In this week's wrap-up, VIP contributor Christina Baldassarre gives a beginner's guide to social media strategy, and Ryan Clutter gives the latest SEO tools.
The post SEJ Wrap-Up: SEO Tools That Work & A Beginner's Guide to Social Strategy by @megcabrera appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Posted by tallen1985
Have you taken a look at Google Shopping recently? Okay, so it isn't quite the ecommerce monster that Amazon or eBay are, and yes, it's only filled with sponsored posts. Playing around with it, however, proves that it provides a decent experience.
And that experience got me thinking. What if, instead of being sponsored ads, Google Shopping completely replaced organic search results for transactional queries? Would this be a better user experience? I would have a comparison of products from multiple retailers without even having to visit a website. Would this be a better experience than just "ten blue links?"
In this post I want to share why I think Google Shopping could replace organic search results in the future, and how websites can begin to prepare for this.
We've already seen evidence of Google trying to keep users within their search engine with local packs, flights, knowledge graphs, and instant answers. What's to say shopping isn't next? Google have already been using Google Shopping ads within search results for a while now, and they recently started testing Showcase Shopping ads, increasing the level of product exposure in a search result.
Check out this Google Shopping result for “red shoes” below:
On first impression, this could easily be an organic shopping result.
Google doesn't make it crystal clear that these are paid ads, only displaying a small notification in the top right. Do users clearly understand that these products and brands are paying to appear here? As the potential customer, does it even matter, as long as I find the red shoes I'm looking for?
If this had been my search result instead of the typical organic search result, it wouldn't have been a disappointing experience. In fact, Google would be putting me closer to my desired action of actually researching/purchasing red shoes, without me ever needing to leave Google.
Why do I think the long-term plan could be to use the layout of Google Shopping as a replacement for the current organic result? For me, the Google Shopping landing pages offer:
This plugs perfectly in with the development and improvements of voice search and the use of compound search queries, which Tom Anthony and myself discussed in Distilled's Searchscape series.
Here's a previous example of a compound query that Tom Anthony shared at SMX Munich:
I thought I'd test this same process out by trying to find a pair of red shoes using just voice search. The results weren't perfect and, at this time, not a great user experience. However, compare this to Google Shopping results and you'll see where we could be heading in the future with organic results.
Below is how the current search results look for a mobile voice search (on the left) versus search results if you click through to Google Shopping (images on the right).
Yup, those are definitely shoes. So far, so good for both results!
| Current SERPs | Shopping SERPS |
 |  |
Not quite under £40, but they are shoes within a reasonable price range. Google's organic results have dropped product listings and are now showing sales pages for shoe stores.
| Current SERPs | Shopping SERPS |
 |  |
Organic search now lists red shoe landing pages. However, the ads seem way off target, displaying bikes. Google Shopping, on the other hand, is getting pretty close to the product I may be looking to purchase.
| Current SERPs | Shopping SERPS |
 |  |
Organic continues to show me predominantly men's shoes page results, despite a very specific search query. Compare that to Google Shopping, which now matches the majority of my criteria except price.
| Current SERPs | Shopping SERPS |
 |  |
While the above search shows the organic SERPs aren't producing high-quality results for conversational queries, you can be confident that these types of results will continue to improve. And when they do, the Google Shopping result will produce the best answer to the user's query, getting them to their desired action with the fewest number of clicks.
Time and again we've seen Google attempt to reduce the number of steps it takes for a user to get their answer via features such as car insurance, flight comparison, and instant answers. This seems the logical next step for shopping, as well, once search results are dependable.
Initially, yes, the user will have to click through to your page in order to purchase. Currently, Google Shopping allows users to find more information about a product within Google before clicking through to a landing page to complete their purchase.
But in the long run, Google could facilitate the transaction for your business without a user ever hitting a website. We saw Google testing this within paid search back in 2015. And while at the time Google stated they have no intention of becoming a retailer (and I still believe this to be true), we certainly know that Google wants to get the user to complete their goal as quickly and easily as possible, ideally remaining within the Google eco-system.
Google Shopping testing instant purchase
A change such as this could be a double-edged sword for businesses. If Google decided to rank your product more prominently than competitors, its ease of use could see an uplift in sales. The downside? If Google decided to monetize this feature, they could look to take a cut from any sales, similar to Amazon and eBay.
Secondly, we would have to refine the way we measure traffic to our site (or not). It's likely that measurement would have to be based on impressions and conversions rather than sessions. Based on the current reporting format available for Google Shopping, users may have access to clicks and click-through rate, but as no actual data is being passed to Google Analytics this would likely be reported within Google Search Console.
Of course, we'd still want ranking reports, as well. Rank tracking companies such as GetStat and SEMRush would have to adapt their products to track product listings in the same way that we've seen them improve tracking for local packs and structured data over the last 12 months.
Preparation for a world where Google looks like this falls into two buckets: what you should do if you own the physical products, and what you should do if you don't (for example, if you're an affiliate site).
If you own the product (for example, you stock and sell TVs), then you should be looking to give Google as much information about your products as possible to ensure they have the optimal opportunity to appear within search engine results. Ensure product pages are well-optimized so Google understands the product being displayed. Most importantly, we recommend you get structured data in place (Google's current preference is for webmasters to use JSON-LD).
There may also be immediate benefits, such as getting more rich snippets within search results and an increased opportunity of being featured in answer boxes (and leapfrogging competitors), but this will help future-proof your site.
Want to know more about JSON-LD? I recommend taking a read of the following resources:
Additionally, we need to start looking higher up the funnel and creating content that will make users come back. I know, I hate saying it, but we have to produce great content! I'll discuss how The Wirecutter has been approaching this in just a moment.
Further down the pipeline, if Google decided it can handle processing user transactions within Google itself, you'll want to consider opening up your checkout as an API. This was a requirement in Google's paid experiment and, as such, could be a necessity to appear here in the future.
Ranking for both transactional and information search queries could become even more difficult. It may even become impossible to rank for very specific long-tail search terms.
The recommendations don't differ too much from above. We should still get structured data in place to reap the rewards now and start producing great content that sits higher up the funnel.
Will Critchlow recently introduced me to The WireCutter as one of his go-to websites. This is a site that's taken product research to an extreme. With extremely in-depth articles about which products users should buy, they take the thought process out of "which product should I buy?" and instead, based on my needs, say, “Don't worry about doing any more research, we've done it for you. Just buy this one."
I've recently purchased a range of products from pens to printers based on their recommendations. They've created useful content - which, after numerous purchases, I now trust - and as a result encourages me to return to their site over and over again.
To finish up, I'd love to hear your thoughts:
Reach out to me in the comments below or over on Twitter - @the_timallen.
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Last week ClickZ Intelligence held its webinar on The What, Why and How of Digital Transformation in association with Marketo.
If you missed it, it's now available on demand where you can listen to the high level overview from me, and actionable information from Marketo's VP of demand generation Heidi Bullock and HeroK12's head of marketing Bryan Lanadburu.
As a taster, I've summarised just a few of the key points from the webinar for you to read below…
Taking a view of the long term trend over the current century and the last, it is clear that digital technologies such as smartphones are just one of a number of changes that have emerged and reached mass market adoption with an increasing speed.
Before the internet, innovations such as the telephone, refrigerator and clothes washer came to market at an accelerating pace, as shown in this chart from HBR.
Today, we are now in a situation where adoption of products and services by hundreds of millions of people can occur in a blindingly short time – the recent explosion of Pokemon Go being further evidence of this.
Established companies of all sizes are being challenged by this increasingly rapid pace as fast-moving startups with more of an eye on customer centricity than internal process adherence eat into market share.
It is this changing set of circumstances that has caused a spike in interest around the idea of digital transformation, as illustrated by this chart of search volumes from Google Trends.
There doesn't exist a single, accepted definition for digital transformation, however common themes do emerge.
The first is obviously around technology. Businesses with established processes and ways of working may not be making the most of new tools that are available to grow and protect market share.
The second is around business transformation. The reason why many businesses use legacy technology and lack innovative ways of working is because they have processes, skill sets and cultures that create barriers to moving quickly. While marketing often drives and sets an agenda for digital transformation, doing so requires the buy in and support of multiple departments.
The third is around customer experience. As previously mentioned, it is too common an occurrence that companies look inward at the status quo rather than outward towards the needs of their customers. Customer centricity is an element that needs to be deeply embedded as part of any serious digital transformation effort.
In the panel discussion, Heidi Bullock from Marketo emphasised that the reason why businesses need to care about the shift to digital channels (with people now spending over eight hours per day using them) is because digital channels are where your customers are. Luckily, 93% of multinational companies are in the process of changing their business models to adapt.
These adaptation requires aligning the three areas of techniques, teams and talent, and technology. By doing so, you can start to take steps towards improving your business processes to enable your company to adapt to the speed of digital change.
Brian Landaburu of HeroK12 shared his lessons at a company which has been moving in a transformative direction for only three years.
HeroK12 is a tool that is sold to schools and school districts to keep track of pupil performance and behavior. Students can be recognized in a positive way and change school culture by focusing on positives rather than just discipline.
Leading a 'hard pivot', Bryan has switched marketing entirely from an old way of working involving trade shows, advertising and mass media to an entirely inbound approach, having people learn about it through lightweight interactions over time delivered by Marketo. Everything was reinvented, with business processes and the product also changing.
The result is that a product which helps millions of students at thousands of schools (with thousands more software users interacting everyday on the platform) is served by a company of only 35 people and a marketing team of just four staff.
This provides an example of how an effective transformation can result in a highly efficient and brilliant experience for customers, even in industries and sectors where old ways of working can be difficult to change.
Are you dealing with the issue of digital transformation? Then make sure you come to Shift on August 30th 2016 in San Francisco. A limited number of complimentary passes are available so make sure to register your interest!
If you are like me, an email is still the most efficient way to have an update delivered to me. Therefore I am always on the lookout for new email notification tools to make sure I am aware of important news even when I am too busy or my Twitter feed is too overwhelming.
Tip: You may want to create a separate email address for all the automatic updates you are subscribing too. Or at least use labels to easily filter automatic updates out whenever your inbox gets too cluttered.
A brilliant idea turned into a tool, Bio Is Changed is a great free tool that monitors people you follow on Twitter and captures whenever they change their bio or profile picture. If you share your email address, the tool will send you email alerts of each tool.
Bio Is Changed can be a great networking tool. Think about congratulating your Twitter friends on their position change, complementing them on the new profile picture or making a humorous comment on their tiny bio change (taco versus pizza?)
Your Twitter friends will be amazed and I am sure there will be some great conversations to follow. This is the personal touch that is able to have a huge impact on your career and business!
T.U.N.S (Twitter Unfollower Notification Service) is a web app monitoring your Twitter account unfollows and alerting you of each one via email.
While there are many similar services, I think this is the only one that sends email alerts.
Disclaimer: I am personally not a fan of tracking who unfollows me. I think this instills some daily sense of negativity that I don't appreciate in social media networking. However I have nothing against people being interested in who unfollows them and why and can totally see how this can be useful information.
Tweet Claims lets you monitor Twitter @usernames for when they become available. That's a great idea for those who failed to claim their brand names on Twitter.
Tweet Claims lets you monitor up to 10 usernames for free. I don't think you'll ever need more.
Zapie is a great premium tool that lets you combine two apps for increased productivity and new automation opportunities. For example, the following Zaps let you create email alerts of Twitter activity:
An alternative to the above Zaps can be there two free tools:
Are there any other useful Twitter to email tools? Please share them in the comments!
The post Twitter to Email: 5 Twitter Email Notifications Tools appeared first on Internet Marketing Ninjas Blog.
The 6-step process that can be used to create a profitable webinar for absolutely any product or service. Any business can apply this template to their webinars to generate more leads, make more sales, and deliver more value.
The post 6 Steps to Create a Profitable Webinar for Any Product or Service by @wyattjawz appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
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Here's how to improve your e-commerce's user experience and boost your conversion rates, and you don't need a ton of CRO knowledge to make it happen.
The post The Newbie E-commerce Marketer's Guide to Getting Started with CRO appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
