For a while now, content that’s been getting out there in the digital universe has been created with a ‘business-and-ranking first’ approach. All that is set to change with Google’s new content update which has been created to reward content that puts ‘people first’. Needless to say, businesses and brands that have aced the game when it comes to creating Google algorithm-focused content will need to rethink and realign their content creation strategies. With this new update, Google will ensure that customers get their rightful access to content that’s not just original but relevant and helpful to their diverse and yet distinctive needs. Here’s a blog that shares 5 insightful things you need to keep in mind, in order to keep your content aligned with Google’s latest rollout in the world of digital content.
The importance of Local SEO for businesses
SEO is a commonly followed practice that enables businesses to increase the visibility of their websites and consequently, their rankings across search engine platforms. While general SEO tactics will help a business get customer views, it is broad-based and leads to views from a far wider geographic area – often beyond the servicing reach of the business. This translates into plenty of clicks but very few conversions or opportunities of real business. What a business needs is for its SEO to focus on a specific target area that’s within a conveniently reachable radius of the business, for the generated leads to convert into maximum in-person visits and transactions. This is where local SEO plays a key part in the growth story of local businesses. Here’s a blog that will help you understand the basics of local SEO and techniques to optimize it in order to achieve improved rankings for your business on platforms that matter.
Everything you need to know about Off-page SEO and how it works for your brand
Brands that focus on SEO as a channel can overtake and outperform even the biggest companies in organic search, provided they have more than great content ideas. However, it is important to understand and acknowledge that to own organic search results, one also needs an ironclad off-page SEO strategy. This is because you need to show Google that your content is valuable, sought after and worthy of being ranked high in searches. An Off-page SEO strategy will help you amplify your On-page SEO and therefore, optimize the online footprint of your brands. Here’s a blog that will not only give you an overview of Off-page SEO but will also help you understand the most potent ways to optimize your Off-page SEO.
“Marketing For Your Future” with Gaurav Mendiratta from SocioSquares
Cindy: Hello, and welcome to another episode of marketing for your future. I’m your host Cindy Ashraf from the daily ad brief coming to you from New York City. And on the other side of the country, from the San Francisco Bay area, we have Gaurav Mendiratta, and he is from sociosquares.
Hello, Gaurav.
Rav: Hi, Cindy, thank you so much for having me.
Cindy: Oh, my goodness, we are so thrilled to have you on the show today. Tell us a little bit about your business.
Case Study: Why should local businesses in the US opt for Google Guaranteed ads in their PPC campaign?
From browsing through scores of reviews to asking friends and colleagues for recommendations. Customers do everything possible to get an assurance of quality before they decide to transact with a local business. Imagine a tool that can not only help customers eliminate all this trouble but also make it easier for businesses to win the trust of their customers. This is where the Google Guaranteed Ad comes in. Read this blog to understand the basics of a Google Guaranteed Ad and why you need to consider making it a part of your digital marketing campaign.
What is a Google Guarantee?
How do customers make a choice that doesn’t result in an unpleasant product or service experience? If only, there was an assurance that every customer could rely on; an assurance that would give customers the courage and the confidence to go ahead and choose a business that serves their needs. Oh, but there is.
Google Guarantee is a badge that’s selectively awarded to those businesses that meet Google’s exacting parameters of excellence. Businesses carrying this badge imply they have been verified by Google on factors including background, insurance, liability and more. This badge also means Google will reimburse the amount paid if the customer is not satisfied by the service provided by the business bearing its badge.
What is a Google Guaranteed Ad?
A Google Guaranteed Ad will have the name and details of a business as in a regular local service ad, but with one difference. It will also have a green color badge with a white checkmark, a ‘Google Guaranteed’ tag and your average star-rating alongside it. A Google Guaranteed Ad will do in an instant what no ordinary ad can hope to achieve. It will tell the customer the business bearing this badge is verified by Google and can be expected to deliver a service or product experience of high quality standards.
The benefits of running Google Guaranteed Ads
1) Be seen at the top of the page:
It’s a fact, over 75% of people surfing the net don’t scroll past the first page of search results. Your regular local service ad may get you a spot somewhere on the first page but a Google Guaranteed Ad gives your business the privilege of being seen right at the top of the local stack. You become visible as soon as the page opens and this maximizes your chances of both clicks and leads.
2) Earn trust in an instant:
As per one study, trust is a deciding factor in making purchase decisions for 81% of customers. A Google Guaranteed Ad will help you win the trust of this audience, because the badge you carry tells them your business is screened and verified as a reputable and trustworthy business.
3) Give your business a superior edge:
The average star rating and prominent green checkmark on your ad will enable your business to stand out distinctly amidst your competition. In fact, your green check marked ads will convey a message loud and clear – businesses that are not Google verified are not as trustworthy, competent and reliable as you and therefore, not worth clicking on.
4) Assurance even in audio searches and calls:
When a customer uses voice search options such as Google Assistant or Google Home to find your business, they will hear an affirmation that your business is Google Guaranteed. The same applies when customers try reaching your business via calls. Think of the leap in conversions that’ll follow with this small change in the way you enable the world to locate or contact you.
5) Let customers know you’ll go the extra mile:
Taking the efforts to comply with Google’s stringent verification protocols speaks volumes about your business. For instance, it tells them that your business is genuine and dependable and you are open to doing everything necessary to guarantee your customers’ satisfaction.
6) Get qualified leads:
Your Google Guaranteed Local Service Ads will only be visible to customers in your service area. Furthermore, with a Google Guaranteed Ad, you only need to pay if a customer calls you or messages you directly through the ad. This ensures you invest only on leads that are solid for your business.
How to qualify for a Google Guarantee
It follows logically that if a Google Guaranteed Ad spells assurance, then a Google Guarantee Badge entails scrutiny. The screening procedures deployed by Google to award its much-desired ‘green checkmark’ badge include checks that cover a business’s license, insurance and background.
As you would have learnt by now, adding Google Guaranteed Ads in your PPC campaign will not only help you win trust easier but also land better quality leads in the long run. If you’d like to explore the power of Google Guaranteed Ads for your business, you could look us up. We’re SocioSquares – a digital marketing agency with over 11 years of experience in helping small to medium-sized clients achieve faster growth with the right digital strategies. Whether you’re looking for a PPC campaign for roofers, an expert in roofing PPC or even just a company that specializes in digital marketing for roofers, give us a call. We’d love to know more about your business and then work out a plan that perfectly matches your growth aspirations.
CASE STUDY: HOW MAXIMUS COLLECTIBLES USED GOOGLE SHOPPING FEED OPTIMIZATION TO INCREASE CLICKS, IMPRESSIONS AND SALES
Ecommerce SEO is slightly different from normal Organic SEO. Ecommerce SEO optimizes websites with a large variety of products with identical features and ensures that visitors find the optimized website whenever they search with an intent to buy.
Maximus Collectibles is an Ecommerce shop that sells online Pokémon cards. Eddie Yakubvitch, who is the owner of this online store, desired to increase sales through organic SEO.
What we set out to test
To increase the sales & drive traffic, SocioSquares decided to implement Google Shopping Feed Optimization Ecommerce SEO strategy and tactics which contributed to increasing the quantum of sales generated by Maximus Collectibles’ online store.
Why does Shopping Feed Optimization matter?
Shopping feeds matter because they provide a shortcut for shoppers to access your product pages from search engines, when a query is relevant to your business.
The digital experts at SocioSquares devised and followed a step-by-step strategy that resulted in optimization of Maximus Collectible’s shopping feed and a corresponding increase in its number of quality leads. You could follow this tried-and-proven process too, if you want your business to benefit the same way as Maximus Collectibles.
How we started to experiment
1) Open a Google My Merchant Account
One of the first things we did was to open a Google Merchant Account for Maximus Collectibles. The reason, a GMA is an invaluable tool for marketing both physical as well as digital products and services. Here’s how you can open a free account. Go to Google Merchant Store and open a free merchant account for your online store in 2 simple steps.
2) Create a Product or Shopping Feed
Did you know that 90% of all product searches are done by people who’re looking to buy? Our next step was to create a product or shopping feed to enable Maximus Collectibles to leverage eager customers looking for its products online.
One of the most important things we kept in mind when optimizing our client’s product shopping feed was to showcase the product adequately, and give customers a good reason to buy it.
After creating our client’s Shopping Feed Account, we added the following product details to optimize the shopping feed.
Product Title
Product Description
Product Specifications
Product Image
Stock Status
SC: Showing optimized product feed of the Maximus collectible
3) Use Precise Keywords
Keywords are like call-out signs. If your call-out isn’t right, you’ll pull in customers you don’t really want. By choosing the right keywords, we ensured the right eyeballs for Maximus Collectibles’ online store.The result, leads that scored on both quality and quantity.
4) Optimize Your Website for Ecommerce
We followed all the necessary SEO protocols to ensure the website of Maximus Collectibles was optimized for better performance and leads. Here’s a brief overview of the details involved in the optimization process.
- Add the right keywords to the product Titles & Descriptions
- Add image alt tags & proper image file names
- Use keyword-specific URLs
Google Shopping feed: Results
SC: Impression & Clicks in April 2022 for Maximus Collectibles
When you adopt the right strategy and process, the results begin to show. Within a few days of website optimization, Maximus Collectibles got 179 clicks & 66.69 k impressions & 0.3% CTR (for the month of April) through its Google Shopping Feed, with quality leads being generated along the way. Making Google Shopping Feed Optimization a part of our strategy contributed to a high lead conversion rate.
SC: Clicks in April 2022 on important product pages
The following statistics show the leads and clicks generated even after we stopped working on that campaign.
SC : 226 clicks generated in May 2022
Connect with us, to optimize your Ecommerce store with Google Shopping Feeds.
Want to experience growth in leads without wasting your time, efforts and money? Want to see your business grow to the scale that you have in mind, without unwanted pain and stress? All you need to do is talk to us, and like Maximus Collectibles, we’ll make sure you become our next success case study.
5 unique ways to generate leads for your Pest Control Business
As the owner of a pest control business, you know all too well that it takes more than just functional expertise, a courteous attitude and great prices to grow your business. It takes a five letter word that’s now considered basic vocabulary in every business’s growth book – Leads. Here’s the catch though. You want to generate more leads for your pest control business. But you want to do it without seeing a good chunk of your profits disappear the way a piece of cake disappears in a rodent infested home. Possible? Definitely. Here are 5 proven ways that will help you bump up those leads by yourself in the most cost-effective way possible.
Why Your Roofing Business should try out Google Guarantee Ads
There’s a power in the term ‘Guarantee’ that not only gains the attention of customers but also wins their trust. And if that term is backed by a name that’s the absolute go-to place for hundreds of millions of customers around the world, it delivers an advantage that’s unmatched. A Google Guaranteed Ad is a great tool for businesses that are looking to increase high quality leads in the shortest time, in the most cost-effective way possible.
How to rank your Window Treatment Business in the Local Pack
In the world of sport, the ultimate victory is about making it to the top 3. It is to earn a spot amidst the top 3 and not beyond it, that competitive athletes and sports people try every training technique in the book, every strategy on the board and every improvisation possible without breaking the rules. Now, substitute the winning podium with Google listings and competing sporting pros with businesses, and you’ll get the logic behind the Google Local Pack. A group of three local business listings that appear on top of the search engine result pages. The results would typically show customers the Google My Business profiles and maps of the businesses making it to the pack.
How to capture high value leads with cost effective PPC ads
PPC ads. It’s the new mantra for virtually every contracting business that’s looking to grow their quantum of leads in a cost-effective way. However, even with a low cost per lead and a sizeable number of leads, there’s a high probability that your actual usable or ‘opportunity’ leads end up being just a fraction of the surge. So how do you ensure better quality lead generation from your PPC campaigns? Here’s a 7-point plan that’ll help you ensure your PPC campaign isn’t just a loose cannon exploding out there but a laser-sharp targeting mechanism intended exclusively for landing only the leads that matters.
