Voices of Search
Voices of Search arms SEOs with the latest news and insights they need to navigate the ever changing landscape of search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing. From the heart of Silicon Valley, Searchmetrics’ CEO Jordan Koene delivers actionable insights on using data to navigate the topsy-turvy world now being created by Google, Apple, and other search giants.
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2020 Review: Fights Over Zero-Click Activity
Voices of Search Time to read: 1 minGoogle’s efforts to own the zero-click experience with voice queries increased throughout 2020, taking content from competitors like Rap Genius. An algorithm update in early 2020 sought to prevent showing the same result twice, in high positions for a user at the top of SERPs. This proved contentious among SEO specialists who saw pros and cons to the new update.Read More -
2020 Review: Google Shopping and Amazon’s Competition
Voices of Search Time to read: 1 minThe COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted businesses internationally and the massive shift to ecommerce influenced Google to implement changes. Google made product listing feeds free for its users, eliminating its pay model to assist small businesses through challenging times. However, Tyson believes it’s another method Google is applying to increase its competitive edge against Amazon by boosting its inventory.Read More -
2020 Review: Core Web Vitals & Ranking Factors
Voices of Search Time to read: 1 minGoogle continued its efforts rewarding websites that provided positive user experiences for its visitors. Although Google remained mum regarding ranking factors, signs and signals illustrated that the search engine is prioritizing websites with excellent technical structure and frameworks. Google also placed more emphasis on its communication efforts, giving advance notice to users almost a full year before its new web vitals go live in 2021.Read More -
2020 Review: Google Updates & Communication
Voices of Search Time to read: 2 minDespite a tumultuous year, Google rolled out core updates in its usual, cyclical pattern. The majority of published updates this year concerned Google’s natural language processing capabilities and understanding how human speech behavior works. May’s update gave greater insights into Google’s interpretation of search query intent from a landing page perspective.Read More -
SEO Planning: Securing SEO Resources
Voices of Search Time to read: 1 minSecuring the right resources depends on knowing what is available within your organization. A thorough planning process helps reveal what resources you need from content writer resources to analytics needs. Assessing the capabilities of teams within your organization and their capacity to work together to achieve goals and initiatives will define whether you need to change your goal roadmap.Read More -
SEO Planning: Creating a Flexible SEO Roadmap
Voices of Search Time to read: 1 minCreating a roadmap is not only understanding the activities you’re going to perform and what order they’re going to occur. It requires understanding their dependencies and how your roadmap reflects what’s happening with your team and the impact on the rest of the organization. Establishing key milestones within your roadmap ensures you’re staying on top of your goals and tracking your progress.Read More -
SEO Planning: Setting SMART SEO Goals
Voices of Search Time to read: 1 minThe complexity of SEO goals require detailed steps to ensure they’re executed successfully - SMART goal methods are great tools to execute complex SEO initiatives. SMART goals break initiatives into actionable segments where you can track each touchpoint to achieve an overarching goal. When one aspect of the SMART goal isn't met, you can easily isolate the issue and implement the right changes to easily eliminate obstacles that prevent you from achieving an overall goal.Read More -
SEO Planning: Defining Yearly Initiatives
Voices of Search Time to read: 1 minInitiatives are the body of work you’re creating for the quarter and year overall, and the goals you aim to accomplish with them. To ensure the success of your initiatives it’s best to break big items into smaller, more manageable items. A commonly overlooked area in the defining initiative phase is analytics and reporting processes.Read More -
Black Friday Winners and Losers 2020
Voices of Search Time to read: 1 minIn-store spending was expectedly down this year 51.2% compared to previous years although overall conversions rose 22%. The rise is attributed to more online traffic, which big box retailers reaped the most benefit from. Q4 online sales are expected to rise even higher than Black Friday as we continue into the holiday season while regions of the U.S. go back into lockdown due to record coronavirus infection rates.Read More -
SEO Planning: Aligning to Corporate Goals
Voices of Search Time to read: 2 minAligning with company goals involves taking a step out of the day-to-day processes of SEO to determine how to drive traffic that fulfills greater company goals. Contributing to alignment setting in bigger companies is a more difficult task than smaller companies. In order to create influence in larger organizations, SEOs must speak the language other departments and teams use to effectively communicate initiatives.Read More