Increase Website Traffic with Offpage SEO

 Increasing your organic traffic takes more than onpage SEO—that’s the easy stuff that you’ve likely nailed by now. 

Onpage SEO includes activities like: 

• Writing really good content that you post consistently to your website and social media sites.

• Developing metadescriptions that include your focus keyword. 

• Identifying keywords and phrases and using these in your headings and subheads, and using H tags

• Creating smart inner links among your website’s pages. 

• Optimizing images and using alt tags. 

Offpage SEO is an essential part of a successful SEO strategy 

Despite what they may tell you, even great content and good onpage SEO is just not enough for you to show up in search engines.

It’s the activity that’s OFF your website’s pages. It’s your total online and offline presence. It’s social media sites where you’re posting on a consistent basis. Offpage SEO includes brand-building and PR. Pitching articles to local publications or industry newsletters. Getting guest blogging and speaking opportunities and including links back to your website. It means networking and meeting people to grow your overall presence.

• These are examples of ways that you can build your offpage SEO:

• • Linkbuilding/Brand Building–Linkbuilding builds your brand. Building links starts with getting guest posts. Look for opportunities with online publications in your niche.

• • Content Marketing—this continue to evolve to include everything digital media. Content marketing fundamentally involves developing and distributing content across a growing number of channels. 

• • PR—developing relationships with online and traditional print media. Interviews, articles in the local paper or interviews on a popular radio program.

• • Local SEO—this includes Google Business Profile. Getting reviews on your GBP may be the single most important thing you can do for SEO. It’s also more accessible these days—you can access GBPs from Google Maps, etc.

• • Social Media—the social media universe is vast, and includes more than Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn. Decide what you can manage and post consistently with backlinks to your website.

• • Influencer Marketing—developing influencer relationships can help you reach new audiences that might not be available to you. Considered part of offpage SEO.

• • Events—online and in-person events. Networking, meeting people and growing your community opens up new opportunities.

You’re familiar with the Local Pack even if you didn’t know it had a name

You may not have known that the Local Pack was a standalone 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. (This was my local search during May.) You’re served up a map with three listings, your location and three nearby cafes. This is your Local Pack. I found a delightful little café in my neighborhood that became my go-to home for the month. Besides the speedy wifi, I loved this little café for its yummy food and friendly staff—all thanks to Local Pack!

Quality: High-quality backlinks are key to increasing your Google authority

In their simplest form, backlinks are simply links from one website to another. But in terms of SEO, they’re powerful. Google uses backlinks as a ranking signal because the link implies that the content has value, is trustworthy and worth sharing. Local link-building should be your number two priority after onsite optimization. Earning backlinks from high-authority websites helps position your site as an authority as well. These high authority links work like a “vote of trust” from one site to another. Quality trumps quantity.

Backlinks tell search engines what your products and services are about. High-quality backlinks help increase a site’s ranking position and visibility in search engines. Our goal is to get relevant, high-quality links from websites with high domain authority (DA). Note that not all backlinks are created equal. If I get a backlink from The New York Times, it is more relevant and has a higher Google authority than if I get a backlink from a colleague’s website where I wrote a guest post about the five best meeting management applications.  

Relevance: Identify and concentrate on your niche

Focus on getting backlinks from sites that topically align with your own. If yours is a website about biking, you should aim for most of the links you earn to come from other biking websites–bloggers, biking clothing companies, biking trails, biking equipment, etc. 

Public Relations: The perfect way to earn authority links at scale

Digital PR is now the link-building tactic of choice for many SEOs. Use PR tactics to promote a great story and corresponding linkable assets. It’s possible to earn a significant number of links by pitching story ideas to publications, radio and other media. 

Google keeps getting smarter and what that means for us

Google’s maturation has evolved as we key in longtail keyword phrases and get back detailed search results. Google now understands nuances. If I’m writing about weddings, Google knows that I’m also writing about photographers, dresses, caterers, honeymoon travel, etc. Adding a do-follow link to your website will help you show up in searches.

Pay attention to anchor texts

Anchor text are the phrases, URLs or words such as “click here” and “learn more”. If you are the one publishing an article on another platform, try to include your focus keyword in the anchor text. For example, if your focus keyword is “AI content writer”, the more backlinks with this anchor text you get, the better. 

Google’s bots index information 

Search algorithms measure the overall user experience to identify relevance and provide information that’s valuable for users. When someone includes your URL on a post or as a guest blog, the search algorithm counts that as a citation for your business. Citations are about sourcing—citing your website as a source. Offpage SEO calls for adding your website to those local directories that are appropriate. Relevance is key, so look for industry-specific directories. 

GBP ranking factor 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.

Guest Posting—this is where backlinks begin, with good content. What happens if you’re not a writer? Think podcasts and webinars!

Podcasts–the perfect medium for those who don’t write. Podcasts are part of offpage SEO, just as influencer marketing is.

• • Reviews influence the way we spend our money. Getting reviews on Yelp and GBP should be a component of every marketing plan. 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. 

Reviews are 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. An estimated 79% of people said they trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation from friends or family. Your GBP acts as a mini-website that is displayed on the right-hand side of the Google search results page, which business owners can manage. 

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 the big, robust Google network. 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. We may as well take advantage of this.

Conclusion: If this seems like a lot, it is! But SEO builds on itself

Once you develop good SEO habits and start writing good content, getting quality backlinks and guest blogging opportunities, you will start building momentum. It’s important to believe in the process. Keep reading and start saving articles that would be the foundation for good blogs and guest posts. Add your own experience to make these articles meaningful. Include little case studies. Be patient because results are not immediate. 

You may find that you need help or want to outsource part of the content development or backlink-building part of the process. Maybe it’s posting to your social media sites that someone else can take over. It’s for you to assess as you start to realize more success. 

We help businesses optimize their websites and show up in search. Contact Being Top of Mind. We’re writers, SEO and digital media specialists.

What If You Could Rank on Google Without Doing Ads?

What are online advertising platforms?

Online advertising has exploded. If you read any article about marketing these days, there’s just an assumption that you’re doing online ads. Google is raking in an estimated $100M/day from this business alone. Amazon’s right up there, helping Jeff Bezos finance his next trip to the great beyond. 

We advertise on Facebook and Linkedin, on Twitter and Instagram

Every business with an online platform is offering advertising opportunities. But online ads, (pay-per-click or PPC) are a bit of an art form. You can’t create an ad and expect it to just perform for you. You’ve got to test, monitor, make adjustments and swap it out to keep it fresh. Like a twelve-step program, it works if you work it. My experience is that many people launch their ad campaigns and assume that they’re going to be driving lots of new traffic to their websites and ultimately, new clients. Unfortunately, if you’re not committing to managing your PPC campaign, you’re likely wasting your marketing dollars.

It's hard to rank organically on Google 

It’s increasingly difficult to rank organically, which means it’s hard to show up on page one of a Google search without paying for ads. Take a look at a search results page and you’ll see that the results all say “Ad” next to them. Someone’s paying (a lot) to rank on the first or even second page of Google or other search engines. 

But what if you could rank high on Google without having to do PPC ads? 

I’ve been using some new software that’s based on creating content that matches the high-ranking search terms/keywords that people are keying into a Google search. For someone like me, for whom writing is easy, I can write a blog exactly matching those keyword phrases in my titles. These show up in my website’s information bar and Google recognizes these titles as part of its content indexing process. I use other highly ranked keyword phrases in my headlines and subheads and assign “H” tags to them, which Google also looks for.

This software, DemandJump, is giving me a blueprint—or think of these as breadcrumbs--for how to show up in search. The information is cumulative, of course, but I’ve been using this for a month or so, and I’m starting to see the results. I’m getting calls from people who saw me in a Google search. Happy. 

DemandJump’s content is based on a pillar strategy

DemandJump is based on creating a content hierarchy. At the top of every content pillar is a 3,000-word pillar page—this is an exhaustive overview of your business. Your individual landing pages roll up to your main pillar page. Blogs roll up to landing pages. It’s a hierarchy--layered, interconnected webs of content. Everything is connected, with links among pages and topics to keep the user engaged.

I love this application! Interested in DemandJump? Give Top of Mind Marketing a call and let’s talk about how this might work for your business. 

 

Case Study: Web Referrals Increase by 50%

Sometimes we forget how effective case studies can be

Rather than just telling your audience what you do, case studies are opportunities to actually demonstrate your ability to effect change, to showcase your expertise, to document how you’ve successfully helped your clients increase revenue.

An audit to understand marketing effectiveness                       

I’ve been working with one client for seven years. When we began working together, I did an audit to understand how they were spending their marketing dollars and how effective that investment was. They had a website and a presence on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, but posts were sporadic and haphazard. The person who had been writing blogs was neither local nor generating content that was relevant to their Bay Area clients. A monthly newsletter wasn’t showcasing their range of services.

Blogs became the workhorse of their content marketing program

My immediate goal was to improve the quality of their weekly blogs, which became the workhorse of our content marketing program. Well-written blogs accomplish a few things. They provide fresh content for your website and increase your SEO value, helping it rank in search engines. A blog is also an opportunity for you to share your expertise and position yourself as a thought leader. It doesn’t stop there. Your blog can be repurposed in your monthly newsletter. Excerpts can be used in social media posts. Add a link back to your website to drive traffic to your site. 

Increased web referrals by 50%

Over the course of the next year or so, our metrics showed that our steady efforts were paying off. Our website referrals increased by 50%. Since then, we’ve created a brand new website and rewritten the content, but we’ve continued to stick with our quality blogs, social media posts and monthly newsletter. 

Things that I do to help raise SEO value and clickthrough rates

• Create crisp, attention-getting subject lines for blogs and newsletters
• Identify and deploy keywords/phrases liberally throughout all content. 
• Write consistently high-quality content. 

What we’re doing during the coronavirus lockdown

This client has closed down one office, has most of his team working virtually and is expanding to new locations. Staying nimble and making critical business decisions as the economic landscape shifts is not something everyone can do. One thing I’ve always admired about this client is his ability to make decisions. No tortured conversations or looking back with regret. 

We’re also rebranding

We’re developing a new logo, which means new marketing collateral and a new website. In the virtual world that is the new norm—at least for the foreseeable future–we’re rethinking the way we’re perceived in the marketplace and the value we bring to our clients. Like every business owner these days, we’re identifying the pain point. When you break it down, it’s nearly always that simple. What is the problem that we can solve?

Now is the perfect time to work on your marketing! 

Is it time for a new or updated website or an expanded content marketing program? Contact us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts.

Want to Show Up in Search? Follow This SEO Checklist

Good content developers have learned to write both for people and search engines, using solid data to reach their audiences. 

But search engines have gotten a lot smarter. They’ve moved beyond individual keywords—they’ve learned to understand context. But writers still need to understand and deploy sound search engine optimization (SEO) principles. Apply this SEO checklist to every blog and landing page. 

Optimizing website content

To help your website show up in search engines, you need to optimize both content and select HTML source code. This includes page titles, metadescriptions, image alt-text, internal links, anchor text, URLs, etc.

The following checklist identifies those things you will need to address for every web page and blog. 

1. Metatitle. This is distinct from the headline on the page’s headline. It acts as a name tag for the web page.
   • It should in a keyword.
   • Maximum length: 50-60 characters.
   • Use your brand name. 
   • Use numbers, if appropriate.
   • Use how, what, why.
   • Provide useful info/create sense of urgency.

2. URL: This is what will show up in the page’s information bar. It’s important because search engines will be looking for this.

• Limit to 3-5 words.
• Include keywords.
• Try to avoid duplicating metadescriptions.

3. Blogpost. Search engines love fresh content, and writing and posting blogs are the best ways to keep your site updated with new content. 

• Use H tags for titles and subtitles: H1, H2 and H3.
• Add buttons and links to your social sites. 

4. Images: Label every image. Include name of your company and image description.

• Use alt tags: Include your company name plus description of the image.
• Use the correct size image for designated space—make sure images are not too big or your site will not load. Recommended sizes: 1500-2500 pixels. Those images you take with your smartphone? They’re generally huge files. If you plan to use these, resize them before uploading to your website.
• Each page should have an image. A carefully chosen, highly relevant image will enhance your story and provide visual texture. 

5. Body. Long-form content helps your site show up in search engines. Google needs words to rank. Think 1,000+ words. At the very minimum, 300 words. Frontload your content, with the most important information in the first paragraph. 

6. Keywords. Use Google’s keyword tool or others. Key in search phrases and see what words/phrases people are using to search for your term. Look for those with low-medium competition and bid price.

• Forget keyword stuffing. Good content is nonnegotiable. Use your target keywords in the first 100-150 words.
• Use semantically related words throughout body of content.

7. Internal Linking strategy. Create internal links among pages where there is a relationship. It encourages readers to stay on your site, drilling down through relevant pages.

8. Webpages:

• Check page-load time—if it takes too long, check image sizes. 
• Make sure your site is built with responsive design, adapting across devices.
• Avoid duplicate content. 

Do you need help optimizing your website? Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts. 

Cornerstone Content As Part Of Your SEO Strategy

The term “cornerstone content” has been popping up in SEO discussions. WordPress users have likely seen this as they fill in their Yoast fields. Cornerstone content is the best articles on your site, the pages or posts you want to rank highest in search engines. Cornerstone content is part of your SEO strategy. These articles should:

• Be fairly long and informative.
• Provide insights from different blog posts covering everything that’s important about a certain topic. 
• Inform—not necessarily sell products. 
• Communicate your mission and describe your business.
• Be well written, updated often and rank for your most competitive keywords.

Cornerstone articles help target key search terms

A cornerstone approach can help you tackle your key search terms. If you write a lot of articles on similar subjects, you need to tell Google which of them is the most important. Otherwise, you’ll be eating into your own market share insearch. Providing an internal linking structure among your posts tells Google which article is the most important.

Cornerstone articles should be easily accessible on your website

Users should be able to click straight from your homepage to your cornerstone articles. All your other posts about similar topics should link back to their corresponding cornerstone article. This internal linking structure will increase the chance of your cornerstone content articles ranking in Google searches.

An example of how to implement a cornerstone strategy

I’m in the process of updating my own website to implement a cornerstone content strategy. I write a lot of posts about content marketing that touch on a range of topics, including SEO, branding, social media, industry information and content delivery. I’m a fairly disciplined writer, and I have more than 300 blogs on my website. 

I’m writing one cornerstone article with an overarching title: SEO and Your Website: Writing Content that Search Engines Love. Whenever I write a new post on SEO and content, I will link this to the cornerstone article. I’m putting this article on my homepage to tell Google that this is the most important article about SEO copywriting on my site. This will increase its chances to rank.

Choosing articles to become part of your cornerstone strategy

If you’ve got a bunch of articles from which to choose for your cornerstone article, look for those that are the most current and informative. Do these target the keywords you most want to rank for? Check for readability—something on which Yoast scores us. Think short sentences and short words. Creating internal links is important, and Yoast also scores us on these. Make your copy easy to read and understand. Break it up with plenty of subheads to make it visually appealing. When you look back at what you’ve written, those subheads should tell your story. 

WordPress’ Yoast is a plugin

For full use of Yoast’s cornerstone functionality, WordPress wants you to upgrade to premium level. If, however, you’re tired of getting nickel and dimed for apps, just follow the guidelines I’ve outlined here. 

Find this confusing? 

Give me a call and let’s create an overarching SEO strategy for your content. Contact Top of Mind Marketing. Writers and content marketers. 

Blog Topics for When the Well Runs Dry

I’m a pretty creative person, so I’m always mulling over new topics for blog posts and other content for my website. But let’s face it. Sometime the well just runs dry. This is the time of year when you’re trying to get the most out of Labor Day weekend, get your kids off to school or take a long-overdue fall vacation. 

One more thing: If you’re not subscribing to newsletters and publications that provide industry updates, start now. This is not only a critical part of your job, it’s the inspiration for endless blog topics. 

Here are some ideas for fun, inventive blog topics when the well runs dry

1. Trends. Look for trending topics on social and comment on these trends. Analyze, agree, disagree and share a relevant experience. 
2. Time travel. Drill down through your post archive. I have something like 300+ blogs. Which posts can you revisit and repurpose, update and/or refresh? Add a new introduction and conclusion to give it a facelift. Evergreen content endures.
3. Share a presentation. Have you given a presentation lately? Turn it into a blog post. Identify the major bullet points, the biggest takeaway and audience reaction. Think about also adding this to SlideShare for additional SEO value. 
4. Presentation/workshop/seminar/event. What have you attended that would make a great post? Profile the speaker and that person’s expertise. Who was the audience and why was this important? Provide a testimonial or quote from the presenter. Link to the presenter’s website. 
5. Showcase a member of your team. Or a colleague, leader, someone in your family or community who’s making a big difference.
6. New applications. Have you discovered a great application that’s ridiculously easy to use, free and saves you time? Share this with everyone you know! I’m delighted with my latest discovery. I’m currently working on newsletters using five different email applications. Besides the old standbys—Constant Comment, MailChimp and Vertical Response–I’m using Square. My client’s using Square for his payment system, so their proprietary newsletter app integrates with this data. It is by far the easiest to use of these five applications. I’m also using MailChimp’s MailerLite, a drag-and-drop-based application that’s very easy to use. 
7. Discuss an issue. How about this? Will Congress regulate big tech? This may happen, but not with this generation of legislators. From The Washington Monthly: “Chuck Schumer, one of the most powerful people in Washington,usesa flip phone. The kind of phone with a tiny screen and real buttons, designed for making actual phone calls, not writing emails. But then, the Senate minority leader rarely emails, he sends about one every four months. In case manufacturers stop making his favorite flip phone, Schumer has stockpiled ten of them.” 
8. Knowledge sharing. Love free stock photo sites. These images are edgy, arty, stunning. Look for Pexels, Unsplash, Nappy.com. A drawback: If you’re looking for photos that are business-specific or with people over the age of 30, keep looking!  

It’s a new season. Does your content marketing program need a boost? Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts.

Cool Free Stuff: Stunning Stockphoto Images

Anyone who’s worked in print or electronic media—which is pretty much everyone these days--knows that finding good stockphoto imagesis a challenge. I find myself on a mission every week looking for authenticity--images that feature real people doing real stuff. I avoid those shots of insanely beautiful white people posing for the cameras. We’re a multiethnic community, so I also need images that reflect our diversity.

Happily, we may be getting closer to sunsetting the uninspired stockphoto images we’re accessing now. Kudos to those who are taking stunning pictures 24/7 and sharing their work. Take a minute to thank them. 

These are some of the free stockphoto sites.

1.     Pexels. An extensive, free collection of beautiful, high-quality stock photos. Includes a useful feature that presents similar photos to the one you’re reviewing.

2.     Unsplash. A handy search bar to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take a look at the Collectionsof photos, such as Green, Workplace, Minimal, etc. This feature can help you identify a large collection of images at once.

3.    Pixabay. High-quality vectors and illustrations as well photos. Pixabay makes it easy to make a small donation to the artist by buying them a coffee.

4.    Stock Vault. Alarge collection of free textures work as backgrounds for text-based Instagram posts. 100% free; noattribution necessary for any images you find on the site.

5.    Burst by Shopify. A great source for free Instagram photos. An ecommerce platform, Burst hasbusiness-related stock images to help you create better social-media campaigns, websites and marketing materials.New images added every week.

6.    Gratisography. An especially great photo source if you run a travel, nature, or animal-related Instagram account. New photos are added weekly. Use them without attribution.

7.     Death to the Stock Photo. You need tobecome a member to access thishighly curated selection of images, but you can still do this for free. Premium photos, videos, graphics, and media downloads. You’ll only get a certain selection of images per month at the free membership level.

8.    Foodie’s Feed. Professional-quality food picsfor foodies. These images are stunning, though the quantity is limited. Use these to supplement your own food images.  

9.    StyledStock. Think female entrepreneur vibe for your Instagram feed or blog. Collection is small, but quality is high. 

10.  FreePhotos. A mix of both free and paid content, but a good selection of quality free photos. Easy search by category. 

The photography is clever, creative and original

These sites are a big step up from traditional stockphoto sites. Drawbacks? For one of my clients, I need to find blog and social images every week for a  demographic that is laughingly underrepresented on these sites—those 40 and older! Also missing are business photos showing job variety. These sites also don’t have huge volumes of images. But key in your search word and see what happens. They’re well worth the effort--the images are beautiful.  

Do you need help with your marketing? Contact Top of Mind of Mind Marketing @ 510.292.1843. We’re writers, strategists and internet marketing experts.