Daniel Waisberg, a Search Advocate at Google, described and illustrated what various types of organic search traffic drops look like in the performance reports in Google Search Console and how you can address those traffic drops.

Types of traffic drops. Google posted sketches of “examples of drops and what they could potentially mean.” This shows you visually what a site-wide technical issue or a manual action looks like compared to normal seasonality in search traffic, compared to a technical issue on a page level or an algorithm change (like a core update) or simply a reporting glitch in Search Console.

Here are those sketches:

With technical issues that are site-wide and manual actions where a Google employee gives you a manual penalty, you can generally see a massive drop off in your organic search traffic from Google. This is illustrated in the image at the top left above.

With technical issues that are on a page by page basis or an algorithm change like a core update, you would see a slower decline in your traffic, and it would then level off over time.

Then there are seasonality changes that you see recover with the change in seasons for your business cycles. Also, Google has been known to have reporting glitches in Search Console, where you see things bounce back to where they are.

How Google defines these categories. Here is how Google defined these categories of traffic drops:

• Technical issues: Errors that can prevent Google from crawling, indexing, or serving your pages to users – for example server availability, robots.txt fetching, page not found, and others. Note that the issues can be site-wide (for example, your website is down) or page-wide (for example, a misplaced noindex tag, which would depend on Google crawling the page, meaning there would be a slower drop in traffic).
• Security issues: If your site is affected by a security threat, Google may alert users before they reach your site with warnings or interstitial pages, which may decrease Search traffic.
• Manual Actions: If your site does not comply with Google’s guidelines, some of your pages or the entire site may be omitted from Google Search results through a Manual Action.
• Algorithmic changes: Google is always improving how it assesses content and updating its algorithm accordingly; core updates and other smaller updates may change how some pages perform in Google Search results. To keep track of future updates, subscribe to our Google Search News YouTube series or follow us on Twitter.
• Search interest disruption: Sometimes changes in user behavior will change the demand for certain queries, either as a result of a new trend, or seasonality throughout the year. This means your traffic may drop simply as a result of external influences.

What to do. The remainder of the blog post from Google dives into how to dig into the reports to analyze your search traffic drop. This way you can understand which category your traffic drop falls into. Was it a reporting bug or an algorithmic update or maybe it was a Google manual action.

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.

The post Google categorizes what organic search traffic drops look like appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Starting in September 2021, Google Ads will begin testing a new three-strikes pilot program for accounts that repeatedly violate ad policies.

“Warnings and strikes will be issued for violations of our Enabling Dishonest Behavior, Unapproved Substances and Dangerous Products or Services policies—this includes ads promoting deceptive behavior or products such as the creation of false documents, hacking services, and spyware, as well as tobacco, drugs and weapons, among other types of content,” the company said in a new Help Center News Announcement. These ads types have been prohibited for a while, but the system to punish those who don’t abide by the policies is new.

Penalties in the strikes system. The system starts with a warning and no penalties for an initial violation. From there, each violation has an increasingly stringent penalty until the account is finally suspended.

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, would you have pursued a degree in PPC or SEO?

One can obtain a four-year degree in marketing, but would a similar degree, specifically focusing on organic or paid search, be worthwhile? This question was inspired by a tweet from Eli Schwartz (thanks, Eli!), and in the comments, professionals have shared that they lecture or even teach courses at well-known universities.

All the resources an aspiring SEO or PPC pro may need are already available for free, but the same can be said for virtually any field. There are also many other considerations to ponder when it comes to PPC/SEO degree programs: Why don’t these programs already exist? And, if they did exist, would they add more “prestige” to our industry, and us as practitioners? Would professionals that hold such degrees be taken more seriously within their companies and with clients? Might an SEO or PPC degree become prerequisites for entry-level positions? How might this affect conferences?

One of the things I love about getting to meet people in the search industry is that we all have different backgrounds, so the question “How’d you get into SEO/PPC?” is a nice way to learn about someone’s journey. But, there are a lot of “professionals” that engage in shady tactics, and perhaps formal curriculums can help remove that element. As always, my inbox is open, send your thoughts to gnguyen@thirddoormedia.com (subject line: Kickin’ it old school)

George Nguyen,
Editor

Google officially launches SeekToAction for key moments for videos in search

SeekToAction markup is now out of beta and can be used for any site with videos. This markup allows Google to identify “key moments” (shown in the image above) from your videos.

To use SeekToAction markup, your URLs must have the ability to deep-link to a point in your video other than the start, and Google must be able to fetch your video content files. With more and more videos showing in Google Search, it’s a good idea to put in the effort to make your videos stand out from the rest. Using SeekToAction markup can help enrich your video results in Google Search, which could potentially improve click-through rates.

Read more here.

Answer our new survey on attending or exhibiting at in-person events

Pre-pandemic life is starting to return. Travel is up. Masks are coming off. And, indoor dining is an option once more.

The relaxation in pandemic restrictions is also rippling through the business world as conferences and trade shows schedule in-person events for this summer and fall. We’re not surprised, since the last edition of our Events Participation Index showed that many marketers were ready to hit the conference hall floor as early as the third quarter of 2021.

But a sizable number of marketers still seemed luke-warm to the idea of business travel, which is why we are once again asking marketers to share their sentiments on returning to in-person events.

Please click here to take our 3-minute survey.

Video: Richard Nazarewicz, Technical SEO Manager at the Wall Street Journal

Search Engine Land News Editor Barry Schwartz and Richard Nazarewicz, technical SEO manager for the Wall Street Journal, sat down to discuss how to approach technical SEO for a publication such as the WSJ, the importance of evergreen content, the impact of algorithm updates on the WSJ and more.

“I’m not the only SEO in the company — we are all SEOs.” That was my favorite tidbit from the chat. One might assume that, since it is a major publication, that wisdom only applies to publishers, but that’s just not so: everyone in your company who touches your site can impact its SEO. Listen to Richard’s talk with Barry for more perspective that you can take back to your own teams.

Watch the discussion here.

The Marketoonist provides some perspective on what consumers really care about

For the third time, the answer is “no.” When asked if forum links work as a link-building method, Google’s John Mueller answered succinctly: “no.” This question was addressed in 2014 and in 2018, but here it is in the new decade. In all likelihood, links in forums are nofollowed, and they’re almost certainly not going to be as valuable as natural links.

Do customers really care what you do to gain their attention? “All of this corporate research — shopper decision trees, category management decks, and the like — can be valuable. But followed too closely, they can lead to marketing myopia,” said Marketoonist creator Tom Fishburne, “Consumers don’t think about brands nearly as much as the marketers of those brands think about the brands.”

“If you think smart folks have this figured out…” “​​Google’s internal meme generator is old, and one of the more active places internally for voicing opinions,” John Mueller tweeted, “Closing in on the #1 all-time spot is a black image with just the words ‘I’m so tired’ on it. If you think smart folks have this figured out & are thriving, think again.” Remembering that everyone’s just doing their best helps me be more patient — that, and telling myself it costs nothing to be nice.

“I think people were pretty noisy about quitting the Bay Area . . . But they’ve been very quiet in admitting they want to move back.”

The quote above comes from Eric Bahn, co-founder of an early-stage investment firm based in Palo Alto, and it’s in line with what the data is telling us. Only a sliver of you live and/or work in the Bay, but it’s a proxy for the overall trend that’s occurring in major metropolitan areas nationwide.

“In an area near San Francisco’s Financial District, where tech workers tend to cluster, average apartment rental prices dropped more than 20 percent in 2020, according to census and Zillow data compiled by the city,” Kellen Browning wrote for the New York Times, “That area saw the biggest price jumps in the city in the first five months of 2021.” Traffic is also making a return. 

Similar things are happening in Boston (closer to where I currently live), as well. Browning’s research indicates that a majority of those who left the Bay Area in 2020 were young, affluent and highly educated (read: likely to be tech workers). The attractions of urban life are among the reasons this demographic is moving back: restaurants, shopping and nightlife were some of the hardest-hit industries, so it’s no surprise that some folks are looking to make up for lost time.

So, now, in the second half of 2021, where is the dream of remapping the American workforce? The cost of living in these metropolitans (along with traffic) was supposed to decrease, remote work was supposed to become the new norm and tech’s high-earning tech workers were supposed to spread out across America.

While some companies, like Oracle, Palantir and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, have moved their headquarters out of California, for now, it looks like “returning to normal” really does just mean “returning to 2019” when it comes to tech and major cities.

The post Would you have pursued a four-year degree in PPC or SEO?; Tuesday’s daily brief appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Scaling a mortgage business requires a 360-degree effort. From staffing to workflow management and technology, growing a mortgage business is just as much about increasing intake capacity as it is about developing professional attributes such as branding. Even if you’re a one-person shop still a year or so away from expanding your business, it’s best practice to build a foundation that can scale with you. 

That said, this article will cover how to build a brand that’s pliable enough to meet your current business needs as well as your future expansion plans.

Then, we’ll give you ideas on how to use strong branding to fuel your mortgage business growth. Let’s dive in!

How To Create A Scalable Mortgage Brand

Developing a scalable mortgage brand begins with writing a mission statement that stands the test of time. It should be well-defined, simple, and honest about who your company is at its core. No matter how large your company gets, this mission statement will remain true. A simple guideline for writing a mission statement answers these questions:

1. What does your mortgage company do?
2. How does your mortgage company do it?
3. Why does your mortgage company do it?

After writing a 1-2 sentence statement that hits all three points above, you’ll be set with a branding foundation that you can use for everything from your business plan to advertising to scaling expanding your business.

Remember to add visuals! Graphics and color schemes are a memorable part of your branding story. While it’s expected that your visual brand will evolve over the years, it should remain relatively consistent to maintain that familiarity and relationship with your public. 

How To Use Your Brand To Grow Your Mortgage Business

Discover Your Target Buyer Personas

A buyer persona is a fictional ideal mortgage consumer. If you’re doing it right, you’d be able to answer questions like where your consumer lives, her income, his fears and drives, demographics, and shopping habits. 

Knowing your brand and mission statement will help you to discover who your target buyer is. Consequently, you’ll know what messages, content, and advertisements you should create to speak to this buyer effectively. Although it may seem like a minor exercise, knowing your target audience can decrease the cost of lead acquisition while also increasing the quality of the lead.

Understand Your Competitive Edge

The fact is that there will always be a competitor with a bigger marketing budget or more resources. But that doesn’t mean that you’re out of the race. Your mortgage business –its value, mission, service –are qualities and benefits that are unique to your business. 

So when attempting to leverage your brand to scale your business, think about what factors make your business attractive and unlike others. Use what you know about your target buyer persona to develop a list of benefits and features about your business and brand and use it as a framework for your marketing strategy to strengthen your reach. Here are a few examples:

• Transparent mortgage process
• Pressure-free self-serve application
• Investment property professional
• Tech-savvy government loan specialist
• Biligual loan services

Use Brand Awareness To Define Your Pathway For Growth

Brand awareness is the initial step of any marketing funnel and a critical component of organic mortgage lead acquisition. Not only does your brand communicate your value and purpose, but it also builds rapport and familiarity between your business and prospect. This awareness is crucial since consumers typically choose what they are familiar with when making purchasing decisions.

Now that you understand that there is “equity” in your brand, inject it into every touchpoint of the user experience. Just like building a long-lasting business, creating brand awareness requires constant effort for a sustained period. 

Be Social. Studies have shown that over 50% of a brand’s reputation comes from being sociable. Be active on social media by sharing content, replying to comments, commenting on other’s posts, and responding to reviews.

Humanize Your Content. Use personality and storytelling to give your brand depth and your prospects something to latch onto. You can do this by sharing client stories, lending scenarios, and even easy-to-read mortgage articles written in a friendly tone.

Technology + Mortgage Branding

A brand’s ability to scale your mortgage requires more than inserting a logo. To positively impact your marketing campaigns, consumer perception, and revenue, mortgage branding requires a 360-degree effort in awareness and consumer experience. At LenderHomePage, we understand this concept profoundly and have woven it into every mortgage software product we’ve developed. 

From our templated mortgage websites to the industry-leading Loanzify mortgage mobile app, our digital mortgage tools invite engagement, strengthens brand loyalty, and definitively set you apart and above your competition. We’re more than software developers. We’re your partners in digital mortgage business success. Click here to start a conversation. 

We’ve compiled a list of the topmost relevant, and useful online courses mortgage professionals need to thrive and grow their mortgage business to the next level. From digital marketing to customer service to branding strategies, these upper-level online courses are taught by professionals at the top of their game and will give you the launching platform you need to grow your business. 

Need more resources for scaling and completing your digital transformation? We got you covered! Explore our stackable and brandable digital mortgage platform that grows with your business. 

Leadership Assessment and Development 

This course by Udemy is a 2-hour deep dive into exploring and developing your leadership skills. More than the typical “business leader approach,” this course is a great foundation for growing a mortgage business and shows you how to create a resilient work culture and leadership mentality within your team to promote innovation, accountability, profitability, and loyalty. Learn more.

Performance Experts 

Taught by one of the nation’s top fifty producers of loan origination, Tim Braheem offers several coaching programs in an exclusive small group, online settings. His Leadership 360 course is open only once a year to 9 members are takes mortgage professionals through a year-long business and life coaching program to teach mortgage professionals how to build a sustainable business model that complements the desire for personal fulfillment. Learn more.

CORE Training 

Taught by trio Rick Ruby, Todd Scrima, and Reeta Casey, this program focuses primarily on leveraging healthy competitiveness within your workforce to elevate the entire team. There are three levels to this program, with the first requiring a 12-month commitment and comes with the promise of doubling your business after successful completion. Learn more.

Social Media and Digital Advertising 2021

Offered by the respected Mortgage Banker’s Association (MBA), this webinar provides upper-level insight into digital marketing and social media marketing for the mortgage industry in 2021 and beyond. With legal compliance, consumer trends, and evolving digital etiquette, knowing how to market your business is challenging. This course can be completed in a single session and will provide a solid foundation for establishing and maintaining a professional mortgage digital presence. Learn more.

Aligning Customer Experience with Company Culture

Offered by one of Linkin’s featured professionals, customers service expert Davide Brownlee provides insight into the customer journey. He shows you how the mortgage professional can add value to each phase to create an exceptional customer experience that results in happier clients, a supportive and satisfying work environment, and increased profit. Learn more.

Marketing Foundations: Automation

Named as one of Forbes 30 Under 30, Jon Chang teaches the foundations of automation in marketing, how to use it to drive efficiency, identify marketing opportunities, and develop retargeting ad campaigns with high conversion rates. The self-directed course has several case studies and can be completed in a day. Learn more.

Sales: Closing a Complex Sale

This 5-module course is a fast-track program for improving sales and closing skills. It helps originators understand the buyer’s dilemmas and offers solutions to simplify the buyer’s journey and value proposition. Taught by Jeff Bloomfield, trusted sales strategist and executive coach to senior executives of Fortune 500 companies. Learn more.

Advanced Mortgage Loan Processor: Essential Skills Training

Gain a more profound knowledge of mortgage processing with this essential skills training course. This program is perfect for the loan officer looking to branch out on his own or work independently alongside banks or lenders. Even seasoned brokers will find the lessons helpful in expanding their practice and training up a top-producing mortgage team. Learn more.

Optimize Your Google Ads Campaign

Go beyond the basics set up of Google ads and learn how to plan, execute, and optimize for mortgage lead generation. Taught by Google, this one-hour seminar will introduce you to the advanced features of Google’s ad platform and prepare you for creating powerful mortgage ads on both local and national levels. Offered on a rotating basis so check the calendar for the next available date. Learn more.

Brand Management by UCLA Extension

This higher-level 11-week course offered by working professionals is part of UCLA’s Extention program. Available in 100% online format, you’ll learn the development and application of a business brand and how to leverage this power to differentiate yourself from the competition. This course is ideal for mortgage brokers who are aggressively scaling their businesses. Learn more.

The mortgage customer experience (CX) refers to all the touchpoints and effort you put into making borrowers feel important as they interact with your business and move through the borrower journey. Although difficult to define the scale that measures CX success, make no doubt about it, customer experience is directly linked to your pipeline and funding rate. 

A recent study by PWC demonstrated this when they found that 86% of buyers were willing to pay more for a great customer experience, especially when it comes to big-ticket items. Yet another study, this one by Walker conducted in 2020, found that customer experience will be the key brand differentiator, overshadowing price or product. It’s just as alarming to see what negative customer service will do to a business. Current research found that one of the top reasons customers will change financial institutions is a poor experience. 

Knowing how crucial customer experience is to the digital loan process, we’ve tailored these three areas where you can enhance the digital mortgage customer experience. Let’s get started.

Understand the Borrower Journey 

The borrower journey is the roadmap of experiences that customers go through as they interact with your digital mortgage software and brand. It begins with their first impression –perhaps your mortgage website –and goes on long after they’ve applied. To begin enhancing it, consider the borrower’s needs, motivations, actions, and even barriers to action that they may encounter along the way. Ask yourself:

• What first motivated that borrower to perform that action? 
• What would motivate them to move to take the next action? 
• Are there any obstacles that prevent them from taking that next action? 

Keep in mind that obstacles may be caused by technology that is unappealing or difficult to use. Therefore, when choosing a mortgage software vendor to partner with, thoroughly consider how fun it is for your borrower to use in addition to its utility to you. 

Prioritize An Omnichannel Customer Experience

Modern digital consumers prefer to connect with mortgage brands across different channels. That means that your mortgage website, mobile app, social media profiles, instant messaging, mortgage POS, and any other channel must be on point and streamlined across the board.

Although every channel may lie on a different platform and serve a different function, the core purpose at each point should be to deliver an unrivaled experience and to guide the customer down the borrower’s journey. Streamlining and automation are crucial to a mortgage omnichannel CX, meaning data exchange between platforms –such as your LOS and mortgage POS –should be fully integrated. 

Proactively Engage With Your Borrower

Innovation with real-time and self-serve functions empowers customers and helps them develop a deeper commitment to your brand and see the application through to funding. Here are a few of the high-value ways that you can proactively engage for a better CX:

• Automated Notifications – Customers appreciate reminders and notifications that keep them informed and provide gentle nudges to take the next step. These can come in automated SMS messages, email notifications, and dynamically updated borrower timelines.
• Educate Customers – Provide a library of articles and video resources for customers to devour on their own. This, too, is part of the borrower journey as many borrowers spend time learning in their consideration phase. 
• Easily Accessible Information – Remove the obstacle of requiring the borrower to ask you for information. A borrower portal that shows what documents are pending, accepted, and next steps are standard. Take it a step further by providing downloadable approval letters, too!

LenderHomePage Elevates The Customer Experience In Lending

In a nutshell, within the customer experience lies a massive and untapped potential for growth and your competitive edge. But you’ll only go as far as your mortgage software platform can take you. We set to develop the preeminent mortgage suite as functional and flexible as it was a delight to use for both mortgage pros and their borrowers. Contact us today to discover how easy it is to kill the competition with a stellar CX powered by LenderHomePage. 

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Put simply, the term “analytics” refers to quantifiable statistics or data that can help you to evaluate the performance of your loan officers. If you are not leveraging , then you are preventing your business from reaching its optimal potential.

Analytics can have a positive impact on every facet of your business. You can speed up loan processing, generate more leads, and create more targeted advertising campaigns when you explore analytics effectively. 

Below, we’ll discuss three ways that analytics can show you your strengths.

1.  Identify Social Trends

Over the last decade, social media platforms have risen to the forefront of digital marketing. Companies that engage with potential clients on social media tend to perform better than those that neglect this vital commodity.

By reviewing analytics, you can optimize the effectiveness of your social media marketing strategies. You can find out what works and what doesn’t, which will help you to better allocate resources.

Analytics can help you identify which platforms are responsible for generating the greatest number of leads and which forms of social media are relatively ineffective. For instance, if the analytics show that the majority of your leads originate from Facebook and Instagram, then that would be the place that you should focus the majority of your resources for advertising.

Modern CRMs like the one offered by BNTouch not only provides you with detailed analytical data on social trends, but they also facilitate automated branded advertising. This means that your loan officers will have access to a greater number of high-quality leads without spending a lot of time designing campaigns.

2.  Improve Overall Efficiency

By leveraging analytics, you can identify which areas that your team is performing strongly in and where they may be lagging behind. Analytics are typically broken down into individual KPIs (key performance indicators) that give you essential feedback on your team’s output.

If a particular loan officer is consistently underperforming in a certain KPI, then you can be better equipped to address the issue with a high-powered CRM. You can assist the employee in improving performance by supporting them with the right tools, which will result in more efficient mortgage processing. 

You can also identify which loan officers are performing at optimal efficiency levels and assign additional leads accordingly.  Software from BNtouch even allows you to automate the lead distribution process based on performance to ensure that your brokerage is operating as efficiently as possible.

3.  Implement Focused Advertising Strategies

Analytics not only play a role in optimizing your social media presence, but they can also help you to revamp your advertising strategies as a whole. This approach reduces wasted resources and improves your ability to generate new leads.

For example, if you are processing a high volume of a particular type of loan (i.e., VA loans), then you may want to gear a portion of your advertising towards veterans. You can also partner with real estate agents that work primarily with this demographic.

Analytics can even allow you to back up your advertising claims with hard data. If you are claiming to process loans fast, listing your average cycle time in ads can improve your credibility. The ad may read something like, “Our loan officers process mortgages 20% faster than our competitors.”

If you are ready to highlight the strengths of your team through analytics, then it is time to contact BNTouch. Our innovative CRM software can provide you with the tools you need to improve performance and streamline the client experience.

Contact us today to schedule a free demo and see our software firsthand. 

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The modern mortgageoriginator must learn to leverage analytics if they want to stay competitive long-term. Simply put, analytics refers to the systematic analysis of data.

By utilizing analytics, you can adjust your business model to better serve clients and generate leads. Below, we outline 5 ways that you can use analytics to promote your brokerage.

1.  Improve Lead Distribution

While generating a new lead is certainly a win for any brokerage, it is only half the battle. It is important that you assign that lead to the right team member so that they can follow through with the potential client.

With that being said, it can be difficult to effectively distribute leads amongst your loan officers. By leveraging analytics, you can review each members’ performance. Advanced CRM software will even give you the option to automatically assign leads based on individual performance data. This takes the guesswork out of lead distribution and improves your chances of closing the deal.

2.  Automate Marketing to Align with Social Trends

It’s no secret that social media has become an integral part of digital advertising. Unfortunately, far too many mortgage brokers underutilize these effective advertising platforms.

With analytics, you can have a better idea about which platforms might be best suited for your efforts. For instance, if 60% of your leads originate from Instagram, then this is where you should allocate the majority of your resources.

Modern CRM software can provide you with valuable feedback on social media marketing. It can also give you the ability to automate your marketing campaigns and leverage templates for designs. This allows you to focus more of your energy on active clients, while deploying effective advertising to generate new leads.

3.  Configure Your CRM Functionality to Fit Your Team

It is important that you use analytics to assess the performance of each loan officer. This data can help you to more efficiently assign leads.

Reviewing employee performance data will allow you to configure your CRM’s functionality to better meet the needs of your team, as well. You will be able to provide each loan officer with access to mission-critical tools. You will also be able to choose the types of data that you want to receive automated performance reports on.

4.  Educate Team Members

Analytics data can also aid you in creating new employee education strategies.

If you notice that many of your loan officers are struggling in a particular metric, be proactive. Create an in-house training course or address the issue on an individual basis. Doing so will improve the efficiency of your brokerage as a whole while also helping your loan officers to meet their individual performance goals.

5.  Collaborate More Efficiently

By leveraging analytics, your mortgage brokers will be able to collaborate with real estate agents and other professionals more efficiently. Streamlined communication is essential if you want to develop a strong reputation in the mortgage industry.

As you can see, analytics can help your mortgage brokerage to improve its performance in virtually every category. If you want to implement the latest analytics into your business strategy, then you need a high-performing CRM.

Fortunately, BNTouch has just the tools you need to take your business to the next level. We have scalable solutions for mortgage brokerages of all sizes. Our affordable software will give you access to a multitude of reporting tools and other software to support the mortgage process. 

Request your free demo today and take your business to new heights with BNTouch.  

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