With mobile usage expected to reach five billion users globally by 2017, consumers today have easy access to content about a brand, its products and services, as well as the tools to quickly create, share and access opinions, photos and videos, across a variety of social media channels.
They want fresh, relevant search content, and search engines strive to give them what they want. Since Google’s inception, a user-focused commitment has remained at its core—working towards helping search users find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible.
With 89% of consumers turning to search to find information on products, services or businesses prior to making purchases, the importance of search in today’s buyer’s journey is undeniable. It is vital that companies stay abreast of Google’s algorithm updates and be aware of how it will affect their search marketing strategy. Aside from major updates like Panda or Penguin, most updates go unnamed, unpublicised and, often, unknown.
While casual search marketers may read about an update or two over the course of a year, Google adjusts its algorithms closer to 600 times annually, ensuring it stays ahead of competition. Some updates may have only minimal—if any—impact on rankings, however, understanding the core reasons for updates can provide valuable insights to help guide your search marketing efforts, and evaluate the investments you are currently making in paid and organic search initiatives.
Organic rules all (algorithms)
Looking at 1.4 billion search queries, a study by Nielsen and GroupM UK concluded that organic search results are clicked on an astounding 94% of the time. Today’s informed consumer is conditioned to move quickly past paid search elements - and focus on the listings that have genuinely earned their position, overlooking advertising entirely. Similarly, a growing number of consumers use ad-blocking software, preventing them from seeing ads in search at all.
One of the most essential factors that can boost highly coveted organic results, give prospective customers the confidence to buy, and boost your conversions rates, is consumer-generated content (CGC) like online ratings and reviews. CGC creates a wealth of fresh content, naturally adding thousands of product-specific keywords to a company’s website. This ever-changing and keyword rich CGC greatly improves the relevancy of a page, rewarding it with higher search results. Furthermore, as opposed to marketing copy, CGC is written in the way consumers actually speak and search, improving the chances of capturing long-tail search terms. Capturing more reviews on a regular basis creates a stream of fresh, diverse content that search engines continue to crawl and index, which typically results in a 15-25% increase in search traffic in our experience.
As products begin to build a bank of CGC, conversion rates also rise in parallel. Sealskinz has seen a 102.6% lift in conversion from visitors who engaged with reviews compared to those who didn’t, illustrating the effect of CGC on shopper-purchaser conversion and also its role in helping to identify new customer demographics to target.
Optimising for shopper keywords
Typically, all product and service-related queries fall into one of six categories—or bands of search. By familiarising yourself with the search terms and phrases consumers are using to access your brand, you’ll be able to better plan a holistic search strategy—identifying opportunities to fill gaps that may be weak or nonexistent today. When markup is properly structured, Google will use CGC-based information to display rich snippets complete with star ratings, as well as the product’s average rating and review count. These enhanced search listings stand out compared to standard rankings and have been proven to drastically improve click-through rates.
Generally, CGC will include author information and user profile data— author name, location, and other relevant product-specific attributes— which signals to Google that the content is social, legitimate, and not simply keyword-stuffed by marketers to improve rankings. In a world where reputation is so much more than inbound links, it’s essential to properly communicate the social activity that is happening in your domain. Furthermore, while content and markup factor heavily into Google’s algorithm, equally as important to both Google and, of course, users, is the user experience once visitors reach a page. Content needs to load quickly and be relevant to a user’s search, otherwise the page will be penalised by Google and feature lower down the listings.
So where should marketers invest?
Whether currently incorporating CGC into their SEO strategy or not, marketers need to revisit exactly how CGC maps to the criterion that matter to Google, and invest where Google recommends in order to win the ‘search race’. Rather than over-analysing each individual update - marketers will be better served by focusing on the underlying themes that each of Google’s updates is designed to address, ensuring that content is of a high quality and follows current best practice.
The incorporation of consumer-generated content across the buyer’s journey presents a tried-and-tested strategy to address and optimise for Google. Ultimately, CGC mirrors Google’s broader aspirations— understanding users’ needs to provide the most relevant search experience, while reducing the need for investment in paid advertising, and driving substantial traffic and sales.
By Olav Bus, head of product marketing EMEA at Bazaarvoice
Want to keep up with the latest ideas in digital marketing? Free conference and exhibition Integrated Live is the place to be.
PrivSec Conferences will bring together leading speakers and experts from privacy and security to deliver compelling content via solo presentations, panel discussions, debates, roundtables and workshops.
For more information on upcoming events, visit the website.
comments powered by Disqus