How to increase blog traffic with controversial topics
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics The topic of using controversy to grow blog traffic and generate leads is, in and of itself, controversial. I’ve read articles online that talk about how well it works. I’ve read others about how well it backfires. I’ve seen opinions that you should DEFINITELY do it, and I’ve seen other…
The Big List of Content Marketing Tools
This post started as a simple rant about how most Content Marketing tools are too expensive and too complicated for small businesses to make effective use of them, and somehow morphed into a Big List of Content Marketing Tools, with a special emphasis on tools that are less expensive, perhaps even in the range that…
What is data-driven content? How is it relevant to your audience?
Data-Driven Content: The New Buzz Phrase Data-driven content is when you pay close attention to the analytics of what you publish (blog posts, social media updates, etc), learn what people show the most interest in, and use that information to guide what you then publish. That’s about it. While it’s a new phrase it’s an…
How to Sell More Easily and Naturally with Presuppositions
Presuppositional Phrases are the Language of Advertising “Nothing whitens better than Crest” “Why suffer another summer?” “This year, I’ll stop asking ‘Do I look fat’?” Notice the first statement does NOT state that Crest whitens better, yet it is implied. On a marketing and advertising podcast I listened to months ago, the guy who created…
What Is Internal Linking and Why Is It Important for SEO?
Overview The internal link structure of your website has a HUGE effect on your SEO. Ideally your internal link structure should be a hierarchy, not a web. The diagram below shows a nice hierarchy of internal links. Snippet posts link to pillar posts which in turn link to landing pages, which in this example link…
How to choose the right CRO metrics for improved conversions
Conversions and Micro Conversions For a business website, having visitors show up to your website is only the first step. To turn website visitors into prospects, you need some of your website visitors to take the actions you’ve defined. You need to implement conversion (in some form) so you either get contact information which allows…
How to continuously improve your content with Deming lessons
Who was Deming? W. Edwards Deming was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, and a management consultant. He transformed Japanese manufacturing after World War II after American manufacturers thought his ideas were a little weird. Too weird to take seriously. Having said that, I’m old enough to remember when Japanese manufactured products were a joke. When…
How to… The Anatomy of writing the best blog post possible
Background We all want to write good blog posts, and most of us fail to do so. The vast majority of what businesses publish on the Internet is crap. While it’s important to avoid publishing crap, most businesses fail. The prior post (which is linked to below) describes the advantages I(in terms of content quality)…
Google Reveals How to Rank High with Quality Website Content
Content Quality? Beyond the obvious idea of higher quality content being “better”, it’s important to understand WHY Google is so focused on the concept of content quality and how this is core to their business model. If you have not yet read part 1 of this article, you should do so as it gives you…
How to Ensure Your Blog Posts Actually Say Someting
Content is King! Yes we know. We’ve all heard this all before. We don’t need to hear this again. I’m not sure anyone believes that more strongly than I do, having direct experience with the marketing benefits of regular and effective blogging. But unfortunately this belief in the value of business blogging has resulted in…
Lead nurturing: How to get started with marketing automation
Marketing automation is a form of email marketing that is very sophisticated. It is both the most effective and the most difficult to implement of your email marketing options. What makes marketing automation so powerful is the email’s you queue up are “chained together” with if-then statements. When an email is sent, whether it was…
How Social Media Contributes to Your SEO Ranking
According to Google, Social Media likes and shares are not taken into account when Google presents web pages in a search engine result page (SERP). This was first said by Matt Cutts (of Google) in a video in Jan of 2014. In Aug of 2015 John Mueller (also of Google) said the same thing. In…
Can (and Should) You Systematize Your Content Creation?
The short answer is yes. In general (there are a few exceptions, but the rule is) Google provides higher ranking for websites that are both updated more often and contain more content (are larger). You want your website to rank? Within your niche you’ve got to publish frequently and build up a large repository of…
Why Business Blogging is THE CORE to Successful SEO
The discussion of the importance of blogging to SEO can now cease. Robert Ryan, an SEO consultant in Ireland, conducted an experiment whose conclusion is definitive. In summary…. he built up a website to a health level of traffic. He then stopped blogging for 251 days (8 months and 7 days) then compared traffic levels…
How to obtain critically important online reviews
Customer tell you they’re thrilled with your service. You ask them to provide you an online review. They say they will. They don’t. How often does this happen to you? If you’re like most small businesses this happens more often you care to admit. If you’re cracked this nut, please share and let us all…
How to use a parallax website design and not hurt SEO
Parallax scrolling is when the home page of a website is one big page and scrolls up and down and when you select a menu item on the website it doesn’t take you to a new page, it takes you to a different section on the one big page. There are numerous articles on why…
Doing Your Own SEO is Not Crazy, It’s Inexpensive and Effective
The other day the following post crossed my path on social media. How to do SEO on Your Own (If You’re Crazy Enough to Attempt it) The point of the article is that SEO is hard. It’s complex. It requires specialized knowledge. You should use a professional to do it for you. I think they’re trying to…
Why You Need Outbound Links in EVERY Blog Post on Your Website
The discussion about should you link to other sites can now be closed. A company named Reboot SEO & Marketing conducted a structured study on the effect of external (or outbound links) on the ranking of the content containing the outbound links. A link to their published results can be found in their article titled….. Research…
How to market your small business on a limited budget: Inbound rescues!
New business? High hopes? Too few leads? You’re not alone. The #1 need for ANY business is a steady stream of quality leads. People who both need what you sell and have the means to pay for it. But… marketing costs and marketing costs big. Some new businesses budget 40% of total expenses to marketing…
What is a content manager? Why does your business marketing need one?
Succeeding at generating leads through Inbound Marketing requires publishing useful content at frequent and regular intervals. But… Small business owners are busy, wear many hats, and constantly juggle priorities. Therefore… Most small businesses I’ve worked with who start with Inbound Marketing, fail. But… It doesn’t need to be this way, as generating quality content takes…
How Quality Educational Content Enhances Your Social Media Marketing
First I wish to point out (or maybe fess up) that the title of this post is intentionally redundant. Per Google’s Search Quality Rating Guidelines, educational content is by definition of high quality as it satisfied one of our basic search intentions, which is to learn something. This article is really about people who focus on…
How to Create Landing Page Forms for High Quality Leads
Before I get to the form part of the landing page, I’ll talk a little about landing page design in general. Landing pages should be sparse and contain only what is absolutely necessary to convey what is needed to encourage a conversion. Value Offer Urgency What problem do you solve? How do you do so?…
The BEST Way to Find a Steady Steam of Blog Post Topics for Your Inbound Marketing
Start Transcript Hi, I’m Kevin with Inbound Marketing University. Today’s Inbound Marketing minute describes the best tip for finding a steady stream of fresh content ideas. It’s not what you may be expecting. It’s not respond to questions that customers and prospects ask you. It’s not go on online forums and see what questions other…
Attracting More People to Your Website Who Buy, by Attracting More Who Don’t
Start Transcript Hi, I’m Kevin with Inbound Marketing University. Today’s Inbound Marketing minute describes how you increase the number of website visitors who are likely to buy, by increasing the number of website visitors who are not. The principle behind this is that websites that are busier tend to rank higher. Getting your website busier…
Avoiding Feeling You’re Too Repetitive with Your Business Blogging
Start Transcript Hello, I’m Kevin with Inbound Marketing University. Today’s Inbound Marketing Minute addresses a feeling that every Inbound Marketing effort hits sooner or later and that’s when you feel that you’re being too repetitive in what you’re saying. The reality is, there are only so many ways you can express a concept and…
The Value of Repetition in Your SEO and Inbound Marketing Efforts
Successful Inbound Marketing requires frequent publishing of fresh content. However…. everyone I’ve taught to do this at some point gets back to me with the feeling that they’ve said everything. They fear they’re running out of topics. Here is what you do when (or even before) that happens to you: Don’t Promote Every Blog Post via…
Inbound Marketing and SEO Tools to Help Generate Leads Through Your Website
Let me first clarify what this post is not. It is not a comprehensive list of SEO and Inbound Marketing tools, but rather is a list of the essential tool types you need, with some mention of specific and well known tools. Within each tool category there are either zero to dozens of options. Where…
How is the perfect “Google friendly” website built and what does it look like?
The perfect “Google Friendly” website is a very large repository of information that many people find useful and is updated multiple times a day. To illustrate this point have you ever looked up the 10 highest ranking sites on the Internet? The list below is as reported on Alexa.com. Google.com: Facebook.com: YouTube.com: Baidu.com: The leading…
The Importance of Publishing to Website Ranking, Visitors, and Shares
What is the relationship between publishing and SEO? The relationship is very direct. All things being equal (which of course they never are): Websites with more content rank higher. Websites that are updated more often rank higher. Websites that are busier rank higher. All of this is achieved by publishing fresh content are regular and…
What can Jenna Marbles Teach Us About Content Marketing?
Jenna Marbles may be the most famous person you’ve never heard of. The story goes that a little over five years ago she started making videos both for someone else and for her YouTube channel. About 5 years ago she published a “break out” video titled “How to trick people into thinking you’re good looking“. At the…
Can SEO succeed in-house?
Absolutely. Most big businesses do in house SEO. Some do some in house and outsource specific tasks (for example the in house staff may create and manage the editorial calendar and outsource writing). To me the most important question is can small business SEO succeed in house? Small business SEO is an interesting topic due…
How can you measure the success of a content marketing strategy?
Bear in mind the financial goal of a content marketing strategy is to sell goods and services. However unless your website is an eCommerce site that directly sells goods (or services) your website is where the sale starts, not where the sales completes. But bearing in mind there is a need to make sales, you…
What is the best way to increase organic traffic?
In short, by publishing. The more you publish quality content the more visitors your site will attract through organic search traffic. I know that sounds conceptually easy, and it is. What makes it hard is the discipline needed to generate a steady stream of fresh content every day. I also wish to focus on the…
Online Lead Generation: What is the first rule of website conversion?
This has never really be formulated into a law of marketing, but it should be. People will take actions they are willing to take, and will not take actions they are not willing to take. As part of your Inbound Marketing, your website has some form of Contact Us form. Does it have 19 fields? If…
For SEO purposes, should I put the transcript of my videos in my blog posts?
In a word, Yes. Google is good at searching text. The ability of Google to search video is only as good as their ability to convert speech into text. For now, they’re not good at that. To see how bad they are upload a video to YouTube then turn on the close captioning as you…
How do I get huge traffic for my website and how should I market?
An important follow up question relative to traffic to your website is how huge is huge? The question was posted by someone who a built a marketplace website for freelancing. His main problem is he is in a very crowded competitive market. So his options are: Spend a massive amount of money to out-publish his…
If Blogging is a Valid Career Choice, It’s Valid Marketing
Do you believe a recent survey of young British people (18 to 25 year olds) who were asked to identify their top career choices selected “blogging” more than any other answer. They believe they can make 8,500 pounds a month blogging. They think so because some people do. To me, this validates the idea of…
How can I buy traffic to my blog?
You have lots of options. The hard part is to figure out which options will be most effective for your business niche and that will take some up front research followed by some trial and error. Buy Traffic Through Ads You can post ads on the Internet in various formats: Google Adwords LinkedIn Facebook There are…
What are the most effective White Hat SEO Methods?
White hat SEO activities can be reduced to two words: publishing and promotion. Have you ever noticed that news type websites (even for industry specific news) tend to rank higher than business blogs? Every wonder why? It’s because they’re very large repositories of quality content that are updated frequently. When you want your website to…
Should I use long tail keywords or short tail keywords for social media profiles of my business?
You should use appropriate phrases in your social media profile for your business and some of those might be long tail keywords while others are shorter keywords. The main thing is to accurately reflect what your business does. In this post I’d like to discuss a broader point. The Long Tail is not JUST a…
What website will get more traffic if one website will have only on page SEO and another site only off page SEO? Why?
This question was submitted by someone on Quora. They’re under the impression that on page SEO and off page SEO are separate and distinct and can be be done independent of each other. That is simply not the case. I find it useful to think of SEO as a machine (metaphorically speaking) with LOTS of…
What is the easiest way to market/drive traffic to your website?
I saw this question on Quora and wondered how many others might think attracting traffic to your website is “easy”. There is an easy way, but it’s generally too expensive for small businesses. The easy way is to buy it through Google Adwords and to outbid others bidding for the same set of keyword phrases…
What do websites gain in asking us for sign in even though we can browse their pages and content for free?
Principally websites gain two things: The ability to better track where you go and what you do on their site. The ability to follow up with you via email (provided the required an email address. Bear in mind that marketing goods and services through a website is much more than just attracting visitors. You need…
How to know if first page seo results for a certain keyword are “outrankable” or not?
The question is flawed. The question pre-supposes your desire is to rank on page 1 for “a” keyword. Mature websites rank for hundreds of keyword phrases. A better question is how do you attract visitors to your website through organic search. To that question there are four main success factors: Publish a lot of content…
When can you expect seeing your first SEO results and steady organic traffic to brand new blog website on 14 years old domain name with 2-3 new posts a week and ~10 pages (pages remain same)?
It depends. On various things, but mostly: How specialized is your niche (and hence your content)? How competitive is your niche? How much commercial opportunity exists within your niche? At the risk of giving an extremely large range, I’ll say somewhere between 6 months and never. The reasons for the answer maybe being “never” is:…
How do you start your SEO career? It is always interesting to know how people understand that they want to do SEO. Why you start SEOing? What is your background?
Without exception, both myself and everyone I’ve met who does SEO got into the business out of necessity. In my case it was to generate leads for a small business. Other people I’ve met started as webmasters. Still others come from a more traditional marketing background. I believe what keeps us there is SEO (or…
Is ASO the new SEO? Lately I am hearing a lot about app store optimization and is often mentioned as the new SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO and ASO are similar in concept, but not the same thing. SEO stands for Seach Engine Optimization and is the processes of attracting visitors to your website via organic search. ASO stands for App Store Optimization and is the process of attracting app store visitors (such as Google Play) to your app. Think for…
How does Google test their search engine? And verify algorithm updates are “better”?
I do not work at Google and I do not have a full and complete answer. I sometimes wonder if anyone, even the people working at Google do. I say this because their algorithm is enormous and it may be beyond the mental capacity of any one person to understand every aspect of it. However,…
What are the Tips for Finding a Quality SEO Service?
The #1 criteria is have they successfully done SEO for others before before. Are they basing their advise and strategy on something they’ve successfully done (preferably multiple times) or are they repeating things they’ve heard others say they think make sense? Before I elaborate in more detail about what you do want to hear, let…
What are SEO experts’ top 10 SEO tools for WordPress? Why?
As the question is WordPress specific my list is mostly WordPress plugins. 404 to Start This plugin eliminates 404 errors when someone attempts to access a page that no longer exists (or never did). Excessive 404 errors are reported to have a negative impact on your sites search ranking. It’s easy to configure this plugin…