Page titles are probably the most overlooked aspects of SEO. Crafting a good page title is a must-have skill for anyone aiming for high SERP conversions. Title tags are a major factor in helping search engines understand what your page is about, they also determine the first impression visitors have of your page.
It’s important to always optimize your page title as search engines mostly rely on it when ranking because it gives an insight into the content of a page. To excel at SEO & get business online, it is important to play by Google’s rules. In 2017, Google accounted for over 79% of all global desktop search traffic, followed by Bing at 7.27%, Baidu at 6.55% and Yahoo at 5.06%, clearly ranking on Google is essential.
Whether you’re looking to improve the SEO of your website, or increase the impact of a content marketing strategy, optimizing page titles is an important step. In this article, we’ll talk about best writing practices for page title optimization.
Google will display 50-60 characters of a page title in the search results before cutting it off, so you should aim for page titles that are around 55 characters or less in length, including spaces.
The length of your page title can affect how it is presented in the SERP. If it’s too long, it’ll be truncated. If it’s too short, Google might decide not to show your page in the search results at all, or simply overwrite your title.
Source: Google.com
To be safe, make sure the most important or descriptive words in the keyword are towards the beginning so they’re less likely to get cut off. A good page title should be structured like this: Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name.
Note that longer titles may work better for social sharing in some cases, and some titles are just naturally long. While it’s good to be mindful of how your titles appear in search results, there are no penalties for using a long title. Use your judgment, and think like a search engine user.
Every page on your website is unique and it should be treated as such. It’s important to have specific, descriptive titles for each page on your site. The Page title should reflect the individuality of each page. Unique titles help search engines understand that your content is unique and valuable, and also drive higher click-through rates.
Customize the page title on each page of your website so that they accurately describe what’s on that specific page. With 57% of B2B marketers stating that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing initiative, won’t it be smart to ensure your business pages are seen and understood?
On the scale of hundreds or thousands of pages, it may seem impossible to craft a unique title for every page, but modern CMS and code-based templates should allow you to at least create data-driven, unique titles for almost every important page of your site.
Every page on your website should answer a question or provide valuable information someone is searching for. Your website will be more useful to searchers if it ranks in search for the right term – just when they’re looking for the information you provide. This is extremely important. A well-crafted title should include your target keyword. So for each page, you should have a target keyword (or a few) in mind.
Since Google’s algorithm uses the page title as one of the main ways to determine what a page is about, A good title helps both search engines and users understand what the page is about, and having your keywords in the title is a step towards that direction. That makes it clear to Google that this page is relevant for anyone searching for that specific term.
It’s sometimes helpful to have a few descriptive terms in the title, but it is overkill to have the same words or phrases appear multiple times. While there is no penalty built into Google’s algorithm for long titles, you might face challenges if you start stuffing your title full of keywords in a way that creates a bad user experience, such as: Buy shoes, Best shoes, Cheap shoes, shoes for Sale.
This kind of keyword stuffing can make your results look like spam to Google and to users.
This is also very crucial. Your titles should be interesting enough to catch and hold the attention of searchers. While page titles are very important to SEO, remember that your first goal is to attract clicks from well-targeted visitors who are likely to find your content valuable.
It’s important to think about the entire user experience when you’re creating your titles, in addition to optimization and keyword usage. The page title is a new visitor’s first interaction with your brand when they find it in a search result — it should convey the most positive, important and accurate message possible.
Avoid vague descriptors like “Home” for your home page, or “Profile” for a specific person’s profile. Also avoid unnecessarily long or verbose titles, which are likely to get truncated when they show up in the search result listings.
Consistent SEO plays a vital role in helping you achieve your goals. But you can’t just spend a week dedicated to SEO and be done with it for the next three months and expect success. You need to actively track your progress adjust as required. An SEO company will offer you guidance in a constantly evolving industry with optimal strategies changing. Their sole purpose is to help you improve your visibility online.
An SEO company will help place keywords in your page titles to help Google rank your page, add well written, keyword rich copy to underperforming landing pages. These SEO professionals also provide a range of services, including auditing your site, developing a tailored SEO strategy, and implementing the tactics that will help your business rank for keywords and gain organic traffic through search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Outsourcing to an SEO company will give your website the best possible chance of placing highly in search engine rankings and driving a higher volume of relevant traffic to your website. Within months of having your website SEO outsourced to the right people, you should find that your website’s traffic skyrockets.
Whether your aim is to optimize your page title or drive traffic to your website in order to increase your profits or your website’s popularity, ensuring your page titles are optimized put your site on the right lane!
Video is still the most powerful tool for getting your message across, short of a face-to-face conversation. The strength of this medium is no secret, and companies who are serious about being heard turn to video.
Whatever your business goals happen to be, investing in video ads can be a giant leap forward for a variety of objectives — like selling or demonstrating a product, explaining your services or convincing people to visit your site. Anything is possible if you know how to make a video ad that people want to watch — and how to position it successfully on Facebook.
In case you haven’t heard, Facebook’s social media community is huge (2.23 billion monthly active users as of Q2 2018), and expanding at an impressive rate: 11% year over year. It’s a place where your customers spend a fair amount of their time and, without a doubt, a place where you should be interacting with them.
People use Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family, but this online community also offers them the opportunity to connect with brands they like or want to learn more about. In fact, as many as 49% of users like a Facebook page to support their favorite brands! It’s not uncommon for Facebookers to make purchasing decisions based on content or ads they’ve viewed in their feed, sometimes following links to buy right on the spot.
So if your business still doesn’t have a Facebook presence, you’re behind the curve.
Keeping in touch with your current customers is one thing, but staying relevant (and profitable) means you need to figure out how to engage a huge pool of potential customers regularly – and one of the most straightforward ways to do that is through Facebook ads.
Want to improve sales to women age 30 and over? Or tell West Coast millennials about a new product? Advertising on Facebook gives you the ability to reach people with very specific demographic profiles. And with an average conversion rate of 9.21%, Facebook ads are pulling their weight:
Further Reading:
Facebook videos get 8 billion views every day – and 100 million hours of video are viewed daily – so using video for your Facebook ad is a sure way to stand out in cluttered feeds. Unlike photos or text posts, video ads allow you to tell a story, explain your product or show how your brand fits with a certain lifestyle.
Here are a few more reasons why video is king of content:
Facebook auto-plays your video, but you still need to capture a user’s attention enough to stop them from scrolling on by. If you can get your main point across in the first three seconds of your video, your odds are better. A recent Nielsen experiment showed that 74% of a video campaign’s impact can be achieved within the first 10 seconds, so try to keep your creative as short and sweet as possible.
Once you have your audience’s attention, the best way to keep them watching is to tell a good story. If you engage your viewers with a plot, characters, etc., they’re much more likely to keep watching ‘til the very end.
Here’s a great example of an attention-getter that works – the Google Chrome Speed Test video:
In the opening, we see a quick montage of powerful and literally explosive images (lightening, red paint splashing on a fake ear, a combusting potato). The audience is drawn in by close-up footage of experiments with dramatic lighting: Chrome Browser vs. Potato, Chrome Browser vs. Sound Waves and Chrome Browser vs. Lightning.
The three challenges show the raw speed of Google Chrome without the need for wordy explanations. It’s a “show don’t tell” scenario that leaves a definite impact on the viewer. Finally, the video ends with a “Test It for Yourself” challenge to its audience. Brilliant!
Another stellar example of how to capture interest right off the bat is How to Use a Raw Egg to Determine if Your Mattress Is Awful:
Purple Mattress (the company) uses a very unique stunt style to demonstrate the main value proposition of their product: support and comfort.
They use the playful theme of children’s stories (Goldilocks and the Three Bears) to get their message across, including a host that embodies a character from this tale. The styling of the environment and costumes of the actors are extremely unusual, and the humorous stories embedded with product features make it very hard to stop watching.
Considering that 85% of Facebook videos are watched with the sound turned off, it’s crucial that your video ad work even when muted. After the influx of auto-play videos that caused most people to switch to sound-off mode in their settings, your video ad needs to capture attention with or without sound.
Here’s how to do that:
In this video Introducing the Lily Camera Drone, the producers creatively show the appeal of their drone product by designing the video to convey the messaging without words:
Set to music, we meet the aerodynamically designed drone up close, and then fly along with it as it tracks a snowboarder, kayaker and hikers on their adventures through picturesque landscapes. Clean, white text tells us the specs and capabilities of the drone’s shots, with special call-outs for certain features like the tracking device with waterproof casing. This exceptional muted design (with music optional) shows not only the product in action, but it lets the viewer feel like he or she is right there at the controls.
During this Introducing Skyroam Solace: Your 4G LTE Global WiFi Hotspot and Power Bank ad, we see a dynamic example of a video that tells its story visually (with a great descriptive name, by the way).
The concept is simplicity itself, with no distractions, just product imagery and need-to-know information. The producers artfully detail the core messaging with visuals and text that communicate the features and benefits, without relying on the audio component. You’ll see that the video unfolds almost in the style of a product brochure, giving each key point the proper attention.
Further Reading:
Generally, advertising is something that gets in the way of the program or video that users really want to see. So why not “skip the ads and start telling stories“? That’s what the best ads do. Advertising gurus “know the key to winning over consumers is to share stories that are worthy of their time.”
This Facebook ad from Organic Valley – Save a Bro You Know: The Brononymous Hotline – is an excellent example of great storytelling and attention-grabbing content:
In this video ad, the primary vehicle is humor, lending itself to a storyline in which muscled “bros” chug protein shakes filled with “questionable” ingredients. Enter Organic Valley’s hero product to “save the bros” from synthetic protein and make their workouts worth more!
It’s clever and engaging, and even involves “secrecy” testimonials playing on the stigma of organic protein, with a Brononymous Hotline that actually invites readers to engage with social media for coupons to try the product. It’s an entertaining twist that has plenty of features and benefits embedded, with an easy-to-swallow format. Keeping the metaphor going, the story ends by inviting viewers to visit SaveTheBros.com!
Another great example is this video from Airtable entitled Airtable – Glormax Returns:
The company does a commendable job of giving the viewer an engaging storyline that holds their attention from the get-go, while promoting the product — a collaboration platform to help grown-ups work more efficiently. By using child actors to detail the product’s features, it feels less like a commercial and more like a mini movie.
One thing’s for sure, it’s definitely hard to turn your attention away once you’re invested in what the talented kid characters have to say! It’s cute, funny and interesting to watch.
Further Reading:
In a Facebook feed, especially on a mobile device, square videos take up more screen real estate than traditional-sized, horizontal videos. Going square is also a great way to make sure your videos are primed and ready for Instagram ads, too.
Often if viewers don’t understand the hook of a video right away, they’ll read the title or description. Make your title compelling and descriptive, and write a description that is intriguing and informative so that viewers stay to watch. Sometimes a preview of the content can be just enough to get them excited.
After you’ve tested your Facebook video ad for a few days, go back and review how it is performing. You may want to change up your target demographic to the audiences that are most engaged with your video — or even test some new creative in the title, description or video copy. Keep playing with the variables until you hit your original advertising goals!
Your Facebook video ad is pointless without a “next step” for viewers. Make sure your target knows what you want from them by including a simple but clear call to action at the end, such as “Click to shop”, “Get started with [product/service]”, or “Visit website to learn more.”
If you are not making good use of your Facebook presence, you’re missing out on a huge resource (2.23 billion monthly active users and an average conversion rate of 9.21%, to refresh your memory!). Since so many people spend so much time on this social media platform just scrolling through their news feed, it just makes good business sense to create Facebook video ads.
Keep these tips in mind and be sure to review these and other compelling Facebook video ads to ensure success for your business:
Further Reading:
The post How to Create a Facebook Video Ad that Gets Attention appeared first on Single Grain.
What follows are the most popular articles that we published in August 2018, recognizing that articles published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ...
The post August 2018 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts appeared first on Practical Ecommerce.
Natural search has become the doorway to your site. That door can open any page. Sites were once developed so that visitors would land on the home page and follow a prescribed path with tailored messaging along that path to a specific destination where they could convert
The post SEO Is the Center of Ecommerce Marketing appeared first on Practical Ecommerce.
For some time now, Google advertisers who embark on Universal App marketing campaigns or use responsive display ads have been frustrated over a lack of reporting metrics. The limited data makes it difficult for these advertisers to determine the ad combinations are the most effective.
Research by Google, however, revealed that 91 percent of mobile device users have purchased or planned to purchase something after they saw a relevant ad.
Since relevance is a key factor behind the which ads most appeal to consumers, Google recently rolled out an ad strength metric and also suggested best practices and key insights that can help marketers improve their ad's performance.
The metric on ad strength will provide advertisers with a barometer that can measure an ad's content. Ratings will range from “poor” to “excellent.” The metric will also measure an ad copy's diversity, relevance, and quality. It will also have actionable feedback, thereby making it easier for this tool to check and enhance an ad's effectivity.
Marketers will have access to ad strength early September and the metric will hit the responsive search ad platform shortly afterward.
Google also shared some tips and best practices to improve campaign performance. For instance, the company recommends that ad executives utilize several unique headlines, design elements, and product descriptions to assist Google's machine learning feature in churning out multiple ad combinations.
Another suggested best practice would be to create a minimum of five headlines for responsive search advertisements. For responsive display ads, it would be best to come up with five brand logos and about 15 images, descriptions, and headlines for every ad.
The combination of diverse ads and Google's machine learning feature is a potent one. The feature ensures that your advertisements are personalized, helpful, and relevant to a wider group of consumers. This customization will result in ads being shown more often, thus reaching a large pool of prospective customers. According to Google, marketers that integrated machine learning with their campaign saw 15 percent more clicks.
Google has also taken steps to make it easier for advertisers to design effective responsive search ads. The company now gives marketers a sneak peek of different ad combinations as they are developed. They can also check the reports and details for descriptions, headlines, and top combinations. Knowing these numbers will help you see which ad appears more frequently in search results.
The post Google Introduces New Metrics to Help Marketers Test Ad Strength appeared first on WebProNews.
Editor’s note: Beverly Jackson is a finalist for 2018 Content Marketer of the Year. We’ll share insight from CMY finalists in the blog before the winner is announced at Content Marketing World in September.
When was the last time you went to a casino? When was the last time you went to Las Vegas just for the gambling?
Though plenty of people do, a much larger set of people don’t put gambling or Las Vegas at the top of their what-to-do-for-fun lists.
How to gain recognition in a larger market – while keeping existing customers clamoring to return – posed a challenge for MGM Resorts International. With its flagship property, MGM Grand, associated so closely with Las Vegas, few people realize how many properties the company operates (in Las Vegas and around the world), let alone what MGM Resorts offers apart from a casino experience.
Shifting the market’s perception of the company from gaming is the goal of the digital, organizational, and cultural transformation the company is going through. Instead of simply gaming, MGM Resorts wants its 28 global properties to be known for something with a near universal appeal – entertainment.
Content stands center stage in this effort. But it isn’t just any content.
“You don’t say you’re going to compete with Disney and then put out content that looks like Firestone,” says Beverly Jackson, vice president of social strategy at MGM Resorts International.
Don’t say you compete with Disney and put out content that looks like Firestone, says @BevJack
Click To Tweet
Beverly’s work as head of the team that strategizes, conceives, creates, and distributes the social content promoting these experiences earned her a nomination for Content Marketer of the Year. And it offers several lessons for other marketers.
MGM Resorts International operates many well-known destination brands including Aria, Bellagio, MGM Grand, The Mirage, Circus Circus, and others in Las Vegas. Many of these properties have distinct brand characteristics and audience segments. Aria, for example, touts smart-technology experiences like tablet-controlled services, while Circus Circus focuses on family-friendly, theme-park-style experiences.
When Beverly joined the company in 2015, one of her challenges was to create a social strategy and presence for the parent brand, MGM Resorts International. Although people knew individual properties’ brands, the parent brand only mattered on Wall Street as investors evaluated the company’s overall inventory.
Beverly first brought together all of the brands’ social and content strategists and creators into one central department. Though they now work together, the teams preserve the tone and approach that make sense for each property.
Consider the difference in tone between this tweet from Circus Circus:
There’s nothing like this feeling…RT if you agree. pic.twitter.com/uxow81DruB
— Circus Circus (@CircusVegas) June 30, 2018
And this one from Aria:
Embrace the sights of spring. https://t.co/OINWT2Skjx pic.twitter.com/fBT7wsNac0
— ARIA Las Vegas (@AriaLV) April 10, 2018
Though the experience on display differs, the theme of entertainment unites them. In fact, the idea that entertainment is a human invention ties together the brand content.
thank you for a record-breaking year, @goldenknights. because of you, the city stands #vegasborn. pic.twitter.com/4lnrsG6RB1
— MGM Resorts (@MGMResortsIntl) June 8, 2018
And that emphasis on entertainment extends to properties far beyond the Strip. Social content counting down to the August 2018 opening of the MGM Springfield in Massachusetts, for example, highlighted the range of entertainment available.
Gaming gets a plug. But so do wining and dining.
The countdown has begun which means @ChefMichaelMina‘s Cal Mare culinary delights are that much closer. https://t.co/cwPHkQ7dmo pic.twitter.com/SgLM159MlW
— MGM Springfield (@MGMSpringfield) August 14, 2018
… and even quietly reading.
Relax, unwind, and let your imagination wander in 4 days. 08.24.18 https://t.co/ek5eqWrtDv pic.twitter.com/tq3GSK3O9g
— MGM Springfield (@MGMSpringfield) August 20, 2018
The content ties the new property to many Vegas staples, but also shows what the property offers regardless of your interest in gambling. The Boston Globe took note, calling it “as un-Vegas as Springfield itself.”
MGM Resorts owns 400 restaurants and nightclubs, and hosts thousands of events each year featuring some of the biggest names in entertainment: Bruno Mars, Cher, Rickie Martin, Lady Gaga, and Aerosmith. It also owns a WNBA basketball team (Las Vegas Aces) and Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena, which is the home of the NHL team the Golden Knights, Stanley Cup contenders in its inaugural year.
Much of the related content created and promoted by Beverly’s team rolls out on social channels (as in this example):
thank you for a record-breaking year, @goldenknights. because of you, the city stands #vegasborn. pic.twitter.com/4lnrsG6RB1
— MGM Resorts (@MGMResortsIntl) June 8, 2018
But the MGM Resorts team also looks at creating experiences that bring people along the customer journey. When Beverly talks “content,” she’s talking about content for social channels and marquees, in-room or mobile devices, and the company’s app.
“We have to be able to tell amazing stories in 60-, 45-, 30- and 15-second increments and on a 4-inch by 2-inch screen,” she says.
And the stories need to do more than just entertain. “Social and content are designed to hit people where they are and move them along the journey,” Beverly says. “Someone in the exploration phase (can) see beautiful pictures of suites and videos to get them excited about the trip. If someone’s in town, they may be looking for things to do. We’ll look to conquer their attention and get a larger share of voice.”
That’s why her team uses content to highlight experiences rather than focusing on hotel rooms. On MGM Resorts social channels, you’ll see plenty of content about specialty drinks at a cocktail lounge, poolside activities, and tips on booking spas at one of the properties.
This content comes from Beverly’s team of strategists and “makers,” who create and execute stories across every touchpoint at every experience. Most of the team can shoot and edit video plus create content and lay out the strategy for how it can be used across channels.
For example, Beverly charged the staffer who handles the WNBA team with creating a narrative through the content he captures. They’re working on an approach that models a 24-second shot clock, during which they take players through a series of rapid-fire questions during a long, continuous shot.
“We find this kind of approach is captivating because it stops viewers and they engage with it on social,” Beverly explains. “That person plans everything from how we shoot it, how we edit it, and what music we use. Our social team has final say in what content looks like because they’re engaging people with it online.”
Caught up with The Rook @_ajawilson22 right before today’s final game at The House. pic.twitter.com/jabuTWjphF
— Las Vegas Aces ♦️♠️ (@LVAces) August 19, 2018
HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:
Content clearly plays a big role in the transformation the company’s undertaking. Of course, behind the scenes, numbers do count. There are tickets to be sold and rooms to fill.
To show how her team’s efforts contribute, Beverly reports on three sets of KPIs. Though she can’t share results publicly, she describes the expectations around each.
Brand awareness and preference, which leads to share of wallet and voice. This area is in transition because of the shift from gaming and hospitality brand to an entertainment brand.
Traffic to brand websites. Beverly’s team tracks where the traffic comes from on social channels as well as how social moves people through the MGM experience. Some site visitors explore their options before they get to their destination. Some are looking for things to do while they’re in town. Over the last two years, the company has experienced double-digit growth in website traffic referred from social channels.
The mobile app. The MGM app lets people book hotel rooms, make reservations for events, get tables at a night club, and reserve cabanas by the pool. They can bet on a game from the pool or the nightclub and get their winnings in a mobile wallet. “The app is a newly launched product, and I stepped in because they were going to launch it with a poster campaign,” Beverly says. “Social is a big channel to download the app now.”
Beverly’s team serves as an internal agency to the properties as a whole and partners with various external agencies and the visiting performers’ teams to find and create the right content.
.@MGMResortsIntl #content team serves as internal agency to all its properties, says @BevJack.
Click To Tweet
She’s adamant that when you build a social media team, you need to find people who can work closely together. And these people need to be a blend of creators, strategists, and community managers. “This is the combination of people who get the party started, help people have fun, and then make sure it keeps going,” she says.
To find out live who is named the 2018 Content Marketer of the Year (and lots of things to help your content marketing program), register today for Content Marketing World Sept. 4-7 in Cleveland, Ohio. Use code BLOG100 to save $100.
Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
The post How Content Takes the Stage to Change Brand Perception [Example] appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.
It’s that time of the year—time to dish out all the cool things WebDevStudios (WDS) did for the WordPress initiative Five for the Future (#5ftf) as we wrap up the midyear and head into a new season. For those who are still in the dark about #5ftf, it is an agency commitment to donate 5% of company time to giving back to the WordPress community and projects that benefit WordPress Core. Early this year, WDS announced our dedication to contribute one workday per month company-wide to #5ftf. So far this year, we have invested 434 hours to WordPress.
Our July was jam-packed with client work, a good problem to have, and so we missed our day of contribution. But below, you’ll find some ways we contributed in June. Tomorrow, August 31st, we dedicate our day to #5ftf. Care to join us? Read this blog post for ideas on ways you can contribute, too. Follow us on Twitter and the hashtag #5ftf to stay updated.
It’s #5ftf day @webdevstudios! Wapuu and I are ready! #webdevstudios #wdsaf pic.twitter.com/Hpr71eODMR
— ᴊᴏᴅɪᴇ ʀɪᴄᴄᴇʟʟɪ (@Jodie_Riccelli) June 22, 2018
It’s #5ftf day at WDS! I’m rewriting https://t.co/nIPtvX2xyU in React to bolster my own skills and provide my board game friends with a useful tool for tracking their game scores!
— Jeremy Ward (@_jmichaelward) June 22, 2018
Woo! It’s #5ftf day at @webdevstudios. I’m knockin’ the dust off a plugin idea with some coworkers.https://t.co/oB0ciaOrC9#GoodThingsAreComing
— John Hawkins (@vegasgeek) June 22, 2018
I’m working on our new React Framework today. Can’t wait to get this out the door for everyone to use! #5ftf
— Adam Soucie (@AdamSoucie) June 22, 2018
Working on #WordPressPlugins for #5FTF to ENHANCE YOUR EDITING EXPERIENCE! In fact, all of @webdevstudios is working on giving back to the #WordPress community today!
— Zach Owen (@znowebdev) June 22, 2018
Spending the whole day with @webdevstudios working on a new plugin framework to make migrations a snap! #5ftf #WordPress
— Chris Wieber (@cwieber1) June 22, 2018
Had time to do a quick release of WP-Strava https://t.co/W9zFaHG8Mq today care of @webdevstudios #5ftf
Helping athletes embed their activities and routes – see it in action: https://t.co/jbJTd1Qzxp
— Justin Fœll (@justinfoell) June 22, 2018
Doing some WordCamp and Meetup mentoring for #5ftf – community is what makes #WordPress strong!
— Meagan Hanes
(@mhanes) June 22, 2018
Having some fun today working on the WDS React Framework with @webdevstudios for #5ftf !
— Eric Fuller (@ericpfuller) June 22, 2018
And Senior Backend Engineer, Jeremy Ward, managed to contribute even more time by participating in WP-CLI Hack Day. You can learn more about his participation and contribution in this blog post.
I’ll be working an overnight shift next week to participate in WP-CLI Hack Day for @webdevstudios and #5ftf and I couldn’t be more excited! https://t.co/yFaJVs0m8B
— Jeremy Ward (@_jmichaelward) July 13, 2018
The post Five for the Future: Midyear Wrap-Up appeared first on WebDevStudios.
In the dark ages of the SEO era, when bloggers and webmasters were still familiarizing themselves with the process and its functionality, certain tactics and strategies had become industry standards.
The era I’m talking about is the one where Google AdSense was heavily built into the foundation of a blogger’s strategy. The “legacy” tactics associated with this approach can still be found in the way modern publishers think about SEO and branding strategy. However, AdSense’s limited customizability can hold back publishers. This needs be addressed and rooted out.
Before assuming AdSense is the best monetization partner for you, consider these four warning signs. If you’re guilty of practicing any of these points, it’s time you re-evaluated your monetization partner and strategy.
It’s no secret that AdSense as a standalone monetization stream isn’t enough to earn substantial revenue. Most solopreneurs that still operate in the “blogosphere” have understood for years that it is important to branch out and diversify revenue streams. So there’s nothing revolutionary about this concept.
Most of the focus on diversification has been on developing products to sell, with eBooks being a gold standard. This is great advice, even if it can become a bit boilerplate at times. But we’re not talking about selling products today. We’re talking about contextual advertising, which means placing relevant ads on your site that fit in with the content of your page. When it comes to contextual advertising, too many people still aren’t considering their other options.
Media.net, the second largest contextual advertising business worldwide by revenue, is a good place to start experimenting. The platform uses machine-learning algorithms to predict user intent, based on the content of your pages, and serves ads based on the associated keywords. With Media.net you get exclusive access to Yahoo! Bing’s $6 billion worth of search demand. This allows you to leverage quality advertisers even if you are in a smaller niche.
Performance is obviously different for every site, but Perrin Carrell of AuthorityHacker claims Media.net ads earns them 5x as much as AdSense ads, and Jon Dykstra of FatStacksBlog reported that some Media.net ad placements were earning more revenue than all other ad networks.
One of the biggest advantages of Media.net ads is that their ads are heavily customizable. Sizes and designs can be designed to match your site so that they are native to your content and inline with your branding, resulting in higher engagement and revenue. Native ads are a great way to offer your readers an uninterrupted experience since these ads look like a natural extension of your website. In fact, these ads are also mobile responsive, which means more revenue for you.
Media.net Native Ad Unit
Media.net Contextual Ad Unit
From there, you can also consider ad servers like the Google Ad Manager (formerly DoubleClick For Publishers) and OpenX. Ad server platforms like these give publishers great control over ads, including the ability to set preferred deals with a CPM floor, and the option to interact directly with the ad marketplace.
In short, if AdSense is the only ad platform you’ve experimented with, you are missing out on great revenue-generating opportunities.
The SEO industry grew up on the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, and its successor, the Keyword Planner. One trend, born in the age of “Made For AdSense” (MFA) blogs and microsites, was to use the Keyword Planner to discover topics to write about based on AdWords bid prices.
This approach was never a good long-term strategy. A blog based on topics chosen to optimize revenue according to this approach often leads to a poorly branded content site that doesn’t naturally adapt to the needs of its audience. The obviously commercial intent of the topics chosen puts a hard ceiling on the size of your recurring audience.
Search engines like sites that build recurring audiences. They earn higher click through rates from the search engines, which Googlers have admitted are used to judge SERP quality.
Modern content creators need to select topics based on what will most successfully help them cultivate an audience. This means identifying keywords that address specific problems you can help users solve.
You do not find these topics by typing generic industry keywords into the Keyword Planner. You find them by identifying your audience and the platforms they frequent, the kind of questions they ask one another, or even asking them directly what they are most frustrated with, and looking for satisfaction gaps in the answers to those questions. Only then should you turn to the Keyword Planner to start looking for the best keywords to represent your solutions.
The goal isn’t to target valuable keywords, but to target valuable audiences. This is a crucial difference that should guide your strategy at a more foundational level.
“Best practices” rooted in old school MFA thinking prevent you from building your own monetization strategy from the ground up. They can also hurt your rankings in the search results.
Damaged Rankings
Old school, “gray hat” MFA tactics like trying to place ads where they will be confused for navigation rather than placing them depending on your layout and content were never good branding strategies, and simply don’t work anymore.
Google’s internal quality rater guidelines explicitly state that sites should never disguise advertisements as the main content or navigation of the site, and if they do they will receive the “lowest” quality rating. Likewise for ads that make the main content unreadable, as well as ads that are distracting because they are too shocking.
Bad Strategy
Even advice that seems innocuous and doesn’t violate search guidelines can be harmful.
Recommendations like “place your ad in the sidebar,” “place it within your content just above the fold,” or “use the 300×250 ad size” are often unhelpful and counterproductive. Advice this specific shouldn’t be given without context, because ads should be placed in a way that fits your site design.
Suggestions like these are always hypotheses that you should test, not rules written in stone. Run your own A/B tests to find out what works for you.
We recommend Google Analytics Experiments for your testing because their Bayesian statistical methods make it easier to interpret results, because they are free, and because the data is as fully incorporated into Google Analytics as possible.
This is one of the biggest opportunities you miss out on if you operate on an AdSense-focused monetization strategy. When you work with sponsors, you can work advertisements entirely into the main content of your blog post, or host articles that are sponsored content created by sponsors themselves. You can negotiate deals that will guarantee a certain level of revenue, which is not always possible using programmatic advertising.
You can collaborate with sponsors on innovative campaigns that will earn the sponsor far more attention than traditional ads, which naturally means they will be willing to spend more. Innovative approaches can also result in more exposure not just for your sponsor, but even for your own brand.
It also lets you monetize on channels where AdSense won’t, such as your social media platforms.
If you aren’t reaching out to potential sponsors to discuss possibilities like these, you are missing out on substantial revenue.
AdSense should not be thought of as central to your contextual advertising strategy, or worse, the foundation of how you approach brand building. Diversify your advertising platforms, migrate your market research outside of AdSense’s native tools, and rely on your own testing strategies. Let your brand drive your monetization strategy, not the other way around.
Manish Dudharejia is the president and founder of E2M Solutions Inc, a San Diego based digital agency that specializes in website design & development and ecommerce SEO. Follow him on Twitter.
Google Shopping ads appear in search results as pictures above or alongside the text-based ads and organic listings. But unlike text-based ads, Shopping ads always carry an image, price, and ...
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People love to watch other people do stuff; it's ingrained in our DNA. It's why most of us enjoy people watching in the park or going to the latest blockbuster movie. Facebook and Instagram have taken advantage of this quirk in our genes with their live video streaming features.
Brands who live stream appear more approachable and real. Unlike TV commercials, live stream feeds feel more authentic as it shows the human side of a company. It's why more businesses are incorporating Facebook Live into their marketing strategies.
Everyone is curious about what happens behind-the-scenes. Pull back the curtains on your business and give viewers a chance to know the real people behind the brand. Give your audience a quick tour of your office or show the tools or equipment you use. Doing this will help viewers understand you better and it's a great way of building trust.
Starbucks used this strategy in its 2016 National Voter Registration Day. They broadcasted the event live as company representatives walked around the park. They also introduced and talked to people who volunteered in the event.
One of the best ways to launch a product or start a new channel is to through the “cheap seats” route. You start by going live on Facebook and encourage viewers watching on other platforms like YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat (considered the cheap seats) to move to your page in order to see the comments.
To make things more exciting, you can also go live on the other platforms during a break from the mainstreaming feed and invite viewers to join you on Facebook.
YouTube entrepreneur Chris Ducker used this tactic to promote his book launch party.
Giving your audience a sneak peek or a preview on what's coming next will drum up excitement and make them feel special. Show a trailer for an upcoming webinar or go live and show your staff brainstorming about a new product.
Tough Mudder is a great example of how to do it. The organizer streamed Coach T. Mud showing participants their training course. Seeing what they would be experiencing got more people interested in signing up.
Take advantage of Facebook's live video bots and use them to interact and encourage your audience to subscribe to your show. You can do this by asking viewers attending your live feed to type a specific word in the comments if they want to receive notifications. You can also create a URL for your video bot and encourage your audience to click on the link to sign up for notifications. This strategy gives you control on who can see your posts since it's your viewers themselves who told you they want to be notified about your show.
Tap a loyal customer to talk about your product or company during a Facebook Live event. A lifestream approach to get engaging and natural flowing testimonials from customers are a very effective way of marketing your product. Meet up with a customer and hang out with them. The informal setting and relaxed mood can go a long way to getting your audience to warm up to your pitch or new product.
Facebook Live is an excellent platform to launch a product or show your customers and prospective clients what your company is really about. Take advantage of the numerous strategies you can employ to get people interested in your launch. Live stream a launch party with a celebrity or conduct a real-time Ask Me Anything session. Seeing what's happening as it happens can drum up interest and build customer trust.
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When it comes to choosing the best search engine optimization plugin for WordPress, All in One SEO is hard to beat. But with free and paid versions available, is it worth upgrading to the premium version of All in One SEO? That’s the question we’ll help you answer in this SEO plugin comparison. For this... View Article
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More people are making their voices heard when they need to search for something. They’re ditching their keyboards for the convenience of “OK, Google.”
For brands, this raises an important question: How do you become the default answer for a voice search query?
You know the recent buzz around “featured snippets” – the boxes that appear at the top of some Google search result pages, providing a brief answer that, brands hope, leads the user to click for more detail.
Featured snippets are an opportunity to quickly leapfrog your competitors and land that premium zero spot even when your page doesn’t rank in the traditional search results.
Featured snippets appear prominently in both mobile and voice searches. In the future, these types of searches are only likely to increase, so optimizing your content for mobile and voice search should be a priority.
Optimizing your #content for #mobile & #voice search should be a priority, says @SSpencer. #SEO
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Here’s what Google says about featured snippets:
“We display featured snippets in search when we believe this format will help people more easily discover what they’re seeking, both from the description and when they click on the link to read the page itself. It’s especially helpful for those on mobile or searching by voice.”
Before I get to voice search, let’s take a look at the anatomy of a featured snippet in more detail.
Featured snippets can take a number of forms, depending on the type of information they are trying to convey.
Featured snippets are text-based but can include images. A featured snippet usually includes the page’s title and URL (along with a link) with some combination of:
The type of snippet that appears generally depends on the question (or implicit question) asked in the search query. For example, a search on “email marketing” may return a paragraph of text with a definition:
A search for “how to tie shoes” may return a numbered list of step-by-step instructions:
By understanding the answers people are looking for when they perform a search and formatting your content with the featured snippet in mind, you can often easily snag a featured snippet.
Understand which answers searchers are looking for & format #content w/ snippet in mind. @SSpencer #SEO
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To avoid wasting time, optimize strategically for featured snippets. The best approach is to target terms where your content already ranks on the first page of results and where your competitor provides the featured snippet on that page.
You can do this via a tool like SEMrush, which lists featured snippets that a particular site ranks for. Start by targeting the low-hanging fruit, for example featured snippets that don’t give the correct answer or those drawn from poorly formatted or low-quality sites.
Use @SEMrush to find featured snippets a site ranks for, says @sspencer. #productivity
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Once you’ve decided on a list of terms to target, you can set about optimizing your content.
While this article isn’t long enough to cover every scenario, there are a few general rules:
Structure page in a logical way so users & search engines can easily find the information. @sspencer #SEO
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Much of this is simply common sense. For example, imagine you run a food blog and are trying to land a featured snippet for your blueberry and kale smoothie recipe.
Writing a 1,500-word intro about a local café that makes delicious smoothies and inspired you to come up with your own recipe is largely irrelevant to the person who searched for “blueberry kale smoothie recipe.” The question implicit in this query is, “How do I make a blueberry kale smoothie?”
You should aim to answer that question immediately with a list of ingredients, and a numbered list of instructions at the top of the page:
HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:
You might ask what this all has to do with voice search.
A recent Backlinko study found that 41% of Google voice search results came from featured snippets. Hence, ranking for a featured snippet gives you a better chance of appearing in voice search results.
41% of Google #voice research results come from featured snippets, according to @Backlinko. #SEO
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As searchers move into a more voice- and mobile-centric era, targeting featured snippets should become a key part of your SEO strategy.
While featured snippets are obviously a large factor, according to the Backlinko study, several other factors should be considered when trying to rank for voice search, including:
The average #voice search result has 1,199 #Facebook shares & 44 Tweets via @Backlinko. #SEO
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It takes constant work to maintain your Google rankings and keep abreast of changes to Google’s algorithms. The introduction of featured snippets is part of a larger shift in the way searches happen. Reviewing the opportunities and threats featured snippets represent, preferably via a thorough audit of your site, is the only way to keep ahead of the competition and maintain or increase your current levels of organic traffic.
Get more insight on SEO from Stephan Spencer at Content Marketing World. Register today for the Sept. 4-7 event in Cleveland, Ohio. Use code BLOG100 to save $100.
Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski
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