4 Quick Tips to Improve Content (Part 1)

/by

With so many content aiming at your target audience, how are you sure that they are still following your brand? People can just opt to browse other websites. Perhaps, they can just read the latest gossip. Play on their mobile apps. Stream the popular movies on Netflix. The possibilities are endless. So, here are quick tips to improve the content you publish to the world.

person typing on laptop computer

  1. Mix and match.
  • When you produce a blog with all texts, ain’t that utterly boring? Sticking to only one type of content simply would not work. Your web visitors won’t even try to attempt reading it the moment a huge chunk of text greets them. Same is true with using videos only. A video presentation will be incomplete without the appropriate video description.
  • If you want your blog posts to improve, you have to practice mixing and matching. Mix texts with a video summary or add visual guides to your lengthy texts. Try to experiment what works and what does not.
  • Don’t limit yourself with only thinking of the type of content, but also think of the actual content too! What can you post to add variety? You can create a fun quiz on one post and you can include voucher codes on another blog post.
  1. Present it in a new way.
  • The thing with digital media is it does not follow the traditional form. You can present your content in another form to offer a fresh take on a classic topic.
  • For instance, you can show the end result immediately. When you are baking a cake, you inform your audience that this is the final product. In order to attain this, you must follow these steps. You break free from the usual exposition. The audience does not need to follow a long list of instructions just to see the final result.
  • You helped them save time. Remember that writing a blog is not like writing a book. You don’t need to fill hundreds of pages so don’t prolong. Blog right away and show your readers how you quickly do things.
  1. Don’t be careless.
  • Just because blogging is different from traditional writing, it does not mean you shouldn’t follow certain rules. Dealing with things haphazardly is not the correct way. Whether you are showcasing a video tutorial or you are selling a product, it is still important to edit and test how it will turn out.

Related: What Makes a Product Page Impressive?

  • Utilize the preview option before deciding to publish your post. Test the product before you send it out to your customers. Do a test run before presenting before showing it to your actual audience. Bottom line is you need to evaluate and test before you present it to the world.
  • Check even most trivial features like the font style, the color, the size, the word choices, and so on. Find out how your audience would react to the content you shared.
  1. Add your own personality.
  • With so many things out there, you can’t avoid having similar content. You can’t avoid targeting the same age group. The good news is that you can always style it the way you want your content to be.
  • For starters, you can create a mood board. From there, you can decide on what colors you want to feature, you can choose your main focal point. You can freely add your own twist to a topic that’s already been presented a thousand times.

SEO During the Holiday Season (Part 1)

/by

Every year, everyone looks forward to the holidays. It is the perfect time to take advantage on the cheap prices and bulk discounts available online. Almost every website has its own gimmick for the shopping season.

gift boxes

With that being said, how are you sure that your website is ready for the swarm of people eager to shop early for the holidays? In this post, I will discuss the in-depth planning. In the next post, I will elaborate on the technical side of things. So, let’s begin.

Stage 1: The Preparation

  • The planning should start before the actual holiday season. You have to remember that SEO strategies won’t immediately take effect. So, it is a must to plan ahead.
  • Businesses get up to 50% of their revenues during this season, making the preparation part is crucial for its future success.
  • During planning, what you can do is to analyze and audit your website’s current content. Find ways to create opportunities before the Christmas season. Think of new content or update published articles 6 months prior to the peak season.

Related: 5 Infallible Principles Guaranteed to Boost Website Sales

  • You can’t expect your website to relevant during the Christmas season when you don’t have any Christmas related post. Start posting gift guides or Christmas gift suggestions before the actual holiday. That way, you will Google can detect your Christmas keywords and rank your website higher during the upcoming holidays.
  • If you do not create blog posts on different Christmas topics, then, you won’t be able to fulfill your user’s intent. Thus, search engines won’t rank the website when the time comes. So, always prepare a content calendar. Prepare the various concepts for the different occasions.
  • Start designing the Christmas themed banners and experiment on what would people like to buy this year. Conduct a survey and ask questions in order to create a solid strategy. Always try to approach every occasion in a very holistic manner.

Related: What Makes a Product Page Impressive?

  • When you are trying to decide what products or blog posts to include, remember the products that did well the previous year. Begin to thoroughly analyze your performance the preceding year and know the following:
    • What were the bestselling products?
    • How did people discover your website?
    • What were people searching that lead them to your website?
    • How did your landing pages help web visitors?
    • Was it able to successfully convert visitors to customers?

Related: How to Make a Great Landing Page?

  • It’s a good idea to start optimizing your keywords. Slowly introduce Christmas related posts prior to the busy season. This way, you are able to appear on SERPs early on. People get to see your website and you get to enjoy increased web traffic and sales.
  • Also, part of preparing is listening. Go on social media and listen to your audience. What gets the most views? This can give you a rough idea on what ideas to elaborates and what products to create.
  • Through social listening, you will also be aware of new trends, new business opportunities, and new competitors as well. You have time to reconstruct your plan and solidify your brand among your target market.

Related: How to Use Social Media in Boosting Brand Advocacy

7 Unnecessary Spending of Money on SEO

/by

Among all the things you need for your website, it is SEO that you will have to spend more time and money. You see, success in SEO takes quite a long period of time.

person holding money

Image courtesy: https://unsplash.com/@belart84

That is the reason why a lot of establishments have become wary and hesitant. All the time, effort, and money went out the window. Even the strongest campaigns can fail and go to waste. Thus, you should read and be aware of the instances where you are wasting your good money.

 

  1. Early discussion on the goals – in doing this, you can avoid wasting your resources and going after the right metrics. It is sad to hear different metrics being discussed by executives, professionals even the owners. It has to be clear from the very start so that the performance will be on point, and hopefully even the result.
  1. Right metrics, please! – This is not like a t-shirt that fits all. Supposing everyone has the same position when it comes to the projected goals, you still need to see the correct key performance indicator and deploy the right SEO tools.
  1. No clear roles– not doing this could result to the decrease in your resources. It is vital to know who handles what role. Not accomplishing this may mean that some parts of SEO will be ahead and others end up waiting for the other components. This is wasted money spent without a result.
  1. No working plan – trying to do something hard that you have not experience or have no skill has its benefits. But, acting on the project without a plan, then you will be jammed in an unstable method instead of being proactive. And if the person or people you hired kept on struggling in answering all your inquiries, it only shows that they have no idea about your business. So how can they best serve your purpose? Then it is time to breath, and take time to go into the methodology and schedule with a room for changes.
  1. A website with inadequate SEO. First, both parties should know what each would be getting from the very start. The website should be studied to know the things you can improve and cannot improve. This is a good approach so you can stick with the budget of the present site. Then, maximize and improve its functionality.
  1. Using the old fashion plan and approach. Do not oblige yourself to do SEO. You might just use the strategy that no longer works, and surely it will have no effect on your goal. If you think it is spammy, pause and assess. 

Related: Old SEO Strategies Part 1 and Part 2

  1. Pay only for the tools you need. These are the things you should think about:
    • What are the different tools you are paying now?
    • Are you using them right now?
    • Are they of help to you in becoming successful?

There are tools that you just use intermittently so this can be used when needed and turned off when not needed. This will save you a lot of money. You can also use the tools that you already have.  In which case, there is no additional expenditure on your part.

The most common mistakes when writing title tags

/by

Title tags are an important part of every web page. But they often aren’t given the attention they deserve. Not only are they important for SEO and can play a role in your page ranking higher, but they also play a role in increasing the click-through rates of your pages in Google. The more enticing your page titles are, the more likely people are to click on your page rather than a competitor’s.

Yet most business owners don’t spend a huge amount of time writing page titles. They add a keyword or two and then don’t think twice about them. But it’s clearly worth spending the time and effort to create high-quality page titles.

Writing them isn’t easy, however. It’s easy to make mistakes. Here we reveal what the most common mistakes are and how you can fix them.

 

Adding Home to the title tag

A lot of business owners think that their homepage has to have the word “home” in the title tag to make it clear to everyone that this is the home of the website. The truth is, neither Google nor humans need to be told they are on the homepage. Normally this is very obvious. Google can even tell by looking at the sitemap. Instead, business owners should write a homepage title tag that reflects what that page is about specifically, rather than just calling it “home”.

 

Title tags are too long

It is possible for your website’s title tags to be too long to be effective. That’s because search engines will only display a certain number of characters. At the moment, Google currently displays about 70 characters of a title tag. If your page title is over 70 character, Google will cut it off mid-word and replace the remaining words with ellipses.

 

No keywords in the title

Title tags are an important part of on-page SEO. Google uses them as one way to work out what your page is about. But if you don’t use keywords, you are missing out on an opportunity to improve your rankings. Identify what the best keywords are for each page and add them to the front of the title tag.

 

Giving every page the same title tag

Believe it or not, some website owners use the same title tags on every single page. Usually, this is just the name of the company or some other non-optimized word or phrase. This is even worse than not adding keywords to your title tag. At least in that situation, the page titles might be descriptive. But when they are all the same you make it hard for anyone —Google or humans — to figure out what your pages are about.

 

Titles have too many keywords

Of course, you can have too many keywords in a page title. Some website owners think that the more keywords they add to a title tag, the better chance they have at ranking for all of these keywords. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. By stuffing keywords in the title tag you make it less likely that you will rank at all. You will also make it less likely that anyone clicks on your links in Google because the page will look spammy.

What beginners need to know about blogging

/by

Having a blog is so important for every business in today’s online world. It’s not just a great way of getting more traffic to your website, it’s also a way to educate your readers and build trust in your brand/

Creating a great business blog is hard though. It’s a big job to start and it’s even tougher to keep blogging week in week out.

If you’re just starting out with blogging, here’s what you need to know to make your business blog one of the best around.

 

Be clear on your goal

What’s the reason that your business is blogging? Are you trying to get more traffic or use it to build your reputation? Whatever your goal, you need to be clear on it before you start blogging. This will make the rest of the process so much easier. Because if your content isn’t achieving your goal, there’s no point creating it.

 

Write in a clear and digestible way

What’s the point in blogging if your audience isn’t able to read or understand your content? Writing a blog is different to any form of writing. People have short attention spans so you need to write in a way that accounts for this. You should be writing short sentences with short paragraphs and lots of headings.

 

Write for your audience, not you

It doesn’t matter what you’re interested in. You need to write about what your audience is interested in. That’s because there are so many blogs out there that if you can’t capture your audience’s attention, there’s no shortage of other blogs to read.

 

Be unique

Whatever you write about, you need to make it unique. That means not plagiarizing the content of others. For one, it is illegal. But Google will also penalize you if they catch you plagiarizing content. They won’t rank your pages and in some cases they can remove you from search results completely.

Not copying others isn’t enough, however. There is so much content out there that you need to make sure you have something unique to say about every topic you write on. This could be sharing a unique viewpoint or writing better content than anyone else.

 

Write regularly

Most business blogs fail because their writers don’t write regularly. One blog post a month isn’t enough. Not only does it not give you enough chances to rank in Google, it also won’t engage your audience enough.

If you want to make the most of your blog, you need to write a post every week. If this is too much for busy business owners, then hiring a content marketing agency is a must.

 

Promote your content

The final thing you need to do is to promote your content as much as possible. For some, this will simply be sharing it on social media accounts and email lists. For others, however, who want to get better results, it will mean promoting content to industry influencers who can share it with their audiences.  

Where can your small business be found on Google?

/by

When you first start to promote your small business online, Google can be a big headache. WHere exactly can you be found on the search giant and which area is it best for you to focus on? There are actually four areas that can be found and we cover them all below.

The local service ads

This is one of the latest additions from Google and it is now the first spot that you can appear on Google. Specifically, these are localized ads that promote specific types of local businesses. The important thing to note is that these are not pay per click ads unlike the typical ads you might see on Google. Instead, these are lead generation ads and small businesses will only get charged if the searcher fills out a short questionnaire and Google deems the lead valid. Businesses will still get charged whether or not they eventually convert the lead. You’ll need to jump through a couple of hoops if you want to use this service. That’s because Google offers a guarantee to all customers who find a contractor through these ads. They need to make sure that all businesses that advertise are genuine and responsible as a result.

 

Google PPC Ads

These ads are the standard Google ads that the search engine has used to generate revenue for as long as most people can remember. These are PPC ads, which means that small businesses will get charged a fee every time someone clicks on their ad, regardless of whether that person converts as a customer or not. Small business owners will need to set up several targeting metrics, including keywords, location and bidding price. They will also need to a sign a daily budget, so Google can track how much you spend and how often they should show your ad.

 

Google’s Local Pack

Below both ad sections but still at the top of the page in clear view is Google’s Local Pack. This is the first organic section that small businesses can appear in and it is a great way for local businesses to drum up customers. Google will show at least three businesses that are relevant to the user’s search query. Which businesses they show will depend on a number of factors, including the business’ location, its reviews, it’s GMB profile and it’s general web presence. The better all of these factors, the more likely you are to appear.

 

The organic results

The final place that small businesses can appear on Google is in the organic search results. These results are the ones that are most often clicked by searchers and so appearing here can have a huge impact on your website’s traffic. How Google decides which businesses appear here depends on almost 200 factors that compromise things like links to your website and your site’s contents. Getting your business to rank here is a core service offered by many digital marketing agencies. However, no one can guarantee results, no matter how much money you spend.

 

 

If you need help ranking in any of these positions, give us a call today!

The tools you need to track your SEO efforts

/by

One of the best things about investing in Search Engine Optimization is that you can monitor, track and measure everything. There are literally hundreds of tools that you can use for free or for a monthly fee to monitor and improve your SEO efforts.

In fact, there are probably too many to choose from. That’s why we’ve selected six tools that you should definitely consider using.

 

BrightLocal

BrightLocal is the premier local SEO tools and a must for any business trying to make it into the map pack or keep their place there. The best thing about this tool is that it draws in a wealth of disparate data like your rankings and reviews and displays it in one easy-to-read dashboard. If you’re only going to use one tool in this list to monitor your local SEO efforts, make it this one. You really won’t need anymore.

 

Dyno Mapper

A lot of SEO tools will weigh you down in hard-to-read data lists. But that’s not DYNO Mapper. This is the tool for visual business owners who want their data to be as clean and digestible as possible. DYNO Mapper provides a visual display of how well you are currently ranking, which pages are receiving the most traffic and which pages you should give some attention to. You can even use it to look at your competitors, too.

Moz

Moz’ analytics and local SEO tools are some of the most well-regarded tools on the market. The company has long been a supreme authority in the SEO world and part of that is down to the quality of their tools. Whether you just use the local tool to track your local SEO efforts, or go all out on the analytics package to track everything, you’re guaranteed to get high quality, up-to-the-minute data displayed in a beautiful and digestible way.

 

SEO Profiler

If you’re looking to keep a closer eye on your competitors and are fed up of Googling them each day, SEO Profiler is ideal for you. This tool integrates into Google Analytics to show you details about your competitors’ rankings and provide opportunities for you to take advantage of their shortcomings.

 

Google Analytics

You’ll need Google Analytics to get the most out of several of the tools on this list, so it should be considered an absolute necessity, even if you don’t plan on paying for any of the other tools. Not only is GA free, it is also the single best analytics tool on the market. No other platform will provide you with the level of depth and detail that Google Analytics does. Install it now, no questions asked.

 

WooRank

WooRank is a great-priced complete SEO tool that gives most business owners everything they need to launch and track a successful SEO campaign. Business owners will particularly like the site crawl feature, which lets them identify and understand any of their own website’s shortcomings. There is also rank tracking and competitor monitoring available too.

How long does it take Google to rank my website?

/by

There’s one thing that every small business owner wants to understand when they start investing in SEO. “How long does it take to start ranking in Google”

We hear it all the time from our clients and we understand that it can be frustrating when things don’t happen quickly. But the truth is that rankings don’t happen overnight. The time it takes to rank in Google can vary massively depending on your website and the competitiveness of a keyword, but most experts agree that it takes between three to six months to see any movement.

If you are a brand new company with a fresh web presence, it can take even longer. We understand that it is hugely frustrating for business owners not to see immediate results, but that doesn’t happen with Google. The only way that is possible is by cheating the system using Blackhat SEO. Unfortunately, those kinds of tactics will destroy your presence in the long run.

So you can better understand why it takes so long to rank in Google, we’ll discuss how the search giant works below.

 

How does Google find your site?

Google uses bots to crawl billions of web pages every day. It then uses the data it collects to build its index, which it uses to create search results.

The first step to being ranked by Google is to be found by Google. Luckily, you can submit your website manually to Google using Google’s Search Console. Once your website is in the index, Google will continue to crawl it periodically to ensure its index remains relevant.

 

How does Google rank websites?

Believe it or not, Google serves up personalized results from their index for every search. This is because Google wants to make sure that their results best match your query. That means one searcher in one part of the country may see different results to a searcher in another part of the country.

Google uses hundreds of factors to decide where your website should appear in results. Here are some of the most important:

 

Your SEO

The more you have optimized your webpage for a certain phrase or keyword, the more likely it is to appear in the results. When everyone is optimizing their websites, it’s even more important to make sure yours is competitive.

 

Your site’s age

The older a website, the more authority Google gives it, everything being equal. That’s because older websites have stood the test of time. It can take six months for a brand new website to start seeing results in Google.

 

The competitiveness of keywords

The more competitive a keyword, the less chance you have of showing up for it. That’s simply because there are more websites trying to rank for it. The more websites trying to rank, the bigger the likelihood of there being more authoritative sites than yours.

 

The number of backlinks you have

Google loves backlinks. It uses them as a sign that your website is trusted by other websites. Therefore, the more high-quality backlinks you have, the better.

What do the different types of SEO look like?

/by

The SEO universe is vast. Because Google is the biggest website in the world and the main source of traffic for other websites, there are so many different tactics people use to get as high as possible in the rankings.

Broadly speaking, however, each tactic can be broken down into four main types of SEO. All of them can be used to improve how your website ranks, but not all of them are good for your business.

The four types of SEO are:

  • White hat SEO
  • Black hat SEO
  • Grey hat SEO
  • Negative SEO

Below we’ll look at what separates these tactics and which one you should use.

 

Blackhat SEO

Blackhat SEO gives you the fastest results. It’s also one of the cheapest types of SEO, too. At the same time, it’s the worst possible technique you can use on your website. That’s because blackhat SEOs use hacks and cheats to trick Google into sending them to the top of the rankings as quickly as possible. But these results don’t last long. Google can be tricked, but it doesn’t stay tricked for long. So while you may get to the top of Google fast, the search giant will ban your website from its search results as soon as it catches you. And because Google updates its algorithm hundreds of times each year, you will definitely be caught.

 

White hat SEO

White hat SEO is the form of SEO that Google likes and that the vast majority of SEO agencies will practice. This is because you optimize SEO in line with Google’s own guidelines. There are certain things that Google does allow businesses to do when it comes to ranking higher, and it’s these tactics that white hat SEO firms use to get their results. Because you are doing things the way Google wants and creating quality content, it’s going to take longer to see results. The good news, however, is that these results will last. Unlike blackhat SEO where the results are fleeting, white hat SEO results will last. That’s why sensible businesses only invest in white hat SEO.

 

Grey hat SEO

Grey hat SEO lies somewhere between blackhat and white hat SEO – thus the name. Grey hat SEOs use tactics that some white hat SEOs would consider spammy. But these tactics aren’t specifically outlined in Google’s guidelines. That being said, there is a risk that Google could turn on these tactics at a moment’s notice. That means anyone using grey hat techniques is taking a big risk. Yes, you could see results faster than normal. But all your hard work could be for nothing if Google decides to outlaw the tactic you are using. These tactics simply aren’t worth the risk.

 

Negative SEO

Negative SEO is the practice of using blackhat techniques on your competitor’s website. The idea is to get them penalized by Google so that your website automatically ranks higher as a result. Obviously, this is also ruled out in Google’s guidelines and Google is taking steps to combat the rise of negative SEO.

How do you write a high-quality blog post?

/by

If there’s one digital marketing tactic that gurus will tell you to do over and over again it is to write high-quality blog posts. Doing so, you should be able to get more traffic from Google, get your audience to trust you and increase sales from your website.

But how do you write these mythical high-quality blog posts?

Here’s a secret: it’s going to take you longer than half an hour at your keyboard. Creating great blog posts takes time and effort. Here’s exactly what you need to do.


Always have a reason

You need to have a reason to create blog posts. Blog posts without a reason behind them won’t be high-quality by definition — they are serving no purpose. Are you trying to explain a topic? Introduce a new feature? Or educate your audience? Whatever your purpose, make sure you are clear on it before you start writing.

 

Keep your audience in mind

You need to know who you are writing for as well as why you are writing. A great blog post is written with a specific   in mind. That’s because it allows you to get into the weeds and really tailor the information to a specific set of people. Only then can you make sure your content is as relevant as possible.

 

Be an expert on your topic

If you aren’t an expert on the topic you are writing about, you probably won’t write a great blog post. You can get around this if you are a great researcher, but most business owners don’t have the time to complete in-depth research. That’s why you should stick to what you know and only write about the topics that you know like the back of your hand. In doing so, you can make sure every post is as useful as possible.

 

Be unique

High-quality blog posts are unique. There’s no room for cookie-cutter content at this level. If your content doesn’t stand out from everything else written about the topic, then there wasn’t any point writing it. There are loads of ways to be unique. You can take a different perspective from everyone else. You can go into more detail than ever before. You can even write about things no one has written about. Whatever you do, make sure you’re unique.

 

Write in detail and keep it quality

Some writers try to aim for a set number of words. This is the wrong approach. When you aim for a certain word count, you can end up scrabbling around for content in an attempt to hit it. Needless to say, this extra content won’t be quality. Instead, keep your writing concise and to the point. Don’t try and write 1500 words when 750 will do. It doesn’t need to be long to rank well.

Keep these five points in mind when you’re next writing a blog post and you’ll be sure to write something that is very high quality that your readers will love.