Nick Baggott's CRM and Digital Marketing Blog

Ultimate SEO Checklist from SEMrush

SEMrush have just posted this excellent quick SEO checklist on their Twitter account 

There is also a link to an excellent and very detailed article, I have pasted the link at the end of this short post. When I am running digital marketing training courses that cover SEO as part of a wider range of topics, I tend to get clients to focus on selecting keywords (particularly long tail phrases), then focusing on their mobile optimisation, external link building and writing copy in an engaging way that will help with SEO. Don't forget, if you focus on creating great content, you are on the right lines. 

The Only SEO Checklist You Will Need in 2020: 41 Best Practices

 

How to get backlinks to help with SEO

I have just read an informative and practical article on how to get backlinks for your web site to drive SEO rankings. It was written by T-ranks 

It is extremely thorough and practical and provides lots of simple tips.

Some of the tips that i particularly enjoyed were:

• Focus on guest blogging and make sure you think about your objective and the proposition to the blogger before you approach them
• How to find Private Blog Networks to simplify the process of generating backlinks for your content
• Focus on unique or skyscraper content, don't be a follower
• Focus on getting editorial links within the body copy of articles
• Create list style posts eg the 6 best SEO tips, or my 5 favourite research tools, or 7 top tips for 2020

I dont want to replicate the whole article here. If you are interested in learning more, why not check it out here

Hey Siri, how does voice search affect SEO?

How does voice search affect SEO? That is probably the most common question that I am asked in digital marketing training courses at the moment. Surprisingly, Google is using the same algorithm for both text and voice based searches, but voice queries are impacting significantly however you search. So, I decided to have a look for myself. Naturally, the first thing I did was ask Siri! This is what Siri came back with: 

So, I have had a read of some of these results and done some research of my own and firstly here are some stats:

1) According to Google, 20% of all searches are voice 

2) 65% of 25-49 year olds talk to their voice enabled device every day

3) 55% of households are expected to own a smart speaker by 2022 

4) People use voice search to ask questions. 20% of all voice search queries use one of these 25 words:

5) Teens use voice search for calling their friends: 

So, what does all of this mean to marketers?

Here are my thoughts on how marketers should respond to the growing movement towards voice search:

1) The voice and text algorithm is the same, so keep doing what you are doing. Focus on making pages load quickly, having mobile enabled web sites, generating external links and all of the other typical SEO tactics

2) People search using different language when it comes to voice - we are more conversational. For example, on text based search we may search for "best local coffee shop", but when we talk to our voice activated device, like Alexa or Siri, we may say "where is the best place to get a good coffee around here?" So, when you are writing copy, try to include some Q&A style content on the page. Frequently Asked Questions could be a really important part of your web design strategy. 

3) People tend to use voice search more for local searches, so make sure your web site is optimised for local search. The example I gave in point 2 is a typical example of this. According to this useful Forbes article, 22% of voice searches are for local content.

4) Can you create content that could become a Google "Featured Snippet" that is a short piece of content (less than 29 words) , that answers a query, such as "What is a Featured Snippet". See below as a perfect example....

How to Boost Your Recruitment Strategy Using Google Ads Campaigns

This is a guest post written by Chris Anderson of Recruitment Traffic 

Online recruiters, like many companies, regard Google Ads campaign as the best form of online advertising. They are useful for obtaining quick results and quality traffic. The challenge is how to show the paid ads to your target market at the right time. When clients or job candidates are searching for recruitment services or job boards, Google will show the ads.

The difference between SEO and Google Ads

Compared to search queries and the number of visitors, organic search engine optimisation (SEO) can deliver nine visitors compared to a paid ad’s one. So why bother running Google Ads campaigns when you can get more traffic from SEO? Well, it turns out that paid ads can convert more visitors to leads or clients than organic results.

While online ads increase your chances of increased quality traffic, they will require:

• Strategic thinking.
• Proper planning.
• Constant monitoring.

However, even with all the hard work, the campaign may not work out as you expect. It’s also frustrating if you don’t know why the Google Ads campaign isn’t working. Fortunately, you can still recover by searching and modifying the sections that are hindering your campaign’s success. To do so, consider performing the following.

Improve your quality score

When running Google Adwords, ensure that your ads have the highest quality scores possible. Google gives the high points to online recruiters whose ads, keywords and landing pages are all relevant to their service offers. So, if the ads provide positive user experience and are also relevant, the quality score goes up. As a result, Google will help lower your Google Ads costs. This is the main reason why high-quality scores are of utmost importance in any Google Ads campaign.  

To boost your quality score, Google recommends improving the following elements:

1. Click-through rate

The click through rate (CTR) measures the number of clicks online recruiters receive on their ads based on the people who’ve seen them. It’s also essential that you achieve a high CTR since every click can cost money. To help recruiters obtain such a goal, they need to ensure:

• Proper matching of keywords with search queries from their target audience.
• That the Google ads contain quality and engaging text.
• That the ad’s content and keywords are the ones used by prospective clients and job candidates in their search queries.

1. Ad relevance

Recruiters can improve the impact of their ads by ensuring that:

• The keywords used in the ads are directly related to the search queries.
• They regularly update the keywords and ad text to match any new search queries.
• They use negative keywords to prevent the ads from appearing in unrelated search queries.

1. Landing page

Recruiters must recognise the value of landing pages since they are the first step in the conversion process. To improve them, ensure that:

• The page’s loading speed is optimised.
• Visitors have an easy time navigating between pages.
• The headlines can grab the attention of potential clients.
• The images and videos are engaging.
• Every page is responsive and compatible with various devices, including mobile.

Learn and make use of negative keywords

Google Ads  campaigns aren’t cheap, so it’s vital to keep the budget within acceptable limits. One way to save money is to incorporate some negative keywords in your campaigns. Once users type a search term in the negative keyword list, your ads will not appear in their searches. It won’t get clicked on by people unlikely to use your products. As a result, your quality score improves, while keeping advertising costs low.

Make sure the ads are relevant to the search terms 

It’s vital that your ads are relevant to the search terms used by your target customers. If needed, improve the ads by adding text or keywords that your prospects and leads will be likely to use. Once you adopt this strategy, your campaign will improve its chances of turning leads into customers.

Compare your campaign with the competition

By periodically checking their competitors, recruiters can:

• Assess their strategy.
• Study their strengths and weaknesses.

Any information obtained will enable them to upgrade their Google Ads campaigns and boost the conversion rate. To conduct a successful analysis, recruiters will need reliable information about their:

• Most successful rivals.
• Service offers.
• Strengths and weaknesses.
• Threats that they pose to their business.

Only by collecting pertinent data about their competitors can an organisation establish a viable plan against their Google Ads campaigns. They can manually analyse their competitor’s campaigns or use a software tool, such as SEMrush or Adbeat.

Consider targeting previous visitors

This feature allows the ads to appear to previous visitors to their site. Its purpose is to increase customer conversion for the various services they offer. Since the users have already shown interest, they will be likely to do so again.

Convince your visitors with your landing page

The web page where visitors arrive is called the landing page. Its main objective is to convert them to leads or potential clients. To do so, a recruiter has to:

• Create a straightforward headline that will entice readers immediately, since many people have an average attention span of fewer than 10 seconds. With that in mind, the title should be short and precise.
• Remove any distractions, including unnecessary images, menus, sidebars and videos.
• Make the call-to-action (CTA) persuasive enough to convert visitors to customers. A CTA is a specific action you want the visitor to make. Without it, you’ll be unlikely to convert them as clients.
• Make sure that CTAs are placed where visitors can easily see them.

On the landing page, recruiters can engage their visitors using content, images or videos. However, remember that most potential clients use mobile devices to connect online. So it pays for recruiters to optimise their landing pages for mobile devices. Also, since Google is prioritising mobile sites over desktops, this is a big incentive to do so. Another essential feature of a landing page must-have is quick loading time. Studies show that many people will be likely to leave a website that takes more than four seconds to load. So, one of the most effective ways to increase conversion is to optimise the landing page’s loading speed.

Conclusion

You shouldn’t get discouraged if your Google Ads campaign isn’t performing to your expectations. Instead of abandoning it, consider improving your strategy. You can focus on various issues and loopholes that are making your campaign underperform. Replacing irrelevant keywords and content, and optimising the best-performing ones, can give your ad campaign a boost. Also, consider optimising the keywords and text. 

Written by Chris Anderson, head of Recruitment Traffic.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/recruitment-traffic/
https://twitter.com/RecruitTraffic
https://www.facebook.com/RecruitmentTraffic/

 

Practical SEO Advice

I have just read an excellent article on SEO by SEMrush 

It provides practical and detailed advice on SEO. It is simple to understand,technical where needed and clear. SEMrush have some excellent tools to help you to analyse how your web site (or a competitor's site) is performing. This can be really useful as Google Analytics will only work on your own site and you need your technical team to insert the GA codes on pages. 

I have cut and pasted the below infographic from SEMrush's excellent article. 

For me, I always start by getting my clients to think about Keyword Strategy first. Google Trends and the Google Adword Keyword tool are great free resources to get you started with planning a keyword strategy. Think about whether you are focusing on topical v evergreen content, as evergreen may work better over the long term, but topical content gets you media coverage and social media shares. This is an example of evergreen content (although SEO ranking factors do change from time to time). Also, have a think about whether a long tail strategy is best for you, focusing on those keywords that have lower search volumes, but convert more effectively (for example rather than a generic term like "Training courses", a long tail phrase could be "SEO training for pharmaceutical industry marketers".

I also advise clients to look closely at the internal links on your site (matching them to your keyword strategy, rather than using navigational phrases like "click here" or "download now". There is often a pay off between your SEO and User Experience strategy and the use of internal links is a great example of that. 

 

SEO Ranking Factors new research from SEMrush

SEMrush have just published a really clear diagram showing which factors most affect your SEO rankings. It clearly demonstrates how important it is that your site performs well in terms of usability, but also to me, it highlights the importance of content marketing.

Is your content relevant and engaging enough to encourage users to stay? Is it compelling enough to grab their attention quickly, so that they don't bounce straight back to Google? Is it original enough, so that other web sites, bloggers and social media users will link to it as it adds values to their readers (as the SEMrush has inspired this post)?

Have you focused on embedding the right keywords in your copy at the right frequency and included them in your meta data? Google Trends and the Google Keyword tools are handy when choosing what keywords to focus on too.

SEMrush is a really handy tool for analysing web traffic. You can use it for other sites (not just your own) and the basic level is free too. 

Why Content Marketing and SEO are one and the same

Joe Pulizzi, in his book, "Get Content Get Customers", describes content marketing as: 

“How a brand creates, delivers and governs original or curated content to attract and retain customers, positioning the brand as a credible expert and, ultimately motivating a change in behaviour”.

Effectively, he is saying, develop content that your customers and potential customers can find when they are ready to buy, or are looking for information. That content can be original information or curated incorporating content for others. You may notice that my blog is a mixture of original and curated content (as is this particular post). But, in order to be found, your content needs to be optimised for search, and easy to share in social media (note the long list of social media links at the end of this post). So, search is crucial for content marketing, and of course, content is crucial for search.

Think of the things that Google likes, that will get your site higher up the rankings - external links, keyword usage and the like. These are often driven by content. Basically, write interesting, thought provoking content and others will link to it. Use the words and phrases that your customers will search for in your content and again, Google will look favourably on your page. Some recent research from BrightEdge shows how content and search are becoming one and the same in the minds of marketers.

That is pretty clear! In the article, Jim Yu from BrightEdge also says that 51% of all web traffic is driven by SEO. So, you better be focused on it.

This article on SearchEngineWatch has some great tips from Jim Yu on how to incorporate search engine and content marketing strategies. Here are his top tips, but for more info please read his excellent article:

1) Know your audience (research their behaviours, analyse customer journeys)

2) Have a purpose (mine is to help marketers understand how to develop and execute more effective digital marketing and CRM programmes)

3) Create and optimise your content (mapping content to your audience personas, using keywords that they use, choose relevant topics and optimise for mobile)

4) Combine quality and quantity (I advise my clients to write often, but only speak when you have something useful to say)

5) Measure results and iterate (test and learn constantly).

Don't forget, if you are not sure whether a topic or service is of interest to your customers, you may be able to test interest in it first using paid search ads. I often advise clients to first do some quick, low cost PPC ads on Google to see whether this content is of interest and if it is, then go ahead and develop the detailed content and SEO strategy to the market. You could just do a paid Google ad, leading to a page saying "Content coming soon, leave your details if you want us to keep you informed". This has worked well with clients that I have worked for who are considering embarking on a new product development plan.

Don't forget, content is king, but promotion is queen! So, if you are building a content strategy, the most important promotional tools you have are SEO and influencing the influencers (see my separate blog about that). This post is designed to help you to maximise the effectiveness of a combined SEO and content strategy. 

 

 

A very simple explanation of sponsored tweets and paid Google ads

A new client recently asked me to explain in simple terms what sponsored tweets are and how paid search works. This is a very basic 101 explanation for novices who have not done either before:

Sponsored tweets: As a brand, you can choose to advertise within someone’s twitter news feed. The ads appear within a Twitter user's time line in between all of the tweets for people that they have chosen to follow. The ads have a small arrow and the word “promoted” at the bottom. Otherwise they just look like a normal tweet. The brand only pays when a user clicks on the tweet, or hits like or share. AS a brand, you would open an account, decide who to target and then build a simple tweet ad (just like a normal tweet, which would probably just be an image, 140 characters of text containing a link to your web site). You can target these sponsored tweets to go to twitter users who do not currently follow you. You may target someone who already follows a competitor or industry expert, or someone that has used a hashtag # for example.

They look like this:

Paid Google Search ads

Again, you only pay when someone clicks. You create a text ad, following a standard format and choose which keywords you want your ad to be displayed on e.g. “3D Printing for Orthopaedics”. Once you open an account, you decide how much you want to bid per click and what your total budget is. Say you have $100 budget and you bid $1 per click, your ad will appear until your budget is spent (100 clicks) and then disappear from the listings. You can use Google’s free tools like Google Trends and Keyword Planner, to decide which words to bid on and how much to bid per click. Google ranks the ads based on how much you bid, how many people have clicked on your ad when it was shown previously and whether they stay on your web site or bounce back (these last two are known as the Quality Score). It is more complex than that in reality, but that is basically how it works. Here is a short video from Google which explains it. The video is a little old, (showing the old layout) but the principles are still true. There are countless useful, "How to" videos on Google's YouTube channel. 

There are also other useful free tools like SEMRush, which will help you understand what to bid on and whether your ads are working. Don't forget to connect your web site to Google Analytics or an alternative web analytics package before you start, so that you can measure success.

For both Sponsored tweets and Paid Search ads, I would recommend starting with a small budget, testing and learning from your bidding. You can also test which creatives / offers work for you as well as which targeting model works best for you, before you roll out with a bigger budget. Why not try it, you only pay when it works!

 

How to improve your Influencer Marketing

Influencing the Influencers - probably the most important phrase in digital marketing.

Whether you are a small business trying to influence the one or two key influencers in a niche business (journalists, bloggers, advisers) or whether you are a global brand trying to reach a huge audience through celebrities or a new category of celebrities - YouTubers, then this should be a key part of your digital strategy.

Search Engine Watch have written an excellent article on How Influencer Marketing benefits your SEO strategy. This article outlines how influencer marketing will help to develop links to your web site, which drives SEO as well as how it builds visibility, engagement and keeps content updated and fresh. I would 100% agree with their views on this. The chart below is from that article and outlines the power of story telling as part of your content strategy.

Story telling is crucial. People will remember and empathise so much more if you can tell a compelling story in your content. How can you humanise the message. Google Fibre wanted to emphasise the speed of their cabling. Nick's First Pitch is the dramatic story of how Google revolutionized Nick Le Grand's life through technology. 

Once you have your message, now you need to focus on finding influencers. I use a free tool called Followerwonk to help me to find influencers. Try putting your Twitter account into the tool to see who is the most influential follower you have. What I love about the tool is that you can put any Twitter account into it (even if it is not your account) to see who their influential followers are. You have to pay if the account your analysing is large. Remember, that is you are influencing a younger, more digitally savvy audience, then the key influencers will be YouTubers, Bloggers and Gamers. They may well not be traditional media celebrities. 

Finally, think about how to approach the influencers. What is in it for them? They are getting more media savvy and more commercially minded all the time. Do you need to pay them? Can you help them to reach a wider audience? Can you provide them with credibility or unique content? Remember, they are trying hard to develop unique content that their audience wants to engage with too. 

And let your desire for control of the message go a little too. Influencers will write their content in their style. The more editorial control you want, the less desirable your news is for them to share. The more corporate the feel, the less engaging and trustworthy it will be to the audience too. 

If you have any great stories of influencer marketing, I'd love to hear them...

Jeff Bullas' 8 SEO trends for 2017

I have just read a really useful and interesting blog post from Jeff Bullas. It is called "8 Must Know trends for SEO in 2016". On Twitter he is @jeffbullas. 

He makes some logical conclusions, such as:

• Mobile is going to be even more important than it is now
• Content must be highly specific and relevant (Google will display sites that have the exact content you are searching for, so if you search for "laptop deals" then a site that only sells laptops will outperform a general computer reseller.
• Google will crack down on unnatural, spam or click bait type links
• Page loading speed (particularly on mobile) will continue to be key - I guess that reflects everyone's shorter attention spans and need for a quick solution

In addition, he makes some points that made me think differently, particularly when he talks about the Google Knowledge Graph (where more content appears in the SERP when you look for a brand name)

• Getting a wikipedia and Google+ page for your brand will help provide the content that Google will use on the SERP (see the image below for LA Lakers)
• Use nouns rather than pro-nouns so Google can understand the main topics that your site covers easily

Again, here is the link (Jeff Bullas 2017 SEO tips)