Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.

Good morning, Marketers, and Google Ads’ new strike system has y’all feeling a lot of feelings.

And with good reason. I’ve seen a few tweets already from advertisers dealing with ridiculous ad violations. This can be especially hard to explain to clients who don’t get why a giant tech company like Google doesn’t have available or adequate support channels to figure out these issues, too. Imagine how hard it is for SMBs or those trying to figure it out themselves, too. 

This seems to be an issue on the local SEO side too, in my personal experience. I once had a client whose GMB got suspended. A small business owner, he DIY’d his listing and couldn’t figure out how to fix it. So he just created another one. When he finally got through to GMB support, the help person told him to delete the listing that was associated with his very profitable YouTube account. This is about the time he called me in a panic for emergency help.

I saw a job posting for a position at Google that ended with this almost-proverb: “Know the user. Know the magic. Connect the two.” Maybe Google’s too big to see the IRL, in-the-weeds perspectives of those of us who are in the thick of it every day. It seems like a perfect sentiment on the face of things, but the execution seems lacking overall. 

Carolyn Lyden,
Director of Search Content

Google says your redirects only need to stay up for a year

For the sake of SEO and Google being able to trace your changing URLs, Gary Illyes told Twitter that any redirects should stay up for a minimum of one year. However, you may choose to keep them up longer for the sake of users (nothing is more annoying than clicking a link to a new site and getting a 404).

The “clock” for this one year of redirection starts when Google initially crawls and recognizes the redirect — not necessarily when your team implements the change. This could be another reason to keep it for longer than the year mentioned.

Why we care. This is the first time Google has officially confirmed that the signals passed through redirects last forever even after a redirect is moved, if the redirect is live for over a year. If you have stakeholders or clients that really want to remove redirects for whatever reason, it is safe to do so from an SEO perspective after that one-year mark (specific to Google Search).

Read more here.

Why did Google rank this result? They’ll tell you

Google is rolling out a new SERP feature that tells you why a result was ranked the way it was. This feature is an expansion to the about this result box that launched in February 2021.

Google Search can show the terms it matched on the web page and your query, including the terms that were related but not direct matches. Google also lists if links from other websites influenced the ranking, if the results had related images, if there were geographical reasons for the result ranking and more.

The company is now rolling this out in the U.S. for English results. We expect it to be visible in almost 100% of queries in the U.S. later this week. Google said it will expand this to more countries and languages overtime.

Why we care. Search marketers always wanted to know why Google ranked a specific site for a given query. Well, Google is now giving you pretty detailed clues into why. Of course, this is not detailed ranking weights and signals, but it does tell you if the words match or match closely, if people link to the site, if there are geo-specific reasons and more.

Read the list of factors we found here.

The SEO Periodic Table: Architecture success factors

How your site is built helps search engines know what your pages are about. These elements include everything from the URLs you use and the page load speed to your security and crawlability.

The most critical element here is Crawl (Cr). If a search engine can’t crawl and index your pages, you’ve got no hope of appearing in the search results at all, let alone ranking well. Next comes Mobile (Mo) first, which represents optimizing your content so that mobile searchers can see everything that desktop users see on your site. Hand in hand with Mobile is Speed (Sp). Not only do page load delays frustrate users and decrease conversions, but Google has also made it clear that speed is a ranking factor.

More nuts-and-bolts architecture concerns include the proper handling of Duplicate (Dd) content by setting canonical URLs – this gets back to the above-mentioned algorithmic crackdown on sites simply copying other sites’ content without their permission. Additionally, using appropriate contextual keywords in your pages’ permalinks or URLs (Ur) sends a signal to the engines and users that the page contains the info they’re seeking. And, of course, a secure site — HTTPS (Ps) — is table stakes at this point.

This year we’ve also added two new elements to keep up to date with search engine changes like Core Web Vitals and the page experience update. Structure (St) is all about the information architecture of your site. We’ve also added Parity (Pr) which means that your site should offer the same user experience regardless of what device a searcher or website user is on.

Download the whole SEO Periodic Table

Social Shorts: Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok

Twitter is working on a dislike button. “Twitter writes that iOS users may see upvote and downvotes in several different styles (up and down arrows, a heart icon and a down arrow, and thumbs up and thumbs down icons) and that it’s testing the feature to ‘understand the types of replies you find relevant in a convo, so we can work on ways to show more of them.’ Currently, votes are not public,” wrote Ian Carlos Campell for The Verge.

Social media managers, rejoice! Instagram data now spans 60 days. And it’ll expand even further to 90 days of data later this summer, according to a tweet from Vishal Shah, VP of Product at Instagram. This update will be a big deal in helping both marketers and SaaS tools show trend data over time. We love something that makes our jobs easier.

TikTok’s new Spark Ads to boost native content. “Spark Ads enables brands to amplify existing organic videos that fit their campaign objectives such as video view and conversion with great flexibility and efficiency,” said the TikTok For Business Editorial Team in the announcement. 

What We’re Watching: TikTok’s algorithm — Great for advertisers but weird if you zoom out

“A Wall Street Journal investigation found that TikTok only needs one important piece of information to figure out what you want: the amount of time you linger over a piece of content. Every second you hesitate or rewatch, the app is tracking you.”

That’s the summary of this 13-minute video on WSJ that digs into just how TikTok’s algorithm figures out its users’ interests and then takes them down very niche rabbit holes of content. The publisher created over 100x bot accounts and assigned them specific interests and then had them watch over 100k videos on the social media app. 

TikTok says “shares, likes, follows, and what you watch all play a role in what TikTok shows you.” But the WSJ found that TikTok actually only needs one metric to target users so specifically: how long you linger over a piece of content. “Through this one powerful signal, TikTok learns your most hidden interests and emotions.”

This video highlights the debate we’ve been seeing play out on multiple channels. When search marketers have access or targeting based on this very specific data, it also means we can customize our advertising to those very niche audiences. If you love pets and TikTok figures out that you love French bulldogs in particular, advertisers can use that to make distinct ads to serve that particular audience. 

But audiences may not realize that lingering on specific types of TikTok videos gives both the social media company and potentially advertisers that information — which as the video proves, can be very personal. 

It’s the classic paid advertising conundrum: audiences want targeted advertising, but they’re afraid of giving up their personal data to get it.

The post Why did Google rank this site? Well, now they’ll tell you; Friday’s daily brief appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Want to make your marketing more powerful and targeted to your ideal borrower? The key lies in creating buyer personas. A mortgage buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your optimum mortgage client. It serves as a guide that ensures you understand your borrows needs, their pain points, and the best marketing message to reach that particular persona. 

Buyer personas reveal what led this ideal borrower to your services and what you need to do to attract others like them.

Even if buyer personas is a new concept to you, you’ve likely used a rudimentary version –for example, using one message for first-time buyers and another for commercial borrowers. However, this post will teach you how to develop mortgage buyer personas like a pro and tactics for implementing them in your marketing and lead generation. 

How to Develop A Mortgage Buyer Persona

To create an insightful persona, start with the general demographic info of clients in your database, like age, gender, marital status, homeownership status, geography, education level, career, income, and other broad categories. 

Once you have basics down, you want to dive deeper. Consider:

• What sort of hobbies or leisure activities do they enjoy? 
• What worries them?
• What pursuits or goals do they have in life?
• Where do they shop?
• How tech-savvy are they?

Now that you’ve completed your research, it’s time to start analyzing all the data.

Analyzing the Data

The first thing you want to do is look for emerging trends and patterns. Once you find the pattern, categorize the data to define your core buyer personas.

Next, go through each persona group and start filling in the averages about each buyer persona, like their educational level, occupation, challenges, goals, etc.

We recommend structuring it in this way for each persona:

• Background (Employment, Career Path, Family)
• Demographics (Age, Gender, Income, Geographic Location)
• Attributes (Demeanor, Communication Preferences, Interests)

For each persona, you’ll also want to include common objections. 

Naming Your Mortgage Buyer Personas

Now here comes the fun part –naming your persona. Personas with names like Veteran Vicky, Millennial Mike, or Commercial Chris are catchy and easy to remember. Here’s what a completed buyer persona profile might look like:

Millennial Mike

• Location: Westcoast
• Age: 32
• Gender: Male
• Education: Bachelors Degree
• Hobbies: Gaming, exercising, cooking
• Job Title: Graphic designer
• Income: $67,000
• Relationship Status: Single and no kids
• Preferred method of communication: Text
• Goals: Purchase first home by 35, move up the career ladder
• Challenges: With no tax breaks and continuing student loan payments, disposable income is limited

Implementing Buyer Persona Into the Borrowers Journey

Once you’ve defined your personas, the next step is to use them in your marketing efforts, particularly their Borrower’s Journey.

As a quick refresher, a Borrower’s Journey is the process consumers go through to become aware of, consider, and decide to complete a mortgage application. 

 Example: Millennial Mike and His Buyer’s Journey

Mike’s awareness is rooted in his goal to purchase his first home by 35. Mike will likely research the homebuying process, asking peers about their experiences buying a home, reading blog posts about first-time homebuying, and use interactive mortgage calculators that help him estimate various scenarios. 

Feeling informed, Mike moves into the consideration stage, comparing lenders, looking up reviews, and getting familiar with the lender’s brand, mission, and digital mortgage tools.

Finally, Millennial Mike moves into the decision stage. Having explored various options, your marketing messages about first-time homebuyer programs, minimal down payments, and online borrower portal nudge him to pre-qualify with you. The ease of application and positive experience then ultimately convince Millennial Mike to continue and complete the full 1003. 

Today’s mortgage consumers expect to be engaged on a more personal level, and buyer personas are another tool in helping you to create that engagement. They allow you to gain insight, focus, optimize, and strategize your communication with current, past, and potential borrowers. While admittedly not full proof (humans don’t always fit neatly into categories), buyer personas have proven time and again to help increase conversion rates and revenue –making it worth the additional effort. 

Advertisers will no longer see the Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value bid strategies for search campaigns, Google announced Thursday. As per the company’s announcement back in April, Maximize conversions will continue to be available with an optional target CPA and Maximize conversion value will be available with an optional target ROAS.

tCPA and tROAS are going away soon. “In the next few weeks, you’ll no longer have the option of using the old Target CPA [tCPA] and Target ROAS [tROAS] bid strategies for standard campaigns,” Google said in the announcement, “Instead, use the updated bid strategies by setting optional targets. This update only applies to campaign-level strategies; portfolio bid strategies will be updated next year.”

This means that, sometime in the next few weeks, advertisers will lose the ability to create new campaigns via the old tCPA and tROAS strategies, but existing tCPA and tROAS campaigns will continue to function as usual — at least until Google migrates the campaigns over to the new format sometime in 2022.

Why we care. This update will not affect bidding behavior: “Using Maximize conversions with a target CPA will have the same bidding behavior as Target CPA,” Google said, “Likewise, using Maximize conversion value with a target ROAS will have the same bidding behavior as Target ROAS.” PPC professionals should be aware of this change so they know how to create the appropriate campaigns moving forward.

For now, existing tCPA and tROAS campaigns will continue to run as usual. “We’ll give advance notice before automatically switching these old bid strategies to the new format in 2022,” Google said, “This switch will not have any impact on bidding behavior.”

The post Google removes standalone Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value strategies appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Google can now list several of the factors or reasons why it ranked a specific search result in its search results listings, the company announced. This feature is an expansion to the about this result box that launched in February 2021.

Google Search can show the terms it matched on the web page and your query, including the terms that were related but not direct matches. Google also lists if links from other websites influenced the ranking, if the results had related images, if there were geographical reasons for the result ranking and more. In fact, Google said there are several factors this section can disclose when it comes to why Google ranked a specific page in its search results.

Google also lists search tips in this area to help you refine your query, if you find the result to not meet your desired outcome.

What it looks like. Here is a screen shot of what this looks like. As you can see in the “your search & this result” section, Google lists numerous bullet points for why it ranked this specific snippet. The section above, the “source” section is old and that was launched in February, as mentioned above.

What factors does Google show. Google did not tell us all the factors it shows but here are the ones I spotted while testing:

• Search terms that appear in the result. In this case, Google will show you what terms were matched from the searcher’s query to the content and/or HTML on the web page that Google ranked. Matches are not just the visible content but also can be words in the HTML, like the title tag or other meta data.
• Search terms related to your search. So not only will Google match based on your exact query but also terms “related” to that query. In the example above, the query was [shot] but Google expanded that to mean “vaccine.”
• Other websites with your search terms link to this result. This is where sites that have these search terms on their pages and links, actually link to the result listed in the Google Search results. Yes, clearly links are still used by Google for ranking purposes.
• This result has images related to your search. Google will also look at the images on the page to determine if those images, maybe the filename of the image, are on that page and are related to your query.
• This result is [Language]. Language is important and right now this is an English only feature, but when it expands, Google can show other languages. So if you search in Spanish, Google may be more likely to show you Spanish results. Or if you search in Spain, Google may show you Spanish results as well.
• This result is relevant for searches in [region]. Google may use the searchers location, the site’s location and the query to determine if the searcher wants to find a web page that is more relevant to a specific region. In the example above, someone searching in Vermont to [get the shot] probably wants to get local vaccine websites in Vermont. Sometimes queries can be down to the city level and sometimes the region is not relevant. Google will show those details in this area.

Search tips. Google will also let searchers hover their mouse cursor over the underlined words in this box to get search tips on how to narrow their search results better. In the screenshot below, you can see Google suggesting the search may want to add a minus sign to the word running in order to filter out those words in their search.

Google can offer a number of search tips that are specific to the query and the “about this result” box for that page.

Rolling out now. Google is now rolling this out in the U.S. for English results. By the time this story goes live, we expect it to be visible in 10% of the US based queries but by next week in about 100% of queries in the US. Google said it will expand this to more countries and languages overtime.

Google would not say how many searchers actually use this “about this result” feature but clearly Google is investing it expanding its feature set. Google did say the about this result feature has been viewed hundreds of millions of times but would not share what percentage of users have used it.

Why we care. SEOs and marketers always wanted to know why Google ranked a specific site for a given query. Well, Google is now giving you pretty detailed clues into why it ranked that site for that query with this new box. Of course, this is not detailed ranking weights and signals, but it does tell you if the words match or match closely, if people link to the site, if there are geo-specific reasons and more.

From the searcher’s perspective, it might help a searcher understand why Google ranked that result and provide more trust through transparency for Google and its searchers.

The post Google now shows why it ranked a specific search result appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.

Good morning, Marketers, that was quite a reaction.

On Tuesday, I asked for your thoughts on a four-year degree specifically for PPC or SEO. Thank you to the many professionals who responded — you should’ve received a reply from me!

“My first reaction to your question was to say that a PPC/SEO degree would be useless, because everything you learned in the first year would be obsolete by the second or third year,” Rachel J. said, putting forth an opinion that was shared by many of you, “But then, as I reflected on my own marketing degree, I realized that the things I was taught weren’t tactical, they were evergreen concepts that would help build an understanding of marketing as a practice.”

Colin C. pointed out that updates from platforms and top-down government legislation would also impact the value of such a specific degree — “A digital marketing degree that includes the whole package, including need-to-know technical competencies is, to my mind, more worthwhile.”

And, I felt like Joseph J.’s take would resonate with the SEOs among us: “You go through the course and 8 Core Updates already got pushed live on Google, now you have to relearn a few things unless it was taught to you during the courses.”

What I uncovered, that I wasn’t expecting, is the desire for a curriculum that encompasses the day-to-day campaign work that we do and marketing principles that can prepare us for the next step in our careers. As someone who programs SMX, your responses are noted.

George Nguyen,
Editor

Users can now leave more detailed restaurant reviews on Google

Google has expanded restaurant reviews to enable users to include price range, the type of meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc.) and whether they got take out, delivery or dined in. This feature is now available for mobile users on Android or iOS, and it is live for all restaurants in the U.S., with more countries and categories rolling out in the future. 

While this is a user-oriented feature, restaurant owners can also use these expanded reviews to improve their customer experience and identify competitors that also offer delivery or operate in the same price range, for example.

Google has told us that filtering searches using this information isn’t possible right now, but that doesn’t mean that capability won’t eventually roll out — I have a strong hunch it will. If it does, users will have a new way to find the exact dining experience they’re looking for. And, Google has said that it plans to extend expanded reviews into more categories, so the impact this has on the restaurant industry will eventually be felt across other local business sectors.

Read more here.

Say goodbye to the standalone Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value strategies

In April, we reported that later this year, advertisers would only see the Target CPA (tCPA) and Target ROAS (tROAS) Smart Bidding strategies as optional fields bundled with the Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value strategies, respectively. Well, we’re not quite at that point yet, but we are a bit closer.

“Advertisers will soon only see the updated fields Maximize conversions with an optional target CPA, or Maximize conversion value with an optional ROAS,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land. “We have not yet and will not be switching existing Target CPA and Target ROAS strategies to these new fields (that will happen next year with much advance notice). This will have no impact on bidding behavior.”

So, if you don’t see the standalone Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value strategies, this is why. There’s no word yet on when Google will switch advertisers’ tCPA and tROAS strategies to the new fields, but we’ll keep you posted when we find out.

Google announces new deals sections, promotional tools and expanded reporting ahead of the holiday shopping season

Ahead of the holiday shopping season, Google is launching new sections in its search results to showcase deals, rolling out tools to highlight promotions and expanding reporting capabilities in Google Merchant Center.

“Deals related to your search” is a new section within the Shopping tab that shows discounted or competitively priced products. And, when users search for deals during major retail sales events, like Black Friday, Google will show a new carousel that highlights relevant deals (shown above). When uploaded via Google Merchant Center, these promotions and deals are automatically shown to users on the Shopping tab, even if the retailer or manufacturer isn’t running ads on Google.

The company also rolled out the ability to indicate that a promotion is only available to first-time customers, and promotions can now be highlighted in the Shopping tab — this can be done through Google Merchant Center. And, the best sellers report in Merchant Center is getting expanded to include historical best seller data and relative demand data, both of which can be used to help retailers decide what to stock as they prepare for major shopping holidays.

Read more here.

The reviews are fake but the threat is real

“One would therefore assume, with Google’s world-leading AI that can translate 109 languages  and identify poison ivy in the wild from a photo, the company should be able to spot obvious fake reviews,” wrote Mike Blumental, co-founder of LocalU and GatherUp, for his publication NearMedia, “And if that’s in fact the case, they should then be able to create a review environment that doesn’t help bad businesses look good.”

Fake reviews undermine all of the hard work that business owners and staff put in to improve their products, experiences and service. In articles and blog posts, the harm that these reviews inflict is usually an abstract concept — but in Blumenthal’s piece, entitled “The High Cost of Fake Reviews,” he opts for a concrete example of one business, Kelly Lift Equipment, that has defrauded customers of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Having a 4.2-star rating, 123 reviews and a GMB listing with an address, hours of operation and phone number, Kelly Lift Equipment passed the at-a-glance legitimacy test for many, including Bill Scalise, whose experience was the basis for this article. Scalise, and many other victims, didn’t bother to dive deeper into the reviews or cross-reference the business’ BBB page prior to engaging with it — an oversight that would’ve revealed the scam he was walking into. Ultimately, it cost him nearly $18,000. Another victim said she was scammed for $120,000. That’s money that they no longer have, and money that doesn’t go towards supporting a reputable business.

Blumenthal’s takeaway was that, while buyers can and should be aware, platforms have a responsibility to ensure that their reviews can be trusted, especially when the platform regularly boasts about how capable its AI is.

The post Why search marketers don’t think a dedicated four-year degree is necessary; Thursday’s daily brief appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Are you looking to elevate the performance of your loan officers? Ready to improve the productivity of your mortgage brokerage as a whole? If so, then you need to start leveraging metrics to assess the overall performance of your mortgage team.

Metrics are quantifiable figures that are used to assess the success or failure of particular processes within your brokerage. In the mortgage industry, metrics are often referred to as key performance indicators (KPIs). 

Below, we outline which metrics are the most pivotal to the success of your business and explore the best ways to accurately measure these statistics.

What Metrics Are Most Important?

While it is certainly important to track various metrics regarding the performance of your mortgage brokers, not all data is created equal. Some KPIs have a stronger correlation to the success of your mortgage team than others. 

Some of the most useful metrics to examine are:

Cycle Time

Cycle time is one of the most vital metrics that you can track. Which is calculated by dividing the total number of days from application to funding by the amount of loans funded during that time frame.

Cycle time is a strong indicator of your brokerage’s overall efficiency. By incorporating modern software such as the BNtouch Team CRM, you should see a reduction in your overall cycle time.

Tracking cycle time is a great way to boost your brokerage’s reputation, as well. While virtually every mortgage broker claims to process loans “fast,” calculating cycle time allows you to support this claim with hard data. 

You can even incorporate this information in an ad campaign by showing that “our team closes loans 25% faster than the average mortgage broker.”  

Conversion Rate

Another vital metric that every mortgage broker should be tracking is their conversion rate. This KPI is calculated by dividing the amount of loans funded by the total number of applications received during the same time period.

If you have a low conversion rate, then there is a good chance that your team is wasting resources in at least one facet of your business. Conversion rates gauge the overall health of your brokerage and should help you achieve sustained growth in the mortgage industry.

Approval Rate

Every loan officer should track their approval rates. The approval rate is determined by dividing the number of approved applications by the amount of submitted applications.

If your brokerage’s approval rate is low, then it means that your team is wasting resources on dead-end applicants. 

By implementing modern CRM software, you can speed up the document gathering and review process to minimize waste. These analytical tools can help you to rapidly identify unqualified borrowers, allowing you to shift your attention to stronger applicants.

Solutions from BNTouch

If your mortgage brokerage is underutilizing its performance metrics, BNTouch can help. We provide mortgage brokers and their teams with access to cutting-edge CRM software and reporting tools. Our affordable tools can optimize efficiency, improve conversion rates, and make your daily life less stressful.

If you would like to learn more about BNTouch, schedule a free demo today!

The post The Value of Metrics for Mortgage Teams appeared first on .

As retailers prepare for the holiday shopping season, Google is launching new sections in its search results to showcase deals, rolling out tools to highlight promotions and expanding reporting capabilities in Google Merchant Center, the company announced Wednesday.

The new deals sections. The new “Deals related to your search” section shows discounted or competitively priced products from retailers across the web. This section is live now and can be found in the Shopping tab.

Additionally, when users search for deals during major retail sales events, such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Google will show a new carousel that highlights relevant deals, alongside other related sales information. This new SERP feature will be available in October — right in time for the aforementioned shopping holidays.

Promotions and deals uploaded via Google Merchant Center are automatically shown to users on the Shopping tab, even if the retailer or manufacturer isn’t running ads on Google. “Offers are shown based on factors such as the discount itself, how popular a product is, how popular the site it’s listed on is and more,” Google said in the announcement.

New promotions tools. Google is rolling out two new ways for merchants to attract new customers and highlight their promotions:

• Merchants can now indicate that a promotion is only available to first-time customers (for example, a “10% off for new customers” promotion). These promotions will still be shown to everyone, but only eligible shoppers will be able to access the promotional price.
• Promotions can now be highlighted on free listings in the Shopping tab. To do so, navigate to the promotions tab in Google Merchant Center and select which promotions you want to have appear in free listings (or, alternatively, supported by ad spend).

Expanded best sellers report. Historical best seller data and relative demand data are coming to the best seller report in Google Merchant Center.

This report can be accessed once a merchant opts into market insights in Merchant Center or Google BigQuery.

Why we care. The new deals sections may present retailers with opportunities to showcase their competitively priced products. This may also help retailers attract new customers during their most important times of the year, major shopping holidays. Additionally, the deals carousel will appear on the main results page, so users are more likely to see those deals since they don’t have to move over to the Shopping tab first.

The new promotional tools can help merchants draw attention to their sales and attract first-time customers.

Historical best seller data can be used to inform decisions ahead of upcoming shopping holidays. And, relative demand data can help merchants compare demand between products in the same category and country, which may help them stock the right products.

The post Google announces new deals sections, promotional tools and expanded reporting ahead of the holiday shopping season appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.

Good morning, Marketers, do you love or hate change?

If one thing is constant in the search marketing industry, it is change — and a lot of it, very often. Just in this newsletter, we are reporting about new changes Google made to its mobile results and Google Ads’ new policy violation rule that will go into effect in the coming months.

The search results, both paid and organic, are constantly changing. Sometimes it is the algorithms that cause them to change. Sometimes it is the competition causing the change. Sometimes it is something you do that causes them to change.  But if there is one guarantee in our space – it is change.

We’ve seen the strategies, especially the quick win strategies, change drastically over the years. We’ve seen the link-building industry turned upside down numerous times. We’ve seen the content marketing space adapt countless times. We’ve seen AI, automation, and machine learning touch all aspects of what we deal with.

Embrace change and it’ll make your job easier.

Barry Schwartz,
Change management consultant

Google Ads to try three-strikes and you’re out policy

Starting in September 2021, Google Ads will begin testing a new three-strikes pilot program for accounts that repeatedly violate ad policies. Well, it might be four-strikes; it starts with a warning but then an additional three-strikes after that warning – your Google Ads account can be suspended. 

Strikes expire after 90 days, according to Google. If you’ve had two strikes, fix the issues, send an acknowledgment of the issues and fixes, and then do not violate another policy for 90 days after the fix, your account resets, in a way, and the next violation will be the initial warning again. As always, search marketers will be able to appeal any violation and enforcement decisions.

Google may expand this three-strikes rule beyond just the Enabling Dishonest Behavior, Unapproved Substances and Dangerous Products or Services policies areas in the future. 

Why we care. The new ad policy pilot program provides clear actions and consequences for advertisers. While Google is testing this program for the Enabling Dishonest Behavior, Unapproved Substances and Dangerous Products or Services policies, it will likely eventually roll out to other policy areas in the coming year. The initial warning gives you the benefit of the doubt, but penalties are increasingly stringent after that. Many advertisers are worried that the new policy will penalize those whose ads get mislabeled or mistakenly violate policies.

Read more here.

AMP labels gone for Google mobile search results

After five years of Google showing the AMP icon in the mobile search results, it is now retired. Google is no longer showing the AMP label even for AMP pages in the mobile search results.

Google was thinking of showing a page experience label instead, but we have yet to see Google show the page experience label that they tested for a short period of time last December. Instead, Google shows no label for either AMP-enabled pages or for pages that meet the page experience update factors – at least not yet.

Why we care. It is unclear what impact this change may or may not have on your click-through rate to your AMP content from Google Search. Keep an eye out for those changes in your analytics and reporting tools.

Read more here.

Google illustrated what different types of traffic declines look like

Daniel Waisberg of Google came up with illustrations of what six different categories of organic search traffic drops look like when you are looking at your performance report in Google Search Console.  It is broken down into these categories:

• Site-level technical issue
• Page-level technical issue
• Manual action
• Algorithmic changes
• Seasonality
• Reporting glitches

So if you see these types of traffic drops, you may want to dig in and figure out what is the cause.

Why we care. I believe this was the first time Google described visually how various issues in Google Search can impact your traffic. It gives you a way to clearly see what to expect from various SEO issues and how your traffic may be impacted. It is important to note that these illustrations are generalizations and that you do need an experienced SEO consultant to diagnose any real issues with your website.

Read more here.

Math solver rich results filter in Search Console performance report

A new search appearance filter has been added to the Google Search Console performance report. This new filter works for math solver rich results and structured data. That is, if your site shows math solver rich results in Google Search, Google can now report on your clicks, impressions and other data within the search performance report in Search Console.

The Google Search Console performance report shows important metrics about how your site performs in Google Search results: how often it comes up; average position in search results; click-through rate; and any special features (such as rich results) associated with your results.

Why we care. This gives us more data to see if using Math Solvers markup is actually helping our sites get more visibility in search. More importantly, is the markup and rich results leading to more clicks to our websites.

Read more here.

Faster AdSense code, shared hosting, Google Posts for hotels and deleting disavows

Deleting disavow files. John Mueller of Google warns against blindly deleting disavow files. He said “blindly deleting the file sounds as bad as blindly adding to the file :). Be thoughtful when making bigger changes.”

Google Posts for hotel listings. It seems Google might be testing bringing Google Posts to hotel listings in Google Search. It is unclear if this is a bug or an early beta feature, but those SEOs in the hospitality industry are excited to give it a try.

Shared hosting and SEO. Google’s John Mueller said in a video that shared hosting works fine for SEO and ranking in Google Search. He shared more details in this video, like if the shared host gets overloaded and GoogleBot may have issues crawling the site.

Google AdSense better code. Google announced it has new faster and better performing AdSense code. If you want better-performing pages and for your AdSense code to not slow down your pages as much, you can replace your old AdSense code with the new one.  Google is not doing away with the old code, so you do not need to replace the code if you don’t want to.

We’ve curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader.

• How to Create Your Local Business USP with QUAAAC UGC – Moz
• Google Says Core Updates Can Impact People Also Ask Results – Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Succeed With Google Posts: What We Learned From Analyzing Over 1,000 Google Posts – Sterling Sky
• Ready for it? Olympics 2021 best practices for news SEO – WTF is SEO?
• Rewriting Keywords at Google for Paid Search – Go Fish Digital

The post Change is what search marketers expect; Wednesday’s daily brief appeared first on Search Engine Land.

The challenge of growing an SEO agency as the business becomes more sophisticated translates into staying on top of two major components — the client acquisition process and the client retention process.

The acquisition process is usually tricky to scale because you need to have your best consultants doing the SEO proposals followed by the pitch, and they have limited time in a day. So you can decide to focus on your client retention and improve that to unlock your agency growth.

If we consider the type of growth that happens for a subscription-based business model, improving client retention can also mean lower costs of re-acquisition and maintenance. Plus, your agency can overcome the plateau effect, which is bound to happen as the business develops. 

Improving the retention rate means efficiency over time. Both in terms of resources invested and revenue per month, along with a higher cash flow predictability, as higher retention (compound revenue) can outgrow a higher acquisition rate. Think about your customer acquisition cost versus the lifetime value of that client — research shows that increasing customer retention rates by 5% is bound to increase profits by a scale of 25% to 95%.

But, you probably know the already old business adage: you can’t control what you don’t measure. It’s like driving a car with a broken speedometer. You have no idea how fast you’re going as you enter a speed limit section.

So, the first order of business to tackle: measuring churn rates and retention. What’s behind the churn rate is a whole ecosystem that you need to keep track of, ideally in one place: client profile, SEO performance trend, client engagement, communications, goals or transactions, etc. 

Here’s where an operational dashboard makes the difference between growth and crisis. Having accurate real-time metrics for immediate action will keep you in control:

How to develop your SEO agency operational dashboard 

To scale your SEO agency with speed and efficiency, you should consider the daily tasks that need fast reactions and real-time data and what historical trends you need to be aware of to make data-driven decisions. 

Another thing to keep in mind: not every metric is actionable or critical. And not every metric is essential if it distracts you from your business strategy in the first place.

The challenge is to calibrate the delicate balance between objectives, metrics, and results, translating into managing resources, processes, and profit margins within set growth limits. 

You can start with the fundamentals:

Your SEO agency business model

Think about the types of contracts you sign, the lifetime value of those accounts, and how you keep track of them now. It’s a good start for understanding the forces that impact your churn rate and your current portfolio trends.

You may define the following parameters to include for each client subscription and get an even deeper understanding of your agency landscape: contract type, start date, end date, monthly recurring revenue (MRR), client profile, and even account manager.

You can also include the average revenue per account (ARPA) metric to have a clear picture of where you’re standing regarding business revenue, as it highlights your growth trends.

Make sure you don’t include one-time clients and special projects when calculating MRR, or you’ll lose revenue accuracy. Keep track of them in a separate line.

In the end, you can also correlate these parameters with new business metrics like new qualified leads or new monthly clients, for instance, to further optimize your overall strategy. 

The current visibility of your clients

Another key indicator to closely watch that underlines the state of your SEO campaigns and your performance as an SEO agency is the Visibility metric. Calculated as an impression share that takes into account the ranks of your keywords and their monthly search volumes, it offers you a real-time check on the state of a campaign or overall portfolio.

To have a complete picture, you should measure visibility trends (daily, weekly and monthly). You’ll be able to show how your SEO performance directly impacts business results and know when something is wrong before you get that client email.

You’ll also get to compare visibility scores with the health of an account, the allocated resources and the type of client to gain a deeper understanding of your current portfolio. And how you can further grow it.

The health of your accounts

After looking at the visibility score, you can consider every account’s status in your current portfolio. You can define that as the health of accounts and assign it as a percentage or score. 

It may be the goal set at the beginning of your SEO campaign versus its current status, or it may be a client engagement or client feedback score. 

Whatever makes sense for your SEO agency to define as client health, it is an efficient way to spot what accounts are on track, what accounts are in danger of getting behind, and quickly address those already behind that need fast action. 

A color-coded system might be helpful in that regard. You can also set alerts when a certain percentage or score needs immediate attention. 

No more satisfied clients on paper only!

Budgets and allocated resources per client

Where is your focus in a given timeframe? Being able to pinpoint where you allocate more resources in a month or if you went past a client’s negotiated budget can support you in optimizing internal processes.

That’s why an overview of budgets and human resources allocated per campaign, together with the campaign’s daily or weekly health status, can help you better prioritize and manage your clients.  

You will be able to compare resources with client type, current status, and even historical status (weekly, monthly, or quarterly). This comparison will give you an accurate overview of where and how you spend your resources and what needs to be changed or further defined to lower the churn rate. 

After all the groundwork is done, you’ll have a good foundation for your KPIs dashboard that you can test and iterate, so it’s genuinely actionable and answers your business questions. 

The state of your monthly reports

In a nutshell, reporting influences retention heavily. 

To know the reports’ status for each client in your portfolio is a hidden growth opportunity. It’s your time to take the client’s “pulse,” talk to them in their language and further develop your collaboration.

So having a real-time overview of your client portfolio and when reports are due in your operational dashboard is another critical aspect. Don’t forget to match clients, reports, and account managers for better accuracy and set notifications in advance. 

The communication value of your monthly reporting is not only in how you present your SEO results but in delivering the report on time. 

Making dashboards actionable and adopting them across the agency

Now that you’ve developed the operational dashboard with all the relevant KPIs, which your whole team has access to, you need to make sure they use it. 

1. The operational dashboard should cater to every SEO agency role 

Your operational dashboard can help your account management with their daily status check and prioritization. 

For instance, if a batch of clients appears to be reaching the end of their contract period, your Customer Success team will know it’s time to set new meetings and start creating SEO proposals for extending the collaboration and keeping the retentions steady. 

Or, maybe, you have a big account with health issues, and your technical SEO team can immediately investigate.

Each role in your SEO agency should use this internal dashboard to do their job with more efficiency.

2. The operational dashboard should improve your SEO agency’s processes.

To make the internal dashboard usable, you should also think about timing and metrics. 

When does each role need it?

Is it daily for technical issues? Is it monthly for client reporting or, maybe, to check the MRR and ARPA status? Do you need to see the weekly clients’ health and the status of your CS team?

Think about how you get this kind of data now. Maybe you have known unknowns in your current tools, and you keep postponing a dashboard optimization. Or perhaps you have various excel files with tens of tabs each.

Your operational dashboard should help you understand where’s room to grow, your current bottlenecks, and the trends in aspects like new clients, churned clients, MRR on track or behind, visibility trends, client engagement, and so on.

It may seem like another thing to add to your workload, but if it’s a simple and easy to comprehend dashboard, you will gain valuable time for quick actions and decisions. 

Plus, all your team will have the same version of the truth to check and return to regularly. You’ll be in control of your business processes while the “car drives itself” under your careful watch.

We know deciding on what to include and what to leave out of an operational dashboard is a struggle. That’s why we consulted with SEO agencies and designed a dashboard solution that fits your needs as part of our robust SEO platform.

Join us, and hundreds of SEO agencies clients, in the journey of bringing more transparency to the SEO industry. 

The post The SEO agency KPIs dashboard: a way to unlock growth appeared first on Search Engine Land.