Group items tagged

integration

Gartner predicts that the average US adult will own more than six smart devices by 2020, making cross-device IDs and identity resolution — the ability to consolidate disparate sets of data into an individual profile — a critical need for marketing effectiveness.

Site Speed’s Impact on SEO Site speed is a ranking factor and an even larger ranking factor for mobile pages. Google is rolling out a Mobile First index moving forward, which will officially take effect in July 2018, meaning now is the time to optimize for mobile site speed so you’re not on the losing team when it officially rolls out. With that being said, we have already seen the direct impact that site speed has on our clients’ websites’ SEO rankings and organic traffic. The reason why site speed is a ranking factor is that it is, first and foremost, a sign of quality user experience. A fast site speed will result in a better user experience, while a slow site speed will result in a poor user experience. A user is typically staying on a site longer if the site speed is faster and they also convert better and bounce less. For those reasons, Google has made it a ranking factor. Related: Improve Website Speed with these 5 Quick Tips We view three to four seconds or less as a good page load time. This varies slightly based on the type of site and industry but typically if your web pages load in under three to four seconds, you’re doing well. Once you exceed that load time, we start to see less optimal rankings as well as a poorer user experience. Conversely, if we brought this page speed down to sub-three to four seconds we would likely see better rankings. We have seen the effects of this first-hand with a client. We implemented site speed optimizations on a client’s website and the client’s developer accidentally removed the work we had done. The website with the site speed optimizations went from a four-second load time to a 12-second load time after the optimizations were removed, which caused rankings to plummet. We went back in and updated the site with the proper site speed optimizations again and got the website back to a four-second load time and rankings went back up. This illustrated in real-time that site speed has a direct link to SEO and keyword rankings. This is rare, as almost nothing happens in real-time for SEO, it’s a slow and steady wins the race scenario, but we saw the ranking impact in just a few days when site speed optimizations were stripped and then re-implemented. It was a great experiment because we already knew site speed made an impact on SEO, but this really showed the emphasis Google is placing on it for mobile and desktop from a search perspective. The benefits of site speed on user experience impact other digital channels as well, like paid search.

we also require our SEOs are Google Analytics certified, trained in Google (and Bing) Search Console and experts in various SEO tools. Additionally, we strongly recommend (but certainly do not require) that they participate in certain Facebook groups, Reddit communities and follow certain key figures on Twitter and LinkedIn.

we’ve found some of the best resources (outside of Search Engine Land) are: Ahrefs Backlinko Glenn Gabe Stone Temple Search Engine Roundtable

Twelve percent expect to cut organic social services.

More than 50 percent of respondents said their agencies will add one or more of the following services in the coming year: video advertising, paid social, Amazon advertising, content marketing, paid search, strategy consulting and SEO.

Strategy ranked as the “soft” skill that will be most in demand in the next two years, followed by strong client communication. Seventy-two percent of agency marketers said data science and analysis will be the technical skill most in demand at agencies in the coming years