What's the Importance of Offpage SEO?

Increasing your organic traffic takes more than onpage SEO

That’s the easy stuff that you likely have nailed by now. You’re doing all the right things to increase your organic traffic. Things like: 

• Writing really good content. 
• Developing metadescriptions that include your focus keyword. 
• Identifying keywords and phrases and using these in your headings and subheads, in your titles and metadescriptions.
• Creating smart inner links among your pages. 
• Optimizing images by labeling them with your company name and the image’s description and providing descriptive alt tags. 

But this isn’t enough. You also need to be doing off-page SEO

Off-page SEO is an essential part of a successful SEO strategy—it’s the activity that’s OFF your website’s pages. It’s your total online and offline presence. It’s your social media sites where you’re posting on a consistent basis. It includes podcasts and the reviews you’re getting on your Google Business Profile. If you’re not into endless self-promotion, asking for reviews can be uncomfortable. Get over it. All of us are reading reviews these days before making both big and small decisions. 

What is the importance of offpage SEO

What’s most important about offpage SEO is understanding that it’s the activity that takes place OFF the webpage. It’s the stuff you’re doing away from your website to build your brand. 

Off-page SEO includes brand building and PR. That’s getting out in front of the public. Pitching articles to local publications or industry newsletters. Looking for opportunities to be a guest blogger or speaker. It includes networking, meeting people and growing your presence. 

According to Whitespark’s 2021 Local Search Ranking Factors report, reviews can influence both the Google Local Pack and Local Finder rankings as well as local organic rankings. You do want to be part of local search and show up on Google’s Local Pack. Podcasts are part of offpage SEO, just as influencer marketing is is. 

You’ve seen the Local Pack a gazillion times

You didn’t know it was a product in the search space. Let’s say you’re going to be in Athens for a month and you’re looking for cafes with wifi near your airbnb. (My local search for the month of May.) You’re served up a map with three listings, your location and that of three cafes. This is your Local Pack. I found a delightful little café in my neighborhood that became my go-to home with yummy food and friendly people, thanks to Local Pack!

GBP ranking factors guidelines

• Relevance: Complete and detailed business information will help Google better understand your business and match your listing to relevant searches. 
• Distance: How far each potential business is from the location terms used in a search. Google prioritizes by location. 
• Prominence: Your overall online presence. More reviews and positive ratings will improve your local ranking.

Reviews are another important component of offpage SEO

A Google Business Profile (GBP) review well may be one of the first places a user encounters your name and brand. 79% of people said they trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation from friends or family. Your GBP acts as a mini-website or citation that is displayed on the right-hand side of the Google search results page, which business owners can manage. It’s building a relationship within the Google environment. 

Feedback from your clients will produce more keywords and phrases—your company name shows up again and words about your services. It’s always a good thing to be drilling down into this big, robust Google network. That’s why I believe in using these Google tools. You can use a vast inventory of proprietary apps for just about everything, including keyword research. But Google owns the search space. Using their tools means that you’re in synch with their way of doing things. Take advantage of this.

We can help optimize your website. Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing specialists.

Is SEO Free on Google?

I can’t tell you how many times I hear this question: Is SEO free on Google?

The more I learn about SEO, the more aware I am of just how confused people are about SEO. They start reading and quickly become overwhelmed. Understandably. There’s a gazillion applications that promise and they promise to eliminate your SEO dilemmas and help you show up on page one in search. Each application promises to make it easy. But if you’re new to this, nothing’s easy.

Unfortunately, these applications often address only one function

These gazillion applications may be specific to analytics, keywords, ranking, site loading time, etc. They may or may not have an associated fee and/or a free trial. Who besides me signs up for the free trials, doesn’t really get a chance to test a product, forgets to unsubscribe and ends up paying for year subscription to something I really don’t have time or interest in using. It makes me crazy—I hate paying for something I don’t use. You can’t possibly take all of these apps out for a test drive and make reasoned decisions about which to incorporate into your marketing program. Enterprise applications like HubSpot and Semrush are great, but they come with a big price tag.

What to do? Stick with Google’s free tools

There well may be other products and applications that are better or easier to use, but frankly, nobody knows search and algorithms better than Google. We may love to hate them, but this is their house, and they make the rules. Best of all, Google apps are free. Use these apps to evaluate your site load time, analyze your web traffic, identify keywords and develop your ad campaigns. Keep it in house and it remains free. Together, these apps can be overwhelming. Instead, learn to use these one at a time and you’ll begin to see how Google’s suite of free SEO tools will enhance your understanding of how to show up in search. That’s what it’s all about.

Google owns the search market, and SEO is free on Google

• Google PageSpeed Insights. Track page speed for both mobile and desktop devices. Page speed is critical. If your site takes too long to load, everything else is irrelevant. 
• Google Analytics. This application will track your website traffic. If you’re testing a new campaign, check GA to see if users have hit your landing page and if they’re drilling down to other parts of your site. Make adjustments and recheck GA. 
• Google Keyword Planner. Keyword research is simply learning what types of words and phrases generate the most audience interest, clicks, and linger time to improve your website’s ranking. Keyword research is fundamental to building a Google ad campaign. But I use it when I’m starting a new website project--I want to know what words/phrases I should be using when developing content for each page. I also use it when writing blogs. I want to know what words to be using in my headings and subheads to assign “H” tags for better search engine indexing.
• Google Business Profile. Google has really gotten behind its Google Business Profile (This can be confusing: Formerly Google Business Page and Google My Business). It’s now uber accessible—even from Google Maps. Encourage your clients and colleagues to give you a review on your GBP—send them a link. Keep this page updated with your blogs and add new images. You really want to be taking advantage of this free tool.
• Google Search Console. This Google tool gives users a snapshot of their site's performance, including organic search traffic, link data, and issues impacting the site’s performance. While any marketer can benefit from using it, this tool is really for those who are SEOs—those dedicated to improving search results. But you don’t have to be an “SEO” to use this site. We should all be invested in improving website performance.
• Google Trends. Another free Google tool. Trends culls data from Google searches and allows users to compare things like the frequency of search terms compared to other similar keywords, different geographic regions, or across language barriers. You can sort the data by category, type, region, or time period. Use it to identify seasonality—the best time to be rolling out a product based on historical data. Use it to avoid using trending keywords with fading popularity—these trends will show a spike that quickly fades. 

Is SEO Free on Google? Yes. SEO can be completely free using Google’s suite of SEO tools. Contact Top of Mind Marketing to evaluate and build your SEO strategy.

Local SEO: Leveraging Google’s Powerful Search Tool

Nearly half of all searches have a local intent. How many times have you added “near me” to a search query? That’s local SEO at work. Besides the convenience of identifying local service providers in our own little ‘hoods, we like to support our local businesses. It builds community.

Local Pack is another Google search tool

To help connect users with their location results, Google has changed their algorithm to accommodate location in its search engine results page (SERP). Another handy search tool is Google’s Local Pack--connecting users to specific local businesses they’re looking for.

You’ve used the Local Pack; you just didn’t know it had a name!

You’ve seen the Local Pack a gazillion times—you didn’t know it was a product in the search space. Let’s say you’re going to be in Athens for a month and you’re looking for cafes with wifi near your airbnb. (My local search for the month of May.) You’re served up a map with three listings, your location and that of three cafes. This is your Local Pack. I found a delightful little café in my neighborhood that became my go-to home with yummy food and friendly people, thanks to Local Pack!

How do you optimize for local search?

• Claim your Google Business Profile (GBP). This has become nonnegotiable. It’s the most important thing you can do to boost your SEO value. 
• Add your business to local directories and industry listings.
• Get reviews and add them to your website. Include the local city for the person who’s giving the review. 
• Make sure your name and address are in your footer. 

GBP ranking factors guidelines

• Relevance: Complete and detailed business information will help Google better understand your business and match your listing to relevant searches. 
• Distance: How far each potential business is from the location terms used in a search. 
• Prominence: Your overall online presence. More reviews and positive ratings will improve your local ranking. 

Google’s Business Profile is becoming a workhorse

A recent article suggested that one of the very best things you can do for SEO is to get reviews on your GBP. Reach out to current and former clients and colleagues and ask them to give you a review—make it easy and send them a link. Forget Yelp. It’s just too annoying. Anyone can access your GBP from Google’s apps—Google Maps, etc. Keep this page updated with new business information; upload blogs and images.

Google’s really getting behind their new, improved GBP and making it seamless

Google’s making it easier for users to interact directly with businesses from their GBP pages to book appointments, get quotes for services and message directly. Without a GBP, you’re going to be missing out on opportunities in local search results and Local Packs. The Local Packs, especially, are a nice visual way to package search results. You really want to be taking advantage of Google’s tools.

We can help optimize your website. Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing specialists.

What Is Local SEO?

 

What Is Local SEO?

More important, why is it important? This is why: Nearly half of all searches--an estimated 46%, have a local intent. That means their users are seeking information that is location-specific. Local SEO is about optimizing for a search query that is location-specific. Google and other search engines, including Google’s YouTube, use a user’s location based on IP address (for desktop) and geolocation (for mobile) to determine what results to serve up to the user.

How many times have you keyed in a search query, then added “near me”?

That’s local SEO at work. Besides the convenience of identifying local doctors, dentists, barbers, drycleaners and other service professionals in our own little ‘hoods, we like to support our local businesses. It builds community.

Local Pack is another Google search tool

To help connect those users with their location results, Google has changed their algorithm to accommodate location in its search engine results page (SERP) listings. Another handy search tool is Google’s Local Pack--connecting users to specific local businesses they’re looking for.

You’ve used the Local Pack; you just didn’t know it had a name!

You’ve seen the Local Pack a gazillion times, but you likely didn’t know that it was its own product in the search space. Let’s say you’re going to be in Athens for a month and you’re looking for cafes with wifi near your airbnb. (Actually this was my local search for the month of May.) You’re served up a map with three listings, your location and that of three cafes. This is your Local Pack, and it’s very useful. If anyone’s wondering, I found a delightful little café in my neighborhood that became my go-to home with yummy food and friendly people, thanks to Local Pack!

How do you optimize for local search?

• First and foremost, claim your Google Business Profile (GBP). This has become nonnegotiable.
• Update NAP citations on your website. Having a consistent NAP plays an important part in Google’s Local Pack results and building citations to your GBP. Do an audit to make sure that your business is correctly listed the same way in every place that it’s listed. The same sequence of name, address, phone number, etc. is important as well. If your business is listed on those mysterious directories that seem to pop up, you’ll need to log in to all of these and make sure they all have your current information. 
• Add your business to local directories. 
• Get reviews and add them to your website. Add the local city for the person who’s giving the review. 
• Identify local search terms and create local content: Make sure your name and address are in your footer. Add a notation that you are, for instance: “Serving the East Bay cities of Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Danville and Alamo”. 

GBP Ranking Factors. While Google doesn’t share the exact ranking factors, you can work within these guidelines.

• Relevance: Complete and detailed business information will help Google better understand your business and match your listing to relevant searches from customers. This is a good time to do keyword research and identify what keywords/ phrases you want to own.
• Distance: How far each potential business is from the location terms used in a search. 
• Prominence: How well-known a business is. Know that you’re going to be competing with big brands. Prominence is based on your overall Internet presence. More reviews and positive ratings will improve your overall local ranking.

Google’s Business Profile is becoming a workhorse

Let’s be honest. Navigating among Google apps has been challenging. I’ve struggled with my own accounts as well as those of my clients and I always wonder how long it’s going to take me to log in. What kinds of workarounds I’m going to have to try. Sometimes I can’t log in at all and give up in disgust. But maybe Google finally figured out what a mess they’d created.

So now we have the newly named GBP. In the old days, you could never see your own GBP—you could log in to the page, but just like you can never see your own Google ads, you never could see your GBP. Now you can click on a link and it’s clearly visible! I just logged in to my page, updated my services, added a few blogs and uploaded images. Anyone can log in from Google apps—Google Maps, etc. A couple of my clients left reviews for me. This is so easy! It’s unlike the old GBP that it’s nearly transformational. What’s astonishing is that it took them 15 years or more to get here.

A recent article suggested that one of the very best things you can do for SEO is to get reviews on your GBP. Start reaching out to current and former clients and colleagues and ask them to give you a review. Forget Yelp. It’s just too annoying.

Google’s really getting behind their new and improved GBP and making it seamless

Google’s making it easier for users to interact directly with businesses from their GBP pages to book appointments, get quotes for services and message directly. Without a GBP, you’re going to be missing out on opportunities in local search results and Local Packs. The Local Packs, especially, are just a nice visual way to package search results. You really want to be taking advantage of Google’s tools.

A Google Business Profile may be one of the most important free tools that any business has at its disposal. If you haven’t already, create a one. Believe me, I never would have said this before, because there were times when I was frustrated beyond belief. But it’s just so easy.

If you need help optimizing your website, we can help

Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing specialists.

Historical Optimization: New Life for Old Blog Posts

Blogging can be a tough commitment, but it remains an important part of a content marketing program. In a time of minimalism, I remind people that search engines need content to go to work, and good content is nonnegotiable. Blogs should be at least 300 words—longer is better. 

Go for evergreen–repurpose those posts that have an afterlife

• Do some reconnaissance. Identify blog posts worth updating. Think about whether the topic is still relevant. If so, it’s likely a good candidate. Your keywords probably need a refresh since they change all the time. 

• Google’s Keyword Planner: It’s free and you may as well use Google’s methodology. Key in some phrases and see what the Planner comes up with. Look for words where the competition is Medium and the cost per click at the high end is whatever you’re comfortable paying. I generally set this at $5.00. 

• Update your post, making it more comprehensive. If you’re not making noticeable improvements, don’t bother with this exercise. Provide some accountability with a quote from an industry expert. Provide an example of how this is being used, how it’s affecting users, how it’s making a difference. It may be that you could highlight a particular product or person. Be creative. Remember that good marketing tells a story. 

• Optimize your new post. Put your keyword research to work. Do the stuff that you may/not be doing. Identify a new image. Label the image with your business name and name of what the image is about. Create descriptive tags in the alt tag fields. Here’s a good way to think about alt fields: If someone pulls up your blog on a phone with limited bandwidth and the image doesn’t show up, the alt tag will describe the image so they’ll know how the image is intended to contribute to the story. 

• If there’s a field, fill it in! Identify your keyword focus and write a metadescription.

Promote your new content like any new post

Let’s face it, even for the most creative among us, the well runs dry, so here’s some good news. Historical optimization is a great way to freshen old blogs so they’ll generate more traffic in their second life. Old means just that—blogs you’ve already written—content that just needs a few tucks and it’s ready for primetime again.

I spent some time on my own website, where I have more than 250 blogs. Some of these are complete dogs, which I deleted. I didn’t turn this into a career, but within about 15 minutes, I found a few blogs are evergreen–they most definitely deserve another shot at life. 

When you publish your updated post it will show up as a brand new post on your blog. Promote your updated content just like you would any new post. Email it to your blog subscribers, post it across your social media network. Repurpose it in your newsletter and upload an excerpt to your Google Business Page. 

Could your content marketing strategy use a boost? 

Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and digital marketing specialists. 

SEO: Forget Keywords. Think Topics

 Search engine optimization (SEO) keeps evolving. It’s still about showing up in search, making your website more visible to those who are looking for the solutions that you provide. But the techniques to improve your rankings have changed, and it has to do with those notorious algorithms that are constantly on the move. Search engines have grown more sophisticated; they’re now using updated algorithms and practices to determine the contextual meaning behind keyword-based searches.

Search engines exist to solve your problems . . . 

And they’re getting much better at predicting what you want. The old days of randomly filling up a page with keywords is over—search engines recognize this for what it is—shameless keyword stuffing. Good content is nonnegotiable. In order to rank you, search engines look for title tags, keywords, image tags, internal link structure and inbound links. Also figuring in are navigation structure and site design–these are things we can easily execute ourselves. 

Build your SEO strategy around topics, not keywords

Keywords should feel natural, not forced, but your focus should be on the intent of your audience. Build your SEO strategy around topics, not keywords. If you do that, you’ll be naturally optimizing for keywords. For example, if you’re writing about planning a wedding, you don’t need to list every single wedding detail—champagne, catering, food, cake, flowers, photographer, music and all the other details. Google, in all of its wisdom, knows this. It understands the topic of wedding planning.

It’s not just about your website; building backlinks

Search engines work on your overall web presence, and backlinks are an important component. Any link from someone else’s website to yours (or any other site) is a backlink. Backlinks help Google find new pages on your site faster, and they’re associated with increased credibility and trust. 

How to build backlinks? Look for opportunities to be a guest blogger and include a link back to your website. Links should be from websites and content that are relevant to your focus. A really easy way to build links is to post your blogs to your Google Business Page. You can post a blog excerpt with a Learn More button and link back to your website. Easy. 

Your social channels are an important part of your SEO value 

Social can have a big impact on your organic search. Think about what goes on with our social activity—sharing posts, tweeting and retweeting. It could be through a Facebook friend, Twitter follower, a connection through another social network or something totally unrelated. Sometimes social search will even prioritize content that has been shared by an influencer. 

Our challenge is creating search experience optimization. We want users to not only find our websites but to stay there, drill down through our content and come back later and become a customer.

Does an SEO analysis and upgrade of your website need to be part of your marketing strategy? Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and digital marketing specialists. 

Is This the Year You’ll Finally Update Your Website?

Who besides me has promised that 2021 is the year you will finally create a new website? If so, focus on a simple, stable, mobile-friendly design. Think about your navigation; grouping information so users easily can find what they’re looking for.

Easy ways to add videos to your website

Thanks to YouTube, more than 75% of people now are using videos in their marketing. Videos are a great way to promote a new product, introduce a new member of your team or explain a process that can be confusing. One of my clients is rebranding, and we’re doing YouTube advertising using animated explainer and whiteboard videos. These 60-second animated videos have been very successful–our YouTube campaign has doubled our website traffic. I write the scripts and generally map out storyboards before handing these off to our vendor for development. This campaign is proving to be effective and affordable.

For a quick video fix, I’ve been using an application called Promo.com to make short little promotional videos. It’s easy to use—insert images, choose music, add some text, save and upload. They’re snappy and fun.

Forget sales pages; include informational pages

Build some informational pages where you answer questions that customers might have. FAQs have fallen from favor, but I think they’re staging a comeback. They’re most effective if you focus on answering very specific questions. 

Remember that SEO starts with words

Website optimization is based on keywords—the optimal word here is “words”. You have to have words to let Google do its job. I’m a writer, so I always advocate for more good content for landing pages. Will users read these? Maybe not. But content does two things—it helps with SEO and it provides important information about your products/services. Remember to frontload the content on your pages—the most important information belongs in the first few paragraphs. 

Building backlinks has become an important part of an SEO strategy

Backlinks include Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn, including LinkedIn’s business page, and/or business directories. Google views links from external sites like a vote of confidence. Ask influencers—those who are well-known and respected in their industry with large social media followings–to recommend you in their posts, blogs, etc. This will drive traffic to your site. Influencer marketing in its purest forms involves a budget and paying for these referrals and links, but I’m doing a more modest form of this for one of my nonprofit clients. We’re working with some of our power partners to reference each other in our blogs and social posts. 

Install Google Analytics to track user response

Install Google Analytics so you can start tracking the effectiveness of your efforts. Be patient—it takes some time for Google to start indexing information on your new website. Benefits are cumulative; the longer a campaigns runs, the more benefits you will see. 

A lockdown and a new year—the perfect motivation to update your website presence! Contact me at Top of Mind Marketing. Writers and content marketing specialists.

COVID Downtime: A New Website For an Old Client

I’ve been working with a client for nearly ten years, and we’ve taken his old website about as far as it will go. It was built in an ancient program, and we converted it to WordPress eight-plus years ago. There have been a few other Hail Marys along the way. 

Every year we think that this will be “The Year”

Every year we think we’ll be able to build a new website. But we keep getting bumped. The recession killed us. A couple of years ago we came in last behind a monster of an increase in workers comp insurance. Every business owner gets this. This year started out with a bang, but COVID has put a damper on all of our marketing initiatives. Yet we’re actually starting to work on a new website. I’m managing my expectations, but I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to start the new year with a sleek new site.

WordPress brought our site into the 21^st century and made it more accessible

These conversions can work, but the site has remained cantankerous with more than its share of workarounds. My client’s an electrical contractor, so we’ve kept the site updated with fresh contentand images as much as possible. We schedule photoshoots of new projects, and we generally show both before and after images. But it’s challenging. 

Contractors can show off their beautiful cabinets and hardwood floors, their new kitchens and baths. But an electrical contractor? Much more difficult. How do you showcase the wizardry of completely retrofitting the wiring for an older home to accommodate today’s electronics-crazed users so they won’t electrocute themselves? In the early days of LED lighting, I used to point out the unique undercounter or recessed lighting, but now LED is routine.

Look for WordPress themes that are SEO friendly

We’ve selected a WordPress theme that will give us a lot of exposure—today’s themes provide promo modules to highlight company features and/or events as users scroll down the page. They extend the homepage where you can use your keywords. There is a lot of SEO value in these themes. We’re writing case studies of residential and a commercial projects for which we also have good images. We’re rethinking navigation and paying attention to page speed—especially image size. We’ve removed a few old projects that are dated. 

• Images. Those great big graphics that are 5000 pixels? Easily resize to 2000 or less. I generally aim for around 1200. 
• Sliders. Use Less. Or useless. Research shows that people don’t stick around to watch your homepage slide show. Choose one great primary image. Swap it out when you want a change.
• Compress large images with Tinypng. 

My client’s site is 20 years old

I don’t know anyone right now who isn’t in the process of updating his/her website, including me! If COVID’s given you some downtime, this might be the time to start working on a new site. Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing specialists.

PPC Advertising: Raising Your Quality Score

For one of my clients, we’ve developed animated explainer videos that we’re using for YouTube advertising. For each video, I’ve created a corresponding landing page that lives on our website. This page is only accessible to those who watch our ads/videos and click on the call to action. It’s been running for a little more than a month; we’ve closely identified our audience, our cost-per-click (CPC) is around $2.25, and we’re getting a nice increase in site traffic and calls. I’m carefully monitoring and tracking this effort, and we’re raising our quality score. 

What is a Quality Score and why does it matter? 

Landing pages are often a potential customer’s first interaction with a brand, and they set the stage for an ongoing relationship. Quality Score is an approximation of your keywords’ and ads’ relevance to your target audience. It’s usually represented as a number from 1-10. Search engines and social media platforms use this metric to decide which ads to show and how much to charge for each click or impression. 

Google ads pioneered Quality Score in their ad rank algorithm to reward those advertisers with relevant ads with a lower CPC. Most PPC platforms use this formula to determine where your ads appear. CPC Bid x Quality Score = Ad Rank.

Quality Score Guidelines

• Landing page experience: Is your ad’s landing page relevant to visitors’ intent, helping them accomplish their objectives quickly and transparently?
• Ad click-through rate (CTR)/Engagement: Are your ads clicked as often as competing ads?
• Ad relevance: Do your ads align with your audiences’ interests and intent?
• Post-click conversion rate: Are visitors likely to convert or take meaningful action after clicking your ad?
• Recency: Are your ads recently published or updated regularly?

God only knows what goes on with algorithms, but landing pages are one part of the of the PPC campaign process over which we do have control. We can provide relevant content, fast loading time and make sure our sites look great across all devices. 

Quality Score across platforms

Savvy PPC advertisers understand the nuance of each platform and customize their campaigns for the best results. 

• Google. Google Ads’ emphasize the overall user experience. Your landing pages must be relevant to keywords and ads that your visitors clicked on, but it’s just as important to that your landing page loads quickly, is secure, and looks great on all screens. 
• Facebook. Quality is measured using feedback on your ads and the post-click experience. Your ad is ranked against ads that competed for the same audience, ads that have the same optimization goal and your expected conversion rate.
• Twitter. There’s no mention of landing pages. Most of Twitter ads’ conversions happen within their platform in the form of likes, retweets, content engagement and follows.

Algorithms are opaque, so it can be difficult to know what’s working or not. Strive for clean, simple messaging that’s visually pleasing. A call to action that’s accessible. Monitor your ad and check frequently. 

PPC Advertising: Raising Your Quality Score. Talk to Top of Mind Marketing about your content program, including online advertising and PPC campaigns. Get it right and make it work for you