Mobile SEO: The 3 areas that really matter for SEO performance

With the upcoming launch of Google’s mobile-first index, digital marketers are preparing for a proliferation of “micro-moments”.

There has been a lot of noise around this seemingly seismic shift, but this trend was set in motion years ago and we have plenty of data to hand on what makes or breaks a mobile SEO campaign.

Undoubtedly, mobile SEO is distinct from its desktop counterpart in significant – sometimes very subtle – ways. As mobile usage continues to grow, user behaviors and expectations change too. Simply resizing the desktop site for a smaller screen won’t do.

Moreover, the evidence that the desktop and mobile algorithms must function based on different factors is right in front of us.

We can see from these screenshots of mobile results (above) and desktop results (below) for the query [credit card], taken from a collocated laptop and smartphone, that there are many differences across the two devices:

Looking at this from the cold austerity of a rank tracking dashboard might not highlight just how different these experiences are. The order of the listings is very similar across devices, but they way a user experiences and interacts with them will vary.

This example is purposefully taken from a finance search query, less prone to location-based variations that we would see for a term like [coffee shop near me]. And yet, the mobile results page contains enough embellishments to distinguish it from the desktop version.

Rather than try to break down Google’s algorithms into the comforting-but-illusory format of a list of ranking factors, we should focus our efforts on what actually helps websites get more mobile traffic.

Based on experience of what a successful mobile SEO campaign entails in 2017, we can distil this into three categories: Context; Speed and Accessibility; and User Engagement Signals.

Within this article, we will first assess the reasons that mobile SEO stands apart, before delving into some practical tips in each category that can help all marketers drive improved performance via organic search.

1. Context

Smartphones contain an array of sensors that allow them to understand our environment. Everything from an accelerometer to a magnetometer to a proximity sensor is contained within the average mobile device nowadays.

Mobile phones create a huge amount of data and smartphone companies aren’t afraid to capture and use it. We shouldn’t be surprised; even our vacuum cleaners are mapping out our homes, hoovering up data along with dust.

The below is a very much redacted list of factors Google uses to shape mobile search results (taken from a patent approved way back in 2013):

• Current time,
• Current date,
• Current day of the week,
• Current month,
• Current season,
• A current, future, and/or past weather forecast at or near a location of a previous event in which a user and/or a user’s friends participated,
• Information on user’s calendar, such as information regarding events or statuses of a user or a user’s friends,
• Information accessible via a user’s social networking account,
• Noise level or any recognizable sounds detected by the mobile platform and/or a monitoring device,
• Health statistics or characterizations of a user’s current health

Even without reviewing the unabridged Ulysses-length list, we can get a clear sense of what’s going on here. Tech companies know a lot more about us than ever before, and they get a lot of this information from our phones.

Changes to how Google designates the centroid for a search have made a difference, too. The user’s phone now acts as the centroid, fundamentally shifting the notion of local search to a hyper-personalized level.

This applies to the local listings within Google Maps, but can also affect the content shown in ‘traditional’ SEO listings.

Combined with advances in semantic search, it is now essential for marketers to understand a user’s context if we are to satisfy their search query.

In spite of the absence of clear rules to follow across the board, there are still some practical ways that we can use context to improve SEO performance.

• Split out search volume by device type. This will help you understand which queries tend to occur predominantly on either mobile or desktop. Knowing this will allow you to create content that caters for the preferred user experience. Desktop content is typically one-third longer than mobile content, for example.

• Download a user agent switcher to view your content as it looks on a variety of different devices. You can get the extension for Chrome here, or for Firefox here. If you need to get really specific about the phone dimensions or location, try Mobile Phone Emulator.

• Create content that responds to user needs, rather than just matching their search query. That may mean using image-heavy content, for example, rather than sticking with strictly text-based pages. Tracking universal search results will allow you to pinpoint these queries.

• Track ranking performance across devices, territories, and media formats. This will give a truer picture of how frequently your domain is showing up in search results. You can achieve this through Google’s Search Console and Data Studio, combined with your rank tracking software.

2. Speed & Accessibility

SEO isn’t just about having the most relevant, thorough answer anymore. You also need to be the quickest site to provide it, or run the risk that users will simply go elsewhere.

Source: Google

This is more important than ever, with Google’s quick answers pulling responses into the search results pages directly, and its Android Instant Apps project allowing consumers to use an app without installing it.

Google has given significant backing to its Accelerated Mobile Pages initiative too, and the evidence so far suggests it is paying off. AMP pages were introduced in early 2016 and run on a stripped-back version of HTML that very significantly decreases page load times. They also use a lot less data to load, so the benefits for users on the go are plentiful. A recent survey corroborated this, with over 60% of respondents saying that they would seek out AMP results due to the faster, lighter experience they provide.

AMP pages were initially seen as a boon for publishers (about 70% of Google News stories are AMP-enabled now), but retailers like eBay have started to adopt this standard too. In fact, publishers have had challenges in monetizing these light-touch formats, while ecommerce sites look likely to be the long-term beneficiaries. With AdWords and AdSense support for AMP continuing to increase, there is really no option other than to get on board with AMP if you want to maximize your content’s mobile opportunity.

Add in Facebook’s Instant Articles or Twitter Moments and the picture is clear: speed is of the essence.

This is not just a matter of removing assets to strip down individual pages, however. Websites are more than just the sum of their parts, so we need to ensure that our site structure is sound and, of course, that our content is accessible by Google, Facebook, Apple, et al.

• Mercifully, Google has upgraded the Mobile Site Testing Tool, which now generates reports with recommendations you can send to your development team.

• Remove any interstitial pages that stand between a user and access to the page they want to see. Google’s position on this has grown more severe over time; from mildly humorous posts through to an algorithmic penalty to dissuade sites from using interstitials in early 2017.

• Android Instant Apps is a clear indication of the direction the industry is going in. People don’t want to install and load separate apps; this initiative allows them to enjoy the benefits of apps without the drawbacks they typically bring. It is open to all developers now, so it is worth getting started if you haven’t done so already.

• The AMP Project website contains a host of useful tutorials that will get developers up to speed in no time. There are also plug-ins available for content management systems like WordPress, so you don’t even necessarily need to know AMP code in order to use it.

• Use AMP for AdWords landing pages. Google provides plenty of handy advice on this and it is essential to adopt this practice early.

• Google lists its mobile SEO best practices, in a rare example of olive branch extension to organic search marketers. However, these are quite basic tips that will get your site indexed. They won’t make a huge difference is such a competitive market.

• Consider what you are willing to sacrifice in the name of faster loading times. AMP HTML provides a great solution, but there is a further temptation to minimize JavaScript to improve loading times further. This can come at the cost of user experience, so be sure to weigh up the pros and cons of removing each element before you do so.

• Don’t just think of accessibility in technical terms. Your content needs to be accessible for the right audience once it loads; tools like Readable.io can help ensure that you are writing with an appropriate level of complexity.

3. User engagement signals

The shift to mobile devices has caused Google to change the methodology behind how it indexes and ranks websites. This has proven to be a much more complex task than many expected. As a result, Google has delayed the launch of the mobile-first index and is now prepared to launch on a website-by-website basis.

Google’s Gary Ilyes said of the mobile-first index at SMX West earlier this year:

“Mobile sites don’t have a lot of the metadata that desktop sites have. We’re aiming for a quality-neutral launch. We don’t want users to experience a loss in quality of search results. We need to replace the signals that are missing in the mobile web.”

This is a significant statement for SEO practitioners. Google wants a quality-neutral launch, but it has to do so by replacing some signals it has traditionally used to rank results. No wonder the mobile-first index is taking some time to get right.

Aside from the reduction in the quantity of metadata that mobile sites have versus desktop sites, we also need to bear in mind that links become less important on mobile. People share content via messaging apps much more frequently, which poses a problem for a search engine that has typically relied on links to navigate the web.

Other reinforcement signals for Google’s algorithms are harder to pin down in the mobile age too. One of Google’s most celebrated engineers, Jeff Dean, said in an interview with Fortune last year:

“If a user looks at a search result and likes it or doesn’t like it, that’s not that obvious.”

The advent of RankBrain in late 2015 was driven by a desire to do exactly this; to understand whether a user is satisfied with search results or not. Google now assesses whether a user stays on a website (known as a ‘long click’) or if they return to the search results page to find a more suitable result (a ‘short click’). A high click-through rate alone won’t suffice – we need to focus on what users do once they’ve landed on the site.

A SearchMetrics study last year summed this up quite nicely:

“User experience factors that improve mobile sites are related to better SEO rankings; external links continue to decline in importance.”

Links do still matter on mobile, of course; just not to the same extent. That’s a good thing – links can be manipulated (even bought), but it’s harder to falsify user engagement factors over a long period of time.

This leads us to a few valuable points to bear in mind when optimizing for user satisfaction:

• Data analysis should be the cornerstone of your SEO efforts. Assess how customers access your site, what they do when they get there, and where the primary exit points are. This should all be built into your analytics dashboard to give you real-time access to invaluable user information. You can be pretty sure that Google is utilizing similar metrics to see if your site satisfies a user’s request.

• Look at how your landing pages have performed since the launch of RankBrain to see if there are any correlations between user engagement metrics (such as time on page, bounce rate, and so on) and your SEO rankings. Often, you will notice that your best performing pages from a UX perspective have seen a  notable SEO boost too.

• Links still matter. We should just think of them differently. Consider whether the links you attract will actually drive qualified traffic to your site, rather than just adding to antiquated metrics like external link volume.

• Encompass UX and CRO within your SEO campaigns. Without improving your site experience, any SEO rankings improvements you achieve may lack staying power.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/08/04/mobile-seo-the-3-areas-that-really-matter-for-seo-performance/

source https://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/163811585949

Google’s constantly evolving search experience – and how it changes the game for local SEO

The importance of local SEO cannot be understated when you consider the dominance of mobile as a device and the sky-high user expectations of being shown the most relevant results.

Google clearly recognizes this, and is continually investing in improving their search experience.

There are algorithm updates like Possum (rolled out in September 2016) that are focused on improving the quality and relevancy of search results for queries that contain local intent. But it’s not just changes to the 3-pack and Local Finder (i.e. Google Maps results) – Google has been striding out into local search, taking some interesting steps to hook people into its ecosystem and capture more data points.

For example, the search giant has begun moving into sectors such as recruitment, with the launch of Jobs by Google, as well as the beauty sector by allowing users to book spas and beauty salon appointments direct via local listings.

And then you also need to consider the role of personal assistants, or chatbots, and how this will influence the future of the search landscape. So let’s explore these recent local developments in a bit more detail, using examples from the fields of recruitment and the beauty sector.

How has local search changed?

Before we look at local changes in detail, it’s important to understand how Google tracks your location:

• The IP location of your device
• Location specified in your Gmail account
• Your browsing history, e.g. searches for news or weather in your local area
• Use of a geo-modifier in your search query e.g. “car dealers in Watford”

It is important that Google can identify your location accurately so it needs a variety of different sources to calculate this. Accuracy is essential to confidently serve results relevant to your locality. There may also be other sources considered by Google but we can assume that your location can be quite accurately calculated using this information alone.

In fact, if you have an Android device with your location tracking set, you can explore your timeline of where you have visited and when – which can be creepy or interesting, depending on your outlook!

Google My Business and real time chat

Google has experimented a lot with its local product and, after playing with it for more than 10 years, it appears it is finally taking this product to the next level. Let’s recap those key changes now.

Timeline

2004: Google Local launched

2005: Launch of Google Maps

2010: Google Places Launches

2012: Google+ local replaces Google Places

2014: Google+ local merged into Google My Business

2015: Local packs update – decreased the number of local results in SERPS

August 2016: Analytics for business launched

September 2016: Features to allow multiple users to manage listings

November 2016: Bulk editing enabled for businesses with more than 10 listings

December 2016: Insights for photos and ability to add more information about the facilities such as Wi-Fi and wheelchair access

April 2017: More insights around footfall and popular times

May 2017: Introduced Highlights Icons and price labels

June 2017: Google Posts goes live enabling local businesses to promote their offers directly in search results. Small businesses can also set up a mobile-optimized website through GMB.

July 2017: A pilot program was launched in 2016 to enable customers to message businesses using SMS and Allo. This is now out of beta and being rolled out in a few countries.

Looking at the development timeline, you will notice a flurry of activity in the last few months. This reveals the priority level of local search right now, Google is launching Allo in July 2017, which allows the functionality to chat with customers via Google My Business.

This is an interesting move because, on one hand, it creates opportunities for businesses to answer queries in real-time but, on the other hand, it also hooks people into using Google’s Personal Assistant.

Google has been working on a number of messaging apps including Duo Hangouts, which somewhat highlights the need to streamline and simplify its offering of the messaging apps to avoid fragmenting their user base across many different apps.

But Allo has the potential to be a particularly powerful and valuable feature, as it’s supporting a direct interaction between a searcher and a business. So I’m confident that this Google My Business feature is very likely here to stay, in some form or another.

Jobs by Google

Over the years, Google has introduced a number of widgets in its search results pages for various industries, including Travel and Finance. And, in May 2017, Google I/O conference Sundar Pichai introduced Google for Jobs:

You can read more in this Google webmasters blog post but, in a nutshell, Google for Jobs will pull listings from sites like LinkedIn, Monster, Glassdoor, Facebook, and CareerBuilder and company’s own websites directly into the SERPs.

Clearly, this has potential to disrupt the £35.1 billion industry in the UK, having a serious impact on the likes of Indeed and other job portals. By contrast, networks like LinkedIn may be less likely to see an immediate impact because these platforms offer value beyond just job searches.

Taking a closer look at jobs sector, there is a lot of search volume for queries with geo-modifiers e.g. “jobs in London” has a UK average monthly search volume of 33,100. Even in the absence of geo-modified queries, recruitment related keywords are likely to return local results which is quite similar to food and restaurant industry. See this example below:

Note: Searched from Watford

In fact, whether you add a geo-modifier to your queries or not, Google’s focus is on returning local listings. So I envisage the Google Jobs interface will be quite similar to results in the travel sector but, for now, you can also see how these results are currently being surfaced in Allo:

Aside from serving results local to you, Google Jobs also features valuable filtering based on user needs, such as commute time. Google’s Jobs search API has the ability to measure distance and allow candidates to filter their job search based how long it’ll take you to get to and from work. This is pretty nifty because commute time is such an influential factor when searching for new roles.

To further support Google Jobs, it’s probably no surprise to hear that Google now have specific job posting schema. Obviously, those recruitment sites that adopt this schema effectively should expect to benefit from this move by the search giant into their territory.

However, it appears not many recruiters are prepared yet, with very few recruitment sites having implemented the job schema – and it is these sites that are then most at risk at losing market share due to Google Jobs.

And, flying in the face of all this, it’s interesting that Monster in the USA have created their own job search engine to rival Google. So it’s certainly an interesting time to be in recruitment!

Google Reserve: Spa and beauty salon appointments

Another interesting development in local search is that Google will now allow you to book spa and salon appointments with search and maps, via Google Reserve. This is currently being tested in the US and we are not sure when this might be rolled out in the UK and other markets. But it clearly presents a threat to the likes of booking sites like Treatwell and Groupon.

Google will be able to provide insights on footfall and how many people have engaged with the photos of your store or business. This means Google will be able to have a 360 degree view on a customer journey, creating an ecosystem of touch points which allow Google to predict your actions, negating the need for you to search on your phone at all.

This is akin to having a personal assistant who not only helps you to book an appointment but also finds the best local salon, on your payday every month. This is the ultimate experience Google is trying to create – a seamless experience that reduces the need to search, once you are in the Google ecosystem – and these recent updates are a step into making this a reality.

Move with the times

Considering the high degree of personalization when searching, businesses should act quickly and take advantage of recent developments such as Google Jobs and Google Reserve.

These changes can be capitalized on, but that’s dependent on sites taking active steps such as adopting relevant schema, and so those that fail to act may get left behind.

Ultimately, regardless of how search interface continues to develop over time, search engines will always be looking for an authentic source of information. So it’s even more important for marketers, SEOs, developers and user experience experts to ensure we are creating trustworthy, authentic and accessible sources to fuel search engines and help to deliver the best quality results for humans.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/08/03/googles-constantly-evolving-search-experience-and-how-it-changes-the-game-for-local-seo/

source https://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/163770661184

Think You Got Hit by the Google Fred Update? Here Is What to Do

Arguably, the biggest Google algorithm shakeup of 2017 occurred on March 8.

Of all things, it was called…Fred.

The sheer randomness of the name and the massive drop in traffic that many sites experienced have left a lot of marketers scratching their heads.

What happened, who was affected and why?

More importantly, what steps do you need to take if your traffic took a plunge?

In this post, I’m going to cover all the details of the update, explain how to recover from its negative consequences, and talk about what you need to do to avoid future penalties.

Why was it called Fred?

Let’s start from the top.

The first thing you’re probably wondering about is how this update got its name.

We’re used to cute, cuddly animal names such as Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird, so Fred seems a little bizarre.

Well, here’s a screenshot of some Twitter dialogue between Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land and Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, Gary Illyes:

As you can see, Illyes jokingly dubbed this update “Fred,” and it stuck.

So, there you go.

What happened?

This is definitely one of the more humorous names for an update, but not everyone is laughing.

Many sites took a major hit.

Some even saw their traffic decline by as much as 90%! That’s crazy!

Here’s the deal.

Google is secretive as usual, but according to research from multiple experts, the Fred update primarily targeted websites guilty of three types of offenses:

• excessive ads/affiliate links
• generic content offering little to no value
• low-quality backlinks

Here are a couple of quotes from experts that shed a bit more light on things.

Barry Schwartz:

About 95 percent of the sites that got hit were ones with content that looks to be written for ranking purposes and then has ads and/or affiliate links sprinkled through the article…they seem to have content on a vast array of topics that are not adding all that much value above what other sites in the industry have already written.

Sreelal G. Pillai of TechWyse:

Affected sites also have low-quality backlinks in common – meaning that the sites that link back to them all have low domain authority.

That’s the gist of it.

And I can’t say I’m surprised.

We already know Google’s mission is to provide its users with high-quality content.

If it’s clear a website is attempting to use manipulative techniques, create thin content and/or load it up with excessive ads/affiliate links, I can see why it would be penalized.

When it comes to generalist content—content written on numerous topics with little, if any, value—Google has been combating it for years.

Rehashing content and trying to cover a wide range of subjects, without any specialization, isn’t going to do you any favors with Google.

The same goes for low-quality backlinks.

I’ve written in-depth about the importance of a strong link profile, where your site receives inbound links from credible, authoritative and relevant websites.

2017 research found that “high-quality backlinks account for 30% of your overall page score in Google.”

It’s not a surprise the Fred update went down the way it did.

It’s basically Google’s way of maintaining its quality standards.

I was affected. What should I do?

There are two specific actions I suggest you take right away.

The first is to assess your website in terms of ads and/or affiliate links.

If you were affected, there’s a good chance you’ve gone overboard on advertising.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s totally fine to incorporate ads on your site and sprinkle in a few affiliate links here and there.

Some top brands do it.

But it’s pretty obvious when it’s excessive.

Here’s an example of Mashable using ads the right way:

Notice there’s just a single ad in the bottom left-hand corner.

It’s noticeable but doesn’t dominate the content in an obnoxious way, blending in with the rest of the page.

In other words, it doesn’t interfere with the user experience.

Here’s another example from Gadget Review:

Again, the ad is plainly visible, but it doesn’t dominate the rest of the content.

As for affiliate links, you may want to delete those that are:

• not necessary (e.g., not bringing any money),
• detracting from your content or
• likely to be deemed as spammy in any way.

The second thing you’ll want to do is check your link profile.

You can use several different tools for this.

One of my favorites is SEMrush.

The only issue is that the free, basic version is a little limited for analyzing backlinks.

However, the paid version offers all the data you could possibly need.

There’s also Moz’s Open Site Explorer.

It will provide you with some pretty solid information so you can see who’s linking to your site and tell if there are any problems.

Here’s what you do.

First type in your URL:

Click on “Search:”

Look for the “Inbound Links” section.

Click on “all pages” under “Link Source:”

Then click on “only external:”

This ensures you’re only seeing inbound links from external sites as opposed to internal links coming from within your site.

Here are some of the results I got:

These all look good.

Social Media Examiner, Backlinko, The Content Marketing Institute and Buffer are all high-quality sites relevant to Quick Sprout.

But if I see anything questionable (e.g., low-quality and/or irrelevant sites), I would want to investigate further.

Let’s say you’ve spotted less-than-ideal links.

What do you do?

Disavowing problem links

If you find you’ve got links from questionable sites, your best bet is to disavow them.

This is somewhat of an involved process if you’ve never done it before, so I can’t adequately cover it here.

However, this post from NeilPatel.com will fill you in on the details and explain how to use Google’s disavow tool correctly.

Your goal is to get rid of any problem links by disavowing them.

In turn, this should improve your link profile and should help you recover.

What you need to know moving forward

So we’ve established that any backlash from the Fred update is most likely due to one or more of the following:

• excessive ads/affiliate links
• generic content that offers little to no value
• low-quality backlinks pointing to your site

You’ll definitely want to avoid these transgressions moving forward.

Cutting back on ads and affiliate links is pretty easy. You just have to make some minor adjustments to your existing content.

And, of course, be conscious of how many affiliate links you include in your future content.

I would suggest including a maximum of three affiliate links per post.

However, you may want to go even lower just to be safe.

When it comes to generic content, that’s not always an easy fix.

The only remedy is to put in the time and energy to produce epic content.

This usually entails long-form content because it tends to be more in-depth than your run of the mill 500-word post.

And, of course, there’s an undeniable correlation between a higher word count and higher rankings:

This is not to say that simply writing longer content is a magic bullet, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

I also recommend sticking to the subject matter you genuinely know and are passionate about.

You may need to “niche down” to ensure you’re not creating generalist content people can find anywhere.

But as long as it offers real value, has an original angle and isn’t piggybacking off a million other articles, you should be in pretty good shape.

As for low-quality backlinks, the best thing you can do is get in the habit of routinely checking your website’s link profile.

This will alert you to any unsavory sites linking to you.

And once you learn how to disavow links, you can quickly remedy the problem and maintain a rock-solid link profile.

Conclusion

Google is on an endless quest to improve the quality of its SERPs.

And that’s fine with me.

I like to know that, when I’m doing research or shopping for a product, the sites I land on are the cream of the crop.

I don’t want spammy, generic, low value content that’s only going to waste my time and prolong my search.

The Fred update is just another example of how Google is constantly fine-tuning its algorithm and supplying its users with great content.

That’s how it maintains its position at the top of the ladder.

If your site was adversely affected, it’s probably a sign you’re not abiding by Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and changes need to be made.

By following the steps I mentioned above, you should be able to get things back on track and work your way back up the SERPs.

It may take a little time, but you’ll get there.

Just make sure you’re following best practices from this point on to prevent additional penalties down the line.

Did you experience any setbacks from the Fred update?

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

source https://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/163752078959

7 more tips to improve your content creation

The rise of content marketing has made content creation a key focus for businesses, and the issue of how to improve their content and its performance is at the forefront of many marketers’ minds.

At the Summit on Content Marketing earlier this summer, I gave a presentation on “15 ways to improve your content writing”. In Part 1 of this article, we covered eight of those tips, including creative brainstorming, grabbing the reader’s attention, content length, layout and formatting.

Here are seven more ways that you can improve your content creation and see better performance from your content marketing.

Pick the best headline

A headline is probably the first thing that someone notices about your content. Whether people discover your content in search results, social media, or a homepage,  a title contributes to their decision to click on the link.

What are the elements of a great title?

• Clarity: Your headline should be clear and descriptive. Any confusion can only keep the readers away from it.
• Brevity: A headline doesn’t have to be long to offer the right context. From an SEO perspective, a title doesn’t have to be more than 60 characters. Thus, you only have up to 60 characters to offer the right preview to your topic. That’s even half the limit to what Twitter allows you!
• Relevance: Not everyone is aiming for relevance when crafting a title and this may be part of an attempt to entice people to click on a post. “Clickbait” techniques are usually not helpful in a long term basis, especially if your actual content has nothing to do with the headline. Be as relevant as possible.
• Emotional appeal: How does emotional appeal affect the click rate on a headline? We are all human beings and this makes us susceptible to powerful language that offers an emotional appeal.

You don’t have to create an exaggerated headline to convey the right emotional element, but you can still think of how words can facilitate a reader’s decision towards your content.

My favorite tool to analyze the possible performance of different headlines is CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer. This is a free tool that grades your headlines, while it also offers useful tips on how to improve them.

Its analysis of word balance and the use of words gives the user insights into the science of an effective headline, and it has been a useful ally for me when thinking of my next topic.

Aim for simplicity

It’s good to aim for simplicity in your content writing, as this will make your content accessible to a wider audience and improve its ease of readability and parsing. There’s no need to use overly complicated words to make a point.

Here are some examples on how to simplify your writing:

in order to –> to

ways by which –> which

despite the fact –> although

leverage –> use

Proper spelling and grammar, of course, are still important in any type of content.

Here are some quick tips to keep in mind:

Avoid passive voice

Your copy gets stronger when focusing on the subject. Passive voice can create a distance between your message and the readers, while an active voice is direct and clear. It can engage and motivate your readers, making your copy interesting and stronger.

Avoid using unnecessary adverbs

Adverbs don’t always contribute to the clarity of your content. It’s better to use them only when they make sense. Think of removing the ones you’ve already used, and test whether your copy can still stand out without them.

Write what comes naturally

There’s no need to shoehorn in buzzwords to impress your audience. It’s common in marketing content to think that jargon enhances your message, but in fact, it only makes your content seem trite and predictable. Think like your readers, and create content that they’ll enjoy reading.

Be consistent with verb tenses 

Longer sentences can end up confusing your readers. There are also more chances to mess up the tenses that you’re using. Pay attention to each sentence, and you’ll find the consistency of the tenses that will improve your copy.

Don’t ignore SEO

Search traffic can be a powerful ally in your bid to increase your audience through content writing. While it might seem like a lot of extra work to think about SEO as you’re creating content, it actually fits fairly naturally into the content creation process.

Here are some things to bear in mind:

Title

The title helps search engines understand what your content is about. There needs to be a combination of relevance and brevity. It has to be useful, both for readers, but also for search crawlers.

Keywords

Keywords can be very useful as part of your text, provided that they are added naturally in the right context. There’s no need to overuse a keyword simply to make sure that a crawler discovers your topic (an old tactic known as ‘keyword stuffing’). In fact, this may lead to negative results.

Headings

As we covered in the previous part of this article, headings are a key part of clear content structure and formatting. They’re also important to SEO, as they give search engine crawlers an idea of what you’re covering.

A good rule of thumb can be to add your focus keyword at least once in a heading, as this makes it easier for search engines to understand the main topic.

Meta description

A meta description is a short summary of a topic. It’s the text that shows up right after the title in search results. This makes it the second most important part after your headline, and it may affect whether users click on your page.

For an SEO-focused guide on how to write good meta descriptions, check out ‘How to write meta descriptions for SEO (with good and bad examples)‘.

Improve readability

Readability refers to the level of comprehension for your text. This encompasses things like language, the writing style, the use of sentences, or even the words that you choose.

In a more scientific explanation, the measurement of readability takes into account: the speed of perception, the visibility, the effort required for reading speed, the eye movements and the fatigue in reading.

How can you increase the readability of your content?

• Pay attention to the font. Pick a clean and simple font and make sure that the size makes your text legible without further effort. 
• Allow enough space for your content. Whether it’s the number of paragraphs you’re using or the line height, they all contribute to the concept of readability
• Use simple writing, avoid jargon or complicated words. It’s tempting to use an improved vocabulary, but it’s also important to ensure that the content is still understood by your audience.
• Avoid long sentences. Aim for clear and simple structure. As with the use of words, simplicity is appreciated. Moreover, it also reduces the chances of getting your readers tired while reading.

Think of social optimization

A good indication of content success is its performance on social media, the number of likes, shares, or comments it receives.

The chances of social success can be improved by working on social optimization. Social optimization is the process that reminds you the importance of social media in a content’s journey. If you want to reach a wider audience, then you need to make sure that your content is as optimized as possible for social media.

Here are 5 quick tips on how to focus on social optimization:

Think of the headline

As with SEO optimization, your headline will determine whether social users find your content interesting enough to click on. However, beware of employing clickbait techniques such as withholding key information from the headline in order to attract clicks – it may see your content penalized by social platforms, and your readers won’t thank you either.

Pay attention to the images you’re adding 

Use a featured image that’s large enough to be shared on all social networks. Every social platform has its own dimensions, so a large image will still be clear and eye-catching regardless of the platform. Moreover, an image may be the first thing that someone notices about your social post.

Adjust the description

As with SEO, the description helps readers get an overview of your post. Optimizing both for search engines and social media requires the right balance between keyword optimization and personal appeal. Be creative and spend some time devising the best way to describe your content in just a couple of sentences.

Add sharing buttons

It may sound obvious nowadays that we need to include sharing buttons in our content. However, it’s still a good reminder when we’re thinking of social optimization to consider that readers will be more likely to to share our content if we make it easier for them to do so. Make sure you’re including the sharing buttons in the right place on your page.

Encourage likes and shares

Except for the default sharing buttons, there are many plugins and tools that encourage readers to show their social approval for a post. For example, a Facebook like button can be more appealing than a “share to Facebook” button, as it involves a faster process to show your social approval.

Think like a user

This is a combination of blending user experience with psychology, in an attempt to produce the right content for the right audience.

Google Analytics can help you monitor your readers’ habits. From the length of their visits to the most popular posts, or even the pages with the highest bounce rate, you can start understanding which pieces of content are most effective.

What made these pages more effective? Was it the value, the language, or even the images that you used? How about the content that wasn’t effective?

This is where user experience can offer very interesting insights.

You don’t need technical knowledge to understand how user experience affects your content.

For example, here are three quick ways to test whether your content has a user-centric design:

Mobile optimization

As smartphones dominate our lives, content tends to get more consumed in mobile devices. Not everyone creates content with mobile users in mind, and this may be a good opportunity to start thinking of it.

Responsiveness

Your content and your pages have to be responsive enough to allow readers to use them as much as possible. An error or a non-functional plugin may lead to a missed opportunity of converting a new reader. Usability, accessibility and page performance are three key areas for your readers and the way they see your content.

Conversion rates

The user experience has to be smooth enough to help readers move through your pages. This increases the chance of turning them into loyal readers and even customers. A combination of design and content strategy can improve your content appeal to your new readers.

The user experience honeycomb by Peter Morville shows us seven facets of a good user experience. A good user experience then has to be useful, desirable, accessible, credible, findable, usable, and valuable.

Using free tools

There are so many tools out there to help improve our writing, and luckily many of them are free, so here are a few to try out.

• Hemingway: Hemingway App helps you improve the clarity in your text by identifying long, complex sentences and common errors. It makes your writing bold and clear by suggesting the parts of text you need to improve.

• Grammarly: Grammarly is another useful tool to instantly check for more than two hundred types of grammatical, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. I find very handy the Chrome plugin when creating online content, as it may even turn out useful when adding additional spaces or unknown words.

• Buzzsumo: Buzzsumo helps you analyse what content performs best for any topic or competitor. It’s one of my favourite tools to test the “virality” (if that’s the proper term in that case) of my content, as it offers an insight on the most shared posts. For example, I can search for my name as an author, or the most popular posts in the sites that I’m writing on, and I can get a great overview of the content that got the highest number of shares on social media.

• Readable: Readable is one of the apps that help you monitor your content’s readability score, along with keyword density, sentiment analysis. Time to cut out the noise.

• CoSchedule’s Headline Analyser: This is my favourite tool to explore the art of an effective headline. You even get a score for the suggested headlines you’re adding. It’s useful when you’re trying to understand the overall headline quality and its ability to result in social shares, increased traffic, and SEO value.

• Writefull: Writefull is an app that gives feedback on your writing by checking your text against databases of correct language. Did you use the right phrase? Should you change it? You may be surprised with the results.

• StayFocusd: StayFocusd is a productivity extension for Google Chrome that helps you stay focused on work by restricting the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites. Yes, this mainly refers to social media and it’s a very useful plugin for every writer.

Overview

You don’t have to be a professional writer to create online content. What’s important is to set clear goals for the reasons you’re creating content, while considering your target audience.

Improve your content by focusing on:

• the writing process
• different content types you can create
• the length of your content
• its structure and
• formatting
• headline
• the language you’re using
• along with SEO
• readability
• social optimization
• user experience

It’s all about understanding how content works and what opportunities it can unlock for your business.

After all, if the goal is to create content that your readers will love, you’re the only person who knows the best way to achieve it.

This is Part 2 of a two-part series on how to improve your content creation. For a recap of Part 1, read ‘8 tips for improving your content creation‘.

For the full presentation on ’15 ways to improve your content writing’ from the Summit on Content Marketing, check out the slides on SlideShare.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/08/02/7-more-tips-to-improve-your-content-creation/

source https://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/163714751024

8 tips for improving your content creation

The rise of content marketing has brought content creation to the forefront for all businesses. This makes it more important than ever to explore the best ways to create effective content.

The definition of effective content for every business may be different, but in general, it still has to bring you closer to your goals.

That’s why effective content has to resonate with your target readers.

Earlier this summer, I gave a presentation entitled “15 ways to improve your content writing” at the Summit on Content Marketing. Here are the first eight of those tips.

Set a writing process

A structured writing process can help you save time and become more productive. As there’s an increasing need for content nowadays, it’s important to find the best process that can help you focus on content creation.

For example, it might be helpful to dedicate a set block of time on your calendar for content writing, putting aside all distractions.

If you start to get stuck, it may be a good idea to stay away from the copy for a while and either take a break or have someone else read it for a fresh perspective.

Creative brainstorming

It’s not always easy to come up with a new content idea, and this can sometimes require some creative brainstorming moments with other team members.

Keeping a content calendar or notebook can help you organize all your ideas, ranked from best to worst – any of these can offer a new perspective on your content goals.

If you’re still struggling for content ideas, take a look at our 21 quick ways to find inspiration for creating content to help you with your next great post.

Grab the reader’s attention

Although the widely-reported ‘fact’ that we now have an attention span of 8 seconds has been called into question, internet users are more discerning with their time than ever before. There is a huge abundance of content available online, and your content needs to be able to grab the user’s attention, and hold it, in order to succeed.

In the digital world, there is any number of competing demands on the user’s attention. Our attention shifts from one task to another as we open new tabs or check multiple screens. Why should the user keep reading – or watching, or listening to – your content? You need to hook their attention and keep it there. 

Explore different types of content

One way to convince users to pay more attention to your content marketing is to mix up your formats. The last few years have seen an explosion in the types of content available to create and host online, with each one serving a different purpose.

Images 

Images are the most popular type of visual content. They offer a powerful impact on a message and they certainly create a memorable experience. It is easier for the human brain to actually process an image and this increases the chances for your copy to be remembered.

As 65% of people are visual learners, there is more chance your readers will notice your content if you pair it with the relevant images.

Infographics

Information graphics, or infographics, are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.  The use of graphics enhances our ability to see patterns and trends, which makes complex information more appealing and shareable.

Readers tend to spend more time processing an infographic, compared with a written text, and that’s what makes them engaging, especially when they are added as part of a blog post. They’re also more shareable than other types of content. In fact, infographics are shared and liked three times more than any other visual content.

This makes them a very useful addition to the promotion of your content, and it’s no surprise that marketers are using them more and more in their content marketing strategy.

Video

Video content has taken the lead as the most popular visual type of content over the last two years, a trend which has been boosted by social media. According to Cisco, videos will make up 80% of all internet traffic by 2019. This highlights how video content is going to become even more important. Even if we don’t use it as our primary form of content, it is still a powerful medium to support our message. 

For example, we can use a short video to:

– share tips and “how-to” ideas

– build trust

– increase engagement

– add value

Live video is another emerging trend, and it offers an immediacy that online users seem to enjoy quite a lot. Marketers and business owners have placed video among their top priorities for 2017 in an attempt to create more appealing and effective content.

Remember, it’s not always necessary to hire a video producer to create short and entertaining videos that offer value to your audience.

GIFs

A GIF, which stands for Graphics Interchange Format, is a type of an animated image that was developed more than 30 years ago. It may not be new, but it’s a popular form of media with online users, as a quick way to share visual content that straddles the line between an image and a video.

According to Giphy, there are currently around 150 million original GIFs out there online. They can be more powerful than an image, but they are also smaller in size than a video. Although GIFs are usually funny and informal, they can still fit with your content strategy, provided that you know how to use them in the right context of course.

For example, how about using a GIF to explain a process in a “how-to” post? Or how about using a funny movie quote in an attempt to show your casual side while trying to show a more personal approach?

GIFs can help you to:

– show your brand’s personality

– divide large chunks of text

– explain a process

– tell a story

What all of these types have in common is the creative way to present content, reaching people who like consuming content in different ways.

For example, if you want to explain a complicated concept, you can use an infographic to make the process easier for your audience. You can still create a blog post, and integrate the infographic with the rest of the written content.

This increases the chances for your audience to stay engaged and enjoy what you have to offer.

Decide on the ideal length for your content

Content marketers often wonder whether long-form content is dead in the era of ‘bite-sized’ content. It may seem logical to assume that readers prefer shorter content, but this isn’t always the case.

According to Orbit Media Studios, blog content is actually getting longer year by year. In 2016 the average blog post length was 1054 words – up from 887 words in 2015.

This means that readers still value long-form content – provided that it’s interesting of course.

Of course, length alone won’t guarantee the success of your content.

However, the length of your content can indicate the depth of the topic you’re covering. If the goal of your copy is to increase awareness, build trust and offer value, then the length may be a key part of your success.

You just need to find a balance between quantity and quality.

Aim for clear structure

Your readers will appreciate a piece of content that is clear and organized. There’s no need to suffocate your writing with big chunks of sentences.

Another point to consider is how people consume content through different devices. Not everyone accesses your content through the same screen, which means that your content has to be optimized for all devices.

This includes its layout. What seems like a small paragraph on a desktop may turn out to be a really big paragraph on a mobile device. And that’s a good reason to test your content on all devices before you publish it.

Moreover, you can organize your thoughts using bullet points, which has the dual benefit of being direct and practical, while also being more clearly readable, helping readers to focus on the most important aspects of your message.

Bullet points can be useful at the end of a piece of text as an overview of what you’ve covered. This is a quick way to allow readers to get back to the things they need to remember from what they’ve just read.

Beware, though – too many bullet points can produce the exact opposite result.

Spend time on formatting your content

How does formatting differ from structure? This has to do more with the way you present your actual content, rather than the way you organize the sentences. However, they are both important in their own way, with the ultimate goal being to convince readers to spend more time on your content.

For example, if you want to make your content more appealing, then you need to add images throughout the text. It’s usually suggested we add the images in a way that they separate the longer paragraphs. If you want to make a point through a series of paragraphs, then break those up with an image that supplements your content, giving the readers’ eyes a break.

When it comes to formatting, one of the most important tips is to pay attention to headings.

Headings allow you to divide your content into logical sections, each one headed up by a catchy title. Spend a decent amount of time thinking up each heading – and don’t be afraid to use plenty of them.

Ranging in terms of importance (and font size), headings span from H1 to H6. You can use a range of different header sizes if you want to label certain sections of your content with subheadings, or you can stick with just a couple throughout.

It’s also useful to keep in mind that headings contribute to SEO and the way search engines discover your content. As crawlers, the magic bots that search for content, access your writing, headings make your content structure easier to parse, and help to highlight the important bits.

Thus, if your headings are relevant and interesting, you’re also going to help your content rank well in search.

Set a goal for your content

Before you dive into content writing, it’s useful to set a goal of what you want to achieve with your content.

There are many ways to use your content. Not every post should serve the same goal and in fact, it’s useful to have a variety of content with different purposes.

For example, your latest post can promote your new product, but it’s probably not a good idea to do that with a series of ten posts in a row.

Readers don’t like overt promotion via content, but you can still create valuable content that happens to also be promotional. Just ensure that your content serves a genuine purpose beyond promoting whatever you want to draw attention to. Ask yourself: What would I, as the reader, be able to learn from this?

While setting a goal for your content, make sure you’re not turning your content into an automatic machine of business jargon. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking of the outcome more than the actual process before it. If you’re only thinking of the goal and not the copy, then you risk losing your unique brand voice and your readers along with it.

Set a goal, then start writing, leave the goal aside and focus on your content. Once your post is published and you’re tracking metrics, you can return to the initial goal and see whether you’ve come close to achieving it.

Tune in tomorrow for Part 2 of this post, where we’ll look at seven more tips that can improve your content marketing.

from https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/08/01/8-tips-for-improving-your-content-creation/

source https://kateninablog.tumblr.com/post/163714750794

How to Combine Native Advertising with Content Marketing to Maximize Your Traffic

Despite the proven effectiveness of native advertising, it’s a concept that remains a little murky for many marketers.

Copyblogger performed a study on native advertising, asking people whether they knew what it was and how knowledgeable they were about it.

Here are the results:

Clearly, it’s still an ambiguous concept to many.

Simply, native advertising is a tactic that blends promotional content with the rest of the content—native content—of a page.

Here’s a good example:

When compared to more traditional advertisements such as banner ads, native ads tend to be more effective:

consumers interact with native ads 20% to 60% more than they do with standard banner ads.

That’s probably because they don’t stand out like a sore thumb.

Furthermore, we’re seeing significant growth in the use of this strategy:

In the US, the native ad market is expected to grow to $53 billion by 2020.

More and more marketers are catching on and seeing the potential of this approach.

The problem with content distribution

An interesting phenomenon is taking place in regards to content marketing.

More and more content is being created, but it isn’t translating into audience growth.

This image visualizing data from a Nielsen and BI Intelligence study puts things into perspective:

Notice how the amount of content being produced has grown significantly while the audience size has basically plateaued.

The reason for this, of course, is that there is a far bigger supply than demand for content.

There aren’t enough people to consume all the content being created.

Just look at what happens every single minute:

And that’s just on four major social networks. This doesn’t take into account blog posts, articles, infographics and so on.

This means that it’s no longer enough to simply create great content.

You need an effective means of distribution, enabling you to reach your audience on a larger scale.

This tweet from former BuzzFeed Vice President Jonathan Perelman hits the nail on the head:

Native advertising is the perfect solution to this problem.

It’s an excellent way to distribute your content and extend its reach by leveraging the exposure and brand equity of other publishers.

It’s also one of the smartest ways to connect with consumers and get them to engage with your brand.

And if you play your cards right, you can use it to drive a huge volume of traffic to your site.

In this post, let me offer some basic strategies for using native advertising in tandem with content marketing.

Do extensive research

For this tactic to work, your content must fit in perfectly with the style, tone, theme, etc. of the publisher’s site.

It needs to be seamless.

To ensure it flows smoothly, you need to understand the publisher inside and out.

Here are a few questions to answer to help you with that:

• who’s their target audience?
• what kind of themes and subject matter do they cover?
• what type of content does their audience respond to?
• what kind of editorial style do they use?

The native advertising platform you choose should have a creative team to assist you with this and provide you with direction.

But I recommend putting in the extra effort so that you know precisely what type of content to create and how to create it.

The more knowledge you have, the better your odds of having success will be.

Align your content

Once you have a firm grasp of the publisher’s site, you’ll want to base your content around it.

Keep in mind that today’s Internet users are incredibly adept at sniffing out promotional content and dodging it.

That’s why native advertising is becoming so popular.

It’s able to get much higher click-through rates (CTRs) than standard display ads.

According to Marketing Land,

the average CTRs for display ads have fallen over time to 0.17%.

However,

the average CTR for native ads on Adnow is 1.5%.

But CTR this high doesn’t just happen on its own.

Your content must align perfectly with the publisher’s site.

How do you do this?

It’s simple.

Create high-quality content matching the publisher’s, based on the research you performed.

Center it around a topic their average visitor is interested in, and style it accordingly.

Just treat it as if you’re guest-posting, keeping in mind that it’s essential that your content conforms to the publisher’s style and guidelines.

Here’s an example of Dell pulling this off perfectly:

They wrote an article in The New York Times regarding millennials and their collective distaste for the traditional 9 to 5 lifestyle.

Read through it, and you’ll notice that it uses the same style and tone of pretty much everything you’ll read in The New York Times.

An untrained eye would have a hard time detecting this was an advertisement.

And that’s a good thing.

When you think about it, the ultimate goal of native advertising is to advertise without people even realizing they are looking at an advertisement.

I like to look at it as just content marketing as usual.

It relies on the same concept of creating high-quality content for a specific audience.

The only difference is you’re paying to have your content featured on a publisher’s website.

It’s a quicker, more efficient means of distribution so you can reach a larger audience in less time.

Look beyond articles

When considering which type of content format to feature on a publisher’s site, the first thing that probably comes to most people’s minds is a conventional article.

It’s the obvious choice, right?

I can definitely see why this would be the popular choice.

And quite frankly, it tends to make the most sense when you’re testing the waters with native advertising.

But gaining any real traction can be difficult when you’re doing what everyone else is doing.

It’s harder to stand out that way.

Fortunately, you’re by no means limited to conventional articles. You have a buffet of options to choose from.

Just take a look at some of the top B2B content marketing tactics:

Now, I’m not saying you should create off the wall content just for the sake of being different.

What’s most important is that you base it around what resonates most with your audience.

For example, here’s a breakdown of the consumption habits of consumers, depending on their ages:

If you were trying to reach a younger demographic of 18-24-year-olds, videos and infographics would be potential choices.

Optimize your landing page as well

Let’s say you nailed your research, figured out the perfect style to use and created brilliant content that visitors to the publisher’s site absolutely ate up.

That’s great, and you’re likely to see a great CTR.

But your job isn’t done yet.

You still need to ensure that your leads are arriving on a well-designed landing page poised for conversions:

Just think about it.

It won’t do you much good if you do everything else right but fall short with your landing page.

You’re just throwing money away.

Now, landing page optimization is a whole other topic in and of itself and one that I’ve covered extensively in the past.

I’m not going to explain all the details here, but to learn pretty much everything you need to know about it, check out this guide.

Let me just point out that it should be designed with the purpose of moving prospects deeper through the sales funnel post-click.

Ideally, it will build upon the content that prospects just digested and provide them with additional information to encourage them to buy.

Don’t forget to do A/B testing

I won’t go on a rant about the importance of A/B testing.

I’ve already mentioned before that only 22% of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates.

Considering that this is a practice you want to implement into many other areas of marketing, it only makes sense that it should be done with native advertising as well.

There are several different elements you can test, including:

• type of content
• positioning on the publisher’s site
• headlines
• images

Let’s be honest.

It’s not realistic to nail it the first time around. You’ll need a fair amount of experimentation to get it right.

A/B testing is the best way to quickly optimize your efforts and work out the kinks.

Conclusion

Native advertising gets real results but isn’t necessarily on the radar of every content marketer.

But it should be!

It’s the perfect way to solve the ongoing distribution problem many content marketers are facing.

It can be a godsend if you’re a new brand hungry for exposure.

By combining native advertising with content marketing, you’re speeding up the process of reaching your audience.

But like with any other marketing tactic, you need to follow best practices, which primarily involves researching the publisher, aligning your content with their website and tailoring your content around the preferences of your core audience.

If you can do that, you can expect a rock solid CTR and plenty of targeted traffic to your site.

For information on potential native advertising platforms to use, check out this post from Entrepreneur.

Have you experimented with native advertising?

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