by Francois Muscat | Oct 21, 2020 | SEO
Keywords are the key to increasing traffic to your website and improving your SEO ranking. If you don’t include terms that people are using in their searches, then no one will visit your website. Keyword research is a key component of any successful content marketing strategy. Here’s a quick guide on keywords and SEO.
What Are Keywords?
Keywords are terms people commonly type into search engines like Google. Using keywords is a clever digital marketing strategy because it can lead to increased website engagement, more time spent on your website and sales leads.
What Is Keyword Research?
Keyword research involves researching the words that potential consumers and customers are going to use when they use search engines. This also means that you need to compare and choose the best keywords to use. Keyword research ensures that your content is relevant and marketable.
How To Do Keyword Research
Firstly, you need to identify the seed keywords of your content. You can do this by using keyword tools. For example, Google Keyword Planner is a free keyword tool and it can be used for both advertising and SEO. You can also identify keywords by thinking about what potential customers would type into Google when searching for your product or service. Secondly, you need to investigate what keywords your competitors rank for. You can do this by typing in your list of seed keywords into Google and checking who ranks on the front page. If you don’t know who your competitors are, then a bit of market research is needed before doing this. Next, you need to know your target market – their problems and questions. Industry forums, groups and Q&A sites are good places to look, as potential customers usually express their concerns and questions on these platforms. Your customers offer great insight into what specific keywords you need to include. Here are other ways to determine keywords:
- Chat with your customers face to face
- Go through past emails with customers and look for commonly used words
- Look through customer support tickets
- Think about the questions that were asked in past conversations
So there you have it – a complete guide on how to do keyword research to improve your SEO ranking. It’s never too late to do your research, so start today!
by Marelise da Silva | Oct 18, 2020 | SEO
During a pandemic, creating a community is important. Local SEO does just that. It connects people to what they want when they need it; with businesses like pharmacies that are open late at night and local restaurants that deliver food being some examples of what people are looking for during current times.
However, SEO is a concept that is constantly changing, both through the different ways people connect to resources, and how they go from curiously researching on their phones to ending up at a business’s virtual doorstep.
How does a business owner keep up with the constant change of SEO patterns? The State of Local SEO Industry Report 2020 is a great reference to start with. US software company Moz surveyed more than one thousand marketing professionals to get a clear understanding of local SEO, both before and during the pandemic.
SEO insights and takeaways for 2020
COVID-19 is forcing companies to adapt to the change in how we interact with each other. Digital interaction/marketing and search engine optimization are steadily growing, but with organic assets/items thriving, businesses are in a position where they can get their goods and services to reach people through organic search. Here are some data-based tips for businesses owners to stay on top of this constantly evolving industry:
Optimise for client interests and goals
Whether it’s potential customers checking out your business online or in person, optimising for customers is a must. Thanks to Google’s BERT algorithm update that upgraded the user experience and put the focus on search intent, it’s clear that customer engagement is more than using all of the right keywords in content and a Google My Business profile. Write content that addresses their specific issues and leads them to a solution. Keep your company accessible through multiple channels, and keep consistent with content along with your brand voice as it leads to trust from your audience and creates potential clients.
Employ a diverse team of experts
Management of SEO requires the right people with the right expertise, including web developers, content writers, PPC advertisers and marketing staff. A successful local SEO campaign needs a joint effort from all parties which bring their own set of skills to the table. You also don’t need a team full of SEO professionals; just a team full of diverse creative minds that will create a melting pot of fresh ideas.
Keep offline marketing strategies in mind
Although digital marketing is a major player in marketing now, offline marketing still plays a role. A study by Quantcast found that 39% of global direct brand marketers think that offline campaigns are vital for their overall marketing efforts. Do your research into how people interact with your brand both online and offline and use those insights to establish strategies for both online and offline marketing which will result in customers that feel seen and heard.
Generate positive customer reviews
A whopping 90% of survey respondents believe that reviews impact Google’s local rankings. It’s most certainly true that they do impact brand reputation, conversion and sales; and can be a determining factor on whether or not a potential client seeks your company out further than the ratings they come across. Think about how your customers are addressing their negative reviews and what you can do to effectively manage your brand’s online reputation.
Adapt to COVID-19’s new normal
Although the pandemic has harmed the marketing budgets of major brands, it’s been especially harmful to local businesses. Survey results indicate that businesses are making short-term budget cuts, along with developing long-term changes to their SEO strategies. More than half have seen marketing budget cuts and many others have moved away from offering nonessential services. Focus on tried-and-tested SEO tactics that work, like content development, customer communication and of course, local SEO.
The bottom line on local SEO tactics
Despite the uncertainty that the pandemic has brought, lots of known marketing strategies are still effective, including organic assets, website optimization, content creation and local search engine optimization. Keep pushing consistent content that resonates with potential clients and their issues, embrace organic presence and stick to tried-and-tested marketing strategies that have been proven to be effective and your company will reap the rewards.
Contact WSI OMS for some expert advice on how to use local SEO for optimum results.
by Francois Muscat | Oct 8, 2020 | PPC, SEO
The change in lifestyle brought about by COVID-19 has highlighted the need for SEO services more than ever. Even demographics who would previously not have been big e-commerce shoppers have been persuaded to go online as the pandemic has kept them indoors. This makes logical sense, and the stats prove it:
- Compared to the same period last year, U.S. e-commerce sales in July increased a whopping 55%.
- As a total of retail sales in the U.S., e-commerce more than doubled from Q1 2020 to Q2. “That’s over a decade of growth in the space of just a few months as reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce.”
- Year on year, Amazon sales rose by 40% for Q2 2020 to $88.9 billion.
SEO and PPC tips for e-commerce success
1. Create a strategy for SEO and PPC synergy
Google Shopping has reintroduced free listings that are generated by the Google Merchant Center. Maximize your holiday shopping campaign by aligning your organic search (SEO) and paid search (PPC).
Use your PPC spend to target high-value queries on channels where paid listings lead the results.
Seek out opportunities to use SEO to rank for searches that attract a high click-through rate.
2. Analyze Search Trends
Take note of the top search queries in your category. Utilize the results to keep SEO core to your strategy, influence your marketing messaging, and inspire your paid search.
3. Plug Fresh Content
Use SEO analysis as a guideline to create current, pandemic-related content that develops trust with your readers by showing your understanding and support.
PPC can then be used to attract some immediate traffic and fill in any gaps. The best part? Informational queries are generally cheaper per click – extending your budget.
4. Test with PPC
Paid search provides feedback on what type of message and imagery works best – almost immediately. Use PPC to test various new ideas and tweak your SEO accordingly.
5. Lengthen Your Marketing Funnel
The more familiar people are becoming with using search engines, the more diverse their reasons for doing so.
Take time to nurture prospects during the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey using an appropriate blend of SEO and PPC efforts.
6. Draw your audience a picture
As part of your search plan, make sure to include images and videos to keep up with the increasingly visual nature of Google. Keep your visual content consistent in SEO and PPC.
7. Leverage Ad Extensions
Take advantage of callouts, structured snippets, and other ad extensions – such as Google’s beta “Curbside pickup” badge – to share extra information about your products and services.
8. Add to Google
As Amazon and Walmart’s advertising improves, you may want to spread your e-commerce budget across all retailers and search engines – adjusting as their ROI becomes evident.
9. Avoid Google
Consider how you can optimize your PPC spend and SEO efforts with alternatives to Google. Specialist search engines are slightly less competitive as they already have built-in customer intent. Video search engines are increasingly gaining popularity – an exciting way to showcase what you have to offer.
10. Make the Most of Automation
Wouldn’t it be awesome to get real-time insights in the face of such an unsure time? Automated rules and AI smart bidding for PPC does just that with a flexible solution to boost your SEO and PPC strategy.
If you are looking for a holistic approach to increase online leads and sales, WSI OMS can help. Contact us for more information today.
by Marelise da Silva | Oct 7, 2020 | SEO
It’s easy to say that SEO has the ability to distinguish your product or service. But it’s all about keeping your finger on the pulse to know all there is to know about the latest nuances and strategies that might give you the edge to get onto people’s radar.
How do you improve your SEO?
First things first, go and look at your competition to see what they’re doing. Now that you know what’s out there and what has ranked in the SERP – improve on it or create a fresh angle that might be more relevant. Also take time to put extra effort into your content design before you consider content marketing (nobody likes spending time on an ugly site or browsing content that isn’t visually appealing). Try to think of the search intent of a person who you want to come across your content – the closer the match between your content and their intent, the higher your rankings will be.
A link building strategy will definitely benefit SEO, as you’ll be guaranteed to get extra hits on your content. You want to create high quality backlinks through your content marketing, which can be done through being a guest on a podcast or a guest blogger – get yourself associated with credible platforms. Roundups have become a valuable backlink for organic traffic, so search for roundups in your industry and pitch your content to see whether you can be included in one of these lists.
Do keep your site’s on-page SEO streamlined. Shorten your URLs to get higher rankings on Google and spend some time to link internally between pages on your site. If you’re looking for a digital marketing agency to optimise your SEO for your online success, contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Oct 2, 2020 | Link-building, SEO
Building good links is not easy, but definitely still worthwhile. We all remember the days before Google started to clamp down on link building in 2012, when generating traffic off other websites could be done without too much effort. But being in an era where customers are sensitive to brand endorsement, link building is now more vital than ever before and certainly not dead.
Why link building still matters
Link building is still crucial to any SEO strategy. If you want to create valuable backlinks, white hat SEO is the way to go. You will rank higher on SERPs if you curate backlinks from sites that are considered to be credible, as domain authority is vital to ranking in Google’s algorithm.
Social media marketing has become a mecca for link building, as one influential person sharing your content could lead to thousands of impressions and traffic. But you’ll strike the jackpot if you’re getting that content published or mentioned in other articles – because just like that, you have the potential of creating a valuable backlink to your site. If you’re generating highly engaging content or speaking to your identified audience, thousands of people could be sharing your links, and in turn, be doing the link building for you.
When it comes to content marketing, always ask yourself what you can do to be different or better. Hundreds of people could already have created content on your topic, so look at theirs and improve on it. By being better and different in your approach, your content will be considered to be fresh and more likely to be picked up when pitching your ideas. You can create and achieve backlinks through simple (albeit somewhat time-consuming) tactics, such as manual outreach to others in your industry to see whether they would want to feature your content, or by being a guest on a podcast, or even by getting in touch with website owners with broken links.
If you want more advice from a digital marketing agency on effective link building strategies, contact WSI OMS today.
by Marianna Muscat | Aug 25, 2020 | SEO
Due to the popularity of our previous blog post on SEO tips, we’ve created a part 2 to provide you with even more relevant, actionable advice to drive organic traffic to your blog. Here’s what you need to know.
Link to your own content
If you have a lot of valuable information to share about a specific industry, niche or subject, make it easy for readers to find everything they could need with internal links that are organised in a hub and spoke model. Let’s suppose that you’re writing about gardening. You may have already created a library of useful content that your readers could find valuable. Now go through your posts and see if you can link words or concepts in one post to others, for example: if you’re writing about “water-saving plants” it could form your hub, and you could link to other articles like “caring for succulents” or “ground coverings that keep your soil moist” as spokes.
The idea is to keep your reader on your site as long as possible by providing them with content they want to consume in a way that is easy to navigate. This will help Google to see that your content is relevant and useful and can help to boost your page ranking.
Keep your content updated
It’s incredibly annoying to find a great resource that answers your question only to realise that the source is out of date. Revisit your content often and update it so that it remains relevant and applicable to your audience for as long as possible. Update broken links and add new information if you can – this also allows you to tell your audience that your great resource is now even better, which leads us to the next tip.
Repurpose your content
Be sure to get the most out of your content by adapting it to be suitable for different formats and platforms. Your audience members may come from a variety of different sources, so you need to make it available for as many people as possible. Unfortunately, this means that you will have to put some work into adapting it for different purposes. Although it takes a little longer, it will give your content the best possible chance of getting seen, which will indicate to Google that your content is valuable for a broader audience.
Let people know about your content
In addition to your regular audience from social media and newsletter sign-ups, you also want to reach a broader audience in your network. You can do this by letting people know that you’ve mentioned them or their resources in your writing. You can even go a step further and reach out to people who have written about the same topic or who have linked to articles that cover your topic. This can help you to create a network of writers and websites in your niche, something that you can further use to improve your organic traffic.
Share your knowledge
If you’ve got unique insights, experience and expertise in your industry or niche, you can create more organic traffic to your blog by sharing your knowledge on someone else’s platform. If you’ve built a network of like minded writers, reach out to them and offer to create a guest blog for their website.
You can find guest writing opportunities in your field by searching for blogs and websites who accept guest posts and pitching your content to them. Search for “guest blog” and your niche or “write for and your niche. Then look up any details they might have for accepting pitches and be sure to follow their guidelines for the best chance at getting your writing accepted.
For more resources on SEO, blogging and digital marketing, visit WSI OMS website and click on “blog” to access our library of articles.
