A Simple SEO Checklist for Everyone. Google lending a helping hand to Shopify

rgray weekly marketing digest 17.05-23.05

Do you need to have more keywords in your company’s name? Amazon enters a new market, Google starts to deeply cooperate with Shopify, steps to follow to set up quality SEO-friendly websites, and much more from the world of digital marketing in our new episode of the RGray Weekly Marketing Insights and News Digest.

  • Amazon launched its new ad-supported service in India. What is it all about? Read our weekly digest to find out.
  • Companies started to change their namings to gain more market share with the help of SEO. Is that a good idea? Check it out in our digest.
  • Google will make it easier to find Shopify sellers in Google products. What does it mean for Shopify? Learn more in our weekly digest!
  • How to improve your local search engine optimization? Follow the steps described in our new infographic to get the answer.

Amazon knows how to catch the right moment

Amazon decided to keep up and launched its own free ad-supported service called MiniTV.

The average US TV viewer uses almost 5.7 TV sources today, up from 3.0 in 2018.

Most of these people use streaming TV services (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) and 79% of TV viewers use at least one of the services.

The number of free TV ad-supported services is also growing. They are used by almost 50% of TV viewers, up from 8% last year.

Amazon decided to keep up and launched its own free ad-supported service called MiniTV. They partner with major Indian studios and influencers to stream original content.

Pushing ad-supported video: Videos sponsored by Amazon have over 120 million monthly visits, but with the advent of  MiniTV this number can significantly increase.

What this trend means for you: Stay updated on this trend if you use video to get in touch with your audience. Furthermore, we anticipate the launch of more self-serving ad possibilities in the near future. Hulu announced such a service for small businesses last year. Could Amazon be the next big thing?

Why companies are rebranding themselves to please Google

In one of the posts of Search Engine Land, Colan Nielsen reported that there is a tendency among local companies to change their naming in favor of higher ratings.

Imagine you have to make a choice: high ratings or a cool catchy company name? Which would you choose?

Though your personality will probably lean towards the first, you will probably go for a company name that contains as many relevant keywords as possible.

And you won’t be the only one with that choice!

In one of the posts of Search Engine Land, Colan Nielsen reported that there is a tendency among local companies to change their naming in favor of higher ratings.

So, more and more companies start rebranding. Since Google accepts GMB names, if they match your site logo/store signs, then companies change their names in order to include keywords.

Gonna work?

Not really. While this tactic is good for SEO optimization, there are a number of disadvantages.

If you are thinking about using this strategy, then remember that:

  • If the whole market starts adding descriptors to their names, then the rating power simply goes down.
  • Your competitors can also edit their namings.
  • Keywords tend to change over time.
  • This is a brand mess: if 20 companies in the same niche have similar names, then there will be almost no differentiation.

If you or your client still decides to use this strategy to take the first place in a search engine, then think in advance whether it will come in handy in the long run.

Google lends a helping hand to Shopify

Pinterest said it would make it easier to find Shopify sellers on their platform. Now, Google is doing the same!

Now is the most exciting and opportune time to be a Shopify seller.

Last month, Pinterest said it would make it easier to find Shopify sellers on their platform. Now, Google is doing the same!

What is actually Google doing? It could be claimed that Google is partnering with Shopify. According to the new update, Google will make it easier to find Shopify sellers in Google products. If you sell on Shopify, for example, you will be able to list yourself on Google Shopping, Search, YouTube, and Pictures.

Shopify has no plans to stop at this stage and plans to cement itself as an e-commerce platform for businesses. And, most likely, it will work since it will be difficult for platforms on their own hosting to repeat these steps.

A Simple Local SEO Checklist That All Website Owners Should Follow [Infographic]

Today, we’ll talk again about SEO optimization. When was the last time you tested local SEO performance?

Local search engine optimization plays an important role since it can be a connecting link for most enterprises because people often looking for suppliers by region. Do your businesses pop up when users search your niche?

To make sure you’re heading in the right direction, we’ve put together a list of key local SEO steps to take note of in your process.

It includes the following items:

  • Know your ranking factors
  • Optimize your domain
  • Optimize Google My Business
  • Get social
  • Encourage user reviews
  • Generate backlinks and traffic
  • Mobile usability

Check out the infographic below for more detailed information.

We've put together a list of key local SEO steps to take note of in your process.