TLDR

The loss of cookies may have an impact on SEO...

The shift from cookie-based tracking is a reaction to growing public privacy concerns. This investigation follows data breaches and controversies that have recently afflicted Silicon Valley behemoths like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, and others. The topic of how search marketers and PPC experts can be ready for a cookie-less web has received a lot of attention. But there is still a crucial question: How will move away from cookies affect SEO? In this article, we'll examine this transformation from the perspectives of Individualization of the SERPs, First-party data's significance, Google Search Console's function, Transactional content vs. information content, and Measurement. Let's begin by discussing what a cookie is and the first purposes for why marketers use them.

How Do Cookies Work?

When you visit a website, a cookie is a little text file saved on your computer. Your preferences and other data are stored there. From the viewpoint of the user, cookies make websites work more effectively. They perform functions like saving the products we add to our shopping carts and remembering passwords.

On the brand side, they assist us with a better understanding of how users interact with various website features so that we can enhance the user experience for incoming visitors. However, cookies also enable advertisers to track users on the web for far longer and larger periods of time than those users may be aware of. These are the "bad" cookies that have raised concerns among the general audience.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other comparable legislation seek to inform consumers about the use of cookies on websites, particularly those that might be seen to be "bad."Additionally, this legislation aims to provide customers more control over how companies utilize their data to enhance user experience, sell to third parties, or use for internal marketing.


Why Do Businesses Utilize Cookies?

Cookies can perform beneficial things like saving your login information for subsequent visits, presenting personalized discount vouchers (like in cart abandonment emails! ), and surface recommended content in addition to saving the goods in your shopping basket. Cookies, for instance, can provide "Products you would enjoy..." and "Articles you might be interested in...". Cookies are also used to keep track of what kinds of cookies (if any) a user has chosen to allow to be set in their browser, which is an absurd use of logic.

The way each brand uses cookies will ultimately determine whether they are good or terrible. When a website sets a cookie, it tracks your online activity and displays material from websites you've previously visited. For instance, if we visit Amazon in search of shoes but decide not to make a purchase, a cookie is dropped and we will see Amazon adverts while we continue to browse. This can serve as a good prompt to go back and pick up the pair we liked, or it might just be an annoyance.


The Value of First-Party Data

One significant shift in the cookie-less future is that marketers will increasingly need to use first-party data that they get through their websites, apps, or other services as less third-party data will be used to fuel targeting. (On the other hand, third-party data is gathered by an outside provider for marketing purposes.)

Unfortunately, acquiring reliable first-party data presents many difficulties for organizations, including issues with accuracy, privacy, and expense. Real-time personalization solutions can assist in capturing and activating more pertinent data about certain clients through their website usage. Naturally, you can produce the material they require based on their requirements and your first-party data once you know who they are.

Transactional vs. Informational Content

In this cookie-less environment, another change we'll observe is a greater emphasis on content that engages consumers at every level. The good news is that this is a permission-based strategy for attracting customers to your goods and services. The main goal of marketing is to establish connections. Through relevant information that is useful, interesting, engaging, and educational, you may build relationships in the most beautiful and meaningful ways possible.

Understanding customer intent gives you the information and hints you need to target the proper audience with your content. By offering consumers what they want when they want it and meeting their informational demand, focusing on the intent of search keywords can lead to greater click-through rates, conversions, etc. For illustration, suppose we published How to Create a three-tier blog strategy to increase revenue, as a gated white paper. To download it, about 100 people complete the form. But after our new business team starts calling, they learn that only two of the leads were legitimate. What exactly was the issue here?

The problem is that this piece was primarily intended to instruct SEO experts on how to conduct an audit, which is instructional material, or content that instructs or amuses. It wasn't transactional content, which instead emphasizes what a brand is offering and its advantages while also demonstrating how its goods and services may benefit readers. If we produced an article with the transactional goal of The Top 10 Tools for Monitoring the Success of your Website, it might receive less attention but produce higher quality leads. It caters to businesses or industry experts looking for SEO services.

This is exactly what we need to do, they would exclaim after reading the white paper. But we need assistance, so we will get in touch with this business to learn more about their auditing services. This is but one illustration of the requirement to specify intent prior to producing material. Hocalwire produces reports that help with planning for advertising and sales initiatives.


Structured Data as a Bonus

It's time to start using structured data once you've got the intent right and have some of your content rankings. Structured data can increase the visibility of your website in rich results, increase clicks and impressions, and boost sales and income. The content is rendered according to the target device via a headless CMS. Using a single code base and Hocalwire, serving dynamic content is simple.


Measurement

Measurement will be crucial in a world without cookies as well. We must track offline transactions, link those purchases to online experiences, and demonstrate the value of those purchases. In order to determine whether a user visited an online store after reading your material, you must track people who read your content and then seek for them at the conversion point. Make sure you are tracking, measuring, and attributing content effectively to increase conversions by working with your analytics team.

Brands are using analytics and other server-side tools more frequently. Web performance and interaction can generally be measured more accurately using server-side analytics. Users should also be made aware of how they are being tracked at the same time. Tech firms are also releasing tools to assist brands in navigating the cookie-free future and safeguarding customer privacy. For privacy protections, Microsoft, for example, has introduced Parakeet. In the meanwhile, Bing API offers private search capabilities that are designed to protect customer data privacy and allay many of the worries advertisers have about data. Along with Apple IDFA, this list also contains Google Chrome's Privacy Sandbox. To improve SEO rankings and direct organic traffic, Hocalwire CMS features SEO Keywords, Meta Data, ALT Text, and Sitemap structures built in.


Conclusion

It will be more challenging to track a customer across digital experiences to fully understand their wants, behaviors, and purpose as search engines move away from third-party cookies. However, I believe that measurement will help brands better understand what customers want and that content is the new cookie. Consequently, companies will be able to maximize ROI by using content and measurement to make connections between all phases of the disjointed user journey and offer a better user and content experience. Hocalwire CMS has excellent configuration and automation to direct traffic from multiple sources to your website. You can exponentially increase your traffic with the help of Google Analytics and possible Hocalwire options. Book a Demo to learn about the limitless possibilities of Hocalwire CMS.