Google Updates and SERP Changes - May 2019

[Mark_A]

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System: The following 12 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4940766.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 12:25 pm on May 1, 2019 (utc -5)

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For my main current site, Google Organic accounts for 28% of sessions.

I swear it takes up 80% of the effort though!

[BangkokBaby]

You can sell fine art on social media you just need to be smart amount it. Art is subjective, it's all about the targeting, telling the story of the artist etc. You can't just put up a painting that's worth $5k and except a random person to buy it right away, that would never work. But if you first showed people a blog post on how art in the living room can improve their mood by looking at it, how to interpret art, now they understand the value of art a little bit more.

Now you could retarget anyone who read 75% or more of that blog post with an offer or lead magnet and you're now building a relationship to where you'll sell them high ticket art with a backend offer.

Selling on Facebook is an art and it requires years of experience to do it well.

With the right funnel you can go from $0 to $500k in sales Facebook within weeks/months, you just cannot do that in SEO because the time it takes for changes to come into effect.

SEO is easier to convert traffic as the user is searching for a problem and they land on your site, they come to you. On Facebook you shove ads in their faces they don't want, so you need to be really smart to grab to their attention.

Social media people are visiting to watch cat videos or because they are bored (although that is changing slowly as people are using IG search for look for products), it's a different form of marketing that we need to learn.

If you've refused to even run Facebook ads, you should not say they aren't good. I use both social ads and SEO and both are insanely valuable, just as much as email marketing. I have clients in real estate, food delivery, gyms and the services industry where I generate leads and sales on Facebook. Everyone from doctors to students are on social, and I'm sure at least 50% of the people who visit your site are active on Facebook or IG.

The sites Facebook ads aren't suited for are Adsense sites or informational sites that don't sell their own products, then running Facebook ads is another story. But if you sell a product or service that has value, your audience visit Facebook every single day and you can put your product in front of their face every single day.

[samwest]

@southernguy, here is a copy of the article for those who don't care to subscribe to the ws urinal. - [theverge.com...]

It's about time that we have an administration that is not in cahoots with Gorg.
Another interesting article from the archives... [businessinsider.com...]
I see where this is going... lol

[StupidIntelligent]

Big businesses only pay a fine and get away with it. Nothing is going to happen.

[ichthyous]

Big businesses only pay a fine and get away with it. Nothing is going to happen

Possibly, but if Google's monopoly is starting to threaten other large businesses then it might be different this time. Microsoft was forced to change practices and abide by antitrust regulations regarding bundling of IE browser with windows. The issue is that Google is a much more complicated business model and subtle type of abuse that is harder to catch and prove. Perhaps the Europeans and Americans together can provide enough pressure to urge Google to drop some of its more blatant monopolistic abuses. At least something is being considered and Google does not like the bad press for sure.

[ichthyous]

If you've refused to even run Facebook ads, you should not say they aren't good

.

@BankokBaby
True, except that's not what I said. If you see my response to Milchan I said I did try both Google and Facebook ads. Both drove lots of traffic and no sales resulted from that traffic because the customers were expecting one price point and got another (higher) one. Unless you are a famous luxury brand people don't really know what price to expect until they ask. My prices are not public on my website, they must inquire. That is common practice with art sales. In my business the prices can range from low to astronomical depending on the quality of the work and reputation of the artist. Most social media and search users have no clue of what the difference is, only a very small subset of customer understands the difference. My customer base is that small subset, so I'm throwing away 90%+ of the ad spend. You can use Facebooks controls and set the ad to show to high income users for example but in my experience the ads are not that well targeted.

What I said I would never do is pay Facebook to boost my own posts on my Facebook business page. I worked hard to get those thousands of followers and Facebook turned off my ability to reach them overnight a few years ago. I won't reward Facebook for screwing me. There are plenty of more effective places to find customers.

I use both social ads and SEO and both are insanely valuable, just as much as email marketing.... Everyone from doctors to students are on social, and I'm sure at least 50% of the people who visit your site are active on Facebook or IG.

True, but are they willing to pay the prices I charge? Almost none of them are. There aren't many who pay big city art gallery prices. It's a rarified world and I am not interested in wasting time on customers who don't have a clue of the real cost of things. I will never be able to convert them to buyers because they want to spend 1/20th of my pricing. I am willing to deal with the fact that 90% of my free inquiries from Google are never going anywhere. I am not willing to pay to lose 90% of the customers. There's a big difference there. In effect, online is not a good fit to sell original artworks and never has been... But seeing that the cost of operating a retail space in my city is impossibly high ($25,000-$60,000 per month just in rent alone) online was the only option. For years it worked fine, and is still very profitable when Google actually sends me a good volume of traffic. This year I opened a small physical space so that I can bring customers in to a real world space. It is expensive but has helped to convert customers who would not spend a lot without seeing the items in person.

[Milchan]

I dont have time to go into a big commentary about it but just to add to ichthyous post above about adwords and social ads not working for every niche .
Whilst someone with very advanced knowledge of ad marketing on those platforms might be able to get a bit better results than some that does not fact is there are some products that simply are not a good fit for the model - that inevitable that would be the case as no model ever suits everything.
Also, with the ad model a majority of people know that you are trying to get something out of them - a purchase, a signup etc - so there is a lesser level of trust there but if they find you through organic whilst they are in the research stage and you provide good info and value , then there is trust built and you get more sales. This is based on my experience both as business owner and as a personal user plus feedback from customers that I have seen this is the case in my niche.

[System]

The following message was cut out to new thread by robert_charlton. New thread at: google/4947706.htm [webmasterworld.com]
11:00 am on Jun 1, 2019 (PDT -8)