Google Ads Keyword Planner has been updated with the ability to process up to 10 seed keywords when searching for new ideas.

That’s one of several new features in the latest update, which is designed to address common user requests.

Entering more seed keywords per search should allow users to discover a greater number of keyword opportunities.

More seed keywords may even result in more relevant keyword ideas as well.

Other New Features in Keyword Planner

The next time you log in to Keyword Planner you’ll be greeted with an alert notifying you of several new features.

As someone who regularly uses this tool for keyword research, I think one of the most useful new features will end up being the monthly keyword trends reports.

You can now see trends for individual keyword ideas by hovering over the chart in the ideas table.

Previously, it was not as easy to view historical keyword data while searching for new keyword ideas.

I reached out for feedback from other SEOs who have had an opportunity to use the new features to see what they like so far.

Amy Bishop responded with thoughts on a few different aspects of the update.

On the 10 seed keywords:

“Firstly, I’m glad we can add more seeds – I would still prefer the ability to add more than 10 but it is an improvement.”

On grouped ideas:

“The grouped ideas are reminiscent of the keyword planner a few versions back, which is useful for quickly weeding out any groups that are clearly irrelevant and zeroing in on the most relevant themes.”

On adding to existing campaigns:

“Last but not least, one of my favorite features is the ability to add keywords directly into existing campaigns and ad groups from the dropdown, which allows advertisers to research and add new keywords quickly and easily.”

There’s a lot to dig into with this update, and the feedback is all pretty positive so far.

DuckDuckGo has introduced enhanced search results for weather-related queries.

The new weather format in DuckDuckGo provides more detailed information and clearer images. Weather answers are still powered by Dark Sky.

Results for weather searches are also interactive, showing hourly data by clicking on each day of the week, and instant toggling of Fahrenheit and Celsius.

Here is a before and after comparison:

In true DuckDuckGo fashion, the company also emphasizes the privacy benefits it offers compared to other search engines.

“In other words, even something as commonplace as wanting to know if it’ll rain tomorrow risks leaking personal data on your phone to third parties, such as where you are at any time of the day or night… It’s therefore not surprising that people want a reliable alternative that respects your right to privacy.”

DuckDuckGo handles weather searches for each individual user by inferring an approximate location from the information automatically sent by the browser.

Information about a user’s approximate search location is immediately discarded without being stored.

Google is expanding hotel search results to include a greater number of vacation rental properties.

Using Google’s mobile search results, users can see and book vacation rentals from the following travel partners:

• Expedia
• HomeAway
• Hotels.com
• NextPax
• RedAwning
• Rentals United
• TripAdvisor
• VRBO
• and more

“In the hotel search experience, you can surface vacation rental properties—be it a cabin in Lake Tahoe or a beach house in Sydney—by applying the vacation rentals filter or clicking on the vacation rentals tip.”

Search results can be filtered by price and amenities. Just like searching for hotels, users can browse photos of rental properties and read reviews.

After selecting a check-in and check-out date, users can click “Book” to complete the reservation on the travel partner’s website.

This feature is currently only available on mobile but will be brought to desktop search next month.

This ain’t 2005.

This ain’t “everyone should be blogging.”

This ain’t “but blogging is free!”

Overall, the content space is still pretty immature. Not as professional or organized or cut-throat competitive as SEO or Google Ads.

But that doesn’t mean it’s getting any easier, either. ‘Cause it ain’t.

In fact, it’s rapidly doing the opposite, getting harder and harder and harder every single passing year.

So much so, that it almost doesn’t make sense to even bother with content marketing unless you can be the best of the best. Here’s why.

How the ‘Rich Get Richer’ on Google

More people scroll today than ever before.

That should, in theory, mean around-the-fold ranking positions should get more clicks. SERP CTRs should be distributed more evenly.

Except, that’s still not really the case.

The first five positions still get pretty much all of the action – as much as 90 percent according to some studies. That leaves a paltry ~5 percent or less for everyone else outside the top five.

Mobile, unfortunately, is even worse. SparkToro’s research shows that paid CTR has actually grown while organic’s has continued to decline.

Buckle up, because the future’s about to become a lot bleaker.

Just a few years ago, BuzzSumo partnered with Moz to perform a study that found “75 percent of blog posts receive fewer than 10 shares and zero links.” There are a few reasons for this, including two big ones:

In other words, as competition and quantity grow, your odds of sticking out become less and less.

Except, the quality bar is also rising substantially, too.

Pick any top of the funnel marketing topic to instantly see this in play. Take “international SEO.”

• The volume is low and not growing,
• While the competitiveness is off the charts, with an average DA of around ~80+.

Question: Should you try to write a long-tail blog post about “international SEO”?

Answer: Hell no! Not based on this at least.

Because you’re not just competing against the competition anymore, but also Google themselves.

They’re actively ripping you off ‘borrowing’ your content to provide Instant Answers for queries with the Knowledge Graph.

These instant results are so effective…

“How effective are they?”

… they’re so effective, that 40 percent of searches end without a single click according to one study. Zero-Result SERPs are actually becoming a thing.

None of this suggests SEO or content is becoming less important. The opposite is true in fact.

The problem is that the stakes today are different. So the way you go about it needs to be different, too.

Stop pumping out a bunch of mediocre content like it’s 2005, and start doing this instead.

Quality Over Quantity: Why Doing Less (But Making It Better) Is a Better Predictor of Success Today

Last year, we ran a case study on content quality.

We purchased five articles on the same topic from five different content creation platforms.

Beyond just length, we analyzed them based on ranking factors and best practices, like a proper heading hierarchy, internal and external links, visuals, basic grammar, and plagiarism.

Then, we asked over a dozen industry experts to weigh in on whether they would publish each article or not. Each expert runs one of the most successful sites in their space, known primarily for their content quality.

Let’s just say the results weren’t pretty.

❌ Three out of five services copied (borderline plagiarized) points from the content already ranking for that query.

❌ Three out of five services also lacked any internal or external links. None include images.

❌ Of the 12 experts, only one said they’d consider publishing one of the articles (and that was only after some changes).

The average price for all of the articles was around $100/each.

And that’s exactly part of the problem. Because ‘good’ content isn’t ‘good enough’ today when you compare it to the trends playing out on today’s SERPs.

Orbit Media’s annual blogging survey proves this point. There’s a gulf between what (a) most bloggers do and (b) what the most successful bloggers do.

✅ One spends three hours writing an article, while the other spends over six.

✅ One relies solely on their own experience, while the other collaborates with influencers.

✅ One writes a few hundred words, while the other routinely writes a few thousand.

The biggest takeaway is that one is half-assing it, while the other is killing it.

In my interview with Andy Crestodina, the founder of Orbit Media and brains behind that study, he confirmed that the reason some people see more content success is that they’re simply investing twice the resources into fewer pieces of content.

“It’s basically one in five bloggers do six or seven things that lead to much better results than the rest of content marketers,” said Andy. “And the difference is big. It’s a big difference.”

That’s why he spent over 150 hours on that single survey. That’s why he only produces around two new articles a week. And that’s why he can justify doubling down on each piece of content because the results and ROI will be substantially greater.

“What is not obvious until you’ve been doing it for a little while is that effort is linear, but results are exponential. So working twice as hard on something sounds crazy. But, actually, if you get four times the results by working twice as hard, it is efficient. You know, working ten times as hard on something? Why would I do that? Because marketers that put in 10x effort get like 100x the results.”

Bring this back to the beginning. The first five spots in Google get ~90 percent of the interactions.

Over time, that means the compounding results of those in the first three positions aren’t just seeing ~20 percent more clicks than the site in the tenth position, but 200-2,000 percent more.

Conclusion

If you have the resources to do 10 articles a day, every day of the week, that are at least a seven out of 10 in quality (à la HubSpot), go for it.

But most don’t. Few do. Most can’t afford to invest that much and wait that long for the flywheel to take off, breakeven, and produce a profit.

Fortunately, there’s another approach that’s a safer bet.

Focus on fewer content pieces, but make each at least a nine out of 10.

Invest 50 percent more time and money than you normally would into each piece, including expert quotes, custom graphics, better writing, and more. Then, come back to these pieces over time and continually update them.

Because the competition is rising, getting better and smarter. While Google is increasingly stealing repurposing clicks from organic rankings conveniently to their own money-making properties.

Position 5 today might as well be position 50. There is virtually no difference in the results you’ll see.

So if you can’t be number one, don’t bother. Pick another search query, topic, sub-niche, or content type to target.

And become the best at it.

More Resources:

Image Credits

Featured Image: Pixabay.com
Screenshots taken by author, March 2019

Most of us already know that voice search is a “thing” and it continues to grow in popularity and importance.

Voice search is here to stay.

The growth of voice search in 2019 continues, even as traditional desktop an mobile searches remain strong.

However, traditional search is starting to have to share a piece of the pie as an increasing number of voice search options are gaining a strong presence.

Based on some research, there is more than enough evidence to show that this type of search will continue to grow and become more prominent over the years to come.

Marketers will need to become more prepared to adjust their digital strategies around this. A few stats:

• 50 percent of all searches will be voice searches by 2020.
• 57 percent of smart home speaker owners have made a purchase using their device.
• 24 percent of smart home speaker owners use their device nearly every day, while 29 percent use it several times a day.

However, although we know voice search queries are growing by the number and in importance, the caveat is there is no solidified way for marketers to track analytics around voice search, yet.

Voice search is really just a keyword, fired through a different medium. But there are no robust reporting platforms out there covering it.

For now, the closest workarounds when it comes to determining if a user came to a site via voice search is taking a gander into Google Search Console to see which queries seem more long-tail and conversational, ones in which a person would most likely be speaking, instead of typing.

However, this is still really just a guessing game. Google Search Console sometimes filters out exceptionally long queries that would be more likely to come from someone speaking to a voice assistant partially because they are not used as often as other search terms.

Thus, this does not provide a good overall insight into all voice search queries.

This means that marketers cannot heavily rely on any tool for solidified guidance to crafting data-backed digital voice search strategies.

This is not ideal given the drastic rise in voice search.

Having more concrete data around voice search is imperative, and it’s necessary now for many reasons. Here are four of them.

1. Voice Search Analytics Can Be a Data Gold Mine for User Intent

As voice search continues to grow, it will become more urgent to fully understand user intent. This is to provide the best possible search results for users, all based on key phrases and long-tail keywords.

There is an inherent way that people search differently between voice and text.

As digital marketers, we need to understand this difference (and the analytics behind the frequency of various types of searches) to create the best possible experiences for users.

Research collected from voice search assistants, such as Microsoft’s Cortana, have demonstrated that search term length for text-based phrases is usually quite short, averaging about 2 words.

One of the most significant differences seen in text and voice search is in differences in “computer language” and conversational speak.

Typed searches often include phrases like “New York Travel Deals”, whereas voice searches conversational questions such as “what are the best travel deals for New York in the summer?”

The detail that is often included in conversational queries is crucial for marketers, as this can help provide more insight into the intent of the user.

2. Voice Search Analytics Can Provide Guidance for Local SEO Strategies

Data collected from voice search is particularly important for local businesses. BrightLocal recently conducted a study with some pretty strong figures to prove why:

• 58 percent of consumers have used voice search to find local business information within the last year.
• 46 percent of voice search users look for a local business daily.
• 27 percent visit the website of a local business after conducting a voice search.
• 76 percent of smart home speaker users conduct local searches at least once a week – with 53 percent performing daily searches.

This data helps to show that voice search is oftentimes hyper-local. There is a large number of users that use voice assistants to ask for directions or for businesses near their location.

These searches often involve searches asking for information such as hours, services, directions, etc.

Having insights and data into which hyper-local queries users are using voice search the most often for can provide crucial intel into local search optimization strategies to pursue or to grow.

Marketers can build out localized strategies that have high conversion potential by:

• Looking at voice results for “near me” searches.
• Assessing how competitors are performing for similar terms in which the query has a high intent and is further down the search funnel can help

3. Voice Search Analytics Can Help Map Out Content Strategies

Having insights into what users are searching via voice is critical, as well as what Google is returning for those results as well.

Google frequently features “position 0” results for voice search queries.

HubSpot conducted a study of high-volume keywords showing that ranking #0 produced a 114 percent boost in click-through rate (CTR).

Having analytics behind what these queries are and what types of featured results are returned will help marketers adjust their strategies and optimizations around which on-site content to prioritize for voice results.

4. Voice Search Analytics Helps Paint A More Complete Picture of Attribution

Today’s world is a multi-device media environment. No longer are the times of singular session, singular device conversion paths.

The way people search has changed drastically over the years, and we need to be able to measure it.

Having voice search analytics can help marketers understand a person’s full path-to-purchase across device types.

It also allows marketers to have a better understanding of how much and what types of conversions can be attributed to voice search queries.

Summary

Voice search analytics will be a game changer when it comes to guiding digital marketing strategies.

Tools that can provide actual data behind voice search, its uses and the patterns of user behavior associated with voice search can serve as an informational, strategic goldmine for marketers.

Having these more solidified insights into how users are utilizing voice search and what they are using it for the most will help provide marketers with the intel that they need to create better content and experiences.

More Resources:

Image Credits

In-Post Image: Pexels.com