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What’s the second largest search engine on earth? Nope. It’s not YouTube. It’s Google Images.

As the online world becomes increasingly competitive, businesses need to be findable by their target audiences. One of the best ways to ensure your business is visible online is through visual search, a type of search engine that allows users to perform an image search instead of using keywords.

That means if someone is looking for a product or service that you offer, they can simply enter an image into a Google search, and your business will come up as a result.

There are many benefits to using visual search for your business. For one, it helps increase your visibility online and makes it easier for potential customers to find you. In addition, it can also help improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO).

One of the best ways to ensure your business’s visual content is visible online is to make sure you use high-quality images. That means that your images should be clear, sharp, and free of any distracting elements. You can use the Google camera icon to take high-quality photos of your products or services, or use a professional photographer. Then you’ll want to store your camera images in Google Photos.

My Google Photos is a cloud-based storage service offering users unlimited storage for their photos and videos. In addition to providing a convenient place to store and share images, Google Photos can also help you boost your business’s visual search ranking. When you upload photos to Google Photos, you can include keywords and descriptions that will help Google index your images and make them more visible in image search results.

Another great way to improve your company’s visual search visibility is to use social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow users to share images, which can help increase your reach and expose your brand to new audiences.

Finally, you can also use paid advertising to improve your visual search visibility. Google Ads allows you to place ads on Google Images and can be targeted to specific keywords and search queries. While cost is associated with this approach, it can be an effective way to reach potential customers who actively search by image for the products or services that you offer.

As you can see, you can improve your business’s visual search visibility in several ways. Taking time to optimize your images and use social media and paid advertising ensures your business is seen by more potential customers online.

Visual Search: The Origins

We can trace the origins of visual search back to 1967 when Sperling conducted his famous [partial report experiment](https://psych.hanover.edu/javatest/cle/Cognition_js/exp/partialReport.html#:~:text=Partial report is an experimental, single glance%2C if you will.). In this study, participants were presented with an array of 12 letters arranged in a 3×4 grid. After the letters disappeared, participants heard a tone that indicated whether they should report the content. The content included either the entire array (the target), the left-most half (the probe), or the right-most half (the distractor).

When asked to report the target, participants could correctly recall an average of about nine out of 12 letters. However, when asked to report the probe or distractor, they could only correctly remember an average of about four out of six letters. These results suggested that the left-most and right-most halves of the array were encoded in separate memory stores.

The finding that separate memory stores encode the left-most and right-most halves of an array has important implications for our understanding of attention. For instance, it suggests when we are looking for something in a cluttered environment, we may need to search both the left and right sides of our visual field to find it.

Additionally, this finding provides insight into why it can be so difficult to remember where we put something down when distracted. If the item was on the right side of the room, we may only recall it if we search the right side of the room and vice versa.

When searching for items in a search display, research goes far back to the late 1970s, when Anne Treisman and colleagues first proposed the features integration theory. This theory suggests that when we first see an object, we process its features (e.g., color, shape) separately. Then we integrate these features into a single perception of it.

For example, if you were looking for your friend in a crowd, you might first look for someone who is roughly the same height, then you might look for someone with the same hair color. You might recognize your friend by their unique combination of the two.

Over the years, many studies have supported the features integration theory. However, one key finding emerging is that it can be hard to find an object when its features are not clearly defined, or it’s not within our field of view.

Do you run a residential home services business? Do you need help focusing on the features of your product or service? Do you want to gain the attention of your customers? Then you need to book a call with Wizard of Ads® today!

Parallel Searches

When we search for an object, we often conduct what is known as a parallel search. That means we look at many different ones simultaneously and compare them to the target. Studies have shown that when we conduct a parallel search, our eyes tend to dart back and forth between objects rather than fixate on one for an extended period.

Serial Searches

If you were looking for a specific type of object, such as a bright blue plunger, you would likely use a serial search. In this case, you would scan the environment from left to right (or vice versa), looking at each object carefully until you found matching profile pics of your target.

Studies have shown that when we conduct a serial search, our eyes tend to fixate on each object for an extended time without moving to others. It’s likely because we are trying to carefully examine each object to see if it meets our search criteria.

However, serial searches can be very time-consuming, especially if there are many objects in the environment. For this reason, we often use parallel searches when looking for something in our everyday lives.

The Users

You can segment visual search users differently, but some common ways are by industry, business type, and use case.

Some industries that use visual search include:

• Retail: To better serve customers, eCommerce retailers can use image recognition. For example, shoppers on Amazon can take a photo of an item they want, and Amazon will show similar products.
• Travel and hospitality: hotels and airlines can use it to allow customers to find specific types of rooms, environments, or flights.
• Marketing and advertising: companies can use it to show targeted ads to potential customers. For example, if someone searches for an air conditioner on Google, they may see ads for air conditioners from different suppliers.
• HVAC: Homeowners use it to find HVAC specific parts, products, and how-to repairs.

Companies can use visual search in many different ways to better serve their customers and businesses. Some of the most common uses include retail, travel and hospitality, marketing and advertising, education, manufacturing, and health care. With so many different applications, it is clear that it’s a powerful tool to use in several industries.

AI at Work

As businesses strive to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of technology, many are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help them stay ahead of the curve. You can use AI in many ways, from chatbots that provide customer support to predictive analytics that help businesses make better decisions. One area where AI has major impact and power, quite literally, is in the realm of visual search.

This technology relies on machine learning, a type of AI that can adapt and improve over time. It enables visual search engines to understand the content of an image and its context.

Visual Search vs. Image Search

As mentioned above, visual search is a type of image search that relies on machine learning to understand the content of an image and its context. This understanding allows visual search engines to provide relevant results when users search for an image.

Image search, on the other hand, simply returns pictures that match the keywords used in the search. Image search results are often less relevant than visual search results because they don’t consider the image’s context.

Visual Search in Marketing

Visual search transforms the world of marketing. Going from a text-based search engine like Google to a different visual search engine like Pinterest is a game-changer.

Marketers can now target their audience based on the images they share and the content they are interested in. This type of targeting was not possible with image search because it didn’t consider the context of an image.

For example, let’s say you’re a plumber and want to target customers searching for leaky faucets. You could create an ad that appears when people search for images of faucets.

This ad would be much more relevant to the searcher than a traditional text ad, and it would be prime for turning into a click.

With visual search, you can take a picture of the item and search for similar products. It’s much more effective than traditional image search, which would simply return images of the same product.

There are several visual search engines for marketers, such as Google Lens and Pinterest.

Google Lens

Google Lens is a visual search engine built into the Google app. Use it to identify objects, landmarks, and other items in picture format. This search engine improves visual search by allowing users to search for related images and products.

You can use Google Lens to find similar products by taking a picture of the item and then searching for similar images. It’s also much more effective than traditional image search.

Google Lens also improves ads and product pages by allowing users to see related items and products. This search engine is still in its early stages but has great potential for marketing purposes.

Pinterest

Pinterest is another visual search engine to use for product discovery. It allows users to take pictures of items and search for similar products. Pinterest also offers a Shop the Look feature, allowing users to buy products featured in Pins.

To use Pinterest for visual search, you can download the app and take a picture of the item you’re interested in. You can then use the Pinterest search bar to find similar products.

If you’re a retailer, you can create Pins that feature your products, too. Users can share these Pins, which can help increase your reach and brand awareness.

For example, if you’re a landscaping business, you could create a Pin that features one of your landscaping projects. Users could share this Pin, which would help increase your reach and brand awareness.

Marketing with Visual Search – Work Smarter, Not Harder

Visual search makes marketing smarter. With marketing, we are always trying to find new ways of showing our product or service in the best light and to the right people. But with visual search, you can do both those things more efficiently.

Visual search also means you can work smarter, not harder. It improves the SEO process, helping you target the right customers effortlessly. It also improves advertisements because you can target ads more specifically to what a customer is searching for.

In other words, visual search makes marketing easier and more effective. And that’s why you should be using it in your business.

Wizard of Ads® is in tune with visual search. We can help you get started with it and show you how to search an image. We are happy to teach you how to use visual search effectively in your business. Book a call to learn more!

There’s no better way to describe the relationship between Google’s algorithm and modern SEO other than, “two peas in a pod.” It’s Google’s algorithm that controls the behavior of search engines and influences search engine optimization (SEO) practices. On the other hand, SEO is a marketer’s best hope to ensnare Google’s complex system in hopes of ranking in searches, both paid and unpaid. Like Tom and Jerry on a wild chase, the Google algorithm and SEO are inseparable. As a business owner who yearns to rank up in search engine results pages or SERPs — SEO service is your best bet. Your SEO strategy is destined to fail, however, if you don’t align your game plan to Google’s robust search criteria. Countless online resources aim to lend some clarity to this topic, but rather than something concrete, most available information is speculation and conjecture. In this article, we’ll dissect Google’s search algorithm, disect how it works, and how to align your content for optimal results.

What is Google’s SEO algorithm?

To understand Google’s algorithm, we must first explore what “algorithm” means: An algorithm is no more than a set of rules that are followed to solve a problem. In the context of modern SEO, the problems are every person’s search query and the solutions are the webpages that appear in your SERPs. And it is Google’s SEO algorithm that decides which content ranks in search results. Google’s algorithm is a sophisticated system that Google uses to retrieve information from its search index so it can deliver the best possible results for a query. Using various ranking factors like meaning, relevance, content quality, usability, and context, Google finalizes which results make it to the first page and which ones remain on page 2,459 (nobody cares beyond page 3). So before we uncover Google’s algorithm further, it’s helpful to understand the general concept of how the Google ranking process works. These are split into three steps:

1. Crawling

Google uses computer programs called web crawlers, spiders, or bots that scour the face of the internet searching for new or updated webpages. You won’t rank in search results unless your webpage gets crawled and then indexed. Tip: The more links a page has to it, the more visible the page becomes for Google. That’s why multiple SEO campaigns bank on link-building techniques.

2. Indexing

Google then analyzes the URL and the content of every crawled page to decipher what the page is about. To do this, Google looks closely at the texts, media, and data available on the page and then stores all the information in a database called Google Index like a library, but instead of books, they’re webpages. Tip: To maximize your webpage’s indexing potential, configuring your technical SEO is a must. That means making sure your sitemap, headers, and tags are in order.

3. Serving

Serving is the third and final stage, otherwise known as the ranking stage, that decides which of the pages are the most relevant and useful against a particular search query. So, how does Google algorithm EXACTLY work? Well, the short answer is no one really knows, unless you belong to Google’s inner circle. And knowing the algorithm means having a lifehack to stay ahead of the curve. The thing about Google’s algorithms is that they’re fleeting and ever-evolving. Most of the updates are ever so slight that they even go unnoticed. In Google’s defense, keeping its ranking algorithm a trade secret is a valid sentiment for 2 reasons:

• First, it protects the company’s value
• Second, it protects users from exploitative marketers who wish to manipulate SERPs to their favor

Violating the second is counterintuitive to Google’s mission statement: _to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. However, every once in a while, Google decides to let the public know especially when updates are too significant to disrupt currently practiced SEO principles. Typically, Google informs beforehand so webmasters can employ modern SEO practices to make the necessary adjustments. Here are they:

Major Google Algorithm Update Names

• Fred

A dreadful day for most affiliate sites that relied heavily on disruptive ads and thin content. Although Google didn’t spell out Fred that much, everyone knows it has something to do with E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). Webpages that lacked EAT suffered from the Fred update.

• Intrusive Interstitials Update

Pop-ups are one of the most popular tools used by marketers for conversion. However, Google’s 2018 update focus on devaluing webpages that used intrusive interstitials (pop-ups, modals, and overlays). As a rule of thumb, any website that uses spammy, disruptive, or bothersome ads are penalized.

• Mobilegeddon

At the turn of the decade when Google searches became more prominent on phones than PCs, Google rolled out their “mobilegeddon” update — and it was pretty straightforward. Either your webpages are mobile-friendly or not, there were no gray areas. The purpose was to improve the user experience among mobile users.

• RankBrain

This rollout perhaps is what truly revolutionized Google search engines. By using machine learning, Google became capable of teaching itself using data inputs to provide the most relevant results to SERPs queries. In other words, Google transitioned from “reading” search characters to “interpreting” the entity they represented.

• Panda

Panda was Google’s backhand slap to countless content farms that constantly produced tons of low-quality content. Since this update, Google’s algorithm values prolific and consistent content uploads over sheer volume. Panda heavily targeted websites with poor, non-useful, non-trustworthy content.

• Penguin

Penguin was the extension of Google’s fight against low-quality content, but this time around, with backlinks. Since link volume weighed much in ranking, blackhat SEO practitioners used manipulative and spammy links to outperform higher-quality sites. Penguin ensured that Google rewards only the natural, authoritative, and relevant links pointing to a webpage.

• Hummingbird

The Hummingbird was a rewrite of Google’s core algorithm that focused on making SERPs precise to the search query and intent using natural language search. Instead of Google doing a word-for-word match for queries, they doubled down on Google removing certain words to understand the intent behind the query better.

• Pigeon

The Pigeon algorithm update aimed to strengthen local businesses that have a strong organic presence by rewarding their search visibility. In other words, Google let you find exactly what you're looking for based on your location.

• Payday Loan

Some search queries in Google are more spam-prone than others, including gambling, drugs, pornography, and of course payday loans sites. Many marketers take advantage of high-volume and CPC keywords to manipulate traffic into their site and increase SERP ranking — purging these was the Payday Loan update’s aim.

• EMD (Exact Match Domain)

The EMD update’s goal was to devalue websites that use exact-match domains or domains that use keyword phrases searched in Google. Most marketers at the time focused on building “exact-match” websites comprised of thin content but still manages to rank in Google, which the EMD update then culled.

• Page Layout Algorithm

Google has always valued user experience along with top-notch content. And while other updates focus heavily on content, the Page Layout algorithm focused on optimizing every website’s UI to give visitors the best possible UX. That meant sites with static and pervasive ads above the fold or along the sides needed a revamp.

Modern SEO practices that abide by Google’s major updates meant that your site is on the right track from the search engine’s perspective. Conversely, violating any of these major ranking adjustments would render all SEO campaign strategies moot. But if you want the best modern SEO approaches to scale your home service enterprise, you’ll need time-tested expert solutions — Wizard of Ads™ can help you with that. Book a call to learn more!

Last 5 Updates from Google

With everything that’s been said above, keeping in step with Google updates, no matter how minor, is necessary for all webmasters and SEO specialists. Algorithm alterations, data refreshes, and filters are the common culprits to blame when websites drop in SERP ranking or SEO visibility. To help you plan out your modern SEO practices, here are 5 of the latest updates that Google announced over the last 9 months:

1. May 2022 Core Update - Google Search Improvement

The May 2022 core update began on May 2022 and was completed on the 9th of June. This core update exhibited more prominent volatility in SERP rankings than the previous core update last November. Information from data providers like SEMrush and RankRanger revealed more drastic changes in the retail industry. Moreover, there are signs that Google bogged down AI-generated sites, and spikes were observed in high-quality human-written content, regardless of niche.

2. March 2022 - Product Algorithm Update

Google announced on March 23, 2022, a product review ranking update that aims to update segregate high-quality review webpages from those that aren’t. The update urged review sites to publish helpful and in-depth product reviews that also practice neutrality (benefits, drawbacks, improvements from previous versions). Moreover, product reviews should be made from an actual user experience that includes information beyond the spec sheet. So, if you’re an HVAC company that publishes product comparisons, you should make sure to provide in-depth analyses based on expert opinions and actual usage. Not only will you rank better, but also increase site visibility (which attract the green M&Ms).

3. February 2022 - Page Experience Update

As mentioned before, Google puts heavy emphasis on optimizing your website’s user experience and interface for the benefit of users. And this page experience update treads along the same path as Google urges webmasters to make the necessary changes on their sites. Here are the metrics for the February 2022 update:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — measures page load speed
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) — measures how much a webpage experiences unexpected layout shifts that affect visual stability
• First Input Display (FID) — measures the time your browser takes to process an interaction from a user
• HTTPS Security — users expect a private and secure online experience that protects the data between a user's computer and the website
• Absence of Intrusive Interstitials — no intrusive, pervasive, annoying ads

4. December 2021 - Product Review Update

Many think it was ill-timed for Google to roll out a product review update, especially during the busiest and most profitable time of the year for product review sites. The December update focused on introducing two new modern SEO practices when publishing product review content:

• First: Webpages must provide evidence that they used the product in question, in the form of visuals, audio, or links demonstrating actual use
• Second: Webpages must offer multiple buying options that offer readers the chance to buy from their “merchant of choice”

5. November 27, 2021 - Broad Core Update

Google calls the November 2021 “broad” to signify that it doesn’t particularly target any niches, but aims to optimize Google’s overall system. Many respected marketers agreed that the core update wasn’t as disruptive as feared, however, some noticed that Google seem to be indexing lesser content. Amidst the recent updates, Google’s guidance remains firm across the board: To practice a holistic improvement on your overall website by providing the best possible content and not only focusing on singular aspects. With the Google algorithms out of the way, businesses, webmasters, and anyone that aims to rank their webpages on search engines should focus on aligning their modern SEO strategies to Google’s requirements.

The Four Pillars of Modern SEO

Think of the 4 pillars as scaffolding that makes up a holistic SEO experience to ensure top-level traffic is driven into your webpages. Here they are:

1. Technical SEO

The first pillar begins with technical SEO. Why? Because there is no other ‘SEO’ unless you ensure that your webpages’ links and information have been crawled, collected, and indexed by Google’s spiders. And there are two ways to give Google’s spiders instructions on whether to crawl your website or not:

• Robot.txt files tell spiders which pages they shouldn’t crawl. This is normally done to keep crawlers from indexing thin, duplicate, and private content.
• XML sitemap is the polar opposite of robot.txt as they list all the webpages that you do want to be crawled, indexed, and shown in SERPs.

On top of crawling and indexing, technical SEO is about improving other technical aspects of a website. So you may want to follow this technical SEO checklist to help improve your business’ organic rankings:

• Install an SSL certificate to signal Google that your website is secure and safe for users
• Optimize a mobile-friendly version of your website
• Improve your site’s loading speed
• Remove any duplicate content
• Add structured data markup on your website to add rich snippets to your meta descriptions (when applicable)
• Register your website on Google Search Console

2. Quality Content

If you take a peek at Google’s reminders whenever they roll out a new update, one thing’s ever-present: Improve your content. At the end of the day, quality content is king. Optimization tactics are meant to augment the already top-notch quality content published on your webpages. Nevertheless, there are 5 factors you should consider when talking about content and modern SEO:

• Quality

Unique and well-written content that adds value to your readers.

• Keywords

Infuse your content with keywords that you want to gain exposure for in SERPs. Make use of main keywords, related keywords, and [natural language processing](https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/natural-language-processing-NLP#:~:text=Natural language processing (NLP) is, in the field of linguistics.) to build the context.

• Freshness

Google loves up-to-date content. Make sure you keep your content fresh and frequently updated. This is especially relevant in your blog section.

• Type of content

Content is more than just the text found on the page. You may want to integrate other consumable content like images, videos, and visually appealing elements. If you’re a home service business, we urge you to include images of your services and products.

• Relevance

Whenever you’re producing content, make sure they align with your audience’s potential search intent. The more cohesive your publications are to their query, the better you will rank in Google SERPs.

3. On-Page Optimization

Optimizing content for users is one thing, but improving your on-page elements for search engines (and also users) is another. Here are the common on-page optimization practices you should take into account:

• Page titles, meta titles, and meta descriptions

Search engines like Google use these pieces of information to develop snippets regarding your content, and they are helpful to also improve click-through rates in SERPs.

• Heading tags

Properly labeling your headers with the appropriate heading tag helps break up content into readable chunks, improving the average time on the page. Plus, headings tags help Google identify headings from main texts.

• Alternative text

Alt text gives search engines a written description of an image within your content, helping them derive meaning.

• Internal links

These links allow Google and website visitors to easily access other pages on your website. The hyperlink must convey the context and meaning of the internal link. These also pass rank juice from the current webpage to the hyperlink’s destination.

4. Off-Page Optimization

As the name suggests, off-page SEO is the opposite of on-page. This aspect denotes the authoritativeness, relevance, usefulness, and trustworthiness of your website on the internet, with respect to how other websites echo back to you. There are three ways to secure a strong off-page SEO:

• Backlinks

The more external webpages linking back to you, the more Google notices your website making rounds online. Additionally, the more authoritative a website that links back to yours, the higher authority score your website gets.

For example, an HVAC business that gets a link back from popular domains like Carrier Global will make Google trust your website more.

• Local search profiles

This is applicable if you have a physical business, which is likely for home service business owners. Establish a Google Maps listing by registering through Google Business Profile.

Pro Tip: Encourage your happy clients to rate your business in Google Map listings to increase the authority and SEO power of your business.

• Social media influence

A backlink from Facebook to your website doesn’t give the same trust and authority as outlined above, while LinkedIn and Twitter rank in search engines. Nevertheless, social media profiles like are valuable sources of traffic to your website.

Modern SEO vs Google Algorithm Updates

The world of SEO is ever-changing, and is sure to evolve countless more times as Google continues to “improve” its search algorithm. Just remember, Google is in it to win it, regardless of the true costs to your business. The goal of modern SEO is to eliminate any refuted practices as demonstrated by Google’s core and periodic updates and to employ good, acceptable, and effective SEO practices in online campaigns to ensure positive SERPs ranking potential from Google.

More Google Updates Are On Their Way

With Google’s history, there are more major updates coming our way in the next few months. It’s a great idea to start optimizing your business’ webpages according to the most significant core updates in the last decade and the 5 latest updates from the time of this article posting date. Modern SEO combined with adherence to Google’s algorithm, you can ensure a significant increase in sales, more generated leads, and a secured brand image. If you need help optimizing your home service business to outperform your competitors, the Wizard of Ads™ has got you covered. Book a call now and let’s make your business into a household name!

Did you know that in 2021 mobile users captured a staggering 71% of online traffic and 56% of all online transactions, beating desktops to the punch in both categories?You know what that means, right?It’s time to go mobile! And with that, give mobile SEO as much attention as your conventional SEO strategies. There’s no argument that the impact of mobile in our lives is significant. Your next prospect is scrolling through their feed right now, looking for a trustworthy home service contractor. So if you haven’t shifted already but you yearn for a boost in your Google ranking, then it’s time for device configuration. Here I’ll delineate mobile SEO vs desktop SEO for you, so you can make the switch!

The Rise of Mobile-First Web Design

It wasn’t long ago when Google solely focused its webpage indexing on desktops. Back in 2014, even if you were on a smartphone, the results you would see are based on Google’s desktop index. That meant having to zoom in to read content as there were no mobile-friendly websites yet. But things have evolved greatly since then. Today, Google prioritizes mobile-friendliness in crawling and indexing new webpages. When you’re using a smartphone for Google searches, SERPs will reveal results based on Google’s mobile-indexed webpages. Ergo, doubling down on mobile SEO is more relevant today than ever!Let’s see how we’ve progressed:

• Mobilegeddon

Rollout date: April 21, 2015

The popularity of mobile devices gave Google the nudge to roll out this mobile-friendly update. So this drastic announcement earned it the monikers: mopocalypse, mobilepocalyse, mobocalypse, etc.

But Google’s optimization for mobile search was more than an update, many call it a revolutionary shift. Google always prided itself on optimizing everyone’s user experience, so they aimed to cater to mobile users with the mobilegeddon update.

From that day forth, your webpage was either one of two things: mobile-friendly or not. And if you, unfortunately, belong to the latter, you drop to the bottom of the barrel — non-mobile optimized pages dropped significantly in SERP ranking.

• Mobile-first indexing Announcement

Start date: November 4, 2016

First off, anyone who published their website after July 1, 2019, escaped the ravaging, purifying flames of Google's mobile-first indexing movement. If that’s you, give yourself a pat on the back.

Google has always prioritized desktop content for crawling and indexing webpages. But this announcement set the bar for mobile experience as the indexing standard.

Though one might say, isn’t mobile-first indexing an inevitable outcome post-mobilegeddon? Well, yes and no.

Yes, because anyone sensible enough at the time has already optimized their webpages for mobile browsing. But no, because Google assured people that mobile-friendliness and mobile usability are not necessary requirements for mobile-first indexing**.**

The target of mobile-first indexing was to create an intuitive EXPERIENCE between mobile and desktop. Basically, if you purposively cut out content on mobile versus desktop view, Google will punish you by non-prioritizing your page for indexing.

• Mobile-first Indexing Rollout

Rollout date: March 26, 2018

This was the implementation of their initial announcement from a year and a half prior. Google finally made webpages’ mobile experience the golden standard for crawling and indexing.

But they assured that webmasters who only operate desktop views will remain represented. And mobile-first indexing had nothing to do with ranking or mobile SEO.

Well, at least not yet *winky face*

So if you’re looking to corner the market in mobile SERPs, it’s high time to optimize your mobile experience and Wizard of Ads™ can help you with that! Book a call now to learn more.

Mobile SEO vs Desktop SEO: Which Score is Higher?

The point of this article is not to discourage you. Desktop SEO matters just as much as mobile SEO so you shouldn’t focus on one over the other. Optimizing both is key. If you’re already set up on a desktop SEO campaign, don’t roll it back and start again at the drawing board. Mobile SEO resembles desktop SEO in many respects, and we’ll discuss that below:

Similarities Between the Mobile SEO and Desktop SEO

1. Content remains king for both

In both realms, you cannot rank on a target keyword without relevant, information-dense, and useful content wrapped around it. Whether a user cares for SEO or not, one thing stands true: they’re looking for content that answers their queries and this is where desktop and mobile SEO agree. Here are 5 aspects of content you may want to prioritize:

• Quality
• Keywords
• Freshness
• Relevance
• Supporting media

Additionally, Google’s mobile-first indexing announcement emphasized uniformity in experience, content, resources, and assets between desktop and mobile browsing.

2. User experience matters equally

Users must be able to navigate intuitively when mobile browsing or desktop scrolling through your webpage. The goal of user experience is your market’s utmost convenience, so revamping both worlds of your home service business will ensure that you rank positively on desktop and mobile. On top of making sure resources and assets are uniform across all platforms, here are other aspects to ensure an impeccable user experience:

• SSL certification for security
• Blazing fast site performance
• Structured data markup (valuable for home service businesses)

With all the above similarities, however, mobile searches are a tad bit more variable than desktop searches because they’re influenced by additional factors. And below we’ll delve into their points of divergence.

Differences Between the Mobile SEO and Desktop SEO

1. Search results layout

Since mobile devices have less screen real estate than desktops, the SERPs layout is one principal difference between the two. This means anything normally found on the right side of your desktop search interface will stack above or below mobile organic SERPs. These attractive and interactive sections push search result content further down the SERPs. Some elements that will transition include:

• Knowledge Panel

These information boxes are meant to help users quickly understand a topic through a presentation of key facts. The knowledge panel will occupy the top spot of mobile search results. What this means for SEO is that the block of content contains concise information so users won’t need to click on other links — potentially lowering the value of first-page SERPs.

• Interesting finds

Mobile SERPs also contains exclusive features not found in desktop results like the Interesting Finds section. This section uses Google’s algorithm to display “relevant webpages” that Google assumes users will find interesting. For mobile SEO, the Interesting Finds section is a dynamic feature that can drive valuable traffic to sites that don’t even rank on the first page of SERPs.

2. Texts and font size

Mobile SERPs are generally presented with larger, more legible fonts as opposed to small texts in desktop search results. Additionally, listings on mobile are presented as stacked cards with embedded images and videos within each block. This means mobile results take up more space than normal. As such, for mobile SEO, users are more likely to choose from the first few results in SERPs than continue scrolling down.

3. Location

Mobile smartphones have built-in GPS (global positioning systems), providing Google with accurate location data from users which influences search results. This is one reason why mobile search and mobile SEO are particularly valuable. What this means for SEO is that your Google search results in Colorado will be different if you Google the same query in Kentucky. So, a client is more likely to obtain a map result or directory when searching for a “Plumber near me” on mobile than on desktop. Moreover, Google’s ad platform allows businesses to geo-target advertisements based on ZIP codes. It falls on you to strengthen your local SEO that leverages your business's visibility in Google’s local search results.

4. Influence of phone operating system

On top of Google’s dynamic and exclusive features on mobiles, mobile SERPs are also affected by the operating systems used by phones. There are instances when a user’s search intent is tagged as app-oriented, leading mobile SERPs to feature an array of mobile applications relevant to the query. Common keywords that rank applications include: “mobile games,” “running tracker,” and “image editor.” This list of app results stays on top of the search results, followed by the “people also ask” section and then the knowledge panel. For mobile SEO, this means more query-related content is pushed down further the screen’s real estate. Even if you rank a solid 7 or 8 in desktop search results, the likelihood of being clicked on mobile will be lower.

5. Click-through rate (CTR)

The main focus of mobile SEO is to ensure a positive ranking in mobile SERPs. But how does mobile vs desktop fare in the CTR department? [Currently available data on SERPs] The mobile model demonstrates that, the models quickly flip roles.) suggest that 2021 CTR in desktop SERPs for position 1 remains higher than mobile at 8.17% vs 6.74%. However, the drop in CTR from position 1 to position 2 is significantly lower for mobile vs desktop. One reason for this may possibly be because having dedicated and information-dense listings for mobile allows users to skim through content more effectively. Although the convenience of Google’s continuous scrolling feature merits mobile SEO over desktop SEO because the click-through rate (CTR) for mobile is tinge higher for positions 3-10 than desktop. For SEO, this means ranking #1 for desktop is twice more valuable than if you rank #2. However, for mobile, ranking for #1 is only 1.5 times more valuable than #2 so you can expect more traffic even if you missed the top SERP spot.

95% of the Mobile Search Market is Dominated by Google

With all that’s said and done, there’s no question that mobile SEO should have as much focus as desktop SEO because the majority of traffic share is attributed to mobile and it shares a little more than half of all transactions. Even if the CTR on mobile is lower than desktop’s, the amount of exclusive mobile snippets occupying SERPs can significantly reduce your overall traffic (and conversions) if you don’t optimize better and rank #1 or #2 in mobile SERPs. Ranking in mobile SERPs matters just as much as desktop SEO. And if you need a hand optimizing your mobile experience to rank better in SERPs, book a call now with Wizard of Ads™ and take that number one spot!

Many would agree that anything that can help understand our audience and how they interact with our content is worth investigating. Heat maps are one of those tools that have been around for a while. But are they really worth the time and effort? Let’s take a look at what heat maps are, how they work, and whether or not they're actually worth using. So if you've been on the fence about using heat maps for your marketing campaigns, you'll want to stick around for this article.

What is a Heat Map?

A heat map is a digital marketing tool that visually represents data related to website visitors' interactions. The heat map allows marketers to see which areas of the page are getting the most attention. Also to make informed decisions about where to place their ads and calls-to-action. Heat maps can be used to track both mouse clicks and cursor movements. This provides a detailed picture of how users interact with a page. This information can be used to improve the user experience, as well as to generate more leads and conversions. In short, heat maps are an useful tool for any business owner looking to get the most out of their website. For more insight or help with your digital marketing, book a call with Wizard of Ads®!

Heat Map History and Evolution

Heatmaps have been around for quite some time, but their use in marketing and advertising is a relatively recent development. The first heat map was created in the early 1800s by French Physiologist, Jean Leonard Marie Poiseuille. Used to visualize blood flow patterns. It wasn't until the late 20th century that heat maps began appearing in the field of marketing and advertising. One of the earliest examples is a heat map of New York City that was created by ad agency Young & Rubicam in 1993. The map was used to visualize where people were most likely to see billboards and other forms of out-of-home advertising. Heat maps have now become an common virtual tool. They are used to track user engagement on websites and apps, as well as to understand how people interact with digital products and services. Heatmaps help with understanding customer behavior. It’s quite possible that they’ll become more prevalent in the world of digital marketing and advertising.

Heat Maps Wide Range of Application

• Websites and Ads

Heat maps are a digital marketing tool that uses heat to visually represent data. The hotter the spot, the more intense the data. Marketers use heat maps to track and understand user behavior on their website or ad. Understanding what users are clicking on and how they interact with the site or ad can help marketers. Especially with making better decisions about where to place their content. As well as how to improve the user experience. Heat maps can be used to track mouse movements, clicks, scroll depth, and other interactions. They track eye movement and heat signatures in order to understand what catches a user's attention.

• Geography

Heat maps are a type of data visualization that shows how a physical quantity varies over a particular area. The most common use for heat maps is to show how temperature varies across a geographical region. However, they can also be used to visualize other types of data, such as humidity, rainfall, or population density. Heat maps are created by superimposing a transparent color-coded map onto a regular map. The colors indicate the level of the physical quantity being mapped. With warmer colors indicating higher values and cooler colors indicating lower values. Heat maps are an effective way to visualize spatial data. And they can be used to identify patterns and trends that would be difficult to spot using other methods.

• Stock Market

Heat maps are data visualizations that use color to represent different values. In the stock market, heat maps are used to visualize data related to stock prices. For example, a heat map may be used to show how the prices of different stocks have changed over time. Heat maps can be used to show both historical data and real-time data. Heat maps are a popular tool among traders. As they can provide a quick and easy way to see which stocks are performing well and which ones are not. Heat maps can also be customized to show specific data sets, such as the price of a stock at different times of the day or week.

• Sports

Heat maps are incredible tools that give coaches and analysts a boatload of information about player and team performance. A heat map is essentially a color-coded representation of data. With different colors corresponding to different values. In the case of sports, heat maps can be used to track things like player movement, ball possession, and shooting accuracy. This information can be extremely helpful in identifying areas of weakness and developing strategies for improvement. Heat maps are also used extensively in video analysis. They provide a clear visual representation of what is happening on the field or court. While heat maps are most commonly associated with football and soccer, they can be used in any sport where there is data to be analyzed. So whether you're a coach trying to get an edge on the competition or a fan who just wants to better understand the game, heat maps are definitely worth taking a look at.

Heat Maps in Websites and Advertisements

Have you ever wondered how websites and advertisements know where to put their buttons and ads? It's not magic - they're using heat maps! Heat maps are a visual representation of where people are clicking on or interacting with a digital screen. By understanding how users interact with your website or advertisement, you can make important decisions about placement and design. Keep reading to learn all about the various types of heat maps in technology advertising.

4 Types of Heat Maps Used In Websites and Ads

1. Click tracking

Heat maps are used in click tracking to see where technology advertising people are clicking on a website so they can see what is popular. By adding a heat map, they can track how many times a certain area was clicked on. This information is valuable to show what is working and what needs to be changed. Heat maps can also be used to track clicks on specific links, buttons, or images. This can help determine what catches a person's attention and what doesn't. Heat maps are a useful tool for any business that wants to track their website's performance.

2. Scrolls

Heat maps have become increasingly popular in recent years as a way of tracking people's interactions with technology. By recording how people move their cursor or scroll through a page, heat maps can provide valuable insights into user behavior. This information can then be used to improve the design of websites and apps. Heat maps can also be used to track advertising effectiveness. Seeing how people interact with ads, businesses can learn which ads are most likely to be seen and clicked on. As a result, heat maps have become a tool for modern businesses that want to stay ahead of the competition.

3. Mouse Tracking

Heat maps are a popular tool for mouse tracking, and they can be used in a variety of ways. One common use is to track the heat signature of a user's hand as they move across a touch screen. This information can be used to determine the most efficient way to arrange elements on a page or screen. Heat maps can also be used to track mouse movement on a website. This information can be used to understand how users interact with a site and to optimize the user experience. This information can be used to generate interest in the product and to improve its design.

4. Eye Tracking

Heat maps are used in eye tracking to heat things up! No, seriously - heat maps are a type of data visualization that uses color to represent different values. In the context of eye tracking, heat maps are often used to show where people are looking on a screen. This information can be used for a variety of purposes, from understanding user behavior to optimizing technology advertising. Heat maps are created by aggregating data from multiple eye tracking studies. The data is then visualized using a range of colors. With warmer colors representing areas of higher interest. So next time you see a heat map, don't be too surprised if you find yourself drawn to it. After all, that's exactly what it's designed to do!

What Does a Heat Map Tell You?

A heat map is a color-coded visual representation of data, which can be used to understand how visitors ingest your website. By tracking cursor movements and clicks, heat maps can reveal which areas of a page are being clicked on the most, and which are being ignored. This information can be useful for understanding how effective technology advertising and website design are in driving user engagement. If heat map data shows that users are not clicking on certain elements of a website. This could indicate that these elements are ineffective or poorly designed. Heat maps can also be used to track user engagement with email campaigns, social media posts, and other marketing materials. Understanding how users interact with these materials, businesses can make more informed decisions. Decisions about where to allocate their resources. In short, heat maps provide valuable insights into how technology advertising and websites are being used. They can help businesses to improve their effectiveness in driving user engagement.

Heat Maps Limitations

Advertisers and website owners have long been drawn to heat maps as a way to track user engagement. By tracking where users click, scroll, and hover, heat maps provide valuable insight into user behavior. However, heat maps also have several limitations, These should be considered before using them to inform decisions about technology advertising and website design. First, heat maps are often limited to showing only aggregate data. Making it difficult to track individual user behavior. Second, heat maps can be biased by the location of elements on the page or screen. Finally, heat maps only provide a snapshot of user behavior at a single moment in time, making it difficult to track how users interact with a site over time. Despite these limitations, heat maps can still be a useful tool for understanding user behavior. When used in conjunction with other data sources, they can help paint a more complete picture. A beautiful picture of how users interact with technology advertising and websites.

Are Heat Maps Worth It for Business Owners?

Heat maps are becoming increasingly popular with businesses. Heat maps allow businesses to see where their customers are connecting with their website. Heat maps can be used to track customer engagement, and to understand what parts of the website are most popular. Heat maps can also be used to identify areas of the website that need improvement. While heat maps are still a new technology, they have already been used by some of the largest companies in the world, including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. Heat maps are an important tool for businesses that want to stay ahead of the competition. To understand their customers better, heat maps are definitely worth it for business owners!If you’re looking to heat things up in your digital marketing, book a call with Wizard of Ads®!

As a marketing strategist and business owner, one of your vital tools is the Google Map Pack. With Google Maps, you can easily find potential customers in any location and track their movements. However, to truly maximize the potential of this powerful tool, you need to understand how to use the various features of the Google Map Pack. The first thing to understand about the Google Map Pack is that local businesses, not chains, are given priority. That's because Google wants to show its users the most relevant and practical Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for their specific location. Therefore, if you're a local business, you must make sure that your listing is as complete and accurate as possible. One way to do this is to claim your business listing on Google My Business. That will allow you to add important information about your business, such as your hours of operation, contact information, and pictures.

Claiming your listing also enables you to respond to customer reviews, which can be extremely helpful in managing your online reputation. As a marketing strategist, one of the best ways to ensure that your clients' businesses appear in the Google Map Pack is to help them optimize their listings for local SEO. That can be done by including relevant keywords in their business name, category, and description. Optimizing their listing will help ensure that their business appears in the Map Pack when potential customers Google search for the products or services they offer. If you want to get more out of your Google My Business listing, consider investing in Google Ads. By running a Local Service Ads campaign, you can target potential customers with a search intent for businesses like yours in your local area or local communities. Local intent keywords are essential to success in Google My Business and local SEO. If you're not sure which rank_ing keywords to target, consider using a keyword research tool like Google Ads Keyword Planner. In this article, we'll look at some of the essential elements of the Google Map Pack that every business owner should know.

Google Local Pack AKA Google Map Pack

The Google Local Pack is a collection of three businesses that appear in a box at the top of the search results page when someone searches for a local business. The Map Pack is different from other types of SERP features– it's not triggered by specific keywords. Instead, it's determined by Google algorithms, which accounts for factors like the searcher's location, the type of query, and the relevance of the businesses to the query. Here are some essential things to know about the Google Local Pack:

• The Local Pack only appears for certain kinds of queries: Generally, the Local Pack only appears for queries that are likely to be seeking local businesses, like "HVAC business near me" or "plumber in Seattle."
• Businesses appearing in the Local Pack are determined by Google's algorithm: The businesses that appear in the Local Pack are not determined by any sort of payment to Google. Instead, they are determined based on several factors designed to surface the most relevant and convenient results for the searcher. Some of these factors include the business's location, relevance to the query, and visible reviews.
• The Local Pack businesses display in order of relevance: The businesses in the Local Pack display according to many factors, but relevance is one of the most important. The more relevant a business is to the query, the higher it will appear in the results.
• The number of reviews a business has impacts its ranking: One factor influencing a business's ranking in the Local Pack is its number of reviews. Google uses reviews as one signal of a business's quality, so businesses with more reviews tend to rank higher than those with fewer reviews.
• Including keywords in your business name is one of the ways to get a higher ranking: Another factor that can influence your keywords rankings in the Local Pack is whether or not your business name includes keywords relevant to the query. If your business name uses relevant keywords, it's more likely to appear in the Local Pack results for queries that provide those keywords.

You can check your rank in Google Maps by opening up Google Maps and searching for your business name. Your business's ranking will appear in the search results alongside the number of reviews it has. You can also check your google rank in the Local Pack results by doing a Google search for keywords relevant to your business. When your business ranks in the Local Pack, it appears above the organic search results.

Local Search Essentials

Here are a few significant online consumer purchasing and local search marketing statistics concerning Google's Map Pack:

• 78 percent of offline purchases originate from local mobile searches.
• 86 percent of Google Maps users use it to locate a company.
• 61 percent of mobile-search users are likelier to contact local companies with mobile-friendly websites.
• 88 percent of consumers trust online evaluations as much as they would a personal suggestion from a friend.
• 18 percent of local smartphone searches result in a sale within 24 hours.
• Mobile searches utilizing "near me" and "today/tonight" have increased by 900 percent. For example, "HVAC near me" and "AC repair near me tonight."
• Over 55 percent of consumers run a search before scheduling an appointment in the majority of home services verticals.

Essentially, this is the bottomline: If you don't have your business listed on Google Maps, you're missing out on valuable traffic and potential customers. As a business owner and marketing strategist, awareness of the basics gets your business listed on Google Maps. Do you need help? Wizard of Ads® partner with the best online guys, like Google Maps Specialists, who can help you get your business listed and improve your chances of appearing in the coveted Map Pack. Book a call.

Unpacking the Map

The Google Map Pack is the name given to the group of three local businesses that appear on the first page of a Google search in response to certain queries. For example, if you search for "landscaping near me," you'll see a map with three landscaping businesses listed beneath it, along with their star rating, address, and phone number. This grouping is also sometimes called the Local 3-Pack or Snack Pack, as it's designed to give users a "snackable" amount of information about nearby businesses that match their query. The Map Pack only appears for certain types of searches, namely those related to local businesses and services. So, if you're searching for something that doesn't fall into that category– say, the origins of wombats – you won't see a Map Pack. Google's algorithm determines the businesses appearing in the Map Pack, which looks at several factors to decide which businesses are the most relevant and helpful for a given search. These factors include things like business location, relevance, and whether or not the business has been verified by Google. It's essential to understand how the Map Pack works and how you can optimize your website to appear in it. That way, you can ensure your business is getting in front of prospects searching for products or services that you offer.

Map Pack and its Features

The old Map Pack features include:

• Location
• Business name
• Phone number
• Rating (based on customer reviews)
• Categories (type of business)

But now, the new Map Pack features include the old features and:

• Price range (for restaurants only)
• Hours of operation
• Photos
• Website link

As you can see, the new Map Pack features provide searchers with more information about a business than the old Map Pack. It's valuable for business owners because it allows them to include more information about their business on their website. Some tips for business owners who want to take advantage of the new Map Pack features:

• Include your business name, phone number, and categories on your website.
• Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, as searchers will likely be looking up your business on their smartphones.
• Encourage customers to leave reviews on your Google Business listing to improve your rating.
• Include photos of your business on your website and Google Business listing.
• Add prices to your restaurant's menu, if applicable.
• Include your hours of operation on your website and Google Business listing.
• Add a link to your website on your Google Business listing.
• Ensure your website's NAP (name, address, phone number) information is accurate and up-to-date.

If you're not already doing so, now is the time to optimize your website for the new Google Map Pack features. By doing so, you'll be certain that your business is visible to potential customers and take advantage of the increased traffic that the new features will likely bring.

Ranking Factors

Also, think about the ranking factors that will determine whether or not your business appears in the Map Pack. Here are some of the vital factors to keep in mind in terms of on- and off-page SEO: On-page SEO: Optimize your website for the keywords you want to rank for. That includes having relevant and keyword-rich titles and meta descriptions and ensuring that your website's NAP information (name, address, and phone number) is accurate and up-to-date. Off-page SEO: In addition to on-page optimization, you'll also need to focus on building high-quality backlinks to your website. You can do this through guest blogging, directory submissions, and other link-building strategies.

Google Business Profile SEO

You'll also want to optimize your Google Maps listing to be top rank in the Google Map Pack, and that includes your Google Business Profile. A few of the factors that you'll need to keep in mind about your Google Business Profile for SEO purposes include:

• GBP (Google Business Profile) Optimization: Your Google Business Profile is one of the most important ranking factors for the Map Pack. Complete all the fields and include relevant keywords in your business description. You should also add photos and videos to your profile to make it more engaging.
• Google Reviews: Getting positive reviews from customers can help you rank higher in the Map Pack. Ask your satisfied customers to leave a review on your Google Business Profile.
• GBP Updates: Keep your business profile up-to-date by regularly making changes and additions. That signals to Google that you are an active business, which can help your Map Pack ranking.
• Behavioral Signals: Google looks at various behavioral signals to determine the ranking of a business in the Map Pack. That includes click-through rate (CTR), time on site, and bounce rate.

Google Maps Off-Page SEO

You'll also want to know Google Maps off-page SEO techniques to improve your ranking. Here are a few things you can do:

• Citations: Citations are mentions of your business on other websites. The more high-quality citations you have, the better. You can use a tool like Moz Local to help you find and manage your citations.
• Website SEO: Optimize your website for relevant keywords. That will help your website rank higher in general search results, leading to more clicks and traffic to your site.
• Backlinks: Get high-quality backlinks from other websites. It helps Google see your site as more authoritative, leading to a higher ranking in the Map Pack.
• Social Signals: Increase your social media activity and engagement. It helps Google see that your business is active and popular, leading to a higher ranking in the Map Pack.

Update Essential – The “Vicinity Update”

The vicinity update is an important Google Maps update that rolled out in early 2019. This update changed the way Google ranks businesses in the Map Pack. It’s now essential for businesses to be within proximity to the searcher to rank high. It significantly impacts local business and local SEO. How? Well, let's say you own a business trying to rank in the Map Pack for a specific location, but your business is not in that vicinity. You’re not going to rank as high as businesses that are. To beat this, many businesses are using virtual offices or locations to appear closer to searchers than they actually are. Google says: “Proximity of the business address to the user is still a very strong signal, but what’s changed is we no longer require businesses to be physically located within the city center to rank highly.” That means if you want your business to rank highly in the Map Pack, it’s pertinent to have a physical location close to your target market. If you don’t have a physical location, you can use a virtual office or address to appear closer to searchers.

Google 3-Pack

Your business should rank in the Google Map Pack as part of your digital marketing strategy. That's because:

• The Map Pack prominently displays at the top of SERPs: For example, let's say you're a Plumber. If someone in your target market searches "Plumber near me," your business could appear in the Map Pack displayed above the fold. That means searchers don't have to scroll down to see it, making it more likely that searchers will notice and click on your listing.
• It's an excellent way to improve your CTR: Your Plumbing company's listing in the Map Pack appears above the fold and includes your business name, address, and phone number (NAP). That makes it easy for searchers to find your contact information and click to call or visit your website.
• It can help you attract local customers: The Map Pack is designed to show searchers the businesses closest to them. So, if someone searches for "Plumbing repair near me," your business could appear in the results even if you're not the most well-known Plumber company in town.

What is the Google 3-Pack?

As mentioned earlier, the Google 3-pack is the name given to the map results that appear on the first page of a Google search. When a searcher enters a query that triggers local results, Google displays a map with three local businesses that match the searcher’s query. The businesses display in order of prominence, which accounts for factors like reviews and overall web presence. The businesses that appear in the 3-pack get preferential treatment with CTR and organic reach. In fact, studies have shown that appearing in the 3-pack can result in a significant increase in CTR. Google 3-pack specifically has 44 to 61 percent of the total clicks of local searches in Google. It's clear if your residential home service company wants to attract local customers, you need to be certain it's appearing in the Google Maps 3-pack. Does your residential home service business need help? Wizard of Ads®™ has the tools to take your business to the next level. We are marketing strategists who know how to up your SEO game and get you in front of more customers. Book a call.

Did you know your landing page requires a recipe to succeed. A high-converting landing page is like a magical recipe with just the right ingredients. Too much flour and the message is dry across your customer’s tongue. Not enough flavor and your customers aren’t enticed to convert. Following the recipe for the perfect website landing page with precision helps boost conversions. Gone are the days of hiring douchebag “Funnel Bros”. You can shed the fear of missing out on leads. All it takes is the right recipe. So what are the ingredients…exactly? What is it that make sales conversion rates soar? What keeps your customers coming back for more? Is it the design? The copy? The offer? Actually, it’s all of those things — and more. Creating an offer your customers can’t refuse requires accuracy and attention to detail. Make an entree even Gordon Ramsay would approve of. Take a seat at the dinner table and appeal to what matters most to buyers. Showing your customers you care and aim to make their lives easier is the only way to succeed. Remember: authenticity wins every single time. Your landing page should be an extension of your brand image with every ingredient necessary for success.

Before Creating a Landing Page

Before you start putting the pieces together, it’s essential to remember that every landing page has the same key elements. You may be itching to break the mold and differentiate yourself from the competition. The problem? If you don’t include the necessary ingredients, you’ll burn the kitchen to the ground. And your business right along with it. Don’t substitute flour for sprinkles. Add to the key ingredients instead of replacing them. As a business owner, you must understand who you’re serving. How and who you deliver your offer to will determine whether you sink or swim. There are five questions to ask yourself before building your leads page:

1. What is your goal?

The goal is to convince visitors to take action regarding your offer. If you want more bookings, every piece of copy should point the customers to that goal.

2. Who are the competitors?

Your competition is any other home service business that offers services similar to yours.

3. Who is the target audience?

Your target audience is the group of customers you want to serve. If you send your offer to the wrong people, you’ll end up stifling conversions and sales.

4. How did they arrive at my landing page?

Tracking which of your marketing channels produces the most results will allow you to optimize your strategy.

5. How do the conversions work?

A conversion is when the customer completes the desired action. The content and design of the page will impact the average conversion rate. Optimizing the marketing strategy for your home service business doesn’t have to be a losing game. Book a call with Wizard of Ads® today!

The Anatomy of a Landing Page

So what does a high-converting landing page look like? Below are the eight essential landing page elements that create the perfect recipe for success.

1: A Clear Unique Selling Position (USP)

A USP is a brief statement that tells potential customers what makes your business different from others in your industry. There are only so many home services you can offer. What makes your offers the obvious choice? What do you offer that other businesses don’t? Your USP should be prominently displayed so that visitors immediately know what to expect from your business. Including a USP can help with conversions and give potential customers a reason to choose your business over others.

2: An Eye-Catching Headline and Strong Supporting Copy

A strong headline is one of the most crucial features of your landing page. The goal is to catch and keep the customer's attention throughout the page. Paint the picture of what challenges your customer is currently facing. Maybe their AC unit is protesting as the hellish summer months roll in. Or the pipes to their throne room have closed up shop—and they’re a family of five. Addressing your customer’s pain points and how they manifest on a daily basis shows you know what they’re going through. Highlight how your offer is the solution they need and describe how their future could look.

3: Key Features, Benefits, and Advantages

Benefits and features are essential elements of a landing page because they provide value to potential customers. A feature is the function of the service you offer, and the benefit is the impact of that feature on the customer. The advantage is the actual felt need based on pain and pleasure points. Highlighting what your customer will get from your service creates a strong sense of why they should buy from you. When it comes to creating compelling benefits and features, focus on what your customers care about most. What are their pain points (think money, stress, time)?What are their pleasure points (think ROI, peace of mind, time savings)? How can your product or service help them achieve those things? Focusing on the customer's actual felt needs will help you isolate and articulate benefits and features that resonate most with them. As a result, they’ll want to learn more about what you have to offer.

4: Engaging and Personalized Content

Here’s the harsh truth. If you don’t make an effort to create engaging content, you don’t deserve the “good customers”. This all ties back to truly understanding the actual felt needs of your target audience. When you understand what actually matters to them most, you will serve them at the highest level? Therefore, what elements could you include on your landing page to draw their attention and retain their interest? Customer acquisition is never free. Whether you’re paying for advertising or investing your time, all of it has a cost. The smarter you work at connecting with your audience, the more conversions you’ll gain. Roll up your sleeves and remember: the only thing in magic pills is elbow grease.

5: Stunning Relevant Visuals (Images/Videos)

Another essential element of the perfect landing page is stunning visuals. This could be in the form of images, videos, or even infographics. Visuals capture your audience’s attention and give them a taste of what you have to offer. Powerful visuals communicate your message more effectively than text alone. When it comes to google conversion, studies show that including visuals can increase your conversion rate by up to 80%. People are more likely to remember information presented in a visually appealing way. Include pictures that accentuate the story you’re telling. Make sure your background image is congruent with the narrative.

6: Social Proof (Testimonials/Reviews)

People always want to know what other customers think about your service before taking the plunge. For example, including verifiable 5-star reviews and testimonials builds trust with your prospective customers. In contrast, a landing page without the social proof that verify your services may fail to optimize conversions.

7: Urgency

One way to secure high conversions is by incorporating urgency. Customers are more likely to follow through if faced with a time or supply limit. Offering a discount for your most popular service is the most obvious option, but limiting spot availability due to time constraints holds a much higher level of integrity. The key is to ensure you are not making unsubstantiated claims. As long as your use of urgency is strategic, you’ll see increased conversion rates in no time.

8: Your Goal - Hyperspecific Call-to-Action (CTA)

Your CTA is the soul of your landing page. It drives conversions and tells your visitors what to do next. A CTA can be as simple as a button that says "Buy Now" or "Sign Up". But it can also be more complex, like a form that asks for your name and email address. The CTA should be placed prominently on the page and visually stand out. Clear and concise, it should tell users exactly what they need to do next to fulfill their need. This element alone is the gateway to improving landing page conversion rates. Without a CTA, there’s nothing to measure. Customers need to be guided throughout the content and become inspired enough to take action.

A Great Landing Page Is…

A great landing page relies on its contents but also on its accessibility. The goal is to make the experience as effortless as possible. Your website conversion rate depends on it.

Fast

Fast-loading landing pages help with conversion by providing a better user experience. Users are likely to stay on your page if it loads quickly, increasing chances for a conversion. You can help ensure a fast-loading page by compressing images, using a content delivery network, and minifying code.

Shareable and clickable buttons

Shareable and clickable buttons provide customers with an easy way to take action. For example, your CTA button needs to lead to the action you want them to take. The goal is to make it as simple as possible for your customer. The fewer steps they have to take, the better.

Mobile-friendly

Most consumers in today’s market search the web on their phones. Without mobile optimization, you'll lose out on customers. A mobile-friendly landing page can help you:

• Rank higher in search results.
• Improve your click-through rate.
• Boost your conversion rate.

One mobile-friendly landing page example is for Apple’s iPhone. The mobile optimization includes large images and clear CTAs easy to tap on a small screen. Even the slightest adjustments help improve the mobile experience.

Uses emotion-evoking colors

Your brand colors should make your customers feel. Ensure continuity by sticking with your brand colors. Create cohesion across your images and colors relevant to your offer. The vibrant red of the Coca-Cola logo evokes excitement and passion. The forest green hue of the Starbucks logo symbolizes affluence and freshness. What emotion do you want to elevate in your customers when they think of you?

Contains “Thank You” Page

Creating a well-designed and thoughtfully written thank you page is a powerful way to show your appreciation. This will help you humanize your brand and foster a connection with your customers. A thank you page is also a tool to promote your website, blog, or social media channels. Include links back to your site to increase traffic and potential customers.

Tested

It’s always best practice to test your page before publishing it. Make sure the text lines up correctly. Click the buttons to check the CTA link and ensure it leads to the right place. Be sure to adjust the mobile view in the landing page builder. Test this version as well to confirm the changes you made reflect accurately. If the text is too small or something is missing, you can fix it before clicking publish.

Trackable

Last but not least, a great landing page is trackable. Analytics will tell you what customers do on it and what’s working (so you can fix what isn’t). Tracking data can help you:

• Understand how people are finding your site.
• See which marketing campaigns are working.
• Test different versions of your page to see what converts best.
• Make data-driven decisions about your site.

Every piece of data you receive is critical to your marketing strategy. It will enable you to optimize your landing page until you’re getting the results you want.

Turn Your Prospects into Buyers

The most important thing to remember is that your landing page must be relevant and useful to your target audience. Make sure that you're providing them with relevant content and a valuable offer. Include clear calls to action to guide your customers. With engaging, targeted content, you can create an effective landing page that will turn browsers into buyers. Ready to grow your business and boost conversions? Book a call with Wizard of Ads® today!