listing optimization and paid shopping campaigns to allocate resources more effectively.

Google Shopping: An evolving experience

The Google Shopping experience is evolving rapidly, as evidenced by the relatively recent introduction of free listings. 

As consumer behavior shifts, with an increased willingness to purchase products online, look to the search giant to continue upgrading how users shop on Google. 

Optimizing your free product listings is the best way to ensure success within Google’s shopping ecosystem and meet the challenges of a transforming marketplace. 

The post How to optimize your free product listings in Google Shopping appeared first on Search Engine Land.

via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/g0J5yGQ

The best AI tools for global SEO expansion

Expanding your business internationally is a strategic move with tremendous potential. 

But to succeed, it’s crucial to speak the language of your target audience. 

Over 70% of consumers are more likely to choose a product if it’s in a language they understand. 

That’s why preparing your website for localization and translation is key.

By adapting your code to support text expansion, multiple languages, and different text orientations, you create a seamless user experience.

Here’s how to make your website a welcoming space for global customers using AI translation tools and engines.

What is an AI translation tool?

An AI translation tool or engine is a software application that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms to perform automated translation of text or speech from one language to another. 

These tools use machine learning, natural language processing, and neural networks to analyze and understand the meaning of the source text and generate an equivalent translation in the target language. In technical terms, this is called machine translation (MT).

AI translation tools have evolved significantly in recent years, particularly with the advancements in neural machine translation (NMT). 

NMT models, powered by deep learning algorithms, can process and translate text using an encoder-decoder architecture that reads the source text and generates the target translation. 

They can capture complex language patterns and produce more accurate and fluent translations than earlier rule-based or statistical machine translation approaches. 

The best AI translation tools to expand globally

Machine translation has evolved significantly over the years due to AI advancements. But there are no absolute best tools, engines or providers. 

Even the widely held belief that an NMT system guarantees the highest quality translations is only partially accurate, as it has limitations. 

Considering quality and technological features, below are some of the best translation engines to help with your internationalization plan.

DeepL

Source: DeepL

DeepL, a German-based MT tool, is one of the standouts in the industry. 

Leveraging the latest advancements in deep learning, DeepL’s engineers trained their models using data from the online dictionary/translation database Linguee resulting in cutting-edge machine translation software. 

It offers a web-based platform and tools that integrate into multiple ecosystems and APIs for even better customization.

The web interface and standalone app can customize translations by “forcing” specific terminology for selected language pairs. 

Even in the free version, users can toggle to incorporate preferred (corporate) terminology, addressing one of the challenges of machine translation: consistency.

The Pro version offers an expanded terminology function without limitations, allowing users to fine-tune translations further. 

It also includes additional settings, such as adjusting the formality of the target text, which can significantly impact the tone of voice, especially in Latin languages such as Italian.

Unlike other MT providers, DeepL does not offer the option to customize the translation model using proprietary, pre-translated data for training the engine. 

Pro subscribers can access a computer-assisted translation (CAT) tool integration to ensure end-to-end encryption for the translated data, prioritizing data security and privacy.

Google Cloud Translation

Source: Google Translation Tool

Translate by Google is the most famous and extensively used machine translation tool, offering instantaneous translation between multiple languages to individuals and businesses. 

The Cloud Translation tool is specifically for businesses needing support for their translation needs. 

The language library of Google Translate encompasses support for over 100 languages, making it remarkably versatile and valuable in various contexts. 

The functioning is similar to the ones offered for free, but Google Cloud Translation offers APIs enabling businesses to integrate it into existing internal workflows easily.

It is possible to choose between Cloud Translation Basic and Advanced. Advanced has more business-friendly features, such as batch requests and glossaries, which are particularly interesting for SEO localization projects.

Google Cloud Translation charges on monthly usage, with the first 500,000 characters per month free to use. 

It is possible to try Translation to see how it performs in real-world scenarios and get free credits to run, test, and deploy their first workload.

AWS Amazon Translate

 Source: Amazon Translate

Amazon Translate is a powerful tool specifically designed for organizations requiring language translation for multi-lingual websites, applications, user-generated content, or real-time communication. 

The tool:

• Enables the localization of content for global users.
• Facilitates cross-lingual communication.
• Provides accurate and natural-sounding translations using deep learning algorithms.

The service offers a free tier, allowing translation of up to 2 million characters per month for the initial 12 months following the first translation request. 

Accessible through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or AWS SDK, Amazon Translate offers a range of features, including:

• Neural machine translation.
• Customization of machine learning-translated output.
• Real-time translation capabilities.
• Support for over 5,550 language combinations.

Developers can easily incorporate Amazon Translate into their applications using a single API call through batch translation or real-time translation integration. 

The service auto-detects the source language, making translating content without manual language identification convenient. 

With its cloud-based infrastructure and deep learning API, Amazon Translate can handle large volumes of text and provides developers with a robust solution for their translation needs.

Microsoft Translator for Business

Source: Microsoft Translate via Bing

Microsoft Translator is a versatile language translation tool that provides a range of features to translate text and documents into multiple target languages. 

It’s an expansion of the consumer-oriented Translator offered by Bing. The business tool goes beyond basic translation capabilities by offering the option to customize translations using the Custom Translator feature.

This enables enterprises, app developers, and language service providers to construct neural translation systems tailored to their specific business and industry terminology. 

This customization ensures accurate translation of their unique language, aligning with brand, industry terminology, and communication needs for consistent multilingual content.

Key features of Microsoft Translator include:

• Text and document translation.
• Support for multiple languages in applications, websites, and tools.
• Translation through REST API calls.
• The use of advanced neural machine translation techniques.
• Seamless integration with customer support workflows.
• Speech translation capabilities for real-time communication needs.

Translator Business by Microsoft is free for up to 2 million characters of any combination of standard translation and custom training free per month. Afterward, it works as a pay-as-you-go model.

---

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing…Please wait.

See terms.

---

How to integrate AI translation tools into your workflow

Integrating translation AI engines into existing workflows is straightforward using the APIs provided. 

But it's even better to use a translation memory system (TMS), a software designed to facilitate the translation process and improve translation efficiency to scale expansion quickly. 

A TMS operates by creating and managing a database known as translation memory. 

This translation memory stores segments of the previously translated text, such as sentences, phrases, or paragraphs, along with their corresponding translations. 

Nowadays, the majority of translation management systems integrate machine translation. 

When integrated into a TMS, machine translation can be a valuable tool for:

• Providing initial translations.
• Generating draft translations.
• Assisting human translators in their work. 

When a translator works on a new project, the TMS compares the source text with the translation memory. 

If a match is found, the TMS suggests the corresponding translation, allowing for content reuse and ensuring consistency. 

This also helps train the machine for future translations, improving accuracy and SEO benefits.

To get the most out of an AI translation engine, I recommend using a TMS. These are four of the most versatile and complete TMS:

Smartling

 Source: Smartling

Smartling is an advanced translation management platform that integrates different machine translation engines, enabling businesses to choose the one they prefer based on their industry and style. 

It also offers a range of features and tools, including: 

• AI-driven content and workflow management.
• Visual context for accurate translations.
• Quality checks.
• Flexible workflows.
• Real-time reporting.

Companies can either use Smartling's platform or in-house translation team. 

In both cases, translators can access the brand's style guide and glossary, ensuring consistency and adherence to brand guidelines. 

Integration options, such as integrations, proxy, or API, enable automated content ingestion, while AI-created dynamic workflows and an optimized translation process further streamline operations. 

Smartling has also just launched Smartling Translate, a GPT-enabled service allowing users to instantly select the best MT engine for their content to generate on-brand translations.

Phrase

Phrase, previously Memsource, offers a comprehensive solution by connecting to over 30 generic and custom machine translation engines, providing users with various machine translation options. 

Phrase NextMT can:

• Adapt and utilize your translation memories, resulting in higher-quality translations. 
• Automatically fill in the missing content whenever a partial match is identified, improving overall translation accuracy. 
• Go beyond the simple "search and replace" functionality many engines use, considering morphological inflection to reduce the need for post-editing. 

For a fixed monthly fee, users gain unlimited access to machine translation services from NextMT and other leading engines, providing an efficient and cost-effective solution for post-editing.

Weglot

 Source: Weglot

Weglot is a little different from a classical translation memory system.

It's a one-stop solution to translate/localize an entire website in another language, also considering SEO. 

It is easy to install and connects to Microsoft, DeepL, and Google to automatically translate a website in minutes.

At the same time, it allows translators to make human edits to the machine translations to customize the website at its best. 

Companies can also add glossaries for consistency and review content translated from the dashboard. 

One of the most interesting features of Weglot is the automatic implementation of hreflang tags to avoid content duplication and SEO issues between languages and automatic syncs with new content updates.

On top of this, Weglot acts as a middleman in implementing SEO for multilingual sites by automatically creating language subdirectories or subdomains. 

Weglot can translate into more than 100 languages, including custom languages such as British English or Brazilian Portuguese.

Lokalise

Lokalise helps companies needing translation and localizing, keeping a closer look at how the different elements look once adapted for a different language. 

Lokalise offers seamless integrations with design tools such as Figma and Adobe Illustrator, to facilitate smooth collaboration and efficient localization workflows. 

Lokalise supports the major AI translation tools engines (Google Translate, DeepL and Microsoft Translator). Users can pick which parts of their project they want to be machine-translated. 

Recently, Lokalise launched Lokalise AI (still in beta at the time of writing), which promises to be a "personal AI-based assistant."

Interestingly, Lokalise AI also considers SEO, enabling users to select "Optimize for SEO" when requesting a translation.

The limits of AI translation tools and TMS for SEO

While AI translation tools and TMS offer significant advantages in terms of efficiency and accuracy, it's essential to recognize their limitations in the context of SEO. 

AI translation tools have limitations in selecting appropriate keywords and understanding search intent, requiring further adjustments for SEO value. They may struggle with context, leading to reduced SEO potential for pages.

TMS may struggle with language nuances and cultural references, possibly leading to translation inaccuracies. 

Human translators can help but need SEO expertise to preserve SEO value and incorporate relevant keywords in machine-translated content.

Relying only TMS can lead to content duplication and cannibalization when identical or similar translations are repeatedly used within a single or across multiple pieces of content.

TMS excels at translation workflows but needs to address internal linking directly. Translated content can indirectly impact internal linking. 

SEO experts must manually verify and adjust translated content to maintain a proper linking structure.

TMS streamlines translation, but SEO professionals are needed for optimal internal linking and overall SEO relevancy.

On top of all these technical and practical considerations, one cannot be left out. The localization team usually manages a TMS, so a project management plan should be implemented to avoid pitfalls. 

Mastering global expansion with the best translation AI tools and TMS

Crafting personalized and localized experiences is the secret to successful global expansion.

The AI translation tools and TMS above can help you produce precise translations for effective communication with a global audience. 

However, human expertise is vital for resonance, SEO, and cultural relevance. 

By balancing AI and human elements, businesses can expedite their global plans, successfully navigate the international market, and ultimately drive global growth and success.

The post The best AI tools for global SEO expansion appeared first on Search Engine Land.

via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/9BRCzu5

YouTube tests AI-generated summaries on search, watch pages

YouTube has started testing AI-generated summaries, which can appear on search and watch pages.

These new AI-generated summaries won’t replace the video descriptions written by creators, the company said.

The test was added yesterday to the YouTube test features and experiments page.

Why we care. While this is a limited, English-only experiment right now, if auto-generated summaries are rolled out it could impact whether someone decides whether to click on and watch your YouTube video.

What YouTube is testing. Users may now see a “quick summary” about a video. Summaries can appear on the page where you watch the video or on search results pages.

Unfortunately, YouTube didn’t share a screenshot showing exactly what the test looks like and we cannot see it yet.

AI everywhere. Google, which owns YouTube, is adding generative AI into several platforms and products – from its experimental Search Generative Experience, to Google Ads, to Docs/Gmail/Workspace and beyond.

YouTube has also reportedly been testing giving creators AI-generated ideas, titles and descriptions.

The post YouTube tests AI-generated summaries on search, watch pages appeared first on Search Engine Land.

via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/M32th8r

X change makes ad labels ‘less noticeable’ after Twitter rebrand

X has modified the appearance of ad labels on promoted posts, making them “less noticeable.”

Twitter Ads (X Ads?) now features the word “Ad” in the top right corner of posts, next to the three-dot menu button.

Previously, the word “Promoted” would appear in the bottom left corner of posts, along with an arrow icon.

Why we care. This change is similar to what Google and Microsoft have done with PPC ads in their search results pages. While this change could result in more accidental clicks or engagement, that doesn’t mean it will lead to more conversions. If you’re running Twitter/X ads, watch your key performance metrics heading forward.

How have X users reacted? As is fairly typical with any change on a social media platform, users aren’t impressed with the change. Many X users said the new layout makes ads look less like ads and more like organic posts. Here are a few reactions we saw from various X users:

• “They made it easier for me to scroll past ads. I used to have to get to the bottom of the tweet to see it was an ad. Now it’s at the top.”
• “Instant block for all ads.”
• “Now it’s closer to the block button.”
• “As a direct response, I’ve stopped just scrolling past ads and now I’m blocking every single ad I see.”

Test or permanent? X has yet to comment on the ad label change. It’s possible that the social media platform is texting this new format before deciding whether to implement any changes permanently. We will wait and see.

Why now? The move comes as X tries to entice advertisers back to the platform following a 59% drop in ad revenue after Musk’s takeover last year. Just last week, X announced that it was offering huge discounts on video ads with up to 50% off. The ad label change may also be part of the platform’s ongoing strategy to lure brands back, but given the reaction from users, this idea may be questionable.

Deep dive. Read our Twitter alternatives guide if you are tempted to consider switching to another platform.

The post X change makes ad labels ‘less noticeable’ after Twitter rebrand appeared first on Search Engine Land.

via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/XBV8Pwa

How to build an SEO-forward culture in enterprise organizations

In my SEO career, I’ve worked with various enterprise organizations, including major CDNs, encrypted email providers, American insurance companies, and commercial passenger airlines.

One underlying challenge in these enterprise organizations is stakeholder management and the wider buy-in of SEO activities.

I’ve learned and worked with organizations with unique internal culture, communication and team interaction approaches. 

This ranges from monthly town halls to recording and publicly sharing client meetings on the company’s YouTube channel – a total transparency consulting approach for a community-invested organization.

Below, I’ll share my insights and methods for fostering an SEO-forward culture and mindset among non-SEO stakeholders. 

Additionally, I’ll cover how to assist other non-SEO marketing teams in achieving their website goals without compromising organic KPIs.

Understand the existing SEO knowledge and process

For most organizations, organic search has the potential to be a significant driver of traffic, brand visibility and revenue. 

In mid-market to enterprise-level organizations, there is typically a history of SEO efforts, whether it’s during the website’s early development in terms of architecture or through content-related processes employed by teams.

Some organizations will have SEO practices documented internally or have established checklists and processes for team members to follow.

Your initial discovery meetings with different stakeholders and teams are a great opportunity to:

• Establish any existing processes.
• Gauge the level of SEO knowledge internally.
• More importantly, assess the viewpoints on certain SEO practices and if they align with yours.

At this stage, you can grasp the varying SEO expectations among different business levels and stakeholders, enabling you to communicate and engage meaningfully with them.

Often overlooked at this stage is acknowledging and rewarding existing good practices. 

Simple gestures like comments on project management tools, Slack channels, and highlighting in analysis can be effective and do not require grand gestures or overzealous comments on calls.

Align with business-level objectives

Aligning and reporting SEO impact against business-wide metrics, such as OKRs (objectives and key results) and shareholder or investor KPIs, is crucial.

Use the 7 Cs of communication and consistent reporting and information flow to your advantage, namely:

• Clear
• Concise
• Concrete
• Correct
• Coherent
• Complete
• Courteous

Remember that the C-suite or VP-level stakeholders responsible for business-wide OKRs and KPIs are likely time-poor. Thus, ensuring communications achieve these seven criteria is vital in building effective relationships.

Align with team-level objectives

It’s vital to understand and collaborate with non-SEO stakeholders in the organization. 

For instance, you may be required to work with brand and customer engagement in improving the website and conversions without impacting any SEO-associated variables.

This also flows the other way in offering insights into the organic user journey, potential pain points, and mismatches between query intent and the presented content.

SEO cannot be siloed within the marketing team for the best results. Collaboration must happen across content creators, developers, UX designers, sales (online and offline), customer success, and community managers.

When all teams recognize how their work influences SEO, they can better support each other through an integrated approach.

Communicate task-level objectives

Effectively communicating SEO-focused recommendations involves emphasizing their business impact and prioritization beyond just ranking. 

This includes their influence on wider metrics like brand visibility for non-brand terms and the impact on site user experience.

Gain leadership buy-in

Executives and managers must understand the value of SEO and support initiatives to optimize content and technical aspects of the website.

This can be achieved through five key focus areas:

Education

• Explain that SEO focuses on creating a great user experience that also ranks well in search engines. 
• Discuss how SEO leads to increased organic traffic, conversions, and revenue. Provide case studies and statistics to demonstrate the impact.

Highlighting the business impact

• Frame SEO in terms of achieving key business objectives like:
  • Increasing market share.
  • Boosting brand awareness.
  • Reducing the cost per acquisition. 
• Connect SEO best practices to revenue and ROI.

Proof of concept

• Run a small-scale SEO initiative to prove the value before requesting major changes or resources. 
• Measure and share the results of the pilot to gain support for an expanded program.

Address concerns proactively

• Anticipate leadership’s objections and questions about SEO and be prepared to respond to them. 
• Discuss risks and how to mitigate them. 
• Highlight how SEO complements other marketing channels.

Strategy feedback loops

• Involve leadership in determining high-level SEO priorities and key performance indicators to:
  • Ensure alignment between SEO objectives and business goals. 
  • Give leadership a sense of ownership in the program’s success.

---

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing…Please wait.

See terms.

---

Incorporate SEO into the organizational strategy

Optimizing internal processes is key to cultivating an SEO culture within a large company. 

By streamlining how information is shared and tasks are completed, SEO best practices can become second nature.

Open communication pathways

Open communication is essential for implementing any new initiative in a large organization. 

Regular cadences, internal newsletters, and presentations explaining SEO objectives and strategies help ensure all teams are on the same page. 

Discuss how SEO impacts each department and share recent wins and key metrics to demonstrate its value. Solicit feedback to address any concerns early on.

Create documentation

Documenting SEO standards, guidelines and workflows provides a reference for employees to ensure consistency. 

Create handbooks, cheat sheets, and checklists covering technical SEO audits, content optimization, internal linking, and more. 

Store these in a shared portal where anyone in the company can access them. Standardized documentation helps avoid duplicated efforts and speeds up training new team members.

Storage should be in a centralized, accessible location, such as Confluence or Sharepoint, and maintained proactively.

Documentation is also a useful tool for the organization should they onboard new staff members, as the documentation repository can help with onboarding and bringing them up to speed on current and past initiatives.

Clear accountability and responsibilities

Designate SEO responsibilities and key performance indicators for each department and team to keep people accountable. 

For example, make content writers responsible for optimizing a certain number of pages each month and web developers in charge of fixing a set amount of technical issues.

Accountability at all levels is necessary for real culture change.

This should be as transparent as possible across the organization and can easily be achieved through a RACI or RASCI chart. 

Post is in a place where everyone can see their status on projects and create a self-governing culture of accountability.

Actively seek perspectives

One of the most effective collaboration techniques I’ve used in recent years is simply asking non-marketing teams for their perspectives.

While working with a DevOps platform, I reached out and held a call with one of their product teams. 

This was not something they were used to, and it took a few minutes to get the conversation going, but asking the question:

• “What would you change about the website, content, and how the products are presented?”

…opened up an hour-long conversation, feedback, and perspectives that helped inform and became content and template redesign initiatives.

Facilitate SEO education

Educate employees about SEO best practices through online courses, webinars and internal documentation. 

Focus on how SEO relates to and supports their specific roles. 

• Teach content creators about keyword research and topic clustering.
• Inform web developers about technical SEO.
• Instruct product teams on optimizing product pages.

Raise awareness about the value of SEO for achieving business goals.

Create internal SEO champions

Look for employees who are passionate about SEO and digital marketing. 

They should be excellent communicators who can explain SEO concepts in a simple, engaging way. 

Consider individuals in positions able to influence others, such as managers, directors and team leaders. Offer additional SEO training to ensure they have a strong grasp of best practices.

Dig deeper: Unleashing enterprise SEO superpowers: The 4 pillars for SEO success

Integrating SEO within enterprise organizations 

Establishing an SEO culture within an enterprise takes time and patience. 

By securing executive buy-in, offering educational resources, promoting collaboration, recognizing SEO wins, and fostering an experimental mindset, you can achieve an "SEO transformation" and integrate SEO into all activities.

The post How to build an SEO-forward culture in enterprise organizations appeared first on Search Engine Land.

via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/pnDQmfE

Webinar: SEO reporting demystified by Cynthia Ramsaran

Marketing and SEO leaders are tasked with consistent reporting on SEO performance to the C-suite to convey current impact and increase SEO visibility. Yet, most execs don’t know what SEO is, how it really works, or how it impacts their core business objectives.

Join Conductor’s SEO experts as they break down how to report the right way to increase SEO visibility with this audience and turn execs into champions of SEO.

Register and attend “SEO Reporting Demystified: Winning Over Executives and Influencing Strategies,” presented by Conductor.

---

Click here to view more Search Engine Land webinars.

The post Webinar: SEO reporting demystified appeared first on Search Engine Land.

via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/5dlB1Or

7 reports SEO and PPC can use to help each other succeed

Is anyone still creating artificial opposition between SEO and PPC (e.g., “We rank first organically, so we don’t need to pay for an ad”)?

How about hiring a PPC- or SEO-only agency or keeping in-house teams in silos?

I know you’re out there. I still encounter these situations more frequently than I’d like to admit.

The truth is, any brand or agency marketer not fully committed to using SEO and PPC to make each other stronger is doing their organization (or client) a disservice. 

It can be as simple as looking at certain metrics and communicating the takeaways to your colleagues.

This article covers seven reports your paid and SEO teams can run – and how your colleagues on the other side can help act on the findings.

Paid reports and what they mean for SEO

1. Top-performing keywords

PPC teams have a list of top keywords that get extra-special love in the form of exact match, single or small keyword ad groups, custom landing pages, etc.

Your SEO team should be updated on that list, including new additions and drop-offs.

No matter how good paid performance is, many people still don’t trust ads (only 38% of people trusted ads on search engines, according to Statista). They will be looking for other relevant listings to click on.

And for many keywords, folks are looking for more awareness-based or educational information that direct-response ads won’t provide as reliably as SEO content.

In other words, top-performing keywords are fertile ground for SEOs to lean in and add incremental value.

The bonus is that folks with conversion intent for the keywords and going through the SEO listing to convert will help burnish SEO’s lower-funnel metrics.

2. Highest-CPC keywords

This one’s a key metric to share with SEO, especially if the costs prohibit PPC scale.

For keywords that are getting too expensive for competitive PPC campaigns, SEO teams can lean in and prioritize driving value in an otherwise inaccessible space.

3. Monthly drops in impression share and search top impression share

This can indicate increased competition for both parties. Increased competition will lead to higher costs on the PPC side.

While it might make it harder for SEO to compete in the short term, it’s an indicator that (for high-priority queries) it’s time to focus on new or optimized pages, content and metadata.

Dig deeper: Your 2023 guide to SEO reporting and tracking

---

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing…Please wait.

See terms.

---

SEO reports and what they mean for PPC

4. Keyword performance dips

The same principle as above applies here, but in reverse: sharp dips in keyword performance are likely indicative of increased competition. 

This should spark a conversation with the PPC team about whether they should prioritize those keywords in their campaigns.

It is also a signal for both teams to dig in and see who’s competing for that traffic and what kind of messaging they’re using.

5. High-priority keywords

Suppose SEOs are focused on a particular set of keywords. In that case, they’ll likely have valuable audience and behavioral data to share with the PPC team that can help refine messaging, targeting, CTAs and conversion types.

Note: Good SEO teams will be able to identify levels of intent for their priority keywords.

Are the keywords not focused on conversion or direct response but more on engagement and awareness?

PPC folks should consider creating keyword-based custom audiences for channels like GDN and YouTube to cast a wide net with lower costs.

6. Keyword difficulty

SEOs will often study a wishlist of high-priority keywords and find steep levels of competition and ranking difficulty.

This isn’t an indicator that SEOs should throw up their hands and look elsewhere, but it does mean any quick gains will be the provenance of the PPC team.

If the teams are aligned on a growth focus for certain keywords, this is where the PPC team can take a little liberty with budget and CPC caps and open the spigot for engagement. 

7. Top-performing pages and content

Pages and pieces of content ranking well and driving significant traffic have a couple of common factors:

• There's a good amount of demand.
• Google thinks the property is high quality.

For webpages, there may be good learnings from the page that PPC folks can use to optimize their own landing pages.

Successful pieces of content, meanwhile, can be assets for PPC teams to employ for gated content – or even for ungated content that can help build retargeting audiences.

Suppose SEOs are already driving traffic to pages that are getting conversion activity (i.e., blog subscriptions, demo sign-ups, click-throughs to product pages, etc.).

In that case, the PPC team should be all over this data to:

• Drive their own traffic to those pages.
• Or pull a short list of messaging elements and value propositions to test in their landing pages or ad copy.

Dig deeper: Using search query reports to optimize PPC campaigns

Intentional communication to unlock growth

The best way to ensure these insights get to the other teams, and to hold teammates accountable for the takeaways, is to set up a cadence of regular meetings and/or reports once you’ve built a framework of analysis.

At a minimum, each team should be aware of: 

• The other team’s top growth priorities.
• The other team’s key campaigns.
• Strategic content and landing page development in the pipeline.

The benefits of this level of communication can be surprising. We’ve had some great brainstorms between teams simply from being introduced to the other team’s initiatives. 

And whether you’re at an agency or in-house, you can combine for some compelling storytelling for clients or your executive team when you understand the broader picture and the interplay between channels.

The post 7 reports SEO and PPC can use to help each other succeed appeared first on Search Engine Land.

via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/ZQ4FX5G