Category: Strategy

Integrate WooCommerce with Your eBay or Amazon Store

If you have a successful storefront on eBay or Amazon, you might have thought about expanding to your own, standalone WooCommerce store. It may seem a bit overwhelming, especially after you’ve invested time and money into getting where you are right now.

But it’s worth it

Yes, Amazon and eBay come with a host of benefits like a built-in audience and brand recognition. But a WooCommerce store will help you provide more product offerings, build your brand, and, ultimately, grow your business.

You can even integrate WooCommerce with your existing eBay or Amazon store seamlessly, so your business can benefit from both existing marketplaces and a standalone online store.

Here are just a few ways that a WooCommerce store will help you grow:

Make more money

Let’s face it – we all want our profit margins to be as high as possible. The higher our margins are, the more money we take home at the end of the day.

If you sell your products on eBay or Amazon, you’re familiar with the various fees they charge each time you list or sell a product. The exact amounts vary based on what subscription plan you have, what products you’re listing, any promotions you may use, etc. Here’s a quick breakdown:

eBay charges (for a store subscription):

  • Monthly subscription fees – starting at $4.95 per month
  • Listing fees after monthly free listings are used – as much as 30 cents per listing
  • Final value fees after your product sells – as much as 10%

So if you sell a product for $100.00, you may have to pay up to $10.30 of that back to eBay, plus your monthly subscription fee. That may not seem like a lot at first, but when you’re regularly paying 10% of your income to a third party, it adds up very quickly.

Amazon charges (for a professional seller):

  • Monthly subscription fees – $39.99 per month
  • Referral fees – varies based on product category, but 15% on average
  • Variable closing fees for media items – $1.35 per book, movie, video game, etc.

On that same $100 product, you may be paying $15.00 to Amazon, plus the monthly subscription fee. Again, 15% of your income adds up!

By starting a standalone WooCommerce store, you won’t need to worry about those fees. There are still overhead costs involved – hosting and domain names, for example – but WooCommerce itself is free and you won’t need to pay any listing fees or percentage of sales. You can expect much higher profit margins!

Maintain full ownership

With an Amazon or eBay store, your business is completely dependent on their platforms, technology, and executive decisions.

What happens if Amazon or eBay decides to shut down your store? That’s definitely a possibility and they don’t even need to provide you with a reason. If that’s your only source of income, you’ll be left floundering, trying to figure out another way to sell your products.

That seems like the worst-case scenario, but consider these possibilities:

  • They could raise their fees and prices at any time.
  • They could change their selling terms and conditions.
  • They could change their search algorithms, making it harder for customers to find your products.

With a standalone store, you have full control. You’re not reliant upon a third party’s decision.

And, of course, if you want to maintain your successful eBay or Amazon store, your own website would provide both an additional income stream and a fallback should anything change with the other platforms.

Photo © https://www.thorogoodusa.com/

Build a brand

Building a brand is important for any business. Good branding establishes credibility, quality, and experience. It sets your products apart and keeps customers coming back time and time again.

While eBay and Amazon do allow some customization, you are limited as to what you can change. You can add custom images, logos, headers, and text, but most stores end up looking about the same. It’s very difficult to make yours really stand out.

Building a WooCommerce store allows you to showcase your brand’s personality! Create beautiful photo galleries, highlight your team members and tell their stories, use video backgrounds, add fun animation and custom illustrations, build interactive elements, and more. You can create anything that you want – the sky’s the limit!

There’s more to your brand than just design, as well. It’s important that you provide the best possible experience for your customers. With your own store, you can install customer service plugins that allow you to respond to questions and problems, set up searchable FAQ pages, and provide a variety of contact methods that make it easy for customers to get in touch with you. You can also integrate social feeds that show your products in action.

Decide your own terms

While you do have some control over terms and conditions on Amazon and eBay, you are limited in many ways. In the end, you’re reliant upon their policies.

For example, on eBay, you can decide that you don’t accept returns. However, if a buyer claims that the item they received was not as you described, eBay makes the final decision on a refund.

Of course, it’s important that you make ethical decisions as a business owner. Writing accurate descriptions and delivering high-quality products is key to success. But there are customers that will try to take advantage of your company and receive items for free. Having full control over your responses, refunds, shipping, and other policies allows you to make decisions for yourself.

Screenshot of a product page from 2 Hounds Design, which uses WooCommerce to allow product customizations.
Photo © https://www.2houndsdesign.com/

Add additional functionality 

eBay and Amazon both provide basic eCommerce functionality but there are definitely a lot of constraints. WooCommerce has virtually unlimited options, especially with their ever-growing extension database. Here are just a few features you can add to your WooCommerce store:

Sell subscription boxes. While Amazon does allow subscription boxes, eBay doesn’t currently provide that functionality. WooCommerce allows you to accept recurring weekly, monthly, or yearly payments with signup fees, free trials, and more.

Allow for customizations. Again, this is a feature available on Amazon but not on eBay. WooCommerce supports customizations of all kinds: create custom t-shirts, add monograms to products or design custom cards. Add on personalization fields like dropdowns, text areas, checkboxes, and sample images.

Accept a variety of payment types. Accept virtually any payment gateway you’d like rather than being dependent on eBay and Amazon’s limited options. Stripe, Square, PayPal, and Authorize.net are just a few of the built-in options, or create custom APIs to integrate with other, less common gateways.

Add a measurement calculator. Configure a pricing calculator based on dimensions, square footage, volume, or weight submitted by the user. This is particularly useful for flooring, wallpaper, frames, and similar products.

Bundle products. Sell a group of related products together as a package deal. Allow customers to add products to an existing bundle. This is a great way to upsell!

Sell memberships. Build an entire membership system with drip content that can tie into your existing products. For example, if someone purchases a meal kit subscription box, they may also get recipe videos each month on your membership platform.

Keep customers updated. Blogging is a valuable way to answer customer questions, connect with them, share your story, provide tips, and grow your brand. Since WooCommerce is built on WordPress, you can start blogging right away and reach your customers.

Learn about additional WooCommerce extensions.

Market more effectively

With a standalone WooCommerce store, you have the ability to collect customer data and use it more successfully. eBay and Amazon have some marketing capabilities, like email marketing and online advertising, but you’re very limited with what you can do and what you can include in marketing materials.

For example, while you can send follow-up emails and coupons to existing customers, you have very few options to reach site visitors who haven’t yet made a purchase. When it comes down to it, eBay and Amazon own your customer data and you have limited access.

However, with a WooCommerce store, you have the ability to collect data and use it for marketing purposes. Here are a few ways that you can market to potential and existing customers:

  • Abandoned cart emails. Send emails or target ads to people who added products to their cart and left your site. Offer free shipping or a coupon to increase their chances of making a purchase.
  • Remarketing. Remarketing ads allow you to reach your previous store visitors as they browse other sites. While Amazon does offer a form of remarketing, it’s nowhere near what Google and Facebook offer. With a standalone WooCommerce store, you can track your site visitors and use Google and Facebook’s advertising capabilities to send ads to the people most likely to purchase your products.
  • Cross-sells and upsells. WooCommerce offers more advanced ways to upsell and cross-sell to your customers. Automatically suggest related products on individual product pages or your cart and checkout pages.  You can even suggest items that they looked at but didn’t add to their cart.
  • Marketing based on specific actions. For example, send emails to customers with coupons related to products they’ve previously purchased. You can also send thank you emails, coupons, or free shipping codes to recent, first-time, or repeat customers. This leads to more effective and successful marketing.
  • Facebook lookalike audiences. Send ads to people that are similar to existing customers using lookalike audiences. You can create these using your own email list or from information gathered when you install the Facebook Pixel on your site.

And, of course, accessing more customer data helps you understand more about your audience, their preferences, and their actions. This can help you make decisions about pricing, website layouts, product descriptions, product offerings, and more.

Group of men and women standing with shopping bags.

Gain more loyal customers

While eBay and Amazon are an excellent way to gain new customers thanks to their built-in audiences, it’s much more challenging to cultivate repeat customers. Because, let’s face it, these shoppers are typically loyal to Amazon and eBay first.  

Especially in the case of eBay, customers are often there to find the best deals. So if they run across a product that’s similar to yours at a better price, they’re likely to purchase that one instead. In fact, Amazon and eBay even send out marketing emails to their customers with recommended products that compete with yours.

With your own website, however, your potential customers aren’t presented with an array of competing products. You have the opportunity to connect with them on a deeper level and share your brand story. They’re more likely to understand the value of your products and become loyal, repeat customers.

Get started with WooCommerce

WooCommerce has made connecting your eBay or Amazon store a seamless process with Amazon and eBay Integration for WooCommerce. You can match up products on your existing marketplace storefronts to products on your new store and sync inventory, pricing, and more.

Once you’ve set up your WooCommerce store (you can find great documentation here), download and install the extension and connect your store. Here are some of the great features you’ll find:

  • Link existing Amazon and eBay products to items on your WooCommerce store.
  • Create new Amazon and eBay listings individually or in bulk.
  • Set pricing rules, fulfillment rules, and product details for Amazon and eBay listings based on existing WooCommerce products.
  • Sync inventory, orders, pricing, and product details in real-time.
  • Receive eBay and Amazon orders directly in WooCommerce.

To learn even more about how it works, check out the Amazon and eBay Integration for WooCommerce documentation.

Filed under: Marketing, Strategy, WordpressTagged with: , ,

5 Tips To Hire the Best Social Media Professionals

socialmediatools

Are you planning on hiring a new team of social media experts? It can be easy to go wrong. There are a lot of so called “gurus” that claim to offer exceptional social media marketing services, but they rarely deliver the services customers expect. If you hire the wrong marketing agency, you may find yourself forking over hundreds of dollars a month to a company that offers little in return.

You need to do your due diligence before hiring a social media expert, just like you would if you were hiring a lawyer, accountant or any other professional.

Here are 5 simple tips to help you maximize your hiring potential to hire the right team of experts to grow your brand through social media.

Do a Competency Assessment, the Same Way that You Would With a Regular Employee

Mobile Phone

Opting into assessment testing for potential employees will help you streamline the hiring process. You can use assessments to isolate and target the best characteristics for available positions. This is a great system for finding the right in-house employees. Why not try using an assessment when looking for a social media marketer, too?

You need to know what you are looking for when hiring a social media professional. Jeff Bullas talks about some of the competencies that they need:

  • Conceptual decision making
  • Writing
  • Interpersonal
  • Planning and organizational
  • Technical

Social media marketers need a wide variety of skill sets to thrive in this career.

Interviews and resumes can only scratch the surface of a candidate’s personality. A standardized-assessment lets you compare qualities without bias, and you’ll be able to qualify people based on more than their first-impressions. Testing makes the playing-field equal by safeguarding your business from individuals that may have non-beneficial traits. 

Requiring an assessment test during the hiring process lets you express to the interviewee that it takes more than credentials to be a team-player. It could also help separate less-serious inquirers from dedicated job-seekers. You’ll get more reliable employees in the long-term. It’s not bad to save your hiring managers some frustration in the process as well. To learn more about pre-employment assessments, please visit https://www.berkeassessment.com/.

Multiple Interviews

Social Media

One web developer I spoke with tried hiring a social media marketer a few years ago. The marketer seemed promising in her initial pitch, but the web developer later said the arrangement was a “total disaster.” The fact is that she came across well in the first interview, but didn’t perform well later.

Many social media marketers are gifted grifters. You need to talk to them a few times to spot their lies.

Having multiple interviews can really help you weed-out those who aren’t serious about the positions you have available. It can be a huge waste of time to go through the entire process of on-boarding a new employee, and then have them decide to take another offer somewhere else. You need to know that the people you consider for employment are ready to move forward. 

Try incorporating these simple multi-level interview procedures into your hiring process. 

Have all applicants schedule a time to meet during a group interview. Present job responsibilities and standards to the group while collecting resumes. Ask for volunteers to interview first. These individuals are usually going to be your most dedicated applicants. Those who aren’t really interested won’t typically wait around for very long. 

Those who are successfully screened in the initial interview should be rescheduled for a secondary interview a few days later. It may be a wise decision to include a higher-level manager in this final interview.

Ask Consistent And Relevant Questions

You need to know what you are looking for in a social media expert. You need to know that they can grow your brand in a positive way. You need to know how they will do this.

It’s a good idea to stay consistent by asking the exact same questions to all applicants during your initial interview. The key to finding the right people is staying relevant. 

Try to avoid hypothetical situations and rhetorical questions. That type of screening is best utilized through multiple-choice assessment tests. You could end up with very off-the-wall answers by being too vague. That doesn’t help you understand the person, and it doesn’t add value to the interview process. 

Ask about previous accomplishments for past clients. You want to hear direct, actionable data showing how they helped a company grow their business by reaching people on social media. Avoid questions that allow the person to answer them by saying what you want to hear. Be personable. You want to get to the roots of their past performance, expectations, and character. Asking them what they would do in a hypothetical circumstance leads to useless and unverifiable information.

Up-Sell Your Candidates

Great social media marketers are tough to find. If they really are talented, then you are going to want to make sure that you can get the most out of them. You can consider offering them more money for more results. You can even try offering them a performance based incentive. Up-selling is another option.

Up-selling is a term used to describe when a sales-person induces a potential customer to buy more costly products. The idea is for your business to be more valuable to the work-force than your competitors. If your company has slightly better starting rates, then you’ll get first-pick of the applicants in your area. 

You can entice potential employees to work with you by offering shared-bonuses and specialized-certification promotions. This allows you to maintain highly-skilled workers, and it helps you screen out those who aren’t willing to stay long-term. An established company should be able to attract better employees by essentially being the better option out of the applicant’s choices. 

Be the better option, and high-quality employees will come looking to work for you.

Write Concise Job Descriptions

You should always be as clear as possible in every job-posting. It is commonplace in certain industries to leave out important details in online job offers. 

The worst thing you can do in the hiring process is take applications from people who haven’t been clearly informed about the position. This is particularly common when hiring departments are forced to meet interview-quotas, and this is a good reason to avoid setting quotas. 

Reaching a wider group of candidates doesn’t help you narrow down people who are actually suited for the job. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on Social Media for your Organizations Bottom Line!

Post by Xhostcom Wordpress & Digital Services, subscribe to newsletter for more!

Filed under: Marketing, Strategy, TrendsTagged with: ,

Wordpress Tips For Google Indexing

Everyone wants to be on Google’s first page, maybe even the first place? There probably isn’t a website owner out there who doesn’t dream of it.

After all, you invested a lot of time and energy to create the best possible website. Why wouldn’t you want your effort to be rewarded?

However, you know what’s the first step to getting to Google’s pole position? Getting the site indexed at all. Sometimes websites don’t even make it that far.

In the online universe, that’s pretty much a disaster. If you are not picked up by search engines, your website is going to be invisible for 99.999% of the people on the Internet and you can completely forget about organic traffic.

Granted, there are alternate traffic sources, but visitors from search engines remain one of the most important and potentially profitable options.

In order to avoid this kind of catastrophe, in this article, we will look at reasons why you may be shunned by Google and then over a step-by-step approach to ensure this doesn’t happen.

How Does Google Find My Site?

Before we get started, we need to settle on some search engine basics and important vocabulary. This will make it easier for beginner to understand the following.

To find content for their search results, Google relies on so-called search spiders. These are automated programs that scour the Internet and report the content of websites to search engines.

All major search engines have their own spiders (for example, Google’s is called Googlebot, and there are many more out there.

The process of exploring a website and its content is called crawling. It’s what the Googlebot does to understand what your posts and pages are all about.

The phase after that is called indexing. It means if your content has been deemed worthy by the snarky little robot, it is then processed and added to the Google index. This index, in turn, feeds into the search results

What If My Site Isn’t Indexed By Google?

The first step to see whether your site has popped up on Google’s radar is typing site:yourdomain.com into the Google search bar (naturally, exchange yourdomain.com with your actual domain).

This will show you all the pages under your domain that Google has on their index. If the results are completely empty, that means the search engine is either completely oblivious of your content or something is going on with your site that keeps it from being indexed.

This can happen for several reasons:

  • There are problems with your server such as technical issues or faulty configuration
  • Your website violates some of Google’s terms and has been penalized
  • Your WordPress site or its SEO settings are configured badly
  • You haven’t taken any measures to get indexed or even noticed
  • The site is too new and Google hasn’t had enough time to add it to their index

Every case is different and there can be more than one issue at play. However, don’t worry, though we will go over each of these factors in detail below.

Also, note if you are here because you would like to improve the rankings of your already-indexed posts and pages. That is a different case and you might want to check out these articles .

Making Sure Your Website Gets Indexed by Google

In a way, we are completely at Google’s mercy when it comes to being found on the web. No index, no organic traffic.

However, the good news is that there are plenty of things we can do to move Google into giving us a spot in their SERPs which we will talk about in the following.

Use A Good Hosting Provider

One of the first potential barriers to getting indexed by Google is the hardware your site runs on.

Slow server speed, downtime, and disconnects can cause search spiders to abandon their cause. While not very common, it is a possibility.

Since in hosting you get what you pay for, investing in a quality host with good hardware and excellent availability is always worth it.

Write High-Quality Content

The thing about being indexed by Google is, we don’t just want them to be aware of our site, but be aware of it in a good way.

If your site is empty or — worse — full of crappy content, it might get indexed but it won’t get anywhere near the front row of the SERPs. That’s almost as bad as not being indexed at all.

It’s no secret that Google cares about the relevancy and quality of your content. For that reason, when you set up your site, focus on high-quality, useful, original content. Naturally, that also means to stay away from duplicate and/or scraped content.

Check Settings In WordPress

During the development phase, usually the last thing we want is to be indexed by search engines. In fact, we want to keep Google and Co as far away from our site as possible.

Otherwise, we may be caught with incomplete (and thus low-quality) content and Google will form an opinion about our site based on that. No good.

The problem is only when we forget to revert the measures we have taken to keep search engines away after our site goes live.

One of the most common mistakes is to leave “discourage search engines from indexing this site” active in the back end of WordPress. That’s basically a death sentence for organic traffic on your site.

So, in order to make sure you get indexed (or if you are having problems appearing on Google), definitely have a look at this setting at the bottom of Settings > Reading to make sure it is unchecked.

Don’t forget to save if you made any changes.

Set Up The robots.txt file Correctly

Telling WordPress to discourage search engines does a bunch of things. For one, it adds noindex and nofollow meta tags to the head of your website (more on that below) and also keeps anyone from pinging your site.

Most importantly though, this setting configures the WordPress-internal robots.txt file to disallow all search spiders from indexing your site.

In case you didn’t know, robots.txt is an important server tool to directly communicate with search engines. You can use it to tell them which parts of your site you want them to index and which you don’t.

Because of that, you or your developer will often set up an additional robots.txt file to control indexing during development. While that’s fine and dandy, it becomes a problem when you forget to change it back.

Share Your Site Online

As I said earlier, in order to index your site, search engines first need to find it.

How do they do that? In short, links.

When an already-indexed page points to your site, it becomes much more likely that Google will find you as well.

So, what is an easy way to create a link to your site?

The answer: social networks.

By sharing your website on Facebook and Twitter, you can alert search engines (and fellow humans) that there is a new site in town.

While it’s true that many of these links will usually be set to nofollow, search engines that track social signals (like Google) should still be alerted to your presence.

Sign Up To Google Analytics

Regardless of indexing, in order to gather more info on the performance of your site, you will want to install some sort of Analytics

In that regard, most of us opt for Google Analytics because it’s free, comprehensive and gives us all the necessary information to work with Google.

However, there is another good reason: When you set up Google’s analytics suite, you also tell Google that there is a website they should pay attention to which makes it more likely that they will.

And if you are feeling adventurous and want more advanced tuning, you might want to have a look at SEMRush, its got an absolute ton of tools in there which can be used, but that’s beyond the scope of this article.

Create A Sitemap

A sitemap is an XML document that contains a list of all the content on your site. It tells search engines what you have to offer and how often they should check back to see if there’s anything new.

In short, sitemaps are a great tool for guiding search spiders and creating one for your website is a good idea.

To do so, we have several plugins at our disposal. One of the most popular is Google XML Sitemaps which is trusted by more than a million users.

So just go for one you feel comfortable with and tweak it until you get it right.

Submit Your Site To Google

However, the usefulness of sitemaps doesn’t stop there. After all, do you just want to let it sit around and wait for Google to discover it?

Here’s a better idea: How about letting the search giant know exactly where your sitemap is located so they can start indexing your content right away?

You can do exactly that in the Google Webmaster Tools. If you don’t have an account yet, use the link above to set one up.

Google Webmaster Tools give you a lot of information about what Google knows and thinks about your site and how you can further improve it.

After connecting your site to the Webmaster Tools, go to your account and access Crawl > Sitemaps. Here, click on Add/Test Sitemap in the upper right corner.

website indexed by Google submit sitemap

Now all you need to do is add the address of your sitemap to the end of your domain. It’s usually something like yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.

Set Your Preferred Domain

While we are in the Webmaster Tools, why not use the opportunity to also set up your preferred domain?

Why so? You see, your site usually exists in two different domain forms, namely http://yourdomain.com/ and http://www.yourdomain.com/.

While both point to the same location and both are fine for Google, technically it is not the same domain. Instead, the www version is a subdomain.

If you don’t submit both sites to Google and tell them which one you prefer, sometimes you will get a message that your website isn’t indexed even though it is but the wrong version.

To avoid this, make sure you add both site versions to your GWT account (from the Search Console dashboard). After that, access both web properties and use the settings button in the upper right corner to go to Site settings.

Google webmaster tools site settings

Set both sites to the same preferred URL (your choice) and Google will from then on stick to one version for crawling and indexing.

Now all you have to do is set a redirect on your site that points people accessing the non-preferred version to the preferred one. Done.

Check For Crawl Errors

When indexing fails, it can often be because there is something technical wrong with your site. Thankfully, if that is the case, Google Webmaster Tools will warn you about it.

It will do so directly on your dashboard (the big Crawl Errors window) and under Crawl > Crawl Errors.

website indexed by Google crawl errors

Most often errors will be 404s, meaning links to URLs that don’t exist.

It’s fine if there are a few of them (it happens), however, in this place you will also notice if there is something bigger going on that keeps your site from being indexed.

This information is crucial for taking remedial action and you can find similar notices in your Sitemaps menu.

Request Google To Crawl Your Site

If you do have problems on your page and have taken steps to correct them, you can then ask Google to kindly have a look at the affected pages again.

This way you will know whether your solution worked and also tell Google that these pages are ok now without having to wait for them to crawl your site in their own sweet time.

To do so, you first need to fetch the URLs in question. This happens under Crawl > Fetch as Google.

website indexed by Google fetch as Google

Here you can input any page on your domain for Google to check and via Fetch and Rendereven display it the way their search spiders see it. The latter can help you spot errors or other things that go wrong during processing your page.

Once you have fetched a page, it will appear in the list at the bottom with a button that says Submit to index. If the fetching and rendering goes well, you can use this to tell Google to try and add the page to their index.

You can either submit only the page itself or include all direct links it points to. You are allowed to add 500 pages per month with the first option and 10 with the second.

Check .htaccess

.htaccess is another important file on your server with info for browsers and search engines how to use and deal with your site.

For example, .htaccess contains rewrite information, which is enables you to use pretty permalinks. Besides that, it can also contain permissions for different directories on your site.

While that’s super useful, it also means that this file can be a problem source for your site’s indexing efforts.

It’s a bit beyond this article to go into this (very technical) topic, however, if you are experiencing problems with indexing that you can’t explain otherwise, checking this file might be worth it.

Sometimes it can be enough to go to Settings > Permalinks in the WordPress back end and click on Save Changes to have WordPress flush the .htaccess file. If this step doesn’t work, you may have to do some googling.

Check Meta Tags

Meta tags are elements in the code of your site that provide additional information about its content and architecture.

For example, if you set a meta description in a WordPress SEO plugin, it will show up inside a meta tag in the head section of your page.

One tag named robots in particular is very important.

Its value can be index/noindex and follow/nofollow. As you can probably guess these are directives aimed at search engine spiders.

In fact, the aforementioned “discourage search engines” option in WordPress adds a noindex, nofollow tag to your site until switched off.

If you are experiencing indexing problems (or just want to make sure there isn’t a problem), you can check the head of your site via Firebug or your browser’s developer tools.

Should meta tags like that exist, you will find them quite easily. After that, it’s only a matter of figuring out which plugin or program is responsible for putting them there.

Get Quality Backlinks To Your Site

As mentioned earlier, search spiders usually find a site through a direct link.

However, links are not only a pathway to your website but also a way for Google to judge its quality.

While in earlier times you could go to any kind of web directory and shoot yourself links until you ranked high, today this kind of behavior will hurt you more than help you.

By now, it’s all about link quality.

Google determines a high-quality link by the following characteristics:

  • Relevancy — The link is coming from a site related to your topic or industry
  • Trustworthiness — Not from a low-quality or spammy website
  • Activity — The link actually sends traffic your way
  • Relevant anchor text — The text that functions as a link (like this one) is meaningful
  • Link location — Links inside an editorial piece carry more weight than sidebar or footer links
  • PageRank — If Google already trusts the linking page, they will also feel good about websites it links to
  • Uniqueness — Different websites that refer to you once are more valuable than one website linking to you over and over again
  • Reciprocity — If the link is a one-way street (meaning you don’t link back to the same site), it means there is no link exchange scheme going on

That’s a tall order, I know. But be aware that not every backlink has to have all those characteristics to help you in your ranking.

Acquiring high-quality backlinks is an art form in itself, and Backlinko has written an excellent guide on how to do it.

It’s also more of a long-term strategy and not a quick fix, but it is worth it. Not only will it help you get found but also make your site more valuable in Google’s eyes.

And that’s a good thing because the more valuable Google thinks you are the more pages they will index from your site.

It Can Take A While..

Patience doesn’t come easy to everyone, but sometimes there is no other way.

Even if you do everything right, it’s unlikely that Google will index you two minutes after going live. That’s just not how it works.

While it is possible to appear in search results within 24 hours, there is no guarantee that this will actually happen.

So, if you are the impatient kind and have done everything you can, go read a book, take a walk, eat some doritos or do something else for a while until it’s time to check the results of your efforts.

How To Get Indexed In A Nutshell

One of the first steps towards search engine success and free organic traffic is getting indexed by Google. Without being picked up by search engines, all the SEO in the world will not do you any good.

Fortunately, there are a lot of things you can do to make getting indexed more likely. From correct server and WordPress settings to content optimization and backlinking — the possibilities to improve your chances are numerous.

Following the above tips should lay a solid groundwork for appearing in the SERPs. You can also use many of them for troubleshooting if you are experiencing problems.If you want to ramp things up a bit, and are prepared to get your hands dirty with some analytics and tweaking, then I’d recommend SEMRush, go and get the free trial of that to start with.

If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on the Best new SEO software!

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Instagram Shopping To Increase Your Revenue

Instagram

Ramp Up Your Instagram Strategy

If you run an eCommerce store and are looking for a way of promoting and increasing sales, then it might be a good idea to look at Instagram. Here we look at doing it without drama and  excess cost.

Instagram is a superb social media tool that has more than 500 million daily active users.

People follow other people’s accounts, like photos, create stories and try to provide their products or services on the platform.

And so do we!

Along with Instagram shoutouts, you can also use Instagram shopping ads, which are getting to be a really effective marketing tool.

So today, I’ll tell you how to set up Instagram shopping ads and get the most out of them.

What are Instagram Shopping Ads?

In simple terms, Instagram allows you to create a mobile storefront and turn any of your posts into the opportunity to shop.

Here is how it works.

You post a photo and tag your products in it. People see your picture and like it, for example. Once they tap a picture, they will see the price and the short description of your products.

If people click on the product again, they will see a richer product description, additional photos and the “Shop Now” or “View on Website” button.

Once they click it, they will be redirected directly to your store, where they will be able to make a purchase.

That’s it

You can tag lots of products in the picture, but we advise you to limit yourself to 2-3 products. Otherwise, your picture will be a bit messy.

Benefits of shopping on Instagram

Instagram is a super effective tool for businesses which is truly worth your time and efforts.

And here are some reasons why.

  • Instagram has a more engaged audience than Facebook

According to statistics, this social media has 58 (!) times more engagement per follower than Facebook. What’s more, Instagrammers usually don’t ignore advertisements as much as Facebook users do.

  • Instagram welcomes creativity

Instagram users like colorful, bright and beautiful pictures, and adore experiments with them. They track the newest trends and easily make them go viral.

Besides that, it’s no secret that the Instagram audience is mostly young. That’s why Instagrammers are very loyal to any changes and positively respond to innovations.

  • Instagramers often buy products online

The statistics indicate that 75% of Instagram users take actions such as clicking the “Shop Now” button or visiting a website after looking at shopping ads.

  • Instagram offers lots of opportunities for businesses

An Instagram business account opens a great world of features which can help you successfully promote your business. Call-to-action buttons, Instagram insights, stories or Instagram shopping ads will help you get the most out of your marketing campaign!

How to set up shopping on Instagram

Make sure that your Instagram account meets all the requirements

Shopping on Instagram is not for everyone, however, There are many requirements which your business should follow.

First of all, you need to check if your business is located in a supported market. Unfortunately, Instagram has a limited list of countries which residents can create Instagram shopping ads and run this marketing campaign. Thus, if you don’t see your country in this list, the access to this service is denied for you ?

Secondly, you should read Instagram commerce policies very carefully and make sure that your eCommerce business fully complies with them.

In short, you have to sell legal physical goods which meet all Instagram requirements. For example, it’s forbidden to sell ammunition, animals, no commercial intent and third-party infringement (counterfeits, replicas of branded goods, etc).

If you’re ok with all the previous steps, make sure that you switched your Instagram account to the business one and connected it to your Facebook page. Before doing it, we advise you to go through our article where we explain the whole process in detail.

That’s it! Your Instagram account is ready to use. Go to the next step.

Create a Facebook product catalogue

As you have probably noticed, Facebook and Instagram usually go hand in hand. If you want to create a successful marketing campaign, you need both Facebook and Instagram business accounts.

To make your first Instagram shopping ad, it’s necessary to create a Facebook catalogue. It will contain all products you can promote on your Facebook or Instagram pages.

There are some ways to create a product catalogue. Let’s look at them.

Do-it-yourself

The first one is the so-called DIY method. You create a catalogue and add all the products, photos and descriptions manually.

As you can see, there are many fields that need to be filled in. As for me, I spend about 7-10 minutes per product to enter all the necessary information into these fields.

To better understand how much it is, let’s do some calculations.

For example, I have 100 products in my store and I want to add all these products to my Facebook product catalogue. I usually spend 10 minutes to enter all the necessary information into the fields. To add all my products I need 1000 minutes or more than 16 hours!

And what if you want to promote more than 100 products? How much time will it take you to do this?

Thus, choosing this method is a bad idea if you have lots of products in your store. It will be just a huge waste of time.

Facebook Business add-on

Another way to create a product catalogue (with the AliDropship Plugin) is using their Facebook Business add-on. It helps you upload all products from your store to your Facebook catalogue in a few clicks.

Let’s look at how exactly it works.

Here are your steps.

  • Install the Facebook Business add-on on your WP website and activate it.
  • Choose the “Categories” tab and click the “Add new” button.

Add all the categories you’re going to promote through Instagram Shopping Ads

Add an appropriate Google category to each category of your website.

This aspect is very important! The name of your product category may significantly vary from the name of the categories used by Google.

For example, you sell soft toys and one of your product categories is called “Funny Bunny”. You understand what it means, but Google or Instagram don’t. Without categorizing your product categories it’ll be difficult to show your ads to the right people.

  • Go to the “Product Feed” section, enable it and click Save. Select categories you want to include in the feed and choose the appropriate currency.
  • Click Generate XML and wait until the progress bar reaches 100%. Now you can download XML file or copy URL with your product data feed.

So now you have created a list of your products, which you just need to upload to your Facebook catalogue.

Upload your product data feed to Facebook

Once your product list is ready, it’s time to upload it to your Facebook business page.

Go to Facebook Business Manager account and find the “Catalogues” menu. Then click Create Catalog and select your catalog type.

As you have an online store, we recommend you to click the “e-commerce” button.

Find the “Upload Product Info” option, give your catalogue a unique name and upload the product list that you have created with your Facebook Business address.

Add Products To Fb Catalogue

Choose Use Data Feeds as an Import method and click Next.

If you have generated an XML file, just upload it. If you’ve chosen the way of copying a data feed URL, enter it into the special field.

Besides that, we advise you to choose the “Set a Schedule” option, so that your product list could be updated regularly. This option helps you forget about any troubles related to your products.

If everything is ok, you’ll see the following window. Click Done and go to the next step.

Note: if you have any mistakes when creating a product catalogue, check this article to learn more about how to fix them.

Choose Instagram Shopping options

After your Facebook catalogue is created you will be asked about the way you want to use it.

 

As we try to create an Instagram Shopping ad, it’s obvious that we should choose the first option. Click it.

Once your products are added, you will see a green tick near the “add your products” field.

After that, you should connect your Instagram business profile to your Facebook catalogue. Click the button, select your page and enter all the necessary information.

Well done!

Wait for Instagram approval

Once your catalogue is set up, Instagram will automatically review it to make sure that everything is ok and you don’t break any rules.

As a rule, this process takes several days, so be patient and focus on other things.

Create your first Instagram shopping ad

Once everything has been approved, you can start adding product tags and stickers to your Instagram photos or stories.

Instagram allows you to tag up to 5 products per image and up 20 products on multi-image posts. Besides that, you can add shopping tags to your old posts on your business profile.

Instagram shopping ad

Instagram shopping ad

As for Instagram stories, you can add one product sticker per story.

Instagram shopping ad stories

Analyze your results with the help of Shopping Insights

You should analyze every marketing campaign you do to see how it is performing.

Instagram has a great tool which is called Shopping Insights. It’ll help you learn more about your target audience and what posts and stories your followers engage with the most.

To view Shopping Insights, you should visit your business profile, find the corresponding tab and click it.

Here you can track impressions, interactions and other statistics which are important for evaluating the success of your Instagram Shopping Ad campaign.

There are also third party services which can help, for example Foursixty

Foursixty

Or another is Pixlee

Pixlee

So here are a number of options to get your Instagram shopping up to speed for your business.

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Filed under: Marketing, Strategy, TrendsTagged with: ,

How To Scale Wordpress For High Traffic Sites

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Get Scale With Your High Traffic Wordpress Site

Scalability is crucial for running a successful WordPress enterprise website. After all, if you experience a sudden surge in traffic (for example, as the result of a viral content post), you’ll want your website to be able to cope. Failing to do so could turn your site’s success into its failure.

Fortunately, ensuring your site is optimally scalable doesn’t have to be a daunting task. It requires testing how your site performs under pressure, identifying the elements that are causing slow load speeds, and choosing a reliable host provider.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through some steps you can take to ensure your site stays speedy under heavy traffic.

Understanding High Traffic

In order to understand why scalability is important for your WordPress enterprise site, it’s important to see exactly how high traffic can slow down performance. This way, the task of implementing measures to increase scalability becomes much easier.

‘Bottlenecking’ Traffic

Most WordPress themes and plugins should function reasonably well under a moderate amount of traffic strain. However, a sudden increase in traffic could cause them to push server resources to their breaking points.

The process of overloading server resources is known as ‘bottlenecking traffic’, and it’s definitely something you want to avoid. In addition to driving visitors away, an underperforming site will create the impression of unprofessionalism and unreliability.

Serving High Traffic

The best approach for scaling WordPress and avoiding bottlenecks is via the “less is more” approach. This means ensuring requests sent to your site require minimal resources, and little effort to render and serve.

Ensuring you have a good caching system in place is important for improving site performance under strain. With cached versions of your site available to users, your server won’t have to take a hit every time a user makes a new request.

It could be the case that your database is causing bottlenecks. Although it’s possible to use a tool such as HyperDB to resolve this issue yourself, they have limited use. Switching to a better hosting plan is an easier (and better) option.

Given the tasks that need to be performed to ensure scalability, you may ask Is WordPress really a viable Content Management System (CMS) for my enterprise site? The answer to this question is an emphatic “Yes”!

Scaling WordPress for Enterprise Sites

WordPress is a great platform for enterprise sites of virtually any size. In addition to being highly secure, it is extremely scalable and able to serve tens of thousands of logged-in users at a time. The wide variety of performance-enhancing plugins available for WordPress, coupled with its elastic architecture, also contribute to its scalability.

Although there are plenty of ways to extend the default platform, it’s strongly recommended to invest in scalable WordPress hosting to enjoy the best results. With enterprise hosting, you won’t need to invest time and resources ensuring your site is scalable. Instead, you’ll benefit from a robust architecture, regularly audited and adjusted, and reliable support.

In short, by choosing managed enterprise hosting WordPress hosting (such as that offered by WP Engine) or the VPS or Dedicated hosting we use, you can rest easy knowing your site will function at peak performance, regardless of the traffic strain.

Keep Your Options Table Under Control

Earlier, we mentioned how your database can give rise to a traffic bottleneck. This is because it stores practically all of your WordPress site’s data within. The Options table is one particular source of potential bottlenecks, which brings us to the next section.

Overloading the Options Table

The Options table (or wp_options for default setups) can be accessed through phpMyAdmin, or your host’s equivalent service. Your table should display in a similar fashion to the following:

scaling wordpress site for high traffic

Tweaking aspects of the database can break your installation, so we recommend backing up your site beforehand).

Within the Options table, the option_value column has the LONGTEXT string type. Knowing why is complex, but essentially, it means each column can store up to 4GB of data in a single row. However, just because it’s possible doesn’t mean you should store that much data.

While removing unnecessary plugins or choosing a more lightweight theme can help reduce table size, some poorly-coded plugins leave behind data after being uninstalled. Working through a good guide on optimizing your database is a sound strategy.

Autoloaded Queries

Some data from your tables is ‘autoloaded’ – usually relating to your themes, plugins, and widgets. However, autoloaded queries can be a silent page speed killer. If you’re having page load speed issues, try identifying how many queries are being autoloaded.

Again, a solid guide will help you, but you’ll essentially need to run MySQL queries on your database. For example, the following assumes a default table prefix of wp_:

mysql> SELECT count(*) FROM wp_options WHERE autoload=’yes’;

A good rule of thumb is to shoot for fewer than 200 autoloaded queries on any given WordPress page (although having more than 200 isn’t necessarily a cause for concern). Usually, an excessive amount of autoloaded queries indicates your site is still carrying weight from old plugins and themes. Getting rid of these can help improve your site speed and scalability.

There are a variety of other methods you can use to clean out unnecessary autoloaded data, and as with the previous step, you should back up your WordPress site before proceeding.

Scalable WordPress Hosting

As we mentioned earlier, a great way to take the guesswork out of keeping your site scalable is to invest in robust WordPress enterprise hosting. WP Engine can create a custom enterprise hosting solution geared to the specific needs of your organization.

WP Engine for Scaling WordPress

WP Engine’s infrastructure is ideal for enterprise websites with high traffic (accommodating spikes ranging from 10,000 to 100 million users effortlessly). We deliver high availability solutions to keep your site uptime protected, and your data backed up in the event of a performance issue.

What’s more, when you choose WP Engine, you can enjoy peace of mind. The support team are able to field your enquiries 24/7.

So get in touch with us for more details on high speed hosting with WP Engine or our own dedicated Wordpress hosting plans. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on the Hidden Costs of Website Hosting!

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Social Media Marketing Tips for Luxury Brands

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Brands and Social Media

Social media marketing is no longer an option for most brands. Just hop on to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and you’ll see brands of all kinds pushing product and services through their social channels. And there’s a reason their spending money to do so: it works. For run-of-the-mill ecommerce stores and average consumer products, platforms like Facebook have made it so ridiculously easy to reach and target new customers that businesses of all sizes have recognized the potential. It’s a win for all parties.

But not so fast. If you’re a luxury brand, social media advertising isn’t as simple as it seems, and most of the strategies and tactics other brands are using on social might not apply.

“We’ve had to change the way we think about social media marketing, as we’re trying to maintain a high-end, luxury image but with discounted prices,” said Leon Rbibo, President of The Pearl Source and Laguna Pearl, which sells pearl jewelry online.

Here are the top five tips and tricks for advertising luxurybrands on social media.

  1. Take Advantage of Income Targeting

While Pinterest and Instagram audiences are (or should be) the main outlets for advertising luxury products, platforms like Facebook are still significantly used when in need of promoting premium services with higher price tags. In order to do just that, brands should take advantage of income targeting – especially since Facebook users are usually older, as well as more financially stable than Instagram users. The audience demographic data is currentlyobtained from average household income per US ZIP code, with four main options to choose from:household income – top 5% of US ZIP codes,
top 10% of US ZIP codes, top 10%-25% of US ZIP codes and household income – top 25%-50% of US ZIP codes.

  1. Maximize Brand Heritage by Selling Stories

When you are in the business of luxury marketing, one of the major aspects to keep in mind is that the client wants to know your story, your values, as well as why and how you create your products. One of the best examples is no other than Apple, who chooses to communicate with their customers by creating a cohesive story, from explaining the reasons why they exist to what they do: “Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently (why Apple exists). The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly (How Apple achieve their why). We just happen to make great computers (What Apple do).”

3. Hop on Social Networks with Visual Impact

When selling luxury items online, one of the main things you need to compensate on is the exclusive boutique experience – and in order to do just that, creating a boutique-like atmosphere through your website is imperative. The first thing on the ‘to do list’ when aiming to build up your aspirational image is to focus on extremely high-quality, high-detail photographs, then share them on visual social networks like Pinterest. The power of Pinterest when it comes to luxury items has been long demonstrated by Chanel, who, despite not having an account on the social platform, manages to be pinned thousands of times daily, simply by their supporters and clients. Whether it’s an image of their latest catwalk styles, pearl strands or chic belts, the brand has a very powerful presence on Pinterest.

  1. Use Comment-Baiting – The Right Way

As a luxury brand, hunting for comments might seem a little too frantic – and that might interfere with your exclusive image. But the good news is that there are a few simple tricks you can apply in order to make sure that those comments are rolling in. While not exactly in the luxury arena, take Forever 21 as inspiration: the brand’s creativity paid out when they asked their followers indirectly to formulate their rapper name, which lead to thousands of comments and shares within hours. A little innovation is all you need when trying to achieve your likes and comment goals on social media, be it Instagram or Facebook.

  1. Post Previews as Teasers and Estimate Demands

You are about to launch a new collection – or, you’re just starting to design a few new products. Whatever stage your creative process may be at, it’s never the wrong time to post a little teaser on social media. This tactic will achieve multiple things at the same time: it will create demand and stir interest, it will show you just how liked your new designs are via the likes and comments you receive and it will make your followers tune in again to see your final products – all of which are great for your business. If you b enjoyed bthis post, why not check out this article on Social Media for your Organization!

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Social Media For Your Organization’s Bottom Line

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Social ecosystems

Too often, businesses think of social media only in very fuzzy terms, without actually drilling down into the specific reasons why they are using it. But companies at the leading edge of social media are taking things one step further – they are building out sophisticated frameworks for understanding how social media can impact not just the business as a whole, but also every business unit and every stakeholder within that business.

One very interesting framework starts out by thinking of the different types of social content within your organization in terms of a “social ecosystem.” This includes your customer communities, your social networks, your social media profiles, and your community platforms. Each of these serves a different underlying purpose. Some of these, for example, might serve as “listening posts” where you get closer to the voice of the customer. Others might act as platforms for customers to collaborate with fellow users, followers and fans.

The continuum from collaboration to community

It’s also possible to think about social as providing a vast continuum of value. At one end of the continuum, you have social CRM, which is all about generating insights, analysis and intelligence about your customers. At the other end of the continuum, you have mass market social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) As you move along the continuum from pure CRM to mass market social media, you start to get into collaborative social tools. Move even further away, and you start to get into customer communities and social media platforms that encourage sharing and interaction. Thus, as you move along the spectrum, you will move from insights and intelligence, then to collaboration, and then to community.

Objectives, Goals, Strategies and Tactics (OGST)

Once you have a big picture view of your social ecosystem, it’s time to think in terms of putting goals and metrics into place for each of these ecosystem components. One way of doing that is by using the OGST (Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Tactics) framework. In other words, there should be a clear objective and goal for every component of your social ecosystem. And you should then back up those objectives and goals with clear strategies and tactics. For example, one piece of your social ecosystem might be based around customer advocacy, while another is based around lead generation. So how are you going to achieve those objectives and goals?

The many dimensions of social media value

It’s also important to be able to think about the various ways that social media creates value for your organization. Often, each element of your social ecosystem will contribute value in several different ways. For example, some social tools might be best for making direct sales to customers. Others might be good at boosting overall brand awareness. But the same tools used for direct sales can also be used for lead generation, and the same tools used for brand awareness can also be used for customer advocacy.

By thinking about the various components of social media value, it becomes much easier to communicate to management and board members why your organization is investing so much time and resources into social. The goal, of course, is to be able to show how social media is tied into the entire customer lifecycle. This includes the time when the customer first starts investigating your products, the time he or she purchases that product, and the time when he or she starts to form deeper bonds of loyalty with your organization. By using social media, you can ensure not just a happy customer, but also a happy repeat customer. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this articole on Social Media Channels for your business!

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Local Search Marketing Fallacies

local-search-marketing-map

B2B and Local Search Fallacies

If I said “B2B” and you thought “tech,” then you’d be having the same problem I was finding reliable information about local search marketing for business-to-business models. While it’s true that SaaS companies like Moz, MailChimp, and Hootsuite are businesses which vend to other businesses, their transactions are primarily digital. These may be the types of companies that make best-of B2B lists, but today let’s explore another realm in which a physical business you promote is eligible to be marketed both locally and as a B2B.

Let’s determine your eligibility, find your B2B opportunities, identify tips specific to your business model, analyze an outreach email, explore your content with a checklist, and find an advantage for you in today’s article.

Seeing how Google sees you

First to determine whether Google would view your brand as a local business, answer these two questions:

  1. Does the business I’m marketing have a physical location that’s accessible to the public? This can’t be a PO Box or virtual office. It must be a real-world address.
  2. Does the business I’m marketing interact face-to-face with its customers?

If you answered “yes” to both questions, continue, because you’ve just met Google’s local business guidelines.

Seeing your B2B opportunity

Next, determine if there’s a component of your business that already serves or could be created to serve other businesses.

Not totally sure? Let’s look at Google’s categories.

Out of the 2,395 Google My Business Categories listed here, there are at least 1,270 categories applicable to B2B companies. These include companies that are by nature B2B (wholesalers, suppliers) and companies that are B2C but could have a B2B offering (restaurants, event sites). In other words, more than half of Google’s categories signal to B2B-friendly companies that local marketing is an opportunity.

Let’s look at some major groups of categories and see how they could be fine-tuned to serve executive needs instead of only consumer needs:

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Food establishments (restaurants, cafes, food trucks, caterers, etc.) can create relationships with nearby employers by offering business lunch specials, delivery, corporate catering, banquet rooms, and related B2B services. This can work especially well for restaurants located in large business districts, but almost any food-related business could create a corporate offering that incentivizes loyalty.

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Major attractions (museums, amusements, cultural centers, sports centers, etc.) can create corporate packages for local employers seeking fun group activities. Brands looking to reduce implicit bias may be especially interested in interacting with cultural groups and events.

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Professional services (realty, financial, printing, consulting, tech, etc.) can be geared towards corporate needs as well as individuals. A realtor can sell commercial properties. A printer can create business signage. A computer repair shop can service offices.

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Personal services (counseling, wellness, fitness, skill training, etc.) can become corporate services when employers bring in outside experts to improve company morale, education, or well-being.

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Home services (carpet cleaning, landscaping, plumbing, contracting, security, etc.) can become commercial services when offered to other businesses. Office buildings need design, remodeling, and construction and many have lounges, kitchens, restrooms, and grounds that need janitorial and upkeep services. Many retailers need these services, too.

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Entertainers (comedians, musicians, DJs, performance troupes, etc.) can move beyond private events to corporate ones with special package offerings. Many brands have days where children, family members, and even pets are welcomed to the workplace, and special activities are planned.

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Retailers (clothing, gifts, equipment, furniture, etc.) can find numerous ways to supply businesses with gear, swag, electronics, furnishings, gift baskets, uniforms, and other necessities. For example, a kitchen store could vend breakfast china to a B&B, or an electronics store could offer special pricing for a purchase of new computers for an office.

5c4f9f3ced5e99.42734047.jpgTransportation and travel services (auto sales and maintenance, auto rentals, travel agencies, tour guides, charging stations, etc.) can create special packages for businesses. A car dealer could sell a fleet of vehicles to a food delivery service, or a garage could offer special pricing for maintaining food trucks. A travel agency could manage business trips.

As you can see, the possibilities are substantial, and this is all apart from businesses that are classic B2B models, like manufacturers, suppliers, and wholesalers who also have physical premises and meet face-to-face with their clients. See if you’ve been missing out on a lucrative opportunity by examining the following spreadsheet of every Google My Business Category I could find that is either straight-up B2B or could create a B2B offering:

See local B2B categories

The business I’m marketing qualifies. What’s next?

See which of these two groups you belong to: either a B2B company that hasn’t been doing local SEO, or a local business that hasn’t created a B2B offering yet. Then follow the set of foundational tips specific to your scenario.

If you’re marketing a B2B company that hasn’t been doing local SEO:

  1. Know that the goal of local SEO is to make you as visible as possible online to any neighbor searching for what you offer so that you can win as many transactions as possible.
  2. Read the Guidelines for Representing your business on Google to be 100% sure your business qualifies and to familiarize yourself with Google’s rules. Google is the dominant player in local search.
  3. Make sure your complete, accurate name, address, and phone number is included in the footer of your website and on the Contact Us page. If you have multiple locations, create a unique page on your website for each location, complete with its full contact information and useful text for website visitors. Make each of these pages as unique and persuasive as possible.
  4. Be sure the content on your website thoroughly describes your goods and services, and makes compelling offers about the value of choosing you.
  5. Make sure your website is friendly to mobile users. If you’re not sure, test it using Google’s free mobile-friendly test.
  6. Create a Google My Business profile for your business if you don’t already have one so that you can work towards ranking well in Google’s local results. If you do have a profile, be sure it is claimed, accurate, guideline-compliant and fully filled out. This cheat sheet guide explains all of the common components that can show up in your Google Business Profile when people search for your company by name.
  7. Do a free check of the health of your other major local business listings on Moz Check Listing. Correct errors and duplicate listings manually, or to save time and enable ongoing monitoring, purchase Moz Local so that it can do the work for you. Accurate local business listings support good local rankings and prevent customers from being misdirected and inconvenience.
  8. Ask for, monitor, and respond to all of your Google reviews to improve customer satisfaction and build a strong, lucrative reputation. Read the guidelines of any other platform (like Yelp or TripAdvisor) to know what is allowed in terms of review management.
  9. Build real-world relationships within the community you serve and explore them for opportunities to earn relevant links to your website. Strong, sensible links can help you increase both your organic and local search engine rankings. Join local business organizations and become a community advocate.
  10. Be as accessible as possible via social media, sharing with your community online in the places they typically socialize. Emphasize communication rather than selling in this environment.

If you’re marketing a local business that hasn’t created a B2B offering yet:

  1. Research your neighborhood and your community to determine what kinds of businesses are present around you. If you’re not sure, reach out to your local Chamber of Commerce or a local business association like AMIBA to see if they have data they can share with you. Doing searches like “Human Resources Event Seattle” or “People Ops Event Seattle” can bring up results like this one naming some key companies and staffers.
  2. Document your research. Create a spreadsheet with a column for why you feel a specific business might be a good fit for your service, and another column for their contact information.See if you can turn up direct contact info for the HR or People Ops team. Phone the business, if necessary, to acquire this information.
  3. Now, based on what you’ve learned, brainstorm an offering that might be appealing to this audience. Remember, you’re trying to entice other business owners and their staff with something that’s special for them and meets their needs..
  4. Next, write out your offering in as few words at possible, including all salient points (who you are, what you offer, why it solves a problem the business is likely to have, available proof of problem-solving, price range, a nice request to discuss further, and your complete contact info). Keep it short to respect how busy recipients are.
  5. Depending on your resources, plan outreach in manageable batches and keep track of outcomes.
  6. Be sure all of your online local SEO is representing you well, with the understanding that anyone seriously considering your offer is likely to check you out on the web. Be sure you’ve created a page on the site for your B2B offer. Be sure your website is navigable, optimized and persuasive, with clear contact information, and that your local business listings are accurate and thorough — hopefully with an abundance of good reviews to which you’ve gratefully responded.
  7. Now, begin outreach. In many cases this will be via email, using the text you’ve created, but if you’ve determined that an in-person visit is a better approach, invest a little in having your offer printed nicely so that you can give it to the staff at the place of business. Make the best impression you possibly can as a salesperson for your product.
  8. Give a reasonable amount of time for the business to review and decide on your offer. If you don’t hear back, follow up once. Ideally, you’re hoping for a reply with a request for more info. If you hear nothing in response to your follow-up, move on, as silence from the business is a signal of disinterest. Make note of the dates you outreached and try again after some time goes by, as things may have changed at the business by then. Do, however, avoid aggressive outreach as your business will appear to be spamming potential clients instead of helping them.

As indicated, these are foundational steps for both groups — the beginnings of your strategy rather than the ultimate lengths you may need to go to for your efforts to fully pay off. The amount of work you need to do depends largely on the level of your local competition.

B2B tips from Moz’s own Team Happy

Moz’s People Ops team is called Team Happy, and these wonderful folks handle everything from event and travel planning, to gift giving, to making sure people’s parking needs are met. Team Happy is responsible for creating an exceptional, fun, generous environment that functions smoothly for all Mozzers and visitors.

I asked Team Happy Manager of Operations, Ashlie Daulton, to share some tips for crafting successful B2B outreach when approaching a business like Moz. Ashlie explains:

  • We get lots of inquiry emails. Do some research into our company, help us see what we can benefit from, and how we can fit it in. We don’t accept every offer, but we try to stay open to exploring whether it’s a good fit for the office.
  • The more information we can get up front, the better! We are super busy in our day-to-day and we can get a lot of spam sometimes, so it can be hard to take vague email outreach seriously and not chalk it up to more spam. Be real, be direct in your outreach. Keeping it more person-to-person and less “sales pitchy” is usually key.
  • If we can get most of the information we need first, research the website/offers, and communicate our questions through emails until we feel a call is a good next step, that usually makes a good impression.

Finally, Ashlie let me know that her team comes to decisions thoughtfully, as will the People Ops folks at any reputable company. If your B2B outreach doesn’t meet with acceptance from a particular company, it would be a waste of your time and theirs to keep contacting them.

However, as mentioned above, a refusal one year doesn’t mean there couldn’t be opportunity at a later date if the company’s needs or your offer change to be a better fit. You may need to go through some refinements over the years, based on the feedback you receive and analyze, until you’ve got an offer that’s truly irresistible.

A sample B2B outreach email

“La práctica hace al maestro.”
– Proverb

Practice makes perfect. Let’s do an exercise together in which we imagine ourselves running an awesome Oaxacan restaurant in Seattle that wants to grow the B2B side of our business. Let’s hypothesize that we’ve decided Moz would be a perfect client, and we’ve spent some time on the web learning about them. We’ve looked at their website, their blog, and have read some third-party news about the company.

We found an email address for Team Happy and we’ve crafted our outreach email. What follows is that email + Ashlie’s honest, summarized feedback to me (detailed below) about how our fictitious outreach would strike her team:

Good morning, Team Happy!

When was the last time Moz’s hardworking staff was treated to tacos made from grandmother’s own authentic recipe? I’m your neighbor Jose Morales, co-owner with my abuela of Tacos Morales, just down the street from you. Our Oaxacan-style Mexican food is:

– Locally sourced and prepared with love in our zero-waste kitchen
– 100% organic (better for Mozzers’ brains and happiness!) with traditional, vegan, and gluten-free options
– $6–$9 per plate

We know you have to feed tons of techies sometimes, and we can effortlessly cater meals of up to 500 Mozzers. The folks at another neighboring company, Zillow, say this about our beautiful food:

“The best handmade tortillas we’ve ever had. Just the right portions to feel full, but not bogged down for the afternoon’s workload. Perfect for corporate lunches and magically scrumptious!”

May I bring over a complimentary taco basket for a few of your teammates to try? Check out our menu here and please let me know if there would be a good day for you to sample the very best of Taco Morales. Thank you for your kind consideration and I hope I get the chance to personally make Team Happy even happier!

Your neighbors,
Jose y Lupita Morales
Tacos Morales
www.tacosmorales.com
222 2nd Street, Seattle – (206) 111-1111

Why this email works:

  • We’re an inclusive office, so the various dietary options catch our eye. Knowing price helps us decide if it’s a good fit for our budget.
  • The reference to tech feels personalized — they know our team and who we work with.
  • It’s great to know they can handle some larger events!
  • It instills trust to see a quote from a nearby, familiar company.
  • Samples are a nice way to get to know the product/service and how it feels to work with the B2B company.
  • The menu link, website link, and contact info ensure that we can do our own exploring to help us make a decision.

As the above outreach illustrates, Team Happy was most impressed by the elements of our sample email that provided key information about variety, price and capacity, useful links and contact data, trust signals in the form of a review from a well-known client, and a one-on-one personalized message.

Your business is unique, and the precise tone of your email will match both your company culture and the sensibilities of your potential clients. Regardless of industry, studying the above communication will give you some cues for creating your own from the viewpoint of speaking personally to another business with their needs in mind. Why not practice writing an email of your own today, then run it past an unbiased acquaintance to ask if it would persuade them to reply?

A checklist to guide your website content

Your site content speaks for you when a potential client wants to research you further before communicating one-on-one. Why invest both budget and heart in what you publish? Because 94% of B2B buyers reportedly conduct online investigation before purchasing a business solution. Unfortunately, the same study indicates that only 37% of these buyers are satisfied with the level of information provided by suppliers’ websites. Do you see a disconnect here?

Let’s look at the key landing pages of your website today and see how many of these boxes you can check off:

My content tells potential clients…

☑ What my business name, addresses, phone numbers, fax number, email addresses, driving directions, mapped locations, social and review profiles are

☑ What my products and services are and why they meet clients’ needs

☑ The complete details of my special offers for B2B clients, including my capacity for fulfillment

☑ What my pricing is like, so that I’m getting leads from qualified clients without wasting anyone’s time

☑ What my USP is — what makes my selling proposition unique and a better choice than my local competitors

☑ What my role is as a beneficial member of the local business community and the human community, including my professional relationships, philanthropy, sustainable practices, accreditations, awards, and other points of pride

☑ What others say about my company, including reviews and testimonials

☑ What my clients’ rights and guarantees are

☑ What value I place on my clients, via the quality, usefulness, and usability of my website and its content

If you found your content lacking any of these checklist elements, budget to build them. If writing is not your strong suit and your company isn’t large enough to have an in-house content team, hire help. A really good copywriter will partner up to tell the story of your business while also accurately portraying its unique voice. Expect to be deeply interviewed so that a rich narrative can emerge.

In sum, you want your website to be doing the talking for you 24 hours a day so that every question a potential B2B client has can be confidently answered, prompting the next step of personal outreach.

How to find your B2B advantage

Earlier, we spoke of the research you’ll do to analyze the business community you could be serving with your B2B offerings, and we covered how to be sure you’ve got the local digital marketing basics in place to showcase what you do on the web. Depending on your market, you could find that investment in either direction could represent an opportunity many of your competitors have overlooked.

For an even greater advantage, though, let’s look directly at your competitors. You can research them by:

  1. Visiting their websites to understand their services, products, pricing, hours, capacity, USP, etc.
  2. Visiting their physical premises, making inquiries by phone, or (if possible) making a purchase of their products/services to see how you like them and if there’s anything that could be done better
  3. Reading their negative reviews to see what their customers complain about
  4. Looking them up on social media, again to see what customers say and how the brand handles complaints
  5. Reading both positive and negative media coverage of the brand

Do you see any gaps? If you can dare to be different and fill them, you will have identified an important advantage. Perhaps you’ll be the only:

  • Commercial cleaning company in town that specializes in servicing the pet-friendly hospitality market
  • Restaurant offering a particular type of cuisine at scale
  • Major attraction with appealing discounts for large groups
  • Commercial printer open late at night for rush jobs
  • Yoga instructor specializing in reducing work-related stress/injuries

And if your city is large and highly competitive and there aren’t glaring gaps in available services, try to find a gap in service quality. Maybe there are several computer repair shops, but yours is the only one that works weekends. Maybe there are a multitude of travel agents, but your eco-tourism packages for corporations have won major awards. Maybe yours is just one of 400+ Chinese restaurants in San Francisco, but the only one to throw in a free bag of MeeMee’s sesame and almond cookies (a fortune cookie differentiator!) with every office delivery, giving a little uplift to hardworking staff.

Find your differentiator, put it in writing, put it to the fore of your sales process. And engineer it into consumer-centric language, so that hard candy buttons with chocolate inside them become the USP that “melts in your mouth, not in your hands,” solving a discovered pain point or need.

B2B marketing boils down to service

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”

– Charles Dickens

We’re all in business to serve. We’re all helpers.  Whether you’re marketing a B2B that’s awakening to the need to invest in local SEO or a B2C on the verge of debuting your new business-to-business offering, your project boils down to the simple question,

“How can I help?”

Looking thoughtfully into your brand’s untapped capacities to serve your community, coupled with an authentic desire to help, is the best groundwork you can lay at the starting point for satisfaction at the finish line. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on Social Media Channels for your business!

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Filed under: Marketing, StrategyTagged with: , ,

SEO Link Building & Establishing Authority

Links

Crank up the SEO juice

You’ve created content that people are searching for, that answers their questions, and that search engines can understand, but those qualities alone don’t mean it’ll rank. To outrank the rest of the sites with those qualities, you have to establish authority. That can be accomplished by earning links from authoritative websites, building your brand, and nurturing an audience who will help amplify your content.

Google has confirmed that links and quality content are two of the three most important ranking factors for SEO. Trustworthy sites tend to link to other trustworthy sites, and spammy sites tend to link to other spammy sites. But what is a link, exactly? How do you go about earning them from other websites? Let’s start with the basics.

What are links?

Inbound links, also known as backlinks or external links, are HTML hyperlinks that point from one website to another. They’re the currency of the Internet, as they act a lot like real-life reputation. If you went on vacation and asked three people (all completely unrelated to one another) what the best coffee shop in town was, and they all said, “Cuppa Joe on Main Street,” you would feel confident that Cuppa Joe is indeed the best coffee place in town. Links do that for search engines.

Since the late 1990s, search engines have treated links as votes for popularity and importance on the web.

Internal links, or links that connect internal pages of the same domain, work very similarly for your website. A high amount of internal links pointing to a particular page on your site will provide a signal to Google that the page is important, so long as it’s done naturally and not in a spammy way.

The engines themselves have refined the way they view links, now using algorithms to evaluate sites and pages based on the links they find. But what’s in those algorithms? How do the engines evaluate all those links? It all starts with the concept of E-A-T.

You are what you E-A-T

Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines put a great deal of importance on the concept of E-A-T — an acronym for expert, authoritative, and trustworthy. Sites that don’t display these characteristics tend to be seen as lower-quality in the eyes of the engines, while those that do are subsequently rewarded. E-A-T is becoming more and more important as search evolves and increases the importance of solving for user intent.

Creating a site that’s considered expert, authoritative, and trustworthy should be your guiding light as you practice SEO. Not only will it simply result in a better site, but it’s future-proof. After all, providing great value to searchers is what Google itself is trying to do.

E-A-T and links to your site

The more popular and important a site is, the more weight the links from that site carry. A site like Wikipedia, for example, has thousands of diverse sites linking to it. This indicates it provides lots of expertise, has cultivated authority, and is trusted among those other sites.

To earn trust and authority with search engines, you’ll need links from websites that display the qualities of E-A-T. These don’t have to be Wikipedia-level sites, but they should provide searchers with credible, trustworthy content.

Page Authority, and Spam Score are important. In general, you’ll want links from sites with a higher Domain Authority than your sites.

Followed vs. nofollowed links

Remember how links act as votes? The rel=nofollow attribute (pronounced as two words, “no follow”) allows you to link to a resource while removing your “vote” for search engine purposes.

Just like it sounds, “nofollow” tells search engines not to follow the link. Some engines still follow them simply to discover new pages, but these links don’t pass link equity (the “votes of popularity” we talked about above), so they can be useful in situations where a page is either linking to an untrustworthy source or was paid for or created by the owner of the destination page.

Say, for example, you write a post about link building practices, and want to call out an example of poor, spammy link building. You could link to the offending site without signaling to Google that you trust it.

Standard links (ones that haven’t had nofollow added) look like this:

I love SEMRush

Nofollow link markup looks like this:

I love SEMRush

If follow links pass all the link equity, shouldn’t that mean you want only follow links?

Not necessarily. Think about all the legitimate places you can create links to your own website: a Facebook profile, a Yelp page, a Twitter account, etc. These are all natural places to add links to your website, but they shouldn’t count as votes for your website. (Setting up a Twitter profile with a link to your site isn’t a vote from Twitter that they like your site.)

It’s natural for your site to have a balance between nofollowed and followed backlinks in its link profile (more on link profiles below). A nofollow link might not pass authority, but it could send valuable traffic to your site and even lead to future followed links.

  • Tip: Use SEMRush extension for Google Chrome to highlight links on any page to find out whether they’re nofollow or follow without ever having to view the source code!

Your link profile

Your link profile is an overall assessment of all the inbound links your site has earned: the total number of links, their quality (or spamminess), their diversity (is one site linking to you hundreds of times, or are hundreds of sites linking to you once?), and more. The state of your link profile helps search engines understand how your site relates to other sites on the Internet. There are various SEO tools that allow you to analyze your link profile and begin to understand its overall makeup.

How can I see which inbound links point to my website?

Use SEMRush and set up your site’s URL. You’ll be able to see how many and which websites are linking back to you.

What are the qualities of a healthy link profile?

When people began to learn about the power of links, they began manipulating them for their benefit. They’d find ways to gain artificial links just to increase their search engine rankings. While these dangerous tactics can sometimes work, they are against Google’s terms of service and can get a website deindexed (removal of web pages or entire domains from search results). You should always try to maintain a healthy link profile.

A healthy link profile is one that indicates to search engines that you’re earning your links and authority fairly. Just like you shouldn’t lie, cheat, or steal, you should strive to ensure your link profile is honest and earned via your hard work.

Links are earned or editorially placed

Editorial links are links added naturally by sites and pages that want to link to your website.

The foundation of acquiring earned links is almost always through creating high-quality content that people genuinely wish to reference. This is where describing extremely high-quality content is essential! If you can provide the best and most interesting resource on the web, people will naturally link to it.

Naturally earned links require no specific action from you, other than the creation of worthy content and the ability to create awareness about it.

  • Tip: Earned mentions are often unlinked! When websites are referring to your brand or a specific piece of content you’ve published, they will often mention it without linking to it. To find these earned mentions, use SEMRush. You can then reach out to those publishers to see if they’ll update those mentions with links.

Links are relevant and from topically similar websites

Links from websites within a topic-specific community are generally better than links from websites that aren’t relevant to your site. If your website sells dog houses, a link from the Society of Dog Breeders matters much more than one from the Roller Skating Association. Additionally, links from topically irrelevant sources can send confusing signals to search engines regarding what your page is about.

  • Tip: Linking domains don’t have to match the topic of your page exactly, but they should be related. Avoid pursuing backlinks from sources that are completely off-topic; there are far better uses of your time.

Anchor text is descriptive and relevant, without being spammy

Anchor text helps tell Google what the topic of your page is about. If dozens of links point to a page with a variation of a word or phrase, the page has a higher likelihood of ranking well for those types of phrases. However, proceed with caution! Too many backlinks with the same anchor text could indicate to the search engines that you’re trying to manipulate your site’s ranking in search results.

  • Tip: Use the “Anchor Text” report in SEMRush to see what anchor text other websites are using to link to your content.

Links send qualified traffic to your site

Link building should never be solely about search engine rankings. Esteemed SEO and link building thought leader Eric Ward used to say that you should build your links as though Google might disappear tomorrow. In essence, you should focus on acquiring links that will bring qualified traffic to your website — another reason why it’s important to acquire links from relevant websites whose audience would find value in your site, as well.

  • Tip: Use the “Referral Traffic” report in Google Analytics to evaluate websites that are currently sending you traffic. How can you continue to build relationships with similar types of websites?

Link building don’ts & things to avoid

Spammy link profiles are just that: full of links built in unnatural, sneaky, or otherwise low-quality ways. Practices like buying links or engaging in a link exchange might seem like the easy way out, but doing so is dangerous and could put all of your hard work at risk.

A guiding principle for your link building efforts is to never try to manipulate a site’s ranking in search results. But isn’t that the entire goal of SEO? To increase a site’s ranking in search results? And herein lies the confusion. Google wants you to earn links, not build them, but the line between the two is often blurry. To avoid penalties for unnatural links (known as “link spam”), Google has made clear what should be avoided.

Purchased links

Google and Bing both seek to discount the influence of paid links in their organic search results. While a search engine can’t know which links were earned vs. paid for from viewing the link itself, there are clues it uses to detect patterns that indicate foul play. Websites caught buying or selling followed links risk severe penalties that will severely drop their rankings. (By the way, exchanging goods or services for a link is also a form of payment and qualifies as buying links.)

Link exchanges / reciprocal linking

If you’ve ever received a “you link to me and I’ll link you you” email from someone you have no affiliation with, you’ve been targeted for a link exchange. Google’s quality guidelines caution against “excessive” link exchange and similar partner programs conducted exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, so there is some indication that this type of exchange on a smaller scale might not trigger any link spam alarms.

It is acceptable, and even valuable, to link to people you work with, partner with, or have some other affiliation with and have them link back to you.

It’s the exchange of links at mass scale with unaffiliated sites that can warrant penalties.

Low-quality directory links

These used to be a popular source of manipulation. A large number of pay-for-placement web directories exist to serve this market and pass themselves off as legitimate, with varying degrees of success. These types of sites tend to look very similar, with large lists of websites and their descriptions (typically, the site’s critical keyword is used as the anchor text to link back to the submittor’s site).

There are many more manipulative link building tactics that search engines have identified. In most cases, they have found algorithmic methods for reducing their impact. As new spam systems emerge, engineers will continue to fight them with targeted algorithms, human reviews, and the collection of spam reports from webmasters and SEOs. By and large, it isn’t worth finding ways around them.

How to build high-quality backlinks

Link building comes in many shapes and sizes, but one thing is always true: link campaigns should always match your unique goals. With that said, there are some popular methods that tend to work well for most campaigns. This is not an exhaustive list, so visit Moz’s blog posts on link building for more detail on this topic.

Find customer and partner links

If you have partners you work with regularly, or loyal customers that love your brand, there are ways to earn links from them with relative ease. You might send out partnership badges (graphic icons that signify mutual respect), or offer to write up testimonials of their products. Both of those offer things they can display on their website along with links back to you.

Publish a blog

This content and link building strategy is so popular and valuable that it’s one of the few recommended personally by the engineers at Google. Blogs have the unique ability to contribute fresh material on a consistent basis, generate conversations across the web, and earn listings and links from other blogs.

Careful, though — you should avoid low-quality guest posting just for the sake of link building. Google has advised against this and your energy is better spent elsewhere.

Create unique resources

Creating unique, high quality resources is no easy task, but it’s well worth the effort. High quality content that is promoted in the right ways can be widely shared. It can help to create pieces that have the following traits:

Creating a resource like this is a great way to attract a lot of links with one page. You could also create a highly-specific resource — without as broad of an appeal — that targeted a handful of websites. You might see a higher rate of success, but that approach isn’t as scalable.

Users who see this kind of unique content often want to share it with friends, and bloggers/tech-savvy webmasters who see it will often do so through links. These high quality, editorially earned votes are invaluable to building trust, authority, and rankings potential.

Build resource pages

Resource pages are a great way to build links. However, to find them you’ll want to know some Advanced Google operators to make discovering them a bit easier.

For example, if you were doing link building for a company that made pots and pans, you could search for: cooking intitle:”resources” and see which pages might be good link targets.

This can also give you great ideas for content creation — just think about which types of resources you could create that these pages would all like to reference/link to.

Get involved in your local community

For a local business (one that meets its customers in person), community outreach can result in some of the most valuable and influential links.

  • Engage in sponsorships and scholarships.
  • Host or participate in community events, seminars, workshops, and organizations.
  • Donate to worthy local causes and join local business associations.
  • Post jobs and offer internships.
  • Promote loyalty programs.
  • Run a local competition.
  • Develop real-world relationships with related local businesses to discover how you can team up to improve the health of your local economy.

All of these smart and authentic strategies provide good local link opportunities.

Refurbish top content

You likely already know which of your site’s content earns the most traffic, converts the most customers, or retains visitors for the longest amount of time.

Take that content and refurbish it for other platforms (Slideshare, YouTube, Instagram, Quora, etc.) to expand your acquisition funnel beyond Google.

You can also dust off, update, and simply republish older content on the same platform. If you discover that a few trusted industry websites all linked to a popular resource that’s gone stale, update it and let those industry websites know — you may just earn a good link.

You can also do this with images. Reach out to websites that are using your images and not citing/linking back to you and ask if they’d mind including a link.

Be newsworthy

Earning the attention of the press, bloggers, and news media is an effective, time-honored way to earn links. Sometimes this is as simple as giving something away for free, releasing a great new product, or stating something controversial. Since so much of SEO is about creating a digital representation of your brand in the real world, to succeed in SEO, you have to be a great brand.

Be personal and genuine

The most common mistake new SEOs make when trying to build links is not taking the time to craft a custom, personal, and valuable initial outreach email. You know as well as anyone how annoying spammy emails can be, so make sure yours doesn’t make people roll their eyes.

Your goal for an initial outreach email is simply to get a response. These tips can help:

  • Make it personal by mentioning something the person is working on, where they went to school, their dog, etc.
  • Provide value. Let them know about a broken link on their website or a page that isn’t working on mobile.
  • Keep it short.
  • Ask one simple question (typically not for a link; you’ll likely want to build a rapport first).

Earning Links

Earning links can be very resource-intensive, so you’ll likely want to measure your success to prove the value of those efforts.

Metrics for link building should match up with the site’s overall KPIs. These might be sales, email subscriptions, page views, etc. You should also evaluate Domain and/or Page Authority scores, the ranking of desired keywords, and the amount of traffic to your content.

Beyond links: How awareness, amplification, and sentiment impact authority

A lot of the methods you’d use to build links will also indirectly build your brand. In fact, you can view link building as a great way to increase awareness of your brand, the topics on which you’re an authority, and the products or services you offer.

Once your target audience knows about you and you have valuable content to share, let your audience know about it! Sharing your content on social platforms will not only make your audience aware of your content, but it can also encourage them to amplify that awareness to their own networks, thereby extending your own reach.

Are social shares the same as links? No. But shares to the right people can result in links. Social shares can also promote an increase in traffic and new visitors to your website, which can grow brand awareness, and with a growth in brand awareness can come a growth in trust and links. The connection between social signals and rankings seems indirect, but even indirect correlations can be helpful for informing strategy.

Trustworthiness goes a long way

For search engines, trust is largely determined by the quality and quantity of the links your domain has earned, but that’s not to say that there aren’t other factors at play that can influence your site’s authority. Think about all the different ways you come to trust a brand:

  • Awareness (you know they exist)
  • Helpfulness (they provide answers to your questions)
  • Integrity (they do what they say they will)
  • Quality (their product or service provides value; possibly more than others you’ve tried)
  • Continued value (they continue to provide value even after you’ve gotten what you needed)
  • Voice (they communicate in unique, memorable ways)
  • Sentiment (others have good things to say about their experience with the brand)

That last point is what we’re going to focus on here. Reviews of your brand, its products, or its services can make or break a business.

In your effort to establish authority from reviews, follow these review rules of thumb:

  • Never pay any individual or agency to create a fake positive review for your business or a fake negative review of a competitor.
  • Don’t review your own business or the businesses of your competitors. Don’t have your staff do so either.
  • Never offer incentives of any kind in exchange for reviews.
  • All reviews must be left directly by customers in their own accounts; never post reviews on behalf of a customer or employ an agency to do so.
  • Don’t set up a review station/kiosk in your place of business; many reviews stemming from the same IP can be viewed as spam.
  • Read the guidelines of each review platform where you’re hoping to earn reviews.

Be aware that review spam is a problem that’s taken on global proportions, and that violation of governmental truth-in-advertising guidelines has led to legal prosecution and heavy fines. It’s just too dangerous to be worth it. Playing by the rules and offering exceptional customer experiences is the winning combination for building both trust and authority over time.

Semrush

Conclusion

Authority is built when brands are doing great things in the real-world, making customers happy, creating and sharing great content, and earning links from reputable sources. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on Wordpress Redirects!
Post by Xhostcom Wordpress & Digital Services, subscribe to newsletter for more!

Filed under: Marketing, Strategy, WordpressTagged with: ,

The Best SEO Plugins for WordPress Newbies

SEO-Plugins

Wordpress sites can no longer afford to ignore SEO.

Nearly all internet activity starts with search: 93% of all Internet experiences start with a search engine and 40% of ecommerce traffic across the world comes from search. Most businesses have recognized this and adapted accordingly — 61% of companies named SEO as their biggest priority last year.

Sure, you can generate leads with PPC campaigns and pay to be a top result. But 80% of people say they ignore the advertisements in search results.

Take a moment to analyze your own habits. When you want to do something online, where do you start? If you’re anything like me and the majority of internet users, you start with a search engine. You type in some keywords or phrases and probably don’t scroll past the first few results before clicking on a site. Sounds about right then, that the first five SERPs receive 67.6% of all clicks.

In short, you need to be prioritizing SEO and be a top result if you want to have any chance of driving organic traffic to your website. But if you aren’t an SEO expert, where do you begin?

Fortunately, there are plenty of great SEO tools available. If you have a WordPress site, there are a number plugins you can install that will really help you out. Which ones? That’s exactly why I developed this list of the best SEO plugins for WordPress newbies. It details the top 8 plugins and how they’ll help you improve your SEO.

1. Yoast SEO

Yoast Seo Plugin

The Yoast SEO WordPress plugin has been around for more than a decade. Over five million websites have installed it, making it one of the most popular options.

One of the best parts of Yoast SEO is the ability to create and manage your XML sitemaps. This is much easier than having to code your sitemap on your own, especially if you don’t have much of a technical background.

Yoast SEO helps you identify and avoid duplicate content, so you won’t have to worry about being penalized by Google, and it offers templates for titles and meta-descriptions, which will make your pages more appealing in SERPs.

You can install the Yoast SEO plugin for free to access all of these features and benefits. But there is also a premium version for $89 annually that gives you upgrades like:

  • Page previews on different platforms
  • Suggestions for internal linking
  • Redirect management options
  • 24/7 support
  • No advertisements

At the very least, I recommend trying the free Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress.

2. The SEO Framework

The SEO Framework plugin is another great option for you to consider. I like this WordPress plugin so much because it’s built for smaller enterprises as opposed to massive corporations.

Its interface blends naturally when integrated with WordPress, so it feels as though it’s supposed to be there, as opposed to appearing obtrusive.

Here’s a look at one of the better features with this plugin.

Seo Framework Plugin

The plugin offers a colored scale, showing you exactly how to optimize each post for search engines. All you need to do is hover your cursor over the bars in the SEO column to reveal notes for how to specifically improve certain pages. As you can see from the screenshot above, this note explains how the title can be improved for SEO purposes.

The SEO Framework plugin is free and doesn’t have any ads or upsells to pester you while you’re working. Overall, I’m happy with the way this lightweight plugin performs.

3. SEO Squirrly

SEO Squirrly is designed specifically for people who aren’t experts in SEO.

Other plugins have different ways to access and implement SEO suggestions, but SEO Squirrly brings this to the next level. Take a look at its live SEO assistant feature.

Seo Squirrly Plugin

Here’s how it works. You just have to input the desired keyword that you’re trying to rank for with the article you’re writing. As you write, green lights and popup suggestions will appear in real time explaining how you can work that keyword into your content. Imagine having an SEO expert standing over your shoulder while you’re writing — that’s what you get with SEO Squirrly.

The content reports are another great feature that’s ideal if you’re outsourcing writers or using multiple writers across your company to produce content. These reports give writers additional insight about SEO based on what they wrote.

SEO Squirrly also has a tool to analyze your competitors’ content, so you can find ways to outrank their pages. You’ll also be able to track your progress on a weekly basis.

4. Broken Link Checker

Broken Link Checker Plugin

Google algorithms will penalize you for broken links, so the Broken Link Checker WordPress plugin is extremely valuable for your website.

If you’re like me, you have tons of internal and outbound links in your blog content. You can control the pages on your own site, but the status of pages on other websites is out of your hands.

Here’s an example. Say you used a quote, image, or statistic from another website in one of your blog posts. But for one reason or another, that other site got rid of that page or merged it with another piece of content without including a redirect. Now you have a broken link on your site.

The Broken Link Checker plugin will identify any broken link on your site and make it easy for you to remove, edit, or dismiss the problem with just a couple of clicks.

Not only is this great for SEO, but it’s also important in terms of user experience. You don’t want your website visitors to click a link to a broken page.

5. All In One Schema Rich Snippets

All In One Schema Rich Snippets Plugin

All In One Schema Rich Snippets will improve the way your pages appear in search engine results with rich snippets, which are a brief and more interactive summary of your page. They contain things like pricing, photos, star ratings, or reviews.

This popular schema markup plugin can help you add things such as:

  • Videos
  • Articles
  • Recipes
  • Events
  • People
  • Products
  • Articles

Rich snippets benefit all websites, but they are especially important for ecommerce sites. Users won’t have to go through as many steps to read a review of your products. They can see the star-rating from the search engine results page. Adding rich snippets will tell search engines exactly what information to include in the search results.

6. Rank Math

Rank Math allows you to manage all of your on-page SEO needs for every type of content on your website. This WordPress plugin is so effective because it’s integrated with Google Search Console, so you’ll see all of the important information directly from your administrative dashboard in WordPress.

Rank Math Plugin
Rank Math also lets you manage meta tags for things like:

  • noindex
  • nofollow
  • noarchive

This WordPress plugin will tell you which keywords you’re ranking for, and also show you how many impressions you’re getting for various searches. Rank Math also identifies any errors that Google sees on your site. All of this information is easy to access, read, and digest.

Furthermore, Rank Math has features for:

  • XML sitemaps
  • Rich snippets
  • Internal linking recommendations
  • 404 monitoring
  • Redirects
  • Local SEO
  • Image SEO

Rank Brain is definitely one of the best SEO plugins for WordPress. It’s great for those looking for a one-stop-shop for all of these features.

7. SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant

Semrush Writing Assistant Plugin

The SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant plugin for WordPress isn’t as widely used as some of the other plugins we’ve looked at so far, but it’s still a top choice to consider.

SEMrush has one of the best online toolkits available for SEO. The brand is a big name in the SEO industry, so I definitely wanted to include its plugin on this list.

In order for this plugin to work, you need to have an account with SEMrush, which you can register for free if you don’t have one. The free account will give you access to just one template, so you’ll probably want to upgrade to the premium plan to use this plugin.

The plugin analyzes your content and gives you scores based on how SEO-friendly the writing is. You’ll see text suggestions that will explain how to improve your content for SEO purposes.

With the writing assistant, you can also add your target keywords. The plugin will offer recommendations for you based on those keywords.

For a great SEO WordPress plugin other websites aren’t really taking advantage of, definitely consider the SEO Writing Assistant by SEMrush.

8. All in One SEO Pack

The All in One SEO Pack is well-known and popular. It has more than two million active installations on WordPress. As the name implies, it’s another “all in one” plugin for your SEO needs. One of the reasons why it’s so popular is it’s clean and easy-to-navigate dashboard.

All In One Seo Plugin

The essential features of All in One SEO Pack are free, but you can upgrade to a premium version for $57 per year. If you own multiple websites, you may want to consider a business license, which lets you use this plugin on up to 10 sites for $97 annually. You can even purchase an agency license for $419 per year to use the plugin on an unlimited number of sites.

With that said, if you have a basic blog or startup, the free version will likely meet your needs. It’s great for beginners, but I know plenty of advanced WordPress users who use this plugin as well. It’s probably the most similar to Yoast SEO, which we talked about earlier. The biggest difference between the two plugins is the interface and pricing options for organizations of different sizes.

Conclusion

Your website needs to prioritize SEO, that’s an absolute must today.

I wouldn’t expect you to become an SEO expert overnight. But you should at least be taking advantage of some of the SEO tools available online.

If you have a WordPress website, there are countless plugins at your disposal. However, I think it’s best to focus on the top eight that I’ve covered above. There’s something for everyone on this list. Some of these plugins are for specific SEO features, while others cover a wider range of SEO elements. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on SEO Link Building!

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Filed under: Marketing, Strategy, WordpressTagged with: ,

Boost Your Blog with Social Media

social.media_20

When you write a blog or news article or section for your Wordpress website, its only successful if enough people are reading it. However, poor marketing means you might be missing out on a lot of customers.

Wondering how to get blog followers? Keep reading to learn about five ways to boost your blog with social media!

Use Facebook

Facebook remains the gold standard for social media promotion. This is mostly because it is so easy to use.

For instance, you can create a Facebook page for your blog. When people “like” that page, all of their friends share it. Furthermore, people can share your blog posts via this platform.

Facebook also makes it easy for users to send you messages. This can help readers feel more engaged with you as a writer, making them likelier to spread the word and building your brand credibility.

Get Twitter

Twitter is a social media platform that embraced a simple rule: “keep it short and simple.”

While the character count has been raised to 280, Twitter messages still tend to be short and sweet. This makes it easier for people to scan your posts.

Also, Twitter is all about hashtags. You can piggyback off of trending tags to promote your blog. Alternately, you can create your own hashtags and hopefully go viral!

Automate Things

Most people who use social media for promoting their blog post on multiple platforms. The only way to do this successfully is to get automated.

WordPress and other tools allow you to quickly publish the same post to multiple platforms. And apps such as Tweetdeck allow you to write and schedule tweets in advance. This lets you post multiple times a day without taking all of your time.

Automation also lets you deliberately post at the times your audience is most likely to see the message. This may seem like a small detail, but it is crucial to getting seen.

Get Visual

Social Media Trends Flipsnack

The verdict is in: Instagram marketing is here to stay. And this is a great way to bring your blog content to life.

If you’re not careful, blogs can seem faceless and lifeless. Readers may not know who you are and will not feel engaged by your words.

However, Instagram lets you share pictures of your life and your personal journey. Once readers feel invested in the writer, they are likelier to become passionate about what you have written.

Use Linkedin

LinkedIn is one of the later entries to the world of social media. However, it can be the biggest asset in helping you grow your blog.

At the end of the day, LinkedIn is best at linking people with related networks and individuals. You may be able to use it to find guest bloggers that can grow your business.

You can also use LinkedIn to “keep up” with other bloggers. By understanding your competition, you can make sure your blog offers what they do not.

Getting Blog Followers

You can increase your follower count by strategic reposting and promotion with a tool like Crowdfire, one of my favorites, which has a ton of great features for posting, reposting, curation and analytics. Get a free account from here. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on Building Brand Credibility!

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Filed under: eCommerce, Strategy, WordpressTagged with: ,

Omnisend Marketing Platform Review

Omnisend

Omnisend, formerly called Soundest

is an all-in-one multifunctional ecommerce marketing automation platform that helps you sell more by converting your visitors and retaining your customers. You can reach your customers with personalised messages using the powerful automation workflows and boost your sales. Grow your subscriber list with wide variety of signup forms and send converting newsletters created with an easy-to-use editor. Omnisend works with all ecommerce platforms including Shopify, Bigcommerce, Magento, WooCommerce and others and it’s automation and ability to send series of emails to catch customers eyes is top notch and extremely valuable. It also integrates with Zapier for use with other third party applications, so is pretty versatile for use with these.

Omnisend integrates very easily with Shopify and is very easy email software to use. If email marketing is not your strong point, Omnisend makes it much easier and less time consuming. The best thing about creating emails with Omnisend is that you can easily and quickly add your products directly from Shopify or for example Woocommerce into the emails. If you are using Woocommerce, then just go and install  the plugin for Woocommerce.

Analytics are pretty competent, and you can view live stats to see where the traffic is coming from on your store and also their actions on the store, the pop ups are excellent and customiseable which helps a lot to get customers emails, and the ease of use is on a par with the best out there.

Feature Omnisend Smart Segmentation

Automation, signup forms, reports, popups, newsletters, boosting features are all in place, additionally you don’t need additional platforms for such features as for example a wheel of fortune.

Omnisend offers the ability to effortlessly create e-mail list segments based on factors such as country, or how many orders the user has placed. This means you can better target your customers without the tedium of manual data entry. This is especially effective when creating tiered VIP lists or special offers to specific customers. It is a one stop solution for all of your marketing needs, as everything can be automated related to your various promotions. You can get a lot of good open rates and lots of clicks from Omnisend and I can definitely see with the reports that we’re making quite more than before and it’s been growing steadily. So good price, great ROI and of course fantastic customer support. I have to say that they really know how to make an “easy to use” product.

Watch the Omnisend video!

[fvplayer id=”6″]In my opinion, Omnisend is truly a versatile tool for any kind of user and it also comes in different language versions, and you can generate more sales with their automation. So go and make money with Omnisend, possibly the one and only tool for marketing automation.

There is a free tier with basic Email and SMS features, which you can try to start with, I’d highly recommend giving it a try, so check it at the Omnisend Website, I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on Social Media Channels!

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Filed under: Marketing, Strategy, TrendsTagged with: , ,