Online search behavior is the perfect illustration of how “the only constant is change”. Your company will be left behind if your marketing isn’t adapting to the new realities of online search. Here is what’s happening now.
There Are More Ways to Search
Consumers are no longer restricted to traditional search engines like Google. They turn to social media platforms, YouTube, and even sites like Reddit to find information.
What’s happening is users – especially younger generations – value information and recommendations made by “real people” rather than companies. There is growing skepticism and lack of trust of content from paid sources. That includes product recommendations from influencers and even your well-meaning blogs.
These alternative search options typically include comments from multiple users making recommendations or a broader set of points about a topic. This not only increases the credibility of the information but also the depth of options to explore.
This diversification means your brand needs to be visible across multiple channels to capture potential customers wherever they search.
For starters, if you’re not using an EEAT approach to content it won’t be discovered or trusted. Simply put, people commenting or making recommendations outside of search engines are sharing things they’ve discovered online or which were shared with them.
Secondly, your company should be investing in maintaining a presence in social media, YouTube, and sites like Reddit or Pinterest. Think of them as “distribution channels”. If you’re creating trustworthy, high quality content on your website, you can post the information online so it can be discovered and shared.
The Updated SERP Experience Is Reducing Organic Traffic
Search engines are constantly changing the experience of the search results page. Google’s SERP experience is radically different than it was even 5 years ago. Google is attempting to bring greater value to the user by becoming more of a “knowledge engine” instead of a search engine.
AI-driven features in search engines are changing the game at a very rapid pace. Tools like Google’s AI snippets provide users with quick answers directly on the search page, reducing clicks on organic results.
Other features like the knowledge graph and rich snippets are eliminating the need to click through to a website. Google has even added the People Also Ask section, which acts as something of an expanded FAQ. If you add in maps, paid results, and shopping results, you will see that standard organic links are being crowded out.
The result is a significant decrease in organic traffic going to websites. One study suggests that up to 58% of searches don’t even leave Google. That’s an eye-popping statistic that should force you to think critically about your content strategy.
This demands a fresh approach to SEO that focuses on answering questions concisely and effectively within your content. You should also consider how your topic and keyword strategy can help you appear as the cited source within the new Google SERP experience. With Google’s new mission of providing reliable information (instead of just trustworthy sources), you can develop your content so that it becomes the knowledge base for Google’s results.
Rethink the Meaning of Content
Your content strategy must evolve to adapt to the changes in online search. Blogs and well-written pages are still important. But different media types, such as videos and infographics, cater to varied search preferences. White papers, slide shows, and even audio recordings allow you to distribute your content across a wider variety of online sources.
Focus on creating high-quality, engaging content that is easily digestible and can answer user queries quickly. In many ways you can quit worrying so much about jockeying for keyword rankings and instead create content that is actually useful for your audience.
For years we’ve recommended that clients develop their content to satisfy the needs of humans instead of Google’s robots. This is more important now than ever before. What do your buyers want to know? How can your product or service add value to their lives? How can you answer their biggest questions? Solving those problems will give you the best path to improving content quality.
Pay-Per-Click Still Drives Traffic
It’s no surprise that ads still get good placement in the new online search experience. Despite changes in organic search, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising remains a robust way to drive traffic. Search engines prioritize paid results (because, hello, money) and place them prominently on the results page.
While paid results only comprise a mere 3% of clicks, the conspicuous placement on the SERP experience gives you a greater click through rate (CTR) than most of your organic results. That’s because over 90% of people never make it to the second page of search results. The new Google SERP experience is only making it worse. The fact is, unless your content is ranking in the first 10 organic results, the vast majority of it is never being seen.
Investing in PPC can ensure your brand stays visible and continues to attract targeted traffic.
Most clients groan when we recommend pay-per-click advertising, but many industries are still thriving thanks to an investment in ads.
Your campaign setup is critical here. There are a variety of bidding strategies, keyword types, and ad placement options available. But knowing which one to choose and how to optimize it for success is where most people fail with advertising.
Your Website Needs to Deliver Conversions
With fluctuating traffic patterns, it’s crucial that your website is optimized for conversions. A user-friendly design, clear calls to action, and fast loading times can help turn visitors into customers. If your homepage accounts for most of your keyword rankings, you’ll need to ensure that it guides people through a conversion funnel where you can convert traffic into sales.
By maximizing your conversion rate, you can achieve better results from the traffic you do receive.
Think about it… the average conversion rate on a standard website is about 2.5%. All too often we see websites that perform at around .5% to 1%. If you build a website to double that amount, you’ve doubled the amount of leads (or sales!). Go even further with strong calls to action, lead forms, or featured product sections, and you could find yourself tripling or quadrupling those results.
A higher conversion rate quickly improves the ROI for your investment in content or ads. This is why we always start our consultation with a critical look at your website. If it’s not modernized or has a terrible User Experience, it will be the first thing we recommend to improve your marketing strategy.
The Old Approach Is Dead
Online search is evolving, and so should your marketing strategies. Failure to adapt means failure to succeed. There’s no polite way to put it. Diversifying your online presence and rethinking your approach to generating traffic will keep you ahead of your competitors.
If you’ve noticed your traffic declining, reach out to us now. You may be leaving money on the table due to a low conversion rate and there may be more juice to squeeze out of your approach. We can help you overcome the changing landscape and breathe life into your marketing strategy.