Acceptance of Circumstances, AI Search, Being Found On Bing, Being Found on Google, blog, Blog, Blogging, brand promise, Customer Service, good will creation, Google My Business Profile, keywords, marketing best practices, online presence, pull marketing, relationship building, Search Engine Optimization, search terms, SEO, staying current, target audiences, Target Marketing, Understanding Your Environment, User experience, walking

To Continue To Succeed At SEO, “You’re Going To Need A Quality Shoe”

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Mark Knopfler fans will understand where the quoted phrase in our blog headline comes from. I was first introduced to Mark’s wonderful storytelling abilities by my husband, Jay, when we were dating or first married. One of Mark’s songs that I first took a great liking to was his song “Quality Shoe.” Be prepared for the earworm that comes from wanting to listen to this song over and over!

“Quality Shoe” by Mark Knopfler YouTube video

What Do Shoes Have To Do With SEO?

The answer to the question above is this: a great deal!

As we’ve called out in a number of blog posts over the past year, the SEO landscape continues to shift — and on a daily basis. As we recently expressed in this blog post about thriving — not just surviving — in the SEO jungle, it’s our belief at our Boston SEO Company/digital marketing agency that the organizations who will continue rank well in search-engine results, despite all the change on the search-engine front, are those that really try to walk in their target audiences’ shoes and answer the questions and concerns they have. And, keep in mind, that these questions and concerns may be related to the product or service the organizations who succeed at SEO offer, or they may be unrelated, or only distantly related.

Sure, as we discussed in another blog post about succeeding at SEO, entitled “Give The People What They Want, you can use keyword research tools to determine on which topics, particularly questions, your target audiences are regularly conducting Google searches. But part of walking in your target audiences’ shoes also includes:

  • digging down deep mentally and emotionally to really understand your marketplace and your organization’s place in it
  • making and taking the time to think about what are the likely questions your target audiences have about your products or services, plus, about working with/buying from/engaging your organization
  • brainstorming with individuals at all levels of your organization, particularly those who are in customer-service roles, or who actually provide or deliver your product or service, to determine what client “pain points” your product or service addresses
  • reaching out to customers with whom you have a strong and longstanding relationship to ask them for feedback about why they chose to work with your organization or buy your product, and how the product or service has made their life or job easier
  • In addition to chatting with your organization’s staff and clients about the problems your products or services solve and using those to inform website and other online content your organization publishes, as part of such internal and external discussions, ask about other pains/challenges your target audiences deal with regularly (even if you don’t offer a solution to them). Simply providing helpful information online on topics or questions that are tangential to your products or services, but important to your target audiences, is a great way to have search engines serve up your website or Google My Business Profile in related to searches being conducted by your target audiences even if they aren’t directly related to your organization. It’s a win-win.

So, break out those quality shoes and start the walking-in-your-clients’-shoes process today! And, check out this blog post that speaks to another reason you and your organization are “going to need some quality shoes.”

Plus, if you’re an avid walker (literally vs. figuratively) like us, check out our many blog posts about walking by selecting walking as your category when you visit our blog.

Need Help Determining What Online Content Would Benefit Your Target Audiences?

Schedule a complimentary SEO discussion today!

Acceptance of Circumstances, AI Search, Being Found On Bing, Being Found on Google, marketing best practices, online presence, organic SEO, pull marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, staying current, target audiences, website

How To Thrive, Not Just Survive, In the AI Search Jungle

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I recently conducted research for a digital marketing roundtable I’m facilitating and participating in with a bunch of fellow digital marketing experts this week. The SCORE Boston roundtable provides the opportunity for small businesses, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs to get their burning digital marketing questions answered. I knew one of the biggest questions that was going to come my way — being a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert — was going to be related to AI search.

What Does AI Search Mean?

“AI Search” is a very broad, general term that is used to refer to/encompass:

  • the tools aka search engines used by individuals to gather collected and streamlined information related to various questions and topics on which they are searching online
  • the way/means that many searchers want and expect to gather information using search engines today vs. the way they did several years ago
    • individuals don’t want search engines to just spit back a series of websites or other online/digital properties and profiles that they would, then, need to separately visit — they want content served up to them that most closely answers their questions/challenges without having to figure out which online properties served up in search engine results they should visit/would most directly answer their question(s)
  • the serving up of content by search engines that best suits a searcher’s needs/reason for searching based on signals the search engine is getting from the searcher; the consolidation and gathering of content all in one place — saving searchers time and money; in addition to serving up consolidated/summarized content that search-engines believe will best meet a searcher’s needs, the serving up of websites (from which summarized/cited/consolidated content is drawn) that will provide more detail (in case the searcher wants to dig deeper), plus the provision of videos, infographics, and images in search results that may answer a searcher’s question. We bolded the aforementioned statement because this is a very important shift related to SEO and how search engines present information of which organizations wanting and needing to be found online need to be aware.

In sum, AI search is all about gathering and summarizing various digital properties and assets that will make it as easy as possible for the searcher to understand a particular topic and be able to take action, based on getting sufficient, digestible/consumable information to take the next step.

This image shows a jungle with lots of large green leafy plants and trees plus zebra, giraffe and elephants near a river, pond or stream. It's shown in keeping with our thoughts regarding the AI Search Jungle.

Numerous AI Search Engines Fighting For SEO Supremacy

At the time of the research we referenced completing at the top of this blog post, we were able to identify approximately 30 different AI search-engines fighting for SEO Supremacy, and there’s likely more to come. Plus, because Google recently lost an antitrust lawsuit, it’s likely that other search engines are going to gain a greater foothold in the world of search, particularly Bing. In general, in the past, SEO best practices were geared toward pleasing Google and responding to Google’s ranking algorithms (however, note that most past SEO activities related to ranking well on Google should have also supported ranking well in other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc.).

So, What Should An Organization Who Wants And Needs To Be Found Online Do On The SEO Front During This Big Search-Engine Shift And Period Of Uncertainty?

We believe that, regardless of which search engines become the dominant ones in the world of AI search, each and every search engine is going to want to serve up helpful content that answers pressing questions of searchers. Because, hey, that’s what AI Search is all about. As SEO experts, we believe what we’ve shared in these past blog posts still holds very true and will support organizations ranking well in whatever search engines individuals start using most, including AI ones:

Understanding Google’s New Emphasis On “Helpful Content” Related To SEO
How To Plan & Prepare Now For Google SGE Impact: Be Ready & Willing To Rock The Boat!
What Content Served Up In Google Generative AI Has In Common: 8 Practices To Implement Now

Need Help Figuring Out How To Fare Well In The World Of AI Search? Reach Out To Our Boston SEO Company Today!

alt-tags, Being Found On Bing, Being Found on Google, keywords, organic SEO, pull marketing, Search Engine Optimization, search terms, SEO, SEO tags, website

Three Website Meta Tags That Still Matter In The Game Of SEO

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Let’s dive right in about the three website meta tags that we believe, and are witnessing, still matter in the game of SEO (search engine optimization).

#1: SEO Page Title Tags And SEO Post Title Tags

In countless posts about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), we’ve talked about how important it is for organizations to use appropriate high-volume keywords and geographic “triggers” in their behind-the-scenes meta SEO page title and meta SEO post title tags.

Some digital marketers may believe that tagging pages and posts appropriately to be found on Google in relevant geographies is far less important with the introduction of AI search tools, including Google SGE. Of course, that could always become the case down the road, but based on what we’re currently seeing related to one-off and ongoing SEO-tactic implementation and Google rankings audits we continue to complete, we continue to believe that constructing your SEO tags appropriately and entering them in the appropriate spot in your website CMS (content management system) is extremely important to achieving optimal SEO results. Whether it be via WordPress plug-ins like Yoast or AllInOneSEO (the SEO plug-in we use on our site) or capabilities that come with a Web Builder platform like WIX or GoDaddy — entering page and post title tags is one of the most critical, if not the most-critical of SEO steps to take if you want your website to rank well for relevant, desirable search terms used by your target audiences in relevant geographies.

We always like to say “SEO Page and SEO Post Title Tags are your most important piece of SEO real estate.” They tell Google what a particular page of your site or blog post is all about, including the products and services you offer, and where you offer them. As Google crawls/indexes your website it looks for direction and information about the former from your site. And, now, unlike 5 years ago, these tags are likely to be included in reader-facing search-engine results (plus, they appear in website visitors’ browsers), so it’s important to get these right! And, It’s worth hiring an expert like our SEO company, Results Communications, to ensure your website title tags are optimized to achieve the best possible Google rankings results.

This is a gray square image with a dark powder blue text that reads "3 Website Meta Tags That Still Matter In The Game Of SEO (Being Found On Google." It includes the following bulleted list: SEO Page & Post Title Tags, Meta Description Tags, Image Alt Tags

#2 Meta Description Tags

The above tags may or may not be included in the description (lines of text) that Google serves up in a search engine results listing along with a link to your website since, as mentioned above, Google will likely include your SEO page/post title tag now, plus pull other snippets of content from your site. We used to say that, “meta descriptions don’t directly influence how organizations’ websites rank in Google.” But rather, that they indirectly influence it because if meta description content/copy is compelling and includes a call-to-action like “learn why SEO page title tags are your most important piece of SEO real estate” or “read why you shouldn’t expose yourself to blue light before bed,” more individuals will be likely to click on the link to your website that accompanies such content.

And the above-mentioned, in turn, drives more traffic to your website. And, Google gives preference to serving up higher-traffic-volume sites in its search results because it likes to serve up the most creditable sites, and Google uses traffic volume as an indicator of a site’s positive reputation/credibility.

What Is Website Click-thru Rate (CTR)?

It’s important to note that we’ve recently read that Google does now take into consideration a website’s click-thru-rate (CTR) when deciding how to rank various competing websites. Per Google’s own AI overview related to this, “Google uses CTR as a signal of how engaging and reader-friendly content is, and it can indicate how well a website is performing in terms of SEO and user engagement. High CTRs can tell search engines that people like what a website has to offer, which can help it rank higher in search results.” So what is the CTR and how can you find out what yours is?

Your website CTR represents the percentage of search-engine searchers who, after having a listing with a link to your website served up to them in search-engine results, actually click on the link to visit your website.

Since Google still reigns by far as the most-used search-engine, it’s most important to understand your website CTR as pertains to Google searchers who are searching on relevant terms in your desired geography. As the below print screen taken from Google Search Console shows, you can get information on your website click-thru rate using your Google Search Console account (reach out to us if you need help setting up a Google Search Console account or understanding the value of having one).

#3: Image Alt Tags

Like the other two types of website meta tags, we’ve talked about image alt tags in previous posts, including this blog post about the need to tag website infographics so that visually impaired site visitors can have these tags read to them by their screen reader.

We recently conducted an audit to try to assess why a professional-services client’s website wasn’t ranking as well in Google as some of their competitors. The audit revealed a key differentiator between the client’s website and their competitors was that the competitors’ sites had higher website diagnostic scores related to accessibility.

Accessibility impacts user experience, without a doubt, and Google continues to place great emphasis on user experience when deciding which websites to serve up first for various search terms in various geographies, so it stands to reason Google would reward “accessible” websites from a user-experience standpoint.

We encourage all of our clients to make ‘n take the time to write effective alt-tags that make their website a positive user experience for ALL website visitors, including those challenged by disability — not just because this activity supports SEO, but because it’s the right, human thing to do.

Let Us Write Or Rewrite (Revise) Your Meta Tags To Support Being Found On Google

Our team has years and years of experience writing/constructing optimized SEO tags to support websites being found on Google. Reach out today to learn how we can help with putting the right meta tags in place on your website!