Competing in the SERPs is hard work nowadays. Standing out as one of ten blue links in Google is hard work so whatever you can do in order to increase your click through rate is a must.
Structured Data and Rich Snippets to the Rescue!
To get the star ratings featured snippets you need to be smart with your use of Schema. You also need to make sure that you have used the structured data testing tool to actually verify that Google snippets are actually being featured by the search engine.
There are a ton of plugins to get rich snippets with wordpress but hard coding them into the site is the best option.
We discuss:
– Recently Google has given SEOs a nice little Christmas gift, kind of like a search Santa Claus. Come here little girl.
– And, “What is that bulging in Google’s sack?” I hear you cry? It’s products. In particular, new product-based reporting, inside Google’s Search Console. With more and more rich results polluting, or should I say, making the search better for users, product rich results are becoming more prevalent, but we’re unable to report on them properly until now. So you can now go into the performance report inside of Search Console, and see the product results broken out, from the main results. So why is this important? Well, it’s more data, and the more data we have, the better we’re able to make decisions and become the one SEO to rule them all. It also means that we can start splitting out our reporting into more obvious KPIs. At Type A, we use as a structure of transactional, informational and conversational to split out and understand how a business is performing online. I actually also done a SEMrush Weekly Wisdom, on this exact topic, so if you’re interested in deep diving into the subject, link below in the description. If you’re on a site with a lot of image traffic, you may have recently seen Search Console do this.
– Look Ma, I’m roadkill.
– But don’t worry, it’s not your fault. It was a bug inside of Search Console that meant that between November 14th and 19th, Image, Click, and CTR data was lost. A Google spokesman officially said, “Some image collect data was dropped. “As a result, you might see a dip “in both click rate and CTR during this period. “The issue has been fixed. “The issue has only affected Search Console reporting, “but not your performance on Google Search.” And then essentially the SEO community went.
– Is it safe?
– Yes, it’s safe, it’s very safe, it’s so safe you wouldn’t believe it.
– Is it safe?
– A lot of SEOs have been reporting that their impressions are starting to increase, but their clicks are not increasing at the same rate. And they’ve kinda been like.
– The fuck is this?
– Well, the answer is rich answers and image carousels are showing up more and more in the mobile SERPs. A study by Perficient has said that rich answers in mobile SERPs have more than doubled, and image carousels are up 151% year-on-year. So what does this mean for mobile SEO?
– We’re doomed!
– Doomed!
– Doomed!
– No no, only kidding. It means that your strategy is going to really need to change, and you should be seriously looking at the intent behind the keywords as well as the composition of the SERPs themselves. So most of you will be rank-tracking keywords and their search volumes, but do you know what percentage of the SERPs have rich results? Do you know what your rankings look like broken down by SERP type? And do you truly know what your keyword portfolio looks like, when it comes to carousels, news, and image results and things of that nature?
– Eh, no.
– Well, maybe it’s time to update your reporting and keyword strategy, so we can start targeting things that are going to get clicks, instead of just get “brand visibility”. And oh, by the way, if you work with an SEO consultant that says it’s great because we’re getting “brand visibility”, I suggest you do this to them.
– Silence!
– What is the one thing we know about Google? Well, they’re like ♪ I want money ♪ ♪ That’s what I want ♪
– That’s right, they’re doing their usual place of market dominance and using their monopoly to decimate another industry and become the middle-man to make sure they take a cut of everything. They’re kind of like a bit of a digital mafia in a way, being like.
– Now, what you gonna do?
– Make more money!
– That’s the spirit!
– So now they’re coming after the car rental market, showing comparison ads for car rental prices, this means the organic SERP is going lower and lower, way below the fold. So when questioned, someone at Google said, “We’re always testing new ways to improve “the experience for advertisers and users, “but don’t have anything specific to announce right now.” Ah, users, I’m sorry I think you misspelled shareholders. It’s not 100% rolled-out, and they’ve not officially announced they’re gonna start. However, the trend with Google Ads is definitely skewed towards finding more inventory for them to make more money over time. Something that seems that it’s not gonna go away. So what should you do if you’re in the car rental space? Well, it looks like the traffic to your business is about to become commoditized. So all you can really do, is go back to basics, and focus on the core things. Build a stronger brand, and a better value proposition. For the old school veterans out there, you will remember Google Plus, as Google’s failed attempt to get in on the Social Networking game. With it sadly being put in the Google product graveyard last year. Kind of like dust in the wind. ♪ All we are is dust in the wind, ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ♪ ♪ You’re my boy, Blue! ♪
– Well with a new feature, you can follow local guides on people’s GMB profiles. And this means that you can get local recommendations from local people that have experienced the places first hand. It’s kind of bringing the old school world of the upper-class socialite to digital, with local guides now being the taste-makers, and the unpaid critics of a particular area. I just hope no one gets ideas above their station and starts going all “Gordon Ramsay” on things.
– Dress me a fucking salad!
– So as a business, how can you take advantage of this feature to drive more traffic to your store or restaurant? Well you need to make sure that you have a good GMB strategy for your business. That means following up on email and social to get reviews, maybe encourage people to take photographs, or even, what we would do, is reach out to these new people that you can follow, who’ve got high numbers of followers, and ask them to come review your store or restaurant. It’ll massively increase your visibility, and it’ll create a really great brand association between you, your Google My Business profile, and your new customers coming in. That’s everything for this week’s Canonical Chronicle, we hope you’ve enjoyed it. Please leave a comment down below and let me know, how these algorithm updates have affected you this week, and of course, please subscribe to our email newsletter, where you’ll get the free swipe file of everything that’s happened in Google this week, but, until next time, we will see you later.
