Impact of stopping SEO investment

What happens when a business stops investing in its SEO?

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As with any B2B vendor-client relationship, there are times when the fit between our strategies and a client’s evolving needs might not be perfect. When this happens, the Nexus team’s top priority is to ensure your business remains positioned for continued growth and SEO success.

However, sometimes we encounter a different scenario:

Sometimes, clients with whom we’ve had productive working relationships need to consider pausing their SEO engagements due to financial constraints.

How do we navigate these situations? What are our recommendations to clients facing these decisions?

Finding alternative solutions and taking steps to preserve SEO gains are critically important. We want to share our thoughts on the potential risks of pausing SEO efforts and share the alternative approaches we often recommend that will help safeguard your business’s online visibility and growth:

 

Understanding SEO Results & Growth

One common reason clients consider pausing their SEO campaign is the perception that results are happening fast enough.

It’s essential to understand that SEO, by its nature, is a marathon, not a sprint.

Most businesses do not see immediate results because their websites have yet to achieve peak ranking for their target keywords. This is normal, and it’s why encourage our clients to consider longer-term engagements when we begin working together.

Here’s our take: Being on the second page of search results, or even the lower end of the first, means you are on the cusp of breakthrough success.

Click-through rates (and therefore conversions) increase dramatically between the second page of results and the top organic spots on Page One.

But moving upwards requires consistent effort, not just in the initial content creation, but also in ongoing link-building and optimization of the domain’s content as a whole.

The risk of pausing your SEO efforts at this point is that you’ll stall out the valuable momentum that’s gotten you to Page Two. By stopping prematurely, you’ll risk undoing your progress and could see a gradual erosion of your website’s organic visibility.

The “Cruise Ship Effect”

Time for an analogy (bear with us): SEO is a bit like operating a cruise ship.

Cruise ships and SEO engagements are slow to start and even slower to come to a complete stop.

When you initiate SEO strategies, the results do not manifest overnight. Similarly, if you pause these efforts, the impact isn’t immediate, but the long-term consequences can be significant.

Consider an experiment we conducted on one of our own websites:

After consistently applying SEO strategies until December 2022, we decided to pause due to full utilization on client hours.

Initially, the effects were not evident. In fact, performance metrics like website clicks even hit record highs in January 2023!

However, as time progressed, the lack of ongoing SEO efforts led to a slow but very steady decline in performance. Twelve months later, the website had experienced a significant drop, going from an average of over 250 clicks per day to just 90.

The Challenges of Restarting SEO

Let’s say the cruise ship grinds to a halt—it takes a lot of time and power to get it back up to full speed.

Deciding to resume SEO after a pause brings its own set of challenges, too, and requires careful expectation setting.

The foundational SEO work done previously (like creating optimized content and starting to build a backlink profile) remains valuable, but regaining forward momentum becomes significantly harder. This is for three key reasons:

  1. During the pause, your competitors will almost certainly have strengthened their online presence.
  2. Google continuously evaluates websites based on numerous ranking signals. A prolonged absence of fresh content, new backlinks, and technical optimizations sends negative signals to Google, reinforcing a cycle of diminished visibility.
  3. Content previously created for your website may now be outdated to the point of appearing irrelevant to Google, requiring an additional investment of time to catch up.

Simply put, it’s an uphill battle. Restarting your SEO efforts means not only fighting to regain lost ground from competitors but also re-establishing your website’s authority, trustworthiness, and freshness in the eyes of Google.

The Financial Implications

On the surface, pausing SEO initiatives might seem like a prudent decision, even a necessity, during times of budgetary constraints. But as with any major business decision, it’s critically important to consider the long-term effects.

Organic search is a cornerstone of lead generation for many businesses today, driving traffic and conversions at a cost significantly lower than paid advertising channels.

By cutting organic SEO efforts, businesses risk becoming overly reliant on paid advertising. Over time, paid channels often prove to be far more expensive and less effective at generating sustainable growth.

SEO vs PPC: Is Organic Or Paid Search Better? A 2024 Guide

Think of it like this:

  • Paid advertising requires constant per-ad investment and is heavily siloed, meaning success in one campaign won’t have much direct impact on the next aside from any lessons you learned. Growth through paid channels requires increasing amounts of investment.
  • Organic SEO also requires ongoing investment but is a holistic and somewhat self-perpetuating process when done well. Achieving top ranks through high-quality content, link-building, and other best practices will improve your entire website’s standing with Google. This leads over time to higher ranks and more engagement across the board. It’s a consistent investment that doesn’t require major spending increases to sustain its performance. (Not to mention, top organic search results tend to have much higher click-through rates than expensive paid ads!)

So, if you’re faced with budgetary decisions and need to weigh your SEO options, what are the different routes you can take?

Alternatives to an SEO Pause or Wind-Down

There are always options for businesses that understand the risks of pausing SEO but are dealing with budgetary constraints.

We recommend two strategic alternatives that allow for the continuation of SEO activities at a reduced scale. These will help safeguard your online presence and ensure that the engine of growth doesn’t shut down completely.

1. Scale Down, Don’t Shut Down

Reducing the scope of SEO efforts to essential activities can maintain your site’s visibility and ranking without the full cost of an aggressive SEO campaign. Remember, it’s always easier—and more cost-effective—to maintain a stable ranking than to recover from a decline.

This scaled-down approach focuses on maintaining the core elements of your SEO strategy, such as quick content updates, basic on-page optimizations, and maintaining the technical health of your website. At Nexus Marketing, we call these bundles of activities “maintenance packages.”

2. Collaborative Adjustment of Spend

We’ve been through all kinds of journeys with our long-term clients and know that ups and downs happen. We can be flexible.

If needed, we’re open to adjusting our engagement terms to accommodate a client’s current financial situation while still maintaining the momentum of its SEO campaign.

This approach has helped numerous clients navigate lean periods, only to emerge stronger and ready to ramp up their SEO efforts when conditions improve. If this approach sounds like the correct fit for your business while it works through constraints, ask your Account Manager to present some options.

Success Stories of SEO Scale-Downs

We’ve seen time and again that scaling down rather than pausing leads to more successful SEO outcomes.

We’ve supported nearly a dozen clients through periods of financial constraint by adjusting their SEO strategy to a maintenance mode. These clients were able to keep their rankings stable and, once their business situation improved, quickly scale their SEO efforts back up.

This approach not only preserved their online presence but also positioned them for rapid growth and resurgence as soon as they were ready to invest more aggressively in SEO again.

 

TL;DR: The decision to pause SEO investments can have far-reaching implications for your business and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

While the immediate effects might not be visible, the long-term negative impact on your website’s traffic, visibility, and overall online presence can be significant. Immediate financial savings could also quickly become overshadowed by the increased costs and decreased effectiveness of heavy reliance on paid channels.

At Nexus, we advocate for a balanced approach. Scaling down to a maintenance level of SEO activity is a viable alternative that allows your business to continue leveraging the benefits of organic search without the full investment.

This strategy ensures that your business remains competitive and ready to capitalize on opportunities as soon as they arise.

In these challenging times, it’s more important than ever to make informed decisions about your SEO strategy. By understanding the potential risks and exploring viable alternatives, you can navigate financial constraints without sacrificing your long-term online success.

If you have any questions about our advice in this guide or how to navigate your business’s marketing challenges, please don’t hesitate to contact your Account Manager. We’ll be happy to chat through our philosophy and what your best options will be.

PPC and SEO Best Practices

4 Best Practices for Integrating Pay Per Click (PPC) & SEO Campaigns

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The synergy between Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is invaluable, especially for demand generation. The right combination of outbound and inbound strategies can help your business build a robust online marketing journey that reaches and converts more visitors.

However, many businesses tend to treat these channels as silos. While the goals of your PPC and SEO efforts differ in many ways, it’s important to remember that they can and should support one another.

Here are the top four practices we recommend for integrating your PPC and SEO strategies:

1. Quarterly Insights Sharing

To maximize the value that each channel can bring to the other, you need data and visibility.

The best way to start doing this is to share and analyze your PPC data on a quarterly basis. Review your PPC campaigns to identify your most impactful keywords, measured by:

  • Return on ad spend (ROAS)
  • Total expenditure

For example, a nonprofit tech provider might discover that “nonprofit CRM software” is driving considerable PPC conversions and generating strong returns, and “best fundraising software” is driving a moderate number of conversions at a high cost.

By identifying your highest-return and most costly keywords, you can shape your SEO strategy for the coming quarters. Review your SEO efforts—have you actively targeted either of these keywords with blog content and link-building? If not, you’re missing opportunities to maximize ownership over these terms.

Appearing in PPC and top organic positions for your high-return keywords will put your brand front and center for a proven valuable audience.

2. Targeting & Budgeting for High-Value Keywords

When you know your highest-value PPC keywords, you can build a strategy to organically rank for them. This approach brings a few valuable benefits:

  • Maximized visibility for high-value keywords and to audiences proven to convert
  • Reduced drawbacks of reallocating ad spend away from your highest-cost keywords
  • Overall enhanced SEO performance for your website

Let’s look specifically at the idea of using these cross-channel insights to help you spend your ad budget more effectively.

For example, if “online donation tools for nonprofits” is a top PPC keyword for your business, developing SEO-rich content to target this term will capture organic traffic, potentially decreasing the need for paid ads. Consider these statistics:

  • Click-through rates (CTR) on paid search ads average around 2%.
  • The first organic result on a search results page has an average CTR of 31.7%.
  • However, paid search visitors are 35% more likely to convert than organic visitors on average.

It’s a careful trade-off to make, but in many cases and for many keywords, ranking highly on organic results can save you a lot of money while growing your website’s traffic.

However, you can only benefit from this approach if you actively track and compare performance between channels. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy—a basic spreadsheet will do—but it does need to be an intentional, repeated process. Here’s an example:

This table rounds up the most relevant information about keyword volume, CPC, and organic ranking movements. Analyze this information against your PPC conversion data, and you can lay out a savvy SEO roadmap for your business.

Want some inspiration? Check out how we report organic SEO and conversion data at Nexus Marketing.

3. Landing Page Strategy Segmentation

Creating separate landing pages for PPC and SEO efforts is critical for accurate measurement and optimization.

For PPC, landing pages should be highly tailored to the ad copy, offering a direct and conversion-optimized path for paid traffic. Get your pages in front of the right visitors with Google’s audience targeting features, then convert them with your excellent landing page strategies—this is what explains the high average PPC conversion rate cited above.

For SEO, content-rich pages that provide in-depth information about the target keyword can attract organic visitors, improving the site’s authority and relevance for these key terms. Then, careful consideration of the keyword’s user intent and other contextual elements can help you develop an effective organic conversion strategy for the page.

At Nexus Marketing, we keep conversion strategies front of mind when creating content for clients. We think through:

  • Ideal “next step” asks based on the keyword’s context and sales funnel position
  • Ideal call to action (CTA) placement and language
  • Effective introduction strategies to ensure visitors don’t bounce away before being asked to convert
  • Other UX and design elements that will contribute to conversions by increasing time on page
  • Technical SEO elements that contribute to page load speed

What other elements go into high-performing SEO content? We’ve rounded them up here.

4. Testing & Experimentation

Cross-channel analysis helps with more than just broadly guiding your organic keyword strategy. PPC insights can help you test, experiment, and improve your digital marketing efforts at a more granular level, too.

Review your PPC data to quickly identify:

  • Your highest-performing ad copy
  • Your most effective calls to action
  • Your highest-converting landing pages

Dig into these ads, CTAs, pages, and the strategies they use to connect with their audiences. Learn from them.

For example, you could echo the language from your top PPC ad in the calls to action on your organic pages that target similar keywords and audiences to improve their conversion rates.

Plus, this approach works both ways. Learn from your top-converting SEO pages to fine-tune your PPC ads targeting similar keywords. PPC offers immediate data, allowing for rapid experimentation and optimization.

 

For businesses, the strategic integration of PPC and SEO is not just about improving search rankings; it’s about creating a more cohesive and cost-effective online marketing strategy.

Remember, these channels can and should support one another. Start implementing these best practices in your campaigns and data review processes, keep learning more, and let us know how it goes!

Have any questions or want to learn more about Nexus Marketing’s SEO services and other digital marketing opportunities? Please get in touch—we’d love to hear from you.

Organic SEO and Conversion Reporting Dashboard for Clients

Organic SEO and Conversion Reporting Dashboard for Clients

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When working with Nexus Marketing, one of the most crucial aspects clients are curious about is our reporting process.

How do we track and communicate progress in traffic, keyword rankings, and lead generation? Let’s delve into this.

Live Google Data Studio Dashboard

Shortly after you kick off your engagement with Nexus, you’ll gain access to a live, interactive dashboard on Google Data Studio.

This tool is your window into real-time inbound marketing performance, keyword, and conversion insights, which we’ll review together during our monthly check-ins.

This dashboard, while standardized, is tailored for each client to cater to their unique needs.

Executive Summary: A Clear Snapshot

The dashboard’s homepage features your brand’s logo and an executive summary.

This summary is crafted to be concise yet comprehensive, highlighting key takeaways, current objectives, and notable data points.

It’s designed for easy sharing with your executive team or investors, simplifying the task of communicating high-level insights.

Year-Over-Year Organic Traffic Analysis

Understanding the ebb and flow of your organic traffic is vital.

Our dashboard presents this in various formats – a succinct summary, monthly breakdowns, and detailed analysis by landing page.

This section reveals opportunities and challenges, guiding our strategy for future growth.

Organic Conversions: The Heart of ROI

Arguably the most critical part of our dashboard is the organic conversions analysis.

We look at conversions by type, over time, and by landing page.

This multifaceted view is crucial for identifying which strategies are driving real business results and where to focus our efforts.

Keyword Position Tracking: Staying on Top

Our dashboard integrates with SEMrush campaigns to provide a detailed view of your keyword campaign’s performance.

You’ll see how keywords fluctuate over time, their current positions, and their potential cost impact.

This continuous monitoring is key to adapting and refining our SEO strategies.

Channel Comparison: Understanding the Bigger Picture

Digital marketing is not just about SEO. We compare SEO performance with other channels driving traffic and conversions to your site.

This holistic view helps contextualize SEO within your broader digital marketing ecosystem.

Organic Traffic and Conversion Performance Over Time

Finally, we map out organic traffic against conversions over time.

This longitudinal view helps us gauge the effectiveness of our strategies in not just attracting visitors but also converting them into leads or customers.

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Concluding Thoughts

At Nexus Marketing, our reporting isn’t just about numbers; it’s about insights, strategy, and continuous improvement. Our comprehensive reporting structure is designed to keep you informed, engaged, and ahead in your digital marketing journey.

Custom email content and strategy by Nexus Marketing

Custom Email Content & Strategy Services from Nexus Marketing

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Email content and strategy development from Nexus Marketing can help you expand your reach and maximize the value of the leads generated by your website. Let’s take a look at what to expect from this offering:

Why are we offering email services?

Email is a natural way to help our clients maximize the value of leads generated through SEO. Email can also fill a crucial gap in conversion and retention strategies where SEO leaves off. 

Think about all the visitors your site gets:

  • Some will be ready to convert after reading your SEO content and clicking through to a demo or contact page—great!
  • Others won’t be ready yet, whether that’s because they’re just taking their time or are at an earlier stage of their buying journey. 

But if you can secure their email address through a contact, download, or signup form, you can stay in touch and close the loop. Keep your brand and expertise on prospects’ minds, nurture the lead, promote your products and services, and more.

How does Nexus come in? Creating a consistent flow of new email content takes time—a lot of it—that your team might not have. The Nexus team can produce steady streams of email content for you, adapted to your brand’s voice and goals.

Is email an effective channel?

Email remains a highly effective marketing channel, even in the age of social media.

77% of consumers from all age cohorts prefer seeing email over promotional content on social media. Well-targeted email campaigns can yield ROIs of up to 4200%, $42 in returns per dollar spent, far above other marketing channels.

It’s scalable, measurable, adaptable to your audience and goals, and easily automated (provided you have a steady stream of content!).

What’s included in the Nexus email offering?

When you purchase an email add-on for your Nexus engagement, you’ll get:

  • A package of 10 or 20 emails to send to your subscriber or prospect lists
  • A custom strategy built around your goals and digital marketing collateral
  • Branded graphics for each email
  • Recommendations for timing your email cadence

What types of email streams can Nexus create?

Your package of emails will be tailored to your business’s goals. Here are some of the ways we can frame your email campaigns:

  • Promotional campaigns: Feature product/service highlights, updates, testimonials, and use cases with the goal of driving conversions.
  • Targeted lead nurture campaigns: Create an educational, semi-promotional stream of email content for subscribers to receive after downloading a particular resource from your website.
  • Thought leadership campaigns: Drive more traffic to your valuable onsite content and promote your offsite publications to build your reputation as an industry expert.
  • NXUnite panel follow-up: Getting ready to participate in an NXUnite panel? Make the most of your list of new contacts with a custom email stream to recap your event and orient new subscribers to your business.
  • Ad hoc, mix-and-match emails: Have a different idea, or don’t see yours listed here? No problem. We can develop custom content or campaigns to meet your needs.

How does the process work?

If you’ve added an email expansion to your engagement, what can you expect from your Nexus team? We’ll follow this workflow:

  1. You, your account manager, and your copywriter will meet to discuss objectives and outcomes for your email campaign(s).
  2. We’ll outline a strategy for your package of emails and send it to you for approval.
  3. We’ll draft your email content and send it to you for review.
  4. We’ll incorporate any changes and edits from your team to finalize the email stream.
  5. Start sending your emails and nurturing more leads!


For packages of 10 emails, the project will be completed within a month of kickoff. For packages of 20 emails, the production process will be split into two batches. You’ll be able to start using them right away before the second batch is completed.

Pricing details:

  • 10-email stream: $6,000
  • 20-email stream: $12,000

For lead nurture purposes, it’s best practice to send an email 1-4 times a week. This means a 10-email stream can be used for 3-10 months and a 20-email stream can be used for 5-20 months depending on your preferred frequency.

Example Nexus Email Stream

Take a look at this example to see what you can expect from a Nexus email stream.

Here’s a strategy that we laid out for a SaaS platform that offers products for nonprofits and businesses. We designed a 10-email stream with the objectives of driving increased engagement from nonprofit subscribers and converting free nonprofit users to a paid tier:

Example email strategy for SaaS adoption and upgrades

Here’s one of the emails from the stream:

Example email from a stream designed to drive engagement from free signups

Want to learn more or discuss the details?

Please reach out to your account manager or copywriter. We’ll be happy to chat through what an email strategy might look like for your business.

Contact Nexus Marketing to discuss custom email content and strategy development.

 

AI’s Impact on the SEO Content Creation Process

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With the platform achieving over 100 million active users in just under two months since its release, it’s become clear to all digital marketers that ChatGPT, an AI-powered tool, isn’t going anywhere.

While AI-generated content can seem daunting for many digital marketers, the team at Nexus Marketing views it as an opportunity. As part of our commitment to providing high-quality content, we leverage ChatGPT to streamline parts of the content creation process and add educational value to our articles.

This guide will walk you through how we use ChatGPT to improve our results for our clients while maintaining a “by humans, for humans” approach.

Our position on fully AI-generated content

While ChatGPT is a powerful tool for streamlining content creation workflows, we never use it to fully generate SEO content. This is due to a few reasons:

  • It can have negative SEO implications. By prioritizing human-written content, we mitigate any risks of publishing AI-generated content, such as duplication. Also, backlinks within AI-generated content may be perceived as less valuable to the Google algorithm than true human-built links, and we want to ensure each link built has the maximum ranking benefit possible for your website.
  • It can jeopardize partner relationships. Our connections in the mission-driven space via the Publishing Partnership program are key to driving results for your brand. Submitting original content is our promise to our Publishing Partners, making human-written content a crucial part of our strategy.
  • It’s less original than human-written content. ChatGPT is trained to generate responses based on linguistic patterns. Overall, human-written content is more original and provides more educational value to the reader. Additionally, AI content generation is heavily dependent on machine learning algorithms and pre-existing datasets. It may not always accurately encapsulate the factors that enhance expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness which leads to worse-performing content over time.
  • It isn’t as user-friendly as human-written content. As a robot, ChatGPT might not fully understand human needs and preferences when drafting its content. Thus, it might lack the human touch that makes content so engaging for readers.

To ensure ideal SEO performance, it’s important to uphold the “by humans, for humans” approach. That means using ChatGPT to help with the tasks outlined below without publishing its words verbatim.

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Nexus Marketing’s ChatGPT use cases

1. Generating content outlines

One of the first steps of our content creation is outlining, and ChatGPT plays an important role in starting the process on the right foot. We use ChatGPT to generate wireframe outlines of general ideas for the content. Then, the writers combine the wireframe with our in-depth subject matter, UX, and SEO knowledge to make it into something new.

The prompt: Generate an outline for an FAQ guide educational blog post about Google Ad Grants best practices for nonprofit professionals who have never heard of the program before.

The response:

I. Introduction

  • Brief overview of Google Ad Grants program
  • Importance of understanding best practices for nonprofit professionals
  • Purpose of the FAQ guide and its value for newcomers to the program

II. What is Google Ad Grants?

  • Definition and explanation of the program
  • Eligibility criteria for nonprofit organizations
  • Benefits and advantages of participating in the program

III. How can my nonprofit organization qualify for Google Ad Grants?

  • Specific requirements and guidelines set by Google
  • Steps to verify charity status and compliance
  • Importance of having a well-structured website with meaningful content

IV. What are the key features and limitations of Google Ad Grants?

  • Overview of the advertising budget and usage limits
  • Types of ads allowed and their placement
  • Policies and guidelines to adhere to while running campaigns

V. How can I create effective Google Ad Grants campaigns?

  • Keyword research and selection strategies
  • Crafting compelling ad copy and relevant landing pages
  • Optimizing campaigns for better performance and results

VI. How can I measure the success of my Google Ad Grants campaigns?

  • Key metrics to track and analyze
  • Tools and resources for campaign performance evaluation
  • Making data-driven decisions for continuous improvement

VII. Are there any additional resources or support available?

  • Google’s resources, documentation, and tutorials
  • Online communities and forums for nonprofit professionals
  • Considerations for professional assistance and management services

VIII. Conclusion

  • Recap of key takeaways and benefits of implementing Google Ad Grants best practices
  • Encouragement to explore the program and its potential for nonprofit organizations
  • Invitation to reach out for further assistance and guidance

2. Writing meta descriptions

ChatGPT plays a valuable role in generating potential meta descriptions for content. We use the tool to quickly create meta descriptions that we adjust afterward. Instead of asking for meta descriptions based on generic, one-word topics, we take the client’s intended audience and offerings into account. Then, we modify the meta description to ensure relevance and precision.

The prompt: Generate a meta description for an ultimate-guide style blog post about Google Ad Grants for nonprofit professionals who are new to the program.

ChatGPT’s response: Unlock the power of Google Ad Grants for nonprofits. Maximize your online impact and raise awareness with this comprehensive guide for new program participants.

3. Proofreading copy

Our team harnesses the power of ChatGPT to proofread and refine written content. By providing already written passages, we request ChatGPT to proofread, correct grammatical mistakes, tighten the language and improve clarity. The objective is to optimize the content for readability, logical flow, and coherence.

It’s important to note that we never directly copy the rewritten content from ChatGPT. Instead, our team takes inspiration from the suggested changes and incorporates them into their own writing. This ensures that our content maintains a human quality that attracts readers.

The prompt: Proofread the following paragraph for clarity, logical flow, and grammatical mistakes:

In today’s digital age, nonprofit organizations strive to create a meaningful impact and extend their reach to make a difference in the world. However, limited marketing budgets often pose significant challenges. That’s where Google Ad Grants comes in as a game-changing opportunity. In this educational article, we will delve into the world of Google Ad Grants and explore how nonprofit organizations can harness its power to maximize their online presence, raise awareness, and drive meaningful engagement. Whether you’re new to the concept or seeking to optimize your existing strategy, this comprehensive guide will equip you with the knowledge and insights needed to leverage Google Ad Grants successfully. Get ready to unlock new possibilities and propel your organization’s mission to greater heights in the digital realm.

ChatGPT’s response:

In today’s digital landscape, nonprofit organizations strive to make a meaningful impact and extend their reach to create positive change in the world. However, limited marketing budgets often present significant challenges. Enter Google Ad Grants, a game-changing opportunity that empowers nonprofits. This comprehensive educational article delves into the world of Google Ad Grants, guiding nonprofit professionals on how to maximize their online presence, raise awareness, and foster meaningful engagement. Whether you’re new to the concept or seeking to optimize your existing strategy, this guide equips you with the knowledge and insights needed to leverage Google Ad Grants successfully. Unlock new possibilities and propel your organization’s mission to greater heights in the digital realm.

4. Generating stories/examples

The content team uses ChatGPT to generate stories or example scenarios to enrich the content. These stories are helpful for illustrating key concepts that are discussed in the content and the problems that the content’s tips will help the audience solve. The goal of including example stories is to frame the information in a compelling and realistic way instead of relying on abstract concepts.

By reading this example passage, the reader can better understand how Google Ad Grants can maximize traffic to their nonprofit’s website and convert casual visitors into active supporters:

The prompt: Write an example story for an article educating nonprofit professionals about why they should pursue Google Ad Grants. The story’s takeaway should be that pursuing Google Ad Grants is an easy and cost-effective way to spread awareness of your cause.

ChatGPT’s response:

Imagine a nonprofit organization called “Global Health Alliance” dedicated to providing medical assistance in underserved communities. The organization struggled to reach a wider audience and raise funds to support its critical initiatives. However, after learning about Google Ad Grants, they decided to give it a try. With the help of expert guidance, Global Health Alliance created compelling ad campaigns that specifically targeted keywords related to their cause. Within weeks, their online visibility skyrocketed, attracting a surge of website traffic and generating significant interest in their mission. Thanks to Google Ad Grants, Global Health Alliance quickly realized that pursuing this program was not only easy but also an incredibly cost-effective way to spread awareness of their cause, reach a broader audience, and make a greater impact in the world.

5. Brainstorming call-to-action language

Crafting effective call-to-action (CTA) language is essential for driving conversions for clients. Our team leverages ChatGPT by asking it specific questions to align the CTA with the client’s target audience and desired tone. Also, with ChatGPT’s browsing mode, we can quickly collect data from across the Internet to support our claims.

The results from ChatGPT serve as inspiration, which our copywriters adapt and customize to fit the client’s context, ensuring the CTAs are engaging and relevant.

The prompt: Write an engaging, click-worthy CTA for a business that promotes Google Ad Grants management to nonprofit professionals. The tone should be professional, yet eager and optimistic. The CTA should be around 3 sentences in total.

ChatGPT’s response: Ignite your nonprofit’s growth with our expert Google Ad Grants management. Maximize your online reach, raise funds, and make a lasting impact. Unlock the power of Google Ad Grants and propel your cause to new heights.

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6. Optimizing for snippets

Snippets are concise sections of content that appear on Google’s search results pages, providing quick answers to user queries. ChatGPT helps us optimize snippet-bait sections by making them concise, direct, and highly relevant. Our team prompts ChatGPT to answer specific questions or refine existing snippet baits or FAQs, allowing us to enhance their performance and visibility in search results.

The prompt: Concisely answer the question “What are Google Ad Grants” for an audience of nonprofit marketing professionals. This answer will be targeted to secure a featured snippet on a Google results page.

ChatGPT’s response: Google Ad Grants is a unique program offering eligible nonprofit organizations up to $10,000 per month in free advertising budget on Google Ads. Designed to empower nonprofits, these grants provide the opportunity to raise awareness, drive website traffic, and promote their causes to a wider audience. By leveraging Google Ad Grants, nonprofit marketing professionals can maximize their online presence and make a greater impact in the digital landscape.

7. Generating FAQs

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) provide valuable information to users and enhance the user experience. ChatGPT assists us in generating relevant questions related to specific topics. These questions help enrich your content and address user intent. Our team evaluates and refines the generated questions to ensure they are valuable additions to the FAQ section.

The prompt: List 10 frequently asked questions about Google Ad Grants that nonprofit professionals might have when trying to determine if they should pursue the program as part of their marketing strategy.

ChatGPT’s response:

  • What are Google Ad Grants?
  • How can my nonprofit organization qualify for Google Ad Grants?
  • What types of ads can I create with Google Ad Grants?
  • What are the benefits of using Google Ad Grants for my nonprofit?
  • How much free advertising budget does Google Ad Grants provide?
  • Are there any restrictions on the types of keywords or content I can use in my ads?
  • Can I run ads for multiple campaigns or initiatives using Google Ad Grants?
  • How do I track the performance of my Google Ad Grants campaigns?
  • Are there any specific policies or guidelines I need to follow while using Google Ad Grants?
  • Can I use Google Ad Grants alongside other advertising methods or platforms?

ChatGPT can also quickly create FAQ schema code for your content, which is beneficial for SEO.

8. Sourcing statistics

Statistics add credibility and educational value to your content. ChatGPT’s Web Browsing mode assists us in sourcing interesting statistics and credible resources related to specific topics. Our team ensures that ChatGPT provides sources to verify the relevance and freshness of the statistics. For up-to-date information, we double-check ChatGPT’s suggestions with manual research.

The prompt: List interesting statistics about Google Ad Grants that I can use in an ultimate guide-style article for an audience of nonprofit professionals and provide your sources.

ChatGPT’s response: Here are some interesting statistics about Google Ad Grants that you can use in your ultimate guide-style article:

  • Google Ad Grants is a powerful tool for nonprofits, offering up to $10,000 in monthly advertising credit. This can be used to reach new donors, volunteers, and supporters​ (source).
  • Google owns over 92% of the global search engine market, helping nonprofits connect with more prospects than ever before. 98% of searchers click a result on page 1 of Google, making the Google Ad Grant a great way to drive more clicks. The average return on investment (ROI) for nonprofits using Google Ads is $4.78. For Google Ads, advocacy groups and nonprofits have an average cost per click (CPC) of $1.43. View-through revenue (revenue from donors who saw but didn’t click on an ad) accounts for 35% of all giving sourced from digital ads (source)​.

9. Generating ideas for original images

Providing custom-branded images helps signal an article’s educational value, which can boost its SEO ranking. The content team leverages ChatGPT to make engaging and informative images that complement written content.

The prompt: Give me 3 unique image ideas for an ultimate guide-style article about Google Ad Grants. Think along the lines of Venn diagrams, flow charts, and themed images that visually represent the information in an engaging and educational way.

ChatGPT’s response:

  • Comparison Venn Diagram: Create a visually appealing Venn diagram that compares Google Ad Grants with other advertising methods or platforms. Use overlapping circles to highlight the unique advantages and features of Google Ad Grants, such as cost-effectiveness, targeted reach, and the ability to raise awareness for nonprofit organizations.
  • Step-by-Step Flowchart: Design a flowchart that illustrates the step-by-step process of setting up and managing a successful Google Ad Grants campaign. Include key stages like application and qualification, keyword research, ad creation, campaign optimization, and performance tracking. Use visually distinct icons or symbols to represent each stage, making it easy for readers to follow along.
  • Keyword Research Mind Map: Design a visually captivating mind map that illustrates the process of conducting keyword research for Google Ad Grants campaigns. Use branching sections to represent different categories or themes related to nonprofit causes, such as education, healthcare, environment, and social justice. Each branch should further branch out into relevant keywords that align with those categories. This image will visually demonstrate how keyword research helps nonprofits optimize their campaigns and reach the right audience.
  • Ad Performance Dashboard: Develop a visually appealing dashboard-style image that showcases the key performance metrics and data points to track when monitoring the success of Google Ad Grants campaigns. Include elements like click-through rates, conversions, website traffic, and engagement metrics. Use charts, graphs, and icons to represent the data in a visually engaging and easy-to-understand format. This image will demonstrate the importance of tracking and analyzing campaign performance to make data-driven optimizations.

We hope this guide provides you with insights into how we use ChatGPT to enhance our content creation process. By leveraging this AI-powered tool in a strategic and thoughtful manner, we strive to deliver exceptional results while maintaining the human touch and expertise that define our approach.

If you have questions or want to learn more about how we’re using AI to continually improve our content for clients, please don’t hesitate to contact your Nexus Account Manager or Copywriter.

Nexus Marketing is the top SEO agency for brands working in the mission-driven space. Click here to get in contact!

Our Thoughts on Google’s Generative AI Update

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In a recent announcement, Google introduced Search Generated Experiences (SGE), a feature that uses Large Language Models (LLM), to provide more detailed search results. This generative AI technology aims to provide more comprehensive, detailed responses to search queries, including conversational prompts.

Google has been leveraging AI in search for years, but with SGE, the search experience will become more conversational and fluid. The company refers to this change as a significant shift in the future of search.

There is A LOT of noise on this topic from the SEO industry and plenty that we don’t know. Since this change hasn’t been rolled out yet, the best source of truth is Google’s expanded brief on the topic of generative AI which we’ve reviewed in detail.

Strategic Insights: Navigating the Future of Search with Nexus

The launch of SGE signifies a transformative shift in the search landscape. We are closely monitoring these developments, and here are some of our insights so far:

  1. Emphasis on Quality Over Quantity:
    • Key insight: Google’s SGE highlights the importance of high-quality content.
    • How to apply this: We recommend regular audits of your content to ensure it’s up-to-date and relevant.
    • Nexus POV: We are doubling down on our focus on creating the only highest quality content that should be able effectively to compete in the new evolving landscape.
  2. In-Depth Content and Comprehensive Answers:
    • Key insight: SGE is designed to provide comprehensive answers to complex queries.
    • How to apply this: Consider creating comprehensive guides, FAQ sections, and how-to articles that provide complete answers to user questions.
    • Nexus POV: Make sure that your pages that rank for the most important keywords in your industry fully address the target user intent by looking at the existing SERPs, speaking with experts at your organization on the subject matter, and going through a “best content” checklist that catches any potential gaps.
  3. Focus on User Experience (UX):
    • Key insight: AI integration in search increases the need for solid UX design.
    • How to apply this: Try to focus on making your website mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, and have fast loading times.
    • Nexus POV: In our engagements, we’ll be placing a greater emphasis on technical ranking factors via a variety of tools (Lighthouse, SEMRush, Moz, and Search Console) to promote an optimal website experience for users and increase positive ranking factors.
  4. Adaptive SEO Strategies:
    • Key insight: This is a fast-evolving space and SEO practices will continue to evolve with the launch of SGE.
    • How to apply this: We recommend staying informed about changes in search engine algorithms and adjusting SEO strategies accordingly.
    • Nexus POV: We’ll continue to keep clients aware of these changes and adjust our engagements accordingly to maximize organic channel performance.
  5. Thought Leadership:
    • Key insight: SGE’s reliance on high-quality sources and citations means thought leadership and citations by other industry-relevant websites are more important than ever.
    • How to apply this: Strive to publish content that others in your industry will want to reference, to increase your visibility and reputation. Work with industry partners to promote your thought leadership.
    • Nexus POV: Leveraging our network of 200+ partners, we’ll continue to work with our clients to position their brand as an industry leader through the creation of original, insightful content and win-win marketing opportunities.

These insights guide our strategic approach as we navigate the evolving search landscape. We believe that understanding and adjusting to these changes is vital for successful digital marketing in the new era of search.

Leveraging Industry Expertise in the Era of SGE

In light of the new SGE update, industry expertise becomes an invaluable asset. Google’s generative AI system, SGE, rewards content that reflects a high level of knowledge and understanding within specific industries. This reinforces the importance of our approach at Nexus – emphasizing the depth of knowledge in our clients’ industries.

By leveraging industry expertise, Nexus aims to help our clients create compelling, authoritative content that aligns with SGE’s emphasis on quality, relevancy, and depth of understanding. As we navigate this transformative period in search, our focus remains on helping our clients maximize their visibility and impact in their respective industries.

This is only the beginning…

Generative AI is evolving, reshaping the landscape of search experiences. At Nexus, we’re dedicated to staying ahead of these advancements, ensuring we’re always ready to adapt our strategies and practices to optimize search performance for our clients and partners.

Understanding this dynamic field is a journey, and we are committed to it. As we progress, we are more than willing to have conversations on this subject, exploring together how these advancements can be leveraged to further your success.

Feel free to reach out to me at any time. You can email me at rafi@nexusmarketing.com, or call me directly at 301-760-8230. Let’s navigate the future of search together.

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