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ANNA SEACAT ANSWERS SEO QUESTIONS

Send your questions about search engine optimization to: @AnnaSeacat or seacatanna@gmail

SEO QUESTION #1.1: ARE ORGANIC LISTINGS THE SAME AS NATIVE LISTINGS?

No.

Organic listings refer to earned online presence and native listings/ native ads are paid promotions. The next few slides will illustrate this concept.

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NATIVE ADS AND ORGANIC LISTINGS ON GOOGLE’S SERPSTim Peterson of AdAge explained that the term , native, “has become industry shorthand for any ad product that isn't a banner and looks like the content around it” (2013). Similarly, native listings should not be confused with organic listings.

The next slides will show a possible reason why both marketers and consumers have used the words “native” and “organic” interchangeably when describing Google’s SERPs.

PPC Ads

Organic Listings

Native Ads

PROMINENTLY PLACED IMAGES IN ORGANIC LISTINGS ON GOOGLE’S SERP

We all became accustomed to seeing Google Images within the organic listings, which were often placed prominently on the top of SERPs.

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PROMINENTLY PLACED IMAGES IN ORGANIC LISTINGS ON GOOGLE’S SERP

Now, on many keyword searches, the prominent images, that we have all become accustomed to, are actually native ads.

Furthermore, unless you scroll down to the bottom of the page, or go to page 2, you may not even see the images within the actual organic section of the SERP.

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Native Ads

Organic Listings with Images

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THE CONFUSION BETWEEN ORGANIC LISTINGS AND NATIVE ADS ON GOOGLE

Perhaps the underlying cause of the confusion between organic and native listings is due to the fact that native ads are designed to look like the content that surrounds them. So, whether it is in Bloomberg, Google’s SERPs, Indeed’s job listings, or photos on Houzz, native ads are everywhere.

But, remember, the term “native” refers to paid presence and does NOT fall under the SEO umbrella.

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SEO QUESTION #1.2: WILL FACEBOOK ADS ENHANCE MY SEO?

No.

SEO refers to tactics that contribute to an earned online presence. This presence cannot be bought. Facebook ads, display ads, Twitter and Pinterest ads, sponsored articles, etc. do not fall under the category of SEO.

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SEO QUESTION #1.3: WHY DO MARKETERS TEND TO USE FACEBOOK MORE THAN GOOGLE+?

I just wrote an article about how marketers, who are focused on SEO, should use Google+ more than Facebook. A response to that article was, “Why do marketers use Facebook more than Google+?”

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POSSIBLE REASONS WHY MARKETERS TEND TO FAVOR FACEBOOK OVER GOOGLE+

Many marketers do not truly understand SEO. If they did, their marketing budget would be weighted heavily towards Google+. Again, for a more detailed explanation of this, take a look at my newest article pertaining to this subject: http://bit.ly/FacebookIsNotWhereItsAt

Facebook has been around longer than Google+. Google Plus was developed after marketers had just gotten used to posting regularly to Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps marketers, especially those with small teams and/ or marketing budgets, didn’t know how to justify allocating more money to yet another social network.

Marketers don’t use Google+ in their personal lives. Similar to the reason above, marketers had grown accustomed to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, even LinkedIn, because they used it outside of work. Perhaps they feel less comfortable with Google Plus, because they do not maintain an active and robust personal Google+ page.

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EVERY TUESDAY I ANSWER BURNING SEO QUESTIONS FROM MARKETERS. If you have a SEO question and want to submit it for discussion, please send me a Tweet: @AnnaSeacat. If you don’t want me to connect your online profile with the question, please email it to seacatanna@gmail.com.