Understanding Searches Better Than Ever Before
Google is understanding natural language in searches better than ever before, so well, that it represents “the biggest leap forward in the past five years, and one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of Search …
Particularly for longer, more conversational queries, or searches where prepositions like “for” and “to” matter a lot to the meaning [1 in 10 searches], Search will be able to understand the context of the words in your query. You can search in a way that feels natural for you.”
Google Penguin Looks Mostly at Your Link Source, Says Google
When we asked Google’s Gary Illyes about Penguin, he said SEOs should focus on where their links come from for the most part, but they have less to worry about now that Penguin devalues those links, as opposed to demotes the site.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
The more things change…
As with any new Google algorithm release, there has been a lot of buzz about Penguin and what it means for search results. Once again, it’s been confirmed that quality is key. In the case of Penguin, Google is looking at the quality of the site that links to your site (the source site). Just further confirmation that slow, steady, thoughtful linkbuilding is the right way to do it.
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How to Grow Your Blog Audience: Here Are 5 Tips
So you have a great blog. You write great content with lots of important information worth sharing. You publish frequently and promote your own content. But still, you aren’t getting many hits. Does it mean your content needs reworking? Not necessarily.
Breathe new life into your existing posts by following these 5 steps, and you can transform your low-traffic blog with a high bounce rate into a blog many new people will actually read and come back to.
The SEO and Analytics Steps to Follow to Grow Your Blog Visitors
1. Make sure your blog posts are visually appealing – and contribute to SEO
Looks aren’t everything. But are people more likely to take your blog seriously if it is professional looking? You bet! You put a lot of time into your blog posts, and it should look like you do. Be sure your layout is organized with defined sections. Add aesthetically-pleasing, yet relevant images. Furthermore, use relevant keywords in the alt text field (the text that will show if an image doesn’t render correctly) to maximize SEO. Put the effort into making your blog look like it is worth reading, and your bounce rate will drop, and average time on page will improve.
2. Increase readability, improve SEO and lower your bounce rate by using headers to create clear, concise subtitles and bullets
If your blog post is a list-type post in a bulleted or numbered format, think “SEO” when writing the headers of these lists. Each header you include should be a clear summary of what is to follow in the paragraph(s) below. And by including popular (and relevant, of course!) keywords, you’re reinforcing for Google what the post is about. This, in turn, increases your chances of showing up in search results.
3. Optimize your Meta Page Titles
Your meta title, the text in the top left corner of your web browser, should clearly depict what the post is about. This text can be picked up by directories/webmasters, too, if they decide to link to your post. Be sure to include the “focus” keyword of the post. Keep it relevant. Keep it specific. Keep it simple. (60-70 characters, max!)
4. Create/Update your post’s Meta Descriptions
The meta description neither plays a major role in SEO nor improves your rankings in a Google search, but it is still very important. Because, while there’s no guarantee that this description will be used by Google, if a search query matches it closely enough, Google may choose to display it in the search results. This gives you some control over what is displayed, and could mean that the searcher may be more likely to click on your post, as it will appear to be a good fit.
If you have not put much effort into your meta descriptions, they are easy updates to make. Start with your top-viewed posts and add focused, keyword-rich descriptions. Again, while it should be concise, the meta description give you more space to expand upon your page title. Think of it as a short summary to hook your readers. This will make it more likely for readers to find your post. (150-180 characters)
5. Re-promote your older, evergreen posts on all of your social media accounts – with appropriate hashtags
Sharing your posts with your followers is a great way to gain new views, but Twitter especially gives a potentially large opportunity for new readers. You can tweet out your posts, even if they are older posts, a few times a day with different text. Fool around with hashtags and find out what works best.
Don’t be hesitant to periodically – even aggressively – re-promote your “evergreen” posts (posts that stay relevant over time). Each time you tweet, a new person may find your post. Chances are, someone is looking for exactly what you are posting about, so let them find you through relevant hashtags. Even just one retweet can have a dramatic impact if it comes from a user with a lot of followers. (Read about evergreen posts for local businesses here.)
Click to tweet this post to share with your followers
So how do you know any of this actually works? Well, we tested it ourselves, and we think the results speak for themselves.
Our Blog SEO/Analytics Test Explained
We took four older blog posts and tracked their performance over the course of six months (a period we will refer to as Period 1). We then implemented the five changes listed above, tracked the posts for the following six months (Period 2), and compared the results of Period 2 to Period 1.
To start, we updated each post to be more visually appealing and up-to-date. This included the addition of new graphics (as the old ones looked dated), changes in font, and the switch to a more simplified format.
Once we were satisfied with the overall layout, we went to work on updating our SEO. This involved some keyword research to see if any new keywords had become popular since the original post date, as well as reworking headers and bullets to include these keywords.
Following the steps listed above, we then changed meta page titles and meta descriptions as recommended in steps 3 and 4, and we repromoted the posts on social media. We promoted each post once a week on Facebook, and up to six times a week on Twitter.
So what do the results of our test reveal?
After implementing the 5 tips provided above, we saw noticeable improvements in three areas that are good indicators of page performance:
- Page Views (how many times the post was viewed)
- Unique Page Views (the number of individual visitors to your page)
- Bounce Rate (the number of visitors that leave your site after viewing only one page – the lower the bounce rate the better)
Analysis of the page performance of these posts indicated an increase in page views/unique page views, as well as a decrease in bounce rate from Period 1 to Period 2. In fact, unique page views saw an increase of 24% following the implementation of these steps, which means more people were able to find our posts thanks to the SEO benefits provided by these changes.
The bounce rate decreased by about 5%, meaning that these changes brought visitors who actually stayed on the website rather than immediately bouncing off the page. In short, this means the viewers of the updated posts were quality visitors that were actually interested in the topic, rather than visitors that navigated to the page by accident.
All in all, the results of our test allow us to conclude that implementing these 5 tips can breathe new life into your older posts. Optimizing the posts for on-page SEO and regularly re-promoting them can have a positive impact on the number of individual visitors who can find and read your posts. And, of course, by incorporating these tips into any new posts, you’ll be one step ahead of the game from the start.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
So you have a great blog. You write great content with lots of important information worth sharing. You publish frequently and promote your own content. But still, you aren’t getting many hits. Does it mean your content needs reworking? Not necessarily. By following these 5 steps, you can transform your low-traffic blog with a high bounce rate into a blog many new people will actually read.
15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs
It’s been a long time since we covered one of the most fundamental building blocks of SEO–the structure of domain names and URLs–and I think it’s high time to revisit.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
They offer both common-sense (e.g., #2) and search engine specific advice (e.g., #10) on the 15 best ways to construct web addresses (URLs) for your key, natural search pages:
#1: Whenever possible, use a single domain & subdomain
#2: The more readable by human beings, the better
#3: Keywords in URLs: still a good thing
#4: Multiple URLs serving the same content? Canonicalize ’em!
#5: Exclude dynamic parameters when possible
#6: Shorter > longer
#7: Match URLs to titles most of the time
#8: Including stop words isn’t necessary
#9: Remove/control for unwieldy punctuation characters
#10: Limit redirection hops to two or fewer
#11: Fewer folders is generally better
#12: Avoid hashes in URLs that create separate/unique content
#13: Be wary of case sensitivity
#14: Hyphens and underscores are preferred word separators
#15: Keyword stuffing and repetition are pointless and make your site look spammy.
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Google’s Natural Language Search Gets Smarter
Google is now smarter at understanding queries that include superlatives and times, as well as more complicated questions.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
If natural search traffic is important to you and you have not yet reevaluated your SEO strategy, this story makes it abundantly clear that now is the time to do so!
Why? Because you are shooting yourself in the foot if you’re still focusing on traditional keywords instead of semantics.
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How Much Time Does SEO Really Take?
Getting started [with seo] is relatively easy, but in order to be successful in an especially competitive environment, you need to dedicate yourself to the strategy. You’ll have to acquire new skills…
The common solution for this is to simply hire an in-house SEO expert who can handle all these tasks. If you can’t, it’s on you to handle them all yourself. Either way, the cost can be prohibitive, especially if you’re an emerging small business. Likewise, spending all those hours doing it yourself can tie you up, preventing you from pursuing more productive activities that can’t be outsourced.
Before you make a decision, you need to know one thing: how much time does SEO actually take?
Sales Renewal’s insight:
How do you look at SEO? Does it seem like a daunting process? A set-and-forget item to check off your list?
Many small business owners believe they can “do” SEO themselves. But before you make that decision, please read this article. You might just gain a new appreciation for those who do SEO full time.
Consider the (what may appear to be) straight-forward process setting up on-page optimization (10-40 hours) and monitoring and troubleshooting on an ongoing basis (3-12 hours/week). Then there is content development, which could be something you can get away with spending a couple hours a week. Or, it could turn into a nearly full-time job (3-50 hours/week).
Off-page optimization opens up an entirely new realm of responsibilities and processes, from dabbling in looking for linkbuilding opportunities to following a well-thought-out relationship building program (5-25 hours/week).
Then there’s the additional work related to SEO for local businesses, like customer reviews (up to 15 hours/week), and then measuring and analyzing all you do to be sure it’s effective (1-2 hours/week).
Putting it all together, the author’s bottom line is sobering:
“Even for the small range of organizations I examined here (small to mid-sized businesses), you can see the vast range of potential time spent on an SEO campaign. Added up, it amounts to anywhere between 12 and 104 hours per week. If you put in 12 hours a week, don’t expect to climb to a top position anytime soon. On the other end of the spectrum, if you want the best results as fast as possible, you may need to hire employees, contractors, or an agency.”
Given this cost (in time and opportunity), we believe that the most cost-effective way to “do” SEO is to work with a specialist. That’s why, whether you’re a JointSourcing or Marketing Essentials client, we will work with our SEO partners to be sure your business receives the SEO attention it deserves.
Learn more about Sales Renewal’s Search Engine Optimization services.
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Marketing as Architect of the New Buyer Journey
A look at the impact on new buyer expectations and behaviors-and the challenges and opportunities for brands and marketing.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
A typical, simplified view of the customer journey (buyer’s funnel” shows three stages – Awareness (of a need or an issue that needs solving); Consideration (of the alternatives); and Purchase (of the best solution for the need).
But rarely is the customer journey a straight path from Awareness to Purchase, as so aptly demonstrated in this graphic from Forrester Research via Percolate.com. There are twists and turns throughout the journey which present both obstacles – and opportunities.
Understanding this non-linear path to purchasing further reinforces the importance of key concepts and creating relevant content for different stages of the customer journey.
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Study: 45% of Businesses Saw Ranking Changes From Mobile-Friendly Update
So was Google’s mobile-friendly algorithm update (“Mobilegeddon”) overhyped or not? Well, perhaps yes and no. While the initial consensus after the update’s launch was that changes in search rankings were minimal, a recent study indicates that small-to-medium sized enterprises did see some significant changes – just not complete ranking obliteration as the “Mobilegeddon” name suggested.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
On April 21, Google released an algorithm update which brought potential changes to how sites rank based on mobile-friendliness. Fearing what some called “Mobilegeddon, ” companies scrambled to make their sites comply with the changes to prevent ranking drops following the implementation of the update. The thinking behind this was that if a site was not optimized for mobile, then the site would no longer show up in search results. Luckily, the changes came and rankings seem to have not been altered on a large scale. Early reports indicate that 45% of businesses did see ranking changes following Google’s update, but perhaps not in the disastrous scale anticipated. Some businesses have claimed to notice their sites drop a few spots in ranking, while others have claimed lower traffic.
Though the changes are not as crippling as expected, some have seen a decrease in rank even after optimizing for mobile. According to Ben Norman, CEO of Koozai, the hype surrounding the update caused businesses to miss the larger picture. He says that “exaggerating the impact meant that businesses didn’t anticipate that even small changes in their ranking can have a big impact on their organic mobile search results, ” and now, some have seen negative impacts even after optimizing. Norman claims that while optimizing for mobile, competitors may have increased rank simply because they are better optimized for some of the other 200+ Google ranking factors that exist today. Increasing rank may take reevaluating some of these other factors, rather than focusing on mobile optimization.
Overall, the changes do not appear to be widespread, or nearly as destructive as some expected, but small ranking drops have occurred. You can read this article in it’s entirety here.
Has your site seen any ranking changes since the algorithm update went into effect? Let us know.
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6 One-Time Tricks to Boost Your Small Business SEO Campaigns
Put these six tricks to good use in your SEO campaign, and watch your rankings climb. Back up your efforts with a strong content marketing and offsite backlink building campaign, and you’ll be a force to be reckoned with.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Some good advice – although the article makes it all sound a lot easier than it really is! – except for #4. I don’t think that’s the right route to take. What do you think?
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