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Standing Out in Cybersecurity: Strategic SEO, Advertising and Content Marketing – AccuraCast

In a market as crowded and fast-paced as cybersecurity, cutting through the noise and attracting attention is a constant challenge. Cyber companies looking to differentiate themselves can do so by strategically combining SEO, paid advertising, and content marketing to create a powerful presence. Together, these tactics position a brand as an industry leader, educate audiences, and build relationships that ultimately drive growth.
A well-crafted SEO strategy remains the backbone of digital visibility. Research shows that around 68% of online experiences start with a search engine, and in a field as competitive as cybersecurity, appearing at the top of search results can be the difference between gaining a client and losing them to a competitor.
Understanding keyword relevance in a B2B space requires a bit more precision than B2C because potential clients are often conducting technical research. Cyber companies can benefit from utilising long-tail keywords that match specific needs, such as “cybersecurity solutions for financial institutions” or “compliance monitoring tools for healthcare.” According to Ahrefs, keywords with low competition but high specificity are often more likely to drive qualified leads, particularly in niche areas. By targeting these, cyber companies can increase the chances of reaching high-value prospects with purchasing intent.
On-page optimisation is another critical component of SEO. This includes optimising page titles, meta descriptions, headers, and even the structure of the website to make it both user-friendly and search engine-friendly. For example, a clear, intuitive navigation structure helps both users and search engines understand your site better, which can positively affect your ranking. But the optimisation doesn’t stop there. For cyber companies, building trust is essential, and search engines are now considering user experience and site security as ranking factors. Google, for instance, prioritises sites with secure HTTPS encryption, meaning cyber companies absolutely need to ensure their sites are both safe and fast.
While SEO is a gradual process, paid advertising can provide instant visibility and help cyber companies gain traction quickly. Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads are often the top choices for B2B advertising, each with distinct advantages. Google Ads can capture demand directly from those actively searching for solutions, while LinkedIn Ads are better suited for targeting specific industries, job roles, and company sizes. 65% of B2B marketers report that LinkedIn has been their most successful social platform for paid ads.
To maximise the effectiveness of paid advertising, cyber companies should start with a clear understanding of who they want to reach and what their pain points are. For instance, if a company specialises in AI-powered threat detection, it could target CISOs and IT directors specifically with ads addressing AI-driven cybersecurity’s advantages. A well-defined audience and targeted message ensure the advertising spend isn’t wasted on individuals who aren’t decision-makers or have no immediate need for cybersecurity services.
Another essential element in paid campaigns is the landing page experience. A strong ad is only as good as the landing page it directs users to, and for cybersecurity, this page needs to be informative, trustworthy, and conversion-focused. Key components include clear messaging, proof points like case studies or client testimonials, and a prominent call-to-action that guides visitors toward contacting sales or booking a demo. Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) techniques, such as A/B testing different landing page elements, can significantly improve the return on ad spend by increasing the percentage of visitors who take the desired action.
Producing high-quality, insightful content allows cybersecurity brands to showcase their expertise and build trust with potential clients. Statistics suggest that 82% of B2B buyers review at least five pieces of content from a potential vendor before making a purchase decision. For a cybersecurity firm, this means having a content strategy that educates, informs, and reassures.
Effective content marketing should address both top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel stages. At the top of the funnel, blog posts, white papers, and thought leadership articles on topics like “emerging cybersecurity threats” or “how to prepare for GDPR audits” can attract visitors in the awareness stage. Cyber companies can use these pieces to draw attention to their unique expertise, helping to build a sense of authority and trust in the brand. Consistent blogging, for instance, has been shown to generate 67% more leads than companies that don’t engage in blogging, making it an essential part of a content strategy.
For leads that are closer to conversion, bottom-of-funnel content like case studies, detailed product guides, and webinars are invaluable. These provide prospective clients with in-depth information on how a company’s products or services work in real-life scenarios, which can ease any final hesitations. For example, a case study demonstrating how a company’s threat detection tool helped a similar client avoid a data breach would resonate well with prospects who are in the final stages of their decision-making process.
All three strategies – SEO, paid ads, and content marketing – are interconnected. Paid ads can boost the visibility of high-performing SEO content, while engaging content supports SEO and gives users more to interact with when they click through from ads. For cyber companies, integrating these approaches into a cohesive strategy allows for consistent visibility across multiple touchpoints, increasing the likelihood that a potential client will encounter and engage with the brand.
What can a cyber company do to put this into action?
While SEO, paid ads, and content marketing are powerful individually, they are strongest when integrated. With a clear strategy and ongoing optimisation, cybersecurity companies can carve out a unique space in a competitive field, building authority, attracting new leads, and, ultimately, driving growth. The cyber industry moves fast, but a well-executed digital marketing strategy ensures companies not only keep up but lead the way.

AccuraCast is an international B2B digital marketing agency. Our multilingual advertising, seo and social media marketing services are powered by data intelligence and cutting-edge technology. Find out how we can help.
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Agency take: Brand is now “the crucial fourth pillar” of a successful SEO strategy – Performance Marketing World

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by Cheryl Crossley, Head of PR, IDHL 31 October 2024
Google’s algorithms have always been ever-evolving and are notoriously shrouded in mystery. One of the few certainties is that such updates always bring about change for digital performance marketeers as we seek to achieve the very best search results for brands.
And while the latest updates were no exception to that, they also bring to the forefront how Brand’s role – encompassing PR as a crucial component to enhance reputation, visibility, authority and engagement – has been on an evolving journey for some time.
Over recent years, there has been a drive to integrate Brand into SEO strategies across the industry. It’s now at the point where it is starting to be seen as a crucial fourth pillar for SEO strategies, in my view. Put simply, an alignment of Brand and SEO strategies now enables brands to achieve better results.
Some brands which had perhaps previously put all their energy into the three traditionally core areas of SEO – technical performance, content and authority (link acquisition) – risk seeing performance growth stall without the adoption of an aligned digitally-focused Brand strategy. Channels underneath that Brand strategy – including PR, organic social media, video content and influencer marketing to name a few – now appear to often carry more weight when considering SEO because Google is increasingly expecting brands to demonstrate trust, authenticity and credibility to rank well.
Ultimately, the harder these aligned Brand and SEO-minded assets work for every brand – and by that I mean ensuring that they also reach the right target audiences with relevant, quality content which reflects brand values and messaging – then the far better success for Brand equity and awareness, and the greater the potential visibility improvements in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This wasn’t deemed as vital a few years ago and adoption of an aligned approach isn’t as widespread as it could be, hence why it’s important to really double down on it now as things continue to move at pace.
Trust and authority
It’s so important for brands to be viewed as authoritative voices in their fields. Building brand trust and authority through consistent messaging and PR efforts also enhances SEO by improving backlink profiles and domain authority. This area of the industry has been on a journey for some time and I’m never going to profess that backlinks are the answer in isolation; it always has to be quality content via PR – think of landing that one in-depth piece of content which talks directly to a target audience. That’s going to achieve far more than an output of 50 other pieces across random titles. And this helps to build that credibility Google now favours alongside the technical SEO pillars that have been established over the years.
Social synergy
While it may be the case that social media does not influence a brand’s SEO rankings directly at this point, it does play a role in brand exposure and traffic generation. Efforts to promote quality content through social channels can enhance brand awareness and drive referral traffic. This channel will no doubt play a more dominant role in the future for SEO, so it’s always good to be ahead. Some people are calling TikTok the new Google, so while the exact format Google will take ongoing is unknown, it’s not farfetched to suggest that the search engine will adapt to have more of a social feed style, with more video led content ongoing.
Keeping it local
With the rise of local search, brands can also benefit from prioritising local aligned SEO and Brand strategies, ensuring that their presence is optimised for local searches, which often tracks back to PR efforts in terms of regional media coverage. Often community engagement can play its part here too. Ensuring locality sits as part of the wider strategy will help to drive longevity for SEO results.
A combined approach to make data-driven decisions
Our PR and SEO teams work hand in hand at IDHL, and we are continually monitoring data analytics and performance of the brands we work with. While we emphasise the essential part that Brand plays in SEO strategies, having the data points that indicate impact has made sure we’ve been able to finetune workstreams over the years; ensuring Brand sits among the myriad of technical elements of SEO which are still vital to the strategy.
The last few weeks, since the latest Google algorithm changes, have also been about liaising with and educating clients since the alterations came into play; demonstrating the benefits they’ve already seen by integrating Brand as a key pillar.
Data and digital have to be paired with Brand teams across the industry and we need to be more confident as a sector in quantifying what this looks like and how to demonstrate its worth; otherwise brands run the risk of losing momentum on those all important search metrics that they’ve built up over recent years.
Quality reporting
For some time, we’ve recognised at IDHL that Brand awareness and reputation insights can and should feed into SEO reports. Yet this doesn’t seem to be industry-wide at the moment.
By working in the way we do, we’ve been able to showcase how brand search volumes and referral traffic can demonstrate Brand improvement as well as SEO for a multitude of brands. It’s also enabling us to optimise and accelerate growth for our clients via a fully-integrated approach.
In summary, I believe that performance marketeers who look to unite Brand and SEO strategies, and integrate broader reporting metrics, can help businesses adapt to and see SERP improvements from the recent algorithm updates.
As professionals in this space, we need to ensure brands we work with have the right attitude and agility to keep abreast of the fast changing landscape that SEO presents; giving them the technical capability and Brand knowledge to empower decisions that drive results to grow their business. That way, search algorithm changes will be seen as a way to unlock future growth, rather than challenge historic success.

If you’d like to speak to us about how IDHL can build and execute a combined Brand and SEO strategy based on data, get in touch.
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Decoding Ads Policy: Google’s Head of Ads Safety Talks Clicks and Compliance [Podcast] – Search Engine Journal

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The Importance Of First Party Data Activation [Podcast] – Search Engine Journal

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Successful Podcasters Share What Makes A Great Podcast Intro – Search Engine Journal

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Your podcast intro is foundational to its success. Here, podcasters share seven tips to build and engage your listening audience.
Podcast intros are an important quality of a successful podcast.
The right intro sets the podcast on a path to success.
These seven tips will help your podcast build an audience and retain it:
Let’s dig into each one and see how you can put it work for your podcast.
Erin Sparks of Edge of the Web Radio podcast says that there is a subtle but important value in the podcast intro when it comes to what he calls, “click browsing.”
Erin suggests that the intro functions like a hook – to grab the listener’s attention and immediately intrigue them.
He shares this insight:
“The audio ‘hook’ is important to podcast click browsing. Walking through a podcast app, people will click and listen to 7-10 seconds to hear if they ‘feel’ the show.
Much different than any other medium.”
Chris Brogan of Making the Brand podcast agrees that a podcast intro should be short.
He shares these insights on the qualities of a useful podcast intro:
“I’m a huge fan of brief. Once you hear it more than twice, it’s boring to everyone.
An intro should set the mental stage for what’s coming up.
Choose music and words that emulate the show.”
Jorge Hermida, Program Director at WMR.FM and Cannabis Radio Podcasts, observes that it’s important to give listeners a reason to stick around for the podcast but to do it in the shortest amount of time possible.
He says there is absolutely no time to waste within your podcast intro so it’s super important to literally make every second count.
He shares:
“Podcast listeners, just like anybody else, have a short attention span.
You have to give listeners a reason to listen to your content within the first 30 seconds.
Whether you create a cold opener or you run down what you’re going to be talking about on the program, you need to satisfy that listener immediately.
Create the intro as if every listener has a short attention span because in my professional experience, they will either stay and listen to your show, or they’ll drop off and find another show to listen to.”
Azeem Ahmad of the Azeem Digital SEO podcast shares that a good podcast intro will help maintain audience retention, as well as encourage engagement and loyalty.
This is an element of conversion theory, where even seemingly trivial elements can encourage or discourage the action we are looking for.
A classic example is a PPC arbitrage marketer who maximizes the number of sales for every click.
Affiliate PPC marketers succeed or go out of business fast depending on how well they convert every visitor.
This person discovered that detecting the mobile device and adding an “iPhone friendly” or “Android friendly” badge increased their conversion rates by a measurable rate.
The follow-up insight Azeem suggests is similar.
He said that a podcast intro has the same effect of encouraging a user to click and stay for the podcast or to leave.
And for that reason, it’s important to view the intro as a configurable asset that can be used to improve audience retention.
Azeem shares how a podcast intro is important for retention rates and engagement:
“People will get bored with repetition, and regardless of your podcast format – the idea is to engage the listener.
If you lose them within the first 30 seconds, you will very likely see a drop in retention rate and engaged listeners.”
Azeem next shares that a way to improve retention and engagement is to experiment with new intros and outros.
He shares this tip:
“As a host you should change this up sometimes.
Customizing the intro every time is basically an option to test for what works the best.
For example, you could test asking people to subscribe in the intro vs. the outro for a few episodes and see which drives more growth.”
Sparks offers useful information about what should be communicated in a podcast introduction.
He shares how the introduction should communicate the “What’s in it for me?” proposition to the listener.
Figuring out the tried-and-true principle of answering the question of “What’s in it for me?” is a great way to think about how to create a podcast intro that is useful for the listener.
So, it makes sense to apply that approach to podcast intros so that a listener is reminded of why they are there, which could be to become better at what they do, to catch up on industry news, to be entertained, etc.
Here is what Sparks shares:
“A good intro provides:
Jim Hedger, the co-host of the popular Webcology SEO podcast, suggests that the podcast intro helps to build a sense of familiarity and ownership of a space.
I’ve noticed that people tend to feel a sense of ownership in a website they enjoy, perhaps because the site might be a part of their self-identity as a baker, sportsperson, or whatever the topic is.
Ever walk into a favorite restaurant and immediately receive a feeling of comfort or anticipation?
It’s a sense of ownership of an experience, that this experience is yours and it’s yours yet again.
Hedger says that a podcast intro can have a similar effect, to bring a sense of comfort and anticipation that one feels in physical spaces that one feels loyal and connected to.
He observes:
“I once read that people aren’t loyal to restaurants as much as they are loyal to spaces they feel comfortable being in.
The same can be said for podcasts.
Like radio, podcasts are a theater of the mind. Your intro is the breath that first forms the space you, your guests, and the audience will create together.
Podcasts are incredibly intimate. I think you need to feel love for your audience and deeply respect the topic and your introduction is your first chance to establish that.
A host’s job is to help the audience develop a zone in which they and the host are virtually in the same place.”
Something to keep in mind is that any music used should be licensed.
There is an idea that it’s okay to use just a little bit of someone else’s music, but that might not be the case.
And if that’s the direction you are moving in, then it may be prudent to check with an attorney first.
The podcasting professionals consulted for this article all agree that it’s important to purchase a license for the right to any music used within a podcast.
Everyone agrees that it’s best to license royalty-free podcast intro music because this safeguards against copyright infringement claims.
Hermida shares:
“Our music is licensed, and most other podcasts most likely use some kind of licensed music from other licensed music providers for some original music that’s not prone to any copyright issues.
It doesn’t really matter where the music comes from, except that I would always recommend to make sure you use music that you are allowed to use and that license to use the music is documented and can be proven.”
Sparks also recommends paying for a license to use music:
“We have a number of music licenses that we have used over the years.
We highly recommend reviewing different sound repositories and utilizing them to create that sonic brand.
Places to license music are Envato Elements, Epidemic Sound, and the like.
We also have a continual license with our deep voice announcer, our voice over talent.
That should also be something to consider when you’re developing a long-term show.”
Brogan recommends:
“Epidemic Sound works fine. Buy a license. “
Always read the license when choosing a digital music asset in order to be aware of what you can and can’t do with the music and for how long you are entitled to use it.
At this point, it should be clear that a seemingly trivial thing like a podcast intro is actually part of the foundation of a successful podcast.
Clearly, the content of the podcast is the most important quality of a podcast.
Yet, as important as the content is, it’s the podcast intro that sets the stage and makes listeners feel they have arrived at their happy place, while also communicating what is in it for the listener, which encourages them to stick around for the content.
More Resources:
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Halloween 2024 Google Search Ranking Update 👻 – Search Engine Roundtable

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I am seeing a significant spike in chatter from within the SEO community about a possible Google Search ranking update and/or heavy volatility happening starting October 31st. Let’s call it the Halloween 2024 Google Search ranking update – because why not…
The chatter began yesterday late morning and has continued throughout the day. There are also some of the tracking tools picking this up, in fact, SimilarWeb spotted the volatility in a big way yesterday, showing its most heated day in over a month.
The chatter seemed to have cooled as of this morning and so did SimilarWeb. Most of the other tools picked up a small spike. Although, it seems more are now talking about it after 7am ET today.
I am suspecting there was some shift in the late morning and then it shifted back? It is hard to say for sure? What did you all see?
As a reminder, Google did tell us that an search update is coming soon. The last time we reported on an update was on October 23, 24 and 26 and 27th and before that, October 19th and 20th volatility and then on October 15th, October 10th and then before that on October 2nd which lasted a couple of days. The Google August 2024 core update started on August 15th and officially completed on September 3rd. But it was still super volatile the day after it completed and also weeks after it completed and it has not cooled.
We saw big signals on and around September 6th, September 10th or so and maybe around September 14th. We also saw movement around September 18th, last weekend and Septmeber 25th and September 28th or so.

SEO Chatter

Let’s start with the chatter in the past 24-hours from both WebmasterWorld and on this site:

It must be here already my traffic was down yesterday and is down hugely this morning. Let’s see if this is just a short term shakeup because if not it’s going to be ugly…
Oh, and as usual…I had one week where I had a normal level of new inquiries and then back to zero this week, not one new customer inquiry just spam.

After 13 hours of my Googleday I am seeing a total collapse across global, national and regional sites. Global sites are at 20% and regional at 30% … What have they done now?

There’s also a lot of volatility here. There were 4 days of huge drops, yesterday was a little better. Today there’s a lot of traffic, but curiously, it doesn’t match the AdSense data…
Usually when this happens to my sites, they announce the beginning of an update right after…

Seeing a 50% drop in traffic today.

18 hours and at 40%!

At this time of year I expect our travel-planning site’s traffic to drop off (week over week), because that’s been the seasonal pattern for 20+ years. And to be sure, our overall traffic is showing its usual post-summer decline, but our Google traffic has actually been up for the last several days. Caveat: I don’t expect Google’s burst of mild generosity to hold. (It never does.)

seeing about – 35 % today here in Germany, yesterday was already not the best, but today the traffic is coming in very slow

Google is starting to shuffle again. haha. I am sure they will punish us some more because of this GPT launch.

It’s a Thursday. Every damn Thursday or Friday, they do the shuffle. I don’t care anymore. I hope GPT sends me some traffic. I am broke. lol

OK, so early observation. I have as much traffic to my site today (7AM), as I would usually get till 12PM. It is a Friday and these tend to be slow. I don’t see any ranking change on Google. is it because of GPT? I have to delve deeper.

in Romania there are big problems on the organic traffic side of Google. Big Drop everywhere.. about -40-45%. We manage over 60 websites and not one has remained intact.

A sharp increase in Dsicover traffic today, back to where it was two weeks ago, just before the massive collapse. Does anyone else actually understand what Google is doing all this time? I just don’t see the point of all the changes and it looks more and more like Google has lost control of its algorithm.

Google Tracking Tools

SimilarWebm showed a massive spike yesterday, some of the other tools are showing a bit of a lift today/yesterday but it may have cooled a bit today. Maybe Google was testing something spooky yesterday morning/afternoon? Super hard to say…
SimilarWeb:

Accuranker:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Mozcast:

Wincher:

Cognitive SEO:

Semrush:
Mangools:

Algoroo:

Sistrix:

SERPstat:

Data For SEO:

SERPmetrics (not updated in a couple of week or so):

So what are you all seeing?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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This work by Search Engine Roundtable is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Creative Commons License and YouTube videos under YouTube’s ToS.

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