Bart Goralewicz

If you site traffic is down, I know why. Google rolled out a MASSIVE update to it's algorithm in March. This update was to integrate Google's Helpful Content System into it's core ranking system + it updated how it manages Spam. The goal was to reduce low-quality, unoriginal content by 40%. 📉 40% reduction. We are just starting to understand the impact of this update. But websites that are reliant on AI Generated Content have definitely lost a lot of traffic in this update. Here is what Google says. “Our long-standing spam policy has been that use of automation, including generative AI, is spam if the primary purpose is manipulating ranking in Search results. The updated policy is in the same spirit as our previous policy and based on the same principle. It’s been expanded to account for more sophisticated scaled content creation methods where it isn’t always clear whether low-quality content was created purely through automation.” 👏 Quality over Quantity. Let me know if you have noticed an incline or decline in your site traffic.

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One of our client says that he has faced a great problem.His calendly form is counting in every window reloaded. For this resason he can't count his actual leads in GA4. Solution: We use a javaScript Code to prevent this problem and we add this variable as an extra condition(Reload......equals......fase) in Trigger. Now everthing is ok. #reloadproblem #reload #leadform #lead #ga4 #gtm #ifram

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I constantly get asked about the recent changes to Google’s core algorithm and if this is killing SEO. Most people whom I talk to are software makers and their concerns are centered around one key question: “Should I continue to pour my limited resources into this or should I look for other channels now that zero-click search are clearly on the rise?” For people that are selling software solutions, SEO still makes sense for one simple reason: Purchasing software often requires deep online research, cost-benefit analysis, etc. This makes SEO crucial for organic discovery as the buying decision isn’t impulsive like with some traditional industries like retail where you would buy shoes just because they look cool and match your style. For SaaS businesses in particular — where the purchase is often a long-term commitment — SEO is an excellent channel to deliver useful content to your audience. It also helps to build trust from problem recognition to post-purchase customer retention and relationship building. Zac Harris and I went deep into this topic on the Freemius blog, so, if you’re interested, click on the link in the comments section. #seo #seotips #futureofseo #seo2024

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Must-read for SEO pros! Leaked Google Search internal documentation reveals the usage of tiered indexes, homepage trust, site authority, user’s click behaviours (NavBoost), authors, links demotion systems and more. These internal documents reinforce what experienced SEOs have advocated: deeply understand your audience, identify their needs, create outstanding content that meets those needs, ensure it is technically accessible, and effectively promote it. 🤓 Michael King deep dive: https://lnkd.in/eeqBKK7C 🔥 Rand Fishkin on how this came about, how it validates years of experimentation and beliefs and what it means for the industry: https://lnkd.in/eAkMaf6D

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Phase 2 of scaling Google Display - Target CPA This is the most common question we get about GDN. When is the right time to pivot from max conversions to tCPA? Well, there's no "perfect" time do it. But once you've reached 100+ tracked conversions. There's a good chance your account is ready. Here's a 2-min video of how we do it:

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Today we got to see inside the engine room of Google via a big leak published by Rand Fishkin Here are my conclusions: 1. It's clear now that Googles own SEO advice can be a little misleading. You should trust top voices in SEO for tips, not Google itself. 2. The user experience on your site has become very important for SEO (as we all guessed). 3. Smaller brands have a hard time against big brands. This is a trend we saw roughly 5 years ago already. The last item is the most important to me. Since I love the David vs Goliath aspect of SEO. While I recognise it to be true, I also want to warn against the "SEO is dead for small companies" talk I see happening now on LinkedIn. Rand Fishkin conclude "SEO is a big brand, popular domain’s game". I disagree. There is still plenty of room for small players. I see new cases of this everyday in Morningscore where we serve a lot of small customers who keep on winning on Google. They win in niches. They win on specific products. They win by competing on lower competiton keywords. They win by being first and best. I see the evidence in numbers every week.

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Conrad raises crucial concerns about the effectiveness of Google Ads in this insightful video. If you're exploring alternatives to costly ads that don’t deliver, let's talk about how strategic content can transform your online presence. Reach out to me for a conversation on impactful content strategies that truly deliver. No obligations—just the opportunity to shift your approach.

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Here's a great article from Michael King. The recent leak of Google’s internal documentation has confirmed what many SEO professionals have long suspected: Google’s public statements don’t always align with their internal practices. Key insights reveal the use of complex microservices for search rankings and debunking myths about domain authority and click data. This leak underscores the opaque nature of Google’s algorithm and the need for greater transparency. Is it time for Google to be more open about its ranking factors? 🤘 https://lnkd.in/gkn4cmVM

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More technical SEO is NEVER going to get you out of an algorithmic demotion. If a site has been impacted by an algorithmic update, technical SEO is not the problem, so technical SEO is not the solution. I see agencies making technical SEO recommendations too often for sites hit by Helpful Content Updates. If the content is the issue, improving the technical SEO doesn't address the root cause of the demotion.

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Hot take: embeddings are the new TF/IDF in SEO. There’s been a lot of buzz in SEO about them since Michael King published his excellent article, but there's still a lot of misunderstanding about what embeddings are and what they’re used for. Embeddings are a way to encode the meaning of text (or images, audio, etc.) into vectors (lists of numbers). Think of them as coordinates on a map — things that are more similar in meaning have coordinates that are closer together. The "relevance" or similarity score is just the distance between the two points. I’m simplifying, but you get the point. Embeddings can help group similar things together. On a large site, you can find pages covering similar topics for internal linking. However, embeddings aren’t a magic tool for higher rankings. “Optimizing” a page by similarity probably won’t teach you anything new. The easiest way to improve similarity? Exact match keyword in the title. Shocking SEO revelation, right? As an example, I asked ChatGPT to write a few titles about embeddings and SEO. I also added some keyword-stuffed nonsense texts. I embedded all these sentences and calculated their similarity to “embeddings for SEO.” The results are in the screenshot below. The rules for semantic title optimization: - Exact match keyword in the title - Add keyword at the beginning of the title - Keep the title short Why short? More text after the keyword lowers your score because additional words affect the coordinates, moving them further from the keyword coordinates. Embeddings and similarity scores can be manipulated with “old school” SEO tactics like keyword stuffing — as shown in the examples — limiting their utility in reverse-engineering rankings. These are the next evolution of TF/IDF. Both are used in information retrieval to match keywords. Roughly the same rules for optimizing content apply.

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Ads preheat the oven while landing pages roast the veggies at full temperature. 🔥 I know for a fact: Many companies spend lots of money on an agency to manage their Google Ads Account. BUT they don't earn the money back they invest regularly. That's because most agencies still only manage the account. And do nothing more. But to succeed in Google Ads and gain conversions, you need to take care of three core pillars: 1. Data Input aka Conversion Tracking 2. Account Management 3. Post-click Experience aka Landing Page How we build superior landing pages custom-tailored for Google Ads: - Maximum relevance towards keywords and ad copy - Leveraging sales psychology - Clearly stating what the offer is - Clearly stating who the offer is for - Clearly stating the benefits - Using as much social proof as possible - Integrating testimonials - Optimizing the contact form To sum up: If your Ads don’t convert, chances are high, your landing pages suck. And if you're working with an agency that only cares for your Google Ads Account, well, fire them. #contentstrategy #seo #googleads #onlinemarketing

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Higher CPMs = Higher ROAS? Why a high CPM is actually good for your business ↓ Most people think that high CPMs are affecting their business. Guess what? This is completely false. High CPMs may actually be a good sign. Why? Let’s talk CPMs: 1. How are CPMs calculated? CPMs derive from 4 main sources: 1. Audience 2. Placement 3. Creative  4. Page Score Audience Think of your audience in terms of supply and demand. If you for example advertise in the skin care niche, there’s a lot of similar brands that compete for the same audience. Therefore the “Base” CPM is higher from the get go. But this isn’t bad. The audience is actually more valuable. Placement The placement also impacts your CPMs. Typically a Facebook newsfeed impression has the highest CPM, and a FB Desktop Right Column a lower CPM. But the Facebook Newsfeed Impression has people who convert better. Creative Yes, your creative also has an impact on your CPM. Your creative should be entertaining and be fun for people to have on your newsfeed. The less entertaining your ad is, the less people want to see it. Facebook notices that and “punishes” you with higher CPMs to basically tell you to make ads that people want to see. Page Score If it drops to an orange or red level this is also a sign to Facebook that you’re a bad business partner to them. 2. Why CPMs don't matter First of all, there’s nothing (except one thing, more on that later) that you can do about your CPMs. There is not a specific action you can take to lower them. On top of that, you simply can’t say that lower CPMs are better. Some ads have lower CPMs because they reach a broader audience but don’t convert as well in the backend. Some ads have higher CPMs because they reacher a smaller audience but they convert super well. 3. When are your CPMs too high and what can you do about it? If your CPMs rise above $60ish on broad in the US, it may be a sign that one of two things is off Your Creative  Your Page Score Creative: Your creative shouldn’t be boring. Every ad should entertain. High CPMs can be a hint for you to create ads that are entertaining. Page Score: Your page score also has a large impact on your CPMs. If it drops to an orange or red level this is also a sign to Facebook that you’re a bad business partner to them. Could be due to various different factors e.g. Shipping Times, Product Quality etc. So, if your CPMs have risen recently check your page score. BUT with all that, keep your CPA in mind. If your CPA is profitable, then forget about your CPMs. To sum this up: 1. A high CPM often is an indicator for you reaching a valuable audience 2. Not every impression on Facebook is the same, some are worth more, some are worth less 3. The only actions you can do to improve your CPM is to: Improve your Page Score Make better creatives How does your page score look like?

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How I went from doing SEO for $500 to working with multi-million brands like ClickUp, DoNotPay and Privacy(.)com: ✅ Radical content quality standards Our strategy is based around creating the most valuable page of content Google could show for the relevant KWs. So, maintaining quality is our #1 priority. Here’s how: 1.Hire only top 1% writers Last hiring cycle we screened 850, tested 237, and hired 3 writers (2 didn’t pass probation). Sifting through 100s of writers to find one good one is a hard reality. Manually, this would take months, so we’ve developed Workello that helps us do it in just a few hours. 2.Retain people who care about content over long periods of time Finding these folks is hard. That’s why we do everything to make them stick around. But you need more than generous benefits, compensation and PTO… For us, that’s culture. And one of its key aspects is shielding them from business problems. Consistently delivering highest-quality content is hard - to do that, they need to be able to focus only on this. 3.Integrating product & thought leadership into content ‘Quality’ has to also mean that content contributes to revenue, otherwise it’s just pretty words. We ensure revenue scales linearly with traffic by integrating product & POVs of the organization’s subject matter experts into all content we produce. ✅ Relentless focus on the outcomes I decided early on that each project we work on should be bigger than the previous one. And I figured out how to do it repeatedly: 1. Play the game where you control the outcome + be obsessed with ownership Our strategy = great content + at scale. Very different from the old SEO playbook = technical SEO + backlinks. The old approach makes you rely on things you don’t fully control - you’re basically praying to Google gods. Not good if you want a scalable, predictable revenue generating machine. Our approach is 100% focused on playing the game where we fully control the outcome. 2. Become too good to ignore Once we achieve these outcomes, we turn these successes into case studies. It’s a simple, but powerful mantra: do good work > document the process > distribute Once big brands see that we’ve taken projects from 0 to 1,5M in traffic and generated 100,000s of paying customers… We’ve become too good for them to ignore us. And the third and final part of this equation… ✅ Strong processes & systems Once you’re too good for big brands to ignore you, you need to prove you have strong processes & systems that ensure you win repeatedly. This is also the only solution to one of the greatest failings of agencies: maintaining quality of delivery when going from founder-led to team-led. The answer is simple: build a culture of documentation. Document any task that is done more than once. If you were able to sit through this whole thing, you’ll probably like my newsletter on Content Ops. You can find the link on my profile. And if you have any questions, ask away!

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Based on the information from the leaked Google algorithm documentation, here are the key factors impacting SEO, categorized by importance - thanks Mile King from iPullRank High Importance 1. **Domain Authority**: Strong, authoritative backlinks are crucial. 2. **User Interaction**: Click-through rates, engagement metrics, and user behavior impact rankings. 3. **Authorship**: Credibility and expertise of content authors. 4. **Mobile Usability**: Mobile-friendly design significantly affects rankings. 5. **E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)**: High-quality, credible content. 6. **Core Web Vitals**: Metrics related to loading, interactivity, and visual stability. 7. **Content Freshness**: Regularly updated content is prioritized. 8. **User Experience Signals**: Factors like page load speed and site architecture. Medium Importance 1. **Structured Data**: Use of schema markup to enhance content understanding. 2. **Internal Linking**: Helps with site navigation and ranking. 3. **Content Depth**: Comprehensive and in-depth content performs better. 4. **Content Diversity**: Variety in content types (text, video, images) is valued. 5. **Link Quality**: Focus on high-quality backlinks over quantity. Low Importance 1. **Brand Signals**: Impact of brand mentions and branded searches. 2. **Social Signals**: Influence of social media engagement and shares. 3. **Local SEO Factors**: Proximity, local reviews, and citations. 4. **Security**: HTTPS as a ranking factor. 5. **Query Intent**: Matching user search intent. 6. **Behavioral Factors**: Metrics like bounce rate and session duration. 7. **Video SEO**: Optimization of video content. 8. **Multilingual Content**: Value of localized and multilingual content. 9. **Content Clusters**: Organizing content around key topics. 10. **Voice Search Optimization**: Importance of optimizing for voice queries. For a comprehensive understanding, please refer to the full article on [iPullRank](https://lnkd.in/dBtAsGkz).

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🚀 Audited ad accounts for a high-growth, $30M Ecom. 10 recs we gave to scale faster & profitably ➡️   Google:   1. Use Blotout or Elevar to maximize conversion signals sent to ad platforms.   2. Pass micro-conversions (not only purchases) to better train ad algorithms.   3. Don’t fight PMAX. With 1-2, it blows the doors off manual media buying.   4. Optimize Merchant Center Feed:   - Analyze high-vol, AOV, & margin SKUs - Ensure impressions reflect top performers - Fix feed errors & warnings - Test titles, images, & descs for growth   Meta:   5. Shopify CAPI isn’t enough. Implement Blotout or Elevar to improve signal.   6. Reduce reliance on ABO. Test CBO & Adv+ for better results.   Data & Attribution:   7. Enhanced conversion tracking will boost key email flows by 20%+.   8. Pass Elevar to GA4 to find best/worst CVRs & fix. E.g., Home > Browse > PDP > Cart > Checkout > Order   9. Implement Northbeam for more effective spend allocation.   10. Use media mix modeling & holdout tests for growth post-#9.   #ecommerce

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"If your DTC business doesn’t work with Facebook ads, it likely won’t work at all." This was the start of a tweet from Sam Ross that floored me, why? Because I 10,000% agree with it. To borrow Sam's words, Facebook is the most proven TC growth channel: ➝ "I see lots of DTC owners and operators say you need to test a ton of different channels (Pinterest, Snapchat, referrals, etc) to see what works. I couldn’t disagree more." His reasoning: Facebook is a litmus test for your brand, and "diversification" is a cover-up for "distraction." Here's my take: Facebook is the proven place you can pour in as much creative as you want without burning your budget away on testing — we use cost controls and push as much "diversification" as we can through creatives. Dollar for dollar, it's the best investment of your resources because you're not going to waste them (with the right setup). Thoughts on diversification vs. locking in on Facebook/Meta?

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🚨 **Breaking News in SEO** 🚨 A recent leak of Google’s internal documentation on the Content Warehouse API has given SEO professionals an unprecedented look into Google’s search algorithm. This accidental release, fixed on May 7th but still accessible, offers valuable insights into how Google manages and ranks content. Key takeaways: - Understand Google’s data handling and content ranking mechanisms. - Optimize metadata, structure data effectively, and enhance user experience. - Leverage insights to improve local SEO and automate SEO tasks. Stay ahead in the competitive SEO landscape by diving into these insights! Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gg4av8_M

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