Greg Jarboe's presentation on "SEO for Marketers: Strategies, tactics, and trends to boost rankings" at Digital Marketing Asia 2020 on Oct. 23, 2020.

1. SEO for Marketers:
Strategies, tactics and trends to
boost rankings
Greg Jarboe
President and co-founder of SEO-PR
Digital Marketing Asia 2020
23 October 2020, 4:00PM-4:30PM (SGT)

2. It’s time to reboot your SEO strategy to respond to
shifts in consumer intent caused by the pandemic
• There’s no greater barometer of
consumer intent than search.
• This Mini-Workshop covers how to:
• Do an SEO audit of your website’s current
health.
• Conduct a new round of keyword
research to find out what people are
searching for.
• Create unique, relevant content that can
naturally gain popularity in the Internet
community.
• Use Search Console to evaluate your
site’s current presence in Google results.
Source: Greg Jarboe, Uniqskills Asia, “Design a Winning SEO Game Plan”

3. It’s no surprise that the growth of e-commerce in
SEA has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic
• But, even as some SEA countries come
out of lockdown, search interest in e-
commerce sites like “Lazada,”
“Shopee,” and “Sendo” has gone up.
• And as people spent more time at
home during the lockdown, search
interest for kitchen appliances rose.
• Search interest in “air fryer” was up by
190% in Singapore during the lockdown
compared to earlier in the year.
• Vietnam saw a 68% growth for “blender.”
• Queries for “coffee maker” grew by 33%
in the Philippines.
Source: Well Smittinet and Jerome Hamlin, Think with Google, “3 rising trends that reveal the future of e-commerce in SEA,” July 2020

4. Use Google’s new Grow My Store tool to evaluate
retail websites in our ever-changing environment
• It doesn’t conduct a comprehensive
SEO audit, but it does let you explore
rising industry trends and compare
your business to other retailers.
• For example, I entered the URL for the
Google Merchandise Store and saw
that the website’s score was 69%,
while industry was 58%.
• My report added, “Your website is ticking
a lot of boxes when it comes to delivering
a great customer experience, but we do
have a few suggestions to bump it up to
‘Best in Class’.”
Source: Google, Grow My Store

5. Use these 5 Google tools to understand the latest
shifts in consumer intent caused by the pandemic
• Consumer behavior is changing
rapidly and unpredictably during the
coronavirus pandemic.
• That’s why keyword research is now more
important than ever to understand the
latest shifts in consumer intent.
• Use these five Google tools when
conducting keyword research:
• Google Trends.
• Google Surveys.
• “People Also Ask” Boxes.
• Market Finder.
• Grow My Store.
Source: Greg Jarboe, Search Engine Journal, “7 Google Tools to Use When Conducting Keyword Research Today,” 19 August 2020

6. Google Trends shows that interest in best buffet in
Singapore is higher than cheap buffet in Singapore
• Singapore’s economy entered a
technical recession after shrinking by
41.2% in the second quarter
compared to the previous quarter.
• Despite this, web search interest in
the search term, “best food in
Singapore” is 4.1 times higher than
“cheap food in Singapore.”
• And web search interest in the search
term, “best buffet in Singapore” is 4.7
times higher than “cheap buffet in
Singapore.”
Source: Google Trends, Singapore, Web search interest in “cheap buffet in Singapore” and “best buffet in Singapore,” 01 October 2020

7. Google Surveys offers a free website satisfaction
survey that asks visitors four important questions
• Google Surveys offers a free website
satisfaction survey.
• What is the purpose of your visit to our
website today?
• Were you able to complete your task
today?
• If you were not able to complete your
task today, why not?
• How satisfied are you with the overall
quality of this website?
• It is available in Indonesia, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,
and Vietnam.
Source: Google Surveys Help, Website Satisfaction

8. Google’s ‘People also ask’ boxes suggest potential
headlines for articles or subheads for FAQ pages
• I recently used Google to search for
“Is it safe to travel to Singapore?”
• A featured snippet from Travel Safe
Abroad appeared at the top of the search
engine results page (SERP).
• Right under that, the “People also
ask” box revealed:
• Is there a travel advisory for Singapore?
• What should I avoid in Singapore?
• Is traveling to Singapore expensive?
• Why is Singapore the safest country?
• Use these as headlines or subheads.
Source: Google, US, “Is it safe to travel to Singapore,” 01 October 2020

9. Market Finder by Google calculates which global
markets offer you the best opportunities for growth
• The internet has broken down
international trade barriers, making it
possible for even small and medium-
size businesses to become truly global
players.
• Market Finder gives you a head start
on your international marketing
strategy.
• This tool will not only identify the best
markets for your product or service,
but will also suggest the right digital
marketing solutions.
Source: Market Finder by Google, VisitSingapore.com/en/, 01 October 2020

10. Grow My Store analyzes your retail website and
offers tips to improve your customer experience
• Grow My Store assesses your
website’s customer experience and
gives you tips on how to improve.
• It generates personalized reports by
looking for keywords related to customer
experience topics within your website.
• If the tool can find these keywords within
10 pages of the URL you provide, then
you pass the relevant section.
• Grow My Store currently supports
Dutch, English, French, German,
Italian, Spanish and Swedish websites.
• More languages are in the pipeline.
Source: Google, Grow My Store, 01 October 2020

11. Next, create high-quality, relevant content that will
naturally entice other sites to link to your website
• The single most important thing you
can do to improve your rankings is to
provide high-quality content on your
pages, especially your homepage.
• If your pages contain useful information,
their content will attract many visitors
and entice other sites to create high-
quality, relevant links to your website.
• In creating a helpful, information-rich
site, write pages that clearly and
accurately describe your topic.
• Think about the words users would type
to find your pages and include those
words in the content on your site.
Source: Greg Jarboe, SES Events, “Matt Cutts, Google, discusses mobile search at SES San Jose 2008,” 18 November 2008

12. YouTube has steadily increased its organic visibility
in Google’s SERPs and passed Wikipedia for #1 spot
Source: Greg Jarboe, Search Engine Journal, “YouTube’s Organic Visibility Tops Wikipedia in Google SERPs,” 15 January 2020

13. What type of video content is more likely to attract
visitors and entice other sites to link to your site?
• We know videos with emotional
impact are more likely to be shared.
• And I’ve visited Unruly’s video lab to
learn which emotions are more likely
make content worth sharing.
• I’ve also found that embedding video
content worth sharing on a website or
blog is more likely to entice other sites
to create high-quality, relevant links to
your page or post.
• But, SEA is such a diverse region, no one-
size-fits-all approach is likely to work
across multiple markets.
Source: Greg Jarboe, Tubular Insights, “Why Aren’t More Brands Embedding Their YouTube Videos on Their Websites?,” 10 March 2015

14. 1st thing to know about emotional video content in
SEA: Consumers in the Philippines are the happiest
• Happiness resonates particularly well
in the Philippines.
• Viewers in this country are more likely
to feel intense happiness while
watching video ads than anywhere
else across Southeast Asia (26% vs.
SEA average of 18%).
• Coca-Cola put this to good use with its
brilliant “Happiest Thank You”, which
evoked intense feelings of happiness
in more than half (58%) of the people
who watched it.
Source: Good Vibes Everyday, “New from Coca Cola Philippines,” 18 September 2014

15. 2nd thing to know about emotional video content
in SEA: Indonesians are the most likely to laugh
• If you want to make people laugh,
Indonesia is the place to do it.
• Viewers in this country are the most
likely to find your ad hilarious (8%)
compared with other countries
around the world (4%).
• This also holds true for global content.
• For example, Mentos’ “Mentors”
made 32% of viewers across Indonesia
laugh out loud despite the fact that
the video ad was originally created for
the UK market.
Source: Mentos Indonesia, “Mentos Mentors I Berteman dengan Orang Baru Itu Mudah, dengan Bantuan Kecil,” 18 March 2016

16. 3rd thing to know about emotional video content in
APAC: Singaporeans are a tough crowd for emotion
• Advertisers need to work extra hard to
evoke an emotional response from
consumers in Singapore.
• On average, Singaporean viewers are
much less emotional than viewers
around the world, with pride the only
emotional response where they are
on par with the global average (4%).
• Singapore Airlines knows how to push
its local viewers’ buttons – with “No
Detail Is Too Small” eliciting intense
pride among 18% of viewers.
Source: Singapore Airlines, “At Singapore Airlines, No Detail Is Too Small | Singapore Airlines,” 02 December 2015

17. Search Console helps you monitor, maintain, and
troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google results
• Search Console offers tools and
reports for the following:
• Confirm that Google can find and crawl
your site.
• Fix indexing problems and request re-
indexing of new or updated content.
• View Google search traffic data for your
site.
• Show you which sites link to your
website.
• Receive alerts when Google encounters
indexing, spam, or other issues.
• Troubleshoot issues for AMP, mobile
usability, and other search features.
Note: “Intro to Google Search Console - Search Console Training” is embedded in Search Console Help Center’s “About Search Console”

18. Waisberg explains how to use performance reports
to view Google search traffic data for your website
• Google Search Advocate Daniel
Waisberg explains how to use Search
Console’s performance reports.
• He defines impressions and clicks.
• An impression is when a URL appears in a
search result for a user.
• A click sends the user to a page.
• The performance report shows you:
• How many people saw and clicked on
your site in Google search.
• What queries showed your site in search.
• Your average search position.
Source: Google Webmasters, “Performance reports in Search Console - Google Search Console Training,” 08 January 2020

19. Waisberg hasn’t made a video yet about the links
report, which may mean that it will change soon
• The links report shows you:
• Which sites link to me the most?
• Which are my top linked pages from
other sites?
• Which are my top linked pages from a
specific site?
• What link text points to my site?
• What are the links from a specific site to
my page?
• What are the top sites linking to my
page?
• Which of my pages is linked the most
from within my own site?
• Which of my pages links to my page?
Source: Official Google Webmaster Central Blog, “Links, Mobile Usability, and site management in the new Search Console,” 21 August 2018

20. It’s time to reboot your SEO strategy to respond to
shifts in consumer intent caused by the pandemic
• This Mini-Workshop covered how to:
• Conduct a new round of keyword
research to find out what people are
searching for.
• Create high-quality, relevant content that
will naturally entice other sites to link to
your website.
• Use Search Console to evaluate your
site’s presence in Google results.
• UNIQSKILLS also offers an online
learning course that is eight hours
long to help you “Design a Winning
SEO Game Plan.”
Source: Uniqskills Asia, “Design a Winning SEO Game Plan”