Search engine optimization is crucial for developing your brand’s online presence. It bleeds into every marketing channel and can drastically boost your returns as you increase your visibility to audiences.

The problem is that SEO is challenging work and the results are not guaranteed. With so many brands vying for the same attention using the same best practices, it’s tempting to take shortcuts to get ahead.

As a result, the internet has seen countless “black-hat” SEO tactics including common cloaking techniques.

In this article, we’re going to help you understand how cloaking is utilized in SEO, and why it’s harmful to your long-term SEO efforts.

What is Cloaking in SEO?

Cloaking is a deceptive SEO practice that uses one set of content for crawling and ranking purposes while displaying different content to actual visitors. By its nature, cloaking in SEO is a malicious tactic that aims to take advantage of search engines and their users to further their own goals.

This leads to two problems.

First, the visiting user is going to see content that is, at best, irrelevant to their search query. Because cloaking is unnecessary and harmful, it’s also likely that a cloaked site may be trying to phish users for information or expose them to negative content that would otherwise be flagged immediately by a Google search crawler.

Second, cloaking is particularly problematic for search engine algorithms. If not detected, that domain begins to skew legitimate search results. This pushes other deserving sites down the ranks and can confuse crawlers about the relevancy of the content being shown.

Rankings are never static as the algorithm is constantly learning. When cloaked sites are allowed to exist, they can negatively impact organic results for everyone else using the internet.

How to Use Cloaking in SEO?

First and foremost, cloaking is a strictly prohibited black-hat SEO practice that is highly punishable according to Google guidelines. There is never a legitimate reason to cloak as there are countless other legitimate strategies to manage content distribution to different audiences. To attempt to cloak for any other reason is to do so maliciously.

Image Source

However, it's useful to know what cloaking in SEO looks like to identify it and avoid it. Here are some common SEO cloaking examples still used today:

SEO Cloaking Examples

A. IP Cloaking, or Search Engine Cloaking

IP cloaking is the act of presenting a page that's well optimized for high ranking while yielding a different page when the user is not a crawler.

The idea is to skip the hurdles of building up your SEO. The webmaster takes a page they own that already gets organic results, but funnels new visitors into the page they want to rank. This is a violation of guidelines as it purposely misrepresents the content, coercing users to click on something irrelevant or potentially threatening.

More malicious individuals such as hackers may utilize IP cloaking techniques to distribute malware, keyloggers, or other harmful software. The creator may not be concerned with the repercussions, but simply be looking to the net for as much personal information as they can from potential victims.

B. Intentionally Disguised Text

This method of cloaking is less technical and can be done with any modern CMS. The goal is to store more text on the page than what is shown to the visitor. That hidden content may be optimized to help boost efforts on the page or to trick engines into ranking the URL for something entirely unrelated.

Because users cannot interact with design elements, web designers can easily hide text on the page by simplifying and matching it to the background color. On a white background, the hidden text would be present in white, while the text they want readers to see is in black. However, you can also achieve similar results by formatting sections using your custom style sheets.

It's relatively simple to identify hidden text and is unlikely to get past many crawling attempts. If you need to improve your ranking efforts for that page, invest the resources into creating high-quality content that's relevant to the ranking keyword.

C. Images vs Text

Webmasters may want to include a page with images exclusively for some sites. This can be relevant for industries that wish to show a gallery of their work or their portfolio to earn new clients.

However, ranking a page without any text is highly difficult. Google's crawler responds well to text-rich pages with relevant content and supporting images. As a result, some black-hat SEOs may try to hide text on the page, while showing purely images to visitors.

Again, it is against guidelines to actively attempt to fool search engine crawlers. The content being indexed must match what is being shown to users to be properly ranked.

Instead of hiding text, create a healthy amount of text-based content to support your image gallery. You might include important details such as the type of work performed, the location, the client, or facts about the experience. Doing so may further the result you want by helping leads get a better understanding of what you do along with your level of expertise.

D. Hiding Flash-Based Pages

Adobe Flash is an outdated software that was once commonly used to present media content on a page. Today, Google prefers and recommends tools like HTML5 which loads content faster and optimizes it for various device speeds and screen sizes.

If you continue to use Flash on your site, you're going to see an impact on your SEO scores. For this reason, some SEOs may try to fool the system by detecting whether or not the visitor is a crawler or a real person. The crawler will see a lightweight page with some text or compressed images, while the real person sees the original Flash page.

Why You Should Avoid Cloaking in SEO?

Though some may try to justify its use, the guidelines are clear. You may not utilize cloaking in SEO if you want your website to rank organically. Even for mistakes, Google will act swiftly and dish out penalties to any domain that violates one of its policies.

Here is why you need to stop and reconsider if you're looking to use cloaking to skip ahead of the pack.

1. You're Going to Receive a Google Penalty

Receiving a Google penalty is akin to having a black mark on your domain's record. If your site has a history of penalties, improving your search engine rankings will prove difficult if not impossible, even if your current and future SEO actions are by the book.

If you rack up multiple penalties, Google will view you as a habitual offender. If you find yourself in this scenario, you'll likely need to abandon your domain as any future work will do little to undo the damage caused by cloaking penalties.

Image Source

Remember - you will receive a penalty. Even if you are fortunate enough to dodge crawlers for some time, Google is acutely aware of the deceptive practices some SEOs use to skip the hard work. It's just a matter of time and not worth sacrificing your investment.

2. People Will Avoid Your Site

Even if you continue to receive visitors while cloaking, the damage comes from more than Google.

If John Doe is looking up “financial advice,” but lands on your completely unrelated page, they’re likely to be annoyed. No one enjoys having their time wasted, much less being purposely deceived. In the internet world where users demand instant results and gratification, don’t be surprised to find your user count plummet as they continue to have a bad experience.

In addition to this, the act of tricking a user implies cause for further distrust. If a brand lies about one thing, it's only natural for consumers to question its legitimacy. Internet-savvy users may even fear picking up malware from your site and advocate against using it for themselves and their peers.

Reputation matters, and it will follow you forever online. Be good to the people you want to do business with or else you'll cost yourself more than a temporary boost in visitors.

3. Permanent Bans Are Irrecoverable

If you continuously engage in shady behaviors, or if you're a habitual offender, a Google employee can decide to ban your domain outright.

That means that there is no opportunity to plead your case. There is no opportunity to fix it and submit a reconsideration request. Your pages will no longer be indexed, meaning they have zero chance to show up in an organic search.

Image Source

That leaves you only with the ability to say goodbye to your hard work and start completely from scratch. If you talk to any brand starting online today, you'll realize how foolish it is to sabotage months or years of SEO work to beat the system. The repercussions aren't worth the risk.

How to Determine If a Site is Cloaking?

Being able to identify cloaking in action is valuable knowledge for everyone's security online. It can prevent you from picking up malware or having sensitive data stolen from your work or home devices.

From a marketing perspective, you'll want to keep tabs on which sites are using black-hat tactics so that you don't risk linking to them or having them backlink to your domain. You may not get to the root of the cloaking techniques used, but there are enough tell-tale signs that should tell you when to skip the click or get out as soon as possible.

1. Compare the Preview Text to the Page

Have you ever read an excerpt in a search result only to find that content missing from the page once you clicked the link?

This is a major red flag that some type of cloaking is in effect. The indexed page is showing a portion of content from one page, while the page you are visiting is different. This likely means that any number of the above cloaking examples are in effect which might include hidden text or using a bot to detect the user type.

If you find yourself in this situation, leave the domain without taking any action. Do not click on any additional links and run a scan using your anti-malware or anti-virus software if you want to take additional precautions. This type of cloaking does not necessarily mean the webmaster is hacking, but one shady action may be a warning sign for others.

2. Submit the URL to a Cloaking Checker

There are several free checkers available online that can examine any given URL for cloaking techniques. You can try out sites like DupliChecker or SiteChecker as examples.

These will automatically check the domain with the internet's most popular search engines and display any other URLs involved that might indicate stealthy redirects or other cloaking practices.

Cloaking Alternatives That Are Allowed

There are scenarios in which webmasters are legitimately making an effort to show different pages of prepared content to distinct audiences. This is understandable as effective marketing means speaking to different groups effectively to drive clicks and sales. For this reason, we understand why less informed individuals may see cloaking as necessary.

Thankfully, there are plenty of valid SEO alternatives that negate the need for cloaking.

1. Geolocation and IP Address Detection

Google provides webmasters with the ability to prepare different content to display to users based on their IP addresses around the globe. This means that while one page has high SEO value, Google can detect the user IP and show the content you curated for that region.

With this, you don't need to set up any shady redirect techniques that Google will likely interpret as malicious cloaking. Effectively, you're clueing Google in on your strategy, and they are doing what they can to accommodate your content delivery efforts.

This technique can apply to international marketing or more local efforts restricted to different areas of a particular state. It's up to you to create the content pages and designate the target geolocation area.

You can enhance your results by optimizing the content to reflect that area. For example, if you want a specific page to show to Miami customers, be sure to make notes about your Miami location when discussing the product or service with your readers.

Image Source

2. Set Up the Appropriate Redirect

In some cases, webmasters may be using cloaking to preserve the SEO value of a page when having to make site changes. Instead of cloaking, users would be wise to implement the correct redirect protocol based on whether the move is permanent or temporary.

A 301 redirect is for permanent changes, while 302 should be used for temporary changes such as a site redesign. This helps Google understand the type of change as well as which page to recognize as the canonical one. In addition, the SEO value of the original page is passed on to the new page.

Image Source

Similar to using the above technique, this SEO tactic clues Google in on what your goal is with the content. As long as crawlers identify that your intentions are fair and deliberate, they will work with you to preserve your SEO throughout your site.

3. Fix the Core Problem, Even If It Takes Time

Most of the time, well-meaning site owners that use cloaking are trying to find a cheap, easier way around a more complicated SEO issue. Like most shortcuts in life, they only get you so far and the consequences can be detrimental.

There are countless free tools available for site owners to use to diagnose health errors with their sites. It costs nothing to utilize Google Analytics and Google Search Console, both of which provide step-by-step solutions to overcome detected site errors.

Even if you need to turn to an expert, the cost is worth it when compared to throwing away your brand's visibility and branding online. Invest in your website and it will continue to give back to you in the long term.

Avoid Cloaking in SEO

Any perceived benefit you could achieve by cloaking in SEO is quickly undermined by the lasting damage it will do to your site and reputation.

If you want your site to earn a high rank in Google SERPs, you need to play by their rules and guidelines. If there were any quick hacks to skip the line, your average SEO would be the first to know. Instead, it takes a great strategy, regular testing, and persistence to steadily climb the ladder.

Your company does not have to handle tricky SEO problems alone. DashClicks helps to boost your brand's visibility by providing optimized content, regular performance audits, and technical SEO expertise. If you need help with your SEO, be sure to check out our services today to get started.

The DashClicks platform comes equipped with two fantastic applications that assist with offering brand new custom-made websites for both you and your clients. These websites automatically update with all of the information found in your business profile to present a unique personalized user experience.

This article explains the purpose of DashClicks' white label software and how you can use these tools in liaison to assist with your website development needs.

Here is the complete video -

The account used in the screenshots below is a demo account, so some of the features you see on the screen may differ from what you see when accessing your real account, especially for the first time.

So, first, let's start with the Sites App.

What Is the Sites App?

The Sites app is a tool that allows you to preview your custom website monitor and website analytics.

It utilizes a drag-and-drop editor to edit your website any time you want.

Who Has Access to the Sites App?

The Sites App is available to both the main account and the subaccount users. However, the process of purchasing a website to use in the Sites App differs depending on your account type.

The primary account users accessing the sites first would see a list of templates at the bottom of the screen. You can select a template and preview it.

After choosing a template, you'll see a purchase button on the top.

Once you successfully purchase and activate your new site, The Sites App will update to look like this.

Now, you can use every feature of the tool to browse your analytics and make edits at any time. A sub-account can also access the Sites App. However, when you log in for the first time, you will see a notification that looks something like this.

If you are looking for a new website, you can reach out to our support team, so we can get you set up for success.

The process of purchasing and activating a site for a sub-account is different and requires the use of our second app ā InstaSites.

What Is the InstaSites App?

The InstaSites App is one of DashClicks' premier prospecting tools, allowing you to instantly generate brand new websites for your clients. We currently have hundreds of templates created specifically for 200+ industries.

This app enables you to select templates, add a business contact record, and instantly generate a brand-new website with a single click. You can then share a link to the website automatically or manually with your potential client or sub-account for preview and purchase.

Who Has Access to the InstaSites App?

InstaSites is the main account exclusive application. Sub-accounts will never be able to access or see anything related to this InstaSites App on their dashboard.

How Are the Sites and InstaSites Apps Related?

The tools we utilize to build your main account agency website in the Sites App are the same tools we use to develop these websites here in InstaSites.

The importance of this relationship primarily applies to activating a new website for your sub-accounts, as alluded to earlier.

To activate a new website for a sub-account within their Sites App, you must first come to InstaSites and build your clients an InstaSite. Then you can go to the My InstaSites tab, locate the website, click the button next to it and click purchase in the drop-down menu.

You can then follow the checkout process to purchase this website for the sub-account. After your client agrees to buy the website, you can complete this process to help it activate within their account.

Once the purchase is complete, the new InstaSite built will appear for your client within their Sites App.

At this time, you would instruct the sub-account user to click on the Sites App, where they can view their new website.

The same monthly fees will apply to the subaccount website for hosting the SSL certificate and the drag-and-drop editor.

Be sure to discuss this with your client before making a purchase.

Here are some more support articles that will help you set up a website for your main account as well as sub-accounts -

Sites

• How to Activate a Website – Main Account
• How to Activate a Website – Sub-Account

InstaSites

• Building a Single InstaSite
• Editing Your Website
• Pricing for InstaSites
• Purchasing an InstaSite

"The key metric of whether you've succeeded is what fraction of your employees use that dashboard every day."

Keith Rabois

An SEO report serves two purposes. First, it helps your client know their position regarding keyword rankings, traffic, and revenue generation. Second, it boosts your branding. The first look at an SEO report speaks volumes about your agency's professionalism and brand.

Nobody likes to see a torrent of data on standard documents without any logo and your agency's branding. So, if you want to build trust and authority, send an SEO report that includes your agency's name, address, contact details, logo, and brand colors.

Usually, it takes an entire day to generate a powerful SEO report with a dedicated employee completely immersed in fetching data from dozens of channels. Apart from that, manual processes are also prone to errors.

You can effectively address all these problems and save valuable time and person-hours by using white label SEO reports. Imagine generating a detailed report using data from 70+ third-party channels and with all your branding stuff on every page using automated tools. What if you can generate this report with a single click of a button? Yes, using DashClicks' dashboard is that simple!

So, if you want your agency to stand out and save productive hours, white labeling your marketing dashboards is the best solution.

The power of white-labeling your marketing lies in scalable personalization.

This article discusses the best ways to leverage DashClicks' white label dashboard to streamline and automate your agency processes.

A Robust White-Labeled Reporting Software for Agencies

Marketing is no longer a cakewalk; you're pitted against hundreds of freelancers and independent agencies ready to trigger a price war in the market every day.

The only way to deal with such competition is to ride the value ladder and differentiate your agency from the pack.

"DashClicks makes everything a complete breeze to setup and optimize your marketing agency so you can focus all of your time on income-generating activities it is beyond genius and I have 0 experience in digital marketing and now I know plenty to begin my agency and start scaling up as much as I can thank DashClicks team. I am in the process of prospecting now.. with confidence! Only a matter of time until I get clients!"

Eileen Escobar, (Source Google Reviews.)

To build your trust and authority, you need years of experience, tools, and standard processes in your agency. Since most digital marketing is data-driven, automation tools give your agency an edge over others.

Manual processes are not only time-consuming but can also be tedious and inaccurate, as digging data from 50 different marketing channels and tools can be a nightmare for a human.

White-label tools for agencies eliminate most of your woes, especially when it's supported by world-class fulfillment services. It enables you to run your agency on an auto-pilot mode, where scaling becomes easier. It also highlights your agency's brand, so it stays top of mind.

DashClicks dashboard software and fulfillment services are created with a specific objective ā helping agencies grow, adding more clients, managing several projects with automation tools, and scaling.

Fulfillment services enable you to accept multiple projects without worrying about your agency's existing workforce.

"This software has enabled us to reach out to our clients and customers in the most professional way. We have achieved a certain high productivity value in engaging our customers towards our services. We can easily perform email marketing with efficient analytics and reporting systems. We can also gather user insights with custom-made surveys which allow us to be more interactive and fully professionally engaged with our user market. We can also easily view all the analytics or can even customize the tool according to our requirements."

eGlobal Client Center, (Source Google Reviews)

How to Use DashClicks White-Label Software?

DashClicks' white-label platform offers many features that are no less than a blessing for agencies. Watch the entire video for a walk-through of the platform.

Major Benefits of Using a White-Label Reporting Software

Here are some chief benefits of using white-label reporting software that is crucial to a marketing agency's success.

1. Saves Your Time Pulling Data to a Centralized Dashboard

DashClicks' marketing agency reporting software is the one source of all your data. So, it prevents a lot of back and forth and time wasted in digging up and arranging data to prepare reports.

It happens through dozens of pre-built widgets across all your apps that help pull and integrate your data into one unified client dashboard software.

See, how you can manage and view all your campaigns on a single dashboard in the following screenshot.

2. Helps Boost Your Brand Awareness

You cherish your brand and keep it near to your heart. You work hard to build a brand that your clients recognize, trust, and love. It makes investing in brand continuity mandatory, especially in the reports you share with your clients.

DashClicks allows you to customize everything and connect to numerous data sources with 65+ integrations and APIs. So, you generate reports that are highly useful, data-driven, and rich with your branding.

3. Gives You Full Control Over Your Reports

Apart from enabling you with 100% branding ability, white label analytics and reporting dashboards allow you to change the look and feel of your reports the way you want. These reports are irresistible because they enable you to deliver trailblazing insights and almost real-time visibility on your campaigns' key performance indicators.

4. Allows You to Scale Your Business

The custom reports generated by digital marketing analytics software make you stand out, adding value to your current offerings and allowing you to scale hassle-free.

So, by using with DashClicks platform, you can add and serve more and more clients and keep them happy. Moreover, it enables you to do scalable personalization, which is crucial.

5. Helps You Maintain Brand Consistency

The unmatched ability to infuse your branding in your reports, especially your logo, brand colors, palettes, domain name, lingo, headers & footers, and custom email, helps you maintain brand consistency throughout your communications with the client. It further strengthens your brand and enables you to make it top of mind.

6. Helps You Improve Customer Support

Since your DashClicks Dashboard can send real-time reports, it helps you offer top-notch customer support with everything at your clients' fingertips. So, if they wish to get the current status of the KPIs or see the impact of a tactic they have recently implemented, instant reports (InstaReports) are your go-to option.

7. Builds Custom Dashboards

Your DashClicks software enables you to build custom dashboards for SEO, SEM, social media, email, and paid campaign reports fetching data from numerous resources. A custom dashboard allows your client to see different kinds of campaigns you're handling for them. Custom dashboards can display the crucial KPIs and metrics on the home screen, saving you enormous time going deeper into the platform.

Access Your Dashboards With Single-Sign-on

The best thing about using DashClicks white-label software is that you can access it seamlessly with a Single Sign-On. You can have a bird's eye view of the campaigns, fetch and share reports and instantly know the KPIs. No need to re-authenticate for different clients or campaigns.

So, working with a centralized Dashboard makes your projects easy to manage. It also makes sending reports a pleasant experience.

The Dashboard app acts as the home page for your entire platform experience. What makes it unique is that you can fully customize the page according to your preferences, so you'll get the updates that matter most on the home page itself.

Final Words

With increasing competition and improved quality standards, agencies can't survive without using a robust reporting and analytics platform that can integrate with hundreds of third-party software applications and data sources.

DashClicks white label reporting software also helps you boost your brand and help you maintain brand consistency. It helps you improve your customer support and enables you to scale with a high degree of certainty. If you combine it with our fulfillment services, scaling would feel like a cakewalk, and you'll be able to focus more on business development and marketing.

SEO is critical for elevating your brand's online presence.

It determines how users discover your site, what types of audiences you'll attract, and where you rank among your competitors.

There are a variety of digital tools available to assist with elevating your SEO strategy. Among these is Google Search Console, a free service for monitoring your website and generating expert reports.

Learning how to take advantage of this gift from Google will help you climb the rankings. After reading this guide, you'll be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the top brands in your field online.

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a free service that helps brands and site owners diagnose technical SEO issues to improve search visibility.

You'll be able to watch your site performance 24/7, while also having the ability to instantly generate reports regarding keyword performance, technical SEO errors, and site security.

Anything that can have an impact on your domain's SEO value can be found by using Google's suite of tools. While it can take some time to get savvy with the service, it has zero barriers to entry making it a necessity for any online brand.

Why is Google Search Console Important for SEO?

Google Search Console is available for free as it actively helps Google to better understand the content found on your website.

While the company is not working to help your brand specifically, they do want to ensure that your content finds the ideal audience. This will help you generate more qualified leads while allowing Google to offer a superior search engine experience for users around the globe.

When you actively take advantage of Google Search Console, you’ll gain instant feedback for the following aspects of your site’s SEO:

• Checking SEO performance for chosen keywords (ranking, search volume, etc.)
• Diagnosing technical SEO issues like loading speeds or navigation errors
• Gathering reports on backlinks pointing to your domain
• Scanning for mobile website usability errors

Furthermore, you can actively help Google by creating your sitemap for navigation, or by submitting new crawl requests when completing major website changes.

You should be monitoring all of the above weekly or monthly to continuously improve your domain authority and avoid falling further down in the rankings. Without Search Console, you rely on automated, periodic check-ins that may inaccurately index your pages, while remaining oblivious to easily fixable site health errors.

How to Create a Google Search Console Account?

Creating your own Google Search Console account is a straightforward process. You can access the setup process on Google’s site here.

To get started, you will require:

• A Google Analytics account
• A domain with DNS verification
• Access to your domain name provider account (GoDaddy, Bluehost, Dreamhost, etc.)

Then, follow these steps:

Step – 1: Enter your website by either using the Domain property or the URL prefix. You’ll see examples of both auto-filled in either field.

Step - 2: It will then check to determine if site ownership has been verified by Google. Since we are creating a new account, you will see the domain ownership verification instructions next.

Step - 3: Choose a TXT or CNAME record type (the former is recommended). You'll then need to copy the contents of that record into your domain's DNS configuration on your domain name provider's site. Be sure to save those changes.

Step - 4: Head back to Google Search Console setup and click Verify.

With this, Google will be able to recognize you as the owner of the domain. After the verification is complete, you'll be able to access the Google Search Console tool at any time from the website or your Google Analytics account.

Note that you'll be identified as the Owner of the Search Console account. However, you can add Full Users and Restricted Users by adding one at:

Search Console > Settings > Users and Permissions > Add User

How to Use Google Search Console for SEO?

Once you reach your Google Search Console overview, you'll have access to a variety of powerful SEO tools and features. We recommend getting acquainted with one tool at a time so that you can eventually make full use of this incredible, free service.

Below, we’ll go through the service’s top features:

• Submitting a Sitemap
• Website Performance
• URL Inspection Tool
• Index Report
• Security Report
• Links Report
• Manual Actions

A. Submitting a Sitemap

A sitemap is a map of your website that you create manually to assist with the indexing process.

By default, Google's crawler will follow the links on your website and index the pages naturally. However, by submitting a sitemap, you can tell Google which pages to crawl and which to avoid for several reasons.

The necessity for a sitemap usually is determined by the website size. If you are using a basic website with just a few pages, the navigation is likely very simple allowing the Crawler to index the pages without issue. As your website size grows, especially if you begin to make use of internal linking and redirects, submitting a sitemap is considered best practice.

Your website's CMS likely has a future to create a sitemap for you automatically. This functionality is present on sites like WordPress or Wix. However, you can also create your sitemap file manually as you gain more experience.

You can find detailed instructions on how to set up your sitemap from Google here.

To submit the sitemap file:

1. Click on Property and select the appropriate website.
2. Under Index, click on Sitemaps.
3. Enter the sitemap URL into the required field. Then click Submit.

You can also delete and replace your sitemap at any time by revisiting this section.

B. Website Performance

Your Google Search Console account will feature a Performance tab that shows off key insights about your SEO performance in real-time.

Among these include total clicks, total impressions, clickthrough rates, and average ranking position based on all of your keyword rankings.

You can also filter this traffic data by the source (web, mobile) as well as by period. You can utilize this information to focus on particular periods of high or low clicks to diagnose your SEO strategy and make the necessary improvements.

The lower half of this tab allows you to gather more specific data for several key SEO areas.

1. Queries shows the phrases or keywords users are typing to find your website as a result. In some cases, the query might contain a keyword that matches your industry but shows an overall mismatch in search intent. Reviewing your queries will help you understand how you can pivot your content to better communicate your business offerings online.

2. Pages allows you to review the traffic by the individual web page. Because you are ranking each page for a specific keyword, you can review what queries people are using to find a specific page on your domain. Trends in your performance are direct indicators of the type of action necessary to improve your SEO for that page.

3. Countries will show user metrics based on where those visitors are around the globe. If you're making efforts to market to people in different countries, you can segment your data and monitor your performance in real time by location.

4. Devices offers similar features in that you can monitor user activity based on their chosen search device. This can include PCs, tablets, smartphones, and other technology.

Performance data is critical for any marketing channel. Use Google Search Console to monitor your website performance daily and adjust your strategy as necessary to pursue continuous improvements.

C. URL Inspection Tool

The URL Inspection Tool is a popular feature that allows site owners to diagnose a specific web page.

By entering a URL into the tool, you can gain access to a report of how a Google Crawler will view this your URL. It provides reports on two key areas including Index Coverage and AMP enhancements.

Index Coverage shows whether or not the page is crawlable and if it is currently indexed. It will also display any relevant indexing data such as whether or not this URL is included in the domain sitemap. If you are utilizing any advanced SEO techniques such as placing canonical tags on this URL, those will also appear in the report.

Likewise, any issues that are preventing this page from being indexed will appear here. You can take this actionable data and apply it to the URL so that normal indexing can resume and allow you to continue ranking.

Enhancements will first list out any notable issues with mobile browsing health. Google places a high priority on a smooth mobile experience, so you should use this data to speed things up and present your content more clearly.

You can also check in on any advanced SEO tactics like schema markup here to determine if you are implementing it correctly.

D. Index Report

The Index Report function works much like the Coverage tab in the URL inspection tool. However, instead of diagnosing one page, the Index Report shows the status of every URL found on your domain.

On the top level, this report will show which pages were indexed and which were not. You'll want to focus on the non-indexed pages and review the errors preventing the crawler from doing its job correctly. If Google cannot crawl the URL, it will not appear in search rankings nor will it recognize any SEO or content changes.

However, the report also shows more useful data as to how you can further improve pages even if they were able to be indexed. The crawler may technically be able to index the URL, but there are warning signs indicating that it may not fully understand your content and which audience it relates to.

Google provides a full list of its indexing errors as well as the actions you should take to eliminate the issue here.

E. Security Report

Unless you have security in order, you'll likely experience a hack at some point as a website owner. Even the top brands in the world face security issues that must be dealt with swiftly to protect the brand and its customers.

Google Search Console attempts to monitor and flag malicious activity by tracking actions taken on the website. The tool primarily scans for these three items:

• Hacked Content – Any unusual injections of content, back-end code, or fishy URLs pointing to untrustworthy sites
• Unknown/Unwanted Software – This applies to anything such as malware or malicious software that can trigger unwanted actions or phish for user information
• Social Engineering – Any content that deceptively coerces users into taking action is social engineering. New content may describe one thing, but lead users to download something else entirely like software or a virus

To protect users, a flag will prevent this page from being indexed and appearing in search results. You should run a security report to review the issue and take the suggested action to resolve the problem.

After you resolve the issue, or if there was an unusual misunderstanding that led to an incorrect flag, you can file a reconsideration review. Google will manually review the URL, but the process can take several weeks to complete.

Security issues are imperative to diagnose as you are held accountable. Even if you are the victim of hacking, it is your responsibility to provide a solution as soon as possible. Failure to do so can get you permanently marked by Google as an offender, making it all but impossible to rank your domain.

F. Links Report

Any time another domain links back to a page on your site, you acquire a backlink.

Backlinks provide powerful SEO benefits, particularly when they come from other high-ranking, reputable sources of information. Part of any successful SEO strategy is to deliver excellent content that's worthy of sharing across the web.

However, the inverse can occur when unreputable or malicious sites begin linking to your pages. In those scenarios, you want to know which sites are referring to your content, so that you can have control over which sites are trying to build a relationship with your domain.

The Links report will generate a list of every backlink pointing to your site. You can check out the top referral sources, see how much traffic you receive, and determine which pages get the most referral traffic.

You can use this data for positive results to try and earn more backlinks on other pages that are lagging in performance. Similarly, you'll want to continue supporting valuable pages with lots of backlinks to maximize the organic benefits that your hard work is providing.

For toxic backlinks, you'll now have a list of webmasters to contact. If that link is causing problems for your SEO efforts, you have the right to ask other site owners to remove the link. Google recommends doing this before attempting to take any further action.

If you're unable to get a result, you can use Google Search Console to submit a disavow request. You will need to collect any specific URLs or domains in a list to upload to this page here.

G. Manual Actions

Finally, a Google employee always can take manual action against your domain if they find any violations of their policies. All webmasters have a responsibility to ensure that every page adheres to a set of guidelines that are listed here.

Such actions that would fall under this category might include:

• Implementing deceptive, sneaky redirects
• Scraping high-ranking content from other URLs
• Spamming keywords in an attempt to trick crawlers
• Adding pages with no real content or discernible purpose

Many of these actions are exclusively exploitative, though it is possible to find yourself flagged for issues you did not intend to cause. For instance, using a google search scraper can help you gather relevant search data efficiently, but if not used carefully, it could potentially lead to unintended issues that violate Google’s guidelines.

In either case, you can find any notifications about Manual Actions within your Google Search Console account. As with the other features, you should find a description of the problem as well as suggested actions you should take to resolve the issue.

After you resolve the problem, you'll need to manually request a reviewal of the updated page. Be sure to explain the problem, why it occurred, and what you did to correct it and prevent it from occurring in the future.

Optimize Your Website SEO with DashClicks

Improving your website's SEO is possible thanks to an abundance of free tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. However, the process requires dedicated effort and knowledge of the services to obtain worthwhile results. As a site or business owner, that's not always a reality.

DashClicks provides simplified ways to improve and optimize your SEO. Our dedicated Analytics software allows users to track set numbers of keywords along with important snapshots from Search Console like daily traffic, clickthrough rate, search rankings, and much more.

If that's not enough, our dedicated SEO fulfillment team has the trained personnel and resources to ensure your domain gets the love and care it needs to perfect its SEO strategy.

Start with DashClicks today by signing up for your free account and discover a new way to optimize your SEO strategy.

Online marketing opportunities are expanding every day, offering business owners new platforms to advertize their products and services. However, the competition also seems to get tough as customers have multiple choices to opt from. So when they don't find their required product on your website, they quickly switch to your competitors. Moreover, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices help businesses organically market their products to customers. However, while SEO is necessary for attracting prospects, it is a slow process. To alter that, businesses today invest in PPC (Pay Per Click) tools to increase organic traffic on their websites by attracting the right crowd to generate revenue.

One PPC tool is the Google Ads campaign to increase your website traffic and generate revenue -

What Is Google Ads Campaign?

Google Ads campaign, formerly known as Google AdWords, is a pay-per-click (PPC) system to advertise your brand on the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) of Google. The primary aim of Google Ads is to attract the most relevant demographics and quality crowd to your website. The best part about using Google Ads campaigns is that it allows you to group similar promotions according to the keywords used together to create campaigns. You can run multiple campaigns at once for better revenue generation.

Image Source

How to Create Google Ads Campaign?

Here is how you can create a Google Ads campaign for your business -

Step #1 - Sign Up With Google Ads

Visit the Google Ads website to begin your campaign creation process. Set up an account by signing up if you are not already a member. While filling out the form during the setup, you will need to submit your financial information and banking credentials, as Google takes its fees with each click. If you do not want to get charged for ad spend, you can turn off the charging option after you complete your registration.

Image Source

Step #2 – Pick a Campaign Goal

Your campaign goal will be the results you want to achieve through your promotions. Every business will have a different aim. Moreover, if you have various products under your umbrella, you may have different goals in the campaigns to precisely target each product. These goals are tied to your Google Ads campaign and will work to reach the results you expect. You can choose one of the four choices of goals offered by Google –

• Receive more calls
• Get more website sales or signups
• Attract more clients to the physical location
• Get more brand awareness with video views

Step #3 - Fill in the Describe Your Businessā  Section

You will also need to fill a section called “Describe Your Business,” where you have to fill in the necessary information Google can use to create your ad and get the basic idea about your audience.

Step #4 - Choose Your Geographic Area

You will also need to select the places you want your ads to be promoted. You won't have to worry about this section if your business serves customers worldwide. However, if you want to promote your business in a particular geographical location, this section is helpful. This feature is an excellent option for local companies as they wouldn't have to spend a lot of money promoting their products and services in a location they do not even serve. Google will use this information to attract customers actually willing to purchase from your website. You will not have to spend on viewers who only visit your website but do not buy anything from you.

Step #5 - Pick Your Keywords

Next, you will have to select keywords that best describe your business from a list that Google suggests. Your choice will depend according to the type of searches you want your advertisements to pop up in. You can also use negative keywords and guide Google about what searches you do not want your ads to show. The critical thing to remember is that you will be competing with many other brands targeting the same audience and using similar keywords. You may want to be more specific with your keywords to ensure‌ a greater ROI.

Here are some examples of keywords -

A. Directed Keywords

These keywords are used for displaying your ads to targeted customers who are more likely to make a purchase. For instance, if you have a digital marketing agency, you can either choose keyword automationā  as your broad spectrum keyword or move to a more specific genre and use marketing keyword automationā  as your keyword. Although you will get more clicks from the first choice, the probability of a customer purchasing your product is higher in the second and is much more valuable than clicks.

Image Source

B. Negative Keywords

You can inform Google on which search results you do not want your ads to appear using negative keywords. For instance, if you sell outfits but not summer outfiits, you can use crazy party outfits, but not summer outfitsā  as your keyword.

Image Source

Step #6 - Create an Engaging Ad Copy

Ad copies are the critical component that drives your viewers to your website in the first place. You need to build a robust Google Ads campaign since you will be paying anyway, whether or not your viewers click on your promotions. You will get multiple clicks and are more likely to get conversions if your ad copies are unique, informative, and creative. Your ads should contain the three primary components - the headline, description, and the appropriate link to take your viewers to your website.

Here are more details about these ad content-

A. Headline

The headlines in the Google Ads Campaign are divided into three sections with thirty characters each. Hence, make sure you only use strong CTA words that compel the user to take a specific action. You can also use abbreviations and synonyms to reduce your character count. Create a headline that captivates your viewer's attention and relates to your brand at the same time.

B. Description

You get two descriptions in Google Ads Campaign after the headline. Each description is ninety characters each. You can use these areas to show your viewers how your product or service can provide results for their pain points and other information. You may need to change these descriptions based on their working efficiency. Alter these to make them profitable if they are not bringing in enough crowd.

C. Link

The destination URL you add to the ad campaign will take your viewers to your website. Make sure the URL you attach is correct, as it can negatively affect your brand image if the link does not take the users to the destined product they were looking for.

Step #7 - Establish Your Ad Budget

Many companies would begin their ad campaigns only to find a shocking bill at the end. One way to avoid this is by manually setting up bids for the clicks to establish the budget for your Google Ads Campaign. Remember that you want enough amount in your kitty to improve your visibility to your targets, but you also do not want to invest your entire funds in the campaign. By setting up an ad budget, your ads will stop displaying once the amount gets exhausted for the day. You can increase or decrease this budget according to the results you get from your campaign.

Step #8 - Recheck Your Details in the Budget and Review Section

Next, you should check all the details you filled in so far in the “Budget and Review” section of the Google Ads Campaign. The following are some of the things you should focus on-

• The daily and monthly ad budget
• Expected impressions you receive according to the set ad budget
• The number of expected clicks according to the impressions you receive for the ad campaign
• The targeted location for your Google Ads Campaign

Step #9 - Cross-Check Your Ad

Precaution is always better than cure! Similarly, it is best to check every little detail in your advertisement, like the copy, graphics, etc. Make sure there are no typos, misguiding words, and offensive media that will repel viewers. You should also check that the keywords used are appropriate and align with the campaign goal. Another thing to ensure is the website URL, which should be legitimate, functional, and correct. Your viewers may lose interest if they find themselves on an entirely different page than the one they anticipated.

Step #10 - Set Up Google Ads Campaign Billing

As mentioned above, Google automatically charges you for each click. To provide a seamless experience, they will ask you to fill in payment information during the setup process. You can change the payment settings later once you have completed all the steps to start your Google Ads Campaign.

Step #11- Submit Your Ad

The final step is to hit the submit button and watch your new ad campaign drive traffic, improve visibility, and increase conversions for your website. Remember to regularly check the efficiency of your ads. You can also improve them by adding more features, replacing keywords, and enhancing other components. Moreover, if you want to run additional ads in the same campaign, you can do that once you have submitted your first ad.

How to Cancel Google Ads Campaign?

Many companies promote their products and services over a period of time, like seasonal sales and festivals. Google allows you to remove single or multiple ads from your campaign in a few simple steps. If you want to cancel your Google Ads Campaign, here are the steps you need to follow –

Step #1: Log into your Google Ads Campaign account.

Step #2: Go to the menu on your left side and click ‘Campaigns.’

Step #3: Click on the campaign you wish to cancel.

Step #4: Click on the checkbox next to the campaign in focus.

Step #5: Click on the ‘Edit’ option in the drop-down menu.

Step #6: Select ‘Remove’ to cancel the campaign and ‘pause’ to keep it on hold.

Wrapping Up

Every thriving business only becomes successful when it understands its customers and offers them what they are looking for in the most effective form. The competition today has increased manifolds which may be a challenge for new and upcoming brands to prove themselves in front of their prospects. Deploying a strategy like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can only help you once your targeted customers notice you. Using Google Ads Campaign, you can present your brand every time your prospects search for a query related to your brand. Pay-per-click (PPC) tools are excellent in bringing in more organic traffic toward you. Moreover, the specificity you can use in finding the right viewers is so effective that your overall conversions-to-click ratio is much higher than other channels of reaching out to your consumers.

The human race is constantly evolving. The 20th century is referred to as the digital age, as computers and digital devices became prevalent in every sphere of life by the turn of the century.

The Emergence of Social Media and Apps Like TikTok

The 21st century saw the dawn of the social media age. People started spending most of their time on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat.

TikTok, formerly known as "Musical.ly," was launched in 2016. It indicated the dawn of yet another era characterized by the domination of small videos with an average length of 30 seconds or less. The human attention span was shrinking, and they loved to consume content in bite-sized chunks.

TikTok's short videos took the Internet by storm! Scrollable short videos are the newest trend on social media, and it is being followed everywhere, be it in entertainment, education, marketing, or media.

The trend grew so intense that YouTube, Instagram, and other popular social media channels soon launched their own short video versions, such as YouTube Shorts, Instagram & Facebook Reels, and "Explore" on Twitter.

Look how the short video trend is sweeping even Twitter, a professional and business platform -

Source

TikTok is rapidly growing with over a billion active users, yet it's still an unsaturated platform. What makes it even more lucrative for the marketers is that its impressions cost only $1-5 on average, which is one-tenth of the price Facebook charges.

TikTok is no longer a futuristic opportunity in paid media - it's already making waves.

According to Social Media Examiner, Gen Z falls asleep and wakes up to this platform.

Image Source

However, it's marred by a few challenges, including general ignorance about how the platform works. What should be the best way to leverage TikTok and optimize your social media presence on similar platforms such as Instagram & Facebook Reels, and YouTube Shorts?

That might be why most businesses haven't yet decided about flashing ads on TikTok.

Here are a few reasons most marketers aren’t yet ready to take the plunge:

• There is a general lack of understanding about the platform.
• The creative requirements of TikTok advertising are complex. Businesses are often confused about where to start.
• Even though TikTok’s user base comprises all customer segments and age groups, marketers often aren’t sure if their target audience is on TikTok. The next big challenge is to choose the appropriate advertising strategy.
• Don’t expect your Facebook ads playbook to work here. TikTok greatly differs from Facebook in terms of algorithms and user behavior.

This article discusses the most successful strategies and tips to acquire customers with TikTok ads -

The 3 FAQs About TikTok

Before we jump into the nitty gritty of designing ads for TikTok, let's understand the three basic facts about TikTok.

1. Why People Use TikTok?

Let's dig into the user behavior at TikTok. The prime reason people spend time on TikTok is for entertainment. These people fundamentally have a low buying intention.

The greatest asset of TikTok is its algorithm, so you get the best feed per your preferences recorded by the platform algorithm, increasing your dopamine.

It's the secret to why you get addicted to the platform and feel better every time you scroll through the feed. The secret recipe is the "For You" Page created by the platform that curates personalized videos, especially for you.

Image Source

People love the “For You” Page so much that they don’t allow anyone else to scroll through their feed and like the videos as it may disturb their algorithm.

Here are some fascinating stats and facts about TikTok –

• The average TikTok user opens the app about eight times a day, and the total usage time is over an hour because of its highly advanced algorithm that curates the feed, especially for the user.
• People of a diverse age range use the platform because of the breadth of content it offers. So, if you think it’s all about youngsters’ dancing videos, you’re making a huge mistake.
• The platform adds thousands of videos with educational tips and tutorials that everybody loves to consume to comedy, viral memes, and entertainment to catch your attention.

2. How to Use TikTok to Grow Your Business?

You can attract enormous top-of-the-funnel traffic using TikTok as a secondary advertising channel.

The best-paid strategy on TikTok –

• Create stunning, relatable short videos to get people to stop scrolling and look at your ads.
• Divert them to your website to nurture, track, re-target, and convert.

Pro Tip: Follow this two-way approach, and you’re bound to succeed on TikTok.

Who Can Use TikTok as a Primary Marketing Channel?

The following types of businesses are highly successful on TikTok. They use it as a primary marketing channel.

• Businesses selling visual products, especially those with universal appeal and shorter sales cycles.
• Businesses with Gen Z as the target audience.
• Products with an Average Order Value (AOV) between $25-150.
• Mobile apps and games.

Image Source

Pro Tip: Currently. These products are highly successful on TikTok in terms of ROI and conversion. However, as the platform keeps adding newer audiences, it's not limited to the above products.

3. What Differentiates You From Others on TikTok?

If there is something differentiating you from the crowd on TikTok, it's definitely creativity. Regular testing and a fast ad refresh rate of your organic and ad content are the keys to success.

How to Acquire Customers With TikTok Ads?

We have discussed the fundamentals of TikTok as a platform and a social media channel. Now, let's dive into the ad strategy to acquire customers on TikTok.

Here are a few tips you should implement to succeed -

1. Throw Away Your Conventional Ads Playbook

On TikTok, ads don't look like ads. To succeed, blend your ad with the light, entertaining posts on the platform. No severe and heavy selling stuff! According to the two-way strategy discussed above, your job is to divert the users to your website, where you can earnestly use your marketing funnel to convert.

Image Source

2. Make Use of Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing and similar tricks will pay you off many times over. When a person you follow who isn't a celebrity endorses or recommends a product, buying decisions are heavily impacted. What people don't want is blatant self-promotion.

Image Source

If you are creating videos, make sure they are engaging and authentic. If you don't have the skills or expertise to produce such videos, outsource creative production to creators. You can even leverage an AI TikTok Video Generator to quickly create engaging TikTok videos tailored to your marketing strategy, saving both time and effort in content production.

3. Be Creative With Your Ads

TikTok is a treasure house of creativity, so your ads should also reflect the same to feel native to the users. You need several resources to create those fantastic videos loved on the platform. The major prerequisites are as follows:

• An extensive collection of User-Generated Content
• Necessary equipment and video-making tools
• Custom Music

Image Source

Apart from that, you should also have the patience to handle endless ad rejections.

4. Increase Your Ad Refresh Rate

On a channel like TikTok, ad fatigue is a common phenomenon because of monotonicity and several other factors. The ad failure rate is relatively high; the only remedy is rapid testing and iteration. Your ad team should constantly create and launch new ad creatives every one or two weeks.

5. Focus on the Creative and Not on Targeting

TikTok is a relatively new platform compared to Facebook and Google Ads, so it doesn't offer advanced targeting and reporting features. So, targeting can't be your primary strategy on this platform. Instead, you should focus on your creatives. They should be designed for your target audience; leave the rest to the TikTok algorithms.

6. Focus On TikTok as a Separate Channel

TikTok is a content monster, consuming far too much content than other ad channels like Facebook. So, you should have the resources and funds to produce high volumes of channel-specific creatives as you require a lot of testing on TikTok.

The Minimum Daily Budget

Are you ready for the minimum ad spend?

Here is a formula to calculate this -

Weekly budget= Target CPA x 50

Here, 50 is the minimum weekly conversion threshold you need to optimize your TikTok ads.

Daily TikTok budget= Weekly budget/7

For example, if CPA is $30

Weekly budget=$30 x 50=$1500

Daily Budget=$1500/7=$214.2

So, if your CPA is $30, you must commit a minimum ad spend of $215 to start advertising on TikTok.

Pro Tip: Apart from that, learning and testing are crucial aspects of advertising on this platform. So, set aside around 30% of your marketing budget for testing.

TikTok Can Instantly Make You Go Viral

TikTok's exponential success depends primarily on the fact that it allows you to attract hundreds of thousands of views overnight. And you can do it even if you're a completely new account with no "followers" to capitalize on.

TikTok algorithms serve content based on user's interests. It's independent of the accounts they follow. Contrary to Instagram, your video views on TikTok aren't influenced by your follower count.

So, everything boils down to your content quality and not your follower count, the age of your account, or your popularity.

Image Source

How to Advertise on TikTok?

Here are a few random tips for creating organic and advertising content for TikTok. It will help you to create channel-specific content.

Random Tips to Succeed With Your Video Ads

• Use action and appealing audio in your video’s beginning to maximize engagement.
• Use an enticing caption (e.g., “This app can be a game changer! 🤯”).
• Stimulate your audience using an offbeat or provocative visual to create intrigue.
• Use storytelling by creating a cohesive narrative around your product, where the user can imagine himself stepping into the scene. Be authentic and tell believable stories.
• In the ad, explain the problems your product is meant to solve, like how an AI lyric video can help artists bring their music to life and engage fans visually. Be sure to share the steps they need to take to create their own video.

• Convey your message in the first three seconds. For a longer message, combine multiple 1-2 seconds videos from different camera angles and speeds.
• Use TikTok’s native publishing tools with numerous audiovisual effects. For example, you can try the following –
• Transition effects
• Background music
• Subtitles
• Robot voice narration
• Time warps
• Video reversals

Image Source

• Highlight discounts and offers.
• Use an appropriate CTA.
• Respond to comments in the comments section and use positive comments as social proof for potential customers.

Final Words

If you've successfully used Snapchat ads, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and Stories, TikTok is the next potential option. It's affordable and full of opportunities and promise. You can also repurpose assets from these channels and use them on TikTok to save time.

DashClicks' white label marketing dashboard will help you in analytics and allow you to use TikTok to achieve your marketing objectives. You can use our white label TikTok ads fulfillment services to attain constant engagement. As an agency, you can make handsome money utilizing white-label TikTok Ads reseller plans that start as low as $199/month.