Google Expert Michael Wilson <mikewilsonseo@gmail.com>: Jun 25 06:40PM -0400
Here you go folks this is a great base to go over, add your own spin to
some great points and tips here below.... have fun and Content is King.
Hey Linda I saw your post and thought Id give it a toss on Google... Great
work and good luck.
As marketers plan their content marketing strategy for 2018, SEO is
top-of-mind — or at least it should be! For advanced marketers it looks
something like this: you have an SEO plan in place, you have your list of
premium keywords, you're actively blogging and your website is optimized.
You have an on-page and off-page plan. Your monitors are covered with
dashboards from Google Analytics, an SEO ranking checker like Moz or
SEMrush, reports from your CMS or marketing automation tool, and a few
Google sheets keep your results organized and keep an eye on your search
engine rank position.
For most marketers the process is not as complex. Time is an issue and
weekly tracking makes you guess, second guess, pray, cross your fingers,
and read a few blogs to get the latest SEO tips, tricks and trends. You
need to increase leads and high quality website visits. Your content
marketing plan needs help. And you're sick of seeing your competitor's name
above yours when you search your best keywords on Google. Sound about right?
If you're struggling to get to page one on Google or working tirelessly to
stay there, you're not alone. Very few businesses have an easy time
achieving and keeping page one rankings, there are only ten spots after
all. And with the addition of Google's new longer meta description
snippets, featured snippets, knowledge panels, local packs and more, you've
got your SEO hands full! If you're one of the 99-percenters who struggle to
get to or stay on page one — take these actionable steps, and let organic
SEO take its course.
1. Understand SEO in its simplest form.
Strip out all the SEO tactics and think about why you're doing what you're
doing, and more importantly, *why Google is doing what it's doing.*
When you search online, you're seeking an accurate answer, item, detail,
date, image, address, or definition. And you expect your answer in a split
second. Sometimes you want Google to read your mind. *Your prospects want
this too*. Google delivers this and it's pretty good at it. Think about it
— if Google served up ten links that didn't provide what you're looking
for, you'd take your business elsewhere. This is the simple psychology
behind user experience on SERPs. Google is looking to you to provide the
data your prospects are looking for. If you provide it and you do it better
than anyone else, your data and content will be promoted to a better
position.
*First step:* Put yourself in your prospect's shoes. Run a search query on
Google using your best keywords and most common questions. Make a note of
who's on the first page. Do you see the same organizations showing up in
these prime spots? Make a note of any direct competitors who are claiming
top rankings. It's important to understand what your prospects are
experiencing.
*Quick trick*: Take three minutes to listen to Matt Cutts explain what
happens when you do a web search. This video is dated, but most of the
material is still relevant today. Join the 2.5 million viewers that
invested three minutes.
*Advanced tactic*: Take a deep dive into how search engines work. Get an
inside view of how Google determines its ranking and algorithm changes
directly from Google pros, Gary Illyes, Webmaster Trends Analyst & Paul
Haahr, Software Engineer. Watch time: 30 well-spent minutes.
2. Listen to how your customers speak, then speak their language.
Understand what questions they're asking, how they're asking, what their
needs are, and what keeps them up at night. Your company is already solving
their problems and fulfilling their needs or you wouldn't be in business,
right? Translate this on your website.
*First step*: Understand your customer and prospect needs, start a list.
This is an essential step. You can't focus on improving rankings if you
don't understand what your prospects and customers are looking for. Then,
transfer this knowledge to your website. Translate the products and
services that make your business a success in a clear format using the
natural language understood by your industry. Become a resource for your
clients and Google will reward you.
*Quick trick*: To find out what the most popular search terms are, type
your keywords and prospect questions into Google's search bar. Google will
show you a list of related searches. Use these terms to update your copy
and inform blog topics. Free and easy!
*Advanced tactic*: Use one of the top SEO tools
<http://www.robbierichards.com/seo/best-seo-tools/> to research keyword
alternatives and search volume. At Stream Creative, our favorites are Moz
<http://moz.com/> and SEMrush <https://www.semrush.com/>, both offer free
trials. <https://www.semrush.com/dashboard/>Moz's Keyword Explorer
<https://moz.com/explorer> is a great place to start. You'll get keyword
suggestions and monthly search volume. Select a mix of the most searched
terms to use within your copy. Remember to do so in a natural voice — this
will make content consumable and shareable, while keeping Google happy at
the same time.
3. Provide insanely useful content.
Content means more than just your blog. Content covers video, articles,
webinars, live chat, lists, how-to guides, and much more. Content should
be provided on your site and across the web on channels where your
prospects hang out. Use different content types to answer your client
questions and understand their obtacles and provide solutions.
According to Ann Handley <http://www.annhandley.com/>, "...be sure you know
the purpose or mission or objective of every piece of content that you
write. What are you trying to achieve? What information, exactly, are you
trying to communicate? And why should your audience care?" Provide answers.
Be helpful. Solve their problems. Make your content relevant and rich. And
when possible provide narrowed, niched content. Ensure your content has
sharing value and gives your highest quality visitors what they're asking
for.
*First step*: Seek out the thought leaders in your company and make friends
with them. You might find them in the executive suite, in a biz dev cube,
working remotely, in the lab or in the manufacturing plant. If they have
answers to your hottest industry questions, sit down with them, ask them
the questions, record their answers and turn it into a post. This is about
progress not perfection. Get the information out there. Remember it's
digital so you can always revisit and refine.
Those who know me best know I'm a Rand Fishkin fanatic
<https://www.streamcreative.com/blog/what-i-learned-about-seo-from-rand-fishkin>.
In a recent Whiteboard Friday that focuses on 2018 SEO best practices
<https://moz.com/blog/rank-in-2018-seo-checklist> Rand says, "Have the most
credible, amplifiable person or team available create content that's going
to serve the searcher's goal and solve their task better than anyone else
on page one."
*Quick trick*: Ask these internal thought leaders to forward their emails
to you that show the types of questions they receive from prospects and
customers, and their helpful responses. Use these to formulate new content.
*Advanced tactic:* Consider sharing your expertise through video. According
to Content Marketing Institute's Joe Pulizzi
<http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/08/content-marketing-trends/>,
video is a top content format. And Mark Zuckerberg states, "...if you go
back ten years ago on the internet, most of what people shared and consumed
was text. Now a lot of it is photos. I think, going forward, a lot of it is
going to be videos
<http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-interview-with-axel-springer-ceo-mathias-doepfner-2016-2>,
getting richer and richer." Take it to heart. With users accepting videos
delivered in an every-day quality/natural presentation format, making video
part of the plan is a reality for many marketers.
4. Give your website a check-up.
Look under the hood. If you don't have your page titles, URLs, image tags
(alt-tags), and meta descriptions (yes, they matter) in place, you're doing
your SEO a disservice. These on-page SEO factors affect your individual
page rank in search results.
*First step*: Locate your most popular web pages in search results. Review
your meta description and compare to competitors on the page. Does your
title accurately describe the content of your page? Does your description
encourage clicks? Consider upgrading your meta content
<https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/meta-descriptions?__hstc=60448754.3938e490002c9d825c3aa14bdd6d3acb.1529965922932.1529965922932.1529965922932.1&__hssc=60448754.1.1529965922933&__hsfp=172284822>
using best practices.
*Quick trick*: Use HubSpot's Marketing Grader to get a quick snapshot of
your website. Marketing Grader will uncover on-site issues
<https://website.grader.com/> and advise on next steps.
*Advanced tactic: *Download and run ScreamingFrog
<https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/> on your site. This is a free
tool that will scan up to 500 pages. If you have a larger site a paid
version is available. This tool scans your website and shows what on-page
data needs your attention.
*On-page SEO* is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order
to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page
refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be
optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other
external signals.
*Source:* https://moz.com/blog/category/on-page-seo
<https://moz.com/blog/category/on-page-seo>
5. Check out who's linking back to you.
If no one is linking to you, why should Google? Backlinks (links from other
sites back to yours) can be golden, especially if they're from sites that
Google respects. On the other hand, links that Google recognizes as
blackhat (unscrupulous search engine optimization tactics
<http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/black-hat-SEO>) can negatively
affect your search engine rankings. A research study by Moz shows that
there's a direct relationship between quality backlinks and Google search
rankings <https://moz.com/blog/backlinks-google-study>. The higher the
quality of your backlinks, the higher your search rankings. Watch this
edition of Whiteboard Friday to learn how to build a good process for link
acquisition:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg72qAoIan0>
*First step*: Check your backlinks. You can easily run a report using
the SEMrush
Backlink Checker <https://www.semrush.com/analytics/backlinks/overview/> or Moz
Open Site Explorer <https://moz.com/researchtools/ose>. Download your data
and take a look at who's referring to your site.
*Quick Trick*: Keep track of your social reputation and track your brand
<http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-social-media-monitoring-tools/> with
a social monitoring tool. Receive mentions of your brand helps build
relationships, a great place to start is Mention <https://mention.com/en/>.
*Advanced tactic: *Check out your competitors' backlinks. See who's linking
to them and explore backlink opportunities. And don't stop there -
backlinking is just one tactic covered by off-page SEO.
*Off-page SEO* embodies all marketing techniques that happen outside of a
website (i.e. off-page) with the potential to positively impact search
engine rankings. "Link building" and exposure of your product/brand to
relevant audiences are the two main building blocks of off-page SEO.
*Source: *https://ahrefs.com/blog/off-page-seo/
6. Get listed!
Company listings (called citations) on local, national and niche directory
websites let Google and your prospects know where to find you. Consistent,
authoritative, and up-to-date citations create more exposure for your
business and improve Google rankings.
Doing business locally? SEO is critical to local business. Google serves
results differently depending on your location. With the solid growth of
mobile engagement
<http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/>,
getting found means mobile searchers become your buyers. To positively
affect Google rankings right in your hometown, there are a number of
essential steps you can take to outrank your local competitors.
*First step*: Ensure your Google My Business profile
<https://www.google.com/intl/en/business/> is complete. Don't just submit
the minimum, take advantage of all the opportunities to promote your
business through this profile. Google is looking for images, hours of
operation, and more. Take the time to get this done!
*Quick trick*: Create a local landing page for each physical location for
your organization. Remember to optimize the page with your city, state and
zip/postal code.
*Advanced tactic:* Quality directory listings have an impact on your score
and there are many quality directories waiting for your submission. Check
out tools like BrightLocal <https://www.brightlocal.com/> and Yext
<http://www.yext.com/> to get listed on hundreds of recommended directories
for a reasonable price.
7. Take care of business:
*SSL certificate: Google wants everything on the web to be travelling over
a secure channel (https). That's why in the future your browser will flag
unencrypted websites as unsecure. The good news is that this is a pretty
easy fix! It only takes a few hours to get an SSL Certificate
<http://www.howto-expert.com/how-to-get-https-setting-up-ssl-on-your-website/>
and
get everything up and running on your site.*
*Page speed: *Best-in-class webpages should load within 3 seconds. Any
slower and visitors will abandon their journey to your site. Google uses
this information in their algorithm. Use HubSpot's Marketing Grader
<https://website.grader.com/> to check your page speed. if it's loading
slowly, check out this article
<https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-reduce-your-websites-page-speed?__hstc=60448754.3938e490002c9d825c3aa14bdd6d3acb.1529965922932.1529965922932.1529965922932.1&__hssc=60448754.1.1529965922933&__hsfp=172284822>
for tips, then have a face-to-face with your tech lead.
8. Create less, promote more.
According to Salma Jafri <http://www.salmajafri.com/about/> (and I agree),
"Spend 20% of your time creating. Spend the other 80% of your time
expanding your reach in different formats and to more channels to reach a
wider audience. See who it can help. Reach out to them. Share it on all
your networks." Don't expect organic SEO to do all the heavy lifting. Let
others know you have valuable content to share. Be creative in spreading
the word. And remember, Google is watching.
*First step*: Make it easy for your visitors to share content by including
social sharing icons on every post. In addition, make sure to include the
most relevant social channels for your industry. Lastly, consistently post
your content on your social channels. If you're active in your social
communities you'll pick up a few shares. Thank people for sharing and
always respond to comments.
*Quick trick*: Save time by using a social media management tool to manage
posting for you. There are great free and paid versions - find a social
media tool that works best for you
<http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-social-media-management-tools-to-save-time/>.
If you're using a marketing automation tool like HubSpot or Act-On, you
already have this covered.
*Advanced tactic*: Mobilize your internal team and ask them to share your
content with their |
