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Brighton SEO 2022 Highlights: Day Three

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/JvHDFMS

If you read my last post about my second day at Brighton SEO, you may have noticed my subtle hint that I’d meet a few people. And I did! 

The first was someone from the very first agency I’d ever worked for – my first ever writing gig – and it was great to hear about the amazing things they have been up to in the six years since we worked together. 

The second was a former colleague I had trained with at another agency, and once again, hearing how much she was enjoying her new job was wonderful! 

And I also met someone for the very first time….I’ve spoken to him on Twitter (I think we all have) and I’ve had the honour of him attending one of my online presentations when we were in lockdown. Have you guessed who it is? Shameless selfie coming!

Mr Google himself, John Mueller!

That’s the thing I love the most about attending Brighton SEO in person. You get to bump into some really terrific people, even if it does start to feel like a ‘Rebekah Conway, This is Your Life’ type deal.

Anyway, back to the Brighton SEO presentations, today was a shorter day for me as I had a heck of a way to travel home, but I did manage to catch some fascinating talks before heading to the train. 

The second day was far less about hands-on SEO and more about self-care and taking care of the planet as part of your daily job – two things that I am incredibly passionate about (my colleagues must be so sick of me talking about sustainable marketing!)

Menstrual Health in SEO

Speaker: Chloe Smith

Menstrual Health in SEO (BrightonSEO Spring 2022) from Chloe Smith

Firstly, I’d like to give a shoutout to all the men who attended this talk. As Chloe pointed out, in the digital marketing industry men outnumber women by 2:1, and it was great to see so many people taking this important topic seriously. 

How menstrual health impacts the workplace

Here are just some stats relating to how menstrual health influences the workplace, based on a survey that Chloe created:

53% of people surveyed have taken at least one sick day as a direct result of menstruation.

69% have gone to work instead of calling in sick.

55% have lied about the reason behind their sick day, rather than admitting it’s due to menstrual health.

54% feel they can’t talk about menstruation at work. 

50% said that their workplace does not provide free period products.

What can digital marketing workplaces do to help?

In addition to highlighting the problems that need to be addressed, Chloe helpfully offered some solutions:

Put period health on the agenda – This is something that really needs to be addressed by the whole company. Just as with any other policy that’s implemented, business can always do more to understand how they can support team members who menstruate and ensure that this is communicated to everybody.

Provide free period products in the office – Sometimes irregularities happen in cycles and surprises happen. Being able to deal with it quickly and discreetly can help people feel much more comfortable.

Introduce menstrual health days – Similar to mental health days, this will help break the stigma attached to a natural process.

How to Take Care of Yourself When Researching and Writing About Difficult Topics

Speaker: Kat Nicholls

At a public speaking event, I once spoke about how writing a particular piece of content made me cry. And there are certain topics that I hope never to have to write about in my career but there will always be some that are unavoidable. 

As a writer, I wholeheartedly believe that words matter. While I aim to elicit emotion from my readers, that ultimately means I’m feeling a lot when writing. So this talk really caught my attention.

Kat gave some really simple but incredibly useful advice on how to take care of yourself as a writer both before, during and after a project:

Before a project

Outline why you’re writing about this topic – What can make it more meaningful, how can it best solve a problem or give the reader comfort?

Preplan breaks – and make sure you take them. It might help to set an alarm to remind you when it’s time to step away from the screen and get your bearings.

Set boundaries – And communicate these to the wider team (if you have a wider team). This may be requesting not to take on more than one ‘tough’ project at a time, or even asking for other tasks to be put on hold so you can concentrate all of your attention on this piece.

During a project

Remember your why – Keep in mind the reason behind the piece of work. 

Check in – Regularly contemplate if you’re ok. If not, think about what you can do to take care of yourself. Make a list of ‘decompression’ activities, things that aren’t at all connected to your work or the project.

Take breaks – The ones that you preplanned. Don’t skip them or push them back. During your breaks, try and do something entirely different and/or creative to take your mind off your work. 

Maintain your boundaries – and keep checking in on yourself.  

After a project

When you’ve proofread your last sentence and have sent it to the relevant person, there’s still stuff to be done:

Celebrate – Don’t just tick it off your list and move on the next task. Take some time to feel proud that you’ve completed a project and take a little break before hopping onto the next task.

Check in – Are there any emotions or stressors lingering from that project? Do you need to talk to someone, do another decompression activity, step away and go for a walk?

Note learnings – Humans are incredibly complex beings, if you’ve learned something about yourself during a project, make a note of it. 

If all copywriting teams adopted this approach, I think the entire sector will be happier and more creative. I’m lucky, at Boom, if I need to step away and grab a cup of tea, take a walk or even have a slightly longer lunch break, it isn’t questioned. In fact, it’s recommended. 

My manager has actively told me to take more breaks. Being able to step away when needed helps me to take care of myself and ensure I’m not burning out my creativity. This talk has only made it clearer to me that these steps are important and should be worked into every tough project I take on. 

Staying Sane: How To Prioritise & Manage Your Mental Health As An SEO

Speaker: Charlotte McIntyre

Staying Sane: How To Prioritise and Manage Your Mental Health As An SEO from CharlotteMcIntyre5

Charlotte perfectly summarised the state of SEO last year in one sentence.

“2021 [algorithm] updates were a B-word.” 

I may be paraphrasing slightly but the sentiment is there. 

Last year was hard for everyone and the sheer number of Google updates we saw was just the cherry on top of a pretty crappy cake. (In fact, if 2021 were a muffin, it would be a savoury muffin!) But if anything, it highlighted the fact that we all need to take care of ourselves before we can do a good job at work. 

Here are some stats she pointed out:

One in Four people experience a mental health problem.

One in Five people have suicidal thoughts.

In 2020/2021, 50% of all work-related ill-health were related to anxiety, depression and stress. 

She also highlighted some aspects of the industry that can have a negative impact on our mental wellbeing:

The sheer number of algorithm updates – I know I’ve mentioned it once but it was so mammoth I think it needs to be typed again.

Ranking fluctuations – being so hyper focused could be causing more stress than is necessary. Maybe we should be looking more at the bigger picture rather than getting so fixated on specific terms?

Unrealistic expectations – I feel like this is probably the case in all industries.

Unmanageable workloads – See above.

Lack of buy-in and support – Continuously fighting for your expert opinion to be heard or for things you need to be pushed through is physically and mentally exhausting. 

Charlotte then went on to explain how to better manage day-to-day SEO work and still enjoy it:

Draw clear boundaries – something that was already touched on in an earlier talk.

Step away from updates – Let them do their thing and then analyse and make a plan. 

Try not to get too bogged down with things that are out of your control – This one is a toughie! 

Ask for help – Another toughie, but one that is so important. 

When you’re worrying about something – Ask if you’ll even be thinking about it in a week/month/year. This is a great way to get clarity when you’re in the weeds.

These may be useful tips, but it’s important to bear in mind that mental health is different for everyone, so if you need additional support, I highly recommend you seek it out.   

Charlotte also requested that managers look to put infrastructure in place to protect their employees. 

Web Design For People And Planet

Speaker: Tom Greenwood

As I mentioned earlier, I’m a huge fan of bringing sustainability into digital marketing. I’ve also been involved in most digital departments throughout my career, but never web design. Although it’s something that I’ll always admire. So, I was really intrigued by this talk. 

First, Tom gave some pretty harrowing stats: 

Data Centres use 200TWh of electricity every year – the same amount as the entire country of Spain. 

The internet is almost twice as polluting as the aviation sector. 

Even though most products and services become more efficient over time, website load times haven’t really improved at all.

How to reduce waste in web design

The first piece of advice Tom gave in reducing the amount of waste there is on the internet is to ask yourself:

Do we need this?

Can we achieve the same thing with less?

What can we remove before we implement it?

Next, he suggested looking at the images we use. I think that as an industry we’re encouraged to use images every chance we get. The more the better. But if we took an audit of the images on a website, would we find that 100% of them add value? Or that they’ve just been put there to break up content without actually improving the user journey and experience. 

I know I’ve been guilty of this.

He also made an incredible point that I personally had never considered – the more data our website’s use, the less people we can reach. Not everybody is data-rich and this is something we should definitely be considering when marketing client products and services online.

He then followed this up with some advice:

Compress your images where you can (an oldie but goodie).

Hand optimise your SVGs. (Animated SVGs are more carbon-efficient than videos, and any text you include can be read by the search engine bots).

Contemplate using system fonts as these (though they may look boring) are zero waste.

If you use subset fonts, think about stripping out any characters that you aren’t going to use.

If you use CSS, regularly clear out any colours that you don’t use anymore. 

Javascript is seven times more efficient than PHP.

He also referred to the Sustainable Web Manifesto for anyone who’s interested in finding out more. 

Search In The Metaverse

Speaker: Kara Thurkettle

BrightonSEO April 2022 – Kara Thurkettle – Search in the Metaverse.pdf from 🇺🇲 🇬🇧 Kara Thurkettle

OK so, when I first heard about the metaverse I was super creeped out by it. So I went to this talk to find out more and to know when it might make it’s way into digital marketing.

Turns out the answer to that question is right now!

Brands are already selling their products and services in the metaverse and, according to Kara, by 2026, 30% of organisations will be selling their products and services within the metaverse. 

By then, One in Four people will be spending at least one hour per day in the metaverse.

Why use the metaverse?

71% of AR users said that, with the help of AR, they would increase shopping.

The tech improves conversion and ROI – think of retail, in the metaverse you can ‘try on before you buy.’

With that in mind, returns can be reduced.

How to optimise for the metaverse

Ironically after the talk that immediately preceded Kara’s talk recommended we contemplate using less imagery, Kara said that image optimisation is going to be more important than ever when it comes to optimising for the metaverse. 

Other tips she gave include:

Consider utilising AR modifications for your target search terms such as ‘try on’.

Carry out a competitor audit with the metaverse in mind.

Create dedicated landing pages for shopping in the metaverse. 

Think about a visual strategy. 

Metaverse concerns

As with all new tech, there are risks that need to be considered and measured. Kara said that the top concerns at the moment for the metaverse (taken from a survey) revolve around security, privacy and safety. 

Therefore, if this is a sector you’re interested in exploring, it’s worth consulting both accessibility and cybersecurity experts. 

SEO In A Sustainable Future

Speaker: Eilish Hughes

This was the last talk I’d get to see at Brighton SEO before heading home, and one that I was the most excited about. 

Just as with Tom’s talk, Eilish began by outlining some of the issues marketers are facing when it comes to operating sustainably:

Using a smartphone for one hour each day results in 1.25 tonnes of C02 being released into the atmosphere each year. That’s equivalent to 13.8 million more cars on the road.

Google, in their sustainability efforts, are reducing their refresh crawls, which can cause issues with measuring the impact of our changes.

How can SEO’s work more sustainably? 

This is something that I’ve been researching a lot lately, and the recommendation she made is something that I’m using right now in one of my hub optimisation tasks:

Reduce the amount of unnecessary content that isn’t performing or serving a genuine purpose, and reuse and recycle content where you can. 

Why do SEOs need to embrace sustainability?

There is so much I could and want to say here, but I’m just going to focus on  what Eilish spoke about. 

Google is highlighting sustainability in the SERPs – They’ve already published green hotels. Implementation of pointers like this are likely to continue.

Rankings – Eilish expects that sustainability will become a ranking factor. That’s something I’d happily welcome.

Ecosia – If you haven’t heard of Ecosia, I highly recommend taking a look.

Universities are using it as their default search engine.

Optimising your site for Ecosia as well as Google can improve your rank and quality score for Bing and its Partners. 

Meta descriptions are longer, and Ecosia interprets search intent differently. 

Whether you use Ecosia or not, it is assigning brands with a leaf icon if they believe it is operating sustainably, and a coalmine icon if they believe you’re operating unsustainably. 

Britons have become more concerned about environmental issues since the pandemic – According to a survey, and that concern isn’t going to just disappear.

Sustainable shopping is on the rise – 40% of searches are seeking sustainable companies.

We are all responsible for sustainability and saving the planet.

Thankfully, she also gave additional hints and tips to get us started:

If you’re thinking of investing in a server, consider a carbon neutral one.

Talk about how your brand is sustainable, and what short and long term goals you have, but be careful not to greenwash.

Include green search terms in your pages, but again, make sure you aren’t greenwashing. 

If you are involved in eCommerce, look at the materials your products are made out of and their end of life cycles. 

Be realistic, it’s likely going to take many small changes to make an impact.

And that’s all folks! I grabbed my swag bag of Brighton SEO goodies, hopped on a train and thought about all of the amazing things I’d learned on this trip. I hope these recaps have been beneficial to you too.

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

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Brighton SEO 2022 Highlights: Day Two

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/6swg4ru

I started the day by taking part in Brighton SEO’s beach clean. I’ve loved the ocean since I was a child. In fact, until I learned that I was better with words than numbers (and realising that the West Midlands is far, far away from the sea), I was hoping to grow up to be a marine biologist.

But anyway, after finding some interesting (and disgusting) things during the beach clean, I was ready for coffee and more SEO chat. There were so many amazing talks and I couldn’t possibly attend them all, but here’s a summary of the ones I did get to see:

The Full Scoop On Google’s Title Rewrites

Speaker: Mordy Oberstein

The Full Scoop on Google’s Title Rewrites from Mordy Oberstein

This talk gave tons of statistics on how often Google rewrites page title tags, including by device, and why. I was hooked by the first stat!

How often Google rewrites title tags

The percentage of page title tag rewrites Google is doing is growing. It jumped from 62% in October 2021 to 65% in January 2022. And it’s rewriting more tags on desktop than on mobile, although only 4% more.

What is Google changing?

On desktop, 55% of the tags Google rewrote used the page’s H1. The search engine is also removing the brand names on page title tags showing on desktop.

But the rewrites are very close to the original tags, with most rewrites being an 80-90% match.

Additionally, Google rewrites homepages less than other pages.

The actual changes are interesting too, Google seems to be:

Aiming for deeper geotageting.

Adding brand names to YMYL sites.

Tweaking so that the most useful information comes first.

Removing ‘marketing speak’. 

Why Google rewrites title tags

Mordy started off with all the reasons that he thought might be the cause before discovering that they weren’t. 

Ranking – it doesn’t make a difference

Length of title tag – only seems to matter when the page title is longer than twelve words.

Intent – apparently this is one of the few areas where intent doesn’t impact Google’s decision.

He then summarised the reasons he thinks this is happening. And the main reason is that Google has a lot more information and data to work from. While it’s frustrating to not be able to force the content you want to be shown on Google in the way you want it to be shown, I personally think that Google’s title tag rewrites are more of a blessing than a curse. 

Think about it, Google wants people to use its search engine the most, and if it has data that will increase the usefulness of the SERPs and the CTRs, that’s only a good thing, right?

Entity Search: Your Competitive Advantage

Speaker: Benu Aggarwal

EntitySearchbrighton2022.pptx from Benu Aggarwal

Benu began her talk by highlighting the main problems regarding entity search that need to be resolved:

Content discovery.

Relevance and topical content.

Measuring impact.

Scalability.

She also highlights that 90% of digital content is not discoverable, yet 82% of searchers are looking for top of the funnel, discovery content. You can see the problem in that one sentence alone!

The case for an entity-first strategy

I was already a huge fan of entities and schema, but the information Benu showcased made me more so. She explained how:

Schema can increase organic search by 31% and non-branded traffic share by 121%

Different types of schema can strengthen entities for better visibility:

FAQ schema – 98%

Image schema – 19%

Featured snippets – 124%+

Site links – 143%+

Entities are a means for Google to better understand the context of your content, so it’s definitely something we should be leveraging as much as possible.

What needs to be included in an entity-first strategy

For an entity-first strategy to be successful, there are three key areas of focus – topics, intent and then entities and a five-step optimisation framework to follow: 

This strategy includes identifying schema vocabulary, gaps and mapping, potential sizing, topical gaps, content elements and enhancements and finally, implementation.

As with any strategy, the metrics you use to measure performance is vital to truly understand your impact. Benu recommends looking at:

Performance for each type of schema (not just an overview).

SERP coverage.

Clicks.

Impressions.

Potential cost savings.

I love how there’s an additional way to communicate what our sites stand for with Google. If you haven’t tried an entity-first approach before, I highly recommend you take Benu’s advice and give it a go.

SEO Gap Analysis

Speaker: Lidia Infante

I’m a big fan of Lidia, having heard her speak at the last Women in Tech SEO conference. She began her talk by highlighting that ranking highly in the SERPs isn’t really about what we do, but about what our competitors are doing. So, when carrying out an SEO gap analysis, we need to ask ourselves the following questions:

Who are my competitors really in the SEO landscape?

Are they targeting the same audience and search terms and are they solving the same problems?

What are they doing?

How can we do it better?

A nugget of treasure she taught me here is that by using Google Data Studio, you can see the Core Web Vital scores of quite literally ANY website…wow!

So you can review which aspects of CWV your competitors are doing better than you and then make a plan to level the playing field and then overtake them entirely. 

How to Go Viral on a Budget

Speaker: Alex Hickson

How to go viral on a budget using Digital PR.pptx from AlexHickson3

Having a piece of creative content that you’ve worked your butt off on get picked up, viewed and shared by thousands upon thousands of people who all have fantastic things to say about it is the dream, right? 

And, since I was fresh from my training course on PR, I was excited to get another dose of Brighton SEO brilliance. And Alex didn’t disappoint with his step-by-step guide:

Set goals and CTAs – these are the foundation of your content.

Think about what emotion you want your content to make your audience feel.

Tie the product or service into a trend.

Validate your trend using tools like Buzzsumo, Exploding Topics, Google Trends, Answer the Public. (These are tools that we use a lot in content marketing here at Boom Online).

Ascertain where your target audience is consuming media, how can you get your campaign picked up on those platforms?

Create your pitch. And Alex has so many tips here too, such as how to structure it (opener, primary hook, secondary hook, quote, close and how long it should be (400 words max).

Find your journalists.

Measure which publications that covered your campaign are sending traffic to your site.

Day one and day two at Brighton SEO left me exhausted. I’d learned so much (and walked around a lot!) but I couldn’t wait until the next and final day. So, I tie-dyed a Brighton SEO tea towel and headed back to my hotel to rest and get ready for day three of Brighton SEO 2022 – all the things I’d learn and people I’d meet tomorrow….

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

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Brighton SEO 2022 Highlights: Day One

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/2PToncf

Attending Brighton SEO is one of the highlights of the year for hundreds if not thousands of digital marketers out there. And I was honoured to be able to attend Brighton SEO 2022 not just the full conference but one of the training days that took place the day before. 

That means I got to see that huge Brighton SEO banner and walk along the seafront before things got really busy. 

Here’s an overview of my time at the event, covering each of the three days. My colleague Susan attended virtually, so keep an eye out for her review too!

Content Creation for Digital PR (Advanced) Training Course

Day one of my Brighton SEO experience was dedicated to a wonderful training course on content creation for digital PR. We all sat in a conference room that didn’t seem to know there was a setting between boiling and freezing while Hannah Smith, the course trainer, asked us all why we were there. 

My answer? Because I’ve tried digital PR precisely once in my seven-year digital marketing career (at a different agency to Boom)… and it went horribly wrong! Hannah’s response – “everyone’s been there.” 

Nicely reassured, especially with the number of nods from people around the room, I started to feel excited about maybe one day dipping my toe back into the world of digital PR. Here’s what was covered:

What Every PR Brief Should Include

Firstly, every campaign should include the exact publications to be targeted. This doesn’t have to be an exhaustive list, just the top contenders – five to ten. This allows research to be carried out and ideation and validation (more on this later) to have the best chance of success. Every PR brief should also include:

The exact website (and page) to be linked to.

A list of topics the client is not willing to entertain. 

In addition, it would be nice if every PR brief also had the following:

Topics the client is keen to explore.

An overview of who they are hoping to attract to their site through this campaign.

Examples of content published elsewhere that the client wishes they had thought of. 

We then discussed the metrics that should be used to measure the success of a piece. We agreed on the following, although this may change based on the campaign – as always, there’s no rule of thumb:

Coverage.

Rankings.

Increased organic traffic.

The PR Creative Process

After a quick coffee break, Hannah then took us through the three stages of the creative process:

Inspiration

We learned about the concept of remakes vs remixes, which I’d already heard Hannah speak about in a previous talk. (There’s a great write up on the topic here) Interestingly, when taking on a PR campaign, Hannah spends most of her allocated time in this section of ideation. And with good reason – without inspiration, there’s no idea. 

She also gave us a great cheat to use when we have that list of target publications our clients would be psyched to get coverage on, using either Buzzsumo or Ahrefs to see what kind of posts they’re interested in publishing:

Search domains or subdomains.

Read articles.

Search domain and topics.

Search just topics.

Brainstorm more topics.

This may read as a little repetitive and time consuming, something that time-poor PRs don’t have, but remember that journalists need to be able to write up coverage for your idea within 15 minutes, so being as entrenched in what they will be willing to cover is crucial for success.

Hannah also encouraged us to create swipe files – essentially any campaign you see that catches your attention gets saved so that you have a smorgasbord of ideas at your fingertips to scroll through. Say goodbye to that annoying problem – I’ve seen something really cool that we could use…but I can’t find it…

Generation

Next is the process of generating ideas. Hannah stressed here that these shouldn’t be fully formed. This is the area where Hannah spends the least amount of time, and the way she works is similar to what we do at Boom when brainwriting to generate digital PR ideas. 

Essentially, once you’ve spent time gathering inspiration, you set a timer and write down headlines, questions that may be interesting to answer and other ideas. The ideas can be absolutely anything, it doesn’t have to be on-brief or even on-brand at this point, that comes later. 

If you can get 100 ideas down in, say an hour, then there will be a handful of scrawling’s that are valid ideas that can then be built upon and taken to the client.

Validation

With your, say, 100 ideas, it’s time to go through and find the gold. Taking a shortlist, ask yourself the following questions:

Is the idea on-brief?

Is it right for the brand?

Is it a remix or remake? If so, make sure there’s a solid reason why the original was successful.

How many publications are likely to cover it? 

In what verticals, countries etc?

How many stories can we get out of one PR campaign? 

Does this idea evoke emotion?

Is there any risk associated with this campaign?

This should help you further narrow down your ideas until you have a handful of really compelling options to present. 

Saving a Campaign

There will always be campaigns that have us tearing our hair out two weeks down the line when you haven’t had a single response to an outreach email.

In these instances, Hannah didn’t tell us to shrug our shoulders and move on to the next campaign. Instead, she gave us this advice:

Ask yourself if the coverage you were aiming for was realistic.

Go back and look to see if there is something in your pitch that might have put a journalist off.

Is something happening in the newscycle that may be taking everyone’s attention? Can you hop on it?

Go back through your data, is there a better angle that you can try?

Does your campaign need an expert comment? Additional asset? Further research?

Is it the campaign, or the email pitch that’s the problem? (You can tell this by looking at your email open rate – if people are reading and passing, your problem is likely your pitch).

This is quite literally a snapshot of the training day. If I wrote about absolutely everything we covered…well, you’d be reading for a very, very long time!

I left the training more enthusiastic than ever about digital PR, and was buzzing for day two of Brighton SEO 2022 and day one of the SEO conference!

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

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GA4: Why You Should Set Up Google Analytics 4 ASAP

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/4AMVIfG

Google has announced the deprecation of Universal Analytics (UA), the much-loved and much-used tool that provides website owners with a wealth of information about visitors to their site, how they got there and what they did.

It will stop collecting data on 1st July 2023 and data in your account will be available for at least six months after that (see Google’s official announcement here).

A Complete Change for Google Analytics

The replacement for Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4, came out of beta at the start of this year and can be run in parallel with UA on your website.

It’s safe to say that GA4 works very differently to its predecessor – whilst there is an upgrade tool from Google, settings such as Goals and ecommerce tracking cannot be carried over, meaning that a basic install of GA4 will leave you without any conversion tracking (amongst other things).

The Time is Now for GA4

Clearly, if you don’t already have a fully-configured GA4 setup in place for your site, it is imperative that you do so as soon as possible so that when UA ceases to gather data, you will be able to create reports comparing periods of time such as year-on-year. GA4 will not import any historic data from UA, so you will only be able to get reports from the point in time GA4 was installed on your site – meaning the sooner the better!

As noted above though, just installing the GA4 tag on your site won’t get you all the data you need. You will still need to set up GA4 events to measure any kind of conversion or non-pageview interaction (e.g. downloads of PDFs from your website). The Events and ecommerce tracking used by Universal Analytics are not supported by GA4, necessitating a whole new setup and possibly web development work (particularly for ecommerce sites).

It’s also worth noting that “enhanced measurement” is enabled by default in GA4 and this puts the responsibility for not passing personally identifiable information (PII) on to the website owner. For example, firing an event to tell GA4 that someone entered their email address to access a download means that you must ensure the email address itself is not passed to GA4.

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If you need advice or assistance in setting up GA4 for your website, talk to us now. Don’t leave it too late and lose your valuable Google Analytics data!

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

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UX Optimisation: Humanising Your Website (Case Studies)

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/3twbgtr

In the race to the top of the SERPs, many digital marketers often forget that websites are built for humans, and not just for Google.  In the past, good practice SEO checklists combined with a creative content strategy could get great results, but recent Google updates have shown that if you’re not investing in UX optimisation (user experience), then you’re missing a trick.

OK, Slow Down… What is UX?

UX stands for “User Experience”, but what does that actually mean? Well, in a nutshell, UX is how your users feel as they navigate around your site. Whilst the ultimate aim of any website is for visitors to “convert” (e.g. invest in a product, service or brand), UX is more focused on how that process makes them feel and leads them to that end goal. 

Ultimately, if the process is frustrating, annoying or just plain broken, then the user will rarely convert (or have a horrible time doing so), but if your users have a fantastic experience then clearly you’re going get their business!

Why is Google interested in UX all of a sudden?

In fairness, Google has always been interested in the user – its very reason for existence (no cynicism here) was to organise the web and make it navigable for users; getting the best results to the top of its search engine, with humans in mind.

Lately, however, Google has been increasingly focused on your website’s “Core Vitals” (measuring speed, responsiveness, visual stability and so on). And with each update, Google is striving to making your sites more human, making them “delightful”, even…

“Optimizing for these factors makes the web more delightful for users across all web browsers and surfaces, and helps sites evolve towards user expectations on mobile.”

– Evaluating page experience for a better web

So, how do I make my website more human?

It’s a strange one, isn’t it? Humans create products, we write copy, take photos, and we stick them all together in a website. Yet somehow, at the end of the process they can still be considered “not human enough” by one of Google’s bots. 

For various reasons, whether it’s lack of budget or time, lack of creativity, or a myriad of other things, we can fail to see the bigger picture. 

Little Moments of Joy

Often the bigger picture means looking at the smaller details. Think again about what user experience means; it’s how people “feel” when they use your site. What happens when they click that buy button, or get lost and hit a 404? Just how are you going to ensure you delight and assist your users at every step of the way? Let’s look at some examples…

Virgin Media https://www.virginmedia.com/

Cookie notices annoy the hell out of everyone, popping up all over the place, asking you to make a choice you have no idea about, and eventually just clicking “accept”. So here, first impressions count.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Virgin Media adds a touch of playfulness here by suggesting you “Open the cookie jar” which sets the tone for the rest of the site.

M&S https://www.marksandspencer.com/

It might seem like a little thing, but being polite and grateful to the buyer can improve the user’s mood considerably. It’s amazing just how so many “add to basket” clicks simply display a boring old “added to basket” message.

Come on, get your developer to change it, it only takes a few minutes! Even better, congratulate the customer on their excellent choice or taste!

Patagonia https://eu.patagonia.com

In addition to the above, why do we even call it a “cart” or a “basket” anyway? Both are quite sterile, salesy and samey. Perhaps it’s time to mix it up a bit, adding a more familiar touch, such as

Patagonia’s “Add to Bag” helps bridge this disconnect. What else could we add items to, I wonder?

Lego https://www.lego.com/

Free delivery is everywhere these days, but it doesn’t mean we can’t shout about it, or even “celebrate” it. Yey! There’s so much fun to be had on the Lego site, but the little interactions and messages really bolster their philosophy, even on an otherwise boring checkout page.

Minimise Frustration

A frustrated user is unlikely to last very long on your site, which means they’re also less likely to convert. Ensuring there are fewer opportunities for frustration and being as helpful as possible whenever it does happen is the key to success.

Sometimes pages disappear and aren’t redirected, which can land you on a 404 page, which can be a frustrating experience. Other times website search results turn up with no results, which can, again, throw you to a similar page. Adding useful links and clear messaging can alleviate some of this frustration and get your lost customers back on track. 

Doing it with a touch of personality is even better!

HBO https://www.hbo.com/

Spotify https://www.spotify.com/

IMDB https://www.imdb.com/

Airbnb https://www.airbnb.co.uk/

Considering the size and scope of Airbnb, you might assume their site would be a clutter of offers, listings, blog posts etc. But their site is a shining example of simplicity. Everything is paired back and the booking system is flawlessly user-friendly, meaning the only frustration is finding out your temporary neighbours are noisy!

Personalise

If you’re a regular to a website, chances are they know what you like to buy, they’ve got your purchase history after all! But that doesn’t mean the website can’t treat you like a valued customer.

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/

Sure, there are LOTS of reasons to dislike Amazon, boycott them even. But… there’s a little touch on their site that I’ve always liked, which seems like a simple thing to implement… that little “Hello, Peter” (insert your own name, obvs) where your account details are. Amazon actually refer to you by name throughout their site, whether it’s to sell you credit, promote offers or a thousand other things. It clearly works.

Deciem https://deciem.com/en-gb

If the user is a first time customer, perhaps they’ll need a little more help than usual? That’s where product “finders” or “builders” can really help. They act in many ways like a shop assistant, asking questions in a more human way than a filter until you have enough options to make a choice. The builder at Deciem even asks your name, so it can use it later in the results. Neat.

What did we learn about UX optimisation?

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Build your site with humans in mind, work with your SEOs but try to find the right balance of UX and SEO – these days they are closer than ever.

Bring some personality to your site. Your brand is how you are perceived by others and most people’s first impression of your brand will be your website. Get it right the first time.

Make the user experience as delightful as possible, within the context of your brand. If you sell coffins, yeh… maybe ease up on the cutesy stuff, but maximise on the helpful and empathetic side. You can find the right tone for any brand, service or product.

Don’t go with the default when it comes to CTAs, or messages, use your creativity and imagination and put your devs to work.

Avoid users getting stuck by making your navigation simple and intuitive.

Anywhere a user is likely to get stuck, provide as many sensible routes out as possible.

Be grateful for the custom by saying thank you!

Keen to figure out just how user-friendly your website can be whilst still remaining SEO optimised, but don’t quite know where to start with a UX audit? Our friendly team of SEO experts and experienced designers are always on hand to collaborate and help, just give us a call.

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

[wayneb77]

Black Friday Marketing: How to Do It Better in 2022

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/3y3dTTP

Black Friday is one of the most important days in the retail calendar for a lot of businesses, if not the most essential. It is a pivotal time for retailers to generate revenue and meet their financial goals. With discounts and promotions galore, businesses are always looking to set themselves apart from the rest of the competition. Without a successful Black Friday marketing campaign, it’s easy to get left behind!

As we go into the holiday season, we thought we’d round up some of the best Black Friday marketing campaigns of 2021 and all time. We also wanted to look at how you could use these examples for your own marketing, as well as a touch of SEO wizardry to optimise your website, ready for Black Friday 2022.

Black Friday 2021: What Happened?

In 2020 the focus on online shopping had never been greater whilst the UK tried to celebrate Christmas safely amidst the global pandemic. But it seems there has been a shift in 2021. 

Statistics reported by The Guardian suggest a record 9.2bn was spent this year, a 15% increase on 2020. Whilst online sales were still strong, the high street did bounce back somewhat. Overall, Black Friday 2021 was the UK’s biggest yet.

We’re getting so used to Black Friday that we’re talking about it less, but it’s still the biggest shopping day of the year and marketers should ignore it at their peril. It’s getting much harder to innovate and stand out from the crowd, so we’ve had a look at the landscape today.

Who ranked highest for ‘Black Friday sales’?

When it comes to ranking on the first page of the search results, competition is fierce and on Black Friday this is no exception. 

While some may believe that sales are what matter most, it is important to remember that rankings play a vital role in the conversion process. Once your customers find you online, this will increase your chances of them buying from you.

Who dominated the SERPs over Black Friday weekend?

Retailers:

Amazon

John Lewis

Boots

House of Fraser

Not On The High Street

Matalan

ASOS

Other sites:

TechRadar

Toms Guide

The Independent

Radio Times

CNet

T3

Radio Times

As you can see, big businesses dominate the rankings for this term, but why is that? One significant reason is that bigger firms generally have more search engine trust than smaller companies. Though not a legitimate metric (it was created by Moz), Domain Authority ratings are a good indicator as to how “trusted” a website is.

There are lots of factors that can affect the rankings of a website, such bounce rates, conversion rates, backlink profiles and page speed. But generally speaking and not to oversimplify it, the higher your DA, the easier it will be to rank for competitive keywords.

‘Black Friday sale’, ‘Black Friday deals’ and ‘Black Friday offers’ are all highly competitive keywords that can be difficult to rank for when fighting against the big boys.

So, how can smaller businesses outrank larger companies on Black Friday?

If you are a smaller business it can seem impossible to rank against the more established websites with a wider following, but there are ways of doing this if you’re willing to play the long game and be a little more thoughtful in your approach.

Consider The Keywords You Target More Carefully

You may have to reconsider the keywords you’re targeting. The bigger websites with high DA are most likely to take up the top positions for general short form keywords and trying to target these can be a costly exercise with not much return. That time and energy could be better placed digging a little deeper.

If you target long tail Black Friday related keywords with less competition that are hyper-relevant to your business and what you sell, your chances of ranking well will (hopefully) increase. As will the relevancy of the traffic coming to your website, naturally improving conversion rates. Sell branded products? Consider targeting branded keywords. For example, “Black Friday Nutribullet deals” has a competition score of 24% by comparison to the more general “Black Friday deals” with a score 56% – meaning the branded term should be easier to rank for. 

The same thinking can be applied to non-branded terms too. For example, “Black Friday clothes deals” has a competition score of 34%, compared to “Black Friday winter coat deals” with a competition score of just 18%. 

The search volume for the less competitive terms may be lower, but your traffic will be better qualified. As you’re targeting users that are further down the sales funnel, you’ll have a greater chance of converting a visitor into a customer. 

It’s also worth taking into account how the likes of Google categorise your business and how this can have an impact on the results that are delivered in the SERPs based on relevancy. 

Take a look at the above companies, what do they have in common?

The retail businesses offer a range of different consumer goods, none of them are particularly niche when you consider their product range. The other sites that ranked well were review articles of “the best Black Friday offers”.

Google will present these results because it has a picture of what those types of users are looking for. This is all based on how it understands Black Friday shoppers due to previously collected search query data and how users have gotten to that point (plus the tons of other ranking factors we touched on above).

Generalist search terms for generalist shoppers.

You could try all the SEO tactics in the world, but if search engines just don’t deem you a relevant result for that search, you’re not going to stand much of a chance.

Consumer Driven Content

What is your audience looking for on Black Friday? What questions are they asking? Creating high-quality, highly targeted content will give your customers what they want, improve the user experience and trustworthiness of your website as visitors will stick around for longer. 

Not only is it better from a user point of view, but good, targeted content will also afford you more opportunity to build quality backlinks as more external websites will be able to cite your content. As a result of these things, you will hopefully see increases in your rankings… and sales!

Other Ways To Draw Attention To Black Friday Marketing Campaigns

Black Friday can actually be quite a hard day to try and attract first-time customers, especially when you’re going up against such strong competition with multi-channel marketing campaigns. Relying on organic traffic is a little bit of a long shot unless you totally tie down those long tail keywords.

But this doesn’t mean you should give up, or turn your back on using a Black Friday marketing campaign to attract more customers. Here are just some of the ways you can help your brand stand out to Black Friday shoppers, without a massive marketing budget:

Intriguing Email Marketing Campaign

What They Did: Apple

Rather than simply sending out the details of their sale on Black Friday, Apple is known for starting Black Friday campaigns a few days early. Taking charge of a marketing channel that is often underestimated, they send out their first email over a week before the big day, then feed through more emails with more details of their offers.

This interactive version of a countdown timer can create urgency and anticipation for the sales while also making sure Apple is at the top of peoples list.

What You Can Do:

Research by Shopify suggests that email marketing has the highest average conversion rate of all the traditional Black Friday marketing campaign tools. As well as trying Apple’s repeated email approach, you can make sure your Black Friday email marketing campaign is extra effective in other ways. 

Offering people early access to sales prices or initiatives should encourage sign-ups to build your list for future communications, helping you see benefits from your Black Friday campaigns for many months more.

Refresh Your PPC & Paid Advertising

What They Did: Nasty Gal

Although they are an established clothing retailer, Nasty Gal still needed a Black Friday marketing campaign to help them stand out. They updated all their PPC & Paid Advertising to make it Black Friday specific, including references to Black Friday in text and graphic design and staying strong in their voice. They even included a bold black background in their visual adverts to make sure their entire Black Friday campaign was on theme.

What You Can Do:

Your Black Friday marketing campaign is the perfect time to look at your PPC budget and check you’re making the most of it. See what ad campaigns have worked well in the past, think about how they can be refreshed and repurposed to suit a season dominated by online shopping anyway.

PPC isn’t traditionally the highest converting channel for Black Friday campaigns but it is highly effective in driving traffic and brand awareness. Make sure you’re maximising your returns.

An Imaginative Social Media Marketing Campaign

What They Did: MeUndies

In order to capture new customers, retail brand ‘MeUndies’ held an exclusive Facebook live party complete with a DJ. As more and more of their Facebook followers logged on, the brand offered more details about their sales and other purchases, effectively rewarding customers for taking part.

What You Can Do:

Of course, all the usual ways of harnessing social platforms still apply to a Black Friday marketing campaign. Use social media posts to promote your sales, making sure to include clear calls to action and providing links for followers to click straight through.

But for a truly successful Black Friday marketing campaign, think about how you can use your social accounts in more creative ways to really involve your audience.

Offer Epic Black Friday Deals

What They Did: Pretty Little Thing

Clothing retailer Pretty Little Thing hit the headlines this year by running an unbelievable ‘Upto 99% Off’ Black Friday campaign across their website, generating a huge amount of PR coverage. This means some of their stock was retailing at less than £1. A new pair of shoes for 25p anyone? Dress for 8p?

This was not the most straightforward sale success though, as it has drawn many to accuse the clothing retailer of promoting the values of fast fashion at its worst.

What You Can Do:

Black Friday is the time to provide really special deals and make sure they stand out. 10 or 20% off just doesn’t really cut it anymore. Not everyone can stretch to ‘99% off’ though – and there is an ethical question over whether you should. 

But promo codes, money off vouchers and multi-buy deals can all work. Rewards of smaller value such as a free gift make a nice alternative while a free gift card will ensure your customers return to your site in future.

Alternative Black Friday Marketing Campaigns

As the rest of the world whips into a Black Friday sales frenzy, some brands stand against the traditional rollout of special prices, deals and offers to entice holiday shoppers to part with their cash.

Instead, they stand proudly by their brand values, whether these relate to the evils of fast fashion, environmental change or capitalism in general.

#optoutside (REI)

A great example of an Anti-Black Friday campaign that is tied perfectly to brand values is the ‘Opt Outside’ campaign that outdoor recreation services company REI run.

In 2015, REI announced a decision to close the doors to its physical stores on Black Friday in an attempt to encourage their staff and customers to spend time exploring the outdoors instead of shopping.

Though the aim of this campaign was to raise awareness of the benefits of being outdoors, it scores pretty high on the list of successful Black Friday marketing campaigns too, generating a large amount of PR coverage. It is the kind of move that inspires fierce brand loyalty and ensures their target audience will be back to do their holiday shopping.

Shutting Up Shop

In fact, many retailers take an extra step and stop people from making Black Friday purchases at all by closing. Companies like skincare brand Deciem and clothing retailer Askit closed both their physical and online stores as part of a Black Friday marketing campaign to protect their employees and promote conscious consumerism.

Preventing physical and online purchases might feel at odds with standard sales practices, but staking their profits on such a bold, ethical statement can seriously boost brand awareness. Beyond Black Friday is still peak shopping season and customers buying holiday gifts will remember the name of a brand that stands so proudly by its principles.

Just For The Lol’s

One brand that doesn’t necessarily tie its anti-Black Friday campaigns to an obvious value or moral message is Cards Against Humanity. They take a more trolling approach to this sales event.

Over the last decade, they’ve run a fundraising campaign to dig an utterly pointless ‘Holiday Hole’ and encouraged people to buy literal bull poop as part of their deals. In 2020 they held off creating any Black Friday ‘deals’ in response to a terrible year.

But in 2021 they were back with a whole new take on a Black Friday campaign. A list of tasks they would pay customers to complete, including giving a hotdog to a mail carrier, alphabetising your cards against humanity deck and even getting a Covid vaccination.

These stunts tie perfectly into the Cards Against Humanity brand, muddying an ethical objection with unusual and often pointless action. It’s the perfect pitch for their unique brand identity.

#GiveBackFriday Campaigns

Some brands don’t stretch to full anti-Black Friday campaigns. They subvert the shopping event instead, still advertising Black Friday promotions but tying them to charitable and environmental donations.

Outdoor clothing brand Patagonia was a pioneer of this approach back in 2016, when they donated 100% of their profits from Black Friday to charities dedicated to environmental change.

This extreme approach was picked up and shared on personal social media by high profile activists such as Al Gore and Emma Watson as well as news outlets like the New York Times. Though the company may not have made a financial benefit on Black Friday itself, the increase in their social media engagement gave them a long term gain to help ease the sting of any Black Friday losses.

How To Harness An Anti-Black Friday Campaign

If you’re planning an Anti-Black Friday campaign, there is one thing to beware of. It must be honest and heartfelt.

All of the above campaigns may have had a cynical secondary benefit to the companies that ran them, but this was not their main motivation. They were willing to take serious hits to their profits to prove their commitment to their message, and that’s what matters.

Rolling out a cynical Black Friday campaign bent on profit behind a guise of being ethical won’t work. People will see through it easily, and it will likely make them actively resent and avoid your brand.

Black Friday: The Benefits

The rush of Black Friday campaigns actually signal the start of the holiday shopping season. Many businesses who run effective Black Friday campaigns will see benefits that run for months, as the raised brand awareness draws customers back again and again. It’s up to you whether you stake that on your reputation, your morals or your heavily discounted prices. Just make sure it’s authentic.

2021’s bumper Black Friday proves there is still interest in this iconic sale period, and 2022 could see even bigger growth. But you don’t have to wait till then to spruce up your digital marketing campaign and get in there early.

—————— If you’d like to have a chat about how we can help you level up your digital marketing ready for Black Friday 2022, whether that’s SEO, content marketing or social media advertising, get in touch!

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

[wayneb77]

Technical SEO Audits: Adventures of an SEO Detective

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/3pOfnh9

Do you remember a few years ago when everyone’s CV said ‘Digital Rockstar’ ‘Growth Hacker!’ and ‘SEO Guru’? I fully believe that not only was that incredibly cringe-inducing, but it was also a sign of the end days.

Ok, that may be a little dramatic, but that’s why I’ve decided on a very, very cool title that isn’t cringy at all. SEO detective. Am I wearing a deerstalker hat and smoking a pipe as I write this? No. That would be weird. I’ve simply turned my world monochrome, thrown on a trench coat, and am preparing to call women ‘broad’ and ‘doll’ while I blame them for crimes I’m about to commit in the name of justice. Much better. 

One of the biggest misconceptions I think people have about marketing, is that it’s a creative profession where we write nice words and make billboards. It’s actually got a right technical side driven by data, hreflang tags, and so much keyword research. 

You’ve heard the saying about a polished… rock. Well, working on top notch copywriting and content without dealing with what’s underneath can only get you so far. You’ll end up with a polished… rock.

That’s why one of the first tasks most SEO agencies will do when taking on a new client is a technical SEO audit. 

Technical SEO auditing looks at your website as a whole because that’s also how search engines look at your website. 

It doesn’t matter if you have the most relevant, engaging content in the world if it’s on an orphan page that takes 2 minutes to load. Search engines prioritise the complete user experience when deciding how to rank traffic. If you go underneath-the-hood of your website and it isn’t cutting the mustard, you’re always going to be fighting an uphill battle. 

One thing I like to do when conducting an technical SEO audit is to take notes of all the weird things that make me go ‘huh’. Today, I share a few of my huh’s with you. 

The Importance of Hreflang Tags (or, “We Don’t Speak American Here”)

We’re in an increasingly global world, or an increasingly American world, depending on who you ask. That means we’re often consuming content and shopping for products from websites around the globe. 

For example, did you know that they recently let France use the internet and now they won’t stop using Shopify to make ‘Wetherspoons is an abomination’ t-shirts? Unfortunately, the message isn’t making its way out of France even with the launch of the new English language site. 

It’s because they don’t know about hreflang tags. 

That’s why you need to make sure you’re using hreflang tags correctly – even if they can be a bit of a pain to put in place.

What is Hreflang? 

One use of hreflang is to indicate the language of the page… But, that’s not really its main purpose. Google is pretty good at telling what language your website is in. It’s more about telling Google who should see what. 

Hreflang tells Google the location your content is intended for, and how it relates to other pages on your site. Href tags are small snippets of HTML that give language and geographic information to search engines:

For example: <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en-gb” href=”https://ift.tt/3IoV4PG; />

‘Alternate’ gives search engines a heads up that this is a variation of another page, so content might be similar. 

In this case, we’re letting Google know this is an English language page intended for Great Britain. We might also have subdirectories for Canada, where the overall information is very similar but has some tweaks for the local audience. 

Hreflang lets your preferred search engine know that different language versions, or country versions, are related to each other. This means they can show the right users the right content, and you won’t be penalised for duplicate content. 

Here’s a quick check-list for when you might need to start thinking about Hreflang:

You want to use the same content, but in different countries. E.g. you have a .co.uk and a .ie site. They share the same content and products but are for different geographical audiences.

You have different language or country versions in subfolders or subdomains. E.g. you have a .com website and then some subfolders for different markets.

You run multiple websites, in the same language, with different content on gTLDs*. E.g. you have a US, UK and Australian site, but they have different content to serve different audiences.  

Ideally, you want all of your info on one website if possible. You can make use of sub-directories to create a multi-national or bilingual site. 

In general, sub-directories tend to have an SEO edge over sub-domains. It also means if you run any digital PR campaigns, you won’t end up splitting backlinks amongst various domains and weakening the overall impact (but honestly, that’s a WHOLE other blog that I need to write new jokes for).

Hreflang is actually really complicated to get right, as Google’s John Mueller admits himself: 

Good to know we’re all struggling together.

What’s the difference between a gTLD and ccTLD? 

*gTLD stands for Generic top-level domain like .com and .net. They’re from the old, wild-west days of the internet and describe the purpose of the site, rather than the location. 

.com stands for commercial so implies you’re going to be buying something and .info lets you know that the website is going to give you, you guessed it, tacos. No, information. 

The other option is ccTLDs, which is a country code top-level domain. They refer to where the website operates from, such as .co.uk or .au.

You’ll often see global companies use .com regardless of if they are selling you products directly, such as large newspapers. When buying a domain, you can also choose some funky options like .xyz but bear in mind, just because it looks cool doesn’t mean it’s the right choice. 

Don’t Confuse COUNTRY Codes and LANGUAGE Codes

No, seriously. This can get weird real quick. 

Language targeting is when you’re targeting the same language in different countries. For example, the UK, Australia and America all speak some form of English. 

Country targeting is targeting people in a specific location, like Mongolia, which is .mn 

The Country Code and Language code won’t always be the same, and they might not be what you expect. For example, if you’re based in the UK you might assume ‘UK’ code is for you. It’s actually Ukraine. 

You can find the full list of country codes and language codes on Wikipedia to save guessing.

Does a trailing slash in your URL matter? (Yes) 

Now that we’ve worked out what language we’re speaking in and where we’re serving it, let’s talk about URLs. I’ve noticed some URLs end in trailing slashes and others don’t… But until I started looking at it from a technical point of view, I never gave it a second thought. 

When I did, it got another big ‘huh.’ 

How do you choose?

When you’re planning a website, your friendly neighbourhood webmaster might ask if you want trailing slashes or not… And you might not know which is best. Or why it matters. 

Here’s what Mr John Mueller of the Googles, says: 

Basically – on your root domain it doesn’t matter if you have a trailing slash or not. Google will see it as the same URL. On every other URL, it absolutely does matter.

Google sees https://ift.tt/3dri1Ue and https://ift.tt/3lGRtTh as completely separate URLs. 

That means Google will index those pages separately, and treat them as duplicate content. 

Luckily, some smart internet dudes have tried to make this easier for us poor marketers. WordPress, for example, will automatically redirect and deliver the same content whether someone enters a trailing slash or not. 

But, mistakes are bound to happen. Sometimes pages won’t redirect properly and will sit as separate pages. So… Hello accidental duplicate content! This is why Google recommends you make sure to set up redirects and choose a consistent URL structure. 

When we’re carrying out a technical SEO audit, one word that will keep on coming up is ‘consistency’. Consistency is important for a few reasons. 

The biggest one is it makes for a better user experience. If you have a logical URL structure, it’s easy for customers to easily understand where they are on the website and how to navigate. 

From an SEO perspective, it makes planning much easier. You can use the structure to easily see where new content makes the most sense, how pieces fit together. 

Search engines will also find it easier to navigate. This means they will reward you with better rankings than an incredibly confusing website. 

So once you’ve chosen whether to slash or not to slash, ALWAYS use that single version. Keep it in your XML sitemap, your rel canonical tags, your internal links, notes you write to your favourite teacher from year 6. Everywhere. 

But why is there even an option between trailing slashes and non-trailing slashes?

Again, a call back to the wild-west of the internet when it was for information and academia rather than your aunt dabbing on Facebook.

A URL ending with a trailing slash was for a folder or directory, whereas a URL without was a file. You’ll notice a similar structure when going through folders on your computer. 

Status Codes: 301 Vs 302 And How Google Interprets Them

Website change. Content that used to be relevant no longer is. Advice would be better in a different section on the website. You stop selling certain products. Even with the best-laid plans, you are, at some point, probably going to need to do some redirects. 

So… How do you choose which one to use? Easy. You roll a dice. No, it depends on WHY your content has moved and if it’s permanent.  

301: A permanent redirect. If you have an amazingly performing blog from 2018 that you want to turn into a piece of hub content that sits directly on a category page, you might use a 301 from the old blog link to set up a new static page. 

302: A temporary redirect. For example, if you’re redesigning your website or making some changes and eventually want the original URL live again. 

Here’s the thing though… Lots of people use 302 with the best of intentions and two years later, it’s still redirecting. Here’s my ‘huh’ and Google’s conundrum: How does it know a 302 is really a 302? 

In some cases, after a certain period of time, Google will treat a long-term 302 as a 301. But, it doesn’t have to. And this can hurt your site. 

A 302 tells Google that the original webpage is going to come back – so it continues to index it. This means it might treat your redirected page as duplicate content, or split the value of any backlinks. This just leaves you with one page users can’t access, and another that’s been significantly weakened. 

Basically, make sure you keep on top of your redirects. 

Also, while we’re here – have you considered choosing a cat-themed status code page? I think you’ll be very happy with the options available. 

Ready for the biggest ‘huh’ of all?

We’ve barely scratched the surface! There’s a reason a technical SEO audit is such an involved process that is normally carried out by agencies (like maybe Boom Online *wink wink*) and technical SEO professionals. 

It’s a huge undertaking and requires a lot of detective work and interpretation to decide what the next step is for your website and how to prioritise problems flagged. 

These are just a handful of the countless things that need to be looked at to truly understand your website. Even a small website can take much longer than you’d think to get to the bottom of. 

————————————

Feeling overwhelmed and a bit scared to see what’s under the hood of your website? Get in touch with us, we’re always happy to chat about how a technical SEO audit could benefit you. 

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

[wayneb77]

Why a Google My Business Profile is Vital for Your Business

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/3lhHUtO

Google My Business profiles (soon to be known as Google Business Profiles) are a vital, but often undervalued, aspect of your business’ digital presence and marketing. This is especially true if you rely heavily on local business and have a bricks and mortar location. 

A Google My Business profile gives you control over your company’s information in several high-profile spots in Google’s search results. This is often a customer’s first look at your business information – including contact details, opening hours, description, photos & more – and so it’s important that your profile is accurate, optimised and complete. 

Let’s take a look at GMB profiles in more detail, including what they cover and why it’s important to have one.

What is a Google My Business profile?

Starting with the basics, a Google My Business profile is a free listing you can create to display your key business information on Google. Any business can create and claim a GMB profile and it’s a great way to get your company in front of a local audience. 

Once you’ve created and verified your GMB profile, it will start to show in three different locations in Google results:

The knowledge panel: this area is displayed on the right hand side of search results.

The maps pack/local pack: this area is displayed within the main search results, and includes three GMB profiles that are local and relevant to the searcher’s query.

Google Maps: similarly to the maps pack, GMB profiles are displayed within Google Maps so users can get directions and find businesses in certain locations.

Google My Business profile optimisation can literally put you on the map.

If you have a fully filled out and well-optimised GMB profile, your business can start showing up in these three different locations. This will greatly boost your business’ visibility on Google, instead of just relying on your website pages to rank for queries in normal search results. 

What can you include in a Google My Business profile? 

You can include quite a wide variety of important information about your business in your Google My Business profile. By completing your listing, searchers will be able to quickly find lots of information about your business and may very well convert there and then without even visiting your website. 

The more information you can add to your GMB profile, the better – not only will this give users a better experience, but Google ranks complete, accurate and up-to-date profiles higher in results.

The Google My Business knowledge panel gives potential customers all of the relevant information they’ll need to get in touch with/visit your business at a glance.

Key information about your business that you can add to your GMB profile includes:

Business name

Address & service area

Phone number

Opening hours

Website link

Business categories

Business description

Photos

Products & services

Business attributes

Is Google My Business worth it?

Creating and maintaining a Google My Business profile is definitely worth it as it’s completely free and can greatly boost visibility and conversions for your business. 

A good GMB profile plays a large role in local SEO and is an essential part of building your local presence online. Whether your business is big or small, it is worth investing a little time to make sure your GMB profile stays accurate and up to date.

Some of the main benefits of a Google My Business profile are:

Increased visibility – As mentioned above, having a GMB profile opens up more ways for users to find your business. Instead of just relying on your website ranking in organic search results, a GMB profile lets you show up in Google Maps, the knowledge panel and maps pack as well. 

Not only does this increase the number of places your business can be shown, but these other types of listings can take up a lot of space in search results, letting your business stand out from the crowd.

Increase in relevant traffic and leads – With increased visibility from your GMB profile, you can expect a resulting increase in traffic and leads. Data suggests that with a complete GMB profile, customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider purchasing from your business. 

What’s more, further studies show that we’re increasingly looking for business information online – 93% of consumers used the internet to find local businesses in the last year, with a considerable 34% searching for businesses every day. That’s a lot of potential new customers to attract to your business.

Share information quickly – Your GMB profile puts you in control of sharing essential business information that potential customers can swiftly access. 

For example, if someone is looking for opening hours or wants directions to your premises, they can access this straight from your GMB profile, instead of searching for the information on your website. 

Whilst many businesses want to encourage visits to their site, sometimes this simply isn’t necessary and your GMB lets users find important information in a fast and convenient way.

Collect reviews for free – Reviews play a huge role in building trust with potential customers and can influence someone’s decision to visit your shop, buy a product or use your service. Research finds that nearly 9/10 people read online reviews for local businesses now. You can collect reviews via your GMB profile for free, with your review rating clearly displayed on your profile. 

Whilst you may be wary of inevitable bad reviews, you can flag spam and respond to all reviews within GMB. Research finds that 96% of consumers who read reviews also read businesses’ responses to reviews. 

Thoughtful responses to negative reviews show you’re serious about customer service and proactive when it comes to potential problems. Remember to thank those who leave positive reviews too!

As you can see, there are many benefits to having a Google My Business profile. As a vital (and free!!) tool for providing customers with accurate business information and for boosting visibility for your company, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have one. 

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If you would like help creating a Google My Business profile or with your wider local SEO strategy, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to see how we can help. 

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

[wayneb77]

Will AI Replace Copywriters in SEO?

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/3x3NWTG

The Future of Digital Marketing with Artificial Intelligence

In today’s world, the prospect of using artificial intelligence, or AI, for copywriting is very real. There are some fabulous tools available to make writing quicker and easier. But are these tools about to replace human copywriters and take over the world?! Let’s find out. 

Using AI for Copywriting

It’s true that AI copywriting tools have reached a more sophisticated level than ever before. Whilst this is both an exciting and frightening prospect, there’s no denying that natural language generation is here to stay. 

What is AI-generated content?

Content written by AI software in its entirety is true AI-generated copywriting. But it isn’t magic. AI copywriting tools need a real person to continually guide the process. AI takes the last few words as its guide for the next, using a method of prediction based on what has gone before.

The output is only as good as the input. 

AI content generators can also vary wildly in quality. Whilst some might think it’s just words, writing copy is complex and nuanced. Up until a few years ago, the prospect of realistically using AI for content creation was small. It was easy to spot AI content as it felt uncomfortable to read, jarring and quite simply, badly written. 

But AI for content writing is entering a new era and it’s better than it’s ever been…

How It Works

Today, the more sophisticated tools on the market for writing AI copy utilise the GTP-3 Open AI API. This is a language model that uses the deep learning method of machine learning as well as natural language processing.

Essentially, this is language prediction based on learnings from a whole host of existing writing produced prior to 2020. 

It has learned from writing in books, and a huge expanse of writing on the web via Common Crawl, Web Text and Wikipedia. Imagine a human reading and learning from that much text. It’s truly mind-blowing. One thing’s for sure, this technology can’t be ignored. 

What AI copywriting tools are available? 

There are a whole host of very good AI content writing tools on the market today. Some of the top-rated ones are:

Jarvis

Writesonic

Outranking

Bertha

CopyAI

What other copywriting tools use AI and machine learning?

There are other tools on the market that use AI for copywriting in a different way. Tools like Surfer SEO and Frase analyse the SERPs and use over 100 different data points to create content guidelines.

These tools don’t write the copy for you, but they do help a human copywriter to focus on getting the right phrases, entities and structure in place. 

It is possible to integrate AI copywriting tools like Jarvis with Surfer SEO or Frase to automate processes.

Using AI for SEO & Digital Marketing

At this point, some SEO and digital marketing professionals are getting excited. We’re all busy people, under more and more pressure to deliver for our companies and clients in an ever-competitive market.

Can AI technology really help to speed up some mundane tasks like writing product descriptions or social media posts? 

On the flip side, many people in the copywriting profession are worried. If this new technology is so advanced, will writers be replaced by robots?

Equally, there are concerns in the SEO community. Will AI-generated spam take over the SERPs? Will it make it even harder for those of us producing genuine, valuable content to rank?

Can Google detect AI-generated content?

In short, yes. Purely AI-generated copywriting will still follow certain patterns and repeat very similar words and phrases. An AI content generator won’t check facts either. This makes it fairly easy for Google to detect. 

So how can I use AI tools for SEO copywriting?

When we consider all this information, how can we use AI to write copy for SEO? 

My personal experience so far is, use it sparingly. It does have its uses though. This is how I use AI tools in my everyday life in a busy SEO agency. 

Inspiration

Anyone who writes will understand writer’s block. Staring at a blank page when you’re trying to write an optimised blog post or a page of marketing copy is soul-destroying. But let an AI tool write a few words and suddenly your page isn’t blank.

This can help a human copywriter get over a huge hurdle and give them the inspiration to write a piece. At the end of the day, they may not have taken any of the AI-generated content at all, but it gave them the ideas to get started. 

Repetitive Tasks

We all know the situation. No copywriter has the time to write hundreds of product descriptions for reams of very similar products for a busy Ecommerce site. This is a massive problem, particularly for small businesses with limited resources. AI can help a human writer to make it through these repetitive tasks, by providing yet more inspiration on how to write similar things in different ways.   

Rewriting

If you’re struggling to rewrite a sentence or paragraph to make it read better, you might turn to artificial intelligence for a hand. Once again, you might not take the output word for word, but the tools can find other words when sometimes you can’t. They’re a helping hand to make life easier. 

Understanding Copywriting Frameworks

Tools like Jarvis have templates trained to give you outputs based on tried and tested frameworks like AIDA and PAS. For beginners, being able to generate real examples of sales copy using these frameworks can help them to grasp how they work, and how to employ them themselves. 

Content Guidance

Machine learning tools like Surfer SEO and Frase provide some really powerful content guidelines. These can help you to write better, faster. It’s empowering to know that you’re focusing on the right areas for successful content rather than working hard on something that produces little or no results. 

A couple more rules I live by: 

I never take AI copywriting output ‘as is’. It still requires a large element of human intervention and common sense. It doesn’t replace real copywriting skills, so take the elements you like from a sentence and adjust the rest. Yes, it’s that granular. But it still helps to get things done more efficiently.   

Always fact check. Artificial intelligence uses rules to write, but it doesn’t write factually correct information. You still need subject matter experts to substantiate any claims, and you really need to do your research to stay relevant to a topic.  

How can AI can help marketing?

In a wider digital marketing sense, AI software can provide many benefits. From generating different subject lines to test to helping with endless social media posts, improving company emails or crafting more powerful headlines, there are endless marketing applications. 

The same rules apply though, it takes emotional intelligence to use these tools sensitively, effectively and achieve the best results. 

Will copywriting be automated?

On the strength of AI-powered copywriting today, no, it won’t be fully automated for a long, long time.

So if you’re worried about whether Jarvis is going to take your job, he’s probably going to need to learn a lot more. See him as a friend rather than a foe, but remember he’s not that best friend you can trust with your life.

Or your job 😉 

So, will AI replace copywriters?

Right now, AI is no match for true human creativity. Writing original content is something that needs a human touch. A good content writer needs to have a varied skill set. They should be able to build an emotional connection with their audience and use their creative flair to make content ideas come to life. 

What’s going to be challenging is whether businesses will see the value in really high quality copywriting services. There are sure to be plenty of people using AI to produce basic content at a low price and undercutting real content marketers.

So whilst AI is unlikely to replace content writers in the near future, it will change the game. Make sure you’re ready!

Struggling to get your head around copywriting and on page optimisation? The Boom team are always on hand to discuss your needs and how we can help you make the most of your website content. Just get in touch!

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

[wayneb77]

If Notable Figures from History Were Instagram Influencers

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/3qsxtH7

It seems that everyone is au fait with social media these days. Granny is all over “the Ticky Toks”, Dad is fast becoming a Facebook politician, and Mum is becoming a pro at creating “gin o’clock” boomerangs on Instagram.

It’s taken a while for older generations to catch up with today’s technology and who can blame them, it moves so fast! These generations didn’t grow up with this technology at hand, never mind IN their hand, but if they had – just think what they’d be up to today…

This got us to wondering… what if social media had appeared earlier in history? What if famous, historic figures were still around today and had an online presence? What would they look like? What would they be getting up to?

*cue daydream scene*

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Shakespeare

Old shaky, the Bard himself. We think Shakespeare would have a lot to say for himself on social media. Instagram would definitely be his choice of platform.

He’d most probably want to share short video spoilers of his plays and artistic, moody photos to entertain his followers.

Shakespeare would no doubt be exploring his creative side, scrolling endlessly for inspiration and fishing for likes from his high profile acquaintances.

It’s a given that he would have a strong following, and we think that as a creative, he too would suffer from procrastination and distraction, probably fuelled by the platform itself.

Cute cat videos at 2:34am anyone?

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Joan of Arc

Joan was a heroine who died for her beliefs and fought tirelessly and fearlessly for her country.

We feel that if Joan was still around today, she would be a very vocal activist, constantly sharing articles and posters to help causes close to her heart. 

Joan obviously had a rebellious streak and this would be reinforced in her look and in her boldly written captions with endless hashtags and @’s.

Joan would definitely harness the use of Instagram polls to gather support (although they may be worded slightly biasedly, as she seemed very single minded in her opinions).

It’s likely that there would be a lot of hate in the comments section, as she made many enemies in her short time. We imagine her phone to be pinging constantly.

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Charles Darwin

Charlie would make excellent use of Instagram.

He could use social media to spread his theories and to share photos of the wonderfully exotic animals he discovered in his line of work… and maybe a few pets he picked up along the way.

We think Charles would get a lot of criticism from the general public about his theories, especially those who disagreed with his evolutionary conclusions. 

It’s likely there would be an online spat between Charles and naturalist Alfred Wallace because he often doesn’t get credited for his part in co-developing the theory of evolution.

#robbed.

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Cleopatra

Cleo would be all over social media, being the renowned beauty that she was, we imagine she would be posting selfies left, right and centre.

Cats-eye liquid eyeliner tutorials and fringe styling tips aside, it’s likely that Cleopatra’s adventures with her great love, Marc Anthony would feature heavily on her grid. 

Think Instagram worthy exotic locations AND exclusive festivals that us average folk can only dream of.

This power couple would be inspiration for millions of followers and would be influencers coveted by many brands the world over.

Move over Kimmy K.

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Vincent Van Gogh

A prolific artist who wasn’t recognised for his talents until after his death, we think Vinny would be a nomadic artist today.

Regularly posting pics of his work on Instagram for exposure… and probably suffering crippling anxiety as he doubts his own genius by comparing himself to the endless stream of amazing art on his feed.

Vincent would probably get caught up in petty arguments online and the comments sections would likely be full of grievances from fellow artists such as Gauguin that he had many a fall out with.

We would expect a grid full of skies, solitary figures, moody selfies and quaint little cafes and bars, maybe with the odd cryptic meme.

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Genghis Khan

Genghis isn’t remembered favourably by the history books, but he was an astute businessman and was surprisingly tolerant of different cultures and religions.

Genghis is even credited with creating the first versions of international passports.

We’d like to think that the Genghis of today would be slightly less murderous, and would be focused on motivational speeches and international trade fairs, using his platform to promote upcoming events and to network.

LinkedIn would likely be his platform of choice but he likes to plug his inspirational quotes on Instagram too.

One thing that Genghis probably wouldn’t be able to escape on social media is the trail of wives and subsequent offspring – most of whom would be searching for him and wanting to reconnect with the successful businessman…

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Boudica

Remembered as a fierce warrior, you’d assume that she would have no time and little patience for social media.

But Boudica was often depicted on horseback, and we all know that horsey people can’t help but snap pics of their beloved steeds.

We imagine that the softer side of Boudica would emerge through Instagram posts of her prized horse companions, with updates on competition wins and horse trials. 

Boudica was also fiercely protective of her daughters. So, whilst they might appear on lots of her posts, their faces would likely be concealed from public view.

We’re sure that she wouldn’t be able to hold her tongue on certain political matters though, so there would be the odd share of news or a few disagreements in the comments section.

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Would you love to get yourself on Instagram, but need some help with social media marketing? Or have our fun graphics inspired you to try some content marketing? Whatever your needs are, get in touch to see how we can help.

You’re more than welcome to use our graphics for your own content, all we ask is that you credit to Boom Online Marketing and link to this article as the original source.

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

[wayneb77]

How to Publish a Free eBook on Amazon

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/30wtj6k

So you’ve written a book? Fantastic! Can we get a copy? 

Maybe you’ve written the next great American novel, or a fantasy series to dethrone Lord of The Rings. Or, perhaps you’ve written a non-fiction book about your area of expertise, like work-place stress and improving concentration, or modern leadership styles.

Whatever the subject of your book is, your aim is probably to get as many people as possible to read it. 

But, how do you actually go about that? 

It’s estimated that there are well over six million Amazon Kindle eBooks and more are uploaded every day! The sheer number of eBooks can make it really hard to stand out from the crowd, especially if this is your first book or you don’t have a wide public platform. 

When choosing what order books sit in search results and which ones they review, they follow an algorithm. Books by well-known authors will get promoted because their author name is proven to sell. The other way to get your book to the top of the search results is by getting as many positive reviews as possible. 

Amazon isn’t crystal clear on the exact number of reviews you need before it will start promoting your book, but it’s estimated between 30 and 50 reviews is golden. This is enough reviews to demonstrate that your book is of interest to readers and high-quality. 

So how do you get all of these precious reviews? A free eBook campaign! It’s much easier to pique people’s interest and try something new when it’s of no cost to them or yourself.

Getting Your Book Ready for Amazon 

The first step towards publishing an eBook on Amazon for free, is actually uploading your book to the Kindle store. If you’ve already done this, you can skip ahead! If not, we’ll talk you through the basics. 

It’s surprisingly simple to get your book ready and the only software you’ll need is Kindle 

Create. 

Kindle Create doesn’t look like it’s been updated since 2003, but it’s user-friendly and can get your book ready for online publication in just an hour or two. You can upload common text files like .docx and .doc. 

If you’ve used headings for your chapters, it will even do some intuitive formatting.

You can also insert new pages, like an author’s page. Your author’s page tells readers more about you and where else they can find you, so don’t forget to spend some copywriting time on it! 

For a comprehensive Kindle create tutorial, check out Amazon’s own Kindle Create tutorial which will help with things like formatting images and give you some sample texts to experiment with.

Want to get physical? Kindle Create allows you to automatically upload your book as a paperback. They’ll sort out margins and spacing for you based on your Kindle file and distribute physical copies. 

Don’t worry about the fact you can’t see anywhere to upload a cover for your book, this is actually done when you’re uploading it to be sold in Kindle Direct Publishing. 

How To Upload Your Book To Kindle Direct Publishing

Now your book is ready, you can upload it to Kindle Direct Publishing where you’re just a few clicks away from being a self-published author! Kindle Direct Publishing is relatively straightforward and you can use your existing Amazon login so there’s no need to make a new account.

When you first login, you’ll see a number of sections:

Bookshelf is where you can see existing books and add new books.

Reports will give you information on book sales, reviews and popularity

Community will take you through to the Kindle Direct forum where you can ask questions and interact with other writers. There are also announcements as Amazon will occasionally run free courses on advertising your Kindle book. 

Marketing is where you can set up paid campaigns to promote your book on Amazon. 

Uploading Your Kindle eBook

To upload your book, go to the Bookshelf section and click on Kindle eBook:

Here you’ll upload your Kindle file, book cover and write your blurb for the store page. 

Surely I just set it to £0.00 so it’s free? I hear you say! Well, not quite! 

Run A 5 Day Free Book Promotion on Amazon Every 90 Days

To actually make your book free, you need to enrol your book in KDP Select. This enrolment lasts 90 days, although you can set up automatic re-enrolment. This will give you access to more promotional tools, at no extra cost, including 5 free promotion days.

You don’t need to use these 5 days in a row, you can choose individual days weeks apart from each other. 

Every 90 days, when you have been re-enrolled in KDP Select, you can carry out another free promotion. Make sure you make your free promotional days part of your content calendar to get as much exposure as possible. 

For example, if your book is centred around mental health, running your promotion during mental health awareness week will increase the chances of people seeing it, as the topic is being discussed, and searched for, more than at other times of year. 

How To Enrol In Amazon KDP Select

In the pricing page, click the option to enrol your book in KDP Select. If you don’t do this, you won’t be able to set up your free eBook promotion. Underneath you can select your primary marketplace. If you sell in the UK, select amazon.co.uk and so on. 

You’ll need to set a price before you can submit your book for publication, it can’t be set to zero automatically.

If your sole intention is to promote your book during its free period and any additional purchases are a bonus, set it to the minimum price. If this is a short-term promotional strategy to build up exposure of your book, choose whatever you want the standard price of your book to be. 

Note: While you know your book is worth £1,000,000, Amazon refuses to acknowledge this no matter how often you email them about it. The maximum price on the Kindle store is £150. 

Submit your book and within 72 hours, it should be live on Amazon! 

How To Start Your Free eBook Promotion On Amazon

When your book is live, you’ll find it in your bookshelf section. Click the three dots and choose KDP Select Info:

Next, choose the Free Book Promotion option:

Now, choose your dates:

If you’re not choosing consecutive days, you will need to set the days separately. 

For example, if you’re doing a one day free book promotion on Friday 13th and then again on Tuesday 31st, you can’t set both of these dates at the same time. 

You’ll need to set the promotion to run between Friday 13th and Friday 13th. Once this date has passed, you can go in and set it to run from Tuesday 31st to Tuesday 31st.

While this is a bit of extra admin, it only takes a minute to do and the results can be worth it. 

Voila! Your free book promotion is ready – you just need to start promoting it! 

How do you actually promote your free eBook?

Social media marketing is a great way to promote your book and find people interested in your genre. An important part of social media marketing is to focus on your niche. 

Take Instagram for example, the hashtag #bookstagram might have a lot of posts, and followers, but that’s also a lot of competition. Especially when you consider this hashtag covers every genre of book! If you’re writing a fantasy book, there’s no guarantee that you’re going to find your audience in such a saturated search term.

It’s better to focus on specific hashtags, even with smaller audiences, and focus on showcasing yourself to an audience you know will be interested in what you do. This is where the importance of keyword research comes in so you really understand how your desired audience searches.

Digital PR is another great way to build exposure of your overall brand to increase people’s interest in what you create. Digital PR is about increasing your online exposure through creative content and more traditional methods like press releases. 

Essentially, it’s about finding exciting ways to showcase your story to the world. We have a helpful guide to developing content for outreach success to help with getting your content seen by a wider audience. 

Now go out and publish your amazing books – we can’t wait to read them! 

Of course, we’re also here to help if you’re still not quite sure! Our design team can also help make sure your book cover stands out in the Kindle shop with some sharp, eye-wateringly beautiful illustrations and graphics if needed. Just get in touch, we’re always happy to chat through ideas. 

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

[wayneb77]

Boosting Lead Generation With SEO: How Do You Do It?

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/39oncSH

At the heart of every online marketing strategy should be SEO and lead generation. 

Lead generation is essential for gaining an initial audience as well as maintaining one. Whether you’re promoting a product or service, you can capitalise on that new interest by pointing any leads in the direction of offers they might be interested in. 

Lead generation is one of the most important aspects of any business. Without it, your company simply would not survive and it’s no surprise that many companies are turning to SEO as a long term way of boosting lead generation. 

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But, how do you leverage lead generation with SEO?

SEO helps you reach those people who are actively searching for what you have to offer – while simultaneously boosting your organic ranking with Google, potential customers will find it easier than ever before to locate exactly what they’re looking for.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss some of the basics on how to boost lead generation with SEO.

What we will be looking at:

Auditing 

Page speed

Content strategies

The competition 

Local SEO

Backlinks

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Organic Lead Generation Strategies 

Auditing Your Site

You may not know which web pages are working and which need improvement, but you can find out by way of an SEO audit. This is the first step to improving it too, so start crawling! 

Luckily for us, there are plenty of tools that make this easy.

Take Screaming Frog, for example. Screaming Frog offers an innovative website crawler. This tool can crawl your site to find broken links, titles over the character limit or missing meta descriptions, all of which can negatively impact rankings on the search engine results pages as the likes of Google won’t offer your website as a credible source of information to the user. Ultimately, this has a knock-on effect when it comes to generating more leads and driving traffic.  

Increase Your Page Speed 

Tackling slow loading pages are just as important for the user experience on desktop and mobile devices. Sites that load too slowly will likely rank lower in search engines and/or have high bounce rates, both of which will result in missing out on potential leads. 

Luckily, there’s an easy solution. Tools such as Google’s PageSpeed test will analyze your website performance so you know what areas of web development need improvement. 

It could be that a certain plugin on your website isn’t performing well, you have too many plugins which are causing bloat, or image files are too large. All of these things (plus others) can negatively affect the speed of your website and thus, affect the SEO performance and amount of traffic your website gets.

Content is King 

Quality content that your audience can engage with should be the backbone of any SEO strategy. Visitors are more willing to sign up for newsletters or fill out forms if they believe that your insight can be of value to them. 

This is why it is so important to have an organised content strategy and create a brand voice. Introduce a content calendar and organise articles by theme based on keyword research and audience analysis. This allows you to produce the quality written content people value, want and are searching for, and will enable you to target a larger but more targeted audience. 

A content strategy can make or break your SEO campaign, so it is important to have a plan that includes keyword research. If you create the kind of content people are looking for then not only will this improve the brand’s presence in search but also will go a long way in generating quality leads. 

Keyword Research 

As you can see above, keyword research is an integral part of SEO, especially when it comes to generating high-quality leads through content.

Content needs to be seen by your audience. The key to this is targeting the right keywords that your audience is searching for. Don’t gamble by assuming what users are looking for, performing keyword research will save you time and return results. 

Tools such as SEMRush’s Magic Keyword finder will help to identify keywords related to your business with measurable information such as how many people search for that term, how much competition you’ll have, as well as offer up related terms – allowing you to diversify your focus keywords whilst remaining relevant. 

TIP: Whilst still taking into account user experience, try to make the first word in title tags or meta-descriptions one of these relevant keywords, so it’s recognised by search engine crawlers more effectively and given higher priority. 

Monitor the Competition 

People may say that comparing the competition is redundant, but it isn’t. Analysing your competitor’s SEO performance against your own can be extremely useful and beneficial to your own. 

Your competitor’s posts are a wealth of information that can help you improve your content. 

You should keep track of the similar queries for which they rank higher than you, and carefully evaluate why their post performed better than yours to see how it might apply to your own website. 

Having an understanding of your competition can help you to establish effective SEO strategies of your own and enable you to identify areas of improvement. 

If you want to be the best, learn from others.

Local SEO 

Have a bricks and mortar business but you’re not quite seeing the footfall or local trade you were hoping for? Then local SEO is what you need. 

But, what is local SEO and how will it help generate leads? 

When a highly localised search is made (take “online marketing Nottingham” for example), search engines will crawl all online content and rank by the most relevant results, filtering out those results that don’t meet the necessary requirements. 

Some basic elements to consider when optimising for local SEO are things such as having a prominent address and telephone number, relevant keywords and external factors such as up to date local directory citations. 

Not only can local SEO literally put you on the map, but it will also allow you to interact with your target audience on a more personal level. You’re able to tailor your website specifically for those in the area with highly relevant content. Instead of competing with major companies that are based purely online, you’ll be working to stand out within your community and become a place of interest for those looking for your products or services.

Backlinks Count

Backlinks are a key component of SEO. A backlink is created when different websites link with one another, but not all links have the same effect on your ranking in search engines.

Not only are links from other sites great for building brand awareness and driving direct/referral traffic, these links can have a huge effect on the ranking of your content, and it’s seen as an indicator of credibility by search engines. The type of backlink you get is important too – not all backlinks are treated equally. 

It stands to reason, but getting a link from a trusted, quality website with a consistent amount of monthly visitors, will give your site more credibility than being linked to from an obscure page without context or relevance for your content.

Although backlinks are essential when it comes to SEO and lead generation, if you want to rank your site, don’t resort to shady strategies when it comes to backlinks. It’s important that these inbound links are organic and with relevant content that serves a purpose for the user. 

The last thing you want is Google penalising you for suspicious linking activities. 

But, how can you build inbound links? 

Aside from outreaching a specific piece of creative content or offering up a press release to publications through digital PR, you may be surprised to find that your website has a lot of broken backlinks. The good news is they’re easy enough to fix! 

Looking at which external links are broken and then fixing them, means you can improve your SEO while simultaneously working on building high authority links from other websites. 

There’s a reason you’ve linked to another website, often their content is relevant and you trust the content they’re producing. So, when you’re trying to get relevant inbound links with strong domains (good for our rankings), consider these existing relationships and see if there could be an opportunity for those publications to link to you. Perhaps offer a guest post or if you’ve spotted an article on their site which would benefit greatly by linking to some of your content, suggest the idea as additional context about the topic at hand.

SEO and Lead Generation 

If you want to generate leads for your business, it may be time to take a closer look at SEO as part of your long term strategy. 

It’s not just about ranking higher on Google search results pages; there are many other benefits of implementing an SEO strategy in your marketing plan that will help drive sales and grow your customer base. 

By implementing the SEO strategies discussed, you will undoubtedly develop a more successful lead generation strategy. 

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Want to find out more about how these strategies can benefit your business? Get in touch with us and our SEO team will be happy to help!

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

[wayneb77]

How The Adult Entertainment Industry Shaped The Internet: A Brief History

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/3kkJ0DK

Do you remember VHS tapes? Or, increasingly, do you remember your parents remembering VHS tapes? I had a copy of, objectively, the greatest action adventure ever made: The Mummy Returns. I watched it so often that I actually wore the tape out. It would splutter through certain scenes, lose sound completely in others and sometimes the screen would just cut for 10 seconds. 

What’s the point? I want a new copy of The Mummy Returns. Well, no, the point is: VHS tapes weren’t actually very good. Workers at Blockbuster had to spend hours a day just rewinding tapes back to the start of the movie. BetaMax, the rival technology, offered a superior resolution, 250 lines vs 240 lines, better sound and a more stable image. Plus, BetaMax recorders had a better build quality than VHS recorders. 

So, why was VHS more popular than BetaMax? Well, one major reason is… The adult entertainment industry preferred VHS. Yhup. 

Despite the better quality promised by BetaMax, VHS was cheaper to record on. A lot of adult entertainment studios work on the business model of sheer quantity. This means the additional costs of recording for BetaMax quickly adds up. VHS was easily accessible and cheap so it made more sense for adult entertainment to choose it.  They even went up against Sony by choosing VHS. In the 1980s, Sony had bet its money on BetaMax but adult film producers continued to push hard for VHS. This left movie studios with a few options.

Either they could double down on BetaMax and force customers to choose whether they preferred blue movies or action movies, or give VHS a shot. They chose VHS and it reigned supreme until DVD… Which has now been replaced by Blue-Ray. Incidentally, Blue-Ray won its technology war against HD DVD, again, thanks to porn.

While we can argue over how socially progressive adult entertainment is, you can’t ignore how technologically progressive it is. Adult entertainment has been an early adopter for so much technology and is responsible for much of the modern digital world. 

But what about us digital marketing lot, specifically? What has porn ever done for us? Well… It’s kind of behind everything we do…

High-Speed Internet 

So, if you don’t remember dial-up internet, it was entirely built to test your patience.

Websites loaded line by line. Nowadays, we get frustrated if a web page takes longer than about 3 seconds to load. Back in the day, you’d be high-fiving yourself if it loaded in less than five minutes. It was less browsing the web and more forgetting what web page you were even trying to load, that’s how long it was taking. 

In the 90s, Penthouse had a kind of genius idea. They saw that the internet was quickly becoming a staple but adult entertainment was going to struggle to find its place as long as the average user had slow internet. It’s annoying enough when a YouTube video needs to buffer every 10 seconds let alone a … You know… That kind of video.

They began distributing 2400-baud modems to the readers so they could have faster access to the XXX bulletin boards. Evidently, it worked as a 2003 Nielsen study showed that the heavy broadband usage in Europe was predominantly down to file sharing of music and pornography. 

Adult entertainment pushed for high speed internet, and made it more accessible. This was revolutionary for the user experience as it meant web developers could become far more ambitious in the websites they built.

Without high speed internet, you wouldn’t be able to incorporate video, visual content or interactive elements into your marketing campaigns. Quick loading pages are also pretty important for your SEO because now people know what quick loading looks like, they expect it on the SFW pages as well!

Live Streaming & Real Time Chat

You might think AOL chat or MSN chat were what got us all more comfortable with emojis then talking in IRL but … Again, they were following in the footsteps of adult entertainment. Not only did porn actually garner enough users to make the internet viable in its early stages, but it’s been secretly driving it ever since then.

After helping push high-speed internet, adult entertainment set itself on high-quality live streaming. Seeing as online video, like Youtube, accounted for 60% of global data flow in 2018 and video streaming, like Skype, accounted for 20%… It’s safe to say that video has become pretty important to the average internet user. 

Go back to a Youtube Video from 2007 and you’ll see the highest quality video offered is 480px. Nowadays, most videos offer 1080px as standard. Many businesses find great success with video marketing – with everything from influencer product reviews to tutorials and showcases.

Analytics 

Often, non-marketing folk don’t realise how data driven digital marketing actually is but everything a digital marketer does is tracked and analysed using web analytics. It’s absolutely essential to the role. If we don’t know what’s driving traffic, we don’t know what’s working. If we don’t know where traffic is coming from, we can’t understand and develop our audience. 

By this point, you see where I’m going with this. Porn was one of the first industries to monetise online content and make use of online advertisements. They were also one of the first industries to make use of affiliate systems. With no dependable online traffic analysis tool, it was near impossible to accurately track where their web traffic, and money, was coming from.

In 1996, Cybererotica developed the XXX counter as an independent tracking tool. It tracked information like browser type, where users came from and screen resolution. All of this information is now a standard and essential, part of digital marketing.

Online Shopping

It’s rare as digital marketers that we’re not helping our clients sell something, whether it’s a physical product or a service. Adult entertainment had more reason than most industries to consider the eCommerce side of the internet. After all, no one’s embarrassed to go to the supermarket and buy some veg. No one’s blushing as they buy an airline ticket for a week abroad. But you know… People did get uncomfortable about going to you know. 

Adult shops. Naughty ones. It took a lot of planning, and courage. Whereas if you followed an online ad, spur of the moment, and could pay online for adult content… It opened up a whole new audience that would never, ever admit they were part of this market. 

Richard J. Gordon founded Electronics Card Systems in the 90s which introduced an online payment system. Some of the earliest adopters were adult companies who were looking for ways to distribute their content online. While adult entertainment didn’t invent this technology, it was the first to use it. Even companies like Amazon and eBay who are often cited as ‘pioneers’ of online shopping, were years behind adult entertainment. 

So you can thank adult entertainment for the rise of eCommerce web development and the luxury of ordering doughnuts in your pyjamas at 3AM. 

Did you think you’d have porn to thank for this much of the digital world? Honestly, we’ve only just scratched the surface. Subscription services, VR, geolocation software and so much more all owe thanks to adult entertainment, but that’s another blog post. 

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We’re on the cleaner side of things but that doesn’t mean we can’t think out of the box to help you create innovative creative content and design. We love everything digital and we’re always happy to have a chat, so give us a call to see how we can help you… whatever industry you’re in!

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

[wayneb77]

Storytelling in Marketing: The Fundamentals

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/3xRMbI6

Storytelling attaches to the common ideals of human empathy. We search for ourselves in the stories being told, and strive to connect with the message we interpret.

Whether we are looking to promote branding, increase sales, or outreach content, storytelling in marketing is as crucial as ever to establish brevity and uniqueness within our strategies. 

The Fundamentals of Storytelling

Though our target audiences may differ to that of a salesperson, our goals are defined by the same properties; we want somebody to take a desired action.

These fundamental elements of storytelling are crucial for achieving a successful marketing campaign and competent content marketers out there will already be practicing these aspects:

Start with a question: Just like a good subject line or title, you want to be posing a question to your audience from the get go. The curious human desire to answer is apparent, and the second person narrative implicitly directs the attention on them.  Allowing the audience to dictate their own answers evokes a sense of discourse, and allows the reader to direct their own conversation within the piece. It is our job as marketers to answer these questions that arise within the reader, and mould these questions towards the end goal you are looking to achieve. If done effectively, a good story will also answer questions the reader didn’t know needed answering. By identifying pain points before they arise, you are creating a substantial foundation of relatability that coincides with your audience. Directing your narrative with space to provide internal discourse keeps your prospects engaged. By doing so you are becoming a person to be listened to; the educator.

Be relatable: It’s easier said than done, but as marketers we have enough data and information at our disposal to identify our audience. We can learn what is relatable and why. The harmony between analytics and storytelling comes from the human ability to represent our own experiences.  By adding human clarity to the data, our ability to interpret the information is increased substantially. In a study on emotion and memory within sales, it was discovered that stories increase the memorability of information. It is imperative that we implement storytelling into our strategies to not only emphasise our point, but to keep the audience engaged even after the initial exposure to the content. Added human experience provides an extended viewpoint of the story and opens opportunities for the reader to address themselves within the narrative. Whilst everybody’s experience is different, we are always striving to learn from others. 

Direct your question: Stories should be crafted to educate your potential prospects. Be mindful of the message you are trying to portray, and what this story is intended to teach. Humans are apt at filling in the blanks within narratives, allowing them to interpret themselves as the potential protagonist and find their own connections to the story.  Align your narrative with the needs of your audience. Understanding pain points and desired goals are key here. By crafting a story built upon the needs of the audience, the narrative should follow the principles that you set out to teach. No matter the message, a good storyteller can spin any experience to align with the audience.

No need to be explicit: As mentioned, the human brain will fill in the blanks that you, the storyteller, choose not to divulge. This doesn’t mean to say that your message should not be underlying the narrative. By all means, produce every word with your intent in mind. If done effectively, the message will be conveyed in the gaps of the story.  Better yet, not every interpretation has to be the same. Understanding what value people gain from the story can be just as useful to you as the intended message. The desired goal here is whatever you choose it to be; to gain brand awareness, additional sales, or some simple SEO juice. Manipulating your prospect to that end can be achieved via storytelling. These are the fundamental elements of outlining a story in marketing. What you want to achieve, and how to achieve this should all be prescribed by your marketing strategies.

Storytelling as a Sales Tactic

I say this as a “salesperson” as much as I am a “marketer”, because quite frankly the difference is minimal. 

Customers are wiser to traditional sales techniques. The abundance of knowledge and on-the-nose tactics has left salespeople deep in the mud. As customers’ knowledge evolves, the sales process must also follow suit. This doesn’t mean to say that cold hard call-to-actions (CTA’s) are not just as important as they always have been. The means in which we guide a customer to our CTA is where our efforts as marketers should be placed. This is where storytelling in marketing prevails. 

Whilst a salesperson might have thirty seconds to hook a prospect, the marketing industry provides a wider breadth to appeal to the right audience. The scope in which marketing operates does not confine you to thrifty chat-up line-esque commodities. Quite frankly, thirty seconds can be enough time to emphasise an idea and secure a sale. 

In thirty minutes the opportunities are endless, but the boundaries are succinct, if not more so than a cut-throat sales pitch. With more time comes more opportunity. With more opportunity comes more room to disappoint. In large-scale sales pitches, the need for perfection is imperative to secure a future prospect. The same applies in marketing.

Using the fundamentals of storytelling in marketing, we are able to guide the human empath to take a desired action. The larger scope of marketing pitches grants us the time to navigate a narrative, and guide our prospects with more breadth to a desired outcome. Knowing when and where in your marketing strategies storytelling should be placed will strengthen your campaigns. 

How to Use Storytelling in Marketing Campaigns

To Educate

Storytelling is a powerful tool for teaching and communicating new information. For a marketing brand, case studies and customer testimonials are key forms of storytelling that are sure to promote your business. Sharing your experiences allows others to learn about you and from you. Testimonials allow your prospects to identify their own story with you. First hand accounts are fundamental to developing your brand’s image.

Audience Engagement

Storytelling dives deeper into human emotion and can elicit more honest responses from people. It also allows a brand to target particular niches of potential customers. By crafting a story that appeals to your customers ideals, your brand is able to identify with them on a more emotional level. Being able to communicate a relatable message will elevate the position within the audience’s perspective.

Outreach

Though not as clear-cut as other methods, storytelling within outreach is key to establishing a successful PR campaign. This revolves around many features. 

It could be the idea that you wish to tell a story within your initial pitch. What better way to showcase your content than to talk briefly about the process that led that email to land in your prospects inbox. This can even be dictated within the subject line. Consider that the cover for your story, and the pitch the blurb. 

You’re probably practicing it without noticing. Because what is successful outreach without building relationships? The moment your email lands in an inbox, a story is being formed. How you dictate that story begins with the very first pitch and is crucial to engaging with the receiver. By sending a cold email with no relatability, nothing to show that you understand your prospect, your story holds no ground. The fundamentals of storytelling are ignored. As stated, a good storyteller knows how to mould their experience (in this instance, their content) to better suit their audiences. 

There are many techniques that we use as marketers to gain results. Our key focus can often rely on data and analytics, using correlation and statistics to decipher what our audiences want. The fundamentals of storytelling allow us to use this data to dive into the empathy of our audiences, establish relationships and create engagement. Storytelling is something that you probably do already, but understanding how and why is important to achieving success in your campaigns.

Keen to find out more about content marketing and how storytelling can help your brand? Get in touch!

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

[wayneb77]

TikTok: 10 Free Video Editing Apps That Anyone Can Use

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/35bD4WI

For content to become viral, some social media apps like Facebook and Instagram rely on a heavy following. Yet when Tiktok came, it changed the game of who and what kind of content rises to the top.

In just five years, TikTok’s algorithm has allowed the democratisation of content creation and the possibility of going viral despite low following. This is why it’s gained the love of all age groups, particularly teenagers. 

Now, TikTok has some of the coolest features: a library of the hottest music, quirky templates, beautiful fonts, trendy filters, and of course – the fun, over-the-top content. But TikTok is not TikTok without videos. And while it has its own in-app video editing tools, it lacks some of the features and finesse some might require to craft potentially viral content. 

So, we made a round-up of the best simple to use video editing apps around. While most of them have a premium version for upgraded features and tools, we found that the free versions did what we needed. 

The other great thing about these tools is they’re all mobile-friendly, so no need to use your computers. Your smartphone and a bit of imagination is all you need.

InShot 

InShot is the go-to for some TikTok creators. It has an up-to-date library of music, stickers and filters. And it’s very easy to edit a complete TikTok video. The design is almost the same too; hence navigation is easy if you’re used to editing on TikTok’s in-app tool. 

InShot allows you to import your pictures and videos while partnering them with some background music for more immersive content. The catch with this app is that they have a limited list of royalty-free songs. Free users will also have a visible watermark on their video. The app also has lots of ads, but if you can put up with that, it’s perfect for getting those TikTok videos up to scratch. 

CapCut

CapCut is a mobile-editing app that’s pretty famous in the Tiktok world. It has all the features necessary to create a cute and funny video. Plus, it’s beginner-friendly without too many complicated buttons. 

Aside from the fact that it’s free for most features, the best thing with CapCut is it’s already connected with TikTok. Once you’re done editing your videos, you can choose to download them on your device or directly upload them to the platform, and unlike other free video-editing tools, CapCut doesn’t leave a watermark. 

BeeCut

BeeCut is a free, simple to use video editing app that’s perfect for TikTok. You can import your own pictures and videos, all of which you can cut, rotate, merge, add transitions and filters plus a lot more. When you want to layer those with music, you can import your own or you can choose from BeeCut’s vast selection of trendy royalty-free sounds. 

The best thing about this app is its wide range of available aspect ratios. You can produce videos in portrait (9:16), widescreen (16:9), square (1:1), TaoBao (3:4), or standard (4:3). While some apps have a fixed video length, BeeCut enables you to customise the length of your videos – perfect not only for TikTok but also for other social media channels, too. 

Videoshop

Videoshop is a simple, newbie-friendly app. It allows you to crop, trim, merge and add transitions and filters. You can also animate your titles, headers and thumbnails. Plus, you have options to change the speed of your videos: slow-motion, fast-motion or stop-motion. 

You can also take advantage of the exhaustive list of sound effects: from animal noises and fart sounds, to explosions and laughter… your videos can be as classy (or not) as you’d like. Videoshop also allows you to tweak the saturation, contrast and brightness of the video. And aside from TikTok, you can directly post it to other social media channels, even email. 

Kinemaster

Kinemaster is a fun mobile app that actually came before the TikTok craze, and has fast become a firm favorite of mobile video editors and editing newbies alike. Why? It’s super easy to navigate. You can choose the size of your videos from the few options, then import your media and edit it however you like. 

While it doesn’t have a wealth of updated music and filters like some other apps, Kinemaster is an excellent choice for those wanting a better cutting and merging experience. Perfect for lengthy, quality videos, like documentaries or short films, this app is available not only for mobile users but on other platforms too. Plus, it’s free with just a minimal watermark. 

Magisto

Magisto’s powerful AI will create your movie for you. Once you import your media, Magisto will craft cute and funny videos based on the content and style of your choice. Yet, if you choose to create your own, Magisto allows you to do basic video editing like cutting, merging, adding transitions, background music, filters and effects.

You can upload your own music, or you can choose from the hundreds of available and commercially licensed sounds. Plus, there are several professional templates to pattern your videos. The basic version gets you a watermarked video lasting up to 60 seconds. Beyond that, you will need to shell out for the premium version affording a zero watermark video with no length limits. 

iMovie

Apple users have long loved the iMovie app. It’s a free and vital editing tool for Apple products. For any TikTok content, iMovie mostly gets the job done. What’s more, is that you don’t need prior editing skills because this app is very easy to use. 

iMovie has some of the best video-editing features. It has a green screen effect, which is the same feature as Tiktok’s in-app tool. This allows you to create customised backgrounds. With basic editing tools, iMovie can help you make whatever TikTok videos to your liking. However, this app has a limited music option, and you’re not allowed to import your own unfortunately. 

Vizmato

Vizmato serves much like TikTok’s in-app video editor. It has a good list of royalty-free music on top of trendy video themes and visual effects. And what’s more fun is that, like TikTok, Vizmato allows you to modulate your voice to different sounds such as robotic, high-pitched, deep, high, etc. 

Vizmato has a built-in HD video recorder where you can include live visual effects and play music while recording. However, this app is a bit more expensive compared to other mobile video-editing tools if you want full use. Although the free version is available, you will need to upgrade to erase the watermark. 

Timbre

Timbre is an Android-only app suitable for all-around editing. What’s great about Timbre is it’s comfortable with all common video and audio file formats. Meaning you can import all types of media. And more than that, Timbre also allows you to convert the audio and video to whatever formats you prefer. 

For GIF lovers out there, Timbre might be the best app for you. It has a specific feature for GIF creation and conversion. Apart from that, Timbre is best for splitting, removing and changing the speed of audio or videos. The sad part, though, is they lack visual effects and filters, as well as a built-in audio library. You can’t review a video before publishing either unfortunately. 

FilmoraGo

FilmoraGo is a complete mobile video editing app and it has all the tools you need for your next piece of TikTok content. But unlike Vizmato and other apps mentioned, it doesn’t have an in-app video-recording capability, and you have to pay for a watermark-free result. 

But other than that, FilmoraGo caters to most TikTok creators’ needs. From its wealth of updated and royalty-free music to its awesome stickers, effects, and filters, FilmoraGo is a good place to start when it comes to editing video content. It’s also extremely easy to sync videos and music together in FilmoraGo – which is one of the most difficult things to do in other apps. As an added bonus, this app can also help you adjust the volume of the audio. 

TikTok is one of the best places to spread brand awareness right now, especially with younger audiences. Yet businesses are not the only ones who can take advantage of TikTok’s algorithm and massive audience. Individual’s are making their mark through the power of video now more than ever, a mark that can quickly become multichannel if done right.

Thankfully, for creators with zero design experience, creating visual assets for TikTok is not only easy but also affordable. Try this logo maker for free, or you could hire a designer if you’re looking for a full branding package. 

What’s great about TikTok is it has allowed ordinary people to shine, proving that professional video-editing experience is not always necessary to get noticed. TikTok’s very own editing tools can be enough, but you could take things to the next level by using one of the video editing apps mentioned above. Whatever you choose, have fun and happy TikToking!

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

[wayneb77]

Content Accessibility: Creating Inclusive Content We Can All Enjoy

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/3ujeA86

National Rail recently started a great conversation around content accessibility. Unfortunately, they didn’t mean to. After the passing of Prince Philip, they decided to turn their website greyscale for the day. It was supposed to be a mark of respect for the late Prince but… It left some people feeling pretty disrespected. 

The greyscale website was basically unusable for users with visual impairments.

Robin Spinks, innovation lead for the Royal National Institute of Blind People told The Guardian: “As someone who is registered severely sight impaired, good colour contrast on a website is incredibly important.”

 On the left is National Rail’s grayscale design and on the right is their usual blue and white design.  Credit: National Rail

You might think it’s just one bad decision, but actually, much of the web is very inaccessible. According to AbilityNet, less than 1% of website home pages are likely to meet accessibility standards. 

The most commonly found problems are:

Links with ambiguous text like “click here”. If you’re using a screen reader, it can be very unclear what “click here” even means.

Missing alt-text on images, especially if your image is relevant to your content.

Low contrast websites which are difficult to read for people with visual impairments.

Missing form labels and empty buttons so screen readers don’t have enough information to understand what is on the webpage. 

In this blog, we’re going to talk you through what web accessibility is, why it’s important and how you can make content everyone can enjoy.

What are the accessible content guidelines?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) are international standards designed to make digital content more accessible. You can find the full WCAG 2.1 guidelines on the UK government website.

The guidelines focus on overall principles because it’s not one team’s job to make your content accessible. It’s a group effort. While your web development team can do a lot behind the scenes, it’s also up to your content and design team. 

The WCAG 2.1 four main design principles are: 

Perceivable: Can people recognise and use your content?

Creating perceivable content means making sure it can be used by a variety of people. This can involve providing alt-text for images, transcripts for audio content and closed captioning for videos. 

Other ways to ensure your content is perceivable includes avoiding low-contrast colour schemes and using clear differentiators between content types. 

Operable: Can people easily navigate your content?

A mouse and keyboard isn’t the only way people surf the web. 18% of people who use assistive technology use speech recognition software to navigate and 29% use a screen reader, according to the UK government’s Assistive 2016 Technology Survey. 

Making your content operable involves properly descriptive anchor links and external links. This makes it easy for accessibility software to navigate the page. 

Understandable: Can people understand your content? 

Making your content understandable can involve simple acts, like avoiding unnecessarily complicated language. If you need to use jargon and acronyms that aren’t commonly used, provide a definition so we can all be in the loop. Those of us over 25 would also really appreciate the help because we can’t keep up. 

On the technical side, it also means making sure your content does what you’d expect. If it looks like it should be clickable, then it should be clickable. Forms should be usable and clearly labelled. 

Robust: Can your content be used by a variety of users?

Making sure your content is robust is about making sure it can be used with different technologies. This doesn’t just mean accessibility technology either. Ensure your content can be loaded on older browsers and hardware such as laptops, tablets and mobile. 

You need to make sure you’re using valid HTML so assistive technologies can accurately interpret content, and make sure your code clearly communicates what every interface component is for. 

How do you make your content more accessible? 

The internet was designed to connect the world… But 48% of lapsed internet users in the UK identify as disabled. Only 17% of the UK population is made up of people with a disability according to the Digital Accessibility Centre, so they are disproportionately impacted by inaccessibility to the internet. 

If your content isn’t accessible, you’re cutting off a lot of people. People who could benefit from your content, or have something to add. 

To make sure your website is fully accessible, be sure to read the WCAG.2 guidelines. But, here are some examples of how you can easily make your content more accessible.

The Importance of Using Alt-text on Images

We’ve talked before about how important good images are to your website but it’s also important how you present them. Alt-text is used to describe an image on the page. This is helpful for screen readers, as they will read out the alt-text so no context is lost in your article. 

The key to good alt-text is making sure it is descriptive and succinct. 

How to Add Alt-text to Images 

HTML

You can add alt-text to images directly through HTML so if you’re in the dev team, or are just a bit techy, it’s only an extra line of HTML to make your images more accessible.

Image credit: https://ift.tt/3hRk1bD

WordPress and Hosting Platforms

If you use a hosting platform, like WordPress, adding alt text is often built into the page builder or you can do it directly on the image in the media library, making it even easier to do. You’ll normally find a space to add alt text in the image settings.  

Social Media

Increasingly, social media is where we place our content and the big sites have made it easy to add accessibility features. On Instagram, for example, you can add alt text by going to the Advanced Settings section before posting. 

Instagram is actually full of nifty features, as you can find out in our blog on features and ideas you can use to market on Instagram.

Using Transcriptions and Captioning to Make Audio Content More Accessible

Video and audio content is becoming more popular. It’s exciting and engaging… Unless you have a hearing impairment and no accessibility features have been put in place. 

Closed captioning 

Closed captioning is similar to subtitles but they have quite different aims. Subtitles are mostly intended for viewers who don’t understand the language being spoken.

Closed captioning is designed for people who are unable to hear the audio, and is much more thorough. Closed captioning will indicate who is speaking, indicate sound effects and other non-speech elements as well as offering subtitles. 

Transcription

Depending on your audio content, captioning may not be an option. A podcast, for example, won’t benefit from captioning because there are no visuals for it to follow. A good transcription will have a full transcript of the speech with time stamps and indicators of who is speaking. 

You can use tools like otter.ai to automatically transcribe your audio. Although, it will probably need some tweaks before it’s ready to publish.

Interpretation 

Boris Johnson was challenged by MP Vicky Foxcroft on why he doesn’t have sign language interpreters during his press briefings.

Live content, like streaming and webinars, are incredibly difficult to caption live. Automatic technology makes many mistakes that can actually make the content more confusing. It also relies on people being able to read very quickly, especially in interviews where there is a lot of back and forth.

Sign language interpreters will sign at a natural speed that can be followed by those with hearing impairments so they can watch content in their native language. A good sign language interpreter can also help convey tone and atmosphere. If you need proof, check out the Dutch broadcast of Eurovision’s sign language interpretation.

Using Good Design to Make Your Content Accessible 

A lot of design accessibility is also just good practice. While low-contrast websites are especially difficult for those with visual impairments, they’re not especially easy for anyone to read. 

People’s patience online is limited. If your website isn’t clear and easy to use, people will just move on to somewhere else. 

Light grey text over a beige and grey background which is difficult to read.

Following basic colour theory and good design fundamentals should help. There are also online tools that can help, such as this text on background checker. You can upload images and backgrounds to test the contrast of your text colour and size. This gives you an objective view of how readable your content really is.

Accessible content is better content

The good thing about making your content accessible is, it’ll only ever improve it. Accessibility challenges you to make smart content that can be adapted to everyone’s needs. If you’re not making your content accessible, you’re choosing to limit who can enjoy what you make. 

Check out our guide to creating a varied content calendar as well, to ensure your content is accessible and engaging. 

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Struggling with content accessibility? Of course, we’re here to help too! With our graphic design, content marketing and web development teams, we can create content that everyone can enjoy. Contact us if you’d like to learn more about Boom and what we do.

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing

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How to Create a Varied Content Calendar for A Company Blog

from Boom Online Marketing https://ift.tt/2PS43SS

Crafting a good content calendar for a company blog is often the backbone of a content marketing strategy. However, many marketers struggle to come up with a variety of new and useful blog ideas. Maybe you think you’re not an ‘ideas person’ and are in a bit of a content marketing rut. Maybe you have 101 blog ideas but don’t know how to pick the best shortlist. Wherever you are on the scale, we’re here to help you create a varied and useful content calendar for your blog readers.

What is a content calendar?

A content calendar for a blog, also known as an editorial calendar, is a way to organise and plan the content you will be writing. This could span any given time frame, whether that’s a detailed monthly plan for frequent bloggers or an overarching annual calendar. Your content calendar will include all the blogs and other forms of content you intend to write about and when. 

A content calendar is not just an organisational tool though. By planning out your topics in advance, you can strategise and target your content better, ultimately leading to better results. If you are just creating content on the fly, chances are you will cover similar topics to those you’ve written about before, or only focus on core services and keywords which have already been well-covered by competitors. By dedicating time to researching and curating a content calendar, you should have the chance to come up with more useful, original, targeted and varied content.

Tip: Covering the same blog topics repeatedly or focusing on the same keywords is not only monotonous, it is also highly likely you’re cannibalising your content. This means you’ll be competing against yourself for search engine real estate. If you don’t mix things up, you’ll be hampering your ability to rank widely, gain visibility and get valuable clicks.

How to come up with ideas for a content calendar 

Coming up with ideas for a content calendar is a step lots of people struggle with. Thinking of lots of ideas may not come naturally to you or you may not be an expert in the field you’re researching. If you don’t live and breathe the sector you’re working for – that’s alright. It’s also alright to think of lots of zany and loosely related topics first before cutting down to your final list. Try not to be too hard on yourself or judgemental during the ideation process – this should help ideas flow more freely.

To get you going, here are some content ideation techniques I enjoy:

Rapid word associations/100mph thinking

This involves coming up with as many ideas or word associations as possible in a short amount of time. The point here is to come up with lots of ideas, rather than specific, polished ones. 

Like with the classic word association game, you freely go where your thoughts take you and this can result in some interesting angles and related topics that aren’t immediately obvious. I like to go through this quick-fire process a couple of times with different starting points – whether that’s keywords, services or products – to try and create a variety of ideas.

Brainwriting

Whereas rapid word associations may be a more solitary technique, brainwriting is great for groups. Following a similar principle, brainwriting aims to come up with a large quantity of ideas first, rather than a few polished ones. 

With brainwriting, a topic is introduced and each member of a group writes down 3 ideas on a piece of paper. This is then passed to the next person who contributes another 3 ideas, based on those already written or completely new. This continues until you have your original paper back and the group has collectively come up with lots of ideas to consider. 

Answer The Public, People Also Ask & Quora

If you want to know what people are actually looking for, Answer The Public, Google’s ‘People Also Ask’ boxes in SERPs, and Quora are great starting points. If you’re not clued up in the area you’re researching, these tools can help you see what those who are interested in the topic or field want to know. Start with a couple of top keywords and take a deep dive.

After employing some of the techniques above, I’ll carry out some more detailed keyword research into interesting and promising ideas. This can help develop your ideas or spark new ones. Your research will also establish keyword search volume, related keywords and should help to shape the direction of your articles beyond a single idea or title.

How to evaluate and select content ideas for a varied blog

After utilising some content ideation techniques, hopefully you’ll have a long list of content ideas for your blog! Now it’s time to evaluate these ideas to ensure your blog is useful and varied. There are many elements to be aware of when it comes to ensuring variety in your blog – it’s not all about titles and keywords. Here are some factors to guide you in evaluating and shortlisting your content calendar:

Sales funnel stages

Consider which stage of the sales funnel your blog ideas are targeting. Where are customers in their buying journey when they find your blog? Blogs, whose purpose is often to bring impressions and traffic to your website, are commonly targeted towards the top stages of the funnel. It is therefore natural you may find a lot of topics are around awareness, interest and consideration stages. 

However, to create a more varied content calendar, you should try and explore some ideas dedicated to evaluation or loyalty as well.

Example:

You want your blog to provide value to your (potential) customers at every stage of the funnel. Let’s say you sell appliances. You may have a blog describing the benefits of American fridge freezers for customers at the awareness/interest stages. You could also have a guide covering the best ways to defrost your fridge freezer. This will help your customers who have already converted – encouraging repeat custom and brand loyalty.

Personas

You’ll want to ensure that your blogs target a variety of your company’s customer personas. Personas are designed to make your audience easier to understand and target. By evaluating which personas your blogs are aiming to target, you can understand whether your content calendar is covering a wide enough variety of people. 

If you find your blog ideas are largely targeting just one section of your target market, you will want to do some adjusting. This may not mean going back to the drawing board – think about how you can reframe your ideas or shape them around the interests and pain points of your different personas. 

Types of content

To build a varied editorial calendar, you should consider creating a variety of different forms of content. Not only do different types of content have their own strengths to capitalise on, but different people will prefer different types too. Customer A may want a straightforward blog to help them, but customer B may prefer visual formats and will be attracted to infographics or video content. 

Different forms of content can take longer to plan and create, so scheduling them into a content calendar helps ensure you’ll have the time and resources to make them. 

Different kinds of content you could incorporate into your calendar include: articles, guides, listicles, how tos, case studies, infographics, video content, quizzes and more.

Hopefully this article has helped you understand and consider the many ways you can increase variety in your company’s content calendar. Happy content planning! 

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If you would like the assistance of content marketing experts to make the most of your blog, the team at Boom can help. With experienced content marketers, copywriters and SEOs, we know how to create valuable content which performs well. Get in touch or take a look at our case studies to find out more.

#seo #search #sem #search engine optimisation #marketing #internet marketing #digital marketing