David Lewis

If your WordPress site is hosted on WP Engine and/or uses the Advanced Custom Fields plugin, you'll want to watch this. I'm monitoring this issue since we have several clients that use both and will post updates here. #opensource #drama

5

Have you heard about the Google leak that is shaking up the world of #SEO? A recently leaked Google search document has exposed surprising contradictions between Google's public statements and its actual ranking practices. Here are the key insights: ⚡ Contradictory Ranking Factors: - User Experience Metrics: While Google publicly emphasizes the importance of Core Web Vitals and overall user experience, the document suggests these factors might not be as heavily weighted as claimed. - Backlink Quality: Despite Google stating that backlinks are a lesser ranking factor, the leak indicates that high-quality backlinks are still a critically important ranking factor. - Content Freshness vs. Authority: Google often promotes the value of fresh content. However, the document reveals that older, authoritative content can maintain high rankings over newer, high-quality articles, contrary to public guidelines. 💡 Hidden Metrics: - Engagement Rate: The leak mentions an internal metric related to user engagement that isn't publicly acknowledged. - Internal Linking: Google’s public guidelines lightly touch on internal linking, but the document highlights its significant impact. Sites with strategic internal link structures are rewarded more than publicly disclosed. 🏆 E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): - Hidden Weight: The leaked document suggests that the weight given to E-A-T varies more than publicly acknowledged, with some niches and content types receiving disproportionate emphasis. 📈 Recommended Best Practices: - Optimize for User Experience: Aim to improve overall user experience. Ensure your site is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate. - Build High-Quality Backlinks: Focus on acquiring high-quality, authoritative backlinks. While quantity can sometimes help, quality remains key to long-term success. - Balance Freshness and Authority: Update older content regularly to maintain its relevance and authority. Strive to balance fresh content with maintaining the credibility of existing authoritative pages. https://lnkd.in/eK_U_zKY

10

1 Comment

Have you checked out Microsoft Clarity yet? It's a gem that’s flying under the radar for tracking user interactions on your website. I don't see many marketers talking about this tool but, IMO, it’s something you should consider adding to your toolkit. Let's see how you can leverage this tool to supercharge your marketing efforts.

2

To answer a question I am getting often recently: Yes, our SEO community has a LOT to pay attention to right now. There’s always a lot to keep up with in marketing. The way it’s accelerated even in the last few years can be staggering to look back on. But in Search Marketing specifically, we’re always kept on our toes with Sir Google’s latest updates — and the past few weeks been an absolute doozy. Between AI Overviews officially rolling out to all US searchers and the Google API leak that’s turned us all into GitHub sleuths hunched over too-bright multi-screen desk setups still gulping the dregs of the morning’s pot of coffee (which someone nearby must keep supplying, since we clearly havent moved), there’s a lot developing, a LOT of great insights coming from top and trusted SEOs, and frankly a lot of fearmongering. That’s to be expected. It’s a deluge. I’m confident that this API leak will be the story of the year for our industry, and that insights from myriad sources interpretating the thousands of documents will continue to come through and challenge previous statements made by Google, each one encouraging the rest of us to reconsider X or Y. It’s honestly an exciting time in search, and our immediate job right now is three-fold: to pay attention to our trusted networks and resources, to do our own research, and to keep our marketers informed with a strategy built on testing rather than fear. Global SEOs like us are still reeling from the impact of Consent Mode activated on March 4 by the DMA. AI and data privacy acceleration the last several years have caused SEO leadership to spend most of our time understanding what’s happening and what must be done with full legal insight and minimal harm—while helping our teams continue to get the results that matter for the people that matter, which is to say, at the end of all of this, users. We will keep our attention on users and intent, and continue to play the game we must play to make sure human people find what they need so they can make the decisions they have to. Just… with new moves that were never on the board before. For anyone feeling behind and interested in a forthright overview of what to take away from the API leak, this is from Michael King, a human we trust. For now I’ll leave you with something I told my team after AI Overviews came on the scene (the potential 8th? 9th? “death of SEO” in my tenure): When I was young, I asked my father why he chose to be a mechanic. He’s not a man of much advice or wisdom (a simple truth of his character), and that’s part of why his response has stuck with me close to three decades later. He said, “No matter what cars look like down the line, people will always have vehicles. Those vehicles will always need to be fixed.” A mechanic’s tools, knowledge, certifications, expertise will change as technology has changed, but mechanics will always be needed. People will always need to find information, so there will always be SEO.

23

2 Comments

Sapnap-signed Cheez-Its are now on Walmart shelves I've said it 100 times before and I will say it 1,000 times more... creator product collabs are everything. This is an interesting partnership because it's not a new product, just a special limited edition packaging release. HERE'S WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS ➡ It's not subtle. There's a massive picture of Sapnap on the packaging, you can't miss it. ➡ Every single box is hand-signed. You don't see that very often and it's such a nice touch. He even posted showing him signing the boxes. ➡ It's a limited release, which creates scarcity. Could they have made this a much larger ring then they did... absolutely. But the limited amount made it even more desirable ➡ It's available on Walmart.com. Don't get me wrong I'm a fan of having these things be direct to consumer for first party data capture but connecting to one of the largest online retailers is a smart move and I'm sure Walmart loved that. ➡ It accompanied a host of social content. Why stop just at the product collab Sapnap has been posting Cheez-It-sponsored content across his socials, including a YouTube video where his partner in snack gave him a series of challenges to speedrun in Minecraft I know pulling off product collabs is not easy. It requires connecting marketing initiatives to packaging and distribution changes, and at large companies that's not a small task. But it's possible and becoming increasingly important. If you are not having these conversations internally you need to start. The plus is that you don't have to start big, and in some cases the smaller the limited release the more demanded and PR covered it becomes. Scarcity isn't a bad thing here. #influencermarketing #socialmedia #creatoreconomy https://lnkd.in/gehqPFKm

8

1 Comment

BigCommerce experts of my network. What are your thoughts on this? 🤔 At 6 am, several times a week, around 600 "visits" appear in the analytics. They do not show up on GA. My suspicion is this is a bot scraping for data. Have you seen this before? Are there any bot protection tools for BC?

So you don't even have any GA historical data to look at now, huh? I can get you moving with GA4 and new and improved analytics. Holler atcherboi, and let's talk about what you need.

1

Got an interesting question from a $100M+ online retailer. How can we improve site speed before holiday (without impacting our tracking)? These guys have: - Dozens of marketing pixels and tracking scripts - GA/GTM stack - Some server-side tracking (not all) Here's the quick approach they (and you) can take: Pixel Audit and Cleanup - Strip out unused libraries and pixels - Disable any redundant or outdated events - Hunt down and fix broken pixels You'll also find that analytics and other 3rd party pixels (often) aren't the primary site speed blockers. Instead, some upstream resource. So run your site through Google Lighthouse to identify blockers, and improve your "first contenful paint". Tag Managers Migrate all 3rd party scripts to a tag manager (GTM, Tealium, Adobe Launch, etc.) Benefits: - Better data governance - standardization - script modification - caching - sequencing control Server-Side Tagging Move clientside tracking to server-side capabilities for platforms like Meta, Google, TikTok SS Tagging can reduce browser load (crucial for mobile), but more importantly improves data quality to ad platforms. More data = more signal = smarter algo = increased ROAS, lower CAC. Smart Tag Sequencing - Defer non-critical pixels to load later - Use tag manager features for async loading The TLDR - Ditch unused pixels/libraries - Run your site through Lighthouse, fix blockers - Use a tag manager - Fix any broken tracking - Optimize load sequence - Set up server-side where possible This approach should significantly boost mobile performance without sacrificing your marketing data. Remember, with the holiday rush and heavy mobile traffic, every millisecond counts. What other tracking or site speed tactics would you add to prep for the Black Friday pop? Drop your thoughts below. #ecommerce #siteoptimization #blackfridayprep

54

15 Comments

🚨 Google Leak Alert 🚨 Newly leaked documents from Google are causing a stir in the SEO community. 🔍 Curious about the details? Read more from Intero Digital: https://lnkd.in/gggZ5FVN #SEO #GoogleLeak #DigitalMarketing #SEOTrends

7

SEO and Analytics When you have thousands of products, it is imperative that you parse out all the different groupings so you can see what is driving success and failure. And if you don't, you can forget about understanding any seasonality in your line.

1

Solving your "one-time buyer problem" is fundamental to success in eCommerce. You know, the 60%+ of your new customers that you paid heavily to acquire, but never come back. Getting the second purchase is critical to profitability. You don't want to leave it to chance...you want to engineer it. Often driving that second purchase comes down to offering the right product. Case (study) in point: we teamed up with Tresl Segments (AKA Segments Analytics) to help bag maker Lo & Sons predictably drive second purchases with direct mail. ➝ Segments Analytics ID'd likely second purchases based on specific first products purchased ➝ We sent those likely second purchase products in postcards. Did Segments Analytics accurately predict those purchases? And direct mail generate them? Yes & yes. Segments Analytics' data predicted second purchases over half the time on two customer segments. ➝ Specifically, they predicted the second purchase 56% of the time on one product, and 64% on another. And the postcards drove ROAS of 7x and 10x, respectively. Direct mail works. And it works well with others. Read more about the segmentation and tactics in the full case study.

22

1 Comment

Quality Data In = Quality Data Out 👏 I've seen it time and time again: businesses get lazy with data input and system maintenance, and suddenly, HubSpot turns into a junk drawer overflowing with outdated information and clutter. 🫣 A junk drawer might be fine for old batteries and random knick-knacks, but it’s a graveyard for your business opportunities. Over the years, I’ve helped countless clients clean up their HubSpot instances. Don’t invest in a tool designed to HELP you sell more, only to let your leads languish in disarray.

3

Question for the SEO pros: If Google will do the Googling for us with generated AI answers, does this mean content marketing is effectively a dead strategy? How do you see it panning out for those of us in ecom?

5

15 Comments

New video alert! Steal my secret - and free - method for auto inserting affiliate disclosures at the top of every blog post. Nope, it's not reusable blocks! It's 100% automated. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gpTWq83y

2

I’ve been doing SEO migrations for 10+ years. Steal my redirect audit and recovery process in 5 minutes. 1. Find old URLs using GA4 • Grab these URLs from GA4 using the pre-migration date range, going as far back as you can: • GA4 > Engagement > Pages and Screens: Page Path and Screen Class • Sort by views to sort by the highest-value pages • Click share > Download File from the top RHS and export 2. Find current URLs in Screaming Frog • Fire up Screaming Frog Menu > Configuration > Crawl Config > Uncheck All Resource Link Checkboxes (this will get us a clean page URL-only list) • Crawl the current domain • Hit export (ensure the ‘internal’ tab is selected) • Find all 301 redirected URLs in this list and replace the redirected URL with the destination URL to avoid redirect chains down the track • While you’re here, make a note of any 404 URLs 3. Identify domain or page path level redirect chains If URL redirects are already an issue, your domain likely has redirect chain issues. Here’s how to find and map redirect chains: • Use a web-based redirect checker; my favourite is 🔗Redirect Detective🔗 Check each version of your domain. These are: • https:// • https://www. • http:// • http://www. • with + without trailing / 4. Map redirects (domain & prefix) • When the number of domains and redirect chains gets complicated, map them visually. • Use an app like FigJam or FreeForm to show audit results/recommendations. This format allows anyone to get the info they need on one page. Fast. 5. Map file path redirects • Open up your list of urls from step 1 and copy them into a new spreadsheet > Name the sheet ‘old.’ • Open up your list of new urls and copy them into a new sheet within the same spreadsheet > Name the sheet ‘new.’ • export your sheet as an Excel file • Bing ‘FuzzyMatch for Automated Redirect Mapping’ and follow the steps to upload your spreadsheet to the tool published by @Sally Mills • Review the output and flag/match any low-relevance matches that need to be manually matched 6. Implement, test and monitor • Here’s where you put your redirects to the test: • Implement however works best for your platform, hosting situation and management requirements • Test all redirects using SF by crawling the list of redirected URLs in • list mode and ensuring they all resolve with a 200 OK response • Monitor changes to 404s and clicks with Google search console • Monitor changes to search rankings for fixed pages • Monitor changes to organic search traffic numbers 7. For limited access / CMS-restricted scenarios: Redirect Pizza 🍕 is my go-to in this case. You get: • Domain-level redirect management • Folder path redirect management • query string forwarding • SSL certificates for all domain versions • Global CDN __ Like this thread? LMK what you think in the comments. Also, follow me for more content like this. If enough people like this, I’ll share my Figma mapping layout. #technicalseo #SEO

1,085

126 Comments

While GA4 often times gets a bad reputation, one feature that is very powerful but often underutilized is the search bar 🔎 Unless you are comfortable and quick at generating custom reports in GA4, the search bar can give you quick results for common questions you or your team might have. For example, if we just optimized our website for mobile CTA's, I might be curious to see how event counts might have been impacted by this. Rather than generating a complete report, simply searching for "top events by device" gives me a handful of potential quick reports I can now access. Providing me with the data I am looking for, without fully committing to a report.

1

Not just mobile responsive but make sure your website is conversion focused. Here are a few factors to consider based on mobile users recent engagement statistics: 1. Make CTA buttons easily clickable (with thumbs) 2. Optimize your website’s mobile speed 3. Optimize images & videos 4. Use Responsive Design 5. Simplify Navigation 6. Break your forms into multiple steps & ensure they are mobile friendly 7. Use Mobile-Friendly Fonts 8. Minimize the Use of Pop-Ups 9. Implement Mobile-Specific CTAs 10. Optimize for Voice Search & focus on mobile SEO 11. Personalize Your Content to Your Mobile Users 12. Use Clear and Compelling Headlines 13. Ask for feedback from mobile users Hope this helps!

1