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localbizlift · 5 years ago

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Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

Businesses all over the globe are struggling with new challenges as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With consumers turning to the internet for the majority of their needs, it's never been more vital to ensure your online presence is easily found and your business updates clearly communicated.

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hey, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Today we're going over crisis adaptation, and I first have to give a huge shout-out to Miriam Ellis, who really helped me package all of this up to deliver to you today.

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

In order to better meet your customers where they are, you really first have to listen and understand how their needs have shifted, how have their concerns shifted. What are they searching for now? Just really paying attention and listening online to your current target market.

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

This could have also shifted a bit. Whiteboard Friday's OG, Rand Fishkin, launched SparkToro that does exactly that. So you can really deep dive into current data around what your audience is listening to, who they follow, all sorts of great stuff for you to leverage in today's climate.

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Now is a great time to reach out and engage with not only potential customers but current customer base and remind people that you are still here, you're still serving them in various ways. So it's really, really key.

Partner with relevant businesses

I've seen this do really well in some great examples of pivoting, where a fruit delivery company partnered with a bakery to include these free cakes within orders. What a great way to get some visibility for that bakery, and vice versa — they could do different things. I think it's a great time to leverage those relationships and help one another out. I absolutely love that tip.

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Changes to hours is so important right now. It's essential that you have that information readily visible to anyone visiting your website, if this applies to you. All forms of availability, video, curbside, no touch delivery, have that information available.

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

I'm seeing a lot of these show up in banners and readily available information for people visiting websites. I think it's great to consider making sure that this information is easy for people to access.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

I would suggest if you're a struggling business and you don't want to go into a huge website build, you can absolutely check out and explore things like Squarespace or Shopify. I would have never thought I would be suggesting these platforms a year ago just because they're not usually great for SEO reasons. But they can do a beautiful job of solving this problem so quickly, and then you can roll out V2 and V3 down the road when you're ready to make those improvements. But I think just getting businesses off the ground is so important right now.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

This was such a neat thing that Google offered I believe several weeks ago, and it's doing great. What it basically does is it allows you to list products for free on Google Shopping, giving you that extra visibility right now. So if you're an e-commerce brand, definitely check that out.

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Miriam had this great idea to create maps showing delivery radiuses, if that applies to you, so really giving someone visiting your site an easy to consume idea of the areas that you serve. Sometimes when you see the ZIP codes, it's a little overwhelming. You have to do a little work. But that's kind of a great idea.

Routific

Then this was mentioned in a recent GatherUp webinar by Darren Shaw — Routific. So if you are doing local deliveries and they're getting a little out of hand, Routific is a company that creates delivery routes to make them most efficient for you, which I thought was so cool.

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

I absolutely loved Mike King's post on this — I think it was a couple weeks ago — where he explains why economic downturns favor the bold. It's brilliant. There are incredible use cases around this, and we'll link to that down below.

Someone who has impressed the heck out of me the last couple of weeks is Kristin Tynski — I hope I'm saying that right — over at Fractl. She is going above and beyond to create content pieces that are not only genius but are link building opportunities, apply to various clients, and use traditional journalism tactics to gather offline, unique data to present online. I highly suggest you pay attention to what Kristin is up to. She is a genius. Kristin, we have to meet sometime. I'm a huge fan of you. Keep up the great work.

Local & Google My Business

Now let's dive into some GMB stuff. While this might not apply to you if you're not a local business, I think there are still things to take away for larger companies that also either have a local listing or just to be aware of.

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Then this is probably my favorite hack of all, from Joy Hawkins, about this warning that we see on all businesses currently, because of the pandemic, that says hours or services may differ. You can get this removed simply by updating your hours. How incredible is that?

So I highly suggest you just update your hours. Joy also mentioned in this webinar I keep referring to, that was so good, she suggests using the hours that you are available to take phone calls. Google has never had an issue with that, and it tends to make the most sense. So something to think about.

Respond to reviews

Now is also a great time to invest and be engaged with these reviews. I think it's one of the most overlooked PR and marketing tactics available, where customers exploring your brand, exploring your location want to know that (a) you care and that (b) you're going to engage with a customer and that you have a timely response. So I think it's important to respond to reviews, especially on behalf of the business side.

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

So we're going to continue to see different things roll out. There were senior hours available to, I believe, grocery stores that popped up as an option. No-contact delivery. These things will always be changing. So I think it's important to maybe put a reminder in your calendar just to keep an eye on are there any new options within Google My Business that I could activate or clarify. Google loves that, and it also helps fill out your listing better.

Update menu and product listings

What a great time to take some good, new photos. Update your menu items. I wish Uptown China Restaurant did this, and I might suggest it to them that they can add those offerings. They can add those things to really pop up on the listing and kind of make it shine.

Use Posts

Posts have always been really, really great for Google My Business listings because it gives you a big photo. It lasts for a while up here, I believe up to 14 days. It's very prevalent when you see it. Now Google has also been offering COVID-19 posts.

There isn't an option to add an image with the COVID-19 posts. It's text only, but it lasts longer and it's more prominent than a regular post. So it will show up higher in your Google My Business listing, and we've also seen it pop up in actual SERPs in the organic area. So pretty cool. Good to know. I suggest you doing that. You have control over the messaging. You can say whatever you would like. You can provide updated info, all that good stuff.

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

People are getting really savvy with product posts, which again it would show up in your Google My Business listing with a big photo and a description. What he's seen people do is basically have a photo of a car with text on it that says "No-Touch Delivery" or different service options as the product.

Google is currently letting that slide. I don't know if that will last forever. But it's an interesting thing to explore if you really want that visibility if someone is struggling with their business right now, and you can kind of get that to pop up on the SERPs.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

Understand that there are a lot of people in need right now, and if there's anything that we can do to help, by all means let's make all of that stuff happen. The fact is that you're not alone. So whether you're doing this work on behalf of a client, or you yourself or family or friends are really struggling with a business right now, there are different support groups and options as far as financial support.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

I know we at Moz are going to be putting everything we have into helping you and others during this time, and so I created a form at the bottom of this post where you can fill in some information and let us know if there are specific problems that we could help with. We're in this together.

We want to help you all as much as we can. I will be taking that very seriously and spending lots of time on replying or creating material to help individuals struggling. So please fill that out. Also, feel free to leave comments and suggestions in the comments. I think some of the best, most valuable takeaways sometimes happen in the comments where you're either clarifying something that I said or adding something really great. I would really appreciate that. Just want to get all the good information out there so that we can help everyone out. I really appreciate you taking the time to watch this edition of Whiteboard Friday, and I will see you all again soon. Thanks.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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cindylouwho-2 · 5 years ago

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RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, September 2019

Welcome to my latest summary of recent news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & ecommerce! This covers articles I came across in the past 5 weeks, although some may be older than that.

I am still working on scheduling enough time to post these every 10 days or so, but lately luck is just not on my side. Writing this elsewhere then cutting & pasting it here is creating some significant formatting issues, so if you find any errors or broken links, please let me know.

Are there types of news you would like to see here? Leave a comment below, email me through my website, or send me a message on Twitter.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

Etsy introduced Etsy Ads at the end of August; I covered it on my blog. Some people are seeing decent returns, but many are not. I started a forum thread here for continuing discussion.

A day later, Amazon announced it has waived their $40 a month shop fee for Handmade by Amazon shops. See the pinned post on their Facebook page.

A large study of click-through-rates (CTR) on Google reveals that the top link gets over 30% of the clicks, titles with questions get 14% more clicks than those without, and moving up one slot in the results leads to more clicks, unless you move from 10th to 9th. They cite Etsy’s study of titles & CTR (which showed that shorter titles get more clicks, something that this study also found).

Trend watch: a suggestion that Americans can avoid most of the tariff pain in the pocketbook by buying used clothing & other items. “Secondhand and vintage is no longer synonymous with a dusty pile of outdated sweaters in the corner of a church basement, or a yearly rummage sale. Online resale, including high-end designer items, is booming, thanks to start-ups like The RealReal, Depop, Poshmark, eBay, and Etsy. It’s possible to fill your entire closet this way”. Pre-owned & rented clothing also makes fans of sustainability happy.

Also, “grandmillennials” are a thing.

ETSY NEWS

Etsy US searches often now have a full first page of items that ship free or have the $35 free shipping guarantee, as of September 6 (although they were testing it earlier than that.) I was seeing the rare exception, beyond searches that have fewer than 48 items shipping free, but it wasn’t clear if these are tests or personalization. Then on September 21, we started seeing many items with shipping charges on the first page of even very large results, & most smaller results didn’t give much if any priority to free shipping at all. There has been no statement from Etsy, so your guess is as good as mine ...

In the meantime, they’ve begun promoting free shipping to buyers, which has led to some media coverage. Some note that the timing is good, since most US holiday purchases online in the past several years have included free shipping.

There is a new chapter in the Ultimate Guide To Etsy Search, involving attributes. The accompanying podcast with Etsy’s head taxonomist [transcript with links to the podcast] is quite interesting. She says that one of the reasons that some attributes haven’t shown up yet as search filters is that not enough sellers have applied them to listings. “If we have 100,000 items in the search results and a buyer uses a filter, and that filter causes the results to return just 20 items, that makes it seem broken. The buyer no longer trusts the results. If only 20% of sellers fill out an attribute, showing a filter based on that attribute to buyers isn’t going to be helpful because such a drastic reduction in results makes them lose confidence in those search results. We have to wait until a large number of sellers fill out that data to show it to buyers as a filter. When we do, sellers who have filled out that attribute show in those filtered search results. Sellers who haven’t, don’t.” Also, “[w]e know that shoppers who interact with these filters tend to buy more expensive items.” And, there aren’t separate jewellery attributes for “gold”, “gold-filled” & “gold-plated” because “[m]any jewelry buyers don’t have your experience and don’t know the huge difference between these things.”

The new commercials were launched earlier this month; you can check them all out here, and here is some media coverage. Some analysts think this is a good thing for the stock.

Vox published a review of Etsy’s latest free shipping push, in contrast with its history. [I am sure most of you have seen that, but if not, it is a good read!] “Silverman doesn’t like the words “handmade” or “craft” because they “don’t communicate anything to buyers about when to think of Etsy.” he says now. Nobody wakes up thinking, “Gosh, I need to buy something handmade today,” he tells me, which may be true but I rarely wake up thinking I need to buy anything at all, and more commonly wake up in horror because I’ve already bought way too much. “You need to furnish your apartment. You need to prepare for a party. You need to find a gift for a friend. You need a dress. Handmade is not the value proposition — unique, personalized, expresses your sense of identity, those are things that speak to buyers.” [emphasis added] Also, apparently Etsy founder Rob Kalin “didn’t know what seed funding was when he took it” 😮

The new tool for creating country-specific sales is finally out. You still can’t create the equivalent of the $35 free shipping guarantee for countries other than the US, however, which makes this pretty useless for people wanting to offer free shipping in the US and to their own country. The only way to come close is to set a 30 day free shipping sale to your own country, but it won’t show up in search (unless people filter for free shipping) or get the Canadian search boost for items that ship free, and you still need to renew it every 30 days. In short, Etsy is telling us to overcharge our customers in other countries with no way to offer them the same deals Americans are getting.

Sellers can now use Etsy Labels for USPS First Class letters & flats.

Holiday tips continue to roll out: here are some ideas for running holiday sales and promotions on Etsy.

Advanced content on machine learning: Etsy is employing its data on styles to serve up personalized recommendations, including the “Our Picks for You” section on the home page. The purchase and favouriting rates are part of what gets shown. They’ve discovered that some styles are more popular are different times of the year.

For those of you who think Etsy doesn’t spend enough on advertising, they are actually buying spots on tv shows now, including this Las Vegas morning show. [video]

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Sad to report that Keywords Everywhere is becoming a paid tool starting October 1st (although it may take longer to roll out to your account). https://keywordseverywhere.com/news.html They need to do this because they were being scraped by bots, which was affecting user experience & costing them a lot of time and money. Fortunately, it is still going to be very cheap - 10,000 keywords for $1 USD, purchased ahead of time as credits. They say that the average user will spend less than $2 a month, & I suspect that the average Etsy user will spend less. Once your account moves to a paid one, you will no longer see the search volume, cost per click & competition numbers under search terms until you buy credits, although the "related keywords" & "people also search" sections will still show up on the right side of Google search. I usually do not recommend any paid tools, but I do think this will still be worth every penny, especially if you remember to turn it off when shopping instead of researching! Every comparable paid tool costs way more than this. And despite the rush of attention since their announcement, I still received a personal reply to my email within 24 hours.

You know how I always talk about nofollow links? They still exist, but Google has expanded their link attribution codes to include “sponsored” & "ugc" (user generated content), and all might be crawled at any point after March 1, 2020. Moz did a top level explanation, and here is Google’s (shorter) summary. But it may not really matter much to the average site.

Want to rank well on Google and other search engines? Create “complete content.”

A followup on last edition’s discussion of canonical URLs - Google gets the final say. [video]

Google is now releasing monthly videos of their search news; first one is here.

Some of you will remember Moz’s Whiteboard Friday series on learning SEO in one hour. They’ve now compiled all 6 videos in one place.

And if you want to learn the basics of link building quickly, Moz has a short version of that chapter from their Beginner’s Guide to SEO.

If you are afraid you are missing some SEO rules on your top pages, check out this complete checklist for on-page SEO.

There are tons of SEO tools for Wordpress; here are 15 of the best.

Many people will find your blog through search engines, so make sure you use keywords in your blog posts.

If you have a website, check out 16 things that can harm your search engine rankings [semi-advanced in part, some points are discussing coding]

Success on YouTube involves SEO, something I find many users forget.

Mostly advanced: reminder that as of September 1, you can’t use robots.txt to tell Google not to index pages or sites.

Advanced content for website developers: you need to make sure the site is ready for SEO work.

There are always more Google updates; this one is still rolling out, and was confirmed by Google, but very few details were given. Sistrix did the first comprehensive analysis, although it is still early, and health and media sites seem to be the most dramatically affected.

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

Marketing emails need to be carefully designed for success. Everything from the layout to the “preheader” matters.

If you have content on one medium that is doing well for you, it’s time to “repurpose” it for different platforms.

Infographics are very popular in content marketing; here’s how to make one, with 15 free templates.

Some Instagram posts do better than others; here’s why. Among other study findings, “smaller profiles which use more hashtags actually do see better engagement rates per post.”

If you aren’t getting much interaction on Instagram, you could be “shadowbanned.” There are ways to avoid that happening, and ways to fix it when it does.

“Content factories” are a big part of Instagram traffic. Maybe Facebook should crack down on this?

Pinterest is combining image recognition visual search with Shoppable Pins.

Facebook is considering hiding the like counts on News Feed posts, as Instagram is testing in 7 countries right now. “The idea is to prevent users from destructively comparing themselves to others and possibly feeling inadequate if their posts don’t get as many Likes. It could also stop users from deleting posts they think aren’t getting enough Likes or not sharing in the first place.”

Video app TikTok can be confusing, so here is a step-by-step guide for beginners. And here’s a podcast [with text] on the basics.

Twitter chats are a great way to attract interest in your business.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

Facebook is testing new shopping ads, but they are only available to small groups at the moment: checkout from the Facebook app, and turning Instagram shopping posts into ads. Here’s more on the latter.

Snapchat now has longer ads and different formats.

I see a lot of questions on what you can advertise on various platforms; here’s a good summary of items/topics prohibited on major sites.

Since so many sellers are interested in other types of advertising right now, here are a few primers, most of which I have posted here before: Setting up Google Shopping for your website Instagram Sponsored Posts How to beat Facebook’s ad algorithm Setting up Pinterest ads

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

Have Google Analytics set up on your website but don’t know how to use it? Here are some common features [text and video] you may want to take advantage of. Note that the part about setting it up doesn’t apply to most marketplaces and many website builders, which have a more simplified set up, as Etsy does.

The old Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is now almost entirely converted to the new version. Expect all of the old reports to be moved to the new version soon.

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

There’s new evidence that Amazon has skewed its search algorithm to favour its own products & third-party products that make Amazon the most money. ”Executives from Amazon’s retail divisions have frequently pressured the engineers at A9 to surface their products higher in search results, people familiar with the discussions said.” In case that WSJ article goes back behind a paywall, here is some news coverage of it. “Instead of adding profitability into the algorithm itself, Amazon changed the algorithm to prioritize factors that correlate with profitability, the article said.” Amazon denies this, of course.

Despite the legal agreement in Germany, Amazon is still suspending accounts without 30 days notice.

Want to use cash to pay for online purchases? Amazon is now offering that option in the US.

eBay listings now default to 1-day handling; if you ship slower than that, make sure to remember to change the default on each new listing you make.

eBay managed payments (the equivalent of Etsy Payments) are now available in Germany.

A review of major shipping trends in ecommerce notes that “[t]he accelerated supply chain is putting small sellers at a crossroads regarding if they can afford to take a hit on margins” when discussing Etsy’s free shipping push.

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Over ⅓ of US adults have bought something on social media, over 50% of 18-34 year olds are in that group. Far fewer had used visual search or virtual reality.

More people are shopping online late at night; women are more likely to do it, but men spend more when they do. [I’ve noticed this trend on my site and Etsy shop for a few years now,compared to when I first started selling in 2008.]

The majority of shoppers worldwide who are online use videos to make some purchase decisions, as shopping lists, how-to research, and to check reviews.

Gen Z (the generation after millennials) is more concerned about their health than the the previous 2 generations, and sometimes avoid the stresses of social media by shopping in brick & mortar stores. “About two-thirds (67%) of Gen Z prefer products made with ingredients they can understand, and tend to buy products in health and wellness categories more frequently than other generations. On environmental issues, 65% said they prefer simple packaging and 58% said they want eco-friendly packaging. Half of the group seeks products that are locally sourced or made, and 57% are seeking products that are environmentally sustainable, but fewer are willing to pay a premium price for them.”

For the 2019 holiday season, “65% of holiday shoppers will use a mobile device to shop, and 65% will make an online purchase via mobile.”

How do different industries get their online traffic? Google sends sites 8 times more traffic than all social media sites combined, and Facebook drives nearly ⅔ of all visits from social media. Instagram is responsible for less than 1%, while Twitter tops 10%. The author notes that “faster-growing social networks like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are designed from the ground up in a way that makes it difficult to drive traffic to external sites.”

MISCELLANEOUS (including humour)

Google is working on letting you search your Google Photos for text; it seems to be using AI to identify & store the text in your screenshots and other images. It’s interesting technology that will likely be used in many ways, including search engines, if it works well.

If you like convo snippets on Etsy, here’s a tool that will make them possible in many more places.

Need a photo editor that works on mobile? Here’s a list of 12, most of which are free or cost only $1 USD.

This one simple trick makes everything faster and easier.

Stuff that probably shouldn’t taste like pumpkin spice. [humour]

#seo #search engine optimization #search engine marketing #etsynews #analytics #stats #social media #contentmarketing #content marketing #Ecommerce #smallbiz #CindyLouWho2NewsUpdates

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no9to5forever · 3 years ago

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Your SEO checklist when launching a new website – Whiteboard Friday

youtube

source https://no9to5forever.com/your-seo-checklist-when-launching-a-new-website-whiteboard-friday/

0 notes

seomiamiseo · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Partner with relevant businesses

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Routific

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

Local & Google My Business

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2zzoj3Q

#SEO MIAMI

0 notes

dentalimplant0 · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Partner with relevant businesses

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Routific

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

Local & Google My Business

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

from https://dentistry01.blogspot.com/2020/05/crisis-adaptation-whiteboard-friday.html

0 notes

ccrider1000 · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Partner with relevant businesses

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Routific

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

Local & Google My Business

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

0 notes

patrickrandolph33 · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Partner with relevant businesses

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Routific

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

Local & Google My Business

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

0 notes

theh0ustonplacestobe · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation – Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

Businesses all over the globe are struggling with new challenges as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With consumers turning to the internet for the majority of their needs, it’s never been more vital to ensure your online presence is easily found and your business updates clearly communicated.

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We’ve adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hey, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Today we’re going over crisis adaptation, and I first have to give a huge shout-out to Miriam Ellis, who really helped me package all of this up to deliver to you today.

If you’re not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let’s dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it’s changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

This could have also shifted a bit. Whiteboard Friday’s OG, Rand Fishkin, launched SparkToro that does exactly that. So you can really deep dive into current data around what your audience is listening to, who they follow, all sorts of great stuff for you to leverage in today’s climate.

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Now is a great time to reach out and engage with not only potential customers but current customer base and remind people that you are still here, you’re still serving them in various ways. So it’s really, really key.

Partner with relevant businesses

I’ve seen this do really well in some great examples of pivoting, where a fruit delivery company partnered with a bakery to include these free cakes within orders. What a great way to get some visibility for that bakery, and vice versa — they could do different things. I think it’s a great time to leverage those relationships and help one another out. I absolutely love that tip.

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Changes to hours is so important right now. It’s essential that you have that information readily visible to anyone visiting your website, if this applies to you. All forms of availability, video, curbside, no touch delivery, have that information available.

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you’re doing to help support people in need.

I’m seeing a lot of these show up in banners and readily available information for people visiting websites. I think it’s great to consider making sure that this information is easy for people to access.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you’re currently offering.

I would suggest if you’re a struggling business and you don’t want to go into a huge website build, you can absolutely check out and explore things like Squarespace or Shopify. I would have never thought I would be suggesting these platforms a year ago just because they’re not usually great for SEO reasons. But they can do a beautiful job of solving this problem so quickly, and then you can roll out V2 and V3 down the road when you’re ready to make those improvements. But I think just getting businesses off the ground is so important right now.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

This was such a neat thing that Google offered I believe several weeks ago, and it’s doing great. What it basically does is it allows you to list products for free on Google Shopping, giving you that extra visibility right now. So if you’re an e-commerce brand, definitely check that out.

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Miriam had this great idea to create maps showing delivery radiuses, if that applies to you, so really giving someone visiting your site an easy to consume idea of the areas that you serve. Sometimes when you see the ZIP codes, it’s a little overwhelming. You have to do a little work. But that’s kind of a great idea.

Routific

Then this was mentioned in a recent GatherUp webinar by Darren Shaw — Routific. So if you are doing local deliveries and they’re getting a little out of hand, Routific is a company that creates delivery routes to make them most efficient for you, which I thought was so cool.

I didn’t even know that existed. So it’s a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

I absolutely loved Mike King’s post on this — I think it was a couple weeks ago — where he explains why economic downturns favor the bold. It’s brilliant. There are incredible use cases around this, and we’ll link to that down below.

Someone who has impressed the heck out of me the last couple of weeks is Kristin Tynski — I hope I’m saying that right — over at Fractl. She is going above and beyond to create content pieces that are not only genius but are link building opportunities, apply to various clients, and use traditional journalism tactics to gather offline, unique data to present online. I highly suggest you pay attention to what Kristin is up to. She is a genius. Kristin, we have to meet sometime. I’m a huge fan of you. Keep up the great work.

Local & Google My Business

Now let’s dive into some GMB stuff. While this might not apply to you if you’re not a local business, I think there are still things to take away for larger companies that also either have a local listing or just to be aware of.

So here’s an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It’s awesome in Queen Anne, and it’s going to be our example. So what’s the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Now is also a great time to invest and be engaged with these reviews. I think it’s one of the most overlooked PR and marketing tactics available, where customers exploring your brand, exploring your location want to know that (a) you care and that (b) you’re going to engage with a customer and that you have a timely response. So I think it’s important to respond to reviews, especially on behalf of the business side.

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

So we’re going to continue to see different things roll out. There were senior hours available to, I believe, grocery stores that popped up as an option. No-contact delivery. These things will always be changing. So I think it’s important to maybe put a reminder in your calendar just to keep an eye on are there any new options within Google My Business that I could activate or clarify. Google loves that, and it also helps fill out your listing better.

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Posts have always been really, really great for Google My Business listings because it gives you a big photo. It lasts for a while up here, I believe up to 14 days. It’s very prevalent when you see it. Now Google has also been offering COVID-19 posts.

There isn’t an option to add an image with the COVID-19 posts. It’s text only, but it lasts longer and it’s more prominent than a regular post. So it will show up higher in your Google My Business listing, and we’ve also seen it pop up in actual SERPs in the organic area. So pretty cool. Good to know. I suggest you doing that. You have control over the messaging. You can say whatever you would like. You can provide updated info, all that good stuff.

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

People are getting really savvy with product posts, which again it would show up in your Google My Business listing with a big photo and a description. What he’s seen people do is basically have a photo of a car with text on it that says “No-Touch Delivery” or different service options as the product.

Google is currently letting that slide. I don’t know if that will last forever. But it’s an interesting thing to explore if you really want that visibility if someone is struggling with their business right now, and you can kind of get that to pop up on the SERPs.

Enable text messaging

So I’ve heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that’s available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I’ve said this like three times, but update images. It’s a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don’t forget to share these tips with businesses.

Understand that there are a lot of people in need right now, and if there’s anything that we can do to help, by all means let’s make all of that stuff happen. The fact is that you’re not alone. So whether you’re doing this work on behalf of a client, or you yourself or family or friends are really struggling with a business right now, there are different support groups and options as far as financial support.

We’ve created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

We want to help you all as much as we can. I will be taking that very seriously and spending lots of time on replying or creating material to help individuals struggling. So please fill that out. Also, feel free to leave comments and suggestions in the comments. I think some of the best, most valuable takeaways sometimes happen in the comments where you’re either clarifying something that I said or adding something really great. I would really appreciate that. Just want to get all the good information out there so that we can help everyone out. I really appreciate you taking the time to watch this edition of Whiteboard Friday, and I will see you all again soon. Thanks.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

0 notes

johnwathen21 · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Partner with relevant businesses

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Routific

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

Local & Google My Business

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

0 notes

cindylouwho-2 · 5 years ago

Text

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, early October 2019

Welcome to my latest summary of recent news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & ecommerce! This covers articles I came across in the first part of October, although some may be older than that.

[I am out of town for nearly a week in late October, so don’t expect another update until the end of the month at the earliest.]

Just a reminder - you don’t need to read everything here! I try to organize the material by topic and provide a brief summary so that you can easily skip things you don’t need to read.

I’ve tried to improve the layout for better readability, by bolding key words in each paragraph - do you find that helpful, or too hard on the eyes? Leave a comment below, email me through my website, or send me a message on Twitter.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

14 elements that will help your product pages get sales. Trust badges & reviews can really make a difference. Also, here’s a really simple explanation of how your descriptions should try to sell the product: “Bridge the gap between features and benefits: A feature is essentially a fact about your product or offer. The benefit mainly answers how a feature is useful for your customer. Tell them exactly “how” a particular feature is useful for them, and “why” they should make this purchase. Product descriptions that bridge the gap between features and benefits can lessen buyer’s guilt and ease the buying decision.”

It’s time for holiday season forecasts! Halloween spending is expected to be steady. While some are predicting up to a 4-5% increase in US November-December retail spending this year, others are worried about consumer debt. There is still “a stubborn wealth gap in the United States that appears to be once again worsening and in fact is "the biggest it’s ever been." The Gini index, a standard economic measure of income inequality, for the U.S. in 2018 was "significantly higher" than 2017, after widening steadily for the last 50 years, according to a Sept. 26 report from the U.S. Census Bureau.” Note that online retailers are finding that the holiday season is less crucial than it used to be, since people shop online all year now. “...the holiday season accounted for almost 24% of all retailers’ sales in the late 1990s, but is closer to 21% today.” Finally, “A late Thanksgiving this year, falling on Nov. 28, means there are six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than in 2018. In fact, 2019 is the shortest possible holiday calendar scenario”.[emphasis added by me]

Kansas state tax collection on online sales is in question after the lack of a minimum on revenue or orders is criticized. The dictate kicked in October 1st, requiring any business selling anything in the state to register, which didn’t exempt small businesses as other states have done. This is important - if they manage to apply this tax to even the smallest businesses, and win any court challenges, other states are likely to follow suit.

ETSY NEWS

Etsy released a new stats page last week, which like most things they do these days, isn’t finished yet. You can read the announcement here, and a more detailed explanation here, including a discussion of the conversion rate numbers now provided. [I don’t find those very useful on Etsy, as I find I get a lot of visits that are not from buyers, such as people checking out my SEO.] Also note that there will be a Q & A thread this week in the forum, starting October 14th at 10 am EDT.

When a listing is clicked from any search, there is now a link at the top saying “Back to search results” which only goes to page one of the search on Etsy, not the page you were on. It even does this when someone clicks on your item from a search of your shop.

They made some recent improvements to the buyer app, including integrating shop names into the regular search. No need to tag with your exact shop name! (Mobile & desktop search also work the same way; the app was the last hold out.)

More holiday marketing tips continue to roll out, including this one on merchandising. It includes a list of holidays at the end (although Canadian Thanksgiving was just 5 days away on the date of publication, so that seems to have been a waste of space). Potentially more useful to some of us is the transcript of the podcast on shopper behaviour during the holidays. [includes links to the podcast if you would rather listen] “9% of our buyers do the bulk of their shopping in late December right before the holidays” and “On Etsy specifically, searches around the holidays spike for gifts in conjunction with a descriptor of the recipient. We see searches like “gifts for grandma,” “gifts for boyfriend,” and “unique gift for a friend” spike.” Finally, “In terms of uniqueness, 90% of Etsy buyers would rather give a unique or one-of-a-kind gift.” They also cover some specific research on holiday shopping patterns in the UK & Germany, compared to the US.

There is a new help file on search called Beginner’s Guide to Etsy Search, and while it is up to date, I am not sure why it is needed, when they already have a page (they even link to it) called “How Etsy Search Works”, which isn’t as up to date. If they are planning on releasing new instructions, as they told me months ago, they are going about it really, really slowly.

Etsy Ireland lost money last year, apparently due to the DaWanda deal. “Etsy, whose mission is to “keep commerce human”, faced a wave of criticism from users after designating its business in Ireland as an unlimited liability company in 2015 so that it didn’t have to publicly disclose financial information about the unit. The company has, however, published annual accounts for the subsidiary for both 2017 and last year.”

Meanwhile, free shipping & Etsy Ads have produced quite a stock boost for the main company. “KeyBanc’s comments were echoed by Canaccord Genuity, which earlier this week wrote that the company’s initiatives were driving “robust growth and improving profitability.” Analyst Maria Ripps called free shipping “an important step in bringing Etsy’s platform closer to par” with other e-commerce leaders like Amazon.com Not only will free shipping improve “consumer perception around the platform,” but she estimated that it could add upside of 3%-5% upside to 2020 estimates for both revenue and adjusted Ebitda. The company’s Etsy Ads initiative, she added, “should ultimately attract high affinity customers with strong repeat purchase behavior.” Also, they noted that no major analysts no recommend selling the stock - most say “buy”, with a few saying “hold”.

Etsy partnered with Blackrock Emergency Savings Initiative to help US sellers deal with the financial pressures of self-employment.

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Google’s advice on how to get your category pages to rank well is worth reading: among other things, you shouldn’t keyword stuff.

If you want your content to get the featured “0” position at the top of Google search, you should check out this article on featured snippets, or this Whiteboard Friday from Moz. [video & transcript]

More analysis of Google’s September core update shows that it may not have been as dramatic as the June update, but “your money, your life” (YMYL) sites still seem the most affected. SEMRush said the biggest winners were “DailyMail, eBackPage.com, lasd.org and marionschool.net. The biggest losers were TheFourMusic.com, Monks.org, BraidingClub.com, PascoLibraries.org and RoyalCaribbean.com.au.” Other case studies saw a lot of change in health and medical sites.

Another study states that websites still get most of their traffic from organic search.

If your own website isn’t ranking on Google, there are numerous fixable reasons, although some are more difficult than others.

Google says that HTML sitemaps aren’t necessary to good SEO.

If you are getting less organic traffic to your Patreon page recently, that could be because their SEO team accidentally de-indexed the entire site. It’s been fixed, but it could affect some pages for the next few weeks, if Google doesn’t recrawl you right away.

YouTube is the 4th most visited website, so improving your YouTube SEO can provide a huge boost in traffic.

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

Facebook’s experiment on hiding like counts has rolled out in Australia. (Articles looks at the sociological studies behind this)

Instagram launched an account posting tips for “creators”, which the author notes does not focus on making money off of that content.

They have also expanded their Shopping part of the app, however, which is about making money.

And IG has released a Snapchat challenger called Threads, a standalone app run by Facebook. Techcrunch did a more detailed review & analysis. Right now, it doesn’t have any ads & they say they have no plans to add them.

Hubspot uses their own Snapchat account experience as a case study in how to make Snap work for business. (includes video & step-by-step instructions, if you are new to Snapchat.)

Twitter and Tweetdeck had a bad outage for several hours October 1-2, and it still isn't clear what happened.

If you use Twitter for your business, you should also be using Twitter lists. (I use Tweetdeck to organize mine.)

Now that it is working again, here are the best-performing hashtags on Twitter over the past few years.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

Hubspot’s comprehensive guide to Google Ads is completely up to date for all new developments, and covers search ads as well as ads across Google’s network. [video and text]

They also put out a Facebook ad checklist, with video, text & screenshots.

And they also did a guide to YouTube advertising. [video and text]

Research and ad placement are key to getting better conversion from Facebook ads.

Gen Z (younger than millennials) don’t yet have full purchase strength as a cohort, but they influence buying in their households after seeing ads on Snapchat. Since Gen Z shows the least brand loyalty of any generation, it's necessary to reach them in new ways.

Shopify now has an integration with Microsoft Ads, which include all Verizon properties (Yahoo, AOL). More than 116 million Americans use Bing searches each month in some way.

LinkedIn has improved its ad tools, including audience forecasting.

Quora has improved ad targeting; they say they have over 300 million monthly users.

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

Advanced tips for site search in Google Analytics can get more out of the data than you thought was there.

Facebook will likely be paying out $40 million to settle a lawsuit for grossly overreporting video watching stats, including video ads.

Google Search Console is now reporting a lot fewer links for websites than in the past; it’s not clear if this is a bug or not.

The Console is now reporting on your videos.

Everything you need to know about Pinterest Analytics.

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

If you use abandoned cart emails on your website, make sure they are optimized for conversions.

Ecommerce fraud rates are definitely increasing. “... digital goods have seen such an increase in fraud because they often have a streamlined purchase process that requires less information than other items.”

Google launched its new Shopping pages, which is not the same as Google Shopping but is connected to it, and allows buyers to check out on Google rather than retailer websites.

Amazon apparently surveyed Handmade sellers recently asking how they felt about Amazon Handmade.

Will Amazon face consequences in the US for its competitive activities? It’s looking more likely now. “Bloomberg reported in August that Amazon was dropping sellers' products in searches on its site if they priced a product cheaper on rival sites, behavior the news service noted could draw antitrust scrutiny.”

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

We all have difficult customers occasionally - here are 9 tips on how to deal with them.

While most web browsing happens on mobile, desktop users are still way more likely to buy. They also spend more than mobile buyers.

Gen Z members plan on doing most of their holiday shopping in physical shops this year (just like baby boomers), but many will do research online first. Also, “Forty-two percent of shoppers said that low prices are the top motivator for making purchases and 31% said free shipping was also a shopping incentive.”

Offering fewer options can lead to more sales. (The article has great suggestions on different ways to use this info.)

MISCELLANEOUS

Vimeo app Magisto is facing a class-action lawsuit over holding biometric data without the owners’ permission.

Haven’t heard much about the EU privacy law lately? It turns out that businesses that are GDPR-compliant are more successful than those that are not. The shocker is that only 28% of the companies surveyed were actually completely compliant, so this may be correlation and not causation. Also, the results were self-reported, so maybe not that accurate.

Here’s a decent list of free website builders, but I strongly suggest doing your own research on any that sound good, as the writeup isn’t very detailed. (The Etsy forum is a very good place for some of this research, as you can ask very specific questions of people who probably have similar needs to yours.)

Chrome is going to block embedded content that isn’t from an https site, beginning in December. [if your website isn’t yet https, get on that right away - it is going to become more & more crucial for being seen.]

#cindylouwho2newsupdates #smallbiz #Ecommerce #content marketing #contentmarketing #Social media #stats #analytics #EtsyNews #search engine marketing #search engine optimization #SEO

2 notes · View notes

raulaustin70 · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Partner with relevant businesses

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Routific

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

Local & Google My Business

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

0 notes

greenmelonmarketing · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Partner with relevant businesses

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Routific

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

Local & Google My Business

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

0 notes

onlineinvesting18 · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Partner with relevant businesses

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Routific

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

Local & Google My Business

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

0 notes

liampatrickblog · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Partner with relevant businesses

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Routific

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

Local & Google My Business

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

0 notes

eduardokingsley89 · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Partner with relevant businesses

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Routific

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

Local & Google My Business

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

0 notes

doanhnet · 5 years ago

Text

Crisis Adaptation - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by BritneyMuller

In this special edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller outlines a checklist that businesses can use to meet the changing needs of consumers and improve visibility for local searches.

Bonus — We've adapted these tips into a free checklist you can download and share:

Get the checklist

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

If you're not already following Miriam on Twitter, I highly suggest you do. She is a local SEO genius. So let's dive right in.

Meet your customers where they are

You often hear this phrase in marketing and in SEO about meeting your customers where they are. This might be important now more than ever because the current landscape, it's changed so much.

Listen to your customers & understand how their needs have shifted

One of the things I also like to suggest is listen to competitive reviews. Keep an eye on competitive reviews being posted on Google and other spaces to get a gauge of how things have perhaps moved.

Know where your audience is

Connect with potential customers in meaningful ways

Partner with relevant businesses

Communicate all changes and updates

Now the other big, big priority right now is all around communicating changes and updates to your website visitors. So what do you need to cover?

Any expected delays and product availability challenges. This is a really great tip too.

Sanitation and any adopted safety precautions.

Payment methods accepted. This can be really helpful in the transaction.

Any philanthropic efforts that you're doing to help support people in need.

Immediately communicate this information:

Set up online orders and catalog inventory/services

In addition to these things, set up online orders. At the very least, catalog your online inventory or services for people to still have that awareness of what you're currently offering.

Add products for free on Google Shopping

Create maps showing delivery radiuses

Routific

I didn't even know that existed. So it's a good little tool tip.

Double down on SEO and content marketing

Local & Google My Business

So here's an example of Uptown China Restaurant, a local Chinese restaurant. It's awesome in Queen Anne, and it's going to be our example. So what's the first thing?

Correct any GMB errors

Just correct any GMB errors. Make sure that the current data shown and information is correct and up to date.

Update hours to remove warning

Respond to reviews

Confirm or reject any new Google My Business prompts

Update menu and product listings

Use Posts

Use Product Posts

So a shout-out to Darren Shaw, who noticed this.

Enable text messaging

So I've heard from so many SEOs that this has continued to go up into the right during the pandemic, and it makes sense.

People want to just quickly get information from businesses. You can create a welcome message. So I highly suggest exploring that if that's available to you.

Update images

Again, I think I've said this like three times, but update images. It's a great time to do that, and it can really help make your stuff pop.

Share these tips with businesses in need!

Lastly, don't forget to share these tips with businesses.

We've created a free PDF checklist of all this information that you can download and share with any marketers, clients, or businesses in need:

Download the free checklist

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

0 notes