The Importance of Digital Marketing in 2022

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Digital marketing is more important now than ever. You can utilize digital marketing to target specialized markets, allowing you to reach out to customers who may not have previously considered your company. But this industry is fast-growing, which also means ever changing and evolving. Where do you start if you want to develop a digital marketing strategy? Right here. 

As marketers think about building brands in the coming years post-COVID, how is digital marketing being leveraged to help companies bounce back? More importantly, how should you redefine your strategy for 2022?

According to a CISCO report, 90% of North Americans use the internet, and usage is expected to reach 92% by next year. Customers are now spending more time and resources on owned-media channels such as websites, mobile apps, and customer-service channels. There is also a noticeable increase in customer-conversion rates, with social and digital video channels driving the highest ROIs.

Having a digital marketing strategy in place allows you to reach millions of people cost-effectively. If your business doesn’t have a strategic digital marketing plan aligned with your business plan your business can suffer and you could lose out to competitors who are more digitally savvy.

Reasons To Use Digital Marketing

1. Reach a Specific Audience. 

With media like TV, billboards and radio, you are reaching out to a broad audience, and the chances of targeting a specific group of customers is low. Whereas in digital marketing, you can use the features of a marketing platform to specifically target an audience based on age, interests or behavior. 

Your chances of reaching the right audience are significantly higher, and you can pick and choose these metrics as your needs change. It also allows you to identify subgroups within your clientele. If you have more than one type of product, you can tailor a campaign to this more specific group of customers.

2. Access Metrics of your Digital Marketing Strategy ─ All in One Place.

Digital marketing metrics are the key performance indicators (KPIs) used to measure the success of a business’s marketing efforts online. The goal of using digital marketing metrics is to track and decipher the way consumers interact with your brand online through websites and social media platforms. While there are many benefits of using metrics, the main use of metrics are used to drive improvements and help businesses focus their people and resources on what’s important. Overall, metrics reflect and support the various strategies for all aspects of the organization, including marketing, competition, standards, or customer requirements and expectations. 

Metrics indicate the priorities of the company and provide a window on performance, ethos and ambition. This allows you to determine your return on investment. You know exactly how profitable your digital marketing campaign was, as you can see the results of each aspect of your efforts.

3. Becoming Visible Within the Industry.

Some of the largest corporations have millions of dollars to spend on traditional advertising. If you don’t have that kind of ammunition, digital strategies allow you to outrank big corporations on a smaller budget. 

Here’s what visibility in business can do for you:

  • Helps you get exposure to a larger audience.
  • Build your brand awareness, so that people know who you are and how you help. 
  • Establishes your credibility and expertise.
  • Allows you to reach and sign more ideal clients.
  • Connects you to opportunities you wouldn’t have otherwise. 

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is made up of multiple elements, and knowing what they are and how they work is key to understanding why SEO is so important. In short, SEO is crucial because it makes your website more visible, and that means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers. 

It’s also a valuable tool for brand awareness, building relationships with prospects, and positioning yourself as an authoritative and trustworthy expert in your field. More traffic means more potential clients becoming aware of your brand and services.

SEO is composed of three parts:

  • On-page SEO focuses on the content on your website’s pages. You can research keywords that resonate with your buyer persona or keywords that potential clients might ask. The task is to create quality content when answering those questions, so your pages rank higher.
  • Off-page SEO relates to all activity that happens away from your website. It involves external optimization practices that happen away from your site rather than on it. The main technique used for off-page SEO is backlink building since quality backlinks to your site from external sites tell search engines that your site is valuable and high-quality which helps to build authority.
  • Technical SEO is the back end of your website. Things like coding, image compression and cascading style sheets, also known as CSS. These are important aspects of your website that determine how quickly your pages load. Search engines like Google use it as an important ranking factor.

Social Media Marketing

Social media networks are open to all, giving businesses a chance to follow their consumers’ activities or potential buyers. This helps marketers become more informed about their target audience, likes, dislikes, and interests so that they can create a better marketing strategy to attract customers. The opportunities are endless when it comes to social media marketing. A big plus in  using this type of marketing tool is that most of the basic services are free. 

The end goal is to create more traffic and generate leads for your business. The social media channels you can use for this purpose are:

  • Facebook.
  • Twitter.
  • LinkedIn.
  • Instagram.
  • Snapchat.
  • YouTube.
  • TikTok
  • Pinterest

In an increasingly connected world, your approach to marketing must be just as integrated.

Last Thoughts

In this day and age where just about everyone is connected to the internet, it is crucial for any business to have a strong online presence. As we continue to move forward within the digital age, younger generations are likely to be centered on using the internet to access different services. Having a strong digital marketing strategy is a must if you want to succeed in the increasingly competitive industries across the globe.

Could your digital marketing strategy use a boost? 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 trends. 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.

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.

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.

 

Long-Tail Keyword Guide: How To Use In 2021

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Are you exhausted of trying ranking for the same highly competitive keywords as your competitors? Here are two and a half words that will help you solve this problem: Long-tail keywords.

There are so many benefits of highly targeted search terms packed with intent. Onimod Global experts are here to help break down the definition of long-tail keywords and how to use them to your advantage.

What are long-tail keywords?

By definition, long-tail keywords are longer and much more specific keyword phrases that users will likely use to guide them to their desired destination faster. This usually also occurs when they’re closer to a purchase or when the visitors are using voice search. Long-tail keywords can be extremely valuable if you know how to use them.

Here’s an example to explain: if you’re a furniture company, most likely the odds are that your pages won’t often rank or appear near the top of an organic search for “furniture” because there’s too much competition (this is particularly true if you’re a smaller company or a startup). But if you specialize in, say, a specific type of vintage furniture, then keywords like “vintage victorian style desk” are going to reliably find those customers looking for exactly that product on your page.

Managing long-tail keywords is essentially just a matter of establishing how you communicate the product or service you’re selling between your business and the customers who are already out there that are actively searching or shopping for what you provide.

Note that the actual length of these keywords technically isn’t relevant. Long-tail keywords tend to be at least three words long due to their specificity, but precise low-volume searches that are only one or two words long (such as many brand names) are also considered long-tail keywords.

How to use long-tail keywords in 2021

Standalone broad keyword strategies are a matter of the past. Years ago, hunting for long-tail keywords with a seemingly low search volume probably seemed and felt like a waste of time and effort. However, long-tail keywords contain so much opportunity in order to connect with your audience which are likely to be converting and paying customers.

In 2021 (almost 2022), the combination of Google’s increased focus on user experience and search intent, and the steady increase of conversational search and voice search, means that long-tail keyword SEO strategies are more important than ever before. Incorporating these can be a real game changer for your company.

Long-tail keywords are also a crucial part of optimizing for ensuring your content is connecting with your audience by showing them exactly what they’re searching for. We live in an age where 55% of millennials use voice search daily. When these users query these platforms, they use long-tail keyword phrases such as questions (what are the best cafe’s with matcha lattes nearby?) and commands with clear intent (compare the price of the blazer from Zara and H&M).

Put yourself in the shoes of the customer to predict the intent behind naturally spoken and voice search questions so that you can provide the most clear and direct answers about your business and services and better target these long-tail keyword phrases. Even better than guessing what your customer’s are guessing, we suggest to do market research and ask a group of people in your target market for their Google searches relative to your content and product and/or service.

Final thoughts

In addition to long-tail keyword 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 Facebook advertising or want to learn more about us? Contact us here today.

 

 

 

3 Crucial SEO Tips for 2021

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Search engine optimization, SEO, by definition is: a strategy in digital marketing which aims to improve your ranking on search engines.

Sounds easy to conquer, but we all know it isn’t so simple. It’s extremely difficult to keep up with Google’s 500-600 algorithm updates annually. That means there is at least one update per day every year. Experts who dedicate their careers to unlocking the secret to search engine ranking optimization still are puzzled at the end of the day. Fear not, we are here to help guide you with the top 3 SEO tips for 2021 that will get you on the right track to ranking success.

1. Understand your website’s core vitals

Maybe you’ve never heard the phrase before, but the philosophy behind it is becoming more crucial to your SEO and ranking. In May of 2022, Google will roll out Page Experience, which is a brand new algorithm ranking pages based off of their “core web vital” scores. A brief overview of what to look out for here is: 

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – Measures page speed. This is the time it takes for a page’s main content to load. The ideal LCP is 2.5 seconds or faster.

First Input Delay (FID) – Measures page responsiveness. This is the time it takes for a page to become interactive. The ideal FID is less than 100 ms. 

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – Measures visual stability. This is the amount of unexpected layout shift of visual page content. The ideal CLS is less than .1.

2. Focus on featured snippets
If they aren’t already, featured snippets should be a priority to include in your SEO strategy for 2021. Also commonly referred to as the holy grail of search, featured snippets appear at the very top of search engine page results (SERP), or in position zero, in a rectangular box. You can’t technically “select” the content shown in a featured snippet, but you can optimize your content so it’s more likely to appear in a featured snippet. Here are a few recommendations.

Use questions: all content that you write needs to be composed with the user in mind. What would they search in Google in order to come across your content?

Long term keywords: the longer words in a search query, the higher chance it will return a featured snippet. Only 4.3% of single word keywords resulted in a featured snippet as compared to 17% of keywords made up of 5 words, and 55.5% of keywords made of 10 words.
Keep formats in mind: When it comes to featured snippets, there are four different formats: paragraph, list, table and video. While writing your content with the goal of achieving a featured snippet, keep these different formats in mind. Also remember, Google wants to display information easily and distinctly to searchers looking for a fast answer. So format for the speed reader.

3. Focus on user experience
 In 2021, user experience is more important than ever in terms of SEO. As mentioned in tip #1, the new focus on core web vitals is all about user experience. In addition to that, Google also takes into account bounce rate, dwell time, and click-through percentage. The goal is to have a user click on your result, spend time clicking on different pages, and spend at least 3 minutes on your site.

More From Onimod Global

As certified SEO experts, our team is here to assist your business with holistic digital marketing strategies including SEO, because our goal is to make you more sucessful. To get in contact for an audit on your digital presence, get in touch with us here.

How to Improve Your Local Search Rankings on Google

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Do you feel like your business’s visibility on Google is lacking? If your business isn’t showing up for relevant searches in your area, it’s time to reevaluate your local SEO strategy, specifically your efforts on Google My Business. This is one of the simplest tools you can use to improve your local Google ranking and quickly. 

If you don’t already have a robust Google My Business strategy, here are some things you can do to up your game. 

1. Enter Complete Data

Businesses with complete and accurate information are easy to match up with the right search queries. This is why it’s crucial to consistently keep your information up to date, especially if you’re making changes to your business. You want users to be able to easily tell what you do, where you are and when they can visit. Be sure to always have your address, contact information, business category and attributes filled out on your profile and up to date. 

2. Verify Your Location 

Verifying your location will make it more likely you show up in Maps and Search on Google. The simplest way to verify your location is through a postcard. To do this, all you have to do is request Google to send you a postcard to your business address. Before you request, be sure you have the following steps completed: 

  1. You have a standard Google Account for your business. 
  2. You have a Business Profile. 
  3. You have a Google My Business account.
  4. You’ve claimed your Business Profile. 
  5. You’ve verified ownership of your business. 

They usually arrive within 2 weeks. Once you’ve received the postcard, you’ll notice a verification code. You’ll enter this into your Google My Business profile and your location will be verified. 

3. Keep Your Hours Accurate 

Accurate hours let customers know when you’re available and give them confidence you’ll be open if they take the time to travel to you. Accurate hours are also another factor Google uses in determining if your business is legitimate, ranking your relevancy for each query accordingly. Be sure to update your hours regularly, including when you open and close and if you have special hours for holidays or events. 

4. Manage and Respond to Reviews 

One of the most critical factors to online rankings are customer reviews. A large number of genuine reviews lets customers know you’re a real and reputable company. To grow your number of reviews, frequently ask for customer feedback through email, on social and in person. Be sure to link your Google My Business Profile so they know where to leave the review. Responding to reviews can be just as important as getting them. This shows you listen to your customers and value their feedback. Google also highly favors business with a large number of positive reviews when it comes to relevant searches. 

5. Add Photos

To showcase your goods and services, and to tell the story of your business, add photos to your Business Profile. Accurate and appealing pictures may also show shoppers that your business offers what they’re searching for. These images may also appear in Google search results if a user is searching for your products or about your industry. Thus, growing your brand awareness and increasing your overall reach. 

Final Thoughts

At Onimod Global, we’re a trusted Google Partner. Meaning we specialize in all Google Ad areas including: 

  • Search Advertising 
  • Mobile Advertising 
  • Video Advertising 
  • Display Advertising 
  • Shopping Advertising 

If you need assistance in any area of Google Ads, SEO or SEM in general, contact us today. 

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Content Creation Tips to Improve Your SEO

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When it comes to SEO, a common misconception is that to be successful, you must “trick” the algorithm. Actually, it’s about having a grasp on the key elements of the algorithm and aligning your content strategy with these SEO considerations in mind, while also optimizing for your readership. 

Check out these simple ways to create high performing content that can also help improve your search rankings. 

1. Start with keyword research. 

One piece of content should have 1 primary keyword target and 5-10 additional keyword targets. Think about what your audience might be looking for and what questions they ask online to help determine your primary keyword. Generally, the most successful keywords have high search volume and low difficulty. Keyword difficulty refers to how much competition a keyword or phrase has. The higher the value, the more difficult it will be to compete with others using that keyword as well. It can be difficult to identify the sweet spot of seed keywords (high search volume + low difficulty) but when you do, it can have a great impact on your overall success. 

2. Determine search intent. 

Search intent refers to the primary goal a user has when performing a search query. Oftentimes, users are searching for a specific answer or research. To identify keyword search intent, look for clues in SERP titles. For example, if someone is looking for: 

  • Informational answers, they might use: guide, tutorial, how, what, tips, steps, etc. 
  • Navigational answers, they might use: brand name, product, service, etc. 
  • Commercial answers, they might use: best, cheapest, top, review, etc. 
  • Transactional answers, they might use: buy, price, coupon, promo code, etc. 

Once you’ve determined the intent, you then have to identify the proper format to go along with it. Conduct research by checking the top 10 articles in the results page. What formats are other sites using, what are their CTAs and what are their titles and descriptions? 

3. Optimize meta titles, meta-descriptions and H1s. 

A well-optimized meta title: 

  • Corresponds to identified search intent 
  • Contains target keywords 
  • Consists up to 60 characters 
  • Persuades users to click to your website 
  • Includes a CTA 

A meta-description encourages users to click on the SERP links and should: 

  • Be unique 
  • Be 1-2 sentences 
  • Describe the page
  • Include target keywords 
  • Play to a specific emotion
  • Include a CTA 

H1s introduce your content to your audience, so you want to make it catchy. You can create the best performing H1s by:

  • Describing what is going to be discussed in the body of the text. 
  • Include conversational terms such as how, what, why, etc. 
  • Include numbered lists (Top 10, Best 5, etc.) 

4. Structure content to make it easily digestible. 

This is why it’s important that online content is structured to be easy to scan and read. Since you never know who might stumble upon your site, you don’t want them to immediately bounce because your content is confusing or includes too many technical terms to be easily understood. To break up your content, use multiple levels of headers and ensure it’s easy to tell which content belongs to which header. Additional best practices include: 

  • Only discussing one topic per paragraph.
  • Avoiding lengthy sentences.
  • Highlighting main ideas by bolding, italicizing or changing fonts.
  • Include bulleted or numbered lists. 

5. Include optimized visual content. 

Visuals like images, videos, infographics, checklists, templates, etc. break up your content and allow readers to digest content quicker. When including visuals, be sure to optimize their size, names and Alt tags. These practices will ensure quicker page load times, make your content unique, more descriptive and 

More from Onimod Global 

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.