Monday, March 30, 2020

Soovle: Ultimate Guide for 2020

What is Soovle and how can it help you with SEO in 2020?

That’s what this guide is all about.

I’m going to show you how to use Soovle to find and qualify content ideas. Plus, I’m going to share how you can replicate Soovle’s success. Let’s jump in.

What is Soovle?

Soovle is a search engine that aggregates results from other search engines.

Soovle

So instead of having to search on each website, you can get access to all the data in one central location.

Soovle.com gets around 82,250 visitors per month according to a similar website.

Soovle Traffic

Their website has also attracted 3,289 linking root domains:

Soovle Link Profile

How to Use Soovle to Find Content Ideas

Soovle is a supplementary keyword research tool. It should be used to find broad topics which can be broken down into keyword targets.

Here’s how to do it.

Let’s say we’re in the “exercise” niche.

Go to Soovle and enter a broad keyword phrase related to your industry.

In this case I’ll use “exercise”.

Soovle Demo

Copy the content ideas that Soovle supplies or download them to a .csv file.

Go to Ahrefs and click on the “Keyword Explorer” tool.

Paste your keywords.

Now you’ll need to filter through these keywords. I recommending setting your filters like so (KD < 40 and Volume > 500):

Soovle Ahrefs

Then sort the list of keywords so that the keywords with the lowest KD are showing at the top.

Some of these might be solid keyword targets. However, you’ll likely want to conduct additional research to identify even more uncompetitive keyword phrases.

Keep going deeper-and-deeper to build a solid keyword database.

You can also adjust the filters if you aren’t finding any solid ideas. Every niche is different.

If you don’t have Ahrefs, you can stack Soovle with Keywords Everywhere.

Keywords Everywhere Soovle

This will give you search volume for the ideas, but you’ll need to use UberSuggest or the Google Keyword Planner to find additional keywords.

If you do have the budget, I recommend Ahrefs or SEMRush because it streamlines the process.

How to Use Soolve to Monitor Brand Mentions

Soolve simplifies the process of monitoring brand mentions across multiple channels. Just enter your brand name and see what’s being mentioned.

Take a look at the results for Gotch SEO for example. Users are searching “Gotch SEO Academy login”.

Example 1

That’s an indication that we’ve made it too difficult to find a login page on our website. In other words, it’s signaling that we have a customer experience problem that needs to be resolved.

Users are also searching for “Gotch SEO Academy review” on YouTube.

2

That’s an indication that it would be wise to have affiliate or influencers do sponsored reviews targeting that keyword phrase.

The last phrase to examine is “Gotch SEO Academy 2.0 download”.

Example 3

This is an indication that our training is being stolen and pirated. Obviously something that needs to be tackled.

Make it a quarterly routine (at the minimum) to monitor your brand with Soovle.

How Emulate Soolve.com’s Success

It’s no secret that free tools are a powerful way to attract backlinks. Soolve proves this. The SEO industry suffers from tool and software bloat, but you can leverage this principle in other industries.

list of SEO tools

You can of course create a free tool that adds value. Or, you can acquire an existing tool. With some research, you can find tools that aren’t getting much love.

Then just email the tool owner and ask them if they’d be open to an acquisition.

You might be wondering: what’s the point of acquiring a tool?

First, acquiring an existing tool will also help you acquire their backlink profile. That means you can get a nearly instant surge of new backlinks and website authority.

Look at some of the powerful domains linking to Soovle’s tool:

Soovle Referring Domains

 

Secondly, you can promote the tool to get even more backlinks.

The best part?

You don’t have to find an idea and build the tool from scratch. You skip that entire phase and you have a tool that’s already been proven to be popular (based on the link volume it has received)

Use Soovle Today

Soovle is a simple, but powerful tool for doing semantic research in your industry. Take advantage of it.

Also, think about how you can create or acquire a tool in your own industry. That way you can get more backlinks and improve your SEO at lightning speed.



Thursday, March 26, 2020

Data Studio Template: Diagnostic Tool for COVID-19 Business Impact

This post was written by Winter SchweiboldKaralea Davis and Kevin Rutter.

The COVID-19 pandemic is challenging companies across all industries to quickly adjust to shifts in their customer’s needs.

During volatile times like this, remaining aware of user behavior on your website and ensuring accurate data is populating into Google Analytics is of the utmost importance.…

The post Data Studio Template: Diagnostic Tool for COVID-19 Business Impact appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Monday, March 23, 2020

The Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Shopping Campaigns (Dynamic Product Ads)

 

Facebook continues to evolve and offer strategic options to target a brands’ audience with the most relevant ad formats. Learn how Seer likes to set up Facebook campaigns along with our recommendations for Facebook Ads.

What Are Facebook Shopping Campaigns?

The post The Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Shopping Campaigns (Dynamic Product Ads) appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Create a Holistic Paid Strategy With Paid Social & Search

This post was written by Ashton Underwood & Emily Pollock

Agencies Have Been Siloed For Too Long

Not this agency! Here at Seer, we live into cross-collaboration. We thrive because of it. However, there was a time where we were more siloed than we would have liked.…

The post Create a Holistic Paid Strategy With Paid Social & Search appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Do You Need a Youtube End Screen Template? 2020 Study

Do you need to use a YouTube end screen template in 2020?

We studied 100 of the top YouTube channels to find out. Keep reading to see the results of our study.

YouTube End Screen Template Study

After analyzing the top 100 YouTube channels, we discovered that 77% do NOT use custom YouTube end screen templates.

YouTube end screen template results

Now does that mean you shouldn’t use one as well? Not necessarily, but it isn’t a necessity.

More importantly, having or not having a custom end screen won’t determine how successful your channel will be.

What matters is the quality of the content you produce. That’s the lead domino. Focus all of your time and effort on producing the best YouTube content possible.

7 Youtube End Screen Templates

Here are 7 YouTube end screen templates you can draw some inspiration from:

Example #1: Jimmy Fallon

The Tonight Show uses a solid end screen that’s focused on getting the user to view more videos. This is smart because YouTube wants users to stay on their platform for as long as possible.

youtube end screen template example

Why? Because it produces more ad revenue.

You should do your best to please YouTube’s algorithm and model what The Tonight Show is doing to keep users on the platform.

Keep in mind that your channel’s watch time is a big factor for your YouTube performance. That’s why it’s smart to drive users to more videos on your channel.

Example #2: Smosh

Smosh gives you a few options such as watching another video, subscribing, and even purchasing their merch.

example #2

Example #3: SAB TV

SAB TV has a simple end screen, but it’s effective and straightforward. Like the Tonight Show, they know the importance of getting users to watch more videos on their channel (to increase watch time).

example #3

Example #4: Movieclips

Movieclips has well designed end screen and pushes users to watch more videos.

example #4

Example #5: BRIGHT SIDE

Bright Side keeps it simple and pushes users to watch more videos. Simplicity should be the goal with your end screen. You should reduce the amount of choices a user has to decrease decision fatigue.

example #5

Example #6: elrubiusOMG

elrubiusOMG keeps it as simple as possible. He only offers one single video to watch in his end screen. This is effective if you’re trying to drive more watch time to an important (or already successful) video.

example #6

Example #7: WWE

WWE’s end screen template effectively promotes their upcoming events and pushes users to watch another video.

example #7

3 Keys to Effective YouTube End Screens

There are many tools you can use to create custom YouTube end screen templates. But before I show you, let’s cover some important details about end screens.

1. Less is more

I lean towards minimalist end screens. That’s because you don’t want users to have to think. We want them to act and not have to make decisions. The more videos you offer, the harder it is to make a decision.

Think about how difficult it is to choose a movie when your entire family is trying to decide. That’s because there are too many choices!

Limit the amount of choices you give the viewer. That will increase your click through rate (CTR) and increase your watch time.

2. Relevance is king

YouTube is super effective at picking videos from your channel that are most relevant. You can also manually choose what videos you want to show in the end screen. More on this in a second.

The key to having stellar CTR on your end screen is relevance. The more relevant it is, the higher the CTR. Plain and simple.

3. Keep it evergreen

You’ll notice that the WWE end screen promotes an upcoming event. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it just makes things more logistically challenging.

For example, they won’t be able to change that end screen once that event has already passed. So that means whenever someone watches that video, it will be outdated.

I recommend sticking to evergreen end screens. That means the end screen will make sense no matter what time or day it is.

2 Ways to Create an YouTube End Screen Templates

Some of my favorite tools for creating YouTube end screen templates are Canva and Snappa.

1. Use Canva

Go to Canva and click on “Create a design”.

Canva #1

Click on “Custom dimensions”.

Canva #2

Enter 1280 x 720 px.

Canva #3

Start designing. Here’s a simple example that I use for my channel:

Canva #4

2. Use Snappa

If you want to keep things simple, then I recommend using Snappa. All you need to do is create a free account and use one of their pre-made templates:

snappa

Should You Use a YouTube End Screen Template?

Whether you use a template or not isn’t what matters. What matters is your video itself because otherwise no one will even make it to the end. After that, what you use as your end screen options is far more important than having a template.

Keep your end screens simple, relevant, and evergreen.



Friday, March 20, 2020

How to Create an SEO Content Calendar

Typically, when thinking about a content calendar people’s brains go directly to social media marketing. While content calendars are relied on by social media marketers to plan social posts, SEOs also need to use content calendars to help plan and prioritize their content roadmaps.…

The post How to Create an SEO Content Calendar appeared first on Seer Interactive.



The Best Free Tools for SEO

Here at Seer, we love saving money (and our clients’ money, too). When it comes to SEO, there are hundreds of tools out there, some with a pretty heavy price tag. Of course, premium tools are super valuable when you require high limits, advanced functionality, or stored data.…

The post The Best Free Tools for SEO appeared first on Seer Interactive.



We Analyzed 201K YouTube Channels and Found 3,802 Kids Channels to Negate

With schools closed to help combat the spread of COVID-19, parents are scrambling to find solutions while working from home. Many are turning to YouTube to help keep their kids entertained. Those who have are sure to have seen ads pop up on their kids’ favorite YouTube channels.…

The post We Analyzed 201K YouTube Channels and Found 3,802 Kids Channels to Negate appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Thursday, March 19, 2020

3 Steps for Displaying YouTube Videos On Your Website

How to Incorporate YouTube Videos On Your Website

YouTube is one of the best channels brands can use to create and share video content with their customers. By incorporating YouTube video content into your brand’s website, you can capitalize on existing brand assets to keep users more engaged while on your site!…

The post 3 Steps for Displaying YouTube Videos On Your Website appeared first on Seer Interactive.



How to Find Your Sitemap

What Is A Sitemap & Why Is It Important?

A sitemap is a list of the indexable pages on a website.  The most common type of sitemap that is typically referred to in SEO is formatted for search engines to help their web crawlers find all URLs on a domain.  …

The post How to Find Your Sitemap appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Everything You Need to Know About 404 Errors for SEO

A 404 is just fancy computer talk for “Not Found”. In other words, when you click on a link or type a URL into your browser bar, the browser goes to the server and is like, “Hey man, can I get this webpage?” and the server is like, “Sorry dude, I can’t find that page anywhere”.…

The post Everything You Need to Know About 404 Errors for SEO appeared first on Seer Interactive.



5 Tips for Managing Up as an SEO Associate at Seer

The support role at any digital marketing agency can vary in levels of responsibility and ownership. In my experience as an SEO Associate (the SEO support role) at Seer, I’ve been encouraged to take on challenges and ownership of several tasks that would normally be slotted under the Account Manager at other agencies.…

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Project Management for Beginners: The Basics

What is Project Management?

Project management is everywhere! Whether you’re building a new home or planning a wedding, project management techniques are being used in one way or another. A project is something that you do to solve a particular problem or achieve a specific goal.…

The post Project Management for Beginners: The Basics appeared first on Seer Interactive.



How to Prepare for a Big Meeting: Checklist & Tips

How to Prepare for a Big Meeting: Checklist & Tips

Meetings range in scale for any organization, from quick one-on-ones to touch base on a project to quarterly business reviews or contract renewal meetings.

One-on-ones are often casual in nature, not requiring a hard agenda and typically focused on a few strategies and tactics.…

The post How to Prepare for a Big Meeting: Checklist & Tips appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Google Search Partners Program Implements New Requirements

New Search Partner Requirements Launching June 2020

Google Search Partners Program has announced that beginning in June 2020, they will be requiring new protocol to earn and maintain partner status. The company sent out the following tweet on February 13 releasing the news:

gsp photo

Source: @GoogleAds

What Will Be Changing?

The post Google Search Partners Program Implements New Requirements appeared first on Seer Interactive.



11 Tips to Help You Work From Home Without Missing A Beat

There are various reasons why you may be looking into working from home. Maybe you are feeling under the weather and don’t want to spread anything to your coworkers? Maybe your company is starting to allow working from home or remote work options and you would like to take advantage?…

The post 11 Tips to Help You Work From Home Without Missing A Beat appeared first on Seer Interactive.



The 3 Most Important PPC Lessons I Learned While Working In-House

After working in-house as a digital marketer for a couple of years, I made the decision to venture into agency life for a change of pace. While both environments can be wildly different from one another, there are some valuable lessons I took from my time in-house that have helped me craft better marketing strategies and build stronger relationships with my clients.…

The post The 3 Most Important PPC Lessons I Learned While Working In-House appeared first on Seer Interactive.



8 Tips to Get Promoted Faster in Your Marketing Career

How to Level Up in Your Marketing Career

Is this you? You’re at the point where you feel like you have mastered your current job and you’re ready to move up to the next position – but you’re not sure how to get that promotion.…

The post 8 Tips to Get Promoted Faster in Your Marketing Career appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Top 10 Best St. Louis SEO Companies for 2020

Looking for the best SEO companies in St. Louis to help you improve your Google rankings and organic search traffic?

You’re in the right place.

This is an unbiased list and none of these companies have paid for placement. Our detailed ranking criteria is below.

In short: it’s 100% based on publicly available data about each company.

Top 10 SEO Companies in St. Louis, Missouri

  1. Gotch SEO (30 points)
  2. Web Design and Company (29 points)
  3. St Louis Digital Media (22 points)
  4. SEO for Growth (20 points)
  5. Beanstalk Web Solutions (19 points)
  6. Clix (19 points)
  7. Timmermann Group  (19 points)
  8. Red Canoe Media (18 points)
  9. Clicked Studios (18 points)
  10. Kotton Grammer Media (18 points)

1. Gotch SEO

Gotch SEO St Louis

Yes, you’re on GotchSEO.com right now and yes, we’re #1 on this list.

While it may seem biased, it’s 100% based on data using the scoring system outlined below.

Gotch SEO is a St Louis SEO company founded by Nathan Gotch in 2013. Nathan is an internationally recognized SEO expert. His SEO blog attracts thousands of visitors every day, his YouTube channel receives over 500 views every day, and Nathan’s SEO expertise has been featured on Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business.com, Search Engine Journal, and many other prominent publications.

Gotch SEO has two divisions.

Our SEO services division helps qualified companies improve their rankings and grow their organic search traffic. Gotch SEO works with local, national, and e-com businesses with annual revenue of $1 million+.

Unlike most of the other companies you’ll see on this list, we only offer SEO services. We know what we’re good at, and we stick to it.

The other division is Gotch SEO Academy, which is a complete SEO training platform with over 1,000 students. It covers everything from creating an SEO-friendly website, to promoting your content to acquire more backlinks. This has helped some companies see an 300% lift in monthly revenue for their business.

2. Web Design and Company

Web Design and Company

Data shows that Web Design and Company deserve the second spot on our list of SEO companies in St Louis. They’re ranking well for the term, have a high domain rating, and a bunch of do-follow links pointing to their website.

As the name suggests, Web Design and Company focus primarily on web design, but offer SEO services, too. They’re a great option for businesses who need help with other areas of their digital marketing strategy (like web development) alongside SEO.

They’ve been in business for 18 years, claim to have created 500,000+ Google rankings, and serve a huge range of industries (rather than specializing in one niche.)

Web Design and Company pride themselves on delivering SEO reports that are “transparent and thorough”—one of which shows a search visibility uplift of 28% for a previous client.

Plus, Web Design and Company have created a range of WordPress products—like the Content Generator and Search Engine Simulator. The goal? To help companies do their own SEO more effectively.

3. St Louis Digital Media

St Louis digital media

As the name suggests, St Louis Digital Media is a full-service media agency. Marketing and SEO forms a branch of their service offering, alongside website design and PPC management.

St Louis Digital Media was created by Kyle O’Donnell in 2012, a marketing and advertising expert with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He also holds a Google AdWords certification.

Kyle’s team offers a free marketing consultation and/or website evaluation for every enquiry. This gives you a chance to see whether their recommendations for your website are something you should consider taking action on.

LinkedIn shows they have a small (but specialized) team of seven, including account managers and content marketing specialists. Clutch.co suggests their hourly rate falls between $150 and $199, with a minimum project size of $1,000.

The offices of St Louis Digital Media are on West Port Plaza Drive, near Page Avenue.

4. SEO for Growth

SEO for Growth

SEO for Growth is widely known as being an SEO book. The book touches on various SEO strategies, including lead generation, the Google algorithm, and content marketing. It has glowing reviews from Brian Dean, Sujan Patel, Larry Kim and Ann Handley.

However, SEO for Growth has a different business model. Instead of being a standalone agency operating in Missouri, they offer SEO consulting, audits, and link-building services for businesses in specific areas—similar to a franchise business model.

The St Louis branch of SEO for Growth is run by Ken Tucker, an Inbound Marketing Certified Consultant. Ken previously taught social media marketing and content marketing classes at the St. Charles Community College. He is also an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional, and Duct Tape Marketing Master Consultant.

To become a certified consultant for SEO for Growth, you need to take their SEO certification. This is level one of their training; you need to complete further training to use their franchise-style system in a specific location.

5. Beanstalk Web Solutions

Beanstalk Web Solutions

Beanstalk Web Solutions is another company who focus on web design services, but also help businesses in the St Louis area with their SEO.

Tim Hebel launched the company in 2013, and has grown to an 11-strong team based on West Moody Ave. They claim to have completed 450 projects for more than 400 clients, and have won awards such as Best Marketing Firms in St. Louis’ 2019 and The Top 50 Small Companies in St. Louis by Small Business Monthly. They’re also a certified Google Partner.

Beanstalk Web Solutions offer a 5-step SEO strategy for businesses in the St Louis area, starting from keyword research and website audits, and ending with detailed reports on the activity taken. They also help with the technical side of SEO with website maintenance and analytics services for WordPress sites.

And, because they’re a full-service marketing agency, they can help with other areas of your strategy—such as app development or website design—alongside your SEO campaigns.

6. Clix

Clix

Clix have offered both generic and local SEO services for over 22 years. They focus heavily on the technical side—including site speed, validating website coding, and developing metadata—due to their experience with web design and development. They work with large and small B2C, B2B, and government businesses.

Their team has 60+ years of industry experience and have Google Partner status. They’ve also made their way onto the Inc 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies, and worked with a bunch of businesses in the St Louis area.

Clix was founded by Jason Hylan, a well-known blogger and national speaker in the marketing space. He’s also a Board Member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization in St Louis, Missouri.

They have more than 30 team members in their two offices in St Louis and Little Rock, all of which are specialists in a specific area—such as social media and copy. Again, this makes them a superb option if you’re in the market for more than SEO services.

7. Timmermann Group

Timmermann Group

Timmermann Group is another full-service marketing agency who offer services to companies in St Louis, Missouri. Their services include everything from photography and graphic design to branding and SEO.

They were recently voted as the best St Louis Marketing Firm, according to their website. And, they’re a certified Google Partner.

This agency was founded by Rob Timmermann in 2003, who has been voted one of the top St Louisans to know by Small Business Monthly. Now based on Locust St, they have a team of 22 marketing experts. They have continued to win awards like Best Marketing Firm and Best in Customer Service by Small Business Monthly.

Timmermann Group offers SEO services to both B2B and B2C companies. Their website shows they’ve worked with every industry from manufacturing and contracting to non-profit and healthcare.

And, as far as keyword rankings go, their website shows they’ve claimed some impressive positions for huge keywords. This includes “hospice services st louis” and “senior living services st louis”, which their client’s websites are ranking in the top spot.

8. Red Canoe Media

Red Canoe Media

Red Canoe Media is a marketing agency offering SEO services to businesses in Missouri who have annual revenues of between $2m and $20m/year. A small team of six, Red Canoe Media is headed-up by Will Hanke. They’re also a Google Partner agency.

Red Canoe Media also has an educational side to their agency. Their founder, Will, teaches monthly classes and runs coaching webinars about marketing through their St Louis Digital Marketing and SEO Workshops.

They also offer free online training you can take before enquiring about their services, host a Facebook Group for marketers, and a membership community to dive deeper into SEO-related questions.

However, one of the biggest differentiators between this SEO company and the others we’ve ranked so far is this: Red Canoe Media is owned by veterans.

Their founder, Will Hanke, served in the United States Air Force, and Will’s son is currently serving in the same force. This deep-rooted belief is shown in their agency’s name. The “RED” stands for Remember Everyone Deployed to show support for troops.

9. Clicked Studios

Clicked Studies

Clicked Studios is a marketing agency based in Missouri that serves small businesses in the St Louis area. However, they’re not a traditional SEO agency. Clicked Studios focus on brand and app development—with SEO playing a role in that wider approach.

They charge between $5,000 and $15,000 for their services, which includes everything from logo and layout design to copywriting and a mobile-friendly website design. Their award for Best Branding Agency in St Louis in 2019 backs this up.

Their founder, Frank Spohr, created the agency back in 2000. They’ve since grown a small, specialized team of three staff, who have worked with local brands (like Missouri Meetings and Events), and huge brands (like Ebay and McDonalds.)

Clicked Studios recently worked with House of Denmark. There was already a substantial amount of organic traffic coming to the client’s site, but those visitors weren’t converting. Since implementing their conversion strategy, Clicked Studios grew their email list by 460%.

Sphor’s LinkedIn profile states that they also managed to boost Clicked Studios’ website traffic by 106% after implementing their own advice.

10. Kotton Grammer Media

Kotton Grammer Media

The final St Louis SEO company on our list is Kotton Grammer Media—a marketing agency that also helps businesses in 20+ other major US cities including Chicago, Orlando, and New Orleans.

Their owner and founder, Kotton Grammer, has been featured in sites like Forbes, Inc, The Huffington Post, and Entrepreneur. He also has a bunch of Google certifications that show proficient skill in Analytics, AdWords, and Video Advertising.

Plus, Kotton hosts marketing webinars for small businesses alongside the agency’s service offering. He claims to have generated $40,000,000 in digital products through these webinars, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In return for an enquiry, the team at Kotton Grammer Media offer a free report card. This free SEO audit includes important changes that promise to grow your traffic—a great way to spot whether you need help from their team to implement them. You don’t need to handover cash, nor commit to a long contract, to get their input.

Scoring Criteria

Ranking the best SEO companies in St Louis isn’t as simple as taking Google’s word for it. There are several things to take into consideration.

Granted, the SEO performance of the company’s website is important. But we dug deeper, looking at this alongside other key data—like their Google reviews, for example. Our scoring criteria also meant each company must be located in the target city.

We ranked the top companies using metrics like:

  • Whether they had an SSL certificate
  • If the site was mobile-friendly
  • If the site loaded in less than 3 seconds
  • Domain rating
  • Number of referring domains
  • Total traffic to the site
  • The total number of Google reviews
  • The average review score of each

These SEO companies were all given a score out of five for each category. We ranked them based on this score, with Gotch SEO coming out on top with 30 points, shortly followed by Web Design and Company with 29 points.

The final three companies, along with two others that didn’t make the top 10, all received 18 points. So, we ran a tie-breaker scoring system that ranked them from best to worst for their loading speed, number of referring domains, and total number of Google reviews:

Tie Breaker

You can view the scoring criteria here.

Start sending enquiries today

If you’re looking to hire an SEO agency in St Louis, use this guide as your starting point.

This guide is a comprehensive list of the best SEO companies in St Louis, based on actual data—not opinion. Each list we’ve shared meets key SEO criteria, and has proven experience that indicates they might be a great fit for businesses in Missouri.

The only thing left to do is to judge for yourself. Browse their website, read their case studies, and submit an enquiry. Use your own judgement call to pick the one most-likely to help you meet your SEO goals.



Friday, March 13, 2020

How to Import Google Campaigns into Microsoft Ads

Expanding Your Paid Search Horizons

Your Google Ads campaigns are up and running, great job! Having a solid foundation on the paid search giant, Google, is a great starting point on your advertising journey, but what’s next? The answer is Microsoft Ads!…

The post How to Import Google Campaigns into Microsoft Ads appeared first on Seer Interactive.



3 Ways to Leverage Kenshoo – How We Use it at Seer

Kenshoo… have ya heard of it? If you’re in the digital marketing space, you probably have… and for good reasons. Being able to integrate multiple channels into one platform and optimize your campaigns where you’re seeing return and not what channel you’re on is huge! 

The post 3 Ways to Leverage Kenshoo – How We Use it at Seer appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Quick & Easy Guide to ASO – How to do App Store SEO!

What is App Store Optimization (ASO)?

App store optimization is, just as it sounds, the practice of optimizing the title, description, and other characteristics about your application’s App Store page to make it easier for users to find. Being more easily found by users leads to more downloads and happier customers.…

The post Quick & Easy Guide to ASO – How to do App Store SEO! appeared first on Seer Interactive.



How to Explain SEO to your Grandma

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Let’s pause there. Even the acronym can be a little confusing to someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience on the internet. According to Oxford’s dictionary, a search engine is an online “program that searches for and identifies items in a database that correspond to keywords or characters specified by the user, used especially for finding particular sites on the World Wide Web.”

Basic Explanation of SEO

Grandma, remember when you gave me $10 to start my own skateboard company when I was 7?…

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8 Tips for On-Page SEO

What Is On-Page SEO & Why Does It Matter?

On-page SEO is how we categorize actions taken on the webpage to improve it’s organic search performance. On-page SEO is made up of a range of very different and specific actions that one can take on their site to improve visibility in organic search results.…

The post 8 Tips for On-Page SEO appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Google Search Console Performance Data Guide

In the world of digital marketing, we live and die by web services and platforms for every aspect of our work. For new SEOs, the sheer wealth of new tools can be overwhelming, to say the least. You have:

If you’re thinking to yourself, “I have no idea what he is talking about” – take a step back and check out our Essential Starter Kit for New SEOs – then return to this post.…

The post Google Search Console Performance Data Guide appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Google Analytics App+Web FAQs Answered

In 2019, Google announced the introduction of App+Web. If you’re looking for an in-depth overview of App+Web check out our post over here.

In this post, we’ll cover common questions we’ve been getting asked about App+Web, including what is it, why should you care, and how to go about working with it.…

The post Google Analytics App+Web FAQs Answered appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Coronavirus’ Impact on Digital Analytics

With coronavirus’ spread increasing, it is truly having an impact on multiple facets of life for people, and digital analytics is no exception. With this post, I’ll give you a few examples of quick tips you can use to ensure your data is as accurate as possible, and you are well prepared to maintain an accurate view of your data at this time.…

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3 Automated Solutions To Pair CRM & Google Ads Data for High Quality Reporting

This post was written by Trevor Norton & Rebecca Kilcoyne of our PPC team.

Introduction

Combining your CRM data with your Google Ads data is absolutely critical when managing a Google Ads account.

At the end of the day, we want to measure success by tying back our digital marketing efforts to the bottom line of a particular business.…

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Monday, March 9, 2020

Is Google Biased? We Analyzed 50 Key Politically-Driven Topics to Find Out

If you search “is google biased” you’ll find all kinds of conspiracy theories, opinions, and even inaccurate information.

That’s why today I’m going to show you real data to see if this claim is true or false.

Let’s jump in.

How to We Conducted the Google Bias Project

The way we conducted this case study was simple:

1. We found over 300 “controversial” topics using sites like ProCon.org

2. We broke that list down and focused on 50 politically-driven topics (see them here). Why? Because political bias is easier to identify.

3. We scraped Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for each topic using the Data Miner plugin for Chrome

4. We then built a list of websites that were frequently showing up for these key political topics.

5. We then categorized each website as either left, center, or right-leaning based on findings from AllSides.com and Media Bias Fact Check. “Center” can also be defined as “non-partisan” or neutral.

6. Then we went through the top 10 for each topic and marked each result as left, center, right, or unknown. This was based on the website’s known political leanings. Not based on the content of the individual page. We made this decision because categorizing each individual result would make the process too subjective on our end.

We analyzed a total of 500 results (50 keywords x 10 first page spots on Google). Why only 50 topics? Because as you’ll see in a second, the discrepancy was getting redundant.

Now let me show you the results:

Google Bias Project Results

google politics

63% of Results are Non-Partisan

While 63% is almost a failing score in school, it’s impressive that an algorithm can be so effective.

316 of the results were from non-partisan and unbiased websites. Websites that present facts. Not opinions.

This is super important for politically-driven topics where there tends to be lots of misinformation or “fake news”.

32% Left vs 5% Right

While Google’s algorithm presents unbiased information for the majority of the results, it isn’t perfect. As you can see, left-leaning publications received more coverage and visibility for key political topics.

In a perfect world, there would be equal representation for both parties.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case.

Now you might be wondering why? Why are there more left-leaning websites showing up for key political topics?

Well, it’s not for the reasons that you probably think.

More on this in second, but it has to do with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

But before we get into that, let’s dive into some of these topics a little.

Top 3 Left-Leaning Topics

Topics that had the most left-leaning websites present:

  • “black lives matter” = 9/10
  • “border wall” = 7/10. This one is almost inline with Gallup poll data. 60% of American’s oppose “significantly expanding the construction of walls along the U.S.-Mexico border”.
  • “dreamers” = 6/10

Top 3 Right-Leaning Topics

Topics that had the most right-leaning websites present:

  • “blue lives matter” = 4/10
  • “second amendment” = 3/10
  • “pro life” = 3/10

Top 3 Unbiased Topics

The topics below had the highest number of non-partisan results:

  • “electoral college” = 10/10
  • “gold standard” = 10/10
  • “roe vs wade” = 9/10

Google’s algorithm was effective for these topics. It had almost a 100% success rate in showing non-partisan results for these topics.

Top 3 Topics With Fair Representation

“second amendment” = Left: 3, Center: 4, Right: 3

“pro life” = Left: 3, Center: 4, Right: 3. According to Gallup Poll, 46% of Americans are “pro choice” while 49% are “pro life”, so this was pretty accurate.

“gun control” = Left: 2, Center: 7, Right: 1. The first two results were fair, but after that there weren’t any other topics that had “fair” representation. “Gun control” was the closest.

So at this point, it’s clear that right-leaning websites get less visibility and coverage for key political topics.

But the question is: why?

Why Do Google’s Results Seem Biased (from an SEO Perspective)?

First, let me quickly cover how SEO works. Google uses over 200 different ranking factors for determining what pages should show up any given keyword. These factors are NOT created equal.

But in most cases, pages that perform well in Google have the following characteristics:

1. They are targeting a keyword phrase like “black lives matter” or “gun control”.

2. The page provides detailed information about the topic.  This is referred to SEO content in my world. More often than not, pages that have bigger word counts tend to perform better.

3. The website and target page have backlinks. A “backlink” is created when another website links to your website.

what are backlinks

Google uses backlinks as “votes” for a website. The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the better it will often perform. Out of all of the 200 ranking factors, backlinks are one of the strongest by far.

So now let’s look at the data.

Left-Leaning Websites Are Stronger

On average left-leaning websites in this study were substantially stronger than right-leaning websites. By “stronger”, I’m speaking in terms of website authority driven by quantity of high-quality backlinks.

Here’s the data pulled from Ahrefs:

Left-leaning websites also have substantially more .gov and .edu backlinks.

So without getting too deep into SEO, the primary reason why there are more left-leaning websites outperforming right-leaning websites is because of the volume of backlinks and overall website authority.

But this raises some other questions:

Why do left-leaning websites get more backlinks?

There are a few possibilities:

1. Left-leaning websites are more likely to engage in active link building. “Active” link building is when a company pays a company like mine to acquire backlinks on other websites.

2. There is a greater pool of left-leaning websites capable of linking compared to right-leaning. According to data in this article, the tech industry (who have very powerful websites) leans left.

3. .edu and .gov websites tend to be more left-leaning and therefore or more likely to link to left-leaning sources of information.

These ideas are difficult to quantify, but there’s worth exploring further.

To Conclude the Google Bias Project

So back to our original question:

Is Google biased? Not likely.

Google’s results were surprisingly non-partisan (61%) for key political topics. It’s not perfect and the results lean left, but it’s likely not because Google’s algorithms are biased.

It’s because those left-leaning websites are simply better at SEO.

Now there is one thing that can’t be quantified, but it could make Google results biased in some cases. And that’s the fact that Google’s algorithm is designed and operated by humans. Humans are inherently biased in one way or another.

You must also consider that Google uses over 10,000 humans for manually reviewing the quality of their search engine results. It’s entirely possible that these humans could suppress pages they don’t agree with.

Bias is inevitable when humans are involved.

If you’de like to see all the data we used for this case study go here (no opt-in required).



Saturday, March 7, 2020

6 Considerations To Prioritize eCommerce SEO Opportunities

Prioritizing eCommerce SEO Opportunities

When it comes to eCommerce SEO, it’s common to be flooded with questions around prioritization, either from your company or your clients. With so many product categories, sub-categories and SKUs, the question of where to start can be a daunting one to answer.…

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What Are N-Grams & How Can They Help You Meet Your Business Goals?

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If you’re a client at Seer, or have been following any of our data analysis work, you’ve definitely heard or seen the term “n-gram” before.…

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6 Google My Business Tips You’ll Be Glad You Know

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3 Ways to Avoid Accidentally Keyword Stuffing Your Content

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The post How to Utilize RegEx to Track Your SEO Efforts appeared first on Seer Interactive.



3 Useful Google Sheet Tips For SEO

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3 Keyword Research Tips To Get You Started

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3 Tips When Onboarding a B2B Client

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Friday, March 6, 2020

How to Analyze Enhanced Ecommerce Data in Google Analytics

This post was written by Lindsay Stecklein & Darren Douglas.

You did it. Your site is tagged for Enhanced Ecommerce. You’ve turned on Enhanced Ecommerce in your Google Analytics view. Even better: you trust your data!

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Signs You Should Probably Get a Feed Management Platform

This post was written by Chris Evans & Vanessa Rodriguez.

Thanks to some awesome features in Google Merchant Center and Microsoft Merchant Center, it has become pretty simple to create and upload a product feed. Some website platforms even offer a direct integration with Google Merchant Center through their API.…

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Moving Forward After ‘Service Provider’ and ‘Network Domain’ Removal from Google Analytics

The Backstory

On February 4th, Google Analytics (GA) deprecated the Service Provider and Network Domain dimensions. This also abruptly ended the ability to filter your analytics traffic based on ISP Organization and ISP Domain, something many GA views were doing to prevent bot traffic or internal traffic from skewing their reporting.…

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News Trend SERP Shifter: Coronavirus

This post was written by Wil Reynolds and Mariel Mancini.

News trends pop up every day that change the shape of the SERP. Seer brings you the latest on what that trend looks like, how’s it affecting your business, and what you can do about it.…

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3 Myths About Smart Shopping – Uncovered

This post was written by Chris Evans and Vanessa Rodriguez.

What Do Current Marketers Believe about Smart Shopping?

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Google Ads Guide: An Introduction to Smart Shopping

What Are Smart Shopping Campaigns?

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How to Use Auction Insights Data to Identify Market Opportunities

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The post How to Use Auction Insights Data to Identify Market Opportunities appeared first on Seer Interactive.



Seer Interactive Wins ‘Top Workplaces of 2020’ Award

Top Workplaces of 2020

 

We’re ecstatic to announce that Seer Interactive has been selected as a 2020 Top Workplace in both Philadelphia and San Diego. While this isn’t our first time receiving this recognition, it’s still as humbling as ever, since the winners are selected based on employee feedback exclusively.…

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