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New Twitter ‘Search Subscribe’ feature coming soon?

You may soon have a new way to get push notifications from Twitter whenever someone’s tweets match a search query that you specify. 

The Twitter feature is called “Search Subscribe.”

Twitter has not confirmed if or when the feature will roll out to users. It was first spotted by Dylan Rousse, an Android developer, in the latest pre-release version of Twitter’s mobile app.

Twitter is working on a feature allowing you to subscribe to search results. Once subscribed, you'll receive push notifications for Tweets about your search query!

pic.twitter.com/plTlt484oN

— Dylan Roussel

(@evowizz) May 31, 2022

How it works. When you do a search in the Twitter app, you will see a bell icon next to the search bar. Tapping that bell will bring up a message: “You’re subscribed to receive push notifications for Tweets about [insert your search query here]”.

Similar to TweetDeck. TweetDeck, which is also owned by Twitter, gives you an option to add a column. “Search” is a column type. So if you put in the search term “SEO” you would see every tweet that matches “SEO” in that column. Or, you can filter those results by location, authors and engagement levels. 

Push notifications. Twitter lets you enable or disable a variety of notifications. This includes mentions, replies, retweets, new followers, direct messages and more. To date, search has never been one of these options. 

For Twitter Blue? We previously reported that an edit button is coming to Twitter. But if and when that does finally launch, it will be part of the paid Twitter Blue service. Early speculation is that Search Subscribe would be part of Twitter Blue.

Why we care. If Search Subscribe works similarly to TweetDeck, this could be helpful for monitoring any keywords that are of interest to you. However, it could also become incredibly noisy so you’ll want to choose your search terms wisely.

The post New Twitter ‘Search Subscribe’ feature coming soon? appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Snapchat now offers Dynamic Ads for Travel

Snapchat has released an easy and automated way for businesses to reach travelers. The new product is called Dynamic Ads for Travel.

The new ad features. According to Snapchat’s announcement, the new ads will include the following components:

Customized catalogs built to meet the needs of travel advertisers

Advanced audience targeting based on intent

Locally relevant delivery based on destination popularity

Good news for travel brands. Dynamic Ads for Travel, originally developed for companies such as Booking.com, allows advertisers and businesses to upload catalogs or feeds and show targeted ads to serve users based on their travel preferences and intent. 

The announcement comes just months after many pandemic-related restrictions on masks and testing are being lifted, allowing tourism a chance to bounce back to pre-2020 levels. 

Audience targeting uses machine learning and product ranking to serve ads to users who haven’t been to the advertisers website previously. While locally relevant targeting dynamically retargets users who have been to your website or app with listings they may be interested in. 

Early results. Booking.com recently adopted the new strategy, serving ads with locally relevant listings of properties users had already viewed. The results were 20x lower cost per purchase, 1.3 times higher swipe rate, and 10.7 million impressions. 

Booking.com used Snapchats Dynamic Ads to serve locally relevant listings to those interested in their properties

What Snapchat says. Snap head of U.S. verticals Sharon Silverstein said in a statement, “As the summer vacation season approaches, travel businesses are looking to optimize reach and drive conversions. Snapchatters are a particularly salient audience for the industry, with many eager and more likely to travel than users of other platforms. Dynamic Travel Ads are driving impressive results for our partners, and we look forward to unlocking them for more businesses as the travel industry enters its busiest season.”

Official Snapchat documentation. Read the complete ad setup guidelines here.

Why we care. When it comes to advertising dollars spent, Snapchat trails behind industry giants such as Facebook and Instagram. But Snapchat is gaining momentum, with most of its users falling into Gen Z and millennial age groups. And with those groups being the most diverse travelers, Snapchat is a great place to advertise airline and hotel deals, new destinations, and popular hotspots.

The post Snapchat now offers Dynamic Ads for Travel appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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How to create captivating, compelling and optimized content

We all know that “content is king.”

What many don’t understand is that for content to be king, it needs the support of its court. 

To make the most out of your content strategy, it’s important for you to:

Identify entities and topically-related keywords.

Optimize for on-page elements.

Build content that will stand out.

Create your editorial strategy

At this stage, you should have a comprehensive list of keywords. You should also have insights about your target audience, personas and buying cycle and what your competitors are doing. 

Now it’s time to put that data to use.

In the planning stage, you’ll need to determine:

Cadence: How often will you publish content on your website/blog? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?

Resources: How many writers do you have available? What about editors? How many words can they write every week while maintaining quality?

Formats: What type of content will you be producing? Long-form articles? Infographics? Tutorials? Ebooks?

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When developing your strategy, make sure you develop different types of content for the different ways of learning that your audience personas may exhibit. Some may learn visually, others prefer videos, yet others might enjoy looking at infographics or images.

Here’s how you should conceptualize your topic clusters or content pillars:

Style guides

Before developing content, make sure you have a style guide in place. For marketing agencies, this can be used as a library for assets: style guides, brand books, etc., provided to you by clients. 

If you’re creating content for your own brand, this is where you can brainstorm your own style:

What kind of imagery do you want to add to your content?

What kind of voice should your authors use?

What color palette should be used when creating visual content?

What types of citations and references should your writers use?

Trending topics 

What are some interesting trends in your industry that might appeal to your target audience? You can supplement your editorial calendar with trending topic ideas by setting up keyword alerts or an XML feed of relevant industry sites.  

Tip: Watch for new patents or studies being released in your space. If you find a new patent that can significantly impact your industry, translating it into “people-speak” can help you gain news coverage.

A fantastic tool for monitoring news and staying up to date with your industry is BuzzSumo:

You can filter by keyword, site or date and see which articles resonated the most based on social shares.

Create your editorial calendar

Next, you can formulate topics and themes based on your topics, keywords and target persons. Mind mapping can help you organize your thoughts and create a strategy.

Next, map out your calendar by following these steps:

Assign a theme, topic or seed set to each publication date.

Segment each content piece by adding a buyer persona and buying stage. 

Select primary and secondary keywords for each content piece.

Here’s what it may look like at this stage:

Next, you’ll want to find out what channels present an opportunity and create content for each specific channel. Some of these channels and content types include:

Featured Snippets

People Also Ask

Knowledge Graph

Videos

Images

Here’s what your editorial calendar might look like at this stage:

Your content cadence can help you determine what elements you use and how often. If you publish daily or multiple times a day, you can address all of your opportunity gaps faster than if you’re only publishing once a week or once a month.  

The idea is to be strategic in the content you publish so it focuses on keyword gaps, your most devoted personas at their most advantageous stage in the buyer’s journey.

Having all the research handy can make your editorial calendar creation as simple as drag and drop!

When all of the elements are properly “framed,” it’s pretty easy to create appealing titles and to give your writers detailed descriptions to work with.

Manage your editorial calendar

To stay organized and strategic, you’ll want to include as much data as possible for each content piece. Here are some fields you should consider tracking:

Article title

Author

Editor

Date scheduled to publish

Campaign

Word count

Content type

Target persona

Buying stage

Primary keyword

Secondary keywords

People Also Ask questions

Article description

Once you have all of these data points in place for each content piece, let’s look at your workflow.  

Editorial workflow

Your workflow will change based on your content type. If you are creating a long-form article that does not need to be reviewed by a client, your workflow could look this:

If you are creating a visual asset, such as an infographic, the workflow would require more steps and might end up looking like this:

As you go through the editorial process, ensure that you check the content for Readability level, use of keyword variants, topical entities and proper formatting such as header tags.

Content length

How long should your articles be? Is Google truly rewarding long-form articles? How can you determine how long each article should be?  

When planning content length, it’s important to use a tool such as SurferSEO or Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant so you can map content length to the target query.

If someone searches Google for the question, “How tall is the Eiffel tower?” they probably don’t want to read a 5,000-word essay about the history of the Eiffel tower. They know exactly what they are looking for and want a quick, direct answer.

However, if your article is about “how real estate agents can get into the commercial auction field,” the person researching is more likely to want a detailed, comprehensive article and will be willing to read an ebook or a 3,000-word long-form article.

If you already use Semrush, the SEO Content Template or SEO Writing Assistant will allow you to search for a keyword and get an idea of what’s working in the SERPs for that particular query set, such as:

Semantically Related Words

Backlinks

Readability Score

Text Length

It’s ideal to use this data in the instructions given to your writing team for each content piece.

Beware the ides of duplicate content

Before finalizing and publishing your content pieces, make sure there is no duplicate content used by your authors.

It’s human nature to give others the benefit of the doubt, but it’s important to make sure that the content you’re publishing is not duplicated elsewhere on your site or the web.

Two great tools to check for duplicate content are:

Copyscape: You can add a content block to Copyscape and it will show you other places on the web where your content is duplicated.

SiteLiner: Siteliner will provide you with a detailed report based on duplicate content percentages and many more data points.

Sometimes, other sites scrape and publish your content on their sites after you publish. By running duplicate content checkers, you can identify those situations and request them to remove your content.

Adding internal and external links

Make sure all of your content pieces have links to other relevant pages of your own site within the body of the content. Internal, contextual links can help increase the topical relevance of your pages. Simultaneously, add links to authoritative external sources when it makes sense.

Publish your content pieces

Once your content pieces have gone through all the workflow steps and are approved, it’s finally time to get them live on your site!

When you upload to your CMS, verify that your content has all the proper tags in place and that you include the target keywords in your:

Meta title

Meta description

URL

Breadcrumbs

H1 tag (primary keyword)

H2/H3 tags (secondary keywords)

…etc

Also, make sure you assign your article to the most relevant category, which will help Google understand your site’s hierarchy.

Track your content pieces

Once you’ve published your content, create a reminder to check its performance after 30, 60 and 90 days.

This way, you can quickly identify pages that are not gaining traction and can work on adjusting the keywords or on-page SEO.

You can look at the metrics in Google Analytics and Google Search Console and change the date ranges to figure out how your articles perform.

Here are some of the elements you can review and track:

No traction: The article doesn’t have any traffic and needs to be optimized.

Trending up/down: If the article is trending up, you can enhance and extend it to target more keywords. If the article was doing well but started dropping, optimize for the keywords dropping and add more inbound links.

Low CTR: These are articles ranking well and have good impressions but have low CTR, which means people aren’t clicking on your link from the Google results page. If you update the title and/or description, it might help to improve the CTR and increase clicks.

Promote your content pieces

Many marketers believe that publishing an article is the end of the content creation cycle. In reality, the end of content creation is just the beginning of the content promotion stage.

Here are a few ideas for ways to promote your article after you hit publish:

Amplify with Facebook Ads: Boost your post to reach a wider audience and increase the chances of it being shared and linked to.

Share in Facebook and LinkedIn industry groups: Join industry groups and, sporadically, share your articles. Make sure you engage with others, share thought leadership, and comment on other people’s content.

Email marketing and networking: Build your email list and send out a newsletter sharing your latest blog posts. You can also email people directly by building a list based on relevant keywords.

Answer questions on Quora or forums: Search quora for content related to your target keyword and, where possible, link to the relevant blog post. Make sure your answers are detailed, comprehensive, and valuable.

Ideally, you should only create as many content pieces as you can promote. 

As Google’s database becomes increasingly crowded, Google will continue to emphasize quality content, and getting your content promoted is key to standing out. 

The days of spaghetti marketing are over

You can’t just throw a bunch of content at Google and hope a few stick. Instead, focus on being strategic and producing truly helpful, unique content differentiating you from your competitors.

The content creation journey is the glue that makes SEO stick. If your approach is strategic and focused on quality, the next stage, outreach, will happen naturally.

The post How to create captivating, compelling and optimized content appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Webinar: An easy-to-use, actionable ABM framework (finally!)

ABM is more than just another marketing channel to add to your mix. It’s a complete go-to-market strategy that requires new processes, better collaboration, and more accountability.

But don’t let that intimidate you. We’re here to help you get started and create a clear path for iteration and scalability.

Register today for “Take a Crawl, Walk, Run Approach to Multi-Channel ABM” presented by Terminus.

The post Webinar: An easy-to-use, actionable ABM framework (finally!) appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Apple Search campaigns shifting to cost-per-tap (CPT) pricing model

Apple Search users will soon notice a new campaign pricing type. CPT, or cost-per-tap is Apple’s version of CPC, or cost per click. It is calculated by dividing your total spend by the number of taps your ad received. 

Apple Search ads help people discover your app when they search on the app store. Like traditional manual cost per click ads:

you choose a maximum amount you’re willing to pay each time someone clicks, or taps, your ad

the actual amount you’re charged is based on what your nearest competitor is willing to pay for a tap on their ad. 

The current CPM model. Apple will phase out the current CPM, or cost per thousand model as soon as the transition to CPT is complete. The current CPM model charges your account for every thousand impressions your ads receive – regardless of whether users click or tap. 

Apple Search users promoting their apps can soon create the new campaigns in their accounts. Those new CPT campaigns will automatically be placed on hold.

When the transition goes live, current CPM campaigns will go on hold and the new CPT campaigns will go live. 

If you prefer not to create new CPT campaigns until Apple releases the update, keep an eye out for an announcement to avoid a lapse in your ads serving. 

As of right now there is no set launch date for CPT campaigns.

Why we care: This new CPT model reflects the traditional cost per click method advertisers are used to within search results ads. This means you can bid competitively without the worry of overpaying, and get more for your ad dollars by only paying when those most interested tap on your ad.

The post Apple Search campaigns shifting to cost-per-tap (CPT) pricing model appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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3 Google Merchant Center changes you may have missed

Earlier this quarter, Google announced a series of changes coming to Merchant center that retailers should be aware of. Here’s a recap.

Pause attribute. In April, Google announced a ‘pause’ attribute to temporarily halt ads. This lets merchants the ability to temporarily pause shopping ads without needing to use the “out_of_stock” attribute or “availability” attribute.

This was a needed change because many times a retailer isn’t looking to halt ads completely, or that a product will be back available for purchase in the near term. Starting in 2023, using the “availability” attribute incorrectly may result in your ads being disapproved.

Availability dates for backorder and preorder products. Later this month, all items with the “backorder�� or “preorder” attribute will require an “availability_date” on when the item will be back in stock. This date can be up to a year in the future and if further out it could have products disapproved.

Unsupported Shopping content. Google also announced that, effective this month, it has updated its Unsupported Shopping content policy to include a change to how motor-powered bicycles are listed:

“Electric bikes of a speed of 25 km/h or 15.5 mph or less are still allowed. However, product listings for these electric bikes are now required to explicitly state the bicycle’s speed on the landing page and either the product title or description. If the speed isn’t stated, the products are in violation of our policy and will be disapproved.”

Why we care. While these changes are all fairly small, the failure to adhere to the new rules could potentially stop products from showing. The ability to quickly pause product ads has been a nice touch that bypasses the previously needed workarounds.

The post 3 Google Merchant Center changes you may have missed appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Google: Automatic updates for condition starting June 26

Later this month Google will roll out a change to the condition attribute for shopping ads. If you’re a retailer, your products could be disapproved if you have the incorrect attribution set.

A condition attribute tells potential shoppers about the condition of the product you are selling. Currently, there are three condition attributes:

New

Refurbished

Used

New products do not require a condition to be set, while Used and Refurbished items do. 

What will this affect? All shopping accounts will be automatically opted-in to use automatic updates for condition. This critical attribute, used to refine Googles search results, will use your landing page information to help keep your data (products) more accurate and up to date. 

At the moment there is no word whether Google will start requiring the condition to be added for New items, or if the change will only affect items for which the condition has already been set.

Kirk Williams from Zato Marketing adds, “I don’t really see this as a negative thing TBH, since condition is something that should be set correctly on a PDP (product description page) anyway so if it’s not already… fix it anyway. But I always pay attention when I see the words “all accounts will be opted in!”

Why we care: Automatic updates can be a hassle for brands and marketers if they affect performance, cost, or visibility. However, this update seems to be more helpful than hurtful, and has been created to help retailers keep their product information up to date without the pain of modifying each item individually. 

The post Google: Automatic updates for condition starting June 26 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Google help document adds author markup best practices

Google has added a new section to the Article structured data documentation for author markup best practices. As a reminder, Article structured data can be added to your news, blog, and sports article page and can enhance your appearance in Google Search results.

Author markup. Google said in this new section “to help Google best understand and represent the author of the content, we recommend following these best practices when specifying authors in markup.”

New best practices. The new best practices include these points:

Include all authors in the markup

Specify multiple authors when applicable

Use the additional fields that is available to you

Only specify the author’s name in the author.name property

Use the appropriate author type

Google also shares some examples of how to implement these best practices.

Why we care. If you are using Article markup, make sure you are following these new documented author best practices. It may help your articles show up for article rich results and drive higher engagement and clicks from the Google Search results.

The post Google help document adds author markup best practices appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Google adds learning video rich results

Google has launched new learning video rich results and with that structured data markup support. This is a new form of rich results that is available to be shown in English desktop and mobile search results, specifically for searches related to academic learning content.

What are learning video results. Google said these are videos that provide “educational level and concept and skills covered in the video” that have learning-specific information with structured data. “Learning Video markup is intended to give more visibility into the educational contents of the video. The markup can hold information about the various concepts and skills taught in the video,” Google added.

What they look like. Google provided the screenshot below as a sample, but we have yet to see a raw learning video rich result in the wild just yet:

When it shows. Google said learning video results can show in English in all regions where Google Search is available, when searching for academic learning content on desktop and mobile.

Guidelines. Here are the guidelines for using learning video structured data:

Technical guidelines

In addition to Learning Video markup, you must add the VideoObject required and recommended properties.

The video must be publicly available to watch without a subscription.

The total video duration must be a minimum of 30 seconds.

Learning Video markup must be added to a page where users can watch the video. It’s a bad user experience to point users to a page where they can’t watch the video.

More technical details can be found in this help document.

Why we care. If you offer learning videos, educational, or how-to videos – you may want to investigate adding this new structured data markup to those pages. Anything you can do to richen up your Google search results can help drive a higher click-through-rate and possibly more conversions.

The post Google adds learning video rich results appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Crypto exchange ads now allowed on Microsoft Ads (with pre-approval)

Cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S. just received a new platform to promote on: Microsoft Advertising.

To date Microsoft has been stringent on all crypto related ads, and thankfully there will be a layer of protection included in this release that should help to curtail spammers and hucksters.

Limitations. Cryptocurrency ads will be rolling out in the United States only, and will be limited to only showing within the Microsoft Advertising Search Network. The inventory in the Microsoft Audience Network (display and native) won’t be eligible to run ads for the exchanges.

Pre-approval required. In order to run ads, an exchange must be pre-approved by Microsoft advertising or must be “educational content” offered by the brand/first party. What will still be disallowed:

Ads that promote crypto investments or training programs.

Sites that monetize cryptocurrency advice or offer subscriptions, initial coin offerings or cryptocurrency wallets.

Lastly, advertisers will need to adhere with regulatory and licensing requirements for all locations where their ads are targeted.

Why we care. It’s about time that legitimate cryptocurrency exchanges will be able to promote themselves and it seems that this careful approach should shield Microsoft Bing users from fraud. If you are in the cryptocurrency exchange space, reach out to your Microsoft rep to get started.

The post Crypto exchange ads now allowed on Microsoft Ads (with pre-approval) appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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SEOClarity acquires RankSense technology

Enterprise SEO platform seoClarity today announced it has purchased the RankSense technology and intellectual property (IP). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

RankSense, which is best described as an “agile SEO platform,” was founded by Hamlet Batista, who passed away in January 2021. 

Why seoClarity acquired RankSense. The technology will be added to seoClarity’s ClarityAutomate platform for enterprises, according to Mitul Gandhi, co-founder and Chief Architect of seoClarity. “It paves the path for our vision of providing the most complete SEO technology to test, execute and automate challenging SEO projects at scale.” 

What it means for SEOClarity users. Combining RankSense and ClarityAutomate will help its users more quickly make critical fixes at scale, with no dev resources needed, such as: 

Updating on-page SEO changes.

Running SEO tests.

Automating internal linking.

Applying page speed optimizations.

Deploying schema.

What it means for RankSense. “Hamlet had a passion for the search industry and solving SEO challenges,” according to a statement provided by Hamlet’s spouse, Odette Martinez. “His contributions were vast and generous, and this move by seoClarity ensures that his vision and legacy will move forward.”

Why we care. Batista’s death hit the SEO community hard. He contributed so much to the search industry and was a huge advocate for automating SEO and scaling SEO through technology. It’s great to see his work and legacy being carried on.

The year of acquisitions rolls on. It seems like only yesterday (oh wait, it was!) that I was writing about how this has been a big year of change in the SEO tools space. As we edge closer to the halfway point of 2022, here’s a recap of all the big acquisitions we’ve seen so far:

Jan. 20: Semrush acquires Backlinko

Feb. 16: Conductor acquires ContentKing

Feb. 23: BrightEdge acquires Oncrawl

March 2: Semrush acquires Kompyte

May 16: Similarweb acquires Rank Ranger (press release)

May 31: NP Digital acquires AnswerThePublic

The post SEOClarity acquires RankSense technology appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Now hiring: Marketing Services Client Success Manager

Are you equally left- and right-brained? Love working with people and numbers? In front of the camera and on spreadsheets? Our marketing services manager position may be for you.

We’re seeking a motivated self-starter to join our growing marketing services team. You’ll participate with our customers and your team members in the ideation, creation, and execution of marketing programs that unearth prospective customers. Webinars, buyer’s guides, and content syndication are among the channels you’ll work in.

We’re looking for someone who can work in a fast-paced, team environment. You must be comfortable with technology and data platforms. The ideal candidate will be able to manage multiple projects leveraging outstanding project management skills and attention to detail while confidently working directly with clients.

Responsibilities:

Create and execute email and other campaigns across multiple channels to achieve client goals and success

Serve as a concierge to clients/sponsors/speakers by communicating program details, deliverables, and timelines

Write copy and promotions that solicit audience participation

Track the status of the programs you manage; prepare and deliver sponsor reporting

Schedule and conduct tech checks for webinars

Coach speakers/sponsors on presentation best practices

Write moderator notes and/or introductions for the moderators to read/record

Provide quality control, proofreading, and formatting of all materials, including lead lists

Qualifications:

Obsessed with external and internal customer satisfaction

A people person: enjoys customers, colleagues, and community members

Strong written and verbal communication skills

Digitally savvy with an eagerness to learn new technologies

Experience creating, implementing, and reporting on e-mail marketing campaigns

Detail-oriented and highly accurate

Exceptional Excel skills

Experience with PowerPoint and Google Slides a plus

Able to manage competing priorities

What we offer:

Competitive salary

Forever work-from-home

Paid vacation

Annual vacation stipend

Interested? Send a cover letter and resume to jobs@thirddoormedia.com.

Job Type: Full-time

Location: Always remote

Salary: $70,000-$85,000 per year

The post Now hiring: Marketing Services Client Success Manager appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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SafeOpt by AddShoppers continues rapid growth and seeks new team members

AddShoppers, Inc. was established in 2011 to create and acquire digital assets that save shoppers time and money while enabling merchants to reach a new audience. Our company is looking for industry-leading professionals to join our team across all departments to support the accelerated growth of the platform and business. We are hiring across all departments, from engineering to sales roles.

Why work at AddShoppers?

We’re not stagnant, and your career won’t be either. With a growing platform of online shoppers and over 15,000 merchants – we are experiencing an exciting level of growth!

We’ve been named the Best Place to Work and the #2 Fastest-Growing Company by the Business Journal. And most recently, we won a Top Workplaces award from The Charlotte Observer. If you want to grow and build something you are proud of, we have just the job for you with the freedom of working remotely. We are currently hiring in: Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. Take a look at our open positions and apply on our website! 

Our culture and values 

We pride ourselves on creating a remote work environment that fosters open communication and encourages employees to take ownership of their work. Our employees at AddShoppers describe our work culture as flexible, positive, autonomous, collaborative, and motivating. We strive to make sure our employees feel empowered, supported, and trusted regardless of their role in our company. We attribute great culture to our values:

Be curious – When you are curious, you solve problems, think differently, and contribute your ideas and thoughts that are uniquely yours, and we are better for it!

Be helpful – Encouraging one another, being a resource for those who need it, and doing what you can to be helpful is how our team succeeds. 

Be data-driven – Making decisions based on data is important at AddShoppers! By being a data-informed company, we can understand why things happen in a measurable way!

Be positive – Positivity drives us to see the good in all that we do! It makes our culture a place people want to recognize the hard work each of us does each day!

= Be a great human – Above all else, when you work at AddShoppers, this is the driving principle in all that we do! 

AddShopper’s benefits

At AddShoppers our employees are everything, so we want to make sure that when it comes to benefits, they are taken care of. 

The freedom to work remotely. Our team is spread out across10 states, but we are connected like no other. 

Unlimited PTO. We believe in having a strong work-life balance here, which is why AddShoppers ranked in the top 5% for work-life balance in the Top Workplaces survey. 

Competitive benefits. We offer comprehensive benefits packages with medical, dental, vision, short-term disability, long-term disability, life, and more! 

Recognition environment. At AddShoppers, we like to make sure that hard work is rewarded and recognized. 

Internet stipend. 

401(k) matching. 

The post SafeOpt by AddShoppers continues rapid growth and seeks new team members appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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[darrellweaver]

Common questions and answers about SEO certification from Google

Google’s decision to offer digital marketing certification, which includes search engine optimization (SEO), left some amused. Others were confused.

Meanwhile, some are rushing to get the certification. But should you?

Sadly, many SEO professionals have been disappointed with what they’ve seen of the certification training so far. For example, Google’s instructors were teaching nonsense about keyword density and word count. (Once that problematic slide was called out, Google quickly erased it.)

Whether you’re thinking about getting certification from Google, or hiring someone who has certification, here are some important questions to answer and things to evaluate.

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Does the person receive SEO certification or course completion?

Short answer

In many cases, certification generally means that a person or user enrolls in many courses and attends these courses.

Many certification programs offer a Certificate of Completion after each course a person takes. Or the Certificate of Completion is given after a person takes a set of courses. This reward system at least shows progress toward a seemingly greater goal: certification in a topic or discipline.

In some certification programs, attendees must pass a test to receive certification. Some of these tests are relatively easy to pass. Some are not so easy because the instructors are trying to measure whether an attendee has the genuine aptitude to be certified.

Long answer

There are many types of certification, including but not limited to:

SEO

Usability/UX (user experience)

Agile

Interaction design (IxD)

Human/computer interfaces (HCI)

User interfaces (UI)

And so forth

In some cases, classes might be a set of continuing education classes. This certification process can provide more trust value because the coursework appears to be endorsed by a college or university.

The most advanced route to “certification” is likely the least common route: getting a degree in the topic or discipline. This route is not for everyone because it tends to be time-consuming and expensive, especially with out-of-state or out-of-country tuition. Additionally, one must apply and be admitted into the undergraduate or graduate program.

This route is best for truly die-hard, passionate fans of the topic or discipline. Nevertheless, the people who choose this route can often become the best instructors for certification.

At the end of all of these routes, after all of the coursework, practice, homework and tests, a person is awarded a certificate and usually a stamp that shows that person went through the entire certification process.

The image-formatted stamp is supposed to communicate trust, authority, and credibility. Here are some things to look out for when evaluating an SEO certification program:

Quality of instructors: You should look for experienced, well-educated and well-trained instructors. Simply having a brand name next to a person’s name does not automatically mean that an instructor is an expert. You want subject-matter experts to teach the classes.

Course quality: Look at the certification’s agenda to see what is taught. Are you being taught how to use a certification organization’s tool or set of tools? This isn’t necessarily SEO certification. SEO pros use a variety of tools. Make sure the course quality is objective.

Completion vs. certification: Are you being awarded the completion or a certification? Certification programs that require passing a test or tests for aptitude might be better than certification programs that don’t. On the other hand, as long as the subject-matter experts are outstanding, completing a series of courses for a Certificate of Completion can be equally authoritative and trustworthy.

Continuing education and training. Understand that SEO certification is also not the same as SEO experience. Algorithm changes, the appearance of search engine results pages (SERPs), fluctuating search traffic, evolving technologies, and so forth make SEO an ongoing (iterative) process.

So if you want to hire or contract a qualified search engine optimizer, don’t only use certification as a qualification factor. Please keep in mind ongoing education, training and experience.

What about unethical SEO and ethical SEO?

Short answer

This is a subject that Google has overlooked. Currently, anyone can get Google’s SEO certification. Therefore, the SEO certification does not guarantee that an SEO pro follows all of Google’s guidelines and best practices.

Long answer

I know. Many SEO professionals want to move past this topic. Many SEO pros believe we have long moved past this topic. The ethical vs. unethical debate is the proverbial elephant in the room.

Ethical SEO means following all of the rules set forth by the web search engines. This type of SEO pro is considered an ethical SEO pro.

Unethical SEO involves several methods that do not follow the rules and guidelines set forth by web search engines. These unethical methods are usually used to get higher rankings faster than ethical methods. The companies that implement unethical SEO methods might feel the risk of search engine spam is worth taking.

The classification is not a strict division. There are usually shades of gray.

For example, an ethical SEO might not spam search engines but will follow a usability/UX rule that differs from what search engines recommend. An unethical SEO might follow most of the rules but genuinely disagree and ignore one or two guidelines. In the end, ethical SEO is often in the eye of the beholder.

As mentioned previously, I do not think that the folks at Google fully thought out this certification process. If Google truly wants its SEO Certification program to communicate trust, credibility and authority, then it should have considered the different types of SEO methodologies. Talking to the “Spam Department” and the Search Quality Raters might have helped.

Can Google succeed with SEO certification?

Short answer

Google can get some gains from having SEO certification. Currently, search and evaluating search listings is not commonly taught at schools from elementary school through university. People still believe that search engine optimization is optimizing for search engines only instead of optimizing for people who use search engines.

As long as these circumstances persist, I believe Google can have some success.

Long answer

What would be better? If Google offered a certification on how to best use their arsenal of search tools.

If Google can provide stamps of approval for Google Analytics and Google Ads, why not provide similar certification for using available Google search tools? What can SEOs and other professionals learn from each of these search tools? How can people best connect Google search tools to different products such as Google Analytics?

What about image search? Video search? How can both newbies and experts make an image XML sitemap? A video XML sitemap? I can see many how-to items in the course agendas that lead to hands-on exercises and test questions.

This type of certification can be far more useful for SEO newbies and professionals and other types of web professionals.

What am I going to do as an SEO professional?

I will probably take the certification courses for several reasons.

For credibility? Of course.

But I will also evaluate the quality of information being presented. After all, Google isn’t the only search engine. I’d rather have a broader SEO perspective than only focus on a single search engine.

The post Common questions and answers about SEO certification from Google appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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[darrellweaver]

Google drops support for job training structured data

Google has dropped support for job training structured data and rich results in Google Search. Google said based on its initial tests, the search company “found that it wasn’t useful for the ecosystem at scale.”

Not useful. Google posted about this saying “We initially tested this markup with a group of site owners, and ultimately found that it wasn’t useful for the ecosystem at scale.” Google did not say how large its tests were but just said it did test this in Google Search.

Other job rich results not impacted. Google added that this does not affect any other features that may use Job training markup. Plus, Google said you are welcome to “leave the markup on your site so that search engines can better understand your web page.” Although, I am not sure which other search engines use this this markup.

Why we care. If you were using job training structured data, Google will no longer show them as rich results in Google Search. You may notice click through rate changes on those pages, as the rich results no longer will be displayed in Google Search.

The post Google drops support for job training structured data appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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[darrellweaver]

NP Digital acquires keyword research tool AnswerThePublic

Digital marketing agency NP Digital announced today that it has acquired AnswerThePublic, a popular freemium keyword research tool. Terms of the deal were not revealed.  

NP Digital, which was co-founded by marketing influencer and entrepreneur Neil Patel, is also the owner of another popular freemium keyword research tool, UberSuggest. 

What this means for AnswerThePublic users. All the tool’s existing features will remain. Users can continue to access the tool via its website or app. 

There are a couple of noticeable changes so far, including the addition of “by UberSuggest” under AnswerThePublic’s logo in the main navigation and Patel’s face on a dancing robot’s body on the homepage.

AnswerThePublic has approximately 1 million monthly users and has been a favorite among search marketers for years. NP Digital said it is working on new free features for marketers. 

However, the tool hasn’t gotten any significant updates or improvements lately. That’s because the owners weren’t focusing on it (they had another software company). 

What it means for UberSuggest users. UberSuggest has approximately 1 million monthly users. Those users will now be able to access the features and data through either platform. Users can soon expect to see new features related to keyword visualizations.

NP Digital said Ubersuggest now spans over 30 billion keywords and 50 trillion backlinks across 249 countries. 

Why NP Digital acquired AnswerthePublic. Both platforms leverage the same data sets. But each had its own unique features, functions and visualizations. 

NP Digital CEO Mike Gullaksen told me: “This platform allows marketers to leverage the data from the largest focus group in the world – Google search users. Being able to mine massive data sets to identify consumer interest around needs and wants is one of the most powerful yet underused strategies for content and search marketers. Layering on top of these data insights the ability to both lookback and see real-time trends with powerful visualizations allows marketers to move their content initiatives forward very quickly while staying on the pulse of the consumer mindset.”

Why we care. NP Digital says this acquisition will mean more new free capabilities for both platforms – and that you can access these insights from either platform. So both tools will continue to help marketers find inspiration and insights that can help shape SEO and content marketing strategies. 

A year of acquisitions. This has been a big year of change in the SEO tools space and we’re not even halfway through 2022. Below are links to coverage of the other big acquisitions we’ve seen so far:

Jan. 20: Semrush acquires Backlinko

Feb. 16: Conductor acquires ContentKing

Feb. 23: BrightEdge acquires Oncrawl

March 2: Semrush acquires Kompyte

May 16: Similarweb acquires Rank Ranger (press release)

The post NP Digital acquires keyword research tool AnswerThePublic appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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[darrellweaver]

Google Search Console reporting issue with News performance report

Google Search Console’s News performance report had a logging error which may have resulted in displaying a drop in impression and clicks from Google News.

Google said this was just a reporting glitch and it had no real impact on how your site was ranking or serving in Google News.

The notice. Google posted this notice here stating “Because of a logging error, site owners might see a drop in their Google News data during this period. This is just a logging error and not a real drop in Google News performance.”

Timeframe impacted. The timeframe where Google had this logging error was between May 12, 2022 through May 26, 2022.

Why we care. If you have or will provide clients with reporting, keep in mind the News performance report had logging issues for about half of the month of May. Make sure to annotate this logging error and communicate this to your clients and stakeholders.

The post Google Search Console reporting issue with News performance report appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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