But what makes TikTok so appealing to young people when searching? And what does this mean for the future of search and search marketing?

Why are young people beginning to lean away from Google? While the reasoning can vary for each individual, some of the main factors are:

1. A human-centric experience for users
2. A visual appeal and user-friendly interface
3. Influencers as information sources
4. The TikTok algorithm

TikTok as a Search Engine

Before we dive into why TikTok is becoming a search competitor, we first need to understand TikTok as a search engine.

Last year, Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan, the lead of Google’s Knowledge & Information organization, noted that social media platforms are eating into Google’s share of search as young people started to reach for TikTok and Instagram to begin their path of discovery rather than Google Maps and Search.

TikTok has been adding features and updates since 2022 that has made it more competitive in the search industry. Most notably, TikTok began identifying keywords in the comments of videos and linking the search results for them in August of last year.

More recently, TikTok launched search ads that allow advertisers to have existing In-Feed Ad creative served in the search results along with organic results. The TikTok search ad option is on by default when you are setting up In-Feed Ads in TikTok Ads Manager, but can be toggled off. While advertisers can’t bid on specific keywords for advertising purposes, they can add negative keywords to prevent search ad placement near posts that don’t align with the brand’s messaging.

When introducing the TikTok search ads toggle, the platform mentioned that they plan to continuously innovate their search experience. It is likely we can expect new features for TikTok search in the future.

1. A Human-Centric Search Experience

TikTok stands out as a search engine, compared to Google, because the content served is more focused on consumers rather than brands.

While Google relies heavily on its algorithm, TikTok search results are driven by user-generated content. As internet users value authenticity and reliability during discovery, discovering brands or products through referrals from real people sharing their real experiences can help foster a more intimate connection between users and information.

For example, let’s say we want to buy a new pet food brand for our office dog, Keeley.

When TikTok users search “dog food,” they are served videos of people sharing what they feed their dog or their personal experiences with different dog food brands.

When Google users search “dog food,” they are first served ads from different dog food brands, followed by organic results from pet stores that sell dog food.

Individuals who are in the discovery phase of the consumer journey might prefer gathering information from TikTok videos of people just sharing information rather than the pet food brands or pet stores that are invested in the individual purchasing their product.

2. Visual Appeal and User-Friendly Interface

TikTok, due to most of its content being in a short-form video format, makes this social platform more visual-centric compared to text-heavy Google search results. Focusing on visual content can make the TikTok search engine results more easily digestible and accessible.

According to a 2022 Sprout Social study, short-form video content plays a vital role in the online and social media spaces, with 66% of consumers reporting that it is the most engaging type of social media content.

The way that the platform is set up to view multiple sources of information quickly also plays a role. In Google search, a user has to click in and out of different search results, whereas users who use TikTok just need to swipe to move to the next result.

3. Influencers as Information Sources

On TikTok, and across social media platforms overall, influencers can significantly influence trends, information spread, and purchasing decisions. Younger users, guided by their favorite content creators, seek new information through them on TikTok rather than through more traditional search methods. Influencers’ sway is highlighted in purchasing behavior as well; GRIN found that 82% of their survey respondents are more likely to purchase a product that an influencer promoted.

4. TikTok’s Algorithm

One of the main draws of TikTok for users is the personalized “For You Page” (FYP). Each user has a unique experience on the platform, with TikTok’s algorithm recommending content that aligns with the user’s specific interest. TikTok pushes content to a user’s FYP based on a number of factors, but some of the main ones are:

• User interactions, such as the videos a user engages with, the accounts they follow, and the videos they create themselves.
• Video information (captions, audio, and hashtags).
• Device and account settings, such as language, country setting, and device type.

This real-time, personalized approach to recommending content, combined with other TikTok search features, allows for hyper-personalized content recommendations to a user who can also seek out broader information about topics on the same platform. Google’s algorithm, by contrast, will be tailored to its results based on location and search history, but Google’s reliance on SEO does not provide for the same personalized experience on the platform compared to TikTok’s algorithm.

While TikTok search does not utilize SEO like Google search does, it does use hashtags, which can play a major role in making a creator’s content discoverable and searchable. Hashtags allow users to categorize their content and to reach people who are interested in the topic of the video with ease.

Reliability of the Sources: Battling Misinformation

You can’t believe everything you read (or watch) online, and that goes for information sourced from TikTok or Google as well.

A major concern about TikTok being used for search is the amount of misinformation on the platform. A 2022 study found that nearly 1 in 5 videos under prominent news topics contained false information or misleading claims. The reason for the widespread inaccuracy is in part due to the fact that it is harder for TikTok’s technology to analyze both the audio and visual content for false claims. This technological difficulty causes TikTok to rely on community-driven reporting and moderation to manage content on the platform, which means a lot of outright false or misleading content circulates on the platform.

That is not to say that everything on Google is true either. In the past, developers at Google have had to manually remove certain autosuggestions from its search bar due to the original suggested results being anti-Semitic, sexist, and the like. The original results appeared because Google’s algorithm used biased, human-created content.

Google, however, has somewhat of a leg up on combating false news, hate speech, and other inaccuracies, at least compared to TikTok. It isn’t perfect, but it does adapt faster than most other platforms and also casts a wider net with which to catch hate speech and misinformation. Its tools include its constantly-evolving algorithm, cross-checking technology, and human web developers’ input. These factors all make it harder for false information to rank well.

Final Thoughts

In the ever-evolving landscape of search tools and search marketing, the TikTok search engine is emerging as a disruptor and is in the process of reshaping how younger users are accessing and discovering information online. Users like content that feels like it is coming from real people, is easily digestible, and is personalized for them when they’re in the discovery phase of their search.

Should search marketers drop everything they do on Google and move to TikTok search? No. Google is still the top dog of search, but it would be smart to keep an eye on TikTok as its search efforts shift it to becoming a formidable contender in the search arena.

Need Help With Social Media Marketing?

Want to utilize TikTok to get your brand in front of your target audience during their discovery searches but don’t know where to begin? Give us a call! As a top team of digital marketing experts, we would love to help you build a social media marketing strategy and discuss exciting ways to generate video content to help you reach and connect with your target audience.

Content can be a great way to establish your brand’s identity, generate visibility, and even earn loyalty from your target audience—if you know what content your audience is looking for. If you want your content marketing strategies to be successful, you need to understand the differences between branded and unbranded content… and when to use them.

What is the Difference Between Branded and Unbranded Content?

The difference between the two boils down to whether or not the content is specifically about your brand. 

As the name suggests, branded content is about your brand, which is your company and its values. This content typically feels more promotional in tone. For example, branded content would include promotional videos for an upcoming company event.

By contrast, unbranded content does not focus on your company, but rather about your industry at large. This kind of content could include articles on market trends or speculation about a new product release from another company.

When to Use Branded vs Unbranded Content

Both types of content serve a purpose. To use both effectively, you need to understand when to use them and what they can help your company achieve.

Branded Content

Branded content helps:

• create your brand image, 
• can generate brand awareness and visibility, and 
• may even inspire brand loyalty if your content is of high enough quality.

Here, authenticity is key; according to Stackla’s Consumer Content Report, 86% of people surveyed said that authenticity was important when deciding what brands they support. What counts as authentic? According to that same report, people prefer “real and organic” to “perfect and packaged” content. People surveyed also said they found user-generated content to be more authentic than other varieties.

As such, discovering your audience’s key values and appealing to them in a way that feels real and conversational may be the best way to come across as authentic.

The Dove Real Beauty campaigns are classic examples of branded content marketing that feel authentic. These campaigns revolve around the concepts of self-esteem and tackling beauty bias, and include both empowering brand-generated videos and inspirational user-generated content like testimonials. This combination helps paint Dove as a sincere, authentic brand that cares about its customer base and is in active conversation with them. That perception can generate brand loyalty, and sales numbers reflect that: in the 10 years since Dove launched these campaigns, sales went from $2.5 billion to $4 billion.

That is the purpose of branded content: to generate visibility and loyalty. 

Just remember that it is important not to flood your audience with branded content, as too much of it feels forced and inauthentic, which may turn audiences off your brand. Instead, use branded content at strategic times, and consider incorporating user-generated content into your branded marketing strategies.

Unbranded Content

Unbranded content offers valuable information or even entertainment to readers.

Crafting authoritative content like consumer reports can establish your company as a trustworthy industry resource. This trustworthiness will lead to people choosing your company time after time when they need market insights. Or, if you keep offering entertaining content like funny or heart-warming industry-related videos, users may see your company as fun, approachable, and authentic—all of which may help establish brand loyalty and trustworthiness.

All in all, unbranded content can also generate brand authority and loyalty, albeit in a much more indirect way than branded content does. It’s a great way to connect with your audience without flooding them with branded marketing content, which can help you appear more authentic.

Final Thoughts

The best content marketing strategies understand that authenticity and trustworthiness are key to inspiring brand loyalty. When you craft content, ask yourself:

• Does the content feel sincere?
• Is the content helpful or entertaining?
• Would my audience connect with this content?

Answering these questions can guide how you shape your content marketing strategies, and may just earn your brand some loyal followers in the end.

With so many paid search data points to sift through, it can seem like a nightmare trying to make sense of all the numbers. Fortunately, knowing which metrics matter most can help you easily understand your PPC campaign’s success rate — and give you insight on where you can improve.

Which Paid Search Metrics Matter MOST?

Wondering what the heck a ROAS is? CTR? Impressions?

There are a lot of terms you need to know to discuss paid search. Fortunately, once you know what these terms mean, it’s easy enough to understand which ones you need to pay attention to in order to analyze your campaign’s success.

1. Clicks

Let’s call this one the no-brainer.

The goal of any paid campaign, clicks are a pretty basic metric, but one that can help you go a long way to understanding the rest of your paid search data. Clicks simply refer to the number of interactions with your ads. With each click, a visitor descends upon your site, and with it comes another opportunity for your business to grow.

Other metrics are based on clicks, such as cost-per-click (CPC), and so knowing how many clicks your campaign has generated can give you context around other metrics.

Generally speaking, assuming all of your campaign settings are buttoned up and you’re targeting the right audience, more clicks means your campaign is performing better.

The Verdict on Clicks: Let’s face it: clicks are the reason you created a paid search campaign in the first place. After all, they represent potentially valuable visitors to your site, and that’s a very good thing, so let’s all take a moment to celebrate clicks!

2. Impressions

Sometimes abbreviated as “Impr,” impressions refer to how many times your ad was displayed to your assigned audience. While clicks are a fairly straightforward metric, impressions can be a little tricky since what exactly qualifies as an impression varies by platform.

For example, Google defines an impression as each time your ad is shown — in some cases, even partially — on either a search results page or other site within the Google Network, such as YouTube or Gmail. This differs fundamentally from how Meta calculates the metric, which is defined on Facebook Ads as the number of times your ad is on screen for the first time to a user.

Impressions matter to your PPC campaign because a higher number of impressions signals that your ad is being seen by a large volume of eyeballs. Whether or not those eyeballs belong to your ideal audience is a topic for another blog post, but generally, more impressions is a good thing. If your campaign’s impression count is low, many factors could be at play, including geographical influences on your audience size, seasonal demand for your product or service, or lower bidding amounts in comparison with competition.

The Verdict on Impressions: Take the time to understand how your chosen ad platform calculates an impression. This will provide you with a reliable baseline from which to determine whether or not your campaign is providing the desired amount of visibility, as well as adequately uncover potential techniques for performance improvement.

3. Click-through-Rate (CTR)

This is the vanity metric, so to speak. If clicks are the reason for creating a paid ad campaign, CTR is the reason logging into your account once in a while to optimize for performance.

Clickthrough rate is only understood in tandem with clicks and impressions. Specifically, CTR refers to the ratio of how many people clicked on your ad compared to how many people saw the ad.

Mathematically, it looks like this: CTR = clicks/impressions.

What’s tricky about CTR is that, what’s deemed acceptable or above-average depends on what you sell and in what type of field or vertical you sell your product or service, as well as where you ad is showing and being engaged by an audience. For example, an ad in the legal space can expect to fetch an average clickthrough rate of approximately 2.93% on Google’s Search Network but only 0.59% on the search engine giant’s Display Network, which uses significantly less reliable targeting options. By comparison, in the real estate vertical, both of these averages rise to 3.71% and 1.08%, respectively.

What’s not muddled, however, is the inherent benefits of a healthy clickthrough rate. No matter the vertical, Google uses CTR to assess the overall perceived relevance and attractiveness of your campaign’s ads in relation to that of your competitors. The metric reveals to Google that there’s something inherently better about your ads — better body copy, stronger call to action, bolder headlines — that makes them more likely to be engaged by users, and this means more money in the Google coffers.

But before you curse Google for being self-serving, keep in mind that, the higher the CTR, the more likely you’ll be rewarded for your efforts. Using historical campaign data, if Google deems that your ad, theoretically, will produce a healthier CTR, you’ll be allowed to bid less money than what your competitors are bidding for the same placement in search results.

The Verdict on CTR: CTR is vital to understanding the health of your campaign, and it’s a key signal to Google of perceived effectiveness. Just be aware that there is no single “best” CTR across the board. Research what rates are standard from your industry to better understand how your own campaign is performing.

4. Cost-per-Click (CPC)

The whole premise of paid search campaigns is that you pay for your audience’s attention via clicks. CPC is straightforward: it’s how much you pay for each click on your ad.

Simple in both definition and application, a quick glance to your CPC at any moment will give you at least a semi-clear idea of what your campaign is up against in terms of competition, and the metric can also be leveraged to root out potential red flags.

The higher your average cost per click, the more likely it is that a considerable amount of fellow advertisers are competing for the same prize as you, but remember that it’s all relative. What we mean is, if you’re a pickleball instructor, your CPC may hover around $3-4 to reflect the level of competition in your local market, but that pales in comparison to the insurance broker a few blocks away, who may be hemorrhaging upwards of $150-175 for each click in what tends to be the most cutthroat vertical around in the paid ad space.

Other times, your cost-per-click could be sounding a different type of alarm. If Google senses a mismatch between the keywords you select for your campaign, the copy of your ads, and how relevant your website is in connection to the search being performed by a user, the average price you pay for each click will follow suit, meaning you’ll have to pay, in some cases, considerably more than your competitors for the same click.

The Verdict on CPC: CPC is a metric vital to paid campaign success, and it’s invaluable as a tool to not only size up your competition — but keep your own performance in check.

5. SEARCH IMPRESSION SHARE (SIS)

Everyone loves having as large of a slice of the pie as possible, amirite?

Search impression share is that pie, only instead of more succulent cherries, juicy peaches, or those disgusting pecan things, the reward of a larger slice is more impressions for your ads — which results in more click opportunities.

Formulaically, SIS represents the number of impressions being generated by your campaign divided by the total number of eligible impressions, and it’s calculated on a percentage scale of 0-100. Every advertiser’s goal should be a sparkling SIS of 100%, but this isn’t dream world; that would mean that a campaign is maxing out every single opportunity, which is rare, indeed.

Back on Earth, the average search impression share is usually 60-80%, give or take. This means that the remaining 20-40% of available impression opportunities is being lost somewhere, and Google breaks that down to two areas: ad rank and budget. In other words, if your campaign is not producing a perfect SIS, it’s because either or both of the following are happening:

• Your ads are not ranking high enough in the pecking order
• Your daily ads budget is being exhausted early in the day

In either case, your competitors are stealing impressions away from your campaign, so SIS needs to be amongst the many valves you peer at every chance you get to judge performance.

If your campaign is wallowing in the depths of a low share of impressions, simply throwing more dollars Google’s way, oddly enough, can do the trick. Full disclaimer, though, this is only recommended if your campaign is manufacturing favorable results.

With rank being the issue, take a hard look at the manner in which you are bidding on your individual keywords. The auction system upon which a platform like Google Ads is based is constantly adjusting to fluctuating supply and demand, and so your bid for a keyword today may not cut the mustard tomorrow.

Adjust your bids accordingly, starting with your most successful keywords first, and then go from there.

The Verdict on SIS: Not necessarily critical, search impression share still screams not to be ignored, if for no other reason that it can give you a crystal-clear idea of what you’re leaving on the table — and how to get more of that pie.

6. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate refers to how often your ad — wait for it — conversions, um, converts!

Ask yourself: how often do my ads contribute to form submissions, phone calls, web chats, ecommerce sales, and the like?

As is the case with CTR, conversion rate is an excellent indication that your ads, and the experience they provide, are resonating with users. But there’s more to it than that.

Ads alone cannot claim the credit behind a high conversion rate; they certainly play a role, but they need the website to pitch in to entice the visitor to commit to action on your website after the click on your ad has occurred.

Higher rates of conversion are typically indicative of an unmistakable cohesion between your ads campaign and website, the two working perfectly in harmony to achieve the desired effect. Meanwhile, a lower rate of conversion is a complete mixed bag, where any combo of factors could be at fault, from poor keyword selection and incorrect audience targeting to bland ad copy and unclear website messaging.

The Verdict on CR: High rates of conversion typically equal happy advertisers and populated sales funnels. Low rates could take some time to dissect and/or require the help from seasoned professionals [wink, wink].

7. Cost-per-Conversion

So, that conversion rate of yours is high, but what are you shelling out for each of those golden leads?

Whatever the answer, it’s best to wrap it in some context to determine if that number is acceptable or not.

For example, let’s assume you sell bottles of water at $5 a pop, and you spend $1,000 in click cost to get 100 sales. Your cost-per-conversion is $10, which in the grand scheme of things seems ideal, but ultimately, you spent twice ($1,000) as much as you made ($500). In your case, that average conversion cost is crap. Why bother advertising to lose cash?

However, if you are selling $30 shirts, that same average cost of a conversion now means you are generating $20 in revenue with each sale.

The lower your cost-per-conversion, the greater your return-on-investment (ROI).

The Verdict on Cost-Per-Conversion: The lower this metric, the better! Don’t look at conversions for the sake of celebrating conversions within your campaign; make sure the numbers add up to financial sense for your business.

8. Return-on-Investment (ROI) and Return-on-Ad-Spend (ROAS)

At the end of the day, your business needs to make money to stay afloat. And while it takes money to make money, you need to be making more money than you are spending on ads. That’s where ROI and ROAS enter the conversation.

These metrics help you determine the profitability of your campaign. While similar, ROI and ROAS are not quite the same.

In paid search, ROI is typically calculated using the following formula: net income/cost of investment x 100. ROAS, by comparison, divides the revenue attributed to a specific paid ads campaign by the costs of that campaign.

At the end of the day, these two numbers, in particular ROAS, are where your campaigns sink or swim. All other metrics can appear rosy, but if the bottom line is being negatively impacted, it’s time to make some campaign changes or get out entirely.

The Verdict on ROI & ROAS: This is the stuff the decision-makers want to see. As such, any discussion surrounding campaign viability begins and ends here.

How Do You Measure The Success Of A Paid Search Campaign?

The answer to this question varies widely depending on your goals, and it’s not always an easy one to decipher. What do you ultimately want to happen after you launch your campaign?

Ask yourself:

• Is the primary goal to increase revenue and generate profit — or something slightly less tangible, like brand awareness?
• How will success be measured? Sales? Phone calls, forms, or something else?
• What is the true value of a conversion?
• How many conversions, or ROAS figures, must be produced to assure campaign feasibility?

There is no right or wrong answer to these questions. However, the answers to these questions will help you better understand if your campaign is a success or not.

Final Thoughts

Once you know which paid search metrics pertain most to your unique situation, you can more easily decipher whether or not your campaign efforts are sustainable.

If your campaigns aren’t hitting their goals and you aren’t sure why, that’s where we can help. With years of experience running successful paid search campaigns, we know exactly where to identify problems areas in a campaign and how to improve them. If you want a second opinion on your campaigns, contact Digital Strike today to get expert feedback on your paid search strategy.

Despite how important SEO is, we often hear how daunting it can be, even for a senior marketing manager. SEO seems like such an abstract concept because there are so many layers and factors that can affect performance… and those layers and factors are constantly changing. It’s not as simple as managing pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns where you can literally pay for higher placement if you’re not seeing the results as expected. (Okay, not that simple. But you know what we are getting at.)

So, just how do you become familiar with SEO (and maintain your sanity while doing it)? Keep reading to learn more about technical SEO and the best technical SEO audit tips you can implement right away.

What is Technical SEO?

One of the ways we like to introduce business owners to SEO? Presenting it as being composed of three equally important pillars that will empower growth. These three pillars are:

1. Authority
2. SEO-friendly content
3. Technical SEO (our favorite)

Many people are familiar with on-site SEO, or on-page SEO. On-page SEO includes content optimization, such as using target keywords in your copy, updating meta tags to include buzzwords, and using an SEO-friendly URL structure. While absolutely critical for success in its own right, you need to complement this type of SEO with technical SEO.

Technical SEO includes any task that is completed within the framework of your actual website. It therefore includes concerns like website crawlability, page load speeds, whether you have duplicate pages, and much more.

Performing a technical audit on your site can reveal areas for improvement, and may be one of the best ways to improve your website for both human users and search platform-ranking algorithms.

Fortunately, it is easy enough to perform a technical SEO audit and boost your site’s ranking on search platforms like Google.

Step-by-Step Guide for In-Depth Technical SEO Audits

The truth is, there is no single best way to optimize a website, only the best way for your website’s unique needs while keeping in mind the tools and resources you have at your disposal. Taking these variables into account, you can craft an auditing strategy that elevates your website in Google’s eyes (and rankings).

Whether your website operates as an affiliate marketing opportunity or an ecommerce sales driver, technical SEO tactics can make or break your visibility online. Our SEO strategists rely on the following quick but effective tactics to outrank the competition and help grow our clients’ businesses.

1. Run a Website Crawl

Crawling isn’t just for spiders. It’s also for robots on the web. These robots serve an important function: reviewing your website and storing (aka indexing or caching) it in a search platform’s database. This way, when a user enters a query into a search platform, the platform’s algorithm can quickly draw an organized list of the most relevant content from its database.

The downside to caching and indexing, however, is that sometimes search platforms will store outdated versions of your website, meaning that users won’t find the latest and greatest content on your site.

That is why it is imperative to frequently have crawlers (also referred to as robots or bots) review every nook and cranny of your website, even if your website doesn’t have many pages. You can rest assured that Google and other platforms see only the latest version of your site, or you can quickly detect and fix any errors that prevent your site from indexing and appearing to search users. In other words, frequent crawling can help you avoid a drop in traffic or visibility due to technical issues and crawl errors.

Use crawlers like Googlebot or Bingbot to find errors that include dead pages (error 404), broken links (links no longer work), no indexing, hacking, server accessibility issues, downtime, and more. Link breaks, image errors, and page removals happen all the time; that’s why we crawl and review the website every week, so we can keep everything running as smoothly as possible.

Tools that we at Digital Strike like for this tactic include:

• Screaming Frog
• SEMRush
• DeepCrawl

2. Make the Most Out of Your Crawl Budget

Crawler bots are busy. There are nearly 2 billion websites online right now. These robots are expected to crawl every URL on the internet, which means they don’t want to waste their time with unnecessary crawls of useless pages. That is why most search platforms enact a crawl budget, or a limit on how many pages on your site their crawlers will review every day.

To make the most of your crawl budget, try the following five easy actions:

1. Make your important pages indexable (use rel=index tags).
2. De-index PPC landing pages.
3. Keep your number of pages to a minimum by reorganizing similar content into what we refer to as “power pages,” i.e., long-form, authoritative, comprehensive, and informational content.
4. Use noindex tags on pages that are not as important, so Google bots don’t use up your crawl budget on content that will never get to the first page of Google (e.g., About Us pages).
5. If you have pages that shouldn’t even be found via organic search (e.g., admin pages) or that you otherwise do not want crawled, use disallow tags.

3. Index the Correct Version of Your Website

On occasion, website updates mean that servers begin serving the wrong version of a website to users and search platforms, such as serving the site with HTTP status instead of HTTPs. It is therefore important to manually verify the most accurate version of your website is indexing on your chosen search platform, or you could run into issues.

If both the HTTP and HTTPS versions are indexed, for instance, both URLs could be considered duplicate content. Search engines despise duplicate content and penalize them, meaning you want to avoid these issues as much as possible. Duplicate content issues aren’t as common these days, as Google bots get smarter and understand the purpose of different content. That said, these errors could still occur if you do not run a manual site audit and review similar content on occasion.

The following URL inspection and testing tools can help you check the index status of your site:

• URL Inspection Tool (Google)
• URL Inspection Tool (Bing)

4. Optimize Your Sitemap(s)

The devil is in the details, especially when it comes to websites. Your sitemap is essentially the blueprint of your entire online operation, telling search platform algorithms how they should interact with your site (and how they should present it to users). Even a small error on your sitemap can significantly impact site performance, meaning that sitemap optimization and cleanup is incredibly important for ranking high in SERPs.

There are two types of sitemaps, XML and HTML. Your XML sitemap is for crawlers while your HTML is for human users. You can have one or both types for a single site.

To optimize your XML sitemap, consider the following:

• Exclude nonimportant (rel=noindex) pages from the sitemap, which also helps you get the most of your crawl budget. (A win-win!) Then, include your XML sitemap in your robots.txt file (the file that tells crawlers what pages they should or should not crawl).
• Use plugins that automatically generate XML sitemaps for you when using website-building platforms like WordPress.
• Ensure URLs on your sitemap include canonical tags to avoid confusing the bots with complicated redirect chains (and make sure these canonical URLs are not pointing to a page that is redirected).

To optimize your HTML sitemap, try the following:

• Update your HTML sitemap when needed, since it cannot automatically update the way XML sitemaps can.
• Keep the number of links on your HTML sitemap to less than 100.
• Add keywords in your meta descriptions, meta titles, and anchor texts (we’ll discuss this in further detail below).

5. Update Page Title, Meta Descriptions, and H1 Tags

When the opportunity arises, improve clickability via optimizing headers, title tags, and meta descriptions while improving keyword importance via H1 tag recommendations. In other words, find a target keyword and closely related terms and use them throughout not just the body copy of a page, but also within proper H tags and meta descriptions. Making these changes might seem tedious, but trust us—the effort is well worth the results you are likely to see.

Keep in mind, meta descriptions are not a factor that Google looks at for rankings; they are more to entice human readers to read your content or buy your product. By testing out different verbiage within your metadata, however, you can find the right mix that increases organic search traffic by using persuasive copy to entice users to enter your website (and reduce bounce rates).

6. Track Keyword Rankings, Impressions, and Queries

Analyze trends in rankings, impressions, and queries via Google Search Console to identify optimization opportunities and indexation issues. If you are tracking your keywords and noting any substantial changes, then you can tell if/when an indexation issue arises.

Did a keyword that you typically rank highly for drop off within the search engine results pages (SERPs)? Chances are you have an indexation issue or you could potentially be a victim of Google’s algorithm updates.

You cannot judge a proper SEO strategy without tracking organic search performance. There are several keyword rankings and audit tools available for these types of tracking. At Digital Strike -Targeted Marketing, we like the following:

• SEMRush.com
• Cocolyze.com
• Ahrefs.com

(FYI: These are great tools for keyword research as well.)

7. Evaluate Your Organic Search Traffic Trends

Throughout the month, you should evaluate traffic trends in Google Analytics to analyze overall search engine performance from a traffic volume standpoint. If there are specific web pages that are seeing an increase in traffic (specifically from organic search), it should go without saying that you’re doing something right. (Good job!)

But what if you’re seeing the opposite? (It’s okay! Take a deep breath.)

Check for any technical SEO issues on important pages first if you’re not seeing the volume as expected. If you’re not the webmaster, your company should consult a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO.

8. Sculpt Authority with Links

Most digital marketers know the importance of external links/backlinks. But they aren’t the only types of links that matter when it comes to SEO.

Ensure web crawlers know what page is the authority on a given topic and improve authority through internal linking opportunities. Many SEO agencies fail with link-building campaigns by not considering the importance of internal links and proper anchor text usage.

If you want a particular page to rank highly in the search engine rankings you need to mold the authority by strategically placing internal links that point from other highly authoritative pages on your website to similar topical content you have. Boosting your homepage’s authority is a great first start for increasing organic traffic, for example. Do so by having different pages on your website point to your homepage… and have relevant links (with keyword-rich anchor text) to those pages as well. This practice helps you create a healthy ecosystem of interlinking on your website that shows search platforms your site is robust and should therefore rank higher in SERPs.

9. Use Social Media

Don’t roll your eyes at us.

Social media can help your business thrive.

Yes, really.

For starters, using social media to push your content helps increase organic traffic, brand awareness, and creates backlinks to your website (both through the link you share in your original post and any shares you get from followers). Additionally, platforms like Google even crawl certain social media sites like Facebook, meaning that a well-optimized and popular Facebook post could show up in Google SERPs.

So don’t let your social media marketing strategy fall to the wayside or think of it as a completely separate enterprise from SEO.

10. Prioritize the Mobile Version of Your Site Over the Desktop Version

More and more people are forgoing desktops to perform searches. Now, the majority of people use mobile devices to conduct searches. That is why Google actually uses mobile-first indexing practices (aka Google prioritizes mobile versions of your site for search and indexing purposes).

One quick way to see if your site is friendly for mobile users? Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool.

11. Run Site Speed/Page Load Time Tests

It should come as no surprise that Google and other search platforms consider website speed to be an important SERP ranking factor.

A slow page load time typically insinuates a poor user experience, and search platforms are all about serving the best user experience (more on that below). How slow is too slow? More than three seconds, according to Google research.

That means you need to keep your site and page load speeds at or below three seconds to reduce the likelihood of high bounce rates. You should evaluate load times both independently and against the competition. This approach means you can better determine if improving site speed should be on your priority list.

There are several tools that both test site speed and provide a list of improvements. We prefer to use Google-produced tools, such as Google PageSpeed Insights.

12. Optimize User Experience

Aside from website page speed, there are several other factors that search engines note as ranking factors, such as mobile-friendliness, usability, accessibility, and efficiency.

Simply put, search platforms reward you when you keep things simple. Good news: most platforms give you the tools to help you do just that. Google, for instance, provides several tools to increase your scoring on the Core Web Vitals report, which will tell you if your website provides a good or poor user experience.

The better the user experience, the higher your website will rank on the SERPs.

Let’s talk about Core Web Vitals a little more.

In May 2020, Google announced Core Web Vitals as a new way to judge the user-friendliness of a website. This update officially rolled out in 2021, establishing metrics that affect visibility in the SERPs.

The Core Web Vitals report ranks your website’s status as Good, Needs Improvement, or Poor for the following metrics:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – The time it takes for the largest content to show up in full view on screen, starting from when the user clicks the link or types in the URL. This content is typically a hero image or video on the homepage. Google recommends your pages’ largest content show up in less than 2.5 seconds to be in good standing.
• First Input Delay (FID) – The time it takes for your website to respond to a user’s action on your site. For example, FID is the time it takes for your site to navigate to an internal page when a user clicks on an internal link. Google recommends less than 100 milliseconds between actions on-site.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – The amount of change between the current layout to a new page layout between navigation. Think of this metric as counting the time between jumping from your service page to a blog. If a page is changing its template design while a user is trying to interact with it, it is considered to be a poor user experience. If it is a large upheaval, Google will score your changes between 0-1, 1 being the most shifting and 0 being the least. Google recommends a score of less than 0.1.

After March 12, 2024, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) has replaced First Input Delay (FID) as a core web vital metric type. INP, according to Google, is more comprehensive, and takes into account how much time it takes for a site to process and display all user interactions, not just the first.

• Learn more about Google’s Core Web Vitals update.
• Learn more about Google’s Helpful Content update.

How to Prioritize Technical SEO Audit Action Items

Every technical audit will look different. Expertly craft yours based on the following three factors.

1. Budget

Technical SEO requires several tools and a lot of patience to comb through every page and every line of code on your website. And, to be honest, it’s complicated.

Online SEO tools and software or hiring real people to handle larger projects is sometimes the best way to fully optimize your website. But these resources aren’t always cheap. This fact means you will have to pay for not only the tools and time but also for the knowledge and years of experience any hired SEO strategist has put in to quickly assess your website or troubleshoot issues.

2. Age of Website

Older websites typically have more authority in the eyes of Google than newer websites do. And more authority means a better chance to rank higher in SERPs. Technical SEO changes also usually show results much more quickly on a well-established site than a newer one. So, if your website can easily be optimized, then optimize what you already have.

Unfortunately, not every website is salvageable. In these cases, starting over from the ground up and making a new site with a stronger foundation is the solution your brand needs.

So frequently do we hear new clients complain about our initial suggestion, “time for a new website.” We promise we’re not just saying that to sell you a new website—that’s slimy and that’s not Digital Strike.

The fact of the matter is that websites these days are different from those of the past. Technology has changed, making the launch of a brand-new website quicker and easier than ever. You’d be surprised how starting over can improve your current website’s performance!

3. Time

How much time you have is perhaps the single-most important resource you have to consider during an audit. More time means you can comb through the site for nitpicky details. Less time means you have to focus on only the big-ticket items like page speed and redirects.

Whether you’re a senior marketing manager or an entry-level SEO content writer, everyone needs to consider the technical soundness of their website. These small tasks can help your website get thousands to millions of impressions.