Author: Christian Carere

How To Create A Marketing Funnel For An Ecommerce Website

There are always exceptions to the rule but for the most part, it takes more than one visit to a website before a visitor makes a purchase. Learn how to create a marketing funnel for an e-commerce website to drive more targeted traffic and convert more visitors into repeat customers.

The sales cycle that your typical customer experiences from start to finish can be categorized into four distinct stages; awareness, consideration, decision and advocacy.

Consider the possibility that every visitor to your website is at a different stage in the cycle and it only makes sense to publish SEO content that accounts for the various stages within the sales cycle.

What is a marketing funnel?

The marketing funnel refers to content that can meet a potential buyer where they are in their understanding and move them closer to making a purchase. The marketing funnel addresses a series of stages that a buyer experiences which is commonly referred to as the buyer journey. 

The content at each level of the funnel caters to the visitors on your site by meeting them at whatever stage of the journey they’re in with the goal of moving them deeper into your funnel.

Imagine a doctor approaching a man with testicular cancer and going to straight to the point about the need for surgery. No explanations, just“This is what has to be done….”

via GIPHY

It’s needless to say that the need for testicular surgery would not be well received by any man who doesn’t understand what’s happening.

There needs to be a sit down about cancer, what it is, how it works and what will happen without surgery and of course, how the surgery will solve the problem.

Similarly, there are multiple stages a person goes through before making a purchase that is represented by a marketing funnel.

To get a visitor to the point they’re ready to buy, there needs to be a basic level of understanding of what they’re buying and why your company is a good choice. The concept of the buyer journey is used to gauge how well your content meets your visitors at the different levels of their understanding.

Creating content for every possible stage allows you to move visitors along the funnel, to become closer to making a purchase and become loyal brand advocates.

Awareness stage

At this stage, the buyer isn’t aware of the specifics of the problem they have. They know they have an issue they need to be resolved but they’re not sure about what it is and how to resolve it.

An example of this could be extremely dry skin. A person may have psoriasis or eczema, but may not have ever heard of either. If your website sold skincare products to combat eczema or psoriasis, creating content that describes the symptoms would be considered content at the awareness level.

Here’s an article from the Huffington post that ranks for dry skin on elbows. There’s no doubt that the companies in this article needed to pay for placement in return for the thousands of clicks to their website.

Content at the awareness level educates your audience about the basic details of their problem and how your product is used to overcome it. At the awareness level, your content would be optimized for symptoms that your product solves like dry skin for a skincare company.

The volume of searches for keywords at the awareness level is the highest of all stages in the buyer journey. These types of keywords are considered top-of-the-funnel keywords that build awareness of your product and brand but aren’t typically “high converting” search terms. The more people you can reach with your content, the more potential clients you drive to your website.

Consideration stage

At this phase of the buyer journey, visitors are aware of their problem and may also be aware of how to fix it, however, they are not ready to buy. At this stage, they are still in research mode and will be looking to compare options to find the best possible solution at the best price. 

At the consideration stage, you would publish content that shows your visitors why your product is effective and superior to other options. This moves buyers forward to the final stage in the funnel by convincing them that you’re trustworthy enough to make a purchase.

Content at the consideration stage includes case studies, visual content, comparative analysis, original research and statistics, etc.

Content that arms your audience with the information needed to make an educated purchase decision builds trust in your brand. Rather than being too “salesy” or “pushy” about how great your product is, it’s considered best practice to create content that educates and demonstrates your expertise in your field.

Case studies

There’s nothing more convincing than a real live case study of the success you’ve had with existing clients. This type of content allows visitors to relate to someone with similar problems and see how your company resolved those issues with your business solutions.

Case studies can also be a form of storytelling, which is a powerful method of branding. People tend to remember stories more than statistics and numbers. Create relatable stories infused with real statistics and results to instill confidence and trust in purchasing with your company.

Original research

This is one of the best forms of advertising when it comes to creating an online presence and moving visitors deeper into your marketing funnel. Original research in your industry sets your company apart from the masses. It gives you the edge for creating new content with statistics and facts that no other company can compete with since they’re statistics that are generated from your research.

A lot of good things happen when you’re able to use original research to your advantage. The first is that original statistics attract backlinks. When you have statistics that no other company has, writers and publishers, tend to link to the source of that stats-and that happens to be your website. This pushes your website up in rank and authority.

In addition to being cited as a resource by those in your industry, you also are eligible for what is called earned media. That is, giving journalists and reporters something to write about that gets your company into some of the bigger publications and ultimately in front of thousands of readers.

Earned media is a powerful way to create brand awareness and assert your company as an authority and industry leader.

Decision stage

The decision stage is where your buyer is ready to make a purchase. They have established what they need and who the top choices are and need only the final push to make the purchase. Publishing content at this stage involves offering discounts, coupons and promotions to entice your visitors to make a decision.

Your product pages and services pages are where the conversions from visitors to clients are made. It’s necessary to have a page that inspires confidence in your product or service and that’s easy to navigate, making the purchase as easy as possible.

Loyalty and advocacy stage

This stage of the buyer journey can be the most valuable to your business. Consider the amount of time and resources to educate, convince and convert just one new client. Who better to market to than existing clients who have already purchased with you?! These are your most valuable assets to your business.

If they’ve already purchased with your company, there’s a very good chance they will purchase from you again since you’ve already gained their trust.

Apart from future sales, you want to keep your clients extremely happy, so that they’re able to turn around and tell other people how great your company is. Referrals are the highest form of marketing, and what better way to grow than to have happy clients tell other people how you’ve helped them.

Content at the advocacy stage includes sending coupons, VIP promotions, personalized offers and anything that expresses your gratitude for their loyalty.

Increase the lifetime buyer value for each of your clients by giving them the best customer service possible. The more you give, the more you get back.

Conversion rate optimization

To get the most out of your product and service pages, you need to measure and track the behaviour of your visitors to see what they do on your page. If there are specific patterns that are leading your visitor exit without converting, you will need to change those aspects of your page that are influencing that action.

Improving the conversion rate on your pages can be done using many different tools, however, Google Analytics can provide the user engagement statistics you need to improve the conversions on your page. 

Track metrics such as bounce rate, time spent on pages, average pages per session, exit page and the user flow to determine the weaker points of your website and where you can improve.

Bounce rate

The bounce rate is the total number of users that back out of a page without interacting with anything else. This statistic can be useful for determining whether the content on your page is a match to intent, whether the content is engaging or whether you have a technical deficiency that’s causing visitors to leave.

For example, if your page speed is too slow to hold the attention of users, this results in high bounce rates. Lightning-quick pages that load under 2 seconds keep more visitors on your page and lead to higher user engagement.

Keep in mind that the bounce rate can be misleading if users are going to a page and getting exactly what they need from your website. For instance, if people are going to your site to get the address or phone number, they may bounce right off as soon as they get what they need.

Identify the cause of a high bounce rate to determine whether you need to improve the quality of your page. In many cases, improving the bounce rate will lead to more time spent on your site, higher click-through rates, more user engagement and ultimately higher conversion rates.

The improvement in user engagement statistics is considered positive ranking signals-especially on the first page of results, which can lead to higher SERP positions.

Click-through rates

The click-through rate is an important metric to analyze in your content at the awareness and consideration stages of the buyer journey. You want to make sure you’re moving people along the marketing funnel and that they are engaging in your content by clicking through to related articles.

If users are not clicking further through your website, it’s important to understand what they’re doing and what your content is lacking to create low CTRs. 

Adding internal links to related content is the simplest solution to moving users along to more pages within your website.

A more difficult task is to re-evaluate the content that visitors are bouncing from to improve the copy, change the topic or remove the page altogether if it’s not able to achieve its purpose.

Time spent on-site

The average time spent on a website is an indication of how many visitors are interacting with your content. People must be getting through the content you’ve published to know whether they’re reading it through or bailing on it after a few paragraphs.

If there’s a 3000-word article that people are landing on, and they’re leaving after 45 seconds-it’s an indication that this piece of content is not doing its job. It would take at least 5 minutes to get through long-form content so look closer at where the disconnect is between you’re your content and your audience.

If people are not spending enough time, adding videos, images or more multimedia are alternative options to increase dwell time. 

Conversion rates

To track goals, you need to set them up in Google Analytics. Every page on your site should have the desired action you want your visitors to take. Create goals on your website to effectively track where you’re losing visitors and where you’re succeeding in moving them along the buyer’s journey.

Create conversion goals at the awareness and consideration stages

If you’re creating content at the awareness level, the goal is to click through the links on your page that take them through to content at the next stages. Create tracking links that indicate whether the visitors clicked on the internal links you’ve provided.

If you’re not getting the click you can test whether it’s the content, by providing different options or if it’s the placement, by presenting the option to click on internal pages a different way.

Conversion goals at this stage of the marketing funnel will help to identify the content that people are most engaged in. This can serve as a way to build more content around the successful topic ideas that are getting the most clicks.

Conversions at the decision stage

Improving your conversions at the decision stage has a direct impact on your revenue. Make sure you’re taking advantage of all the potential ways to track what your visitors are doing on your page.

There are heat maps and split testing software that can help with the details.

With heat maps, you can see how far down the user scrolled on your pages as well as what buttons were clicked the most.

Split testing software can help you get into the finer details of things like the colour of your buttons. For example, choosing different colours of buttons can lead to small increases in conversion rates. 

Track every option that’s available to track within your content to create the most understanding of what your visitors are doing and most importantly, what they like and don’t like. The data you generate gives you the means to improve the user experience your website offers and positively influence the actions visitors take on your website.

Map out the sales funnel to your e-commerce website

One of the most important aspects of developing your website is planning the site structure ahead of time and documenting how you intend to drive traffic. This means incorporating SEO at the earliest stages of your website’s development.

Whether you’re just starting or your website has been up for years, go through your content starting at the conversion pages first. Work your way up by layering your content from the bottom of the marketing funnel to the top. This strategy provides a way to convert the traffic you’re already getting and slowly increase the volume as you go.

Establish a basic marketing funnel and track your results. As your website continues to generate data, you’ll be able to make the changes necessary to constantly improve your traffic and conversions which leads to more sales, revenue and a long list of happy clients.

DIgital Ducats Inc. specializes in optimizing websites for increased conversions and sales. Learn more about our custom-fit SEO services and how we can optimize your website to generate more revenue for your business.

SEO in 2021: Changes Are Coming…

Although many of the main ranking factors will remain important, the industry forecast suggests we should expect a few important changes to SEO in 2021. There’s not a lot that you haven’t heard before, but change takes time and in 2021 there are a few changes that will officially have landed and will change the way we optimize websites. This article will give you insight into what changes to expect with SEO in 2021.

Core Web Vitals

It should come as no surprise that Google is moving towards more accurate ways of measuring user experience and user engagement. One of the key metrics that are going to play a big part in this movement is Google’s Core Web Vitals.

Core Web Vitals were added to Google Search Console in May 2020 as a way to give publishers more insight into what pages need attention. Core Web Vitals gives you the means for identifying:

1)   Largest Contentful Paint

2)  First input delay

3)   Cumulatie Layour Shift

It’s every search engine’s mission to display websites that provide the best solutions to search intent as well as the best experience for users. A big part of the user experience is the time in which it takes a page to load. Search console provides users with the necessary information and alerts to maintain the speed performance of your website.

Although you may have a fantastic score for desktop page speed,

Pay attention to the mobile version of your page speed since this is the version that Google indexes first. 

Don’t be alarmed if your score seems atrociously low. It can be common for a lot of websites that have long-form content with a lot of images. The point is 2021 will require you to continuously work towards increasing your site speed. It should be a regular part of your maintenance routine.

Keep in mind that just because your site loads faster than anyone else’s, won’t mean you’re going to rank in the number one position. The popular opinion is that Google won’t be rewarding the fastest pages as much as penalizing extremely slow pages.

Click here for tips on how to improve your page speed.

Ranking passages

Google has already begun to rank passages, that is, a few sentences from articles that directly answer a search query. You may have already seen a bit of this happening when you click on a featured snippet that takes you to the page with the answer highlighted in yellow. 

This is a pretty big deal because it means that you can drive more traffic without being ranked on the first page.

The way to optimize for passages is to make sure your content is sectioned off in distinct segments. Use the appropriate h-tags to create subtitles that clearly indicate what your content is about. This makes it easier for search engines to find and categorize the information on your website.

This doesn’t change the way Google will be ranking pages-that will remain the same, however, this is a new addition to the way search engines will be displaying search results that should be taken into consideration when writing SEO content.

Establishing domain authority

If you thought link building was hard already-well, it’s getting harder! Domain authority is becoming a more difficult task to improve without getting links from the experts within your field. Google wants to display websites that can be relied on for quality information.

This will put a bigger emphasis on earned media, visual content and original research. This is the kind of content that will put your website on the map and land you some high-authority links.

Expertise Authority and Trust

If you’re website states facts that are incorrect according to an authority site in your industry, your credibility is shot and Google will choose to display another site over yours.

What will move the needle the most for young developing websites is to acquire links from the biggest site in their niche. You need links from the experts to validate your expertise. When you can get links from the authority sites within your niche, you become an authority in your own rights.

E.A.T. has already become a major aspect of the YMYL industries. Any type of medical publication needs to be written by a doctor or professional in the field. For it to rank, that professional should have the proper credentials to validate their work as well.

As we venture forth further into 2021, we’re going to see more of the EAT principle in effect.

The second wave of featured snippets

The featured snippet is increasingly appearing in search results. It’s becoming apparent that it absorbs a significant number of clicks for a search and is a valuable position to add for branding. Good SEO in 2021 will involve going after more featured snippets for increased search visibility.

To maximize the possibility to appear in a featured snippet, you need to make your content “snippable.” For example, publish definitions and keep your answers between 40-60 words. Paragraph snippets are the most popular form of snippet-which accounts for roughly 80% of all featured snippets.

Remember you need to rank on the first page of search results to be eligible to win a feature. Work on creating more opportunities for traffic through feature snippet campaigns.

Local SEO

Local SEO has always been important but because of the global pandemic, it will pay off double time to maintain a local SEO strategy. Keep publishing local content and feed your Google My Business profile content to maximize the search visibility of your website in your city/area.

People are going out less and purchasing from businesses that are close to home. Make sure your GMB profile is up to date in every aspect and you’re actively engaged in adding local content to your site and profile as well as answering questions that may appear on your profile.

CTR is increasingly becoming more important

The organic click-through rate is steadily dwindling due to Google SERP features absorbing all of the clicks. 

In 2021 it will be increasingly important to improve the click-through rate of your pages directly on the SERP to maximize the traffic a first page appearance drives.

Structured data markup is one of the additions you can make to your pages to encourage rich results. Make your search listing more attractive in the search results to attract more attention and take up more space in the SERP.

The FAQ rich result is a perfect example of a rich result that demands more attention from the larger area the search listing takes up.

Additionally you can improve things like your headlines and meta descriptions. If there are older pages that are currently ranking, sometimes an update can make the difference in attracting more visitors to your page.

Search intent shifts and what you thought might be enticing a year ago, maybe a little out-dated and can use a facelift to drum up more clicks.

Search intent

It will be necessary to become a search intent ninja in 2021 to make sure your keywords and content are a perfect match to what users expect to see. Search engines are becoming more and more accurate at identifying exactly what users want when they type in a search and if you’re going against the grain your pages will be left in the dust.

Make sure you’re doing your homework when you’re establishing the true intent of a keyword. The more accurate you are in pinpointing intent, the more likely you are to rank in a top position.

Prepare for a new era of search engine optimization

Although claiming “a new era” is a little melodramatic, next year will bring about a few different changes in the way we optimize websites. Search engines are always updating and adjusting to make things a little easier for users. Change isn’t always bad and like every new update, we experience new opportunities lie ahead.

Ask us about custom search engine optimization services to find out how what we can do for your business.

How To Find the True Search Intent Of A Keyword

SEOs talk a lot about search intent as a major factor for achieving search visibility. The significance of search intent is that search engines want users to be able to find what they’re looking for with the least amount of effort. If you know what a user is looking for, you can publish the content that can be displayed as the best result to a search query. This article outlines how to find the true search intent of a keyword to drive more targeted traffic from higher-ranking positions on the SERP.

This function of SEO is critical because if you miss the mark identifying the intent, no matter how good your content is, no matter how many backlinks your page has, you will NEVER maintain a position on the first page of Google. This makes identifying and satisfying search intent a fundamental aspect of developing keyword and content strategies.

Basic forms of intent

At the highest level, you can break down search intent into three major areas; informational, navigational and transactional. Each of these categories represents a basic motivation for initiating a search.

Informational

As it turns out, informational searches account for about 80% of the total searches made on search engines. Providing useful information on your website can accelerate the growth of traffic being driven to the top level of your marketing funnel. 

By making visitors more aware of their problems and the solutions that you offer, you brand your company as an expert in your niche. Publishing SEO content regularly facilitates your ability to reach a larger group of people searching for information about the problems your product or service solves.

Navigational searches

These types of searches are when users already know what they’re looking for and are looking for a way to get there. There are millions of searches for the term “Facebook login” every single day made by people who want to get to Facebook.

Although navigational searches can drum up a significant number of searches, they are typically not keywords you would use in your SEO strategy.

Transactional searches

Users who want to make a purchase will use transactional keywords that represent buyer intent. Transactional searches represent users searching for a way to buy a product that they have already researched and are ready to purchase.

One way to research transactional keywords is to use Google Keyword Planner. Here you can find the level of competition, the average price paid for a click from that keyword (cost per click or CPC) and the approximate volume of the keyword being searched.

Determine general intent with a SERP Analysis

The first step to identifying search intent is to analyze the first page of search results. You can tell a lot from the features that a search engine displays in response to a query.

For example, if you were to search the keyword microwave oven you would find a slightly mixed bag of results. Users who search this term could be at the buying stage or they could be in the research stage.

The first three results are category pages for big-box stores selling microwaves.

Further down we have a local pack for people who want to visit a store that carries microwaves.

Lastly, we have a section Google titles “Research microwave oven” and displays articles that compare brands and models.

If we were to change the search to Walmart microwave oven, we immediately see the intent of the search switch to mainly transactional. Evidence of this is the Google Ads that immediately pop up above the fold.

The organic results are primarily Walmart pages because this is a branded search. It’s clear that the user is in the purchase stage and is ready to buy a microwave, making this a transactional search. 

If we type in the keyword best microwave, you can once again see how the intent shifts to an informational search. The articles displayed on the top 10 are all targeting the consideration stage of the marketing funnel. 

This is an informational search because users want to research and compare options. Evidence of this is in the fact that the search results are mainly blog posts that compare different microwaves.

The lack of Google Ads is also another indication that the main intent of the user is to gather information and they’re not quite ready to buy yet.

Identify the content type that ranks best

To rank highly for informational search terms, you have to pinpoint the underlying motivation of the user and address their intent better than any other page. The titles of the top 10 organic results are a good indication of the type of content that has the best chances of ranking.

The term best microwaves clue us in to the fact that the user is looking for a) a buyer’s guide on how to choose the best microwave or b) The best features that microwaves offer. Every search listing in the top ten for this term is either a listicle (numbered list of “X of the best microwaves” or a buyers guide.

To publish content that has the best chance at ranking, you would publish an article written in this form.

Account for complete topic coverage

To publish a page that outperforms the competition you need to be able to provide the user with what they need to end their search. The proof is in the pudding and by going through the top three results, you can get an idea of the level of depth and topic coverage required to satisfy the intent.

If you scan through Consumer Reports, the number one search result, they’ve grouped microwaves into two major categories; countertop and over the range.

They compare five microwaves in each category and provide links to buy the microwaves from multiple vendors.

To compete with this page in terms of content, your page would need to cover each of those aspects and provide some sort of value-added aspect. 

An example could be by adding more detailed images, a video that summarizes the content or more products in your comparison.

Create audience-centric content

Search engine optimization is constantly including more ways to measure audience-centric content. User engagement statistics enable search engines to gauge how well a piece of content can hold the attention of visitors and ultimately satisfy the underlying intent of a search.

Identify search intent during part of the keyword research process to optimize to be found by the most accurate audience. Understanding what a user is looking for enables you to publish content that hits the mark and ranks highly in the search results.

Anything less and you can be sure any first page appearances will be short-lived. Content that nails intent creates long-term value and high search visibility that drive streams of highly targeted traffic.

Domain Authority & What It Means For Your Website

You may have heard the phrase domain authority being passed around quite a bit and it’s probably for good reason. Many SEOs use the term to describe the likeliness of a website to rank since it refers to the aggregate link equity a domain possesses.

The truth is that domain authority or DA is a term and value that has been formulated and branded by Moz. Other companies have their own versions of how they measure it but the entire concept is a proprietary metric Google used in its algorithm called PageRank.

What is PageRank?

To be honest, no one knows for sure what exactly went into the PageRank calculation, but what we do know is that it had a lot to do with external backlinks. Google used to disclose the PageRank of every page on the internet. This way you would know how powerful a page was and whether it had a strong ability to rank.

PageRank is based on one of Google’s earliest patents. It states that the popularity of a site could be measured by how many websites linked to it. This is baked into the Google ranking algorithm and remains true today since backlinks are among the top three ranking factors.

The more backlinks a website possesses from relevant websites, the more ranking power it gains. This flow of “link juice” is commonly referred to as “authority.” When a website accumulates thousands of links from related websites, its authority grows.

In 2016, Google stopped publicly displaying PageRank because it contributed to rank manipulation. People would focus on PageRank rather than relevance when linking to other websites in an attempt to boost the ranking ability of their page.

When PageRank stopped being published, a few companies developed their own system for assigning a similar value to web pages. Moz was among the first to come up with DA or domain authority, which measured the aggregate link equity of a domain.

Page authority vs. domain authority

Page authority represents the aggregate link equity of a specific page. Google doesn’t rank domains in the search results it ranks pages. This makes PA or page authority a more accurate measure of the ranking ability of a specific page.

The content on a page is what counts as being relevant to a search. This means that even if your domain authority is considerably lower than another website, you can compete with their pages if you have enough support from other websites linking to your page to bridge the gap in authority-assuming your content is a better solution to search intent.

Advantage of high DA

Keep in mind that a high authority domain has a head start on low authority domains when they publish a new page.

For example, a website with a DA of 80 can publish a brand new blog post whose page authority automatically starts at 45 DA.

Whereas when a website with a DA of 33 publishes a new blog post the new page will start with a DA of 18.

Therefore it will take more backlinks for the lower DA website to even out the page authority when competing for the same keyword in the search results.

The importance of domain authority

The truth is that the higher the authority, the easier it is to rank. It’s easy to get hung up on page authority and domain authority because there’s a specific value to compete with, however, it’s not the only thing that will rank a web page.

Google has actually stated that domain authority doesn’t exist.

Here’s a video of John Mueller actually stating they don’t use overall website authority scoring.

That may be true for them but for SEOs and businessmen, it helps to know what you’re up against when you’re considering keywords to target. If you see 8 out of 10 websites on the first page with a DA over 80, you know you’re in for a long battle to get anywhere near the first page.

Domain authority places your domain in a general category that’s comparable to other websites. It gives you an idea of how close the website is in terms of credibility and authority.

DA in link building

Link building is not an easy task these days, so having a high domain authority is a big advantage to ranking in the search results. Linking from high DA websites is a big advantage because they drive your DA up higher.

PA in link building

Page authority is more accurate in measuring link authority when it comes to ranking for keywords. It gives pages a chance to compete with high DA websites. When there is good content on a page that serves the intent of the search and other websites are linking to it like crazy, it’s going to move up in the search results.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s only because of the links and actual value of PA. It’s a combination of the fact that people are linking to the content because it’s obviously worth linking to in the first place.

There are plenty of instances where low DA sites rank on the same page as high DA websites. It just depends on the content, the optimiztion and how many links the lower DA site has to compete with the higher authority websites.

Here’s an example of a website with a low DA and NO links ranking on the first page with high DA websites:

Other measures of DA

Moz was not the only company to come up with a measurement for authority. There are several companies that use a similar system to measure the quality and quantity of backlinks that a page and domain possess.

Here are a few:

Ahrefs: DR and UR (domain rating and URL rating)

Majestic: TF and CF (Trust flow and Citation Flow )

SEMRush: Authority score

Conclusion

In an effort to gauge the competition, many companies have come up with their own systems for measuring overall authority. Although it does not represent the actual value of PageRank, they are a measure of the aggregate link equity that each page or domain possesses.

Domain authority is not an exact measurement for determining rank, but a tool that is commonly used to gauge the level of difficulty in acquiring a similar number of backlinks to compete and outperform competing pages.

The takeaway here is that although it’s an important ranking factor, it not the measurement of DA that matters most since it’s a combination of ranking factors that make up a ranking. Use DA as a general guide for determining the strength of competition and as a way to look deeper into what makes a page rank highly.

The Difference Between SEO and Content Marketing

There are a number of different strategies within the digital marketing spectrum. Most of which are their own unique and distinct entities that can easily be differentiated between one another. SEO and content marketing are unique in that sense.

A PPC campaign is different from a website design. Social media marketing is completely different from email marketing. When it comes to SEO and content marketing, however, the lines are more blurred because they work together pefectly.

People get confused about the two strategies since quite a large part of each strategy overlaps with the other. This article should straighten out any misconceptions you may have about the two and give you a better understanding of how they are used together to maximize results.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization services incorporate a variety of tactics to improve the likelihood of content being found by users and search engines. SEO uses keyword research, keyword targeting, keyword mapping, on-page optimization, off-page optimization, content creation and technical SEO elements to improve the overall optimization of a page or piece of content.

SEO has a narrow focus

SEO has a more specific focus because it is primarily keyword-based. It’s true; search engines have evolved from ranking web pages solely by keywords, however, keyword targeting is necessary to make sure your page gets in front of the right audience. The result is that an optimized page will not only rank for one keyword, but a series of keyword variations as well.

Search engine optimization is an analytical process for not only identifying the audience, but for finding out what they type to search for topics and what is required to appear at the top of the search results.

SEO is technical

SEO involves incremental changes and additions that continuously move your page closer to the top of the searches. SEO goes beyond the content to improve on technical aspects of performance that search engines credit as positive ranking signals.

Technical issues that affect indexing are a major component to SEO. Improving page speed is also a factor that affects the ranking and engagement statistics of a web page. Maintaining longer dwell times, higher click-through rates and increasing the average number of pages per session are all calculated efforts to improve the quality of content on a website.

So how does this tie in to content marketing? First let’s define what content marketing means to a business.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing means identifying an audience and creating content to educate and/or entertain based on their interests. Content is typically created for a broader audience that appeals to all stages of the buyer journey.

Content marketing can be for social media, increasing conversions on a website or creating awareness by appearing on popular websites. Content marketing can come in the form of research, storytelling, articles, images, videos, slide shows and literally any form of multimedia.

What’s the difference between SEO and content marketing?

The difference between SEO and content marketing lies in the scope of which each has in terms of an audience. SEO has a narrower focus that is keyword based. SEO focuses on the intent of the audience and identifies the technical requirements to reach that audience.

Content marketing has a broad focus that can apply to an audience with multiple intents. There are no technical requirements to create the content necessary to serve its purpose.

How content marketing and SEO overlap

Combining SEO and content marketing is where we see powerful results. 

First of all, SEO can’t exist without content. 

SEO optimizes content to be found by a specific group of searchers. Without any content to optimize, there is no SEO.

Content marketing becomes a powerful method of marketing when it’s optimized to appear in front of a specific audience. By identifying what people are looking for in searches, you can create content that satisfies their intent.

Good content brings brand recognition, brand loyalty and more confidence in making a purchase from your company. 

By identifying the major keywords being used to search for your products and the problems and solutions related to using your product or service you can reach a specific group that is more likely to convert from visitors to new clients.

SEO establishes the parameters for what content is needed to generate more traffic to your website. Content marketing supplies those requirements.

Create content that’s in high demand

At the end of the day, you want to create content that people are actively looking for on Google. The process that’s proven to be the most effective for driving targeted traffic is simple:

• Establish the true intent of keywords that represent high business value.
• Create content that satisfies the intent of the search.
• Optimize content to appear for your keyword topic.
• Improve ranking and increase traffic to your pages by building links and promoting on social media and other content distribution channels.

This four-step process works to create new streams of high converting traffic. This system requires targeted SEO content writing with consistent production to create long-lasting results in the search engines. The result is increased revenue from more traffic and new clients.

Speak to a professional today and learn how to drive traffic with an SEO content strategy custom-fit to your website. For more details visit our SEO services page.

5 SEO Tactics To Use During Quarantine

With the world going crazy with COVID-19 there have been many restrictions that have affected the way we live dramatically. Many businesses have been hit hard, while some are thriving because they’re positioned correctly for online sales and/or sell popular products people are buying curbside. No matter what industry your business competes in, here are five SEO tactics to implement during this economic quarantine.

Sharpen up your local SEO strategy

Whether you’re a small business or not, local SEO is a pretty big factor for increasing revenue during the quarantine. Many people are working remotely from home and are more inclined to be looking for solutions that are closer to them.

State any changes in policy & daily operations

Update your Google My Business profile to reflect any new policies you might have on how your business is running. There’s a section specifically for COVID-19 updates you can find within your dashboard under posts.

Many people are concerned about their safety and the safety of their families. Publish a message that directly addresses what your business is doing to ensure the safety of your customers is being taken seriously.

Update your hours

It sounds simple, but many businesses forget to keep their hours updated to reflect the changes they’ve made since COVID-19 became a serious threat. There’s nothing more frustrating than showing up to a business that said it was open online but is closed when you get there.

It’s bad branding for your business to have inaccurate information posted online. It’s fairly simple to change from your dashboard, so make sure you’ve taken the time to let people know what hours you’re operating.

Make use of the Q & A section

Are people asking many of the same questions about your business? You don’t need to wait for someone to post a question on your profile, you can take the initiative and do it yourself.

After you ask the question you can write the response directly following which will appear on the knowledge card whenever your business is searched on Google.

Make use of this feature to make more information more accessible as well as promote user engagement. When people see questions being answered it encourages them to ask questions as well. 

Although it’s not a major ranking factor, it’s still a positive signal that search engines take into account.

Target new streams of website visitors

When things are slow it’s the perfect time to target new keywords. You may need to completely revamp the way you attract new clients, or perhaps you can just add another stream of traffic to your monthly search volume.

After the first wave of COVID-19 many businesses in the service industry had to quickly rethink their strategy. In-person meetings were no longer an option, which meant finding a way to continue online.

Gyms, for example, began offering online fitness classes in order to maintain a percentage of their clients.

Coaches and tutors have been forced to shift to online classes as well.

The movement is now shifting to a virtual environment. Make sure your keyword strategy reflects the shift in demand. Whether it’s online services or contactless delivery, your website needs to be optimized to reflect the changes that have become essential for survival.

Publish more content, more frequently

There are more people searching for Google during the pandemic than ever before. People have more time on their hands plus they’re being forced to find online solutions to minimize the risk of being exposed to COVID-19.

Publish more content to support the depth of your keyword topics. More information that you can provide on your products, services and the topics that surround them, the more expertise your website builds in your niche.

Plan your content topically

If you haven’t already, break down your main keyword topic into smaller subtopics. Make sure these subtopics are something that people would want to read or are solutions to commonly asked questions.

Provide detailed solutions to demonstrate more ability to answer any question a user may have on a keyword related topic.

The more content your build around important keyword topics the more your website can be considered an expert resource in your niche.

This builds authority and ranking ability around the major core topic from which your business benefits the most.

Form clustered content

The subtopics that are related to each other should be interlinked as much as possible. An internal link from one article to another allows users to navigate through your content and learn more about the topic they’re interested in.

When each article within the clustered content links to the core topic, it forms a pillar page for your main keyword theme. A large number of internal links highlight the importance of the keyword theme to your site and raises the ranking ability of every page within your topic cluster.

Publish for the freshness factor

Google loves fresh content. When there’s new content being published on your site you create positive ranking signals.

In a time when people are online now more than ever, create as much content around your main keyword themes as possible to give people more reason to visit your website.

Address technical website errors

Improve the functionality of your website piece by piece by tackling some of the technical errors that inevitably crop up throughout its lifetime. Even if you’re not super tech-savvy you can still get rid of some of the major errors like broken links or even work on improving page speed.

Start by checking Google Search Console for errors that are appearing on your pages by clicking on the Core Web Vitals tab.

Anything that needs attention will be reported in more detail by clicking “open report” and then clicking on the detail line with the type of error.

If you’re error-free, go over to page speed insights and enter your URL.

Page speed is a constant maintenance issue so you’ll need to check periodically how your pages are doing with load time (major page speed issues will be reported in the search console).

The faster your page loads, the more visitors you keep on your website and it’s not a one and done type of deal. Constant vigilance needs to be maintained in order for your pages to get under the recommended speed of two seconds.

Work on compressing images on your site before you upload them to your content. If your page is slow on specific pages that have images, consider replacing the images for smaller, compressed versions. 

Use Google’s free online tool called Squoosh to compress images to sizes up to 99% smaller than the original.

This tool also resizes images to your specifications which is perfect for reducing server response time if your images are not scaled to fit in the space you need them for.

Guest author on a popular website

Promote your company and get more people to your website by applying to be a guest author on a popular website. There are dozens of high traffic blogs in your niche guaranteed to help you improve the traffic you receive on our website.

As a guest author, you’re able to brand your business and generate more awareness of your company. Your article should be an example of the expertise you have in your field and inspire interested readers to click through to your website.

Use the triple P process for guest posting: prospect, pitch & publish. There are important aspects you need to be aware of within each of these steps in order to make the most of being a guest author.

Prospect

Guest posting sites can easily be found with a quick Google search. You can type in “[your keyword] guest posting websites” to get pages with lists of candidates.

You need to find websites with a minimum authority of 30 DA to qualify as decent prospects to publish content. Higher domain authority will have a greater impact on improving the domain authority of your website.

You can use the Mozbar extension for your browser to filter out websites that are lower than 30 DA.

Make sure you’re going to be able to link to your content within the body of the article. If they only allow nofollow links then make sure the website gets enough traffic to be worth it. 

Enter the URL on SEMRush to see the keywords that drive organic traffic for the website.

You can find details on the writing requirements by reading the Contributor Guidelines. Be sure to read this before writing your article to avoid any surprises in what’s required, allowed and disallowed. 

Many websites are different so it’s important to read this for every website you’re writing an article for. This will save you time from making a mistake or writing an article for nothing because it gets rejected for not following the guidelines.

Pitch

When you approach a website with a pitch you want to do all of the following:

• Introduce yourself
• Pitch a catchy title idea for an article
• Provide a short outline
• Supply a few links to other content you’ve published
• List a few additional title options

Publish

When you publish your article on another website make sure it’s at the level of quality where you can say you’re putting your best foot forward. You’re representing your company and brand so make your content the highest quality possible.

Link to relevant content on your site where it makes sense. Send readers to content assets on your site that will engage visitors and encourage them to click-through to more pages on your site.

SEO strategies take time

Stay consistent with your efforts. Remember that SEO is a strategy that’s most effective in the long run. Follow these five SEO tactics for some quick wins and long term gains.

Most content you publish today doesn’t provide a return for a few months. It takes time to be indexed and gain momentum with ranking and traffic. With more and more people staying indoors, take advantage of the additional search volume.

Capitalize on the opportunities here and strengthen your online presence in a time when it counts the most. For more information read about Toronto SEO services that enhance your online presence.

How To Pick A Good SEO Company For Your Business

Choosing an SEO company for your business is not a decision to be taken lightly. When you work with an SEO expert, you’re usually in for the long haul, so you want to be sure that they’re not just a good SEO agency but that they’re the right SEO firm for you. Learn how to pick a good SEO company to maximize your results in developing your website.

The SEO industry has grown dramatically in the last few years. Companies are realizing how much money there is to be made from being in a position to be found by people searching on Google for the products and services they offer. The industry is estimated to have grown to almost 80 billion in spending.

This has translated to floods of people becoming “SEO professionals” in an attempt to get a piece of that 80 billion dollar pie. This wouldn’t be an issue if every SEO agency and SEO expert were able to do a great job for your business.

The problem faced is not just knowing how to pick a good SEO company, but how to choose an SEO company that’s right for your business.

Here are a few ways to get you on the right track for choosing from the SEO providers you’re considering hiring.

Find a business like yours that can refer you

Most SEO companies acquire new clients because the clients were referred. This accounts for about 45% of the new business an SEO company generates.

Considering the number of self-proclaimed “SEO professionals” in the business, it puts your mind at ease by having someone vouch for a company that you’re about to invest a considerable amount of money in.

Referrals from family and friends of the company or employees of the company will need further investigation. Don’t just blindly jump into an SEO company because your buddy’s friend works there.

It’s a good start, but you need to dig deeper into the company before making any decisions.

Getting a referral from an existing client of the company would be the best-case situation. You can hear from them first hand what the SEO Company has done for their business and get an idea of what to expect.

Read the reviews on your prospective SEO agency

The service industry is littered with companies that don’t treat their customers right and those that provide the best customer experience. Reading through the reviews of a prospective SEO company is a start for getting some insight into the credibility of the business.

Most people will immediately read any reviews that suggest a terrible experience. This is probably the best place to start because you may want to move on if there are too many of these.

Read the five-star reviews as well to get a sense of what the company is about and whether customers are talking about similar situations you want to find yourself in. There may be a lot of dentists that have reviewed a company that suggests they specialize in that niche.

If you’re a dentist, it’s probably a great fit for you. It’s probably a great fit if you’re a physiotherapist or any type of doctor since the company has experience working with businesses like yours.

Scan objective lists and recommendations on credible websites

Find objective opinions by reading the reviews on different platforms. The first obvious reviews are those on Google. Rather than solely rely on Google reviews, visit Clutch.co to see more reviews on SEO companies from legitimate businesses.

Clutch is a directory for digital marketing companies that conducts interviews with the clients of these companies. The reviews you read on Clutch.io have been written by the Clutch employees based on the interview they have with the clients.

Other sources of reliable lists can be on websites that don’t accept payment to be on the lists. The source is only credible when they aren’t being paid to tell people that the SEO firms on their list do a good job with their clients. 

Interview your top choices

After searching for an SEO service provider, you should easily be able to come up with a list of three to five prospective companies. You won’t know exactly what each company has to offer without speaking to them first. 

Of course, some have their programs and pricing listed on their website, but the truth is every website has a unique set of needs and may not require the same type of service.

To be sure you’re getting someone who understands your business and knows how to generate more income from your website, you need to speak to an SEO consultant.

Make sure the lines of communication are open

Even if you’re not familiar with SEO terminology, you should be able to understand what your SEO company is proposing for your business. If the SEO expert you’re talking to is worth their salt, they should be able to explain the answers to your questions in a way that makes sense.

It may not be important to every business owner, but for those who like to be kept up to speed, your SEO consultant will need to report to you and communicate what’s happening with your site. If there are some communication issues or it’s a cultural mismatch you may want to reconsider going into business with this person since SEO is all about the long game.

If you feel frustrated after talking to an SEO it’s a bad sign that you’re not getting the answers you’re looking to hear. Make sure you’re able to communicate freely and you’re comfortable with entering a business arrangement that will most likely be a minimum of 6-9 months (if not as an on-going service).

Questions to ask your SEO consultant

You can qualify your SEO agent by asking questions that show whether they’re on the right track with their business and whether they can help yours. Here are a few suggestions to ask your SEO expert during your consultation meetings.

What KPIs would you use to benchmark performance?

Ask your SEO which key performance indicators they’ll use to benchmark your progress. The answer they provide should include the values that will make a difference in the revenue your website generates.

Does your business rely on more subscriptions? Then you need to know whether your SEO is going to increase the number of unique visitors and track goal conversions.

Do you use your website to generate more leads from phone calls? Your SEO should be talking about installing a call tracker or setting up conversion goals on your site that count how many visitors press the click to call button.

Rankings and traffic on their own are not an indication of success. True success is being able to get your content in front of the right audience and inspiring them to complete the desired action that results in increased revenue.

Ultimately, increased revenue is every business’s goal. Find out how your SEO can benchmark performance and measure the progress of your SEO campaigns.

What is your process and how will it help my business?

Any upstanding SEO company will not have a problem explaining to you how they intend to develop your website. The process for implementing SEO tactics is not proprietary or a heavily guarded secret. 

Search engine optimization is a combination of many different tactics and strategies to increase the search visibility of your business. Most strategies are well-known across every legitimate SEO company and it should be an easy conversation that follows the question.

The proposal that your consultant provides should make sense to you and match your business goals. If the search engine optimization professional you’re talking to you can’t disclose a method for how they intend to make you more money, time to move on.

Ask about the areas they excel in with their clients

Most SEO companies are capable of performing most aspects of SEO but you want to find out whether your prospect is a specialist in a specific area of SEO. The perfect match for your company is one that specializes in the exact services you need.

Some companies are extremely good at SEM and PPC campaigns. 

Some companies don’t offer that service at all. 

If paid ads are a big part of your strategy, you’re going to want a company that can fine-tune your campaigns to get the highest conversion rates at the lowest price per click.

Alternatively, may find a company that specializes heavily in content and can effectively target and generate organic traffic. The content writers in this SEO firm may produce better results with content than any other firm.

If your company needs more branding and exposure across a large audience, finding a company that specializes in SEO content creation and marketing is your best bet.

Finding the right fit for your business means more money for your company in the long run.

What’s your method for reporting?

Ask your SEO how they intend to report the progress of your SEO services. Are they using tools that will provide you with clear data as evidence of the status of your website? Do they set aside the time to explain any questions you have about the data you’re being presented with every month?

The SEO consultant you hire can be considered an extension of your in-house team. Make sure that you’re able to agree on seamless integration of how data is reported that fits into your decision-making process.

Can I speak to one of your clients as a reference?

If you’re dealing with a successful SEO company that’s capable of helping your business, they should have no problem referring you to a happy client. If a consultant says no they may have something to hide and you’re going to want to move on to the next option.

Common mistakes when choosing an SEO company

It’s easy to make the mistake of trusting the wrong information when deciding on an SEO company. The following are a few common mistakes that you can avoid to make more informed decisions.

Avoid “best SEO lists”

There are a lot of companies that build directory sites specifically for selling SEO companies a spot as the “best SEO company in [city]” Avoid making decisions based on these types of sites.

The motivation for these websites is not to help you find “the best SEO company” but to make money from the SEO companies who need more clients. 

It’s not to say the SEO firms listed won’t be credible, but you should still go through your due diligence in qualifying the SEO company for your business.

Avoid mass email marketing

Be skeptical of the “SEO professional” that’s cold emailing you to tell you about your website. These emails are sent out to thousands of people and businesses and are not sent by credible companies.

In many cases, these emails are sent by lead generation businesses who sell your contact information to companies that are looking for new clients. 

If you want to get a good SEO company to work on your site, do your homework.

If it’s too good to be true it probably isn’t true

Anyone offering SEO services for a few hundred bucks a month is not going to do the same type of work as real, qualified SEO. The average costs for SEO services range between  $750-$2000/month.

Anyone who offers to do your SEO for anything less than $500 is more than likely very risky services and can end up doing more harm than good to your website. Google penalizes websites with unnatural linking patterns, over-optimized content and anchors text backlinks-and that’s just the beginning of the things that can go wrong.

If you let someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing you may end up paying more to recover your site by a real SEO, or need to start over if your website sustains too much damage.

Location

The location of your SEO company shouldn’t be the only deciding factor that you’re using to make your decision. Although you may like the idea of an SEO company being local, it’s not a requirement to get the best service for your website.

If one of your competitors is hiring a talented SEO agency in another city to handle their website, why would you settle for a company just because they’re closer? At the end of the day, you want someone who understands your business and can deliver on their services.

You can circumvent problems with distance by holding virtual meetings, phone conferences and the occasional in-person visit. It’s not necessary to meet every month anyway so if your SEO firm happens to be close to your business it’s a bonus.

Ranking alone doesn’t tell you the whole story

Just because a website ranks number 1 or doesn’t rank at all isn’t an indication of the quality of work they do as SEO providers.

You can look at it from both ends of the scope. If a company doesn’t have any clients, they spend all of their efforts on their ranking on Google. It’s not that it doesn’t count for some credibility but it doesn’t necessarily make them the best choice for your company.

Many of the best SEO companies constantly have clients referred to them. They don’t need to invest time in ranking their website for “best SEO Toronto” because they have long-standing relationships with their clients, a high retention rate and are more than likely struggling with an overloaded schedule.

Choose the best SEO firm that’s right for you

It’s not easy to know exactly which SEO agency will be the best fit for your business but you can increase the odds of success by following the advice in this article. Learn how to choose a good SEO company and get on the right track for dominating your competition in the search results.

Is SEO Dead For Small Businesses In 2021?

While it may seem a ridiculous question to some, there are some aspects of SEO that have died. For those who practice out-dated tactics, SEO is dead. If your skillset is limited to SEO strategies that are short-lived and ineffective, then it would make sense why someone might think SEO is a dying practice. However, for those who implement white hat tactics, it’s a ridiculous question. For a reliable SEO company, SEO is still very much alive and more important now than ever.

Why do people ask “Is SEO dead?!” It could be because a widespread SEO tactic was exposed by Google and has become ineffective after an update. Many of the Google updates literally turned the SEO world upside down. So when a popular tactic stops working people start sounding the alarms and making all kinds of noise.

The reality is that Google has vigilantly made an effort to eliminate any type of tactics that could be used to manipulate ranking. Updates to the algorithm aren’t just an attack on SEOs but an attempt to produce the best search results for users. 

And so far it’s working.

The search engines have steadily reduced the amount of low-quality pages that surface near the top of the search results. Even if they do manage to make it to the first page, their stay is short-lived if it’s apparent that users are not engaging with the content.

SEO is not dead.

It remains an important catalyst for growth. Millions of businesses depend on website traffic to survive and grow. Ranking for keywords without strategy or optimization is like trying to win a race blindfolded. You need to know the direction you’re headed, what you’re up against and what strategies and tactics that will get you there.

Here are a few major changes to the algorithm that most likely account for the bee in the bonnet of those who claim SEO is dead.

Keyword stuffing

One of the most common practices that were put to rest was the art of keyword stuffing. The truth is there was no real art to it at all. The trick was to repeat your keyword throughout your content as an attempt to trick search engines into ranking your page highly for that keyword.

That meant that no matter how bad your text read and regardless of whether it even made sense, you could get away with a ranking if you had your keyword repeated enough times.

This practice evolved into attempting to manage specific ratios of your target keyword. Over-optimization became a thing and many SEO’s maintained a 1-3% keyword density to maximize on-page optimization. 

Finally, this practice has also become obsolete since search engines no longer rank solely on keywords but rather by keyword topics. If you repeat your keyword an unnatural amount of times you may be priming yourself for an algorithmic filter penalty. Over-optimization will cost your website search visibility.

Link building tactics

The links that point to your page make up one of the largest ranking factors that search engines take into account when they display a website in the search results. They provide ranking ability, credibility and authority. As a result, there have been multiple link building practices that became popular, only to become obsolete after Google became wise to the tactic.

(Related reading: 17 Effective Backlinking Strategies)

As stated in the Google best practices for web development, it is against the rules to manipulate links for ranking.

Every link building method you implement, should look as natural as possible and be from websites related to your business. The filters Google has put into place are designed to identify and penalize websites that are engaging in the following practices.

PBN link building

A PBN link is a link from a website that has been created solely to pass on PageRank (authority metrics or more loosely known as “link juice”). There were two major types of PBN links that have been exposed and devalued.

The first to go down in flames was the big networks of websites that were built to sell links. The digital footprint was easy to trace. Google was able to identify websites that were involved and penalize every website that was linked to the network.

Many companies who had built hundreds of websites and sold links were deindexed overnight. Websites who had acquired a lot of their backlinks from PBN sites were also penalized and forced to rebuild their backlink profile, or start a new website from scratch (if the damage was too heavy).

PBNs part Deux

This update spawned a new generation of PBN sites where SEOs were much careful at covering the digital footprint. Rather than linking PBN sites together, you could build a single website and send your website a money link from the home page.

The process involved buying an expired domain that already had backlinks and good authority metrics. 

Domains were registered under different names, email addresses and built on different servers and hosting accounts. 

The content was in many cases considered “thin content” and Google had another field day targeting websites that had one or a few pages of content with links from the homepage. It doesn’t take much to spot a PBN website and once again, many people suffered the consequences of a link manipulation penalty.

PBNs are still used today, but the number of resources that go into hiding them makes them much less effective to produce at scale. You have to build and develop a legitimate website to avoid being penalized and when it’s all said and done, you still risk a penalty. 

PBNs are considered a black hat SEO tactic.

Guest comment link building

Another popular method of link building that has been devalued was linking from the guest comments section on blogs and articles. Several companies developed automated software that allowed the user to target thousands of websites and leave spun content messages with a link back to their site.

Google devalued this form of link building and what’s more, penalizes any form of link building that looks unnatural. When your website acquires 10k links overnight it’s enough to raise a red flag and put your site on Google’s radar.

Link building in mass quantity

Before the algorithm filters and more advanced systems for identifying quality backlinks, the general rule was that the more links you built, the higher you ranked. If you had the most links, no matter where they came from, you could rank on the first page of Google.

Search engines can determine context and put more emphasis on quality backlinks over the number of backlinks. 

If the links pointing to your website are not from relevant and contextually related websites, they are ignored. Too many unrelated links may also work against your search visibility.

Welcome to an evolved way of search engine optimization

Today, quality websites that have top-notch content are what’s moving the needle the most. Search engines are assessing websites using hundreds of factors that affect how to display their top results. 

It’s fair to say that over the years, the quality of content that appears in the search results has gone in the right direction and improved dramatically. Having said that, this also proves how much search engine optimization plays a role in driving traffic, leads and revenue. 

The number of users and total searches performed daily are higher than they’ve ever been. And the trend seems to continue.

To capitalize on the growing dependency on search engines like Google, you have to make your website easy to find for keywords that affect your business. Here are a few reasons why SEO is NOT dead and what tactics are working to drive real results.

Targeting keyword themes

A major shift in the way search engines rank was when they stopped ranking based on keywords alone and started ranking according to keyword topics. 

This has been an evolution that includes many different updates that allow search engines to understand more about what users want and how to answer that intent. 

Topic clusters have emerged as a way to establish a website’s ability to cover an entire topic with authority. The emergence of topic clusters has contributed not only to top rankings for a keyword topic but also hundreds of other keywords that come with creating a strong presence in a specific topic.

A topic cluster is a collection of related articles and blog posts that are linked together internally. The internal links provide the user with a way to navigate to additional content that provides more information on the topic of interest.

This structure not only provides a better user experience (as seen in the rise in user engagement statistics) but also raises the level of expertise a website demonstrates in a specific topic.

The most infamous implementation of a topic cluster is the use of a pillar page model that incorporates clustered content. The pillar page provides broad sweeping coverage of an entire topic. 

Rather than going too deep into detail on any particular subtopic, the pillar page will link out to blog posts and articles that provide more in-depth coverage.

Every page in the cluster links to the pillar page as well as the content within its cluster. 

This internal linking strategy raises the profile of your pillar page within your website and communicates the major keyword topics to search engines and users. Whether a user lands on a pillar page or one of the cluster content articles, they can navigate throughout the topic learning more about it as they go. 

This is extremely helpful to users at all stages of the buyer journey.

And what’s good for users is good for search engines. 

Topic clusters can make your website known for a specific keyword topic so that pages in your cluster appear for keyword related searches. The internal linking strategy and strategic content lead to higher click-through rates, longer dwell time and reduced bounce rates.

These are all major indications of popular websites that users are enjoying. And what’s good for users, is good for search engines.

Optimize for search intent

Underlying every first-page ranking is the ability to satisfy search intent. Your content needs to match the true intent a user has when they type in a specific keyword. If visitors land on your page and then immediately back out, it’s obvious they aren’t liking what they’re finding. 

The assumption would then be that you’re not providing them with everything they need and as a result, your ranking will suffer. 

Search intent has been a concept from the beginning of the internet. After all, the idea is to supply what searchers are asking for by matching the right content to the keyword.

Since there are fewer ways to game the algorithm and more ways to measure user engagement, it has made the issue of user intent/search intent vastly more important. If you’re truly looking to achieve long-lasting results by staying on the first page, you have to provide the exact solution to the true intent of the search.

So much of Google’s efforts are to provide the most accurate information in the easiest way possible. We’ve seen this through the variety of SERP features that have developed over the years. 

Giving users exactly what they need to satisfy their search ensures your website stays on the first page of search results.

SERP marketing

The features that appear on the first page of results have become numerous and frequent in appearance. You no longer see a few ads and a list of 10 blue links on the first page of results. Here is what it used to look like: 

Today we can expect to see featured snippets, PAA boxes, local packs, images and videos in addition to the organic search listings. Here is the SERP for the keyword french press:

It’s important to optimize for SERP features whenever the opportunity presents itself. For the first time, less than 50% of the total clicks made on Google are going to websites. 

Google has developed ways of answering intent that has eliminated the need to click on websites and therefore resulted in zero-click searches.

There are many searches where you don’t see an organic search result without scrolling way down the page. Although this translates to less organic click-through rates, it also means you need to adapt to the trend and optimize the features that appear.

Position zero

The number one position used to be the goal, but today the real prize has become position zero. The featured snippet is an enhanced search result that is most often positioned as the first feature on a search engine result page.

Being featured in this box is an excellent source of traffic, branding and increased click-through rates. Winning position zero makes your website look like an expert in your field and attracts the most attention as it is used to directly answer search intent.

Related questions

The related questions box (or People Also Ask box) is another way to drive more traffic to your website from a different position on the SERP. Adding questions that people commonly ask to your content is a way of creating more relevance to your keywords as well.

When your website appears for one question, it also appears for several variations of that question. Similarly to how pages rank, Google will display your website as the solution to questions with the same intent.

Local pack

The local pack is another Google feature that needs to be considered if it appears when searches are made for your keywords. The advantage of appearing in the local pack is that you can attract more local clients who convert at a higher rate.

The local pack is another Google feature that needs to be considered if it appears when searches are made for your keywords. The advantage of appearing in the local pack is that you can attract more local clients who convert at a higher rate.

The local pack means you’re in the top three positions of the local finder. Many users will use this feature when they need to buy something relatively soon. 

If you offer products and services to local traffic, develop a local SEO strategy to appear at the top of the local finder, and therefore the first page of Google.

Many companies depend on local businesses to survive which makes this feature crucial for maximizing growth and new client acquisition.

Video is on the rise

As a form of content, video is on the rise in popularity and should be incorporated into your digital marketing strategy. So many people will search YouTube itself to find answers, which creates an additional stream of traffic. Many of these videos will show up in a Google search as well because they are the best answer to search intent.

If you’re seeing videos show up in the SERP, it’s an indication that people are clicking on them for answers, which will generate more traffic to your site. The advantage of publishing a video is that they are generally less competitive to rank than a webpage since they are much fewer videos than websites.

Rich results

The first page of results is getting crowded. With more features to contend with, getting your organic listing to stand out as a rich result can mean the difference in winning the click.

Rich results are much more attractive search result listings because there are additional features added to make them stand out. Different types of content qualify for different types of markup.

One of the more recent types to be released was the FAQ markup that allows websites to display a series of frequently asked questions underneath their search results listing.

One of the more recent types to be released was the FAQ markup that allows websites to display a series of frequently asked questions underneath their search results listing.

This feature improves the click-through rate of your website by attracting more attention as well as pushing your competitors further down the page. You can even add links to pages within your answers to promote more pages directly from the SERP.

More popular forms of rich results include recipe and review snippets.

This SEO tactic is an advanced method of improving the traffic to your site by creating a more competitive, more attractive search result.

The importance of user engagement

Search engines have always rewarded user-centric websites. Publish your content with users in mind since it’s the only way to ensure your pages appear on the first page of search results. There are so many ways to enhance the optimization of your page and improve the user experience and ranking at the same time.

There are multiple metrics for measuring the level of user engagement a web page demonstrates. Google’s Rankbrain is an AI program that is specifically designed to measure the user engagement statistics that websites generate.

For example, each position in the top ten results has an expected percentage of clicks it should receive. If your website receives more than the expected amount of clicks it produces a positive ranking signal and maybe moved ahead of a website that’s receiving lower than the expected amount of clicks.

Search engines will also monitor the length of time a visitor stays on a website compared to the other sites ranking for the same keyword. If users love the content on a website, they tend to spend more time and click through to more pages.

On the flip side, it would only make sense that a user who doesn’t enjoy the content on a website will be quick to back out and spend less time and view fewer pages.

Monitoring, maintaining and improving these statistics are becoming a larger factor in the position your website holds on the SERP.

SEO will never die

The SEO industry is growing at a rapid pace. The industry has grown to 70 billion in just a short period.

Companies are investing a significantly larger portion of their marketing budgets into search engine optimization because it produces one of the best returns on investment.

If your competitors are ranking ahead of you with inferior content or products, they’re stealing new client opportunities. SEO gives your business the competitive edge that’s needed to generate more traffic, leads, new clients and revenue.

That’s just not going to change anytime soon.

Long live SEO.

How To Perform An SEO Competition Analysis

One of the biggest components of search engine optimization is being able to perform an SEO competition analysis. It is a necessary evil of SEO that must exist in order to identify what it takes to rank in the top positions.

Analyzing your competitor’s can reveal an incredible amount of information about what is being used to rank highly. Search intent is a major point to tackle when it comes to providing content that ranks highly. If you can identify what it is and how it is being answered you have a major ranking factor taken care of.

Part of that process is also identifying the keywords and backlinks that your competition is using to fuel a top ranking in the SERPs.

This article details the various tools, strategies and steps in an SEO competition analysis that are used to uncover information about the websites that are ranking for your target search terms. 

Perform a SERP Analysis

When you want to rank for a specific keyword one of the first things you want to do is get an idea of the competitive landscape. Your competition in the real world may not be an exact reflection of who you’re competing with online.

SEO can be an area that some companies pursue more aggressively than others. It’s possible there are major competitors in your industry that could have a location on the same block as you and yet they’re not ranking for the same keywords.

The flipside of the coin is that there may be companies you haven’t heard of that are on the first page of Google for important keywords to your business.

The point is that you need to look at the search engine results page for important search phrases to get an idea of who you’re competing against.

Assess the authority of your competition

The authority of a website refers to the level of trust, credibility and overall ranking ability it has in your industry. When a website has a lot of backlinks pointing to its domain, it will have high domain authority. You’ll need to compare the authority of the domains that rank in the top 10 positions to your own domain authority for every SEO competition analysis you perform.

What is domain authority?

Domain authority refers to a website’s ability to rank based on the number of links it has acquired from credible websites. It’s important to understand that Google uses what’s called PageRank to assign a value to a page based on its ability to rank.

Although no one knows for sure how PageRank is determined, we know that a good deal of it is based on the quantity and quality of the backlinks pointing to the page.

Google’s patent states that the popularity of a website can be determined by how much it is being shared on the web by other websites. The number of backlinks from related websites speaks to the credibility of the content.

Therefore, links from websites that have accumulated a large number of backlinks from other websites with high volumes of backlinks (authority websites) will have the most impact on a website’s authority rating (or PageRank) and ranking ability.

How do you measure domain authority?

Google stopped publicly displaying PageRank in 2016 in an effort to reduce page sculpting tactics and rank manipulation. In the absence of PageRank, companies like Moz, Ahrefs and Majestic developed their own system for assigning authority.

Moz: Domain Authority and Page Authority (DA and PA)

Ahrefs: Domain Rating and URL rating (DR and UR)

Majestic: Trust Flow and Citation Flow (TF and CF)

Although none of these units of measurement is the exact formula Google uses to determine PageRank, they provide a gauge for determining the authority of a site. Each authority rating is based on the quality and quantity of the linking websites. Whichever form of measurement you use it’s wise to keep it consistance in an SEO competition analysis.

What’s the difference between domain authority and page authority?

Domain authority refers to the strength of the domain as a whole. It’s a measure of the total backlinks that are pointing to all of its pages.

Page authority refers to the strength of a page only. Page authority is derived from the backlinks that are pointing to it as well as the inherent authority passed on from the domain.

The advantage of high domain authority is its ability to rank. As a result, its pages will inherit a minimum amount of authority when they are published which means because of the authority the domain carries, the pages will not need as many backlinks (if any at all) to rank for a keyword it’s targeting.

Related reading: How to Make Your Site Appear First On Google

For example, brand new websites start with a DA of 1 (using Moz system of measuring domain authority). When it first publishes a page, it will need to acquire backlinks to compete with a website that has a DA of 50 since it’s newly published pages mostly likely start with a page authority with a DA between 20 or 30.

Websites with high domain authority rank for more keywords mainly because they have more backlinks.

Tools to compare domain authority

One of the most convenient ways to compare domain authority directly from the results page is to use a plugin that gives you a quick summary of the pages on the SERP. Each of the major analytic tool companies offers their own version but Mozbar seems to be among the most popular because they offer a free version that gives you the DA, PA and number of backlinks, which is exactly what you need to start your comparisons for your SEO competition analysis.

Use plugins for a high-level SERP assessment

Here is an example of how the SERP looks when using the Mozbar.

You can immediately get an idea of the domain authority, page authority and the number of backlinks for each website in the top 10 results. Of course, this is at a high level to give you an idea of whether you should look deeper into detail.

Ahrefs also provides a toolbar with more capabilities; however, you need to subscribe to their service to get the features.

If the websites on the SERP are comparable to your own, you can look at the top five domains individually to come to a greater understanding of what types of links are being used to rank the page. 

Backlink Analysis

Whenever you’re assessing a competitor’s backlink profile, you should take note of the referring domains, the types of links and the domain authority of the linking sites. You’re looking for possible opportunities to get these links yourself, while also trying to establish a strategy for your own link building campaign.

Referring domains

The number of referring domains is an important metric in your SEO competition analysis because it paints a clearer picture of the strength of the domain. In the situation where two domains have the same number of backlinks, the one that has more referring domains is going to have more authority (depending on the quality of the links of course). The website with less referring domains means they received multiple backlinks from one site in particular, which wouldn’t be as strong an indication of the popularity of the website.

Gauge the number of backlinks needed in your link building campaign

This aspect is important to note when assessing your competitors link profile. If there are a high number of referring domains, you’re going to need to build a prospect list that yields comparable numbers. Surpassing the number of referring domains can put your website out in front of the ranking.

Find likely linkers

Another aspect of comparing referring domains to the total number of backlinks is determining who are the websites most likely to link to your content. When there is a high number of backlinks compared to referring domains, it means there are websites linking more than once to your competition.

You may be able to reach out to websites that are linking multiple times to your competitor’s pages since you share the same topics. If they are enjoying your competitors’ content you can look up the pages that they’ve linked to and use the skyscraper method to publish something similar but better.

You would then reach out to the likely linkers and them about your improved version of content and ask them to give you a link.

Identify low-quality links

Although you never aim to use low-quality websites in your link building campaign it’s important to identify them during an SEO competition analysis to uncover opportunities. If you find that a page is ranking from a lot of low-quality links, you may be able to outrank it with just a few quality links.

Reverse engineering how your competition is maintaining their top ranking provides insight into how you strategize your SEO campaign.

Content gap analysis by keywords

One of the best ways to identify relevant content to rank a page is to find the keywords that a competing page ranks for that you don’t. In order for a page to rank for a keyword, it has to have content that satisfies the intent of the search.

 When you find unique keywords a competing page ranks for and you don’t it’s an opportunity to optimize for that term to improve your page’s ability to satisfy search intent. The additional content will not only add another keyword to rank for but create more relevance for your initial target keyword.

Traffic analysis

The traffic a website receives determines the success of generating leads and revenue. You can learn a lot about how a company generates revenue by analyzing both their organic and paid traffic.

Organic traffic

Organic traffic mainly comes from content that ranks, as well as direct searches for a business. Run a report on the non-branded terms that a website ranks for to see whether there are new opportunities for your website to rank.

You can run a keyword gap analysis on the top 5 domains you compete with in order to streamline this process. Most major analytic tools offer this option. Here’s a screenshot from SEMRush on their version.

Paid traffic

Here you will find some of the highest converting terms that you may not find from a regular keyword report. Look to see what keywords are in your competition’s paid traffic report because they are obviously making money on those keywords if they’re paying for every click to their website.

You may want to create a landing page optimized to target these terms as they’re usually transactional terms that users are typing into search engines. 

Sales script

One of the things to look out for is the way your competition is writing ads. If an ad is successful in attracting a high number of clicks, it most likely has wording that’s working to attract users’ attention. Promote a higher click-through rate by using similar phrases to generate a higher CTR.

Identify and duplicate content type

It’s advisable to follow the most predominant type of content that ranks on the first page of the search results. Remember that search engines place a high priority on a website’s ability to answer search intent. If there is a popular content type that populates the first page, it’s because search engines are favouring that format.

For example, if 5 of the top 10 results are list-styled forms of content, you would improve your page’s chance of ranking if you followed suit. If you search the term “How to drive traffic to your website” you would see that 8/10 pages are numbered lists. 

If you wanted to rank for this keyword, you would have the best chance at ranking by writing a list-style piece of content, like 33 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website.

Similarly, if you’re seeing guides or in-depth pieces of content being published, it’s a clue to the level of detail you need to commit to your content.

It’s next to impossible to rank a 300-word article when every page on the top 10 is over 3000. There’s obviously content being covered in a long-form article that would be impossible to cover in a few paragraphs.

Exceed the standard of quality set by an SEO competitive analysis

If you’re not familiar with 10X content, it basically is content that is 10 times better than anything else on the SERP. Aim to produce 10X content in every aspect of your website’s development to destroy your competition.

A strong analysis of your competition provides insight into how to overtake their positions. Follow the step outlined and you’re well on your way to enjoying the success top rankings bring to your business.

If you don’t have time and want to know how we would do it, give us a call or email us for a proposal. We provide a thorough competitive analysis as part of our SEO services for each of our clients.

How To Find & Fix 404 Error Codes

The technical performance of your website is one of the many moving parts that play a role in search engine optimization. An error-free website that functions on a high level is a strong characteristic shared among top-ranking websites. At some point in time, every website will show a page not found 404-error code. This article will show you how to find and fix 404 error codes. 

What is a 404 error code?

Whenever a link points to a URL whose page does not exist, a 404 error code is generated. The result is usually a page that tells the user that the content no longer exists or cannot be found.

404s are generated from one of three reasons:

1. The page was deleted
2. The page was updated or moved to a new URL
3. The page does not exist

What is the significance of a broken link/missing page on your website?

Like most things in search engine optimization, the main underlying issues are related to user experience and authority.

Reduced user experience

Developing a website that is user friendly and provides an enjoyable user experience should be a priority for publishers and site owners to ensure your site demonstrates higher user engagement.

User engagement statistics include the bounce rate, length of time spent on your website and the click-through rate (if you’re reading an Analytics report it would be average pages per session). 

Missing pages are considered to contribute to a poor user experience because of the impact it has on these statistics.

When a visitor lands on a page that informs them the content is missing it contributes to higher bounce rates. Users will leave a website when they can’t find the information they’re looking for. This eliminates any possibility of clicking further within the website and reduces the average time spent on the website.

These statistics are measured by search engines and contribute to the position a website holds on the search engine results page.

Reduced domain authority

One of the three most important ranking factors in SEO is the authority a website builds from the backlinks it acquires. If an external website is linking to a missing page on your website, you’re losing the opportunity to improve your ranking ability.

Every backlink acts as a vote of credibility to your content. If an external link points to a page that does not exist, there is no authority and improved ranking ability transferred to your website.

Tools to Identify broken links and missing pages

Finding broken links is a relatively straightforward process that can be accomplished with a variety of tools. You can use one or all of the following to identify what pages are missing, as well as where the requests for those pages are coming from (broken links).

Search console

Google’s search console is an absolute necessity when it comes to managing the health of your website. If you haven’t submitted your domain to gain access to this data you should do so immediately to identify any type of errors being generated on your website.

Go to search console. Click on converge to see the pages that are generating errors. If your website is generating 404s you will see the pages being listed in the report.

SEMRush

Using a third-party tool can streamline your efforts because they are designed to specifically help you find and replace 404 error codes.

Run a site audit. The report that’s generated will look like this:

Click on the errors link to get a summary of errors on your site. The broken links will appear at the top of the list if your website does in fact have broken links.

The beauty of this report is that it shows you the internal pages linking to missing content as well as the target URL that’s actually missing.

Solutions for repairing 404 errors

There are three possible solutions to eliminate 404 error codes from your website:

1. Delete the link pointing to the page
2. Create new content in the URL that’s missing
3. Redirect the old URL to a new URL

Delete the broken link

An error code is only generated when a request for a page is being made. It’s important to understand that if you delete a page it doesn’t constitute a 404 if there are no further requests to load the page. Therefore if you delete any internal (or external) links that are pointing to the page, there won’t be any further requests.

Create new content

The possibility exists that the page may have been deleted by accident. In the event that the URL does in fact present value to your website, you can publish a page with the same URL.

This is a solution that many SEOs use as a link building strategy when they find broken links on a website that represents value as a link prospect.

Redirect the old URL to a new URL

This solution is ideal when the old URL has external links pointing to it, but you’ve updated content to a new URL. A 301 or 302 redirect is a code written into your .htaccess files that tells your website to skip loading the old URL and load the target URL instead.

Redirecting a page to a new page allows link authority to transfer to the new target. This makes using a 301 ideal when external sites are linking to a missing page. If you can’t get the external websites to change the links, this is a solution to preserve the authority the old URL is generating.

If you’re using WordPress, a simple solution is to install a plugin. Redirection allows you the convenience of entering the old and new URLs on one interface.

Create user-friendly 404 pages to improve the user experience

It’s only natural for people to land on missing content. If a user mistypes a URL, it will generate a 404 error code. This type of situation is unavoidable, however, you can improve your user engagement by creating creative and helpful 404 pages.

Create a page that’s in line with your brand. For example, some websites make light of landing on missing pages and can add some humour to the situation. If you’re familiar with Lionel Richie’s music, you might find this 404 page entertaining:

Create a page that at the very least has a search bar so users can type in exactly what they were looking for. If you want to guide them even further, offer additional links that they are most likely to click on, such as the homepage, your blog page, product or service pages.

Improve user experience by fixing 404 error codes

Generating 404s is not something you need to be overly worried about if there aren’t many instances of them.

If your website is accumulating a high number of 404s you need to investigate to make sure there aren’t serious issues that are causing them such as indexing problems or pages being deleted.

Find and repair 404 error codes to create a more enjoyable user experience. Fixing errors that exist contribute to higher user engagement statistics and better performance in the SERPs.