👋 Hey, it’s the Ercule newsletter!
We take algorithms, analytics, and spreadsheets off your plate so you can focus on storytelling, branding, figuring out whether things are candy or not, absolutely anything else.
In this issue:
- Paid search strategy for small teams
- Branded traffic reimagined
- More dots to click in Google Search
- Cacto, CRUD, and Rick Astley
🍲 Paid search from scratch
We write this blog for content people. But some of you – especially if you’re at a smaller company – may end up contributing to paid campaigns, too.
And so Vincent Barr, the mastermind behind Operator, stopped by Ercule office hours to talk about the relationship between paid and organic search.
He provided us with tips for small startups who feel ready to try a paid search campaign.
🏄 What you can do
First off: Pick one platform to start.
When choosing it, make sure of a few factors:
- The initial costs aren’t too high – aim to start with a few thousand dollars a month
- You can actually find your audience
- There isn’t too much expertise required to manage a campaign there
Once you choose the platforms you want for search, begin educating yourself. Google and Facebook, for example, have really substantial documentation.
💝 Make friends with branded traffic
Branded traffic can feel like the enemy sometimes.(Speaking from experience here.)
After all, content marketers are trying to boost non-branded traffic – traffic from people who don’t know about us already.
But branded traffic is great! It speaks to your brand’s offline activities. If someone searches your name, they’ve already heard about you elsewhere: news, word of mouth, social platforms and the like.
Plus, it directs people to your homepage or product pages. And this can be an opportunity for content marketers.
🏄 What you can do
The next time you’re pulling the usual data, spend a little longer with the branded search numbers.
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Identify the pages that branded visitors are landing on. You can optimize them for content and lead capture forms.
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If branded traffic is on the upswing, go congratulate your peers in the PR and social media departments. They’re the ones making this happen!
These are both opportunities to place better content, and get yourself in on more marketing conversations.
You belong in more conversations!
🧸 A more cuddly search education
Up until now, the little “About This Result” link on Google Search has given quick insights into any page that appears in search results, gauging things like:
- Basic context (via Wikipedia snippet)
- Security
- Whether a listing is organic or paid
It provides a little more context and assurance (or warning) before you click on a link.
But Google’s adding more. New, updated “About This Result” links are providing more and more insights into why Google selected a given link, including factors such as:
- Keywords
- Related terms
- Backlink strength
- Local relevance
Try searching Google for terms you care about, and see what About This Result says about the people who are ranking at the top. (Hopefully that’s you!)
🐝 Praise, rot, and fake tech
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🕵️ About Ercule
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