SEO vs SEM vs PPC: What’s Best for Your Business?
Why Digital Marketing?
Have you Googled yourself lately? How do you rank when you search for those ever-important keywords that define your business? It doesn’t matter how amazing your company, services, or products are, your business will never be a success if no one knows about it—and the vast majority of people start their search online using a search engine such as Google. While different analyses turn up slightly different results on the importance of digital marketing, one thing is clear, if your company isn’t on page one of search engine ranking pages (SERPs), there’s less than a one percent chance that someone will click on your website. And over 30 percent of clicks will go to whichever site is number one on that first page. With that in mind, your digital marketing plan is critical to your success. There is no one-size-fits-all digital marketing strategy—and your strategy team should be able to help you determine what’s best for your business and goals. Let’s break down a few of the more common terms you’ll hear when it comes to digital marketing and how they may be helpful to you. Based on your specific goals and budget, you may want to incorporate all of them into your overall strategy or pick and choose.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is incredibly complex and ever-changing. Just as you think you’ve got it all figured out, algorithms change, and so does your strategy. Many businesses still think that populating their websites with some important keywords will do the trick—and that absolutely may have been the case in 1998, at the advent of Google search. But ensuring top search rankings is now a multi-faceted, ongoing, and key part of your overall marketing strategy incorporating (among other things):
- Technical SEO—all the technical aspects of your site that make it more visible in searches, including site architecture and speed, sitemaps, and link structure
- Off-Page—elements off your site that build its popularity and ranking, including link building, reviews, and guest posting
- Content Optimization—everything on your page that keeps it at the top of SERPs, including content, keywords, and usability
Using a professional digital marketing agency like Globe Runner ensures that you’re constantly getting the best results without falling into common errors and traps, such as not having a sitemap, lack of internal links, or focusing on the wrong traffic or keywords.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
PPC is exactly what it sounds like and is an important part of directing traffic to your site. In the simplest of terms, PPC is the placement of digital advertisements for which you pay each time the ad is clicked on. There are multiple ways that PPC advertising works including:
- Flat-rate—paying a flat fee for each click
- Bid-based—placing a bid for an advertising space (highest amount they’re willing to pay) and each time a user triggers the ad slot, an automated auction occurs and the winner gets the ad slot.
While there are many strategies for this type of bid-based PPC, two of the most common are:
- Cost Per Click (CPC)—sets a cost per click that you are not willing to go over
- Return On Ad (ROA)—sets a target return on conversion (set as a percentage, e.g., if you are trying to make 2 dollars for every dollar you spend on advertising, your target ROA is 200%)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM and PPC are both paid methods of increasing your SERP placement. The main difference is that SEM focuses specifically on marketing through search engines. PPC can fall under SEM, for instance, if you purchase a PPC ad on Google search, that’s also SEM.
With all aspects of digital marketing, the best results come from bringing in the experts. Globe Runner is a Google Partner, meaning that multiple digital marketing experts are certified in Google AdWords and they continuously meet Google’s performance standards. That technical expertise is a necessity, but while understanding all the technical ins and outs of digital marketing and SERPs is absolutely critical to your digital marketing success, the creative aspects of digital marketing are just as important. That’s why Globe Runner’s team includes experienced copywriters and visual designers to ensure that the creative aspects of your marketing are as extraordinary as your business is.
FAQs
What is the difference between PPC and SEO?
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are both strategies used to drive traffic to your website and boost your online presence and sales. SEO relies on expert optimization of your website (as well as off-page strategies) to drive organic traffic by ensuring your website ranks high up in search engine results. PPC drives traffic to your website through digital ads that you pay a publisher a fee to each time your ad is clicked on. While, technically, SEO is the “free” option, optimizing your website to drive organic traffic to it takes incredible knowledge and expertise, as well as taking time—over months—for the optimization to start showing results.
What is the difference between SEO and SEM?
While Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are often used interchangeably (and SEO is still sometimes considered a part of SEM), they are two different sides of the search engine results coin. At the most basic level, SEO uses organic methods to increase your search engine results ranking and SEM uses paid methods.
Is SEO part of performance marketing?
Performance marketing is an umbrella term that includes any strategy in which advertisers or marketing companies are paid based on performance—such as a click, sale, impression, etc. While, technically, SEO does not fall under that umbrella since it is organic, it is an integral part of your overall digital marketing strategy, and many experts consider it to be a part of a performance marketing strategy.
How do you rank on Google?
The answer to that question is not only complex, but it changes frequently. Search engines base their results on algorithms that are stringently tested and updated on a regular basis. In Google, search engine results incorporate many different factors including relevance, keywords, page quality, E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness), page usability, and context.
Digital Marketing Facts: Statistics, Trends, & What’s New for 2022
Part One
If you’re like us, you have a love-hate relationship with statistics. We love useful information about new digital marketing trends, and statistics tell us what’s happening in the field. They can also make our eyes cross: Those multiple pages of ultra-long lists of numbers often end up blurring together, making it tough to pull out the information that’s useful for our business.
But because we still have that love of useful statistics—and want to share it— we’ve done the hard work of slogging through hundreds of numbers to highlight the digital marketing statistics we think are particularly relevant to businesses in 2022. In Part One of this post, we’ll share those facts along with new trends in digital marketing. In Part Two, we’ll use that knowledge to make recommendations you can use now.
Ready to begin a new love-love relationship with digital marketing statistics and create an actionable to-do list? Read on!
Digital Marketing in 2021: The Statistics
Brand awareness is more important than sales. According to HubSpot’s Annual State of Marketing Report, brand awareness is the number one goal of most marketing campaigns (increasing sales is number two). It makes sense. Customers aren’t always ready to buy, so a smart business helps people remember its name for when they are ready.
Content is still king…
- 87% of businesses believe that content marketing helps them meet brand awareness goals.
- The most successful marketers set aside 40% of their total marketing budget for content marketing.
- 70% of internet users prefer learning about products and services through content instead of traditional advertising.
…Even more so when it’s presented via video.
- Video is the #1 content type two years in a row.
- 94% of video marketers believe video helps increase understanding of their product or service.
- Almost 90% of video marketers say video is a good return on investment (ROI).
- 93% of brands gained a new customer after posting a video on social media channels.
Blogs are big, too. More than half of marketing teams used blogs in 2021 and for good reason: Besides helping visitors learn about products and services through content, businesses with blogs reap 67% more leads every month than those without.
Data determines direction. 91% of businesses make decisions based on customer feedback, 88% use market research to garner that feedback, and 67% of marketers plan to increase their market research budget in the next year.
Automation doesn’t just save time. Even though it seems like an oxymoron, automation can help personalize sales. That may be the reason it’s the fourth most prioritized investment area for businesses—or may be because it pays for itself: 76% of businesses that embrace automation see a positive ROI within a year.
Email is effective and engaging. A recent survey found that 50% of B2B marketing professionals believe email is most effective for producing a high ROI. In another report, 77% of marketers said they saw increased engagement with email in 2021. And 91% of respondent in yet another survey said that email marketing is vital to the overall success of their business.
Social media was the top marketing channel in 2021. Instagram was most popular, but Facebook produced the best ROI.
…But SEO may be more important. Why? Because most people jump online to find something—68% of online experiences begin with a search. Businesses use SEO to be found during those searches and it works: 75% of those employing SEO believe those tactics are extremely or very effective in terms of meeting marketing goals.
New Digital Marketing Trends for 2022
Several of the hottest trends in digital marketing dovetail nicely with the statistics above:
Video will be vital. Not just important, but key. Social media channels and streaming platforms are already working on new ways for marketers to use video, which will become the marketing asset campaigns are built on.
Email’s impact will grow. In a recent survey, over 40% of businesses plan to increase their investment in email in 2022. Why? Email marketing is not just effective and engaging as mentioned earlier, but also easy to automate and personalize.
Some trends reflect users’ current desires:
Users demand personalized service, ASAP. It’s a bit of a Catch-22: Consumers want custom assistance without feeling targeted, and they want it now. One study found that 82% of users want an immediate response no matter the time. Conversational marketing can solve this time-based customer service conundrum by using chatbots and virtual assistants that answer customers’ questions in real-time. Dialogue-focused conversational marketing can give customers the personalization they want, too, in email exchanges and even personalized video. It’s a trend that’s already shown solid success. Best Western, for example, saw a 48.6% increase in visits after offering travelers personalized trip recommendations.
Online visitors want interactive content, too. Users like to engage with content, and marketers want users to engage with their businesses. Interactive marketing content is the obvious answer. That can mean anything from Instagram polls to virtual tours to online tools like calculators. And interactive content is another trend with teeth: It receives twice the engagement of static content.
Other new digital marketing trends have evolved from recent events and experiences:
Virtual and hybrid events will become standard. Though it may seem more difficult to ensure virtual access to events, doing so has two outstanding benefits for businesses: a wider audience reach using the number one marketing tool right now—video!
First party data collection is on the rise. As we say goodbye to third party cookies, forward-looking companies are already investing in first party data collection. The transition away from third-party cookies may seem challenging to digital marketers, but first party data can be more accurate—and it’s proprietary.
Two More Important Digital Marketing Statistics
Before we move on to Part Two and our recommendations for your marketing to-do list, there are two more stats we’d like to share with you:
- 45% of businesses lack a well-defined digital marketing strategy.
- 70% of marketers don’t have an integrated or consistent content strategy.
If you’re one of those 45 or 70%, Globe Runner can help. We can create an overall digital marketing plan that leads to success and take care of the moving parts. We provide foundational services like SEO, web design and content marketing, and can also help you take advantage of trends like video, conversational marketing, and data collection.
Don’t let lack of planning get in the way of your company’s success. Plan to succeed. Contact us today.
How to Use LinkedIn for Business in 2022
Though LinkedIn launched in 2003 as a social networking and job search site, it has evolved to be so much more—and that’s good news for your business. Its original intent to connect businesspeople and expand professional networks also makes it a great way to promote your brand, engage with potential customers, and drive traffic to your website.
Why Use LinkedIn for Business?
If the reasons above aren’t enough to get you aboard the LinkedIn train, consider this: LinkedIn has 800 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The site is also a super-charged lead generator, capturing leads 227% more effectively than Facebook and Twitter. And perhaps most importantly, it’s where you’ll find your customers, especially if you’re a B2B business. “LinkedIn has grown from a website for job-seekers to a complete social media platform that professionals use even when they’re not on the hunt,” says Hubspot’s Jamal Meneide.“That’s why LinkedIn is a critical tool, especially for B2B businesses. After all, if someone is scrolling LinkedIn, it means they’re already in the business mindset.”
Tips for Promoting Your Business on LinkedIn
Of course, if you want to use LinkedIn for marketing, you’ll need to do more than just hang out by the virtual water cooler. Try these tips:
Make the most of your profile and business page(s).
- Keep them updated. Seriously. Don’t forget.
- Use the status update field on your personal profile for company news.
- Add examples of your work.
- Use a voice that’s consistent with your brand.
- Include all your specialties. Use the language people are most likely to use when searching.
- Optimize your page for search. Utilize keywords and hashtags, link to your page from your website, and share content often.
- Take advantage of Product and Showcase pages. Use these subpages to feature new products, generate leads, highlight campaigns, and more.
- Fill your company’s Life page with company photos, videos, and testimonials.
Share and create compelling content.
- Share relevant LinkedIn posts as well as external articles. Credit authors by linking to their websites and tagging their LinkedIn profiles.
- Ask questions. This promotes engagement and gives you a chance to learn what others in your industry think.
- Working on a cool new project? Let the world know!
- Share your expertise. Write a new post for LinkedIn or syndicate an existing blog post from your website.
- Use visual content: photos, videos (live video works especially well), and even PDFs or PowerPoint presentations.
Do it by the numbers.
- Keep an 80/20 balance. Keep promotion to 20% of your posts. Since LinkedIn is all about business, you can stretch that a bit, but beware of selling all the time.
- Follow LinkedIn’s 5-3-2 rule: For every 10 posts, 5 should be shared posts, 3 should be original posts that help your audience solve a problem, and 2 should be fun content that gives your company character.
- Post 2-5 posts a week for optimum engagement.
Network, network, network.
- Actively participate in LinkedIn groups. Add a short signature with your company info.
- Create a group. It shows initiative and collaboration and can help you learn about industry trends—all while promoting your company. Groups can only be set up using your personal profile.
- Ask your customers for recommendations. Social proof goes a long way.
- Invite people to follow your page. You get one hundred credits to use to invite your personal LinkedIn contacts to follow your business page. When someone accepts, you get that credit back. Anyone with super admin or content admin roles can get credits, too, so think about giving access to top people in your team.
The Absolute Best Way to Market on LinkedIn
Use a professional digital marketing agency. Yes, we know that might sound a little self-serving, but hear us out. As you can see, LinkedIn provides a great opportunity to market your business—an opportunity that’s almost certainly underutilized. Why? Anyone can use LinkedIn for marketing, but it’s a lot of work, much of it specialized: keyword research, graphic design, copywriting, video production, etc. Don’t let your lack of time or expertise keep you from taking advantage of all LinkedIn has to offer. Outsource the job to professionals who’ll do the job even better than you would. That’s us, Globe Runner. Contact us today.
Promoting Your Business on LinkedIn FAQs
Can you advertise for free on LinkedIn?
Not exactly. LinkedIn offers four types of ads for purchase: Sponsored Content, Sponsored Messages, Lead Gen Forms, and Text Ads. And though you can’t’ really advertise on LinkedIn for free, much of your LinkedIn marketing plan doesn’t have to cost a dime (see our tips). You can also post job opportunities gratis.
How do I setup a LinkedIn business account?
It’s super easy, but you’ll have to do a few things first. For safety’s sake, LinkedIn requires that you have a personal profile with your real first and last name that’s at least 7 days old, has a profile strength of “Intermediate” or “All-Star,” and has an email unique to your company (no generic domains like Gmail or Hotmail). You should also ensure you’re listed as a current employee of your company in your profile’s “Experience” section. Once your personal profile meets these guidelines, you can create a LinkedIn business page.
How much does a LinkedIn business page cost?
Nothing! Such a deal, right?
Improving Workplace Culture During Trying Times
Quick quiz: Which of the following statements are true?
- 51% of people feel more loyal to their organization since the beginning of the pandemic.
- 37% of employees believe company culture has improved since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis.
- 47% of people say they’ve felt burned out since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis.
All statements are true, according to a study by Quartz and Qualtrics. What does this mean for your company?
It means that many businesses are doing a good job of keeping employees happy during these difficult times*. It also means that good organization culture is more important than ever. Losing a good employee to burnout is a shame for companies and workers alike (and it costs them both money).
How to improve your company culture and keep those valuable employees? Begin by examining your current workplace culture.
*Though 37% may not sound like a lot, only 18% of employees thought corporate culture had deteriorated. The rest felt it stayed about the same.
What Are the Characteristics of a Positive Work Culture?
MIT Sloan Management Review produces Culture 500, an annually updated interactive index that uses a dataset from 1.4 million employee reviews on Glassdoor to measure and compare the cultures of over 500 of the largest American companies. Culture 500 has identified the nine most important values in corporate culture as:
- Agility
- Collaboration
- Customer
- Diversity
- Execution
- Innovation
- Integrity
- Performance
- Respect
Culture 500 also makes the case for a strong corporate culture, reporting that it can “boost employee engagement, create competitive advantage, predict financial outcomes, and promote ethical behavior and social change.” Research bears that out:
Glassdoor’s Mission & Culture Survey 2019 found that employees think culture is more important than salary, and 77% of respondents said they consider a company’s culture when applying for a job.
A study published in The Academy of Management Perspectives found that companies with good organization culture garnered higher firm value and stock returns.
Creativity and Corporate Culture, a research paper published this past April, reported that cooperative corporate culture fosters high effort and creative performance.
So, a positive corporate culture is important not just to your employees but to your business. That fact has become even more apparent during the tumultuous times of the past two years, as businesses scramble to hold onto good employees.
Culture Change During the Pandemic
Though it’s been an admittedly difficult time, some good has come out of it. In addition to the statistics about loyalty and improved company culture cited earlier, employees reported that their employers are now more flexible with working hours (58%) and location (55%). While positive, that flexibility also brings challenges to company culture. “We had to shift from a 100% in-office to a 100% remote culture,” says Globe Runner CEO Eric McGehearty. “One way we maintained a human connection is by asking everyone to keep their cameras on during team meetings. This way we can still have the feeling of a face-to-face meeting.”
That human connection is important, and oddly enough, may have been enhanced by the pandemic. “To some degree, I’ve seen every employee become more sympathetic and lead with compassion during these turbulent times because we are all feeling the pain,” said Upflex co-founder and CPO Ginger Dhaliwal in a recent Forbes article. “This resilience and respect for one another is bringing a positive cultural change in the way we treat one another.”
What Are Signs of a Good Company Culture?
Still not sure how your company culture rates? Look for these positive markers:
- Low turnover
- High employee engagement
- Openness to new ideas
- Good communication
- Investment in training
- Solid financial performance
Even if you rate high, you can do better—and you should (remember those burned-out employees). Begin with these tips for a better corporate culture:
Be as flexible as possible. Flexibility is key to maintaining work-life balance, which, according to research by Comparably is the number-one employee priority.
Encourage social connection. Remote work can be great for work-life balance but social engagment at work is important, too. “We’ve instituted a quarterly retreat for the whole team,” says Globe Runner’s McGehearty. “It’s been a great way for us to do some strategic planning as a group and enjoy some memorable after-hours experiences, like ax-throwing, which was a blast for everyone.” Not ready for ax-throwing? Try book clubs, happy hours, or family-friendly potlucks.
Communicate like never before. Check and doublecheck that people are talking to each other. Set up easy ways for team members to follow projects. Consider weekly or monthly updates highlighting successes, tracking projects, and giving customer feedback. Listen to employees—maybe even set up office hours where they can air grievances, brainstorm solutions, and propose new ideas.
Help people embrace purpose. Job satisfaction is directly tied to meaning in work. You don’t have to be a nonprofit to add purpose to work life. “I’ve always felt like connecting work with people’s heart projects is an important way to build a positive culture,” says McGehearty. “We offer people additional PTO to volunteer for their favorite charities and then celebrate those efforts with the team. We also take on pro-bono clients who are doing good in our community.”Promote wellness. Offer discounted gym memberships. Encourage people to take breaks. Consider walking meetings. And don’t forget mental and emotional health, especially important now with so many feeling stressed. When Hewlett Packard gave workers access to an online meditation site, they discovered that over 9,000 employees accumulated more than 500,000 meditation minutes in less than three months.
Another Surprising Way to Improve Company Culture
Many companies are trying to do the same work (or more) with fewer employees. If you’re one of them, take some of the stress off your employees by outsourcing some of their workload. Hire Globe Runner! You’ll get expert marketing services while improving workplace culture—a definite win win! Contact us today.
Part 2: How Does Instagram’s 2022 Algorithm Affect Your Business?
Part 2: How to Reach More People on Instagram
How can your business get more views on Instagram? Don’t worry, you don’t have to be camera-ready. You can even wear your pajamas to work, as long as you take the time to read our two-part series about Instagram’s 2022 algorithms. Part 1 explained Instagram’s algorithm for the feed, Stories and Explore pages, and for Reels and Instagram TV. If you missed it, we suggest you go back and read it so you’ll have a better understanding of the information we’ll present here in Part 2.
Tips for Using Instagram’s Algorithms to Get More Views
In Part 1, you read that Instagram’s 2022 algorithms use data that measures post information, poster (the person or business who posted) information, user activity, and interaction history. In other words, they basically boil down to one question: How likely is the user to be interested in the post? That makes sense, but how do you use your newfound 2022 algorithm knowledge to get views on Instagram? We’ve got a few tips:
Content Creation Tips
Take a long hard look at the content you’ve been posting.
- Does it solve a problem for your viewers?
- Entertain them?
- Engage them in an industry-relevant discussion?
You don’t need to answer all of those questions affirmatively, but if you can’t say yes to at least one, you’ve got work to do.
Make it easy to engage. Encourage direct action with:
- A CTA button (when appropriate).
- Interactive stickers. Polls, questions, emoji sliders, locations, quizzes, hashtag stickers, countdown clocks and more—there are stickers that fit almost any post. Check out this Shopify Post for a breakdown of types and how best to use them.
- Hashtags. They help people find you and share you.
- Captions. Write captions that prompt viewers to take action. Ask them to answer a question, tap if they agree with your post, or tag other viewers.
Change up the form of content you post. Try:
- Sharing Instagram Reels. These 15-30 second videos are easy to create and are more likely to get your post added to the Explore page, where you’ll gain exposure to new viewers. Instagram’s 2022 algorithm also favors its newer features, like Reels, so you’ll up your chances of being seen.
- Producing longer video content. Share non-Reel videos on Instagram TV (formerly IGTV). Surveys indicate that video increases sales, ROI, brand awareness, and time spent on related websites.
- Creating carousel posts. According to HootSuite, Instagram carousel posts get 1.4 times more reach and 3.1 times more engagement than regular posts.
- Use eye-catching graphics and motion. You’ll grab more attention.
- Highlight your location. Posts with tagged locations get 79% more engagement than ones without.
Relationship-Building Tips
Comment on others’ posts. Who do you want to follow you, share your posts, and/or become your customers? Once you learn who they are, follow, comment, and share their posts.
That includes the big dogs. Sure, commenting on a Nike post doesn’t mean they’ll reciprocate, but it does put the name of your shoe store in front of your target audience.
Share others’ content about your brand. If people are talking about you, your company and/or your brand, share the posts in Stories, and don’t forget to tag them.
Don’t forget to respond to comments. And do it as soon as possible, to create social proof, increase engagement, and just to be polite.
Consider timing. Figure out the best time to reach more people on Instagram with the help of their Analytics report, which will show you when your targeted viewers are most active. (Look in Insights, under Audience). Chat. Send messages to people you particularly want to engage with. Make sure to be genuine, and not too sales-y. Before messaging, ask yourself, “What’s in it for them?” (A good question to ask yourself when dealing with almost anyone about almost anything.)
Posting Tips
Post Stories often. By doing so, you’ll put your brand in front of people as soon as they hop on Instagram.
Share across feeds. Share Reels to your feed. Share your feed posts to Stories. Share previews of your Instagram TV videos to your feed.
Repost former posts to Stories. Did you know you can do this? What a great way to make sure your audience sees important contentEmbrace the new. As mentioned earlier, Instagram’s 2022 algorithm favors content posted on its newest features. Stay up-to-date and be an early adopter.
Instagram FAQs
Still have questions about how to get views on Instagram? We’re here to help.
- What is a good reach rate on Instagram in 2022? The average Instagram engagement rate is 4.7%. We suggest you aim higher than the average, remembering that smaller brands/accounts can get better reach rates than large brands with lots of followers. For example, Kazakhstan beats out all other countries with an Instagram reach of 78.7% of its population. Small can be good.
- What is a good engagement rate for Instagram in 2022? Engagement rates vary depending on the number of followers you have and how active they are Most analysts seem to agree that a good engagement rate is somewhere between 1-5%. Again, smaller accounts can (and should) get better engagement rates than large ones.
- Why are my hashtags not working in 2022? Though there’s been a lot of talk about shadow-banning, it’s more likely you’re using hashtags that are:
- Too broad.
- Too competitive.
- Unrelated to your posts.
- Banned. You’d be surprised at some of the hashtags that have been banned (like “workflow”). Search for “banned hashtags” to keep on top of the latest news.
It could also be the way you’re using hashtags.
- Don’t delete and re-add hashtags too often.
- You may be using too few or too many hashtags. While there’s an everchanging debate about the “right” number of hashtags, it’s really up to you to figure out the number that will resonate with your audience.
- You may come off as spammy or sales-y. Remember to ask yourself that good all-purpose question: “What’s in it for my viewers?”
One more FAQ: How can I do all of that well, keep up on trends and new features, and make sure I’m using the right number of non-banned hashtags? Well, you can work late, or you can work with us. We’ve got the time and the expertise to help you reach more people on Instagram. We’re good at our business. Let us take care of yours. Contact us today.
Part 1: How Does Instagram’s 2022 Algorithm Affect Your Business?
An even better question: “How can Instagram’s 2022 algorithm affect your business?” In a great boon for users, Instagram has told us what drives their latest algorithmic decisions, and how we can use that knowledge to reach more people on Instagram. They’ve given us a treasure map—of sorts. The directions are good, but only if you:
- Take the time to really read the map (You’re doing that now, so there’s one thing checked off your list.)
- Understand the clues. (We’re going to help you with that in just a minute.)
- Put in the work. (It takes time, but at least it doesn’t involve digging for buried treasure. Or pirates.)
After reading that last bullet, you may wonder if the work needed is worth your time. Sure, Instagram is great for social media influencers and the like, but can it really help your business? Yes. Over a billion people use Instagram every month, and over 200 million of them visit at least one business profile daily. A majority (81%) use Instagram to research products and services, and not just for retail: More B2B decisionmakers conduct research on Instagram than on LinkedIn. And did we mention that Instagram is now the most popular social platform for following brands and that user time spent on Instagram grew a whopping 13.8% in 2020?
In this two-part blog post, we’ll help you make the most of your time with a brief but thorough examination of the 2022 Instagram algorithm, plus tips for using it to boost your business.
Part 1: The Instagram Algorithm Explained
The first thing to understand is that there is no 2022 Instagram algorithm. There are new Instagram algorithms. “When we first launched in 2010, Instagram was a single stream of photos in chronological order,” Instagram CEO Adam Mosser said in a June 8th announcement on Instagram’s blog. “But as more people joined and more was shared, it became impossible for most people to see everything…By 2016, people were missing 70% of all their posts in Feed, including almost half of posts from their close connections.” To fix that issue, he explained, they changed the way Instagram ranks posts by using algorithms tailored to the different parts of the app, based on how people use them. Here’s a quick outline:
The Instagram Feed and Stories algorithms: Instagram’s 2022 algorithms use thousands of signals—factors that include everything from the device used to the content liked—to rank content based on what the individual user will enjoy. The Feed and Stories algorithms use these signals’ similarity, ranking them by:
- Post information: Photo or video? When was it posted? How many likes did it receive, and how quickly? Stories also shows users posts by location, which is why location-specific hashtags can help boost posts.
- Poster (the person or business who posted) information: Are they friends with the user? Interesting to the user for another reason? What’s their engagement level with other similar users?
- User activity: Is this the type of content the user typically likes?
- Interaction history: Has the user engaged with the poster’s other posts and vice versa?
Using other signals, Instagram also gauges the user’s probable interaction, looking at how likely they are to like, save or comment on the post; how much time they’ll probably spend on the post; and whether they are likely to tap on the poster’s profile after viewing the post.
The Instagram Explore Page algorithm: The Explore page shows users new content that Instagram thinks they’ll like. That’s determined by much the same blend of signals used in Feed and Stories, but ranked in a different order:
- Post information
- Interaction history
- User activity
- Poster information
The fact that users can search by keywords, as well as hashtags, implies that a post’s caption and visual content also figure into the Explore Page algorithm.
The algorithms for Reels and Instagram TV: These Instagram algorithms determine how likely users are to watch a video all the way through; in other words, how entertaining they find it. Again, the signals are much the same as the other algorithms, but ranked in yet a different order:
- User activity
- Interaction history
- Reel information
- Poster information
How Can You Use the New Algorithms to Get Views on Instagram?
Now that you’ve read the Instagram algorithm “map” and deciphered its clues, how do you use your new knowledge to help broaden your business’s reach and drive engagement? Luckily, there’s a lot of practical information and easy-to-implement Instagram algorithm tips—so much so that we’ll devote our entire next post to the subject. In the meantime, we’d like to help you with your social media strategy. We’ve got the experience, the expertise, and the time—and you probably don’t. We’re good at our business. Let us take care of yours. Contact us today.
What are YouTube Shorts?
Have you seen YouTube Shorts? YouTube Shorts are quick, catchy, vertical format videos of 60 seconds or less that appear on the hugely popular video sharing network. It takes just seconds of viewing to realize that these short video clips are YouTube’s answer to Instagram Reels and the hugely popular TikTok app which had more than 689 million monthly active users as of January 2021.
YouTube wisely chose India (where TikTok is banned) as the first place to beta test Shorts in late 2020 and rolled it out a few months later. Shorts reportedly had upwards of 15 billion global views per day as of August 2021, more than double the 6.5 billion daily views it got in March of this year. The new format is reportedly making a whole new generation of content creators into overnight sensations hoping to become YouTube celebrities.
With the immense popularity and engagement garnered by video, particularly on mobile devices, YouTube Shorts offer individuals and businesses yet another way to reach and engage with audiences. Those who already have large subscriber bases on YouTube may find that Shorts provides a great way to increase engagement with existing subscribers, while adding new ones.
How are YouTube Shorts and TikTok videos similar?
There are quite a few similarities between the two platforms. Here are the features YouTube short videos and TikTok videos have in common:
- Record and edit vertical videos right from a smart phone.
- String together multiple videos from outside the app to create up to 60 seconds of content
- Choose music to go with your short from an in-app music library
- Add text, sync it to images, make it appear and disappear
- Change video speed
- Add filters
- Sample sound already on the platform to add to your own video
- Claim money from a fund set up by the platform to earn income from your content.
These are the main ways YouTube shorts are similar to TikTok but there are other similarities in the content creation process.
How to Make a YouTube Short
Here’s how to make a basic YouTube Short video. Log in to your Google account on the YouTube app on your smart phone. Click on “create” and then “create a short.” Tap the circular capture button to start recording and then again to stop. Use the backspace button to undo your clip or the U-turn button to redo if you change your mind.
You can change the speed of your video, add a filter, and choose music from the library. You can sync up the music with the video as you desire.
If you add text, you can choose when it shows on your video and when it goes away. “Next” to view your video and then Next again to view details on your video.
Add a video title of up to 30 characters. Your title is a big part in getting viewers to click, so give it a good one. Now your video is ready to upload.
YouTube Shorts Fund- Monetize your creativity
How do content creators get paid for YouTube Shorts? Similar to TikTok, YouTube has created a fund to allow Short creators to monetize their content. Each month, thousands of creators will be able to claim a payment of between $100 and $10,000 from this fund. Payment amounts will be determined based on engagement and viewership of a creator’s video.
Only videos that are original to YouTube will be eligible to claim payments, so a video that also appears on TikTok will not be eligible. YouTube has stated it will adjust its algorithm to deemphasize duplicate content.
Short videos on YouTube vs. TikTok—What’s the Difference
You might wonder how shorts on YouTube differ from those on TikTok and why someone might prefer YouTube short videos to those on Instagram or TikTok. Here are a few ways YouTube Shorts differ from TikTok.
TikTok is a social media platform and therefore functions differently than YouTube. TikTok and Instagram Reels both allow users to create, watch and share videos with friends right inside the app. YouTube doesn’t offer sharing and messaging. This is a huge negative for younger users who use these features heavily.
Another YouTube vs. TikTok difference is that Shorts currently does not offer augmented reality filters while TikTok does.
Perhaps the primary difference between the two is that YouTube’s algorithm for determining what content viewers will see is totally different from TikTok’s. The latter was set up to identify the short-form content viewers want and then keep them engaged and on the app by continually recommending more content based on its learnings of their preferences. YouTube’s algorithm has been serving up a very different type of content for many years. Now it must adjust and learn how to serve the needs of two very different audiences—those who want the platform’s legacy content and those searching for shorts.
The Challenge for YouTube Shorts
How YouTube will do that successfully remains to be seen. For now, users will continue to access YouTube Shorts and longer YouTube videos on the mobile app. It remains to be seen whether users will adapt to using both types of content in one app.
Will YouTube shorts spin off onto its own platform or remain part of YouTube? If things stay the way they are, there will be a learning curve until YouTube devises a way for its algorithm to serve the needs of both audiences. With the brain trust of Google behind it, it’s hard to imagine they won’t figure find a way.
WHAT’S NEW IN LOCAL SEARCH
I had a chance to interview Chris Silver Smith at DFWSEM and we had a really good conversation about local search. Here’s a link to his SEO Blog.
Transcription
Eric McGehearty: Hi, it’s Eric with Globe Runner SEO, and I’m here today, I’m excited. I’ve got Chris Smith; he’s the director of KeyRelevance, which is a great SEO company here in Dallas, just like Globe Runner. And I’ve actually heard Chris speak before and I was pretty impressed with his knowledge of local search. You were citing patents, bringing out all the facts and really referencing everything you had to say.So, I thought this was a good opportunity, I cornered Chris. And, Chris, can you give us some insight in what you see going forward in local search? What’s big right now that, as a small business that’s trying to get a presence or even a large company that needs to worry about local, what’s the big things we need to be thinking about? And then what’s coming out next? What do we need to be watching out for?
Chris Smith: Sure, thanks, Eric. Yeah, Google’s changing local almost daily. They’re deploying lots of different little iterations to their interface and how listings and businesses can show up on Google and under place search as well as in Google Maps, and on mobile. And all of those little iterations in how businesses are displayed and presented are areas of interest for businesses, because it impacts how they’re interpreted by consumers, how they’re selected.
And we have only limited ability to be able to affect some of that, how that’s displayed. The areas where you are able to make changes, primarily in Google places, you’re able to associate images with your listings, such as logos or photos of your product, services, and your business place. You’re able to add in descriptive terms, description of the business. Make sure that your address is correct. And some other criteria, like products, services, add in particular lists, make sure you’re categorized correctly.
Those are fairly straightforward things. Behind the scenes, though, there’s stuff that you can do, also, to insure that your business appears to begin with. And that’s kind of the big thing for most businesses.
Eric: But just trying to put this on the front page for them, it’s their major selling points.
Chris: Exactly. And so, there are lots of people that are very focused on that. It kind of boils down to making sure that you have a lot of links or what we call citations, which are mentions of your business or mentions of your location. So, a mention of your business name plus your address, or business name plus phone number.
And then the classic search optimization criteria, how many links do you have pointing to you and what sources they’re coming from. All of those things are things that businesses have to be paying attention to in order to rank well in local.
Eric: Well, that’s a good question that I think is always something that we’re interested in, and I’d like to talk a little bit more. How does your backlink profile to your website affect your local listing? Or does it?
Chris: It does affect it, and in fact I believe it’s become more influential with the changes that they’ve made over the last year or two put forward place search, which kind of changed how local was presented to the regular web search.
Eric: So, it’s almost co-mingled.
Chris: Exactly.
Eric: It looks like a regular web, yeah, it looks like a regular web result, but it’s got some local information, it’s got the star review, there’s a little more space between listings.
Chris: Right.
Eric: Yeah, so, yeah, that made me feel like I was probably going to be looking at a backlink profile.
Chris: Yes.
Eric: But I’m tied to the local page.
Chris: Well, we know that it became… Links, backlinks became more influential as a side-effect from that change, because when they merged business listings, which were all part of just a little inserted map listing, you know, widget, essentially.
Eric: Like a 10-Pack or whatever.Chris: They integrated those business listings with actual web listings. And before the change, if you had a business that didn’t have a website, it still could rank within what we call the 7-Pack or 10-Pack. After the change, those businesses that don’t have websites aren’t showing up. And so we know that they had to integrate regular web search results with those business listings in order to make them appear within the regular search results.
And so, like you said, they’re co-mingled and I believe that after the change, links and backlinks became more influential than they already were. Now, as part of the total ranking algorithm, the usual traditional SEO criteria, how many links you have pointing to your website, in addition to key-order relevancy stuff, you know. The link text pointing to your site in those links, the titles that you use on the web pages, the text content, images, all of that goes together and it’s part of the ranking criteria.
A really great resource to look at is David Mihm’s “Local Search Ranking Factors” survey, which has a number of us from the industry that have been watching how rankings work within local. We all contributed to it, and voted for what criteria we thought ranked higher. And it’s kind of amazing how similar our perspectives are just from, you know, all over the country, in all different industries that we’re doing optimization for.
Eric: I’ve got one last question. I know we’ve gone long, I try to keep these really short, but Chris is such an intelligent, knowledgeable guy, I’m going to go long.
So, my last question for you is, in Webmaster Tools I can go in and I can actually say, “Hey, this website is intended for a local audience.” I can pare it down to the United States; I can pare it down to Dallas/Fort Worth. And I can tell Google Webmaster Tools that my website itself is intended for a specific geography.
Does that play a…? How much of a role do you think that plays in local search? Do you recommend that as a strategy? What are your thoughts there?
Chris: I don’t think that that’s all that critical for local websites.
Eric: OK.
Chris: I think, eventually, it becomes [unintelligible 06:36] based on the business’s address and the type of industry it is. So, I wouldn’t set that. I know, in a lot of cases where people were very concerned about which country their website is associated with or whether it’s considered national or international, people would make their settings. I think it makes more sense if you’re here to do some very country-oriented content, or if your content is illegal in other localities and stuff.
You know, gambling comes to mind; they try to limit it from showing up in their different, in some other…
Eric: If you’re a multinational and you have different websites for different countries, you might want to leave those.
Chris: Right. Like, that could help to specify to Google which ones you should show for, particularly if you’re a dot com trying to show up in a foreign country, you don’t have that top-level domain name that’s going to be an incubator for… that you’re specific to that particular country.
Eric: That’s a way to go in and just kind of say, “We really are here for a reason.”
Chris: And I think if you’re a dot com trying to… a dot com, but you’re a company located in Canada, it could be useful in that case. But for most cases, I don’t think it’s necessary [unintelligible 07:51] to set that.
Eric: Good. Well, thanks, Chris, this was great information, I really appreciate your time.
Chris: Sure, yeah.
Eric: And again thanks for taking a minute and letting me hijack you.
This was Eric with Globe Runner SEO. Once again, a great interview, Chris was really knowledgeable, and take what he had to say for it with a lot of seriousness, because this guy really knows local search and he’s impressed me and that’s sometimes hard to do.
Chris: Thanks very much.
The 5 Most Common SEO Mistakes Clients Make
There are so many elements to a sound SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy that it’s common for digital marketers to fail to see the forest for the trees. They are so focused on the more noteworthy, often complex, elements that they forget about the basics. They want to throw fancy pitches—sliders and knuckleballs—when they haven’t yet mastered the fastball. It’s a common SEO mistake.
You can argue that certain elements of an SEO strategy are more important than others, but that’s not the point. If something is helping get visitors to your website, it’s important. What’s really important is that the basics aren’t skipped. Glossing over the basics could be the most common SEO mistake we see on websites we evaluate.
The following 5 are the other most common SEO mistakes, whether committed by someone new to the world of digital marketing or by a seasoned professional.
1. No Sitemap
If your website doesn’t contain a site map, how can you expect Google to easily crawl it? A sitemap tells search engines about website pages that are ready for crawling. Sitemaps are created in a standardized XML format and include information about webpages, their titles, the last time they were updated, associated metadata, and more. You can also add images and videos to your sitemap, but if you have a lot of pages (online retailer, for instance), you should create separate XML files for each.
2. Lack of Internal Links
No question, having a solid linking strategy is important, just don’t forget the internal links. Marketers often get so focused on getting external links that internal links get short shrift. They’re both important.
Internal links help keep visitors on your site longer, which is duly noted by search engines. Internal links also help search engines better navigate your site and can augment the sitemap. If a sitemap directs visitors to a page but it doesn’t have links pointed to it, search engines may consider the page unimportant and index it accordingly.
3. Too Focused on Traffic
Yes, SEO is about getting visitors to your website, but how helpful is it if you’re attracting the wrong ones?
If you’ve invented the latest, greatest iOS golf app and are trying to attract visitors to your booth at the PGA Merchandise Show, you don’t want Android users showing up (unless, of course, they are ready to switch to an iPhone). Who cares that your briefcase is full of business cards if you’ve attracted the wrong prospects?
When creating and deploying a SEO strategy, it’s very common for marketers to focus on getting the most visitors possible to the website. All those visitors will look great in Google Analytics, but it’s not going to accomplish your ultimate goal—generating more business. Do you want 10,000 visitors that deliver 10 customers or 1,000 visitors that deliver 20?
Think CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). CRO tells you how effectively you are getting the right visitors to your website. It answers the question, Are the visitors I’m attracting converting to customers? Calls to Action (CTAs), such as form fills to download content or watch a webinar, will help determine if you’re attracting the right visitors. If not, it’s time to create better, more compelling content and cast a smaller but more profitable net.
4. Focusing on the Wrong Keywords
Everyone thinks they know about keywords and understand their importance. It’s an important part of an SEO strategy, but it’s common for marketers, even seasoned ones, to get too hung up on the keywords they assume are important. Here’s the issue—without using valuable keyword tools available, it may be hard to focus on the right ones and think like a customer. You may be too close to the messaging and unable to see through customers’ eyes. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed buying behaviors. Customers may be searching for your products or services differently now than they did prior to March 2020.
Also, you need to consider the keywords your competitors are focusing on and here’s why—if you haven’t been, they’ve been building authority related to those keywords. You need to begin filling that gap. If they’re also bidding on those words through paid ads, they have gotten an even bigger lead. You have some catching up to do.
By using SEMrush, you can easily find out the keywords your customers are focusing on. In short, you need to think both like a customer and a competitor. Use Ahrefs to see pages on competitors’ sites that are getting a lot of traffic. It’s a great way to do some detective work on content and keywords that are attracting visitors. Use this information to help craft more high-value content for your website.
5. Thinking You’re Done
SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget it proposition. You don’t revisit it every few months. The 5 SEO tactics listed here are some of the more common techniques marketers overlook. If you want SEO to work for you, you’ve got to work at it. Whether all your competitors are focusing on SEO is irrelevant; just know that some definitely are. And they’ll be getting that traffic you want.
Contact the SEO Experts
If you need the help of a digital marketing agency with more than a decade of SEO experience and expertise, Globe Runner is the partner you’re looking for. We are here to help inject your digital marketing initiatives with rocket fuel and launch it to success. If you’re ready to blast off, call us at (972) 472-8528 for a free digital marketing consultation.
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