With terms like ChatGPT being increasingly bandied around and most households now equipped with a virtual assistant, artificial intelligence is becoming more and more prevalent. Just this week, Meta announced the launch of their own AI assistant, to be used on Instagram and WhatsApp, and TikTok introduced a feature for labelling AI-generated videos.

No longer confined to Chatbot customer service assistants and driver assist vehicle systems, AI in 2023 is more capable and ubiquitous than ever before. The UK AI market is worth more than £16.9 billion, according to the US International Trade Administration, and 33% of medium-sized companies have now incorporated one AI technology. 

In SEO and the wider marketing industry, AI is similarly gaining traction. It is transforming both how search engines are powered, and how SEO professionals are optimising their content. Google first turned to artificial intelligence in 2016 with its search engine algorithm RankBrain, and since then, AI has been increasingly incorporated into search experience and SEO strategy.

There is growing discussion about the positive and negative implications of AI for SEO; this blog is going to take a deep-dive into the different forms of AI, and how they affect SEO. The experts at Cedarwood Digital will be offering their predictions for the future of artificial intelligence in digital marketing, and it will finish by explaining why SEO professionals must work to adapt and evolve in line with the trajectory of AI.

Content-writing AI

The use of AI to develop and create content is becoming more and more widespread. In late 2022, Chat GPT was released and has now been followed by countless writing AIs including ChatSonic, Jasper and Claude. The revolutionary impact of these conversational AIs is to the extent that Google Search’s guidance on AI-generated content has changed in recent months to allow for AI content creation, provided it meets the same quality guidelines established for human writers.

It is therefore definitely possible to leverage AI to help you create great content. Google wants humans to write content, but there is no reason why AI cannot help improve your business’s content quality. It seems to make sense as, after all, Google’s ranking system is designed to reward high-quality content, and AI can be implemented to deepen your understanding of a topic. 

However, there are also some concerns surrounding AI’s impact on SEO content writing. It’s important to bear these in mind when turning to a virtual assistant for help on a writing task…

>It is important to bear in mind that all the output of these assistants is based only on the data it has been fed, so, to create truly original and unique content you’re going to want to combine its generated information with your human creativity.

>Another concern is that it could decrease the quality of marketers’ content as they attempt to create content solely optimised for search engines. Note that Google wants content to be helpful and written by humans, for humans. SEO content still needs to provide real value for a reader to rank well.

AI and Search Results

On the topic of SERPs, this is one of the areas where we have seen the most significant impacts of AI. The way search engines understand and rank search results is changing, and AI plays a hefty part in this. Google is now using AI algorithms to analyse a user’s search history, location and behaviour to provide impressively personalised results.

But what does this mean for us SEOs? Well, we need to focus on optimising our content for these Natural Language Processing algorithms. Because Google’s AI can now understand the nuances of human search queries, our SEO strategies likewise need to produce content for the user. Include conversational long and short-tail keywords, and write articles that match user intent. 

Also, the big search engines are going beyond merely using AI to better their results and are now launching their own AI-powered search engines. Earlier this year, Microsoft Bing chat and Google BARD were introduced as answers to the influence of ChatGPT. These developments give us an idea of what we can expect more of in the future, but they are not without their concerns. Queries are being raised as to the privacy of these platforms, and potential of information leaks. Additionally, these large language models run the risk of generating misleading information under an authentic guise – because everyone trusts Google, right?

AI and SEO Analysis

As well as optimising for artificial intelligence, we can also use AI assistants to improve our content. SEO professionals can now utilise data-led AI insights to understand how users interact with search engines and websites. There are artificial intelligence softwares tailored to give you the know-how on everything from link building and keyword creation, to measuring your own traffic and engagement conversions. AI can help you optimise for voice-search, or the latest helpful content update, by scanning existing content and suggesting SEO-related changes.

Here at Cedarwood, we make use of AI softwares such as Ahrefs and Semrush to deliver the most effective SEO strategies for our clients. However, as much as these softwares are very helpful, we would always advise using them with a degree of caution – make sure humans are at the beginning and end of this content – Google can tell!

One drawback is that as these AI-powered tools become more commonly used in the marketing world, the competition for rankings increases. As more and more SEOs discover the softwares to make their content extra-relevant, we all need to work that bit harder to rank.

SEOs must stay updated on AI

Whether you love or hate it, AI is here to stay, So it is really important for SEO professionals to stay up-to-date and somewhat prepare for future possibilities. We can’t be sure what the future looks like for SEO, but it is looking increasingly likely that artificial intelligence will play a massive role.

This means that companies need to look at how they can exploit the growth of AI for their own benefit. We’d advise:

📌Creating content that is optimised for AI-driven search results, see our very own comprehensive guide here

📌Provide clear, factual answers in your content that answer users’ queries (FAQs and how-to guides like this one are great!)

📌It is ever-important to show that real people are behind your content – AI can never completely simulate a human writer, so make sure to get emotions and personal experiences in to your writing

📌Keep an eye on your competitors and observe how they’re using and responding to AI developments to give you that competitive edge

What does the future for AI and SEO look like? 

If the Cedarwood team were to have a go at predicting how AI could change in the following year, we would guess that:

~Natural Language Processing will only continue to get more advanced with search engines getting even better at understanding the meaning behind search queries, and especially voice search queries.

~We may see an explosion in the amount of AI content and automated creation of articles, videos etc. We imagine that this new content will consequently result in even more crawlers and advanced algorithms to dig out the meaningful content. After all, Google is famed for its ability to constantly evolve.

~Search engines will know us better than our closest friend. We predict more personalised search results than ever before, based on search history and behaviours across other platforms.

To sum up

Artificial intelligence is loud and it’s proud in 2023 and whether you like it or not, this is having a notable impact on SEO. As SEO professionals, we need to stay updated and adapt our strategies accordingly to stay ahead of the competition.

Looking for a helping hand with AI for SEO? Our SEO team here at Cedarwood are a whizz at all things artificial intelligence – get in touch with us today to discuss a tailored strategy for your business.

Looking to increase traffic to your financial services company website? You’re in the right place. As a heavily regulated and hypercompetitive industry, putting time and effort into your SEO is key to standing out.

We’re going to take you through the ins and outs of why SEO is unique for this vertical and offer an effective strategy for ranking well in organic search.

What is SEO for financial services?

So, in this blog we’re dealing with the financial services sector. Financial services are best described as a process of acquiring financial goods. The sector covers many types of transactions in areas including banking, accounting, investment funding, pensions – the list goes on.

When it comes to SEO for this industry, we’re talking about developing digital marketing strategies to help drive natural traffic to your website, through tapping into organic searches. The aim is to increase your revenue through making your pages more visible. 

To achieve those top spots on the SERPs you’ll need to offer useful content, ensure your site is healthy and secure, and earn valuable backlinks from high-authority sites.

Financial services businesses are increasingly committing resources to SEO, but why is that….?

The importance of SEO for financial services

The financial services industry is increasingly competitive and constantly changing. The battle between established institutions and new fintech faces pushes on, with the field becoming increasingly saturated. The international market size grew at a rate of 8.8% between 2022 and 2023, with the industry now producing 12% of the entire UK’s economic output. That’s pretty hefty.

The industry is also particularly competitive when we consider digital marketing. Unlike other verticals, the financial industry will rarely see free natural links to content, so links are very difficult to acquire. Also, because SEO has proven itself a reliable strategy, lots of the industry giants are now turning to website optimisation. This means that everyone else needs to work an extra bit harder to rank highly.

We need to care about SEO in the financial services because it can see some key benefits. Putting consistent effort into optimising your website will:

📌increase traffic to your site: as you rank higher for important keywords, more and more people will see and click through

📌get you better conversions: the more site visitors, the more paying customers

📌improve your brand image: essentially, more people will have heard of your business and you’ll be on track to being considered a major player

What makes SEO for financial services unique?

It’s important to know that the financial services industry is one of the most heavily regulated sectors. You need to be super cautious about the content you’re publishing because these pages are scrutinised more than the average.

This is because  financial services exist within the ‘Your Money Your Life’ category’.These are pages that can influence an individual’s quality of life – their health, wealth or safety primarily, and these companies have more responsibility when it comes to content. This includes legal and medical information pages, insurance companies, and financial pages.

But why? It comes down to something called E-E-A-T. Google introduced its Search Quality Rating Guidelines for YMYL pages in 2013 and emphasised E-A-T, adding an extra E last year.

The acronyms stands for:

–Experience

–Expertise

–Authority

–Trustworthiness

Whilst these elements are not direct ranking factors in Google’s algorithm , they are still a huge part of the guidelines, and can prevent financial services pages from ranking well. Google defines a high-quality page as demonstrating these four traits and in the SEO strategy later in this blog I’ll take you through how to hit each point.

Not only is Google more thorough when it comes to the financial services vertical, but so are your customers. When researching which service to use, users are more rigorous because their money is at stake. This means that coming across as trustworthy can really help give your business the edge.

The topic of financial services content is also unique because it is unusually complex. Your content needs to really address the customer needs. Things like investing savings, or remortgaging can be complicated and stress-inducing for customers, so your job is to make a tricky topic intelligible. SEO for financial services businesses should involve a knack for explaining difficult concepts in simple terms that a customer can understand, and then want to invest in. Use your site content to demonstrate a deep understanding of the subject matter, and a capacity to make this info user-friendly.

A strategy for SEO in the financial services industry

Okay, we’ve established that SEO is both crucial for this sector and also pretty complex. I’m going to help you out with a nice point-by-point strategy to get you hitting those top ranks.

1. Perform a content and structure audit of your site

First, evaluate each area of your site, checking which existing pages need work and where there’s space for new pages. Is your content meeting the YMYL guidelines? And if it is, is it still simple, clear and actually helpful whilst meeting these guidelines?

Then, make sure your website structure is optimised so that these pages can be easily navigated. Ensure that you’ve got a sitemap listing all your key pages, and good internal links to direct users between related pages on your site. This is your chance to fix any slow-loading pages. (Tip: make sure your site also loads quickly on a mobile device, as traffic from mobile devices now dominates search).

2. You can now move onto optimising and making changes to your site: keyword research comes first

I recommend using a third-party keyword tool like Ahrefs to discover the high-volume and long-tail keywords most relevant to your audience. Identify the keywords that users are actively searching for and that are actually related to the core aspects of your business. Then, map out a content plan in which you are naturally incorporating these words.

You can supplement this with tools like AlsoAsked which identifies question-based searches. This will allow you to incorporate your customers’ specific queries into your content.

3. Analyse your competitors

It is equally important to scrutinise your competitors’ websites in financial services SEO. Are there any keywords that they aren’t addressing? This could be a good opportunity to cash in and rank high. 

Understanding your competition is critical because, through in-depth research, you may discover that it’s not just your direct industry competitors who you need to be worried about. It could be there’s a new niche company on the market selling something similar to one of your services. You can then optimise your page to be the lucky one Google chooses to rank higher.

4. Create high-quality, instructional content 

Source: Luca Mussari

I recommend instructional styles for your financial services content. This way, you can make sure you’re hitting the users’ queries, and providing a clear explanation of those tricky topics.

Guide-style content, like the piece you’re reading now, works to position you as an authority. For example, a ‘a step-by-step guide to online banking’ or ‘how to apply for a loan’. Or, you could even go for an FAQ format which directly answers the queries in search engines, e.g: ‘answering all your questions on conveyancing’.

There’s your authoritativeness demonstrated, but what about making your content fit the rest of the E-E-A-T guidelines? You can show your expertise quite simply, with author bios accompanying your content. It should also be shown through the content itself – do your research, so your knowledge is of a good depth.

The newest element of the YMYL guidelines, experience, requires you to prove that your insights are authentic. Incorporate personal opinions and photos into your content and ensure that you have a good-quality About Us page.

Lastly, financial services sites need their content to demonstrate trustworthiness. You can get this across through having reviews from real-life clients, as well as a clear contact page. Have your customer service info displayed clearly, with accurate phone numbers.

5. Link building and PR

Your authority in your niche of the financial services field can be further enhanced through gaining backlinks. They have always been important for ranking on Google, but the algorithms are now better than ever at identifying paid links versus earned links. 

Writing high-quality content will mean it is sharable and secures backlinks naturally. Focusing on educational and user-centric content like guides and blog posts can help you attract links from other authoritative sources. There’s also the added benefit of then having content to promote on your social media channels, as we do on our LinkedIn:

6. Don’t neglect local SEO

Leave room in your strategy for time spent on local SEO. This is especially important for the financial services sector because many financial services still have physical branches.

Google Consumer Insights show that mobile queries for “bank near me” have grown by over 60% in the past two years. It can be helpful to create a Google My Business listing for each store so that you show up in the search results for customers doing local searches.

A robust local SEO strategy can provide you with a leg-up in the competitive landscape, because it is often easier to rank for local search terms.

How exactly can you optimize for local SEO? It’s important to have individual pages on your website for each location that targets those local keywords. Encourage customers to leave reviews, as this can massively improve your local search ranking and this also shows Google that you’re a business to be trusted.

7. Perform regular visibility checks / keep up frequent analysis

The fundamental thing about SEO is that it is an ongoing process. Trends, algorithms and consumer search behaviours are constantly changing so keep your eye on the key metrics and KPIs.

For example:

-where you’re ranking, per page

-impressions

-organic traffic

-engagement metrics: bounce rate and time per page etc.

-conversions from traffic

-overall SEO score using software like Semrush and Seobility

It’s crucial to keep monitoring your website, and make necessary adjustments. To appear an expert, you’ll need to update your content regularly. The financial services terrain is ever-changing and you need to stay relevant – consistency is key!

In summary

LSA found that 90% of loan and mortgage customers and 85% of check cashing consumers start their journey with an online search. More than ever, we are using local search to find and evaluate financial services providers. Use this guide to kick-start your SEO strategy so that you can tap into this search potential and thrive in this new digital landscape.

It should now be clear to you that SEO for financial services is quite a complex and challenging task, requiring persistence and a strong strategy. If you need a little help, consider enlisting some professionals to get you started. Get in touch with our SEO team at Cedarwood today who can help you create tailored SEO strategies for your financial services site.

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that markets like cryptocurrency, sexual wellbeing and vaping are growing in popularity.

With this increase in search, they are also facing more and more advertising restrictions. They are examples of what we call “restricted verticals”, and marketers for these businesses must now create new strategies to reach their target audience.

This blog will explain how restricted verticals can rank highly and increase website traffic, even without PPC, while also covering how SEO is highly effective on these particular SERPs, where the first listing is organic, not an ad.

I’ll finish by suggesting a few top tips for building an SEO strategy if your page falls within the restricted categories.

So, in which verticals can I not use Google Ads?

In their Ads guidelines , Google outlines areas where advertising is either prohibited or restricted. 

Entirely prohibited verticals include:

📌Dangerous products (this ranges from recreational drugs, to fireworks, to vapes)

📌Counterfeit goods (think that fake gucci purse your Auntie got you from Turkey)

📌Services enabling dishonest behaviour (those sites writing whole essays for you, that you definitely considered once or twice at Uni)

Then, ‘restricted content’ is sometimes allowed. So with these verticals, you might get away with advertising, but only on a limited basis. The ads may not show in every location, or the advertisers could need to meet additional requirements before their ads are eligible to run.

The primary restricted sectors are:

📌Alcohol 

📌Sexual content (ads are pretty much a no-go, even on Google Ads alternatives like Meta and TikTok)

📌Gambling (and this includes, casinos, lotteries, and betting sites)

📌Political Content

📌Healthcare and medicine (in the UK, ads cannot be run for prescription drugs, bulk drug manufacturers, and medical professional suppliers but can be run for over-the-counter medicines)

Other examples of things that cannot be advertised at all in the UK are:

📌Addiction Services

📌Legal Cannabis

How does Google know?

You may be wondering, how does Google identify if my ad complies? Well, in their guidelines they state that “we use a combination of Google AI and human evaluation to ensure that ads comply with these policies”. For most cases, they use technology modelled on human reviewers’ decisions. But, more complex or severe cases are “evaluated by our specially-trained experts”.

Essentially then, it’s pretty difficult to dodge these guidelines. Best to have a thorough evaluation of whether any of your ad content falls within a restriction.

Competition across these sectors 

As well as facing the challenge of Google’s guidelines, these restricted verticals must also tackle the problem of competition. 

Here are some stats showing you just how competitive these industries are:

>The casino industry is cut-throat, with legality constantly changing, and backlinks hard to acquire. Language Bear states that: the term “online casino” returns over 1 billion results on Google. If we look at one of the sector’s biggest review sites, there are close to 1,500 casinos listed.

>It won’t surprise you to hear that the vaping industry is rapidly growing, with a new trend of private-label brands beginning to dominate. This diagram shows how much this vertical is estimated to grow in the next five years:

Source: Technavio 

>Likewise, the sexual health and wellness market is projected to reach an estimated value of $2,100 million by 2030, according to mediainfoline. 

Source: NoGood

Why no ads may work in your favour… 

It’s not all bad news, I promise. When it comes to these restricted sectors, the first listing for a search result is the natural listing. So if your website is ranking well, you won’t have to sit below that pesky handful of ads at the top.

Having a look at the data, we can see how not having ads on search results can get users more clicks to their websites:

Source: Econsultancy

Econsultancy found that the CTR of the first-ranking page on Google SERPs is 17.9% when ads are displayed, but 25.7% in the absence of ads. That’s a whopping 30% increase.

Their research also shows that the number one slot secures the best part of clicks, with little to be gained for everyone ranking below:

Source: Econsultancy

What does this mean for businesses in restricted verticals?

What this means is that SEO is now even more valuable for websites where you can’t advertise. Without ads on your SERPs, you have a far greater opportunity to land that top position. It is now worth investing your time into a robust SEO strategy, or SEO professionals, to make sure you tap into this potential. Position one and that target demographic is up for grabs, and optimal SEO will make sure you grab it.

It is especially worth investing in SEO because traditionally, these verticals would have spent far more on advertising anyway. Traffic from organic search is free (although it will take some time, energy and investment), whilst each impression or click through advertising has a direct charge. And, PPC can get pretty expensive if your ads aren’t achieving a positive ROI quickly.

Even using an SEO agency is far more cost-effective than advertising. While investing in SEO professionals for your business will cost some money, it is a long-term investment.

How can users optimise their website for SEO?

To get you off the ground, here are a few aspects to consider initially.

1. Targeted Keyword Discovery: keywords will form the backbone of your SEO strategy. Do your research into what your demographic are searching for, then fit a mixture of short and long-tail keywords naturally into your content.

2. Website structure: a smooth-running site will rank far higher in the search results, and is more likely to hit that number 1 spot.

3. E-E-A-T: some of the restricted verticals (e.g. pharmaceutical websites) fall under the Your Money, Your Life category which need to hit specific requirements. Work on demonstrating experience, expertise, trustworthiness and authority in your content.

4. Backlinks: something that really helps you meet the E-E-A-T requirements is collecting credible backlinks which show Google you can be viewed as a trustworthy authority. 

Differences between SEO & PPC

I’ve covered the cost, but in what other ways do SEO and PPC differ? 

SEO is the practice of improving your website’s visibility through a myriad of aspects including content, site structure, loading speed and use of keywords. It’s less of a quick-fix, and more a process of optimisation which takes time but gives your page the best chance of being crawled.

PPC on the other hand, is pay-per-click advertising. On Google Ads (the most popular advertising system) this involves businesses bidding on keywords to show ads in Google SERPs. You then pay each time that someone clicks on your ad. PPC comes in many forms, not only as the top listing on Google’s results page. Check out this diagram showing different ad examples:

Source: WordStream

Do you need both?

In a nutshell, yes; they do different things, but both can help your business in different ways. They go hand-in-hand, and investing time into both SEO and PPC is the best way to achieve a well-rounded marketing strategy. PPC lets you customise your ads at any time to reach specific people, or promote a new deal. This is then effectively supplemented by SEO which helps the site show up more frequently in relevant search results.

What does the future look like for ad-restriction?

The current list of restricted verticals is not steadfast. Google states that “if we feel that certain kinds of businesses pose an unreasonable risk to user safety or user experience, then we may limit or stop related ads from running.”

Additionally, they posted just last month that an update to Google Ads policies is coming our way in November 2023. They explained that “Google will update its policies to limit impressions in certain ad-serving scenarios that have a higher potential of causing abuse or a poor experience for our users.” 

It is therefore a good idea to keep track of the fluctuating guidelines for ads, as more vertical restrictions may be on the horizon.

In summary

If your business comes across a dreaded ad restriction, this article should now put you in good stead. Don’t fret, just target that SEO optimisation, because high CTR and busy website traffic is now at your fingertips.

Are you confident that your Insurance page is optimised for Google’s rankings? If not, it’s time to learn how to improve and stand out in the hugely competitive market that is the insurance industry. According to Blue Corona, over 50% of insurance searches are performed on mobile devices. Effective SEO can help you tap into the internet’s potential.

Your page needs to cater to Google’s many guidelines and algorithm updates to stand out. No stress, this guide will help you tackle all the requirements .

This blog will firstly take you through why SEO is unique and important for insurance companies, sitting within the Your Money, Your Life industry. It will then discuss a point-by-point strategy for how to do insurance SEO, with a focus on E-E-A-T.

Why is SEO so important for Insurance Companies?

As we all know, the insurance industry is a large and competitive market, dominated by industry giants. According to ABI, the UK insurance market is the largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world. This market is predominantly online, so that’s where your potential customers are too. 

SEO, then, is the key to ramping up your website traffic and finding those golden new customers. Good SEO can increase your visibility, get you higher ranks and generate trust in your audience. How exactly can you get your website to the top of the search results, competing with formidable competitors of the likes of GoCompare? Keep reading for the specific SEO strategies that will unlock those top spots.

Why SEO is also unique for insurance (E-E-A-T)

Insurance companies come under the YMYL (Your Money Your Life) category, so Google holds insurance websites to a higher standard. They need to focus on E-E-A-T more than your average, wholesome candle-making blog.

Source: Semrush 

A ‘Your Money or Your Life’ page is a term used by Google for pages that they think could impact “the future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety of users”. Examples include medical advice, information on mortgages, news about ongoing violence and yes – insurance websites.

Google introduced its Search Quality Rating Guidelines for these pages in 2013. Then, in 2014,  it added an emphasis on E-A-T, and last year, added an extra E. So in insurance SEO, we are now catering for E-E-A-T. But, what does this mysterious acronym actually mean for us?

E-E-A-T stands for:

Experience

Expertise

Authoritativeness 

Trustworthiness

Google’s algorithms will analyse your insurance page with these factors in mind, when it is deciding where to rank you. Pages perceived to have a no or low E-E-A-T can be held back, and a high E-E-A-T website is rewarded. I’ll now run you through exactly how to optimise your SEO for each of these elements:

Experience

The newest element of the guidelines requires an insurance website to demonstrate first-hand experience in a subject. Content needs to prove that its insights are authentic. This is quite easy to adapt to – just make sure you’re getting your personal experiences and opinions in, or providing personal photos. Another way to optimise a website for the experience factor would be to include a good-quality About Us page.

Google explains this more in the guidelines, stating that they ‘consider the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic. Many types of pages are trustworthy and achieve their purpose well when created by people with a wealth of personal experience.’

This is key because it differentiates between human and AI-written content. It also helps your brand image by showing the personality of the organisation, and proving that the employees are honest and authentic. This is important specifically in the insurance sector, where users are transferring money and need to feel safe.

Expertise 

This element of the guidelines wants you to demonstrate that you’re a credible source and can be achieved in many ways. Expertise is best shown not told; you want to focus on demonstrating in-depth knowledge in your content. Do your research, and back up your opinions with other reliable sources.

Another effective way to optimise SEO for the expertise guideline is by including writer profiles on your website. This should include formal qualifications and links to their other articles – all helping to demonstrate their skill set.

Here’s an example of an author bio on an Insurance Company’s website which is a gr-E-A-T example of Expertise:

Source: Accenture Insurance

This bio also includes an image of the author, and explanation of their role in the company; these are elements outlined in Google’s guidelines.

Authoritativeness

Author profiles, as well as creating a sense of expertise, will also build your authoritativeness. This refers to your reputation, especially within your sector. It can be developed through case studies which again show what you’re doing, rather than just claiming to it.

For example, CNN would be considered an authoritative source in the online News sector.

Authoritativeness can also be demonstrated through backlinks where other experts are citing you. These can be generated through infographics and content promotions, and are effective ranking signals for Google.

Trustworthiness

Lastly, Google’s guidelines for Your Money, Your Life pages specifies a need for trustworthiness. You can get this across via having a clear contact page, as well as reviews from real-life clients. 

Have your customer service info displayed clearly, with accurate phone numbers.

Alongside this, demonstrating your expertise and authoritativeness will work together to show Google you’re a trustworthy site. 

Source: Aviva Insurance

One last way that SEO differs in the insurance sector is that the sign-off time for content can take longer. This is because it will often have to go through stages of approval, as a result of the extensive YMYL guidelines. As an SEO content writer, you should bear this in mind when managing your strategy deadlines.

A strategy for SEO in the insurance sector

Speaking of strategies, I’m now going to take you through all the key steps to include in your plan for insurance SEO.

1. Do your keyword research

First and foremost, you guessed it – keywords. This is a critical initial stage to any effective insurance SEO strategy. 

Examine the opportunity of keywords and phrases to what you’re targeting, determining which are most searched. Start by brainstorming keywords relevant to your demographic, and supplement this with use of tools like Keyword Planner and Ahrefs. These tools help you both with finding the words, and organising how you are going to map them.

Another key aspect of keyword research is optimising it for local search. In their 2019 insights report, Google shared that customers are increasingly searching locally for their insurance. They reported that mobile queries that contain “insurance near me” have grown by over 100% in the past two years. I recommend optimising your website for local search through using geographically targeted keywords in the page’s content and URLs.

Remember to then prioritise working on getting those keywords in naturally – gone are the days of inorganic keyword-stuffing. Looking for a more detailed run-down of how to find and implement your keywords? Take a look at our blogpost giving you the complete keyword low-down.

Source: Google

Competitor analysis

As part of your keyword research, make sure you understand your competition. This is another great place to start with your SEO strategy as it helps you gain an initial grasp of where you’re sitting in the insurance market.

Tools like Moz and Semrush can be used to analyse your competitors’ website performance, in comparison to your online presence.

2. High-quality content is high-performing

Source: Allianz

It really is all you can E-E-A-T when it comes to insurance SEO. When it comes to writing content for YMYL pages, writing content that’s of good quality is crucial.

Here are some quick tips to achieve that illusive high-quality content:

• Never provide false information, remember Google loves a trusty source
• Keep your content up to date – you’re writing in a sector that changes frequently
• Proof, proof and proof again – expertise isn’t demonstrated through grammatical mistakes!
• Do your research. You want your content to have adequate depth
• Don’t forget the author bio and quotes from experts, for that good old authoritativeness 
• Be descriptive but not flowery. Your writing needs to be clear.

3. Quantity *and* quality

Not only does content for insurance websites need to be high-quality, it is also beneficial to prioritise quantity.

BKA Content found that articles with more than 3,000 words receive an average of 77 percent more backlinks than shorter articles. This might be because good E-E-A-T content includes a certain level of depth and authority, which really needs at least 1,000 words to be achieved.

Also, a longer piece of content will allow you to get your keywords in more naturally, and thoroughly dissect your topic with multiple headings. Side note: this will help it appeal to Natural Language Processing algorithms! 

4. Site structure makes all the difference

Source: Ripe Insurance

In your strategy for insurance SEO, it’s important to include a step dedicated to website structure. Carry out a site audit, checking for broken links and assessing your URL structures. Any broken elements will make for an unenjoyable user experience, and this won’t help your authoritativeness either.

On the other hand, a fully functioning site, with user-friendly design will reduce bounce rate and help the users to navigate through your pages. Also, search engines will find it easier to crawl your pages if the code and architecture is frequently reviewed.

Another top tip is that large images can affect your ranking. Keep them compressed so your website loads quickly. Google takes load speed into account when it chooses which pages to place on page 1. (You can also keep the loading time down by optimising your website’s code).

Have a look at this comprehensive guide for website structure if your pages are looking a little jumbled.

5. Prioritise reviews and a positive online reputation

Reviews are a fundamental part of insurance SEO. They help build up a good reputation, which you’ll remember was key for the T of E-E-A-T. Google specifically states in their guidelines that “for a YMYL website, a mixed reputation is cause for a Low rating.” This also refers to independent rating websites; prioritise obtaining good reviews both on and off your site.

Here’s an example of Ripe Insurance effectively using Trustpilot reviews on their landing page:

Source: Ripe Insurance

Through verified reviews, you will increase your website traffic, and boost your rankings. Reviews are also useful because they increase the amount of content on your page, and, as we know, Google loves quantity. What’s not to like?

Offline reputation is also important!

These online efforts at showing trustworthiness can be supported by Digital PR and outreach. Securing quality links will further ramp up your page traffic. So, make sure to devote time in your SEO strategy to both your online and offline reputation.

6. After implementing these steps … measure and analyse your own strategy

Utilise SEO analytics tools like Google Analytics and Google Search console to frequently assess which methods are improving your site’s performance. Keep tracking your rankings, your metrics like Salience, and which of your pages are most frequently visited. 

Through keeping an eye on your analytics, you will then have a heads up on which tactics are getting your pages crawled, and what needs to be adjusted to optimise your rankings.

A final extra tip

Having an FAQ page on your insurance website is a failsafe way to optimise your SEO. It shows Google that you are doubling down on satisfying user intent, and have a thorough understanding of your subject areas.

Source: MoneySuperMarket 

To sum up

LSA found that for many insurance customers, search is their first step when assessing their options – 69% ran a search before scheduling an appointment. This blog has explained how and why SEO is specifically so important in the insurance sector. With the high level of competition, and YMYL category guidelines, developing a thorough SEO strategy is crucial to improve your rankings and traffic.

Hopefully, this guide will help you build a strong online presence to attract new customers. You’ll be insurance SEO-savvy in no time.

Natural Language Processing is here, and it’s here to stay. With algorithms like BERT and MUM, Google’s understanding of search queries has never been better and those of us in SEO need to draw level.

We’ve assessed how useful NLP really is and are here to tell you how it can be implemented to create effective, high-ranking content. 

Keep reading to find out how NLP is more than just a techy term for SEOs. Used in the right way, it’s the key to those sweet first-page spots.

So, what is NLP?

Natural Language Processing applications, in short, help computers better understand human language. Users are evermore specific about what they want to find, and Google has had to adjust and improve to meet this. 15% of search queries are used for the first time, and now, users can even use voice-search to get their query across. NLP helps Google to decipher the request, no matter how bizarrely-worded. Site Centre shared these stats showing us just how much Voice Search is taking off:

Source: Site Centre 

NLP isn’t particularly new. In 2015 Google launched RankBrain, their first artificial intelligence method for understanding queries. But in the past few years, there has been an influx in new NLP applications. It’s now pretty much everywhere, on your search engines, translators, the Alexa you have at home. We’ve got Word2Vec, CBOW, MUM, BERT and countless other efforts to make sense of human lingo. 

I’m going to take you quickly through BERT and MUM, and how they can change your SEO game. Launched in 2019 by Google, BERT immediately impacted 10% of all search queries and is said to be the most critical advancement in search in many years. It is an NLP technique and the first to rely completely on self-attention mechanisms.

In their report, Google used this example to demonstrate how BERT is helping them grasp the nuances of users’ queries:

Source: Google’s report on BERT

As you can see, NLP means that Google can now work out that this search is about a Brazilian traveling to the US, not the other way round. BERT just means that those little words like ‘to’ don’t get lost anymore when interpreting a query.  

In May 2021, Google introduced MUM as a 1000 times more powerful evolution of BERT. It’s not quite as scary as it sounds, essentially it just makes Google search even more semantic and context-based. It’s specifically looking to improve international search, and improves on BERT by being trained in 75 languages. For more information about the MUM update, see this article.

How to implement NLP for SEO:

So this is all well and good but how can we utilize these exciting new algorithms for our clients? To make this guide nice and easy to follow, I’m going to break it down into a few top tips:

Write content for users (it’s not me, it’s you)

NLP means that Google is getting better at understanding natural language. Writing content for users has always been important for SEO but it is now more important than ever. 

Your content needs to be simple and clear to be optimized for these algorithms, and deliver a good user experience. When you’ve finished writing, take a step back and check that it all makes sense. Determine what a searcher’s intent is and write content to match. This article will give you some hacks about how to go about this.

But…keep it specific (a matter of semantics)

With BERT and other NLP applications, Google has attention to next words, previous words, and related words in a sentence, in something called Semantic Search. Google understands the tonality now, and the specificity of the query. Alongside this, we are seeing a rise in long-tail keywords, because of things like Siri. Therefore, get more specific and descriptive with your content, whilst keeping it simple.

Check out this diagram showing the dominance of the long-tail search.

Source: Semrush

Think back to the last thing you typed into Google – it was probably a long-tail wasn’t it? Essentially, Google is understanding these descriptive queries to a much greater extent now, so our content needs to be equally as specific. 

Structure is key

Coherently written copy is useless without a clear structure. Once you’ve written your information, make sure it’s structured in a way that allows NLP to understand it. This article on Google’s Knowledge Graph explains how it’s easier for Google to understand structured data, than unstructured.

Use headings such as H1 and H2, using similar keywords in both. Then, utilise subcategories to further break up the content. This will all make the information easily scannable, and ranking better as a result. We’ve got more in-depth information here about structure, if you’re looking for a blog to help you tackle on-page SEO specifically.

It’s time to get sentimental

A key feature of BERT is its analysis of the Sentiment of a query or a webpage. Sentiment is the undertone of the content and it can be positive, negative, or neutral. It also exists on a -1 to +1 scale.

-so in layman’s terms, positive sentiment would be positive words like “the medicine is awesome, it really works, it alleviates pain, and it’s affordable too.”

Source: Monkeylearn

Why should we care about Sentiment in SEO?  Well, if all the results on page 1 are offering positive sentiment and your page has mostly negative vibes, there is a strong chance Google will not consider the page relevant to what the user is looking for. So no high-ranks for you! When optimising content for your clients, you need to make sure that you’ve done your sentiment analysis. It can be used to create more relevant content that lines up with the user’s expectations. Google has a useful tutorial here for Sentiment Analysis.

On the other hand, it can be used to identify any negative or neutral content on the website that might be turning off potential visitors. This information can then be used to strategise updates for the content – improving user experience and search engine ranking. For example, one particular product might be getting lots of bad reviews and sentiment analysis can help you detect this.

Links, links, links

Thanks to NLP, link structure and placement are even more crucial. As mentioned above, content needs to be relevant and equally, you can’t just place a link randomly on a page. Every link needs to make sense to the content. I know we all love our links in SEO, but they can’t just be shoe-horned in. Make your anchor text contextually relevant to the page – with the right context it will have full value.

If there is additional information about something elsewhere, it’s a great idea to link to it because this gives your page extra validity. However, with NLP it is super important to avoid non-descriptive anchor text. Aim to include a range of natural keyword variations and natural language pointing to your target page. Of course, you also want other pages to link to your page, so, once again, keep that content relevant!

Take a look at this guide we put together explaining how to create an effective internal linking strategy for SEO.

Ask away

Information from Google Patents states that your content is more likely to be selected for the ‘People Also Ask’ answers if it’s presented as a question and answer.

Think about it, NLP is making Google better at understanding human queries. These queries often include questions, so we need to use this language in our content. Ask the questions in your copy that the user would ask, and then answer them straight after.

By using complete questions in your SEO content, you signal that your website is providing comprehensive answers to a specific question. So now you understand my use of questions in the article you’ve just read!

Keep your friends close but your *competitors* closer

Steve Bailey, Head of Technical SEO at Spike Digital, says that “the biggest risk with focusing on NLP is not doing your research”. Whilst analysing your page is vital, it is equally important to scope out the competitor pages. This helps you build a more well-rounded sense of the impact NLP is having on your sector.

You can use NLP to analyse the top ranking pages and the metrics that now matter (like sentiment, entities and salience). Make sure that your on-page content is similar and then you can expect to rank just as high. 

Google’s API Demo

On the subject of analysis, Google’s natural language API demo can examine any text for free. It comes back with a whole heap of data for you, which can then be compared to the highest-ranking pages.

Here’s an example of the API demo in action, you’ll see that it identifies ‘entities’ for you.

An entity is a word or phrase that represents an object which can be identified, classified, and categorised. For example, this might be a person, event or number. NLP selects and evaluates entities, scoring their salience (how important they are in the text).

So, by taking a look at analysis of entities and salience in your content, and that of your competitors, you can determine how your content can be optimised.

To summarise

With NLP taking off, we need to work more than ever to match user intent in our SEO. Semantic search is an absolute game changer. We need to keep NLP in the back of our minds at all times as SEO content writers  -it’s here to stay but it should be embraced. The traditional ranking factors like keywords still matter, but new factors like sentiment must be considered.

Now that you know about Google’s new metric system, use it to your advantage. Go away and analyse your pages, your competitors pages and even our pages if you’d like!

I’ll leave you with a final run down of how to make that content completely irresistible to NLP:

1. Keep it specific and coherent
2. Use structure to your advantage
3. Match user sentiment
4. Employ internal and external links
5. Anticipate the user’s questions
6. Get analysing

In January 2023, I entered the world of SEO when I became a Junior SEO Executive at Cedarwood Digital, and it’s safe to say that I have learnt a lot. In this blog, I will be sharing all of the valuable things that I have learnt in the exciting world of Search Engine Optimisation, ways to learn and how I will move forwards. 

What I Have Learnt: 

SEO Takes Time

One of the most important things that I have learnt is that SEO is a long-term process. Building organic visibility and improving search rankings will take time, it will not happen overnight. SEO takes time, patience and consistent effort, and it is crucial to set realistic expectations. By focusing on longer term strategies, producing high quality content, optimising your website structure and gaining authoritative backlinks, you can steadily improve your website’s performance in the SERPs and establish a solid foundation for long term success. 

Keeping Up To Date Is Vital 

Staying up to date with any SEO news is extremely important for SEO professionals. SEO is constantly evolving and search engines like Google frequently release algorithm updates which can significantly impact website rankings and visibility. By staying informed about the latest updates and news, you are able to adapt your strategies accordingly and anticipate any potential changes. Having a good understanding of algorithm updates and what they mean for SEO allows you to make necessary adjustments to your website and content and ensure that your website is aligning with the current ranking factors and guidelines. Failing to keep up with the latest SEO news and updates can result in missed opportunities and potentially a decline in the SERPs, therefore resulting in a loss of organic traffic. Ultimately, staying up to date is extremely important as it allows SEO professionals to stay ahead of the curve and achieve long term success.

Keyword Research 

Keyword research is the foundation of SEO and without it, you can not expect to gain organic visibility. SEO is about finding opportunities online and gaining relevant traffic to your website through visibility in the SERPs. Keyword research is at the heart of helping you to capitalise on any relevant traffic. 

Keyword research is the process of finding words and phrases that users are searching for. This is so that you can then optimise your website according to keywords that are relevant to your service/ product. By optimising your website and including the correct keywords, Google will be able to understand what your website is about and that it is related to the keywords users are searching for. If your website is matching user intent for those keywords, Google will then rank your website accordingly. 

One of the first things I learnt was that effective keyword research is essential for all SEO strategies. Without it, it will be extremely difficult to know what your users are searching for and it also plays a key role in ensuring that you are not targeting keywords that users are not searching for. By conducting keyword research, and then optimising your website accordingly, you are more likely to rank for relevant keywords and gain the right type of organic traffic to your website. 

Content Optimisations 

Content is key. Content optimisation plays a vital role in SEO as it can directly impact a website’s visibility, relevance and user experience. Without content, search engines like Google, will not be able to understand what your website is about, and therefore will not be able to rank your website on the SERPs. This means that your website will not be seen organically. By optimising the content on your website, you can ensure that all of your web pages align with what users are looking for. When done effectively, content optimisation can help search engines understand the context of your website, and this can help lead to improved rankings. Additionally, having optimised content will likely increase the engagement of your users; providing them with valuable information will increase the likelihood of them staying on your website for longer. It can also help Google to draw links between different themes on your website and different pieces of content, which helps to establish and showcase your E-E-A-T signals which is one of the most important elements of trust for Google. Fundamentally, content optimisation ensures that your website is providing valuable and helpful content for users and search engines, with the hope of increasing rankings and organic traffic.

On-Page Optimisations

On-page optimisations are a crucial part of SEO as they can also directly impact a website’s visibility and overall ranking potential. On-page optimisation refers to the process of optimising various different elements on a webpage in order to improve the user experience. This includes optimising title tags, URL structures, page structure and internal linking, as well as optimising the content on the web page. By implementing effective on-page optimisations, websites can provide search engines with clear signals about the content’s relevance and importance, therefore, potentially increasing the likelihood of higher rankings in the SERPs. Plus, these optimisations will also enhance the user experience by making the content more accessible, readable and engaging, which is also important for rankings as Google prioritises websites that are made for the user first. Overall, on-page optimisations are fundamental to SEO strategies; ensuring that your website is well structured, user friendly and easily discoverable will likely result in improved organic visibility and an overall better SEO performance. 

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is a fundamental part of any SEO strategy and it involves focusing on the technical aspects of a website that can affect the visibility and performance in the SERPs. By optimising the technical elements of your website such as website speed, mobile-friendliness, and indexing, you can ensure that search engines are crawling your website effectively and ranking it accordingly. Technical SEO plays a crucial role in improving website usability and user experience. Ignoring technical SEO can result in poor website performance and decreased visibility, and in some instances, great content optimisation and link building approaches can be lost because there is a fundamental crawl issue on the website, therefore meaning that Google isn’t seeing the content it needs to return – in most cases, a simple fix can have substantial consequences for the website. It is extremely important to have the fundamentals in place and have your website working properly in order for the on page optimisations to be effective. It is therefore extremely important to prioritise technical SEO in order to maximise your website’s potential for ranking highly in the SERPs, and for improving the overall user experience. 

How You Can Learn About SEO 

Learning new things about SEO is an ongoing process that requires a continuous effort. I have learnt a lot of things in my first 6 months in SEO but there is still so much more to learn. There are so many ways to expand your knowledge and stay updated in the ever evolving industry. One of the ways that I have learnt is through reading various different blogs. There are many websites that regularly publish valuable information and updates on SEO practices and it is a great way to find out new information. Following reputable SEO experts on social media platforms can also provide you with a wealth of information and keep you informed about all of the latest trends. Participating in webinars and online courses that are led by experts can also deepen your understanding of SEO and help you to acquire new skills. Attending SEO conferences and networking events will help you to deepen your knowledge and it enables you to connect with other SEO professionals and gain outsider insights that can broaden your knowledge.Listening to podcasts can also be extremely beneficial and there are quite a few across the SEO sector, these podcasts can be extremely handy for SEO professionals who are commuting to work. Finally, experimenting with different SEO techniques and conducting your own research can massively contribute to learning new things.

I have used all of the above methods to expand my SEO knowledge and I can safely say that they all work. By combining all of these approaches, you can continuously learn and improve your skills and stay up to date in the dynamic world of SEO. 

Moving Forwards

6 months on from when I first entered the world of SEO, I have learnt an enormous amount of different SEO techniques and stayed up to date with all of the latest algorithm updates. I have delved into many different SEO projects including both on-page optimisations and technical SEO. Overall, my journey in SEO has been an invaluable learning experience which has equipped me with a diverse set of skills and the ability to optimise websites for better search engine visibility and organic growth. SEO is a very wide topic and I am excited to continuously learn more and more every day by staying up to date and learning new skills.  

Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google and it can help anyone who has a website understand how they are performing on Google Search. There are many different features and reports that can be used to monitor performance and it also provides valuable insights into how you can improve your appearance on Google search in order to bring more relevant traffic to your website. Using Google Search Console provides invaluable information for SEO performance and in this blog we will be discussing how you can use the reports featured in Search Console to improve your SEO strategy. 

What is Google Search Console? 

According to Google, “Search Console is a tool from Google that can help anyone with a website to understand how they are performing on Google Search, and what they can do to improve their appearance on search to bring more relevant traffic to their websites.” It is a free tool that all website owners/ SEO professionals can use to monitor and optimise their website’s performance. There are a wide range of tools and reports available in Google Search Console that users can utilise to understand how their website is perceived and indexed by Google. It offers valuable insights into how Google crawls, indexes and displays web pages and by utilising the reports provided by Search Console, users are able to identify and resolve any issues that are potentially hindering their websites performance in Google search results. 

Reports Within Google Search Console

Google Search Console offers a wide range of reports that can help you to monitor and optimise your website’s performance on Google search. The most helpful reports will depend on the focus of your work but below are some reports that can help to inform your SEO strategy.

Page Indexing Report

The page indexing report within Google Search Console allows you to see which pages Google is able to find and index on your site, you can also learn about any indexing issues that have been encountered. When you open the index report, you will see a chart that displays the number of pages that are indexed, highlighted in green, and the number of pages that are not indexed, highlighted in grey. 

By analysing the data within the page indexing report, you can clearly identify any potential problems that may prevent your pages from appearing in the search results. However, it is important to remember that not all no indexed pages are a problem, but it is important to determine why the pages are not indexed to understand whether or not there is a problem. Google Search Console will provide the reasons why pages have not been included in the index in the “Why pages aren’t indexed” section. 

This section of the report will provide you with valuable insight into why pages are not appearing in Google search results and why they may not be getting organic search results. Some of these reasons could be due to: 

• ➡️ Redirect errors – if Google experiences a redirect error, they will not index the page.

• ➡️ URL blocked by robots.txt – if a page was blocked by your website’s robots.txt file, Google may not index the page.

• ➡️ Not found (404) – if Google discovers a page that returns a 404 error, it may not be indexed.

• ➡️ Crawled – currently not indexed – this means that the page was crawled by Google but they have not indexed it. This does not mean that it will never be indexed, Google may recrawl this and index the page in the future. 

• ➡️ Discovered – currently not indexed – this means that the page was found by Google but it was not crawled yet and therefore not indexed.

• ➡️ Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user – this occurs when Google thinks that another URL makes a better canonical than the one that you have provided. Google will index the page that they consider canonical instead.

By analysing this report, you can ensure that all necessary and relevant pages are indexed correctly and you can solve any indexing errors. This will allow you to maximise the visibility of all of your webpages in the search results, ultimately driving more organic traffic to your website. 

Mobile Usability Report 

The mobile usability report shows which pages in your website have any usability problems when they are viewed on mobile devices. The top report will show how many pages within your property have usability issues.

Google Search Console will then provide you with specific issues that are affecting the mobile usability. 

When clicking on the specific issues, you will be able to see which pages are affected, specific issue details, and information about how you can fix these issues. By rectifying these mobile usability issues, you can enhance your website’s mobile experience and deliver a seamless experience to mobile users. This can in turn help to improve your rankings for these pages. 

Core Web Vitals Report 

The Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console will show you how your pages are performing based on real world data. Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that are used to measure the speed, responsiveness and visual stability of a webpage. The Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console will be based on the following four metrics:

• ➡️ Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – how quickly the main content of the web page loads. The optimal LCP measurement is under 2.5 seconds. 

• ➡️ Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – this is a measure of how much a webpage unexpectedly shifts during the loading phase. A layout shift occurs when a visible element shifts position from one rendered frame to the next. CLS is extremely important because if a page element shifts when a user is trying to interact, it creates a bad user experience. The optimal CLS measurement is a score under 0.1.

• ➡️ First Input Delay (FID) –  this measures the time from when a user first interacts with your site (when they click a link/ tap a button) to the time when the browser is able to respond to that interaction. The optimal measurement for FID is under 100ms.

• ➡️ Interaction To Next Paint (INP) – this metric assesses a page’s overall responsiveness to user’s actions. It will observe the time that it takes for the page to respond to interactions that occur throughout the user’s visit to a page.

The report will show the URL performance and they will be grouped by status, either poor, need improvement or good:

The core web vitals report will show you a chart of general trends and you can also look at both mobile and desktop platforms in detail by clicking on ‘open report’. The report will show you how all of the URLs on your website are performing based on historical user data and it will provide you with information about why the URLs are either poor or need improvement. By using this report, you can understand why your website is not performing well and how you can improve the speed and responsiveness of your website. 

Sitemaps Report 

Submitting a sitemap to Google Search Console is a fundamental step to ensure that your website’s structure and content are properly understood by Google. A sitemap is a file that you provide to Google and it will include information about the pages and files that are on your website, and the relationships between these pages. This is important so that Google can read your file and crawl your website efficiently. 

The sitemaps report in Google Search Console will provide you with information about how many pages from your sitemap are indexed and by reviewing this data you will be able to confirm that the pages you have included in the sitemap are indexed correctly and, you can detect any potential issues with your sitemap, such as broken links. Regularly monitoring the sitemaps report will help you to be informed about the pages in your sitemap and therefore, you will be able to optimise your web pages in order to maintain a good website structure and improve your website’s discoverability in the search results. 

Search Performance Report

The performance report in Google Search Console shows important metrics about how your website performs in Google search. Examples of what you can see in the performance report include: 

• ➡️ Looking at how your traffic changes over time 
• ➡️ Seeing which pages have the highest and lowest click through rates 
• ➡️ Looking at impressions for top search queries 

The search performance report provides a wealth of data, including impressions, clicks, click-through rates and average positions. All of this data allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your SEO strategy and how well it is working in Google search. By analysing and understanding this report, you will be able to identify high-performing keywords, understand your users behaviours and then optimise your SEO strategy accordingly. Additionally, this performance allows you to compare your organic performance over time, therefore meaning you can track the impact of any SEO changes that you have made on your website and further identify any areas for improvement. 

Summary 

Google Search Console is an extremely valuable tool for anyone who owns a website and any SEO professionals who are looking to optimise their websites’ performance in Google search results. It allows you to gain valuable insights into how your website is perceived by Google, and you can therefore adapt your SEO strategy accordingly. The reports allow you to make data driven decisions, address issues promptly and drive more organic traffic to your website. From monitoring your page indexing and mobile usability to managing sitemaps and analysing your search performance, Google Search Console provides you with the tools and insights that you need in order to refine your SEO strategy, drive organic traffic and improve overall SEO performance. 

Over the past few years, AI has been a big topic of conversation and in May 2023, Google announced that they are bringing a cutting-edge generative AI to Google Search. Google are starting to experiment with Search Generative Experience (SGE) which, according to Google, is “an early step in transforming the Search experience with generative AI.” In this blog, we will be discussing what SGE is and what it means for SEO.   

What Is SGE?

Google has recently announced a new feature that is coming to the SERPs, this is called Search Generative Experience (SGE) and it uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to organise web results in a new way in order to help users to get more from their search. With SGE, users on Google will be able to: 

• ➡️Ask new, more in depth questions that search could not answer before 
• ➡️Ask follow up questions to Google in a conversational mode 
• ➡️Gain information about a topic quickly with links to relevant results in order to explore the topic further 
• ➡️Get more done easily, for example generate creative ideas in Search
• ➡️Shop for products more easily

Google’s generative AI is designed to to simplify complex search tasks and provide overview snapshots of search queries. SGE will be able to answer more detailed search queries and will also enhance the online shopping experience for users. 

What Will The Google Search Generative Experience Look Like? 

The new Google SGE will likely display an AI generated answer above the search results. The answer will be labelled as generative AI and it will provide an answer to the search query. 

The answer will be in a box and it will provide links to the websites that it has used to generate the answer, users will then be able to click on these sites in order to find out more about the topic. Below the AI answer, there will also be an option to ask a follow up question to gain more information. 

Source: Google

How SGE Works 

Google will be using generative AI which is an extremely powerful tool that can generate human-like content. In Google’s search, they will be using generative AI in order to provide useful information to users more easily and it will provide a more comprehensive overview to complex queries. 

1. Firstly, Google will analyse the user’s search query; they will understand the intent of the query and use keywords to understand what the user wants to find out. 
2. When appropriate, Google will then use its AI to scan the web for relevant websites that will help to answer the query. When it is scanning the web, it will be looking at the content on websites and the number of high quality links that are pointing towards the website. 
3. Google’s AI will then generate a summary of the websites, this will help users get an overview and will serve as a “jumping-off point”, Google will also include links to the websites that it has used to gain the information so that users are able to find out more information if they wish. The summary will be displayed in a conversational format, making it easier for users to gain information and they will also be able to ask follow up questions which Google’s AI will answer.

Search Generative Experience is designed to help users search more easily; it can help to understand a topic faster, uncover new viewpoints and get things done more easily. Instead of asking Google a few different questions to get the answer you are looking for, you will now be able to ask one long question and it should provide you with all the information that you need in one place. 

Generative AI Shopping Experience

Google is also using AI to help users shop. According to Google, “With generative AI in Search, we can help you understand the full picture when you’re shopping, making even the most considered and complex purchase decisions faster and much easier.” 

The new generative AI shopping experience is built on Google’s shopping graph, which is a machine learning powered, real time data set of the world’s products and sellers. It stores billions of product listings and specific information about those products. 

With the AI shopping experience, when you are searching for a product on Google, you will be provided with a snapshot of noteworthy factors that you should consider when purchasing the product and it will also provide you with product descriptions that include relevant and up to date reviews, prices and product images. 

For example, if you are searching “Bluetooth speaker for a pool party”, Google’s generative AI will provide you with important considerations for that product, like, is it water resistant or does it have a good battery life. It will also provide you with a range of products to choose from with product descriptions, prices and reviews, making it extremely easy to find the perfect product that you are looking for!

Source: Google

Known Limitations Of SGE 

Google’s Search Generative Experience is currently in the experimental stage, and whilst it is built with a range of protections, there are some known limitations. Whilst Google have been testing SGE, they have noticed some of the following limitations, however they have said that in many cases they have already made improvements and they expect to make further progress as SGE develops. Some of the limitations currently are: 

• ➡️Misinterpretation during corroboration – there have been some instances where SGE has identified the correct information in order to form its snapshot, however there has been a slight misinterpretation of the language which has, in turn, changed the meaning of the output.
• ➡️Hallucination – SGE may sometimes misinterpret facts or identify insights inaccurately. 
• ➡️Bias – SGE is trained to corroborate responses with high quality resources, these high quality resources are results that are highly ranked, and it may therefore show a snapshot that reflects a smaller range of perspectives than what is available on the internet. Therefore, potentially reflecting biases in the results.
• ➡️Opinionated content implying persona – SGE is designed to reflect a neutral tone when it is generating output, however there may be instances where the output that it is providing reflects opinions that exist on the internet, potentially giving the impression that the model is displaying a persona.
• ➡️Duplication or contradiction with existing search features – SGE is integrated into search alongside other results, and because of this, it is possible for the output of SGE to contradict the information from other results. This is because SGE is representing a perspective that it has gained from a range of results, whereas featured snippets, for example, will only be highlighting the perspective from one single source. 

How SGE Will Impact SEO

The integration of generative AI in Google’s search is a significant change that has the potential to impact SEO in a number of ways. SGE will take the top position in the SERPs which can be unnerving to hear if you work in SEO, however, Google’s generative AI, SGE, will be using information from websites to provide the snapshot of information and Google will be providing links to relevant websites. So, if Google provides a link to your website in their SGE snapshot, this could be great for your website and could even provide you with more organic traffic. 

So, how do you get SGE to provide a link to your website? Well, it is important that your website is optimised for SGE, below are some of the considerations that you need to consider:

• ➡️Content – with generative AI, Google will likely be favouring websites that have high quality and in depth content. SGE will be using websites to provide information to users and it will more than likely use websites that provide high quality content that provides in depth information that it will then be able to synthesise into a snapshot on the search results. This means that websites that offer in depth, valuable content will likely be favoured and thin content, which Google already doesn’t like, will likely get penalised even further! In terms of SEO, it is therefore extremely important to provide high quality content across your website so that Google can use it for SGE. Plus, if Google is using the content on your website, they may include a link to your website, and this will be great for SEO if it is sitting at the very top of the SERPs. 
• ➡️User experience – user experience will also be key. As SGE will offer the ability to ask follow up questions, it is important that your site offers an excellent user experience with easy navigation. If Google is providing a link to your website, it is important that the user experience, when they land on your website, is optimal as this could lead to users spending more time on your website. Another reason as to why it is important to have great user experience is for Google; if users are asking a follow up question and your site has the answer and it is easily accessible for Google to find, they may suggest viewing your site to gain more information on a related topic and this will provide more traffic to your website.   
• ➡️Relevance – making sure that the information on your website is relevant and up to date is crucial. Google’s generative AI will be providing users with useful information and they will want to ensure that the information is correct. By updating the content on your website, it will help to ensure that your website is being seen as relevant and up to date. 

Google’s Search Generative Experience is a very different search experience from what we have seen before, however Google is going to be linking to websites with the goal of driving traffic to websites. Google stated “As we bring generative AI into Search, we’re committed to continue sending valuable traffic to sites across the web.” 

Whilst these generative AI changes that are coming to Google search may seem daunting, it is important to remember that SGE is in the early stages of development and it is expected that Google will listen to all feedback and recommendations and adjust SGE accordingly before fully launching it on Google. 

As an SEO professional, it is important to keep up to date with any developments that arise with SGE, as with any other updates in SEO (we all know that there are a lot), it is important to understand the implications that will come with generative AI and be prepared to adapt your SEO strategy accordingly. With the introduction of generative AI into Google Search, it is important to remember that a successful SEO strategy will still be about providing useful information and content to users, and this will not be changing any time soon. 

Recently, Universal Analytics has been transitioning into GA4 and from 1st July 2023, you will no longer be able to collect data with Universal Analytics. If you work in SEO, then I’m sure you are aware that Universal Analytics uses goals to track conversions, whereas GA4 uses events which can be marked as conversions. In this blog, we will be discussing how to set up conversion tracking in GA4 and the different types of conversion tracking that you can set up in GA4. 

About GA4 Conversions 

According to Google “A conversion is any user action that’s valuable to your business; for example, a user purchasing from your store or subscribing to your newsletter are examples of common conversions.” 

A conversion in GA4 is what you consider to be an important action that you want your users to complete on your website. Any action or engagement that happens on your website can be tracked in GA4 as a conversion event. Examples of these events can include: 

• ➡️Scroll depth 
• ➡️Form submissions 
• ➡️Clicks 

You are also able to custom create events in your GA4 account to ensure that you are tracking any conversions that are important for your business. 

In GA4, conversion tracking is achieved by setting up conversion events; these are automatically collected, recommended, or custom events and any of these can be marked as a conversion. By setting up conversions in your GA4 account, you will be able to see the actions that are most important to your business by using the Acquisition, Engagement, and Advertising reports. This will allow you to then optimise your website for SEO purposes. 

Tracking your conversions will let you see the total number of times that important actions have taken place on your website, and with custom events, you are able to track whatever is important specifically for your website. GA4 uses a flexible data model and this will allow you to send a wide variety of information to your reports. And once you have your events in GA4, you can easily track these events as conversions. 

How Is Conversion Tracking In GA4 Different From Universal Analytics? 

Google states that “In Universal Analytics, you measure conversions by setting up goals and e-commerce transactions. In Google Analytics 4, there is no distinction between goals and ecommerce; you measure all conversions via GA4 events.” The events in GA4 will be triggered when a user interacts with your website. 

Conversions were known as goals in Universal Analytics and both are ways of tracking user interactions that are very valuable to your business, however, there is alot to like about conversion events in GA4; they are easy to set up, you are allowed up to 30 conversion events per property and they offer a lot of flexibility in what you are able to track as a conversion event. 

Below, we will discuss the different ways to set up conversions within GA4. 

Toggling Existing Events As Conversions 

In order to mark an existing event as a conversion, go to the Events page and this will list all of the existing events that are being collected on your site, to mark these events as conversions, you can simply click on the toggle on the right hand side of the page under ‘Mark as conversion’. 

Once you have clicked this toggle, you can go to the Conversions page and your new conversions will be listed there. 

Creating Custom Events To Use As Conversions 

If you want to create a custom event to use as a conversion, you will firstly need to make sure you have administrator permission for the GA4 property, otherwise, you will not be able to create new events or mark any conversions. If you do have administrator permissions, you can follow the below steps in order to create custom events to use as conversions: 

1. Go to Configure – Events and click Create Event 
2. Click create 
3. Enter a custom event name (for example sign_up, page_view or generate_lead)

4. You then need to add some conditions, when the conditions have all been met, your event will then trigger. The first condition is “event_name equals page_view” (the value can be changed depending on the condition, for example, if it was based on a click, it would be “event_name equals click”

5. Click Add Condition, the second condition will indicate that the event should only trigger for a specific page. This condition should be “page_location – contains – part of the URL” for example “page_location contains /contact/thank-you”

6. Select ‘Copy parameters from the source event’

7. Click Create in the top right-hand corner 

You have now created your custom event, however it may take up to 24 hours for it to appear on your events page meaning you will not be able to toggle it as a conversion yet, however there is another way to add this new event to your conversions. 

1. Go to Configure – Conversions 
2. Click New conversion event 
3. In the New event name box, enter the name of the custom event that you created earlier, for example “generate_lead” 
4. Click Save 

Your custom event will now be tracking any conversions in your GA4 property!

Different Types Of Conversions You Can Track In GA4 

In Google Analytics 4, there are many conversions that can be tracked in order to gain valuable insights into user behaviour and website performance. GA4 uses a flexible model with a wide range of tracking capabilities, therefore allowing businesses and websites to measure and track many different types of conversions across both websites and apps. 

Within GA4, there are micro and macro conversions – micro conversions measure the important steps that lead to completing a macro conversion. A macro conversion measures important interactions that will directly impact the success of your business. 

Examples of micro conversions: 

• ➡️Subscribing to a newsletter 
• ➡️Scrolling to 90% of a blog post or article 
• ➡️Completing a registration form 

Examples of macro conversions: 

• ➡️Registering for a service 
• ➡️Purchasing a product

As already discussed, GA4 is extremely flexible and allows businesses to track conversions that are valuable to their business. By providing the ability to track automatically collected, recommended and custom events as conversions, it is giving businesses and websites the ability to track and measure conversions that align with specific goals and objectives and therefore giving insight into how to improve their website. GA4 provides comprehensive tracking capabilities allowing businesses to gain deep insights into its customers’ user journey. 

Why Is Conversion Tracking Important For SEO?

Now that you have set up your conversions, you will be able to look at your conversion data in GA4 reports. By going to Reports – Engagement – Conversions, you will be able to see your conversion data over time. 

The Conversions report in GA4 will show you which conversion actions that you have are most common, how many users are performing each action and how much revenue is associated with each action. 

By tracking conversions in GA4, it can help you to gather meaningful data and insights into how your users are behaving on your website. By tracking the actions that are most valuable to your business, you will be able to then optimise your website for SEO purposes which can help to improve user experience and engagement. Conversions are very valuable to your business and tracking your conversions will help you to connect your SEO and sales processes. 

In GA4, you will be able to customise your conversion report and this will give you more insight into what your organic visitors are doing on your website and what is driving sales. By seeing the users conversions, you are able to determine the user journey and see which areas of your website need optimising for SEO. 

Summary 

Conversion tracking in GA4 can be extremely useful for SEO purposes, by tracking actions that are important to your business such as scroll tracking, page views and clicks, you are able to see how users are interacting with your website and this will then help to understand where to optimise the website and create a better user experience. By tracking these actions, you are able to better support SEO performance. 

In this blog, we have discussed how to mark events as conversions and how to create custom events and mark those as conversions. By following these steps in your GA4 property, you will be able to start tracking the actions that are important to your business and optimise your website accordingly.