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Enter the SlipChip: An SoC on the Road to DNA Data Storage
2021-12-08 20:40:06 UTC
A team of scientists has created what they call a "SlipChip" - a System-on-Chip for the synthesis and sequencing of DNA. Packing a single electrode, the development is bound to accelerate research that might one day enable us to store a copy of the entire Internet on our computer.Bing launches Ethical Shopping hub in UK
2021-12-08 21:06:46 UTC
The hub is expected to roll out in the U.S. next year and Microsoft is looking to extend it beyond the fashion vertical.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.How to watch Man United vs Young Boys in the Champions League in the UK
2021-12-08 21:09:57 UTC
How to watch Man United vs Young Boys in the Champions League group stages. There isn’t too much riding on this game, but it’s another chance to get a look at Ralf Rangick’s Man United
Manchester United are heading through to the Champions League last 16 and if they avoid defeat tonight they’re guaranteed to do so as group winners, potentially securing an easier tie in the knockout stages. Tonight’s opposition shouldn’t be taken lightly as they have a win over United already this season.
The Swiss club Young Boys of Bern visit Old Trafford tonight seeking another upset, but it certainly seems less likely. United now look to be back on the right track following the end of the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer experiment and have enjoyed positive results against Chelsea, Arsenal and Crystal Palace in the Premier League since.
Here’s how to watch the Man United vs Young Boys tonight
Man United vs Young Boys kick-off time
Man United vs Young Boys will kick off at 8:00pm UK time on Wednesday December 8. Old Trafford, Manchester is the venue for the final game in Group H. The second and third place teams Villarreal and Atalanta are facing off for the other qualifying spot in this evening’s other game.
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How to watch Man United vs Young Boys
Again we’re pointing you towards BT Sport for tonight’s game, which is where you’ll be able to watch all of the English sides in the Champions League this season. There are plenty of subscription options, some of which you can see below.
Coverage of tonight’s game starts at 7:00pm UK time on BT Sport 2 and in 4K UHD on BT Sport Ultimate.
If you don’t have a subscription through your TV provider, you can sign up for a no-strings monthly pass online. BT charges £25 a month to sign up and you can find all the details here. If you’re an existing BT Broadband customer, it’s easy to add BT Sport to your subscription. EE Mobile customers can add BT Sport for £20 a month.
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Kob Monney 4 months agoMax Parker 5 months agoWatch safely with a VPN
When you’re watching content online, it’s a good idea to boost your privacy by using a VPN to mask your IP address from would-be wrongdoers. You can read our guide to the best VPNs before streaming the Champions League games
The post How to watch Man United vs Young Boys in the Champions League in the UK appeared first on Trusted Reviews.
iOS 15.2 will tell you if your iPhone has been repaired with dodgy parts.
2021-12-08 21:09:57 UTC
iPhone 13 vs iPhone 13 mini
With Apple relaxing its rules on who can repair iPhones, the company is also looking to ensure consumers are going into third-party repairs with their eyes wide open.
A new feature set to launch in iOS 15.2 will let users know if their treasured smartphone has been fitted with unofficial parts and components.
As first noted by Gizmodo, the latest iOS 15.2 beta includes a new “Parts and Service History” section within ‘Settings > General > About’ on an iPhone.
This will give users a snapshot of the work done on their phone and whether a new battery, camera or display was a “Genuine Apple Part”.
If that component isn’t the genuine article, users may see an “Unknown Part” if it was made by a third-party or has already been installed in another iPhone. That’s likely to undermine the efforts of scammers to swindle unsuspecting iPhone owners with dodgy repairs.
The feature will vary depending on which iPhone you’re using, according to the report. For example, if you have an iPhone SE you can only see if the battery has been replaced, whereas the iPhone 12 or iPhone 13 models will display whether the battery, display, or camera have been replaced.
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Regardless of whether the part is genuine, it won’t impact your ability to use the phone fully. That’s a bonus because the company hasn’t been above that kind of behaviour in the past. iFixit recently discovered that third-party screen replacements were breaking Face ID functionality because it required the repairer to transfer a control chip over or lose Face ID functionality completely.
Because that method required some proprietary Apple software, it became the realm of authorised service providers only and ensuring smaller, independent businesses wouldn’t have the capability to perform the repair effectively. Apple has since performed a u-turn on the matter, once again enabling third-parties to replace iPhone screens without knackering the biometric security tech.
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YouTube is staying on Roku devices after all
2021-12-08 21:09:57 UTC
Google and Roku have reached an accord to keep the YouTube app and, by extension, the US-based streaming service YouTube TV on Roku devices.
Google had pledged to pull the YouTube app from devices like the Streaming Stick Plus if an agreement to bring YouTube TV back into the fold could not be realised.
Roku originally said Google was abusing its dominant market position to negotiate favourable teams. Google responded by calling Roku’s claims “baseless and false”.
The deadline Google had set for a new agreement was tomorrow, December 9, so it comes in the nick of time for those you rely on YouTube for streaming video on their Roku set-top box, HDMI stick, or Roku OS TV. With both sides steadfast in their view the other was being unreasonable, a deal had looked unlikely.
However, the everyone loses scenario has been avoided. A YouTube spokesperson said (via CNBC): “We’re happy to share that we’ve reached a deal with Roku to continue distributing the YouTube and YouTube TV apps on Roku devices.”
”This means that Roku customers will continue to have access to YouTube and that the YouTube TV app will once again be available in the Roku store for both new and existing members. We are pleased to have a partnership that benefits our mutual users.”
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Roku added: “Roku and Google have agreed to a multi-year extension for both YouTube and YouTube TV. This agreement represents a positive development for our shared customers, making both YouTube and YouTube TV available for all streamers on the Roku platform.”
The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but Roku will be glad to avert the loss of YouTube and keep customers out of the clutches of rival devices from Apple, Google and Amazon. Meanwhile, Google can now push its key video services to the 50-odd million active Roku accounts in the US and beyond.
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Android 12L Beta 1 Features: What's new for tablets and foldables
2021-12-08 21:09:57 UTC
Google’s forthcoming Android 12L update, designed to improve the experience on tablets and foldables, has taken its first step towards a public launch.
The first Android 12L beta has been released today, but it’s not much use at present. It’s only officially available on Pixel phones; none of which offer tablet-sized or foldable displays.
Announced in October, the Android 12L update will bring user interface improvements, a dedicated multitasking interface for tablets and improved app compatibility for those using Android outside of the candy bar smartphone realm.
In a blog post, Maru Ahues Bouza, Director, Android Developer Relations, explains: “With 12L, we’ve optimized and polished the system UI for large screens, made multitasking more powerful and intuitive, and improved compatibility support so apps look better right out of the box. 12L also includes a handful of new APIs for developers, such as for spatial audio and improved drag-and-drop for accessibility.”
Those UI improvements include an automatic switch to a two-column notification shade (main pic) for displays above 600dp, taking greater advantage of that surface area. The multitasking changes (above) bring a new taskbar that makes it easy to switch between apps. You can also drag and drop apps into split screen mode.
The update also brings a host of new APIs to help developers refine their apps and build new ones for these larger screens.
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While the first of three beta versions is only available on Pixel phones right now, Lenovo is launching the beta for the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro. If you’re enrolled in the Android beta program, Android 12L Beta 1 is available now as an over the air update. It’s also available by setting up an Android emulator in Android studio.
Google hasn’t really made much of an effort to make Android more tablet-friendly since the ancient Android Honeycomb release a decade ago. With Samsung’s foldables starting to gain some momentum, now seems like the perfect time to improve upon that record.
The post Android 12L Beta 1 Features: What's new for tablets and foldables appeared first on Trusted Reviews.
Learn something new with lifetime Rosetta Stone and StackSkills for $149
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
Whether it’s for your career or your free time, learning new skills is always a rewarding experience. The Unlimited Lifetime Learning Subscription Bundle can help you expand your knowledge, with lifetime access to Rosetta Stone and StackSkills. You can get it today for just $149 (Reg $1,794) at 9to5Toys Specials.
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Add this 4-in-1 bag sealer to your kitchen at under $9 Prime shipped (32% off)
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
AMIR-US Direct (96% lifetime positive feedback) via Amazon is offering its 4-in-1 Bag Sealer for $8.79 Prime shipped when the on-page coupon has been clipped. If you are not a Prime member, orders that exceed $25 will qualify for free shipping. Typically priced at $13, today’s offer delvers 32% in savings and newly marks the second-best price we have tracked. Bolster the lifespan of food in your pantry with this multi-function bag sealer from AMIR. It features a rechargeable design that uses heat to reseal a variety of bag types. Additionally, this unit can also function as a bag cutter, smartphone stand, and 400mAh power bank. It takes just a few seconds to preheat and and then you’ll be ready to reseal foil, plastic, PVC bags, and more.
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Top ski gear for men this season: Jackets, snowsuits, goggles, more from $20
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
Ski season is quickly approaching and today we’re rounding up the top items for men this season so you can hit the slopes in style. Whether you’re looking for ski goggles, clothing, or a new jacket, this guide will have options for it all. Each of the items listed features a waterproof or water-resistant design as well as insulating layers to help keep you warm. Find all of our top picks in men’s ski apparel and accessories below. You will also want to check out our guide on the new Columbia Star Wars Boba Fett Jacket that’s available now.
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Twelve South now 20% off sitewide for 9to5 readers: iPhone 13 BookBook all-time low, more
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
Your holiday Twelve South discount code has arrived. Twelve South is now offering 9to5 readers 20% off sitewide on all of its top-notch iPhone cases, MacBook accessories, Apple Watch bands, and more. Everything the brand offers is eligible for today’s promotion, including the new iPhone 13 BookBook cases, the PowerPic mod Qi charger, and the terry cotton workout Apple Watch ActionBand, yielding some of the best prices we have tracked on its latest releases. Shipping is free on just about everything here and you’ll want to head below for our exclusive Twelve South discount code.
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9to5Toys Gift Guide: Blair’s refreshing smart home upgrades from $13
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
With yet another year of working from home behind us and another on the horizon, refreshing your space with some smart home tech is a great way to liven up your space. Today, we’re rounding up some of our favorite accessories that would make great gifts this holiday season, ranging from modular multicolor lighting sets to portable lamps and everything in-between. With top picks of Nanoleaf lines and Philips Hue Go being joined by some more nostalgic offerings, all of our top picks in this year’s smart home gift guide are down below.
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Save up to 30% on Eve HomeKit accessories: Room Air Quality Monitor $80, more from $35
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
Just narrowly being inched out of Eve Room HomeKit-enabled Air Quality Monitor for $79.95 when clipping the on-page coupon. Normally fetching $100, today’s 20% discount returns to match the Black Friday price and best discount of the year. Eve Room upgrades your HomeKit setup with the ability to track everything from temperature and humidity to airborne particle matter and more. Its nifty aluminum frame pairs with an E-ink display, and while this isn’t the just-announced Thread model, you’ll find onboard Bluetooth for pairing to your Siri setup. Get a closer look in our announcement coverage and then head below for all of the details and a breakdown of the discounts.
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Amazon takes $91 off Walker Edison’s 3-piece Glass Coffee/Side Table Set, now $129
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
Amazon is offering the Walker Edison Midtown 3-piece Nesting Coffee/Side Table Set for $129 shipped. That’s $91 off the typical rate there and undercuts the previous Amazon low by $46. With Christmas just around the corner, you may be scrambling to come up with a layout for your home that can nicely accommodate the family. Thankfully, this Walker Edison set offers up a lot of value and plenty of space for setting down a drink, dinner plates, and much more. Not only will you get a glass coffee table that spans 20 by 42 by 20 inches and can uphold 100 pounds of weight, you’ll also benefit from two side tables that measure 19.5 by 19.75 by 18.25 inches each and with a 50-pound capacity.
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BundleHunt’s latest sale discounts over 50 top Mac apps for the holidays from $1
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
Today, the latest BundleHunt app sale has gone live to give our readers a selection of notable discounts from just $1. With a collection of over 50 titles to choose from, you’ll enjoy lifetime access along with consistent upgrades on each app. Notably, everything has just been updated to support macOS Monterey, as well. That makes this a perfect time to score some top-rated picks to elevate your workflow or score some new software for an M1 Mac. Head below for a few details on our top picks or dive into the entire sale here.
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Anker’s new Nano Pro USB-C chargers fall to Amazon lows: 40W hits $36, more from $17
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
Anker’s official Amazon storefront is now offering its new Nano Pro 20W USB-C Charger for $16.99 when clipping the on-page coupon. Shipping is free for Prime members or in orders over $25. Normally fetching $20, you’re looking at the very first discount we’ve tracked since launching back in September at $3 off. As Anker’s latest and most compact charger, its new Nano Pro still packs 20W of power output over a USB-C PD port. Perfect as an iPhone companion, or any other smartphone for that matter, it sports a unique design that comes in one of four colors. Our hands-on review offers a better idea of what to expect. But then head below for more.
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Today’s best Android app deals: Green Project, Meteogram Pro Weather Widget, more
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
All of today’s Android game and app deals are ready and waiting down below. Just be sure to scope out today’s Google Pixel handset deals and up to $230 off Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7/SE/+ lineup first. Then come right back here for our app deal collection including titles like Green Project, Meteogram Pro Weather Widget, Digital Dashboard GPS Pro, Athletics 2: Summer Sports, icon packs, and more. Hit the jump for a complete look at today’s best game and app deals.
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Razer unveils MagSafe-compatible smartphone fan with aluminum heat sink, RGB lighting, more
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
Most will agree that the latest smartphone games look impossibly good given the constraints they need to overcome. Since mobile devices rely on passive cooling instead of fans, there are thermal limitations that undoubtedly prevent games from looking and performing even better than they already do. Unsurprisingly, Razer is out with an aftermarket smartphone fan that’s ready to “defeat the heat” while emanating colorful lighting that is produced by 12 customizable RGB LEDs. Razer Phone Cooler Chroma pairs a heat sink with a seven-blade fan to produce “maximum airflow with minimal noise.” Continue reading to learn more.
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Logitech’s all-new G435 LIGHTSPEED Gaming Headset sees first discount to $70
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
Amazon is now offering the new Logitech G435 LIGHTSPEED Wireless Gaming Headset for $69.99 shipped. Normally fetching $80, you’re looking at the very first discount since launching back in September with $10 in savings attached. This is also a new all-time low, as well. Delivering some of the lightest wireless headphones yet from Logitech, its new G435 arrives in one of these colorways to upgrade your gaming rig. It doesn’t matter if you’re a PC pro or more casual player on PS5 and Xbox Series X, its LIGHTSPEED connectivity over 2.4GHz USB receiver is supplemented by Bluetooth for pairing with just about any device. Get a closer look in our hands-on review and then head below for more.
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Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection hits PS5 January 28 with new graphics options, PC 2022
2021-12-08 21:17:33 UTC
While we got our first glimpse at the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection in September, we now finally have an official PlayStation 5 release date: January 28, 2022. Not only that, but the Collection is also coming to PC after the PlayStation 5 release. Delivering a single-player experience from the award-winning Uncharted 4 game, there’s plenty to love here. What does the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection include? Let’s take a closer look.
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Windows 11 Build 22518 Brings Big Changes to Voice Access, Widgets, WSL
2021-12-08 21:39:13 UTC
Microsoft makes some big changes with Windows 11 Insider Preview 22518Colorpeak promo
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The Death of Don Draper
2018-08-03 09:32:00 UTC
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_tZTN4lkSsc/W2QgTtugOwI/AAAAAAAAALQ/8VBZ7S7sqSMt_XQi5aW08qXe0KBl1FzogCLcBGAs/s1600/Image%2B2018-08-03%2Bat%2B10.14.40%2Bam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="850" data-original-width="1415" height="384" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_tZTN4lkSsc/W2QgTtugOwI/AAAAAAAAALQ/8VBZ7S7sqSMt_XQi5aW08qXe0KBl1FzogCLcBGAs/s640/Image%2B2018-08-03%2Bat%2B10.14.40%2Bam.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Hamm by <yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-owner-renderer" has-link-only_="" id="owner-name" style="--yt-endpoint-hover-color: var(--yt-channel-owner); background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.6rem; text-align: start;"><a class="yt-simple-endpoint style-scope yt-formatted-string" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4KA3qEEEM7lj7I9NCWgOAQ" rel="nofollow" spellcheck="false" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;">GQ Australia</span></a></yt-formatted-string></td></tr></tbody></table>Advertising, once a creative industry, is now a data-driven business reliant on algorithms. The implications are deeply sinister – not only for the consumer but for democracy itself.<br /><br />The advertising industry is currently enthralled by a prophet of its imminent demise. Scott Galloway is a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and founder of a marketing consultancy. In a much-shared YouTube video, he delivers a talk entitled “The Death of the Advertising-Industrial Complex” to an audience of young marketers. In it, he argues that businesses can no longer rely on advertising to compensate for mediocre products.<br /><br />Until the 1990s, says Galloway, the path to success lay in taking “an average beer, average car, or average suit” and wrapping it in appealing associations – this one makes you feel more elegant, this one makes you feel younger. Now, we live in an age in which the intangible haze of soft-sell is no longer necessary, and the battle for market share comes down to the raw strength of your product. “The sun has passed midday on brand,” he says.<br /><br />Galloway, lean of frame, dresses in the austerely casual manner of technology entrepreneurs. Glasses with thick black frames perch on his shaven head. He begins his lecture, disarmingly, by warning that he can get things wrong: he once predicted Amazon would decline in value right before its stock began a record-breaking ascent. But there is nothing equivocal about his presentation. Traditional advertising is unforgivably wasteful, he says. “Nothing resembling targeting takes place. Ninety-eight per cent of what you see in broadcast media is irrelevant to you as an individual. I find that the advertising on Facebook and Google sucks less.”<br /><br />These days, consumers are less likely to have favourite brands, since “their favourite brand is going to be whatever Google tells them at that moment is going to match their exact needs”. The brand getting the most buzz in the car industry is Tesla. “What’s different about them? No advertising. Innovation in the car industry is not about putting Cindy Crawford in a TV ad. It’s about building a better battery.”<br /><br />Galloway closes with a cruel assessment of the ad industry’s relevance. “When’s the last time you saw an ad agency executive on the cover of Business Week? No one cares what they think. Don Draper has been killed, drawn and quartered. The big idea in advertising is a small idea nobody cares about.”<br /><br />Until recently, it was possible to identify somewhere called “Adland” on a map. In New York, advertising agencies clustered on or around Madison Avenue, near the big department stores. In London, the action was in Soho, among the film and TV production houses. The industry was a small world, with all the collegiality and parochialism that implies. In both cities, ad agencies are now dispersed randomly around town, as if an earthquake had destroyed their habitat, forcing them to scatter in different directions. Once so sure of their place in the world, they now seem a little lost.<br /><br />The earthquake, of course, was the internet, and the subsequent seizure of the ad business by technology companies. Between them, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon (about whom Galloway has written an acclaimed, critical book, The Four), have transformed advertising’s terms of trade. Clients pour billions into a digital ecosystem that revolves around Google and Facebook in particular. The ad industry, run by people who pride themselves on creativity, is being displaced by the ad business, which prides itself on efficiency. Clients are spending less on the kind of entertaining, seductive, fame-generating campaigns in which ad agencies specialise, and more on the ads that flash and wink on your smartphone screen.<br /><br />The ad industry views itself as a field of applied artistry, a next-door neighbour to the entertainment industry. Though it often fails, it aspires to surprise, charm, move and delight people on behalf of its clients. The ad business is obsessed with data science and distrusts the messy stuff of story, image and idea. The ad industry thinks of itself as the custodian of a brand’s meaning in popular culture. The ad business could not care less about such fluff. Instead, it seeks to identify the precise moment that a consumer needs something so that it can trigger a sale. Shopping, on its model, is essentially an engineering problem to which a satisfyingly logical solution has finally been found.<br /><br />The ad business is largely automated. Clients only have to decide how many people they want to reach, and how much they want to spend; algorithms do the rest. In the milliseconds before a page loads on to your screen, a virtual auction takes place. Advertisers bid for the chance to place their client’s ad on it, based on data about your online behaviour: where you live, whether you’re young or old, recently shopped for shoes or searched for a car brand. The advertiser might create multiple ads and serve different executions to different slices of its audience. Some companies, such as Cambridge Analytica, claim to be able to target personality types using this method. The more valuable your particular profile is to the advertiser, the higher price its algorithm will pay the publisher to get an ad in front of your eyes. In this way, every scintilla of attention is transformed into money.<br /><br />The ad business is insanely profitable. It has turned Google (worth $750bn) and Facebook ($600bn) into bloated zeppelins of cash. It is also the engine of the free internet, providing the funds for most of what you read and watch online. But the ad business has problems. Algorithms are poor at making judgements that seem obvious to humans, like whether or not a soap brand will be happy having its ads run next to an Isis recruitment video. Consumers have proved ungrateful for the increased “relevance” of the ads that pop up on their screens, partly because so many of them are bafflingly irrelevant. Tiring of the aggressiveness with which online ads insert themselves between them and the content they wish to see, more and more people are using ad-blockers to combat what they regard as an infestation.<br /><br />Clients have even started to question the ad business’s claim to efficiency. The model I described above is a simplified version of a dizzyingly complex system whose details few can fathom, involving multiple companies taking multiple fees. Unsurprisingly, fraud is rampant. It is estimated that at least a third of the audience for online ads are bots: criminal groups make millions of dollars selling fake clicks to advertisers and their agencies. Nobody can say for sure how well advertising on Facebook works since Facebook refuses to share data with industry bodies. Because of concerns such as these, the world’s biggest advertiser, Procter & Gamble (P&G), cut its digital marketing budget by $200m in 2017 and reallocated the money to other media, including television.<br /><br />Rather than recovering lost ground, the ad industry is paralysed by an identity crisis. Most agencies are owned by a handful of global advertising groups, such as Omnicom or WPP, founded by Martin Sorrell, which have moved their operating firms out of homes in expensive parts of town and into anonymous office blocks, partly to disguise the deterioration of their core business. The groups have made a half-hearted attempt to transform themselves into data-driven technology companies, but have succeeded only in legitimating the overblown claims of their competitors and disappointing the stock market.<br /><br />Ad agencies no longer seem to know what they are for. Their executives like to declare that they don’t work in advertising, since “ads” are associated with a pre-internet world. Yet when asked to say what it is they actually do, they become vague (“communication”) or grandiose (“create culture”). The industry is Balkanised, the engineers talking a different language to the storytellers. Scott Galloway’s lecture articulates the worst fear of the latter: that there is no need for them any more. Yet not everyone is ready to accept redundancy.<br /><br />****<br /><br /><br /><br /><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FPs6k-GHlZk/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FPs6k-GHlZk?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>“Flowers are ads. Peacocks’ tails are ads.” Rory Sutherland, vice-chairman of Ogilvy & Mather, and the ad industry’s most vigorous defender is in full flow over lunch at his agency’s offices in Blackfriars. “One reason I’m not predicting the death of advertising any time soon is that you can see how important it is in nature. A flower is basically a weed with an advertising budget.”<br /><br />Sutherland believes that something in the mindset of technologists makes it hard for them to see or admit the value of advertising. Peter Thiel, one of Silicon Valley’s more unconventional thinkers, once observed that “nerds are sceptical of advertising, marketing and sales because they seem superficial and irrational. But advertising matters because it works. It works on nerds, and it works on you.” Engineers tend to conceive of advertising – insofar as they think about it at all – as a mere conduit for information about the product, which in their mind should speak for itself, without the superfluous operating system of a brand. Rory Sutherland argues that efficiency is overrated, and that excess and superfluity are weapons that marketers surrender at their peril.<br /><br />“Knowing that the seller has faith in their product is a hugely valuable piece of information,” he says. “In luxury goods, for instance, the ad says almost nothing; the cost of the ad almost everything.” Biologists regard the peacock’s tail as an expensive and so unfakeable signal of fitness – a sexual status symbol.<br /><br />Similarly, an ad can emit a powerful signal about a brand, regardless of information content. Online ads are cheap and easy to make, but the problem is, they look at it. “You don’t invite people to your wedding by email,” says Sutherland.<br /><br />Sutherland is somewhat peacockish himself, his generously proportioned figure clothed in tweed and red corduroy, his speech bubbling with jokes, analogies, and asides on Austrian economists. What the ad industry brings to the corporate world, he says, is something it cannot afford to do without, even if it doesn’t know it: absurdity. Successful marketing must not be too rational because, as in military strategy, it depends on surprise. “In battle, if you’re always efficient, you’re predictable. In marketing, you have to do something slightly absurd in order to be distinctive – in order to avoid making the competition a kind of race to the bottom.”<br /><br />It isn’t enough for a signal to be costly or surprising, of course; it has to resonate with an audience. An axiom of the data-driven ad business is that an ad should be as tightly targeted as possible. Why waste money reaching millions of people when most of them are not in the market for your product? P&G’s top marketer, Marc Pritchard, a critic of Facebook, is nevertheless a devout believer in what he calls “one-to-one brand building”.<br /><br />But the doctrine of micro-targeting has a major lacuna. It is only by being visible to everyone at once that advertising can perform its most valuable role: shaping the cultural meaning of a brand.<br /><br />Before Christie’s sold Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi in 2017, it staged high-profile public exhibitions of the painting around the world and made an expensively produced video to showcase it – in effect, an ad. On the face of it, all this activity was a flagrant waste of money: almost nobody who consumes the marketing for a da Vinci is in the market for it. Christie’s salespeople knew all the potential buyers personally. They can, and did, visit them in the privacy of their penthouses.<br /><br />Yet Christie’s realised that those buyers would pay an extra few million for the privilege of owning a painting that was “iconic”. This isn’t some quirk of billionaire art collectors; it’s human nature. We value things more highly when we know that others value them.<br /><br />In his 2001 book Rational Ritual, the academic Michael Suk-Young Chwe argued that advertising solves what economists call a “coordination problem”. It helps us to see the world as others see it, and adapt our behaviour accordingly. If I know that a particular beer brand is associated with “quality” in the eyes of most people in the bar, then I will find it easier to drink it in public, regardless of my own personal preference, presuming I even have one. That wouldn’t be the case if I didn’t know that those people have seen the same ads as me. Being able to solve a problem like that is highly valuable for a brand, which is one reason why the cost of Super Bowl TV advertising has risen so steeply in the era of the internet: a 30-second commercial in 2018 cost about $5m, up from $1m in 1995. Messages can be microtargeted, but the meaning has to be mass-produced.<br /><br />Trust, too. The very act of advertising in public tends to make a brand more trusted since people can see it has a social reputation to maintain. When ads are invisible to people outside their target audience, it is easier to send messages that would fare badly in the light of public scrutiny – for political actors, Facebook is a dog-whistler's paradise. Researchers have consistently found that ads in broadcast media are taken more seriously than online ads: one reason for this is that people can see that other people can see them too. Even Mark Zuckerberg understands this at some level. Seeking to restore trust in Facebook in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, he ran full-page ads in newspapers.<br /><br />The need to have a meaningful brand forces a company to reflect on how it wishes to be perceived by society at large. Once that imperative disappears, all that is left is the battle for attention.<br /><br /> All gravy: Lynda Bellingham’s Oxo family were on our screens throughout the 1980s and 1990s<br /><br />It’s weird,” says Tom Goodwin, a prominent advertising executive and author of a new book, Digital Darwinism. “Adverts have never felt less significant, ad agencies have never seemed less important, but the advertising business has never dominated more aspects of modern life. Mostly in a bad way.”<br /><br />In a recent article for the New York Times, the sociologist Zeynep Tufekci recounted how, during the 2016 presidential campaign, she watched videos of Donald Trump’s rallies online, and noticed that YouTube started recommending and “auto-playing” videos of white supremacist rants and Holocaust denials. Curious, she set up another YouTube account and watched a lot of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders rallies. She was soon being directed to conspiracy theories about 9/11 and secret government agencies.<br /><br />Tufekci found the same pattern on non-political topics: videos about vegetarianism led to videos about veganism; videos about jogging led to videos about ultra-marathons. The stakes were always being upped. YouTube, she concluded, was a “radicalising instrument”. That isn’t, she says because YouTube’s engineers are zealots. It’s because Google (YouTube’s owner) is selling attention to advertisers, and its algorithms have learnt that the best way to keep people hooked is to push ever more extreme material on them.<br /><br />Attention was always important to the ad industry, but so were entertainment and storytelling, since what makes a person laugh, think or cry is more likely to be remembered. Historically, ads in broadcast media needed to be memorable, because they were not going to be seen very often, and would be absent at the point of purchase. It was important, therefore, to “build a brand” – a set of visual and emotional associations easily recalled to mind when deciding between options. At the supermarket, a shopper was more likely to reach for Oxo than other stock cubes, because its long-running TV campaign, featuring Lynda Bellingham, was funny and acute enough to have forged a link in the public imagination between Oxo and the consoling rituals of a British family meal. Oxo was instant gravy wrapped in cultural code, or perhaps cultural code disguised as instant gravy.<br /><br />Now that people carry media around with them everywhere, advertisers have less incentive to create memorable brands. Instead, they concentrate on forcing our attention towards the message or offer of the moment. The ad business doesn’t care about the future of its audience, only its present. That has had far-reaching consequences.<br /><br />In 2016, Facebook in effect charged the Trump campaign lower rates than the Clinton campaign, because Trump’s ads made people angrier and thus generated more clicks. Nobody took a decision to charge Trump less. It was the logical outcome of the ad business’s core principle: the more attention you win, the more you get paid. Since negative emotions are more likely to win and hold attention than positive emotions, the system has an incentive to spread fear and loathing. Russia’s entire propaganda campaign relies on an advertising model that rewards paranoia and spite.<br /><br />Meanwhile, we stoop over our phones when we should be doing almost anything else. A senior analyst at the Bank of England recently published an article making a case that one of the causes of Britain’s poor productivity is the spread of smartphones. A comprehensive US study, sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, identified a strong association between social media use and depression. It’s not just Facebook: every app on your phone is engineered to hook and hold your attention, at the expense of your work, sleep, family and mental health. Every app with ads, that is.<br /><br />Scott Galloway is only the most eloquent exponent of the view that brand-led advertising is a vestige of a less rational world, to be superseded by a more scientific system (at the now legendary congress of Online Marketing Rockstars, Alexander Nix, then chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, gave a presentation entitled “From Mad Men to Math Men”). But if there is a bug in the software, it is the human mind. The way we choose what to buy, like the way we choose how to vote, will never be logical. Trying to make it so has created an environment in which our basest impulses are relentlessly stimulated and amplified.<br /><br />The philosopher Gilles Deleuze once remarked, “It is not the slumber of a reason that engenders monsters, but vigilant and insomniac rationality.” If ever there was a creation of insomniac rationality it is the 21st-century advertising business. Its monsters roam the planet.<br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/internet/2018/07/death-don-draper" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The death of Don Draper</a> as appeared first on <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.newstatesman.com</a></div>Online Marketing Effectiveness on Integrated Marketing Communications
2018-08-03 10:02:00 UTC
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3YVZd0dijew/W2Qkov07zXI/AAAAAAAAALc/4kioDrwOPxoDLlw5vSnesyMnupNHHVSawCLcBGAs/s1600/Image%2B2018-08-03%2Bat%2B10.46.42%2Bam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="857" data-original-width="1600" height="340" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3YVZd0dijew/W2Qkov07zXI/AAAAAAAAALc/4kioDrwOPxoDLlw5vSnesyMnupNHHVSawCLcBGAs/s640/Image%2B2018-08-03%2Bat%2B10.46.42%2Bam.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GaryVee by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm7Hp03CgzY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GaryVee</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Online marketing is becoming a hot topic in every business sector and gradually plays a truly important role in any company's multi-channel marketing strategy or its integrated marketing communication.<br /><br /><h3>Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is a marketing concept that ensures all forms of communication and messages are carefully linked together. </h3>At its most basic level, Integrated Marketing Communication or IMC means integrating all the promotional tools, so that they work together in harmony. Promotion is one of the Ps in the marketing mix. The promotion has its own mix of communication tools.<br />All of these communication tools work better if they work together in harmony rather than in isolation. Their sum is greater than their parts - providing they speak consistently with one voice all the time, every time.<br /><br /><h4>Tools of Online Marketing:</h4><b>Display advertising </b>- Display advertising conveys its advertising message visually using text, logos, animations, videos, photographs, or other graphics. Display advertisers frequently target users with particular traits to increase the ads' effect.<br /><br /><b>Web banner advertising </b>- Web banners or banner ads typically are graphical ads displayed on a web page. Banner ads can use rich media to incorporate video, audio, animations, buttons, forms, or other interactive elements using Java applets, HTML5, Adobe Flash, and other programs.<br /><br /><b>Frame ad (traditional banner) </b>- Frame ads were the first form of web banners. The colloquial usage of "banner ads" often refers to traditional frame ads. Website publishers incorporate frame ads by setting aside a particular space on the web page.<br /><br /><b>Pop-ups/pop-unders</b> - A pop-up ad is displayed in a new web browser window that opens above a website visitor's initial browser window. A pop-under ad opens a new browser window under a website visitor's initial browser window.<br /><br /><b>Floating ad</b> - A floating ad, or overlay ad, is a type of rich media advertisement that appears superimposed over the requested website's content. Floating ads may disappear or become less obtrusive after a preset time period.<br /><br /><b>Expanding ad</b> - An expanding ad is a rich media frame ad that changes dimensions upon a predefined condition, such as a preset amount of time a visitor spends on a webpage, the user's click on the ad, or the user's mouse movement over the ad. Expanding ads allow advertisers to fit more information into a restricted ad space.<br /><br /><b>Interstitial ad</b> - An interstitial ad displays before a user can access requested content, sometimes while the user is waiting for the content to load. Interstitial ads are a form of interruption marketing.<br /><br /><b>Text ads</b> - A text ad displays text-based hyperlinks. Text-based ads may display separately from a web page's primary content, or they can be embedded by hyperlinking individual words or phrases to advertiser's websites. Text ads may also be delivered through email marketing or text message marketing.<br /><br /><b>Search Engine Marketing (SEM)</b> - Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is designed to increase a website's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engines provide sponsored results and organic (non-sponsored) results based on a web searcher's query. Search engines often employ visual cues to differentiate sponsored results from organic results. Search engine marketing includes all of an advertiser's actions to make a website's listing more prominent for topical keywords.<br /><br /><b>Search Engine Optimization (SEO)</b> -Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, attempts to improve a website's organic search rankings in SERPs by increasing the website content's relevance to search terms. Search engines regularly update their algorithms to penalize poor quality sites that try to game their rankings, making optimization a moving target for advertisers. Many vendors offer SEO services.<br /><br /><b>Sponsored search</b> - Sponsored search (also called sponsored links or search ads) allows advertisers to be included in the sponsored results of a search for selected keywords. Search ads are often sold via real-time auctions, where advertisers bid on keywords.<br /><br /><b>Social media marketing</b> - Social media marketing is a commercial promotion conducted through social media websites. Many companies promote their products by posting frequent updates and providing special offers through their social media profiles.<br /><b><br /></b> <b>Mobile Advertising </b>- Mobile advertising is ad copy delivered through wireless mobile devices such as smartphones, feature phones, or tablet computers. Mobile advertising may take the form of static or rich media to display ads, SMS (Short Message Service) or MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) ads, mobile search ads, advertising within mobile websites, or ads within mobile applications or games (such as interstitial ads, "advergaming," or application sponsorship).<br /><br /><b>Email Advertising</b> - Email advertising is ad copy comprising an entire email or a portion of an email message. Email marketing may be unsolicited, in which case the sender may give the recipient an option to opt-out of future emails, or it may be sent with the recipient's prior consent (opt-in).<br /><br /><br /><h4>Benefits of Online marketing:</h4>• The Internet gives you a wide access to your potential customers. It has been estimated that a couple of billion people around the world use the Internet, and more are becoming aware of the Internet with each passing day. So, marketing your business to such a large group of people is only possible through the Internet. The Internet is the only medium that is able to cross geographic and national boundaries.<br /><br />• The cost of promoting your business on the Internet is cheaper than other mediums of marketing. This makes it easy for small and mid-sized businesses to advertise their products.<br /><br />• The Internet allows the ability to stay connected with customers on a real-time basis. If any discount going on, then it is easier to send an email to customers and they can buy the product instantly. The Internet also allows sending of multiple messages at the same time, which saves the tedious task of sending a newsletter to every client.<br /><br />• Internet marketing facilitates an instant feedback from the customers. Customers can share about their experience after using the product.<br /><br />• Internet marketing saves a lot of time and effort. Instead of having a customer service representative to answer the queries of customers, one can put all the information about the product or service on the Internet so that customers can go through it. The most common way of doing it is to have a section dedicated to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the product so that customers get all the required information about the product or the service.<br /><br />• Internet marketing allows businesses to be available 24/7, which means increased sales and profits.<br /><br /><h4>Limitations of Online marketing:</h4>• Although Internet marketing allows a wider reach, the start-up costs of a website can be high. This includes the cost of the required software and hardware and maintenance costs.<br /><br />• There are still a lot of customers who use the Internet just for having more information about a product and prefer to buy it in person. For example, Internet marketing allows a customer to view how a phone looks like and its technical specifications, but customers prefer having a look at the phone in the store to get a hands-on experience.<br /><br />• There are a lot of customers who are not proficient in using the Internet and focusing solely on Internet marketing can cause you to lose these customers.<br /><br />• The rules of the trade change rapidly in Internet marketing, and it requires constant attention and monitoring to ensure that your marketing strategy does not look out-of-date.<br /><br />• The biggest disadvantage of Internet marketing is its vulnerability to fraudulent activities. There are a lot of illegitimate websites out there which look similar to original websites and rob the customers of their money. Spamming is also one of the biggest challenges for Internet marketing and confidential data can be easily stolen by hackers.<br /><br />• Internet marketing lacks the human touch that is involved when a customer buys a product from a salesperson. This hampers the prospects of relationship building which plays an important part in repeat sales and word-of-mouth publicity.<br /><br />• Internet marketing depends heavily on technology, which is vulnerable to technical faults. For example, if a customer clicks on your advertisement but due to a technical glitch, is unable to buy the product, he may easily become irate and take his business somewhere else.<br /><br /><br />Although there are some challenges involved in Internet marketing, it can be safely said that Internet marketing has led to increased transparency and ease of buying products. The need of the hour is to counter the challenges so that Internet marketing proves to be truly beneficial for all.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://thesisexamples.blogspot.com/2017/08/online-marketing-effectiveness-integrated-marketing-communications-IMC-thesis.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Online Marketing Effectiveness on Integrated Marketing Communications</a> - as posted on here first.5 Sectors Blockchain Is Disrupting That Are Not Cryptocurrency
2018-08-08 18:23:00 UTC
<br />For a few years now, “blockchain” and “cryptocurrency” have gone hand-in-hand. The blockchain concept is complicated, and involves constant-growth record lists linked together and secured through cryptography (think of the Cryptex from The Da Vinci Code). Each block of the chain envelops a hash pointer relating to the previous block, as well as transaction data and a timestamp.<br />The idea of a blockchain isn’t relegated to the infant-era cryptocurrency revolution. Massive worldwide corporations are beginning to incorporate blockchain technology into their systems. The technology behind the blockchain is far more valuable on a global scale than any market capitalization of cryptocurrencies. Here are five large sectors currently being disrupted by the potential of this technology:<br />Related: Why Bitcoin Is the MySpace of Cryptocurrencies, But the Blockchain Is Here to Stay<br /><img alt="Image 2018-08-08 at 7.14.07 pm" class=" wp-image-18 aligncenter" data-attachment-id="18" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Image 2018-08-08 at 7.14.07 pm" data-large-file="https://lucashawro.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/image-2018-08-08-at-7-14-07-pm.png?w=840" data-medium-file="https://lucashawro.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/image-2018-08-08-at-7-14-07-pm.png?w=525&h=368" data-orig-file="https://lucashawro.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/image-2018-08-08-at-7-14-07-pm.png" data-orig-size="1772,1239" data-permalink="https://lucashawro.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/5-sectors-blockchain-is-disrupting-that-are-not-cryptocurrency/image-2018-08-08-at-7-14-07-pm/" height="368" sizes="(max-width: 525px) 85vw, 525px" src="https://lucashawro.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/image-2018-08-08-at-7-14-07-pm.png?w=525&h=368" srcset="https://lucashawro.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/image-2018-08-08-at-7-14-07-pm.png?w=525&h=368 525w, https://lucashawro.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/image-2018-08-08-at-7-14-07-pm.png?w=1050&h=734 1050w, https://lucashawro.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/image-2018-08-08-at-7-14-07-pm.png?w=150&h=105 150w, https://lucashawro.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/image-2018-08-08-at-7-14-07-pm.png?w=300&h=210 300w, https://lucashawro.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/image-2018-08-08-at-7-14-07-pm.png?w=768&h=537 768w, https://lucashawro.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/image-2018-08-08-at-7-14-07-pm.png?w=1024&h=716 1024w" width="525" /><br /><h4>1. Crybersecurity</h4>Although one of the main draws to the blockchain is the transparency of its public ledger, the data communication piece is verified via advanced cryptographic systems. This ensures the data arrived through the proper channels, without interception by a third party in the transmission process.<br />This idea brings about the strong possibility that blockchain can provide severe reductions in cybersecurity risks. The removal of human interaction in the data communication process will severely lessen the threat of data corruption, human error, and hacking.<br />Additional cybersecurity applications of the blockchain include large-scale authentication of data. A startup called Guardtime is currently experimenting with a blockchain-centric keyless signature infrastructure. This KSI works by tagging and verifying data transactions, providing crypto-level assurance of data authenticity and integrity.<br /><h4>2. Elections and voting</h4>Voting manipulation has become an active pain point in the election process at many levels. Elections require not only the authentication of the voters’ identities, but also secured record-keeping, vote tracking, and win tallying.<br />Looking to the future, blockchain technology could enable tools to serve as an infrastructure from start to finish. This could potentially eliminate the need for recounts, as it removes the human element involved in vote manipulation and voter fraud.<br />Through the capture of votes as blockchain “transactions,” government entities would have a public and verifiable trail of votes, ensuring none are changed or removed, and no illegitimate votes are added. A blockchain-based election focused startup called Follow My Vote is in the process of developing a beta version of their complete blockchain-centric voting solution.<br /><h4>3. Transaction-based real estate</h4>The purchase and sale of property come with many pain points, including massive stacks of paperwork, an overall lack of transparency, public record errors, and the possibility of fraud throughout the process. Blockchain instead offers a method to reduce the need for paper recordkeeping, while simultaneously speeding up transaction times, helping those involved in the process reduce transaction costs and improve overall efficiency.<br />Technology and finance startup Ubitquity has begun offering a SaaS platform centered around blockchain technology, geared toward mortgage, title, and financial companies. The service provider is working with various recordkeeping entities in foreign countries to gather property information and documents for their blockchain.<br /><h4>4. Analytics for forecasting</h4>As industries continue to embrace the concept of the blockchain, the power expands into the analytics and forecasting niche. With entirely accurate transaction records to support data analysis, forecasting technologies can adapt to a less error-prone foundation for things such as machine learning algorithms to develop more accurate insights and predictions based on blockchain data.<br />Even in the current day and age, blockchain is in the process of allowing for a new market focused on predictions. A program called Augur has been developed using the Ethereum blockchain. Augur allows its users to forecast events, incorporating a reward system for accurate predictions. The parent company of the program claims that the full process will be decentralized, enabling their users to place bets on everything from stock market predictions to sports, to natural disaster occurrences.<br /><h4>5. Ridesharing applications</h4>Lyft and Uber are definitions of centralization in business models. The companies, in essence, operate as cloud-based dispatch hubs, using algorithms to control fleets and dictate charges. Blockchain could allow new technologies into these dynamics. Decentralized and distributed ledgers could provide a more user-driven and value-oriented market environment.<br /><h4>Final thoughts</h4>While still relatively new technology, blockchain is easily poised to become one the most useful technological innovations of the 21st century. With massive corporations already incorporating blockchain into their systems, and hundreds of chain-centric startups pushing into the mainstream, the potential utilization of this cryptographic process is unfathomable.<br />The above five sectors scratch the surface of the disruption blockchain has caused, and the technology is likely already an unbeknownst part of your daily life. Cryptocurrency platforms are only the beginning.<br />As first seen on <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/305009" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">5 Sectors Blockchain Is Disrupting That Are Not Cryptocurrency</a>Minimalism in Web Design
2018-09-07 20:19:00 UTC
<h1>Minimalism in Web Design</h1><div class="3stj9">When you think about minimalism in today’s websites, you most likely have a specific light-weight style in mind recognised across many fields. In many ways, the concept of minimalism has been a constant presence in the designer's world of art and architecture for almost a century. It has also become a dominant trend in website design, especially in 2018, and likely will only grow stronger in the upcoming years. I hope you will be interested in learning what <em>Colorpeak</em> has to tell you about what it means to design a minimal website.</div><h2><strong>What is minimalism? </strong></h2><div class="9o7a6">You've probably heard the phrases "the art of less" or "less is more" many times. It's a cliché, but there is truth to it. One can say that simplicity represents the essence of a minimalistic approach in modern design.</div><blockquote><em>“The term minimalism is also used to describe a trend in design and architecture, wherein the subject is reduced to its necessary elements”.</em> </blockquote><div class="ff4ei"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalism" target="_blank">- Wikipedia</a></div><div class="5ikpe">However, today I would like to focus on exploring minimalism as it’s applied in digital web design. I will also go through its main principles and show you actual examples of beautiful minimalist websites.</div><h2><strong>Minimalism in web design</strong></h2><div class="6e7b3">Most designers agree that minimalism in web design means simplifying the interface by removing unnecessary elements. Some will also argue that you need to strip down the website to its bare bones, especially since <a href="https://www.ampproject.org/learn/overview/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">AMP </a>was introduced. However, no matter which approach you prefer, remember that there are some restrictions in deleting the elements of your design before it loses its main goal of providing information to the visitor or generating sales.</div><h2><strong>The main principles of minimalism in web design</strong></h2><ol><li>Invisible or subtle navigation</li><li>Negative/empty space</li><li>Use of contrast</li><li>Power of typography</li><li>User-friendly layout</li></ol><h3><strong>Invisible or subtle navigation</strong></h3><div class="fccmn">Most people are in a hurry, or to be more accurate, are impatient. Simple navigation will encourage them to look for what they came to your website for. Unless you're building a large retailer website that requires a <em><a href="https://www.r2integrated.com/r2insights/an-seo-view-of-mega-menus" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">mega menu</a></em>, keep it simple, and you will be rewarded.</div><br /><figure class="image regular"><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/7c190a60bba4823e3e42a0a59abc9aec.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/7c190a60bba4823e3e42a0a59abc9aec.gif 1x"></source><img alt="" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/7c190a60bba4823e3e42a0a59abc9aec.gif" /></picture><figcaption>Visit website <a href="https://charbonneltowns.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">charbonneltowns.com</a></figcaption></figure><br /><h3><strong>Negative/empty space</strong></h3><div class="fgamr">White space can be a powerful tool, helping you to draw people's attention toward what little remains on your minimalistic website. It is commonly used, but often its inclusion is an accident, especially when a designer building an e-commerce website will tend to focus on making sure the shop works. How it looks is a secondary concern. In such instances, you end up with a website of a five-year-old who did not learn yet how to fill in the background between the grass and the sky on that picture they drew for grandma.</div><br /><figure class="image regular"><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/1c6323cf830871f83f67b56a9371c1d1.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/1c6323cf830871f83f67b56a9371c1d1.gif 1x"></source><img alt="" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/1c6323cf830871f83f67b56a9371c1d1.gif" /></picture><figcaption>View website <a href="https://www.l2f.ch/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Learn 2 Forecast</a></figcaption></figure><br /><h3><strong>Use of contrast</strong></h3><div class="9hkqt">In terms of contrast, you can play with light or dark colours (resist using too many in one project). In addition, you can strategically place some of the website elements in the foreground vs background to emphasise them. Another contrast to consider is size and shape. These come especially handy when designing <em><a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/call-to-action-examples" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Call to Action</a></em> buttons that should draw the attention of the visitor.</div><br /><figure class="image regular"><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/f147c98a25539f6c080e2a53c33bd84e_800.jpg 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/f147c98a25539f6c080e2a53c33bd84e_800.jpg 1x"></source><img alt="" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/f147c98a25539f6c080e2a53c33bd84e_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>View website <a href="http://fleurmoreau.fr/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">fleurmoreau.fr</a></figcaption></figure><br /><h3><strong>Power of typography</strong></h3><div class="odud">There are hundreds of fonts to choose from these days, and with minimalistic design in mind, it's not about which one you choose but how you use it. You can even use bold fonts and huge letters. No website should use one font only, but do not go overboard. Do not go over three. Even better, stick to two and play with the size, weight, and letter spacing to achieve balance and simplicity.</div><br /><figure class="image regular"><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/235a1faabae50f3b8f28fde018237794_800.jpg 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/235a1faabae50f3b8f28fde018237794_800.jpg 1x"></source><img alt="" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/235a1faabae50f3b8f28fde018237794_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>View website <a href="http://www.klobouckalesni.cz/en/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.klobouckalesni.cz</a></figcaption></figure><br /><h3><strong>User-friendly layout</strong></h3><div class="6ro5s">Large images will empower you to bring life to empty spaces. But they only work in certain cases like when designing a website for interior design, or photographers etc. Pictures can be very heavy and can slow down your website, so they need to be well balanced with the text between them.</div><br /><figure class="image regular"><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/5d4c4067ec08c6b6624f67bfb526f557_800.jpg 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/5d4c4067ec08c6b6624f67bfb526f557_800.jpg 1x"></source><img alt="" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/5d4c4067ec08c6b6624f67bfb526f557_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>View website <a href="http://primalinea.com.br/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">primalinea.com.br</a></figcaption></figure><br /><h2><strong>When should you choose minimalism for web design?</strong></h2><div class="es2bk">There are certain benefits to choosing minimalistic web design, but it's not suitable for all projects. On the one hand, they often seem a good choice for one-page websites or to sell a few products but won't work on large retailer e-com stores.</div><div class="40evk">It also depends on your audience. A professional corporate worker may not care about the aesthetics but for a musician, or in fact any artist, a minimalistic look can be appealing. It is quite clear that you need to keep your end user in mind at all times and design for them. Will your customer appreciate the ease of navigation? Or will they feel like something is missing and flee to your competitor's website?</div><h2><strong>Conclusion</strong></h2><div class="f1a3f">Whether you choose to design a minimalistic website or not, remember that what seems simple at first glance, usually requires a lot of effort from a designer’s perspective. There is no point in stripping things from the website to make it light and user-friendly if it's not going to be functional. With a bit of time, dedication and a proper approach to never sacrificing usability for the sake of visuals, you can create a beautiful and useful website in no time... Kidding! Every designer knows that it takes time to design any good website. At least now you know what you should keep in mind to design a minimalistic one!</div><div class="f1a3f"><br /></div><div class="f1a3f">View source: <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/minimalism-web-design/" target="_blank">Minimalism in Web Design</a></div><!-- Piwik tracking --> <!-- Piwik --> <script type="text/javascript"> var _paq = _paq || []; var url = "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/minimalism-web-design?id=1056001909&type=12"; const queryDict = {}; location.search.substr(1).split("&").forEach(function(item) {queryDict[item.split("=")[0]] = item.split("=")[1]}); if ('contact' in queryDict){ const separator = (url.indexOf("?")===-1)?"?":"&"; url = url + separator + "contact="+queryDict['contact']; } if ('list' in queryDict){ const separator = (url.indexOf("?")===-1)?"?":"&"; url = url + separator + "list="+queryDict['list']; } _paq.push(['setDocumentTitle', 'Minimalism in Web Design']); _paq.push(['setCustomUrl', url]); _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableHeartBeatTimer', 15]); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u="//storychief.piwikpro.com/"; _paq.push(['addTracker', u+'piwik.php', '565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9']); var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src=u+'piwik.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); })(); </script> <!-- End Piwik Code --><!-- strchf script --> <script async="" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"></script> <!-- End strchf script -->Flat design vs depth in web design
2018-09-11 17:03:00 UTC
<h1>Flat design vs depth in web design</h1> <p class="bcaki">CSS has been with us for over two decades, but its use properly kicked in 2003 when Jeffrey Zeldman published his book "Designing with Web Standards". Since then the use of flash templates for web design started to slow down, and CSS became widely used. </p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://cowboy.bike/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/0c7354ade72673e37eb1f9f115e617bc_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/0c7354ade72673e37eb1f9f115e617bc_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Depth in web design" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/0c7354ade72673e37eb1f9f115e617bc_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>View website <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://cowboy.bike/">cowboy.bike</a></figcaption></figure><p class="daq9j">By the time flat design was introduced in 2006 by Windows with their Zune player release, web designers were in a phase showing off their skills using flashy illustrations and animations that int their minds were to wow website visitors. It was a minefield full of colours, textures and simple animations that constantly distracted people to no end. You can check out how the internet looked like in early 2000 by visiting <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery?page=1&year=2000,2005&category=&style=&open=year&order=popular">Web Design Museum</a>. </p><h2><strong>What is flat design?</strong></h2><p class="2d3qs">Flat design emphasises usability in its <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/minimalism-web-design/">minimalistic approach</a> toward the interface. It focuses on being clean and simple, emphasising open space, 2D illustrations, contrast and crisp edges. As a principal, the less stylistic elements seen as unnecessary clutter in web design, the better. </p><p class="1ii7v">One can say that flat design goes back to the basics of web design in terms of being a functional tool. The focus shifts from how it looks to how well it works. Don't get me wrong, the looks are still important and need to please the eye, but at the same time when your end goal is to implement flat design it needs to equally be user-friendly. </p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/73fe89abb9cd07601e9d8168d41f4190_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/73fe89abb9cd07601e9d8168d41f4190_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Flat design showcasing website" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/73fe89abb9cd07601e9d8168d41f4190_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>View website <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://artisantalent.com/">artisantalent.com</a></figcaption></figure><h2><strong>Here are some basic principles of flat design:</strong></h2><ul><li>clean and simple</li><li>two-dimensional illustrations and icons</li><li>crisp edges</li><li>use of contrast</li><li>decluttered space</li></ul><h2><strong>Depth in web design</strong></h2><p class="4qh04">On the other hand, the use of depth in web design has been equally popular. Designers who use it tend to say they like to “breathe life” into their work and add depth as a way to do it. By adding shadow, which is very popular to create a 3D perception, you can emphasise specific elements on the website and make them more realistic.</p><p class="72ka8">According to some, a real-looking interface can boost people’s interaction with the website which is always important when it comes to web design, as it must be pretty but more importantly, functional. </p><p class="er5ie">Some specific tools can be used to achieve depth in web design.</p><h2><strong>How can depth be achieved in web design?</strong></h2><ul><li>parallax backgrounds</li><li>focal points and perspective</li><li>subtle shading and lighting</li><li>overlapping layers</li><li>gaussian blur</li><li>skeuomorphism (<em>interface objects that mimic their real-world counterparts in how they appear or how the user can interact with them</em> - definition by <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/skeuomorphism">Interaction Design</a>)</li></ul><p class="5a0u9">Skeuomorphism became popular thanks to Apple. Steve Jobs was always the one who emphasised that people should use devices thanks to intuition and should not have to read manuals to enjoy the technology. But after a few years, <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-marketing-trends-2019/">this trend</a> seems to be overused, and even Apple followed the Windows approach and introduced flat design in their devices.</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/d59dec48b3d24e5b5b78528675f2fc95_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/d59dec48b3d24e5b5b78528675f2fc95_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Flat design versus skeuomorphic design of Safari icon" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/d59dec48b3d24e5b5b78528675f2fc95_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>Skeuomorphic vs flat design</figcaption></figure><p class="c8rmf">These days everything seems to be mixing, and although we see the flat design in the lead, it has some depth elements incorporated into it like subtle shadows and micro-animations. It is the best of two worlds combined for better visuals and user-experience. That's a win-win if you ask me.</p><p class="6gn76"> Source: <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/flat-vs-depth-web-design"><strong>Flat design vs depth in web design</strong> </a></p> <!-- Piwik tracking --><!-- Piwik --><script type="text/javascript"> var _paq = _paq || []; var url = "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/flat-vs-depth-web-design?id=1514311566&type=12"; const queryDict = {}; location.search.substr(1).split("&").forEach(function(item) {queryDict[item.split("=")[0]] = item.split("=")[1]}); if ('contact' in queryDict){ const separator = (url.indexOf("?")===-1)?"?":"&"; url = url + separator + "contact="+queryDict['contact']; } if ('list' in queryDict){ const separator = (url.indexOf("?")===-1)?"?":"&"; url = url + separator + "list="+queryDict['list']; } _paq.push(['setDocumentTitle', 'Flat design vs depth in web design']); _paq.push(['setCustomUrl', url]); _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableHeartBeatTimer', 15]); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u="//storychief.piwikpro.com/"; _paq.push(['addTracker', u+'piwik.php', '565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9']); var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src=u+'piwik.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); })(); </script><!-- End Piwik Code --><!-- strchf script --><script async src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"></script><!-- End strchf script -->4 key skills of a Graphic Designer
2018-09-23 20:01:00 UTC
<h1>4 key skills of a Graphic Designer</h1> <p>A graphic artist of any kind is a person who may not necessarily possess the skills needed to be able to call themselves a graphic designer. On the other hand, not every graphic designer is an artist. You can learn the craft of design and techniques needed to create graphics that can carry one’s message. With the right set of tools and knowledge, the world is yours. The best of the best will have both and will be the leaders who inspire others; creating graphic designs that are admired and shared.</p><h2><strong>Who is a Graphic Artist?</strong></h2><p>If it only was so easy to define a graphic artist. Some will say you need to be born an artist, that you need an artistic soul, but for the purpose of this article, we will focus on a more down-to-earth approach. In short, a graphic artist is a creative person such as an illustrator, photographer or somebody designing <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://ilovetypography.com/">typography</a> to list just a few; an artist that works with a visual medium.</p><h2><strong>Who is a Graphic Designer?</strong></h2><p>A graphics designer will most often be a part of a graphic artists group, though not necessarily. Many freelancers are working in this area by themselves. A graphic designer specialises in supplying graphic illustrations for an editorial piece, web developer or advertising, among many others. Your job as a graphic designer is to produce a visual design (a digital one most of the time these days) that conveys a specific message for whatever purpose.</p><figure class="image regular"><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/graphic-design/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/96f4d201bd336c876e5f0c5fe44a5e74_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/96f4d201bd336c876e5f0c5fe44a5e74_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/96f4d201bd336c876e5f0c5fe44a5e74_800.png" /></picture></a></figure><h2><strong>What skills do you need to be a Graphic Designer?</strong></h2><ul><li>Soft skills</li><li>Tools</li><li>Knowledge</li><li>Degree (skills confirmation)</li></ul><h3><strong>Soft skills in graphic design</strong></h3><p>You would think that there are more important skills to have as a graphic designer. However, this is not always one of those jobs where you sit behind a desk all day and work on your computer. Your task as a <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_designer">graphic designer</a>, especially in a large company, is to communicate the client’s written or spoken message through visual means. That requires you to have well-developed communication skills. It’s not a one-man job so you will also find yourself participating in brainstorm meetings where you and your colleagues will have to agree on the best marketing strategy. You will have to be able to understand the team leader’s vision and confront them if your experience tells you this or that won’t work. And you need to be a team player, so knowing some negotiation skills will come handy when putting your thoughts out there for others to think through. </p><p><small>If you need a qualified Graphic Designer, please call Colorpeak at <a href="http://tel:00441916451645">0191 645 1645</a>.</small></p><h3><strong><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/graphic-design/">Graphic design</a> tools</strong></h3><p>I could tell you there are plenty of tools that you can use as a graphic designer, but there are only a few that truly count and enable you to create with no limitations. These days, knowing how to use (and use well!) Adobe CS is a must. As a freelancer, you may want to dip into <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gimp.org/">Gimp</a>, Inkspace or Krita freeware software. If you’re looking for a job in a respected Graphic Design company, however, then having InDesign, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop.html ">Photoshop</a> and Illustrator listed in your CV is a necessity. </p><h3><strong>Knowledge of graphic design field</strong></h3><p>In terms of "know-how", there are certain things that you need to know by heart and most importantly understand, like typography or branding. However, there are others that you only need to be aware of, like printing technicalities.</p><figure class="image regular"><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-marketing-trends-2019/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/ac168ae8133237cdba44e7a85f1998f0_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/ac168ae8133237cdba44e7a85f1998f0_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/ac168ae8133237cdba44e7a85f1998f0_800.png" /></picture></a></figure><h3><strong>Areas of knowledge that every Graphic Designer should be familiar with:</strong></h3><ul><li>UI/UX Design</li><li>HTML/CSS</li><li>Typography</li><li>Branding</li><li>Printing</li></ul><p>UI/UX design (User Interface/User Experience), typography and basic HTML/CSS knowledge are essential if you are considering working as a graphic designer in web design field. One could argue that you don’t need any coding skills to produce a website, but that is not true. You need to understand if and how a web developer will be able to reproduce your design using programming skills. I would say you can be a graphic artist without this knowledge but to be a good and respected graphic designer you won’t get away from the necessity of understanding HTML and CSS. Studies show that 36% of companies prefer their graphic designers to know HTML. Typography is another of those skills that you need to obtain but we have a separate article that talks about typography in <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/minimalism-web-design/">minimalistic design</a> if you’re interested.</p><p>When it comes to branding, there are specific guidelines that you need to be aware of. Fortunately, it usually lies within a team leader’s scope to decide what needs to be designed. It is good to have experience in creating a brand for a company. However, in the end, you simply need to produce what the client needs, so most of the time you learn as you go.</p><p><small>Need a brand design? We can do it all! Call <a href="http://tel:00441916451645">0191 645 1645</a> for more information.</small></p><p>You do not need to know how the printer operates. Frankly, you’re not working at the printer. Regardless of that, you should know how to prepare your design for printing purposes. When applying for a graphic designer position, trust me, you will not get it unless you know what bleed or CMYK is.</p><h3><strong>Degree for the graphic design industry</strong></h3><p>We’re living in the era of Skillshare, Treehouse and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.udemy.com/">Udemy online courses</a> as well as YouTube where you can find anything from instructions on how to clean the coffee spill from your carpet to creating a 3D logo for your client. Yet, if you browse available positions on Indeed, Jobsite or especially the <a target="_blank" href="https://findajob.dwp.gov.uk/">Government Find a Job website</a> you will hardly find an offer that does not require an educational background. In fact, in more than 80% of cases, you would not even be invited for an interview unless you have a degree. But then again, you can always become a freelancer and there are plenty of websites like Fiverr or PeoplePerHour where you can <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/ppc-ads/">advertise your services</a>.</p><h2><strong>Conclusion</strong></h2><p>Although it is not easy and takes time to acquire graphic design skills you can do it yourself especially if design is your passion. You can get a degree and end up being a part of a graphic artist team that works for large advertising agencies. You can also be a free spirit working on your own from the comfort of your home. Whichever path you take, remember there are certain skills you need to possess without which you can’t be successful in the field of design.</p><p>Source: <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/4-key-skills-graphic-designer">4 key skills of a Graphic Designer</a></p><p><small>For any Graphic Design queries <a href="mailto:mailto:info@colorpeak.co.uk">drop us an email</a>, and we will be in touch shortly.</small></p> <!-- Piwik tracking --><!-- Piwik --><script type="text/javascript"> var _paq = _paq || []; var url = "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/4-key-skills-graphic-designer?id=1018656194&type=12"; const queryDict = {}; location.search.substr(1).split("&").forEach(function(item) {queryDict[item.split("=")[0]] = item.split("=")[1]}); if ('contact' in queryDict){ const separator = (url.indexOf("?")===-1)?"?":"&"; url = url + separator + "contact="+queryDict['contact']; } if ('list' in queryDict){ const separator = (url.indexOf("?")===-1)?"?":"&"; url = url + separator + "list="+queryDict['list']; } _paq.push(['setDocumentTitle', '4 key skills of a Graphic Designer']); _paq.push(['setCustomUrl', url]); _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableHeartBeatTimer', 15]); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u="//storychief.piwikpro.com/"; _paq.push(['addTracker', u+'piwik.php', '565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9']); var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src=u+'piwik.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); })(); </script><!-- End Piwik Code --><!-- strchf script --><script async src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"></script><!-- End strchf script -->Who should build your professional business website? Web designer, web developer, graphic artist or graphic designer?
2018-09-29 10:15:00 UTC
<h1>Who should build your professional business website? Web designer, web developer, graphic artist or graphic designer?</h1> <p>This isn’t a trick question, or is it…? It used to be much easier to answer it. Back in early 2000 when web design reality was situated around ‘Is that person capable of creating a website?’ rather than ‘<strong>Is that person capable of designing a beautiful website, that is functional and makes people buy products?</strong>’ And it is an important matter especially when you're considering who should design your professional business website.</p><figure class="image regular"><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/web-design-for-professional-businesses_8e0df9af5e20f8bc8779f9e4ad5a93a3_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/web-design-for-professional-businesses_8e0df9af5e20f8bc8779f9e4ad5a93a3_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Web design for professional business website" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/web-design-for-professional-businesses_8e0df9af5e20f8bc8779f9e4ad5a93a3_800.png" /></picture></a><figcaption>Web design for professional business by Colorpeak</figcaption></figure><h2>Developing websites in the past</h2><p><strong>In the past</strong>, knowing how to code was necessary. Without understanding HTML or flash, you could not build a website. There was no question about whom should you hire to design it. The problem was that tech people were not known for their exquisite sense of visual style. <strong>Making a professional business website that looks good was not a priority if it's appearance was considered at all.</strong> You can see for yourself by visiting the <a target="_blank" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20050101091959/http:/bbc.co.uk/">Wayback Machine</a> to see how the internet looked like back in 2005! Very few heard of good <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/ui/">UI</a> (User Interface) or <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/ux/">UX</a> (User Experience). These words may sound silly to a "full-stack-web-developer-engineer” however, now coding skills are not necessary just put a functional website up. </p><h2>Cheap Websites (or "web design on a budget")</h2><p>Which is not to say skilled coders and web developers aren't necessary. Not at all! <strong>The "no-coding" approach works if we think about a general site, with a basic purpose</strong> like displaying simple information. Having an online space that functions as a visual business card or a leaflet is useful to describe and promote your company quickly. And there is a rapidly growing market for that type of web design. The reason? A website is often the first thing your potential customers will look for when they want to learn more about the product or service that you sell. So, you won't get away with not having a website. At least not if you want to appear as a forward-thinking business owner. </p><p>If you need to outsource the creation of this type of website, an experienced <a target="_blank" href="https://work.chron.com/graphic-artist-vs-graphic-designer-18514.html">graphic artist</a> should be enough allowing you to save some time and money on more elaborate developments and designs. But there is no question that <strong>thousands of entrepreneurs, start-ups and resourceful individuals benefit from available (often free) web design tools that enable non-techies to "DIY" their websites</strong>. You probably heard of Squarespace, Wix or Weebly.</p><h2>Making a website using free website builders - the "DIY"-way</h2><p>If you’re <strong>on a budget, have lots of spare time, and you're determined enough</strong>, there is no reason why you shouldn't try to bootstrap your online portfolio! The disadvantage, however, is that there is a lot of technical, functional and visual limitations imposed by online web builders. So, websites built with those tools are also almost impossible to expand beyond their generic purpose and are often locked to the system they've been designed with - so forget about easy migration and scale! Moreover (and assuming you don't know CSS),<strong> your website won't be bespoke</strong>, and you will likely cringe while stumbling upon an identical one (your competitor's!). Therefore, your expectations towards DIY website builders shouldn't be to create professional business website that really stands out and takes you to the next level, which is...</p><h2><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design/">Web design</a> for professional businesses</h2><p>If you’re a small or medium business owner that cares about how the website presents the company brand, and how good it is in actually making money (i.e. conversions) you’re probably better off hiring a professional web designer. </p><p>We get to live in the lucky times where <strong>a good web designer has a solid understanding of coding, so you no longer need to choose between functionality and the looks</strong>. It's also often the case that an experienced web designer will have a good understanding of <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/4-key-skills-graphic-designer/">graphic design</a>. So is undoubtedly qualified to pull off a bespoke, professional business website that will lift you above the rest of the "DIY-crowd" and your competitors. </p><p><strong>If you're treating your website as an active advertisement or a real business asset</strong> that can draw the attention of your customers - and you should! - then having it done by a professional web designer is without question the best way to go. </p><figure class="image regular"><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-company/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/graphic-artist-designer-web-developer_5100506c5924fe09a53288ebe26d1884_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/graphic-artist-designer-web-developer_5100506c5924fe09a53288ebe26d1884_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Professional website development" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/graphic-artist-designer-web-developer_5100506c5924fe09a53288ebe26d1884_800.png" /></picture></a><figcaption>Professional website development by Colorpeak</figcaption></figure><h2>High-level functionality in web design</h2><p>If you need your website to do more than the above, you probably will have to consider investing your money in a developer, especially if you’re thinking about <strong>managing large databases of information through your website</strong>. If you have a bunch of money on a large team of web developers, front-end designers, artists, project managers, etc. and have plenty of time for everyone to team-up then you can deliver a great professional business website project that will look stylish and modern. If all goes well, it will also be more reliable and capable of handling more complicated tasks like <strong>bespoke e-commerce shopping carts and payment processing systems</strong>. In a sense, a well thought-out and properly executed high-level website/IT project is infinitely scalable and can handle billions of active users like this <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://facebook.com">website </a>or <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://amazon.com">this one</a>.</p><p>However, expect a bill to the floor and, as unfortunate as it sounds, a high risk of failure. As it often is with large, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_failed_and_overbudget_custom_software_projects">overbudget IT projects</a>. </p><h2>Who should I higher to design my website?</h2><p>It really depends on your goals. There will always be some work for developers who get higher paychecks and can pull magical websites that do more than looking good. Some people don’t need to spend a fortune on online advertising or <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/marketing/">marketing</a> if they can stitch up a basic site from a template for free. However, <strong>the sweet spot has never been as available as it is now and you can have a professional, beautiful and functional website with a reasonable price tag and realistic ROI</strong> for your business at the same time.</p><h3>Source: <a href=" https://colorpeak.co.uk/who-should-build-professional-business-website">Who should build your professional business website? Web designer, web developer, graphic artist or graphic designer?</a> </h3> <!-- Piwik tracking --><!-- Piwik --><script type="text/javascript"> var _paq = _paq || []; var url = "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/who-should-build-professional-business-website?id=1588127654&type=12"; const queryDict = {}; location.search.substr(1).split("&").forEach(function(item) {queryDict[item.split("=")[0]] = item.split("=")[1]}); if ('contact' in queryDict){ const separator = (url.indexOf("?")===-1)?"?":"&"; url = url + separator + "contact="+queryDict['contact']; } if ('list' in queryDict){ const separator = (url.indexOf("?")===-1)?"?":"&"; url = url + separator + "list="+queryDict['list']; } _paq.push(['setDocumentTitle', 'Who should build your professional business website? Web designer, web developer, graphic artist or graphic designer?']); _paq.push(['setCustomUrl', url]); _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableHeartBeatTimer', 15]); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u="//storychief.piwikpro.com/"; _paq.push(['addTracker', u+'piwik.php', '565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9']); var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src=u+'piwik.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); })(); </script><!-- End Piwik Code --><!-- strchf script --><script async src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"></script><!-- End strchf script -->Create interactive websites - Vistag review
2018-11-26 19:37:00 UTC
<p>I thought I'd drop a few words about Vistag as we've tested the tool a little bit on two of our now interactive websites (not e-commerce, yet...). The first website did not work due to, what we believe was <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://revolution.themepunch.com/">Slider Revolution</a> interference. Vistag and Slider Revolution tandem renders our website completely unusable. Therefore, we decided to switch it off there.</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://vistag.com"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/vistag-logo-black_4904a375ea4923763dff3631521475e2_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/vistag-logo-black_4904a375ea4923763dff3631521475e2_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Vistag logo" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/vistag-logo-black_4904a375ea4923763dff3631521475e2_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>Vistag.com</figcaption></figure><p>The second of our interactive websites, a static WordPress site, was (is) much better. We're still testing it there but performance is all good and Pingdom/GTMetrix/PageSpeed did not mark any meaningful drops in loading speed scores. Even with 10+ or so tags thrown on two web pages.</p><h2>Vistag Highlights and PROs</h2><p>To cut to the chase, I really like the visual presentation and interactive aspects of Vistag. Objectively looking at it - Vistag WILL make you and others hover, click, poke, fondle and (hopefully) buy-through those flashing gems. There is just no way around it given how our brains and eyes work.</p><p>However, at this point in time, Vistag isn't finished tool yet and many fundamental options are missing.</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/vistag-create-ecom-interactive-websites/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/vistag-review_48b2cf00457f1bac47aa856e4207b9a6_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/vistag-review_48b2cf00457f1bac47aa856e4207b9a6_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Vistag interactive websites" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/vistag-review_48b2cf00457f1bac47aa856e4207b9a6_800.jpg" /></picture></a></figure><h2>Vistag's missing features (or rather Not-There-Yets)</h2><p>Some of the things we'd like to see rather sooner than later include:</p><ul><li>"mailto:"/"tel:" and other HTML special links to enable CTA's (Call-To-Actions) for anything that is not e-commerce</li><li>images within the tags that could be fed from WP Media / external URLs</li><li>CSS selectors and more customisations</li><li>global UTM trackers</li></ul><p>The dashboard and interface would also benefit from some conscious cleanup and re-planning for easier navigation. The User experience (<a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/ui/">UI</a>) is a bit all over the place on the admin side.</p><p>I've also looked at this new "Lookbook" feature, which allows to add images to tags. I'm sure this is probably my pure ignorance, but I still don't get it. Again, it could be lack of my attention but how is this better or more important than just feeding and tagging pictures from WP Media or external URLs. The link on the dashboard takes me to some vague Documentation on how to make it work, but nothing else.</p><p>I've mentioned CSS customisations already but let me reiterate the fact that the default font size and colour (light-grey on a white background?) is just unreadable. To change that you need to do some CSS gymnastics on your website. But it seems to be in development now, so fingers crossed that we won't wait long for this must-have feature for interactive websites to work as intended.</p><blockquote><strong> Your images. Shoppable. Create visual content that sells like crazy. </strong></blockquote><h2>Vistag - an ultimate web design enhancing tool?</h2><p>At this point, I can't give it a 5-stars review because Vistag is incomplete; clearly in beta stage, and an exorcism on their bugged code is yet to be performed by the developers. However, I can confidently score this tool 4 out of 5 because this brilliant, yet simple idea serves you a ready-made link between human behaviour and computer science that you can use to your sales advantage, this very evening. And all this without the need of getting two PhDs in the respective fields trying to sweat something like that in your own basement. A fine <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/marketing/">marketing tool</a> with great potential to make your plain web become one of truly interactive websites.</p><p>You simply install Vistag, place tags over your e-commerce images and the job of selling fidget spinners and made-in-China "what-have-you's" is done for you.</p><h3>You can check Vistag on their website or, if it hasn't left the station yet, you may even jump on their AppSumo bandwagon.</h3><h4>Find out more about interactive websites and tools:</h4><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="https://appsumo.com/vistag/">AppSumo Vistag Deal</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://vistag.com/">Vistag official website</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/a">Using anchor element to create special links - Mozilla</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.awwwards.com/websites/web-interactive/">Examples Of Well Designed Web & Interactive Websites</a> </li></ul> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/vistag-create-ecom-interactive-websites?id=2078972412&type=12",title: "Create interactive websites - Vistag review",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->How has SEO evolved throughout the years?
2019-01-05 17:29:00 UTC
<h2><strong>The early beginning before SEO became a thing.</strong></h2><p><strong>1991 </strong>Before SEO there was the beginning of world wide web. In on March 6th, 1991 the first ever website - <u><a target="_blank" href="http://info.cern.ch ">info.cern.ch</a></u> - was launched by Tim Berners-Lee.</p><p><strong>1994 </strong>Stanford University students Jerry Wang and David Filo start Yahoo, the first Search Engine to be used by masses followed by AltaVista, Excite, and Lycos.</p><p><strong>1996 </strong>Backrub search engine is created that ranks sites based on inbound link relevancy and popularity. Backrub would ultimately become Google. </p><p><strong>1998 </strong>The King is born. Google launches in September, and so the story of SEO really begins. Before it, search engines positioned results based on on-page content, domain names, directories and breadcrumbs. Google introduced PageRank algorithm that also took into account the quantity and quality of links pointing to a website and anchor text.</p><h2><strong>The Google SEO revolution</strong></h2><p><strong>2003 </strong>First Google algorithm update named Florida takes down a lot of websites in their ranking, especially those that would stuff keywords. Repeating keywords would be hidden at the bottom of a page in a font colour that matches the background. That way reader would not see them, but the bots would feed off them and rank websites position higher. Actions like that became to be known as Blackhat SEO tactics. Around this time a new tactic of link building is born. A race to build as many backlinks as possible begins as the savvy marketers quickly learn how to abuse the system.</p><p><strong>2005 </strong>Google makes its first attempt to fight back linking exploitation and launches its "rel=nofollow" attribute preventing the authority of websites to be passed on. Following this update, Google launches the Jagger and Big Daddy algorithms just before the end of 2015 to prevent link farming and other suspicious SEO tactics.</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/business-photography-video-promo/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-youtube-03_7e6cad1b71e1c3914c7f28ba420c043e_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-youtube-03_7e6cad1b71e1c3914c7f28ba420c043e_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Google YouTube SEO evolution" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-youtube-03_7e6cad1b71e1c3914c7f28ba420c043e_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>Google YouTube revolution</figcaption></figure><p><strong>2006 </strong>YouTube gets acquired by Google for the whopping amount of $1.65 billion. Eventually, it would become the second most used search engine in the world. In the same year, Google also launches Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools giving developers profoundly deep insight on how Google sees their websites.</p><p><strong>2008 </strong><u><a target="_blank" href="https://searchengineland.com/googlecom-finally-gets-google-suggest-feature-14626">Suggestion Box</a></u> is finally launched after four years of development and testing. Continuing its path of improving the user experience, Google focuses on understanding better how we surf the web and interact with content. It may seem like the most obvious Google feature these days, but back then showing related searches to automatically appear below, after you start typing in the search box, was a major hit.</p><p><strong>2009 </strong>Bing goes online or rather Microsoft gives a new name to its Live Search tool. By then Google has nearly 70% of the search engine market in the USA. </p><p><strong>2010 </strong>Google announces that site speed is a ranking factor following "Caffeine" update, dubbed a next-generation search architecture that is faster, more precise and provides more relevant results. All that thanks to fast "spider-bots" that can quickly crawl website and cover larger parts of the internet.</p><figure class="gallery regular"><div class="strchf-gallery"><div class="strchf-gallery-preloader" style="background-color:#f8f8f8;line-height: 0;margin-top: 40px;padding: 30% 0;text-align: center;width: 100%;"><div style="background:url(data:image/gif;base64,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); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div><div style="display:none;" class="strchf-gallery-images"><div style="margin-left:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0"><picture style="margin-left:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0"><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-panda-06_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-panda-06_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0" alt="Google Panda SEO Evolution" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-panda-06_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Google Panda</figcaption></div><div style="margin-left:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0"><picture style="margin-left:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0"><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-penguin-05_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-penguin-05_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0" alt="Google Penguin SEO Evolution" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-penguin-05_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Google Penguin</figcaption></div><div style="margin-left:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0"><picture style="margin-left:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0"><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-hummingbird-07_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-hummingbird-07_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0" alt="Google Hummingbird SEO Evolution" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-hummingbird-07_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Google Hummingbird</figcaption></div><div style="margin-left:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0"><picture style="margin-left:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0"><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-pidgeon-08_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-pidgeon-08_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;max-width:100%;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-top:0" alt="Google Pigeon SEO Evolution" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-pidgeon-08_73eecd2f08c0d27055e2ff19eb12231c_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Google Pigeon</figcaption></div></div><div style="display:none;" class="strchf-gallery-controls"><div class="strchf-gallery-control-prev" role="button">‹</div><div class="strchf-gallery-control-next" role="button">›</div></div><div style="display:none;" class="strchf-gallery-nav"><div role="button" ></div><div role="button" ></div><div role="button" ></div><div role="button" ></div></div></div><figcaption>Algorithms releases</figcaption></figure><p><strong>2011 </strong>"Panda" update causes a notable impact on SEO which resulted in affecting optimisation field to this day. In an attempt to clean up search results, 12% of them were impacted. Websites with low quality and irrelevant content (better known as "content farms") drop down in the rankings. A similar thing happens to websites with unoriginal, static and auto-generated content.</p><p><strong>2012 </strong>The following "Penguin" update doubles-down on eliminating aggressive, black-hat SEO spam tactics. Gone are the sites that violated Google's Webmaster Guidelines such us buying links, keyword stuffing and keyword matching anchor text to the dot. Eventually, Penguin and previously mentioned Panda release become part of Google’s real-time search architecture.</p><p><strong>2013 </strong>"Hummingbird" release centres around the growing market of mobile users. It is the biggest update to Google’s algorithm since 2001 and deals better with natural language questions, conversational search, and it lays the foundations of Voice Search. Original content becomes a major factor in ranking along with blogs. Google starts to reward websites that provide useful, unique and lengthy answers to visitor’s queries. "Long-tail keywords" or, in other words, detailed and specific search queries become a thing.</p><p><strong>2014 </strong>The release of "Pigeon" is all about better local search results. Google improves location and distance ranking parameters to provide relevant results to users based on proximity. Local businesses with strong organic presence showed higher in traditional search within the area of the searching person’s location. The "Local SEO" finally gets its own genre, now distinct from the general SEO.</p><h2><strong>AI & Machine Learning algorithms</strong></h2><p><strong>2015 </strong>Some would say a breakthrough year in which Google reported <u><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://adwords.googleblog.com/2015/05/building-for-next-moment.html">more mobile searches in comparison to desktop search</a></u>. "RankBrain" - a self-learning search architecture is introduced as part of the Hummingbird algorithm. It determines the most relevant results to search engine queries. At first, it runs only on 15% of searches that the system had never encountered before, but eventually, it applies to all of them. </p><p><strong>2016 </strong>Google confirms that the search engine's <u><a target="_blank" href="https://searchengineland.com/now-know-googles-top-three-search-ranking-factors-245882">top three ranking factors</a></u> are: links, content, and RankBrain.</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/seo-agency/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-fred-10_8e122c0448300a222b4b4484f83e0f9e_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-fred-10_8e122c0448300a222b4b4484f83e0f9e_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Google Fred SEO evolution" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-fred-10_8e122c0448300a222b4b4484f83e0f9e_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>Fred - catchall name for multiple Google algorithm updates</figcaption></figure><p><strong>2017 </strong>Google "Fred" update hits mostly websites with poor content. In general, Google tries to deal with aggressive monetisation, misleading and deceptive ads, poor mobile compatibility and poor content. Fred is not a stand-alone algorithm update, rather a catchall name for every quality tweak to Google system intended to improve it and get rid of the content that violates the Webmaster Guidelines. It's been a known fact for a while that Google does quality updates on a regular basis and most go unnoticed and are unannounced.</p><p><strong>2018 </strong>A year of Webmaster Tools modernisation. Google Search Console, Google My Business and, most notably for SEO, Google’s <a target="_blank" href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/">PageSpeed Insights</a> tools receive their updates. There are of course multiple changes to Google's ranking algorithm done almost every day, but there were three Broad Core Algorithm Updates that were actually announced. PageSpeed Insights update becomes a significant player in ranking and slow sites with low optimisation score on mobiles are affected. Google announces <u><a target="_blank" href="https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/rules">nine factors that influence Optimization Score</a></u>.</p><p>And so, the story continues. What will 2019 bring? Most likely further updates toward mobile-friendly AMP enabled websites that load fast on slow 3G networks. A lot has changed since the first Google SEO revolution. An easily abused system based on keywords evolved into sophisticated learning machine that thinks like a human. Content became a king, and mobile device accessibility will further shape the ranking.</p><p>Sources:</p><ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://searchenginewatch.com/cheat-sheet-google-algorithm-updates-2011-2018">Search Engine Watch</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-algorithm-history/">Search Engine Journal</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.smamarketing.net/blog/25-years-of-seo-a-timeline-of-search-engine-optimization-infographic ">SMA Marketing </a></li></ul><p>This text was originally published on: <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/seo-evolution">Colorpeak Blog - How has SEO evolved throughout the years?</a></p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/seo-evolution?id=851140061&type=12",title: "How has SEO evolved throughout the years?",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->Marketing Automation - Use These Tools To Improve Your Business Immediately
2019-01-20 12:42:00 UTC
<p>I have yet to meet a business owner who has never been in need of automation. Today startups, SMBs and large companies have one thing in common - they're all thrown in the game of pursuing the holy grail of business and marketing automation (The Automation Singularity). </p><p>As you’re reading this, I wouldn't be surprised if you've got your feet wet trying a marketing automation software at some point. MailChimp for example or even chatbots...?</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/marketing/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/business-marketing-automation_76409152e5cd862dc6bb899656bd0937_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/business-marketing-automation_76409152e5cd862dc6bb899656bd0937_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Marketing Automation" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/business-marketing-automation_76409152e5cd862dc6bb899656bd0937_800.png" /></picture></a><figcaption>Marketing Automation</figcaption></figure><p>But maybe you have been doing all your marketing the "old school" way, and you want to get some of the piling work volumes off your shoulders, and you don't want to hire, train, pay and manage additional employee(s). Well, I share your viewpoint, because running a business means innovation. So, you either work on out-innovating your competition or your practices get inefficient and your business becomes outdated pretty quickly. </p><p>I will try my best in this article to help you get started with choosing the lowest hanging fruit of marketing autopilot platforms. You should finish the piece having a grasp on what is marketing automation, why marketing automation is the next big thing in coming years, and how to use the power of automation platforms and tools to their fullest potential. </p><p>Remember, you can't turn your eyes away and pretend the business innovations don't affect you. I will argue here that 2018/19 is a perfect time to jump on board and benefit from at least some of the cheap and accessible business automation out there. As you read on pick one or two solutions and over the next few weeks try to integrate them for the betterment of your business and your life.</p><h2>Why do businesses need marketing automation?</h2><p>The traditional marketing as a scientific field goes back to <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations">early 1900s or even earlier</a> with the development of modern capitalism and <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism">consumerism</a>. In a nutshell, business owners and (modern) marketers discovered that by studying consumer behaviour they can predict and influence sales profits. Businesses then went on developing step-by-step processes to anticipate the needs and wants of potential consumers so they could satisfy them more effectively in comparison to its competitors. Several decades later we use complex data and scientific methods to measure and design specific procedures to sell more to more people. </p><p>Marketing and sales funnels evolved and it's no longer just printed ads in papers and magazines or lump mail ads. With the technological revolution, especially the Internet and social media's worldwide blitz, we've opened several channels enabling us to communicate more effectively and build relevant relationships with our customers. What it means for marketers like you is that a need for a more sophisticated and technologically enhanced approach with complex, multivariate sales funnels is required. Hence, marketing automation.</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/email-marketing-newsletter-campaigns/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/email-auto-responding-system_c6de396f299237875eb2e8833bf36809_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/email-auto-responding-system_c6de396f299237875eb2e8833bf36809_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Marketing Automation Sales Funnels" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/email-auto-responding-system_c6de396f299237875eb2e8833bf36809_800.png" /></picture></a><figcaption>Marketing Automation Sales Funnels</figcaption></figure><h2>What Marketing Automation meant up until 2018</h2><blockquote>"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." - Steve Jobs</blockquote><p>Despite the overblown claims and inflated marketing slogans, marketing automation is NOT an artificial intelligence (AI). The real AI doesn't exist (yet) and we're likely far away from it. Some moderate that and use "semi-AI" but it's misleading because the "semi-" isn't clearly defined and means anything. I just call it for what it is for now. Marketing automation is a set of logical rules, processes and tactics that run on autopilot, making some tasks or even segments of your business autonomous and independent from human input. Besides the obvious profits like time, money and energy saving, such marketing practices bring a real and quantifiable added value to your business. </p><p>Although the philosophy of business management and <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing">marketing</a> orientation remains intact and pretty solid, the tools and methodology seem to evolve and set new milestones almost every week.</p><p>Today, marketing automation software has never been more accessible. And in such high demand. Entrepreneurs keep coming up with creative ideas and cutting-edge technology to help businesses design their perfect strategies to predict the needs and personalise the copywriting.</p><p>So new <a target="_blank" href="https://appsumo.com/browse/">marketing software</a> is springing up like mushrooms.</p><p>But let's step back to something basic, like MailChimp which is an email auto-responding system. Their automated software is free (to the extent) and allows for:</p><ul><li>Easy integration on your website so you can quickly start building your email list</li><li>Getting your prospects details in an engaging form (MailChimp Lead Magnet)</li><li>Designing an auto-responder with a drag-and-drop visual builder</li><li>... and Sending automated and targeted emails to your recipient's list</li></ul><p>----------------------・・・----------------------</p><h3>Here're a few triggers you can use:</h3><ul><li><strong>Email your tagged contacts</strong> - Send a targeted message when you add a tag to a contact.</li><li><strong>Welcome new subscribers</strong> - Introduce yourself to people when they sign up for your list.</li><li><strong>Say 'happy birthday'</strong> - Celebrate with an exclusive offer or cheerful message that will be sent out based on the birthday field in your list.</li><li><strong>Share blog updates</strong> - Help contacts keep up with your blog by sending new posts straight to their inboxes. </li><li>Now you can essentially build <strong>"set and forget"</strong> email sequences.</li></ul><p>(did I mention it's free? ;) </p><p>----------------------・・・----------------------</p><p>Check this video on how to set one up with this step-by-step tutorial:</p><figure class="video regular"><div class="embed-container"><div style="max-width: 100%; position: relative; padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iQVg2vL1TME?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%;"></iframe></div></div></figure><p>----------------------・・・----------------------</p><h2>The top 5 essential gains of automation</h2><p>To summarise, here are the top 5 essential gains of automation in the area specific to marketing:</p><ul><li>Automated marketing tools build complex customer journeys and sales funnels (e.g. <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://mailchimp.com/">MailChimp</a>)</li><li>Marketing artificial intelligence software learns your customers' behaviour or who they are and tries to make your product and services highly personalised (e.g. <a target="_blank" href="https://unless.com">UNLESS</a>)</li><li>Marketing bots aim to leave your customer informed, happy and engaged (e.g. <a target="_blank" href="https://quriobot.com/">Quriobot</a>)</li><li>Marketing analytics enables you to quickly test and change the direction of your marketing strategy (e.g. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.customerlabs.co/">CustomerLabs</a>)</li><li>Automated sales software makes your marketing efforts more efficient, faster to adapt and scale (e.g. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.datagran.io">DataGran</a>)</li></ul><h2>What Automation means for the future of business</h2><blockquote>"In peace prepare for war, in war prepare for peace." - Sun Tzu.</blockquote><p>The future of automation in 2019 and beyond looks bright. And it isn't just Tesla and their self-driving autonomous cars. Interestingly enough, I find those same principles that drive Musk and his robo-vehicles towards automation apply to any aspect of the business. Here's what we all are after:</p><ul><li>multiplied productivity (ROI)</li><li>exponential growth</li><li>multitasking (that actually works)</li><li>large data processing power</li><li>and, yes - if used correctly, a much better life</li></ul><p>----------------------・・・----------------------</p><p>See Marquees driving Yandex self-driving car around California</p><figure class="video regular"><div class="embed-container"><div style="max-width: 100%; position: relative; padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gfWjsKsEry0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%;"></iframe></div></div></figure><p>----------------------・・・----------------------</p><h2>Sales and marketing automation software - who's on the frontend?</h2><p>Let's bring it down to a business application and see what benefits businesses can expect from automated systems in 2019 moving forward.</p><p>The most common use of marketing automation software appears to be in sales, but this limited utility expands very quickly.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.emarketer.com/Article/What-Benefits-of-Marketing-Automation/1011966">eMarketer reports</a> that only 5% of companies have never benefited from marketing automation (I couldn't dig their source though, so take it with a grain of salt). But that makes sense, given the power of computing and how technology penetrated the entire world of economy. It is clear that customer journey maps are extensively used by Googles, Amazons and eBays of this world to accurately map out how customer behave in relation to businesses. And the same applies to Social Media giants like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Their optimisation is so granular, and it developed so fast, that <a <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.tristanharris.com/">some people stood to consider its ethics</a> and what we want as a civilisation.</p><p>Nevertheless, the value in sales is so obvious and tempting that it only makes sense to continue using it. Providing your primary incentive is to quickly "help" your prospects who are travelling the distance from being a bystander to a raving fan. And the distance, no matter the length, is measurable and categorisable. Therefore, prone to endless optimisations (and exploitation). </p><h2>Is marketing automation software difficult to access?</h2><p>As of today, experts agree that by learning different ways how customers interact with businesses, pretty much guarantees big profits. For this reason, social scientist and marketers flock to use all sorts of automation tools that help with just that. Meanwhile, Marketing SaaS companies try to meet their prospects midway offering easy to understand but potentially vastly scalable in its application software. In fact, lowering entry level is now the name of the game with most marketing automation software.</p><p>One such software is <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.fullstory.com/">FullStory</a>. The software works based on simple principles but the results, which it draws through different modes of user interpretation, provide comprehensive and quite elaborate customer journey maps.</p><p>"See your site through your users' eyes. More than the sum of its clicks, FullStory replays your customer's journey – like a DVR for your website – so you can search, see, and understand your user experience."</p><p>There is certainly a learning curve associated with implementing any new system or technology. However, with much lowered entry-level bars the fruit has never hung so low.</p><h2>Large Data Set Calculations - how to optimise your website running costs and business spending for free?</h2><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/social-media-management/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/marketing-automation-data-analysis_34e4663013ae0093ac1d46a2e4dfa0f2_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/marketing-automation-data-analysis_34e4663013ae0093ac1d46a2e4dfa0f2_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Data analysis in marketing automation" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/marketing-automation-data-analysis_34e4663013ae0093ac1d46a2e4dfa0f2_800.png" /></picture></a><figcaption>Data analysis in marketing automation</figcaption></figure><p>Back in the days, gathering and calculating any large data sets was done by businesses who could afford full-time data analyst and a "numbers person". So it was reserved usually for enterprise-level companies and agencies, or outsourced and never looked at closely again. Today, with tools like Google Analytics, you have quick and easy access to software that with a click of a button displays almost complete picture of your company's money flow. </p><p>It's free and offers a tremendous amount of actionable data that is automatically gathered and calculated from your website, ads and email campaigns, to mention just a few sources. </p><p>It's also worth mentioning that Facebook, Pinterest or LinkedIn Ads platforms use sophisticated dashboards where data is calculated and presented to you in any way you want. It takes time to figure it all out, though. I'd suggest to start with finding answers to simple questions like: </p><ul><li>What is my website's monthly traffic?</li><li>Which of my ads increased traffic the most?</li><li>How long an average visitor spends on my homepage?</li><li>Is my traffic local or international?</li><li>Using what device (mobile/tablet/desktop) people are visiting my website?</li><li>Which of my web pages are most popular?</li><li>Where is my traffic coming from?</li></ul><h2>The Rise of The Marketing Bots</h2><p>One of the most significant aspects of marketing automation is the sudden spread of bots and various auto-messengers. Apart from built-in Facebook Messenger Bots, platforms like Quriobot and MobileMonkey are rapidly developing and are more and more sophisticated in methods of visitor engagement on your website. The key to a great visitors engagement appears to be: </p><ul><li>the speed of response</li><li>24/7 availability</li><li>useful and relevant bot responses based on the keyword and intelligent intent recognition</li><li>and so-called "triggers"</li></ul><p>Speaking of "triggers". These can be heavily customised to adhere to the customers' behaviour on your site and provide visual and heavily targeted responses. For example, imagine you have someone checking on your "Home Page" then going to "Pricing" where they spend two minutes and decide to leave. Normally this particular visitor could be classified as a prospective customer, that you may want to engage further. Therefore, at each individual stage, your bot can enhance your visitors' experience by way of targeted messages, additional content and offers. Even at the point of departure, a bot can be configured to throw an "exit intent" trigger and, hopefully, stop the visitor from leaving the website.</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-company/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/ai-bots-activechat-automation_5421ea4e7b4440f36fe2e122f597e4e4_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/ai-bots-activechat-automation_5421ea4e7b4440f36fe2e122f597e4e4_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="AI bots - chat automation" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/ai-bots-activechat-automation_5421ea4e7b4440f36fe2e122f597e4e4_800.png" /></picture></a><figcaption>AI bots - chat automation</figcaption></figure><p>The "AI" in bots gets also increasingly sophisticated. For example, tools like <a target="_blank" href="https://activechat.ai/">ActiveChat</a> try to mimic human-like responses and with it infinite visual building blocks you can make it up as complicated as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.simplemost.com/14-challenging-lego-sets-build/">Lego's Star Wars Millennium Falcon set</a>. It can also integrate with e-commerce systems so you can have an actual "digital counter" right on your website. </p><p>No wonder bots are the next big thing and we will hear about them more and more.</p><blockquote>"I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better, and questioning yourself." - Elon Musk</blockquote><h2>Conclusion</h2><p>It may be hard to start learning all these platforms today. However, in the long run, it will pay back immensely. Also, know that 99% of your competitors aren't doing it.</p><p>So, it’s better to start giving marketing automation some attention before it is too late. Whatever industry you're in, it will be driven by the same principles as any other, whoever puts in the hours to innovate will increase the odds of success over the business owners that procrastinated and neglected to do the homework.</p><p>You may not have enough resources to go all in with learning the marketing tools, but there is no harm in trying. I have probably been guilty of procrastination more than anyone in the business. But eventually I have learned to take little steps from early on, and over time I realised that I made a quantum leap in growing my business and developing myself. So, if you are reading this article right at this moment, stop wasting your time and jump right in. </p><p>These are obviously just a few tips and the ocean of automated tools is filling in with more and more fish. There are few more things that I have learned over the years, so pop back in and check this article for updates. But most importantly start with making your first marketing automation funnel, no matter how big your goals are. From my experience, the right actions will pay off. I wish you good luck with your marketing automation journey.</p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/marketing-automation?id=1278035989&type=12",title: "Marketing Automation - Use These Tools To Improve Your Business Immediately",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->Web Design: 10 Year Challenge
2019-01-27 15:44:00 UTC
<p>The internet kicked off the beginning of the year 2019 with #10yearchallenge. It started on <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%2310yearchallange&src=tyah">Twitter</a> and soon picked up speed there and on Instagram with thousands of people following the hashtag. Majority of <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/social-media/">social media</a> users began sharing their photos taken a decade ago and compare it with the most recent one, showing how much they have changed. But we thought to take another spin and jump in on the 10 years challenge bandwagon comparing how most popular websites in the UK today looked like in the past! So, here is 10 Year Challenge in <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design/">web design</a> according to Colorpeak's team.</p><h2>Google - steady as a rock</h2><p>We will start our 10 Year Challenge in web design, of course, with arguably the most important website - <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?ei=1b5NXKjuGIfMwQKK052gBA&q=10+year+challenge&oq=10+year+challenge&gs_l=psy-ab.12...0.0..1693...0.0..0.0.0.......0......gws-wiz._d7StzfCL7E">Google</a>. And contrary to most of the sites on our list, they have not changed much, at least in terms of grid design. When you go on Google you will be welcomed by a white page with logo and search bar in the middle. And guess what! It was no different back in the days. Most noticeably <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_logo">Google has changed its logo</a> which in 2019 fits into popular <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/flat-design/">flat design</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/trends/">trend</a>. The company logo that was in use ten years ago was also the longest lasting up until now (from May 31, 1999 to May 5, 2010). It used serif typeface font called Catull designed in the '80s.</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-10-years-challenge"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-2009-2019_be957e3caa6cb5f055cd28621daf9ee1_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-2009-2019_be957e3caa6cb5f055cd28621daf9ee1_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="10 Year Challenge in web design - Google" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/google-2009-2019_be957e3caa6cb5f055cd28621daf9ee1_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>See before and after interactive view on Colorpeak Blog</figcaption></figure><p>It seems that Google wasn't happy with the initial change as the old 20-year-old logo was revamped twice in the last ten years. In 2015 Google finally arrived at what we see today - a geometric sans-serif typeface called Product Sans. The font was created in-house at Google. It's also worth mentioning that the logo colours, as well as remaining body-font Arial, hasn't been changed since 1998.</p><h2>YouTube - ever-changing story</h2><p>Since YouTube's acquisition by Google in November 2006, the experiments and testing with the website's UX and <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/ui/">UI</a> began. However, for the longest time, we were just seeing different versions of classic view with the menu at the top, followed by Promoted Videos horizontal panel and the vertical list of featured videos. In 2010 sections “Recommended for you” and “Videos watched now” started popping up. Recommended videos are available to this day, but Videos watched now eventually turned into ”What’s trending”. A side panel menu replaced top one in 2012. In the meantime, <a target="_blank" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130219004839/http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube has experimented with newspaper website-like grid</a> showing categories such as sports, music, entertainment and many others. These, however, have come to past. </p><p>Current view hasn’t changed much since 2014. We choose whether we want to see the content in a grid or list view. We also saw some minor updates to the side panel menu structure and cosmetic changes to align with modern design. </p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-10-years-challenge"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/youtube-2009-2019_15800a37d29a0d1307db3d0e96ae824b_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/youtube-2009-2019_15800a37d29a0d1307db3d0e96ae824b_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="10 Year Challenge in web design - YouTube" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/youtube-2009-2019_15800a37d29a0d1307db3d0e96ae824b_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>See before and after interactive view on Colorpeak Blog</figcaption></figure><h2>Facebook - complete revamp, or is it?</h2><p>Oh gosh, where do we start Facebook's 10 Year Challenge in web design? Facebook has changed so much and yet so little over the years. The most noticeable is huge photo replaced by a smaller, round profile picture and a profile banner that now sits at the top of our profile page. However, these days we have a 2-column grid on our profile page (it used to be 3): with left hand-side being filled with our info and the feed filling in the rest. In regards to the page that we interact with on a daily basis, after logging in to <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a>, it remained mostly unchanged with a navigation panel on the left, the feed in the middle and some ads on the right followed by suggestions for people that you may know. <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Stories">Facebook Stories</a> that sit on top of ads panel have only been introduced in 2018, though.</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-10-years-challenge"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/facebook-2009-2019_89df02065026c4ac787c41acfc524279_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/facebook-2009-2019_89df02065026c4ac787c41acfc524279_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="10 Year Challenge in web design - facebook" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/facebook-2009-2019_89df02065026c4ac787c41acfc524279_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>See before and after interactive view on Colorpeak Blog</figcaption></figure><h2>Amazon - knows tricks of the trade</h2><p>Amazon turned <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/ecommerce/">eCommerce</a> selling into art and <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/">Jeff Bezos</a>, the owner, to <a target="_blank" href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/03/06/jeff-bezos-unseats-bill-gates-forbes-2018-richest-billionaires-list/398877002/">the wealthiest man on earth</a>. The landing page of Amazon has changed quite a bit. We now have access to good old categories on the left side panel as ten years ago, but they are not available on the Landing page. When you visit Amazon in 2019, you are welcomed by a dark navigation panel at the top of the page allowing you to search for items and manage your account. The rest of the page is covered by a slider that keeps changing showing you the most recent deals in a very pleasing <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.instagram.com/">Instagram</a>-like form of large photos with added descriptions here and there. Each slide is different and grabs your attention thanks to significant changes in colour. Amazon seems to know all the triggers that will make you want to purchase something… anything!</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-10-years-challenge"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/amazon-2009-2019_306515529d98864bcdeff4da56450f37_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/amazon-2009-2019_306515529d98864bcdeff4da56450f37_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="10 Year Challenge in web design - Amazon" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/amazon-2009-2019_306515529d98864bcdeff4da56450f37_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>See before and after interactive view on Colorpeak Blog</figcaption></figure><h2>BBC - understands the readers</h2><p>Look at the BBC website from 2009! Ten years ago, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.com/">BBC website</a> would change its theme colour every day, but you won’t see that these days any more. In 2019 BBC is pushing the <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/minimalism-web-design/">minimalistic design</a>. We can see more photos than text, which is in complete opposition to how it was before. This is evidently a sign of our times, and BBC recognised that internet users have a lower attention span and a picture or video can capture their attention more effectively than lines of text. This is one of the strongest examples in our 10 Year Challenge in web design.</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-10-years-challenge"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/bbc-2009-2019_09c24f6b3783eb3317fafa54dfbb8dd3_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/bbc-2009-2019_09c24f6b3783eb3317fafa54dfbb8dd3_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="10 Year Challenge in web design - BBC" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/bbc-2009-2019_09c24f6b3783eb3317fafa54dfbb8dd3_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>See before and after interactive view on Colorpeak Blog</figcaption></figure><h2>Wikipedia - does not fix what is not broken</h2><p>One must appreciate how little <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a> has changed over the years. The main grid remains the same with logo and menu on the left, login options at the top and the rest of the page filled in with definitions and descriptions. We can notice however subtle changes in the visual design. <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/flat-vs-depth-web-design/">Flat design</a> has definitely captured the attention of the people responsible for the layout, making it a tiny bit more modern following Google’s direction. On a side note, I think Wikipedia would benefit from introducing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.w3schools.com/howto/howto_css_two_columns.asp">column layout</a>. These days with screens that have high resolution it’s hard to read from left to the right of the screen without dropping the line once or twice when moving to the next row. </p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-10-years-challenge"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/wikipedia-2009-2019_04801bfa54e7c76ddac094893d358bc7_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/wikipedia-2009-2019_04801bfa54e7c76ddac094893d358bc7_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="10 Year Challenge in web design - Wikipedia" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/wikipedia-2009-2019_04801bfa54e7c76ddac094893d358bc7_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>See before and after interactive view on Colorpeak Blog</figcaption></figure><h2>Reddit - ruffles some feathers</h2><p>Highly criticised new design (beta) was first rolled out on 1st of April 2018. It introduced Facebook-like feed in the middle with an additional supportive column on the right and a significant amount (33%) of white space surrounding it. The latter being especially prominent on high-resolution desktop screens. Notably, new design removed the blue header fonts that resembled Google Search results and replaced them with a black font (IBMPlexSans) that looks more like news portals. </p><blockquote><a target="_blank" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/7a4bjo/time_for_my_quarterly_inquisition_reddit_ceo_here/dp70sul/">According to Reddit's CEO Steve Huffman</a>, the new design aims mostly at new users: “Many of us evangelise Reddit and tell people how awesome it is ... then when those new people decide to check out Reddit for the first time they’re greeted with dystopian Craigslist. We’d like to fix that.” </blockquote><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-10-years-challenge"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/reddit-2009-2019_92a91c896d85a13bdd3a2648b46f3002_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/reddit-2009-2019_92a91c896d85a13bdd3a2648b46f3002_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="10 Year Challenge in web design - Reddit" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/reddit-2009-2019_92a91c896d85a13bdd3a2648b46f3002_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>See before and after interactive view on Colorpeak Blog</figcaption></figure><p>To mitigate some of the criticism, Reddit introduced three types of views that users can pick: Card, Classic, Compact. And, as of now (Jan 2019) the "Old-Redditers" can still switch back to the "old view" in their account preferences. Reddit's re-design approach heavily polarised the community and divided it into two camps: "Old-Redditers" and "New-Redditers" - who could've thought that you can find an analogy to the political situation in the United States in something like "10 Year Challenge in web design"...</p><h2>eBay - follows in the footsteps of the best</h2><p>Ebay seems to be following Amazon’s suite by introducing a slider to it’s landing page. It’s big, it’s colourful, it grabs your attention. They learned how to use white (negative) space to their benefit, contrary to the home page from a decade ago. It was packed with categories (who really uses them on the home page...? That’s right. No one!), banners and images - it seemed very crowded. There’s also the case of the logo. I would argue the old one was more recognisable. Now we have this Google-like simple font - a popular trend in the past three years, but I think eBay’s logo used to be more distinct.</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-10-years-challenge"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/ebay-2009-2019_e1112dc860bfa4994070926c074a3e91_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/ebay-2009-2019_e1112dc860bfa4994070926c074a3e91_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="10 Year Challenge in web design - eBay" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/ebay-2009-2019_e1112dc860bfa4994070926c074a3e91_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>See before and after interactive view on Colorpeak Blog</figcaption></figure><h2>Twitter - the proper 10 year challenge in web design</h2><p>Complete transformation! That’s the first thing that comes to my mind when I compare the Twitter layout from 10 years ago to its current version. Is this the winner of Colorpeak's 10 Year Challenge in web design? Not quite. </p><p>This is yet another example of a website that takes simplicity and turns it into an advantage. A very intuitive layout that encourages you to simply tweet, re-tweet, and consume other tweets. Blue background has been replaced with white one, the logo became smaller and “What’s trending” panel has been added on the right-hand side of the feed. Twitter understands that the vast majority of its users access their feed from mobile phones, so it seems they design with a small screen and quick load time in mind. Then they follow with desktop design extending few elements a bit but refusing to include anything unnecessary. 5 stars when it comes to <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/ux/">UX </a>and UI design if you ask me!</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-10-years-challenge"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/twitter-2009-2019_3396d1209541a3953a84722a54399803_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/twitter-2009-2019_3396d1209541a3953a84722a54399803_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="10 Year Challenge in web design - Twitter" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/twitter-2009-2019_3396d1209541a3953a84722a54399803_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>See before and after interactive view on Colorpeak Blog</figcaption></figure><h2>10 Netflix - the winner dresses for success</h2><p>Last but not least is my favourite example which shows that sometimes one needs to start with MVP ("Minimum Viable Product") to put the ball rolling and the success will come later. It is also the winner of our 10 Year Challenge competition! When you look at Netflix website from ten years ago, you will laugh. I did! But then we have to remember that back in the days there was no fast internet connection and renting (RENTING!) a movie through a website to be delivered to your home was shockingly innovative. Since then, Netflix has made a leap jump, and their navigation page that allows you to select movies is what created a binge-watching experience and trend. Whoever is behind Netflix Landing Page is an excellent web <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/designer/">designer </a>and developer team that understands how our brains work and how to trigger them to consume more and more content. Bravo!</p><figure class="image regular"><a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-10-years-challenge"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/netflix-2009-2019_67fbdf1dbacbe4ed5210b51166978a5e_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/netflix-2009-2019_67fbdf1dbacbe4ed5210b51166978a5e_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="10 Year Challenge in web design - Netflix" src="https://d2ijz6o5xay1xq.cloudfront.net/account_2648/netflix-2009-2019_67fbdf1dbacbe4ed5210b51166978a5e_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>See before and after interactive view on Colorpeak Blog</figcaption></figure><p>This concludes our 10 Year Challenge web design comparison. Of course, top ten visited websites in the UK change very often, so in a while, you may find this list outdated, but if you're here in January 2019 these are the websites UK residents visit the most. We hope you enjoyed our take on #10YearChallenge so go ahead and subscribe to our <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/ColorpeakLtd/">facebook</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/ColorpeakLtd">twitter</a> and other social media accounts for more interesting articles from Colropeak team.</p><p>---</p><p>This article was posted originally on <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/10-year-challenge-web-design">Colorpeak Blog</a></p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/10-year-challenge-web-design?id=1505741349&type=12",title: "Web Design: 10 Year Challenge",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->4 key skills of a WordPress web designer – a beginners guide
2019-03-14 17:14:00 UTC
<p>AS A PERSON WHO WENT FROM HAVING NO DESIGNER SKILLS TO BUILDING WEBSITES FOR A LIVING, I THINK IT’S WORTH SHARING SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES THAT HELPED ME BECOME A WORDPRESS WEB DESIGNER. TODAY I WILL TALK YOU THROUGH SOME CRITICAL SKILLS THAT ONE SHOULD DEVELOP TO BECOME A FULL-TIME WEB DESIGNER.</p><p>If you’ve ever considered becoming a web designer, but you’re not interested in learning to code, now is a great time to give it a try. Why may you ask? The answer is simple – there are so many tools that allow you to design without the back-end knowledge that you can become a WordPress web designer with a bit of imagination and some skills. But to become a successful web designer I would advise you to start with research. The reason why is because there is much more to <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design/">web design</a> than just translating your vision into a working and functional website using some software (that I will talk about as well).</p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer_a5e4a5d940ea0df38604fcd82525b9fa_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer_a5e4a5d940ea0df38604fcd82525b9fa_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Wordpress Web Designer" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer_a5e4a5d940ea0df38604fcd82525b9fa_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption><strong>WordPress Web Designer</strong></figcaption></figure><h2 id="3ldh2"><strong>1. Plan to become a WordPress web designer</strong></h2><p>First, to build a website you need to have an understanding of who is it for, what features are required and what are your client’s expectations. Don’t have a client yet? Perfect! You don’t want your first website, which is going to be a disaster anyway, affect your confidence. Start small. Does your mum have a hobby? That’s how I started. I had built a website where she could showcase her cat sweaters. I was not ready for e-Commerce yet to sell them to other animal lovers, but I could start with a nice portfolio showcasing her creations (and my basic WordPress web <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/designer/">designer </a>skills). </p><p>So, whether it’s your mum or a neighbour sit down with them and ask all the questions that you think will be important to build a website. I would discourage you from skipping this step and interviewing yourself. There are certain things you can learn only when you’re surprised. Therefore, an interaction with somebody else is the best way to do it.</p><figure class="image regular"><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/web-design-company/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-questionnaire_35a6bf223b195a9cf5cafe08fb70e7d3_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-questionnaire_35a6bf223b195a9cf5cafe08fb70e7d3_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="WordPress Web Designer Questionnaire " src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-questionnaire_35a6bf223b195a9cf5cafe08fb70e7d3_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption><strong>We design </strong>questionnaire </figcaption></figure><h4 id="3ua9b">The Importance of a Questionnaire </h4><p>Check out our basic web design questionnaire that I used at the early stage before Colorpeak was an agency. It does not matter whether you’re a WordPress web designer or developer. If you’re building a website, then you need one. Below, I also included some additional links with other questions that may turn out handy for your project specifically. Be cautious though as too many questions will bore your client. Be accurate but don’t go overboard with three pages of questions. As part of a large marketing agency, there will come a time for fancy shmancy questions about the company’s vision or whether their solutions are better than their competitors. Now you need to know if they have a domain, what colours do they like (or hate), what is the website for and do they have content or do you need to create it.</p><p>Remember to use the questionnaire as a guide for your conversation; don’t just send it to them point blank. A discussion is a key to land a client. You will not get them through cold calling or emails. Therefore, you should practice this skill as often as you have an opportunity to do so.</p><h4 id="e3j2d">Handy links for building your own Questionnaire </h4><ul><li><u><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.treefrog.ca/web-design-questionnaire">WEB DESIGN QUESTIONNAIRE BY TREEFROG</a></u> - A simple yet effective questionnaire created by Canadian web design company. Basic questions and tick boxes make the experience of filling in the form seamless. </li><li><u><a target="_blank" href="https://contentsnare.com/website-design-questionnaire/">WEBSITE DESIGN QUESTIONNAIRE KNOW HOW</a></u> - A know-how guide explaining what's important when creating a questionnaire. If you subscribe to their newsletter, you get access to the question list & ready to use form. </li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/45-incredibly-useful-web-design-checklists-and-questionnaires/">45 INCREDIBLY USEFUL WEB DESIGN CHECKLISTS & QUESTIONNAIRES</a> - Checklists that cover multiple areas from content to usability to accessibility to standards, you’re a lot less likely to overlook important parts of a site.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://marketingland.com/100-questions-you-must-ask-when-developing-web-site-86342">100+ QUESTIONS YOU MUST ASK WHEN DEVELOPING A WEBSITE</a> - You certainly don't have to ask all of them, but this list may help you figure out whether you missed out something important.</li></ul><h2 id="esu9k">2. Technical - Hosting, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UX</h2><p>There is no way around technical skills development in web design. Fortunately, with WordPress, you can start without any and develop the understanding as you go. Of course, knowing HTML, CSS and JavaScript will help, but you can start without them to become WordPress web designer. </p><p>When you finally get to that stage when working on WordPress templates is not good enough, learn HTML first, then CSS and JavaScript will be the cherry on the top. HTML will take you no time; you will just need a few hours to know the basics. With CSS it will be much more, but you can do a day course learning the principles. Knowing those principles will allow you to look up specific things when you need them. JavaScript is a solid coding skill so you should have many websites in your portfolio that you are proud of before you jump into this deeper dive.</p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-technical-skills_5ce8de966443c61fa91a6d52dec893e4_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-technical-skills_5ce8de966443c61fa91a6d52dec893e4_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Technical skills of a WordPress Web Designer " src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-technical-skills_5ce8de966443c61fa91a6d52dec893e4_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Technical skills of a web designer</figcaption></figure><p>But at the very beginning, the technical skills that you need as a WordPress web designer are how to set up a website on a hosting platform and install WordPress on it.</p><h4 id="clorn">WordPress themes that speed up design process</h4><p>Start your first website by using one of the WordPress free templates. This will help you learn how it works and what are the principles of working with Gutenberg design engine. To make your website look more appealing there are some themes that offer more flexibility and will allow you to be more creative. These are Divi from Elegant Themes, Elementor or Beaver Builder. You can find out the pros and cons of each one on this YouTube video.</p><figure class="video large"><div class="embed-container"><div style="max-width: 100%; position: relative; padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eYI8TVNPCu4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%;"></iframe></div></div><figcaption>Elementor vs Divi Builder vs Beaver Builder: Ultimate Comparison </figcaption></figure><p> To state the obvious, as a WordPress web designer you will need some <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/graphic-design-agency/">graphic design</a> skills. Fortunately, these days there are many free repositories that you can source images from. If you combine them with basic skills of working with Photoshop or Gimp image processing tools you are set. Also, don’t forget to go through some <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/ux/">User Experience (UX)</a> guides. They will teach you the principles of good web design that will help the visitor of the website enjoy the experience. </p><h2 id="cgdi8">3. Marketing</h2><p>When creating a website in 2019, some marketing skills are a must. A WordPress web designer won’t get away without knowing basics of copywriting and<a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/seo-agency/"> Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)</a>, like keyword research and on-page optimisation. I know many people who would argue with me on that point, but I believe that a competent web designer should have this knowledge.</p><h4 id="4tb4e">Content writing - copywriting is the key</h4><p>You may not have to write content for your website as the client will provide it, but you need to recognise when it’s crap. It's part of your job to advise your client that they need to hire a better writer. Even better, to leave the copywriting to you (or your trusted freelance copywriter - you will find them on Fiverr and People Per Hour, although it takes few orders before you can find somebody trustworthy).</p><figure class="image regular"><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/marketing/"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-copywriting_44d6fae5ccdd3db56e9adb3684caa118_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-copywriting_44d6fae5ccdd3db56e9adb3684caa118_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Wordpress web designer copywriting" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-copywriting_44d6fae5ccdd3db56e9adb3684caa118_800.jpg" /></picture></a><figcaption>Copywriting skills of a web designer</figcaption></figure><p>You will also need to skilfully describe what each page is all about in between 120 and 158 characters in a page description. That requires not only copywriting skills but also some keyword research and SEO knowledge. Fortunately, there are plugins for that! For example, Yoast will not only tell you whether your meta description or page title is too short or too long but also it will score your keyword strength. It will also suggest how to correct your text to make it more readable and point the header tag structure (H1-H3) in relation to the keywords. It’s a great tool. Optimising images is also important, and you need to have tools to decrease image size to speed up page loading time. As a WordPress web designer, you need to know how to add Alt Tags and descriptions and geotag them, which helps with Local SEO.</p><h4 id="a0jl7">Keyword research and why is it important</h4><p>In terms of keywords, clients will often tell you what keyword they want to rank for. Nine times out of ten they will be wrong. Sometimes because the competition is too strong and sometimes because nobody searches for that keyword, so there is no point to rank for it. I have included some articles below that will give you a better grasp on keyword research. After that use Google Trends or Answer the Public tools to judge the value of your keywords.</p><ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/keyword_research/">Keyword research - what is it?</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo">Beginners Guide to SEO</a></li></ul><p>Tools that will help you do the keyword research</p><ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://trends.google.com/trends/ ">Google Trends</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://answerthepublic.com/">Answer the public</a></li></ul><h2 id="a0l11">4. Hungry for knowledge</h2><p>Last but not least! In fact, wanting to learn is a major player in changing your career path to a WordPress web designer or any website designer or <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/developer/">developer</a>, to be frank. The web design field is vast, and there are many stages to learn about it before you can confidently say you are a competent web designer. You will need to be passionate about it and be hungry for knowledge. We live in the time where there is a YouTube or GitHub answer to every problem that you may encounter when designing a website, whether you want to change the colour of the font or animate something in JavaScript… and yes, I’m thinking about my mum’s cat presenting his favourite sweater on a catwalk….</p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-learning_20a4551d88e7a63fad7ce6bf95d98daa_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-learning_20a4551d88e7a63fad7ce6bf95d98daa_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="WordPress web designer learning process" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/wordpress-web-designer-learning_20a4551d88e7a63fad7ce6bf95d98daa_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Learning web designer skills</figcaption></figure><h2 id="b2c4m">Conclusion</h2><p>It seems like a lot, but do not feel overwhelmed. You will simply acquire all these skills while designing websites and being open to self-learning. I am a firm believer in "learning on the job" and acquiring abilities that you need to resolve problems one by one as you approach them. This is why the best way to learn WordPress web designer skills is to actually try and design some websites for fun and google your way through obstacles. So, go ahead, start now. Just register your new site on WordPress today, and tomorrow… well, the sky is the limit… OK, if you think this is cringy, then it is, but do it regardless. No postponing!</p><p>The above skills won’t make you a Frontend Web developer yet, we will get to that in another article, but it will get you started. Don’t miss the opportunity. Today is the day when you choose the path to become a WordPress web designer.</p><h3 id="6ja4a">Find out More:</h3><ul><li><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/4-key-skills-graphic-designer/">4 key skills of a Graphic Designer</a></li><li><a href="https://coder-coder.com/learn-web-development/">Learn web development as an absolute beginner (2018 guide)</a></li></ul><p>This article was originally posted on Colorpeak Blog - <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/4-key-skills-wordpress-web-designer">4 key skills of a WordPress web designer - a beginners guide</a></p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/4-key-skills-wordpress-web-designer?id=1968072574&type=12",title: "4 key skills of a WordPress web designer – a beginners guide",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->Tracking (onclick) CTA’s via PixelMe in DIVI Theme
2019-09-11 11:09:00 UTC
<figure class="video regular"><div class="embed-container"><div style="max-width: 100%; position: relative; padding-top: 74.9455%;"><iframe width="459" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tdegFfpIM1A?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%;"></iframe></div></div><figcaption>PixelMe set up in DIVI</figcaption></figure><p>We make it easy for you! Follow <a target="_blank" href="http://social.clrpeak.com/vDQJVBQw">this step-by-step process on our Fleeq</a> page to implement <a target="_blank" href="https://pixelme.grsm.io/colorpeak">PixelMe</a> in Divi.</p><p>If you work with Divi Theme and <a target="_blank" href="https://pixelme.grsm.io/colorpeak">PixelMe</a>, you quickly realise that adding a simple 'onclick event' to their Call-To-Action buttons isn't straightforward (Divi's buttons are styled anchor tags rather than regular HTML wrappers). </p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/Pixelme-divi-tracking-onclick-set-up_27718070a4f84c55e5c3552c7bdfa2ba_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/Pixelme-divi-tracking-onclick-set-up_27718070a4f84c55e5c3552c7bdfa2ba_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Event Tracker of PixelMe in Divi promo image" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/Pixelme-divi-tracking-onclick-set-up_27718070a4f84c55e5c3552c7bdfa2ba_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>How to implement Event Tracker of PixelMe in Divi</figcaption></figure><h2 id="6k0gj">Here's how to implement Event Tracker of PixelMe in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.elegantthemes.com/">Divi Theme by Elegant Themes</a> in 5 easy steps:</h2><ol><li>Pick a button you want to track - either for a single CTA button or all buttons at once.</li><li>For ALL CTA's, identify the default CSS Class of your DIVI Theme buttons (e.g. ".et_pb_button"). Use your browser's default inspector to confirm the right Class name for your button. Or to narrow down to a single CTA - input a custom CSS Class name in DIVI CTA Module Settings - Advance Setting - Custom CSS field (e.g. "callus")</li><li>Next, log in to your PixelMe Dashboard and go to Smart Attribution - Settings - Tracking code</li><li>Select "Tracked events" from the dropdown. You should choose whatever is closest to your CTAs event you are trying to record. Copy the generated event script.</li><li>Log in to your WP Dash and go to Divi - Integration - Header. Insert the following jQuery script with the button's Class and your copied script from PixelMe:</li></ol><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/pixelme-divi-tracking-script_c9bdd47cc43ced46f623776f4976e9b9_800.PNG 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/pixelme-divi-tracking-script_c9bdd47cc43ced46f623776f4976e9b9_800.PNG 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="PixelMe in Divi event tracker example" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/pixelme-divi-tracking-script_c9bdd47cc43ced46f623776f4976e9b9_800.PNG" /></picture><figcaption>PixelMe in Divi event tracker example</figcaption></figure><p>Now every time someone clicks on the CTA(s) the event gets recorded on your <a target="_blank" href="https://pixelme.grsm.io/colorpeak">PixelMe</a> Dashboard.</p><p>This article was originally posted on Colorpeak.co.uk: <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/pixelme-divi-cta-tracking-onclick-events"><strong>Tracking (onclick) CTA’s via PixelMe in DIVI Theme</strong> </a></p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/pixelme-divi-cta-tracking-onclick-events?id=1141346471&type=12",title: "Tracking (onclick) CTA’s via PixelMe in DIVI Theme",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->How to Get Facebook & Google Pixel Ad Tracking using PixelMe
2019-09-22 12:51:00 UTC
<p>It's important that you understand, how people move around your website. The business intelligence you gather, compile and make sense of provides a big picture of your company direction. Online tracking or pixel ad tracking is a fundamental instrument in your marketing automation tool-kit.</p><p>Whether you like it or not, savvy-marketeers and modern businesses use pixel ad tracking to tailor their products and services to sell more, serve better and grow faster. It is then not surprising that several companies built entire businesses to serve just this single purpose – tracking you. Web analytics are a must these days and tracking user behaviour cannot be guesswork if you want to optimise your ads.</p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/remarketing-pixelme-colorpeak_31c5ad411ad2af27dea357a2354fefe3_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/remarketing-pixelme-colorpeak_31c5ad411ad2af27dea357a2354fefe3_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Graphic representation of Pixel Ad Tracking" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/remarketing-pixelme-colorpeak_31c5ad411ad2af27dea357a2354fefe3_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Remarketing</figcaption></figure><h2 id="910hg"><strong>Marketing Analytics – the Key to Your Company Success</strong></h2><p>Nowadays, you can find many tracking and marketing automation tools to provide an almost infinite amount of data to track users and user behaviour. Most heard of (or used) is Google Analytics and their pixel tracking– a staple among online marketing communities. And Google’s Secret Weapon used to dominate the Digital World (ever asked yourself why such a sophisticated marketing tool is… free?). Some even go as far as to say <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/07/how-google-analytics-ruined-marketing/">it ruined the marketing</a>.</p><p>Whatever your opinion is, Analytics is a powerful piece of marketing software for conversion tracking that you shouldn’t underestimate. But does it end there? Certainly not!</p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/test_2ec9c893159aba5e0a886c053a05a3d4_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/test_2ec9c893159aba5e0a886c053a05a3d4_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Google Analytics dashboard" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/test_2ec9c893159aba5e0a886c053a05a3d4_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>Google Analytics dashboard</figcaption></figure><h2 id="3146k"><strong>Google Analytics – The Easiest Most Difficult Marketing Tool to Implement</strong></h2><p>One of the Analytics problems is its interface and complexity. Or its ‘sandboxiness’. Google indeed puts all the effort to make it super-easy for virtually everyone to plaster their tool on their websites. But once it’s there and you enter Analytics, it kind of leaves you hanging. It takes a lot of time and knowledge to understand the jargon, the mechanics of the tool, and how to set things up like tracking pixel or conversion tracking for yourself – not only on your website but also on the overview dashboard. We’ve seen many business owners withdraw to just tracking… traffic instead of tracking user behaviour. Or whatever the default GA dashboard shows. With many not even understanding what “Bounce Rate” is.</p><blockquote>I once had someone ask me why their website "got only 43% of the <a href="https://i.chzbgr.com/full/6400116736/hE1C20CE8/">"bouncy score"</a> – thinking it's Google's "coolness" metric of some sort… indeed, the "bouncy score" should be the next big (bouncy) thing in internet marketing.</blockquote><h2 id="fdb9m"><strong>PixelMe – Going Beyond Google Analytics</strong></h2><p>No wonder many marketers took their expertise in data analysis to and decided to build a tool that gave their own spin around Pixel Ad tracking and business intelligence. One of those tools is <a href="https://pixelme.grsm.io/colorpeak">PixelMe</a>.</p><p>Folks at <a href="https://pixelme.grsm.io/colorpeak">PixelMe</a> looked at all that GA-sandbox confusion and decided to just cut to the chase. <strong>"What do marketers and website owners need to really know from people visiting their websites?".</strong> They created a tool that is 100x easier to understand, navigate around, and implement than Google Analytics ever has been. And it’s great!</p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/pixelme-dashboard-pixel-tracking_98d93fb2b22dce95a80ce09316852692_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/pixelme-dashboard-pixel-tracking_98d93fb2b22dce95a80ce09316852692_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="PixelMe Dasboard tool for Pixel Ad Tracking" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/pixelme-dashboard-pixel-tracking_98d93fb2b22dce95a80ce09316852692_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>PixelMe Dasboard</figcaption></figure><h2 id="8d7ss">How does a pixel tracker work?</h2><p>To better understand Pixel ad tracking, first, you need to understand what a tracking pixel is. In a majority of cases, it is a code snippet that is triggered when a visitor lands on your website, clicks on a link or opens an email. The pixel script communicates with the source server, which registers a user-triggered action. Meanwhile, the user is “tagged” with a unique ID, and the entire website session gets recorded in “a browser cookie” file.</p><p>It is worth noting that the Internet browsers refer back to cookie files every time users come back to websites. And, as you already suspect, the pixel server is then getting informed as well.</p><p>For example, every <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/pixelme-divi-cta-tracking-onclick-events/">click made by the user</a> can be captured and tracked so you can adjust your conversion actions. In other words, tracking pixel allows you to gather data to improve your digital ad and marketing strategy. All that is based on the user behaviour tracking data that is provided by a pixel code. By collecting all that data about user behaviour, you can optimise your ads, content and improve retargeting.</p><h2 id="6r4ao">Here are Top 5 Benefits that make PixelMe worth giving a shot and what you should expect from their Pixel ad tracking tool:</h2><ol><li><u>Retargeting (re-marketing) via Short-Links</u> – you can develop super-effective retargeting audience groups from any link you share. <u><a href="https://pixelme.grsm.io/colorpeak">PixelMe</a></u> starts as a web-link shortener but then allows you to incorporate them with advertisement retargeting pixels, attributions and various marketing automation hacks.</li><li><u>Assign Urchin Tracking Module (UTM)</u> – with the ability to include UTM tags to all your web links you will know where every website conversion comes from. When used in your marketing campaigns, you can further evaluate and also enhance your financial investments through the first touch, multi-touch, or last touch attribution versions.</li><li><u>Serve as your All-in-One Marketing Platform</u> – PixelMe automatically combines data from multiple platforms in one convenient dashboard. Within few minutes, you can plug most of your ads’ systems (Facebook, Google, etc.), many CRM platforms, as well as various analytics platforms (like Segment or Google Tag Manager).</li><li><u>Test and decide what works for you</u> – test and see which of your marketing channel brings the highest ROI and which should you abandon. Because PixelMe allows you to measure the influence of any kind of paid or natural network, you no longer have to guess if a given investment is worth throwing money at it.</li><li><u>Map your customer journeys</u> – all that data means nothing if you can’t test your assumed touchpoints and paths to conversion. PixelMe allows you to look at each customer touchpoint and help you to understand its contribution in making or breaking the sale.</li></ol><h2 id="5obcm">Business Analysis, Marketing Attribution And Tracking – Making It All Count</h2><p>The one thing shared among many business marketers (and especially social media influencers) is the obsession with data hoarding. Everyone seems to obsess around clicks, likes, followers, subscribers… But not many take it to the next level and ask a question – “what it all really means to my business?!“. Because so many of those “stats” are just completely arbitrary. We call them the “Vanity Metrics” for a reason. But thanks to marketing tools like <a href="https://pixelme.grsm.io/colorpeak">PixelMe</a>, we can look at the pixel ad tracking data and the real-world examples that it provides. And then take an information-based action. If you dig deep enough, you may even find your own “Bouncy Score”.</p><h2 id="co47h"><strong>Using Divi Theme with PixelMe together</strong></h2><p><strong> See <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.fleeq.io/l/y279wyz36b-3t6kf6xk25">here</a> how you can track every click via the Event Tracker on your website! </strong></p><h3 id="52l3"><strong>Check our YouTube Channel for more Divi Tips & Trick and Marketing Tutorials:</strong></h3><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjnCza-fV81-ub-xxY63jrQ/videos">Colorpeak YouTube Channel</a></strong></li></ul> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/how-to-facebook-google-pixel-ad-tracking?id=1041467792&type=12",title: "How to Get Facebook & Google Pixel Ad Tracking using PixelMe",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->SEO Content Optimization – CognitiveSEO vs SimilarContent
2019-11-09 12:43:00 UTC
<p> <strong>WE’VE OPTIMIZED THIS ARTICLE WITH</strong> <strong><u><a href="https://similarcontent.com/">SIMILARCONTENT SEARCH ENGINE CONTENT OPTIMIZATION TOOL</a></u></strong> </p><p>MARKETING AUTOMATION - The “marketing automation” keyword and the optimized content I’m referring to throughout the article is here: Marketing Automation Tools – The DIY for Beginners</p><p>NON-AFFILIATE REVIEW - This review is my honest feedback as a dedicated SEO enthusiast in constant pursue of optimisation tools that provide the best results.</p><p>SPOILER ALERT! <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/">COGNITIVESEO CONTENT OPTIMIZATION SOFTWARE</a> WINS (WITH A BIG CAVEAT WORKING IN FAVOUR OF <a href="https://similarcontent.com/">SIMILARCONTENT OPTIMIZER</a>, BUT MORE ON THAT BELOW). IF YOU’RE AFTER SEO CONTENT OPTIMIZATION IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, BOTH TOOLS WILL GIVE YOU VERY CLOSE RESULTS. AND THE RESULTS BEING HIGHER RANKINGS ON GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE FOR YOUR OPTIMIZED ARTICLES.</p><p>SO, HERE’S HOW BOTH OF THE TOOLS GO ABOUT DOING CONTENT OPTIMIZATION.</p><h2 id="4a8f4"><strong>How To Do Content Optimization Correctly? – Seed Keyword Analysis</strong></h2><p><strong>First, both CognitiveSEO and SimilarContent analyse the top searches to find who gets the Google engine ranking right and who doesn’t. After the tools combine the findings, an equation is run to assess the outcome. The idea is to get you information that is easy to interpret and provide you with a general direction in which to take your raw, unoptimized article.</strong><br/><strong>As an example, I decided to drop a hard keyword: “marketing automation”.</strong></p><h3 id="9cb6g"><strong>CognitiveSEO Keyword Analysis</strong></h3><p><strong>The tool does an excellent job of showing you the entire picture at first sight. Without clicking away, I see:</strong></p><h4 id="7820n"><strong>🠮</strong> <strong>CONTENT DIFFICULTY</strong></h4><p><strong>The “gist” of the keyword analysis step and the number from 0-100 that tells you how sharp your content optimization needs to be if you want to enter the content marketing competition at the top of Search Engine Result Page (SERP). “Marketing automation” scored 77, marking it as a “very hard” keyword.</strong></p><h4 id="8ueng"><strong>🠮</strong> <strong>LINKS DIFFICULTY</strong></h4><p><strong>CognitiveSEO goes an extra step here and also lets you know that the content optimization alone ain’t going to cut it. The same scale as before – from 0-100 – and “marketing automation” is marked at 72 (“very hard”). Underneath the Links difficulty score, I see an extra piece of information about how many referring domains do “Score 72” actually mean (“~49 sites” backlinking to my “marketing automation” article to enter the top SERP online competition).</strong></p><h4 id="2d2cr"><strong>🠮</strong> <strong>MONTHLY SEARCHES</strong></h4><p><strong>It shows a popularity trend (Google Trends) of a given keyword in the selected country. For “marketing automation” keyword in Google.co.uk the Monthly Searches feature did not work (the result was “N/A”). Surprisingly it did work for Poland or the USA but not for the UK.</strong></p><p><strong>But it doesn’t end there. Still, in the same birds-eye view, CognitiveSEO goes even deeper with the Keyword Analysis. And if there was ever any doubt if you should spend the next several hours working on your SEO content optimization, Keyword Explorer and Rank Analysis features should swiftly dispell any uncertainty.</strong></p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEOgroup-by-topickeywordexplorer_70507a59eaa7217a2b2ba1c1cd1b0960_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEOgroup-by-topickeywordexplorer_70507a59eaa7217a2b2ba1c1cd1b0960_1600.png 2x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEOgroup-by-topickeywordexplorer_70507a59eaa7217a2b2ba1c1cd1b0960_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEOgroup-by-topickeywordexplorer_70507a59eaa7217a2b2ba1c1cd1b0960_1600.png 2x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="SPOILER ALERT! COGNITIVESEO CONTENT OPTIMIZATION SOFTWARE WINS (WITH A BIG CAVEAT WORKING IN FAVOUR OF SIMILARCONTENT OPTIMIZER, BUT MORE ON THAT BELOW). IF YOU’RE AFTER SEO CONTENT OPTIMIZATION IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, BOTH TOOLS WILL GIVE YOU VERY CLOSE RESULTS. AND THE RESULTS BEING HIGHER RANKINGS ON GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE FOR YOUR OPTIMIZED ARTICLES. SO, HERE’S HOW BOTH OF THE TOOLS GO ABOUT DOING CONTENT OPTIMIZATION. How To Do Content Optimization Correctly? – Seed Keyword Analysis First, both CognitiveSEO and SimilarContent analyse the top searches to find who gets the Google engine ranking right and who doesn’t. After the tools combine the findings, an equation is run to assess the outcome. The idea is to get you information that is easy to interpret and provide you with a general direction in which to take your raw, unoptimized article. As an example, I decided to drop a hard keyword: “marketing automation”. CognitiveSEO Keyword Analysis The tool does an excellent job of showing you the entire picture at first sight. Without clicking away, I see: 🠮 CONTENT DIFFICULTY The “gist” of the keyword analysis step and the number from 0-100 that tells you how sharp your content optimization needs to be if you want to enter the content marketing competition at the top of Search Engine Result Page (SERP). “Marketing automation” scored 77, marking it as a “very hard” keyword. 🠮 LINKS DIFFICULTY CognitiveSEO goes an extra step here and also lets you know that the content optimization alone ain’t going to cut it. The same scale as before – from 0-100 – and “marketing automation” is marked at 72 (“very hard”). Underneath the Links difficulty score, I see an extra piece of information about how many referring domains do “Score 72” actually mean (“~49 sites” backlinking to my “marketing automation” article to enter the top SERP online competition). 🠮 MONTHLY SEARCHES It shows a popularity trend (Google Trends) of a given keyword in the selected country. For “marketing automation” keyword in Google.co.uk the Monthly Searches feature did not work (the result was “N/A”). Surprisingly it did work for Poland or the USA but not for the UK. But it doesn’t end there. Still, in the same birds-eye view, CognitiveSEO goes even deeper with the Keyword Analysis. And if there was ever any doubt if you should spend the next several hours working on your SEO content optimization, Keyword Explorer and Rank Analysis features should swiftly dispell any uncertainty." src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEOgroup-by-topickeywordexplorer_70507a59eaa7217a2b2ba1c1cd1b0960_800.png" /></picture><figcaption><br/>SimilarContent Topic Difficulty screenshot - establishing keyword difficulty for SEO content optimization</figcaption></figure><h4 id="8qo7o"><strong>🠮</strong> <strong>KEYWORD EXPLORER</strong></h4><p><strong>The software breaks it down on a table with primary filters such as Search Suggestions, Focus Keywords and Questions. These I believe, are self-explanatory keyword categorisations that provide a full panoramic view of your seed keyword landscape.</strong></p><p><strong>There is also “Filter” option for a more refined inspection and an excellent feature “Group by Topic” that in one click reveals the central themes around your chosen keyword. Here you can educate yourself on the search intent behind the chosen keyword. A handy feature and possibly a game-changer if the topic you attempt to target is new to you.</strong></p><p><strong>Keyword Explorer also shows a set number of keywords they called “opportunities”. For “marketing automation” I was given 916 keyword ideas, that CognitiveSEO artificially limits on my “Starter Plan” ($129.99/mo). Apparently, I could enable the hidden data and “up to triple” the number of keyword opportunities listed if I was to upgrade to the “Business Plan” with “custom pricing”.</strong></p><h4 id="cnca2"><strong>🠮</strong> <strong>RANKING ANALYSIS</strong></h4><p><strong>The tool shows you the other performing websites and their optimized content ranked at the top of the Search Engine grid. It lists the main ingredients of your digital content optimization and marketing strategy you need in order to compete with the top contenders, such as:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>Content Performance (from 0-100),</strong></li><li><strong>Focus Keywords (the number of topically related keywords),</strong></li><li><strong>No. Of Words (of the entire article)</strong></li><li><strong>Domains To Url/Site (backlinks needed)</strong></li><li><strong>Date Published (how old is the original piece)</strong></li></ul><p><strong>I was able to review the Top 20 Pages on the Google Search, again with an option to expand it up to the Top 100 on a “Business Plan”.</strong></p><p><strong>Finally, the Content Assistance tool is where the rubber hits the road. I’ll break it down right after I visit…</strong></p><h3 id="dlbrb"><strong>SimilarContent Keyword Analysis</strong></h3><p><strong>The software splits it down to three separate tools. Suddenly I wasn’t getting the useful “birds-eye” overview that CognitiveSEO provides in one spot. I think the analysis and content strategy tips are much more partitioned and hard to follow when compared to the other software.</strong></p><h4 id="3fjqf"><strong>🠮</strong> <strong>TOPIC DIFFICULTY (TD)</strong></h4><p><strong>The gist of your keyword investigation will happen under Topic Difficulty tool. SC runs their formula against the top 20 articles on Google Search and presents you with the 0-100 scale of keyword difficulty at the top of the side panel. “Marketing automation” scored 79.9, which is similar to CognitiveSEO. There is no backlink analysis letting you know the number of referring domains needed for your optimized content, but rather a vague statement “Hard & Need High Authority Site”.</strong></p><p><strong>Next to the Topic Difficulty score, SC presents you with a bar chart of the top 10 articles and their current SEO content Performance Score (from 0-100). I have to note that the Bar Chart was confusing to me at first, and I had to watch the instructional video to confirm what it actually shows (the Article Performance for each page ranked).</strong></p><p><strong>A little bit below, I’m happy to see a summary of Google Entities (or Snippets) for my “marketing automation” keyword:</strong></p><ol><li><strong>Ads: 3</strong></li><li><strong>Video: 2</strong></li><li><strong>Questions: 0</strong></li><li><strong>AMP: 20 (and why 20 suddenly? Shouldn’t it be the top 10… ?)</strong></li></ol><p><strong>It is a nice feature and… utterly inaccurate in my case.</strong><br/><strong>I’m not sure if this is desktop or mobile SERP or both? The entities I see on “my Google” are (desktop/mobile version):</strong></p><ol><li><strong>Ads: 4/4</strong></li><li><strong>Video: 0/6</strong></li><li><strong>Questions: 4/4</strong></li><li><strong>AMP: 0/2</strong></li></ol><p><strong>Also missing from the tool are: Featured Snippet, People Also Search For, BoP (Bottom of the Page) Ads. I’d like to see those search engine services to be counted in the KD’s SERP guide.</strong></p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopic-Difficultytoolmulti-languageSEOsupport_2882ede0538cb2ac1835b985fb797ac6_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopic-Difficultytoolmulti-languageSEOsupport_2882ede0538cb2ac1835b985fb797ac6_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="SimilarContent Topic Difficulty screenshot - establishing keyword difficulty for seo content optimization" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopic-Difficultytoolmulti-languageSEOsupport_2882ede0538cb2ac1835b985fb797ac6_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>SimilarContent Topic Difficulty screenshot - establishing keyword difficulty for seo content optimization</figcaption></figure><p> <strong>META Title/Description Optimization</strong></p><p><strong>For some strange reason, SimilarContent thought to place “To Optimize Title/Description” suggestions and take 30% of the screen’s real-estate for that information. There, in fine-grain detail, SC tells you where you should put your focus/LSI/variable keywords to compete on organic searches. But why do I need to see these recommendations here?</strong></p><p><strong>In any regular SEO content optimization workflow or blog creating practices, the META Title/description content optimization is the very last part that you sort out AFTER the entire article is thoroughly developed, optimized and implemented on your website or blog.</strong></p><p><strong>Therefore at the early stages of the Topic Difficulty checks, the Title/Description content suggestion is an entirely unnecessary technical trivia. A one that you usually sort out at the end of the journey with different page optimization tools for your convenience (like Yoast or PageOptimizerPro). However, if SimilarContent insists on informing me of how the top 20 strategised their Titles/Descriptions and existing content, I’d rather had that info located somewhere on the main table grid. And use the saved space for something more useful, like Keyword Brainstorming or MicroNiche Finder that are separate tools but could easily fit in that view (and be much more relevant to what I intend to do at the Topic Difficulty search phase).</strong></p><p><strong>Keyword “Synonym(s)”</strong></p><p><strong>Then there is the “Synonym” feature that I can only describe as some kind of digital content creation helper or a keyword ideas/opportunities tool in its early-stage zygote form. For “marketing automation”, it revealed “About 5 results” (SIC!), and, I suspect, there are some issues with pulling in the data like search volume and frequency of appearance. Currently, it offers less than Google Suggestions but, hopefully, something better will come out of it. Although I can’t say if it’s a “boy” or a “girl” (or something else) yet…</strong></p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopicDifficultySERPSEOcontentanalysis_1844d4c35cd958aecb198dc579b3b484_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopicDifficultySERPSEOcontentanalysis_1844d4c35cd958aecb198dc579b3b484_1600.png 2x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopicDifficultySERPSEOcontentanalysis_1844d4c35cd958aecb198dc579b3b484_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopicDifficultySERPSEOcontentanalysis_1844d4c35cd958aecb198dc579b3b484_1600.png 2x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="SimilarContent Topic Difficulty screenshot - establishing keyword difficulty for seo content optimization" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopicDifficultySERPSEOcontentanalysis_1844d4c35cd958aecb198dc579b3b484_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>SimilarContent Topic Difficulty screenshot - establishing keyword difficulty for seo content optimization</figcaption></figure><p> <strong>Topic Difficulty Competitive Breakdown and Content Optimization Strategy</strong></p><p><strong>Finally, we have the Topic Difficulty table breakdown, and similarly to CognitiveSEO, they go about exploring the chosen topic and its digital landscape.</strong></p><p><strong>But rather than listing keywords ideas or content “opportunities”, they focus your attention on the Top Sites that rank for the keyword in two different types of views: an existing page content data breakdown and a Search Engine list.</strong></p><p><strong>In my opinion, both SimilarContent Data and SERP breakdown views show almost the same information (Rank, Domain, Score, Score Chart and Facebook Shares all repeat). Both views could easily be put together under one tab and have another tab(s) revealing something different and aiding your marketing research.</strong></p><p><strong>In any case, the Keywords Difficulty keyword breakdown is more akin to what CognitiveSEO shows under Ranking Analysis tab. Although the table goes in-depth in some areas, I’m not sure about the practical use of what SC analyses:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>The table lists only the top 10 SERP results with no possibility to expand (CognitiveSEO shows 20 or more on a higher tier plan) – this is strange because SimilarContent claims they run analysis against the top 20 domains – so, why would they “hide” half of their data findings from us…?</strong></li><li><strong>for “marketing automation” the top 10 SERP are somewhat similar, but I find CognitiveSEO to be a bit closer to what I see when Googling “marketing automation” keyword in my (UK) browser – it is not a big difference though</strong></li><li><strong>both tools show the SEO content optimization performance/score for each ranked domain and, although the approach is different, the conclusions are very similar</strong></li><li><strong>KD displays the entire SERP snippet with META Title and Description (CognitiveSEO shows only the URL path) – I like that and find it useful to see there, but I’m missing the addition of Google Entities and Snippets (CognitiveSEO has it)</strong></li><li><strong>KD also shows the number of times the targeted keyword appeared in the description (it doesn’t count the title and the slug for some reason, so I find it half-done or not that useful)</strong></li><li><strong>Finally, KD goes into great detail to analyse how many times each focused/recommended/similar word is used in the competitive articles – but I’m struggling to understand the usefulness of that information at that particular stage of the keyword research. I mean, I’ll go and keep working on the article under a different tool/view – SC’s Content Optimization. There I’m expecting to find all the fine-grain keyword suggestions and where to put them. I find the Topic Difficulty detailed analysis – “who-used-how-many-keywords” examination – completely inconsequential at the point of reviewing target keywords and searching for opportunities. The “who-used-how-many-keywords” information has no weight whatsoever on whether I chose to pursue the keyword or not.</strong></li></ul><p><strong>The Topic Difficulty Tool is the weakest point of SimilarContent and a one that requires almost complete revamp to be able to compete with CognitiveSEO Keyword Explorer tool.</strong></p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopicDifficultyKeywordSearch_30c6b0598fb4c015ed85ad195d26c51c_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopicDifficultyKeywordSearch_30c6b0598fb4c015ed85ad195d26c51c_1600.png 2x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopicDifficultyKeywordSearch_30c6b0598fb4c015ed85ad195d26c51c_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopicDifficultyKeywordSearch_30c6b0598fb4c015ed85ad195d26c51c_1600.png 2x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="SimilarContent Topic Difficulty screenshot - establishing keyword difficulty for seo content optimization" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentTopicDifficultyKeywordSearch_30c6b0598fb4c015ed85ad195d26c51c_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>SimilarContent Topic Difficulty screenshot - establishing keyword difficulty for seo content optimization</figcaption></figure><p> </p><h4 id="fnjnu"><strong>KEYWORD BRAINSTORMING/MICRONICHE FINDER (SEPARATE TOOLS/VIEWS)</strong></h4><p><strong>Once again, SimilarContent thought to split the Keyword Research onto separate tools/views. I don’t quite understand that. If you’ve done your Topic Difficulty due diligence already, surely Brainstorming and MicroNiche Finder are a step back at that point, no? Why are these tools/views “a next step” on the interface grid? Their placement makes no sense for any keyword search workflow I can think of.</strong></p><p><strong>Keyword Brainstorming</strong></p><p><strong>is just a list of keyword ideas that contain all of the terms of a target keyword in them, e.g. “marketing automation tools”. It also shows the frequency of their appearance in the top 10 search engine results. For my “marketing automation” I was presented with “About 15 results” under “Similar and top 1 words” (meaning a Target KW + 1 additional keyword) and “About 5 results” under “Similar and top 2 words” (TKW+2).</strong></p><p><strong>The results were disappointing and knowing what other search engine optimization companies provide in the “keyword brainstorming” department; the tool is completely unreliable. For example,</strong> <strong><a href="https://ahrefs.com/blog/keyword-research/">Ahrefs Keyword Explorer</a></strong> <strong>“Having the same terms” tab for “marketing automation” suggested 2001 keywords for the UK alone and 8064 keyword suggestions for the USA (+ 500 “Questions” and 1641 “Also rank for”). Now THAT is what I call a “Brainstorming”. But even CognitiveSEO with its 916 “keyword opportunities” comes out much better. I use Google Suggestions or Answer the Public with much better outcomes than SC keyword ideas.</strong></p><p><strong>Keyword Brainstorming gets F- and Gryffindor loses 150 points.</strong></p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentkeywordbrainstormingtoolforSEO_5fbf71f70b5d8eb1d6043e8ec55bc75b_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentkeywordbrainstormingtoolforSEO_5fbf71f70b5d8eb1d6043e8ec55bc75b_1600.png 2x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentkeywordbrainstormingtoolforSEO_5fbf71f70b5d8eb1d6043e8ec55bc75b_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentkeywordbrainstormingtoolforSEO_5fbf71f70b5d8eb1d6043e8ec55bc75b_1600.png 2x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="SimilarContent Topic Difficulty screenshot - establishing keyword difficulty for seo content optimization" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContentkeywordbrainstormingtoolforSEO_5fbf71f70b5d8eb1d6043e8ec55bc75b_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>SimilarContent Topic Difficulty screenshot - establishing keyword difficulty for seo content optimization</figcaption></figure><p> </p><h4 id="201d0"><strong>MICRONICHE FINDER</strong></h4><p><strong>this, on the other hand, is a very interesting idea that can aid your SEO content. Especially useful if you want to nail an accurate tag(s) or a category to your article. MicroNiche Finder is just a category path or a breadcrumb of the topical relevance of your targeted keyword. It listed seven different paths for my “marketing automation” keyword, and I found it uniquely missing from other tools, including CognitiveSEO or even Ahrefs.</strong></p><p><strong>Ahrefs “Parent Topic” or CognitiveSEO’s “Group by Topic” could be considered a similar option. Still, it’s not entirely the same, and SimilarContent seems to define the “root path” or the theme’s origin of the keyword more in-depth.</strong></p><p><strong>I can also see myself using the paths for topical interlinking within my website content. Or at least as an optimized content tiering and content creation strategy.</strong></p><p><strong>I think if applied correctly across a website or blog, MicroNiche Finder feature could make a positive difference for your search engine optimization ranking.</strong></p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContent-microniche-content-breadcrumbs_4aa0e2b83c51493a85fa71c1b5b148d6_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContent-microniche-content-breadcrumbs_4aa0e2b83c51493a85fa71c1b5b148d6_1600.png 2x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContent-microniche-content-breadcrumbs_4aa0e2b83c51493a85fa71c1b5b148d6_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContent-microniche-content-breadcrumbs_4aa0e2b83c51493a85fa71c1b5b148d6_1600.png 2x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="SimilarContent Topic Difficulty screenshot - establishing keyword difficulty for seo content optimization" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/SimilarContent-microniche-content-breadcrumbs_4aa0e2b83c51493a85fa71c1b5b148d6_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>SimilarContent Topic Difficulty screenshot - establishing keyword difficulty for seo content optimization</figcaption></figure><p> </p><h4 id="ecv8f"><strong>CONTENT REWRITER</strong></h4><p><strong>Like the name suggests it is an article spinner. I use other tools for that already and don’t find it particularly beneficial. SC claims to use “advanced AI” in the text spinning and suggests to use it only in “chunks” of no more than 100 words for the best results. I tried a couple of short eCommerce product content descriptions I’m working on at the moment. The results were mediocre, not terrible and better than some “mainstream” content spinners. Although it is a nice addition and SC says they’ll keep improving it, I won’t hold my breath, because this isn’t something I’m after when I’m logging in to SimilarContent dashboard.</strong></p><h4 id="3s7qu"><strong>TODAY’S FRESH KEYWORDS</strong></h4><p><strong>This is just a Google Trends with the most popular search terms for a given day. This feature is cute, but not particularly useful in my opinion (unless you’re working on a gossip/news niche – but even then would “Today’s Fresh Keywords” feature be a real “game-changer” for you? … ).</strong></p><h2 id="2j5as"><strong>Content Optimization vs Content Optimisation</strong></h2><p><strong>We arrived at the heart of the matter. The point of all those previous searches and crafting strategy was to figure out the subject and write what I call a “raw version of an article”. I’ll take a step back and introduce my 7-step workflow for an optimized content creation that looks roughly like this:</strong></p><ol><li><strong>An idea pops in my head, or I’m ranking client’s website/blog.</strong></li><li><strong>I do keyword research.</strong></li><li><strong>I create a raw version of an article.</strong></li><li><strong>I drop it to the content optimization tool and edit it.</strong></li><li><strong>I launch it on the website.</strong></li><li><strong>I further optimize page content and run the URL through SEO on-page optimization tool.</strong></li><li><strong>The fully optimized page or blog gets officially launched and spreads on my IFTTT and social media network.</strong></li></ol><p><strong>I use multiple SEO, content optimization and marketing strategy tools to wrap it all up. CognitiveSEO or SimilarContent can only play a partial role in all that, but an important one. Here’s how each plays it.</strong></p><h3 id="cmqth"><strong>CognitiveSEO’s Content Optimization</strong></h3><p><strong>You drop an article to the editor, and a list of suggestions appear on the right-hand sidebar. CognitiveSEO groups the suggestions into five “dropdowns” or lists where numerous “focus keywords” are given:</strong></p><ol><li><strong>Keywords already used</strong></li><li><strong>Keywords you should use</strong></li><li><strong>Keywords you should use more often</strong></li><li><strong>Keywords stuffing (so the ones you’ve used too many times)</strong></li><li><strong>Content Ideas via Questions People Ask</strong></li></ol><p><strong>The sidebar also provides you with current Performance Score of your article (0-100), a number of focus keywords used, Flesch-Kincaid readability score (0-100) and the overall number of words you used in the article.</strong><br/><strong>Further, underneath the article Performance Score, the tool tells you whether your optimized content “can rank in the top 3 Google results”, and what the possible Searchers Intent is for the targeted keyword. </strong></p><p><strong>CognitiveSEO Keyword Highlighter (FTW)</strong></p><p><strong>However, the real highlight of the CognitiveSEO Content Optimization editor is the “Highlight Keywords” feature. I love that feature. It highlights all the keywords in your article with colours matching the keyword suggestion dropdowns. That way, you can really see the spread of keywords in your article, strategise the placement and have your material, literally, coming to light right in front of your eyes. CognitiveSEO Keyword Highlighter is a simple feature aiding your content strategy, and it’s an unbelievably fun one. It motivates me to pursue the content optimization further and max-out the performance score of my articles. Well done, CognitiveSEO!</strong></p><p><strong>The keyword suggestions given are spot on as CognitiveSEO uses a complex</strong> <strong><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/seo-evolution/">Search Engines LSI</a></strong> <strong>with multiple other indicators and formulas to lay them down for you and transform your text into a search engine friendly content. In fact, all the articles that I’ve treated with CognitiveSEO content optimization immediately ranked in top 20 without any backlinks, while the “marketing automation” – which is a tough keyword – picks up in the top 50 (without backlinks).</strong></p><p><strong>The overall</strong> <strong><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/flat-vs-depth-web-design/">interface is clean, sharp</a></strong> <strong>and extremely well-thought-out. CognitiveSEO Content Optimization Tool is an A++ product and a true highlight of their search engine optimization software package.</strong></p><p><strong>If you want an excellent content optimization software and can afford it, this is it, folks!</strong></p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEOkeywordhighlightercontentstrategy_2785ece3cdc1f6eedd8c80c872575858_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEOkeywordhighlightercontentstrategy_2785ece3cdc1f6eedd8c80c872575858_1600.png 2x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEOkeywordhighlightercontentstrategy_2785ece3cdc1f6eedd8c80c872575858_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEOkeywordhighlightercontentstrategy_2785ece3cdc1f6eedd8c80c872575858_1600.png 2x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="CognitiveSEO content optimization tool screenshot - how to position your article using LSI, keyword highlighter and keyword research" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEOkeywordhighlightercontentstrategy_2785ece3cdc1f6eedd8c80c872575858_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>CognitiveSEO content optimization tool screenshot - how to position your article using LSI, keyword highlighter and keyword research</figcaption></figure><p> </p><h3 id="25q90"><strong>SimilarContent’s Content Optimization</strong></h3><p><strong>Similarly to CognitiveSEO, SimilarContent uses a sidebar to list keyword suggestions grouped in three distinct tabs:</strong></p><ol><li><strong>One word (meaning single-word suggestions)</strong></li><li><strong>Multi-word</strong></li><li><strong>Questions</strong></li></ol><p><strong>SC computes each tab’s keyword suggestions under four distinct indicators:</strong></p><ol><li><strong>Not found</strong></li><li><strong>Low</strong></li><li><strong>Good</strong></li><li><strong>Extremely (poor choice of words, should be “overused”, “excessive” or something…)</strong></li></ol><p><strong>The content strategy implications are similar to that of CogniticeSEO list dropdown, but I see a potential to fine-grain the keyword placement. I am starting to like the idea of “one-word” and “multi-word” suggestions, and I’m beginning to see how it could work to my advantage. CognitiveSEO is much more rigid in that, and the suggestions are fixed – which has its own pros, like keeping it simple, and making it easy to implement.</strong><br/><strong>The main thing is the SimilarContent keyword suggestions overlap with CognitiveSEO ones, and I suspect they use similar formulas to pull them out.</strong></p><p><strong>Worth noting is that SimilarContent uses “AI text analysis” that is available only in English. I believe that feature makes all the difference in the quality of the keywords scoring and suggestions. That makes the optimization in other languages inferior.</strong></p><p><strong>SimilarContent also gives you a Relevancy Score, which is the same as Performance Score on CognitiveSEO but works a bit different. While the first tool gets you to score from 0 to 100, SC makes you land somewhere between 55-75 points for the best results. More would be over-optimized, which is a strong (negative) signal for Search Engines. CognitiveSEO has its Keyword Stuffing list of course, but SC might be more risk-aware in not letting you go overboard. “Marketing automation” example on CognitivSEO has nothing listed under Keywords Stuffing, while the same article on SimilarContent lists 36 keywords under “Extremely”. These are all suggestions only, but important ones and SC does a great job at letting you know whenever you’re trying too hard.</strong></p><p><strong>Finally, there is a current article data breakdown, and SC’s Content Optimization tool informs you what language you use (duh!) and the number of words in your article; but also, the tool computes the number of letters, phrases, and even sentences. These are great additions to the overall excellent content optimization SaaS for</strong> <strong><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/seo-agency/">SEO</a>.</strong></p><p><strong>The main thing that I miss is the Keyword Highlighter, which makes working on SimilarContent dull. But once the content strategy highlighter is implemented, and they get the interface cleaned up a bit, SimilarContent Content Optimization offer is going to be hard to dismiss. And all those $100+ ticket SEO tools may struggle to make a case against it.</strong></p><p><strong>Overall, SimilarContent Content Optimization for SEO is extremely well priced and well done for a product in just under a year of development.</strong></p><h2 id="e705i"><strong>Multi-Language Content Optimization</strong></h2><p><strong>I primarily work in the realm of the English language, but I always felt that the part reason for my reluctance to work in my native language is the lack of focus and effective tools that support search engine optimization in non-English (hence, lack of awareness). And I don’t blame anyone. I can’t expect an SEO SaaS companies “from California” to focus on some small country with an obscure language no-one else is using. Traffic and users behaviour will dictate what we bet all our chips on. However, the fact is that the non-English language countries are left behind, only catching-up to the SEO cutting edge. This ultimately can mean only one thing: the audience from these countries hold keys to uncharted Gold Mines. Some of these digital markets are like Lost Cities of Z waiting to be explored by Westerners looking for treasures and fame.</strong></p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/Lost-City-of-Z_20ddf84266140f81cf1c6a9334f8f9b7_800.JPG 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/Lost-City-of-Z_20ddf84266140f81cf1c6a9334f8f9b7_800.JPG 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/Lost-City-of-Z_20ddf84266140f81cf1c6a9334f8f9b7_800.JPG" /></picture></figure><p> </p><p><strong>My point is that there is a massive discrepancy in the way SEO works in the UK when compared to the USA. There is an even bigger difference when I compare the UK to other European countries. Some premium tools already support general Keyword Research in multiple languages, but we need more focus on niche languages.</strong></p><p><strong>At the beginning of October 2019, CognitiveSEO added all Google supported languages in their Content Optimization Tool. I checked the Polish language option, and I can see that I could use the tool right away.</strong></p><p><strong>I think this is a sign of maturity in the industry when such advanced tools start including other languages than just English. Although I find CognitiveSEO Content Optimization for Polish slightly miscalculated in difficulty scoring, it is extremely helpful to have that in my SEO tool kit.</strong></p><p><strong>SimilarContent already supports 15 languages and claims to add more. Unfortunately, my language (Polish) is not one of the supported (yet) and the fact I didn’t pay attention to my German teacher in school; I just couldn’t test the multi-language options. Hopefully, when they update the software to include the Polish language, I check it out and submit my findings in this article.</strong><br/><strong>In any case, kudos to both for a great attempt to include more languages and open more countries to an advanced SEO.</strong></p><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-polish_8bfe4ca9572727767844e407b01ce84a_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-polish_8bfe4ca9572727767844e407b01ce84a_1600.png 2x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-polish_8bfe4ca9572727767844e407b01ce84a_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-polish_8bfe4ca9572727767844e407b01ce84a_1600.png 2x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="planer słów kluczowych seo - pozycjonowanie stron przy użyciu CognitiveSEO " src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-polish_8bfe4ca9572727767844e407b01ce84a_800.png" /></picture></figure><figure class="image regular"><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEO-polish-content-optimiser_a8ae1034cc4b7dcae76e758c95162c92_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEO-polish-content-optimiser_a8ae1034cc4b7dcae76e758c95162c92_1600.png 2x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEO-polish-content-optimiser_a8ae1034cc4b7dcae76e758c95162c92_800.png 1x, https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEO-polish-content-optimiser_a8ae1034cc4b7dcae76e758c95162c92_1600.png 2x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="seo copywriting - jak pisać teksty seo i pozycjonować bloga przy użyciu narzędzia CognitiveSEO" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveSEO-polish-content-optimiser_a8ae1034cc4b7dcae76e758c95162c92_800.png" /></picture></figure><p> </p><h2 id="bksnq"><strong>How much SEO content optimization tools cost</strong></h2><p><strong>Content optimization tools follow a</strong> <strong><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/ppc-ads/">“pay-per-click” pricing</a></strong> <strong>model we know from Google, Facebook Ads. In that, certain operations cost you “a credit/query balance”. This means that you will have to work on optimizing all your clicks to get the most out of each tool. The prices range wildly and I’ll try to explain the value you get out of each SEO package below.</strong></p><p><strong>CognitiveSEO starts at $129 per month and has its balance calculation simplified. They give you one pile of credits/points (“queries” they call it), 250 points per month on the Starter Plan, and every “Submit” costs one point. If you’re not careful, you can nuke the entire balance at the beginning of the month. And with the way CognitiveSEO approaches the thing, it is easy to do. For example, I found that when I click the “back” button on my browser, points disappear. When I do a repetitive search, something I searched a second ago without an update, points disappear. Or I merely open previously edited article, again, points disappear.</strong><br/><strong>I also find it vial that clicking to analyse the entire existing content carries the same point value as peeking at some obscure long-tail keyword in their keyword database. Because I don’t use their Keyword Search or Site Explorer tools much, I was lucky enough to have never run out of my credit balance, but I hate that aggressive approach to quota, anyway, and I see it as the weakest point of CognitiveSEO package.</strong></p><p><strong>SimilarContent range from $19 to $79 per month and handles the balance computation much better than CognitiveSEO. SC splits the clicks into four different segments and count each separately: Keyword Ranking, Analyze Article, Keyword Research, Niche Discovery. The best thing is that the quota resets every day rather than every month. So there is some freedom in that, and if you go overboard one afternoon, you only need to wait till the next day to have a blast again. Also, SimilarContent gives you plenty of options to scale your use as different pricing tiers are available – starting from only $19/m is a tremendous value.</strong><br/><strong>CognitiveSEO shoves you at one fixed tier ($129/m) and then offers a “business plan with custom pricing”, which I guess means higher costs.</strong><br/><strong>SimilarContent is a clear winner here.</strong></p><h2 id="ds797"><strong>What about CognitiveSEO Campaign Tools and the Site Explorer?</strong></h2><p><strong>I deliberately skipped the more fundamental SEO tools that CognitiveSEO offers, because I don’t think they hold any relevance to the subject of this comparison (SimilarContent doesn’t offer anything like it). Ahrefs or Semrush would be more suitable to line up against CognitiveSEO, and that is a</strong> <strong><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/blog/">subject for another article</a>.</strong></p><h2 id="a0dj7"><strong>Summary and which content optimization tool should you choose</strong></h2><p><strong>While I find the Content Optimizers a head-to-head competition, CognitiveSEO wins with SimilarContent in the Keyword Analysis department by a long shot. But here’s the thing: both are sore losers to Ahrefs.</strong><br/><strong>I find it especially saddening information for CognitiveSEO that put a lot of effort to provide as much information as Ahrefs Keyword Explorer does. And for a price of $129 – CognitiveSEO is not even close, I’m afraid.</strong><br/><strong>I can have Ahrefs with all their bells and whistles for a not-far-off price of $179/m and completely smash whatever I can find on CognitiveSEO’s Keyword Explorer and all other tools they provide. Which is precisely what I do: I use Ahrefs for all the keywords, backlinks, content/site explorers and web-audit analysis. Then I use CognitiveSEO/SimilarContent for LSI Content Analysis and Content Optimization. And even further, I use</strong> <strong><a href="https://pageoptimizer.pro/">PageOptimizationPro</a></strong> <strong>for a technical onPage SEO. That way, I can enjoy the best of all worlds without taking half-measures.</strong></p><p><strong>In that sense, I find SimilarContent a much better option than CognitiveSEO somewhat steep entry point package. If you use Ahrefs/Semrush for keyword research/backlink analysis already, you really should consider checking out</strong> <strong><a href="https://similarcontent.com/pricing/">SimilarContent offer</a>. If you work in English, for a price of $19/m you get enough to put your articles next to whatever comes out of CognitiveSEO’s Content Optimization soft. Just make sure you’ve done your due diligence on Ahref/Semrush keyword explorer tools first.</strong> </p><p><strong>Otherwise, if you like to keep all your essential SEO tools in one place and looking for an accurate, extremely well thought-out and fricktionless Content Optimization tool, CognitiveSEO should be the one. A high ticket price but no comprimises on the optimizations either.</strong></p><h2 id="2kq25"><strong>Epilogue</strong></h2><p><strong>SimilarContent is a startup, and an exciting roadmap is in place. They have a long journey ahead of them. Still, if they stay the course and keep themselves out of depth (e.g. not trying to be second Ahrefs), they may be one of the top contenders in their particular “multi-language diverse and multi-national inclusive content optimization niche”.</strong></p><p><strong>I truly wish them well and not just because I had the opportunity to</strong> <strong><a href="https://appsumo.com/similarcontent/">get my spot at the front seat</a></strong> <strong>but, because, SEO is so much more than “Yoast and backlinks”.</strong><br/><strong>Better content optimization tools = better content = better Internet.</strong></p><p> </p><h2 id="40rmi"><strong>Things I’d like to see SimilarContent focusing on:</strong></h2><ol><li><strong><u>Keyword Highlighter</u></strong> <strong>– I love that feature on CognitiveSEO. I think many people do. CognitiveSEO gives you a visual overview of your entire keyword placement strategy right inside your text. It is also a strange psychological trick that motivates me to keep filling-in the text with “more colours” (missing LSI keywords). Looking at the block of boring text on SC takes all the fun away.</strong></li><li><strong><u>Article History</u></strong> <strong>– this obvious feature is a must… I wasn’t happy when I discovered that I could not reaccess the past articles I worked on… Or still working on – the optimization takes time and often cannot be done in one sitting! Now I need to go through the entire process back again, copy-paste (fortunately I’ve made an external copy!) and waste additional credit. Really?!</strong></li><li><strong><u>Default Settings</u></strong> <strong>– I’d like to have my default country and language saved in my profile. Majority of my searches go against the UK market and are in English. I don’t want to set it all up every time I log in to commit another search.</strong></li><li><strong><u>Topic Difficulty (TD)</u></strong> <strong>– the Bar Chart with the Article Performance Score has the same purple colour as the Topic Difficulty Score placed next to it. It is, therefore, confusing on what score the bar chart shows as there is no tooltip explanation. There are multiple places on the dashboard where I’d like to see tooltips and different colours used to make it more clear. Also, some of the descriptions are inaccurate or confusing (e.g. “Extreme”… ?).</strong></li><li><strong><u>The option “To Optimize Title/Description” in Topic Difficulty is unnecessary.</u> Keyword Brainstorming/MicroNiche Finder tools are unnecessarily separate and in the wrong place on the dashboard. SC needs to rethink the whole KD and other supportive tools from scratch.</strong><br/></li><li><strong><u>Google Entities / Snippets summary in KD</u></strong> <strong>are inaccurate and they could be upgraded with additional Snippets that are missing (Bottom of the Page Ads, People also ask/Related Questions.</strong></li></ol><h2 id="14qdu"><strong>Check out YouTube Channel for more SimilarContent and Cognitive SEO info</strong></h2><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQMrMnn9ySK7ieo3fi9bsZA/videos">Cognitive SEO YouTube Channel</a></strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa00gZqaSLlGBaJ6Wh9YHmQ/videos">SimilarContent YouTube Channel</a></strong></li></ul><p><strong>This article was originally posted on Colorpeak Blog - </strong> <strong><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/seo-content-optimization-cognitiveseo-vs-similarcontent/">SEO Content Optimization – CognitiveSEO vs SimilarContent</a>.</strong></p><p><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/cognitiveSEOgroup-by-topickeywordexplorer.png"> </a></p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/seo-content-optimization-cognitiveseo-vs-similarcontent?id=429297578&type=12",title: "SEO Content Optimization – CognitiveSEO vs SimilarContent",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->CognitiveSEO Review: How All-in-One SEO Toolbox Can Help You With Your Organic Traffic
2020-04-04 14:50:00 UTC
CognitiveSEO provided me with access to their SEO tools, and I thought I'll do something productive and review the entire tool collection. <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/marketing-automation-tools-for-business/" target="_blank">I like to look at the SEO tools</a> from a purely pragmatic angle or with the entrepreneurial mindset: "<em>Get me the SEO data fast - the less friction, the better. And have some of it quickly copy-pasted/shown to my clients such that they understand it without me explaining too much.</em>"<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-all-seo-tools_5d50dd6820329afdf54b8d8aa44b4ddc.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-all-seo-tools_5d50dd6820329afdf54b8d8aa44b4ddc.gif 1x"></source><img alt="CognitiveSEO review of all-in-one SEO software to rank your business on top of SERP with Keyword Explorer, Content Optimizer, Site Explorer, Site Audit and other SEO Tools" height="324" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-all-seo-tools_5d50dd6820329afdf54b8d8aa44b4ddc.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Use CognitiveSEO <em>all-in-one</em> SEO software suite to rank your business on top of SERP with Keyword Explorer, Content Optimizer, Site Explorer, Site Audit and other SEO Tools</figcaption></figure><br /><strong>(TL;DR)</strong><br />After running my SEO errands through entire<a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/"> CognitiveSEO Tools Suite</a>, I've concluded that founders successfully built <strong>a highly specialised <em>all-in-one</em> SEO toolkit</strong>, especially for <strong>technical SEO</strong> and link building, organic ranking and affiliate marketing.<br />Practical SEO uses you're getting with CognitiveSEO Tools:<br /><ul><li>detailed <strong>website analysis</strong> that can work for an SEO expert but also stand as a beginners guide to technical SEO (it can replace Screaming Frog SEO for most important SEO analysis)</li><li><strong>Keywords Rank</strong> monitoring lets you see the direction your SEO strategy is heading toward - all accessed with nifty data slicers for a super-fast ranking assessment and SEO analysis</li><li>inBound <strong>Link Analysis </strong>follows the suite and presents all the data you may want to analyse your/competitors backlink profile and their relationship with your domain (note: the link explorer is surprisingly accurate - more on that below)</li><li>(my personal favourite) <strong>Content Optimizer & Keyword Tool </strong>will make your content rank your pages and keywords better with half (or none!) of the backlinks that you'd normally need - super easy to use and built for 100% practicality in mind</li><li>BONUS: they also have a reporting tool that alerts you on Google Search volatility, <strong>algorithm update changes</strong> and potential ranking alterations. In essence, it's great not only to make you aware of the "search algorithm updates", but you can also use it to inform your online marketing endeavours. And let your clients see that you have your finger on the pulse (by the way, that feature should be added to Google Webmaster Tools or Google Search Console by default).</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-google-algorithm-changes_fbe4c2cd54ea43874d16ed385c69c494.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-google-algorithm-changes_fbe4c2cd54ea43874d16ed385c69c494.gif 1x"></source><img alt="CognitiveSEO Tool for measuring the Google Algorithm updates and its impact on the Search Ranking and SEO" height="327" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-google-algorithm-changes_fbe4c2cd54ea43874d16ed385c69c494.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>CognitiveSEO Tool can help you monitor the Google Algorithm updates and its impact on the Search Ranking and SEO</figcaption></figure><br /><h2 id="ephu5">SEO Campaigns </h2><h3 id="eh2ar">In-depth metrics for advanced SEO and search engine optimizing</h3>After the initial step-by-step campaign set up - I must say, it's very quick and to the point - the SEO Campaigns Dashboard welcomes you with "<em>Quick Overview</em>" modules similar to what you'd seen in other SEO Tools like SEMRush, Ahrefs and others. You got a standard set of:<br /><ul><li>Crawled Pages</li><li>Referring Domains</li><li>On-Page SEO errors</li><li>Traffic/Sessions</li><li>Data about Keywords and SEO Visibility</li></ul>And scrolling below you'll see a selected data from your <strong>Google Search Console</strong> and <strong>Google Analytics</strong> (providing you've plugged them in during the initial campaign set up).<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-dashboard_e1fe03c3b36e6deac7330d577a3a4c76.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-dashboard_e1fe03c3b36e6deac7330d577a3a4c76.gif 1x"></source><img alt="Dashboard overview of all CognitiveSEO SEO Tools" height="327" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-dashboard_e1fe03c3b36e6deac7330d577a3a4c76.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Dashboard overview of all CognitiveSEO SEO Tools</figcaption></figure><br /><h4 id="62pvc">So how can I use the data, and what is the point of those SEO metrics?</h4>I would mainly use it for the client meeting and to support the overall direction of my... well, SEO campaigns. The Dashboard could also easily replace separate <a href="https://reportz.io/" target="_blank">premium data analysis tools like Reportz.io</a>. Having everything in one place is convenient and greatly reduces the time you would spend on putting the entire SEO campaign together for yourself or your customers. CognitiveSEO even lets you add <em>widgets</em> or change the placement of the modules and shown data. For me, however, the default dashboard is spot on as I lean towards a quick general overview of the stats that it gives me right away. The Dashboard's reporting aspect is then further expanded under <em><strong>Reports & Schedules</strong></em> tab where you can plan and build branded PDF documents that get automatically delivered to your clients' inboxes (note, the full Whitelabel Reporting feature is only enabled with the <em>Business Plan</em>).<br /><h2 id="cq2bq">Site Audit</h2><h3 id="6plpq">You can use the On-Page SEO Auditing Tool as a beginners guide to technical SEO</h3>During the SEO Campaign set up, CognitiveSEO recommends to also sent an SEO spider to analyse a targeted domain thoroughly. So upon the first launch of the campaign, the spiders went and shortly after returned with expected large-number of in-depth data that they grabbed from my website. For any project I'm working with, I prefer to build websites correctly right from the beginning, and for any out-of-the-ordinary project, I use Screaming Frog SEO, which means that I use my on-page auditing tool sparsely.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-site-audit_14d5475974f50ccfcb5565dec40580a1.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-site-audit_14d5475974f50ccfcb5565dec40580a1.gif 1x"></source><img alt="Ditch Screaming Frog SEO and use CognitiveSEO Site Audit as a beginners guide to SEO and start your Google Search Rank domination" height="327" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-site-audit_14d5475974f50ccfcb5565dec40580a1.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Use CognitiveSEO Site Audit and start your Google Search Rank domination</figcaption></figure><br />However, I was pleasantly surprised by CognitiveSEO's website analysis and the way it sorted out and displayed the data. They're doing that in a very concise and task-oriented manner. I can easily see myself just launching the Site Audit and after several minutes taking it for a spin squashing most of the "SEO bugs" on my sites:<br />- all <strong>meta tags</strong>, title tags, image alt tags, etc.<br />- broken link and <strong>duplicate content</strong> checks<br />- XML sitemap and <strong>structured data</strong> review<br />etc. etc.<br />And if there is something I don't understand they've sprinkled informative <em>tooltips</em> all over the place so you could easily use it as a beginners guide to SEO analysis (and any <strong>SEO expert</strong> should also benefit). <br />The PageSpeed Insights tab was also available, but "the data was missing" - this is possibly one of those SEO analysis tools that they still working on.<br />For a to-the-point fast SEO website audit software, I actually prefer CognitiveSEO over <strong><a href="https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/">Screaming Frog SEO</a></strong>. The latter gets overwhelming sometimes. So well done CognitiveSEO.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-custom-client-reports_d33b4f51697d272709a3cf3d68d52515_800.png 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-custom-client-reports_d33b4f51697d272709a3cf3d68d52515_800.png 1x"></source><img alt="Schedule and send whitelabel SEO reports on automate via CognitiveSEO Reporting feature" height="328" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-custom-client-reports_d33b4f51697d272709a3cf3d68d52515_800.png" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Schedule and auto-send whitelabel SEO reports via CognitiveSEO Reporting feature</figcaption></figure><br /><h2 id="35jvj">Rank Tracking</h2><h3 id="71hdg">Organic keyword rank tracker with a direct comparison to your competition keywords positioning</h3>CognitiveSEO goes in lengths analysing Google Search results to assess the daily keyword standing, and it does help you see if your SEO <strong>rank strategies</strong> are making dents in the search results grid. They also implemented "data slicers" or a type of quick view tabs that filter out the keywords in the areas of importance. For example:<br /><ul><li>Keywords Ranked in top 1-3 positions or 4-10 / 11-20 and so on until 100</li><li>Keywords you're "<em>not ranking</em>" yet</li><li>Only the keywords that "<em>improved ranking</em>" and also the ones that remained "<em>static</em>"</li><li>and below the chart, you can find a timeline slider to narrow down to a point in your ranking project instantly</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-rank-tracking_b5cb91852f001fc53e990500ffe8315e_800.png 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-rank-tracking_b5cb91852f001fc53e990500ffe8315e_800.png 1x"></source><img alt="Monitor and measure how your domain ranks on Google Search Engine with targeted keywords, and compare your SERP positions against your competitors" height="328" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-rank-tracking_b5cb91852f001fc53e990500ffe8315e_800.png" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Monitor and measure how your domain ranks on Google Search Engine with targeted keywords, and compare your SERP positions against your competitors</figcaption></figure><br />These slicers are amazing, and with provided search volumes, you can quickly predict your expected organic traffic. The tracking tools also lets you pin the competitors' tabs with their keywords rankings and, later, check up on them and see if they're working on the same keywords positioning. However, it would be even better if there was some way of a direct side-by-side comparison between my focus-domain and my competitors.<br /><strong>Maybe CognitiveSEO will figure it out at some point.</strong><br />To summarise CognitiveSEO Rank Tracking tool is decent for what it is, however, I'd like to see them expanding it into more automated organic keywords data gathering. A type of advanced SEO tool that encompasses LSI and recent Google's neural network-based technique for natural language processing (NLP) - <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-bert-update/332161/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BERT update from the end of 2019</a>. I think this is the future of keyword tools.<br /><h2 id="3m86r">CognitiveSEO Site Explorer and inBound Link Analysis</h2><h3 id="34qam">A great contender to Ahrefs Site Explorer</h3>Their backlink database and crawling scope are surprisingly accurate and resemble <a href="https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer">Ahrefs backlink checker</a> that is often touted as the "backlink gold-standard" in the SEO industry. I've made several side-by-side random domain comparisons, and in most instances, CognitiveSEO came very close in showing the number of backlinks to that of Ahrefs Site Explorer. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-site-explorer_aea214d83b4aec7311c49e33e9789e5d.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-site-explorer_aea214d83b4aec7311c49e33e9789e5d.gif 1x"></source><img alt="Check your domain SEO score and analyse linking performance and anchor text distribution with CognitiveSEO Site Explorer" height="327" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-site-explorer_aea214d83b4aec7311c49e33e9789e5d.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Check your domain SEO score and analyse linking performance and anchor text distribution with CognitiveSEO Site Explorer</figcaption></figure><br />Although, this small sample is by no means a comprehensive study of "which SEO site analysis software found more backlinks" but a pleasant surprise I wasn't expecting to see. And the <strong>Ahrefs Site Explorer</strong> was still slightly better in any case.<br />What is also interesting is that you can upload your own backlinks to increase the accuracy further. I can't recall that backlink feature with any other Site Explorers I've used, and I found it worth exploring.<br />In summary, CognitiveSEO is a reliable source of SEO backlink analysis for sure.<br /><h4 id="aqg8l">Link Rank Checker</h4>It's worth mentioning the CognitiveSEO Link Rank (measured from 0-100). This is a more targeted SEO website grader that we already know from <strong>Majestic SEO </strong><em>Trust Flow</em> (TF), <strong>MOZ</strong> <em>Domain Authority</em> (DA) or <strong>Ahrefs</strong> <em>Domain Rank</em> (DR). <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-in-bound-link-analysis_dbd523032e42e4b1fed8af1dbc8e8ce3.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-in-bound-link-analysis_dbd523032e42e4b1fed8af1dbc8e8ce3.gif 1x"></source><img alt="Dive-deep into the domain on-page and off-page SEO structure, analyse and monitor domain’s performance and plan fool-proof SEO link-building strategy" height="327" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-in-bound-link-analysis_dbd523032e42e4b1fed8af1dbc8e8ce3.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>InBound Link Analysis helps you dive deep into the domain on-page and off-page SEO data</figcaption></figure><br /><strong>CognitiveSEO</strong> <em>Link Rank</em> is influenced by a host of different SEO metrics as calculated by their link explorer, website audit and other SEO analysis tools. The score I got my domain <strong>was the harshest</strong> of the above-mentioned research tools (and probably closest to Majestic SEO). Also, the Link Rank score is only accessible at the SEO Campaign level. When you research via the CognitiveSEO Site Explorer, the score is replaced with vague <strong>Page/Domain Influence</strong> score marked as either "Low", "Average" or "High".<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-site-explorer-score_9a7564c5683e15355404ff3959590975_800.png 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-site-explorer-score_9a7564c5683e15355404ff3959590975_800.png 1x"></source><img alt="Assess your page and domain authority with deep-analysis of your backlinks and SEO ranking performance" height="328" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/cognitiveseo-site-explorer-score_9a7564c5683e15355404ff3959590975_800.png" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Peek at your competitors' websites, assess page and domain authority scores and check backlinks and SEO ranking performance</figcaption></figure><br />Among the other SEO metrics, the most prominent are:<br />- Referring Domains<br />- Total Links (note, they cap their backlink checker showing up to 20 strongest backlinks from any given domains)<br />- Link Velocity with Visual Explorer that can stand as a link building guide<br />Then there is a boat-load of SEO data, filters and slicers.<br />Among all CognitiveSEO <strong>optimization tools</strong>, this one is the most overwhelming and requires a lot of time to familiarise yourself with. I'm using Ahrefs Site Explorer already, and I have a tough time to switch - its mechanics and the interface is much different than to what I'm used to.<br /><blockquote>Side note: I suspect that as Ahrefs grows more and more popular, their web crawler bot will become a <em>persona non-grata</em> blocked now by various hosting providers in an effort to save server load. In such circumstance, the multi-source data agglomerates like CognitiveSEO may take precedence and show more accurate SEO stats in some areas.</blockquote><h4 id="dm6bf">How can Site Explorer help you in your SEO positioning?</h4>To me, the whole backlink checking option serves one purpose - recognise the general trend. Meaning, I want quick info on whether a particular domain/page holds any SEO authority or not. And also monitor what, if any, spam attach to my website backlink portfolio. I won't bother making sure the tool finds every single backlink. Why? Because it NEVER will.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-link-building-strategy_09a5cd7f5db1159475050b222b439bff.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-link-building-strategy_09a5cd7f5db1159475050b222b439bff.gif 1x"></source><img alt="CognitiveSEO Link Building Strategy" height="360" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-link-building-strategy_09a5cd7f5db1159475050b222b439bff.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Use Link Velocity and backlink analysis to build an effective link building strategy</figcaption></figure><br />All SEO Tools will always just attempt to follow Google, but they will never be 100% accurate or even close to being correct. It has always been just a guestimation at best - and the Traffic Estimators, Backlink Checkers or Keywords Ranking tools role is just to show us the general trend and pointers for the next step in our SEO strategies.<br />And same goes for CognitiveSEO Site Explorer - I use it for:<br /><ul><li><strong>domain authority </strong>assessment (they have this great and straightforward Page Influence and Domain Influence at the top bar - by the way, it's NOT <em>vague</em>, it's perfect for showing your SEO clients and prospects on a sales meeting)</li><li><strong>backlink analysis</strong> and anchor text redistribution as a quick link building guide or to simply check my links health</li><li>BONUS! <strong>Broken Pages</strong>: this is a unique feature most push to SEO Site Analysis only; I love that CognitiveSEO shows the 404-data in the Site Explorer, and they're making it a superbly useful to quickly analyse outdated content or subjects you could attempt to revive or repurpose. All without resorting to a tedious SEO Audit.</li></ul>There is a <em>slight difference</em> between Site Explorer and inBound Link Analysis wherein the latter CognitiveSEO seems to combine multiple tab views from the Site Explorer detailed overview under one. The inBound Link Analysis appears only under Campaign SEO for a given project where the tracking and data measurement is also <strong>updated in real-time</strong> from several sources at the same time (including Google Analytics and Google Search Console if you've connected them). <br />If you're doing some search engine positioning work and focusing on a particular domain, it would be advisable to launch a full-fledged SEO Campaign and monitor things that way rather than searching the Site Explorer each time.<br /><h2 id="acofa">Content Optimizer & Keyword Research Tool</h2><h3 id="3dhce">A secret SEO tool that gets your pages and content ranked on Google without link building</h3>I was <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/seo-content-optimization-cognitiveseo-vs-similarcontent/">raving about the CognitiveSEO Content Optimizer</a> in another post already. And I'm also planning to shoot a video about it soon. Here I just wanted to summarise quickly what it is and why I like it so much.<br /><h4 id="8o7op">What is CognitiveSEO Content Optimizer all about?</h4>CognitiveSEO Content Optimizer is a web text editor that scans your submitted text (article) and lists tons of supporting keywords and topics to improve your article and, ultimately, your <strong>content marketing strategy</strong>. The tool bases its recommendations on Google's complex algorithms (mostly <em>LSI</em>, <em>NLP</em>, and large data comparisons). Content Optimizer starts with a regular <strong>Keywords Explorer</strong> that we know from many other SEO tools. <br />As per usual, you plug your main keyword idea (seed keyword), set the country and off you go.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-keyword-explorer_be544cc79be0bffa1e1f1d43f9ed8a16.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-keyword-explorer_be544cc79be0bffa1e1f1d43f9ed8a16.gif 1x"></source><img alt="Search and analyse best performing keywords with CognitiveSEO Keyword Explorer suite" height="327" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-keyword-explorer_be544cc79be0bffa1e1f1d43f9ed8a16.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Search and analyse best performing keywords with CognitiveSEO Keyword Explorer suite</figcaption></figure><br /><h4 id="cjk7m">Keyword Explorer</h4>I like the fact that CognitiveSEO decided to trim the fat, leaving us with the most important factors related to the <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/" target="_blank">Keyword Explorer</a>:<br /><ul><li><strong>Content difficulty</strong> from 0-100: it's calculated based on the top-performing articles on the subject - highly relevant score based on CognitiveSEO's LSI and sophisticated article scanning; this is one of the best keyword difficulty metrics I've seen around; as it informs you with what you'd be doing next - namely, optimising your content</li><li><strong>Links Difficulty</strong> 0-100: same as before but you should consider the amount of backlinking efforts that will go into the project</li><li><strong>Monthly Searches</strong>: a Google Trend graph to see the overall search volume course over the years</li><li><strong>Relevancy score</strong> 1-5 "stars": i.e. how close the (long-tail) keyword is to your seed keyword - this is great for a quick "search intent" assessment</li><li><strong>No. of words</strong>: you can check the "long-tail"-ness factor of any given keyword</li><li><strong>Search Volume</strong>: CognitiveSEO Keyword Explorer uses "from-to" brackets rather than absolute numbers - this is also my preference</li><li><strong>CPC $-value</strong>: this one is something I wouldn't expect there, and I'm a bit unsure about its ultimate purpose in that space - possibly to know if the keyword is monetised via PPC ads (?) (but what impact that would have on your optimisation decisions, <em>I don't know</em>...)</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-keyword-research_0821dcebe18de5fee68714aeacce695d.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-keyword-research_0821dcebe18de5fee68714aeacce695d.gif 1x"></source><img alt="Research & Analyse thousands of money-making keywords, pick the most relevant and export them on CSV file " height="327" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-keyword-research_0821dcebe18de5fee68714aeacce695d.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Research & Analyse thousands of money-making keywords, pick the most relevant and export on CSV </figcaption></figure><br />Similarly to the Keyword Tracking approach, CognitiveSEO implemented a lot of data slicers to filter out the most important SEO bits from a <em>substantial volume of keywords</em>. So other than the filters referred to the data points mentioned above, you can <strong>refine your keyword search</strong> with:<br /><ul><li>Search Suggestions</li><li>Focus Keywords</li><li>Questions</li></ul>And then you can also:<br /><ul><li>Group by Topic</li><li>Copy All or</li><li>Export All to CSV spreadsheet</li></ul>I must say, the keywords research is comprehensive and lands a lot of keyword suggestions to look at. On the <em>Standard plan</em>, it may not be the biggest keywords database out there (Ahrefs lands about <strong>10-30% more</strong> depending on the query), but CognitiveSEO keyword analysis serves you <strong>the most relevant SEO keyword ideas</strong> you should be considering on your website. And apparently, you can also expand the results count up to 3x on higher paid plans. <br />There is so much more to keyword analysis than you could ever see on <strong>Google Trend</strong> or <strong>Keyword Planner</strong> from Google so give it a go.<br /><blockquote>Side note: the "search intent" behind the keyword is one of the most important factors in generating revenue from the content that many SEOs struggle with, and I find CognitiveSEO's Keyword Explorer makes it a little bit easier.</blockquote><h4 id="1pia9">Rank Analysis</h4>CognitiveSEO also lists top 20 articles/pages that currently occupy the top search grid for a given "seed keyword". This is <em>the next logical step</em> (tab) in your <strong>SEO Content Optimization</strong> journey which reveals who you are up against via the following self-explanatory data points:<br /><ul><li>Content Performance</li><li>Focus Keywords</li><li>No. Of Words</li><li>Domains To Url</li><li>Domains To Site</li><li>Date Published</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-serp-analysis_8e46de527b88d4e37570ec1db0148122.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-serp-analysis_8e46de527b88d4e37570ec1db0148122.gif 1x"></source><img alt="SERP Analysis SEO tool is a part of CognitiveSEO Keyword Explorer suite" height="327" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-serp-analysis_8e46de527b88d4e37570ec1db0148122.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>SERP Analysis SEO tool helps you see who ranks what, where and why</figcaption></figure><br />The most apparent is the <strong>Content Performance <em>progression bar</em></strong> from 0-100 that you can eye-ball and immediately grasp who makes an SEO effort and where. I also found myself using the tool as a unique content curator:<br /><ol><li>The grid is a swift <strong>SEO checker</strong> and gives me a quick insight into the web pages that comprise of the juiciest content.</li><li>While using it as a rank checker, I can <em>filter-out</em> a blog post or two that <strong>ranked due to backlinks alone</strong>, got a low number of keywords or were published a long time ago (and are possibly outdated).</li><li>I can also click on the given record and <strong>analyse the LSI keywords</strong> that are prominent in the article! In any case, CognitiveSEO Ranking Analysis equips me with the most important data points that allow me to see what's behind the Google Search curtains.</li></ol>I'd love to see CognitiveSEO expanding on that <em>content curation</em> theme a little bit more and provide <strong>the full top-100 pages breakdown</strong> with data slicers and filters. Note, you can expand to the top-100 articles on their higher-paid plans (but I'm not sure if it comes with any additional features).<br />Again,<strong> they offer so much more</strong> than what you can find in other keyword explorer tools or even SEO toolbar and Chrome extension widgets. And definitely more than plain keyword suggestions you get out of <strong>Googles Keyword Planner</strong>.<br /><h4 id="613kh">Content Optimizer</h4>Once you know what you are writing about or you already have something that needs optimizing, you can go ahead and fire the Content Optimizer tool.<br />Again, I've devoted a few good words in an attempt to perform the Content Optimizer's detailed analysis in my other article, so definitely check it. Here, I'll just quickly recap why I find their SEO optimizer so essential to my digital marketing activities.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-content-optimizer_7941f6615017d3ab4f63d0ff9e53c818.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-content-optimizer_7941f6615017d3ab4f63d0ff9e53c818.gif 1x"></source><img alt="Content Optimizer helps you to create better articles by providing LSI keywords, long-tail keyword suggestions and NLP data from Google Search index" height="327" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-content-optimizer_7941f6615017d3ab4f63d0ff9e53c818.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Content Optimizer helps you to create better articles by providing LSI keywords, long-tail keyword suggestions and NLP data from Google Search index</figcaption></figure><br />Firstly, the <strong>Content Optimizer interface is superbly intuitive</strong>. With the use of colours and strategic layout, it takes very little guesswork on what you need to be doing there. This is essential for speed of implementation and handing it over to VA or someone who might not necessarily want to <em>learn</em> some complex SEO-tool (i.e. non-SEO content marketers) but would greatly benefit from it anyways. For any <strong>ambitious content marketer</strong> or resourceful digital marketing strategy, <strong>that tool is a must</strong>.<br />Secondly, I've ranked unbelievable keywords for my clients on top of Google completely <strong>without</strong> launching any <strong>link building</strong> campaigns. Simply by using Content Optimizer and producing a great article. This isn't to say that "tHe bAcKlinKing iZ DeAd". I'm saying that <strong>there is more to the keywords LSI</strong> (and now Google BERT updates) than one might conclude from following a basic "<em>beginners guide to SEO</em>" or "<em>SEO keyword research tutorial</em>" on YouTube. Slapping all your H1-H3 with "<em>{marketing consultant|consultants of marketings}</em>", duplicate content and a broken grammar is slowly but surely a practice that Google is working hard NOT to reward anymore.<br />And last but not least, I truly believe that with the proper use of Content Optimizer in your <strong>online marketing</strong> you're going to produce a much better, juicer and, what we like to call, well-researched articles. With this tool, I often find myself deriving new ideas as I'm optimising the content within the tool. The "Keywords you should use" or "you should use more often" suggestions, as well as "content ideas via questions people ask" are a fantastic resource in and of itself. Many times I found <strong>pointers to the new ideas</strong> and avenues about the subject that I've missed or not realised before I sat down to write the piece.<br /><strong>To simply put, optimization tools like Content Optimizer make the Internet a better place.</strong><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-content-optimizer-editor_19f2478abcb7e3e939db4a015218746c.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-content-optimizer-editor_19f2478abcb7e3e939db4a015218746c.gif 1x"></source><img alt="Content Optimizer can help you rank your website on Google Search Engine without backlinks" height="327" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-content-optimizer-editor_19f2478abcb7e3e939db4a015218746c.gif" width="640" /></picture><figcaption>Content Optimizer can help you rank your website on Google Search Engine without backlinks</figcaption></figure><br /><h3 id="7vik4">What I'd like to improve about Content Optimizer</h3>The one thing that is apparent in the keywords software is how detached it is from the rest of the platform. It almost seems like it's done as a side-kick to the main SEO Campaign tools. At the moment, the articles are mixed up all over the "Continue Where You Left Off" section, and it would be nice to have them at least categorised or <strong>assigned to different projects</strong> (domains).<br />So what I'd love to see is better integration with the rest of <strong>the SEO toolkit</strong>. For example, it would be nice to be able to launch an SEO campaign project and have the selected pages and articles listed for "content optimization". And while we're at it, why not have a trigger button for the tool to <strong>scrape the existing content </strong>from the selected pages for you to optimise it.<br />Further, have it automatically calculating the improved LSI performance - listing the <strong>organic keywords ranking</strong> that are popping up on Google Search. This could be similar to the Site Auditor step-by-step SEO guides but for all your projects content optimisation instead.<br /><h2 id="dvqe3">CognitiveSEO Review Summary</h2>As Google Search Algorithm becomes more and more complicated and new layers of complexity are added on top of an already intricate network, an <em>all-in-one SEO</em> software companies will have to make a choice.<br /><ul><li>Either they'll attempt to predict and replicate what <strong>the biggest company in the world</strong> is up to next. That means pouring resources in an attempt to the ultimate <strong>SEO toolkit</strong> by combining everything there is while trying not to sacrifice baseline user experience (think how convoluted <strong>Google Analytics Dashboard</strong> is - and that's just analytics!).</li><li>OR they will take a specific direction and put all their efforts to help their customers achieving targeted results (think <strong>MOZ Local</strong>)</li></ul>From a pragmatic point of view to the whole SEO, I see the second possibility much more compelling. And fortunately, I see CognitiveSEO taking precisely that direction - to become <strong>a highly specialised SEO tool</strong> for organic SEO projects and affiliate campaigns. And this isn't to say they don't have their bases covered - quite the contrary.<br />The software interface is very responsive and <strong>didn't take me long to learn the basics (apart maybe from the Site Explorer)</strong>. I found all the SEO features highly practical and aligned to make a substantial difference in my organic SEO rankings - whether for my domain or my clients. There are also <strong>Free SEO Tools </strong>available to take a look but they are very limited. If you're an SEO beginner and you're looking for free SEO tools at CognitiveSEO you will need to supplement them with something else like <a href="https://answerthepublic.com/" target="_blank">Answer The Public</a>.<br /><blockquote>The entry-level CognitiveSEO package cost $129, which is $30 more than popular SemRUSH or Ahrefs basic packages (or Majestic SEO / MOZ Pro). However, neither SemRUSH nor Ahrefs provides Content Optimizer, and eventually, you'll have to look for it somewhere anyway. Maybe it would be a good idea for CognitiveSEO to offer it separately for a smaller price?</blockquote><br /><br /><br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/pricing.php" target="_blank"><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-paid-plans-pricing_cbf60886693ec0fe1f8d160917eb819e.gif 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-paid-plans-pricing_cbf60886693ec0fe1f8d160917eb819e.gif 1x"></source><img alt="CognitiveSEO Paid Plans Pricing table" height="327" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/cognitiveseo-paid-plans-pricing_cbf60886693ec0fe1f8d160917eb819e.gif" width="640" /></picture></a><figcaption>CognitiveSEO Paid Plans Pricing - Monthly or Yearly (30% off) with 7-day Trial</figcaption></figure><br />Additionally, big "all-in-one" <strong>marketing agencies</strong> and everyone who also require PPC analysis, <strong>social media marketing</strong> or some complicated data associations while exporting hundreds of spreadsheets with unlimited data to play around with - those <strong>will need additional solutions</strong> anyway.<br />Still, if you specialise in organic SEO or in search of fast and practical SEO guide both for SEO experts and beginners (even to jump start their SEO training), <strong>I recommend investing in CognitiveSEO</strong>.<br />It'll be worth it, and the software will pay itself back faster than you think.<br /><br />Article originally posted on <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/cognitiveseo-review/" target="_blank">https://colorpeak.co.uk/cognitiveseo-review/</a><br /><!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/cognitiveseo-review?id=586521178&type=12",title: "CognitiveSEO Review: How All-in-One SEO Toolbox Can Help You With Your Organic Traffic",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->Divi Pixel Plugin Review for Divi WordPress Theme
2020-05-01 11:49:00 UTC
<p> TODAY I AM REVIEWING <a target="_blank" href="https://www.divi-pixel.com/">DIVI PIXEL PLUGIN FROM OCTOLAB OÜ</a>. THIS IS NOT AN AFFILIATE REVIEW; HOWEVER, I HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE EARLY VERSION OF THE PLUGIN FOR FREE FOR THE REVIEW PURPOSES. OK, SO WITHOUT ANY FURTHER ADO, HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS UPON TAKING DIVI PIXEL FOR A SPIN. </p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-plugin-wordpress_a67be09da11f6cbef1bf9f6131faade1_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-plugin-wordpress_a67be09da11f6cbef1bf9f6131faade1_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Divi Pixel Plugin for Divi Wordpress Theme" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-plugin-wordpress_a67be09da11f6cbef1bf9f6131faade1_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Divi Pixel Plugin for Divi Wordpress Theme</figcaption></figure><p>Divi Pixel is one of those tools compatible with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.elegantthemes.com/">Divi Builder by Elegant Themes</a> that makes your life easier when it comes to customising basic settings. In an ideal world, Divi should have implemented them a long time ago. Furthermore, Divi Pixel offers some advanced styling solutions that can only be achieved with custom CSS. I also think this plugin will save you some money since there is no need to purchase separate plugins to improve or speed up your design process. It combines many great solutions that are available as different plugins in one. The most important thing, however, is that if you do not need some of the options that Divi Pixel offers, then you can disable them and no additional scripts will load on your w website to slow it down.</p><h2 id="7ta4m">User Experience with Divi Pixel</h2><p>Upon Divi Pixel plugin installation, you will be able to access all its features through the left-hand side panel (Dashboard > Divi > Divi Pixel). Right of the bat, I can see that the developers knew exactly <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/tag/ux/">what UX is</a>. That is how to design with user experience in mind. I would be surprised if anyone ever had to skim through the documentation file as the set up of the plugin is pretty much self-explanatory. The design is great for the eye but most importantly, very clean and straightforward. You can jump onto customisations right away.</p><h2 id="d8ett">Divi Pixel Options</h2><p>When you open Divi Pixel panel, you will see that the plugin has seven main features or control settings if you like:</p><ol><li>General</li><li>Blog</li><li>Social Media</li><li>Mobile</li><li>Modules</li><li>Layout Injector</li><li>Settings</li></ol><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-settings-panel-02_06a8e1e8bce23e54a15734e9b8eca88d_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-settings-panel-02_06a8e1e8bce23e54a15734e9b8eca88d_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Divi Pixel plugin Settings" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-settings-panel-02_06a8e1e8bce23e54a15734e9b8eca88d_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Divi Pixel plugin Settings Panel</figcaption></figure><h3 id="blbei">General Settings in Divi Pixel</h3><p>General settings take care of some basic items that allow you to make your website ‘yours’ or in other words, apply some branding in a sense. It also has some options that I am only guessing did not fit into any other category. However, they remain handy none the less.</p><p>In terms of mentioned ‘personalisation’, you can adjust the login page, add a page preloader, custom browser scrollbar, change logo on scroll and zoom on it as well as customise back to top button. If you use Google API for maps instead of embedding them, you will appreciate an option to add Custom Map Marker. There are several options to customise your footer and one that allows you to upload SVG files which are blocked by WordPress by default.</p><h3 id="e1cck">Blog adjustments</h3><p>The Blog adjustments in Divi Pixel are a bit of a hit and miss for me. The reason being some of the options are already available in Divi Theme builder. For example, removal of sidebar or adjustment of Archive pages. But where the Divi Pixel Blog adjustments stand out is the Customisation of comments section that currently requires custom CSS, so it makes for a great addition. It gives you some additional customisations for Archive pages as well so if you want your blog related pages to look a bit fancier than the standard, this functionality will help.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-blog-settings-03_99f9681279091f72efa7e485db2ec944_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-blog-settings-03_99f9681279091f72efa7e485db2ec944_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Blog adjustments in Divi Pixel Plugin" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-blog-settings-03_99f9681279091f72efa7e485db2ec944_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Example of Blog adjustments in Divi Pixel Plugin</figcaption></figure><h3 id="9psh0">Social Media</h3><p>Social Media section will come in handy for those of you who are not graphic pros, and you would like to customise social media icons. Divi Pixel gives you more options when it comes to where you can display social media icons – be it the header, footer or mobile menu. It also gives you control over individual icons, so that you can choose the display location for them separately.</p><h3 id="9ege6">Mobile Settings</h3><p>Divi Pixel Mobile adjustments allow you to modify some essential mobile view settings, including making it full screen (make sure to Enable Custom Mobile menu Style first, so you don’t miss it ;). Yes, some options are available in Theme Builder already, like fixed position and swapping logo in mobile view. But the plugin gives you an opportunity to change breakpoint for mobile menu, collapse submenus on mobile and animate hamburger menu icon among others. Mobile menu settings are one of the best features of Divi Pixel plugin.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-full-screen-menu-04_3b7c788422a55b3bb492c24f1f0432bd_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-full-screen-menu-04_3b7c788422a55b3bb492c24f1f0432bd_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Full screen mobile menu in Divi Pixel Plugin" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-full-screen-menu-04_3b7c788422a55b3bb492c24f1f0432bd_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Example of Full screen mobile menu in Divi Pixel Plugin</figcaption></figure><h3 id="7p57b">Modules</h3><p>Where Divi Pixel stands out is the Modules section which adds 17 custom modules to the Divi Builder. You can, of course, review all of them directly on their website, so let me just mention my picks: before and after effect, tilt image, typing effect, masonry gallery, and my absolute favourite image hot spot and floating images.</p><h4 id="4k61v">IMAGE HOT SPOT BY DIVI PIXEL</h4><p>Divi Pixel is not the first plugin to have this feature, but I have yet to see one that does it so well. <a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/create-interactive-websites-vistag-review/">We once reviewed Vistag tool</a> that allows you to tag any element on an image and display more info upon hovering over selected points, but the company closed in February 2020. So, I was pleased to see that the idea was implemented by somebody else. I would say the room for improvement is in expanding options for tablet and mobile view, but with the right mindset, you can make it work. And I hear further enhancements are in the development stage.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-image-hotspot-05_6fd3807567e26cedd0a182a8912910b7_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-image-hotspot-05_6fd3807567e26cedd0a182a8912910b7_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Divi Pixel Image Hotspot Module" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/divi-pixel-image-hotspot-05_6fd3807567e26cedd0a182a8912910b7_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Divi Pixel Image Hotspot Module</figcaption></figure><h4 id="86v24">FLOATING IMAGES</h4><p>Yet another feature that will make your website stand out among others. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.divi-pixel.com/modules/floating-images/">Floating images</a> allows for a subtle animation of your images. In fact, the subtle animations trend started back in 2019, and it continues to be quite popular in 2020. A great feature to present your team photos, locations on a map or product highlights.</p><h3 id="er5lb">Layout Injector</h3><p>Divi Pixel allows you to inject any saved section in Divi Library where by default it was not possible. For example, before or after the navigation section, footer or on specific pages only. There are also several options for blog pages.</p><h3 id="p3da">Settings</h3><p>If you decide to return to default settings on your website, you can reset them in plugin Settings. Do not worry if you ever want to retrieve them, as Divi Pixel plugin allows you to import and export said settings. And if you would like to remain up to date with future developments, you can enable Beta Updates although you probably don’t want to use that option on your client websites.</p><p>I have not listed all the options that Divi Pixel provides as I wanted to focus on those functionalities that I find most useful. So if you would like to learn what is the full scope of Divi Pixel Plugin, please head over to their Documentation page.</p><h2 id="lqmb">Divi Pixel Review Summary</h2><p><strong>Upon using Divi Pixel I can state with confidence; this is a very handy plugin that will save you a lot of time when developing a website. It provides certain basic solutions which Divi should already have, in my opinion. If you often find yourself injecting the same template codes to disable footers, adjust menu breakpoints or blog layouts in your websites, Divi Pixel will save you a lot of time.</strong></p><p><strong>In addition, Divi Pixel offers 17 design solutions that will take your website to the next level and help you build a unique design that does not look like thousands of other Divi websites.</strong></p><p>Before wrapping up, I think it would be a great addition if the developers included some templates to go along with this plugin, which would further speed up the design process. Time-saving and unique design options are my biggest takeaways from using Divi Pixel, and I would recommend it to those who are looking to speed up and improve their website design process.</p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/divi-pixel-plugin-review-wordpress?id=703064332&type=12",title: "Divi Pixel Plugin Review for Divi WordPress Theme",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->How to add text below Collection in Shopify Flex Theme by Out of the Sandbox?
2020-05-19 16:28:00 UTC
<p>In this post, I’m going to explain how you can add some custom text below your items in any Collection Page specifically in Flex Theme by Out of the Sandbox. I will start with some explanation behind the idea, and I will talk you through simple principles to copy and amend existing collection Shopify template. Having said that, if you’re here looking for a step-by-step guide, simply jump to the end of this post.</p><h2 id="ddhtr">Why should you include any text below Collection page?</h2><p>As all SEO experts know, good content syndication is a key to promote your website on Google. This principle seems to be even more critical now after recent <a href="https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/08/core-updates.html">Google core algorithm update rolled out on May 4th, 2020</a> that caused quite a stir. Shopify has a high number of adjustments that allow you to optimise your content for better ranking results. And some themes like Flex enable you to design your store in no time with some additional customisations. However, there are still a few options that are essential to optimise your content that Flex is missing and one of them is the ability to add custom text underneath your items Collection.</p><p>There is, of course, an option to include all your SEO tailored content with H2, H3 etc. elements in a standard page description, but you will end up with a massive block of text at the top of the page. This is not very UX friendly as your visitor is on your page most likely to view your products and not necessarily read a 1000 words description of the Collection. This is why the idea is to keep the top description short and sweet and move all the content that Google bots are after, below the collection items feed.</p><h2 id="ajja7">Using a custom Theme template for Collection</h2><p>Initially, I thought to hire somebody to code this option into Flex theme so it can be easily accessible from the Collections customisation page. After further thought, I realised that this custom code would somehow amend the collections input space (where you usually adjust your title, description and meta description). And then a custom code would have to be created to pull that information from the page and display it below items Collection feed. Although this is a more elegant solution, I have decided that since I only have several collection pages to update, a more straightforward solution can be put in place. And that’s where the idea to use Shopify theme templates came from.</p><h3 id="3q2jn">Collection template structure</h3><p>Every Collection in Flex Theme is put together from the following sections that you can adjust for your needs:</p><ul><li>Banner</li><li>Breadcrumbs</li><li>Collection title</li><li>Filters</li><li>Description</li><li>Sidebar area (optional)</li></ul><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/01-intro-ul_9532ae597f96f56fac0f2c5ffd3cf985_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/01-intro-ul_9532ae597f96f56fac0f2c5ffd3cf985_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Flex theme Collection view" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/01-intro-ul_9532ae597f96f56fac0f2c5ffd3cf985_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>Flex theme Collection view</figcaption></figure><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/02-intro-ul_491897180b06d544a3d42c6cec42e117_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/02-intro-ul_491897180b06d544a3d42c6cec42e117_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Flex theme Collection liquid code" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/02-intro-ul_491897180b06d544a3d42c6cec42e117_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>Flex theme Collection liquid code</figcaption></figure><h4 id="brb2u">HOW TO ADD TEXT BELOW COLLECTION FEED IN SHOPIFY FLEX THEME?</h4><p>The general idea is to use the main Collection template (collection.liquid) and duplicate it for every custom Collection in which we want to include the custom text. We will then insert a code that includes the custom text below Sidebar section. You can use basic HTML elements like H1-H6, paragraph, bold text for example, but if you want to include unsorted list you will have to create custom CSS styling as well. You can do that by creating custom.scss style sheet in the Assets folder or amending styles.scss.liquid file (remember though to back up it first before you make permanent changes). Once the custom collection template is created, you can simply go to your Product > Collections page and change the Theme template to your custom template. You then repeat that action for every Collection in which you want to include the custom text below collection feed.</p><h4 id="7kmcg">HOW TO ADD ACCORDION BELOW COLLECTION FEED?</h4><p>If your content is long adding text with simple styling might not be enough. In such a case, hiding paragraphs in toggles is a perfect solution. Fortunately, somebody smarter than me already came up with the ideas, so let me simply send you to this article by Leighton Taylor ‘<a href="https://www.envision.io/blogs/ecommerce-pulse/28832705-how-to-add-an-faq-accordion-to-your-shopify-store">How to add an FAQ accordion to your Shopify store</a>‘. The tutorial includes a super easy 5 step guide, including a quick video and a demo of the solution that you will be implementing on your site. All you need to do is tweak CSS a bit for your needs and voila. And before you ask, the image was added with basic img tag.</p><blockquote><code><<strong>img</strong> src="yourimage.png" alt="your alt tag" style="box-shadow: 0 4px 8px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), 0 6px 20px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.19);" align="middle"></code></blockquote><p><strong>By combining the three solutions with adding text, image and toggle below Shopify Collection feed in Flex Theme, here’s what I was able to achieve in one of our client’s stores.</strong></p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/text-toggle-accordion-below-shopify-collection-flex-theme_268a0a23a02f9950ef769e974adb3fc7.gif 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/text-toggle-accordion-below-shopify-collection-flex-theme_268a0a23a02f9950ef769e974adb3fc7.gif 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Custom text in toggle with an image below" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/text-toggle-accordion-below-shopify-collection-flex-theme_268a0a23a02f9950ef769e974adb3fc7.gif" /></picture><figcaption><strong>Custom text in toggle with an image below</strong></figcaption></figure><h2 id="7qo5b">Step-by-step guide on how to add unique text below every Collection Page in Shopify Flex theme:</h2><p>1. Log in to your shop and navigate to ‘Online Store’ in ‘SALES CHANNELS’ section listed on the right-hand side of the screen;</p><p>2. Hover over ‘Actions’ button (located in ‘LIVE THEME’ section) and select ‘Edit Code’ from the drop-down menu;</p><p>3. Locate ‘Templates’ folder click blue command ‘Add new template’. In the pop-up window, select ‘collection’ after ‘Create a new template for’ and give it a name (stick to short names or if you need to use more than one word use dash instead of space bar). In our example we’ve chosen the name ‘coffee-tables’; then click ‘Create template’ button;</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/03-add-new-template_166c5cb5ac0e480ecdf141ba0236be3c_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/03-add-new-template_166c5cb5ac0e480ecdf141ba0236be3c_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Creating custom collection" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/03-add-new-template_166c5cb5ac0e480ecdf141ba0236be3c_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>Creating custom collection</figcaption></figure><p>4. Go to your newly created Collection tab and scroll down to the bottom and locate last two lines of code</p><blockquote><strong></section> </div></strong></blockquote><p>5. Copy and paste the following ‘Custom code’ and paste it just before those two lines and after ‘Collection sidebar’ section (in example below the code is pasted on line 58); then Save</p><blockquote><strong>{% comment %} Collection manual description {% endcomment %} <br/>{% if template contains 'your-collection-name' %} <br/><p>Your custom text</p> <br/>{% endif %}</strong></blockquote><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/04-custom-code_a09cc7b83452292b4ec51bb01f0d8af8_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/04-custom-code_a09cc7b83452292b4ec51bb01f0d8af8_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Pasting custom text code below Sidebar section" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/04-custom-code_a09cc7b83452292b4ec51bb01f0d8af8_800.png" /></picture><figcaption><strong>Pasting custom text code below Sidebar section</strong></figcaption></figure><p>6. From right-hand side panel go to ‘Products’ > ‘Collections’ and look up your custom collection</p><p>7. Once the collection is loaded, change ‘Collection template’ in ‘THEME TEMPLATES’ section in the bottom right corner from default ‘collection’ to ‘collection-your-collection-name’ (in case of this example ‘collection.coffee-tables); then Save</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/06-shopify-select-collection_00600173fb324c9fdd0570a3d61cb9a2_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/06-shopify-select-collection_00600173fb324c9fdd0570a3d61cb9a2_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Changing Collection theme template" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/06-shopify-select-collection_00600173fb324c9fdd0570a3d61cb9a2_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>Changing Collection theme template</figcaption></figure><p>8. When you view your Collection page, you should now see ‘Your custom text’ below images.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/07-shopify-select-collection_01acf31af7d5eba5c1a6d0125cb3bb82_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/07-shopify-select-collection_01acf31af7d5eba5c1a6d0125cb3bb82_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Custom text placement below collection feed" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/07-shopify-select-collection_01acf31af7d5eba5c1a6d0125cb3bb82_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>Custom text placement below collection feed</figcaption></figure><p>I hope this tutorial gave you a better understanding on how to create custom collections. If you have any questions on how to add text below collection page in Shopify Flex Theme, just drop me an email and I will do my best to help you out.</p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/how-to-add-text-below-collection-shopify-flex-theme?id=707468721&type=12",title: "How to add text below Collection in Shopify Flex Theme by Out of the Sandbox?",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->Best Freelance Platforms to Grow Your Business - From Online Banking to Content Marketing
2020-06-23 10:34:00 UTC
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8EYZFZRqHfs/XvHl3ZZqw4I/AAAAAAAAASY/KNstj386IZ4H_aZ7RNCkfjc-LRvuPgakQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/featured-freelance-platforms.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="692" height="395" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8EYZFZRqHfs/XvHl3ZZqw4I/AAAAAAAAASY/KNstj386IZ4H_aZ7RNCkfjc-LRvuPgakQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/featured-freelance-platforms.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Somedays, freelancing can be a struggle between trying to find new clients and getting actual work done. Using the right platforms and a standardized approach to pitching can help streamline those efforts.<br /><br />If you're a freelancer with goals of expanding your business in 2020, here are some expert tips and fantastic platforms to guide the process.<br /><h2 id="cidus">Important Considerations for Freelancers</h2>Before you start scaling your business, there are a few key areas of your business to tend to. First, plan to have your banking streamlined for your business needs. Processing payments <u><a href="https://amaiz.com/">through Amaiz</a></u> and taking advantage of the freelance-oriented set-up is one option for getting your financial ducks in a row.<br /><br />Another consideration is your approach to pitching potential clients. Ensuring you have consistent profiles crafted and your best work highlighted is a must.<br />Create a standard pitch template and tracking sheet to record:<br /><ul><li>who you pitched,</li><li>when you reached out,</li><li>what platform you used, and</li><li>when you should follow up.</li></ul>With those core business issues in mind, here are the five best freelance platforms for growing your business in 2020.<br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/freelancer_de1b93e575e3d3f6594b309e6c38d346_800.png 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/freelancer_de1b93e575e3d3f6594b309e6c38d346_800.png 1x"></source><img alt="freelancer working from home" height="306" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/freelancer_de1b93e575e3d3f6594b309e6c38d346_800.png" width="400" /></picture></figure><br /><h2 id="4dibh">5 best freelance platforms for growing your business in 2020</h2><h3 id="99ole">CloudPeeps</h3>CloudPeeps launched in 2015, as a response to the shift toward more remote work and freelance opportunities. The goal of CloudPeeps is to connect determined, goal-oriented freelancers with reputable businesses to form a productive working community.<br /><br />CloudPeeps offers a variety of freelance opportunities, ranging from content writing and social media management to <u><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/seo-evolution/">SEO and keyword research</a></u>. This broad approach allows businesses to put together a team of freelancers in one centralized platform.<br /><br />CloudPeeps offers a tiered subscription plus commission membership option. The free version takes a 15% commission while the top-end option costs $29 per month and takes a 5% commission.<br /><h3 id="7hdog">Toptal</h3>Toptal is the cream of the crop when it comes to freelancing platforms. If you manage to secure a spot on Toptal, you'll open your business to exciting and profitable new opportunities. The platform pairs freelancers with big corporations and world-renowned startups, like Airbnb and Shopify.<br /><br />To become a freelancer on Toptal, you'll need to go through a rigorous screening process. The platform is currently open to developers, project managers, and financial freelancers. The screening process includes everything from skills tests to interviews. If you think you've got what it takes, it's well worth applying as you can earn <u><a href="https://www.toptal.com/faq#toptal-cost">thousands of dollars a week</a></u> on certain projects.<br /><h3 id="fjka3">Aquent</h3>A common challenge freelancers face when using a platform for finding clients, is tagging relevant experience. The incorrect use of tags can result in mismatches or missed opportunities. Aquent aims to solve that problem using an organic AI-driven approach that takes a deep dive into your portfolio and does the tagging for you.<br /><br />Aquent is for freelancers in the marketing and creative sectors and allows members to set their rates and negotiate accordingly. If you're unsure how to charge a competitive rate, they provide a guide to help you ensure you're getting what you're worth.<br /><br /><figure class="image regular "><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/freelancer-working_c6d0edf21c7adfa0b86122a16b710b0c_800.png 1x"></source><source media="(min-width: 769px)" srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/freelancer-working_c6d0edf21c7adfa0b86122a16b710b0c_800.png 1x"></source><img alt="freelancer" height="320" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/freelancer-working_c6d0edf21c7adfa0b86122a16b710b0c_800.png" width="400" /></picture></figure><br /><h3 id="6g3u7">PubLoft</h3>PubLoft is a platform that focuses specifically on content marketing and freelancers who work within the B2B market. This robust platform helps you find clients, and it also helps you manage client relations in one centralized location. Additionally, PubLoft offers financial snapshots that can help you plan ahead.<br /><br />PubLoft handles invoicing and payments, paying freelancers biweekly. In return, freelancers pay a monthly subscription price.<br /><h3 id="a4ru9">SolidGigs</h3>SolidGigs takes a multifaceted approach to support freelance business growth. Their weekly roundup sends the best new freelance jobs of the week directly to your inbox for review. On the other side of things, SolidGigs offers a rotating collection of courses and templates to help you build your business. These tools cover everything from setting your rates to spreadsheet templates for tracking your progress.<br /><br />SolidGigs offers <u><a href="https://solidgigs.com/">a flat rate subscription of $19 per month</a></u>. You can get a free trial for $2 for the first month to give it a shot.<br /><br />Use these platforms and expert tips to help you grow your freelance business in 2020 and beyond.<br /><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #161616; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This article was originally posted on Colorpeak: </span><a href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/best-freelance-platforms-for-business/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-print-color-adjust: exact !important; background-color: white; cursor: pointer; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 16px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">Best Freelance Platforms to Grow Your Business - From Online Banking to Content Marketing</a><br /><!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/best-freelance-platforms-for-business?id=1706027748&type=12",title: "Best Freelance Platforms to Grow Your Business - From Online Banking to Content Marketing",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->How to Create Engaging Social Media Content
2020-08-18 09:10:00 UTC
<p>Building an engaged social media audience is one of the most rewarding marketing tasks that your business can achieve. It’s through these channels that you build a rapport with your customers and establish trust so that when you are ready to ask for a sale, they’re ready to provide.</p><p>Here are some helpful tips to guide the process of creating engaging social media content.</p><h2 id="2vtv9">Tell a Story</h2><p>Social media is about storytelling, using both visual components and words. To do so effectively, you need to consider what story you’re trying to tell people about your business.</p><p>When you <a target="_blank" href="https://theboostapps.com/video-maker/promo-video/">create a video</a> or graphic, consider how it ties into your brand. What thoughts and emotions do you hope to invoke when you hit post? How do you want your customers to feel and respond when they see a photo?</p><p>Every good story has a beginning, middle, and end. When you write captions, start with a hook. You have one sentence to get your follower to stop scrolling and keep reading. Consider your goals for this story: are you trying to make an emotional connection or share valuable information?</p><p>Every post you create should be intentional. Focus on quality over quantity to boost your engagement.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/Create-Engaging-Social-Media-Content_b72f319ff816b6ba35ce5d9ee8ab9330_800.png 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/Create-Engaging-Social-Media-Content_b72f319ff816b6ba35ce5d9ee8ab9330_800.png 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="engaging social media" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/Create-Engaging-Social-Media-Content_b72f319ff816b6ba35ce5d9ee8ab9330_800.png" /></picture><figcaption>Engaging social media</figcaption></figure><h2 id="fvple">Create a Consistent Aesthetic</h2><p>Creating a consistent aesthetic goes hand-in-hand with good social media content strategy creation. Your aesthetic is what creates consistency across the various social media channels while increasing brand recognition.</p><p>Your colours and tone will play a significant role when developing a brand aesthetic. For example, if your business strives to be perceived as fun, bright, and lively, your colours, photo editing, and graphics should emulate that goal. Conversely, if you’re more serious and moody, having darker images and richer colours makes sense.</p><p>Planning is key when creating a consistent aesthetic across social media channels.</p><h2 id="7sol8">Highlight Other Users</h2><p>User-generated content (UGC) is when brands encourage customers to share content featuring their purchases using account tagging and hashtags. In return, the user gets featured on the brand’s page. This is a fantastic opportunity for brands to curate content without having to create it from scratch.</p><p>Sharing UGC also creates social proof, showing the audience that other people are happy with your business, thus boosting engagement.</p><p>In addition to sharing UGC, you can also highlight other brands and businesses you admire. This <a target="_blank" href="https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/tips-tricks/5-ways-to-cross-promote-social-media-posts">cross-promotional approach will attract more followers</a> from other accounts.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/engaging-social-media_d9e5f915c5da67783e15bd53bcc5dea4_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/engaging-social-media_d9e5f915c5da67783e15bd53bcc5dea4_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Highlight users on social media to engage" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/engaging-social-media_d9e5f915c5da67783e15bd53bcc5dea4_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Highlight users on social media to engage</figcaption></figure><h2 id="cd5dr">Ask Questions</h2><p>Asking questions shifts the focus from your business to an individual on the other side of the screen. This focus encourages them to interact and share the spotlight. It generates a feeling of recognition and value. As a result, your engagement increases.</p><p>Get creative when asking questions to see what works and what doesn’t. Mix it up with topical questions, inquiries that are relevant to your core offering, and conversation starters.</p><h2 id="jkma">Break Up Text</h2><p>One of the easiest things you can do to start improving social media engagement today is to break up blocks of text. If necessary, use a line-breaking app to prevent everything from posting in one overwhelming word jumble.</p><p>You can also use emojis to intersperse visual stimulation within long-form social media content.</p><h2 id="4515k">Cater to Your Audience</h2><p>Remember that creating social media content isn’t about what you want to share; it’s about what your audience wants to see and hear. Catering to your audience will ensure that you’re providing value rather than being scrolled past every time you post an update.</p><p>Take time to analyse your insights and determine which posts perform best and why. Then, shift your efforts to incorporate similar content. If you want to continuously engage your audience, you must always be open to adapting.</p><p>Use this guide to start creating engaging social media content that gets your audience talking and your customers buying.</p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/en/how-to-create-engaging-social-media-content?id=1189157623&type=12",title: "How to Create Engaging Social Media Content",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->2021 Website Design Trends
2020-09-28 13:56:00 UTC
<p><strong>At Colorpeak, we understand the importance of identifying new and upcoming trends in our area of expertise, web design, which s why we review them every year. Heading into a very different 2021, we’ve decided to compile our list of the future trends you should be aware of to continue to innovate and expand your marketplace through your website.</strong></p><h2 id="bnuan">2021 Website Design Trends by Colorpeak</h2><p>Rather than focus on the comeback of Dark mode in website design, we’ll be looking at the more practical aspects for 2021 website design trends, based on the knowledge your website should be first and foremost, an effective lead generation tool. The visual aspect, whilst important for branding and recognition, is far more effective when driven by data and content creation based in UX design.</p><p>So why not check out our list of 2021 website design trends based on the newest design ideas and some of Colorpeak’s extensive experience-driven insights:</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/01-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_be78ca2d19845ec2901d26fe3cb99b96_800.JPG 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/01-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_be78ca2d19845ec2901d26fe3cb99b96_800.JPG 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="2021 Website Design Trends by Colorpeak" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/01-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_be78ca2d19845ec2901d26fe3cb99b96_800.JPG" /></picture><figcaption>2021 Website Design Trends by Colorpeak</figcaption></figure><h2 id="udmf">Effective, responsive design needs to be mobile-first oriented</h2><p>Smartphones are designed to grab peoples attention, and your website should have the same approach to make it a successful lead generation tool. Both your existing and potential customers now expect to access information, products and services through their mobile as the first point of contact. If your website isn’t designed for this type of access, you’re missing out on potential business and invaluable data insights. Delivering your information to the market on a smartphone means the navigation should keep the customer engaged, images and text will need to be adjusted to fit this format, so the user doesn’t get lost in unnecessary information. The average human concentration span is now just 8 seconds compared to 12 seconds in the year 2000. It’s vital your website delivers your message clearly and concisely, to maximise the 8 seconds of engagement you have available to you.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/02-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_733269cf2d2169a50ac60203a0d1d94c_800.JPG 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/02-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_733269cf2d2169a50ac60203a0d1d94c_800.JPG 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Data driven content for 2021 website design trends" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/02-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_733269cf2d2169a50ac60203a0d1d94c_800.JPG" /></picture><figcaption>Data driven content for 2021 website design trends</figcaption></figure><h2 id="fqo7t">Data-driven content</h2><p>Accessing your customer information is key to building a successful content-driven strategy and is at the forefront of 2021 website design trends. Neil Patel (SEO Professional) defines this data as:</p><blockquote>“Factual information generated from experiments, surveys, or testing that is used as a basis for forming conclusions.”</blockquote><p>This information builds customer profiles and establishes a digital relationship built on their personal preferences and interests. By making your website a place to come for industry expertise or guidance, through things like ebooks and how-to guides, your business becomes more than just its products or services. It can start to define you as an industry leader and reputable resource, building brand recognition and ensuring returning website traffic.</p><p>Especially after the recent pandemic, video content and interaction have become a mainstay of communication and engagement. Your website should recognise and deliver insightful and thoughtful video communication and content to capture valuable data and build customer relationships.</p><h2 id="fv56f">Simple navigation with calls to action</h2><p>At Colorpeak, we understand there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. A simple, effective menu with contact or cart details should be available to click at any time. The buying process should be as straight forward as possible. If it appears to be too complicated, you’re likely to lose that business.</p><p>Navigation directly affects the interactions your website creates and delivers, organising your information into the most effective workflow process can maximise the potential of your website.</p><p>Each website will have its own set of objectives, and at Colorpeak we’re best placed to inform your design process and to deliver your unique data and communication objectives. Although this seems like this should be standard practice, many website designs miss this critical element, which is why it’s made our list of 2021 website design trends.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/03-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_3892bbc527db5f391178275fb5cb8ffa_800.JPG 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/03-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_3892bbc527db5f391178275fb5cb8ffa_800.JPG 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Mobile design oriented navigation" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/03-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_3892bbc527db5f391178275fb5cb8ffa_800.JPG" /></picture><figcaption>Mobile design oriented navigation</figcaption></figure><h2 id="cj8ro">Next level Lead generation solutions (chatbots and AI)</h2><p>Chatbots have come along way since their initial inception and can be a brilliant tool for gathering information and answering general queries. Their advancement has come from machine learning and the ability to ask questions in a more ‘human-like’ manner. Also, consumers have become more used to seeing and interacting with chatbots. If the information is delivered in the right way, more and more people will continue to utilise this type of feature. AI is moving forward and even has the ability to create advanced algorithms based on an initial set of code. More and more technology is removing the need for humans to carry out more mundane tasks such as gathering basic information. This may be a 2021 website design trend but it’s also a trend which is set to grow exponentially over the coming decades. At Colorpeak, we work with you to make sure your website has the most up to date features and capabilities. We have a proven record of our AI bot generating 6% leads within industry averaging around 1.7%. Get in touch if you want to find out how our AI technology can help your business grow.</p><h2 id="bksrf">E-commerce solutions do decrease cart abandon rate</h2><p>Our insights drive many of our approaches to website design. One of our key findings is the ease of purchasing a product or service is crucial. We make sure that ‘add to basket’ buttons are accessible from every page. This saves time searching for a specific page of an item to make the purchase, you can add it to the cart from any category page which displays multiple items. This delivers a seamless and frictionless shopping experience, which decreases the chance of cart abandonment due to customer frustration. According to a recent survey, the rate of cart abandonment of online shoppers stands at 75% across all industries. This is truly an astounding statistic. E-commerce solutions should be factored into your website design to ensure your business isn’t one of the ones needlessly losing sales and customers.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/04-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_a8cda702d08505ad40f8ec7d22751d9e_800.JPG 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/04-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_a8cda702d08505ad40f8ec7d22751d9e_800.JPG 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="2021 web design trends" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/04-2021-website-design-trends-by-colorpeak_a8cda702d08505ad40f8ec7d22751d9e_800.JPG" /></picture><figcaption>2021 web design trends</figcaption></figure><h2 id="e8upo">Multi-language solutions</h2><p>We’re increasingly operating within a global marketplace, so you need to capture and inform your customers no matter where in the world they might live. Translators can be an effective tool to reach someone in their language and increase your market share. The more languages you speak, the more people you reach, and your website is the best platform to generate leads and interest across the globe. As one of 2021 website design trends communication with the wider marketplace is an easy and straightforward way to ensure your reach goes further than you ever expected.</p><h3 id="4faot">2021 Website Design Trends Conclusion</h3><p>At Colorpeak, we work with you to deliver the most effective website for your organisation’s needs. We continue to be leaders in our field as we ensure we adapt, change and utilise technology that’s delivering new and exciting insights, information and most importantly, the growth of your business.</p><p>This review was originally posted on <a target="_blank" href="https://colorpeak.co.uk/2021-website-design-trends-draft/">colorpeak.co.uk/2021-website-design-trends</a></p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/en/2021-website-design-trends?id=494152310&type=12",title: "2021 Website Design Trends",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->Spott Review - Yet another graphic design... NOPE!
2020-10-26 19:31:00 UTC
<p>Spott is very similar to <a href="https://app.storychief.io/create-interactive-websites-vistag-review/">Vistag that we reviewed by in 2018</a>, which has been shut down. Spott is already ahead offering video tagging (as opposed to Vistag, that only allowed to tag photos) and shows a lot of promise in future roadmap development.</p><p>I originally posted this review of <a href="https://spott.ai/">Spott</a> on <a href="https://appsumo.com/spott/">AppSumo</a>, and if you're interested in purchasing Spott, I would encourage you to read more reviews there after you finish our take on it.</p><h2 id="d78kk">What is Spott?</h2><p>Spott is a unique tool that can change your entire e-commerce, sales landing page as well as your social media marketing strategy - to name just a few. Picture tagging and tooltips are underutilised in digital marketing, and the available tools (WP plugins) are either buggy or limited. That is why Spott stands out even harder, as there is nothing quite like it that I know of.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/spott-making-engagement-tool_34c9dfe0c95f9d8aa62c6912b93d5a50.gif 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/spott-making-engagement-tool_34c9dfe0c95f9d8aa62c6912b93d5a50.gif 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="Spott marketing engagement tool" src="https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/account_2648/spott-making-engagement-tool_34c9dfe0c95f9d8aa62c6912b93d5a50.gif" /></picture><figcaption>Spott in action</figcaption></figure><h2 id="8fsa6">Spott Pros</h2><ul><li>video tagging - wow, that opens a lot of possibilities in gamification and making your videos and ads actually producing a sale,</li><li>the tags are responsive and consistent across the board - this is a massive issue for the majority of the other "tagging" tools I've tried in the past,</li><li>tags are very flexible and allow for plenty of different info to be input in the popups or tooltips - different types of URLs and additional CSS in styles help in nailing the design - again that amount of (somewhat common-sense) flexibility has never been the case with Vistag or other similar tools I've tried,</li><li>"Asset Feed" - looks to be an extremely interesting feature I will have to dig into - for now, extra tacos for attempting to automate some of the copy-paste tasks - such an approach always strikes confidence in the founders' vision for the SaaS,</li><li>intuitive interface and enough documentation to get you up to speed in less than an hour,</li><li>reporting will help in gauging the engagement and updating clients.</li></ul><h2 id="egr9s">Spott Cons</h2><ul><li>I don't see any workarounds for the lost SEO due to hosting pictures on Spott servers... Alt tags, picture title and description - would be nice to see input fields for those in your embed code at least,</li><li>more trigger options: currently only static or hover, but it would be nice to have an option for a timed trigger, e.g. "wait for 10s and open a popup", or on exit intent, etc..</li></ul><h3 id="56unb">The future of Spott</h3><p>I was waiting for something like it since Vistag literally pulled DOA on all of us in the SEO industry. This time the team behind the tool is set on the development and looks much more established. Contrary to what I see in some of the startup SaaS that never invested in SEO, Spott Team brand is ranking very nice and is targeting keywords that point to their long-term commitment and outside-of-LTD growth.</p><p>There is one more thing that needs to be said here - our graphic designer will have to change her processes. And our agency will have to incorporate Spott to our entire design/video/CRO strategy moving forward. And this is a lot of work and changing things around.</p><p>So, if you have an established way of making images, videos and ad-clips using some tools, your process will need to encompass Spott somehow - an extra step to do for your designer, so be mindful of that.</p><p>But we feel this is going to be worth it.</p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/en/spott-review-yet-another-graphic-design-nope?id=33928545&type=12",title: "Spott Review - Yet another graphic design... NOPE!",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->Frase Review – AI for Content Writers
2020-11-06 12:08:00 UTC
<h4 id="8hml1">FRASE TOOL REVIEW</h4><p>This review of <a href="https://www.frase.io/">Frase</a> was originally posted on <a href="https://appsumo.com/frase/">AppSumo</a>, and since it made it to the top 3 of the most helpful reviews, I thought it’s worth sharing here as well. Especially since it became our main copywriting tool since then.</p><p><strong>From an SEO Agency perspective, this is truly a no-brainer. Learning about many different workflows and content optimisation techniques over the years and using several “mainstream” content-creation tools we’ve realised that – regardless of anyone’s approach – you will arrive at the same point as everyone else – content briefs, planning and research.</strong></p><p>Frase attempts to tackle all three of them. And they’re doing an amazing job at it.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/frase-ai-content-writing-tool-for-copywriters_1ee0e563f335df0ec921909c5f3c7909_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/frase-ai-content-writing-tool-for-copywriters_1ee0e563f335df0ec921909c5f3c7909_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/frase-ai-content-writing-tool-for-copywriters_1ee0e563f335df0ec921909c5f3c7909_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>Frase interface</figcaption></figure><h2 id="4v0mf">Frase Pros</h2><ul><li>Clean interface and no-fluff</li><li>Super intuitive and clear FAQ/Tutorials (as they should, given what the tool is for… )</li><li>I can’t see any apparent bugs and the tool looks robust – all the features I tried worked immediately</li><li>Within the first minutes of use, I already know that I will be saving 80-90% of my time on the research, planning and briefs</li><li>“Paste Brief” options – wow, just wow!</li></ul><h2 id="4bkna">Frase Cons</h2><ul><li>I am missing Google Ads scraping. You got everything you need to add “Ads Writing Assistant” feature – I hope the developers will consider it…</li><li>Same as a current one-click option “Paste Brief”, the tool should have “Paste Content” with an adjustable keyword count, where H2-H4 headers (including Questions) are all added automatically from the brief. It would be a perfect one-click article generator ready for rewriting or spin.</li></ul><h3 id="altun">Tools/workflow we’re using currently and where I see Frase replacing them:</h3><ol><li><strong>Google</strong> (obviously…) – Frase will replace manual searches and scrapes;</li><li><strong>Grammarly Pro</strong> – works with Frase;</li><li><strong>CognitiveSEO</strong> – I don’t think Frase can replace that yet (CSEO is on another level);</li><li><strong>PageOptimizerPro</strong> – same as Cognitive, not going anywhere;</li><li><strong>Ahrefs Keyword Research</strong> – I’ll probably still use it, but Frase does a good job in providing the most relevant keywords/questions;</li><li><strong>Keywords Everywhere/Answer the Public</strong> (for “related searches”/questions) – Frase replaces that;</li><li><strong>Ahrefs Content Explorer</strong> (and SocialAnimal) – maybe not as good as Ahrefs but for content writing, Frase is excellent;</li><li><strong>AutomaticScript.com</strong> – I’ll keep using it for Ads and newsletter content, I guess…</li></ol><p>and</p><p><strong>SEO Content Machine NEXT</strong>:<br/>SCM’s “Article Writer” comes closest to Frase but you don’t get a brief, and the scrapes are just too overwhelming in my opinion – even with filtering, provided snippets require a lot of manual sifting through. SCMN is amazing for other SEO-things, and it’s a subscription with a desktop-only application (no cloud, no extra “seats”).</p><h2 id="4gc0d">Use case:</h2><p>Last Monday I was assembling content for a solar panel company and using all tools above it took me a total of 12 hours to put together a medium-size company website with additional services, silo structure and MVP-keyword research.</p><p>For fun, I’ve plugged “solar panels” to Frase’s “OpenWeb” – and right away, I can see that I could gather almost everything I need in 2-3 hours tops. That is 9-10 hours of free time I’d be getting using Frase.</p><p>If you’re doing SEO and don’t see a value in this tool – you’re either using a better alternative tool or… you’re doing something wrong – in which case I recommend you trying Frase – it might be a game-changer for you. It is for us.</p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/en/frase-review-ai-content-writers-copywriting?id=592326058&type=12",title: "Frase Review – AI for Content Writers",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->How Better Visual Content Can Help You With Conversions
2020-12-03 12:15:00 UTC
<p>It's a fact that visual content helps with engaging potential <a href="https://www.wyzowl.com/video-social-media-2020/">customers on social media</a>, but did you also know that brands that use videos and other visual content can help with conversions? Whether you're just trying to get people to sign up for your newsletter, take a survey, or make a purchase, you're probably looking for sure-fire ways to build your conversion rate. Better visual content can do just that; here's how.</p><figure class="image regular "><picture style=""><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/better-visual-content-colorpeak_a56887dffd4e08f815feb664b7911793_800.jpg 1x" media="(max-width: 768px)" /><source srcset="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/better-visual-content-colorpeak_a56887dffd4e08f815feb664b7911793_800.jpg 1x" media="(min-width: 769px)" /><img style="" alt="How Better Visual Content Can Help You With Conversions" src="https://images.storychief.com/account_2648/better-visual-content-colorpeak_a56887dffd4e08f815feb664b7911793_800.jpg" /></picture><figcaption>How Better Visual Content Can Help You With Conversions</figcaption></figure><p>First of all, your conversion rate isn't necessarily how many of your site visitors end up buying something. If you're trying to get people to your website, you could have any number of goals, like trying to convert a visitor into a lead (i.e. get them to request a free quote). Conversion rates are heavily tied to the effectiveness of your marketing; effective marketing can help convince a person that they need what you're selling.</p><p>Visual content can do that in a way that words often can't. Humans process <a href="http://www.t-sciences.com/news/humans-process-visual-data-better">visual images much faster </a>than a block of words, so even though good copy is critical, you can get a lot more customers through visuals (which is one of the reasons you should spend some time creating a great logo with a free tool like <a href="https://logocreator.io/">Logo Creator</a>). Couple that with more and more people spending more and more time watching videos online, and you can't afford <em>not</em> to create engaging content.</p><p>Convincing you to boost your conversion rate by incorporating visuals into your marketing is easy enough, but that leaves the question of how? Here are five quick tips on creating engaging visual content for online marketing.</p><h2 id="coj21">5 Top Tips on How Better Visual Content Can Help You With Conversions</h2><p>1. <strong>Choose a consistent colour palette</strong> - Your visuals should align with the colour you choose for your logo, to create a consistent message for customers. Pay attention to the colours you choose, because colours elicit different emotions for people.</p><p>2. <strong>Practice with design apps </strong>- You're probably not an expert on visual design, but luckily, there are free apps out there to help you. The only way you'll get better at using them is to practice and work with them on a regular basis. You also should have a basic idea of visual design, like the <a href="https://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds/">Rule of Thirds</a>.</p><p>3. <strong>Stay on your brand message</strong> - Hopefully, your business is adopting a specific voice and tone, particularly in your marketing. You might adopt a more humorous voice or a serious, scholarly voice. The actual voice doesn't matter, but your visuals should capture that voice. You should also pay attention to keeping a consistent message to help your customers trust you.</p><p>4. <strong>Engage your customers</strong> - Creating engaging content that people want to interact with online can help build conversions for you as well. Humour is almost always a win, but it's also important to stay on the message (see number 3). You can achieve this by being creative, incorporating animations, using stunning imagery; anything to get people to share your content and spread your message.</p><p>5. <strong>Use videos</strong> - You've probably heard the statistics on videos on social media, but they keep getting more popular every year, and there's no reason to think that trend won't continue. A helpful video to help explain your product can help convince a potential customer that they want it, which will drive them to your site and turn them into a conversion. If they don't understand what you're selling, why would they buy it?</p><h2 id="1hpic">Conclusion</h2><p>Putting together better visual content is easier said than done, but it's not impossible, and it can really pay dividends in converting clicks into action. Great visuals should be a cornerstone of your marketing strategy.</p> <!-- strchf script --><script> if(window.strchfSettings === undefined) window.strchfSettings = {}; window.strchfSettings.stats = {url: "https://colorpeak.storychief.io/en/how-better-visual-content-can-help-you-with-conversions?id=1256497123&type=12",title: "How Better Visual Content Can Help You With Conversions",id: "565b8427-1664-46d1-ae81-6e8e0925dae9"}; (function(d, s, id) { var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {window.strchf.update(); return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net/scripts/v0/strchf.js"; js.async = true; sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs); }(document, 'script', 'storychief-jssdk')) </script><!-- End strchf script -->SEO Best Practices → Guide to Skyrocket Your Google Rankings
2020-05-07 07:15:13 UTC
SEO is hard. But it doesn’t have to be. If you don’t have time for well-defined strategies or plans, it’s crucial to at least follow a series of SEO best practices. Therefore, let’s see the checklist you need to go through to make sure you’re securing high Google ranks. Is SEO Still […]
The post SEO Best Practices → Guide to Skyrocket Your Google Rankings appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.
<p>SEO is hard. But it doesn’t have to be. If you don’t have time for well-defined strategies or plans, it’s crucial to at least follow a series of SEO best practices.</p> <p> </p> <p>Therefore, let’s see the checklist you need to go through to make sure you’re securing high Google ranks. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24221" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/what-you-need-to-rank-high-on-Google.png" alt="what you need to rank high on Google" width="1024" height="538" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/what-you-need-to-rank-high-on-Google.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/what-you-need-to-rank-high-on-Google-300x158.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/what-you-need-to-rank-high-on-Google-768x404.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <ol class="summaryext"> <li><strong><a href="#1">Is SEO Still Relevant in 2020?</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#2">What Are the Best SEO Practices for 2020</a></strong> <ol> <li><a href="#3"><strong>Optimize for Search Intent</strong></a></li> <li><strong><a href="#4">Perform In-Depth Keyword Research</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#5">Target One Main Topic & Keyword</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#6">Use Your Focus Keyword in Titles and Descriptions</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#7">Write Optimized Content for Your Users & Google</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#8">Use Short and Human Friendly URLs</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#9">Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile Friendly</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#10">Optimize Your Site’s Loading Speed</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#11">Improve Your Site’s User Experience</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#12">Organize Your Site Hierarchy & Navigation</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#13">Use the Secure HTTPs Protocol</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#14">Optimize Images for SEO</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#15">Use Video in Your Content</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#16">Perform Regular Site Audits</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#17">Use Internal Links with Relevant Anchor Texts</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#18">Link to External Pages with Relevant Anchor Texts</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#19">Actively Acquire Links to Your Website</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#20">Consistently Add Fresh, High Quality Content</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#21">Update Your Best Performing Content Once in a While</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#22">Don’t use Javascript or JS Frameworks Extensively</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#23">Use Hreflang for Multi-language Websites</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#24">Check your Schema Markup</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#25">Track Your Results With Google Search Console</a></strong></li> </ol> </li> <li><strong><a href="#26">How to Check If You’re Following the Best Practices for SEO</a></strong></li> </ol> <p> </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='1' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Is SEO Still Relevant in 2020?</h2> <p> </p> <p>Just in case you’re wondering, yes. SEO is still relevant in 2020. If you want to drive huge amounts of traffic to your website long term, with high return on investment, then SEO is the way to go.</p> <p> </p> <p>Just think about last time you searched for something on the internet. What did you use? Chances are it was Google.</p> <p> </p> <p>In a way, things are getting more and more complicated, but that’s a good thing.</p> <p> </p> <p>Why?</p> <p> </p> <p>Well, because when things get more and more complicated, people simplify them.</p> <p> </p> <p>And by that, I mean they’re giving up.</p> <p> </p> <p>They give up all the ‘tactics’ and ‘secret methods’ and they return to the basics.</p> <p> </p> <p>As SEO gets more and more advanced and Google harder to trick, people start abandoning BlackHat SEO techniques.</p> <p> </p> <p>I see more and more genuine SEO agencies. I see more and more people talking about real long-term strategies. I see a lot more quality websites.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='2' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>What Are the Best SEO Practices</h2> <p> </p> <p>In order to simplify the SEO process and get good results in terms of rankings, follow this list of SEO best practices:</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='3' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>1. Optimize for Search Intent</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Search intent is the big thing in 2020 and forward.</p> <p> </p> <p>When a user searches for something, Google has to return relevant results to match their search intent.</p> <p> </p> <p>Otherwise, their experience will be a bad one.</p> <p> </p> <p>I’ll give a simple example. If you have an affiliate shoes review website and try to optimize for “buy shoes online” you’ll probably have a hard time ranking for it.</p> <p> </p> <p>The reason behind it is that people searching that phrase are looking to shop for shoes, which means they want to see offers and eCommerce websites.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24227 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/user-intent-seo.png" alt="user-intent-seo" width="874" height="501" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/user-intent-seo.png 874w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/user-intent-seo-300x172.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/user-intent-seo-768x440.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 874px) 100vw, 874px" /></p> <p>So, if users start seeking eCommerce websites, Google will figure that out and display the proper results.</p> <p> </p> <p>Instead, a better option would be to target something like “best shoes for running”, or other keywords where people look for informational content rather than a store.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can clearly see the difference in search intent for this keyword, with more informational content showing.</p> <p> </p> <p>There were also some ads and a featured snippet, but I removed them to show only the vanilla organic search engine results.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24229 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/best-shoes-for-running.png" alt="best shoes for running" width="861" height="666" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/best-shoes-for-running.png 861w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/best-shoes-for-running-300x232.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/best-shoes-for-running-768x594.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 861px) 100vw, 861px" /></p> <p>Based on the keywords you use, the search engine might interpret your query as having different intents behind it:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>informational (if you search for “sunglasses polarized meaning”);</li> <li>navigational (if you search for the name of a particular brand of sunglasses);</li> <li>transactional (if you search for “cheap sunglasses” or “buy sunglasses”); </li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>And if you’re wondering which search intent is the most popular, you need to know that more than 80% of the total search intents are informational, 20% being almost equally split between navigational and transactional. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/search-intent-classification.png" /></p> <p>So, before you start writing content, think very well what you’re optimizing it for. You can check out a previous articles of ours on how to <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/22986/search-intent/"><strong>optimize for each type of search inten</strong></a>t. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='4' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>2. Perform In-Depth Keyword Research</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Keyword research is always the most important step when it comes to SEO.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s vital to know what your users search for, otherwise you’re chasing wild geese.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s also very useful to know what your competitors are doing, so make sure you research that as well.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can use the <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/"><strong>Content Optimizer & Keyword Tool</strong></a> to find relevant keywords.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24233 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/running-shoes-keyword-explorer-cognitiveseo-1024x674.png" alt="running shoes keyword explorer cognitiveseo" width="1024" height="674" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/running-shoes-keyword-explorer-cognitiveseo-1024x674.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/running-shoes-keyword-explorer-cognitiveseo-300x197.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/running-shoes-keyword-explorer-cognitiveseo-768x505.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/running-shoes-keyword-explorer-cognitiveseo.png 1084w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Then you can use the Ranking Analysis tab to see what types of pages rank well for each keyword you want to target.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24234 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/running-shoes-ranking-analysis-cognitiveseo-1024x375.png" alt="running shoes ranking analysis cognitiveseo" width="1024" height="375" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/running-shoes-ranking-analysis-cognitiveseo-1024x375.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/running-shoes-ranking-analysis-cognitiveseo-300x110.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/running-shoes-ranking-analysis-cognitiveseo-768x282.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/running-shoes-ranking-analysis-cognitiveseo.png 1263w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>This way, you’ll better understand user intent and can properly build your content around this information.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='5' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>3. Target One Main Topic & Keyword</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>I don’t want you to understand this the wrong way. You don’t have to target a single keyword.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, it is important to target one main topic. Again, it all comes down to user intent.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you think two keyword phrases are very similar, but you’re not sure of the intent, do a Google search.</p> <p> </p> <p>Does Google show similar search results for both keywords? Or are they different?</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, “travel tips indonesia” and “travelling to indonesia” might seem very similar, but the intent is very different.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the first one people want to see traveling destinations from popular blogs while in the second one they want to know if it’s OK to travel there, so .gov official sites make for really relevant</p> <p>search results.</p> <p> </p> <p>It might not be the best example but I hope you get the point.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24236 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/user-intent-focus-keyword-1024x438-1.png" alt="user-intent-focus-keyword-1024x438" width="1024" height="438" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/user-intent-focus-keyword-1024x438-1.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/user-intent-focus-keyword-1024x438-1-300x128.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/user-intent-focus-keyword-1024x438-1-768x329.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p>When you do keyword research, always test out what type of results rank for each particular keyword.</p> <p> </p> <p>If the search results are similar, you can try to combine the keywords. This way, you’ll get more traffic.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, if the intent is different and the results are different, don’t try to catch two rabbits with one shot.</p> <p> </p> <p>You’ll end up with none.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='6' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>4. Use Your Focus Keyword in Titles and Descriptions</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Title Tags and Meta Descriptions are a really important for SEO.</p> <p> </p> <p>For once, Google actively looks for the keyword inside your Title Tags to figure out if your content is relevant or not for their particular search queries.</p> <p> </p> <p>Second, these titles affect CTR, which means more clicks to your website.</p> <p> </p> <p>The secret is to make it catchy. You can make it catchy just by adding the keyword in the title.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><a title="CTR Study" href="https://backlinko.com/google-ctr-stats" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Studies</a></strong> show that users like to see the keyword inside the title or description. That’s also why Google puts they keywords in bold text all the time.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24194 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/focus-keyword.png" alt="Use focus keyword in title" width="815" height="282" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/focus-keyword.png 815w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/focus-keyword-300x104.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/focus-keyword-768x266.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 815px) 100vw, 815px" /></strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Don’t forget about the meta description. Try to add keywords there as well, and also a CTA or something to convince the users to click on your result.</p> <p> </p> <p>Discounts, free shipping and similar things work well for eCommerce websites.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mastering title creation for SEO is probably one of the most valuable skills an SEO professional can have.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sure, when it comes to really big sites, you will use patterns and create titles dynamically.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, when you’re looking to maximize results, you’ll have to manually adjust each and every title.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s also a good idea to keep the title catchy, especially for social media. Sometimes, it’s hard to also include the keyword AND make it catchy.</p> <p> </p> <p>So here’s where <a href="https://ogp.me/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Open <strong>Graph</strong></a> comes in handy. It allows you to have a title for Google, and another one for social media.</p> <p> </p> <p>On WordPress, you can use plugins such as Yoast SEO to set up different titles for social media.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='7' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>5. Write Optimized Content for Your Users & Google</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Do it in that order. First your users, then Google. </p> <p> </p> <p>Writing well optimized content is one of the most important SEO best practices. </p> <p> </p> <p>The truth is that you still have to make things a little more obvious for Google, sometimes.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, the best headline you’re thinking about might just not include that very searched for keyword…</p> <p> </p> <p>You’ll have to make a compromise and try to add the keyword in those headings, if you want to see better results.</p> <p> </p> <p>Many times, when people write things just for the sake of SEO, the content feels… robotic.</p> <p> </p> <p>Makes sense, doesn’t it? Since it was written for robots.</p> <p> </p> <p>When I talk about the cognitiveSEO Content Optimization Tool, I always mention how you should actually use the keywords it provides.</p> <p><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24245 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keywords-to-rank-higher-v2-min-512x1024.png" alt="cognitiveSEO Content Optimizer" width="512" height="1024" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keywords-to-rank-higher-v2-min-512x1024.png 512w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keywords-to-rank-higher-v2-min-150x300.png 150w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keywords-to-rank-higher-v2-min.png 517w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></a></p> <p>Many people just try to add them in wherever they can.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, try to think of them as subtopics or important key elements you should talk about.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, I have a section about internal links, and multiple sections about technical SEO in this article.</p> <p> </p> <p>This way, I can ensure those keywords will naturally occur in the article. I’ve just used two of them right now!</p> <p> </p> <p>But sure, sometimes it makes sense to just replace “Google, Yahoo and Bing” with “Search Engines”.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='8' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>6. Use Short and Human Friendly URLs</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Don’t forget the URLs!</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Warning:</strong> Don’t change URLs that have already been indexed by Google without doing a proper <strong><a title="301 Redirects" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/21788/301-redirects/">301 redirect</a></strong>. This can heavily affect your rankings.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s always the best idea to get the URL right from the beginning and stick with it.</p> <p> </p> <p>URL length isn’t a ranking factor, but there is a correlation between shorter URLs and higher rankings.</p> <p> </p> <div id="attachment_23776" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23776" class="size-medium wp-image-23776" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/short-url-300x200.jpg" alt="Shorter URLs" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/short-url-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/short-url-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/short-url-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/short-url.jpg 1100w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-23776" class="wp-caption-text">Keep URLs short, friend!</p></div> <p> </p> <p>Now that doesn’t mean short URLs cause higher rankings. Maybe better optimized pages just have tidier URLs.</p> <p> </p> <p>The point is that a URL should properly describe what the content is about.</p> <p> </p> <p>This way, there will be more chances that people click them. Actually, it increases CTR by up to 45%.</p> <p> </p> <p>Keywords inside the URL also help Google figure out what the content is about.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='9' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>7. Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile Friendly</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>In this day and age, almost everyone browses the web on the phone. More than 50% of the traffic on most websites come from mobile searches.</p> <p> </p> <p>If your website isn’t properly optimized for mobile usage, you might lose a lot of traffic.</p> <p> </p> <p>Google uses mobile first indexing, which means it will first look at the mobile version of your website and rank it according to that.</p> <p> </p> <p>To test if your site is mobile friendly you can use <strong><a href="https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this tool</a>.</strong></p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24168" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/mobile-friendly-seo-best-practice.png" alt="Mobile Friendly Test from Google" width="758" height="193" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/mobile-friendly-seo-best-practice.png 758w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/mobile-friendly-seo-best-practice-300x76.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 758px) 100vw, 758px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>If your site isn’t mobile friendly, make sure you follow these <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/18350/mobile-first-index-mobile-seo/">steps to make it mobile friendly</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can also take a look at these <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-first-indexing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>best practices</strong></a> from Google.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='10' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>8. Optimize Your Site’s Loading Speed</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Loading speed is very important. Some studies show that you can lose 7% conversion rate for every extra second your site takes up to load.</p> <p> </p> <p>That can be devastating!</p> <p> </p> <p>Fixing speed issues includes multiple things such as image size and JavaScript, which we will cover soon.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, the focus shouldn’t be on fixing issues or checking bullets provided by tools, but speed itself. In seconds.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24195" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/200.gif" alt="Loading image" width="200" height="200" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Another thing that affects your site speed is the server. Make sure you have a good server.</p> <p> </p> <p>The more traffic you drive to your website, the better the server should be to handle it properly.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='11' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>9. Improve Your Site’s User Experience</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Now this is a general tip, which kind of combines everything, but it’s not limited to only these tips.</p> <p> </p> <p>Many things make up for a good user experience, from fast loading speed to high quality content.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, things differ from case to case.</p> <p> </p> <p>The best way of improving the users’ experience is to ask them about it.</p> <p> </p> <p>Survey your users with <a href="https://qualaroo.com/website-survey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Qualaroo</strong></a> and SurveyMonkey and use tools such as Hotjar to monitor their activity on the website.</p> <p> </p> <p>You’ll figure out UX issues pretty quick, for example if a mobile button is too small or users can’t seem to figure out what they have to do next in a funnel.</p> <p> </p> <p>In addition to this, make sure that your website has close to 100% uptime. Sites that go down frequently do poorly in SERPs. An uptime monitor is absolutely critical.</p> <p>If you run an online store on platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce, there are <a href="https://rewind.io/best-shopify-apps/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rewind.io/best-shopify-apps/&source=gmail&ust=1602679798422000&usg=AFQjCNFclr3-qCrZpCvwodCDVvMI3FHeiw">some really good apps</a> that can help you capture a backup of your stores so that anytime something goes wrong, you can quickly recover the site so that there is no downtime. Here’s a cool guide on how to <a href="https://blog.sellfy.com/starting-online-store/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">start an online store</a> in 2020. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='12' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>10. Organize Your Site Hierarchy & Navigation</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Structure is one of those SEO best practices that are often overlooked. It’s really good to get things right from the start.</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s why you need an SEO before you start creating a website.</p> <p> </p> <p>While user experience is the driving factor, there’s more to structure than that.</p> <p> </p> <p>The way your navigation looks usually dictates the click depth to your pages.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-21945 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/navigation-internal-links-1024x188.png" alt="internal links in navigation menu" width="1024" height="188" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/navigation-internal-links-1024x188.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/navigation-internal-links-300x55.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/navigation-internal-links-768x141.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/navigation-internal-links.png 1099w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>And Google favors pages that are not too far down, the same way users do.</p> <p> </p> <p>If huge digging is required to pull important pages out from your site, then they’ll most likely not get found or be ignored.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><a title="URL Structure" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/23628/url-structure/">Structure your website</a></strong> accordingly to favor important pages.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='13' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>11. Use the Secure HTTPs Protocol</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>This tip is short and to the point. Connections should be secure.</p> <p> </p> <p>Google favors websites with secure connections, especially when sensitive data is sent through them.</p> <p> </p> <p>So, if you have a contact form, a login page, a payment system, it should run through HTTPS.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Warning:</strong> Moving from HTTP to HTTPS can negatively impact rankings if done wrong. Make sure to follow this <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/19854/http-to-https/">HTTP to HTTPS migration guide</a></strong>.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='14' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>12. Optimize Images for SEO</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>One of the biggest problem with images is related to their size, especially the disk size.</p> <p> </p> <p>Images are BIG and they take up a long time to load. They make your site slow.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24169" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/short-pixel-image-compression.jpg" alt="Lossless Image Compression" width="700" height="400" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/short-pixel-image-compression.jpg 700w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/short-pixel-image-compression-300x171.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Make sure you follow these rules:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>Compress the images with a tool like Smush for WordPress or <a href="https://shortpixel.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ShortPixel</a></li> <li>Display them at the right size and not just scale them down with CSS</li> <li>Load images that are outside the user’s view later on, with LazyLoad</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>However, image optimization doesn’t end here. Make sure you also add a relevant Title Title and Alt Tags to your images.</p> <p> </p> <p>Images are a great way of adding keywords that can’t be used properly in sentences.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, don’t just spam the image alt text in there. Try to briefly describe what’s in the image using those keywords.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you need HD images on your site, you’ll need a really good server or a 3rd party image hosting / CDN.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='15' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>13. Use Video in Your Content</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Not too many people do this.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can add video to support your content, or you can even fully repurpose content and then interlink it.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, if you have a pretty good article, turn it into a video. Same way around.</p> <p> </p> <p>Then, embed the video into the content and also link back to the post from your video’s description.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, don’t just copy paste a piece of content from one platform to another, as you might not get the results you want.</p> <p> </p> <p>Each social media platform requires a different strategy. What works on Facebook might not work on Instagram or LinkedIn.</p> <p> </p> <p>Let me tick this SEO best practice off the list by sharing this video with you:</p> <p><iframe title="How To Repurpose Video Content" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uB2kZnLm4gM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='16' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>14. Perform Regular Site Audits</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Auditing your site is very useful for spotting small issues that can become huge ones.</p> <p> </p> <p>Over time, small changes start to sneak in and sometimes, things might escalate.</p> <p> </p> <p>But auditing a site takes time. That’s why a tool such as <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com">CognitiveSEO</a></strong> is so useful!</p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24238" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Audit-Your-Site-for-Improved-SEO-and-Conversions-illustration.png" alt="Audit-Your-Site-for-Improved-SEO-and-Conversions-illustration" width="1024" height="597" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Audit-Your-Site-for-Improved-SEO-and-Conversions-illustration.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Audit-Your-Site-for-Improved-SEO-and-Conversions-illustration-300x175.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Audit-Your-Site-for-Improved-SEO-and-Conversions-illustration-768x448.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p>It does the job for you and constantly notifies you of issues that arise so that you can spot and fix them before things get too bad.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='17' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>15. Use Internal Links With Relevant Anchor Texts</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Site structure can be constantly consolidated by using internal links.</p> <p> </p> <p>We know Google penalizes backlinks with exact match anchor texts if done too much, but we don’t know of any penalty for internal links.</p> <p> </p> <p>Both Google representatives John Mueller and Gary Illyes have <strong><a href="https://www.seroundtable.com/google-no-internal-linking-overoptimization-penalty-27092.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">confirmed this</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <div id="attachment_24237" style="width: 661px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24237" class="size-full wp-image-24237" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Gary-Google-Internal-Linking.png" alt="Gary Google Internal Linking" width="651" height="383" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Gary-Google-Internal-Linking.png 651w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Gary-Google-Internal-Linking-300x176.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 651px) 100vw, 651px" /><p id="caption-attachment-24237" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #808080;"><em>Screenshot from seroundtable.com</em></span></p></div> <p> </p> <p>Don’t force it, though. One day, there might be a penalty, who knows.</p> <p> </p> <p>The key is to make them relevant for the users as well.</p> <p> </p> <p>Also keep in mind that boilerplate content internal links from sections such as the header, footer or sidebars are less valuable than contextual links from the body.</p> <p> </p> <p>Whenever you’re publishing new content, keep in mind when you can reference old content in relevant cases and link to it.</p> <p> </p> <p>Your focus is to highlight those pages that you consider to be most important.</p> <p> </p> <p>If your most important money page has a low number of internal links compared to other pages, Google might not understand its importance.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='18' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>16. Link to External Pages With Relevant Anchor Text as Well</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Recently I’ve had a consulting session with a client that confessed me that an SEO ‘expert’ told her not to link to external pages because she loses <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/19033/google-pagerank/">Page Rank</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you’re a real SEO expert, you’re probably laughing with me right now.</p> <p> </p> <p>While there’s an ounce of truth that eventually you’ll lose Page Rank when linking out too much, there are <strong><a href="https://moz.com/search-ranking-factors/correlations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">signs</a> </strong>that linking to other relevant websites could help increase your rankings.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you have something relevant and useful to share with the world and your audience, link away.</p> <p> </p> <p>It will help you build relationships and the favors will return.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='19' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>17. Actively Acquire Links to Your Website</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Luke 6:38. Give and you shall be given.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you don’t link to others, why would you expect them to link to you?</p> <p> </p> <p>However, you’ll also have to work for those backlinks.</p> <p> </p> <p>There is a saying: <em>“God helps those who help themselves.”</em></p> <p> </p> <p>So go that extra mile to promote your content after you publish it. Be it via outreach or social media advertising, make sure it gets to the right people.</p> <p> </p> <p>Try to build relationships and offer value and the links will come.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can follow these steps to develop an effective <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/18569/link-building-campaign/">link building campaign</a></strong>.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='20' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>18. Consistently Add Fresh, High Quality Content</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>While adding more content doesn’t guarantee you higher rankings or more traffic, one thing is for sure: the more content you have, the higher the chances of you getting more traffic.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s actually pretty simple: the more content you add, the more keyword you target. The more keyword you target, the more traffic you get.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-24173" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/quick-maths-seo-300x169.jpg" alt="Quick Maths BigShaq" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/quick-maths-seo-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/quick-maths-seo-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/quick-maths-seo-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/quick-maths-seo.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p> <p>However, once you’ve reached that point when you kind of covered everything, things start to stagnate.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, here at cognitiveSEO we’ve been focusing on writing new high quality content for the past years. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. </p> <p> </p> <p>If you’re just starting out, targeting lower competition keywords and writing more articles can be an effective strategy until you build some authority.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you’re already a big brand, a better solution would be to go after high competition, high search volume articles.</p> <p> </p> <p>Land one of those big ones and you’re set.</p> <p> </p> <p>But make sure to read our next SEO best practice…</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='21' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>19. Update Your Best Performing Content Once in a While</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>After a while, we’ve reached a point where most of the SEO topics were already covered in our old articles, one way or another.</p> <p> </p> <p>Finding new topics has become harder and we’ve noticed we are repeating ourselves in many cases.</p> <p> </p> <p>So we’ve decided to update old content instead of writing new one.</p> <p> </p> <p>Updating and improving old content that performed well can really help you with search engine rankings.</p> <p> </p> <p>One such experiment was on an <strong><a title="Writing for SEO" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/21096/how-to-write-for-seo/">SEO Copywriting</a></strong> article.</p> <p> </p> <p>After updating the content and optimizing it better for user intent (first step in this SEO best practices list), rankings and traffic went up. </p> <p> </p> <p>You can see in the screenshot below an increase in clicks and impressions right after after the optimization was done, in December 2019. </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24248 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-cognitiveseo-1.png" alt="search console cognitiveseo" width="1024" height="613" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-cognitiveseo-1.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-cognitiveseo-1-300x180.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-cognitiveseo-1-768x460.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p>By keeping the content up-to-date, you’re also keeping it relevant.</p> <p> </p> <p>Don’t just do this for the best content, but also for old content that doesn’t seem to satisfy the user intent.</p> <p> </p> <p>Are you covering two topics into a single article? Split it in two. Are two or more articles covering the exact same topic but none are ranking? Merge them into one.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='22' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>20 . Don’t Use Javascript or JS Frameworks Extensively</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>JavaScript is a God given, just like Ice Cream. But too much of it can lead to some nasty things.</p> <p> </p> <p>While JS can fix burnt crawl budget and indexation issues in an <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/22235/faceted-navigation-seo/"><strong>eCommerce Faceted Navigation</strong></a> scenario, it can also heavily impact the performance of a website if used too much.</p> <p> </p> <p>Usually, the issue with JavaScript is that plugins load the scripts everywhere even when they are not needed.</p> <p> </p> <p>A very good example are Slider plugins. Usually, revolution slider is only used on the homepage, yet the script can be found on every WordPress page.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sliders are known to negatively impact CTR so maybe it’s a good idea to ditch it for good, if you don’t have a solid reason for keeping it.</p> <p> </p> <p>Combining and Minifying JS files can help, but that usually breaks the code. Deferring it also works, until it doesn’t (ReCaptcha doesn’t really like that).</p> <p> </p> <p>Sometimes, people render content through JavaScript. This is also a bad idea because Google has a harder time indexing that content.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you do use JS to generate content, make sure it generates the content as HTML in the source of the web page.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='23' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>21. Use Hreflang for Multi-Language Websites</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Search results have become more and more personalized and geo-targeted.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you have a multilingual website, correctly implementing the hreflang tag can mean business.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24175 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/languages-seo.png" alt="Use Hreflang" width="512" height="309" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/languages-seo.png 512w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/languages-seo-300x181.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></p> <p>There are websites that use the tag but don’t use it the right way.</p> <p> </p> <p>The problem with this? It can actually do harm!</p> <p> </p> <p>Make sure you don’t make these <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/17150/multi-language-website-mistakes/">hreflang mistakes</a></strong> when you implement this on your website.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='24' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>22. Check Your Schema Markup</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Or add it if you don’t have Schema already.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, don’t rush on doing this first. While <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/23465/schema-markup/">Schema Markup and Structured Data</a></strong> can be useful, other things such as properly optimizing your Titles are more important.</p> <p> </p> <p>Once you have those things done, you can take a look at Schema Markup as well.</p> <p> </p> <p>To test your implementation, you can use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24174 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/structured-data-testing-tool.png" alt="Google's Structured Data Testing Tool." width="614" height="333" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/structured-data-testing-tool.png 614w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/structured-data-testing-tool-300x163.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px" /></p> <p>Usually, this works best for eCommerce stores, but can also be used by blogs and informational websites to their advantage.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='25' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>23. Track Your Results With Google Search Console</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>The Google Search Console is your best friend.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can also track things with Google Analytics. However, when it comes to SEO, the Search Console is the proper monitoring tool.</p> <p> </p> <p>Analytics and Search Console work differently.</p> <p> </p> <p>Google Analytics tracks the users after they reach your website, while the Search Console tracks them from Google’s side, on the search result pages themselves.</p> <p> </p> <p>So, for the most accurate results, it’s best if you use the Search Console.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-20996 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/New-Google-Search-Console-1024x681.png" alt="New Google Search Console" width="1024" height="681" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/New-Google-Search-Console-1024x681.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/New-Google-Search-Console-300x199.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/New-Google-Search-Console-768x510.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/New-Google-Search-Console.png 1270w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p>Not only will it show you how your content is performing in Google, but it will also pinpoint a lot of SEO issues your website might have.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='26' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>How to Check If You’re Following the Best Practices for SEO</h2> <p> </p> <p>The first tip would be to <strong>make an SEO checklist of the things mentioned above and check them off</strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, the best way is to create a system of your own and stick to it. Be it yourself or your entire company.</p> <p> </p> <p>Develop a strategy, create rules and follow them all the time. Have a process. That’s the key to success.</p> <p> </p> <p>What SEO best practices are you planning to use in 2020 an onward in your strategy? Let me know in the comments section below.</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/24146/seo-best-practices/">SEO Best Practices → Guide to Skyrocket Your Google Rankings</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog">SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies</a>.</p>The Unique SEO Content Strategy to Rank #1 with Zero Links
2020-06-04 09:47:30 UTC
We keep hearing that content is king. Write great content, content here, content there. But how true is that statement? Is there such a thing as an SEO Content Strategy that you can use to rank #1 with zero backlinks? Like most answers in SEO, this one is also ‘it depends’. Keep […]
The post The Unique SEO Content Strategy to Rank #1 with Zero Links appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.
<p>We keep hearing that content is king. Write great content, content here, content there. But how true is that statement? Is there such a thing as an SEO Content Strategy that you can use to rank #1 with zero backlinks?</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24349" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SEO-content-strategy.jpg" alt="SEO content strategy" width="1024" height="538" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SEO-content-strategy.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SEO-content-strategy-300x158.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SEO-content-strategy-768x404.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Like most answers in SEO, this one is also ‘it depends’.</p> <p> </p> <p>Keep reading and I’ll explain exactly why.</p> <p> </p> <p>While you might not be able to get to position one without any backlinks for a highly competitive keyword, you’ll definitely be able to increase your rankings in Google just by optimizing your content and having in place a great SEO content strategy. </p> <p> </p> <p>By the end of this blog post, you’ll have a better understanding of how Google treats links and content and you’ll get the SEO Content Strategy that might help rank #1 on Google with zero backlinks.</p> <p> </p> <ol class="summaryext"> <li><strong><a href="#1">Can I Really Rank #1 with Zero Links?</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#2">Why Is Google Pushing More Weight to the Content Ranking Factor?</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#3">Step-by-step SEO Content Strategy to Rank #1 with Zero Links</a></strong> <ol> <li><strong><a href="#4">Identify Your Primary Audience and Their Pain Points</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#5">Perform an In-depth Keyword Research & Audit</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#6">Make a List of the Keywords You Can Realistically Dominate</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#7">Analyze the Search Intent of Your Keywords</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#8">Optimize Landing Pages / Per Keyword & Per Search Intent</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#9">Write Content That Stands Out and Is Share Worthy</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#10">Launch & Share Your Content with Key Influencers</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#11">Monitor How Your Content Is Performing</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#12">Update Your Content Once in a While</a></strong></li> </ol> </li> <li><strong><a href="#13">Conclusion</a></strong></li> </ol> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='1' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>1. Can I Really Rank #1 with Zero Links?</h2> <p>Not long ago we performed a lot of searches for pharma, gambling and skincare keywords, in a nutshell on highly competitive keywords and niches. </p> <p> </p> <p>Our bet was to figure out if there are pages within these niches ranking based on high quality content only. </p> <p> </p> <p>As you can see in the screenshot below taken from cognitiveSEO’s Content Optimizer, you can see that there are many pages with no or just a few links but highly optimized content, that rank really well. </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24364" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Argan-oil-for-acne-results-1024x534.png" alt="high content no links example" width="1024" height="534" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Argan-oil-for-acne-results-1024x534.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Argan-oil-for-acne-results-1024x534-300x156.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Argan-oil-for-acne-results-1024x534-768x401.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Of course, we cannot answer to this question with a simple yes or no, yet, with Google giving so much weight to content lately, we might say that a good SEO content strategy can help you out big time.</p> <p> </p> <p>Of course, it depends based on what you mean by rankings and it depends on what you mean by links.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, someone might claim they rank without any links, but what are they ranking for?</p> <p> </p> <p>Are they ranking for a high competition, high search volume keyword, or a long tail, low competition and low search volume one?</p> <p> </p> <p>Some time ago, Steven Kang started <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/SEOSignalsLab/permalink/2255854634731986/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a contest</a> in the SEO Signals Facebook Group, with a prize pool of $1000, to whoever could find or pinpoint a website that ranked #1 on Google with no backlinks.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-24301" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/seo-contest-rank-zero-backlinks-227x300.jpg" alt="" width="227" height="300" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/seo-contest-rank-zero-backlinks-227x300.jpg 227w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/seo-contest-rank-zero-backlinks.jpg 458w" sizes="(max-width: 227px) 100vw, 227px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>However, the rules for this contest were very specific:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li>There can be no external backlinks present. Any single external backlink to the domain discovered will disqualify the site.</li> <li>The site can have internal links since some claim internal linking shouldn’t count for such claim.</li> <li>The site must be written in English.</li> </ol> <p> </p> <p>One year after, the contest is still available. Nobody has won it yet.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24300 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/seo-contest-no-links.png" alt="SEO Contest No Links" width="510" height="251" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/seo-contest-no-links.png 510w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/seo-contest-no-links-300x148.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>By the looks of it… it seems that it’s difficult to rank on Google without backlinks.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, in one case a website was eliminated and it had backlinks only from Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24302 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/no-winner.png" alt="No winner" width="466" height="217" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/no-winner.png 466w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/no-winner-300x140.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>While those are indeed backlinks, almost every website has them and they don’t pass as much value as a contextual link from a high quality, relevant website.</p> <p> </p> <p>Other contestants have said that the contest is not fair, as they did not buy or build the links, but they simply came naturally, just as Google wants.</p> <p> </p> <p>However… they’re still links, aren’t they?</p> <p> </p> <p>The contest therefore excludes all links, not only purchased, built or bought ones. Considering this, Social Media is also excluded and probably any other form of online promotion.</p> <p> </p> <p>So when it comes to ranking with zero links… Are you talking about links to that specific web page, or links to the entire domain?</p> <p> </p> <p>Are you talking about a made-up keyword with no search volume whatsoever, or about a profitable, competitive, highly searched for keyword with a great market value?</p> <p> </p> <p>If you’re trying to rank for a very competitive keyword, where the top-ranking domains have thousands of backlinks pointing to them… tough luck!</p> <p> </p> <p>The truth is that beside a solid SEO content strategy, links still matter and if your competition is building, buying or obtaining backlinks naturally, you’ll have a difficult time ranking #1 with zero backlinks.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>But if the competition doesn’t have many backlinks either, it is possible to outrank them, even without links, in some cases.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>There are many examples of websites which outrank their competition with fewer backlinks.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, we’re outranking Moz for the keyword “does meta description affect seo” although we only have 23 referring domains, while Moz’s page has over 1500.</p> <p> </p> <p>For another similar phrase, “does meta description matter”, another website is ranking very well, with only 1 referring domain.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, in both cases the results are an answer box. If you remember, some time ago you could have the answer box position and another spot. </p> <p> </p> <p>Luckily, when Google changed this and only let you keep one or the other, they let us have the answer box.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24321" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/answer-box-without-backlinks.png" alt="Answer Box SEO" width="766" height="503" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/answer-box-without-backlinks.png 766w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/answer-box-without-backlinks-300x197.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 766px) 100vw, 766px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>These are pretty specific keywords and for the most competitive phrase, “meta description”, Moz still dominates the top spot.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Ranking with just a few backlinks to a web page is possible, if you have the right content.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>But it’s probably necessary to have at least some backlinks pointing to your domain.</p> <p> </p> <p>The internet doesn’t really work well without links. Search engines use links to crawl the entire web.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s also true that without any backlinks pointing to your domain, Google will have a hard time crawling and indexing your site.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, keep in mind that backlinks on their own won’t do very much if the content doesn’t satisfy the users. They can even do harm.</p> <p> </p> <p>After the Penguin updates, it was pretty clear Google was set to fight back against link spam.</p> <p> </p> <p>Maybe the top spot isn’t achievable with absolutely zero links, but you don’t need the top spot to increase your search traffic.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>You can greatly improve rankings in Google simply by optimizing your content even for competitive, high search volume keywords.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Many other SEOs and content marketers <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/15137/increase-organic-traffic/">have improved their rankings</a></strong> following this OnPage SEO technique.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you stick around, I’ll show you exactly how you can do it, too.</p> <p> </p> <p>But first, let’s see why Google is pushing away from backlinks and more towards content.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='2' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>2. Why Is Google Pushing More Weight to the Content Ranking Factor?</h2> <p> </p> <p>Back in 2017, during our numerous tests, we found a big correlation between the Content Performance score we had developed and rankings.</p> <p> </p> <p>We repeated the test after 2 years, in 2019 and it seemed that content is even more important now.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Content-Performance-vs-Top-20-Google-Positions.png" /></p> <p>The algorithm we use is complex, using a mix of AI technologies and things such as LSI and Flesch–Kincaid to determine what makes a piece of content rank high.</p> <p>Attempts to remove backlinks from the algorithms have been made before.</p> <p> </p> <p>Why? Mostly because of spam. As long as backlinks are a ranking signal, people will try to abuse them.</p> <p> </p> <p>In 2013, Yandex, the Russian search engine, <a href="https://searchengineland.com/yandex-to-stop-counting-links-as-a-ranking-factor-for-commercial-queries-in-moscow-179209" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">removed backlinks from their algorithm</a> in an attempt to stop link spam.</p> <p> </p> <p>Although it only took effect in the Moscow local search results and only for commercial queries, the change was short lived, as they <a href="https://searchengineland.com/russian-search-engine-yandex-to-bring-back-links-to-their-ranking-algorithm-218815" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">brought links back</a> only a year after.</p> <p> </p> <p>Officials at Yandex stated that the change was “quite successful technologically”, but people still bought links and spammed the web regardless, so they decided to bring them back.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, they brought them back with a substantial change: The links would not only be a positive ranking signal, but also a negative one, just like with Google’s Penguin update.</p> <p> </p> <p>Could it be that the officials at Yandex are not willing to admit their failure? Maybe, who knows.</p> <p> </p> <p>But if it was a success, couldn’t they just use spammy links as a negative signal only? Without using other links as a positive one?</p> <p> </p> <p>Google has also tested rankings without backlinks in their algorithm.</p> <p> </p> <p><iframe width="100%" height="615" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NCY30WhI2og" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p> </p> <p>However, they came to the conclusion that the results look much better when backlinks are a ranking signal.</p> <p> </p> <p>Unfortunately, there are other issues with backlinks other than buying them.</p> <p> </p> <p>Take a look at <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/15796/negative-seo/">Negative SEO</a></strong>, for example. Google claims they can spot and ignore these types of links with Penguin 4.0, but is it really possible?</p> <p> </p> <p>I’m not convinced. I’ve seen many cases in which websites have a drop in traffic immediately after an unnatural spike in backlinks clearly built by others.</p> <p> </p> <p>You’d think that people engaging in Negative SEO will try to mimic link building… but that might also result in positive results for the target.</p> <p> </p> <p>So, these attacks are usually very obvious. Pure spam. And Google still penalized the site.</p> <p> </p> <p>So, it’s obvious they have a hard time dealing with all this link trading and spam.</p> <p> </p> <p>This, combined with the constant effort from SEOs to obtain backlinks in unnatural ways, has pushed Google into wanting to back away from backlinks.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Backlinks are something you don’t have much control over. Yet, an SEO content strategy you can control.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>With algorithm updates such as Penguin (which penalizes spammy links) and Panda (which penalizes spammy content), Google shows us it’s putting more weight on content.</p> <p> </p> <p><iframe width="100%" height="615" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iC5FDzUh0P4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p> </p> <p>But although search engines don’t like them, it seems like links are still going to stick around for a while, as Matt Cutts states in the video above.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, with AI software that can also write content like humans getting better and better every day…</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s hard to tell where this will go.</p> <p> </p> <p>We might have the same issue as with links, with AI written websites constantly trying to compete to the top.</p> <p> </p> <p>It would be a battle of the algorithms… one in which users won’t have a say.</p> <p> </p> <p>We could bring the law into the equation, but that would spark a whole new lot of bigger and more complex issues.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, I could see how in the future, the law would require you to specify that the content is written by a robot and not by a human.</p> <p> </p> <p>While AI written content can be used for good, it can also be used for harm, from the <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/18366/blackhat-seo-hurts-the-internet/"><strong>relatively harmless blackhat SEOs</strong></a> to the highly harmful fake news outlets.</p> <p> </p> <p><iframe width="100%" height="615" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-iKG5nJLgwg" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p> </p> <p>We’ve known for a long time that content was an important ranking factor, but now we also wanted to know why.</p> <p> </p> <p>Google was moving away from backlinks (our tool and marketing strategy was mostly built around backlinks) so investing in this was in our own interest.</p> <p> </p> <p>So let’s take a look at how exactly you can improve your rankings in Google without any link building, only by optimizing your content.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='3' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>3. The Step-by-Step SEO Content Strategy to Rank #1 with No Links</h2> <p> </p> <p>OK. Now you know that it’s possible to rank without links in some situations and also why Google puts more and more weight on the content side of SEO.</p> <p> </p> <p>You also know that backlinks are something you don’t have complete control over.</p> <p> </p> <p>But how exactly do you rank without links? What step-by-step SEO content strategy can you apply to succeed?</p> <p> </p> <p>Here are the steps you need to follow to have a chance on ranking without links.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='4' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>3.1. Identify your Primary Audience and Their Pain Points</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>The first think you should do before writing anything is identifying your target audience.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can start with what’s top of mind and build from there.</p> <p> </p> <p>Who would be interested in your content and how can you make your content appeal to them?</p> <p> </p> <p>Who are your clients? How old are they? Who are their friends? Where do they hang? How do they talk?</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s easier to do this when you already have some clients or readers. Just look at your best clients and readers so far.</p> <p> </p> <p>Who’s buying from you? Who’s reviewing on products? Who’s commenting on your blog and social media profiles?</p> <p> </p> <p>If you’re just starting out and have no idea… then consider doing a market research.</p> <p> </p> <p>I know it sounds complex, but you can start by simply creating a Google Form and sharing it on a couple of Facebook Groups, asking for help.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sure, it’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-24317" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/darts-155726_640-271x300.png" alt="Target Audience SEO" width="271" height="300" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/darts-155726_640-271x300.png 271w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/darts-155726_640.png 578w" sizes="(max-width: 271px) 100vw, 271px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Don’t focus on features with your product but on benefits. Don’t think in terms of needs but in terms of wants. Want is stronger than need.</p> <p> </p> <p>And don’t seek answers from your research but feelings and emotions which you can then use to convince them to buy.</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s what you want to ultimately address and that’s what will get you sales / engagement.</p> <p> </p> <p>This step is probably more useful for products and commercial keywords and less for informational queries.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, you can still address things such as the tone of voice for your audience.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can also try to create a persona of your ideal customer / reader and try to write as if you were speaking directly to that person.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='5' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>3.2. Perform an In-depth Keyword Research & Audit</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>The really important step when trying to optimize content is always keyword research.</p> <p> </p> <p>What are you targeting now?</p> <p> </p> <p>You can use the Google Search Console to easily determine the keyword you’re already ranking for.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24318" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-queries.png" alt="Search Console Queries" width="830" height="615" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-queries.png 830w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-queries-300x222.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-queries-768x569.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Can you improve this existing content? Or should you target new keywords? These are questions you should ask yourself when putting together your SEO content strategy. </p> <p> </p> <p>You can also use the <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/">CognitiveSEO Keyword Explorer</a></strong> to identify new topics you can target.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24319" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool.png" alt="Keyword Tool for SEO to Rank Wihtout Backlinks" width="826" height="467" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool.png 826w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-300x170.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-768x434.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 826px) 100vw, 826px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Once you’re done, map out these keywords into an excel file and sort them out by relevance and importance.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='6' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>3.3. Make a List of the Keywords You Can Realistically Dominate</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Now comes the more difficult part.</p> <p> </p> <p>For which of those keywords can you realistically rank better?</p> <p> </p> <p>After you’ve determined a list of keywords you’ll go after, you have to take a look at two things:</p> <p> </p> <p>Content Performance and Domain Performance.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can use the Ranking Analysis section of the <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/">Content Optimizer Tool</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24336 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-seo-content-strategy-e1591187674368-1024x648.png" alt="SEO Content Strategy to Rank Without Links" width="1024" height="648" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-seo-content-strategy-e1591187674368-1024x648.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-seo-content-strategy-e1591187674368-300x190.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-seo-content-strategy-e1591187674368-768x486.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-seo-content-strategy-e1591187674368.png 1284w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>While the Content Performance is something that we have control over and will improve in a future step, backlinks aren’t something we have that much control over.</p> <p> </p> <p>So you want to see websites with as few referring domains as possible compared to your site (which you can check with the <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/site-explorer/">Site Explorer</a></strong>).</p> <p> </p> <p>Of course, if you see a lower content score and/or word count, those are also good indicators that it will be easier to improve your content.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='7' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>3.4. Analyze the Search Intent of Your Keywords</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Search intent and user experience are very important. It’s the key metric in 2020 and onward.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you don’t match the <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/22986/search-intent/"><strong>search intent</strong></a> well, users will have a bad experience on your website.</p> <p> </p> <p>One of the best examples of search intent is transactional vs. informational.</p> <p> </p> <p>Given the keyword “men’s running shoes”, eCommerce websites will tend to rank better.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, for a keyword such as “best running shoes for men”, reviews and buyer’s guides will tend to rank better.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24323 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-user-intent.png" alt="User Intent SEO" width="861" height="809" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-user-intent.png 861w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-user-intent-300x282.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-user-intent-768x722.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 861px) 100vw, 861px" /></p> <p>People are simply looking for different types of content on each of those keywords.</p> <p> </p> <p>What you ultimately want to figure out is what your user is looking for when searching for a particular query and accessing your website.</p> <p> </p> <p>For this blog post I know that there are two possible intents that are very closely related to one another: “can you rank with zero backlinks” & “how to do it”. My article simply appeals to those needs.</p> <p> </p> <p>Knowing my audience in general, I know that I want to provide proof for the first group, and step-by-step tutorials for the second.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>A good way of analyzing search intent is to look at what’s already ranking well.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>You know they’re already doing something well, since they’re ranking.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you can spot some gaps you can fill, such as questions asked in the comments that remain unanswered in the content itself, that’s even better.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote class="yellow"> <p><strong><b>Did you know?</b></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/"><strong>The Content Optimizer & Keyword Tool</strong></a> from cognitiveSEO automatically classifies the search intent for you. </p> <p>You just need to type in the keyword you are interested in optimizing for, and the tool does most of the job for you. The tool performs keyword research, it will tell you what is the user search intent, how popular is that keyword, how difficult it is to rank on it, and cream of the crop: what it takes to rank on that keyword, meaning, what are the exact keywords and links that boosted that page in the top of the search results. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-23100" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/user-search-intent-cognitiveseo-1-1024x957.jpg" alt="user search intent cognitiveseo" width="1024" height="957" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/user-search-intent-cognitiveseo-1-1024x957.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/user-search-intent-cognitiveseo-1-300x280.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/user-search-intent-cognitiveseo-1-768x718.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/user-search-intent-cognitiveseo-1.jpg 1174w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> </blockquote> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='8' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>3.5. Optimize Landing Pages / Per Keyword & Per Search Intent</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>On with the actual optimization. Don’t worry, it’s probably the easiest step.</p> <p> </p> <p>First, consider that it’s always best to consider <a href="https://tillison.co.uk/blog/5-ways-to-make-your-landing-pages-convert/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">landing page optimization</a> for a single main keyword and a single search intent per page.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can sometimes combine very similar keywords, but try as much as possible to stick to the same search intent.</p> <p> </p> <p>Remember, if the search engine results are similar for these keywords, they probably have a similar search intent as well.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>You should keep in mind that writing naturally is the best way to go.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Open the Content Assistant section and hit Start Optimizing.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s easier to work on something you’ve already written, but you can also start from scratch. However, you’ll have to write at least a title for the tool to work.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can also import a URL if your content is already live.</p> <p> </p> <p>Then, just click Check Score, the tool will analyze your content, tell you the score and recommend you some keyword ideas.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24325 size-full" title="SEO content strategy example" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/content-optimizer.png" alt="SEO content strategy example" width="1017" height="766" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/content-optimizer.png 1017w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/content-optimizer-300x226.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/content-optimizer-768x578.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1017px) 100vw, 1017px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The idea is to add those keywords into your blog post. However, don’t just throw them in, or else you’ll end up with a Keyword Stuffing warning.</p> <p> </p> <p>The keywords with dots on their left are the most important ones. You should be using them multiple times throughout your content.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>The idea is to think of these keywords as subtopics or areas of interest that you should cover in your content.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>If a keyword that the tool recommends doesn’t seem to fit or has grammar mistakes in it, don’t force it in.</p> <p> </p> <p>You don’t need a 100% score. The tool will pinpoint how much you need to reach.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, you can also try doing it in phases. First, optimize for a few points above the average, then update your content after a few weeks to the recommended score.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='9' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>3.6. Write Content That Stands Out and Is Share Worthy</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>A great way to do this is to write content about complex questions that are very often asked in your industry, or case studies.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, this article about <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/19066/meta-description-affects-seo/">meta descriptions affect SEO or not</a></strong> has been linked to multiple times by other SEO blogs trying to make a quick point without getting into too much detail.</p> <p> </p> <p>Also, make sure you have great Titles, Headlines and Descriptions.</p> <p> </p> <p>Optimize your titles with keywords for SEO, but also keep them catchy for Social Media.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can use the Open Graph property to set different titles for SEO and Social Media</p> <p> </p> <p>Long content tends to perform better in organic search results.</p> <p> </p> <p>When people search for something, you already know they are interested in it. That’s why SEM has such a high conversion rate and people spend time reading in depth articles.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can look at the top ranking search results for your keyword in the Ranking Analysis section of our <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/">Content Optimizer Tool</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24336 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-seo-content-strategy-e1591187674368-1024x648.png" alt="SEO Content Strategy to Rank Without Links" width="1024" height="648" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-seo-content-strategy-e1591187674368-1024x648.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-seo-content-strategy-e1591187674368-300x190.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-seo-content-strategy-e1591187674368-768x486.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-seo-content-strategy-e1591187674368.png 1284w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>For this particular keyword, you can see that the top ranking content is between 2500 and 5000 words on average, although we can even see articles with only 1800 words in top 10.</p> <p> </p> <p>Usually, it’s a good idea to go for at least the top 10 average plus a few hundred words, just to be sure. But it’s not really about quantity, it’s about quality.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, you’ll probably not be able to fit all the depth required for this particular topic in just 200 words, at least compared to the competitors.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nevertheless, take this content length thing with a grain of salt. While long form content performs better in search, shorter content might perform better on social media.</p> <p> </p> <p>On Social Media, people are browsing different things and not really looking for a particular topic, so they might prefer things straight and to the point.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='10' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>3.7. Launch & Share Your Content with Key Influencers</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Once you’ve written and published your content, it’s time to promote it. This should be an important part of your SEO content strategy.</p> <p> </p> <p>We made a study a few years ago on weather <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/11903/social-signals-seo-influence/#2"><strong>social signals influence rankings</strong></a> and it seems that a strong presence on social networks is correlated with better rankings.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24359" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Social-Signals-Influence-SEO-1024x570.png" alt="Social-Signals-Influence-SEO--1024x570" width="1024" height="570" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Social-Signals-Influence-SEO-1024x570.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Social-Signals-Influence-SEO-1024x570-300x167.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Social-Signals-Influence-SEO-1024x570-768x428.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Once you have your content live, it’s time to share it with the appropriate influencers.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Who are these influencers? Well, people who have a following which matches your target audience.</p> <p> </p> <p>If they don’t hear about your content… they can’t share it or talk about it.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s also a good idea that the influencers themselves are interested or resonate in the topic and the way you present it.</p> <p> </p> <p>One of the even more advanced SEO strategies is to plan your content ahead.</p> <p> </p> <p>And by this I don’t mean having an editorial calendar, but actually targeting influencers beforehand, analyzing them and writing something that you already know they will be willing to share.</p> <p> </p> <p>You’ll have to be persuasive and it’s also a good idea to build trust with them beforehand, by sharing their content and commenting on it or engaging with them.</p> <p> </p> <p>I know it sounds evil and manipulative and you can be if your sole interest is only to get what you want, but being genuine and truly offering value in exchange usually works best.</p> <p> </p> <p>I can recall the easiest response I have ever got. It was from a person named Reiner, which reminded me of a character in the anime show Attack on Titan.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24311 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/reiner.png" alt="Personal connection outreach" width="507" height="136" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/reiner.png 507w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/reiner-300x80.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 507px) 100vw, 507px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Luckily, he did see the anime, so we how now had a personal connection and he was willing to give me a hand.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24315 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/reiner2.png" alt="Successful Outreach" width="713" height="146" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/reiner2.png 713w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/reiner2-300x61.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 713px) 100vw, 713px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Another easy-to-implement technique is to ask for quotes from experts in your industry or take interviews.</p> <p> </p> <p>Two examples are my article about SEO mistakes and my colleague Andreea’s article about SEO tips from 22 experts.</p> <p> </p> <p>While we offered a lot of value, it’s true that we also used the guests’ reputation to leverage our content’s reach.</p> <p> </p> <p>Of course, it’s not guaranteed to work, but most of them will gladly share the content on their social profiles or blogs.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>To find influencers, you can use a tool such as <strong>Brand Mentions</strong>.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>You can spy on your competitors and see which influencers have mentioned their content.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24337 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/influencer-monitoring-1024x478.png" alt="How to monitor influencers to promote content" width="1024" height="478" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/influencer-monitoring-1024x478.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/influencer-monitoring-300x140.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/influencer-monitoring-768x358.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/influencer-monitoring.png 1033w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Then, engage with them and try to build relationships.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='11' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>3.8. Monitor How Your Content Is Performing</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>You should make sure you’re able to track your progress if you want to know how successful your modifications were.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Google Search Console is a great way of monitoring organic search traffic and positions.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, the data there might sometimes be a little confusing and hard to filter.</p> <p> </p> <p>You might also be interested in a third party tool, such as our <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/ranktracker/">Rank Tracker</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24324 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/rank-tracker.png" alt="Rank Tracker" width="874" height="500" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/rank-tracker.png 874w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/rank-tracker-300x172.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/rank-tracker-768x439.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 874px) 100vw, 874px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Moreover, not all traffic comes from Google, so you might also want a tool such as Google Analytics to monitor other traffic sources.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can also try a tool such as <strong><a href="https://brandmentions.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brand Mentions</a></strong> to monitor mentions about your brand and content on Social Media and the internet.</p> <p> </p> <p>To precisely monitor the effectiveness of this OnPage SEO technique, make sure you don’t make any other major changes to the website.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='12' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>3.9. Update Your Content Once in a While</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Google loves fresh content. That’s why updating it from time to time should be part of your SEO content strategy.</p> <p> </p> <p>Our method works really well for old content as well, so don’t just focus on new content.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>We’ve improved many of our old blog posts using the <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/">Content Optimizer Tool</a>.</strong></p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>In fact, we did it on a mass scale, with pretty good results.</p> <p> </p> <p>Although some of the articles did lose a couple of rankings instead of gaining them, the overall process was a success, both in terms of rankings and traffic.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Search-visibility-increase-1024x491.png" alt="Search visibility increase" /></p> <p> </p> <p>One of the articles we’ve constantly updated over the time is our <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/13616/google-easter-eggs/">Google Easter Eggs article</a></strong>, which is one of our top performing piece of content, although not directly related to SEO. </p> <p> </p> <p>It’s a good idea to check the content’s score from time to time to see if it’s still in good shape.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>The Content Performance score is relative. This means that as other articles improve, your score might drop over time.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>However, even if the score is still really good, don’t try to trick Google by simply changing the date to make your content look fresh.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s best if you actually review the content and make a few improvements / modifications.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='13' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p> </p> <p>To get high ranks, the focus shouldn’t be on backlinks, but on a solid SEO content strategy. Get your content under the right people’s eyes, and you’ll see the links pouring in.</p> <p> </p> <p>Applying this SEO content strategy can help you easily rank without going through the hassle of obtaining links. Attack the content creation and promotion from the right angle and backlinks will come naturally.</p> <p> </p> <p>The truth is, you don’t need backlinks for every article. You just need a handful of articles that bring in the links to grow the authority of your domain.</p> <p> </p> <p>Then you can use those links to pass that authority to all your articles, making it easier to rank everywhere.</p> <p> </p> <p>So, let us know in the comments section below: Do you consider it’s possible to rank a page without any backlinks? Have you every managed to rank one on a decent search volume keyword? Do you know any content marketers at all able to rank websites on Google without backlinks? What other marketing strategy have you used to rank your content except building links?</p> <p> </p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/24293/seo-content-strategy/">The Unique SEO Content Strategy to Rank #1 with Zero Links</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog">SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies</a>.</p>11 Content Marketing Trends That Will Affect Your SEO
2020-06-15 09:31:18 UTC
The digital marketing industry is continuing to evolve, and you need to keep up with the content marketing trends that appear. SEO and content marketing should always be best friends, one should not live without the other. That’s how we come to the idea of searching the trends in content marketing which influence SEO […]
The post 11 Content Marketing Trends That Will Affect Your SEO appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.
<p>The digital marketing industry is continuing to evolve, and you need to keep up with the content marketing trends that appear. SEO and content marketing should always be best friends, one should not live without the other. </p> <p> </p> <p>That’s how we come to the idea of searching the trends in content marketing which influence SEO so you know what to expect and how to place yourself on the wave and not against it.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24396" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/10_Content_Marketing_Trends_That_Will_Affect_Your_SEO.jpg" alt="11_Content_Marketing_Trends_That_Will_Affect_Your_SEO" width="1024" height="512" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/10_Content_Marketing_Trends_That_Will_Affect_Your_SEO.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/10_Content_Marketing_Trends_That_Will_Affect_Your_SEO-300x150.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/10_Content_Marketing_Trends_That_Will_Affect_Your_SEO-768x384.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p>We’ve talked about the importance of content on our blog on multiple occasions, especially since Google started to focus their ranking signals on content. We even researched how you can rank on top Google positions without links with a proper <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/24293/seo-content-strategy/">content strategy</a> in place. </p> <p> </p> <p>With so many trends to choose from the content marketing area, we had a hard time narrowing down the ones that will have a high impact on SEO, but nevertheless, here they are:</p> <p> </p> <ol class="summaryext"> <li><strong><a href="#1">Natural Language Search & Voice Search Content</a></strong></li> <li><a href="#2"><strong>Optimized Content for User Search Intent</strong></a></li> <li><strong><a href="#3">Personalized Content Experiences</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#4">Content Creation Process Has Reconfigured Its Steps</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#5">Content Marketing Will Be Written Only for Content Marketers</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#6">Context Is the New Era of SEO</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#7">Influencer Marketing Has More Power</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#8">Customers Expect Full Transparency </a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#9">Video Content Is the Most Preferred Type of Content</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#10">Native Advertising Is Rising Rapidly</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#11">Bite-Sized Content Revolution</a></strong></li> </ol> <p> </p> <p>Having such a handful list of goodies, it’s time to make the content marketing strategy, prepare our tools and get to work. Now that we are passed the springtime and we’re heading into the sunny summer, we have to be prepared, otherwise, we risk getting burnt. We don’t need just suncream but also our bag of knowledge and the life ring to help us stay above the water.</p> <p> </p> <p>Content has been a highly debated topic since Google said it is one of top three ranking signals. Especially if your brand is focused on the strategy direct to consumer and you sell directly to the end customers then your content is an asset. Your website content needs to be correctly optimized and highly accurate to drive content traffic and then sales. That’s why you need be aware of the trends to make your content stand up.</p> <p> </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='1' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>1. Natural Language Search & Voice Search Content</strong></h2> <section></section> <p>Voice search is one of the content marketing trends that is increasing viciously. According to Google, <a href="https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/data/voice-search-statistics/">20% of mobile searches</a> are now voice searches. Moreover, voice-activated content has constant growth. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24370" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Google-trends-for-voice-search-1024x605.png" alt="Google trends for voice search" width="1024" height="605" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Google-trends-for-voice-search-1024x605.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Google-trends-for-voice-search-300x177.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Google-trends-for-voice-search-768x454.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Google-trends-for-voice-search.png 1480w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> This trend has a high influence on SEO. In the screenshot below you can see how much the voice search accounts from all the searches performed on the search engines.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-12162" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mobile-search-stats-cognitiveSEO-1024x479.png" alt="mobile search stats cognitiveSEO" width="1024" height="479" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mobile-search-stats-cognitiveSEO-1024x479.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mobile-search-stats-cognitiveSEO-300x140.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mobile-search-stats-cognitiveSEO.png 1442w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The printscreen is taken from a study on the <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/11995/voice-search-effect-on-seo/#2">effect of voice search on SEO</a></strong> we conducted some time ago. You would be surprised what we discovered!</p> <p> </p> <p>An increasing number of people in the United States are using voice to conduct searches. An Emarketer study shows that <strong><a href="https://www.oberlo.com/blog/voice-search-statistics" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">one-third of the US population</a></strong> uses voice search. A comparison beside search typed queries and. 71 percent of consumers prefer to use voice searches (PricewaterhouseCoopers).</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24382" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/One-third-of-US-population-uses-voice-search-1024x648.jpg" alt="One third of US population uses voice search" width="1024" height="648" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/One-third-of-US-population-uses-voice-search-1024x648.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/One-third-of-US-population-uses-voice-search-300x190.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/One-third-of-US-population-uses-voice-search-768x486.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/One-third-of-US-population-uses-voice-search-1536x973.jpg 1536w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/One-third-of-US-population-uses-voice-search.jpg 1748w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24383 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Voice-search-is-more-popular-1024x648.jpg" alt="Voice search is more popular than typing" width="1024" height="648" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Voice-search-is-more-popular-1024x648.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Voice-search-is-more-popular-300x190.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Voice-search-is-more-popular-768x486.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Voice-search-is-more-popular-1536x972.jpg 1536w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Voice-search-is-more-popular.jpg 1748w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>We performed some searches in Google trends to understand the evolution and to have a clearer understanding of how voice search can revolutionize the SEO world (and if that’s a true fact).</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-19178" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/near-me-on-Google-trends-1024x582.png" alt="near me on Google trends" width="1024" height="582" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/near-me-on-Google-trends-1024x582.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/near-me-on-Google-trends-300x171.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/near-me-on-Google-trends-768x437.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/near-me-on-Google-trends.png 1164w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>We then added some other search terms to compare. We wanted to see if there is a difference between an organical growth and an explosive one.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24384" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/organic-growth-vs-explosive-growth-1024x559.png" alt="organic growth vs explosive growth" width="1024" height="559" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/organic-growth-vs-explosive-growth-1024x559.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/organic-growth-vs-explosive-growth-300x164.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/organic-growth-vs-explosive-growth-768x420.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/organic-growth-vs-explosive-growth.png 1479w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>We discovered that SEO was on the safe side, but not for long. We can still use our SEO and digital marketing knowledge as the voice revolution might be close but not yet underway.</p> <p> </p> <p>As a recommendation, I would suggest using natural language and create relevant content that is easy to read, just like you are talking with somebody and not over-optimizing for the sake of SEO “success”. Build a content strategy optimization for voice search and use conversational marketing. </p> <p> </p> <p>For example, if you want to use chatbots make sure they have a natural language (conversational marketing) and they are easy to implement and relevant to your website.</p> <p> </p> <p>When asking a question in your article, try to respond to it in a full sentence, giving a specific response, make it easy to skim and invest in building trust. Try using a conversational tone in your content and optimize for long phrases or even questions. <strong><a href="https://keywords.cognitiveseo.com/">Keyword tool</a></strong> has an option that allows you to receive a recommendation based on your search terms. And you can choose to see all the questions and the metrics attached to them.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24385" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Keyword-toold-and-Content-optimizer-1024x553.png" alt="Keyword tool and Content optimizer" width="1024" height="553" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Keyword-toold-and-Content-optimizer-1024x553.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Keyword-toold-and-Content-optimizer-300x162.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Keyword-toold-and-Content-optimizer-768x415.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Keyword-toold-and-Content-optimizer.png 1481w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Some other thing you should do is optimizing for local searches since they started to take a hike in searches. As you could see from our study on voice search, there were a lot of “near me” searches.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24386" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/containing-keyword-filters-in-Keyword-Tool-1024x586.png" alt="containing keyword filters in Keyword Tool" width="1024" height="586" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/containing-keyword-filters-in-Keyword-Tool-1024x586.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/containing-keyword-filters-in-Keyword-Tool-300x172.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/containing-keyword-filters-in-Keyword-Tool-768x439.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/containing-keyword-filters-in-Keyword-Tool.png 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='2' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>2. Optimized Content for User Search Intent</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>Content and search engines together changed the way they work. They are now in sync, have strict rules are are definitely content marketing trends you should follow. The trend in content shifted the focus on the user, and Google is trying to deliver better optimized and personalized content to each user – hence the user search intent. </p> <p> </p> <p>To understand the user search intent you need to perform a lot of keyword research. If you understand what your users want and what their intent is when they are searching for a specific query, half of the job for ranking on that keyword is done.</p> <p> </p> <p>To better understand your audience, perform keyword research, look through analytics and conduct studies to find out what is their paint point, if they find what they need on your website. If the bounce rate is high that means they don’t find what they are looking for (based on the keyword they search and got on your page). Then check your content and see if it is misleading, answers to the title/topic you’re targeting. </p> <p> </p> <p>See what keywords do they look for on your website search box, then follow their path through the pages they navigate and design the customer journey map. There are lots of ways to better understand your audience and optimize your content for user search intent. We’ve conducted a thorough guideline on <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/22986/search-intent/"><strong>how to identify & best optimize for user search inten</strong>t</a> based on three types of user search intent: informational, navigational and transactional. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23094" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/search-intent-classification.png" alt="search intent classification" width="842" height="503" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/search-intent-classification.png 842w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/search-intent-classification-300x179.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/search-intent-classification-768x459.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 842px) 100vw, 842px" /></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='3' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>3. Personalized Content Experiences</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>Personalized content is the new buzzword in the content marketing trends world. Studies have shown that this year we’ll have more content than before, and this story has been around for some years. Several dozens of pieces of content might be published until the end of this year. </p> <p> </p> <p>For example, Domo, the American software company which specializes in business intelligence software, performed their research and shared the results through their <a href="https://www.domo.com/learn/data-never-sleeps-7" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>Data Never Sleeps 7.0</strong></a> project (the fifth year since it started). In the graph below you can see how much data is flooding the internet every minute of the day.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24389" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/data-never-sleeps-7-599x1024.jpg" alt="data-never-sleeps-7" width="599" height="1024" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/data-never-sleeps-7-599x1024.jpg 599w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/data-never-sleeps-7-176x300.jpg 176w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/data-never-sleeps-7.jpg 675w" sizes="(max-width: 599px) 100vw, 599px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Personalized content creates a connection between the brand and the customer and has lots of benefits. According to Evergage’s 2019 <strong>Trends in Personalization Survey Report</strong> respondents saw that personalized content delivers better customer experiences.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24390" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Drivers-of-personalization.png" alt="Drivers of personalization" width="935" height="642" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Drivers-of-personalization.png 935w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Drivers-of-personalization-300x206.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Drivers-of-personalization-768x527.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 935px) 100vw, 935px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>That being said, with all the data coming around and bombarding the reader with information from all sides, your content must stand out. That’s how the personalized content appeared. The readers feel important when you address them in person.</p> <p> </p> <p>Studies show that personalized content is more effective and powerful and website visitors convert better when they are targeted through customized content.</p> <table class="author-quotes" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr class="author-quote-row"> <td class="author-text" colspan="2"><a href="https://www.evergage.com/blog/press/new-evergage-study-shows-compelling-personalization-benefits/">88% of U.S. marketers</a> reported seeing measurable improvements due to personalization.</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="author-image" rowspan="2"> </td> <td class="author-name">Evergage</td> </tr> <tr class="author-description-row"> <td> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p> <p>Personalization has started to become critical in the future of content marketing. It is a content marketing trend that has a big influence on SEO. That means more appropriate content for each user, based on their last searches on site, on their last activity on social media, on the actions taken on-site and so on.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, one user downloads an e-book from your site. Next time you could offer similar e-books, or you could welcome them by name on your site. Go further, and send them personalized emails. It is more personal, and you get a chance to fulfill your readers’ needs. Creating personalized experiences through adaptive content can increase your results and bring more conversions. If you’re a B2B, here’s a <a href="https://blog.contentstudio.io/comprehensive-b2b-content-marketing-strategy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">content marketing strategy</a> you can get inspiration from. </p> <p> </p> <p>Adidas used the personalization technique to send different emails to women and men, which was very smart and appealed better to each gender. Below you can see an example:</p> <p> </p> <div id="attachment_19175" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-19175" class="wp-image-19175 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Personalization-1024x376.jpg" alt="Personalization" width="1024" height="376" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Personalization-1024x376.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Personalization-300x110.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Personalization-768x282.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Personalization.jpg 1358w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><p id="caption-attachment-19175" class="wp-caption-text">Source: www.campaignmonitor.com</p></div> <p> </p> <p>Personalized emails experienced an increase of <a href="https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-new-rules/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>26% open rate</strong></a>. And the nice part is that everyone can take advantage of this technique. And this is just one example. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24391" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Personalization-increases-open-rates.png" alt="Personalization increases open rates" width="923" height="528" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Personalization-increases-open-rates.png 923w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Personalization-increases-open-rates-300x172.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Personalization-increases-open-rates-768x439.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 923px) 100vw, 923px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>You can create content only for your users, or you can offer special prices for them, depending on <strong><a href="https://www.oberlo.com/blog/moving-your-business-online" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">your digital business</a></strong>. For example, Answer applies special discounts in the checkout step for users who are the in VIP club, meaning those who passed their first purchase.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you’re using personalized content, you’ll have higher scores and in the end, a strong and good impact on SEO. Not to mention you’ll improve the user experience. You’ll need to rely on automatization and create segments, and collect behavioral data to maximize your SEO efforts.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='4' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>4. Content Creation Process Has Reconfigured Its Steps</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>We all know that people used content creation by starting with a keyword they wanted to rank for (usually a long tail one, to get a high volume of traffic) and creating content around it. The deceiving part of this content creation process was that it started to attract a lot of thin content just for the sake of ranking high in Google, with no intention of serving the user.</p> <p> </p> <p>The content creation process changed and now follows a more natural and more user-friendly path. Now you have to start with finding a content gap or a problem and getting the answers to that through your content. Then perform a keyword search for your topic, optimize it, promote it and so on.</p> <p> </p> <p>If a few years ago people started with the keyword, now they are beginning with the topic by looking on social media sites; forums or client’s questions, reviews, feedback, comments or support questions. There is a lot of content at the moment, and having an article that addresses a pertinent question and has answers to readers’ needs, will secure you a safe place in Google. It is a necessity. Following high rankings in Google with no value content is no longer an option.</p> <p> </p> <p>Google trends is an option for following popular topics, based on their searches. Follow popular websites in your industry, or follow trending hashtags on Twitter.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-19180" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Trends-in-Twitter.png" alt="Trends on Twitter" width="372" height="543" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Trends-in-Twitter.png 372w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Trends-in-Twitter-206x300.png 206w" sizes="(max-width: 372px) 100vw, 372px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Another way to get ideas would be to steal the spotlight from your competitors. <strong><a href="https://brandmentions.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BrandMentions</a></strong> can you where your competitors are mentioned, what influencers endorse them, top website and resources where they are featured.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24392" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/BrandMentions-to-spy-on-competitors-1024x486.png" alt="BrandMentions to spy on competitors" width="1024" height="486" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/BrandMentions-to-spy-on-competitors-1024x486.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/BrandMentions-to-spy-on-competitors-300x142.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/BrandMentions-to-spy-on-competitors-768x365.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/BrandMentions-to-spy-on-competitors-1536x729.png 1536w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/BrandMentions-to-spy-on-competitors.png 1873w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The new content creation process can bring you lots of benefits if you try to respond to the questions and needs of your audience, instead of following keywords to rank for with no value-added. </p> <p> </p> <p>Another influencer marketing software you could use is <strong><a href="https://www.osiaffiliate.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OSI Affiliate Software</a>.</strong> You can easily manage any referral program to generate more traffic and conversions. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='5' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>5. Content Marketing Will Be Written Only for Content Marketers</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>We are living hard times, especially in the content marketing world. Unfortunately, content marketing is starting to be addressed to content marketers. How will this affect SEO you might ask? Tremendously.</p> <p> </p> <p>The <strong><a href="https://marketoonist.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Marketoonist</a></strong> said the evolution of content marketing is simple: we write content for content marketers. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-19183" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/content-marketing-for-marketers-1024x729.jpg" alt="content marketing for marketers" width="1024" height="729" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/content-marketing-for-marketers-1024x729.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/content-marketing-for-marketers-300x214.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/content-marketing-for-marketers-768x547.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/content-marketing-for-marketers.jpg 1100w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>We got to the point where there is so much content written from one minute to another, that I’m sure a lot of content is rewritten in some parts. Let’s think of it this way. You go to a conference where lots of experts gather and start talking on a topic, and for sure multiple ideas will pop-up and at least 5 people will write about what was discussed. Each has a unique style, that’s for sure, but inevitably some ideas will be similar. You can’t avoid it.</p> <p> </p> <p>On top of that, there are a lot of people who use tools for rewriting content that already exist on the web. That falls into the dark hat category. We all know that article spinning is not accepted.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you are using this technique, you are putting your website in danger. Instead, if you’re trying to offer valuable content and write content for the content marketers, you must keep up with it. There is a high competition out here, you must have information that educates the audience and offers engaging content. Attract and retain your potential customers. You must be prepared to play in the big league. Don’t write what is already there. Make it personal and talk from your experience.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='6' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>6. Context Is the New Era of SEO</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>A new content marketing trend is embracing the content culture and the knowledge-sharing industry. It is about the patents that talk about context and how search will change its form. The trend started with the saying “<a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/16966/context-is-king/"><strong>context is king</strong></a>”. After all the time we heard content is king, now the times changed and a new concept will rule the whole kingdom.</p> <p> </p> <p>Google’s attention on the user intent when searching started to have a high significance because context is something beyond keywords. Now, Google is trying to focus on user intent to offer more accurate and personalized results. We discussed previously the patents that concern the context topic and we discovered the role it has and if it can impact SEO.</p> <p> </p> <p>Through context, Google aims to show topical search results, which is very well exemplified in the next screenshot:</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-16982" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Topical-search-results-815x1024.png" alt="Topical search results" width="815" height="1024" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Topical-search-results-815x1024.png 815w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Topical-search-results-239x300.png 239w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Topical-search-results-768x965.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 815px) 100vw, 815px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>After we explored the patent and tested out ourselves to see how search results look like, we thought of the implications it might have on search engine optimization.</p> <p> </p> <p>We should focus on lots of other indicators, besides keywords. We need to create a relationship between terms and concepts in content. For example, if we are writing about “Volleyball rules”, then you need to think of all the keywords and phrases that are related to your topic and include them there. Make sure you think of the users’ intent. What are they trying to find out? What are their questions? And try to offer responses in a friendly tone, depending on your topic.</p> <p> </p> <p>The content must answer to the title. You should use synonyms of your title, and not repeat the focus keyword hundreds of times.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='7' style='height:60px'> </div> <h2><strong>7. Influencer Marketing Has More Power</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p> Influencer marketing is a popular tactic and a growing trend. According to a study by Nielsen, <a href="http://www.nielsen.com/eu/en/press-room/2015/recommendations-from-friends-remain-most-credible-form-of-advertising.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>83% of consumers</strong></a> trust recommendations from their peers over advertising. People trust recommendations from individuals over brands. Another research on the same topic by <strong><a href="https://nogre.com/evolution-of-influencers/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">NoGre</a></strong>, a graduate education community, says that 88% of consumers trust online recommendations as much as personal ones. </p> <p> </p> <p>Moreover, Celebrity Intelligence conducted a study where they saw that the ROI generated by influencer marketing is <a href="https://www.grin.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20ROI%20of%20Influencer%20Marketing%20Infographic.jpg?t=1538616043175&width=1069&name=The%20ROI%20of%20Influencer%20Marketing%20Infographic.jpg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>11x times higher</strong></a> than banner ads. Another study says that influencer marketing yields a $6.50 return on investment for every dollar spent.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lots of brands already use influencers for promoting their services, because influencers influence the decisions of the people who follow them. Besides that, they bring a lot of benefits, such as:</p> <ul> <li>Influencers can produce more shareable content for brands;</li> <li>Brand-influencer relationship can be a long-lasting partnership;</li> <li>Influencer campaigns can spread across multiples platforms to achieve a wider range of influencers;</li> <li>Influencers sharing qualitative images and original content;</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>Gal Gadot has become the CEO (Chief Experience Officer) of Huawei; she is also the ambassador of the latest handset. She appeared in their video marketing campaigns and she published social media content from Huawei smartphone as you can see in the next screenshot:</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-19184" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Gal-Gadot-and-huawei-influencer-marketing-1.png" alt="Gal Gadot and huawei influencer marketing" width="832" height="543" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Gal-Gadot-and-huawei-influencer-marketing-1.png 832w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Gal-Gadot-and-huawei-influencer-marketing-1-300x196.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Gal-Gadot-and-huawei-influencer-marketing-1-768x501.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Visual content is highly appreciated by users and due to the type of product, they had a lot to gain from their collaboration with the actress. </p> <p> </p> <p>Another interesting campaign we’ve discovered from Huawei was in a collaboration with the presenter of Asia Express in Romania. Asia is a place with lots of beautiful and intriguing experience and Huawei Mate 10 Pro was the great companion for taking the best shots of the show through the eyes of the presenter on Instagram. You could follow the path of the competition by following the hashtag #huaweimate10pro (and #asiaexpress).</p> <p> </p> <p>Below you can see some screenshots:</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-19185 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Influencer-marketing-campaign-Huawei-900x1024.png" alt="Influencer marketing campaign Huawei" width="900" height="1024" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Influencer-marketing-campaign-Huawei-900x1024.png 900w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Influencer-marketing-campaign-Huawei-264x300.png 264w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Influencer-marketing-campaign-Huawei-768x874.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Influencer-marketing-campaign-Huawei.png 1899w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Lots of the pictures were part of the Huawei campaign and all of them had the hashtag #huaweimate10pro.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-19186" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Influencer-marketing-campaign-Huawei-2-1.png" alt="Influencer marketing campaign Huawei" width="1196" height="693" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Influencer-marketing-campaign-Huawei-2-1.png 1784w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Influencer-marketing-campaign-Huawei-2-1-300x174.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Influencer-marketing-campaign-Huawei-2-1-768x445.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Influencer-marketing-campaign-Huawei-2-1-1024x594.png 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1196px) 100vw, 1196px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The marketing tactic Huawei follows, by collaborating with influencers, leads to fulfilling their marketing purposes by driving traffic and sales. These examples are well-known and effective practices and they can give high flexibility to the brand to <strong><a href="https://startup.unitelvoice.com/content-promotion-strategies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">promote the product</a></strong> or service through an influencer. It generates quality content, and you can offer related information and accurate digital content through content curation. </p> <p> </p> <p>SEO can have a lot to gain from the influencer marketing trend because you can create articles and content to support your campaign and explain what you did and create a story around it. Not to mention, if you have an innovative idea, you can create word-of-mouth and lots of links will “flood” your backlink profile.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='8' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>8. Full Transparency for a Beter Customer Experience</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>The Global Trust in Advertising survey by Nielsen shows that Europe has the lowest trust rate in advertising compared with the other continents. That explains, on the other side, the reason of the GDPR existence. This change can improve people’s trust and create a better world on the web.</p> <p> </p> <p>Below you can see the results of the research:</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-19190" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Global-Trust-in-Advertising-survey.png" alt="Global Trust in Advertising survey" width="819" height="667" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Global-Trust-in-Advertising-survey.png 819w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Global-Trust-in-Advertising-survey-300x244.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Global-Trust-in-Advertising-survey-768x625.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) created a lot of fuss. We are still new to this change and how it affects the website and business owners. Until 25 May 2018, all websites had to update their policy for transparency and let users know what & how their data would be used by publishers.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lots of webmasters sent emails to users to give their consent to continue using the website. Also, when accessing the site for the first time, you had to give your consent before reading the content.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-19191" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Coursera-GDRP-consent.jpg" alt="Coursera GDRP consent" width="1920" height="1096" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Coursera-GDRP-consent.jpg 1920w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Coursera-GDRP-consent-300x171.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Coursera-GDRP-consent-768x438.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Coursera-GDRP-consent-1024x585.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The fact is that customers expect transparency and feel safe knowing what information you are using, whom you give it to and what they can share or not.</p> <p>A very interesting approach is the <a href="https://en.rockcontent.com/blog/content-experience/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">content experience</a> approach. Meaning that when creating your content strategy, you need to think that your audience will interact with you in different ways, through different channels and formats, all elements of a bigger experience. you should check it out!</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='9' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>9. Video Content Is the Most Preferred Type of Content</h2> <p> </p> <p>As you probably expected, video consumption has tremendously increased in volume in the last year and it’s one of those content marketing trends that is here to last. Here are some interesting stats to understand the dimension of the idea:</p> <ul> <li>YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of total internet users;</li> <li>87% of online marketers use video content (<a href="https://www.outbrain.com/content-marketing/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>OutBrain</strong></a>);</li> <li>Having a video on a landing page can increase conversion by 80% (EyeView);</li> <li>Demo viewers of a product are 1.81x more likely to purchase than non-viewers (<a href="https://www.millforbusiness.com/video-marketing-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>Mill For Business</strong></a>);</li> <li>51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the content format with the best ROI (<a href="http://www.insivia.com/27-video-stats-2017/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>Insivia</strong></a>).</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>And these are only a few numbers. There are lots of other studies and analyses that show video is one of the most effective and engaging types of content. Video content has become the most preferred forms of content, for sure. According to a study by <a href="https://www.outbrain.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Outbrain</a>, 86% of marketers prefer video and livestream, instead of blog posts, slideshows, articles or others. The recent blogging industry survey delivered by <a href="https://firstsiteguide.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FirstSiteGuide</a> also confirms that <a href="https://firstsiteguide.com/blogging-industry-survey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">26% of bloggers</a> are also investing heavily in producing video content for YouTube to support their written content. </p> <p> </p> <p>We already took advantage of this trend, as lots of other experts and brand did, by creating podcasts and learning videos for those who want to know more about SEO and marketing.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq3n8KFeroI&list=PLMajYC61iNOnCaf0Qcbfoi4GQ_LFugkb_" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>cognitiveSEO</strong></a> talks are interviews with experts on the industry that we tackle with on lots of ideas on how to create a better company, to increase traffic, to become better specialists and follow insights on their success story.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-19195" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/cognitiveSEO-talks-podcast.png" alt="cognitiveSEO talks podcast" width="1002" height="526" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/cognitiveSEO-talks-podcast.png 1725w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/cognitiveSEO-talks-podcast-300x157.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/cognitiveSEO-talks-podcast-768x403.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/cognitiveSEO-talks-podcast-1024x537.png 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1002px) 100vw, 1002px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>If you’re a Facebook user or Twitter user, then create video content there and share it with your target audience. Make sure your video has a high quality and the message is easy to understand. Look at your competitors to see what they are doing (wrong or right).</p> <p> </p> <p>Use live videos. They are so popular right now. And the great thing about them is whenever you post a live video as a brand on Facebook, it automatically sends a notification to all of your fans that you are live and they can view your video. Take advantage of that.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24393" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Facebook-Live-video-notification.jpg" alt="Facebook Live video notification" width="738" height="633" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Facebook-Live-video-notification.jpg 738w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Facebook-Live-video-notification-300x257.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 738px) 100vw, 738px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Try to talk about what interests your users. Invite them to tell what questions they have. For example, Gary Vaynerchuk’s has the “Ask Gary” live streams on Periscope regularly where he gathers 5-6k simultaneous viewers. Kindly ask them to subscribe or like the video at the end, as that is a common practice.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='10' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>10. Native Advertising Is Rising Rapidly</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>Native advertising is known to take the lead and grow faster in the years that will come. It’s one of the content marketing trends you can’t ignore. Just like personalization had a great impact on the audience, native advertising has a higher chance to convert the viewers.</p> <p> </p> <p>A research by <a href="https://nativeadvertisinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/inma_2017NativeAdvertising.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>Native Advertising Institute</strong></a> says that more publishers are adopting native advertising. 51% of them already have. In the same research, it is stated that an overwhelming number of publishers (82%) are positive toward native advertising.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-19197" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Native-advertising-study.png" alt="Native advertising study" width="966" height="543" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Native-advertising-study.png 966w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Native-advertising-study-300x169.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Native-advertising-study-768x432.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 966px) 100vw, 966px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>All these numbers can work very well for you and can bring you revenue if you decide to use a native advertising campaign. There are platforms that can help you share high-quality content and increase the number of traffic through <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/13363/content-amplification/#2"><strong>content amplification</strong></a>. Outbrain and Taboola are two examples of content distribution platforms where content sharing is very easy to implement.</p> <p> </p> <p>A good example of a successful native advertising campaign is the one from CNN. They used a native advertising campaign that helped them <strong><a href="https://nativeadvertisinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/inma_2017NativeAdvertising.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">increase their revenue by 60%</a></strong>. Create was the team that was responsible for the development, production, and delivery of all branded content for CNN International Commercial clients.</p> <p> </p> <table class="author-quotes" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr class="author-quote-row"> <td class="author-text" colspan="2">Branded content and native advertising has exploded in the last couple of years. It is an upward trend that other publishers are also experiencing.</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="author-image" rowspan="2"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-19198" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/James-Hunt.jpg" alt="James Hunt" width="46" height="46" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/James-Hunt.jpg 398w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/James-Hunt-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/James-Hunt-300x300.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 46px) 100vw, 46px" /></td> <td class="author-name">James Hunt</td> </tr> <tr class="author-description-row"> <td>Vice President Create Group, CNN International Commercial’s in-house marketing and global brand studio</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='11' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>11. Bite-Sized Content Revolution</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>The length of a piece of content has always been a topic of discussion. Bite-sized content changed the way we consume media. We are bombarded with information from lots of channels and our attention span has changed because of that. We can get easily distracted.</p> <p> </p> <p>Twitter revolutionized the way information was distributed. You had a limitation of 140 characters so that tweets could fit into single SMS messages. Then they increased to the limit to 280 characters. It was the only time the company increased the number of Tweets, for parity in language. According to their researchers, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/a-brief-history-of-the-ever-expanding-tweet/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>9% of tweets</strong></a> reach the character limit in English compared to the Japanese, which was only 0.4%. </p> <p> </p> <p>The way we write and use social media marketing to share information changed the way we read and consume content, as well. And that’s got a strong effect on content marketing and content marketers. Bite-sized content has lots of advantages such as fighting against boredom, and it is easier to remember because it is the essential, and it is adaptable to the readers.</p> <p> </p> <p>Bite-sized content works very well for those who are avid users of social networks and newsreaders or those who are used to find chunks of information at their fingertips. Millennials are maybe the biggest consumers of such type of content.</p> <p> </p> <p>You should follow the “bite-sized content” trend if you want to attract other categories of readers. Or in case you are used to serve long content with lots of points and topic of discussion, such as listicles and cover a larger audience.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you want to nail this trend down and explore it to get the wave of readers, you should try to cover the news and other information that is fresh, by offering more value and more information in an easy-to-read article. Start investing your time in bite-sized content if your target audience consumes this type of content. </p> <p> </p> <h2><strong>Conclusion</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>Content marketing is a changing industry just like any other. W<span style="background-color: transparent;">e were witnesses at the video content that changed the rules of how we see content nowadays, becoming at one point of the most preferred type of content. Influencer marketing comes quickly in the forefront and if you use the right influencer and concept you have a high chance to craft great content around it and create word-of-mouth that will mean: brand awareness, more content, higher visibility, and increased traffic. </span></p> <p> </p> <p>The content marketing trends focus will fall on the personalization, context and natural language in your articles. Everybody is looking for experiences. That’s one of the reasons why native advertising has increased so rapidly and will grow even higher. Paid advertising can be an excellent choice if you are using it for content amplification to promote various content formats you have available on your website. All editorial calendars should include content distribution.</p> <p> </p> <p>The recommendations from our article will help you get started with making your content trend-approved. Kick your marketing approach a notch. Follow the guidelines and implement a better content strategy to achieve your marketing goals. Your content marketing efforts will pay off. </p> <p> </p> <p>Investing in content is better when you’re thinking smart and strategic. Content marketing trends can show some directions.</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/19172/content-marketing-trends/">11 Content Marketing Trends That Will Affect Your SEO</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog">SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies</a>.</p>Affordable SEO Services for Small Business – The 2021 List
2020-08-04 08:45:29 UTC
Finding affordable SEO services for small businesses isn’t an easy task for sure. With SEO being such a complex field, it’s hard to know what services do you need or whether a company’s gonna do a good job or not. That’s why it’s important to have at least an idea of what SEO services […]
The post Affordable SEO Services for Small Business – The 2021 List appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.
<p>Finding affordable SEO services for small businesses isn’t an easy task for sure. With SEO being such a complex field, it’s hard to know what services do you need or whether a company’s gonna do a good job or not.</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s why it’s important to have at least an idea of what SEO services are important, which practices are useful and which are harmful.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24490" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/affordable-seo-services-for-small-business.jpg" alt="affordable seo services for small business" width="1024" height="538" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/affordable-seo-services-for-small-business.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/affordable-seo-services-for-small-business-300x158.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/affordable-seo-services-for-small-business-768x404.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Many times, SEO companies offer their services in the form of a monthly SEO package. While it’s easy for search engine marketers to manage their work this way, and a lot easier for you to understand what you get for the buck, it’s also a big indication of automatization, which stands, generally, at the base of SEO penalties.</p> <p> </p> <p>This article will not be a list of companies to pick from, but a guide on which services you should be looking for and how to choose the right company.</p> <p> </p> <p>So, read this guide till the end to get the insights you need.</p> <p> </p> <ol class="summaryext"> <li><a href="#1"><strong>Why Should Small Businesses Invest in SEO?</strong></a></li> <li><a href="#2"><strong>What SEO Services Do Small Businesses Need?</strong></a></li> <li><a href="#3"><strong>Types of Affordable SEO Services for Small Business</strong></a> <ol> <li><a href="#4">For Technical SEO</a></li> <li><a href="#5">For Content Marketing</a></li> <li><a href="#6">For Link Building</a></li> <li><a href="#7">For Rank Tracking</a></li> <li><a href="#8">For Local SEO</a></li> <li><a href="#9">For Video SEO</a></li> <li><a href="#10">For Ecommerce SEO</a></li> </ol> </li> <li><a href="#11"><strong>The Top 5 Must-Have Affordable SEO Services for Small Business</strong></a></li> <li><a href="#12"><strong>How to Pick The Right SEO Company to Work With</strong></a></li> </ol> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='1' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Why Should Small Businesses Invest in SEO?</h2> <p> </p> <p>If you’re a small business looking for affordable SEO services, you’ve probably just started out as an entrepreneur.</p> <p> </p> <p>But why choose SEO as a marketing channel?</p> <p> </p> <p>The main reason why small businesses should consider SEO as a marketing channel is that you can either invest time or money into it.</p> <p> </p> <p>That gives you some liberty, in case you don’t have one or the other.</p> <p> </p> <p>While other channels, such as PPC, can offer faster results, SEO is a long-term game, but can bring in the greatest ROI.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24461 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/money-2724241_640.jpg" alt="Affordable SEO Services for Small Businesses SEO ROI" width="640" height="432" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/money-2724241_640.jpg 640w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/money-2724241_640-300x203.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The key here is to start it as early as possible, so you can benefit off it for as long as possible. Postponing it will only allow your competition to get ahead, making your job harder.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you’re interested in the pros and cons of these two marketing channels, take a look at this <strong><a title="SEO vs PPC" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/19704/seo-vs-ppc/">article about SEO vs PPC</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p>But again, if PPC seems like a more viable option for you now, you should still start investing in SEO as soon as possible.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='2' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>What SEO Services Do Small Businesses Need?</h2> <p> </p> <p>It’s hard to say what SEO services a business needs because it differs from business to business.</p> <p> </p> <p>Do you have a local store? Or an online one? Are you a blogger or an affiliate or do you offer services, be them physically, such as plumbing, or online, such as consulting?</p> <p> </p> <p>In general, small businesses lack quality content and promotion.</p> <p> </p> <p>Quality websites are easy to build these days using templates and content management systems, but quality content isn’t easy to write.</p> <p> </p> <p>Also, once the website is live and even with quality content on it, it’s still not enough. You need to know how to promote it to show Google that it’s valuable.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='3' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Types of Affordable SEO Services for Small Business</h2> <p> </p> <p>We’ll go through multiple categories so that you can have a better idea what affordable seo services for small business you might need, depending on your case.</p> <p> </p> <p> In the end, you’ll need a bit of everything, so consider this list as a set of priorities.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='4' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>1. For Technical SEO</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>The truth about technical SEO is that it is, in general, a one-time fix. While you have to change things from time to time as the internet evolves, if you set things right from the beginning, they will last.</p> <p> </p> <p>Here are the top Technical SEO issues that small businesses should focus on in their online marketing strategy: </p> <p> </p> <ul> <li><strong>URL and Site structure:</strong> While you can do this on your own, it’s probably a good idea to ask an SEO consultant for advice. The most difficult site to structure is an eCommerce one. You want to get it right from the beginning to avoid issues in the future. This will save you a lot of money. Find out more about a <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/23628/url-structure/">good website and URL structure</a></strong>.</li> <li><strong>Image Compression:</strong> Images are probably the biggest problem when it comes to technical SEO and load times. In many cases, it can be done for free with tools such as Smush for WordPress, but similar free plugins are also available for other platforms.</li> <li><strong>Caching:</strong> If you use caching, your site will load even faster. Again, good caching can be achieved for free with plugins such as W3 Total Cache or Autoptimize. Some hosting providers have LiteSpeed Caching on their server, which also allows you to cache your content properly.</li> <li><strong>Structured data:</strong> This should be the last thing you focus on as a small business. However, in certain cases it can have a good impact. Just make sure you don’t focus on this technical aspect instead of what’s really important, which is quality content and promotion.</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>Here are some tools that can help you ensure you won’t be spending much on Technical SEO issues:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>WordPress:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The best affordable SEO service for Technical SEO when it comes to small businesses is WordPress.</p> <p> </p> <p>You need an optimized, mobile friendly website over which you have control and can maximize potential without spending too much.</p> <p> </p> <p>Web Designers are quite expensive, so WordPress is the way to go. You can find a variety of templates for a nice web design, many even for free.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sure, there are other SaaS website builders there such as Wix or Squarespace (you’ve probably seen the ads by now), but they are very limited in terms of what you can do for your business’s SEO.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-24458" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WordPress-logotype-wmark-300x300.png" alt="Improve website with WordPress" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WordPress-logotype-wmark-300x300.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WordPress-logotype-wmark-150x150.png 150w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WordPress-logotype-wmark-768x768.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WordPress-logotype-wmark.png 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>If you want to go with PPC only, SaaS website builders might be a good option, but for search engine optimization, even renowned SEO companies will have a hard time.</p> <p> </p> <p>Even WordPress has its own SaaS packages, so make sure you compare both the open source version and the SaaS one.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the open source one, you’ll need your own hosting, while the SaaS one will cover it.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the long run, if you want to get the most out of it, the open source version is the best option, but it will be more difficult to manage.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>GT Metrix:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>GT-Metrix is a great service that will tell you about a variety of technical SEO issues your site is facing.</p> <p> </p> <p>The most important things you want to make sure you fix are large images and caching.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>While all these tips are useful, what you should be focusing on is the load speed of the website, in seconds.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p><strong>PageSpeed Insights:</strong> </p> <p> </p> <p>Just like GT Metrix, Google offers a similar tool, called PageSpeed Insights.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can view a variety of technical issues which Google considers you should fix.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24457 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pagespeedinsightsseoservice.png" alt="Search engine optimizer seo" width="690" height="792" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pagespeedinsightsseoservice.png 690w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pagespeedinsightsseoservice-261x300.png 261w" sizes="(max-width: 690px) 100vw, 690px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The most important one, again, is the speed at which your website loads (First Contentful Paing and Time to interactive)</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Xenu Link Sleuth:</strong> </p> <p> </p> <p>Xenu Lunk Sleuth is a free tool you can use to crawl your website and identify missing title tags or 404 errors.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can also use this to quickly map titles to URLs if you’re in the process of rewriting your titles in order to improve OnPage SEO.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the tool itself you can also visualize where a pages is linked from internally within your site.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>CognitiveSEO Toolset:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/">CognitiveSEO Toolset</a></strong> is an affordable seo services for small business that can help you with more complex issues like website structure. Instead of analyzing everything on a page by page basis like other tools, our tool lets you take advantage of APIs to analyze your entire site at once.</p> <p> </p> <p>Furthermore, you’ll be able to view the entire structured in an easy to understand manner, inside the dashboard.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-21516 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/internal-linking-audit-tool-1024x353.png" alt="Internal Linking Structure Audit Tool for SEO" width="1024" height="353" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/internal-linking-audit-tool-1024x353.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/internal-linking-audit-tool-300x103.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/internal-linking-audit-tool-768x265.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/internal-linking-audit-tool.png 1325w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='5' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>2. For Content Marketing</strong></h3> <p> </p> <ul> <li><strong>Keyword research:</strong> Keyword Research is crucial if you want to set the basis of your OnPage SEO strategy on content marketing. If you don’t know what people are searching for, you don’t know what to optimize your pages for.</li> <li><strong>Copywriting:</strong> While good copywriting isn’t cheap, it’s worth investing in it. Good copy sells, and that’s what you need on your website, especially if you’re just starting out. Sure, a content marketing strategy is based on information not sales, but what if you could give out information that sells? That’s where copywriting kicks in.</li> <li><strong>Editorial Calendar:</strong> Content marketing is a long-term game, so developing a schedule can really help you move things forward with ease. It’s mostly based on keyword research, but you have to map things out into hubs or silos and decide which ones to prioritize and how they can better facilitate and consolidate your site’s structure.</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>Here are some services and tools which you can use to find keywords and develop a better content strategy.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Google Autosuggest & Keyword Planner:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The Google Autosuggest tool can be really helpful in finding out what people are searching for on the web in real time.</p> <p> </p> <p>Just start typing in a seed keyword and Google will fill you in on the details.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24460 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/googleautosuggestseo.png" alt="Google AutoSuggest" width="638" height="349" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/googleautosuggestseo.png 638w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/googleautosuggestseo-300x164.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 638px) 100vw, 638px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Moreover, at the bottom of any results page you’ll see a list of related keywords which you can use.</p> <p> </p> <p>Furthermore, if you’re already using Google Adwords, why not use the keywords you’ve found there for organic search as well?</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Reddit:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Reddit is a great source for finding new hot topics in your domain. You just have to look at subreddits relevant to your niche.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sometimes, it might not be easy to find them but try to think outside the box. Once you’re close, start following that thread.</p> <p> </p> <p>Don’t just rush on adding links to your website, or you’ll get banned quick enough. First, you’ll have to build your profile by answering threads and even starting popular ones.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you’re a consultant, you can start by answering threads to some extent, then offering individuals to help them further in Private Messages.</p> <p> </p> <p>There you can determine if you’re a good fit and offer your services.</p> <p> </p> <p>Eventually, once you’ve gained enough karma, you can start answering people partially and adding a link to your blog where you expand on the topic, for those interested in finding out more.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>CognitiveSEO:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The CognitiveSEO Content Assistant is a great tool that can help you quickly improve Google rankings, only by changing your content a little bit.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can <strong><a href="/keyword-tool/">try it for free here</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p>First, type in what keyword you want to optimize for, then go to the Content Assistant section and the tool will provide you with a list of keywords you should use in your content to improve your site’s rank in Google.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s that simple!</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24045 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/content-audit-content-assistant-before-1024x670.png" alt="content-audit-content-assistant-before" width="1024" height="670" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/content-audit-content-assistant-before-1024x670.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/content-audit-content-assistant-before-300x196.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/content-audit-content-assistant-before-768x502.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/content-audit-content-assistant-before.png 1364w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Of course, take it with a grain of salt. You don’t have to force a keyword in if it doesn’t fit. You can change it a little so that it makes sense. Think of the important keywords there as topics of subjects you need to address in your page.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='6' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>3. For Link Building</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Link building is probably the hardest thing to do these days. Everyone is aware of it, nobody wants to link to you (without money) and even Google is on it, penalizing you for it.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Use the Link Reclamation Tool</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Building white-hat links of high value and in accordance with Google’s guidelines have been a pain point for years now.</p> <p> </p> <p>The broken pages and link reclamation technique might be familiar to you as they are quite old school strategies.</p> <p> </p> <p>We documented this technique a lot, so find out way more about the<a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/9961/link-reclamation-tool-technique/"> link reclamation technique</a>, when and how to use it to deliver maximum results.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Analyze Your Competitor’s Links</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>More often than not, your competitors, especially the ones ranking high in search results, are doing some things very well.</p> <p> </p> <p>Why not use what they are doing to improve your own SEO rankings?</p> <p> </p> <p>The CognitiveSEO Backlink Analysis tool can identify what backlinks your competitors are using to rank high. Even more than that, you can use the Unnatural Link detection to filter bad links and focus only on the best ones.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can also use it for competitive analysis, to see where you are positioned compared to your competitors. This can help you identify websites ranking to multiple competitors, indicating that it might be easier to obtain.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Blog Commenting:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Many SEO experts consider this to be a spammy method, but in fact, it isn’t. It can be. However, I’m not recommending spam in any way.</p> <p> </p> <p>I’m talking about identifying websites and blogs talking about related topics to your small business and engaging with them, just as you would do on Social Media.</p> <p> </p> <p>You’ll often see companies offer services such as blog commenting in their ‘affordable’ SEO packages, but be wary, as more often than not, it’s spam.</p> <p> </p> <p>The goal here is to build connections with other websites or bloggers in the field. Then maybe you can land a deal with them to promote your website.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Guest Posting:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>By engaging with relevant bloggers through blog commenting, you might get to know a blogger well enough to ask them for a guest post.</p> <p> </p> <p>Guest Posting is when you write an article for another website, under your name. Usually, you’ll be able to link back to your website.</p> <p> </p> <p>Expanding this is now considered a dangerous practice, but doing it in moderation won’t affect your site in any way.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Outreach:</strong> </p> <p> </p> <p>Guest posts or simply links can also be obtained through direct outreach.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, you have to build some sort of connection first. Being genuine is the best way and I’ve had the most success with it.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24465 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/email-3249062_640.png" alt="SEO Link Building Outreach" width="640" height="358" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/email-3249062_640.png 640w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/email-3249062_640-300x168.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Always start by giving something and not expecting something in return. Once you’ve got a reply, you can push a request, but don’t be demanding.</p> <p> </p> <p>Many people sell links on their websites for hundreds of dollars. So when they give you one for free, you should really appreciate it.</p> <p> </p> <p>Check out these <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/10444/outreach-examples-boost-sharing/">outreach examples</a></strong> to boost your response rate.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Blogging (with a twist):</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Last but not least, content marketing can be really useful for search engine optimization in the long run. However, it won’t be enough to write articles in order to get links.</p> <p> </p> <p>You’ll have to write articles that people want to share and that’s not easy.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can do it the tricky way, by identifying an influencer and writing about something you know they’ll share, or following another strategy such as writing case studies or funny things.</p> <p> </p> <p>Either way, even if blogging and content marketing won’t help you get links in the end, it’s still a good way of consolidating and optimizing your website’s structure.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='7' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>4. For Rank Tracking</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Measuring an SEO strategy is crucial for determining the success of an SEO campaign. Whether you work with an SEO firm or not, it’s a good idea to monitor the results on your own.</p> <p> </p> <p>Here are some methods you can use to effectively track your rankings and results:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Google itself:</strong> The oldest method in the basket. Just open Google and type your keyword. Make sure you do it in Incognito mode, to get rid of personalized search results.</p> <p><strong>Google Search Console:</strong> The Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google which will monitor where your site’s getting traffic from, as well as the average positions for the keywords that brought the traffic.</p> <p><strong>CognitiveSEO Rank Tracker:</strong> If you’re looking for something a little bit more advanced, take a look at our <strong><a href="/ranktracker/">rank tracker</a></strong>. Not only will it show your SEO rankings, but it can also notify you of drops and will provide a graph for each particular keyword. Using our tool you’ll also be able to monitor your competitor’s rankings, if that interests you.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-22534 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/rank-tracking-cognitiveSEO-1024x317.png" alt="rank tracking cognitiveSEO" width="1024" height="317" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/rank-tracking-cognitiveSEO-1024x317.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/rank-tracking-cognitiveSEO-300x93.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/rank-tracking-cognitiveSEO-768x238.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/rank-tracking-cognitiveSEO.png 1562w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='8' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>5. For Local SEO</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>When it comes to local SEO, you can actually completely <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/18625/google-multiple-listings/">dominate the entire page of Google with multiple positions</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p>Here are the most affordable things you can focus on to improve rankings:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Google MyBusiness: </strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Google MyBusiness is the most important SEO service you should focus on as a small local business.</p> <p> </p> <p>Setting up a GMB listing isn’t particularly difficult. Just make sure you use your keywords in the name and description and fill in all the information correctly.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, ranking Google MyBusiness listings high isn’t as easy, but it can be achieved by implementing a set of practices in your company, such as asking for reviews or getting in the local newspaper.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-20244 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/google-mybusiness-1.jpg" alt="Google MyBusiness Maps Listing for SEO" width="489" height="399" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/google-mybusiness-1.jpg 489w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/google-mybusiness-1-300x245.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 489px) 100vw, 489px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Social Media Accounts & Posting:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>In local search results, Facebook pages can actually rank pretty high for particular keywords.</p> <p> </p> <p>Make sure you use that to your advantage by optimizing the title and description on Facebook to also include the keyword you’re trying to target.</p> <p> </p> <p>Also, posting regularly on Facebook can help you bring some traffic to your website. Just remember the 80 20 rule, in which you only try to sell them 20% of the time.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-20247 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/social-media-for-seo.jpg" alt="social media for seo" width="640" height="426" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/social-media-for-seo.jpg 640w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/social-media-for-seo-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>If your posts are only promotional, people won’t engage with them and the reach of all your posts will be reduced over time. You have to attract engagement and also engage with your audience yourself.</p> <p> </p> <p>You might think that small local businesses can’t go viral, but the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WhiteMooseCafe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The White Moose Café</a> would prove you wrong.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Citations & Accurate NAP: </strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Citations are like backlinks, but they only mention your brand’s name and don’t necessarily contain a link back to your site.</p> <p> </p> <p>NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone and you want to make sure these are consistent across the web.</p> <p> </p> <p>Therefore, using a different phone or address or different opening hours across different platforms such as Google and Facebook might look confusing to Google, just as it would to your clients.</p> <p> </p> <p>In a way, you’re bringing all these channels and platforms together to form a stronger union that will rank better overall.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can also purchase advertising in local media, if they are affordable. If you’re in a small town, that works, but in big cities such as New York… though luck!</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Local Adjacent Niches Partnerships:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>A great way of getting some traction with local SEO is to partner up with other local businesses in your proximity.</p> <p> </p> <p>The businesses can promote each other locally in their own store, as well as online on their websites.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-24466" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/hand-shake-4092737_640-300x183.png" alt="Local SEO Partnerships" width="300" height="183" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/hand-shake-4092737_640-300x183.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/hand-shake-4092737_640.png 640w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>They don’t have to be competitors, but at least somehow related or relevant to your niche.</p> <p> </p> <p>So if you sell hunting rifles, it’s probably not a good idea to try to partner up with a vegan restaurant.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, if you sell luxury watches, why not partner up with the luxury suits store across the road? Everybody wins!</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='9' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>6. For Video SEO</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Video SEO can help you grow your business. More and more people prefer video content over traditional, written one.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s hard to pinpoint an affordable seo services for small business for video, as you can’t really optimize videos the same way you optimize blog posts. Once you’ve published it… it’s done.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sure, you can still change titles and descriptions to better optimize them but, as a whole, you have to get things right from the start.</p> <p> </p> <p>Here are a few tips you can follow to rank better with video or complement your content marketing strategy with a video SEO as well.</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li><strong>Keyword Research:</strong> Just as with regular SEO, you want to know what people are searching for before you create a video. Sometimes, it’s hard to match a topic or new idea you have to a keyword, but try your best to do it. This way you’ll get the best out of both worlds.</li> <li><strong>Optimized titles & descriptions:</strong> Use the identified keywords in your title and description. Don’t cheap out on the description, even if not many people will read it. Populate it with complementary info such as links to sources.</li> <li><strong>Short Product Presentation Clips:</strong> If you sell products online, make sure you have video presentations of them. People are busy, so short and to the point ones will be best. These days, you can do everything with a phone. There is a multitude of video editing software for both Android and Apple.</li> <li><strong>Consistency:</strong> While posting a few clips here and there might work if they rank high for your target keyword, if you want to have real success with video, you’ll have to do it on a regular basis.</li> <li><strong>Interlinking between videos:</strong> Let’s face it: most video content happens on YouTube. And YouTube wants its users to stay on YouTube. So have multiple videos related to one another. Send people from one video to another so that they spend more time on YouTube and YouTube will reward you.</li> <li><strong>Repurpose content:</strong> If you’ve already been blogging for a while, you can use those topics to create video content. Then, simple interlink the video and blog post. You can do this vice-versa, if you’ve been focusing your time on video content instead.</li> </ul> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='10' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>7. For Ecommerce SEO</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>eCommerce SEO services are the hardest to find at affordable prices. If you have a small eCommerce SEO business, consider spending your own time in learning SEO, as services might be expensive and the cheap ones will most probably not be very effective.</p> <p> <strong>Site Structure:</strong> Structure is the most important thing for eCommerce websites, because of filters and <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/22235/faceted-navigation-seo/">faceted navigation</a></strong>. So make sure you get it right from the beginning. It might be expensive for big sites, but it’s very effective and it will save you a lot of time and money in the future.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can use the <strong><a href="/site-audit/">CognitiveSEO Site Audit Tool</a></strong> to analyze your site and ensure a proper structure. From URLs, 301 redirects and canonicals to internal linking, the tool has everything covered.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24238 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Audit-Your-Site-for-Improved-SEO-and-Conversions-illustration.png" alt="Audit-Your-Site-for-Improved-SEO-and-Conversions-illustration" width="1024" height="597" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Audit-Your-Site-for-Improved-SEO-and-Conversions-illustration.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Audit-Your-Site-for-Improved-SEO-and-Conversions-illustration-300x175.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Audit-Your-Site-for-Improved-SEO-and-Conversions-illustration-768x448.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p><strong>Well optimized titles: </strong>Very often, people ignore the basics. They focus on ‘secret’ strategies and completely forget that their titles aren’t optimized. Of course, this assuming that you’ve done your keyword research already.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Blogging:</strong> eCommerce sites lack quality content. Most products have short descriptions and the structure itself is only built as a silo between categories and products. However, you can consolidate that structure with interesting articles. They will also ease your job into bringing natural backlinks to your website.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Copywriting:</strong> Many eCommerce store owners ignore copywriting. However, each product page is, in fact, a landing page. And landing pages need copy. You need copy to sell. Most copywriters are also good at <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/21096/how-to-write-for-seo/">writing for SEO</a></strong> as well, which will also benefit your site.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Structured Data:</strong> While structured data is the last thing you should think about (keywords, titles, content, speed are more important), it’s very relevant for eCommerce websites, as they can help enhance Google results for products.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24468 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/richresults.png" alt="Structured Data SEO Small Business" width="658" height="141" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/richresults.png 658w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/richresults-300x64.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 658px) 100vw, 658px" /></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='11' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>The Top 5 Must-Have Affordable SEO Services for Small Business</h2> <p> </p> <p>If it was to draw the line at the most important ones, in general, for all types of websites and businesses, it would be this:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li><strong>Keyword Research:</strong> You can’t have an effective SEO strategy without proper keyword research.</li> <li><strong>Well optimized titles:</strong> People ignore the basics more often than you’d think. Make sure your titles are properly optimized.</li> <li><strong>Google MyBusiness:</strong> GMB is a very effective tool and it’s also free. Spend some time optimizing it and it will bring good results.</li> <li><strong>Copywriting & Blogging:</strong> Content is still very important, and copywriting can greatly help you increase sales, which is your goal in the end, isn’t it?</li> <li><strong>Social Media Posts:</strong> Social media can help you promote your website easily, even without paying for it. With a little bit of talent and some knowledge, you can generate decent traffic.</li> </ol> <p> </p> <p>However, in some cases, many better others apply. The best thing you can do is get in touch with an independent SEO consultant to get some tips.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='12' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>How to Pick The Right SEO Company to Work With</h2> <p> </p> <p>If you’re looking for affordable SEO services, that’s an indication you’re already looking to invest money, so you’re probably looking for an SEO firm.</p> <p> </p> <p>While I can’t provide a list of companies (there are too many factors to take into consideration, such as language, location, type of website and others) I can provide some tips on how to how to find a good one.</p> <p> </p> <p>To be honest, the secret here isn’t finding the best service at the lowest price, but to avoid bad/destructive cheap services. <br /> Here are some questions you can <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/12444/seo-company-avoid-getting-tricked/">ask SEO companies</a></strong> to avoid being tricked. </p> <p> </p> <p>Cheapness and quality is a rare combination, so if you’re on the hunt for it, you have to be very well prepared with knowledge.</p> <p> </p> <p>There are many reasons cheap services can be bad: spinned content, cheap links or PBNs, for example.</p> <p> </p> <p>If an SEO company offers affordable SEO packages on a monthly basis, be suspicious.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s not that companies that offer packages aren’t good, but it’s a good indication they are automating everything, which leads to patterns, which can lead to penalties.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24463 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/business-4075625_640.jpg" alt="Choosing the right SEO Company" width="640" height="412" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/business-4075625_640.jpg 640w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/business-4075625_640-300x193.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>You should talk to one of the SEO experts in the company before signing.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you just purchase the package and receive the “SEO audit” via e-mail a few days later, be sure that it was automated.</p> <p> </p> <p>They should be asking questions about your business. How else would they know how to properly promote you if they don’t know anything about you?</p> <p> </p> <p>First, ask them if their strategies are what most search engine marketers would call ‘white hat’ or safe.</p> <p> </p> <p>If the answer is no… I think you know what to do.</p> <p> </p> <p>If the answer is yes, then you should also follow up with these important questions:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>Do you use Spam?</li> <li>Do you use PBNs?</li> <li>Do you use automation tools? If yes, which ones?</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>If the answers to those questions are yes, you might want to avoid the company. Some automation tools, such as ones for e-mail newsletters or for scheduling posts are fine, but others such as scraping content or spinning it are not.</p> <p> </p> <p>Additionally, you should ask the SEO firm:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>How long have you been working in the field?</li> <li>Can you give me some examples of websites you’ve optimized before? What strategies have you used on them?</li> <li>Will a real person perform an audit or at least analyze it?</li> <li>Who will write the content on my website?</li> <li>How will we measure the performance of the SEO campaign?</li> <li>Can you tell me what exactly my money will go to? Will you execute all the work or do you outsource?</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>If you get a competent and clear answer to these questions, it’s a good indication that who you’ll work with knows what they’re doing and are well-intended.</p> <p> </p> <p>Ultimately, it’s up to you who you sign with but, hopefully, by now you have a better understanding of how to choose good affordable SEO services for your small business.</p> <p> </p> <p>What affordable SEO services for small business do you think are the best? Let us know in the comments section.</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/24451/affordable-seo-services-for-small-business/">Affordable SEO Services for Small Business – The 2021 List</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog">SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies</a>.</p>Do Private Blog Networks (PBNs) Still Work in 2021? Should You Build One?
2020-09-06 08:15:25 UTC
If you use SEO to promote your website, you most probably have heard of PBNs (Private Blog Networks). The concept isn’t very difficult to understand (although it is difficult to execute), but with the overload of information out there, you might be conflicted. Do PBNs still work in 2021? Are there any risks? Well, […]
The post Do Private Blog Networks (PBNs) Still Work in 2021? Should You Build One? appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.
<p>If you use SEO to promote your website, you most probably have heard of PBNs (Private Blog Networks). The concept isn’t very difficult to understand (although it is difficult to execute), but with the overload of information out there, you might be conflicted.</p> <p> </p> <p>Do PBNs still work in 2021? Are there any risks? Well, the short answers are yes and yes. So should you build one? That’s up to you. However, this article has to purpose to help you make an educated decision. This won’t be a guide on how to build one; however, if you’ve thought about building a PBN for your websites, then make sure you’re giving this a good read.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-20131" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Do_Private_Blog_Networks_Still_Work-min-1024x512.jpg" alt="Do_Private_Blog_Networks_Still_Work-min" width="1024" height="512" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Do_Private_Blog_Networks_Still_Work-min.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Do_Private_Blog_Networks_Still_Work-min-300x150.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Do_Private_Blog_Networks_Still_Work-min-768x384.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <ol class="summaryext"> <li><strong><a href="#1">What Is a PBN?</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#2">Do PBNs Still Work?</a></strong> <ol> <li><a href="#3">How Google tricked everyone and was always one step ahead</a></li> <li><a href="#4">The fine line between PBN and owning multiple sites</a></li> </ol> </li> <li><strong><a href="#5">PBN Advantages & Disadvantages</a></strong> <ol> <li><a href="#6">Advantages</a></li> <li><a href="#7">Disadvantages</a></li> </ol> </li> <li><strong><a href="#8">Should You Build a PBN in 2021?</a></strong></li> </ol> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>Disclaimer:</strong></span> Just to get things straight from the start, <strong>we do NOT recommend building a PBN.</strong> They are risky and against Google’s terms of service. They also cost both time and money which you could be investing in safer and more efficient, evergreen tactics.</p> </blockquote> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='1' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>What Is a PBN?</h2> <p> </p> <p>PBN stands for Private Blog Network. Long story short, it’s a group of websites that a webmaster owns for the sole purpose of boosting the rank of other websites.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>These networks fall into the BlackHat SEO link building tactics category.</strong> Obviously, at first, they didn’t. But after people started abusing them, Google took action. Before 2014, PBNs were the stuff. The hype was high and everyone started building them. Everyone wanted to get in for the ride.</p> <p> </p> <p>That was until Google completely destroyed a few PBN services and some popular marketing bloggers’ PBNs. Here’s just one example of a single PBN service out of many that have fallen:</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/private-blog-network-shutting-down.png" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The truth is that PBNs are nothing more than Web 2.0s on steroids. Instead of using subdomains from WordPress.com and Blogger, you use expired domains that already have authority built to them. If you purchase the right expired domains and build the network properly, you can get yourself a nice asset.</p> <p> </p> <p>In order to avoid getting caught by Google, BlackHat SEOs have to constantly hide their traces. What a tiresome struggle… This list of traces can contain:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Whois Info:</strong> If you have 10 domains that all link to one another and are all registered publicly under the same name, everyone is going to know it’s a PBN. Now most of the time the details aren’t public and you can also purchase Whois protection for extra fees (sometimes offered for free) but I’ve heard stories of Google having access to Whois info anyway.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>IP Address & Hosting:</strong> If more websites are on the same IP, they’re definitely connected in some way. That’s why shared hosting accounts are dangerous. If someone spams that IP address, you’re also on the list. You can purchase dedicated IPs for each domain to fix this. (Not only for PBN sites. Do this for all your sites. It helps keep things safe.)</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Company name and contact details:</strong> Some countries legally require you to post this information if you monetize your site in any way (you do, since it’s part of your marketing strategy, so if someone reports you, you risk getting fined).</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Design, Code, Formatting, Content:</strong> Many times, people simply duplicate these websites by copy pasting and changing some basic aspects, like colors and logo. However, the platforms and themes they use are always the same.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Analytics Accounts:</strong> Have 10 sites under the same Analytics Account? Good luck evading Google.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Script IDs:</strong> If you have different tools that require tracking, you’ll need separate subscriptions for each and every one of them, otherwise anyone could figure out the connection between two sites.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now these are the most basic ones and they are often publicly available. However, some people say (including me) that Google might be looking at other things as well:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>E-mail accounts:</strong> Register anything under the same e-mail, especially if it’s a Gmail and you’ll end up linking everything to it. One mistake and you can compromise it.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Location:</strong> Have you logged into the same e-mail account or worked on all your PBN sites under the same IP at home? Good job, you just told Google you own them. You need proxies and proxies to keep things clean.</p> <p> </p> <p>Doesn’t this sound sort of like a hacker or criminal hiding his !@% from the police? I actually never understood why Google doesn’t try to make these things illegal. I mean… if you’re spamming the internet and accessing the website with bots without the owner’s permission… If you’re constantly pretending to be someone else… Shouldn’t this kind of stuff be fined? I guess they either can’t or they just want people to keep doing them.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now call me paranoid, but we use so many services from Google, such as Chrome, Analytics, MyBusiness and Gmail. They’re all owned by Google. Am I saying that Google is reading your e-mail to figure out if you have a PBN or if you’re buying links? No. But… Maybe?</p> <p> </p> <p>Your Gmail account is probably connected to your smartphone. You have the internet connection on everywhere these days, so Google knows your location. You and another webmaster appear at the same location and 2 hours before your websites start linking to each other? Just saying…</p> <p> </p> <p>Those are just speculations but think of it: If you wanted not to be caught owning two different hosting accounts, would you register under the same e-mail? Most definitely not. I’m not saying that someone from Google is reading your private e-mails and spying through your webcam. I’m just saying that there is a possibility that some sort of algorithm is out there, tracing administrative relationships between websites.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='2' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Do PBNs Still Work?</h2> <p> </p> <p>You’re probably wondering if PBNs still work. How much has Google evolved and how good is it at catching these schemes in 2021?</p> <p> </p> <p>Well, despite what many people think after 2014, PBNs still work and they will work as long as backlinks are a ranking factor, something that won’t change very soon.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='3' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>How Google tricked everyone and was always one step ahead</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>When PBNs started to become popular, I’m sure that both parties were somewhat terrified. The webmasters of getting caught and Google of people discovering the ultimate BlackHat SEO technique.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, Google was also one step ahead. I’ll explain:</p> <p> </p> <p>You see, as mentioned before, Google cares about backlinks. Link building is still a very important ranking factor. They’ve tried removing the links from the algorithm, but apparently, the search engine results are worse:</p> <p> </p> <p><iframe title="Is there a version of Google that excludes backlinks as a ranking factor?" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NCY30WhI2og?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p> </p> <p>A PBN can’t really be detected if it’s done properly. There’s simply no way of finding out, or at least being sure. Everybody links to other websites. People know each other, they talk and they give links. If you banned solely on patterns, <strong><a title="BlackHat SEO Hurts The Internet" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/18366/blackhat-seo-hurts-the-internet/#2">innocent people doing White Hat SEO might get hurt</a></strong>. You might as well ban everyone, right?</p> <p> </p> <p>So what did Google do? How did they catch the ones that were truly thinking of building a PBN as a BlackHat way of ranking their money sites high? Well… they didn’t.</p> <p> </p> <p>Instead, Google targeted a few popular PBN services and some popular marketing bloggers that were using them and blogging about them.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Today we took action on a large guest blog network. A reminder about the spam risks of guest blogging: <a href="http://t.co/rc9O82fjfn">http://t.co/rc9O82fjfn</a></p> <p>— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/446167600716722176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2014</a></p></blockquote> <p> </p> <p>But how? How could Google possibly identify an entire network of private websites, built by professionals and experts in the BlackHat SEO industry? Well… it’s an easy answer. They bought the service. It’s that simple.</p> <p> </p> <p>I mean… everyone could. Even Matt Cutts. Just order the service and know exactly what PBN sites are used. Worst part? Many people and local business owners had to suffer. Their websites got penalized and they did not even know how, because their SEO companies acted as intermediaries and bought the PBN service instead. It happens all the time: “Guaranteed #1 position.” and also guaranteed “It wasn’t me boss” in case of penalty.</p> <p> </p> <p>How did Google get to the marketing bloggers? I have no idea, but I’m sure they were targeted. Don’t you think it’s kind of strange that immediately after, many popular marketing and SEO bloggers got their PBNs penalized, while hundreds of other unknown players kept saying that they worked? Had it been just a Google update and no manual verification, it could’ve been a disaster.</p> <p> </p> <p>After getting penalized, both <a href="https://www.nichepursuits.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Spencer Haws</a> and <a href="https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Pat Flynn</a> (two very popular niche site builders and bloggers, you should check them out) turned 180 degrees, writing about how much time and money they put into their PBNs just to lose everything in one second. And then the almighty phrase started showing up everywhere: “PBNs are DEAD!” No… they’re not. They’re just very risky. However, people stopped jumping head first into it.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='4' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>The fine line between PBN and owning multiple sites</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>I collaborated with a pretty big nutrition and fitness company. It was really hard work as I did all the content and promotion (although I had nothing to do with bodybuilding). Anyway, I did a lot of research before writing anything and managed to pull up great quality content that increased the organic traffic of the website by 30% in under 6 months.</p> <p> </p> <p>Bragging aside, one thing that was really difficult about that particular project was that there were simply no websites to get links from. Why? Because almost all the websites were owned by 3-4 companies that were direct competitors. At least that’s what my boss told me, but I tend to believe him since he’d been in the market for over 10 years.</p> <p> </p> <p>I started doing some research to find link opportunities and found out that these websites were all linking to one another.</p> <p> </p> <p>See where I’m going with this?</p> <p> </p> <p>While the fact that I had nowhere to get links from was frustrating, the fact that I discovered a PBN was fascinating.</p> <p> </p> <p>There was just only one issue:</p> <p> </p> <p>This wasn’t really a PBN. Nobody was getting penalized. I even reported this to John Mueller but my request was completely ignored. Why? Well… probably because the websites were completely legitimate businesses, with their own phone numbers, teams and services. You could very well order products from them and they would send them to you under their name.</p> <p> </p> <p>And that’s when I started thinking that the PBN issue is much bigger than it seems. Is that really a PBN? Not sure… Can Google detect it and consider it a PBN? Probably. Should it penalize it? I don’t think so.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>I believe that multiple websites from the same company can create a network that dominates the first pages of Google. On multiple positions.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>I did a little research just to prove that this is the case for various markets and countries. While looking into the motorcycle niche, after only 2-3 searches, I bumped into this motorcycle news website (motorcyclenews.com) that ranks very well for some keywords.</p> <p> </p> <p>I then used <a title="Spy On Web" href="http://spyonweb.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">SpyOnWeb.com</a> to determine if any other websites are linked to it via IP or some code. Turns out that many are. The relationship has been established through the Google Adsense account.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-20094" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/finding-administrative-relationships-1024x390.jpg" alt="finding administrative relationships" width="1024" height="390" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/finding-administrative-relationships-1024x390.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/finding-administrative-relationships-300x114.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/finding-administrative-relationships-768x292.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/finding-administrative-relationships.jpg 1722w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Then, I used <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/site-explorer/">cognitiveSEO’s site explorer</a> to take a quick look at what websites are linking to it:</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://explorer.cognitiveseo.com/?u=motorcyclenews.com&m=*U*"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-20095 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/pbns-still-work-2018-1024x461.jpg" alt="pbns still work 2018" width="1024" height="461" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/pbns-still-work-2018-1024x461.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/pbns-still-work-2018-300x135.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/pbns-still-work-2018-768x346.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/pbns-still-work-2018.jpg 1455w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a></p> <p> </p> <p>I only searched some websites that are in the same niche, like performancebikes.co.uk, ride.co.uk, classicbike.co.uk and mcnsport.co.uk. They all link to motorcyclenews.com. These are only 4 sites, but there could be others that are not so easily correlated.</p> <p> </p> <p>Could this be considered a PBN? Maybe. But they’re all legitimate, authority sites that sell bikes or offer some sort of service. All of them generate organic traffic, offer interesting and good quality content and some even have physical, printed magazines.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Is that unethical anymore? Should it be against Google’s TOS?</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Imagine that you build a very successful coffee shop. How do you expand? Do you make the same shop bigger and bigger until it eats up the whole city? No, you open a new one in another city and another city and so on. But do you make cheaper, worse coffee and just recommend people to your main shop in the primary city if they want to drink the good one? Of course not. You serve them the best you can if you want them to stay. And when they visit the initial city, they’ll know where to go.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s the same with these websites. Sure, you can’t call them all Starbucks, but you can build new ones all the time when you want to expand and they’ll all survive and thrive as long as they all provide quality to the users. And not even interlinking or using the same IP will be able to get them penalized.</p> <p> </p> <p>Google’s only request is to provide quality to the users, so that they keep coming to Google to search and find YOU, because that’s how Google survives. If bad websites rank at the top because of some PBN scheme, people won’t like Google anymore.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Most PBNs are websites that lack design, personality and usefulness. They just fill the web and use Google’s resources (for crawling, indexing and other things).</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>However, if these websites are good, I don’t think anyone will have a problem. You can’t even call them a private blog network, at least not in the BlackHat SEO way of saying. In my opinion, it’s perfectly White Hat to have multiple high quality websites.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, you can still get penalized…</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='5' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>PBN Advantages & Disadvantages</h2> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Although PBNs do have advantages, in our opinion, the disadvantages overweight them so we do not recommend that you build a PBN.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>However, we will outline them, just to make sure you’ll get a good overview of things. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='6' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3>Advantages:</h3> <p> </p> <p><strong>More efficient with ranking:</strong> From all the BlackHat SEO techniques, PBNs are probably the most efficient. The better the expired domain names you purchase, the faster you’ll see the results.</p> <p><strong>Harder to get caught:</strong> Also, it will take some time until you get caught, if you get caught. You’ll have to be always looking over your shoulder and erase your every trace. It’s not an easy lifestyle, but it’s safer than blasting links with GSA Search Engine Ranker.</p> <p><strong>Easy in theory:</strong> Buy expired domains at a domain auction, build websites and put content on them, cover up all traces, link to money site. The part with covering up all traces is a little bit more difficult, but you’ll get the hang of it. That is if Google doesn’t hang you first.</p> <p><strong>Extra profit:</strong> You can also profit off PBNs by selling links to other websites. As long as they’re not direct competitors, it doesn’t really matter. However, keep in mind that this exposes you to risks. Someone could compromise your network.</p> <p><strong>Full control:</strong> This one is the best one. I have to admit…. don’t you just like it when you’re in control? No more “Here’s my nice content, will you link to it?”</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='7' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3>Disadvantages:</h3> <p> </p> <p><strong>High cost:</strong> At first it might sound cheap. Some shared hosting, a couple of IPs, some domain names and some content. Couple of hundred bucks? Well… make that double. Then multiply it by 50. If you really want to do this the right way, you’ll need good hosting, tons of IPs, proxies and tools. Sure, you could only be spending $1.000 on your network if you’re in a low competition market, but will the investment be worth? For high competitiveness you need to buy expired domains that have a high authority and you need a lot of them, at least 10-25. You also need to make sure they aren’t spammed. They can go for thousands of dollars each and we haven’t discussed the content yet. You think 500 word spinned articles will do the job? Think again, or the Panda’s gonna catch you.</p> <p><strong>Takes a long time:</strong> Although when you start linking the results are seen rather fast, the whole setup process is time consuming. You start with one site, then expand, but each takes time.</p> <p><strong>Difficult to manage:</strong> You’ll also have to constantly take care of your network. Excluding the content that you need to keep posting, each site comes with its own problems like SPAM, hackers, bills… and remember you have to do them all under a different name, IP and probably device as well, just to make sure.</p> <p><strong>Can get caught:</strong> The worst part is obviously that you always have the risk of getting caught. <strong>Is it worth investing all this time and money for it?</strong></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='8' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Should You Build a PBN in 2021?</h2> <p> </p> <p>This really depends on who you are as a person. Do you like taking risks? Do you care about Google’s TOS? Some people see Google as this evil entity that controls the internet and would love to profit off it.</p> <p> </p> <p>You see, the truth is that great websites on Google, that always rank at the top, don’t need to build PBNs.</p> <blockquote> <p>Webmasters that provide great content, that network and connect, that promote their content, products and services properly don’t need to use any kind of schemes to get to the top.</p> </blockquote> <p>They will always be there or at least they will get there at some point, because the users dictate this.</p> <p> </p> <p>So should you build a PBN? Probably not. We consider it to be wiser to spend all that money and time to develop one website first. Then you can expand to another website and another one and have your little legit network of high quality websites.</p> <blockquote> <p>Spending thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on simply buying expired domains and filling them with content you don’t really care about instead of spending it into user experience, quality content creation, promotion and better services doesn’t seem very wise.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>At the end of the day, it’s a mix of time, skill and luck that decidess whether you’ll get caught with a PBN or not. You might get caught after the first 2 weeks. You might never be caught and even your grand grandchildren will use your PBNs to profit. However…</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>If you’re in for the long run SEO game, you’d better stay away from PBNs and focus on evergreen White Hat SEO techniques.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Search Engines are always evolving and getting better at detecting tricks every day. Why not focus on playing fair and actually improve the skills that truly matter? Why waste your time with learning how to hide when you can learn how to create better experiences?</p> <p> </p> <p>Whatever side you’re on, we’re curious about your experience with private blog networks. Have you ever owned one? Have you ever tried a PBN service? Have you got penalized? Do you still own one and does it still work? Let us know in the comments. </p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/20059/do-pbns-still-work/">Do Private Blog Networks (PBNs) Still Work in 2021? Should You Build One?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog">SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies</a>.</p>How a Digital Marketer Ranked in Google Featured Snippet in Less Than 48 Hours
2020-10-07 08:40:58 UTC
This is a TRUE SUCCESS story from Rafael Alencar, a Brazilian digital marketer and founder of Imigrar, written and documented by himself, at his initiative. After using the Content Assistant Tool, in less than 48 hours my post went from 14-16 place in search results straight within the featured snippet. Background I […]
The post How a Digital Marketer Ranked in Google Featured Snippet in Less Than 48 Hours appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.
<p>This is a <strong>TRUE SUCCESS</strong> story from Rafael Alencar, a Brazilian digital marketer and founder of Imigrar, written and documented by himself, at his initiative. </p> <hr /> <p> </p> <p><em>After using the Content Assistant Tool, in less than 48 hours my post went from 14-16 place in search results straight within the featured snippet. </em></p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24559 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/case-study-cognitiveSEO.jpg" alt="case study cognitiveSEO" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/case-study-cognitiveSEO.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/case-study-cognitiveSEO-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/case-study-cognitiveSEO-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <h2>Background</h2> <p>I have good quality content on my site – <strong><a href="https://www.imigrar.com.br/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Imigração para o Canadá e Quebec</a></strong>. For instance, my bounce rate so far this year is 3.30%. All 2019 my bounce rate was 14%, but there’s was still room for improvement. Below you can see a print screen from my Google Analytics account with the results for my website performance.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24120" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Bounce-rate-of-3.30-1024x401.png" alt="Bounce rate of 3.30" width="1024" height="401" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Bounce-rate-of-3.30-1024x401.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Bounce-rate-of-3.30-300x117.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Bounce-rate-of-3.30-768x301.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Bounce-rate-of-3.30-1536x601.png 1536w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Bounce-rate-of-3.30.png 1625w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>It doesn’t matter if the content is good, if the targeted audience doesn’t come to my website.</p> <blockquote> <p>If they don’t know about the existence of my amazing website and its content… what’s the point?</p> </blockquote> <p>After reading some of my main competitors’ content I was asking myself: how the hell Google ranks this above my piece? Seriously! And then I realized it must have something else I was missing. And we are of course talking about SEO.</p> <p> </p> <p>I know that SEO is very important and can help any website grow if the principles are correct. The sad part of the story is that I never paid too much attention. So knowing I was behind my foes, I started to sign up for a lot of famous SEO’s websites. (<a href="https://systeme.io/blog/neil-patel-review" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Neil Patel</a>, SemRush, Moz, etc). </p> <p> </p> <p>They were helpful to give me some advice but to be honest it was too general and vague. I wanted help to move my awesome content to the very top! I have no idea how I came across cognitiveSEO. With all due respect, I’ve never heard about them.</p> <blockquote> <p>I’ve had tested so many tools that I decided to try this one too. You know what they say, you have to kiss a lot of frogs before finding your prince.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <h2>The Content Optimization Process</h2> <p> </p> <p>When I found cognitiveSEO and looked on the website, I saw a bunch of useful tools, but not what I was looking for, at my first sight (real help to move my content higher in Google). But, that was a mistake which I found out afterward. </p> <p> </p> <p>I closed the cognitiveSEO’s website and went to look for more options. Then I got an email from the team and I saw a mention about the <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Keyword Tool & Content Assistant</a></strong>. And that’s how I started using the tool.</p> <p> </p> <p>I already had in mind the keyword I want to rank for (Nova Scotia immigration – the Portuguese version ) and I already had some content, so my main purpose was to improve that content. And it was way easier than expected.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Firstly, I imported the URL of my existing content. A few seconds later I got a lot of recommendations and MOST IMPORTANT for me, keywords suggestions. </strong></p> <blockquote> <p>This was the tool that I was looking for to bring my content higher on the Google search results page.</p> </blockquote> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24562" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/content-optimization-tool.png" alt="content optimization tool" width="450" height="714" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/content-optimization-tool.png 450w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/content-optimization-tool-189x300.png 189w" sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The Content Optimizer Tool told me which keywords I have to use more, those I must include, topics suggestions and more.</p> <p> </p> <p>I will be 100% honest: <strong>At first, I was completely skeptical</strong>. Some keywords although had some connection to the content it was very weird to use it.</p> <p> </p> <p>But I decided to go ahead. So<strong>, I used almost all the keywords recommended by cognitiveSEO</strong>. Even some that I would never think about it. I managed to bring the Content Performance score to 97. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24563" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/imigrar-content-tool-1024x625.png" alt="imigrar content tool" width="1024" height="625" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/imigrar-content-tool-1024x625.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/imigrar-content-tool-300x183.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/imigrar-content-tool-768x469.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/imigrar-content-tool.png 1216w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Right after I finished all the changes, the tool showed me on a yellow box: “<em>This content can rank in the top 10 Google results</em>“. I literally said to myself: “Oh yeah! Really?”. Come on! This tool knows nothing about Brazil, immigration to Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada (trending right now among Brazilians). And it’s in English! I’m writing in Portuguese.</p> </blockquote> <p>I knew it would help me in some way. But rank in top 10? No way… I was not prepared for what was coming …</p> <p> </p> <h2>The Results After Using cognitiveSEO’s Content Assistant</h2> <p>Before using the cognitiveSEO tool, my content was ranking in position 14-16 on the search engines for my targeted keyword – imigração nova scotia.</p> <blockquote> <p>After all the changes using the Optimize Content Tool in less than 48 hours my post went from 14-16 place in search results for that keyword to the VERY FIRST ONE!</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Not only that but now my website ranks in Google Answer Box, on position zero in search results. We all know how hard is to <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/17398/google-answer-box/">win the Answer box</a>. Google is literally telling people: <em>Don’t look any further, it’s here you are going to find all your answers.</em></p> <p> </p> <p>You can see that I’m ranking higher than the official website of the Nova Scotia Government. You can take a look at the screenshot below with the featured snippet and find my website in Google Featured Snippet. Their Domain authority rate is 60% higher than mine. But the Content Optimizer Tool just made sure that Google knows my content is better.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24124 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/My-site-TOP-1-with-notes.png" alt="Portuguese website Ranks in Google Answer Box after using cognitiveSEO tool" width="897" height="963" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/My-site-TOP-1-with-notes.png 897w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/My-site-TOP-1-with-notes-279x300.png 279w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/My-site-TOP-1-with-notes-768x825.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>I was so amazed that I did two things:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>First, I searched for that keyword in three different computers making sure to use different networks! I couldn’t believe my eyes.</li> <li>And second, I took the initiative to contact cognitiveSEO and tell them about my results!</li> </ul> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>I will never publish another post before getting the Optimize Content Tool’s help!</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Thanks, cognitiveSEO team. You really provided what I was looking for in my content strategy!</p> <p> </p> <p>I hope these kinds of examples can help you understand how to use cognitiveSEO Content Optimizer Tool, how it can help you and see third-party, no-strings-attached results. </p> <p> </p> <h2>Disclosure</h2> <p>This is not a paid post and cognitiveSEO didn’t make any kind of agreement with the author. This is Rafael Alencar’s success story, written and documented by himself. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this story with us.</p> <p> </p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/24117/featured-snippet-in-48-hours/">How a Digital Marketer Ranked in Google Featured Snippet in Less Than 48 Hours</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog">SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies</a>.</p>Why Your Pages Aren’t Indexed by Google – Confirmed Indexing Issues
2020-10-21 07:54:25 UTC
Google is facing serious indexation issues these days, affecting countless businesses all over the world. Despite the official announcements that the indexation issues have been fixed, the problems seem to persist. With great power comes great responsibility. Therefore, we can only hope these issues will be solved as fast as possible for all webmasters […]
The post Why Your Pages Aren’t Indexed by Google – Confirmed Indexing Issues appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.
<p>Google is facing serious indexation issues these days, affecting countless businesses all over the world. Despite the official announcements that the indexation issues have been fixed, the problems seem to persist.</p> <p> </p> <p>With great power comes great responsibility. Therefore, we can only hope these issues will be solved as fast as possible for all webmasters and company owners that are already facing a difficult year for their businesses. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24609" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Why-Your-Pages-Arent-Indexed-by-Google-Confirmed-Indexing-Issues.jpg" alt="Why Your Pages Aren't Indexed by Google - Confirmed Indexing Issues" width="1024" height="538" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Why-Your-Pages-Arent-Indexed-by-Google-Confirmed-Indexing-Issues.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Why-Your-Pages-Arent-Indexed-by-Google-Confirmed-Indexing-Issues-300x158.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Why-Your-Pages-Arent-Indexed-by-Google-Confirmed-Indexing-Issues-768x404.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Google is undoubtedly one of the largest and clearest monopolies in the world. Bing, its closest search competitor, has just 2 percent of the market — hardly a significant threat to Google’s 90 percent. So, what happens when Google’s SERP is not working accordingly? </p> <p> </p> <p>Let’s see!</p> <p> </p> <h2><strong>Google Indexing Problem – Confirmed on October 1, 2020</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>It all started at the end of September when a number of complaints related to pages being dropped from Google’s search index appeared. Lots of people started reporting index coverage issues and crawl errors on forums, Facebook groups, etc..</p> <p> </p> <p>Twitter was the most popular channel for this type of issues, as usual, as it’s the only place where there is a chance that a Google representative might actually respond to the issue. </p> <p> </p> <p>The same happened in this case, with the mention that this time, Google’s representative John Mueller wasn’t aware of the issue, as stated in the screenshot below. </p> <p>Of course, this leaves a lot of room for speculations on this matter, yet we prefer to leave those thoughts on you and present you only the facts for now. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24582" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/tweet-30-sept-indexing-issue.png" alt="tweet 30 sept indexing issue" width="595" height="447" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/tweet-30-sept-indexing-issue.png 595w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/tweet-30-sept-indexing-issue-300x225.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 595px) 100vw, 595px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Lots of other discussions were generated on this matter all over the places, <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/74063460?hl=en&msgid=74063460" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Search Console Hel</a>p and <a href="https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/suddenly-my-homepage-disappear-from-google.1268704/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Black Hat World</a> to mention just a few. Below you can get an idea of the vibe that was on Twitter regarding this matter. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24584" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/tweet-30-sept-indexing-issue-examples-multiple-tweets-1024x820.jpg" alt="tweet 30 sept indexing issue examples multiple tweets" width="1024" height="820" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/tweet-30-sept-indexing-issue-examples-multiple-tweets-1024x820.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/tweet-30-sept-indexing-issue-examples-multiple-tweets-300x240.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/tweet-30-sept-indexing-issue-examples-multiple-tweets-768x615.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/tweet-30-sept-indexing-issue-examples-multiple-tweets.jpg 1172w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>On October 1st, 24 hours later, Google officially announced that some indexing issues do exist and they are working on solving them. </p> <p> </p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">We are currently working to resolve two separate indexing issues that have impacted some URLs. One is with mobile-indexing. The other is with canonicalization, how we detect and handle duplicate content. In either case, pages might not be indexed….</p> <p>— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) <a href="https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/1311805474992320512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2020</a></p></blockquote> <p> </p> <p>For the following three weeks, they kept on communicating updates on the problems and how they were fixing them. The most recent and important updates on this matter are the following:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li><span style="color: #ff6600;"><strong>October 9</strong></span>: the mobile indexing was effectively resolved yesterday, with about 99% of the URLs restored. </li> </ul> <p> </p> <ul> <li><span style="color: #ff6600;"><strong>October 20</strong></span>: the canonical issue was effectively resolved last Wednesday (Oct. 14), with about 99% of the URLs restored. We expect the remaining edge cases will be restored within a week or two.</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>Meanwhile, Google communication revolved around this type of messages:</p> <p> </p> <p><em>There’s no action to take with these issues on the part of site owners. <br /> We apologize for the issues here and are working rapidly to resolve them. <br /> We’ll update this thread as each is corrected.</em><br /> <em>It may take days to fully resolve both these issues completely, but we have restored many URLs already and are working quickly to process more.</em></p> <p> </p> <p>All good in the hood, you might be tempted to say. Google had a bug, they fixed it three weeks after.</p> <p> </p> <p>Just that things are not exactly like that. Beside the fact that three weeks of not indexing new content or de-indexing old one is a very big amount of time in Internet days measure, the problem is still on, as several webmasters reported. </p> <p> </p> <p>We have two examples of our own that confirm the issue is still on. Not sure if you know, but the same hard-working team that developed cognitiveSEO, crafted the brand monitoring tool BrandMentions.com as well. Both examples will be from this website.</p> <p> </p> <p>The first one is a really cool research on <a href="https://brandmentions.com/blog/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">best time to post on Instagram</a> (I might be subjective here, but you can check it out to see for yourself). </p> <p>It doesn’t seem that the URL has crawl issue, yet, it is not indexed by Google. It is a unique content piece, with no special indications (it doesn’t have noindex directive). </p> <p> </p> <p>The article was published on the BrandMentions’ blog on October 13. I don’t believe it was a “Tuesday, the 13th” bad luck. Most likely, Google didn’t manage to fix the issues for 99% of the URLs as they were claiming. And yes, there might be the chance that the article is within that 1% of not-fixed URLs. But this is not the only example. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24586" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/not-indexed-example-brandmentions-blog-1024x426.jpg" alt="not indexed example brandmentions blog" width="1024" height="426" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/not-indexed-example-brandmentions-blog-1024x426.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/not-indexed-example-brandmentions-blog-300x125.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/not-indexed-example-brandmentions-blog-768x319.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/not-indexed-example-brandmentions-blog-1536x639.jpg 1536w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/not-indexed-example-brandmentions-blog.jpg 1941w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The second example is a page that presents info on <a href="https://brandmentions.com/brand-tracker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">brand tracking</a>, also belonging to brandmentions.com. This time, the page seems to be crawled (on the same unlucky Tuesday, 13) but today, 20th of October, is nowhere to be found within the SERP.</p> <p> </p> <p>Of course, we hope that this will change and by the time you’re reading this article the page will be indexed and ranking pretty well. Yet, for the moment, the Google Indexing issue seems to be persisting. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24587" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/brand-tracker-example-brandmentions-1024x499.jpg" alt="brand tracker example brandmentions" width="1024" height="499" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/brand-tracker-example-brandmentions-1024x499.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/brand-tracker-example-brandmentions-300x146.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/brand-tracker-example-brandmentions-768x374.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/brand-tracker-example-brandmentions-1536x749.jpg 1536w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/brand-tracker-example-brandmentions.jpg 1709w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <h2><strong>What Is the Google Canonicalization Issue </strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>Google <a href="https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/1312185796301004800" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">stated</a> in a Tweet from October 2nd that “ […] If the canonical issue is involved, URL Inspector may show the URL as a duplicate & the Google-selected canonical will be different from it. The issue with canonicals impacted roughly about 0.02% of our index, beginning around Sept. 20 until late yesterday around 4:30pm PT. We’ve since restored about 10% of those URLs and keep reprocessing more.” </p> <p> </p> <p>What does this exactly mean?</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s somehow a duplicate content issue. Let’s say that you’d publish a fresh article and soon after a scraper copies your entire article and publishes it just the same. </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/19204/canonical-urls-seo/">The canonical tag</a> added on your site would tell Google that your article is the original one and that it is the one that should be ranked first. You can basically tell Google “Instead of this page, show this page.” So, if you have page B ranking on some keyword, you can basically tell Google to show page A instead.</p> <p> </p> <p>Yet, once the canonicalization issue appeared, Google would not show the original content, but the syndicated one (the one that it’s a copy of the original one). </p> <p> </p> <p>Canonical tags are Google’s recommendation for several situations, as you can see on <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">their page</a> or on the image below. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24590" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/choose-canonical-1024x592.png" alt="choose canonical" width="1024" height="592" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/choose-canonical-1024x592.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/choose-canonical-300x173.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/choose-canonical-768x444.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/choose-canonical.png 1130w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>There are billions of web pages, and Google has the job of ranking them. Ideally, all websites should have unique pages. Each and every page should contain original content. In reality, however, duplicate pages are to be found more often than you’d think. </p> <p> </p> <p>So, Google crawls your website and finds 3 pages trying to rank for the exact same keyword. Not only that Google has to pick between billions of different websites, it now also has to choose between duplicate pages on the same website. That seems tough indeed, so that’s why the canonical tag is there, to tell Google what is the original piece that should be ranked.</p> <p> </p> <p>And when an issue of this size appears, you remember how important it is for the search engine to do their job correctly, but also for the webmasters to have everything set up correctly. <br /> Yes, it seems that even with even if you have everything alright on your side, issues can still appear. </p> <p> </p> <p>At the time you are reading this post, this type of issues shouldn’t appear anymore as Google stated that they have been fixed. Yet, given the current situation and the fact that webmasters are still complaining about it, let’s hope for the best and expect the worst. </p> <p> </p> <h2><strong>What Is the Google Mobile Indexing Issue</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>The Mobile indexing issue caused new web pages to take a very long time to get indexed and appear in Google’s index. Some of the new published content is still not indexed. </p> <p> </p> <p>Even the big sites where affected by these issues. Below you can see some screenshots made by Ewdison Then. He <a href="https://twitter.com/ewdi/status/1310714208556740608" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">reported</a> this issue on September 29, as he found it really strange that all these sites posting news every couple of minutes have nothing indexed from the past hour. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24594 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/indexing-issues-big-sites-1024x436.jpg" alt="indexing issues big sites" width="1024" height="436" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/indexing-issues-big-sites-1024x436.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/indexing-issues-big-sites-300x128.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/indexing-issues-big-sites-768x327.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/indexing-issues-big-sites-1536x655.jpg 1536w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/indexing-issues-big-sites-2048x873.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Google stated that “if a previously indexed page has gone, it might be the mobile-indexing issue, where we’re failing to select any page at all to index.”</p> <p> </p> <p>As you could see in the screenshots above, lots of webmasters complained that they simply vanished from the index. As you can see in the screenshot below, Google stated that the issue impacted just a few websites (roughly 0.2%).</p> <p> </p> <p>This may sound like a small number but remember that Google’s index is huge and 0.2% of it is still a big number. The Google Search index contains hundreds of billions of webpages and is well over 100,000,000 gigabytes in size. Therefore, 0.2% of all this enormous amount of data doesn’t feel that small of a percentage anymore. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24592" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/mobile-indexing-issue.png" alt="mobile indexing issue" width="652" height="742" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/mobile-indexing-issue.png 652w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/mobile-indexing-issue-264x300.png 264w" sizes="(max-width: 652px) 100vw, 652px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The mobile indexing issue was the first to be fixed according to Google, with almost two weeks before the canonicalization one. Yet, hopefully this issue won’t appear anymore in the future as this is impacting the search and people’s businesses big time. </p> <p> </p> <p>Google faced indexing issue in the past as well. Last year, for instance, a similar problem happened, with people facing indexing issues from all domains and countries. Let’s hope that this time the fix is for good and these types of issues won’t appear anymore. </p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">We’re aware of indexing issues that impacted some sites beginning on Friday. We believe the issues are mostly resolved and don’t require any special efforts on the part of site owners. We’ll provide another update when the issues are considered fully resolved.</p> <p>— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) <a href="https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/1114961119699804160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2019</a></p></blockquote> <p> </p> <p> </p> <h2><strong>How Does Google Indexation Issue Affect Your Business</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>The short answer to this would be: BIG TIME. </p> <p> </p> <p>Home pages, articles, product pages were de-indexed all of sudden. Imagine your business’s site not appearing in searches anymore, at all. <br /> The errors in Google search will cause massive drop in organic traffic, your content marketing strategy will not be useful anymore </p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>It’s already a difficult year, and the indexing issue is making business lose even more. </p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>It’s easy to forget that, at the end of the day, Google is just a private business, like any other. One that has a worldwide monopoly on search engines, with a staggering 92.27% market share that we all depend on, and that has managed to insert its namesake as a common word in the dictionary. But a private company, nonetheless. So, while we would all like to understand what has and is happening and move on with our virtual lives, it might not be as easy as that.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Yet, with great power comes great responsibility. Or at least, it should. </p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Whom should the businesses losing their income for over two weeks blame? Yes, bugs happen all the time and all apps, be them big or small have them. And yes, we tend to misuse the Google engine as a “reality interface”. But Google has their reponsibilites as well.</p> <p> </p> <p>For instance, Google is influencing economy by the way ads are ranked right now: the more a company pays, the more often the add will be visible. Google answers that result from queries are also already ranked when searches are conducted. And Google is responsible (on a certain percentage, of course) for a company’s value. Google is of course doing this already for ads, but it does that for the whole SERP already. </p> <p> </p> <p>A sudden disappearance, or more generally a dramatic and sudden change event is an often-used narrative device in much of literature and film. It is sometimes left unexplained, but always manages to elicit a strong emotion. Such is the mass disappearance of 2% of the world’s population in TV series “The Leftovers”, or the sudden stop of any death for an entire country in Jose Saramago’s “Death with Interruptions” novel.</p> <p> </p> <p>In real life, such events are usually much smaller and less dramatic in scale, but they are not without consequence.</p> <p> </p> <p>We will probably never know the real number of impacted businesses.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>What we do know is that an issue of this amplitude translates in very stressful situations for business owners and their employees, for companies’ general well-being and profit, in a year that is already difficult enough for so many. </p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <h2><strong>Can You Do Anything in This Situation?</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>The short answer is <strong>no</strong>. We just need to wait and hope for things to get back to normal, a phrase we are sure you’ve heard way too many times lately.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>On September 30th, Google announced it had suspended the request indexing feature temporarily from their webmaster tool.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>There were no detailed explanations as to why, just a vague mention of infrastructure changes.</p> <p> </p> <p>As days went by, company officials insisted that things were fine, while complaints around Google indexing issues persisted as more and more businesses seemed to be impacted. </p> <p> </p> <p>Google is so ubiquitous nowadays that most of the time we do not even think of it as a private company. Both the Oxford English Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary added “to google” as a transitive verb back in 2006. It is so common that it is just… there. And with an over 90% <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">market share</a>, this way of thinking is no surprise.</p> <p> </p> <p>The problem with all of this is that we tend to think of common nouns as more trustworthy, for some reason. Like Google were no longer a company, but some public utility service, whose only intention is to help its users, rather than trying to balance that and make a profit as a market-leading private company.</p> <p> </p> <p>And companies sometimes will be more interested in profit than in other things, like fairness or truth. Which is not to say that Google has purposefully lied in the past or did not put enough effort in fixing their bugs. But it has, at times, told it in ways that were profitable: not telling the whole truth about the impact of links from press releases, not disclosing anything about the Hummingbird algorithm update except long after its effects had already taken place, or not mentioning the current submit URLs and indexation bugs from the very beginning.</p> <p> </p> <p>Even if all of this is true, though, it is what companies tend to do. They keep a little to themselves, they over or undersell, as it fits their purpose. But due to Google’s quasi-monopoly, they are also able to bend the playing field, not just accuracy or truth. Of course, the search engine giant is under no obligation to play nice. As a private company, they do not need to tell anyone how they update their algorithms, when they have bugs, what is the intended impact of their actions or what their strategy is. And yet there is a whole industry that is trying to figure out these exact things.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>With the hope that this article will be indexed and you’ll get to find it easily within the SERP, we’re looking forward for your opinion on it. </p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/24578/google-indexing-problem/">Why Your Pages Aren’t Indexed by Google – Confirmed Indexing Issues</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog">SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies</a>.</p>Content Marketing Services | The Complete List for a Successful Digital Strategy
2020-11-10 10:04:46 UTC
As your online business grows, it becomes obvious how important content marketing is for your business. And even if you’re the one working on your business’ strategy or you hire an agency to help you out, one thing is clear: you need to know the full list of content marketing services your company needs. […]
The post Content Marketing Services | The Complete List for a Successful Digital Strategy appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.
<p>As your online business grows, it becomes obvious how important content marketing is for your business. And even if you’re the one working on your business’ strategy or you hire an agency to help you out, one thing is clear: you need to know the full list of content marketing services your company needs. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24636" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Content_Marketing-services-1.jpg" alt="Content_Marketing services" width="1024" height="538" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Content_Marketing-services-1.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Content_Marketing-services-1-300x158.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Content_Marketing-services-1-768x404.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Before saying that you don’t need to bother with this because you will hire a specialized digital agency to take care of all this, take this scenario: You get a great offer for a freelance or an agency, saying that they will take care of everything content related for you. That sounds appealing, yet, how can you hire them if you don’t know what they are supposed to deliver? Once you know what a complete list of content marketing services looks like, you’ll be able to set expectations, measure the efforts of the company you hired, and better understand the results. </p> <p> </p> <p>So, here are the top content marketing services business owners should be aware of: </p> <ol class="summaryext"> <li><a href="#1"><strong>Content Marketing Strategy</strong></a> <ol> <li><a href="#11">Use Keyword Research Tools</a></li> <li><a href="#12">Check the Top-of-mind Keywords</a></li> <li><a href="#13">Look for Seed Keywords</a></li> <li><a href="#14">Prioritize the Keywords You Want to Rank For</a></li> <li><a href="#15">Select Top Keywords</a></li> </ol> </li> <li><a href="#2"><strong>Content Creation</strong></a></li> <li><a href="#3"><strong>Content Distribution</strong></a> <ol> <li><a href="#31">Link Building</a></li> <li><a href="#32">Social Media</a></li> <li><a href="#33">Community & Relations</a></li> </ol> </li> <li><a href="#4"><strong>Constant Content Update</strong></a></li> <li><a href="#5"><strong>Content Analytics Reporting</strong></a> <ol> <li><a href="#51">Organic Search Traffic</a></li> <li><a href="#52">Keyword Rankings</a></li> <li><a href="#53">Social Shares</a></li> <li><a href="#54">Backlink Volume</a></li> </ol> </li> </ol> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='1' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Content Marketing Strategy</h2> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>A good content marketing strategy should respond to the question <em>why</em>.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Why do you want to create content? For whom? Why will your content be different than what already exists?</p> <p> </p> <p>Content marketing strategy means more than a content strategy. This last one is focused more on content creation, which we are going to talk about later.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>First thing first, you need to clarify what do you want to achieve with content marketing: Increased traffic? More leads? Educate customers? Increase online presence?</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>If you’ve been watching the trends lately, you’ve seen articles piling up about content marketing and how it’s changing the SEO game forever.</p> <p> </p> <p>It seems that Google is dead set on providing visitors with pages that have the most relevant content to their search and the trend of creating quality content to be more relevant to your target audience seems to become more of a need than a game played only by the cool kids.</p> <p> </p> <p>More and more SEO professionals are boarding this train and it’s no longer to be believed a hype and a way to reinvent the so-called “dead SEO”.</p> <p> </p> <p>Once you got the “why” question responded, you can go to the next step within any content marketing strategy, the keyword research. You don’t want to write just for the sake of writing, right?</p> <p> </p> <p>You want to create good content that will reach your audience. But to do so, you need to know what topics to tackle and what keywords you can create content for. So, check out the next steps, which are foundation stones for all the other content marketing services.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='11' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Use Keyword Research Tools</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Finding keywords shouldn’t be hard, yet it’s not a walk in the park either. In the modern SEO landscape, a keyword research tool is not just a passing trend but a must. </p> <p> </p> <p>The <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/"><strong>Keyword Tool and Content Optimizer</strong></a> is an awesome helper on this matter. It’s like your best buddy you can call in the middle of the night to get you out of trouble. You can find new topic ideas and keywords related to the one you are targeting. </p> <p> </p> <p>You’ll be able to make an idea of how difficult it is to rank for those particular keywords. It also shows you how relevant other keywords are compared to the current ones.</p> <p> </p> <p>When you perform the market research, it’s best if the keywords you’re trying to rank for have a high search volume and a low difficulty. <em>High search volume</em> means the phrase is popular and many people are typing it in their browsers. <em>Low content and links difficulty</em> means that it is fairly easy to rank on that keyword without many links or highly competitive content. Combining these three metrics will result in profitable phrases that are easy to rank for.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24639" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/best-shoes-for-running-1024x597.png" alt="best shoes for running" width="1024" height="597" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/best-shoes-for-running-1024x597.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/best-shoes-for-running-300x175.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/best-shoes-for-running-768x448.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/best-shoes-for-running.png 1283w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><em>Why any analysis should start with a keyword research?</em></p> <p>Because if you don’t know the keywords you want to target, you can’t possibly know your true SEO competition. <br /> This step will also determine what level of difficulty you wish to perform the analysis at.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, let’s assume that we’re performing online marketing in the shoe business and wish to open a web store. Depending on our budget, we can either start targeting very high search volume keywords or lower search volume keywords. Keep it realistic.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>It either takes money or time to get there. In fact, it takes time in both cases given you’re working with organic search.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <table class="author-quotes" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr class="author-quote-row"> <td class="author-text" colspan="2">Without a strategy, content is just stuff, and the world has enough stuff.</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="author-image" rowspan="2"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-21102 lazy-loaded" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Arjun_7992-min.jpg" alt="Arjun" width="46" height="46" data-lazy-type="image" data-src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Arjun_7992-min.jpg" data-srcset="" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Arjun_7992-min.jpg 2397w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Arjun_7992-min-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Arjun_7992-min-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Arjun_7992-min-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Arjun_7992-min-1024x1024.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 46px) 100vw, 46px" /></td> <td class="author-name">ARJUN BASU</td> </tr> <tr class="author-description-row"> <td>Award-nominated author</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p> <p>The trick with ranking is not to force it. When everybody’s trying to rank for the same keywords, there’s not much room for long-term development. This is where you can improve and find keywords semantically related to your niche, but not necessarily used by your competitors.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='12' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Check the Top-of-mind Keywords</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Top-of-mind keywords are phrases that pop up in your head right away when you think about a niche. It’s like a brainstorming process. They are also frequently called <em>seed keywords</em>.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can use the Google search engine to get real-time suggestions. Simply go on Google and start typing your keywords, and new ideas will appear right under the search bar. A highly competitive keyword would be, in this case, “buy shoes online”.</p> <p> </p> <p>Phrases with the word “buy” in them are called <em>buyer’s keywords </em>or <em>transactional keywords</em>. They are usually the most competitive, as we know from the phrase itself that people are already set to buy the product. Ranking for those keywords practically guarantees that some sales will indeed be made. Where sales are guaranteed, big players come.</p> <p> </p> <p>A lower competition keyword can be “best shoes for …”.</p> <p> </p> <p>More niched phrases tend to be less competitive. One reason might be the fact that they are untapped, meaning that not many people actually discovered them. They are called <em>longtail keywords</em>. Review and comparison sites often try to rank here. People are still inclined to buy, but for he moment, they might just be looking to compare products or find ideas.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-14141 size-large lazy-loaded" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/topofmindcompetitors-1024x402.jpg" alt="Add top of mind competitors" width="1024" height="402" data-lazy-type="image" data-src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/topofmindcompetitors-1024x402.jpg" data-srcset="" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/topofmindcompetitors-1024x402.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/topofmindcompetitors-300x118.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/topofmindcompetitors.jpg 1326w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='13' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Look for Seed Keywords to the Keyword Explorer or Google Keyword Planner to Get New Ideas</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Use the seed keywords you acquired from the previous step to generate a list of keywords.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can go classic and use the <a href="https://adwords.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Google Keyword Planner</a>, though data is limited if you don’t have a paying PPC management account.</p> <p>You can try multiple keywords here, export the data as CSV, sort the keywords, and add some to your list.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-14147 lazy-loaded" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/googlekeywordplanner-1024x449.jpg" alt="Make use of Google Keyword Planner" width="1024" height="449" data-lazy-type="image" data-src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/googlekeywordplanner-1024x449.jpg" data-srcset="" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/googlekeywordplanner-1024x449.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/googlekeywordplanner-300x132.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/googlekeywordplanner.jpg 1674w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>cognitiveSEO’s Keyword Tool can give you tons of keyword opportunities. It works like a content marketing agency that will work on most of your marketing plans, your pieces of content…you got the idea your whole marketing effort in general.</p> <p>You can check out for questions people are looking for an answer on Google. You can filter the keywords ideas by volume, relevancy and so on, so you can find the best keyword opportunities for you. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24640" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/best-shoes-ideas-1024x513.png" alt="best shoes ideas" width="1024" height="513" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/best-shoes-ideas-1024x513.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/best-shoes-ideas-300x150.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/best-shoes-ideas-768x385.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/best-shoes-ideas.png 1144w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='14' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Prioritize the Keywords You Want to Rank For</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Now comes the more difficult part.</p> <p> </p> <p>For which of those keywords can you realistically rank in top Google search?</p> <p> </p> <p>After you’ve determined a list of keywords you’ll go after, you have to take a look at two things:</p> <p> </p> <p>Content Performance and Domain Performance.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can use the Ranking Analysis section of the <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/">Content Optimizer Tool</a></strong>.</p> <p>Let’s take as example the keyword this article is talking about: content marketing services.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can easily see a lot of important metrics, just one click away:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>how many links would this article need to be competitive?</li> <li>what is the monthly search for this keyword and how’s the searching trend for it? </li> <li>who is ranking in top 10 and how do their content looks like?</li> <li>how old/fresh is the content already ranking?</li> <li>what focus keywords did my competitor use within their content?</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><img class="lazy-loaded aligncenter wp-image-24641 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/content-marketing-services-content-tool-1024x572.png" alt="content marketing services - content tool" width="1024" height="572" data-lazy-type="image" data-src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/keyword-tool-seo-content-strategy-e1591187674368-1024x648.png" data-srcset="" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/content-marketing-services-content-tool-1024x572.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/content-marketing-services-content-tool-300x168.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/content-marketing-services-content-tool-768x429.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/content-marketing-services-content-tool.png 1329w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>While the Content Performance is something that we have control over and will improve in a future step, backlinks aren’t something we have that much control over.</p> <p> </p> <p>So, you want to see websites with as few referring domains as possible compared to your site (which you can check with the <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/site-explorer/">Site Explorer</a></strong>).</p> <p> </p> <p>Of course, if you see a lower content score and/or word count, those are also good indicators that it will be easier to create content for or improve existing content.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='15' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Select Top Keywords Based on Relevancy and Search Volume</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>For the purpose of this analysis example, we’ll just stick to these keywords: “buy shoes online” and “best shoes for”. One is broader and the other is narrower, but both are attractive in terms of relevance and search volume. Let’s assume that we start from the bottom (narrower keywords), but leave room for expansion in the future (broader keywords).</p> <p> </p> <p>From these two keywords, we can observe that the broader ones tend to return root domains as results, while narrower ones return pages from websites. This is a good indication of what our homepage should be targeting, and what we should target with pages.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-14180 lazy-loaded" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/broadkwvsnarrowkw-1024x503.jpg" alt="Broad keywords vs narrow keywords" width="1024" height="503" data-lazy-type="image" data-src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/broadkwvsnarrowkw-1024x503.jpg" data-srcset="" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/broadkwvsnarrowkw-1024x503.jpg 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/broadkwvsnarrowkw-300x147.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/broadkwvsnarrowkw.jpg 1467w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The final list should include keywords around your general niche and some current or possible (future) sub-niches. You can group them into separate sheets. This way you’ll be able to select top competitors from multiple sub-niches easier. The more keywords you’re willing to analyze, the better you’ll understand what you’re dealing with in the long run.</p> <p>You can use the Google Search Console to easily determine the keyword you’re already ranking for. (the below screenshot is taken in June 2020).</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24318 lazy-loaded" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-queries.png" alt="Search Console Queries" width="830" height="615" data-lazy-type="image" data-src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-queries.png" data-srcset="" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-queries.png 830w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-queries-300x222.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/search-console-queries-768x569.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Can you improve this existing content? Or should you target new keywords? These are questions you should ask yourself when putting together your SEO content marketing strategy. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='2' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Content Creation</h2> <p> </p> <p>No worries, comparing to the previous section, content creation will feel like a breeze among the content marketing services list. </p> <p> </p> <p>First, consider that it’s always best to consider landing page optimization for a single main keyword and a single search intent per page.</p> <p>You can sometimes combine very similar keywords, but try as much as possible to stick to one main keyword and one search intent. Feel free to find out <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/22986/search-intent/">more about search intent here</a></strong>. </p> <p> </p> <p>A great way to do this is to write content about questions that are very often asked in your industry, or case studies.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, this article about <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/19066/meta-description-affects-seo/">meta descriptions affect SEO or not</a></strong> has been linked to multiple times by other SEO blogs trying to make a quick point without getting into too much detail.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Write content that stands out and is share worthy. </p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>While doing so, also make sure to: </p> <ul> <li>Have great Titles, Headlines and Descriptions.</li> <li>Optimize your titles with keywords for SEO, but also keep them catchy for Social Media.</li> <li>Use the Open Graph property to set different titles for SEO and Social Media.</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>Longform content tends to perform better in organic search results. Yet, look at what type of content your competitor have. Is it long, short? What type of content is Google serving within its first page for the type of content you want to rank? </p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>You keep on hearing: write content having readers, but also SEO in mind. But what does this really mean?</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>We can spend a lot of time on debating that, or we can use a tool that will help us write that exact type of content. As time is so precious these days, I’ll choose the second option. </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24643 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/content-marketing-services-content-optimization-1024x763.png" alt="content marketing services - content optimization" width="1024" height="763" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/content-marketing-services-content-optimization-1024x763.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/content-marketing-services-content-optimization-300x223.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/content-marketing-services-content-optimization-768x572.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/content-marketing-services-content-optimization.png 1094w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a></p> <p> </p> <p>Open the Content Assistant section from the cognitiveSEO’s content optimizer and hit Start Optimizing.</p> <p>Once you do so, you’ll get everything you need there:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>the keywords you should use in your content</li> <li>the content score you should reach</li> <li>keywords ideas to use in your content</li> <li>the focus keywords that might help your content with ranking</li> <li>the keywords you shouldn’t use that much to avoid stuffing</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>Basically, you’ll get all the resources you need to write content that is relevant for your users first of all, but also SEO oriented. </p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>The idea is to think of the recommended keywords as subtopics or areas of interest that you should cover in your content.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>When people search for something, you already know they are interested in it. That’s why SEM has such a high conversion rate and people spend time reading in-depth articles.</p> <p> </p> <p>Regardless of the tools you’d be using, keep in mind that the best tool you have at your disposal is your own knowledge.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>You should keep in mind that writing naturally is the best way to go. </p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>I know: writing original content regularly might not be easy. Moreover optimized content. Even if you’re a marketing expert that wants to improve brand awareness, an account manager or a search engine optimization, <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/21096/how-to-write-for-seo/">writing with SEO in mind</a> is never easy. There are no perfect marketing guides that will drive results in no time. And copywriting implies extra marketing costs, video content creation costs, maybe website design, content promotion and so on. Yet, when creating your monthly reporting, you’ll check the return on investment and you’ll see that those marketing efforts did pay off. That monthly content and those business goals you struggle with, those SEO audits, they all bring great results. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='3' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Content Distribution</h2> <p> </p> <p>The journey shouldn’t stop when the article goes live. On the contrary, you should carry on with the process of boosting your content. You need to understand that content distribution isn’t a single technique or a one-time thing. It incorporates an umbrella of multiple unique techniques you need to follow in order to get better results.</p> <p> </p> <p>We all had that moment when we gave our soul into a post and made it so shiny, with thorough research, relevant visuals but nobody read it. <br /> And then you start wondering what went wrong. What in the name of God happened? Or why did it happen to you? And the questions could go on.</p> <p> </p> <p>But there is something that you missed. And that “something” could be content distribution and amplification. </p> <p> </p> <p>Content distribution is a powerful method to reach a wider audience.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Amplifying your content should be mandatory if you want people to know about it and increase your website traffic.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>You can look at the distribution process as a way of strengthening the signals of your post. And here are some channels to do so: </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='31' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Link Building</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>If, in the past, the traditional ways of building links meant to meaninglessly spread out all over the internet, without thinking of relevance and essence, through the help of web directories, blogrolls, keyword stuffing and others, now we need to think of our target audience.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Things have changed now, but links are still an important ranking signal and they are very helpful when trying to rank high in the search engines. </p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>It’s a harsh reality but link generating through content marketing will surely become harder and harder.</p> <p>Yet, harder doesn’t mean impossible. Use blog posts, videos, infographics, eBooks and so on. Create resources that are valuable and that will earn links.</p> <p> </p> <p>Also, don’t forget about <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/18796/internal-linking/">internal linking</a>. </p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>If you’re looking for an SEO move that can quickly boost the position of your website, then internal linking is the move you want to make. </p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>A proper internal linking strategy can really boost your ranking power because it does two things:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>#1:</strong> <strong>It helps search engines understand the structure of your website</strong>, how different pages interact with one another and which pages are truly important withing the structure of your website.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>#2:</strong> <strong>It helps users navigate the website and it keeps users on the website</strong> by providing relevant content through links that can be followed. This ultimately sends search engines another signal that your website is great, because it provides a good user experience.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you’re interested in some valuable link building lessons, wrote from experience, <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/19318/ling-building-lessons/">check out this article</a>. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='32' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Social Media</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>I know it and you know it. The internet has become so fed up with marketing strategies, that people become immune to content in its mediocre form.</p> <p>Influencers from all marketing channels are no longer impressed so easily, and in order to put your brand “in their mouth” you need to do some wheel greasing.</p> <p> </p> <p>So that’s why super important to create content that it’s worth sharing; content that “has something to say”, that brings added value.</p> <p>Invest in social media marketing as much as you can. Get dedicated account managers or marketing manager if possible. There are many social content marketing companies that are offering good services, just make sure to get the right one to grow your business.</p> <p> </p> <p>There a lot of tips and tricks on how to perform better on social media. You can consult <strong><a href="https://brandmentions.com/blog/">blogs like BrandMentions</a></strong>‘ one for this.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Promote your content as much as possible but on the right social media channels for your niche. </p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Use paid media and social media advertising (like Twitter or Facebook advertising) if needed. Make use of partner programs, press releases, custom content, go for influencer marketing if needed. <br /> Yet, it is highly important to make yourself visible on social media. Even if this implies some graphic design activities or video production to steal your potential customers’ attention. Here’s a video production <a href="https://clipchamp.com/en/video-editor/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">tool</a> you can check it out. </p> <p>Social media management is as important as writing optimized pieces of content when it comes to building your brand.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='33' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Community & Relations</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>When I think of content marketing, a line from the movie Jerry Maguire comes to mind – Help me, help you!</p> <p> </p> <p>We’ve seen common outreach methods of content marketing like guest blogging being abused in the past, because people misunderstood the idea behind it.</p> <blockquote> <p>Generating links through content marketing is not about trying to beg for them, it’s about creating relationships with other businesses and people that reside in the online medium.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>You can no longer strive for the number one spot in Google’s eyes if you can’t create new pals that are willing to talk about you and share your content or vice versa.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>“Link begging” your way out of a situation will do you more harm than good so we don’t recommend that.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>There’s one way out of it and that’s creating content that others might find interesting enough to share it with their audience. <br /> Organic Links are a “hard to get” commodity these days and you’ll be happy to find and keep connections with influencers that like and distribute the content that you create.</p> <p> </p> <p>In order to help yourself, you need to attend to the needs and interests of others first!</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>When you can’t create engaging content on your side of the street, try going to the place where the discussion is currently happening.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>It may sound like a cheesy tactic but I assure you it’s not a laughing matter. You may include comments in your content marketing strategy as you can generate links and help the community at the same time, in real time.</p> <p> </p> <p>Comments are a great way to:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>create meaningful content</li> <li>connect and engage with your target audience</li> <li>create links pointing to your site in a natural manner.</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>Comments can prove to be a blade with two edges and you need to treat it with care.</p> <p> </p> <p>Try and find the most important forums in your niche and where the discussions are taking place.</p> <p>Look at what people are asking and what questions they have.</p> <p>As long as you stay on topic and your comments are not only meant for link building, then you won’t have nothing to worry about.</p> <p> </p> <p>Above are just a few content distribution ideas. For even more ideas for amplification, <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/13363/content-amplification/">check out this article</a>. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='4' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Constant Content Update</h2> <p> </p> <p>What if I were to tell you there’s another way, besides tapping into that creative juice barrel?</p> <p> </p> <p>Nobody expects you to create original and engaging content all the time.</p> <p> </p> <p>You just can’t create quality content on an assembly line and everybody knows that, and no, you shouldn’t resort to gimmick techniques to win your target audience’s attention.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>What you can do is to recycle outdated content that may still be of interest to your target audience.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Some content has been geniously created in the past and widely distributed, but that doesn’t mean you cannot use that already developed interest to your advantage.</p> <p> </p> <p>Those infographics that were widely distributed and shared, which created a lot of discussions over the internet can be refurbished using the same layout and the same structure but with fresher and more relevant data.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>You can also improve old content by adding more information and thus more value for the viewer.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>While this might be appealing for those looking for a shortcut method of generating content, it should be part of a balanced diet.</p> <p>It seems easily exploitable, but if done improperly, you might end up feeding your site with low quality content.</p> <p> </p> <p>We’ve done an interested experiment some time ago: We’ve updated 40 blog posts with fresh, updated information.</p> <p>The result? 70% SEO visibility increase. So, it could be a tactic that could work for you to. You can <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/16542/improve-website-rankings/">check out the case study here</a>. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='5' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Content Analytics Reporting</h2> <p> </p> <p>You know the saying. No job is done until the paperwork is done. </p> <p>In our case, not literally paper, but reporting the results. This is an equally important part of the content marketing services list. </p> <p> </p> <p>So, you’ve created a content marketing strategy; you’ve written awesome content or updated the existing one, you’ve highly distributed. </p> <p> </p> <p>Now, what’s to do? </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Check out the result!</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>But what should you check?</p> <p> </p> <p>Measuring content marketing and SEO efforts is often easier said than done.</p> <p>Yet, here are some metrics you should definitely look at. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='51' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Organic Search Traffic</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Organic search traffic refers to website visits that originated from search engine results and not through ads. Organic search traffic is a highly effective indicator of overall success. When a website’s content includes keywords that frequently match what users are searching for, that website is likely to appear in a larger number of search engine results pages (SERPs) than competing websites.</p> <p> </p> <p>Using <a href="https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>Google Analytics</strong></a>, open the <em>Acquisition</em> menu. From there, select <em>All Traffic</em>, then select <em>Channels</em>.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-15523 lazy-loaded" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/google-analytics.png" sizes="(max-width: 412px) 100vw, 412px" srcset="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/google-analytics.png 412w, https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/google-analytics-149x300.png 149w" alt="google analytics" width="412" height="827" data-lazy-type="image" data-src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/google-analytics.png" data-srcset="" /></p> <p> </p> <p>You’ll now be presented with a view of a website’s sources of traffic, which are sorted by channel. <br /> Select the <em>Organic Search</em> channel for a useful report that displays a site’s organic traffic stats.</p> <p> </p> <p>This report is a versatile one. It gives SEO practitioners the ability to uncover critical information such as:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>Which landing pages are the most effective at attracting traffic</li> <li>Which keywords are delivering the highest amounts of traffic</li> <li>Which of the search engines are directing the highest amount of organic traffic to a website</li> <li>What pages are frequently the biggest exit pages (or the last page a visitor views before leaving the website)</li> <li>And many other vital stats</li> </ul> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='52' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Keyword Rankings</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Keyword Ranking is how well or how poorly your content ranks in SERPs for a given search term.</p> <p> </p> <p>Google analytics isn’t as helpful as some SEO practitioners would like it to be as far as tracking keyword rankings. <br /> Its keyword tab (within the campaign tab) often displays the phrase “<em>not provided</em>.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Instead of Google analytics, consider the <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/ranktracker/">rank tracker provided by cognitiveSEO</a></strong>. <br /> One of its advantages is that it allows you to track keywords at a universal level as well as at a local level. It also allows you to analyze the keyword performance of competitors.</p> <p> </p> <p>So, add your keywords you created content for within the Rank Tracker and constantly check out the evolution.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24649" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rank-tracking-1024x516.png" alt="rank tracking" width="1024" height="516" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rank-tracking-1024x516.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rank-tracking-300x151.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rank-tracking-768x387.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rank-tracking.png 1448w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='53' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Social Shares</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Social shares can be defined simply as the sharing of your content by social media users. <br /> While it’s generally thought that Google does not take social signals and shares into consideration when ranking SERP results, social shares are still very important to your SEO efforts.</p> <p> </p> <p>Tracking your social shares is beneficial because of the important impact social media plays in content marketing strategies.</p> <p>As more people share your content with their followers, the higher the chances that more people will view it and ultimately migrate over to your website. <br /> More visits to your website means a boost in organic search ranking.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='54' style='height:50px'> </div> <h3><strong>Backlink Volume</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>Useful for measuring the authority and popularity of your website, <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/13937/assess-backlink-quality/">backlinks</a> </strong>(often referred to as inbound links) are links to your website that originate from someone else’s website. <br /> Backlinks to your site can also originate from other pages on your own site.</p> <p> </p> <p>Measuring this performance indicator will go a long way in helping you rank higher.</p> <p>By tracking it, you’ll always know where you stand with what some in the SEO industry view as the most important ranking factor used by Google.</p> <p>When you know whether you’re succeeding with your backlinks, you know how much you need to improve by.</p> <p> </p> <p>Using Google Analytics, open the Acquisition menu. From there, select All Traffic, then select Referrals.</p> <p>You can now look at your referral traffic, which is Google’s way of saying “backlinks.”</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-15530 lazy-loaded" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/referrals-googla-analytics.png" sizes="(max-width: 342px) 100vw, 342px" srcset="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/referrals-googla-analytics.png 342w, https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/referrals-googla-analytics-126x300.png 126w" alt="referrals googla analytics" width="342" height="814" data-lazy-type="image" data-src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/referrals-googla-analytics.png" data-srcset="" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Also, for a <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/backlinkanalysis/">comprehensive backlink analysis tool</a>, cognitiveSEO aggregates backlink data from trusted link databases and analyzes the links on demand for each of their clients.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>I know, there are a lot of information from the digital marketing area to deal with.</p> <p>But even if you’re one the one who’ll be implementing all the content marketing services above, even if you’re hiring marketing agencys, it’s important to know what’s all about. </p> <p> </p> <p>If you or your marketing team are out of breath after reading this post (or worse yet, discouraged,) don’t be overwhelmed! <br /> Take heart, force a smile, and accept the fact that victory never comes easy. I know, lots of things are involved: technical SEO, marketing budget, web design, content calendars or advertising costs. But it does pay off in the attempt of building brand that is strong and competitive. </p> <p> </p> <p>Success and competitiveness are for those who are willing to work harder and get their hands dirtier.</p> <p>The bottom line here is that you can do this, and it will be worth it.</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/24549/content-marketing-services/">Content Marketing Services | The Complete List for a Successful Digital Strategy</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog">SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies</a>.</p>13 Things We Learned from 10 Years of Writing SEO Friendly Blog Posts
2020-12-17 16:03:13 UTC
We have written and optimized – for our own blog or other pages – thousands of articles and SEO friendly blog posts in the last 10 years. What better way to learn from past successes and mistakes? We’d like to share them with you, not just as a holiday gift, but mostly because sharing our […]
The post 13 Things We Learned from 10 Years of Writing SEO Friendly Blog Posts appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We have written and optimized – for our own blog or other pages – thousands of articles and SEO friendly blog posts in the last 10 years. What better way to learn from past successes and mistakes? We’d like to share them with you, not just as a holiday gift, but mostly because sharing our insights with others is what makes us and the people around us stronger and more resilient.</span></p> <p> </p> <p>Google’s rules and updates changed way too many times to be worth counting and the content writers on this blog have changed a lot as well, trying to uncover Google’s mystery box. We’ve lost weight, hair, nerves, and money in the process but believe us, we have learned a lot and most of the times the hard way.</p> <p> </p> <p>So, we’re going to expose ourselves in a vulnerable matter; yet, if this article saves you from repeating some mistakes we did, we declare ourselves happy. 🙂 </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24705 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Things-we-learned-from-writing-SEO-articles-1.png" alt="Things we learned from writing SEO articles" width="1024" height="538" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Things-we-learned-from-writing-SEO-articles-1.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Things-we-learned-from-writing-SEO-articles-1-300x158.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Things-we-learned-from-writing-SEO-articles-1-768x404.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The end of the year is usually a time to reminisce and reflect on the time that has passed and hopefully extract some amount of wisdom – no matter how small – to take into the new year. For many of us, 2021 will be different, since we’ve likely had to go through this exercise a lot earlier than the end of the year.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, we decided to look even further back, in hopes that the lessons we find will speak to something greater than the general terribleness of this year.</span></p> <p> </p> <p>We’ve run an SEO blog for ten years now. And we’ve learned one or two things along the way. Here are 13 of them (yes 13, in 2020):</p> <p> </p> <ol class="summaryext"> <li><strong><a href="#1">Optimize Everything from URLs to Conclusions</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#2">Don’t Assume Anything! Check Grammar, Facts, Quotes</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#3">Being Consistent Is Difficult. It’s Also the Key to Success</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#4">Originality Is Good, but so Is Content Update</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#5">Google Algorithms Come and Go, Quality Content Stays</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#6">Creativity Is A Lot of Hard Work</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#7">Questions Are More Useful than Answers</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#8">Forget Academic Writing</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#9">Solve Your Readers’ Problems, not Your Dilemmas</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#10">The Title of the Article Will Influence Its Performance</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#11">Write Less but Write Better</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#12">Write Less, Promote More</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#13">Stick to Your Principles</a></strong></li> </ol> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='1' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Optimize Everything from URLs to Conclusions</h2> <p> </p> <p>I know, you already got this: you know that you need to have well optimized content, meaning that you need to use your targeted keyword within the title once and the body content at least ten times and Google will have no other choice than rank your content. And if it doesn’t, well, we all know that Google sucks so, it’s their fault.</p> <p> </p> <p>Of course, this is an exaggeration. But it has a grain of truth in it.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>As search marketing changed, we have evolved as well as learned what both our readers and Google expect from us. </p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>We all know that optimized content is the key to success. But optimization shouldn’t stop at the body of the content. You should also optimize:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>The Title</li> <li>The URL</li> <li>The Meta Description</li> <li>The Slug</li> <li>The Images </li> <li>The Internal Links</li> <li>The Outbound Links</li> <li>The Text Length</li> <li>The Article Main Image</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>We used to overlook some of these items. Or, at least we did not give them the right importance. This is how we ended up with URLs like this: https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/26/the-best-link-building-blogs-experts-and-their-tutorials-from-2011/ or with three articles published one after another having the titles: <em>How to Get Links</em>, <em>How to Earn Links</em> and <em>How to Acquire Links</em>. </p> <p> </p> <p>You’ll find plenty of material on this blog on how to optimize all of those reminded above, so we won’t insist too much here. But here are some resources you might find useful:</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/21096/how-to-write-for-seo/">SEO Writing for Copywriters</a></p> <p><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/21836/internal-linking-structure-seo/">Internal Linking Strategy </a></p> <p><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/11701/title-influence-on-rankings/">Title & URL Influence on Rankings Research</a></p> <p><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/19318/ling-building-lessons/">Link Building Campaigns</a></p> <p><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/22796/seo-friendly-title-tags-best-practices/">How to Write SEO Friendly Titles</a></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='2' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Don’t Assume Anything! Check Grammar, Facts, Quotes</h2> <p> </p> <p>Do you know what Euripides and my manager have in common? They are both stuck in my head repeating this sentence: <em>Question everything! </em></p> <p> </p> <p>While this might be an obvious one, take a sincerity test: when was the last time you double or triple checked a well-known fact? Even the basic ones like: cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis or Eskimos have dozens of words for <em>snow. </em>You <em>know </em>this, so you use them in your content without checking them again. </p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Whether it’s a well-known SEO fact, a very famous quote or an obvious grammar rule, double check it. </p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Some time ago we published an <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/18988/advertising-on-wikipedia/">article</a> that talked about Wikipedia and whether advertising can be made on the big encyclopedia’s site. And as an example, we offered Gibraltar. </p> <p>We were super excited about the article and we thought it would stir a lot of controversies. And it did. Yet, the apple of discord wasn’t whether you can inject advertising, but whether Gibraltar is a country or not. It is a territory disputed between UK and Spain, we knew that, but we <em>assumed</em> that if it has its own capital and currency, it must be a country. Well, it’s not and we had to stop and moderate the comments section due to this issue. We changed the screenshot and transformed “country” into “territory” but, too little too late. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24675" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/gibraltar-country.png" alt="gibraltar country" width="1017" height="689" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/gibraltar-country.png 1017w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/gibraltar-country-300x203.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/gibraltar-country-768x520.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1017px) 100vw, 1017px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>We also had our share of “grammar shaming” from our users. Some more years ago, we published a few pieces (<em>that we assumed were written correctly from a grammar point of view</em>) and we got some emails from our readers that weren’t so flattering.</p> <blockquote> <p>We had spent so much time in doing research, documenting and reading a lot, and what people noticed first were the grammar mistakes.</p> </blockquote> <p>Of course, we were proud enough to assume that we knew grammar, and that it wasn’t what should have mattered first. But a few emails from our users later, we decided to collaborate with an English teacher. And that was one of the best decisions we took. </p> <p> </p> <p>When it comes to grammar, things are a bit tricky, we know. If your first language is not English, chances are you’ll need someone to look over your content. At least in the beginning, to give you some guidance. Even if you’re one of those who goes overboard when correcting grammar mistakes, a fresh eye is always a good idea.</p> <p>Because you want your articles, your research, your blog to become an authority in your market, and this would be almost impossible with typos or style errors in your masterpiece. </p> <p>If someone else is checking your work, that doesn’t make you less of a content writer or copywriter. It will make you a better one. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='3' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><b>Being Consistent Is Difficult. It’s Also the Key to Success</b></h2> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ever wondered why so many TV shows which go on forever sooner or later have a significant drop in quality?</span></p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Coming up with a good idea can happen to any of us. Coming up with a good idea every week for years and years? That takes more than creativity. </span></p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It takes hard work and discipline and accepting the fact that some weeks it’s going to be a lot harder than others. But the important thing is to keep going and keep wanting to put out good work. Things aren’t always going to be in a straight line. Difficult times are followed by better ones. And sometimes the best rewards come after a period of struggling and pushing through.</span></p> <p> </p> <p>Do you see the screenshot below? It’s a pretty nice growth, isn’t it? It’s a screenshot of cognitiveSEO’s visibility taken from our <a href="https://explorer.cognitiveseo.com/?u=cognitiveseo.com&m=*U*#section/4">Site Explorer</a>. </p> <p>The chart below looks this good because what we did two things:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li>We published constantly (we published at least once a week)</li> <li>We optimized everything mentioned in the previous chapter, from URLs to conclusions. </li> </ol> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24679" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/cognitiveseo-increase-1024x502.png" alt="cognitiveseo increase" width="1024" height="502" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/cognitiveseo-increase-1024x502.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/cognitiveseo-increase-300x147.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/cognitiveseo-increase-768x377.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/cognitiveseo-increase.png 1193w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p>(I admit that I gaze at this chart from time to time when my motivation is gone, or I procrastinate too much.)</p> <p> </p> <p>Yes, we also used our <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/">Content Optimizer</a> a lot and it worked great for us. But we were consistent most of all.</p> <blockquote> <p>We published frequently and we optimized everything for each and every article, be it an in-depth research or a short case study.</p> </blockquote> <p>And it did pay off. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='4' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><b>Originality Is Good, but so Is Content Update</b></h2> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Coming up with original ideas is no doubt key to progress. But so is updating existing ones, despite being less glamorous. </span></p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gaining knowledge tends to happen in small and uncertain steps, rather than in leaps and bounds. Part of the process is refining and testing existing knowledge. Which is why we’ve often opted to update articles and research rather than start from scratch.</span></p> <p> </p> <p>And it turned out to be a very good decision. We even made <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/16542/improve-website-rankings/">an article</a> on how content optimization increased our SEO visibility big time.</p> <p>The results are summed up in the chart below. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter" src="https://cdn.cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Keyword-rankings-after-optimization.png" alt="Keyword rankings after optimization" /></p> <p> </p> <p>You surely have articles that are not relevant anymore. Or research you’ve worked so hard on, but now it is not bringing anything in terms of traffic.</p> <p> </p> <p>Instead of letting them rot, try to resuscitate them, if it makes sense. You’ll win more traffic and improve your overall blog quality.</p> <p>Worst case scenario, this strategy won’t bring you much more traffic but at least you’ll have your blog articles up to date. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='5' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Google Algorithms Come and Go, Quality Content Stays</h2> <p> </p> <p>This is similar to the one hit wonder music bands.</p> <blockquote> <p>We all remember the musical hit, we sing it at birthday parties for a period of time, yet we probably won’t buy the album just for that tune.</p> </blockquote> <p>Same thing may happen to your content. If you want your readers to look at your blog/brand/name with respect and put you in the trustworthy content category, make a habit out of delivering quality.</p> <p> </p> <p>As the saying goes, we are what we repeatedly do.</p> <blockquote> <p>Excellence is not an act, but a habit.</p> </blockquote> <p>You’ve written a blog post and you have thousands of shares and appreciations? That’s a great. Yet, that one-time performance won’t keep you on the top for long. On the contrary, once you’ve set the bar high, you need to keep up with it to have killer content. </p> <p> </p> <p>And yes, Google Updates are a harsh reality. Yet, we have thousands of readers, clients, users, and it rarely happened for very good quality content to be penalized.</p> <p>We’re not saying that it didn’t happen. Unfortunately, we’ve seen good quality being penalized. Yet, take this as a prevention measure. </p> <p> </p> <p>If a policeman stopped you in traffic, would you be super confident that you did nothing wrong, or would you feel a bit panicked as you know you probably broke a few rules here and there?</p> <p> </p> <p>Same with content and updates. I know, it’s waaaaaaay easier said than done, but try to write content in such manner, that if a quality update pops out, you won’t feel that scared.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>But don’t take our word for granted. Here’s what Google <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/08/core-updates" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">says</a> about what you should do when they update their algorithm. </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24684" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/google-update-recommendations.png" alt="google update recommendations" width="900" height="601" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/google-update-recommendations.png 900w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/google-update-recommendations-300x200.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/google-update-recommendations-768x513.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='6' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><b>Creativity Is A Lot of Hard Work</b></h2> <p> </p> <p>The famous American television and radio host Larry King used to say to his audience a very witty story about his father.</p> <p>He says that his father, of Ukrainian origins, came to the US thinking that America was the greatest land of all, where even the streets were paved with gold. However, shortly after arriving, his father realized three things:</p> <ol> <li>The streets weren’t paved with gold.</li> <li>The streets weren’t paved at all.</li> <li>He was the one to pave the streets.</li> </ol> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There’s a dangerous cliche about creativity being the sort of lightning in a bottle phenomenon, young hip creatives staying late at night and coming up with wild ideas out of thin air. And that’s… definitely a more exciting version than reality. </span></p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But the truth is that so many times creativity is time and patience and incremental progress. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And it’s a collaborative effort more than it is an individual one. Ultimately, you discover there is truth in the adage that spontaneous things take a lot of preparation.</span></p> <p> </p> <p>Don’t pressure yourself in being creative 100% of the time. You might be creative most of the time, without even noticing. </p> <p>And we know it’s easier said than done but even if you don’t feel like, start writing. Just start, and the rest will follow. </p> <p> </p> <p>Larry’s King father was a great man, we’re sure of it. Yet, as inspirational as these success stories are, this is what they tend to remain: stories.</p> <p>Of course, not all of them. <em>Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.</em></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='7' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><b>Questions Are More Useful than Answers</b></h2> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We’ve asked a lot of questions along the years and we haven’t always been able to answer all of them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Understanding the right question to ask is, more often than not, the more challenging task.</span></p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Getting access to large amounts of data is no longer a serious problem. What to do with the data will largely remain one for years to come. </span></p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, whenever you want to perform research, or elaborate on some stats, please remember: it’s not just that statistical interpretation and analysis requires a certain skillset. There are also strategic and sometimes even ethical choices to be made about how to frame the results or even what to look at in the first place.</span></p> <p> </p> <p>Over the years, we have performed research on billions of data points. And no, there is no exaggeration here. Literally billions of data points. </p> <p>Each and every time we started having a question in mind we wanted to get an answer for; yet, almost each and every time we realized along the way that we had asked the wrong question. </p> <p>Of course, this is the beauty of research. But don’t be too proud when performing research. Even if your computer blocks after tens of Excel documents open, even if your stats software crashes, never ignore the other questions that will pop up from the research. </p> <p> </p> <p>Take from instance <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/11701/title-influence-on-rankings/">this research</a> on the infuence of Title and URLs on rankings. The initial plan was to analyze a few hundred article titles and see if and how a title can influence rankings. </p> <p>We ended up analyzing 35k keywords in both Titles and URLs because we realized that what we should actually look for is the importance of a keyword’s occurrence in a title, URL, domain, subdomain and URI. </p> <p> </p> <p>And as you can see in the chart below, in some cases, that huge amount of analyzed data told us…well…nothing relevant. Yet, it was still worth discovering it. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24682 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/title-research-cognitivveseo-1-1024x520.png" alt="title research cognitivveseo" width="1024" height="520" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/title-research-cognitivveseo-1-1024x520.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/title-research-cognitivveseo-1-300x152.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/title-research-cognitivveseo-1-768x390.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/title-research-cognitivveseo-1.png 1087w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='8' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>Forget Academic Writing</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>We’re going to keep this short. When we talk about academic writing, we don’t necessarily mean scientific articles.</p> <p>But there’s a certain rigor to that writing which might not appeal to the general audience. This is not to say you should dumb things down.</p> <p> </p> <p>There’s a simple, two-step approach for making this happen:</p> <blockquote> <p>Read what you’ve written out loud. If some parts don’t sound like something you’d say to a friend in real life, then change it.</p> </blockquote> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='9' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>Solve Your Readers’ Problems, not Your Dilemmas</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>A lot of content comes from wanting to share experience. You know something most other people – even those in your field – might not know. You are excited about that and want to make them aware of your newly gained wisdom. The important thing to remember is that the focus should stay on sharing and not on you as the source of wisdom. That’s not to say your opinions have no place in your writing, on the contrary.</p> <p> </p> <p>But always ask yourself these 3 questions:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li><strong>Will this info help my readers better understand the subject?</strong></li> <li><strong>Will this info help my readers better apply this knowledge for doing something practical?</strong></li> <li><strong>Will this info help me look cool but not add anything valuable to this piece?</strong></li> </ol> <p> </p> <p>If the answer to the first two questions is a resounding “Yes”, then you should definitely include that piece of information in your copy. If the answer to these questions is “No” and the only “Yes” comes from the third question, well… you’ve got yourself a pretty good conversation opener for the next party.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='10' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>The Title of the Article Will Influence Its Performance</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>We’re not talking here only about the fact that keywords used in the titles of your copy have a high ranking importance. We’ve conducted a <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/11701/title-influence-on-rankings" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> where it seems that keyword appearance in the title makes a clear difference between ranking 1st or 2nd. But also about the “catchiness” factor. And no, I am not talking about click bite titles, but about titles that are relevant in your industry.</p> <p> </p> <p>We’ve published so much, and some content registered success while some didn’t, but one thing is sure: if it has anything related to Google in the title, it’s going to perform pretty well. </p> <p>When comparing any study, research, opinion article that we’ve published to one that has “Google” in the title, chances are that the latter will get the most traffic, shares, links, etc. </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/index.php?s=google"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24694" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/google-posts.png" alt="google posts" width="855" height="938" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/google-posts.png 855w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/google-posts-273x300.png 273w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/google-posts-768x843.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 855px) 100vw, 855px" /></a></p> <p> </p> <p>So, you might be thinking: why don’t you add “Google” in all titles? And now we come back to the previous points mentioned here: we don’t want to do click bait only; we want to be relevant, to offer quality and respect for our readers. </p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>When creating the title of your content, you should really think things through, as the title must not be only relevant and attractive but also SERP friendly.</p> </blockquote> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='11' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Write Less but Write Better</h2> <p> </p> <p>I am sure you’ve noticed this as well for years: fluff content in most of the industries (especially digital marketing).</p> <p>There seems to be very little focus on SEO, audiences, conversions, and how articles/content will be helpful for the readers. All of these things should be figured out BEFORE you write anything. It is obvious when something was written strictly for an SEO goal;</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Without value, fluff content isn’t going to help you even if you rank well for it.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>There is no reason to create content so that you have it. You have to plan each piece of content based on which audience(s) you want to reach, what goals you have for each piece of content, how you will use it in social media to further your goals, and how you are hoping to rank.</p> <p>This takes a lot of time and effort, but it is better than wasting time and resources on content that brings nothing to your company. Without showing the ROI for your work, your job becomes expendable.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='12' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Write Less, Promote More</h2> <p> </p> <p>Don’t neglect content promotion. You might be overly focused on content marketing processes. And that’s definitely a good investment!</p> <p>However, a lot of content marketers tend to skip the steps related to content promotion. We know, we did. </p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Without promotion, the majority of your work never reaches your targeted audience.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>We recommend writing less and devoting more time to content promotion. Start your content plan by writing a list of channels and influencers that can help you reach more relevant users and will allow you to start getting traffic and leads from each published post. </p> <p> </p> <div id="attachment_24698" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24698" class="size-large wp-image-24698" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/promotional-plan-1024x473.png" alt="promotional plan" width="1024" height="473" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/promotional-plan-1024x473.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/promotional-plan-300x139.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/promotional-plan-768x355.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/promotional-plan.png 1176w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><p id="caption-attachment-24698" class="wp-caption-text"><em>source: multichannelmerchant.com</em></p></div> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='13' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>Stick to Your Principles</h2> <p> </p> <p>There will be many cases when you might be tempted to write click-bait articles or write just for the sake of writing, without offering real value.</p> <p> </p> <p>Because you’ll be looking at your competitors, and you’ll see that they might get results even with not-so-qualitative content. You’ll invest time, money, and nerves in well-documented researches that will not always perform the way you want. You will get angry, and you will swear you won’t spend another night trying to bring quality to the Internet world.</p> <p> </p> <p>I am sure this happens to any content writer at least once. Yet, if you do stick to your principles, if you do invest time and quality in each and every article you write, it does pay off. These are not just empty words. Long time effort in content writing does pay off.</p> <blockquote> <p>Don’t write anything you wouldn’t read. </p> </blockquote> <p>There are no easy gains, indeed. Yet, what matters at the end of the day is to have good long-term performances. </p> <p> </p> <p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">You might have read this article thoroughly, or you’ve just browsed the main titles, saying to yourself: </span><em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">I knew that</span></em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">. Knowledge is power. But what matters at the end of the day is what you do with that knowledge. All the actions you perform daily define who you are as a person, a marketer, or a business owner. So make sure your actions have an impact on something, no matter how big or small. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">The Canadian writer Margaret Atwood once said that </span><em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">the internet is 95 percent porn and spam</span></em><span data-preserver-spaces="true">. So, let’s make that 5% be damn good. </span></p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/24668/seo-friendly-blog-posts/">13 Things We Learned from 10 Years of Writing SEO Friendly Blog Posts</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog">SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies</a>.</p>Why SEO Does Not Work for You & Your Website
2021-06-24 06:48:09 UTC
So, you’re wondering why SEO does not work for you and your website, right? Haven’t you heard?! SEO is dead! Dead from all the bad jokes about it. Of course, SEO isn’t actually dead, but there are a few reasons why SEO might not be working for you and your site. We’ve gathered 14 […]
The post Why SEO Does Not Work for You & Your Website appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.
<p>So, you’re wondering why SEO does not work for you and your website, right?</p> <p>Haven’t you heard?! SEO is dead!</p> <p>Dead from all the bad jokes about it.</p> <p>Of course, <strong>SEO isn’t actually dead, but there are a few reasons why SEO might not be working for you</strong> and your site.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24783" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Why-SEO-Does-Not-Work-for-You-and-Your-Website-3.png" alt="Why SEO Does Not Work for You and Your Website" width="1024" height="538" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Why-SEO-Does-Not-Work-for-You-and-Your-Website-3.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Why-SEO-Does-Not-Work-for-You-and-Your-Website-3-300x158.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Why-SEO-Does-Not-Work-for-You-and-Your-Website-3-768x404.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>We’ve gathered 14 top of mind reasons why your SEO might not be working for your website.</p> <p>Let’s go through them and see if something rings a bell.</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li><strong><a href="#1">You don’t stick to the basics</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#2">You don’t really understand what SEO is</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#3">SEO just doesn’t fit your business/idea</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#4">Your expectations are too high</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#5">You’re not patient enough</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#6">Your budget is too small</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#7">You’re not focusing on mobile</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#8">You don’t analyze and you underestimate your competition</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#9">You’ve skipped keyword research</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#10">You’re not prioritizing the right things</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#11">You’re ignoring structure, click depth & internal linking</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#12">You’re ignoring backlinks</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#13">You don’t understand your audience</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#14">You’ve externalized to the wrong SEO agency</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="#15">You’re not monitoring your results</a></strong></li> </ol> <p> </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='1' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>1. You don’t stick to the basics</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>When people say SEO has some relation with magic, what they actually mean is that it’s very complex.</p> <p> </p> <p>It would take several very long articles for me to fully explain how it works. </p> <p>Yes, it implies user experience, link profile, content strategy, referral traffic or marketing campaigns. And all these SEO efforts might seem very complex.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, SEO is more simple that you might think, in some ways.</p> <p> </p> <p>In a nutshell, it’s the multitude of criteria which makes a website <strong>the best result for a particular keyword</strong>, in the sense that it <strong>satisfies the user’s intent</strong>.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>What you must understand is that Google isn’t trying to rank websites based on some checklist.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Sure, it follows a list of criteria, but it also looks at <strong>historical data</strong> in the SERP and since Rank Brain has got involved, machine learning really made things a lot more complicated.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24744 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/basicsseo-1024x310.png" alt="SEO Basics" width="1024" height="310" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/basicsseo-1024x310.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/basicsseo-300x91.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/basicsseo-768x232.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/basicsseo-1536x464.png 1536w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/basicsseo.png 1766w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p>It’s hard for us humans to keep pace with how Google decides what actually makes a web page ‘the best one’. At this point… I’m not sure even the makers themselves have any idea how things work anymore.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>So, instead focusing on the latest trends and techniques, try to focus more on the basics. Do them well and do them consistently.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Sure, SEO and digital marketing experts like Neil Patel and Brian Dean always try new techniques and tweaks, but one thing’s for sure: They haven’t stopped posting!</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/24668/seo-friendly-blog-posts/#3">Being consistent is difficult, but it’s also the key to success!</a></p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='2' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>2. You don’t really understand what SEO is</h2> <p> </p> <p>So, we know Google is trying to rank the best page.</p> <p> </p> <p>But what does that actually mean?</p> <p> </p> <p>Does it mean the page with the most targeted keywords? The page with the best links? The page with the best content?<br /> Who wins the Google top organic results?</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>It’s the page that best satisfies the user’s intent. And in some cases, the website alone can’t do it!</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Let’s say you want to rank high in the search engines for a very competitive eCommerce keyword. Well… if your offer isn’t good enough, you probably won’t.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you want to rank for “shoes” but you only have 3 products in your store, you won’t be getting far.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you want to rank for “cheap” but your prices aren’t cheap, again, you probably won’t have much success with it even if you optimize your website in this direction.</p> <p> </p> <p>Moreover, many people don’t understand that high rankings within search results also reflect the quality of a business, at least to some extent.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, bad reviews on Google My Business can affect your local SEO rankings and your business listing and people don’t leave bad reviews because your SEO campaign sucks.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sure, you can invest in search marketing and pump links into a website and get it to the top, but if the business itself doesn’t have the necessary infrastructure to properly satisfy clients (quality, shipping, support), the results won’t last for long!</p> <p> </p> <p>I’ve seen sites pumping bad links and rushing to the top, only to fall ungracefully a short time after because they did not meet their user’s expectations.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='3' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>3. SEO just doesn’t fit your business/idea</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>Another thing you should consider is that your business type should match SEO.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Usually, if you want to promote a short-term trending product, such as the fidget spinner, investing big and long term on SEO might not be the right choice!</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24739 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/fidget-1024x552.png" alt="Niches that don't fit SEO well" width="1024" height="552" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/fidget-1024x552.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/fidget-300x162.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/fidget-768x414.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/fidget.png 1164w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Furthermore, if you need a quick turnover and you’re just getting started… SEO might not be the right channel for you, and you should look for PPC advertising or social media remarketing instead.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, it’s not always a matter of <strong><a title="SEO vs PPC" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/19704/seo-vs-ppc/">SEO vs PPC</a></strong>. Usually, they go well together.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='4' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>4. Your expectations are too high</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>The higher the expectations, the bigger the disappointment.</p> <p> </p> <p>To be satisfied with your results, you’ll need to have realistic goals.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>With SEO, you can’t really expect top rankings and huge websites traffic in a month or two, if your domain has just been registered.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>You can’t expect to outrank the online presence of a strong competitor with thousands of links, with a tight budget and no scaling even if you apply some good SEO tactics.</p> <p> </p> <p>In some cases, the entire competition might be way out of your league. That’s when you have to dig in deeper, to find those keyword opportunities that are easier to rank for.</p> <p> </p> <p>You should still start with SEO as soon as possible, but start small. Look for keywords with lower competition and build your way up before saying that SEO does not work for you. </p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='5' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>5. You’re not patient enough</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>Sometimes you just need to be more patient.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Most SEOs will tell you upfront that it can take from 6 to 12 months to see the top positions.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24753 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/532tu6.jpg" alt="" width="577" height="419" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/532tu6.jpg 577w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/532tu6-300x218.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 577px) 100vw, 577px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Some will claim that they can get you to the #1 spot in the first month. It’s probably false and you should stay away from them.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>You should always see progress in the first month.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>If it’s a new website, that might be as little as the first pages getting indexed.</p> <p> </p> <p>So, if you’re not yet in the position you’ve wished for but have increased in rankings compared to the previous month, just give it a little more time. You’re on the right path.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you want to find out more about why it takes so long to rank in Google and other search engines and what you can do to speed things up, check out <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/21834/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank-in-google/">this article</a></strong>.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='6' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>6. Your budget is too small</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>Actually… you CAN have high expectations. But for the right budget.</p> <p> </p> <p>If your budget is too small, you might not be able to do everything you want and you might end up saying that SEO does not work for you. </p> <p> </p> <p>SEO includes things like: good server, fixing technical SEO issues, keyword research, content marketing, social media, investing in links and many others.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>If you want to scale it up quickly and efficiently, the truth is that you will need a substantial investment.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24756 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/no-money-4865814_640.jpg" alt="Low SEO Budget" width="640" height="425" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/no-money-4865814_640.jpg 640w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/no-money-4865814_640-300x199.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Clients often ask me: “Why is it that SEO takes so long?”</p> <p> </p> <p>Sure, part of the answer is: “Because Google.”</p> <p> </p> <p>However, I’m always confident I can speed things up by scaling.</p> <p> </p> <p>But why does scaling speed up the process, you may ask?</p> <p> </p> <p>Well… it’s pretty straight forward:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>More content = more keywords covered faster</li> <li>More links = faster higher authority</li> <li>More monitoring = better / faster tweaking</li> <li>More programmers = faster site, more useful features, better UX, etc.</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>But all those above = more money.</p> <p> </p> <p>Are you developing the content for 5 categories per month? Pump that to 10. Are you consolidating the site’s structure with 2 monthly blog posts? Up it to blog posts. Are you securing 1-2 links per month? Make that 5 and so on.</p> <p> </p> <p>Many people get into SEO because they can use time instead of money to drive traffic to their websites and businesses.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, time can’t scale things up. Only money can. If you want to rank faster, you’ll need to outsource some work.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='7' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>7. You’re not focusing on Mobile</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>I know, I know, you’ve been hearing that Mobile SEO is very important and that most traffic is now coming from mobile devices.</p> <p> </p> <p>The real thing here is that most professionals work from a desktop computer. So, the first contact with any issue, be it web development or SEO related, is on desktop, most of the times.</p> <p> </p> <p>Often times I find myself fixing a quick issue on the desktop and completely forgetting to check how it looks on mobile devices.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24748 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/responsive-1622825_640.png" alt="Responsive design impacts Crawling & Indexing" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/responsive-1622825_640.png 640w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/responsive-1622825_640-300x169.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>And although I browse websites on mobile (as a user), when a client asks me something or signals an issue, I immediately check it on my computer (the phone is busy at my ear anyway).</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>In SEO, you always have to keep in mind that Google uses <strong><a title="Mobile First Indexing" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/18350/mobile-first-index-mobile-seo/">mobile first indexing</a></strong>.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>If you’re mostly working from a desktop computer, like me, remember to always right-click in Chrome and hit inspect.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can select multiple device types to stop any issues.</p> <p> </p> <p>But sometimes, phones act differently than the desktop Chrome browser does (even when set on mobile view), so it’s always best to check on a physical phone itself.</p> <p> </p> <p>And don’t forget to check on both Android and iOS.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Test if links work, test if scrolling works, test the entire checkout process, test, test, test.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Ask your friends to test, ask your mom to test ask your cat to test. <strong>If the cat can use it, you’re good to go.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24733 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/cat-4793068_640.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/cat-4793068_640.jpg 640w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/cat-4793068_640-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>In addition to that, consider that CSS hidden content also follows the mobile-first mentality.</p> <p> </p> <p>Feel comfortable to combine desktop columns into sliders, or compress long paragraphs of text into dropdowns.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, on an eCommerce website, you might have a small description before your products, on the category page.</p> <p> </p> <p>If on mobile devices the text pushes the products too far down, the users won’t be able to quickly see them when they load the page.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can shorten the mobile description by using a ‘read more’ link which triggers a dropdown with the rest of the content.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='8' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>8. You don’t analyze and you underestimate your competition</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p><em>“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”</em> – Sun Tzu</p> <p> </p> <p>Deep, isn’t it?</p> <p> </p> <p>Google Analytics and Search Console are very good friends, but they only show you data for your own website.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sometimes, it’s not enough to only do research about yourself. You have to analyze your competition! Not doing this, might end up in saying that SEO does not work for your website. </p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>That’s why having an SEO Tools Set like <a href="https://cognitiveseo.com"><strong>CognitiveSEO</strong></a> is a good idea. You can analyze and monitor your competitors to see how they perform and find gaps.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>So, if you want to improve your SEO campaigns, make sure you always perform an <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/14134/seo-competitor-analysis/">SEO Competitor Analysis</a></strong>.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='9' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>9. You’ve skipped keyword research</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>New clients often come to me because they are not satisfied with the results they got from their previous SEO partners.</p> <p> </p> <p>Many times, after a quick analysis, I can spot that the title tags and meta descriptions have not been optimized at all!</p> <p> </p> <p>That lets me know that <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/">keyword research</a></strong> hasn’t been performed.</p> <p> </p> <p>I’ve seen many ‘SEO pack’ offers around, which are mostly PBNs or different link building tactics. 5 links per month… 10 links per month… and so on.</p> <p> </p> <p>It baffles me and I don’t agree with it, but I guess it’s about money…</p> <p> </p> <p>They’re easy to sell and can often offer quick results. But those results might only last a very short time and I can bet on who the contract you’ve signed covers (spoiler alert, it’s not you).</p> <p> </p> <p>However, while those links might be helpful in certain situations, they probably won’t get you anywhere without the right keyword in the right places.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Make sure you do your keyword research!</p> </blockquote> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='10' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>10. You’re not prioritizing the right things</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>It might not be that you’re doing SEO wrong. It might just be that you’re doing the wrong type of SEO or at the wrong time.</p> <p> </p> <p>Why put so much effort into getting that 100% PageSpeed score if your loading times are already between 1-3 seconds?</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Why write more blog content when you haven’t finished optimizing your category pages?</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <ul> <li>If you have a small website and no SEO has been performed, start with keyword research and title tags optimization.</li> <li>If you have a website with a lot of images, start by compressing your images.</li> <li>If you have a huge website with a lot of filters, make sure you prioritize crawlability and indexability by <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/22235/faceted-navigation-seo/">optimizing your faceted navigation</a></strong>.</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>Sometimes, it might be design (if your website is too outdated for your audience). Other times, it might be UX.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s different from website to website.</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s why an SEO audit is crucial for your website’s success, especially if your website is huge.</p> <p> </p> <p>But not just <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/21179/free-seo-audit-tools/">any SEO audit</a></strong> will do. You need an SEO Audit that actually looks in-depth at all your issues and then prioritizes them properly.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='11' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2>11. You’re ignoring structure, click depth & internal linking</h2> <p> </p> <p>A website’s structure defines how easily users and search engines will navigate and understand your content.</p> <p> </p> <p>Make sure you structure your website accordingly.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>You should always keep important pages maximum 3 clicks away from your homepage.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>If you’re using pagination, make sure all your pages are linked to from the first archive/category page.</p> <p> </p> <p>Moreover, if you’re not doubling down already on internal links, you should.</p> <p> </p> <p>Use your blog to always link to important pages, such as product category pages, using relevant and keyword rich anchor texts.</p> <p> </p> <p>There’s no penalty for using too many internal links. Well… just don’t make everything an internal link and you’ll be fine.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='12' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>12. You’re ignoring backlinks</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to help most of my clients rank high with very few links if any links at all.</p> <p> </p> <p>But once in a while, there are projects that even the best SEOs can’t handle without actively pursuing backlinks.</p> <p> </p> <p>I like to think of myself as being able to do everything without links, but I also what to be as efficient as possible.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Getting backlinks is not bad. They’re just used improperly.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>In some cases, your website simply needs more authority. And the fastest way to build it is by having quality backlinks.</p> <p> </p> <p>If the number of links your competitors have far outweighs yours, you’ll have a hard time outranking them.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24766 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/chain-3481377_640.jpg" alt="Backlinks for SEO" width="640" height="424" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/chain-3481377_640.jpg 640w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/chain-3481377_640-300x199.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Sometimes, it might just mean it takes longer to see results, considering you’re doing everything else right.</p> <p> </p> <p>Other times, it’s just plain impossible.</p> <p> </p> <p>Links can help you kickstart that initial progress to help you gain your client’s trust and secure a long-term deal.</p> <p> </p> <p>The best thing you can do is to build relationships, through content marketing and shareable content, such as case studies or interviews with industry-leading experts.</p> <p> </p> <p>Don’t just stop at link building. Try to be involved and build a small community. That’s what Google likes.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sometimes, however… you can just buy the links.</p> <p> </p> <p>Of course, you don’t want to buy and spammy links that might get your website penalized.</p> <p> </p> <p>But it’s wise to understand that links are ads and ads are paid for. The internet works based on ads, so own it.</p> <p> </p> <p>You can always nofollow your paid links (just like Google tells you to do).</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><a title="Nofollow links affect SEO" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/17008/nofollow-links-impact-seo/">Nofollow links can also improve rankings</a></strong> and I’ve seen this with my own eyes on my own clients.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='13' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>13. You don’t understand your audience</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>The audience is much more important for SEO than you think. It can make or break your SEO strategies. You might be saying: neh, SEO is not working for me when the actual problem is the way you tackle your audience. </p> <p> </p> <p>You might have the best interest and the greatest information in your content marketing strategy. But if you don’t deliver it in the right format or tone of voice, you won’t be getting the best results.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>Maybe your audience prefers video content. Then stop spending so much time writing articles. Just use your video scripts as repurposed content on your blog instead.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24760 size-medium" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/arrow-2889040_640-300x225.jpg" alt="SEO Targeted Audience" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/arrow-2889040_640-300x225.jpg 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/arrow-2889040_640.jpg 640w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Make sure you understand your audience well and make decisions based on that.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='14' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>14. You’ve externalized to the wrong SEO agency</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>I hate talking about this, but finding a good SEO company or digital marketing agency isn’t an easy task.</p> <p> </p> <p>Even more… in the pandemic era of 2020-2021, people have rebranded as experts in digital marketing fields. Much to say… they’re not really experts.</p> <p> </p> <p>So, be very picky when choosing who you work with. Here are some more <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/12444/seo-company-avoid-getting-tricked/">things to look after when hiring an SEO company</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the other hand, if you are an SEO company, here’s <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/20745/how-to-convince-clients-for-seo/">how to convince your clients to buy your SEO services</a></strong>.</p> <div class='cgn-shortcode-anchor' id='15' style='height:50px'> </div> <h2><strong>15. You’re not monitoring your results</strong></h2> <p> </p> <p>Correctly monitoring results is a very difficult task. Sometimes, is not that SEO does not work but monitoring results properly does not work. </p> <p> </p> <p>That’s because monitoring isn’t just about traffic and conversion rate optimization.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s about discovering new opportunities to do things better.</p> <p> </p> <p>But even so, whether it’s a drop in traffic or a drop in conversions, the sooner you see it, the sooner you’ll be able to fix it.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-24764" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/detective-1424831_640-297x300.png" alt="Monitoring SEO Results" width="297" height="300" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/detective-1424831_640-297x300.png 297w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/detective-1424831_640.png 634w" sizes="(max-width: 297px) 100vw, 297px" /></p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>There are many tricks, such as using Google Search Console to identify secondary keywords for articles that are already ranking pretty well.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Go to the Performance Section, select a page that’s already ranking well and then go back to the Queries section. Activate Positions and CTR and look for those phrases that have a good click through rate. </p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24762 size-full" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gsctrick.png" alt="GSC SEO trick" width="1023" height="521" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gsctrick.png 1023w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gsctrick-300x153.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gsctrick-768x391.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 1023px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>You can then start adding that keyword to your content to rank better for it in the search engines. If you want even better results, try out the <strong><a href="https://cognitiveseo.com/keyword-tool/">CognitiveSEO Content Optimization Tool</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p>Or, you can use a Secondary Dimension (Behaviour > Landing Page) on the Organic Traffic Channel in Google Analytics to figure out which pages converted the best. Then you can mix those with the Google Search Console query data to know (with approximation) which set of keywords bring the most conversions.</p> <p> </p> <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24763 size-large" src="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/analyticstrick-1024x292.png" alt="Google Analytics SEO Trick" width="1024" height="292" srcset="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/analyticstrick-1024x292.png 1024w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/analyticstrick-300x85.png 300w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/analyticstrick-768x219.png 768w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/analyticstrick-1536x437.png 1536w, https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/analyticstrick.png 1875w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Tools such as Google Analytics have a lot of filters that can help you figure out what exactly happened on your website so make sure you use them for better SEO results.</p> <p> </p> <p>I hope this list of 15 reasons why your SEO doesn’t work helps you figure out what you’ve been doing wrong or at least gives you a new perspective on your SEO campaigns.</p> <p> </p> <p>Complex SEO strategies and tactics are awesome, but you always have to make sure you stick to the basics first.</p> <p> </p> <p>Do you think there are other reasons why someone’s SEO strategy might not work? Share them with us in the comments section below.</p> <p> </p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/24732/seo-does-not-work/">Why SEO Does Not Work for You & Your Website</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://cognitiveseo.com/blog">SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies</a>.</p>