Google Revamps Search Ads 360

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Google has revamped Search Ads 360, a search management platform, the company announced on February 8th. This update and refresh of this platform includes support for some newer Google Ads features such as Discovery campaigns and Performance Max, search engine support for other brands, a new interface for the platform as well as workflow improvements. The refreshed UI will start rolling out over the next few months. Google plans to share the timeline of migration as the year goes on.

What is Search Ads 360?

Defined directly by Google, “Search Ads 360 is a search management platform that helps agencies and marketers efficiently manage some of the largest search marketing campaigns in the world, across multiple engines and media channels.” The pros of this platform has been streamlined workflow and reporting features that enable buyers to run their campaigns more efficiently, and automated bidding is included as well to improve campaign performance. Built-in integration with the Google Marketing Platform allows buyers to manage and track digital campaigns across a single platform, enabling rich, cross-channel buying, reporting and attribution.

What’s new in Search Ads 360?

Supports new Google features. The new version of Search Ads 360 was redesigned and relaunched using the same technology that powers Google Ads, the newer platform between the two. Having this common technology as the foundation enables support for most new Google Ads features, such as Performance Max and Discovery campaigns.

Support for other search engines. One of the main selling points for the updated 360 platform is the ability to manage your ads across different channels, including other search engines. Search Ads 360 allows Google to add support for more features from other search engines.

For example, the updated platform now supports additional Microsoft Advertising features, which includes responsive search ads, call extensions, and additional Microsoft audience types like customer match. Support for Yahoo! Japan’s Dynamic Ads for Search and sitelink extension scheduling are also now available.

Google will continue to add more features and channel support in the coming quarters.

New advanced features for enterprises. In addition to support for existing features, Google is also rolling out completely new features for Search Ads 360.

“For instance, the new Search Ads 360 takes enterprise workflows to the next level by giving you new ways to centralize and scale your day-to-day tasks and key activities — like campaign management, automated rules and labels — and you’ll now be able to make these changes across multiple advertisers at the same time,” Google said in the announcement.

The company is also making upgrades to existing features: The “Performance Center,” which will become available later this year, is touted as an improved budget management planner with support for enterprise planning capabilities, like improved forecasting across search engines.

And, the existing inventory management and ad builder tools will be unified into one feature, which will be called “Templates.” Templates is also expected to become available later this year.

Refreshed UI. Google also updated the interface of Search Ads 360, borrowing elements from the Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising UIs. This may make navigation more efficient since advertisers may already be familiar with it.

More from Onimod Global

More information on the update can be found in Google’s update. In addition to Google news and other digital marketing updates, we will continue to share case studies and the latest SEO updates to help you drive your business. Our goal is to ensure we help improve your marketing and drive success.

At Onimod Global, we have endless experience and expertise when it comes to all things SEO, general social media advertising, and digital marketing. Got questions about Facebook advertising or want to learn more about us? Contact us here today.

B2B Digital Marketing Trends To Expect In 2022

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2022 is here, which means it’s time to forecast a new era of B2B marketing trends. After chaotic months and years, innovation is accelerating at a pace faster than ever. The digital transformation of the economy and the ever-accelerating climb of e-commerce success are projected to bring in significant change in 2022. It is already very evident how digital transformation and the eCommerce boom will change the way B2B sales during 2022. We’ll explain the B2B digital marketing trends to expect in 2022.

Shifts in Spending to Mobile-First Strategy

This upcoming year, mobile and digital advertising will continue to become central to B2B marketing efforts. At the same time, marketers are also adjusting to a work-from-home reality. Nearly 70% of buyers in B2B industries and decision-makers prefer remote or digital interactions with vendors. This number is even expected to rise in the next years, so it’s also safe to assume that these buyers will additionally respond better most likely to more digital marketing strategies.

A digital-first marketing approach is quickly becoming the ‘holy grail’ strategy for digital marketers which prioritizes mobile advertising and content over offline and more traditional strategies. This will probably come with growing ad spend — though growth is on track to be slower next year than it has been in the past, partly due to the lingering effects of COVID-19.

The number of buyers who want a seller-free experience has grown in conjunction with the amount of millennials in decision-making roles. More direct and virtual approaches to B2B digital marketing may become more popular among B2B marketers as a result.

High-tech interactions with B2B customers

Building off of the first trend, we see technology advances so will the need to leverage increasingly high-tech communication methods. This includes both how you send and receive messages from your B2B prospects.

For example, in 2022, optimizing for new forms of search – like audio and image – will be vital to capture traffic. Additionally, marketing chatbots and AI can help marketers get in touch with more customers and minimize their wait time.

Interactive emails can also increase conversions and improve ROI, helping your business get more out of each communication. AMP emails that enable B2B marketers to provide application-like functionality in a message are standard methods to implement and deliver this interactivity. These are just a couple of examples of how technology will make it easier to reach businesses in 2022.

Shift of lead generation channels

The top goal of B2B marketing is not only generating leads, but ensuring that the leads are of high quality standard. How the leads are developed is likely to change significantly in 2022 and through the rest of the decade. COVID-19 impacted how events are hosted. While some businesses pivoted to online events and others chose to delay or cancel, all marketers had to adapt quickly to the reality that in-person events were no longer always available to generate leads. Several digital marketers have turned to social media for lead gen creation, and haven’t looked back including B2B digital marketing experts at Onimod Global.

The most popular style of social media marketing is also changing quickly. Many B2B digital marketers are now more interested in personalized and specific targeted strategies. Many platforms offer targeting tools with extremely fine levels of detail so they can deliver niche content to specific audiences.

More from Onimod Global

Taking advantage of these digital marketing trends for B2B marketing in 2022 can make the biggest difference in the performance of your lead generation. We will continue to share case studies and the latest SEO updates to help you drive your business. Our goal is to ensure we help improve your marketing and drive success. Our mission is to ensure we help improve your marketing and drive success.

At Onimod Global, we have endless experience and expertise when it comes to all things SEO, general social media advertising, and digital marketing. Got questions about Google display ads or want to learn more about us? Contact us here today.

3 Simple Ways Blog Posts Can Improve SEO Results

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Search engine optimization, or SEO, is incredibly important for marketers which we often write about here at Onimod Global. When you optimize your web pages — including the blog posts in your blog or news section — you’re creating more visibility for your website and allowing people who are using search engines (like Google) to find your product or service. But does your blog content really help your business organically rank on search engines?

You may have a blog, but unfortunately very few organizations know how to fully capitalize on their content in order to maximize SEO results. Check out these three simple ways a blog can improve your website’s organic visibility, traffic and results.

 Reach a specific audience with each post

Start every blog with a very specific audience in mind, and think to yourself questions that users on your website may be looking for. This allows marketers to create content that is optimized for specific customers and contains target keywords related to specific needs and solutions. Let’s say for example you are a CBD brand, think of questions may users have about your product where you can easily reach them. Perhaps one of those questions may be, what is CBD and how is it useful in products? We suggest to use a title for your blog encompassing that question while the blog post content does a thorough deep dive on the subject providing useful information. The title of your blog post could be “Everything To Know About CBD & CBD Products” or “CBD 101: What Is It and Why Use It?”

These titles encompass the questions your user may ask while also coming from a credible source. This can have a massive impact with SEO results with just this small detail in mind while you’re composing and concepting new posts.

Use Recent Data

Google and other smart engines are quite intelligent in the sense that they can even recognize when data you refer to or a website you are referencing is outdated and affect your SEO. Recent data also gives your users the most accurate and relevant information anyways which will result in a positive reader experience.

When you include a link to a credible site that has original, up-to-date data, the search engine interprets that this site is helpful and relevant to your readers (which is a plus for that other site as well actually). At the same time, you’re also telling the search engine that this type of data is in some way related to the content you publish. Over time, your readers will come to appreciate the content which can be confirmed using other metrics like increased time on page or lower bounce rate.

Share Your Blog Posts On Social Media

An often overlooked advantage, sharing your blog posts on social media requires time but also gets visibility of your content out to your audience in a multitude of ways. This in turn improves the engagement and traffic of the blog, but also has the potential to grow your social accounts as well.

Several other benefits include:

  1. It keeps your social media sites current and relevant.
  2. It helps keep your audience engaged.
  3. Because social signals are included in the ranking algorithm, it improves SEO results.
  4. Social links help to increase referral traffic.

Just remember to include keywords you are targeting within the social media posting as these social signals can help with rankings.

Final Thoughts

In addition to blog post optimization and other digital marketing updates, we will continue to share case studies and the latest SEO updates to help you drive your business. Our goal is to ensure we help improve your marketing and drive success.

At Onimod Global, we have endless experience and expertise when it comes to all things SEO, general social media advertising, and digital marketing. Got questions about Facebook advertising or want to learn more about us? Contact us here today.

How To Create Successful Display Ads in 2022

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Is one of your 2022 New Years resolutions higher reach for your business’s online audience? Look no further, Onimod Global experts are here to help you achieve this goal. Google, the world’s most popular search engine, is definitely a great place to get started when it comes to advertising online and utlitzing their display ads. In this blog post, you’ll learn best practices for Google Ads and tips on making your campaigns successful.

What is a display ad?

A display ad, or also commonly referred to as a banner ad, is a visual-based form of online advertising. You usually see these ads on websites, apps, and social media platforms.

These ads will feature a photo along with advertising copy. The goal result is a display that is interactive and also encourages users to engage with the ad.

What is the Google Display Network?

In a nutshell, the Google Display Network is a set of websites that your ad can appear on. Millions of websites – this is Google, after all.

All in all, the network is comprised of over 2 million websites, 650,000 apps, and 90% of internet users. When you use the Display Network for advertising, you have the chance to get your ad right in front of that 90%.

How to set your display ads up for success

Get familiar with the targeting options

How successful a campaign and the ads within it is mainly comes down to targeting. The effectiveness of targeting will likely determine the outcome of your campaign over anything else.

There are many ways you can go about targeting an audience, and all depend on the goal of your campaign. For example, you can target ads based on the content of the ad itself, so that it appears next to similar content, such as a dog food ad on a pet website. Another way that you can target ads is based on your target market. Let’s say your dog food business wants to target only older people who like dogs or frequent pet pages. You can also target ads to people who previously have consumed your content in some way, which would be called remarketing. This could be a user who previously visited your website, or interacted with you in other ways (for example, watching a video on your YouTube channel).

The best way to determine which targeting method is right for you is to experiment. Try them all if you can to determine which best suits your business.

Exclude sites that are off-topic in the Google Display Network

Of course, no one wants to show up on an irrelevant website or inappropriate web page. The good news is with Google, they allow you to avoid this.

Google allows you to exclude certain sites or pages that you feel are irrelevant and/or inappropriate for the good or service your business provides.You can also block sites where your ads don’t perform well.

You can prevent your display ads from appearing in certain locations, based on:

  • app category
  • any specific topics
  • device used such as: computer, tablet, or mobile

You can also ban specific apps, websites, and content.

Utilize the similar audience feature on the Google Display ads network

This typically only helps you, in the sense that it further hones in on people that will be interested in your display ads. It’s based on your remarketing audience (mentioned above). If you haven’t already, you’ll want to enable remarketing ads before beginning to try out this tip. And according to Google, when you combine Similar Audience targeting with remarketing, you can increase conversions by up to 41%.

More from Onimod Global

Starting off the new year is a clean slate for new business improvements and adjustments, and we’re here to help you achieve all digital marketing goals. Our mission is to ensure we help improve your marketing and drive success.

At Onimod Global, we have endless experience and expertise when it comes to all things SEO, general social media advertising, and digital marketing. Got questions about Google display ads or want to learn more about us? Contact us here today.

3 Tips For Ranking Higher On Google Maps In 2022

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Whether you’re a local small business, a bigger brick and mortar, or anywhere in between, there is no arguing that your Google Maps ranking is one of the most important factors in your online presence. Did you know that 80% of local searches result in a conversion? If you aren’t taking advantage of the opportunity to rank in local searches coming up in 2022, you’re missing the chance to increase lead generation, attract more in-store traffic, and of course reach higher conversions and revenue.

But the hard hitting question: how do you maximize local search? Simple answer: marketing on Google Maps. Keep reading to learn what digital marketing strategy we recommend heading into 2022 and how to rank better on Google Maps to generate higher leads and generate more revenue.

Why your Google Maps listing matters

Google Maps is the most popular map app in the U.S. with over 150 million active users. Millions of people are on the app daily and searching for services to locate businesses meeting their needs. As you think to further market your business locally, you can make big strides in maximizing the benefits of Google Maps by ranking high in relevant searches.

In addition to how relevant this is to the daily smartphone user, consumers often arrive at business listings via direct brand searches, keyword searches, and local discovery searches. With so many ways to get discovered by consumers, optimization has several benefits, which includes:

  •  Providing customers with more ways to engage with your brand
  • Appearing in the local vicinity with high ratings
  • Boosting visibility of your business

Steps to higher ranking

  1. Optimize your listing
    This is the simplest yet most important aspect to increasing your visibility on Google Maps. This particular listing is what your audience sees when they search through Google Maps. If you want to help your listing appear higher in Google Maps search results, you must optimize your listing. This includes adding your business name, phone number, accurate opening hours, and all of the basics. Whether someone sees your information on your Google My Business listing, Facebook, or your website, this information should be the same across all platforms.
  2. Place products at the top of your listing
    Information just released by Google and Search Engine Land explains how you can now add product placement at the top of your Google Maps listing and your Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business. Read more from Search Engine Land on this topic here.
  3. Reviews are key to success
    It can’t be stressed enough how important reviews are to your Google Maps listing. Reviews are crucial to increasing your brand trust and developing transparency around your business. If the Google review is negative, you should always leave a response doing your best to resolve any issue.

Final thoughts

As trusted Google experts, our team is here to help with holistic digital marketing strategies including optimizing your Google Business Profile listing and ensuring you have the highest rank possible. Whether it is SEO tips, social media digital marketing, or paid media strategies, our goal is to make your business more successful. To get in contact with an audit and to see how you can improve your digital presence, get in touch with us here.

Why Digital Marketing is Crucial for Small Businesses

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Effective Digital Marketing is paramount in helping small businesses learn the online habits of customers – which in turn they can better target their ideal customers. Here, we have listed the benefits of digital marketing strategies for small businesses to help them market their products or services with the right digital media planning. 

When small businesses get started, their main focus is how to attract customers to shop at their store and how to get them to utilize your services. Most small businesses may rely on traditional forms of advertising, such as print ads and mailers. Small business owners have a tendency to believe, if they offer a good product or service, it’s only a matter of time until new customers find their way to them.

While this strategy may bring in some business, there is an easier route to take. Small businesses should consider the marketplace of prospects that are available online. Small businesses, no matter how new to market, should never overlook the opportunity that digital channels can bring. This is a way to generate leads and convert interest into customers. Here’s a look at the benefits of digital marketing and the ways online platforms can be used to help grow your business.

Online Marketing & Its Benefits

With endless opportunities, digital marketing can seem intimidating if you’ve never used it for a business before. There are many different social media platforms and marketing terms that may make it seem like a bigger project than it is. It’s easy for small businesses to believe they don’t have the time or money to compete online. As a result, many take things slowly and stick with one or two forms of traditional advertising, assuming that their business will evolve as time passes.

The marketplace is competitive and while word of mouth and customer recommendations can help drive traffic, customers will struggle to find your business unless you show up in the places they spend time. Delaying building a presence online is not an effective approach. The best way to ensure success is to promote your business is to use target marketing to attract customers that are interested in your specific service and/or product. 

You can find an excess of potential customers online. It’s a larger group than you’ll ever be able to attract only locally. Using digital marketing techniques, you can reach a global audience in a way that’s cost-effective, scalable and measurable. Some of the benefits of using Digital Marketing tactics include:

  • Target the right audience at the right time – personalization is simpler with digital marketing.
  • Get to know your audience and drive engagement to create brand loyalty. Get some inspiration by creating a customer loyalty strategy. 
  • Track and monitor responses to your marketing efforts easily and instantly (i.e.) any social media platform which are typically free of cost. 
  • The ability to reach out to anyone and anywhere as there are no geographical boundaries with digital.

Get to Know Your Target Audience

One of the great things about digital marketing is that it allows you to engage with new customers. You can get to know them and their pain points, and in turn, provide them with a solution. Social media and blog posts are a great way to start a conversation. It’s important to make note of any comments or responses to your posts, it’s another great way to strengthen your strategy. Using digital marketing helps you stop wondering who your customers are so you can personalize communications and refine targeting. 

By doing this, you will build a relationship with your customers. You become more than a business, you become a reliable partner. Remember, people are also more likely to buy from businesses that they have already bought from and had a good experience with. When someone is interested in your business, whether it’s in your niche or they are curious about your brand, the first thing they will do is research online and see what they can find out about you. 

With today’s digital age, customers expect to find a business website or social media page easily. They also might be looking for reviews so they can learn what other people are saying about your company and whether it is a good place to do business. For local businesses, 87% of consumers read online reviews – a growth of 6% from 2019 to 2020.

So if a potential new customer can’t find you online, they may conclude that your business doesn’t appear to be legitimate. There is a very good chance that a lot of these prospects may decide not to take your business seriously and they will quickly take their business elsewhere.

Do More While Spending Less

Small businesses and start-ups are always trying to achieve as much as possible through their marketing on a budget. Advertising online can stretch your budget further and will allow you to refine your target audience. Social media is particularly good for this as it enables you to set a daily budget for a discrete audience that has an interest in your brand or ethos. Most importantly, it allows your business to exclude the people that would never buy from you – saving you time and money!

The key with advertising on social media is to select the platform that will work best for you and your brand. Don’t pick TikTok just because it’s trending or advertise on LinkedIn when you’re not trying to generate B2B interest. Research social channels, see which social media platform matches what you’re looking for and run some simple tests to see what messaging and content works. 

Last Thoughts

Ultimately, you are the one steering your business to success. Where do you want to go and what does success look like for you? Are you looking to develop a website that can generate leads? Or maybe you want to set up a Facebook campaign to see the results. The first step to achieving these goals is to develop an understanding of digital marketing and how it can have a positive impact on your business.

Onimod Global is your Chicago-based, in-house marketing team, your partner experts for specific marketing verticals or some nice balance in between. We excel in customer service and will teach you the most relevant and up-to-date digital marketing skills. From social media to SEO and paid search, you will have the tools to ensure your business succeeds online.  

Have questions about creating your online presence and need help strategizing? Contact us here today.

Why You Should Combine Social and SEA

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Are you a PPC connoisseur or a paid social media pro? Are you neither of these things and looking for more insight on how to develop a paid digital marketing strategy? You have definitely come to the right place, as Onimod Global experts are here to share insight on both types of paid digital advertising and where it makes sense for you to invest you ad dollar.

Reasons to combine SEA and social media advertising

Why should PPC and social media ads be combined and regarded as a unit? When you combine the social media activities with PPC, you activate double the power online. Simply put: it’s a great way to increase your brand awareness and generate new leads.

1. PPC is successful: Search engine advertising that is targeted can lead to website traffic and success in just a short period of time. Use this effect to make your social media channels not only grow in following, but also in conversions.

2. Control demographics and usage: Users’ demographics cannot be controlled accurately when only using search engines. One the other hand, social media channels contain a huge collection of personal information such as photos and demographics – it’s worth using these data for PPC as well.

The journey to paid digital advertising

The journey to the goal of your paid digital advertising success is most often anything but straightforward. This is a crucial point that should always be kept in mind during your strategy process. Through being strategic with a funnel ad campaign, your customers may very often come into contact with your brand before they decide to buy. Another important note is people may already know your brand from a variety of platforms and influencers and have become aware of you in a positive way. This potential circumstance makes them more likely to click on PPC ads.

Due to all social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, have become indispensable in many people’s everyday lives. They therefore offer excellent opportunities for “advertising”. Not in the traditional sense, though, but in much more creative ad formats that are meant to look native to the platform being disguised among organic content.

The difference between social media ads and PPC

Social ads are ads created for and shared on all social media platforms. Depending on the platform, the ads appear on users’ news feeds and, ideally, users will become more familiar with your brand and convert. The clearly designed Facebook ad manager will guide you through the creation of a campaign in which you act strategically and define your goals in the first step. You can create campaigns for Facebook or for Instagram.

Are you currently directing traffic from your PPC clicks only to websites or shops? Yes, that would make the most sense, because you generate the most revenue. Try something different and you may be surprised on the result: promote your social media channels through PPC. For example, make relevant content for your consumers which will lead them to wanting to consume more of your organic content.

This is where all of the success comes into play: with all of these platforms. you build a relationship with your customers and strengthen the image of your brand. The purchase of your product is not yet in the foreground of many people, if they, for example, are not yet familiar (enough) with the brand. However, if you manage to turn these people into fans of your Instagram page, their initial interest in your brand may eventually grow into a decision to make a purchase.

Final thoughts

All in all, we recommend you to ensure their is a cohesiveness between your brand and organic content to your social media ads, and PPC advertising is just as important from a search engine perspective. In addition to paid digital advertising and other digital marketing tips, we will continue to share case studies and the latest digital marketing news and tips to help you drive your business. Our goal is to ensure we help improve your marketing and drive success.

At Onimod Global, we have endless experience and expertise when it comes to all things SEO, general social media advertising, and digital marketing. Got questions about how to develop a paid digital marketing strategy or want to learn more about us? Contact us here today.

 

3 Simple Ways To Optimize Responsive Search Ads

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Google’s responsive search ads, also known as RSA, have existed alongside the original expanded text ads (ETAs) for the past several years. The goal has been to give marketers more formats for their campaigns. Since then, the now default RSAs are quickly being set up to be the only text ad format moving forward into 2022.

Experts at Onimod Global would advise that you start optimizing RSAs to stay ahead of any competitors. Here are three simple suggestions that Onimod Global gives to marketers to improve your RSA effectiveness.

Analyze your asset labels

Google Ads’ asset labels can be very useful by showing you which assets are performing well and which assets you should replace after the RSAs serve. These kinds of assets should be monitored for roughly two weeks, then the idea would be to replace those that are underperforming.

When you open up your RSA, Google gives you a breakdown of all headlines and descriptions. The labeling they give to each asset is based on how they performed overall. Thus this RSA data can be very useful information and provide insight transparently on what is performing well for you and where you can save ad dollar.

Use variations of headlines

Using a variety of headlines in your RSAs can allow marketers to use more keywords, which can enable the ads to reach even more potential customers. The more Google variations the better, because using a variety can increase your CTR. Also according to Frederick Vallaeys, co-founder and CEO of PPC management software company Optmyzr, in his session at SMX Next “If you give Google more variations then the CTR goes up because they’re able to show the right ad to the right user at the right time.”

One important note to add: just because you are experiencing spikes in CTR doesn’t necessarily mean you’re conversion rate has increased. Some data shows they actually decrease with more headlines. Fortunately, adding more headlines also increases total impressions as it gives Google more flexibility to create the ideal ad for each situation, leading to more impressions per RSA. How you view these outcomes is completely dependent on your goals for the text ads in general.

Take advantage of smart bidding automation

Smart bidding automation is often times a very helpful tool when it comes to preventing ads from showing up to the wrong groups. If you’re doing manual bidding and allowing Google to show your RSAs to audience members that my not be as likely to convert, then that’s in the end a problem for your SEA budget since your manual bids are not going to be able to handle that.

However, when combining smart bidding and Google automatically showing the right ad to the right customer, even if that includes a bit more of broad matching, you can achieve very good results for text ads. This tactic holds up  in court by plenty of search data backing up this recommendation. Marketers that make the switch from ETAs to RSAs, using the same assets, in campaigns that use broad match and smart bidding see an average of 20% more conversions at a similar cost per conversion, according to Google. If automation is the future of search ads (which most likely is the case for all future SEAs and social media advertising), it is very senseful to use Google’s machine learning systems in every fullest extent possible.

Final thoughts

In addition to RSA, general SEA and other digital marketing tips, we will continue to share case studies and the latest digital marketing news and tips to help you drive your business. Our goal is to ensure we help improve your marketing and drive success.

At Onimod Global, we have endless experience and expertise when it comes to all things SEO, general social media advertising, and digital marketing. Got questions about how to optimize your RSAs or want to learn more about us? Contact us here today.

 

SEO Strategy – Voice Search and its Impact in 2021

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How many times have you said ‘Hey, Google?’ today? You would most certainly not be the only one. Voice search is not only on the rise, it’s becoming second nature for everyone in their day to day lives. It’s not only questions being directed at smart speakers, but there’s also a massive surge being used for mobile. With that being said, if you aren’t optimizing for voice search in 2021, that is likely to have an impact on your ranking in the future. Experts at Onimod Global are here to help you discover more about voice search and how your keyword decisions could make all the difference.

As usual, data is very telling. Almost one-third (27%) of the online users globally use mobile voice search. Those numbers will be considered minuscule in the future as they’re bound to double in the next few years. The big pressing question: why is this the case? Is it just because it’s practical, or because it’s convenient, or maybe just because it’s trendy? One thing is certain: it’s gaining popularity as it is for sure easy to use, fast, and conversational compared to conventional typing. 

Voice Search 101

By definition, voice search is voice recognition technology that allows users to perform searches by speaking directly to their supported devices. These range from smartphones like your iPhone and Samsung to your computers to any home assistant devices such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri and many more device assistants. In total, Google voice searches have skyrocketed over the past several years, so how you incorporate voice search into your digital marketing strategy is a must. 

Whether you’re working as an SEO consultant or working on building a website right now from the ground up, we advise you to ensure your site and all pages are optimized it for voice search. 

Website Voice Search Optimization in 2021

You may still be asking yourself, what are all of the benefits that come with optimizing for voice search in 2021?

  • More revenue: More visitors mean will in turn result in more conversions, and more conversions will of course equal more revenue.  
  • Higher rankings: Almost always these queries will rank in the top 3 positions on search engine results pages (SERPs).   
  • Higher authority: When you start ranking for voice searches and increase your audience, you boost your website’s authority. 

There is of course a catch, and that catch is called keywords. So in order to make your voice search optimization work as planned, you need optimized content. As always, keywords are the key.   

Voice search SEO requires:   

  • Question-based keywords: Queries should be in the form of questions, as that is also how the query is typically formed
  • Long-tail keywords: Really think about user intent and focus on action queries 
  • Conversational content: Natural-sounding language is key

Your Google My Business Page Is Important

More often than not, most users finish their queries with the words “near me.” The determining factor for where your page will rank for those types of searches is the Google My Business listing. This is by far one of the easiest ways to get noticed by your target audience via voice search, but one important key factor is ensuring your content and all contact information are complete and on point. 

Google needs to know where your business is located when someone asks to display similar businesses in your area. Include your name, address, and phone number (NAP) in the listing and choose the right business category and area code. 

Additionally, you can try to rank for those “near me” queries by targeting local keywords that contain location-specific phrases that generate results related to the same geographic location. 

Final thoughts

In addition to voice search SEO strategies and other digital marketing tips, we will continue to share case studies and the latest digital marketing news and tips to help you drive your business. Our goal is to ensure we help improve your marketing and drive success.

At Onimod Global, we have endless experience and expertise when it comes to all things SEO, general social media advertising, and digital marketing. Got questions about how to optimize for voice search or want to learn more about us? Contact us here today.

  

3 Steps for a Successful Holiday SEO

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A holiday season simply wouldn’t be complete without frantic shopping, especially online shopping. Regardless of if people are shopping on Black Friday, Cyber Monday or completely throughout the holiday shopping season, millions of customers rush to get their hands on gifts for friends and loved ones. That means retailers must be well prepared for your holiday SEO strategy.

One way to really stand out for e-commerce business owners and marketers is a top notch holiday SEO strategy. If your brand is looking to optimize for holiday-specific website traffic, here are the three main steps to take to make sure you’re ready.

A good indication of where to start for keyword research is with trends from 2020. You can find this in the Search Terms report in Google Search Console. First ask yourself:

  • Which pages generated the most traffic last year and likely to gain lots of traffic this year as well?
  • Which search queries were the most used to discover your products and deals?

After you’ve gathered this information, analyze data from other channels that your company is active on. In particular, definitely research the top referral sources — affiliates, social media websites, email campaigns. Determine which channels drove you the most conversions and prioritize them for this year’s strategy.

Google Search Console is much more suited for providing you with technical website data versus Google Analytics. Long explanation short, this tool reports how search crawlers ‘view’ your website and interact with it to explore and attempt to determine its value for users.

Identify keywords relevant for holidays

In order to have a successful SEO strategy, keyword research is an absolute must. Irrelevant keyword targeting or those with no purchase/product research intention translates to budget waste. Going after overly-competitive keywords that every other online store is after means low chances for success. To create your holiday keyword plan, we again recommend to search into historic data from last year. Did you see any interesting keywords that shoppers used to find you? A great place to look is the Google Search Console for these specific queries.

When it comes to holiday keyword research, make sure you are careful about which keywords you want to battle and win. During the holiday season, you’d need to rank fast. So don’t go after overly-competitive broach keywords such as “buy cosmetics online.” Why’s that you ask? The reason is because your company would be competing for shopper attention with carousel ad results, Amazon product listings and category pages from other national retailers.

Create landing pages for special launches

This will give you a significant leg up on SEO holiday queries. To increase your chances of showing up during the time of your holiday offers such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday-related search queries, it’s important to create pages that target relevant keywords. (That you’ve discovered during the previous step). In order to discover the best prices available for their query, users will often search for keyword combinations with “[brand name] or [product] deals, discounts, promos”.

You can research which options are trending in your product vertical using historical results from Google Trends. Depending on the industry your business is in, it may be beneficial to create a Black Friday or Cyber Monday page for each product you plan on offering at a discount.

Final thoughts

In addition to holiday SEO strategies and other digital marketing updates, we will continue to share case studies and the latest SEO updates to help you drive your business. Our goal is to ensure we help improve your marketing and drive success.

At Onimod Global, we have endless experience and expertise when it comes to all things SEO, general social media advertising, and digital marketing. Got questions about how to make the most of your SEO during the holidays or want to learn more about us? Contact us here today.