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As the old saying goes, you need to spend money to make money, which certainly applies to Google Ads. With pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you only get as much as you put in. 

That said, spending more money doesn’t always translate into better performance. According to the quarterly Next&Co Digital Media Wastage Report released last month, brands waste an average of 37% of their digital ad spend. And while this is certainly damaging for larger companies, it can be catastrophic for smaller businesses. 

Want to stop wasting all that ad spend and see some better ROI? We’ve compiled a beginner’s guide to Google Ads featuring some of the most common mistakes we see from clients to help you get started. 

Make sure you use the right keyword types

When it comes to Google Ads, there are three keyword types:

• Broad match – Your ad appears on searches related to your keywords.
• Phrase match – Your ad shows up on searches that include a specific phrase. This is more specific than broach match but less refined than exact, as it can incorporate words before and after the phrase. 
• Exact match – Your ad only shows up when the user searches for your keywords or the exact search intent.

There are benefits to each: broad keywords will reach the widest audience, including those who may not necessarily be interested in your offerings, while the exact match is much more narrow but produces more qualified leads. The type you choose will depend on the type of business, how competitive your niche is, what your business goals are, and your audience. 

In other words, there is no single right keyword type—if you select the same default setting for all of your campaigns, you’re burning some money somewhere. 

Filter for keywords with zero conversion.

Targeting the wrong keywords is one of the most common mistakes businesses make; 12.5% of paid search budgets are spent on irrelevant search terms or ones that fail to convert. 

Doesn’t it sound that big? Put it this way: if your Google Ad budget is $1000, you’ve just wasted $125 on nothing of value to your business. If your budget is $5000, that’s $625 gone. And so forth. Over time, this can add up. 

This is why it is so important to regularly review your keywords and see whether there are any you may want to prune. 

Negative keywords

If you aren’t using negative keywords by now, you are wasting some good money on clicks that will do nothing for your business. As important as getting the right clicks are, it is just as vital to avoid the wrong ones. 

There are three different types of negative keywords you can use:

• Broad match negative – Exclude any search terms that contain irrelevant words. 
• Phrase match negative – Exclude specific phrases. Words must be in the same order but can have words before and after. 
• Exact match negative – Only exclude the exact irrelevant term.

Use bid modifiers

There are a few ways you can tailor your bids to improve relevancy to users and increase your ROI. Below are three of the most useful.

Device modifiers

You may find that most of your customers are looking up your business while out and about via their mobile phones, meaning it may be more beneficial to focus more of your ad spend on mobile. For example, a business that offers emergency mechanic or tow truck services may want to prioritize mobile devices.

Consider your audience and when, where, and how they are searching for your offerings. This will allow you to allocate your budget better. 

Geotargeting

Google allows you to specify both the location of the user and any locations of interest (e.g., someone searching for ‘best electrician Carlton’). 

If you’re a small local business with a physical store or a narrow service area, there’s no use in targeting ads statewide, nationally, or even internationally. On the other hand, if you ship Australia-wide, targeting across Australia makes sense. 

Scheduling

Say you’re only open on weekdays. You don’t want to waste valuable ad dollars targeting people on weekends. Google allows you to plan your ads to display during dates and times (say, 9 am to 5 pm) so that you can optimize your spending. 

Don’t aim for a 100% Google Ad Optimisation Score.

This may seem counterintuitive—after all, shouldn’t Google know best? But surprisingly, all the suggestions the search engine makes to improve your campaigns may not be suitable for your business. 

As with many things in digital marketing, a human touch can make a difference, critically assessing the strategies Google proposes and testing them to see their effect. 

Experts have found that while your ad optimization score can guide you in the right direction and provide some avenues you may not have considered, aiming for a 100% can cost you more in the long run. A score of around 80% is usually sufficient to see your business thriving. 

Integrate PPC with SEO

While Google Ads can deliver powerful short-term results and drastically boost your growth, they should never be the sole foundation of your digital marketing strategy. 

SEO Adelaide is about bringing in organic traffic (far more sustainable than paid) and creating the best website experience for users. When used in tandem with PPC, it can reduce your ad spend by:

• Helping you identify converting keywords
• Improving the quality score of your campaign
• Optimizing landing pages to convert
• Providing valuable data and insights into what drives your customers to buy

Monitor your campaign

It seems simple, right? Unfortunately, the biggest mistake beginners—and even more experienced PPC users—make is taking their hands off the wheel of their campaign. As we’ve said before, this can lead to wasted spending, but it can also lead to missed opportunities.

Regular audits and fine-tuning of your Google Ad campaigns allow you to see what works well for your business and lean into it. The more data you get, the more you know what your customers respond to and how to incorporate it into your ads. 

PPC shouldn’t be a one-and-done type of deal—it should be a continuous and evolving project that complements your business needs and goals. 

Want a Google Premier Partner to take care of your ads for you? Our team can help you make the most of your budget and ensure you get the best results. Get in touch now for a free consultation!

E-commerce in Australia is taking off: in 2020, 82% of households made an online purchase, with 1.3 million households doing so for the first time. This is only set to continue, with 5 million households buying online each month in 2021. 

If you’re selling any product, you can’t afford to take advantage of eCommerce. 

Unfortunately, with the increase in demand comes the influx of businesses trying to cash in – including your competitors. So how can you ensure that your online store stands out and secures those sales?

While most standard SEO best practices are applicable here, there are some things you’ll want to pay extra attention to when it comes to eCommerce SEO agency. Below, we’ve compiled a list of what you need to consider when devising a winning SEO strategy. 

01. Find keywords for your category and product descriptions

Like other types of SEO, a successful strategy starts with the right keywords. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz can help you identify the average monthly search volume, CTR, and how many people are targeting each keyword. 

You’ll want to focus on high-intent keywords – that is, keywords that will translate into purchases – that are not overly competitive. Longer-tail keywords can be your secret weapon here: although more specific, this means that the user likely already has an idea of what they want and are further along in their purchasing journey.

02. Use HTTPS

This is simple, but you would be surprised how many online vendors haven’t gotten on board. As you might expect from the name, eCommerce sites are all about transactions. This means users will be on guard, protecting their details and payment information. 

Using HTTPS lets users know their information is secure, meaning they’ll be more likely to purchase. It also directly helps to boost your SEO efforts, as search engines like Google use HTTPS as a ranking signal.

HTTPS can be used with most major eCommerce platforms, including Shopify and BigCommerce. 

03. Make mobile your priority

Again, this might seem obvious in 2021, but many businesses, including your competitors, make this easy mistake. And, considering how many online purchases are made via mobile, this is one area you don’t want to neglect. 

Most digital marketing agencies and web developers will take a mobile-first approach, but if you choose to set up an online store yourself, focus on responsive mobile design, navigation – and, most importantly, the checkout. 

04. Simplify your site architecture

If you want your products to be easily searchable, design your pages as logically as possible. 

SEO experts and web designers debate the perfect site architecture. Although the famous ‘3 Clicks Rule’ – that is, that information shouldn’t be more than three clicks away, or else you risk your users abandoning the site – has been disproven, the principle behind it is solid. 

In general, you’ll want a relatively flat architecture starting with your home page, category pages, sub-category pages, and product pages. Of course, this will ultimately depend on your industry and the variety of products you sell. 

Breadcrumbs can be a helpful way to navigate the different levels of your store. Below is an example from eBay, Australia’s most popular eCommerce site:

This allows users to see where they’ve come from – and, more importantly, find their way back if this product isn’t exactly what they’re looking for. 

05. Write unique category and product descriptions

Don’t just copy and paste product descriptions from manufacturers. Your product page is the perfect opportunity to communicate directly with your potential buyer and tell them why they should buy from you.

It’s also an excellent opportunity to tell Google exactly what your category/ product is about and target those valuable long-tail keywords. 

Your content should be short, sweet, and easily scannable – most of your buyers won’t take the time to read it thoroughly. You may want to list key selling features in a bullet list or answer some FAQs. 

06. Avoid keyword cannibalization

Chances are that some of your product pages are similar, offering variations in design, color, or specs. Say you sell shoes, phone accessories, or doormats – some of your products will likely overlap. 

Keyword cannibalization is when more than one page targets the same keyword. This means that your pages are now in direct competition with each other, which often results in both performing poorly than they would otherwise. 

It can help list your product pages and the keywords you are targeting for each in a spreadsheet. This will allow you to quickly identify duplicates and ensure your content is as impactful as possible. You can also use a canonical URL element to tell search engines what pages they should focus on.

07. Take care of any broken links

As your eCommerce site grows, chances are that some of your links won’t work like they should. Not only is this frustrating for visitors, but it can impact your page ranking. 

There are lots of tools out there (Moz, Screaming Frog) that can help you quickly identify any broken links on your website.

08. Publish regularly

While creating content for your blog can be a time-consuming effort, it’s certainly a worthwhile one. Not only does it provide regular updates and position your website as a relevant source of information, but it also gives you a greater chance to rank for various queries your customers may have. Targeting every keyword with a single product page is impossible, but you can do valuable keyword optimization and internal linking with a blog. 

Those still in the research phase will be looking for information to help them decide. Answer their questions and get to them before your competitors; you might just win them over. 

09. Leverage customer reviews

With 91% of people reading reviews before making a purchase decision and 84% trusting these reviews as much as a personal recommendation, you can’t afford to take advantage. 

You can include these directly on your product page, allowing potential customers to gain an insight into the quality. This can improve your conversion rate by 14–76%.

Reviews can also directly help your local SEO efforts, as Google uses reviews (and your responses) to determine your ranking. 

10. Constantly adapt your SEO strategy

With search engines like Google constantly changing their algorithm, you must routinely review and adjust your eCommerce SEO strategy. 

That being said, many of the tactics we’ve listed here are resistant to algorithm changes and will serve you well in the years to come. Above all, ensure you’re producing quality content your buyers want, and you can’t go wrong!

Want to learn more about how to make your online store into a selling powerhouse? Get in touch with our specialist eCommerce team now!

If you’ve dabbled in digital marketing, you surely know how important it is to cultivate a presence on social media. But did you know that how you approach social media can significantly impact the rest of your online efforts?

Unfortunately, many businesses – and even many digital marketing agencies in Australia – still think of SEO and social media as separate entities. If you aren’t taking a more holistic approach to building your brand online, you are missing out on valuable opportunities for your business. 

Today, we will explore precisely how social media marketing impacts your SEO and some strategies you can use to get the most out of your social media and website.  

Does social media increase your SEO ranking?

The short, somewhat misleading answer: social media does not directly affect your web page’s ranking. While there may be some correlations in terms of higher rankings and a higher number of shares/engagement, most experts argue that (at least for now) there is no proof of causation. 

In the past, many believed that social signals (likes, shares, followers, comments, etc.) were considered in SEO. In 2010, Danny Sulivan interviewed Google and Bing, reporting that they used these signals in the rankings. Matt Cutts of Google later confirmed this, only to backtrack a few years later. Flash forward to 2021, and John Mueller, Gary Illyes, and other SEO experts have denounced this pervasive myth. 

Of course, this is only the case for Google; Bing has been very open about social signals being a key factor. And despite Google’s denial, it is generally agreed that social media does indirectly support your SEO efforts by:

• Increasing traffic to your website
• Increasing your chance of gaining valuable backlinks
• Establishing your brand and authority
• Boosting local SEO efforts

How can I optimize my social media marketing?

You can leverage social media to maximize your online presence in several ways. Below are some of the things you should consider to get started. 

Broaden your reach

There are a lot of potential customers out there – all you have to do is reach them. You can present your brand front and center by going to where the users are. And as Aussies spend a third of their online time on social media, this is the perfect place to start. 

Depending on your industry, specific social media platforms may be more useful to you than others. Facebook is always certainly a good bet, considering 64% of Australians are active users, though you may want to consider others based on the demographics of your target audience. For example, Instagram is an excellent place for eCommerce, with 130 million users clicking on shopping posts to learn more. 

Get to know your audience.

Social media provides a unique opportunity to get to know your potential customers: what they like, what they don’t, what they need, and what they respond to. These are some valuable insights you can then incorporate into your website content, allowing you to tailor it to your ideal clientele better.

You can use techniques like UTM tracking or unique shortened URLs to figure out where your traffic is coming from and how well each of your posts is performing.

Improve the lifespan of your content.

You put all this effort into creating a new piece of content – whether a blog, video, infographic, or another form of media – and it isn’t getting the exposure you expected. 

By distributing your content through your social media channels, you’ll be able to extend its lifespan. Not only will you reach a wider audience than if you only posted on your website, but as your content makes the rounds, it is shared by others, who may then share it with their networks (and so on); it’ll last far longer than it would normally. 

Content is spread more easily through social media, even if you don’t have lots of followers. By putting it out there, you’ll be able to reach people who find your offerings useful but would have never heard of you otherwise. 

Social pages rank

Like anything else on the internet, social pages can be indexed. This means they can be searched for and come up in the search results if the engine determines that it meets a user’s requirements. Social pages are a great way to help you dominate branded searches and are more likely to show up on the first page of results. 

Social media platforms can also be considered search engines themselves. With some referring to social media as the new SEO, many users are now bypassing giants like Google and directly searching for businesses and products via their socials. Any SEO strategy in 2021 should also consider optimizing their social media, rather than just focusing on appealing to search engines. 

Take Instagram’s search function, for example. As you can see, searching for specific keywords means the platform will show you the best posts, profiles, and tags that meet your requirements. These will often be tailored to a user’s location, even if they don’t include this in the search. 

By optimizing your page and extending your keyword research to your socials, you’ll be able to engage users actively seeking what you offer. 

At Search Marketing Group®, we offer comprehensive digital marketing services that take into account SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, PPC, and all other facets of an effective online campaign. If you want to see how we can best implement your SEO and social media, get in touch now for a free quote!

New to SEO? Or maybe you need a refresher? Whatever your experience level, it is crucial to have a solid grasp of the basics to create a sound SEO strategy. 

Today, we’re going to briefly explore what SEO is, why you need it to survive online, and what steps you need to take to set yourself up. 

First of all, what is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is about ensuring that search engines can easily find your website – and, by extension, your clients. The ultimate goal of SEO is to get your website to rank on the first page of a search engine so that you can reach potential customers before your competitors. 

There are two significant components of SEO: on-page and off-page. On-page SEO covers everything you can do to improve your website, while off-page SEO refers to any page-ranking factors outside your website (e.g., link building, social media, paid ads). 

That being said, SEO takes a more organic approach to building traffic. Most SEO can be done for free, with the only cost being your time or hiring an expert to refine and manage your strategy. 

Why is SEO so important?

As of writing, there are approximately 200 million active websites, increasing every second. As you can imagine, standing out among the crowd is difficult, even if a user is searching for what you offer. 

It’s a well-established fact that most users don’t go to the second page of results, but even if you find yourself on Page 1, you may not see traffic. According to a recent study, the first organic search result has an average click-through rate of 28.5% compared to the last few results, which are in the single digits. 

You must be in the top few results to be seen by your potential customers.

Consistent clicks

Traffic from search engines is the most stable when compared to digital marketing strategies like email marketing or social media. Additionally, the more clicks you get, the more you rise in the rankings, which in turn increases the clicks you get (and so on). 

Better Conversion

With SEO, users clicking through to your site are already interested in what you offer. This allows you to target people who are more likely to convert. 

Cost-effective 

In the long run, a well-executed SEO services in Perth gives you a better ROI than paid advertising and other digital marketing strategies.

What are search engines looking for?

To decide what pages to show a user, search engines follow a simple process:

01. First, they will send bots known as crawlers to search the Internet and find any content that has been published. This can be websites, images, videos – anything posted online. These results are compiled and placed into an index. 

02. When a user submits a query, the search engine’s algorithms analyze the index, applying hundreds of ranking factors to decide which pages are most relevant. The search engine then displays results from most relevant to least. 

There are a number of things that affect your ranking – too many to name here – including: 

• Relevancy
• Mobile-friendliness
• Site structure and speed

You can find a complete list of Google’s 200 ranking factors here. 

On-page SEO

Keywords

Keywords are the cornerstone of any good SEO strategy. And while it might sound easy, finding the right words to carry your business to success can be difficult. 

To start, you’ll need to come up with a list of words related to your business or industry. Say you’re a plumber. Some of the terms you may come up with include:

• Plumber
• Plumbing
• Blocked drains
• Clogged toilets
• Emergency plumber

Once you’ve come up with a complete list of possible keywords, you can use a keyword research tool to see how much traffic it receives and how difficult it will be to rank. You’ll want to pursue the most relevant keywords for your business. 

It is important to note that while keywords are crucial, you shouldn’t be trying to fill your content with as many as possible, as Google will penalize your website. Above all, you should be trying to create high-quality content that meets the user’s needs. 

Internal linking

Remember the crawlers we mentioned before? To ensure that search engines can easily index your page, you want to ensure that each page on your site is linked logically. 

Not only is internal linking well for the search engine, but it’s suitable for users too. A solid internal linking strategy guides the user through your website and helps them find what they’re looking for. 

URLs

Your domain name should be short and easy to remember – your business name is typically the best choice. Stay away from hyphens where possible and avoid Top-level domain names outside of .com, .org, or .co.au. 

Apart from this, you’ll want to ensure that the URLs are short and descriptive, incorporating your keyword where possible. When URLs are easier to understand, users are more likely to trust and click on them.

Title

The main title in the search results is crucial – after all, it has to convince a user to click on it and visit your site. You’ll want to keep this short (around 60 characters) so that the whole thing is displayed and make sure that it aligns with your customer’s search intent.

You’ll also want to ensure that your main keyword is integrated into your title, if possible, as this will tell both the search engine and the user that your content meets their request. 

Meta descriptions

A website’s meta description appears beneath the title on the results page and gives you space to tell the user what they’ll find if they click through. Think of this like ad copy – you want to create a short description that sells your brand and makes you stand out from the rest of the results on display. Keep this under 155 characters to ensure that your entire message is visible. 

You’ll also want to include descriptive alt text for any images you include. As search engines can’t understand pictures, telling them what the image contains can help it become indexed and show up in Image results. 

Core Web Vitals

Introduced in 2020, Core Web Vitals is a way that Google measures user experience. This includes load time, interactivity, and how stable the content is. 

You can find out more about Core Web Vitals and how to implement them here. 

Off-page SEO

Backlinks

Building links from other websites is crucial. This shows search engines that others see your website as an authority, meaning it is more likely to rank higher. 

You can do this in a few ways: guest blogging, for example, where you write content featured on another website that can link back to yours. You can also take a look at what your competitors are publishing and create content that is better quality, meaning that others may start to link to your page instead. 

Domain authority

Domain authority is a value between 1-100 assigned by a search engine, with those higher on the scale being preferred. 

Your authority is determined by factors such as how long your domain has existed, the number of backlinks you have, and the number of 404 pages. 

Local SEO

With nearly half of all Google searches being for local information, you can take advantage of this as a local business. 

To start, ensure you’re registered for Google My Business (free!) and include your operating times, reviews, and contact information. 

Things to avoid when doing SEO

To wrap up our guide, here are a few beginner’s mistakes you’ll want to avoid:

• Hidden links and text
• Duplicated content on your pages
• Overusing keywords (aka keyword stuffing)
• Buying backlinks
• Broken internal/external links
• Not creating mobile-friendly pages

And there you have it! Hopefully, this was a useful peek into the world of SEO that can give you a solid footing for where you want to go next. 

As you can imagine, it’s impossible to cover everything here, so if you have any questions about SEO or where to start, feel free to reach out!

When it comes to getting your products out there, you want to give your business the best chance. But what’s the best way to capture the attention of customers?

You know that Google is probably the way to go, seeing as it is the most used search engine with over 90% of the market in Australia, not to mention the fact that Aussies are shopping more online now than ever: a recent PWC report found that more than half of Aussie consumers have increased their online shopping habits across a number of product categories. But what type of campaign will get you the most value?

Today, we’re demystifying the difference between Google Shopping Ads and Smart Shopping, helping you decide which is best for your business goals.

What are Google Shopping Ads?

If you’re poking around the digital marketing realm, chances are you already know what standard Google Shopping Ads are. For those who need a little refresher, these visual ads use your Google Merchant Center product data rather than keywords to determine their placement.

Say you’re looking to buy a new set of headphones. Most consumers will research a little product before deciding on one they like. And where else to start but Google?

When customers search for ‘headphones,’ Google will give them a few product images from different eCommerce sites. This includes information like the price, the seller, and reviews. Customers can click on the ‘Shopping’ tab if they want to browse the different offerings.

These ads are far more effective than text ads, as customers searching for your product can look at the image and decide if it matches their requirements. This results in more qualified leads ready to spend, maximizing your return.

Shopping Ad campaigns are manually run and boast a number of features, including:

• Search term reports (what search terms led to the products being shown)
• Product ad groups and tiers
• A number of bidding strategies
• Scheduling
• Location and audience targeting

What is Google Smart Shopping?

Google Smart Shopping was first introduced in 2018 as an alternative to Google Shopping Ads. Google describes Smart Shopping as a “campaign subtype [which] combines standard Shopping and display remarketing campaigns and uses automated bidding and ad placement to promote your products and business across networks.”

In other words? Google automates your Shopping Ad campaign according to a few specifications and attempts to maximize return while working within your budget. All you have to do is nominate the following:

• The products you want to include in your campaign
• The country you wish to target (Australia, etc.)
• The budget and target ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend)

Once you’ve done this, Google will get to work and show your ads to the most relevant users. It does this by utilizing “a wide range of auction-time signals including device, location, time of day, remarketing list, language, and operating system to capture the unique context of every search.”

What’s the difference between Smart Shopping and Shopping Ads?

You might be thinking, ‘Smart Shopping must be better. Surely Google’s algorithm knows how to display my ads best?” And while Smart Shopping is a fantastic solution for many businesses, it is not the end-all you might expect.

We’ve compiled a quick guide to both Shopping Ads and Smart Shopping below so that you can see the benefits and drawbacks for yourself.

Google Shopping Ad

With Shopping Ads, you get complete control over your ads and can tailor your campaign to meet your business goals. However, for beginners and business owners who are managing their ads in-house, it can be tough to manage.

Pros	Cons
Full control over every aspect of your ad campaign	Manual and time-consuming
Full control over location and device targeting	Complicated for beginners
Ability to create tiers (high, medium, low priority, etc.)
Ability to use negative keywords to ensure ads are more relevant
Ability to adjust bids and schedule

Google Smart Shopping

Google Smart Shopping is the most convenient method of implementing ad campaigns. It is beginner-friendly and can provide quick results. However, you will sacrifice the control you get with Google Shopping Ads, which can frustrate some business owners.

Pros	Cons
Quick and easy to set up	No bid adjustments or device targeting
Access to various Google networks (Google Search Network, Display Network, YouTube, Gmail)	Limited location targeting (you can choose a country but can’t narrow it down to a specific region or city)
Automatically uses display remarketing and dynamic products	For best results, historical data is required (Google recommends having more than 100 active users/visitors within the last month
Fewer decisions need to be made throughout your campaign – you can leave it to Google and save time	No search term report, audience report, or product group analytics
Saves time for business owners	No negative keywords

So which is better: Smart Shopping or Shopping Ads?

Both have their uses, and depending on your campaign, either can be helpful. At the end of the day, it comes down to two primary factors: time and control. If you want to run ads but don’t have the time to manage your campaign, Smart Shopping can be a lifesaver. This is great for those newer to digital marketing and small businesses.

On the other hand, if you want to take complete control of your ad campaign, determine your cost per click, and target specific audiences or locations, traditional Shopping Ads are probably more your style. You’ll need the knowledge and experience to manage your campaign – or find someone who does it manually.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be an either-or situation. You might want to incorporate both into your strategy. High-priority or time-sensitive ad campaigns may benefit from a little extra attention. In contrast, automating the process and leveraging Google’s network for other products might be a good idea. You could also start with a manual campaign and later transition to an automated one once you’ve optimized it and worked out all the kinks.

It is important to note that Smart Shopping campaigns will override Shopping Ad campaigns for the same product or product group. Plan and test your campaigns carefully to ensure you aren’t doubling up and wasting your ad spend.

If you want full control of your Google Shopping Ads but don’t have the time or expertise, hiring an expert digital marketer can be a good solution. The team at Search Marketing Group® regularly works with businesses across Australia to maximize their ROAS and achieve their business goals.

Got questions about Shopping Ads or Smart Shopping that aren’t answered here? Make sure to leave a comment below!

So, then which one’s better for your business so you don’t make any costly mistakes?

Like most people, you wake up, unlock your smartphone and check your notifications.

Who doesn’t, right?

We all do it, and we all love our phones. This means we’re in a whole digital world, and if you want to speak to people, this is the most effective way.

But don’t make the mistake and forget about mobile devices.

Why?

Because mobile devices account for nearly 60% of paid-search clicks.

Further to the high usage of mobile devices and the need to optimize for these devices, you need to think about how you will speak or sell to your target market.

Do you use traditional website display ads? Or website banner ads?

Well, did you know, from 2018 to 2019, the total number of devices around the world with ad blockers jumped up from 142 million to over 615 million? This means these display ads on websites are an utter waste of advertisers’ money because they’ll never get seen.

In a world where information is constantly being thrown at us in every direction, we are actively switching off now, more than ever before. Here are the reasons why people were using ad blockers in 2019.

Taken from a Blue Corona Measurable Marketing Solutions PPC statistics study completed in February 2019.

So when it comes to your advertising, you must turn to the two giants in Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to get seen.

• Facebook ads
• Google ads (previously Google AdWords)

These are the giant industry leaders everyone knows, right?

Of course.

And, if you have the resources to focus on using both tools for your business, you’ll reap the benefits by maximizing your audience’s reach.

But, if not, and your business is in its early days or not yet in a position to manage using both platforms efficiently, don’t make the mistake of taking on more than you can afford. Or more than you can understand.

It’s best to start by implementing one at a time.

Taking time allows you the opportunity to understand each platform individually on a better level. Helping to minimize costly mistakes which can arise from confusion. Get your business to focus management of one outlet. Don’t take on too much too soon. Otherwise, you could fail and make a mess of both.

Google and Facebook ads are similar in many ways; they’re both promoted as easy to start with. But there are comprehensive sets of targeted and advanced advertising features.

Each platform has its own set of strengths and weaknesses.

The question is, how do you know which option to go with first?

Well, the answer, like many factors of running a business,  is not a one-size-fits-all.

It would be best if you chose the platform based on what’s ideal for your unique business and the purpose of the campaign.

Fortunately, it’s not hard to find the correct answer once you know a few essential definitions and underlying concepts.

Disclaimer: We know memorizing and learning new technical jargon is not everyone’s strong suit, so we’ve included a dictionary and glossary on pages 15-16 of all the Google Ads and Facebook Ads-related words and abbreviations mentioned in this ebook.

You’re welcome.

You can refer to them as these are words you’ll often encounter once you set up your advertising campaign with either platform.

So, let’s kick this off with a thorough intro into,

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

If you’re new to PPC, your priority should be researching your options.

So by reading this, you’re on the right track.

Good job.

We understand PPC advertising can seem intimidating at first, but it’s a relatively easy concept to grasp after some reading. Like everything worthwhile, it takes significant time and energy to be an expert on any PPC platform.

If you’re already an expert in PPC, but you’re here in the interests of your clients (who want to be advertising everywhere but lack in their knowledge of Facebook or Google ) then share this ebook with them or refer to any of our sections to help bridge the gap of information.

It would help if you let them know why you’re opting for one or the other as their best platform. So handing your clients this short guide or referring to the relevant sections to help them understand is a significant step in the right direction.

So, what is PPC / Pay Per Click Advertising? 

PPC stands for pay-per-click, which is a model of internet marketing. With PPC, businesses pay a fee to the advertiser. In this instance, you’ll pay Facebook or Google each time one of your ads is clicked on.

Think of it this way.

By paying these platforms, you’re getting the help of their power and authority to drive people to your website.

Instead of waiting for visitors to come organically.  Organically is the internet term used for getting a visitor to your website or social media platform without paying for it.

Both platforms are flexible.

You can determine what you’re willing to pay and choose to spend more or less based on your campaign’s results over time.

Why?

Because PPC operates as a bidding process where those who pay more for their site visits will rank higher on search engine paid/sponsored results.

So, some ‘clicks’ end up being more expensive than others.

And, you’ll need to bid higher for more popular search terms in competitive markets as search engines distinguish who should rank higher out of their paid customers.

PPC is the highest percentage of digital ad spend

• Google maintains 37.2% of the digital advertising market
• Facebook maintains 19%

And according to an article released by ABC on the first of May 2019, Australians spent

• $4.3 billion on Google Ads in 2018
• More than half a billion on Facebook Ads in 2018

What Is Search Engine Advertising? Is It The Same As Search Engine Marketing or PPC?

The answer to all questions is yes.

One of the most popular forms of PPC is Search Engine Advertising, as some people may call it. However, it’s usually known as Search Engine Marketing or SEM. By utilizing SEM for your business, you’re essentially paying to increase your site’s visibility with a higher placement of your business’s ad on search engine results based on keywords searched.

You’ll notice on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ecosia that the first few search results display as paid ads, indicated by a small tag that reads ‘ad.’

Here you can see the difference between the paid ad and the organic listing. 

Wait a minute.

Facebook isn’t a search engine. How does it fit into all this?

You’re right, it most certainly isn’t a search engine, but it’s an appropriate option in PPC advertising. Consider the wealth of personal and business profiles, interest groups and pages, and all the information on consumers and markets accessible on Facebook.

It’s no secret.

Facebook is the world’s most popular social media site. So, it’s a powerful advertising platform to use to increase visibility and traffic for your business.

We look at this further in paid social.

Besides one being a search engine and one not, we have many more differences between Facebook Ads and Google Ads to explore.

For a simple breakdown of Facebook and Google’s key differences in advertising, we’ve included the below infographic by AgencyAnalytics. Continue reading below for a more comprehensive comparison of the two and how each will benefit your business.

Ok, So, What’s The Difference Between Facebook Ads and Google Ads?

First things first.

What’s the same?

When you use Google and Facebook, you’ll see ads.

Ads every single time.

And, as said above, they both operate on a pay-per-click basis. This means when you create an ad campaign on either platform, you are essentially paying to increase your business’s visibility by setting a price for each click of your ad.

Now, back to the difference.

The Difference Between Paid Search and Paid Social

Google and Paid Search

Google Ads was known initially as a form of paid search. Paid search is paying to have your business listing featured on a search engine results page (SERP) like Google’s search results page.

When you use paid search, the placement of your ad on a SERP gets based on target keywords instead of targeting a demographic or audience.

Here’s an example of a typical search below,

Wait a minute.

Have you heard people fear paid search and say organic is better?

Don’t worry. We’ve heard this, too but have a look at these stats.

From 2016 to 2017, only 7% of people in the USA viewed pay-per-click ads as bad. Which means they associate them with negativity.

However,

From 2017 to 2018, only 1% of people in the USA viewed Google Ads as unfavorable.

The population is over 350 million in the USA, meaning many people will click on a Google Ad.

Winning.

In 2018, internet traffic driven through pay-per-click advertisements brought around 50% more lead conversions than organic web traffic.

Mind-blowing.

The Range of Google Ads Tools

Today, Google Ads offers a lot more than just paid search, and the name change reflected this broad range of advertising tools beyond paid search and keywords.

You can use Google Ads to create advertising campaigns around:

• Google Search – We’re focusing on this feature when we talk about Google Ads.
• Youtube
• Google Display Network
• Google Adsense
• Google Maps
• Google Play Advertising

Here’s an idea of what a Google advertising campaign may look like. Image sourced from WordStream.com.

Now you understand a bit about paid search and Google’s advertising tools, let’s compare it with what kind of advertising Facebook offers as a social media platform.

Facebook and Paid Social 

With Facebook Ads, you’re using paid social advertising. Similar to paid search, paid social allows you to get your business’s ad to surface and rank more favorably amongst all the noise on a Facebook News Feed.

Here’s an example of what Facebook Ads look like an image from WordStream.com.

Given the vast numbers of businesses, advertisers, and creators already on Facebook and all the recent updates on the platform’s algorithms, it has become more difficult for brands to reach their customers or followers and gain new leads organically.

With paid social, using Facebook Ads, you can pay to get your business in front of potential customers via Facebook instead of trying to target them organically.

The Range of Facebook Ads Tools 

Also, again, as Google Ads has expanded to include several advertising tools and platforms in its range, so does Facebook. Choosing Facebook Ads allows you to advertise on:

• Facebook News Feed
• Instagram Ads
• Audience Network
• Facebook Messenger

Now you have an understanding of the difference and range of tools available with each option,

Let’s Compare.

Google Ads VS Facebook Ads – What’s Better in 2019?

01. Audience Size and Reach

Seriously, do you know anybody who isn’t familiar with Google or Facebook?

They’re two of the world’s most talked about, most famous tech giants for a reason.

Their expansive reach.

Chances are, your target audience spreads across both platforms.

Think about this.

• Daily, Google handles more than 3.5 billion searches.
• Facebook has an estimated 1.45 billion daily active users and over 2.2 billion users.

IMPORTANT: Don’t overlook mobile engagement when considering your audience. People are reliant on their phones and pay more attention to small screens. As consumer habits in 2018 showed us.

Facebook mobile advertising revenue comprised approximately 91% of total advertising revenue for the first quarter of 2018.

Although both platforms have unprecedented numbers in their reach, the type of attention they reach in their audiences is strikingly different. To determine which platform should be your priority based on your audience’s needs, consider the ads your audience is currently using and the following.

Is my audience community-based and reliant on my business’s recommendations, information, or engagement to get sales?

Yes: Facebook ads

No: Google Ads

Is my product, or are my sales search-oriented? 

Yes: Google Ads

No: Facebook Ads

Is my product new and has not garnered a following or search demand yet?

Yes: Facebook

No: Google

If you resonate more with the community-based and new product questions or feel your point of sale is not overly dependent on your product or service search, then Google Ads probably shouldn’t be your priority. Even with their billions of searches carried out daily, they will not benefit your company so much if your product is not known or commonly searched for.

02. Buying Intent

You’ll come across words like ‘commercial intent,’ ‘buying intent,’ or even’ commercial intent keywords. These all refer to the same concept – indicators of the consumer’s intent to purchase a product or service.

There are three types of keywords and how searches intend to purchase or search for a product or service. They’re described below in this chart taken from Freelancers Hub.

A typical example of keywords with a high commercial intent includes ‘buy now’ or ‘order now’ related terms. In most cases, somebody wouldn’t enter these kinds of words into a search engine if they had no intent to purchase a product.

It’s important to note that although it can be important for sales leads, focusing on buying intent for paid search may not be the best way to generate leads for all business types.

Consider your business niche and your customers.

Do people tend to search for the products or services you offer when they’re ready to purchase or near the point of sale?

Yes: Google Ads May Be Your Real Deal

For example, if someone needs hygiene or safety-related services like pest control for their home or business, they won’t want to delay finding a company that provides the service. Search ads on Google would place your pest control business in front of potential customers when they need your assistance.

Customers probably won’t remember the business featured in a pest control advertisement that popped up on their Facebook Feed a year prior when they had no pest problem (unless it was the best ad ever). So if you focus on converting leads at the point of sale or search, Google Ads is your winner.

In this process, Google Maps and Google Reviews can also enhance your credibility to one-up your business from your competitors and get you more leads.

No: You Value Following Over Urgency? Facebook May Be For You

Facebook ads are not as effective for converting leads quickly and efficiently. As a social media platform, the main aim of users is to socialize or entertain themselves during their free time rather than facilitating active shopping and getting things done immediately.

What Facebook is valid for is building your audience and a following. If you can create brand recognition and a sense of community on social media, your followers will be more likely to buy when they need your service or product.

This can also mean increased potential for new leads based on the reviews and customers who talk about and tag your product/service or page on Facebook.

So, if your campaign objective is to build a brand image rather than immediate conversions, Facebook will be the best choice for you.

03. Targeting Options

Google Ads and Facebook Ads both offer you numerous options for targeting specific audiences. On both platforms, you can target by demographics such as:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Income level

Are you after advanced targeting options?

If so, Facebook is your unmatched clear winner here.

Facebook Ads offers audience targeting based on the above, but its significant advantage is its access to diverse data. Just think of all the information on demographic interests and behaviors collected from their database of 2.27 billion users.

A Facebook group, page, hashtag, or post is related to practically every topic. These are invaluable to businesses that address issues and interests in a niche area.

For example. Are you targeting teenage musicians who live on Australia’s East Coast, are on a low income, and studying at university? Or are you targeting vegan parents in lucrative jobs residing in Eastern Europe?

Facebook has access to all these interest groups – and this information isn’t even particularly technical for their standards. You can target specific audiences and interests deeper and more precisely than we’ve ever been able to before.

The intelligent platform also offers a helpful tool called Lookalike Audiences, which and Custom Audience allows you to advertise to people similar to your existing audience. Facebook uses your audience’s current data to match you to the same followers and customers, potentially creating new audiences.

Without a doubt, it’s the preferred solution for advertising to a specific or niche audience.

04. Ad Formats

Let’s talk about the visible formats of the ads on Facebook and Google. Both allow you to create custom ad content based on what you are advertising.

You’ve got more creativity on Facebook Ads, for sure. This makes it a much better platform for building brand awareness and loyalty.

With Google Ads, although they’ve introduced a few advances recently, you are a bit limited in your ad format. Mainly, all you’ll have is a short block of text to catch potential customers’ eyes on the SERPs (search engine results page). You can use ad extensions for extra text and information, but your format will be limited to text and specific word and character counts.

A more recent feature, Google Display Network, allows you to use imagery within SERPs and get your products in front of your customers earlier in the buying cycle.

Here’s an example of Google Shopping Ads. Searchers are able to view such things as selections, reviews, and prices before clicking through to a website. The image is taken from WordStream.com.

Similarly, their affiliation with Youtube allows the thumbnails and titles of the video content displayed on Youtube to appear in SERPs. It’s worthwhile exploring Google Maps, Google My Business, and Reviews for customizing how your business will appear in search results for a more significant impact. Ultimately, expanding your reach through Google Ads is based on looking in a search.

On the other hand, Facebook Ads allows you a more customizable approach to your message by using image-based ads on users’ news feeds.  The platform rolls out varying ad formats over time and throughout the lifespan of your campaigns to avoid “ad fatigue.”

With Facebook, you can capture the attention of your audience with ad formats by including content like:

• Videos
• Images
• Carousel ads

More

If your business is more eCommerce-oriented, the visual component of Facebook Ads should be a huge consideration when deciding your first choice of platform.

05. The Costs

The final point to consider is the price point.

A cost analysis of the two heavily depends on your business’s specific preferences. Merely asking, ‘Which is cheaper, Facebook Ads or Google Ads’ will not give you a clear-cut answer. There are several ways to calculate which platform is “cheaper” for you.

The two main ways you can look at it are,

Which is cheaper based on the price of the actual ad and pay-per-click?

Which will give me a more significant return on investment (ROI)?

In most cases, you’ll find Facebook Ads to be considerably cheaper to use than Google Ads. The silver lining is more likely to be less effective when considering direct sales or acquisitions.

Regarding PPC, Facebook and Google offer rates as low as 1 cent. However, the chances of cheap-as-chips ads and bidding low prices being beneficial for you are rather slim. Especially if you’re in a high-demand industry where all your competitors are using Google Ads,

So, the more you invest in PPC, the better your chances are of ranking higher and getting better results.

So the riddle-like answer here is Facebook Ads are usually cheaper in terms of PPC, but with Google Ads, paying more is more likely to pay off in sales.

It would help if you kept in mind how many exceptions will impact your ROI results significantly.

Suppose you’re in a specific niche industry. In that case, your PPC rates on Google Ads, even if you pay more, will likely be less competitive – but no match for the capacity you’ll have on Facebook to reach your market and get sales conversions.

Conclusion

This brings us back to the drawing board of why it’s essential that you understand your overall business objective and Google Ads and Facebook Ads’ functional differences. So, you’re able to choose between the two.

If one option hasn’t jumped out at you as preferable to the other to your business, review points 1-5 above and ask yourself all the questions mentioned.

You can create a cost-effective campaign on either platform with the proper guidance and strategy. Just be sure you track your results and ROI, so you can back up your decision or try out the alternative if you’re unsatisfied.

For further clarification on any of the above concepts, ask our team of experts at Search Marketing Group® because we specialize in,

• Search Engine Optimisation
• Google Ads
• Facebook Ads Management

Glossary 

Ad fatigue: Refers to a decline in the performance of an advertisement after an audience has repeatedly viewed the same ad for an extended period.

Audience Network: (a feature of Facebook Ads) Allows advertisers to extend their campaigns beyond Facebook and into other mobile sharing apps.

Adwords: (now known as Google Ads), also called ‘Google Adwords’, does Google develop the online advertising platform.

Carousel ads: An online advertisement showing multiple images and a call to action link.

Commercial intent: also known as ‘buying intent’ or even’ commercial intent keywords. These all refer to the same concept – indicators of consumer intent to buy a product or service.

CPC: Cost Per Click advertising (also known as PPC) internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher when the ad gets clicked on.

Facebook Ads:  (Facebook Advertising) Refers to all types of advertisements on Facebook and

Facebook News Feed: The feature on Facebook where users view all posted content and advertisements.

Google Ads: (Formerly ‘Google Adwords’, or ‘Adwords’) is the online advertising platform developed by Google.

Google Adsense: A feature of Google Ads that allows you to monetize your website or Youtube channel using it for ad placement.

Google Display Network: Comprises of the Search Network and the Display Network. When advertising on the Search Network, businesses place text ads in the search engine results, whereas, On the Display Network, companies place display ads on an extensive network of sites across the internet.

Google Maps: A web mapping service developed by Google. It offers satellite imagery, street maps, 360° panoramic views of streets, real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle, or public transportation.

Google My Business: A free Google feature that allows you to create a business profile to place in Google Maps and Google Search.

Google Play: Google’s official pre-installed app store on Android devices. It provides access to free and purchasable content, including apps, books, magazines, music, movies, and television programs.

Google Search: (also referred to as Google Web Search or only Google) is the web search engine.

Instagram: A photo and video-sharing social networking site owned by Facebook.

Keywords: The words or phrases within your online content that make your website visible in search engines.

Paid advertising: Any advertising that involves the marketer paying for ad space in exchange for the use of the space.

Paid search: (a form of paid advertising) Sponsored or PPC ads on search engines such as Google, Bing, Firefox, Yahoo

Paid social: (a form of paid advertising) Sponsored or PPC ads on social networks / social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

PPC: (Pay Per Click advertising) is an internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites. Each time the ad is clicked on is when the advertiser pays.

SEM: (Search Engine Marketing) The form of internet advertising that involves the promotion of businesses by increasing their visibility in search engine results – mainly via paid advertising.

SERPs: (Search Engine Results Page) The page of results that appears when using a search engine.

If you’re like most business owners, then COVID-19 has forced your business into change. And it’s not just businesses affected; it’s a change in our economic, personal, and societal ways.

The speed of this change hasn’t been seen since war, and most businesses and companies are facing a shift and uncertainty about what the future will look like.

But one thing for sure is the future is looking digital. This means you need a digital recovery plan or your business moving forward.

Since the day to day has changed in your business, use this time to look for opportunity, change and progression.

The time to plan for recovery is now and not when it’s time to recover. 

The future is digital, so here are 4 ways to plan the digital recovery of your business.

01. Ensure you’re nurturing customers and potential prospects.

In these current times, it’s all about communication. So ensure to keep engaged with your clients,
customers and prospects so you can pave the way back to a more successful return to business as we know it.

Believe it or not, how we consume media, social media and the internet is dramatically changing. With more people at home, media consumption is increasing, and the times of use are changing as well. With more people online communicating with work colleagues, friends and family, it’s an opportunity to keep the connection up with your current clients and customers too.

Nurture your current clients and customers but ensure to continue overall target audience nurturing as well. When we’re on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, you don’t want to start from the beginning with your digital marketing strategy. You want to ensure that your online strength and presence is steady and continuous throughout this time.

There are various channels to do this on. There are paid and organic channels to maintain a dialogue through social media.

People turn to social media for entertainment, engagement, conversation, news and socialising. Which means social is an excellent organic way to engage, communicate and update your target audience. Ensure the content you’re delivering is compelling, and it’s best to keep content lighthearted, informative and uplifting during current times as people are looking for support.

But start to think outside the box because many businesses are turning to social media to maintain a connection. So think of ideas like useful tips, competitions or surveys to ensure you’re standing out from your competitors and keeping top of mind.

02. Review your website

There’s no time better than the present to get your website looking and functioning the best it can.

Website usability is critical to its success. So ensure the navigation is convenient and easy to use, and the transactional path is direct because people are now used to things being a click away. Which means if your website isn’t user friendly, then visitors will leave it quickly, and this bounce rate will negatively impact your SEO.

It’s time to go mobile-friendly

More than 50% of website traffic in many fields comes from mobile devices and not desktop computers. Which means your website must be mobile-friendly, load fast and be user-pleasant for smartphone and tablet devices. Ensure your website loads clearly, and it’s simple to navigate when loaded on various sized mobile screens.

Develop content which will increase your website’s traffic

Think about your target audience and what information would currently benefit them. Generating dependable, engaging and informative content like blogs, articles, and even eBooks can drive more traffic to your website building your online authority, presence and keeping your front of mind.

3. Improve Your Site’s SEO

Once your website has enhanced usability, and it’s mobile-friendly, then it’s time to ensure your website gets found.

Begin with conducting an audit of your site.

Believe it or not, even small technical errors on your website can prevent it from getting indexed easily by Google and other search engines. But an audit can spot website errors fast, so your SEO isn’t affected.

You want to ensure your website traffic get boosted and you’re creating the best user experience on your site that you can.

The purpose of SEO is when potential customers search for something related to your business that the keywords they type into a search bar places your website in a first-page position.

Given the current circumstances, businesses may be focusing more on survival but maintaining and working towards excellent SEO will help your business for a digital recovery faster.

Because excellent SEO allows you to be ready, get in front and get found once things recover.

The best news is that SEO can get worked on from anywhere and you don’t need to be in the office. All you need is a computer and highly skilled SEO experts looking after your strategy.

Even if your business has gone into a pause, for now, solid SEO will help your recovery and rebuild.

04. Develop a paid digital marketing plan for relaunching when the business and economic landscape improves.

It may seem illogical to develop a paid strategy in the middle of an economic downturn; however, delaying forming a plan may leave you at a competitive disadvantage and a struggle to get it together last minute.

It’s time to plan and think about Google Ads because launching a competitive and thorough strategic strategy will help supercharge your robust SEO Sydney.

If you have current ads, start to monitor their best-performing times of them; go to the overview of your Google Ads dashboard and look at the day and time you’re getting the most conversions. These statistics will help you aim for the best time to target your traffic.

If you don’t have ads running currently, then a decisive step is to monitor your best-performing keywords on your website so you can leverage those.

With this sort of preparation, you’ll be ready to go once it’s time to return your pay-per-click advertising or begin it. So you can get digitally back on track fast and ahead of your competitors.

And finally, don’t forget about a Facebook Ads strategy as well.

Facebook is a powerful way to drive traffic straight to your website. It’s a significant step as part of your digital recovery plan to get traffic there.

You can begin by organizing and updating your Facebook business page to make it easier for people to get through to your website and checking all relevant information is available.

Furthermore, the engaging content and blogs you’ve added to your website, get these shared on your Facebook page to drive engagement too. And don’t forget to make the content juicy and sharable so it gets in front of more eyeballs.

Facebook has many options for targeting ads and getting more reach among current customers as well as look-a-like audiences who are interested in what you’re selling and targeting ads to people who like your competitors.

With keeping active on the platform, you’ll be ready to start a Facebook Ads campaign which will drive traffic to your website and entice your ideal customers.

So, finally, we know the storm will pass.

This means it’s time to see this as an opportunity for your business’s digital marketing recovery. Hence, you’re ready and ahead of the competition when things return to how we remember them.

Have you started your digital recovery plan? 

Let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear about it.

And don’t forget to share this post if you think it will help others.

Need help planning your digital recovery? 

Whether it’s improving your website, SEO, Google Ads, or Facebook ads, contact our team at Search Marketing Group® as we’re continuing to help businesses ride out the storm and prepare for their recovery.

Today, it’s a lot easier to create an eCommerce website. If you take advantage of a ready eCommerce platform, you’ll be able to save your costs and get a website developed quickly. Nowadays, you can build your eCommerce website on a variety of platforms including BigCommerce, Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, and others.

However, it’s not enough to create an eCommerce website to start selling products online. Obviously, you need to do more. You have to attract the target audience to your eCommerce website. And of course, search engine optimization has to be a key part of your online promotion strategy.

Once your eCommerce website is ready, you need to advertise it in search engines such as Google, Bing, and others. In other words, you should aim to get your eCommerce website on top of the search engines for target keywords. Now, we’ll describe the steps you have to take to do SEO for an e-commerce site in the best possible way.

SEO Competitor Analysis for Ecommerce Sites

Image source: https://www.cloudways.com/blog/ecommerce-seo/

When doing an SEO competitor analysis for eCommerce sites you should try to get as much information about your competitors’ SEO strategies as possible. What keywords do your competitors try to rank for? How do your competitors do on-page optimization for their websites? Where do your competitors get backlinks for their sites? It’s crucial for you to get the answers to all of these questions.

Ecommerce SEO Audit

An E-commerce SEO audit is about identifying and fixing different types of SEO errors on a website.

When doing an SEO audit for an eCommerce site you should look for pages with duplicate content, slow-loading pages, broken links, web pages without meta titles and meta descriptions, and other types of SEO errors. Plus, you should aim to check a website for usability issues. Make sure that site’s pages look great in all major browsers and on all types of mobile devices.

All of these SEO issues will have a negative impact on your site’s rankings. And of course, they have to be fixed as soon as possible.

Keyword Research for E-commerce Sites

Image source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/seo-for-ecommerce-websites/

While doing keyword research for an e-commerce site, you should aim to find the best key phrases for the homepage and internal web pages (category pages and product pages).

The keyword list for an eCommerce site has to contain general keywords, long-tail keywords, local keywords, brand keywords as well as product-based keywords.

When analyzing keywords for an e-commerce site, you should pay close attention to such factors as the relevancy of keywords, search traffic of keywords, and competition of keywords. Clearly, you should aim to pick the best keywords in terms of search traffic and competition.

Make sure that the keywords that you are going to target will drive targeted traffic to your e-commerce site. On the other hand, you may find it difficult to optimize site’s web pages for keywords of high competition.

On-page Optimisation of E-commerce Sites

When the list of keywords is ready, now it’s time to get started with on-page optimization.

First, you need to spread the keywords among the eCommerce site’s pages. It would be better to optimize the homepage for keywords that can drive high amounts of search traffic to your site. Product pages have to be optimized for product-based keywords. Plus, you can create new pages on a website and optimize its content on local keywords and long-tail keywords.

Content on your e-commerce website has to be structured properly. It’s a great idea to provide links to top-rated products, recently viewed products, popular products in a particular category, and related products on the site’s homepage.

Internal linking plays an important role in an e-commerce site’s SEO. Make sure that all of the internal links on your eCommerce site look natural. Visitors should make no more than 2 clicks to get to any of the internal pages within your e-commerce website from the homepage.

Texts on eCommerce site’s pages have to be optimized for target keywords in the right way. Keywords should be included in the page’s title, description, headers, sub-headers, image file names, image alt tags, and URLs. Target keywords always have to be inserted into the site’s content naturally. Keyword stuffing should be avoided at any cost.

Adding a Blog to an Ecommerce Website

The reality is, each of the site’s pages can be optimized for several keywords. If you would like to rank high for many keywords, you may need to create additional pages on your eCommerce site.

It makes a lot of sense to add a blog to an eCommerce website. After that, you need to update it with fresh content and optimize each of the site’s blog posts for the keywords that you target.

The site’s blog can be used for link-building as well. If you provide valuable content on your e-commerce website’s blog, other sites may decide to republish your article and give you a link back. As a result, you’ll get lots of backlinks from relevant online resources.

Ecommerce Link Building

Image source: https://longtailpro.com/ecommerce-link-building/

It’s incredibly important to attract high-quality links to an eCommerce site. You should try to earn links from relevant sites of high authority. Plus, you should aim to get backlinks in a natural way.

It’s worth noting that high-quality links will generate targeted traffic to your site and positively affect your search engine rankings.

On the other hand, links from low-quality resources negatively affect a site’s SEO and often result in Google’s penalties. That’s why links from low-authority sites should be avoided.

Ecommerce Conversion Optimisation

In the last stage, you have to optimize your eCommerce site’s pages for better conversion and try to increase your sales.

Use PPC advertising to test keywords before getting started with search engine optimization. Clearly, you should optimize your eCommerce site for high-converting keywords.

Pay close attention to customer reviews. Clearly, you should try to get positive feedback and build a solid reputation for your business on Google.

Make experiments with Meta titles and Meta descriptions. Sooner or later, you’ll be able to pick the titles and descriptions that convert well.

Take advantage of the A/B test to increase your eCommerce site’s conversion and boost your sales.

Final Thoughts

If done right, search engine optimization can increase traffic to your e-commerce website significantly and boost your business success. Use the power of SEO to increase sales and take your business to the next level!

Contact us today to get cost-effective SEO solutions for any of your e-commerce business needs

Visit us for more details: https://www.searchmarketinggroup.com.au/