SEO
Good news and bad news for Local SEO
Between Apple and Google, can you guess who’s bringing good news, and who’s causing trouble?
More control over business appearance: Apple released Business Connect, a tool that allows you to customize how your brand information appears across Apple’s apps.
You can do this by managing all information directly in the interactive Apple Maps card, including adding photos and logos, inviting customers to take actions like ordering food, etc.
Also, a new Showcases feature in the place card helps you present special offers, promotions, and incentives. Nice.
So long, price range: Starting February 15, Google will only allow you to display product pricing if there’s a single value, instead of displaying a price range like before.
But wait, there’s more. Google will also stop supporting custom calls-to-action, saying that “current price ranges will be removed” and all landing pages will have a “Visit site” label. Huh.
Why we care: Apple introduced a welcome addition that may help local businesses optimize their appearance on iOS apps, particularly Maps and Wallet.
On the other hand, Google is making it difficult to list prices, especially if you’re providing a service where prices fluctuate.
So you’ll want to set either a fixed price—which may not be a good solution—or remove pricing altogether. Urgh…
In happier news…
YOUTUBE
Android is beating iOS in the battle of the apps
This may be a long year, but most videos will definitely be short.
At least, YouTube certainly thinks so. The company keeps adding new features built around its short-form content… and probably for good reason.
Fancy new dashboards: You can now see a breakdown of the subscribers to your channel based on content type in YouTube Studio.
With Shorts more likely to go viral and earn subscribers, this may be YouTube’s attempt to encourage users to produce more short form content. But hey, if it works…
Not done yet: That’s just the start. YouTube is also adding more features, including…
- Content type tabs in the YouTube Studio app that will help you see viewer history by videos, live-streams, and Shorts – basically showing you what content type is the most engaging.
- You can now select a frame from an uploaded shot as your Shorts thumbnail, allowing you to better customize Shorts content.
- And the member recognition shelf is getting extended to video descriptions on mobile, letting you display avatars of members inside the info card section.
And finally, there’s a new way to monetize your Shorts: YouTube announced a new monetization policy, replacing the YouTube Shorts Fund with ad revenue sharing starting February.
The new policy requires you to accept Shorts Monetization Module, and you won’t be able to monetize non-original, fake, or non-advertising-friendly content.
Check out the article above to get more information and examples on how to start earning.
Why we care: It’s the year of the shorts! YouTube seems to be doubling down on the format, so make sure you capitalize on the new trend and make the most of the new features!
SPONSORED BY RETENTION.COM
Abandonment issues? Here’s how you can grow online abandonment revenue by 5–10x… quickly
Did you know 7 out of 10 online shoppers abandon their carts? That’s billions of dollars of revenue lost every year.
In December 2022 alone, 88% of online shopping orders were abandoned. Ouch.
How much are you losing to abandoned carts?
Deep breaths… there’s a way you can reliably recoup some of those lost sales and lapsed customers.
Retention.com scales your Shopify email abandonment flows for “set-it-and-forget-it” ROI. From browse and product flows to cart abandonment, Retention.com powers your SMS and email flow revenue up to 10x.
Like Tonal, which saw Retention.com 10x their email list.
Or Blendjet, which made $1.8m over 30 days of emails.
Retention.com clients typically get started in less than a day and see provable ROI within hours.
SEO
So your page is ranking for the wrong keyword. Here’s what to do next…
A big misconception in SEO is that you have to rank at all costs.
However, if your high-ranking articles aren’t aligned with search intent, you may rack up impressions and clicks, but you won’t get any real conversions.
This also happens when one of your articles ranks for a particular keyword, even though you have a different article that is “better placed to rank.” It’s what we call “cannibalization.”
What should you do?
Zoe Ashbridge has some good ideas for solving this problem.
Let’s check ‘em out…
#1 – Decide which page to rank. Analyze your articles to see which ones are ranking high or driving traffic, but aren’t bringing actual results.
Check the keywords they rank for, and see whether the content reflects the search intent. Then, check other SERP results.
For example, if other results show product pages while yours is showing a guide or a listicle, it means the intent is to buy instead of to educate, so… adjust accordingly.
#2 – Assign keywords to pages. Google will evaluate your page next to high ranking competitors, so make sure you use keyword data to cover your topic thoroughly.
You can start by using third-party SEO tools to see which keywords return the same type of content, look at how your competitors are structuring their articles, and work from there.
#3 – Evaluate ranking content with your desired content. Yep, it’s time for more espionage. See what elements your competitors use to make their pages helpful.
Do they include high-quality images, graphs, or videos? If they use them, you may want to have them too. But ultimately, you still want to talk to your customers in your own voice.
#4 – Remove keywords from the deoptimized page. Now comes the chop. Find out which high ranking keywords in the old article will cannibalize your new and better one, and remove them.
Or, rewrite the original article so that it ranks for keywords that suit it better.
#5 – Strengthen internal linking. Link to the new page from different articles on your website by using related keywords as anchor text.
Also, you should replace similar links from the old page and redirect it to the new one.
Now, submit the page to indexing in the Google Search console, and that’s deoptimization done! Now you can wait and watch the new article take over…
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THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
How to brainstorm better angles for your copy
At the bottom of each Stacked Marketer newsletter, we have a fun little section called “Sharing Is Caring,” where we invite readers to refer Stacked Marketer to friends or colleagues.
We do this every single time we send out a newsletter—but we don’t always use the same copy.
In fact, we’ve currently got a document with 16 different versions we can choose from.
Here are some of the “ingredients” we mix and match:
- Premium content: We call out some of the premium Stack d Marketer Pro content you get access to when you share our newsletter.
- Social proof: We use quotes from readers about how much they enjoy the newsletter.
- Physical items: We mention specific physical items—like our mug—which you can get after hitting a certain amount of referrals.
- Status: We show how Stacked Marketer can be a serious value-add for your coworkers—and might just make you look a lot smarter.
- Reverse social proof: One angle we like to use features a negative review from a reader that states, “I only want email marketing. Not all marketing on planet earth.” It’s a great sell for the marketers out there that care about more than just email.
We mix and match these all the time. And it works!
The Crew’s insight: If you want higher-performing copy, grab a paper and a pen. Sure, your laptop is OK, too.
Write down all the different ingredients you might use to sell your product.
Then, mix and match these into as many angles as you can think of. Test them and see what sells.
Not a bad way to come up with fresh ideas, eh?
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
MARKETING OPPORTUNITY: Did you know there’s an industry with surging sales, recession immunity, and an e-commerce market share that crushes online retail? Our latest report contains everything savvy marketers need to succeed in the booming pet sector. Join SM Pro for $7 to get it.*
TWITTER: You can finally see only what you want to see. The “For you” and “Following” tabs help you switch between recommended tweets and tweets from the users you follow, and will replace “Home” and “Latest” tabs on iOS. Cool.
CONTENT MARKETING: Are you getting paid enough? According to this report, full time content marketers make more than $95k annually on average, with the highest-earning content marketer banking $286k this year. Not bad.
ADVERTISING: The recession is hitting TV advertisers hard, with total ad revenue expected to drop 8.2% this year. Local TV has forecasted a 18% decrease. So far, it looks like digital advertising is holding up better than traditional advertising. A silver lining maybe?
GOOGLE: It’s the search giant vs. an entire nation – again. A German anti-trust regulator is planning to force Google to give users more control over how their data is harvested and used. Will ad tracking get worse as a consequence? Hmm…
SEO: Rank better by offering your readers… a choice? Google just confirmed that linking to multiple merchants gives users options and will make the algorithm favor your article more. Good to know!
*This is a sponsored post
BRAIN TEASER
What’s as small as a mouse but guards a house like a lion?
You can find the answer here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Wanted: Hotdoggers
Hot roads, hot wheels, and hot dogs…
If you like seeing those things in the same sentence, you might be a perfect candidate for Oscar Mayer’s next wienermobile driver.
The famous sausage-shaped four wheeler has traveled the US for more than 80 years to entertain, inspire, and encourage people. To eat hot dogs, of course.
Think you have what it takes? Oscar Mayer wants “outgoing, creative, friendly, enthusiastic college graduates with an appetite for adventure.” Hey, that doesn’t sound demanding, but…
… Only 1% of all applicants get accepted. So it’s basically like Top Gun – for wienermobiles.
May the best dogger win.