Are we becoming less curious about SEO?

by Ash Nallawalla for Search Engine Land I noticed that an emphatic comment by Google’s VP of Search, Hyung-Jin Kim, at SMX Next in November 2022 passed without much discussion in the SEO community to this day. He said (my emphasis): “E-A-T is a template for how we rate an individual site. We do it to every single query and every single result. It’s pervasive throughout every single thing we do.” He added, “E-A-T is a core part of our metrics.” E-A-T, and, subsequently E-E-A-T, are discussed by SEOs all the time. Most are quick to say that they are not a part of any Google…

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Best of SearchBot: Create a blog content strategy to boost SEO

by SearchBot for Search Engine Land Best of the SearchBot showcases Search Engine Land’s SearchBot’s responses to prompts submitted by readers. The language model is based on content from Search Engine Land layered on top of ChatGPT. The editors of Search Engine Land selected this response for its usefulness and have supplemented it with additional relevant content. I am the first generative AI chatbot for search marketers. I am trained with Search Engine Land content. Here’s something somebody asked me! After that, how you can improve prompts to get even better answers from me. Prompt: How to choose suitable topics for blog…

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Ensuring quality in your SEO services: A checklist

by Sara Taher for Search Engine Land As an agency, consultant or in-house provider, delivering quality is a top priority. But what exactly defines a “quality” SEO service? Is it solely about achieving results? Or are there other important factors to consider? This checklist outlines key elements to assess and improve the quality of your SEO services.  Does price impact your service quality? No, price is not part of how customers would view the quality of your service. However, it can impact their expectations and their perception of the service value.  Did you know that popular methods for measuring service quality, like SERVQUAL,…

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Bulk product optimization: Tips and tools for ecommerce SEO

by Rachel Fredrickson (Howe) for Search Engine Land Do you work on an enterprise ecommerce site? If so, chances are you have to optimize massive amounts of product pages using a product information management (PIM) system.  This article covers a step-by-step bulk product optimization process for SEO, highlighting some Excel formulas and third-party tools, including ChatGPT and Grammarly, to help make the process go faster for title tags, meta descriptions and product copy optimization. Managing and optimizing your ecommerce product data I’ll use some dummy PIM data as an example of my process. Depending on what you use to house your…

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Exploring Meridian, Google’s new open-source marketing mix model

by Benjamin Wenner  for Search Engine Land Meridian, Google’s new open-source Marketing Mix Model (MMM), has entered the rapidly evolving market for advanced marketing analytics and forecasting tools.  This article explores Meridian’s key features, capabilities and limitations, comparing it with Meta’s MMM called Robyn. It delves into how Meridian leverages advanced techniques like hierarchical geo-level modeling, Bayesian methods and scenario analysis to offer actionable insights for cross-channel budget optimization and marketing strategy development. Understanding marketing mix models The marketing mix model empowers marketers to analyze how various marketing strategies influence sales and forecast future results. In essence, MMMs split the…

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SEO testing: Shifting from reactive to proactive strategies

by Stephanie Wallace for Search Engine Land A/B testing for SEO is different than typical UX/CRO testing. Despite how quickly search evolves and best practices change, some changes must be tested before rolling out. Testing can help justify further investment or help prevent a potentially negative impact.  Why we need to test SEO strategies  Testing and proving a strategy is more important than ever as companies are looking really closely at the ROI of marketing in general and especially SEO. Decision-makers are looking for ways to justify their spend. When it comes to SEO, ROI is fairly ambiguous.  Whether we’re trying to forecast…

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How to identify and rank for ‘hidden gems’ in SEO

by Adam Tanguay for Search Engine Land The rollout of Search Generative Experience (SGE) will change Google SERPs – that’s pretty much indisputable. Whether AI will dominate the SERPs altogether is up for debate.  If you’re reading a few strategically placed Google hints, you know there’s an alternative that makes it clear Google will still respect first-party perspectives and E-E-A-T-rich content. I’m talking about “hidden gems.” This article examines what hidden gems are, how we know Google’s committed to them as part of their future SERP strategy and your options for filling the SERPs with hidden gems that build positive exposure for your…

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3 underutilized Google Search Console reports for diagnosing traffic drops

by Tom Demers for Search Engine Land As Google continues to roll out massive updates, you may be looking to diagnose drops in organic traffic. A great tool to start with here (particularly if you’re in the NeverGA4 crowd or your GA4 reports just aren’t adding up) is Google Search Console. Google’s released a surprisingly useful guide of their own on this topic with some good high-level approaches to this diagnosis. The guide does dive into some of the most obvious Search Console reports for diagnosing drops: Date-based comparisons. Search types (web, images, video, news). Average position trends. Page reports. They mention looking at…

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A/B testing and SEO: How to navigate pitfalls and maximize results

by Olya Ianovskaia  for Search Engine Land A/B testing can be a great tool for enhancing website functionality, user experience and conversions. However, when done at an enterprise scale, A/B testing poses unique challenges that can inadvertently undermine a site’s SEO performance.  This article examines the nuanced relationship between A/B testing and SEO.  The synergy of A/B testing and SEO A/B testing is the ultimate optimization tool. By directing traffic to two webpage variants (or more, in the case of multivariate testing), you can glean which version leads to better outcomes in terms of conversions, click-through rates, time on page, bounce rates…

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9 things to do when SEO is great but sales and leads are terrible

by Ludwig Makhyan for Search Engine Land You’ve optimized your website for search. You’re getting lots of high-quality traffic. But despite the uptick in visitors, your sales and leads remain lackluster. It’s a frustrating situation. The good news? There are strategies you can implement to convert that traffic into paying customers. This article explores nine proven methods to help you turn SEO traffic into sales and leads. 1. Improve your site’s user experience (UX) UX and SEO have been talked about for years and are intrinsically linked, but many sites still haven’t spent time improving UX.  Here are some key areas to focus…

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