Whether you listen to Christmas music year-round or dread the holiday rush, there’s no denying that the holidays are the most profitable time of year for many businesses. In fact, estimates from the National Retail Foundation attributed between $755.3 to $766.7 billion in sales last holiday season alone.
In order to capitalize on some of the biggest shopping days of the year, here are a few of our favorite holiday marketing ideas and advertising tips.
General Tips for Holiday Advertising
Before we dig into the tactics that can help boost your business during the holiday season, it’s important to understand the bigger picture of marketing during the holidays. Here are five goals to keep in mind when planning your holiday marketing campaigns.
1. Be Timely
It’s never too early to start planning your holiday marketing ideas and initiatives. Pages can take up to 45 days to rank, so we recommend moving any web-based tactics live no later than mid-October. While Christmas isn’t until the end of December, many people start shopping in early- to mid-November, well before Black Friday deals hit.
2. Be Brief
With advertising competition at an all-time high, attention spans are short. Keep your messaging short, sweet, and impactful for the best results.
3. Stay Focused
Online noise and increased ad costs mean that your holiday advertising ideas have to be sharply focused to make an impact. If you have a limited budget, focus on a few key days of sales based on historical data from years past.
If you’re looking for the strongest return possible on a small budget, remarketing is another great option, as you’re likely to see a higher conversion rate by advertising to former and current customers.
4. Respect Your Brand
Just because it’s the holiday season doesn’t mean that your blue brand has to transform to red and green! Consider what the holidays look like visually for your business, and allow your foundational brand to shine through in every marketing initiative you undertake.
Here are some holiday angles to consider:
Feel-good, charitable, emotional, and grateful
Exciting, flashy, and full of great deals
Fun, bright, and family-focused
Non-denominational, winter-focused, or inclusive of all winter holidays
When choosing a direction for your holiday marketing ideas, always consider your business’s brand, tone, and overall marketing goals. Slapping a graphic Santa Claus on your year-round advertising simply doesn’t cut it.
5. Be Truly Competitive
Don’t expect to own the market and see a massive boost in sales if you’re only willing to offer 10% off and free shipping. In order to succeed at marketing during the holidays, you’ll need to be generous with your sales and special offers, especially to loyal customers who have waited all year to make a big purchase and get a great deal.
If you’re a service-based company, consider offering vouchers or pre-orders that customers can buy now and use later. Not only does this create urgency and encourage sales, but it allows you to pre-schedule and guarantee your next year of business ahead of time.
Holiday Search Optimization
In order to rank during the competitive holiday season, you’ll need to foster strategic search engine optimization (SEO) on your website year round. That being said, here are a few considerations to keep top-of-mind to expand your optimization during the holidays.
Holiday SEO & PPC Strategies
SEO and PPC should be a major focus when it comes to holiday marketing ideas. Making timely gift guide landing pages for holiday search terms is one of the best ways to capitalize on the busy shopping season.
Fill these pages not only with best-selling products but thoughtful content that will help customers who are unfamiliar with your business make a quick and easy purchase. And, be sure to focus on internal linking and all of the usual SEO-boosting suspects to get your pages ranking.
Keep in mind that like with any paid medium during the holidays, you’ll pay more per click than you do during other times of the year. The heavy competition can be discouraging when deploying your holiday marketing ideas through PPC, but it can pay off big if you are strategic in your keywords and bids.
The Merits of Google My Business
An often-overlooked element of your website’s search engine optimization is your Google My Business (GMB) profile. This panel allows customers to view your company’s store hours, reviews, and updates without even having to click through to your website.
Be sure to complete your GMB profile before the holiday season begins, and revisit it frequently to ensure your hours, contact info, and other store details stay up to date.
The holiday season is one of the best times to grow your email list organically. The trick? Offering direct, valuable savings to customers to encourage them to sign up. Once you have a customer hooked, here are a few tricks to prevent them from unsubscribing:
Use subject lines to create urgency around sales and deals
Create email automations for abandoned carts
Offer valuable content like gift guides and product tips
Inboxes are especially cluttered this time of year, so be sure that each email you send has a true purpose and won’t simply frustrate your customer to the point of unsubscribing.
Holiday Social Advertising Strategies
With high costs and oversaturated platforms, social advertising during the holidays can be incredibly competitive. You’ll have to be at the top of your game if you want to stand out among the crowd.
Giveaways, contests, and other content that encourages audience engagement can be particularly helpful in breaking through the noise. While you have limited space to get your message across, try to think about your audience and speak directly to them in a novel and creative way to grab their attention. At the end of the day, authentic ads that showcase great deals will do far more than screaming at users with all caps and bright flashing signs.
Writing Content for the Holiday Season
When it comes to holiday marketing ideas, content is everything. Here are three tips to keep your content thriving and bringing in new customers.
1. Be Timely
We can’t stress enough the importance of timeliness when it comes to seasonal content. It can take weeks or months for your content to be indexed and served to users. And, many users start researching holiday decorations, gifts, and more up to two months before the big day.
That means any search-driven content you have planned needs to go live no later than October. It may feel strange working on holiday copy before fall has even arrived, but it will pay off big time come the holiday season.
2. Consider Your Unique Holiday Customers
During the holidays, millions of people shop for gifts at stores they’re unfamiliar with. One of the best ways to earn a new customer is to make sure they have everything they need to make a decision (and a purchase), even if they’re unfamiliar with your industry.
Consider building out your product pages further to aid in product comparison and streamline decision-making. Product guides that go over sizing, features, and the differences between product models can also make online shopping a breeze for those unfamiliar with your store.
3. Utilize Internal Linking
Internal linking is one of the top ways that Google understands the architecture and content relationships on your website. This means that high-quality internal linking can help your holiday-themed blogs gain traction faster when every day counts.
Use links with purpose. No reader wants a constant bombardment of product links without any explanation to help them make a decision. Be sure to include plenty of helpful and educational content links, as well.
Breaking the Mold with Creative Holiday Campaigns
With so much noise online, you’ll need to think differently when brainstorming holiday marketing ideas if you want to stand out in your customers’ eyes. Consider the go-to marketing tactics of competitors and industry leaders, and then brainstorm adjacent or opposing ideas to get started.
One of our favorite innovative holiday marketing strategies over the years was a digital holiday card we created for local law firm Barley Snyder. They wanted a unique and memorable way to wish their clients and colleagues a happy holiday season. We planned, designed, and animated a custom digital greeting card that was equal parts meaningful and charming.
Whether you work with a digital marketing agency or an in-house marketing team, you’ve probably received reports that have a lot of information you don’t fully understand.
In this blog, we’ll explore the key performance indicators (KPIs) you should pay attention to, regardless of your industry. We’ll also review how you can analyze your digital marketing performance metrics and explain what your spend is going towards.
What Are Internet Marketing Metrics?
There are two buzzwords you’ll hear when talking about digital marketing: analytics and data.
Not sure what these terms mean in the context of Internet marketing? Simply put, analytics help us see the data that’s being processed to provide us with the valuable performance metrics we use to make informed business decisions.
That raises yet another question: what are marketing metrics, and which ones should I be paying attention to?
Marketing metrics are the measurable, quantifiable insights you or your agency use to measure the success of campaigns and projects. They’re the most important indicators you should pay attention to because they help you determine exactly where your money is going.
We’ve established that you need data to make informed decisions. But which metrics should you pay attention to on your report?
Digital Marketing KPIs: What They Are, Why They Matter, & How to Analyze Them
While there are hundreds of metrics to consider, we’re going to review the most important digital marketing KPIs for each marketing channel. Each of these metrics are important, but you can’t draw a single conclusion without looking at the bigger picture.
Overall Digital Marketing KPIs
The KPIs below apply to every channel and are fairly universal across digital marketing.
Impressions
What It Is
Impressions are how many times your content is shown to a user.
Why It Matters
Impressions matter for many reasons. The most important reason is that they reveal how many people are seeing your content, whether it’s an ad in a PPC campaign or an Instagram post.
How to Analyze It
For a brand exposure campaign, higher impressions are great. But for a lead generation campaign, impressions may not be as important as conversions.
Clicks
What Is It
Clicks are how many people click on your content.
Why It Matters
Clicks are when a user takes the action you want them to. This could be clicking on a sale link in an email, reading news from a social media post, or clicking on a video ad.
How to Analyze It
You should analyze clicks for every campaign you run online. If you see low clicks, be sure to dive into the issue. It could be a simple spelling mistake on your ad copy, or it could mean you’re targeting the wrong audience.
If you see an abundant amount of clicks on your content, make note of this and document exactly what you think is working.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
What It Is
Click-through rate is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions.
What It Means
You can use CTR to determine which campaigns are successful and which ones need improvement. For example, if you received 1,000 clicks on an ad that had 5,000 impressions, you would have a 20% CTR.
How to Analyze It
First things first: there is no “good” click-through rate. Every campaign, industry, and business has different benchmarks for CTRs. Google Ads campaigns have much lower click-through rates than Instagram ads, but this doesn’t mean one is working better than the other.
If you see a dip or increase in your CTR, always question it within the bigger picture. Was there a change in the wording on a button? Was there an engaging picture?
Engagement Rate
What It Is
According to Hootsuite, “engagement rate is a formula that measures the amount of interaction social content earns relative to reach or other audience figures. This can include reactions, likes, comments, shares, saves, direct messages, mentions, click-throughs, and more (depending on the social network).”
Engagement rate can be a critical deciding factor when allocating more marketing spend. If you see that videos are driving traffic to your site and experiencing a long retention period, you should consider spending more on videos. The same goes for a low engagement rate. If you see that videos are not performing well, you may decide to reduce your video budget.
Conversions
What It Is
Conversions are actions that users complete on your site.
What It Means
If you’re a service-based company, one conversion is lead generation. On the other hand, an eCommerce website’s conversion could be purchasing a product. Simply put, a conversion is a final action a user completes on your site.
How to Analyze It
In most cases, conversions mean nothing without a business goal. If you find you’re exceeding or underperforming your conversion goals, it may be time to:
Reevaluate your objectives.
Ask your marketing agency what they’re seeing on their end
Conversion Rate
What It Is
Conversion rates are the percentage of website visitors that complete a conversion. This is calculated simply by taking the number of conversions divided by users, or impressions.
What It Means
Conversion rate should be one of the first metrics you look at when checking your reports. This is because it’s a simple way to determine if your digital marketing is working or not.
How to Analyze It
A high conversion rate can indicate a successful campaign, and a low conversion rate signals something isn’t quite working.
Cost Per Conversion
What It Is
Cost per conversion is the total cost of the traffic (or impressions) by the number of conversions.
What It Means
In other words, cost per conversion is the actual spend it took to obtain a customer.
How to Analyze It
Cost per conversion is the easiest way for you to answer, “how much did it cost me in advertising to get my customer to do action X.”
You should use cost per conversion to evaluate your online advertising success. Don’t be alarmed if your cost per conversion is high when you first start digital marketing. It should decrease over time, and if it doesn’t, contact your marketing agency to solve this problem.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
What It Is
While cost per acquisition is often confused with cost per conversion, cost per acquisition is the total cost of a campaign divided by the number of conversions.
What It Means
Just like cost per conversion, this is an easy way for you to examine the dollars and cents that went into your acquisitions.
For example, if your total budget was $1,000 and you received 50 conversions, you paid $20 per acquisition.
How to Analyze It
Like most KPIs, there is no “good” CPA. Every online business has different factors – such as margin and prices – that make up a “good” CPA. As you analyze your CPA, ask yourself, “is the cost of acquiring the new customer worth it?”
Customer Lifetime Value
What It Is
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a metric you can use to determine the total revenue of a customer throughout their relationship with your business.
What It Means
You can use this metric to determine how much you can expect to make from one single customer. If you own a car dealership, you might see a high CLV, as a new car will need to be serviced often. If you own a service-based business that offers a one-time setup, you can expect a lower CLV.
How to Analyze It
Analyzing your CLV can be tough, as it may remain stagnant. However, this can be a valuable opportunity for you. If you can figure out ways to improve your CLV – such as loyalty programs and offering more services – you can greatly benefit from analyzing this metric.
Email Marketing KPIs
List Growth Rate
What It Is
List growth rate allows you to calculate whether your email list is growing. You can calculate the list growth rate by subtracting the number of unsubscribers from the number of new subscribers and dividing that by the number of email addresses in your list.
What It Means
List growth rate is an easy way to determine if your email list is growing or declining.
How to Analyze It
You can use list growth rate to evaluate whether you should increase or cut back on your email marketing efforts.
Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR)
What It Is
Click-to-open rate, according to Active Campaign, is the percentage of people who open an email campaign and also click on a link within that campaign.
What It Means
Looking at your CTOR is a great and simple way to measure your campaign’s effectiveness.
How to Analyze It
Analyzing CTOR is often better than measuring your open rate on your email. Open rate calculates the amount of subscribers who opened your email while CTOR also looks at those subscribers who opened the email, which ones also clicked on the links.
Looking at your click-to-open rate will give you a better idea of who is engaging with your emails the most and if they are not, should you segment that list to further hone the strategy.
Unsubscribe Rate
What It Is
Unsubscribe rate is the opposite of list growth rate, as it shows you the percentage of users who opted out of your mailing list after a campaign.
What It Means
Looking at your unsubscribe rate tells you which types of emails are working for you.
How to Analyze It
Analyzing your unsubscribe rate may be counterintuitive at first, as you may think, “my emails aren’t working” and move on. But a high unsubscribe rate may be a good thing. Everybody wants bigger email lists, but there is value in only sending emails to only the most willing and engaged recipients.
On the other hand, your unsubscribe rate may be a bad metric to look at because it may mean your emails have no value and that people on your list want out. Or, it could be a signal that you’re sending too many emails.
SEO KPIs
Backlinks
What It Is
Backlinks are links from other websites directing users to your website.
What It Means
The number of backlinks you have is important for a multitude of reasons. Essentially, backlinks act like votes for a search engine. The more backlinks your website has, the more a search engine sees you as a trustworthy site.
How to Analyze It
When analyzing the number of backlinks you have, you should look at whether the number is increasing or decreasing when compared to another period.
If your number of quality backlinks is increasing, you should continue to invest in SEO. If you see a low number of backlinks, you should probably still invest more in SEO to get “votes” for your site.
Keywords
What It Is
Keywords are specific phrases, questions, or ideas that define what your content is about.
What It Means
The number of keywords or “search queries” you have on your site is essential to a high-ranking website. The goal is to drive users to your site through your content, which should have keywords that users are searching for. The more keywords you have, the better chance you have of driving organic traffic to your website.
For example, when you Google “what is the best coffee grinder for under $100?”, the keyword is “Best Coffee Grinder For Under $100”.
How to Analyze It
When analyzing keyword queries on your report, take note of ones that are outperforming other queries on your site. This will give you a better understanding of your customers and how they got to your site.
For example, if you see an increase in traffic on your site for product X, it may be worth investing in more content explaining the benefits of that item. You could also create search ads around that product, as you know people are searching for it
Visibility Percentage (%)
What It Is
According to SEMrush, “visibility % is based on click-through rate (CTR) that shows a website’s progress in Google’s top 100 for keywords from the current tracking campaign.” In layman’s terms, visibility percentage is how often your website is found by users.
What It Means
You can use visibility percentage to determine whether your website is being shown to users. A higher visibility percentage means you have a better chance of bringing in new users through your site.
How to Analyze It
You can use visibility percentage as a baseline metric to help you measure your overall SEO efforts. If you’re seeing a growth in visibility percentage, that means your SEO is generally performing better. On the other hand, a drop in visibility percentage may be caused by outside factors, such as algorithm changes.
Indexed Pages
What It Is
Indexed pages are specific pages on your site that a search engine contains within its database.
What It Means
It’s important to consider the number of indexed pages on your site that a search engine has in its database. Pages that have been successfully indexed can be found by users through keywords and relatable content.
It’s also important to look at your non-indexed pages, which are pages you don’t want users to find via a search engine, but still have some sort of value to you. These could be thank you pages sent to eCommerce customers after they purchase an item.
How to Analyze It
Looking at indexed pages is a quick and easy way to see if the content on your website can be found by potential customers. If you see your number of indexed pages increasing, you know more people can find your content, visit your page, and possibly convert.
Domain Authority
What It Is
According to MOZ, “Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). Domain Authority scores range from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to greater likelihood of ranking.”
What It Means
Domain authority is an SEO KPI, but it is not a Google ranking factor. Instead, it’s an AI-based ranking developed by MOZ to predict how well your site will rank compared to your competitors.
How to Analyze It
Generally speaking, a higher Domain Authority score means your business will show up higher in search results than your competitors. Conversely, a lower Domain Authority often means you’ll be ranked lower than the competition. If you see that your DA is increasing, that means your investment in SEO is working.
How Customers Search For Your Business
What It Is
How Customers Search For Your Business is a local SEO metric found within Google My Business (GMB). This metric is actually a combination of three metrics: direct, discovery, and branded searches.
Google defines these three metrics as:
Direct. People who find your business profile by searching for your business name or address.
Discovery. People who find your business profile by searching for a category, product, or service.
Branded. Customers who find your listing by searching for a brand related to your business.
What It Means
Looking at this metric allows you to determine how people are finding your business profile on Google. If you know what users are searching for, you or your agency can optimize your content to match those trending metrics.
How to Analyze It
When analyzing this metric, be sure to look at the three metrics included in How Customers Search For Your Business. If you see that your search is lacking direct traffic, you may want to optimize your web pages to include your brand name in the page titles.
Pay Per Click (PPC) KPIs (Google Ads & Facebook)
In this section, we’ll review PPC KPIs, which include both Google Ads and Facebook. Most people do not realize that Facebook ads are technically PPC, even though it’s a social media channel.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
What It Is
Return on ad spend measures the amount of revenue your business earns for each dollar you spend on PPC advertising.
What It Means
At the most basic level, ROAS measures how effectively you’re spending your advertising dollars.
How to Analyze It
When looking at ROAS, it’s important to remember that the higher the number, the better. For example, let’s say your ROAS is 10:1. This means that for every dollar you’re spending, you’re making $10.
ROAS is often confused with ROI. However, ROAS looks specifically at the campaign level, while ROI looks at the overall investment.
Social Media Marketing KPIs
Likes/Followers
What It Is
Likes and/or followers on a social media channel are the number of people who are following your page.
What It Means
Depending on the social media platform you’re tracking, likes and/or followers are an indication of how many people are using your channels.
How to Analyze It
When looking at your follower count, you can analyze several things. Ask yourself questions like, “is it worth continuing to push our social media if we’re not seeing any engagement?,” “should I run a campaign to boost my followers?”, and “should I hire someone to optimize my campaign if I see value in it?”
It’s important to think of your social media channels as another website for your business with the goal of being a 24/7 sales tool.
Top Posts
What It Is
Top posts on your social media channels are your top-performing posts during a given period of time.
What It Means
Looking at top posts helps you determine exactly what type of content is working for you. You should consider factors like the subject, content type (images, videos, and links), the time you posted, etc.
How to Analyze It
When looking at top posts, you should be able to draw several conclusions and make decisions accordingly. If you see that all of your top posts in a given month were videos, you should probably invest more spend into videos.
How Metrics Can Be Used (and Misused)
Data-based decision-making is often at the core of digital marketing and what makes digital marketing so special. You can pinpoint where every cent you spend goes and whether it’s effective.
If you compare a traditional marketing campaign to a digital marketing one promoting the same product, there’s often ambiguity with the former. Do you know how many people saw your billboard on the side of the highway? You may have an estimate, but with digital marketing, you can measure exactly how many people saw it.
Metrics Are Often Misused
While there’s often an emphasis on metric-based decisions, it’s important to remember that, in the end, they’re just numbers and percentages. It may be a tough pill to swallow, but you may be misusing your metrics.
Let’s look at an example from two different points of view: Person A and Person B.
Let’s say you are running a Google Ads campaign that’s spending $5,000 a month to drive traffic to a particular product. Your click-through rate and impressions are higher than normal, but your conversions are zero.
Person A stops the campaign completely because they spent all of that money and didn’t get a single sale.
Person B looks at the same campaign and sees an issue. The ads are working, but something on the actual product page may be broken. They determine that there’s no purchase button on the page, which led to zero conversions.
This is a simple example of how metrics can be used or misinterpreted. Both people were looking at the same metric, but one saw it as an issue, while the other saw it as a signal that something else was wrong.
Collecting and analyzing your digital marketing performance metrics is only valuable if you take the time to consider what they mean to your original investment.
Common Ways That Metrics Are Misused
Collecting the wrong information. If you collect the wrong information, how can you make smart decisions based on that data? You can imagine the trickle-down effect this might have.
Looking at vanity metrics.Vanity metrics are important, but they’re not necessarily the best figures to use when making decisions. Impressions are a great example of this. You may have a ton of impressions, but if they aren’t achieving the goals you’ve set, does it really matter? This is why looking at the bigger picture is so important.
Never changing metrics. Business goals change all the time, and so should your metrics. How can you determine ROI if you’re measuring the wrong things?
Having too many metrics. There are thousands of metrics you can collect and analyze, so picking the most important ones for your business may be difficult. Choosing the wrong metrics can lead you down the wrong path.
Tips for Explaining Reports To Other Stakeholders
You’ve learned the various digital marketing performance metrics that make up each channel. Now, it’s time to learn how to explain your reports. Here are four tips to keep in mind when explaining your digital marketing reports to other people:
Explain each metric in the simplest terms possible. The key to explaining your marketing report to anyone is to explain it in Layman’s terms. The best way to explain your ROI is to put it simply. Let’s say you spent $2,000 on a PPC campaign that earned 10 goal conversions on a product that costs $500. You may know this, but if you explain what this means to a five-year-old, you would say, “We spent $2,000 and got 10 people interested in our $500 product, meaning we potentially have $5,000 in sales. This means we’ve potentially made $3,000 on this campaign.”
Avoid vanity metrics and focus primarily on data involving investments. The truth is that not every digital marketing performance metric carries the same weight. Does a social media follower increase mean more than the average CPC on your social media campaign? Probably not. At Tower, we only include the most important metrics that our clients care about, but not every agency will do this. You’ll see every single metric available, even though you may only need to pay attention to dollar amounts. We encourage you to sit down with your agency and figure out which metrics mean the most to you.
If you have older reports to draw on, compare the numbers. If you happen to keep all of your old reports, reference them. If you don’t have them, ask your agency to pull the numbers again. How can you know what’s working and what isn’t if you don’t compare last month’s reports to the previous month or the previous year? This is one of the best ways to explain whether your investment is or isn’t working.
Look at everything together. This is ultimately what each report is for. While every digital marketing channel looks different, they’re all smaller pieces that make up the greater part of your business. Don’t just take one part of your report and look at it as a positive if there are negative aspects, too. Seeing the bigger picture is the best way to gauge the success of your digital marketing efforts.
What’s Next?
Now that you’re an expert – or at least better informed – regarding your digital marketing report, you should be able to analyze your return on your digital marketing investment.
Need help digging further into your digital marketing reporting? We do all the analysis for you so you can focus on what matters most. Work with our Internet marketing specialists to ensure you’re getting the most out of your online efforts.
Have you heard about Google’s new Core Web Vitals? An addition to the four existing Page Experience signals, Core Web Vitals are crucial to the best possible user experience (loading, interactivity, and visual stability). Google will gradually start rolling out these metrics in mid-June, and they’ll play a full role in ranking determinations by the end of August. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at each of the Core Web Vitals, how they’ll impact your website, tools for improving them, and more.
What Are Google’s Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals assess user experience (on desktop and mobile) in terms of speed and how quickly visitors can interact with a page. Each Core Web Vital “represents a distinct facet of the user experience, is measurable in the field, and reflects the real-world experience of a critical user-centric outcome.”
Rather than focusing solely on text elements, Core Web Vitals evaluate the quality of overall user experience (UX) within a page. There are three Core Web Vitals:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
First Input Delay (FID)
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
LCP assesses performance and loading, FID responsiveness and interactivity, and CLS visual stability. Core Web Vitals make up the largest portion of your Google Page Experience Score, which also includes the following existing search signals:
Mobile Friendly
Safe Browsing
HTTPS
No Intrusive Interstitials
We’ll take a closer look at Page Experience Score later in this blog. Let’s start by digging into the details of each Core Web Vital.
Core Web Vital #1 :: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how quickly the largest content element on a page loads. This is typically a large, block-level piece of text, image, or video. Rather than assessing load time for the entire page, LCP examines how long it takes a page to load from the user’s point of view, which is the most important page speed metric of all.
A good LCP is less than 2.5 seconds, which means the largest element shows within 2.5 seconds of when the page starts loading. Optimizing your LCP is important because longer load times are proven to have a severe negative effect on bounce rates. To improve your LCP time, consider:
Removing large page elements
Upgrading your web host
Implementing lazy loading
Removing unnecessary third-party scripts
Core Web Vital #2 :: First Input Delay (FID)
First Input Delay (FID) measures the amount of time from when a user first interacts with a page to their browser’s response to that interaction. User interactions include (but are not limited to) the following:
Selecting a menu or navigation option
Clicking a link or button
Entering text into a field
Opening an accordion menu on mobile
FID goes beyond your PageSpeed score because it measures the time it takes for a user to complete a specific action. That means it requires field data from real-time users and cannot be generated through lab simulations.
A good FID should be no more than 100 milliseconds to provide great user experience on the web. To improve your FID time, consider:
Utilizing a browser cache
Removing non-critical third-party scripts
Deferring (or minimizing) JavaScript
Core Web Vital #3 :: Cumulative Shift Layout (CSL)
Cumulative Shift Layout (CSL) calculates the total number of layout shifts that occur as an entire page loads. In other words, it determines how quickly a page is visually stable during the loading process. Page stability during loading helps ensure visitors don’t click something by mistake or have to re-learn where links, buttons, and fields are.
A good CSL is anything less than 0.1. Your score can be as low as 0 and increases every time shift layouts occur. In other words, a higher score means elements are jumping around a lot while your page loads. There’s no maximum score, but Core Web Vitals score 0.25 or above as “Poor.” To improve your CSL score, consider:
Adding additional UI elements below the fold
Ensuring ad elements have reserved space
Defining size attribute dimensions for media
How Do Core Web Vitals Fit Into Google’s Ranking Factors?
Core Web Vitals are a crucial new component of a metric set known as Page Experience signals. These assess a page’s overall user web experience by considering the most important non-text elements. In other words, they consider how users perceive their interactions with a page and how useful that page is in satisfying their query. We’ll examine the four existing Page Experience signals below.
1. Mobile Friendly
This assesses how easy websites are to navigate on mobile devices. This includes the accessibility of links and on-page elements, along with content readability. Every part of a page should be just as functional on mobile as it is on desktop, which is the foundation of responsive design.
2. Safe Browsing
Safe Browsing determines whether a website has problems like hacked content, phishing, and malware. It’s focused on ensuring that visitors can safely browse for what they’re looking for.
3. HTTPS
This metric assesses the security of a website and whether it’s being served over HTTPS per Google best practice recommendations.
4. No Intrusive Interstitials
This signal ensures that essential on-page content is not obstructed by intrusive interstitials (pop-up ads), promoting a pleasant browsing experience.
How Are Your Core Web Vitals Scores Calculated?
Core Web Vitals scores are calculated using the 75th percentile over a 28-day window. In other words, it uses three of four site visits (75%) to determine whether a page meets the target for each Core Web Vital. If a page satisfies the recommended scores for all three metrics, it passes the Core Web Vitals assessment.
How Will Core Web Vitals Impact Your Website?
While Core Web Vitals are certainly important, it’s key to understand that Google considers hundreds of unique signals when ranking web pages. However, Core Web Vitals can make a significant difference for pages that are competing for extremely competitive terms. Core Web Vitals will evolve continuously over time as user expectations change, so it’s crucial to stay informed.
How Can You Improve Your Core Web Vitals Scores?
There are many free tools you can use to analyze and improve your Core Web Vitals scores. Bettering these metrics can help you outperform your competitors and rank higher in Google search engine results pages. We recommend the following tools to review your Core Web Vitals scores and uncover opportunities for improvement.
Tool #1 :: Google Search Console Core Web Vitals Report
If you want to improve your Core Web Vitals scores, start with Google Search Console’s Core Web Vitals Report. Located in the “Enhancements” section of your Search Console account, the Core Web Vitals Report provides an overview of how your entire site is performing.
Screenshot of Tower Marketing’s Core Web Vitals Report.
The Core Web Vitals Report uses field data from the Chrome User Experience Report to group indexed URLs by issue. This is because UX problems on similar pages are typically caused by the same underlying problem. Each URL is scored as “Poor,” “Needs Improvement,” or “Good.”
Once you’ve pinpointed a problem, you can remediate it using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or Google Lighthouse. The following two sections examine these tools in more detail to help you optimize for UX.
Tool #2 :: Google PageSpeed Insights Report
Your Google Search Console Core Web Vitals report links to a corresponding report in Google PageSpeed Insights, which is powered by Lighthouse lab simulations. PageSpeed Insights measures Core Web Vitals using both lab and field data. Focus on the “Opportunities” and “Diagnostics” sections to identify issues on each URL and effectively optimize for site speed.
Screenshot of PageSpeed Insights loading Tower Marketing’s website.
Tool #3 :: Google Lighthouse
Google Lighthouse is an automated tool that runs audits against a URL and creates a report on that page’s performance. Lighthouse 6.0 includes lab metrics for Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), making it an invaluable tool when assessing Core Web Vitals.
Total Blocking Time (TBT)
Lighthouse 6.0’s third new metric is Total Blocking Time (TBT), which correlates directly with First Input Delay (FID). Simply put, TBT calculates the total time between LCP and Time to Interactive (TTI). TTI is the amount of time from when a page starts loading to when it reliably responds to user interaction.
Time to First Byte (TTFB)
The “Opportunities” section of your Lighthouse report also includes Time to First Byte (TTFB). As the name suggests, this is the amount of time it takes a browser to receive the first byte of page content.
Time to Interactive (TTI)
Included in the “Performance” section of your Lighthouse report, Time to Interactive (TTI) measures how long it takes a page to become fully interactive. TTI works alongside TBT to pinpoint and diagnose interactivity issues that can negatively impact your FID. Because it’s not field-measurable or user-centric, TTI isn’t included in Core Web Vitals.
Tool #4 :: Google Search Console Page Experience Report
The Page Experience Report combines your Core Web Vitals report with the other four Page Experience signals: Mobile Friendly, Safe Browsing, HTTPS, and No Intrusive Interstitials. Taking a deep dive into each component of the Page Experience signal can help you uncover new opportunities for improvement, which can be particularly helpful in tie-breaker situations.
Tool #5 :: Google Chrome User Experience (CrUX) Report
The Chrome User Experience Report is an anonymous public report of user experience data from millions of web pages. It measures field data (as opposed to lab data) on all three Core Web Vitals and doesn’t factor in simulations or Googlebot visits. Seeing how your pages perform in the field is a great way to pinpoint valuable improvement opportunities.
Tool #6 :: Google Chrome DevTools
Google Chrome DevTools are built into the Google Chrome browser and are designed to help you diagnose and remediate issues that can lead to a high CSL. They also measure TBT, which is beneficial when looking to improve your FID.
Tool #7 :: Google Chrome Web Vitals Extension
Available in the Chrome Web Score, the Web Vitals Extension measures all three Core Web Vitals in real-time. This instant data on loading, interactivity, and layout shifts helps you identify opportunities that can make a big difference.
Tool #8 :: Semrush Site Audit Tool
The Site Audit Tool in your Semrush account reports on a variety of data that correlates with Core Web Vitals. This includes loading speed metrics, HTTPS security protocols, JavaScript and CSS errors, crawlability, and more.
Partner with Tower Marketing to Improve Your Core Web Vitals Scores
The best (and easiest) way to identify and remediate Core Web Vitals issues is by working with an agency like Tower Marketing. Our experienced team of web developers and SEOs have the tools to bring your site up to Core Web Vitals recommendations, and we’ll fix any problems as they arise.
Want to check Core Web Vitals for your site and see how you stack up against these new Page Experience metrics?
This post was originally published in October 2016. It was updated in November 2019.
Eight seconds. A website user’s attention span lies somewhere around eight seconds. In the time it’s taken you to read these opening lines, you’ve probably picked up your phone at least twice, were distracted by something in your peripheral vision, or started mentally making a to-do list.
There’s a lot of competition for users’ attention online (and offline), so here are a few ways you can fight against short attention spans and entice users to stay on your website for longer than a goldfish can concentrate on something (which, for the record, is nine seconds).
Shorter Attention Leads to Higher Bounce Rates
Bounce rates reflect whether your website visitors click through to the second page of your site, or if they leave after viewing just a single page. These are called single interaction visits. They can often be a sign that your website is too difficult to use, information is not easily found, or the information within is uninteresting/unappealing to your users.
Average bounce rates can vary between 20 – 90% depending on the type of website you operate or even the type of page users are viewing. The chart below, created by Conversion XL, shows that eCommerce websites average a 20 – 45% bounce rate, while blogs and special landing pages average a bounce rate of 60 – 90%.
Online shoppers typically spend a longer average time on a website as they browse multiple products. However, blog posts or landing pages can have a considerably higher bounce rate, especially if they are not designed, written, or formatted to grab visitors’ attention.
But, also consider that a high bounce rate doesn’t always mean your website is in trouble. A visitor looking for your address or telephone number can quickly visit a locations page, contact page, or even the homepage and find the information they need very quickly. While it may result in an average bounce rate of 70-90%, it also results in satisfied users.
How to Keep Visitors on Your Site Longer
The Faster the Better
The very first way you can lose a website user’s attention is by keeping him or her waiting. The speed at which your site loads can make or break you in terms of keeping a user on your site. And users have the need for speed.
47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.
33% expect load time on a mobile device to be equal to or faster than their desktop.
You can test a page’s load speed by using Google PageSpeed Insights or Varvy. If your results come in higher than user expectations, you may want to pay attention to the following elements of your site:
Reduce server response times
Condense images and media
Prioritize visible content
Enable browser caching
Optimize CSS, HTML, and JavaScript
Minimize redirects
Know Their Habits
One of the best ways to keep web users’ attention is to build your site and present your content to mirror the way they read (or, more than likely, skim) through your site. There’s no shortage of research on how people interact with websites, but here are some of the highlights we pulled to help you harness your readers’ attention.
Readers Follow An F-Pattern
When researchers conducted an eye-tracking study, looking at how users viewed thousands of web pages, a dominant reading pattern emerged. The F-shaped pattern showed that readers typically scan three main areas of a web page.
A horizontal movement along the top of your content area.
A second, but shorter, horizontal movement further down the page.
A vertical movement, which researchers called a “slow and systematic scan” down the left side of the content.
They Go Beyond the “Digital Fold”
Because of a website user’s short attention span, marketers often feel they need to cram as much information as possible into the top part of their website, which is often referred to as “above the fold.” And yes, it is important to provide key information to your readers as quickly as you can, but the main point here is “key,” not “all.” Smart web users know they need to scroll down a web page, and they will happily do it. In fact, analysis from over a billion web visits shows that 66% of attention on a normal media page is spent “below the fold.”
Users also know that the call-to-action and suggested next steps are found at the bottom of the page, which is why the bottom is the second most-viewed section of a web page. Give them what they’re looking for with a strong call-to-action to round out each web page.
Engage With Video Content
There are many good reasons to incorporate video into your website. Video allows you to tell the stories that help users learn about and trust your brand. Video also provides users with short attention spans with an option beyond reading through pages of long-form content. Videos are quick and colorful and keep users engaged longer.
Don’t be intimidated by video. Not everything you create needs to be splashy, high-production content.Here are a few ideas for video content to include on your website:
Homepage video
Product demonstrations
How-to videos
Brand story/history video
Client testimonials
User-generated video
Grab Visitors’ Attention with a Friendly Reminder
How many browser tabs do you have open right now? Is the article you started reading with your morning coffee still there? You may have already forgotten why you went to those sites in the first place. A multi-tasking audience with a short attention span can be hard to overcome, but we discovered a fun way to make your site’s browser tab stand out from the rest and encourage visitors to return to their session. Just take a look at these two browser screen grabs…
Did you catch the difference? The “Thoughts on Users” tab changed to “Don’t Forget to Read This…” when I clicked over to another tab. A small touch, sure, but in that eight-second span, it may be just enough to bring back an attention-challenged user.
P.S.
I’ve hidden eighteen typos in this post to ensure that you were paying attention. Just kidding, I didn’t.
If you need help creating the written, visual, or video content that grabs visitors’ attention, contact our digital marketing specialists!
It’s here. The day has come, the plot has been dug out, and net neutrality has been laid to rest. That’s right — net neutrality is officially a thing of the past. On June 11, 2018, net neutrality rules were repealed despite the fact that 83% of Americans didn’t approve of it.
So…now what? What is net neutrality and why did we have it in the first place? What makes it so important and how does the end of net neutrality affect the general population and the world of digital marketing? We’re taking a deep dive into net neutrality to get a better picture of what this big change means for our future.
What is Net Neutrality?
Also known as “open internet,” net neutrality is the standard that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) follow by providing consumers with access and free range to all content, apps, and websites on the internet. Net neutrality prohibits the favoring and/or blocking of one website or product over another.
There’s no denying that technology rules a majority of our lives. Have a question? Google it. Want to buy a product? Ask Siri or Alexa to search for it for you and add it to your shopping cart. The internet has been free for all to use. All websites were accessible and you could easily look up or navigate to any page. But now? Net neutrality is dead and the internet will have more regulations.
Why is Net Neutrality Dead?
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been against net neutrality for some time now. Despite reluctance from many politicians and the general public, the FCC repealed net neutrality in order to get rid of “unnecessary regulations” that were previously set in the Open Internet Order of 2015 Act during the Obama-era. In its place, the Restoring Internet Freedom Order was initiated.
The Restoring Internet Freedom Order was designed by the FCC to protect the open internet while promoting a better, faster, and cheaper internet for consumers. However, contrary to its name, the order has ended public utility regulation and handed it over to large, money-driven corporations.
Net Neutrality vs. Non-Neutrality
Let’s get into the thick of it, shall we? Every story has two sides and we wouldn’t be giving this subject justice if we didn’t map out what net neutrality has done for us up until now, and what will be different without it.
With Net Neutrality
Versions of net neutrality have existed since the conception of the internet. Looking back, we can identify how net neutrality has affected the way our country works.
High Competition — Internet neutrality created competition between all types of businesses, both big and small.
Business Equality — Net neutrality promoted an equal marketplace so small businesses had a fighting chance against bigger businesses.
More Innovation —There was always the urge to produce the next best thing, so companies of all sizes and types worked as hard as they could, helping to amplify innovation and growth.
Minimal Start-Up Costs — Neutrality helped to keep prices low for both start-up businesses and consumers. If you were a new business owner looking to create an online store, you didn’t have much standing in your way.
Low Consumer Pricing — Customers reaped the benefit of companies competing for business since each company would try to provide the lowest prices for products or services. Some companies would even offer free information, resources, and items to generate traffic and pull in leads.
Without Net Neutrality
We aren’t psychics and we can’t predict exactly what will happen now that net neutrality is gone. However, we can speculate on some of the situations that may arise now that the internet is more regulated.
Required Payments— ISPs will be able to take control over the internet by requiring a payment from website owners and users looking to receive high internet speeds.
Bandwidth Throttling — ISPs will be able to throttle bandwidth (purposely slow down and speed up internet services) and favor large companies that pay high premiums over smaller, competitive companies with small budgets. The high speeds, also called “fast lanes,” will allow certain websites to load faster than others. That’s extremely important since it’s been reported that just about half of consumers expect pages to load within 2 seconds, and 40% will leave a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
Website Blocking — ISPs may begin blocking smaller or competitive sites from users just because they favor one over the other.
Less Competition — With net neutrality no longer helping to push for competitive pricing, the cost of goods and services will increase. If websites are being required to pay high premiums to have their site found, they will need to gain that revenue from another source, such as their profits from selling to consumers.
High Consumer Pricing — ISPs may require the general public to pay for higher-quality apps, large data plans, and fast streaming speeds. And don’t forget about pesky fees and taxes! They’ll increase as well.
How Non-Neutrality Will Change the Marketing Game
So, what does the end of net neutrality mean for marketers? Originally, net neutrality created a high demand for internet marketing services because they focused on increasing organic traffic. Without net neutrality, competition between businesses may be uneven. This means the use of high-quality digital marketing services will be more important than ever before.
If ISPs favor large companies that pay high premiums and the internet is flooded with those websites, superior internet marketing efforts will be necessary to keep other business websites relevant. Marketers will need to invest more time, energy, and money into the channels they can control or manipulate. In addition, marketing companies might have to charge more for their services if they want to guarantee that clients will be placed in the fast lane.
With all of that said, non-neutrality will not change how search engines such as Google or Bing display results. For example, if someone is searching for a burger joint, Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) will still show smaller restaurants that serve burgers first because they’re local.
Non-Neutrality & Content Marketing
Content marketers will have a harder time getting their content seen by their targeted audience. Unfortunately, if a website isn’t paying premium fees, it may be subject to slower load times and page blocking, which would keep users from visiting the site.
With that in mind, creating good, helpful, and insightful content will be vital for websites to be successful. If you want a shot at bringing in customers and keeping them coming back, you need to grab them from the get-go. Entice them with your content and make sure they know that your website is one they’ll want to keep coming back to for information.
Non-Neutrality & SEO
Net neutrality allowed websites to be ranked by content, keywords, and effective use of linking. With non-neutrality, SEO will be affected by content marketing struggles. Traffic may be limited at times due to ISPs blocking specific sites from potential users. Website blocking could also affect external linking since some of your users may not be able to access external websites.
The more satisfied users that visit your site, the higher your search ranking will be. Site speed, design, and ease of navigation also play a significant role in overall success. With the help of SEO tactics and strategies, you can ensure your website is found by more users despite any difficulties that may arise due to non-neutrality.
Non-Neutrality & Social Media
While most social platforms don’t currently charge you to use their services, ISPs may charge you to access them on devices or restrict the use of competitive apps. For instance, in Portugal, a country without net neutrality, users have to buy packages in order to access social media platforms.
Since users may be charged to view their own social accounts, some may stray away from social media altogether. Account followings could shrink and the cost to advertise on social media platforms would increase. However, with the aid of social media experts, your social media accounts can stay afloat and relevant to users that do stick with social platforms.
What Will Happen Now?
It will take a bit of time for the effects of non-neutrality to be felt across the U.S. However, the fight for net neutrality is far from over. Many Americans are still outraged by the prospect of being stripped of their internet freedom. In hopes of changing the final outcome, individuals opposed to non-neutrality are encouraged to make their voice heard by visiting Battle For The Net’s web page. There, you can easily write to Congress and find other resources to help in the fight to save net neutrality.
Do I Still Need Digital Marketing?
Yes! Actually, you need it more now than you did when net neutrality was alive. Impeccable content marketing, SEO, and social media skills will be necessary to ensure your website is the best it can possibly be. Digital marketing will push your business to the top, making your website the one users want to click on and navigate to. Become as successful as possible by placing content marketing, SEO, and social media specialists in the driver’s seat when it comes to your online presence.
What’s your take on net neutrality and the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order? Let us know your thoughts.
If you haven’t checked out our blog on the biggest Google SERP (search engine results page) changes, you’ve missed out on a visual timeline representing the changes on Google’s search results page since it’s introduction in 1998 — and it has changed a lot!
Twenty years later, there are many instances in which a user doesn’t even need to click off the results page to find the information they need. That’s great for the user, but not so great for companies trying to drive traffic to their websites. Companies who have reached the coveted #1 organic rank in a Google search might now find that they are listed a third of the way down the page, buried under a slew of prioritized Google SERP features or other types of rich results.
Here are a few of the Google features that have become staples of the SERPs, along with tips on using these rich results to get noticed by an online audience.
Paid Advertising
Google Ads may not seem too unfamiliar to web users. Typically, companies that are running Google PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns will have their ads featured at the very top of a Google search page.
Give Your Ads The Best Chance of Being Seen:
Paid advertising campaigns can be beneficial by gaining web traffic in support of a newly launched website, your business’s peak seasons, or a big sale or major event. A paid advertising campaign can also give you insights into the keywords for which your website is being found. These insights go beyond what you can find through Google’s standard reporting,
Follow these tips for better paid advertising placement:
Your keyword quality score should be at least a 3 out of 10. Low-quality ad scores usually result in low click-through rates. For a higher score, avoid keywords that are too generic, use long-tail keywords, and make sure your keywords mirror your ads and landing page.
Watch the character counts in your ads. Your title should be no more 30 characters and your description include a maximum of 80 characters. Going beyond the suggested character count can result in key information being cut off in your ads.
Include additional site links in your ad copy to increase the click-through rate on your ads, which Google favors in ad placement.
Add call-out extensions. For example, Sale Ends on Monday, 15% Discount on Kids Shoes, etc.
Local Listings
The next SERP feature that you may notice is local listings which include the local pack and local listing knowledge graph. These are especially helpful to users with the rise of “near me” searches; for example “find cheeseburgers near me.”
The local pack includes a local map based on a user’s location with two or more nearby options for what they need. This gives users everything they need at a quick glance, including the address, hours, and the company’s Google review rating.
The knowledge graph, which is typically located in the right column of the results page, is a large component in many search results. It also offers the most requested information about your company’s physical location at a quick glance (address, hours, phone number, map). Links to your website and directions to your location are also included.
Make Sure Your Business Shows in Local Listings:
For your business to show up in local searches, one of the very best tools to utilize is MozLocal. With a MozLocal account, you can use the most important online business directories and review sites to find any inaccuracies or duplicate listings. These issues can arise due to mix-ups with user-generated check-ins or multiple employees attempting to set up your business in the same directory.
In addition, you’ll want to claim your Google My Business listing and optimize your listing with the most up-to-date information on your business including service area, hours, phone number, website URL, images, and videos.
A My Business listing is will most likely show up in the SERPS during branded searches (the user searches specifically for your brand name). You can increase your opportunities for being found in non-branded searches by adding category tags to your My Business Listings. For example, restaurant, fast food restaurant, or hamburger restaurant.
Additionally, you can use these tips to help your site land among the local listings by:
Creating content on key web pages (homepage, about us page, and other popular landing pages) that ties into your location.
Responding to Google Reviews for your business (the good and the bad) with sincere and unique responses. Not only does this show customers that you respect their feedback, but Google also takes this into account and can tell when you’re repeating the same canned responses.
Reviewing the suggested edits that users can submit to your MyBusiness listing based on their experiences. You have the ability to accept or deny these user updates.
Want to learn more about local listings? Read more about local SEO directories in our guide which includes the top free and paid listings to put your business on.
Featured Snippets
Here’s where things start to get tricky when your goal is increasing web traffic. With the introduction of Google’s featured snippets, users don’t need to click-thru to your site to find the answers you’re providing. Much of it is being displayed right on the Google search page. It’s why this feature is also called the “answer box.” Not only that but if the original answer that Google provides doesn’t suit a user’s needs, it offers multiple other questions and answers that a user can also read right on the search page.
Although featured snippets provide quick results that may negatively impact click-through rates, SEO experts see it as a positive feature. Snippets can improve overall site rankings and help a website acquire more SERP real estate. For example, if your organic results rank is position 8, but your information is presented as a featured snippet, you can outrank competitors and improve click-through.
Make Your Website a Featured Snippet:
The chance to be spotlighted in a featured snippet is dependent on the content you publish on your site. Content that is presented in a question and answer format is often displayed as part of a snippet. But don’t overdo it, you’re not going to fool Google!
Formatting that includes subheadings and bulleted or numbered lists.
Optimizing your content, images, and metadata for important keywords.
Using variances of your keywords.
Finally, adding schema to your pages that highlights the main question and answer can make it easier for Google to zero-in on your page as a source of information that users are searching for.
Other Google SERP Features to Know
These additional features also help your website claim more real estate throughout the SERPs.
Site Links — Google site links are a deluxe listing format that presents the main search result, followed by two or more indented site link results.
Image Pack — Optimizing your images with keyword-driven alt text will give you a better chance of appearing in Google Images, which are often highlighted on a search results page.
Videos — To entice user click through, Google will add a video thumbnail to the top YouTube results for a particular search.
Shopping Carousel — Google’s shopping feature takes a standard text-ad PPC campaign and enhances it by including additional snippets of information (image, price, ratings, etc) from the product page.
What to learn more about getting found in the Google SERPS? Visit our SEO services page to see how we can help your business get found!
To carry on the theme of spring cleaning, I am going to talk about cleaning up your site and how to get rid of the bloat that may be costing you visits and leads. If you publish content on a regular basis, such as blog posts, podcasts, or videos, your site will inevitably grow over time. Too much content can clog up the system making it difficult for search engines to know which piece of content to deliver to the user. As your site grows, it is highly suggested that you identify the content that is not performing well or that is not helping your visitors. The main emphasis here is keeping the quality content and removing the junk.
A Real World Example
In Tower’s case, we have covered the topic of website audits three times over the last three years. In all honesty, we don’t need three blog posts about website audits, just one will do. Therefore it was my task to find the website audit pages and compare them in terms of content value, usefulness, the amount of traffic they drive, their page authority, and links back to those pages. Once I found the page that I believed to be of the most value I had a couple of options, either:
no-index the pages that don’t perform as well
301 redirect the lesser quality pages to the more valuable page
Create a new “super” page and redirect the other website audit pages to the new URL
In this case, I chose to 301 redirected the under-performing pages so that their equity would be passed onto the main website audit blog post that we wanted to promote. Let’s dig into more detail about how to do this.
Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Content?
Yes, websites can become very bloated with low-quality content that is not performing as well as other similar content pieces. When users came to the Tower website and searched for “website audit” they found at least three different results, all of which are very similar. This meant the users needed to choose which post to view, guessing at which one was most applicable to their needs. This can negatively affect the user experience. It is far better to have one result for the website audit topic. Users no longer need to make a choice, allowing them to click through more confidently
When to Delete
In some cases, when reviewing your content, it may be best to simply to delete older pages that have been added over the years. Content like old event pages, coupons that have expired, or blog posts that are outdated, incorrect or no longer apply are low-hanging fruit. Ultimately you only want pages that are applicable and offer value to the user. If a page no longer does that, you may want to consider deleting it. Note: When you delete pages, you need to 301 redirect the users to an appropriate page, otherwise it will cause your site to have broken links.
When to Consolidate
In some cases, as with the Tower Marketing example where we had three similar blog posts, it may be worthwhile creating a new page that has all the best elements of each individual page, called a “super page.” The goal here is to create a unique, high-quality piece of content that does not outdate itself and can be easily updated. Note: Doing this would require a 301 redirect to point the three older pages to the new super page.
When to Noindex
If you don’t know which pages to delete and redirect, another option would be to noindex the pages. While this does not help with duplicate content issues on your site, it can help search engine to not index a group of similar pages on the web. Tags and Categories are examples of URL extensions that we at Tower noindex because they can bloat the search results and cannibalize the rankings of pages that are more relevant. Note: Noindex still allows the bots to visit that page, they will however not be added to the SERPs.
Benefits of Cleaning Up Your Site
Cleaning up your site has several advantages, one of which is making the articles that are most important to users easy to find. Web designers and SEO’s need to work together to make sure that UX (user experience) is maintained. As mentioned earlier, having multiple search results for the same query can hinder the user journey and UX. When you clean up your site it also allows for better search results. A clean site makes it easier for search engines to index and categorize which page best represents a user’s search query. As noted above, having one super page instead of three can help rankings.
Ready to slim down your website? Contact our specialists today to start the cleanup process.
We’ve all done it. We’ve all gone online and searched for a business using the formula “service + city.” So as a business owner, it makes sense to optimize your website for these keywords.
For example, you run a preschool with a single location that serves families in Lancaster, PA. You’d be smart to optimize your homepage, About Us page, and Contact page using keyword variations of “preschool + Lancaster.” However, things get tricky for small businesses that fall into one of these categories:
Single location serving multiple areas
Multiple locations serving multiple areas
If your small business operates as one of these business models, it makes good SEO sense to create location pages on your website for each city you serve or operate out of. This will allow you to optimize your homepage, About Us page, and other key pages for your brand and concentrate the “service + city” keywords on your individual locations pages. Sounds simple enough right?
But here’s the catch, you need to present all the local information in such a way that you avoid the issue of duplicate content on multiple locations pages. But that leads to the next question—how bad is duplicate content in local SEO?
What’s The Issue With Duplicate Content?
Google’s SEO best practices identify duplicate content as content that “either completely matches other content or is appreciably similar.” Duplicate content may come as a result of content that has been “templated” and is not uniquely crafted for each page. Titles may be too similar or the content may be virtually the same from page to page with only minor keyword changes.
So, when a user performs a search, the search engine struggles with which piece of content to return to satisfy the user’s needs. As a result, the search engine may not return any of these pages in the search results.
While you won’t be actively penalized for duplicate content by Google, having unique content for each page on your site is a ranking factor. Without it, you may see drops in your organic traffic.
Additionally, multiple location pages with content that is too similar can be flagged as doorway pages. These are template pages that are keyword optimized (in this case for “service + city”) but offer no real value to the user. Their only purpose is to drive users to another part of the site. If you’re going to include location pages on your site, make sure they include everything a user needs to know.
How Does Duplicate Content Impact Your Local SEO?
For a long time, it was easy to produce content for your location or service area pages. You created a template page, with the same word-for-word content, and then simply popped the correct city onto each page.
The trouble with this practice is that when search engines encounter multiple locations pages with identical content, they have trouble telling them apart. This can cause several problems for your SEO efforts.
It Can Hurt Your Rankings
A search engine’s goal is to present searchers with results that have helpful information. Not pages that simply rehash content already found elsewhere, including content within your website.
This is why they have search ranking systems designed to prioritize original content when ranking results. So, if you have multiple pages that look similar, Google will try to identify which page is the original.
But if it can’t identify the original, your rankings could suffer and the page might not rank at all. And if your content does rank, the version that gets chosen might not be the version that you want to appear in search engine results pages (SERPs).
It Can Distribute Backlinks Unequally
Backlinks are crucial for local SEO, but if duplicate content exists across multiple pages, the link value weakens. This reduces the overall impact of your backlinks.
Each backlink is like an endorsement from another website, which tells Google that your content is probably accurate and helpful.
For example, you have two identical pages with similar URLs. Instead of having all your backlinks go to one page, they’re split between the two. So instead of having one page strengthened with all the backlinks, you get two weaker pages with fewer links.
This distribution could lead to lower rankings since neither page gains as much authority as a single page would.
It Can Hurt Your Site’s Crawlability
Search engines need to crawl and index your content for it to show up in search results. Duplicate pages waste your crawl budget, which is the amount of time and resources search engine crawlers devote to crawling your site before moving on.
If you have too much duplicate content, crawlers can end up reviewing multiple versions of the same content. This reduces the number of pages that can get crawled. The fewer pages that get crawled the more this can impact your site’s visibility in search results.
It Can Hurt Your Credibility
Having unique content on your site shows that you are an expert in your field and helps you gain your audience’s trust. Duplicate content doesn’t let you stand out from your competition and can cause people to turn away.
And that’s if they can find your site in the rankings.
By showing content targeted to your audience, you can improve your user experience and show why someone would look to your site as the authority on a specific topic.
How to Find Duplicate Content
Now that we’ve covered what duplicate copy is and why it hurts you, the next step is to check your location pages and site for it.
Finding Duplicate Content
Not sure if you have duplicate content? There are several ways to find out.
The first way is to do a search using “site:yoursite intitle:keyword.” This will find all the pages on your site that have the keyword in the title.
Several online tools can audit your site and find any duplicate content:
This isn’t a complete list but will give you a starting point to do your research and see which tool will work best for you.
How You Can Individualize Locations Pages
There are several practices that you can incorporate to avoid duplicate content on multiple locations pages. If you can use them all, great! But even incorporating just a few will help you avoid the issue of duplicate content and the confusion it causes for search engines and users alike.
Write Truly Unique Content
This one is non-negotiable. You must take the time to present the key information about each location so that it doesn’t mirror another page. You need to go beyond the quick fix of simply swapping out the city name
Add Photo or Videos
Showcase photos or videos specific to each location or service area you work from. Remember to add appropriate alt text for each image to individualize the page for an exact location.
Include Staff Bios
Whether your staff includes teachers, accountants, electricians, or chefs, including staff pictures and bios is an easy way to add unique content to your locations pages.
Share Customer Review or Case Studies
Another easy way to get over the hump of duplicate content on multiple locations pages is to include customer reviews or testimonials that are submitted for each of your business’ locations. Also, consider creating case studies to spotlight the great results you’ve produced for clients in those areas.
Provide Directions and a Local Map
Driving directions and maps are fantastic ways to localize your individual locations pages and provide key information to your customers. Do your locations pages suffer from “cut and paste” duplicate content? It may be a huge time investment, but individualizing your pages can only help your search result rankings.
Realizing Your Pages Have Duplicate Content?
Do your location pages suffer from “cut and paste” duplicate content? It can be a huge time investment to fix them, but individualizing your pages can only help your search result rankings.
Do you need to update your location pages to avoid duplicate content in your local SEO? Fix the problem by contacting our expert team.
Before we dig into how Google obtains website metrics to assess quality, it should be stated that small businesses must regularly track user engagement metrics on their websites. This should include evaluating the quality of the organic search traffic (SEO) the site is receiving. Increased website engagement will result in increased conversion rates and ROI.
User Interaction on Your Website
Assessing a user’s behavior on a website will offer strong insight as to their goals.
A user lands on a site.
They visit seven pages.
They find a product they want.
They add the product to the shopping cart.
They purchase the item.
It is clear from this example that the user found what they were searching for on the website. Now, compare this with a visitor who lands on a web page and hits the browser’s “back button” in less than a few seconds. Who had the better user experience? Who engaged with the site more?
The above are examples of user engagement signals that search engines are using as data points in their algorithms to assess the quality of a site. These signals are not easily understood by the likes of Google. Search engines are private about their algorithm information because this is what separates them from the competition.
We have learned that user engagement signals are valuable in calculating search quality and may also be used as ranking signals. When a user lands on a page that does not match what they searched for, this will more than likely result in poor engagement.
If your company has a website, poor user experience is something you want to reduce and keep to an absolute minimum.
How Google Collects User Engagement Metrics
Google has a huge quantity of data sources available to them. Some of the most important ones are as follows.
SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages)
How a user interacts with the listed search results is a fundamental source of data. For example, if a user does a search in Google and decides not to click on the first or second result, but instead clicks on the third option, that can act as a signal to Google that the third result might actually be the best result for that query.
In the future, Google may adjust the ranking position of the result that was originally in third place.
Google Analytics Data
If you have Google Analytics tracking on your site, Google is able to learn how users interact with your site. This information is used by Google to learn trends and many more search abhors of users. Google Analytics can also be used to help your company improve its site so you target the right audience.
Mobile Operating Systems
With Google entering the mobile market, it’s changing how people interact with the web. Google’s Android mobile phone operating system is the most used operating system on mobile devices in the world, with more than 50% market share.
Android connects people to Google Maps, Search, and Images, impacting how a user finds and interacts with your site. Having a website that is mobile friendly and responsive is not a choice anymore.
Every business website should have these mobile features included.
Different Browsers
Browsers are influential data sources since they can monitor every action taken by a user. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer used to have the major market share back in early 2011. That all changed as Firefox and Google Chrome became more predominant.
Display Advertising
Google AdSense offers websites the ability to place ads on their sites and earn revenue when users click on them. This click data is something that helps Google understand how users interact with the site.
Toolbars
Users who install the Google Toolbar in their browsers help search engines better understand how a user navigates the web. These toolbars provide users with a lot of accessibility that can offer a better online search experience.
Goo.gl URL Shortner
There are many URL shorteners such as Bit.ly and Ow.ly. Google created a URL shortener of its own called Goo.gl. A URL shortener allows Google visibility into sharing content, even in social networks where it does not otherwise have access (for example, private Facebook pages.)
Different Forms of Online Voting
There is another set of signals that search engines measure, which we call voting mechanisms. These voting mechanisms are methods by which users directly indicate their approval or disapproval of content, services, or products. Here are some examples:
Facebook Likes
We are all familiar with Facebook’s like feature, which indicates content we like on the web. Ultimately, search engines can see what content is “liked” and gives that content more value.
Reviews
Reviews allow users to express appreciation or frustration with a product or service. Google takes these very seriously, as they are personal and inform other users.
Google is able to measure the amount of positive or negative comments to ascertain whether a website is providing quality to the user. Reviews are especially impactful when it comes to optimizing your site for local search.
Brand Name Searches
Another signal of importance is a large number of brand name searches. For example, brands like Nike and Amazon have searched hundreds of thousands of times per month.
This causes them to show up more often in results to generic search queries like athletic shoes or fiction books over lesser-known brands.
User Engagement Signals That Could Affect Rankings
Google has an in-depth collection of data sources that allow it to quantify a wide range of online user behaviors. Mentioned below are some of the major signals that Google can extract (and that you can extract, too, by looking into Google Analytics):
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate measures the percentage of users who visit only one page on a website and then leave. Bounce rate can also define the interaction of the user with the search results.
For example, if a user clicks on a search result, then returns to the SERPs and clicks on another result, that could be an indicator that the first result was not a good response for that search query.
Generating New Searches
A user may observe a set of search results, then come back to the search engine and modify his search query to better refine the results.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Google measures the click-through rate on links presented in the SERPs, on web pages in URL shorteners, on RSS feed readers, PDFs, and more. Many SEOs believe that CTR is actually a ranking factor when applying SEO best practices.
Time on Page
Google can measure the amount of time spent on a given page. Time on page could be considered a signal of higher quality pages(for example, the user spent time reading the whole article.)
Time on Site
Similarly, time spent on a website, as a total, is considered a positive signal. If the average user spends more time on your site than on the sites of your competitors, that might signify your site is of higher quality and relevance.
Pages per Visit
More pages viewed by a user on your site suggests greater user engagement. Viewing more pages usually signifies interest and that is something Google considers important.
Taking the above metrics and values into account, how can you improve your website’s value to users so they have a better search experience and keep revisiting your site?
