Northwoods Digital

09/03/2026

Sixty-eight percent of Google searches now end without a click. But losing direct click-through traffic doesn't mean losing conversions—it means changing how you drive visibility and how you measure what works.

In this episode of Around the Campfire, we explore zero-click marketing: what's causing the shift, where your audience is finding you, and how to build an effective strategy in this new search landscape.

We also walk through the rise of AI overviews and search engine results pages (SERPs) that keep users on-platform, the growing importance of third-party channels like LinkedIn, Reddit, and YouTube, and how brand impressions drive downstream conversions in ways you can't directly measure.

Check out the latest podcast. 👇

08/31/2026

With the ADA Title II web accessibility compliance deadline now pushed to April 2027, organizations that receive federal funding, schools, universities, and nonprofits included, have extra time to remediate thousands of PDFs and other digital documents. But many still don't know where to start.

In this clip from our Around the Campfire podcast, we break down the first steps: inventorying your files, deciding what can be archived versus what must be remediated, and understanding the gray areas still being worked out in the ruling.

Check out the full podcast for more on the DOJ compliance requirements and digital document accessibility. 👇

08/28/2026

Our team took a little break from all things digital last week for an end-of-summer cookout. Special thanks to our grillmasters and to everyone who showed up to enjoy some delicious food, good conversation, and a fun afternoon! 🍔🌭🔥

08/26/2026

Maximize your SEO efforts by understanding when to target short tail vs. long tail keywords.

Broad keywords get the volume. Long tail keywords get the conversions. The real strategy? Start with long tail for quick wins and early authority, then layer in broader reach as your domain grows.

Alex Boston, SEO and content lead at Northwoods, explains when to use each and how they work together.

08/25/2026

Enrollment in America's colleges and universities is shrinking, making competition for new students fierce. Now more than ever, schools need to reach prospective students where they live: online.

A well-considered digital marketing strategy – one that reaches new student markets – can make all the difference in recruitment. Here are key trends that higher ed marketers should consider:

- Having a presence in AI search
- Influencer marketing
- Simplicity & authenticity
- Short-form video & YouTube advertising
- Repurposing content & multi-channel marketing

Read the full article at https://nwsdigital.me/3dX35kb

Enrollment in America's colleges and universities is shrinking, making competition for new students fierce. Now more than ever, schools need to reach prospective students where they live: online. Here are key trends that higher education marketers should consider when developing a digital strategy.

08/20/2026

You installed a consent management platform (CMP) and put up a cookie banner, so you're covered, right? Not necessarily. Plaintiff law firms are actively sending demand letters to organizations whose CMPs claim to honor "reject" but keep sending data to Google, Meta, and other third parties anyway.

Case in point: we ran a live audit on a major professional sports website and found that only 14 of 34 tracking vendors respected consent, with 13 vendors ignoring the global privacy control entirely. Compare that to 3M, which came back 100% compliant with zero tracking before consent or after opt-out.

Same type of banner. Very different results.

In the full podcast, "Is Your Cookie Banner Actually Working? How to Audit Your CMP", analytics expert Fred Pike joins host and Northwoods CEO Patrick Bieser to walk through the CMP auditing process. They also share why manual testing is nearly impossible to get right, and how leaks sneak in through tags, third-party tools, and forgotten scripts long after your CMP is "installed."

🎧 Catch the complete Around the Campfire podcast episode on our YouTube channel or on our website!

08/17/2026

It’s worth separating redesign goals from general website goals before you start planning.

Why?

Site goals are the ongoing metrics. Conversions, traffic, leads, whatever you're always working toward. 📈

Redesign goals are specific to the project. IE: Let's simplify the navigation, cut the articles from ten years ago, and clean up content so people can find what's actually relevant.

Both are valid. They just get measured differently. So, if you blur them, a redesign that did exactly what you wanted can look like it underperformed.

The other thing... pull your data before you launch.

Depending on how you're tracking and what you're changing, you can lose information the second the new site goes live. Keep track of the data pulled and the exact date range. Then match that when you pull post-launch data to account for seasonality.

Give the first few weeks some breathing room. Indexing, redirects, and user confusion all skew that window. Wait for it to settle before you read anything into the numbers.

For more tips on UI/UX, SEO, PPC, Analytics, and all things Digital Marketing - follow our page!

08/13/2026

Is your website collecting data legally?

Cookie banners and CMPs are supposed to keep you compliant, but implementing one without understanding your legal exposure first is like buying a lock without knowing what you're protecting.

Save the date on Thursday, September 17 for "CMPs, Cookies, and Compliance: What Legal and Technical Teams Need to Know about Consent Management," presented in partnership with Godfrey & Kahn.

Godfrey & Kahn's Zach Willenbrink will cover the legal risks of getting CMP implementation wrong under GDPR, CCPA, and other state privacy laws. Then Northwoods’ data analytics expert Fred Pike will walk through how to identify and mitigate those risks, and how to stay compliant moving forward.

Learn more and register >> https://nwsdigital.me/4wJDE91.

Your website is collecting data. But is it doing so legally?

08/11/2026

68% of all Google queries now end without a click. But zero-click doesn't mean zero conversions! Higher-funnel impressions across search, social, and AI are driving bottom-of-funnel clicks and revenue.

Here's where to start with zero-click marketing and how to position your brand for the future of search: https://nwsdigital.me/4fSR4se

Zero-click searches hit 68% in 2026. Learn why clicks are declining and get five strategies to build brand trust with search, social, and AI tools.

08/10/2026

A single design element that looks clickable, but isn't, can quietly derail a visitor's entire experience on your site. Users don't always say what's wrong; they just get frustrated and leave.

Katelyn Goerke, Northwoods' UX research lead, shares a real example from a non-profit website: a small decorative line that created friction on the organization's giving page. Removing that one element cleared up confusion, and shows how small, data-backed design fixes can meaningfully improve user experience site-wide.