This article tackles the key differences between each attribution method to help you determine which one best fits your business needs.
The growing need for smarter marketing attribution
With Google’s recent update to its open-source marketing mix model, Meridian, interest in marketing mix analysis and channel modeling has surged.
While enterprise brands have long benefited from these insights, smaller businesses running multi-channel marketing can also gain value.
Two leading methodologies have emerged to tackle this challenge:
Multi-touch attribution (MTA).
Marketing mix modeling (MMM).
Both aim to measure marketing effectiveness but differ significantly in methodology, scope, and application.
Every business investing in marketing needs to assess whether its efforts are paying off.
SEO, email campaigns, search ads, and social media all demand time and budget.
But without the right measurement approach, it’s difficult to know which channels truly drive results.
Many marketers rely on in-platform data, but this only provides a partial view due to differing attribution models and settings.
Third-party attribution tools attempt to bridge the gap, but they often favor specific marketing channels and impose predefined attribution rules, which may not align with long-term business goals.
For businesses serious about optimizing their marketing, a customized approach is essential – one that fully leverages their own data while integrating additional insights.
Multi-touch attribution is a digital-first methodology that tracks individual customer interactions across various touchpoints in their journey to purchase.
It assigns credit to each marketing touchpoint based on its contribution to the final conversion.
Operating at a granular, user-level scale, MTA collects data from cookies, device IDs, and other digital identifiers to create a detailed picture of the customer journey.
MTA is commonly supported by marketing channels like Google Ads, which offer different attribution settings – data-driven being the most recommended.
However, first and last touch models are not considered part of MTA, as they only account for a single touchpoint.
Beyond in-platform attribution, most analytics tools also support multi-touch attribution.
For SMBs with strong tracking and high data quality, these tools can be sufficient.
However, taking attribution to the next level requires a customized MTA by:
Using a tool that allows customization.
Or building custom attribution reports, often in combination with a data warehouse.
A tailored MTA ensures attribution is aligned with your business and customer journey, leading to more accurate insights.
The need for a customized MTA becomes clear with the following example:
Imagine a user encounters two social touchpoints – an Instagram ad and a TikTok ad – before converting through a Google Search ad.
A standard MTA might allocate 20% credit to each social channel for awareness and 60% to Google Search, assuming search played the most crucial role due to its intent-driven nature.
Instagram ad: 20%
TikTok ad: 20%
Google Search: 60%
You might conclude that increasing your Google Ads budget and investing more in search is the right move.
While this could work, it could also backfire – without a customized MTA, your decision-making may be flawed.
Let’s take a closer look at the user journey to see what might be wrong:
Instagram ad – Cold awareness: 50%
TikTok ad – Remarketing: 40%
Google Search – Branded search: 10%
Instead of Google Search being the primary driver, it could be that:
Instagram is generating initial awareness.
TikTok is handling remarketing.
Google is simply capturing conversions from users already familiar with your brand.
In this case, increasing Google Ads spend wouldn’t necessarily drive more sales. It would just reinforce the final step while neglecting the earlier, more influential touchpoints.
With this in mind, MTA weightings can look completely different.
Investing more in cold traffic and remarketing while minimizing spend on Google Search might be the smarter approach, as search doesn’t generate demand but rather supports the last step and defends your brand against competitors.
This example highlights why a customized MTA is essential. It allows you to tailor attribution to your specific strategy, funnel, and customer journey.
However, if data quality is poor or customization is lacking, it can lead to inaccurate insights, poor decisions, and short-term thinking.
Marketing mix modeling
Marketing mix modeling, on the other hand, takes a top-down, aggregate approach.
It analyzes historical marketing spend across channels along with external factors to assess their impact on business outcomes.
Using advanced statistical techniques, MMM identifies correlations between marketing investments and results.
An effective marketing mix model incorporates both historical and current data, making it resilient to outliers and short-term fluctuations.
Depending on the model, it also allows for the inclusion of seasonal trends, industry benchmarks, growth rates, and marketing volume.
Additionally, MMM can account for brand awareness and loyalty in base sales, as well as measure incremental sales.
MTA is a valuable tool for digital marketing teams that need immediate insights and real-time tracking to optimize campaigns quickly.
Its granular data helps marketers refine conversion paths and personalize customer interactions.
However, increasing privacy restrictions and the phase-out of third-party cookies make MTA more challenging to implement effectively.
Additionally, its digital-first nature means it struggles to account for offline marketing efforts and may lead businesses to prioritize short-term conversions over long-term brand growth.
MMM, by contrast, provides a broader, privacy-friendly approach that captures both digital and offline marketing performance.
It is particularly useful for long-term budget planning, helping businesses allocate resources effectively across multiple channels.
However, its reliance on historical data and aggregate trends makes it less suited for rapid campaign adjustments.
Companies that operate across both digital and traditional marketing channels may benefit from combining MTA’s real-time insights with MMM’s strategic guidance for a more balanced approach.
To determine which model best suits your needs, it’s helpful to experiment by uploading test datasets and exploring their functionalities.
While these models share a common approach, they differ in customization depth and fine-tuning capabilities.
In my experience, Meridian is the most advanced, offering deep integration with first-party, organic, and third-party data. However, its complexity may require a steeper learning curve.
For a quicker setup, Robyn from Meta is a solid starting point.
Hybrid approach
As marketing measurement evolves, organizations increasingly adopt hybrid approaches that combine the strengths of both MTA and MMM. This unified framework aims to:
Leverage MTA’s granular digital insights for tactical optimization.
Use MMM for strategic planning and budget allocation.
Cross-validate findings between both methodologies.
Provide a more complete view of marketing effectiveness.
For digital-first companies, MTA is often the preferred starting point, offering real-time insights for rapid campaign adjustments.
In contrast, businesses investing heavily in traditional marketing tend to benefit more from MMM, as it:
Aligns with privacy regulations.
Accounts for external factors.
Delivers a holistic view of marketing performance.
A hybrid approach provides the best of both worlds – combining MTA’s agility with MMM’s long-term perspective.
While managing both requires additional resources, businesses implementing this strategy gain precise, channel-specific insights and a broader strategic understanding.
This dual approach is particularly valuable for organizations balancing short-term performance optimization with sustainable, long-term growth.
Boost your marketing performance with the right attribution model
Both MTA and MMM offer valuable insights into marketing effectiveness, but they serve different purposes and have distinct advantages.
As the marketing landscape becomes more complex and privacy-focused, it’s essential to assess your measurement needs and capabilities to determine the best approach – or a combination of both.
The future of marketing measurement likely lies in hybrid solutions that blend MTA’s granular insights with MMM’s strategic perspective while adapting to evolving privacy regulations and technological changes.
By integrating these methodologies, you’ll be better equipped to optimize marketing investments and drive long-term business growth.
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Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is one of Google’s three Core Web Vitals.
Like the other two (Cumulative Layout Shift and Interaction to Next Paint), it’s not exactly clear what it means.
Lots of tools can show your LCP score and outline ways to improve it. But their tips are often generic, and lack the detail you need to actually take action.
So, in this guide I’ll walk you through actionable steps to improve your LCP. I’ll separate them by:
Their potential impact
The effort required to make the fix
Which specific aspect of your LCP score they help with
But first, let’s talk about what LCP actually means for your website (jump to this part for the fixes).
What Does Largest Contentful Paint Even Mean?
Largest Contentful Paint measures how long it takes for the main content of your webpage to appear on your user’s screen—whether that’s a hero image, heading, or block of text.
It’s not the most intuitive phrase, so let’s break it down word by word:
Largest: The biggest piece of visible content on the screen. This could be a large image, a big headline, or any major element that stands out.
Contentful: It’s something that has actual content—like text or an image—and isn’t just a background or frame.
Paint: This refers to how your browser “draws” (or renders) that element on your screen.
For example, imagine clicking a link to read a news article.
The page might load various elements quickly, like the header menu at the top and placeholders for ads.
But if the article text takes five seconds to show up, that’s a poor experience. That delay is what LCP measures.
When you think about LCP, think about your visitors. It’s the difference between someone seeing your main product image or headline right away versus waiting and possibly leaving.
A faster LCP generally means a better user experience. And a better experience means happier visitors who trust your site and want to hang around (and potentially buy from you).
Further reading: For more on how loading speed can affect your website experience and optimization, check out our full guide to page speed and SEO.
These benchmarks serve as useful guidelines, but your users’ actual experience matters most.
A visually rich photography portfolio might take longer to load but still satisfy visitors. Meanwhile, a simple text-based article that loads in three seconds might frustrate users who
expect instant access.
So, focus on your audience’s expectations and behavior. Check your analytics to see if slower LCP correlates with higher bounce rates or lower conversion rates.
These numbers tell you more about your site’s real performance than any benchmark can.
If your conversion rate is 10x the industry average, it likely won’t make a massive dent in your bottom line if you improve your LCP score.
But if people aren’t staying long on your important pages, improving your LCP score could help boost your site’s performance. This, in turn, can lead to better results for your business.
How to Measure Your LCP Score
There are lots of tools you can use to measure your LCP. But you don’t want to just get your score.
You also want to learn these two things:
What your LCP element is
Which stage of your LCP is longest
Finding these two pieces of information is key for prioritizing which methods you should use to improve your LCP.
For example, you could spend hours minifying your code, inlining your CSS, and deferring JavaScript. But it won’t make much of a difference if your LCP element is a hero image you just
haven’t optimized yet.
As for the stages:
LCP is made up of four stages:
Time to First Byte (TTFB)
Resource load delay
Resource load time
Element render delay
Each stage is affected by different factors (and methods of optimization). So, if you can identify which stages of your LCP are taking the longest, you can prioritize your fixes accordingly.
Here are two ways to find this information.
Note: With many tools, you’ll get different LCP scores depending on whether you check the mobile or desktop version of your site. Optimizing for both helps improve your experience for all users.
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google’s PageSpeed Insights (PSI) is a popular choice if you want a simple, web-based report.
Just plug in your URL, and you’ll get a quick overview of your Core Web Vitals, including LCP.
PSI is great if you’re not a big fan of digging around in complex dashboards. It gives you clear visuals and actionable tips without much fuss.
It also has a handy diagnostics section which tells you some of the main ways you can reduce your score. Just make sure you select the “LCP” option next to “Show audits relevant to.”
Click the “Largest Contentful Paint element” option to see which element on that page is the LCP element.
It also shows you the breakdown (as a percentage) of each stage of your LCP. From the example above, you can see the vast majority (88%) of our LCP time comes from the render delay stage.
Knowing this lets us focus our efforts on the methods in the next section that specifically help reduce that stage of the LCP score.
Chrome DevTools
Chrome’s DevTools can give you detailed, real-time feedback on various aspects of your page’s performance.
It’s especially useful for testing changes on the fly, but it might feel a bit overwhelming if you’re completely new to web development.
Access it in Chrome on any webpage by right clicking and selecting “Inspect.”
In the interface that appears, head to the “Performance” tab.
(You can select the three dots next to the cog icon and change where the dock goes—I find horizontal is best for analyzing LCP.)
This view shows your LCP score. If you hover over the “LCP element” underneath the score, you’ll see which part of the content is the largest contentful element.
Then, get a breakdown of the LCP stages by clicking the “Record and reload” button. This will run the performance checks again on the page, and you’ll see more information along with a
waterfall chart.
Ignore that for now, and instead click the “LCP by phase” drop-down. This breaks the LCP down into its four constituent parts, showing the actual time for each stage along with a percentage.
As before, you can use this information to prioritize your optimization efforts and more effectively improve your LCP.
How to Improve Your LCP
You can improve your LCP in several ways, and some methods will help you more than others.
The table below sorts the methods by impact, also indicating the effort level each one requires and which stage of your LCP it’ll help reduce.
Your own skill level, your website’s setup, and your budget will affect how easy or cost-effective these changes are for you.
I’ve taken each method in isolation, as the relative impact of each fix may decrease as you implement each one.
For example, if you implement lots of these methods but don’t use a CDN, your LCP score will likely improve to the point that using a CDN might not make much difference to the score
(although it may still improve your user experience).
Finally, a few of these might help reduce different stages of your LCP. As with every change you make to your website, there’s usually a bit of overlap in terms of what it’ll affect.
I’ll explain more of the nuances and who each fix is best suited to below.
Impact: High | Effort: Low | Helps Reduce: Resource Load Time
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) stores (cached) copies of your content across servers around the world. When people visit your site, they’re served files from the closest server to them.
That means faster load times for your users.
If you’re running a small local blog, you might not absolutely need a CDN. But if you have visitors from all over, a CDN can boost your LCP by reducing the travel time for your data.
This is most impactful for:
Websites with visitors from multiple regions
Sites with lots of large images or media files
Anyone wanting to improve global load times without lots of coding
How to Implement This
You can sign up for a CDN service like Cloudflare, KeyCDN, or StackPath. They’ll provide instructions for changing your domain’s settings to route traffic through their servers.
Once set up, the CDN will serve your website files to users from the server that’s physically located closest to them.
There are cheap and free options, but it can get expensive for larger sites with lots of traffic.
If you use WordPress or a similar content management system (CMS), there are often plugins that make the setup process even smoother.
Optimize Your Images
Impact: High | Effort: Medium | Helps Reduce: Resource Load Time
Large image files are a common reason for poor LCP scores. This is especially true if you use a large hero image at the top of your pages or blog posts.
By compressing images before uploading them, you reduce their file size to make them load faster.
This is most impactful for:
Sites with lots of large product or blog images
Photographers or ecommerce stores with high-res visuals
Anyone looking for a straightforward way to speed up load times
How to Implement This
You can optimize your images using online tools, and there are lots of free options. Or you can use plugins that auto-compress images when you upload them to your content management system.
Squoosh is a free tool that lets you tweak the optimization settings, choose a format to convert to, and resize the image:
To do this in bulk, you can also use a tool like TinyPNG:
Just keep an eye on quality—if you compress too much, your images might look blurry. But most of the time, you can shrink them a lot without anyone noticing.
Pro tip: Beyond images, it’s usually best to avoid having a video above the fold. This can lead to poor LCP scores.
Use WordPress Plugins
Impact: High | Effort: Low | Helps Reduce: Potentially all stages
For many WordPress users, plugins are the easiest way to speed up your site and fix LCP issues with minimal effort. They can handle image optimization, caching, code minification, and
more—all from a simple dashboard.
The caveat is that the best ones aren’t always free. So you’re often paying a convenience cost. But there are still some unpaid options out there.
Another downside is the risk of plugin “bloat,” which can slow your site if you install too many or choose poorly optimized ones.
Compatibility issues may also pop up, especially if you try to use multiple optimization plugins at one time.
But as long as you don’t have hundreds of plugins, and check for compatibility, I find the benefits typically outweigh the downsides here.
Note: If you use a different CMS, like Shopify, there are likely apps or add-ons that can help with your LCP score.
This is most impactful for:
WordPress users without technical know-how
Anyone who wants a quick fix for multiple performance issues
Those willing to spend a bit of money to solve a lot of issues at once (although there are free options)
How to Implement This
There are lots of WordPress plugins that are great for improving your LCP in particular, and your page speed in general.
One example is WP Rocket. It’s a paid WordPress optimization plugin that does a lot of the things on this list for you.
Including:
Image optimization
Code minification
Preloading/prefetching resources
CDN implementation
Caching
There are lots of customization options, making this a useful plugin a quick and fairly easy solution to improve your LCP.
Autoptimize is a free WordPress plugin that does a lot of the same things as WP Rocket.
It does lack a few features, like generating critical CSS and caching. But it’s a good starting point for beginners on a budget with a WordPress site.
Implement Caching
Impact: High | Effort: Low | Helps Reduce: Time to First Byte
Caching stores parts of your site on your user’s browser so it doesn’t have to request them from scratch every time they visit the site.
This can speed up your LCP because your server won’t need to work as hard to deliver the key page elements the next time the user visits.
Many hosting providers include caching by default.
You can also install plugins that handle caching for you.
This is most impactful for:
Sites with repeat visitors (e.g., blogs, online magazines)
Websites on platforms that generate pages dynamically (like WordPress)
Sites experiencing slow server response times
How to Implement This
If your host offers caching, enable it in your hosting dashboard. Otherwise, consider a caching plugin.
If you use a CDN, it already relies on caching to serve your content to users with faster load times.
Note: You only need to use one effective caching setup or plugin at a time. Using multiple can lead to no performance improvements at best, and various compatibility issues at worst.
Use a Faster Web Host
Impact: High | Effort: Low | Helps Reduce: Time to First Byte
Switching to a more powerful hosting plan or provider can make a big difference in how quickly your site’s main content loads.
That’s because your web host’s speed is going to have the largest impact on your Time to First Byte.
This is often the simplest route if you don’t want to tinker with technical details. However, premium hosting can be expensive.
If you have a small site or a tight budget, you might find it hard to justify the cost for LCP gains alone. But for large businesses or sites that generate a lot of revenue, investing in better hosting can pay off.
Note: This is also unlikely to put a dent in your LCP if your host is already pretty quick. I’d generally only recommend considering this option if your Time to First Byte is exceptionally long. Or if you’re noticing other performance issues or extended periods of website downtime.
This is most impactful for:
High-traffic sites that need consistent speed
Businesses with a budget to invest in premium hosting
Sites that have outgrown their current hosting plan
How to Implement This
When upgrading your web host, look for:
Reliable uptime
Scalability
Good support
Security features
Robust backup options
Migrating your site can be as simple as using a migration plugin if you’re on WordPress, or asking your new host for help.
It’s usually fairly straightforward if you’re staying with your current host and just upgrading your plan. But moving hosts can be a little more effort-intensive.
Impact: Medium | Effort: Low | Helps Reduce: Resource Load Time
Minifying code involves stripping out anything “unnecessary,” like extra spaces or new lines, from your site’s HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This makes them smaller and faster to load.
If you’re not a developer, you can still do this using tools or plugins that automate the process (like WP Rocket mentioned above).
Just be sure to back up your site or test it in a staging environment. Sometimes, minification can cause layout or script issues.
This is most impactful for:
Sites with lots of CSS and JavaScript files
Pages that rely on multiple libraries or frameworks
How to Implement This
You can minify your code with free tools like Minifier:
If you use a CMS like WordPress, use plugins (e.g., WP Rocket, Autoptimize) that automatically shrink your CSS, JS, and HTML.
Here’s how it looks in the “File Optimization” screen of WP Rocket:
Most plugins let you choose which files to minify, so if you see any issues, uncheck or exclude the problematic file and test again.
Alternatively, reach out to a developer to help with this instead.
Optimize Your Fonts
Impact: Medium | Effort: Medium | Helps Reduce: Resource Load Time
Fancy fonts can look great, but they can also slow down your page.
Custom fonts often have to be downloaded from a separate server. If you optimize or host them locally, you reduce delays that stop your text (like big headlines) from being visible.
You do want to maintain your site’s style, so it’s a balance between looking good and loading fast. Some sites solve this by using system fonts that don’t need extra downloads.
This is most impactful for:
Sites using multiple custom fonts or large font families
Design-heavy pages with fancy typography
Anyone noticing a “flash of invisible text” when pages load
How to Implement This
Hosting fonts locally is often faster than pulling them from external servers. If you use Google Fonts, you can download them and serve them from your own domain.
But honestly, this just won’t be necessary for most site owners. While it might reduce your LCP, it’s unlikely to be a massive gain and may not be worth the effort.
Alternatively, let a plugin handle font optimization for you. Minimize the number of font weights you use—if you only need bold and regular, don’t load the entire family.
Lazy loading is a feature that only loads images when you scroll down to them. In other words, images only load when they’re in the user’s “viewport” (on their screen).
It’s great for boosting page load time, and is typically regarded as a best practice for fast websites.
But if you lazy load images that are right at the top of your page, your visitors will see a blank space before anything else pops in. That can really hurt your LCP.
The idea behind lazy loading is to not load images the user doesn’t need to see yet. But when it’s the first image you want a user to see as soon as they land on your page, clearly you don’t want to delay loading at all.
So, it’s usually best to load above-the-fold content right away, then lazy load what’s below.
This is most impactful for:
Sites that lazy load everything by default
Above-the-fold areas with key images or banners
Pages where the main header image is crucial for user engagement
How to Implement This
Many lazy-loading tools let you exclude certain images. Find the settings or plugin option that specifies “above the fold” or “first contentful paint” images, and disable lazy loading for those.
In WP Rocket, you do that in the “Media” area:
If you’re not using a CMS like WordPress, just make sure the LCP image’s HTML looks like this, with either loading=“eager” or no loading attribute (“eager” is the default):
Rather than like this, with the loading=“lazy” attribute:
Remove Elements You Don’t Need
Impact: Medium | Effort: Medium | Helps Reduce: Element Render Delay
Every script, image, or widget on your site adds to the time it takes for your page to fully load. So you need to think carefully about what appears above the fold.
If there’s a huge banner, multiple images, or extra code that doesn’t add real value, consider removing it or placing it below the fold.
Just make sure you don’t strip away elements that are crucial for your users or your brand message.
This is most impactful for:
Content-heavy sites filled with widgets or ads
Homepages stuffed with multiple banners, slideshows, or animations
Anyone looking to simplify their design without sacrificing core features
How to Implement This
Audit your site’s above-the-fold area and ask, “Does this element help my user right away?”
If not, move it below the fold (or remove it entirely).
Think about collapsing large sign-up forms or extra images.
Removing unnecessary scripts, like old tracking codes, can also help. To pinpoint snippets you might want to remove, look out for the “Reduce unused JavaScript” opportunity in PageSpeed Insights:
Use Defer/Async for JS
Impact: Medium | Effort: Medium | Helps Reduce: Element Render Delay
JavaScript files can block the rendering of your page if they load first. By deferring or asynchronously loading scripts, you let your main content appear before any heavy scripts run.
This helps your LCP because the biggest chunk of your page shows up without waiting for all your JS to finish loading.
The main reason you’ll likely want to look into async and defer is if the tool you’re measuring your LCP with says you have render blocking resources.
Like this:
Basically, without any attributes, the browser will attempt to download and then execute your JavaScript as it encounters it. This can lead to slower load times, and longer LCP times if it blocks the LCP element from loading.
With async, it won’t pause parsing (breaking down and analyzing) of the HTML during the download stage. But it still pauses as the script executes after downloading.
With defer, the browser doesn’t pause HTML parsing for the download or execution of your JavaScript. This can lead to lower LCP scores, but it means your JavaScript won’t execute until the browser has finished parsing the HTML.
You might need a developer’s help if you’re not sure which scripts to defer or load asynchronously, or how to do it.
Some optimization plugins for platforms like WordPress can also handle this for you.
This is most impactful for:
Sites that rely on several JavaScript libraries
Pages slowed down by loading scripts too early
Website owners looking for a middle-ground solution without full SSR (more on that below)
How to Implement This
If you’re on WordPress, look for an optimization plugin that includes deferring or async-loading scripts.
In custom setups, you’d add attributes like “defer” or “async” to your script tags in the HTML.
Just make sure you don’t delay any critical scripts (like core functionality) too much.
Inline Critical CSS
Impact: Medium | Effort: High | Helps Reduce: Element Render Delay
Inlining CSS means putting small blocks of CSS code right into your HTML, so your page doesn’t need to fetch a separate file for that part.
It can speed up how quickly your main elements appear. But you can’t inline everything, or you’d end up with a massive HTML file that defeats the purpose.
This method can be helpful for critical (above-the-fold) styles, but it shouldn’t replace your entire stylesheet.
“In general, inlining your style sheet is only recommended if your style sheet is small since inlined content in the HTML cannot benefit from caching in subsequent page loads. If a style sheet is so large that it takes longer to load than the LCP resource, then it’s unlikely to be a good candidate for inlining.”
This is most impactful for:
Sites with a small amount of critical CSS for the header area
Minimalist designs that don’t rely on big external stylesheets
Anyone looking to shave off small load delays
How to Implement This
Identify the essential CSS you need to style your page’s top section, and place it directly in the HTML <head>. This can reduce the time it takes to render the crucial above-the-fold part.
Keep the rest of your CSS in external files to avoid bloating your HTML. Some performance plugins can automate this “critical CSS” approach for you.
Autoptimize offers a cheap solution, while it’s baked into plugins like NitroPack and WP Rocket.
While there are also dedicated critical CSS plugins, I’d generally recommend going for a more feature-rich option for a bit of extra money (if you have the budget). You’ll typically get more value than spending $10 a month on one feature that may have limited impact on your LCP.
Switch to SSR
Impact: Medium | Effort: High | Helps Reduce: Element Render Delay
CSR (Client-Side Rendering) means your user’s browser does a lot of the work to build the page.
SSR (Server-Side Rendering) means most of the work happens before the page hits the user’s browser.
SSR can help LCP for sites heavy in JavaScript, because the biggest content is already “pre-built” for the user. But switching from CSR to SSR can be a big project if you’re not familiar with it.
For some sites, it’s overkill. For others, it’s the key to big performance gains.
This is one method where you really need to weigh up the benefits and how they might apply to your specific situation:
Run a fairly standard blog, service website, or ecommerce store? Switching to SSR might bring noticeable performance gains.
Got a highly interactive web app? You might want to stick with CSR for a better user experience.
Generally, if you implement other methods like caching and using a CDN, you’ll see performance benefits with SSR that outweigh the potential server load increase.
This is most impactful for:
JavaScript-heavy web apps (e.g., React, Vue)
Sites noticing a significant delay before content appears
Advanced users or teams that can handle more complex architecture
How to Implement This
Switching from Client-Side Rendering to Server-Side Rendering (or a hybrid approach) typically involves using frameworks (like Next.js for React) that pre-render your content on the server.
This can speed up LCP since the browser receives a ready-made page. However, it’s a bigger project requiring code changes and a good understanding of your tech stack.
If you’re not comfortable with that, you might need to hire a developer or agency.
Preload Important Resources
Impact: Medium | Effort: Medium | Helps Reduce: Resource Load Delay
Preloading tells the browser which files it should grab or prepare in advance.
It can shave off a bit of loading time and help your main content appear slightly faster. For many small sites, these optimizations won’t create dramatic changes.
But on bigger sites or those with lots of images and unique fonts, it can make a difference.
This is most impactful for:
Sites that rely on off-site resources (e.g., fonts or images)
Those comfortable editing HTML headers or using plugins that can do this at scale
How to Implement This
You can preload fonts and images by adding special link tags in your site’s <head>. They tell the browser to grab or prepare certain resources before they’re actually needed.
You simply add rel=“preload” to the <link> tag. Like this:
How much effort this requires depends on your specific setup and how many pages you want to deploy it on. But it’s a fairly simple process that can help reduce your LCP score.
Note: As with a lot of the other methods on this list, WordPress plugins can help here too.
Boost Your Rankings by Improving Your Page Experience
Improving your LCP is one way to boost your overall page experience for users.
In turn, this can actually end up having an impact on your rankings beyond Google’s page experience signals.
Check out our guide to user behavior and SEO to learn how the way your users behave on your website could potentially impact how Google ranks your site.
(It makes optimizing for factors like LCP and the other Core Web Vitals A LOT more important.)
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Most Popular AI Apps by Downloads in the US in First 18 Days Since Launch in the App Store
ChatGPT’s US launch ranked #1 with 1.4 million downloads in the App Store in the first 18 days since app release, followed by Google Gemini (951 thousand) and Microsoft Copilot (518 thousand).
Here’s the complete list of the most downloaded AI apps in the US in the first 18 days of release for each app:
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An SEO audit is a health checkup of your site. It allows you to know what works and what does not, and it allows you to make improvements based on what you find. This can lead to improved performance — both on the search results pages and how visitors engage with your website.
An SEO audit looks at how well a website performs in search results to find areas that need work. It helps find technical SEO problems, analyze on-page elements, evaluate Core Web Vitals and site speed, and analyze user experience and content quality. An SEO audit also looks at outside variables like backlinks and rival tactics to identify areas for improvement. Making sure your website is optimized for users and search engines can help it rank better and attract more organic traffic.
A helpful guide
An SEO audit checklist
Read on below for the step-by-step process, but here is an SEO audit checklist that will help you get started quickly.
Crawl your website using Screaming Frog (or similar tools)
Analyze your site with an SEO tool (e.g., Semrush or Ahrefs)
Pull reports from Google Analytics and Search Console
Create a centralized spreadsheet for findings
Check the user experience (check CTAs, menus, etc)
Audit website content (duplicate and thin content)
Optimize internal linking
Optimize page titles and meta descriptions
Improve content with proper headings (H1 to H6)
Ensure the correct use of canonical tags
Add and validate Schema markup
Monitor and improve Core Web Vitals
Improve general site performance
Improve mobile responsiveness
Boost user engagement
Track metrics regularly
Check Search Console reports
Schedule regular check-ins
Step 1: Preparing an SEO audit
To make your site audit a success, you must prepare well. You need to collect the right information about your website using SEO tools, understand how to diagnose issues and prioritize fixes.
Crawl your website with Screaming Frog (or something similar)
The first step is crawling your website with crawler software. This helps find technical SEO issues that otherwise wouldn’t be so visible. Screaming Frog is one of the most trusted names in this, but Sitebulb is another highly recommended one. The free version of Screaming Frog crawls 500 URLs, but you can upgrade if needed.
Crawling your site is easy; simply download and install Screaming Frog. Open the tool and enter your site’s homepage URL. Then, hit Start, and the crawl will run. Once the scan is complete, export the data into a CSV file for further sorting and prioritization.
Screaming Frog gives you a ton of data that you can export to sheets quickly
What to look for?
Screaming Frog generates a ton of data, so it’s good to prioritize the outcome. Scan for missing, duplicate, or overly long titles and descriptions. Each page should have unique, targeted metadata. Find pages or links that return (404) errors as broken links frustrate users and hurt SEO. Then, identify oversized assets that slow your page load time, such as images, JavaScript, and CSS files. Last but not least, make sure that canonical URLs are properly implemented to avoid duplicate content issues.
Use an all-in-one SEO tool (Semrush or Ahrefs)
In addition to a technical crawl, you can use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to conduct a detailed SEO audit. These tools provide many insights, including keyword rankings, backlink health, and competitor performance.
These tools also let you run a site audit, which gives you a technical health score. You’ll find many improvements to make, like pages blocked by robots.txt or issues with internal linking. The tools also review the quality and relevance of your backlinks and give you ideas on how to get high-quality new links. You’ll also get keyword rankings to track how individual pages perform for target keywords. Identify opportunities to refine content or target new search terms.
Download the most important reports and cross-reference them with your Screaming Frog export.
Pull data from Google Analytics and Search Console
Combining all these insights with your site’s user behavior and engagement data will make your SEO audit come alive. It helps you understand how people use your site and how they experience it to pinpoint pages to improve. Export your findings from Google Analytics and Search Console to include in your audit comparisons.
Check the top-performing landing pages in Google Analytics and their engagement rates. Pages with low engagement rates may have poor content or a disconnect between user expectations and page design. Also, look at session duration and exit rates to find pages where people quickly leave your site.
Use the Performance Report in Search Console to see which pages and queries drive the most clicks and impressions. This will also highlight low CTR pages — ranking well but failing to attract searchers. Then, check the Page Indexing Report for crawl errors, warnings, or blocked pages and review the Core Web Vitals Report to find pages failing on speed or usability metrics.
Google Search Console is an essential tool for SEO audits
Create a centralized spreadsheet
Once you have all the data, please combine everything in a big spreadsheet. How you set this up is up to you, as everyone uses something different. But you could use something like this:
This spreadsheet will guide your fixes throughout the audit process.
Minimal SEO audit (optional)
Not every audit needs to be a deep dive into your site. Sometimes, you don’t have the time but still feel the need to work on your site. In this case, you could do a simpler, quicker health check and evaluate specific regions of your site to see if these perform well. Such a minimal SEO audit is a streamlined version of a full audit to find and fix critical performance issues.
Here’s a basic framework for a quick audit:
Check that your site is indexed by searching site:yourdomain.com in Google.
Run a Google PageSpeed Insights test for slow-loading pages.
Examine the titles and meta descriptions of your most important pages (e.g., homepage, service pages, and key sales pages).
Fix broken links using Screaming Frog or a quick manual check in your navigation.
This lightweight SEO audit still finds high-priority issues without the time commitment of a full review.
Step 2: User experience & content SEO
The next step is to see how people perceive and interact with your site. Look at the user experience and see if you can find things to improve. You can get people to your site by using high-quality content aimed at the right search intent and audience. Not only that, because you want to have them returning.
Improving the user experience
Do you know if your users can find what they need quickly? If not, they might leave your site quickly. Giving them a good experience will do wonders in the long run. In your SEO audit, start by diagnosing these common UX factors:
Make sure the colors match your branding and are easy to read. Look at contrast, as this is especially important for buttons and links. Make CTAs (like “Buy now” or “Learn more”) stand out visually.
Check if the most important design elements are above the fold. Key messages and CTAs should be visible without scrolling. Think of this as the headline act—it must grab attention immediately. Add customer testimonials, third-party endorsements, and security badges (e.g., SSL or payment protection signs) to build credibility.
Give special attention to your menus. Test menus, drop-downs, and search functions. Breadcrumbs also help users see where they are within the site hierarchy.
Audit website content
SEO is largely about content, so review its quality and improve where necessary. The Semrush/Ahrefs site audit should have given you many pointers. With this list, start working on the following.
Check the keyword targeting of your content. Make sure that each page represents a primary keyword. Ahrefs and Semrush show which keywords your pages rank for and identify gaps.
Check for duplicate or thin content. Avoid weak, duplicate, or low-value content. Where necessary, merge similar pages into one in-depth article. Provide actionable, valuable content.
Remember Google’s Helpful Content standards. Create content that delivers real value and focuses on user intent. Your content should answer questions with actionable, audience-focused solutions. Last, you demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T): Add author bios, cite reliable sources, and link references where necessary to develop expertise and trustworthiness.
Internal linking and related content
SEO is not just about getting users and search engines to your site —it’s also about keeping and showing them around. One of the most powerful ways to do this is through internal linking, so be sure to include this in your SEO audit.
Check how you link your most important pages, like cornerstone articles or product categories. Your content should have a couple of links based on relevance and importance, but not too many. In addition, you should include a related content section on your pages to encourage further reading.
Anchor text should include relevant keywords or describe the linked page and try to avoid generic phrases like “click here”.
An internal search feature is another important aspect of showing people around your site. Make sure that your search bar provides relevant results, especially on large websites. Monitor what people search for to inform your content strategy.
Step 3: General on-page SEO
On-page SEO concerns the technical and content improvements you make on specific pages. This helps search engines understand your pages. It also helps your readers to find what they want.
Optimize page titles and meta descriptions
Page titles and meta descriptions are the first things a visitor sees in search results. While search engines like to generate these based on relevance, you can still influence how you’d like these to appear for maximum CTR.
For your page titles, make sure that every page on your site has a unique title. Duplicate titles confuse search engines, which is something you don’t want. And while there’s no limit to how long titles can be in the SERPs, they get cut off visually after a set number of characters. Try to find the sweet spot.
Incorporate your primary keyword close to the beginning of the title, but avoid keyword stuffing. For example, instead of “SEO tips SEO tips SEO tips,” use “10 SEO tips for beginners – Step-by-step guide.” Don’t forget to add your brand name at the end of the title, e.g., “How to do an SEO audit – Your Brand”
For your meta descriptions, make sure that they concisely explain what the page is about. You should also include the primary keyword while making sure the text flows naturally. Don’t forget to encourage action. Incorporate a call-to-action (CTA), such as “Learn more,” “Discover how,” or “Start now.”
Optimize heading structures (H1 to H6)
Headings are excellent tools for structuring and making your content easier to read. They also assist search engines with recognizing how important the information is on each page.
Start with one H1: The H1 is the main heading for the webpage, and it should contain your targeted keyword. Each page should have a single H1 tag.
Use H2s for major sections: Use H2 tags to break up content into logical sections. Consider these the main subheadings of your article.
Add H3s or H4s for subsections: You can have more subsections under H2s if you want to break it down further using H3 or H4 for better structuring.
Keep it logical: Don’t skip heading levels (e.g., jumping from H1 to H4) or use headings only for styling.
Be descriptive: Write headings describing the section’s content. For example, instead of “Step 1,” use “Step 1: Analyze your traffic metrics.”
WordPress has a handy feature to check the heading structure of your articles
Ensure proper use of canonical tags
Canonical tags show a search engine which version of a page to prioritize when duplicates or near-duplicates of the same page are available on your site. This is especially important for online stores, as these have many variations of the same products due to filtering or session-based URLs.
You should always choose one canonical version for a page. For example, if both https://example.com and https://www.example.com exist, set one canonical URL to prevent duplicate content issues. Don’t forget to add the canonical tag in each page’s HTML <head> section and be consistent in your internal linking. For instance, always link to one version of the URL rather than switching between http and https.
Regularly check for issues using Screaming Frog or Semrush to find pages missing canonical tags or ones with conflicting canonicals.
Add and test schema markup
Structured data in the form of Schema markup helps make your site more understandable for search engines. The code you add to your site helps structure and identify your content in a way that search engines can easily consume. In some cases, this can even lead to highlighted search results, for instance, for products or ratings and reviews.
Yoast SEO drastically simplifies adding schema for WordPress, WooCommerce and Shopify users. The SEO plugin outputs JSON-LD (the format preferred by Google) to add schema markup directly to your page’s HTML.
There are many options for adding Schema, but you should start with the basics and things relevant to your site. For instance, you should use the Article schema for articles and blog posts and highlight publication dates, images, authors, and headlines.
Ecommerce businesses should use Product structured data. This data should highlight pricing, stock availability, ratings, and reviews. If it makes sense, you can also markup your FAQ pages, which will no longer be highlighted in Google’s SERPs.
There are many other options, so you must check what makes sense for your situation. For instance, if you run a recipe site, you can add Recipe structured data, or if you publish events on your site, use Events.
Don’t forget to test your structured data. Use Google’s Rich Results Test Tool to check if your structured data is correct and valid. Also, check Search Console for errors under the “Enhancements” tab.
Yoast SEO makes it easy to add essential structured data
Audit and improve your backlinks
Backlinks are as important as ever. Every link from a relevant, high-quality source counts towards your authority. These links prove to search engines that your content is valuable and meaningful. Of course, there’s a ton of spamming happening with links.
You can use tools like Moz, Ahrefs, or Semrush to audit your backlink profile. The results show a list of spammy backlinks and links from irrelevant websites with low authority. If spammy websites link to you, there’s an option in Google Search Console to disavow these links. This is only needed in very rare cases, though. Only disavow links you’re sure are harmful — this is a last resort for low-quality links you cannot get removed manually.
It’s more important to focus on earning high-quality backlinks. Create shareable, high-value content like guides, research, or infographics while building relationships with related websites, bloggers, or journalists for natural backlink opportunities.
Step 4: Site speed and engagement
Check your site performance, as site speed and user engagement greatly impact success. Pages that load slowly are annoying for users and can give you a poor score in the eyes of search engines. Low engagement rates can hurt your results, as users might stop visiting your site.
Understanding and improving Core Web Vitals
To underscore the importance of performance, Google launched the Core Web Vitals. These metrics help site owners gain insights into how their sites perform in real life and get tips on improving those scores. The metrics focus on loading times, interactivity and stability. Together, these determine how enjoyable users find your site.
LCP measures how long your largest asset loads
The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how long it takes for the largest visible element on the screen (usually an image, video, or headline) to render fully. If performance is bad, you can improve this by optimizing images by compressing them without sacrificing quality. You can use modern file formats like WebP for faster performance and minimize render-blocking resources like heavy CSS or JavaScript files. Defer unnecessary scripts and prioritize above-the-fold content.
INP measures interactivity
Interaction to Next Paint (INP): INP is the new Core Web Vitals metric from Google that tracks how quickly your site responds to user input clicks, taps, and keystrokes. While FID only reported on the delay for the first interaction, INP evaluates all interactivity events for the session. This ensures a fuller score.
You can improve your performance by minimizing JavaScript execution. Use Screaming Frog or PageSpeed Insights to flag heavy scripts and defer or remove non-critical JavaScript. Use browser caching to cache JavaScript and other assets so they don’t reload unnecessarily and reduce reliance on third-party scripts. You can offload heavy tasks to web workers to free up the main thread and process user interactions faster.
CLS measures stability
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures the stability of a webpage’s visual layout. It checks if the content moves unexpectedly as the page loads (e.g. when an image loads late and pushes buttons elsewhere on the screen).
You can improve this by specifying dimensions (width and height) for all images and videos in your HTML/CSS. This prevents the browser from guessing dimensions and rearranging content. Avoid inserting ads, banners, or other dynamic elements above the fold after loading content. Please preload important assets like fonts or images to ensure they appear quickly and predictably.
Site speed optimization beyond Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals should be a main focus, but there are other strategies to implement to improve site speed and page experience. Faster websites equal user satisfaction, reduce bounce rates and make your audience more likely to stick around in the future.
Start reducing the number of HTTP requests for a faster site. Combine CSS and JavaScript files where practical, or use modern HTTP/3 protocols, allowing browsers to send out multiple requests simultaneously. Also, unused CSS and JavaScript should be eliminated to reduce file sizes and speed up load times. File compression can be used via Gzip or Brotli to compress the assets before serving them to the user. Compressed files load faster without losing quality; most hosting providers or web servers can help you set this up. Tools like Google Lighthouse can also alert you if compression is missing.
Implement lazy loading for images and videos so that only visible content loads immediately while other assets load as needed. WordPress users can easily use plugins like Smush or Lazy Load by WP Rocket to achieve this, or custom JavaScript libraries like lazysizes work on other platforms. Distribute your site’s static assets with a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which delivers files from servers closest to users, improving global load speeds. Popular CDN providers include Cloudflare, Akamai, and Amazon CloudFront. Finally, performance analysis tools such as Google Lighthouse, GTmetrix, or Pingdom analyze bottlenecks, track progress, and ensure your efforts work.
Google’s PageSpeed Insights is one of the best tools to understand your site’s real-life performance
Improving mobile performance and responsiveness
Mobile is everything these days. For most websites, this means that most of the traffic will be coming from mobile devices. Search engines like Google consider the quality of your mobile site when ranking your content, so being mobile-friendly should always be on the tip of your tongue.
Run various mobile tests to see how your site performs on phones and tablets. Look for layout issues, problems with interactive elements, or slow-loading pages or assets. Check if your responsive web design works properly so your site dynamically adapts to all device sizes. Also, ensure your CTAs are mobile-friendly, and your forms are accessible from mobile devices.
Increasing user engagement on your site
Faster pages keep users on your website, but engagement ensures they take meaningful actions. Thanks to better site performance, you’ll get higher engagement rates, which results in better conversions, newsletter signups, product purchases, and more.
Simplify your site’s navigation to make it easy for users to find what they need. Use clear menus with logical structures, such as categories and subcategories, and add breadcrumbs to show users where they are within the site. Dropdown menus should be intuitive, and internal search bars must return accurate, relevant results quickly. Additionally, ensure key Call-to-Actions (CTAs), like “Sign Up” or “Request a Quote,” are prominently placed above the fold or immediately following key content sections. Use descriptive, action-oriented language in your CTAs to make them more compelling and clickable.
Encourage users to explore your site more with internal links and related content suggestions. Add social sharing buttons to blog posts, infographics, or product pages to make it easy for users to share content on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, or X. If using popups or exit-intent offers (e.g., subscription prompts or discounts), ensure they are thoughtfully designed and minimally intrusive. Poorly timed or aggressive popups risk driving users away, so aim to balance engagement with user experience.
Tools for site speed and engagement improvements
To help optimize, you can utilize Google Lighthouse, which will show you how your Core Web Vitals performs overall, and GTmetrix, which goes in-depth and gives actionable recommendations on improving page speed results.
Hotjar offers insights into where users click, how they scroll, and how they behave overall. WP Rocket is for WordPress users looking to automate technical processes such as caching, lazy loading, and database optimization. Various WordPress plugins add customizable social share buttons to enhance content sharing, making it easier for visitors to share your posts on their favorite platforms.
Step 5: Monitoring and tracking results
SEO is a colossal effort; the process does not end there once that initial effort is made. You must monitor your actions to determine whether those changes work as intended. Regular monitoring is also a great opportunity to find improvements and better calibrate your SEO strategy. Regular monitoring helps you improve your site, adjust to the latest algorithm updates, and retain the course.
Why monitor results?
By tracking results, you can measure the impact of your audit (e.g., increased rankings, traffic, and engagement). It’ll also help spot new issues like broken links, slow pages, or dropped rankings. This will ultimately help you improve your strategy by identifying what’s driving results and where to focus next.
SEO is not something you do in a month or so. It takes time, and you might see the results in many months. Consistently track and analyze.
Metrics to track
Start by looking at traffic metrics. Organic traffic shows how many users find your site through search engines, which you can monitor in Google Analytics under Acquisition > Organic Search. Check referral traffic to see if other backlinks are sending visitors to your site. This data shows how effective your SEO and link-building work is.
Next, evaluate engagement and search performance. Metrics like engagement rates and time on page help you understand how users interact with your content. On the search side, track keyword rankings with tools like Wincher, Ahrefs, or Semrush to see how well your pages are doing in the SERPs.
Use Google Search Console to monitor your CTR and check for indexing issues in the Coverage Report. Make sure that your most important pages are indexed. Monitor loading speed, interactivity, and layout stability in tools like PageSpeed Insights.
Schedule regular check-ins
You need to make monitoring results a regular thing. Review rankings, CTR, and new crawl errors weekly. Each month, check traffic trends, user behavior, and fixes made during the audit. Every quarter, you should run a fresh crawl with Screaming Frog, check competitor performance, and update old pages based on new opportunities.
Conclusion on doing SEO audits
Following these steps will help perform an SEO audit, from preparing your data to addressing user experience and technical SEO improvements. Make sure each fix you aim to do aligns with your goals and strategy. Auditing regularly keeps your site running at its best and ready to rank in search results.
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Not all PPC strategies work across every industry.
Look for agencies that have experience managing campaigns in your specific vertical.
Ask for case studies or examples of past success in your industry, especially in:
Ecommerce.
Local services.
B2B lead generation.
SaaS.
Healthcare.
Finance.
Agencies with industry expertise will understand common challenges and effective strategies unique to your business type.
They should also demonstrate an ability to adapt to changes in industry regulations and trends.
3. Understand their approach to strategy and optimization
A good PPC agency should have a structured approach to campaign strategy, including:
Account structure: How do they build and organize campaigns?
Keyword strategy: Do they effectively use broad, phrase, and exact match?
Bid management: Are they using automated bidding, manual strategies, or a hybrid approach?
Ad copy and creative: How do they optimize messaging and testing?
Landing page optimization: Do they provide insights or recommendations?
Conversion tracking and attribution: Can they track conversions accurately and integrate with your CRM?
A truly data-driven agency should also be A/B testing different elements, using insights from past campaigns to improve performance, and continuously optimizing for better results.
4. Ask about their reporting and transparency
A top-tier PPC agency should provide clear and actionable reporting. Look for:
Regular reports: Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly reporting with key performance indicators (KPIs).
Transparency: Do they provide full access to the ad accounts, or do they keep you in the dark?
Actionable insights: Reports should not just be data dumps but should include insights and recommendations.
Real-time dashboard access: Can you see your ad performance whenever you like?
Additionally, ensure they use third-party analytics tools like Google Analytics 4 or other attribution models to verify data accuracy and avoid misrepresenting results.
A smooth onboarding process sets the foundation for a successful agency partnership. Ask:
What does the onboarding process look like?
What information and assets will they need from you?
How long does onboarding usually take?
What key milestones should you expect in the first 30, 60, and 90 days?
A well-structured onboarding should include an initial strategy session, access setup (Google Ads, analytics, CRM), and alignment on key metrics and reporting expectations.
Understanding who will manage your account is critical for a long-term, successful relationship. Ask:
Who will be directly managing your PPC campaigns?
How is their PPC team staffed?
What level of experience do their account managers have?
What is their turnover rate? How often do they replace account managers?
A high staff turnover can lead to inconsistencies in account management, so it’s important to partner with an agency that retains experienced professionals.
10. Request case studies and references
A reputable agency should have a portfolio of successful campaigns. Ask for:
Case studies: Examples of past campaigns, including challenges and results.
References: Client testimonials and contacts for past or current clients.
Look for verifiable success stories that align with your industry and goals.
If possible, reach out to their past clients to gain insight into their experience with the agency.
11. Test with a trial or audit
If you’re unsure about committing, consider starting with a:
Short-term contract: A three-month trial period to assess performance.
PPC audit: Have them audit your existing campaigns and provide recommendations.
An audit should provide a comprehensive analysis of campaign structure, keyword effectiveness, ad performance, and tracking setup.
The agency’s recommendations should be data-driven and actionable.
12. Ensure cultural and goal alignment
Choose an agency that aligns with your company’s values, communication style, and growth objectives. A strong partnership is key to long-term PPC success.
Consider factors like:
Do they understand your brand’s mission and voice?
Are they flexible and open to collaboration?
Do they have a track record of long-term client relationships?
An agency that shares your vision and integrates well with your team will be more effective in achieving your marketing goals.
Evaluating a PPC agency takes time, but choosing the right partner will maximize your advertising investment.
By focusing on experience, strategy, transparency, and results, you’ll be well-equipped to make an informed decision and drive meaningful business growth through paid search and social campaigns.
The right agency does more than manage your PPC campaigns.
They act as an extension of your team, providing expert insights and continuously optimizing for long-term success.
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This guide will help you recognize the warning signs of PPC cannibalization, test its impact, and implement strategies to ensure both channels work together for optimal results.
Signs your PPC campaigns are cannibalizing your SEO rankings
Declining organic click-through rates
If your organic rankings remain stable but CTRs are dropping, your paid ads might be stealing traffic from your organic listings.
This is usually the result of branded or high-ranking keywords being simultaneously targeted in PPC campaigns.
It’s also important to note that additional SERP features, ad placements, and AI-driven search results have contributed to a general decline in organic CTRs across the board.
Increased PPC clicks with no overall traffic growth
If PPC campaigns drive more paid traffic, but total website visits remain unchanged, your ads may be diverting clicks that would have otherwise come from organic search.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)’s Traffic Acquisition Report makes identifying this issue easier. You can compare period-over-period traffic changes by channel side by side.
Organic conversions declining while paid conversions increase
If paid search conversions are rising but overall conversions remain flat or decline, PPC may be cannibalizing organic conversions rather than expanding your reach.
This is especially common with Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, which often prioritize branded terms for their higher ROI. More on that later.
3 steps to prevent PPC from cannibalizing your SEO
1. Audit PPC and SEO keyword overlap
Not all overlapping PPC and SEO keywords cause cannibalization.
However, to safeguard your top-ranking keywords, exclude them from your PPC campaigns.
To speed up your analysis, filter organic search terms where your website ranks position 4 or below – since most clicks go to pages ranking in positions 1-3.
Additionally, sort search terms by click volume to identify phrases most susceptible to cannibalization.
Then, cross-reference your organic search terms with your Google Ads Search Terms report to pinpoint where you’re paying for traffic you’d otherwise get for free.
2. Use negative keywords to exclude strong SEO performers
If certain terms already perform well organically, you can use negative keywords to prevent them from triggering paid ads.
By applying exact-match negative keywords, you avoid cannibalization while still targeting related peripheral phrases in your ads.
3. Refine brand bidding strategies and implement brand exclusion lists
Bidding on branded terms is often unnecessary since users searching for a brand already intend to visit its website.
Paying for traffic that would otherwise be free is rarely a good investment.
However, PPC brand bidding becomes essential when competitors target your brand.
In such cases, recapturing your brand space is a necessary expense – but fortunately, it’s much cheaper than bidding on a competitor’s brand.
The importance of brand exclusion lists
Brand exclusion lists help prevent wasteful spending on branded queries where organic listings already dominate.
This ensures PPC budgets are focused on non-branded, high-intent searches rather than duplicating organic traffic.
This is especially critical for PMax campaigns, which aim to drive positive ROI, often through low-cost branded visibility with high conversion potential.
One example of branded cannibalization my team identified involved a branded PMax campaign that inadvertently paid for an estimated $500,000 in organic revenue.
Since PMax campaigns receive premium visibility – even in areas where results may not be highly relevant – this campaign bid on nearly every branded term, running unchecked.
A major issue arose when a shopping carousel for the company’s two most-searched branded phrases appeared above all other SERP features.
This pushed the usual search ad lower on the page and forced the organic homepage listing completely out of view without scrolling.
As a result, impressions dropped by 12%, and organic clicks fell by 33%.
If you haven’t yet taken steps to prevent your campaigns from bidding on your brand, make sure to check Google’s guide to brand exclusions.
Benchmark your SEO performance on branded terms before launching PMax campaigns to make identifying cannibalization easier.
Special considerations for Performance Max campaigns and targeting options
PMax campaigns use AI-driven automation to serve ads across Google’s entire inventory, including Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
Unlike traditional PPC campaigns, PMax lacks detailed keyword-level control, making it difficult to prevent overlap with organic rankings.
How PMax can cannibalize SEO traffic
Broad matching across multiple channels: PMax may automatically target keywords where your brand already ranks well organically, leading to unnecessary ad spend.
Limited transparency on search terms: Without keyword-level reports, identifying overlap with organic rankings is challenging.
Competing with organic listings: PMax can push organic results further down by occupying both paid search and shopping ad placements.
Use account-level negative keywords: Google now allows negative keywords for PMax – exclude high-performing organic keywords to reduce redundancy.
Optimize asset groups and search themes: If certain categories already perform well organically, ensure PMax focuses on different product lines or services. Since PMax is designed for maximum reach, precise targeting is essential.
Tests to confirm PPC is cannibalizing SEO
Run a PPC pause test: Temporarily pause PPC ad groups or use exact-match negative keywords for strong organic terms. If organic traffic, CTR, and conversions improve, PPC may be cannibalizing SEO.
Compare pre- and post-bid adjustments: Lower PPC bids on high-ranking organic keywords and track shifts in paid and organic performance.
Analyze assisted conversions in Google Analytics: Determine whether PPC ads drive conversions that organic search alone wouldn’t achieve. If not, adjustments may be needed.
Monitor organic CTR changes: Use Google Search Console to analyze CTR fluctuations for top organic keywords before and after PPC campaigns launch.
Aligning PPC and SEO requires careful keyword management and strategic bidding
Reduce ad spend where possible and avoid paying for traffic that would otherwise be free.
For Performance Max campaigns, mitigating SEO cannibalization through negative keywords and refined targeting ensures a balanced approach.
A well-coordinated PPC-SEO strategy improves efficiency and maximizes the value of digital marketing investments.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GA4-Traffic-Aquisition-Report-Bii241.png?fit=1724%2C477&ssl=14771724http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-02-17 15:00:002025-02-17 15:00:00How to prevent PPC from cannibalizing your SEO efforts
After 25 years of working in SEO, I’ve seen firsthand how traditional keyword research methods fail to keep up with Google’s advancements.
In my SMX Next presentation, I challenged SEOs to go beyond outdated keyword methodologies and embrace an intent-driven approach.
Here are six key insights from that session.
1. Traditional keyword research is failing us
Traditional keyword research is no longer enough.
We’ve relied on tools that provide data on competition, search volume, and relevance, but they don’t uncover the hidden context behind searches.
For years, SEOs have prioritized high-volume, low-competition keywords, assuming this would drive results.
While this may have worked for the simpler, lexical-based Google algorithm of the early 2000s, this approach falls short because it ignores search intent.
For example, a keyword like “solar panels” may have high search volume.
But without context, it’s impossible to determine whether users are looking for products, financing options, or general information.
Without understanding intent, marketers risk attracting traffic that never converts.
Today, success depends on moving beyond search volume and focusing on search intent.
The number one way to understand search intent is to study the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Rather than guessing what a keyword means, analyzing what Google is already ranking provides a clear picture of the dominant intent behind a query.
For example, I once worked with an ecommerce company selling biscotti cookies.
Initially, they targeted high-volume keywords like “chocolate biscotti,” expecting strong results.
However, a quick SERP analysis revealed that most top-ranking results were recipes, not product listings.
This indicated that searchers weren’t looking to buy biscotti – they wanted to bake it.
Instead of chasing high-volume terms with mismatched intent, the company shifted its focus to lower-volume keywords with strong purchase intent, ultimately improving conversions.
Blindly following keyword tools without SERP analysis can lead to content that attracts traffic but fails to convert.
The real question isn’t just what keywords people are searching for – it’s why they’re searching.
As Google increasingly prioritizes intent over keywords, SEO strategies must evolve accordingly. A three-step process can help align keyword research with search intent:
Identify target intents
Before diving into keyword research, define 5-6 core search intents that align with business goals. Examples include:
“Compare mortgage rates” (for financial services)
“Best protein powders for weight loss” (for fitness brands)
Filter keywords by intent
Rather than focusing solely on search volume and competition, filter keywords based on clear purchase or action intent.
This approach refines traditional keyword research to focus on what actually drives conversions.
Choose content formats that match intent
Content should match the searcher’s intent, which often requires moving beyond standard blog posts. Some high-performing content formats include:
Comparison articles (“Best budget vs. premium running shoes”)
Niche buying guides (“How to choose an ergonomic office chair”)
Middle-of-the-funnel content – like comparison pages, niche buying guides, and Q&A pages – tends to rank better and convert more effectively than generic blog content.
With AI-driven search results delivering direct answers, traditional educational blog posts are losing traction.
To stay competitive, marketers must create high-value content that serves the searcher’s next step.
Some of the best-performing content types include:
Comparison content (“Best DSLR cameras under $1,000”).
Niche buying guides (“Ultimate guide to ergonomic keyboards”).
6. Use AI wisely, but prioritize customer insights
AI tools are valuable for analyzing SERPs and understanding search intent, but they are not a substitute for real customer insights.
The best way to understand what searchers want is to talk to actual customers. Conversations, chat logs, and feedback from sales teams offer deeper intent insights than AI alone.
For those who don’t have direct access to customers, speaking with sales representatives can be just as effective.
Sales teams repeatedly hear the same customer questions, making them an excellent source of content ideas and keyword strategy insights.
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As marketers, we love to explore emerging strategies and trends to stay ahead of the curve.
However, what’s relevant and effective is always changing, despite countless case studies and think-pieces predicting the next big trend.
Content marketing, in particular, is highly susceptible to speculation and testing because it is fluid and heavily influenced by consumers’ behaviors and interests at any given moment.
This makes it interesting, innovative and challenging.
So, what are the predictions for content marketing in 2025? Let’s dive in.
Inspired by Matthew McConaughey’s TED Talk, where the actor shares his sources of motivation and inspiration, Rose relates these themes to the content.
Specifically, that content should not only appeal to the needs of one’s target audience but inspire, by giving them:
It provides users with a vision of the future, an appetite for new ideas, and a call to look beyond their current condition.
In Rose’s words, visionary content “lights the spark of inspiration.” For example, this could be:
A sustainability brand sharing its vision of a zero-waste future.
A financial service company talking about the benefits of decentralized finance and what that might mean for society.
Visionary content allows brands to shape industry conversions rather than react to them.
It helps nurture a loyal and engaged audience that looks to the brand for innovation, inspiration, and guidance.
For brands looking to capitalize on visionary content, this means creating content that’s future-thinking, often conceptual and gives users a vision of what’s possible.
2. Leverage short-form video for maximum reach
Short-form video formats like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are nothing new, but their prevalence and importance are expected to ramp up in 2025.
This is due in no small part to the “fast-paced nature of online consumption,” as highlighted by Forbes.
Today’s users consume content at a rapid pace, looking for digestible information that’s easy to watch and even easier to share.
Delivering value in bite-sized videos has allowed brands to reach more eyes in less time and increase the virality of their content.
An economical way to create more short-form videos at scale is to repurpose long-form videos into soundbites.
This often involves creating videos for YouTube (where there is evergreen, organic value) and then circulating shorter clips via Shorts, Reels, TikTok, etc.
Industry disruptor Gary Vee is a prime example of this, as he routinely publishes long YouTube videos, cuts clips of these videos, and reposts them on social media.
If you manage multi-channel campaigns for clients, you can leverage a similar approach without creating unique, short-form videos.
From scriptwriters to video editing software, AI tools will make it easier for brands to generate short video content at scale.
The results of LLM SEO mechanics can be seen when you conduct a Google Search and Google Gemini (Google’s AI model) surfaces summarized results.
These results are pulled from websites that may be purposely (or inadvertently) utilizing LLM SEO.
What does that mean for you?
In addition to traditional SEO efforts, it may be beneficial to deploy LLM-specific strategies.
While this area of marketing is still in its infancy, some strategies that have emerged include:
Implementing structured data markup in website content to help search engines and LLMs better “read” and interpret the information.
Incorporating contextual “cues”, via keywords (focus on semantic relevance and authoritativeness), in your content for LLMs to better understand what your content is about and how it relates to a user’s search.
Consistently citing relevant and reputable sources via links, with up-to-date information from legitimate publications. This can increase the “trust” factor in SEO, making it more likely that LLMs will assess your content as reputable.
Stay attuned to developments in LLM SEO to maximize your content’s ranking and traffic potential.
The true power of content performance lies in the team.
Without passionate and experienced people driving the strategy, even the best tactics can fall flat.
People bring everything together – from conceptualization to execution to measurement and improvement.
Marketers rated having “high-performing team members” as the second leading factor in their content marketing success (second only to “understanding [one’s] audience”), per CMI’s recent report.
The same study reported that 86% of marketers have a dedicated content marketing team or staff person.
Building the right content team is a top priority for marketers and brands heading into 2025.
Over-reliance on automation, tools, or contracted writers can lead to a fragmented strategy.
It’s essential to have someone steering the content’s focus, goals, and priorities.
What should you be looking for when it comes to building a team?
For one, diversity of experience.
Look for team members who bring diverse skills, from SEO to copywriting to social media marketing, and can apply this experience to develop a robust content marketing plan.
Additionally, seek out team members who are collaborative and encouraging.
You will want a content team that feels empowered to share new ideas, support each other, and stay attuned to emerging trends in your space.
5. Apply psychological concepts to content
Personality psychology has many applications in content creation and marketing.
By understanding key psychological principles, you can tailor messaging to better meet the needs of specific consumer profiles.
The study of personality types can help predict user motives, understand behavior, and craft more effective messaging.
This leads to content that resonates more deeply with target audiences, boosting engagement and driving conversions.
In 2025, I expect psychology to play a bigger role in marketing, from analyzing Google search behavior to crafting compelling stories and influencing user actions.
Explore psychological insights to better understand how users navigate the web and make purchasing decisions – and how to apply this knowledge to content marketing.
6. Differentiate your brand by balancing AI and human content
AI-generated content has been a hot and controversial topic in recent years.
You’ll find countless technologies that leverage AI-driven algorithms and concepts, expanding across sectors like SaaS, data analytics, and SEO.
Meanwhile, content purists remain resistant to AI-generated videos, art, blog posts, and more.
And then there’s everyone else in between.
Amid these polarized views, a growing trend is resistance to AI-generated content.
Some consumers are put off – or even jaded – by AI content that lacks originality, personality, and authenticity.
Conduct a casual search for conversations around AI, and you’ll find many articles and posts demonstrating the same.
One report found that half of consumers see the use of AI as a “turnoff.”
AI-assisted content creation isn’t going away. It has its place.
However, rejecting it could become a competitive differentiator for brands.
Some may take an ethical stance against AI – promising never to use AI-generated content – which could resonate with audiences who prefer human-created work.
For example, Dove has stated that they will never use AI to represent human bodies in their ads.
Each brand must decide if this stance aligns with their goals and values, as neither choice is inherently better.
However, given the ongoing debate, more brands are likely to take a stand on AI content soon.
While these trends are not set in stone, there are clear signs they will be relevant in 2025. Only time will tell how they will unfold.
Stay curious, keep testing, and listen to real-world conversations – often, the best insights come from the people we aim to serve.
Every business needs an online presence. Building a business website could be one of your most important decisions. But after that decision comes another question: Which platform should you choose to build your business site on? This depends on what kind of website you need, your resources, and your expertise.
Before proceeding, begin by describing your website’s goal. What does your website need to do? Do you need an online store, a simple way to present your company, a blog, or a portfolio? Your main goal should influence the rest of your choices and help you find a platform with the features you need.
If you run an ecommerce site, you’ll need great shopping cart functionality, secure payment options, and features to manage your inventory. If you focus on blogging or need a portfolio site, you’ll probably want good content management options, a flexible design, and ease of use. Once you understand your needs, you can narrow down the list of platforms.
Thinking deeply about the purpose of your website can also help you plan for the future. If you think you’ll expand the site with more products or a wider range of services, choosing a platform that can scale and evolve with your business might be a good idea.
Do you have technical expertise and resources?
One of the most important questions to answer when deciding on a platform for your business website is whether you have technical knowledge. Some of the website builders available right now have an easy-to-use interface that requires little to no coding skills. Some even use AI to help you build a website from scratch by simply describing it. Other platforms and CMSs give you direct influence on the appearance and workings of your website, which needs technical expertise.
If you’re not technical or don’t have a technical team backing you, looking at online platforms with drag-and-drop editors and pre-designed templates might make sense. With these, you can have a professional-looking website without writing code or understanding backend systems. Brands like Wix, Duda, Web.com, and Squarespace are some options that function like this.
However, if you have the technical resources or plan to hire a developer, a content management system like WordPress gives you more flexibility and customization options. WordPress is a popular option — it powers over 40% of websites. It’s known for its extensive plugin ecosystem — with powerful tools such as Yoast SEO — and a vibrant community.
Remember, though, that choosing a CMS that requires more technical input also requires maintenance and occasional troubleshooting, which could increase costs in the future.
There are a couple of things you need to consider when building a website for a business. First, you must understand your skill level. Second, you’ll have to find out if you have resources and support. This helps you decide whether a simple site builder or something more open-ended is the better investment for you.
Types of website platforms
Building a proper website for a business means exploring various options. Experiment and find out which online platform matches your requirements and needs. Just remember that there is not a single “best” platform that works well for all businesses. Every tool has its strengths and weaknesses.
Consider the popular options
There are many tools to help you build company websites, but you do not need to try every one. You can probably make do with the most popular options, as these have proven their worth.
WordPress
WordPress is the most popular CMS and offers an amazing selection of themes and plugins. You can customize it in any way you think, giving you great control over the platform. WordPress is a great option if you want to create a website for a business that can adapt over time. The CMS performs well in the search results and can grow with your content needs. WordPress is great for:
Best for bloggers and content creators: Ideal for content-rich sites with robust publishing features.
Best for customization: Offers extensive themes and plugin support to tailor every aspect of your site.
Best for SEO and flexibility: It is highly adaptable for businesses and developers aiming to optimize and expand their online presence.
Best for ecommerce: Seamlessly integrate WooCommerce for powerful online store features and e-commerce capabilities.
Shopify is a great all-in-one ecommerce option for companies selling products online. It handles everything from hosting to security and from payments to integration. Shopify makes it easy to build an online store. It has lots of features to help you scale your business. Shopify is good if you want a solid option to get started quickly.
Best for online retailers: Ecommerce-friendly, easily set up to manage and grow an online store.
Best for secure transactions: Integrated payment gateways and reliable security features ensure peace of mind.
Easiest to scale: Intuitive interface helps startups and growing businesses manage stores efficiently.
These platforms are for users who want simplicity. They come with built-in templates and handy editors. Wix and Squarespace are good options for small businesses, creatives, and professionals who want to build a nice-looking portfolio or simple business website. These are the best options for users who want ease of use over extensive flexibility and customization options.
Other options
Of the other platforms, Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento), Drupal, or Webflow may also be worth looking at if you have specific needs. Adobe Commerce is useful if you need a large-scale ecommerce environment. Drupal is great for handling larger sites with complex data needs (although the project recently launched a simplified option called Drupal CMS). Webflow is a middle ground with design flexibility and editing capabilities.
While we list several of the best platform options available, you should base your choice on your needs, requirements, security levels, and desired functionality.
Scalability, customization, and security
Choosing the right platform to build your business site isn’t just about here and now. You should also think about scaling your sites once your business grows.
Scalability
When selecting a platform, consider whether it can handle increased traffic and additional content you might need. Can you expand your capabilities as your business grows? For example, if you plan to add more products or expand your feature set, you need a website solution that scales without much work. Look for features, services, and plans that support growth.
Customization
Your business is unique, and so should your site reflect your unique brand. The platform you pick should give you plenty of options to customize your business site. It shouldn’t just let you pick from a selection of templates but also offer the options to change design elements, add custom code, and integrate tools you need to build your business. Platforms that offer much flexibility allow you to do what you want. This helps your site feel fresh and aligned with your brand.
Security
Security is essential for a business website. As we hear more stories about data breaches and online threats, you should choose a platform that values security. You should consider SSL certificates, server security, software updates, and secure payment options for ecommerce sites. A reliable site builder should have proper security protocols to protect customer data.
Managed hosting services or SaaS platforms like Shopify often handle WordPress security automatically for you, but you should double-check it. If you go the self-hosted route, you should make sure that you have the resources available to manage the security of your business site.
Budget and cost considerations
For many, cost is the most important factor when choosing a website platform for a business. However, it’s important to consider both the short-term and long-term investments. Make sure that your budget evolves as your site does.
Upfront and ongoing fees
Site builder platforms all work with subscriptions, but sometimes, one-time costs are involved for themes, plugins, or other features. For example:
Subscription fees: Site builders such as Squarespace and Wix charge a monthly fee for hosting the site, accessing features, and support.
Hosting and domain costs: If you choose a CMS like WordPress or Drupal, you must budget for web hosting, domain registration, and premium themes and plugins. Investing in a more premium hosting plan often leads to better performance. Of course, you can also have a custom theme built by an agency or solo developer, which would also cost money.
Transaction fees: Online stores need payment systems, and some platforms charge money for handling transactions. These costs can add up if you move a lot of volume.
Value over time
Picking the cheapest option might sound sensible, but you should consider the costs over a longer time. A highly scalable platform with a long list of features and a good support team might cost more initially but could save time and money in the long run. Look at the full package and see which platform offers the best mix of price and functionality.
Testing and trials
Be sure to try out the different options. Many website builders offer free trials or demo versions. Use these to explore the capabilities before you sign up for a specific plan. Testing the interface and features gives you a better understanding of whether this product meets your wishes. This is a good way to avoid making the wrong decision, which could lead to extra costs or limited growth.
Additional considerations and support
After you’ve crossed off the technical and monetary questions from your list, a few questions still need to be answered.
Customer support
Your website is central to your business, so keeping it up and running is essential. For this, you need a platform with good support. Access to good customer service is a huge help if you run into issues or you’re trying to implement new things. Look for platforms with various ways of contacting support (email, phone, chat) and ample documentation available. Platforms with proper support can reduce downtime and help you on your way quickly.
Integrations and marketing tools
Websites are the centerpiece of a business strategy, and they should not live alone. Find out if your preferred platform integrates with business tools like CRM systems, email marketing services, and social media platforms. Many site builders now include built-in SEO tools to rank your site in search engines. And if they don’t, Yoast SEO has plugins for WordPress, WooCommerce, and Shopify. Choose something that matches your existing digital strategy.
Analytics and reporting
What would you do without knowing how your site is performing? Data is essential to make informed decisions. Analytic tools show how visitors behave on the site and which pages perform well. Some platforms come with built-in analytics tools, which help see how your site is doing.
Deciding on the business site platform
To recap, you can choose how to build your business website by answering these questions:
What is the goal of your website?
What technical expertise and resources do you have?
Which site builders have the features and scalability you need?
Do the cost structure and support options fit into your budget?
Can the platform integrate with your marketing and analytics tools?
Take the time to answer these questions. Then, read honest reviews of users of the various platforms and try out the demos — very important. It’s all about getting your hands dirty in this process. You need to determine which platform best fits your business while giving enough flexibility to scale when your business grows.
We’re saying it again: there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. You should pick the platform that works today and will still work when your business has grown. It doesn’t matter if you pick an easy-to-use website builder or a highly customizable CMS, as long as it makes sense for you and your business — now and in the future.
Now, choose a platform for your business website
It costs a lot of time and money to build a website for a business. You need to define your goals, evaluate the various platforms, and determine how you want your business to grow. Every decision you make affects how you support your business objectives. When you look at your technical know-how, budget, scalability needs, and support options, you should be able to decide which site builder to choose if you want to succeed.
The most important thing is to sign up for the free trials and demos. Don’t hesitate to contact experts or customer service for tailored advice. You should build a site that is ready for today and prepared for tomorrow. Choosing the right platform for your business helps you set up for success.
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With marketing spending down and Google reporting higher earnings, we know that SEO is a tough sell.
Below are seven proven methods to increase clients’ payments for SEO (and the value they receive).
First, a word on value
Before I provide solid ways to increase revenue, we need to discuss value and price.
Humans are hard-wired to fear and avoid loss.
Loss aversion is heavily linked with SEO because it’s the “pay now, might gain later” of the marketing world.
So, as an offer, SEO is automatically less appealing than 99.9% of other marketing activities.
Knowing this, SEOs need to understand value like the back of their hands.
There are two components to price value:
Acquisition utility: The value you get from the product or service.
Transaction utility: How good of a deal you feel you are getting.
Research shows that losing money triggers the same area of the brain as physical pain, making financial loss feel psychologically distressing.
This is a key challenge for SEO as a service. Clients are naturally cautious, which affects how they perceive its value.
As a result, SEO pricing tends to remain low across the industry.
I’d say businesses spend more on their Christmas party than they do their SEO.
That’s not to say we can’t increase the price we charge and earn from SEO.
It’s a gentle reminder that SEO often scares clients, especially if they are not the business owner.
Staff put their professional reputation on the line when choosing an SEO agency.
Knowing all the above, here are seven tried-and-tested methods to increase your revenue from clients.
1. Break down your services to reduce client risk
All agencies want to have retainers, but this can create barriers.
When you ask the client to commit to a large sum but to spread that money out, this can raise alarm bells.
The compound cost of retainers can add up, and prospects look at cancellation clauses and think, “I could sink $15,000 on you and have nothing to show for it.”
To avoid this, the first concept to cover is splitting services.
Service splitting involves breaking what you do into core deliverables or projects.
This means that clients are only on the “hook” for specific elements, and they can leave at any time they wish.
Sadly, this makes forecasting hard for agencies as payments are not monthly.
Still, it can increase conversion rates, and if you price differently, you can make more revenue in stages.
2. Sell SEO strategy as a standalone service
The next key aspect to consider is separating SEO strategy and selling it as its own service.
Many agencies rush this process, often reducing strategy to nothing more than a basic to-do list with little competitive analysis or critical thinking.
By offering strategy as a standalone service, you can price it higher – charging for your time, expertise, and insights.
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Crawl your website using Screaming Frog (or similar tools)
