In SEO, “pogo sticking” is a term used to refer to the behavior of users who quickly hop back and forth between search engine results pages (SERPs) and the search results. From one search, they will click the next result or head to a different website.
For example, if you’re searching for “What is medical case chronology”, you’ll be shown multiple results. Ideally, you’ll choose the top result. If you realize that the search result is not what you are looking for, you’ll immediately go back to the main search page and click on another result. Here, if you feel that the information provided by MOS website is not sufficient or worthy, you’ll go for the next result.
If a visitor closes your web page within the first five seconds of viewing the page, Google will notice that your website’s content is not worthy for the user, and this will affect your page rankings. Being an experienced digital marketing services company, MedResponsive is up to date with the SEO challenges and provides custom solutions to meet your marketing goals.
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Even though marketers consider it as a negative ranking signal, Google’s John Mueller had earlier made it clear that a user behavior known as pogo-sticking is not a signal when it comes to ranking search results.
However, pogo sticking can still drive traffic away from your website. It highlights the immediate dissatisfaction of the user. High bounce rates or low time spent on the page indicates that your web content might not adequately address the search query that led someone to your page.
Common Reasons for Pogo-Sticking
Relevance: Mismatch between the user’s search intent and the page content is the major reason. If the webpage content doesn’t match what the user expects based on the search query, they’re likely to bounce back to the search results page.
Page load speed: Slow-loading pages frustrate users and prompt them to return to the search results to find a faster alternative.
Poor user experience (UX): Websites with confusing navigation, intrusive ads, or difficult-to-read content can drive users away quickly.
Low-quality content: Content that’s poorly written, lacks depth, or doesn’t fulfill the user’s intent can lead to dissatisfaction and pogo sticking.
Misleading Meta description or title: If the Meta description or title of a search result promises something different from what the page delivers, users may quickly bounce back to the search results.
Confusing navigation: Poor navigation forces users to go back and forth between search results in search of relevant information, resulting in pogo sticking. They struggle to find their desired content, leading to frustration and disengagement. Simplifying navigation enhances user experience, reducing pogo sticking and increasing retention rates.
Essentially, anything that fails to engage or meet the expectations of the user can lead to pogo-sticking.
Pogo Sticking and Bounce Rate – What Is the Difference?
Often, the terms pogo sticking and bounce rate are misunderstood as the same.
Bouncing refers to the situation where a user visits a particular web page and returns without visiting any other pages on the same website. Bounce rate is the percentage of the number of people leaving the web page in a short time, and pogo sticking is the effectiveness of the website in capturing and retaining visitors.
Pogo Sticking vs Bounce Rate
Pogo Sticking
Bounce Rate
User clicks on a search result, returns to SERP, and clicks another result
Percentage of visitors who leave after one page view
Specific to search engine result pages (SERPs)
Applies to all traffic sources and website pages
Highlights dissatisfaction with search result relevancy
Indicates lack of engagement or relevance of web page
Measures frequency of returning to SERP between clicks
Measures percentage of single-page sessions
Pogo sticking specifically refers to user behavior within search engine result pages, while bounce rate measures overall website engagement by indicating the percentage of single-page sessions. Both metrics are valuable for understanding user behavior and optimizing website performance, but they provide insights into different aspects of user engagement.
How to Avoid Pogo Sticking
To lessen the effects of back-and-forth browsing and retain traffic on your website, it’s essential to follow these strategies:
Make your content reader-friendly: Optimize your content for readability and focus on search intent. By crafting content that is easy to read and understand, you create a more enjoyable browsing experience for users, reducing the chances of users bouncing back due to confusion or frustration.
Add suitable titles: Titles serve as the first point of contact for users, providing them with a clear indication of what to expect from the content. Descriptive and compelling titles that accurately reflect the content’s topic and value proposition, meet user expectations.
Provide high-quality content: Focus on providing valuable, relevant, and engaging content that aligns with user intent. Ensure that the content on your website aligns with user expectations and search intent, reducing the likelihood of them bouncing back to search results in search of more relevant information.
Improve user experience: Put your effort to enhance user experience. Investing in UX improvements, such as clear navigation and responsive design, can help you avoid pogo sticking by enhancing user satisfaction and encouraging prolonged engagement.
Organize content in tables: Tables can present information in a structured and easily digestible format. Tables provide a clear structure, allowing users to quickly scan and locate the specific data or details they are looking for without having to sift through lengthy paragraphs of text. Tables also allow users to compare and contrast different elements efficiently, facilitating faster decision-making.
Add FAQ: Adding FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) within the content can be a powerful strategy to enhance user engagement.
Answering a specific list of commonly asked questions related to the concerned topic provides users with quick access to relevant information, addressing potential queries and concerns they may have without requiring them to navigate away from the page.
Improve page loading time: Optimizing page load speed improves user satisfaction while also enhancing overall site performance and retention rates. Optimizing elements such as image size, minimizing HTTP requests, using browser caching, and employing content delivery networks (CDNs) can improve page loading times and ensure that users can access your content quickly and efficiently.
Professional digital marketing service companies implement such effective strategies to foster better user engagement, reduce pogo sticking, and ultimately improve website performance and search rankings.
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Understanding consumer behavior is important. Google, the dominant force in search engines, continuously refines its algorithms to better understand how people search and engage with online content. These algorithms are not just rule-following systems; they influence and are influenced by human thought and emotion. Search engine optimization (SEO) strategies have adapted to these nuances, focusing on more than just keywords and backlinks. Neuromarketing is a novel concept which provides profound insights into consumer behavior and decision-making. This innovative approach is reshaping SEO and businesses are working with professional SEO services to develop more effective organic SEO strategies by tapping into the underlying psychological triggers that drive online behavior.
Transform your digital marketing with neuromarketing.
Neuromarketing involves using concepts from neuroscience to comprehend how customers feel, think, and make decisions about what to buy. It gives you insights into the decisions, motivations, and preferences of your audience, enabling you to craft or modify your digital marketing strategy to better meet their demands.
Neuromarketing explores customer cognitive, sensory, and affective responses in great detail, exceeding the limits of traditional marketing approaches. It uses methods like eye-tracking, brain imaging, and biometric assessments to help you gain a deeper understanding of consumers’ preferences, triggers, and motivators, and use this to bolster your SEO efforts.
By merging SEO and neuromarketing techniques, you can produce content that attracts your audience and increases traffic to your website. SEO is the lifeline of the digital world; it affects how visible and highly ranked a website appears on search engine result pages. Neuromarketing insights greatly enhance the effectiveness of SEO. By creating websites, advertisements, and content that appeal to consumers’ cognitive and emotional needs, marketers can increase consumer engagement, click-through rates, and search engine rankings.
Why Businesses Need Neuromarketing
Keyword optimization and User Intent: People’s buying choices are greatly influenced by their emotions. You can develop SEO strategies that are exactly in line with the requirements of your audience by thoroughly analyzing user intent. Through the strategic use of emotional triggers in your content, you can establish a deeper connection with your audience than just words on a screen. You can find those magic keywords that appeal to the minds of your audience by using neuro-insights. These insights allow you to create marketing messages that are more powerful and convincing.
Optimize website design: By focusing on your audience’s needs, you can create a seamless and pleasurable experience that entices users to return to your website. You can determine which parts of your website are the most engaging by examining eye-tracking data, heat maps, and user behavior. With this data, website layouts, call-to-action button positioning, color schemes, and other design elements can be optimized to encourage desired user actions. You can attract and hold the attention of your audience by using visually appealing features on your website. This guarantees that your audience can find what they need without getting lost.
Create compelling content: Effective marketing requires producing content that genuinely connects with your target audience. You can create content that engages your audience and makes an impression by utilizing neuromarketing strategies. For instance, writing a narrative that your audience can relate to incorporates storytelling into your material. Whether you use case studies or personal experiences, stories strengthen the emotional connection and increase the recall value of your material. You have the power to shape behavior and motivate action by utilizing language patterns and strategies that reflect the way the brain processes information. You can make your text more compelling by employing strategies like embedded instructions, positive suggestions, and sensory language. Your content will be more relatable and captivating if it is tailored to your audience’s needs and pain areas.
Better user experience: In today’s competitive market, one-size-fits-all strategies are no longer effective. Customization and personalization are essential components of a better user experience. Using strategies like dynamic content, tailored product recommendations, and user-specific messaging can make your consumers feel important and understood. Improving the performance and speed of your website is essential for a satisfying user experience. To make sure your website loads quickly, reduce the amount of time it takes for pages to load, use caching strategies, and compress pictures. Providing your audience with a flawless and uninterrupted browsing experience will keep them interested and motivate them to explore more.
Boost conversion rates: The goal of a marketing strategy is to increase conversion rates. You can maximize the impact of your marketing campaigns by using neuro-insights to obtain a better understanding of how your target audience’s brain reacts to various stimuli. You can utilize the power of recommendations and endorsements by utilizing social proof and integrating influencer marketing into your plan. Instilling a sense of urgency can drive people to take action and increase conversion rates. Utilizing neuro-insights allows you to establish a stronger connection with your target market, which will improve the user experience, increase your online exposure, and potentially boost conversion rates.
Perfecting the technique of integrating neuromarketing with SEO is crucial to enhance the efficiency of your digital marketing campaign. Through an understanding of the psychological triggers that shape customer behavior, marketers can create emotionally charged and more engaging content that performs better in search engine rankings. Hiring a professional search engine optimization company to integrate neuromarketing insights into your SEO strategy is a viable strategy to stay ahead in the highly competitive digital space.
Know how our SEO services can help you leverage neuromarketing for better search engine performance.
Whether you are a small business owner wanting to take your company to the next level or an entrepreneur bursting with exciting ideas to bring to life, a blog must be an integral part of your content marketing. It is one of the oldest strategic tools that have been used successfully over the past two decades. But is it effective in 2024? For blogging to be effective, it just isn’t enough to have an active blog up and running; you need to know how to leverage it well to captivate your audience, drive high engagement and ultimately, achieve conversions. So, don’t be discouraged if you haven’t seen explosive results from blogging so far. The good news is that there are strategic steps that you must follow to produce good content that converts. Consider these statistics before writing off blogging as a thing of the past.
Companies with blogs get 55% more visitors than those who don’t (HubSpot).
Companies that blog produce, on average, 67% more leads than those who do not blog (Demand Metric).
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Let’s dive in and discover the essential steps to optimize your blogs.
Step 1: Understand Your Audience
The first and foremost step when considering writing a blog is to know who you are catering to, and what kind of content you should create. While it sounds appealing to make everyone your target reader, chances are this might end up backfiring as it may not reach the intended audience. So, do a detailed research and define the buyer persona of your blog. Once you gain insight into your target reader’s interest, needs and problems – you can tailor your content to address their concerns and provide valuable solutions.
Doing so establishes an emotional connection with the readers, which gives them a reason to keep coming back and ultimately convert. Also, include a space dedicated to audience reviews, so that readers looking for authentic information can learn about other customers’ first-hand experience with your company.
Step 2: Give Catchy Headlines
As they say, the first impression is the best impression. This is certainly true for blogs since a headline is what first grabs a reader’s attention and makes him/her click. The goal of a headline is to induce curiosity in the reader and sustain their interest. In a study conducted by Buzzsumo, the ideal headline length was found to be 11 words and 65 characters, thus a clear and concise statement is what draws the audience in.
Some key ways to headline an article are as follows:
Numbered headline
Numbering your headline is incredibly powerful as proven from a study by Buzzsumo with the maximum engagement generating from number 10, followed by number 5.
Focus on pain points
Focusing on one pain point faced by your audience, and using power words to invoke emotions strengthen the headline. For example, a generic headline like “How to increase productivity” doesn’t sound as compelling as “10 proven ways to boost productivity at work”.
Personalize
A personalized headline is relatable and trustworthy from an audience perspective since it is a lived experience. Readers who might be looking for personal solutions to issues pertaining to topics like health, relationships etc. want someone who has experienced similar situations as them.
Step 3: Write Readable Content
Let’s be real, no one wants to open a blog to see massive walls of text staring back at them. Here are a few tips to make your blog scannable:
Use shorter paragraphs; if you have long paragraphs divide them into smaller ones.
Use subheadings, bullet points or lists wherever necessary.
Employ various visuals throughout your blogs like GIFs, photos, and videos.
Choose font size and image that are easy on the eyes.
Step 4: Optimize Your Post for SEO
Great content is not just about providing information, it is also about crafting your blog for search engines (SEO) with relevant keywords, Meta descriptions and so on. Many B2B companies launch blog writing services with the key intention of ranking higher in the search results. A better SEO performance means more organic traffic, and thus more sales.
Checklist to cross off while evaluating for SEO elements:
Keywords – Learn about keywords that can make your blog SEO-friendly and include them in your content. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, KWFinder, or MOZ to find keywords.
Meta tags – Optimize your Meta tags like Meta title and Meta description with unique, concise content that accurately summarizes your post.
URLS – Use a URL with simple and relevant keywords to improve your blog’s visibility.
General SEO – Optimize other areas of your blogs like headings, subheadings, image name and alt text, and fast-loading mobile-friendly pages for an overall better experience.
Internal links – Including relevant internal links helps to make readers stay longer on your blog and promote your other content.
Step 5: Showcase Your Expertise
If you are committed to making an impact — then you need to rise above your competitors and establish expertise in your preferred field. Take care to produce well-researched, useful, high-quality content indicating that you are a trusted go-to source of your chosen field.
For you to achieve this, ask yourself these questions.
How’s your blog unique?
Why should readers prefer your blog over others?
What can they get from your blog that isn’t elsewhere?
What urges them to come back to your blog over and over again?
Would they love your content enough to share it with others?
Be willing to demonstrate practical solutions without appearing desperate or pushy-as it can push your audience away. Do it by offering a free trial or download. When you do so, it demonstrates your firm faith in your product and will gain an edge over competitors.
According to Orbit Media, bloggers who publish more often are 50% more likely to report strong results. So, developing consistent, outstanding content over time creates brand awareness and recognition. If you dare to be original and share topics regardless of the controversial factor, you can cultivate your own space that resonates with fresh minds. Once you have an established audience, you can initiate discussions, explore industry trends and future predictions, inspire change and challenge traditional wisdom in the industry.
Step 6: Promote Your Blog
You have a solid blog strategy and good, regular quality content in your plan. Now what? If people fail to notice your work then all your hard work goes down the drain. This is why promotion and distribution are vital. To promote your blog, you can do the following:
Share your blog links – This is the easiest, cost free method available to promote to newer audiences. Share your post with attention-grabbing descriptions and visually appealing images.
Engage with your audience – Clarifying your reader’s doubts and queries, responding to comments and being open to constructive criticism may increase the visibility of your blog.
Subscribers – You can build a sustainable audience for your blog by maintaining an email subscription list. Give a glimpse of your blog through a few free pieces, and keep your highest-quality content to subscribers only. Suggest to your readers that your blog is an investment and not a hobby.
Step 7: Enable Call to Action
Place multiple CTAs thoughtfully and strategically throughout your blog post to generate more leads, engagements, downloads, requests, revenue and so on. The type of Call to Action changes according to placement and content type. For example, CTA at the beginning of the page may be a text-based in-line CTA introducing your content whereas an end-of-post CTA might be a direct approach advertising to encourage them to purchase your service. Without being intrusive, your CTAs should tell people what they are going to receive from your product or service.
Step 8: Review and Update
To measure the success of your blog or analyze the return on your marketing efforts, you need to review and understand what is working well, where it needs improvement, and make an informed decision to improve future performance. Here are some good metrics you can employ to determine the success of your blog:
Track the amount of organic traffic generated and sources of that traffic
Monitor engagement metrics such as the number of social media shares, likes and comments, page views per post, email subscribers and total reach across all the platforms.
Use tools like Google Analytics to gather blog statistics. You can compare the performance of your blog to other competitors, measure the number of visitors per page, average time spent on the page, track inbound links and conversion rates. These values help to develop a data-driven strategy to optimize your blog performance.
Periodically review your older posts and identify improvements. By regularly updating your old blog posts the information you provide stays relevant. This way the blog pages that drive most traffic are always up-to date on content and context.
Writing filler content for the sake of it won’t get you the results you want. Instead of churning out articles upon articles, focus on developing original, authentic, value-driven content that your target audience is looking for. You can build a powerful blogging strategy in keeping with your overall marketing goals with the support of a reliable provider of digital marketing services.
Unique content creation is vital for your business website, as it allows you to differentiate yourself from competitors, showcasing your brand’s voice, personality, and expertise in a crowded market. By producing original and engaging content, you can capture the attention of your audience, driving interaction, sharing, and ultimately conversion. Moreover, unique content can enhance brand identity and values, promoting stronger connections with customers and building brand loyalty over time. With user-friendly, helpful information, your website can be established as a trusted resource and a thought leader in the industry. Most businesses rely on professional content creation services to create fresh and unique content, improving website visibility and ranking in search results, thereby driving organic traffic.
Choose a Professional Provider of Content Writing Services
Choosing the right content creation services is crucial for businesses. Choose a provider with a proven track record of producing high-quality, engaging content in your industry or niche. Also, determine whether they can offer a comprehensive range of services to meet your content needs, including blog writing, social media content, video production, graphic design, and more. Look for providers that are flexible and willing to adapt to your changing needs, schedules, and budgets. Consider whether they offer strategic planning and content strategy development to align your content with your business objectives and target audience.
Take your brand to new heights with our professional content creation services.
45 days to complete rolling out a Google update? Yes, the topic of discussion here is the March 2024 Core update .
Google has finished the March 2024 Core update, 7 days before it was officially announced. The update, which started rolling out on March 5, 2024, ended on April 19, though Google announced completion on April 26.
45 Days and 45% Reduction in Unhelpful Content
This update revolutionizes search results by prioritizing user experience and content quality. Fresh spam policies were introduced by Google to filter out unhelpful content from search results. Those policies are – Expired domain abuse, Scaled content abuse, and Site reputation abuse. With this update which took 45 days to roll out, you’ll see 45% less low-quality, unoriginal content in search results.
Google has warned that sites that violate their spam policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all. The main aim of this update is to remove unhelpful content from search results. Low quality or unhelpful content refers to content published only to get clicks, or content that manipulates the algorithm to rank higher.
Analyzing Its Impact – Is It the Craziest Update Ever?
Many sites are impacted by algorithmic changes and deindexed from Google Search. This update clearly shows Google’s approach to maintaining search result quality. In its earlier stages itself, Google deindexed hundreds of websites, targeting low-quality content and AI-generated spam. Deindexed sites face significant consequences, losing organic search traffic and advertising revenue.
Ian Nuttall, a prominent figure in the SEO community, highlighted key findings on Google’s latest initiative impacting websites.
Nuttall noted that of the 49,345 sites monitored, 837 websites were removed entirely from Google’s search index.
Other impacts that he noted include
1.7% of sites got hit
Over 20,756,785 monthly organic traffic visits gone
Estimated $446,552 per month in lost display ad revenue
Another study conducted by Originality.ai highlights that approximately 50% of the impacted sites had 90-100% AI-generated posts. This study shows that the update targets websites relying heavily on AI-generated content to manipulate search rankings.
Is AI Content to Be Blamed?
By taking manual action against websites, Google clearly warns against AI-driven spam and low-quality content.
Your website may not be penalized just because you used AI on your site. It could be targeted if you’ve spam or low-quality content, generated to reach the top positions on search engine results pages.
The main concern is to honestly assess whether your content is useful, thorough, reliable, and prioritizes people.
Stay smart!
Don’t let AI tools write your content, but write better with AI tools.
Need Recovery Steps?
The first step is to remove any unhelpful content you’ve posted. Follow Google’s new spam policies. Also, address any technical issues you face, and enhance the user experience. Recovery after this involves aligning with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, focusing on E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), and acquiring high-quality backlinks.
Deindexed websites can first request Google to review its decision. Also, websites that were deindexed due to non-compliance issues may automatically get re-indexed. So, the primary solution to improve rankings is to create high-quality, original content. Consider utilizing professional content writing services to meet your content goals.
Hope you’ve seen Google’s feedback form to provide feedback following the completion of the core update.
Google makes it clear that “the feedback is not used to make changes to a specific query, to specific listings, or for specific sites. It is only used to consider general improvements that may work across Search generally in the future, teams at Google will not respond to these submissions.”
