Proliferation

Jan 28
0

Stop Worrying About the Future of SEO—SEO is Now

By | SEO | No Comments

In the first few weeks of January 2016, the SEO world was abuzz with a flurry of activity—from listicles along the lines of “23 things that are the future of SEO in 2016” to local search trends in Utah to ever more conjecture surrounding Google’s upcoming Penguin algorithm update (which will come out eventually, we’re sure).

The SEO world loves to speculate about the unknown; what the future of mobile search is, what the hottest SEO trends will be, etc. At the end of the day though, much of this guesswork remains just that—guesswork. Rather than fretting too much about the future, SEO specialists need to focus on the here and now.

While it can be tempting to jump on the nearest SEO bandwagon when something new and exciting comes out, SEO isn’t really a game to be played with fleeting trends. Rather, SEO is a long-term strategy that focuses on optimizing content to better fit the needs of your customers—and consequently, search engines.

Whether you’re optimizing a website for a local Utah business or a multinational corporation, many of the core concepts remain the same. Good keyword research, social media presence and original content creation will always be relevant. Building a wealth of high-domain authority backlinks and other such things will follow naturally, so long as your content is focused first on real human beings—in quality SEO practices, search engines come second.

SEO has always been a long-term strategy, Most campaigns take months, if not more than a year to deliver real quantifiable results. For such an enduring strategy, changing the game every few months or so could potentially be detrimental to overall SEO gains.

Whether you’re optimizing for a small business in Utah or a larger nationwide chain, consistently delivering high-quality, relevant content that real consumers will want to read is sure to boost your search rankings better than any trendy new quick-fix SEO practice. Instead of fretting over every new trend, focus on the SEO practices that work for you.

Jan 04
0

SEO That Works: 22 Qualities of Powerful, Valuable Links

By | SEO | No Comments

Does your business have great products, but you’re struggling to reach a wider audience on the Web? SEO and your Google search ranking can have a major effect on increasing a site’s traffic.

Content marketing materials and other links that are published online need to be trustworthy, relevant and diverse to have a positive effect on search rankings and audience engagement levels. For example, linking to keywords in your content can improve the relevancy of search results to your site.

If you’re looking for some more quick tips and tricks on how to improve your SEO skills and rankings, don’t miss these 22 important qualities of powerful and valuable links.

Qualities of Strong Links IG

Nov 25
0

2 Key PR Tactics that Make for Better SEO Results

By | SEO | No Comments

The world of SEO is constantly evolving. Long gone are the days when buying links was still viewed as an acceptable practice (try that now, and you’ll be punished accordingly by Google). And as the world of search marketing continues to change, one thing is becoming increasingly clear. Google and other search engines value quality content (and quality links) far more than an incredibly large usage of keywords or other practices. And as a result, the lines between quality digital public relations work and good SEO are becoming increasingly blurred.

As Business2Community recently noted, “Both PR and SEO practitioners need to be awesome at creating great content, skilled at running outreach [and] brilliant at building relationships.” These tactics are not only essential for being a top-notch public relations professional, but will also play a key role in getting your company to the top of the search rankings. Here’s how.

It Starts With Content

The baseline for any successful public relations effort starts with generating quality content. Whether it’s presenting well-organized data through an appealing infographic, creating a video that provides a more in-depth look at a particular topic or even simply writing informative, well-written blog posts, quality content is the basis of everything digital marketers should be trying to accomplish.

Why is that? Any public relations practitioner worth his salt knows that a key part in generating results in the world of SEO is establishing oneself as an accessible industry leader. And the best way to do that is by presenting your knowledge and expertise through (you guessed it) content. By presenting information that is useful and helpful to your audience (ie. your customers and potentially your industry at large), you show Google and other influencers that you really know what you’re talking about.

This isn’t to say that the commonly-cited SEO practices of using appropriate keywords, incorporating images, etc. should be tossed aside. But by writing to help your audience and share your expertise and then optimizing for SEO, you are much more likely to create that quality content that is becoming increasingly valued in today’s digital sphere.

The benefits of this are two-fold. First, quality content, when housed on your site or containing links to it, provides a significant SEO boost. More often than not, this content can be one of the biggest factors in determining whether your site moves up or down in search result rankings. Second, establishing yourself as an industry authority makes it easier to accomplish the other public relations goals—influencer outreach and building relationships.

Reaching and Using Influencers

Another key component of public relations that can also pay big dividends for your SEO efforts is influencer outreach. The Internet has made this somewhat easier than before—most journalists and industry influencers are quite active on Twitter, LinkedIn and other digital media platforms, but the fact remains that successfully reaching out is still quite often easier said than done.

After all, you can’t simply blast a stock email message promoting your latest, greatest blog post and expect it to get huge results. More likely than not, such messages will simply be deleted and possibly even get you blocked as a spammer on Twitter and other networks.

First things first, you need to research influencers for your particular industry. Figure out what they like and don’t like. And don’t try to sell yourself (or your content) right off the bat. Brandwatch recommends “following them on Twitter, [liking] their posts, [and commenting] on their blog.” Actual engagement with influencers’ content (such as commenting on an article with your own, non-salesy insights) will get you on their radar in a good way.

If you do things the right way, this will likely allow for you to generate online conversations with the influencer as you comment on and share his or her content. This in turn builds a positive relationship with said influencer, which will subsequently make him or her more likely to share your content or accept your guest post idea when you pitch them.

What does this have to do with SEO, you might ask? These public relations efforts may not immediately bear fruit in helping you move up the search rankings, but the promotion of your content or publication of a guest post by an industry influencer can do wonders for your site traffic. And it’s much easier to get that promotion if you’ve already established a solid relationship with an influencer and proven that you can produce quality content of your own.

After all, influencers are called influencers for a reason. These individuals are viewed as authority figures, and as such, tend to have large digital followings. If such a person were to share a link to your site’s latest blog post, you have tapped into a potentially much larger audience than you have ever had access to before. Guest blogging on an influencer’s site also provides the opportunity to reach these larger audiences and gain authoritative links back to your own site. But in order to get an influencer to be willing to do this for you, you must build and maintain a meaningful digital relationship.

These influential shares in turn boost SEO rankings as your site gains higher engagement and high-quality backlinks. Of course, before reaching out to influencers for guest blogging and other opportunities, be sure that their content and site are actually of high quality. You don’t want to accidentally hurt your SEO by posting on a lower-quality site.

By combining these public relations and SEO practices, digital marketers can improve their clients’ search rankings and achieve the long-lasting success that yields real results.

Nov 19
0

2 Keys to Determining the Value of Your Content Marketing

By | content marketing | No Comments

In the ever-changing world of content marketing, it can sometimes be difficult to see how your non-traditional advertising efforts are providing value to your company’s overall goals. After all, it’s easy to say that a piece of content marketing is well-written or beautifully designed, but if it doesn’t contribute to your company’s growth, is it really worth the effort?

Thankfully, there are a few key measurements that can be used to determine if your efforts are delivering the value that they should. And while other factors can influence these results, the following measurements should always play a considerable role in considering the success of your content marketing campaign.

Website Traffic

The first step for measuring success in any digital campaign is whether or not new traffic is being driven to your website. While some types of content are more likely to generate Web traffic than others, it is important that all such efforts be consistently measured and analyzed to determine whether or not they are having the desired effect.

Web analytics tools can provide business owners with a wide variety of useful statistics, such as the number of site visitors, the average number of pages viewed per site visit and the average amount of time spent on the site. While such statistics may not be considered to be as important as sales, Dummies makes it clear that the higher the numbers are, the more likely it is “that you have an engaged audience that interacts with the content you create, and you probably influence their purchasing decisions.” And these engaged audience members are more likely to recommend your content to others—thus driving new traffic.

What material can have a significant impact on these statistics? The answer, of course, is quality content marketing. Whether it’s a series of engaging, informative blog posts (which would increase the amount of time a visitor spends on the site) or a third-party link from another site that brings new visitors to your website, content marketing efforts can have a very direct impact on these statistics.

An increase in website traffic typically does even more than the aforementioned examples. As users spend more time on a site, Google and other search engines view this as an indicator that the site is a source of high-quality, authoritative content. This in turn can improve a site’s SEO rankings, helping other new customers find your site—even if they didn’t come to it directly through content marketing materials.

These metrics are not perfect forms of measuring the value of your content marketing efforts, since other factors (such as your website’s design and navigability) can also impact the increase or decrease of such statistics. However, if your content marketing is really doing its job, there should certainly be improvement in these areas.

Sales and Leads

Of course, in the business world, sales and leads are generally considered the ultimate measure of any strategy’s success (or lack thereof). And content marketing is no different.

Thankfully, there are plenty of statistics that show that quality content done right can directly contribute to an increase in sales and leads—especially when it is already increasing the number of page views and the amount of time spent on the site.

It goes without saying that the more time an individual spends on a website, the more likely he or she is to make a purchase. However, in many instances, a piece of content marketing can directly contribute to a sale or lead. For example, marketing guru Neil Patel reports that his company’s blog can drive anywhere between 60 to 80 percent of total sales leads for a given month—a significant return on investment. But this isn’t something marketers can just “set and forget.” Readers typically “[become] a lead after reading at least three blog posts,” which means that more often than not, marketers need to encourage readers to come back for more.

This means promoting blog content through social media and other channels to increase readership, as well as using sidebars that provide an opportunity for potential customers to sign up for email notifications or simply click to learn more about a given product or service. Even offering a free ebook after users submit email contact information can help increase return readership and improve the likelihood that people will continue reading the blog and eventually make a purchase—and website analytics allow business owners to see if someone looked at a piece of on-site content marketing before making a purchase.

Just like other website traffic metrics, content marketing is not the only influencing factor that drives increases or decreases in the number of sales and leads. A poor website design can frustrate consumers before they complete a purchase, no matter how good one’s content marketing strategy is. But when an easy-to-navigate website design is combined with a quality content marketing strategy, businesses are more likely to see the number of online sales and leads increase to never-before-seen heights.

Nov 19
0

8 Tips to Increase SEO with Pinterest

By | SEO | No Comments

For marketing companies from the East Coast to Utah, Pinterest is a godsend. While Twitter and Facebook target consumers’ current interests, Pinterest serves their future aspirations. That provides a virtually limitless opportunity for digital marketers, as nearly 70 percent of people on Pinterest use the social media platform as inspiration for future purchases.

The Pinterest demographic is overwhelmingly female, and Pinterest users are willing to spend more than either their Facebook or Twitter counterparts. How can businesses successfully increase their Pinterest rankings in such a lucrative market? The following are eight helpful tips for boosting your company’s SEO using Pinterest.

Fusion 360 - 8 Tips to Increase SEO With Pinterest (Fusion 360 SEO)

Nov 16
0

4 SEO Practices That Are Doomed to Fail In the Not-So-Distant Future

By | SEO | No Comments

Shockingly, there are still a handful of old-school marketers out there who view the field of SEO as little more than some sort of complex pseudoscience.

While you and I might now that it’s not, in order to help the reluctant get onboard with our craft of choice, it’s imperative that a conscience effort be made to stay up-to-date with what’s most effective for building rapport with the Internet’s largest, most influential search engines.

In need of some help? Here’s what you absolutely, without a doubt can’t bank on in the coming months and years:

1) Focusing Purely On Google

Yes, Google is clearly the focal point for most SEO specialists. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, in the near future, Google can’t be the only focus. We know this because of what’s currently taking place with widespread search trends.

Obviously, Google still takes the cakes as the easiest way for Web users to get what they want. Yet, people are now also using personal digital assistants like Siri and Cortana for getting the information they so desperately crave.

Additionally, believe it or not, Google users are on the decline. Bing and Yahoo? Not so much. Though nothing’s skyrocketing, usership is on the rise.

2) Producing Little More Than Written Content

What’s most crazy about all of this is that, for years now, studies have shown that multimedia content performs better with search engines than that of a more editorial nature. Nevertheless, most content marketing agencies still focus entirely on writing.

Sure, written content isn’t going anywhere and still works well, but there are simply more effective ways of doing things. New platforms, features and demographic-driven data now call for images, video and other interactive elements to be used by both SEO and content marketing specialists.

3) Desktop Optimization

For the longest time, desktop optimization was considered the standard of sound SEO practice.

While there wasn’t anything innately wrong with that, mobile optimization has become the bigger need as users have shifted from using traditional computers to smartphones when surfing the Internet.

In fact, says Jason DeMers in an article written for Forbes, “Now, with mobile traffic surpassing and outpacing desktop traffic in growth and Google far more concerned with a sufficient mobile experience, that standard way of thinking is becoming irrelevant. As long as your site is sufficiently optimized for mobile, soon it won’t matter much how it looks on a desktop.”

4) Building Backlinks In Droves

There’s always been a series of strong dividing lines between SEO, content marketing and public relations. With the passage of time, those lines are blurring.

Think about it—up until this point, more than likely, you’ve been posting links to your domain on blogs, forums, Q&A outlets or Web 2.0 sites. Why? Well, it’s super easy. There’s no editorial review whatsoever, so why wouldn’t you?

While not horribly effective, there’s still a measurable SEO benefit from such a tactic. However, don’t get too excited—Penguin revisions are pegged to all but destroy this strategy.

Yup, this means that you and your team are going to need to place even more importance on building industry-specific relationships, guest posting on authoritative sites and quality content.

Simply put, there’s no getting around it—SEO is an ever-changing industry. Instead of looking at the situation as an obstacle that needs to be overcome, view it as a way to further distance yourself from your competitors by way of awesome results.

By so doing, when all is said and done, both you and your clients will be pleased with what’s taken place.

Nov 16
0

5 Timeless SEO Practices That Will Never Lose Their Widespread Efficacy

By | SEO | No Comments

Ask any SEO expert and he or she will tell you the exact same thing—organic search is by far the best source of traffic to the world’s most influential websites. Recently, in fact, a study was carried about by Conductor that sought to prove the importance of organic search for digital marketers.

The results determined that 64 percent of website traffic comes from organic roots. Shockingly, a mere two percent of generated Web traffic came from social media. So, if you’e an SEO specialist looking to make a name for yourself, there’s good news: you’ll always have a job.

However, as is the case with just about everything in the complex world of SEO, things change at a rapid rate, and Google’s algorithm doesn’t plan to sit around and wait for you to catch up. That said, there are a few SEO-driven constants that appear to be standing the test of time:

1) Keep Content Continuously Flowing

Content marketing has taken off as an advertorial trend for a reason—it’s super important for SEO. More than just about anything else, if you can keep a steady stream of content flowing from the brains and fingers of your savvy team of content marketers, you’ll appeal to both digital audiences and search engines.

Furthermore, keep in mind that digital content isn’t limited to articles or the occasional blog post; moreover, it includes highly engaging content types such as videos, SlideShare presentations, infographics and podcasts.

2) Make Social Media a Real Priority

Yes, it was previously pointed out that social media’s impact on driven Web traffic is minimal, at best. Hold the phone—there’s more to it.

While there’s been a great deal of debate as to whether or not social signals have an impact on SEO, recent research and indicated that there is a causative relationship between the two entities.

Just how active should you be? Well, seeing as how Twitter’s stream of tweets is presently used by Google to index content, it’s probably the best place to start.

Reports Lori Wagoner of DazeInfo.com, “While the optimum frequency will vary from case to case, on an average, you need at least two tweets a day every single day of the week to gain even 30 percent organic reach on Twitter.”

On the other hand, Facebook’s organic reach isn’t nearly as impressive as it used to be. Beyond paid social, the outlet isn’t nearly as effective or lucrative as Twitter.

3) Update Your Keywords

Ah, keywords—the stuff of real SEO genius. Truthfully, you’re right, but only to a certain extent. The need for keywords is still highly relevant and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. But, it’s necessary that they be updated form time to time. Just as Google changes, so too does user search behavior.

Lastly, even though your site’s already been built, it’s never a bad idea to go back and check each piece of content you create to ensure that everything contains keywords that are highly relevant to your brand’s niche.

4) Focus On Customer Reviews

This one’s often forgotten, but user-generated content works wonders for building rapport with each of the Internet’s leading search engines. Though this section’s heading hones in on reviews, this kind of content also includes blog comments and product or service ratings.

Sure, these will help you and your brand build a solid SEO foundation, but even better, these reviews will help in the ways of customer conversion. Regardless of your marketing team’s various points of emphasis, positive reviews are important to have present on a site.

5) Look to Industry Leaders for Direction

Lost as to what your industry’s most common SEO tactics are? No need to fret. The best way to get some direction with your SEO is to frequent the sites of your competitors.

Look for specific keywords they’re using well and identify the authoritative sites from which they’re getting invaluable backlinks.

Additionally, do a bit of snooping and look into the various content types your rivals are using to strengthen their ties with potential clients on social media or elsewhere out on the World Wide Web. Simply put, if it’s working for them, it can work for you.

When all is said and done, much is needed to drive Web surfers to your website. That said, stick close to the aforementioned practices. By so doing, your bound to develop the habits that will serve you well in the dynamic field of SEO for years to come.

Nov 16
0

Digital Display Advertising and Other Marketing Methods You Should Really Stop Using

By | digital marketing | No Comments

The world of advertising is an ever-changing beast, and as a result, determining what the best methods are for a successful advertising campaign has proven tricky—especially with the ever-changing digital marketplace. And while there are some tactics that many companies would like to use to promote their products and services, experts at marketing agencies are quick to point out that there are some methods that you should really just avoid altogether. Here are three tactics that should definitely be left out of your next advertising campaign.

Digital Banner Ads

Digital banner ads and pop-up advertising are the billboards of the Internet. It seems like they’ll never go away, and many companies continue to rely extensively on this method for their digital marketing strategy. Yet there are few advertising methods that could be less effective in actually generating sales and leads.

Just how ineffective are digital display ads? Studies have found that the average clickthrough rate for these advertisements is 0.1 percent, with approximately half of those clicks being completely accidental. To put that into perspective, an average person is more likely to summit Mount Everest or survive a plane crash than intentionally click on a digital display ad. Yes, it’s really that bad—which is why fewer agencies are including digital display as part of their advertising tactics.

While companies that specialize in digital banner ads promise that their content will reach millions of viewers, marketing agencies worth their salt recognize that potential reach is hardly the most effective method for measuring effectiveness. Quite often, digital display ads are not adequately targeted, resulting in many advertisements reaching irrelevant audiences. Regardless, most Web users ignore these advertisements completely, even if they haven’t already installed an AdBlocker to prevent the obnoxious messages from ever reaching their computer screen.

Black-Hat SEO

There’s no denying that SEO is one of the most important tools to achieving success online. But when it comes to the methods that are used to improve one’s SEO rankings, businesses need to be careful that they work only with marketing agencies that utilize white-hat SEO techniques—and avoid shady practices at all costs. While sound SEO practices can get your business to the front page of Google, black-hat techniques can result in penalties that get your site severely punished.

There are a plethora of unfortunate SEO practices used by shady marketing agencies that can greatly damage a company’s chances of ever ranking highly. Yet many companies continue to engage in these practices. For example, Forbes notes that keyword stuffing—be it in content marketing materials, internal links and even alt-image tags is still quite common. And the oft-maligned practice of trying to buy or sell links is still used by many companies who (unwisely) think Google won’t notice their shady tactics.

Some black-hat marketing agencies even attempt to get clients to rank for completely irrelevant keywords, simply to generate clicks. Spam content, link baiting and even invisible text are sometimes used in an effort to generate links and keywords—but these dishonest practices will ultimately result in punishment from Google and other search engines. If anyone claims to use these tactics, avoid them at all costs! Quality SEO includes content marketing that relies on addressing relevant audience topics as well as optimizing website design to better meet customer needs—all while avoiding keyword stuffing and shady link-building practices.

Dying Traditional Advertising Techniques

Let’s be honest with ourselves—most traditional advertising techniques are quickly going the way of the dodo. The Yellow Pages? Your grandparents may be using them, but it’s unlikely that anyone else is—especially when Google is so much quicker and more effective. Other traditional advertising methods, such as television, radio and newspaper are also becoming less effective as their audiences migrate to the digital world.

Television is a prime example of how audiences are quickly finding ways to circumvent traditional broadcast advertising. The rise of YouTube, Netflix and Hulu have all led many consumers to watch their favorite TV shows online, rather than during the television broadcast, and audience sizes have been consistently diminishing over the last several years (except for major live events like the Super Bowl). Even those who don’t use these digital subscription services frequently take advantage of TiVo and other devices that allow them to skip commercial breaks entirely.

Marketing agencies that are in the know are well aware that these changes in media consumption habits mean that it’s harder than ever to reach desired audiences. But there is hope to be found in digital replacements for traditional advertising methods. After all, most Hulu subscribers are still exposed to commercials of some sort, and the company actively tries to target advertising to its customers’ relevant interests.

For just about every traditional advertising method, marketing agencies have developed a digital equivalent. An equivalent that is more tightly targeted, less likely to be skipped and therefore more likely to actually lead to sales and leads.

For companies big and small, the time is long past to abandon digital display ads, black-hat SEO or outdated traditional advertising methods. The times have changed, and your advertising tactics should too. Be sure that any marketing agencies you work with know how to use effective digital advertising techniques that will yield the desired results.

Nov 09
0

Inside Google’s RankBrain Algorithm Update

By | SEO | No Comments

Google certainly loves to scare the marketers who spend their time researching the best SEO tactics, and the search engine giant has done it again with the recent announcement of its new “RankBrain” system. But what is RankBrain, and how is it going to affect the way Google ranks websites? While some of the details are still sparse, there are a few important facts that have come to light.

What is it?

First of all, RankBrain is not a replacement for Google’s Hummingbird search algorithm—but it is an important facet that will contribute to how Hummingbird will rank websites. Search Engine Land explains that RankBrain is “a machine-learning artificial intelligence system that’s used to help process its search results.”

Sounds fancy and confusing, right? In layman’s terms, RankBrain is a program that can basically learn new SEO-related information as it has more experience with online search. As more Web searches are conducted, RankBrain can gather data on the words and phrases that are used to make connections so that it can better deal with new searches that haven’t been conducted before.

According to Bloomberg, Google has since reported that RankBrain has become the “third-most important signal contributing to the result of a search query.” And the implementation of this AI has apparently proven effective. In the Bloomberg article, Google researchers explained that turning off RankBrain significantly decreased the quality of search results, damaging the overall user experience. Since RankBrain is able to learn and make new connections between even the most complex of searches, it can deliver better, more usable results to Web users.

RankBrain’s ability to refine results for never-before-done queries is especially important when one considers just how many searches are conducted every day. With literally billions of searches conducted each day, and an estimated 15 percent of said searches being completely new, there are hundreds of millions of new searches each day—which could certainly prove difficult for an SEO ranking algorithm to handle without a tool such as RankBrain.

Why Does it Matter?

Of course, the biggest question on every SEO guru’s mind is how the introduction of RankBrain will impact the effectiveness of their strategies. The truth of the matter is that RankBrain has been impacting online searches since earlier this year—but Google chose not to unveil news about this ranking signal until the end of October (possibly due to the widespread panic that came about when the company announced it’s “mobile-friendly” algorithm update).

In other words, this isn’t something like the “mobile-friendly” update where SEO experts have time to make changes to their Web design and content before the algorithm change starts affecting their search rankings—it’s already taking effect. However, since RankBrain is a learning machine that will continue to adapt the ranking signals it sends to Hummingbird, marketers can be sure that its importance will keep growing.

Of course, since Google hasn’t said much about what RankBrain actually looks for in determining what sites should be highly ranked for a particular search, it’s hard to know for certain what (if any) practices need to change in your SEO strategy.

A good rule of thumb is to continue with the adage “content is king.” Google has stated in the past that it would be putting an increased emphasis on delivering high-quality, relevant content in its search results—and since RankBrain also seems to be focused on delivering extremely relevant and useful results, it stands to reason that the better your content is, the more likely it will get ranked highly for a wide variety of search queries.

Another useful step would be to examine the results of your SEO strategy over the last few months. Since RankBrain was introduced earlier this year, it stands to reason that it will have been affecting your search rankings as well. If your standings in search results have been regressing in recent months, it’s probably a good idea to take a closer look at what your SEO strategy entails and double down on making sure all content you produce—both on-site and for third-party content marketing purposes—is of the highest quality possible.

In a perfect world, Google would not only reveal exactly how RankBrain works, but also what the two other most influential ranking factors are. But since that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon, we’ll simply keep watching the latest marketing trends and adjusting our strategies accordingly.

Oct 30
0

Maintaining a Successful Blog

By | content marketing | No Comments

Whether it be here in Utah or elsewhere, blogging isn’t as easy as you’d think it be. Seriously, if it were simply a matter of writing a few posts to gain global publishing fame, everyone would be doing it.

However, seeing as how digital audiences currently have access to more information than ever before, content – when coupled with strategic content marketing, social media and SEO strategies – can truly reach massive audiences.