SEO and Marketing

Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, Amazon is wooing Prime subscribers with a new, exclusive credit card, brand interest in Snapchat may not be as high as it seems, and the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo is on the up-and-up, reaching a record of 14 million anonymous searches in one day. Amazon unveils new credit card exclusive to Prime members Since the launch of Amazon Prime as an express shipping service in 2005, Amazon has continued to add benefits to its exclusive subscription service in a bit to retain existing subscribers and lure new ones. The latest of thes…

According to research from Borrell associates, SEO spending is forecast to reach $79.27 billion by 2020. However, the problem that many marketers face is actually elevating the importance of SEO within their organizations. In 2017 it is essential that SEO professionals secure the buy-in they need from their business leaders so they can accomplish their professional goals. Understanding how to do this will not only help the brand succeed, but it will also build your reputation as a marketer, paving the way for a successful future within the industry. This year we witness the rising importance of the micro-moment, the new mobile index, and the growing importance o…

If you’re wondering what factors to consider as you build your SEO strategy for 2017, links are still the top-ranking factor for Google’s algorithm with content close behind. And high CTR is still at the core of the rankings pack as well. Earlier this year, Andrey Lipattsev, a Google Search Quality Senior Strategist, about the top ranking factors for Google. Lipattsev said, “I can tell you what they are. It is content. And it’s links pointing to your site.” Recent Study Put Links to the Ranking Factor Test A recent study by Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting put links to the ranking factor test. And links emerged as powerful as ever. Previous research by Moz…

Optimizing your ecommerce site for better rankings should be a top priority for any growth-focused business owner. Being on the first page is no longer enough to generate enough traffic, CTR, and sales, for 2016 and 2017, the main goal should be to rank 1 and I will tell you why. In 2011, a research conducted by Optify and published by Search Engine Watch showed that “websites ranked number one received an average click-through rate (CTR) of 36.4 percent; number two had a CTR of 12.5 percent; and number three had a CTR of 9.5 percent.” This report illustrates vividly the value of holding the number 1 spot in search results. In the article below, I will be shar…

Programmatic is a game-changing technology in the advertising industry. According to ZenithOptimedia Programmatic Marketing Forecasts, it will grow by an astounding 31% in 2017 – and that’s faster than social media (25%) and online video (20%). At the same time, marketers using automation is on the rise: Dun & Bradstreet Report predicts almost 70% of B2B marketers plan to increase spending on programmatic advertising in 2017. So what can we expect from the year ahead and how should advertisers be prepared to take advantage of programmatic? RTB House – a global provider of retargeting technology powered by deep learning algorithms – has put together 3 top tren…

Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, Larry Kim peers into his crystal ball to make some outlandish predictions for SEO in 2017; Facebook is preparing to flip the switch on a mid-roll video ad offering that will share revenue with users; and – here’s a name you probably weren’t expecting to see crop up in the news – AOL is offering up free wireless data as a reward for engaging with ads. Nine crazy predictions for SEO in 2017 It’s January, and as we all know, the arrival of January and the new year heralds the arrival of any number of predictions posts across every website you vi…

It’s January, which means you’ve probably read about 200 expert predictions on the future of SEO in 2017 by now. But if you stick with me, I promise this post won’t be like any of the other SEO predictions posts you’ve seen so far. When it comes to making SEO predictions, a lot of experts take the safe route. We all know mobile SEO is going to be increasingly important. Talking about the obvious is always safe. If you’re anything like me, the SEO predictions for 2017 have let you feeling underwhelmed. No one has been sticking their neck out this year. Mobile will be big? UX will matter? Really?! You don’t say! I think it’s time for a few more bold predi…

Retailers love the influx of revenue in Q4, but there’s another, more last gift from the spike in digital traffic: data that you can use to your advantage in 2017. In this post, we’ll cover three major ways to make Q4 the gift that keeps on giving. 1) Capture those audiences. This is the time to build remarketing lists (put this in place ASAP if you haven’t yet; it’s never too late). You can then target these users at a later date to remarket to them if they haven’t converted. Anyone adding to cart and abandoning, getting partway through the checkout process before bailing, just looking at product pages or even your home page…hit them with ads and promotions fo…

When was the last time you really tore apart your search strategy and looked at why it is what it is? We’re much more likely to make necessary, iterative changes to our campaigns – but I challenge you to make 2017 the year you question everything. It’s an exercise that really doesn’t need to cost a lot of time or money, but the answers you discover could have direct, sizeable effects on revenue. Here are some questions to start asking about your search strategy: What even is our search strategy? A simple question on its surface, but it’s a great place to begin. When was the last time you actually defined your approach to organic search? Does that initial plan …

A new year brings new metrics. Or maybe it’s just a good reminder that you need to evaluate your existing KPIs. Which B2B content marketing metrics should you add in 2017? It’s the perfect time of the year to evaluate your content marketing strategy and focus on the latest trends that will take your B2B marketing plan to the next level. How about starting with the metrics that you need to pay closer attention to from now on? Unique visitors A content marketing strategy starts from your site and the unique visitors indicate the actual traffic you gained through your content. It may not be enough to measure all your content marketing efforts, but it’s s…

This is sponsored content created in association with Fospha. When measuring the effectiveness of discount codes, retailers often get it wrong. In this article, we’ll look at how data-driven attribution can help businesses better understand where discount codes produce the best ROI. Retailers often don’t consider discount codes in the same way they do traditional marketing spend. On the one hand this seems appropriate; the cost is a percentage of top-line revenue at the point of conversion rather than upfront speculative spend. But viewing them as nothing but a conversion lever can lead to a dangerous disconnect in understanding the true cost of customer acquisiti…

Between the long-awaited rollout of Penguin 4.0, a strengthening of Google’s mobile-friendly ranking signal and the ‘Possum’ algorithm update impacting local search, 2016 was an interesting year for Google algorithm changes. And with an upcoming move to a mobile-first search index already on the cards, as well as a penalty for intrusive mobile interstitials coming into effect on the 10th, 2017 promises to be just as eventful. Looking back at 2016, which algorithm changes were the most impactful for marketers in the industry? And how can brands best prepare themselves for what might be around the corner? I spoke to Sastry Rachakonda and Ajay Rama of digital marketing…

Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. And a happy 2017 to all of our Search Engine Watch readers! This week, we’ve got a health-conscious New Year’s update from Bing, a new AI-powered search engine which is transforming scientific research, and a look at why the fake information epidemic could be damaging to local search. A new AI powered search engine is changing how neuroscientists do research Google’s work in the realm of artificial intelligence and machine learning has succeeded in making web search more intuitive, effective and useful than it’s ever been before. But until now, the same…

Everyone who knows me knows I’m obsessed with unicorns – not just the magical beasts you’ll often find hanging out near rainbows but marketing unicorns. What’s a marketing unicorn, you ask? It’s one of those magical campaigns that’s so effective it performs in the top 1-3% of all marketing campaigns. Marketing unicorns are so special that, even though they’re rare, they end up delivering almost half of the value of your overall marketing efforts. For example, here on the WordStream blog, our top 50 articles drive as much traffic as thousands of others (the marketing donkeys) combined. I call it the Unicorn Marketing Power Law. This is why it’s so key, as a ma…

When you think of artificial intelligence, images of futuristic robots or memories of bad sci-fi films might come to mind. However, the reality of AI is actually a lot more tame: a friendly search engine, for instance. But while we type our queries into Google and usually get fairly useful results, the same has not always been true for the information gleaned by scientific researchers. Although existing resources like Google Scholar and PubMed provide scientists with resources much faster than the methods of old, they don’t always cover the nitty-gritty details that are needed. Now, a new, free search engine called Semantic Scholar is using AI technology to help…

It’s the right time of the year to evaluate your SEO strategy and examine the best ways to improve it during 2017. This doesn’t have to be a complicated process, though. New year’s resolutions are not just about our personal goals, so it may be the ideal moment to focus on your business goals and seek for the best ways to boost your SEO presence to improve authority, value and ranking. If you’re wondering how to start fixing your SEO for 2017, here are a few suggestions you might find useful. Add value As simple as it sounds, it’s important to create content that adds value, while it maintains its relevance for the target audience. It’s not just about creatin…

Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond. This week, we look at a new feature by Instagram that models itself on Facebook; moves by Google to tackle ‘non-authoritative’ sites which rank too highly; and an upcoming change which will make AMP content easier to link to. Retailers struggle with the post-Black Friday lull Just two weeks ago in our Friday search news round-up, we established that record-breaking levels of sales and spending mean Black Friday won’t be going anywhere for a while. But now, new figures from the NPD Group have cast doubt over whether retailers will make this holiday shopp…

As the year draws to a close and the Search Engine Watch team begin to sail perilously close to Health & Safety law by roasting chestnuts at their desks, all that’s left is to publish one final update before racing to the post office to send our letters to Santa*. All of us would like to say a huge thank you to all of you. Whether you are a reader (hi Steve), a contributor, a commenter or a malicious hacker, hell-bent on accessing our database in order to find out the secrets of my unpublished opus “4 and a bit ways to make images load a little bit quicker”, we genuinely appreciate you taking the time and energy to get involved. What can we say – without you we’re…

Most people are familiar with Black Friday and Cyber Monday as some of the busiest shopping days of the year; businesses spend months preparing their holiday campaigns in order to make the most of these two days. But each year it seems that more and more companies are also taking advantage of #GivingTuesday by finding ways to entice their audience not only to purchase holiday gifts, but to donate and give back to charities and nonprofits. In this article, we’ve analyzed 8 of these campaigns from 2016 to find out which ones have what it takes to engage readers and meet their fundraising goals, and which ones unfortunately fall flat. Read on to learn more about what mak…

With the end of 2016 fast approaching, we list some of the best ecommerce and cart abandonment stats we’ve seen this year. 1: SMS Remarketing This year we won at the MOMA Awards for our work with Firefly on SMS Remarketing. The stats below give an idea of just how effective SMS can be. 2: Which Days Have Most Abandonments? Based on data from more than 1 billion abandoned carts, we know that Tuesday is the ‘worst’ day of the week for cart abandonment. Fewest abandonments happen on a Saturday between 8 and 9pm, while abandonment is lowest around Christmas and similar sale periods, as people have less reason to delay purchases. 3: Add to Cart Rate…