Learn to increase your number of subscribers and get more engagement with your push notifications. See successful push notification examples.
The post 3 Ways To Get More Push Notification Subscribers & Clicks (With Examples) appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
A weekly technical SEO checkup that provides a high-level overview of search presence health can be achieved in as little as 20 minutes.
The post Technical SEO: The 20 Minute Workweek Checklist appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
We hear a lot of talk about SEO and Paid Search living together in perfect harmony, side by side on your search engine results page, but how do we?
The cost of unnecessary paid brand clicks quickly adds up. Especially if you’re already dominating your SERP (search engine results page). This can feel like an uphill battle for you and the team as economic sentiment continues in uncertainty and spend efficiency is still top of mind.
Join Gary Galloway, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Adthena, as he covers how you can support growth strategies and help your brand achieve SERP while also decreasing costs
Register today for “Skyrocket your results with organic and paid search harmony,” presented by Adthena.
The post Webinar: Paid and organic search harmony can skyrocket your results appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Instagram publishes new best practices for creators to follow to increase their eligibility for recommendations.
The post Instagram Best Practices For Recommended Content appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
The post SEO Forecasting: 3 Unique Ways To Prove The Value Of SEO To Clients & Stakeholders appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
WordPress released a security and maintenance update to address three vulnerabilities.
The post WordPress Releases 6.02 Security Vulnerability Update appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
PPC campaign managers have had tight control over their account management, data insights, and optimization tactics for almost two decades. But everything is changing.
Query data is already scarce, keyword match types are blending into an amalgam of broad match, and signal loss continues to impact performance data and audience management.
With campaign types such as Performance Max and the lack of visibility into performance, PPC managers need to utilize every available targeting and optimization tool in their arsenal.
Dedicated audience strategies can provide additional control and specified targeting that delivers results. In my previous article, we reviewed the benefits of a well-defined audience strategy.
Now, let’s review your options for creating and managing privacy-focused audiences for PPC campaigns.
It’s worth noting that your timeline for the cookie apocalypse has been extended. The Google Chrome/Privacy Sandbox Team previously stated that third-party cookies would retire sometime in Q3 of 2023. Now, they have extended that timeline to 2024. According to the announcement from Chrome:
“By Q3 2023, we expect the Privacy Sandbox APIs to be launched and generally available in Chrome. As developers adopt these APIs, we now intend to begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024.”
Google needed more time to prepare properly for the retirement of cookies. They are still working on the framework for a post-cookie world. Also, with their stock price fluctuations, I think Alphabet (Google’s parent company) did not want to negatively impact the product (Google Ads) which drives close to 80% of their operating revenue.
Whatever the reason might be, the result is still the same: you have more time to plan for the post-cookie world. However, this doesn’t mean that you should stop building your measurement and audience frameworks, because this will happen eventually.
There are a few ways to build your audience data within Google and Microsoft.
The most direct way to build audience data is via each platform’s tracking pixel. Third-party cookies currently have a shelf life of about two years. I encourage you to start creating a new privacy-focused framework. But for now, if you want to rely on tracking pixels, you can – but the clock is ticking.
Google has recently released a new version of the Google Tag. The new version of the universal tag will serve as the core implementation pixel for all Google marketing properties including Google Ads, Google Analytics, and SA360. Currently, you can use Google Ads and Google Analytics to configure your Google Tag.
Microsoft Ads also provides their Universal Event Tracking (UET). This universal tag provides analytics data for websites, such as conversions, sales, and revenue. Also, you can use the UET tag to build audiences within the Microsoft Ads platform.
Both Microsoft Ads and Google Ads support direct uploads of audience data into their platforms. On both ad platforms, advertisers can upload a CSV file that contains first-party customer data.
Many advertisers are not yet using this method to create audiences in PPC. They are still creating audience segments and remarketing lists based on their website pixels.
As I mentioned, this strategy will work for the next 18-24 months approximately. But advertisers need to start building an audience framework that is durable when cookies are not available.
Once you have audience data propagating into the ad platforms, then you need to create audience segments to target your ads to the right people.
Uploading a CSV with your customer data is only the first step in creating an audience strategy.
The PPC platforms use your customer profile data to discover user accounts created within those ecosystems.
I’m focusing on Google Analytics 4 (GA4) because Universal Analytics (UA) will sunset on July 1, 2023. Historical analytics data will not transfer into your new GA4 account from UA.
Even if UA remains your source of truth for a while longer, you should start building performance history in GA4 right now.
Audience segments can also be created within GA4. Advertisers can build audiences based on website user behavior tracked in GA4. These audience segments can be ported into Google Ads when the two platforms are connected.
Once your customer data is populating within the PPC platforms and you have created audience segments based on this data, then you are ready to expand on this foundation.
Both major PPC platforms provide ‘similar audiences’ segments. Using your existing customer segments, Google and Microsoft will find users with similar habits and browsing histories to your target audience. According to Google:
“Google Ads looks at the recent search activity of the visitors in your remarketing list to help aggregate search behavior of the visitors in your list. Based on this information, the system automatically finds new potential customers whose search behavior is similar to that of people in your remarketing list.”
Similar audiences is a third-party audience since it relies on profile data from the PPC platforms. However, these audiences should be relatively durable even after cookies retire.
The profiles are built on numerous data points based on search history, account profile data, and browsing history that should maintain post-2024.
These two audience types also rely on data from the PPC platforms. These segments:
In-market audiences refer to individuals who are in the market for a product or service currently. These are usually needs-based or short-term interests that could align with your brand. Often these individuals are actively searching for your product or service but may not have discovered your brand yet.
On the other hand, affinity audiences are usually based on someone’s long-standing passion, interest, and engagement with specific topics.
These two types of audience segments are similar but they do perform differently. If these audience types are not part of your strategy, you should test each to see which works for your campaign.
GA4 has some unique capabilities around audiences. One of the interesting features is predictive audiences. These segments blend your onsite audience data with predictive algorithms within GA4 to determine potential actions that users could take.
Here is the current list of available predictive audiences in GA4.
Topics API is an entirely new way of curating and creating audience segments. This feature is still being beta tested within the Privacy Sandbox. There have been a few cookieless tactics proposed by Google, but I think this has a good shot of making it to the general public.
There are two parts to how Topics API functions:
According to Google, Topics API is privacy-safe:
“And, by providing websites with your topics of interest, online businesses have an option that doesn’t involve covert tracking techniques, like browser fingerprinting, in order to continue serving relevant ads.”
Hopefully, the algorithms that determine an individual’s topics of interest have improved. Google Ads offered a previous version of topics/interest targeting within the Display Network and performance within those campaigns was usually much weaker than other audience-based targeting options.
Advertisers have received an extension on their pixel-based audience strategies. This does not mean you should become complacent when crafting your first-party audience framework.
Keep moving forward toward a framework that is not solely reliant on third-party pixels. PPC managers always want more control over their campaigns and a structured, thoughtful audience framework is the backbone of successful PPC accounts.
The post A PPC guide to privacy-focused audience targeting appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Twitter is rolling out a feature similar to Instagram’s close friends that allows users to make select tweets visible to a small group of people.
The post Twitter Circle Lets You Send Tweets To A Select Group appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
LinkedIn is expanding access to professional certifications through new partnerships with Meta, Oracle, and IBM.
The post LinkedIn Offers Professional Certifications From Meta, Oracle, and IBM appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Twitter is working on new timeline options that will integrate Tweets and other media around specific events or themes. Initially announced on June 11, 2022 by the social media platform’s head of product development, Amir Shevat, it went live for the first time on August 24 with a timeline about ABC’s ”The Bachelorette.” This 10-week trial program will be available for a small group of users in the U.S. and Canada. Topic-Focused Timelines Will Allow Users to Follow Conversations Around Subjects Users will be able to follow custom timelines via an in-app prompt. Upon being clicked, users will be shown […]
The post Twitter’s New Feed Options Look To Help Users Discover More appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
In order to retain and grow existing customer relationships, leading organizations are betting on first-party data solutions that can drive impact for both acquisition and retention initiatives.
Join ActionIQ and Hearst’s VP of acquisition and conversion as they discuss how Hearst is unlocking value by leveraging its first-party data to drive conversion across both subscriber and e-commerce products.
Register today for “Harness Your First-Party Data For Customer Acquisition & Conversion,” presented by ActionIQ.
The post Webinar: Harness first-party data for conversion appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Retail businesses can now add in-store products to their Google Business Profile listings.
How it works. When customers search for a Business Profile they can find a products carousel (on the Maps mobile app), or a carousel and “Products” tab if they’re using Google Search.
With the “Products” tab, customers can:
How to add products. There are two ways to add products to your Business Profile.
To preview how products will appear to customers on Google Search, managers can click See it on Google about a minute or two after uploading.
Required guidelines. retailers and advertisers who want to add products to their Business Profiles must follow Shopping Ads policies.
Additionally, Google does not allow regulated products such as:
Read more. The new Products section was spotted on Twitter by Stefan Somborac. You can learn more about setting up products on your Google Business Profile here.
Why we care. Allowing shoppers to browse items and prices before walking into a store can help increase visits and sales from both new and returning customers. With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, retailers and advertisers who can add products to their Google Business Profiles, and want increased visibility, should do so as soon as possible.
The post Google Business Profile guidelines updated to include products appeared first on Search Engine Land.
YouTube is adding more metrics for creators in its main app, bringing it to parity with the YouTube Studio app.
The post YouTube Adds Metrics To Main App, + New Way To Manage Livestreams appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Instagram announced two new features to help users control what they see in their feeds.
Mark as Not Interested. The first feature is the ability to mark multiple posts in the Explore section as Not Interested. Those posts will be hidden and users won’t see similar posts in the future.
Keywords, phrases, and emojis. The second new feature is the ability for users to tell Instagram you don’t want to see suggested posts with certain words, phrases, or emojis in the captions.
See more of what you want. To see more posts you’re interested in, Instagram suggests some best practices.
Why we care. Social media users don’t like being inundated with too many advertisements or promotions, especially if that content isn’t helpful or relevant. These new features give Instagram users more power to dismiss or hide content they find irrelevant, overly promotional, or spam.
Advertisers and brands that use Instagram to promote their content may want to reconsider the types of posts they publish. If the content is relevant, followers will be more likely to engage. Brands should look at their Instagram stats and evaluate whether the content they’re posting is well received among their audience.
The post Instagram is testing 2 new ways to control your feed appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Google shares six SEO tips that combine structured data and Merchant Center to get the most out of your website's presence in search results.
The post Google’s 6 SEO Tips For Ecommerce Websites appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Winning an industry award is a rewarding, cost-effective way to generate publicity, attract new business, boost team morale, and stand apart from the competition. Enter the 2022 Search Engine Land Awards now for your chance to take home the highest honor in search!
The final deadline is coming up fast – submit your application by Friday, September 9 to be considered by our esteemed judging panel, featuring John Lee – Head of Evangelism at Microsoft, Cyrstal Carter – Head of SEO Communications at Wix.com, Thom Craver, Director of Consumer Products at CBS News, and more.
Not sure where to begin? Check out How to craft a winning Search Engine Land Awards entry: Past judges share their advice for insights on what makes a winning application. If you have any other questions, send them our way at awards@searchengineland.com and we’ll get back to you ASAP.
Winners will be announced on October 17 in exclusive coverage on Search Engine Land – the industry publication of record.
Take the first step now by creating your account and exploring the application process. If you have questions, please reach out to us at awards@searchengineland.com.
Best of luck! We look forward to your submission!
The post T-minus 2 weeks to submit your Search Engine Land Award entry! appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Get creative with AI and generate unique images to better suit your content. Here are the best steps to get the most out of it.
The post How To Create Perfect Images For SEO With Dall-E 2 appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
SEO pros also need to adopt a UX mindset. Learn how both disciplines work together and how SEO professionals can use UX to improve results.
The post SEOs – You Can’t Afford To Ignore UX appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Attribution has been the holy grail for advertisers since the beginning of time, especially for media platforms that typically sit further away from the conversion and play a role in branding (i.e., billboards, banner ads and videos).
In September 2021, Google Ads announced its plans to move away from last-click attribution to a data-driven attribution (DDA) model. This change is intended to better allocate credit that search keywords play in a consumer’s purchase decision.
Last month, Google started letting advertisers know it will automatically switch conversion tracking to the data-driven attribution model. Using machine learning, Google believes that data-driven attribution provides the greatest opportunity to value each unique interaction properly.
Here’s what this change in default attribution model means for advertisers and businesses.
Media platforms have long maintained their contributions in influencing consumers about the brands and products they purchase.
How will the recent attribution shift affect these platforms?
Think about Hulu’s path and the ad products Disney+ and Netflix will sell to advertisers wanting to tie conversions to their media placements.
Think about Pinterest and Snap’s challenges when cutting ad budgets.
What is the first to go? Conversion drivers at the end of the funnel, like search, or awareness-based tactics, like sponsored stories?
This discussion is what makes attribution such a timeless discussion.
Google has the same problem as all these companies but within their own properties.
While Google has shown its ability to grow its search business consistently in almost any economic condition, its real growth opportunity comes in non-search tactics (YouTube, Gmail and Google Display Network).
Inventory is essentially limitless in these areas, unlike search. This is why this change is so important for Google and advertisers.
Let’s start by breaking down attribution and the different models that indicate how “credit” for conversion is applied. The six common attribution models are:
Moving to a DDA model will create conversions for keywords that are <1.
For example, if two keywords are involved in conversion the DDA model may allocate the credit for that conversion as .25 and .75 or .5 and .5. as opposed to giving full credit to the client keyword as a whole number.
Many advertisers’ digital marketing efforts go beyond just Google ad buying platforms. However, DDA within Google Ads only considers Google properties in attribution modeling.
Let’s say a customer clicks an email, then searches for your brand, then watches a YouTube video before clicking through on Facebook to your website to buy.
In this scenario, Google will only allocate credit to Google proprieties. This could potentially give more credit to a conversion or result in double-counting across analytics platforms or conversion tags you might be using.
I pulled data across a vast majority of our accounts and looked at the differences between the various models.
I noticed slight differences when indexed against the total number of conversions. So slight that I had to alter the chart’s y-axis to the thousandth place.
The most significant difference was between last click and first click attribution (which makes sense since it’s the biggest difference in strategic approach).
The second closest was last click to data-driven attribution. Even so, the swings were less than 0.3%.
Now, these swings may be larger for advertisers with bigger non-search spend amounts or heavy users of Performance Max campaigns.
However, even the accounts with these features didn’t see that big of a difference to change how we managed them materially.
This is a very personal choice for the brand. We have seen most of our customers move to DDA, given the smaller change each model has on the total number of prior reported conversions.
Also, the total number of conversions reported out of Google Ads before any shift does not change. Thus, it is just within your account that conversions change. Comparing another tactic like Facebook pre/post won’t be impacted.
Ultimately, the amount of data that Google has on various conversion paths goes beyond any individual advertiser. It also can help provide insights into where cookies or other data is opaque for advertisers (see modeled conversions).
Also, to inform this decision, Google has created the ability to compare various model types. Go to Google Ads and navigate to Tools and Settings > Attribution > Model Comparison.
This tool will allow advertisers to see the variances between the models. Using these comparisons, you can help communicate and educate your internal team about the potential impact.
Overall, data-driven attribution, while not a silver bullet solution completely, provides better insight into various ad types and keywords and how they impact the customer journey.
This will allow your brand to allocate budget and resources better – ultimately optimizing your business to maximize results.
The post Data-driven attribution: How to think about Google’s default attribution model appeared first on Search Engine Land.
More traffic, greater leads, higher ROI, and happier customers? Yes, please. When it comes to long-form content, blogging is where it’s at.
The post How To Repurpose Long-Form Content Into Supplementary Content appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Reliable rank tracker software is crucial to developing a successful SEO strategy. Aside from tracking keyword rankings, SEO tools provide you with keyword research features and useful SEO metrics, which lets you pick the most effective keywords for your website.
With so many rank tracking tools in the market, how do you know which one is the best fit for you? This list includes some popular rank tracking tools, showing what scope of tasks they offer based on different pricing models.
Rank Tracker from SEO PowerSuite enables you to track keyword positions, analyze SERPs, research keywords, explore competitors, and make estimates for SEO and PPC campaigns.
The accuracy and volume of keyword data make it a decent competitor of industry-leading rank-checking tools, such as Semrush or Ahrefs. Meanwhile, Rank Tracker is affordable for small businesses. It is also cost-efficient when it comes to large SEO agencies.
Main features:
Pricing plans: Free version or Professional $149/year, Enterprise $349/year, billed annually.
Rank Tracker’s free version is pretty generous. It allows checking an unlimited number of keywords and websites. You can compare your rankings with one competitor. Besides, you can research as many keywords as you want.
With the Professional edition, Rank Tracker allows you to record the SERP history and track rankings for up to five competitors. Besides, it allows scheduling keyword position checks.
The Enterprise version of Rank Tracker is great for reporting to SEO clients as it comes with the white-label feature to add your company name and logo to your reports.
Mangools is web-based software providing various tools for tracking search results. With this tool, you can quickly monitor top gainers and losers in SERPs.
Main features:
Pricing plans: Basic $358.80, Premium $478.80, Agency $958.80 if billed annually, monthly billing is available.
Mangool’s pricing plans differ by the limits on the number of keyword lookups per 24 hours. The Basic plan allows up to 100 lookups, 500 lookups are allowed in the Premium plan, and 1,200 lookups in the Agency plan. The number of tracked keywords also ranges from 200 to 700 and 1500 respectively.
This SEO tool offers a fairly limited free trial.
SE Ranking is a cloud-based platform for SEO and online marketing professionals.
Its rank checker has neat keyword dashboards to help you easily understand what’s going on in search results.
Main features:
Pricing plans: Essential, Business, and Pro, monthly and yearly billing available.
The pricing plan of the SE Ranking online rank tracker is based on the frequency of your ranking checks: depending on whether you run the checks daily, every three days, or weekly. Besides, there is a limit of 5 search engines or locations per keyword.
The cheapest is the Essential edition, with weekly checks of 250 tracked keywords. It will cost $225 if billed annually. The most advanced Business plan with daily checks for at least 2500 keywords will cost around $1800 if billed yearly.
Ahrefs is a popular SEO and marketing platform that lets you audit websites, research keywords, analyze backlinks, etc. The rank tracker tool in Ahrefs provides a pretty compact dashboard where you can grasp all your trends in keyword rankings at a glance.
Main features:
Pricing plans: Lite $990/year, Standard $1,990/year, Advanced $3,990/year, Enterprise $9,990/year if billed annually; monthly billing is available.
Rank tracking history is available in all plans but Lite. Like most cloud-based rank tracking software tools, Ahrefs charges per keyword in the project. The Lite plan allows tracking up to 750 keywords per project; Standard — 2,000 keywords, Advanced — 5,000; and 10,000 keyword checks are available in Enterprise.
There is also a pay-as-you-go option to get additional keyword entries at $50 per 500 keywords. For additional costs, you can get daily checks of your keyword positions.
Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker tool allows an unlimited number of verified projects. But there are limits on tracking the unverified domains, starting with five in the cheapest plan.
Semrush is an all-in-one web-based solution for a complete SEO and marketing workflow. Due to its costly pricing, it is more suitable for large SEO agencies.
Main features:
Pricing plans: Pro $1,199/year, Guru $ 2,299/year, Business $4,499/year, if billed annually.
Similar to other powerful rank tracking tools, Semrush tracks search engine rankings in multiple countries and languages. However, these features, as well as keeping historical data, are available only with Guru and Business plans.
The Pro plan limit is 500 keywords to track simultaneously per all projects, 1500 for Guru, and 5000 for Business (with the keyword ranking progress updated daily). The number of projects is 5, 15 and 40 respectively. There are also some limits on the number of keyword metrics’ updates per month.
WordPress enthusiasts know the power of the Yoast SEO plugin. Now they can have even more with the Wincher integration for tracking keyword rankings.
Main features:
Pricing plans: Starter $288/year, Business $588/year, Enterprise $2388/year, if billed annually; monthly billing is also available (the price in U.S. dollars is approximate since the payment is made in euros).
The free version of the Wincher rank tracking plugin is limited to one keyword per five posts, just to give you a slight taste of rank checking. The paid version allows reviewing organic ranking positions of up to 10,000 keywords, with five keyword phrases per post if used in combination with the paid Yoast SEO.
Rank checking in a meaningful way
Hopefully, this comparison list of rank tracking tools will help you figure out what software you need for your tasks. If you are new to rank tracking, read our detailed guide on how to track SEO results and what important metrics to consider.
The post Keyword rank tracking software – 6 tools compared appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Looking to land a new SEO role to grow your career? You may want to consider becoming an in-house SEO specialist.
Thanks to the Great Resignation, more jobs are available and plenty of companies are currently open to remote work gigs. There’s a significant demand for in-house SEO roles, with hundreds of openings advertised around the U.S. alone.
Now’s the ideal time to give it a shot as the demand is high, yet the bar is not too steep. You have the opportunity to improve your own “hireability,” and as a former long-term in-house SEO strategist, I have tips for you.
But first, why look in-house?
In-house SEO can be advantageous compared to working for small SEO agencies or as an independent consultant. Benefits include things like:
For instance, a larger company can call an IT person to fix your computer or internet access. In contrast, if you are independent, you may be doing everything ranging from accounting, IT, sales, and advertising to performing your HR functions, hardware upgrades, system admin work, and more.
My experience at doing SEO in-house for one of the world’s largest corporations and subsequently providing strategic guidance for other in-house teams has given me insights into how people may position themselves best for obtaining in-house SEO roles.
Below are 10 tips you can use to land that ideal position.
There are many aspects to SEO, and it can take considerable time to become a jack-of-all-trades in this arena. You should first look to leverage your existing skills and background.
If you come from computer science and programming, focus on learning:
You might also learn how to configure spidering software to perform audits on a website and how this can help review SEO elements across many of a website’s pages.
If your background is in writing, read up on:
Those with a business analytics background should learn:
You will use your specialization as a starting point and then work to expand your knowledge and skills to be more of a generalist in SEO later.
A specialization frequently helps you get your foot in the door with a company since those skills may match up with more available positions, albeit there have been increasing roles available as SEO specialists.
This advice likely goes without saying, but all those interested in working in SEO should read up on the most influential and simplest ranking factors, and how to assess whether a website has them established.
Before writing this piece, I posted a poll on Twitter asking what one thing someone should do to prep to become an in-house SEO. The number one item that voted for was “Read Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and SEO Documentation.”
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines are general advice on what Google likes and dislikes. There’s also SEO documentation, including an SEO Starter Guide, that provides dependable, authoritative introductory instruction on SEO.
While it is easy to hyper-focus on the industry juggernaut, there’s value in reading Bing’s Webmaster Guidelines. Many SEO elements are parallel in Microsoft Bing, but there are differences.
According to my informal Twitter poll, SEO books were not a popular suggestion for learning the craft, but there are good ones out there that can help you learn SEO very well. Some of these SEO books can also be very helpful when researching issues that may come up outside the basics.
If you are a beginner, read a beginner’s guide – just not one marketed to “dummies” because you are not a dummy! Also, The Art of SEO is a great reference book, although I would not recommend it as a guide for beginning to learn the craft. The great thing about having books on your desk for reference can be a great resource to point to when someone does not believe you, and you need an authority to point to.
Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML, is the formatting instruction protocol that tells browsers how to display webpage content.
A page’s HTML can be very complex and resembles programming code, so this may seem daunting. However, it is pretty easy.
You can view any webpages’ HTML code – often by right-clicking on the page in your browser window and selecting “View page source.” You can also view the code that composes the page by adding “View-source:” in front of the page’s URL in the browser address bar and clicking “Return” to view it.
You can learn HTML just by viewing code this way, but many webpages are so complex that this will prove frustrating.
You can also refer to online video tutorials on how to write HTML and guides and articles for learning the language.
Some of the best tutorials provide a “sandbox” area on the webpage for one to write HTML directly, which will immediately display the result. For instance, the Learn-HTML.org website provides instructions and sandbox areas to try out the code.
Once you have learned HTML, you might also learn further about CSS and JavaScript basics as they are closely intertwined in contemporary websites.
Nothing beats hands-on experience, and this is ideal for learning both HTML and SEO. No matter your skill level, this should be an option open for you.
Make a website around your personal interest because it should be a topic that will inspire you to work on the site.
A personal website can also provide you with a safe space to experiment with different aspects of SEO, such as structured data, redirects, and image SEO.
When I hired code developers at Verizon, it was sometimes difficult to select between many qualified candidates.
But I found that those who had developed their own websites were typically an order of magnitude better for SEO and brought more real-world experience and skills to the table.
You do not have to hand-code HTML and CMS to launch your own website.
If you’re not as familiar with web coding, you could choose to go with a web host company that provides turnkey WordPress installations. You could also try Wix or other CMS.
If you have time and inclination, it is great to set up a few websites on a few different CMS platforms to gain skills and advanced understanding.
When you achieve rankings for key terms related to your topic, you could use your website as an example of your work.
Many agencies and top consultants may accept interns or apprentices in return for work. Take on such a gig to gain further experience and enhance your resume for landing a desired in-house SEO position.
Beware, however. There is a difference between cold-calling people or agencies you admire and applying for listed intern positions. Those of us operating agencies receive many cold-call offers from off-shore developers, lead-gen partners, and people offering to do work for us.
So, you will have to either focus only on applying for posted internship positions or go to extra effort to court an agency or independent consultant compellingly enough to break through all the noise.
Once you have an intern position, you may use it to step up into another role that helps build your job history into your dream in-house SEO role.
It may be easier to initially get a position within a company for a non-SEO role, but you can then work to transition yourself into providing SEO analysis, guidance or development.
Discover who within the company are the decision makers who can approve SEO efforts or who may already be providing SEO guidance to an extent.
If there is already a primary in-house SEO person, you may be able to campaign to work with them as a team member, or you may be able to assist them from your existing position.
Often, the SEO role is shared in some way between the Marketing and IT departments. (In other places, it could even be in the Sales or Business Development departments.)
Individuals who carefully and sensitively position themselves to help facilitate SEO and can communicate its value proposition while exploring ways to make optimizations happen have an edge. They can have a role created specifically
This tip likely needs to be my number one recommendation for in-house SEOs!
You would think that SEO cleverness might be the most beneficial skill for these roles – and, I think it should be considered second to soft skills.
But being diplomatic and communicating effectively and professionally will get you further along in your career than nearly anything else.
You may dream of ranting in an offended, dramatic tone when your system admin bans the pesky Googlebot and Bingbot, but you also may need that person to do you a favor later. Thus, embarrassing them in front of leadership will not win you a friend and ally.
As an in-house SEO, you not only need to be able to convey ROI advantages to your leadership, you will need to persuade others to collaborate with you and inspire everyone to work toward increasing qualified referral traffic.
When I was younger in my career, my mentors suggested improving my soft skills – picking up the phone more rather than attempting to direct and persuade through email.
They were right. I have also seen younger SEO professionals hamstring their career growth through too-blunt and unprofessional speech.
Even worse, others have tripped up in dealing with others because they did not understand the value of maintaining culturally sensitive communications in professional settings.
Consider bolstering your ability to do public speaking and writing well.
And, seriously, take sensitivity and diversity training courses online.
One mark of professionals in the SEO industry is that we must all keep up with a rapidly evolving landscape. Read the top news emerging here on Search Engine Land and Search Engine Roundtable, as well as top articles in other publications.
You might also want to read the commentaries about new and emerging things written by top consultants in the industry.
Some articles posted on the major SEO tools’ websites are also very good quality – particularly the research studies that they conduct from time to time.
Search engines publish thousands of changes per year, so reading the articles posted each week on major websites can distill down the information to the most important for you to consume.
Make a consistent habit, and you will not fall behind or go stale.
There are plenty of conferences, meet-ups, and workshops provided around the world. One upside of the pandemic era is that you can attend many of these from the comfort of your own home.
Frequently, these may be more beneficial to people who are a little more advanced than beginner-level. Regardless, they feature presentations by experienced people from whom you may learn a lot.
According to my informal poll, this was not one of the popular options for preparing for in-house roles, but that could be because conferences can be pricey.
If you have the budget to invest, do this for the sake of professional development. If you do not, look for free opportunities. Also, consider lower-cost options, such as attending regional search marketing association meetings.
Other in-person conferences may also allow you to attend sessions in return for working at the conference.
Larger conferences are often attended by many in-house SEOs looking to expand their knowledge. As such, those already working for a large company should campaign to get the company to pay their way to one or two conferences per year.
Having the company’s in-house SEO staff become more educated on the intricacies of optimization can pay off in dividends as the company’s website may rank higher and gain more qualified visitors.
Understanding web analytics is a crucial skill for people in SEO.
Going through Google Analytics’s training program formalizes that understanding. It can help you evaluate your optimization work’s effectiveness and research what is bringing people to your site.
You should also become fully familiar with Google Search Console to see critical analytic information related to your organic search presence.
Certification also helps you appear serious as a professional in SEO, which is unquestionably beneficial for an in-house career.
Web analytics are undergoing a serious sea-change at the moment, unfortunately, with the transition from the traditional GA Universal Analytics to GA4. Some of the analytics may become a little dumbed-down from what it has been in the past. Consider familiarizing yourself with alternative analytics services out there.
Do not let “imposter syndrome” hold you back, make you feel insecure about applying for SEO positions or make you too hesitant to campaign to attain the SEO role you desire.
While SEO has evolved over the past 20 years, it is also completely approachable, regardless of your degree of technical knowledge.
It is still the case that a simple webpage with a beautifully written article may outperform another webpage on the same topic that is technically optimized to the Nth degree.
You absolutely should endeavor to expand your own knowledge and skills, but you can do this without feeling reticent to assert yourself as a professional in the field.
There are short-sighted gatekeepers in SEO because it is a field that can attract people who want to create a territory for themselves without having to jump through a lot of formal hoops to do so.
That said, there is a lot of room for new participants to join in, and people don’t have to try to make it seem harder than necessary.
You do not have to be a hardcore programmer or have umpteen advanced degrees to do SEO.
You just need a desire to push for quality, informed by understanding what works well with the search engines.
The post 10 tips to help you become an in-house SEO appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Google's Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt discuss why Google chooses to index some content and not others
The post Google Shares Insights into Indexing & Crawl Budget appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Find out what's inside of Semrush's complete, top-to-bottom SEO checklist featuring 44 best practices along with helpful tool reminders.
The post The Ultimate SEO Checklist For Boosting Organic Traffic: 6 Highlights appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Content and PPC complement each other in more than just one way. Learn helpful tips on using your content and PPC campaigns in tandem!
The post 5 Ways High-Quality Content & PPC Compliment Each Other appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Remarketing continues to be an effective tool for paid media marketers. Discover eight types of remarketing you should be considering for your campaigns.
The post What Is Remarketing: 8 Types Of Remarketing To Consider appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Every week, we feature fresh job listings for search marketers. Make sure to bookmark this page and check back every Friday.
Are you looking to hire? You can submit your listing here for free. Please note that we do not include listings without a salary range.
Manager, Google Ads, Lionhurst (Remote)
Director of SEO, Workshop Digital (Remote, U.S.)
Paid Search Senior Strategist, Socium Media (Remote, U.S.)
Senior Program Manager, SEO, Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Seattle)
Global Head of SEO, Glassdoor (Remote or San Francisco, Cleveland, Chicago, London, Dublin)
Product Manager, SEO, REI (Remote)
PPC Director, Upgrow (Remote, U.S. hours)
Paid Acquisition Account Manager, Jordan Digital Marketing (Remote)
Sr SEO Manager, deeproots partners (Remote, U.S. hours)
Digital Marketing Paid Internship (PPC and SEO), Cardinal Digital Marketing (Atlanta / Hybrid)
Digital Marketing Platform Manager, Harvard Business School (Boston / Hybrid)
PPC Specialist, Vital Design (Portsmouth, N.H. / Hybrid)
Digital Marketing Specialist (PPC & SEO), Adena Health System (Chillicothe, Ohio / Hybrid)
PPC Specialist, Saltwater (Remote)
Channel Strategist SEO/SEM Manager, Green Dot Agency (Remote / multiple locations)
SEO Specialist, Blennd (Denver, Colo., Hybrid / Remote)
SEO Marketer, Anglepoint (U.S. / remote)
Sr. Paid Search Strategist, Inflow (Remote, U.S. only)
Paid Ads Team Manager, Inflow (Remote, U.S. only)
SEO Analyst, UnitedHealth Group (Eden Prairie, MN, Remote considered)
SEO Strategist, Inflow (Remote)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Analyst (Senior and Expert), Bruce Clay (Remote)
SEO Manager, CharterUP (Remote/Atlanta)
Sr Analyst, SEO, Home Depot (Remote)
Senior SEO + Digital Strategy Analyst, Momentic (Remote or Milwaukee)
SEO Testing Consultant, Search Pilot (Seattle, hybrid)
Senior SEO Specialist ~ Pure Visibility (Remote or Ann Arbor, Mich.)
Senior Paid Search Manager, Kingpin Communications (U.S. remote)
Digital Marketing Specialist, New American Funding (U.S. remote)
Want a chance to include your job listing on Search Engine Land? Submit your details here.
The post The latest jobs in search marketing appeared first on Search Engine Land.
