In a way, the search engine algorithm is like rocket science: we know it’s important, but most of us aren’t exactly sure how it works.

Every year, Google rolls out numerous updates (often with little to no warning) that manage to change the playing field for marketers in big and small ways.

But even for pros who have been working in search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search for years, understanding the search engine algorithm can be tricky. Knowing the basics allows you to react to new changes quickly or prepare your campaign for them in advance.

What are search engine algorithms?

Search engine algorithms are a collection of formulas that determine the quality and relevance of a particular ad or web page to the user’s query.

From Bing to Yahoo, every search engine has its own algorithms (or “rules”) and Google reportedly changes its algorithm hundreds of times each year.

The good news: only major changes (or updates) have the power to affect SEM campaigns significantly.

Google uses more than 200 ranking factors when determining which results to serve and in what order. (Image: Unsplash)

How do search engine algorithms work?

Each search engine algorithm is made up of sub-algorithms that perform different tasks. At the most basic level, search engine algorithms have three jobs: to crawl, index, and rank web pages.

1. Crawl: Bots (aka web crawlers) scan web pages and follow links.
2. Search index: The crawled content is stored in a large database organized by topics (keywords).
3. Rank: When someone enters a search query, the search algorithm analyzes the indexed content in its database to find the most relevant, high-quality, and authoritative pieces and display them on the results page in order of importance.

Overall, the Google search engine uses more than 200 ranking factors when determining which results to serve and in what order.

However, no matter how well you adjust to them, each new update has the power to push your efforts to square one.

While updates may be mostly focused on organic search, they can have not-so-clear (but oh-so-painful) implications for paid search as well.

For example, your ads could stop showing up as a response to a big part of your target audience’s queries simply because the landing page they lead to isn’t specific enough.

What is the purpose of search algorithms?

Search engine algorithms were created to:

1. Help search engines understand the user’s intent
2. Identify the most relevant, helpful, high-quality content
3. Present that information in an organized manner

What factors influence search rankings

While we might not know the exact set of rules for each search engine’s ranking algorithms, we do know key factors that influence which content is chosen to appear on the SERP.

These factors include:

• • Keywords: How well the website content matches the search query
  • Content quality: Original, accurate, well-written, valuable, and relevant information
  • Backlinks: The quantity and quality of external sites linking to the page
  • User experience (UX): How fast the page loads, mobile-friendliness, usability, and intuitive navigation
  • Domain authority: The credibility and trustworthiness of the website, along with the age of the domain
  • Freshness: How recently the content was published or, better yet, updated
  • Engagement: Click-through rates, dwell time, and bounce rates
  • Structured data: Use of schema markup to help search engines understand content

• On-page SEO: Title tags, meta descriptions, headings, URL structure, and alt text

Pro tip: While social media isn’t a direct ranking factor, it can indirectly impact SEO (and rankings) by increasing website traffic.

Types of search engine algorithm updates

Not all updates are created equal.

It’s nearly impossible to monitor all the updates Google comes up with and still have time to focus on your marketing strategy.

• Major updates: These updates are infrequent and often address a specific search algorithm issue. For example, the Core Web Vitals update addresses problems related to user experience on web pages. Search engines usually release them once or twice a year.
• Broad-core updates: Updates in this category focus on targeting low-quality pages. Usually, they adjust the importance of several ranking factors. For example, they may decide that page loading speed is now more important than the total number of backlinks. These updates usually occur once every 4-5 months.
• Small updates: These updates don’t usually create major visible changes to your site’s performance and analytics. They’re often minor tweaks that improve the searcher’s experience and don’t affect the rankings of high-quality websites. Minor updates can be implemented daily or weekly.

Basically, major and broad-core updates are worth your attention. However, only a few of them are strong enough to make a significant impact on your rankings.

Google algorithm examples

With each new Google update, search engine algorithms are working to become more useful to the searcher. Unfortunately for digital marketers, predicting specific changes is nearly impossible.

By understanding the overall intent to improve the searcher’s experience, it’s possible to adjust your SEM strategy so it doesn’t suffer as new updates take effect.

1998: PageRank

In 1996, Larry Page and Sergey Brin (co-founders of Google) created the PageRank algorithm at Stanford University as an effort to better organize searched content.

Essentially, the PageRank algorithm determined which sites were more important than others — and if important sites linked to other sites, those associated sites were more likely to be considered important as well.

This early algorithm was all about trustworthiness and credibility.

2011: Panda

The Google Panda algorithm update was designed to reward high-quality content while penalizing lower-quality, thin, and spammy content.

This update went after sites that stuffed keywords in their content, and those with high bounce rates and low user engagement were negatively impacted.

2012: Penguin

The 2012 Penguin update cracked down on spammy backlinks, targeting websites that used black hat tactics like link schemes.

This update rewarded those with natural, high-quality links and was integrated into Google’s core algorithm in 2016.

2013: Hummingbird

Google Hummingbird focused on better understanding search intent. In other words, it shifted from relying only on keywords to interpreting the meaning and context behind user queries.

This algorithm update helped Google improve the relevance of results for more complex, conversational, and long-tail searches.

2015: RankBrain

The RankBrain update also helped Google further understand user intent and context behind search queries.

But while Hummingbird was focused on semantic search, RankBrain leveraged machine learning to interpret user intent and handle more ambiguous or complex queries.

2019: BERT

This update’s aim was to improve the search engine’s translation of natural language queries to improve its understanding of context.

This forced marketers to pay more attention to user intent than before. Pre-BERT, if you needed to focus on separate keywords in the search phrase, full phrases became much more important after the update.

For example, the query “cooking your own vegetables” shouldn’t simply give a list of tips for cooking veggies. It should also provide tips for cooking vegetables you grew and harvested on your own. In turn, paid ads had to become much more specific targeting the intent of the audience to stay relevant to search queries (in addition to leveraging personal data, user behavior, and search history).

2021: MUM

In May 2021, Google announced its Multitask Unified Model update, or MUM. This AI is designed to analyze content similar to the way a human does. Google calls MUM a powerful evolution of the BERT algorithm.

MUM’s goal is to process complex search queries that can’t be satisfied with a short snippet. To get answers to these query types, a user needs to do an average of eight searches.

To address this problem, MUM works to predict these searches and provide answers on the first search engine results page (SERP).

When adjusting your SEM strategy for MUM, it’s wise to focus on:

• A high-quality internal linking system
• Leveraging structured data
• Working to predict complex queries as part of the buyer’s journey so you can provide answers
• Creating multi-tiered content and splitting it into snippet-friendly fragments

2022: Helpful Content Update

Focused on user-first content, the Helpful Content Update targeted websites that produce low-quality content designed to rank on the SERP rather than provide value for the searcher.

Content that is helpful and created by subject matter experts is now prioritized over sites with unoriginal or thin content.

Pro tip: If you’re focused on user experience (as you should be), then these updates shouldn’t have a major negative impact. However, if you do see your rankings take a dive, here’s how to deal.

Search engine algorithms are a complex system for helping users find the best answer to their queries. (Image: Unsplash)

How to optimize for search engine algorithms

Search engine updates can be as unpredictable as the weather. The only thing you can know for sure is that they will happen.

When they do, many websites and ads may see a drop in rankings, even if the change is temporary. Luckily, there are ways to stay prepared and ready when updates do arise.

1. Continue ongoing SEO maintenance

The most important step to prevent the negative effects of algorithm updates is to continue routine SEO maintenance in conjunction with creating high-quality content.

From technical SEO basics (improving site speed, mobile friendliness, and indexing) and on-page SEO staples (proper use of keywords and metadata), to a quality backing strategy and user experience, make sure to audit your site regularly and keep an eye on important metrics for optimization opportunities.

2. Focus on landing page quality

Even when updates roll around, it’s hard to understand immediately how they’ll affect the connection between paid and organic search.

But one thing is always clear: High-quality content on landing pages is likely to affect your conversion rate positively, regardless of algorithm changes.

Just a few years ago, landing pages weren’t as important for paid search because they didn’t play a big role in the ad-clicking process.

Today, with Google’s focus aimed at search relevancy and accuracy, landing page quality is an integral factor, particularly when determining things like your Quality Score.

Search engines pay close attention to the landing page quality and relevance to keywords, and that isn’t likely to change.

Now, Google even tracks how often a user returns to the search page after visiting the landing page in an attempt to understand whether they were satisfied with the search result.

To stay ahead of the updates, it’s imperative to maintain the quality and relevance of both landing and linked pages.

3. Don’t rely solely on keywords: focus on intent and relevance

Google algorithm updates tend to move away from a hyper-focus on keywords to more long-tail phrases and nuance.

Of course, keywords are still an integral part of SEM. However, building your strategy solely around them can prevent you from seeing the big picture or creating a well-rounded program.

Rather than only focusing on your keyword, you also want to take intent and relevance into account. Look into how you can best answer the questions your audience is asking.

Paying attention to when, how, and what they ask can help you design relevant content while satisfying changing search engine algorithms.

It can help to focus on the buyer’s journey instead of only on single keywords that users type when starting the search.

For example, Google has a different view of relevance with the roll-out of MUM. Now, it evaluates how your content or landing page fits into the context of the subject.

This includes relevant backlinks, internal linking for content clusters, and proper Schema markup.

4. Look for update warnings

In some cases, search engines will offer some advanced notice about an upcoming algorithm update.

Back in April 2020, Google announced a 2021 algorithm change that would introduce Core Web Vitals as ranking factors.

This gave marketers more than a year to get familiar with these new factors and adjust accordingly. Since Google isn’t always forthcoming about algorithm update details, it’s wise to take notice when they are.

5. Don’t panic — but do update your content

When search engines change their algorithms, it can cause chaos for marketers. It’s often a mad dash to adjust strategies and make quick changes to curb significant ranking changes or irregular reports. But sometimes these actions can hurt your campaign even further.

Remember, all you can do is implement relevant improvements and follow the latest guidelines.

If you’re using Google Analytics, making note of when an algorithm update took place can explain any out-of-the-ordinary results when you pull reports or debrief clients.

Algorithm update or not, it’s always best practice to revisit your content regularly to ensure it offers value and aligns with the search intent to be considered the most relevant result.

Pro tip: If another company’s site starts outranking you after an algorithm update, you can run a competitor analysis to figure out why that might be.

The takeaway

Search engine algorithms are a complex system for helping users find the best answer to their queries. And to improve user experience, search engines change their algorithms regularly.

But studying how algorithms work isn’t as important as understanding what your target audience wants.

By improving the quality and relevance of your page content while exploring questions your audience asks, you can work to minimize your dependence on algorithm changes and control, to some degree, how drastically they affect your initiatives.

Need some help along the way? We’ve got you.

This article has been updated and was originally published in November 2020.

The post Search Engine Algorithms: What You Need to Know appeared first on HawkSEM.

With over 3 billion active users each month, Facebook continues to be the most popular social media platform in the world.

Despite its large reach, however, Facebook ads have a reputation for low engagement. That’s why advertisers need to work extra hard to run Facebook ads that boost brand awareness and turn scrollers into customers.

Here, our team of experts walks you through the steps we use to help our clients achieve a higher ROI.

What are Facebook ads?

Facebook ads are sponsored posts that appear across Facebook’s network that promote a business’s brand, products, or services.

(Image: Facebook screenshot)

Also called Meta ads, Facebook ads target people based on their age, interests, and online behavior to reach the right audience. Advertisers pay a fee based on how many people see or click on their ads.

How do Facebook ads work?

Brands create ads that show up in their target audience’s Facebook feeds and stories, as well as other places on Facebook and Instagram.

Here’s how it works:

1. Advertisers choose a goal (like more website visitors or sales)
2. Select the type of audience they want to target, their budget, and maximum bid for each ad’s view (CPM) or click (CPC)
3. Facebook uses an ad auction system to determine which ads to show to the most relevant people
4. The advertiser pays when someone clicks on their ad, or each time they reach 1,000 impressions (views)

Why advertise on Facebook?

No matter who your audience is, you’re likely to find them on Facebook. With the right strategy, you can build a social media advertising campaign that reaches them.

Facebook ads:

• Build brand awareness
• Benefit other digital marketing campaigns, like Google Ads
• Reengage and retarget your audience
• Is the largest social media platform, offering a large audience
• Has precise micro-targeting options that segment custom audiences
• Are cost-effective with flexible budgeting options and a lower cost per click (CPC) than other platforms
• Include built-in analytics and detailed reporting that offers insights into metrics like impressions, reach, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), CPC, conversion rate, and return on ad spend (ROAS)

Meta ads are maintaining dominance in the paid social space since Meta properties like Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger have the largest number of users in the world with over 6 billion monthly active users and the ability to drill down on targeting.

“We’ve learned that these ads are most effective when utilized in a comprehensive digital marketing strategy/campaign including, paid search, SEO, remarketing, and video, to name a few,” says Rambod Yadegar, President of HawkSEM.

Further reading: See how we helped ecommerce client Apotheke Co. effectively position its products to its target audience and acquire new customers with advice from our paid social experts.

How to run successful Facebook ads

1. Create a Facebook Ads Manager account
2. Install the Meta Pixel
3. Go to Facebook Ads Manager
4. Select your objective
5. Choose your audience
6. Set your Facebook ads budget
7. Create a compelling Facebook ad
8. Track and optimize your results
9. Build a report to share with the team

1. Create a Facebook Ads Manager account

Facebook Ads Manager is a tool to create, manage, and track ads across Meta. This includes Facebook as well as Instagram, Messenger, the Audience Network (third-party apps and sites), and even WhatsApp.

To create an ad account, you need to set up a Facebook Business Page.

Then:

• Go to Meta Business Suite
• Click ‘Create Account’
• Add your Facebook Business Page account (a personal Facebook page won’t work)
• Fill in your account details (business name, your name, and email address)
• Click Next
• Enter any additional details, like your address, phone number, and website
• Submit
• When you receive a confirmation email, click Confirm Now

Then, you can handle all your Meta-related business items within the Meta Business Suite.

(Image: Meta screenshot)

2. Set up Meta Pixel

Meta Pixel (formerly Facebook Pixel) is a snippet of code you can add to your website that monitors visitor activity after they click on your Facebook ad.

While this step isn’t absolutely necessary, Meta Pixel integrates with platforms like WordPress, Shopify, and Squarespace to:

• Provide granular insights and analytics (e.g. scroll depth, button clicks, and form submissions).
• Improve ad targeting
• Enhance performance tracking
• Optimize ad delivery
• Improve cost efficiency

Here’s how to get started with Meta Pixel:

1. Create your Pixel

• Log in to your Meta Events Manager
• Click on “Connect Data Sources” and select “Web”
• Click “Connect”
• Enter a name for your Pixel and click “Create Pixel”

2. Install the Meta Pixel on your website

There are a couple of ways to do this:

Partner integration

If your website is hosted on platforms like WordPress, Shopify, or Squarespace, Meta offers direct integrations.

• In Events Manager, after creating your Pixel, select “Use a Partner Integration.”
• Then, simply choose your platform and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup.

Manually

• After creating your Pixel, select “Install code manually”
• Copy the Pixel base code provided
• Paste this code into the header section of your website (just above the closing </head> tag) on the pages you wish to track
• Save and publish the changes to your website

3. Verify Pixel installation

You can use the Meta Pixel Helper Chrome extension to ensure the Pixel is correctly installed.

Simply visit your website and click on the extension icon – it will indicate whether your Pixel is active and functioning properly.

4. Set up events

• In Events Manager, use the “Event Setup Tool” to define and track these actions without additional coding

Pro tip: Meta Events Manager is gradually changing how your event data is shown. So if your data seems to have disappeared, don’t worry. Keep up with the dataset rollout to stay on top of your campaigns.

3. Create a campaign in Facebook Ads Manager

To navigate to Ads Manager, click the hamburger menu icon located at the top left corner of the screen (labeled as ‘All tools’).

(Image: Meta screenshot)

To start creating campaigns, select ‘Create.’

(Image: Meta screenshot)

4. Select your objective

After that, pick a campaign objective that aligns with what you hope to achieve with your ad. Options include:

• Awareness
• Engagement
• Traffic
• Leads
• Sales
• App promotion

Pro tip: If you want specific results (like more traffic, engagement, or sales), you’ll be charged per action taken. But if you just want to boost visibility (like getting more website visits), you’ll pay based on the number of times your ad appears.

(Image: Meta screenshot)

5. Choose your audience

Audience targeting on Facebook Ads Manager allows you to include (or exclude) people based on their reported interests, age, or location, ensuring that you reach the audience most likely to interact with your business.

(Image: Meta screenshot)

To select your audience:

• Select the location, age range, gender, and language you want to target. You can select (or skip) cities based on size or prioritize people who recently showed interest in your brand.
• As you adjust your settings, look at the custom and lookalike audience size guide on the right. It shows how many people your ad might reach.
• The system will also estimate daily interactions and potential Page likes. If you’ve run ads before, these numbers might be more spot-on because Facebook knows your audience better. But remember, these numbers are just rough guesses, not promises.

6. Set your budget

First, decide if you want a daily budget or a lifetime budget.

The daily budget means your ad runs all day and Facebook ensures you don’t spend more than you set (but you have to spend at least $1 a day).

If you pick a lifetime budget, your ad will run for a certain time, and Facebook will spread out how much you spend over that period.

If you’re not ready to show your ad right away, you can choose when to start and stop your ad and even pick the times it appears.

This way, you can show your ad when your potential customers are usually online to make the most of your money.

7. Create a compelling Facebook ad

First, pick the type of ad you want to run. There are eight Facebook marketing ad formats, ranging from a single image or video to multi-image ads to a full collection or slideshow.

(Image: Single photo ad screenshot)

Consider your ad placement along with the type of ad creative you want to use. While image ads are the most popular choice, video, reels, and carousel ads can enhance your ads, depending on your goals.

(Image: Video ad screenshot)

Autumn Sullivan from MiQ suggests deconstructing a Facebook ad into its individual parts: text, headline, description, picture, and call-to-action (CTA). You should then clarify the role of each part.

(Image: Carousel ad screenshot)

“The main content should pinpoint what the customers are struggling with and present solutions,” says Sullivan. “Your headline’s job is to capture and retain their interest. The description is there to give more information and foster trust.”

Even though Facebook doesn’t give too many CTA choices, always pick the one that best aligns with the desired action you want the user to take.

(Image: HawkSEM)

Check the preview to see how your ad will appear in different places on Facebook. If everything looks right, hit the “Publish” button to get your new ad live.

8. Track and optimize your results

Once you launch, it’s time to monitor and optimize. You can do this from either Facebook Ads Manager or your ad software.

Facebook provides several important metrics to track, which you can see in Ads Manager:

• Performance Metrics: Captures results, reach, frequency, and impressions
• Engagement Metrics: Revolves around likes, overall page engagement, and interactions with individual posts
• Video Metrics: Shows key indicators like total video views and the average portion of videos watched by viewers
• Website Metrics: Measures actions on your website, such as checkouts, purchases, and items added to the cart
• App Metrics: Includes data like app installs, how people engage with your app, and the cost per engagement
• Event Metrics: Focuses on responses to your events and the associated cost for each response
  Click Metrics: Shows total clicks, unique clicks, and the cost for each click
• Settings Metrics: Delves into specifics such as start and end dates, the name of the ad set, delivery, and ad objective

Tracking can be challenging, especially when you’re looking for data to increase sales.

When building Facebook Ad campaigns for our clients, we use our proprietary software, ConversionIQ, to identify the search terms high-converting audiences use so we can optimize ads and boost conversion potential.

Our tool measures conversions, such as average order value (AOV) and ROAS, which allows data-driven decision-making for your paid search program.

As a cherry on top, you can get landing page design and conversion optimization to turn those clicks into leads and sales.

9. Build a report to share with the team

Finally, after selecting an objective and running your ad for at least two months, it’s time to build reports to show campaign performance.

Here are the steps to create a report:

• Click on “Analyze and Report” from the main menu
• Go to “Ads Reporting”
• Click on “Create Custom Report”
• Open a saved report
• Choose “Save As” beside the save icon. Name your report and select “Schedule Email”

When running and tracking Facebook ads properly, you can extract info from ad campaigns that you can use to enhance other channels such as paid, SEO, and other social platforms.

Remember, while tracking all these metrics is vital, never lose focus on your main advertising goals. Evaluating Facebook’s clicks and conversions will always remain a top priority.

Expert strategies for ads that convert

Now that you know how to create your Facebook ad campaigns, here are some expert strategies to create compelling ads.

Don’t: Reinvent the wheel

Most ads follow a simple problem-solution style framework — and it works.

“First, you need to have a hook. Find out what the hook is going to be, then present the problem and provide a solution,” says paid social expert Nick Shackleford.

“Next, answer these questions: what are the key features of that product or the solution you’re trying to sell? What are the hurdles that you need to overcome? Lastly, what is your call-to-action (CTA)?”

A mix of these seven variables is an excellent way to create compelling ads.

• Angle/Idea
• Hook
• Problem setup
• Solution
• Benefits (the big promise)
• Response to objections
• CTA

Do: Speak the audience’s language

Rule of thumb for building connections with your audience: “Speak the audience’s language,” says Bryan Clayton, CEO at GreenPal. “It’s not just about what you want to say; it’s about what they want to hear.”

Effective ad copy feels like you’re speaking directly to the consumer. By grasping who the readers are, you can tailor your message, tone, and wording to truly connect with them.

Don’t: Be pushy or aggressive

“When it comes to advertising on Facebook, it’s important to strike the right balance. People don’t appreciate a pushy or aggressive approach,” advises seasoned content strategist Sayem Ibn Kashem.

“It’s crucial to create ads that feel like a friendly conversation rather than a sales pitch. Be authentic, share your story, and showcase how your product or service can genuinely improve people’s lives.”

Kashem also suggests using captivating visuals that tell a story and catch people’s attention.

“Think of it as inviting them to a casual chat over coffee, rather than forcing a sales agenda on them,” notes Kashem.

“By creating ads that connect with and resonate with your audience, you’re not just selling products; you’re building relationships that can do lead generation and create conversions. It’s like finding common interests with a friend at a party – it just feels right.”

Do: Ensure your ad visuals and copy are in sync

Kashem posits visual elements should work in harmony with the copy. “Say I’m advertising a cloud storage service. Instead of using stock photos of clouds, I’d create a visual showing a stressed-out person turning relieved and happy after using our service,” explains Kashem.

“The visual echoes the ad copy, which might say something like “Never Worry About Losing Your Files Again.”

At HawkSEM, we pay attention to the entire user journey, from impression to click to landing page.

“We align copy and ad imagery to the post-click experience,” says lead strategist Nicole Goodnough. “If you click on an ad for motorcycle helmets and land on a page for nursing bras, that’s a bad experience, and conversion rates will suffer.”

Pro tip: Meta Pixel reports track how many people watched your whole video ad and the average time they spent watching. Analyze the watch time, then make new videos the right length to get more results.

Don’t: Set it and forget it

Alexander Zuidam, the head of Sales and Marketing at upMention shared that “a Facebook ad strategy is never a set-it-and-forget-it game plan.”

Facebook’s advertising features and algorithms are constantly evolving. “So it’s vital to adjust your messaging and how you target your audience quarterly,” says Zuidam.

And be sure to experiment with different types of content, ad formats, and ad targeting options.

“We’ll leverage influencer marketing for three months,” explains Zudaim. “Then, for the next three, we’ll prioritize paid ad campaigns. This keeps our social media presence and messaging fresh and relevant for our customers.”

Clayton echoes this sentiment. “You don’t just launch a campaign and walk away, expecting results to roll in. You have to monitor those metrics. Make adjustments based on what the data is telling you.”

Do: Prioritize performance

By focusing on ROI, you can prevent unnecessary ad spend and ensure the budget is spent in the right strategies that bring tangible returns.

“We take an ROI and performance approach when it comes to Facebook ads,” says Yadegar.

“Not only do we identify your target, and demographics, but we also look at important factors such as desired ROAS, cost per acquisition, scalability, and lifetime value of a customer.”

“Further, we track all steps of the customer journey with ConversionIQ to really understand what is working and how to optimize towards results,” adds Yadegar.

Pro tip: A/B test Facebook ads to improve your ad performance. Experiment with different ad formats and styles to help you pinpoint what improves engagement with the target audience.

The takeaway

Facebook ads can be a game-changer for big and small businesses looking to effectively engage their target audience. By following these expert strategies and tips, you can ensure your campaigns are set up for success.

However, while Facebook advertising offers a broad framework, the specifics will depend on your business’s unique requirements and goals.

To truly harness the power of Facebook ads, adopt a mindset of continuous experimentation, testing, and refinement.

Need a hand getting started? Talk to the social media marketing experts at HawkSEM.

This post has been updated and was originally published in December 2023.

The post How to Run Facebook Ads: A Beginner’s Guide to Success appeared first on HawkSEM.

Every business owner wants to invest in marketing that pays off.

Duh.

But among the roster of services — pay-per-click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), social media management (SMM), and more — it’s tough to know how much marketing agencies actually cost.

In this guide, we’ll provide a complete breakdown of marketing agency pricing models and the factors that dictate those costs.

Along the way, we’ll get expert insights from Sam Yadegar, who brings decades of experience as a co-founder and CEO of our leading marketing agency, HawkSEM.

 How much does a marketing agency cost?

On average, marketing agencies cost $3,500 per month, with a wide range depending on the scope of work, services, and experience.

Here’s a breakdown of average marketing agency pricing by niche:

PPC: $1,500-$10,000 per month
SEO: $1,000-$30,000 per month
Marketing strategy: $3,000-$10,000
Ecommerce: $2,000-$12,000 per month
SaaS: $5,000-$20,000 per month
CRO: $1,500-$10,000 per month
Social media marketing: $900-$20,000 per month
Influencer marketing: $100-$10,000 per post, or $5,000-$250,000 per month
Branding and graphic design: $150-$300 per hour, or $7,000-$150,000 per project
Content marketing: $2,000-$30,000 per month
Growth marketing: $3,000-$30,000 per month
Affiliate marketing: 5%-30% of affiliate revenue
Link building: $50-$1,500 per link
Email marketing: $300-$1,500 per month
Digital PR: $5,000-$100,000+ per month

You’ll likely need to invest anywhere from $1,500 to $10,000 or more per month into a marketing agency to see a worthwhile return on investment (ROI). But you’ll want to get clear on your marketing goals first.

Want to boost organic conversions? Looking for quick, high-quality traffic? Ready to spark interest with your audience on social media?

These are all important factors that weigh into what kind of services to seek out, along with marketing agency pricing.

Marketing agency pricing models

What is a typical marketing agency fee? That depends on the pricing structure the agency uses, and will typically fall into five common categories:

1. Monthly retainer
2. Project-based
3. Package (tiered)
4. Hourly
5. Value-based

1. Monthly retainer pricing

Most agencies charge retainer fees for ongoing monthly marketing services.

A marketing agency’s monthly retainer is a minimum monthly amount per month that includes certain services.

This can cost anywhere from $1,500 per month for select services to $10,000 or so per month for full-suite digital marketing services covering multiple tactics, like:

• PPC advertising
• SEO
• Social media marketing
• Content marketing

Why such a wide price gap? Because marketing agencies usually offer retainers based on several services.

For example, a retainer that includes SMM, PPC, SEO, and an overall omnichannel strategy will cost more than one that covers a single service.

Not sure which channels you should focus on? Yadegar says it’s vital to keep your sights on the highest revenue impact while incorporating channels that feed your entire marketing funnel.

“It’s definitely a case-by-case situation,” says Yadegar. “We typically see about 20% of budgets going to digital marketing. Within that percentage, 30% goes to PPC, 30% goes to SEO, 20% goes to social, and 20% goes to CRO.”

The average cost of a monthly retainer is around $3,500, and usually, agencies have minimums that fall around $1,000 to $1,500.

Of course, you can easily invest $6,000 to over $10,000 per month, but this depends on various factors which we’ll cover in a bit.

But if you have your marketing strategy locked in? You might just need help with a few specific projects.

2. Project-based pricing

Let’s say you’re an established SaaS business that sells educational gaming software for kids. You plan to launch a new product line: professional development software for 20-somethings entering the workforce.

Now, you want to target a different age demographic on Instagram in large metropolitan cities like New York City, Chicago, and Boston.

You could recruit help for this project from a devoted Meta Ads agency.

The benefit of a project-based pricing model is that the marketing agency will only charge you for this specific project, which makes it easy to budget for and set clear key performance indicators (KPIs).

But if you have a steady stream of campaigns and projects moving forward, all you need to do is maintain them.

And if your marketing team is too swamped to keep up with all the tasks? Jump ahead to the next section for marketing agency pricing by service.

3. Package (tiered) pricing

Agencies often have multiple packages to choose from based on their specialty services.

For example, an SEO agency may offer packages including website optimization and SEO setup, or ongoing SEO services including technical SEO and content creation.

Package or tiered pricing lets you choose among pre-set packages to keep monthly expenses uniform.

4. Hourly agency fees

Charging by the hour is a less common pricing model because it isn’t as realistic for most businesses looking to maximize ROI.

Hourly pricing averages around $150 per hour, depending on the agency’s specialty.

In our experience, we’ve seen that charging for the number of hours required to strategize and execute cross-channel campaigns is often ineffective for sustainable growth.

It doesn’t take into account the scope of work required for each campaign.

Further, it significantly limits your reach potential, because it only accounts for hourly work for one specific marketing tactic, not the bigger picture.

5. Value-based pricing model

If you want to see optimal results and ROI, look at your marketing objectives. A value-based pricing model considers your ideal benchmarks, like increasing conversions and sales-qualified leads (SQLs).

The agency must conduct services and provide these results to get paid. In other words, they must provide value.

Before a marketing agency rolls out any campaigns, they must dive into your business, offerings, and goals. (Image: Adobe stock)

Marketing agency costs by service

To help you allocate a percentage of your revenue for marketing based on your specific goals, let’s look at the most common pricing averages by marketing type and niche:

• PPC pricing structure and range
• SEO agency pricing models
• Marketing strategy pricing
• Ecommerce pricing models
• SaaS marketing costs
• CRO agency costs
• Social media agency pricing
• Influencer marketing pricing
• Branding and graphic design pricing
• Content marketing pricing ranges
• Growth marketing pricing
• Affiliate marketing pricing models and range
• Link-building pricing models
• Email marketing pricing
• Digital PR average costs

PPC pricing structure and range

PPC pricing falls into three agency rate structures:

Flat fee: $1,500 to $10,000 fee per month, often with an additional one-time setup fee. Rates usually represent a percentage of your PPC budget; the higher the budget, the higher the PPC management fee.

Performance-based: Want to only pay for results? Then this PPC pricing model is an ideal choice. You pay for the leads they generate, but it’s essential to partner with a reputable digital marketing agency to ensure you see high-quality, conversion-primed leads.

Percentage of ad spend: This pricing model charges a percentage (typically 10-20%) of your ad spend. The agency charges a commission-based fee indicative of your monthly ad budget spend. The fee tends to decrease as your marketing budget increases; the more you spend, the lower the commission.

Range: $1,500-$10,000 per month

SEO agency pricing models

SEO pricing falls into three rate systems:

Monthly fee: $3,000 to $10,000 per month; ideal for ongoing SEO support, goal-setting, increasing organic web presence, and gaining visibility through optimized content marketing.

Local SEO: $1,500 to $1,000 per month; best suited for local businesses focusing on building a regional presence and higher visibility for local search terms.

Project-based: $5,000 to $30,000 flat rate; ideal for targeted SEO campaigns with clear deliverables, such as website audits and optimization, keyword research, content strategy, and content creation.

Attracting organic traffic is critical to building a sustainable web presence focused on building trust and brand awareness.

Range: $1,000-$30,000

Marketing strategy pricing

Before a marketing agency rolls out any campaigns, they must dive into your business, offerings, and goals.

Armed with this intel, they can strategize the best roadmap to success. This involves a deep-dive analysis of your audience, customer personas, and competitors.

Marketing strategy can be a one-time fee or an ongoing rate included in a monthly retainer as your agency tracks performance and makes adjustments along the way.

Range: $3,000-$10,000

Ecommerce pricing models

Effective ecommerce marketing requires compelling ads and content that speaks to their audience’s biggest pain points.

Ecommerce companies should plan to invest around 11% of monthly revenue into marketing.

However, pricing depends on which channels you prioritize: PPC, SEO, SMM, or a combination of all three. For example, if PPC is on your radar, then you’ll likely receive a quote for a lower monthly retainer plus the percentage of ad spend.

Range: $2,000-$12,000 per month

SaaS marketing costs

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is notoriously competitive, and brands need to pay to play if they want to rise above the competition.

SaaS marketing builds brand awareness and recognition to foster trust. You want to capture leads at every stage of the SaaS sales funnel, and that’ll cost you.

Range: $5,000-$20,000 per month

CRO agency costs

Seeing lots of traffic but zero conversions? Sounds like you might benefit from a conversation rate optimization (CRO) agency.

You’ll encounter fixed-fee pricing models here, or a full-time equivalent (FTE) rate, which is calculated by the anticipated hourly workload.

Range: $800-$10,000 per month

Social media agency pricing

Social media marketing encompasses several services, including social media management, content creation, paid social media, consulting, strategy, scheduling, and customer service engagement.

A brand will typically either hire an agency to fully manage all facets of social media marketing, or focus on content creation and engagement.

You might also recruit a social media marketing agency for support with a specific influencer, Meta Ads, or user-generated content (UGC) campaigns.

Range: $900-$20,000 per month

Influencer marketing pricing

Influencer marketing agencies connect your brand with aligned influencers to build brand awareness. They have a few pricing models, including flat rates, commissions, or flat rates plus commissions.

An influencer marketing agency’s pricing also varies depending on the size of each influencer’s audience.

Huge influencers with millions of followers will fetch upwards of $10,000 per post. Conversely, smaller micro-influencers are more accessible, costing around $100 per post.

Other factors that impact price include the specific type and number of marketing channels each influencer has.

Range: $100-$10,000 per post, or $5,000-$250,000 per month

Branding and graphic design pricing

Branding marketing agencies help you create an instantly identifiable brand with killer web design, branding assets, and design collateral while creating an enjoyable user experience.

Think of Pepsi’s notorious logo rebrand. Agencies generally charge per project or hourly for this service.

Hourly range: $150-$300 per hour
Per project: $7,000-$150,000 per project

Content marketing pricing ranges

Content marketing is a catch-all phrase describing the process of creating, and marketing content, and ranges between $2,000 to $30,000 per month paid via a monthly retainer.

You’ll want to invest in ROI-driving content, including video marketing campaigns, blogs to boost SEO and authority, and educational content.

Range: $2,000-$30,000 per month

Growth marketing pricing

Growth marketing agencies provide full-suite digital marketing services.

Agencies will factor out how many hours they’ll need to spend bringing your objectives to fruition and usually charge an hourly rate.

Since the range is so vast, it might be more strategic to focus on which aspects of your content marketing strategy are most important to your business objectives.

From there, you can work out a budget based on the average price ranges for those services, such as SEO and PPC.

Range: $3,000-$30,000 per month

Affiliate marketing pricing models and range

Affiliate marketing gives your brand a percentage of purchases made from affiliate partners.

These could be influencers, blogs, comparison websites, and any other individual or business that promotes your business for a commission.

So it only makes sense that an affiliate marketing agency will also charge a percentage based on the revenue generated.

Range: 5%-30% of affiliate revenue

Link-building pricing models

Link building involves reaching out to high-quality websites and publications and asking them to link to your website or content.

The process is extremely laborious and time-consuming. And that’s why link-building agencies charge a package rate fee for a certain number of links.

For instance, say you want 20 high-quality backlinks. They may charge anywhere from $50 to $1,500 per link, depending on the domain authority of the website providing the link.

Range: $50-$1,500 per link

Email marketing pricing

Email marketing fosters relationships with your customers. And it also yields sizable returns — how does a $36 return for every $1 spent sound?

How much you invest will depend on the scope of work. For example, if you want to send multiple emails a week, you’ll invest more than a campaign that sends out two monthly emails.

You’ll also want to factor in costs for specific campaigns and sequences, like promotional emails for upcoming sales or welcome sequences, to guide new customers through your sales funnel.

Range: $300-$1,500 per month

Digital PR average costs

Digital public relations agencies are marketing companies that exclusively manage your brand’s reputation and public perception.

And it costs a pretty penny. Pricing ultimately depends on the client’s needs, whether that be to establish hype through networking connections, or do damage control to rebuild compromised trust.

Each project is unique, but you’ll likely pay for specific deliverables.

Range: $5,000-$100,000+ per month

 Factors that contribute to marketing agency pricing

While there are thousands of marketing companies, each specializing in unique services, there are different pricing factors that weigh in across the board.

Digital marketing strategies

As you can see from the pricing models listed in this guide, costs vary widely. This means that the digital marketing strategies your agency uses will directly impact their fees.

An agency will help you isolate where to harness your efforts. Say you want to invest in lead generation on LinkedIn, but you’d also love to boost retention from existing customers.

Instead of spreading your budget thin by recruiting various professionals, an agency will formulate its digital marketing strategy based on these goals and also look for areas to make your investment go even further.

Experience

Demonstrated experience is an important factor that weighs into a marketing agency’s pricing strategy.

If you’re a SaaS brand, does the agency have relevant case studies showing sustainable growth and substantial ROI for other SaaS clients?

While you can certainly find affordable prices from freelancers and new agencies, they might lack the horsepower to tackle complex marketing efforts with cohesion and strategic thinking.

An established marketing agency will have in-house talent, tools, experience, software, and bandwidth to ensure your investment pays off with big gains.

Goals

Your marketing goals determine the strategies your online advertising agency uses to help you achieve those goals.

Ultimately, you want to reach your target audience, but you may also want to boost clicks from paid ads, increase sales, or see a specific amount of ROI for a large campaign.

“A good agency will present budgeting, including their own agency costs, and clearly show that the agency is self-financed based on the strategies they will execute,” says Yadegar.

“The marketing agency pricing should pay for itself and then some.”

Industry

Remember when we mentioned how competitive SaaS is? The same goes for finance and technology industries that command higher marketing spend to see results.

The more niche your industry, the easier it may be for you to stand out, which means you won’t have to market as aggressively.

Company size

While a large company boasting hundreds of specialists may charge higher rates than a smaller team, company size isn’t the sole indicator of a marketing agency’s pricing structure.

Yadegar elaborates:

“It’s less the size of the company, and more the goals the brand is trying to achieve,” says Yadegar. “Usually as goals get more aggressive and spend increases, marketing agency pricing should be a bit more accommodating by providing discounts at scale.”

 Costs included in digital marketing agency pricing

“Typically, full service [marketing] covers PPC, SEO, and social to generate the best return,” says Yadegar.

Beyond the actual marketing campaigns, the agency fee will encompass costs like:

Technology and software: Many marketing agencies use automation software and technology to strategize, data-mine, and monitor metrics.

For example, HawkSEM’s clients gain access to our tech dashboard, ConversionIQ, which distills pertinent campaign data into actionable insights and shows you campaign progress.

Employee salaries and costs: Agencies with employees have costs like salaries, benefits, and insurance. Even contracted specialists have fees, which all go into marketing agency pricing.

Office expenses: Overhead like utilities, office supplies, rent, and operational software all accompany an agency fee.

Service fees: These can include licensing, taxes, attorneys, and corporate fees.

While agencies have more fees than freelancers or in-house talent, they also have more capabilities, support, and expertise.

Why hire a marketing agency?

You can certainly keep your marketing in-house if you see success from your campaigns. But if you need to recruit strategists beyond the skillset or availability of your team, an agency can step in and pick up the slack.

The benefits? You gain access to a broad pool of experts who you don’t have to put on the payroll.

By partnering with a digital marketing agency like HawkSEM, you instantly tap into the combined expertise of skilled SEO and PPC professionals with decades of expertise in generating results for brands like Honda and Verizon.

This frees up time in your busy schedule to focus on your product, team, and business operations.

What to look for in a marketing agency

Use this guide as a framework for reasonable marketing agency costs, but take it a step further by researching:

• Niche alignment: Does the agency have proven success in marketing for your niche?
• Growth potential: Is the agency capable of isolating strategic paths to success? Do they conduct thorough market analysis?
• Testimonials and case studies: Look for agency ratings on Clutch.io, and scour their case studies to crunch the data on real campaigns and success metrics.
• Communication preferences: The agency should make communication and progress tracking organized and efficient.
• Smooth project management: Inquire about their process and ensure you have a communication style that works for you.

The takeaway

While marketing agency pricing runs the gamut, it’s essential to choose an agency that understands your needs and business goals.

You can easily pump thousands of dollars into marketing tactics that fall short of the results promised.

Instead, partner with a trusted agency that showcases impeccable results and industry know-how.

HawkSEM is a Google Premier Partner that harnesses data and strategy to unleash mega results for recognizable industry titans like Microsoft and Merill Lynch.

Ready to climb the ranks and ensure every dollar sowed is reaped more than 4X over? Get in touch today.

This article has been updated and was originally published in February 2024.

The post Marketing Agency Pricing: How Much They Charge + What to Spend appeared first on HawkSEM.

Seeing your competitor’s name on the search engine results page (SERP) is never a great feeling.

But an even worse feeling?

When a rival brand shows up after someone searches for your brand’s name.

So, are companies allowed to use another company’s name in their paid search ads? What about as keywords for bidding?

We answer these questions and more below.

Can a competitor use my brand name in their ad?

Yes, a competitor can bid on your brand name in their Google ads. However, there are rules to follow.

Competitors can use your brand name in their Google ad copy if the name isn’t trademarked and the way they use it can’t be deemed “deceptive.” (Deception tactics include things like the company impersonating your brand.)

If your company’s name is trademarked, that’s a different story. Per Google guidelines, no other brands can use a trademarked name in their ad copy.

An exception to this rule is if the company using it is a legitimate reseller, such as Zappos creating an ad for Nike sneakers.

Pro tip: Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) also allows competitors to bid on your business name. It’s policy states that “as an advertiser, you are responsible for ensuring that your keywords and ad content, including trademarks and logos, do not infringe or violate the intellectual property rights of others.”

Here’s an example of what it looks like when one brand bids on another’s name (without even mentioning them). (Image: Google)

What are the rules about competitors bidding on my brand name?

Competitors can buy your brand name as a keyword, even if it’s trademarked. By using your brand name as a keyword, their ad could potentially show up on the SERP when someone is searching for your specific company.

Unfortunately, you can’t do much about the competitor using your brand name or trademarks as a keyword.

However, there are things you can do to remain competitive. For starters, ensure you’re bidding on your own brand name. This way, competitors aren’t stealing extra traffic that should go to you. This also gives you more real estate in the SERPs by showing a paid ad and appearing in the organic results.

If a competitor is bidding on your brand name and you aren’t? Then their ad will show above your organic result, driving more clicks away from your website. You can also bid on their brand name — more on that below.

Further reading: Should You Bid On Your Branded Keywords? (5 Pros + Cons)

Why would a competitor bid on my company’s brand name?

The main reason companies bid on another’s brand name is to steal traffic from the competition. They want to target those looking for a brand that sells a similar product or service, so they can redirect them to their own website.

This tactic makes sense when you have a new brand that few, if any, people know about. So you bid on a competitor’s brand with more notoriety to gain brand awareness and visibility for your brand.

Pro tip: If you have an existing amicable relationship with a competitor, consider contacting them for a truce and agree to not bid on each other’s terms. There’s no guarantee they’ll agree, but if you’re worried about your budget, it’s worth a shot.

How do I choose which competitor brand names to bid on, if any?

If you’re going to bid on a competitor’s name, we advise picking the right competitors to bid on (or ensure your agency picked the right ones, if you’re not doing your own marketing).

There’s no point in bidding on brands that aren’t stealing business from you, such as big-name brands with significantly more offerings.

For example, you can target competitors that give you a hard time because they have:

• Been around for many years
• Lots of website traffic from high-ranking content on Google
• A high domain authority (DA) score
• Recent complaints from customers that you can point out in your copy to show why you’re better
• An inferior unique selling proposition to yours

If the competitor is similar enough and more popular than you but isn’t too out of reach (e.g., an ecommerce mom-and-pop shop targeting Walmart keywords wouldn’t cut it), then go for it. Test the results to see if this boosts your traffic and conversions.

Also, tailor the ad text to differentiate your brand from that competitor. One way to do this is by highlighting your unique selling proposition.

For instance, if a competitor brand has a similar but more expensive product or service, highlight your brand as the more affordable option.

Have more questions about paid search or Google Ads? You’ve come to the right place.

What if I think a competitor is breaking the rules when using my brand name?

Before you get heated, it’s important to realize that they might not actually be bidding on your brand.

If your brand is “Sunrise Senior Living,” for example, the company could be bidding on “senior living.” That’s what will match in Google’s algorithm — not necessarily the “Sunrise” part.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot you can do unless they’re using your trademarked term in their ad copy. If they are, submit a trademark complaint to Google.

Aside from bidding on their brand in return, fight back by conducting keyword research (using tools like SpyFu or Semrush) to find other search terms they’re using for search marketing efforts.

In extreme cases (e.g., trademark infringement), send the company a cease and desist letter, though this will likely come at a cost and not guarantee the outcome you want.

Just because a competitor bids on certain keywords doesn’t mean they’re the “right” keywords. (Image: Google)

Should I bid on my competitor’s brand name?

If other keywords are working well, it’s a better use of your ad spend to allocate your marketing budget toward those.

There’s no hard-and-fast answer to this. However, experience tells us that bidding on a competitor’s brand name shouldn’t be a top priority in your paid search strategy.

If you have an excess budget, then you could bid on a competitor’s brand as a keyword. We don’t suggest using another brand in your ad copy.

Why?

Because it’s giving unnecessary attention to the competition, which could backfire and direct more traffic to them. In the Monday.com example above, they bid on the term “Asana” without mentioning it in their ad copy.

Going about this wrong is a major reason why we recommend using a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO and SEM.

HawkSEM’s experts have helped brands large and small gain higher clicks and conversions.

This is partly due to our decades of experience in the industry and our proprietary software, ConversionIQ, which pinpoints the best keywords to improve optimization and earn more clicks from high-converting prospects.

How can I use competitors bidding on my brand to my advantage?

Review your competitor’s ad copy or strategy and take inventory of what you uncover. How does your campaign compare? This is a great time to reflect on your own advertising efforts.

Are you taking full advantage of Google’s ad offerings like assets and sitelink extensions (if appropriate)? Ask yourself: If I were a consumer, would I click on my ad?

“Most large companies have a competitor campaign,” says Sarah McKraken, a search engine marketing expert. “You’ll find plenty of large companies bidding on others and getting bid on as well.”

For example, if you type “Etsy t-shirts design” into Google, you’ll find a Printify ad at the top, instead of Etsy:

Or if you type in “Kohl’s women pajamas” in Google search, you’ll see a pay-per-click (PPC) ad from their competitor, JCPenny:

In the Etsy branded keyword “takeover,” Printify didn’t mention its competitor at all. It focused on what its brand offers: printing and shipping, custom shirt designs, and no upfront costs.

Then, in the Kohl’s branded keyword takeover, JCPenny vied for the attention of shoppers with a clearance deal on their women’s pajamas. They also didn’t mention the competitor directly in their ads, and instead focused on their special offer.

These are all great tactics when bidding on competitor brand keywords. But also note how Kohl’s dominates its own branded keyword:

It sits at the top and includes its own featured deals, ratings, and a clear return policy.

Since these searchers are looking for Kohl’s directly, they’ll likely still gain most of the traffic by targeting their own brand keyword. So the takeaway is to ensure you’re focusing just as much on your brand keywords as on competitors’ brand keywords (if not more).

Pro tip: If you bid on competitor terms, avoid using dynamic keyword insertion. This feature involves the searched keyword auto-populating as an ad’s headline. This will cause your competitor’s name to show up in your ad. It could be deemed deceptive, even if it’s unintentional.

Tips to win at bidding on branded keywords

If you decide your marketing strategy requires an ad campaign using branded terms, these two tips will be helpful.

1. First, tackle your opponents on the defensive end: Use high bids to maintain impression share of your brand’s keywords. This way, you’re above competitors’ ads in a branded search for your company’s name (like in the Kohl’s example).
2. On the offensive end, you can build campaigns using a competitor’s branded terms using the tips above — showing why you’re better. Then to seal the deal, build a landing page specifically for that ad campaign that dives deeper into why your brand is the better choice.

“If you’re a coffee company, having a targeted page that exemplifies how your brand is better than buying from Starbucks could be worthwhile,” says McKraken.

“Some callouts could be that you’re a small business, you sell exclusively fair-trade, or out of a blind taste test your blends are tastier.”

Think of this as a brand vs. competitor blog post. The goal is to show, not tell, why you’re better. So include:

• Benefits of your product or service that relate to that audience’s specific pain points
• Testimonials from happy customers who overcame those pain points using your brand
• Comparison of plans, prices, features, and other unique differentiators to showcase why your brand is better
• Visuals, such as infographics or videos to demonstrate your product’s benefits
• An offer that’s tough to refuse, such as a limited-time discount, free trial, or free shipping
• Multiple calls to action (CTAs) throughout in case they’re ready to convert before they get to the end

Use landing pages to stand out from competitors

Now, like an ad campaign, landing pages require ongoing testing to determine what works.

So prepare to build A/B split tests and monitor the metrics (like click-through rate or CTR, conversions, and bounce rate) to see what converts potential customers into buyers or leads.

To give you an idea of what a winning landing page looks like for a competitor keywords campaign, we’ll use Monday.com’s feature in the Asana keyword campaign as an example.

Once you click on their link in the SERP, the first thing you see is a large and bold statement of why you should select its platform:

It includes social proof (the number of customers who use their platform and their logos), showcases what it can do in a nice visual way, and has a clear CTA button.

Scroll down, and you’ll find another bold move — a comparison chart between Monday.com and not just Asana, but all of its contenders in the market:

You can click each to see why Monday.com is the better choice. It’s a smart move to add the other competitors just in case prospective buyers consider them now or in the future.

Scroll a bit further, and you’ll see accolade badges from all the awards Monday.com won, further proving the worthiness of your dollar:

Then just below it, you’ll find a list of the benefits of using Monday.com for your project management:

But it doesn’t stop there. Beneath, you’ll find data from a Forrester report showing Monday.com’s economic impact on its users. And what better way to end a landing page than with a testimonial from happy clients?

Further reading: How to Create Landing Pages that Convert: Examples + Pro Tips

TL;DR: Using competitor names in Google Ads

What you’re allowed to do:

• Use competitor names as keywords

What you shouldn’t do:

• Use competitor names in ad copy
• Use dynamic keyword insertion (a feature that automatically updates ad copy to match the keywords people use to search)

What you can do if a competitor bids on your brand name:

• Bid on your own brand name to stay above the competition
• Tailor ad copy to differentiate your brand from that competitor
• Review your competitor’s ads and apply any missing pieces to your own campaign

For a more aggressive approach:

• Conduct keyword research to find other search terms your competitor targets and bid on those keywords
• Build campaigns around your competitors’ branded terms with dedicated landing pages that outline your value proposition

For extreme cases:

• Submit a trademark complaint to Google if a competitor uses your trademark brand name
• In extreme cases, you can send the company a cease and desist letter

The takeaway

Bidding on your competitor’s brand shouldn’t be your top priority. But if you must, use the help of digital marketing experts to ensure you do it right. Without an expert’s help, you could get lower-quality scores for those keywords.

That’s because Google can see you’re not the brand whose name you’re bidding on. Plus, bidding on those branded keywords will likely cost you more because the brand isn’t your own.

Even worse? Using a competitor’s trademark name can result in legal issues.

In the long run, it’ll be better for your marketing plan to focus on your unique products or services, make sure the user experience is top-notch, and use ads to highlight your unique selling propositions to stand out.

This article has been updated and was originally published in November 2021.

The post Can Competitors Use My Brand Name in Google Ads? appeared first on HawkSEM.

Looking to improve your SEO strategy?

Learning from the challenges and success stories of other businesses is the quickest way to optimize your marketing efforts and rise to the top of the search engine results.

To give you a head start, we rounded up the best SEO case studies from brands across a wide range of industries so you can refine your strategy and replicate the same techniques (and results) as our experts.

What is an SEO case study?

An SEO case study showcases how a real-world business improved its search engine rankings with specific strategies. It details the problems they faced, the hypothesized solutions, the implementation of those strategies, and the results.

How to use SEO case studies to inform your strategy

Reviewing an SEO case study helps you identify success markers and the strategies used to achieve that success. Use these expert techniques as an outline for your own SEO strategy.

14 SEO case studies for top-ranking inspiration

Here, you’ll find a handpicked roster of 14 inspiring case studies:

1. Moneta Group
2. Escape the Room
3. DesktopReady
4. Honda Motor Co.
5. Zephyr
6. Career Group Companies
7. Happy Ears Hearing Center
8. DILO
9. Easly
10. Wind River
11. Samanage
12. Mommy’s Bliss
13. Forks Over Knives
14. Vimeo

(Image: Adobe Stock)

1. Moneta Group catches local leads with triple-boosted keyword portfolio

Moneta Group has over two decades of experience in the wealth management space. Still, competition increased over time, so we needed to study those competitors and their keywords closely.

While Moneta wanted to improve national keyword rankings overall, their top priority was to stand out in four local markets. If you’re also looking to boost visibility in your area, check out the strategies used in this local SEO case study.

Strategies:

• Local SEO – We built geo-specific web content to capture potential wealth management clients in the four areas Moneta Group was interested in. On top of that, our beefed-up citation profiles for each office helped solidify independent local ranking signals.
• Competitive analysis to fill keyword gaps – Moneta still wanted nationwide keyword rankings, so we had to review their competitors to see what was missing. We identified keywords with the lowest competitive metrics and organized them into a content calendar to rank for each one.
• Content optimization – Moneta had a ton of great content on its website, but it needed a revamp for Google and new audiences. We conducted ongoing, on-page optimization, including backlinking and keyword development.

Results:

• 326% increase in net organic keyword portfolio
• 164% increase in organic keywords in positions 1-3
• Over 23% increase in Google Analytics goal completions

2. Escape the Room makes a real impression — 4 million, to be exact

With locations across 18 cities and 10 years of industry expertise, Escape the Room is a leader in the live game and entertainment industry.

With all those locations to manage, their marketing initiatives fell behind. They had a substantial base but needed strategic input to work with the algorithm and maintain a strong digital footprint.

Strategies:

• Metadata revamp – Escape the Room had 16 different locations, and not every website contained optimized metadata. But crawlers dive into these details, so they deserve some attention. That’s why we added new SEO elements like title tags and meta descriptions to keep Google happy.
• Speedy load time – Slow site speed can send your audience packing after just a few seconds. We dove into each website’s assets to remove anything clunky and decrease load time. This also improved mobile responsiveness.
• Quality content creation – From team-building ideas for company staff to escape room tips and tricks, there was no shortage of relevant content to create for Escape the Room. We paired new pieces of content with fresh, snazzy website designs to attract information-seeking readers, planting the seeds for conversion later on.

Results:

• Achieved an account-wide peak of 62% impression share
• Hit a record number of 4 million monthly impressions
• Reached an all-time-high account-wide ad position of 1.1 for the brand

3. DesktopReady waves hello from the top of the SERPs

A new website launch caused DesktopReady to experience a traffic slump, despite being a leader in their industry with over 1 million users on their desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) solution.

How could they maintain their leading position in this space with endless competition and minimal organic traffic? We knew what we had to do.

Strategies:

• Technical SEO audit – New website launches sometimes miss the mark with SEO. We conducted a full audit to catch all issues affecting the site’s appeal to SERPs.
• Content all around – We optimized old content with new targeted key terms and created new content to target more qualified leads and foster website traffic.
• SEO support for social media profiles and YouTube – Believe it or not, your social profiles matter, too. So, we optimized DesktopReady’s social media to complement its strong web content and backlink profile.

Results:

• Increased users by 409%
• Grew backlinks from 822 to 1,340
• Jumped from 4 to 468 terms in SERP rankings

Keyword revamps, backlink strategies, and content creation are not the simplest tasks to complete on a marketer’s endless to-do list. Luckily, an SEO agency can check all those boxes for you.

4. Honda doubles traffic and reaches 30 million people

Honda Motor Co. wanted to promote their new Civic hatchback and Accord models to South American audiences. The problem? They were competing for keywords with their dealership partners.

On top of that, Honda just wasn’t reaching their target demographic with their existing content.

Strategies:

• New and improved keyword targets – We needed to get Honda and its dealers on the same page. So, we looked at the digital marketing goals for all parties and created new keyword targets for each to follow.
• Audience research – Honda had a target demographic, but SEO campaigns just weren’t reaching them. We sat down to discuss the brand’s unique selling points and linked them to their customers’ needs via tailored SEO content and keyword research.

Results:

• 30% decrease in CPC (cost per conversion)
• 40% increase in dealer inquiries
• 200% increase in traffic

5. Zephyr sees massive gains in lead volume and market share

When leading SaaS company Zephyr came to us, their digital marketing strategy was overly broad and lacked cohesion. With campaigns and goals in place, they needed help reigning everything in to a sharp message and aligned approach.

With so many team members and initiatives at play, everyone was hamster-wheeling and struggling to stay caught up.

This lapse in cohesion created a hodgepodge of mixed messaging, and, not surprisingly, they weren’t bringing in as many qualified leads as they desired.

Strategies:

• Big-picture strategy: The first thing we did was get everyone on board about how to organize each and every initiative to work together cohesively. With an aligned, collaborative vision, we created a more unified strategy for all digital marketing campaigns.
• Landing page redesign and optimization: We tackled creative from the get-go and redesigned a landing page to make it more engaging. Plus, the lead form was long and convoluted. With a dynamic new landing page design and a more efficient lead form, Zephyr saw immediate results — we’re talking double the lead volume than the original page.

Results:

• 100% increase in Zephyr’s lead volume with the new landing page
• $250 decrease in CPA
• 2.5% CTR

(Image: Career Group Companies)

6. Career Group Companies boosts job applications with keyword revamp

Imagine you’re an employer with a ton of job listings, and you aren’t receiving any applications.

Career Group Companies, a staffing agency, faced this problem. The culprit? Less-than-stellar SEO was hiding their listings from prospective candidates.

We got to work with tried-and-true SEO tactics to improve the brand’s connection with its audience, drive more traffic, and improve application volume.

Strategies:

• Keyword portfolio expansion – We needed to understand why people looking for certain jobs weren’t landing on Career Group Companies’ listings. The answer was a few adjustments to their keyword portfolio, including long-tail variations and keyword phrases that included specific job titles and industries.
• Data-driven strategy – Our proprietary tech, ConversionIQ, helps us decrypt all the data to reveal the whole picture of your SEO and content marketing campaigns. We used our platform to gather sophisticated data across multiple channels and identify qualified and unqualified leads to inform a greater SEO strategy.
• New content assets – Career Group Companies wanted to highlight diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and channel company-wide goals in their content. Naturally, we created new content assets to accommodate these goals and optimized existing content as well.

Results:

• 43% increase in job listing page views from organic traffic
• 71% increase in entrances from organic searches directly to job listing pages
• Significant growth in the candidate pipeline

7. Content, colors, and CTAs bring Happy Ears Hearing Center a nearly 4X traffic increase

Happy Ears Hearing Center is a Phoenix-based audiology office that offers specialized ear healthcare services to clients.

The company had two SEO goals: one, to capture the local audience that would best benefit from their services. And two? Establish their brand as a national industry expert on hearing issues.

We cast a wider net of keywords and implemented user experience improvements to garner more conversions.

Strategies:

• User experience enhancement – Don’t you hate clicking on a web page only to be met with a long, boring block of text? We spiced things up on Happy Ears’ website with colors, digestible headers, and engaging calls to action (CTAs). This led to more local conversions and appointments.
• Expanded keyword targets – Happy Ears wants to be an online go-to for all things hearing. So, we had to research what its audience was plugging into Google and expand that across the whole country.

Results:

• 245% increase in total organic keyword rankings
• 396% increase in organic traffic
• 44% increase in local conversions
• Significant growth in the candidate pipeline

Happy Ears had its audiology services on point. With added focus on the online user experience, readers benefited from their knowledge and expertise.

8. More visuals and updated keywords help DILO recover lost rankings

DILO is a gas-handling product and service provider with decades of experience, but even its longstanding SEO wasn’t immune to a website redesign in 2019.

We’ve seen it before: lost traffic and dropped keyword rankings from a new launch or migration. And in DILO’s case, those lost rankings were high-value keywords that it really needed to get back in order to re-establish its place in the industry.

Strategies:

• On-page optimization – We always conduct a technical SEO audit after a redesign. This time, we fixed a few speed and navigation issues. Next step? Content optimization with updated target keywords and meta tags.
• Visual content – The gas industry isn’t the easiest to grasp, even with an organized, comprehensive article. We introduced more infographics and charts into DILO’s content to improve organic traffic and the user experience.

Results:

• 36% increase in organic clicks within 6 months
• 24% increase in Google clicks for high-value keywords within 3 months
• 46% increase in Google impressions within 3 months

9. Easly hits the SEO ground running with 70 new pieces of optimized content

Easly is a Canada-based platform that provides capital advances on SR&ED grants to innovative new brands.

The company was new to the digital marketing world and came to HawkSEM with a brand-new website. It was our job to get it off the SEO ground with relevant content and authority to appeal to their audiences.

Strategies:

• New content to the max – We had to start from scratch, and 70 new pieces of content did the trick. Of course, we had to ensure the information was flawless and accurate to capture niche audiences for this brand. And we wrote for every potential customer in the funnel, from curious onlookers to conversion-ripe audiences.
• Domain authority – Easly was still fresh to Google’s eyes. They didn’t have enough external or internal links to channel credibility and thought leadership. We focused on creating linkable content that naturally brought backlinks from other reputable industry players.
• Technical tidbits – New websites always have a few snags. We enhanced site speed and adjusted some web elements to improve the mobile experience.

Results:

• 2,500% increase in referring domains
• 40+ featured snippet results on Google
• 1,500% increase in the brand’s keyword portfolio

People love reassurance, especially before making a purchase. A content library brimming with industry knowledge and helpful tips delivers that assurance to both readers and search engine crawlers.

(Image: Adobe Stock)

10. Wind River triples CTR with PPC and SEO management

Wind River is a global SaaS brand that helps companies with digital transformation for vital intelligence systems in the aerospace, medical, automotive, and defense spaces.

They originally came to us for PPC services, but every cohesive marketing strategy leverages SEO, too.

Strategies:

• Internal linking – We improved site navigation and organic rankings by finding relevant placements for internal links across Wind River’s content.
• Content research – Tech niches are abundant with potential content, but you really need to ensure audience relevance before you start writing. We conducted competitive analysis and keyword research to inform our content calendar.
• Technical and on-page SEO – We covered our technical bases by cleaning up metadata and title tags. On top of that, we ensured logical formatting for web content with H1s and H2s, as well as updated all pieces of content with relevant keyword targets.

Results:

• 20% decrease in ad spend
• 294% increase in clickthrough rate (CTR)
• 39% increase in users

11. Samanage reaps organic traffic with a poppin’ content calendar

Asset management and service-desk SaaS brand Samanage operates across 50 different countries. Despite their global presence, they still had trouble ranking in the SERPs.

A custom-coded WordPress template impeded them from making technical SEO changes to appeal to Google’s crawlers. Plus, their blog wasn’t aligned with a cohesive SEO strategy, so they enlisted marketing agency Tinuiti to help them get on track.

Strategies:

• Robust content strategy – Tinuiti published over 65 pieces of content for Samanage across various types. They started with keyword-targeted blog posts and expanded to whitepapers, landing pages, and more evergreen content to improve web visibility.
• Blog redesign – Brainstorming ways to improve conversion rate optimization? Take a page from Tinuiti’s playbook and optimize your blog’s design elements with overall website A/B testing.

Results:

• 42.14% increase in organic traffic YoY
• High rankings for non-branded keywords

12. Mommy’s Bliss builds trust with new audiences via link-building

When you’re a mom-and-pop shop, marketing might be as easy as a Facebook ad or physical sign. But when you start expanding, things get more hectic.

Mommy’s Bliss sells high-quality baby products and experienced immense growth that spurred an entire website redesign. Those two events can seriously throw your SEO strategy off-course.

Luckily, help from HawkSEM made all the difference, as showcased in this ecommerce SEO case study.

Strategies:

• Backlinking for credibility – Mommy’s Bliss expanded its audience, so new visitors might not have been aware of the company’s strong values and credentials. We needed to launch a backlinking strategy to establish E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness).
• Daily SEO management – HawkSEM offers all clients a dedicated manager to oversee progress, strategize improvements, and catch any snags before they develop into bigger problems. We handled all the SEO oversight so Mommy’s Bliss could focus on creating new products for its booming audience.

Results:

• Over 65% increase in organic sessions year over year
• 79% increase in total keyword rankings
• Doubled goal completions

13. Forks Over Knives leverages search data to recover lost traffic during COVID

The pandemic kept people at home and away from the Forks Over Knives website. The health lifestyle brand noticed a slump in organic search traffic, along with a decrease in search volume for their target keywords.

But the problem wasn’t their rankings. They still held top spots for their target keywords, people just weren’t typing them into Google anymore. Search intent had changed, and marketing agency Wpromote knew the keywords needed to change, too.

Strategies:

• Trend research – Wpromote used Google Trends data to understand how people were shifting their search queries and which keywords were replacing the old ones.
• Content strategy shift – When life gives you new keywords, you make new recipes (at least, that’s what Forks Over Knives did during the pandemic). Everyone was looking for recipes, so Wpromote used trend data to predict the most highly searched recipes to create content for.

Results:

• 278,000 organic sessions for their “banana recipes” pages
• 41% increase in total organic sessions month over month (MoM)
• #1 trafficked all-channel landing page since publishing

People adapt with the times, and your SEO strategy should, too.

14. Vimeo takes technical SEO to the next level for better visibility

Even enterprise-level SaaS businesses like Vimeo need to stay sharp on their SEO. With over 260 million users uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily, it’s not surprising that indexing and structure data issues arose.

Customers struggled to conduct basic SEO tasks to optimize their videos, like indexing APIs, adding structured data to their sites, submitting sitemaps, and beyond. Meaning? They weren’t getting as many eyes on their video content.

The solution? Vimeo got on board with Google’s SEO best practices to improve visibility and searchability for their active customers.

Strategies:

• Allowing customers to index videos at scale – Vimeo streamlined the indexing process to allow embedded videos to show up on Google’s SERPs. By using iframe embeds and noindex in tandem, embedded Vimeo videos from customer websites’ could be indexed and thus, provide more visibility to their own web page without the mess of adding individual markups for each video.
• Making Key Moments searchable – Ever searched for how to boil an egg and had to skip past the first three minutes to get to the instructions? Annoying, right? Fortunately, you won’t have this problem anymore because time-stamped segments of Vimeo’s video content now show up in Google Search. By adding Clip markup to all video pages and rolling out Seek markup (auto-generated Chapters that Google identifies as Key Moments), Vimeo customers can now attract more organic traffic to specific segments within each video.

When it comes to visibility and video content, Google and Vimeo go together like PB&J.

The takeaway

Whether you’re running a small business or a giant ecommerce operation, these case studies demonstrate tactics you can apply to your own SEO efforts.

But building an effective, in-depth strategy takes time. HawkSEM’s SEO experts have over a decade of experience helping clients like you improve conversion rates, boost monthly traffic, and smash any other online marketing goals on your roster.

Our clients enjoy an average of 4.5X ROI after working with us. Ready for SEO success? Book a call today.

This post has been updated and was originally published in August 2023.

The post 14 SEO Case Studies: Challenges, Solutions + Results appeared first on HawkSEM.

YouTube has over 122 million daily active users and over 1 billion hours watched daily. This makes it the most popular video platform and, just this year, it surpassed Facebook as the most-used social network as well.

While you may not think of YouTube as a search engine, it’s actually the second most popular search engine globally, just behind Google.

If you want to appear in the YouTube search results and rank your videos on the Google search engine results page, you must know how to use YouTube SEO to boost your visibility.

As someone who tripled their email marketing list from just one video using YouTube SEO, I’ve experienced first-hand just how powerful search engine optimization can be to generate leads and sales through YouTube video marketing.

In this article, I’m deep-diving into everything about YouTube SEO with expert tips and successful examples to get you started.

What is YouTube SEO?

YouTube SEO is the process of optimizing your YouTube videos to rank higher in the platform’s search results.

Optimizing your videos for YouTube also helps them rank in Google search results, boosting your visibility.

14 expert tips to build a YouTube SEO strategy

Ready to get started with video marketing SEO? Here’s how to prime your YouTube SEO for search engine results page (SERP) success:

1. Optimize your YouTube channel
2. Do keyword research
3. Give videos keyword-rich titles and descriptions
4. Tag the video with relevant keywords
5. Categorize your video
6. Add subtitles and closed captions
7. Add video chapters
8. Use cards and end screens
9. Create custom video thumbnails
10. Build playlists to enhance watch time
11. Create and publish new videos consistently
12. Promote your YouTube content
13. Encourage engagement with your videos
14. Track results and tweak your strategy

1. Optimize your YouTube channel

Start with optimizing your YouTube channel elements so it’s easier to find you in search. Here are the elements to focus on.

Handle

Customizing your YouTube handle makes sharing your page easier while adding legitimacy to your channel. To change your handle, head to YouTube Studio and follow these steps:

• Select Customization from the left menu
• Go to Basic info
• Under Handle, you can view and change your handle
• Click Publish to confirm

Once created, your URL will render as youtube.com/@yourcustomizedname.

Banner and featured image

The YouTube banner image appears at the top of your channel. Much like a banner image on your website, the goal is to give users context about your channel and get them interested in what you offer.

While there’s no right way to create an attractive banner image, here are some best practices:

• Use your branding elements. Use brand colors, fonts, graphic elements, and your logo in the banner image.
• Keep image copy short and sweet. Highlight what your channel is about, feature your brand tagline, include a call to action, or provide details about when you release new videos.
• Add relevant imagery. Add textures, graphics, and photos relevant to your channel content and align with your branding.
• Don’t go overboard. You don’t want the channel banner to distract from your content. Avoid making it cluttered. Leave open space around the text and graphic elements.

The HubSpot Marketing channel keeps these best practices in mind with an attractive, branded banner that’s eye-catching and clarifies what the channel is about.

Don’t forget to update your featured image. If you have a personal brand channel, use a clear image of your smiling face.

And if your channel is for a business, use the logo as your featured image like HubSpot does above.

Featured video

You can feature one of your videos at the top of your profile. This will be the first video people see when they land on your channel.

Choose a video highlighting your channel’s offer. It can be one of your most popular videos or a 30-to 60-second trailer you create for that purpose.

Description and details

Complete the About section of your YouTube profile with a relevant and keyword-rich description of your channel.

When someone clicks on your page description, it’ll expand, showing the full description, links, and channel details.

Links

Don’t forget to include relevant links on your profile. Only one link will appear on your main profile page, so choose the most relevant as your first link.

You can include additional links that viewers will see when they expand the link section on your profile.

2. Do keyword research

YouTube keyword strategy is similar to finding keyword ideas for Google. Use different tools to identify search terms viewers type to find videos like yours on YouTube.

“When conducting keyword research for YouTube SEO, I determine the topic I want to cover and then use a YouTube keyword research tool like TubeBuddy or VidIQ to find relevant, high-performing phrases related to that topic,” says Jamar Diggs, a digital marketing consultant.

“I identify keywords and phrases with high search volume and low competition. Then I choose the best one that aligns with my topic and make it my primary keyword to use in the video title,” Diggs says.

“The other relevant keywords I find during this process become secondary keywords I use as tags.”

I use TubeBuddy to do keyword research for my own YouTube channel. First, I type in a general keyword based on the video topic.

I want to use keywords with a keyword difficulty and search volume that’s in the good range (yellow on TubeBuddy’s scale).

Like Diggs, any related keywords I don’t use as primary keywords become video tags (or future videos).

3. Give videos keyword-rich titles and descriptions

After keyword research, create keyword-rich titles and descriptions for your videos. Add target keywords in your raw file names before uploading the video to the platform.

Title

The title is the first thing your viewer sees when searching for content on YouTube. Like your title tag on Google, your YouTube video title determines whether someone clicks on the video.

So, make your title engaging while including the keyword naturally in the text. Keep your title concise (at 60 characters or less) to prevent it from cutting off in results pages.

Description

Descriptions can be up to 5,000 characters, but only about 100 will display under the video before a “Read more…” option is prompted. So get the main point across at the beginning of the description, along with a call to action (CTA) if applicable.

Here are a few tips to create a successful YouTube video description:

• Use your keywords. Naturally use 1-2 main keywords in the video description.
• Use formatting to your advantage. Bold and italicize font and use emojis to format your description so it’s easy to read.
• Leverage video chapters. Video chapters allow viewers to skip around to important parts of a longer video.
• Link to related videos or playlists. Include links to other relevant video content to keep viewers engaged with your videos.
• Use hashtags when applicable. Use 3-5 relevant hashtags in the description to help people find your content.

Once you find a format that works for you, save time by creating a template to reuse whenever writing YouTube video descriptions.

Pro tip: We recommend keeping descriptions at around 200 words.

4. Tag the video with relevant keywords

Tagging videos with relevant keywords also shows what your content is about. The platform allows you to use as many tags as you want as long as the total character limit across all tags is under 500 characters.

You’ll add these tags during the video upload process. Once you’re in the video editor, go to the “Details” section. Here, you’ll see the Tags box where you can enter your tags.

Here’s an example of the tags used for one of HubSpot’s videos on AI content creation tools:

Unlike the hashtags in your description, the video tags won’t be visible to viewers. It’s more of a back-end feature that helps YouTube understand what the video is about.

5. Categorize your video

Categorize your video under “Advanced Settings” after you upload it. Categorizing your videos groups them with similar content on YouTube.

This can increase showing up in relevant playlists and being recommended by YouTube.

6. Add subtitles and closed captions

Adding subtitles and closed captions to your videos makes them inclusive and accessible to the hearing impaired.

Plus, some viewers may not want to turn on sound because they’re in a quiet place or don’t have headphones.

These days, there are multiple options for creating captions or subtitles. While auto-generated captions might be easier or more cost-effective, they’re more prone to errors since the audio isn’t transcribed by a person.

While it’s important to keep budget in mind, experience tells us it’s worth seeking an affordable paid service (such as Rev) to ensure clarity, especially for complex subjects.

Alternatively, you can read over the transcript and make edits yourself.

7. Add video chapters

Video chapters allow viewers to skip around or rewatch important sections of the video. When you create video chapters, you’ll add a title for each timestamp to describe the contents of each chapter.

Adding video chapters is especially important for longer videos that some viewers may not have the patience or time to watch all the way through.

8. Use cards and end screens

Cards and end screens are two features you can use to increase viewership and watch time on your videos.

Cards

Cards are preformatted notifications to promote your brand or related videos on your channel. You can add up to five cards to a video.

They appear in the top corner of the video with an “i” logo like this:

Here are the types of cards:

• Channel cards directing people to another channel
• Video or playlists cards linking to other YouTube content
• Link cards directing viewers to an external site
• Poll cards asking viewers a question and allowing them to vote in response
• Donation cards encouraging fundraising for non-profit organizations
• Fan funding encouraging viewers to support your video content creation

To add cards to your videos, follow these instructions from YouTube.

End screens

End screens are similar to cards, except they appear at the end of the video.

These are less subtle and more visual than cards, making them a great way to encourage viewers to continue watching relevant videos, which increases your watch time.

Here’s an example from digital product YouTuber, Christina Scalera:

To create your own end screen, follow these steps from YouTube.

9. Create custom video thumbnails

Your video thumbnail is the main thing people see when scrolling through the video results. In combination with the video title, this tells the viewer what your video is about.

Customizing your thumbnails makes videos stand out and your page look more professional and cohesive. Use images that are 1280×720 pixels, 2MB or smaller, and saved as .jpg, .png, .gif, or .bmp files.

Here are a few ways to make your video thumbnails stick out:

• Show a face in your thumbnail. The more emotion the face is showing, the better.
• Use color to your advantage. Choose bright colors that draw the eye to the thumbnail.
• Keep the text concise. Keep it short and focused on the important information the video will provide.

If you don’t upload custom thumbnails, YouTube will randomly select a still from your video, which is likely not as eye-catching as a designed thumbnail.

10. Build playlists to enhance watch time

When someone watches a video from a playlist, the others in queue will auto-play one after the other, rather than the viewer selecting each video individually.

Curating multiple videos on similar subjects into playlists can increase watch time — one of YouTube’s top-ranking factors.

Depending on your videos and industry, you could create playlists for your webinars, client testimonials, how-tos, or frequently asked questions.

For example, HubSpot’s Marketing YouTube channel has playlists for “free tools and templates,” “social media business strategies,” “SEO success strategies,” and “digital marketing for beginners.”

These playlists make it easy for viewers to find the content they want while providing additional relevant content they’ll likely want to watch.

11. Create and publish new videos consistently

Want to grow your subscriber base and keep your target audience engaged? Publish new, high-quality videos consistently.

After a few months of regular publishing, you’ll collect enough data. This will identify the topics your audience engages with most.

“The biggest thing to encourage engagement is well-thought-out storytelling that sparks an emotion in the viewer,” says Gulce Onganer, a YouTube marketing expert. “The moment the viewer is moved, they will engage.”

12. Promote your YouTube content

YouTube marketing isn’t an “if you build it, they will come” situation. Actively promote your YouTube content to grow your channel’s subscriber base and get new views on your videos.

When you publish a new YouTube video, share it with your social media followers and email list. You can embed the video in an email, landing page, or blog post for maximum exposure.

“One of the simplest ways to get more bang for my SEO buck on YouTube is through embedding the videos on a blog post,” says Onganer. “This can increase your domain authority and SEO visibility over time.”

She suggests using your video script or transcripts as the basis for the blog post. Transcribe the video using an AI transcription tool like Rev, then clean it up, add some content, and optimize it before publishing it on your blog.

13. Encourage engagement with your videos

Encouraging viewers to interact with you improves engagement — another metric YouTube uses to rank videos.

You can embed “share” and “like” buttons, incentivize subscriptions, and invite viewers to leave comments. The more positive interactions you have, the better.

“It’s corny, but telling your viewers exactly what to do works,” says Christina Scalera, a digital product coach and YouTuber. “The more precise you can be with your request, the more it will happen.”

“For example, if you say ‘like and follow,’ they probably won’t. But [try saying], ‘See that button below that’s a big thumbs up? Tap on it to help this channel grow so I can create more videos for you.’”

In addition to your verbal requests, use graphics to remind your viewers to like and subscribe to your content.

14. Track results & tweak your strategy

As you publish videos, track your results along the way to tweak your strategy for best results.

“Tracking is an essential part of any SEO campaign, especially when determining the true value of YouTube SEO,” shares Sam Yadegar, CEO and co-founder of HawkSEM.

“Many times, companies don’t continue YouTube SEO efforts because they can’t track things properly, so they believe the channel isn’t viable for them. This is a huge mistake that can lead to missed market share.”

YouTube Studio has its own analytics tools to track metrics like click-through rate and watch time. But other YouTube analytics tools exist to help you get the most out of your data.

“We use ConversionIQ (CIQ), HawkSEM’s proprietary software, to granularly track every single step of the buyer journey so we can understand which of the new MQLs and SQLs were generated as a result of your SEO efforts,” Yadegar adds.

Bonus tips from a new YouTube SEO study

Along with the expert advice above, a recent YouTube SEO techniques study by Adilo revealed these best practices for optimal YouTube SEO this year and in the future.

• Target the same keywords via multiple videos
• Focus on increasing engagement in order to boost video search rankings
• Keep longer, more in-depth videos under 10 minutes
• Video descriptions should include links when applicable
• Use video titles to satisfy search intent
• Take time to get your channel verified to increase trustworthiness

3 examples of successful YouTube SEO campaigns

The best way to understand what YouTube SEO looks like in practice is to look at channels that do it well.

Salesforce

Salesforce is a software company that uses YouTube SEO to grow its visibility and generate leads and sales on the video platform. They consistently publish valuable content to bring in new leads and support customer retention.

Salesforce ranks for keywords like “sales CRM”…

…And “CRM analytics,” which are relevant search terms potential customers may want to learn more about on YouTube. It even has a CRM analytics playlist that ranks underneath its video in the top spot.

Speaking of playlists: Salesforce also develops playlists with a curated selection of videos around a common theme. Here’s an example of its created playlists:

Brian Dean

Brian Dean is an SEO expert and the founder of Backlinko, one of the most popular marketing blogs online. He regularly publishes new video content around SEO, YouTube marketing, and entrepreneurship.

Dean ranks for relevant keywords like “link building,” which can bring more people to his channel from YouTube searches.

He also regularly publishes new YouTube shorts. These videos are often less than 60 seconds and teach businesses to boost visibility and engagement in Google.

These short videos are often repurposed clips from longer videos, giving new viewers a taste of the information presented. But you can also create unique content just for the format.

Lyfe Accounting

Lyfe Accounting is a small business accounting firm that offers bookkeeping, accounting, and tax services.

Its team is active on YouTube, publishing helpful videos on a range of topics surrounding small business finance.

The company’s channel ranks for several broad, yet relevant, YouTube SEO keywords like “small business accounting” and “small business tax write-offs.”

These topics are important for the company’s target audience.

Another thing this channel does well is create scroll-stopping thumbnails that are engaging and on-brand.

The thumbnails all feature emotive faces and eye-catching text, drawing your attention to these videos in search.

All of the thumbnails use the brand’s color palette (green and yellow) and on-brand graphics, offering a cohesive look to the channel.

How the YouTube algorithm works

The YouTube algorithm delivers recommended video content based on the user’s interests and watch history.

YouTube’s goal is not to bring you the most popular or most recent video based on your query. Instead, YouTube wants to deliver the video you specifically will find most useful.

That doesn’t mean you don’t have to create great video content to rank on YouTube. In fact, it’s the opposite. The better and more engaging your video content is, the more likely YouTube will be to recommend it.

Video ranking on YouTube

YouTube doesn’t favor any particular topics or video formats. Instead, it takes its cues from viewers.

YouTube ranking is based on the video’s performance (engagement rates, watch times, etc.) and viewer personalization (a viewer’s watch history and search history).

How YouTube personalizes recommendations

When it comes to recommending videos, YouTube doesn’t take into account the actual content of the video, but rather the ways that viewers respond to it.

In addition to viewer activity like watch history, YouTube also considers the following when recommending videos:

• If people are watching the video
• How long they watch it (duration and average percentage viewed)
• If viewers like it (based on engagement rates)
• Regional context like the time of day and language spoken

Best YouTube SEO tools

From keyword research to SEO tracking, these are some of my favorite tools to use for YouTube video SEO.

YouTube Studio

YouTube Studio is a space on YouTube where you can analyze, edit, schedule, and upload videos. On the dashboard, you’ll see relevant channel analytics, the latest video comments, and other stats on published videos.

The Content tab houses all of your channel content. This is where you’ll upload videos and create titles and descriptions. Plus, you can add chapters, add your video to a playlist, upload your thumbnail, and more.

YouTube Studio also has an Analytics tab that gives you an overview of your channel performance. After you choose the time period, you’ll see statistics like views, watch time, and subscribers.

After choosing a specific video, click on the Reach tab to see impressions, traffic sources, YouTube search terms, and other content that suggests your video.

There’s also a place to view and respond to video comments. You can filter for the comments you haven’t responded to yet, making it easy to engage with your viewers.

YouTube Autocomplete

Another free YouTube tool is autocomplete. Much like Google, YouTube’s autocomplete reveals additional keyword opportunities and content marketing topics.

Start by typing in the keyword you want to rank for, and YouTube will show you additional search terms with that keyword. Use this to find inspiration and see what people are searching for.

TubeBuddy

TubeBuddy is one of my favorite YouTube SEO tools because it makes keyword research easy. TubeBuddy’s Keyword Explorer pulls data from YouTube and provides a score for each keyword, making it easier to choose the best keywords for your videos.

TubeBuddy gives the keyword a score based on:

• Search volume
• Competition
• Optimization strength
• Number of videos in search results
• Number of monthly searchers

It’ll also offer related searches that may give you new ideas for keywords.

Another cool feature TubeBuddy offers is the AI title generator. Sometimes creating an engaging and optimized title is the hardest part of the process.

Just pop your topic into the title generator, and it’ll provide many title ideas.

My favorite TubeBuddy feature is the best practices checklist that appears near your video when you upload it into YouTube Studio.

This checklist tells you what you’ve done well and what you can do to further optimize your video.

TubeBuddy also gives you a quick look at analytics when you pull up any YouTube video (yours or someone else’s). The Videolytics feature gives important stats like total views, comments, likes, and an SEO score.

Use this to get highlights on your videos or to spy on your competitors.

vidIQ

vidIQ is another one of my favorite YouTube SEO tools. It has many features similar to TubeBuddy but with its own touch. For example, the Keyword Inspector tool offers a lot of the same data (search volume, competition, overall score), but the user experience (UX) is more like a traditional SEO tool.

One feature I love about vidIQ is the Subscribers data. This shows the other videos and channels viewers engage with on YouTube. It also provides other information, like the best time to post.

Another cool feature is the ideation tool. You type in your keywords, and the AI-powered tool will provide you with new ideas. You can save the ideas you want to use for later.

Like TubeBuddy, vidIQ has a video analytics highlight that shows basic video stats. You’ll find additional information that TubeBuddy doesn’t offer, like subscriptions driven, top devices, and top countries, plus a general engagement rate based on likes and comments.

Rapidtags

Rapidtags is a simple and easy-to-use tool that’ll create tags for your YouTube videos. Not to mention, it’s totally free.

Just type in the video topic or title, and Rapidtags will provide a list of relevant tags. Simply hit the “copy” button and then paste the tags on the backend of your video in YouTube Studio.

Benefits of YouTube SEO services

No part of YouTube marketing is easy, especially SEO. But when it works well, it can drive new leads and sales for your business long after publishing the video.

If you don’t have the time, resources, or desire to do your own YouTube SEO, consider hiring a social media agency that provides YouTube SEO services.

Here are just a few of the benefits of hiring an agency for YouTube SEO services:

• Avoid costly SEO mistakes. A seasoned team of YouTube marketers can help you be strategic with your YouTube SEO strategy. They won’t make costly mistakes someone new to SEO would.
• Get faster results. A YouTube SEO expert already knows best practices and has a history of YouTube SEO campaigns to pull from, helping you get better and faster results than on your own.
• Get support with YouTube ads. SEO isn’t the only way to boost visibility on YouTube. Find an agency that offers YouTube ads, as well as SEO to get the best out of both strategies.

Want support with your YouTube SEO and ads? Contact us today.

YouTube SEO checklist

Here’s a quick checklist to use while optimizing your YouTube channel:

Optimize YouTube channel

• Choose a handle
• Upload banner and featured image
• Choose featured video
• Write a description for the About section
• Include relevant details in the description
• Add relevant links to the description

Do keyword research

• Choose topics for your videos
• Use tools like VidIQ and TubeBuddy to research keywords
• Find keywords with high search volume and low difficulty
• Create a list of primary and secondary keywords for your videos

Optimize YouTube videos

• Give videos keyword-rich titles and descriptions
• Tag the video with relevant keywords
• Categorize your video
• Add subtitles and closed captions
• Add video chapters
• Use cards and end screens
• Create custom video thumbnail

Improve engagement and watch time

• Build playlists to enhance watch time
• Create and publish new videos consistently
• Promote your YouTube content in emails, on your blog, and in social posts

The takeaway

Creating a YouTube channel is a great way to get more visibility, grow your audience, and attract new leads and sales. But creating videos is only half the battle.

By following the YouTube SEO tips above, you can better position your content to appear in the search results on YouTube and Google.

Need support with YouTube SEO? The HawkSEM team is ready to help — book a free consultation today.

This article has been updated and was originally published in February 2022.

The post YouTube SEO: 14 Tips to Improve Rankings and Views (+ Examples) appeared first on HawkSEM.

Google’s search engine results page might be the most popular place to display Google Ads  — but you can broaden your reach beyond Google with Google Search Partners.

This network of third-party websites, search directories, and Google-owned properties like YouTube can boost visibility and clicks. But it can also come with trade-offs, like lower-quality traffic.

In this article, we’ll break down who Google’s Search Partners are, how to decide if it’s the right choice for your campaigns, and if so, how to maximize its performance.

What are Google Search Partners?

Google Search Partners are websites that partner with Google Ads to display promotions on their sites and search results pages.

They’re part of the Google Search Network and help to extend the reach of ads to hundreds of sites across the internet.

Essentially, Google Search Partners puts your ad across websites beyond Google and YouTube, with the goal of increasing your ad’s overall reach.

List of Google Search Partner sites

Google doesn’t share a complete list of its Search Partners. However, the following are confirmed partner sites:

Google sites:

• Google’s search engine
• Google Images
• Google Maps
• Google Play
• Google Shopping
• YouTube

Non-Google sites:

• 247 Sports
• Amazon
• Ask.com
• BizRate.com
• Dogpile.com
• Excite.com
• Lycos.com
• Target
• The New York Times
• W3Schools
• Walmart

A telltale sign that a website is sharing Google text ads? Hover over the ad link. Notice how this sponsored ad on Dogpile directs to a Google.com domain:

Take a look at what these ads can look like on partner sites. For example, here are Google ads on Ask.com:

BizRate.com:

YouTube:

And finally, Dogpile.com:

Websites that have opted into the Google Search Partner network receive a small cut of the ad revenue in exchange for hosting the ads.

While some smaller search engines partner with Google, Bing doesn’t, and it actually offers its own Search Partners network for its advertisers.

Is Google Search Partners worth it? Pros and cons

“Some advertisers find that Google Search Partners can bring additional traffic and conversions,” says Vaibhav Kakkar of Digital Web Solutions. “While others might see lower conversion rates or higher costs-per-click.”

Ultimately, the best way to determine if GSP is right for you is to segment and test your campaigns and review performance.

Generally speaking, however, there are some common pros and cons.

Pros:

• Greater reach
• Higher conversion rates due to a larger audience
• Lower costs per click (CPC)

Cons:

• Sometimes lower quality results
• Higher bounce rates if ads appear on sites that aren’t relevant to your target audience
• Lack of control with ad placement

“Google Search Partners is a viable avenue to attract more potential customers,” says HawkSEM CEO and co-founder Sam Yadegar.

“Not only do we use this to grow conversions, but we track and analyze the data in a granular fashion to increase conversion rates and to lower cost per acquisition as well.”

In fact, HawkSEM was able to help Peer Software increase conversions by 128% by integrating Search Partner campaigns into their overall strategy.

Similarly, Magee Clegg of Cleartail Marketing helped a brand generate a 14,000% increase in website traffic with Google Search Partners.

Audrey Bakhach of Custom Digital Solutions helped another brand reduce cost per lead by 20% and increase conversions by 30%.

“This showcases how leveraging Google Search Partners can lead to enhanced targeting and cost savings,” says Bakhach, “ultimately boosting campaign performance and delivering tangible results.”

Best campaign types to use for Google Search Partners

If you’re new to GSP and want to test out a sure-fire (or as close to it as you can get) campaign, here are two campaign types to try first.

Brand campaigns

A brand campaign focuses on using branded keywords, or keywords that include your brand name in them.

For example, client management platform HoneyBook created a brand campaign so its ad shows up at the top of its brand name search:

Using Google Search Partners for branded campaigns can help spread the word about your brand while also ensuring your competitors aren’t bidding on your name and stealing traffic.

RLSA campaigns

RLSA campaigns, or remarketing lists for search ads, target people who have already been to your website.

Using this type of ad for a Google Search Partners campaign can improve conversions and overall performance because your ads appear for people who are already acquainted with your site.

Further reading: What is Google RLSA? + How to Use It Right (7 Expert Tips)

How to turn off Google Search Partners

If Google Search Partners doesn’t seem like the right fit for your campaigns, you can turn off this setting inside your Google Ads account:

1. Click Campaigns
2. Hover over the campaign you want to exclude from the Google Search Partners setting
3. Click the gear icon next to the campaign name
4. Click the drop-down menu for Networks
   1. Uncheck the box for “Include Google Search Partners” (To only show your ads on Google Search, the Google Search Network checkbox should be the only box selected)
5. Click Save

How to turn on Google Search Partners

The default campaign settings automatically include GSP. But to manually turn this setting back on:

1. Log into your Google Ads dashboard
2. Click the campaign you want to leverage Search Partners
3. Click the Settings tab
4. Click on the Networks drop-down menu
5. Make sure the box that says “Include Google Search Partners” is checked
6. Click Save

How to improve your Google Search Partner performance

If you decide to give this network a try, here are seven strategies to get the most out of your Search Partner ads.

1. Research where your audience spends time
2. Create separate Search Partner campaigns
3. Use specific Search Partner keywords
4. Test new features and offers with Search Partners
5. Experiment with your ads
6. Turn off Search Partners for low-performing campaigns
7. Monitor your ad performance

1. Research where your audience spends time

If you know your audience only (or mostly) uses Google and its proprietary websites, turning on Google Search Partners likely won’t benefit your text or display ads performance.

On the flip side, if you run an ecommerce store and know your audience also shops on sites like Amazon and Walmart, reaching them through the Partner network can be a great tactic.

Pay attention to where your audience spends their time online and use that to inform your ad strategy.

Conducting market research, researching user demographics, and putting together a user persona can help you discover this information.

Further reading: How to Create an Ideal Customer Profile (+ Template)

2. Create separate Search Partner campaigns

While you can’t create a campaign only for Search Partners, you can create two campaigns with this option toggled on for one and off for another.

“Segment your campaigns to allocate budgets and set bid adjustments specifically for partner traffic,” explains Bakhach.

“This level of control can make a significant difference. Keep a watchful eye on the performance of partner websites and apps within your campaigns, allowing you to identify top-performing placements and exclude underperforming ones.”

This ensures your ads consistently surface on relevant and high-quality partner sites, increasing the likelihood of engagement.

Creating multiple campaigns gives you more granular control, ensuring you hit your goals.

3. Use specific Search Partner keywords

Paying attention to past Search Partner data can improve your ads for the future. Look at your Search Query reports from existing Search Partner ads to pinpoint high-performing keywords.

Then create Search Partner campaigns specifically for those keywords.

“By routinely evaluating your campaign’s performance data and making the necessary adjustments, you’ll be well on your way to leveraging Google Search Partners effectively and boosting engagement while keeping a cost-effective strategy in play,” advises Bakhach.

Further reading: How to Build a Keyword Strategy: 6 Easy Steps (+ Expert Tips) 

4. Test new features and offers with Search Partners

Just because Search Partners didn’t work for a previous campaign doesn’t mean it’s never going to work. When you launch new features, products, or service offerings, test GSP again.

“The best advertisers, in my experience, are those who remain personally invested in their efforts and are open to change,” says Draven McConville, founder at Klipboard.

“They don’t hesitate to attempt new things and experiment.”

5. Experiment with your ads

Speaking of experimenting, test different formats, sizes, and creative assets within your ads, as well as different features and offerings.

“For advertisers looking to leverage Google Search Partners effectively, I recommend utilizing the extensive targeting options, unique ad formats, and flexible bidding strategies offered by Google,” Clegg recommends.

In other words, you have options — use them.

Bakhach agrees, stating that to adapt to the varied layouts and screen sizes of partner websites and apps, leverage responsive ad formats. They’re like chameleons for your ads, ensuring they look good and perform well across different platforms.

“Explore different targeting options, including keyword targeting, demographic targeting, and device targeting, to [home] in on the most relevant audiences in the partner network,” continues Bakhach.

“Lastly, don’t be afraid to experiment with various bidding strategies, such as target impression share or maximize conversions, to find the approach that best aligns with your campaign objectives.”

6. Turn off Search Partners for low-performing campaigns

Google Search Partners isn’t going to work for every campaign. Sometimes, no matter how you adjust your keywords, bid strategy, or what have you, it simply won’t perform the way you want it to.

And that’s okay — just turn off Search Partners in those instances and focus solely on Google sites.

To monitor the effectiveness of your GSP campaigns, check in frequently.

You may increase the performance of any advertisements by changing your bids or targeting if you notice that they aren’t receiving many clicks or conversions.

“Concentrating your investment on the sites that are giving you the best results, will help to increase the overall performance of your ads,” says Michael Wall, founder at Codefixer.

7. Monitor your ad performance

Finally, keep an eye on your ads to ensure they’re working hard for your business.

“The key to effectively using Google Search Partners is to monitor its performance closely,” says Kakkar. “Separate the data for Google and its partners to analyze which channels are driving the best results.”

“Adjust bids, ad copy, and targeting settings accordingly,” continues Kakkar. “It’s essential to regularly review and refine your campaign to ensure that you’re getting a positive return on investment from Search Partners.”

For some businesses, it can be a valuable addition to their advertising strategy, while others may find that focusing solely on Google Search yields better results.

FAQs about Google Search Partners

Here are some of the top questions advertisers have when it comes to the Google Search Partner network.

Can I choose where my ads appear?

You cannot choose specific sites to show your ads.

“Your ads will show up on the types of partner sites as users who like specific things or work in certain fields, based on your targeting parameters,” Bakhach explains.

“The only other thing you can tweak is putting in ‘negative’ sites. So, if you have users coming that are producing more spam you can block ads on that site.”

Can I turn Google Search Partners on for select ad groups but not others?

Google Search Partners is a campaign-level change, so you can’t switch this option on for different ad groups.

However, you can duplicate a campaign and have one campaign using Search Partners and another campaign solely living on Google sites.

Can I create a campaign only for Google Search Partners?

No, you can’t. You can create a campaign just for Google sites, but you can’t do the inverse and create a campaign just for Search Partners.

You can set your Google search ads to appear in Google’s search engine results pages (SERP) and Partner sites.

How to tell when traffic comes from Google Search Partners

Inside your search terms report, you can use the “Network (With Search Partners) option to segment your traffic by the Google Search Network and Google Search Partners.

Indicators of traffic from Search Partner sites may include: a very low cost per click (CPC) or lower than expected conversion rates.

Will a lower clickthrough rate (CTR) impact my Quality Score?

No. While ads on Search Partner sites can impact other important metrics positively or negatively, they won’t impact Quality Score.

5 myths about Google Search Partners

Not every brand or campaign sees success from Google Search Partners. Of course, this can be the case for many new strategies. However, there are a few misconceptions.

1. All partners are smaller search engines

While many are, like Dogpile and Ask.com, there are other sites too. Your ads can appear in search engine results, on directory pages, or even in search results on ecommerce sites like Amazon or Target.

2. If Google Search Partners doesn’t work for one campaign, it won’t work for any campaign

Google Search Partners can work on a campaign-by-campaign basis, fully dependent on the ads, ad types, and targeted keywords.

Google Ads itself is always changing, updating functionality, offering new features — so experiment with your ads, but always check back in to see if Google has introduced new options that can give your Search Partner ads another chance.

3. Search Partners is for traditional search campaigns only

Search Partner ads don’t only show up as traditional search campaigns. You can also use it in the display network and for shopping ads.

Again, test different ad types and creative to see what works best for your brand.

4. You can’t get more granular than segmenting by Search Partner network at the campaign level

One big frustration advertisers have is that you can’t see a comprehensive list of all Search Partners and how each one is performing.

However, there are other ways to take a look at your ad performance. For example:

• Look at how your keywords are performing, and select specific keywords for your Search Partner ads.
• Review your match types to see how they perform across networks. In many cases, broad match keywords don’t always perform well on the Partner network.
• Consider device usage, as Partner ads don’t always convert as well on mobile devices.

5. If the CPA is higher in Search Partners, you can’t do anything about it

Search Partners offers less control than traditional search ads. However, if you head back to our seven tactics for optimizing and improving your Search Partner ads, you’ll discover ways you can minimize the CPA (cost-per-action) for your ads.

The takeaway

The more reach your ads have, the higher the traffic you receive — and Google Search Partners can help you achieve this. But if you’re not getting the right traffic to your site, you’re wasting ad spend on irrelevant clicks.

To improve your performance and optimize your ad campaigns, reach out to HawkSEM to get help from our seasoned experts. We’d love to improve your PPC campaigns and boost your return on investment (ROI).

This article has been updated and was originally published in February 2024.

The post What Are Google Search Partners? + 7 Pro Tips appeared first on HawkSEM.

Launching a startup is like bungee jumping: thrilling and terrifying all at once.

But seeing your idea turn into a small business is pretty hard to beat.

In an industry full of digitally savvy owners and employees, startup businesses understand the important role digital marketing plays in their business’s success.

But if you took the leap, only to find the traditional marketing efforts left you hanging, don’t panic. Use these 8 steps to launch your digital marketing strategy (and startup) toward serious success.

You can find free tools to do everything from keyword search and content improvement to PPC campaign analysis and competition monitoring. (Image: Unsplash)

1. Start with keyword research

The buying journey begins with a keyword.

From search engine optimization (SEO) to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, keywords act as the blueprint for your strategy. The more relevant your keywords are, the better chances you’ll have at engaging the right audience.

Consider using tools like AnswerThePublic and Keywords Everywhere: Enter at least two words that describe your product, service, or offer.

These tools will suggest keywords you can target in your ad campaigns and website content.

Besides the basic keyword research practices , it’s also essential to keep the following in mind:

• Stage of the funnel – keywords need to differ for potential customers at different stages of the sales funnel
• Existing content – if two or more pages on your website are targeting the same keyword, they’re competing against each other on the search engine results page (SERP), which can hurt your rankings
• Branded keywords – this is especially geared toward PPC ads, however, be sure to include branded keywords in your marketing campaign (because your competition certainly will)

And, look. We all have a tendency to over-complicate things.

While keyword research tools are extremely useful, don’t forget that Google search itself is perhaps the most insightful (and free!) tool of all. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and enter a few Google searches.

Do your competitors show up? What are Google’s predictive text suggestions? Check out the “People also ask,” and “related searches” sections, too.

Once you’ve done some research and determined the best keywords to go after, you can build a more organized campaign in Google Ads, write smart ad copy, create a content calendar, optimize your website, and design eye-catching landing pages that motivate action.

Pro tip: Don’t forget to pay special attention to negative keywords — the search terms you don’t want to target in your PPC campaigns. Common examples include “Free,” and “Cheap.”

2. Conduct a full website audit

The top search result in Google’s organic listings has an average CTR of more than 27%. Needless to say, the quality of your website directly affects the success of your digital marketing plan.

Google works hard to make the searcher’s experience as helpful and effortless as possible.

To accomplish this, Google uses web crawlers that read and index the pages on your website and an algorithm with ranking factors that signify how helpful and relevant a website is to a searcher.

To ensure your website has a better chance of ranking, conduct a quick website audit. You can use a tool like Ahrefs to help you with this; just enter your website’s URL and run an audit.

Ahrefs will crawl your site and return an overall “health” score of your site. It will also show you areas where you can improve.

This includes fixing broken links, testing your site speed, reviewing the mobile-friendliness of your site, and making sure your pages are indexed properly.

Google rewards you for creating a high-quality website, and an engaging website will keep people on your website longer. This gives you more time to engage customers and encourage them to buy.

When it comes to everything from the design to the technical SEO, you want to ensure your website is in top form.

3. Explore free tools to drive paid and organic traffic to your site

Paid search marketing (also referred to as PPC) is one of the most effective methods around when it comes to digital marketing for startups.

And many of the tools used to assist your PPC campaign buildout and optimization (think: market research and competitor analysis) offer a free version or a free trial.

Even if free options don’t offer the same functionality, they are still useful and cost-effective tools for your preliminary strategy and ongoing PPC and organic optimization alike.

Here are some tools that help improve your digital presence:

• Google Ads Editor – to assist with your Google Ads campaign
• Google Market Finder – to find the best markets for your new business
• AnswerThePublic – to improve keyword search
• Google Analytics – to analyze website visitors
• Moz Local Listing – to check your local online presence
• Ahrefs Backlink Checker – to check your backlinking strategy (and see what competitors are up to)
• SERP Simulator – to see how your webpage will look on Google’s search result page
• Schema Generator – to create Schema markup

In addition to improving your digital presence, you’ll also want to properly track metrics to see where your conversions are coming from, so you can maximize your ad spend. For this, there’s ConversionIQ.

Our proprietary marketing platform connects all of your online advertising and marketing channels into one dashboard.

The result? A reporting system and optimization tool that gives us a clear picture of your marketing efforts — and where improvement opportunities exist.

Transparent analytics and reporting without hopping around from platform to platform.

4. Use audience research to guide your social media marketing decisions

More than 70% of American adults use social media.

Most startups choose Facebook as their debut in the social media world because it has the highest global reach rate. However, Facebook might not always be the best fit for you.

Instead, use audience research to identify which social platform the majority of your audience uses most.

Audience research tells you more than what search terms your customers are using — it tells you who your customers are, what sources of influence matter to them, and where they spend their time on social media.

“You need audience research to get your message where your ideal customer already is,” says Amanda Natividad, VP of marketing at SparkToro.

“An audience research strategy means you’re keeping a pulse on what your audience cares about and what they’re already talking about. Then it’s up to you to create the content that resonates with them.”

To conduct audience research, start by engaging in organic conversations with your audience to learn what they care about, what social accounts they follow, what problems they have, and where they spend time.

You can also use a tool like SparkToro to enter keywords and learn more about how your audience behaves online.

Compare and contrast the information you found in your SparkToro search with the conversations you had with customers to draw conclusions.

Once you find out who your target customers are and where they spend their time, you can focus your content creation efforts and social media posts on the platforms that make the most sense for your startup.

What’s more, your audience research will tell you what kind of content will engage them most.

Pro tip: Even if you don’t start posting on all social channels immediately, it’s a good idea to go ahead and claim your company’s name as your username across the major platforms, so you’ll be aligned and easy to locate once you expand your posting.

5. Build out & revamp your knowledge base

Nearly 90% of millennials will use a search engine before calling customer service.

That means startups should create a knowledge base to provide excellent resources right on their website.

Be it technical documentation, FAQs, or how-to guides, you can take full advantage of these materials to provide a top-notch customer experience online.

However, providing tutorials and answers to customer questions aren’t the only benefits of a robust knowledge base.

These resources also help dictate your company’s content marketing and search engine optimization strategy.

Creating quality content is time-consuming but crucial to help your startup stand out in a crowded sea of competitors.

And while creating new content for your website goes a long way, you don’t have to create all new content to boost your SEO efforts. It’s just as effective to optimize and repurpose existing content (score!).

The reason? The age of a particular URL is a Google ranking factor.

As such, you often have a higher chance of ranking for a particular keyword if you optimize and refresh an old post instead of creating a completely new post.

Some ways to refresh old posts include:

• Add keywords to your knowledge base materials, and post the full texts on your website
• Use the existing content in blogs and on social media to establish yourself as an industry expert
• Add links to this content on your website for internal linking purposes (when it makes sense)

When you create new knowledge base content, keep SEO best practices in mind

6. Build email lists

Like paid search and content marketing, email marketing is another component of a well-rounded digital marketing strategy.

Stats show there are more than 4 billion daily email users and that people engage with company emails.

The best news about email marketing? Startups can use an email service provider (ESP) that integrates with ecommerce websites. These ESPs have features that make it possible to easily capture email addresses, segment lists, and test emails to increase open and click-through rates.

Start your email marketing strategy by including an email subscriber form on any page where your audience frequents.

Add a subscriber form to your homepage, your checkout process, and your most popular blog posts.

Additionally, you can take advantage of automation and other tools to create personalized email campaigns that target the right people at the right stage of the buyer’s journey.

Automated emails generate 320% more revenue than manual emails. Once your list is ready, you can initiate various automated email marketing campaigns for different segments of your audience at different stages of the sales funnel.

Once you’ve picked out a solid email platform to use, you can work on building your list through tactics including:

• A limited-time offer or special discount
• Offering exclusive content
• Putting an email signup form on your website
• Creating a contest that involves opting in to enter

Of all the various email automation tactics startups can use to engage customers, it’s essential to set up an abandoned cart automation.

Research from the Baymard Institute found that the average cart abandonment rate across industries is more than 70%.

Startups that are not using an abandoned cart recovery email are wasting a huge opportunity to re-engage customers and capture a sale.

In fact, online shoppers openly admit they abandon carts and wait for a re-engagement email to get a discount.

Image: Twitter

Your ESP will walk you through the exact steps of how to set up an abandoned cart automation email series.

Typically, you’ll start by requiring an email address during the checkout process. Then, you’ll set up a trigger in your ESP to send an automated email to any subscriber who clicks out of your site before finishing their purchase.

7. Leverage user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful marketing tool that often costs you next to nothing.

This smart marketing solution allows your customers to become brand ambassadors while making your job easier so you can focus on other marketing matters.

79% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions.

In fact, consumers find UGC 9.8x more impactful than influencer marketing content when making a purchasing decision.

There are several types of UGC that startups can use to boost credibility and lend social proof to their company. UGC includes reviews, unboxing videos, how-to tutorials, Instagram content, TikTok videos, and sponsored posts.

Startups can also use UGC across all platforms to improve digital marketing efforts. This includes posting UGC on their website, social accounts, and review pages.

Il Makiage is an example of a brand that uses UGC effectively. It pulls content from its customers right into its web design and product description pages to show other consumers how real customers are using the product in question.

Showing how real customers use your product is a brilliant way to encourage other customers who are browsing your products to buy.

Simple ways to gather UGC marketing for your content strategy include:

• Creating customer surveys
• Interviewing experts in your field
• Running contests with branded hashtags
• Asking customers to leave reviews
• Posting customers’ content on your website and social media (with permission)
• Offering incentives to loyal customers who refer new customers
• Gifting customers free products

Pro tip: To gather more reviews, register your company on Google Business Profile and Bing Places.

8. Keep an eye on the competition

The last several years have ushered in robust advances in technology, high growth rates in retail, tech, and commerce, over 5 billion global internet users, and more people than ever using the internet to shop.

Along with that, we’ve seen a staggering number of new, competitive, startups enter the business landscape. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing — if you’re strategic about it.

You can actually use your competition to your advantage by studying their case studies and what works for them, then determine how to provide a better user experience.

While you don’t want to mimic or copy another brand, you can make note of successful tactics and brainstorm how your team can use them in your own ways, and implement their tactics as part of your growth strategy.

Ask yourself questions like: Are they ranking for a topic you could write a better, more recent content piece about? Are there high-volume keywords they’re not targeting?

Pro tip: One sure-fire way to get a leg up on competitors? Enlist digital marketing pros. Our experts know all about online marketing for startups — find out how we can help you maximize your resources, optimize your marketing channels, and crush your competition with our digital marketing services.

The takeaway

There’s a lot that goes into effective digital marketing for startups. But when you prioritize these eight practices, you’ll be poised to see impressive success, growth, and development.

Of course, it can feel overwhelming with all that goes into keeping a nascent company powering through.

Create an action plan with the help of a startup marketing agency that’s thorough yet doable, and you’ll be headed in the right direction.

When in doubt, HawkSEM is the digital marketing agency trusted by startups to boost brand awareness, lead generation, and scale their business.

This article has been updated and was originally published in June 2020.

The post Digital Marketing for Startups: 8 Steps to Crush Your Goals appeared first on HawkSEM.

Keywords are, well, key to guiding your content marketing strategy and improving your website’s SEO (search engine optimization) performance.

And understanding the difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords can help you craft an effective digital strategy that targets prospects at every stage of the funnel.

In this article, we’ll explore the differences between short-tail and long-tail keywords, and how to leverage each to maximize your SEO efforts.

Long-tail keywords target niche audiences and often have higher conversion rates due to their specificity. (Image: Unsplash)

What’s the difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords?

Long-tail keywords are highly specific search terms that attract niche audiences, whereas short-tail keywords are more broad and aim to reach a wider audience.

Short-tail keywords (also known as head keywords), such as “digital marketing,” appeal to a broader audience and generate higher search volumes. However, they face greater competition and usually have lower conversion rates.

In contrast, long-tail keywords, like “digital marketing services in Boston,” target niche audiences and often have higher conversion rates due to their specificity. They have a lower search volume but attract people who know what they want.

What “short-tail” and “long-tail” mean

The terms “short-tail” and “long-tail” actually come from their positions on the “search demand” curve.

(Image: HawksEM)

If we take all search queries performed on Google over a month and order them by their search volumes, the resulting graph shows long-tail keywords in the “long-tail” of the curve due to their lower popularity.

Meanwhile, short-tail keywords occupy the “fat head” of the curve because of their higher search volumes.

Are long-tail or short-tail keywords better?

Both long-tail and short-tail keywords have pros and cons.

Short-tail keywords come with hefty competition and can require years of consistent SEO strategies and building quality backlinks.

But if you rank on the first page for a short-tail keyword, benefits include:

• A lot of traffic: High rankings for short-tail keywords bring in substantial organic traffic.
• Strong backlinks: Ranking high often means you’ve built valuable backlinks, which you can leverage to boost other pages on your site through internal linking.

Long-tail keywords shine for different reasons:

• Lower competition: With less competition, it’s easier to land the top spots.
• Higher conversion rates: Long-tail keywords typically attract site visitors with a specific intent, often leading to higher conversion rates.
• A lot of options: There’s a much higher number of long-tail keywords to target, giving you more opportunities to reach your audience.

However, you’ll need to rank for many long-tail keywords to achieve a significant volume of search traffic.

So, which is better? The reality is you need both.

Short-tail keywords: Pros and cons

Short-tail keywords (also called “head terms” or “broad terms”) typically contain up to three words, for example:

• Swimsuits
• Red roses
• Digital marketing services

When you think about your business, these short terms are the first words that usually come to mind. They’re also the first terms to come to the consumer’s mind when they’re looking for something online.

Short-tail keywords can be the same for a variety of businesses. For “red roses,” this keyword could apply to a local flower shop, an ecommerce shop, or a big-box chain store.

That’s why the competition to rank highly for short-tail keywords is often fierce.

Short-tail keyword pros

• Appeal to a broad target audience: Shorter keywords are excellent traffic drivers for your website, thanks to their high search volume.
• Easy to determine: They don’t require extensive target audience research or keyword search. You can likely come up with a dozen short-tail keywords or more with a quick brainstorming session.
• Easy to use: Short search terms can be used to create a great variety of easy-flowing content, helping to shape your overall content strategy.

Short-tail keyword cons

• High competition: Everyone wants to drive significant traffic, avoid extensive keyword searches, and write easy-flowing content.
• The wrong type of traffic: Short-tail keywords are more general than their larger counterparts — for example, “French tips” could apply to nail salons or those trying to learn the French language.
• Low conversion rates: Short-tail keywords can generate numerous clicks, but the number of people who convert is usually lower.

If you can rank for short-tail keywords, you’ll likely generate a lot of traffic for your website and boost brand awareness.

However, you might also see an increase in your bounce rate from people in the early stages of research.

Long-tail keywords: Pros and cons

Also called “narrow search terms” or “keyword phrases,” these are more specific keywords than their short-tail partners — for example:

• Swimsuits for toddler boys
• Fresh red rose bouquets near me
• Digital marketing services in Boston

By entering a longer search query, people are more likely to find what they’re looking for. Often, the more specific the search, the higher the likelihood of purchase intent.

While you may generate less traffic with long-tail keywords than you would with shorter terms, more of your visitors are likely to convert.

Long-tail keyword pros

• Low competition: You’re more likely to rank at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) and reach your target audience.
• User intent: People who use narrow search terms are usually closer to the bottom of the sales funnel than those who use short-tail keywords.
• Conversion rate: Searchers with high intent are more likely to convert.

Long-tail keyword cons

• Specifics: It takes more time, research, and effort to identify long-tail keywords your target audience may be searching for.
• Content implementation: Unlike broad terms, long-tail keywords can be harder to use in your content organically.
• Low volume: 92% of all keywords get 10 or fewer searches per month (i.e. 92% of all keywords people type into search engines are also long-tail)

Overall, long-tail keywords are harder to identify and implement into your SEM campaign. However, they require a lower budget and provide a higher conversion rate, as Yoast explains.

Long-tail and short-tail keywords work better together

Ultimately, an efficient SEO strategy involves a balanced use of both types of keywords.

Short-tail keywords target the top of the sales funnel, while long-tail keywords work closer to the bottom.

Each keyword type contributes to achieving the final goals of your marketing strategy.

(Image: Unsplash)

How to find the right keywords

Start your keyword research with short-tail keywords: Brainstorm what general terms describe your brand and offer.

Then, do a quick Google search of those terms to see what shows up on the SERP. Google’s predictive search might offer insights into keywords you should target.

Next, use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, or Ahrefs to identify which keywords you (and your competitors) already rank for and find related terms.

Using your tool of choice, assess metrics like:

• Monthly search volume: Frequency of keyword searches
• Keyword difficulty: A score from 0 to 100 indicating how challenging it is to rank for them
• Cost-per-click (CPC): Helps evaluate the commercial value of the keyword

How to find the right long-tail keywords

With a list of sort-tail keywords under your belt:

1. Google Search

Consider common questions related to your business or offering and enter them into Google search. Check out the “People Also Ask” section and predictive text for additional keyword ideas.

2. Google Keyword Planner

Inside the free Google Ads tool, search for keywords related to your topic and filter by search volume.

3. Keyword research tools

Use the advanced features of SEO tools like Semrush, Moz, or Ahrefs to analyze keyword difficulty and find related keyword suggestions.

4. Conduct a competitor analysis

With your keyword research tool, check out your competitor’s targeted keywords to identify any gaps. (SpuFu is a great resource for this step.)

Listen to your audience

Browse forums, boards, and social media groups related to your offering to see what people are asking and how they phrase their questions.

Similarly, use surveys, feedback forms, and direct interactions for more direct information.

Further reading: How to Do Keyword Research: Tools to Use + Proven Tips

How to incorporate short and long-tail keywords in your content strategy

Short-tail keywords are ideal for primary topics, overarching categories, and main pages. These broad terms help you rank for general searches and draw in a diverse audience. Use them for:

• Top-of-the-funnel content: Articles and pages designed to attract a broad audience.
• Navigational queries: Pages that guide users to your main products or services.

Long-tail keywords excel in targeting niche audiences with specific search intents. These keywords are perfect for subtopics, detailed blog posts, and specific product features. Use them for:

• Product pages: Emphasize detailed features and benefits.
• Blog posts: Address niche topics and answer specific customer queries.
• Subcategories: Create in-depth guides and informative content.

This is done most effectively through topic clusters.

Topic clusters

Also called a hub and spoke strategy, a topic cluster content strategy is a way to organize your website content to cover broad topic categories and more specific sub-topics relevant to your niche, products, and audience interest.

The model looks like this:

• Pillar page (short-tail keyword): Serves as a content hub on a broad topic, often centered around 1-2 broad keyword matches, with internal links to supporting content.
• Cluster pages (long-tail keywords): Relevant subtopics on separate web pages, linked within a broader pillar page.

(Image: HawksEM)

In other words, pillar pages act as comprehensive guides to broad topics (targeting short-tail keywords) with internal links to more specific, high-level articles (targeting long-tail keywords) that further educate your reader.

A hub and spoke strategy can:

• Build topical authority with E-E-A-T guidelines
• Increase web traffic
• Improve the user experience (UX)
• Enhance site architecture with an internal linking strategy

The best part? It seamlessly integrates all keyword types into your content strategy in an organized way that offers real value.
Further reading: What Are Topic Clusters for SEO? (+ Pro Tips to Create Them)

How to implement your keyword strategy

Using your list of short-tail and long-tail keywords, create a content strategy built around your target audience’s needs.

HawkSEM SEO manager Alyssa Mountz uses the following metrics to decide what type of content to create:

Pillar articles that target a short-tail keyword should include those long-tail keywords for an internal linking strategy that keeps readers engaged.

And while the target keywords should be included in your metadata and H1 tags, use them naturally throughout the body of your content to avoid keyword stuffing — repeating keywords excessively can harm your SEO efforts.

Looking ahead: How recent algorithm updates impact long-tail keywords

While including long-tail and short-tail keywords has been best practice for SEO, Google’s recent algorithm updates have put more pressure on targeting the right long-tail keywords.

With the introduction of Google AI Overviews (and other SERP features), users now expect search engines to deliver exactly what they need.

That means content needs to target the perfect long-tail keywords and provide visuals, downloadables, and an attractive meta in order to appear at the top of the SERP.

“If your page is a perfect match for long-tail searches and keeps users engaged with compelling content, it’s more likely to [surface] in personalized results,” explains HawkSEM Senior Lead Strategist Madison Scherner.

“Then there’s the challenge of even if your page ranks well, a boring meta title and description won’t drive clicks.”

Enhanced metadata (engaging titles, compelling descriptions, and structured data) makes your results stand out.

“Diving into your personas and truly understanding what your searcher is looking for and then presenting yourself as the best option is the lifeblood of SEO,” says Scherner.

The takeaway

By leveraging broad and narrow terms, you can get one step closer to improving your search engine rankings, bringing more traffic to your website, increasing brand awareness, driving sales, and boosting your bottom line.

And with Google’s algorithm becoming better at understanding user behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns, identifying the right long-tail keywords and using them effectively is more important than ever for SEO success.

But you don’t have to balance your SEM and SEO strategies alone. Get in touch with HawkSEM today to see how we can help.

This article has been updated and was originally published in April 2021.

The post Short-Tail vs. Long-Tail Keywords: Key Differences (+ When to Use Each) appeared first on HawkSEM.

A functional, lightning-fast website is the gold standard in the eyes of Google and website visitors alike.

That’s why Google created Core Web Vitals: three specific metrics the search engine powerhouse uses to measure the user experience of a webpage.

In this guide, find out what these core metrics are, how you can measure them on your website, and how to optimize for a better user experience and rankings on the search engine results page.

What are Core Web Vitals?

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics (loading, interactivity, and visual stability) that Google refers to when measuring the quality of a website user’s experience.

These ranking factors are a part of Google’s “Page Experience” signals.

These vitals are graded on a scale of “good,” “needs improvement,” or “poor” and are made up of three specific site speed and user interaction measurements:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), aka Loading

Largest Contentful Paint measures how quickly the largest elements of a webpage load, such as the primary logo, header, or video.

An ideal LCP score should be around 2.5 seconds or less, according to Google (meaning the largest piece of content is loaded within 2.5 seconds).

Because the largest elements of a website are meant to be consumed first, a good LCP score allows the user to engage with the content right away.

Alternatively, a poor LCP score results in a more frustrated user who is likely to bounce.

Interaction to Next Paint (INP)

Interaction to Next Paint measures how quickly a webpage responds when someone interacts with it.

So, when a button is clicked, INP calculates how quickly the page takes to deliver the result or “next step” of that click.

An ideal INP score is 100 milliseconds or less. Much like LCP, this loading time supports a good user experience and prevents people from bouncing off the page too early because of a long wait time.

Note: INP replaced First Input Delay, or FID, back in May 2023. FID also measured responsiveness (how long it took the browser to process the first interaction on a webpage), but it was determined that there were limitations to this metric.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

CLS measures how much the content of a webpage shifts around while loading – in other words, its visual stability.

A good CLS score (0.1 or less) means that everything stays in place while the page is loading.

This impacts user experience, particularly when it comes to trying to click a button that suddenly shifts during loading.

This experience can cause users to land on new, unintended pages or multiple (frustrating) click attempts while the button moves around.

Just like it’s important for your health to check your body’s vitals, the same goes for the health of your website. (Image: Unsplash)

Why Core Web Vitals matter

“Google prioritizes pleasant web experiences for readers,” says CEO of HawkSEM Sam Yadegar.

“Load times are one of the key ranking factors, we’ve seen rank climbs for ourselves and our clients once Core Web Vitals are at a healthy state.”

Aside from an improved user experience, Core Web Vitals offer:

1. Higher rankings on the SERP

Core Web Vitals metrics greatly influence technical SEO. Better CWV? Higher rankings, more traffic, visibility, and reach.

2. More conversions

A well-functioning website is more trustworthy and enjoyable, making people more likely to convert.

3. Increased user retention, lower bounce rates

Slow-loading websites almost guarantee a bounce. A fast, functional website reduces frustration, helps keep people engaged, and encourages them to return.

How to measure your Core Web Vitals

There are a few ways site owners can test their web pages’ Vitals. These include the Chrome User Experience Report, the Core Web Vitals report through Google Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights.

There’s even a Chrome extension that will show you the Web Vitals results for a current page.

The tricky part here is that your score can change as you scroll through a page and can depend on whether you’re accessing it via mobile or desktop.

You also want to determine whether you’re looking at Web Vitals “lab” data or “field” data.

The former is collected and approximated through a browser’s API, while the latter is collected from actual user experiences on your site.

You can address pages with poor scores and work to optimize them through things like upgrading your web host or compressing images. (Image: Unsplash)

Here’s how to measure your Core Web Vitals performance depending on different types of tools:

Google Search Console for performance overview data

Google’s free platform is the ultimate analytics tool to monitor your site’s performance data:

• Go to Google Search Console
• Select your website
• Go to the “Experience” tab
• Go to “Core Web Vitals” report

This is where Google will rank your URLs “Good,” “Needs Improvement,” or “Poor,” according to Core Web Vitals.

Google PageSpeed Insights to measure results

This is another free tool from Google that offers CWV data with both lab and field data included in the reports.

Again, “lab” will provide data from people’s devices across all geos and networks. The “field” section, on the other hand, offers data from simulated devices.

• Go to PageSpeed Insights
• Enter your URL and click “Analyze”
• Review the results and suggestions for improvements

Pro tip: Use the PageSpeed Insights extension from the Chrome Web Store to measure your Vitals in real-time.

Lighthouse for more detailed analysis

Lighthouse is another Google-owned tool that helps provide further analysis of a website’s performance for auditing purposes.

This tool may be helpful for additional insights, but comes with a more steep learning curve for most accurate and helpful use:

• Open Chrome
• Go to the page you want to analyze
• Open Developer Tools (right-click on the page and select “Inspect” or press Ctrl + Shift + I)
• Go to “Lighthouse” tab
• Select the options you want
• Click “Generate Report”
• Review Core Web Vitals scores and suggestions

Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) for field data

CrUX reports on real-world data and provides a holistic view of your website’s overall Core Web Vitals performance (rather than individual URLs).

• Go to CrUX Dashboard (part of the Chrome Web Vitals and Chrome UX Report tools)
• Enter your URL
• Review your report

(Image: Screenshot)

How to optimize your website for Core Web Vitals

Once you have an idea of how your Core Web Vitals currently rank through the tools listed above, you can dig into some optimizations.

Here are our top tips for leveraging the three Vitals metrics:

How to improve LCP

First, review the LCP data across your entire site. From there, it’s time to address pages with poor scores and work to optimize them through things like upgrading your web host or compressing images:

1. Optimize images and videos

Massive, slow-loading images can cause major issues for your LCP score. Here are some ways to optimize your images and videos:

• Compress images
• Use modern formats
• Serve multiple resized images
• Prioritize loading
• Remove unnecessary image bloat
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to cache and deliver images globally
• Set optimal caching headers
• Use a caching plugin

2. Implement lazy loading

Lazy loading refers to the technique of delaying the loading of certain parts of a webpage until necessary, which ultimately speeds up the loading time of the webpage.

But remember, avoid lazy loading any LCP images. These are the primary page content elements we want to load first and fast, and lazy loading is meant to facilitate that goal.

Instead, lazy load images below the fold and prioritize the order in which page elements are downloaded so LCP elements load first.

3. Improve server response time

Easier said than done, here are some ways to optimize your server response time:

• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
• Optimize application codes
• Use server-side caching
• Upgrade to a server with better CPU capabilities and storage
• Only use system fonts that are already installed on the user’s device, and only include the font weights and styles that your site needs
• Leverage Memcached

How to improve INP

1. Reduce JavaScript execution time

Lighthouse outlines the best ways to achieve this:

• Only send the code that your users need by implementing code splitting
• Minify and compress code
• Remove any unused code
• Reduce network trips by caching your code with the PRPL pattern

2. Minimize main-thread work

The “main thread” handles user interactions, rendering pages, and running JavaScript — all taxing work that can overwhelm and lead to slower page loads.

Some ways to minimize the main-thread work include:

• Optimize third-party scripts
• Use web workers
• Precompile or use server-side rendering (SSR)
• Defer unused JavaScript
• Reduce the complexity of your styles
• Use efficient animations
• Minimize DOM size
• Implement code splitting
• Avoid long-running JavaScript functions

How to improve CLS

To minimize unexpected layout shifts that happen as your website loads (and ultimately improve your CLS score), you can:

• Set size attributes for images and video in your HTML
• Use CSS transformations for animations
• Avoid ads or embeds that cause layout shifts

Pro tip: While Core Web Vitals can be a helpful tool in gauging your site’s effectiveness, our expert team has saved clients a lot of time and money by only using CWV as a diagnostic to point to potential UX problems — not merely a score to be improved.

Additional important web vitals

While not considered Core Web Vitals, there are several “bonus” performance metrics that Google considers while ranking your website’s speed and functionality worth mentioning:

• Time to First Byte (TTFB): How quickly a browser receives the first byte of data from a server after someone requests a file.
• First contentful paint (FCP): How long it takes the first content on a webpage to load (not to be confused with the largest content (LCP).
• Total Blocking Time (TBT): How long a page is blocked from responding to user input while loading.
• Time to Interactive (TTI): How long it takes a webpage to become interactive after it’s loaded.

Other Page Experience signals

We know that Core Web Vitals are one of Google’s primary “Page Experience” signals.

While Google doesn’t provide a complete list of Page Experience Signals, we do know Google also considers these signals while evaluating real-user experience:

• Mobile-friendliness ensures a website functions on mobile devices.
• Safe browsing checks that a website is free from harmful content like phishing or malware.
• HTTPS measures whether a website is served over a secure connection to protect user data.
• No Intrusive Interstitials (NII) makes sure a website doesn’t use intrusive pop-ups that cover the main content on the page.

The takeaway

Achieving good Core Web Vitals not only ensures a positive user experience, it also leads the way to success through organic search.

Understanding what each Vital means, how to measure your current performance, and implementing optimizations will have a massive impact in every aspect of your digital footprint.

But if your team needs a little extra horsepower, we got you.

This post has been updated and was originally published in August 2020.

The post Core Web Vitals: What They Are + Why They Matter appeared first on HawkSEM.