The concept of expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (E-A-T) has played a central role in ranking keywords and websites – and not just in recent years. 

Speaking at SMX Next, Hyung-Jin Kim, VP of Search at Google, announced that Google has been implementing E-A-T principles for ranking for more than 10 years.

Why is E-A-T so important?

In his SMX 2022 keynote, Kim noted:

“E-A-T is a template for how we rate an individual site. We do it to every single query and every single result. It’s pervasive throughout every single thing we do.”

From this statement, it is clear that E-A-T is important not just for YMYL pages but for all topics and keywords. Today, E-A-T seemingly impacts many different areas in Google’s ranking algorithms.

For several years, Google has been under much pressure about misinformation in search results. This is underscored in the white paper “How Google fights disinformation,” presented in February 2019 at the Munich Security Conference. 

Google wants to optimize its search system to provide great content for the respective search queries depending on the user’s context and consider the most reliable sources. The quality raters play a special role here.

“A key part of our evaluation process is getting feedback from everyday users about whether our ranking systems and proposed improvements are working well. But what do we mean by “working well”? We publish publicly available rater guidelines that describe in great detail how our systems intend to surface great content.” 

Evaluation according to E-A-T criteria is crucial for quality raters.

“They evaluate whether those pages meet the information needs based on their understanding of what that query was seeking, and they consider things like how authoritative and trustworthy that source seems to be on the topic in the query. To evaluate things like expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness—sometimes referred to as “E-A-T”—raters are asked to do reputational research on the sources.” 

A distinction must be made between the document’s relevance and the source’s quality. The ranking magic at Google takes place in two areas. 

• The relevance scoring at the document level.
• The quality assessment according to E-A-T at the domain or entity level. (Dig deeper: Entities and E-A-T: The role of entities in authority and trust)

This becomes clear when you take a look at the statements made by various Google spokespersons about a quality score at the document and domain level.

In his SMX West 2016 presentation titled How Google Works: A Google Ranking Engineer’s Story, Paul Haahr shared the following:

“Another problem we were having was an issue with quality and this was particularly bad. We think of it as around 2008, 2009 to 2011. We were getting lots of complaints about low-quality content and they were right.

We were seeing the same low-quality thing but our relevance metrics kept going up and that’s because the low-quality pages can be very relevant.

This is basically the definition of a content form in our vision of the world so we thought we were doing great.

Our numbers were saying we were doing great and we were delivering a terrible user experience and turned out we weren’t measuring what we needed to. So what we ended up doing was defining an explicit quality metric which got directly at the issue of quality. It’s not the same as relevance…

And it enabled us to develop quality related signals separate from relevant signals and really improve them independently. So when the metrics missed something, what ranking engineers need to do is fix the rating guidelines… or develop new metrics.”

(This quote is from the part of the talk on the quality rater guidelines and E-A-T.)

Haahr also mentioned that:

• Trustworthiness is the most important part of E-A-T. 
• The criteria mentioned in the quality rater guidelines for bad and good content and websites, in general, are the benchmark pattern for how the ranking system should work.

In 2016, John Mueller stated the following in a Google Webmaster Hangout:

“For the most part, we do try to understand the content and the context of the pages individually to show them properly in search. There are some things where we do look at a website overall though.

So for example, if you add a new page to a website and we’ve never seen that page before, we don’t know what the content and context is there, then understanding what kind of a website this is helps us to better understand where we should kind of start with this new page in search.

So that’s something where there’s a bit of both when it comes to ranking. It’s the pages individually, but also the site overall.

I think there is probably a misunderstanding that there’s this one site-wide number that Google keeps for all websites and that’s not the case. We look at lots of different factors and there’s not just this one site-wide quality score that we look at.

So we try to look at a variety of different signals that come together, some of them are per page, some of them are more per site, but it’s not the case where there’s one number and it comes from these five pages on your website.”

Here, Mueller emphasizes that in addition to the classic relevance ratings, there are also rating criteria that relate to the thematic context of the entire website. 

This means that there are signals Google takes into account to classify and evaluate the entire website thematically. The proximity to the E-A-T rating is obvious.

Various passages on E-A-T and the quality rater guidelines can be found in the Google white paper previously mentioned:

“We continue to improve on Search every day. In 2017 alone, Google conducted more than 200,000 experiments that resulted in about 2,400 changes to Search. Each of those changes is tested to make sure it aligns with our publicly available Search Quality Rater Guidelines, which define the goals of our ranking systems and guide the external evaluators who provide ongoing assessments of our algorithms.”

“The systems do not make subjective determinations about the truthfulness of webpages, but rather focus on measurable signals that correlate with how users and other websites value the expertise, trustworthiness, or authoritativeness of a webpage on the topics it covers.”

“Ranking algorithms are an important tool in our fight against disinformation. Ranking elevates the relevant information that our algorithms determine is the most authoritative and trustworthy above information that may be less reliable. These assessments may vary for each webpage on a website and are directly related to our users’ searches. For instance, a national news outlet’s articles might be deemed authoritative in response to searches relating to current events, but less reliable for searches related to gardening.”

“Our ranking system does not identify the intent or factual accuracy of any given piece of content. However, it is specifically designed to identify sites with high indicia of expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.”

“For these “YMYL” pages, we assume that users expect us to operate with our strictest standards of trustworthiness and safety. As such, where our algorithms detect that a user’s query relates to a “YMYL” topic, we will give more weight in our ranking systems to factors like our understanding of the authoritativeness, expertise, or trustworthiness of the pages we present in response.”

The following statement is particularly interesting as it becomes clear how powerful E-A-T can be in certain contexts and concerning events compared to classic relevance factors.

“To reduce the visibility of this type of content, we have designed our systems to prefer authority over factors like recency or exact word matches while a crisis is developing.”

The effects of E-A-T could be seen in various Google core updates in recent years.

E-A-T influences rankings – but it is not a ranking factor

Plenty of discussions in recent years centered on whether E-A-T influences rankings and, if so, how.  Almost all SEOs agree it is a concept or a kind of layer that supplements the relevance scoring. 

Google confirms that E-A-T is not a ranking factor. There is also no E-A-T score. 

E-A-T comprises various signals or criteria and serves as a blueprint for how Google’s ranking algorithms should determine expertise, authority and trust (i.e., quality).

However, Google also speaks of a rating applied algorithmically to every search query and result. In other words, there must be signals or data that can be used as a basis for an assessment.

Google uses the manual ratings of the search evaluators as training data for the self-learning ranking algorithms (keyword: supervised machine learning) to identify patterns for high-quality content and sources. 

This brings Google closer to the E-A-T evaluation criteria in the quality rater guidelines.

If the content and sources rated as high or poor by the search evaluators repeatedly show the same specific pattern and the frequency of these pattern properties reaches a threshold value, Google could also take these criteria/signals into account for the ranking in the future.

In my opinion, E-A-T is made up of different origins:

• Entity-based rating.
• Coati (ex-Panda) based rating.
• Link-based rating.

To rate sources such as domains, publishers or authors, Google accesses an entity-based index such as the Knowledge Graph or Knowledge Vault. Entities can be brought into a thematic context, and the entities’ connection can be recorded.

To evaluate the content quality related to individual documents and the entire domain, Google can fall back on tried and tested algorithms from Panda or Coati today.

PageRank is the only signal for E-A-T officially confirmed by Google. Google has been using links to assess trust and authority for over 20 years.

Based on Google patents and official statements, I have summarized concrete signals for an algorithmic E-A-T evaluation in this infographic.

SEOs must differentiate these possible signals to positively influence E-A-T.

On-page

Signals that come from your own website. This is about the content as a whole and in detail.

Off-page

Signals coming from external sources. This can be external content, videos, audio or search queries that can be crawled by Google. 

Links and co-occurrences from the name of the company, the publisher, the author or the domain in connection with thematically relevant terms are particularly important here. 

The more frequently these co-occurrences appear, the more likely the main entities have something to do with the topic and the associated keyword cluster. 

These co-occurrences must be identifiable or crawlable by Google. Only then can you be recognized by Google and included in the E-A-T concept. In addition to co-occurrences in online texts, co-occurrences in search queries are also a source for Google.

Sentiment

Google uses natural language processing to analyze the mood around people, products and company entities. 

Reviews from Google, Yelp or other platforms can be used here with the option of leaving a rating. 

Google patents deal with this, such as “Sentiment detection as a ranking signal for reviewable entities.”

Through these findings, SEOse can derive concrete measures for positively influencing E-A-T signals.

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15 ways to improve your E-A-T

With E-A-T, Google is ultimately trying to adapt "thematic brand positioning" that marketers have used for centuries to establish brands in combination with messages in people's minds. 

The more often a person perceives a person and/or a provider in a certain thematic context, the more trust they will give to the product, the service provider, and the medium.

In addition, authority increases if this entity is:

• Mentioned more frequently in thematic contexts than other market participants.
• Positively referenced by other credible and authoritarian sources. 

Through these repetitions, a neural network in the brain is retrained. We are perceived as a brand with thematic authority and trustworthiness.

As a result, Google's neural network also learns who is an authority and, thus, trustworthy for one or more topics. This applies in particular to co-occurrences in the awareness, consideration and preference phases.

The further you position yourself in the customer journey for topics, the broader the keyword cluster Google associates with. If this link is drawn, you belong to the relevant set with your own content.

These co-occurrences can be generated, for example, through:

• Appropriate on-page content.
• Appropriate internal linking.
• Appropriate off-page content.
• External/incoming links, anchor texts and the environment of the link influencing search patterns.

You have a lot of creative leeways, especially with off-page signals. But there are also no typical SEO measures that cause co-occurrence here.

As a result, those responsible for SEO are increasingly becoming the interface between technology, editing, marketing and PR.

Below is a summary of possible concrete measures to optimize E-A-T.

1. Create sufficient topic-relevant content on your own website 

Building semantic topic worlds within your website shows Google that you have in-depth knowledge and expertise on a topic. 

2. Link semantically-appropriate content with the main content 

When building up semantic topic worlds, the individual content should be meaningfully linked to one another. 

A possible user journey should also be taken into account. What interests the consumer next or additionally? 

Outgoing links are useful if they show the user and Google that you are referring to other authoritative sources.

3. Collaborate with recognized experts as authors, reviewers, co-authors and influencers

"Recognized" means that they are already recognized online as experts by Google through:

• Online publications.
• Amazon author profiles.
• Their own blogs and websites.
• Social media profiles.
• Profiles on university websites.
• And more.

It is important that the authors show references that can be crawled by Google in the respective thematic context. This is particularly recommended for YMYL topics. 

Authors who themselves have long published web-findable content on the topic are preferable, as they are most likely known as an entity in the topical ontology.

4. Expand your share of content on a topic

The more content a company or author publishes on a topic, the greater its share of the document corpus relevant to the topic. 

This increases the thematic authority on the topic. Whether this content is published on your website or in other media doesn't matter. What’s important is that they can be recorded by Google. 

For instance, the proportion of your own topic-relevant content can be expanded beyond your website through guest articles in other relevant authority media. The more authoritative they are, the better.

Other ways to increase your share of content include:

• Creating thematically appropriate guest posts and linking this content with your own website and social media profiles.
• Arranging interviews on relevant topics.
• Giving lectures at specialist events.
• Participating in webinars as a speaker.

5. Write text in simple terms

Google uses natural language processing to understand content and mine data on entities. 

Simple sentence structures are easier for Google to capture than complex sentences. You should also call entities by name and only use personal pronouns to a limited extent. Content should be created with logical paragraphs and subheadings in mind for readability. 

6. Use TF-IDF analyses for content creation

Tools for TF-IDF analysis can be used to identify semantically related sub-entities that should appear in content on a topic. Using such terms demonstrates expertise.

7. Avoid superficial and thin content

The presence of a lot of thin or superficial content on a domain might cause Google to devalue your website in terms of quality. Delete or consolidate thin or superficial content instead.

8. Fill the knowledge gap

Most content you see online is a curation or copy of existing information that is already mentioned in hundreds or thousands of other pieces of content. 

True expertise is achieved by adding new perspectives and aspects to a topic.

9. Adhere to a consensus 

In a scientific paper, Google describes knowledge-based trust as how content sources are evaluated based on the consensus of information with popular opinion. 

This can be crucial, especially for YMYL topics (i.e., medical topics), to rank your content on the first search results.

10. Create fact-based content with links to authoritative sources 

Information and statements should be backed up with facts and supported with appropriate links to authoritative sources.

This is especially important for YMYL topics.

11. Be transparent about authors, publishers and their other content and commitments

Author boxes are not a direct ranking signal for Google, but they can help to find out more about a previously unknown author entity. 

An imprint and an “About us” page are also advantages. Also, include links to:

• Commitments.
• Content.
• Profiles as authors, speakers, and association memberships.
• Social media profiles.

Entity names are advantageous as link texts to your representations. Structured data, such as schema markup, is also recommended.

12. Avoid too many advertising banners and recommendation ads 

Aggressive advertising (i.e., Outbrain or Taboola ads) that influences website use can lead to a lower trust score.

13. Create co-competition outside of your own website through marketing and communication

With E-A-T, it is vital to position yourself as a brand thematically by:

• Linking to subject-related specialist publications from your website so that Google can assign them more quickly and easily.
• Building links from thematically relevant environments.
• Offline advertising to influence search patterns on Google or create suitable co-occurrences in search queries (TV advertising, flyers, advertisements). Note that this is not pure image advertising but rather advertising that contributes to positioning in a subject area.
• Co-operating with suppliers or partners to ensure suitable co-occurrences.
• Creating PR campaigns for suitable co-occurrences. (No pure image PR.)
• Generating buzz in social networks around your own entity.

14. Optimize user signals on your own website 

Analyze search intent for each main keyword. The content’s purpose should always match the search intent.

15. Generate great reviews

People tend to report negative experiences with companies in public.

This can also be a problem for E-A-T, as it can lead to negative sentiment around the company. That's why you should encourage satisfied customers to share their positive experiences.

The post How to improve E-A-T for websites and entities appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Twitter has just launched new ad targeting options, including a new ‘Conversions’ objective they originally announced back in August.

The new ‘Conversions’ objective. Advertisers are now able to focus their ad campaigns on those users who are most likely to take specific actions.

Previously, Twitter advertisers were able to optimize campaigns to focus on clicks, site visits, and conversions. But now you can further optimize for page views, content views, add-to-cart, and purchases.

As I mentioned, the updates were announced in August but released just before Thanksgiving.

What Twitter says. “Website Conversions Optimization (WCO) is a major rebuild of our conversion goal that will improve the way advertisers reach customers who are most likely to convert on a lower-funnel website action (e.g. add-to-cart, purchase).”

So instead of just aiming to reach people who are likely to tap on your ad, you can expand that focus to reach users that are more likely to take next-step actions beyond that, like:

• Add-to-cart
• Purchase
• Register contact info
• Subscribe

“Our user-level algorithms will then target with greater relevance, reaching people most likely to meet your specific goal – at 25% lower cost-per-conversion on average, per initial testing.”

Dynamic Product Ads. Dynamic Product Ads were initially launched in 2016 (a version at least). But this new update integrates a more privacy-focused approach, in order to optimize ad performance with potentially fewer signals.

Collection Ads. The Collection Ads format enables advertisers to share a primary hero image, along with smaller thumbnail images below it.

Twitter says, “The primary image remains static while people can browse through the thumbnails via horizontal scroll. When tapped, each image can drive consumers to a different landing page.”

Dig deeper. Read the full article on the Twitter blog.

Why we care. Yes, Twitter is still releasing new ad updates, despite cutting most of its staff. But it’s likely that these updates were almost completely finished anyway when Musk took over since they had been in development for months.

Advertisers who are still on Twitter should test the new ad features and options to gauge whether they’re valuable additions.

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Yahoo has just finalized a 30-year exclusive advertising partnership in Taboola, which would secure a 25% stake in the company. This deal will allow Yahoo to use Taboola’s tech to manage its native ads.

Taboola’s native edge. Taboola specializes in native ads which can be found on popular sites like CNN and MSN. The ads typically look like part of the website and can be informative or entertaining.

However, shares of Taboola have fallen nearly 80% since last year. In January, it merged with a special purpose acquisition company and was valued at $2.6 billion.

The deal with Yahoo gives Taboola the exclusive license to sell native ads across Yahoo’s sites, and the companies will share revenue from those ad sales. The companies did not disclose the terms of the revenue split. The deal will make Yahoo Taboola’s largest shareholder.

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Meta and TikTok weigh in. Executives at companies like Meta and TikTok have warned that advertisers skittish about the economy have pulled back on their spending. But Jim Lanzone, the chief executive of Yahoo, said in an interview that the deal with Taboola puts both companies in a good position for when the ad market revives, the NY Times said.

“I’m thinking, you know, five, 10, 30 years,” Lanzone said. “Digital advertising has huge wind at its back over the long term.” He added that while the company will continue to try to bring in money in other ways, such as expanding its subscription business or investing in e-commerce, “we have hundreds of millions of people consuming news and sports and finance on market-leading properties that are heavily monetized through advertising — and will continue to be.”

Dig deeper. You can read the full article from the NY Times here.

Why we care. Advertisers who run native ads may now have another option to expand their reach. Yahoo also commented that they were attempting to "build up each of its products within its mini-media empire and capitalize on its audience." If this happens it will give advertisers and brands a more competitive edge in choosing which platforms to spend their marketing dollars.

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Inflation and “sagging consumer sentiment” accounted for relatively muted Black Friday in the US this year. However, the numbers show that shopping centers are making a comeback, as people are enjoying brick-and-mortar shopping experiences again.

Adobe Analytics said online sales rose 2.3% to $9.12 billion. The company’s initial projection was $9 billion, (for perspective, this percentage increase lagged far behind the country’s inflation rate, which is running at almost 8%).

Shopping statistics. Brick-and-mortar retailers, who for the last two Black Fridays contended with Covid-19 outbreaks and restrictions, saw in-store visits tick up this year by 2.9% compared to 2021, according to a report by Sensormatic Solutions. Interestingly, visits to physical stores on Thanksgiving Day increased by 19.7% compared to last year.

Enclosed mall traffic increased 1.2%, and traffic to non-malls, such as strip centers and standalone stores, increased 4.7% compared to Black Friday 2021, Bloomberg reports. Some reports indicate that though the crowds were smaller, shoppers waited in line much longer due to many stores experiencing staffing issues.

Shopify merchants break records. Shopify announced a record-setting Black Friday with sales of $3.36* billion from the start of Black Friday in New Zealand through the end of Black Friday in California.

• Peak sales per minute: $3.5 million USD on Black Friday at 12:01 PM EST
• Top selling countries and cities where shoppers made purchases from: United States, United Kingdom and Canada, with the top-selling cities on Black Friday including London, New York, and Los Angeles
• Top product categories: Apparel & accessories, followed by health & beauty, and home & garden, with trending products including Snocks GmbH (Boxershorts), rhode (peptide glazing fluid), and Brooklinen (Luxe Core Sheet Set)**
• Average cart price: $102.31 USD or $105.10 USD on a constant currency basis  
• 15%: Cross-border orders worldwide on Black Friday as a percentage of total orders 
• 27%: Growth in POS sales made by Shopify merchants globally over last year’s Black Friday
• Economic uncertainty drove many to alternative payment methods. For example, buy now, pay later (BNPL) orders jumped 78% the week of November 19 compared with the previous week. BNPL revenues rose 81% over the same period

What Shopify says. “Black Friday Cyber Monday has grown into a full-on shopping season. The weekend that started it all is still one of the biggest commerce events of the year, and our merchants have broken Black Friday sales records again,” said Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify. “Our merchants have built beloved brands with loyal communities that support them. This weekend, we’re celebrating the incredible power of entrepreneurship on a global stage.” 

Dig deeper. You can read the entire article from Bloomberg here.

Why we care. Consumers are still spending. Ecommerce merchants and advertisers who promote online should still prioritize and continue to run ads, even after the BFCM holiday. Though many are still facing supply chain issues, testing different discounts and offers should be top of mind going into the Christmas season.

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Microsoft is looking to double its ad business from $10 billion a year to $20 billion in revenue. Leadership didn’t specify a timeframe, but if their goal is reached, it will become the sixth-largest digital ad seller worldwide.

Microsoft’s multiple ad properties. Microsoft’s ad properties include Bing search, Xbox, MSN and many other websites that use Xandr to sell digital ads. Microsoft also introduced vertical ad formats, credit card ads, and expanded its audience network into 66 new markets.

Search and news revenue up 16%. Microsoft reported their FY23 Q1 ad revenue is up 16%. But CFO Amy Hood told analysts during the earnings call that “reductions in customer advertising spend, which also weakened later in the quarter, impacted search in advertising and LinkedIn marketing solutions.”

But the search and advertising bump was “driven by higher search volume and Xandr.” Nadella says Microsoft has “expanded the geographies we serve by nearly 4x over the past year.” Microsoft Edge may also be helping out with Bing search and advertising revenues. “Edge is the fastest growing browser on Windows and continues to gain share as people use built-in coupon and price comparison features to save money,” says Nadella.

Rob Wilk, corporate vice president of Microsoft Advertising said that he intends to make buying ads across assets easier for partners. “We have a lot of plumbing work to do,” he said in an October interview. “Microsoft also needs to differentiate itself from competitors that have similar properties but have far more mature advertising businesses, like Google. Wilk said Microsoft is more “partner oriented” than Google.”

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Netflix. The new Netflix partnership was launched this month and allows advertisers to purchase ads through the demand side platform Xandr. Microsoft will take a reseller fee, and experts predict that the partnership will be a huge revenue driver, easily clearing $10 billion in ad sales or more.

Gaming. Another great revenue driver for Microsoft is gaming. The acquisition of Activision Blizzard is still pending, but in-game ad revenue could be a unique selling point if the ads can be bought through Xandr.

Dig deeper. You can read the full article from Business Insider here.

Why we care. As Microsoft's ad business grows, it means greater opportunities for advertisers who are looking to expand their reach beyond Google and Facebook. Additional options such as in-game ads, Netflix, and the demand-side platform Xandr will open doors for both publishers and brands alike.

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Rick and Morty. 

Hall and Oates. 

Coffee and bourbon. 

Rich results and structured data. 

All four: iconic duos. But only one can generate over $80k in revenue once added to your website. 

On May 17, 2016, Google introduced the concept of “rich cards.” Google has revived rich cards into what SEO professionals call rich results today. Rich results were created to make a more engaging experience on Google’s search result pages. 

The result of rich results is a crowd-pleasing SEO tactic that produces an average of 58 clicks per 100 queries. Rich results are a dry and smooth SEO move, with flavors of structured data sprinkled with schema markup alongside sweeter code of JSON-LD. 

In the words of the 2022 Women in Tech SEO mentor, Anne Berlin:

• “For my money, I’d recommend implementing your rich result strategy from the get-go with as much detail as possible to extend the window of time before a change in policy forces you to make an overhaul to return your site to eligibility for a rich result which was previously driving traffic.”

Rich results make a great eye-opener and a quick win to start a new SEO project. And our need for SEO quick wins has never been greater.

Ahead are 22 things every SEO professional needs to know about rich results.

1. Rich snippets (previously rich cards) are now officially called rich results

Let’s be honest: Google changes names almost as often as Kanye West. As of today, Kanye West’s official name is now Ye. It’s got a Cher and Madonna vibe to it. 

I digress.

When Google first released what SEO professionals call rich results today, rich results were called rich snippets, then rich cards.

Rich snippets and rich cards are rich results.  

If you call rich results, rich snippets, or rich cards, you might as well start talking about your troll collection from the ’90s. (Remember yesterday? We were so young then.)

2. Rich results, schema, and structured data are not the same

There is a difference between rich results, schema markup, and structured data. 

Schema markup (also called structured data format)

Google doesn’t describe exactly what schema markup is because “schema” is a part of a language from schema.org. 

While schema.org is helpful, Google clarifies that SEO professionals should rely on Google Search Central documentation because schema.org isn’t focused only on Google search behavior. 

Google refers to schema markup as “structured data format.”

Think of schema markup (or structured data format) as the language needed to create structured data. 

Schema markup (or structured data format) is required before you can move on to structured data. 

Structured data

Again, in Google’s words:

“Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content; for example, on a recipe page, what are the ingredients, the cooking time and temperature, the calories, and so on.”

Ryan Levering, a software engineer at Google, breaks structured data down even further.

Rich results

In Google’s words:

“Rich results are experiences on Google Search that go beyond the standard blue link. They’re powered by structured data and can include carousels, images, or other non-textual elements. Over the last couple years we’ve developed the Rich Results Test to help you test your structured data and preview your rich results.”

3. Always use Google documentation instead of schema.org 

Schema.org is often used by SEO professionals when writing schema markups. 

But the reality is Google wants you to use Google’s documentation. Not surprising, right?

Google’s own John Mueller himself answers this question in an episode of Ask A Google Webmaster. 

And Google directly states it in its Introduction to Structured Data documentation. 

4. There are 32 different rich result types

In Google’s search gallery for structured data today, there are 32 different rich result types. 

The rich result types include: 

• Article
• Book
• Breadcrumb
• Carousel (only available for recipes, courses, restaurants, and movies)
• Course
• Dataset
• Education Q&A 
• Employer aggregate rating
• Estimated salary
• Event
• Fact check
• FAQ
• Home activities
• How-to
• Image metadata
• Job posting
• Learning video
• Local business
• Logo
• Math solvers
• Movie
• Podcast
• Practice problems
• Product
• Q&A
• Recipe
• Review snippet
• Sitelinks search box
• Software app
• Speakable
• Subscription and paywalled content
• Video

5. Google Search Console doesn’t support all rich result types in its report

Have you ever looked at the Enhancements section in Google Search Console? 

The Enhancement report gives SEO professionals the opportunity to monitor and track the performance of rich results. 

Daniel Waisvery, Search Advocate at Google, shares how to monitor and optimize your performance in Google Search Console with rich results. 

Unfortunately, Google Search Console only provides monitoring for 22 out of the 32 rich result types. 

Google Search Console supports these 22 rich result types: 

• Breadcrumb
• Dataset
• Education Q&A
• Event
• FAQ
• Fact check
• Guided recipe
• How-to
• Image metadata
• Job posting
• Learning video
• Logo
• Math solvers
• Merchant listings
• Practice problems
• Product snippet
• Q&A page
• Recipe
• Review snippet
• Sitelinks searchbox
• Special announcement
• Video

6. The Knowledge Graph is a type of rich result

Spoiler alert: the Knowledge Graph is a type of rich result. 

You know, these things you see in the SERPs.

Bonus tip: Kristina Azarenko (featured in the knowledge graph above) has an epic course with copious amounts of technical SEO knowledge. I’ve taken it, and I’m a better SEO professional for it. And, no she didn’t pay me to say this. 

7. Featured snippets are a type of rich result

Just when you thought you could read another SEO article and not see “featured snippets” again, here I am showcasing featured snippets. 

It looks like Google will continue to support this tactic as we’re seeing more FAQ rich results displayed in Google search. 

The most effective way to review this change is via Semrush. Filtering with instances where the subfolder ranks within FAQ rich results, we can see the uplift. This uplift correlates with other tools such a RankRanger and Moz, which show an overview of this data publicly. pic.twitter.com/ZxKjuqAwgB

— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) May 25, 2022

8. You can have more than one type of rich result on one page

Video rich results. Breadcrumb rich results. FAQ rich results. All great things on their own. But better together when using markup on one page. 

Can you guess how many rich results this product page from Keen Footwear has? 

If you answered three rich results, please pat yourself on the back (and enjoy a virtual hug from me). 

9. Rich result enhancements are ‘a thing’

Gosia Poddębniak from Onely wrote a great piece on rich results. He explains enhancements from rich results perfectly. 

Essentially, the rich result enhancements you can achieve are based on the original rich result you’re going after. 

For example, job posting structure data has multiple properties like date, description, organization, job location title, application location requirements, base salary, apply, employment type, etc.

The more properties you complete, the more enhancements you could get in Google SERPs. 

10. Rich results must be written in JSON-LD, microdata or RDFa

If you want to be eligible for Google’s rich results, your markup has to be in JSON-LD, microdata or RDFa. 

Gentlepeople, I give you: the Googleys. It’s like trying to be eligible for an Emmy, except you’re only eligible for a Google rich result. 

JSON-LD, microdata, and RDFa are linked data formats. Ironically, JSON-LD is a form of RDF syntax. 

Basically, these linked data formats help Google connect entities to other entities to help search engines better understand the context. 

11. JSON-LD is the preferred rich result format

It’s official from the Sirs at Google, JSON-LD is the recommended structured data. 

Why is JSON-LD the preferred rich result format?

It’s easy to implement and doesn’t impact page speed performance because it loads asynchronously. 

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12. It does not matter where on the page JSON-LD is implemented

Unlike many SEO-related code changes, structured data format does not need to go in the <head> section of your website. 

Structured data format can be placed anywhere on your website. 

13. Use a tool to automate your markup

I’m reminiscing about the words of the legendary Oprah, “You get a car. You get a car.”  

So in honor of Oprah, this is your moment of freedom. Yes, you get a rich result tool. You don’t have to be a web developer to add markup to your website. 

If you’re using WordPress, plugins like Yoast SEO or RankMath do it for you. 

If you’re using Shopify, there are tools in the app store. 

If you’re on Drupal or Sitecore (or any other enterprise website custom-coded language), I’d recommend SchemaApp. 

Or, if you’re into Google Tag Manager, you can add structured data with GTM. 

Just be careful. When I spoke with Anne Berlin, Senior Technical SEO at Lumar, she shared that this can backfire on very slow sites. 

• “Where there is an excessive amount of (particularly render-blocking third party) Javascript on a site, the schema may not be injected into the DOM before googlebot's render timeout window is hit, and it moves on from the page. So this is a commonly used method, and has multiple advantages, but important to be aware that there may periodically be detection or validation issues when this method is used on an already slow template.”

14. Always test using the rich result test tool

The rich result tool is your friend. 

At the risk of stating the obvious, this rich result test tool is – very useful.

Mostly because now you don’t have to understand what entities, predicates, or URIs are in relation to linked data formats. 

If you’re testing in a staging environment, test with the rich result test tool. 

After your webpage is live, test with the rich result test tool. 

15. If your rich result violates a quality guideline, it will not be displayed in Google SERPs

If you violate Google’s quality guidelines, the chances of your rich result appearing in the search results are about as good as Blockbuster making a comeback.

It’s not going to happen. 

16. You can receive a manual action if your rich result violates Google’s guidelines

The only worse than logging into Google Search Console to see you’ve received a manual action is the great Sriracha shortage of 2022. 

Repeat after me: I can receive a manual action if your page contains spammy structured data. 

One more time. 

I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve worked with that asked me to markup reviews and ratings that weren’t made by actual users. 

This is against Google’s completeness guidelines, and you will receive a manual action. 

17. Google will not show a rich result for content that is no longer relevant

If you have content that is no longer relevant, Google will not display a rich result. 

For example, if your job posting is outdated after 3 months, Google will not display a rich result. You must update the job posting. 

Or if you’re streaming live and labeling the broadcast as local events, but it’s outdated. Google will not display the rich result. 

18. If the rich result is missing required properties, it will not appear in the SERPs

There are a set of “required properties” Google must have for the rich result to appear in the search results. 

For example, if you want to markup an article page, you will need the recommended properties:

• Author
• Author name
• Author URL
• Date modified
• Date published
• Headline
• Image

19. Always include recommended properties when available

If Google provides recommended property options, use them. 

Lucky me, I’ve had the joy of working with Berlin, fellow SEO and plant lover, who shared her thoughts on recommended properties. 

• “When making a play for the added SERP real estate and CTR of product rich results, it is strongly advisable to fulfill more than just the minimum required properties. With competition for online shopping clicks and the associated advertising investments heating up, product rich results have been especially volatile this year. The more properties you've populated, the more new and experimental rich results you'll qualify for as they're rolled out.

One potential pitfall – read the recommended property notes in the Google guidelines carefully. 

If you're marking up online events and just scan the list and think, eventAttendanceMode is not required, you could miss that if this property isn't defined, Google interprets the event as happening at a physical location.”

20. Adding rich results on the canonical page is not enough if you have duplicates

Google states:  

“If you have duplicate pages for the same content, we recommend placing the same structured data on all page duplicates, not just on the canonical page.”

This step often gets skipped because SEO professionals often mistake that if you have a canonical page, you’re golden. Unfortunately, simply adding a canonical tag doesn’t mean you’re done with the page. 

21. If you have a mobile and desktop version, add rich results to both versions

If you’re running an m.websitename.com and a websitename.com, you will need to add your rich results to both versions. Search engines treat these as two separate websites. 

Whatever you do to the desktop version, you have to complete it on the mobile version. 

22. There is no guarantee your page will receive rich results

Well… you did it. You added your product review structured data and tested it in the rich result tool, but nothing happens. 

The truth is there’s no guarantee Google will reward your website with rich results. 

Yes, this can result in all the feelings you felt when watching Chance and Sassy returning home at the end of Homeward Bound, waiting for Shadow to appear. 

If you’re lucky, Google may limp your rich results back home. But it’s a waiting game. 

Get rich results or die tryin’

Get rich results or die trying is a nod to the rapper 50 Cent and his relentless hustler mentality. 

When it comes to implementing rich results, you’ve got to pull your bootstraps up and get creative to showcase a rags-to-riches story of what you can do before and after rich results. 

If SAP can see more than 400% net growth in rich results organic traffic, you can get there too. 

But remember this advice from Berlin:

• “Depending on the type of rich result being targeted, you might need to improve a site's internal linking setup or rally the organization to define its voice and mission on an exceptional About page.” 

Rich results are more than just the markup on the page.

Rich results require tact and attention to detail to reap the benefits. Just remember to pay homage to Google’s documentation shared above and “pour one out” for all rankings you’ve lost without rich results. 

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You hired your content marketing agency in good faith. 

You had every hope they would soon start producing fantastic content for your brand or your clients’ brands.

That content would help build awareness around the brand, pull in more traffic, and generate more leads.

But your hope started to fizzle as months passed with little to no changes in awareness, traffic, search engine rankings, or conversions.

What gives? Is it time to fire your content marketing agency and move on?

Hold up. Not so fast.

It might be time to say goodbye. But you might also need to take a step back and pause before you leap. (Content does take longer to work than traditional or paid marketing methods – but it’s also more sustainable.)

Here’s exactly what to weigh and consider.

When is the right time to fire your content marketing agency?

1. You’re not seeing results in the expected time frame

Content marketing does not and will not work in a week – unless you have exceptionally rare or specific circumstances. It won’t work in one month or a few months, either.

To see the full ROI from content, it will take anywhere from multiple months to a full year or more. 

That said, the needle should start to move before then. You should start seeing gains within a few months – incremental ones, but gains nonetheless. If you’re seeing absolutely no movement of any metric and six months have gone by, you may want to start asking questions.

And, by the way, your content marketing agency should have set accurate expectations for results from the beginning.

You should have set goals, staked out KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure, and strategized about tracking them. They should have given you an outlook about when to expect ROI and what it will look like.

If none of the above happened, that’s a good reason in itself to question the content agency you’re working with.

Remember, marketing for the sake of marketing is silly. You can and should expect ROI from it, and your agency needs to be accountable for moving that needle.

2. The agency makes repeated mistakes in your content

Everyone makes mistakes. The important thing is whether you learn not to repeat them.

For example, say your content marketing agency creates content for your brand with a few glaring errors (like links pointing to low-authority pages or worse, competitors). 

Say this happens during the first few months of your relationship. That’s something that can be quickly pointed out and corrected so it never happens again.

If your agency keeps making mistakes in your content, even after corrections, that’s a good reason to dump them. 

The entire point of hiring an agency is to take content off your hands so you don’t have to worry about it. It’s their job to:

• Nail your brand voice.
• Link correctly in your blogs.
• Use correct grammar and spelling.
• Use keywords appropriately.
• And generally, produce content you can be proud of.

If they’re not paying attention to details, they may not be the right agency for you.

3. You’re dissatisfied with the content quality overall

Content quality is an organic search ranking factor. That means you absolutely should be concerned with the quality you receive from the agency in charge of writing it.

Bad content can have a domino effect on your brand reputation and visibility. Poor content won’t rank well in searches, if at all, and thus will drive zero traffic from Google. (Click-through rates drop off a cliff beyond page two of a Google search.) 

Not to mention, a visitor reading bad content is most likely to:

• Bounce.
• File you away in their mental “do not trust” folder.

Goodbye, ROI.

If the content isn’t cutting it, it probably has one of these things wrong with it. Bad content is:

• Poorly structured with few headings and long paragraphs.
• Unfocused, irrelevant, or rambling.
• Full of spelling and grammatical errors.
• Laden with factual errors and inconsistencies.
• Brand-centered (instead of user-centered)
• Ignorant of search intent.
• Poorly optimized with either little to no keyword placement or keyword stuffing.
• Not set up to direct leads to their next action (using CTAs).
• Missing external links to authority sites, or internal links to relevant pages on-site.

If you see any of the above markers consistently, it’s time to fire your content marketing agency. They should know better and do better.

4. The content marketing agency isn’t communicating well

You’ll never get good results with a content marketing agency that doesn’t communicate well. 

Good communication on their end will help you clarify and pinpoint your goals, set your expectations, understand various stages and processes, get answers to questions as they pop up, and more.

Without solid communication:

• You may be left feeling unsure about where you’re headed with content.
• You might be unclear on what’s happening and when.
• You might feel alone, when in fact you should feel like part of a team.

Some red flags to look out for regarding communication include:

• Getting no response to emails or messages, or waiting days to receive a response.
• Asking questions but getting unsatisfactory answers, or no answers at all.
• Not knowing when you’ll connect with the agency next to go over your strategy, progress, or results.
• A lack of transparency on their part, which leads to confusion on yours.

5. The agency continually misses deadlines

Meeting deadlines isn’t just a matter of adhering to a content schedule or publishing content on time.

Yes, those things are important factors in consistent content, which is important to the overarching success of a content strategy, but let’s not forget another aspect:

Meeting deadlines is also about showing respect and responsibility. If you and your agency specify deadlines in advance (such as when and how often content will go out on your blog), keeping those deadlines also shows:

• The agency respects your time. 
• They respect your brand.
• They respect the strategy and are following through with it.
• They put care and thought into your content all the way down to publication.

Continually missing deadlines and offering excuses is therefore a good reason to part ways with an agency.

That leads us to our next point.

6. The agency isn’t treating you like a partner

To see the best ROI, you need to work well with your content agency. Your individual gears should turn in sync, otherwise, the whole operation will jam and stall.

Part of that is good communication, but another part is acting like collaborators and partners in every stage of the game.

For example:

• Does the agency you work with treat your concerns seriously? 
• Do they listen well? 
• Do they keep you in the loop every step of the way?

This doesn’t mean they allow you to run the show, by the way. They’re the content experts, not you. That said, your content marketing agency should still keep you involved in the process and decision-making, and help you understand the strategy and its moving parts.

They’re accountable to you, just like you’re accountable to them. Mutual trust is important. If you’re not feeling the teamwork, you might want to reconsider the working relationship.

7. You suspect they’re using spammy or misleading techniques to get quick results

Usually, the only way to get uber-fast results with content is to cheat. 

Even today, spammy tactics are surprisingly common in content marketing. However, using them is a giant trap. You may see swift gains in rankings or traffic, but these are unstable gains.

They will disappear just as quickly because Google is incredibly finely-tuned and can detect most types of spam through their automated systems as well as through manual action.

That may result in a penalty for your site – which could range from a ranking demotion to being completely removed from Google search.

If you suspect your content marketing agency may be using spammy techniques to quickly rank your site in search, they’re playing with fire. It may work for a short time, but will inevitably result in death for your site’s visibility.

If they’re playing with fire, dump them and find an ethical content agency that will build up your site rankings for longevity and sustainability.

What to remember before firing your content marketing agency

A content marketing agency’s job is to handle your content marketing so you don’t have to. They’ll manage everything from planning to creation to distribution.

If you hired an agency, you most likely don’t have the time or expertise to handle it yourself. At the same time, you expect smart strategy and results from whoever you hired.

And that’s totally warranted – but don’t make the mistake of giving up too early.

Content marketing is a long-term game. It isn’t about quick wins, but rather slow and steady gains that build over time.

It can be frustrating in the beginning, but consistency will pay off dividends in the future. 

If your agency is working diligently on your content marketing, publishing regularly, communicating well, analyzing metrics, treating you like a partner, nailing content quality, hitting deadlines, and keeping you in the loop – just hang tight.

Those results you long for will be coming around the bend.

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Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller – in a rare case of annoyance – said that any SEO advice mentioning “link juice” is not to be trusted. Is it or not?

I wondered about the context and doubted whether it was true. There are different opinions. 

After Barry Schwartz shared the news on LinkedIn, a lively debate ensued. Even Moz and SparkToro founder Rand Fishkin chimed in on the comments saying, “Maybe link juice is real after all. Maybe y’all should write more about it!”

On link juice and bad SEO advice

When he dismissed link juice, Mueller was answering a question about outgoing links. He essentially ignored the original question and solely responded to the undesirable “link juice” mention. 

While Mueller is usually neutral in his tone this time he came close to a rant on Twitter: 

• “Anything that talks about ‘link juice’ should be ignored.”

This is nothing new. He’s just reiterating what he expressed in the past more than once.

Here’s a similar quote from his Twitter account back in 2020: 

• “I’d forget everything you read about ‘link juice.’ It’s very likely all obsolete, wrong, and/or misleading.”

So is link juice such a detestable term? Is it akin to the “snake oil” fringe SEO practitioners are still offering? Let’s take a look at the bigger picture.

Snake oil: A popular type of panacea in SEO

There’s a reason why the SEO industry had a bad rep for many years. Metaphorical snake oil has been sold in various ways and many websites have been harmed by misguided SEO advice or tactics.

The proverbial “snake oil” – a synonym for misleading promises of miraculous cures to all kinds of diseases – has often been likened to SEO.

Even in 2022, we see many more #seohorrorstories passed on Twitter and other social media than inspiring success stories. SEO experts themselves, not just outsiders, rather focus on those negative news.

Of course, the SEO industry is not the only one guilty of selling snake oil or spreading the word about it. 

I had many clients asking me for unethical SEO practices over the years. To this day, you have to be very firm in your ethics in order not to get caught up in a downward spiral of shady SEO techniques. I also get requests for paid links and other similar offers regularly by mail.

The history of link juice

When Google started out in the crowded and messy search engine market, it had a revolutionary ranking algorithm that used the so-called “PageRank” to determine website authority. It was named after Google co-founder Larry Page, not (just) the actual “web page.”

SEO specialists started to use many different slang terms for PageRank – “Google juice” or “link juice” being among the most popular.

In the early years since its inception, Google performed pretty well by PageRank alone and grew its market share continuously. 

First-generation search engines like AltaVista, Yahoo and Infoseek were easily gamed by simply using:

• Keyword stuffing.
• Hidden text.
• Misleading meta tags.

Once Google grew big enough to dominate the market, unethical SEO practitioners mainly focused on artificially inflating the number of incoming links (also called backlinks) so that Google would rank them higher.

PageRank became less and less of a guarantee of high-quality search results leading to Google started adding more ranking signals to the algorithm over time. 

As link juice became more abused, Google kept on adding more ranking signals, sophisticated technologies like AI and quality concepts like E-A-T.

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How does link juice work?

We won't go too deep into the topic of link juice, as others have done before us. An evergreen guide by WooRank is still worth reading to get a quick overview. Their visualizations are especially self-explanatory.

In theory, the website authority of the site linking out is spread more or less equally to the pages it links to. 

But in reality, the process is much more complex and link value depends on many other elements including:

• Anchor text (<a href="example.com">I'm the anchor text!</a>): Too many keywords are a red flag, not enough pass less value.
• Placement on the page: Footer links count less than content links, for instance.
• Context on the site and page: Irrelevant or off-topic context passes less value.
• Additional attributes: HTML rel attributes such as rel="nofollow, UGC, sponsored" devalue links. 
• The number of links: Link lists with dozens of links may not pass any significant value.

Is content the new link?

By 2019, Google has shifted its messaging to concentrate on quality content. From the outside, the pivot seems to imply that "content is the new link." Eventually, one of Google's main SEO documents which largely focused on links was updated to predominantly cover content.

For a long time, Google representatives have been wary of the industry's emphasis on link building. Instead, they underscore the need for quality content each time the question comes up.

Now, Google tends to overemphasize content in order to make people more aware of it and underrepresent links so SEOs stop obsessing about them.

In Google Search Essentials, the "key best practices" section mentions content six times including on top while links are mentioned only three times:

In my opinion, we have to put both tendencies into perspective and ensure we find the middle ground.

Links are still very important yet their impact will be dwindling over time, while content is steadily growing in importance.

So, is link juice real?

While the colloquial term link juice really sounds a bit sleazy, the concept behind it (Google's original algorithm) is still valid and used to determine website and page-level authority or value. 

It's a huge oversimplification of the by-now very complex Google algorithm containing numerous checks and balances (as Kaspar Szymanski has summarized) ensuring a proper ranking less prone to manipulation.

At the end of the day, you still have to attract links to your website or else other content of similar quality will outrank you in organic search results. So, while using the term link juice may sound a bit outdated, it's not yet complete snake oil. 

What do the experts say? Fishkin is not the only one to speak about link juice.

Brian Lonsdale, Co-founder of Smarter Digital Marketing Ltd, maintains:

• "If Google doesn’t want you to do something it means that it works."

WhilePierre Zarokian, CEO at Submit Express / Reputation Stars, added: 

• "I will not fall for that. Google algo has been based on link juice since 1998."

What terms should be used instead of link juice?

You can say many things to refer to link juice without sounding like a drug dealer in a back alley. 

Jessica Levenson, Global Head of Digital Strategy & SEO at NetSuite and Oracle, makes it pretty clear:

• "Frankly, no one should use that term. Links and their purpose aside, it's the worst phrase ever."

What else can you say instead then? Some of the more professional-sounding terms include:

• Link authority
• Link value
• Link equity

Daniel Foley Carter, Director at Assertive, explains:

• "I call it link equity – irrespective of what Google says – anyone who's been in the SEO industry knows to take things like this with a big pinch of salt."

If that's too boring or technocratic for you, you can follow the advice of Brent Payne:

• "I use 'link tequila,' it's just a lot more fun. And I love tequila."

Link equity is not enough

When you use a synonym for "link juice" though, remember that the concept is on the way out and doesn't work by itself as in the early days. 

When I started out in SEO in 2004, it was still common to rank empty websites.

You could even get thin content pages to rank for competitive keywords solely by directing link juice to them. In 2022, that's a rare exception – if at all possible.

Focus on creating great content to attract great links

As always, the truth is found somewhere in the middle. While Google is de-emphasizing links in their algorithm and public rhetoric, its technology still relies to some extent on links.

It's still very difficult to get organic search visibility on Google solely by way of content. But once that content gets endorsed by links from authority sites, the probability of gaining visibility on Google's top positions grows significantly. 

So how do we get there without buying paid links or otherwise gaming Google? There is a well-traveled path by now. It has worked for many content SEO practitioners.

Create 'linkable assets'

For many years, website owners wanted to buy SEO services instead of creating content that could actually earn links. I lost many potential clients when explaining that I can't artificially inflate the ranking of an empty site that only has self-promotional material as its content. 

Linkable assets are any kind of comprehensive, valuable and unique resources that are likely to get recommended by other publishers. In-depth guides, unique survey results, and breaking news are some examples.

Attract links naturally

Once you have published content that is worth getting linked to, you ideally just have to sit and wait until people notice and link to you. 

This is, of course, the theory. In practice, you will most likely be overlooked unless you are already having an established audience. 

In such instances, you have to at least mention experts in your content who already have an audience. They can help you get the ball rolling.

Reach out to ‘linkaratis’

Influencers, journalists and industry experts are usually very busy and once they are established a social media mention may not be enough to get their attention. 

Good old email outreach is your tool of choice then. So-called linkaratis are often open to helpful suggestions that match their interests. 

When you choose the right people and focus on a few instead of sending mass mailings to hundreds of strangers, you get some initial traction until others notice you organically.

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Google has just started testing a new rewarded ad beta program for publishers to serve their players long-form, playable ads.

How it works. As described by WebmasterWorld.com, “The Rewarded Ad Gate beta program will give you an opportunity to monetize your most engaged users. If a user frequently visits your site, you’ll have a way to collect additional ad revenue.”

1. The Rewarded Ad Gate will be displayed to a visitor on their fifth-page view of each month.
2. If the visitor chooses to view a short ad, a video or image ad will play for 30 seconds or less.
3. A “Thank you” message will appear after the ad is complete and the visitor will gain access to your site.
4. If the user chooses not to view a short ad, they won’t be able to access the site until their page views reset the following month or they choose to view the ad.

Dig deeper. There is no info from Google on the new test, but you can read the post from WebmasterWorld.com here.

Why we care. If you’re a publisher, the new feature could be another option for you to further monetize your content. We’ll update this article with more information as soon as it becomes available.

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Even in boom times, marketing budgets are divided among a range of teams, channels, and initiatives.

Going into 2023, with a shaky economy likely to cap many budgets and headcounts far below optimal levels, it will be especially important for marketers to articulate a compelling case for why their area of expertise should get a fair share of resources.

In other words: forecasting how X resources will achieve Y growth is going to be vital.

Because of this, I frequently get the following questions from clients (and prospective clients):

• “How much traffic will we get from SEO and how long will it take?”
• “What can SEO do for our revenue?”
• “What kind of lift are we going to see from this work?”

The beauty and unique challenge of SEO is its blend of art and science. Unlike paid performance channels, where you have CPC and CPM benchmarks that tell you how many clicks and impressions you’ll get for a specific amount of spend, SEO doesn’t have a clear, quantifiable path to cause/effect.

That said, you can do SEO forecasting to give some directional answers to these questions and set traffic expectations for the year (or any specified time frame) ahead. In this article, I’ll explain my approach.

SEO forecasting template for 2023: How to use the tool

We’ve built a forecasting template that I’m happy to share with you here. 

Before we get started, note that:

• It’s view-only, so you’ll have to download your copy. The ranges are not recommendations; you’ll need to fill in your own.
• The randbetween() formulas recalculate with every change to the document, so numbers will not be static. We recommend saving these estimates in another sheet/location for posterity and comparisons.

Let’s break down how the tool works.

Benchmarking your growth data

In this SEO forecasting doc, rows 3-14 give you a year’s worth of monthly traffic history. For the purpose of forecasting a full year to come, you should be able to reference at least a year of historical data for benchmarking.

It’s important to note, though, that reliable forecasting depends on having mature data as a benchmark. Extrapolating growth rates from, say, the first 12 months of a website’s traffic will yield highly skewed projections.

Pick a time period that makes sense for your brand’s traffic history. Make sure you’re accounting for factors that artificially spiked or depressed any particular month’s search:

• A one-off ad campaign.
• A site migration.
• A prolonged site outage.
• Etc.

Once you have your benchmarking data selected, take those numbers and calculate an average month-over-month growth rate (and add to cell L5); this smooths out factors like seasonality. 

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Forecasting baseline growth (with no resources)

Your next 12 rows after the historical benchmarking data are where the forecasting begins. 

Starting with row 15, Column B takes your benchmarked traffic and simply applies the average growth rate (in L5) over the next year to get a forecasting baseline.

Column D takes the previous year's data and applies the Google Sheets “forecast” formula, which you can get by entering =round(forecast(A15,C$3:C14,A$3:A14),0) into Column D, Row 15 and dragging the formula down through all applicable cells.

This formula does not produce a flat month-over-month growth rate; as Google describes the formula, it "calculates the expected y-value for a specified x based on a linear regression of a dataset."

The values in columns B and D are forecasting models for your growth if you applied no SEO resources at all and simply let your growth momentum continue on its own.

Forecasting growth with resources

We really get to the good stuff with Column E, which takes your historical, known SEO data (rows 3-14) and applies a range of expected % of growth given whatever SEO resources you're projected to have on hand. 

It's up to you to set the two ranges we'll describe below (which are only included as examples and not as recommendations in the forecasting doc).

To calculate the expected growth ranges:

• Start by analyzing the keywords you want to rank for over the next year.
• Look at the monthly search volume.
• Then apply a basic CTR to get total traffic if you ranked on Page 1 for those terms for approximately nine months (given that it will take a few months to achieve a higher ranking). 

Create two ranges: one conservative range for the first three months (to allow momentum to build for newly in-focus keywords) and a more aggressive range for the following nine months. 

Once you have your conservative range, add the low end to L6 in the sheet and the high end to M6. Paste the formula =round(D3*((RANDBETWEEN($L$6,$M$6)/100)+1),0) into Column E, Row 15, and drag down for the first three months to get forecasts for applicable cells. 

Once you have your aggressive range, add the low end to L7 in the sheet and the high end to M7. Paste the formula =round(E6*((RANDBETWEEN($L$7,$M$7)/100)+1),0) into Column E, Row 18, and drag down for the next nine months to get forecasts for applicable cells. 

Now you have your forecasts for traffic without SEO resources (Column D) and traffic with SEO resources (Column E).

Note: I recommend using Column D, not Column B, for comparison purposes because you'll likely report to your team by month, not by year, and should therefore reference the more accurate monthly forecasts. Subtract the number from Column D from the number in Column E, and you'll have estimates for SEO growth that you can share with your stakeholders. 

Using SEO forecasting to gain directional insights

This is not an exact science because of the nature of SEO. With frequent algorithm and SERP updates that can swing your traffic one way or another, this data will be directional.

It also won't account for external factors like a planned site relaunch, cuts in top-of-funnel ad spend that may stunt organic growth for brand keywords, etc. 

That said, it is a reference point for what's at stake for teams weighing whether to invest in SEO in the coming months.

All good SEO professionals know how to paint a picture with some data ambiguity, so use those storytelling skills and some Excel formulas to support your cause.

The post Use this SEO forecasting template to gain insights for 2023 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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