Podcasts

Despite 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.

Securing 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. 

Creating 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. 

The 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.

Initiatives 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.

In-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.

Aligning 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. 

Content directories are most useful when they offer dynamic experiences and extensive information competitors don’t own yet. A hybrid Glassdoor and Linkedin model is a hypothetical example of how Google would prioritize a new directory website with excellent structure and new, useful information. Providing a preview of your content while keeping the rest of your content gated is a great way to give people an idea of what your site offers. They’ll be more likely to sign up, which helps build an email list.

Google’s algorithm ranks websites much like the natural world, where only the strongest and fittest survive and make it to the top. Google’s own search features and ranking factors aren’t immune from this process. The search giant makes changes to its rich element ranking system based on industry developments and user needs.

The knowledge panel collects information from across the web on entities and displays it in an information box on Google. The panel’s results are distinctive from other engine properties as it’s information Google’s algorithm considers factual. Getting listed in the knowledge panel requires owning and maintaining your online presence apart from your website and social channels.