SEO Archives - NoGood™: Growth Marketing Agency https://nogood.io/category/seo/ Award-winning growth marketing agency specialized in B2B, SaaS and eCommerce brands, run by top growth hackers in New York, LA and SF. Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:35:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://nogood.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/NG_WEBSITE_FAVICON_LOGO_512x512-64x64.png SEO Archives - NoGood™: Growth Marketing Agency https://nogood.io/category/seo/ 32 32 How to Do SEO for Google Maps https://nogood.io/2025/03/20/seo-for-google-maps/ https://nogood.io/2025/03/20/seo-for-google-maps/#respond Thu, 20 Mar 2025 16:00:49 +0000 https://nogood.io/?p=45052 Establishing a strong online presence is crucial for local businesses aiming to attract customers in their vicinity. With consumers relying on search engines to discover services nearby, effective local SEO...

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Establishing a strong online presence is crucial for local businesses aiming to attract customers in their vicinity. With consumers relying on search engines to discover services nearby, effective local SEO strategies are more important than ever. One of the most impactful tools is Google Maps, which not only guides potential customers to your doorstep but also enhances your credibility in the competitive local marketplace.

Ranking high on Google Maps can feel like securing a prime spot on the busiest street in town. It places your business front and center, making it easier for customers to find you when they search for relevant services or products. But what exactly does it take to earn that coveted spot in the Google Maps Pack — the VIP section of local search results?

Let’s explore essential strategies and best practices to boost your visibility on Google Maps. Whether you’re a small business owner or a marketing professional, mastering these techniques will empower you to stand out in your community and draw in a steady stream of customers.

Understanding Google Maps SEO

Journey of a user finding a cafe on their phone, leading them to the business in person

SEO for Google Maps gathers inspiration from local SEO and involves optimizing your business’s online presence to improve your visibility in local search results, particularly within Google Maps. At its core, Google Maps SEO focuses on local visibility to rank high in local search results.

Foundational aspects of SEO for Google Maps include optimizing your Google Business Profile listing, ranking within Google’s Local Pack, tracking and encouraging ratings, and reviewing behavioral signals such as click-through rates (CTR), clicks to call, and time spent on your business profile (user engagement).

Google's local ranking factors - relevance, distance, and prominence

Google has a specific methodology for determining local rankings. Determining factors are broken up into three main categories: relevance, distance, and prominence. Relevance is about how well your business matches up with what a user is searching for while distance looks at how far away a business is compared to the localized term used in the search.

Lastly, prominence refers to how popular/well-known a business is. For example, landmarks, museums, and otherwise well-known, well-established businesses are likely to rank higher in localized search results.

Prioritizing Google Maps SEO is key for local businesses and ones that operate in numerous geographical locations as it can help increase your local visibility, improve your local search rankings, boost CTR, build trust and credibility amongst your audience, engage your audience, and help you dominate mobile search audiences. SEO for Google Maps is also a cost-effective marketing strategy, making it perfect for small businesses. 

SEO for Google Maps: 8 Key Steps for Optimizations

1. Claim and Verify Your Google Business Profile

Button for claiming a google business listing

Without claiming your Google Business Profile, you can’t hope to improve your Google Maps SEO. To claim your business profile, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Google Business Profile page.
  2. Log into your Google account. 
  3. In the search bar, type in the name of your business. If your business isn’t listed, click on “Add your business to Google,” and fill in the required details.
  4. Once you find or have created your business profile, select “Claim this Business.” 

Once you’ve claimed your business, it’s also essential to make sure it’s verified. This proves you’re the owner of your business and unlocks your access to the features offered by Google Business Listings. Here are the ways you can verify you’re the business owner:

  • Postcard Verification: This is one of the easier methods for verification. Google will simply send you a verification code via a postcard to your business address, typically arriving within 5-10 business days. Once you receive the postcard, log in to your Google Business Profile account and enter the code. 
  • Phone Verification: Google will offer verification by phone for some businesses. If you’re granted this option, you’ll receive a phone call or text with the code needed to verify your business. 
  • Email Verification: If your business qualifies, you’ll receive a verification code through email.
  • Instant Verification: If you’ve already verified your business with Google Search Console, you can bypass the specific business verification process.
  • Video Verification: For businesses with higher verification requirements, you might need to complete a video verification process where you show Google a video of your business or workspace.

Claiming and verifying your Google Business Profile is key to SEO for Google Maps. It ensures information about your business is accurate, gives you access to additional features like the ability to respond to reviews and add important updates, and builds your credibility as a legitimate business in local search results.

2. Add NAP Information

Example of good NAP versus a bad example

“NAP” stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number, and Google uses this information to confirm that your business is legitimate. You want to ensure your business’s NAP information is consistent and accurate across all platforms, but starting with your Google Business Profile is an important first step.

To add your NAP information, follow these steps:

  1. Log In to Google Business Profile.
  2. Within the dashboard, select your business and click on “Info” in the left sidebar or on the profile screen to access the business information settings.
  3. Then, enter or update your NAP information. Remember to enter the exact name of your business as it appears in real life. Additionally, if you’re a service-area business (like a plumber or delivery service), you can specify a service area instead of a fixed address. Then, provide a local phone number for your business, ideally a number with the same area code as your business’s location.
  4. Then verify your changes and ensure this information is consistent across other websites and business listing platforms like Yelp. 

Adding accurate and consistent NAP information to your Google Business Profile is vital for local SEO and Google Maps visibility. It helps Google and potential customers easily identify and trust your business, boosting your chances of ranking higher in local search results. Consistent NAP across multiple platforms strengthens your business’s credibility and local relevance.

3. Encourage Positive Customer Reviews

Customer reviews play a significant role in Google Maps SEO because they impact how your business ranks in local search results and how potential customers perceive your business. Google uses customer reviews as a ranking factor for local search results, meaning that the more reviews your business receives (especially positive ones), the more likely it is to rank in the Local Pack.

Example of Google SERP results for local businesses. This image is highlighting the reviews and star ratings

Reviews also help Google determine whether your business is relevant to a user’s search query. For example, if a customer mentions a specific product or service in their review, Google might match that review to users searching for those specific terms.

Here are some tips for encouraging customer reviews:

  • Ask for them: The most effective way to get reviews is to ask customers directly. After providing a service or completing a sale, politely ask customers to leave feedback on your Google Business Profile. Try to seek reviews from customers who have already responded positively to your products or services, for example, after an associate has helped them find what they’re looking for or after they’ve expressed their satisfaction with a meal your restaurant served them. 
  • Make It Easy: You want to make it as simple as possible for your customers to leave a review. To make it easy for your customers, consider providing a direct link to your Google review page. Create this link by going to your Google Business Profile, selecting the “Home” tab, and clicking “Share review form.” Then, share this link in emails, on your website, or through text messages.
  • Incentivize Reviews: While Google’s guidelines prohibit offering incentives in exchange for positive reviews, you can still encourage reviews by offering incentives for any review, such as entering customers into a raffle or providing a discount on future purchases. Just make sure customers know that the incentive isn’t tied to the review’s content or rating.
  • Engage Your Social Media Audience: You can also promote your Google Business Profile through social media and encourage your followers to leave reviews. Make sure to highlight the importance of customer feedback and how it helps your business grow.

Responding to reviews is just as important as collecting them. Here are some tips on responding to reviews from your customers:

business owner responding to a negative review about the business
  • Respond to All Reviews (Positive and Negative):
    • Positive feedback: Responding to positive reviews shows appreciation and fosters customer loyalty. A simple “thank you” can go a long way, but you can also personalize your responses to acknowledge specific details mentioned in the review.
    • Negative feedback: Responding to negative reviews in a professional, polite manner is just as important. When responding to less-than-stellar reviews, remember to address the concern, apologize if necessary, and offer to resolve the issue.
  • Be Timely and Professional: Responding quickly to reviews — especially negative ones — shows you care about customer feedback. Aim to respond within a day or two, and always keep a professional and courteous tone to demonstrate your commitment to customer service. 
  • Acknowledge Specific Feedback: Personalizing your response by acknowledging specific details in the review shows customers that you’re listening and that their feedback matters. This can turn a one-time customer into a loyal one.
  • Encourage Continued Engagement: Use your responses as an opportunity to encourage future engagement. Invite customers to return, use a special offer, or reach out if they need assistance.
  • Flag Inappropriate Reviews: If a review violates Google’s guidelines (e.g., it’s spam, fake, or inappropriate), you can flag it for review. Google will assess it and potentially remove it if it doesn’t meet their criteria.

4. Optimize Your Website for Local Keywords

Optimizing your website for local keywords is crucial for Google Maps SEO because it helps Google understand the connection between your business and the geographic area you serve. By incorporating location-specific keywords into your website, you increase your chances of ranking higher in local search results, both on Google Maps and in organic local searches.

Check out these steps on how to properly optimize your website for local keywords:

Google's map view of businesses, specifically businesses ranking for relevant keywords.

1. Identify Relevant Local Keywords

Before you start throwing local keywords around, you first need to find relevant keyword opportunities. You can conduct keyword research through tools like Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner to help you find search terms.

Consider adding phrases that utilize city and neighborhood names, combine the service with your location, and long-tail keywords users might search for when looking for businesses like yours. Some examples might include “Florist in Downtown LA,” “Italian Restaurant in Chicago,” and “Best Bakery in Manhattan.”

2. Implement Local Keywords on Your Website

After you’ve collected some relevant local search terms, you need to properly implement them on your website. Be strategic and include them on key pages. Important places to include these keywords include your website’s homepage, landing pages, service pages, and location pages. 

3. Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Your title tags and meta descriptions should also include your local keywords when relevant so both Google and searchers understand the relevance of your page. Here’s an example of a locally optimized title tag: “Plumber in San Francisco – Expert Plumbing Services | [Business Name].” For the meta description, ensure you’re summarizing the content of the page while incorporating the local keyword and a call-to-action.

4. Incorporate Local Keywords into Content

Local keywords should also be included in your blog content. But don’t just insert them randomly; again, they should flow naturally within your text so you don’t get flagged by Google for keyword spam. Keep in mind that quality content matters. Don’t overstuff your page with keywords; instead, aim for user-friendly, informative content that provides value to your audience.

5. Leverage Local Citations for Increased Visibility

Infographic of websites where business owner's can list their business for increased visibility.

Citations are online mentions of your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) on other websites and local directories besides Google. Here are some common directories where you should be listing your business:

  • Yelp
  • Yellow Pages
  • Chamber of Commerce websites
  • BBB (Better Business Bureau)
  • Local newspaper websites
  • Local community websites or local blogs that list businesses

There are also websites for specific business niches, so make sure you’re listing your business in these industry-specific directories, too. Here are some examples:

  • Health-related businesses: Healthgrades, Zocdoc
  • Legal professionals: Avvo, Justia
  • Real estate businesses: Realtor.com, Zillow
  • Restaurants: Tripadvisor, OpenTable

This is another key area to track and review regularly to ensure information is accurate. This includes checking for duplicate listings and correcting any outdated or incorrect NAP details. To streamline the process of submitting and updating citations, you can use citation management tools like Moz Local, BrightLocal, or Yext.

Leveraging local citations is crucial for improving your Google Maps SEO because they enhance your business’s local relevance, credibility, and visibility in local search results. Consistent and accurate citations signal to Google that your business is legitimate, trustworthy, and relevant to the area it serves.

6. Utilize Google Posts for Engagement

screenshot displaying a business's google posts

Google Posts are short updates that appear on your Google Business Profile and can be seen in both Google Search and Google Maps. Here are some ways you can effectively utilize this tool for increased visibility and engagement:

  • Highlight Promotions and Offers: Share limited-time offers, discounts, or special deals in Google Posts to entice potential customers to take action.
  • Share News and Updates: Keep your customers up to date with any important news, such as new product launches, changes in business hours, or other important announcements.
  • Highlight Products and Services: Showcase new or featured products, services, or special offerings in a post to catch users’ attention.

Google Posts engages customers by sharing updates, promotions, and news directly in search results, making it easier for users to take action and increasing click-through rates. These posts also support direct interaction through clear calls to action, such as “Book Now” or “Call Now,” which can lead to more conversions like phone calls, bookings, or visits.

Regularly posting shows that your business is active and responsive, helping to build trust and increase brand visibility. Localized posts signal to Google that your business is relevant to nearby customers, improving your chances of appearing in local searches and boosting your rankings in Google Maps.

7. Take Advantage of Google’s Q&A Feature

Screenshot of Google's Q&A feature within business listings

Utilizing Google’s Q&A feature effectively allows businesses to engage directly with potential customers and address common questions, enhancing your business’s online presence and authority. This feature provides a platform for users to ask questions about your business and for you to provide answers that help potential customers make informed decisions. Here’s how you can use it to improve your SEO for Google Maps:

  • Monitor and Respond to Questions Regularly: Responding promptly to inquiries shows that you’re actively engaging with your audience and can lead to better customer experiences. Set up notifications to alert you when new questions are asked so you don’t miss opportunities to engage with potential customers.
  • Provide Clear and Helpful Answers: Answer questions clearly, directly, and in detail. Address common queries about your products, services, business hours, location, or policies. If the question is about something specific, such as your store’s return policy, provide thorough answers that are useful to the customer.
  • Pin Important Questions and Answers: You might notice some questions are more commonly asked than others. Consider pinning your important answers so customers can easily find this information. This might be store hours, holiday hours, or FAQs about your services. 
  • Use Keywords in Your Answers: This is another area where your keyword list comes in handy. When responding to questions, naturally include keywords related to your business (e.g., services, location, products) to help improve your local SEO and reinforce your relevance for those terms.

Tips for Monitoring Your GBP Insights and Analytics

Screenshot of Google Business Profile analytics

Once you’ve created your Google Business Profile, the work isn’t over. It’s critical that you consistently monitor it to gain important insights and analytics so you can make further improvements to your business.

To monitor your Google Business Profile insights, go to the Google Business Profile dashboard and click on the Insights tab. You’ll find a range of data, including how customers find your business (via search or maps), user actions (calls, directions, website visits), and engagement metrics.

Key Areas to Watch Using Your Google Business Profile Manager

  • How Customers Find Your Business: As the name implies, this metric shows if people found you through a search on Google Search or directly on Google Maps. 
  • Customer Actions: Allows you to monitor how users interact with your profile, including calling your business, getting directions, visiting your website, or viewing photos. 
  • Customer Location: This shows the geographic locations of customers finding and interacting with your profile. 
  • Photo Views and Comparisons: Analyzes how often users view your photos compared to competitors.
  • Calls and Direction Requests: These metrics tell you how many people called your business or requested directions. 

Adjusting Based on Your GBP Insights

Use the insights to make strategic changes to your profile. For instance, if your business gets a lot of direction requests, ensure your address and location are accurately listed. If users view your photos frequently, consider adding more high-quality images that showcase your products, services, or store. Additionally, if certain queries bring in more traffic, optimize your content around those terms by adding them to your business description, posts, and FAQs.

Monitoring Competitor Performance

Compare your GBP insights with your competitors to identify strengths and areas for improvement. For instance, if competitors are getting more reviews or higher engagement on certain photos, consider strategies to boost those aspects of your own profile.

Review Trends and Patterns

Analyze seasonal trends in your data. For example, if you notice your business gets more calls during the holidays, you can plan ahead by posting seasonal promotions or offers to capitalize on this surge in interest.

Monitoring your GBP insights and analytics is pivotal in tracking how users interact with your business’s profile, helping you understand what’s going well and where you can improve. This helps inform your local SEO strategy to boost your visibility in local search results.

SEO for Google Maps: A Significant Key to Your Success

Optimizing your Google Maps SEO is vital to enhancing your online visibility and attracting more customers to your business. By utilizing the tools and insights available through your Google Business Profile, you can make informed decisions to improve your profile, increase engagement, and ultimately drive more foot traffic to your location.

Focus on optimizing your listings with relevant keywords, maintaining consistent and accurate information, and actively encouraging customer reviews. Remember to regularly monitor your insights to adapt and refine your strategies, stay ahead of the competition, and ensure your business stands out on Google Maps. Investing time and effort into effective local SEO practices will yield significant benefits, helping you connect with your community and grow your clientele.

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Your Guide to Mastering Mobile SEO https://nogood.io/2025/03/20/guide-to-mobile-seo/ https://nogood.io/2025/03/20/guide-to-mobile-seo/#respond Thu, 20 Mar 2025 02:22:53 +0000 https://nogood.io/?p=45033 Mobile SEO isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a necessity in SEO methodology. As users have shifted to browsing and shopping on their smartphones, optimizing your website for mobile devices is...

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Mobile SEO isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a necessity in SEO methodology. As users have shifted to browsing and shopping on their smartphones, optimizing your website for mobile devices is a critical component of digital success. But mobile SEO is more than just making sure your site fits on smaller screens. It’s about enhancing user experience, improving load speeds, and adapting your content for a mobile-first world.

Today, search engines like Google are placing more emphasis on mobile-friendly sites, and the impact on your rankings is significant. We’ll guide you through the essentials of mobile SEO, highlighting key strategies, common mistakes to avoid, and best practices to help your site thrive on mobile devices.

Why is Mobile SEO important?

Graphic of cell phones displaying different types of mobile search results

SEO for mobile is crucial because an increasing number of users access the internet primarily through mobile devices. Google has even shifted to mobile-first indexing, meaning it prioritizes the mobile version of your site for ranking and indexing, rather than the desktop version.

If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, it can lead to slower load times, poor user experience, and lower rankings in search results. A mobile-friendly website ensures visitors have a seamless experience, regardless of the device they’re using, leading to higher engagement, lower bounce rates, and ultimately more conversions.

Additionally, as mobile search traffic continues to rise, sites that aren’t optimized for mobile risk falling behind competitors offering a smoother, more responsive mobile experience.

How is Mobile SEO Different?

While mobile SEO relies on similar concepts to regular (desktop) SEO – both aim to reach audiences and convert them into paying customers – mobile SEO has a few distinct tactics.

Mobile User Experience

Mobile SEO places a strong emphasis on user experience tailored to mobile devices. This includes ensuring that websites are easy to navigate on smaller screens, buttons are easily clickable, and content is readable without zooming. Desktop SEO, while still concerned with user experience, often caters to a larger screen format, allowing for more complex layouts and interactions.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

Mobile search display

The search results presented on mobile devices can vary significantly from the results shown for desktop users due to how Google understands user intent and the limitations that come with mobile screens.

Mobile users are often looking for quick solutions to their queries and may not be willing to do deep research, which is why Google prioritizes interactive snippets, maps, and direct answers in the main real estate of the SERP. This results in fewer blue links and content being integrated into the search results, offering immediate access to the information users are looking for.

In contrast, desktop SEO favors traditional search results because users work with larger screens and are more likely to engage in longer research sessions. While desktop searches can still display interactive elements like snippets, they usually provide more comprehensive results requiring users to click through multiple pages to gather detailed information.

Mobile SEO, therefore, requires optimizing for quick, actionable results that make it easier for users to get the information they need without leaving the search results page.

Local Search Optimization

Mobile search deplay with google maps widget

Mobile SEO incorporates more of a local focus, as many mobile searches are performed on the go, and users frequently search for nearby businesses or services. This makes it essential to optimize for local keywords, set up Google Business Profiles, and ensure NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency.

Google Maps plays a central role here, as it helps businesses show up in local search results when users search for terms like “restaurants near me” or “plumbers in [city name].” Ensuring your business is correctly listed and optimized on Google Maps improves visibility in location-based searches.

For mobile users, Google Maps is often integrated directly into search results, providing immediate access to directions, reviews, hours, and other relevant business details. Therefore, ensuring your profile is up to date is crucial for mobile and local SEO success.

On the other hand, desktop SEO generally has a broader audience focus and doesn’t prioritize local search results as heavily. While local search results still appear on desktops, Google Maps and local search results are often less prominent compared to mobile search, where users are more likely to need immediate location-based information.

Content Presentation

Content has to be presented differently on mobile devices to enhance readability and engagement. Techniques such as shorter paragraphs, bullet points, and concise headlines are often more effective in mobile SEO. In desktop SEO, there’s generally more flexibility in content layout, allowing for longer, more detailed content without the same concerns over user scroll fatigue.

Performance Optimization

Mobile users expect fast loading times due to varying internet speeds and potential data limitations. Due to this user expectation, mobile SEO prioritizes optimizing site speed and performance to minimize load times, such as using compressed images and minimizing redirects. While desktop SEO also values performance, page speed remains important, as slow load times can still affect user experience and search rankings, even though users typically have faster, more stable connections.

Emerging Technologies

Mobile SEO increasingly incorporates emerging technologies such as voice search and AI assistants, as many mobile users utilize voice commands to perform searches. This necessitates different keyword strategies and content optimization techniques. Meanwhile, desktop SEO has traditionally focused on text-based searches and may not prioritize voice search optimization to the same degree as mobile SEO.

Responsive Design and Mobile SEO: The Perfect Pairing

Infographic of a mobile, tablet, and laptop search display

Google explicitly recommends responsive design in its mobile-first indexing page. Responsive design is an approach to the web design process. It focuses on ensuring a website’s layout, content, and functionality automatically adjust to fit the screen size and resolution of the device being used.

Whether your website visitor is on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer, a responsive design ensures your website looks and performs optimally, regardless of the device medium.

This methodology achieves its flexibility through the use of CSS media queries, flexible grid layouts, and flexible images. The main goal is to provide an excellent user experience, regardless of the device being used.

Here are some key areas that make responsive design the best strategy for mobile SEO:

  • Single URL for All Devices: You only need one URL for both mobile and desktop users, avoiding the treatment of both versions as separate entities. This can lead to confusion and possible ranking penalties.
  • Improved User Experience: Responsive design ensures your website is accessible and easy to use on any device, which is critical for user engagement. Google considers user experience (UX) as a ranking factor, and a site that works well on mobile reduces bounce rates and increases time spent on your website.
  • Faster Page Load Times: Page speed is another ranking factor, and responsive design streamlines your content for faster load times across devices. With responsive design, you can serve optimized images and content that adapt to the device, avoiding large, slow-loading elements on mobile.

Other Ways to Configure Your Website for Mobile

While responsive design is typically the go-to solution for mobile optimization, there are specific use cases where other methods might be more suitable. Let’s look at the advantages and situations where one of the alternative methods could outperform responsive design.

Separate Mobile Website (M-dot Sites)

Infographic of seperate mobile website mobile SEO design

A separate mobile website (often denoted with an “m” in the URL, like m.example.com) is a version of your website specifically designed for mobile users. It’s a separate site from your desktop version, with its own HTML and often simplified features and content to improve the mobile experience.

Separate mobile websites might be ideal for businesses with very different needs between their mobile and desktop audiences. This approach is often used when a highly customized mobile experience is required, and the mobile site’s features are significantly different from the desktop site, such as with some eCommerce sites or websites with heavy device-specific functionality (specific mobile gestures, geo-location-based services, or mobile-specific media content).

Most companies that have at one point utilized the M-dot format have done away with it in place of responsive design, but there are still a few unicorns out there, such as Facebook’s mobile web version.

Infographic displaying what an m dot URL looks like with Facebook as the example

This strategy offers complete control over both the mobile and desktop versions of your website. Additionally, for websites that weren’t originally built with mobile in mind, it may be easier to create a separate mobile version as a starting point.

Progressive Web App (PWA)

Progressive web app showing how NoGood's website can be accessed without WiFi access

Progressive Web Apps are a type of web application that combines the best features of responsive design, mobile apps, and web apps. It’s like a website you’ve bookmarked that behaves like an app. You save the page to your home screen, just like you would with an app, except it gets opened within a browser. What differentiates it from a regular website page is that it can be used offline and it will still load quickly, even if you have a slow internet connection.

PWAs also allow you to send users notifications just like an app would, which is a great way to connect with customers and boost engagement. However, a PWA bypasses the need to have your developers request app approval from platforms like Apple’s App Store or Google Play. PWAs also work across all devices and platforms so developers don’t have to create multiple versions optimized for different mobile devices or accommodate iOS or Android.

PWAs are ideal for sites that aim to provide an app-like experience without requiring users to download a native app. This is particularly beneficial for businesses with frequent mobile engagement, like news sites, content-heavy platforms, or social media apps. A great example of a PWA use case is Starbucks. While they offer a successful app, they also leverage a PWA so users can easily place orders, find a location, and access account features without requiring an internet connection.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

Infographic shows how AMP is used to adjust display factors of a blog post so they fit properly onto a mobile screen

Accelerated mobile pages are another common alternative to responsive design. AMP is an open-source project by Google designed to make mobile web pages load faster. AMP pages are stripped-down versions of your regular web pages that prioritize speed by reducing heavy JavaScript, simplifying HTML, and using cached content.

AMP is best for websites focused on delivering fast-loading content, such as news articles, blogs, or information-heavy websites where the user experience needs to be quick and streamlined.

In these circumstances, AMP can outperform responsive websites with their lightning-fast load times, improving user experience, reducing bounce rates, and boosting SEO. AMP content often gets special placement in search results, especially for news-related queries. Plus, AMP’s fast-loading times can increase the likelihood of users interacting with your content, improving key metrics such as time on site.

How to Check if Your Website is Optimized for Mobile

Whatever methodology you decide to employ for mobile SEO, you need to monitor how your website is working on a variety of device mediums. Here are some methods to check if your site is optimized for mobile SEO:

Google’s Lighthouse

Screen shot of Google's Lighthouse platform

Because of how important mobile-friendly websites are to Google, it’s no surprise that they offer their own tool to check how mobile-friendly a website is. Google Lighthouse is a comprehensive tool that analyzes various aspects of your site, including mobile usability, performance, accessibility, and SEO. It gives you detailed insights into how well your site is optimized for mobile devices, focusing on speed, responsiveness, and user interaction.

To use it, you can run Lighthouse directly in Google Chrome DevTools. Just open your site in Chrome, right-click, and select Inspect. Then, go to the Lighthouse tab, select the “Mobile” option, and click Generate Report. Alternatively, you can use the online version of Lighthouse through the PageSpeed Insights tool, which integrates Lighthouse metrics.

Google Search Console Mobile Usability Report

Screenshot of Google Search Console Mobile Usability Report

Google Search Console provides a mobile usability report where you can glean insights on factors impacting your mobile SEO strategy, such as small tap targets, unplayable content, and more.

Tap targets are buttons on a website page that either trigger an action or lead users to another page. A tap target that’s too small or too big are both unlikely to be pressed and can harm the user experience by getting in the way or being too difficult to select.

Additionally, sometimes multimedia like videos or audio included within your content become inaccessible due to changing URLs, deletion, and more. If content is unplayable, this can also frustrate your website visitors and harm your mobile rankings.

To get information from this tool, go to Search Console and select Enhancements. From there, head to the Mobile Usability section. This will list any mobile usability issues affecting your site, along with links to pages that need attention.

Test Your Site’s Responsiveness

Screenshot of a website page's source code

To test your mobile responsiveness, open your site in a browser (preferably Chrome). Right-click on the page and select Inspect (or press Ctrl + Shift + I). In Chrome, click on the mobile device icon in the top-left corner of the developer tools panel, and you can toggle between different device screens (phones, tablets, etc.).

Best Practices for Mobile SEO

Render Your Website

To render your website for mobile SEO, limit the use of external CSS and JavaScript files that can cause delays. Where possible, inline critical CSS and defer non-essential scripts. You can also leverage a content delivery network (CDN) to speed up the delivery of your content by serving it from locations closer to the user, reducing load time and improving rendering speed.

Another technique commonly used to render websites for mobile is implementing lazy loading. The lazy loading technique loads images and video content as they’re needed (e.g., when they enter the viewport), significantly reducing initial load times and improving rendering performance.

Improve Interaction to Next Paint (INP)

INP is a website performance metric used to measure how responsive a web page is to user interactions, specifically how quickly the page responds to a user’s first input, such as a tap, click, or keyboard action. INP is an important component of mobile SEO because it’s part of Google’s Core Web Vitals, the set of metrics Google uses to measure user experience.

To improve INP for mobile SEO, start by making your website’s JavaScript (website code that makes the page interactive) load faster. You can do this by making the JavaScript files smaller, delaying non-essential code from loading, and breaking up the code into smaller pieces. Also, you can reduce the amount of work your website has to do as a user interacts with it by splitting up longer tasks and avoiding heavy calculations on the back end while users browse your website.

Remember to regularly test INP using tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights and conduct real user monitoring (RUM) to identify performance issues. You can also improve server response times by optimizing server configurations and using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to reduce latency and deliver content quickly.

Optimize Your Load Speed

To reduce loading times, you can again leverage Google’s PageSpeed Insights to analyze and improve your site’s loading time. Based on the information you get, consider optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, and minimizing CSS and JavaScript. Faster loading times enhance user satisfaction, reduce bounce rates, and improve your site’s ranking in search results.

Avoid Intrusive Interstitials

To improve mobile user experience concerning pop-up ads, limit their size to no more than 50% of the screen to avoid frustration and potential Google penalties. Use trigger-based pop-ups that appear after a user action, such as scrolling halfway down the page or after a time delay, rather than popping up immediately. Additionally, consider less intrusive alternatives altogether, like in-line forms or banners, which don’t obstruct content.

When utilizing interstitials, ensure pop-ups have clear, easily accessible close buttons for quick dismissal. Regularly test pop-ups on mobile devices, gather user feedback, and make adjustments as needed. Analytics can help you track how pop-ups affect bounce rates and conversions, and prioritize those that provide clear value, like discounts or relevant content.

Utilize Structured Data

Structured data enhances mobile SEO by helping search engines better understand the context of each page on your website. This clarity makes it easier for search engines to index and display your content in more useful, user-friendly ways, particularly in mobile search results. For mobile users, who often look for quick and relevant information, structured data enables features like rich snippets, local search results, and even voice search optimization. These features improve visibility and engagement, making your website more accessible and attractive to mobile users.

To improve mobile SEO using structured data, implement relevant schema types such as product schema for eCommerce sites (including details like pricing, availability, and product images), local business schema for physical locations (address, phone number, reviews), and breadcrumb schema to enhance site navigation.

Next, ensure your website is mobile-friendly by using clear and intuitive navigation, such as hamburger menus. You can further enhance user engagement by implementing rich snippets, such as review schema, potentially increasing click-through rates by displaying ratings and reviews in search results, increasing visibility and trust. This also encourages other visitors to leave their own feedback, continuing the cycle of engagement. Remember to regularly test your structured data using tools like Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to verify proper implementation.

Re-Evaluate Your Content Style

Infographic of the inverted pyramid methodology for content

Your content styling also needs to be optimized for mobile SEO. To ensure your website provides an optimal experience to users and improves rankings, there are some key areas to consider.

For one, your copy should focus on user intent and engagement. Mobile users are typically looking for quick and concise answers to their questions, so cater to them accordingly with bite-sized sections. Using descriptive headings, subheadings, and bullet points makes your content easy to scan.

Another popular structuring method for mobile SEO is the inverted pyramid because it aligns with how users interact with content on mobile devices – quickly scanning to find the most relevant information. The Inverted Pyramid methodology states that the most important information should be focused at the top of your content, followed by supporting details, and finally, background information or less critical facts at the bottom.

Enhance Tap Targets

Infographic displaying proper tap-target sizing for mobile screens

Tap targets are clickable elements on your website, specifically its mobile version. This can mean buttons, links, forms, or navigation items. Anything a user would tap. Tap targets can significantly impact your mobile SEO due to their effect on user experience and search engine rankings if not properly optimized.

To ensure your tap targets perform well on your mobile website, consider these key areas:

  • Size: A good rule of thumb for tap targets is that they should be at least 48×48 pixels (according to Google’s Mobile Usability guidelines). This ensures they’re big enough for users to tap comfortably with a finger.
  • Spacing: Ensure there’s enough space between your tap targets to prevent accidental taps on adjacent elements. Crowded buttons or links can be frustrating, leading to a poor UX.
  • Visibility: Your tap targets should be easily identifiable, clearly labeled, and well-contrasted compared to the rest of your page. A button that’s hard to see or read won’t perform well, especially if your website visitors can’t immediately figure out what it does.
  • Functionality: Obviously, you want to ensure your tap targets are responsive and leading users to your intended conversion or page. For example, if your tap target is to sign up for your newsletter, the button should clearly indicate the action, with text like “sign up for our newsletter.” 

Take Your Mobile SEO to New Heights

Mastering mobile SEO is a strategic move that directly impacts your site’s performance, user engagement, and search engine rankings. By prioritizing mobile-friendly design, optimizing page speed, and refining your content for a mobile-first experience, you can ensure that your site is not only accessible but also appealing to the growing mobile audience.

It’s clear that our mobile phones are a solidified aspect of our daily lives, so capitalizing on the users that shop and search from their phones is an essential market. Adapting your business’s website to Google’s Mobile-First methodology will help drive more traffic and conversions to your site. Keep testing, optimizing, and adapting your website for mobile screens, and you’ll be well on your way to mastering mobile SEO and achieving long-term success.

The post Your Guide to Mastering Mobile SEO appeared first on NoGood™: Growth Marketing Agency.

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Understanding Parasite SEO: How to Do it Ethically in 2025 https://nogood.io/2025/03/18/understanding-parasite-seo-how-to-do-it-ethically-2025/ https://nogood.io/2025/03/18/understanding-parasite-seo-how-to-do-it-ethically-2025/#respond Tue, 18 Mar 2025 15:15:43 +0000 https://nogood.io/?p=45022 Ever wondered how some websites seem to shoot to the top of search results almost overnight? The secret might be Parasite SEO. This involves leveraging the authority of well-established websites...

The post Understanding Parasite SEO: How to Do it Ethically in 2025 appeared first on NoGood™: Growth Marketing Agency.

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Ever wondered how some websites seem to shoot to the top of search results almost overnight? The secret might be Parasite SEO. This involves leveraging the authority of well-established websites to quickly climb the search engine rankings ladder. By publishing content on these high-authority sites, you can tap into their domain power to gain fast visibility.

Parasite SEO isn’t always ethical, but when it’s done correctly it can help you build authority and drive traffic to your website.

But what exactly makes Parasite SEO so relevant now? For starters, the competition for online visibility is fiercer than ever. With countless businesses vying for the same audience, finding a way to stand out is essential. Parasite SEO offers a strategic edge, allowing you to capitalize on the pre-existing credibility of major platforms to draw attention to your content.

Parasite SEO has the potential to allow your content to rank much faster than traditional SEO strategies. Instead of waiting months for your SEO efforts to bear fruit, you can see noticeable improvements in your search engine rankings in a fraction of the time.

What is Parasite SEO?

Parasite SEO involves creating and optimizing content on high-authority, third-party websites to rank for specific keywords and drive traffic to a target site. This approach leverages the established trust and authority of these platforms, allowing marketers to achieve higher search engine rankings more quickly than they might through traditional SEO methods.

The core principle of parasite SEO is to “piggyback” on the credibility of well-established websites, using them as a “host” to enhance visibility for one’s own content. By publishing on sites with strong domain authority, marketers can benefit from the existing SEO strength of these domains. By guest posting on high-authority sites, you can generate high-quality backlinks and build your authority within your niche.

It’s common for websites to use parasite SEO tactics on their own site by building unnatural backlinks to their own content to boost authority. This involves stuffing internal links into contexts where they’re not applicable to piggyback off the authority of other pages on the site.

Is Parasite SEO Unethical?

Parasite SEO is not inherently unethical if it’s done correctly, but it can be used unethically to manipulate search rankings.

Ethical parasite SEO focuses on creating valuable, high-quality content on authoritative platforms while adhering to their guidelines. This approach can be a legitimate strategy for improving online visibility and driving organic traffic.

However, parasite SEO often veers into unethical territory when practitioners adopt a “churn and burn” approach. This involves exploiting high-authority websites solely for quick ranking gains, with little regard for user experience or long-term consequences.

A well known example of this is Forbes. Over the past several years, Forbes Marketplace (a completely different company from Forbes) hired thousands of freelance writers to create content across a huge variety of topics. Forbes partnered with Forbes Marketplace and used their insanely high domain authority to host thousands of articles that were outside their area of expertise.

Why would they do this?

Forbes did this for two reasons:

  1. They substantially increase their organic traffic by expanding the number of keywords they rank for, leading to increased ad revenue.
  2. Each article contains an affiliate link that Forbes profits from.

Forbes’ unethical SEO strategy is considered “Site Reputation Abuse,” meaning that Forbes exploited their high domain authority to publish information completely outside of their expertise. This malpractice can lead to information being displayed in search results that may not be true or accurate if it’s not written and reviewed by subject matter experts.

In 2024, Google updated the Site Reputation Abuse policy to crack down on unethical parasite SEO practices like Forbes Marketplace that manipulate search rankings without providing users with helpful information.

Parasite SEO can be ethical if you focus on publishing high-quality, helpful information that stays within the confines of your expertise. In this blog, we’ll show you how to do parasite SEO the right way.

How to Do Parasite SEO Correctly

1. Research High-Authority Platforms

Start by identifying platforms with strong domain authority. Sites like Reddit, LinkedIn, and Medium are good starting points. Look for platforms that align with your niche and have an active audience likely to engage with your content.

High-authority websites typically have a Domain Rating of 60 or higher, so you should set this as your benchmark when building out your list. Check the quality of inbound links to the site. High-authority websites often receive links from reputable sources like educational institutions or major news outlets, which can help your content perform better in search results.

Each platform you choose should align with your niche, as the existing audience of your host site will already be interested in your content.

Infographic naming platforms for ethical, high-authority parasite SEO

2. Placement on Host Sites

After you’ve found high authority platforms, you can conduct outreach to find an opportunity for guest posting on the site. Reach out to lead editors and content managers through email with a proposal of your content offering. You should explain your background so they understand your expertise in their niche. Pay attention to tone, content type, and any specific restrictions or preferences they might have.

For Q&A forums, blogging, and social media platforms, you can post your content directly without conducting outreach.

3. High Quality Content Creation

Your content should be informative, engaging, and aligned with the platform’s audience. Aim to provide value — whether it’s through insightful analysis, practical tips, or engaging storytelling. Quality is key, so invest time in research and presentation.

Even when leveraging another platform’s authority, SEO basics still apply. Use relevant keywords naturally throughout your content, craft attention-grabbing headlines, and ensure your meta descriptions are spot-on. This will enhance your content’s visibility both on the platform and in search engines.

4. Promotion and Backlinking

Now that you’ve created content on a high-authority site, you can start creating backlinks to that content from your own blog and vice versa. Every time you create a guest post, you can include external links to other content you’ve written, whether it’s on a post on your own blog or content on host sites.

To keep your links organized, it can be helpful to create a spreadsheet of all your guest posts. You can outline where you’ve included backlinks to ensure your linking strategy reaches all of the content you’ve written across platforms. Creating a spreadsheet will also help you look for new link building opportunities within your content.

5. Compliance and Monitoring

Each platform has its own set of rules. Familiarize yourself with these to ensure your content gets approved. Pay attention to tone, content type, and any specific restrictions or preferences they might have.

Use analytics tools to track how your content is performing. Metrics like views, shares, and click-through rates can provide insights into what’s working and what needs tweaking. To ensure your content stays compliant, be sure to monitor the latest algorithm updates and platform policy changes.

White-Hat vs. Black-Hat Tactics

Comparison table of black hat SEO tactics versus white hat SEO tactics

White-hat techniques focus on creating genuine, high-quality content that naturally earns its place on high-authority platforms. This could mean crafting insightful articles for LinkedIn or contributing valuable information to a relevant subreddit. White-hat methods respect the guidelines of host sites and prioritize building meaningful relationships with audiences.

Black-hat techniques often involve manipulative, unethical SEO practices that exploit loopholes for quick gains. These might include stuffing keywords unnaturally or using spammy links to game the system. Search engines aren’t keen on manipulative tactics and will swiftly penalize sites that engage in these practices, leading to a drop in rankings or even de-indexing.

5 Benefits of Parasite SEO

1. Faster Search Engine Ranking Results

By publishing content on high-authority platforms, marketers can bypass the challenges faced by new websites with low domain authority. This allows them to rank for competitive keywords much faster than they would through traditional SEO methods.

2. It’s Cost-Effective

Building a website’s domain authority typically requires considerable time and financial investment. Parasite SEO mitigates these costs by leveraging existing platforms that already have strong SEO foundations. This makes it an affordable option for startups and small businesses looking to gain exposure without extensive resources.

3. Access to Established Audiences

High-authority platforms often come with built-in audiences that are already engaged with the content. By publishing on sites like LinkedIn, Medium, or Reddit, marketers can tap into these established communities, enhancing their brand awareness and driving organic traffic to their own websites. These websites are built for discoverability, exposing your content to people who are interested in reading about the topic you’re writing about.

4. Increased Domain Authority

When content is published on reputable sites, it can help improve the domain authority of the marketer’s own website through backlinks. This boost in authority can enhance the relevance and trustworthiness of the site in the eyes of search engines, potentially leading to higher rankings and more traffic over time.

5. Enhanced Visibility in Search Engines

By leveraging the authority of well-established websites, parasite SEO helps marketers increase their visibility in search results. This can lead to greater exposure and access to more potential customers or clients who are searching for relevant content. Parasite SEO also allows marketers to test different niches, keywords, and content strategies without the long-term commitment required for building their own websites.

Risks Associated with Parasite SEO

While Parasite SEO can be a powerful tool, it’s essential to focus on White Hat methods by creating valuable content that respects search engine guidelines and is compliant with the host site policies.

Avoid Black Hat tactics like spammy backlinks or low-quality paraphrased content that could lead to penalties or de-indexing. Publishing on platforms with spammy or irrelevant material can harm your brand’s credibility. Users may associate your content with the low standards of the host site. Manipulative tactics erode trust with both users and search engines, making it difficult to rebuild your reputation and rankings in the long term

Google actively targets Parasite SEO practices through policies like the “Site Reputation Abuse” update, which penalizes manipulative use of third-party domains. This can lead to lower rankings or complete de-indexing of your content. If the host platform is flagged for site reputation abuse, both the host and your content can suffer penalties.

Forbes was penalized by this update, resulting in a large number of their pages being de-indexed and removed from search results. Their team responded by publicly cutting ties with their freelancers.

Once published on a third-party platform, you lose control over your content. The host site may alter, reformat, or remove it without notice, potentially misrepresenting your brand or nullifying your SEO efforts.

Final Thoughts: Should You Use a Parasite SEO Strategy?

Parasite SEO is not the right strategy for everyone. It can be unethical and it does pose risks if not implemented properly. However, if you follow the guidelines of the host platform, then you can effectively utilize Parasite SEO to build backlinks to your content and increase domain authority. Just be sure to avoid black hat SEO tactics like building unnatural backlinks and creating content outside your area of expertise.

The post Understanding Parasite SEO: How to Do it Ethically in 2025 appeared first on NoGood™: Growth Marketing Agency.

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Fintech SEO: 7 Strategies for 2025 https://nogood.io/2025/03/04/fintech-seo/ https://nogood.io/2025/03/04/fintech-seo/#respond Tue, 04 Mar 2025 14:04:19 +0000 https://nogood.io/?p=44852 Stay ahead with expert tips on keyword research, content marketing, and technical SEO to optimize your website and improve search rankings.

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Our NoGood team has worked with some of the world’s most innovative leaders in Fintech like Chime, Intuit, and Merlin, so we understand the nuances and unique pain points of marketing in a regulated industry.

In this blog, we’ll cover some of our top SEO strategies for fintech brands, driven by our own experiments and results.

Why SEO Matters for Fintech

Organic search accounts for 19.3% of the website traffic Fintech companies receive. A solid SEO strategy allows you to gain visibility at the top of search results without paying for expensive PPC ads. 

Fintech topics typically fall under the Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) category for Google. This distinction is for topics where the information that Google provides has the potential to significantly impact your life – like healthcare, or finance.

As a result, it’s imperative that Fintech brands position themselves as trustworthy and authoritative to their customers and to Google by publishing website content that is accurate, true, and helpful.

The Fintech industry faces unique challenges such as complex regulations and technical jargon. SEO helps simplify these topics for users by creating accessible, user-focused content that aligns with both compliance requirements and search intent.

It helps you align your brand as a top choice for the challenges customers need solutions for. Through high-quality content production, you can position your brand as an authoritative source in your niche while building trust and brand recognition with your target customers.

7 Fintech SEO Strategies to Drive Traffic and Conversions

1. High-Quality H-E-E-A-T Content with Backlinks

As a Fintech brand, you face steep competition amongst other brands for recognition. There are many reputable brands fighting for the same audience. That’s why creating high-quality, authoritative content is so important.

It helps you communicate to both search engines and your target audience that you’re a trustworthy source for financial information. By continuously showing up in finance-related queries with valuable information, you’ll remain top of mind when customers are ready to choose a financial partner to entrust with their earnings.

As part of an SEO strategy, we build credibility and trustworthiness through H-E-A-T content:

  • Helpfulness: The information presented answers the user’s query directly and provides substantial value.
  • Expertise: The content demonstrates that the author has significant knowledge of the subject.
  • Experience: The content contains examples of first hand experiences or knowledge obtained through experience.
  • Authority: The content demonstrates reliability by citing other reputable sources.
  • Trustworthiness: The content contains information that is reliable and factual.

For all blog content and FAQs, focus on providing direct, clear answers to users’ questions and pain points. When applicable, you can share examples of how your company approaches certain financial concerns to give customers more insight into your brand’s ethos and further build trust.

As you begin to build authority for your blog posts, utilize internal links to transfer link authority from one page to another. When incorporating internal links, use descriptive anchor text and naturally include them throughout your blog.

To effectively incorporate a backlinking strategy on your website, you need to link lower authority pages to pages with higher authority. You can check a page’s authority by using a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush to check the URL rating. In Ahrefs Site Explorer, you can filter pages by “Best by links” to show the pages with the highest URL Rating and backlink profile.

Infographic explaining the different aspects of HEEAT content

2. Niche Keyword Research Without Duplicate Content

When creating content on topics like banking and credit cards, it can be difficult to target niche keywords without creating duplicate content. Many of the Fintech keywords contain similar phrasing, making it more difficult to target certain topics.

To start your keyword planning, create a keyword list within a platform like Ahrefs or Semrush. When choosing keywords, focus on long-tail keywords and monitor the search intent of the keywords.

Long-tail keywords are great for two reasons. First, they’re usually easier to rank for. Second, they can help you avoid duplicate content issues by making your blogs more specific. Search intent can also help you avoid duplicate content issues.

For example, if a keyword has commercial intent, you should target it with a landing page for your product or service. This is because commercial intent signifies users are looking to compare offerings from different companies.

If a keyword has informational intent, you should target it with a blog post. This is where you can educate potential customers with helpful information.

There are often keywords that are very similar but have different search intents, so knowing how to target them helps differentiate your new content from both any existing content you have and competitors’ content.

Infographic explaining the different types of search intent

3. Optimizing for AI Overviews

Much like other verticals in Fintech marketing, SEO for Fintech is about building top-of-funnel (TOF) brand awareness. This means positioning your brand as a go-to source for as many searches related to your niche as possible.

Financial queries often return AI Overviews because users want quick, helpful answers to these types of questions. The good news is, you can rank in AI overviews and appear in that highly sought after real estate at the top of the search results even if your content isn’t ranking number one organically.

Your first step is to find which keywords trigger AI Overviews. You can do this in Ahrefs or Semrush by filtering for specific SERP features and selecting AI Overview. Make a list of the keywords in your niche with an AI Overview, then focus on creating content to target them.

AI Overviews are extremely dynamic. The search results are always changing so tools like Ahrefs and Semrush don’t always provide the most updated information about keywords with AI overviews. These tools are a good starting point to find keywords that trigger AI overviews, just make sure you verify the information by checking the SERP before you start creating content.

Best Practices for Optimizing for AI Overviews

  • Use question-based headers to align with user queries 
  • Answer user questions directly and concisely underneath each question-based header 
  • Format content in lists, tables, and short paragraphs for better scanning by AI algorithms 
  • Review the AI Overview for the keyword and ensure your content answers all the questions the AI Overview provides information for
  • Answer questions from the People Also Ask SERP feature to differentiate and deepen the scope of your blog topic 

4. Multimedia Content

Multimedia content is a ranking factor for Bing, and it also provides a ranking opportunity for your videos to be featured in AI Overviews and the video panel. Video is a valuable tool for Fintech brands to help explain complex financial topics to users. Brands can also use this as an opportunity to showcase their brand voice and ethos while educating potential customers.

You can start by repurposing TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube videos. Find videos that align with your blog posts and landing pages, then embed those videos directly into those pages.

The video embed accomplishes three goals:

  1. It provides a helpful explanation for users and supports the information in your blog post.
  2. It improves your ranking opportunities in SERP features like AI Overviews and video panels. 
  3. It communicates social signals to Bing, which is a direct ranking factor for this search engine.

5. Conduct Technical SEO Optimizations

Conducting technical SEO optimizations ensures your website is fast, secure, mobile-friendly, and easily crawlable by search engines. These optimizations are key in the Fintech industry, where trust, compliance, and user experience are priority.

If customers use your website to complete transactions and manage their accounts, it is extremely important for your website to be fast, reliable, secure, and user friendly.

6 Technical SEO Optimizations for Fintech Brands

1. Improve Website Speed

Why It Matters: Fintech users expect fast-loading websites; delays can lead to higher bounce rates and lower conversions.

How to Optimize:

  • Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify performance issues.
  • Compress images and enable browser caching.
  • Minimize HTTP requests and reduce unnecessary code.
  • Implement a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to improve load times globally.
2. Ensure Mobile Responsiveness

Why It Matters: With over 60% of global web traffic coming from mobile devices, Fintech websites need to provide seamless mobile experiences.

How to Optimize:

  • Use responsive design frameworks to ensure your website adapts to all screen sizes.
  • Test mobile usability with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool.
  • Consider Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for faster mobile load times.
3. Strengthen Website Security

Why It Matters: Security is critical for fintech brands handling sensitive financial data. Google also prioritizes HTTPS-secured sites in rankings.

How to Optimize:

  • Install an SSL certificate for HTTPS encryption.
  • Regularly update software and plugins to prevent vulnerabilities.
  • Implement two-factor authentication (2FA) for user accounts.
4. Optimize Core Web Vitals

Why It Matters: Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS) impact both user experience and search engine rankings.

How to Optimize:

  • Enhance page load speed by optimizing server response times.
  • Improve interactivity by minimizing JavaScript execution.
  • Ensure visual stability by specifying dimensions for images and videos.
5. Implement Structured Data (Schema Markup)

Why It Matters: Schema markup helps search engines understand your content better and display rich snippets in search results, increasing visibility. It also increases your chances of being featured in voice search results.

How to Optimize:

  • Add schema for financial services, customer reviews, FAQs, and events – where applicable.
  • Use tools like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper for implementation.
  • Test schema with Google’s Rich Results Test.
6. Fix Crawlability Issues

Why It Matters: Search engines need to crawl and index your site efficiently to rank it effectively. Fintech websites often have several security features in place to protect transactions and customer data. This can potentially pose crawling issues if the algorithm encounters issues with the security wall.

How to Optimize:

  • Conduct regular audits using tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to identify broken links and errors.
  • Create an XML sitemap and submit it via Google Search Console.
  • Ensure a clean robots.txt file that doesn’t block important pages.

6. On Page Optimization

On-page optimizations involve improving readability, user experience, and helpfulness of your content. They also include optimizing image size for faster loading and adding internal links to build authority.

5 On-Page Optimizations for Fintech Brands

1. Enhance Readability

Why It Matters: Fintech topics can often be dense; simplifying them improves user engagement and retention.

How to Optimize:

  • Use short sentences and paragraphs.
  • Include visuals like infographics or charts to explain complex concepts.
  • Format text with bolding or italics for emphasis where needed.
2. Structure Content Effectively

Why It Matters: Clear and organized content improves readability for users and helps search engines understand your page.

How to Optimize:

  • Use a single H1 tag per page with the primary keyword.
  • Incorporate target keywords naturally into H2 and H3 headings.
  • Break up dense fintech topics with bullet points, numbered lists, and short paragraphs.
3. Add Internal Links

Why It Matters: Internal links help distribute link equity across your site and improve navigation for users. A strong internal linking strategy allows you to gain more visibility in search results by outranking competitors.

How to Optimize:

  • Link relevant blog posts, product pages, or resources within your content.
  • Use descriptive anchor text that includes keywords naturally.
4. Add FAQs to Blogs and Landing pages

Why It Matters: FAQs directly address user questions, are often featured in AI Overviews, and read aloud in voice search results. This is an opportunity to build trust with your customers by showcasing your expertise in the finance industry. You can answer questions related to security, compliance, and specific Fintech services.

How to Optimize:

  • Include a dedicated FAQ section addressing common user queries.
  • Use structured data markup (FAQ schema) to make these questions eligible for rich results like featured snippers and AI overview.
5. Optimize Metadata

Why It Matters: Titles and meta descriptions are the first elements users see in search results, influencing click-through rates (CTR). Optimizing your title tags and meta descriptions provides an opportunity to persuade users to click your website over one of your Fintech competitors.

How to Optimize:

  • Include primary keywords in title tags and meta descriptions.
  • Keep title tags under 60 characters and meta descriptions under 160 characters.
  • Make metadata compelling and accurately reflective of the page content.

7. Optimize Landing Pages for Bottom-of-Funnel (BOF) Conversions

Now that you have used the first 6 strategies above to build authority and brand awareness, you can optimize your landing pages for bottom-of-funnel conversions.

The first screen of your landing page should have a short, easy-to-read description of your key offerings with a clear CTA to sign up or get more information about your product.

Graphic illustrating the successful parts of a Fintech landing page
Screenshot of section of a Fintech landing page that explains how the product works.

Next, you’ll provide information about how your product works, the results customers can achieve by using your product, and why they should choose your product over competitors. Make your descriptions concise yet informative and include keywords strategically placed throughout each paragraph.

When it comes to finance, many people have questions about how transactions and account management work. Each brand does it differently, so highlight how it’s done with your brand.

The more questions you can answer for users up front, the more they will place trust in you and consider you as a financial partner.

At the bottom of your landing page, you should have an FAQ section with topics related to security, account management, transitions, compliance, and regulations.

Measuring SEO Performance for Fintech

Measuring your SEO performance is key to understanding your customers and how to align your content with their unique challenges.

The tools that are the most helpful to track SEO performance are Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and a third-party tool like Ahrefs or Semrush.

Key Metrics for Tracking SEO Performance

  • Organic Traffic: Tracks the number of visitors arriving through search engines.  
  • Keyword Rankings: Monitors the rankings of target keywords in search engine results. 
  • AI Overview Rankings: Monitors how frequently your website appears in AI Overviews. For Fintech, building brand awareness is important, and AI Overviews can help you achieve it.  
  • Conversions and Conversion Rate: Tools like Google Analytics can track form submissions, sign-ups, or purchases. You can then compare your conversion rates to Fintech industry benchmarks. 
  • Bounce Rate and Dwell Time: A high bounce rate may indicate irrelevant content or poor user experience, while longer dwell times suggest engaging content.
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): Reflects how compelling your meta titles and descriptions are in driving clicks from search engine results pages (SERPs).
  • Backlink Profile: Measures the quantity and quality of backlinks pointing to your site, which impacts domain authority and trustworthiness which is crucial for fintech.
  • Core Web Vitals: Includes metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which assess site speed, interactivity, and visual stability. Website speed is essential to keep customers happy while managing their accounts and making transactions. 

Fintech SEO Is a Continuous Process

Fintech SEO is not a one-time task, but an ongoing process. The dynamic nature of the industry, coupled with continuous updates to search engine algorithms, means that consistent monitoring, adaptation, and optimization are essential to stay compliant.

By staying informed about industry trends, regularly analyzing your SEO performance, and proactively adjusting your strategies, you can maintain a competitive edge and ensure your fintech brand continues to attract and engage your target audience effectively. View SEO not as a project, but as a continuous investment in your brand’s long-term success and visibility.

If you need to refine your Fintech Strategy, our growth experts can help. Feel free to drop us a line.

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How to Resolve Duplicate Content Issues https://nogood.io/2025/02/21/how-to-fix-duplicate-content/ https://nogood.io/2025/02/21/how-to-fix-duplicate-content/#respond Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:38:36 +0000 https://nogood.io/?p=44792 Discover best practices for canonical tags, 301 redirects, and content optimization to ensure search engines prioritize your original content.

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In the world of SEO, copying content should be an obvious no-no, but many sites still run into duplicate content issues that can negatively impact search rankings. That’s because it’s actually more complicated than simply copying and pasting words onto your website and can easily happen by accident.

Simply put, duplicate content is content that appears on your website more than once. It goes beyond the copy itself being duplicated and can result from URL issues. Duplicate content confuses search engines, making it difficult to determine which is better to recommend to users in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Keep reading to learn why it’s important to pay attention to duplicate content as well as how to fix and prevent it on your website.

Syndicated vs. Duplicate Content

Remember that duplicate content is different from syndicated content. Syndicated content is content posted by external websites, hopefully, with your permission, and is usually identifiable through proper attribution and a canonical tag. One example you might be familiar with is when PR and news websites re-post an article originally posted on a company website.

On the other hand, duplicate content often takes place on the same website unintentionally, for example, through improper programmatic SEO tactics. Programmatic SEO automates the creation of many pages for a website, which may mean that you have multiple pages on your website targeting the same topic.

Why Does Duplicate Content Matter?

Graphic showing different kinds of content

Remaining mindful of duplicate content is essential due to its impact on search engines. It can lower page visibility, lessen traffic, and dilute ranking signals. Duplicate content may also negatively impact the user experience. When a website visitor encounters multiple pages with the same content, they may become frustrated and leave your website. This leads to higher bounce rates and lower engagement, negatively impacting SEO performance further.

Is Duplicate Content Penalized by Search Engines?

Graphic illustrating how search engines don't like to rank duplicate content

Officially, Google states that there isn’t a penalty for duplicate content; however, this doesn’t mean that duplicate content has no impact on SEO. When multiple page URLs contain the same content, it’s difficult for search engines to decide which version is better for a particular search query. 

Google’s priority is to answer user queries with pages containing distinct and unique information, which doesn’t put duplicate content in the running. So while there isn’t an official penalty for websites featuring duplicate content, it certainly won’t help your rankings or traffic metrics. When Google has to pick between two of the same page, it will sometimes switch its recommendations between both, leading to volatile metrics.

It’s clear that duplicate content isn’t good for SEO, but let’s take a look at exactly how it impacts your rankings:

  • Confuses Search Engines: When two separate URLs contain the same copy, search engines have a tough time deciding which will be the more helpful version for users. Because of this, it might bypass suggesting your content altogether. 
  • Hurts Crawling Capabilities: Having two pages means search engine crawlers have to read through each version, and because the two pages are the same, this is a waste of time and resources. More time spent trying to distinguish between the two means less time for crawlers to scan the rest of your website. Ultimately, this can lower rankings because search engines are less likely to see the overall unique value of your website.  
  • Dilutes Link Metrics: Multiple versions of a single page on your website result in distributing link equity between these duplicates. When search engines evaluate these variations, they have to decide which version is the most relevant and authoritative so they can recommend it in their search results. This diminishes the impact for both pages, weakening your site’s overall SEO performance. 
  • Impairs the User Experience: If a user hops onto your website and comes across the same information on multiple pages, it not only appears unprofessional but also makes it challenging to find the information they’re looking for. If a user doesn’t feel like they’re finding relevant or unique information, they’re likely to hop off your site in search of better resources. 

Main Causes of Duplicate Content

Duplicate content often stems from human error, although technical issues can also lead to problems. Here are some of the main causes of duplicate content:

URL Variations

Graphic showing different types of URL variations

Different variations of the same URL can lead to duplicate content. This includes:

  • Case Sensitivity: URLs with letters that differ in case may be treated as separate pages. Example: www.website.com/page vs. www.website.com/Page.
  • Trailing Slash: When a trailing slash is absent in one URL but is included in another, it can create a duplicate content situation. Example: www.website.com/Page vs. www.website.com/Page/
  • www vs. Non-www: If a website is accessible through both “www” and non-www versions, it can lead to duplication. Example: website.com vs. www.website.com

Localization

Graphic showing how geographic locations can create duplicate content

Websites with multiple language or regional versions of the same content can unintentionally create duplicate content if the translations or localizations are not managed properly.

Printable Page Versions

Some websites offer printable versions of their website. This can create duplicates of the original content under different URLs (e.g., a normal page vs. a print-friendly version).

CMS Frameworks

A content management system (CMS) is often used to streamline the creation, editing, organizing, and publishing of content. While a CMS is very helpful for websites turning out large volumes of content, it can sometimes generate duplicate content if not correctly configured. Common issues may include improperly set up pagination or category pages.

Programmatic SEO Strategies

Some businesses employ programmatic SEO tactics to scale up their content strategy. However, programmatic SEO can contribute to duplicate content issues if improperly organized.

Programmatic SEO scales content creation for a specific list of relevant keywords to a website. However, when improperly managed, this can lead to multiple pages each targeting the same or very similar keywords. This results in multiple pages with nearly identical content, but slight variations in URLs or page parameters.

Human Error

Sometimes, in our pursuit of ranking for a specific keyword, we create multiple pages targeting that keyword, hoping to boost visibility. However, this approach can lead to content that lacks enough differentiation to offer truly unique value.

When several pages target the same or very similar keywords and topics without clear distinction, it can result in keyword cannibalization. Instead of helping, these pages end up competing against each other, with search engines seeing them as essentially duplicate content. As a result, they struggle to rank, diluting your site’s overall SEO performance.

How to Check if Your Website Has Duplicate Content

There are many ways to check for existing duplicate content on your website. You can leverage Google Search Console (GSC) and refer to the ‘Coverage’ section. Scan for warnings such as “Duplicate without user-selected canonical,” which highlights pages with potential issues. You can also check the “HTML Improvements” section to spot duplicate title tags or meta descriptions potentially harming your rankings. 

Another quick method is a manual Google search for duplicate content. Copy a unique sentence or paragraph from a page on your website and paste it into Google using quotes (e.g., “This is a unique sentence from your page”). This allows you to see if the exact or similar content appears on other pages within your website.

Screenshot of a Screaming Frog crawl identifying duplicate content

Additionally, tools like Screaming Frog can help automate finding duplicate content across your site. Screaming Frog crawls your site for issues like repeated meta descriptions or titles saving you time and giving you a clearer view of your site’s content health.

Here are some key things to look for when evaluating duplicate content issues on your website:

  • Identical content on different pages (ex: similar product descriptions across multiple product pages)
  • Similar content on different URLs (ex: content split across /page1, /page2)
  • Duplicate title tags and meta descriptions
  • Multiple URLs for the same content (ex: with URL parameters)

Fixing Duplicate Content Issues

Once you’ve identified your duplicated content, it’s important to resolve the issues before they hurt your rankings and SEO metrics further. To fix duplicate content issues on your website, you can employ several strategies. Here are some tips on how to effectively address these issues:

301 Redirect

You can use redirects to merge multiple duplicate pages, thus creating one authoritative version of the content that can be referenced. Best practices for 301 redirects indicate you should establish them from non-preferred URLs to your preferred one. 301 redirects inform search engines and website users that the content has moved permanently to a new location.

Canonical Tagging

Screenshot demonstrating where you can find the canonical tag in a page's code.

Canonical tags (rel=”canonical”) are placed in your HTML code to indicate the preferred version of a page you want search engines to display in search results. They are essential for preventing duplicate content from being indexed, ensuring that search engines recognize the original version of a page even when other similar or identical pages exist.

To implement canonical tags, add the <link rel=”canonical” href=”URL”> tag in the <head> section of your HTML documents. This tells search engines which version of a page is the preferred one to index and rank in search results. Canonical tags are particularly useful for handling problems caused by URL parameters, mobile subdomains, and AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) URLs, making it easier for search engines to rank the right version of your content.

By specifying the “canonical” version, these tags help search engines understand which page should be prioritized, avoiding the issues caused by having multiple pages with similar content.

“No-index” Tagging

Screenshot demonstrating where you can find noindex tags in a age's code

To add a “no-index” tag, place the following code in the <head> section of the HTML: <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, follow”>. For non-HTML content (like PDFs), use the “no-index” directive in the HTTP header: X-Robots-Tag: noindex, follow.

Some pages must remain accessible on your website but should not appear in search engine indexing, – duplicate content pages or login portals, for example. By implementing the “no-index” directive within the meta tag, you can prevent these pages from appearing in search engine results while keeping them accessible to users.

While ‘no-index’ tags may appear in the same section of your code as canonical tags, they serve a different purpose. A no-index tag explicitly tells search engines not to index a page or file. This can be placed as an HTML meta tag or within the HTTP response header. The tag helps you manage which pages you want to show (or not show) in search engine results.

The ‘no-index’ tag can be especially useful in preventing search engines from indexing pages that may be duplicates or low-value variations of your primary content. For example, if you have pages with similar or identical content due to parameters, filters, or print versions, adding a “no-index” tag ensures these pages won’t compete with your primary page in search rankings, helping to protect your site’s SEO health.

Best Practices for Avoiding Duplicate Content

Configure Your CMS

If your business utilizes a CMS to help keep things organized, ensure it’s properly set up to avoid duplicate content issues. Depending on the nature of your CMS and how you’re applying it to your content strategy, there are a few ways to avoid duplicate content issues.

Some CMS tools generate session IDs in URLs. If this is the case for your system, consider disabling this feature. Session IDs can create multiple URLs for the same content. Additionally, ensure your CMS is set up to create clean and descriptive URLs without unnecessary parameters.

For paginated content (divided into multiple pages), ensure that your CMS uses proper pagination techniques. Consider using rel=”next” and rel=”prev” tags to indicate the relationship between pages.

Additionally, a CMS plugin or tool can identify duplicate content within your site. In terms of content creation, use specific guidelines or templates in your CMS to encourage authors to create unique content and avoid duplicating existing articles or pages.

Regularly Audit Your Content

Conduct regular audits of your website to identify and address instances of duplicate content. You can utilize SEO tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, or Screaming Frog to perform a complete site audit. These tools will help identify duplicate content issues, including duplicate pages, duplicate title tags and meta descriptions, and multiple URLs for the same content.

It’s also helpful to check your indexed pages in Google Search Console. When analyzing your indexed pages, look for the number of indexed pages and the types of pages being indexed to reveal potential duplicate content issues.

Content with overlapping themes or subjects should also be revised. Even if they’re not identical, similar content can confuse search engines, so it’s better to consolidate those pieces rather than having two covering similar topics. A good final check when publishing content is to use plagiarism checkers to find unintentional duplication.

Use Sitemaps

Graphic demonstrating a website's informational architecture

Regular maintenance also includes submitting an updated sitemap to search engines. Your sitemap should clearly indicate the preferred versions of your pages to aid in better indexing and reduce confusion regarding duplicate content.

Generally, you’ll want to update your sitemap if you frequently add new pages and remove older ones. Submitting an updated sitemap will help search engines discover those new pages. But remember, you don’t need to resubmit your sitemap every time, just if you’ve implemented some significant changes.

Keep Your Content Fresh and Unique

To ensure your content is fresh and unique, remember to conduct your content creation process based on original research. A great way to differentiate your content is by tailoring it to different segments of your audience. By addressing specific pain points, interests, or demographics, you can craft personalized versions that resonate with each group and highlight your unique value proposition.

Additionally, once a piece of content is complete and published, it’s tempting to wipe your hands of it. However, best practices suggest reviewing and updating your existing content to reflect new information, trends, or user feedback. This can involve rewriting sections, adding new insights, or even creating new formats (like infographics or videos) based on the same topic.

Final Thoughts

Addressing duplicate content issues is essential for maintaining optimal SEO performance and enhancing user experience. While duplicate content doesn’t directly incur penalties from search engines like Google, it can dilute your ranking potential and lead to confusion among users and search algorithms.

To effectively resolve duplicate content issues, it’s crucial to implement a tailored strategy that includes the use of canonical tags, 301 redirects, and careful configuration of your content management system. Additionally, regular audits can help identify problematic duplicates, while best practices in content syndication and internal linking can prevent future occurrences.

By focusing on creating unique, valuable content for each URL and properly signaling to search engines which version of the content should be prioritized, you can ensure that your site remains authoritative and user-friendly.

Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all solution; instead, choose the methods that best align with your website’s goals and structure. By proactively managing duplicate content, you can improve your site’s visibility and ultimately drive better results.

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High-Impact Web Pages at Scale: The Programmatic SEO Advantage https://nogood.io/2025/02/18/programmatic-seo/ https://nogood.io/2025/02/18/programmatic-seo/#respond Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:12:13 +0000 https://nogood.io/?p=44740 Learn how automated, data-driven approaches can help you generate thousands of optimized pages with minimal manual effort.

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Programmatic SEO simplifies the process of creating hundreds of website pages, each targeting a unique keyword. This SEO strategy marries technology and automation to bypass the manual creation of pages. Through solid keyword research, a well-built template, database sourcing, and automation, this strategy can help your various web pages rank on search engines.

This enables targeting a larger pool of related keywords in a business’s niche. In this method, while the targeted keyword may change, the overall layout of the various landing pages remains the same. The process is automated rather than having your team create near-identical pages for each target keyword, freeing up time for other SEO endeavors.

Websites like eBay have succeeded through programmatic search engine optimization (pSEO) strategies. However, there are plenty of ways businesses can leverage a programmatic SEO methodology. But how does it work? Let’s dive into this approach that has been a key component of success for some of the world’s most recognizable websites.

Programmatic SEO vs. Regular SEO: What’s the Difference?

Table comparing traditional and programmatic SEO

Here’s the scoop: Traditional SEO involves manually creating pages for each targeted keyword, whereas programmatic SEO leverages automation to speed up this process and ensure consistency and quality. This makes it easy and efficient to target hundreds of keywords in no time.

Programmatic SEO can also work with complex content structures in ways that may be too time-consuming to build and update with traditional, manual SEO. This includes pages with product variations, faceted navigations, content hubs, and personalized recommendations.

Additionally, while user experience remains a priority in both approaches, the focus differs. Programmatic SEO aims to deliver relevant information quickly through tools such as comparisons, reviews, and structured data, which can enhance transactional intent fulfillment.

On the other hand, traditional SEO often prioritizes depth and storytelling, emphasizing the quality of the content, which may take longer to develop. Ultimately, both strategies have their merits, but programmatic SEO stands out as an innovative solution for businesses wanting to maximize their online presence in a competitive digital landscape.

Industry Applications of Programmatic SEO (With Examples!)

eCommerce and Amazon

Leveraging programmatic SEO in eCommerce is a lucrative strategy for optimizing product pages, category pages, and search results in real time, improving search engine rankings and user engagement.

Screenshot of Amazon

Take the world’s number one eCommerce platform: Amazon. With 3.6 billion monthly users, they’re clearly doing something right. With its enormous product catalog, Amazon relies on a programmatic strategy to create thousands of pages so users can find anything from baby products and home furniture to electronics, art supplies, and more. Through automation, Amazon manages and optimizes each of these pages while ensuring they’re correctly indexed.

Rather than tackling generic keywords, Amazon’s system optimizes each product page with schema markup so search engines (including its own on-page search function) can quickly and accurately understand product information and suggest it in relevant user queries. Amazon also leverages machine learning in its programmatic SEO strategy to collect information on user behavior, search patterns, and product performance to improve its algorithm.

Travel Booking Platforms and Tripadvisor

Programmatic SEO enables automated optimization of listings on travel booking platforms with relevant keywords and meta tags. Additionally, booking pages can automatically offer personalized recommendations. These features can increase conversion rates by providing relevant search results to users.

Take Tripadvisor as an example.

Screenshot of Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor is a fantastic resource for planning a trip. From their website, you can attend to almost all your travel needs, from researching and booking hotels, flights, cruises, and even finding things to do. With about 130 million monthly visitors, Tripadvisor’s website is a classic example of a successful programmatic SEO strategy.

Tripadvisor’s success story relies on leveraging programmatic SEO to automate and scale content creation for millions of long-tail keywords. And while these pages maintain a neat and consistent format, they are anything but basic.

Each page provides location-specific information so users can find all the information they need directly on the website. A single page offers a map view, reviews, booking links, weather information, the best times of year to visit, related stories, and an FAQ section.

A best-case scenario for a programmatic SEO strategy is the ability to offer personalized information through aggregated outside resources while keeping its content engaging, interesting, and fresh.

Financial Services and NerdWallet

By optimizing financial product pages, enhancing customer support pages, and including relevant filters and search engine features, businesses in the financial services sector can improve their conversion rates through relevant and personalized search results.

Screenshot of Nerdwallet

NerdWallet’s website provides another example of programmatic SEO at work, but this time in the financial services sector. NerdWallet provides financial literacy resources, comparisons of financial products, and tailored advice. By employing programmatic SEO, NerdWallet has successfully scaled its content and improved its visibility in search engine results.

NerdWallet uses automated systems to generate numerous landing pages targeting specific financial queries. For instance, when it comes to credit cards, the platform can create dedicated pages for various card types, benefits, usage tips, and comparisons tailored to different demographics, such as students or frequent travelers. This high level of automation allows them to cover a broad spectrum of topics quickly and efficiently.

A critical aspect of NerdWallet’s programmatic SEO strategy is the emphasis on user experience. They create content that answers specific user queries while ensuring the information is clear, accurate, and actionable. By offering calculators, comparisons, and tailored advice, NerdWallet not only drives traffic but also provides significant value to its users, enhancing the chances of conversions.

Real Estate and Zillow

Real estate companies, property management firms, and agents can use programmatic SEO to instantly optimize property listings, search results, and neighborhood guides. This improves user engagement and SERP rankings.

Screenshot of Zillow

Zillow acts as an online marketplace where website visitors can buy, sell, rent, and even finance their homes. One key way they leverage programmatic in their SEO strategy is by automatically generating property pages for each listing that’s added. These pages are populated with detailed descriptions, images, and metadata, all crucial for SEO while remaining informative and helpful to website users.

Like Tripadvisor, you can browse for information on different neighborhoods, cities, and zip codes. These pages aggregate data on market trends, school ratings, and local amenities, making them highly relevant for users searching for specific information about real estate in those areas. This strategy enhances Zillow’s visibility for a wide range of location-based searches.

By employing these programmatic SEO strategies, Zillow has successfully established itself as a leading resource in the real estate market, generating millions of page views and ranking for a vast number of keywords. This approach not only improves their search engine visibility but also enhances the overall user experience on their platform.

Advantages of Programmatic SEO

Scaling and Efficiency

Programmatic SEO automates the creation and optimization of web pages, significantly reducing the time and effort required compared to traditional SEO methods. This allows businesses to handle extensive catalogs and a larger pool of keywords efficiently.

Keyword Targeting

Programmatic SEO targets a much vaster pool of keywords and leverages automation tools to generate large amounts of pages to target that pool of terms. Programmatic strategies use algorithms and tools to identify long-tail keywords, user search patterns, and trends across large datasets.

On the other hand, traditional SEO is a much more manual process, completing keyword research analysis and optimization the old-fashioned way. With SEO, content is optimized for both a primary target keyword as well as a group of secondary key terms. Keyword optimization in traditional SEO is generally more tactical, involving on-page adjustments like title tags, meta descriptions, and content updates to target specific search terms.

Consistent Content Creation

When it comes to content on your website, keeping some level of consistency across the board is crucial. Programmatic SEO utilizes dynamic templates designed to incorporate specific keywords, data points, and content structures, allowing the mass creation of content with consistent formatting.

Additionally, programmatic SEO relies on data-driven insights to guide content creation. By analyzing user intent, trends, and keyword opportunities, it automates the creation of pages targeting specific search terms, particularly long-tail keywords. This process allows for rapid automated content generation and a constant flow of fresh content.

Increased Visibility

By producing a large volume of pages targeting various keywords, businesses enhance their visibility in search engine results, increasing the likelihood of attracting diverse segments of their target audience.

Cost-Effective

Although initial setup may require investment in the right tools and technology, the long-term cost savings from reduced manual labor and improved efficiency can make programmatic SEO a cost-effective solution.

Disadvantages of Programmatic SEO

Quality Concerns

Without proper oversight, automated content generation can produce lower-quality pages due to its lack of a human touch. Automation lacks the creative elements humans can produce. This can lead to pages that lack depth, relevance, or engagement.

Lower-quality content can hurt a website’s reputation and lead to higher bounce rates. This is why it’s crucial to have your team carefully review any content generated from this process.

Potential for Duplicate Content

If you’re not properly tracking your website’s content gaps and existing content, programmatic SEO can result in similar or duplicate content across multiple pages. Duplicate content can negatively impact search rankings and frustrate your website visitors.

Technical Complexity

Implementing programmatic SEO requires a level of technical knowledge and expertise in automation tools and coding. For some businesses, this can be a significant barrier to entry.

Search Engine Algorithm Changes

Search engines frequently update their algorithms, and automated strategies that once worked may become ineffective over time. Keeping up with these changes and adjusting strategies accordingly can be challenging, especially when employing programmatic tools and methodologies.

Programmatic SEO Key Considerations

Plan Your Internal Linking Strategy

Graphic showing linking between pages

Internal linking, which refers to links in your content that lead to other pages on your website, is key to any SEO strategy. Internal links help search engines understand what your page is about and how your other pages connect and fit together.

When search engines understand the hierarchy of your website structure, they can better crawl and index your website. This is crucial when dealing with thousands of programmatic pages, as it helps prioritize which pages should be crawled and indexed, ultimately improving visibility in search results.

Additionally, high-authority pages can pass on link equity (link juice) to lower-authority pages through internal links. This is particularly valuable in a pSEO context, where acquiring backlinks for every landing page is likely impractical. By linking your well-trafficked and authoritative pages to your newly created landing pages, you can boost rankings more effectively.

Here are some things to consider when planning your internal linking strategy:

  • Frequency: Link to your most important pages frequently to help users navigate your website. 
  • Link density: The proportion of links present in your content compared to text content. A good rule of thumb is 1-2% of links to text. 
  • Anchor text: Be selective about where you put your internal links. The anchor text should describe the nature of the linked page. So instead of making your anchor text vague like “click here,” you’re better off using relevant text. If I was linking this post to another blog of ours, I might use something like “programmatic SEO” as my anchor text. 
  • Link consistency: To maintain a professional appearance, consider how you’ll keep your internal linking strategy consistent across the website. 

Remember that your strategy should be relevant to the user’s original intent and help guide them to additional helpful information.

Build Your Editorial Foundation

Having a solid editorial foundation to support your programmatic SEO efforts is crucial. A well-built foundation ensures you maintain an organized, structured user experience. The proper fundamentals and a solid base support your programmatic SEO strategy by aligning your new content with the quality content you’ve already created, ensuring each piece continues to provide value to users.

With a programmatic strategy, you want to build off of your existing trust and credibility. Traditional SEO relies heavily on establishing domain authority and trust through high-quality editorial content. A strong editorial foundation lays the groundwork for creating authoritative content, which can enhance the effectiveness of programmatic SEO efforts by improving the site’s overall credibility in the eyes of search engines.

Indexing is Key

Graphic demonstrating site architecture

Another absolute must for programmatic SEO is ensuring your website is indexed. Indexing ensures that each web page generated through programmatic gets included in search engine databases. Without proper indexing, even the best-optimized pages will not appear in search results, limiting your website visibility and the potential to attract organic traffic.

Programmatic SEO also leverages structured data to optimize pages for search engines. Proper indexing of these pages is essential for search engines to correctly interpret the structured data and display rich snippets, which can enhance click-through rates (CTR) and ultimately drive more traffic to your website.

Below are some tips for ensuring search engines index your website:

  • Create a Sitemap: Building a sitemap helps illustrate your website’s structure, content, and navigational hierarchy.
  • Submit Your Sitemap: Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo all have their respective webmaster tools where you need to submit the sitemap of your website.   
  • Use Header Tags: Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) provide structure and organization to your content, making it easier for search engines to crawl and understand. 
  • Focus on User Experience (UX): Metrics like page load times, website speed, and mobile-friendliness all impact UX. Good UX improves your website indexability.  

Differentiate Your Content

There’s a lot of competition on the internet. No matter your industry, hundreds of others will likely compete for the same website visitors you want. Because of this, it’s imperative to differentiate your content from that of your competitors and the content already existing on your website.

Search engines like Google prioritize unique content. If your programmatic SEO strategy results in numerous pages with identical or nearly identical content, you risk running into duplicate content issues. This can lead to penalties or reduced visibility in search engine results, as search engines may struggle to determine which page to rank.

Aside from search engines, actual users also want unique and informative content. Users are more likely to engage with content tailored to their needs and interests. By differentiating your content, you can provide a more personalized and relevant experience, therefore increasing user satisfaction, reducing bounce rates, and ultimately leading to higher conversion rates.

Build Backlinks

Like traditional SEO, link-building is also a crucial aspect of programmatic SEO. Programmatic SEO focuses on automating the creation of numerous landing pages to increase visibility and drive organic traffic. While the rapid generation of content is a significant aspect, integrating robust link-building strategies amplifies the effectiveness of your efforts.

There are many strategies for building backlinks; however, the ones you employ depend on the nature of your business and overall programmatic SEO strategy. Here are the best strategies for link-building to your programmatic pages:

Graphic illustrating link building strategy
  • Shareable Content: Developing valuable tools, calculators, or downloadable guides and infographics can act as a magnet for backlinks. These resources are often shared widely, attracting links from users who find them beneficial.
  • Content Syndication: Consider syndicating your content on platforms like Medium or LinkedIn Pulse. This helps expand your reach while allowing you to include links back to your original landing pages, which can enhance your backlink profile.
  • Resource Pages: Some websites maintain pages full of resource links or link directories for their website visitors to access. If your pages could be a helpful addition, reach out to these websites to see if they’d be willing to include your link. 
  • Content Collaboration: Collaborate and build partnerships with other websites to create podcasts, videos, or other relevant content. Both parties mutually benefit by enhancing the authority of your content while generating backlinks from established, relevant sources to your target pages.
  • Forum and Community Participation: Join industry-specific forums, Q&A sites like Quora, and other online communities. Contribute valuable insights and link to your pages when relevant. This not only allows you to organically earn backlinks, but simultaneously establishes your business as an authority in your field.
  • User-Generated Content: Encourage users to share their experiences. When users engage with your product or service and share their stories on their platforms, they often link to your pages. This enhances engagement while organically increasing backlinks from personal blogs and social shares.

Programmatic SEO: SEO Scaled Up

Overall, programmatic SEO presents a compelling solution for businesses wanting to enhance online visibility rapidly and at scale. Through harnessing automation and leveraging advanced technologies, marketers can both create and optimize a large volume of content to meet the diverse needs of their audience.

While traditional SEO remains valuable and necessary in developing rich and engaging narratives, programmatic SEO’s focus on speed and efficiency can be particularly advantageous in our fast-paced digital environment. As we continue to navigate the often volatile complexities of search engine algorithms and consumer preferences, programmatic SEO can empower businesses to capture valuable market opportunities.

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