Abizy: Internet Blog for Marketers

Rick and Morty.  Hall and Oates.  Coffee and bourbon.  Rich results and structured data.  All four: iconic duos. But only one can generate over $80k in revenue once added to your website.  On May 17, 2016, Google introduced the concept of “rich cards.” Google has revived rich cards into what SEO professionals call rich results today. Rich results were created to make a more engaging experience on Google’s search result pages.  The result of rich results is a crowd-pleasing SEO tactic that produces an average of 58 clicks per 100 queries . Rich results are a dry and smooth SEO move, with flavors of structured data sprinkled with schema markup alongside sweeter code of JSON-LD.  In the words of the 2022 Women in Tech SEO mentor, Anne Berlin : “For my money, I’d recommend implementing your rich result strategy from the get-go with as much detail as possible to extend the window of time before a change in policy forces you to make an overhaul to return your site to eligibili

You hired your content marketing agency in good faith.  You had every hope they would soon start producing fantastic content for your brand or your clients’ brands. That content would help build awareness around the brand, pull in more traffic, and generate more leads. But your hope started to fizzle as months passed with little to no changes in awareness, traffic, search engine rankings, or conversions. What gives? Is it time to fire your content marketing agency and move on? Hold up. Not so fast. It might be time to say goodbye. But you might also need to take a step back and pause before you leap. (Content does take longer to work than traditional or paid marketing methods – but it’s also more sustainable.) Here’s exactly what to weigh and consider. When is the right time to fire your content marketing agency? 1. You’re not seeing results in the expected time frame Content marketing does not and will not work in a week – unless you have exceptionally rare or specific circ

Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller – in a rare case of annoyance – said that any SEO advice mentioning “link juice” is not to be trusted. Is it or not? I wondered about the context and doubted whether it was true. There are different opinions .  After Barry Schwartz shared the news on LinkedIn, a lively debate ensued. Even Moz and SparkToro founder Rand Fishkin chimed in on the comments saying, “Maybe link juice is real after all. Maybe y’all should write more about it!” On link juice and bad SEO advice When he dismissed link juice, Mueller was answering a question about outgoing links. He essentially ignored the original question and solely responded to the undesirable “link juice” mention.  While Mueller is usually neutral in his tone this time he came close to a rant on Twitter:  “Anything that talks about ‘link juice’ should be ignored.” This is nothing new. He’s just reiterating what he expressed in the past more than once. Here’s a similar quote from his Twitter acc

Google has just started testing a new rewarded ad beta program for publishers to serve their players long-form, playable ads. How it works. As described by WebmasterWorld.com, “The Rewarded Ad Gate beta program will give you an opportunity to monetize your most engaged users. If a user frequently visits your site, you’ll have a way to collect additional ad revenue.” 1. The Rewarded Ad Gate will be displayed to a visitor on their fifth-page view of each month. 2. If the visitor chooses to view a short ad, a video or image ad will play for 30 seconds or less. 3. A “Thank you” message will appear after the ad is complete and the visitor will gain access to your site. 4. If the user chooses not to view a short ad, they won’t be able to access the site until their page views reset the following month or they choose to view the ad. Dig deeper. There is no info from Google on the new test, but you can read the post from WebmasterWorld.com here . Why we care. If you’re a publisher,

Even in boom times, marketing budgets are divided among a range of teams, channels, and initiatives. Going into 2023, with a shaky economy likely to cap many budgets and headcounts far below optimal levels, it will be especially important for marketers to articulate a compelling case for why their area of expertise should get a fair share of resources. In other words: forecasting how X resources will achieve Y growth is going to be vital. Because of this, I frequently get the following questions from clients (and prospective clients): “How much traffic will we get from SEO and how long will it take?” “What can SEO do for our revenue?” “What kind of lift are we going to see from this work?” The beauty and unique challenge of SEO is its blend of art and science . Unlike paid performance channels, where you have CPC and CPM benchmarks that tell you how many clicks and impressions you’ll get for a specific amount of spend, SEO doesn’t have a clear, quantifiable path to cause/ef

In an ideal world, guarding your most valuable asset, your brand, would be effortless. But take off those rose-tinted glasses, and you wake up to the reality that competitors are posing threats to your brand in search every day of the week. You’ve risen to the top of the search rankings. Hurray! But realize your trademarks and brand equity aren’t protected in search. Booo! Thus, competitors can steal valuable clicks from you, diminish your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and threaten future budgets. Does this sound familiar? Are you finding it hard to fend off brand infringements? You are not alone. Many companies find it increasingly difficult to fend off rivals using their branded terms, trademarks and ad copy in search. For example, software company Sage had over 89,000 infringements from one single partner in one year. The repercussions were more than undesirable, as they inflated CPCs and impressions and damaged the brand. The results tend to be synonymous among all industries.

Facebook and Instagram parent Meta has just rolled out new privacy updates for everyone under the age of 16, or 18 in some countries. New privacy defaults. Starting today, teens will default to more private settings when they join Facebook. For teens already on the platform, Meta recommends making these changes manually. The new privacy settings affect: Who can see their friends list Who can see the people, Pages and lists they follow  Who can see posts they’re tagged in on their profile Reviewing posts they’re tagged in before the post appears on their profile Who is allowed to comment on their public posts Restricting connections. Meta is testing ways to protect teens from messaging suspicious adults they aren’t connected to, and those adults won’t be shown in teens’ People You May Know recommendations. Meta further clarifies that a “suspicious” account is one that belongs to an adult that may have recently been blocked or reported by a young person, for example. As an a