What are sitelinks and how can I get them?

Back in 2015, we published an article entitled ‘How do I get sitelinks to appear in my site’s search results?’ which looked at how to get the hallowed set of additional links which can appear beneath your website’s SERP listing, known as ‘sitelinks’.

At the time of publication, this was all up-to-the-minute, cutting-edge information. However, since then, Google has made a change to the way that Search Console handles sitelinks, making our invaluable words of wisdom sadly outdated.

As a result, we’ve written up this refreshed and revised guide containing everything you need to know about sitelinks and how you can give yourself the best chance of getting them.

What are sitelinks?

As I hinted at in the introduction just now, sitelinks are additional links which appear beneath the main URL for a brand or publisher when you search for it on Google. They deep link to other pages within your site, and are designed by Google to “help users navigate your site”.

N.B.: These are not to be confused with sitelink extensions in Google AdWords, which are very similar but appear in AdWords ads. AdWords users have full control over whether these links appear and what they contain, unlike organic links – as we’ll cover in just a moment.

In some cases, sitelinks will also appear with a handy searchbox which lets the user search within your site directly from the SERP.

Here’s what the sitelinks for Search Engine Watch look like:

Sadly, no searchbox as of yet.

Right away you can see that these are a mixture of category pages, static pages within our site, and the odd article.

A couple of these are links we would choose to feature – the SEO and PPC categories are key sections of our site – but others are decidedly not: Online Marketing Guides, for example, is a static page from nearly two years ago which links to articles on search engines of different kinds.

The reason for this is that Google pulls in sitelinks automatically, rather than letting the publisher choose what they want to feature.

Sitelinks can be a little bit of a double-edged sword in this regard: even if you can get Google to display them, they might not necessarily be the links you would have chosen to display.

But having sitelinks appear under your search result is still a positive thing overall. Here’s why:

They give your brand more SERP real estate

You can get up to six sitelinks for your SERP listing, plus a searchbox if you can wrangle one. On desktop, this means that four or five times as much SERP space is given over to your listing, while on mobile, a sitelinked listing can take up the entire screen.

This has the benefit of further pushing down any irrelevant or unwanted results, news articles or social mentions for your site – as well as any competitor results that might appear – and makes users more likely to click on your website rather than another result about you.

Based on the statistic that the first three results in search account for nearly 55% of all clicks, Blogging Wizard calculated that having sitelinks could boost click-through rate for the top result by around 20%.

They give the user more options for navigating your site

Users searching for your site on Google might not necessarily want to land on your homepage. Sitelinks on the SERP provide them with a direct link to other parts of your site which might be more relevant to them, or encourage them to explore sections that they might not have known about.

If your SERP result has a quick search bar, they can use it to navigate directly to the page they’re looking for, saving them a step in the user journey.

They direct traffic to other (possibly under-served) areas of your site

Hopefully your website is laid out in a way that allows users to easily find the content or pages that you want to promote. But even then, they are unlikely to be as visible or straightforward to click through to as a link on the SERP.

Sitelinks have the benefit of distributing organic search traffic that would normally be concentrated on your homepage across other areas of your site. However, one side effect of this that is that these pages will effectively become landing pages for your site, and so you should bear in mind that a lot of people might be forming their first impression of your site from these pages.

True, anyone can click a link to a part of your site other than the homepage and land on your site that way, but these links are present on Google, and you can guarantee that a certain percentage of users are clicking them to get to your site. So make sure they look their best!

What Google changed about sitelinks

Up until October 2016, Google had one feature which allowed site owners a small modicum of control over which pages could be displayed as sitelinks for their website.

Google Search Console previously had an option to ‘demote’ sitelinks, in which site owners could specify any URL they particularly didn’t want to appear as a sitelink. Google said that while it couldn’t guarantee the page would never appear, it would “get the hint”.

But late last year, Google Webmasters made the announcement that, “after some discussion & analysis”, they would be removing the Demote Sitelinks setting in Search Console. They elaborated,

“Over the years, our algorithms have gotten much better at finding, creating, and showing relevant sitelinks, and so we feel it’s time to simplify things.”

In other words – we believe we have the ability to display the most relevant sitelinks for the user, without your input!

Google did also offer some insight into how site owners can influence the sitelinks that appear for their website, saying:

“We only show sitelinks for results when we think they’ll be useful to the user. If the structure of your site doesn’t allow our algorithms to find good sitelinks, or we don’t think that the sitelinks for your site are relevant for the user’s query, we won’t show them. […] Sitelinks have evolved into being based on traditional web ranking, so the way to influence them is the same as other web pages.”

They followed this up with a few best practice tips to help improve the quality of sitelinks for your website.

So, I know you’re dying for me to get to the good bit already: What can you do to make sitelinks, and more importantly the right sitelinks, appear for your website?

How can I get sitelinks for my website?

Overall, the best practice advice for how to get sitelinks to appear for your website boils down to having a high-quality site which Google can crawl easily. Google itself mentions in the excerpt above that the “structure of your site” needs to allow its algorithms to find good sitelinks, or it won’t display them.

Luckily, the steps you can take to improve your chances of getting sitelinks are all things that will improve your overall SEO, and make your website easier to navigate for visitors. You may find that you’re already doing several of them.

Rank #1 for your brand name in search results

This one might seem like a no-brainer to some, but the most basic prerequisite for getting sitelinks is that you be the top ranked search result when someone searches for your brand or website name. Google doesn’t award sitelinks to the second, third, fourth or other lower-down SERP rankings.

For example, if I search for Wired magazine from the UK, the UK publication – wired.co.uk – is the one that ranks top for its brand name and gets sitelinks, while its US site, wired.com, ranks lower down.

If you’re struggling to rank #1 for your brand name among other websites with a similar or the same name, a rebrand to a more unique name or URL might give you a better chance of getting to the top.

Build and submit an XML sitemap

A sitemap is a lot like what it sounds like: a ‘map’ of your website which lists every page on the site, which can be designed for users or for search engines, in both cases to help them navigate the site.

In this case, we’re talking about a file hosted on your website’s server which tells search engines about the organization of your site’s content, and allow search spiders to more intelligently crawl your site.

Google Search Console Help Center has a set of instructions that you can follow on how to build and submit a sitemap. If you have a WordPress site, though, you can sit back and relax as a sitemap is already automatically generated and submitted to search engines for you.

Other steps that you can take that will allow search engines to crawl your site more quickly and accurately:

• Make sure that your site’s structure and hierarchy are as clear and logical as possible, with your homepage as the “root” page (the starting point). For example, if you’re an online retailer selling clothing, the navigation for your site might be formatted like this:

Home > Clothing > Women’s Clothing > Accessories > Handbags

If you have any legacy structures within your site that make navigation obscure or overly complicated, now might be the time to overhaul them.

• Use internal links with clear and informative anchor text.
• Make sure that the pages on your site are well-linked to each other, particularly the ones you want to appear as sitelinks – Google takes the number of internal/external links into account when judging the importance of pages for sitelinks.
• Use Fetch as Google to test whether Google can crawl and index important pages within your site.
• Make sure that your website’s main menu only features the most important categories.
• Use relevant and accurate meta descriptions, title tags and alt text throughout your site.
• Avoid thin, insubstantial content, duplicate content and of course spammy-looking keyword stuffing techniques.
• Try to improve your site speed and page load times, and make sure that your site is mobile-optimized to maximize your chances of getting sitelinks on mobile.

Whew! That was a lot of points, but as I say, the steps you can take to have the best chance of getting sitelinks are mostly just good overall SEO practices, and you should be doing most of them anyway.

Bear in mind that there’s no still guarantee sitelinks will appear after you do this, but you’ll be in a much better position to get them.

How can I get a searchbox to appear with my sitelinks?

All of this advice so far has dealt purely with how to get sitelinks to appear for your website, but as I’ve mentioned, some lucky websites are also awarded with a handy searchbox which allows users to search your site directly from the SERP.

Is there anything you can do to influence whether or not this searchbox appears for your site? To an extent, yes.

While whether or not you get a sitebox at all is still at the mercy of Google, once you have one, it’s possible to configure it to use your site’s internal search engine to search your site (instead of Google, which is the default). Google Developers has a Sitelinks Searchbox page which details how you can use structured data markup to implement a searchbox that uses your website’s own search engine.

The jury’s out on whether implementing this will increase your likelihood of getting a searchbox to begin with (if you’ve got any data on this either way, it’d be interesting to know!).

But if for some reason you want to make sure that your brand’s search result doesn’t come with a searchbox attached, there’s a way to prevent that. Simply add the following meta tag to your site’s homepage:

<meta name="google" content="nositelinkssearchbox" />

So there you have it: everything you need to know about how to maximize your chances of getting sitelinks. In short, have a quality website, follow SEO best practices, and lay out the welcome mat for search spiders.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/11/30/what-are-sitelinks-and-how-can-i-get-them/

source https://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/168054514359

How to Create Content More Efficiently with Curation Techniques

I’ve always said that every website should have a blog.

Think about how long you’re currently spending to write a blog post.

I’m willing to bet it takes you at least a few hours to create each.

Sometimes longer posts take up to six or even eight hours.

Where do you find the time to focus on other aspects of your business?

I struggled with this concept as well when I first started blogging.

It seemed like there weren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Then I realized that your content doesn’t always need to be created from scratch.

Think about it.

Chances are, your content isn’t some new or revolutionary breakthrough in the industry.

You’re writing about something that’s been discussed before.

Sure, you’ll put your unique spin, voice, and personal experiences in there, but ultimately there are plenty of similar topics on the web.

Spending your entire day writing blogs is not an efficient use of your time.

Instead, I’ll teach you some content curation skills that will help you write content faster.

David Kadavy from The Medium was able to learn different tricks to improve his productivity.

Look at the impact this had on his published word count between 2015 and 2016.

If you follow my advice, your productivity will skyrocket as well.

Here’s how you can use content curation to effectively manage your content strategy.

Make sure you’re utilizing visuals

If you’ve been reading my blogs for a while, you know I’m a firm believer in using lots of pictures, screenshots, and other infographics to illustrate my points.

That’s no secret.

But there’s a reason behind this strategy.

Adding pictures to your blog posts makes it easier for people to read.

It breaks up the content and grabs the reader’s attention.

There are also plenty of great image resources on the Internet.

While creating a unique visual or infographic is great, it’s not necessary.

Instead, use someone else’s image, making sure to give credit to the original source.

This will save you a lot of time because you won’t have to create these images yourself.

Don’t be shy when you’re adding visuals to your content.

Images make it easier for readers to process your point.

See what I mean?I

Fittingly, I’m using an image about the importance of visuals to prove my point.

But seriously, think about how easy it was for you to process and retain what you just saw.

Visuals also make it easier for you to put words on the page.

Here’s what I mean.

Once you insert an image in your post, it gives you something to talk about.

Explain the image to your readers.

It will guide you in the right direction instead of just coming up with content out of thin air.

You’re much less likely to suffer from writer’s block if you always have something to talk about.

Here are some additional tips about using images within your content:

• Use high quality visuals that aren’t too cluttered.
• Make sure they are easy to read and understand.
• If the visual contains data, make sure it’s from a reputable source.
• Always cite your sources.
• Use lots of images.

All of these pointers will help you create content faster and more efficiently.

Start with an outline, and stick to your plan

Never start creating content from a blank page.

Psychologically, it’s intimidating.

But more importantly, it’s not an efficient use of your time.

Sure, as you start writing, you’ll need to do some research along the way.

But it helps significantly if you get some of that out of the way before you get started.

Here’s what you need to do.

For example, let’s say you are writing a post about the best ways to find a new job.

Start with a Google search.

Now you can create a list of the 28 best ways to do this.

Keep in mind, there will likely be some overlap among the pages.

You’re not the only one using curation strategies to build content.

But when it’s all said and done, you should still be able to come up with at least 10, 15, or maybe even 20 different ways on your list.

The key is planning this out ahead of time.

Open all these pages in a new tab.

Each time you see something you want to include in your article, add it to the outline.

Quickly add a few notes to develop further when you get to that point of your writing process.

For example, you may talk about a specific job board site on your list.

So a note could be “insert statistic about the job placement success rates of this site.”

Then you can do that research when you get there.

This strategy also makes it really easy if you’re aiming for a certain word count per post.

Let’s say you want all of your posts to be roughly 2,500 words.

If you determine you’ll have 15 different sections based on your list, now you can aim for each section to be about 165 words.

It keeps you on track for your goal.

That way you’re not frantically trying to come up with a 500 word conclusion or end up reaching your desired word count after your second subheading.

Repurpose content on different channels

For the most part, I’ve been discussing these curation strategies as they relate to blogging, but let me clear the air.

Your content doesn’t stop with blogs and articles.

One of my favorite ways to repurpose content is through YouTube videos.

I’ll give you an example based on my own blog and YouTube channel.

Here’s a post I wrote that was a big hit.

It’s got 137 comments (and counting) at the moment.

What did I do?

I repurposed some of the main points and made it into a YouTube tutorial.

Here’s the link to my YouTube video.

You don’t always have to use content from other people for your curation strategy.

Instead, take your existing content.

You can also use this technique on social media platforms.

Think about Twitter.

You have only so many characters to use.

Rather than racking your brain to come up with the most clever tweet on the planet, refer to your posts that already have thousands of words.

Take lines directly from that content, and post them on social media.

It will save you a ton of time, and you’ll be able to focus on other aspects of social media management, like responding to customer comments.

That’s a much more efficient use of your time.

You don’t need to be the first person to break a story

How many times have you seen a breaking news story, only to discover that it’s inaccurate?

I see it all the time, so I’m sure you have as well.

That’s because all these news outlets want to be first.

But first isn’t always best.

You don’t want to develop a reputation for being an unreliable source.

Furthermore, the first person to break a story may not have a chance to include lots of relevant information.

Let’s use a hypothetical example of a local car accident.

The first person to break the story may just say, “car accident on X street at Y time.”

But they don’t have any other details to report.

So if you wait a little bit, you can newsjack the story.

Wait for other sources to report new information.

Now you can write about other factors like the:

• number of cars involved
• types of cars in the crash
• names of any victims
• cause of the accident
• road conditions at the time
• quote from law enforcement

You can see where I’m going with this.

Being the first one to release new information doesn’t get you a gold star or sticker.

Instead, it limits your resources and the amount of information you can talk about.

Curate content from the comments section of your blog

You should always be checking the comments on your page.

Respond to these users.

It’s a great way to help with your search engine optimization, but it also keeps your readers actively engaged.

You may find some valuable information here as well.

People who comment on your page may be doing so to promote their own websites or blogs, but their points may be viable.

Take a look at what people have to say.

It might just be included in your next post.

Send a newsletter with a roundup of your weekly content

Again, you don’t always need to use someone else’s thoughts or ideas to generate new content.

Sometimes the best curation source is your own writing.

If you’ve got a weekly or monthly newsletter, it’s a great opportunity for you to promote content you’ve already published.

Moz does this with their monthly top 10 newsletters.

Instead of coming up with something new or unique for their monthly newsletter, they just repurpose the hard work they’ve already done.

You can use this strategy as well.

Write a weekly roundup post that summarizes the content you’ve already covered during the week.

Work smarter, not harder.

Don’t get me wrong.

I’m not saying to just copy and paste your existing content into a new article.

That’s a quick way to lose readers.

But you can just take something old and put a new spin on it.

Update new statistics.

Add personal stories or a learning experience you’ve come across since the content was originally posted.

This will make your life a lot easier, and you’ll spend less time trying to come up with new ideas.

Conclusion

Your time is valuable.

Instead of spending endless hours each day trying to come up with new content to write about, you can use curation strategies to be more efficient.

Remember, content curation doesn’t just apply to your blog.

You can also use these methods to help produce content on social media.

Research showed that finding and posting content on social media was the most time consuming aspect of this process.

It doesn’t have to be.

Use lots of visuals in your content.

Rather than creating original infographics, use ones you find on the Internet.

Make sure you give credit to the source.

Images make it easier for readers to process and retain information as well.

Don’t start writing from scratch.

Build an outline using ideas you find from a Google search.

This will make things easier for you to write naturally and stick to a plan.

All of the curation doesn’t need to come from someone else’s pages or ideas.

Repurpose your existing content.

Take a top performing blog post and turn it into a YouTube tutorial.

Use phrases from articles on your site as social media posts.

Think twice before you try to be the first person to break a news story.

Instead, wait until all the information gets released.

You’ll have more reliable sources and information to use.

Refer to the comments section of your blog if you’re looking for new ideas.

Use recent posts to come up with a weekly newsletter or round up blog.

If you follow these strategies, you’ll spend less time creating content and more time focusing on other areas of your business.

What kind of content curation strategies have helped you spend less time writing blogs each day?

from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Quicksprout/~3/4POOQOX-E2k/

source https://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/168033315624

6 innovative new search engines to keep an eye on

Plain and simple, Google isn’t the be-all and end-all of search engines, but it’s often easy to feel like it – perhaps nowhere more so than within the search industry itself.

And when you think of other noteworthy search engines besides Google, how many can you name? Bing? Yahoo? Maybe DuckDuckGo, if you’re privacy-conscious (or a bit of a tech hipster)?

Believe it or not, there are a number of other search engines out there, still crawling the web and making their mark. Since Google has so completely dominated the “all-purpose” search engine space, many of them have moved to occupy more niche areas, like academia, or sought to distinguish themselves in other ways.

As technology continues to have a hand in most everything that we do, it’s important to be aware of the other contenders in the industry. While they aren’t likely to revolutionize SEO overnight, they’re indicative of the trends and technology currently making their way through search, which could show up on a much larger scale later on.

If you’re feeling fed up with more “mainstream” search engines, you might even want to give some of them a go yourself.

Below is a break-down of six new search engines you should be keeping your eye on and why:

Oscobo

Oscobo is a privacy-focused search engine that made its debut in late 2015. You will see in the screenshot below that its landing page is almost identical to Google, showing results similar to what you would see on Google, but there is one major difference: it’s anonymous.

The other difference is that this particular engine targets those in the UK. Regardless, the engine is open to everyone and licenses its search index from Bing/Yahoo, so you’re getting the same great results without the snooping online.

It doesn’t log your IP address or drop any cookies, and generates revenue solely from PPC advertising, where the advertiser is paying for the intent behind someone typing a keyword.

Good Gopher

Good Gopher is a search engine for independent media and academia, created in 2015. This search engine boasts being “the world’s first privacy-protecting search engine that bans corporate propaganda and government disinformation.”

It has been dubbed “the Internet for human knowledge”, supposedly allowing more independent and honest sites to rise to the top of search results – though as the screenshot above will demonstrate, many of these are still highly politically partisan. However, its roster also includes independent activists, journalists, scientists, bloggers, media websites, nonprofits for human interests, and more.

Users can “like” certain sites they enjoy to help them move up in the SERPs, flag any sites that may have slipped through, and the engine will not track your searches or search behavior (a trend seems to be brewing here…).

Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is an academic research search engine, launched in November 2015. Adam Stetzer previously wrote about Semantic Scholar for Search Engine Watch, noting its use of artificial intelligence, data mining and natural language processing.

This engine has been designed to be a search service for journal articles, using a combination of machine learning and semantic analysis to offer relevant results. In this way, the engine is called a “smart” engine. It will highlight which papers are most important using data mining (hence the AI and machine learning aspect of the engine) as well as make connections for you about other related papers (hence the “semantic” portion of the engine).

While this is currently used primarily for those in the field of scientific research, the implications of how this engine, or type of engine, could grow are huge.

Yippy

There’s only one word to describe this search engine: obscure. If you’re looking for hard-to-find websites, use Yippy. Essentially, Yippy searches other search engines for you. It does the hard digging so you don’t have to.

If you’re looking for very explicit hobby sites, government information, or specific research for an academic paper, you’ll find it on Yippy. Once you’ve done your search, you’re given the option to “preview” the website before you go directly there. It’s a helpful feature for browsing.

One of the coolest things about this search site is the ability to even further refine your searches. For example, I searched “search engine watch.” When I performed my search, I was given the option to choose exactly what I was looking for. I even got sidetracked looking at all the other things related to that search query (shown on the left-hand side).

You’d be surprised all that you’d find with this engine. Below shows a screenshot of the engine in use:

Once again, notice that along the left side of the page you’re given recommendations for how to enhance your search! With this specificity, you can really dig deep and find exactly what you’re looking for – literally, exactly.

Omnity

Omnity is a research and semantic mapping search engine, launched circa 2016. The search engine aims to help you find related documents and therefore discover how different pieces are interconnected, specifically in the fields of science, medicine, engineering, law, and finance.

Although this search engine would be a dream for researchers, it can also help marketers who may have a client in one of these fields and are looking to create unique content. Note that in order to use the engine, you need to sign up to use the site on either the free or the paid enterprise plan.

Webopedia

Not sure what a specific technical term means? You could check out Google’s results, or you could go to Webopedia. If you’re not already familiar with technical terms, then you’ll want to use this search engine. Webopedia is set up exactly how you’d expect—in encyclopedia format.

For example, I searched the word “software.” Here’s what showed up in the results:

Unlike other sources, Webopedia breaks a term down so it makes sense to the average person who may not be technically literate.

The takeaway

In a world run by Google, we often forget there are other search engine options available. When you’re searching the vast black hole that is the Internet, you want accurate results, uncluttered data, and ways to reduce your search for specificity.

While Google is king of search and universally used, there is still plenty of room for search to evolve and become smarter and more specialized, so it’s worth keeping an eye out for the little guys who are finding ways to do it.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/11/29/6-innovative-new-search-engines-to-keep-an-eye-on/

source https://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/168020687389

How to amplify your content marketing with influencer-driven writing contests

The purpose of a content marketing campaign is almost never a boost in sales: People who want to consume and share information rarely intend to buy. Content marketing is mostly about influencing the influencer, i.e. those people who can impact your customers’ buying decisions.

Hence the most effective content marketing strategy is the one that involves influencers, especially influencer-driven content.

According to the ANA surveyfrom Linqia, 57 per cent of marketers report that influencer-driven content outperforms brand-created content:

• Influencers are people who have already earned your consumers’ trust, hence influencer-created content is more trustable than brand-created content
• Naturally, people prefer to engage with people rather than brands, hence influencer-created content triggers more audience engagement than brand-created content
• With the above in mind, it’s obvious that influencer-driven content results in higher ROI – and also thanks to the fact that it spreads easier using the power of participating influencers.

But how to engage influencers into creating content for your company blog? One of the most effective ways is to set up a writing contest: Have them contribute content to your blog for a chance to win a prize or a set of prizes.

Benefits of holding a content marketing contest

There so many marketing opportunities behind this idea that it will make your head spin:

• Free editorial content from notable names in your niche published on your blog will attract more clicks, grow your email list and diversify your rankings
• Social media shares that content will bring will build your brand awareness
• Partnering with other businesses in your industry for them to provide prizes for your winners will build important connections
• Involving niche influencers and popular media outlets to judge and announce your winners will bring more connections and exposure.

Furthermore, think about the customers you will be able to engage when announcing the contest in your newsletter and on your social media channels.

There are so many reasons to try this tactic that you may be wondering why you haven’t done it before. Well, it’s tough and time-consuming, but the steps below, together with some handy tools, will make it possible.

1. Brainstorm and research topic areas

Obviously, hosting a content marketing contest starts with what any content marketing tactic should start: Brainstorming and keyword research. There are mainly two approaches you can take here:

• Focus all entries around your brand: Invite your current customers to submit content that talks about your product. How are they using it? Which problem did it solve? This way you’ll enrich your blog with a variety of user-generated content that will bring many more users who will be encouraged to give it a try too. Of course, that will engage your userbase but it will limit your contest entries to your current customers.
• Focus all entries around your general niche. This can be timed out to upcoming holidays (e.g. “Submit your Christmas recipes”, etc.) In order to keep the topics relevant to what your product does, you may want to come with a set list of topics which is where keyword research comes into play.

When I plan any content marketing campaign, I always start with keyword clustering, which is something I’ve explained how to do in a previous article for SEW. Playing with keyword groups always gives me a nice perspective and helps me brainstorm.

Here’s an example from Serpstat breaking down a very cluttered topic into nice categories to pick one to go with:

Read more on how keyword clustering works on Serpstat and how to group your keyword lists.

2. Reach out to participants

Now that you know the topics you want to focus your content marketing contest around, it’s time that you reach out to prominent writers and bloggers in your industry who you think will want to participate.

If you are focusing on your product-related content, it’s as simple as reaching out to your customers. For general how-to content contest, you’ll need to create a list of influencers who:

1. Will want to participate
2. Are probably to busy to participate, but will agree to help you spread the word and collect more entries.

I use Buzzsumo to find active content writers in my niche. They have handy filters that allow me to find bloggers who have hosted or participated in similar ventures, or don’t mind contributing to others.

3. Get organized!

You’ll be dealing with lots of new contacts: hopefully influencers participating and coming on board to spread the word, press contacts, media partners, sponsors, etc. Unless you get organized, you’ll be lost and miss a lot of opportunities.

You can use your current customer management platform to organize all the new contacts and leads you’ll be building throughout the contest. Otherwise, give Hubspot’s CRM a try: it’s free, and it will give you all the required features to record, organize and follow up with all the new contacts you’ll be building along the way.

I also use Cyfe to keep everything relating to a current campaign I am running within one dashboard. You can use the dashboard to keep an eye on brand mentions, create quick links to other tools you should be keeping an eye on a daily basis, import your Gmail messages, and so much more.

4. Keep your content quality standards high

• You want your participants to disclaim any relationship or bias when they mention other sites
• You want your participants to stay away from mentioning your direct competitors
• You want your participants to only provide exclusive content and never publish it anywhere else
• You want your participants to adhere to particular quality guidelines (a certain length, format, using images, etc.)
• You want your participants to clearly understand the judging process (I recommend against using easy-to-game metrics like “The most shared article wins”. It’s much better to come up with something more complicated, for example, winners will be determined by a panel of unbiased judges based on certain criteria. However keep the process very transparent: Those judges should be publicly listed and their voting should be publicized too)
• You may want your participants to support a certain payment method (in case you offer a cash prize)

All of that should be listed in a formal agreement all the participants should review and sign to avoid any misunderstandings later. Try using KeepSolid Sign app which is currently free to make sure every participant is well-informed.

5. Collect in and present your entries

There are plenty of ways to easily collect entries for your contest. You can use Google Forms or set up advanced Contact Us Forms that will force entries to comply with your guidelines (e.g. set the required minimum word count, include extra mandatory fields like links to the author’s social media profiles and previous articles). Here are great WordPress plugins for that.

There’s also a tool that is specifically designed to collect entries for content marketing contests, called Easy Promos. They have additional features that may make your job easier like integrated voting features, photo and video uploads, etc.

With the platform, you can pick a winner via public voting, a jury or by random choice with certificate of validity.

When it comes to collecting and displaying entries and participants, you can go as creative as your imagination takes you. For example, Gleam allows you to create and embed blog widgets with the contest leaderboard (which naturally attracts more entries).

You can also collect your contest entries and turn them into a beautiful Slideshow using Haikudeck and/or a nice flipbook using Flipsnack. You can embed both to your blog when announcing winners.

6. Scale up your content promotion

Obviously, you want that content from your contestants to do well on social media because it’s your site that will generate additional traffic and exposure from those shares. I use Drumup for all my social media campaigns, because it makes it so easy to organize content that needs promotion.

Use Drumup Content Library feature to keep all the entries in one category to easily go back and see all of them. Furthermore, set up each article to go live throughout your social media channels several times in the future to reach more of your followers:

You also want that content to spread beyond your immediate social media circles! To achieve this, you can submit every entry to a tool called ViralContentBee [Disclaimer: This is a project I co-founded].

ViralContentBee allows you to tag each contributor in the “RT” field to encourage your participants to engage with every tweet:

I hope these tools will encourage you to give hosting an influencer-driven writing contest a try. Good luck!

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/11/28/how-to-amplify-your-content-marketing-with-influencer-driven-writing-contests/

source https://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/167985834374

Why Websites with Simple Designs Have Higher Conversion Rates

Typically, when companies look to improve their conversion rates, they focus on their CTA buttons or value propositions.

Businesses also like to A/B test certain elements of their pages to see which versions convert the best.

Don’t get me wrong: these are all valid ways to improve conversions.

But something that’s sometimes overlooked is the simplicity of the website.

Far too often I see websites try to jam too much information into a very small space.

The navigation is confusing, and it’s overwhelming for anyone viewing the site.

If this is starting to sound like the layout of your website, it could be the reason why your conversion rates are unsatisfactory.

Even if you don’t think your design is too cluttered, there’s always room for improvement.

A slight rise in conversions could mean a significant increase in your annual revenue.

Below, I outline some reasons why simplicity can optimize your conversion rates.

You’ll learn some proven strategies that focus website visitors on your CTA and any other element of your site you want to emphasize.

It’s time to clean up the clutter and simplify the layout of your pages.

Here’s why modest designs have the highest performing conversions.

They have faster loading times

If you have too much going on all over your website, it will take longer to load.

Don’t think it’s a big deal?

Think again.

When a web page takes longer than 4 seconds to load, the bounce rate increases by 100%.

Once your site hits the 8 second mark for loading time, the bounce rate jumps to 150%.

If you can speed up the load time, your bounce rate will improve as well.

Think about how much potential you’re missing out on over a couple of seconds.

Getting your page to load in less than 4 seconds should be your goal.

To accomplish this, you have to get rid of unnecessary elements on each page.

This is especially true for ecommerce websites.

Why?

Take a look at how speed effects shopping cart abandonment:

According to survey respondents, four of the top reasons for shopping cart abandonment were related to the speed of the website.

What elements can you remove to get your page to load faster?

• Complex images
• Extra features
• Added options
• Unnecessary text

Those are just a few places to start.

Visuals are definitely an important feature to have on your website. Just don’t go overboard with them.

Simplify the photos so the images are smaller and can load faster.

The CTA is clear and obvious 

When your pages have simple layouts, you have more control over what visitors see.

If the site is too cluttered, your CTA button may be obscured.

You don’t want people to be confused about whatever action you want them to take.

Some examples of CTAs:

• join an email subscription list
• download an ebook
• sign up for a service
• make a purchase
• enter personal information

Basically, whatever your CTA is, it needs to be the clearest item on the page.

Here’s a great example from Unbounce:

Notice how open and free of clutter the page is.

There are no complicated images or visuals to distract the user.

The text is minimal, and it explains exactly what their company does.

Now the user can focus on the CTA because the options are so limited.

The site visitor can:

• start a free trial
• explore the platform

Sure, there is a menu that visitors can navigate through as well. But based on the design, it’s clearly not made to be the primary focus.

Their menu at the top of the screen has the smallest text on the page.

If Unbounce tried to jam a detailed description of each section of their menu, the page would be too overwhelming.

So they did the right thing here by keeping it simple.

I use this same strategy on my own website as well.

When someone visits my page, their eyes are immediately drawn to my different CTA buttons.

There’s nothing else to distract them.

If you’re looking for help to find out what users see when they’re looking at your page, try using a service such as Crazy Egg.

You can analyze a heat map that shows what visitors’ eyes get drawn to when they’re viewing your website.

This is really helpful in terms of CTA placement when you’re simplifying your design.

It’s easier for visitors to skim through your page

People aren’t going to read all the content on your page.

It can be disappointing because I know what it’s like to put much hard work, time, and effort into every word on a website.

But that’s the reality.

Break up the content on your page to make it easier for visitors to scan it.

If you’re writing in long paragraphs without any breaks, it’s going to be difficult to get your message across to the audience.

Here are some tips to break up content and make it easier for visitors to scan through your page:

• use short sentences
• keep paragraphs between 1-3 lines
• insert visuals
• include numbered lists
• use bullet points

Take a look at how visuals are used to accomplish this goal:

The most common types of visuals to break up content are:

1. infographics
2. stock photos
3. videos
4. charts and data visualizations
5. GIFs and memes

Take this into consideration when you’re deciding what to include on your page.

Stick to the suggestions at the top of this list.

When you get down to GIFs, complex images like that can slow down your loading time.

Keep it simple with some relevant infographics and photos.

Navigation is simple

Simple navigation piggybacks on my last point.

Let’s go through an example to illustrate what I mean.

Here’s the homepage for Square:

It’s super clean and easy to read.

If a visitor wants to get started, they can simply select the size and type of their business.

There’s nothing confusing about this navigation because the options are narrow.

The CTA is clear: “Sign Up With Square.”

When someone visiting the website wants to learn more, their options are limited, so they are forced to scroll.

As you continue to navigate down the homepage, you learn more information about the product.

Look at how the screenshot above reflects the points I talked about earlier.

• No complex images
• Minimal text
• Short paragraphs
• Bullet points

From here, the user has no other option but to continue scrolling.

Now they have even more information about the product, and there’s a CTA button in this section as well.

There’s no messy sidebar or confusing menu.

It’s so easy for the visitor to navigate that it’s impossible for them to get lost.

This also impacts the page loading time.

Each time a user has to click on a new page to find more information, you risk having an issue with loading, which, as we saw earlier, will negatively impact your bounce rate.

But Square eliminates that problem but putting all the information on the homepage.

Once you get to the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a much larger menu on the footer.

Can you imagine if this was the first thing you saw at the very top of the page?

You’d be so overwhelmed that you’d have no idea where to get started.

There are nearly 40 options to choose from.

It’s fine at the footer because at this point the user already has an idea of what they’re looking for.

But I know you’ve been to websites that have menus like this at the top of their pages.

Bad idea.

If your website looks like this right now, you need to simplify it right away if you want to improve your conversion rates.

You’ll have fewer problems designing the website and fixing bugs

If you’ve been running a website for any length of time now, you know that bugs and minor issues are bound to happen.

It’s inevitable.

The key is being able to identify those problems and get them fixed right away.

Here are some of the most common types of problems with a website:

All of these can negatively impact your conversion rates.

If your site is too cluttered, it’s hard to keep the page code organized.

Anytime you need to make an update, it becomes a complicated process.

There’s just too much room for error.

Having a simple design will make it easier for you to code, build, update, and edit the site.

It’s less expensive for your web hosting services

How much does it cost you to host your website?

If your site is complex, you’ll need extra storage space.

Prices vary from platform to platform, but here’s an example from SiteGround’s web hosting plans:

There’s a 300% price increase between 10 GB of web space and 30 GB of storage space.

I realize the price points also come with other upgrade features, but from a storage standpoint, it’s going to be cheaper for you if the page design is simple.

You can put the money you’re saving towards another aspect of your business.

That money can help you from a marketing perspective to generate new leads and eventually increase conversions.

Visitors will think your site is more trustworthy

Have you ever been on a website and thought it didn’t seem legitimate?

I have.

It’s a weird feeling getting instantly worried about cyber security.

You don’t want your website visitors to get this feeling when they’re navigating your site.

Having too much clutter can make it seem like you’re trying to hide something, even if that’s not the case.

Having images and advertisements everywhere feels too salesy.

Even if you’re selling something, you don’t want to come off like you’re trying to force it down the user’s throat.

Earlier we discussed some reasons for shopping cart abandonment as it relates to the speed of your site.

This graph explains that trust also impacts conversions on your page:

For an ecommerce store, this could be a deadly mistake.

The customer wants your product or services, but they are hesitant to complete the purchase because they don’t think their credit card information is secure.

They’ll just go to another website where they feel safe and make the purchase from your competition instead.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to improve the conversion rates on your website, take a look at the design of your pages.

Those of you who have too much clutter overwhelm your visitors.

Go back to the drawing board.

Simplicity needs to be your goal.

Simple designs help your pages load faster, reducing your bounce rates.

Without distractions on the page, your CTA button will be clear and obvious.

Users won’t have to search for it to take the action you want them to take.

Modest designs also make it easier for people to skim through your content.

This is beneficial for you because you’ll have complete control over what their eyes see on the screen.

Limit their options, and make your points stand out.

A simple website design is also less expensive for you to host.

You can put that extra money towards another marketing campaign that improves conversions.

Simple websites also help you establish more trust with the visitors.

If your design is too complex or sketchy, you’ll have trouble getting conversions.

What elements of your website do you plan on eliminating to cut down the clutter?

from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Quicksprout/~3/K8nbkJNqxUc/

source https://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/167964228244

How to hire the right SEO agency

Organic search accounts for 51% of the traffic brands receive on average, and investment in SEO services is projected to rise to $79 billion annually by 2020. To capitalize on so much opportunity, brands often partner with an SEO agency to add firepower to their existing marketing efforts.

However, with so many agencies all promising so much, how can brands ensure they select the right SEO company?

A significant number of brands choose to outsource elements of their SEO program to an agency partner. This can provide access to valuable skills and insights that the company does not possess internally, so it can prove to be a very sound long-term investment.

However, it can also be difficult to get a clear view on which agencies can deliver on the brand’s business objectives through organic search.

SEO is open to a certain amount of interpretation; Google is infamously opaque when it comes to the inner workings of its algorithms, so we often rely on correlative studies to draw our conclusions about what works and what doesn’t.

That room for interpretation can be exploited, making it hard to distinguish between sophisticated SEOs and false prophets.

In a rare and newsworthy move earlier this year, Google acknowledged this challenge and tried to address it in the video below.

The video, from Google’s Webmaster team, provides practical advice to distinguish between what they call “good SEOs and bad SEOs”.

Google suggests giving an SEO expert at least four months to make an impact, so it’s worth making sure you feel confident in your choice.

The tips below, drawn from experience working at agencies and helping brands to find the right agency partner, will help companies to arrive at an informed decision.

It is important to strike the right balance here; an effective client-agency partnership requires input from both sides. Before setting out a formal pitch process, it is important to establish what these requirements will be and that your company is in a position to meet them.

Research

It can be quite daunting to set out on the search for a new SEO company. Often, a company hires an agency to avail of advanced SEO knowledge – exactly the quantity that would help with the agency search.

Brands are often faced with a choice of a lot of very similar-looking agencies, all promising that they have “reinvented” the agency model or that they have the “only approach that works”.

It is an unfortunate reality that some agencies talk a good game without being able to back it up. Hiring the wrong SEO agency can be very costly and it takes time to recognize the shortcomings in their strategies, so it’s worth putting the work in up front to define and assess the candidates.

Before you start looking for an agency, decide on what exactly it is that your company wants to achieve through SEO. This will help you draw up an initial list of companies (many are specialists in just a few fields), and it will also be beneficial when you communicate with the agency teams.

SEO could help you increase brand awareness, improve customer retention, or simply drive more revenue. Defining what these goals are will help you and the prospective partner agencies to work on the right strategy.

Once you have this clear in your mind, the search should begin.

Image via Pixabay

Ironically, perhaps the worst way you can start is by searching [seo agency] on Google.

The agencies that show up in top positions may well be demonstrating their ability to rank for an important keyword, but many of the best agencies apply these efforts to help their clients rank rather than their own business.

As such, anything you find from this search will be inconclusive. The same goes for the paid search results for [seo agency]; ranking via PPC shows that they can use AdWords, but it doesn’t demonstrate anything other than their desire to sell SEO services to you.

We want an opinion we can trust, which can be hard when it seems like everyone has a vested interest in selling something.

You should assess which kind of agency you want to work with based on factors including:

• Your budget: Agencies can charge from hundreds of dollars a month up to six-figure monthly retainers for complex, international engagements.
• The services you require: This will typically include technical SEO, SEO strategy, content production, link building, and many other services for larger brands.
• Agency culture: Does their culture align with your brand’s values?
• Expertise: This applies both to SEO as a discipline and to your specific business vertical.
• Agency size: Some brands prefer a smaller agency, while others want to work with large agency brands. Both come with their own lists of pros and cons.
• Reputation: Ask colleagues and any SEO industry contacts to recommend agencies based on the requirements you have selected above.

In essence, if you can cut through all the self-promotional noise and get an opinion from an industry insider that you respect, that can be a great way to start drawing up your list of agencies to contact.

Having a very targeted view of your SEO goals and an idea of the kind of agency you want to work with will help refine and expedite this process significantly.

The pitch process

It is normally helpful to have a discovery call with each agency on your initial list to learn a bit more about their company and culture. From here, you can decide which companies you would like to invite to pitch for your business.

Take all of your decision criteria and create a scoring sheet that each stakeholder at the business can fill in. This helps to remove some of the biases that cloud judgement and establishes a level playing field. Running a pitch process can feel like herding cats at times, so you should ensure there are concrete reference points and milestones along the way to keep all parties organized.

Image via Pixabay

That applies internally and externally; everyone at your business should be aware of the expectations from the process, but the agency should also know how long the entire process will last and what will be needed from them.

Pitching for new business requires a lot of input from an agency team, so it is best to be transparent about things so they can plan accordingly. This can apply to letting them know how many other agencies are in the running, providing detail on what is required at each stage of the pitch, and the dates on which you will announce your decision.

There are a few important points to keep in mind throughout the pitch as you try and decide which agency would make the best business partner.

Questions to ask:

• Can you talk me through the first 10 days of a typical engagement with a new client?
• How would you define a ‘good’ backlink for our business?
• Do you think Google’s ranking algorithms weight factors differently depending on the nature of the query?
• How do you ensure that your technical recommendations are implemented, and how do you measure their impact?
• Can we meet our account team?
• Do you outsource any of your client work to freelancers?
• How much time will be spent on the account each month?
• Have you ever had to push back on a client? How did you go about doing this?
• What role do you think SEO plays in wider business strategy?
• If we sign up with you, how long will it be until we see results?
• What if things don’t work out between our companies? How would you approach that situation?
• How much resource will be required from our side to make this partnership a success?

In the answers to these questions, it is important that the agency is honest – even if that means telling you something you perhaps didn’t want to hear. Client-agency relationships can involve constructive disagreements at times, which is fine if the agency is acting in your best interests.

Every agency will have had difficult conversations with clients; the good ones will have come out of these with their reputations enhanced in the long term. Bad agencies end things on less than civil terms and blame the client for any failures.

You should also note their ability to think on their feet and approach challenges with an open mind.

Potential red flags:

• Promises of dramatic short-term results. There are ‘quick wins‘ in SEO, but progress for competitive industries takes time. Take it from Google: a good SEO needs at least 4 months of activity to deliver a sustainable impact.
• Watch out for agencies that plan to outsource a lot of work to transient freelance networks. If they do plan to do this, be sure to get full transparency on who will be handling your company’s sensitive data.
• An inflexible approach to disagreements, either in your discussion or in anecdotes from past client engagements.
• References to ‘buying backlinks’ or any euphemistic representation thereof should be automatic grounds for disqualification.
• Agencies that claim they can start right away. If you are asking for a lot of services, an agency can only start immediately if they are really struggling for business or if they are planning to under-deliver. It will typically take a few weeks, at least, to get an agency team in place for a medium- or large-scale project.

Agency selection

By the end of a rigorous pitch process, there will hopefully be a unanimous decision on the right agency. There are quite a lot of good SEO agencies out there, which is why it is so essential to begin with a clear idea of what you are looking for. Combined with a standardized approach to agency evaluation, this will create a clear framework for the ultimate selection.

When certain agencies have been ruled out, let them know as soon as you can. Most agencies put a lot of time and effort into their proposals and the wait for feedback can be excruciating. Even if it’s bad news, they’d rather know than wait around longer for an answer.

As for the winning agency, set up an initial kick-off meeting with them to introduce all the key individuals who will make the project a success!

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/11/27/how-to-hire-the-right-seo-agency/

source https://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/167950748599