Author: Christian Carere

How to Make Your Website Appear First On Google

Want to know how to make your website appear first on Google? It’s simple once you understand the basics of SEO and put in the work. With the right SEO strategy, you can get your site to the top of the search engines for multiple keywords that are important for your business.

To go straight to the top of the search results you need to consider what keywords you’re targeting and the competition that’s pursuing those very same search terms. It’s very difficult to take a brand new site straight to the top of the rankings for a highly competitive term.

Choose the right audience

Choosing a keyword is as simple as describing your business. You can get pretty accurate with your keyword selection by simply explaining what your company offers in a way that people type when searching online. To find visitors that are a perfect match for your business, create the perfect buyer persona.

Creating a buyer persona is an exercise that will help you meet the needs of your client on a more personal level. When you go through this exercise the age, occupation, sex, marital status and many personal defining attributes are established. This brings you to a closer understanding of how this person thinks, what’s most important to them and how you can relate to them on a much deeper level than simply describing your product. Knowing your audience is one of the first steps in creating great content because the language you use is more focused and appropriate in communicating your message.

By establishing who your audience is, the subtopics you choose will be tailored to the issues unique to their current life situations. This makes the content you create more relevant to your readers and contributes to optimization for your main keyword topic.

Assess the competition

One of the major ranking factors that you need to consider is the backlinks and authority your competition possesses. If you type in an extremely competitive keyword such as, learn SEO, you’ll see the first three results are websites that have been around for years and each has thousands of backlinks pointing to its page.

These domains are also considered high-authority domains and major influencers in the SEO industry. It would take quite some time to build up enough authority to be able to beat these websites for a competitive keyword like this. This doesn’t mean you abandon this term completely, however, you’ll need to be more strategic with how you choose your keywords.

Eliminate tough competition with focused keywords

Reduce the strength of your competition by using long-tail keywords to get more specific with the audience and traffic you’re targeting. For example, you can turn the keyword “learn SEO” into a long-tail keyword such as “learn search engine optimization from scratch” to loosen up the competition.

As you can see from the search result in the image above, there are a few positions on the SERP that are held by much lower authority websites. In addition, the average number of backlinks has dropped dramatically.

Long-tail keywords make up about 70% of the total searches made on Google. The advance in Google’s ability to understand intent has improved dramatically allowing search phrases to be longer and more conversational. This creates infinite opportunities to optimize for a phrase that will be specific enough to drive traffic that’s a match to your business.

Longer search terms tend to convert at a higher rate because they are a better match to your content. The more specific you are with the phrase you’ve optimized for, the more specific the intent is of the visitors who land on your site.

A clear example of this is if you sold extreme temperature winter boots for men.

Consider who is searching for term winter boots.

If you optimized for “winter boots” you wouldn’t be getting a perfect match for your product because your product would only appeal to a small percentage of the total traffic searching “winter boots.”

Women would make up a huge percentage of the traffic and would immediately leave your site since you only sell men’s boots.

By using more qualifying terms to describe your product you can make your site more visible to those who are actually looking for what you’re selling.

Publish shareable content

When the first page of Google is the goal, shareable content will help propel your site to the top by getting more people on your page and giving your content a higher chance of being linked to by other sites. The number of referring domains linked to your page boosts your ranking and although social shares are not a direct ranking factor they give your page a larger audience and a better chance of being linked to by more websites.

Publishing shareable content means creating pages people enjoy reading as well as find value in what is offered. Great content means it is highly relevant to its audience. If you’ve done a thorough job on your keyword research, you should have been able to come up with a few issues or problems that are common to your target audience. By offering the solution to these problems the value of your content increases as well as its shareability.

Post your content to your social media networks to get as much traffic as possible on your site. Use a call to action and ask people to share your content. Social sharing plugins will make it easier for people to pass your page along through their network.

Outperform competing pages

To outperform competing pages, you need to look at the top ten results for your specific keyword. Take note of the article length, type of media used, the topics covered and the links they’ve acquired to beat them in every way imagineable.

Google tends to prefer longer articles

Article length isn’t a direct ranking factor but it does affect the length of time a visitor spends on your page. It also is an idication of the depth a specific page offers for a specific search query. I fyou look at the average length of the top 10 results on Google you’ll notice that the average length of a top-ranknig page is above 2000 words.

To outperform a page make your article longer by including more details and subtopics that would improve the user experience. Avoid “writing for search engines” as it can be easy to get caught up with ranking and miss the mark entirely in publishing a better performing page.

Use multimedia to enhance user experience

Video improves dwell time and is the preferred choice in learning about a topic by most users. Include a video at the top of your page to immediately engage your visitors. Combine video with other forms of media to create deeper levels of understanding while increasing your reader’s level of engagement.

Increase CTR with better headlines and meta descriptions

The click-through rate your page has will affect your first-page ranking. You can improve your click-through rate by creating headlines that grab the attention of your audience. Use established headline strategies to improve the percentage of clicks your page gets in the search results.

Your meta description also plays a role in determining your click-through rate. Write a convincing description of what’s in store for a potential reader should they click on your site. This is the sneak preview so make the 160 characters work to entice your audience.

Here’s an example of a very well written meta description that encourages the click with a call-to-action.

Cut the competition using paid ads

You have to consider this option if you’re in a position to benefit from the traffic from a high-converting keyword. For the more competitive terms that you can’t rank for in the short term, you can get on the first page of Google by using Google Ads.

If you have products that sell and you just need to get it in front of more eyes, a PPC campaign is an option that will make you money by instantly increasing your search visibility for highly competitive terms.

Identify search intent before paying for traffic

When choosing the terms that you’re going to pay for the traffic, you need to consider what the true intent is of the keyword. It would be a waste of time to select a keyword that you pay for and yet no one that lands on your site converts into a client.

Confirm intent by checking the organic results

The first indication of search intent is to see what Google has ranked in the organic positions for the search term in question. The search results can give you the best idea of what people are looking for when they type your keyword in a search.

Compare cost-per-click

The CPC of a keyword is also an indication of whether other websites are making money from that keyword. In most cases, the more publishers are willing to pay for one click, the more valuable the keyword.

There are search terms whose CPC can be misleading, so make sure you use this as an indicator and not the sole reason for pursuing a search term.

Optimize for a SERP feature

The search engine result page is a dynamic landscape that is constantly changing according to search intent. You can take advantage of some of the features that appear on the SERP to enhance your search visibility and appear on the first page of Google.

Featured snippet

In order to appear in this feature, your page needs to be the best answer to a query. The featured snippet is where to make your website appear first on Google because it’s the first thing a user will see in a search result.

Here are few tips to qualify for this feature:

• Your website needs to already be on the first page.
• Target long-tail keywords
• Use h-tags for all of your headings
• To win the position, take note of what the current snippet holder has done to achieve this top position and duplicate the optimization.

For example, in this featured snippet, it was awarded to a site that featured a video. In order to compete for this spot, you would need to match the result with a video.

People also ask box

When this feature became more common many SEOs were able to capture this position by creating FAQ pages. Publish a Frequently Asked Questions Page to give your website as many opportunities as possible to win a position in the PAA box.

The winning combination for optimization is to tag your questions and provide short succinct answers that range from 40-60 words immediately after the question.

Local Pack

If a local pack is triggered by searching your target keyword, consider optimizing for local searches. Geo modifiers can cut out a large chunk of competition and get your site featured in the local pack.

For people who are looking for a business that’s close to them, this is the perfect solution for high-converting traffic. Make sure you add as much information as possible to your Google My Business profile and publish local content on your website.

Get your site to the first page of the search results

It’s not always the most obvious solution, but there are many different ways you can get your website to the first page of Google. Search engine optimization is simply finding the best way to get your site in front of people looking for what you offer.

Define a keyword strategy that makes sense for your website. If you’re a newly developing site, you may need to consider the options that cut the industry influencers and major competitors out of the equation.

Assess the SERP and the options you have available to make your website appear first on Google. There are plenty of ways to get your website in front of an audience that will engage in your content if you’re looking in the right places to drive traffic.

The final destination for great content is naturally on the first page of search results. In order to get your website on the map for what your company offers, produce content that helps users find what they need. Know who your ideal audience is and publish hyper-focused content specifically tailored to provide value in their lives to generate traffic that is the best match for your business.

How To Select The Best Keywords For Your Website

Learn how to select the best keywords for your website to drive traffic that converts to clients and sales. Qualify keywords through a series of endeavours including but not limited to the following:

• Identify your main seed keywords
• Develop keyword options
• Assess commercial intent
• Target long-tail keywords
• Perform a SERP Analysis
• Assess the competition

The keyword research and strategy you implement can make or break the success you have in converting visitors to clients.

If you want to know how to find the best keywords for your business, this article will walk you through a few of the most common steps in determining a strategy.

Identify your main seed keywords

Make a list of keywords on a spreadsheet describing the major areas of your business. Come up with as many different keywords as if you were a client typing in a search to find information about your product.

Keep in mind that there are different stages of the sales funnel for every keyword you’re thinking of optimizing content to rank for. You will need to target both transactional and informational keywords to help move visitors along the buyer journey.

For example, “buy + [your keyword]” is a transactional search term that will trigger a search result that most likely lists ads and product pages.

This would be considered at the bottom of the funnel where users have already done their research and are looking to buy a product or service.

Develop keyword options

Some keywords may seem obvious choices, however, you have to consider that not everyone will search like yourself. There are many different ways people search for the same thing. There’s also the possibility that the keyword you’re thinking of may not drive traffic that’s good for your business.

One tool you can use to find popular keywords that convert is the Keyword Planner. This is Google’s tool to use when building an Adwords campaign and can be valuable for generating keyword ideas, estimating traffic and providing clues to commercial intent.

The Keyword Planner will generate a list of keyword options along with the volume, competition rating and cost per click. Each value should be considered as an indicator to use in your decision.

Assess volume in relation to conversions

The traffic that is displayed is an approximate value. Keep in mind that volume can sometimes have little bearing on the value of a keyword. It’s one piece of the puzzle that can be used as an indicator of whether your keyword is suitable for your business.

The volume a specific keyword generates should be assessed by the type of traffic drives and how well those visitors are a match to your business.

Assess commercial intent through the CPC bidding system

The commercial intent of a keyword can be inferred by the range of bids that exist for placing ads with Google for that specific keyword.

The low and high bid amount shows you what people are paying per visitor for that keyword on both ends of the spectrum.

The higher the top bid amount, the more inferred value you can assume from the traffic a keyword generates.

Target long-tail keywords

Although seed keywords typically have the most search volume they are not always the ideal keywords to pursue. They are often extremely competitive and convert at lower rate.

Targeting transactional keywords are beneficial however you also need to educate your buyers about your company and product to earn their trust.

Enter long tail keywords.

Long-tail keywords are considered to convert higher because they drive traffic that is a better match to the content you’re producing.

For example, imagine your company sells silk t-shirts.

If you were to optimize for the search term “t-shirts”, it would bring you a lot of irrelevant traffic because of the broad search intent it carries. Your site would be getting visitors looking for cotton, nylon, sports t-shirts, etc.

Many visitors would simply leave your site when they see you only offer silk options. This produces poor metrics (bounce rate, dwell time).

The longer you create a target keyword, the more of a match you can make to the traffic that finds your content.

Optimizing for the term “Silk t-shirts” eliminates a lot of the unwanted traffic your site was generating from the term “t-shirts”

“Silk t-shirts for women” would be an even more specific stream of traffic to target.

Once you’ve identified your seed keyword it’s important to go through the related content that people would be searching. In most cases people are looking to solve a specific problem. Your content should provide as many solutions to problems that people have regarding your keyword topic.

“Silk t-shirts for psoriasis” would target an extremely specific group of people. By publishing a piece of content titled “Why Silk T-shirts Are Good For Psoriasis” you would be driving traffic from a very specific group of people looking exactly for what you’re offering.

Although the traffic is likely to be much lower, the competition will also be lower because of how specific this long-tail search term is.

With a high-quality article making a convincing argument, you can easily move your visitors a step closer to buying your product by targeting a problem and providing the solution.

How to find long tail keywords

Apart from good old-fashioned brainstorming, you can use a few tools to help produce a list of the questions that people ask regarding any keyword topic. One of the first places you should look at is Google Search.

You can get a load of ideas for what people are searching for from Google Autosuggest. This is literally Google telling you “Hey! Here are some popular search terms we’re suggesting will help you find what you’re looking for.”

Find related terms in the Searches related to [your keyword] section at the bottom of a search result.

You can get some great long-tail keywords and phrases from Featured Snippets.

Or PAA Boxes

You can use Answer The Public to get a list of questions and phrase matches.

You can use software from the biggest names in the industry such as Ahrefs, SEMRush and Moz. Here is your typical keyword report from Moz.

One click on the “questions” tab and your report displays related questions to your keyword.

The process for converting visitors to clients often takes more than just one visit to your site.

This is part of the reason for providing informational content on your blog.

According to a survey by Conductor, educational content makes visitors 131% more likely to purchase from your company.

Being in touch with the problems that are most commonly faced by your audience is critical in your content creation. If you can provide solutions to these problems within your content, you will earn the trust of your audience and move them closer to purchasing from your company.

Perform a SERP analysis

Analyze the SERP (search engine results page) to give you a deeper understanding of what type of search result a keyword generates. The factors you will need to consider are the features Google displays and the competition you will be up against.

Assess the competition

To assess one aspect of your competition you can use Mozbar, a free tool available for download in Chrome. This tool allows you to see the Page Authority, Domain Authority, number of backlinks and the spam score. All metrics are summarized for you right from the search result.

Keep in mind that domain authority is a metric created by Moz and does not reflect the complete picture for how to rank for a keyword. It is merely an indicator to use when determining the strength of your competition. Typically, the higher the DA, the more ranking ability a site possesses.

Account for the SERP features

Take an inventory of the different types of features that are displayed in the SERP. Google has produced over 20 different types of SERP features to better serve the search intent that a user may have for searching a specific query.

For example, if your keyword triggers a carousel of videos at the top of the page, you will need to consider producing a video to compete for the available clicks for that keyword. “How-to” searches are notorious for producing video results.

There are many phrases that will trigger a featured snippet. It’s important to recognize what terms are triggering the display because it will affect how you optimize your content.

Take note of the different features that are displayed in a search result. Each feature may require a different form of optimization. If you’re not optimized to compete for the position, you may be facing a low organic click-through rate.

Consider the organic click-through rate

This is a measure of the total clicks that are made to the organic results as a percentage of the total search volume. If your keyword has a low organic CTR, ranking on first page may not be worth the effort to get there.

Many of Google’s SERP features have contributed to low CTR for searches that are easily answered by featured snippets and the knowledge graph (calculators, translators, etc.)

Develop an effective keyword strategy

The keywords you choose to pursue will have a direct impact on the relevance of your traffic. Developing a strategy should include keywords that target every aspect of your business and the problems your product or service solves.

A complete and effective keyword strategy is the blueprint for your content creation. By addressing the different stages of the buyer journey and sales funnel, you create content that educates your audience on the benefits you offer.

Each page you publish should serve a purpose within your overall keyword strategy. Keeping users in mind first before search engines will help keep your content focused on providing insight and useful information. Learn how to select the best keywords for your website and you are one step closer to driving traffic that converts.

Keyword research is one of the many SEO services that benefit a company. Contact us today for a consultation so we can select the best keywords that would benefit your business the most.

Related reading:

• 10 Expert Tips For Writing SEO Optimized Blog Posts
• 10 Reasons Your Website Doesn’t Rank On The First Page Of Google [Updated List]

Benefits of Online Marketing For Small Businesses

Online marketing has become the norm when it comes to planning out the growth and development of your business. It’s hard to argue against the fact that owning a website gives every company the ability to acquire exponentially more new clients. Implement the top-performing digital strategies that are most suited to your business to see the full benefits of online marketing for small businesses.

The advantages of search engine optimization

As the holy grail of inbound marketing, SEO provides some of the largest sources of targeted traffic to your website. An effective keyword and content strategy allows you to tap into high converting traffic that is actively seeking the solutions your company offers. The technical aspect of SEO maximizes your website’s potential to compete and perform in the search results.

SEO targets a specific audience for high conversions

SEO deals with the optimization of both pages and blog posts for specific search terms in order to maximize the traffic each page generates. Each page is optimized to target one or more keywords that are chosen based on the volume of traffic, ranking difficulty but most of all, for the value it represents to the business.

Targeting long-tail keywords creates a narrower focus in your content in order to hone in on the exact solution the user is search Google for in the first place. When your website can be found for search terms your ideal clients are using to find businesses like yours, the organic traffic on your site will flow and convert accordingly.

Creates the ability to drive organic traffic

The SEO content you produce on your website answers the intent of a search and therefore provides value to a user. When your page appears in top-ranked positions for one keyword, it naturally appears for many different variations of that keywords as well.

Google ranks according to keyword topics, so when your content is deemed worthy of a first-page appearance, it drives traffic from multiple search terms.

An SEO content strategy broadens your reach

Developing a keyword and content strategy is a process that breaks down the major topics of your website to identify the most important issues that your ideal client wants to know about. The SEO strategy you implement touches on a number of different stages your prospective buyer is experiencing, otherwise known as the buyer journey.

Targeting keywords and publishing content that addresses the various stages allows your website to create an awareness of your product or service to a larger range of users. There are people that are unaware of the solution you offer to the problems they’re actively researching. An effective SEO content strategy continuously broadens your reach through educational and informative content.

Sharpens your competitive edge

Much of SEO resembles a race between you and your competition. The goal is to be first on Google for the keywords that will ultimately increase the revenue your company generates. SEO gives your website a competitive edge by producing content that outperforms your competition.

Link building is a common strategy for outranking competing websites. Backlinks power the authority and credibility of your content and contribute to higher rankings. Additionally, link building provides multiple entry points to your website for more traffic.

Allows control over every aspect

A large part of achieving success in marketing your business online is data-driven. You can control every aspect that can be measured to scale up or scale down the results you’re experiencing.

The benefits of Pay Per Click campaigns

PPC campaigns can drive high-converting traffic to your site for any keyword you choose to pay for. Create a campaign for the keywords of your choice, set the budget amount you want to spend and how much you’re willing to spend for every click to your website.

PPC campaigns get your website premium SERP position

When you pay for ads, your website is placed in the top positions on the SERP. This is extremely valuable for the bottom of the funnel keywords where the user is looking with transactional intent. Users are 65% likely to click on paid ads when they’re ready to buy.

This becomes even more pronounced on mobile devices since the ads are among the first features that users see in the search result.

PPC offers control

You determine the amount of money you spend in a PPC campaign for every month. Your budget is determined at the start of the campaign so that when you reach that limit, your ads stop appearing.

You can also choose the details for where you want your ads to appear. For local businesses that only offer services or products to a specific city or service area, this provides unnecessary spending.

Measurable and adaptable

PPC reporting is comprehensive and easy to understand. Reports will show you the volume of impressions and clicks and conversions that your keywords generated in order for you to better understand how your customers are responding to your ads.

Paid ads also give you the ability to run split tests to determine copy that converts the highest.

Fast and immediate traffic solution

PPC campaigns can be implemented immediately for a fast and immediate solution to driving traffic. Rather than go through a much longer development process for your website pages to rank organically, you can put your website at the top of the search results instantly and begin driving traffic to your site.

Multiply customer contact with retargeting

PPC campaigns offer an excellent solution for making your site more familiar with potential clients through retargeting. Whenever a visitor lands on your website this form of advertising will install cookies in their browser. This creates multiple instances of your ad whenever that same visitor visits Google or social media sites and an ad box present.

The benefits of social media marketing

By definition, this is the process of promoting your company, brand, products and services through the use of social media websites. Activities include posting content on your profile, commenting on related posts, sharing relevant posts and interacting with the social community.

Provides a human element to your brand

Social media gives brands the chance to put a more personal touch when engaging with potential and existing clients. This becomes an important aspect of your marketing because it allows people to relate more to your company and feel like they’re engaging with a person as opposed to a content-posting robot.

Develops a better understanding of your audience

By engaging with your audience you develop a better understanding of what means the most to your clients (and prospective clients). It’s not only the comments and threads that provide this information but by conducting surveys and research.

With a more intimate understanding of what your clients are interested in and what they need, you have more ability to produce content that they will engage with at higher levels.

Ability to get your message in front of a large audience

It’s no secret that social media has the ability to make great content viral. Despite the rarity of this happening, social websites provide a substantial audience for your content which is accessible on a regular basis. This makes social media a popular means of content distribution for brands to broadcast their message to as many people as possible.

Drive more traffic to your website

Posting content with a call to action is an excellent way to divert your audience from social media websites to your own. Social sites, for the most part, are structured to be walled gardens to keep users on their sites for as long as possible. Leave a specific CTA with a link to your website so that people have a convenient way of finding and viewing the content on your site.

Develop brand loyalty

A study revealed that 72% of purchases related to fashion were influenced by images seen on Instagram. Acquiring followers and subscribers is an excellent way to create a competitive advantage and be the reason a customer decides to make a purchase with your company. If they follow your brand there is a much higher probability of them choosing your company over another that they aren’t as familiar with.

Improved brand recognition

Social media gives you the opportunity to present your brand to a substantially large number of people. Make your brand recognizable by using your logo in images and providing a consistent tone that summarizes what your brand is about.

Implement storytelling to create easy to remember associations with the most important aspects of your brand.

The advantages of content marketing

Promoting your brand, products and services through various forms of content such as articles, white papers, surveys, infographics and video is considered content marketing. This online marketing strategy goes hand in hand with SEO with respect to the fact that you’ll want your content to be easily found and discovered by a specific audience.

Develop trust and confidence in your brand

Top-notch content goes a long way when it provides real value. Whenever a potential client considers purchasing from your business, one of the first things they will do is research your company. Providing content that educates, entertains and engages readers and about the inner workings of your business is an excellent way to build trust and confidence in your brand.

Drives interested visitors to your website

A good content marketing strategy will include publishing content on third party sites such as social media or popular websites within your niche. Publishing exceptional content on third-party sites makes your company stand out, generates referral traffic as well as additional organic traffic as it accumulates more backlinks.

Choose the websites or social media network that provides the most targeted audience for your business. Trusted, high-authority websites provide links that have a positive impact on your website ranking and overall search visibility.

Develops brand recognition

Teach people about what your brand stands for through success stories about the development of your company’s development or even better, client success stories about achieving a specific goal. When a person can learn about your company from a real-life experience it brings more transparency to your brand and gives people a story to relate to by placing themselves in that situation.

Establishes your company as an industry leader

Great content is often greatly appreciated-which is typically shown by large numbers of social shares and accumulation of backlinks. Creating unique content with original research is a way that many companies are able to establish themselves as industry leaders.

Moz publishes a State Of Local SEO Industry Report every year where they survey 1000 SEO professionals. This report gives people a better understanding of the general sentiment of what’s working and what isn’t in the world of local SEO.

Using industry reports would naturally attract attention from those within your industry and leads to a high number of social shares and backlinks to your website. That improvement in ranking, as well as the reputation gained, brands your business as a top player in the industry in which you compete.

Email marketing and it’s many advantages

The process of promoting your brand, content, products and services through email communications is referred to as email marketing. Opt-in boxes serve as a means for collecting the contact information of a website visitor. The visitor is then added to a list to send newsletters, updates, coupons and promotions.

Build and nurture leads and realtionships

Email marketing campaigns allow a company to send relevant information to its subscribers for a variety of purposes. Segmenting your list is crucial to understanding the type of content that your subscriber wants to be sent. This also allows you to drip feed educational emails to their inbox to educate them on aspects of your business that they want to know about.

As they become more familiar with your product through your content, they become more likely to purchase from your company. Maintaining your list with a periodic email ensures that your subscriber keeps your company in mind so that even if they aren’t ready to make a purchase immediately, you will still be among the top choices when time comes.

Instant traffic at the push of a button

An email list gives you the option of sending instant traffic to your website at the push of a button. Whenever a new piece of content is published or your company begins a new promotion, let your subscribers know about it.

Increased sales

An email list is also referred to as a “cash list” because of its ability to generate sales for your business. Not every email you send to your list should be a “hard sell” but when you do wnant to increase sales, often all it takes is a good sale, discount or promotion.

Many companies will promote third party products with their list because the third party will cut them a commision on the sales made. If a product will appeal to the demographics of your subscribers you can supplement your revenue by offering them something new.

Provides a source for research and data collection

Your email list is an excellent source to get the opinions and preferences of your target audience. BY sending short surveys you can quickly acquire relevant information that would help your understanding of the needs and interests of an audience that’s already interested in your content.

Original data and research are extremely valuable for publishing content that’s a closer match to the preferences of your audience. It also tends to attract more social shares and backlinks which in turn results in increased search visibility of your website.

Enjoy the benefits of internet marketing for small businesses

Historically it was only the big brands that have been able to establish notoriety and gain exposure on national and global levels. Of one the benefits of online marketing for small businesses is that it gives all businesses the ability to reach a global market.

The benefits of online marketing for small businesses continue to grow with every passing year for companies with websites positioned to receive targeted traffic. The ability to access a global market and connect with customers has contributed to more sales, leads and new clients.

There are massive opportunities to be gained from online marketing. If you haven’t been paying attention, in 2016 digital advertising took the lead in advertising dollars spent vs. TV advertising and is still continuing to create a larger gap in disparity.

There’s no doubt that we have transitioned to a culture that has become highly dependent on Internet access to perform many of our daily activities. The research on companies, brands, products and services starts with Google search 93% of the time. The number of purchases being made directly through smartphones has steadliny increased every year.

This number is expected to increase according to e-marketer retail analyst Yory Wurmser. 

As mobile sites become better optimized and screen sizes grow, it’s becoming easier for shoppers to complete the purchase on the smartphone, which will drive m-commerce numbers up for the next several years.

Yory Wurmser ~Emarketer Retail Analyst

With so much of our attention focused online, the opportunity to successfully achieve steady growth through Internet marketing has never been better.

Choose one or all of the digital marketing strategies mentioned above to achieve levels of revenue that were never possible until now. Enjoy the benefits of online marketing for small businesses for long-lasting success.

10 Amazing Headline Strategies To Improve CTR

Following a few good headline strategies can completely change the appeal of your content. Your headline is the most important component of your article. The success of your article hinges upon having an interesting headline that makes people want to know more.

Making a headline that captures the attention of readers involves creativity but there’s definitely a science behind it that can be used to make winners each and every time. Start with a working title and make a list of at least 10-20 headlines in order to choose the best one from the bunch. Incorporate as many of the strategies below to boost your click-through rate and drive more traffic to your website.

#1-Place point-value at the front

Describe the value your article is offering the reader at the beginning of the headline. In a study conducted by Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director, MECLABS studies 10 headlines to prove that adding the value points at the beginning of the headlines doubled the conversions of those that carried the value points towards the end.

#2-Use numbers

Conductor performed a study that proved the use of numbers in your title will increase CTR by 36% as opposed to without. In an article published on Buffer, Courtney Siter explains “Numbers work well in headlines because humans like predictability and dislike uncertainty.”

She backs this psychological tendency up with a study from Columbia University on “The psychology of waiting in line” that shows how people deal with expectations. When people know what to expect they are able to manage time differently-such as being in a waiting room waiting for their doctor. If they are told exactly how long the doctor will be they handle their expectations differently.

#3-Use the word “who”

The use of the word “who” increases CTR by 22% according to a study done by Hubspot and Outbrain. Rather than focus on the ”why” people prefer to focus on the “who.”

#4-Use your keyword in your title

Although there was a small relationship proven, it still stands to reason that using a keyword in your title benefits your ranking. Ahrefs concluded that there was a 0.049% correlation between using your title and 26% of websites that included the keyword in the title were also in the first position in a Google search result.

Position your keywords in front of your title to make sure they are the first thing the reader reads. The first three words are the most important in your headline and if your title is cut off in the search results you want to make the highest impact when appealing to the readers’ interest.

#5- Use power words

Use power words in your title. According to Optinmonster, the use of power words can increase your conversions by 12.7 % Keep in mind that negative superlatives get 50% more clicks than positive superlatives.

#6-Accurately describe what your readers are getting

Be descriptive with what the reader is getting or in other words provide more clarity to improve CTR. Dan and Chip Heath are two brothers who wrote a book  Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die detailing 6 principles of which the third principle named was the idea that when something is concrete, it brings to mind a strong visual.

#7-Use top performing numbers in your listicles

Odd-numbered listicle headlines outperform even ones by 20% (Source: CMI) and yet the number 10 has the most engagement in Facebook headlines. Buzzsumo conducted a study and found that the number 10 in a headline was the most popular number in article engagement.

#8-Use brackets

Brackets add clarity and give the reader a summary of what the article is about. People are drawn to brackets because they represent “reading between the lines” and are perceived to be more straightforward with communicating the contents of an article. Hubspot’s study of over 3 million websites concluded that using brackets in your title improve click-through rate by 38%.

#9-Optimize the length of your headline

Headlines with (14-17 words in length) get 76.7% more social shares than short headlines. Use less than 70 characters so your title doesn’t get cut off and it can be retweeted.

#10-Appeal to an emotion

People are moved by emotions and will respond with more energy when you can trigger an emotional response. The shock and awe effect creates curiosity, amazement, surprise and intrigue. Being original will earn you the extra clicks and increase your click-through rate. When you can surprise a reader your words make a greater impact on their intrigue.

Related reading: What Are The Benefits Of SEO For A Small Business?

Interesting statistics

In June 2019, Digital Ducats conducted a survey consisting of 384 blog posts on 29 top SEO blogs. The following statistics represent blog posts on the first page of the website:

• 20.37% of the total blog posts used numbers within their title
• 19.31% of blogs had numbers posted within their first 5 blog posts
• 13.93% of blog posts used brackets in their headline

Data was pulled from the following sites:

• Backlinko
•  Ahrefs
•  Moz
•  Search Engine Watch
•  Hobo‐web
•  SEMRush
•  Matthew Woodward
•  Search Engine Land
•  Search Engine Journal
•  Yoast
•  Cognitive SEO
•  GotchSEO
•  Builtvisible
•  Lion Zeal
•  Distilled
•  SEO by the Sea
•  SEER Interactive
•  Search Engine Roundtable
•  Kaiser the Sage
•  I’m From The Future
•  Marie Haynes
•  Buzzstream
•  Diggity Marketing
•  Evolving SEO
•  Web Marketing School
•  Dejan SEO
•  Greenlane Marketing
•  Robbie Richards
•  Merj

The Renovation Method [3 Step Blogging Template]

The Renovation Method is a three-step process for writing high-quality content by building on content that already exists. This methodology is used by every content writer guest posting as a link building strategy used to rank your website.

It structures your writing to be creative and conversational while including all of the attributes and technical elements that will get your article published and syndicated. The skills you take away from this method of blogging are invaluable for developing a profitable blog with loyal readers.

Have you ever read an article that flowed so smoothly it was like you could hear the person talking to you? Writing at this level of fluidity is an art that can be practiced and mastered. The skill allows you to create killer posts that entertain and engage while educating and enlightening your readers.

The Renovation Method encourages the creative side of writing and infuses the technical elements after your thoughts have been manifested to your screen. This article is significant for those who recognize how important guest blogging is as a link building strategy.

The main concept of the Renovation Method is that you avoid outsourcing a freelancer for writing by creating quality content that meets and exceeds what currently exists. The method involves curating the latest developments and trends on the topic you’re writing about. Essentially, you are building on available knowledge and centralizing content to write your own unique articles that compete with the best performing content in your related topic.

Rule #1: Read, research and curate ideas the day before writing

The day before you write about a topic is when your research begins. It’s good practice to read articles related to your topic in order to brush up on details and freshen opinions and statistics you find interesting. When you write about content that is fresh on your mind your writing will flow more naturally in a conversational tone.

The takeaway to reading and researching the day before as part of your writing routine is that the topic is fresh in your mind to converse about while stating your opinion or developing your ideas. Write as if you were talking to your audience in person in order to let the words flow from your mind to the screen in conversation that has been inspired by fresh ideas from well-rounded research and personal opinion.

The bonus to this is you can create SEO content to rank. Google loves content that’s fresh, recent and relevant. You can create all this while expressing what’s on your mind in your own words.

If you were to write your own article immediately after reading an article by another author, the tendency would be to quote or repeat what you just read.

By reading the day before you are “information-loading”, letting it marinate and then serving up a masterpiece the next day.

Rule #2: Never look back

Write as if you were talking to someone discussing a topic in person. Don’t stop typing, don’t go back to correct phrases or re-read paragraphs until you are finished writing your article.

The theory is that once you start re-reading your writing you get lost in semantics and lose focus on the direction of the article and the point you are developing. Even correcting spelling mistakes is a form of looking back that diverts focus from what you’re writing.

Write what needs to be said to explain your thoughts in their entirety. Keep in mind how you would speak to someone in person to make the article conversational, relaxed and take on personal characteristics and mannerisms. You will be surprised how many words you are able to write when you don’t focus so much on creating perfect content and just focus on delivering your message.

Rule #3: Renovate your content

Read through and “renovate” your content with a specific focus that adds quality to your article. For example, your first renovation should be proofread to correct any typos, grammar, spelling mistakes, and finish any undeveloped points you’ve made in your article. The first phase of renovations is to improve the flow of your article and make sure it reads well.

After the first renovation, create your titles and subheadings. Make a list of 10 options for titles. Your title is the single most important part of your article since it is what will attract the click from potential readers and plays a very crucial role in the click-through rate your article receives.

Renovate your article again to add statistics, quotes, links and cite resources. As you add your links and resources you will find yourself adding more detail to your article to further develop ideas with more thorough explanations.

Repeat and renovate as many times as you feel necessary. Every time you read your article you improve its quality by building on what already exists. Your finished product is an article that includes current and relevant topics influenced by credible sources with your own renovations that make the article a fresh, new and improved piece of content.

12 Helpful hints to enhance your writing

1. Use an original and attention-grabbing headline.
2. Use your keyword near the beginning of your title.
3. Use numbers, stats and percentages within your title.
4. Describe how you’re solving a problem.
5. Choose a quiet, clean, and consistent place to write
6. Dedicate a time to read about your industry that is non-negotiable.
7. Choose to read articles from the most credible sources in your niche.
8. Identify hot topics by talking to clients.
9. Scan through forums and social media groups to find relevant issues.
10. Get your creative juices flowing with “The burner paragraph.”
11. Choose keywords and phrases that are most relevant to your article and make a list with multiple variations.
12. Perform searches using the seed keywords you’ve selected for your article.

Use an original and attention-grabbing headline.

Create a title that will attract people to click on your article over any other. Writing great headlines is crucial to the success of your article. Choose descriptive words that pop out to readers and have the sizzle effect (when just saying it slices through the air and perks up the ears.)

Use your keywords near the beginning of your title.

Keep your keywords near the front end of your title to attract more clicks. When the search term is spotted in the title it will generate more attention and interest in your article. If your title is cut off for any reason you will also have the most important and descriptive words included at the beginning.

Use numbers, stats and percentages within your title.

According to a study by Conductor, headlines using statistics and numbers in your title will draw the click 36% more than having a title without. Titles with odd numbers experience a 20% higher click-through rate.

Describe how you’re solving a problem.

Readers love solutions to problems. By describing how you are solving a problem within your title you appealing to their interest by detailing what they will be able to do when they finish reading your article.

Choose a quiet, clean, and consistent place to write.

The more ritualistic you are with the conditions of where you work, the more comfortable you will feel which will allow you to relax and focus more on what you’re writing.

Dedicate a time to read about your industry that is non-negotiable.

In order to maintain an arsenal of noteworthy points, it’s necessary to make reading a regular habit in your routine. Stay updated on the latest trends and advancements in your industry to share a broader range of insight within your writing. The more you read, the more you improve your vocabulary, communication skills and style of writing.

Choose to read articles from the most credible sources in your niche.

You may not be getting accurate information from sources that haven’t established their expertise or authority in your niche. The more you read the more you will recognize prolific voices in your industry that offer the best information. Staying sharp and up to date with your info is crucial if you want to produce great articles that people will learn from and enjoy reading.

Identify topics that resonate with your clients.

Talk to clients about their experiences with your product and what has helped them the most. Find out what they have disliked the most about their experiences related to your business to uncover firsthand what types of content really matters.

Scan through forums and social media groups to find the most relevant issues.

The most relevant issues are found in extensive comment threads and topics posed as questions. Here you will find the type of content that will have the most impact on people’s lives. Use your findings to make your articles more meaningful.

Get your creative juices flowing with “The burner paragraph.”

If you get stuck for whatever reason and are having trouble starting an article-just type. Do not overthink what you are writing. Let whatever is on your mind out through the keyboard and onto your screen. You may end up with what is called “the burner paragraph” which is a block of writing that isn’t written well or may not even be on topic.

The purpose of “the burner paragraph” gets the juices flowing, ignites creativity and sparks ideas in regards to the direction of the article. When you have exhausted your burner paragraph, start a new line and the second paragraph becomes the first one of your article. You can now start writing again with more focus on the direction you’re taking and the points you’re making.

Choose keywords and phrases that are most relevant to your article and make a list with multiple variations.

Create a list of keywords to enhance the optimization of your page by using them throughout the body of your content as well as in subheadings. The use of LSI keywords throughout an article is an effective and safe form of optimizing an article.

Perform searches using the seed keywords you’ve selected for your article.

Search intent has become the most important factor in building content that gets ranked on Google. Add to your list of keywords by writing down any questions in Googles “people also ask” box and any phrases in “searches related to” at the bottom of the search engine result page. By incorporating as many of these search phrases as questions, answers and topics in your article you enhance your page’s ability to satisfy search intent.

9 Ways To Boost User Experience On Your Website

User experience is considered an incredibly important aspect of providing a quality website. There are specific areas you need to cover in order for your site to make nice with the user which will send positive ranking signals to search engines. Here are a few examples of how to improve your UX.

#1-Satisfy user intent

Give your visitors exactly what they’re looking for when they choose your website from a search result. To create the perfect match between your business and visitor, be sure to identify the user intent behind the keywords you choose.

Effective keyword research aligns the content needed to meet the possible intent a user may have when typing in your keyword. If you haven’t covered all potential topics that a user will expect to find you leave them no option but to continue their search.

Improve the user experience of your website by updating content to accurately cover all topics that will provide the most comprehensive coverage of your keyword topic. Make your website the last site needed to adequately satisfy the search intent of a user.

#2-Increase your pages load time

The time it takes to load your pages directly affects user experience. People appreciate sites that load quickly and they tend to back out of sites that take a long time to load. Studies show that users start backing out of pages more frequently after three seconds. Every second thereafter results in more lost visitors.

In order to keep more of your visitors on your site, make sure your site is operating within acceptable page speed requirements. This aspect of user experience is a direct ranking factor that not only sends positive ranking signals to search engines but improves your bounce rate through a more enjoyable user experience.

#3-Make your site fit in all screen sizes

A fully responsive website will adjust the layout and the resize images to fit different sized screens. A responsive layout makes your site mobile friendly and easy to use on smaller screen sizes.

If your site is still operating only on a desktop version you may be losing traffic by providing poor user experience. A desktop version will shrink everything in the same layout which makes the text hard to read, buttons hard to push and images are not as effective because they aren’t fit to match the screen size.

More than half of the total searches made online are now made from mobile devices. If your site isn’t made for mobile then it isn’t made for more than half of your potential visitors. The time is ticking for sites only operating on desktop versions. Keep your visitors happy with a mobile-friendly website.

#4-Brush up on your formatting

Even though your site may be responsive, there are improvements to your design that will improve the user experience.

For example, buttons that are too close to each other can make a difference in the user experience if people are constantly pressing the wrong buttons.

Thin margins along the outside of your widgets may cause text to run too close to the screen. This can raise a slight annoyance for a user reading your content.

You can test the mobile-friendliness of your website on Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. This test rates the kind of experience your users have based on your design. It will report the items that will make your site easier to use and as a result, improve UX.

#5-Mix up your content

Variety is the spice of life. Vary the content you’re publishing on your blog. Too much of the same thing can get a little monotonous and boring. Commit to creating infographics and videos to change things up and add a little more flair to your content production.

Your visitors will appreciate it and it might be a nice change-up for you too as opposed to producing articles. Keep in mind that videos will improve the dwell time of visitors as it tends to be the preferred method of learning about something. Not only can you increase the performance of your site, but you can also host a more enjoyable learning experience while doing so.

#6-Stimulate your audience

Publish content that people want to read about. Aim to produce content that fully explains specific topics, which is rarely done effectively in less than 1000 words.

Longer content tends to perform better. Provide instructional guides, case studies, and strategy guides to provoke thought and generate interest. Publishing long-form content increases the performance metrics of your website such as dwell time, bounce rate and click-through rate. This leads to better rankings and of course with more visibility, you receive more traffic.

Apart from the technical improvements, a higher level of engagement leads to more conversions. Relationships start with the content you’re providing and if the level of engagement is low-your visitors will break it off quickly. If your content is stimulating and helping the reader in some way, they begin to trust your company which improves the likelihood of converting them into a client.

#7-Set new standards in quality

Quality is always a defining characteristic in the products, services and content your business provides. There’s just no way around it-people appreciate a product, service or information that adds value to their lives.

In order to set high standards in quality, make it a point to survey what content is currently performing. Stay on top of your industry by reading regularly in order to write about the latest updates and changes in your competitive niche.

Curate content from a variety of credible sources. When your finger is on the pulse of what impacts people’s lives you can provide comprehensive solutions through the content your website produces. The Renovation Method explains this concept in more depth.

#8-Make your site easy to navigate

Establish a clear path for your visitors when they land on your site. Set goals and objectives for your visitors to accomplish so you can create content to lead them to complete conversions.

Implement a strong interlinking strategy within your website. Link to related posts to provide easy transitions to related topics and keep your readers on your site for longer periods of time.

• Use call-to-actions within your posts to urge visitors towards the objective you have created on your site.
• Use breadcrumbs so they are able to backtrack to where they’ve been.
• Provide a search bar to find any specific topic within your site.

Failure to make things easy to find ultimately results in your visitor backing out of the site. A strong navigational structure improves the user experience and the overall click-through rate.

#9-Write an accurate and enticing headlines

The headline is the most important selling features of your article. It is what users see first in search results and what they are drawn to before clicking on your page.

Don’t disappoint your readers by misleading them with a headline in which the content doesn’t support your claim. People gravitate towards clarity in a headline.

Numbers in a headline improve your click-through rate by 36%. The theory behind this is that a matter of managing expectations. When people know what they are getting they are more likely to click on your article. If you claim to have 10 Fantastic Copywriting Tips and the article delivers 8 lame tips your credibility is instantly reduced and you may never get that visitor back on your site.

User experience will continue to be a priority for businesses in creating successful and competitively ranked websites. The process for providing a positive user experience is a continual effort but with lasting positive effects.