We’ve already been working proactively behind the scenes to make sure you continue to see strong performance, and many of these updates are already built into our current strategy.

SEO: What’s Changing & How We’re Staying Ahead

Google Doubles Down on EEAT

You may have heard more chatter recently about EEAT – that’s Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.

Google has placed further emphasis on this in its recent update, essentially testing whether websites consistently meet these standards. The good news? Because we’ve been following EEAT best practices for quite some time, we’re already seeing positive signs:

• Increased visibility across the top 20 results for most clients.
  
• Higher click-through rates, which tells us Google is recognising the quality of your content.
  

We’ll continue reviewing and updating site content in line with these expectations.

AI-Generated Content Under Scrutiny

While AI tools can be useful in some scenarios, Google is now explicitly looking for content that lacks originality and depth – typical signs of low-quality, AI-generated material.

• Google hasn’t disclosed exactly how it detects this, but it’s using its own highly advanced AI models that aren’t available to the public (not even through Gemini).
  
• We strongly recommend avoiding third-party AI detection tools – many are inaccurate. For context, we tested a few using the American Declaration of Independence and they flagged it as AI-generated!
  

Our promise to our clients is that we will continue to focus on creating content that’s authentic, valuable, and unique to your brand – and that’s what Google wants to reward.

User Experience & Accessibility Matter More Than Ever

UX and accessibility have always played a role in your site’s performance – but Google is now giving these factors even more weight in ranking.

Here’s how we’re supporting you:

• We already advise on UX/UI best practice.
  
• Our team is deepening in-house expertise – Travis will be completing a UX course this year.
  
• We’re introducing a User Experience & Accessibility Audit – available as a one-off package to assess how your site stacks up and highlight any quick wins.
  

Interested in this audit? Just reach out to your Client Services team and we’ll send over the details.

SERP Features Are Expanding

You may have noticed more AI Overviews, People Also Ask, or Featured Snippets showing up in Google search results. These offer great visibility – but Google doesn’t currently give us a way to track the traffic they generate.

That said:

• We’re using our keyword tracking tools to monitor if your website appears in these features.
  
• Our long-form blog strategy is designed to help secure these placements where relevant.
  

Keyword Volatility: What’s Going On?

There’s been a bit of noise in the SEO community about Google’s latest update causing unexpected ranking drops – even for websites that follow best practices.

• So far, none of our clients have been affected.
  
• We’re continuing to monitor closely and will step in if any further changes arise.
  

Paid Media: More Machine Learning, More Features

Performance Max Keeps Evolving

Google continues to enhance Performance Max campaigns with new features powered by machine learning. Recent updates include:

• Retention goals to re-engage lapsed customers.
  
• AI-powered image enhancements to improve your ad creative.
  
• Increased flexibility around negative keyword limits.
  

We’re already integrating these into campaign strategies to maximise return across your account.

Smarter Audience Building

We’ve made audience development a core focus this year – and it’s paying off.

• Most client accounts are now seeing steady growth in high-quality audience lists.
  
• This helps us create more effective remarketing and lower-funnel campaigns.
  
• We’ll also be working with you to better use your first-party data, especially with Google now allowing audience durations up to 540 days.
  

Digital PR: Authenticity is Key

Why EEAT is PR’s Best Friend

With Google’s March update, we’re seeing more emphasis on how Digital PR can support EEAT. And the answer is simple – authenticity wins.

• If your PR has always focused on genuine, relevant, and expert-led content, you’re in a great place.
  
• Don’t be tempted by shortcuts – one talk at Brighton SEO even suggested fabricating “experts” for credibility. This isn’t just risky – it’s ineffective.
  
• Instead, we’ll continue helping you elevate real voices from within your business and build long-term trust through meaningful coverage.
  

For more on this, you might enjoy this post on The PR Insider.

If you have any questions about these updates or how we’re adapting your strategy in response, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Our Client Services team will be happy to talk you through anything.

As always, thanks for trusting us to support your growth – we’ve got some exciting things in store for the months ahead!

The post April 2025 Digital Marketing Update: What Our Clients Need to Know appeared first on Candidsky.

Back to Basics – and Beyond

For some of us, it was the perfect chance to dive deeper into the fundamentals. Getting to grips with core concepts like E-E-A-T, link building, and SEO terminology helped demystify the discipline and boost confidence in day-to-day conversations.

We also explored some brilliant SEO tools that can make work easier and more efficient – a welcome win for anyone navigating audits, content optimisation or link outreach.

Practical Takeaways for Tech SEO

Several talks dug into technical SEO, and these sessions proved especially valuable. From learning how to unlock the full potential of .htaccess files to discovering new methods for pricing up technical fixes, there were plenty of insights that we can apply directly to client work.

One standout moment was Rasida Begum’s session on calculating SEO opportunities through a technical lens. It offered a smart way of quantifying the ROI of fixes by showing clients the potential uplift in revenue, traffic or KPIs – helping to make the business case clearer than ever. Similarly, Martin Splitt’s talk on rendering gave us a deeper understanding of how Google processes pages, which is vital for those of us levelling up our technical skills.

SEO Isn’t Dead – It’s Just Different

One key message that came through loud and clear: SEO has evolved. The traditional pillars of technical optimisation, content and link building still matter, but they no longer exist in a silo. The future of search is multi-channel – it’s about creating a cohesive search experience that spans Google, Amazon, TikTok, Reddit, ChatGPT and more.

To stay competitive, we need to consider the whole funnel, from visibility to conversion, across platforms. That means tighter integration with Digital PR, Paid Search and Social – all of which are becoming essential tools in the SEO toolkit.

Favourite Speakers & Standout Sessions

With such a jam-packed agenda, it’s no surprise that choosing just one favourite speaker was a challenge for many of us. BrightonSEO 2025 brought together some of the sharpest minds in search, and several talks really struck a chord – for different reasons.

Martin Splitt – Demystifying Rendering

Martin Splitt’s talk, “Rendering – what, how, why?”, was a clear favourite among the team. Known for his knack for making technical topics approachable, Martin delivered a session that made rendering more accessible for everyone – even those not deeply versed in tech SEO.

His ability to break down how Google reads and processes web pages gave us a stronger foundation for understanding how to optimise at a deeper technical level. For those looking to level up in this area, it was a genuinely empowering session.

Ray Saddiq – Multi-Channel Search Strategies & the Power of EEAT

Ray Saddiq (often affectionately referred to by the team as Rey!) delivered an energetic and insightful talk on “How Multi-Channel Content Captures Intent & EEAT to Drive Growth.” His session stood out for reimagining the future of search – not as a single platform, but as a multi-channel experience.

Ray’s approach highlighted the importance of tapping into diverse platforms like Reddit, TikTok and Amazon to align with evolving user intent. It was a refreshing take on how brands can lean into content strategies that don’t just focus on Google but instead aim to meet people wherever they’re searching. For many of us, his talk captured what it truly means to future-proof an SEO strategy in 2025 and beyond.

If you want to know more about this talk, here’s the link to Ray Saddiq’s speaker notes.

Jan Caerels – Unlocking the Power of .htaccess

Jan Caerels impressed with his session on Advanced SEO Techniques with .htaccess. This talk gave the more technically-minded among us something to really dig into, offering practical techniques for leveraging .htaccess to fine-tune performance and solve SEO challenges at the server level.

It wasn’t just about the code – it was about control. Jan’s insight into how to maximise site performance and search impact through server-level changes was both powerful and applicable.

If you want to learn more about this talk, here’s the link to Jan Caerels speaker notes.

Rasida Begum – ROI-Focused SEO

Although already mentioned, Rasida Begum deserves another spotlight for her session on calculating SEO opportunities through a technical lens. Her talk gave us a new way to approach client conversations – particularly when it comes to budget and technical recommendations – by focusing on real, data-backed impact.

Honourable Mentions – UX & Reporting

There were also some standout sessions focused on user experience and reporting – two areas that are growing in importance as the SEO landscape evolves. From refining how we present results to clients, to understanding how UX affects performance, these talks offered valuable tools we’ll definitely be taking forward.

Future Predictions: What’s Next for SEO?

AI Is Here to Stay (and Evolve)

The Rise (and Risks) of Headless CMS

Another key trend? The growing popularity of headless CMS platforms. While they offer flexibility and scalability for businesses, they come with SEO challenges – especially when JavaScript gets in the way of crawlability and rendering.

This trend presents both a challenge and an opportunity for technical SEOs to upskill and adapt. As more developers lean into these platforms, SEOs will need to work even more closely with dev teams to ensure performance isn’t sacrificed for flexibility.

Google’s Grip May Loosen

Several talks touched on the increasingly fragmented nature of search. While Google remains dominant, it’s no longer the only game in town. Users are turning to TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, YouTube, and AI-powered tools like ChatGPT for answers – especially younger demographics.

That shift means SEOs will need to optimise beyond Google and consider multi-platform visibility. The definition of “search” is broadening, and brands that think holistically about where – and how – people search will be the ones that succeed.

The Value of Real Content & Real People

As AI-generated content floods the web, quality and authenticity are becoming more important than ever. Several speakers highlighted the rise of user-generated content and the importance of trust signals like E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).

In short: faking it won’t cut it. Audiences – and algorithms – are savvier than ever. Investing in genuine content, real authorship, and meaningful user engagement will be critical as we move forward.

Concerns & Controversies: The Flip Side of BrightonSEO 2025

While the overall experience at BrightonSEO 2025 was hugely positive and packed with insights, it wouldn’t be fair to say everything hit the mark. Our team had a few concerns about some of the content – and it’s worth addressing them.

Quality Was a Mixed Bag

A common reflection was that not all talks met expectations. While many speakers delivered actionable, inspiring content, there were a few sessions that didn’t quite land – whether due to nerves, unclear messaging or simply inaccurate advice.

Some team members felt that a handful of talks fell short of the high bar expected from a leading industry event like BrightonSEO. That said, the standout sessions more than made up for it, and the variety of topics meant there was still something valuable for everyone.

The “Fake E-E-A-T” Debate

Faking authorship, credentials or expertise undermines the very essence of what E-E-A-T is meant to stand for – authenticity, trust and real value. In an industry already battling issues of misinformation and content quality, advising people to fake signals risks damaging trust with users and search engines alike.

While controversial ideas can spark useful debate, this particular topic struck a nerve – and rightly so.

A Valuable Learning Curve

Despite a few disappointments, the overall tone from the team was still one of inspiration and motivation. The less impressive moments didn’t take away from the stronger sessions, and in some ways, they helped sharpen our critical thinking about what advice to take on board – and what to leave behind.

Highlights & Human Moments: Beyond the Talks

Hot Tubs, Seagulls & Seaside Chats

Connecting as a Team

More than anything, the trip gave us time to build relationships within the team, which can often be tricky in the fast-paced day-to-day of agency life. From hot tub chats to shared laughs over merch hauls and seaside strolls, the time together helped us grow stronger as a group – and that’s just as valuable as any technical takeaway.

A Renewed Sense of Excitement

For some, the event also reignited a passion for new areas of SEO, like UX, content strategy and multi-channel thinking. It’s these kinds of moments – the spark of inspiration combined with time to reflect – that make events like BrightonSEO truly worthwhile. 

If you’re looking for a collection of the published talks, click here to read more. 

The post BrightonSEO April 2025: Event Summary, Key Takeaways And Expert Insights appeared first on Candidsky.

AI is transforming digital marketing faster than ever. From content creation and SEO to paid media and customer engagement, AI-powered tools are helping brands scale, automate, and optimise their marketing efforts. But as AI continues to evolve, marketers need to understand how to integrate it effectively while maintaining authenticity and strategic oversight.

This guide goes beyond theory. We’ll explore AI’s impact on digital marketing in 2025 with real-world case studies, expert insights, tool comparisons, and actionable strategies. Whether you’re new to AI or looking to refine your approach, this is your go-to resource for making AI work for your business.

The Role of AI in Digital Marketing

1. AI in SEO

AI has revolutionised search engine optimisation, making it more data-driven and predictive. Key areas where AI is impacting SEO in 2025 include:

• AI-Powered Keyword Research: Tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Surfer SEO are helping marketers find high-intent keywords faster.
• Automated Content Optimisation: AI-driven platforms analyse search intent, competition, and SERP trends to recommend optimised content structures.
• Predictive SEO Trends: AI can forecast changes in search algorithms and user behaviour, allowing brands to adapt quickly.
• Voice and Visual Search Optimisation: AI is improving image recognition and natural language processing, making visual and voice search more prevalent.

Case Study: AI in Action A leading e-commerce brand implemented AI-driven SEO tools to refine its content strategy, resulting in a 40% increase in organic traffic within six months. By leveraging AI-powered search intent analysis, they outperformed competitors on high-value keywords.

How to Leverage AI for SEO:

• Use AI-powered tools like Clearscope or Surfer SEO to enhance content relevance.
• Automate technical SEO audits with platforms like Screaming Frog and Sitebulb.
• Optimise for AI-driven search engines by focusing on natural, conversational language.

2. AI in Paid Media

AI is transforming PPC and paid social media campaigns by automating bid management, audience targeting, and ad copy generation.

• Automated Bidding & Budget Optimisation: AI algorithms analyse past performance data and adjust bids in real time to maximise ROAS.
• AI-Generated Ad Copy & Creatives: Tools like Persado and Copy.ai generate high-performing ad variations based on historical data.
• Predictive Analytics: AI predicts which audiences are most likely to convert, optimising campaign segmentation.
• Programmatic Advertising: AI automates media buying in real-time, ensuring ads appear in front of the most relevant audiences.

Expert Insight: “AI-driven predictive analytics are reshaping paid media. Businesses leveraging AI for audience targeting have seen a 30-50% increase in conversion rates.” – Courtney Scrivens, Head Of Paid Media at Candidsky

How to Leverage AI for Paid Media:

• Use Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+ campaigns for AI-driven automation.
• Test AI-generated ad copy while ensuring human oversight for brand voice consistency.
• Analyse AI-generated insights to refine audience segmentation.

3. AI in Content Marketing

AI has made content creation faster and more efficient, but human creativity remains essential for quality storytelling.

• AI-Assisted Content Creation: AI tools can generate outlines, first drafts, and topic suggestions, reducing content production time.
• Content Personalisation: AI analyses user behaviour to deliver personalised content recommendations.
• AI-Enhanced Video & Visual Content: Platforms like Synthesia allow marketers to create AI-generated video content with realistic avatars.
• AI-Driven Social Media Posting: AI helps schedule, optimise, and even generate social media posts based on engagement data.

Tool Comparison: Best AI Tools for Content Marketing

How to Leverage AI for Content Marketing:

• Use AI for ideation, but ensure content maintains a human touch.
• Implement AI-powered personalisation tools like HubSpot or Marketo to deliver tailored content.
• Leverage AI for video marketing with tools like Descript and Runway.

4. AI in Digital PR & Link Building

AI is streamlining digital PR efforts by automating outreach, identifying trends, and tracking sentiment analysis.

• AI-Powered Media Monitoring: AI tracks brand mentions, PR opportunities, and competitor activities in real time.
• Automated Outreach & Relationship Management: AI tools can identify relevant journalists and influencers, optimising outreach timing and messaging.
• Sentiment Analysis & Crisis Management: AI analyses online conversations to predict potential PR crises and provide response strategies.
• AI-Generated Press Releases: AI can assist in drafting initial press release copies, ensuring key messages align with media interest.

How to Leverage AI for Digital PR:

• Use AI-driven tools like Meltwater and BuzzSumo to track industry trends.
• Automate outreach with platforms like Respona, but personalise key messages.
• Leverage AI for backlink analysis and competitor PR insights.

5. AI in Customer Experience & Engagement

AI-powered customer engagement tools are enhancing personalisation, customer support, and user experience.

• AI Chatbots & Virtual Assistants: Tools like ChatGPT, Drift, and Intercom provide instant, intelligent customer support.
• Predictive Customer Insights: AI analyses user behaviour to personalise messaging and offers.
• AI-Powered Email Marketing: AI refines email subject lines, sending times, and personalised recommendations.
• Hyper-Personalisation: AI-driven recommendations ensure customers receive content and offers relevant to their behaviour and preferences.

How to Leverage AI for Customer Engagement:

• Implement AI chatbots for 24/7 support while maintaining human backup for complex queries.
• Use AI-driven email marketing tools like Klaviyo and Omnisend for personalised campaigns.
• Analyse AI-generated user insights to refine customer journey mapping.

Examples of AI used in digital marketing campaigns

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a cornerstone in modern digital marketing, enabling brands to create personalised, efficient, and impactful campaigns. Below are notable examples of how AI has been utilised in digital marketing campaigns:

1. Heinz’s “A.I. Ketchup” Campaign

In 2022, Heinz collaborated with the AI image generator DALL-E 2 to visualise the concept of “ketchup.” The AI consistently produced images resembling Heinz’s iconic product, even with abstract prompts like “Renaissance Ketchup Bottle.” This campaign reinforced Heinz’s brand identity as the quintessential ketchup. The company further engaged audiences by inviting them to create and share their own AI-generated ketchup images.

thekeenfolks.com

2. Coca-Cola’s AI-Generated Holiday Ads

Coca-Cola ventured into AI-generated advertising with holiday-themed visuals. While the ads faced criticism for their uncanny aesthetics, the initiative demonstrated Coca-Cola’s commitment to innovation and personalised marketing. The company utilised AI to craft cost-effective ads tailored to specific locales, showcasing the potential of AI in creating localised content at scale.

wsj.com

3. Mango’s AI-Driven Fashion Campaigns

Fashion brand Mango integrated AI to generate unique promotional images, blending AI-generated visuals with traditional photography. This approach allowed Mango to produce diverse and captivating content efficiently, highlighting AI’s role in enhancing creative processes within the fashion industry.

ft.com

4. Netflix’s Personalized Content Recommendations

Netflix employs AI algorithms to analyse user viewing habits, enabling the platform to offer personalised content suggestions. This AI-driven personalisation enhances user engagement and satisfaction by tailoring recommendations to individual preferences.

sembly.ai

5. Nutella’s AI-Designed Packaging

Nutella utilised AI to create unique packaging designs, resulting in millions of distinct jars. This initiative not only showcased the brand’s creativity but also engaged consumers by offering them exclusive, collectible items, thereby strengthening brand loyalty.

mailmodo.com

These examples illustrate the diverse applications of AI in digital marketing, from content creation and personalisation to enhancing customer engagement. By leveraging AI technologies, brands can craft innovative campaigns that resonate with their audiences and stand out in competitive markets.

Should I use AI for my businesses digital marketing efforts in 2025?

AI is transforming digital marketing, but success lies in using it wisely. Brands that balance AI efficiency with human creativity will drive better engagement, stronger customer relationships, and higher ROI. As we move into 2025, staying ahead of AI trends and leveraging the right tools will be key to digital marketing success.

Ready to future-proof your digital marketing strategy? Let’s talk.

Use AI effectively in 2025 with Candidsky

We hope our guide to using AI for digital marketing has helped you. Now you know everything you need to get started, if you need support then don’t hesitate to get in touch. Ready to discuss using AI in digital marketing? Contact us today and one of our experts will at hand.

Looking to grow your brand with SEO, PPC, Digital PR, Paid Social, or Content? Our award-winning team delivers strategies that drive real results. Whether you’re scaling up or refining your approach, we’re here to help. Get in touch, and let’s make your next move count

The post The Ultimate Guide to Using AI for Digital Marketing in 2025 appeared first on Candidsky.

This guide is your website migration checklist; your map to ensure your migration has the lowest possible impact on your search rankings.

A website migration is the process of moving a website from one environment to another. There are several types of website migrations, including:

• Platform Migration: Moving a website from one content management system (CMS) or platform to another (e.g., WordPress to Drupal).
• Domain Name Change: Changing the web address (URL) of a website, often due to rebranding or business strategy changes.
• Server or Hosting Migration: Transferring a website from one hosting provider or server to another for reasons such as better performance, scalability, or cost.
• HTTP to HTTPS Migration: Switching from an unsecured (HTTP) to a secured (HTTPS) protocol for improved security and SEO benefits.
• Redesign or Replatforming: Updating the design and functionality of a website, often accompanied by a change in the underlying technology or platform.
• Content Migration: Moving content from one location to another, such as restructuring the site or consolidating multiple websites.
• Database Migration: Relocating the database that stores website data, often necessary during platform changes or upgrades.
• Subdomain to Subdirectory Migration: Changing the structure of a website’s URLs by moving content from a subdomain to a subdirectory or vice versa.
• Internationalization (i18n) Migration: Adapting a website for international audiences, involving language and regional content adjustments.
• E-commerce Platform Migration: Transitioning an online store from one e-commerce platform to another to improve features, performance, or scalability.
• Version Upgrade: Updating the software version of the current platform, CMS, or other essential components of the website.
• Consolidation or Merger: Merging multiple websites or web properties into a single, unified platform or domain.
• Reverse Migration: Reverting to a previous version of the website, platform, or configuration due to issues with the current setup.
  

We’ll discuss the different types of migration, typical time frames for these site changes and how to mitigate risks and other key information a little later. 

There is an element of risk of losing visibility with any type of migration, so careful planning, execution and testing are required to ensure a smooth transition with minimal disruption to users and search engine rankings. 

Website migrations can vary in complexity, and the specific steps involved depend on the nature of the migration, the platforms involved, and the goals of the website owner or administrator. Proper planning and thorough testing are crucial to mitigate potential issues and ensure a successful website migration.

As a site owner, you need to be aware of potential risks and how to mitigate them ahead of launching your new website. Expectation management is essential both in anticipating the impact on your business and in developing a strategy to mitigate downtime.

Each site is unique in its remit and comes with its own set of challenges, creating a need to approach each project with a strategy that aims to tick all the proverbial boxes. Our guide breaks into three key areas;

• Site Migration Risks
• Site Migration Types
• Site Migration Checklist

Site Migration Risks

Take search rankings out of the equation and a site migration should be an exciting time for any company. The development of a new website or asset that aims to provide your customers with an improved browsing experience is one we frequently encourage, particularly if it provides a responsive solution. 

From an SEO perspective, however, a site migration can be very risky and potentially comes at the expense of lost traffic and revenue if not managed properly. Following are some of the most common risks involved with the relaunch of the website.

Domain transfer 

One of the riskier forms of migration, a Domain Transfer sees ranking potential and rankings gradually transferred across to the new website as redirects are detected. We have found this process to take 4-12 weeks for full completion, depending upon the size of the site. 

Structural changes

A site’s hierarchy helps to dictate vertical and horizontal linking and should be considered to protect authority flow through the site. Failure to do so can result in lost rankings and poor communication with bots.

Doorway pages are but one consideration in this. A valuable approach can be to assess which pages on your existing site provide the most traffic and conversions, before ensuring they are given the same priority on your new site.

Content changes

We understand that it can be tempting to refresh all of the content for your new website. A fresh website and fresh content, sounds good right?
However, before you make any internal decisions to change all site content, it’s important to stop and ask yourself “How will this affect my existing rankings?”

If current content no longer exists or is radically changed to omit target keywords and reduce positive E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority and trust) signals, the likely reality is that you’ll lose your current ranking spot. Remember, rankings are rented, not guaranteed!

To be blunt, if you’re already ranked in 1st position for your target keywords, it’s for a reason. Making changes to your content will jeopardise your rankings and give other websites a chance at taking your top spot.  

So, always make sure you:

• Review the rankings of your existing pages
• Make changes to top-ranked content only when necessary 
• Be prepared to lose keyword rankings when content is changed

Now, making content changes isn’t always doom and gloom, and in some cases removing pages can actually benefit your new website. Review your existing site to see if it suffers from cannibalisation or doorway pages. Can you make similar pages more succinct by combining them into a single asset? Are there opportunities for improvement?  

Every piece of content on your site needs to serve a purpose. If it doesn’t drive traffic, provide vital business information, send positive E-E-A-T signals, or is no longer relevant then make a plan to remove this before the new website goes live. Think, “do I really need to migrate my business news blogs from 2019.”

URL restructuring (same domain)

A URL restructure can lead to both temporary and permanently lost rankings.

Temporary drops in ranking can be attributed to Search Engines recrawling and reindexing your site, and provided a robust redirect process is in place downtimes can be mitigated or reduced to 1-4 weeks (depending on the size of the site).

Permanent drops in ranking could occur if the URL structure is not as SEO-friendly as your previous structure. This can include the addition of files, the removal of keywords, the lengthening of the overall URL, and a poor 301 redirect process.

Site Migration Types

There are several types of migration, each of which comes with its considerations and requirements.

Existing Domain Migration

An existing domain migration is one in which your root domain remains the same. This often includes a redesign, CMS update, or URL/hierarchy restructure. Of the three types of migration available, an existing domain migration should have the least impact on search performance (the expected migration time is 1-14 days depending upon site size) but can be dangerous if not carried out correctly.

Risks include technical changes, content alterations, URL restructuring, and hierarchy changes.

Time to migrate: 2-4 weeks

New Domain Migration

A new domain migration is one in which your domain changes. Perhaps you are moving to a new TLD (.com to .org), or combining several sites into a single asset? Either way, a new domain migration comes with the highest risk of any migration type, not least as the anticipated search impact could last up to 3 months, and must be handled with care.

This is due in part to the passing of link equity from your previous domain, as highlighted in the image below.

Risks include an increased time to crawl and reindex the site, technical changes, content alterations, URL restructuring, and hierarchy changes.

Time to Migrate: 4-12 weeks

This is highlighted further in the following images which show Impression data for a live client over the 90 days after migration (domain size, circa 200 pages).

The new version of the site witnessed a gradual increase in impressions, eventually matching the prior visibility of the old site 8 weeks after migration.

The old site experienced a rapid decline in impressions immediately following the migration and still receives some visibility 90 days later. This created a period of around 6 weeks in which total domain visibility for the brand was reduced.

HTTP – HTTPS Migration

HTTPS migration is becoming a frequent culprit in reduced search rankings, not least as many proceed with the migration without fully knowing that it is one. A HTTPS migration is one in which your website remains the same, but has an SSL certificate applied to it. This in effect completely changes every URL on your website from one that begins with HTTP to HTTPS. The difference is subtle, but the impact is significant.

Google has stated that making the switch to HTTPS can positively influence your search rankings, giving enough motivation to many webmasters to make to switch. At the core of this transition however is a complete URL restructure, and is one that can have a significant impact on rankings (as discovered by Moz).

Update: considerations for HTTP-HTTPS migrations in 2024, including;

• Migrations appear to be happening a lot quicker, with indexation time of pages averaging between 48-72 hours. 
• The majority of websites now have HTTPs protocol in place, meaning that these types of migrations are happening less frequently. 
• You must take note of when your SSL Certificate is due for renewal, to ensure that your website users aren’t greeted with a security warning when entering your website. This can lead to significant ranking losses and damage to your brand reputation.

Risks include URL restructuring – Time to Migrate, 1-2 weeks.

Combining Domains

Combining domains represents the process of compounding your assets to a single location. This may include:

• The migration of multiple domains to a completely new one
• The migration of smaller domains to your main website. 

As previously discussed, porting to a new domain will result in a longer migration, and appropriate considerations towards the impact on your business should be taken. 

Historically, Google was prolific in enforcing Manual Actions for combining websites that have poor backlink profiles. Fortunately, the 2022 Link Spam algorithm update means that poor-quality backlinks are now depreciated. Google recognises that it’s common for spammy backlinks to point to a website and that penalising websites for this is unfair. 

The benefits of combining domains include the combination of Domain Authority for your new website, which could lead to improved page rankings.

Time to migrate: 2-4 weeks

Site Migration Checklist

• Rank Monitoring
• Technical & Content Audit
• Redirect file
• GA Audit
• Offsite Asset Audit
• Sitemap Management

Rank Monitoring

Rank monitoring is an essential initial step in the website migration process as it allows visibility on loss and gain of search exposure. We believe that the more keyword data you have on file, the better. Monitoring keyword rankings for several weeks before migration. This provides insight into ranking trends and fluctuations, allowing you to establish which keywords are consistent contributors to your site’s exposure. It would be an idea to set these as priority keywords to provide quick access to their performance.

Collect a list of keyword rankings in the planning stage to help inform you of:

• Pages to keep the same (specifically if they rank well currently)
• Pages to remove (if they don’t rank well, or are no longer relevant)
• Pages to combine (if you cover similar topics and see ranking fluctuations)

There are likely many hundreds of keywords that provide your site with traffic every month, and whilst monitoring all of them is not essential, tracking top-performing or high-volume keywords can provide confidence that your campaign is moving in the right direction.

Before you launch your website, it’s important to export a list of your keyword rankings, as this will act as a benchmark for rankings after the new website is launched. 

For best result, you should monitor the following metrics;

• Keyword
• Ranking position
• Ranking URL[s]

By monitoring keywords in this way you can assess which keywords have been positively or negatively affected by your migration, providing insight on where opportunities for optimisation may lie. Ultimately, monitoring your keyword rankings affords confidence that your migration has either been a success or where it needs remediation.

Selecting Keywords to track

We use several ools to pull data on suitable keywords, including Google Analytics and Google Search Console. You may also wish to use the Adwords Keyword Planner for more inspiration on finding relevant keywords, combining all potential keywords before entering them into your Rank Tracking software.

Tracking Tools

You will likely need to subscribe to a suitable tool to assist you in monitoring rankings. There are many options you may consider. We use GetSTAT and SEMRush in-house, but recommend researching to identify which tracking tool best suits your needs. 

Technical & Content Audit

The best migration procedure in the world is fruitless if the site being migrated too is of a lesser technical quality than your existing asset. To allow for better attribution in Correlation vs Causation we must also assess technical and content components that may contribute to a decrease in rankings.

Before launching your new site it is advisable to host your new assets on a test server to provide analysis and information on potential pitfalls.

**Top Tip** When hosting a test site ensure you have a password set on your test domain and robots set to “noindex” to prevent search engines from indexing your content prior to launch.

Site speed

Google may never have alluded to a sites load speed having an effect on its search rankings. The evidence that this metric contributes to a sites Organic visibility is, however, overwhelming to the point where Google do provide developer tools to assist Webmasters in identifying page load speed opportunities.

Though not technically a necessary part of a migration, migrating to a site that is significantly slower than your current asset could contribute to limitations in recovery.

• Test your current sites page load speed (Pre-Launch)
• Test your new sites page load speed on a test server (Pre-Launch)
• Ensure your new site is quicker to load than its predecessor-to-be (Pre-Launch)
• Test your new sites page load speed (Post Launch)
• Ideally, your page load speed should be less than 5 seconds, with 2 being a good target

Site Hierarchy

Hierarchy is a significant contributing factor in website performance.

Crucially, hierarchy communicates the priority and importance of landing pages in line with potential counterparts, and dictates which should rank higher in search. This can be communicated with bots in a number of ways, from navigation linking (vertical) to your internal link structure (horizontal).

Hierarchy Considerations

• Does your navigation allow access to top service pages or product categories?
• Does cannibalisation occur within your hierarchy?
• Are product pages available with a maximum of 3 clicks?
• Is your internal linking strategy designed to allow authority flow?
• Are all key pages linked within the main navigation?
• Are high-performing pages being removed from the main navigation?

Duplicate content management

Duplicate content is a major factor in search visibility. So much so that it warranted a post of its own. Read the full article here.

Content Management

Where your website currently ranks is based on a number of metrics, from Domain Authority (the management of which is considered in our redirect process), through to page-level data like content, page titles, headers, alt tags, etc. If anything, it’s quite likely that this is the area where you will see some problems with your SEO site migration. 

We aren’t looking to optimise your website to rank better at this stage. Migration should be considered a damage limitation, and it is likely you may want to come back post-launch and further optimise your content to rank better for desired keywords. But for now, the aim will be to ensure your high ranking pages stay up there! Some things you might want to consider include:

• The migration of comments (particularly if they add value to the original piece).
• Page titles, and header tags (H1’s, H2’s, etc)
• Internal links should be updated to their new location (see the following Broken Links section for more info).

Broken links

We have already spoken about the importance of internal linking in communicating hierarchy… it is indeed surprising that in the excitement of launching a new site so many Webmasters neglect to update the URLs their links point to.

The situation? A user visits your site and clicks a contextual (in content) link to a page you have told them will aid them.

The issue? The link still points to the old page, leading them to a 404 error, and probably a small cup of frustration.

The solution? Many assume the best solution would be reliance on 301 redirects. This would, after all, redirect a user to the desired content. The drawback with this solution is the lost link authority through the redirect. The best solution is a database look up to change all contextual links to their new location.

The process? This actually has considerations for both pre and post-launch. Pre-launch it would be beneficial to use the redirects file (discussed below) to identify donor and redirect pages, using a database lookup function to update all together. The pre-launch redirect procedure will never get every URL, so this process should also be followed post-launch with any freshly identified 404 errors.

301 Redirect File

301 redirects signal a permanent move from one page to another. The 301 HTTP redirect process is possibly the most crucial element of a site migration. Failing to implement 301 redirects from the old site to the new results in a total loss of all rankings, backlinks and authority… yikes! So, we advise enlisting the help of your marketing agency when developing a redirect map.

Redirects are crucial in:

• Ensuring link equity is passed to the new site/page
• Ensuring Bots understand the nature of the redirect (permanent vs temporary)
• Allowing for deeper crawling of a site following launch.

There are three types of redirect we consider when migrating a domain;

Page to page redirects

Page to page redirects are vital if your site pulls traffic from a diverse collection of URLs. This may include redirecting product pages to their counterpart on the new site, category pages to their new location, and informational content to the most appropriate page. Considerations for this must also include links to each page to ensure anchors are managed and potential cannibalisation contained.

Page to parent redirects

The launch of a new site can offer an opportunity to clean up your product offering. With this, you might opt to redirect expired products or even those that do not pull traffic, to a parent or category page. In addition to decreasing the number of pages involved in your recrawl, this approach can also manage authority flow to pages with better ranking potential.

Page to root redirects

A page-to-root redirect is when all pages of a site are redirected to a single location, usually the root, or homepage. There are instances where the benefits of page-to-page redirects are inefficient enough that a page-to-root redirect is the most practical solution. This can include aiming to pass domain authority when combining a site.

Our very thorough page-to-page redirect process

• Pull a full list of available URLs for your existing site with a crawl agent. Our preference is with Screaming Frog, but there are plenty of others including Xenu, Integrity, and Website Auditor.
• Import this data into Excel and use some wizardry to remove URLs with parameters, and duplicates.
• Run this list through a HTTP response checker (such as httpstatus.io, or scrapebox) to provide a complete list of status codes. Move any 404 pages to a new tab, keeping any 301 and 200 status pages.
• Now run a crawl on the test server to source a list of the new site’s URL structure, before using a VLOOKUP function to identify which URLs are changing, and which are remaining the same.
• Take your list of expiring/donor URLs (those which will have a new file path) and manually map their new location on the new site (you may be able to use footprints to automate some).
• We now have a complete list of expiring URLs and their new location. The next step will be determining which of the already expired pages (those with a 404 status code) have value, and should be redirected.
• Take your 404 pages and run them through a link-monitoring tool (options include aHrefs, Majestic, and OSE – it’s advisable to use them all to ensure thoroughness). This will provide insight on which 404 pages should be redirected to a suitable page. Any 404 pages that have no inbound links can be discarded.
• Import the suitable 404 pages into your redirect list, and add a suitable redirect to a page that would benefit from the link equity and anchor.
• With your donor URLs and redirect URLs complete use the concatenate function in Excel to generate the required redirect code for your server.

GA audit

An often-overlooked element is the migration/updating of Google Analytics data, which ultimately limits your ability to effectively track site usage through the migration. A complete GA Audit will be covered in a future topic, but below we’ve shared the main considerations for a migration:

Update: Talking about migrations, have you made the switch to GA4? Here’s why you should:

• Flexibility and accuracy when tracking user behaviour
• Much more data feedback and insights
• Ability to track users across devices and platforms
• GA4 debug mode allows you to test tracking and conversions once the site is live. This allows you to easily spot tracking errors and rectify them so your performance data is accurate.

**Top Tip** I tend to advise updating the name on the existing GA account as opposed to creating a new one to work with, as this allows for direct comparisons over time.

Considerations include

• Updating of Goals
• Updating of Ecommerce
• Ensure tracking codes are on the new site
• It is also beneficial to create a property set in Search Console to assist in monitoring the exposure of combined sites through the migration period and beyond. Learn more here.

Offsite asset audit

There are two elements to an offsite asset audit. These centre around either assets for which you have direct control, or assets owned by third parties. An audit of each of these areas can ensure your inbound link equity remains as high as possible.

Owned assets

You most probably own a number of offsite assets, potentially including Google My Business pages, Facebook pages, Twitter Accounts and more. These are pages you can log in to yourself and update for data congruency. Where possible it is advisable to update any owned assets with the details of your new domain to ensure any authority from them passes straight over, and not through a redirect. Please find a list of relevant redirect tutorials below;

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google My Business
• Pinterest
• Linkedin

Third party assets

There are also most likely a ton of third-party assets linking to your domain. Whilst you could certainly use a link tracking tool such as Ahrefs, Majestic, or Moz/OSE to find links, it may not be practical or possible to locate and contact the owner to request updates on all of these (though you would be awarded with more link equity if you chose to do so).

But we do advise updating of any directory listings you may have submitted data to. As Google aims to collate information across citations, data congruency is an important element for local SEO, and having different domains listed across profiles could lead to inconsistencies and a loss of trust. Update any existing profiles as opposed to creating new ones.

Sitemap management

What’s mostly responsible for a delay in updated search rankings? It’s the rate that search engines crawl and reindex your site. To make it easier for them, upload multiple sitemaps to your domain so they have access to as many URLs as possible!

Submitting sitemaps is often overlooked, but it can make all of the difference to your website. Be sure to audit your XML sitemap, and remove any non-indexable or broken links before submitting them to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Recommended sitemaps;

• Expired URL sitemap (providing access to removed URLs to promote the crawling of redirects)
• New URL Sitemap (providing access to new URLs to promote the crawling of the new hierarchy)

Sitemap procedure

• Ensure both maps are accessible on the migrated site
• Submit both to GWT
• Fetch the URL of each within GWT, requesting ‘All’ linked pages are crawled.

Conclusion

It’s far from being a simple task (trust us, we know!). But an SEO site migration managed correctly can result in a massive lift in search exposure. By following the pre- and post-launch procedures you can shield your website from the potential negative impacts of migration; paving the way to a stronger future for your website and business.

Want some further information on website migrations or would like to hire us for a migration project? Please either comment below or contact our SEO consultants.

Pre-launch process

• Set up rank monitoring
• Assess the new site for content and technical compliance
• Prepare a 301 redirect file
• Take a copy of your sites existing sitemap

Post-launch process

• Immediately following launch run a Site:Search to pull a complete list of all indexed URLs. Run these URLs through a HTTP response checker and clean up any missing or incorrect redirects.
• Use GWT to determine any missed redirects and add to the original redirect file using the process above.
• Update Google Analytics Tracking/Goals etc
• Request a crawl of your old sitemap
• Request a crawl of your new sitemap
• Confirm site migration in GWT (external domain migration only)
• Create GWT property set to allow assessment of combined asset visibility
• Update offsite assets

For more details on our approach to website migration, or to share any questions or feedback, please contact us on our social channels, or at WhatsApp +447525592267
candidsky.data@gmail.com. Want to find out what makes us one of the best SEO companies in Manchester? Take a look at our case studies to see the amazing results we’ve achieved for our clients.

Website Migration FAQs

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Recognising Excellence in Search Marketing

The Global Search Awards celebrate innovation and creativity in PPC, SEO, and content marketing across various industries. Attracting entries from leading digital agencies worldwide, these awards highlight campaigns that have made a substantial impact on clients’ digital presence. Our collaboration with HS Direct stood out among fierce competition, showcasing our expertise in crafting tailored SEO solutions for B2B clients.

The HS Direct Success Story

HS Direct, a provider of health and safety compliance services, sought to enhance their online visibility and reach a broader audience. Our team at Candidsky conducted a comprehensive SEO audit, identifying opportunities to improve search rankings and organic traffic.

Key Strategies Implemented:

• Technical SEO Enhancements: Addressed critical website issues to ensure optimal performance and crawlability.
• Content Optimisation: Developed targeted content strategies focusing on industry-specific keywords to attract relevant traffic.
• Authority Building: Implemented link-building & Digital PR campaigns to establish HS Direct as a trusted authority in the health and safety sector.

These efforts led to remarkable results, including a 61% increase in conversions year-over-year and a 141% rise in new organic users. This transformation not only boosted HS Direct’s online presence but also significantly contributed to their business growth.

A Testament to Our Team’s Dedication

Winning this award is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our talented team at Candidsky. Our collaborative approach, combined with a deep understanding of our clients’ industries, enables us to deliver customised strategies that yield measurable results.

We extend our gratitude to the Global Search Awards for this recognition and to HS Direct for their trust and partnership. As we look ahead, we remain committed to driving excellence in digital marketing and helping our clients achieve their goals.

For more insights into our award-winning strategies, explore our case studies.

Win awards with Candidsky

Looking to start an award winning digital marketing campaign with Candidsky using SEO, PPC, Digital PR, Paid Social, or Content? Our award-winning team delivers strategies that drive real results. Whether you’re scaling up or refining your approach, we’re here to help. Get in touch, and let’s make your next move count

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The award-winning campaign celebrates the power of music through the exploration of ‘The Land of a Thousand Bands’ through the eyes of the community, following some of its oldest residents. 

The video takes Yamaha’s audience on a journey, spanning multiple continents, and unites people through their shared love of music.

Candidsky and Paragon Pictures’ success underscores their commitment to creating authentic brand stories that leave a lasting impression, with campaigns that resonate with a global audience.

Operations Director, David Vernon, told Prolific North “It’s an honour to win such a prestigious award in collaboration with Paragon Pictures & Yamaha Music Group. All parties involved poured their heart into this project – focusing our storytelling on the authenticity that the Yamaha brand offers.

This award win not only represents our commitment to quality – but also our devotion to working collaboratively with complimentary agency partners to create an end product that exceeds all expectations. ”

You can see the award-winning video here: https://www.paragonpictures.co.uk/our-work/yamaha
Contact WhatsApp +447525592267
candidsky.data@gmail.com for all creative enquiries

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What is a good website conversion rate?

A positive conversion rate is between 2 and 5 percent. Although this seems low, if you have thousands of visitors clicking through to your website, then even just 2% of that is a great amount of conversions! This is why doing everything you can to increase conversion rate, even by 0.5% can see huge benefits.

How to increase conversion rate

Here’s how to increase conversion rate for your website:

Analyse user data and conversion funnel

There’s no need to take wild guesses when thinking about how visitors use your site. You can use tracking tools to assess how people navigate your site, where they click through, where they drop off and more. This can all be used to make a decision on how to optimise. 

Taking a look at your conversion funnel can also help you see where users are leaving the site or not continuing their journey. Again this can give you the information needed to make optimisations and hopefully increases the chances of users converting. 

Competitor analysis

Stand out from the competition! Why would customers choose you over others? Review your competitor’s conversion journey and see what’s different to yours, are there any improvements that you feel you could make? Your value proposition shouldn’t be overlooked either. When potential customers compare you to other competitors, they want to see why should they purchase from you — and what you say will impact their decision. 

Optimise page layouts

You want to create a page that is engaging, with visitors clicking links and conversion points. Well if this isn’t happening then try changing up your page layouts. You can make some small changes and move/add/change conversion points to make them more visible, or if your efforts are still not paying dividends then an overhaul might be necessary. 

Include testimonials

Are you seeing promising click-through rates, lots of traffic and a decent amount of time being spent browsing your site, but still the conversions aren’t coming? A factor affecting this could be trust, which can be improved by including customer/client testimonials on your pages. If a customer has never heard of your business before and they’re unsure whether to trust you, it could be the difference between purchasing from you and a competitor. 

Provide easy and efficient website navigation

The conversion journey for your potential customers must be simple. Too many steps, forms, or a slow site could result in them abandoning their purchase and buying elsewhere. Check the loading speed of your site and the steps of your conversion journey to make sure it’s all smooth and seamless for your customers!

Improve your conversion rates with Candidsky

We hope our conversion rate optimisation tips have helped you. Now you know how to improve conversion rate for your site, if you need support then don’t hesitate to get in touch. Ready to discuss digital? Contact us today and we’ll get back to you in no time!

Want to see the benefits of SEO and improve your rankings? Take a look at our SEO services. We’ll create a data-driven SEO Strategy that works for you and propels your business’s rankings! Just view our case studies to see how effective our campaigns have been.

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How to build an SEO friendly website?

Here are the absolute necessities for building an SEO friendly website:

Pages with unique meta titles and descriptions

Each of your pages should have a meta title and descriptions that clearly show what the webpage is all about. Why? To make it easier for search engines to index your pages. Meta titles should range between 50-60 characters with descriptions up to 155 characters.

Quick loading webpages

This is a must! There’s only so long users can tolerate a slow site before they leave, so make it an enjoyable experience for them. There are a few things that contribute to this, one being image optimisation. Make sure the images you’re using on your site are compressed and optimised to keep your website loading speed in the green!

Website structure 

A clear and efficient website structure is vital for building an SEO friendly website. This includes the depth of the site structure, meaning not having pages too far away from the homepage. Deciding what category pages you’re going to have and where they will link out to can be driven by keyword research, so your top-level pages are optimised — boosting your chances of ranking on the SERPs.

Link internally

With internal links flowing through your site, it makes it easier for Google and other search engines to crawl. Not only that, but it’s helpful for users to find other relevant pages to the content they’re reading. A strong internal linking structure will give your website’s SEO friendliness a huge boost!

Set up Google Search Console

This tool is used to track your website’s organic search performance. To continue making SEO improvements, Google Search Console helps you to identity website errors and user experience improvements. It’s a crucial analytical tool that helps you keep your website on track and allows you to see current performance on the SERPs.

Why is SEO important for a website?

But why is SEO important for a website? It can offer your website so much, in terms of better experiences for your users/customers and visibility.

Boosts organic traffic

The higher you get your pages on the SERPs the more traffic you’ll get to your website. This is the ultimate goal! If you’re targeting the correct terms and realling honing down on the SEO front, then you could see an increase in leads and sales as a result of your rankings. 

For user-experience

You might be able to get users to your site, but if navigation is difficult and the user journey is not enjoyable then people will leave. You can learn more about bounce rates and more in our blog ‘what does your bounce and engagement rate tell you?’. If you’ve got your navigation mastered and loading speed is tip-top, then users should have a positive experience visiting your site and might stay on there for longer, and even return in the future.

Builds trust and credibility

What will people think if they see your website appear in the search results frequently. If they’re a potential customer and are often searching for queries and terms relevant to your industry, then they’ll recognise your business as a reputable place to purchase. The more times you show up in the search, the more likely customers will trust you!

Build an SEO focused website with Candidsky

Do you feel like you know how to build an SEO friendly website? If you need support then don’t hesitate to get in touch. Ready to discuss digital? Contact us today and we’ll get back to you in no time!

If you’re thinking about a website migration and would like to build the new site with SEO in mind, then we can help! We have assisted with many website migrations for our clients, helping make the process run smoothly and keep rankings. We can also support you with mobile SEO to make sure your website is fully optimised for mobile users.

Want to see the benefits of SEO and improve your rankings? Take a look at our SEO services. We’ll create a data-driven SEO Strategy that works for you and propels your business’s rankings! Just view our case studies to see how effective our campaigns have been.

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What is the helpful content update?

The Google helpful content system “generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content created for people in search results”. It’s there to assess content and reward websites/pages where the content provides a “satisfying experience” for visitors. 

This is why it’s now more important than ever to make sure your content matches searchers’ intent and is helpful to them, otherwise, your page might not perform as well.

What has changed?

Google has outlined a few changes in it’s helpful content update that began rolling out on 14th September. As well as some subtle changes to its wording that loosens Google’s guidance on AI-generated content, and extra information on hosted third-party content, it briefly mentioned an ‘improved classifier’ on its social media post. Although, it’s difficult to pin down what this actually is. Anyway — let’s explore.

AI

Hidden in plain sight is Google’s updated wording for how content is created for humans. Previously, the guidance stated that content should be created by humans, for humans. But now, it’s changed. 

Previous Guidance: “Google Search’s helpful content system generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.”

Updated Guidance: “Google Search’s helpful content system generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content created for people in search results.”

Has Google altered its stance on machine-generated content?

More information on hosted third-party content

The Google helpful content update for September 2023 has reiterated its guidance on hosting third-party content on your main site or subdomains, pretty much telling us that if third-party content is hosted anywhere on a website it’ll more than likely be negatively affected by this update.

“If you host third-party content on your main site or in your subdomains, understand that such content may be included in site-wide signals we generate, such as the helpfulness of content. For this reason, if that content is largely independent of the main site’s purpose or produced without close supervision or the involvement of the primary site, we recommend that it should be blocked from being indexed by Google.”

– Google

Here’s what Google’s Gary Illyes had to say about third-party content:

“We’ve heard (and also noticed) that some sites “rent out” their subdomains or sometimes even subdirectories to third-parties, typically without any oversight over the content that’s hosted on those new, generally low quality micro-sites that have nothing to do with the parent site.

In fact the micro-sites are rarely ever linked from the parent sites, which don’t actually want to endorse these often questionable sites.

The only reason the owners of these shady (?) micro-sites rent the sub-spaces is to manipulate search results.”

– Gary Illyes (Linkedin)

What to do next?

Seen a change in traffic following the Google helpful content update? Here’s what you should do.

Self-assess your content

Google has been nice enough to provide us all with some guidance on what to know in these circumstances, and their number one tip is to self-assess your content and make changes where necessary. But how? Well, you can take a look at the questions Google has provided to help create helpful and reliable people-first content and see how you can better align your content with the information provided.

Produce helpful content with Candidsky

Do you feel clued up on the Google helpful content update? If you need support then don’t hesitate to get in touch. Ready to discuss digital? Contact us today and we’ll get back to you in no time!

Our knowledgeable content writing team are always on top of the latest Google helpful content updates, producing incredible content that meets what searchers are looking for. If you’re looking for bespoke content marketing services, give us a call!If you want to see the benefits of SEO and improve your rankings, take a look at our SEO services. We’ll create a data-driven SEO Strategy that works for you and propels your business’s rankings! Just take a look at our case studies to see how effective our campaigns have been.

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