July SEO Newsletter from Kow Abundant
Columbus in July, the heat, the sun, cookouts, all the good stuff that goes along with it. Lots of people are taking or looking to take vacations again too (well deserved!) For SEO, Google isn’t slowing down. They released a new July core updated and a spam update which is changing rankings results for small businesses. As always, they have no things in store for summer and Google Ads updates keep coming too.
We asked and Google listened. Google announced the biggest promotion I have ever seen for Google Ads. New customers can get $1000 credit if they spend $1000 within 60 days of creating a new account. That was on our list to have great Google partner promotions to give to new clients and we are happy to see that.
If you are a small business you are going to want to look at how you position your content, what is your core message? Is it fun or engaging? Why do I care? Social is growing more important as is a good content strategy for businesses. If you have questions about social content we offer social content calendars and social media posting so that it is easier for businesses to do the things you are good at instead! Just email us back with a question.
Kow Abundant is hiring a digital marketing manager/associate, if you’ve got SEO and Google Ads chops then contact us at support@kowabundant.com
Kow Abundant just won our 7th major award for 2021. Digital.com ranked us Best Marketing & Advertising Agency in Columbus!
As a top Columbus SEO company, we work hard to achieve lasting results for our clients using proven SEO techniques that deliver better rankings.
It is wonderful to be honored in this way. Read the full article and release here.
“We want to thank our amazing clients for helping us achieve this great honor and for giving us the opportunity to help grow their businesses over the years.”
Top Client Questions Of The Month:
Thanks to all the clients and newcomers for these great questions. Watch the Video Newsletter Here for more details.
1. What do you use for the recording your videos?
– OBS, software is used along with editing software later Adobe Premiere pro. Then for thumbnails I use Canva or other software. To get the word out I use a social media posting tool like Buffer or SEMrush. The camera that I use is a Canon 90D along with various lenses like the 18-55 Canon kit lens as well as a Tokina 17mm lens that is a vintage manual focus lens. I use the StreamDeck App on my phone to control camera switching and OBS recording as I stream. I use the Snoball Mic. I use a Camlink 4K HDMI to PC interface for capturing my camera to my PC. My video card is a Nvidia 3070 and the processor is an AMD 3900X. I also use Adobe Premiere Pro for post-processing sometimes and video editing. I use Canva for creating most of my thumbnails although I also use Photoshop. Most of my gear was purchased on B&H photo and eBay for the older stuff like lenses. I also like World of Photography in Columbus Ohio.
2. How many characters should an alt image text be for SEO?
– The alt image text should be 80-125 characters and it is designed for accessibility to help those who can’t see images so describe the images here and try to pepper in keywords best you can but really best to describe it to a blind person or tell the story of the image you want to convey.
3. Can I promote a tiktok video reel on Instagram?
– No, they cancelled this in Feb 2021. Videos that have the tiktok watermark cannot be promoted on Instagram. https://www.engadget.com/instagram-reels-repost-tiktoks-best-practices-200536658.html
4. Does Google Ads ad schedule take time zone into account when I set an ad schedule?
– Yes, they use the time zone of a location to run your ads. If you run a national campaign and set your ads to run 9-5pm then the ads will run on that same time across other time zones. Make sure you are on the correct time zone, sometimes it puts you at pacific time so be sure.
5. Can I run ads with Instagram Reels?
– No, Instagram Reels use copyrighted music and Instagram does not allow you to promote these. Also, you cannot promote tiktok video shares on Instagram you may copy too.
6. Can I promote Instagram giveaways?
– No, Instagram has specific requirements for raffles, prices, and giveaways. You cannot promote them and must also say that Instagram is not affiliated or sponsoring this post so that your account doesn’t get blocked from advertising altogether. Giveaways are a great way to increase engagement and promote your business. Facebook cracked down on giveaways when many spammy businesses gave away Amazon gift cards and iPods but where scams. Now, you basically can’t do giveaways on Facebook so Instagram is less strict but still has lots of rules to do so. There is a great piece by Social Media Examiner here https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-run-successful-instagram-contest-or-giveaway/ which tells you how to do this on Instagram.
7. Is there benefit from having links to companies Ive worked with on my homepage?
– Yes, you would need to make them active links and they can benefit your SEO, albeit a very small amount. Here is what SEO site Moz.com has to say “not only does linking out NOT harm a site’s rankings, it appears to carry some positive correlations with ranking, trust, etc. on both a page and domain-wide level.”
8. Does the highest budget get the first Google Ad?
– Google Ads is based on a few factors to win an ad auction. Every advertiser bids on an ad auction and page score, ad quality, budgets, are all taken into account. For example, an ad with a high score and a good page score or relevance will often win over ads that have a higher budget. This is because Google knows if they show that high quality ad it will result in better clicks and sticky factor for people on that site. This makes users happy which make them use Google more.
9. Which posts should I boost for my Facebook posts?
– Facebook will give you a general idea of the best posts to promote by showing you a distribution score next to the post and a boost button.
You can also look at the engagement and compare that to other posts. For a deep dive there is more detail in the insights area of Facebook to see which posts are most popular but that still takes some digging.
We use a proprietary social media tool that does custom analysis and helps tell our clients which posts will be the best to boost and that saves a lot of time.
Watch the SEO Video For more detailed answers
GOOGLE ADS NEWS
Complete Apple iPhone user tracking update breakdown
https://kowabundant.com/blog/what-apple-user-tracking-update-means-to-google-ads/
Google Ads Biggest OFFER I HAVE EVER SEEN! $1000 Ad credit after $1000 spend within 60 Days. Normally it is $150, $250, occasionally I see $500 but $1000 is insane and 60 days, never have I seen that it was always 30 days before. I actually mentioned to Google about ad promos and it looks like they listened, so very well done. Take advantage of that offer bc that is a big one!
https://youtu.be/4Y_5ayTJhDQ
SEO NEWS
Google talks about how search is like the movies.
“One way to think of how a core update operates is to imagine you made a list of the top 100 movies in 2015. A few years later in 2019, you refresh the list. It’s going to naturally change. Some new and wonderful movies that never existed before will now be candidates for inclusion. You might also reassess some films and realize they deserved a higher place on the list than they had before.
The list will change, and films previously higher on the list that move down aren’t bad. There are simply more deserving films that are coming before them.”
https://kowabundant.com/blog/what-apple-user-tracking-update-means-to-google-ads/
Search Engine Land: Part two of Google Search spam update on June 28 rolling out.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/UOJ6KFWEGic/part-two-of-google-search-spam-update-on-june-28-349949
PRO-TIP
Repurpose Old articles to increase SEO, remove old stuff and update that content to be more current.
This month’s charity is
The Vincent Fund
Each month we support a charity and donate to it. This month we encourage you to click here to donate to the Vincent Fund to help vital medical care for cats at cat welfare (donations from this fund helped save my cat Frankie when he was a kitten) 
This Month in Memes
Apple makes Facebook an Offer
I used Facebook to find your name but now, Who are you?
How it started, where it’s going.
Got to make up for that revenue somehow at Facebook
Watch a movie and wonder what else that actor has been in or who they are?
Thanks for reading! Please comment below with any questions.
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