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Your Keyword Research Basics

Your Keyword Research Basics

When creating your SEO strategy, you won’t get very far without knowing and enforcing a bunch of keyword know-how.  

Using the correct keywords for your brand tells both your audience and the search engines who you are and what you’re all about, ie what you’re selling or offering.  So, it’s incredibly important that you choose your keywords with intention. How do you do that? You gotta do your research- keyword research, that is.  

Today we’ll run down your keyword research basics.

What’s Keyword Research?

When performing keyword research, you’re looking for the best, most commonly used, words and phrases that users are typing into the search engines in order to find products or services that pertain to your business/industry. 

After you have a detailed account of those terms and phrases, you can then use them to their full advantage within your SEO campaign.  Optimizing keywords will boost your rankings while allowing your audience to find you easier.  

Why You Need Keyword Research

Generally speaking, your keyword research will be the very first step you take when creating your SEO strategy.  Having the correct terms and phrases is what gets you found by the people you want to find you. Not to mention how it helps Google know you- so yeah, it’s important.  

Your keywords will be applied to all of your content pieces, including images, on-page SEO, blogs, promotions, branding.  All things content are going to benefit from your keywords, which means YOU benefit from them.

The best part is that you can change your keywords at any time if they’re not actually helping you.  Nothing is set in stone here. There are dozens of tools that can help you figure out what words are working and what words you can toss aside.  

And if you need help determining what keywords you should be using, well, there’s some tools for that too.  Start with these since they’re totally free, and if you need more insight, you can find tools with minimal investment down the road:

While you’re figuring out your ultimate keywords, you’re also learning a bunch of stuff about your target audience, so if you haven’t already figured out your buyer persona, this is a great way to do it.

Your research will tell you who your potential customers are and how they’re searching for your products or services.  Once you know what words they like to use, you know what words you need to be using. Makes sense to me.  

Don’t underestimate your competition.  They may be stealing your business through a stellar keyword strategy.  So you should definitely see what words and phrases they’re using, you can do that organically by simply heading to their site and checking it out, or use a tool to delve a bit deeper, such as SpyFu.

The Keyword Research Facts

Indeed, there are several aspects to creating a strong and vibrant SEO campaign that gets you some high rank on the search engines and an organic following: content, on-page SEO, link building, technical SEO…

All of those are important to your SEO success, but if your don’t do your keyword research, none of that stuff will matter because you’ll be doing a lot of it incorrectly.  You want to get traffic to your site- find the words that point your users there.  

Keep in mind that sometimes the best keywords are the ones with the least competition, meaning, you can create your niche through a proficient keyword strategy.  Stay open-minded, get to know your audience, spy on your competition, grab some good tools, and get to creating that winning SEO campaign.

If you’d like some help with your keyword research or are looking to create a larger audience through SEO, give us a call- we love this stuff.  

We’re Grateful at The Great Online

We’re Grateful at The Great Online

Too often we’re consumed with the things we don’t have and those thoughts can get overwhelming.  Sometimes it’s good to focus on your wants and desires, those thoughts can push you to work harder or strive for better.

But, know what kicks what we don’t have’s butt, what we DO have.  The love, the relationships, the opportunities, food in our bellies, and a roof over our heads.  And don’t forget about cats. Even if you don’t have a cat yourself, just knowing they exist makes life so much better.

Today we’re going to tell you what each and every one of us at The Great Online (an affordable online marketing agency) is grateful for, so get yourself some popcorn and hot chocolate.

Tony- the boss man

“I am thankful that my girls are only 9 years old and still think I’m cool.  It won’t last long, but I’ll be thankful for that until it’s over.”

Troy- the PPC wizard

“I am thankful for the usual- family, friends, and an awesome job.  Also, that I work with a team that I trust to do good work, can make me laugh, puts up with my dog, and that lets me win at ping pong every once in a while.”

Joe- the cool guy

“I am thankful for $5 sushi and the 1800s.”

Jim- the guy who knows it all (literally, he knows IT ALL)

“I am thankful for the three Fs: food, family, and football.”

Jenni- the queen

“I am thankful for a family who takes eating as seriously as I do, stretchy pants, and early Black Friday shopping.”

Nick- the silent 

“I am thankful for a long weekend. ”

Alec- the singer

“What I’m seriously grateful for is the supportive community around me in life, including my team at The Great Online.  They all push me toward my goals and dreams and help me grow in all aspects of my life. Also, mint chocolate chip ice cream.”

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!

We sincerely hope each and every one of you have the best Thanksgiving ever with lots of friends, family, food, love, and cats.

How to Write a Clickable Blog Post

How to Write a Clickable Blog Post

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Have you put a ton of thought and effort into your blog posts, only to find that they aren’t getting any clicks?  Writing a blog post that converts will take a bit of knowledge on your end. And because you only have a few seconds to grab the attention of your users, knowing a few tricks can significantly help in your content marketing strategy.

Today we’re going over a few simple steps that will help get your blog posts the conversions you’re looking for.

Who Are You Targeting?

Understanding who your target audience is will give you valuable information.  What does your audience want? How do they want you to speak to them? Where can they be found online (social platforms or otherwise)?  

You need to know your audience in order to know how to grab their attention.  Luckily, there are several tools you can use in order to get to know your audience better.  Some are even free- like Google Analytics.  You want to take advantage of these tools ASAP if you haven’t already.    

Audience targeting tools will allow you to make informed decisions based on actual data about your customers specifically.  You can also find out about your competition which can help you understand who you’d like to primarily target.

Find out how people are searching for your industry, what keywords they use, and then put some thought into how you can make yourself stand out from all the rest.  

Write an Attention-Grabbing Headline

Your blog post’s headline is the first thing your user will see, so you gotta make it a good one.  Think about your customers and what you think they’d be compelled to click on.  What would you click on?  

Asking friends and family for their advice can help you out, too (if they fall into your target audience guidelines).  Give them a few headlines to choose from (like an A/B test) and evaluate their feedback.  

Looking for more insight into the success of your headline?  There’s a free tool that can help. Just add your headline into the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer and see your quick results.  

Keep in mind that your headline needs to match the mood and tone of your blog post.  Don’t be funny if you’re tone is serious, that can be off-putting to your readers. Also, don’t try to get too clever with it, you want to be found when people type in their query, going overboard on the metaphors or wit can make your blog post difficult to find and may even deter some readers.

H2s?  Yes. Bullet Points?  Please. Make Your Blog Post Scannable

Blog posts should be easy to read, scannable, and broken down into parts.  A whole slew of copy with no rest in between does not make for a good read, no matter how amazing said copy is.

Break up your information with smart formatting.  That means adding h1, h2, h3, etc. Some users just want to read one section of what your blog post offers, make it easy for them to do that by heading each new section of information with its own headline.  

Again, creativity is awesome, but make sure your users will grasp what the information is about through your header for that section.  

When listing or detailing, bullet points are a solid bet.  This allows for ease of read without relying on a paragraph format.  If you want something to really stand out, using bullet points gets that job done.  Remember to keep your bullets short and sweet.

Add an Image

We’re all about the images these days, so be sure you have a relative and unique image to highlight your blog post.  

Depending on your industry images can be very personal, or you can find photos on stock photo websites.  Just make sure you choose something that will ignite the click! Adding images is a great way to show some personality, too.  Don’t forget to keep int relative to your copy!

SEO Optimization

Making sure to be found on the search engine results pages (SERPs) is most likely one of your goals, so make sure the search engines can easily find and understand your blog post.

Some smart and effective ways to do that are:

  • Creating a good meta title
  • Creating a good meta description
  • Optimizing for your keywords
  • Creating related keywords and negative keywords
  • Optimizing your image(s) 
  • Link building

Create an Obvious CTA

Nothing’s worse for a user than trying to figure out how to buy something or sign up for something or share something.  Whatever action it is you want your users to make, show them how to do so with a clear and obvious call to action (CTA).

Create a CTA that stands out from the rest of the blog post, yet makes sense standing within it.

The Takeaway

Writing a killer blog post doesn’t mean anything if you’re not getting the clicks.  Write strong copy and fine-tune with these easy blog writing tips and you’ll help your click-factor.  More clicks, more traffic, bigger audience- Google likes it.

If you have any questions about writing blogs that convert or want more information on your content strategy.  Give us a call.  

How Schema Markup Helps Your SEO

How Schema Markup Helps Your SEO

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You’ve probably heard of it and maybe you thought you’d put it on the backburner and look into it later, but schema markup is something you need to jump on right now.  So, go ahead and front-burner that baby.

It’s a fact, schema markup one right can only help your SEO (search engine optimization) campaign.  Less than a third of Google results are using schema markup, which means you should be because your competitors probably aren’t.  And studies show that you’ll rank higher on the SERPs (search engine results pages), too.

Schema Markup: The Why, What, Where, and How

Here’s why: Schema markup can significantly increase your SEO because it makes your page’s description look better than the average description which means your description is way more clickable.  You’ll also get a lower bounce rate because your users have relevant information right from the start, so they know what your page will be providing.  

Here’s what: Schema structured data markup lives within your website’s HTML, it’s added code that allows you to greatly enhance and strengthen your web page’s description, referred to as a rich result, formerly called a rich snippet.  

Here’s where: Your web page’s description is found on the SERPs under your web page’s title and if done properly and chosen by Google, it will be seen with all the information you added in your schema markup, making it rich with detail (hence the name: rich result) and enticing more clicks.

Here’s how: The search engines offer this to benefit the customer.  Adding schema markup shows the user added detail and info so they can better understand what your page will offer them.  A business can add location, ratings, pricing, dates, and several other tidbits of information, depending on what it is they offer.  

The more technical side of “how” is found further down in this post.

The Schema Types

Schema markup is used within several categories of business, some of the most popular are:

  • Organizations/Businesses
  • Person
  • Products and Offers
  • Recipes
  • Events
  • Reviews
  • Videos

We’re going to go over the top three in detail: organizations/businesses (inclusive of local businesses), person, and products and offers.

Organizations/Businesses

Within schema markup for organizations and businesses, one can include a logo, all contact info, location, and links to social media channels.  With all of these opportunities to reach the business right off the bat, customers find it easy to get in touch quickly and efficiently.  

Small, local businesses can greatly benefit from this.  Providing details such as address, hours, and contact information through the Local Business Schema Markup.

Person

When using Person Market Schema Markup, one is providing basic details about those in the public eye.  Included may be birthdays, addresses, education, career, and other members of the family.

Products and Offers

Selling something? Looking to increase your e-commerce digital marketing presence?  Product and Offer Schema Markup is for you.  You must include the name of the product in the Product Schema Markup.  And in the Offer Schema Markup, you’ll need to provide name, price, and currency in the description.

Using these types of schema markups will help you get noticed in that long list of results that come up on the SERPs.  Showing your pricing from the start gives users insight that will either create a click or save you from a bounce.

The Set-Up of Schema Markups

More on “here’s how”, as promised.  

Not into techy stuff, don’t worry.  This really isn’t as painful as you may think.  Don’t let the word “code” have you running, Google’s got your back.

  • Head to Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper
  • Choose the data type for your page
  • Paste in your URL and hit “Start Tagging” (the more the better)
  • Keep highlighting and labeling all those elements you want marked, the dropdown list will help walk you through
  • Create your HTML and test it to see what your page will look like after all is said and done
  • Once perfected, add the schema markup to your page

And That’s That

Now you know all the benefits that schema markup will give your SEO campaign, your users, and your business, so it’s time to take care of it right now- before your competition does.  

Looking for some help?  Just a bit too technical for you?  Allow us. Give The Great Online a call today.

Here’s How To Create Shareable Content

Here’s How To Create Shareable Content

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Creating content isn’t always an easy task, especially if the goal is to get your content shared.  There’s a lot of competition, a lot of voices, and a lot of chaos running around on the social media channels.

So, what can you do to create shareable content?  You gotta be pretty spectacular and deserve the share.  That’s all. 

Let’s go over some easy, tried and true tools that will help your content- so you can get your voice heard and your brand shared.

Look at Your Competition

Yes, we suggest pulling up that black onesie and sneaking around your competition’s content.  What’s working for them? Against them? You’ll gain a ton of knowledge when you see how they’re working their content marketing strategy.  

Who are those competitors that are really bothering you?  The ones taking your customers? Look all of them up on social media.  Are you all on the same platforms? Are there platforms that any of them have missed?  You may want to be there, if so.  

What, if anything, is getting shared?  What can you do to make your content better than theirs?  What kind of content do they offer? Blogs, vlogs, podcasts?  

Review closely, make your notes, and figure out how you can improve upon their very best, most interacted with and shared posts.  Prove to your audience, that you’re the voice in the industry.

Be Relatable 

We’ve spoken a lot about this, but it’s really important that you come off as an actual person with an actual story to tell.  Why? Because that’s what we, as humans, relate to.  

Share great experiences in good, old fashioned, storytelling order: beginning, middle, end.

You want to explain how your audience can get from their problem to your solution and do it in a relatable manner.  

When you write relatable content, keep in mind everyday human experiences  The stuff we all encounter, no matter how trivial, can make a big impact. People share big impacts.  

Agree With Your Audience 

We love to be validated, so do that.  Write content that seconds your audience’s opinion.  Because you’re a voice in the industry, you have clout.  So, when a user states their opinion, if you agree with it, write about it.  

How do you find their opinion?  Well, first, you gotta know who your audience is and what they’re interests are.  Then figure out how that relates to your business. And finally, get to writing.  

Always remember the power of being proven right.  People love to show other people that they were correct, and sharing your article will offer that while getting your brand in front of a larger audience. 

Does your company hold the same values as your audience?  Maybe your green? Maybe you give a portion of your proceeds to women’s shelters.  Perhaps you all really love hot dogs. Whatever they value. Show that you do too (be honest about it, of course) and shares are likely to follow.  

Inspire People 

If your audience is inspired, they’re very likely to show the love through a share.  Don’t be preachy, be real. You can write your own inspirational quote or story, or share one that you’ve loved for years.  We all enjoy a quote that resonates.  

Just think about your audience, what would like to see pop up in their feed today?

Tie-In Current Topics

This can get tricky, but if you’re in an industry where you know and understand your audience on a very personal level, then state your opinion on what’s going on in the world.  Be political. Talk about the climate. Send out a petition for animal rights. Content like this is incredibly shareable.  

You don’t want to alienate customers, so be mindful.  Getting a little controversial is only okay if you can afford to do it.

You can also make this content really silly and fun.  Let them know it’s National Taco Day. Give them Halloween inspired drink recipes.  You can always check out Google Trends for some ideas on what’s going on on the web, too.    

Give Helpful Content

Your content must be helpful in order to get shared.  It’s got to offer some sort of use to your user. How do you create helpful content?  Ask yourself what you’re trying to help your audience with? What’s to solve?  

Then give them the ways in which to solve it.  With content like this, it’s wise to give a CTA when you’re done- have the sharing buttons easily accessible (this should be done ALWAYS, no one wants to hunt for a way to share something).

Use Imagery 

People love to share images and videos, so offer those things up.  They can be serious or funny, but be intentional. They need to make sense with your brand, your audience, and the rest of your content. 

If you’re looking to create your own videos or image-related content, it’s not that hard.  There are tools for that: Splasheo, Wistia, and Vidyard to name a few.  

Create That Shareable Content Now

Now, have at it.  Creating shareable content may take you a time or two to get right.  You’ll need to test the waters and see how your audience reacts. But once you have that connection with them, they’ll keep coming back for more of your insights, and they’ll keep sharing that insight with their people.  

Stay focused, be creative and original, and you’ve now got some killer tools in your content-shareability toolbox.

For any content related questions, feel free to call us today.

Building Awesome Brand Awareness

Building Awesome Brand Awareness

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Building your brand up and getting noticed can be a daunting task if you don’t understand why brand awareness is important, how to achieve it, and how to maintain it.

So, what do you do to attract attention?  To tell your customers that you deserve their business over your competition?  How do you find that edge?

There are a few things you must do in order to achieve that goal and today we’re gonna talk about them.

Why Brand Awareness Matters

As every business person knows, it’s getting harder and harder to make an impact and stand out from the crowd these days.  Why? Because people don’t have the attention span they used to have and there are an abundance of channels for us to focus on.

For instance I’m writing this blog while listening to a podcast, and my TV is on (muted, but on).  Why on earth do I need all this stuff on? FOMO? Habit? Being left alone with my thoughts is scary?  I dunno. But, it works, so no need to fix it.

Point being, capturing an audience is difficult to do and with so many ways of receiving information, education, and entertainment, you’ve got an uphill battle.  

Where should you promote your brand?  How should you promote your brand? What will keep your target audience engaged?  This is the challenge, but also why brand awareness is critical to your success.

What you just gotta do is make an impression.  Be seen, recognizable, and easy to remember. That’s how you’ll get and keep your customers. 

How to Build Brand Awareness

No matter how amazing your business is, if you don’t create a brand that entices and connects, it won’t matter, so be sure to follow these rules when building your brand awareness:

Be Distinctive

When you don’t blend in, you become memorable.  Don’t follow the guidelines of your competition.  There’s not a rule book here. Set yourself apart.

Think of ways your brand differs from the rest and highlight those attributes, while thinking about the audience you desire.  

Are you eco-friendly, are you plant based, are you philanthropic, are you an innovator, are you oozing with coolness or first-class taste?  These are things you can (and definitely should) play up.

Your hope is for people to feel linked to you in a way that inspires them to think of you when they think of your product or service.  And you’re also giving your customer something to talk about when you showcase these powerful characteristics.

A great way to consider how you want your audience to view you is by asking yourself why they would refer you to their friends.  What would you like them to say about you? Your answer is where you should focus your brand.

Be Seen

Sounds easy, but this can definitely take some time to figure out.  You can’t just throw an ad on a bus or the TV anymore. I mean, who watches actual live TV?  Most people don’t even have cable these days.   

But don’t worry, your audience isn’t dwindling, it’s just not where it used to be.  So you gotta take full advantage of all the mediums in which to get your brand seen.

This may require some trial and error.  Think about your target and find out where they are and when they’re there.  Is it social media? Coffee houses? Spotify? YouTube? Professional office spaces?  Reading blogs?  

Be on those formats, too.  All of them preferably. And, of course, be distinctive when you’re there.

Be Search Engine Optimized

SEO can help your brand awareness on a massive scale.  How many times a day do you Google something? Google gets over 63,000 search queries a second.  Do you know who comes up in the results? The companies with killer search engine optimization.

If you’re one of those companies, rock on.  You’ve just proven yourself an authority to the search engines and to your audience.  This credibility is memorable and users will turn back to you in the future.

The Missteps of Brand Awareness

When upping your brand awareness don’t get sidetracked.  There are a couple things you can do that will actually harm your brand.  Pay attention to:

Platforms

Don’t spend time, effort, and money on advertising to the wrong people because you’re on the wrong platforms.  This is where the trial and error comes in. When a channel isn’t working for your brand, move.

You want to stay on top of where you’re performing the best and utilize those spaces.  And always be on the lookout for new spaces to jump into. Brand awareness is a breathing thing that requires attention all the time.

Content

This circles back to SEO, be sure you’re providing high-quality content– and the more of it, the better.  When a company becomes a source for education or entertainment, above and beyond whatever they’re selling, it’s a really good thing.  

The best way to get to the point of being a valuable source for your customers is through exceptional and unique content.  So keep working that SEO and they’ll keep coming back.

Perception

Always make sure you’re sending the right impression to your customers.  You want your brand to be understood and accepted the way you mean for it to be, so pay attention to user-reaction.  

If your customers aren’t seeing your brand in the “correct” manner, fix it through a new content strategy.  It may take some time, but do some tests, listen to the feedback, and rework your brand to fit who you want it to and get the reaction you want it to.  

The Takeaway

Snagging your target audience’s attention is intense and it doesn’t seem to be winding down.  Grab the bull by the horns, take control of your branding, and awareness will follow.

If you’re in the market for some brand strategizing, we’re here to provide help with that.  Give us a call today.

Ranking Your YouTube Videos

Ranking Your YouTube Videos

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We’ve blogged in detail about how important videos and images are when it comes to your SEO (search engine optimization) campaign.  And YouTube has become a search engine to be reckoned with, so if you’re using YouTube as a platform to grow your brand, it’s really important you’re doing it the right way.

Let’s talk about the best ways to make sure your YouTube videos rank on the search engines.

YouTube Keywords

Are you wondering where to start when it comes to your keywords for your videos?  Wonder no longer. We’ll tell you exactly what to do.

You’ll start with a general list of terms you think are relevant.  Easy. What would you search for to find you? Looking for more ideas?  Of course you are. Head over to YouTube and type in your search, then look at what YouTube suggests you search for which will pop up as a window immediately.  This window is crazy-helpful because it shows you what users are actually typing in and searching for. Read all of the suggestions and choose keywords that apply to you.  

Look at your competition, too.  You can peek at their most popular videos and copy those terms.  They’ve done some of the work for you, so you might as well take it!  They’d do it to you. Look at their title, description, and tags for all the keyword knowledge pertaining to that video and add relevant terms to your list.  

Now you need to review your list carefully and find the one keyword that will benefit you most.  This should be a term that has very little competition. If you use words that every video in your industry is using, you’ll be hidden right next to them.  To check if your chosen term is too broad, search it and then review the “About results” which will give you the number of videos with that term. The lower the number, the better.  

Next you should look up your keyword on Google.  Yes, it’s important to rank on YouTube, but if you can also generate powerful ranking on Google you’ve got a lot going for you.  Take a gander at your industry’s videos that are already populating on Google, what keywords are those videos using?

Google loves to show videos with keywords such as: How-to, reviews, tutorials, and funny videos.  So think about those words playing a role in your optimizing.  

High-Retention Video Creation

Ranking videos are videos that hold the users attention and keep ‘em watching.  If you can keep users interested, YouTube ranks you higher. Makes sense to us. So, how can you be sure your users stay with you?

First off, it’s important to know that you don’t need a camera crew in order to create a winning video.  Don’t break the bank on lighting and sound equipment either. Production isn’t of the utmost here, what you’re providing your user, however, is.  Make an engaging, informative video that doesn’t suck, and you’re golden. But if you make a video that lacks quality, it won’t rank no matter how much optimizing you’ve done.

Here are the important audience interactions that YouTube is looking for in a video:

  • Comments- this tells YouTube if  a video is liked, so encourage that relationship as much as you can through questions, quizzes, fun activities- and don’t forget to respond to comments received.
  • Subscribers- when you get users subscribing to your channel, YouTube knows you’re quality.  All you gotta do is ask.  
  • Shares- if your users share your video, it’s most likely a good one, right?  YouTube agrees.
  • Clicks- when users click on you instead of your competition, YouTube notices.  The more clicks you get, the better. (Unfortunately, they also notice if users are clicking on your competition and not you- so review your thumbnails and tiles, make them better, and steal those clicks.)
  • Thumbs- are you getting thumbs up or thumbs down on your video?
  • Length- typically, the longer the video, the better.  That said, quality content takes a higher priority, so don’t drag a video on and on if it’s not adding any value to the user.  Just make an awesome video and when it ends, it ends.  

Video Optimization

YouTube transcribes your videos, that means you need to be sure that you’re saying your keyword in the video.  I know, you’re like, “Duh.” But, believe me, it’s sometimes an oversight and you don’t want it to happen to you.  So, consider this a reminder. When you say that keyword, YouTube understands what your video is about.

Title

You’ll want to create a pretty great title of at least five words for your video.  Again, your keyword needs to be here. And whenever possible you should start the title with your keyword.  

Description

Your video description is a big deal.  This is what YouTube and Google look at to gain context, the more they understand what your video is, the higher you’ll rank.  Be sure to know the following:

  • Your keyword should be one of the first 25 words
  • Your description should be at least 250 words
  • Your keyword should be in the description 2-4 times (and don’t make it sound all spammy when you do it)

Tags

Your first tag is your target keyword and then create some variations of that word, the rest of the tags should be other topics you cover in the video.  Tags also help YouTube and Google know what you’re providing, so just be clear and they’ll get it.

Use the same tags as your competition!  If a user is watching a video that has your same tag, you’ll show up on the sidebar.  Nice!

Video Promotion

So, you’ve created a killer video that’s following all the guidelines noted in this blog post.  Great. How do you get your people to watch it? Tell them! Head to Quora where people are searching and searching for info- all you have to do is find your people.  Do that by searching for your topic and looking at the questions, find one that you can answer and after you do that, link to your video. Because these users are wanting your valuable insights, they’ll watch the whole video which will contribute to your ranking (video retention, remember?).  Well done.

Think about embedding your video to a relevant blog post.  If people are reading your blog, they care about what you have to say.  So this is an excellent way to get guaranteed views.  

You can also add your video link to your email signature.  I mean, your friends and family may want to see it, but also if you have a newsletter or email list, you already have a following.  Take advantage of that.

More than one video?  Awesome. Create a playlist.  This allows for other videos (that you choose and make sense to show together) to play immediately after a video finishes.  Creating a few of these playlists on your channel will give you loads more views.  

While on the subject of your channel, make sure your channel page looks great and is well optimized.  Optimizing will not only help your rankings, but it will get you more subscribers. And when you write your channel’s “About” section, use your keywords (use them wisely so it reads nicely and doesn’t look spammy).

Conclusion

Now you’ve got some great tools to effectively make your YouTube video amazing, and get it ranking.   If you’re in need of some help with YouTube video creation or anything digital marketing. Give us a call today.

The Free SEO Tools for 2019 You Gotta Use

The Free SEO Tools for 2019 You Gotta Use

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If you’re a marketer or a business and you’re trying to nail it with SEO, there are thousands of tools out there to help you do it.  But what you may not know is that some of the best tools are free. That’s right. Fa-ree. We’ve created a list of the best free SEO tools you gotta be using.

Google’s PageSpeed Insights

Google’s PageSpeed Insights will tell you if your page is up to speed (get it?).  It tests your page speed after you enter your URL into their convenient little box.  Both your desktop and your mobile devices will be checked. It also provides you with a UX (user experience) score and who doesn’t want that valuable feedback?

Google Analytics

If you’re not using Google Analytics, jump on board.  It provides a plethora of info, including SEO stuff.  You can find a slew of insights here. It knows all about your website traffic and gives you excellent guidance regarding keywords.  

Keywordtool.io

Keywordtool.io is a crowd pleaser.   This handy number will help you find out what keywords you need to be using.  It will give you hundreds of ideas based on just one word. After you input your word of choice you’ll receive a boatload of long-tail keyword options and some questions that users are asking.

Moz Local Listing Score

Moz Local Listing Score gives you helpful insights into how your biz is performing with the locals.  Using data from all over the WWW (Google, Facebook, LikedIn, Yelp, etc.) they’ll tell you how your brick-and-mortar business looks online and if there are any issues with how you show up (or don’t), they’ll tell you how to fix ‘em.   

Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools

Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools are awesome for offering up the goods on your website analytics.  They give you alerts and error reports that can make or break your business.  Gaining knowledge on what Google and Bing think about your site and its performance, sign me up.  

Moz Link Explorer 

Moz Link Explorer will provide you with a comprehensive exam of your website, pages, and all its links.  You’ll get a link analysis that consists of the best links pointing to your site and your most linked-to pages.

Ahref’s Backlink Checker

Ahref’s Backlink Checker is a link analysis tool that will offer you the top 100 backlinks to any website or URL.  Also offering the number of backlinks and referring domains, domain rating, and URL rating.  If you type in your competition’s website, you’ll get some awesome link insights that you can take advantage of right away.    

Snag Up the Freebies

Your next step is to get all these free tools and let them help you on your way to SEO excellence.  

If you have any questions about the best tools for your needs, or any other SEO questions, call us today!

Creating a Landing Page That Gets You What You Want

Creating a Landing Page That Gets You What You Want

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Landing pages are a big deal. They’re one of the most important pieces of your website, so you should not only know how to create an effective landing page, you should also be creating a bunch of them!

You may be wondering why landing pages are so critical to your online business. There are a few reasons:

  • They tell your users who you are through brand awareness
  • They will get you more subscribers or visitors or buyers (whatever you’re looking for)
  • They contribute greatly to your sales

So now you get it. The more landing pages you have, the more relationship-building you’re doing. And what biz doesn’t want that?

What’s a Landing Page Exactly?

Landing pages are web pages created for a very specific purpose. They’re not on your actual website and will usually have a differing URL from your actual website. Your landing pages are designed to go along with a marketing campaign.

Your landing page is going to be the first place your user goes after they hit the CTA that’s located in your ad, popup, etc.

For example, let’s say you’ve created a campaign to aid you in finding new subscribers to your newsletter. Your overall objective is to obtain a larger email list. When a potential new user sees your ad and hits it, your landing page comes up to greet them. Nice.

So it’s super important that this landing page you’re showing them gives them the info they’re looking for. Everything from your design, to your content, to your voice should speak to them in a way that answers their questions. You want to stay focused here and make sure the page resonates with the user, giving them what they want.

Why Do I Need to Create Separate Landing Pages Exactly?

They work. Marketers create landing pages because they get results. Here’s why:

They’re On-Point

Your landing page is here for one reason and one reason only. It provides a service to your user and it tells them exactly what they want to know without them having to do any extra work. So if your user hits your ad because she wants to know how your tennis shoes are ethically made, your page should be dedicated to answering that question.

They’re a Face for Your Brand

Who doesn’t love a killer first impression? Your landing page is often times your potential new customer’s first interaction with you. So make it count. If your page speaks to them, guess what? You just found yourself some loyalty.

Landing Pages Done Right

Like with all things marketing, there are good ways to do things… and bad ways. Let’s talk about how you should design a landing page that gets you those conversions.

The Target

If you’re looking to make an impactful and effective landing page, the first thing to do is know your target audience. Once you’ve defined your buyer persona, your conversion rate will increase dramatically.

Be detailed, organized, and thoughtful when creating your buyer persona, the more thought you put behind it, the better for them, meaning better for you. Include things such as income, education, location, marital status, age, etc.

The Goal

Your landing page’s success is defined by its effectiveness to metaphorically capture the flag. Meaning did it accomplish the goal you set out to accomplish? The only way to answer that question is to have that goal defined, too.

Because your landing page is created to serve one purpose (get more subscribers, get more sales, get your brand more visibility), your landing page should answer that need solely. Know your goal, create the landing page that pushes it forward.

The Copy

Your landing page’s copy should be crafted in a way that makes it easy for the user to understand, while also catering to the action you want them to take.

All of the copy on the page should compel your user to take action. How will your product benefit them, what are the best features? What would you want to see on the page that would compel you to buy? Make the page scannable and quick with clear information. Remember who your target audience is and use their language.

The UX

User experience is a huge deal. If you want your bounce rate to go way up, have a landing page that’s hard to navigate, or slow load speeds, or doesn’t answer the questions your ad promised it would.

The CTA

Your call to action is vital to your landing page’s success, so make sure it’s seen and easy for the user to click. Keep it aligned with your brand and your copy. Be compelling and use contrasting colors for noticeability.

The Content

A lot of people think content means the same as copy, but that’s not true. Copy is very important, but images and videos are becoming more popular by the second, so jump on that. This will help with sales because it helps with user experience. If a video, infographic, or image makes sense on your landing page, it won’t disappoint.

The Cleanliness

Keep it simple, people. Be neat, informative, on brand, impactful–from layout to content. The landing page is a quick response to the user’s question. Answer with thought and the conversions will follow.

If you have a lead generation page, make it short and sweet. No one wants to sign their life away so stick with the basics.

The Test

When in doubt create yourself a little A/B testing to find out what’s working and what isn’t. It’s not a waste of time, it helps you improve effectiveness across the board.

Now Start Designing

There you have it, a foolproof list of awesomeness that will contribute greatly to the success of your marketing campaign. If you’re not currently happy with your conversion rates, look into your landing page game.

If you have any questions or comments regarding landing pages or any other digital marketing happs, give us a call. We know all about it.

Smart Headlines That We Can’t Help But Click

Smart Headlines That We Can’t Help But Click

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Headlines are all too often an afterthought. I’ve actually published articles and the headlines that went out with them were meant to be placeholders for the actual, thought out, creative, catchy headline that I’d later drop in. Ugh.

So how do you write a smart headline that gets all the clicks and provides meaning to the content you spent so much time creating?

How do you grab the attention of your readers and engage with them through just a small, tidy string of words?

Study Other Headlines

I mean, you know what grabs you, right? Pay attention to all headlines and take notice of the words, the style, the composition, the emotion.

Searching for content in your area of expertise will give you hundreds of related pieces to look through, and if you set up a Google alert you don’t even have to do all the searching, the content will be sent to you on auto.

Googling “power words” is another easy place to start the process and get your juices flowing.

Be Creative, Not Vague

Being clear and concise is better than vague and witty—usually. Your headline serves to tell your reader what’s to come.

You want your headline to be descriptive and direct so your reader knows what to expect, people don’t like to be deceived, so stay on-topic and don’t get too cryptic. That said, don’t be all bores and snores either. You can be descriptive and creative.

It never hurts to ask your friends or co-workers what they think. Gaining insight from an actual reader will provide valuable information.

Get Inspired

If the stress of the perfect headline is weighing on you, look to others for some inspiration. Check out dictionaries, thesauruses, idioms, poems, rhymes, tools made for writers.

You can even look at social media outlets like Instagram and Pinterest. Perhaps an image will give you an idea for your words. Say you’re writing a piece on photography, look at a photographer’s image-centric boards or website or blog. What comes to mind?

The Truth Is in the Headline

It’s incredibly important to give the reader what you’ve promised them. If you want someone to click on you, don’t commit to something they won’t be receiving—you’ll lose a reader for life.

Look at the content itself. What have you conveyed? What was the craziest part? The funniest? What will capture your audience? You may have already written your very best headline—verbatim.

Stay On-Tone

I’m not usually all about matchy-matchy, but your headline should absolutely match the tone of the rest of your content.

If you’re writing about a tragedy, you simply cannot have a funny or catchy headline. You’ll be criticized and criticizers don’t go easy on you, especially online.

If your story is about an alpaca farm that’s also a B&B and wine vineyard that provides yoga classes, by all means, make your headline: You Pack The Wine Glasses, Alpaca The Yoga Pants. However, if that very same place got hit by a tornado and there were no survivors, not a good headline.

(Also, if this place exists, please leave that info in a comment below.)

The Search Engines

You don’t wanna forget these guys. So keep them right there in front of your brain when creating your headline. You’re not only trying to appeal to your readers but also the crawlers of the web that rank your content.

Keywords are just as important in the headline as they are throughout the body. Don’t get crazy, but pack in some of those searched words so you actually come up when a searcher searches.

Theme the Rules

If you follow these steps we know you can come up with some quality headlines and before you know it, headline writers from across the globe will be coming to you for their headline inspiration.

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