Blog Like A Pro

In case you haven’t noticed, a business can make good use of a blog. Whether it’s on the business site itself or a different address linked to it, content marketing can do plenty for you. It can increase your visibility, give legitimacy to your brand, and build the kind of connection you want with your consumer. But blogging is a venture that takes skill all on its own. If you want to look like a pro, you have to blog like a pro.

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Value must be your focus
If you want to improve the search engine optimization of your business and build its visibility, it’s easy to focus on quantity rather than quality. However, that’s not going to do you much good in most cases. Search engines use algorithms, such as visitor interest, to see just how valid content is. For that reason, as ever, value needs to be the core of what you need to know about your marketing strategy. Make it informative and newsworthy or helpful and instructional. It can even be focused solely on entertaining. The fact is it needs value for you to consider publishing it.

Make it your own
That’s not to say the text is all that matters. The visual style of a blog has to have a certain uniqueness to it. If you can’t pay for your own design, then at least try to find ones that aren’t widely used while still being relevant to your theme. Even with images heading blogs, you should take care to personalise them. Instead of throwing up generic images, find or make ones that stand out and customise them further by turning them into banners. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking a generic content mill. That’s the kind of design that will ensure readers don’t even stick around long enough to read what you’ve written.

Reach out
Those readers are important. Not just because they can lend the blog credibility. Those are the kind of leads that the blog can build. As with your social media and all your other marketing efforts, you need to put the work into making a community out of them. Reply to their comments. Get them involved in giveaways and competitions. Ask if they have any topics they would like you to cover.

Don’t be afraid to have a personality
When marketing for a business, it’s easy to play things safe and stick to the branding message and tone alone. When it comes to a blog, however, showing your human side is important. Finding your voice gives you the chance to enliven the intros and outros to articles. It enables you to write comments without sounding like a corporate robot. It creates the human connection of the blogger that a lot of blogger-followers want to see. Blogging is a very social kind of marketing, so you need to get sociable.

Building your audience on the blog is only going to improve the business. That means you have to take time. Time for the audience, time for the visuals, and time, most importantly of all, for the content. Happy typing.

Top 5 Tips To Produce The Right SEO Content

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SEO Content|Top 5 Tips To Produce The Right SEO ContentThe world of SEO is always changing, as Google’s algorithm acts as a black box: no one knows what is coming next.

Being an SEO professional is all about adapting your digital marketing strategy according to the right web design. Focusing on those factors that are determinant, the phrase “content is key” summarizes all. High-quality content can be one of the top factors that will make you stand out of the competition, helping you rank higher within the SERP. However, a common crossroad that most SEO experts encounter is related to quantity versus quality. Is it better to have tons of content, and make your pages/posts larger for the shake of it, or maybe is better to make posts shorter but straightforward? We will share some light on how you can produce quality content to make it the cherry top of your SEO cake.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SEO Content|Top 5 Tips To Produce The Right SEO Content1.Identify your Audience and their Needs

While it may seem like a simple and straightforward tip, a lot of businesses write content just for the shake of it. The main goal of writing a piece of content is to create awareness and value for a chosen topic.

On the other hand, if you write blog posts and articles with the sole intent to promote your products or services, people would feel that their needs are not taken into account. You should ask yourself: is my blog covering a wide range of topics? Are we answering those questions that targeted and future customers are asking to themselves? Therefore, you will have to conduct extensive research into your target segment to determine what are you missing in your content.

If you push the right buttons, your site will stand out of the crowd and will enable you to rank higher then your competitors.

2. Schedule your Content Using an Editorial Calendar

Creating an editorial calendar will help you organize your content. It will dictate you when to publish new content or which blog posts you want to update. Just make sure that you stick to it, you must create blog content on regularly. Some features you might want to take into account are:

  • Use a calendar app. E.g. Outlook or Google Calendar. Calendar apps are great for reminders and to organize your daily schedule. It will also enable you to share the editorial calendar with your marketing team, so everyone can collaborate with it!
  • Keep an eye on your competitors’ updates. If you want your content to be relevant enough, check on the competition to see what kind of content is creating, and when are they doing it. This will help you simplify the whole process of engaging with your audience and will keep you at the same level than the rest of the bloggers.
  • Create special features for your site. Add some originality to your blog here: create categories, weekly updates, contents etc. Try to be engaging at all times.

3. Assign Keywords to Search Intent

One of the most common mistakes that people make is to fill up their content with a lot of keywords, just because they want to rank for them. If you overuse keywords into your content, Google will not be happy with it, as the searcher is always trying to find content that is tailored to a keyword. If the content you produce focuses on improving the search volume for your keywords instead of providing value, Google will penalize the readability of your blog.

This is why mapping keywords to search intent is so important: is an easy step but is not that difficult to leave it behind. Therefore, you may want to perform a Google search for your keyword and see the results that the SERP displays. For example, if you want to rank for “best SEO tips”, you should map your keyword to a “best SEO tips 2020” blog post, or a related service website.

4. Update your Evergreen Content

First of all, make sure that you know what evergreen content is:

  • Searchable
  • Easy to share
  • Non-time sensitive
  • Enduring

Once you know which post/article you want to update, you may want to prioritize those posts that have earned more engagement. Check on the metrics: use ahrefs to see your top pages and pick up the right topic. Then, identify that data that is eligible for being updated, and reshape it: give it refreshment by adding some relevant information. Moreover, include internal and external links to your new content. This way, you can add new additional pages that are relevant to your article, which will add new value to your piece of content. Last but not least, remember to change those old and outdated images for new and shiny ones.

5. Focus on Quality AND Quantity

If you do have the resources to create as much quality content as possible and you can write several high-quality blog articles in a short period, just do it! However, if you cannot afford it that way, focus your attention on the 80% rule: put 80% of your efforts on quality and 20% on quantity or vice versa. Furthermore, it is harsh to put a 50%- 50% focus on both, as you will have to focus on relevant topics or publishing every day. Last but not least, identify which your overall goals are: are you looking to engage users and offer them new pieces every day? Or are you looking to create high-quality, unique content? That only depends on you, but I will try to focus on both at the same time.


About the Author

NathanIves.com Expert Contributor | Laura JimenezLaura Jimenez is a recent International Management & Business Communication with Marketing graduate with a masters’ degree from Heriot-Watt University. With a dynamic, pro-active, and positive can-do attitude. You can read more on her website: https://www.minttwist.com/

Marketing Techniques to Use in 2020

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Marketing Techniques|Marketing Techniques to Use in 2020There are some marketing techniques that you should always try to use in your business no matter what sector your company might operate in. These techniques and strategies will help push your business to the next level. Let’s take a look at some of the things you should be including in your marketing strategy, regardless of your business.

Education

There is always room for you to include a little education with your content to create the best possible posts that you can be certain your audience are going to want to see. Consumers nowadays want to know where their products are coming from, and they want to know more about the companies that they are buying from. It is incredibly important that you offer your customers the chance to learn more about your brand when coming to you.

This education does not have to compromise your trade secrets in any way. If you are a Fairtrade company, put in a page about how you achieve this status. Make content explaining the benefits of your products or services. You will often find that customers want to build trustworthy relationships with their favourite brands. Education is an excellent way to do it.

Personalisation

In 2020, consumers expect their communications with brands to be a little more personalised than it might have been in previous years. This goes far beyond just slapping a customer’s name on their emails or messages. It needs to be tailored to that customer and their preferences.

There are so many tools that you can use nowadays to collect data about your customers that you can then use to create more personalised marketing for them. You can even ask them to complete small questionnaires that will help your teams to come up with content that is going to suit them. You should get to know your customers as individuals and treat them as such. Offering small deals that lead to a more personalised experience as a company is always going to be better.

Use Video

Video content is some of the best you could include on your site. There are so many interesting ways that you could incorporate video content in your business, and you should try to add some as soon as you can. From tutorials to testimonials, or even some behind-the-scenes footage that shows you take a product from design to shipment, there are so many interesting paths to follow.

Making video content can be a lot more complicated that just creating images. Reaching out to a digital marketing service might be the right choice for your company. If you want an all-round service, try these digital experts. Not only can they help you make high-quality video content but they can also help you to properly upload it to your site do it can be used with the latest SEO strategies.

Livestreams

In addition to traditional video content, your brand might also want to look into some of the benefits of livestreaming. This is easily done through your social media. Both Facebook and Instagram carry the capabilities to go live. It is easy to set up and can reach a lot of your audience in a short amount of time with a lot of engagement in return.

Live content can be used to make special announcements, or even to showcase different products or services that might be on offer through the company. You might even decide to simply have a live “catch-up”, where you just sit and answer questions as they come in. It is definitely something worth looking into.

Concentrate on Your Local SEO

Since many businesses have made the jump to e-commerce in the past few years, there has been a large concentration of SEO outreach for a more general audience. People want to be able to rank well for their chosen sectors, and so they try to focus their SEO on reaching these goals even if it means going up against some of the biggest companies around.

However, you also need to make sure that you concentrate on your local SEO too. Fill out your Google My Business listing, and make sure that you optimise your local SEO so new customers can actually find you. If you are not a wholly digital company, you might still get a lot of foot traffic from people in your local area. All brick and mortar businesses need to ensure that potential local patrons are able to find them online.

These are all key points that all businesses need to be able to cover in 2020. Make sure you add some of the above marketing strategies to your business soon. You might be surprised to see the difference it can make to your brand overall. Marketing is one of those disciplines that few businesses can allow to slide.

Localised Vs Generalised SEO Campaigns: What’s Best For Your Business

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SEO Campaign|Localised Vs Generalised SEO Campaigns: What's Best For Your BusinessFor your business to be discovered online, it’s important to ensure that your website is optimised for search engines, and this is where SEO comes into your marketing strategy.

Without an SEO strategy, your business could be missing out on valuable traffic, so it’s important to consider how you’re going to structure your SEO strategies and campaigns.

Many factors come into play when you’re looking to do SEO for small businesses, particularly if you’re looking to attract international, national or local customers. The type of customer you’re trying to attract will play a role in deciding whether you should focus your SEO efforts on a general SEO campaign or a localised SEO campaign.

To help you decide on whether a localised or general SEO campaign is right for your business, let’s take a look at some of the common factors to keep in mind if you’re weighing up whether to run a localised or generalised SEO campaign.

Local SEO vs Generalised SEO: What Are the Differences?

Both general and local SEO focus on improving your search ranking in online search results so more people can find, contact and buy from your business. While both types of SEO have similar aims, there are subtle differences.

The main difference being that general or traditional SEO is the process of increasing both the quantity and quality of organic traffic to your website, not specifically from a particular area. While local SEO focuses on specialised solutions that help you connect you with searchers in your local area and attract local traffic to your website, but also physical locations if your business has them.

Should You Focus on General or Local SEO?

The first question you should ask before deciding on whether you should run a general or local SEO is making sure that your website is optimised with SEO best practices in mind.

After you’ve done this, you can decide on the type of traffic you want to attract to your website. Ask yourself these questions before deciding whether you should focus on local or general SEO:

  • Is your business located in one particular town or region?
  • Does your business serve customers locally, nationally or internationally?
  • Does your business have one or multiple physical locations?

If you run a local business, then your primary focus should be on ensuring that your local audience can find your website. If your business is national/international or you don’t have any particular location requirements for your business, then focus on a more generalised SEO campaign.

Getting Started With Local SEO:

As we’ve already mentioned, Local SEO is the process of optimizing a website to generate leads, traffic and brand awareness from local searches.

Local SEO works particularly well for small businesses that aim to target its customer in a particular location or specific area. Local SEO also works well for brick-and-mortar businesses with physical locations, like supermarkets, dentists, a local electrician or a local cleaning company.

If you’re looking to get started with local SEO, then it’s good to be aware of some general Local SEO tips.

Here are three Local SEO tips to get you started:

Optimise for Google My Business

Google My Business is Google’s tool to help verify a business as authentic. Through Google My Business, you can claim and update your business information which increases your chances of showing up in Google’s Local Pack, Local Finder, Google Maps and organic search results.

You can get started with Google My Business here.

Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

Research by SlideShare indicates that up to nine out of ten smartphone users conduct local searches on their devices. With stats like this showing the importance of a mobile-friendly way you want to make sure it’s easy for prospects and customers to navigate your website.

An effective way to see the mobile-friendliness of your website is to drop your website’s URL into Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool. Google will then provide you with a quick answer on whether or not your website is mobile-friendly. You’ll also be provided with a screenshot of how your webpage looks on a smartphone screen and a list of recommendations on how to make the mobile experience better.

Add Location Pages To Your Website

If your business has more than one physical location, then you can create unique location pages for each physical location your business is in. Remember to include your business location address, phone number, opening hours, parking information and reviews/testimonials from previous customers in every location page you create.

For more guidance on creating SEO friendly location pages, check out this guide from Search Engine Journal.

What Is General SEO?

General SEO refers to using traditional SEO methods to increase the amount of organic traffic to your site. If a business has an international customer base or is looking to attract customers nationally, then local SEO is probably not too much of a concern.

If this is the case for your business, then you’ll want to take a look at running a more generalised SEO campaign.

Before you launch any type of SEO campaign, it’s important to keep in mind the type of customer you’re trying to bring to your website and the geographical area you’re looking to target.

While you may not be targeting a specific geographical area, it’s still important to be aware of national and international SEO best practices. After you’ve decided on the type of customer/traffic, you’re looking to bring to your website; you can begin the process of carrying out a more general SEO campaign.

Here are some General SEO tips to get you started:

Evaluate Your Existing Website

The first step to any general SEO campaign is to evaluate where your website currently stands in terms of SEO and how your website is currently found from a search engine. The best way to do this is by using a few different SEO tools.

Free tools such as Google’s Search Console and Google Analytics allow you to maintain your website and check it’s presence. Other tools such as Screaming Frogs SEO Spider and Moz Pro can help you get an understanding of how your website is ranking and what improvements you can make.

SEO tools can take a little while to get the hang of, so take your time to get used to each tool.

Start Thinking of Relevant Keywords You Want to Rank for

After evaluating your website, you can start thinking of ideas and researching relevant keywords to create highly valuable content for your customers and audience. To carry out keyword research:

  • Define relevant topics related to your business.
  • Check keyword volumes and see what your competitors are ranking for.
  • Start planning your content.

To carry out your keyword research use tools such as Ahrefs and Google Ads Keyword Planner.

Is a Localised or Generalised SEO Campaign Right for Your Business?

The most important factor that will decide whether you should focus on local SEO is if you want to grow local traffic to your website or physical business. Local SEO can be hugely effective for local businesses, and if a local business can get their local SEO strategy right, they may not have to compete with businesses from all over the internet in local searches.

If your business is not location dependent or your customer base is widespread, then a general SEO campaign will be more effective for your business. A more General SEO campaign allows you to focus on traditional SEO practices to ensure you’re attracting as much quality traffic to your site as possible.

There may well be some overlap between local and general SEO practice in your SEO strategy. Most likely, your business marketing plan will include a variety of different tactics, so don’t be disheartened if you need to test and optimise your SEO and wider marketing efforts as you move forward and find the best strategies for your business.

App Vs. Website: Which Is Better for Your Business?

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |App vs Website|App Vs. Website: Which Is Better for Your Business?As the number of people accessing content using a mobile phone rises, you may find yourself asking whether an app or website is the better option for your business. After all, responsive web design has come a long way over the past few years, with developers able to provide a satisfactory experience on mobile. However, a website cannot replace an app and neither can an app replace a website. Both of them come with their own pros and cons and it takes careful consideration to choose between either.

Responsive Website Vs. App

Many businesses that want an app often start with a website. Why? A website is a lot less expensive than an app, works on all devices that can access the internet, and is easier to share and link to than an app.

Additionally, a website is a lot easier to find and you have to explicitly tell people that your business has an app for them to install. From a usability perspective, a website is also easier to update than an app. You also do not need to have separate versions for Android and iOS.

Although app stores have gotten much better at ensuring people can still find your business app, app stores still trail websites when it comes to discoverability. Because of this, websites give smaller businesses a better chance of being discovered.

Then there is responsiveness to think about. Nowadays, web designers design websites that offer a good user experience no matter the device the user is using. In the end, UX is a key factor for your user satisfaction but also for your performance on organic search results.

If your knowledge about UX and website design is limited, we recommend you get in touch with experts. Luckily for you, they can be based anywhere in the world. This is the case for many companies like Web Integrations. They started as website designers in Aberdeen, but now they serve clients from all over the world.

Apps Vs. Websites

Although business websites have their advantages, there is still enough need for you to have a business app developed. An app puts you in front of the people who install an app at all times so that they do not have to go online to find you. Because of this, a mobile app can be a unique marketing asset that provides a unique way for your customers to reach you.

Apps can also take advantage of native hardware features that websites cannot, such as push notifications and geolocation to offer tailored user experiences.

Working Together

Because apps are getting easier to create, there is no reason why your business cannot take advantage of the unique features both come with. This combination of an app and a responsive website gives your business a wider reach on the website while allowing you to still provide a unique user experience on the app.

Although your business might be thinking of choosing one or the other, there is a case to be made for using both an app and a responsive website for your business. They may seem antagonistic, but there is no reason why your app and business website cannot and should not work together.