Alisa Scharf

So… if a link in an “organic” result is actually an affiliate link, crediting a paid partner with a click, a site visit or a sale… That would mean search engines are monetizing search listings, including allegedly organic Map results for #retail locations. Here’s what we’ve uncovered: https://lnkd.in/dQr_DqiU #SEM #affiliatemarketing #marketingROI #searchengines #ftc

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There's still quite a bit of unknown of how Google integrating Gemini into its standard search experience (referred to as Search Generative Experience, or SGE) will broadly impact SEO. But more and more data is coming out about the current state of the SGE. Search Engine Journal published an in-depth report with their findings today. Below are the key takeaways: 🔥 This is critical: websites can only accrue organic traffic from the SGE AFTER users click on the source of the AI-generated content. We all know how much adding an additional click to the process of the user journey can negatively effect traffic. This alone will likely decrease how much organic traffic is being driven to everyone's website 🤖 Some results (around 5%) don't even have original sources, meaning the content of the results are produced by Google 📈 The appearance of SGE's varies drastically by vertical, but will holistically increase over time. Of the industries analyzed, Beauty saw the highest rate of SGE at 95% and Finance saw the lowest at 47% 📊 In some cases, Google will show a generate button prior to showing the AI-based results. Safe to assume Google is experimenting with different layouts of this new experience, and testing how users will engage with Gemini if the AI results aren't delivered right away. The discrepancy between these two experiences also varied drastically by vertical 📉 Verticals with a higher portion of SGE results will have less time to pivot their SEO strategy accordingly. The Health industry has the highest portion of auto-generated SGE results, and therefore will be the most impacted by this change 🤑 Primary conclusion - This change will drastically overhaul everything we know about SEO, and everyone needs to be ready to pivot to this new reality very quickly. My personal opinion: everyone will likely see less organic traffic, and have to become more reliant on Paid Search. https://lnkd.in/gRj_Gwp9

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I’m gonna mix a little bit of info with a lil sharing. If you know me this is pretty standard behavior. I was chatting with someone about programmatic direct mail and incrementality. When I think of incrementality I think of stickiness vs reach. Showing your ad to a new person is dope, but the data shows that channel diversification is more about breaking through the noise then unlocking a new audience. If you’re spending in the millions there’s a pretty good chance you’re hitting a lot of your target demo on digital channels. Tell me the last 10 meta ads you saw? 5? Tell me one meta ad you saw today? (This brings up another convo of frequency in this evolved digital age but Idk best practices) it takes a lot for something to stick so if you’re going to a new channel for incrementaltiy choose channels that are going to stick. Hence programmatic DM. When you start testing I’d think of it as a lift channel. Part of your lifecycle nurture flow. Test with unconverted audiences and see if it lifts. Then use the lifted to lal for prospecting. Ok the other thing. I was chatting with a brilliant marketer who complemented my posts and it gave me the biggest imposter syndrome ever. I thought about it a bit and I think it’s because all of these posts are the results of failures, experiments, and learning from other great marketers. Plan A has worked so rarely I could count it on my hands. The speedy pivot to plan B, C, & D is the real gold. I’m learning new stuff constantly because I care about marketing (I’m learning about social media right now). I’ll probably suck at it for a bit and then I’ll get good and write something about it if I think it can be helpful. Idk just thought I’d share.

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Per IAB Social Video (70%) & CTV (69%) are essential buys for US marketers now. Collaborate with creators for TikTok, IG, & YouTube content, and invest in CTV ads to reach consumers on both fronts https://bit.ly/3zgz8X2 #DigitalMarketing #CTV #SocialVideo

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This is so obvious yet so difficult to change in many organizations.

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Next-Level SEO: Big brands use NPS data for their SEO strategy. They harness their large audiences to score pages and source ideas for site improvements: This is something I've noticed on the REI site for awhile. At the very bottom of their category pages, have a "Give us feedback on this page" section where users can submit their ideas to improve the site experience. They can essentially use their audience as "quality raters" for their content. I was also intrigued by a recent thread from IBM's Bryan Casey. He talked about how at IBM, they see a connection between a page's NPS and it's search performance. He mentioned how this connection indicates that search algorithms are doing their jobs of serving the best content possible. What's the benefit of collecting this data? Well at scale you could: 1. Get quality scores for all your pages 2. Use your community to source ideas for improvement 3. Identify common trends/themes for similar page types to scale improvements 4. Use these insights for different marketing departments (paid, CRO, UX) 5. A/B test different features and see what the impact on NPS is Some examples include: 1. REI asks for this user feedback at the bottom of their category/product pages 2. IBM has a "Was This Information Useful" thumbs up button on their informational content 3. BabyGearLab asks for feedback at the bottom of their product reviews If you're a site that generates a fair share of traffic, using NPS data is an innovative way to get data and ideas for new SEO initiatives.

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With so many web changes in 2024 (#algrathumsIs, #AIcontent, #thirdpartycookies, Google's March 2024 Core Update), is your website ready for the next level of SEO optimization? https://lnkd.in/gbk_ZXts

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Is Bing intentionally monetizing organic map listings in search? For a large #retail client’s  #affiliatemarketing program, we uncovered an anomaly in the Bing Map SERP (search engine results page) that turned a seemingly benign search into an affiliate-sponsored result. We’ve outlined some findings here: https://lnkd.in/dQr_DqiU #SEM #affiliatemarketing #marketingROI #searchengines

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I see some digging in their heels on things re: the Google leak. I get it. We have our reputation to uphold, and being mistaken feels like a blow to the ego, and even potentially our professional reputation. But it's really ok for us to say "I was mistaken about that. But I am going to test it and learn more!" Preaching to myself, too. I hate admitting I'm wrong (ask my husband lol). I've also seen some responses like "don't worry about the leak; focus on users." And ... yeah, focus on users. But it's not a zero-sum game -- not one or the other. We can focus on users AND consider what's in the leak. It's also hard to admit but ok to say: "I did not know that." I sometimes feel if I don't know everything, I know nothing. That's such a silly lie to believe. Of course I don't know everything. There's no way. But I can learn more every day and continually improve! Now, regarding the leak. I'm going to read as much as I can and learn and test and see what happens. Especially interested in the brand mentions' value and testing how to better keep users on our sites (have been doing, but will double down). I love what Mike King said in his Search Engine Land blog - SEO should always be experiment driven. "You need to test, learn and build experimentation in every SEO program" Testing is really what I love most about my job. It's so satisfying to test and learn. Let's use this as an opportunity to try some new tactics rather than saying there's "nothing to learn here." Here's a great article to get started.

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Hot Take: Lack of emotion in copy is a quick way to kill customer interest. Customers are scrolling through an infinite flood of content, websites, and reviews all day, every day. Everything’s moving fast. Your copy needs to make people stop scrolling and skimming + carry your customers through a journey to your target CTA/Conversion. Here’s how I do it for brands I work with: 1️⃣ Tell a story: Humans love humans. Share relatable experiences that hit home. Tell your customers who you are, how a new product came to be, or what’s happening behind the scenes at your brand. Build a family/fanbase of the brand, then selling won’t be an issue. 2️⃣ Speak their language: Use a tone and language that feels personal and real. Find the balance that feels friendly, but still educational and intentional about getting them to the CTA. The goal is that customers are excited to read the new emails, posts, and texts that you send them. 3️⃣ Highlight benefits over facts and features: Show HOW your product makes life better, WHY someone should buy it, not just what it does. It’s important to make what customers get when they purchase clear, but it’s equally important to make what they feel, do, or think when they get the product clear and emphasized. Personalization is the way to cut through the smoke. If you can make your audience feel something - they’ll stick around, share your brand FOR you, and then come back for more.

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How do you measure #SEO impact? It's not a one-size-fits-all effort, as Intero Digital's Greg Walthour can attest. https://lnkd.in/gUhuu4MG

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Here is a hill I will die on: Use sentence case over Title Case for all titles and subtitles. Unless You Are Writing a Book. 📙 That includes website headlines and subheads, ebook titles and chapter titles, blog post titles and section heads, slide titles, etc. Who out there is still using title case? Honest question! I know Forrester and Gartner do.

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What's an FAQ we get a lot being in the digital marketing space? Well, it's not one but many questions about UTM parameter use. Riley came through in her latest contribution to our blog with a 101-style post all about UTM parameters. Whether you bookmark this for quick reference down the road or share it with everyone on your team who leverages UTMs, it's a must-have/must-read. #marketingattribution #googleanalytics4

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One of my favorite ways to automate my work is through Google Ads scripts. The latest one I've added into my repertoire is this Quality Score analysis script from Martin Röttgerding. It is one of the most user friendly scripts I've seen and it gives you valueable data on which campaigns//ad groups have low quality score which can help you determine where to focus your optimization efforts. Are there any other scripts you use on a regular basis? I'd love to know - pls share 👇 Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eP7hJsNi

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In the past few months, many websites have seen traffic drops due to Google Search updates. But Reddit is bucking the trend, with traffic up nearly 40% year over year in May, according to Similarweb. Reddit's surge is likely due to Google's focus on prioritizing "helpful content" from discussion forums in search results, which has been a key value driver for branded communities for years. Google's recent updates align with user behaviors, where adding "Reddit" to search queries often leads to the most genuine discussions and opinions, proving again, that community drives engagement. #SEO #Reddit #DigitalMarketing #SearchEngineOptimization #TechNews

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Hot Take: With cookie deprecation coming (at some point), identity resolution will prove increasingly difficult via programmatic desktop and mobile due to the fact users are rarely signed into websites. Streaming (along with commerce) will actually be the easiest way to reach a target addressable audience since you need to be logged in (for the most part) in order to watch the same Office episode for the 500th time (whatever streamer the Office is on now). This can put Amazon Ads in a unique position to win.

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It turns out, users want answers not links. Here is an enlightening breakdown from ✌️Olaf Kopp ☀️ of how product SEO is changing (as we speak). #Digitalmarketing #SEO #ecommerce Search Engine Land

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I'm cynical of this announcement. Here's a GPT-assisted POV minus PR spin. (too long for a single post, so go into comments) Google's announcement about automatically pausing low-activity keywords in Google Ads starting June 2024 seems at first glance to be a beneficial change aimed at streamlining ad campaigns and focusing on more effective keywords. However, analyzing this policy from a critical perspective reveals potential underlying strategies that could affect advertisers, especially when considering Google's business model which is driven by maximizing ad revenues. Analysis of the Policy Reducing Transparency and Control: By automatically pausing keywords that have not generated impressions for over 13 months, Google is reducing the level of control advertisers have over their keyword portfolios. This may lead to situations where keywords important to niche markets or seasonal campaigns are paused without the advertiser's active consent, potentially missing out on key opportunities. This reduction in transparency is also evident in Google's approach to providing less detailed reports on which keywords trigger clicks. This means advertisers have less data to analyze and make informed decisions about their ad spend and strategy.

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