This SEO tip uses intelligence coming straight from the horse’s mouth – i.e. the source of the data is coming from Google itself – specifically Google Search Console.

Google Search Console, formerly part of Google WebMasters, is a toolset that offers quite a lot of insight into the way that Google’s search engine algorithms interact with your website – specifically your website’s content and the way that organic search traffic is arriving at your website. 

The idea behind this tip is to reverse engineer the search queries which are arriving at your website – and then tailor your content to the user intent behind those queries.

(Proviso: for this trick to work, you already need to have some traffic coming from organic search)

How do you decipher user intent?

In Google Search Console under Performance > Search Results you can see what queries are sending traffic to your website. The Queries tab provides a lot of intelligence. By skimming through the queries, you should immediately see some patterns of user search intent emerging. What you see is also an accurate reflection of your best content marketing work.

Here’s an example. We worked on a content marketing piece that compares two pieces of software for one of our clients. Through Google Search Console we can see which search queries led to that particular page, as seen below. (N.B. The red & blue boxes represent the two pieces of software that we were comparing directly in our piece of content.)

It’s clear from this set of data that we’re clearly covering the intent of those searching for a direct comparison between the two. However, our digging shouldn’t stop there. We’ve satisfied the user intent of these individuals, but there may be others that arrived at our page through search queries that may provide us with hints to improve our content.

In the above screenshot, which is taken from the same search queries list as the one before it, we can make a couple of interesting observations. Several individuals have searched for the comparison of the two pieces of software, but for a different use case than the one we covered in our content. There’s also a cohort of individuals looking for a 3-way comparison with another, newer product that’s come on the market.

Using this information, there are several paths we can take to improve traffic, and fulfill user intent in a more complete way. Firstly, we can improve the content of the original piece of content to cover these queries. Or, if appropriate, we can create a companion piece that would link directly to the existing one.

Based on this lesson, here’s a list of things to keep in mind when performing this exercise with your, or your clients’’, sites.

The following are guidelines, rather than rules but they’ve worked for us

1. First and foremost, make sure your content is answering the users’ search intent exactly. If you can expand your content to hit all aspects of that intent, so much the better.

2. Use MORE of the keywords that are being searched for within that content. Whilst expanding the content on the user search intent, drop a few more keywords around the search queries.

3. Add more images and use search phrases as part of the name of the image, and in the image alt and description.

4. If possible – add a YouTube video that is also tuned towards the users’ search intent. If it doesn’t exist – create it yourself!

5. Tune your H1 title to the search query which is generating the most hits in this case.

6. Tune your meta description and meta keywords to the user’s search intent. If there are missing keywords, try to include them.

7. Be prudent – don’t overstuff your content with keywords – just make sure you have killer content for the user’s search intent.

If you do this for both the content that is generating good CTRs and especially for that content which is not generating good CTRs, you should be able to get a very good organic traffic boost.

This won’t happen overnight of course, but working in conjunction with your other SEO efforts, you should see your organic traffic climbing steadily. We’ve seen instances where the organic traffic increased by more than 30% using these techniques.

As always, also work on retaining the increased traffic. Make it easy for your new visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter or at least follow you on social media. 

Hope this helps you out!

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• Marketing Account Manager

• Accounting Executive

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Then the borders became fuzzy

The specialist digital team worked more closely with the creative pool and vice versa until there was no internal distinction any more. All we were left with was the headache of managing two social streams and two sites when we only needed one drinking session for the entire team. Which page do we post the more embarrassing shots to? So we looked at ourselves as we would look at a client and told ourselves what we would tell a client. Sort your shit out and communicate like the single brand that you are. So here we are. We’re Switch. We’re adept at telling stories to an audience, wherever that audience may be.
What this means for our clients and partners is that the incredible pool of talent and specialised digital marketing that was available under the Switch Digital brand is still around and growing as fast as we can possibly manage it. The creative team that has crafted so many stories for so many years within the Switch umbrella is also here, and also growing steadily to add skills, perspectives and personalities. You just have an easier way of getting in touch with us. Isn’t that what you’d have wanted us to recommend to you?

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My year at Switch

As I celebrate my first year at Switch, I’ve decided to look back at what I’ve learnt throughout this incredible year. This may be a bit of a cheesy post, but it will help you get a clearer idea of what Switch is. Most importantly you will find out who is part of this ever-growing family.

Switch is like a family

This was a relatively new concept for me, and it might have taken me a little longer than normal to get used to the idea that at Switch, people are more than just office colleagues. My background before Switch was a very monotonous office life, where you only ever meet your colleagues at work and during the occasional Christmas office party. Very little to no socialisation took place within the office, and you were given little knowledge about who you were working with. At Switch things are different – you are more than just a number within a company. There is a strong sense of community, of helping one another. The numerous team building events, beers in the boardroom, outdoor adventures, and the long chats over lunch have created a fantastic work environment. Thanks to this, there is a strong support system – we are all here for each other, and we don’t ever allow panic to take over. If one is in need of an extra hand for a project, I can assure you that five will be presented to them, and that’s just, plain, straight awesome.

Switch is an enabler

One year into Switch, and I feel like I have learnt more here than I ever have throughout my three years as an undergraduate student at University. Switch has pushed me into researching, learning and practising what interests and passionates me. Every day I am encouraged to do something I love and to always improve in what I do. Thanks to Switch I breathe and live social media, and I am constantly learning more about it. I write interesting content in-house and for our clients. My obsessive-compulsive planning disorder is actually appreciated, as I try to always plan my work, have content ready months ahead and create colour-coded to-do lists and content calendars.

Switch thinks outside the box

Really and truly, Switch is made up of creative humans that share a place together for approximately forty hours a week. Each and every person in the company has a beautiful brain that is capable of imagining and creating breathtaking works. The best brainstorming sessions are the ones where we gather all the team in one room, and throw anything we can think of on the table, to then go through each and every idea and pick the winning one. Everyone has a say, every idea is a good idea, and we work together to think outside the box. It’s fascinating, inspiring and motivating working with such a creative bunch of people.

Switch is transparent

Switch is constantly working to become the agency of transparency – how? Check out Martina’s Office Bloggers to find out. Yes, there have been bumps along the way. Yes, there will certainly be more. After all, we are humans, we make mistakes, and nothing can ever run as smoothly as we wish. Having said this, Switch is transparent with its employees and clients. It is a very straightforward way of working, where everything is communicated. That’s right, everything. If we think your idea is terrible we won’t sweet talk you out of it, but we will plainly and simply tell you to not go ahead. We are an honest and straight-talking bunch.   

Switch builds relationships

That is certain. If you either work for or with Switch, you are bound to build a long lasting relationship with the company. Clients are treated as close friends – and let’s be honest, everyone goes an extra mile to keep their friends happy. Employees are family, which makes the job that more enjoyable.

Switch loves food

I am not much of a foodie. For this reason, I get judging looks and shocked faces when I refuse a piece of cake or a saucy burger. Here at Switch, food is pretty much a sacred thing that needs to be enjoyed to the fullest. In the past year I have learnt that food is more important than meetings. Therefore no meetings should be booked at lunch time (take note, Matt!). It’s fascinating how pastizzi can bring the whole team together. Just to put you in the picture, we celebrated Bacon Day the other day, and everyone from the office brought something homemade that included bacon. It seemed only fair, that for my year anniversary, I would bake these food lovers a cake. After all, they say the best way to a wo/man’s heart is through food. 😉

There you have it folks, this is what Switch is! If you are curious to know more about us crazy humans, check out some of the work we’ve worked on. Don’t forget to like our Facebook page to keep up to date!

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Work without working

One thing that happens when you are completely immersed in the online world, is that you never really switch off. You could be scrolling through your personal newsfeed, and come across something you made for a client (and then, obviously, check the stats to see how that post is doing), or an article that sparks an idea for an upcoming project. I have countless of screenshots on my phone and ‘saved’ posts on Facebook that I keep for work purposes. Some may argue that you don’t ever cut off from work and therefore never take a break, but when you feel like your job is more like a hobby you see everything from a different perspective. I’ve often found myself writing blog posts over the weekend, and not because I am a ‘workaholic’, but simply because I enjoy what I do, and sometimes I may get inspired to do something outside office hours.

Work remotely

Oh, the joy of working in pyjamas!
All I really need to get my work done is an internet connection and a laptop – which is great, because it means I can pretty much work from anywhere. On the days where I lack motivation, creativity, or I am simply facing a ‘writer’s block’ I leave my desk and try find inspiration in the boardroom floor, in a coffee shop, or from the comfort of my sofa. I’ve always struggled with sitting down at a desk for too long, as I often felt like I was restricting my creativity. You can now easily find me sitting under a table working on a blog post, or doing analysis from the bedroom floor.

It keeps you going

There are two things that keep me hooked and interested in the job I do, and challenges me to do better: measurable and unpredictable.

Measurable

I’ve always hated numbers, and stopped studying maths at a relatively young age, but one of the things I enjoy doing at work are reports. I love going through the statistics, seeing the numbers, analysing the results in order to understand what we may be doing wrong, what we have to keep doing and what is worth trying to do. It’s something that I find fascinating – to everything we do online, we can see results and analyse them.

Unpredictable

Did you ever expect a post to do extremely well, but you disappointedly find out that it was just a flop? It has to me, many times.
There are different factors that can influence the performance of a post, an advert, or article, such as time, medium used and content. But ultimately, there is one factor that is unpredictable: people.
At the end of the day, what we must always remember is that everything we do has one sole goal: communicate to people. We may want them to like a Facebook page, shop from an outlet, use a service, donate to a charity, or simply visit a website – but we have to always remember that who we are targeting are people. Humans who can interpret a message, an ad, an article in different ways. At Switch we strongly believe in the importance of H2H (human to human) communication – who we target aren’t machines, but people who may interpret our message differently from the way we wish them to, because that is the beauty of humans: everyone has different opinions. The fact that we are constantly facing this unpredictability is what makes this job so interesting and challenging.
Here’s a recent example of unpredictability in people – check out how this employees reacted to the ‘BIC for her’ pens to celebrate Women’s Day:

Read more about this story on Mashable.

Constantly learning

The internet doesn’t sleep.
Every day I learn something new, and I love it. Social media is constantly changing, and you need to quickly adapt to those changes in order to remain on top of the game. Facebook decides to change the insights of the Pages? No problem, Teri and I will start trying and testing in order to learn exactly where to find the stats we need for reports and analysis – n.b.: swearing at the monitor and banging the desk may occur in this process.
This is probably my favourite thing about this job – I am constantly learning. Whether it’s by reading an interesting article that Matt shared with the team, or a deep conversation on how to effectively use Instagram, or by simply listening to presentations during the Friday’s Brainstorming sessions (I’ve learnt a little bit more about photography thanks to Ed’s “Making Pictures, Telling Stories” presentation), there is always something to learn. There is no place for monotony in this job and office.

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Her job title says it all: Martina is a busy person. She forms part of the demi-god administration team that keeps the agency running smoothly.
She spends her working hours handling paperwork on her 3 (yes, three) monitors, only popping up for air for sustenance around tea time to unveil her latest baking invention.
So she keeps us in check, and she bakes. As you can imagine, we love her dearly 🙂
Last Friday, it was Tina’s turn to bring something to the boardroom table. Looking for a much-needed break from numbers and figures, she decided it was time to unwind and get to know each other a little better, starting from our early years and leading straight up to the random stories one would tell around a campfire.

Part 1: Oh Baby

Everyone received an envelope with their name on it, which included the pieces to two puzzles: One is a baby photo of an unidentified colleague, the other is a hint to help you figure out who they are. For some, it was obvious (Debbie’s hint was a dancing couple and Roderick’s was a broadsword – no-brainer!)

The others took a little figuring out, but the stories behind each of the photos got the team-bonding going steady. The beer helped too.
Can you guess who’s who? Quite a few of us couldn’t make it that afternoon, so that’ll make things a little harder if you’re expecting a few familiar faces 😉

Part 2: Lucky Dip

Just when we thought things were getting intimate (I mean, three of the photos were bath-time treasures after all) Tina took it to the next level.
1 bowl, full of more folded strips of paper than you could count. Everyone grabs a handful of strips and has a few minutes to read through the questions he or she has picked up. Some were super personal, others has us laughing out loud.
We heard about fears and phobias (note to self: never plan a Switch event at a theme park). The guys shared fond memories of cartoon crushes (remember Fujiko?) We heard about mean taunts from teen years, life in other countries, someone’s history as a child model, first kisses and the superpower that Keith would go for if he had the choice.

There were sweet moments, sad moments and literal LOLs, all within the last hour of the week.
Nice one, Tina – that was definitely a team-bonding session.

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Why should you test?

We test things on a daily basis. We try out a new route to work, we go for a test drive before purchasing a car, we try a new brand of cereals, or we test different hairstyles before picking the right look. We are constantly testing so that we can find the best option for ourselves, the one that works best and that we prefer. This is exactly what happens with a business, whether big or small. You test a campaign, you test a website or you test your social media. You want to see how your audience reacts to what you do, so as to find the strategy that works best for your company.
The easiest way to find out whether something works or doesn’t work for your business is through A/B testing. This type of testing will provide you with the information you need to have in order to understand how you should go about things. For instance, A/B testing will help you decide which emails people prefer reading, or which social media post works best.

What is A/B testing?

A/B test (or split testing) is simply using two variants that target the same audience at preferably the same time in order to see which performs better. Once you have analysed the results, you can adopt the winning variant.  For example, it’s been proven that using visuals on social media increases engagment. How was this proven? Through split testing: variant A involved posting a Facebook update without an image, while variant B involved positing the same update with an image. In this case, variant B was the winning one.

Examples of tests

Anything that requires a response can be tested. Emails, social media, call to action and websites. Let’s say that you wish to change the look of your homepage, and you have two designs in mind but you are not sure which one will have a better response. You can launch both of them, side by side, and see which one performs better – this way you will have a clearer idea of which is preferred by your audience and move forward with it.
Another example would be wishing to have more subscribers opening your newsletters. A way to go about it through A/B testing is by having two different subjects, send them to the same number of people and analyse the response after X amount of time (this can vary from thirty minutes, to eight hours – it’s up to you to decide). The version that would have been opened the most in the amount of time you would have decided on is the winning one. Through this type of testing you will be able to understand which subjects are more eye-catching and interesting to your audience.
You may wish to have more people purchasing products through your website. Consider changing the color of the purchase button  – you’ll be surprised by how much of a difference such a little alteration could make. Get creative and find out which option your audience prefers!
Check out how Obama managed to raise $60 million through testing.

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Five steps to implement a successful strategy

1 – Determine what your goal is. It may seem like something you don’t need to do – but do not underestimate the importance of this very first step. You want to make sure that your team is all in agreement and have the same objectives. You cannot possibly move forward if there are internal conflicts or misunderstandings. This could include something as simple as choosing how to advertise a product, to the complex decision of rebranding the whole company.
2 – Once you have agreed on what your aim is, the next step is to brainstorm. You must decide what needs to be done to go ahead with your plan in order to succeed. Brainstorming is very important, and it requires a good amount of time. To come up with great and creative ideas you need to get out of your comfort zone. Our advice is: stay away from your desk. Change the boardroom into a games room, go to the beach and take with you note pads and colorful pens, or simply go for a walk and get inspired by your surroundings.  We tend to lose our creativity when we are sitting in front of a monitor, so get up and open up your mind.
3 – Choose a deadline. If we had all the time in the world, we wouldn’t get anything done. Pick a date, mark it on your calendar in BIG BOLD TEXT, put reminders on your phones and have sticky notes spread around the office with the date written on it. It’s essential to have a deadline, it allows you to manage your time and have a target to reach. Make sure that everyone is aware of the important date, and if needs be send some kind and funny reminders to your team – just in case all those colorful sticky notes aren’t enough.
4 – Once you and your team have an idea and have picked a deadline, you have to decide on how you are going to go about it. For example, you wish to organise a competition for your target audience so as to promote your product: how do you intend on doing it? Will you be using social media or will you organize an event?
5 – Who? It is now time to delegate the work. This will require time and discussion; you want to make sure that your team feels comfortable enough to run the task, they have clearly understood what they have to do and have enough time to get everything done in the most efficient way possible.
Ready, steady, go! Now that you have a strategy in mind, it is time to put it into action and show everyone what you are capable of doing.

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