search engine optimization Archives

Why Search Engine Optimization Should Lead Your Marketing Strategy

April 10, 2020 · In: Marketing, Remote Work, Technology

Whether you create a personal brand on purpose or start a successful company by accident, you’re going to need to leverage marketing to grow and expand. Unless you’ve been house-bound before the current COVID-19 lockdown rules came into place, you’ll know that search engines are the key to success.

With their help, you can utilize SEO trends to rank highly on SERPs and boost sales and conversions. Plus, leads are likely to go through the roof, too. It all stems from Google and Co’s influence on the industry.

But, why are they at the top of the tree, and will their position ever be challenged?

Bias Is Low

The haters will point out that the success of search engines, Google especially, is down to biased algorithms. They run and control the internet, so they get to control what people see, including their branding and marketing efforts. Although it was once a popular theory, and there’s no doubt that it doesn’t hurt to incorporate them into your strategy, there is evidence. Google search bias is very low, according to Gotch SEO. The only potential sticking point in their report was that Google employed humans and that humans are inherently biased. Still, it’s not much of an argument for search engines rigging the market.

Image credit: Pexels – CC0 Licence

And Reputation Is High

A direct knock-on effect of the above is this – customers turn to them for answers. Search engines’ reputations are high, to the point shoppers check with them before making a purchase. There are several ways that this piece of knowledge should impact your advertising campaigns, but the two main ones are SERPs and reviews. Ranking on the first page of Google will instantly make you reputable, increasing the chances of conversions. Plus, quality reviews will reinforce the image that you want to convey, i.e., a business that is honest and reliable. To put it into perspective, there are 74,000 searches for reviews from car buyers every month.

The Competition Is Flailing

For the crown to slip from the heads of search engines, there has to be stiff competition. Social media platforms are the closest competitors, yet they have distinct disadvantages. One is that Google and Co. are using their history to consolidate success via billion-dollar budgets. More problematic for search engines’ rivals is the continued PR disasters. Facebook and Twitter have to deal with calls for web regulation regarding user content. Search engines, however, slip under the radar unscathed.

Image credit: Pexels – CC0 Licence

Content Will Always Be #1

What makes engine leaders and what will continue to do so for a long time is the fact that content is essential to marketing. While social media companies benefit from this, search engines exploit it more than any business because they give people the power to react in real-time. Yes, you may see an ad that you like on Instagram, yet you’ll use Bing or Google for the bulk of your research. Content only encourages browsers to use search engines more often, strengthening their position at the top.

The crown isn’t going anywhere yet. Will it one day? What do you think?

Featured image credit: Pexels – CC0 Licence

How to Monitor Your SEO

April 10, 2019 · In: Marketing, Technology

Though it may not seem very glamorous, carving out time on a weekly or monthly basis to monitor your SEO can help you shift and refocus your efforts drastically.

Considering that in 2017 Google changed its algorithm 13 times, it is critical to stay up to date on SEO trends so you’re not left behind.

Here are six easy steps to monitor your SEO, and stay on track with your marketing strategy.

Use Google Analytics & Search Console

Google Analytics and Search Console will allow you to begin tracking data for free, so take advantage. Google Analytics is extremely user-friendly and offers extensive tracking data and different options to report your traffic.

Understanding these tools will enable you to quickly spot trends on your website based on your target demographic, click through rate, and other important data that we’ll continue to discuss below.

Google Search Console will provide more extensive reports not found in Analytics, like your keyword queries.

Monitor your organic traffic

Your organic traffic is based upon the people who are finding you in a search engine by looking for your brand, offer, or product – and not by paid ads. Therefore, it’s important to know who’s visiting, where they’re visiting from, and how much they engage with your website.

Look at your data and study how many people are on your website, how long they stay, and what they’re searching for. All of these data points will help you analyze and adjust accordingly. Ask yourself, “what changes can I implement to be more visible and engage my audience longer?.”

Review your conversion rate

Organic traffic is critical, but once you’re past that milestone, your focus should be on selling.

Your conversions should not be limited to just selling, however. Depending on where you are in your business, your conversion rate could simply be having users take one designated call to action on your website. Maybe it’s taking the action to sign up for your email list, or following your directive to read your blog.

You won’t be able to monitor what you don’t measure, so setting up goals will allow you to see your conversion rate. On the GA or Google Analytics Dashboard, select Conversions > Goals > Overview, and set up goals just like the tab directs below.

Whether it be a destination, duration, or event goal, setting up these objectives will help you measure and define success.

Know your top pages for organic traffic

What pages are performing well? What pages does your target audience spend the most time on? Where is most of your traffic being directed? Take note, because these are the pages that are performing well.

But then, what pages are your lowest ranking pages, or exit pages? It’s critical to note at what point your audience is becoming disengaged, and thus leaves your website. If they’re becoming disinterested on your blog, be sure your calls to action are updated.

If your sales page isn’t converting, redefine your funnel. Knowing your highest and lowest ranking pages will help you celebrate your wins, but also retarget and reframe your losses.

Review your keywords

Using a free tool like SEMrush will help you stay on top of your keywords – because they can and will change over time, based upon what your audience is searching.

Are there words you would like to rank for but just haven’t yet? Then you can adjust your content marketing strategy. Try publishing blogs based on those keywords, or creating a free guide based on your audience’s search queries, and analyzing the results after a month of posting them.

Check your click through rate

Your click through rate is the percentage of people clicking your link once they see it rank in the search engine. You’ll want to revert back to Google Search Console, and here you’ll be able to view your total clicks, and the queries used to visit your website. Knowing your CTR, or click through rate, will help you understand once again how your target audience is finding you. But before you jump to changing all of your content, note that your titles or page descriptions can also have a high impact on your CTR.

Regardless of whether you’ve monitored your SEO for the first time after reading this article or if it’s your 100th time, stick with it. Continually monitoring your data and reevaluating your goals will set you up to continue ranking higher over time.

SEO For Bloggers: 10 Tips to Rank Higher on Google

March 10, 2019 · In: Marketing, Technology

In the late 2000s, early bloggers were quickly able to monetize their efforts.

Considering the popularity of blogging just a decade later, many entrepreneurs have struggled to manage an effective blogging strategy that actually attracts their target audience and generates revenue.

Though the early bloggers were able to make blogging a means to an end, today, blogging should really be considered a leg or an extension of your business marketing strategy.

Before you set out to become a lifestyle blogger, micro influencer, or develop your brand, consider these 10 proven tips to rank higher on Google so you can start bringing in more traffic that generates results.

Write blogs based on your keywords

Keywords are critical to your online success, so choosing keywords that will improve your ranking will help your blog become more readily accessible. Consider formulating blog content around your keywords, or creating articles based on questions your audience may have.

Make your content 400 + words

If engagement is your goal, then you can afford to write blogs in the 300-word count or less range to induce more comments, but that low of a word count isn’t going to cut it to rank online. Instead, really focus on writing content between 300-600 words to maintain a higher ranking.

Collect emails & offer a subscription

I can’t stress enough how important your email list is, so be sure to include options for your audience to subscribe or join your email list based on your blog. Consider sending emails when a new blog post is up and make sure you have an automation sequence enabled to collect them.

Make sure social sharing is on

Though most blogs aren’t going to go viral, if they’re helpful and relevant to your target audience, they’ll likely be shared. Ensure that the option to share your content on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest is enabled so your audience can continue marketing on your behalf.

Use links to reference

Reference links, or more commonly referred to as backlinks, will also help improve your ranking over time. Though they may not give you an immediate boost, backlinks are typically seen as blogging etiquette. Over time, using backlinks as your blog becomes established may lead to more bloggers linking back to you, which will definitely boost your ranking.

Optimize your images

First things first: large image files, though they may seem quality, can actually significantly slow down your loading speed. Unfortunately, this can lead to more people leaving your website, rather than staying to read and share your blog. Consider using quality images with a compressed format, like a JPG file.

Also, naming your image files is a great way to incorporate keywords. Though you’ll want to be sure to stay true to naming your description in a way that actually defines the image, considering the Americans with Disabilities Act does audit websites to ensure they’re accurately depicted for the blind, you can use images based on your keywords and name them accordingly.

Use keywords in text

And more on keywords. Be careful not to over optimize your website. Keep them relevant to your content, but the more you blog about topics that are relevant to the words your audience is searching for, the higher you’ll rank.

Use a call to action to engage your audience to comment or subscribe

You need a CTA, or call to action, for just about everything on your website and your blog is no exception. Having a call to action will encourage your readers to take action and engage with your blog. Want comments? Ask your readers to drop a comment on what they think. Need shares? Tell them to share your blog post on Facebook messenger with someone they think it’d help. You get the idea.

Improve your meta descriptions

Your meta description summarizes your page content, so make your characters count. Your meta description is the short and sweet summary your readers will see if they find you via a search engine that will determine whether or not they take the click bait. Take this opportunity to draw them in…and don’t forget your keywords.

Optimize your URL

Your URL description can also affect your ranking. Make it relevant to your content and short enough read so that you’re easy to find online.

How to Pick Winning Keywords

January 22, 2019 · In: Marketing, Technology

When it comes to your search engine ranking, keywords can make or break your performance. As a result, the growth of your online status hinges on your success with keywords.

Finding winning keywords doesn’t have to be as challenging as it may seem. If you think about it, all keywords consist of are the terms and queries people enter into the search engine.

No one knows your business or brand better than you. Therefore, you have an edge and advantage that no one else online can compete with.

You’ve already done the leg work in developing your brand. Now all you have to do is translate your brand into the phrases you and I type in every single day on Google.

Here is an easy-to-implement strategy to help you pick keywords that will get you ready to win your SEO ranking every single time.

Make a list of relevant and related topics to your business.

What are your primary objectives as a company or brand? Grab a clean sheet of paper or an empty spreadsheet, and start jotting down words and phrases that come to mind when describing your business. Consider terms that you use in pitching your business to others. What do you say? You can also consider what you are most likely to blog about.

What common themes continue to emerge? As you notice trends, begin to use concise language and organize your queries into topics, grouping similar ideas together. Then begin to refine the language you use.

Know your target audience, and think like them.

Now that you have a frame of reference, begin to think like your buyer persona would while looking for you online. If your ideal client was looking for you online, what would they be searching for? Knowing your audience and the target you want to reach can further refine the process. If you haven’t yet developed a buyer persona, consider asking close friends and relatives what terms they would use to search for your product or service, and take note of any trends.

Develop a list of potential keywords.

With general topics and queries in mind, it’s time to start generating a list. Begin to jot down 15-20 words that you can begin testing to see what potential leads may be generated for your business.

Don’t rule out long tail keywords.

Long tail keywords can consist of queries any more than three words, and also include phrases. Though their search volume may not be as high as shorter words, the traffic generated from long tail keywords is significantly more relevant.

Use low competition keywords.

Low competition keywords are considered by some to be a type of long tail keywords, as they are more specific than general searches. Compare the query “marketing” to “digital marketing strategies”. Marketing is a broad enough term that will generate more traffic, but digital marketing strategies will reach a niche market that is more closely related to a type of company.

Know your competition.

It’s important to know what your competitors are using on their websites. Look at their meta tags and gauge keywords off of their descriptions. You can use similar ones or some of the same queries to boost your traffic. Also, be mindful that your competitors may do the same to you, so it is important to ensure you are monitoring them to see if adjustments must be made on your end as well.

Consider using negative keywords.

Negative keywords are a factor to consider when advertising with a search engine. Because ads typically charge based on the number of clicks on your ads, it is important to generate the right kind of traffic to bring in quality leads. For instance, let’s say you’re a digital marketing agency that specializes in WordPress plugins.

Your ad may focus on web development plugins for your site, and as a result, you may draw in traffic from prospects that use other web development platforms. If you want to target WordPress users only, you could use “Squarespace” or “Wix” as negative keywords.

Review and analyze your performance.

Review, review, and review. Monitor your analytics and any ad campaigns you generate to monitor the words and phrases that perform well. The words that do lead to more clicks are ones you want to continue to incorporate in your web descriptions and future ads.

Take advantage of your keywords, and be mindful to incorporate them across your social networks, blogs, and content. Your keywords will only help distinguish your digital footprint to lead your dream clients directly to you.

Easy SEO Tips to Generate More Traffic

January 13, 2019 · In: Marketing, Technology

SEO is a popular, marketing buzzword that still confuses clients (and my parents.)

Simply put, SEO stands for “search engine optimization” which is a more technical way of describing who has the most popular content on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

And even though you probably didn’t care about sitting at the popular table in high school, you should care about having the most popular website when it comes to search.

According to Search Engine Land, 97 percent of people conduct at least one search every day, but only 69 percent log on to social media every day. So if you want to be profitable, it may not hurt to be popular, at least in this circumstance. Here are a few quick strategies you can implement on your site now.

Add meta titles.

A meta title is just a snippet of what your audience is going to find on your website. Instead of writing an entire paragraph about what you do, a meta title communicates the short and sweet version of what your audience will find on your website. Think of it as clickbait. Here’s an example:

All you’ve got to do is go in the back end of your site and update your descriptions and make sure you add your keywords. If you want to check and see how you’re measuring up with your keywords and ranking, use a free tool like Google Trends.

Update and optimize your URL Titles.

The titles of your web pages matter. To simplify the process, consider these three guidelines when choosing your URL names.

Don’t make them too long. Just keep your titles relevant to your content, and present them in the most precise way possible.

Use Keywords. This is a great and easy way to incorporate your keywords so you rank higher as well.

Consider how your content will be shared on social media. This is the biggest reason to follow the other two tidbits above. Aside from your email list, it’s pretty likely that social media will be where you’re generating the most traffic for your website. So read through your URL titles through the lens of your audience.

Check your site speed.

Google has yet another free tool to help with your site speed. Simply enter your URL, and see how quickly it is loading. If your score is lower, just compress the size of your images on your website. That action alone will go along way.

Name your web content.

Naming all of your photos, blog content, and video content in accordance with the keywords your target audience is searching will also make a huge difference. Search engines are smart, and this detail alone will continue to set you apart to tear through your competition.

Secure high-quality backlinks.

Don’t go rogue, but make sure you have backlinks from relevant websites that are also regularly producing both high quality and consistent content. Whether it may be sponsors for your business, blogs similar to yours, or links featured in your blog content, backlinks go a long way.

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