Case Studies Archives - SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines

The Changing Landscape of Google: Shrinking Organic Listings and Its Impact on SEO

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 01:16:01 +0000

Seeing rankings go from NOT IN TOP 100 to the first page of Google is what we live for as SEO specialists. Thank you rank tracking software!

But a few days go by and you noticed that your website’s organic traffic is still low and it got you thinking – “my website is ranking on the first page of Google but, why am I not gaining any clicks and visitors to my website?”

Only to find out that your website is not even on the first page!

WHAT?! (As we all know, no one checks the second page of search results) This is because some search queries on Google will result in showing only 9 or even worse, only 7 search results.

Wait, you didn’t know that?

Yes, this has been happening since April 2012 and you may not be aware of this up to today. Because in the past, it wouldn’t happen so often but now search results pages are using this as the staple. 7 – 9 results are far more common today than ever before.

Google Search Results: Shrinking Number of SERPs

If you try searching on Google right now, there is a good percentage of results pages that only show 7 to 9 results on the first page instead of the usual 10. This has been first noticed by Dr. Pete in April 2012 which he wrote on his SEOmoz blog

Here’s the graph from the first time he noticed it:

This just shows the rise of first-page search results that show less than 10 listings. From 2% it drastically increased to 18% within two days.

Another follow-up study was done by Larry Kim, in support of what Dr. Pete discovered. Based on his investigation, he noticed that:

100% of the organic search results that contained sitelinks also had other SERPs features with 7 or fewer organic listings.
100% of the organic search results that did not contain sitelinks had the usual 10 organic listings.

But the data you’re showing is from 10 years ago, is it relevant until now?

YES!

As Google never looked back and instead implemented it into more of its search results.

‘7 is the New 10!’

Gone are the days when you will see precisely 10 search results on the first page of every Google search result. This has been the case for a lot of search queries for branded keywords ever since that change in April 2012.

And now there’s a new trend on Google’s search results, this is where it only shows 9, 8, and worst 7 links even for non-branded, generic keywords!

A thing I noticed is that in many search engine results pages (SERPs) nowadays is a rising amount of SERPs Features on every search query. And this has impacted every organic result as most of these SERPs Features have taken over and knocked down some of the coveted organic ‘blue links’ down to the second page.

Another thing that changed the world of ‘search’ is that it functions more like a ‘search feed’ rather than a ‘search listing’. As these two things may sound the same but they are not. A ‘feed’ is more like the idea of social networking platforms, where the content shown is intended to keep users scrolling with endless results. Wherein the concept of a ‘list’ before is specific and straightforward Top 10 results and that’s it.

This certainly indicates how the digital world has evolved, at which point users are conditioned to scroll endlessly. The domination of social networking platforms in user engagement and retention has made search engines adapt to it. At the end of the day, both search and these social networking platforms are advertising-based industries that earn through ad impressions.

‘Finding 10’ – Nowhere to be found!

Try searching on Google on a desktop device right now, and I bet you that most of your search results will show fewer than 10.

Here are a few examples you can try searching:

Advertising: 9 results
Glamorous Camping: 8 results
Food Delivery Manila: 7 results
Kid-friendly Places in Makati: 9 results

Those are just some of the results I got while testing multiple queries on a desktop in incognito and normal mode of Chrome. As you can see I tried to search using short-head terms and longtail terms, and most of the results do not show the 10th listing in the SERPs.

But also keep in mind that these SERP results and layout may differ in every country so the number of snippets on the first page can change.

Organic Results V.S. SERP Features

As I got curious about SERP Features (events, top stories, and knowledge panels) and how it affects Google search results, I tried to look for other people’s analysis regarding this. I found a very interesting case study done by Kevin Indig, an SEO practitioner.

And the image below is the data Kevin gathered with his investigation into knowing the relationship between organic results and SERP Features.

Note: “1” means the SERP Feature appeared above the first organic results; “5” means it appeared before the fifth organic results, etc

The data above also supports the assumption that SERP Features do affect the number of organic listings in Google search results – the more SERP Features appear leads to less number of organic results.

More data and research is needed to fully establish the relationship between organic results and SERP Features. But the research above shows a pattern in its results and this could help jumpstart a full thesis on this topic.

How does this affect SEO?

These changes will profoundly affect SEO. As it is already visible and taking effect on Google search results – however, we do not have enough data regarding the shift of search engines from showing the classic ‘lists’ to user engagement and retention-focused ‘feeds.’

So this is very alarming, especially for SEO companies and practitioners that rely on software in tracking the rankings of their clients. Rank-tracking software does not necessarily display if your website is on the first or later pages of results – so checking directly will be the only logical solution.

One of our partners, SEranking, is working on a solution to show TRUE first-page rankings as we write this blog. You might want to check them out!

Yes, we are still looking at this from an outsider’s view through a blurry lens. But some things became clear:

Go for at least 7, not 10!

– Being in the Top 10 means a lot less now compared to a decade ago! You should be targeting to be at least in the Top 7 to make your website relevant. Because even the bottom 3-5 results do not matter anymore if a more eminent SERP Feature hovers above them.
Organic Real Estate is Shrinking!

– Google adding a handful of SERP Features takes up the supposed spots for organic listings in the search results. This lowers the opportunities for you to increase the organic traffic of your website.
‘Search Feed’ over ‘Search Lists’

– Search results are much more crowded! The diversity of search results is shrinking. As Google is prioritizing some of its SERPs spots for different types of sites such as affiliates, brands, and marketplaces. But we cannot blame Google for this, as those links generate profit for them – after all, Google is still a business. And all businesses need to grow their revenues year on year.

Key Takeaway

From 10 to 9 to 8 to 7 results, this goes to show how much search results pages have changed over the years. As SEO practitioners we should adapt to this, from strategizing to getting into that ‘list’ to embracing the new format of endless ‘feed’.

We have all known since day one that SEO is ever-changing, but for a long time, we believed that getting into the Top 10 would deliver at least some traffic. And I say that thinking is now outdated, that is why you need to have a very capable and competitive SEO service provider that won’t just help you reach the top but will make sure to maintain your position.

What do you think about the shrinking organic results page? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

The post The Changing Landscape of Google: Shrinking Organic Listings and Its Impact on SEO appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

State of SEO 2022: A Guide to SEO in the Philippines

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 11:13:21 +0000

Going digital is inevitable. Businesses that used to be purely brick-and-mortar are now migrating online and payments are moving from purely cash to digital. This is expected as the pandemic has pushed customers to utilize online shopping more than ever due to health and safety concerns and convenience. To dominate this landscape, you need to understand the state of SEO 2022.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), there is a “…strong uptake of e-commerce across regions, with consumers in emerging economies making the greatest shift to online shopping.” For example, their report shows that China’s e-commerce rose from 19.4%to 24.6% between August 2019 and 2020, and shopping apps in Thailand had a jump of 60% in downloads in March 2020.

However, even as the UN General Assembly President Volkan Bokzir said that “…the trend towards e-commerce is likely to continue throughout the recovery from COVID-19,” some countries are still coping with the change as barriers to effective e-commerce are still present.

Now the question is, will it be wise for you and your business to shift to e-commerce? In this article on the state of SEO 2022, you will see the search landscape the Philippines has, the performance of possible SEO agency partners, and the digital trends you should be preparing for.

Search and e-commerce landscape in the Philippines

According to DataReportal, 67% of Filipinos were internet users by January last year, with an increase of 6.1% between 2020 and 2021. Statista has projected that by 2022, there will be approximately 84.75 million Filipinos who are internet users.

Most of our time is also spent on Google and Facebook, with the Philippines clocking 750 million total visits on Google and 258 million total visits on Facebook. It makes sense then that stores have created social media accounts to further promote their businesses.

Another study published by Statista last December has shown that the Filipino consumers have accessed e-commerce websites for their products or services which undoubtedly contributed to the 3.55 billion US dollars in e-commerce revenue in the country.

These figures show that digital migration of businesses and creation of online businesses are in the position to flourish this coming year. In fact, even the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez predicted that by 2022, registered online businesses are expected to reach one million.

When it comes to websites, there are 32,117 Philippine websites according to Woorank.* However, not all of these are from MSMEs or large corporations.

*When our report was published, there were 32,073 websites. That means between the publishing of the report and of this article, 44 new websites have been created.

Why we recommend that a business serious in digital migration create a website

There are a couple of reasons why any business looking to dominate the search landscape should have their own website.

Credibility

By having a website, you get to show your leads and customers that you have the information they need. You get to set up a blog and provide answers to their questions, you get to set yourself apart from other business in the same niche as yours (especially if they don’t have a website or they have one that is poorly done), and you get to control the information about your business that is shown to your customers.

Digital marketing

Your website also gives you more options when it comes to digital marketing. First is you get to utilize SEO to show up on the first page of the SERPs. Any customer that is looking for a product or service in your niche will find your website and get to know you and what you offer.

You can also build an email list through your website, utilize retargeting marketing, get cited by people promoting or discussing your offerings, and many more.

Brand

Since you get to put the necessary information about your business and your products or services in your website, you get to control the UX, and you also get to put client testimonials in your website, then that means you get to build your brand.

When your customers look up your products or services on the search engines, they will know that you’re trustworthy (go back to our first point, credibility) because they see who you are, the work you’ve done, and what you stand for. Compare that to just having your products on Shopee or Lazada, where people are also less likely to take a chance on you especially if your products are premium because they are (understandably) scared to purchase from a business they have no complete information on.

Leads

When people search for a question that is related to your niche and they find an answer because you’ve written something about it, then they become more interested in what you have to offer. This also goes for those who found your website because they were looking for products in your niche. They can head on to the Contact page of your website and become your leads, or the people you can send emails to or market your products and services to even more.

State of SEO 2022 in the Philippines

In this section, I want to discuss the state of SEO 2022 in the country. That means discussing pricing and the performance of different SEO agencies in the country.

Why does the state of SEO matter when we’re talking about digitalization? As mentioned earlier, it is highly recommended that your digital migration involves the creation of a website. Thing is, not everyone knows how to create a website or how to make a good one.

Plus, when you migrate your business online or start a new online business and you create a website, you need to make sure it’s searchable. Simply put, your website is pointless if people can’t even find it.

Hence, it’s important for you and your business that you know SEO performance in this country. Because you will most likely be paying for that service.

SEO pricing

When it comes to pricing, there is no standardized cost. This is because different businesses have different needs. For example, here are our clients:

And here is our package for SEO:

As you can see, we have a range of $2,500-$5,500 instead of just offering either-or. This is because we recognize that even within the same package, our partners will lean towards the utilization of some services within that package more than others.

If a partner is starting from scratch, then it would get more expensive as we have to build their online presence for them from zero.

But that’s just us. The range of prices for SEO services in different agencies can range from $1,000 to a whopping $20,000. This is why some businesses opt to go for some agencies or individuals who offer cheaper SEO services that use black hat tactics. Unfortunately, what that means is that the business ends up getting penalties from search engines like Google.

Maybe you’re wondering why SEO is expensive. That’s because when we offer our services, we’re offering to put you on the map (especially if you’re a relatively new business), outrank your competitors online, and build your brand. We do those things with an entire team that takes care of your blog, link building efforts, guest posting, and of course—your website.

You can check out our SEO services package here.

Performance of top SEO agencies

Next, to make the best choice of who to partner with in your digital migration, you need to see the comparison of the performance of top SEO agencies in the country. These comparisons are done through Semrush and Ahrefs.

I consider these agencies to be the top agencies in the country because they are the ones that showed up on the first page of Google when I searched for “SEO Philippines.” A good indicator of an SEO agency’s performance is if they rank for their own keywords in the first place.

That said, this is Semrush:

Our domain authority score is higher than our competitors, meaning our site is the most trustworthy out of the agencies. We also have the most organic keywords and referring domains. Referring domains are the external websites that link back to our website (think of it as word-of-mouth; we have about 4.88K people citing our website).

Compare that to the competitor right below us. They have a massive amount of backlinks, but they only come from the same 614 domains.

Here is our organic traffic comparison. Organic traffic refers to the users who found our website from unpaid sources such as search engines.

As you can see, our organic traffic can only really be slightly comparable to one other competitor. We are actively working on improving our traffic which took a hit around June, most likely due to employee hiring and promotion.

Now, for Ahrefs. Here is our referring domains graph:

As you can see, we have the most referring domains out of the top SEO agencies in the Philippines.

And lastly, here is our profile from the same tool:

Our domain rating here is 75—which is really high—and you can see we are pretty consistently topping our competitors.

Last but not the least, here we are on the SERPs:

And that is how I can confidently say that what we do works.

Digital trends to prepare for

Lastly, there are three digital trends that we at SEO Hacker believe should be the focus of any business.

Google MUM Rollout

I have already written twice about Google MUM, and that’s because I sincerely believe that any business that has a website should be preparing for the rollout. Google will start to become a lot more visual and their level of user comprehension will get even deeper than how it is today.

For SEO Hacker and our partners, we prepare for the rollout by focusing on semantic search and segmentation, and ensuring that our images always have alt texts. The point is to ensure that we get outside of our own shoes and think and behave the way our users do so that we can give them what they really need, not what we think they need.

Voice Search

Next, voice shopping is anticipated to be a $40 billion channel by 2022. I don’t suggest pouring all your resources on voice search, but I do recommend optimizing for semantic search and for ensuring that your website is always mobile-friendly.

After all, the rise of voice search tells us that more and more people are searching and shopping using mobile.

Going Digital

Lastly, businesses need a digital marketing strategy. But first you have to actually take the leap and migrate your business online. If you don’t have a digital strategy this 2022, you will have difficulty keeping your business afloat.

For one, Google won’t be going away. As I wrote in the search landscape section, search in the Philippines alone clocks about 750 million total visits on Google. So when your target audience is looking for answers, it would be in your best interest to ensure that you’re there providing them answers.

And of course, since going digital is inevitable, then SEO is inevitable.

Key takeaway

As businesses migrate online this year, competing in the search landscape is predictably about to get more challenging. To ensure that you make the best decisions for your business then, you need to be as informed as you can be so you can create a good digital strategy and have a smart transition online.

That said, one of the most important things you can do is to find a top agency to partner up with so you can dominate the search landscape and build the kind of presence you want online. If you want to know more about the work we’ve done for our partners and understand the state of SEO 2022 even better, download the complete State of SEO in the Philippines 2022 report by clicking the image below.

The post State of SEO 2022: A Guide to SEO in the Philippines appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Lessons Learned from Losing All our Rankings after a Bad Site Revamp

Thu, 26 May 2016 04:08:58 +0000

“We’re doing a revamp of the website, Sean.”

That’s what my client said late last year before the disaster.

“We need a new look. We need to make our site mobile responsive…”

Totally agree with my client on that end. So I advised them on just one thing.

“Make sure you make the URLs the same for our important pages and landing pages.”

That’s all I asked.

Then January came. The site was launched – and while there was huge celebration happening on the other side of the world (because this was an global company), my brain was having a heart attack.

The URLs were all changed.

[bq2]Summary: Two-word, fat-head keywords in the first page, first place. We were on top of the world. Then our client went through a site revamp with a third party developer and everything went to hell. Here’s how we recovered and the lessons we’ve learned along the way.[bqc]

A few weeks later, our keywords slipped from Rank 1 (yes, we were able to rank our keywords in the first place for extremely competitive two-word keywords) to Not in Top 100.

This client has been with us for three awesome years and the contract renewal period was nearing. However, when all of our keywords slipped off to Not in Top 100, all my hopes of renewing the contract (worth over $30,000) flew out the window.

We were screwed.

Was a Revamp Needed?

Short answer: Yes. A site revamp was necessary for the client’s site. It was out of trend in terms of design, had problems responding for mobile and tablet screens and generally felt clunky.

However, the revamp was rushed by upper management. They only had 2 months for the revamp before a hard launch date. For a big, corporate company, a move like that was like pulling an angry grizzly bear out of a rabbit hole.

They knew there were consequences in terms of usability and searchability – they just didn’t understand how bad those consequences would be.

I sent them an irritating number of emails about it (thank God they weren’t that irritated). However most of them were left unanswered.

I can’t really blame my client because the 2-month deadline was really a steep climb. I imagine that they lacked lots of sleep during the time and charged forward with blood-shot eyes without really thinking about anything else than launching the site on the hard deadline.

All the advice I gave was put on the sidelines until sadly, it was too late.

What got Broke?

Here’s a summary of the things that went wrong:

The landing pages we were using to rank our keywords were not rebuilt
The URL structure was drastically changed by the third party developer
They compiled all their services (which were our keywords) in one page with little bits of content to show for
Because the URL structure was drastically changed, all the links we built to those URLs were lost
Internal links disappeared
Blog entries we wrote were not revived (approximately 384 posts)
Sitemap was completely destroyed
Images turned to ghost so we lost a lot of traffic from image search

Here’s an image that summarizes how our rankings dropped:

If it’s not so clear to you, let me put things in a simpler light:

Things looked good until…

It was a complete wreck.

What we did to Restore Rankings

I’ll try to keep this post short and concise by outlining what we did and where we are now after our recovery efforts.

1) We communicated extensively with the client and educated them about the importance of getting the old URLs back

Because we had their trust by working with them for over three years now, they listened intently and we agreed on the solution to recover their old URLs. They sent us a backup copy of the old site and we immediately got to work on reviving the old URLs.

At first, the landing pages for the old URLs were non-existent so we took to 301 redirects at .htaccess. What we did was redirect all the old URLs to the next best page in trying to signal to Google that “the links aren’t broken”.

Otherwise those links will rot. Link rot is not good. Plus it makes those links a target for broken linkbuilders.

2) We rebuilt the old landing pages

We took to work on getting the old landing page back. Ever heard the phrase “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” ? Well those landing pages were working perfectly fine before the disaster so we wanted them back the way they were before.

However with the new design up and running now, the design changed and that’s fine so long as the content is the same.

After the landing pages were brought back to life, we revised the .htaccess file and removed the 301 redirects because the URLs were now alive with their respective landing pages again.

3) We revived the blog

We wrote a whole lot of blog posts there to thicken the index and suck up organic links. The blog is one of the most important pieces of our work for three long years. Having the entire blog disappear is like chopping off my arms and legs – and then asking me to fly.

We haggled hard for the blog to be revived. At first the client wanted new stuff in the new site. I know the feeling of starting afresh but if you’re in an extremely tight competitive space like where my client was, the blog is definitely a non-negotiable.

The blog going alive meant getting our inbound broken links fixed. It meant that a lot of ghost images are now alive again. It meant that we have significantly more internal links.

It meant a lot of things.

It meant getting my limbs back – and even if I still can’t fly, it felt pretty damn good.

So Far so Good

We still haven’t recovered 100%. With the sample chart of 4 keywords I showed you earlier, you’ll notice that we have significantly recovered.

We’re really not ‘there’ yet. We haven’t regained our previous ranking spots but we’re mighty darn proud that we have been able to swing back. We’re now inching closer to our previous rankings and hopefully will be back on top in a few months time.

The best thing about all this?

Just yesterday we were given the good news.

Our contract is being renewed.

Lessons Learned

If your company can do the revamp for the client, do it. We lost the bid because our client did not appreciate our expertise in SEO that tied in to our web development processes. I should have communicated this better.
Google is willing to swing you back but will not give you your previous rankings after 4 months of AWOL. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to get our exact rankings back. That’s a lot of extra work for me and my team but we’re happy to be able to jump back after 4 months of disastrous SEO.
Retaining URL structure is extremely important. This isn’t a new lesson but I have been reminded by this – rather painfully so.
Take the extra mile to explain what happened to your clients and what it will take to get back on track. Clients have lots of things in mind and like us, you may be put on the sidelines for a while – until they feel the consequences of that. Communication is a huge way to keep your rankings straight.
Pray. Hard.

That’s it so far. I’m confident that we’ll be able to recover our exact rankings. It’s been a heck of a ride these past 4 months for me and the SEO Hacker team – but this event has been also a huge cause of celebration for us.

If you enjoyed this post, let me know in the comments section below.

The post Lessons Learned from Losing All our Rankings after a Bad Site Revamp appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Why Data Driven Entries Earn 100% More Links

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 18:46:23 +0000

Everybody loves data. That much we know. Take the Moz top 10 for example – they always make it a point to put at least around 2 data driven entries in their top 10 list every month. It’s actually what makes the Moz top 10 so interesting – there’s always that data driven case study to chew on. This entry is a study on how data driven entries perform as powerful linkbaits.

Let’s face it. There are numerous how-to’s and tutorials out there that it’s too difficult to keep track. With one quick search, you can have the top 10 menu of how-to’s right in Google’s search engine results page. It’s unlikely that all 10 of them will fail you in what you need to achieve.

Do we need another how-to? Do we need another tutorial?

Perhaps.

Will it get linked to?

Not likely.

Case Study vs How-to’s

Let’s take a look at two comparisons I did with two of Moz’s top 10 lists. One of them is a case study and the comparison is a how-to entry.

“Is Google Panda 4.0 the Topical Authority Content Update of 2014? – Uber Case Study” vs “Email List-Building From the Experts: How to Grow a Massive Email List”

And

“How Creating a Sense of Urgency Helped Me Increase Sales By 332%” vs “How to Scale Yourself and Get More Done Than You Thought Possible”

I took a look at their link over time chart and found it interesting to note that the case studies got at least 100% more links than the how-to entries. Now you may be arguing that these have a lot of different factors altogether such as their already established followers / readers, their other funnels of traffic, their reader types, and so on and so forth. However for this study’s purposes, let’s keep it simple: they all come from Moz top 10 and what we’re really trying to look at is how many links each entry got in the same amount of time.

Links Over Time

These data charts were taken and measured for the month of June, July and August:

Cognitive SEO’s case study got 269 backlinks in a month and plateaued a little over that.

While Buffer’s How-to only got 106 links.

ConversionXL’s entry got a whopping 1,567 links. The chart is mighty different as it spiked somewhere, plateaued and then maintained a slow decline. Still, you can’t beat 1,567 links in just the month of June.

While the comparison entry – Zapier’s how to scale yourself post – got only 481 links, did not plateau and then maintained a slow decline.

This is not to say that one entry was better than the other. Actually, all entries are well worth your time and attention. I especially loved Zapier’s entry but it got a lot less links than ConversionXL’s.

I think the big reason why data drive entries work so well is because people love to learn from other people’s mistakes, experiences… and data. Instead of directly reading how to do it, it’s much more interesting to see how it flew before even trying to do it.

Knowing my Traffic

I ran a Qeryz microsurvey here in SEO Hacker and got interesting responses about people’s preference of entries to check out here in our blog. Note that our readers are mostly new to advanced in the SEO world.

It’s a 3-part questionnaire and it goes like this:

Question 1

Question 2 Question 3

Not surprisingly, majority of the people who answered our microsurvey are Professional and Freelance SEO Specialists.

And these are the types of entries they prefer to read in our blog:

Yes people still look for tutorials and how-to’s and that’s very important. These people who do look for these kinds of entries are usually beginners. People who are new to the field. There’s link value in them but not as much as those who are advanced.

People who are advanced in SEO consequently prefer to read case studies because when you know the fundamentals, then there’s that need to know the case-to-case basis problems and solutions. Case studies provides that kind of knowledge – and often times with data to back it up.

It’s interesting to note that out of all the people who voted for data-driven entries, 33.33% of them are professional SEO Specialists. And when asked why, they answered with statements like:

“Data evaluates whether your content is great, your audience is engaging or not”

“SEO comes down to data. I love numbers!”

“Case studies are the best ways to learn from other people’s experience.“

‘Nuff said.

Case studies are tough. Data gathering is tough. And that’s why putting them all together to make a cohesive entry with an actionable standpoint is no less than wizardry. That’s what people prefer nowadays. Transparency, data, analysis, case studies – these things make for a powerful linkbait.

Perhaps it’s time to start making one of your own?

The post Why Data Driven Entries Earn 100% More Links appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.