SEO

A Guide to SEO: What Is It and Why Is It Important?

November 7, 2020 by David Sharpe 1 Comment

According to Forbes, 75 percent of web searchers never look beyond the first page of search results. For the most part, we trust that the websites listed at the top of a Google search are the best of the bunch.

If your company website isn't hitting the top of those search engine results pages, chances are customers aren't finding you either.

With a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, you can hit the top of a search engine page. That way, people interested in your product or service will find you before anyone else.

We have a lot to cover and this article is more like a full-blown guidebook for you to get tons of free traffic to your site, so let's jump in!

What is SEO?

SEO optimizes your website content, making it easier for people to find you online.

However, it takes know-how and the right strategies to make it work.

According to Internet Live Stats, there were approximately 1,630,322,579 websites as of 2018. To beat out the competition and reach the top of the page, you need results-driven, proven strategies to enhance your SEO.

Here are eight ways you can optimize your company blog for SEO:

1. Optimize for Your Audience

An effective SEO strategy requires a little bit of research, first. Remember, your potential customers are the ones searching for you online. To optimize your website content, your SEO relies on how well you know your customers.

Determine who makes up your target audience and what they're looking for.

Break the data down by demographics such as age, gender, and household income. Then, get really specific by researching your audience's interests.

By creating a buyer's persona, you can determine what your customers are searching. Then, you can use that data to curate content. That way, customers find your content when they search!

2. Keyword Research

Once you know who your customers are and what they want, you'll also know what they're searching for.

Then, you can use tools such as Google Trends and Keyword Planner to check which search terms are most popular.

You can also search for your own product or service on Google to see which articles display at the top of the search page. Those blog posts can tell you which posts and topics are the most popular within your industry.

Once you have a list of keywords to work with, you can start creating content.

Learn more about keyword research and how it can bolster your search engine optimization strategy.

3. Give Links Some Love

It's not enough to just write a blog post using your keywords. To strengthen your SEO, you also need to add links to your content.

To start, add internal links, or links that send readers to content on your website. This will help you improve click-through-rates and encourage people to stay on your website longer.

Google keeps track of your click-through-rate and bounce rate.

Your bounce rate increases when people leave your website without clicking around. By improving your click-through-rate, you can decrease your bounce rate and rank higher on search pages.

External links and guest blogging can also strengthen your SEO. The first, external links, send readers to other websites. These websites can help improve your credibility.

Meanwhile, guest blogging allows you to post on another company's blog. Then, you can link to your own blog so new readers visit your content.

4. Intense Imagery

Your images need optimization, too.

Change the image title, description, and alt text to reflect your keyword. That way, your content is fully SEO optimized, making it easier for readers to find your content.

5. Topic Clusters

Using topic clusters, you can organize numerous blog posts under a single subject header.

That makes it easier for readers to find your content. Using internal linking, you can encourage website visitors to click around and explore posts that are similar to their initial search.

6. Meta Matters

When potential customers search on Google, a small description appears under each webpage. These descriptions give searchers a sneak peek at the content. That way, they can determine whether or not the web page is relevant to their search.

Using metadata, you can write a compelling, interesting description that includes your SEO keyword.

That way, the description appears relevant to searchers—and to Google when it determines your ranking, too.

7. Strengthen Social Media

Posting your website blog posts and content to social media can also improve your SEO.

By sharing your content, you can attract a new audience of readers. The more people who visit your website, the more Google considers your content to be relevant to those searching.

As an added bonus, people share social media content, allowing you to reach an extended audience of potential customers.

8. Make it For Mobile

According to Statista, 52.2 percent of all worldwide website traffic occurred on mobile devices in 2018.

Given this increase in mobile website traffic, Google now determines your SEO ranking based on the mobile version of your website. If your website isn't mobile-optimized, however, you could be missing out on a huge percentage of potential customers.

Optimizing your website for mobile users, on the other hand, makes it easier for searchers to find your company on any device.

Why is SEO Important?

While there are numerous digital marketing strategies to choose from, SEO alone can do a lot of good for your company.

Here are eight benefits of SEO:

1. Build Brand Awareness

Once you reach the top of the search engine results page by using SEO, potential customers will see your company name more often.

This top of the page position sets you apart from other companies on search engine pages. The more often people see your company name, the more they'll come to recognize your company on sight.

With this recognition, you can build brand awareness among potential customers.

That way, when people think about your product or service, they immediately associate it with you.

2. Increases Inbound Traffic

Every click on one of your SEO blog posts leads to your website. This increased website traffic also boosts your SEO, helping you achieve higher rankings on search pages.

With more inbound traffic, you can show potential customers the value of your product or service.

You can also use relevant blog post topics to show these website visitors you know your stuff. That way, they'll return to your website specifically for your trusted expertise.

3. Increases User Experience

Google prioritizes websites that put visitors at the forefront. This means a website that is easy to navigate, immediately offers the relevant information, and loads quickly.

After all, we're a society that's always on the go. We want immediate, easy to find answers to our questions.

With SEO, you can respond to that customer need. By providing website visitors with an easy-to-use website that prioritizes user experience, Google will prioritize you, too.

4. Depends on Data

Using your keyword research and buyer's persona, you can shape an SEO strategy that responds to your unique target audience.

With advancements in technology, industry trends, and changes to Google's algorithms, what matters to your target audience and your SEO changes with time. Using data, you can stay ahead of the competition to target these new interests as soon as you see the shift.

This data helps you adjust your SEO strategy as needed. That way, you can continuously optimize your strategy so it caters to your customers.

5. Brand Credibility & Authority

Once you hit the top of a search page, you can also show customers you're at the top of your industry.

This leading position places your company above the competition. That way, customers see you before anyone else. Since 75 percent of searchers don't look beyond the first page, this position is essential for attracting customers.

This top position also shows searchers you're a credible resource in your industry. As your brand authority increases, customers are more likely to come to you before anyone else.

6. Conquers Competition

Once you start ranking above the competition, you can start attracting their target audience to build your own, too.

If your competition is falling behind with the latest digital marketing trends, SEO is also a great way for you to get ahead. As a result, you can show customers you're at the top of your industry—and build your company so you stay on top, too.

7. Cool for Conversions

With that brand credibility and authority brings an influx of website visitors. Using this SEO guidebook, you can create SEO optimized content that speaks to your customers' needs.

That way, you can optimize your content to encourage readers to convert on the page. Using strong call-to-action language and content that provides them value, you can kick up conversions to grow your business.

8. Ramps up Returns

Unlike print marketing strategies such as flyers and billboards, SEO strategies won't blow your marketing budget. Instead, you can develop a strategy with a strong return on investment that benefits your business for the long term.

A Guide to SEO: Search Engine Optimization Made Easy

Now it's time to put this into action to attract new visitors to your blog, build your audience, and gain more customers!

If you want to match your new SEO skills with a business model that earns high-ticket commissions marketing valuable products people already want to buy then watch this free video that will show you how.

Try These SEO Secrets for Instagram

November 4, 2020 by David Sharpe Leave a Comment

Instagram is one of the most useful platforms to take advantage of in your internet marketing strategy.

In fact, 70% of US businesses are already doing so. It's easy to understand why business are using it as a tool when Instagram has 1 billion monthly users.

With so much content being produced, it's a little overwhelming to understand how to make your content stand out. There are many great theories and strategies out there. What one is proven to work the best?

By creating an Instagram SEO strategy, you can reach your target audience easier than ever before. The saying is, “work smarter, not harder”, so let's get you started with a smarter SEO strategy.

Instagram SEO Strategy

Creating a winning Instagram SEO strategy doesn't have to be all business, it can be fun too! You may be wondering what SEO even means. Let's break it down for you!

What Is SEO?

SEO is an acronym that stands for search engine optimization. It's a fancy way of describing the practice of taking advantage of internet searches. By understanding your audience, using keywords, and sprinkling in some creativity, you can use an SEO strategy to drive traffic towards your website.

Search engines will scan your website for keywords. Let's say someone just entered a search for “interior design trends”. If your website has this wording, it will show in that search.

Instagram + SEO

How can you take this marketing strategy to Instagram? Take advantage of using keywords in hashtags. Creating a hashtag SEO strategy will generate more leads and more engagement with your audience.

Using the right keywords in your hashtags will help your brand become more visible. Combine that with some great content, and you've got a recipe for success.

Build Your Strategy

You are looking to build your own Instagram SEO strategy, but how do you know which keywords to choose? Building any successful marketing strategy starts knowing where you are at, and defining your optimization goals.

Define Your Goals

Having clearly defined goals for your SEO strategy is important in understanding whether or not it’s worth your time. If implemented well, it always will be.

Before you begin rolling out a new strategy, it's important to create a list of goals, or things that you’d like to see improvement on. Some great goals to have when creating an Instagram SEO strategy are:

Increased organic traffic
Increased social media activity
Increased sales

In order to ensure that you reach your goals, you will need to know your audience.

Know Your Audience

Marketing strategies begin with knowing your customer. By knowing your audience you can tailor each post to your unique customer's needs.

By analyzing your audience's interactions with your posts, you can learn about them, and get to know them. By interacting with your audience you can learn important things about them.

You can learn things like:

What things is your audience searching for?
Where are your customers located?
What motivates your audience to purchase something?
What hashtags are they using?

Knowing your audience will assist you with choosing a hashtag that your target audience is searching.

If your target audience is orthodontists in New York, you probably won't choose #redpanda as a hashtag.

Learn From Competitors

By looking to other leaders in your industry, you can learn a thing or two from their internet marketing. Analyze what they are doing. You can learn from it what works (and what doesn't).

Take the best of what they do and tweak it so it's customized for your audience. Pay attention to which hashtags they are choosing. Which ones are driving the most traffic?

Not sure how to tell which ones are driving traffic? Search the hashtags your competitors are using, to see which ones are used the most.

Keep It Simple

Keeping your hashtags simple will ensure that they are easy to remember for your audience. Being easy to remember means that customers will use them.

Not only will keeping it simple help build your audience, but it will also help the aesthetic of your Instagram post. Having long or complicated hashtags can make your post look messy or unprofessional.

Less is definitely more when using a hashtag.

Let the Fun Begin!

Now that you know keywords are important, and where to look for them, it's time to start creating posts! How do you create posts with keywords that look natural? We are glad you asked!

Use the Right Amount

Remember how we said less is definitely more when it comes to using hashtags? Research has found that Instagram posts with too many hashtags, is seen as “spammy”. So how many hashtags should you be using?

There are many different opinions on how many hashtags you should be using. Some people suggest using a maximum of 30 hashtags. Others advocate that using the maximum is too much, and 5-6 hashtags are sufficient.

Regardless of how many hashtags you choose to use, the important thing to remember is to choose hashtags that are relevant to what your posting, and to your audience.

Be Creative

There are many ways to be creative with your SEO strategy on Instagram.

One way to take advantage of hashtags is to look to the days of the week for inspiration. Not only will using the days of the week keep you consistent in delivering great content, but it's also something everyone can use (AKA a great way to expand your reach)!

Here are some great examples:

Monday: #MondayMotivation, #MondayVibes, #MondayMood, #

Tuesday: #Tuesday, #TransformationTuesday, #TuesdayThoughts

Wednesday: #WednesdayWisdom, #WednesdayVibes, #WednesdayMood

Thursday: #ThrowbackThursday, #ThursdayVibes, #ThursdayMood, #TBT

Friday: #FeelGoodFriday, #Frinally, #FridayMotivation

Saturday: #SaturdaySelfie, #SaturdaySunshine, #Caturday (if you're a cat lover)

Sunday: #SundayFunday, #SundayVibes

Another creative idea is to brand a hashtag. Create a hashtag just for your business. Some great examples are the State of Michigans hashtag #puremichigan or REI's hashtag #optoutside.

Be Relevant

Remember to take advantage of those keywords! Take advantage of trending hashtags too – as long as they are relevant to what you are posting. If it isn't relevant to your post, your audience may view your choice as a spam attempt.

If what you are offering is keto coffee, you may want to choose hashtags such as #coffee, #keto, or #healthyliving. You wouldn't want to tag #starbucks just because it may be a trending hashtag.

Unless of course, it was relevant to your post. Maybe your business is partnering with Starbucks, and you are announcing that partnership. If that was the case, then using that hashtag would be appropriate.

Use a Hashtag Generator

Not sure which keywords to use for Instagram? Try using a hashtag generator. You can download hashtag generators for free on your phone. A simple one to use is #HashMe.

Once you enter in a keyword to search, the app will find you 30 or more hashtags that are related.

We tried it out and chose “cats” as our keyword. Check out some of the results below!

#cat #gato #meow #kitty #catofthedat #officecat #beantoes #purrfect #ilovemycat #catlovers

Work with a Marketing Firm

By working with a marketing firm you can learn the necessary marketing skills to thrive with confidence in the online marketplace. Working with an expert takes the guesswork out of creating a great SEO strategy.

A marketing firm can help you grow your business using online and cutting edge marketing strategies.

Inspire Your Audience

Using the right keywords is one way to encourage engagement from your audience. Your goal with an Instagram SEO strategy is to inspire your audience to take action.

Inspiring your audience could be as simple as getting them to share your post. It could be to get them to visit your website or buy your product. Inspiring your audience to action is also known as a call to action.

To make a lasting impression with your audience try something unique, like Disney.

Disney has always inspired us. They partnered with Twitter with the #ShareYourEars campaign for Make A Wish Foundation and raised over 3 million dollars.

Create a Winning Strategy

In order to create a successful marketing strategy in today's culture, you need to go where your customers are. That means going digital and interacting with your target audience on social media.

Instagram is a great landscape to grow your audience. There are many ways to incorporate Instagram into your SEO marketing strategy. One great way is to take advantage of the hashtags.

If you are looking for some more great marketing tips,

including how to make multiple high-ticket affiliate commissions each month marketing valuable products people already want to buy, watch our brand new free webclass while access is still free.

7 SEO Tips for Video Marketing

November 1, 2020 by David Sharpe Leave a Comment

You've done your research. You've optimized your site with the best of cutting-edge SEO techniques. But have you optimized your video content?

No, we're not making it up. There is such a thing as video SEO. And we've got about 1500 words worth of valuable tips on the subject.

The best part is these tips aren't limited to videos posted on your website. You can optimize videos wherever you post them. Learn how with our expert guide to video SEO optimization.

Mobile First

The “mobile first” SEO strategy isn't just for websites. It's important for optimizing your video content as well.

Case in point, more than half of all YouTube video views and 90% of Twitter video traffic come from mobile devices. Also, 92% of all consumers share mobile videos.

So, obviously, you do not want to miss out on reaching mobile viewers. Optimizing your video content for mobile viewing will have a huge impact on your overall video marketing success.

Here are the best tips for reaching mobile viewers.

1. Never, Ever Use Flash Videos

This is the most important thing you can do to reach mobile viewers. Delete from your brain the idea of ever posting flash video content. Terminate it with extreme prejudice.

Why, you ask? For starters, there are over 700 million people that won't be able to see your video on their smartphone.

That's the number of iPhones that are currently in use worldwide. And, for whatever reason, Apple still refuses to support flash video files on iOS devices. None of Apple's loyal consumer base will be able to see any flash videos you post.

The second reason is, neither will Google. Unlike with other video file types, Google's crawlers can't interpret anything about flash video content. Search engines will have no idea what your flash videos are about, let alone the quality of the content.

2. Choose the Right Format

Aside from that, keep in mind that loading time has a big impact on your SEO. Longer loading times will lower your search rank and cause impatient visitors to leave early.

This is especially true for mobile views, which usually take longer to load as it is. And the bigger your video file, the longer it takes the visitor (and Google crawlers) to load your page.

You may want to experiment with different video file types that are high enough in quality but a small enough file size to optimize your success.

3. On-Page SEO

Also, when embedding videos on your own website, don't neglect the other aspects of on-page SEO. It won't do to optimize your video format if your website is not optimized for mobile devices. A responsive website is a must.

Next, if you post multiple videos on one page, Google will only see the first one. In other words, don't do that. Post only one video per page.

And don't hide it somewhere halfway down the page. It should be the main focus of the page if you're trying to boost video traffic.

And, just like with images, don't forget to give an appropriate title to your video file. This reassures Google that your video is about what it's supposed to be about.

Make It Pretty

Those are the most basic of video SEO basics. Here are some more advanced bonus tips to earn you some video SEO extra credit.

4. Optimize Your Thumbnails

Wherever you're uploading your video, you typically have the option to pick the thumbnail image. This is the still image that represents the video before it is clicked. And it's what potential viewers will see in search results.

The importance of your thumbnail cannot be overstated. If your video was a book, your thumbnail would be the cover it's judged by.

Once your video appears in search results, the amount of clicks it earns is directly determined by its thumbnail. A high-quality, relevant image earns clicks. A random, blurry screenshot of a weird face you were making mid-sentence will repel potential viewers instead.

How to Optimize Your Thumbnails

There are two methods for obtaining the perfect thumbnail for each video. The best way is to not use a screenshot at all but make a custom thumbnail instead. This way, you can come up with any image you want that perfectly illustrates the main point of the video.

You can shoot fresh, HD photos for the image and add text. But you're also welcome to use one or two dolled-up screenshots from the video if they work. This method takes more time but produces the best results.

The second method is to simply pay attention and find a screenshot that works. It should illustrate the main point of the video, be in focus, and be devoid of weird faces. This method takes very little time but still makes a huge difference.

5. Add Captions

This is so important but so often overlooked. There are tons of benefits to adding a transcript of the video to play as captions.

First, it helps Google understand your video better. More than anything else, Google uses text to rank content.

Without a transcript, Google has a pretty accurate guess as to what your video is. But with a transcript, Google knows exactly what your video is. That makes your video more relevant, which earns it a higher rank.

Secondly, your viewers won't have to guess either. Anytime your video autoplays, such as on Facebook, the captions tell viewers exactly what's going on without them even having to click.

Furthermore, no matter where it's viewed, captions increase the audience's understanding of the video overall. For one thing, the transcript can be translated into multiple languages.

But also, not everyone learns best by watching and listening. Some people learn better specifically through the reading of text.

6. Fill in All Text Boxes

As with your title and transcript, the more text you feed Google, the better. So don't stop there.

When uploading a video, you're usually given a variety of options for describing it, including meta description and tags. Fill in any text field available for the description of your video.

7. Take Advantage of Schema Markup

Rich snippets show off your competence and authenticity to online onlookers. If you really want to impress search engine traffic, implement Schema markup on any videos you post to your own website.

Spread Out

You now know how to properly format and beautify your videos. But where, exactly, should you post them?

8. Upload Everywhere

The best answer: upload everywhere you can. There are several places in addition to your website where you can upload your videos for free. There's YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitter, just to name a few.

And since it's free, why would you market to only one audience when you could market to two? And why market to two when you can market to three?

At the very least, get your videos on YouTube. YouTube makes adding metadata very easy and has an audience to rival that of primetime TV.

9. Upload to Your Site First

That said, don't deprive yourself of the chance to boost traffic to your site. In Google's eyes, posting videos on your site first sets you up as the authoritative source of that original content. That boosts the SEO of your site overall and any future pages/content.

Plus, traffic to your site is traffic right in your hands. Once they're on your site, you can close sales, get signups, or whatever other metrics you're working on.

As a side note, it's extremely important you have a live chat service or at least a chatbot on your site for this purpose. This is a feature that viewers on your YouTube channel won't have.

10. Diversify Your Video Descriptions

The great thing about posting to multiple video sites is that one video can reach much farther. But there's a way you can maximize this reach further still: diversify your video descriptions.

Think about it from Google's perspective. If you post the same video with the same description, four different times, there's no reason for Google to list more than one of them in search results.

Google isn't about to spam its user base with a bunch of similar results. All but one of the videos will be ignored.

But if each site lists the video with a different title, different description, and different keywords, there's a good chance Google will list all four. Furthermore, you have a better chance of achieving a high rank. One of the videos may happen to feature the perfect combination of title, description, and keywords to earn rank 1 on the SERP.

Lastly, different video sites have different audiences. If you do your research, you can optimize your video for each specific site's audience.

Use These Video SEO Optimization Tips

If you care about your website's SEO, it doesn't make sense not to optimize your video content, too. And now, with the tips you've learned in this guide, you can make that happen.

Use these tips and get started with video SEO optimization today.

If you liked this guide on SEO video marketing tips and want to learn more strategies on how to boost traffic to your website and videos along with other marketing tips check out our free webclass.

7 Best 2021 SEO Practices for Small Businesses

November 1, 2020 by David Sharpe 1 Comment

64% percent of people rely on search engines to make a purchase decision.

Search engines play a big role in your small business' online traffic generation. If you are going to appeal to, then you need to utilize Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

SEO is the process of developing your online profile so that customers can easily find your business. While SEO is useful, the landscape around it changes rather often.

If you want to improve the success rate of your SEO for small business strategy, you must employ techniques that are up to date. Here are some ways you can work on your search engine optimization to get your customers to notice you.

1. Know Your Audience

The end goal of your search engine optimization strategy is to create compelling content that your target audience can discover.

Since that is the objective, you need to know who you are targeting to figure out how to best communicate to them. You have to understand exactly how your customers run searches on the web and the things they are looking for.

One way you can learn more about your audience is by studying the kind of content they like getting from you.

When you publish new material you can use online tools such as Google Analytics to give you more insight. That can be especially useful when picking future topics to write about.

Other insights you will get to find out include:

● The topics that get more readers and views (in the case of videos)
● What pages your audience spends more time on
● How many users come through social referrals

Social media platforms also have their own analytics tools that can help you gain insights into how you can better serve your users.

2. Page Speed Is Key in SEO for Small Businesses Strategies

One of the more surprising tips for entrepreneurs is that your page speed impacts how well you rank.

Page speed refers to the amount of time a user has to wait until a page on your website completely loads.

Google is on record saying that its algorithms use page speed to determine where you rank among other things. You, therefore, can't afford to ignore it.

One of the SEO best practices you can use to increase your page speed is to compress your files.
Look for software that can reduce the size of files on your website. You can use such software to reduce CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files on your website.

When it comes to images, use programs like Photoshop where you can better control the quality.

Another idea here is to reduce the number of times your page redirects users to another one. For every instance where that happens, your page will take longer to load.

Whenever you use images, understand that they also contribute to how fast your page loads. Use the PNG format for graphics and JPEG when uploading photos.

Don't forget to compress them to improve speed times. However, watch out that you don't lower their quality.

3. Use Evergreen Content

At the heart of your SEO efforts is the kind of content you use. When you use content that doesn’t appeal to your customers you will keep struggling no matter how well you tweak it.

It is important to use content that never loses its appeal.

Evergreen content is material that remains useful and relevant for a long period of time with little maintenance.

If you do it right, this kind of content will keep generating social shares, traffic, and occupy high positions in search rankings for a long time.

So, how do you create evergreen content?

Firstly, your content has to give your audience value while still being compelling.

Secondly, your content should have a heading that attracts the user's attention. Lists or ‘how-to' headlines tend to be the most popular. They advertise the content in a striking manner while suggesting that the material is easily readable.

Thirdly, your content should pass the ‘long-click' test for it to be evergreen. Whenever a searcher clicks on the link Google tracks the amount of time that goes by before they move on to the next link.

If they click your link and spend some more time on the page, Google interprets this as good material that has satisfied the searcher's query.

3. Keywords, Keywords, and Keywords

If you have ever made efforts to grow a business, the concept of keywords is not new to you.

Keywords are a mission-critical part of SEO as they directly influence how searchers find content.

When you want to determine keywords to use for your SEO marketing, you should start by doing some keyword research. Here, you look for the terms people use when they are searching for a particular subject matter.

Proper keyword research is useful in that it can either help you improve existing content or create relevant, new material.

Begin by identifying a primary keyword to use. Ensure it is a popular term to target a wider user base.

Whenever you're using the keywords you need to learn how to best apply them. Keywords should feature in the page title, a subheading, images, your meta descriptions and in the content.

Avoid overusing them (known as keyword stuffing) as Search engine algorithms torpedo your ranking if they detect any stuffing.

5. Craft Succinct Title Tags

A title tag is the main part of a search result listing that has a bigger font.

Title tags are the very first thing that searchers see about your business. They set the tone for what they should expect. A lot of attention and ingenuity has to go into creating them.

When you are creating title tags you need to make them clear. A good title tag is one in which a searcher knows what the content is about at a glance. A clear and accurate title tag not only communicates to searches, but it also signals to the search engine what the particular page is about.

Search engines limit the number of words in a title tag. You, therefore, need to learn the art of tweaking it to display all you want it to.

Generally, the limit will be between 60-80 words. You should target 50 words to ensure most of it is visible on different devices.

A good title tag starts with the most descriptive words or main keywords since it's unlikely they will be cut off. If you decide to include your brand name, place it at the end after the words describing what the page is about.

Remember to not overuse your target keyword in the title tag.

A title tag essentially gives you a chance to make a case for what your page is about. Since you have a very brief window, you need to emphasize to the searcher the value your page gives them.

6. Establish Authority

One of the primary goals a search engine is built to achieve is connecting users to the most authoritative information. Therefore, the algorithm works to find the most credible sources of information.

When a user runs a search query they expect the search engine to work as a librarian and find the correct information. Your content needs to show up at this point for it to draw in the target audience.

Creating top-notch quality content is one way in which you can increase the authority of your page and hence, the ranking.

The other way to establish authority is through links. There are two types of links; external links and internal links.

Internal links are those that connect different web pages of the same website.

When external links from sites with high credibility point to your website, its authority ranking will increase.

Similarly, many internal links pointing to a page signal to the search engine that it is an important page. That can improve its authority level.

External links provide more boost to your authority level than internal ones. The common practice is to use both when fashioning your content.

No matter what you do remember that it is not the number of links that is the primary factor. It is the quality of the links that should come first.

7. Ask for Customer Reviews

Reviews today have moved the word-of-mouth trust element to the internet space. As a small business, you should make it a habit to encourage your users to leave reviews online.

When a user runs a search, the local firms that have reviews received higher ranking in the SERPs.

One of the most essential reviews that Google uses to rank pages is Google Reviews. You should set up your business' Google My Business listing’ then get reviews to bump your ranking up.

Help Your Customers Better Find Your Business

Search engines have grown to become a powerful influence on customer behavior. People look for information to make decisions in their ‘I-want-to-buy' moments.

Your business must adapt and create a set of SEO for small business strategies that will contribute to its expansion and increase in revenue.

Legendary Marketer is on a mission to help you start or grow your business. To learn more marketing secrets and learn how to bring in more profit to your business watch this free video and learn our #1 recommended way to bring in income and grow your business.

5 Ways an Email Marketing Strategy Helps Your SEO

October 30, 2020 by David Sharpe Leave a Comment

Did you know that even today, email marketing is a widespread strategy? After all, more than 97% of all businesses use this strategy. They use it to convert recipients to potential buyers.

Among these subscribers, around 76% of them make new purchases. They base these from emails they received.

This paints SEO email marketing as a great way to convert people using different methods. You can always look for the right digital marketing services around. This helps to fit your business goals and infrastructure.

But it doesn’t stop here. Are you ready to learn how email marketing affects your SEO efforts? Read on and find out more today:

1. Drive the Right Traffic to Your Website

This is the most obvious benefit of starting an email marketing campaign. But if you’re doing this, you need to ensure that you put a big emphasis on qualified traffic. This means you need to focus on the visitors likely to make any type of conversion as soon as they visit.

The best way to use email marketing is to ensure that they look personalized. Marketers use personalization to get their audience’s attention. But they’re more likely to use it on email compared to any other means of marketing.

Due to this, customers have this expectation that their email newsletters coincide with their personal interests. Some studies proved that people only subscribe to email due to its relevance. That’s why it’s important to make the type of content that’s relevant to your intended audience.

If you live up to your customers’ expectations, you’ll become more confident. You’re assured that you’re driving more traffic to your website. They’re the people you want since their likelihood of converting is higher than others.

How to Make Use of Email Marketing to Drive Traffic

Is your business still on the fence with email marketing? If so, it’s fortunate that you don’t have to go through complicated processes to get started. It’s easy to send emails tailored to your specific audience’s wants and needs—start by segmenting your list.

A good example is to let your audience choose the type of emails they want to get. They can do this once they subscribe to your newsletter. If you do, you’re only sending your subscribers the emails they want.

This helps you make content for each customer segment’s preferences.

2. Improve On-Site Engagement

As you attract qualified traffic to your business website, you can now get more readers. Often, they become more willing to spend more time engaging your content. The result is that you get the means of increasing their time on your pages.

It also helps in lowering the rates of exit from your website. The biggest benefit is that they’re more likely to convert. It happens since they become more invested in your content.

It goes side by side with on-site engagement metrics since it improves your SEO ratings. Remember, time on side and bounce rates both contribute with your SEO rankings. It’s especially the case when you’re trying to run in Google.

You need to become more effective at driving your subscribers to the content that makes them interested. If you do, you become more visible to search engines as time goes by. It’s most important to get noticed by the search engine titans especially Google since it holds about 92% of the entire search engine market.

3. Develop a More Focused Content Strategy

Good email marketers will test and analyze a few different elements in each of their sent emails. The most common among these is the subject lines. A lot of marketers say that they will do tests on a regular basis over the course of their email marketing campaigns.

Other marketers say that they’ll test the messaging while others will modify the calls to action. If you already have an email marketing strategy in place, you might already have a trove of data. This will include the email elements you test whenever you send emails.

With this data, you can gain some valuable insight on what to use for your digital marketing strategy. This will include your on-site optimization methods. It’s possible since all your recipients are already components of your intended audience.

That means you can make informed decisions based on your email list’s preferences. This will affect both your website and other marketing channels. It’s only possible when you try using your emails to get a feel of what your audience best responds to.

4. Make High-Performing Emails into New Website Content

There are a lot of approaches you can use when trying to make newsletters. If you’re not sure how to do this, you can read this amazing guide to know what mistakes you need to avoid. That will prevent you from getting into disastrous results that can cripple your business’s reputation.

Regardless, a great approach is to make original content that fits your subscribers’ tastes. That means you need to choose topics with high relevance to their needs. For example, if you’re a finance business, you should pick content focusing on trending topics in the finance industry.

Another way to improve email marketing as a lead generation tool is to center your topics on things other outlets haven’t covered yet. Doing this might sound like a lot of effort compared to writing about something already covered before. But the caveat is that all your efforts are worth the leap in engagement rates.

But even if you don’t want to go through that effort, you can always republish your email newsletters on your website’s blog. The main reason is that it still benefits your SEO rankings in some form. You need to make sure that it’s high-quality, original content so that it ranks better.

5. Increase Social Media Shares

With email marketing, you can put your content in front of a more interested audience. That means you’ll increase the chances of each content piece getting social media platform shares. It holds better when you’re encouraging your subscribers to share your content using their own social media accounts.

You can connect this with your SEO strategies since the increased social visibility can boost your SEO ratings. It’s especially important if you’re using the Facebook platform since it has about 2.27 billion monthly active users. With email marketing working with social media, you can expect to find better link opportunities and build better partnerships with your audience.

Google neither confirmed nor denied that social media plays a part in their ranking algorithm. But there’s evidence that social shares affect your search visibility. Studies conclude that getting more social shares will work to your business’s favor.

How to Use the Right SEO E-Marketing Service

If you opt to use email marketing software to help with your marketing efforts, you need to know a few things. This will help ensure that you get the most out of what you pay for. Here are some things you need to consider:

Features

There are a lot of features you need to think of when picking the right email marketing service. But it’s important to remember that your goals and methods will determine the overall impact of each feature.

Unlimited Emails

Depending on your business size, you might want to avoid a vendor that puts a cap to the number of emails you can send. Ensure that they can accommodate your email marketing campaign, regardless of its size. If you need to send a million email to different customers, you need to have the means of doing so.

Analytics

The most important feature for any email marketing service is analytics. You need to have the means of tracking, reporting, and analyzing the email campaign. Pick a service that gives you a more comprehensive and detailed analysis in real-time.

Survey Apps

Is your email marketing campaign centered around customer surveys? If so, your provider should have a suite of customizable survey applications in their arsenal. That way, customers can answer without getting inconvenienced.

User Segments

Another important part of customizing your email campaign is to tailor emails to different customer types. With message segments, you can make your email campaign more effective. If your email marketing vendor doesn’t have this feature, avoid them and find a better one.

Ease of Use

Email marketing applications are only great when you can understand their use. The best ones will have an intuitive user interface with a gentle learning curve. This helps you concentrate on the marketing campaign while improving your email marketing capabilities.

Use SEO E-Marketing Today!

SEO email marketing remains as one of the best ways to market your business. It helps you target your audience better and drive the right type of traffic to your website. That way, you won’t waste your efforts trying to woo an uninterested audience.

If you enjoyed this SEO email marketing guide, check out our free webclass where you can learn other digital marketing secrets to guide more traffic into your website and build your wallet up.

How Long Will It Actually Take to Rank in Google?

October 29, 2020 by David Sharpe Leave a Comment

In 1999, Google handled over one billion searches per year. In 2016, while not giving out specific stats, they claimed they're now handling over two trillion searches per year.

Globally speaking, there are over 1.6 billion websites (and counting). That can make getting ranked on Google seem a bit more daunting.

If you're looking how to rank on Google, you want to know how long it takes and what steps are involved. And Legendary Marketer can help.

Keep reading to learn how all about how to rank in Google.

How to Rank on Google Depends on a Variety of Factors

How long does it take to rank in Google?

If you're expecting to build a new website and immediately rank high on a Google search, you will be disappointed. How long it takes often depends on how competitive your industry is and how popular the keywords you use are.

And there are other factors that Google uses such as the strength of your website and even the skills and the budget amount that went into building your website.

Ranking in Google should be viewed as a process. It's also important to understand which websites are most likely to appear at the top of Google's ranking.

The Google Ranking Process

When someone types keywords into Google, the pages they receive are selected from the index based on how well they match up. And there's no exact formula that guarantees your website ends up at the top of searches.

One frustrating part is that the formula Google uses to rank websites is always changing. And they don't always openly share what changes they've made with the public.

That makes for a bit of a guessing game. However, these specific factors definitely play a role in getting your site ranked higher:

Content Quality

Google bots identify certain characteristics such as original content, the length, (and quality) of posts, and how often new content is published. One way to boost your site in the rankings is to keep adding new, original, high-quality content to your site.

The content should be relevant to your website. Google wants to ensure its customers that the sites that rank highest are providing the most trustworthy and reliable content possible.

Clean Domain

While it may seem tempting to try to cheat the system by purchasing inbound links or keyword stuffing, it's only a matter of time before Google catches on and penalizes your site. And it's a lengthy process to gain back their trust.

Look for high-quality links to add to your site. Avoid spammy links or any link that just isn't appropriate for the content you're adding.

Do things the right way and you'll notice positive results you and your customers can rely on. And keep things clean. Google is not a huge fan of inappropriate language or images.

Domain Age

Google strives to provides its customers with quality. Therefore, web domains that are less than six months old are considered less reliable or trustworthy than older, already verified sites.

Over time, as your site proves to be a safe site for people to visit, your site begins rising in the rankings. Just like you as a customer feel more comfortable using a company that's been around for a while rather than one that's just popped up, the same is true in on the internet.

Error-Free Website

Many people don't realize how minor mistakes can work against them, especially when they're trying to rank on Google. Mistakes such as slow loading sites, duplicate content, and broken links can force Google to penalize your site by ranking you lower.

If the errors are really bad, such as plagiarism, you may find your website is completely missing from the ranks. And it takes a while for you to get back into Google's good graces.

Make sure you get your website audited at least once a year to check for errors. Then immediately fix them.

Keyword Competition

Keywords and/or phrases that are used more often are considered more competitive. More established sites have already been using the most popular words and therefore those phrases have more merit on their sites.

Newer sites shouldn't bother to compete for keywords with more established sites. Instead, it's smarter to build rankings and trust by using keywords with lower levels of competition.

Once you've built up trust, you can start using the more popular keywords.

Length of Posts

In terms of the search index, the longer the posts, the more credible Google views your website. SEO content posts should never have fewer than 300 words in order to take advantage of positive ranking.

But, Google prefers longer posts. Posts ranging between 1,000 and 3,000 words tend to perform even better.

That's because Google thinks that a longer post means that your website is more of an authority on the subject matter you're writing about. The more authoritative a website looks to Google, the higher the ranking.

Original Content

Obviously, placing plagiarized content on your site for the sake of having content will work against you. Google will definitely penalize you for doing it.

But it's also not okay to write duplicate content. And Googe bots can literally index your site in seconds while cross-referencing all of its content with every other site in the search index at the same time.

You can't outsmart Google's bots so don't bother trying. Hire a professional writing service if you're not good at developing content on your own. And use internal links when you want to back up information without resorting to using duplicate content.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works to help make your website more visible to Google bots and other indexing programs. The keywords, titles, headers, and ALT image texts you use all are a part of effective SEO.

SEO works to help organically boost your site to the top of the rankings. However, there is an art form for doing it correctly.

You may want to consider hiring professionals who specialize in SEO to help you out. Ranking higher on Google within less than a year is possible but only if you hire an SEO professional who has the time, knowledge, and budget to do it the right way.

How Long it Takes for SEO Efforts to Work

How long does it take for SEO to work? Most experts will tell you it takes between four and six months to start seeing actual results.

However, that's just the beginning and SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Done correctly, you should see even better results after 12 months than you do in only six months.

Timeliness of Content

Google loves relevant content. Posts and content on current and breaking news rank higher in searches than those written about non-time-sensitive topics.

One way to get around that issue is to write articles on topics that are likely to stay relevant for a long time. However, it's also smart to write about topics that are also current event related on a regular basis as well.

Aim to add at least two or three new posts to your site each week. In most cases, the new content will be indexed, crawled and added to Google's search index almost immediately.

Quality External Reference Links

Always add high-quality external references links to your site. Make sure they're from legitimate sources.

Not only will your customers trust you more, but Google loves quality ranking and it will improve your rankings on their search index. To get quality backlinks, always post useful, relevant, and quality content.

The higher the quality of information you share on your site, the more likely people will use and share it with others. An SEO expert can help you create high-quality content that people can't resist sharing with everyone.

Tackling Negative Google Results

The one thing no website owner wants to content with is negative Google results. Maybe someone left a negative comment on your Google Business Listing.

Perhaps someone wrote a blog post that reflects poorly on your company. That could mean that all your hard work to boost your website in the rankings is all for nothing.

Steps to Handle Negative Google Results

Fortunately, there are steps to take to push down the negative results so that the positive results rank higher such as:

Create a Wikipedia page
Own New Domains
Create new pages with target keywords
Create an app
Set up social profiles
Optimize website site links

Also, activate a Google alert so that you'll receive a notification whenever your website's mentioned anywhere else. That way, you can use good mentions to help build up credibility.

And you can immediately take steps to handle or eliminate any negative online comments.

Watch Your Expectations

If you hire a marketing company to help you improve your site's online rankings and they tell you to expect immediate results, find another company. Even if you're doing it yourself, you should have reasonable expectations.

While you should expect to see results within six months, this isn't a sprint.

And these efforts aren't something you can do once and then expect to keep reaping the rewards. Ranking higher is an ongoing process that never ends.

Learn How to Rank In Google Yourself

Now that you know how to rank on Google, it's time to get started. Remember it's an ongoing process that you'll need to stay on top of.

It's also an ongoing educational process. The more you understand what you're doing, the more successful you'll be.

If you enjoyed this article on how to rank in Google, and want to learn how to match this powerful marketing skill with more money, you might want to learn how to earn high-ticket commissions marketing valuable products people already want to buy.

How to Hack the YouTube Algorithm (And Get Great Results)

March 15, 2019 by David Sharpe 15 Comments

It's no secret – video is here to stay.

And YouTube is the place to go for video.

What most people don't realize is that YouTube is a search engine – the second largest search engine online. In fact, YouTube accounts for 14% of all internet traffic worldwide. It's available in 61 countries and languages. Most marketers and small business focus their efforts on Google and Facebook, so there's less competition on YouTube.

YouTube has 1 billion unique users in a month. 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube uploaded every minute. Every month, people view 6 Billion hours of video – almost an hour for every person on earth. Millions of users subscribe to channels every day.

YouTube has a specific algorithm for ranking results. I'm going to show you how you can hack that algorithm to get more views, more engagement, and a higher ranking for your channel and videos.

What is “Ranking”…?

YouTube ranks videos in their search results according to relevancy to the query, as well as viewer engagement.

Obviously, if your video has a high ranking, it will appear higher in the search results and be recommended more.

So how do you increase your video's rank?

YouTube ranking factors are primarily based on viewer activity. The longer viewers watch your videos or stay on your channel, the higher your rank will go.

How can you keep viewers watching?

You have to create quality content, sure, but to keep people watching your videos, you have to get them to click in the first place. This is where people get discouraged – after all, how can you get people to watch your videos (and keep watching) if your video isn't ranking and appearing in search results?

This is where you have to put your SEO hat on.

YOUTUBE SEO HACKS

Here is where your keyword research is important. Your Keywords are the main thing that tells YouTube what your video is about. Try not to use over-used keywords. For example, “Keto Friendly Meal Prep” is much more specific than “Healthy Recipes”. Your video will rank better with a more specific keyword than it will with broad, general keywords.

Title

Your video title is the hardest hitting factor in your SEO. Try to put as many keywords here as possible. Your video title affects your CTR (click-through rate) as it prominently appears in search results.

Obviously, don't sacrifice relevancy for the sake of stuffing as many keywords into your title as you can. YouTube is all about providing relevant content in their search results, so keep your title relevant to the content of your video.

Description

This is the only place to describe what your video is about. Make sure you keep including those keywords. This will make those words bold in the search results page if they directly match the query.

For example, if you're doing a tutorial on how to use iMovie for the iPhone, make sure your description includes those keywords. Take a look at the highlighted portions of the image below for an example of how keywords from the query appear in the search results.

Tags

Adding tags to your video is another way to insert those keywords and increase your rank. This is where you can target lesser-known keywords to get your video to rank for that query. You should put at least 10 relevant keyword tags. Of course, you can put more than that. No need to hold back here – just keep the tags relevant to your video content.

Remember to add variations, plurals, and the like. YouTube does not recognize the difference between a plural and non-plural word, so if you are using the keyword “Marketing Secret” or “Advertising Tip”, make sure you include the plurals as well (“Marketing Secrets”, “Advertising Tips”).

Transcription and Closed Captioning

Did you know YouTube automatically transcribes and captions your videos? They also index your video transcriptions and use it to rank your video by the keywords found in that transcription.

Now, if you take a look at YouTube's auto transcription, it isn't always very accurate. They can miss a lot of keywords or see your video as not being relevant to your tags, title, or description keywords. You can avoid this by providing your own transcription and closed captioning. Make sure your transcription is accurate to what you actually say, and not what a robot hears.

When you add Closed Captioning, your video will have a CC icon indicating it is captioned – check it out:

This little icon can indirectly increase your CTR and help your video rank higher. YouTube actually allows users to filter videos with Closed Captioning, so you can reach a wider audience by adding captions to your videos.

CONTENT AND ENGAGEMENT

YouTube doesn't just use SEO factors when ranking videos. Your content and viewer engagement have a huge impact as well. There are a lot of different factors at play here – your video length, average watch times, quality of the content, likes and comments, favorites, inbound links, embedded videos, and channel authority are just some of the things YouTube looks at when ranking your video.

Channel Authority

Channel Authority is the basis for your individual video rankings. You are entirely in control of your Channel Authority. YouTube determines your channel authority by your content. When you have Channel Authority, your channel will appear in the search results when people search for you.

These are just a few of the factors they consider:

How your content is optimized
How often you upload and publish content
How you promote your videos
How engaged your audience is
How relevant your tags, title, and description are

The biggest trick here is to stay consistent with delivering valuable content to your viewers and keep them watching.

Content

Content delivery is probably the most important factor in your video rank. If your video content sucks, no SEO tricks will help. Keep your videos useful, informative, and entertaining to your viewers. Be consistent with your upload schedule and keep bringing that value.

Video Length

YouTube's most watched videos are usually around 4 to 6 minutes long. That might not work for your content, and that's okay. Longer videos have become more common recently. Make sure your content is relevant to the topic of your video and avoid going off on tangents.

Viewers are looking for relevant, valuable content that won't waste their time. If you can provide that in a clear, concise, and entertaining manner, your viewers will keep coming back for more.

If you're not sure what your video length should be, experiment! Upload videos of various length and keep an eye on your Analytics. Check out your Audience Retention statistics. We'll get more into Audience Retention later, but I wanted to give you an example of how you can use it to determine what length your videos should be for optimum performance.

For example, the average view duration for my channel in February 2019 was 5 minutes and 45 seconds. In other words, viewers are only watching about 5 minutes of video before clicking off and doing something else.

This tells me people would rather watch shorter videos (around 5 minutes in length) and are more likely to watch those shorter videos until the end.

Viewer Engagement

This is a big one. The point of uploading your video is to get views, right?

Viewer Engagement is about more than just views. Lots of factors come into play here when ranking your video. YouTube considers your watch time, audience retention, likes, dislikes, comments, inbound links, embedded video views, and even response videos.

Views

Your main goal should be to keep your viewership up. Like I said, the whole point of uploading a video to YouTube is to get people to watch it. There are some things you can do to increase your viewership and bring your rank up.

You want to maximize your views immediately. If your video gets a lot of views immediately, it will rank higher. The first few hours are crucial. Make sure you are promoting your video on all social media channels.

Another trick is to set your video to Premier at a certain date and time so your viewers know when to expect your video. They get even get reminders when the video goes live. This helps to increase viewership in the first few hours your video is up.

AGAIN, it is crucial to always share your YouTube video on all of your social media profiles. YouTube makes it very simple to do this – just hit “Share” on your video and you will see an array of sharing options:

This will get the ball rolling and start bringing viewers to your video. Make sure you are sharing your video where it is relevant – YouTube doesn't like it if you spam your links everywhere. Try posting your video link on sites like Quora or Yahoo Answers where people are actively asking questions your video can answer.

Another tip is to ALWAYS ALLOW EMBEDDING on your videos. Embedding makes it possible to take your video outside of YouTube. YouTube still tracks your analytics on embedded videos. So when you embed your YouTube video on a blog post and your readers watch it, YouTube tracks those stats. If someone else embeds your video on their website, you still get those views. It's another opportunity to rake in more views and start ranking higher.

Comments, Likes/Dislikes, and Responses

Getting consistent comments on your videos gives you huge Channel Authority. Keep viewers engaging with your content by engaging back. Reply to their comments, like them, pin the best comments to the top. Your audience will love it if they see you actively engaging with them.

Make sure you ALWAYS include a Call To Action in your video and description. It can be something simple, like “Like this video and comment below” or “Subscribe to my channel and click the bell icon to get notifications.” Remind your viewers to engage with your video beyond just watching it.

You can even give them an incentive to engage with your video. For example, you can promise to upload a highly requested video if you get a certain amount of likes. Another popular method is doing giveaways – giving your viewers a chance to win something for engaging with you. Points for making your giveaway relevant to the content of your video!

This Creator is reviewing a beauty product subscription box, and the items she is giving away are actual products included in the box. She is using a popular method of using comments as entries, meaning that viewers who want to enter the giveaway must comment on the video.

You can also use an outside tool like Gleam.io to run a giveaway and collect entries via various forms of content engagement.

Audience Retention

YouTube measures your Audience Retention and bases your Channel Authority on that. You can keep viewers on your channel longer by creating playlists. Put the links to those playlists in your video descriptions. When you upload a new video that fits into a playlist's topic, add that video to the playlist immediately. You also add end cards to your video linking to other videos or playlists to keep viewers watching.

You want to keep them watching. YouTube will give you a higher rank if your audience retention rate and average view times are high. Keep an eye on your analytics and use your critical thinking skills to figure out if people are sticking around and which type of videos get you the most views and retention.

CONCLUSION

The YouTube algorithm can be a tricky thing to figure out. I hope this sheds some light on how you can tweak your content or channel to use that algorithm to your benefit. If you can start looking at your channel critically and apply these methods correctly, you'll start seeing serious results.

Let me know if you use any of these tips in the comments. How did they work for you? Do you have any other tips to offer that I didn't cover here?

If you're looking for more free marketing tips and tricks, sign up for my 15 Day Business Builder Challenge today!