Google adds two new Googlebot crawlers: GoogleOther-Image and GoogleOther-Video

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Search Engine Land

Google has added two new crawlers to the Googlebot family of web crawlers:

• GoogleOther-Image
• GoogleOther-Video

Google said these two new crawlers are versions of GoogleOther optimized for fetching image and video bytes. GoogleOther was added in April 2023 to be used internally by Google teams to crawl the public web and free up some resources for the main Googlebot crawlers.

GoogleOther-Image. GoogleOther-Image, according to the documentation, is the version of GoogleOther optimized for fetching publicly accessible image URLs. It will go under the user agent tokens of GoogleOther-Image and GoogleOther and the full user agent string will be GoogleOther-Image/1.0.

GoogleOther-Video. GoogleOther-Video, according to the documentation, is the version of GoogleOther optimized for fetching publicly accessible video URLs. It will go under the user agent tokens of GoogleOther-Video and GoogleOther and the full user agent string will be GoogleOther-Video/1.0.

Why these new crawlers. Google said, “the new crawlers were launched to better support crawling of binary data that may be used for research and development.”

More on Google crawlers. The types of Googlebot crawlers include:

• Googlebot – The main crawler for Google’s search products. Google says this crawler always respects robots.txt rules.
• Special-case crawlers – Crawlers that perform specific functions (such as AdsBot), which may or may not respect robots.txt rules.
• User-triggered fetchers – Tools and product functions where the end-user triggers a fetch. For example, Google Site Verifier acts on the request of a user or some Google Search Console tools will send Google to fetch the page based on an action a user takes.

Google also has listed IP address ranges and reverse DNS mask for each type:

• Googlebot – googlebot.json (crawl-–––.googlebot.com or geo-crawl-–––.geo.googlebot.com)
• Special-case crawlers – special-crawlers.json (rate-limited-proxy-–––.google.com)
• User-triggered fetchers – user-triggered-fetchers.json (–––.gae.googleusercontent.com)

Why we care. Many of you check your crawling activities and bot activity on your website and in your log files. When you see this new GoogleOther crawlers, do not be alarmed. It is a real Googlebot.

from Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/google-adds-two-new-googlebot-crawlers-googleother-image-and-googleother-video-440573

Snapchat outlines Three Es for advanced marketing measurement

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Search Engine Land

With rising data restrictions, Snapchat says “Execution, Experimentation and Evaluation” are the key pillars marketers need to focus on to ensure strategic measurement evolves with the times.

Why we care. While Google keeps delaying deprecating third-party cookies, it will happen. So it’s important for advertisers to maintain accurate campaign insights and revenue accountability to conduct effective marketing measurement with tighter data privacy laws.

How it works. The framework aims to create a cycle of constant testing, learning and iteration.

• Execution refers to the core campaign components that power marketing efforts day-to-day.
• Experimentation involves methods like A/B testing to course correct along the way.
• Evaluation uses techniques like media mix modeling to quantify real performance impact.

What they’re saying. “Advertisers who adopt this robust measurement approach see better advertising outcomes,” per Snapchat.

Between the lines. The real emphasis is on evaluating actual results over chasing vanity metrics.

• Snap says brands often prioritize “easy accessible correlation metrics over causal experimentation KPIs.”
• But if experimentation isn’t tied to evaluating bottom-line impact, “media optimization may be driving negative progress.”

Zoom out. Snapchat’s push is part of a broader industry reckoning as user privacy changes upend traditional digital measurement.

The bottom line. As ad measurement evolves, Snapchat is encouraging a more holistic, cyclical approach centered on continuous optimization and tying performance to real business outcomes.

from Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/snapchat-execution-experimentation-evaluation-440555

Google AI Overviews: More searches, less satisfaction

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Search Engine Land

I don’t know for a fact that people are searching less on Google. I just know it’s true.

During Google I/O, Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai told us AI Overviews have resulted in an “increase in Search usage.” Pichai said the same thing during Alphabet’s Q1 2024 earnings call.

But if that’s the case – doesn’t that mean AI Overviews, or the artist formerly known as Search Generative Experience (SGE), isn’t solving a problem it was supposedly invented to fix?

Namely, giving users the answer or information they want, faster?

Yes, in the same week that OpenAI basically created Samantha, the AI virtual assistant from the movie “Her,” Google’s tagline became “Let Google do the Googling for you.”

Well, if Google is now doing the Googling for you, Search volume will likely go up when Google can’t find what Google is Googling for on Google!

No blue links

Google’s Search in the Gemini era video was telling.

Watch this:

What did you notice was missing?

The subheading already gave it away, but there are no blue links in sight.

Former Google CEO said Google is not about blue links. Clearly, he wasn’t wrong.

In Google’s Gemini era, apparently, links will now live in a Web filter.

If you’re lucky, Web will be the fourth option you can choose (after All, Images, Video and News) – or you may have to hunt for the Web filter under the More options.

We knew this was coming. For two decades, Google has talked about Search being like the computer from “Star Trek”:

• “When search grows up, it will look like Star Trek: you talk into the air (“Computer! What’s the situation down on the planet?”) and the computer processes your question, figures out its context, figures out what response you’re looking for, searches a giant database in who-knows-how-many languages, translates/analyses/summarises all the results, and presents them back to you in a pleasant voice. I think this technology is about, oh, 300 years off.”

That quote, from former Google Chief Technology Officer Craig Silverstein, is from 2003.

It didn’t take 300 years. It took just 20.

The future is here.

Search was already fragmenting

We don’t know exact data on overall Google Search usage in 2024 and how it compares to previous years. Google doesn’t reveal that.

But reporting an increase in Search usage is like reporting on Domain Authority. It’s a meaningless vanity metric.

Google claims user satisfaction has also gone up during the same time. But I can’t remember an extended period of sustained negativity around the quality of Google’s Search results as I’ve seen over the past two years – both inside and outside of the search marketing industry.

Google’s own data has shown that younger Internet users going to TikTok and Instagram instead of Google. While Google is a monopoly general search engine, people are searching on other platforms – Amazon, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and more.

Meanwhile, we’ve been hearing rumors about ChatGPT search – and I fully expect OpenAI to launch a search product in the near future.

Dig deeper. The modern search landscape: How and where to reach your target audience

AI Overviews apocalypse

The inevitable SGE doomsday we’ve been warning you about since last May has finally arrived.

Publishers who weren’t already freaking out about losing traffic from Google’s helpful content or core updates – or Gartner’s prediction that traffic from search engines fall 25% by 2026 – are definitely starting to freak out now as AI Overviews start rolling out.

Here are just a few headlines we’ve seen following the launch of AI overviews:

• News publishers sound alarm on Google’s new AI-infused search, warn of ‘catastrophic’ impacts
• Google’s AI Search Feature Fuels Content Traffic Concerns
• Google unleashes AI in search, raising hopes for better results and fears about less web traffic
• Why I’d Rather Use TikTok Than Google Search’s AI Overviews
• Site Traffic Down? Google Just Made Some Big Search AI Changes
• Google’s AI search revamp puts publishers in a quandary
• Google Search’s AI Overview a threat to journalism, warns NMA chief

This quote from Owen Meredith, CEO of the News Media Association, is a variation on one that we’ve heard in recent months from content creators who have recently been frustrated by Google algorithm updates:

• “Google’s stated mission is to ‘organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible’ by sending visitors to websites. Introducing [generative AI] into search and AI Overviews that directly synthesise and present information to the user risks discouraging users from clicking through to the original links, in turn threatening the business model of those who invest in journalism and quality information.”

Relying entirely or mostly on one platform like Google to send you traffic via clicks on links isn’t a business model. It’s gambling. Because anytime Google changes something, you risk losing everything.

Ten blue links were a transitory way to provide answers. Now we have AI Overviews.

Tying a bow on it

So we don’t know for a fact that people are searching less on Google. We just know it’s true.

People are unhappy with Search. Google remains a monopoly but people are searching elsewhere.

AI Overviews are designed to reduce the number of Searches – but again, the whole message from Google is “Let Google do the Googling for you.” That itself indicates users should have to do less searches.

Although Google has definitely seen an uptick in the number of Searches for how to turn off AI results.

Screenshot via Adam Di Frisco/X

Oops.

Google seems to be increasingly detaching itself from reality.

In this brave new Google world, advertisers should expect costs to increase (hello, tuning and squashing), websites should expect less organic traffic, while Google sends Searchers down rabbit holes of follow-up queries to inflate Search usage stats nobody cares about – or uses agents to complete tasks like purchases (where I’m sure Google will tack on some hidden Ticketmaster-type fees that turn what should be a $50 purchase into $120).

from Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-overviews-searches-satisfaction-440551

Netflix ads tier hits 40 million subscribers

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Search Engine Land

Netflix’s ad-supported tier is rapidly gaining traction, reaching 40 million monthly users globally, the streamer announced at its 2024 Upfront presentation.

The paid ad offering, initially seen as a risky move, has quickly become a hit for Netflix as it seeks new revenue streams amid intensifying streaming competition.

Why we care. Netflix’s platform offers advertisers a large and expanding pool of potential customers. If you’re looking for new advertising opportunities, you may want to explore streaming audiences.

Driving the news. Just six months after hitting 5 million ad-supported subscribers post-launch in late 2022, that number has now swelled to 40 million.

• In regions where the ad tier is available, over 40% of new Netflix sign-ups are opting for the cheaper ad-supported plan.
• The service now has 270 million total subscribers across all its pricing tiers.

Between the lines. Netflix is doubling down on the ad business by bringing its ad tech in-house. 

• It’s launching its own advertising platform to “power the ads plan with the same level of excellence” as its streaming tech, per Netflix’s president of advertising Amy Reinhard.
• While initially partnering solely with Microsoft, Netflix is now also tapping Google, The Trade Desk and Magnite for its ad sales and tech.

What they’re saying. “Our ad membership has been an overwhelming success,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said during the presentation. “We’re just getting started on that journey.”

The bottom line. Netflix’s ability to rapidly scale its ad business demonstrates the power of its brand and content – signaling a secure new revenue pipeline as it branches further into advertising.

from Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/netflix-ads-tier-hits-40-million-subscribers-440549

A better approach to B2B lead gen in 2024

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Search Engine Land

B2B advertising, with its long sales cycles and relatively thin data density, has never been easy. And the tracking upheaval from cookies disappearing is about to make it harder.

That means that some of the pervasive flaws I’ve seen in inheriting B2B lead gen accounts over the years are about to produce even shakier results. 

Even without talking about cookies and alternative measurement set-ups, there’s a better path forward for lead gen in 2024. This article will examine:

• What brands still get wrong about their lead gen fundamentals.
• How to align the offer and the funnel stage.
• How to align the channel mix and the funnel stage.
• How to qualify users with content.

What brands are getting wrong about lead gen

The single biggest mistake I see brands making with lead gen is misjudging (or ignoring) the intent of the lead.

A common example here is asking a cold prospect to request a demo, which is a leap of faith that will very rarely be rewarded with positive ROI or pestering prospects that download content to engage with sales.

The second big mistake is that brands will stop measuring beyond the lead, which leads to misappropriating budget and clear blind spots in performance.

Movement between funnel stages, lead quality and lead progression to MQLs > SQLs > opportunities > closed deals are all vital for lead gen marketers to understand. This lets you assess your campaigns’ performance and optimization priorities – and spend your budget where it will have the biggest impact on the bottom line.

Dig deeper: Top 5 paid search B2B lead gen strategies for 2024

How to align your offer with the user’s funnel stage

I use this chart all the time with my clients (and sometimes in my articles for Search Engine Land):

The top of the funnel is about educating and relating to the user:

• What they need to learn.
• What challenges they need to solve.
• What they need to know about their problem.

At this point, it’s about relating to their pain points and starting to build trust more than what they need to solve than they do about who’s solving it for them.

The middle of the funnel starts tying solutions to problems and introduces your brand as the option:

• Why your solution works.
• How it’s different from your competitors.
• The results you’ve driven for brands with similar challenges.

This stage assumes the user has their head around their challenge and is now actively researching solutions to help.

The bottom of the funnel brings in more emotion and third-party proof. This stage assumes the users have a shortlist of solutions in mind and are looking for reassurance, from case studies and testimonials, that yours is the one for them. This is also when you can start leaning on urgency, with limited sales windows or expiring promotions.

The most important thing to remember from all of this is that thoughtful nurturing is key to good lead gen. If you’re using bottom-funnel tactics for people who haven’t heard of you yet, you’re only wasting time and possibly turning users off from your brand.

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How to align the channel mix and the funnel stage

Top-of-funnel channels

Starting with awareness/top-of-funnel targeting should mean starting on LinkedIn (and, for some brands with access to the right audiences, possibly on Facebook). 

My first option is always to start with LinkedIn prospecting because:

• Costs are cheaper for top-of-funnel engagement than they are for lead generation or conversion.
• LinkedIn’s company-based targeting means you can go fairly broad and still stay within your ICP. 

LinkedIn is a great place for educating users and positioning your brand as a thought leader; people go to LinkedIn to consume content, perhaps in the form of thought leader ads, and are open to high-quality, informative engagements.

I approach Facebook prospecting with caution, but it can be worth testing depending on the audience. 

Middle-of-funnel and retargeting channels

Once someone has engaged with your brand and content, you should have started to narrow your audience.

Whether you’re retargeting content engagers or focused on accounts that have engaged with sales in some way or piped-in audiences from tools like Clearbit or 6Sense, I recommend choosing the following combinations of ad types and channels:

• LinkedIn sponsored content and conversation ads.
• Facebook and Instagram in-feed ads or video ads, with messaging that aligns with your audience and funnel stage.

Given my thoughts on Facebook prospecting, you might be surprised at my preference here. But you’ve already defined the audience.

Facebook/Instagram can help expand your audience matching scope beyond LinkedIn (where we’ve seen plenty of audience match degradation), and retargeting costs tend to be lower.

Bottom-of-funnel channels

Focusing on users who have engaged with high-intent content or visited your site multiple times is a crucial audience for this stage.

Ensuring coverage for paid search and high-intent SEO queries are the bread and butter for capturing intent at this stage, but paid social is a great way to generate that last step of intent by using social proof like case studies, testimonials, etc. – and sealing the deal with demo offers. 

These will be your highest engagement costs of the campaign, and they should be, since leads at this stage are (assuming you’ve qualified them along the way) extremely valuable.

Dig deeper: How to implement a full-funnel PPC marketing strategy

How to qualify users with content

This happens throughout the funnel, and lots of this work is done with the type of content you’re offering.

For instance, your content should help the platforms’ bidding and targeting algorithms identify the audience’s pain points, solutions, etc. (Facebook’s algorithm can do this, but it doesn’t have the all-important layer of company targeting that LinkedIn does.)

There can also be ways to increase engagement within your ICP by speaking directly to them in your copy. Identifying opportunities to call out your audience in messaging is a great tactic.

For example, if you’re targeting CFOs, try “CFOs’ Favorite Answer to {Challenge} in 2024” or something similar that lets them know your content is for them.

The bonus here is that the more tightly you align your messaging with your ICP, the more you can delineate who falls outside your ICP and shouldn’t bother engaging with your ad.

Dig deeper: Paid search for lead gen: Tips for new accounts with limited budgets

Aligning tactics to intent: A better B2B lead gen approach

Above all, remember to consider the user’s mentality when developing your lead gen campaigns.

Don’t:

• Ask for too much too early.
• Get silly with retargeting frequency.
• Bother spending for bottom-funnel engagement without so much as a how-do-you-do. 

Cookies or not, adhering to those principles will help you eliminate a lot of waste from your lead gen campaigns and keep your brand from developing a pushy reputation.

from Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/b2b-lead-gen-better-approach-440540

How to run a successful site migration from start to finish

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Search Engine Land

A site migration can feel like packing up your entire house and moving across the country. There’s much to keep track of, and you don’t want to lose any valuable possessions (or, in this case, SEO progress) along the way. 

When done right, a site migration is a chance to improve site performance, enhance user experience and boost search presence.

However, with countless moving parts and multiple teams involved, having an organized plan is essential for a smooth transition. 

To nail it, you need a rock-solid plan and a dedication to doing things right.

In this article:

• What is a site migration?
• Why is SEO important in site migrations?
• Preparing for your site migration
• Managing and optimizing the new site structure and content
• Improving user experience
• Managing links
• Monitoring technical SEO
• Managing post-launch activities
• Continuously refining

What is a site migration?

A site migration refers to the process of making major changes involving a website. 

This might include moving a site to a new domain or hosting provider, switching to a different content management system (CMS) or merging multiple websites into one.

Why is SEO important in site migrations?

Some people may wonder what SEO has to do with moving a site. 

A site migration with SEO built into it can preserve rankings, avoid traffic loss, retain link equity, improve user experience and uncover new opportunities to improve the site. A site migration without SEO is laced with assumptions and poor decisions and can lead to a near-death traffic loss.

To illustrate how, when done right, SEO built into a site migration can massively impact search performance, see the image below. 

After this client’s site migrated about mid-April 2023, they experienced the following results when comparing February 2023 to August 2023:

• A 455% increase in daily traffic.
• A 78% increase in top 10 rankings, with the top three rankings going from 8,081 to 13,591.
• Zero SERP features to 1,496 SERP features.

Preparing for your site migration

Before you jump into the deep end, take the time to plan: 

• Define your goals and objectives. Whatever your website migration goals, document them and the steps needed to make them a reality. Get specific and make your targets measurable. This will help guide your efforts and give you a clear way to evaluate success post-migration.
• Conduct a thorough SEO audit. A thorough SEO audit assesses the site’s strengths and pinpoints areas for improvement. Part of this involves tracking your site’s current rankings, traffic levels and engagement metrics using tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console and others.
• Come up with a project plan. Map out a detailed project plan. Break the migration into phases, assign roles and responsibilities and set realistic deadlines. (Don’t forget to build in time for testing and troubleshooting. Migrations rarely go off without a hitch, so planning for the unexpected is key.)

Google gives some additional best practice tips for managing a site move, including splitting your move into smaller steps, changing only one thing at a time and timing the move to coincide with lower-traffic times. 

Dig deeper: 12 SEO pitfalls to avoid during a website platform migration

Managing and optimizing the new site structure and content

How people and search engines access your content, and what type of content you publish are both important to your SEO program moving forward.

Site structure

A well-organized site structure enhances user experience and helps search engines understand the relationships between your pages.

Think about how you might restructure and streamline your site’s navigation for the relaunch. 

This will require taking a look at your target keywords and mapping them to the navigation and content. 

Group related content together in a logical hierarchy, making it easy for website visitors and search engines to find exactly what they need.

I call this SEO siloing, and the benefits include:

• Creating a good user experience can result in more time spent on the website.
• Helping search engines determine relevance, which positions the site for ranking for target keywords.

The goal is to have the top of each silo (navigational category) be based on the more generic keywords and to build a hierarchy of subpages that support that keyword topic.

The picture above shows a sample structure for SEO siloing on a fictional power tools website. 

The main categories are cordless power tools, electric power tools and gas-powered tools. The supporting subpages are shown underneath.

Content

Now onto the content that fills the pages on your site. As you head into a site migration, it’s a perfect opportunity to make improvements.

The goal is to ensure the quality of your content when you relaunch. 

Here are some tips as you review the content on your site:

• Review top-performing webpages and be sure to prioritize those. For pages that aren’t performing, decide if they need a rewrite, need to be merged or 301 redirected.
• Assess the content with some guidelines in mind, such as Google’s E-E-A-T principles and its advice on helpful content. 
• Review all content to make sure that it is evergreen and thorough. If it can be updated, do it. If entire topics are out of date, flag those to do a 301 redirect on them later on. 
• Consider merging multiple pages on a similar or same topic into one more extensive guide on the topic. (Don’t forget to 301 redirect URLs later).
• Ensure that your new site’s content is optimized for your target keywords. Optimize titles, headings, meta descriptions and body content. 
• Address duplicate content issues. Duplicate content can happen for multiple reasons, including trailing slashes on URLs, CMS problems, content that is too similar, boilerplate content and more. 

If you need to add new content before the site migration, consider using AI content tools for efficiency—but be careful to follow search engine guidelines. 

See my article on how to survive the search results when you’re using AI tools for content.

Improving user experience

Prior to a site migration is a good time to assess user experience factors on your site and make any adjustments moving forward. 

Review Core Web Vitals

• Google’s Core Web Vitals focus on the responsiveness, speed and interactivity of a site. Benchmarking and seeing what may be improved on your current site is a good step before relaunching a new site.
• Google gives more insights in a help file here, and you can view the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console. Prioritize adjustments based on your available resources. 

Mobile-friendliness

• Ensuring your site is optimized for mobile means things like having a responsive design, touch-friendly navigation, creating and formatting content with mobile readers in mind and much more. 

Improving accessibility

• Evaluating and improving accessibility on your website can ensure your site is usable for people with disabilities.
• The gold standard for complying with accessibility is W3.org’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Prioritize minimum requirements first.

Enhancing security

• Some things you can do to improve the security of your site are evaluating your server / hosting provider (this may be a reason for your site move anyway), implementing HTTPS and updating software, plugins and authentication protocols. 

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Managing links

Properly mapping and redirecting URLs is essential for maintaining SEO value during a site migration. Without careful planning, you risk losing link equity. 

Create a detailed spreadsheet that lists every old URL and its corresponding new URL. This redirect map will serve as a blueprint for implementing 301 redirects and ensuring no pages are lost in the transition.

Be sure to account for changes in site structure, URL naming conventions and content consolidation. A thorough redirect map is your best defense against broken links and lost SEO value.

Work with your development team to ensure that redirects are configured correctly: 

• Steer clear of redirect traps like using short-term 302s instead of permanent 301s, creating messy chains or loops and forgetting that URLs are case-sensitive.
• Prior to launch, thoroughly test your redirects to ensure they are working as intended. Use tools like the SEOToolSet (full disclosure, this is my company’s SEO software) or Screaming Frog to crawl your old URLs and verify that they are being properly redirected to the correct new URLs.
  Pay special attention to your most important pages, such as your home page, top-level categories and high-traffic blog posts. 

Mapping your 301s is just one part of managing your links before a site migration. This is also a good time to review your inbound link profile. 

Get rid of any links that may not serve your site well moving forward and identify new link opportunities for the site.

Monitoring technical SEO

Monitoring all aspects of technical SEO before and during a site migration is vital for site health and search engine visibility. 

Here are some tasks to check off your list:

Review design modifications

• Changes to website design can impact SEO–one example is the coding aspect of building a site. Review design plans to make sure they support SEO objectives.

Audit your tracking tools

• Confirm that Google Analytics tracking is correctly configured. Moving to GA4 can be complicated, consider hiring analytics experts if necessary.
• Also, ensure Google Search Console is configured for your site. 

Back up your existing site

• As a precautionary measure, back up your entire website – especially the XML Sitemap. Trust me, you need this. Download all images and other resources, and save a copy of your database if relevant.

Establish a test environment

• It’s common practice among web developers to create a separate testing environment to experiment with changes before making them live.
• Ensure this is set up and that search engines are blocked from indexing this staging area.

Validate structured data

• Examine and rectify any issues with structured data on your pages using tools like Google’s structured data testing tools.

Review metadata

• Ensure titles and meta descriptions are unique with original content and are correctly optimized. 

Review robots directives

• Recheck the setup of your robots.txt file to ensure it is correctly blocking or allowing access as intended. 

Create and manage sitemaps

• Develop a new HTML sitemap to aid users in navigating the new site smoothly.
• To some, this next point may seem counterintuitive, but it’s important: The second the new site is live, submit the old XML sitemap you archived earlier. This causes the search engines to find your redirects instantly. 

Carry out launch day tasks

• On launch day, crawl the website to identify and resolve any emerging issues right away, such as crawl errors.
• Recommended tools include SEOToolSet’s site spider, Lumar and Screaming Frog. You can also use the various testing features in Search Console. 

Managing post-launch activities

You’ve made it through the site migration process, but the work isn’t over yet. Keeping a close eye on your site’s performance in the weeks and months following the move is important. 

Testing

The first step in post-migration testing is to conduct a comprehensive review of your site’s functionality. 

This means testing every page, link, form and feature to ensure that everything is working as intended. 

Give your website a thorough once-over by focusing on these vital areas:

• Navigation and internal linking.
• Forms and contact pages.
• Ecommerce functionality (if applicable).
• Mobile responsiveness and usability.
• Integrations with third-party tools or services.
• Site speed and responsiveness.

As you test, make note of any issues or errors you encounter and prioritize fixing them based on their impact on user experience and site performance. 

Watching key metrics

With your tracking tools in place, it’s time to monitor your site’s performance and organic traffic levels. 

Keep a close eye on your daily and weekly traffic in Google Analytics. It’s normal to see some temporary fluctuations after a migration, but if you notice a sustained drop in organic traffic, it’s time to investigate further.

Another key metric to monitor post-migration is your site’s keyword rankings and overall search visibility. Use SEO tools like Ahrefs to track your rankings for target keywords and monitor any changes over time.

Enhancing user experience

Beyond functionality, it’s important to take a holistic look at your site’s user experience and engagement post-migration. 

Are visitors finding what they need easily? Are they engaging with your content and converting at the rates you expect?

You can use your analytics tools to dive into behavioral metrics such as goal completions, bounce rates and more.

If you notice a drop in conversions or engagement, dig deeper to identify potential issues or roadblocks. 

Is there a particular page or step in your conversion funnel where users drop off? Are there certain user segments or traffic sources that are underperforming?

Consider reviewing the following areas that may need user experience improvement:

• Improving navigation and site structure.
• Optimizing content layout and readability.
• Enhancing calls-to-action and conversion points.
• Ensuring mobile-friendliness and responsiveness.
• Adding engaging visual elements and media.

You can use things like heat maps and surveys to get inside your visitors’ heads. Look for trends and sticking points, then use that data to fine-tune your site’s user experience. 

Continuously refining

Once you’ve completed a successful site migration, the real adventure begins. 

You’ll continue to keep a close eye on your site, run tests and make tweaks to ensure that it’s always performing at its best and delivering an exceptional user experience.

With a commitment to improvement, you can ensure that your migrated site survives and thrives in its new home for the long haul.

from Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/site-migration-plan-440535

How to reappeal a Google Business Profile suspension

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Search Engine Land

If you run a local business and find that your Google Business Profile has been suspended, it can have a devastating effect on your business.

Your phone may stop ringing. Customers may stop coming to your location. The loss of revenue is real.

Your first instinct may be to panic and just go through the motions of filling out the Appeals tool without thinking too much about the consequences. But you must know what you’re doing before you start that process.

Read this entire article before you start the appeals process and learn what to do if your appeal is denied. 

Common reasons your GBP listing might be suspended 

When your business listing gets suspended, you might be wondering why. Here are some common reasons GBP listings get suspended:

• Keyword stuffing your business name.
• Using a P.O. Box or UPS store address.
• You set up your listing at a virtual office or co-working space address.
• You have a Service Area Business (SAB) and are displaying a physical address.
• You have an online-only business.
• You are in a high-risk business category, like lawyers, plumbers, HVAC, locksmiths, rehab centers, etc.
• If another business shares your same address – especially if it’s a residential address.
• You have made a bunch of changes/edits to your GBP profile in one sitting.
• The URL you add to your GBP profile forwards/redirects to another website or links to a social media page.
• If you change your listing from a Storefront to a SAB – or vice versa.
• Having multiple GBPs in an area that has service areas overlapping.
• Your address or hours don’t match what is listed on your website or other online business directories/citations.
• You list your business hours as 24/7.
• A manager on your listing had their account suspended – so your listing was also suspended.
• You created multiple listings for the same business at the same address.
• You violated the terms of service of some other Google tool or service.
• You have an account violation, like your email account being suspended.

Sometimes, you may not have even committed a violation, as Google just wants to verify that you are a legitimate business. This may be because you are in a duress category, such as locksmiths, HVACs, lawn care, lawyers, etc. 

If you’ve violated a guideline, you must fix the problem with your business listing before you can proceed with the appeals process.

Dig deeper: How to follow Google Business Profile guidelines

How to appeal your suspended Google Business Profile

The first reaction for most businesses when their business listing gets suspended is to panic and to just click on the Appeals tool link and go through the motions. That’s not the best approach. 

• Thoroughly read the Help Support document when appealing your suspended profile. This document contains crucial information about the appeal process and what you need to do to appeal your suspension.
• If you’re unsure what violation you may have on your GBP listing or if you’re uncertain that your supporting documents will meet Google’s requirements, it’s best to hire a Google Business Profile Product Expert before you do anything.

If you file the appeal and are denied due to sending the wrong documents or not fixing the information on your GBP listing, you may be denied and prevented from having a Google Business Profile. Period. 

No one can guarantee reinstatement, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Be patient. Doing it correctly is better than panicking and doing this process incorrectly.

Dig deeper. Google Business Profile: The new suspension appeal process

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What to do if your Google Business Profile appeal is denied

After the Appeals tool is filled out, many businesses see the dreaded Not Approved status in the Appeals Tool and receive the email that states their Appeal was not approved.

So, what do you do if your appeal is denied?

You can request Google take an additional review of your suspended GBP listing and submit supporting documents.

The documents you can submit are:

• Official business registration
• A business license
• Tax certificates
• Utility bills for the business such as:
  • Electricity
  • Phone
  • Water
  • Internet

For the additional review, I always recommend submitting more documents and/or photos than you did in the original appeal. This will provide more evidence for Google’s consideration. For instance, if you didn’t provide a Tax certificate in your Appeal, include your Tax Certificate in this additional review.

If you have a storefront business, provide photos of your permanent signage, which will prove to Google that you have a legitimate store. If you have a service area business, provide photos of your branded vehicles, which you use for business purposes.

Remember, you can upload zipped files. Prepare all your documents and photos before you take the next steps.

Tip: For any documents you submit as evidence, check and make sure that the business name and address exactly match your Google Business Profile.

Here’s how you can request an additional review of your appeal case.

First, make sure that you’re logged into the email you use to manage your Google Business Profile, then go to the request additional review form. There, you will need to fill out all the fields:

Be sure to fill in the narrative box explaining what you did to fix your business listing and what documents and photos you provided that prove you are a legitimate business.

Providing a direct link to your Secretary of State business listing is a good idea. Additionally, if you have an accredited Better Business Bureau listing, provide the link to your BBB listing, too. 

Anyone who is an owner or manager on your GBP listing can fill out this form; it doesn’t have to be the same person who filled out the original Appeals tool form. 

After filling out this form, allow up to five days before you receive an email with the review results. Keep in mind that the results of this re-evaluation will not be reflected in the Appeals tool. You should receive a case ID in the email you receive.

The email will let you know if your appeal has been approved or not.

One final chance

This one final chance to have Google look at additional evidence you didn’t provide in the original Appeals tool is your last chance to prove to Google that you’re a legitimate business.

Take this whole process seriously. To increase the likelihood of your Google Business Profile getting reinstated, make sure:

• The documents and photos you provide are the correct ones needed.
• You fix any violations your GBP listing may have.

You only have two chances to get your suspended Google Business Profile reinstated. Do things the correct way.

Dig deeper: How Google Business Profile pre-defined services can impact local SEO

from Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/google-business-profile-suspension-reappeal-440524

How entity-based strategies can contribute to PPC success

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Search Engine Land

While the concept of entities for SEO has been around since 2012, it hasn’t been a widely adopted in PPC. Entities are essentially unique people, places, things or concepts that provide context and relationships for keywords. 

As AI becomes more prevalent in digital marketing, incorporating an entity-based approach into your PPC campaigns is a way to get ahead of the competition. This article dives into how leveraging entities can significantly contribute to PPC success. 

1. Entities for PPC keyword expansion

If you’re struggling to expand your keyword list, taking an entity-based approach could expand your horizons.

Entities are important because of their relationships with other entities. Thinking about these relationships can help you uncover ideas and insights that resonate with different groups of people based on their intent. In short, consider the context and assumptions behind searches and use that to brainstorm new keywords. 

Here are some questions to consider when brainstorming entity-based keywords:

Activities: What are people doing in relation to my product/service?

• Entity identification: What specific activities or interests are associated with my business and product/service?
• Entity relevance: How does my product/service relate to these activities as entities?
• Entity pain points: What challenges do people performing these activities typically encounter?
• Entity solutions: How does my product/service address and solve these pain points?

Location: Where are people who may need my product/service? 

• Entity scope: What geographical locations are relevant to my business as entities?
• Entity presence: Where are the majority of my customers located and how does that relate to location-based entities?
• Entity associations: What local landmarks, neighborhoods or events can I associate with my business to enhance local entity relevance?
• Entity impact: How do geographical entities influence consumer behavior and preferences in my target locations?

Season or event: When would people need my product/service? 

• Entity timing: What seasonal trends or events are relevant to my business?
• Entity impact: How do seasonal or event-based entities influence my potential consumer behavior and preferences?
• Entity integration: How can I integrate seasonal or event-based entities into my copy and imagery to enhance relevance?
• Entity promotions: What special promotions or offers can I create to capitalize on seasonal or event-based entities and drive engagement?

By incorporating these entity-based principles into your PPC keyword expansion strategy, you’re building a more comprehensive advertising approach that closely ties into your site’s relevance and authority. 

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2. Entities for improved PPC quality scores

In PPC, it’s relatively easy to determine if your website accurately presents the entities and relationships you want it to; simply check out your quality scores. 

If your website follows an entity approach and the accompanying PPC campaigns are aligned with that approach, you will see high quality scores, which mean lower costs-per-click and higher click-through rates. 

Quality Score is calculated by Google based on three factors that are heavily influenced by entity recognition:

• Expected click-through rate (CTR): Entities influence the click-through rate of your ads by ensuring that your campaigns align with the interests, intents and preferences of your audience. When your ads resonate with users based on their search queries and interests, they are more likely to click through to your website, resulting in a higher expected CTR.
• Ad relevance: Entities ensure your ads are relevant to users’ intent, not just matching keywords. By optimizing your ad copy to relevant entities, you increase your chance of delivering ads that match what users intend to find, which boosts ad relevance.
• Landing page experience: The entities on your landing pages directly impact the landing page experience. When your landing pages provide relevant content that aligns with the entities highlighted in your ads, users are more likely to have their expectations met by your website and a positive experience with it. 

Essentially, the more cohesive the journey from search term to delivered ad to landing page is, the more positive the user experience will likely be. 

Quality score is the search engine’s attempt to evaluate whether you’re delivering content that users want to see. Giving them something that perfectly matches their intent with the final result is a quality search experience. And it’s much easier to account for intent with entities than keywords alone. 

3. Entities for strategic PPC audience targeting

Traditional audience segmentation lets you identify key demographics to target, such as age, device and location. But when you combine those insights with the contextual relevance of entity-based targeting, you hone in on who your audience is and who your audience could be. 

For example, you may be working on the PPC campaigns for a local restaurant. Sure, they may only want to target the local geographic area, but don’t stop there. 

Using entity-based PPC strategies, you would have a campaign targeting the local geographic area and targeting users’ interests, behaviors and relationships with entities across the broader geographic region. This could be a campaign targeting all audiences interested in a local food festival or a campaign targeting users searching for a tourist activity nearby. 

AI-powered targeting options, such as behavior and audience-based targeting, have been used in ad platforms for some time. Custom combination segments can make them even more effective. 

Admittedly, they are a respectable attempt by search engines to find relevant consumer segments that are connected but that may not be directly related to your product or service. If you’re not taking advantage of these audience options, you’re wasting potential. 

The real beauty of entity-based targeting is in the numbers and information it provides, even if it “fails.” Remember that you always learn something from a well-designed experiment. 

By analyzing the data on different audience segments, you can refine your targeting strategy to identify the high-performing segments that deliver the best ROI. You may also discover new consumer groups and behavioral insights that can guide your broader marketing strategy. 

In our earlier restaurant example, they may find that adding a new dish to their menu directly referencing nearby tourist attractions increases the number of out-of-town visitors. I can guarantee they will not discover this by limiting their reach to only a local campaign sourced from Google’s Keyword Planner. 

Optimizing your campaigns with an entity-based approach

I like to think of entities as AI’s attempt to codify the human penchant for assumptions, undertones and subtleties in our communication.

If you’re looking to get ahead of your competition, tailoring your PPC efforts to account for entities is a great approach because so few companies are investing time in it right now. 

Whether you’re a global brand or a local restaurant, incorporating entity-based strategies into your PPC playbook will help future-proof your marketing efforts and drive performance.

from Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/entity-based-strategies-ppc-success-440488

Google adds “web” filter to only show text-based links in Google Search results

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Search Engine Land

Google is rolling out a new search filter to only show text-based links in the search results. The filter is named “Web” and clicking it will remove images, videos, or other forms search results and just show the classic blue links in the search results.

Web filter. You can find the web filter next to the other filters in the menu, sometimes that means it is on the same line as the video filter, news filter and so on. And sometimes that means it is under the “more” menu.

Here are some screenshots Google posted on X:

More. Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison wrote, “Since I joined Google, I’ve just been a boy standing in front of the search group asking it to love a Web filter. So happy to see it’s arrived – congrats to the hard-working team on this project that through their own efforts made it a reality!”

“We’ve launched a new “Web” filter that shows only text-based links, just like you might filter to show other types of results, such as images or videos. The filter appears on the top of the results page alongside other filters or as part of the “More” option, rolling out today and tomorrow globally. We’ve added this after hearing from some that there are times when they’d prefer to just see links to web pages in their search results, such as if they’re looking for longer-form text documents, using a device with limited internet access, or those who just prefer text-based results shown separately from search features. If you’re in that group, enjoy!”

Google tested this in the form of “web results” back in February of this year.

Why we care. Now if you want to remove forums, videos, news, images or other forms of search results you can. You can just filter by text-links, and go back to the pre-2007 universal search days.

from Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/google-adds-web-filter-to-only-show-text-based-links-in-google-search-results-440519

Reddit appoints ex-Googler as first VP of Ads Product

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Search Engine Land

Reddit named Jyoti Vaidee as its first VP of Ads Product, a newly created role overseeing the platform’s monetization engine.

Vaidee joins from Google, where she spent over 11 years leading ads products and monetization, most recently as product lead for Google’s Display Ads business. She also served stints working at Microsoft on Xbox and Outlook.

The new role underscores Reddit’s focus on scaling its ads business globally following its March IPO.

Why we care. Reddit Ads fans that love the platform and use it will be encouraged to learn of Vaidee’s hiring. It demonstrates Reddit’s commitment to improve the platform and add much needed functionality – especially when it comes to AI ad creation.

Reddit has been eyeing entering the search market after achieving 1 billion monthly searches, due at least in part to it’s content licensing agreement with Google. They’ve even introduced Dynamic Product Ads that connect users with products they are looking for or may be interested in.

What Reddit advertisers are saying. Reddit advertisers said the platform needs improvement.

Kyle Golembiewski, Founder at 4Chord Marketing, told Search Engine Land:

“If you want to compare performance/ease of use to that of Meta or Google, it’s heavily lacking in AI creative optimization, which appears to be the future. I’ve found the only way around bots/click farms on Reddit is by breaking an ad group out for each subreddit I’m targeting. That’s unfortunate but not unlike the “hacks” we used to use on other platforms.”

He added, “Reddit, in general, is lower CPC with lower conversion rates. The audiences are quite engaged with organic conversations but less receptive to sponsored ads.”

Gil Gildner, Co-Founder at Discosloth said, “I am a big fan of Reddit Ads in terms of targeting subreddits (very similar to intent-focused searches like Google Ads offers) but the platform itself is very crude and doesn’t offer a lot of fine-tuning or insight. Reddit still has a lot of work to do in terms of branding. Many of our advertisers want to be super cautious with their placements, and Reddit etiquette is notoriously low.”

The intrigue. Vaidee replaces Shariq Rizvi, who built Reddit’s ads platform from scratch over the past five years as EVP of Ads Monetization. Rizvi is leaving the company.

What they’re saying. “Jyoti’s two decades of product management and engineering experience make her uniquely poised to lead Reddit’s Ads products as our business continues to scale globally,” said COO Jen Wong when announcing Vaidee’s hiring.

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Vaidee will be responsible for driving the product strategy, execution, and management of the Ads Product organization at Reddit. She will report to Roelof van Zwol, the VP of Ads Product and Engineering.

from Search Engine Land https://searchengineland.com/reddit-appoints-ex-googler-as-first-vp-of-ads-product-440499