SEO Archives SEO

Mar 20 2023

Enterprise SEO: 4 Ways To Boost SEO ROI With No Overhead Costs

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

Your CEO wants to know how important your SEO team is in the company’s big picture.

The CFO wants to make sure you’re staying within your tight marketing budget.

Meanwhile, shareholders want to see a higher return on investment (ROI) with limited cost.

So, how do you transform your SEO team into an ROI powerhouse without breaking your budget?

We’ll show you how to improve your ROI through an updated keyword ranking strategy and some untapped SEO strategies for enterprise SEO teams.

And some of these SEO strategies only cost money when they work.

We’ll teach you how to work more efficiently with a smaller in-house marketing budget.

1. Get More Qualified Visitors: Add Mid-Volume Keywords To Your SEO Strategy

You know the drill. Your CEO wants to see millions of visitors pouring into your site with a minimum spend.

Enter SEO.

Your SEO team focuses on high-volume keywords and branded keywords to make sure traffic flow improves.

However, once website traffic begins to increase, shareholders seem to start focusing on the next key metric – return on investment (ROI).

Suddenly, your CEO starts asking to see conversion data and asking how many hours went into each conversion:

How many hours went into nurturing each visitor?
How many of those nurtured visitors converted into a sale?
How many fell out of a long marketing funnel?
How many of those visitors are converting into true profit?
Is all of this work financially paying off?

Then, you realize that high-volume keywords and branded keywords only attract top-of-the-funnel visitors, a.k.a people who are the farthest away from making a purchase.

The excitement begins to fade – your marketing team has spent hundreds of hours nurturing those top-funnel visitors to the consideration stage, only for 4.31% of visitors to convert.

Each hour spent nurturing reduces the ROI of SEO.

It’s time to make sure that the leads entering your website are closer to the conversion phase of your marketing funnel.

After all, less work to transform a visitor into profit means higher ROI.

The key: pivot your SEO team’s focus towards adding more mid-volume and low-volume keywords to your SEO strategy.

Why Should I Allocate SEO Bandwidth To Mid- & Low-Volume Keywords?

To make sure that your website leads are closer to conversion, allocate SEO bandwidth toward mid- and low-volume keywords.

What’s The ROI Difference Between High-Volume & Mid-/Low-Volume Keywords?

High-volume keywords, such as the short-tail keywords [iPhone 14] or [Android], are great for awareness and traffic. But because visitors who enter your site through high-volume, short-tail keywords are in the awareness stage of the marketing funnel, only 3% of these visitors may convert.

Mid-volume and low-volume keywords, such as the long-tail keywords [buy 256GB iPhone 14 pro max], have a 23% chance of converting with less work.

How To Increase ROI With Mid- & Low-Volume Keywords

To add mid-volume and low-volume keywords (a.k.a long-tail keywords) to your SEO strategy, simply repeat your in-house keyword research strategy to focus on search intent.

Re-performing your initial keyword research with search intent will naturally help you uncover the long-tail keywords you need to get more qualified leads and search visibility.

The Easy Way

Don’t have the budget to repeat keyword research for more qualified search terms?

Look into:

Hands-on pay-for-performance SEO agencies that combine your current keyword strategy with a well-balanced mix of short-tail and long-tail keywords. Bonus, you only pay for results; there are no budget-wasting retainers.
Automated SEO tools, which will still require bandwidth for configuration and quality control.

2. Audit The True ROI Of Your SEO Strategy: Reduce Unnecessary Marketing Spend

Being wise about how you allocate your resources is the second key to higher ROI.

Ask yourself:

Are your marketing teams aligned with your SEO goals?
Are you streamlining and automating simple SEO tasks to improve bandwidth and innovative output from your key players?
If you’re outsourcing parts of your SEO strategy, is their success resulting in net profit?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, you may be accidentally lowering the ROI of your SEO results.

Focus on these key areas to solve the largest unnecessary drains on your marketing budget.

Cost Reduction Tip 1: Ensure Content Marketing, PPC & SEO Are Aligned For Higher Success

Sharing strategies and data between marketing teams can help your organization save bandwidth costs while improving how you optimize and manage campaigns.

Siloed enterprise marketing teams can quickly become one of the largest sources of budget drain.

In fact, 13.9% of marketing managers and department heads cited alignment with other departments as a major hurdle to SEO success in 2022.

However, when broader interdepartmental collaboration is implemented, you can quickly see the ROI of SEO strategies increase.

The Problem

ROI is severely lowered when PPC teams, content marketing teams, and SEO teams are not communicating with each other, content can quickly overlap, causing cannibalization, repeat work, and more.

The cost of duplicate work, educational meetings, and strategy repairs cause unnecessary additional costs toward a conversion.

The Solution

Reduce repetitive work and raise ROI by:

Using proven data from recently completed campaigns. Save time on SEO research by leveraging successful PPC ad copy as a starting point for SERP titles and meta descriptions.
Combining and sharing PPC and SEO keyword research.
Sharing Google Ads and Search Console data between teams to save time on experimenting and help avoid mistakes.
Discovering SERP ownership and allocating ad spend to SERPs that have higher competition.
Locating and combining content pages that directly compete with SEO-focused pages, then working together to focus those content creation resources on new, high-ROI targets.

By reducing repeat work for the same conversion, you can quickly raise ROI.

Cost Reduction Tip 2: Safely Streamline & Automate SEO Tasks

In 2022, the majority of marketing managers and department heads cited a lack of resources as their largest hurdle toward SEO success.

The Problem

ROI drops when your team is stretched thin; high-quality output decreases and mistakes are made.

Mistakes take time to correct, and to your CEO, time is money that’s taken away from ROI.

The Solution

Raise ROI by investing in AI and machine learning tools that save time and help allow the output of higher-quality work from your teams.

Time saved = lower conversion costs = higher ROI.

AI and machine learning can reduce conversion costs by up to 20%, with up to 70% of the cost reduction resulting from higher productivity.

To get started, uncover which simple SEO tasks can be automated and taken off of your team’s plate.

AI can safely automate time-consuming tasks and augment SEO performance through:

SERP anomaly detection.
Ranking and traffic report updates.
Backlink profile creation.
Gathering manual SEO data.
Backlink sourcing.
Initial keyword research reports.
Topic research and article structure.

By allowing tools and AI to perform those tasks, you’ll find:

Fewer costly mistakes and correction periods, because your team has more time to focus on quality instead of racing to complete their tasks.
Less time-spend on time-consuming work, allowing your team to focus on needle-moving strategy and collaboration.
Faster paths to scalability and growth within your SEO team structure.

Each of these elements directly influences the ROI of SEO.

Cost Reduction Tip 3: Audit The ROI Of Outsourced SEO

Your CFO and CEO are highly focused on costs to operate versus profit.

You should be, too.

Outsourcing SEO tasks solves any bandwidth problems your marketing team has, but how do you know if the cost of the retainer is worth the ROI?

The Problem

ROI drops when retainers enter the picture.

When there is an expense simply because your company signed the contract or because the agency requires three months of setup time, it can be hard to prove that your agency choice was a good idea.

The Solution

Learning how retainers impact your ROI can help you paint a better picture of success.

Calculating your SEO strategy’s ROI and including retainer costs plus the time it takes to get to page 1 is key.

When is your outsourced SEO agency expecting results to begin?
How many months of the retainer will you be paying before that?
How much money could you save paying only for results?

Enterprise SEO: 4 Ways To Boost SEO ROI With No Overhead Costs

Image created by ResultFirst, February 2023

In this scenario, the first SEO results are seen around month four.

With traditional SEO billing, you’ve already spent $4,000 for the first conversions.

With pay-for-performance SEO billing, you’ve only paid $450 for the first conversions.

After discovering the cost impact of your current retainers, try exploring other types of SEO agencies.

3. Hire Specific Top Skills: Scale Your SEO Team Into A High-Impact Powerhouse

Like searching for the perfect SEO agency, hiring new SEO professionals can be an ROI-draining gamble.

So, in order to positively impact your ROI, the key is to look for specific traits for the perfect enterprise SEO professional.

Look For These Traits In Your Next Enterprise SEO Hire

In addition to critical thinking, great speaking and writing ability, technical and programming skills, and analytics knowledge, you should also look for these key enterprise SEO traits:

Inherent knowledge of your business and its vertical(s).
A multidisciplinary mindset with a collaborative nature.
SEO reporting mastery and the ability to communicate results in ways that matter to your CEO.
A solid foundational understanding of how search engines crawl, index, and rank content.
Experience creating and maintaining technical documentation.
Deep experience with AI-assisted SEO tools and platforms.

By crafting your enterprise SEO team around these skillsets, you automatically attune your team towards high-quality, high-ROI results.

Scale Your SEO Department Effortlessly With No Recruitment Costs

This year, many marketing and SEO budgets are lower than usual.

If hiring is not included in your budget for this year, it’s still possible to scale your SEO program.

You can avoid hiring expensive SEO teams in-house and work with a pay-for-performance agency like ResultFirst to affordably scale your SEO program.

4. Implement Pay-Per-Performance SEO Into Your SEO Strategy

As you know, the startup costs of onboarding a new SEO agency can cause your ROI to plummet as you wait for results.

In some cases, the first true SEO results from a retainer SEO contract can take up to six months, effectively causing your conversion value to be much lower than your CPC.

A great alternative to traditional SEO agency models is the pay-for-performance (PFP) SEO model.

While you work with your PPC team for immediate visibility on SERPs, a PFP agency can begin working on your search visibility for free.

What Is Pay-For-Performance SEO?

Pay-For-Performance (PFP) SEO is a performance-based service model in which you are only charged when your SEO campaign is successful and your SEO goals are achieved.

Image created by ResultFirst, February 2023

So, once you reach the desired ranking for your top keywords, then, and only then, will you be charged.

PFP SEO works primarily to boost rankings, increase web traffic, and drive more revenue through:

Industry Analysis.
Competitor Analysis.
Complete Website Audit.
Keyword Research.
Complete On-Page SEO Suggestions.
Backlink Acquisitions.

Outperform Your Competition & Grow Your Digital Marketing Initiatives With ResultFirst

Pay-For-Performance SEO is here to address your economic challenges by allowing your company to achieve greater results with less marketing spend.

Ready to increase organic traffic, improve rankings, and boost conversions for your business – all while saving money and getting the most return on your investment? Start marketing with ResultFirst today!

GET YOUR GROWTH STARTED

Image Credits

Featured Image: Used with permission.

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Mar 20 2023

Google Explains Why Sites Should Combine Structured Data via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Google’s Lizzi Sassman answered a question in a Google SEO Office hours session about whether it’s okay to combine different structured data types.

The answer illuminated an important point about how Google interprets structured data and whether it’s better to combine structured data or two separate them out.

Combining multiple structured data is called nesting.

What is Nesting?

Structured data is basically about high level data types (called Types) and the attributes of those Types (called Properties).

It’s kind of like with HTML where the main HTML building blocks of a webpage are called Elements and every element has properties that modify them that are called “attributes.”

The HTML of a webpage begins by communicating that it’s an HTML webpage like this:

Similarly, a structured data script begins by saying what the main structured data for the webpage is.

A recipe structured data on a webpage that is about a recipe looks like this:

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Mar 17 2023

Audience First SEO With HubSpot – Ep. 304 via @sejournal, @lorenbaker

In today’s digital age, having a well-optimized website is essential for any business looking to succeed online. However, simply focusing on keywords and topics may not be enough to stand out and connect with your target audience truly.

Rory Hope of HubSpot joined me on the SEJ Show to discuss integrating actual audience data into SEO strategies to go beyond the basics of critical terms & topics.

Learn how to integrate audience intelligence and social listening data into keyword strategies to understand your ‘SEO persona.’ You’ll be able to plan more relevant and engaging content and digital PR (link building) campaigns to generate better results.

Many SEOs I know sometimes struggle with integration into broader marketing. I think one of SEO’s worst enemies is being in a silo where people see the SEO’s role as being purely keywords or having and not having a voice in broader content strategy in strategic discussions. I think SEOs can start to bring in social data to support the reasoning as to why content is being published, to help keyword performance by tailoring it all back to the keyword topic, then building out from there and saying we’re listening to these publications and these influences because we’ve seen that these websites rank for these keywords topics that we want to target. –Rory Hope, 27:53

Social is fascinating because we’re looking at the digital marketing pillars –email marketing, social media, marketing search, organic search page search, and the ability to use persona typically are not necessarily integrated into what I would call traditional keyword research. A lot of the tools now have things like intent, which helps, but what does the persona look like, what does the buyer look like, who is the buyer when they’re searching for something, and what terms are they utilizing that others may not identify and better filter down into Google. –Loren Baker, 7:17

In the sense of SEO, we’re missing out on getting back to the audience and understanding the persona. So I think that audience intelligence tools have a real place at the table within an SEO toolset. –Rory Hope, 26:07

[00:00] – About Rory
[04:18] – What is Hubspot’s Hustle?
[08:01] – Importance of social data in SEO.
[20:26] – Key benefits of link acquisition opportunities.
[32:28] – How social data can work from an agency point of view.
[36:15] – Tips for teams that are spread out worldwide.
[38:23] – What C3PO means.

Resources Mentioned:
The Huste: https://blog.hubspot.com/the-hustle

Let’s look so, so what you need to think about here is I like to call it audience first SEO. So you know your base layer research, your foundational study remains the same. You are conducting keyword research, clustering keywords into topics, subtopics, intent analysis, and building a keyword targeting planner. I think that’s important to know. However, you would use social data to enhance your SEO strategy by integrating data sources from audience intelligence tools. –Rory Hope, 11:04

So I’ll reevaluate what will allow you to use social insights and social listening on the influences that you are confident in your SEO personas that search for keyword topics you want to rank that they are engaging with you regularly to enhance your SEO topic model content strategy. Then, you can keep adding relevant thought leadership content there so that it doesn’t go stale. –Rory Hope, 19:57

It all goes back to the core of marketing. Understanding your audience, understanding the sociology behind everything they do, what they’re talking about, why they’re talking about it, and identifying those trends that you feel have gotten lost in SEO. We’re so keyword-heavy; everything else, like identifying those trends, isn’t necessarily part of it. –Loren Baker, 24:04

For more content like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/searchenginejournal

Connect With Rory Hope:

Rory Hope is a seasoned SEO and growth marketer who’s an expert in digital marketing strategy and leadership. Rory is the Head of Content SEO at HubSpot. He leads the Content SEO team, drives their strategy, and oversees organic growth.

He’s passionate about sharing his knowledge and helping others implement cutting-edge SEO and growth marketing strategies for their websites or businesses. So, if you want to take your digital marketing game to the next level, you won’t miss Rory’s insights and expertise!

Connect with Rory on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-hope-33a31066/
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Roryhope.

Connect with Loren Baker, Founder of Search Engine Journal:

Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker

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Mar 17 2023

The Search Party: SEJ’s Weekly News Recap For Search, Social, And AI via @sejournal, @kristileilani

It’s been a busy week for professionals in all industries, thanks to the latest developments in AI.

To help you stay updated on the latest news that may affect your work life, we have condensed the top stories you need to know – from search to social to AI – into this easy-to-digest post.

This week’s top stories include the release of GPT-4, new AI tools and features across several platforms, the rollout of a Google core algorithm update, and more!

OpenAI Releases GPT-4

One of the most prominent announcements came from OpenAI – the release of GPT-4. Rumors sparked by a recent Microsoft AI event were confirmed this week as GPT-4 became available for immediate use for ChatGPT+ subscribers at $20 per month.

GPT-4 is multimodal, allowing it to accept text and image input to generate text outputs. Greg Brockman, President and Co-Founder of OpenAI, demonstrated this new capability by using GPT-4 to transform a photo of a hand-drawn website mockup into a website in HTML and JavaScript.

OpenAI also showed how well GPT-4 has improved its LSAT, GRE, AP, and other exams designed to test humans.

Even with its improvements in reasoning and conciseness, there are still limitations to the training data ChatGPT uses. Users should, as always, verify the accuracy of responses before trusting them – and, where possible, cite sources.

Google Introduces AI For Google Workspace, Google Cloud

While partly overshadowed by OpenAI’s announcement, Google made AI news this week by revealing upcoming AI features for Google Workspace apps: Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Meet, and Chat.

Trusted testers (customers of a Google product or family & friends of Google employees) can use AI to generate content inside Gmail and Google Docs, allowing users to brainstorm, draft emails, craft job descriptions, write blog posts, proofread, and more from inside each interface.

The Search Party: SEJ’s Weekly News Recap For Search, Social, And AI

Screenshot from Google, March 2023

Google also announced new and improved generative AI capabilities for Google Cloud developers.

Vertex AI upgraded with generative AI support from various foundation models, including PaLM API, Google Research, and DeepMind.
The Generative AI App Builder allows developers to build gen apps – bots, chats, digital assistants, custom search engines, and more – in minutes or hours with limited technical knowledge.
The new PaLM API and MakerSuite allow experimentation and quick prototyping with large language models.

These features will be available to select trusted Google Cloud Innovators community testers.

Microsoft Reveals AI-Powered Copilot for Microsoft 365

Not to be outdone by Google, Microsoft revealed new AI features for Microsoft 365 users.

During Microsoft’s “Reinventing Productivity” livestream event, Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, said that AI had powered the tools we use in the workplace for years – but now, Microsoft is moving AI from autopilot to copilot, making AI as empowering as it is powerful.

Copilot integrates with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams to enhance productivity and creativity in the workplace. It can help users draft content faster, explore data with natural language queries, transform ideas into presentations, summarize emails, and more.

Screenshot from Microsoft, March 2023

In addition, Business Chat will help users connect their data and information across all of Microsoft’s productivity apps in a streamlined way through Microsoft Teams.

The goal of these new AI features from Microsoft is to help users automate tedious tasks, freeing up their time for more creative work.

Nadella also reminded people that those who build, deploy, and use AI must use it responsibly to allow AI to evolve into something that fits our social, cultural, and legal norms for our democratic society.

The Copilot System is positioned for enterprise-AI deployment. Copilot goes beyond integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT – it combines the power of LLMs like GPT-4 with Microsoft 365 and your business data in the Microsoft Graph.

Instead of being tied to limited training data, Copilot applies natural language processing to your data, making it faster to access, process, and utilize in various scenarios.

Copilot and Business Chat are available to select customers with plans to expand to more users in the coming months.

In Case You Missed It

What if AI, search, and social media walked into a bar? We don’t have time to get into everything that would ensue, but let’s explore more of this week’s stories from around the web.

AI News

Anthropic, led by former OpenAI employees, introduced Claude, an AI assistant used by DuckDuckGo, Poe, Notion, and others to create safer, less toxic AI experiences.

Research lab Midjourney released version 5 of its product with more accurate visualizations of text prompts and higher-resolution images. (Midjourney)

Apple computers with M1 and M2 chips may be able to run LLaMA models. (Github)

Search News

Microsoft offered a list of suggested prompts for Bing AI copilot, which is now available. (Microsoft Blog)

Google announced its rollout of a core algorithm update for March 2023.

Google’s John Mueller shares advice on simplifying website structure and landing a job at a major tech company.

Google Ads will solely use GA4’s conversion window settings starting April 1, 2023, to minimize discrepancies in performance reporting between the two platforms.

Google Search Central released a new tutorial on unlocking Search Console insights with Looker Studio dashboards to visualize key SEO metrics.

Using conversational AI, Google unveiled improvements to search results around healthcare and mental health.

Social Media News

TikTok announced a new STEM feed to provide safe, factual information on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics-related topics.

Meta is winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) to focus on alternative ways to support creators with the monetization of messaging and Reels. (Twitter)

Mark Zuckerberg released a memo to employees about upcoming changes to improve efficiency. (Meta)

LinkedIn introduced new generative AI features to help users craft more effective professional profiles and job descriptions that attract qualified candidates.

Featured Image: Photo Kozyr/Shutterstock

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Mar 17 2023

How To Change Your Default Search Engine In Chrome, Edge, Firefox & Safari via @sejournal, @searchmastergen

Using the search engine you like best is a preference many internet users don’t take lightly.

But it can also be tricky to configure the browser(s) you use to operate with the search engine you prefer by default each time.

So, if you want to change your default search engine to Google or any other major search engine within a specific web browser, follow the guide below. You’ll realize that changing it is a simple and fast process that greatly impacts your web-browsing experience.

Whether you use Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge, here’s how to set your preferred search engines, regardless of your device.

Change Default Search Engine In Google Chrome

Here’s how to change your default search engine in Google Chrome.

Open the Chrome browser.

Click the three solid dots in the top right corner of the browser window. This is located below where the window’s X button would be on a machine using Windows, or below the down-facing arrow that opens the Tabs menu on a Mac.

If you’re signed into Chrome, it’s located next to your Google profile’s thumbnail.

How To Change Your Default Search Engine In Chrome, Edge, Firefox & Safari

Screenshot from Google Chrome, February 2023

Select Settings.

Click the Search engine section on the left-hand side of the page to reveal the search engine menu.

Then click the down arrow where it says Search engine used in the address bar to reveal the different options available without manually adding a different search engine not already listed.

Screenshot from Google Chrome, February 2023

Select your default search engine from the list that includes Google, Ecosia, Yahoo, Bing, or DuckDuckGo.

Note: If you’ve tried to set your search engine, but it doesn’t work, you may have malware. Get help restoring your Chrome settings.

Add, Edit, Or Remove Other Search Engines

To add, edit, or remove other search engines from the list, click the Manage search engines and site search arrow below the default search engine list.

To Add A Search Engine

Scroll down below the list of default Search engines.

At Other search engines, click Add.

Screenshot from Google Chrome, February 2023

You’ll be prompted to fill out the search engine name, shortcut, and URL.

Screenshot from Google Chrome, February 2023

Filling Out Text Fields To Add A Search Engine In Chrome

The Search engine field should be the label or name of the search engine (i.e., Brave, Yandex, Swisscows, etc.).

The Shortcut field should be the text shortcut you want to use to engage the search engine via your browser bar.

This allows you to enter the keyword in the address bar for quick, easy access. (Of course, you can still just type your search query in the address bar to use the default search engine, too.)

“The URL with %s in place of query” field should include:

the web address for the search engine’s results page.
use %s where the query would go.

To find and edit the web address of the results page:

Go to the search engine you want to add.
Do a search.
Copy and paste the web address of the search results page into the URL field. The address for the search results page is different from the website address.
- For example, if you search for [football], the Google search results URL is “http://www.google.com/search?q=football”.
Replace the search term in the URL with %s.
- For example, if you were using the Google search results URL, your search engine address would be “http://www.google.com/search?q=%s”.

To Set A Default Search Engine, Edit, Or Delete

Click the Manage search engines and site search button right below the Search engine used in the address bar button.

Then, scroll down to the list of search engines and click the three-dot icon on the right of the search engine you want to set to default, edit, or delete.

It will open a little box offering the user to “Make default” or “Delete” the listed search engine we are altering.

There is also a small pencil icon next to the three dots that will allow you to edit the current input, whether that be the search engine name, shortcut, or URL.

Use the pencil icon to edit the current inputs or the three-dot icon to make a search engine the default – or delete it from the list.

Screenshot from Google Chrome, February 2023

Change Default Search Engine In Firefox

Follow these steps to change your default search engine in Firefox.

Open the Firefox browser.

Click the hamburger menu (three solid lines) in the top-right corner of the browser window.

Select Settings from the dropdown menu.

Screenshot from Firefox, February 2023

Selecting Settings will open a new tab within the same Firefox window.

On the left-side navigation, click on Search with the magnifying glass icon to access the various search-related features within Firefox.

Scroll down to the Default Search Engine section and click the drop-down menu to reveal the six different search engines that can be used as the default for the browser.

Screenshot from Firefox, February 2023

Select the search engine you want to be your default, and it updates immediately (no saving of the settings is needed).

To Add A Search Engine

To add a search engine not available in the above dropdown, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Find more search engines link (below a variety of other customized options, including search bar options, search suggestions, and search shortcuts).

Screenshot from Firefox, February 2023

Click on Find more search engines, select the add-on(s) you want to add, and click Add to Firefox.

You can search for the search engine you are looking for or browse the extensive list shown by Firefox.

Screenshot from Firefox, February 2023

You will then be asked to give permission to add the add-on to the browser.

Once it has been added, it will show up in the list of available search engines under Default Search Engine.

To Remove A Search Engine

Scroll below the Search Shortcuts section and click on the search engine you want to remove and highlight.

Then, click the “Remove” button in the bottom right corner of that section.

Screenshot from Firefox, February 2023

Note: If you remove a search engine that you added yourself and change your mind, you’ll have to add it again (the steps are above this section).

If you remove any of the search engines that come with Firefox by default, click Restore Default Search Engines to bring them back.

Change Default Search Engine In Microsoft Edge

Edge, Microsoft’s latest web browser, is a full reboot of its legacy Internet Explorer browser – which the company announced in June 2022 will no longer be fully supported.

Since Microsoft recommends users get Edge and use IE Mode if they want to return to the interface and functionality of Internet Explorer, we will explain how to change your default browser solely to Microsoft’s fully supported browser, Edge – and not to IE.

Here’s how to change your default search engine in Microsoft Edge:

Open the Microsoft Edge browser.

Go to the search engine website you want to default to (e.g., www.google.com).

Click on the three dots in the top right corner of the browser window under the X button.

Slide down and click Manage Add-ons.

Screenshot from Microsoft Edge, February 2023

Once you’ve clicked on Settings, click Privacy, Search, and Services on the left-side panel.

Then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Address bar and search.

Screenshot from Microsoft Edge, February 2023

Once the Privacy, Search, and Services menu opens, and choose the default search engine from the dropdown menu next to Search engine used in the address bar.

Screenshot from Microsoft Edge, February 2023

All search engines that have been used in the browser will show up as a possible default option.

If the search engine you want to designate as the default does not show up, search for it in the address bar, then go back and look – it should be an option to choose as default after that.

Change Default Search Engine In Safari For Desktop

Here’s how to change your default search engine in Safari for desktop computers.

Open the Safari browser and go to the Safari menu in the upper-left corner.

Select Preferences from that dropdown.

Once the Preferences window opens, click the Search button with the magnifying glass icon across the top menu.

Click on the search engine you want to make your default.

Change Default Search Engine In Safari For iPhone

Open Settings on your iPhone.

Scroll directly down to the Safari button with the logo and an advance arrow.

Within the Setting tab, go under the Search menu and click where it says Search Engine to pick from the default search engine options.

Change Default Search Engine In Android

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Chrome app.

To the right of the address bar, tap More and then Settings.

Under Basics, tap Search engine.

Select the search engine you want to use.

Recently visited search engines will be added as your default search engine options.

Conclusion

Regardless of the device, operating system, or browser you’re using, setting and using the default search engine you favor most impacts your results and the types of search queries you use.

It also has an immediate and long-lasting impact on your everyday web experience.

Because of this, knowing how to easily change your default search engine across any device, operating system, and browser is important.

Just like different browsers offer different experiences, so do search engines. And each one leans into different features and characteristics to add value to its users and separate itself from the competition.

Search engines constantly strive to provide the best results and information through the most satisfying user experience.

These are both crucial for customer satisfaction and loyalty. These factors also separate the best search engines from the not-so-good ones.

Update the browser(s) you use to work better for you using the abovementioned steps. Update your default search engine, and (hopefully) you won’t have to revisit it again anytime soon.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Golubovy/Shutterstock

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Mar 15 2023

Google Rolls Out March 2023 Core Algorithm Update via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google confirms the March 2023 core algorithm update is now rolling out. Here’s what you need to know.

Core algorithm updates can impact search rankings, making it crucial for SEOs and website owners to stay informed and adapt strategies.
Monitor site metrics, focus on quality content, and optimize technical aspects to maintain a strong presence in search results.
Prioritize the user experience and provide valuable content to prepare for future algorithm updates.

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Mar 14 2023

Google Enhances Healthcare Info Access For US Searchers via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google is taking steps to improve access to healthcare information for searchers in the United States.

Google Search already facilitates easy access to information on US benefits programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.

Additionally, Google assists searchers in finding healthcare appointments and identifying which insurance providers are accepted by different healthcare facilities.

Now, Google is expanding these efforts.

With the looming deadline of March 31 to expire the paused annual re-enrollment requirement, Google aims to make Medicaid re-enrollment information easier to find.

Supporting Uninsured & Underinsured Individuals

In addition to providing information for those with coverage, Google is catering to the needs of uninsured and underinsured individuals.

Soon, Google will display providers identifying as community health centers offering free or low-cost care.

Utilizing Conversational AI To Improve Information Quality

Google is deploying new techniques to surface the most accurate and up-to-date information about healthcare providers.

The company’s conversational AI technology, Duplex, has contacted hundreds of thousands of healthcare providers in the US to verify their information on Google Search.

Google also uses Duplex to confirm whether providers accept specific Medicaid plans within their states.

Addressing Global Mental Health Challenges

To address global challenges like mental health, Google has announced a new partnership with ThroughLine in New Zealand.

Google describes ThroughLine as the world’s largest verified network of mental health and crisis helplines.

As a result of this partnership, crisis helplines will appear more frequently at the top of search results for queries related to personal crisis topics.

In Summary

Google is expanding access to healthcare information by making Medicaid re-enrollment information more accessible, employing AI technology to verify provider information, and connecting searchers with crisis helplines.

These updates demonstrate Google’s commitment to using its platform to create a more informed and healthier world.

Source: Google

Featured Image: IB Photography/Shutterstock

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Mar 14 2023

Q&A With Google’s Martin Splitt: Semantic HTML, Search & Google Search Console via @sejournal, @lorenbaker

How does Google Search Console use product schema markup?

Does semantic HTML make it easier for search engines to understand your website?

Competition is fierce, and you need every easy win, but is semantic HTML worth your time?

On Feb 23, I moderated a webinar with Google’s very own Martin Splitt, who shared his opinions, thoughts, and insights on various technical SEO topics, including semantic HTML, Google Search Console, indexing, client- and server-side rendering, and more.

Here is a summary of the webinar. To access the entire Q&A, complete the form.

What Are The Best Practices For Error Handling With SPAs?

“My client has a single-page application; SPA HTTP status codes that are 400 or 500 are not handled correctly by the server.

What are the best practices for error handling when working with SPAs?”

Martin Splitt Says:

“There are ways to deal with that. I know exactly what you’re dealing with because what happens is that pretty much the server doesn’t do much in terms of handling requests.

It just gives out a 200 request for whatever URL you handle. Then, the client-side JavaScript decides this is an error, leading to software force and potentially gnarly situations.

Same with, more or less, 500 error codes and single-page applications. Similar story.

What you can do, however, is if you understand that it’s a 404, you have two options because two things can happen that you don’t want to happen.

One is an error page that gets indexed and appears in search results where it shouldn’t.
The other thing is that you are creating 404s in the search console and probably muddling with your data.”

[Discover how to avoid these two things] Instantly access the webinar →

How Does Google Prioritize Header Structure?

“If two H1s on a page have different content, are the H1s fighting over which one has the most weight or value for Google to crawl?

Also, how is Google prioritizing the header structure within that content?”

Martin Splitt Says:

“It’s about structure. I can’t emphasize this enough, if you choose to have H1s as your top-level structure of the content, that’s fine.

It just means that the top level of the content is structured along the H1s.

If you have one H1 and nothing else under it except for H2s and then content H2 and then content H2, that doesn’t change anything.

That means you structured your content differently. You didn’t structure it better. You didn’t structure it worse. You just structured it differently.

But both of these structures make sense. If you choose H1 to be your overall title, that doesn’t mean that it’s valued more or means more to anyone – search users, whoever.

It just means introducing a different level and then other sub-levels. It doesn’t matter.

It does not make a difference if you have an H1 and then H2, H2, H2, H2, H2, or if you have H1 content, H1 content, and H1 content.

This means there is not this overall document level H1 heading, but that one we get from the title already.

So fundamentally, it doesn’t make that much of a difference.”

[Get the rest of the conversation] Instantly access the webinar →

For SEO In 2023, Where Should You Focus?

“What should folks be focusing on right now?

[Any] points that you may feel that SEOs or developers are overlooking?”

Martin Splitt Says:

“I would say make sure that you are focusing on the content quality and that you are focusing on delivering value to your users.

Those have been, will always be, and are the most important things right now. Everything else should follow from that.

Suppose you are spending time fine-tuning technical details or fine-tuning your website’s structure or markup. In that case, you are likely missing out on the more significant opportunities of asking yourself what people need from our website.

What do they expect from our website, and how can we deliver that better, faster, and more pleasantly?”

[Get the whole Q&A] Instantly access the webinar →

Join Us For Our Next Webinar!

Discover The Top 3 Ways To Build Authority By Going Beyond Just Link Building

Join Sabrina Hipps, VP of Partner Development, and Jeremy Rivera, Director of Content Analysis at CopyPress, as they share expert tips to help supercharge your marketing efforts and answer your most pressing content promotion questions.

Reserve my Seat

Image Credits:

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

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Mar 14 2023

Bing AI-Powered Search & Edge Browser Grow Users & Engagement via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Microsoft published new insights into how AI-powered Bing and the Edge browser are experiencing phenomenal growth. They shared that they expect continue growth as more features and capabilities are rolled out.

Growth is Validation of Bing

Microsoft wrote that the steady growth in active users of Bing search is setting new records.

While acknowledging that they are still in the single digits, they are heartened that they are now experiencing 100 million daily active users, with approximately one third of the users new to Bing.

They see this as confirmation that their reinvention of the search experience is on the right track..

Search Engagement Growing

Microsoft also reported that people are using Bing more times on a daily basis, evidence of growth in engagement.

They said that two trends are driving their rapid growth:

Continued growth in the Edge browser usage
Bing relevancy improvements

Edge Browser Experiencing Steady Growth

Microsoft noted that Edge browser has experienced steady growth for the past seven quarters, a nearly two year period of sustained growth.

Bing AI-Powered Search & Edge Browser Grow Users & Engagement

Screenshot from Google Trends

The Google Trends data for the keywords “Edge Browser” and “Edge Browser Download” both indicate a slow and steady growth.

Microsoft wrote that they will soon integrate Bing Search and Create to the Edge Sidebar, noting that they expect this to drive even more growth.

Quality of Bing Relevancy at All-Time High.

The blog post also shared that the new AI-powered Bing search has dramatically improved relevance, which in turn is helping to drive growth.

Microsoft shared:

“The second factor driving trial and usage is that our core web search ranking has taken several significant jumps in relevancy due to the introduction of the Prometheus model so our Bing search quality is at an all-time high.”

How Bing + Chat is Being Used

Microsoft also shared statistics about usage of Bing + Chat

They noted that about a third of daily preview users are using the Chat feature on a daily basis, with more than 45 million chats so far.

Microsoft wrote:

“Roughly one third of daily preview users are using Chat daily.

We’re seeing on average, roughly three chats per session with more than 45 million total chats since the preview began.

And 15 percent of Chat sessions are people using Bing to generate new content demonstrating we are extending search to creativity. “

Bing Mobile App 6x Growth

The most stunning revelation is that their Bing Mobile AI Copilot app experienced 600% growth.

The Android version of the app is at 10 million downloads.

On the Apple APP store the Bing search app is the #24 rated top productivity app.

Microsoft published:

“We are also pleased to see the new Bing start to be used on mobile phones given the release of our new Bing Mobile app. On the small screen, Answers and Chat, now with voice input, are much more helpful, and have led to a 6X increase in the daily active users from pre-launch levels.”

Exciting Days for Bing and Edge

Microsoft Bing is experiencing a wave of growth driven by presenting a useful take on what the future of search can be. Their integration of new features is creating a buzz that’s confirmed by the growth both Bing and Edge are experiencing.

Read the Microsoft progress report:

The New Bing and Edge – Progress from Our First Month

Featured image by Shutterstock/Asier Romero

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Mar 14 2023

SEJ Sum-Up: Weekly News Recap for Search, Social, And AI via @sejournal, @kristileilani

Keeping track of the latest industry news is hard to do. Enter: the SEJ Sum-Up.

Every Friday, we condense the top stories you need to know – from search to social to AI and beyond – into one easy-to-digest post.

This week’s top stories include an update to Google desktop search, Bing reaching new heights, the RESTRICT Act (and how it may affect TikTok users in the U.S.), new AI tools for Slack, and WordPress plugin vulnerabilities.

Search News Recap

Google updated its desktop search UI to display favicons and site names, making it easier for users to identify websites in search results and ads.

Google Search Central published the transcript for its latest SEO Office Hours discussing WEBP images, duplicate content in different markets, moving large quantities of indexed pages, and more. (Google Search Central)

Google Trends has been updated with a new interface to make it easier to find real-time trending topics and see how other industries utilize Google Trend data. (The Keyword)

Microsoft reported that Bing search reached 100 million daily active users, with approximately one-third new it, in both the Edge browser and the Bing search engine.

DuckDuckGo launched DuckAssist, an AI-assisted feature that generates natural language answers using Wikipedia.

Brave Search announced a new AI feature summarizing webpages in 17% of their search results in rich results.

PPC News Recap

Google Ads introduced a new feature providing direct access to the GA4 audience builder and Performance Max for travel goals. The new AI-powered feature enables hotel advertisers to create multi-format ads and reach more travelers across channels.

Microsoft announced several updates to its advertising platform, including local search ads for Bing to improve visibility in Bing’s local search results and a code-free conversion setup wizard.

Social Media News Recap

Question of the Week: Will the new RESTRICT Act ban TikTok and other technologies from a select list of countries?

TikTok introduced Series, a new way for creators to monetize premium video content behind a paywall.

YouTube relaxed its rules on the profanity in monetized videos. Moderate profanity is eligible for full ad revenue, while strong profanity may receive limited ads.

Meta announced a new top-level product group focusing on generative AI features for Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.

Facebook announced upcoming changes, including making Messenger accessible inside Facebook again. (Facebook Newsroom)

LinkedIn unveiled new collaborative articles with AI-powered prompts to encourage creators to share knowledge and insights.

Reddit introduced new features, including the ability to search post comments and separate feeds for users to read or watch trending topics. (upvoted)

Discord announced new AI integrations for Clyde, its platform’s bot assistant. (Discord blog)

Spotify introduced a new interface with a TikTok-like feed and new tools for podcasters – free hosting, recording and editing tools, and monetization features. (Spotify Newsroom)

AI News Recap

Microsoft casually mentioned the upcoming introduction of multimodal GPT-4 (as predicted) at the AI in Focus Digital Kickoff.

Slack introduced a beta ChatGPT app for Slack from OpenAI that can summarize conversations, instantly find answers, and draft new messages. (Salesforce)

HubSpot announced new AI tools to assist with content creation and managing tasks. (HubSpot)

WordPress News Recap

WP Statistics, a WordPress plugin with over 600,000 active installations, patched the CSRF vulnerability.

An Elementor Contact Form Builder plugin XSS vulnerability affected up to 200,000 WordPress websites.

Wrapping It Up

It’s been a busy news week for search marketers and social media marketers. With the fast-paced nature of AI development, we expect to see many more changes coming to search and social networks in the coming weeks.

Featured Image: sebra/Shutterstock

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1. Get More Qualified Visitors: Add Mid-Volume Keywords To Your SEO Strategy

Why Should I Allocate SEO Bandwidth To Mid- & Low-Volume Keywords?

How To Increase ROI With Mid- & Low-Volume Keywords

The Easy Way

2. Audit The True ROI Of Your SEO Strategy: Reduce Unnecessary Marketing Spend

Cost Reduction Tip 1: Ensure Content Marketing, PPC & SEO Are Aligned For Higher Success

Cost Reduction Tip 2: Safely Streamline & Automate SEO Tasks

Cost Reduction Tip 3: Audit The ROI Of Outsourced SEO

3. Hire Specific Top Skills: Scale Your SEO Team Into A High-Impact Powerhouse

Look For These Traits In Your Next Enterprise SEO Hire

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4. Implement Pay-Per-Performance SEO Into Your SEO Strategy

What Is Pay-For-Performance SEO?

Outperform Your Competition & Grow Your Digital Marketing Initiatives With ResultFirst

What is Nesting?

OpenAI Releases GPT-4

Google Introduces AI For Google Workspace, Google Cloud

Microsoft Reveals AI-Powered Copilot for Microsoft 365

In Case You Missed It

AI News

Search News

Social Media News

Change Default Search Engine In Google Chrome

Add, Edit, Or Remove Other Search Engines

To Add A Search Engine

Filling Out Text Fields To Add A Search Engine In Chrome

To Set A Default Search Engine, Edit, Or Delete

Change Default Search Engine In Firefox

To Add A Search Engine

To Remove A Search Engine

Change Default Search Engine In Microsoft Edge

Change Default Search Engine In Safari For Desktop

Change Default Search Engine In Safari For iPhone

Change Default Search Engine In Android

Conclusion

Supporting Uninsured & Underinsured Individuals

Utilizing Conversational AI To Improve Information Quality

Addressing Global Mental Health Challenges

In Summary

What Are The Best Practices For Error Handling With SPAs?

Martin Splitt Says:

How Does Google Prioritize Header Structure?

Martin Splitt Says:

For SEO In 2023, Where Should You Focus?

Martin Splitt Says:

Other Technical SEO Questions Answered In The On-Demand Webinar

Join Us For Our Next Webinar!

Discover The Top 3 Ways To Build Authority By Going Beyond Just Link Building

Growth is Validation of Bing

Search Engagement Growing

Edge Browser Experiencing Steady Growth

Quality of Bing Relevancy at All-Time High.

How Bing + Chat is Being Used

Bing Mobile App 6x Growth

Exciting Days for Bing and Edge

Search News Recap

PPC News Recap

Social Media News Recap

AI News Recap

WordPress News Recap

Wrapping It Up