Keyword research data reveals the SEO CTR rewards for top of SERP rankings in Google. Inform your SEO marketing strategy with the latest trends in 2024

You often hear company owners saying “I want to rank top” for their target keywords. Although this may be an unrealistic hope, they’re right to say this since they realize that claiming the top position in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) drives up your SEO click-through rate CTR like nothing else. October 2023 data from firstpage.com demonstrates that ranking #1 generates a typical CTR of 39.8%. That's more than double the CTR for 2nd position, 18.7%, and nearly 4x the CTR for 3rd position, 10.2%. You can see this example below for example search term 'customer data platform". While the top 3 positions carry double-digit click-through rates, these start fallling rapidly to…

Google Search Console Insights combines Google Search Console and Google Analytics to introduce a new SEO platform for content marketers

If you regularly use Google Analytics and/or Google Search Console tools to evaluate and optimize your marketing (and if you don't - here's some starters for you!), you may have heard about this integrated new insights platform update from Google.

What is Google Search Console Insights?

Still in Beta mode, Google Search Console Insights is a new platform which allows content marketers an integrated overview of how their content is searched for/discovered (GSC) alongside insights about the audience and their behaviour (GA).

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Monitoring the right KPIs is the best way to avoid spending time and money on something that isn’t driving the expected profit

Is your SEO strategy effective enough? How can you ensure your efforts drive tangible results? What can you do to develop your website performance? Tracking the right performance metrics, you’ll be able to answer all these questions. KPIs work as a control system that lets you identify which tactics work and which don’t. What’s most important, monitoring the right KPIs is the best way to avoid spending time and money on something that isn’t driving the expected profit. [si_guide_block id="107298" title="Read our Business Membership resource – Big book of marketing KPI benchmarks" description="This handy guide will help you improve your return on marketing by applying thoughtful, targeted benchmarks and forecasting to your day-to-day marketing activities."/] In this article, I’ll highlight 10 critical indicators marketers should pay attention to.

1. Organic traffic

This KPI measures how…

What should a client-side marketer look for when evaluating an agency SEO proposal?

One of the key decisions many companies must make in regards to search engine optimization (SEO) is the decision on whether to create and build a team in-house or to work with an external agency or consultant(s). There are pros and cons to both approaches and many businesses often choose to go with a combination of the two: create a team in-house and work with external advisors to support best practice and on-going guidance. If a decision is made to work with an SEO agency there are several steps to be taken, including the selection of a range of agencies and later the management of a pitch process that is covered in other articles and guides from Smart Insights included in the Agency Toolkit. [si_guide_block id="42338" title="SEO proposal template" description="Quickly create…

The May 2020 core update highlights how different types of businesses are affected.

In the past, Google created and publicized named algorithm updates like ‘Panda’, ‘Penguin’ and ‘Hummingbird’ focused on introducing a major change to improve results quality. Google was fairly open about the goal of an update and the impact it could have. Today, named updates are less common, instead, you will probably have noticed that Google makes several ‘Core updates’ each year that it may announce through its Search liaison Twitter channel or its Webmaster Tools blog. In May we have seen a core update notified as usual via the Google Search Liaison Twitter channel that we recommend you follow: Source: https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/1257376879172038656 [si_guide_block id="80207" title="Download our Free Resource – 10 business-limiting SEO mistakes" description="all ‘hands-on’ marketers need to understand the main factors so they can ask the…

Applying common sense when optimizing your content for SEO and readers

Myths of good and bad practices in online marketing tend to be shared and reshared and can become self-perpetuating, so it can be confusing for newcomers to online marketing to understand what will work and what won't. Given the importance of SEO and the many ranking factors, it's not surprising that many myths have developed. I hear many of these SEO myths daily, so in this post, I hope to separate some of the facts from the fiction, specifically related to copywriting for SEO, highlighting the most common myths we are still seeing and how to avoid them. [si_cta_banner id=151860]

1. Insisting on 'keyword density'

Believe it or not, I still receive requests from clients for a specific percentage of keyword density in their copy. I always strongly advise against it [Editor's note - not a surprise, we were asked about the Recommended keyword…

Tracking all the usual metrics can help you measure SEO performance, but there are 3 other metrics you probably aren't tracking that could help make a big difference

SEO is all about generating organic traffic to a website and ensuring that the acquired organic traffic converts well. As an SEO professional, you're probably already be tracking a number of metrics, such as organic traffic, bounce rate, conversion rate, keyword rankings, backlinks earned etc. But, there are three metrics that most SEOs aren’t tracking but they really should be. [si_guide_block id="87442" title="Check out our Quick Win – 3 killer techniques to boost SEO" description="Here's three simple methods to give your website a huge boost in Google rankings - helping you gain more traffic and grow your audience. Start making a difference today."/] Let’s learn what’s these three metrics are and how to track them:

1. Organic traffic 'quality'

Organic traffic quality is a better metric to track…

Learn how to estimate your share of search for different keywords using Google Search Console, and how to perform a gap analysis to find your SEO gaps

Making better use of organic search has become particularly important in the 2020 pandemic where many businesses don't have the budget available to put into Google Ads or social ads. The gap analysis technique we will explain in this article is powerful in identifying new opportunities to increase organic traffic. Since search engines first became popular, search engine marketing has offered a fantastic way for businesses to grow awareness and sales as people search for their products and services. What better point in time to reach your target audience if they have a defined need? This recent marketing channel benchmark from search analysis service Brightedge shows that across different B2B sectors, both organic and paid search are major traffic drivers. …

Communicating relevant and meaningful site content to your audience is about way more than the keywords you target.

Yes, you heard me. SEO is not all about keywords and spending every waking hour tracking the algorithm changes until you’re blue in the face and more confused than when you started. Google has always been clear about its stance on providing meaningful content. So, instead of scrutinizing the technology behind the search, marketers really need to start directing their efforts towards prioritizing the content above the technology. It’s about providing communication between your brand and your audience’s needs and this is where priorities should lie in 2020 (and should have always lied in the previous years). Articles that are written and then copy checked for SEO second are fundamentally incorrect from their beginning sentences. If you write a blog, an article, a white paper or any form of content without your audience’s search intent…

How to rank higher on Google and what to do if your traffic suddenly drops

Everyone knows the importance of providing consistent and high-quality content on your website but determining what quality content actually looks like can be a bit tricky.

Why?

Because quality is subjective, of course, and while one person may enjoy one particular style of content, another may find it too long, not relevant enough or simply uninspiring.

Then, of course, you have Google. The Holy Grail of search engines. Everyone wants their content to rank highly on the site that receives over 63,000 searches every second.

That’s around two trillion searches per year by the way.

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