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Starting in June 2022, you’ll no longer be able to create or edit your expanded text ads on Google. Instead, Google is now prioritizing responsive search ads. 

As responsive ads have been Google’s default since last February, you may have already dabbled with them. But today, we’re going to do a deep dive into everything you need to know about the world of responsive search ads: 

• What they are
• Why they’re great for your business
• How can you create a perfect one

What are responsive search ads?

Currently, there are two types of search ads you can use: responsive and expanded. 

The more traditional expanded text ads are static – you create up to 3 headlines and 2 descriptions, and the ad will be shown to the user exactly as written.   

On the other hand, responsive ads are a more flexible format that allows you to adapt to users and show them the most relevant ad. Although the format is the same as expanded text ads – a user will see up to 3 headlines and 2 descriptions – you can create up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, which can be shown. This means there are 43,680 possible permutations. 

You can use expanded text ads until June 2022, and any that you have running will still be shown to users afterward. However, you cannot create expanded text ads or edit existing ones. 

Benefits of responsive search ads

There’s a reason so many people love responsive ads and that Google has chosen to double down on them going forward. 

Below are some of the best benefits of using responsive search ads for your business. 

• Your ads can adapt to the width of a user’s device, meaning your message won’t be lost for mobile users. With almost 80% of Australians using their mobile phones for product research, you can give your brand the best chance at convincing your prospect. 
• Google uses an algorithm to determine which of your headlines and descriptions are the most likely to meet a user’s needs. This means you’ll be able to better target your audience without creating lots of ads. 
• You’ll get a better ROI for your ad spend – according to Google, businesses may see 5–15% higher CTR compared to standard search ads.

How to create a responsive search ad that converts

Want to create a tremendous responsive search ad for your business? Here’s how to get started.

1. Create a new responsive search ad

You can do this by clicking Ads & Extensions, the plus button, and selecting Responsive search ad. 

2. Decide on your ​​final URL and display path text

This will be the URL of your landing page. Display path text shows the user where they will land in terms of the structure of your website, as shown by this example from Google:

At this point, you should see a preview of your ad, but keep in mind that the combinations of headlines and descriptions you’ll add will be just a few of the possibilities users may see. 

3. Create your headlines

This is the most essential part of your ad – the first thing users will see. 

Each headline can have up to 30 characters. With responsive ads, you can create up to 15 headlines, but only the three most relevant will be displayed. 

If there’s a specific headline you always want a user to see – say, the one that includes your business name – you can pin it in a specific position. However, this will limit your number of ad combinations. 

Some other things to remember:

• You’ll want to include your keywords in at least 2 of your headlines, but don’t overstuff.
• Aim to have at least 3 headlines without keywords highlighting your business’ value proposition. 
• Avoid the same call to action or language in each headline – otherwise, things will get repetitive. 
• Try different angles and offers – this is a great chance to test your audience’s response. 

4. Create your descriptions

Each description can have up to 90 characters. You can create four descriptions for your ads, though only two will be displayed. Again, you can pin descriptions that you want the user to always see – a disclaimer, for example.

Remember:

• Ensure your descriptions include a call to action – what you want the user to do next.  
• You don’t have to fill up the 90 characters. It can be helpful to experiment with different description lengths. 
• Each description should make sense in isolation. You don’t know which order it will appear in. 

Important considerations when creating your responsive ad

Use the right keywords

Like everything else in the digital marketing sphere, a good, responsive ad relies on the keywords you use. No matter how good your copy is, it won’t work if you’re not targeting the right searchers. 

Start with a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner and find out which keywords you want to target based on volume, competition, and cost-per-click (CPC). 

You can also use Dynamic Keyword Insertion, which allows you to insert a keyword that matches a user’s search terms. 

Nail your landing page.

Don’t just send all your traffic to your home page. By designing a landing page that reflects your ad’s language, offer, and call to action, you match your audience’s expectations and have a greater chance of keeping them around long enough to convert. 

Increase your ad strength.

As you create your ad, you’ll see your Ad Strength and some recommendations. Keep these in mind and try to improve accordingly.

More is better

Google gives you the option to test 15 different headlines and 4 different descriptions – use it! By having more options, Google will be able to create more variations that will appeal to users. 

Iterate

Responsive text ads are an excellent opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t. Review your ads regularly and see which headlines and descriptions are resonating with your audience. 

Need some help with your responsive search ads? Talk to our Google Ads specialists today and find out how you can create a winning campaign. As a Google Premier Partner, we can create ads tailored to the platform in accordance with all guidelines and best practices.

Not all SEO is equal. 

When shopping for an SEO company or evaluating the performance of your existing one, it is essential to know what good SEO and bad SEO – or black hat SEO – looks like. But how can you tell the difference?

Today, we will explore what black hat SEO is, the damage it can do to your business, and how you can ensure that your SEO falls on the right side of Google’s guidelines.

What is black hat SEO?

Black hat SEO is the name given to a range of SEO practices that go against search engine guidelines. Businesses that use these strategies seek to ‘game’ the system and boost their rankings rather than creating quality content that organically appeals to users and lifts their ranking. 

Black hat vs. white hat SEO

The terms ‘black hat’ and ‘white hat’ date back to the age of Westerns, when actors would wear different colored hats to signify their role in the story: black hats for the villains and white hats for the heroes.

Translating this to the digital marketing sphere, white hat SEO is all about improving your site in accordance with search engines’ rules and guidelines. This includes improving your page speed and navigation, making your site mobile-friendly, and creating relevant, high-quality content. With white hat SEO, results may be slower, but you will see steady improvements as time goes on and gain better long-term ROI. 

On the other hand, Black hat SEO delivers fast results with significant risk. Search engines like Google treat any violations of their guidelines very seriously and will punish them accordingly. Some of the consequences of penalties include:

• Losing your ranking for a specific keyword
• Losing your ranking for a particular URL
• Losing your ranking for numerous keywords and/or URLs across your entire site
• Having your domain removed completely from the Google index

Black hat techniques

There are still quite a few black hat SEO tactics used by SEO companies in 2021. Below are some of the most common ones you’ll want to keep an eye out for. 

Keyword stuffing

While making sure you include the right keywords in your content is crucial, there can be too much of a good thing. Keyword stuffing can include things like:

• Lists of phone numbers that don’t add any value
• Lists of cities/states/suburbs you’re trying to rank for
• Frequent repetition of the exact words/phrases makes content sound unnatural

Not only does keyword stuffing make a page harder to read for users, but it can actually decrease your ranking on the results page. According to Google: 

Filling pages with keywords or numbers results in a negative user experience and can harm your site’s ranking. Focus on creating valuable, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.

Hidden Content

By making content the same color as the background, some black hat practitioners try to cram as many keywords onto a site as possible. While a user may not be able to tell, search engines know the difference between content in paragraphs and content hidden from sight. 

Not all hidden content is terrible – for example, the mobile version of a site may hide certain elements that appear on the desktop version. In general, content that is visible to both users and search engines is okay. 

Paid links

Backlinks are essential for SEO, driving traffic to your site and telling Google that others see you as an authority. However, in order to be effective, links must be earned. Some people try to skip over this essential step and buy backlinks to boost their credibility. 

Not only are paid links risky – Google tracks these links and issues penalties for specific pages or even your whole site – but they don’t even work. 

Links don’t necessarily have to be purchased with money. Google will also penalize businesses that offer free products or discounts in exchange for links. 

Cloaking 

Cloaking is when a website shows one piece of content to search engines and another to users to rank highly for irrelevant keywords. 

For more information about cloaking, see Matt Cutt’s explanation below:

Duplicate content

While it may be easier to create one well-written piece of content and use this across your site or copy content from a competitor, search engines can recognize duplicate content and will sink your ranking accordingly. 

Search engines like Google only want to display unique, relevant, and high-quality content to users to answer their queries. Create pages that meet users’ needs, and you’ll get a far better response. 

Article spinning

Alternatively, rather than using duplicate content, some black hat SEO practitioners may engage in article spinning. This involves using software to take a piece of content and rephrase it, turning it into a ‘new’ and ‘unique’ piece. 

While this can save time and is harder to detect as plagiarism, the result is often difficult to read and unappealing to users.

Doorway/gateway pages

Doorway or gateway pages are crafted to rank highly in the search results for a particular query and redirect users to a different, completely unrelated page. Google lists several examples, including:

• Multiple domain names/pages that are targeted to specific regions/cities and funnel users to a single page
• Pages that funnel users to the usable/relevant part of your site
• Substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy

Misused structured data

Structured data (rich snippets and schema) changes your site’s display on the results page, often leading to a better click-through rate. 

Using fake or misleading content in your structured data to get ahead is frowned upon by Google, which says that any attempts to manipulate rich snippets can result in a lower ranking and manual penalties. 

When in doubt, make sure you follow the Google webmaster quality guidelines.

Negative SEO

Rather than building you up, some black hat practitioners will try to tear your competition down. Some of the most common negative SEO tactics include:

• Spammy backlink building
• Content scraping
• Fake link removal requests
• Fake negative reviews
• Hacking and other cyber attacks

How to avoid black hat SEO

Not sure if your SEO company is engaging in black hat tactics? Here are a few red flags you’ll want to be on the lookout for:

• Outlandish promises. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 
• No testimonials or case studies. Be on the lookout for tangible proof that an SEO company in Perth can deliver and see what tactics they use to get there. 
• Unusual spikes in backlinks. You can use Google Search Console’s Link Report to see where your links are coming from.
• Poor quality content or duplicate content. If the content for your site is poorly written, too keyword-dense, or duplicated for many pages, this will lower your ranking. 
• A drop-off in traffic. You may have seen great results in the first few weeks or months, but your organic traffic has plummeted. Good-quality SEO works the opposite way – though it may take some time to get started, you’ll see tremendous long-term growth. 
• Penalties. You can check Google Search Console and click the manual actions link to see whether you have any manual actions against your site. 

We take a data-driven approach to all our SEO Sydney, getting you fast results without resorting to cheap or unethical tactics. Book a free 30-minute consultation now to find out how.

We spend a lot of time on this blog talking about search engine optimization. But while it is vital to make your site seen, it is even more essential to ensure that once users get to your page, they do what you want them to do. This is where conversion rate optimization comes in. 

Rather than spending time and money trying to bring in more visitors, conversion rate optimization is about making the most of your existing users. There are always ways you can tweak your site to yield more sales – it’s a selective process but one that is certainly worth doing. 

Are you ready to score more sales for your business without spending more on advertising? Read on to find out how you can start improving your conversion rate. 

What is conversion rate optimization?

Conversion rate optimization refers to a business’s efforts to improve the percentage of users who perform a specific action on their site. Companies can have a variety of conversion goals, including:

• Buying a product 
• Booking a service
• Signing up for an email list
• Downloading something from your site (an ebook, checklist, or other resources)
• Calling your business
• Submitting an inquiry (generating a lead)

These are split into two types of conversion: macro and micro. Macro-conversion is the main aim of your site (usually a purchase or booking). At the same time, micro-conversions are all the smaller conversions (e.g., signing up for your email list or downloading a resource) that can eventually lead to that macro-conversion. 

How can I calculate my conversion rate?

There are a few ways you can calculate your conversion rate:

Total number of conversions  / Total number of sessions x 100

Total number of conversions / Total number of unique visitors x 100

Total number of conversions / Total number of leads x 100

The formula you use will depend on which conversion goal you are trying to measure. You can also use a conversion calculator – there are several available online. 

What is considered a ‘good’ conversion rate will depend on your industry. Below are some of the most recent stats from Unbounce’s 2021 Conversion Benchmark Report. 

In order to properly track your conversion rate and various micro-conversions, you should ensure that you have Goals set up in Google Analytics. 

How can I improve my conversion rate?

Focus on user experience.

Above all else, user experience is the key to better conversion. You want to make it as simple as possible for the user to reach that end goal – the less effort it takes, the better. 

User experience is essential for mobile users, as many businesses neglect this side of their site. Below are some of the most common reasons mobile users fail to convert, with the majority related to usability. 

Landing page design

The easiest way to lose a potential conversion is a mismatch between what brought your user to a site – an ad, a result on Google, or a post on social media – and your landing page. You’ll want to ensure you deliver whatever you’ve promised your user. 

A/B testing will be crucial here, allowing you to see which version of your site users respond to. You can test all sorts of variables, including color schemes, images, videos, page layout, website copy, call to action, the position of buttons, and more. 

With A/B testing, you’ll only want to change a single variable between the versions, as this will give you a more definitive idea of which element works better. 

Blog post optimization

Your blog is a great way to attract new users interested in your offer. Your posts should be optimized to help guide readers to pages that fulfill their needs. 

Look at which of your blogs are serving as a gateway for customers and spend more time on SEO Brisbane to increase your organic traffic. Alternatively, see what offers you can add for your blogs with high traffic and low conversion.

Say you’re a landscaping company. You have a blog about different types of decking that has piqued the interest of someone planning to build. By including an offer for your services – a free quote, a deal, or your unique value proposition – you make it easy for the user to decide and entice them to find out more. 

Some more tips for your blog:

• To avoid banner blindness, add a text-based call to action (hyperlinked text that stands out from the rest) that takes readers to the relevant landing page
• Update your high-performing blogs with relevant, up-to-date content to satisfy both search engines and readers
• Identify topics and keywords that link to your offerings to inform content creation

Remarketing

Most users won’t become customers right away. That’s what remarketing is for!

Remarketing shows targeted ads to previous site visitors, allowing you to keep your brand in their minds while they decide on a purchase. 

It’s well-established that showing your offerings to prospective clients multiple times in different contexts over an extended period can drastically boost conversion. While 92% of customers aren’t ready to buy when they visit your site, remarketing keeps your products or services running. In fact, if a user sees your remarketing ad, there is a 70% chance that they will purchase from you rather than seek out a competitor. 

You can set up remarketing ads through Google or Facebook. 

Create a sense of urgency.

We are creatures of impulse – if you want to push that curious browser into a committed customer, you must quickly turn up the heat. 

You’ve likely heard of the Rule of Scarcity; that is, a product that is rare or hard to come by is seen as more valuable, meaning that we are more likely to buy it. This also applies to the world of digital marketing, with this tactic being used widely in eCommerce. 

Amazon is a great example, highlighting deals and limited stock to drive sales. 

By providing time-limited offers or displaying how many items or slots remain, you should be able to drive up demand and see an increase in conversions. 

Ready to make the most of your web traffic and boost leads and conversions? Book your free consultation today, and we’ll show you how!

By now, you probably know how beneficial Google ads can be for your business. But which ones should you focus on?

For beginners, it can be hard to navigate the world of Google ads, and there are many easy mistakes you can make along the way. Today, we’re going to explore the different types of Google ads you can use, what each can do for your business, and exactly how you can get started. 

What is a Google ad campaign?

Google ads are a type of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. That is, you only pay when a user clicks on your ad. These can be broken up into a few different types of ads: Search, Shopping, Display, and YouTube. 

01. Google Search

Google Search ads are text ads that appear on a results page when a user searches for a particular query. This means your business will appear before other organic results, allowing you to secure that top spot. 

Why choose Google Search ads?

• Support your organic traffic.
• Easy to set up 
• No extra assets are needed (photos, videos, etc.)

02. Google Shopping 

Google Shopping ads are the perfect way to advertise your online eCommerce offerings. When users search for a specific product or type, yours will be front and center. 

Note: there is a difference between Shopping and Smart Shopping ads. Check out our Google Shopping guide for a more in-depth breakdown of each type. 

Why choose Google Shopping ads?

• Place pictures of your products at the top of the results page
• Target users at the right stage of their customer journey
• Allow customers to compare your products easily 

03. Google Display

The Google Display Network is a massive collection of over 2 million websites, reaching 90% of the world’s internet users. When you create a Google Display ad, your brand can appear in social media newsfeeds, banners, and email inboxes.

Why choose Google Display ads?

• Display your brand across the internet to interested users
• Reach a wider audience
• Great for longer sales cycles

04. YouTube ads

You can use both video and non-video ads on YouTube. The latter are the same as Google display ads.

Video ads come in three different types: skippable ads in front of videos, non-skippable ads in front of videos, and video discovery ads (promoted videos on YouTube’s search page or recommended videos.

Why choose YouTube ads?

• Advanced targeting of specific demographics, interests and markets
• More engaged viewers
• Show off your product, service, or selling point

Creating a Google Ad campaign

Before we do anything, make sure you have a Google Ads account set up. You’ll also need a website, as this is where your ad will send customers, and Google will need to verify you as a real business. Once this is done, you’re ready to set up your first campaign!

01. Create a new campaign.

02. Select a goal from the list supplied.

03. Select a campaign type.

From here, the process will differ depending on what ads you choose. We’ve explored each one in a bit more detail below. We’ll avoid looking at brilliant campaigns today, as these are best used once you’ve developed some data from previous campaigns. 

How to set up a Google Search campaign

01. Choose which networks you want to target (for beginners, we suggest only targeting the Search Network).

02. Set the location and language. You can target people searching for your location and physically located there.  

03. Choose your audience. You can use a number of factors: interests, demographics, recent purchase intent, and whether or not they have previously interacted with your business. 

04. Choose your daily budget. This is how much you will spend on average on a given day.

05. Choose a bidding strategy. Depending on your campaign goal, you may want to maximize clicks, gain more impressions, or prioritize conversion. 

06. Create an ad group. This is one or more ads that share the same aim. You’ll want to pay special attention to keyword types to ensure your ads only show up for relevant searches. 

07. Create your search ad. You’ll need a final URL (landing page), the URL displayed to the user, a few headlines, and descriptions up to 90 characters. 

Based on their components, Google will indicate how well your ads are likely to perform. This may give you ideas on how to improve. You may also want to go with a PPC expert. 

08. Click ‘Save and Finish,’ and all left is for Google to approve and publish your ad, a process that usually takes 1–2 days.

How to set up a Google Shopping campaign

01. Make sure you have a Google Merchant account. This is where Google will pull product data from. 

02. Select the country(ies) where you sell and ship your products. 

03. (Optional) Apply the inventory filter to limit products you don’t want to advertise. Google will allow you to set specific criteria; only products that meet them will be shown.

04. (Optional) You may want to turn on local inventory ads if you have a physical store. This includes items you sell in-store.

05. Determine your bidding strategy and daily budget. 

06. Set a schedule for your campaign, and remember to include an end date. 

07. Create ad groups. For Shopping ads, you can create Product ads promoting a single product or Showcase ads that display a number of selected products. If you choose Product ads, you can break these down into smaller groups for each category in your online store. As a beginner, we suggest starting with Product ads for now.

08. Enter your ad group name and your bid. 

09. Click ‘Save.’ Once Google has reviewed your ad, you’ll be all good to go!

How to set up a Google Display campaign

01. Choose a campaign subtype. For beginners, we suggest starting with a standard display campaign. 

02. Choose your location and language.

03. Choose your bidding strategy and daily budget. 

04. Adjust your campaign settings. This includes your campaign start and end dates, what times of day your ads will be displayed, what devices your ads will appear on,  what ads you expect will perform the best, and a few other things. 

05. Create and name your ad group. 

06. Decide who you want to see your ads based on interests, demographics, recent purchase intent, life events, and whether or not they have previously interacted with your business. 

07. Decide where your ads will appear on the Google Display Network. You can go broad and choose general topics related to your brand, choose which keywords you want to target or select specific websites, videos, or apps where you want to place your ads. 

08. (Optional) You can allow Google to use your target customer to find others interested in your offerings. This may not be suitable for beginners or small businesses, as this can increase your budget. 

09. Create your display ads. You can create your ads and upload them or your assets and let Google create responsive ad combinations suitable for various platforms across the Display Network. Unless you have an in-house expert or seek the advice of a Google ad specialist, we suggest going with responsive ads to make sure they meet Google’s specifications. 

For the best results, Google suggests submitting the following:

• 5 or more images
• 2 or more logos
• 5 headlines
• 5 descriptions
• A video

10. Review your campaign. Once you’re happy, click ‘Publish Campaign’. Google will then assess and approve your ad.

How to set up a YouTube ad campaign

01. Select the type of video ad from the options shown below. You’ll probably want to start with a Video Reach campaign as a beginner.

02. Choose your bidding strategy and daily spending. 

03. Select which dates your ad will run. 

04. Choose where you want your ads to show up – in the search results only, all across YouTube, or all across the YouTube Display Network with Google video partners. 

05. Select the countries where you’d like to display the ad and the language. You can target worldwide (suitable for eCommerce and other more prominent brands) or focus solely on Australia. 

06. Determine your brand safety guidelines. This will affect which videos your ads appear next to or play on. 

07. Finetune your audience. You can specify which demographics (age, gender, income, location, parental status, life stage, etc.) you’d like to target, specific interests, and whether they’ve interacted with your brand. 

08. Ads that play before or during a video will have to be uploaded as a YouTube video. In general, you’ll want to keep videos under 3 minutes (15 seconds for non-skippable ads and 60 seconds for skippable ads on YouTube Kids). 

09. Enter your ad link and the final URL (landing page), your headline, and your call to action. 

10. Hit that ‘Create Campaign’ button, and you’re good to go! Once Google approves your ad, your business will be out there for the world to see. 

Need help with setting up and/or managing your ads? Our Google ad experts are at your disposal! We can help with all elements of your campaign, including keyword research, copy, asset creation (images and videos), bidding, audience segmentation, and more.

Want to start 2022 off on the right foot? Why not strengthen your online presence and give your business that well-deserved boost?

While SEO is a gradual process and the algorithm is constantly changing, there are some easy fixes that can have a significant impact on your ranking. To help get you started, we’ve assembled a list of 15 ways you can start improving your SEO Melbourne today and see results before the end of 2021. 

01. Market analysis and planning

Before you start with any good SEO strategy, you need to understand how users search for your content. You also need to see what keywords your competitors are targeting and whether there are any opportunities you can take advantage of. 

Keywords are crucial to any and all SEO you’ll do, so it’s important to get this step right.

Keyword Planner

This free tool from Google uses your main keywords to find all the relevant keywords in your niche. Keyword Planner will give you a range of keywords you can choose from and their monthly search volume. 

SEMrush

If you’d like to try a more advanced tool, SEMrush is an excellent place to start. By putting in your website URL, SEMrush will quickly scan Google and see which keywords your site is already ranking for. Using this, you can identify the keywords you have the best chance of ranking highly for and tailor your pages accordingly. 

SEMrush has both a paid and free option. The free version (currently) allows you to:

• Research up to 10 keywords a day, seeing 10 competitor results
• Create and manage 1 project (audit 100 pages and track 10 different keywords)

Other keyword research tools

Other tools you can use include:

• Google Search Console (more on that below)
• Soovle
• Jaaxy
• Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
• KeywordTool.io

There are a lot of keyword research tools out there, so feel free to explore and discover which works best for you. 

02. Keyword mapping

You’ve got a list of relevant keywords, but what to do with them? The next thing you need to do is map each of your keywords to the most appropriate page on your site. 

Say you’re a plumber. You’ll want to group all your keywords regarding drain unblocking and use these on the corresponding page. The same goes for blocked toilets, burst pipes, leaky taps, hot water systems, emergency plumbing services, gas fitting, and other service pages.

You can do all your keyword mapping in a simple Excel sheet or on Google Sheets. 

03. Meta titles and description

Your meta title and description are the information in the search results, meaning this is your chance to convince users to click. You’ll want to include your main keyword for the page in both, but avoid adding too many and ensure it reads naturally. 

To ensure that your content displays appropriately, keep titles under 60 characters and descriptions under 155–165 characters. 

04. Title tags

The tags on your web page are vital for organizing information. They are one of the most important ranking factors, second only to content. There are many title tags: H1, H2, H3, H4, and so on. 

Google suggests using the same meta title and H1 title, so make sure that your H1 matches the meta titles you wrote in the previous step. For your H2 and H3 tags, you’ll want to assess how many subheadings your competitors use and aim for a similar amount. While you should aim to put your secondary keywords in these headings, you’ll want to make sure that you avoid stuffing.

05. Content optimization

You’ve likely heard the expression that content is king – this is undoubtedly the case when it comes to SEO. Google is more likely to rank unique, relevant, and high-quality content, so this is where you’ll want to focus quite a bit of your time. 

While it is essential to include all the right keywords, you also want to ensure the content is optimized for human readers. All the SEO won’t help you if you bring people to your site and they can’t understand (or don’t care about) what you’re saying!

And finally, make sure you do a final edit for spelling and grammar. Nothing makes your site look more unprofessional or puts customers off quicker. 

06. Image alt text

Google isn’t quite as good with pictures as words, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make your images work for you. Adding alt text simplifies the process and shows the engine exactly what your image is about. 

By including alt text, you’ll be able to implement some valuable keywords and ensure that all users are able to access your site. Visually impaired browsers will be able to use their screen readers to understand precisely what the page is showing, meaning that they will be able to understand it far better. 

Some best practices include:

• Use a maximum of 125 characters
• Be as descriptive as possible to give the user an idea of what is happening in the image
• Make sure the description (and the image) relates to the content on the page
• Include natural keywords, but don’t overstuff

07. Internal linking

While it may be hard and time-consuming to earn valuable backlinks, internal linking is a way you can boost the authority of specific pages. By adding internal links – links that take you to other pages on your site – to higher-ranking pages, you can pass some of that ‘link juice’ on to pages you wish to optimize. 

This is also helpful from a user standpoint, guiding your customers through your site logically, and allowing them to find the information they need. 

08. Sitemap

Submitting your sitemap is a simple way to help Google better navigate your website. Many website-creating platforms will automatically submit your sitemap for you, but you can also generate a free sitemap using XML-Sitemaps or submit a sitemap directly to Google. 

09. Competing pages

You’ve optimized all your web pages, and they still aren’t performing as you’d like. So what’s the problem?

This is referred to as keyword cannibalism – you have several pages optimized for the same keyword, stealing valuable clicks from each other. To fix this, you’ll need to carefully review each page on your site and ensure no overlap. While this may be time-consuming, this can have a pretty powerful impact on your ranking.

10. Page speed 

Page speed refers to how fast a website can load and can be measured by page load time (the amount of time it takes for a page to load fully) or time to first byte (the amount of time it takes for the browser to receive the first byte from the server). 

How fast your page loads significantly impact your business; by improving your load time by just 0.1 seconds, you can boost conversion rates by 8%. To do this, you may want to consult with a professional web developer or reconsider your hosting. 

You can check your current page speed by using Google’s PageSpeed Insights. 

11. Blogging

Publishing regular, relevant content to your site is crucial for attracting organic traffic and establishing yourself as an authority in your niche. What is the best way to do that? Blogging. 

Starting (and maintaining) a blog for your business allows you to target customers at different stages of their purchasing journey, answering their questions and demonstrating the benefit of your offerings. And best of all? With a large backlog of blogs that gain authority and backlinks over time, you’ll still be seeing the benefits of your blogs down the line. 

12. Clear call to action

Your call to action guides users to the next step, whether to ‘Call now,’ ‘Get a free quote’, download one of your lead magnets, or sign up to your mailing list. You’ll want to include one on each page to ensure that wherever users end up on your site, they always know what to do next.

For services, you’ll want to make sure your phone number is visible on every page and clickable to make it as simple as possible for clients to get in touch. To do this, use the following tag:

<a href=”tel:123456789″>123 456 789</a>

13. Social sharing

Social media is a powerful tool in your digital marketing arsenal – make sure you use it. First, ensure you have social sharing widgets on your webpage, especially on your blog. This will make it easier for users to share your content with others in their network and further their reach. 

If you’re looking to double down on your socials, make sure you check out our post on Social Media and SEO. 

14. Google Search Console

Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster) tells you what keywords users are searching for to find your content, which web pages they’re finding, and where those web pages are ranking. You’ll also be able to see:

• What countries are your users from
• What devices do they use
• Click-through rate
• Impressions

15. Google Analytics

If you haven’t already, ensure you have Google Analytics set up. This allows you to monitor several critical metrics for your site, including:

• Bounce rate
• Exit rate 
• Average session duration
• Pages per session
• Average time on page
• Organic traffic
• Organic impressions
• Keyword conversion rate

From this information, you can see how users are interacting with your site and how you can improve it. 

It is a good idea to sync your Google Analytics with your Google Search Console, as this will give you a complete picture of the user experience and how to target your audience better. 

Want to dominate your competitors in 2023? Book a free 30-minute consultation with one of our SEO specialists, and we’ll show you how to get there!

Unless you’re a digital hermit, you’ve likely heard of YouTube. After all, the video-sharing platform has a whopping 2.29 billion active users – second only to Facebook’s monopoly – with a billion hours of content consumed every single day. You may not know how vital YouTube can be for your business, helping you reach more customers and build your brand. 

Today, we’re going to show you how you can create and optimize video content that will help you establish a strong online presence. If you’re ready to start with YouTube SEO, our guide has everything you need to know. 

How can YouTube help your business?

If you’re not producing video content, you’re missing out. According to Wyzowl’s 2021 Video Marketing Statistics:

• 86% of video marketers say video has helped increase website traffic
• 83% say video has increased the average session duration
• 94% say video has played a vital role in assisting users in understanding their products/services
• 78% say investing in the video has boosted their sales

And seeing as 86% of businesses use video in their marketing, this is a content form you can’t ignore. 

Of course, this is the tricky part – if everyone is producing video, how can you ensure yours stands out? With 720,000 hours of new video being uploaded daily, how can you connect with your clients before competitors and be found in a sea of content?

This is where YouTube SEO comes in. YouTube isn’t just a platform – it’s a search engine. And just like any search engine, there are certain things you can do to improve your ranking and secure that top spot, meaning that when your client is searching for product reviews or content related to your niche, your brand is front and center. 

How to optimise your YouTube video for maximum views

To get you started, we’ve briefly broken down critical aspects of the video-making and uploading process you need to know to appeal to the YouTube algorithm. 

Like regular SEO, YouTube SEO is about creating content that meets people’s needs. With this at the center of your strategy and the best practices listed below, you’ll be well on your way to mastering the art of online video. 

Length 

While videos you share on social media should be less than two minutes, lest you lose your viewer’s attention, the videos that perform best on YouTube tend to be longer, with most being between 10–16 minutes. This is because of watch time, one of YouTube’s algorithm’s most important ranking factors. 

At the end of the day, you’ll want to ensure that your video length corresponds to your competitors and the content type. If someone is looking for a product review or a how-to guide, for example, they’ll expect a longer and more detailed video compared to explainer videos or promos. 

Keyword research

As with all other types of SEO, keyword research is crucial for getting your content seen on YouTube. 

To start, type a word/phrase related to your business into the search bar and you’ll see a range of suggestions that people commonly search for. These make great keywords! You can also study your competitors’ videos and other authorities in your niche, breaking down the keywords used (look at the title, description, and tags) or use the same keyword research tools you would start with SEO and PPC.

Once you have a selection to choose from, you’ll then need to select your primary keyword. Depending on the size of your existing audience and your channel’s establishment, you’ll probably want to go for one with less competition, as this will give you a greater chance to rank. 

You’ll want to use your keywords in the video file name, title, description, and video itself. 

Video title

Much like the title of a website, a video title is crucial to convince users to click. The balance here can be tricky: you want something interesting enough that viewers will choose to spend their valuable time watching your video without resorting to clickbait. 

To rank highly, your title needs to match the phrases users are searching for, so ensure you include your keyword at the start. You’ll also want to keep things short and snappy – the highest-performing videos on YouTube tend to have an average of 47–48 characters. 

Video description

Not only does your description help users understand what your video is all about, but it also helps search engines understand whether or not it meets a user’s needs. 

As YouTube only displays the first couple of lines of your description (approximately 100 characters), you must keep your writing concise and include any calls to action first. Ensure your keyword appears in the first 25 words and appears a few more times throughout (2–4 is a good benchmark).

The description is also an excellent place to include your links: your channel, socials, and other important information. 

Tagging

Though tags may not be crucial to your ranking, they are an excellent way to tell YouTube what your video is about. Ensure you include your exact keyword, a few variations, and any topics covered in your video. 

Beware of excess or irrelevant tagging, which can result in video suppression. 

Thumbnails

While your thumbnail isn’t a ranking signal, it is one of the driving forces that cause users to click on a video. It needs to stand out from all the rest. 

Look at what your competitors are doing: is there a trend? How can you make yours more eye-catching? 

A few things you’ll need to consider: 

• Your thumbnail should reflect the content of the video – show the viewer the value they will get from watching

• Your thumbnails should be cohesive, as this can help viewers recognize your videos (and your brand) more easily 
• Always use a custom thumbnail

Subtitles/CC

Not only do subtitles make your videos more accessible for all users, but they can also boost your SEO. Your captions are crawlable, meaning that if you say your keyword, YouTube can easily determine whether your video matches a search. 

YouTube can automatically generate closed captions for your videos, but it may be worth it to upload your transcript to make sure that they are 100% accurate. 

End screen 

This is the perfect place to include your call to action or encourage viewers to engage with more of your content. Here you can include links to other videos, your channel itself or your site. 

Engagement 

This is another crucial ranking factor, as it shows YouTube that people like what you offer and find value in your videos. 

The best way to do this is to simply ask – encourage your viewers to leave a like, comment, and share or subscribe if they enjoyed the video or found it helpful. 

Ensure you share links to your video on your other social media platforms, as this is an easy way to attract people already interested in your offer. 

If your video is on the longer side, you may find it helpful to break it down into smaller, bite-sized clips and publish these across your different platforms. This means you can get more mileage out of your content and reach a range of users. 

Want to use the power of YouTube to give your business a boost? Get in touch with our SEO strategists today!

As they’re at the bottom of a webpage, footers are often overlooked. But did you know they can significantly impact your SEO efforts?

Linking, especially internal linking, is the backbone of any good SEO strategy. Unfortunately, if misused, sitewide backlinks can fall under the category of ‘forced link building’ and do some significant damage in the eyes of our search engine overlords. So how can we find the right balance?

Today, we’re going to dive in and explore what footer links are, why there’s such a debate around their use, and how you can use them to your advantage.

The lowdown on links

Before we can understand whether footer backlinks are good or bad (or somewhere in between), we need to have a grasp on the different types of links involved. This includes internal, external, follow, and nofollow links.

Internal linking

Internal links are pretty much what it says on the tin – links that take you to different pages on the same site. This plays a huge role in how users and search engines navigate your site, helping them understand how the different pages relate. In particular, this helps search engines index your site and all the other pages it may contain.

External linking

External links are links that lead outside of your website. This can include manufacturer sites, parent companies, links to reviews or certifications, and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube.

Follow links

Follow or do follow links tell a search engine they should follow the link, passing the authority or ‘link juice’ from one site to the next. By building a number of reputable follow links, you can boost your website’s authority and, consequently, your ranking.

Source: Neil Patel

Nofollow links

In the wild west that was pre-2005 Internet, a common strategy to get backlinks was to comment on blogs, throwing in high-ranking links and leading back to your website. To curb this, Google introduced the nofollow, an attribute that tells search engines to ignore a given link.

Nofollow links do not pass on authority, meaning they cannot be used to help your SEO efforts directly. That being said, knowing when to use the nofollow attribute can make quite a difference to your overall linking strategy.

So what are footer links?

When we talk about footer links, we mean this little section at the bottom of a page:

The content on your website is broken up into two categories: unique content that can only be found on that page, and consistent sitewide content, like the header or footer. This can be a helpful navigation tool for users, telling them where to go next and ensuring they have easy access to essential pages wherever they are on your website.

There are four types of sitewide link variants:

• nofollow internal hyperlinks
• dofollow internal hyperlinks
• nofollow external hyperlinks
• dofollow external hyperlinks

Links shouldn’t be anchored to generic text (‘click me’ or ‘here’). Instead, use descriptive anchor text or keywords that tell the user exactly what they are clicking on.

Are sitewide footer links good or bad for SEO?

This is a question that has divided SEO Melbourne experts, mainly because the answer seems to keep changing.

In the aftermath of Google’s Penguin updates, link-building practices have seen a significant shift. Penguin 2.0 was ruthless when targeting unnatural link building, with 75% of all Google penalties due to sitewide links.

Of course, time moves fast in the world of algorithm updates. In general, most SEO specialists believe that (at least for now) Google will ignore sitewide external links in 2021. That being said, one can never underestimate the importance of a tailored and well-thought-out linking strategy, which can either help or hinder the rest of your SEO efforts.

Best practice for sitewide footer links

At the end of the day, like much of SEO, it all comes down to purpose. Google wants to determine whether you’ve added footer links to help your users find the information they’re looking for and navigate your site or are simply there to boost your SEO. If it’s the former, then this can have a positive impact, both in terms of indexing and user experience.

In general, you should avoid unnecessary linking in your footer as this can confuse search engines regarding which information is the most important. It can dilute the power of internal links, meaning that they won’t be as effective for your SEO efforts.

If you include external links, you’ll want to ensure that these are in the same niche as your business and that the pages are related to yours. Too many external links will look unnatural and are sure to earn you Google’s wrath. When in doubt, it is best to make these nofollow links.

If you have many external links you want to implement, a helpful strategy can be to create an internal page to host all these links and then place a sitewide link to this page in your footer.

So what can I put in my footer?

‘Safe’ footer  elements include:

• Your web designer
• Sitemap
• Call to action
• Social media widgets
• Copyright or private policies
• Contact information
• Locations
• Opt-in forms
• Graphics
• Logins
• Search tool
• Testimonials
• Gallery
• Latest blogs/articles/pages
• Associations and awards

TLDR: Internal links are safe for your footer, provided you don’t overuse them. In most cases, you should only link to your most important pages. External sitewide links are generally considered a bad practice; if you need them, use a no follow attribute.

For more SEO tips and tricks, check out our Blog. If you have any questions about footers, SEO, or web design, feel free to reach out to our team for a free consultation!