Jessica R.’s Post

Meditation for SEOs: Put some instrumental electronic music on your headphones and start a Technical Audit. Amirite?

SEOs ARE GETTING THIS WRONG “Driving brand search should be your number one SEO priority” “SEO is brand FIRST now” But they missed one VERY important point - the changing SERP. The organic product carousel that Google is rolling out for more and more navigational and commercial queries. This grid is an organic collation of merchants selling the product that you searched for. Let’s say you search for “black Nike sneakers” Once upon a time, you’d always see a list of merchants selling Nike sneakers, with the Nike store at the top. But that is changing. Now, you might still search for “black Nike sneakers” but you’d get a collation of merchants within that product grid - most of which are NOT the official Nike website. Sometimes the carousel even ranks ABOVE the first traditional organic result. Another example: you might search for “Macy's mom jeans” but you’d get a grid of mom jeans from a whole host of merchants that are NOT Macy's. And there’s more: Users can then filter these results by giving an image a thumbs up or thumbs down, sharing their style preferences, and Google will then reshuffle the pack. So instead of brand search driving MORE queries, we’ll actually see your share of clicks through brand search decline. Why? Because competitors will rank in those shopping grids and users will be able to immediately spot price difference, or decide they like the other brands mom jeans more. This is bad news for merchants who have built brands and invested a lot into driving brand search. Their hard work will be chipped away at by the changing SERP. But IMO this IS a better user experience within search. The user will be able to see their options without the additional click. Most commerce focused CMS (eg Shopify) have direct integration with merchant centre feeds. So it’s SO important that you: > configure your store really well with clear navigation and site structure > optimise your markup for every product detail possible > get really granular on product features and variations > focus on the quality of your product landing pages > keep all of your product information up to date > audit your internal linking and improve it > prioritise high quality product imagery This is the most important thing to get right for e-commerce brands right No amount of PR is going to change the direction of the SERP.

USE THIS FREE TOOL TO UNDERSTAND AI OVERVIEW LANDSCAPE I love this free tool by AWR. It breaks down how often AI Overviews are shown by Google across industry and intent. Interesting points: > Indicates how Google interprets intent across industries. For example, Health queries overwhelmingly more AI overviews than other industries - shows that most people's health-related searches are informational, not commercial. > Travel not showing a lot of AI overviews in comparison. Google's own Travel product likely a big factor here. > Insurance very low on AI Overviews. Shows that insurance queries are mostly commercial/transactional. Could Google go after insurance as a product in the SERP next? > Real Estate also overwhelmingly low on AI Overviews. Makes sense with regards to the obvious intent - but also potentially opportunity for Google to pursue? Hate to say it, but seems like a logical way for Google to enter the market in industry-specific SERP > by understanding where AI won't impact clicks and pursuing highest sectors for transactional & commercial queries. Good idea to use this tool as a brand in any of these spaces in order to anticipate how your SEO strategy needs to adapt to AI.

INTERNATIONAL E-COMMERCE SITES PLEASE STOP DOING THIS It is SUCH frustrating user experience. And Google has said numerous times "stop doing it!". Do not automatically redirect users based on their location. I am an English speaker and I search in English. But I live in Spain. And when I get redirected to a Spanish version of a site - I DON'T UNDERSTAND ANY OF IT. Not only that, but it can cause a whole host of issues: > Redirecting users based on IP address can lead to inaccuracies, such as showing the wrong language or currency. > Google primarily crawls from the US, which can result in discrepancies if your site redirects based on location, affecting how Google indexes and evaluates your site. > Automatic redirection can cause Google to view and index the incorrect version of your site, leading to disapproval of product feeds and potential blocking from Merchant Center ads. Here's my view of best practise: > Do not use IP-based redirection to adapt content. > Allow users to select their preferred currency via a dropdown or link > Use geolocation targeting to display the correct currency (not redirect)

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GOOGLE SEARCH?? Here's the truth. Thanks to Datos (owned by SEMrush) and Sparktoro, we have a much clearer idea. To summarise the most important points from the 2024 Zero-Click Search study: > For every 1,000 EU Google searches, only 374 clicks go to websites that aren't owned by Google, and in the US it's 360 I was on a panel recently where I said that 90% of informational search queries would end up in ZERO clicks very soon. It sounded like a BIG number, but we're already at nearly 60%. > Almost 30% of all clicks go to platforms OWNED by Google. IMO, Google has exploited their monopoly on Search here. Algorithms continue to wipe out small sites, but Google's own products continue to win. Is it because of their INCREDIBLE content? No. It's because they OWN Google and they can do what the hell they like with it. > Market share, total searches and searches per user are stronger than ever. And so is the price of their stock. The data shows us that all of rhetoric about Google crumbling is not actually backed up by the numbers. Yes, people are using other platforms to search, but it is supplementary - it's not that they are ditching Google to use Tik Tok exclusively. > AI overviews seemingly prompted a DECLINE in mobile searches, which Rand Fishkin theorises led to Google rolling back the feature. Google rolling back the feature tells me that they had data which indicated a decline in search activity. Maybe people want to click on blogs afterall?

This is how Search will evolve.... When tech advancements happen, they tend to focus on REMOVING unnecessary steps in the process of using a service, buying a product, or getting something done. They streamline human activity and help you get from A > B with less steps and in quicker time So when we apply that logic to Search, what do we find? a) people have to research a product first, go to multiple different sites to do it, and it can take days, weeks b) if they want to buy an outfit for example, they might have to type their details and make a purchase on multiple different websites So the typical user journey for a festival outfit might look like this: Tik Tok Search Pinterest Search Blog Post Google Search > Price Comparison Tik Tok Search Instagram Search = Purchase Decision > Back to Google Search > Click to Website: Buy But what if we did ALL of those stages in ONE place? What if informational search and commercial search were happening in one place? Google Search = AI outfit curation > AI overview > One Click Purchase IMO Tik Tok are making moves to create this type of user journey. They've got overviews, they've got video, they've got a shop. ALL natively. Whichever platform does this FIRST will win the battle for Search market share. What do you guys think? How will search evolve in your opinion? #google #search #ai

THE SEARCH STRATEGY OF THE FUTURE IS.... Topical Domination. Definition: when you own the topic or keyword across channels. See the example below: TripAdvisor had a Paid Search ranking, SEO ranking, Instagram Reel and Tik Tok targeting the keyword 'best beaches in europe' and they had visibility in the top spots across the board. Benefits of Topical Domination: 1️⃣ If the SERPs are dominated by blogs or social - you can win either way. 2️⃣ Your brand is everywhere, no matter which platform users prefer. 3️⃣ Protects your share of voice from algorithm updates. It's not always possible (especially for smaller brands) to dominate all core topics cross-channel. But that's where you prioritise based on: - Amount of competition - Best ROI So if you're a makeup brand, you might want to focus on dominating two key topics in 2024: Vegan Foundation and Using Highlighter for Beginners Because you're launching a new vegan foundation AND because you've got a high ranking SEO blog post that you can easily repurpose for other channels. I talked about Topical Domination in my presentation at Digital Marketing World Forum yesterday and I've had tonnes of messages asking more about it. Think your brand is primed to dominate your niche? Drop me a message and I'd be happy to help you understand the opportunity.

TOPICAL DOMINATION = WIN Just did a talk at the Digital Marketing World Forum 2024 on Topical Domination. It’s how I think brands can best protect and grow their share of voice regardless of what happened in AI, with Google updates etc. Dominate clusters of keywords and topics cross-channel. I made this phrase up TBH. And I was nervous to present it. Cold, sweaty hands. It’s scary talking in front of lots of people who are experts in their field! But I loved it. So here’s to pushing through the fear and doing it anyway.

YOU'RE SILLY IF YOU THINK THIS If you think "SEO" could ever die, you're a bit silly IMO. Because that means that you think humans will stop searching. And they won't. Just FYI.