by Marketing Manager | Analytics, Content Curation, Content Marketing, Google Tools, How To's & Info you can use, Internet Marketing, Marketing Tips, Search Engine, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Trends
Every website wants some love from Google. A high rank on Google’s SERP can mean the difference between getting organic traffic every day and never seeing a single visitor on your site that you didn’t pay for. The catch? Google’s playing hard to get – or it might be if you are making some common mistakes that send signals that your website isn’t the authoritative, worthwhile destination you want it to be. The good news is that these mistakes are easy to correct. Here are 7 things that Google hates and some quick ways to stop doing them and start getting the organic traffic you need. #1: Poor User Experience When Google’s algorithms return a list of search results, the company’s goal is always to deliver an optimal experience for any user who clicks on your website. If your page is slow to load or difficult to navigate, Google hates it and will likely relegate your site to oblivion on the second or third (or lower) page of search results. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix. Start by using Google’s PageSpeed Insights to ensure your page has a speed of 80 or higher. You should access the Core Web Vitals Report on your Google Search Console to identify additional problems. Finally, make sure to optimize your images by using the smallest file size that delivers the results you want and minimize redirects both internally and in your outgoing links. #2: Lack of Quality Backlinks You already know that high-quality backlinks are an essential element of SEO. If authority domains are not linking back to your site, it can negatively...
by Marketing Manager | Content Curation, How To's & Info you can use, Search Engine Optimization
Being a content creator can feel like the Indy 500. The gas pedal is on the floor, but it’s just left turn after left turn. And every time you lift your head and look around, you’re on the same oval track, unable to punch through the pack of cars keeping pace around you. In the world of content creation, that unending oval track is the hunt for higher Google rankings. It’s maddening to feel like you’ve done everything right, but still find yourself unable to punch through to the top three spots on the search engine results. Today, we’re going to talk about how you can optimize your old content to improve your SEO and get onto that racetrack’s podium. What Content Should You Update? “All of it” is definitely not the answer. You don’t have time for that. Instead, look for content that is already ranking for a good keyword on the first page of search results — but not in the top three positions. It may seem counterintuitive to focus on content that is already doing well, rather than on a blog post on page two or three. Here’s why it’s not. The jump in clicks that you’ll see by moving from position five to position three is significantly higher than the jump you’d see by moving from page three to page two. The average click-through-rate (CTR) for a result in position one in search results is 34.2%. In position four, it’s 8.1%. By time you get to the second page of results, CTR is under 2%. By getting from position...
by Marketing Manager | Blog, Blogging, Content Curation
In ancient times, a powerful king oppressed his people. The citizens of the land feared the king and begged the gods for help. So the gods created a wild man that could equal the king and stop his misdeeds. The wild man and the king fought a great battle, but the king showed superior strength. After all was over, the two men became friends and began a grand journey together that would see triumph, heartbreak, and the search for eternal life. This is the Epic of Gilgamesh, the earliest surviving work of literature, written around 1800 BC. Human beings are natural storytellers. We’ve been sharing tales around the campfire since the invention of the campfire! Even ancient cave paintings from 30,000 years ago tell stories of the hunt. So what does the Epic of Gilgamesh have to do with blogging? Turns out, a lot! How Do Stories Draw in Readers? Stories help your writing to stand out. In the unending ocean of blogs (over 500 million of them!), interesting stories share personality and entertain the readers. While they may be searching for answers to their problems, they also want to have a little fun! Clever storytelling also helps the writer to connect to the reader. It shares your unique voice and displays your personality. Telling stories is how you can get people to look forward to your content eagerly, instead of reading a blog once and never coming back to your site. One study showed that a blog post that opened with a story saw nearly 300% more readers scroll all the...
by Marketing Manager | Content Curation, How To's & Info you can use, Marketing, Social Media
The newest social media app on the scene is an invite-only platform called Clubhouse. With its exclusivity and limitation to iPhones (for now), there are a lot of questions about this new app and what it brings to the table. Get a quick overview of Clubhouse and learn if it’s worth your time and attention! What is Clubhouse? Where most social media has gone highly visual with photos, videos, stories, and reels, Clubhouse has gone in a different direction. Perhaps inspired by the popularity of podcasts, Clubhouse is all audio, with no visuals at all except for users’ profile photos. Users can join virtual rooms to listen in on panel discussions happening in real time. How do you find conversations? When you create your account, you’ll be prompted to select some topics of interest. Then, the app will notify you when there are conversations in progress that you might be interested in. The more users and clubs you follow, the more suggestions you’ll receive. Anyone has the opportunity to start a conversation on Clubhouse, but the most popular rooms host celebrities and influencers. The app leverages FOMO to encourage people to stay tuned. When the chat ends, that’s that — there are no recordings of conversations, so there’s no way to revisit them. (Although some users record the conversations outside the app, posting juicy bits to YouTube or Instagram…the internet is forever!) But it’s not strictly passive. If you’d like to chime in, you can “raise your hand” by touching an icon, and the moderator has the option to invite you to the virtual...
by Marketing Manager | Content Creation, Content Curation, Content Marketing, How To's & Info you can use, Social Media
There are only two ways to increase profitability — to increase sales, or to cut expenses. Some strategies for increasing sales are huge undertakings. A new product line or a major marketing campaign cost major time and money. But without a major investment, you can increase your sales by improving your conversion rate — the percentage of users on a website or social media platform that completes a desired action. The action could be making a purchase. Or it could lead users further into your sales funnel by signing up for an email list, creating an account, or scheduling a call. By focusing on conversion rate, you’re working with what you already have — the people who you’re currently reaching with your marketing. With decent web traffic, even a moderate increase in conversion rate can result in real dollars. So here’s how you can start optimizing your conversion rate — without spending a penny. How to Track Your Conversion Rate To improve your conversion rate, first you have to establish your baseline. Start by calculating your current conversion rate with this basic equation: # of times a user completes a goal action / your site traffic = conversion rate This could be for a PPC campaign, a Facebook ad, or your general website’s performance. For your overall website, you must decide how you plan to track certain goals. For example, you could create a specific URL that customers are redirected to after they take an action. That action could include downloading a lead magnet or signing up for your email list. Every view...
by Marketing Manager | Blog, Content Creation, Content Curation, Content Marketing, How To's & Info you can use
Professional copywriters are experts in sales and human psychology. They know what makes people tick and how to connect with an audience to get them to spend their hard-earned dollars on a product or service. They’re also very expensive. A top-tier copywriter can charge upper five-figures to write a website. And many small businesses aren’t prepared to make that kind of investment. Instead, they (or their head of marketing) will write the copy themselves. Fortunately, there are some quick tips that you can adopt to improve your sales copy today, whether it’s your home page, product descriptions, direct mail, or whatever else you use to communicate verbally with your customers. #1 Write Like You Talk As soon as we start writing “as our businesses,” we become stilted and formal, like we’re trying to impress our high school English teachers. We replace perfectly good words like “use” with “utilize” to try to sound more professional. But all we’re really doing is making it harder for the reader to understand. A good rule of thumb is to write your copy to a 6th to 7th grade reading level. That doesn’t mean you’re dumbing it down. The Lord of the Rings is written at a 7th grade reading level, and J.R.R. Tolkien was no slouch. To prevent falling into overly formal writing, write like you talk. Keep sentences short, and use contractions like “didn’t” instead of “did not.” Starting sentences with transition words like and, but, although, and instead can help the reader to follow your thoughts. After you’ve finished your draft, read it out loud. It...
