HOW TO GET MORE SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERS

Social media plays a huge role in today’s world of online marketing and brand identity. But what if your social media follower count is almost non-existent?

What can you do to supercharge your followers and fan base… especially when you don’t have time to create new content on a regular basis?

Today we are going to look at how to get more social media followers without creating brand new content. These tips and tricks will see your social media followers increase with little effort on your part.

Is Social Media Follow Count Important?

One of the most common questions people have about social media is whether the follow count is actually important?

As an online brand or business, people will check your follower count before deciding if they are going to follow you or not.

When you want to partner with a social media influencer, they will take a look at the numbers to decide if you are a good partnership opportunity.

Having a low follow count doesn’t mean that your content or brand is not up to standard. But it can impact how seriously people take you.

When you look online for tips on how to increase your social media follower count, almost every marketer says you need to create more content.

But is this actually the case?

Not always! In fact, sometimes the best way to build your social media fan base is by taking a completely different approach.

So let’s take a look at what you can do to get your follow counter ticking upwards.

Promoting Vs Informing

When it comes to social media, you have two options available to you. You can focus on selling your products or services… or you can focus on providing trustworthy and useful information.

At the end of the day, content is content and what people expect from it is the same. Be it on your website, your blog or your social media accounts, people appreciate value.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make on social media is to use it as an online sales pitch platform.

But here’s the thing about this method:

When people are looking at purchasing one of your products or services, your sales pitch is not going to have much of an impact on their decision.

They will tend to seek out reviews from prior customers, check out YouTube for opinions and thoughts on your product, and make comparisons to check out if it is worth it.

People prefer to make an informed choice when it comes to spending their hard-earned money… and you can use this to your advantage.

Forget about uploading glossy photos and sales banners that focus solely on selling and instead aim to offer real value.

By this, we mean highlighting how your product or service can benefit them, making use of customer testimonials, and explaining how it works.

Ideally, you want to answer any questions that they may have so that they are armed with all of the info that they need to make a purchase… and all without coming across as a sales pitch.

The majority of people don’t care if your item has 15% off or if your item is selling out fast. This isn’t going to attract followers. 

Informing and educating helps build brand authority and trust. Which, in turn, makes you much more follow-worthy in the fickle world of social media.

Target a Younger Audience

When it comes to social media, there is no denying that millennials lead the way. And millennials typically tend to follow brands and businesses that have a certain degree of social impact.

But what do we mean by social impact?

Basically, social impact is when a brand or identity advocates a worthy cause. Be it environmental or political, they expect so much more than just another online business.

A recent study showed what millennials really care about… and it most definitely is not flashy ads and sales pitches.

• 83% believe that businesses should have an involvement in societal issues.
• 82% believe that businesses can have an impact on addressing societal issues.
• 79% want to know which companies are doing good.
• 69% want businesses to make it easier for them to involve themselves in societal issues.

Improving your brand identity to reflect social issues, such as sustainability, environmental care, equality, fair trading, etc. will bode much better with the younger generation.

And overlooking the younger generation is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make. Not only are they much more likely to follow brands and businesses on social media. But they are also the future success of your company.

They may not be your target audience today. But getting them on side means that they are much more likely to be your customer base a few years down the line.

Start Following More Brands and Users

As with most things in life, we receive what we give. And one of the best ways to start encouraging more people to follow your social media accounts is for you to do the same.

This doesn’t mean that you need to follow absolutely every social media account that you come across. But you should try to spend a little time understanding which brands your audience follow.

Once you have a good idea of where your audience focuses their attention, it’s time to get interactive. Don’t just follow that brand or influencer. Leave them comments and get involved in the conversation.

By doing this, people are much more likely to check out your profile and follow you. And while we are on the subject of interaction, don’t be afraid to repost another brands tweet or image.

Of course, you need to make it clear that you are retweeting or sharing so people don’t think it’s your content. 

But why would you share your competitors social media content? Isn’t that counterproductive? 

In a nutshell, no! By sharing your competitors content, you are building relationships not only with other businesses but with their audience too.

This makes attracting followers easier… and all without needing to create content. Pretty much a win-win for everyone.

Build Your Following Away from Social Media Platforms

If you have a website that receives plenty of traffic every month, you have the perfect opportunity to boost your follower count away from social media.

This is something that many websites overlook. Which means they are missing out on plenty of new social media follower opportunities

But how do you get more social media followers from your website or blog? The answer is so simple, CTA.

A call to action can get people subscribing to your social media accounts without needing to leave your website. Making use of social media widgets and pop-ups on your website to pages can see your follow count skyrocket.

If you are using a CMS platform such as WordPress for your website, there are plenty of plugins that allow users to follow your social media on site.

Pop up screens are also a great way to get people following. The awesome thing about using your website to get new followers is that you know they are already interested in your products, services or brand.

After all, they are already on your website, so you know that the interest is there. 

Use a simple call to action, such as:

“Follow us on social media for much more.”

You might just be surprised at how effective this is for boosting your follow count with uses prepared to interact with your brand.

Final Thoughts

There is no denying that getting high quality followers on social media can be tricky. But once you shift focus from selling to informing and educating, things can pick up speed pretty quickly.

Of course, sooner or later you are going to need to create some kickass content to upload. But there is nothing wrong with first building connections before jumping in with regular content uploads.

For more about social media, including the best times to follow and the best types of content to use, why not check out our blog today. We have plenty of actionable content ready and waiting for you.

And while you are here, why not follow us on social media.

Article first published here: HOW TO GET MORE SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERS

SEO in 2020 – Getting Ready for Google’s Changes

Anyone who deals with SEO knows that changes can come in quick and heavy. Just as you finally nail your SEO techniques, Google goes and switches things up throwing you back to the start. 

But Google is not doing this to annoy you. Just as eBay favors the buyer over the seller, Google cares very little about your SEO pains and is much more focused on the user. 

So as you have now come to expect, you need to be one step ahead of the game to succeed. And this means switching your focus toward the search engines motives instead of your own.

And the only way that you can do this is to be armed and fully prepared to go to battle with your competitors by using newer techniques.

Today we are going to look at the future of SEO and what is expected to change in 2020.

Out With Keywords – In With Phrases

This is something that horrifies many SEO marketers. But it is something that is happening… and at a pretty quick pace.

Smartphones and Amazon Alexa are changing the very ways that search engines discover and present content. It is estimated that by 2020, approximately 50% of all internet searches will be performed on voice-activated devices.

This means that you are going to have to incorporate completely new strategies into your content creation with voice search SEO. While those ever faithful 1 to 5 word keywords will still play a role, the future is all about natural language.

As screen searches start to give way to voice searches, text links and unnatural sounding language will fall to the wayside. Trying to stuff in unnatural sounding keywords just isn’t going to cut the mustard in 2020.

As an example, voice search will favour:

“Ten of the best hotels to stay at in Sydney” over “10 best hotels Sydney”

But why? It’s all about the user experience. Voice search intends to deliver the most natural-sounding speech possible. This means that phrases that are missing conjunctions, articles and correct structure will most likely be skipped.

Using links to provide further information by directing the user to another page is also going to fall out of favour. Voice assistants cannot read beyond the link. So you are going to have to answer the questions in detail on one page.

Writing for machines is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Adopting a conversational tone that is friendly and informative will far outweigh the benefits of using unnatural sounding keywords.

Local SEO will Continue to Grow

Currently, local searches make up 46% of all searches. And the focus on local SEO is set to grow. 

Much of this ties in with the growth of voice search. This is because voice shirt tends to be a much more specific and focused on the local area.

So what do you need to focus on to improve your local SEO? The following are things that you don’t want to overlook.

Non-traditional Keyword Queries

Non-traditional keyword queries cover the card like results displayed by Google. Of course, there are many other search engines out there but Google dominates and it makes sense to focus your efforts toward the giant.

Along with your Google My Business listing, non-traditional keywords include the most important information, such as:

• Hotel near me
• Crowne Plaza
• What time is check in open?
• What time is check out?
• Crowne Plaza phone number
• Distance to Crowne Plaza
• Room rate today

Focus on Geographic Keywords

Crowne Plaza have hotels located around the world. So for local SEO you need to include geographic targeted keywords. Let’s say that we are focusing on Crowne Plaza Melbourne. What types of geographic (service in location) keywords could we use?

• Crowne Plaza in Melbourne
• Hotel rooms in Melbourne
• Meeting rooms for hire in Melbourne
• Hotels for couples in Melbourne
• Accommodation In Melbourne
• Suites in Melbourne

Google Autocomplete

What better way to get keyword recommendations then from the giant itself. Whenever you perform a search on Google, it provides you with the autocomplete function.

And this autocomplete function goes much further than just finishing your search term. It provides LSI keywords (latent semantic indexing) that help provide context to your content.

Along with that, it will give you some awesome suggestions that you may not have thought about. You can also scroll down to the bottom of the SERPs for the “people also search for” section for more inspiration.

As an example, when you type in Crowne Plaza Melbourne you will get the following suggestions.

• Crowne Plaza Melbourne restaurants
• Crowne Plaza Melbourne address
• Crowne Plaza Melbourne casino
• Crowne Plaza Melbourne gym

This gives you some pretty useful keywords to weave into your content. Of course, you need to remember to make them sound as natural as possible. So use them as sentences that ask or answer questions in a friendly and personable tone.

Revving Up for Reviews

Everything from your business service to engagement and popularity are taken into account. And this is set to continue well into next year.

It’s reported that Google is working on a system that is favoured toward highly rated and ranked businesses. This means that quality customer reviews about your products, services or brands are now more important than ever before.

Audience engagement is also taking a leading role with the way that businesses communicate with their customers. Providing content of value that answers the question can go a long way with helping.

Whenever your business is searched for directly or reviews are left, Google is taking note. The more engagement your business has, the more popularity it can achieve.

And popularity is another thing that the search engines look out for. This means that you need to focus on creating a solid reputation on social media. Getting people talking by generating a buzz around your brand, products or services may actually have an impact on your search engine ranking success.

SEP (Service, Engagement, Popularity) is definitely something you want to try to achieve whenever possible. Don’t just start the conversation, aim to become a part of it to generate a stellar online business reputation.

Final Thought

We can only go on current trends and historical changes to guess what will happen with SEO in 2020. But looking at the way things have been heading over the past 12 months, voice search is almost a dead cert.

The rise of mobile devices and voice-activated assistants are changing the very landscape of SEO. Ensuring that your websites are responsive and focus on providing the best user experience possible are also driving forces behind the upcoming changes.

If you only start focusing on one thing today, we recommend natural language and a conversational tone. If voice search continues to grow at its current rate, screen search could be almost obsolete within the next 5 years.

It’s all about finding that perfect balance between what currently works and what looks set to lead the way. Why not check out our blog for more today.

Article first published here: SEO in 2020 – Getting Ready for Google’s Changes

The Dos and Don’ts of Content Marketing

For the beginner, content marketing might seem like something that is easy enough to do. But just like with everything else in life, there are things to do and things to avoid.

The very face of content has changed over the last decade, meaning content is no longer just about written words. Everything from audio and visual content to video content and text is now commonplace. And each of these can be divided into hundreds of subcategories.

Regardless of the types of content that you use on your website, the rules are pretty much the same. And having a solid content marketing strategy in place will go a long way with helping you reach your goals.

In today’s post we are going to take a closer look at some of the biggest mistakes businesses make with content marketing. We will also have a look at the methods and techniques that not only work, but can see your content marketing strategy skyrocket.

The Don’ts of Content Marketing

And the following section, we will focus on the don’ts of content marketing. You will notice that there are more dense than dos on this list. This is because don’ts have a negative impact on your strategy. And once you know what to avoid, your chances of success improve dramatically.

Keyword Stuffing

This is something that dates back to the earlier years of SEO. And unfortunately, it is something that some businesses still do… to the detriment of their online success.

In the past, this black hat SEO techniques used to work wonders. However, today it not only detracts from the overall user experience, but is also frowned upon by the search engines.

Let’s say that your primary keyword is “automatic robot lawn mower.” Stuffing this in 20 times throughout a 500-word blog post or article is going to put your reader off right away… and Google is going to pass on by.

In today’s world, there is no place for low quality content and black hat SEO tactics. You need to be able to create content that delivers value and focus on people, not machines.

The search engines, specifically Google, look much deeper than just your primary keywords. Stuffing your articles like a Christmas Day Turkey is something best left back in the early 2000’s. It’s all about context and not keyword count.

Forgetting the Search Engines

Your content marketing strategy should have a dedicated focus on the search engines. As we mentioned above, you don’t write for machines, you write for people. But that’s not to say that you don’t need to optimise your content for the search engines.

Instead of focusing on one or two primary keywords, try to throw some semantically related keywords into the mix. Google is not just looking for keywords whenever it scans your content. It is looking for LSI keywords so that it can be sure your content is what you say it is.

But optimising for the search engines goes much deeper than the different types of keywords. You should also focus on your meta descriptions, image alt tags, robot tags, and structured markups.

Each of these works in a different way to let the search engines understand what your content is all about. The more information you give, the more likely you are to rank. But as we mentioned earlier, you should never place the search engines over your audience.

Not Listening to your Audience

Here’s the thing about the internet; if people don’t like your content, product or service they are going to make this known.

As a business, you have a good idea about the direction that you want to head in. But your customers are the ones that keep you afloat.

Any content marketing strategy worth its salt takes customer and consumer opinions into account. What exactly is it that they want to know more about? How can you improve their overall experience?

Nobody likes to see negative reviews or opinions. But the idea here is to take them as constructive criticism. Don’t see them as weaknesses. See them as strengths. Once you know what it is needs to be fixed, you can deliver exactly what your audience wants.

And if you don’t deliver… they are going to head right on over to your competitors instead.

Focusing on Sales Instead of Value

One of the biggest mistakes that content marketers make is to focus all of their content on sales. People don’t need a sales pitch to make their mind up. In fact, it could have the complete opposite effect.

Whether it is an image, a video or a full-blown article, it needs to provide the user with value. You might think that the best way to sell your products or services is to dedicate blog post after blog post about why they need it. 

But here’s the thing: the majority of people tend to trust honest customer reviews over a company sales pitch.

Instead of pitching to people, aim to answer their questions. How can your product or service make their life easier? What is the history behind it? What research or data does it have to back it up? 

Your content should create a story that leaves the reader satisfied. If it creates more questions than answers or leaves little to be desired, it’s not going to have quite the impact you expect.

A great product or service will always sell itself. And great content that focuses on more than just sales can boost it.

Ignoring your Website Content

Social media is awesome. As a business in 2019, if you’re not on social media, you are missing out on huge potential.

However, it is all too easy to focus all of your efforts on social media instead of your website. Big mistake. 

See, there is only so much you can do with social media before you need more flexibility. And this is where your website comes into play. Your website is home to your business or brand, and should always be your main focus.

If anything, social media should be used for generating traffic for your website and building your brand identity. But all of that juicy content, the content that converts, should be reserved for your website only.

If you put everything on social media, people have got no need to visit your website. Therefore, you should look at repurposing your website content for social media. Give a sneak peek. Pique their interest. Then send them on over to your website for more.

The Dos of Content Marketing

There are plenty of things you can do to improve the outcome of your content marketing strategy. The following advice can be beneficial with helping you work out a plan of action that works.

Having an Open Mind

As an online business, it is all too easy to get stuck in your ways. As people’s behaviours and the internet evolve, so should your content marketing strategy.

A great example of this is the very content that you produce. For now, you will get away with focusing on screen searches and typed searches. But by this time next year, more than 50% of all searches are expected to be voice searches.

This means that you are probably going to have to step outside of your comfort zone. SEO strategies that worked before are rapidly becoming redundant. We’ve already made this clear with keyword stuffing. But actual keywords themselves are playing less and less of a role.

Natural language and fluid paragraphs are expected to supersede standard keywords. Video content is better received than text based content. And content that provides value outweighs content that doesn’t.

A successful content marketing strategy always works best when you have an open mind. Don’t be afraid to try new techniques and embrace any changes as soon as possible.

Include a Summary

Both users and search engines love a summary. But why? The answer is surprisingly simple.

One may be a machine while the other is human, but both want to understand the context of your content from the get-go.

For humans, we don’t want to waste time reading through a huge article if it isn’t going to answer our questions. And for search engines, delivering content of value to the user is the priority.

Typically, a summary is the first paragraph of your content. It will briefly touch upon what the topic is about and what the user can expect to learn. You can throw in a “spoiler alert” to encourage the user to read on.

But why would someone carry on reading if they’ve already been given an answer? It’s all to do with the desire to learn and understand more.

And the more that people learn about your products or services, the more likely they are to convert later on in the funnel. And this leads us nicely on to the next section.

Educate don’t Dictate

Nobody likes a dictator. You might have thoughts about how people should perceive your brand, product or service… but telling them how to do so is not going to go down well.

Everyone loves to learn something. And if you do it the right way, this can have huge benefits on your content marketing strategy.

The aim of the game is to always try to educate. Let the reader know how your product or service can improve their life? Cover its back story. Find a fresh and unique angle. And most importantly, make it interesting.

As an example, let’s say that you sell organic honey online. You could focus solely on the honey. Or you could dig deeper into how it’s made, the history of honey, information about the different types of honey bees, etc.

The reader most already knows that they want to buy some honey. But what is it about your honey that makes it the perfect choice for them? 

Everyone loves a story and everyone loves to learn. 

Final Thought

Content marketing is a fickle business. What works today might not necessarily work tomorrow. Bought with an open mind, a little bit of research and an understanding of your audience, you can’t go too far wrong.

SEO is always going to play an important part in your content marketing strategy. But it shouldn’t detract from delivering valuable content that keeps the user satisfied.

After all, what is the point in ranking on the first page of Google if people don’t enjoy the content you publish? It’s all about balance. And with content marketing, that balance definitely falls in favour of the user.

Why not check out our beginner’s guide to content marketing today for step-by-step, actionable instructions. 

Article first published here: The Dos and Don’ts of Content Marketing

IS IT BETTER TO REMOVE OR UPDATE THIN CONTENT?

Thin content is one of those things that nobody wants, but nearly everybody has on their website.

Whether it’s on a products or services page, a short blog post, or your about us page, thin is definitely not in!

So what exactly can you do with thin content on your website?

You have three choices available to you.

You can no index, redirect or update.

Today, we are going to look at each of the three ways to deal with thin content so you can stay away from that delete button.

What is Thin Content?

Whenever you create content for your website, it should be juicy and loaded with keywords, LSI keywords, links, and all those other useful SEO techniques. (But not filler content)

Thin content is the opposite of this! Typically, thin content is any of the below.

• Articles or posts containing less than 600 words.
• Outdated content or material.
• Not SEO optimized.
• Contains a keyword ratio of more than 2.5%
• Has links to spammy sites
• Offers no real value to the reader
• Contains duplicate content

But is thin content always bad news for your website? Well… not always.

Sometimes thin content that has been up for many years can be a great source of backlinks. 

And if it’s featured on the first page of Google, it can be a real source of traffic.

But… as with everything in the modern era of the internet, your content is going to need to be regularly updated.

So let’s take a look at when and when not to update or modify thin content that is performing well.

To Edit or to Leave it?

This one can be a bit tricky to work out. But once you know what you are looking for, you know what to touch and what to leave alone.

The first thing you want to look at is how long ago you wrote an uploaded the content to your website.

See, depending on the topic, what was relevant it then maybe completely obsolete now.

For example, let’s say that you wrote a blogpost about SEO techniques back in 2010. Chances are that all of the techniques you wrote about are long gone and buried in the ever-evolving SEO graveyard.

Sure, the content might be driving traffic to your website. But it’s what that traffic does once it opens to page that really counts.

If people open the page only to leave just as fast, that sends Google poor user signals.

And over time, these can relegate your website to those hardly ever visited search engine pages… 2,3 & 4.

So what should you do about content like this?

Should you update it or just remove it?

Before making any rash decisions, first ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the web page have a high bounce rate?
• Is the content still relevant to the topic?
• Does it play a role in the buyer’s journey?

Not all content needs to be updated. For example, if you have a gardening website covering plants characteristics and scientific names, these are pretty much set in stone. There may be one or two new species or cross breeds that you can add into the mix. Otherwise, it is best left alone.

However, if you write about digital marketing. Chances are that you are going to need to update your content on an almost monthly basis.

Remove or Redirect Content

Choosing whether to remove or redirect content can be a tricky decision.

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is to completely remove thin content from your website. 

Be it user-generated content or duplicated content, if it’s got to go, it’s got to go. 

Here are a few situations that removal of content is preferable to redirection:

• Content is no longer current or is outdated.
• Evergreen content that no longer reflects industry trends.
• Incorrect location pages or outdated business address information.
• Content that no longer matches your current niche.
• Content created using black hat SEO techniques.

If removing content from your website it’s something you are not prepared to do, you can look at redirecting.

For any web page that ranks well in the search engines for any given keyword, use a 301 redirect to a similar page or similar content. This helps your website retain it’s value.

For a web page like this, avoid using a 404 gateway.

If you’re pages content is outdated or contains duplicate content, you can use a ‘noindex’ tag. This prevents the search engine crawlers from indexing your page and removing it from the search results without interfering with your sites internal navigation.

Ultimately, inserting a 301 redirect taking the user to a relevant page can add value to the user journey.

Updating Thin Content

Updating thin content is definitely preferable to deleting it. If your page content still adds value to your website, it makes complete sense to update it to reflect more modern and up-to-date info.

Typically, updating thin content involves focusing on improving its SEO.

But why should you update content instead of producing brand new content instead?

Here’s Why:

• Requires less time to optimise compared to writing fresh content.
• Increases your indexation rate by maintaining website size.
• SEO can increase keyword ranking possibilities.
• Content most likely already has backlinks that you don’t want to lose.

So what should you do to update outdated thin content? There are a few main things to fix first.

• Update all of your meta descriptions
• Add appropriate structured markups
• Use LSI keywords in your content
• Update your headlines and H2 Headers.
• Use fresh images with optimised alt text.

A great to turn old content into new content is to create a social video from it. 

Pull some of the text and add it to a video editing tool, such as Lumen5. 

You could also create an infographic on Canva to encourage interaction with your content.

The main thing is to ensure that everything on your page is completely up to date and relevant. 

Ultimately, it makes savvy business sense to update content you already have than have to delete it and have to rewrite it again.

Take a look at your site analytics, run through user interaction, and if it is harming your website… don’t be afraid to pull it down.

Site Audits are Important

Site audits and UX audits are things that many people would rather not do.

However, if you want to identify thin content that is damaging your website’s authority or ruining the user experience, it needs to be done.

One of the best tools to use for performing a site audit is Screaming Frog.

It analyses every page on your website and shows you where under-performing and thin content exist.

This makes it much easier to tackle problematic web pages before they start to create problems.

You should also aim to perform a Content Gap analysis at least once every 6 months.

SEMrush is an amazing way to discover content you can target that your competitors have overlooked.

You can also perform a keyword Gap analysis to find out which keywords your competitors are ranking for with similar content.

Sprinkling these keywords in any content that you update can give you a real boost in the SERPs.

Final Thoughts on Thin Content

sometimes, you just have to rip the bandage off and delete any content that has a negative impact on your website.

Once you have performed a site audit, bring any posts with less than 600 words up to around 800 words as a minimum.

any content that can’t be updated should use the ‘noindex’ tag or a 301 redirect.

And if you feel it needs to be deleted, all is not lost.

You can take that deleted content and re-purpose it as an infographic or social video to go onto social media to generate leads.

Unfortunately, the internet is not a catwalk… and thin is definitely not in!

Head on over to the blog for more useful content posts.

Article first published here: IS IT BETTER TO REMOVE OR UPDATE THIN CONTENT?

10 COMMON SEO MYTHS DEBUNKED 2019

SEO is like having a child. It constantly needs attention, rarely does what you expect, and it’s pretty much a full-time job!

Huge algorithm shifts and years of outdated information and mistruths has made it a minefield. You think you’re moving in the right direction… then BOOM! 

With so much misinformation and so-called “facts” waiting for you at every turn, it’s hard to know what’s effective and what is defective.

Most information is wildly outdated. What worked 5 years ago could be as useless as a waterproof tea bag today.

Google is much smarter than people give it credit for. Huge advances with AI and deep machine learning lets it understand much more than it ever has before.

So, let’s get started. How many of these common SEO myths are you going to be guilty of in 2019?

1 – Using Exact Match Keywords in Content

This might have been true up to a few years ago. But with Google’s evolution, exact match keywords in your content no longer need to be quite as exact.

Technological advancements, such as LSI keywords (latent semantic indexing) help search engines like Google gain a deeper understanding of your content context.

As voice search is set to account for more than 50% of all searches by 2020, natural sounding speech is not only recommended, but encouraged. It’s time to optimise content for voice based searches.

This means that using stop words in your keywords and utilising semantically related phrases can both work to help your SEO efforts.

You can write for the search engines using unnatural sounding keywords. And sure, you might get the rankings that you want. But when the user faces unnatural sounding content, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are going to bounce like a rubber ball!

Just to show you that stop words and word order don’t interfere with primary keyword search volumes and top three placement, here are a few screenshots of variants of one keyword:

See, the keyword may not be an exact match, but its intent remains the same… and Google knows this.

And the first page ranking for the top 3 websites using each variation?

 

 

Top 3 sites are identical across the board. And every single site on the first page remains on the first page. Clever old Google!

If you can weave an exact match into the title or headings, awesome. But the main thing to remember here is that  Google focuses on user intent… and has done for several years now.

Forcing unnatural keywords into your text creates poorly constructed content. And that can cause more damage than good to your rankings.

Focus on checking how each variation weighs up and check the metrics, then use a mix of them if you can. Stop words (articles, conjunctions, etc.) are rapidly rising in search volume, so ignoring them is not really best practice.

Even Yoast, an avid campaigner for avoiding stop-words has backtracked on its previous stance.

Remember: poor user experience = high bounce rate. High = bounce rate is a signal your content isn’t delivering.

2 – SEO is About Ranking Number One on Google

Taking that top spot on the first page of Google is what everyone aims to achieve, and that is a good target to have.

But here’s the thing:

Whether you rank number one, number five or number 10 on the first page of the SERPs, your organic site  traffic is going to explode.

When people perform a search, they rarely only ever visit one page. When it comes to gathering information, several sources are usually required.

So while you definitely want to have your keywords rank on the first page of the SERPs, hitting number one is no more advantageous than hitting number five.

And even if you do hit that top spot on Google, rich snippets, PPC ads, Google’s answer box, maps and more are still likely to be above you.

For ranking success, it’s all about being on page one, not being number one. So focus on a broad range of keywords instead of trying to push just one or two into the top spot.

3 – Google Penalises Duplicate Site Content

This is a big one that circulates worldwide. You’ll see it left, right and centre… and it’s really not what some people make it out to be.

In fact, Google have confirmed on more than one occasion that duplicate content does not result in site penalties.

So what is actually going on here?

Let’s say that you’re a new website and you have simply copied and pasted content from another site onto your own…

Google doesn’t look at it and say “this is duplicate content, let’s give them a penalty.” It just ignores the content completely!

And this is where this myth arose from.

People were snatching content and using it on their own sites… and not ranking for it. Even though the site they took it from was on the first page!

The search engines know that duplicate content happens on a website for several reasons. So no, you are not going to be penalised for it.

However, now that you know Google simply ignores duplicate content, any duplicate content you have should be optimised so that it can rank in the SERPs.

4 – One Tool can Fix it All

You’ll see tools everywhere on the internet claiming that they have an all-in-one solution for fixing your SEO.

In a perfect world, this would be true. But this world is far from perfect… 

That is not to say that there are not some truly useful SEO tools out there. But none of them are a magic solution to instantly fix all of your SEO problems on your behalf.

One of the best SEO tools that anyone can use for their website is SEMrush. Automated report detailing exactly what needs to be changed or fixed go a long way with pointing you in the right direction.

Of course, unless you are a site developer with a detailed knowledge of how to execute everything in the report, you’re going to find it tough.

Luckily, the internet is filled with useful ‘how-to’ guides and forums where you can find all of the guidance and information you need to crack on with it.

If you don’t perform a regular site audits, you won’t know what needs to be fixed. And any software that says it can fix everything for you automatically, well… we have a magical unicorn for sale for just $100,000.

5 – Header Tags are Irrelevant

Nope. Header tags are not and have never been irrelevant. 

Now, we are not saying that they are a major ranking factor. Nor are they the be-all and end-all of your pages syntax.

But they definitely go a long way with helping Google and the other search engines understand your website’s content.

Using your primary keywords and semantically related keywords in your title, H1 and H2 headers, along with in your content can have a positive effect on your SEO efforts.

6 – No Sitemap Equals No Ranking

Here’s another common myth that circulates the internet like a fly around your head in summer.

Now, we are not denying that having a sitemap is useful. After all, it helps the search engines get a deeper understanding of your site structure.

However… not having a sitemap does not have an impact on where your site will rank in the SERPs.

This is especially true for small sites that have properly structured site navigation. 

Of course, the larger your website is, the more a sitemap will help the search engines understand what they are looking at. And then crawl an index it much faster.

But the main point to take home from this is that having a sitemap will not boost your rankings… just help the search engines crawl and index with ease. 

Not a bad thing to have really. But not the end of the world if you don’t.

7 – Avoid Outbound Links

You’ve probably heard this one before, but it goes a little something like this…

having too many outbound links on your website will pause your PageRank to drop.

First things first: PageRank is long gone for SEO average Joe’s. 

Anyone who uses PageRank as a reason not to use outbound links needs to build a time machine and head back to 2013… you know, when the Google toolbar got rid of it.

The only ones who measure PageRank are Google… and as is becoming more and more common with the search engine giant, what happens in Google stays in Google.

Secondly: Google does not penalise people for using outbound links. In fact, it looks like the complete opposite. Websites linking to authoritative and useful resources are actually rewarded.

Yes, it’s true that the website you linked to receives a little bit of your domain authority. But you know what? That’s the whole point of outbound links.

You are voting for the site that you link too by telling Google “hey, I vouch for this site.” 

Of course, you need to make sure that any site or content that you linked to is related to your page content or niche. 

Want to save some of your link juice? Throw in a ‘nofollow’ tag. 

At the end of the day, if there were no outbound links used on the internet, there would be no inbound links (backlinks).

Just make sure that what you linked to makes total sense to the search engines when it looks at both website’s content.

8 – Blackhat SEO Doesn’t Work

This is something that we’re not too happy to admit to… but blackhat SEO absolutely can work when done right. Especially when performed by someone who knows what they are doing.

But just because something works doesn’t make it right. And black hat SEO is seriously risky business for your website.

Just like the black market, black hat SEO usage loopholes, underhanded tactics, and often goes against the rules set by the search engines.

Sure, you could pay someone to cheat your way to the top. But when Google finds out, and Google always finds out, your business will be banned (de-indexed) from the search engines.

This is why, although dodgy tactics can work, it’s always better to play by the rules and develop your SEO strategies over time. 

Building your rankings and developing your website is a marathon, not a sprint. Be the tortoise, not the hare… and reap the rewards for decades to come.

9. Meta Descriptions are a Ranking Factor

A few years back, meta descriptions were taking into account as part of the ranking decision.  2009 saw this all change.

Now, while meta descriptions are no longer a ranking factor, that’s not to say that they are not important. They are!

We like to keep bouncing back to user experience (UX), and a meta description can really help.

Google might not care about it anymore, but people do. It gives them an insight into what the content is about and if it’s what they are looking for.

Plugins, such as Yoast can help you create a personalised meta description. This prevents any text from being cut off in the SERPs. Thus giving the user a complete picture of what lies ahead.

A keyword here or there won’t hurt. After all, the meta description is read by the search engines for further content context.

But the main thing to remember is to always write for people and not the search engines.

10. Link building is More Important than Content

This one is probably one of the most ridiculous one on this list. link building is more important than content! 

See, if you dedicate all of your time to link building, you have no time for creating content.

And here is where the problem lies.

Without quality content, people have nothing to link back to!

Of course, link building is hugely important when it comes to SEO. And having several high-quality links pointing to your site can help the search engines decide when to show you over the competition.

But to be able to attract these highly sought-after links, you first need to focus on providing high-quality content.

In fact, high quality content can generate organic links that you don’t have to work on to get.

When it comes to SEO, content is king and backlinks are brilliant. But your main focus should be content that offers value and generates natural links before moving on to link building strategies.

Final Thoughts

If you really want to know which SEO methods work, ignore what the ‘so-called’ experts are saying and look at what they are doing.

If they tell you that meta descriptions should be less than 140 characters, but they use 160, they aren’t practicing what they preach.

If they say that you’re header body copy should be less than 300 words and then go on to use 600, again, they go against what they say.

Site speed not important? Yet their site loads almost instantly… you can guarantee they spend time and money making sure it is as fast as possible.

Basically, what we are saying is that while the internet is filled with useful SEO advice, take what you read with a pinch of salt.

Many people don’t mean to add fuel to the fire by spouting out more and more myths and outdated information. But this is where a little bit of research truly comes into play.

Focus on what works… but don’t be afraid to try new methods.

For more guides about SEO, SEM, PPC, digital marketing and useful tools and software, check out our blog today.

Article first published here: 10 COMMON SEO MYTHS DEBUNKED 2019

7 COMMON WORDPRESS MISTAKES TO AVOID IN 2019

It will come as no surprise that WordPress powers 33.6% of all websites around the world!

Chances are, that you too are using WordPress to manage your website. As one of the world’s most dominant CMS platforms, WordPress makes building a website easy.

Of course, regardless of how experienced you are, mistakes are going to be made. However, many WordPress mistakes are avoidable when you know what to look out for.

This list of common WordPress mistakes to avoid will help you identify potential mistakes. It will also guide you through the best fixes if you encounter them.

As the old adage goes… “prevention is better than cure” and this is definitely true when it comes to your WordPress website.

1- Failing to backup your WordPress site

There is nothing more heartbreaking than waking up to find that all of your vital data is damaged or gone missing.

Servers crash and sites get hacked… and yours is not immune!

If this happens to you and you haven’t backed up your WordPress data, your only option is to start from the very beginning again.

This is where WordPress automated backups come into play with our first WordPress mistakes tip.

One of the best plug-ins to use for backing up your WordPress website is Duplicator. 

Duplicator will back up all of your website information into a zip file. This makes downloading and uploading your entire site a cinch.

When it comes to storing your backed up data, cloud storage is the way forward. Keeping an offline copy helps protect your website against server compromisation and any server crashes.

2- Using the wrong theme

Website design is not easy for beginners. Therefore, it makes total sense to want to use a theme.

However, theme templates are not always your best friend. 

Yes, they may eliminate much of the design elements. 

But certain themes can make your site difficult to navigate and incredibly slow.

One thing that is extremely important is to choose a theme that is mobile-friendly. Websites that are not adaptable to mobiles are penalised by Google.

You also need to ensure that any theme you choose is compatible with the plugins that you need.

Don’t simply pick the first theme you like the look of and hope for the best. Spend some time comparing different themes, checking compatibility, and previewing its features.

Another thing to note is that the simpler a theme is, the faster it will tend to be.

3- Not using SEO

We have said it before, and we will say it again… a website without SEO is a website without potential.

You can create a website with all the bells and whistles. It can be visually stunning and loaded with useful content. But without SEO, it is invisible.

SEO drives traffic to your website and helps you rank higher in the search engines. This is why you need to know the latest SEO techniques.

And luckily for you, we have plenty of useful SEO guide on our blog.

It is all too easy to think that SEO is just about keywords… it’s not.

In fact, keywords don’t even make it into the top five most important SEO techniques to use. 

And with voice search beginning to dominate the way that people perform searches online, using question phrases and a conversational tone has never been more important!

That’s not to say that key words aren’t important. They absolutely are! But what is more important are question phrases, backlinks, detailed answers, internal links, content with value and visuals.

A plug-in such as yoast SEO can help you work on your SEO techniques while you work on publishing your content.

4- Publishing posts in place of pages

Many beginners on WordPress don’t know the difference between posts and pages. Using the correct type for the correct content is important.

But here’s the thing:

When it comes to your website architecture, pages and posts behave differently. And pages definitely have a leading edge for important content.

So how do you know what needs to be a page of what needs to be a post?

The easiest way is to look at the type of information you will be creating.

If the information doesn’t need to be updated or changed often, then you definitely want to publish it as a page and not a post.

Think along the lines of:

• About us
• Contact
• Pricing
• Privacy policy
• Services
• Terms and conditions

However, whenever you need to post time-based content to your site, you should always use the post format.

Posts are perfect for how to guides, articles, news updates, general updates and blog posts. 

5- Ignoring site speed

How fast your website loads determines how high you can rank in the search results.

In the past, slow loading websites could easily take the top spot on page one of Google. Today, you can find yourself being penalised if your website is too slow.

But what exactly makes a website slow?

Those ever useful WordPress plugins can seriously reduce your site’s performance!

As does having too many videos, images and audio files.

Basically, the faster your website loads, the more likely people are to stick around.

Avoid installing hundreds of WordPress plugins and stick with just the basics.

If you are using shared hosting, this can also result in a slow loading website.

Focus on optimising and reducing your image files with a plug-in such as ShortPixel. Pagespeed ninja can also make speeding up your WordPress website quick and easy.

To check your WordPress sites loading speed, head to Pingdom and pagespeed insights to see what you need to fix.

6- No or Low Security

Every day, over 90,000 websites are hacked. Of these 90,000 websites, 83% use WordPress as their CMS.

Therefore, security is of vital importance. Protecting yourself from malware, brute force attacks and hackers leaves your site vulnerable.

Luckily, there are many WordPress plugins that provide optimal security for your website. Wordfence is the best of the best and offers up impressive security features for free.

You should also be aware that updating your theme and plugins is just as important. Hackers can find their way into your website through out-of-date plugins and themes.

You should also avoid publicly displaying your email address anywhere on your website. Instead, use contact forms that act as a middleman between you and your customer.

7- Remove Theme Stock

Whenever you download a WordPress theme to use for your website, it will store templates, photos, videos, plug-ins, etc.

Run through your media section on your WordPress dashboard and delete any files that you don’t need.

Then run through your plugins to remove any that you don’t need for your website.

Finally, delete any pages that are of no use. It is best to create a page from scratch rather than use a template.

As we mentioned earlier, any images that you upload should be optimised and reduced in size.

You should also try to serve any visuals on your website as WEBP files instead of JPG or PNG. These files are not only smaller, but our next generation and designed to load faster.

Basically, what we are saying is strip your theme down to its bare bones and build from the ground up.

And as a final note, avoid publishing your website until it is ready to go live. A partially completed website is of no use to anyone.

Final Thought

If you are a WordPress beginner and WordPress isn’t doing it for you, take a look at our best CMS options for 2019.

Ultimately, WordPress is filled with many pitfalls and potential mistakes for those not familiar with the platform.

However, these seven mistakes to avoid can help you on your way to mastering your website building skills.

Article first published here: 7 COMMON WORDPRESS MISTAKES TO AVOID IN 2019

BASIC SEO TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

So you are just setting out with SEO and are not quite sure where you should start. Fear not! We’re here to get you on the right path to SEO success.

Once you have mastered these basic SEO tips, you can expect your ranking in the search engines to improve significantly.

We’ve got you covered with our top 10 beginners tips for basic SEO. So, if you’re ready to begin, let’s get started!

What Exactly is SEO & is it Important?

Before we get started with our top basic SEO tips, let’s first take a look at what SEO is. Search engine optimization helps you rank your website and content in the SERPs.

In its simplest form, it provides search engines such as Google and Bing with context about what your site and content offers.

In turn, this helps the search engines understand when and where to present your content when a user is searching for it.

Every single website that shows on the first page of Google has perfected their SEO techniques. They have mastered keywords, content and backlink gathering.

Ultimately, the higher your website ranks in the search engine results page, the more site visitors you can expect. And the more site visitors you have, the more likely you are to make sales and conversions.

Sounds awesome, right?!

Tip 1 – Keyword Research

This is the most important SEO step to take… aside from creating kick ass content! It is also the one that step that most beginners get confused with.

Keyword research lets you find high volume keywords to write into your content. The more keywords you use, the more likely you are to rank.

To begin with, you first need to find your seed keywords. These will be used in your title, URL, image alt, for around about 2% of your content text.

Once you have your seed keywords, also known as primary keywords, you then need to find semantically related keywords.

These are the keywords related to your content that users will most likely be searching for. (LSI Keywords)

As an example, if your seed keyword is flowers. Semantically related keywords would be how to grow, how to care for, what are the best types of, gardening tips, etc.

If you use WordPress, Yoast SEO will give you insights about how many keywords to use, etc. 

Tip 2 – Internal Links

internal links are extremely useful for improving your websites CTR (click through rate).

They work by linking up to relevant pages and blog posts throughout your website. Much like a spider web, each link from one page to another helps build connections for search engines and your readers.

Think of them as being the perfect on page promotion tool that diverts readers to more content they will likely be interested in.

Of course, you want to make sure that your internal links are relevant to what your content is about. 

As an example, if you have a beekeeping website, you could use internal links to any beekeeping products or services that you sell. Both are relevant to each other, thus more likely to encourage user click through.

And the longer a visitor spends on your website, the more likely it is to rank higher. The search engines noticed that your visitors weren’t bouncing, showing them that they are getting value out of your content.

Tip 3 – External Links

External links, also known as outbound links, are links on your content that point to an external website.

By linking to external websites, you help the search engines better understand what your content is about.

In fact, the more high-quality, related outbound links you have on your website, the more likely you are to increase your ranking.

This is because the search engines recognise your site as being high quality and trustworthy.

However, you can’t just go linking up to any old site. There is definitely something you want to be aware of.

• Only ever link to blogs that are relevant to your website or content.
• Limit your outbound links to a maximum of four per page.
• Before linking, check the websites domain authority. Anything less than 50 is not worth linking to.
• Never use a link farm.
• Never buy links… these can literally kill that your website in a matter of weeks!
• Message the website owner after you have created a link to let them know. If they ask you to remove it, you should.

Tip 4 – XML Sitemaps

XML sitemaps make everything easier for the search engines to crawl and index your content when you publish it.

A sitemap is basically a list of URLs that you currently have on your website. This let’s search engines such as Google know when they have missed a page or when changes have been made.

A sitemap is one of the basic SEO fundamentals that every website should have. By having one, you can ensure that your content is indexed and displayed in the search engine results page much faster than without one.

Talking about indexing. If you haven’t yet signed up with Google search console, you absolutely should. This free tool not only shows you analytics cover in your website. It also lets you submit URL to be indexed rather than waiting for crawling.

Tip 5 – Format Syntax

You might not know it, but using correct syntax is everything. Syntax is how you format and style your content. And it is an important part of SEO.

Not only does it make your content look more visually attractive. It also makes it easier for the search providers to understand your content.

But what exactly equates to good syntax?

• Always use an H1 header
• Use at least for H2 headers
• Paragraphs should never exceed 90 words
• Sentences should never exceed 20 words
• Aim to use a maximum of three sentences per paragraph
• Each subsection should be no more than 300 words
• Use sentence case for titles and headings
• Bold important text

And that’s pretty much it when it comes to syntax!

SEO Tip 6 – Optimise Images

You should always use images on all of your content. Images make content visually attractive and improve readability for the reader.

However, images can drastically slow down your website. And a slow website is often penalized by Google.

When possible, you should serve your images as a next-gen image using WEBP. If you use WordPress as your CMS (content management system) you can use the ShortPixel plugin to do this.

Avoid using PNG files as these are much larger than JPEG files. And JPG files are much larger than WEBP files.

Talking about images, you should also make sure that every image on your website has an image alt tag. This helps search engines understand what the image is about and shows it to those using  image search.

Tip 7 – Use Robot.txt files

Robot.txt files, also known as robot tags the search engines which pages on your website their crawlers should index, and which they shouldn’t.

For example, if you have a page or blog post that you don’t want the search engines to index, you could use the ‘noindex’ tag.

Likewise, if you are linking to a website that you are not sure about, you can use the ‘nofollow’ tag. Perhaps it has a low domain authority or could be potentially spammy; whatever the reason, no follow prevents external sites from affecting your SEO efforts.

If you are using WordPress to build your website and publish content, you can use the plugin Meta Tag Manager to quickly and easily add and remove robot tags to your content.

Tip 8 – Optimise Your Meta Description

These little snippets of information are shown in the search engine results page. You will see them every time you do a Google search.

They provide both readers and search engine context to what the content is about. 

Your meta description should be perfectly optimised to the correct character limit. This is currently averaging at around 140 characters. Anything over this will be cut off.

Try to use your main keywords in your meta description and answer the question instead of asking people to click to read more.

By answering the question in the meta description, you are already providing real value to the reader. In turn, they are much more likely to click through to your website.

Tip 9 – Write for Backlinks

If you seriously want to rank higher in the search results pages, you are going to need to get those all-important backlinks!

But unfortunately, finding backlinks is almost as hard as catching unicorns! 

However, there are some easier ways to get backlinks that don’t involve black hat SEO techniques. 

The best way is to produce content that provides real value! This means providing detailed and in-depth content with lots of data, statistics and shareable content.

You can also send out a message seeking guest writers to feature on your website. This method works really well as your guest writers are much more likely to link back to your website to show off their work to their followers.

Double bubble! You score that elusive backlink along with getting extra traffic.

Ultimately, if you want to get backlinks, you have to create content that people use to reference in their own content. Become an authority and watch as your DA starts to climb.

Tip 10 – Write Longer Content

When you take a look at the websites that perform best in the search engine results page, a common theme is clear. 

Longer, more detailed content is a clear winner. That’s not to say that you need to start writing 5,000 word blog posts to rank, but every now and then, go longer than you normally would.

The average website on page 1 of Google has approximately 1,200 to 1,600 words. Why does longer content work better?

The answer is pretty simple.

The more words you use in your content, the easier it is to make use of more keywords. It is also much easier to write these naturally. The worst thing you can do is stuff short content with keywords. This can relegate you to the lost pages of Google… which you really want to avoid.

So when should you create blog posts over 1,600 words? If you are covering a particularly interesting topic that people are going to learn from, this is the time!

And one thing to remember when creating large posts is that you should aim to make them timeless. This is what is known as evergreen content and can drive traffic to your website over extended periods of time.

At the very least, you should be creating content of a minimum of 800 words. Anything less than this and you are going to find it difficult to get your content to rank.

Final Word

That’s about it for this beginners guide to basic SEO tips. Try to implement as many of these 10 tips as you can into your everyday content production.

The more you use them, the more familiar you will become with them. And once you have them mastered, you can move on to more advanced SEO tips for improved rankings.

If you are interested in learning more about website design, web development, SEO tips, PPC, and the different types of Google software, check out our blog.

We have an extensive archive filled with useful and up-to-date information covering everything a digital marketer and beginner web designer could need.

Article first published here: BASIC SEO TIPS FOR BEGINNERS