Here’s the latest instalment of Digital Marketing Reads, a roundup of some of the more interesting articles we’ve read lately in the digital marketing world.
Google BERT Update – What It Means
Earlier this month, the online world was rocked by a big Google algorithm update called BERT. Google has rolled out plenty of updates over the years, but this November 2019 update has gotten a stronger reaction than any other one (at least that we’ve seen!). Many websites have experienced a sudden (and in more unfortunate cases, a drastic) drop in organic traffic.
As usual, all Google updates like this aim to improve the quality of search results – they aren’t out to target small businesses or website owners. It’s also important to note that often Google will make tweaks just after an update, which means that the traffic drop you’re experiencing may be temporary – so don’t freak out just yet!
Rand Fishkin on optimizing for and against Google
When the founder of Moz speaks, the online world listens. Such is the power and respect Rand Fishkin commands. This time, Rand talks about how Google’s business model has changed: now when someone searches for something, Google will endeavor to display more useful information on the results page that will keep the person from having to actually click on any of the results. In other words, website owners will have to start spending more money on ads in order to gain more visibility and clicks – which is more money in Google’s pocket.
Photo via SparkToro.
This goes alongside the current Zero-Click trend, which has seen 56% of mobile searches and 35% of desktop searches end without a click to another site, resulting in less organic traffic overall.
What can website owners and Melbourne SEO specialists do to cope with these depressing facts? Rand suggests “owning your SERP”, i.e. becoming more visible on the search results page for your top keywords so that you get more brand recognition and people start searching directly for your site over others.
SEO myths busted by an ex-Googler
If you’re going to believe anything about the mysterious algorithm, let it be from someone who’s actually worked behind the scenes.
In this article, a former Google employee dishes on all things SEO and dispels a few common myths such as: backlinks are everything, Google hates your website, and fresh content is better than old content. Apparently none of these are true!
An example survey.
8 Effective Ways to Collect Customer Feedback
Most small business owners want their customers to be happy – and the best way to accomplish this is to find out what they actually want and need.
How do you do this? There are heaps of ways to get feedback from your audience, from checking in with them periodically and asking them how they’re doing with their purchase, to monitoring chat logs, to sending out surveys. This article outlines these and many other ideas for gathering user feedback.