SEJ Today: Top 8 Skills Every Great SEO Professional Needs to Succeed

Get the latest SEO, PPC, content marketing, and social media news delivered daily. [Read More]( More]( [SEJ Today]( Friday, July 16, 2021 Brought to you by: [Read More]( SEO [Top 8 Skills Every Great SEO Professional Needs to Succeed]( As search engines evolve to use more machine learning and NLP, there are a ton of cool things an S.E.O. pro can do with our current data sets and some python N.L.P. libraries. Today's S.E.O. programmers are doing super amazing things with data and code that are helping them gain an advantage on insights and winning work. S.E.O. also requires adaptability and thick skin. Our industry changes, and sometimes we have to admit to clients that directory submissions, PageRank sculpting, link disavows, or other things we once recommended aren't really the best idea anymore. I want the candidate who is willing to put check their ego at the door and admit when they're wrong. [When (& When Not) to Write Meta Descriptions]( Google almost always writes its own description snippet, even if you provide a meta description. A Yoast study, comparing the before and after of Google’s description length change, found that in two-thirds of the cases, Google used words from the first paragraph of content on the page to create a description for the snippet. Time may be better spent optimizing the first paragraph rather than optimizing meta description tags if the goal is to influence description snippets. With resources pages and other pages which are basically just a list of links, Google has nothing to pull from to create an optimal description. In these cases, a website should be sure to provide a meta description for search engines to use. Again, the golden rule is: the less text there is on a page, the more important a meta description is. Sponsored [Optimize, Analyze and Research — all in One Report]( By SEMRUSH What can you do with a report that gives you a bird’s eye view of any domain? Review your competitor’s strategy, online advertising, and backlinks [Try for free]( Paid Search [How to Set Up Offline Conversions in Google Ads]( U.T.Ms are the most crucial component to offline conversion tracking. They ensure leads can be traced back to ad spend (provided you've set up proper tracking in your C.R.M./shopping client). It's important to be consistent with your U.T.M. structure. For example, you'll want to commit to "c.p.c." or "p.p.c." when labeling the source/medium. Custom integrations don't disqualify brands from offline conversions. They do require a more technical setup. While most of the imports are straightforward, the custom one requires work in your third-party tool. [10 Most Common SEM Mistakes and How to Avoid Them]( One of the worst things you can do in S.E.M. is let it operate on autopilot, without monitoring it. God forbid you operate off a credit card or post-charge invoicing, and you set your budget to unlimited. New and ongoing launches need a documented Q.A. list, that is shared with your team internally. While this sounds babyish, this is a great reminder of everything you can forget to check on, that could lead to problems. Perform it pre-launch, post-launch, and ongoing (I like monthly), in case “the engines change something.” This will enable you to avoid common paid search mistakes, and hopefully ensure some longer-term employment. Search Engine Journal [Join Us Live - Weekly - on the SEJ Show]( By SEJ Show Join us as we talk PPC, SEO, Social Media, Content Marketing, and more. Be ready for good times and lots of real, smart conversation! Find recordings on [Apple Podcast]( | [Google Podcasts]( | [Spotify](. [Watch Live on YouTube]( Content Marketing [When (& When Not) to Write Meta Descriptions]( Google almost always writes its own description snippet, even if you provide a meta description. A Yoast study, comparing the before and after of Google’s description length change, found that in two-thirds of the cases, Google used words from the first paragraph of content on the page to create a description for the snippet. Time may be better spent optimizing the first paragraph rather than optimizing meta description tags if the goal is to influence description snippets. With resources pages and other pages which are basically just a list of links, Google has nothing to pull from to create an optimal description. In these cases, a website should be sure to provide a meta description for search engines to use. Again, the golden rule is: the less text there is on a page, the more important a meta description is. [How Spanish Transcreation Drives Marketing Success in Global Markets]( Localization is a huge part of transcreation. It allows a brand’s messages to properly resonate with local consumers. It relays that the brand truly understands a given locale’s culture, trends, buyer motivations, currency, etc. The benefits of transcreation largely outweigh the disadvantages. Transcreation ensures marketing content is customized to make a maximum impact on a target market. So, there’s no opportunity for miscommunication or poor translation. Even better, it eliminates the potential for embarrassing mistakes that cost money and reputation. Sponsored [400+ Marketers Have Registered for OmniSignal… Join Them Today to Save $800!]( By OmniSignal Ready to get back to a live, in-person marketing conference? Register for OmniSignal today to take advantage of the super early-bird ticket price of $1,395 ($600 off list). Plus, use code “JulySEJ” to save an extra $200 for a total of $800 off! [Register Now to Save $800]( Social Media [Top 40 Viral Videos of All Time]( The need to build a large base of subscribers in order to increase the odds of having your videos “go viral” has prompted some (but not many) brands to start acting as if they were media companies. Instead of creating “hero” content once or twice a year, they started creating “hub” content once or twice a week. there is a long list of ways that a video’s content can tap into your target audience’s personal interests and passions before you get to the network or platform that it’s on. In other words, content is still King. The platform is – at best – a Baron. In fact, the ability to help people dig into their interests was twice as important as being on a preferred network or platform. [14 Facebook Remarketing Strategies to Test]( Facebook offers so many ways to reach prospects in unique and cost-effective ways, not the least of which is remarketing! The great thing about Facebook remarketing is that it is so incredibly versatile. Nearly any company can find a way to re-engage their prospects through remarketing, even if they don’t view Facebook as their personas’ primary watering hole. There are some great ways to narrow focus and the inventory is often inexpensive. Not to mention, Facebook’s bidding algorithms arguably rival some of the best in the PPC landscape. What that means is – even if you don’t leverage Facebook for prospecting campaigns, there’s probably still low-hanging fruit for you in remarketing. Let’s talk about some of the ways you can leverage Facebook to reach your target audience. Upcoming Webinars July 28 at 2 p.m. ET [How Marketers Can Thrive in a Remote-First Landscape]( Topic: Content Marketing | Sponsor: CallRail August 4th at 2PM ET / Thursday, August 5th at 10AM ET [Amazon’s Top 3 ‘Traffic & Conversion Secrets’ Unveiled – and How to Copy Them]( Topic: SEO | Sponsor: Shopper Approved August 11 at 2 p.m. ET [Where Site Migrations Go Wrong & Sabotage SEO]( Topic: SEO | Sponsor: Conductor August 18th at 2PM ET / Thursday, August 19th at 10AM ET [9 Best Practices for SMS Marketing in 2021]( Topic: SEO | Sponsor: Podium SEJToday is the daily newsletter for [Search Engine Journal](. Share the love, invite a friend to [get this newsletter]( Daily fatigue? Change [your email frequency.]( How can we make the newsletter even more awesome? [Tell us now...]( Our mailing address is: Search Engine Journal · 160 W Camino Real Unit #606 · Boca Raton, FL 33432 © 2021 Search Engine Journal, All rights reserved. Want to break up? Are you really sure... [Unsubscribe...]( Â