Imagine what an impact it would have on your business if you could rank first for a few of your desired phrases.
The goal of this guide is to help you understand the most important Google ranking factors so you can implement them on your website and get more traffic.
What Are Google Ranking Factors?
Google ranking factors are the elements of your website that the Google search algorithm takes into consideration when deciding what webpages to show in the search results for a given search query.
When someone searches for a phrase relevant to your business or service, you want them to find you and not your competition, right?
To truly understand how to get your website ranked in Google search results, you need to understand Google ranking SEO. There are hundreds of ranking factors, some of which can have a significant impact, while others matter less.
In this guide, we’ll cover the factors that matter most, so you know which SEO strategies to spend the most time and money on.
Why It’s Important to Know the Google Ranking SEO Factors
While the ROI on SEO can be a bit fuzzy, a study by Intergrowth gives it a little more clarity.
The first five organic results amount to 67.60 percent of all clicks. After that, the percentage of clicks drops to 3.73.
Let’s say you rank number one for a keyword with 1,000 searches per month at a 30 percent click-through rate. That would drive 300 new visitors to your site each month. If you convert only one percent of those visitors, it would still mean three new customers every month for a year.
Simply ranking number one on Google for a single keyword can bring 36 new customers per year to your business.
Implementing some of the steps in this guide to rank for a handful of keywords can have a significant impact.
Top 11 Google Ranking SEO Factors
Let’s take a look at some of the most important Google ranking factors so you can learn how to increase your SEO ranking on Google.
1. Mobile-First Optimization
In the fourth quarter of 2021, mobile traffic accounted for 54.4 percent of global traffic. The majority of people surfing the web on their smartphone expect your site to work perfectly on their device, and if it doesn’t, they’ll likely bounce from your site.
This is why mobile friendliness is one of the most important Google ranking factors. If your site doesn’t function properly on mobile, Google is knocking you down a peg.
If you don’t believe me, you can read about it directly from Google. As of summer 2019, they began mobile-first indexing, which means your functionality on mobile is what determines your ranking. Desktop performance is second in importance.
To rank in the Google search results, you need to make sure your site functions the same on phones, tablets, and computers. Make sure the theme or template you select is mobile responsive. Next, ensure all your images are displayed clearly, check whether any words fall off the screen, and limit giant walls of text, which might look fine on desktop but on mobile can cover the entire screen.
Make sure the site loads properly by reducing the number of changing video URLs and limiting the amount of “lazy-load” content on your site.
2. Core Web Vitals
Google introduced Core Web Vitals as yet another important ranking factor in May 2020. These refer to the overall health of your website in terms of the experience it provides for users.
Let’s break each of these down so you can understand how they impact your rankings.
Largest Contentful Paint: Google expects your site to completely load its first page within 2.5 seconds. This reduces the number of people who will click away, and it impacts Google ranking SEO.
You can improve your overall page loading speed by reducing the number of complex elements on your site, shortening pages, limiting redirects, and fixing any broken external or video links.
First Input Delay: Google expects your site to react quickly to users when they interact with something. You have 100 milliseconds or less for a button or window on your website to respond to a user when they click it.
Cumulative Layout Shift: Google expects your site to load predictably and not change once it’s loaded. Have you ever clicked a link on a site as it’s loading, and then it jumps halfway down the page taking you to a different link? This factor plays into overall page experience, which is important for Google ranking SEO.
This occurs when items on the page load at different speeds resulting in layout changes. The best way to prevent this is by ensuring all images are the same size, new content isn’t inserted above old content, and animations load at the same speed.
3. Value-Packed Content
According to SEMRush, 55 percent of brands experienced better results due to the improvements they made to their content.
There is no room on the internet for poor-quality content. I consider this one of the single most important Google ranking factors simply because it doesn’t require anything tricky or fancy. Write great, thorough, and value-rich content, and Google will work in your favor.
What do I mean by value-rich?
I mean write content people want to read, content that helps, and content that provides more than the competition. A great place to start is researching questions your customers have and creating content that provides the answers. To find common questions, use keyword research tools like Ubersuggest, question forums like Quora, and monitor chatter among your target audience on social media.
If you can create high-quality content that also incorporates the more technical elements we discuss in this guide, you have a great chance of improving your SEO and eventually, your bottom line.
4. Domain Age and Authority
Unfortunately, domain age is one of those Google ranking SEO factors you can’t necessarily control unless you’re purchasing seasoned domains.
Domain age refers to the amount of time your domain has been registered, and authority is essentially your reputation with Google.
Even though the “King of Search” John Mueller himself said domain age does nothing, I still have to believe it plays a role in your overall site authority.
A few ways to improve your E-A-T score are involving subject matter experts and giving them bylines in your blog posts, including interviews and reviews by industry experts, leveraging social proof across your website, and increasing your website’s security.
Keep in mind that E-A-T isn’t a direct ranking factor, but it does impact SEO indirectly. In fact, after Google’s 2018 medic update, monthly traffic to YMYL sites with a lack of E-A-T dropped from 2 million to around 4,000 by 2020.
And yes, links are still important for Google ranking SEO. Inbound links, outbound links, and internal links are all important ranking factors because they increase the overall authority of your site and help your site prove itself as a valuable resource.
Inbound or “backlinks” are links that come from someone else’s site to your content. These increase authority by showing Google your content is so great that someone wants to link to it.
Outbound links show authority by providing additional relevant resources to visitors to your site. For example, you should be including outbound links to help readers learn more about something or back up any facts and stats you include in your content.
Internal links are links within your own website that tie ideas together. Having a web of internal links is crucial to Google ranking SEO because it shows Google you are a complete A to Z resource on a subject.
6. On-Page Experience
Bounce rate is one Google ranking factor that can significantly impact where Google ranks you in search results. One study found the average bounce rate is around 49 percent. Most believe a 50 to 60 percent bounce rate is acceptable. If your bounce rate drops much below that, it signals to Google that your page probably doesn’t give users what they’re looking for, meaning your page is less likely to appear in search results.
Click-through rate and dwell time are other important on-page experience Google ranking factors. They tell Google whether someone likes what they see when they click to your site from the search results for their search query.
You can improve your on-page experience metrics by ensuring your content aligns with your target keywords, metadata, and title tag. This ensures that when someone clicks through to your site, they get what they’re looking for.
7. Technical SEO
Technical SEO is still an important Google ranking factor. Technical SEO includes things such as:
keywords in page titles and title tags
keyword-optimized header tags
properly optimized meta description at 110 to 150 characters
13 percent of websites have errors in their sitemaps
63 percent of websites “abandon” meta descriptions
more than 20 percent of websites have a low site speed
Thankfully, technical SEO could be one of the easiest things to adjust on your website. Make sure you’re using relevant keywords in all headers and metadata. The key to doing this is having a quality keyword research tool that provides you with complex competitor data and keyword gaps. You can also run an SEO audit, and this guide explains how.
As for header tags, you want to ensure you’re using keywords in the headers of your articles whenever possible. When Google crawls your site, headers are a big indicator of what your article is about, and they’re important for overall Google ranking SEO.
Your meta description and title tag are what display in the SERPs when someone searches for a relevant keyword. You want to use keywords in both the meta and title tag—but make sure it’s natural and not forced.
8. Social Signals
While this study may be a bit dated, it still provides context to the importance of social media in SEO.
The graph and study performed by cognitiveSEO show how the number of social shares impact the overall ranking of a web page. As the shares go down, the ranking goes down. Of course, this factor alone won’t make a tremendous impact on your ranking, but in the heat of competition, this can set you apart.
Keep in mind that a social presence is also a significant trust factor. If visitors can find you on social media and see that you’re active and present, they may feel more inclined to purchase from you.
9. Content Relevancy and Authority
This Google ranking factor can be separated into three main categories:
search intent
content hubs
topical relevance
These are three incredibly important factors going forward in Google ranking SEO. Google is paying much closer attention to the actual content that people are producing and putting a lot of weight on whether a website actually provides solutions to people or if they’re writing entirely for the search engine.
Surfer did an incredible case study and found that out of 37,000 keywords, about 12 percent of them changed intent, with many shopping-related keywords turning informational. This means that people who were once searching for something to buy are now searching for information to help them make a purchasing choice.
Think of content hubs as a destination where someone can come and find everything they need to know about a subject. If your site provides an exhaustive look into something, Google sees you as an authority. By creating these hubs on your website, you’re showing Google you can provide everything from A to Z.
10. Real Business Information
This Google ranking factor is one I would consider somewhat new but falls into the category of trust signals. As more and more people turn to the internet for nearly everything, you need to translate the in-store experience to your website.
What does this mean? It means people are expecting to be able to pick up the phone and call you, they want to see where you’re based, and they expect you to be there to answer their questions in real-time.
Getting a Google Voice number, creating an “About Us” page with real pictures, and even adding an address to your website can help increase authority and show Google you’re a real business.
11. Content Length
It’s been debated and tested time and time again, but it’s always proven that longer content performs better.
Now, that doesn’t mean go and throw up a 15,000-word salad and expect it to rank. You still need to provide a ton of value, resources, and incredible information with those words. However, if you can put together a more comprehensive article that is longer than the competition, you have a better chance of ranking.
Possible Future Google Ranking Factors
Where do we see Google ranking SEO going in the future? Based on experience and research, I see five main factors as most important in the coming years (Google also tells us these factors are important):
high-quality and highly relevant content
honest and relevant keyword research and placement
What do these five things tell us about what Google is looking for? Google wants you to provide users with a good experience when they land on your site.
This study performed by Content Science makes the importance of content relevancy clear as day. To sum it up, they state that while it’s great to have a lot of traffic on your site, and it looks good to Google, to actually generate goal completions, content relevance is key.
User experience and site functionality go hand-in-hand with content relevancy. No matter how great the content is on your site, you need to have a site that performs well and checks a lot of the technical boxes Google expects.
Our company mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. That’s why Search makes it easy to discover a broad range of information from a wide variety of sources.
Google Ranking Factors Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most important Google ranking factor?
I will always think that the key to Google ranking SEO is high-quality and valuable content.
Does Google release a list of its ranking factors?
While it’s not necessarily a list, it’s a solid explanation of what factors are most important. You can see the focus is primarily on user experience.
How do I improve my Google search ranking?
Improve your ranking by implementing all of the Google ranking factors in this guide.
How many Google ranking factors are there?
There are likely hundreds if not thousands of factors ranging from small to large. Google has a rigorous process to determine what factors are most important.
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What is the most important Google ranking factor? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
I will always think that the key to Google ranking SEO is high-quality and valuable content.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Does Google release a list of its ranking factors? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
While it’s not necessarily a list, it’s a solid explanation of what factors are most important. You can see the focus is primarily on user experience.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How do I improve my Google search ranking? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
Improve your ranking by implementing all of the Google ranking factors in this guide.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How many Google ranking factors are there? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
There are likely hundreds if not thousands of factors ranging from small to large. Google has a rigorous process to determine what factors are most important.
”
}
}
]
}
Conclusion: Google Ranking Factors
While there aren’t any foolproof ways to rank your content, adding these Google ranking factors can certainly increase your chances of ranking for your chosen keywords. Of course, hiring a qualified agency is another great way to rank higher.
If you’re going at it alone, you don’t have to do everything at once. Start with the most important factors and work your way down. It may take a while, but Google is a merciful and honest leader who rewards those who put in the work.
What factors do you think are most important for Google ranking SEO in the coming 5 to 10 years?
When building backlinks, the more you have the better. However, they need to come along with quality. If the backlink you have brings harm to your website, you need to disavow it. A google disavow tool is created to help you with the task. You will learn: Basic information about disavow oflinks. How to use … Continue reading Google Disavow Tool: What Can You Do For Your SEO?
Do you consider yourself a Google expert? Think you know all the ins and outs of the search behemoth?
If you answered yes to either of those questions, you might be in for a surprise.
Google contains myriads. The search giant constantly evolves its algorithms and offerings, from secret search functions to in-house SEO guides.
Read on to learn more about Google’s secrets.
1. Google Has Advanced Search Functions: Boolean Operators
We’re all incredibly familiar with the Google search bar, given that 84 percent of us admit to searching Google at least three times a day. However, the search engine also comes equipped with some pretty cool, advanced search functions many don’t know about. These built-tools range from a hashtag search function guides that enable users to optimize for search engine optimization (SEO) and everything in between.
Below, we break down the four most useful secret Google search functions so you can start mastering these secret tricks.
Search for Similar Google Results With Related
Adding “related:” to your search terms lets you include similar or identical topics. This can be beneficial in broadening your search but allow you to keep the results in the same thematic area.
This search feature can aid online business owners or marketers in identifying competitors. By assessing business type, content, and category, Google can show vendors offering similar products and services. This often makes research into competitor search ranking, social strategy, and other marketing functionality easier.
Searching Social Media Profiles and Mentions With Google
With over 49 percent of the global population using social media, it’s safe to say there’s an overwhelming amount of profiles to sort through.
With the social media search Google secret, you can use the @ symbol followed by the handle of an account. Google will compile results for that user, including web pages and tweets.
You can also narrow your search by typing those terms followed by the site you want to search, like Twitter. This could show you the person’s account, mentions of their account, and accounts using similar handles or owned by people with the same actual name.
This can help you isolate mentions of competitors or brands you want to explore further.
Use Google to Search for Hashtags
Much like the above @ function, you can find much more than profiles with Google search functions.
Use the # symbol to aggregate hashtag results, including the social presence associated with the words or phrases.
For example, if you search #digitalmarketing and change the search date to the past 24 hours under “Tools,” you’ll see the most recent posts across social media that discuss digital marketing.
If you want a tight lens, change the result type to verbatim using quotation marks—”#digitalmarketing”—to exclusively see the use of the hashtag.
This search functionality lets marketers see which keywords align with your brand’s message while simultaneously investigating how competitors use social media.
Google Lets You Access a Site’s Cache
From identifying how frequently your site is crawled to relaying information about a page that’s currently down, you can learn a lot from caches.
To access the saved copy of a website, simply use the cache: search command before a site’s URL.
You can view the most recent version of a site within the cache copy, so don’t expect to find a years-old draft.
Within the cached copy, you can view the full version, text-only version, or view source. You will also see the timestamp and snapshot taken by Google.
2. Google Makes Thousands of Updates Each Year
While in its infancy, Google didn’t make many updates to its algorithms annually. Now, the algorithm is updated countless times a year.
Why should you care about this (fairly open) Google secret?
Updates mean changes to how pages display in the search engine result pages (SERPs) and can impact your search visibility.
While these updates have historically ranged from removing spam to ad placement on the SERPs, there’s a significant update on the horizon impacting how marketers gather information about their intended audience.
Google plans to remove all third-party cookies from its engine. Used as a tool for tracking individual movement across the web, cookies have not only long been a marketer’s best friend but also a security threat.
While cookie removal is a massive update, tons of additional updates can impact your digital strategy in other ways.
To stay ahead of these updates, take steps to ensure that you build agile, editable sites and pages that can roll with the changes, setting you up for digital success.
3. Google Knows When Users Exit a Page [Bounce Rate]
Have you struggled to boost email sign up, increase site search traffic, or get more leads?
If you answered yes, the root cause of your problem may be your bounce rate.
Your bounce rate refers to the number of individuals who visit your landing page and leave without conducting any other interaction.
Bounce rates are important metrics because they allow you to understand audience on-page behavior.
And Google has a clear record of this behavior through Google analytics.
If you’re experiencing high bounce rates and struggling to achieve your marketing goals, don’t fret. There are several steps you can undertake to reduce your bounce rate:
Improve Content Readability
Does your content look like one big chunk?
If so, you need to break it up.
Ideally, your content should be quick and consumable. Here are a few tips for making your pages more readable:
Use images to break up the labor of reading.
Use quotes to underscore reliability and break up the text.
Use subheading.
Bold keywords.
Ask questions to engage readers.
End your landing page or content with a subheading titled conclusion.
Write Strong Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are HTML attributes that explain what a searcher can anticipate finding on a given page. Search engines use these descriptions to determine what your page is about.
Ideally, meta descriptions should be 155 characters long. If you exceed this length, the searcher will see an ellipsis (…) at the end of the description. This can result in a higher bounce rate since your site may not have been adequately described.
To optimize your meta descriptions, try to reach that ideal character length of 155 and include relevant keywords.
Use Interactive Content
Are you looking to engage site visitors? There’s no better strategy than using interactive content.
Interactive content entices users to take action rather than simply bouncing from your site. This way, you can lead visitors to explore your site to learn more about your organization.
Examples of interactive content include infographics, e-books, lookbooks, quizzes, and checklists, all of which create and maintain engagement.
4. Google Releases Their Own SEO Guides
While some things at Google may seem hidden, Google releases its own SEO guides.
These guides cover nearly everything you need to know about succeeding with SEO on Google.
5. Google Holds Secret Conferences
For the last decade, Google has hosted an event dubbed Google Camp during the summer.
Don’t let the cutesy name fool you—this isn’t a bootcamp for coders or developers.
It’s a star-studded meeting of the minds that occurs during the summer months.
Annually themed, the camp has covered humanitarian topics like global warming and education.
You can find former presidents and current starlets, fashion designers, and tech leaders attending these events.
And while admittance to this event is highly selective (not to mention expensive), attendees allegedly enjoy in-depth conversation and relaxation.
6. Google Is Loaded With Fun Easter Eggs
While Google may be the world’s most-used search engine, it is also arguably the world’s most fun search engine. Chock full of Easter eggs that range from solitaire to the functionality to create a heart-shaped graph, you can find a way to entertain yourself when taking a break from customer research. We break down our current three favorite Easter eggs below.
Animal Sounds
Whether you’re teaching your kids the nuances among varying animal sounds or simply want to have some nature-themed time, this secret feature is endlessly delightful.
To access Google’s animal sounds feature, enter the search phrase “animal sounds” into the search bar and let the fun begin.
Tic Tac Toe
If you’re in search of another distracting Google Easter egg and are craving nostalgia, you can try your hand at a classic game of X’s and O’s.
Simply enter the term tic tac toe into the search bar, and you’ll be on your way to a competitive game with Google AI.
Coin Flip
Found yourself sitting with a yes or no question that the flip of a coin can only decide?
If you don’t have a quarter on hand, don’t fret. Google has one for you. Simply enter the phrase flip a coin into the search bar, and you’ll have your answer.
7. Google Provides Directions Directly From the Search Bar
While you probably use Google Maps in your day-to-day life, you can also score directions to any location directly from the search bar. For example, simply type “directions to [destination] from [location]” into the search bar, and Google will provide step-by-step directions. You can even choose whether you’d prefer directions by car, public transit, or foot.
8. Google Enables Search Within Websites
If a website doesn’t include a search function, don’t fret. With Google, you can search a website’s content for a specific query. Simply add site:[website] to the beginning of your search, and you’ll be directed to results from that particular site rather than the entirety of the web.
9. Google Enables Search for Movies, Books, and News
While most Google users know how to conduct image and video searches, did you know you can further vary your search results by medium?
If you’re searching for a book, click the menu item entitled “More.” From here, you can select books, news, or movies and remove any other search clutter that gets in the way of your aim.
10. Define Your Number of Search Results
While we all aspire to land on Google’s first page, sometimes the information you need doesn’t land there. To view more search results, select “Settings” below the right-hand of your search bar on the results page. From here, you can adjust the number of search results that appear.
Google Secrets Frequently Asked Questions
Does Google Have Secret search functions?
Yes! While you may be using standard search queries in the search bar, Google possesses deeper functionality than meets the eye.
Does Google update its search algorithm, and should I care?
Yes, and yes. Google makes thousands of updates to its search algorithm annually. These updates can significantly impact how your site manifests on the SERPs.
How can I keep up with Google’s changing algorithm?
While the answer here is two-fold, we believe that the best offense is a good defense. While many of Google’s more extensive changes are publicized before they go into effect, some are not. By building an adaptive and agile site, you can prepare for whatever updates come your way.
Does Google Really Hold Secret Conferences?
Yes, they do. Every year, guests gather in the summer at a themed retreat focused on a humanitarian issue.
Yes! While you may be using standard search queries in the search bar, Google possesses deeper functionality than meets the eye.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Does Google update its search algorithm, and should I care?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
Yes, and yes. Google makes thousands of updates to its search algorithm annually. These updates can significantly impact how your site manifests on the SERPs.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How can I keep up with Google’s changing algorithm?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
While the answer here is two-fold, we believe that the best offense is a good defense. While many of Google’s more extensive changes are publicized before they go into effect, some are not. By building an adaptive and agile site, you can prepare for whatever updates come your way.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Does Google Really Hold Secret Conferences?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
Yes, they do. Every year, guests gather in the summer at a themed retreat focused on a humanitarian issue.
”
}
}
]
}
Google Secrets: Conclusion
Regardless of whether you’re a digital marketer or a business owner, it never hurts to learn more about the search engine that drives the majority of traffic to your website.
If we’re honest, we all want more legitimate site visitors, better optimized SEO, and high-converting web pages, right?
As you learn more about Google secrets, you can use them to your advantage.
That SEO guide? We would suggest getting very familiar with its contents.
And while you may not find yourself in Southern Italy at Google Camp, you will have a much better chance at finding your site ranking on the first page of Google’s SERPs.
Google Scholar is a search engine for scholarly literature at major academic publishers and university presses that lets you find articles or citations on the topic of your choice.
Google Scholar is a great resource for finding articles on topics related to your niche and adding them to Google Scholar’s library.
Anyone can use this tool, such as marketers, academics, or anyone who wants to do research. All you need is an idea of what you’re looking for and a Google account.
Well-researched content helps build audience trust and positions you as a leader in your industry.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss strategies for using Google Scholar to find marketing content ideas and research, plus tips to be successful.
Let’s get started!
How Does Google Scholar Work?
Google Scholar ranks documents based on the number of times an article has been viewed, printed, or downloaded within a set period of time (usually around one year).
Similar to Google search results, the most popular or most used topics are shown first in Google Scholar results.
Google Scholar’s aim is to rank documents the way researchers would: based on relevance and popularity.
This ranking system also means searchers can find relevant content more quickly.
Documents are added to Google Scholar’s library when publishers submit them to the Google Scholar Metadata Program. From there, documents are indexed, ranked, and made available to searchers in search results.
There is no limit on the number of documents that can be added to Google Scholar’s library—it all depends on how many publishers are participating.
This makes it easy for marketers and researchers alike to find a wide range of relevant content ideas or research topics.
8 Strategies for Using Google Scholar for Content Ideas
Google Scholar is beneficial to searchers because it allows marketers and researchers easy access to scholarly literature like academic journal papers. You can find content ideas on Google Scholar by searching for keywords related to your industry, brand, or topic.
No matter if you’re looking for news articles on digital marketing trends in healthcare, Google Scholar can help you get high-quality search results.
If you want to learn how to use Google Scholar successfully for your marketing research, follow the steps below.
1. Search by Year to Find Trending Topics
Google Scholar’s advanced search option can help you find the most relevant research papers by year.
You can also use this feature if you’re looking for more recent content on a topic and want to avoid older articles that don’t reflect current trends in your industry.
For example, let’s say your company is interested in social media marketing best practices, but you want to keep your results modern. Google Scholar can help you narrow down research topics to a specific date range.
To narrow your search down by date, you use the “Since Year” option to show only recently published papers, sorted by relevance.
You can also use the “Sort By Date” option to show just the new additions, sorted by their publish date.
Using these features can help you find the most up-to-date resources on your topic or find out what competitors are talking about right now.
2. Explore Related Articles to a Certain Topic
Google Scholar’s Related Articles option allows you to explore articles similar to ones you’ve already read, which can help you generate more content ideas.
To use this feature, simply click the Related Articles link at the bottom of an article on your results page.
For example, if you search “content management system” and find a great resource about WordPress, you can follow it up with related articles for WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.
This can also be helpful if you find an article about your main keyword but want to know more about what other related keywords are being searched for most often.
For example, if you search for “content management system” in Google Scholar right now (because Google Scholar searches popularly-used terms), you get the following results:
These related articles give you a great starting point to continue your research and create stronger content topics.
3. Explore the Most Popular Articles and Publications
Google Scholar lets you browse the top 100 publications in multiple languages, ordered by five-year h-index and h-median metrics.
This feature allows you to see which articles in a publication were cited most often and by who.
You can also click the h-index number to see the article and citation metrics. The h-index is a number that represents the highest number of papers in the publication that have been cited at least that many times.
The h-median metric is the median of the citation counts in its h-core. Articles in the top 50 percent of citations count towards this metric.
By exploring popular publications to see what topics they cover and what authors are most cited, you can find content ideas for your own blog topics.
4. Follow the Citations for Additional Ideas
Using the Cited By option on Google Scholar leads you to other relevant search results within the Scholar database.
Cited By shows you how many times the result has been cited by other journals.
For example, if you want to write about the latest trends in SEO, it would be helpful to know what the most reputable sources on this topic are. If you find an article that’s been cited 500 times, you’ll know you’re reading something with merit.
Finding articles by the number of citations they have received is a great way to find high-quality content ideas.
Just be careful not to limit yourself too much, or you might miss out on some important information!
Fields are controlled by the Advanced Scholar Search function, which lets users input keywords, phrases, and places where they occur. You can also segment your results by authors, publishers, and dates.
This feature is great for marketers who want to focus on certain areas of their industry.
For example, someone who wants to write about the food and beverage industry would enter “food and beverage” in the keyword search box. They would also input “food industry” in the phrase search box.
This keeps their results limited to articles about food and beverage within the food industry, instead of all scholarly articles found by Google Scholar’s search engine.
6. Use Keyword Research to Inform Your Search
Many Google Scholar articles have their keywords listed at the beginning of the result.
You can use these keywords as inspiration for content ideas. Or, if you already have a keyword in mind, you can get ideas for others from the results given. This is a great way to find related concepts to improve the quality of your article.
Not sure how to find relevant keywords for your article? Use Ubersuggest to inform your search!
The more relevant satellite keywords you add, the more likely is it that Google Scholar will return good results for your topic.
You can also use this method when writing blog posts or articles so you can quickly look up keywords and see related concepts at a glance.
Doing this research in advance allows you to produce higher-quality content with well-researched sources and information.
7. Find Industry and Competitor Topics
One strategy for using Google Scholar to find content ideas is to look at what your competitors and other industry leaders are doing.
For example, if you’re in the business of selling hats, and another company just published an article ranking high on Google Scholar about hat trends this year, that might be a good incentive to write something similar yourself.
Alternatively, you could use Google Scholar results to write about topics that are relevant to your industry.
For example, if an author or influencer in the online marketing space has recently published a book on email marketing strategy, that would be a good inspiration for potential blog post content ideas since it’s topical and directly related to your audience.
Lastly, you can use Google Scholar to find ideas for your product or service. If you’re a company that sells software, why not google scholar “software marketing tips” and see what comes up? You may find new ideas that haven’t crossed your desk before.
8. Use Google Scholar to Expand Your Customer Base
If you are a company that specializes in the B2B space, you can try searching for topics relevant to your industry and see who’s writing about them. This can open your eyes to new people in the industry you might want to do business with.
You may also find relevant searches that focus on market research or lead generation strategies for companies within your niche. These could turn into potential prospects or partnerships in the future.
Even if you don’t get any new leads, you’ll still be able to gather in-depth knowledge about how other players in your industry are creating and interacting with content.
This can give you new ideas for content topics of your own.
Frequently Asked Questions About Google Scholar
How Do You Search on Google Scholar?
To search on Google Scholar, simply enter your keywords in the search bar and click the magnifying glass icon.
How Do I Search Google Scholar for Journals?
Google Scholar makes journal articles easier to find and access than ever before. To search Google Scholar for journals, enter your keywords in the search bar followed by “journal” or “JSTOR.” For example, if I wanted to look at marketing books, I would enter: marketing + JSTOR.
Is Google Scholar Good for Research?
Google Scholar is a great tool for research because it allows you to segment searches by time, publication, or author.
Is Google Scholar Free?
Yes, all of the information on Google Scholar is completely open access for anyone to see.
You can use Google Scholar for marketing research, content topic creation, scholarly research, and more.
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How Do You Search on Google Scholar? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
To search on Google Scholar, simply enter your keywords in the search bar and click the magnifying glass icon.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How Do I Search Google Scholar for Journals? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
Google Scholar makes journal articles easier to find and access than ever before. To search Google Scholar for journals, enter your keywords in the search bar followed by \”journal\” or \”JSTOR.\” For example, if I wanted to look at marketing books, I would enter: marketing + JSTOR.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Is Google Scholar Good for Research?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
Google Scholar is a great tool for research because it allows you to segment searches by time, publication, or author.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What Is the Best Way to Use Google Scholar? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
You can use Google Scholar for marketing research, content topic creation, scholarly research, and more.
”
}
}
]
}
Google Scholar Guide Conclusion
One of the main reasons Google Scholar is so popular among marketers and researchers is because it’s easy to use. All you need is an idea, and Google Scholar will do the rest for you.
When using Google Scholar search, be sure to enter all of your known keywords, not just one or two words. For example, if you are searching “marketing articles,” Google Scholar would return everything related to marketing, including articles on marketing psychology, which may be less useful to you than the articles about online marketing content strategy.
Once you have the results you’re looking for, keep refining your search and exploring other citations or results.
Google Scholar is a great way for marketers to inform their content ideas and create innovative articles that people enjoy reading.
How have you used Google Scholar in your content marketing strategy?
Have you ever wondered how competitor’s hotels are ranking on the first page of Google? Most of them use free directories like Google and Tripadvisor to reach prospective customers.
Using those same services, you too can boost the search visibility of your hotel property. Best of all, these services are free and packed full of features.
Let’s dive into the key reasons you should add your hotel to Google, Tripadvisor, and similar hotel booking engines. Then, I’ll show you how to request listings on the top hotel listing websites.
Why Should You Add Your Hotel to Booking Sites
For hotels small and large, it makes sense to list them on well-known hotel booking sites like Google and Tripadvisor. Here are a few key reasons to do so.
1. Increase Visibility
The more platforms your hotel is listed on, the more people will see it. Here is an example of how your hotel could look on Google’s hotel listing search results:
With increased visibility, your website will likely see a boost in visitors and inquiries. This increases the odds of bookings for your hotel, especially if your listing provides accurate information and high-quality photos.
2. Build Trustworthiness
Building trust with search engines and customers takes time when using your hotel website and social media profiles.
How can you speed up the process? When you list your hotel on a website like Google, you “borrow” its trustworthiness.
Customers know that business listing services, like Google and Tripadvisor, vet their listings. Similarly, customers know that businesses care about their standing on these platforms. This naturally boosts your hotel’s trustworthiness in the eyes of potential customers.
3. Make It Easier for Customers
A major pain point for customers is the inability to compare services and prices easily. With hotel listing sites, customers can easily compare accommodations to find the one that meets their needs.
A Google hotel or Tripadvisor listing also makes it possible for customers to book a stay at your hotel at any time. When your listing contains all relevant information, including availability and price, customers can make a quick but educated decision. This puts the power into the hands of your customers.
4. Gain Access to Marketing Tools
Platforms like Google and Tripadvisor have many marketing tools available for business owners. While not all of them are free, there are many affordable options.
Google integrates seamlessly with its suite of industry-trusted marketing tools. These include:
Google requires hotels to be running ads with them in order to appear on Google Hotel results. Tripadvisor also has its own suite of tools and services. As a verified Tripadvisor business, you can purchase storefront stickers and marketing materials through their vendors. You can also download free marketing assets, like icons and logos, to add to your website, social media profiles, and more.
5. Incorporate Advertisements
Take your hotel marketing efforts a step further with paid advertisements.
As mentioned, Google My Business incorporates seamlessly with Google Ads. You can create campaigns that boost your hotel listing to the top of search engine results pages and Google My Business results pages. The aim is to target relevant keywords with high volume and low competition.
How to Add Your Hotel to Google
Google makes it easy to add and verify your business. Just follow these steps, and you’ll be a Google-verified hotel in less than a week.
1. Sign Up for Google My Business
First, search to see if your business already exists. A Google business listing can exist without a Google My Business account connected. If it does not yet exist, you can create the listing in minutes.
You will be asked to provide:
business name and category
location for customers (if applicable)
geographic location for customers you serve
contact phone number
website (if applicable)
mailing address (for verification)
services
business hours
whether you accept messages from customers
a business description
photos of your business
You can make edits to your business profile after you complete the steps above. The changes will not be visible on Google until your business has been verified, though.
2. Engage With Customers Reviews and Post Up-to-Date Photos
For larger businesses like hotels, the listing likely exists on Google already. In this case, you might already have customer reviews.
Once you’re verified as the owner or account manager of the hotel, you can respond to ratings and reviews as the business.
You should respond to negative reviews promptly, though it’s important to engage with positive reviews, too. This shows you are an active business owner who is attentive to your customers and their feedback.
You should also add up-to-date photos of the hotel and its amenities. While customer photos may exist on the listing, they may not be current or high quality. You want your photos to be front and center on the listing.
3. Add Hotel Information
Your customers should not need to go to multiple websites to find more in-depth information. This may cause them to find other deals elsewhere.
What should you add to your Google business listing?
prices
availability
hours
amenities
health and safety guidelines
up-to-date photos
The more information you add, the greater the benefit to the customer. For example, one benefit of adding pricing to your business listing is the automatic creation of a free booking link.
This brings customers right to your checkout funnel, which can boost your conversion rates. Just be sure to avoid the top reasons for checkout abandonment!
Now onto amenities. There are various categories you should target in your amenities list. These include:
internet
food & drink
policies & payments
activities
pools
services
parking & transportation
wellness
accessibility
pets
business & events
rooms
bathrooms
languages spoken
Google provides many options within each category. Check those you offer and add additional information as allowed. For example, whether there is an extra charge or how often a service is performed:
How to Add Your Hotel to Tripadvisor
Tripadvisor provides a streamlined process for requesting your hotel’s listing.
1. Request a Listing
Similar to Google My Business, a listing can be requested without your input. This often occurs when a user writes a review. To see if your hotel already has a listing, go to the Claim Listing page and search your business name.
If your business is not listed, just click the option at the bottom of the search results list that says “List it now:”
2. Add Your Personal Information
With the request initiated, you will first need to establish who you are and your connection with the business. This will include categorization of your business, your role within the business, and whether the place is currently open:
3. Add Your Hotel Information
Now it’s time to add the name of the hotel, a description (optional), address, and contact information.
This information will be available for customers once the listing is live.
For verification purposes, be sure the information you provide is accurate and up-to-date.
4. Include Property Details
Here, you will have the chance to add more information about your hotel and its services.
To start, Tripadvisor will ask numerous questions to ensure the most information is included in your listing. These questions include:
What accommodation type best describes this property?
How many rooms or units does the property have?
How frequently is the front desk or check-in location staffed?
What are the check-in hours?
You will also have the chance to select amenities your hotel provides from a list of common options:
The amenities list is not comprehensive, but you can provide more details once your hotel listing is published.
5. Add a Description and Photos
While a description is not required, it is crucial to distinguish your hotel from the competition. Aim to write a customer-focused description of your hotel.
The more photographs a listing has, the more likely it is to convert. A study from Bright Local found that businesses with more than 100 images on Google My Business get 1038 percent more direct searches than the average business.
That’s not the only benefit. Business listings with more than 100 images also see more calls, direction requests, and website clicks.
6. Submit Your Hotel Listing
The final step is to affirm the information you provided is true, and that you have the authority to request a listing. Once that is done, you can submit your listing for review.
With the listing submitted, Tripadvisor will start verifying your details and confirm your property meets their guidelines. The timeframe may vary, though it typically takes five business days.
How to Add Your Hotel to Booking.com
Google and Tripadvisor are industry leaders, but Booking.com is another popular option for listing your hotel. Follow the steps outlined below to get started now.
1. Sign Up for Booking.com
It takes just a few steps to sign up for Booking.com. The steps are:
Enter your email address and then click “Continue.”
Enter your first and last name, and phone number.
Enter the password of your choice and click “Create account.”
2. Request a Hotel Listing
Using the account you created above, you can now click “List your property” under Hotels, B&Bs, and more.
You can add property details, including:
hotel name
hotel address
contact information
pricing
facilities & services
amenities
policies
payments
You will also have the chance to upload photos of your hotel. This is your chance to show the best your hotel has to offer.
You should, of course, include images of amenities and luxury services. However, also be sure to include images of your standard rooms. You do not want to set an expectation for customers that is unrealistic.
3. Add More Details
Once your listing is approved, you will receive access to Booking’s Extranet. This is a portal where you can update your availability calendar, prices, and other listing details.
It will be important to update your details regularly to ensure the best experience for customers.
4. Make the Listing Live
Whenever you’re ready, you can make your property listing live on Booking.
Besides these three mentioned, also consider other platforms to add your hotel listing to, like Oyster, HotWire, Priceline, Travelocity, Yelp, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions About Adding Hotel Listings
How Do I Add My Hotel to Google Maps?
With a Google My Business listing, your hotel’s address will automatically appear on Google Maps.
Should I Add My New Hotel to Google?
Yes! The sooner you can get your property listed on Google and other hotel booking websites, the sooner you can begin to build visibility and credibility.
What Other Hotel Booking Websites Should I Add My Hotel To?
How Often Should I Update My Google Hotel Listings?
The more often you update your Google hotel listings, the better. You should update prices and availability daily if needed. For services and amenities, update them as their availability changes. You should also respond to reviews regularly.
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How Do I Add My Hotel to Google Maps?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
With a Google My Business listing, your hotel’s address will automatically appear on Google Maps.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Should I Add My New Hotel to Google?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
Yes! The sooner you can get your property listed on Google and other hotel booking websites, the sooner you can begin to build visibility and credibility.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What Other Hotel Booking Websites Should I Add My Hotel To?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How Often Should I Update My Google Hotel Listings?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
The more often you update your Google hotel listings, the better. You should update prices and availability daily if needed. For services and amenities, update them as their availability changes. You should also respond to reviews regularly.
”
}
}
]
}
Google Hotel Guide Conclusion
With hotel booking engines like Google My Business, Tripadvisor, and Booking.com, you can meet the growing demand for contactless service. These websites let hotels provide all of the information customers need to make an informed decision. This gives the customer greater control over their booking experience.
If you’ve not considered using these booking engines before, this guide will provide you with everything you need to get started. There are many benefits to using these websites, including increased visibility and trustworthiness.
Which of the above hotel booking engines will you sign up for first?
Top Google rankings are a pinnacle of online business success.
According to Backlinko, the first result on Google gets 31.7 percent of all clicks — while results on the second page receive just .78 percent of clicks.
I’ve talked to a lot of business owners and managers – newbies and veterans alike – who have struggled to unlock the secrets of how to improve their Google ranking without getting penalized.
I wish I could tell you there’s a magic button that ranks your site #1 without fail.
The truth is, it takes resourcefulness, dedication, persistence, and creativity. This is especially true because of the constantly changing nature of Google’s algorithm.
I learned this the hard way; but luckily, you don’t have to.
I’m going back to basics with on-page SEO to help you understand the new SEO rules, learn how to optimize for both humans and search algorithm crawlers, and to master on-page and off-page SEO.
Google executives like Gary Illyes and John Mueller confirm Google constantly changes its algorithm, even though most of these changes aren’t publicly announced.
While Google used to share major update announcements, the exact inner workings of the algorithm are still unknown. The majority of information is just speculation from industry professionals.
After all, if everyone knew exactly how to rank in the first position without penalties for shortcuts or black hat SEO strategies, Google wouldn’t succeed in ranking only the best results. Anyone could hack their way to the top without putting in the work.
Not only would this make it hard for honest people like you and me to succeed, but it would also seriously compromise Google’s mission statement:
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
The best knowledge we have of Google’s algorithm comes in the form of major algorithm updates like:
Page Experience Update (June 2021): This update affected Core Web Vitals, organic results, and News alerts.
Core Update (December 2020): This update focused on content quality and relevance.
Mobile-first update (July 2019): Googlebot now looks at all websites as a smartphone, prioritizing sites that work well on mobile devices.
Mobile-friendly update (April 2015): Favoring websites with mobile-friendly versions and setting the stage for future penalties if sites don’t comply.
Pigeon (July 2014): Worked to integrate local search results like Google Maps.
Hummingbird (August 2013): Aimed to understand the context and intent behind a user’s search instead of just looking at the literal words they typed.
Penguin (April 2012): Targeted spammers and sites that buy unnatural links to boost their rankings.
Not to mention Panda, Google EMDs (exact match domain names), and the Private Blog Network (PBN) deindexing updates. Then there’s Phantom, which first appeared in May 2013 and is believed to have been updated four times – but has never actually been confirmed by Google.
How are you supposed to keep track of all these Google updates?
Check out the video below to learn more about my strategies for link building, on-page SEO, and user metrics when trying to rank on Google.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of the algorithm, let’s get down to those actionable strategies I mentioned earlier.
Step #2: Assess Your Current Google Ranking
To improve your Google ranking, you need to know where you stand. This is true even for new sites. Thankfully, there are several tools to help.
Use Ubersuggest to Check Your Site’s Keyword Rank
If you’ve been targeting specific keywords in page content, use my tool Ubersuggest to assess your rank.
Login, then use the “Traffic Overview” under the competitor report. Type in your domain, and you’ll see a list of SEO keywords your rank for, top pages, and an overview of your SEO keywords ranking.
Scroll down to view the “SEO Keywords” chart, which tells you where you rank for main keywords.
If your site is slow, you have little chance of a high search position. It will affect your ability to convert and sell new customers, too.
Walmart experienced a sharp decline in conversions when its page load times increased from one to four seconds.
If this happens, it doesn’t matter what your on-page SEO, meta description, or title tags are. The search algorithm will punish you, even if you’re a giant like Walmart.
That’s why it’s important to run your own site speed test to figure out how to improve Google rankings. There are dozens of tools that can help you do this. Some of my favorites are:
Here’s how to test your page content speed with Pingdom.
Go to tools.pingdom.com and type in your URL. Choose the location you’d like to test from and click “Start Test.”
Quick Sprout registers a performance grade of 81. As long as your site registers over 50, that’s a good start.
If you get a performance grade of less than 50, your page content is really slow and you need to work on improving it.
Check the page load time, too.
Quick Sprout is doing pretty well at 1.89 seconds. Aim for under 2 seconds for a really fast site and under one second for mobile devices.
Remember, a load time of more than a few seconds could cause you to lose a significant amount of site traffic.
Check Your Site’s Health
After looking at keyword search engine rank and site speed, assess the overall health of your site before you start to optimize.
Have you experienced a sudden drop in organic traffic after months or years of consistency?
Are you wondering whether Google has deindexed (or banned) your site?
There are a lot of great tools to help piece together this puzzle. Try the MxToolBox Domain Health Report tool to check for major issues in five different categories: general site problems, blacklist, mail server, web server, and DNS.
Just click the box for each category to see specific errors and warnings. From there, you can work one-by-one to fix them.
If you want to check if you’ve been penalized by one of the major algorithm updates, check out FE International’s Website Penalty Indicator tool.
You’ll see a graph that shows your site’s traffic in relation to rollouts of major updates. This comparison takes you one step closer to knowing if an update directly affected your site.
To check for a Google penalty, login into Google Search Console and look for the “Security & Manual Actions” report. This will tell you if Google has taken a manual action against your site.
Note that this report will only show if a human reviewer has determined your site breaks Google’s quality guidelines — it won’t tell you if a Google Algorithm update penalized your site.
Next, it’s time to track some vital metrics of your site to find out what other factors you need to improve. Here are the most important metrics to assess.
Organic Traffic
It’s important to know how visitors find your site via Google. In the past, organic search drove most website visitors, crushing non-organic channels like paid search and social media.
Today, social media, email, and paid ads often lead the pack in driving organic traffic — but that can vary drastically by industry.
To find out how many visitors reach your site, log in to your Google Analytics account and check out the acquisition channels report. This helpful Google Analytics guide will guide you.
Organic Traffic Conversions
In addition to analyzing search traffic, it’s worth paying attention to the keywords that generate traffic for your site. This is harder to see than it used to be, but is still possible.
You can do this with Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools). It can tell you how many clicks you get for certain keywords in organic search results.
Keyword Ranking for Transactional Keywords
The number one keyword research mistake is not spending enough time focusing on transactional keywords.
That’s because commercial keywords are the ones that drive revenue. To improve your search engine rankings and make money, you need to understand the difference between commercial and informational keywords to improve Google rankings.
If all of your keywords are informational, you will still generate organic traffic, but it may be difficult to convert those visitors to buyers or people who share on social media.
The reason is because of visitors who search for informational keywords like:
How to clear acne with home products
How to install WordPress
Make money online for free
Free ebook download
Top 10 free article spinners
If they’re not in the buying mood, they want you to speak their language; the search engine language of free. Now, these terms can drive traffic and a solid sales funnel will convert some of those people — but not many.
In contrast, there are people who use transactional keywords that show user intent, like:
Best acne products
Top 10 web hosting providers
Web designers in NY
These folks are probably searching for a solution that they can buy.
If you’re in the e-commerce industry, you’ll hopefully already know that transactional keywords tend to convert well.
Keywords that have the words below as a prefix (before) or suffix (after) to the rest of the keyword phrase tend to do well:
Buy
Review
Purchase
Discount
Coupon
Deal
Shipping
Order
Earlier, I talked about the keywords that are sending you organic traffic. They should also be used in the meta description as well as on-page SEO (more on this later).
Here’s another example. Can you spot the difference between informational and transactional keywords?
Set Up An SEO Dashboard to Track These Metrics
I recommend that you set up an SEO dashboard so that you can track all of the important metrics at any time.
If you have the cash to drop on SEO tools, go for it. If you are on a small budget, however, Google Analytics should serve you just fine.
In addition to setting up dashboards in Google Analytics, you can get even richer keyword data by connecting Google Search Console to Google Analytics. Here’s a complete guide on how to do that.
Step #4: Ensure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly (and Ready For a Mobile-First Google)
More than half of all website traffic comes from a mobile device. That means if you want to rank well, your site needs to perform well on mobile.
While some algorithm changes remain unclear, Google left nothing to the imagination when it comes to mobile. On January 10, 2017, the Google Webmaster Blog said:
Starting today, pages where content is not easily accessible to a user on the transition from the mobile search results may not rank as high.
Then in 2020, Google moved to “mobile-first indexing” which means Google looks at websites as a mobile device. If your site is hard to navigate, your ranking will be impacted.
Luckily, it’s pretty easy to see where you stand. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test offers a quick way to determine if your site is mobile-friendly or on its way to Penaltyville.
Just type in your URL and click “RUN TEST.”
The results will give you a clear “yes or no” answer along with a list of the page loading issues it encountered. This way you can fix and optimize to ensure your mobile site running smoothly.
You’ll be able to look at page loading issues like redirection errors and pages where robots.txt blocked the Googlebot from crawling the page.
If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, add this to the top of your to-do list.
You can get a quick fix through services like Mobify or Duda Mobile.
If your website is built on a popular CMS platform, like WordPress or Wix, most themes are mobile-friendly. You may need to update your site to the latest version to take advantage of these features.
Make sure CTAs and form fields use large, easy to tap buttons.
Don’t use popups that are impossible to close. Yes, pop-ups improve conversions, but they can also annoy users.
There’s a strong connection between mobile and local search. Google caters to hyper-local search, connecting consumers and brands as smoothly and quickly as possible.
These profiles can be a deciding factor for someone who’s searching in your area, so claim and update your business listing ASAP if you haven’t. This also goes for other local listing sites, like Yelp, Facebook, Better Business Bureau, and more.
Step #5: Diagnose and Fix Your Current Google Penalties
Now that you understand your search ranking and have set up tracking for the most important metrics, it’s time to examine your site in detail and fix any current penalties.
This is fundamental; there is no point in promoting or building links to an unhealthy site. Before we dig in, I want to cover a few things that could get you a Google penalty.
Link Building has Changed
Bad links hurt your site. Use them and you can expect a Google penalty sooner rather than later.
That’s why it’s essential to think about how you generate links to your site.
The sentiment remains true today.
Here’s how. Start by identifying and eliminating unhealthy links.
Analyze Your Links
First, analyze inbound links to your site. There are several link analysis tools you can use to do this:
Let me walk you through a link analysis using SEOprofiler.
Sign up for a free account and go to Link Profiler → Backlinks. Let’s use problogger.net:
The results show the most important elements to look for when analyzing your backlinks:
Unique Active Backlinks: This shows the number of links that directly or indirectly affect your Google ranking. “Unique” means that the links are from different IP addresses. That’s one way to identify a natural link. These links have been indexed by Google in the last 90 days.
Nofollow links: Problogger has 10.2% nofollow links, which equals 1,522 backlinks from the total of 14,922. Google introduced the rel= “nofollow” tag in 2005 to stop spammy blog comments from artificially manipulating rankings. After the Google Penguin update was rolled out in 2013, it became essential to diversify your link profile. And as Matt Cutts mentioned, you need a mix of dofollow links (links that pass ranking value to search engines) and nofollow links (links that don’t pass ranking value).
Industry: If you read the content of Problogger, you might think that its industry is “blogging” or “internet marketing.” But, when you look at this analysis, it turns out to be “media.” Knowing your industry can help you identify relevant links that will improve your backlink profile in the search algorithm used by the search engine.
Link Influence Score: This shows how links from the website influence the search engine rankings of linked pages. The higher the score the better. As a very popular and influential site, Problogger’s score is a whopping 99%! Check your own site and see what your score is.
Anchor Text: Click on the link in the left menu to access data for anchor text (anchor text is the text that becomes your link and points to your page) linking into your site. Google’s Penguin update was rolled out to prevent site owners from manipulating search results with exact match anchor text. If you want to stay under the search algorithm penalty radar, diversify your anchor text.
It’s also important to know which links are harmful to your site so that you can remove them. Harmful links include those that:
Come from PR-n/a or PR0 websites
Are mostly sitewide links
Are from referring domain names with little traffic
Come from sites on the same IP class address
Come from web pages with a lot of external links
There are many free tools to help you identify unhealthy links. Two that I’ve tried include Monitor Backlinks and Linkquidator.
Remember to export the list of unhealthy links once you find them. That way, you can refer to them later.
Clean Up Your Link Profile to Avoid a Google Penalty
That’s the next step in cleaning up your link profile, and there are two ways to do it.
1. Request a Manual Link Removal: Visit the website where the unhealthy/unnatural links are coming from and contact the site owner. Ask the site owner to either remove your link (the better option) or add a nofollow tag to it.
If you have outsourced link building in the past, you can also contact the person who placed the links for you and ask that person to have the links removed. Here’s an excerpt from a post at Search Engine World to show how this works:
In this case, don’t ask the site owner to remove your links because they might assume you’re a spammer and ignore you. Instead, follow this tutorial from Search Engine Journal to learn the best way to contact webmasters about link removal.
2. Use Google’s Disavow Links Tool: If you’re unsuccessful in getting unhealthy links removed, your only option is to use Google’s own disavow links tool.
While manual link removal is best, this is a good second choice.
The disavow tool is part of Google Search Console. Once you open Search Console, you’ll see a list of all of your sites.
Go to the site for which you want to disavow links. This is what you’ll see:
When you check for unnatural links, you have the option to export the links that you find. If you have done this, upload the file and click “done.”
Like you, Google can’t actually remove the links as they don’t have access to the referring sites.
However, doing this authorizes Google to stop passing link juice (value) from those links to your page content.
3. Diversify Anchor Text Distribution: Anchor text can play a key role in improving or utterly destroying your search ranking. As I mentioned earlier, if you want a natural link profile, you have to diversify anchor text.
When distributing your anchor text, think about including these types:
Exact Match: Does the anchor text match the keyword that you’re targeting exactly? e.g. hybrid bikes
To avoid anchor text over-optimization, follow these two guidelines:
Avoid Excessive Keyword-Tich Anchor Text: If you want to link to your internal pages on a topic, like “link building strategies,” don’t use that same keyword phrase as your anchor text. Instead, use something like “learn more about link building” or a combination of a generic plus the exact keyword. Variety is key.
Avoid Irrelevant Links: What’s the point of linking to your dog training site using “best golf trainer” as your anchor? It doesn’t make sense to improve Google rankings and could actually result in a Google penalty.
Step #6: Improve Google Rankings with Keyword Research
Once you are rid of unnatural links, it’s time to improve on-page SEO the right way.
One essential element of an effective inbound marketing strategy is keyword research. You won’t get far without understanding how it works.
Learn How Your Audience Finds Your Site
To be effective, you need to pinpoint the keywords that your target audience is using to find your site. Here’s how that works.
Step #1: Visit Ubersuggest, Enter your Keyword and click Search.
Step #2: Click on Keyword Ideas
Step #3: Review Keywords and Search Volume for the Month
Here’s how that helps you.
When you research keywords, you’re getting firsthand information about your target audience, the information that they want to know, and how they want it.
For example, when someone searches for “html5 tutorials for beginners,” you know the searcher is a newbie who is searching for solutions and wants content that helps with this topic.
That can guide you to write headlines and content that ranks well in the Google search results.
It’s helpful to figure out the buyer personas and customer lifecycle of your target audience, so you understand what motivates them. Then, provide relevant page content that will help you increase your Google ranking.
Alexa can help you work out audience demographics, as in the example below for Upworthy.
Remember when I mentioned transactional and informational keywords?
When you do keyword research, you can easily see whether users are simply looking for information or ready to buy.
That’s called user intent, and here’s how it looks for the keyword research example used earlier.
In this example, free web design is an example of an informational keyword. Free web design courses is an example of a transactional keyword.
You need both informational and transactional keywords in your page content to improve the Google rankings of your website.
It’s your job to educate, inform, inspire, and build interest before recommending a product.
Informational keywords can be used to build email lists and nurture prospects before offering a product for sale.
Also, don’t ignore long-tail keywords and questions.
The rise of voice search and BERT means long-tail keywords are more important than ever before.
If your competitors are ranking ahead of you in Google search results, it’s time to spy on them.
If the search algorithm likes them, you can learn and copy their strategies.
I like to use Google Keyword Planner for this because it gives me an accurate estimate of competitors’ keyword targets.
Let’s assume you’re in the “survival knife” sub-niche. One of the authority blogs you might spy on is survivallife.com.
On the Ubersuggest homepage, instead of inputting a seed keyword, simply type your competitor’s URL into the landing page box and click search.
Then scroll down the page until you see “SEO Keywords.” You will see the keywords that your competitor is targeting.
In addition to the keywords, other data includes:
Volume: The number of searches the keyword has during a month.
Position: The position the URL is ranked for in Google search.
Estimated visits: The estimated traffic the webpage gets for the keyword.
For example, your competitor ranks number 1 for the term “survival life.” With the top spot, they receive roughly 395 visitors per month for the term. So, if you’re successful in overtaking them, you know what type of traffic to expect.
This works for any niche and can help you uncover hidden keywords that will help improve your ranking.
Boost Lower Ranking Keywords
If you find your web page on page two, how can you boost its ranking to the first page of Google?
The Complete Guide to Outsourcing for Small Businesses
An In-Depth Guide on How to Outsource for Small Businesses
X Ways Outsourcing Can Revolutionize Your Small Business
Contact the blog owners that you mentioned in your post and ask them to check it out. Hopefully, you’ll get a handful of authority sites to link back to you.
Use Keyword Analysis to Improve Content
Let’s get one thing straight.
There is no optimal ratio for placing keywords in an article.
However, knowing the right keywords to target is of the utmost importance. That’s the basis of keyword analysis.
The starting point and cornerstone of search marketing campaigns. By understanding what queries qualified visitors to your website type into search engines, search marketers can better customize their landing pages to increase conversion rates.
Unless you know the queries that qualified visitors type into Google, you’ll find it difficult to improve your ranking and conversion rates.
By now, you know how to do keyword research. That’s the easy part. The difficult part is knowing which keywords are bringing in organic traffic.
Ever since Google’s “Not Provided” update, this info has been hard to come by. This guide to unlocking Not Provided Keywords will help you recover some of the data. However, these days, it’s impossible to get a full view of what terms drive organic traffic.
You do want to pay attention to popular keywords, terms your competitors rank for, and Google’s “People also ask” questions.
Use this information to write on-page SEO content that matches user intent (remember that?). This will improve the Google ranking of your web pages.
How should you place your target keywords in the content?
Let’s assume you want to write an in-depth review on “best senior irons for seniors.” Here are some titles that you could use:
Top 10 Best Senior Irons For Seniors
Buyers’ Guide For The Best Senior Irons For Seniors
Best Senior Irons For Seniors – The Ultimate Guide
To start your introduction, you could begin like this:
There are several senior irons in the marketplace. But knowing the right one for you is the most difficult decision. If you read this guide from start to finish, you’ll know the best senior irons for seniors that are affordable and reliable.
Or, you could start your introduction by asking a question:
Do you want to find the best senior irons for seniors? This page will not just tell you about the irons but will show how to use them to improve your golf game and provide practical tips on getting a huge discount for your purchase.
Do you see how I placed the target keyword in the first paragraph, without making it seem like spam?
As I’ve said before, target a specific keyword in a natural manner – don’t just try to make it look natural.
Step #7: Increase Google Ranking With On-Page SEO
Now that you know which keywords you want to target – and should be targeting – to maximize your performance, you’re equipped to make meaningful on-page SEO changes.
Backlinko has an excellent guide that breaks down on-page SEO factors that will earn you big points with Google and your visitors.
Let’s break down a few key considerations.
Optimize Title Tags
Title tags are still a big part of determining how your site will perform.
Avoid using the same keywords and title tags over and over. This way, you’ll diversify your opportunities while avoiding cannibalizing your own efforts.
Say that you’re an ecommerce company. A good formula for your product pages could be:
Curly Hair Leave-in Conditioner – Hair Care | Diana’s DIY
Here are a few more title tag optimization tips:
Use pipes ( | ) and dashes ( – ) between terms to maximize your real estate.
Avoid ALL CAPS titles. They’re just obnoxious.
Never keep default title tags like “Product Page” or “Home.” They trigger Google into thinking you have duplicate content, and they’re also not very convincing to users who are looking for specific information.
Put the most important and unique keywords first.
Don’t overstuff your keywords. Google increasingly values relevant, contextual, and natural strings over mechanical or forced keyword phrases.
Put your potential visitors before Google – title tags can make-or-break traffic and conversions.
Keep in mind Google shows roughly 60 characters on a SERP, but don’t cut off if a longer title suits the page content. The search snippet title Google displays can be dynamic based on the search query.
So ultimately, you might be doing yourself a favor by getting more descriptive.
Plus, desktop snippet titles are limited by pixel width, while mobile display titles are typically longer.
In the image above, Google displays as many characters as possible from the beginning. But in the image below, Google truncates the middle of the title to show the term “Hobo” at the end to show relevance to the user’s query.
While meta descriptions have negligible (if any) impact on your rankings, they still serve the important purpose of helping to determine your search snippet and adding an extra factor of uniqueness. This in turn can influence your click-through rate (CTR) from SERPs.
Schema markup can be thought of as extra “labels” on information that tells Google what your content means. For example, let’s say my name appears on an article, so Google displays my name in a SERP entry.
But if I use the right schema around my name in the article’s HTML, I can indicate to Google that I’m the author of the article, not just another term in a sea of indistinguishable words.
Not only does schema markup help Google understand your website, it also makes a massive difference in attracting traffic to your website.
Schema helps give users more relevant information in a visually organized and aesthetic way.
You can use schema tags to identify various types of SERP information, including:
Featured snippets are featured more on mobile SERPs, which we discussed are more common in the U.S. than desktop searches.
The best part about them is that they push you to the number one result (also known as the coveted “position zero”) even if you’re not winning in the rankings otherwise.
It’s an easy way to push your result to the top of the page.
Here’s the best way to target them.
Think of a question in your industry that people are regularly typing into Google. Try something basic like, “What is digital marketing?” or “How to rank on Google?”
A sitemap tells search engines about the organization of your site’s content.
That way, when Googlebot reads the file, it can more intelligently crawl your content. This helps make it more readily available for ranking on SERPs.
Sitemaps also provide valuable metadata about pages on your site like when they were last updated, how often you make changes, and how the page relates to other pages on your site.
Once you have your sitemap, check out my article on XML Sitemap to download your sitemap file, put it into the domain root folder of your website, and add the sitemap URL to your Google Webmaster account.
Now that we’ve covered some key on-page SEO factors, it’s time to discuss how to differentiate your brand from good to great with unique, strategic, and purposeful content.
Step #8: Use Keywords to Create Better Content
Although I’ve touched a bit on keyword research and placement already, in this section, we’ll look more at going leveraging those keywords that you’ve researched.
Sadly, a lot of people misunderstand the purpose keyword research and placement.
Even before Google rolled out their first Google Panda update, the best search marketers knew that quality, valuable, and useful content should target a particular group of people.
Optimize for informational keywords and improve your search ranking by writing resourceful and detailed content while supplementing it with descriptive meta description and title tags.
This process attracts raving fans, gets your content shared on social media platforms, and garners relevant and high-authority links naturally.
If you want to write resourceful and detailed content, follow the guide below:
Use Data-Driven Articles
According to ConversionXL, data-driven approach can increase your traffic.
Back up facts with accurate data so that people will see your content as authoritative and share it on social media, expanding your organic reach. This post on how to create and promote an infographic is an example of data-driven content.
Aim to include newer stats — less than three years old is ideal.
You can even micro-target content. For example, if a blogger experiments with niche marketing, take it a step further and try niche marketing with an aged domain name, then write it up.
Here’s how to tell a story that captivates your audience:
Begin with something unique: Start your story with a unique message that resonates with your audience. Ideally, this should connect with your audience’s questions or pain points.
Infuse Your Own Experiences: It’s called a story for a good reason. Use your own experiences (whether good or bad) as part of the message. No fakery allowed!
Jon Morrow used this on-page SEO content technique to grow his blog to 1,740 loyal subscribers in just seven days. Here’s the post that helped him connect with his audience: How To Quit Your Job, Move To Paradise, and Get Paid To Change The World.
Add a Call-to-Action (CTA): Every story must have an ending. Once you capture your readers’ attention, they expect you to share the solution. After all, your story is supposed to solve a problem, not nurture it.
Use a call-to-action link or button to lead people to your funnel and convert them. MatchOffice increased its conversion rate by 14.79% by changing its CTA copy.
Unbounce provides some more examples of actionable CTA buttons to replace your generic ones:
Write Shareable Headlines
Google has made a lot of changes to search rankings, but one element remains crucial: the headline.
If you write a shareable headline for your post, nothing can stop it from getting clicked, read, and shared by true fans.
Peep Laja of ConversionXL increased his conversion rate by changing the word “today” to “now” in a headline. It also helped him increase sales by 332%.
Headlines truly win the clicks.
Even if your web page is ranked at #1 in Google for page content, that doesn’t mean you’ll get the most clicks.
On-page SEO gets you in the running but the title can convert impressions to clicks.
Let’s search for the term how to outsource. Note that the most clickable headline is in position #2.
The perfect example of a website that uses shareable headlines to boost conversion rate is Upworthy.
I’ve used Buzzsumo to analyze Upworthy’s headlines. Check out the amazing number of shares the first article has racked up.
If I wanted to craft a better headline for my own content, here’s what I’d do:
Add numbers: Upworthy’s post was shared over 1.6 million times on Facebook because it has a definite number. If the headline was “Americans are Completely Wrong About This Mind-Blowing Fact,” I’m sure the total number of social media shares would be lower.
Here are some more examples. When I wrote this post, these headlines were ranked in the Google top 10 for their respective keywords. But, a simple tweak would result in a higher click-through rate.
Original headline:
SEO Basics For Optimizing Your Site
Let’s add some numbers:
6 SEO Basic Tips For Optimizing Your Site
12 SEO Basics You Need To Optimize Your Site
Original headline:
Freelance Writing Tips For Stay-at-Home Moms
Freelance Writing Jobs To Make Money
Let’s add some numbers
5 Freelance Writing Tips To Help Stay at Home Moms Make Money
10 Freelance Writing Jobs You Can Make Money From
Invoke Curiosity: Curiosity will cause people to click your headline, but do it with caution and make sure that you deliver on the promise of your headline with quality content.
For example, if your title is:
Top 7 Body Building Secrets You Didn’t Know
Then make sure that you reveal the ‘7’ secrets, and ideally, what you reveal needs to be new or unique.
Create a Multimedia Experience
While regular blogging is important, don’t settle there.
Hone in on your keywords to learn the questions that brought your visitors to your site. Then use diverse types of content to answer those questions, like:
While the occasional duplicate content won’t destroy your rankings, you’ll be doing yourself a favor by showing Google each piece of content is original, relevant, and useful.
Once you have great on-page SEO content that includes informational and transactional keywords and tells a story that appeals to your audience, it’s time to build links the right way to improve Google rankings.
Step #9: Build Links the Right Way
Earlier, I showed you how to analyze links to your site using SEOprofiler.
Note that it shows a range of different types of anchor text for inbound links.
That’s exactly what you need to build links the right way and improve Google rankings.
Here are some of the ways to do that and the types of links that you need.
Anchor text linking (in-text links): Anchor text links are simple links that appear within the content. See an example below…
I’ve found placing anchor text links “above-the-fold,” can increase conversion rates.
The anchor text linking strategy is mostly used when you’re looking to rank for a particular keyword.
You can use your target keyword as anchor text, but to be on the safe side and avoid penalties with the search algorithm, mix it up with generic keywords.
For example, if your primary keyword is digital camera reviews, when building your links from another site, link naturally like this: find the best digital camera reviews, top digital camera brands, etc.
A good mix is smart on-page SEO.
Internal Links: External links (that is links from other sites to yours) are important, but internal links are also important. Make sure to link to important internal pages using optimized anchor text when it makes sense.
Editorial Links: Creating useful content and sharing it through social media naturally results in valuable inbound links.
A good example is a post on 200 ranking factors that Brian Dean wrote. It’s been cited multiple times.
For Google, what other people say about you is much more important and relevant than what you say about yourself to improve Google rankings.
Over the years, I have created thousands of rich, data-driven, and useful blog content.
If you search for anything related to content marketing, Quick Sprout and neilpatel.com pop up, which means that I get a lot of editorial links.
Copyblogger links out to useful and relevant resource posts that contribute to the engagement that they already have with their audience.
I strongly believe that the site owners didn’t do anything to get those editorial links.
They simply earned the links because of the usefulness of their content. Focus on exceptional content if you want to earn links that will improve the rank of your web pages.
Scale link building: Link diversity is the ultimate way to generate Google-friendly links and improve Google rankings while staying off the penalty radar.
This tutorial from SEMrush will show you how to ethically build links to improve Google ranking.
Old techniques, like directory submission, forum marketing, wiki sites, and even guest blogging and press releases don’t work and they also put you at risk for a Google penalty.
To get a diverse inbound link profile, write page content that will gain links from local, regional, and international sites relevant to your own.
Then, you’ll build a natural link profile with natural, targeted on-page SEO that will withstand anything Google throws at it.
Step 10: Get Active on Social Media
What does social media have to do with search rankings?
That’s a great question.
Search engines like Google try to take into account as much information as possible about your website.
They use it to determine the quality of your website and thus where they should place you when someone searches regarding a topic within your niche.
One of the factors that search engines consider is social media. In particular, they consider the following questions:
How active are your social media accounts?
How up-to-date are your social media accounts?
How many shares does your website content get on social media?
It’s not just worth it for the sake of reaching a larger audience on the social media platform itself; social media can drive traffic to your site, which improves your search ranking.
How do you share content on social media that users are likely to share?
Here’s one great tactic: when you share stuff on social media, you want to increase your audience size and encourage people to engage with your content.
To do that, you can tag some of your friends who you think might be interested in the content.
This doesn’t just show the post to people you tagged. It also ensures that Facebook will show your post to all of the friends of those you’ve tagged.
You can easily increase your audience size by several thousand with a few relevant tags.
However you do it, use social media to build your SEO. The search engines are watching. Start performing.
Frequently Asked Questions About How to Improve Google Rankings Without Penalties
What is the top way to improve your Google ranking?
The most effective way to improve your ranking is to do keyword research and write content that is highly relevant for user intent associated with those keywords.
How long does it take for Google to rank your content?
It can take up to six months to have your content appear in the search results.
Is it possible to rank in the top results on Google for Free?
What are some strategies to rank on Google that are penalized?
You can be penalized for things like duplicate content, over-optimization, and bad linking practices.
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What is the top way to improve your Google ranking?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
The most effective way to improve your ranking is to do keyword research and write content that is highly relevant for user intent associated with those keywords.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How long does it take for Google to rank your content?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
It can take up to six months to have your content appear in the search results.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Is it possible to rank in the top results on Google for Free?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
If you can optimize your website for organic traffic and do some free content marketing, it’s possible to rank high on Google without paying.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What are some strategies to rank on Google that are penalized?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
You can be penalized for things like duplicate content, over-optimization, and bad linking practices.
”
}
}
]
}
How to Improve Google Rankings Without Penalties Conclusion
The key to higher Google rankings without getting slapped with a penalty boils down to providing useful content, presented in a helpful way.
A few basic include:
Take the time truly understand your target audience and their desires.
Google Analytics (GA) is one of the most powerful tools on the web for website analysis. When properly set up and used, it allows you to break down your website traffic and gather vital information to power your digital marketing strategy. While GA has been around for some time, many people still don’t use it … Continue reading How to Navigate Google Analytics Like a Pro (Way Beyond the Basics)
We’ve all seen Google Ads. Whether you call it Google AdSense, AdWords, or Ads, they’re the ads displayed in the search results on Google. Learning how to set them up is important, but learning how to manage and maintain their performance is a whole different ball game.
In this guide, we’re pulling back the curtain and looking at what steps you’ll want to take after you have the ad set up. Whether you have a high or low-performing Google ad, you’ll want to do these things regularly.
What Is Google Ad Campaign Management?
Setting up your Google Ads campaign is an important and essential piece of the puzzle, but the work doesn’t stop there. There’s no such thing as “passive income” when running and managing Google Ads campaigns.
Those who have successful ad campaigns spend a lot of time on the backend evaluating the performance of their ads, looking at different keywords, switching up the designs and copy, and testing everything against key metrics to see how they perform. These are the necessary steps toward building a campaign that can pay you for months and even years if you hit the nail on the head.
It’s worth the work in the long run, but you need to get your Google ads campaign management right if you expect to have those types of results.
Good thing Google provides us with some simple ways to track everything in the backend. First, you can set email notifications to alert you whenever something happens with your campaign.
For example, if you want to receive alerts for possible policy violations you can do this from your Google ads account under setup and preferences. Determine what you would like to trigger an email notification. Some people only want to receive an email for critical issues while others want to stay up to date on every little detail.
Step 1: Check Current Google Ad Performance
Before you can determine what you need to change, you need to first look at your ad performance and see what’s working and what isn’t. There are five key metrics to pay attention to:
impressions
clicks
cost
conversions
click-through rate (CTR)
Let’s break each of these down a little more.
Impressions
An impression occurs each time your ad is displayed and seen by someone on Google. The best way to increase your impressions is to increase your campaign budget. This can push you higher on Google, thus giving you more visibility. Budget plays a role here but ad quality and relevance are ultimately the most important factors.
If Google decides that your ad isn’t relevant to the audience you’re targeting, Google won’t display your ad high enough and you will end up with low impressions and poor performance.
Clicks
This is the bread and butter of a Google ads specialist. Everyone wants more clicks. A click happens when someone sees your ad and then clicks it. Ideally, you want as many clicks as possible but if your ad isn’t getting clicks, you may want to rethink your copy or ad targeting.
Cost
Cost is the amount of money you spend, simple right? What’s more important is your “cost per click,” or CPC.
The way talented advertisers are able to scale ads is by determining how much money they need to put in to get a click or conversion. If you can determine that spending $2 on Google ads results in you making $5 for every click, it’s simple math at that point. Spend $4 and you’ll make $10, and keep building it up from there.
It’s not that simple, though. Your bid, quality score, and ad rank will impact how much you need to spend. Your bid is the maximum amount of money you’re willing to pay for a click. The quality score is a rating Google provides from 1-10 based on how relevant your ad, landing page, and keywords are. The ad rank is Google’s value to determine where they will place your ad in the SERPs.
Conversions
A conversion occurs when someone takes the action you want them to take; this happens off the search engine results page and on your landing page or website. For example, if you’re running an ad for an e-commerce store and you want people to see the ad, click it, and then buy a suit on your landing page, each time someone buys the suit, that would be a conversion.
Google provides ways for us to track this using conversion tracking as discussed in the video above.
Click-Through Rate
Your CTR is the best way for Google to measure the relevance of your ad. It also allows you to determine if the ad is resonating with the audience you’ve chosen. A high click-through rate means that a lot of people are seeing the ad, clicking it, and converting. That’s a high-performing ad.
If you get a lot of impressions or clicks, but little conversions, it could mean your ad copy is good but the product or service you’re selling doesn’t align with the ad. Your CTR is a percentage based on the number of clicks and impressions.
Click-through rate = number of clicks / number of impressions x 100
The standard in most industries is five percent but you can still have success with a lower click-through rate.
Step 2: Reevaluate Your Ad Targeting
With every type of digital marketing, targeting is an important factor. You want to understand the buyer intent of your audience and if you don’t have a solid buyer persona drawn up, you’ll want to start there.
What does your ideal customer want? What do they look like? Where do they live? How much money do they make? What are their interests? What upsets them? Think about all of these things when determining your ad targeting because you need to get inside their head if you can expect them to click on your ad and convert.
Demographics: targeting based on location, age, gender, and devices
Affinity: reaching your audience using search and display networks
In-market: showing ads to people with a history of searching for products just like yours
Custom intent: choosing keywords related to the people who have engaged with similar content
Remarketing: targeting people who have interacted with you in the past but might not have converted
Step 3: A/B Test Ad Copy and Design
Now let’s take a look at your ad copy and design. It’s broken down into a few different segments:
your offer
your headline
your description
the URL
zny extensions
If any of these factors are hurting the performance of your ad, test them up against something else. The most important thing to learn is you only want to change one thing at a time. That’s the only way to figure out if that was the culprit.
For example, if you find yourself getting a lot of impressions but you’re not converting well, you might want to change the headline because it’s not enticing people to click. If you find that you’re getting a lot of clicks but little conversions, maybe your offer isn’t relevant enough.
Dynamic ads are a great way to work around this because they pull content directly from your site to ensure that the headline and description are relevant to the offer. This takes some of the thinking out of it and it’s worth testing up against a custom ad.
Step 4: Dig Into Negative Keywords
No need to complicate this: Negative keywords are keywords that you don’t want to display your ad for. There are many reasons why someone would do this but one of the big ones is you’re letting Google make a lot of the decisions for you. In that case, you might want to use negative keywords for things such as brand names, competitors, or other keywords that you know won’t lead to a conversion.
To add negative keywords, you’ll go into the Google ads campaign manager, select keywords, Negatives, and add the keywords to the proper ad group.
Step 5: Optimize Your Landing Pages
Remember that a big part of Google ads campaign management actually happens off the SERPs. It happens on your landing pages as well. If you have an ad that is getting a lot of impressions and clicks but you’re still not converting, chances are there is something wrong with your landing page. You’ll want to fix this quickly before Google finds out and drops your ad lower due to low relevance.
Optimizing your landing page requires you to take a look at the overall offer, the headline, structure of the page, CTA, and placement of buttons and calls to action. The best way to identify the problem is to A/B test.
If you think that you don’t have enough CTA buttons on the landing page, create a duplicate page and add a few more to see what happens. Doing so will require you to get a high-quality landing page builder and optimization tool like Unbounce and Convert.com. Convert is a great tool with A/B testing and it allows you to really pinpoint certain steps to take to improve the performance of your landing page.
Step 6: Consider Switching to Automated Bidding
When you create a Google ad, you have two choices: automated or manual bidding. Each has its pros and cons.
Automated bidding allows Google to decide how much you’ll pay per click based on a few key metrics.
Increase site visits: If you’re trying to increase visitors to your site, you can choose to optimize your ad based on clicks.
Increase visibility: Target impression share sets bids with the goal of showing your ad as high on the page as possible. You may end up getting less clicks this way, but you can quickly spread awareness.
More conversions: If you want more conversions on-site, you’ll optimize for your target cost-per-action. You may pay more per conversion but you’ll convert more visitors.
Target ROAS: If you want to meet a certain return on ad spend, you can allow Google to pay what it thinks you should based on how you value each conversion.
Keep in mind that choosing manual bidding requires you to figure this all out yourself. You won’t have the luxury of picking a “blanket” goal and having Google optimize your ad spend for you. However, manual bidding does give you more control.
Step 7: Avoid Common Google Ad Mistakes
There are a few critical Google ads mistakes that can kill your ad from the get-go. Here are a few examples:
Using the Wrong Keyword Match
We’ve all heard of keyword match: broad match, phrase match, and exact match, right? Choosing the wrong one will make it more difficult for your ad to reach your audience.
For example, broad match will display your ad when someone searches for a phrase similar to your target phrase. This can work well in the beginning when you’re experimenting and gathering data. If you don’t know a lot about your audience, you wouldn’t want to use “exact match” because you don’t have the data to back it up.
Bad Ad Copy
Your ad copy is the key to the mint essentially. If you know how to write great copy, you shouldn’t have a problem converting as long as your audience, ad match, and everything else is in place. Be sure you squeeze in every character Google allows. The goal is to make your ad stand out.
Not Having Clear Margins
Keep in mind no matter what you do, Google isn’t looking out for your finances. You’re the only one who knows what you can spend to break even or profit from your ads. If you don’t have this figured out and established ahead of time, you can end up spending way too much on ads and having to play catch up later on.
Frequently Asked Questions About Google Ads Campaign Management
What is a campaign in Google ads?
A campaign is simply a set of ad groups that share a budget, targeting, and other settings. You can have multiple ads within the campaign you’re testing.
How do I run a successful Google Ads campaign?
The best way to run a successful campaign is to try and try again. Don’t be afraid to test a lot of different factors, too. You never know what will work.
What is a good daily budget for Google Ads?
If you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t spend more than $10-$20 per day until you see how everything is performing. In the beginning, the goal is to gather data so you can optimize your ads. If you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t spend more than $10-$20 dollars per day until you see how everything is performing. Don’t expect to hit a home run right away.
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What is a campaign in Google ads? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “A campaign is simply a set of ad groups that share a budget, targeting, and other settings. You can have multiple ads within the campaign you’re testing.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How do I run a successful Google Ads campaign? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “The best way to run a successful campaign is to try and try again. Don’t be afraid to test a lot of different factors, too. You never know what will work.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What is a good daily budget for Google Ads? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “If you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t spend more than $10-$20 per day until you see how everything is performing. In the beginning, the goal is to gather data so you can optimize your ads. If you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t spend more than $10-$20 dollars per day until you see how everything is performing. Don’t expect to hit a home run right away.”
}
}
]
}
Google Ads Campaign Management Conclusion
Remember setting up your ad and hitting start is only one piece of the equation. The steps you take after that will really determine the success of your ad. You can start out with a low-performing ad but take steps to optimize, test, and change the ad, and end up with a highly successful campaign, resulting in a lot of money in your pocket. If you need help getting your ad off the ground, we can help.
What do you think is the No. 1 thing that kills a successful ad campaign?
We’ve all seen Google Ads. Whether you call it Google AdSense, AdWords, or Ads, they’re the ads displayed in the search results on Google. Learning how to set them up is important, but learning how to manage and maintain their performance is a whole different ball game.
In this guide, we’re pulling back the curtain and looking at what steps you’ll want to take after you have the ad set up. Whether you have a high or low-performing Google ad, you’ll want to do these things regularly.
What Is Google Ad Campaign Management?
Setting up your Google Ads campaign is an important and essential piece of the puzzle, but the work doesn’t stop there. There’s no such thing as “passive income” when running and managing Google Ads campaigns.
Those who have successful ad campaigns spend a lot of time on the backend evaluating the performance of their ads, looking at different keywords, switching up the designs and copy, and testing everything against key metrics to see how they perform. These are the necessary steps toward building a campaign that can pay you for months and even years if you hit the nail on the head.
It’s worth the work in the long run, but you need to get your Google ads campaign management right if you expect to have those types of results.
Good thing Google provides us with some simple ways to track everything in the backend. First, you can set email notifications to alert you whenever something happens with your campaign.
For example, if you want to receive alerts for possible policy violations you can do this from your Google ads account under setup and preferences. Determine what you would like to trigger an email notification. Some people only want to receive an email for critical issues while others want to stay up to date on every little detail.
Step 1: Check Current Google Ad Performance
Before you can determine what you need to change, you need to first look at your ad performance and see what’s working and what isn’t. There are five key metrics to pay attention to:
impressions
clicks
cost
conversions
click-through rate (CTR)
Let’s break each of these down a little more.
Impressions
An impression occurs each time your ad is displayed and seen by someone on Google. The best way to increase your impressions is to increase your campaign budget. This can push you higher on Google, thus giving you more visibility. Budget plays a role here but ad quality and relevance are ultimately the most important factors.
If Google decides that your ad isn’t relevant to the audience you’re targeting, Google won’t display your ad high enough and you will end up with low impressions and poor performance.
Clicks
This is the bread and butter of a Google ads specialist. Everyone wants more clicks. A click happens when someone sees your ad and then clicks it. Ideally, you want as many clicks as possible but if your ad isn’t getting clicks, you may want to rethink your copy or ad targeting.
Cost
Cost is the amount of money you spend, simple right? What’s more important is your “cost per click,” or CPC.
The way talented advertisers are able to scale ads is by determining how much money they need to put in to get a click or conversion. If you can determine that spending $2 on Google ads results in you making $5 for every click, it’s simple math at that point. Spend $4 and you’ll make $10, and keep building it up from there.
It’s not that simple, though. Your bid, quality score, and ad rank will impact how much you need to spend. Your bid is the maximum amount of money you’re willing to pay for a click. The quality score is a rating Google provides from 1-10 based on how relevant your ad, landing page, and keywords are. The ad rank is Google’s value to determine where they will place your ad in the SERPs.
Conversions
A conversion occurs when someone takes the action you want them to take; this happens off the search engine results page and on your landing page or website. For example, if you’re running an ad for an e-commerce store and you want people to see the ad, click it, and then buy a suit on your landing page, each time someone buys the suit, that would be a conversion.
Google provides ways for us to track this using conversion tracking as discussed in the video above.
Click-Through Rate
Your CTR is the best way for Google to measure the relevance of your ad. It also allows you to determine if the ad is resonating with the audience you’ve chosen. A high click-through rate means that a lot of people are seeing the ad, clicking it, and converting. That’s a high-performing ad.
If you get a lot of impressions or clicks, but little conversions, it could mean your ad copy is good but the product or service you’re selling doesn’t align with the ad. Your CTR is a percentage based on the number of clicks and impressions.
Click-through rate = number of clicks / number of impressions x 100
The standard in most industries is five percent but you can still have success with a lower click-through rate.
Step 2: Reevaluate Your Ad Targeting
With every type of digital marketing, targeting is an important factor. You want to understand the buyer intent of your audience and if you don’t have a solid buyer persona drawn up, you’ll want to start there.
What does your ideal customer want? What do they look like? Where do they live? How much money do they make? What are their interests? What upsets them? Think about all of these things when determining your ad targeting because you need to get inside their head if you can expect them to click on your ad and convert.
Demographics: targeting based on location, age, gender, and devices
Affinity: reaching your audience using search and display networks
In-market: showing ads to people with a history of searching for products just like yours
Custom intent: choosing keywords related to the people who have engaged with similar content
Remarketing: targeting people who have interacted with you in the past but might not have converted
Step 3: A/B Test Ad Copy and Design
Now let’s take a look at your ad copy and design. It’s broken down into a few different segments:
your offer
your headline
your description
the URL
zny extensions
If any of these factors are hurting the performance of your ad, test them up against something else. The most important thing to learn is you only want to change one thing at a time. That’s the only way to figure out if that was the culprit.
For example, if you find yourself getting a lot of impressions but you’re not converting well, you might want to change the headline because it’s not enticing people to click. If you find that you’re getting a lot of clicks but little conversions, maybe your offer isn’t relevant enough.
Dynamic ads are a great way to work around this because they pull content directly from your site to ensure that the headline and description are relevant to the offer. This takes some of the thinking out of it and it’s worth testing up against a custom ad.
Step 4: Dig Into Negative Keywords
No need to complicate this: Negative keywords are keywords that you don’t want to display your ad for. There are many reasons why someone would do this but one of the big ones is you’re letting Google make a lot of the decisions for you. In that case, you might want to use negative keywords for things such as brand names, competitors, or other keywords that you know won’t lead to a conversion.
To add negative keywords, you’ll go into the Google ads campaign manager, select keywords, Negatives, and add the keywords to the proper ad group.
Step 5: Optimize Your Landing Pages
Remember that a big part of Google ads campaign management actually happens off the SERPs. It happens on your landing pages as well. If you have an ad that is getting a lot of impressions and clicks but you’re still not converting, chances are there is something wrong with your landing page. You’ll want to fix this quickly before Google finds out and drops your ad lower due to low relevance.
Optimizing your landing page requires you to take a look at the overall offer, the headline, structure of the page, CTA, and placement of buttons and calls to action. The best way to identify the problem is to A/B test.
If you think that you don’t have enough CTA buttons on the landing page, create a duplicate page and add a few more to see what happens. Doing so will require you to get a high-quality landing page builder and optimization tool like Unbounce and Convert.com. Convert is a great tool with A/B testing and it allows you to really pinpoint certain steps to take to improve the performance of your landing page.
Step 6: Consider Switching to Automated Bidding
When you create a Google ad, you have two choices: automated or manual bidding. Each has its pros and cons.
Automated bidding allows Google to decide how much you’ll pay per click based on a few key metrics.
Increase site visits: If you’re trying to increase visitors to your site, you can choose to optimize your ad based on clicks.
Increase visibility: Target impression share sets bids with the goal of showing your ad as high on the page as possible. You may end up getting less clicks this way, but you can quickly spread awareness.
More conversions: If you want more conversions on-site, you’ll optimize for your target cost-per-action. You may pay more per conversion but you’ll convert more visitors.
Target ROAS: If you want to meet a certain return on ad spend, you can allow Google to pay what it thinks you should based on how you value each conversion.
Keep in mind that choosing manual bidding requires you to figure this all out yourself. You won’t have the luxury of picking a “blanket” goal and having Google optimize your ad spend for you. However, manual bidding does give you more control.
Step 7: Avoid Common Google Ad Mistakes
There are a few critical Google ads mistakes that can kill your ad from the get-go. Here are a few examples:
Using the Wrong Keyword Match
We’ve all heard of keyword match: broad match, phrase match, and exact match, right? Choosing the wrong one will make it more difficult for your ad to reach your audience.
For example, broad match will display your ad when someone searches for a phrase similar to your target phrase. This can work well in the beginning when you’re experimenting and gathering data. If you don’t know a lot about your audience, you wouldn’t want to use “exact match” because you don’t have the data to back it up.
Bad Ad Copy
Your ad copy is the key to the mint essentially. If you know how to write great copy, you shouldn’t have a problem converting as long as your audience, ad match, and everything else is in place. Be sure you squeeze in every character Google allows. The goal is to make your ad stand out.
Not Having Clear Margins
Keep in mind no matter what you do, Google isn’t looking out for your finances. You’re the only one who knows what you can spend to break even or profit from your ads. If you don’t have this figured out and established ahead of time, you can end up spending way too much on ads and having to play catch up later on.
Frequently Asked Questions About Google Ads Campaign Management
What is a campaign in Google ads?
A campaign is simply a set of ad groups that share a budget, targeting, and other settings. You can have multiple ads within the campaign you’re testing.
How do I run a successful Google Ads campaign?
The best way to run a successful campaign is to try and try again. Don’t be afraid to test a lot of different factors, too. You never know what will work.
What is a good daily budget for Google Ads?
If you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t spend more than $10-$20 per day until you see how everything is performing. In the beginning, the goal is to gather data so you can optimize your ads. If you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t spend more than $10-$20 dollars per day until you see how everything is performing. Don’t expect to hit a home run right away.
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What is a campaign in Google ads? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “A campaign is simply a set of ad groups that share a budget, targeting, and other settings. You can have multiple ads within the campaign you’re testing.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How do I run a successful Google Ads campaign? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “The best way to run a successful campaign is to try and try again. Don’t be afraid to test a lot of different factors, too. You never know what will work.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What is a good daily budget for Google Ads? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “If you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t spend more than $10-$20 per day until you see how everything is performing. In the beginning, the goal is to gather data so you can optimize your ads. If you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t spend more than $10-$20 dollars per day until you see how everything is performing. Don’t expect to hit a home run right away.”
}
}
]
}
Google Ads Campaign Management Conclusion
Remember setting up your ad and hitting start is only one piece of the equation. The steps you take after that will really determine the success of your ad. You can start out with a low-performing ad but take steps to optimize, test, and change the ad, and end up with a highly successful campaign, resulting in a lot of money in your pocket. If you need help getting your ad off the ground, we can help.
What do you think is the No. 1 thing that kills a successful ad campaign?
At times, it seems it’s all marketers think about. Even so, you may eventually find yourself in a content desert, desperately searching for a well of fresh content ideas.
You’ve exhausted every Google search, every whiteboard brainstorm.
However, there’s one strategy you may not have thought of.
Have you explored industry blogs in other languages with Google Translate? If not, it’s time to go international.
In this post, we break down the why and how of using Google Translate to generate content ideas.
4 Ways to Use Google Translate for Content Ideas
Google translate is an incredible resource, so it’s no wonder that in addition to having over 100 languages, we can look to the translating superpower for content ideas.
Below, we unpack the four best ways to generate new content ideas.
1. Check Out Top Blogs Around the World
Looking to broaden your content horizons? Start by broadening your search horizons. If you’ve exhausted industry content ideas in your native language, look beyond your linguistic borders to other voices in the industry.
By enabling Google Translate to translate websites, you can explore far beyond any language barriers that may exist and find troves of content to inspire you to create your own, similar asset in your language.
To begin searching for content in other languages, you must first select a different language through Chrome settings, either through the app or through your browser.
Now begin searching within your new language settings. When you encounter a page you want to be translated, simply:
Open Google Chrome
Navigate to the page you would like translated
Click “Translate” at the top of page
Et voilà! You have a fully translated page that you can borrow inspiration from for your next blog post, white paper, infographic, or graphic.
2. Explore Social Media Brand Accounts for Different Countries
Don’t stop your inspiration search at mere Googling: head to social accounts to find brands from different companies.
Let’s take Twitter, for example. You can change the language settings for your app through the browser views by visiting Settings.
After you’ve changed to the language you’d like to search, explore what top brands in the space are sharing and saying. For example, we changed our language to French and searched #digitalmarketing to see what was trending conversationally.
From there, we dug into French digital marketing corporations, exploring their social presence, websites, and blogs, all in search of content inspiration.
While we uncovered a number of topics and enviable content, we were particularly taken with this social post that shared stock images to use with a current, global event.
3. Find Globally Trending Topics
If we stay in the Twittersphere, trending topics tend to be in your country, if not in your locale. To enable all globally trending topics from your browser, simply:
Select #Explore from the left-hand column of your homepage
From there, click the gear icon in the top right of the screen
The location window will open, displaying a box ticked that reads “Show content in this location”
Untick the box, displaying more options
Select the Explore option button to find all the locations where Twitter is available
Select your desired locations to see the trending topics
By exploring topics outside of your own worldview, you can find new areas of discussion and new niches in need of filling. These hashtags can allow you to tailor your content to the larger conversation.
4. Dig Into Your Industry Internationally
While we’ve covered exploring by hashtag, you can also discover inspiring content through finding the top influencers or companies in your specific sphere.
A lot of aggregation sites provide a ranking for industry leaders in other countries. When we searched for the best digital marketing agencies in Germany, we pared down a list of 20 to a list of 10.
From there, we navigated to their websites and explored their blogs.
By exploring what other digital marketers are creating globally, we can tap into trends larger than those before us, borrow content ideas and find inspiration across borders.
5 Tips for Using Google Translate to Generate Content Topics
While finding content that relates to your field is a feat in itself, you want to ensure the content you’ve found is truly relevant. Below, we break down five tips to keep in mind as you explore international content waters.
1. Be Aware of Cultural/Linguistic Nuances
While looking for inspiration and ideas across continental divides is all well and good, if you use Google Translate, be aware of cultural and linguistic nuances that can change the meaning and interpretation of text.
For example, colloquialisms hardly ever translate across linguistic divides. In these cases, if you’re borrowing heavily from existing text, you must be sure to adjust the language to reflect terminology that makes sense for your reader. Otherwise, your work will go to waste completely.
2. Be Cognizant of Being Offensive
Wading into a larger conversation always poses a risk for the unindoctrinated. If you choose to use Google Translate to enter an ongoing discussion about an industry topic, be sure you’ve educated yourself on the nuances and realities of said topic. Regardless of intent, there is always the possibility your entrance into the conversation may not be as productive as you had hoped.
In terms of borrowing from existing content, read the translation with an eye toward how it will be perceived by your future audience, reworking and removing anything that may not come across as intended.
3. Discover Content in Industry-Adjacent Niches
Perhaps you’ve gone through all of the search exercises noted above and still came up empty-handed. To look even deeper into your topic, explore industry-adjacent niches that can help drive even more content ideas.
Let’s stay with our digital marketing example. Rather than casting a net that wide, we can delve into email marketing, and from email marketing into email metrics, and from email metrics into strongest email calls to action (CTA).
By moving beyond the overarching umbrella of your industry, you can find more granular content that speaks to your market, providing you inspiration and guidance along the way.
4. Explore Content All Around the World
With 109 languages and counting, there’s no limit to content you can explore with Google Translate. As you get accustomed to delving into different languages, go beyond your usual searches and seek out different points of view from different individuals.
With each search, you can find more and more content inspiration and involve yourself in the global, ongoing conversation about the largest trends, topics, and issues impacting your field.
5. Keep SEO in Mind
As a marketer, you’re well aware of the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) on your content, regardless of format. When you use Google Translate to translate a content piece, you will have to reoptimize the piece for SEO to ensure that it meets your standards and drives searchability.
Be sure to include your respective keywords and adjust content as needed to reflect your goals throughout any piece that goes through Google Translate.
Frequently Asked Questions About Google Translate
Is translated content considered duplicate content?
In short, no. Translated content is not duplicate content. With different words and phrases, nuances and colloquialisms, translated content is entirely different from its origin. To learn more about this, watch this excerpt from Google’s John Mueller.
How do I get Google to automatically translate a page?
To get Google translate to translate for you, simply follow these three steps:
1. Open Google Chrome 2. Navigate to the page you would like translated 3. Click “Translate” at the top of page
How can Google Translate help me find content ideas?
By harnessing Google’s translation powers, you can find inspiring content from all over the world to recreate for your own brand. What’s more, you can join a larger conversation that is ongoing globally, widening your audience reach even further and establishing you as an international thought leader.
Is Google Translate accurate?
For everyday use, Google Translate is pretty accurate. For the specific use of searching for content inspiration, Google Translate is very accurate. With that said, be sure to read for linguistic nuance and appropriateness before sharing or replicating in total.
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Is translated content considered duplicate content?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “In short, no. Translated content is not duplicate content. With different words and phrases, nuances and colloquialisms, translated content is entirely different from its origin. To learn more about this, watch this excerpt from Google’s John Mueller.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How do I get Google to automatically translate a page?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “To get Google translate to translate for you, simply follow these three steps:
1. Open Google Chrome 2. Navigate to the page you would like translated 3. Click “Translate” at the top of page”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How can Google Translate help me find content ideas?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “By harnessing Google’s translation powers, you can find inspiring content from all over the world to recreate for your own brand. What’s more, you can join a larger conversation that is ongoing globally, widening your audience reach even further and establishing you as an international thought leader.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Is Google Translate accurate?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “For everyday use, Google Translate is pretty accurate. For the specific use of searching for content inspiration, Google Translate is very accurate. With that said, be sure to read for linguistic nuance and appropriateness before sharing or replicating in total.”
}
}
]
}
Google Translate Conclusion
As the demand for quality content continues to rise in every industry, it is vital marketers identify new sources to inspire and replicate content that hasn’t been duplicated by every brand in your industry.
By looking beyond the traditional bounds of your content-sphere, you can tap into conversations and ideas that can inspire similar content creation, while simultaneously inviting you into a global conversation about your industry.
As you explore more and more languages, be sure to keep nuance and perception in mind. Don’t forget to continuously optimize any borrowed content forSEO so your version of the content can rank as high as possible.
What’s the best place you’ve found content inspiration?
GDPR Cookie Consent Agreement
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
