How To Do SEO For SearchGPT

Face it: AI isn’t leaving – no matter how much we hate it. So, what can we do now? Optimizing your website for ChatGPT is increasingly important these days if you want to stay competitive. With so many people using AI for quick answers, making sure your site is friendly for these tools can boost your visibility big time. By structuring your content clearly and including relevant keywords, you make it easier for ChatGPT to pull accurate information from your site. This means more accurate and helpful responses for users, leading to more traffic to your site. Plus, having well-organized, AI-optimized content can improve your overall search engine ranking. In a nutshell, a little effort in optimization goes a long way in staying ahead of the curve. Direct Online Marketing has even launched AI Marketing Services ourselves. Read on to learn about how you can optimize your content to appear more within AI Search Results.

How To Optimize Your Website For ChatGPT…. And How To Use ChatGPT To Optimize Your Website

As OpenAI preps to launch their own competitor to Google, the concept of optimizing your website for ChatGPT or the OpenAI search engine becomes even more important. Below is our detailed information on how to do SEO for ChatGPT, whether you are a novice or an advanced web user. The most important thing to remember through all of this is:

Why should YOUR website be considered an authority?

On that note, continue on to learn more about how you can optimize your website for ChatGPT and the OpenAI Search Engine competitor to Google.

How Can I Optimize My Website? A Quick Guide

First, The Basics: How To Optimize Your Website?

“But, how do I optimize my website?” you may be asking. If you haven’t even started SEOing your website the old fashioned way, you may be getting ahead of yourself trying to understand SEO for ChatGPT and the new OpenAI search/AI system they are calling 4o.

So, let’s quickly cover How To Optimize Your Website

How Do You Do SEO For Your Website?

Optimizing your website for Google search – and other search engines – involves several key strategies that enhance content and technical aspects through updates to your site’s code, content, and structure.

First, you need to make sure your content is high-quality, relevant, and keyword-optimized. This is key!

Conduct thorough keyword research to understand what terms your target audience is using and incorporate these naturally into your content.

Use compelling titles, meta descriptions, and headers to make your content more appealing to search engines and users.

Regularly updating your content to keep it fresh and relevant also plays a crucial role in maintaining and improving your search rankings.

“How Do I Optimize My Website For SEO?” – Technical Talk:

On the technical side of things, make sure that your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly, as these factors significantly impact your search rankings. The slower the site – the worse your traffic will be, the worse your rankings will be, and the worse your conversions will be. Speed is essential.

Implementing clean, efficient code and using responsive design principles can improve user experience and search engine visibility.

Additionally, optimize your website’s structure with a clear hierarchy and internal linking, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages.

Using tools like Google Search Console can help you monitor your site’s performance and identify any issues that need addressing.

So, now that you have the basics on how to optimize your website, lets ask the big question… How Do You Do SEO For ChatGPT?

How To Use ChatGPT For SEO?

Using ChatGPT for SEO opens up new ways to streamline content creation and keyword research.

ChatGPT can generate optimized content, such as blog posts, meta descriptions, and product descriptions, that integrate relevant keywords naturally. By inputting prompts with specific topics and target keywords, ChatGPT can deliver content that ranks well while maintaining readability. Additionally, it can assist in ideation by offering suggestions for new content topics based on trending keywords or gaps in existing content. This allows marketers to develop high-quality, SEO-friendly content quickly.

Another powerful way to use ChatGPT in SEO is through automating repetitive tasks like updating title tags or generating variations of content for A/B testing. ChatGPT can create multiple iterations of meta tags, titles, and headings, enabling easy testing to find what works best for SEO performance. It also supports competitive analysis by reviewing content from competitors and providing insights on how to improve your own site’s SEO strategy.

How To Optimize Your Website For ChatGPT

How To Do SEO For ChatGPT?

AI is finally here, and it is named ChatGPT. And it’s smart. Wicked smart.

Gone are the days of AOL Instant Messenger chatbots – today’s AI is intelligent, witty, and well-read. 

Coming up in AI responses to queries, especially those from ChatGPT, is increasingly becoming a focus for SEOs and digital marketers this year. But how do you optimize your website for ChatGPT and other AI bots?

In this article, we will go right to the artificial intelligence engine itself, as well as provide some general tips for search engine optimization that can help future-proof your website for the new advancements in AI that are around the corner.

Where Does ChatGPT Get Its Data?

Currently, ChatGPT does not scour the web on it’s own – it is fed data, and it uses that data to learn. While that data IS from the Internet and many websites, it is currently out of date (it is from 2021), but it is in the process of being updated soon with current 2023 data.

When this happens, it will take the information it was fed and update its answering capabilities, including references to websites within its search and query results. 

“The training data for ChatGPT was cut off in 2021, so it is up to two years outdated as of 2023. However, it still has a vast amount of information on a wide range of topics, and its training data includes text from diverse sources such as websites, books, and articles, which provides a broad base of general knowledge. But it is important to keep in mind that some information and events that have taken place since the training data was cut off might not be reflected in its responses.”

ChatGPT

The current understanding is that if you rank well for various queries in the new set of data and the continuous flow of data following, you will show up more frequently in the results ChatGPT gives to its users.

But how can you do that?

How To Do SEO for ChatGPT

According to the prompt I asked ChatGPT in the development of this article…

“As ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI, it is not possible to optimize a website specifically for it. However, here are a few general tips for creating a website that is friendly for language models and search engines:

How To Optimize For ChatGPT

1. Again, just like we said above – use clear, concise, and well-structured content: This will help language models and search engines understand the content on your website and provide more accurate and relevant results.
2. Utilize headings and subheadings: This makes it easier for language models and search engines to understand the structure of your content.
3. Include relevant keywords: Use keywords relevant to your content in your headings, subheadings, and throughout your content to help search engines understand the topic of your website.
4. Provide high-quality, original content: Search engines and language models prefer websites with high-quality, original content over sites with low-quality or duplicate content.
5. Make sure your website is easily accessible: Ensure that your website is easily accessible to both users and search engines by avoiding broken links and fixing technical issues.

These tips can help ensure that your website is well-structured, easily understood, and provides a positive user experience, which can improve its overall visibility and ranking in search engine results.”

ChatGPT, 7/30/2024

Sure, we believe you.

To Optimize For AI, Optimize For Voice Search

One of the clearest understandings we have regarding the information given back by ChatGPT is how much it seems to prefer natural human language, and when questions are both Asked and Answered within the content. This presents strategies akin to how an SEO or webmaster may optimize their website for voice assistants, like Google Home and Amazon Alexa. 

“Optimizing your website for AI tools like ChatGPT is crucial in today’s digital landscape. By structuring content clearly and incorporating relevant keywords, businesses can enhance their online visibility, ensuring that AI-driven platforms accurately represent their information and connect them with the right audience.” – Billy Wright, Lead Digital Marketing Strategist at Direct Online Marketing.

How Do You Optimize Your Website For Voice Search?

Here are some tips on how to best optimize your website for voice search and voice assistants.

Use conversational language: Voice search queries tend to be more conversational and longer than text-based searches, so use language that is natural and easily understood.

Optimize for local search: Voice search is often used for local queries, so make sure your website is optimized for local search by including your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on your website.

Utilize structured data: Use schema markup to help search engines understand the content on your website, including your business’s NAP and information about products and services.

Provide quick answers: Voice search is often used to find quick answers to questions, so make sure your website provides concise and accurate answers to common queries.

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly: Many voice searches are conducted on mobile devices, so it’s important to make sure your website is mobile-friendly and easily accessible on all devices.

By following these little tips, you can help improve your website’s visibility in voice search results and provide a better user experience for voice search users.

Get more tips from our team on how to optimize for voice search by checking out this resource, How to Optimize for Voice Search.

How Do You Use ChatGPT As A Search Engine? – The Future Of SearchGPT

Will ChatGPT replace Google in the future? It’s the question many webmasters, digital marketers, and SEOs keep asking – but no one really knows what’s in store. ChatGPT has its own canned response to questions about it’s future as a potential search engine, stating, 

“While OpenAI may choose to develop other models with web crawling capabilities in the future, ChatGPT itself is not designed to crawl the web.” 

ChatGPT

For an SEO like me? That’s doublespeak for Coming Soon.

UPDATE: It did come soon.

In fact, ChatGPT Search now exists and it delivers results very similar to Google, but not the same as Google.
And guess what? You can do SEO for it….

A Digital Marketing Agency That Does SEO For SearchGPT

For more information on how you can get your website optimized with AI Marketing Services, contact us today.

Note: This article was updated January 15, 2025 to include new information including a link to Direct Online Marketing’s AI Marketing Services page.

The post How To SEO Your Website For ChatGPT In 2025 appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

You may have heard the old adage, “Those that can’t do, teach.” Well, if you have been challenged with the task of promoting training courses online, then you know that statement is almost totally false.

There are plenty of things to “do” when you are trying to support a training course with promotion online.

Organizations around the globe invest over $360 billion annually to level up their workforce in areas such as:

• Alignment
• Analytics and Measurement (click this link to learn more about our Google Analytics services)
• Automation and Robotics
• Compliance
• Content Development
• Employee Safety
• Engineering
• IT and Technical Training
• Leadership
• Performance Management
• Sales
• Strategic Planning

Developments in high-speed internet connectivity worldwide in recent years have also provided training companies with the ability to move their teachings online. Now, in addition to building a connection with people in real life, training courses can be consumed (and re-consumed) by students on demand.

Whether your company is creating a new training course or training is what you’ve done for decades, there has never been a better time to get involved in the knowledge sharing economy.

Below, I’ve compiled 20 digital marketing ideas that are both actionable and effective for you to start promoting training courses.

1. Auditing Templates

There are many ways a company might realize their need for your training solutions. Few of those ways are more effective than by giving them a template to conduct a self-audit. Creating auditing templates for prospective clients in Google Drive, Microsoft Office, or PDF format is an excellent way to:

• Help them discover their pain points
• Introduce your methodology to alleviating those pain points
• Provide natural conversation starters for your business development team

Bonus tip: For promoting training courses, you should be willing to provide these templates at no charge to potential clients. But at the same time, you should also gate these templates behind a registration form to aid your demand generation efforts.

2. Best Practice Guides and Tutorials

Employing content marketing—such as best practice guides or in-depth tutorials—allows you to showcase your organization as a thought leader.

Your potential clients likely have continuing education requirements or newly placed industry standards for which they need certification. A decision maker in HR or some other management role may not be up to speed on the new requirements.

The act of creating content serves as an educational opportunity for these people. To help them get the information they need to keep their people at the top of their craft.

Bonus tip: Embed a lot of share buttons on content like this so it can easily be bookmarked, emailed, exported, printed, or shared on enterprise communication platforms like Slack.

Are you launching a training course but also a provider of a software solution? Need more leads? We’ve got you covered with 14 more ideas just like the one above in this post… 15 Actionable Lead Generation Ideas For Software Companies

3. Blogging As A Tactic For Promoting Training Courses

Companies interested in growing their brand awareness through search engines should be creating at least one new piece of blog content per week. And yes, this applies to any company, regardless of industry.

Companies in the training industry are no different. In fact, regular blogging might be even more critical in the training industry. A higher amount of knowledge sharing should mean a more significant percentage of thought leadership.

Bonus tip: No matter your preferred communication medium, plan on creating a blog post that is at least 300 words in length once every five business days.

4. Case Studies To Promote Training Courses

Whether you provide training services to individuals or groups, what you do has an impact on the people you help level up. Let the results of your work speak for themselves by creating case studies to showcase your greatest successes.

In both personal and corporate training, people want to get the sense that you, specifically, can help them in their “unique situation.” Training companies should focus their case studies around the types of people and companies they want to attract to their business.

Are you a personal development company that wants more married businessmen as clients? Make a case study featuring one!

Do you have a leadership training course for the financial sector? Build a case study featuring employees from any of the “Big 5” accounting firms.

Bonus tip: Want to acquire visits from keyword searches to your case studies? Optimize the title tag, URL slug, and case study title in the following manner. Check out this example data set for this case study from OppenheimerFunds.

• Title: Oppenheimer Training Program: Custom Training To Identify Growth Companies
• URL: /case-studies/oppenheimerfunds/
• Case Study Title: OppenheimerFunds Improves Growth Company Identification By 80% After Training

5. Checklists and Worksheets

Checklists and worksheets are effective marketing assets to create. When they are optimized through SEO or supported through digital advertising, they can also be a high ROI item to drive sales leads into your pipeline.

One thing to remember about creating checklists and worksheets is that they can become outdated over time. This is especially true in industries where standards or regulations evolve over time. Training companies in education, government, healthcare, IT and legal will want to be mindful of this.

Bonus Tip: Create an interactive document that can be bookmarked in a browser and regularly revisited by your users. Is interactivity not possible? Host your checklist or worksheet as a branded Google Sheet for users to copy to their own Google Drive accounts.

6. Competitor Awareness

Whether you want to go toe-to-toe with an industry leader or you want to solidify your brand’s dominance, consider creating content about your competition. This is a high-value SEO and content marketing strategy for your brand if it classifies itself as a “challenger” in your industry.

Create pages of content on your site that either:

• Directly compare your training courses to the market leader and niche brands
• Identify a shortcoming of the services provided by your market leader/niche brands
• Offer an influencer the opportunity to compare you against your competitor as a guest post

Then proceed to highlight the strengths and unique value your training courses offer compared to your competition.

Bonus Tip: To promote training courses, pages like this allow your site to rank organically in keyword searches. You can also run digital advertising campaigns for keywords towards the end of the buyer’s journey like “Dale Carnegie alternatives” and “skillsoft vs mindgym.”

7. Digital Market Development Funds

“Integration and usage of technology in our day-to-day lives is at an all-time high, as we continue to shift to a ubiquitously digital world,” said Brian Fourman of Cooperate Marketing, a marketing agency in Chicago that solves complex problems for OEM’s and major service providers.

Some of the latest research by Nielsen, ComScore and other indicates that Americans spend close to 11 hours a day consuming media and nearly four hours of that consists of some form of digital across any number of platforms.

For marketers that have access to digital Market Development Funds (MDF’s), adopting a digital-first strategy can prove to be highly beneficial. Not only is a portion of your digital campaign already paid for with MDF’s, but when implemented correctly you can hyper-target your intended audience to convey the right message, at the right place, at the right time in a truly engaging and often personalized fashion. Plus, the cost of entry is significantly less than traditional media in which one is often forced to purchase the entire market (DMA).

Digital first strategy allows you to run any number of campaigns simultaneously to fulfill key marketing objectives at each level of the purchase funnel, whether to build brand awareness, familiarity, consideration, and/or to generate leads and convert them into sales. In addition, digital media allows for easy-to-implement message testing (A/B) that can be modified on the fly.

Copious amounts of readily available data further support your customized endeavor and provide quantifiable results that can easily be tracked. By knowing how to interpret and use this data, you can optimize current/future campaign creative to provide truly impactful results that guarantee the greatest ROI.”

8. Email Newsletter Sponsorship

Sponsoring email newsletters is a great way to infiltrate the inboxes of a significant number of highly targeted readers without the need to be CAN-SPAM compliant.

That doesn’t mean this tactic lacks strategic thinking. When you select an email newsletter to sponsor, here are three things to keep in mind:

1. Target professional organizations or networking groups of the industries you help train.
2. Have those organizations prove how engaged their readers are with data. You don’t want to just buy a list!
3. Create an exclusive offer to maximize engagement and conversions with your ad.

Bonus Tip: Support your exclusive offer or sponsorship of an email newsletter by creating a specific landing page for it. Extend the reach of your offer by applying SEO best practices and adding retargeting codes to the page for Bing, Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

9. Expert Roundups

You might be tired of reading “expert roundups”—but your target clients can’t get enough of them. Long list articles of helpful hacks, hints, tips, and tricks exist on nearly every business strategy out there.

Expert roundups—whether published on your site or elsewhere on the web—are a great way to improve the personal brand of your training team members. Additional benefits include:

• Increased thought leadership opportunities for your brand
• Increased visibility for your content on social networks
• Increased traffic and backlinks for expanding your SEO efforts

Bonus Tip: Need to find expert sources for your first roundup besides your own training team? Signup for a journalist/blogger account on Help A Reporter Out (HARO). HARO is a 3x per day newsletter sent to over 800K sources looking for opportunities to get media coverage.

10. Giveaways and Sweepstakes

Who doesn’t like getting something for free?!

When promoting training courses, letting potential students “try before they buy” can be an irresistible way to draw them in. Simply give them access to one session, program, or class at no cost.

Sweepstakes work in a similar fashion. However, instead of giving away your intellectual property, you will be packaging something together to entice future students to give you their contact information.

One disadvantage of this strategy is that you risk receiving a large number of registrants that may not result in quality sales opportunities.

Bonus Tip: Promote your giveaway or sweepstakes in a press release or by providing exclusive demos to bloggers and other online publishers. Don’t forget you can also shamelessly promote training courses in your outreach, too! You can tap into their follower counts and subscribers for leads while also earning high-quality backlinks to your domain.

11. Historical Optimization

Over the last few years, historical optimization has become an incredibly valuable SEO strategy for companies with a large archive of content.

To briefly summarize this tactic, find an old blog post (published six or more months ago) on your site that either:

• Generates a lot of traffic (good idea), or
• Converts (better idea)

Then refresh the content and re-publish it with a more recent date.

Establishing your trainers as thought leaders are critical to your success in promoting training courses. Historical optimization is a great way to get long term value out of content you published long ago.

Bonus tip: Have trainers who used to blog for your organization that are no longer there? Create a general author account on your blog using your company name, like “(Company Name) Team.” Change the author of a post if they are no longer a part of your team to that author.

Historical Optimization helped Corporate Visions improve their lead generation by 37% from SEO.
Learn more here.

12. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has had a ton of hype over the last year, as well as a lot of unwanted attention. Despite that surplus of hype floating around, a dedicated influencer campaign has a lot of potential.

If your company can partner with influencers on social media to increase awareness amongst a large fan base, the CPM can be very effective compared to traditional media buying. Just make sure that any influencer you invest in actually motivates their followers and fans to act.

Creating an exclusive offer for any influencer will be vital to seeing success with a campaign of this type.

Bonus Tip: Check out this comprehensive beginner’s guide to influencer marketing if you want to learn more about how to leverage this for your organization.

13. Infographics To Promote Training Courses

Infographics still have a place in the world of digital marketing, especially since most people still do not enjoy reading online.

If your company conducts its own original research or surveys, share your best statistic or a quotable statement in this visually appealing format. Engagement with your content and the likelihood that your target students remember what you wrote will undoubtedly improve.

Bonus Tip: Create a high-resolution copy of your infographic for companies that want your content as posters for their walls. You could sell them to take advantage of a non-traditional revenue stream or offer the high-res version as a piece of gated content.

14. LinkedIn Advertising

Don’t let LinkedIn Learning’s existence (formerly Lynda.com) scare you from the possibility of leveraging the most extensive professional social network to promote your training courses.

According to a case study from LinkedIn, e-learning solution provider, CrossKnowledge launched display ads, InMail, and sponsored updates for a campaign titled “Bye Bye Boss” in 2015.

The results?

“Benchmark-beating” click-through rates and over 50 leads generated on the campaign microsite.

Bonus Tip: No matter what platform you use for your landing pages, take advantage of LinkedIn AutoFill for your form fields. With the click of a button, visitors can become leads by populating your form with their LinkedIn profile information.

15. Microsite Development

“The use of microsites provides the perfect launchpad for new services,” says Denise DeSimone, Chairperson of C-Leveled, a full-service branding strategy and marketing agency.

Update: On April 21, 2022,
we announced our
acquisition of C-Leveled.

“Microsites are quick and easy to build, so they give you the ability to target particular audiences quickly. In some cases, microsites can be as much as five times more effective in generating leads than traditional campaigns.”

Bonus Tip: Optimize your main site and microsite for similar keywords, and support each site by targeting those keywords in a PPC campaign. Doing this allows presents an opportunity to occupy a minimum of 25% of a search engine results page.

16. Podcast Interviews To Promote Training Courses

Participating in podcast interviews is another opportunity for your talent and training staff to showcase their thought leadership.

But have you ever thought about hosting your own podcast? Podcasts have low production costs and listenership is rising. Plus, podcast listeners have over four times better brand recall on ads than traditional display campaigns.

Bonus Tip: If you host your own show, invite guests on your show who could be potential sales leads. In the training industry, consider hosting executives in HR or with specialization in companies you want as clients.

17. Quora Promoted Answers

Quora Promoted Answers are a relatively new advertising option on this quickly emerging platform.

You can reach a broad group of people on Quora who are researching questions and answers related to your area of expertise with a Promoted Answer.

For training companies who are already familiar with answering questions on Quora, you might not notice anything different in how you find places to share your insights.

What changes in a Promoted Answer? Two things:

1. The label next to the answer (Promoted By).
2. The name of the person and the business promoting the answer.

Bonus Tip: Has someone unaffiliated with your company answered a question on Quora that helps in promoting training courses offered by your company? Promote that answer instead of yours to get it shown to more people in any feed.

Interested in leveraging Quora for your SEO efforts? Find out if Quora can help your SEO efforts here.

18. Research and Surveys

If you want to make the case for your training solutions to potential clients, there may not be a better way to do that than by conducting research or surveys.

Do your clients have a common pain point they need addressing when they hire you? They probably are not alone.

Survey executives in your industry related to the common pain point your clients have. Then publish the results of your survey in a whitepaper or other type of report.

Then, do a press release about your research (and promoting training courses) and share it with the trade publication media in your industry for increased visibility.

Bonus Tip: Don’t forget to send the report you create to everyone who submits an answer to your survey.

19. Retargeting To Promote Training Courses

It doesn’t matter what you call this—remarketing, cyberstalking—it’s a crawesome (creepy + awesome) marketing tool.

Reach the 99% of visitors to your website that didn’t convert by retargeting them with display ads. You can use this strategy in search engines, display ads, social networks, and mobile apps.

Talk about creepy and awesome!

Bonus tip: If your training solutions require a long sales cycle, make sure you have your audience list set to as long a time period as possible prior to the start of promoting training courses.

20. Webinars To Promote Training Courses

If you are in the training business, then you likely have some comfort with public speaking. Leveraging live, web-based video conferences will be different than being in person with your clients, for sure. But it is a great way to connect with your target audience at scale, at any time they want to consume your training.

Best of all, if you host a webinar, your message can reach an audience of viewers and listeners from all over the world.

Bonus tip: It’s okay to put your webinars behind a gated form, but make sure the video content can be made available on demand. In today’s competitive business climate, you don’t want to make people wait to hear your training when there are others out there.

Key Takeaways on How to Market Training Courses Online

Develop Auditing Templates

Providing self-assessment tools helps potential clients identify their own paint points and training needs, which you are then in prime position to offer to address with your course.

Publish Best Practice Guides and Tutorials

Sharing in-depth content establishes your authority and educates your audience; this also makes them more likely to invest in your training programs.​

Maintain an Active Blog

Blogging regularly is critical in the training industry to improve search engine visibility and to keep your audience engaged with topics that you cover in your courses.​

Create Detailed Case Studies

Showcasing success stories from past clients demonstrates the tangible benefits of your training.

Host Webinars

Webinars enable you to reach people across the globe—plus, they give people a concrete sample of what your training is like.

Final Thoughts On Promoting Training Courses Online

Like many lucrative industries that are both knowledge and skills-based, promoting training courses effectively in today’s marketplace requires agility, consistency, and a little bit of luck.

This is true whether you are looking to go to market with a new training course, or you are part of an established training company looking to elevate your status.

Luckily, no matter what actionable digital marketing strategy you choose to promote your training course, they all can help you accomplish the following:

• Disrupt the market leader who is slow to take action
• Generate leads for your programs and direct sales
• Improve your company’s authority and thought leadership positions in your industry
• Increase awareness of your brand and programs through more web traffic
• Provide instant and long-term value to your most coveted buyers

You already know now is the time to increase your market share of the $360 billion training industry. If you need help from an online marketing agency to decide which strategy is the best to start snagging your share, just contact us.

This article was updated to add additional information on April 14th, 2025.

The post 20 Actionable Digital Marketing Ideas for Promoting Training Courses (Updated 2025) appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Can You Use Competitors’ Names In Google Ads? Can They Use Your Brand In Google Ads?

Branded search engine ranking positions (aka SERPs) can make or break your online presence within your market and your customers’ minds. But when you find a competitor using your brand name as part of their Google Ads or SEO campaigns, the stakes can get raised by a considerable margin.

When a user performs a search, visitors click on the first ads or organic results that seem most relevant to them.

The chances of winning that click are higher when you show up in top positions on relevant searches.

For many years brands have tried to undermine competitors’ names to rank higher and poach visitors through covert PPC and SEO tactics. When this happens, competitors getting search visibility on your brand name become a huge detriment to your sales by hijacking your brand’s reputation.

Leveraging competitor brand names via search engines is a common tactic and an issue that must be addressed to maintain both your rankings and your branding.

Savvy competitors — often with agencies behind them — combat these challenges and capitalize on the opportunity.

The Basics of Advertising and Doing SEO on Competitor Brand Names

Just to make sure we’re on the same page here, let’s take a brief second to fully define what we’re talking about.  When we talk about competitor brand names, there are a few different keyword types to pay attention to if you want a full picture of which competitors are trying to take over your brand. The three most common types are:

• Competitor’s actual business names (like Pepsico buying ads or optimizing for Coca-Cola keywords)
• Competitor’s branded products (Pepsi buying ads or optimizing pages on Sierra Mist’s site for Sprite keywords)
• Competitor’s executive names or prominent thought leader names (Walmart running ads on searches of Jeff Bezos promoting CEO Doug McMillon)

The process in search advertising works the same as bidding on any other search term.  You select the competitor term(s) you wish to bid on, set how much you’re willing to pay, and set up ads for that ad group. Voila, you can have your ad appear when someone searches for your competitors.  There’s no cost to you until and unless someone clicks on one of your ads.

In SEO, the process is also very similar. Publish a piece of content on the subject matter, optimize it for the search term, and then build backlinks to the page so that it ranks well.

Legal Questions – Is This Allowed?

It’s important to understand that leveraging a competitor’s brand name is quite common in digital marketing.

You may be thinking to yourself at the moment — is this even allowed?

Yes, yes it is.

For the most part, using such advertising tactics is OK provided you are not deceptive in your practices. This means that if you are intentionally trying to mislead searchers, you may find yourself in hot water.

You need to make sure you’re clean in your ads and other marketing materials by being upfront about who you are. And doing that well means representing specific reasons customers often prefer you over your competition. If your name, your competitor’s name, or other branded term isn’t trademarked, then there’s no issue at all as far as the search engines are concerned.

Where courts have generally upheld advertisers’ rights to advertise — non-deceptively — on competitor brand names, this is America. Anyone can sue anyone for any reason, so legal costs are a real consideration.

By the way, if you’re really into this sort of thing, check out Eric Goldman’s Technology & Law blog.  It’s the single best source on the Web for following these types of lawsuits regarding search engine marketing.

With that disclaimer and plug out of the way, let’s dive into how you can protect the reputation you’ve built against competitors trying to draft off of your brand.

Google Ads Options to Address Competitor Bidding

Campaigns explicitly created to target competitor brand searches are expensive and typically produce low numbers of conversions.

If this is happening to you, take solace in knowing that your competitor is spending some serious cash. But you still want to reclaim what is yours and reduce any adverse impacts on your brand.

When reacting to competitors running ads on your company’s or product’s name in Google Ads — and other search engines — you have some options.

Option 1: Protect Your Name by Running Ads on Your Own Name

Branded campaigns use your company’s brand name as a keyword. This play typically yields high conversions at a low cost per conversion – and the more your brand is known and trusted, the more impressive the results.

As you can see in the above example, Salesforce is running Google ads on its name, taking up the top ad position. Two competitors – Pipedrive and SugarCRM – also run on Salesforce keywords, positioning themselves as an alternative to this well-known CRM.

Searchers click on ads at the very top of a page more often than other positions. This is especially true on mobile because the visual real estate is so much smaller.  By running these ads, Salesforce ensures searchers will see its ads first before seeing alternatives.

When you run ads on your name, you have a much better chance of influencing how searchers interact with your brand in the SERPs. This way you have more control of your campaigns, and you’ll always be first in search results on your brand.

Note: Some companies don’t like to bid on their name as they think that it’s an unnecessary cost, taking away conversions from organic search – clicks they don’t have to pay for. They also feel that bidding on their name is wasting money that could go toward reaching new searchers who aren’t looking for them. But if your competition is running on your name, do you really want people looking for you to see the competition first?

Option 2: Petition Google Ads for Trademark Protection

We highly recommend trademarking your brand if you haven’t done so already. Be aware that it can take up to six months or more to receive a trademark even if you don’t face other companies with similar claims.

The significant benefit of having a valid trademark as that there’s a formal process to petition Google to disallow your competitors from using your name in their ads if you own a trademark.

They can still run on your name even if you have this trademark protection, but at least they won’t be able to use your name in the ad copy, except in very limited circumstances.

If you’d like to learn more, check out our step-by-step guide on how to protect your trademark in Google.

Want a Premier Google Partner’s
help filing your trademark complaint?
Call 800.979.3177 today.

Option 3: Fight Fire with Fire

If you’re interested in going on the offensive, you can try to beat your competition at their own game and run ads on their branded terms. Just keep in mind that this tactic is prone to have the same high costs and challenges as discussed earlier.  Here’s why.

Search advertising platforms allow you, in theory, to run on almost any keyword you want, including your competitors’ names.  But in all cases, they want to make sure your keywords are relevant to your business.  Otherwise, consumers will have a harder time finding information related to their searches and the whole PPC model starts crumbling.

And since you aren’t your competitor, Google will quickly give those keywords in your account a low Quality Score.

Keywords with a low Quality Score (caused by low clickthrough rates and other metrics) will end up costing you more than average on a per click basis. If your keywords are not relevant to your brand (i.e., because they aren’t your brand), then your search advertising platform will make you pay for it. In a best-case scenario, your quality score for competitor’s brand names may peak at a 3/10.

As we mentioned earlier, these kinds of campaigns come at a high cost and a lower chance of successful conversions. However, conversions don’t have to be the goal of this play.

Going on the offensive allows you to fight fire with fire if your competitors are already deploying these tactics. It will also draw some awareness to your brand for potential new customers who only knew about your competitor.

Note: It is possible to find a competitor’s ad come up when you search your own business name even if they don’t have you in their keyword crosshairs. If you see that, it’s probably one of two scenarios:

• Search retargeting (RLSAs): If you have been to the competitor’s website, their ads may be displaying based on your website habits.
• Similar audiences for search: The competitor may have a “similar to” retargeting audience and Google’s machine learning is considering your search habits similar to those of the competitor’s website visitors.

Either way, it’s the algorithm doing what it does best!

Other Pros and Cons of Bidding on Competitor’s Brand Names

Pros

• It can work.  A lot of times people are interested in that competitor for a specific reason that won’t help you at all: trying to get hired, a vendor looking up directions, etc.  But for the consumer doing research – or maybe a current, unsatisfied client looking up a phone number, the payoff could be handsome.
• It will jerk their chain.  Double edged sword here (see Cons), but after seeing your ad on their name, internally they may devote a lot of executive resources figuring out what can be done.  Plus, some people just really, really like ticking off their competitors.
• More competition should drive up their prices to bid on their name. While this means they’ll be spending more money they could be devoting elsewhere, their Quality Scores will likely be so much higher than yours, that the additional cost may not add up to much.  Unless they weren’t advertising on their name at all before and decided to start doing so because of your ads.

Cons

• Your time.  Your competitors may call you up and chew you out about this.  Trust me, I’ve seen this time-suck happen and had advertisers flip their feelings about bidding on competitor names 180 degrees.
• Money.  They may sue you or threaten to do so.  While you could just adhere to their cease-and-desist and potentially be done with it, most companies will at least consult their attorneys about this.  And if they don’t happen to be experts in search – and virtually none are, this can get really expensive.  (BTW, we have consulted with attorneys about this in the past.  If you’re an advertiser or lawyer needing help with this, give us a shout at 800.979.3177.  We can also advise on how to broker a fair peace accord without the courts).
• They may start advertising on your name, which could send up your costs somewhat and also decrease your click throughs.

Be Careful with Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) can be a great tool—until it serves up an ad with a competitor’s name who happens to spot the ad. That’s where it goes from clever automation to potential liability.

(See stats and insights from a test of keyword-insertion code in Google Ads that we conducted.)

DKI functions by automatically inserting the user’s search query into your ad text, provided that the search query matches one of your keywords and fits within character limits. This dynamic functionality can enhance ad relevance for generic terms; it becomes perilous when competitor brand names are among your keywords.

For instance, if your keyword is “Competitor Brand Alternatives” and a user searches for “Competitor Brand Product X,” your headline might read “Competitor Brand Product X,” directly featuring your competitor’s name in your ad.

Google explicitly absolves itself of responsibility for any policy violations arising from the use of DKI. (Even in cases where it was the applying a Google Recommendation that introduced DKI functionality into a campaign.) Their policy clearly states that advertisers are accountable for ensuring that their ads comply with all advertising guidelines after keywords are inserted.

The fix is simple: don’t use DKI with competitor keywords. Build static ads with deliberate messaging that highlights your differentiators.

How to Respond When Competitors Use SEO to Leverage Your Brand

Several SEO tactics can solidify your SERP positions against competitors who want to rank in organic search for your brand name, or for when potential customers seek alternatives to your brand.

Much like the Google Ads tactics listed above, you can either take a defensive route or get aggressive with your SEO keyword targeting.

Choose wisely, as this is the perfect time to heed Uncle Ben’s wisdom — because great responsibility is bestowed upon those who wield these great SEO powers.

Option 1: Ranking for “Brand Alternative” Keywords

To dampen your competitors’ efforts, consider creating a page to rank for brand alternative searches specific to your brand name. This page still aims to promote your brand as the better solution, but the idea is to optimize it with your name and “alternative” keywords to make sure it outranks your sneaky competition.

You can also supplement this tactic with content development and link building strategies targeting ‘brand alternative’ keyword phrases. Guest posts and other authored contributions optimized for brand “alternative” keywords can help take up valuable search positions. These opportunities also are good places to score a link back to the page you already created.

By leveraging these two tactics, you can fortify your brand against alternative searches that your competitor targets with their SEO efforts.

Option 2: Fighting Back with Your Own “Brand Alternative” SEO Strategies

When your competitors step up their efforts against your brand, it’s time to consider going on the offensive from an SEO perspective. Some examples include previously mentioned tactics:

• Your competitor running ads on your brand name
• Optimizing a page on their website to rank for your brand name
• Leveraging backlinks to improve their ranking for your brand name

Just like how competitors may create content on their site to rank for keywords related to your brand, you can do the same.

You can accomplish this one of two ways:

1. Optimize for “competitor” + “alternative(s)” — Here you create pages specifically designed to target search users looking for alternatives to your competitor by optimizing for their brand names and “alternative” (e.g. “picasa alternative,” “photoshop alternative,” etc.). This way, your brand will begin to show up when people go to search for their name.

Below is an example of how Lawn Doctor compares itself to several competitors.

1. Optimize for competitor weaknesses — In some cases, search users may be considering a competitor, but also seeking choices.

For example, say you are a project management software looking to position yourself against Trello, a highly recognized competitor. You could try creating content that aims to rank for keywords such as “trello issues.”

Be warned: snatching a top search engine ranking using this approach is highly unlikely without some investment in aggressive link building tactics. But, this approach will undercut your competitor in the following ways:

• They will lose long tail organic search traffic.
• Awareness of your product will increase within their customer and prospect base.
• You will convert new business opportunities from prospects who were not initially considering your brand as a solution.

Final Thoughts — Consult Your Legal Team

Please note: we recommend you consult your legal team to assess risk before trying the more aggressive tactics listed above. Keep in mind that there are times where using terms and phrases — specifically trademarked words, branded words — could have some legal implications.

What ends up happening in situations like this is that – whether mediated expensively through attorneys or done from President to President – a truce is called.  The downside is that it needs to be brokered with each competitor as it can’t be done through the search engines (other than if there’s a legitimate trademark complaint to be filed).

SERPs can make or break your brand so make sure you are taking the necessary measures toward protecting them. Starting with a great defense (owning real estate and top ads on your name) is the best offense.  Ultimately, though, it’s your brand, and only you can decide how to solidify your place in Google search.

Key Takeaways About Targeting Competitor Brand Names

• Using a competitor’s brand name is a common and permitted practice in digital marketing, barring misleading usages.
  
• Competitors using your brand name in their Google Ads or SEO campaigns can divert potential customers.
  
• Trademarking your brand name allows you to request that Google disallow competitors from using it in their ads.
  
• Optimizing content for brand alternative keywords can help prevent competitors from ranking high for your brand name.
  
• Running ads on your own name is one line of defense for your brand.
  

This article was updated to add additional information on April 7th, 2025.

Get Paid Search Advertising Services

If you’re interested in learning how you can drive better results with search engine marketing and our paid search advertising services then please schedule a digital marketing consultation. Or, to get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Partner Agency before you reach out.

Need SEO or PPC services for your B2B business? Learn more about why we are The Best Digital Marketing Agency For B2B Businesses.

The post Catch A Competitor Bidding And Ranking For Your Brand? Here’s Your Options. (Updated 2025) appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Businesses seeking to expand their global reach will benefit from this partnership. By collaborating with the ITA, DOM is able to provide companies with access to resources, expertise, and opportunities to skillfully navigate the marketing complexities of international markets.

Table of Contents

• Direct Online Marketing and the International Trade Administration: A Partnership Built for Global Growth
• Helping Businesses Find the Right International Markets
• Free Digital Marketing Audits for Exporting Businesses
• Expert-Led Webinars & Speaking Engagements
• Enhanced Online Resources to Support Global Expansion
• DOM & ITA — A Partnership Focused on International Business Growth
• Key Takeaways on DOM’s Partnership with the International Trade Administration

Direct Online Marketing and the International Trade Administration: A Partnership Built for Global Growth

To expand into international markets, you must have a great product or service. This alone isn’t usually enough to be successful, though. You have to make sure that the right people in the right places know about your business.  

DOM is teaming up with ITA to help U.S. businesses make the vital connections that facilitate selling into other countries. 

The International Trade Administration is the agency within the United States Department of Commerce with a mission to promote the competitiveness of U.S. businesses worldwide. This includes providing concrete insights and market data to help U.S. companies export their goods and services. 

ITA’s vast trade network and DOM’s nearly two decades of digital marketing experience make for a potent mix of resources and expertise that businesses can take advantage of as they try to grow into international markets.  

Global Markets — An ITA Program That Drives Results

Global Markets is the particular unit under the umbrella of ITA that promotes and protects U.S. exports around the world.

In 2024, Global Markets helped U.S. businesses in substantial ways:

93,000 Companies Assisted

Global Markets helped 93,000 companies with exports and foreign investment. 81% of these companies were small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).

$161,000,000 Impact

Global Markets made possible $52 billion in foreign investment and $109 billion in exports.

519,000 Jobs

The exports and inward investments that Global Markets facilitated supported the employment of more than half a million Americans. 

460-to-1 ROI

The international connections that Global Markets made resulted in $460 in return on investment for each $1 of Global Market’s operating costs.

At DOM, we’re excited to be partnering with ITA and the standout unit that is Global Markets. This relationship will help U.S. businesses make inroads to countries all over the world. 

Helping Businesses Find the Right International Markets

Where to start? One of the biggest blockers to exporting is simply a lack of information. It can seem daunting. How on Earth do I make the kinds of connections necessary to get my product into the hands of people all the way across the globe? 

Filling this knowledge gap is a prime benefit of DOM’s partnership with the ITA. 

Free Digital Marketing Audits for Exporting Businesses

DOM will be producing Export Digital Marketing Starter Plans: a customized assessment of your current market readiness that identifies high-growth opportunities in target markets. These plans offer a clear, data-driven path for businesses to take their first steps into global expansion with confidence.

With an Export Digital Marketing Starter Plan you will be empowered to confidently expand your international presence.

Expert-Led Webinars & Speaking Engagements

We will be participating in a series of webinars and speaking sessions; these will feature leading export marketing experts from ITA, DOM, and other organizations.

The goal is to empower businesses with tried-and-true digital marketing strategies. These presentations will deliver advice tailored to particular industries and target regions. Each session will feature practical takeaways and live Q&A opportunities.

These sessions will cover topics essential to successful international marketing, for instance:

• Leveraging digital marketing ahead of trade missions to maximize impact
• Using targeted, low-cost advertising campaigns to connect with buyers abroad
• Understanding global search engines like Google, Baidu, and Yandex
• Optimizing websites for international audiences
• Navigating global eCommerce platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Mercado Libre

We’ll also be attending key ITA events, such as Discover Global Markets and overseas trade missions, where we’ll share our expertise through presentations and roundtable discussions.

Enhanced Online Resources to Support Global Expansion

In addition to the digital marketing audits and webinars, the DOM–ITA partnership will also bring you blog posts, videos, and downloadable resources to help businesses stay informed on the latest trends and best practices for international digital marketing. 

Informative blog posts with accompanying videos
Explore digital marketing tactics and gain actionable insights from DOM and ITA experts.

In-depth guides and infographics
Peruse easily digestible resources that lay out key digital marketing strategies.

Compelling exporter success stories
Learn from the experiences of other businesses that have successfully expanded into international markets.

From measuring global visibility, to foreign SEO, to advertising tips, these resources will provide businesses with the knowledge they need to compete effectively on a global scale.

DOM & ITA — A Partnership Focused on International Business Growth

Our partnership with ITA represents a significant step forward in our mission to help grow people, communities, and businesses across the globe. We’re excited to work hand in hand with ITA to provide you with the tools, resources, and support you need to achieve your international business objectives.

ITA’s deep knowledge of international trade and DOM’s expertise in digital marketing will be a powerful combination. We are confident that this partnership will remove barriers to U.S. businesses so that they can succeed in new markets.

Key Takeaways on DOM’s Partnership with the International Trade Administration

• DOM and ITA are partnering to help U.S. businesses expand internationally.
• Free Export Digital Marketing Starter Plans will help exporting businesses assess their market readiness and identify high-growth opportunities.
• Expert-led webinars and speaking engagements will provide valuable insights into international digital marketing strategies.
• Exporting-focused blog posts, videos, and guides will equip businesses with the knowledge to expand globally.

The post DOM & the International Trade Administration — A Partnership for Global Growth appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

The Internet has become so integrated into our daily lives that we rarely reflect upon how drastically the world has changed. Now more than ever, brands and individuals have access to tools to achieve beyond what would have been thought possible compared to the world just two decades ago.

For exporters who take their global export marketing efforts seriously, using search engines to reach customers half-way across the world is an extremely effective strategy for you to use.

Digital Marketing For Exporters Just Works

Many know how integral digital marketing for exporters has become an overall growth strategy. The problem is that with so many different tactics to consider, it’s hard to weigh out which ones are going to provide the biggest returns while minimizing costs.

In 2001, I saw the potential for internet marketing services and used my early career successes to build Direct Online Marketing into the agency it has become today. Fast forward to 2008, Google AdWords (now known as Ads) was starting to mature and we had our first chance to get results for our new international clients.

Maybe this was more of a case of serendipity, but we began export marketing accidentally. Starting with our first foreign client from Australia, we used our experiences to eventually help clients in countries such as Costa Rica, Germany, Hong Kong, Russia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Along the same line, we started helping our U.S.-based clients sell overseas to over 150 countries worldwide. Each marketplace has its own distinct challenges, but we were able to find success for clients in industries from luxury watches to higher education.

DOM Helped The WVDO
Bring Global Business To A Rural State.
Learn What We Did Here.

One example I often think about is what we achieved with Legacy Truck Center, a retailer specializing in heavy-duty truck parts with no prior exporting experience. In just under 5 years, Wheeling Truck Center sold truck parts in 94 different countries and was awarded the Presidential “E” Award for exporters in 2014.

Once we saw the success our clients were having, we started exploring the exporting marketing mix more seriously. We started by attending a U.S. Commercial Service (USCS) trade mission to Costa Rica and Guatemala. Since then we have attended Trade Winds, done Gold Key Services, and coordinated our own personalized country missions through the USCS.

Which brings us to today, where we’ve continued to help our clients tap into limitless markets. We know what works and we have proven time and again how exporters can use online marketing to their advantage.

4 Digital Strategies For Export Marketing To Unlock New Frontiers

With so many opportunities, the biggest challenge can be knowing where to start. Regardless of which path you decide to take, you need to make yourself aware of the multitude of free resources and where to find them. From there, you’ll have some data to get an idea of which foreign markets show promise.

1. Connect with Your Local USCS Office

Your first stop is checking in with the U.S. Commercial Service and finding your local office. Your rep will be a tremendous asset and can inform you of other free and low-cost resources like the Small Business Association, your state development agency, the Export-Import Bank, and your District Export Council.

2. Keyword Research in International Markets

Next, look at how much interest there is in your products or services in various country targets. The great thing about search engines is that you know the searcher’s intent. You can reach them when they’re most interested—when they’re looking for more information about what you sell. And don’t think that this only works for online retailers, because this can be a great tool for service providers, too.

To start, sign up for a free Google Ads account. You’ll need to put in a credit card, but you never need to spend any money with them. This will give you access to their Keyword Planner. Here you can enter keyword phrases or just your website to find out how often people are searching for what you’re selling.

3. For Non-English Markets—Take Advantage of Professional Translation Services

For countries where English might not be the most commonly spoken language, you can use online translation tools to get a basic translation of your keywords.You’ll want to get these translated by professionals if you think a market shows enough potential.

If you are searching for a translation services provider, one of the European-based agencies my team has used recently is Lingo24. They’re based in London with sales support in the US, UK, Switzerland, and Sweden. To date, we have been very pleased with the quality of their translations.

4. Get a Country Assessment and Start a Campaign

If there’s a decent search volume, you can take the next step of sharing these results with your local USCS to get a country assessment or utilize search advertising professionals (like us?) to run a small test campaign to reach new prospects. Not only will this test campaign give you a better idea of what success you might have in a given country, but you can also apply your findings to your SEO strategy and optimize your site for organic search users.

Final Thoughts on Digital Marketing for Exporters

The fact is that most exporters don’t export to more than one country. So even if you are already conducting international business, digital marketing for exporters is a great option. You’ll be able to tap into newer markets for the first time. All it takes is the willingness to explore your options and leaning on expert consultants to properly use these tools.

Don’t Miss These Webinars On Export Marketing

ADVANCED TACTICS TO GENERATE FOREIGN SALES ONLINE

It is quite likely that trade shows, conferences, and foreign travel will continue to be disrupted for at least the next several months. This webinar is perfect for exporters who are already attracting interest from overseas and who want to build a successful digital marketing strategy. Brought to you by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission and Direct Online Marketing. Click here to watch the webinar.

HOW TO USE THE WEB TO GENERATE FOREIGN SALES

Whether you’re already selling overseas, or looking for your first export sale, digital marketing can help. Brought to you by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission and Direct Online Marketing, learn how you can leverage Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more to generate more exports. You’ll discover free tools, learn the basics of digital marketing, and find out how to measure your success. Click here to check it out.

Want to learn more about international SEO and general digital marketing for exporting? Check out any one of these helpful resources written by our team below:

• 27 International SEO Tips To Conquer The SERPs and Emerge Victoriously
• How Google Search Console Sets Your SEO Course With International Targeting
• Our General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance Checklist
• Australian AO Says SEO Horror Stories by Dodgy Practitioners Need Regulation

Get Digital Marketing Services For Export Businesses

Ready to grow your export business with expert website and digital marketing strategies? Contact Direct Online Marketing today to get a free website and digital marketing audit tailored to your global export needs!

Google IGAP Partnership

DOM is proud to be a Partner in Google’s International Growth Agency Program (IGAP). Google offers this exclusive, invitation-only program to just a fraction of its Premier Google Partners, specifically to those agencies most driven to help clients export.

Google selected DOM for its ability and track record of helping American organizations sell throughout the world via Google Ads, in addition to managing campaigns for international companies looking to sell outside their borders.

As an IGAP Partner, Google provides DOM with forecasts, tools, and support related to specific global markets and use cases such as lead generation and ecommerce.

If you’re looking to expand your business into new markets – or simply get more market share in the ones you already export to, contact DOM today to grow the international sales you deserve.

Note: This article was updated 12/17/2024 to reflect the new URL for the US Trade website, showcasing the US Commercial Service locations.

The post Export Marketing – A Guide To Growing Your Business Internationally appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Interviews conducted in March 2024 with executives of digital marketing agencies across Europe and the UK reveal a picture of cautious optimism for digital services going forward. 

Table of Contents

• Report Predicts Recovery in Digital Marketing Services
• Report Highlights How AI Disrupts Digital Services
• The DOM Difference Across Industries & Continents
• Industry Partnerships — Keys to Digital Marketing Success
• Put International Digital Marketing to Work for You

Report Predicts Recovery in Digital Marketing Services

A new report by M&A specialist JEGI CLARITY and growth strategy consulting firm CIL suggests that digital marketing services are projected to recover more quickly than other digital services in 2024.

DOM’s success this year lends credence to this report. We have entered into new European markets with programs to help these clients grow sales.  

In one case, we’re helping a logistics leader increase sales in their local region of countries with a shared language.  

In another example, we’re helping a manufacturer expand their sales in North America to capitalize on recent success in Canada.

Report Highlights How AI Disrupts Digital Services

The report also comments on how innovations in AI over the past two years are now being harnessed. It is anything but business as usual, as organizations integrate AI in various corners of their operations. 

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) remains front of mind among respondents as a key disruptive trend. Feedback on its likely impact is mixed, with many focusing on the potential for efficiencies, while uncertainty persists regarding whether these efficiencies will benefit agencies or just increase financial pressures from clients. 

Nevertheless, respondents recognise the potential for AI disruption, with 60% actively implementing AI into their workflows. Key applications include automated creative processes, A/B testing and targeting, data collection and analysis, as well as internal project management tools.” —Nex Media

The artificial intelligence, machine learning, and large language models behind chatbots and services like ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini can be put to many uses in digital marketing. 

By leveraging these tools, marketers can drastically cut down on time spent on manual tasks, allowing them to increase their output while simultaneously increasing time spent on strategy and higher impact thinking. 

We just share a note of caution that using AI output wholesale can be off putting to humans and Google alike. Many digital marketers have seen initial SEO gains go poof overnight.

At DOM, AI helps us provide a better level of service to our clients. Learn some of the ways we leverage AI in digital marketing.

The DOM Difference Across Industries & Continents

The report from JEGI CLARITY and CIL notes that 2024 looks to be a good year for the digital services industry in Europe after a relatively rough 2023. Great news for European companies!

At DOM, we’re well-versed in the European and broader global market. We’ve been helping European businesses from the United Kingdom to Türkiye and many points in between for over a decade.

It is in part for these efforts that the U.S. Commercial Service recently awarded us with the President’s “E” Award for exporting excellence.  

Industry Partnerships — Keys to Digital Marketing Success

When the economy is rocky, businesses become more hesitant to enter into long-term service agreements. It’s sensible. You don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket, nor even to put a few eggs in a basket that you must commit to for a year minimum. 

DOM stands out by offering month-to-month contracts. We don’t require the lengthy engagements that many in the industry treat as project minimums. 

This month-to-month commitment means that we must prove ourselves to our clients every 30 days. Clients are free to leave at any time. (However, most don’t. Our retention rate stands at over 85%, which exceeds benchmarks for the digital marketing industry.)    

DOM’s uncommon business model and partnerships allow us to weather economic instability. 

Put International Digital Marketing to Work for You

Are you reaching everyone who would benefit from your product or service? Have you reached a point of diminishing returns with your marketing efforts? Thinking of making a change?

Schedule a no-obligation digital marketing consultation with our strategists. We’ll review your website and your current marketing efforts to identify the obstacles and opportunities unique to your business. 

Google IGAP Partnership

DOM is proud to be a Partner in Google’s International Growth Agency Program (IGAP). Google offers this exclusive, invitation-only program to just a fraction of its Premier Google Partners, specifically to those agencies most driven to help clients export.  

Google selected DOM for its ability and track record of helping American organizations sell throughout the world via Google Ads, in addition to managing campaigns for international companies looking to sell outside their borders.

As an IGAP Partner, Google provides DOM with forecasts, tools, and support related to specific global markets and use cases such as lead generation and ecommerce.  

If you’re looking to expand your business into new markets – or simply get more market share in the ones you already export to, contact DOM today to grow the international sales you deserve.

The post Outlook for European Digital Marketing Services in 2024 appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Questions To Ask When Hiring A Digital Marketing Agency

With the infiltration of AI into all forms of digital marketing, this article has been updated for 2025 to include questions about AI and how a Digital Marketing Agency, like Direct Online Marketing, works with it to help keep a human in the loop so you do not get crushed by Google algorithm updates.

Digital marketing will only become more complex as the landscape changes along with consumer behavior. Thank you for checking out this list of essential questions to ask a digital marketing agency before you set out to hire one.

Businesses that hesitate to adopt modern digital strategies will eventually fail without bringing on the right people to carry them out. For companies that don’t have the resources to expand their internal teams or just need a partner with specific expertise, digital agencies are the perfect solution. Choosing the right agency is nothing short of a monumental task.

By the end of this resource, you should have the answers to the most critical questions to ask a digital marketing agency as you are going through the evaluation process of seeking a new one to help your business grow with confidence.

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Digital marketing is a vast field with countless strategies, concentrations, and nuances. Some of the largest companies on the planet have huge teams of marketers, all of which must be at the top of their game to stay ahead of the latest trends. As each discipline and digital platform evolves, keeping up with it all ends up being extremely taxing for smaller businesses that can’t maintain such large teams.

Acquiring new business online requires having seasoned talent with hands-on knowledge regarding the benefits and strengths of different platforms. Not only that, but these individuals also need to know how to execute. Strategy and consultation are meaningless without the people who can provide results.

Companies that wish to explore new territory or improve performance in a specific area of digital marketing will end up considering whether to hire fresh talent or partner with an online marketing agency. Evaluating the merits of in-house versus outsourced marketing is complicated; there are numerous factors to consider.

However, the fact that agencies leverage a pool of talented workers with diverse experiences means that companies who partner with them have the potential to get the highest return on their investment. Hiring specialists to work in-house usually equates to the cost of hiring an agency and very often even ends up being more expensive. Companies that partner with an agency can take advantage of a whole team of experts for less risk than hiring new internal employees.

How To Find The Best Digital Marketing Agency

Hiring an agency is far from easy, though.  Finding the right fit can be time-consuming and downright frustrating. The agency selection process can feel like an awful chore:

• Some agencies make grand promises on which they can’t
• Some agencies fail to provide substantive proof of how they get
• Some agencies only specialize in extremely niche areas.
• Some agencies have restrictive, long-term contracts.

The above highlight just a few of the challenges in choosing an agency. Ultimately, results are what matter. While there’s no way of telling for sure whether investing with a specific agency will generate a positive return, vetting an agency is extremely important.

Be sure to ask and receive answers to the following questions to ask a digital marketing agency as part of your vetting process.

20 Questions To Ask A Digital Marketing Agency Before You Hire Them

Digital Marketing Agency Question 1. Are My Expectations And Their Promises Realistic?

One of the biggest ways companies set themselves up for failure is when the bar is set beyond realistic heights. Having goals is good, but not when it involves going after the unachievable. When this happens, falling short of that high bar becomes inevitable.

This problem can go both ways. While a company may come to a prospective agency with impossible goals, many agencies make promises they simply can’t keep. It’s best to disqualify any company or agency that guarantees results.

Goals can more realistically be set for tasks pertaining to the quality of services, such as communication and reporting. Pay attention to these kinds of promises. Never be afraid to push to better understand how an agency intends to keep itself accountable with deliverables on a predetermined schedule.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 2. Does The Contract Restrict Me Even When I’m Not Satisfied?

The contract length is something to keep in mind when choosing an agency. A common practice in the agency world is to draft contracts where clients must agree to minimum commitments of anywhere from six months up to a full year. That means that no matter if the agency is doing the work, the client still has to pay. That’s not to say that an agency with a year-long contract doesn’t do good work, but it doesn’t offer a whole lot of flexibility for the client if a marketing campaign goes south.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 3. Do They Provide Unique Or Cookie-Cutter Strategies?

Agencies should have refined processes and procedures that empower them to provide repeatable outcomes. However, every business has unique needs, and formulating a strategy should not rely on a templated approach.

Assuming a company understands its goals, the right agency should be able to tailor a strategy in such a way to satisfy that client’s needs. In a perfect scenario, an agency would build all of its client strategies from the ground up, designing them individually to reach business goals and objectives.

When an agency puts forth a contract, understanding every aspect of it is crucial. Be aware of how long a contract will be and that longer ones are more restrictive. Some agencies offer month-to-month agreements where clients can choose to end the relationship for any reason.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 4. Are They Both Tactical And Strategic?

Strategic planning is meaningless without boots on the ground to get things done. Depending on goals and needs, a company likely doesn’t just need a strategic partner; they also need a tactical one.

The only way to get a  sense of whether an agency can execute is if they provide strategic timelines with deliverables and hard deadlines. While an agency won’t have specifics, make sure to ask about what the timeline will look like.

But the opposite must also be true. An agency that gets itself far too into the weeds, focusing only on tactics won’t get the job done either. The strategy ultimately dictates what tactics to use, and it is possible for an agency to be too tactical. Long-term campaign success requires always having an eye towards the future without getting too caught up in the day-to-day.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 5. How Regular Are Communications?

Marketing success hinges upon routine and free-flowing communication. A disadvantage of outsourcing to an agency is that communication takes longer and can be a bit more difficult.

At a bare minimum, the best agency will always offer recurring meetings and campaign updates, typically weekly. This frequency is a default best practice; clients may, of course, have specific preferences outside of this schedule. A good agency should be flexible enough to provide the amount of communication the client needs to demonstrate campaign health.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 6. Will I Get A Dedicated Point-Of-Contact?

No matter the size of an agency, the answer to this question should always be “yes.” Some agencies are so large that clients have to deal with customer service call centers rather than a dedicated account manager. It’s best to avoid agencies like this. Clients will end up feeling like just another number in a system.

Agencies need to provide that human touch, and an account manager should do exactly that. An account manager—as opposed to a more junior employee— ordinarily serves as the primary point-of-contact, as this person should have a comprehensive understanding of every aspect of the client’s campaign, coordinating with their team members accordingly. Account managers are there to serve. They should make themselves available to answer questions or provide insights with reasonable turnaround times.

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Digital Marketing Agency Question 7.  How Important Is Data To Them?

Every marketer should treat performance data like gold. Making decisions in today’s world without relying heavily on data is a mistake. While other factors should also be part of an agency’s decision making, campaigns live and die by data analysis.

Data should inform everything an agency does since it informs what’s going well, where to adjust, and where they need to go in the future.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 8.  How Tech-Savvy Are They?

An important consideration for selecting an agency is how they approach technology adaptation and innovation. Working in digital marketing requires knowledge of complex technology. Which is continually evolving. What may have generated results a decade ago may not be feasible in the present day.

For example, if you are seeking an agency that specializes in paid search, you should ask how they use automation tools and tactics to improve the overall return on investment.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 9.  Can They Help A Business Of My Size? 

Many businesses care about whether an agency has direct experience with helping other companies in their industry. While some industries have specific tactics and strategies that work best, a competent digital agency has experience assimilating data quickly and adjusting to almost any industry and business.

The more important question is whether an agency is the right fit for a business of your size. An agency with mostly enterprise-level clients likely isn’t the best fit for a medium-sized manufacturer. Inversely, an agency that only assists local restaurants likely won’t be a good fit for a corporate franchise business.

Figure out what factors you value most in an agency relationship and choose accordingly.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 10.  Who Will Be Working On My Account?

Because companies pay agencies for their pool of talent, decision-makers have a right to know who works on their account. In addition to having an account manager, many agencies also provide a dedicated secondary or “backup” point-of-contact who has extensive knowledge on the account.

Your primary point-of-contact should have the necessary experience and support from a second person with the experience to fill in knowledge gaps.  Keep in mind that while people leave from time to time,  there shouldn’t be frequent changes in your contact to ensure consistency and maintain a positive long-term relationship. Additionally, you should never get the feeling of a “bait and switch” when your senior contact shortly after switches over to a more green person.

Beyond that, try asking questions about how many team members will work on the account as well as their qualifications. Note that due to the management of workloads,  agencies may not be able to commit a specific person to your account until you commit to partnering with the agency.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 11. What About The Agency’s Corporate Culture?

The core values of an agency foretell the kind of relationship you will have. Generally, consider agencies that are collaborative, innovative, and proactive.  The best agencies really stand out when transparency and accountability are also baked into their corporate culture.

By asking questions about their corporate culture, this should also give some insight into an agency’s hiring process. Since the greatest benefit of partnering with an agency is its team, getting a measure of the agency’s talent is essential. Also, be sure to check out what employees say about working at the agency on sites like Glassdoor.

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Digital Marketing Agency Question 12. What Areas Do They Cover?

You need to understand the company’s needs and objectives. If the idea is to partner with someone to fill those gaps, focus on the areas that matter most. Some agencies specialize in one area or have a team that covers many. For example, a company may think they only need help with an SEO site migration, but fail to consider the need for ongoing SEO work.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 13. How Exactly Do They Generate Results?

Not every agency will have the same approach for a given marketing area. The best ones have carefully created their own process to account for every single step of the way, including potential bumps in the road.

Selecting an agency is also tough because oftentimes decision-makers don’t know enough about a subject to ask the right questions. Perhaps a company does great work with content marketing but doesn’t have detailed SEO experience. Agencies who provide insights into their processes will always be the best choice.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 14. Are They A Partner Or A Provider?

Companies should only seek agencies that act as an extension of their marketing team. An agency must deliver results, but they should also be proactive in improving the overall client relationship and the quality of their results.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 15. Are They Transparent?

In addition to regular communication,  choosing the right agency should also involve considering if they’re accountable and transparent. Results speak for themselves, and agencies need to be upfront at all times. A competent agency will know when to admit failure, and they will also know how to right the ship.

Companies hire agencies to get things done. A lack of clarity and honesty is a recipe for disaster.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 16. What Credentials Do They Have?

Certifications and accreditations are essential indicators of an agency’s quality. These credentials must be bestowed by a reputable third-party to vouch for the work of a given agency. Some credentials even have different tiers to consider. Let’s say a company wants an agency that knows Google Ads inside and out. Their best bet would likely be to go with one that’s a member of the Top 200 Premier Google Partner program, an elite group of the best digital agencies that specialize in Google Ads.

Learn more about our team, credentials, and qualifications here.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 17. Do They Have Case Studies Demonstrating Their Work?

Case studies communicate past success. They are summaries of challenges faced and solutions found. Reading over these pieces of content should grant a sense of the types of companies they help as well as what tactics generated such good results.

Steer clear of agencies that don’t have several compelling case studies to their name.

Check out a selection of our marketing campaign case studies here.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 18. Do They Have Testimonials?

Testimonials say an awful lot about an agency. In particular, client testimonials that use branding and a direct quote from an actual person are huge credibility signals. These clients are so confident in the results of the agency that they put their name on it.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 19. What Do Their Online Reviews Look Like?

Although similar to testimonials, online reviews are another significant credibility signal to examine. Testimonials usually require the agency to reach out to the client for a direct request, whereas clients can submit online reviews at their leisure.

Even if an agency has a high review score, be sure to read both positive and negative reviews to identify common threads across them. On top of the usual review aggregators like Google and Yelp, be sure also to check out agency-specific review platforms like Clutch.

One corollary of this item is the measurement of customer satisfaction.

Two industry standards for this measurement are Net Promoter Score (NPS) and SurveyMonkey’s global benchmark score. One thing to note about benchmarks is that they can vary widely among industries. For example, educational institutions tend to average an NPS of 71, while healthcare companies are lucky to get much higher than 27.  

NPS is calculated using a simple survey question: how satisfied are you with the service you received? More detailed surveys are also available, but all it takes to create a reliable baseline is that one question, answered on a scale of 1 to 10. It is a fast, simple way to gather customer data. According to Retently.com, Digital Marketing Agencies average an NPS of around 61. 

The other primary benchmark is calculated by surveys provided by SurveyMonkey, the leading provider of information-gathering services across many different business sectors. To calculate a SurveyMonkey Global Benchmark for each question, the company adds up individual scores to generate an average across all surveys. A digital marketing agency average at 44. 

Digital Marketing Agency Question 20. Do they use AI to generate content or optimizations?

In 2025, virtually all digital marketing agencies integrate AI tools into their content creation and optimization processes. AI assists with tasks such as generating drafts, analyzing data, and identifying trends to improve efficiency and performance. However, while AI provides immense value, it is crucial that agencies maintain a human in the loop to ensure content aligns with a brand’s voice, remains unique, and meets Google’s ever-evolving quality standards. Human editing plays a vital role in reviewing and refining AI-generated content to add authority, creativity, and personalization. This safeguards against penalties from search engine algorithms that prioritize originality and user relevance. When discussing AI use with a prospective agency, confirm that their approach involves both leveraging AI for efficiency and retaining human oversight to ensure top-tier, authoritative results.

Digital Marketing Agency Question 21. What About Pricing?

Companies should only seek agencies that act as an extension of their marketing team. An agency must deliver results, but they should also be proactive in improving the overall client relationship and the quality of their results.

21 Questions To Ask A Digital Marketing Agency: 4 Key Takeaways

Gathering as much information as possible about an agency will go a long way towards finding the best fit. Finding the right questions to ask a digital marketing agency may feel challenging; make no mistake. But in the end, any company can select a great agency provided that they always consider:

• The value of an agency is in its talent
• Regular communication is key
• Execution trumps good strategy
• Credibility is extremely important

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Looking For The Best Digital Marketing Agency?

Ready to learn more about Direct Online Marketing and how our digital marketing agency can help your company grow confidently online? Contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our digital marketing experts.
Take a moment to read why we are The Best Digital Marketing Agency For B2B Businesses.

Oh… and if you do contact us, feel free to pick from this list (or add to it) if you have any questions to ask a digital marketing agency.

The post 21 Essential Questions To Ask When Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency (Updated For 2025) appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Direct Online Marketing – The Lead B2B Digital Marketing Agency

Have you noticed how hard it is to get any actual human eyes on your B2B website? Have you tried writing blogs, building content, and paid for traffic only to see minimal – if any – success? Trust me, I know, it is is hard right now for B2b marketing. But, it doesn’t have to be…

At Direct Online Marketing (DOM), we pride ourselves on delivering exceptional digital marketing solutions that are custom-created specifically for B2B businesses. Our expertise, comprehensive services, and commitment to transparency have established us as the best digital marketing agency for B2B businesses, aiming to enhance their online presence and drive growth.

Our Expertise in B2B Marketing

Understanding the unique dynamics of B2B marketing is our approach’s core. We recognize the importance of targeting decision-makers, fostering long-term relationships, and generating high-quality leads. Our team is dedicated to developing strategies that address these specific needs. We make sure that our B2B clients achieve their business objectives.

Our Digital Marketing Services

We offer a wide range of services designed to cover all aspects of digital marketing:

Search Engine Optimization Services (SEO): Enhancing organic visibility and improving rankings for relevant keywords to attract qualified traffic.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising Services: Creating and managing targeted campaigns on platforms like Google Ads and LinkedIn to reach key decision-makers effectively.

Social Media Marketing Services: Developing tailored campaigns on platforms such as LinkedIn, where B2B engagement is most impactful.

Analytics and Reporting Services: Providing clear insights into campaign performance, making informed and logical decisions, and also offering full transparency.

“In the B2B sector, digital marketing is essential for connecting with decision-makers and fostering long-term relationships. By implementing targeted strategies, B2B companies can enhance their online presence, generate high-quality leads, and drive sustainable growth.” – Billy Wright, Lead Digital Marketing Strategist at Direct Online Marketing

Just Some Of the Industries We Serve

Our experience spans a diverse range of industries, allowing us to bring specialized knowledge to each project:

Digital Marketing For Healthcare: Implementing digital strategies that comply with industry regulations while effectively reaching healthcare professionals and organizations. Want to know more? Read this article about Why Direct Online Marketing is the Best Digital Marketing Agency for the Healthcare Industry.

Digital Marketing For Higher Education: Crafting campaigns that engage prospective students and academic professionals, helping to boost enrollment and engagement.

Digital Marketing For Ecommerce: Driving online sales through optimized digital marketing strategies custom made for the ecommerce sector.

Digital Marketing For SaaS & Technology Businesses: Promoting software solutions and technological innovations to targeted business audiences so B2B businesses grow leads.

Digital Marketing For Manufacturing Businesses: Connecting manufacturers with potential B2B clients through strategic online marketing efforts.

Digital Marketing For International Market Entry: Assisting businesses in entering and expanding within international markets through localized digital strategies.

Our diverse industry experience enables us to understand the unique challenges and opportunities within each sector, allowing us to create custom-made strategies that drive success.

Our Proven Track Record

Our success stories and reviews highlight why Direct Online Marketing is trusted by businesses across industries. We pride ourselves on delivering fantastic and realistic results that drive actual growth and ROI for our clients.

Google Partner Accreditation: As a proud Google Premier Partner, Direct Online Marketing meets the highest standards set by Google for campaign performance, client care, and account management. Learn more about our accreditation here.

Clutch Reviews: We, Direct Online Marketing, consistently receive high ratings on Clutch, a leading B2B ratings platform, for our exceptional service and results. Read our reviews and highlights on Clutch here.

G2 Reviews: Businesses have rated Direct Online Marketing highly on G2, praising our expertise and dedication to driving results. See what others are saying about us on G2 here.

Inc. Recognition: We here at Direct Online Marketing have been featured on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies, a testament to our commitment to excellence and innovation. Learn more about our profile on Inc. here.

These awards and reviews show our dedication to transparency, tracked success, and client satisfaction. They also show why businesses trust us to deliver as the best digital marketing agency for B2B businesses.

Commitment to Transparency

We believe in maintaining open communication with our clients. Our analytics reporting and regular updates allow clients to monitor progress and understand the impact of our efforts, fostering trust and collaboration.

Customized Digital Marketing Strategies

We take the time to understand each client’s unique goals, industry nuances, and target audience. This personalized approach ensures that our strategies are aligned with your business objectives, delivering results that matter.

Focus on Lead Generation

Generating high-quality leads is crucial for B2B success. Our integrated approach combines SEO, PPC, and social media marketing to create campaigns that drive qualified traffic and convert leads into long-term clients.

Industry Recognition

Our dedication to excellence has earned us recognition as a Premier Google Partner and a Facebook Marketing Partner, reflecting our commitment to staying at the forefront of digital marketing trends.

Your Digital Marketing Agency Partner for B2B Growth

At Direct Online Marketing, we are dedicated to empowering B2B businesses to thrive in competitive markets. Our expertise, tailored strategies, and transparent approach make us the best digital marketing agency for B2B businesses looking to grow and succeed.

The Best B2B Marketing Agency For Pittsburgh And Beyond

At Direct Online Marketing, we take pride in being the best digital marketing agency in Pittsburgh. Our team is dedicated to delivering measurable results through customized strategies that align with your business goals. Whether it’s SEO, PPC, or social media advertising, Direct Online Marketing focuses on driving ROI and creating sustainable growth for your brand. Transparency and innovation are at the core of everything we do, and we constantly stay ahead of industry trends to ensure our clients succeed in the ever-changing digital space. At Direct Online Marketing, we aim to provide exceptional service and results that speak for themselves.

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Local SEO is a potent way to drive people to your physical business location. It also helps ensure that your business appears real, legitimate, and authoritative within the Google search results of nearby potential customers.

Consider these 5 things when optimizing your website for Local SEO in 2022:

Local SEO Thing #1: Optimize For Voice Search

No one thinks that customers always and only search for things with their voice (although 41% of users now search using their voice once per day). However, we strongly suspect that the way your customers search for your product or services is closer to the way they speak; people tend to search with natural language (phrases or meaningful sentence fragments) more so than with the keyword-only searches typical in the past.

When someone is out on the town and feeling hungry for pizza, they do not typically Google “Pizza.”

Instead, they will look for ‘Pizza Near Me’ or ‘Best Pizza In [CITY NAME].’

Optimizing your site and content for the way people actually look for things online will help you rank better for these localized searches. It will also futureproof your site for the continual growth of voice assistants.

For more talk on voice search, check out How to Optimize for Voice Search.

Local SEO Thing #2: Be Consistently Consistent

The little details matter when it comes to Local SEO. Presenting your business information consistently—especially the physical address—is crucial because Google assesses your legitimacy through such consistency.

It may sound like nitpicking, but if your business is located at 123 North Christmas Ave, then you should always refer to it as such—and never 123 N. Christmas Ave. Be consistent with your location information because it helps reduce issues with local listings, and it shows the bots you care about your local business data.

Local SEO Thing #3: Actually, this is Hyperlocal SEO

You don’t just live in your city, you live in a neighborhood. So do your customers.

When optimizing your content for hyperlocal SEO, make sure you include the neighborhood you are located in and also the locations your customers may live, work, or shop in. This helps drive local searches including those specific keywords, as the algorithms will understand the local nature of your content and deliver it to local searchers.

If you have a business in Bushwick, Brooklyn, your business is located THERE—not just the more general New York City. Optimizing for all three—Bushwick, Brooklyn, and New York City—will net you the best possible ranking potential.

Thing #4: Own Your Listing

Your Google Business Profile listing is one of the most important tools in driving local traffic online. Make full use of it.

If you haven’t already claimed your listing, do so. If you have, then optimize! Here are five easy to complete areas you can use to improve your Google Business Profile listing.

1. Flesh out your business description to include language that will drive a user to want to engage with your business.
2. Showcase your products directly within your listing.
3. Add photos. Photos help boost engagement on your local listings.
4. Use the Posts functionality of Google Business Profile; it’s like a micro-blog for your local listing page that gives information to users directly within the search results and allows you to promote sales and products to local searchers.
5. When it comes to your Primary Category within GMB make sure you choose wisely. If you are a pizza place, make sure you choose the category Pizza Restaurant and not just Restaurant. This attention to detail is necessary for Google to understand when to show your business over another location.

The more you put care into your business information online, the better it will likely perform in search.

Thing #5: Show Authority

It’s not enough just to rank locally. If potential customers have doubts that you are a reputable business, they are not likely to spend their money on your goods or services. To satisfy the need for credibility, you need a local review strategy.

Encourage your customers to leave 5-star reviews when they are satisfied with your business. Whether this is via a card you hand out to a customer or through a follow-up email, reviews are a major factor in convincing a local customer to make a purchase. They will have a big impact on your local performance.

Once you have reviews, show them off. Use plugins to feature the reviews on your website, and share every good review you get on social media. Respond to the reviews you get from customers on Google and Facebook. It is this attention to detail and care that may sway another customer to your side. And it shows local searchers that you are to be trusted.

When it comes to local SEO, no one of these tactics alone will bring your business success within the search engines; rather, a finely optimized and cultivated combination of the 5 areas above can help drive traffic with higher buyer intent.

At DOM, we’re local SEO wizards and more than ready to get you optimized for local traffic. Feel free to reach out today and let’s put together a plan that works for your SEO needs.

The post How to Do Local SEO in 2024 appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Table of Contents

• User Experience in Digital Marketing
• Conversion Rate Optimization in Digital Marketing
• UX & CRO Work Together in Digital Marketing
• Core Elements of User Experience
• The Value of User Experience in Digital Marketing
• UX Best Practices for Digital Marketing
• Central Concepts of Conversion Rate Optimization
• Key Performance Indicators of CRO in Digital Marketing
• CRO Tactics in Digital Marketing
• The Intersection of UX and CRO in Digital Marketing
• Incorporating UX Principles into CRO Strategies Is Crucial for Digital Marketing Success
• Experience the DOM Difference
• Key Takeaways About UX and CRO for Digital Marketing

User Experience in Digital Marketing

User experience (UX) refers to the feeling someone has while interacting with something. In the world of digital marketing, we attend to the experience that users have on websites. Websites are where businesses display their wares online. A smooth, intuitive user experience is key to making your site an enjoyable place to be. There is an entire discipline of user experience design that focuses on the layout, navigability, usability, and accessibility of websites so as to create a pleasant experience.

Conversion Rate Optimization in Digital Marketing

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a core concept in website design that overlaps with and complements user experience. Changing the text, colors, buttons, or navigation scheme of a website are all changes that might be made in trying to get people to take a specific action, to convert. Conversion rate optimization is the practice of studying user behavior and then adjusting elements of a website to influence that behavior.

UX & CRO Work Together in Digital Marketing

UX and CRO intersect in their shared goal of enhancing user interactions to achieve business objectives. Good UX design provides an intuitive and pleasant website experience, which keeps people engaged. CRO builds on this foundation by analyzing user behavior to identify and implement changes that encourage users to take specific actions. When UX design is informed by CRO insights, the result is a user-friendly website that also effectively drives conversions. When UX and CRO form a productive, symbiotic relationship, customer satisfaction improves and so does the return on investment for marketing efforts, leading to sustainable online success.

Core Elements of User Experience

As we’ve been saying, UX is shorthand for the overall impression that a person has when interacting with a website. There are numerous elements that influence how people feel about and interact with a online interface:

Navigability — This element of user experience encompasses how fluidly people can find their way around a website. Can people quickly find the information they seek or take the action they desire? If so, then the website is very navigable.

Accessibility — Setting up a website so that any user, even those who are differently abled, can interact with the site is a principle of good accessibility. This means including alt text for images that can be interpreted by a screen reader and read aloud to someone who is vision-impaired, for instance.

Design — The aesthetic appeal of a website is discussed under the umbrella of design. Typography, color palette, visual hierarchy—these are design considerations that can cement brand identity while also contributing to an enjoyable user experience.

The Value of User Experience in Digital Marketing

Creating a good user experience is often essential to achieving business goals.

People who have a pleasant, smooth experience on your website are more likely to impute those same feelings to your product or service. Opportunities to provide customer satisfaction present themselves long before someone actually has your product in their hands. The initial landing page by which a user enters your site is your first chance to make a strong impression. Make it a good impression, an impression informed by quality user experience design.

Customer retention flows directly from customer satisfaction. Creating a website that people like to visit will help with first-time sales, and further that positive user experience can foster loyalty to your brand. Repeat customers often generate substantially higher customer lifetime value than one-time customers, so pay attention to what keeps people coming back to your site time after time.

An intelligently designed, user-friendly site tends to keep visitors engaged, which typically leads to reduced bounce rates. On a website with poor user experience design, people enter a page and can’t find what they’re looking for, so they bounce. They leave the site and move on to the next. A reduction in your sites’ bounce rate is a good indicator that you’ve improved the user experience on your site. Plus, lower bounce rates are often correlated with higher conversion rates.

When your business isn’t the only player in the market, a superior user experience can be the competitive advantage that sets you apart. Suppose you have to click through four levels of menus to even find the children’s shoes on a website, and then it’s another two sub-menus down before you find the section for soccer cleats (which Alex needs for Sunday’s game). While on a competitor’s site, the same cleats (at same price) are navigated to in two clicks. It’s clear that a poor user experience may put off a customer from returning to your site in the future.

UX Best Practices for Digital Marketing

Here are actionable insights to improve the potency of your digital marketing through quality user experience design:

• Clear Navigation: A site with clear, logical navigation helps users find information quickly and easily. Use well-labeled menus and a consistent structure.
• Responsive Design: Build your website with a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes and orientations. Then test your site on a variety of devices, like smartphones (both Android and iOS) and tablets, to check whether everything looks okay across the many screen sizes and device configurations.
• Fast Load Times: Speed is crucial. Users expect pages to load quickly. Optimize images (by reducing them to less than 100kB), leverage browser caching, and use a content delivery network to improve load times. Read more about how to improve website performance with faster loading times for a better user experience.
• Intuitive Forms: Simplify forms by minimizing the number of fields and providing clear instructions. Use inline validation to help users correct errors in real-time. You want to minimize friction as much as possible at this crucial stage. You’ve compelled a user to consider giving you their information—don’t let poor UX foil a potential sale.
• Consistent Visual Design: Maintain consistency in fonts, colors, and button styles throughout your site. This consistency helps users understand and predict how to interact with your site.
• Feedback Mechanisms: Provide feedback to users once they’ve taken an action, such as when they’ve submitted a form or clicked a button. This can be in the form of confirmation messages, loading indicators, or error notifications. Small touches like these can help people understand what’s going on and feel like the website is catering to their needs.

Central Concepts of Conversion Rate Optimization

CRO is about getting people to convert, to do something you’d like them to do. It encompasses activities like studying user behavior on a website, surfacing actionable insights, and implementing changes to try to influence what action people take (or don’t take) on the site. For example, CRO is often conducted to get more sales, newsletter signups, or form fills. In digital marketing, the goal is to nudge users—through compelling text, outstanding colors, fluid navigation, etc—to do more than simply browse a website, but to take an action of significant business value.

See how we helped drive a 107% conversion rate increase for a machinery component reseller.

Key Performance Indicators of CRO in Digital Marketing

As you begin to make changes to your website’s user experience in an attempt to improve your sites’ conversion rate, it’s important to track your efforts. Here are KPIs that digital marketers use to quantify the efficacy of CRO efforts.

Let’s start with bounce rate. When a user enters a site, doesn’t navigate to any other page, and then leaves, he is said (in CRO parlance) to have “bounced.” That is, the user went to the site, but bounced off without digging in beyond that initial page. This kind of behavior is often a sign that your website is not good at driving user action. Bounce rate is usually calculated by taking the number of bounces (sessions where the user visited only 1 page) and dividing it by the total number of sessions during a given period. So if your website registered 8 sessions on Thursday and 3 of those sessions were bounces, then Thursday’s bounce rate would be 37.5% ([3/8=0.375]x100=37.5%).

Average session duration is a metric about the amount of time that a person spends on your website. Generally a longer session duration suggests that users are finding value in your content. They are perusing your website for many minutes, rather than just scanning a page for a few seconds and leaving (bouncing). If you find that your average session duration is less than a minute, it may be time to invest in building out your products and services page with robust copy. Craft compelling descriptions of why customers should choose you over the competition.

Alongside how long people spend on a website, how many pages they visit is another metric that digital marketers monitor: pages per session. A high number of pages per session can indicate a site that is intuitively structured and entices people to explore.

It is also useful to know what pages are those from which users leave the site. A page with a high exit rate means that a particular page is the last page that people view before navigating away from the site. Pages with a high exit rate present opportunities for optimization. Such pages can probably benefit from internal linking (which provides related content for people to read) or a clearer call to action (like an invitation to subscribe to a newsletter).

Click-through rate (CTR) is a measure of what percentage of visitors to a page click a link on said paid, thus clicking-through to other content. A strong CTR signals that the page drives people to read more content or take action.

The time has now come for the bottom-line metric of CRO, which is conversion rate itself. Bounce rate, average session duration, pages per session, exit rate, and CTR are all micro indicators of the macro metric that matters most. Digital marketers pay close attention to all of these stats, and make changes to try to improve them, but at the end of the day getting more conversions is what matters. Conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of visitors to a site or page.

A cybersecurity company came to us wanting to drive more free trial registrations. See how we helped drive a 2,800% increase in registrations.

CRO Tactics in Digital Marketing

Consider the following actionable tactics that you can try in order to improve the CRO of your website.

Call to Action (CTA)
Be explicit about the action you want people to take. Make it clear how they can take that action. For instance, create a button that says, “Get My Free Proposal.” This lets people know exactly what they will get (the free proposal) and how to get it (by clicking). Phrasing CTAs from the perspective of the user can be effective, so you can also try statements like, “I’d Like an Obligation-Free Consultation.” Using “My” or “I” subtly draws the reader into understanding that they have the power to take action.

Streamlined Checkout Process
Make checking out as simple as you can. That means eliminating any step that isn’t absolutely necessary to the transaction. Think about it—would you rather answer a dozen questions across several checkout pages, or enter a few essential pieces of info on a single page to complete your order. If your checkout process is long and meandering, people are likely dropping off along the way. That’s revenue you’re losing out on due to poor CRO, not due to the quality of your offering.

Trust Signals
Add signs of your experience and integrity in the industry. These elements are peripheral to your direct marketing efforts, yet they often have a tremendous effect on CRO. Make sure your website includes testimonials from satisfied clients, reviews from customers, or any rankings you’ve achieved in business publications. Star-ratings are a good visual. Google, for instance, provides their customer reviews in the form of a star-rating and any message that the customer cares to provide. You should also consider linking to review platforms like G2 where prospective customers can review other people’s experiences with your business.

Personalization
Adjust the user experience to appeal to a particular visitor’s behavior on your site. Provide personalized recommendations, dynamic content, and customized offers based on what pages they’ve visited and what actions they’ve taken on your site.

Mobile Optimization
Ensure that your website is built with responsive design. More and more people go online from their phone rather than sitting down in front of a computer. So it’s important that your site is set up to look good and load quickly on mobile devices.

Retargeting Campaigns
Re-engage with people who have shown some interest in your site. Retargeting refers to advertising efforts that reach people with specific messaging or offers based on how they have interacted with your business in the past. One common way that companies retarget is to send ads to people who have abandoned a shopping cart. Try offering a 5% discount for them to complete their order within a week. Or show them items that people also buy based off of what’s been left in the cart. You can also retarget people based on certain pages of your site that they’ve visited, like sending more information about your baseball gloves when they’ve visited that section of your sporting goods site. Retargeting gives advertisers the opportunity to present targeted messaging to engaged visitors.

Ask for User Feedback
Provide ways for users to tell you what they think about using your site. This is sometimes done with a survey that is presented to visitors after they complete a CTA or as they are attempting to navigate away from your site. You may not often get responses, but the insight you do get from vocal visitors can be invaluable. You truly get an outsider’s perspective, which can reveal rough points in the user experience that are harming conversion rates. Chatbots are becoming more and more popular to collect user feedback, too.

A/B Testing
Run tests to compare the impact of changes you make to your website. A/B testing is an overarching idea that pervades all elements of CRO. When you try any of the actionable tactics here to improve your CRO, you need to compare performance between pages or between time periods to quantify their impact. With this kind of A/B testing, you can begin to surface insights into customer behavior. For example, do more people click on a button that says “Get Our CRO Guide” or “Show me how to drive people to take action”? Do people respond to images? Does a larger font size get more people to convert? Offering a deal for just a limited time might drive more engagement than an open-ended one. Testing opportunities abound in CRO.

There are many ways to optimize your website for conversion rate. We’ve presented the major CRO tactics that have helped our clients succeed at Direct Online Marketing. It all comes down to reducing friction. How can you make the customer experience as smooth and intuitive as possible? You want to seamlessly guide visitors to take the action you want—whether that’s providing their email in exchange for a whitepaper or providing their dollars in exchange for your products and services.

The Intersection of UX and CRO in Digital Marketing

UX and CRO are closely linked, both working to enhance the user journey and prompt specific actions. UX aims to create an intuitive, enjoyable experience for users, while CRO focuses on turning that positive experience into measurable actions.

When a site is user-friendly, visitors can easily find what they need, reducing friction and frustration. This seamless experience sets the stage for CRO to fine-tune elements like CTAs, form designs, and product descriptions—all contributing to driving higher conversion rates.

Incorporating UX Principles into CRO Strategies Is Crucial for Digital Marketing Success

Designing a site with user-friendly principles boosts satisfaction, making users more likely to convert. Satisfied users are more engaged and tend to trust the brand more. The synergy between UX and CRO enhances user satisfaction.

Reduced friction is a major priority in digital marketing. Improvements in UX, such as intuitive navigation and fast load times, remove barriers that might hinder conversions. Less friction means a smoother path to completing desired actions and therefore better conversion rates.

Good UX builds trust by presenting a professional and reliable online presence. Trust signals, like clear privacy policies and customer testimonials, make users more comfortable converting. So demonstrating trust and credibility can go a long way toward improving CRO.

Combining UX research with CRO analytics provides a deep understanding of user behavior. This comprehensive view allows for more precise optimizations that address both usability and conversion challenges. Monitoring the effects of various changes you make to your site is your path to surfacing data-driven insights. This is what A/B testing is all about: incrementally revealing improvements that bring compounding benefits to your conversion rates.

Sustainable growth is a valuable result of investing in your site’s UX and CRO. Focusing on how people behave on your site ensures that optimizations are user-centric and sustainable, rather than short-term fixes. This approach leads to long-term growth and higher retention rates.

By integrating these principles, businesses can create a seamless and effective user journey that not only delights visitors but also drives conversions, ensuring sustained success.

Experience the DOM Difference

Pretend you’ve never heard of your business. Now go to your website. Is it clear both what you do and what action you’d like a visitor to take from just a moment’s glance at your homepage?

The user experience and conversion rate optimization experts at Direct Online Marketing can help. Our digital marketing agency has learned from thousands of websites. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Drop us a line if you’d like a free consultation of UX and CRO opportunities on your site.

Key Takeaways About UX and CRO for Digital Marketing

• User experience in digital marketing focuses on creating an intuitive, enjoyable interaction for users on websites, improving satisfaction and retention.
• Conversion rate optimization aims to influence user behavior by adjusting website elements like text, colors, and navigation to drive specific actions.
• UX and CRO intersect by enhancing user interactions to achieve business objectives, with good UX design providing a foundation for CRO strategies.
• Integrating UX principles into CRO strategies increases user satisfaction, reduces friction, builds trust, and provides data-driven insights for precise optimizations.
• A symbiotic relationship between UX and CRO leads to improved customer satisfaction, higher conversion rates, and sustainable online success.

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