Less “low-quality content.” Any posts that explicitly ask for or encourage engagement, such as comments or reactions, will have less visibility in the feed. LinkedIn said users find these types of posts that exist solely to boost reach “misleading and frustrating.”
Fewer polls. You had to know this one was coming. If you regularly browse LinkedIn, it’s become common to see multiple polls in your feed every day. Many of these are from people you don’t know. LinkedIn said it has better filtering and promises to show only “helpful and relevant” polls, from people in your network.
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Less irrelevant updates. Ever seen a connection congratulate someone you’ve never met about a recent job change? LinkedIn says it will reduce how often users see this and try to show “more targeted activity” from your network.
“I don’t want to see this.” In addition to algorithmic feed changes, LinkedIn is giving users a way to tell LinkedIn what they don’t want to say. All individual posts will include an “I don’t want to see this” option. You can limit content by authors or topic – plus you can choose to not see any political content.
Why we care. These are positive and needed changes that LinkedIn hopes will result in a feed full of relevant, reliable, credible and authentic content. Hopefully, you haven’t been using engagement-baiting tactics on LinkedIn for your clients or brands (or yourself). If you have, expect engagement and reach to decline as LinkedIn’s algorithm will no longer reward these tactics with greater visibility.
Google has updated its business redressal complaint form over here to add “this business doesn’t exist” as an option on why you think the business listing is fraudulent. This gives you one more way to communicate to Google why the business listing should be removed from Google Search and Google Maps.
You can see the new option, which was added over the past several days, in the form in the screenshot below.
The previous options. The older options were not removed, they just added “this business doesn’t exist” the existing options which include:
Title
Address
Phone number
Website
What is the business redressal form? Google said you can use this form “if you come across misleading information or fraudulent activity on Google Maps related to the name, phone number, or URL of a business.” Google said, “you may use this form to submit a complaint. Complaints submitted through this form will be reviewed in accordance with our guidelines for representing businesses on Google Maps.”
Why we care. Google Maps and local search business listings have their fair share of spam and fraudulent information. This gives you one more way to communicate to Google that a specific business listing is fake and should not show up in Google Maps or Google Search.
Sending cold emails for real estate is one of the most underrated and yet most efficient and cost-effective strategies to generate leads. Don’t just send cold emails into the spam mail void, learn how to get them in the ‘important’ folder and in front of prospective clients with this advice.
PPCsurvey.com has just released a new State of PPC Global Report for 2022. It includes input from more than 500 PPC specialists from around the globe.
The findings cover search marketers’ largest concerns, top priorities, spend data, automation insight and a wealth of information about the most pressing trends in paid search.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the largest findings.
High adoption rate of automations in Google Ads. Two eye-opening metrics in the survey:
97% of respondents use Responsive Search Ads.
95% have implemented Smart Bidding (tCPA).
Most surprisingly a whopping 78% of respondents have used Auto-applied Recommendations.
The time has passed when advertisers could compete without adopting automation.
Adoption of automation is high, but marketer satisfaction is mixed. The least satisfying automation, according to respondents, was Auto-applied Recommendations.
83% of respondents reported that they were dissatisfied with the Auto-applied Recommendations feature.
Another surprise came from one of Google’s biggest pushes as of late: The Recommendations Tab. The feelings on Recommendations were 63% negative, according to PPCsurvey.com.
Why so negative? Top complaints about the feature include “the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and the obvious push for smart bidding, broad match, and budget increases.”
Respondents were more satisfied with other automation.
51% of search marketers reported being satisfied with scripts.
48% said they were satisfied about tROAS Smart Bidding.
47% of respondents were satisfied about tCPA Smart Bidding.
The most pressing priorities for PPC Specialists. What are their clients’ top priorities? Some new concerns appeared this year.
Priority #1: improve goal-setting beyond traditional metrics (e.g., conversions, revenue). This includes the consideration of margin, including new versus traditional customers and Lifetime Value (LTV), with 62% of respondents stating that these were a top priority.
Priority #2: Tracking improvements including cookieless concerns, GA4 and server-side tagging came in second with 56%.
Unsatisfactory scores for Optiscore. Google now requires Google Partners to maintain a 70% Optiscore, PPCsurvey.com took a look at the satisfaction levels for the metric. Respondents could rate from 1-10 and the results were turned into a Net promoter score (NPS) to gauge how many participants would recommend.
Only 15% of respondents value a high Optiscore with 41% of respondents considering a high Optiscore a detractor in an account.
Using NPS methodology, this would give a high Optiscore an overall negative NPS of -26, which is a very undesirable score.
You can download the full report (PDF) here. It includes more information including global yearly ad spends, ad platform adoption, time-consuming activities, the top challenges for agencies and much more.
Why we care. While the adoption of automation is considerable, the satisfaction is a mixed bag. Some standouts include Smart Bidding and scripts, but recommendations racked up high dissatisfaction numbers.
Additionally, practitioners aren’t fans of having a high Optiscore, with more considering it a detractor than a positive. If you rely on these scores and use these metrics as a barometer for account health, you are going against the collective thought of the PPC experts who participated in this survey.
Lastly, advertisers are looking for better performance tracking. Folks are looking outside simple conversions and to more meaningful performance data while also figuring out better tracking options as ad platforms and analytics platforms are changing.
Understanding your competitors can give you tactical insights to help you discover opportunities.
Before competing, athletes spend many hours understanding weaknesses to exploit and finding possible gaps in the playing field.
Your digital marketing should come with the same level of insight and analysis.
Identifying and reviewing your competitors can help you come up with a strong list of potential keywords, find link building opportunities and build your persona profiles.
Starting your competitor analysis
When putting together a competitor analysis, it is important to make sure that your analysis tells you:
What a competitor is doing.
How they are doing it.
What factors they are most excelling at in their SEO strategy.
What are their gaps.
Using this information, it is possible to create strategies at scale that will help you exceed your competitors and get higher rankings.
The first step is to assess the bigger picture of your competitors. You can start by using Google and typing in the main keywords to see what sites show up in the rankings.
Next, you can use tools to help you drill down into your competitor analysis process.
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You can use Semrush to give you a starting point to identify your competitors.
In the Organic Research report, click on the Competitors tab.
You can use this as a starting point to figure out who your main competitors are.
Some of the data points that can help you in this research are:
Competition Level: Analysis of the number of keywords of each domain and the number of the domains’ common keywords. The more keywords the domain share in common, the more likely they are to compete with one another.
Common Keywords: How many keywords do the domains have in common.
SE Keywords: How many total keywords each site is ranking for.
Traffic: Estimated organic traffic.
Cost: Traffic cost based on CPC data and estimated volume.
Paid Keywords: How many keywords are being paid for via Google Ads.
Backlink profile analysis
Having identified a list of competitors, the next step is to look at their backlink profile.
How many unique referring links do they have pointing to them?
What is the quality of those links?
What is the link velocity of the links they have acquired?
Understanding their link profiles will help you determine how many backlinks you need to acquire before you are capable of competing for specific keywords.
Analyze your site’s backlinks
In Semrush, go to Backlink Analytics and type in your root domain. You can also add up to four competitors to see backlink metrics side by side.
The overview will give you an idea of how your backlink profile looks compared to others vying to rank for the same keywords.
Pay close attention to the number of referring domains you and your competitors have. To drill down, click on Referring Domains at the top of the report and sort the list by Authority Score.
If your site has many referring domains, all with low Authority Score, your site may not have enough power to rank against competitors with better quality inbound links.
The different reports in the Backlink Analytics feature in Semrush will allow you to learn the total number and types of backlinks, whether the majority is followed or nofollowed, and what types of links they are. Analyzing the anchor text will also help you figure out whether link building work has been done and if those links include keywords in the anchor text.
Your backlink analysis data will help you in upcoming research, as it will help you select keywords that you can realistically rank for.
If, for example, your site has an Authority Score of 25, but your competitors average an Authority Score of 45, you will not be likely to outrank them for root terms. You would have to search for keywords with less volume and where the ranking pages have a lower Authority Score.
Keyword data and content decisions should be closely intertwined with your backlink analysis as it will allow you to select “low-hanging fruit” keywords and realistic ranking targets.
Traffic analytics
The Semrush Traffic Analytics tool gives you traffic estimates for competitors. Whereas Google Analytics will show you how your site performs, traffic analytics can give you estimated traffic data for your competitors.
At a glance, you can compare how your competitors match up when it comes to:
Visits
Unique visitors
Pages / visit
Average visit duration
Bounce rate
Additionally, you can see trends over time for each of these categories. You’ll see if competitors have recently lost traffic or have made dramatic progress during a specific time period.
There are a myriad other data points and reports that could help you deepen your understanding of your competitors, such as top pages, traffic sources and traffic journeys.
Keyword research
Keyword Research is one of the oldest and most undervalued skills in SEO. Choosing the right keywords can mean the difference between success and failure in SEO.
Keyword research is not sexy, but it is necessary, foundational work to be done properly. Let’s go over a step-by-step process for keyword research.
Think in terms of “Keyword Sets”
Ideally, you should group your keywords into Keyword Sets. Start with a “seed keyword,” then look for long-tail variants of that keyword.
For example, if your primary keyword is “Real Estate Auction,” some of the sets you could use include:
Then you could move to another keyword set and also get variants for that term.
Examples of other seed sets include:
Online foreclosure auctions
Home auctions
Online property auctions
Once you have these in place, you can go deeper and deeper using secondary keywords, questions, and other variants.
Look for long-tail keywords
You can use Semrush’s Keyword Magic tool to obtain these seed sets. Type in the seed sets you’ve uncovered, and Semrush will give you a list of possible keywords.
You can group these using the match types:
As you find keywords that you would like to rank for and track, use the checkmark and add them to your “Keyword Manager” list.
Assess the competition level
Next, you need to assess the viability of ranking for the keywords you chose. Ranking for your seed keywords can be your end goal, but you have to select keywords that you can realistically rank for based on your site’s current authority score. If you choose keywords that are too competitive, you’ll never see positive results for your SEO efforts.
Most keyword research tools use a metric for Keyword Difficulty. You’ll want to identify keywords that have good volume but low KD. What that level is varies based on your site’s age, structure, backlink profile and much more.
Find keyword gaps
You can expand your keyword list by doing a keyword gap analysis. There might be keywords you never thought about that competitors are ranking for.
To perform keyword gap analysis, go to the Keyword Gap report, type the top competitors into the top bar, and click on compare:
There is a list of keywords that you and your competitors are ranking for in the table below. You’ll see which keywords are shared between all competitors, which ones they are ranking for but your site isn’t, which keywords you rank for but not at the top, and more.
Review these keywords, and if there are keywords that seem relevant, you can add them to your keyword manager list.
Compile your final keyword list
The final step is to collect all of your keyword data into the Keyword Manager. You can segment your lists or create one large list with all of your keywords.
By adding keywords from the keyword magic research, keyword gap analysis, competitor research and baseline assessment, you’ll have a comprehensive list of keywords to work with.
Make sure you click on the “Update Metrics” to get current, accurate data on the volume, competitiveness, and Keyword Difficulty of each of the terms on your list.
Using competitor data to craft your strategy
At this stage, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of who you’re up against in the SERPs. You’ll know which competitors have the strongest link profiles, what keywords you can target and have various data points about potential opportunities that your competitors have overlooked.
The data you have accumulated can help you build your final target keyword list and prepare you for the next stage, which includes understanding your target audience and building persona profiles.
If you search for [Moz] in Google Search, you won’t be seeing the moz.com home page, that page was removed from the Google index due to a DMCA takedown request. The takedown complaint cites that Moz’s home page, along with 185 other URLs were “distribute modified, cracked and unauthorized versions” of the Dr. Driving app.
The takedown complaint. The DMCA, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, takedown complaint can be viewed over here. You can see the Moz home page listed on line 122. As Cyrus Shepard posted on Twitter “Crazy! You can’t access the Moz homepage from Google right now. A search for “Moz” shows an incredible 8(!) removed results from an overly-broad DMCA filing. DMCA literally lets anybody abuse the system, and it breaks Google.”
Google is aware. Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison responded saying “I’ve passed it on for review.” We suspect Google will reverse this issue really quickly – but so far, Moz is still not showing.
The Google search results. Here is a screenshot of the search results page showing the Moz blog coming up in the first position, not the Moz home page:
The footer of the Google results show that Google “removed 8 result(s) from this page” due to DMCA violations:
Should not happen but it does. You are all probably thinking, this should not happen – how can Moz not rank for it’s own name in Google Search. How can it be that easy for someone to use a DMCA request to take down a large respected brand from showing in the Google Search results? And you are right, this should not happen – but it does.
I guess mistakes happen, even in massive companies. But how? We don’t know yet. We have reached out for Google for a statement and if we hear back, we will update this story.
More on DMCA requests and Google Search. Google has its transparency report that says “It is our policy to respond to clear and specific notices of alleged copyright infringement. The form of notice we specify in our web form is consistent with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and provides a simple and efficient mechanism for copyright owners from countries/regions around the world. To initiate the process to delist content from Search results, a copyright owner who believes a URL points to infringing content sends us a takedown notice for that allegedly infringing material. When we receive a valid takedown notice, our teams carefully review it for completeness and check for other problems. If the notice is complete and we find no other issues, we delist the URL from Search results.”
You can dispute these requests and have them reversed but how long does that take? You can submit DMCA requests to Google over here.
Why we care. This is a nightmare for most SEOs and site owners. To be removed from Google Search for your branded term. It should not happen, it is really inexcusable and sad to see but it did happen.
I am sure Moz will return shortly but there is really nothing we can say on how to prevent this from happening to your site. The good news, Moz is a big enough brand that this caught Google’s radar quickly and likely will be fixed soon because of that. But for small brands – good luck.
Postscript. Moz is now back, less than 12 hours after this issue was first reported here:
As a mortgage loan officer in 2022, you understand the importance of relationships. That’s why you shouldn’t settle for marketing tactics that feel impersonal. The best way to get business as a mortgage broker is to cultivate meaningful connections.
Here are 10 strategies that you can use to generate more business in 2022.
1. Be a Specialist, Not a Generalist
The real estate industry represents a broad range of needs, interests, and household structures. As a mortgage loan officer in 2022, you might be tempted to try to address every need that comes your way. But it’s hard to market yourself as a jack-of-all-trades. Instead, focus on one niche and demonstrate your ability to serve that specific market.
Need a place to start? Here are some questions that can help you find your niche:
Do I focus on a particular geographic area?
What type of real estate do I want to specialize in?
Are my loan programs suited for first-time buyers?
Do I offer specialty programs such as FHA loans or reverse mortgages?
Will my clients need refinancing options?
You don’t have to limit yourself to just one area of the real estate market, but narrowing in on a category can help you refine your marketing efforts, which can translate into more business.
2. Develop a Referral Network
One of the surest ways to find clients is through referrals. To do that, you’ll need to develop a network that can provide you with information about prospective clients.
Your referral network might include other industry professionals, such as:
Accountants and CPA firms that buy and sell real estate
Appraisers
Real estate attorneys
Relocation specialists
But don’t neglect your own client network as you pursue new leads. You can follow up with past clients to see if their needs have changed. You can also ask them to leave an online review that can help you gain the interest of future clients.
3. Focus on Real Estate Agents
The majority of home buyers rely on real estate agents when purchasing a home. If your mortgage broker services focus on residential real estate, then it makes sense to market yourself to realtors.
This can be tricky. Starting with a sales pitch can spoil the relationship. Instead, try to build a relationship by connecting with them on a personal level.
You can make introductions through:
Social media
Email
Local trade shows
Open houses
Once you establish a relationship, it will be easier (and more natural) to discuss what a partnership could look like. Real estate agents may be able to provide referrals as well.
4. Create a Loan Officer Website
Mortgage Loan Officers in 2022, having a web presence isn’t a novelty—it’s an expectation. Start by building a website devoted to your services as a mortgage loan officer.
Your website should include information about your loan programs and tell your clients a little about yourself. Here’s a tip: use video to introduce yourself and tell your clients what they can expect.
Even if you already have a website, make sure it’s modern and optimized.
Achieving optimization means:
Visitors can easily find your content
The site is clean, visually appealing, and looks great on any device
You provide direct calls to action that encourage visitors to take the next step
Web designers also emphasize “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO), which means that your site should use keyword phrases that help you reach the top results of common search engines.
For example, using the phrase “mortgage broker near me” might help you catch visitors looking for that phrase.
5. Use Social Media
Social media is the new public square. Make your voice heard by maintaining a presence on the top social media channels.
Which channels should you focus on? Because you’re offering a professional service, your best options might be Facebook and LinkedIn. But younger generations may prefer the image-based environment of Instagram. Using this platform may help you reach first-time home buyers.
You can use social media in two ways. First, you can share information.
Your social media profile allows you to:
Advertise your services
Promote upcoming events
Share relevant content
Second, you can use social media to build relationships. Ask engaging questions and listen to customer feedback. Reply to visitor comments to create a personal touch.
6. Create Compelling Content
Connect to your target market by sharing relevant content. Create a blog page as part of your website, and write regular posts that offer value to prospective customers.
Topics might include:
Tips for new homeowners
Ways your credit score affects your mortgage
Home loan options for first-time buyers
How to increase the value of your home
Conclude each post with a call to action, such as prompting visitors to contact you for more information.
Practice SEO strategy. Use keywords in each post that will attract your target audience. For instance, if you focus on a particular geographic area, include the name of your state or city in your posts.
Use images to attract attention. Facebook posts with photos generate 37% more engagement than those without. Pictures grab attention and can help you stand out in your followers’ feeds.
7. Add Video to Your Marketing Strategy
Remember, as a mortgage broker, you’re all about relationships. Using video in your marketing materials helps your clients put a name to a face (literally).
A high-quality video might make a great introduction to the landing page of your website. But you can also create videos that offer tips or promotions. These videos work well on social media, and you can link to them in your email marketing campaigns.
8. Offer a “Lead Magnet”
Many people are wary of sharing their personal information online. But you can learn more about your clients by offering them something of value in exchange for some basic information. In marketing, this is known as a “lead magnet.”
Common magnets include:
An eBook (e.g., How to Buy Your First Home)
A discount on an upcoming webinar, conference, etc.
Access to premium content
Advertise this lead magnet in as many places as possible. Promote this item on your website, social media, and on every blog post. You can also include a link (or even a QR code) on your business cards. This way, when you hand out your card, you can remind the recipient that they can get a free book by scanning or visiting the link.
The information you gain can be integrated into your other marketing efforts. For instance, you can generate an email list to promote future events. You can also send a special email to new leads, introducing yourself and your services.
9. Host an Event
You can always meet potential clients and partners by hosting an event. You don’t have to create a major conference to offer something of value. Consider offering an educational seminar or a “Lunch and Learn” session.
Organize these events around your industry niche (see point #1). You might create an event aimed at first-time buyers or something aimed at those investing in commercial real estate. This ensures that you’ll connect with the relevant audience and have a better chance at converting attendees into clients.
If you’re not sure where to start, consider hosting a webinar. During the height of the COVID pandemic, many people grew accustomed to online forums. This makes them an ideal platform for meeting people face to face, especially since they won’t require rental space.
You can also participate in others’ events. For example, if there’s a convention or a trade show, it might help to show up and mingle. The connections you make could help you generate new partnerships among other industry professionals and may even result in some new leads.
10. Think Stories, Not Just Numbers
When you market your services, you may be tempted to simply share raw data. But most people are moved by a compelling story.
Start by thinking about the challenges and fears your clients face.
These might include:
What are common barriers to homeownership?
What financial goals might prompt someone to refinance their home?
Will their credit score jeopardize their dreams of buying a home?
Once you surface these pain points, explain how a mortgage broker can help. Then discuss how your services connect to the needs of your customers, followed by what they can expect from the process.
You might ask former clients for permission to share their stories. Even if you change their names for privacy, you can explain how “Mr. and Mrs. Jones” was able to buy a home thanks to your professional guidance.
This personalization can help potential clients feel at ease about the process and know exactly how your services can assist them.
Use the Right Tools
BNTouch can help you with a variety of valuable tools. Enhance your business with such features as email marketing, customized video marketing, surveys, and more.
Our mortgage customer relationship management (CRM) platform can help you build relationships and connect with more clients than ever before.
To learn more about how our services can enhance your business, request a demo today!
If you’ve ever read Axios, you’ll remember it. At least that’s what Ryan Kellett, VP of Audience at Axios hopes.
A news article on Axios has a distinctive look. It’s all in the name of Smart Brevity.
Smart Brevity: “Axios gets you smarter, faster on what matters.” That’s their mission. And they have five excellent guiding principles:
Audience first
Elegant efficiency
Smart, always
No BS for sale
Excellence, always
What about SEO? Axios had 24.8 million visitors in March, with 16% of traffic coming from organic search, according to Semrush’s Website Traffic Checker. (For comparative purposes, the New York Times is the largest news site, with more than a billion visitors in March – but Axios doesn’t cover nearly as many topics as the Times, CNN or other large news publishers.)
News is incredibly competitive. And Smart Brevity seems to go against what many consider to be SEO best practices. Namely, longer and more is better.
So how does Axios make SEO and Smart Brevity work together?
Go deeper. Here are highlights from my recent Q&A with Kellett. It has been edited for smartness and brevity.
SEO is an entry point. For Axios, it’s audience first, always. Kellett said Axios delivers trustworthy breaking news and insights in the smartest and most efficient way possible. So what role does SEO play at Axios? Here’s what Kellett said:
“The goal with our SEO discipline is to introduce readers to our fact-based coverage and Smart Brevity in a way that earns their time, attention and trust. You’ll notice Axios is distinctive not just in the quality of what we produce but in the actual look of the written article. Have you seen our bullet points and bold before? It’s memorable.”
“If we can convince a search reader to identify Smart Brevity wherever they next see Axios (say, in a social feed, Apple News or a forwarded email from a friend), chances are good they will eventually convert to being a subscriber to one of our many amazing newsletters.”
“Sure, we’d love it if they signed up for a newsletter on the spot after coming over from search, but search mostly is a top-of-funnel entry point for readers who may be coming to us for the first or second time.”
One exception: Axios Pro, which is a specialized news subscription. Pro readers coming from search may be looking for a specific company or individual that Axios is covering, Kellett said.
Smart Brevity is core to Axios. It’s hard to stand out in a crowded news space. Making content longer would go against everything Axios is trying to do. Kellett believes shorter is better. And that most news articles across the web could benefit from being shorter and more readable:
“Everyone focuses on the brevity part. But it’s brevity in combination with making the reader smarter that drives everything we do.”
“We most certainly get dinged for this in search rankings, but we have to be comfortable knowing that the reader will appreciate Smart Brevity when they encounter us, recognize it in the wild, and eventually seek it out from us. We obviously can’t abide if our stories don’t index or rank at all, so we look to avoid that. But otherwise, we have broad shoulders and navigate the best we can.”
Why Axioms matter. As Kellett noted, Axios articles have a distinctive look. And this look has a name internally at Axios: axioms. The style can be traced back to Axios co-founder Mike Allen’s flagship newsletter, Axios AM. Kellett said axioms have debatable SEO value – but undeniable value for their audience:
“How many articles have you read where the most important point and the whole reason you should care is buried in paragraph seven or ten? We use the ‘Why it matters’ axiom so you, the reader, can quickly identify why the story is relevant in the first place.”
“The SEO part of axioms may be quite subtle. I could make the argument we’re giving a consistent pattern for search engines to identify and parse our content. But I’m unsure how much it practically helps us rank at the moment. If you have creative ideas on how to extend axioms for search, my DMs on Twitter are open until Elon Musk shuts me down.”
“Start from a good place and optimize from there.” Their homegrown CMS defaults help nudge reporters to write good URLs and SEO-friendly headlines. Axios doesn’t have a separate search team outside of its larger audience team, so it relies on its newsdesk, copy editing and audience teams every day, Kellett said.
Headlines are one area Axios regularly tries to improve to enhance performance. Their teams do this manually, by looking at performance and going into the CMS. Axios does not use any kind of automated testing of headlines.
5 Axios SEO best practices
1. SEO education. Kellett said this is ongoing and an important part of keeping up with changes to SEO.
“I am always on the lookout for myths and bad habits to correct. And Director of Audience Neal Rothschild writes a weekly email (produced using our own Axios HQ software) to the newsroom that reviews examples and changes in best practices, which is incredibly helpful to get the word out internally quickly.”
2. Authority and depth. Axios is not CNN.com. They don’t cover every single topic under the sun. Kellett said Axios focuses on reinforcing its areas of authority:
“Readers may see some of the breaking news coverage we publish, but we also have amazingly, deep coverage on narrow topics like space, sports betting, electric vehicles, China, privacy, immigration, to name a few. All of these are forward-looking areas that will only be more important to the country as time goes on.”
“And that depth can come into play down the road. As an example, Axios had more authority than you’d think when the war in Ukraine started because we had covered Volodymyr Zelensky, including this amazing interview we did with him for Axios on HBO in 2021. Using that expertise furthers both pure journalistic and SEO goals.”
3. Explainers.
“I’ve loved working on our explainers, which really help us step back and give regular readers a chance to access a storyline with Smart Brevity. Axios Explains Ukraine is a great example of where we are headed with this.”
4. Speed. For breaking news, Axios is fast. Really fast.
“Being among the first URLs on the web on a big story helps us rank as news develops. We’ll often get beat when the big publishers come knocking but generally staying fast, pointing to our expertise through internal links, and peeling off really great story angles gives us a fighting chance.”
5. Pillar and evergreen content. Axios publishes more than just short articles.
“We have a set of Deep Dives that cover topics in-depth and from a bunch of different angles. Those stories have potential to be great pillar content and evergreen too with some continued editorial and technical SEO work.”
Breaking Axios SEO news: Axios has just hired their first Director of SEO:Priyanka Vora, formerly Quartz’s Audience Editor. She will help build out Axios’ SEO practice further.
“I would also keep an eye on the Axios job listings page as the company is in growth mode across a number of areas, both in and around our newsroom.”
Axios’ SEO tool of choice. “We’re a Semrush shop for now,” Kellett said. Though he is personally partial to exporting GSC data to Google Sheets.
Most important SEO KPIs or metrics? Raw referrals matter to Kellett most. Also, the percentage of overall referred traffic from search.
“Though, of course, I will also celebrate anyone in our newsroom who sends me a screenshot of when Axios is in Top Stories carousel,” Kellett said.
Customer Match lists will be leveraged more within Google Ads, according to an email sent to advertisers this week.
These lists will soon be eligible to be used within an account to help aid Smart Bidding and/or Optimized Targeting.
This is a shift from how Customer Match lists are applied today. Advertisers currently need to manually apply these to a campaign.
Customer Match lists won’t be used with manual bidding strategies. However, advertisers may still use bid modifiers manually to adjust bids.
When this is happening. Starting in Q2. The tentative timelines for the rollout of Customer Match lists in smart bidding are:
Advertisers can opt out. If you don’t want Customer Match lists to be applied to Smart Bidding or Optimized Targeting, you’ll have the ability to opt out at the ad account level. To opt out, go to Account settings then choose Customer Match and uncheck the Use all Customer Match lists in Smart Bidding or Optimized Targeting box.
You may also remove lists that you don’t want to include in this targeting.
Note: Google Ads Managers can’t opt out of all campaigns. This must be done at the individual account level.
Why we care. More signals for automation is a good thing. The ability to curate what lists are or aren’t utilized should be a boon for advertisers. Because you will need to opt out, make sure to take time for each account to ensure that the proper Customer Match lists are in play.
Google blocked or removed 3.4 billion ads in 2021, according to its annual Ads Safety Report, which was released today. Google also tripled the number of account-level suspensions for advertisers in the last year.
3.4 billion ads blocked or removed. The top three categories of bad ads were abusing the ad network (652 million); adult content (287 million); and trademark (137 million). Here’s the full chart from Google:
Earlier this year, Microsoft reported it had removed more than 3 billion ads in 2021. That means Google and Microsoft combined to remove nearly 6.5 billion ads last year.
5.7 billion ads restricted. Certain ads can’t be shown to every searcher in every location. These ads all fell into the category of either legally or culturally sensitive. By the numbers:
Trademarks: 1.4 billion
Other restricted businesses: 511.4 million
Financial services: 223 million
Healthcare and medicines: 219.3 million
Alcohol: 128.5 million
Adult content: 126.1 million
Gambling and games: 108.1 million
Legal requirements: 105.7 million
Copyrights: 68.6 million
5.6 million advertiser accounts suspended. Google reported that bad actors operated “with more sophistication and at a greater scale, using a variety of tactics to evade our detection.”
One challenging example: bad actors created thousands of accounts simultaneously and used techniques like cloaking and text manipulation to show Google’s reviewers and systems different ad content than what a user would see.
Publisher enforcement. Google also blocked or restricted ads from serving on 1.7 billion publisher pages, and took broader site-level enforcement action on about 63,000 publisher sites in 2021.
The top three categories Google took action: sexual content, dangerous or derogatory, and weapons promotion and sales. Here’s a chart:
Ongoing fight against COVID misinformation and abuse. Google blocked ads from running on more than 500,000 pages for violating its policies against harmful health claims related to COVID-19.
This included claims related to vaccines and testing, as well as price-gouging on critical supplies (e.g., masks).
Google has blocked more than 106 million COVID-related ads since the pandemic began.
2022 Ukraine ad removals. Although this report covered 2021, Google provided an update on how many ads related to the war in Ukraine have been blocked so far in 2022: 8 million.
The company added that it has removed ads from more than 60 state-funded media sites from its platforms.
Why we care. These “bad actors” are bad for searchers, advertisers and publishers. This big picture view is a great (and also somewhat shocking) reminder of how many threats there are for legitimate advertisers who want to reach their target audience. This also provides more context to why Google is pushing hard for advertiser verification and instituting things like its three-strikes policy.
