Jan 6 2025
5 Key Enterprise SEO And AI Trends For 2025

Artificial intelligence isn’t just influencing search – it’s fundamentally reshaping how users discover information and how search engines deliver results.

This evolution presents extraordinary opportunities while adding more complexity for enterprise SEO organizations.

How Enterprise SEO Has Changed

Organizations are grappling with an environment where AI doesn’t just assist with search – it fundamentally shapes how every marketing function performs.

To accommodate so many new search developments and the integration of AI applications, almost every enterprise organization will, at some point, have to elevate, restructure, and integrate their SEO departments deeper within their marketing, creative, and branding teams.

Enterprise SEO is now pivotal to multiple channels and markets. Its integration with generative AI markets alone (not to mention content markets) means its total addressable market (TAM) grows.

The Evolution Of AI-First Search

The rapid progression of AI is redefining how organizations approach SEO.

Its integration into Google AI Overviews and the rise of new AI-first entrants like Perplexity and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search have fundamentally shifted approaches from basic keyword matching to prioritizing user intent and delivering conversational, synthesized responses.

While Google remains dominant with 92% market share, new entrants are growing at a rapid rate, which is expected to accelerate in 2025 and potentially impact market share.

Image from BrightEdge, November 2024

1. Understanding New Search Behaviors: Information And Assistance

The way users interact with search has fundamentally transformed this year.

We’ve moved beyond simple keyword queries to complex, contextual interactions that span multiple formats and devices.

AI chatbots and generative AI are starting to impact search behavior as users expect search engines to understand their intent rather than just their words.

People are using AI chatbots to find answers to questions while others – like Generation Z – look to social platforms to search.

They are looking for conversations and new ways to interact in search.

Critical Changes In Search Patterns

Modern users are approaching search differently than ever before:

  • Conversational Queries: Natural language searches have increased dramatically.
  • Multi-Step Journeys: Users often conduct multiple related searches to achieve their goals.
  • Cross-Device Behavior: The average user switches between three devices during a single search journey.
  • Format Flexibility: Users freely mix text, voice, and visual search methods.

In addition, shifts from Google and AI engines will mean organizations have to pivot for some major changes ahead:

  • Multiple platforms, from traditional search to AI-first answer engines and more.
  • Multiple search formats (text, voice, visual).
  • The integration of search and AI and video into multiple device types.
  • Different user journey stages and journeys between engines and AI chatbots.
  • New personalization requirements by engine, user preference, and use case.

2. The Expanding AI & Search Landscape: Shaping Enterprise SEO’s Future

We’re witnessing a fundamental shift from traditional keyword-based search to AI-powered discovery systems that understand and anticipate user needs.

Unlike traditional search engines, AI-driven platforms provide holistic interpretations of user queries, offering detailed answers and anticipating potential follow-up questions.

They are doing this in three ways:

  • Generative Search Results: Search engines now routinely generate custom responses rather than just linking to existing content. This means enterprises need to optimize not just for visibility but for click value.
  • Multimodal Search Integration: The ability to search using text, images, voice, and even video simultaneously is becoming standard. Enterprises must ensure their content is optimized for all these formats.
  • Real-Time Content Analysis: AI engines can now analyze and understand content in real time, making freshness and authenticity more important than ever.

These shifts require enterprise SEO marketers to become more involved in creating authoritative, informative, and well-structured content to be found and cited by AI engines.

This also expands to entrants like You.com, Brave as a privacy engine, and Anthropic’s Claude.

And do not forget: social media platforms.

Many platforms, such as Meta, are building AI-powered search engines. In Meta’s case, it is building a search index to complement its Meta AI chatbot and rely less on Google.

As demographic understanding and targeting become essential, platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snap are prime for Gen Z searches and sources of information.

Learn More: The Rise Of TikTok As A Search Engine

Devices

Worldwide, wearable device shipments will reach 537.9 million units by the end of the year. This is another rapidly developing market for enterprise SEO professionals to consider.

The key to AR/VR, AI glasses, pins, and smart device success lies in consumer comfortability.

The AI and wearable trend is not just about the device or gadget. It’s about creating a symbiotic relationship between humans and new AI technology – another consideration for 2025.

Wider Big Tech Ecosystem Relationships

And let’s not forget that, while there is competition in search, there are also partnerships that enterprise SEO marketers need to keep an eye on.

Apple Intelligence and ChatGPT will be something to watch as AI and search reach more mobile devices.

Amazon and Anthropic are making strides, catering to enterprises with their computer-to-computer autonomous digital agent.

3. Understanding Different Engines And Different Use Cases

Marketers will face a diverse ecosystem where multiple AI-powered platforms serve different user needs and search intentions.

AI-driven engines like Google AIO, ChatGPT, and Perplexity have introduced diverse ways of searching for and consuming information.

Here are the three main ways for the purpose of this article.

Image from BrightEdge, November 2024

Google AI Overviews

Google’s entry into this space with AI Overviews shows how traditional search is evolving.

These AI summaries appear at the top of search results, giving users quick insights while maintaining access to traditional search features.

AI Overviews summarize search results for users, often highlighting authoritative sources and presenting concise answers at the top of the search page.

  • Functionality: Google’s AI Overviews provide AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, offering quick insights into products and trends.
  • User Experience: Combines AI-generated summaries with traditional search results, providing users with comprehensive insights and direct links to various retailers and sources.
  • Advantages: Google’s extensive search database, local business information, and real-time index.

Perplexity

Its strength lies in how it weaves citations directly into its answers, creating quick summaries that users can trust.

Think of it as having a research assistant who finds information and shows exactly where it came from. This makes it incredibly useful for comparing different sources and gathering reliable information quickly.

  • Functionality: Perplexity AI is a conversational search engine that uses large language models to answer queries, generating answers using sources from the web and citing links within the text response.
  • User Experience: Delivers concise, AI-generated summaries with citations, aiding users in quick comparisons and information gathering.
  • Advantages: Efficient for obtaining summarized information with citations, making it easier for users to verify sources.

ChatGPT Search

Uses Bing’s live index to surface real-time results. It is now integrated into ChatGPT Search; its conversational approach and transparent citations allow users to find relevant, up-to-date information efficiently.

  • Functionality: OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search integrates real-time web search capabilities into its AI chatbot, providing up-to-date information on products, prices, and availability.
  • User Experience: A conversational response with direct links to sources facilitates an engaging user experience.
  • Advantages: Provides personalized assistance and detailed product information, enhancing user decision-making.

Learn More: AI Agnostic Optimization: Content For Topical Authority And Citations

4. Maintaining Technical SEO While Building Content For Authority

While AI and new technologies continue to reshape the search landscape, the fundamental technical principles of SEO remain crucial for success.

Making Content AI-Readable

The foundation of effective AI optimization will lie in implementing robust structured data and schema markup.

These technical elements are a translation layer between your brand, content, and AI systems. With schema markup, you’re essentially providing AI engines with a roadmap to understand:

  • Customer Q&As and help resources.
  • Detailed product specifications and features.
  • User feedback and testimonials.
  • Content creator expertise and qualifications.

Building Digital Trust And Authority

Success in AI-powered search requires establishing strong content credibility.

Modern AI search platforms evaluate authority through multiple lenses – not just traditional metrics like backlinks but also information accuracy and source reliability.

Establishing Source Credibility

AI search engines place significant weight on content from verified, authoritative sources. This shift means content creators must focus on building and maintaining their reputation as trusted information providers.

Image from BrightEdge, November 2024

Authority Building And Enterprise SEO

  1. Expert-Driven Content Development: Partner with subject matter specialists to create in-depth, authoritative content. Highlight the author’s expertise through detailed biographical information and credentials.
  2. Strategic Link Building: While the role of backlinks has evolved, they remain valuable trust signals. Focus on cultivating relationships that lead to natural link placement from respected industry websites and thought leaders.
  3. Platform Integration: Align your content strategy with established authorities in your field. Whether it’s academic institutions for educational content or recognized medical resources for health information, ensure your material complements and connects with these trusted platforms.

5. Mastering New Visual Formats: The Rise Of Multimodal Search

Text-based search is no longer the sole player in the field. Multimodal search, which combines text, voice, image, and video, will become standard practice.

BrightEdge observed a 121% increase in ecommerce-related YouTube citations for AI Overviews.

Due to the multimodal nature of generative AI, this means that the AI is capable of “watching” a video and using the content in it to help formulate an answer.

Unlike traditional search, where transcripts or metadata around a video are necessary to ensure rankings, AI can seamlessly pivot between video and text.

Image by author (with sources from BrightEdge and Google Search), November 2024

Enterprises must expand their SEO strategies to include diverse content types and ensure their assets are optimized for video, visual, and voice-activated searches.

Speak Your Audience’s Language

As voice-activated searching becomes mainstream, content needs to mirror natural conversation patterns.

Instead of focusing solely on traditional keyword optimization, craft content that answers questions the way people actually ask them.

Think about the difference between typing “best Italian restaurants in San Mateo” versus asking, “Where can I find authentic Italian food near me in San Mateo?” Your content should address both.

Create More Rich Media Experiences

Get visual with your storytelling and transform your SEO and content strategy by incorporating compelling visual elements that enhance user understanding:

  • Professional photography.
  • Custom graphics that explain complex concepts.
  • Video demonstrations that showcase expertise.

Make Your Media AI-Friendly For Enterprise SEO Success

Help AI systems understand and properly index your multimedia content by:

  • Implementing detailed technical markup for videos and images.
  • Creating comprehensive media descriptions that provide context.
  • Ensuring all media elements support and enhance your main message.

Enterprise SEO Focus On The Now And The Future

While Google still dominates, marketers should continue to focus on balancing traditional search and AI Overviews while optimizing for high-growth alternative engines.

While multiple legal trials and cases across the whole search and AI landscape take place, as marketers, we need to focus on the now while always preparing for pivots.

In 2025, Enterprise SEO professionals need to focus on:

  • Managing enterprise SEO with all marketing disciplines – site-to-brand teams.
  • Internal governance and alignment on the use of AI for SEO and content.
  • Utilizing AI correctly for insights, creation, optimization, and scale automation.
  • CEO and CMO stakeholder management and help guide and understand search and AI changes and their importance to your site(s) and brand performance.
  • All to ensure your brand is cited and sourced as the authority in your domain regardless of the search or AI engine.

The complexity of modern enterprise SEO will demand a new organizational approach. Success requires seamless integration between SEO, content, technical teams, and AI specialists.

Monitoring, adapting, and growing are the three “keywords” to have a conversation around.

More resources:

Featured Image: tadamichi/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Dec 19 2024
18 Essential Accessibility Changes To Drive Increased Website Growth via @sejournal, @skynet_lv

This post was sponsored by “Skynet Technologies USA LLC”.

Did you know that 1 billion people have not reached you or your customers’ websites yet.

1 billion potential customers are waiting for businesses to step up and do what’s right.

Find out if your website is accessible to 1 billion people >>>

Accessibility isn’t just a compliance checkbox anymore – it’s a growth strategy.

The demand for scalable, innovative accessibility solutions has skyrocketed.

And your competition is already making these improvements.

For agencies, this means an unprecedented opportunity to meet clients’ needs while driving revenue.

Learn how you can generate additional revenue and boost your clients’ SERP ranking by gaining access to:

Ready to get started?

How Accessibility Improvements Can Increase Growth

The digital economy thrives on inclusion.

There is a large market of individuals who are not included in modern website usability.

With over a billion people globally living with disabilities, accessible digital experiences open doors to untapped markets.

Do Websites Need To Be Accessible?

The short answer is yes.

How Does An Accessible Website Drive Traffic?

Traffic comes from people who have needs. Of course, everyone has needs, including people with disabilities.

Accessible websites and tools cater to all users, expanding reach to a diverse and often overlooked customer base.

Global Potential & Unlocking New Audiences

From a global perspective, the global community of people with disabilities is a market estimated to hold a staggering $13 trillion in spending power.

By removing barriers and ensuring inclusive digital experiences, you can tap into this 1 billion-person market and drive substantial economic growth.

Digital accessibility helps to increase employment opportunities, education options, and simple access to various banking and financial services for everybody.

Boosts User Experience & Engagement 

Accessibility improvements run parallel with SEO improvements.

In fact, they often enhance overall website performance, which leads to:

  • Better user experience.
  • Higher rankings.
  • Increased traffic.
  • Higher conversion rates.

Ensures Your Websites Are Compliant

Increasing lawsuits against businesses that fail to comply with accessibility regulations have imposed pressure on them to implement accessibility in their digital assets.

Compliance with ADA, WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, Section 508, Australian DDA, European EAA EN 301 549, UK Equality Act (EA), Indian RPD Act, Israeli Standard 5568, California Unruh, Ontario AODA, Canada ACA, German BITV, Brazilian Inclusion Law (LBI 13.146/2015), Spain UNE 139803:2012, France RGAA standards, JIS X 8341 (Japan), Italian Stanca Act, Switzerland DDA, Austrian Web Accessibility Act (WZG) guidelines aren’t optional. Accessibility solution partnerships ensure to stay ahead of potential lawsuits while fostering goodwill.

6 Steps To Boost Your Growth With Accessibility

  1. To drive growth, your agency should prioritize digital accessibility by following WCAG standards, regularly testing with tools like AXE, WAVE, or Skynet Technologies Website Accessibility Checker, and addressing accessibility gaps. Build accessible design frameworks with high-contrast colors, scalable text, and clear navigation.
  2. Integrate assistive technologies such as keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and video accessibility. Focus on responsive design, accessible forms, and inclusive content strategies like descriptive link text, simplified language, and alternative formats.
  3. Providing accessibility training and creating inclusive marketing materials will further support compliance and growth.
  4. To ensure the website thrives, prioritize mobile-first design for responsiveness across all devices, adhere to WCAG accessibility standards, and incorporate keyboard-friendly navigation and alt text for media.
  5. Optimize page speed and core web vitals while using an intuitive interface with clear navigation and effective call-to-action buttons, and use SEO-friendly content with proper keyword optimization and schema markups to boost visibility.
  6. Ensure security with SSL certificates, clear cookie consent banners, and compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Finally, implement analytics and conversion tracking tools to gather insights and drive long-term growth.

We know this is a lot.

If this sounds good to you, let us help you get set up.

How Can Digital Accessibility Partnerships Supercharge Your Clients’ SEO?

Partnering for digital accessibility isn’t just about inclusivity — it’s a game-changer for SEO, too!

Accessible websites are built with cleaner code, smarter structures, and user-friendly features like alt text and clear headings that search engines love.

Plus, faster load times, mobile-friendly designs, and seamless navigation keep users engaged, reducing bounce rates and boosting rankings. When you focus on making a site accessible to everyone, you’re not just widening your audience—you’re signaling to search engines that the website is high-quality and relevant. It’s a win-win for accessibility and SEO!

12 Essential Factors To Consider For Successful Accessibility Partnerships

  1. Expertise: Look for a provider with a proven track record in digital accessibility, including knowledge of relevant global website accessibility standards and best practices.
  2. Experience: Consider their experience working with similar industries or organizations.
  3. Tools and technologies: Evaluate their use of automated and manual testing tools to identify and remediate accessibility issues.
  4. Price Flexibility: Explore pricing models that align with both the budget and project requirements. Whether for a single site or multiple sites, the service should be compatible and scalable to meet the needs.
  5. Platform Compatibility: Ensure seamless accessibility integration across various platforms, providing a consistent and accessible experience for all users, regardless of the website environment.
  6. Multi-language support: Enhance user experience with global language support, making websites more inclusive and accessible to a global audience.
  7. Regular check-ins: Schedule regular meetings to discuss project progress, address any issues, and make necessary adjustments.
  8. Clear communication channels: Establish clear communication channels (for example: email, and project management tools) to facilitate efficient collaboration.
  9. Transparent reporting: Request detailed reports on the progress of accessibility testing, remediation efforts, and overall project status.
  10. KPIs to measure success: Review the partner’s historical data, especially those similar projects in terms of scale, complexity, and industry.
  11. Evaluate technical expertise: Assess their proficiency in using various accessibility testing tools and ability to integrate different APIs.
  12. Long-term partnership strategy: Compare previous data with the current one for improvement and optimization process. It is crucial for a long-term partnership that there is a specific interval of review and improvements.

    Scaling Accessibility With Smart Partnerships

    All in One Accessibility®: Simplicity meets efficiency!

    The All in One Accessibility® is an AI-powered accessibility tool that helps organizations to enhance their website accessibility level for ADA, WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, Section 508, Australian DDA, European EAA EN 301 549, UK Equality Act (EA), Indian RPD Act, Israeli Standard 5568, California Unruh, Ontario AODA, Canada ACA, German BITV, Brazilian Inclusion Law (LBI 13.146/2015), Spain UNE 139803:2012, France RGAA standards, JIS X 8341 (Japan), Italian Stanca Act, Switzerland DDA, Austrian Web Accessibility Act (WZG), and more.

    It is available with features like sign language LIBRAS (Brazilian Portuguese Only) integration, 140+ multilingual support, screen reader, voice navigation, smart language auto-detection and voice customization, talk & type, Google and Adobe Analytics tracking, along with premium add-ons including white label and custom branding, VPAT/ACR reports, manual accessibility audit and remediation, PDF remediation, and many more.

    • Quick Setup: Install the widget to any site with ease—no advanced coding required.
    • Feature-Rich Design: From text resizing and color contrast adjustments to screen reader support, it’s packed with tools that elevate the user experience.
    • Revenue Opportunities: Agencies can resell the solution to clients, adding a high-value service to their offerings while earning attractive commissions through the affiliate program.
    • Reduced development costs: Minimizes the financial impact of accessibility remediation by implementing best practices and quick tools.

    Agency Partnership: Scaling accessibility with ease!

    • Extended Service Offerings: The All in One Accessibility® Agency Partnership allows agencies to offer a powerful accessibility widget – quick accessibility solution into their services, enabling them that are in high demand.
    • White Label: As an agency partner, you can offer All in One Accessibility® under their own brand name.
    • Centralized Management: It simplifies oversight by consolidating accessibility data and reporting, allowing enterprises to manage multiple websites seamlessly.
    • Attractive Revenue Streams: Agencies can resell the widget to clients, earning significant revenue through competitive pricing structures and repeat business opportunities.
    • Boost Client Retention: By addressing accessibility needs proactively, agencies build stronger relationships with clients, fostering long-term loyalty and recurring contracts.
    • Increase Market Reach: Partnering with All in One Accessibility® positions agencies as leaders in inclusivity, attracting businesses looking for reliable accessibility solutions.
    • NO Investment, High Return: With no setup costs, scalable features, and up to 30% commission, the partnership enables agencies to maximize profitability with their clients.

    Affiliate Partnership: A revenue opportunity for everyone!

    The All in One Accessibility® Affiliate Partnership program is for content creators, marketers, accessibility advocates, web professionals, 501 (c) organizations (non-profit), and law firms.

    • Revenue Growth through Referrals: The All in One Accessibility® affiliate partnership allows affiliates to earn competitive commissions by promoting a high-demand accessibility solution, turning referrals into consistent revenue.
    • Expanding Market Reach: Affiliates can tap into a diverse audience of businesses seeking ADA and WCAG compliance, scaling both revenue and the adoption of accessibility solutions.
    • Fostering Accessibility Awareness: By promoting the All in One Accessibility® widget, affiliates play a pivotal role in driving inclusivity, helping more websites become accessible to users with disabilities.
    • Leveraging Trusted Branding: Affiliates benefit from partnering with a reliable and recognized quick accessibility improvement tool, boosting their credibility and marketing impact.
    • Scaling with Zero Investment: With user-friendly promotional resources and a seamless onboarding process, affiliates can maximize returns without any costs.

    Use Accessibility As A Growth Engine

    Endeavoring for strategic partnerships with accessibility solution providers is a win-win for agencies aiming to meet the diverse needs of their clients. These partnerships not only enhance the accessibility of digital assets but also create opportunities for growth, and loyalty, top search engine rankings, boost revenue, improve compliance with legal standards, and make you to contribute into digital accessibility world.

    With Skynet Technologies USA LLC, Transform accessibility from a challenge into a revenue-driving partnership. Let inclusivity power the success.

    Ready to get started? Embarking on a digital accessibility journey is simpler than you think! Take the first step by evaluating the website’s current WCAG compliance with a manual accessibility audit.

    For more information, Reach out hello@skynettechnologies.com.

    Learn More

    Image Credits

    Featured Image: Image by Skynet Technologies. Used with permission.

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Dec 18 2024
    What An Enterprise Client Wants From Their SEO Agency via @sejournal, @danielkcheung

    A lasting relationship with an enterprise client is good for business. It gives you authority, it gives your staff exposure to how large organizations work, and there should be a financial element.

    But winning the pitch is just the beginning. Many agencies make the grave mistake of misunderstanding their role in the relationship, and it is this: The relationship is transactional – at least, at first.

    This is what an enterprise client needs from you:

    • Clear, consistent communication.
    • Alignment with business objectives.
    • Flexibility.
    • Integrity.
    • Operational efficiency and responsiveness.
    • Proactive problem-solving.

    In many ways, these six things overlap on a Venn diagram. And when you get it right, we will see you not as an external vendor but as an extension of ourselves.

    1. Clear, Concise Communication

    Enterprise clients don’t just want emails or reports. They want clarity, alignment, and confidence that you’re on the same page.

    If they’re left guessing what’s happening, you’re failing.

    Always ask yourself: What is the message you wish to convey?

    Oftentimes, less is more.

    Instead of a lengthy email, sometimes a 15-minute Teams call will not only address the topic but also the bigger picture and the next steps. But this doesn’t mean long emails don’t have a place—they do.

    Context is everything.

    I get it – it’s purely subjective from one point-of-contact to the next. But that’s the name of the game.

    Be adaptable, and don’t assume. Reach out and ask how your point-of-contact prefers to communicate.

    At the start of every engagement, even when I was agency-side, I would ask for clear directions on ways of working.

    And lastly, before you hit send, ask yourself: Does this have to be mentioned/asked/challenged right now?

    How to do this effectively:

    • Send a pre-read ahead of time. Strive for two business days ahead of time, 24 hours worse case.
    • Include an executive summary at the beginning of every presentation. There is nothing worse than having skim reading a deck full of slides without an executive summary. I’m busy. My boss is busy; their boss is busy. If you’ve made the effort to create a presentation deck, put a TL;DR at the front for us.
    • Sign up to use the same team collaboration app as your client for quick updates. Most people don’t reply to emails immediately. Instant messaging such as Slack or Teams? Completely different rules. Plus, I speak from personal experience that shooting a Slack message in a dedicated channel takes far less mental bandwidth than crafting an email. The best part is that it works both ways, so win-win!

    Here’s the truth: Great communication reduces friction, builds trust, and keeps you in the loop when priorities shift.

    2. Alignment With Business Goals

    Increasing quarter-on-quarter traffic is nice. Rankings are cool. But if you’re not moving the needle on their actual business goals – revenue, customer retention, market share – you’re just noise.

    The biggest lesson I learned when moving agency-side to client-side was this: If your recommendation doesn’t ladder up directly to business goals, then you’re wasting everyone’s time with your research, audits, and recommendations.

    And, as SEO professionals, we default to problem identification mode because that’s how most of us got started. That is, find all the problems related to a particular pillar (e.g., content, technical SEO, off-page) and mistake this list as the strategy.

    This is what I did the first week I started my first enterprise SEO role.

    I fired up Screaming Frog and found all the things.

    But I had no context as to who was responsible for resolving each issue and what their priorities were.

    What may seem like an important SEO activity may not be a business priority.

    How to do this effectively:

    • Transparency goes both ways. Just as an enterprise client expects you to be transparent, you can as well by asking what their strategic pillars are for the quarter or year. To go a step further, get tangible guidance by requesting your point-of-contact what their objectives and key results (OKRs) are. Trust me, they’ll have them because that’s corporate life.
    • Bring the right people along the journey. If you wish to propose adding content, ask your point-of-contact what stakeholders are involved in making this change happen. If you’ve discovered crawling, indexing, and rendering issues, ask who can make changes to robots.txt, to the , and to the frontend stack. Chances are, they’re all separate teams who work in their own silos and backlogs.

    The lesson is this: Your role is not to fix all the things because you simply cannot. Instead, take a minute to understand who’s who because even your point-of-contact is an advocate, not an executioner.

    Why this matters: Clients don’t want SEO in a silo. We want strategies that tie into our biggest priorities.

    Why? Because our performance review and bonuses rely on them. So, speak our language and show us how SEO helps us win.

    3. Flexibility

    Markets change. Leadership changes direction. Enterprise clients want partners who can adapt to their evolving needs without skipping a beat.

    I don’t care that you’ve sunk 80 hours into something I asked you to do. I only care about what is top-of-mind right now.

    It’s nothing personal. I probably feel frustrated, just as you are. But priorities shift, so learn to go with the flow and be an asset instead of a blocker.

    When you’ve got my back, I’ve got yours because we’re in this together.

    The key: Be agile. Show that you’re not just a plan-follower but a partner who can pivot without losing focus on results.

    4. Integrity

    Integrity is the currency of trust. Enterprise clients need to know they can rely on you to tell the truth, even when it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable.

    If there’s a mistake, own it. If timelines slip, address it early. If you think the client’s ask won’t work, say so – and back it up with data or reasoning. The worst thing you can do is over-promise and under-deliver.

    Recently, a vendor blamed their lack of access to a Sharepoint file.

    Perhaps it was true; Sharepoint can be fickle with external vendors. But the fact that this was their explanation when I asked why there was a delay in the delivery disappointed me greatly.

    In my mind, I assumed they were overextended and did not get around to the task.

    There’s a really easy fix to this: Every time your client shares a file with you, open it and see if you have the required access. Don’t wait two weeks later because that’s too late and sends a very bad message.

    Similarly, not all campaigns go to plan. For example, perhaps your digital PR campaign didn’t produce the results you expected. That’s fine.

    The second worst thing you can do is lie about it. The worst thing you can do is buy backlinks to pad the numbers.

    Enterprise search marketers know that there are no guarantees with Google. What my boss, their boss, and their boss expect are learnings.

    What did we learn from this exercise?

    What can we do better next time?

    Did we document what we didn’t plan and why in a wiki so that we don’t make the same investment in something that doesn’t work?

    The flip side of this is to stand up for yourself because I’m not looking for a lackey. Not every idea I come up with is appropriate, and I expect – no, rely on – you to tell the truth even when it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable.

    5. Operational Efficiency And Responsiveness

    Enterprise projects are a symphony of moving parts, and delays in one area can cascade into chaos. Your job is to deliver fast, precise work while minimizing bottlenecks.

    I think most enterprise SEO professionals will agree with me on this – my calendar is full. On some days, it’s literally back-to-back meetings with different stakeholders.

    I don’t have the time or mental bandwidth to hold your hand.

    When I give you a task, speed matters – not just for execution but for acknowledgment. A simple “We’re on it, here’s when you can expect an update” goes a long way in showing you’re reliable.

    Efficiency isn’t just about working quickly – it’s about working smart. Streamline processes, remove redundancies, and bring structure to chaos. Help us feel like we’re in capable hands, no matter how derailed the project gets.

    The play: Deliver fast, precise work, and be responsive. They’ll keep coming back to the agency that gets it done.

    6. Proactive Problem-Solving Without Access To First-Party Data

    Enterprise clients often operate in silos, and as an external agency, you’re rarely handed direct access to our analytics platforms.

    Limited access to first-party data is the norm, but that doesn’t excuse you from identifying issues or presenting solutions.

    The best agencies thrive under constraints. If you don’t have access to first-party data, get creative with proxies. Use publicly available tools, competitive analysis, and trend data to craft recommendations.

    When possible, suggest ways the client can share aggregated insights or anonymized data that protect internal policies while giving you enough to work with.

    Your goal is to demonstrate that you can solve problems without needing to see everything. And if data gaps are creating risks, flag them early.

    Be proactive in suggesting solutions, such as data clean rooms or integrations that can provide the insights you need without breaching compliance.

    Do this instead: Leverage external data sources.

    If there’s one thing I know from working agency-side, it is that you have access to all the tools. So, pull insights from other data sources to identify patterns and opportunities.

    Why this matters: First-party data is a privilege, not a given. By showing that you can deliver value despite limitations, you position yourself as a resilient, resourceful partner who doesn’t let obstacles stand in the way of results.

    The 6 Pillars Of Enterprise SEO Success

    Enterprise clients don’t just want vendors. We want long-term partners because procurement and onboarding are painful.

    Here’s what we value most:

    • Clear communication that aligns and inspires.
    • Strategies tied directly to business outcomes.
    • Agility in the face of shifting priorities.
    • Integrity and transparency in every interaction.
    • Efficiency that respects our time and resources.
    • Creative problem-solving that delivers results, even under constraints.

    Master these six pillars, and you’ll become more than a service provider. You’ll be a partner we fight to keep.

    More resources:

    Featured Image: wee dezign/Shutterstock

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Dec 11 2024
    Voice Search Optimization At Scale: A Guide For Enterprise Marketers via @sejournal, @makhyan

    Smartphones put the world at our fingertips. People have questions that need answering, as well as the services or products they need.

    All of these things are just a search away, and now, we’ve seen a cosmic shift from traditional search to voice search and voice assistants.

    Statistically, voice search and assistants are not something that enterprise marketers can ignore because:

    • Almost half of U.S. internet users (48.7%) will use voice assistants, according to eMarketer forecast.
    • 54% of consumers are leaning towards voice technology in the future.
    • 49% of U.S. consumers use voice-enabled searches for local services.

    Voice optimization at scale is what every business should be doing. For enterprises, the challenge is scale due to the wealth of content assets they control.

    In this guide, we’ll take a look at specific tactics and optimizations that will support your voice strategy, including schema markup, keyword research, site speed, FAQs, Google Actions, and more.

    Here’s how to begin optimizing for voice searches, with a focus on enterprises.

    Voice Optimization 101

    Create Content And Voice Search Guidelines

    Marketing teams should sit down with the content team or send guidelines outlining the importance of voice search optimization, incorporating these keywords and protocols to ensure optimization.

    Enterprises should have SEO governance in place already.

    However, you’ll need to revise your existing governance and protocols for voice search. In fact, you want to add entire sections that focus primarily on voice.

    Why?

    Content creators and teams are bound to make mistakes.

    It’s up to your protocols to find issues with content by performing thorough content checks.

    Analyzing content before it’s published should be part of your processes already.

    If it’s not, you can add in:

    • Thorough content review before posting.
    • Optimization analysis.
    • Comparing content to researched keywords and questions.

    Guidelines are a key part of every aspect of enterprise marketing because team members can come and go so often.

    Redefine Your Keyword Research To Incorporate Long-Tail Keywords

    Here’s some good news: Assistants are smarter than ever before. Today’s voice assistants can understand a person’s voice even with:

    • Background noise.
    • Diverse accents.
    • Dialects.

    Hyper-personalization is prominent in the way assistants respond to users, which means enterprises must gather as much data and information about their ideal target market as possible.

    You have to go the extra mile to understand your audience and their needs to optimize for voice.

    For voice assistants, you have to push your SEO further because, instead of simple queries, people are asking complex questions to voice assistants like they would to a friend.

    How?

    Adding in more of the long-tail keywords that have long been neglected on the enterprise level.

    Long-tail keywords often have lower search volumes and are less of a priority for enterprises that target high-value and high-traffic keywords. However, voice search is natural and longer than just one- or two-word phrases.

    Your pages need to answer questions (just like featured snippets do) and should include:

    • How do I use XYZ product?
    • How much do XYZ products cost?
    • How do I fix XYZ problem?
    • Where.
    • Who.
    • What.
    • Etc.

    People using search are asking questions, and you need to answer them. Redefine your keyword research process to include more long-tail keywords and question keywords.

    Create processes and procedures for SEO teams – internal and external – to incorporate questions into your current content creation process.

    Multimodal Search Optimization And The Rise Of Visual Search

    Visual search isn’t exactly new. You take a picture, pop it into Google Lens, and it tries to find a match for you.

    For example, that adorable dog bed that you saw at your friend’s house? You can take a photo and search for the exact item on Google.

    But, at the I/O developer conference in 2024, Google added something new to Google Lens.

    • You shoot a video.
    • Ask questions in the video.
    • Get an answer back.

    Users can take a video of their broken toilet and ask why the flange is stuck and what they need to fix it – all in video format. Google will now analyze the video and respond to you.

    Vision language models (VLMs) are advancing, but enterprises will need to focus on other multimodal searches, too:

    • Text-to-image search.
    • Image-to-text search.
    • Image-to-image search.

    Envision an enterprise for high-end luxury apparel.

    A user uploads an image of a floral pattern and adds the query, [floral dress in this style but with blue roses], and a return query may show your product.

    Clear visuals with the proper description optimization may help the enterprise rank for this type of multimodal visual search.

    Optimize For Site Speed And Mobile Experience

    Voice searches come primarily from mobile and assistant devices.

    Every enterprise must optimize heavily for mobile with:

    • Responsive designs.
    • Fast site speeds.

    Your team should periodically run Google PageSpeed Insights to find issues slowing down your site and to improve load time.

    Multimedia optimization is crucial, especially with the rise of multimodal search. Compressing images and videos, implementing lazy loading, and browser caching are all things that you can begin doing today to improve the mobile experience on your site(s).

    See 10 Enterprise Page Speed Optimizations & Implementation Tips to learn more.

    Optimize For Local Search To Boost Business

    Local and regional optimizations are huge for businesses that operate locally.

    Over 50% of people search for local businesses via voice search.

    For example:

    • Where is the nearest Subway near me?
    • What grocery stores are open nearby?
    • Where is the closest pharmacy?

    You’ll want to review the enterprise’s Google and other local listings.

    Listings should always include the company’s operating hours, short blurbs, and photos.

    Complete listings make it easier for searchers to reach out to your business or visit it in person.

    Terms may include “near me” phrases, or they can be specific, such as [car manufacturers in Detroit].

    One tip crucial to an enterprise’s success when optimizing for local is to account for regional or area slang.

    Your research teams should understand local slang and dialects that may be used in a search.

    For example, [where can I get the best soda in Boston] will change to [where can I get the best pop in Ohio] due to regional slang.

    Internal teams should help you create these distinctions before moving into new markets to help content creation and search engine optimization teams maximize local voice search potential.

    In the last few years, voice assistants have nearly doubled. From your iPhone and Android to Alexa and other platforms, assistants are everywhere.

    Personal preferences are taken into consideration, as well as your location across all three types of searches:

    1. Discovery: Find a plumber in Atlanta, Georgia.
    2. Direct: Call Bill’s 24/7 Plumbing and Septic.
    3. Knowledge: Why is my water turning brown in Atlanta?

    Conversational phrasing must be considered across all enterprise offices to help capture as much local search traffic as possible.

    Enterprises must do more for voice searches than just claim and optimize their listings on Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Yelp, and other local directories.

    You need to focus on long-tail keywords, refine your keyword research even further, and try to add context to your content.

    Master Schema Markup To Add Content Context

    Leveraging schema is crucial to help search engines make sense of an enterprise’s site content. Review and incorporate schema markup guidelines to help boost voice search.

    A few tips that can help you master schema are:

    • Start using Google’s Speakable Schema (beta) for sections of your text that are best for Google Assistant and voice search.
    • Use analytics to help understand keywords and phrases customers are using.
    • Find speakable snippets in new and old content to add schema.
    • Think of your content in a conversational way to enhance context.

    Schema markup, when used properly, can help add context to the content on each site and allow for greater voice search potential.

    Speakable Schema lets you fine-tune your control over how voice assistants highlight your content. For example:

    {
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "WebPage",
"name": "Ludwig’s homepage",
"Speakable":
{
"@type": "SpeakableSpecification",
"cssSelector": ["intro", "summary"]
},
"url": "http://www.example.com"
}

    Using JSON, you can add the speakable structured data to make your intro and summary speakable. You can adjust this for any cssSelector you like.

    Enterprises are also finding greater success with voice when adding structured data for:

    • Product information.
    • Pricing.
    • Availability.

    As an enterprise, a bump of 1% to 2% traffic from search can add significant revenue to your bottom line. Schema.org has examples of how to use schema for ecommerce using microdata, RFDa, structure, and JSON-LD.

    Add FAQ Sections Into Key Pages

    Remember how you need to add questions to your keyword research?

    It can be challenging to find ways to add questions to pages without interrupting the natural flow of your content.

    How can you overcome this? Frequently asked questions.

    FAQs can add immense value to your pages and help you start improving your voice search optimization.

    One way to begin incorporating this is to:

    • Perform a full content audit on the site(s).
    • Identify pages and blogs where you can answer questions.
    • Start adding FAQs to the most important pages and pages with the most potential.

    Since you’re optimizing for voice search, answering questions in conversational tones is crucial.

    Begin The Transition To Conversational Language

    Content creators have heard about tone and consistency for decades.

    “Speak the customer’s language” is often repeated across industries.

    However, when dealing with voice search, a shift toward a conversational tone is emerging.

    As it turns out, the stuffy “business tone” isn’t how most people use their Google Assistant or Amazon Echo.

    You’ll need to ensure content teams are on board with these changes.

    A quick meeting to reinforce conversational tones and maybe an update to briefs sent to writers can help drastically.

    An excellent way to adjust content to be conversational is to have:

    • Editors review all content.
    • Read content aloud.

    Small changes, and if you can add in spoken words and slang, can make a world of difference when trying to create more conversational content.

    While there will always be traditional typed searches, enterprises and marketers should focus on the possibilities that voice search has to offer.

    More Resources:

    Featured Image: fizkes/Shutterstock

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Oct 21 2024
    How To Unlock Growth In 30 Days: The Secrets Of Enterprise SEO [Webinar] via @sejournal, @lorenbaker

    For many businesses, feeling overwhelmed by SEO best practices, endless checklists, and heaps of data is all too familiar—especially when competitors seem to be growing faster than ever. As SEO evolves, navigating these challenges is becoming even more complex. 

    Driving sustainable growth as an enterprise brand is even more difficult, with limited resources, small teams, and ever-changing SERP algorithms making it hard to know where to focus your efforts. 

    Without clear results, getting executive buy-in can become a struggle, leaving you wondering if you’re focusing on the right areas.

    On October 30th, join us as we address these issues in our live webinar with seoClarity: How To Unlock Growth In 30 Days: The Secrets Of Enterprise SEO.

    We’ll dive into how top SEOs at some of the world’s most successful traffic-driving websites use real data to align their teams and drive growth—without relying on guesswork.

    Why This Webinar Is a Must-Attend Event

    SEO success isn’t just about following best practices anymore. In this session, you’ll learn how to leverage data-driven insights to cut through the noise and implement changes that deliver real impact.

    In this webinar, we’ll cover:

    – Why traditional SEO best practices might be holding you back, and how data can reveal where you should really focus.

    – How top companies identify and prioritize optimizations that deliver the biggest impact, so you can fast-track your growth.

    – Proven strategies for aligning your team and gaining executive buy-in, to ensure consistent and effective SEO efforts.

    Expert Insights From Chris Sachs and Jeff Smith  

    This session will be led by Chris Sachs and Jeff Smith of seoClarity, breaking down five actionable tactics to help you unlock your growth, and the strategies behind them. Chris and Jeff have worked with over 6,000 enterprise brands, and now they’re ready to share their insights with you, to unlock your full SEO potential. 

    Who Should Attend?  

    This webinar is ideal for:

    – Enterprise SEO professionals looking to achieve meaningful growth using proven methods.

    – Marketing managers seeking to align their team around data-driven strategies and get executive buy-in more easily.

    – Executives who want to understand how SEO can drive measurable results for their brand.

    Live Q&A: Get Your Questions Answered 

    After the presentation, join Chris and Jeff for a live Q&A session, where you’ll have the opportunity to ask specific questions about the tactics shared and how they can be applied to your unique challenges.

    Even if you can’t make it that day, reserve your seat, and we’ll send you a recording so you don’t miss out on these valuable insights.

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Aug 22 2024
    Simplifying Google Updates And Communications For C-Level Stakeholders via @sejournal, @TaylorDanRW

    Google updates can cause uncertainty, confusion, and fear amongst non-SEO and non-marketing business stakeholders.

    As an industry, we like to fixate on the winners and losers of any given update, and typically, websites (and categories) that take the larger hits gain more traction and shares.

    As a result, the algorithm update horror stories also tend to end up in C-level inbox circulation more frequently.

    Simplifying Google updates for C-level stakeholders involves focusing on key takeaways, business impact, and actionable insights (where possible).

    Creating Frames Of Reference

    When communicating to wider business stakeholders, creating frames of reference is essential for ensuring that your message is clear, relevant, and resonates with the audience.

    From experience, there are five key elements to creating effective frames of reference for client C-level and non-marketing stakeholders.

     Component Notes
     Contextualize  Start with the big picture and relate ideas to familiar concepts. Make this “real” for who you’re communicating with.
     Use Relevant Data  Present data in terms of ROI, benchmarks, or impact that matters to the audience.
     Simplify Complex Ideas  Break down information, avoid jargon, and use visuals where possible. Keep it simple, as going too complex or complicated with visuals can cause other complications.
     Highlight Impact  Emphasize tangible business outcomes and use scenarios to illustrate effects. (E.g., a reduction in Search visibility in Segment A could lead to an X% decrease in MQLs over Y months based on the current website CVR.)
     Be Consistent  Align with business strategy and reinforce key messages.

    You may also choose to use external, neutral sources that support or validate your communications.

    For example, I tend to use a lot of Search Engine Journal’s coverage of Webmaster Hangouts and point to direct quotes from Googlers.

    Communicating Updates, Even If They Don’t Matter

    Let’s revisit a point I made at the beginning of this article: We can’t assume that we are the client’s sole source of SEO or Google-related news.

    When speaking with the CMOs who helped shape these initial articles, one key issue they highlighted was the lack of clarity around Google updates in their past engagements.

    They specifically mentioned challenges in understanding updates like RankBrain and initiatives like Hidden Gems.

    It’s our responsibility to ensure that our C-level stakeholders are not only informed about changes in the search landscape but also understand how these changes impact them directly.

    This proactive approach helps prevent any confusion or the impression that we’re not adequately addressing and mitigating risks for their organization.

    The impact of these updates can vary greatly across different sectors – some may experience significant ranking shifts, while others might see only minor adjustments.

    Additionally, Google employs systems that, while not typically labeled as “updates,” still play a vital role in shaping search results.

    For instance, RankBrain, an AI system, aids Google in interpreting the intent behind queries, especially those it hasn’t encountered before.

    Meanwhile, initiatives like Hidden Gems are designed to bring lesser-known but high-quality content to the forefront.

    If we don’t make these distinctions for the client stakeholders, we leave them open to interpretation and potential incorrect/contradictory information online or from other vendors.

    The 30,000ft View

    The 30,000ft view in marketing communications refers to a high-level, strategic perspective on how Google updates or changes in the search landscape can potentially affect – or have started to affect – the organization.

    The focus is on the big picture, considering the overarching goals and how

    Key Updates

    Highlight the most important developments and how they affect the overarching business strategy. This could be changes in the market, internal progress, or shifts in priorities.

    Recommended Actions

    Outline the next steps, focusing on what needs to be done, who’s responsible, and how these actions align with activities already in-flight (and planned), and the activities of other marketing channels.

    Implementation Timeline

    Provide a clear timeline with key milestones and deadlines. This also includes a follow-up plan to ensure everything stays on track and any adjustments are made as needed.

    The above can be communicated effectively through DARCI and RAG visuals.

    DARCI and RACI are both frameworks used in project management, but they serve slightly different purposes and offer varying levels of detail.

    DARCI builds on the RACI framework and adds a layer by including a Decision-Maker role.

    • Decision-Maker.
    • Accountable.
    • Responsible.
    • Consulted.
    • Informed.

    This is particularly useful in more complex projects where decision-making is crucial and needs to be clearly defined.

    DARCI is often used in more complex or higher-stakes projects where the clarity of decision-making is critical, while RACI is sufficient for more straightforward tasks.

    In a client/agency environment, the Decision Maker could well be your main point of contact or the client SEO lead, supported by the agency.

    Visual Communications

    Torino Scales

    Organizations like NASA traditionally use the Torino Scale to assess the potential threat of near-Earth objects (NEOs), like asteroids and comets.

    At the April 2024 edition of BrightonSEO, I introduced them as a tool for communicating and assessing the “potential impact hazard” of Google updates, emerging technologies, and changes to legislation…you could visually map anything that you would identify through a PESTLE analysis on a Torino Scale.

    Torino Scales can be a useful, visual tool in communicating potential risk.

    For example, a high rating on this scale would indicate significant potential changes to organic search performance, warranting close attention and possible strategic adjustment.

    As this is a visual aid, you can update it between meetings and provide context in your scheduled stakeholder meetings as to why certain things have been upgraded or downgraded in terms of risk to the business and organic search performance.

    Google Updates Vs. Seasonality

    Seasonality affects most businesses, and sometimes, non-marketing stakeholders can confuse seasonal trends with a decline in organic performance or the adverse effects of a Google update between the periods being compared.

    The only way to resolve this is through education, and by using year-on-year traffic and sales data, you can show consumer and market trends.

    Overlaying data in this way helps educate stakeholdersScreenshot from author, August 2024

    Overlaying data in this way helps educate stakeholders who may not be familiar with the consumer acquisition side of the business or are external consultants with specialisms outside of marketing.

    Showing the average demonstrates anomalies in the data outside of the general seasonality and helps set performance expectations.

    This data also helps educate stakeholders on why certain SEO (and other) marketing activities are being prioritized to reach the highest volume of audience members showing intent.

    Visualizing traffic or revenue data over time, even at a high level, can be invaluable in educating non-marketing stakeholders within the business. In the example I provided earlier, aside from anomalies, there are consistent month-on-month declines in June, July, and October.

    Many industries operate with a certain rhythm, and this visualization helps illustrate that pattern.

    By understanding these natural fluctuations, businesses can avoid misallocating resources to identify root causes when, in reality, the issue may simply be that a smaller percentage of your Total Addressable Market (TAM) is actively buying or converting during those periods.

    Communications Delivery

    Timely, concise, and relevant updates build trust and empower C-level leaders to make well-informed decisions that can drive long-term success for both the client and the agency.

    There are several ways, outside of the standard reporting and account management cadences, that allow you to communicate algorithm updates and other market factors effectively.

    Centralized Wikis

    By consolidating the latest updates, best practices, algorithm changes, and case studies in one easily accessible location, agencies can provide clients with real-time insights into factors that may impact their digital presence.

    These Wikis also then serve a dual purpose, as anyone new to the business (or client) has a repository they can refer to for back history and information that otherwise may have been lost or buried in the BAU comms of the relationship.

    Instant Messengers (IMs)

    I’m not a big fan of normalizing IMs for client communications, as they tend to create single points of failure/stress points on an account.

    To me, they can serve the purpose of delivering a message quickly and effectively, with further information to follow – much like Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride.

    By creating dedicated channels or groups for each client or specific topics, agencies can ensure that relevant information is delivered directly and promptly.

    These updates can then be expanded on through calls, or more comprehensive updates.

    Clear Is Kind, And So Is Brief

    Clear communication is challenging in SEO. You have a lot to cut through — not only the complexities of your work internally but also the messaging that people consume externally.

    Frames of reference play a critical role in ensuring your communication is clear and delivers your intended message. C-level executives and non-marketing stakeholders are a specific audience with unique challenges and intents. You must communicate with them in a way that serves their needs.

    Approach communication as a service that helps key stakeholders make informed decisions. This approach builds trust and helps you advocate for impactful resource allocation.

    More resources: 

    Featured Image: fizkes/Shutterstock

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Aug 19 2024
    Enterprise PPC Success Checklist: Setting Your Campaigns Up For Success via @sejournal, @navahf

    There’s a lot of well-meaning PPC advice out there. This advice often finds its way to bosses/clients who ask, “Why aren’t we doing ___?”

    The problem is most of these studies and data sets are focused around ecommerce. Enterprise accounts (even enterprise ecommerce) will behave differently than their non-enterprise counterparts.

    There are a few reasons why there’s a shortage of enterprise advice:

    • Ad networks (particularly Google) tend to focus on ecommerce.
    • It’s easier to build statistically relevant data sets for ecommerce because there’s more data than lead gen.
    • Enterprise brands tend to have a lot of red tape to get through, so it’s harder to share what works.

    We’re going to invest a bit of time digging into enterprise PPC, and how to set yourself up for success in your account as well as how to communicate that success to stakeholders.

    Like anything in PPC, it’s important to balance this advice with what you know is actually important for your account.

    The Checklist

    We’ll be diving into each of these in-depth, but if you only have time for a quick skim, here are the main questions to ask yourself:

    • Have I built in enough time to launch the campaign?
    • Do I trust my CRM set-up and my internal processes?
    • How much flexibility do I have with technical implementation?
    • Which channels will meet with creative approval?
    • Did I opt out of all auto-generated content (and should I fight to let some stay)?
    • Are my budget pacing rules in line with my finance team’s expectations?
    • Have I set myself up for all markets I need to serve (national/domestic)?
    • Will I be able to pull reports on metrics my stakeholders are expecting?

    Have I Built Enough Time To Launch The Campaign?

    Whether you’re building for an enterprise or an SMB (small/medium business), ad platforms take time to stand up. This is due to ad platform verification and learning periods.

    As a general rule, you will need to build in at least one to two weeks for account verification. This is required for everyone and is a safety measure to ensure the ad account represents the business it’s going to be promoting.

    Ad networks (particularly Google) are fairly strict about double serving (i.e. you can’t have more than one ad account targeting potential traffic). The verification process (done through postcard) is a way to ensure your account is assigned to you and protects you from bad actors setting up another ad account targeting your business.

    Beyond verification, you’ll need at least five to seven days minimum for your accounts to clear learning periods. These are for ad networks to understand your account/campaign and make meaningful budget allocation choices. During this time, you may need to use volume or impression share bidding due to the lack of conversions.

    We’ll go into conversions in depth later in the post, but there are some pitfalls for brand-new enterprise accounts to avoid:

    • Using any smart (conversion) based bidding until you have at least 60 conversions in a 30 day period.
    • Setting up your account as a “Smart” campaign account (you need to create your account without a campaign).

    If you’re adding a campaign to an existing account, you’ll be able to bypass most of these items, however, you still want to make sure you build in time for:

    • Confirming conversion actions are correct.
    • Learning period for new campaigns (still takes five days).
    • Ad approval process (two to three days).

    Do I Trust My CRM/Internal Processes?

    Ad networks are moving away from offline conversions, which means it’s even more important than ever that your CRMs are able to connect with your ad networks.

    enhanced conversionsScreenshot from author, August 2024

    Using Enhanced Conversions With CRMs

    There’s a lot that can go wrong with CRM set-up and management, and those mistakes can skew lead scoring and reporting. Make sure that you trust how leads are received and tagged before beginning any serious spend.

    It’s worth noting that Google (and other ad platforms) can take in the customer value (and lifetime value) of a client. So you’ll want to consider passing that info through as revenue and profit-based bidding tends to lead to better results than just conversions.

    CPA for bidding strategies Image from Optmyzr, August 2024
    ROAS for different bidding strategyImage from Optmyzr, August 2024

    However, the CRM is just one piece of the puzzle. You also need to make sure your internal teams are prepared to handle the new leads and tag them correctly.

    Depending on how your team is incented, they may put in dummy data or inaccurate data to stop their co-workers from “taking” their deals

    How Much Flexibility Do I Have With Technical Implementation?

    One of the most insidious parts of enterprise setup is clearing IT permissions.

    Google Tag Manager (GTM) is the easiest/safest way to go through tracking pixels because once you get that installed, you can add any new pixels without needing to touch the site.

    However, if you’re not allowed to touch the main site at all, you may need to look at landing page solutions or lead gen/call ads.

    Here are the main considerations to be prepared to answer when helping your IT team get on board with implementing entities for you.

    • Privacy compliance requires that users be asked for consent to track. Even if there’s no conversion tracking, there are still cookies to remember preferences. This is needed for everyone, and if they’re going to help you get that set up, it will cause no performance issues to include conversion tracking pixels.
    • Plan to test conversion actions and build in rules around spam leads (excluding “1234567890” as a phone number, “test” in any field, etc.). Additionally, you may need to ask for help configuring revenue tracking in analytics/CRMs. Make sure you ask for exactly what you need and include documentation on why.

    In an ideal world, you’d have your IT team set you up with consent mode. However, if you can’t, pushing for GTM is an acceptable compromise.

    If your IT teams will budge at all, you may need to opt for auto or smart bidding. This means opting for max clicks or target impression share with a bid cap or manual bidding with bid adjustments.

    Which Channels Will Get Creative Approval?

    Different channels are going to have different tools for approval.  Google is really useful at allowing for both control and leaning into AI.

    And when you lean into AI, you’re able to use brand safety standards. Additionally, there are placement controls so that you can ensure brand alignment. These include:

    • Brand standards for AI.
    • Placement reports for exclusions.
    • Ad previews.

    Microsoft also allows full control and allows you to use Copilot to generate images and videos. LinkedIn, by and large, is in full control.

    Meta is the one with the most risk for control because it tends to require more automation for performance gains. That said, all brands can avail themselves of more rigid controls.

    Finally, there are several visual platforms that allow you to use either influencer, user-generated, or other content for ad placements. When you’re working with humans for videos, it’s on you to ensure that they meet your own brand standards.

    So it’s less a question about brand standards in terms of fonts, colors, and design, and more a question of, will you be able to secure the talent for the video you want to produce?

    Did I Opt Out Of All Things Auto (& Should I Fight To Keep Some)?

    Most ad platforms will, by default, opt you into expansion of placements, expansion of traffic, as well as new creatives. You, as the practitioner, will need to decide which ones to keep, if any.

    In most cases, on the enterprise side, none of them will fall under compliance, so you will want to opt out of all of them.

    Here Is A List Of The Most Common Pitfalls In Terms Of Automated Settings

    • Automated created assets: Text, image, and video creative that gets created and added to your ads based on ad rank and placement type. Opt out of this in the account settings, as well as in the asset section of your campaign menu.
    • Automatically applied recommendations: These can be useful and should be reviewed. but not applied. Make sure you turn them off in account settings and review them in recommendations.
    • URL expansion in performance max: While this is a reasonable stand-in for Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), it’s important to remember that you won’t have the same level of control. This means your SEO-exclusive pages (blog, sitemap, etc) might get pulled in. Just be sure to leave that unchecked.
    • Setting your bidding to a bidding strategy you don’t intend: Because ad platforms want you to use conversion-based bidding, manual and automatic bidding are hidden in the drop-down menu.

    Are My Budget Pacing Rules In Line With Finance’s Expectations?

    It’s critical to remember that stated budgets aren’t guarantees of actual spend. Ad platforms will do their best to average out across 30.4 days of your stated daily budget.

    All budgets should be able to fit enough interactions in their advertising schedule to get at least one lead/sale on paper. In practice, this translates to my bids not exceeding 10% of the daily budget rule because 10% is a really good conversion rate for non-branded.

    However, starting a new campaign and account to lead to even more fluctuation. As a campaign is ramping up, you may have low- or high-spending days. This is normal but might cause finance to worry.

    As a general rule, using portfolio bidding strategies is a great way to ensure bid caps and floors for all campaign types. However, if you’re using SA360, you’ll also have access to these for Performance Max campaigns (not available in “regular” Google Ads).

    Whether you use portfolio bidding strategies to ensure auction price stability or not, remember that any major change to bidding strategies (including budget, goal, and type) will initiate a learning period. If a campaign is on the newer side, it might not have the conversions to quickly clear this learning period.

    As a general rule, it’s a good idea to ask for about 20% more budget than you anticipate needing in the first 90 days of a campaign, which can be utilized for testing or to shore up any fluctuation in new campaigns.

    Have I Set Myself Up For All Markets I Intend To Service (International/Domestic)?

    Managing multiple markets is always tricky, and if you’re targeting more than just one country, it gets even more complex. Different people search and think in different ways, and if you take the same campaign that worked in one market, it may struggle in another.

    Add to this the different costs of living and internet connectivity in different markets, and there’s a lot to think about before getting to translations.

    As a general rule, you should not include more than one country per ad account so you can run the schedule based on that country. Additionally, if a market is a growing market, you don’t want that bad data averaging into your thriving markets.

    On translating your campaigns: make sure you can service any language you’re translating into. Even though there are great deals to be had on non-English ad buys, the inability to service those customers will turn it into waste.

    Make sure you know the different privacy compliance regulations for each market. Any campaigns targeting outside the US will likely need consent mode enabled.

    Will I Be Able To Report On The Metrics My Stakeholders Are Expecting?

    On a similar note, many are used to thinking of PPC as fast-paced and perfect reporting. This is no longer the case. It’s really important that you set out a framework from the beginning for which metrics your stakeholders will hold you accountable.

    If they care about return on ad spend, conversion tracking must be set up correctly. For brands that refuse to allow third-party integrations on their sites, this may cause tracking and reporting issues.

    As a general rule, getting buy-in for conversion tracking isn’t as hard as getting CRM/sales data to sync up.

    However, if you can clear that hurdle, you’ll be able to report on lead quality as well as average customer value. Without that information, reports will be limited to objective CPA, conversion rate, and ad-specific metrics.

    I like getting stakeholders invested in impression share and understanding how much impression share is lost due to rank or budget so they have a clear understanding of what their choices mean for the account.

    Finally, try to work with the organic team to link up Search Console so you can share organic reports between teams.

    Final Takeaways

    Whether you’re setting up campaigns for enterprises or SMBs, there are some core focal areas for every PPC practitioner.

    Hopefully, you found this a helpful start on your own enterprise PPC checklist.

    More resources: 

    Featured Image: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Aug 8 2024
    Creating Value And Content Across Multiple City And Area Service Pages via @sejournal, @TaylorDanRW

    For enterprise multi-location businesses, the alignment of your SEO strategy and business strategy is crucial for success.

    Whether the business is operating a franchise model, a retail chain, or multiple hubs operating as a service area business, your approach to local SEO needs to be tailored to meet your specific goals. It also needs to be scalable and efficient enough to be maintained while returning long-term ROI.

    Another key requirement is that your content approach produces enough value for users, and Google, so that it falls above the indexing quality threshold.

    This means going beyond the standard best practices for local SEO and creating a local SEO campaign that drives brand visibility and conversions sustainably.

    Aligning The SEO & Business Strategies

    Multi-location businesses have different objectives.

    While the basics of multi-location management are the same, your approach needs to work with the overall strategy and align with the overall business objectives.

    For example, the strategy franchise business with multiple operators running service businesses in multiple towns, cities, and states will differ from a big-box store with hundreds of locations in multiple states.

    Success metrics also vary. Typically, the KPIs for enterprise local SEO campaigns fall into one of the following categories:

    • To drive visibility and footfall to the individual locations.
    • To funnel local intent searches to the online store for direct delivery, or future interaction with local stores.
    • A combination of the two above.

    Depending on what the business determines as “success” will greatly impact your approach to creating a choice architecture for users, and how you report on success.

    Approaches To Bulk Local Page Creation

    Over the years, our approach to describing and producing multiple area service pages has changed.

    A decade ago, we’d describe low-quality versions with small amends and largely the same content as doorway pages, something Google moved to devalue over time.

    In more recent years, with the increased popularity of programmatic SEO, or pSEO, this method has become a popular go-to for creating these pages at scale.

    Programmatic Content Creation For Local Service Pages

    For businesses that operate hundreds or thousands of locations, programmatic or partial-programmatic content creation can be an attractive option.

    Programmatic SEO, or pSEO, allows you to scalably generate large volumes of content. This approach has helped a number of businesses scale, but it can also lead to problems if the pages being created don’t create enough of a unique value proposition for Google to invest resources.

    If we look at two common website architectures for local service pages, we typically have either a central service page and then local service pages, or a central page that acts as a gateway to the locale service pages – such as a store locator.

    Local service page hierarchyImage from author, July 2024

    Depending on your business type, you will likely choose one structure over the other by default, but both can come with their challenges.

    With a central service page structure you can run into issues with creating unique value propositions and ensuring each page has enough differentiation and falls above Google’s quality thresholds for indexing.

    The store locator page approach can cause issues with PageRank distribution and how you internally link to the different locations. Most user-friendly store location applications don’t load HTML links, so while visually linking to all the stores, Google can’t crawl the links.

    A common issue with both of these approaches, however, is how you work to capture “wider” searches around the locations.

    Local Content Value Propositions

    Local pages are at their most helpful when they tailor best to the location.

    Historically, I’ve seen companies do this by “bloating” pages with additional information about the area, such as a paragraph or two on local infrastructure, schools, and sports teams – none of which is relevant if you’re trying to get people to visit your hardware store or enquire about your home-visit security fitting services.

    It’s also not enough to just change the location name in the URL, H1, Title Tag, and throughout the body copy.

    When this happens, Google effectively sees near-duplicate pages with very little differentiation in the value proposition that is relevant to the user query.

    A symptom of this is when pages are shown as not indexed in Search Console, and Google is either choosing to override the user-declared canonical, or they’re stuck in either the Discovered or Crawled, not currently indexed phases.

    There will always be a level of duplication across local service and location pages. Google is fine with this. Just because something is duplicated on multiple pages doesn’t mean it’s low quality.

    Creating Value Proposition Differentiations

    This is where I tend to favor the partially programmatic approach.

    Programmatic can fulfill 70%(+) of the page’s content; it can cover your service offerings, pricing, and company information for those specific locations.

    The remaining percentage of the page is manual but allows you to create the value proposition differentiation against other pages.

    Let’s say you’re a multi-state courier service, and you have many routes to market, and your main distribution hubs in Texas are in Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, and you want to target potential customers in Euless.

    The services you offer for Euless are the same as what you offer customers in Pflugerville, Kyle, and Leander – so those parts of each location page will be the same on all of them.

    But Euless is served by the Dallas hub and the others by the Austin hub – this is your first content differentiation point to highlight.

    You can then use data from within the business, and keyword research, to flesh out these pages with travel time data.

    Customers looking for courier services in Euless might be looking for Euless to Austin, or Euless to Houston services – so building this into the local page and having a time estimation to popular locations from the destination shows local specialism and helps customers better understand the service and plan.

    Your business data will also help you identify the customer types. For example, many jobs booked in Euless might be for university students moving out to live on campus, so this is again more localized targeting to the customer base that can be included on the page.

    Internal Linking

    When it comes to internal linking, the use of pseudo-HTML sitemaps can help with this and not only act as clean internal links through the pages, but also be beneficial to users and allow you to create other landing pages to target county or area level searches.

    Ten years ago on a property finder page, the team I worked with built out a page structure pattern of County > Town/City whilst pulling through relevant locations into the landing pages along the way.

    Search by countyScreenshot from author, July 2024

    Visually, this just acted as a more “manual” method for users to filter from the non-location specific pages towards their local areas.

    Google Business Profile Linking

    Another key component that is often missed is the direct linking of Google Business Profiles (GBPs) to their related location page on the website.

    I come across a number of multinationals and nationals who link back to their company homepage, sometimes with a parameter to highlight which GBP the user has clicked through from – but this is both poor web architecture and poor user choice architecture.

    If a user is looking for a service/store in XYZ, they don’t want a homepage or generic information page if they click on the website link.

    In terms of user-choice architecture, from here a user could navigate to a different store or page and miss key information relevant to them, that otherwise could have driven a sale or enquiry.

    Google’s Local Algorithms

    In addition to Google’s core algorithm and more general Search ranking signals, Google has released updates specifically targeting local queries. The two main ones are:

    • Pigeon 2014: This update aimed to provide more relevant and accurate local search results by tying local search results more closely to general Search ranking signals. User proximity (as a signal) also received a boost.
    • Possum 2016: This update aimed to enhance the ranking of businesses located just outside city limits, making search results more location-specific to the user’s proximity to the business. Address-based filtering was also introduced to avoid duplicate listings for businesses sharing the same address (such as virtual offices).

    These updates make it harder for businesses to spoof being present in a local market, and potentially not offering a value proposition that matches or meets the needs of the searcher.

    Anecdotally, Google seems to prioritize ranking businesses that provide the most comprehensive information.

    This includes opening dates, onsite dining options (if applicable), special opening hours, business categories, service listings, and defining the service area and service types.

    Google Business Profile Importance

    Following the guidelines is a must, but even then, you can fall foul of Google’s auto-detection checks.

    Working with an international software company, that has multiple offices across Asia, a number are rented floors in shared offices.

    We assume that occasionally, Google detects the shared addresses and mistakes them as being a virtual office/fake address, which is something the Possum algorithm update looked to reduce.

    When you’re working with an enterprise organization with a large number of physical locations, the approach to Google Business Profile management can become more complex through internal stakeholder management and understanding how GBPs fit into, and contribute, to the overall objectives and ecosystem.

    Reporting GBP Data

    Depending on your objectives, how you report success will vary between campaigns.

    From the Google API, you can access listing-level data for your Impressions, and a breakdown of different user interactions (infer impressions and clicks from GSC mirror metrics).

    Atypical Google Business Profile reporting dashboard. (Screenshot from author, July 2024)

    In my opinion, any business operating across multiple towns, cities, counties, or states needs to have some form of GBP monitoring and reporting visibility outside of tracking parameterized URLs in Google Search Console and other analytics platforms (assuming you’re using parameters on your GBP website links).

    More resources: 

    Featured Image: ivector/Shutterstock

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    Jul 29 2024
    5 Automated And AI-Driven Workflows To Scale Enterprise SEO via @sejournal, @seomeetsdesign

    That’s where Ahrefs’ in-built AI translator may be a better fit for your project, solving both problems in one go:

    GIF from Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, July 2024

    It offers automatic translations for 40+ languages and dialects in 180+ countries, with more coming soon.

    However, the biggest benefit is that you’ll get a handful of alternative translations to select from, giving you greater insight into the nuances of how people search in local markets.

    For example, there are over a dozen ways to say ‘popcorn’ across all Spanish-speaking countries and dialects. The AI translator is able to detect the most popular variation in each country.

    Screenshot from Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, July 2024

    This, my friends, is quality international SEO on steroids.

    2.   Identify The Dominant Search Intent Of Any Keyword

    Search intent is the internal motivator that leads someone to look for something online. It’s the reason why they’re looking and the expectations they have about what they’d like to find.

    The intent behind many keywords is often obvious. For example, it’s not rocket science to infer that people expect to purchase a product when searching any of these terms:

    Screenshot from Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, July 2024

    However, there are many keywords where the intent isn’t quite so clear-cut.

    For instance, take the keyword “waterbed.” We could try to guess its intent, or we could use AI to analyze the top-ranking pages and give us a breakdown of the type of content most users seem to be looking for.

    Gif from Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, July 2024

    For this particular keyword, 89% of results skew toward purchase intent. So, it makes sense to create or optimize a product page for this term.

    For the keyword “arrow fletchings,” there is a mix of different types of content ranking, like informational posts, product pages, and how-to guides.

    Screenshot from Ahrefs Identify Intents, July 2024

    If your brand or product lent itself to one of the popular content types, that’s what you could plan in your content calendar.

    Or, you could use the data here to outline a piece of content that covers all the dominant intents in a similar proportion to what’s already ranking:

    • ~40% providing information and answers to common questions.
    • ~30% providing information on fletching products and where to buy them.
    • ~20% providing a process for a reader to make their own fletchings.
    • And so on.

    For enterprises, the value of outsourcing this to AI is simple. If you guess and get it wrong, you’ll have to allocate your limited SEO funds toward fixing the mistake instead of working on new content.

    It’s better to have data on your side confirming the intent of any keyword before you publish content with an intent misalignment, let alone rolling it out over multiple websites or languages!

    3.   Easily Identify Missing Topics Within Your Content

    Topical gap analysis is very important in modern SEO. We’ve evolved well beyond the times when simply adding keywords to your content was enough to make it rank.

    However, it’s not always quick or easy to identify missing topics within your content. Generative AI can help plug gaps beyond what most content-scoring tools can identify.

    For example, ChatGPT can analyze your text against competitors’ to find missing topics you can include. You could prompt it to do something like the following:

    Screenshot from ChatGPT, July 2024

    SIDENOTE. You’ll need to add your content and competitors’ content to complete the prompt.

    Here’s an example of the list of topics it identifies:

    Screenshot from ChatGPT, July 2024

    And the scores and analysis it can provide for your content:

    Screenshot from ChatGPT, July 2024

    This goes well beyond adding words and entities, like what most content scoring tools suggest.

    The scores on many of these tools can easily be manipulated, providing higher scores the more you add certain terms; even if, from a conceptual standpoint, your content doesn’t do a good job of covering a topic.

    If you want the detailed analysis offered by ChatGPT but available in bulk and near-instantly… then good news. We’re working on Content Master, a content grading solution that automates topic gap analysis.

    I can’t reveal too much about this yet, but it has a big USP compared to most existing content optimization tools: its content score is based on topic coverage—not just keywords.

    Screenshot from Ahrefs Content Master, July 2024

    You can’t just lazily copy and paste related keywords or entities into the content to improve the score.

    If you rely on a pool of freelancers to create content at scale for your enterprise company, this tool will provide you with peace of mind that they aren’t taking any shortcuts.

    4.   Update Search Engines With Changes On Your Website As They Happen

    Have you ever made a critical change on your website, but search engines haven’t picked up on it for ages? There’s now a fix for that.

    If you aren’t already aware of IndexNow, it’s time to check it out.

    It tells participating search engines when a change, any change, has been made on a website. If you add, update, remove, or redirect pages, participating search engines can pick up on the changes faster.

    Not all search engines have adopted this yet, including Google. However, Microsoft Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam.cz, and Yep all have. Once one partner is pinged, all the information is shared with the other partners making it very valuable for international organizations:

    Most content management systems and delivery networks already use IndexNow and will ping search engines automatically for you. However, since many enterprise websites are built on custom ERP platforms or tech stacks, it’s worth looking into whether this is happening for the website you’re managing or not.

    You could partner with the dev team to implement the free IndexNow API. Ask them to try these steps as shared by Bing if your website tech stack doesn’t already use IndexNow:

    1. Get your free IndexNow API key
    2. Place the key in your site’s root directory as a .txt file
    3. Submit your key as a URL parameter
    4. Track URL discoveries by search engines

    You could also use Ahrefs instead of involving developers. You can easily connect your IndexNow API directly within Site Audit and configure your desired settings.

    Here’s a quick snapshot of how IndexNow works with Ahrefs:

    In short, it’s an actual real-time monitoring and alerting system, a dream come true for technical SEOs worldwide. Check out Patrick Stox’s update for all the details.

    Paired with our always-on crawler, no matter what changes you’re making, you can trust search engines will be notified of any changes you want, automatically. It’s the indexing shortcut you’ve been looking for.

    5.   Automatically Fix Common Technical SEO Issues

    Creative SEO professionals get stuff done with or without support from other departments. Unfortunately, in many enterprise organizations, relationships between the SEO team and devs can be tenuous, affecting how many technical fixes are implemented on a website.

    If you’re a savvy in-house SEO, you’ll love this new enterprise feature we’re about to drop. It’s called Patches.

    It’s designed to automatically fix common technical issues with the click of a button. You will be able to launch these fixes directly from our platform using Cloudflare workers or JavaScript snippets.

    Picture this:

    1. You run a technical SEO crawl.
    2. You identify key issues to fix across one page, a subset of pages, or all affected pages.
    3. With the click of a button, you fix the issue across your selected pages.
    4. Then you instantly re-crawl these pages to check the fixes are working as expected.

    For example, you can make page-level fixes for pesky issues like re-writing page titles, descriptions, and headings:

    Screenshot from Ahrefs Site Audit, July 2024

    You can also make site-wide fixes. For example, fixing internal links to broken pages can be challenging without support from developers on large sites. With Patches, you’ll be able to roll out automatic fixes for issues like this yourself:

    Screenshot from Ahrefs Site Audit, July 2024

    As we grow this tool, we plan to automate over 95% of technical fixes via JavaScript snippets or Cloudflare workers, so you don’t have to rely on developers as much as you may right now. We’re also integrating AI to help you speed up the process of fixing fiddly tasks even more.

    Get More Buy-In For Enterprise SEO With These Workflows

    Now, as exciting and helpful as these workflows may be for you, the key is to get your boss and your boss’ boss on board.

    If you’re ever having trouble getting buy-in for SEO projects or budgets for new initiatives, try using the cost savings you can pass as leverage.

    For instance, you can show how, usually, three engineers would dedicate five sprints to fixing a particular issue, costing the company illions of dollars—millions, billions, bajillions, whatever it is. But with your proposed solution, you can reduce costs and free up the engineers’ time to work on high-value tasks.

    You can also share the Ultimate Enterprise SEO Playbook with them. It’s designed to show executives how your team is strategically valuable and can solve many other challenges within the organization.

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
    May 29 2024
    Why Using A Log Analyzer Is A Must For Big Websites

    This post was sponsored by JetOctopus. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

    If you manage a large website with over 10,000 pages, you can likely appreciate the unique SEO challenges that come with such scale.

    Sure, the traditional tools and tactics — keyword optimization, link building, etc. — are important to establish a strong foundation and maintain basic SEO hygiene.

    However, they may not fully address the technical complexities of Site Visibility for Searchbots and the dynamic needs of a large enterprise website.

    This is where log analyzers become crucial. An SEO log analyzer monitors and analyzes server access logs to give you real insights into how search engines interact with your website. It allows you to take strategic action that satisfies both search crawlers and users, leading to stronger returns on your efforts.

    In this post, you’ll learn what a log analyzer is and how it can enable your enterprise SEO strategy to achieve sustained success. But first, let’s take a quick look at what makes SEO tricky for big websites with thousands of pages.

    The Unique SEO Challenges For Large Websites

    Managing SEO for a website with over 10,000 pages isn’t just a step up in scale; it’s a whole different ball game.

    Relying on traditional SEO tactics limits your site’s potential for organic growth. You can have the best titles and content on your pages, but if Googlebot can’t crawl them effectively, those pages will be ignored and may not get ranked ever.

    Image created by JetOctopus, May 2024

    For big websites, the sheer volume of content and pages makes it difficult to ensure every (important) page is optimized for visibility to Googlebot. Then, the added complexity of an elaborate site architecture often leads to significant crawl budget issues. This means Googlebot is missing crucial pages during its crawls.

    Image created by JetOctopus, May 2024

    Furthermore, big websites are more vulnerable to technical glitches — such as unexpected tweaks in the code from the dev team — that can impact SEO. This often exacerbates other issues like slow page speeds due to heavy content, broken links in bulk, or redundant pages that compete for the same keywords (keyword cannibalization).

    All in all, these issues that come with size necessitate a more robust approach to SEO. One that can adapt to the dynamic nature of big websites and ensure that every optimization effort is more meaningful toward the ultimate goal of improving visibility and driving traffic.

    This strategic shift is where the power of an SEO log analyzer becomes evident, providing granular insights that help prioritize high-impact actions. The primary action being to better understand Googlebot like it’s your website’s main user — until your important pages are accessed by Googlebot, they won’t rank and drive traffic.

    What Is An SEO Log Analyzer?

    An SEO log analyzer is essentially a tool that processes and analyzes the data generated by web servers every time a page is requested. It tracks how search engine crawlers interact with a website, providing crucial insights into what happens behind the scenes. A log analyzer can identify which pages are crawled, how often, and whether any crawl issues occur, such as Googlebot being unable to access important pages.

    By analyzing these server logs, log analyzers help SEO teams understand how a website is actually seen by search engines. This enables them to make precise adjustments to enhance site performance, boost crawl efficiency, and ultimately improve SERP visibility.

    Put simply, a deep dive into the logs data helps discover opportunities and pinpoint issues that might otherwise go unnoticed in large websites.

    But why exactly should you focus your efforts on treating Googlebot as your most important visitor?

    Why is crawl budget a big deal?

    Let’s look into this.

    Optimizing Crawl Budget For Maximum SEO Impact

    Crawl budget refers to the number of pages a search engine bot — like Googlebot — will crawl on your site within a given timeframe. Once a site’s budget is used up, the bot will stop crawling and move on to other websites.

    Crawl budgets vary for every website and your site’s budget is determined by Google itself, by considering a range of factors such as the site’s size, performance, frequency of updates, and links. When you focus on optimizing these factors strategically, you can increase your crawl budget and speed up ranking for new website pages and content.

    As you’d expect, making the most of this budget ensures that your most important pages are frequently visited and indexed by Googlebot. This typically translates into better rankings (provided your content and user experience are solid).

    And here’s where a log analyzer tool makes itself particularly useful by providing detailed insights into how crawlers interact with your site. As mentioned earlier, it allows you to see which pages are being crawled and how often, helping identify and resolve inefficiencies such as low-value or irrelevant pages that are wasting valuable crawl resources.

    An advanced log analyzer like JetOctopus offers a complete view of all the stages from crawling and indexation to getting organic clicks. Its SEO Funnel covers all the main stages, from your website being visited by Googlebot to being ranked in the top 10 and bringing in organic traffic.

    Image created by JetOctopus, May 2024

    As you can see above, the tabular view shows how many pages are open to indexation versus those closed from indexation. Understanding this ratio is crucial because if commercially important pages are closed from indexation, they will not appear in subsequent funnel stages.

    The next stage examines the number of pages crawled by Googlebot, with “green pages” representing those crawled and within the structure, and “gray pages” indicating potential crawl budget waste because they are visited by Googlebot but not within the structure, possibly orphan pages or accidentally excluded from the structure. Hence, it’s vital to analyze this part of your crawl budget for optimization.

    The later stages include analyzing what percentage of pages are ranked in Google SERPs, how many of these rankings are in the top 10 or top three, and, finally, the number of pages receiving organic clicks.

    Overall, the SEO funnel gives you concrete numbers, with links to lists of URLs for further analysis, such as indexable vs. non-indexable pages and how crawl budget waste is occurring. It is an excellent starting point for crawl budget analysis, allowing a way to visualize the big picture and get insights for an impactful optimization plan that drives tangible SEO growth.

    Put simply, by prioritizing high-value pages — ensuring they are free from errors and easily accessible to search bots — you can greatly improve your site’s visibility and ranking.

    Using an SEO log analyzer, you can understand exactly what should be optimized on pages that are being ignored by crawlers, work on them, and thus attract Googlebot visits. A log analyzer benefits in optimizing other crucial aspects of your website:

    Image created by JetOctopus, May 2024
    • Detailed Analysis of Bot Behavior: Log analyzers allow you to dissect how search bots interact with your site by examining factors like the depth of their crawl, the number of internal links on a page, and the word count per page. This detailed analysis provides you with the exact to-do items for optimizing your site’s SEO performance.
    • Improves Internal Linking and Technical Performance: Log analyzers provide detailed insights into the structure and health of your site. They help identify underperforming pages and optimize the internal links placement, ensuring a smoother user and crawler navigation. They also facilitate the fine-tuning of content to better meet SEO standards, while highlighting technical issues that may affect site speed and accessibility.
    • Aids in Troubleshooting JavaScript and Indexation Challenges: Big websites, especially eCommerce, often rely heavily on JavaScript for dynamic content. In the case of JS websites, the crawling process is lengthy. A log analyzer can track how well search engine bots are able to render and index JavaScript-dependent content, underlining potential pitfalls in real-time. It also identifies pages that are not being indexed as intended, allowing for timely corrections to ensure all relevant content can rank.
    • Helps Optimize Distance from Index (DFI): The concept of Distance from Index (DFI) refers to the number of clicks required to reach any given page from the home page. A lower DFI is generally better for SEO as it means important content is easier to find, both by users and search engine crawlers. Log analyzers help map out the navigational structure of your site, suggesting changes that can reduce DFI and improve the overall accessibility of key content and product pages.

    Besides, historical log data offered by a log analyzer can be invaluable. It helps make your SEO performance not only understandable but also predictable. Analyzing past interactions allows you to spot trends, anticipate future hiccups, and plan more effective SEO strategies.

    With JetOctopus, you benefit from no volume limits on logs, enabling comprehensive analysis without the fear of missing out on crucial data. This approach is fundamental in continually refining your strategy and securing your site’s top spot in the fast-evolving landscape of search.

    Real-World Wins Using Log Analyzer

    Big websites in various industries have leveraged log analyzers to attain and maintain top spots on Google for profitable keywords, which has significantly contributed to their business growth.

    For example, Skroutz, Greece’s biggest marketplace website with over 1 million sessions daily, set up a real-time crawl and log analyzer tool that helped them know things like:

    • Does Googlebot crawl pages that have more than two filters activated?
    • How extensively does Googlebot crawl a particularly popular category?
    • What are the main URL parameters that Googlebot crawls?
    • Does Googlebot visit pages with filters like “Size,” which are typically marked as nofollow?

    This ability to see real-time visualization tables and historical log data spanning over ten months for monitoring Googlebot crawls effectively enabled Skroutz to find crawling loopholes and decrease index size, thus optimizing its crawl budget.

    Eventually, they also saw a reduced time for new URLs to be indexed and ranked — instead of taking 2-3 months to index and rank new URLs, the indexing and ranking phase took only a few days.

    This strategic approach to technical SEO using log files has helped Skroutz cement its position as one of the top 1000 websites globally according to SimilarWeb, and the fourth most visited website in Greece (after Google, Facebook, and Youtube) with over 70% share of its traffic from organic search.

    Image created by JetOctopus, May 2024

    Another case in point is DOM.RIA, Ukraine’s popular real estate and rental listing website, which doubled the Googlebot visits by optimizing their website’s crawl efficiency. As their site structure is huge and elaborate, they needed to optimize the crawl efficiency for Googlebot to ensure the freshness and relevance of content appearing in Google.

    Initially, they implemented a new sitemap to improve the indexing of deeper directories. Despite these efforts, Googlebot visits remained low.

    By using the JetOctopus to analyze their log files, DOM.RIA identified and addressed issues with their internal linking and DFI. They then created mini-sitemaps for poorly scanned directories (such as for the city, including URLs for streets, districts, metro, etc.) while assigning meta tags with links to pages that Googlebot often visits. This strategic change resulted in a more than twofold increase in Googlebot activity on these crucial pages within two weeks.

    Image created by JetOctopus, May 2024

    Getting Started With An SEO Log Analyzer

    Now that you know what a log analyzer is and what it can do for big websites, let’s take a quick look at the steps involved in logs analysis.

    Here is an overview of using an SEO log analyzer like JetOctopus for your website:

    • Integrate Your Logs: Begin by integrating your server logs with a log analysis tool. This step is crucial for capturing all data related to site visits, which includes every request made to the server.
    • Identify Key Issues: Use the log analyzer to uncover significant issues such as server errors (5xx), slow load times, and other anomalies that could be affecting user experience and site performance. This step involves filtering and sorting through large volumes of data to focus on high-impact problems.
    • Fix the Issues: Once problems are identified, prioritize and address these issues to improve site reliability and performance. This might involve fixing broken links, optimizing slow-loading pages, and correcting server errors.
    • Combine with Crawl Analysis: Merge log analysis data with crawl data. This integration allows for a deeper dive into crawl budget analysis and optimization. Analyze how search engines crawl your site and adjust your SEO strategy to ensure that your most valuable pages receive adequate attention from search bots.

    And that’s how you can ensure that search engines are efficiently indexing your most important content.

    Conclusion

    As you can see, the strategic use of log analyzers is more than just a technical necessity for large-scale websites. Optimizing your site’s crawl efficiency with a log analyzer can immensely impact your SERP visibility.

    For CMOs managing large-scale websites, embracing a log analyzer and crawler toolkit like JetOctopus is like getting an extra tech SEO analyst that bridges the gap between SEO data integration and organic traffic growth.

    BOOK A DEMO

    Image Credits

    Featured Image: Image by JetOctopus Used with permission.

    Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments