Gratuitous sorcery and incantations from actual Wizards.

We can never understate the relevance of local SEO in today’s competitive residential home service market. Knowing that Google optimizes SERPs results based on a desktop user’s IP address and a mobile device’s geolocation, you’ll lose a chunk of precious prospects unless you optimize your business’ website to appear in local listings. To this end, local SEO tools are your strongest artillery. Local SEO tools can improve your online presence which further engages your target market. It can support your efforts when tracking your ranking or performance, peeking into your competitor’s strategies, and developing optimized keywords. In this article, we’ll share tips on how you can dominate local SEO and list the best local SEO tools to help you grow.

How to Win Local SEO

Winning at local SEO relies on a myriad of signals. Since the public has no access to Google’s local search algorithm, it can be confusing where we must dedicate our efforts. So paying attention to all factors will give your business a holistic local SEO. As an increasing number of businesses turn to local SEO, SEO search ranking have become harder, but not impossible. As the endeavor for competitive SERPs ranking increases, so should our understanding of how to dominate local SEO. Local SEO domination should address 5 questions:

1. What is the most important factor in local search ranking?

Ranking in local search comes in two separate categories: local pack and localized organic SERPs. If you want to fare better in your local search rankings, your goal must be to land the top spots in both varieties. But what factors are at play that influences local packs and local organic SERPs? The quick answer is, nobody knows. Google, being Google, keeps its local search ranking algorithm under wraps. But data in 2021 courtesy of Whitespark’s survey outlined the 7 top-most factors for both local pack and localized organic, as shown in the image below:

2. How will GBP help me improve my rankings?

Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business, is the first step to local search success. GBP is a helpful tool for businesses that want to leverage a location-based strategy as it can increase local exposure. For a residential home service business, it can be a struggle to compete with household names that rely on heavy advertising and brand recognition. It’s local SEO that helps you edge them out in your community. By optimizing your GBP you increase the chance of ranking in local searches. However, your GBP efforts must work in tandem with on-page and off-page strategies for the best results!

3. What exactly is a location page?

Location pages, a.k.a. local landing pages, are webpages in your domain used to highlight the geographic aspect of your business for customers. These are especially important for service area businesses like residential home services as it lets people know the areas where you operate. As much as it is relevant to know what location pages are, it’s also important to know what it isn’t. Location pages complement local SEO. While local SEO uses geographical markers to target specific audiences, location pages use relevant long-tail keywords that help your business appear in location-specific queries. Essentially, location pages are useful for ranking in localized organic SERPs.

4. Is it worthwhile to spend time on business listings and directories?

Yes. If you don’t set up your business listing on Google Business Profile, you can’t expect to rank in local packs. By then, the most you can be is bagging the top spot in localized organic SERPs, but even that isn’t enough for a holistic local SEO approach. Establishing your business listing is a must. Moreover, updating directory information helps people find you better and gain a better understanding of what you offer.

5. Am I verified on Google Local Service Ads?

If you haven’t yet verified your business and set up your Google LSA account, stop reading and go do that right now. I’ll wait. Not only will you garner the top position in search results, but conversions are exponentially better than traditional PPC. You will be required to verify your company to Google in a number of ways, you gain the legitimacy and coveted positioning. Paying close attention to LSA and responding quickly to inquiries will help you appease the Google Gods. Answering these 5 questions are helpful ways to tip the scale toward increasing your local SEO positioning. Couple those above with local SEO tools that further leverage your business and a local SEO expert to lead you in the right direction, and you get a trifecta that secures local SERPs ranking success. For residential home service providers who want to dominate with local SEO, book a call with Wizard of Ads™.

Best Local SEO Tools

1. Google Business Profile

It’s no surprise that Google Business Profile (formerly Googly My Business) takes the top spot for the best local SEO tools. Designed, owned, and controlled by Google, it’s your first step in ranking on the local packs. The beauty of GBP is that it outlines every information that customers need to know about your enterprise. Whether that’s your location, address, or phone number — a single click is all it takes. It’s a good tool to compare businesses, discover new competitors via the local pack ranking, and reply to customer reviews. The “book an appointment” option that Google integrated is useful to encourage listing engagement. Below are best practices to implement on your GBP:

• Upload relevant business media (photos and videos)
• Integrate a button for requesting a quote
• Enable appointment booking
• Reply to reviews
• Take advantage of Google Posts

2. Google Ads Keyword Planner tool

According to research, a staggering 76% who search for nearby businesses visit them within the day. With that in mind, working on your residential home service business’ online presence is a must and Google Keyword Planner can help with that. Google Ads Keyword Planner boasts several features that can help with your local keyword research. That is, discovering keywords relevant to your industry, learning the local search volume data, and determining what sorts of language your targets use. In other words, it can help you speak to the dog in the language of the dog about what the dog cares about. Here are some things to remember about Google’s Keyword Planner tool:

• Monthly search results are rounded to the nearest volume which means the numbers give the idea but aren’t as accurate as paid tools
• They use "buckets" to group keywords by traffic volume so some traffic volume values in Keyword Planner may differ significantly from real traffic volume
• Only 35% of the keywords are shown among the most trafficked terms which mean companies can miss out ranking on other important keywords

3. Google Search Console

The Google Search Console (GSC) is your very own Google companion tool to let you know how “Google-friendly” you currently are. You may use the tool to check which webpages are indexed, what keywords you’re ranking for, which of your webpages are ranking, and how mobile configuration errors. One really desirable feature of GSC is that it allows you to see how many clicks and impressions you get. This is especially useful for optimizing meta titles and meta descriptions to maximize your Click-Through Rate (CTR). GSC isn’t a standalone tool for your local SEO efforts. You’ll need to use it hand in hand with other Google-provided instruments the Keyword Planner and Analytics to streamline your local SEO efforts.

4. Google Trends

Some keywords fluctuate in popularity depending on the season. As the name suggests, this is where Google Trends comes through. Google Trends is an SEO tool used primarily to observe keyword popularity and track season-triggered increases in search volume. Now how does this help local SEO for your residential home service business? Check the image below:

In the past 5 years, you can see a pattern in how the search volume for the term “aircon” fluctuates annually. As shown, it peaks during summer and dips during the onset of the Ber months. You can use Google Trends then to generate more locally relevant long-tail keywords that can increase your localized organic ranking through a “freshness” angle. Here are other ways Google Trends can help you:

• Generate peak season content to grow traffic
• Take advantage of the hottest topics
• identify niche topics by region
• Google Trends Competitor Comparison

5. Growthbar

Starting off the third-party toolset for local SEO, we have Growthbar. This is a low-cost tool that you can use as a dedicated app or a chrome extension. Growthbar is helpful when tracking the highest-ranking keywords of a website which can help augment your local keyword research when you do a competitor analysis. Moreover, you can check a competitor’s domain authority so you know what efforts you need to outrank them.

6. Georanker

Georanker is particularly useful for residential home service businesses that have multiple locations across the country. The tool displays heat maps where a website ranks high to reinforce any geo-specific local SEO efforts you implement. So if you observe weak ranking in one of your branches say in Montgomery, you may want to dedicate more time to improving their local rank positioning.

7. Yext

Yext is a powerful third-party tool that automatically audits your business directory listing. Any inaccurate information can be replaced as needed. Moreover, the software helps identify listing voids you can fill out to further augment your local SEO efforts. One particular feature of Yext that stands out is its Review Monitoring attribute. This helps businesses track and reply to reviews from different domains in one dashboard so you can streamline the process and save more time.

8. Semrush Position Tracking Tool

Like GSC, SEMrush’s Position Tracking tool helps track your website’s ranking on certain keywords. However, this tool takes it up a notch by also targeting the type of device used and geographic location — which is helpful for local SEO. You can use the Position Tracking tool to compare your overall performance with that of competitors so you can adjust accordingly. Apart from the cap on the number of keywords you can track, this is one of those must-haves local SEO tools.

Secrets Revealed (in Acquiring Customers)

Local SEO tools are mere stepping stones that help your success. In reality, you can still attempt to dominate without them, albeit it will take more effort on your part. Below are the trade secrets and good practices for acquiring more clients in local SERPs!

• Update your local listing’s relevant directories

Your GBP is the face representing your business in local packs. Updating your listing’s relevant directories like the NAP (name, address, and phone numbers) may be the nudge your potential customers need to book a call. Providing other information may also spell the success of your local SEO.

• Claim Your Local Listing

Conversely, if you haven’t made a Google Business Profile yet, you might want to start now. Alternatively, businesses that have been in operation for several years probably have a local listing already only waiting for a claimant.

• Schema.org Business Markup

Schema markups don’t necessarily improve your local SEO. But they’re effective tools to improve your listings UI and CTR. Adding schema markups on your webpages will help you produce rich snippets where you can integrate your rating, stars, etc.

• More Positive User Reviews

Google is cool with inviting people to give you reviews. So it would be helpful if you could urge current and previous customers to express their thoughts on your business. Higher reviews mean better ranking potential.

• Correct Aspect Ratios and Image Sizes

This is a pitfall of most businesses especially if they’re trying out Google Posts for the first time. Using accurate aspect ratios will support your UI and CTR. Here is a quick guide:

• Profile photo Recommended: 250 x 250Minimum: 120 x 120Aspect Ratio: 1:1
• Cover photo Recommended: 1080 x 608Minimum: 480 x 270
• Profile photo Recommended: 1200 x 900Minimum: 400 x 300Aspect Ratio: 4:3SERP Display: 230 x 130Desktop Display: 404 x 303
• High-Quality Content

Last but not the least, your localized organic SERP ranking should be prioritized as well. According to Whitespark, on-page SEO matters most for organic rankings. With that in mind, make sure every piece of content you publish online adds value to your readers. This improves the trustworthiness of your site in the long run, which may translate into more leads and customers. There’s more to local SEO than meets the eye, and this article demonstrates that ranking in Google is a holistic effort. Local SEO tools are mere weapons you wield that can help secure your victory. If you’re looking for an expert to help you secure your local SERP rankings, Wizard of Ads® can help you. Book a call.

"Erroneous preconceptions are the dangerous downside of myths. But heroes are their dangerous upside. Larger than life, highly exaggerated, and always positioned in the most favorable light, a hero is a beautiful lie."

– Roy H. Williams

A hero is idealized and admired for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. We all have our heroes. And we tend to put them on a pedestal, where they often belong. The same goes for myths. A myth is a widely accepted false belief. Myths are dangerous because they often lead us astray, preventing us from seeing the truth. The word myth comes from the Greek word mythos, which means story or tale. A myth is a module of a culture, a system of beliefs shared by a group. There is a magic behind myths – they have a way of taking on a life of their own. Sales funnel optimization is no different. Many myths about it can lead you astray if you believe them. However, just because you hear something repeated often doesn’t make it true. When it comes to business, many myths can hold you back if you believe them. The next time you hear someone say one of these things, you can be the voice of reason and set the record straight. But many myths can motivate you and inspire you to take action and achieve your goals if you understand the truth behind them. The most prevalent myth in heating and air conditioning is that a toaster would be the ideal home warming present.

The fact is, a furnace would be the best home warming present. When it comes to business, there are a lot of myths floating around, passing off as facts. Like, for example, you might believe coffee ground can be flushed down the sink drain. The fact is, your creating a coffee puck that will eventually need to be cleared. And lubing it up with bacon grease ain’t the answer. Am I right?!When it comes to marketing, there is a lot of myths and facts about sales funnels. These nifty tools are awesome for creating an ultra focused message and call to action (CTA). Essentially, if you want a person who is interested in your thing to do one thing, you use a sales funnel. There are many myths surrounding sales funnel optimization too. If you don't know, sales funnel optimization is the process of continually improving your conversion funnel to boost conversions and improve ROI. It's a key part of any successful marketing strategy, yet many misconceptions cloud your success. Sales funnel optimization is a significant yet misunderstood area of online conversions.

Understanding the myths and facts about sales funnels and optimization techniques can boost your conversion rate and sales. You could also use a click funnel. A click funnel is a strategy used to increase the number of conversions by making changes to the design and content of your sales funnel. For example, if you write a sales blog on your website, you could use a click funnel to increase the number of people who subscribe to your blog. You can also use a sales funnel to increase the number of people who buy your product. If you have an eCommerce store, you can use it to do just that. The goal of optimizing your sales funnel is to increase your conversion rate. That is the percentage of people who make the decision to take the desired action, such as booking an appointment with an online scheduler or picking up the phone to book an appointment. Many factors affect your conversion rate, so it's important to continually experiment, test, and refine different elements of your funnel. Find what works best for your business and optimize it. Sales funnel optimization is an essential part of any growth strategy. However, there are many myths to debunk. So let’s go bunking.

This Ain’t Your Average Funnel Anymore

Sales funnels take many shapes. The traditional sales funnel definition is linear, with a consistent journey from customer awareness to purchase. In the early days, a person might call up an HVAC company after seeing a yellow pages ad. Then, they'd receive a series of follow-up calls and postcards in the mail in ongoing efforts to get them as a loyal customer. The flow of a sales funnel follows the same tenants as any sales model.

• Attention: The first of the traditional sales funnel stages is attention, or when people become aware of your product or service. It's essential to ensure they clearly understand what you're offering and why it's valuable or beneficial to them.
• Interest: Just because someone knows your plumbing company exists, doesn’t mean they care. Interest occurs in most home service companies with an externally triggered event, like a leak. You win the game if you capture a buyers attention before they need your service.
• Decision: Marketers think you need to create desire for your product or service, creating elaborate campaigns that are cute and clever. The reality if that if your in the third phase and just starting to generate desire, you’ve lost. At this point, your marketing efforts need to focus on getting the prospect to make the decision to choose you.
• Action: This is the final stage of the sales funnel, where people pick up the phone to book an appointment or fill out an online form. This phase has to have zero friction to finalize the conversion. This means a human picks up your phone and books the appointment or an online scheduler gives them instant gratification of a verified appointment.

While the traditional linear sales funnel doesn't work as well as more dynamic, non-linear sales funnel, the tenants of buyer behavior stay the same. The key is to speak to the actual felt needs of the buyer’s pain and pleasure points. We don’t want to overwhelm or bore the prospect or they will drop out of the funnel entirely. Today’s sales funnel is non-linear and much more complex. With the advent of the digital marketing landscape, businesses now have many more touch points with potential customers. Prospects can enter a sales funnel at any stage in their journey. For example, someone might see a Facebook ad for a new air conditioning unit and click through to learn more. Then they might visit the company's website and read some blog posts before finally making a purchase. Or, someone might Google search for air conditioners and click on a paid ad that takes them directly to a product page. In this case, they bypassed the whole top of the funnel entirely. Just remember, the less time they have going through your funnels, the less invested they are in you other than providing the cheapest price. The modern sales funnel is more like a web, with many different paths leading to the purchase. Because there are so many possible paths a customer can take, it's vital to map out your own unique funnel and optimize each step for maximum conversion rate. The key is to provide enough information and choices at each stage of the funnel so that people can make an informed decision without being overwhelmed. How's your sales funnel looking? Is it optimized for conversion? If not, what can you change to improve it? Want to book a call with Wizard of Ads®, yet? We'll help you configure your sales funnel so your conversion rate soars.

9 Myths & Facts about Sales Funnel Optimization

Many myths exist surrounding sales funnel optimization. Here are 9 of the most common myths, along with the facts that debunk them.

Myth #1: It’s Costly

Optimizing your sales funnel doesn’t have to be a costly process. In fact, you can often do it for free using tools that are already at your disposal. Here are a couple of sales funnel examples. 1) If you’re using Google Analytics, you can use the data you already have to identify areas of improvement, or 2) if you’re using a CRM, utilize its built-in reporting functionality to spot trends and areas for improvement.

Myth #2: You Have to Know How to Write Code or Build Websites

You don’t need to be a coder or web developer to optimize your sales funnel. While some tools may require some coding knowledge, like setting up tracking pixels, there are plenty of options that don’t require any coding whatsoever. For example, if you want to add a popup to your website, there are now numerous plugins and tools that allow you to do this without having to write a single line of code. Many online resources can help you if you need to code something yourself. If you’re not sure where to start, a quick Google search will almost certainly turn up what you’re looking for. For example, going back to that popup site... You could use a tool like Poptin, which provides an easy-to-use editor to create popups and other kinds of lead capture forms. Or, you could code the popup yourself using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If you decide to go the coding route, plenty of resources online can help you. For example, w3schools.com is a great place to learn about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Once you have the basics down, you can start creating your own custom popups and forms. If you need a sales funnel, there is likely a online software solution that will work for you. Clickfunnels, LeadPages, Hubspot, and Keap are popular solutions that require little to no knowledge of coding.

Myth #3: You Can Only Use Paid Traffic to Sales Funnels

You can absolutely use paid traffic to drive people to your sales funnel, but you don’t have to. In fact, there are many ways to generate traffic for your funnel without spending a dime. For example, you can use SEO or content marketing to attract organic traffic. Or you can leverage social media platforms and email marketing to reach potential customers. The key is to experiment and find what works best for your business. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to generating traffic.

Myth #4: All Sales Funnel Optimization Works

Just because a certain optimization worked for one person doesn’t mean it will work for you. And even if optimization does work, there’s no guarantee that it will continue to work after some time. That's why testing and experimenting with different optimizations, such as website optimization, is vital to see what works best for your particular situation. What worked yesterday might not work today, so it’s essential to keep up with the latest trends and changes.

Myth #5: You Can Set Your Sales Funnel Up and Forget It

Your sales funnel is never done and will always need to be tested, tweaked, and optimized as time goes on. As your business changes and grows, so too will your sales funnels. What worked last month may not work this month, so it’s crucial to keep track of what works and what doesn't and adjust accordingly. The best way to do this is to set up a tracking system so you can see which steps in your funnel lose people This will tell you what changes you need to make to keep them taking actions. A/B testing is a great way to see what works and what doesn’t. Only change one thing at a time and seeing how it affects your conversion rate. If it goes up, great! If not, try something else.

Myth #6: Instant Results

When you first start optimizing your funnel, you probably won’t see results overnight. It can take weeks or even months to really see your changes take effect. Patience is key with sales funnel optimization– don’t expect miracles overnight. Sales funnel optimization is a process that takes time to see results. Be patient, keep track of your data, and don’t give up!

Myth #7: Leads Are Your Only Goal

Many businesses focus solely on lead generation, but that’s not the only goal of a sales funnel. Yes, generating leads is crucial, but if those leads never convert into customers, what’s the point?

Your ultimate goal should be to generate more customers, not just more leads.- Ryan Chute

A lead is someone who has shown interest in your product or service but hasn’t committed to buying anything. A customer is someone who has made a purchase. Would you rather have 100 leads or 10 customers? Don’t get so caught up in generating leads that you forget your ultimate goal – acquiring more customers.

Myth #8: Sales Funnels Are Only Applicable to Online Businesses

A common misconception is that sales funnels are only applicable to online businesses. Businesses of all types use them – even residential home service companies. If you have a physical product or service to sell, you can use a funnel to increase your sales and conversions. For example, you're a landscaping company, and you want to book appointment for aerating services. You can use a sales funnel to drive leads to your landing page, convert them into appointments, and then sell them into customers. Sales funnels are not just for online businesses. Any type of business uses them to increase sales and conversions.

Myth #9: The Longer the Sales Funnel, the Better

While having a well-thought-out sales funnel is vital, you don’t want to make it so complex that potential customers get discouraged, lost, or bored. The key is to convert them saying the absolute least amount of information. Make your sales funnel comprehensive enough potential customers have all information they need to take action. Period. Full stop. Anything more and you lost them with the boring bits.

Sales Funnel Myths: Debunked

If you keep these myths in mind, you’ll be on the right track to optimizing your funnel and making more sales. Don’t let the myths about sales funnels stop you from using them to grow your business. Use them to your advantage and watch your business take off! Do you need help with your sales funnel? How about your sales funnel optimization? What’s your sales funnel optimization strategy looking like?Wizard of Ads™ is here to serve. Book a call.

Let’s count to three… Ready? These are three ways to increase your website traffic:

• Number one: Organic Content. You want your website to be full of high-quality, original content that is new, interesting, and different. Not only will this help to improve your SEO, but it will also keep people coming back for more, which leads to increased traffic.
• Number two: Social Media. In today’s world, social media is king. To increase your website’s traffic, you must ensure you are active on all the major social media platforms. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok – you name it. The more social media users see and share your content with their friends and followers, the more traffic you'll generate.
• Number three: Paid Advertising. While organic reach is great, you need to give your traffic a boost. That’s where paid advertising comes in. Investing in some targeted ads can really increase the number of people visiting your site.

Each of these is a great way to increase your website traffic. But if you really want to see some serious results, you must focus on all three. You’ll be sure to see a significant increase in the amount of traffic your site gets. And that’s the traffic you actually wanna get caught in!

The Necessity for Website Traffic

You might be wondering why I'm even bothering to tell you how to get web traffic to your website in the first place. Well, let me put it this way: If you own a residential home service business, people will only know about you if they see you in person or hear about it from somebody else. The same holds true for your website. The only way people will find your website is if they stumble upon it by accident or somebody tells them about it. So the question, then, becomes, how do you get people to visit your website on purpose? There are several ways to do this, but search engine optimization (SEO) is the most effective method. The SEO process optimizes your website so it’ll rank higher in Google's search results. The higher your website ranking, the more likely people will find it. You can do a few things to optimize your website for SEO:

• Make sure your website is responsive and fast: People are impatient. I your website takes too long to load they will leave before they see what you offer. Check your [website traffic](https://hookedmarketing.net/blog/the-importance-of-website-traffic/#:~:text=Website traffic is important for, your brand and building relationships.) tracker and internet status to see how fast your website loads to ensure it's as fast as possible.
• Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions: When people search for something on Google, they usually type in a few keywords. If you can include those keywords in your title and description, it will help your website show up in the search results.
• Create quality content relevant to your audience: Google loves fresh, relevant, and engaging content. The more you update your website with new content, the more likely people will find it.
• Make sure your website is mobile-friendly: With more and more people using their phones to browse the internet today, it’s essential to ensure your website looks good on a small screen.
• Promote your website with social media: Social media is a great way to get visitors to your website. If you post your website links on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, people will click them, and visit your site.

Are you seeing any ongoing traffic? Is your website SEO-friendly? If not, consider making some changes to your site. Follow the tips above, and you can increase traffic to your site while getting more people to view your content. Or, enlist the aid of Wizard of Ads®. We’re experts at driving website traffic. Book a call!

Advertising-Driven Traffic

A 50 percent increase in reach without a decline in frequency should increase your advertising-driven traffic by 50 percent. To increase your traffic by 100 percent, you must double both reach and frequency. Advertising-driven traffic is a broad category that includes website visitors who visit your site because they saw one of your ads. The main types of advertising that generate ad-driven traffic are online display ads, paid search ads, and social media ads. There are two ways to increase the reach of your advertising:

• Increase the number of people seeing your ads.
• Target a wider audience with your ad campaigns.
• Place your ads on more websites and apps.

To increase the number of times each person sees your ad, you can:

• Increase the frequency of your ad campaigns.
• Increase the number of times a person sees your ad.
• Run less ad campaigns with a higher budget.
• Place your ads on websites and apps your target audience visits frequently.
• Run retargeting campaigns.

You can also generate traffic to your website through organic means, such as SEO or social media marketing. Organic traffic comes to your site without being driven by online advertising. The main ways to generate organic traffic is offline mass media marketing. We already know what SEO is, but social media marketing promotes your website or product on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Both online and offline marketing require a significant amount of time and effort to be successful. There are more ways than one to mess up an otherwise excellent message. However, they are both excellent ways to generate organic traffic to your website. Generating traffic to your site can be challenging, but it’s crucial to remember that quality traffic is more significant than quantity. It’s better to have 100 visitors interested in what you can offer than 1,000 visitors looking for something else. Focusing on quality traffic generation means you're more likely to achieve your desired results.

Mobile vs. Desktop vs. Tablet Website Traffic Share

According to similarweb.com, the percentage of traffic coming from different devices worldwide as of May 2022 is:

• Mobile: 64.14%
• Desktop: 33.66%
• Tablet: 2.20%

It’s important to note that these numbers will vary depending on the type of website. You may see higher mobile and tablet traffic percentages if your website is designed for mobile users. Similarly, if your website is designed for desktop users, you may see higher percentages of desktop traffic. The takeaway here is: You need to design your website with all types of users in mind. Your website should be accessible and user-friendly no matter what kind of device your potential customer is using. However, it's important to note that mobile traffic isn't always equal to mobile conversions. Just because someone visits your website on a mobile device doesn't mean they'll make a purchase or take any other desired action. In fact, the conversion rate for mobile devices is typically lower than for desktop computers. That means you must work even harder to optimize your site for mobile users and convert them into customers or lead generation. One way to improve your website's mobile conversion rate is to make sure your forms are short and easy to fill out on a small screen. Nobody wants to spend time filling out a long form on their phone, so the shorter you can make it, the better. Another way to improve conversions on mobile devices is to use click-to-call buttons. That allows potential customers to call you directly from your website with just one tap, which can be much easier than filling out a form on a small screen. You can also use a device that directs internet traffic, known as a Traffic Shaper. You can use it to improve your internet usage quality and connection by allocating separate channels for different data types, like audio, video, and email. This prevents one type of traffic from hogging all the internet bandwidth and slowing down your connection. There are two main types of traffic shapers: Hardware and software. Hardware devices are usually installed on routers, while software ones are typically built into operating systems. Windows includes a basic traffic report tool called Quality of Service (QoS), which can be used to allocate internet bandwidth to certain applications. If you're not happy with the results you're getting from QoS, or if you want more advanced features, there are several paid and free website internet traffic report available. Some of the most popular traffic-shaping tools are:

• NetBalancer: NetBalancer is a paid traffic-shaping tool for Windows that offers a wide range of features, including priorities, rules, filtering, and more.
• Traffic Shaper XP: Traffic Shaper XP is a free traffic-shaping tool for Windows that offers many of the same features as NetBalancer.
• Speed limiter: Speed limiter is a free traffic-shaping tool for Windows that allows you to limit the speed of any application or process.

These are just a few examples of traffic-shaping tools– many others are available. Mobile devices are increasingly becoming the primary way people access the internet, so ensuring your website is optimized for these users is essential. A responsive design, simplifying your forms, and including click-to-call buttons can improve your website's mobile conversions. You can also ensure potential customers have a positive experience on your site.

In Conclusion

When you're looking for ways to improve website traffic, it's crucial to consider all your options and find the best solution for your company. By taking the time to research your choices and find the right solutions for your business, you can ensure that your website is getting the traffic you want. So, IS your website getting the traffic you want? If not, Wizard of Ads® can fix that. At Wizard of Ads™, we understand that website traffic is significant for businesses. We also know it can be hard to get the traffic you want. That's why our services help businesses improve their website traffic. We can help you find the right target keywords, write engaging content, and create effective marketing campaigns. We'll also work with you, ensuring that your website is optimized for search engines so you can get the most visibility for your business. If you're ready to improve your website traffic, let us show you how we can help. Book a call today!

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!

“Hey, Google… What are you?” “I am an assistant.” No, as you probably already know, you aren't just hearing voices. You're experiencing the rise of voice search– and it's only getting louder. That's how you voice search with Google-compatible devices or Google.com. Alexa and Siri are alternative contenders and, depending on your personal search preferences, are optimal choices for voice search. You can use your voice to ask Google questions, like “What’s the weather like today?” or “Directions to the nearest coffee shop.” You can also use voice search to find things on your phone, like, “What is Cameron's phone number?” “Ok Google” is the cue for Google Assistant, a digital assistant that helps you with things like setting alarms, navigation, and more. To turn on Google Assistant voice search, say, “Hey Google” or “Ok Google,” then your question. You can use voice search if you have an Android phone, Google Home, or another Google device. If you don't have a Google device, you can still use Google voice search online on your phone by going to Google.com and tapping the microphone icon. Voice searching with Google is faster and easier than typing. Just say what you want and get results fast from across the web. Read this article to know all you need to know about voice search.

Google’s Voice

Google's voice search is an awesome feature that allows you to perform several tasks, and search the web and your device using your voice. To get started with voice search, open the Google app on your Android device and tap the microphone icon in the search bar. Alternatively, as mentioned earlier, you can say, “Ok Google” to start a search. You can use voice search for several things, such as asking questions, performing web searches, setting alarms, and more. For example, you can say, “Plumbing Services near me” or “Where to find a plumber tonight.” You can also use voice search to find things on your phone, like, “Open Gmail.” You can turn “Ok Google” on many other devices, such as Android Wear, Android TVs, and Google Home. Some questions you can ask with Voice Search include:

• What is the capital of Australia?
• Show me pictures of pandas
• What’s the definition of “octopus”?
• Play some music by The Beatles
• Wake me up at 7 a.m. tomorrow
• Set a timer for 5 minutes

You can also use voice search to control your device and apps. For example, you can say, “Ok Google, turn on Bluetooth” or “Ok Google, play The Mandalorian on Disney Plus.” If you're keen to tune up your marketing strategy, look no further than Wizard of Ads®. Our team can help you take your business to the next level. Book a call.

The Origin and Key Events

The history of voice search begins back in 1952 when [Bell Laboratories introduced the first speech recognition program called Audrey](https://sonix.ai/history-of-speech-recognition#:~:text=1950s and 60s,to 16 words in English.). It was followed in the 1960s by a machine called Shoebox which could recognize numbers zero to nine. During this time, IBM also developed a program called STAIR (Speech To ASCII Recognition), which helped transcribe meeting notes. In 1973, Dragon Systems began commercializing speech recognition technology. It eventually led to the development of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking software in 1997. Meanwhile, in 2002, Google launched its voice search service, which allowed users to search the web by speaking into their phones. What followed was the release of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in 2012. That included Google Now, a voice assistant that used natural language processing to answer questions and perform tasks. In recent years, the accuracy of speech recognition systems has greatly improved, thanks to the adoption of deep learning techniques. It has led to the development of other virtual assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Microsoft Cortana. Despite all these advances, however, speech recognition remains a challenge. One reason is that there are many different ways to say the same thing. For example, you can say the phrase “turn off the light” as “switch off the light,” “flip the switch,” or simply “turn it off.” Another challenge is that speech recognition systems need to be able to handle background noise and other interference. Despite these challenges, speech recognition is a crucial technology that is becoming increasingly important in our lives. As we move toward a more connected world, it has the potential to transform how we interact with devices and make life easier for everyone.

The Plight of the Hummingbird

Google announced the Hummingbird core algorithm update in September 2013. This update was a significant change to the way Google ranked websites, and it had a profound impact on the SEO industry. On Google voice search, in particular, the Hummingbird update meant that Google would now be able to understand the context of a search query, rather than just the individual keywords. This was a paradigm shift. It meant that SEOs needed to start thinking about optimizing their content for meaning in addition to keywords. The problem is that while the Hummingbird update was a exponential step forward for Google, it also created some new challenges for SEOs. In particular, it made it more difficult to rank for long-tail keywords. That's because, with Hummingbird, Google can now understand the search intent behind a query. So, if someone searches for "how to make butter," Google will know that they are looking for a recipe rather than just a list of ingredients. That's nice news for searchers because they are more likely to find what they want. But it's not so great for SEO, because it's harder to rank for long-tail keywords. However, optimizing your content is crucial for voice search from a marketing standpoint. As more and more people use voice search to find information online, optimizing your content for this type of search becomes increasingly important. Here are a few tips for optimizing your content for voice search:

• Speak like a human (I, Not Robot): When you're writing your content, use natural language. That will make it easier for Google to understand what your content is about, and it will help you rank higher in voice search results. Semantic search and using language that Google can understand is becoming increasingly important.
• Think like a searcher: When you're planning your content, think about what someone would say if they were searching for the information you're providing.

For example, if you're writing a recipe, think about how someone would search for that recipe. They might say something like, “How do I make a cake?” or “What's the best recipe for a chocolate cake?” It will help you ensure that your content is relevant to what people are actually searching for.

• Use structured data: Structured data is code that helps search engines understand the information on your website. It can help you specify the ingredients in a recipe, the steps involved in making it, and other essential details. That makes it easier for search engines to find and understand your content, which can help you rank higher in voice search results.
• Optimize your website for mobile: More and more people are using voice search on their mobile devices. So it's vital to make sure you optimize your website for mobile. That means ensuring it loads quickly, is easy to navigate, and has relevant and useful content.
• Make your content scannable: People often scan web pages rather than reading them word-for-word. So it's crucial to make your content easy to scan. You can do this with short paragraphs, clear headings, and bulleted or numbered lists.
• Be specific: The more specific your content is, the easier it will be for people to find it. So if you're writing about a recipe, include as many details as possible: The ingredients, the steps involved, how long it takes, etc.

Integration in other Google Products

Voice search is also integrated into many other Google products, such as Google Maps, the Google Mobile app, and YouTube.

Voice Search in Google Maps

The power of voice search is growing every day. In fact, 20 percent of all mobile searches are by voice. If you're a business with a physical location, it's essential to ensure that your address and phone number are updated on your website and in your Google Business Profile listing. It will help ensure that customers can find you when they do a voice search for your business type in Google Maps.

Voice Search in Google Mobile App

Like with Google Maps, if you have a physical location, you'll want your address and phone number up-to-date on your website and in your Google Business Profile listing. It will help ensure that prospects can find you when they do a voice search for your business type in the Google mobile app.

Voice Search in YouTube

It turns out that YouTube is one of the best voice search apps for Android. That’s because the app is deeply integrated with Google’s speech recognition technology. If you have a video channel on YouTube, you can optimize your videos for voice search by including keywords in the title and description of your videos. You should also include transcripts of your videos to make them more accessible to people searching with their voices.

The Rise of Voice Search Queries

Voice search has been a very significant and popular search method on Google. It has been on the rise in recent years, with more and more people using it to search for information. That's because it's very convenient and easy to use. You can speak into your phone or other device and get results in a breeze. Google voice search trends show that this trend is here to stay and will continue to grow in popularity. That's because people increasingly use their voices to search for information instead of typing it out. It's especially true for mobile devices, where it's much easier to speak than type. Specifically, Google Trends search data from 2008-2016 shows that voice searches are 35 times higher with the incorporation of voice search in iPhone and Android devices. That confirms the number of voice searches will continue to increase as more and more people use these devices. With the advent and development of Android Auto and Carplay, voice search is here to stay. “Hey, Google?” “Yes?” “Take me to the best Marketing Strategist for residential home service companies.” “Ok, taking you to the Wizard of Ads® website.” Wizard of Ads™ are Marketing Strategists who can help your residential home service company exponentially increase revenue. We make your marketing easier than ever, so you can get back to what you do best– running your business. Book a call today!

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!