Category: SEO

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SEO

6 Reasons Your Pay Per Click Campaigns Are Failing

Not getting the results you hoped for from your PPC campaigns? Seeing either little-to-no results or high costs per click? While it’s easy to blame the niche or the internet as a whole, the reality is most of the reasons you aren’t seeing a return on investment (ROI) are things you can control. I’ll help you better understand this complex issue in today’s post.

Your Keywords are All Wrong

It’s not that your keywords are all wrong; it’s that you’re probably using too many. As you assess your campaigns, take a look at which are actually converting. Take the top 12 percent and redirect your budget to those and those alone. Seriously. Ditch the rest.

Most research statistics reflect that the top 12 percent of your keyword list gives you most sales. The other 88 percent are eating up around 60-some percent of your total marketing budget.

What a waste!

It’s still important to experiment and test new keywords. Make sure your campaigns aren’t limited to broad-based keywords. Include longtail terms that are specific to your niche, products, and target audience as well. The goal is to find the best performing keywords and direct your budget accordingly.

Your Bid Budget Needs to Be Adjusted

We’d all like to believe that setting a low bid for clicks is the way to go. It will save you money, right? Well…yes – and no, too.

In the beginning, you should actually allow for a higher budget — possibly even higher than Google recommends for your keywords.

A lack of clicks makes it impossible to determine which of your keywords are performing better (see above). The more clicks you get, the easier it is to collect the data you need to analyze your campaign.

Let’s say, for example, the recommended budget for your keyword is $12 per click. Instead, set your budget at $30 per click. You’re not likely to end up paying that $30; you’ll probably spend a few dollars over the initial $12.

Consider this an investment. Take the data you get in that first week, adjust your budget, and watch your visibility improve.

Your Ad Text is Weird

You only have a limited amount of space for your ad text, so at first it may seem like you need to get creative. This really isn’t always the case. You are better off with clear, concise wording that describes exactly what you have to offer than something witty but vague. Save the creative word play for your landing page.

This next tip matters: the text you use needs to be clear and concise, but it also needs to directly relate to what your audience will see. Don’t, for example, set up an ad about warm winter boots and then send your customers to a landing page advertising your spring special on cute flats. No one likes feeling misled. Your headline and your destination need to match.

Your Landing Page is Tripping People Up

It’s not uncommon for a subpar landing page to be the true culprit when it comes to a lack of conversions. Your PPC ad may be great, but you won’t see any sales if the ad drives traffic to a boring, slow, or unorganized destination. It takes the average web user a mere 10 seconds to decide if the page they’ve landed on is worth exploring. It better not take more than half that time for your entire page to finish loading.

Your landing page needs to load quickly and feature relevant content. Contrary to popular belief, less is more when it comes to content. Vibrant graphics, great video, and easy-to-navigate text are key. This doesn’t mean you can’t include a lot of info, especially if it’s necessary, but what you do add should be organized and skimmable.

Don’t forget to test landing pages, too. Create a couple of different versions and conduct regular A/B split tests. Direct your ads to the one that does best while you adjust the second version or come up with something new. You may even find you have different landing pages for different keyword groups, based on the way those individual audiences react to the unique ways you present information.

You’re Asking for Too Much

What’s your actual goal? Do you want a potential lead to call you for information? Do you want them to download a free form? Should they click on the landing page to complete a purchase online? Maybe you want them to sign up for an email list so you can continue to cultivate the sale.

I’ve seen a lot of landing pages where all of the above are incorporated in different areas. The truth is your visitors aren’t going to perform multiple actions. They’re looking for clear, concise instructions and will likely do one thing for you. Be clear about what that thing is and your action conversions will skyrocket.

Your Audience Targeting is Off

Your marketing team has probably spent a lot of time discussing company goals. You have great ad campaign ideas, timelines for rolling out new products, and targets for conversions.

So what’s the problem?

It’s all about you. Your customers don’t care how many widgets you want to sell this quarter. They don’t even care about your cute marketing graphics. They want to know what on earth your widget is going to do for them. Why do they want it? Do they really want it? What would they rather see instead?

Your landing page needs to answer all of these questions and more. It also needs to offer solutions for potential customers who have more questions. Can they trust you? Can they speak to someone with additional questions or concerns? Make sure your customers are receiving the educational information they are really looking for.

Boosting PPC conversions isn’t difficult, but it can be time consuming. You need to be dedicated to assessing, reassessing, testing, and adjusting your campaigns on a regular basis. Your keywords, ad text, audience demographics, and landing page layout should all be subject to regular scrutiny. The more flexible you are, the less likely your campaigns are to completely flop.

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SEO

How to Get That Coveted Google Featured Snippet Spot

Let‘s preface this article with a small task (no hard labor, we promise).

Bring up Google search; type in “how to tie a shoe.” Hit search.

Now, look at the top of the page. Instead of showing regular results when people ask “how to” questions, Google now includes the featured snippet — a clear, concise answer to the posed question. These are usually short, surface-level explanations that get right to the point.

Why snippets? It‘s all about being useful to the searcher. Users get the information they need quickly, making them far more likely to click through and explore connected websites in more detail. In regard to SEO, this should and does change your goals slightly. Instead of focusing on only the top search result, you should target Google’s featured snippet spot, too.

So how do you land one of these coveted spots? There’s nothing you can do other than create good content, really, but most research shows that ensuring you optimize your pages for Google can help. Whether that means specially-formatting a question, recipe, DIY, or something else, we’ll teach you how to do that in this post.

Know Your Own Niche

Let’s say you’re a veterinarian. What types of questions do you commonly get from pet owners? Are they asking you what to feed their cats or how to stop their dogs from jumping? Try Googling some of the most common concerns you hear about and see what comes up in the snippet spot.

Is the content already yours? If so, congrats!

If not (far more common, frankly), take a look at the question as well as the “People also ask” section to check out similar questions. What type of content page could you add to your site that answers the same question but in a more concise, detailed manner? Can you better utilize keywords or create stronger visuals? Study what your competitors are doing and then do it better.

Answer New Questions

Tools like Answer the Public make it easier than ever before to figure out what people are searching for online. Type in a simple keyword and you’ll see some pretty specific examples outlining what people are looking for. Which of these is most unique? Pick an angle and start writing.

Format Your Pages Carefully

One of the things Google looks for when creating a snippet is a quick answer to the question at hand. This means your intro paragraph needs to be short, sweet, and concise, with an exact answer. You can expand on the subject and flesh out the details in the body of the article or blog post, but you need to make sure the opening answers the question. Period. Keep the answer or list short and sweet so it shows completely in the search results.

Use Different Types of Content

Google doesn’t only look for paragraphs of text to feature in the snippets. The algorithms search for other “signifiers,” too.

When you see featured snippets, you’re likely to see:

  • Short paragraphs answering specific questions
  • Numbered lists (e.g., steps in instructions)
  • Short bulleted lists complementing a brief paragraph of text
  • Tables showing rankings or other details in the form of a list
  • Clips from YouTube videos associated with the topic
  • Text from one website with images from another (dual exposure)

Combine different types of content on your website and evaluate which are performing best in terms of reaching the snippet position for your keywords. Make adjustments to some of your other pages based on your results. You may find it helpful to combine content types to increase your odds of having your page appear in the top position.

Do Your Homework

The majority of featured snippets aren’t based on simple, single-word keywords. They’re more likely to be cemented in long-tail keywords as parts of questions or longer search phrases. It often seems as though some of the snippets are filled by keywords with lower search volumes, too. For this reason, it’s important to include both popular and low competition keywords.

Build a FAQ Page

Answering multiple questions in one place is a great way to increase your odds of being featured in the snippet section. The best way to do this is to build a comprehensive FAQ page for your website. Each answer should start with a short, concise statement that gives a simple but clear answer to the question. Sentences or paragraphs after that can expand in more detail. Again, it’s important that a clear, factual answer be included in the first part of your text. Get rid of the fluff and be as direct as possible.

Create a Chart

There are a lot of great chart and table tools out there; use these to insert either or both right inside your on-page content. Google loves lists and tables. They’re structured and easy to read. Be sure to clearly include product or service names, brand names, prices, weights, or anything else commonly asked on your lists.

Utilize Images

As noted above, sometimes Google will choose a snippet text from one website, but an image from a different website. In some cases, they’ll even grab an image as the answer, especially if it is a graph or contains informational text. This is why it is important no only to create great content, but to make sure your image meta tags are properly completed as well. The more more information you can give the search engine crawlers about the content on your page, the better your odds of being featured.

The reality is that the featured snippet spot isn’t something you’re going to obtain easily. It takes a lot of work and concentrated effort, but the benefits are certainly worth the work. In the process you’ll create and discover a ton of content ideas, improve the quality of your on-page content, and ultimately improve your site’s traffic over time.

Have you been featured in a snippet? We’d love to hear about your achievement and how you got there!

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SEO

Conversion Optimization Made Easy

It’s one thing to drive traffic to your website; it’s another entirely to convince the people who visit your homepage or your landing page to take a very specific, desired action. Even the most sought-after products and hot ticket businesses struggle in this area sometimes; that’s where conversion optimization comes in.

If you’re not familiar with that term – or even, really, if you are – this article is for you. First, I’ll take it back to basics and describe conversions from the ground up. Then, we’ll stretch our wings a bit and get into some nifty tips to make 2019 your best year ever.

Let’s dive in.

What are Conversions?

“Conversion” is a marketing term defining when a consumer or audience takes a specific action. For example, if people come to my website and sign up for my newsletter, they have “converted” to a subscribing newsletter member. In the case of an e-store (like Walmart), a visitor “converts” if they buy a product before leaving the site.

Ultimately, goals are defined by the industry, business, and product or service being sold. They can and will differ entity-to-entity. You can simplify the idea down to just thinking of anyone who completes your goal as “converted.”

Conversions also come in different sizes depending on the goals you have for your business. You may start with a micro-conversion goal, such as getting someone to sign up for your email list, before moving onto a macro-conversion goal, like using a series of emails to convince a person to make a purchase.

Calculating Your Conversion Rate

Your conversion rate is calculated using a very simple formula. Take the number of people who “convert” and divide it by your web traffic statistics. If you have 100 visitors and 20 sign up for the email list, this leaves a 20 percent conversion rate.

You can also calculate conversions based on individual customer activity. Let’s say you have a customer who visits your website five times. The first two times they do not make any purchases; the third time they purchase a single small item. The fourth visit they buy 2 more items, and on the final fifth visit they buy several additional products. Three of the five visits converted into sales, giving you a 60 percent conversion rate.

Overhaul Your Content

Are your pages blabbing on and on about who you are and what you do (me! me! me!)? I see this often on pages that tout why they’re so fabulous without really telling people much about what they offer. Read your content over carefully; if you see “we” and self-praise in every second paragraph, you may need to tweak it to be more valuable.

Visitors love when companies share valuable information with them. Maybe you help potential customers solve a problem or show them how to DIY a simple fix. Either way, try to ensure your content contains a lot of subheadings and very short paragraphs. This one simple step lets your content shine (no matter its type).

Vary your content types, too! Videos are great – but only for people who like watching videos. Don’t force your visitors to watch a video to find out about your product or deal, and don’t force them to read text walls, either. Combine everything together in a way that lets the content stand for itself, including videos, stunning visuals, images, infographics, and yes, even text, too. 

Have a strong copywriter look over your text, too. Make sure your call-to-action includes a question, speak personally to your audience (you, you’re, etc), and don’t overthink your position. There is no reason to stuff your pages with unnecessary words. Say what you have to say and be done with it.

Include Video

Video is important no matter what other forms of content you decide to include on the page. Think outside the box. You don’t need to have a simple video of a person sitting behind a desk talking about your product, but videos showing how your products are made or offering customer testimonials can be very persuasive. Similarly, putting together a series of how-to videos to provide product use guidance shows you care about their enjoyment even after purchase – and that can be persuasive, too.

Eliminate Distractions

So how do we get awesome conversion numbers? It’s not as tough as you might think. Start by making a few tweaks to your landing page so that your potential lead stays focused on the task at hand.

How? Start by keeping your landing page very simple. There shouldn’t be a navigation bar like the one on your core website. Any links you do have should take your client directly to the task you want them to complete, whether that’s signing up for an email list or adding an item to a shopping cart. Never let your client navigate away from the page in error. Either have links, such as to privacy policies or terms, open in new tabs or appear in pop-up boxes.

Incorporate Split Testing

There is no reason to avoid split (A/B) testing. Start by running ads to one landing page to make sure everything is working well from a technical standpoint. Then start running ads to two different landing pages and keep track of which converts better.

Keep the one that’s running better and start working on a different version of the page so you can split the test again. You may need to modify your check-out process, add a sense of urgency, improve your product images, or even change your color schemes.

Also be on the lookout for issue points you may have missed. For example, your customers might be looking for a money-back guarantee; if they don’t find one, they aren’t spending any money because don’t see one on your pages.

Surveys and Data

It’s important to study your website’s traffic and data:

  • Which pages are performing well and which are causing visitors to bounce?
  • How do your landing pages rate compared to other pages?
  • What’s the difference between well-loved pages and well-hated pages?

Sometimes you can see what pages people are landing on most, but can’t get a clear idea as to why they aren’t converting. Real-time pop-up surveys let your visitors give you feedback in real-time; they’re excellent at gathering data.

Alternatively, you might try using radio dial surveys or text boxes to simply ask the question: why are you leaving? What could we have done better?

If you find you’re getting similar answers across the board, you’ll know exactly what needs to be fixed to increase conversions.

At the end of the day, conversion optimization isn’t nearly as difficult as some people make it out to be. Monitoring the numbers is critical, but so is taking intuitive action so you can constantly improve your results. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and don’t feel as though you have to limit yourself to a simple A/B test, either; you can run three or four at a time to keep things moving.

Once you start split testing and then making changes to your content and layout, things will start moving more fluidly for you. There is no reason you shouldn’t begin to see progressive changes to your conversions month after month.

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SEO

14 of the Best Tools for Auditing Your Website’s Performance

Websites aren’t “set it and forget it” marketing tools. They need constant attention, ranging from technical function to the regular review of content. Speed, storage, SEO, and content relevancy are critical to ensuring that the right person sees your content at the right time — without becoming frustrated by endless loading delays.

In fact, a few short months ago, Google revealed their intention to start penalizing sites with slow speeds. That leaves you, the website owner or developer, in a perilous position; what if your message never makes it to your audience simply because your website’s performance suffers?

The best option for ensuring success is to partner with a professional consultant or marketing agency like Sachs Marketing Group. In the meantime, here’s 14 helpful tools to help you get started. 

Google Search Console

This is a free tool offered within the Google Webmaster app. It’s easy-to-use, which makes it great for those who are new to website management and auditing. However, Search Console only offers very basic information about page-load speed, broken links, and general errors in your HTML markup. While Google Search Console is a great place to start, you must switch to something more advanced as your business grows.

Screaming Frog

Admit it — just the name alone is intriguing, right? Screaming Frog is a tool that emulates search engine crawlers. This tool looks for technical errors that will impact your SEO, including duplicate content pages, canonicalization errors, metadata issues, and more. The free version limits you to 500 pages, but that should be more than enough for smaller and newer sites.

SiteAnalyzer

This is another free tool, allowing for up to 20 website checks per month. (You must upgrade to the paid version for more.) SiteAnalyzer reviews 50 separate parameter settings, including SEO, content, design, performance, and accessibility. Each section will receive a score, and the dashboard will let you know which items need attention while flagging the critical items for immediate review. This is an excellent tool, but there is one major drawback — it does not work well for multi-language sites.

MySiteAuditor

This is a helpful tool for agencies as it can be integrated onto a website and used to generate leads. MySiteAuditor is based on Google’s algorithms. While its features offer deep checks, much like the other tools on this list, it also completes extra keyword reviews to further enhance your SEO strategies and efforts.

Moz Crawl Test

The Moz Crawl Test tool works brilliantly for combining website functionality and SEO into the same neat little package. It’s great for identifying redirect issues with your server, and for finding problems that are preventing the search engines from crawling your site on a regular basis. Like the others, though, it isn’t foolproof – you still need to interpret the results and apply the appropriate fixes.

SEOPTIMER

SEOPTIMER is a Chrome extension you can download, install, and use from your browser. It takes a few seconds for it to crawl your website; then it passes along handy suggestions for improved SEO. SEOPTIMER is unique in that it provides information on SEO, usability and performance while analyzing site security and social integrations. If you use this tool to analyze your site, you can also download white-label reports loaded with helpful information.

HubSpot’s Website Grader

This tool is amazing for analyzing website metrics. HubSpot’s Website Grader looks at all elements of performance, mobile readiness, SEO, and security. Missing your SSL certificate? The grader will let you know. You’ll receive a score between 1 and 100 along with a detailed report with suggested updates.

SEMrush Site Audit

One of the best features of the SEMrush Site Audit tool is the historical analysis function. This browser-based tool saves reporting information after each crawl. You can then track what changes you’ve made and run a comparative report to identify exactly which revisions helped and which hurt. Use this auditing tool to identify (or even reverse) negative SEO influences.

Woorank

The free version of Woorank is limited (you can only run a certain number of reports), but it’s still useful. It analyzes website data and provides you with several presentation, creation, and slide organization options. It’s best for entrepreneurs or agencies who need to present clients with statistics or monthly reports.

Alexa Site Audit

Yes, Alexa…the one and only Amazon audit platform. She can turn on your lights, play music, and even conduct a SEO audit for your website, if you’re so inclined. Alexa Site Audit lets you schedule audits and then prompts you to review them – so you never forget to take action on a negative evaluation or performance. Afterward, Alexa will issue a report highlighting opportunities to improve best practices, suggestions for solutions, and tips for prioritizing your updates.

BuzzStream

BuzzStream is a great tool for monitoring your site’s link building efforts. It lets you monitor whether links pointing to your site are active or not. It also tracks communication and customized emails sent out to site owners. Use it to create and issue custom emails from within the platform or use the search function to find industry-related sites to approach.

Benchmark Hero Solution

Running an e-commerce site? Benchmark Hero Solution works well for managing online stores. It reviews your product pages to make suggestions with helpful improvements for both traffic and conversions. You’ll receive a site audit, a report comparing your site to top competitors, and a list of action steps. Best of all? It’s free.

DeepCrawl

DeepCrawl’s performance reports contain a ton of detail. It can also crawl hundreds upon thousands of pages at a time. Your dashboard highlights your domain’s overall score, page-loading times, and a myriad of other useful details that can help you make informed decisions about how to move forward. Use DeepCrawl to manage your entire SEO team, creating, assigning, and managing tasks right from the dashboard.

Check My Links

Check My Links is a simple tool for web designers that crawls internal and external pages to make sure they’re working. It’s packaged with plenty of capability; use it to review link-rich pages or quickly find which links on a page work and which are broken. Make corrections as needed before you make new pages go live.

There are dozens of great tools you can use to analyze your site’s performance. These are just some of the most promising on the market right now. Take advantage of some of the free options and trials before committing to a tool for the long-haul. No matter which you choose, you’ll be pleased with how easy they are to use and how quickly you are able to improve your site’s performance.

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SEO

Local SEO vs. Enterprise SEO: What Are the Differences?

 

SEO is SEO, right? Well, not exactly…

Search engine optimization has been around for decades – it’s as old as the search engines themselves. But it hasn’t always been as highly specialized. This is especially true for businesses who use SEO to get noticed or to market products.

If you’re running a business, you’ve most likely heard the terms “local SEO” and “enterprise SEO” tossed around quite often. That’s because both stand to benefit your business in very similar ways, assuming you use each approach in the right way.

But “similar” does not mean identical; in fact, each of these approaches is unique in everything from overall goal and purpose all the way to implementation. To help you better understand these concepts, I’ll break them down into plain English below.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO (also known as local search) is a form of search optimization that specifically targets a unique geographical area. For example, if you optimized only for visitors from your city, that would be a form of local SEO.

This type of approach is popular among small business owners with a limited reach, extending only to their geographic location and surrounding zones. These businesses have a specialized service or product offered only to the local area, not to the rest of the country or the rest of the world.

Need a few examples? We’re talking local restaurants, mom and pop gift shops, small grocery stores or chains, landscaping services, plumbers, and doctors — anyone who is limited to a specific area.

Local SEO campaigns don’t necessarily need to be limited to a city or town. They can be expanded to almost any definable location. Campaign boundaries for local SEO can be defined by county, state, or even geographic region (e.g., the northwestern United States).

Larger national and international companies can (and do) use local SEO, but their approach is much different from that of a small business. Instead of focusing on one specific city or town, they use local optimization within larger campaigns that serve unique demographic groups limited to specific areas. This helps to improve targeting and prevents the corporation from wide-casting blanket messages to the global market (that might not work for every location).

What Is Enterprise SEO?

Enterprise SEO applies to larger brands — these are usually large corporations that have very well known brand names.

They’re visible. You know who they are. They’re so big, in fact, you almost never need to do a search for their products online.

Instead, you seek out the website, visit their social platforms, or head right to the correct aisle in your local store.

The problem with organizations like these is that at some point their marketing efforts will plateau. As their brands have gained momentum and built a steady traction, sales may ebb and flow. But new promotions just bring them back up to the same level over and over again. They can’t seem to get any higher.

Why?

They’re basically neglecting their online marketing efforts. They don’t rank well for their target keywords, sometimes even finding themselves outranked by very small, local competitors.

Somebody got lazy. Instead of capitalizing on previous momentum, the business opted to coast along and do “just okay” instead.

The good news is that in most of these cases, you can make a few simple changes to the website and content strategy and make significant gains.

Wait…What about Enterprise Local SEO?

Yes, this is a thing, too. Enterprise local SEO is for huge businesses with recognized brands that have locations spread across the country or globe (think Walmart, Kroger, or Trader Joe’s). These entities need to bridge the gap between serving local areas and serving the nation, and that’s not always an easy ask.

Enterprise local SEO experts often have to come up with hundreds or thousands of micro-campaigns to correct enterprise local SEO issues. At the same time, they may be battling data distribution issues, unruly franchise contacts, and how to scale all the listings and projects so that everyone benefits – all at the same time.

Whew!

How to Improve Local SEO

So now we’re back to the original question — SEO is SEO, right? Nope. You can’t apply the same tactics to both local and enterprise campaigns. Instead, you need to narrow it down and get a bit more specific. Here are some tips to get you started!

  • In local SEO, it is sometimes recommended that all the website URLs you put on your third-party business listings direct to your website’s home page. The homepage is often considered more important in terms of ranking, so sending all visitors to the same starting point isn’t unreasonable. They shouldn’t have a hard time clicking from there to the right landing page.
  • Make sure you claim all your local listings. If they don’t exist, create them. You should have control of any listing with your business name on it to ensure your business details are updated throughout the year. While they aren’t as heavily weighted as they once were, each listing counts as a citation when Google crawls for mentions of your website.
  • Double-check to make sure you have claimed your Google Places for Business listing (and not just an old Google+ page). A lot of businesses had Google+ pages before Google Business listings became popular. Google is phasing out the + program, so now is the right time to claim your true listing and finish the postcard verification.
  • Ask your customers for reviews — real reviews, never fake. Ask them to leave an honest review on whatever platform they are comfortable using. It’s okay if they aren’t all 5 stars; as long as the majority are positive, you’re in good shape. Make sure they know they should only write one review (not multiple), and it doesn’t have to be long. Also, don’t encourage them to cut/paste reviews all over the web.

How to Improve Enterprise SEO

Some of the same concepts that apply to local SEO also apply to enterprise SEO, but it’s not that simple or clear-cut. In some cases, you can use similar methods or strategies, but the execution needs to be completely different to work for the target audience.

  • The directory listings suggestion from above doesn’t apply well to major brands. People who find the listing for the location closest to their home don’t want to sort through a million listings to get the information they need. If you’re an enterprise brand, each directory should link directly to that location’s unique landing page.
  • Enterprise brand websites tend to have a ton of content. Backlinking to every single page isn’t necessary because the pages will naturally rank higher. Focus on getting a few pages to the front page of Google before moving on to the next set.
  • Make sure your website’s templates are up-to-date with the proper ALT tags, correct design code, and accurate data. This includes categories and subcategories that make it easy to find your dynamic content.
  • Incorporate your chosen keywords into your site’s navigation. For example, your cell phone provider might use several subcategories before you finally land on a specific product page, making for a long but successfully-optimized URL. Consider com/mobile/shop/device/galaxy-s8-plus-samsung as an example of a well-optimized URL. The company effectively incorporated terms like mobile, device, galaxy, s8, and samsung into one URL.

There are a lot of things you can do to improve both local and enterprise SEO – often at the same time and within the same campaign. The key is to remember they are completely different slices of a much larger pie. Efforts should be integrative, not singular, whenever possible.

If you’re struggling with either of these concepts, you aren’t alone. Even the experts sometimes struggle with finding the perfect balance. Partnering with someone who knows both concepts well is the best way to make progress.

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SEO

Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals for Your SEO

Understanding SEO is one thing, but setting actual goals beyond “organic traffic” is another. They key is to make sure you are setting S.M.A.R.T. goals – goals that are realistic and purposeful. Making sure your goals are properly focused will ensure your company vision meshes well and is incorporated into your overall marketing strategy.

But hold on – how exactly do you do that? The answer to this question isn’t exactly straightforward. At least, not until you break it down like we did right here in this post.

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

What are S.M.A.R.T. Goals?

Let’s start with what S.M.A.R.T. goals actually are. S.M.A.R.T. is the acronym used to define the elements that make up each of your goals.

Here’s the breakdown:

  • S is for Specific. Vague goals will never get you anywhere. How many new email subscribers do you want to earn this month or year? How many app downloads do you want to see? What is your goal for the number of qualified leads you’d like to contact? How many actual sales do you want to make? Assign real numbers to your goals.
  • M is for Measurable. Goals don’t mean much if there is no way to measure your progression. Your website’s analytics should be able to show you a month-over-month and year-to-year comparison of whether you’ve hit your visitor goals. Your newsletter subscription numbers will clearly show you how many new subscribers you gain. Order histories detail whether or not you’ve sold enough of your target product. Goals like “visibility” aren’t measurable and don’t mean anything to your bottom line.
  • A is for Achievable. Having specific and measurable goals are great, but only if you are able to act upon them. For example, wanting to rank for one of the most competitive keywords in your niche may be specific and measurable, but it isn’t an actionable goal if you don’t have the budget necessary to compete for that term. Finding that your goal isn’t achievable isn’t a failure; it’s simply a sign you need to make adjustments.
  • R is for Realistic. Let’s say you’ve decided you want to have a million new email subscribers in the last quarter of the year – a pretty lofty goal for a three-month period. Can it be done? Maybe. Do you have the resources to get the job done? Probably not. Is it a realistic number compared to other quarters, or is it a number someone pulled from the air? Likely the latter unless you’re a celebrity, Apple, Google, or some other large-scale corporation. A 20 percent increase over the previous quarter’s new enrollments is much more attainable.
  • T is for Timely. Your goals need to be achievable within a specific amount of time. Wanting to rank on the first page for a certain keyword “someday” is not timely. Wanting to rank organically within six months is more realistic. It’s tough to set specific timelines for SEO, but having a starting point on your calendar will help you to make the adjustments necessary as you move along, whether that means altering the goal or extending the timeline.

Keeping S.M.A.R.T. SEO in Mind

You can apply S.M.A.R.T. principles to just about any area of your business. Using this formula to come up with SEO goals not only gives you a set of metrics to work with, but can also help you to better compare your organic SEO, paid digital marketing, and offline marketing goals to ensure they all remain aligned with your organization’s core values and overall strategy.

Think of it like a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid rests the company’s general goals and desires for collecting leads or making new sales. The marketing team then creates a strategy for meeting those goals in the form of an email campaign, social media campaign, television commercials, radio spots, or straight-up ads. Marketing is responsible for creating the artistic vision that points everyone in the right direction.

SEO sits at the bottom of the pyramid, creating a solid foundation for everything else. It’s a support structure. Your SEO strategies create the foundation of your business’s website while also supporting your marketing team’s goals. The organic SEO work you do takes time, so it may not always be tied directly into short-term campaigns, but the way you choose the keywords you target will have an impact on the bottom line. For example, broader keyword targeting may get you initial visitors; narrow-targeting often shows gains in return traffic instead.

Measuring S.M.A.R.T. SEO Goals

So how do you actually measure your specific SEO goals? Your website’s rankings matter differently depending on your business type. A small local business might focus on local rankings alone, but a local business looking to start shipping product needs to expand from local rankings to include national keyword targets. A larger brand may even want to go global. Where are you starting and where do you want to end up in terms of your chosen keywords and their visibility?

Ranking and organic traffic often go hand in hand, but this isn’t a hard and fast rule and you should never assume it’s always the case. Ultimately, the true answer depends on whether or not you are ranking for popular keywords. Ranking for a great term that doesn’t receive as many searches will produce results – sort of.

The problem with low-competition terms is this: you’ll show up higher in the search engines for the term, but just won’t get as much traffic. Organic traffic is a measurable number and is impacted by the type of keyword you’re targeting for rank.

Link metrics are also measurable. It’s easy to run reports to find out how many root and deep links point back to your website. Keep track of this number and the ratio of strong authority links pointing at your content versus spam links that could be holding you back. We probably don’t need to tell you that you should aim for more strong links than weak links!

SERP statistics, search volume, branded keywords, and even referral traffic all make up the kaleidoscope of factors agencies consider in every SEO strategy. Take the time to stop and look up the funnel at your company’s overall goals. The more in tune you are with the big picture, the easier it will be for you to drill down into the specific components of your SEO strategy to create a strong and supportive strategy.

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SEO

7 Keyword Research Tips for Marketers

It doesn’t matter if you are marketing for a large national brand, a small local business, or a privately owned blog that’s just looking to gain a little bit of traction. One of the first things you need to do before starting any sort of campaign – paid or organic – is keyword research.

While we’d all like to think we’re naturals when it comes to marketing, keyword knowledge really does require research. The information you find will help you to better utilize the keywords that are actually relevant, as opposed to terms we thought or hoped were relevant but really aren’t helpful at all.

To help you wrap your head around this complex topic, I’m going to go over the basics and then touch on a few more advanced strategies. I think you’ll really get a lot of use out of this!

Understand What Keyword Research Is (and Isn’t)

Keyword research is basically the work you do to determine what words people are commonly using in the search engines to find content like yours. A well-developed keyword strategy will have a set series of keywords for each of the relevant topics for a business website. While these keywords are used in both paid and organic campaigns, they may also be used to help you name product features and generally optimize your website as well.

Keyword research is not simply sitting down and brainstorming a list of terms that relate to your content, product, or service. You’re an expert in your field, so you are already familiar with common terms that relate to what you have to offer. Those common terms are usually not what the average person types into Google.

Plan Your Keyword Research

When you start your keyword research, your goal is to identify what words you are already ranking well for so that you can understand their position. You also need to identify which words you’d like to rank for in the future, but aren’t succeeding with right now.

The keywords you end up with need to be sorted into three main categories. The first is organic terms that help with search engine visibility. The second is the low-hanging fruit you want to improve upon. And last, but not least, are the keywords you’d like to use in PPC campaigns because they aren’t getting the search engine visibility you’d like yet.

Choose Your Tools

There are dozens of keyword research tools on the market today, but sometimes the best ones are the free ones offered right at the source. The Google Keyword Planner is offered within the AdWords dashboard and is considered one of the best places to get started. You can use it to create keyword lists, groups, traffic forecasts, and plenty of new keyword ideas. This is a great tool to use if you plan on incorporating both PPC and organic SEO at the same time.

Moz’s Keyword Explorer, Market Samurai, SEMrush, and Keyword Tool are also useful tools for keyword research. Some can be used in conjunction with Google’s Keyword Planner. This is especially useful if you need to find more long-tail keywords to incorporate into your campaign.

Utilize Google Suggest

Not sure where to start with your keyword research? Simply start typing a keyword into the search engine and see what comes up in the dropdown box of suggestions from Google. These are real options based on things that already exist on the web, so they’re worth paying attention to. You can use these terms to jumpstart your keyword research and to create new content ideas for your website pages.

Don’t just rely on exact phrases or phrases that start with the phrase you are typing. For example, I could type “best Philadelphia” and get results like best Philadelphia restaurants, best Philadelphia cheesesteak, best Philadelphia suburbs, best Philadelphia museums, and so much more. You need to drill down further to get at the real meat.

If you want to expand on those options, try typing “best _ in Philadelphia.” You’ll likely get some similar results, but you’ll also see different options as well, like best pizza in Philadelphia, best brunch in Philadelphia, and best breakfast in Philadelphia. You can insert the underscore in different spots in long-tail phrases for a wide variety of results.

Look at Your Competitors

You really need to understand what your competitors are doing in order to rise above them. Try using Keyword Planner to spy on what those in your niche are doing – especially those that always seem to be doing well. Just swap in your competitor’s URL instead of your own to get ideas from the keyword tab. You can also use the group ideas tab to get a better idea of what topic themes you should be building upon.

Focus on the Seasons

The term “seasonality” generally refers to the time of year your business does best. In terms of keyword research, it involves finding ways to make common terms that are incredibly competitive a little more viable for your business. For example, let’s say you are marketing coffee beverages.

What type of coffee beverage can you market during the cool winter months as opposed to the hot summer months? What recipes work best for each season? Different seasonings and flavors are more popular at different times of the year, but not just the meteorological seasons or the holidays. What groups of people focus on coffee consumption throughout the year (think freelancers, office workers, etc). What long-tail keywords would help you to focus your coffee product towards specific groups or seasonal events?

Explore Branded Keywords

Believe it or not, branded keywords do pretty well on Google. You don’t necessarily need to be a major brand to take advantage of this type of keyword creation. For example, if you sell running shoes you might search for keywords based on specific brands, like “Saucony running shoes” or “Hoka running shoes.” When you search for those terms you’d hope the big brands rank on the first pages, but you may just find a lot of smaller stores who carry their products are ranking very high as well.

Keyword research takes time, but if you do it right, it will help you to create a wealth of usable, searchable, popular content for your website, PPC campaigns, and organic marketing strategies. Never be afraid to experiment with or change up your keyword choices. While some keywords are standard go-to phrases, others may change month-to-month or season-to-season. Stay on top of your research, and don’t be afraid to reach out when you need a little help.

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SEO

Link Building 101: How to Soothe the Skeptics

I’m not going to lie; link building isn’t as easy as it was a couple of years ago. Of course, that’s not really bad news – we’re now better focused on creating quality backlinks on relevant websites in the industry than ever before.

The problem is that your average website owner or blogger (someone involved in business but not necessarily SEO) may not realize the value of a backlink. And let’s face it, some of them are downright skeptical when approached by other business owners asking for links.

So what’s a good link builder to do?

Let’s explore this topic!

What is Link Building?

To review, true link building is simply the act of getting other websites to create hyperlinks that direct back to your website. All of the search engines use links to “crawl” between websites. The more they find a website is being linked to from outside sources, the more important and credible that site becomes.

Sometimes, search engines discover new pages on your site (or brand-new sites) thanks to links pointing back to them. In the past, search engines would simply count the number of inbound links a site had.

Why is this an issue? Ultimately, building links became more about volume and less about quality. Link farms and link directories cropped up, giving grey and black-hat SEO experts the ability to game the system. Google was flooded with spammers for a short time and it became obvious that this is why we can’t have nice things.

Later changes to Google’s algorithms ended up hurting sites that practiced this form of trickery, especially if they had a lot of irrelevant links, and doubly especially if they were coming from sites that had no credibility of their own.

Today, link-building is more about strategizing, building relationships, and making logical connections within industries. It’s harder, but it’s also more powerful than ever.

Developing a Link Outreach Strategy

So we know that link-building is harder, and that it just isn’t as simple as slapping down links on sites anymore. All of this is to say that link building is still important, but it’s probably going to be one of the most challenging components of your overall SEO campaign. You need to have a separate, ongoing link outreach strategy to slowly and securely build an arsenal of valuable links over a period of time.

The problem with outreach is that it is similar to sales. You need to reach out to people you don’t know and essentially ask them for something. Awkward, right?

But very easy with a few of the right skills.

The better you become at outreach, the easier it will be to build partnerships with other site owners. The ongoing relationship you create is just as important as the end result you achieve in getting the link. These relationships may open the doors to future partnership or joint venture opportunities.

Assess Your Own Value

The first thing to remember is that you are not just asking for a link; you should be offering something of value that the other website’s users would find useful. The other site owner needs a reason to link back to your content. What information can you share that isn’t already on the site you are targeting?

This usually means creating a unique piece of content that you’d like your backlinks to point to. Save the short, sweet blog posts for your everyday audience; now’s the time to flex your content creation muscles and put together something truly special. It might be a long blog post, an infographic, an ebook you link to from a site page, or even a case study showcasing some of your company research. Make it amazing and worth sharing.

Building Relationships

Only after you are sure you have something great to share should you start looking for sites to contact. These sites or companies should be somehow related to your niche, but not necessarily competitors. Connect with the CEO on LinkedIn, follow their social media pages, and start reading their blogs. Begin building a relationship by making your name known. Leave thoughtful comments, share their content, and tag them in your own social posts.

Do not dive right in and ask for a link.

Building relationships and starting conversations takes time. Make sure your interactions are being noticed before you reach out to offer your own informational piece or ask for a link.

Sending the Link Outreach Email

Confident your relationship building strategies are on the right track? Now it’s time to prepare your email. Here are some things to remember as you craft your request:

  • Thank the person for connecting with you on their blog or social platforms. Or, compliment one of their blog posts by saying something thoughtful about the content.
  • Mention your content and how it relates to theirs; ask if they might consider including it as a reference in their own piece.
  • Consider not asking for a link at all. Instead, ask a question that may prompt a reply. Then, relate a piece you wrote back to the conversation you initiated.
  • If they don’t have something related enough, suggest a topic and explain how it relates to their other content. Ask if you can submit the piece as a guest post.
  • Never use a blanket template when sending link outreach emails. They read like templates and they are often ignored.
  • Consider what you can offer the site owner in exchange for the review, guest post, or link. Could you offer a coupon code their readers can use on your site?
  • Consider asking for a share instead of a website link. You may end up being shared on social media, but a lot of times they’ll share the link on their website as well. Even if they don’t build a link, social proof is still valuable and could result in a nice surge in traffic.

The number one guideline: never take a link and run. Continue to be social and comment on that site’s posts and social platforms. Remember, ongoing relationships are key and could even result in referrals to other sites later on down the line.

Lastly, always remember what link building definitely isn’t about: building web directory links, commenting in strange forums, and forcing links where they don’t belong.

Need advice on your link-building campaign? Book a consultation and we’ll find the perfect way for you to move forward.

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SEO

SEO and Current Events: What You Need to Know about Link Baiting

You’re watching the news and you see a popular story item trending just about everywhere – especially on online outlets and across social media. The first thing you might think to do is create a blog or social post of your own to take advantage of the viral nature of the story, but that isn’t always the right choice. Link baiting can be effective in some cases, especially if you are a news outlet yourself, but it is rarely the best choice for all businesses. In fact, sometimes it’s just plain inappropriate to incorporate current events into your online strategy.

Wait – What IS Link Baiting?

Link baiting is an online tactic used when you create website content with the sole intention of having people link back to it from other sites. While the concept of creating as many links as possible seems like a great idea, it’s just not that simple. It’s important to make sure the content you are putting out there is relevant to your goals, contains valuable information, and isn’t pure spam for the sake of rank.

The idea that any link is a good link is just a misconception. In fact, Google can and will penalize your website if you start publishing irrelevant content just for the links.

Is Link Baiting the Same as Clickbaiting?

Link baiting and click baiting sound similar, but they aren’t the same thing. Click baiting is when a news organization or blog writes a sensational headline that is designed to make a person click but doesn’t necessarily deliver on content. In a lot of instances, the content ends up having nothing at all to do with what the headline suggested. This is not a method you want to use.

In contrast, Link baiting has a defined goal and delivers exactly what the intended reader expected. This makes it a step above pure clickbaiting, but does not mean it’s any less inherently risky.

SEO and Current Events

Publishing content that ties into current events can be tricky. While your site may gain some traction from the SEO value of the keywords and the popularity of a topic, it can also suffer if the issue in question is controversial or badly matched to your audience. You must ensure the content provides some sort of value to your clients, even if just as a handy resource or entertainment piece.

Let’s use Hurricane Michael as an example. At the time I sat down to write this piece, Hurricane Michael was about a day away from the Florida Panhandle. Could your website leverage this current event? Maybe, maybe not. Here’s a few examples that demonstrate good link baiting:

  • Medical: Medical sites might write about hurricane prep from a health perspective – making sure you are stocked up on medication or having the proper access to generators for medical equipment.
  • Home Renovation: Home supply companies have a unique opportunity to use current events to their advantage. For example, a building supply center could provide valuable content on how to properly board up a home or minimize exterior damage.
  • Insurance: Insurance companies and agents can write about hurricane prep from a myriad of perspectives. Options include home preparedness or even specific details on how to ensure your home is properly covered from an insurance standpoint.
  • Electric and gas: These companies may have valuable information about how to stay safe and protect your home in a storm. This includes advice for turning off breakers during times of flood and how to stay safe after a storm passes.
  • Pets: Pet supply companies, veterinarians, and relief groups have loads of valuable content available for storms. This includes how to make sure your pets are taken care of during a storm and/or what to do if you find livestock or pets outside (or even wildlife).
  • Restaurant/Food: Restaurants and food suppliers, or even food retailers, also often get in the game with current events like storms. They give great advice on what foods to stock up on and how to safely prepare foods in the event there is no power or proper storage.
  • Churches/Faith Groups: Religious organizations offer significant comfort in times of high stress, and frequently lead charity recover efforts. They can offer words of encouragement, prayer, or advice for their specific audiences.
  • Disaster Relief: Emergency prep groups, such as the Red Cross, share information that can literally be the difference between life and death for citizens in a storm. They help homeowners determine the amount of supplies needed for a family and tell them how to store those supplies.

 

It’s OK to tie your content and it’s headline into a relevant current event, but only if it really makes sense. It would be short-sighted of a beauty supply store, candy shop, video game outlet, or purse manufacturer to try to tie a hurricane into relevant website content – and it might even come off as gratuitous and offensive.

There are, of course, always exceptions. Thinking of the same example, if those businesses were running some sort of event to benefit people in need before or after the storm, using the current event would probably be fine. This might look like a clothing store using their location as a distribution point for food and water, phone charging, or e even free outfits for displaced individuals. Even then, the content should be targeted specifically to that event and shouldn’t include any other sort of business information.

Here Is What NOT to Do

Never, ever run a flash-sale or special promotion around a current event unless it is a positive event. Supply stores may run sales or give discounts to make it easier for community members to protect their homes, but a “Hurricane Flash Sale” to offer free shipping or a discount on makeup or luxury clothing would be tone-deaf and insensitive. It’s also far more likely to backfire and create bad press than do you any good.

How to Find Relevant Current Events

Finding current events that are relevant to your industry isn’t difficult. You can do a simple news search each day by going to Google and hitting the “news” option after you type in your keyword of interest.

Another effective method for staying up to date with industry news is by setting up a Google Alert. Head to alerts.google.com and enter the terms you’d like to keep track of. When the words you flag come up in new articles or blogs, you’ll receive an email alert you can search for relevant, usable content.

Think outside the box when it comes to relevant content. For example, a lot of sports organizations are showing support for Breast Cancer Awareness by wearing pink during games this month. While you have to be careful about using a subject like this to make a sale, medical providers and groups that offers support services to breast cancer patients and survivors can definitely incorporate headlines that feature different teams or players and their efforts to support the cause.

Take a closer look at your current target audience. What are their interests other than your product or niche? Look for creative ways to draw direct or indirect relationships between the niches you might see featured in the news and your own. Your content doesn’t need to be boring. With a little creative research, you can create content people will be thrilled to share.

Finding my suggestions helpful? I’d like to help even more. Let’s work together and take your SEO project to the next level. Connect with me here.

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Content Marketing SEO

6 Major Content SEO Trends to Watch in Q3 and Q4 2018

It’s hard to believe we’re already part of the way through summer, and really, the year. In just six months, I’ve witnessed one of the biggest shifts in SEO and digital marketing in years – all because technology is finally catching up with the human desire for more information.

But don’t expect those changes to stop anytime soon; there are more changes coming in Q3 and Q4 2018. In this post, I’ll give you a few predictions and tell you why I believe they’ll change SEO over the next few months.

Less Guest Posting for Links

For nearly a decade, guest posting has been a time-honored and well-tested method for bringing in traffic and improving rank. That isn’t necessarily going to change, but there is a shift in how Google ranks guest posts in certain scenarios.

Essentially, if Google can detect that you wrote the content solely to get links, it may accuse you of link manipulation – and the person who publishes your content, too. On the other hand, if it informs, teaches, entertains, or is generally written with the intent of helping your target audience, it’s still okay.

To adapt, marketers (and SEOs) should stop looking at guest posting as a link-growing campaign. Instead, focus on quality and expertise and see it as an opportunity for outreach – that was always its main intent.

The Rise of Unlinked Mentions on Bing

Right now, brand mentions on social media are a pretty powerful way to get ranked. We know that Google and Bing both consider them into your overall ranking, especially if you’re a well-established business or online entity. But in order to work correctly, the user has to actually tag you, using either hashtags or the @-sign.

There is evidence to show that Google may change this restrictive rule, instead giving more importance to mentions when you’re mentioned, full stop. No tag needed.

Linkless mentions are here, and they’re going to become more important in the coming months, so be sure you’re monitoring all of your mentions – not just those with links. Many of the best analytics tools are now making these available as plugins or features, so you won’t miss out.

Expanded (Interactive) Video Marketing

We know about the fast rise of video marketing; as a content format, it’s one of the biggest trends for 2018. But in the next six months, you may see video content evolve beyond simplicity into interactive video content that tells a story guided by the user themselves. Users must click or provide input in order to discover the next piece of information, which either personalizes their experience or plays on Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).

To illustrate the interactive video concept in all its full, engaging glory, I want you to play this game created by Warner Bros. and Rapt Media. “’Focus on the Con” is a gamified video experience that lets you play the role of the con, asking you to make decisions to determine whether you have what it takes. It’s a promo for their new movie, “Focus.”

Spending a few minutes with the video will show you several interactive video marketing concepts in full play: a set up, frequent stops for input, and the need to re-click the video at points to continue playing. While this would ordinarily be annoying, in this gamified approach it’s remarkably engaging instead.

More Click Data Ranking from Google

There’s evidence to show that Google may be using A/B testing to determine user behavior and how it factors into ranking. Link Assistant talks about it here, and they’re quick to remind people that we still don’t have solid proof of exactly how serious an influence click data ranking really is (as am I).

What we know for sure is that Google does look at how likely a user is to click the results they see when presented with search. If Google ranks a page, yet no one clicks on it even though it’s on the first page, it will eventually fall off. What we don’t know is exactly what Google calls a “flag” in such a scenario.

This is where optimizing your Google snippets and monitoring even high-ranking search results with consistent performance comes in. If you notice a dive in click-through rates, something is up – it’s time to review.

Voice-First, AI-Driven Indexing

Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant have something to celebrate: they’ll enjoy a healthy increase in use throughout the year, especially where search is concerned. The reality is that more users are relying on devices like these to find answers or information. And those voice-first searchers are driving the current trend of prioritizing voice search over other manual methods.

As an SEO or marketer, you must begin to adjust your strategy to accommodate long-tail, question-style search terms now. Doing so will give you time to become established by the end of the year, when voice search is likely to become a must instead of just an option.

Deeper Personalization of Search Results

It’s about to get way more personal in SEO – and that’s mostly because SERPs are getting better at figuring out who people are and how it factors into to what they want to see. User interests, habits, behaviors, hobbies, gender, and lifestyle may all play a role in how and what search engine giants like Google and Bing show people, especially if they searching often and on the same machine.

In the past, behaviors and tracking allowed for some personalization, but this isn’t quite the same thing. Deeper personalization is more like Instagram’s interests-driven feed than a categorization of behavior, and that means it’s far less tangible. SEOs should begin structuring campaigns around deep demographics instead of just basics alone.

I’m also noticing a shift towards preferred content types in niche users, including what format a niche or industry is most likely to consume – short, long, image-heavy, text-only, video, infographic, or something else entirely. Format, length, and even quality will become a more important part of your strategy in coming months.

As an SEO expert, I always have my finger on the industry’s pulse. Understanding what’s coming, and how to adapt to changes, is the best way to be proactive and stay ahead of the game in marketing. You don’t need to be an SEO expert to get started, but if you’re having trouble, there’s no shame in reaching out to one for answers. You can get in touch with me at this link!

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