Client Update – Sept 2021 | Tribal Core

We're really excited to be beta testing a new service for our clients we call Podcast Research.

As we've shared, we're constantly looking for ways to improve our service and better move the needle. One of the most difficult online marketing initiatives is building backlinks from other sites, which grow authority and help your content rank better over time.

Enter Podcast Research. We’ll identify a number of active, popular podcasts in your industry, including contact info, a key episode to reference, email script and more. We package it up so you can send out five quick emails.

Podcast appearances accomplish two goals: (1) it demonstrates your thought leadership to a highly relevant, self-selecting audience and (2) includes a backlink to your site on the episode page. This boosts your domain authority, resulting in better search rankings over time.

Look for your Podcast Research document delivered in the first half of September!

We run SEO Campaigns for clients on our higher tiers. This is the process of procuring "backlinks" from high-quality, trafficked blogs back to our client's website. The idea here is to increase both domain authority and page authority while maintaining a "natural link profile."

It pairs well with creating good content for your website, including long-form content of 1,500 words or more. The backlinks to your content help that content rank increasingly well for it's target keywords. Google "self storage seo" for example, and you'll see us ranking #1. This is due to a combination of (1) creating great, useful content, (2) keeping that content fresh by updating every couple months and (3) developing backlinks to that content.

Following is organic traffic for one of our clients in the Professional Services vertical. This approach is paying off with 165% more traffic and 200% more leads since March.

Candidly, this is a very time-consuming, low-margin process that requires expertise and resources. And it requires patience, as it takes time for this backlink development to build up the authority to make your site and target posts more competitive. If you'd like to learn more about running SEO Campaigns for your site, schedule some time with Tyler.

By now, you've received your Core Web Vitals report, which outlines performance and next steps for three user experience metrics that Google has incorporated into the algorithm. This is the biggest Google algorithm update we've seen since the mobile-friendly update over six years ago.

Across the web, it appears that 87% of websites are failing one or more of the Core Web Vitals metrics. Anecdotally, we're seeing our clients fall into one of three pretty evenly-sized buckets - modest traffic improvement, modest traffic decline or no change. This tracks quite closely with how well a site is performing in the Core Web Vitals test.

Most recommended Core Web Vitals adjustments will need to be made by a developer. In some cases, you'll just need faster web hosting. We've outlined possible problems and solutions in your report, and we're available for additional questions, anytime. You can schedule time with Tyler here. We're in this with you!

From June to August, Google is rolling out an update that will include new quality signals that are intended to help site owners provide their visitors a better user experience.

We've put together a Core Web Vitals Explainer PDF (opens in new window).

You'll receive a report from us in June on how your website measures up. We'll outline some next steps and who can help improve your scores, be it us, your web developer, hosting provider or someone on your content team.

This is a big update - we've got you covered!

New Changes are coming to Google Ads. In the beginning of February, Google announced they are phasing out broad match modifier keywords and changing how phrase match keywords work.

How will phrase match keywords change?

Currently, the phrase match keyword, "moving service nyc to boston" would allow ads to show up if the searcher added to the beginning or the end of the phrase. For example, if the searcher typed 'looking for moving service nyc to boston' or 'moving service nyc to boston cheap' would trigger an ad. However, if the searcher typed 'moving service nyc new york to boston' it would not trigger an ad.

With the new change, someone searching 'moving service nyc new york to boston' will now trigger ads. Here is a graphic from Google displaying these new changes:

Moving forward what does this mean for you?

Current broad match modifier keywords will be "grand fathered in" and will be treated as a phrase match keywords.

We will monitor this change closely to ensure all campaigns continue to run smoothly.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us!

We're always looking for opportunities to improve how we serve our valued clients. The latest improvement is a Dashboard upgrade.

Our clients have come to love and rely on the executive-level view we build. We wanted to improve the insight into Google Ads on this latest upgrade. Most of you will see a new page 4 & 5 in your Dashboard (this may vary if another vendor is running Google Ads for you or if we are simultaneously managing a Google Grant account).

You can always find a link to your Dashboard in your Client Portal. Note you can page through your Dashboard in the upper-left, and there's a Date Range tool you can adjust in the upper-right.

Hope you like it and find it useful! Get in touch with any questions or requests - we're here to serve.

Design for clients is such a particular niche and not easy to execute well. I still carry battle scars from designing websites in the late '90's and early aughts. With everyone on different monitors and clients requesting design changes particular to their view, it was quite challenging to delight clients. I once had a client ask if a site could be "more lilac" and my recollection was that was the last straw.

Fast forward a decade and a half, and a lot has changed, from responsive website design to defined color palettes derived from a client's Brand Profile. So we've begun putting a toe in the water, and as a result, we are pleased to announce a beta test of two new Design Services.

First, we are offering a Display Ads Set, with 8 images of different sizes, based on our client's choice of design directions. These ads are production-ready for Google Display Ads and Remarketing Ads, to extend your audience reach and better engage those who are already familiar with your brand.

Second, we are offering a Blog Post Amplifier. This suite of 8 images is designed to promote a single high-quality blog post. It includes a Blog Post Header Image and two Sub-Headers both with text overlay. There is also a square Pull Quote image, and four more images formatted for social media promotion of that blog post.

Thank you for the trust and confidence you've placed in us!