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Author: Bengü Sarıca Dinçer As an SEO expert, I’ve witnessed firsthand the power of backlinks to propel websites to the top of search engine results pages. However, it’s not enough to acquire backlinks once and assume they will continue to benefit your website indefinitely. The quality, relevance, and status of your backlinks can change over time and failing to monitor them can hurt your SEO. By regularly monitoring your backlinks, you can identify potential issues and remedy them before they impact your search visibility—or as a way to showcase your success to stakeholders. Although there are probably hundreds of SEO tools, Google Sheets’s flexibility makes it handy for many SEO applications—particularly for backlink monitoring (and especially for those working with a tight budget). To get started with the process I developed, you’ll also need a data source (i.e., Google Analytics 4 ) to pair with Google Sheets. Once I show you how to connect these two elements, you’ll be able to reference your quantity of backlinks, specific target pages, their referring domains, and their statuses (follow/nofollow)—all from one Google Sheet, and for free if you’re willing to put in a few minutes of work. Table of contents: Why use Google Sheets for backlink monitoring? How to set up Google Sheets for efficient, up-to-date backlink monitoring Automating the backlink monitoring process Troubleshooting common issues Why use Google Sheets for backlink monitoring? You could simply track your backlinks using a third-party SEO tool or within Google Analytics, but chances are you’re going to export that data into a Sheet or Excel file to work with or report on later anyway. And, Google Sheets is flexible and free, making it far more accessible and ultimately likely to save you time. Here’s how that flexibility and freedom play out in an SEO setting: Unlike dedicated SEO tools that generally require paid subscriptions, Google Sheets only requires a Google account. This makes it an appealing option for those on a limited budget (while maintaining effective backlink monitoring capabilities). Even for businesses with a generous SEO budget, you might still need to show a proof of concept before you can ask for a sliver of that budget for more paid tools. While dedicated SEO tools provide extensive features and additional data, they generally come at a significant cost. These tools are designed for in-depth SEO analysis, typically encompassing far more than backlink monitoring. However, if your primary focus is monitoring and managing backlinks, Google Sheets can offer a free, collaboration-friendly alternative without compromising essential monitoring capabilities . Google Sheets enables you to import backlink data from various sources, including Google Analytics, Google Search Console , other SEO tools, or manually. Once you import your data, you can leverage Google Sheets’ functions, formulas, and formatting options to organize and analyze the information. This is crucial because, while you may monitor backlink data directly via a third-party tool or GA4, it’s not always easy to analyze it within those platforms—especially if you need to cross-reference other data points. As a cloud-based application, Google Sheets allows you to access your backlink monitoring data from any device with an internet connection. This enables you to monitor your backlinks even on the go and facilitates easy collaboration with other team members. This particular feature might be appreciated by professionals that compulsively check their backlink profile every time they launch a new product, publish a new blog post or press release, etc. How to set up Google Sheets for efficient, up-to-date backlink monitoring This workflow process involves exporting backlink data (either from GA4 or another SEO tool; but for this article, I’m sticking to just GA4) and setting up a Google Sheet as a shareable, easy-to-reference resource for more efficient backlink monitoring and collaboration. 01. Create a new Google Sheet to store your backlink data Start by visiting Google Drive (you’ll need to log into your Google account). Next, create a fresh spreadsheet to manage your backlink data. For those unfamiliar with Google Sheets: Click the + New button and select “Google Sheets” from the dropdown menu. Then, give the spreadsheet a title (the title doesn’t matter for this workflow). 02. Import your backlink data into Google Sheets from GA4 One of the easiest ways to export backlink data from Google Analytics is by using a Google Sheets extension. I prefer SyncWith’s GA4 Google Analytics add-on for this purpose because it’s free and allows me to automatically refresh the data within the Google Sheet via a scheduling option. To get started, first, install the extension by clicking here or by navigating to it from within the Google Sheet you just created: 1. Click Extension on the toolbar at the top of your Google Sheet and then select Get add-ons . 2. Next, search for [GA4 Google Analytics add-on] in the Google Workspace Marketplace pop-up window. Find the one by SyncWith (which is what I’ll use for this backlink monitoring technique) and install it. Then, connect your Google Analytics account by allowing the required permissions. 3. Now, in the top toolbar, go to Extensions>GA4 Google Analytics addon by SyncWith>Launch sidebar . 4. Select Google Analytics v4 as your connection. 5. Finally, fill in the required fields for the data you want to export. Report title: The new Sheet tab to which backlink data will be exported (by default, the text in the field reads “Untitled report,” as shown above). Don't use any spaces between words in the title to ensure your Google Sheets formulas work properly. For the Google Sheets formulas I use in this article to work properly, title your report “LinkingPages”. Select a login: Select your GA4 account. Select a Google Analytics v4 property: Choose the property you want to export backlink data for. Time period: Choose from options on the dropdown window to list links from a specific time period on your website. Fields: Select the following — “Page referrer” to show the source page that linked to your web page “Landing page” to see which of your web pages received the backlink from the source page “Date” to see when your web page got the backlink “Sessions” as a metric Sort: Select “Page referrer.” Dimension Filters: You can use these fields to eliminate sources you do not follow as backlinks. For example, I filtered out links from search engines such as Google and Bing because search engines are organic traffic sources for us, not referrals. Update mode: “Replace contents of sheet” will overwrite all backlinks in your current Sheet when your data automatically updates. “Append rows to end of sheet” adds new backlinks to the bottom of your current Sheet when your data automatically updates. “Update or add rows as needed” is the option I prefer, because it helps prevent backlinks from being listed more than once. As an example, here’s what the GA4 add-on with the desired parameters looks like: Click the Next button to set up your automatic reporting schedule. 6. You can set the report to automatically refresh: Daily Weekly Monthly Hourly Every five minutes I find that daily updates are sufficient for my situation. While there are other options on this screen (“Status row” and “Insert location”), it’s not necessary to change them for this example. 7. Hit the Insert button and voilà! The add-on starts exporting your backlink data from your Google Analytics property. This process should take a few minutes to complete. After the data finishes exporting, you should see your backlinks list in the new Sheet (that you titled “LinkingPages” at the first step of working with the GA4 add-on). 03. Customize your backlink monitoring spreadsheet In order to make the data we imported more meaningful, we need to create a new spreadsheet and customize it with some columns and formulas. The starting point here should be what the spreadsheet needs to monitor. Here are the basic columns you’ll need to create for your backlink monitoring spreadsheet: Linking pages: These are the pages linking to yours (which we already had a list of in our “LinkingPages” tab). Enter the following formula into the cell below the “Linked pages” column (A2): =( LinkingPages!A3 ) The “LinkingPages” part of the formula references data from the LinkingPages tab. So, if you give your sheet a different title, you should write the corresponding sheet title in the formula instead. The second part in the formula, “A3,” refers to the first cell of the source page (data exported from Google Analytics via the add-on). To apply the formula to the other cells below, hold the blue dot at the bottom-right corner of the first cell you entered the formula in and drag it to the cells beneath. You will repeat this process for each column. Linking page titles: This refers to the linking page’s title tag , which can help you get a better idea about the content on the referring page. To gather this info, use this formula on the first cell of this column (B2): =IMPORTXML( A2 , "//title" ) Apply the formula to the other cells below by dragging the blue dot at the bottom-right corner of the cell you entered this formula in. Target pages: This refers to your web pages that receive the backlink. Enter the following formula into the cell below the “Target pages” column to extract URLs from the “Landing page” column of the “LinkedPages” report sheet. Important: Enter your own domain name instead of “https://domain.com” in the formula. =ARRAYFORMULA( "https://domain.com" & LinkingPages!B3 ) Apply the formula to the other cells in that column as needed. Lost status: This allows you to see whether you still have a backlink on the referring page (or, alternatively, have lost the link). Use this formula on the first cell of this column: =iferror(importxml( A2 , "(//a[contains(@href, '" & $C2 & "')]/@href)[1]"),"No link" ) Apply the formula to the other cells in that column as needed. Nofollow status: This is where we can see if the backlink has a nofollow tag . Use this formula on the first cell of this column: =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH( "nofollow" ,LOWER(IMPORTXML( A2 , "(//a[contains(@href, ’" & $C2 & "’)]/@rel)[1]" )))), "Yes","No" ) Again, apply the formula to the other cells in that column as needed. To give you an idea of how the final spreadsheet looks, look at this example I created for QRCodeDynamic, a dynamic QR code generator —one of the micro-projects I’ve been working on. You can customize the spreadsheet with additional columns (such as for Domain Rating, your own notes, etc.), but that will be a manual process. With your Google Sheets backlink document set up and your data imported, you’re now ready to automate the monitoring process so that you can reference the most up-to-date data and get notified of any changes to your backlink profile. Automate the backlink monitoring process At this point, you have a spreadsheet (showing your backlinks and their current statuses) that is scheduled to update at the frequency you specified during configuration. But, it needs a few last touches to ensure that it always shows the most up-to-date data. Automatic data recalculation By default, whenever changes are made to the underlying data, Google Sheets automatically recalculates formulas and functions. However, for larger spreadsheets or complex calculations, automatic recalculation can sometimes cause performance issues or slow down the responsiveness of your Google Sheets document. To make the process flawless, click Settings from the File tab’s dropdown menu in your Sheet’s top toolbar. Then, in the Calculation > Recalculation section of the window that opens, select “On change and every minute,” and save the setting. This should ensure that your formulas recalculate whenever there’s a change in the data. For example, a change regarding nofollow status in a cell should trigger a recalculation on the spreadsheet. Email updates about new backlinks How can you keep tabs on whether there’s been a change in your spreadsheet (e.g., gaining or losing a backlink)? A lot of different solutions can notify you of these changes, but for the purpose of this article, I’m going to use Make.com (freemium). With a simple scenario consisting of only Google Sheets and Gmail modules, you can get notified of every change to your monitoring spreadsheet via email. To configure the scenario, choose Google Sheets as the starting module and select “Watch Changes” from the menu. After connecting your Google Sheets with Make.com, choose Gmail as the second module and select “Send an email” from among the options. After connecting your Gmail account, you can define the title and content of the email that will be sent to you after changes occur on your backlink monitoring spreadsheet. Troubleshooting common Google Sheets backlink monitoring issues Even with the most streamlined backlink monitoring processes and advanced tools, it’s not uncommon to encounter a few bumps along the road. In this section, I will mention some common issues that may arise during this process and provide tips for troubleshooting and resolving them. Performance issues: Google Sheets becomes slow or unresponsive, especially when working with a large amount of backlink data or complex calculations. To solve this issue, consider working with smaller data ranges. This can help improve performance by reducing the amount of data being processed. In addition, disabling unnecessary add-ons can also help to improve performance. Formulas are returning errors or incorrect results: To handle this, double-check the syntax of your formulas. Even a minor error can lead to incorrect calculations. Also, ensure that the cell references in your formulas are accurate and point to the correct data range. Incorrect references cause formulas to return incorrect results. In addition, keep in mind that sometimes a linked page may not use an element written in the formula. For example, the formula we set to find the title element for the page title column will return an error if the linked page does not have a title tag. Data discrepancies: If you notice inconsistencies between the data in Google Sheets and the actual data from your data source (i.e., GA4), ensure that you’ve configured your spreadsheet correctly. Incorrect settings can lead to mismatched or incomplete data. Automated backlink monitoring—not automated digital marketing Whether you’re automating your backlink monitoring using my process or a third-party SEO tool, the data is just URLs and words in spreadsheet columns until you make it work for your SEO. Consider how your link-building efforts factor into your business’s overall goals. If you haven’t already, clearly define your objectives. Determine what specific metrics or insights you want to gather from the data. This will help you structure your monitoring approach and focus on the most relevant aspects of your backlink profile. To that end, you should also establish a baseline for your backlink profile before initiating any link-building campaigns. This baseline will be a reference point for future analysis and enable you to contextualize changes and progress over time. Now, give my backlink tracking template a try to discover insights that can help drive your website’s search visibility over time. Best of luck! Bengü Sarıca Dinçer - SEO Team Lead at Popupsmart Bengü is the SEO team lead at Popupsmart, where she consistently seeks innovative strategies to enhance website performance, increase organic rankings, and maximize conversion rates. She also enjoys staying up-to-date on the latest developments in the SEO world. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Cari O’Brien For years, website optimization strategies for digital marketing tended to focus solely on gaming the search engines to show up high on results pages: Find the right keywords or phrases, write copy incorporating those phrases into your pages, and you’ll probably rank well enough to bring in the traffic you desire. But, search engines and digital marketing best practices have matured—ranking well is now only part of the equation (remember, you don’t just want people to go to your site, you want them to convert). You need your audience to click through to your content; you need to keep them engaged. Once engaged, you need to move them from website visitor to customer. One of the most successful ways to do this across all steps is to create clear, consistent brand messaging. After all, if you’re not creating these kinds of experiences for your potential customers, your competitors will. In this article, we’re going to discuss how to create brand messaging to boost your web content for increased clicks and conversions. Specifically, we’re going to cover: A brief history of SEO content The role of branding and how it impacts search The brand messages you need to communicate to your audience The brand attributes you need to define and follow Where and how to incorporate your brand messaging for the greatest impact What’s past is prologue: A brief history of SEO content The early days of search marketing were a bit like the wild west, where anything went and most tactics—questionable or otherwise—worked at claiming top rankings. SEOs went after whatever could rank. The content had to follow suit, incorporating whatever those keywords were in formulaic ways . For instance, in 2008, I recall receiving strict instructions from my employer about which keywords needed to show up where, how many times they were to show up, the different ways to format said phrases, and so on and so forth. There was little room for creativity and limited focus on branded voice. I found myself having to convince clients to approve content that sounded spammy, was overly structured, and had zero personality. Thankfully, Google got smart and began cracking down on thin content, illicit SEO techniques, and more. Google updated its algorithm to reward quality content, starting with its Panda and Penguin updates and leading to more recent changes like the Helpful Content Update . This focus on quality content means you need to do more than simply identify and incorporate keywords and phrases that matter to you. You need to deliver content based on a holistic strategy. Your content needs to be reader-focused , delivering value to help the reader answer their query or resolve their problem. Moreover, with all your competitors vying for your audience’s attention, your content needs to sound unique. You need to stand out. That’s where branding comes in. The role of branding and how it impacts search To stand out online, you have to stand for something. You must have a clear message that’s all your own. With a well-defined brand, you can maximize the performance of your SEO content thanks to these three benefits of branded content: Personality in content attracts attention in search results. Valuable content gets more social shares. Branded copy creates a stronger connection with website visitors, leading to increased conversions and greater customer “stickiness.” Remember that a brand is more than a logo. It’s more than a tagline. It’s the combination of visuals and words you use to communicate who your company is to the public. That said, branding isn’t exactly how you present yourself—it’s how the public perceives you. Your best bet in shaping that perception is consistency in branding across all channels, from video to web content and phone conversations to email marketing. To create this consistency, you need to get clear on the messages you want to communicate to your audience. The brand messages you need to communicate to your audience There are three critical brand messages you need to define to best connect with your audience: brand story, brand values, and what I like to refer to as “superpowers.” In addition to a detailed explanation of each of these components, I’ve included three real-life examples so you can see how and why these messages work. 01. Brand story Storytelling has gained a lot of ground in content marketing, and for good reason. Research has shown that a compelling story increases oxytocin and cortisol levels in a reader’s brain. This, in turn, pulls in the reader, taps into their empathy, and keeps them engaged to see what happens next. If your brand can tell a story that taps into your audience’s minds and hearts, you’ll build a valuable, long-lasting connection. You’ll not only have a hook to pull them in, but you’ll encourage them to keep coming back for more. To be effective, your brand story needs to be the living, breathing backbone of your business. It needs to incorporate your company’s history, mission, and vision. This will require you to go beyond facts, dates, and basic “what we do” statements. Like any good story, your brand story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Let’s review what each part of your story should include before looking at a few brilliant examples of brand stories in action. The beginning Your company has an origin. This is your “why”: why you started your business, what problem you were looking to solve with it, and why your company needs to exist to address that problem. The middle Here, you share the “what” and “how” of your company. This section covers the nuts and bolts of your business, including a description of your products or services and how you deliver them. It also begins to incorporate the “who”: your staff, partners, customers, and anyone else who has a role to play. The end As a business in progress, you won’t ever actually end your story. Instead, you will paint a future for your company. Share that future with your customers and, most importantly, help them see the important role they play in it. Your brand story is your foundation. Get your foundation right and you’ll be able to create search-optimized content that grabs attention and keeps your audience engaged. Brand story example: TOMS Shoes Blake Mycoskie founded TOMS on one simple idea: to give away a pair of shoes for every pair purchased. This idea grew from his personal experiences traveling to Argentina, where he saw innumerable children running around barefoot. His personal passion turned into a global brand, allowing TOMS customers to build philanthropy into their everyday lives. Now, thanks to its expansive growth and continued success, TOMS is able to give one-third of its profits to grassroots efforts. TOMS also paved the way for companies to follow its novel “One for One” philanthropic business model. Brand story example: Airbnb Airbnnb started out as three roommates turning a small space in their apartment into a bed-and-breakfast by simply filling up an air mattress and welcoming strangers into their home. From that seemingly absurd idea grew a community and business built on connecting guests and hosts, and ensuring that anyone can “ belong anywhere .” This idea gained traction quickly, catapulting Airbnb to new heights and successes. Brand story example: GoldieBlox GoldieBlox became an overnight sensation after winning a free SuperBowl commercial spot. Why? Because it offered a new way of thinking about shopping for gifts for girls. This thinking came from its founder’s personal experience of being the only woman in an engineering program—an experience that immediately connected with myriad women across the US. The GoldieBlox website says it best, “it became clear that Debbie wasn't just starting a company - she was starting a movement.” 02. Brand values Are you clear on your company’s brand values? If not, now’s the time to get clear, because consumers’ purchase decisions rely more and more on principles and values. “66% of consumers in the U.S. make purchase decisions based on values.” — Ipsos Global Trends Report, November 2021 The consumer preference to support brands with values that reflect their own means your company should clearly (and frequently) share its values across all channels (i.e., your website, display ads, newsletters, social media posts, etc). Your values are what drive your mission and purpose. Recall what I said earlier: To stand out online, you need to stand for something. Your values are what allow you to stand out. Brand values exercise If you’ve not yet defined your values, here’s a simple exercise for you and your team to complete together (shared here with permission from a previous business coach of mine). Step one: Brainstorm. Ask yourself and your team the question, “What matters most to our business?” Write down all the words and phrases that everyone shares. This is simply the information-gathering stage. Step two: Keep going. When the room gets quiet, take a few minutes’ break. Encourage folks to get up, take a short walk, get a beverage, whatever. Shake up the situation to get the brain moving in a different direction. Then, come back together and ask the same question again. Write down anything new that comes to mind. Step three: Turn inwards. Now’s the time for everyone to review all of what’s been shared. Sit quietly for five-to-ten minutes, consider everything already shared, and seek to fill any remaining gaps. My coach liked to play music with a positive message to help get the brain working in yet another way. Do whatever makes sense for your team during this time. Step four: Ask for additions one more time. See if, after that introspective period, anyone has anything new to add to your list. If they do, add them. If not, that’s ok, too. Step five: Cluster your words and phrases. Work together to consolidate similar items together. This will help shorten your list, which is imperative before you hit step six. Step six: Narrow your list to your top three-to-five values. Why so few? Because you and your team will need to know these values inside and out moving forward. Focus on making your list meaningful and manageable. Here are a few examples of brands with clear values and a commitment to transparent communication about them. Brand values example: Bombas Following in TOMS’s footsteps is Bombas, another clothing brand focused on the one-for-one model: give away a piece of clothing for every piece purchased. Randy Goldberg and David Heath, founders of Bombas, first focused their company on socks, as they heard that socks were the number-one requested item at homeless shelters. The passion for helping the homeless connected with customers, growing Bombas into a company that now also offers other clothing items of great need, including underwear, t-shirts, and slippers. Brand values example: WeWork It’s no secret that WeWork has come under fire in the past. But, it’s making a strong comeback, in large part due to its recommitment to its core values (“Do The Right Thing; Give Gratitude; Strive To Be Better, Together; Be Human, Be Kind; Be Entrepreneurial”). These values can be seen in the ads it puts out, the welcome customers receive when walking into one of their many locations, and the way it embraces its employees. This is a great example of a brand making its values public and then ensuring it holds itself accountable to those values to build trust with its customers. Brand values example: Marriott International, Inc. Marriott is another brand that does a phenomenal job of showcasing and defining its values (“We Put People First, We Pursue Excellence, We Embrace Change, We Act with Integrity, We Serve Our World”). One of the most wonderful ways it puts its values into action is by showcasing the stories of its employees . Marriott refers to its employees as “the heart of the house,” and highlights the many ways the individuals behind the business are what make Marriott so successful. That builds brand loyalty like no other. Share your values Remember to share your values with your company and audience. Then be sure to live those values in person and online every day. This will place you in a prime position to make authentic connections with your customers. Authentic connections lead to real conversations, which lead to conversions. To help those conversions along, you’ll want to pair your values (what you stand for) with your competitive advantages (your “superpowers”). Let’s dive into those next. 03. Superpowers The fact of the matter is, you are not your competition. The best way to showcase this is to define and communicate your competitive advantages; what I like to call your “superpowers.” Often referred to as your market differentiators, unique selling propositions (USPs), or unique value propositions (UVPs), your superpowers encompass a combination of several elements that make you unique. For instance, they can include a mixture of any of the following: Experience Service quality Education Training Personality Guarantees Values Etc. Expand beyond this list; it’s really just a starting point. You have certain attributes that fully distinguish you from your competition. And, if there’s something you have that overlaps with a competitor? Well, if you own the conversation and you frame it well, then you own that superpower in your audience’s minds (e.g., Patagonia isn’t the only philanthropic clothing brand, but it’s likely the most well known). Identify your superpowers and you’ll have your key competitive advantages ready to use in your brand promise, position statement, elevator pitch, and throughout the rest of your marketing copy. Superpower example: Warby Parker Warby Parker’s superpowers lay in its focus on affordability and ease of buying a new pair of prescription eyeglasses. Based on the beliefs that eyeglasses are too expensive and that everyone deserves to see, Warby Parker disrupted the market. It did so through two of its biggest USPs: You get frames for as low as $95, and you can test out five different frames at home for five days for free before making a decision. This company also follows TOMS’s lead—every pair purchased equals a pair donated. Superpower example: Whole Foods Whole Foods started as a single organic food market focused on selling products that met strict “standards for colors, flavors and preservatives.” Today, Whole Foods is a national chain known for its broad array of organic foods, responsible sourcing, and sustainable practices. Its solid foundation in organic food and partnership with Amazon make Whole Foods a go-to national retailer for consumers. Superpower example: Canva In 2013, Canva upended the graphic design world by creating a platform that makes it easy for anyone to design and publish anything, anywhere. From pre-created templates to thousands of designs, images, fonts, elements, and more, Canva is a fully-packaged tool that comes with both free and paid offerings. The ease of use, from signing up for an account to creating a brand new design, sets Canva in its own category. You are uniquely you. Your business is uniquely yours. Take some time to lay out your superpowers. With them in hand, you’ll be able to confidently answer your audience’s question, “Why should I choose you?” The brand attributes you need to define and follow Two brand attributes work together to bring your business to life: voice and tone. They define your brand’s personality and drive your approach to content creation. Let’s talk about what each is and how to define them for your company. 01. Voice Put simply, your brand voice is your brand’s personality. It’s what allows you to start building a connection between your company and your customer. Remember, connections are what drive conversions. To define your brand voice, brainstorm with your team the many personality traits that your company expresses. Is your brand witty? Courageous? Empathetic? Bold? Sarcastic? Helpful? Sophisticated? If you’re uncertain about which characteristics best define your brand, run through the exercise listed in the brand values section (above). If possible, include external stakeholders in this conversation, too. For instance, you can survey your current and past customers to understand how your brand voice comes across to individuals outside your company. Brand voice example: Mailchimp Mailchimp has a well-defined voice , which focuses on being the “experienced and compassionate business partner,” educating through “off-beat humor and a conversational voice.” You hear this voice shining through in all its content, from its marketing emails to its step-by-step instructions in its resource center. A big driver of Mailchimp’s success in maintaining such a consistent voice is its well-defined content style guide that it shares with all its content creators. Brand voice example: Panda Planner Panda Planner’s voice, which originates from its founder and his personal journey, is supportive, engaging, and compassionate. For small companies, it’s quite common to adopt the voice of its leader. This goes to show that even solo and small ventures can create a unique voice simply by looking to its key people for inspiration. Brand voice example: SPI Spend any time reading the copy on the SPI website or its email newsletters (or listening to any of its podcasts), and you’ll quickly identify the unique attributes of SPI’s voice: service, gratitude, and heart. This voice has been with SPI since its founder’s humble beginnings as a podcaster. Pat Flynn has since built an online empire, growing his team and expanding his company’s offerings. Through it all, this core voice has remained steadfast and true. 02. Tone Approximately 95% of customer purchases stem from emotional decisions (not logical ones), according to Harvard Business School Professor Gerald Zaltman. This means your marketing must tap into the emotions of your audience to connect and convert. That’s where tone comes into play. Tone is the combination of your writing style and the emotions you want to evoke in your audience. In concert, these two help to craft an experience and an environment that draws in audiences and makes them more comfortable with your brand. How you write and the emotions you target require you to first understand your primary audience. For instance, baby boomers require a different content style and emotional approach than Gen Z’ers. Get clear on your ideal customer and you’ll quickly be able to identify how to approach your writing style and which emotions to target. The best way to understand this is to see it in action. Here are a few examples to help you clarify your brand’s tone. Brand tone example: Dove Dove stands out as a brand that has set a new standard for tone in marketing. Through its messaging , Dove connects with its audience via a tone characterized by confidence, inspiration, authenticity, and sincerity. This comes through in its copy and imagery, fully embracing what it is that makes each woman beautiful. In a world where beauty has traditionally been narrowly defined, this message connects strongly on an emotional level, affirming women for who they are and not selling what they should be. Brand tone example: Nike A brand’s tone will often change based on the situation at hand. Nike, however, has found a way to bring a consistent tone to all of its marketing campaigns. That consistency centers around encouragement: From its “Just Do It” campaign to its approach to ads during the Coronavirus pandemic , Nike consistently pushes its customers to keep going. This encouragement is often paired with messages of inspiration and support featuring famous athletes , breaking barriers and connecting customers with their sports heroes on a more personal level. Brand tone example: Southwest Airlines Heart is at the center of Southwest; it shines through in its messaging with its customers, employees, partners, investors, and the broader community. Southwest put its tone on display in its publications when COVID-19 first became a worldwide pandemic—you can see it in full force in this letter from Southwest’s Vice President of Marketing and Digital Experiences, Bill Tierney. Heart isn’t the only aspect of tone that builds connection and loyalty with Southwest’s customers, however. Southwest also embraces personality and individuality, which is evident any time you board a Southwest flight and hear from an attendant. Humor and heart: these are absolutely two key tone attributes that help Southwest stand out from its competition. How to incorporate brand messaging for the greatest impact Your goal is to infuse your brand through all your messaging, because consistency is key. This means incorporating your brand messaging in a variety of locations, including your: Tagline/slogan Webpage copy Metadata (title tags, meta descriptions , alt text) Social media Email Video Virtual meetings Product descriptions This may feel overwhelming due to how many different touchpoints you potentially have with your audience—thankfully, it’s not as challenging as it sounds. Define the handful of items we’ve covered here, pull them all together into one brand guide ( Mailchimp’s content style guide is a great example), and share that guide with everyone on your team. This will ensure a cohesive approach no matter who’s creating content or where that content will live. Let’s look at a few companies that have successfully created a consistent brand across myriad locations, enabling them to build strong connections with their customers. Example: Apple Apple’s tagline to “think different” and its emphasis on quality and creating experiences have impacted all aspects of its marketing: You see it in its advertisements. You feel it in the packaging of its products. You experience it every time you open your MacBook or unlock your iPhone. It also shows in its employment practices and its commitment to inclusion and diversity . Regardless of how you interact with Apple, you immediately understand what makes it stand out from the rest. When you consider the many ways your products, services, or messaging can show up for your audience, ensure that they consistently employ your tone and voice guidelines to create strong brand recognition. Example: Coca-Cola From “Have a Coke and a smile,” to “Share a Coke,” to the holiday campaigns featuring polar bears or Santa Claus, Coca-Cola’s brand has consistently centered around the ideas of joy and bringing people together. It’s also the perfect brand to watch from a multichannel marketing perspective. Take, for example, the advertisements Coca-Cola ran during the 2012 Super Bowl featuring its iconic animated polar bears. The polar bears also took over the company’s Twitter account and had a website all their own that was a “live feed” of the bears watching the game. Example: Disney “It all started with a mouse.” From quoting Walt Disney in articles to paying homage to the first movies that made Disney a household name, it’s clear that one of Disney’s core values is never forgetting where you came from. At the same time, innovation is at the core of all Disney does, from its “imagineering” department in its theme parks to its animation styles in its movies to its toys that draw in fans of all ages. This balancing act of envisioning and planning for the future while honoring its past is something Disney does exceedingly well. In addition, Disney’s attention to the most minute details is what has garnered great acclaim across its products, parks, services, and leadership practices. All in all, Disney is the epitome of a brand to emulate when it comes to strong, cohesive marketing that crosses (and encompasses) all channels. Infuse your brand voice and tone into your content to better connect with audiences and increase conversions To be successful in organic digital marketing, you need to accept one truth: It’s no longer enough to optimize your content solely for top search rankings. Now, you must also optimize your content for customer connection. Remember, strong branding breeds strong connections. Strong connections set the stage for increased conversions. The higher your conversion rate, the more people you’ll be able to serve. In the end, you’re in business for a purpose. You’re here to serve that purpose to customers who need you. Connect with those customers through search-optimized, brand-focused messaging. Cari O'Brien - Chief Word Nerd & Founder at Custom Content Solutions Cari O'Brien is Founder and Chief Word Nerd at Custom Content Solutions , a digital content agency. She’s the creator of the Connection Copywriting Method and the online course, Write That Site. She’s a frequent speaker on branding and copywriting. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: Ashwin Balakrishnan If you ask 100 content and search marketers for the top three elements of a successful website, chances are “better content” shows up in most answers. Google even released a search algorithm update in 2022 called the helpful content update . For many marketers, the quest for better content is a dead-end thanks to vague definitions of what that content looks like. What we can agree on is that it takes balance to create content that has value and ranks. Address the problems your (potential) customers face, but also make it easy for search engines to understand what it’s about. Since every industry and business has its nuances, we’ll focus on the shared traits that make content better—and a few universal truths about the way they’re presented for search engines. Table of contents Three purposes your content should serve Hallmarks of a great content experience Examples of high-quality content in different formats What does “better” content mean anyway? It’s tough to define “better content” because there’s always some variance. One business might get better results with short-form videos , while another benefits from deeply researched white papers that run thousands of words. Instead of looking for a best practice, go where your audience is by building your content around the three purposes Ann Handley outlines in Everybody Writes : utility, inspiration, and empathy. - Utility means it helps an audience. Readers will read what we write only if something is in it for them - Inspired means it’s inspired by data or creatively inspired. Or both. - Empathy means we understand the reader’s point of view. Also: We make it easy to understand. We don’t make the reader work too hard. We take as long as we need to tell the story well. (The length of the content is dictated by the kind of content we’re creating.) —Ann Handley, Everybody Writes, 2nd Edition Boiling this down to even simpler terms, this means that you need to create content that’s helpful , unique , and connects to your audience. Let’s get more granular with each of these aspects of successful content so that you can use them to enhance your strategy. How to create content that’s helpful If utility is the easiest purpose to achieve, that’s because it’s the most superficial. It often is as simple as finding out what problems your customers want to solve and then producing content that shows them how. Truly helpful content has several second-order characteristics, including specificity, authority, and actionability. Specificity: When deciding what topics to address, being as detailed as possible will take you further. Trying to rank for best social media strategies might serve the purpose, but it isn’t as powerful as something that targets how to grow followers on Twitter . After all, long tail keywords account for the bulk of intent. Authority: Content is more likely to rank higher and carry weight with audiences when you involve subject matter experts. Your audience may perceive opinions from outside your business as objective, thus validating your ideas. As a bonus, subject matter experts often have sizeable audiences, which can help with reach beyond search if they also promote your content. Actionability: Content that sheds light on a problem often passes as acceptable. To rank highly and win hearts, aim to tell (or better yet, show) people how to solve it. It could be a detailed step-by-step video or a list of experiments to try. Either approach is better and more positive than just talking about what’s wrong. How to create content that’s unique Once you know what elements to incorporate to make your content helpful, it’s time to layer in something that helps it stand out. In most situations, you’re far from the only one trying to rank for a topic. Your audience doesn’t want to read or watch the same thing a dozen times, so what are you saying or offering that everyone else isn’t? Unique content comes in many forms—research, perspective, and visualization among them. Research: Original research is often the easiest way to make your content unique, but it’s not always simple. Research is expensive and time-consuming, but numbers are hard evidence of an idea; they carry more weight than any unsubstantiated claims. Allowing the data to speak lets you focus on interpreting what it means—a far more valuable pursuit for your business. Perspective: Known as “ the angle ” in journalism circles, a unique perspective on a topic is often all you need to stand out for the right reasons. Having an angle also allows you to boost specificity, making the content more relevant for your target audience. If you want to go deeper on how to take care of a monstera , for example, one angle might be how to take care of a monstera in cold climates . Visualization: Walls of text are eyesores and hinder user experience. People are visual creatures, and we respond better when ideas are presented as images. Data, graphics, and diagrams explain concepts faster and more effectively. If you plan to rank using the written word, invest similarly in the creativity and quality visuals to accompany them. How to create content that connects Just because your content is helpful and unique doesn’t mean it’ll resonate with audiences. Add a layer of empathy to your content to make a good impression on visitors—one that gives them reason to choose your brand over others. This is arguably the most difficult part, and while it begins with deeply understanding your audience, too many marketers stop at the surface. Once you’ve dived into the psychology of what your audience fear and crave, you can use that knowledge to make your content more relatable. Fear: I’ve had the opportunity to work with some brilliant strategic planners in my career, and every one of them has used fear to help craft brilliant communication. Headlines and titles are a great way to make that first connection by speaking to people’s problems, worries, and fears. The key is to do it subliminally and with a positive spin, speaking about solutions with the problems in the subtext. Motivation: Nearly all decisions are emotionally charged , so appealing solely to your audience’s logical side leaves room for others to create that emotional connection. People buy things because they want to escape a situation (push) or feel something (pull). If you want them to take notice of your content, give them a reason to believe that you can provide what they seek. Connection: There’s a difference between content that speaks at you and content that speaks to you. A conversational tone is good, but there’s more to framing your message in a way that makes people feel understood. Use their terminology, don’t be preachy or disparage their current situation, and carry yourself with the air of someone who wants to make things better. Curating a world-class content experience People don’t go to movie theaters just to watch a movie; they go for the reclining seats, the decadent snack bar, the immersive sound, the big screen. The method of consumption is as important as the product itself , which is why your content experience is make-or-break. It’s here that you make things both enjoyable for people and suitable for search. Fortunately, there’s plenty to do. Format: Content has different goals, including education, promotion, and conversion . The format you produce should match what your content seeks to achieve. Teaching someone how to fix a problem? A highly structured blog lends itself to instruction, especially if paired with a how-to video. Length: People are busy, so if you want them to actually consume and share what you create, it has to be digestible. Don’t record a 45-minute video to explain something that takes 10 minutes—we’ve all seen these, and we all hate them. Lead with value, get to the point quickly, and use only as much time and space as you need. UI: The way your content is displayed greatly impacts how it’s perceived. Third-party platforms like YouTube offer a consistent, uniform experience. But, if you’re hosting content on your website, make sure your layouts are readable, load quickly, and respond well on both web and mobile . UX: After visual appeal comes the enjoyability and ease of the experience itself. If you’re publishing on your own website, monitor core web vitals —loading time, interactivity, and visual stability. You should also pay attention to navigation, readability, and ease of access among other things . Discoverability: If people can’t find your content, then it likely doesn’t serve the audience or your brand. Ensuring that your content is easily discoverable by search engines means you’re helping them help your potential customers find answers. Achieve this with well-written titles, descriptions , and schema markups. Keep an eye on crawling and indexing after publishing, and build backlinks to grow authority. Accessibility: Among your audience, there will be people who cannot enjoy your content the same way you create it. Build accessibility into your content by subtitling your videos, adding alt text to images, avoiding stylized fonts and excessive emojis, and writing in simple language. Examples of better content in the wild Content comes in many shapes and sizes, so we picked five common ones. Here are examples of high-quality content for those formats and why they work. Blog post: Podia What it got right Helpful: Relevant advice from those who’ve achieved success Unique: Includes inputs from experts in Podia’s network Empathetic: Anchor links let you skip to what interests you Podia does all types of content exceptionally well (one of the hallmarks of a go-to-market strategy without a traditional sales component). Its blog is particularly good: Each article is easy to navigate, clearly explains the value and topics being discussed, and makes great use of Podia’s network of expert creators. You’d be hard pressed to find this level of content on any of Podia’s competitors’ sites. Product page: Notion What it got right Helpful: Shows how to use the product—not just what it does Unique: Generous images of the Notion interface put everything into context Empathetic: Speaks to the challenges of cross-functional collaboration Notion’s growth over the past few years has been one of the greatest stories in tech. While a good chunk of that success is because of funding, the company also nailed both the product itself and how it communicates its value. Rather than stuffing it with keywords, the copy clearly explains what teams can expect when using their product, supported by rich graphics that show you how different features look and feel. eCommerce site: Obvi What it got right Helpful: Products presented by need (e.g., anti-aging, weight loss, etc.) Unique: Customer reviews back what Obvi claims Empathetic: Site optimized for mobile (primary source of traffic) When it comes to eCommerce and direct-to-consumer marketing, brands win and lose revenue in a matter of seconds. Obvi’s landing page for its collagen-based protein powder does everything it needs to do—from showing the product and explaining who it’s for, to explaining why you should buy it and how much people love it. Anything a person might be interested in learning is a tap away. Learning resource: HubSpot What it got right Helpful: Explains what you can expect as outcomes Unique: Creative angle addresses social media beginners Empathetic: No attempts to sell HubSpot software In addition to creating great software for revenue teams, HubSpot has developed a reputation as a knowledgeable educator for marketers. One of its offers is a social media workbook leading to a HubSpot certification. The landing page for this asset explains the progression clearly, putting it beside a slew of benefits. Combined, it makes for a compelling offer that social media beginners will find hard to resist. Video: Solutions 8 What it got right Helpful: Clear titles with no false promises Unique: Eye-catching thumbnails Empathetic: Varied video duration Solutions 8 began investing in YouTube as a growth driver in 2022, and its business value is visible in the quality of its video library. Not only does everything look great when you land on the channel; the videos themselves are well-researched and address topics that are both relevant and lacking in quality content. Whether you’re David or Goliath, better content is within reach If creating better content were as easy as some people claim, we’d all be doing it. In reality, the bar is low—as it stands, nearly 91% of pages on the web get no traffic from search engines. Low-quality content is not just prevalent; it’s the norm. So, unless all of your competitors are running highly optimized websites—which not all of them are—consistent, patient investment in content and SEO can help you establish yourself as a user-first brand and catch up to or overtake your competitors. Ashwin Balakrishnan - Head of Marketing at Optmyzr Ashwin Balakrishnan is a B2B SaaS marketer specializing in organic growth, backlinks, and content SEO. He leads the marketing team at Optmyzr, where he hosts the Search Marketing Academy podcast. His personal backlink profile includes gaming, Lego, and electronic music. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: Geoff Kennedy The short answer is: no, you don’t need specialized tools to do SEO . But, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t use them. Armed with only an understanding of search engine optimization principles, I could sit down and optimize page copy, add some internal links to my site, and even run a campaign to drive backlinks . However, I could also use tools to help me do any one of those tasks, probably more efficiently, and possibly saving myself time. Additionally, there are some areas of SEO in which tools are essential to help you diagnose and resolve issues. There are some tasks that simply require a tool for technical analysis and to see things like Google does. But, tools come at a cost. Not only the obvious financial cost, but also the risk of distraction, or becoming overly reliant on what they tell us. This article will help you weigh out the pros and cons by examining: What we mean by “SEO tools” Why you should use SEO tools The potential pitfalls of SEO tools Assessing the value of SEO tools Free SEO tools So, do you really need tools to do SEO? What do we mean by “SEO tools?” What we’re talking about here are tools that are primarily considered SEO tools (not simply general purpose tools that can be used for SEO). These are the tools that you’d be unlikely to use unless you were doing some kind of SEO. For example, Google Sheets is a tool that I use daily for SEO. But I also use it for all sorts of other tasks—I wouldn’t consider it specifically an SEO tool. On the other hand, rank trackers, crawlers, and auditing tools are usually (but not always) designed specifically as SEO tools. There’s no definitive list of the types of SEO tools available (and if there was, it would be constantly growing). But, here are some of the the most common types you’ll encounter: Why you should use SEO tools I’ve already stated that you don’t need tools to do SEO, and I stand by that. There are many aspects of SEO that you can perform without a tool. But, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use them when they can help you: Save time Make sense of large datasets more easily Discover additional insights (often through third-party data) To summarize these points into a simple rule: You should use SEO tools when they help you work more efficiently and/or effectively. You might assume that this would always be the case. But in my experience, it isn’t. That’s why this article aims to help you navigate the pitfalls of using SEO tools and ensure you get the most out of them. The potential pitfalls of SEO tools For all the advantages that tools offer, there are some very real downsides that you need to be aware of in order to make proper use of them to grow your site’s organic visibility. Information overload With almost any tool, you’re going to be bombarded with data and recommendations, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Even when you’re familiar with a tool, it’s easy to get distracted. One minute you’re logging into Google Search Console (GSC) to check the canonical status of a URL, the next you’ve found yourself down a rabbit hole of search query reports. It happens all the time. The most important thing to remember is what you’re there for. Have a clear vision of what you’re trying to achieve, and keep focused on the task in hand. Try not to get distracted by all the bells and whistles a tool offers. We’ll look at how to handle those soon, in the “shiny new thing” section . Having a clear objective isn’t just important for avoiding information overload, it’ll also help you use tools more effectively. If you don't know where you are going, You’ll end up someplace else. — Yogi Berra Your priorities vs. your tools’ priorities Tools generally work on a set of best-practice SEO rules and a hierarchy of what's important. They use these criteria to prioritize their recommendations of what you should do. Sometimes, identifying high priority issues is fairly straightforward. For example, if an auditing tool detects that you’ve noindexed your whole website, or a content analysis tool identifies that you’ve not even mentioned your primary keyword on the page, these are both clearly high priority. This type of rule-based prioritization is useful, to a degree. But what these tools don't have is context —an understanding of what's important to you and your business, and what you’re trying to achieve. More often than not, assigning real priorities is much more nuanced than a set of rules. That said, here’s some tips to help: ✘ Avoid thoughtlessly following the priorities assigned by tool recommendations. ✘ Don’t assume that all recommendations provided by tools are worth implementing. ✔ Do sense check tool recommendations. ✔ Do prioritize actions yourself—use tool priorities as a starting point and layer on your own considerations. “Shiny new thing” syndrome There are always new tools to try. Some come and go. Others that stand the test of time regularly release new updates and features to tempt you. Although it’s good to keep up to date with what’s available, it’s important not to let them become a distraction. New tools make great procrastination fodder! To avoid “shiny new thing” syndrome, I recommend using some simple rules to structure your exploration: 01. Keep a list of tools that you want to try. 02. Schedule regular time to try new tools . I try to set aside an hour or two on Friday afternoons. 03. Prioritize your list based on your SEO objectives. There’s no point spending all of your time playing with fancy content tools if your next six months are going to be filled with technical audits! 04. Set tasks for yourself. Allow some time for exploring, but don’t just spend your time aimlessly. Either select a real task or make up a scenario to test the tool properly. Javascript rendering One of the benefits of certain tools is being able to look at a website the way Google (or rather Googlebot) does. But whatever tool you use, there’s no escaping the fact that you aren’t actually Google, and that can cause issues. Traditionally, web pages would consist of a page of code (mainly HTML) that Google would read. This is the same code that a tool would look at if you’re using an HTML crawler. Right-clicking the blank space on a webpage and selecting “View Page Source” (if you’re browsing with Chrome) enables you to see the code in all its glory. This used to mean you could easily view page code the same way Google would. For better or worse, those days are gone now, thanks to Google’s ability (and willingness) to render JavaScript. That means that Google doesn’t just see the response HTML (i.e., the code we can see on the page), it renders the JavaScript within it, too. In many instances, the response HTML might be identical to the rendered HTML. In other cases, the JavaScript may make small changes to elements of the page. And in extremes (albeit not uncommon), the website may rely completely on JavaScript rendering. The important thing to remember is that if you’re using an HTML crawler, what you can see might not be what Google renders. There is thankfully a relatively simple solution to this problem. Many SEO tools now offer JavaScript crawling. This aims to replicate how Google crawls, so you can see the same rendered HTML. JavaScript crawling is much more resource intensive—which makes it slower and more expensive. For that reason, most tools still default to HTML crawling, even if they are capable of JavaScript crawling. So, what’s the answer? 01. Always be aware of whether a tool is using HTML or JavaScript crawling. 02. If you spot anomalies between crawl data and what you can see on a page, try Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to view how Google renders the page. 03. Run spot checks using a JavaScript crawler to compare the response vs. rendered HTML. For a more in-depth explanation of why it’s important to consider rendering issues, have a look at this guide on comparing response and rendered HTML . Blocking Websites are generally built for users. Exceptions are made for the likes of Googlebot and other crawlers. And on the whole, most websites are happy to let most people (and bots) access them. But sometimes, when using tools—especially crawlers—to access a website, you’ll find that you’re just not wanted there. There are completely valid reasons why you might want to prevent bots from crawling your website . But, these reasons are usually associated with malicious behavior, so assuming you’re not doing anything naughty, you’re probably not the intended target of such measures. Regardless of whether you’re the intended target of blocking, you need to be aware of when and why it happens. Blocked tools One of the simplest reasons behind crawling issues is that a website owner has chosen not to let the bot of the tool in question crawl their website. This type of blocking could be done by user agent, or if it’s a cloud-based tool, the IP range the tool uses to crawl from. When this is the case, you might not be able to crawl the website at all. Assuming that you have a relationship with the website you’re trying to crawl, your best bet in this instance is to request to be whitelisted. This essentially means setting a rule (either on the firewall or server), to allow you to crawl the site with that particular tool. Blocking bad behavior Sometimes though, things are a little more personal (and maybe for good reason). Most SEOs at one time or another have been guilty of some overzealous crawling, resulting in a client’s website “falling over.” We’ve all been there, it’s a bit embarrassing, but a necessary learning experience. Even if the result isn’t as dramatic as the website going down completely, it can often result in server errors (which can in itself be misleading if you’re not aware of why they’re happening). Accident or not, this type of behavior can look an awful lot like a DoS (Denial-of-Service) attack. So inevitably, it’s becoming more and more common to encounter measures to protect against such behavior. Responsible crawling is the most important thing to remember here. This type of blocking is in place for good reason, so if you don’t want to fall foul of such measures, it’s best to play nicely. Most tools/crawlers will default to a reasonable speed, so the first step is to avoid substantially increasing those default settings. If that’s still too fast, there are usually settings available that will let you reduce the rate of your crawl . False positives/negatives If retrieving a webpage or crawling a site fails completely, it’s usually pretty obvious. But with partial or sporadic crawl failures, the effects are sometimes harder to recognize. The simplest version of this is when a tool cannot crawl a URL and therefore flags it as an error. The likes of links and canonical tags pointing to the page may also be reported as broken. In reality, Google may be able to crawl the page just fine, so the issues are only with your crawling and not genuine SEO issues. The flipside of this is that if a tool cannot properly crawl a page, it won’t be able to identify any issues within it. The lesson here is to not rely solely on one data source. Double check using other tools, and ideally go straight to the source (GSC) to see what Google can tell you about a page. Assessing the value of SEO tools Most of us do SEO to make money one way or another, whether that’s through improving the search presence of our own business or selling our SEO services to others. So, cost is inevitably a factor when it comes to choosing the tools we use. There’s no simple answer to how much you should spend, as it’s different for everyone. How much you should spend is dependent on what value it can bring to you and your current situation. Even with no budget, there’s very little that you can’t do when it comes to SEO work (in the next section, I talk specifically about free SEO tools ). With a combination of free tools and manual work, most tasks are achievable one way or another. However, it does come at a cost—primarily in the form of your time. This concept of time vs. monetary cost is essential when considering the value of any given tool. It’s also important to remember that value is different for everyone. For one person, spending $1000 on a particular tool might be a no-brainer, yet for another person even $50 for that same tool could present a completely unjustifiable cost. I’ve already talked about how you should have a clear purpose when it comes to selecting which SEO tools to use. Costing is another reason why that’s important, because if you know what you’re trying to achieve (and what that’s worth), you can work backwards to assess the value of tools. Essentially, you need to weigh the cost of the tool against the value of your time that it saves: That equation assumes that you’re already able to carry out the same task using only your own time and free tools. An alternative calculation might focus more on the value you can create by using the tool: Obviously these equations use simplified scenarios—costing is usually a bit more complex and often isn’t an exact science, but the same general principles apply. Free SEO tools I’ve already talked about the value of SEO tools in the previous section, and although we all love free stuff, free doesn’t always offer the most value. But, there are times when there simply is no budget available. Luckily, there’s always options available. Completely free There are some very talented SEOs out there, producing great tools, and sharing them completely for free. Sometimes these tools might just be a simple plugin or spreadsheet, but others are full-blown tools. Many of them even stack up against the paid alternatives. Occasionally, there is such a thing as a “free lunch,” and the SEO community is generally pretty great for sharing. But before you go diving in, there’s a few things to consider. Be aware Although it’s easy to be blasé when you’re not actually paying for something, it is important to apply a sensible level of caution in choosing which free tools to use—especially if you’re going to share data or connect accounts. Data security Many of the free tools you’ll see commonly used in the SEO community are created with genuinely altruistic intentions. Or at least only self-serving in so far as the creator uses their tool as a way to increase their profile. Even with these tools, you should check to ensure they’re keeping your (or your client’s) data safe, if the tool has access to it. Monetization “If something is free, you're the product .” - Richard Serra , 1973 Some tools, although free to users, are monetized in other ways—most commonly by using your data in one way or another. This may be as simple as allowing the creator to market a paid product or service to you. It could go as far as actively selling your data. Or, it could be something in between, like using data for research. This is especially relevant when you grant the tool access to the likes of Google Analytics or Google Search Console. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Any above-board tool should be clear on how it uses your data, and require you to agree to this when you sign up (of course we all read the small print, don’t we). Personally, I don’t usually have a problem with tools doing this as long as they’re up-front about what they’re doing. But you need to be aware and make your own judgments. Bad actors Lastly, there are inevitably some bad apples when it comes to free tools. Just like any other industry, where there is a demand (in this instance, for “free SEO tools”), there are nefarious actors that will try to capitalize on that demand in various dodgy ways. Simply put: unless you trust the tool and/or creator, don’t give access to your data, connect accounts, or install software. Stick to tool recommendations and creators that you trust. Some simple background checks on Google are usually enough to judge whether a tool is genuine. Share and give back to your favorite free tool creators It would be easy to over-emphasize the negatives, but it’s worth repeating that there are some genuinely amazing free tools out there. If you do use one, and get value from it, I’d strongly encourage that you give a little something back to the creator, especially if they’re an independent creator (as many are). A review, link, share on social media, or even just a message to say thank you is often much appreciated. Some also offer a “buy me a coffee” donation link too, where you can send a small monetary thank you. Freemium As well as being a horrible mashup of the words “free” and “premium,” freemium is a strategy used by tool creators to draw you in with a free product, with the eventual goal of leading you to purchase the paid premium version. Under this model, the free version usually either limits the features available to free users or has some kind of credit system that limits usage before needing to pay for more access (e.g., a keyword research tool might allow a limited number of free keyword searches per day). Similar to “completely free” tools, there are some genuine gems out there that offer great features even to free users. Where most free plans tend to reach their limitations is when you need to scale up. Many tools limit by number of URLs or number of keywords. So, you may be fine working with smaller sites, or samples and segments, but if you want to go big, you’ll usually need to pay. Sometimes there are workarounds for these limits, often in the form of using samples or segments (as I’ve already mentioned). However in most instances, when you reach that point, you’d get more value from the paid version of the tool, especially considering the time you’d spend on workarounds. Free trials Lastly, we have free trials—obviously, these come with some pretty clear limitations. Typically they’ll last somewhere between a week and a month, depending on the tool. Due to the short-term nature of free trials (yes, most have restrictions in place to stop repeat trials!), I'm not going to suggest that you consider them part of your toolset. But, I do think there’s a way to utilize them more wisely. Plan your trial If you’re anything like me, you’ll be guilty of regularly seeing new tools you want to try, signing up for the trial, then never actually doing anything with it. Or worse yet, you spend some time aimlessly nosing around the tool, but not actually doing anything substantial enough to evaluate it properly. If you think a tool is worth testing it out, do it properly: Schedule some time to do so. List out some tasks you want to try. Or even better, outline a project or scenario to test it out on. Give it a real trial If you really want to test out a tool, the best way to do so is with real work. When you're on a tight budget, this is even more true. It can allow you to work out the value of a tool and assess whether it’s worth you paying for, without the outlay. If you work for clients, you may even be able to take it a step further. If you’re able to use a free trial to deliver a paid piece of work, the money earned can be used to pay for the tool and continue using it. Where to find free tools I’m not going to list tools in this article. That’s not the goal of this resource, and it’s a big job to compile such a list (and even more so to keep it up to date!). Free tool lists Instead, here are some great resources others have put together: LearningSEO.io by Aleyda Solis; it includes free SEO tools. Backlinko.com by Brian Dean; it includes filters for free, freemium, and paid tools. Note: This domain is now owned by SEO tool provider Semrush. MatthewWoodward.co.uk by Matthew Woodward; it includes free and paid tools. Recommendations There’s often no better recommendation than a word-of-mouth recommendation. My first go-to is asking friends and colleagues what they use. Then, to widen the net, I sometimes ask for recommendations on Twitter. We all have different places that we can engage with the SEO community, though. It doesn’t really matter where you go for recommendations. The important part is that you’re getting first-hand recommendations, from people that you trust, that have already used the tools themselves. Google Search Console The one specific tool I will mention is Google Search Console . If you’re not already using it, get it setup now. It’s one of the few ways that Google gives data and feedback about how it sees your website. It’s not perfect, and you need to consider the output objectively (as with any tool). But right now, I’d say it’s probably the most important tool for SEOs. Note: Wix users have access to GSC data from within their SEO Dashboard and can also monitor organic performance using GSC data in Wix Analytics . So, do you really need tools to do SEO? There is a lot of SEO you can do without the need for tools. But if you’re serious about SEO, you are going to reach a point where it makes sense to utilize some of the many tools available. Tools have the potential to provide additional insights, save time, and help us be much more efficient. But, they can also work against you if you let them dictate priorities or distract you. The most important thing to remember when working with tools is to be aware of their limitations and potential pitfalls. With that in mind you can use SEO tools as they’re intended: not as a replacement for your own knowledge and expertise, but as tools to help you be more effective in reaching your SEO goals. Geoff Kennedy - SEO & Digital Marketing Consultant Geoff Kennedy is a UK based SEO consultant with over 15 years experience working with clients around the globe. He works with a wide variety of businesses, including well-known brands, specializing in SEO audits and providing strategic support. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: Adriana Stein If you own, work on, or market a website, you need to understand the basics of crawling and indexing. Why? Well think of it like this: If you can’t see, access, or find something, how can you buy it? The same goes for websites. If your content isn’t crawled and indexed, Google can’t see it and it certainly won’t show it when someone searches for it. Essentially, if people can’t find your website, they’re going to have a much tougher time buying from you. So when Google can find you, customers can find you. In fact, making your website “discoverable” is an essential element of SEO success. When your content is crawled and indexed, you have a chance to show search engines like Google that your content is relevant and valuable to searchers, which increases the likelihood of it showing up in search results (i.e., ranking). The more pages you rank, the more organic traffic you stand to gain, which often correlates to leads and conversions, meaning more money in your pocket. So let’s now take a look at how crawling, indexing, and ranking are three essential elements of good SEO. Table of contents: The basics of website ranking How web crawling works for search engines Who, or what, crawls a website? How indexing works for search engines How often do search engines crawl and index web pages? Checking crawling and indexing statuses for your pages The basics of website ranking Ranking refers to a website’s position in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This can be achieved through optimizing various on-page and off-page factors . While attracting and converting visitors is one of the primary goals behind a successful SEO strategy, ranking highly for relevant searches is typically the vehicle that drives these goals. To be clear, ranking is the final thing that search engines do to deliver search results (crawling and indexing occurring first; more on that below), but for the sake of contextualizing the process, we’ll start with the goal in mind. Although there are some clear-cut actions to help improve rankings, it’s a nuanced process. There are hundreds of potential factors that search engine algorithms analyze to rank websites based on relevance and value to specific queries (the terms people use Google to search for). Simply put, focus on relevant content for your audience If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you’re just starting out and have a smaller website. And you probably read the above paragraphs and are thinking, “Where do I even begin? How can I manage to create content that adheres to such a variety of ranking factors?” Well, it’s actually rather simple. Here’s my best advice as someone who’s done SEO for years for a wide variety of websites: 01. Create content that’s relevant to your audience 02. Targets keywords (queries) that your audience searches for 03. Provide a good user experience Despite all the noise and SEO guidance you’ve probably already run across, that’s really what all websites should focus on. When you stick to the three elements listed above—no matter the algorithm update , changes with AI , or whatever SEO trend may come—high-quality, helpful, relevant content is simply the most effective way to rank your pages and generate results for your brand or business. Keyword research can help you identify content ideas One of the best ways to figure out what works for you is to research and explore different keywords (keywords being, for the sake of this article, synonymous with “search terms” and “queries”) relevant to your target audience. On a fundamental level, you can refer to your experience with your audience as a starting point by pursuing low/zero search volume keywords if you know that's what your audience is looking for. But it’s also important to be realistic and remember that content production should also focus on targeting keywords with search volume related to your products, services, or information within your niche. Once you’ve got an idea of your target search terms, you can then analyze the search engine results pages (SERPs) to see what types of content currently rank. That’ll give you a good idea of what you may need to create (but always try to improve on competitors rather than mimicking them—after all, you can’t win a race from behind). A simplified example of keyword research in action To provide a quick example of this, let’s say I used Ahrefs free SEO tools to research the keyword free social media template . This generates the following keyword ideas for the US market: You can see that free social media template has a search volume of 450 (as shown above), meaning that the tool estimates that there are roughly that many searches for this keyword per month. For the sake of this example, that’s perfectly fine, but remember, search volume isn’t everything . Next, I go to Google to search our keyword, free social media template , which shows the following results for the US market: Next, I might review each listing to assess what they have in common and what sets them apart. Identifying these elements can allow you to exploit gaps left by the competition and create content that meets your audience’s search intent . Of course, there’s more to a successful SEO/content strategy than keyword research and search analysis—it’s also important to follow content optimization best practices. I won’t go into that topic in this article, but Wix has a helpful overview here . How web crawling works for search engines Now that we know what the goal is, let’s take a more granular look at the initial steps that search engines take to help us get there. For any website to rank and appear in search results, it needs to be crawled and indexed by search engines. This is the process I mentioned in the intro of this article that makes your pages “discoverable.” We can tell from the above example that Freepik, HubSpot, and Hootsuite are “indexed” (which also means they had to be “crawled” before getting indexed) because they show up in Google search results. This is how they are able to show in the SERPs and rank for relevant keywords (in this case, free social media template). Let’s now focus specifically on the “crawling” aspect. Website crawling is the action that search engines perform in order to comb through websites and discover new ones. To refer back to the previous example, if you search for free social media template, you’re likely looking for a downloadable PDF template for social media, which is precisely what we see reflected in the SERPs (as Google does its best to always show the most relevant and helpful results). Who, or what, crawls a website? When it comes to Google Search, website crawling is done through Googlebot , a software that reviews web pages by following hyperlinks on these web pages within known URLs to continually expand its reach. This first step in the process of delivering search results is all about discovery. Google (and other search engines) will crawl both new and previously crawled content so that the most relevant, up-to-date content is available in the search results. The search engines then store what they find in an index in order to create a network of interconnected information. Other search engines like Bing and Yandex use similar processes to crawl web pages as well. Your pages must be crawlable for them to appear in search results. However, not all pages are meant to be crawled (for example, a “thank you” page or a site that’s still under construction) so search engines do follow certain directives from site owners to omit them from crawling . How indexing works for search engines Web indexing is the process of taking information that was found during a website crawl and transferring it into a database (like the Google Search index) where it is stored for later retrieval in order to generate relevant search results. As someone who wants to improve their search visibility, it’s important to understand the relationship between crawling, indexing, and ranking. Here’s a helpful visual from SISTRIX : Overall, as long as your website is properly set up (which it generally will be because most website creation tools allow search engines to crawl pages by default), it will be crawled and indexed. How often do search engines crawl and index web pages? One important thing to remember when it comes to crawling and indexing is that it takes time—it’s not always realistic to expect your pages to show up in relevant search results right after you publish them. If you consider how many websites are out there in the world, then it makes sense that search engines are constantly trying to keep up. That’s why there’s no concrete answer on how long it takes. Depending on how big and active your website is, search engines can crawl your pages between every few days to every month. Once a crawl starts, it can spread out over a few weeks. If you want to try to speed things up, you can try manually submitting your content for crawling and indexing in Google Search Console (GSC) , but this doesn’t guarantee it’ll happen overnight. Here’s a rule of thumb: The larger your website is, the longer it will take to crawl. Factors like crawl budget can also affect how often and quickly your website is crawled and indexed, but this generally only applies to large websites. Checking crawling and indexing statuses for your pages Once you’ve chosen your target keywords, created content, and are trying to rank your web page, the next step is to check that your page has been indexed and crawled so your target audience can find it on relevant SERPs. You can do this by checking Google Search Console (GSC), probably the most amazing free SEO tool there is. Start by typing your page’s URL into the GSC search bar (at the top of the dashboard). Next, you’ll see a report that looks something like this: In the above image, you can see that the page is indexed because there is a green check mark. So Google is able to crawl, index, and show it on relevant SERPs. If this wasn’t the case, the report will tell you so and give you some reasons as to why the URL has issues. As a quick summary, your web page may not be indexed by Google due to the following reasons: The newly launched site or web page has not yet been crawled by Google (which means you may need to keep waiting) The page design hinders Google’s ability to efficiently crawl the content Google encountered an error while crawling the page Googlebot cannot access the page for crawling purposes (possibly because it has been marked “noindex” ) If you’d like to dig deeper into the nuances of using GSC, here’s a quick video from Google Search Central that explains how the above process works . Note: Wix users can access Google Search Console data—including index status—from within their dashboard via the Wix Site Inspection tool. You can’t rank if you’re not first crawled and indexed If there’s one key takeaway you from this article, it should be this: If your site isn’t crawled and indexed, it won’t show up in the search results. And without that, you’re losing out on potential traffic and conversions. Of course, there’s so much more to SEO that needs to be taken into consideration over the long run. But for now, focus on creating useful content and ensuring your target audience can actually find and read it. Adriana Stein - CEO and Founder at AS Marketing Originally from the US and now living in Germany, Adriana Stein is the CEO and founder of the marketing agency AS Marketing . She leads a team of multi-language SEO experts who develop holistic international marketing strategies for global companies. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: Kyle Place Establishing yourself online is often one of the first priorities for a new brand—that’s the easy decision. The much tougher decision usually follows right after: Do you create a website and invest in SEO? Would it be easier to just run paid ads for your site? Or, could you possibly get away with managing your entire online presence through a social media profile? There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution because the correct answer depends on your industry, your audience, and your particular business model. Even so, there’s a very good reason why so many brands emphasize SEO as a crucial marketing channel. Let’s take a look at why SEO is considered to be a must-have and what you need to keep in mind to get the most from your investment in it. Table of contents: 01. People use search engines to discover niche content 02. Users expect high quality content that builds trust 03. SEO helps your content reach new audiences 04. Online visitors drive offline conversions 05. Market research improves your business’s offerings 06. SEO can include UX (double the benefit) 07. The potential ROI 08. You need SEO to stay competitive How to ensure SEO is worth the investment before you get started 01. SEO is cost effective, but you’ll still need resources 02. Plan ahead for SEO maintenance 03. You know your audience 01. People use search engines to discover niche content It would not be an understatement to say that search runs the world (almost). This is truer in some industries than others, but most people turn to Google to find a product/service or to do some research before taking action on something else (e.g., looking up business hours or comparing prices). And, we have a pretty good idea of the level of demand in search for any given topic ( based on its search volume —how often a specific term is searched per month). This is true for all types of needs—products/services, brands, news, and anything else. However, it’s important to remember that search volume is not the end goal. The largest search volumes are almost always ambiguous with an unclear intent. As the clarity of the search improves, the search volume almost always decreases. To illustrate this concept, here are some keywords and their corresponding search volumes: Search query Monthly search volume User value ​ ​eCommerce 74,000 ​Low: What is this person actually looking for? ​ ​eCommerce website 18,100 Medium: Now we know they are looking for a website, but for what? To shop? To build one? For inspiration? ​eCommerce website builder 5,400 High: Now it’s clear what this searcher is looking for: platforms they can use to build an eCommerce website. This concept also applies to in-person businesses as well: Many local companies want to rank high in search results for the service(s) they provide plus their location (i.e., neighborhood, city, county). This is because the value and relevance from those searches (and more importantly, who those searches are coming from) is greater, even though the search volume is less. Here’s an example for local SEO: ​ Search query Monthly search volume User value Roofing company 33,100 Low: Roofing companies (and the needs of the people searching for them) vary by location. This means that someone searching this term in Anchorage, Alaska, will likely see different results than someone searching from Miami, Florida. Roofing company Miami 720 ​High: Search volume of “only” 720, but is much more relevant for roofing companies in the Miami area. In addition to ensuring your own website appears in search results, it’s important to create and optimize other business profiles across the internet. This can include (but is not limited to): Google business profiles Local directories Review sites Social media profiles YouTube channels When people search, they look at all types of results, so make sure your brand is in as many of them as possible to help establish your site’s online visibility. 02. Users expect high quality content that builds trust Content oversaturation in the search results is one of the biggest issues facing internet users today. The impact is twofold: Users grow increasingly more efficient at filtering out low-quality content. Going the extra mile to create high quality content allows you to stand out and build trust. The quality of your content includes (but isn’t limited to) its grammar, structure, format, and the level of expertise behind it. It could also mean creating content for every stage of the customer journey. Most searches online begin with research. Let’s say you have a plumbing related issue at home but aren’t sure where to start with fixing it. You think you might need a plumber, but you’re not sure. This might be a potential user search journey for this situation: How to fix a running toilet How much does it cost to fix a toilet Best plumbers in Miami A plumbing company could have an instructional video in the search results, transparent prices and costs for your work, and then testimonials or reviews on your site (or a third-party site like Yelp) that show up when your target customer is in the final stage of their journey. Imagine the positive impact for a brand if—for each query (search term) and stage of the customer journey—they had a comprehensive piece of content that satisfied the user’s intent . The brand would be able to prove again and again that they’re trustworthy, know what they’re talking about, and are worth doing business with. Content has the ability to shape your customer journey and to help capture their interest, trust, and business. Investing in high quality content is good for your audience and your brand, and will help you rank better in search results. 03. SEO helps your content reach new audiences Owning your own website means that you own your own content. This is different from how social media platforms work and it’s worth taking into account when planning your marketing. What does this mean and why does it matter? When you rely only on third-party platforms or social media to promote your business, that content is subject to the whims of the platform: Facebook, Instagram, etc. dictate the format and length of your content, the type of content that is permissible, and most importantly, you are relying on the fact that your audience is also on that platform. Conversely, having a website (that ranks) increases your visibility and allows your content to be shared no matter where your audience is. By pursuing SEO, you make it far easier for the widest possible audience to discover your brand, products/services, blog posts, etc. To top it all off, the unfortunate truth is that social media platforms don’t last forever (when was the last time you heard someone talking about MySpace or Google+?). When another new one becomes popular, you may have to re-establish yourself on that platform. While a strong social media strategy can be extremely valuable, the intent and the nature of user interaction is very different. A web page from two years ago can still rank well in Google, but a social media post from two years ago is so far down the timeline that algorithms no longer provide visibility. 04. Online visitors drive offline conversions There’s a direct relationship between online consumer behavior and offline marketing, which is especially relevant for brick-and-mortar businesses. Traditional advertising campaigns can influence branded search, brand awareness, and create a buzz around your company. These campaigns can also compel people to go to Google to look for your brand or visit your website directly. Online growth can lead to offline conversions as well: One of the most obvious examples is with restaurants. Restaurants that follow local SEO best practices can gain more visibility in search and attract more people. This is true for many local businesses—the businesses that show up in search results for kids trampoline park or rock climbing gym are more likely to perform well offline, too. The bottom line is that users search online for offline products and services. 05. Market research improves your business’s offerings Once your website is optimized and attracting visitors, there are so many amazing audience insights you can gain through the data available in Google Search Console and Google Analytics . Google Search Console Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool by Google. Site owners must first verify their sites, but after that, a whole world of potential opens up. ( Note: Wix site owners can verify their site in seconds with the Wix GSC integration .) In addition to the vast technical insights that GSC provides, you can learn so much from the Search Performance report. Here, you can see the number of clicks and impressions to each page of your website. Even better, you can see this information for the exact query that someone searches to get to your site (and which page they landed on). ( Note: Wix users have access to GSC data within the SEO Dashboard as well as Wix Analytics . Here are some tactical insights you can gain from this: Which service is your most popular service If you are local, what location people are looking for What kind of questions people are asking Device (desktop/mobile) and country data You can also use GSC to identify areas where you’re missing content. Sometimes, you may see a broad (or even specific) topic that is getting decent impressions but no clicks, despite the associated page barely touching on the topic. Oftentimes, the best course of action is to create a new piece of content targeting that particular topic to satisfy those searchers. Google Analytics Google Analytics is another free tool by Google, but it provides a different set of data than GSC. In Google Analytics, you can see pageviews, conversions, bounce rate, and other useful metrics that can help you understand your audience and how they interact with your site so that you may better optimize it. ( Note: Wix users have built-in access to Wix Analytics , which also provides similar data.) The time on page and bounce rate are especially helpful when learning how well your content satisfies user intent. More advanced site owners can even set up conversion tracking to see where people are converting and help drive traffic to the best converting pages. 06. SEO can include UX (double the benefit) An often-overlooked benefit of SEO is its contributions to user experience (UX), which is central to optimizing for conversions. UX is one of the most important aspects of web design and SEO contributes greatly to its goals. Here are a few nearly-universal examples: Navigation: At the most basic level, a site’s navigation should take SEO into consideration. Based on search and analytics data, you can identify your most popular products/services—these should be easy for users to reach via your site navigation. Accessibility: SEO and accessibility almost always go hand in hand. Your headers and subheaders , color contrast ratio, alt text, etc. serve a dual purpose—more context for search engines (hopefully leading to improved rankings) and better accessibility for those who need it. Conversion rate optimization: Properly structured landing pages, blog posts with clear calls to action , and intuitive site structure can come together to help you get the most out of your SEO efforts by making it easy for visitors to transition from searching to browsing to buying. 07. The potential ROI For most types of websites, the benefits of SEO can far outweigh the investment. This might be expected since SEO is a marketing channel, but SEO is unique when compared to other marketing channels (particularly paid channels). This is because successful SEO requires you to create content that helps build your authority. This content is then indexed and ranked by Google. That means one amazing piece of content can generate traffic for months and even years, which means more potential customers without any additional marketing expenses. Here is a real life example: Moz has consistently ranked in the top three search results (usually position one) for the term keyword research since at least 2015 (eight years at the time of publication). Perhaps even more important is the fact that each additional piece of relevant content helps further build your authority . Each additional related blog post, article, product page, etc. can actually strengthen pre-existing content on your website and will help indicate your brand’s relevance when you create more content on that topic in the future. 08. You need SEO to stay competitive No matter how creative, unique, or “outside the box” we sometimes want to be, it’s a mistake to overlook opportunities to market in the same channels as our competitors. This is true in many marketing channels and is certainly true in SEO. When a potential customer is searching on Google for a product or service (or researching at any level of the funnel), you want to be there. If you aren’t in the search results, your competitors will still be there and they will happily turn your potential customers into their actual customers . In some aspects, search is a zero-sum game. There is limited real estate on the Google search results, so it is either you or them. Competing against other brands in the search results can even be useful. Through competitor research , you can discover some amazing content ideas, strategies, formats, and even which specific keywords are driving traffic for your competitors. The goal on top of this should always be to add creativity, uniqueness, and value to your content to really set you apart from the competition. How to ensure SEO is worth the investment before you get started If you're willing to put in the time and effort, SEO can be a great way to improve your website's visibility and traffic. However, it's important to remember that it's not a magic bullet—and, if not planned and implemented correctly, you might not see the gains you expected. 01. SEO is cost effective, but you’ll still need resources While SEO certainly can pay off in the long run, it may not be the best channel for those who need quicker results, like PPC can provide. The reality is that SEO takes time and securing the resources and people to implement a good SEO strategy can be tricky. While organic traffic is indeed free, creating content that performs well is not free. You need to weigh out the cost and potential gain . A careful analysis is necessary because (in addition to your own available resources) your competition is another factor to consider. If optimal effort does not go into it then the optimal results won’t come out of it. 02. Plan ahead for SEO maintenance SEO provides long-term value—but not infinite value. While SEO is part of the “long game,” it requires maintenance if you want it to continue to perform for you over time. You need to optimize and tweak content, add internal links , and update your content to stay relevant. In the example above on Moz ranking for keyword research , the keyword research process has evolved between 2015-2023 and you can bet that the company updated its content to reflect this and offer the maximum value to its readers. If you can’t plan for ongoing optimizations, content updates, and new content, then (as I said earlier) a competitor that can will overtake you in the search results. New competitors arise all the time and the last thing you want is to be ranking well but let it fall between the cracks and suddenly drop off because someone else created content that’s more relevant. 03. You know your audience Finally, part of being relevant is knowing what your audience prefers. If your audience doesn’t search for things on search engines, then SEO is probably not the best option. Sometimes YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, Quora, Instagram, or one of the other social media platforms or communities might be better for reaching your target audience. When possible, combine your strategies on those platforms with SEO for brand perception but also to take advantage of rich search result features . For example, Google now shows TikTok and YouTube Shorts directly in search results and Quora has special features to show threads. Leverage SEO’s endless potential for your brand Overall, SEO can and should be approached holistically. There are many SEO strategies and ways to take advantage of organic search results, with the ultimate objective always being to grow your business. With this in mind, your goal should always be to create content that satisfies the intent of your audience and provides useful information or solves real problems. In execution, you’re going to focus on the measurable SEO benefits that align with your business’s KPIs, but it’s important to remember that SEO often accomplishes a greater mission: SEO is not just an acquisition tool, but also a powerful tool for branding and perception as well. Use it to not only tap into existing demand, but also to generate demand specifically for your brand and maximize SEO’s potential for your business. Kyle Place - SEO Specialist, Wix Kyle Place "E-E-A-Ts," sleeps, and breathes SEO. As an in-house SEO at Wix.com he creates organic growth strategies that satisfy the users (and search engines). Kyle also worked in an agency, helping both local businesses and SaaS companies to expand their online presence. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: Itamar Blauer Running a successful business is all about being able to identify when an opportunity is worth the investment. SEO for your business’s website is no different. For small- to medium-sized businesses operating on tight resources, this calculus is even more crucial. But, understanding what areas of your website you need to keep an eye on (and how to do so) is typically the realm of SEO experts. In this article, I will provide a framework that embraces the 80/20 rule so that you can understand the most valuable sections of your site and how to optimize them to improve your visibility in search results—without spending endless hours researching and optimizing every little detail. Table of contents: Setting realistic goals and prioritizing High impact SEO tasks for evergreen content Keyword research On-page optimization Internal linking E-E-A-T Implementing your evergreen SEO strategy Track progress with automation Keeping up-to-date with SEO trends and opportunities Setting realistic goals and prioritizing Let’s check your expectations right now: Generally speaking, you’re unlikely to rank a newly created page or website overnight. You may have lots of competitors with a stronger SEO presence and more budget, so be realistic about what you can achieve given your niche, competition, and available resources. In terms of objectives, traffic goals are often a good start. However, the reality is that you’re not going to rank all of your web pages, so focus on the most important ones to ensure that your evergreen SEO efforts are actually making the largest possible impact. For an eCommerce site, that might be your best-selling or high-margin products, or your core service pages as a services business. High impact SEO tasks for evergreen content When prioritizing SEO tasks, you have to make informed decisions to ensure you get the most use out of your time and resources—this becomes even more important if SEO isn’t something you focus on day-to-day. Here are some relatively low-effort approaches for high-impact tasks that you can implement to ensure that the content you’re creating is worth the investment. How to find keywords for evergreen content Keyword research helps you identify demand so that you can create a content strategy based on that demand. Although it’s much better to perform keyword research on a regular basis, this is something that in theory can be done once, but sets the scope of your strategy from the offset (provided that your offerings don’t change—if they do, you’ll need to perform additional keyword research). There are relatively fast and free methods to do keyword research, one of which is to leverage Google Search itself: 01. Type your core offering into Google. If you have more than one, you can simply repeat this process for each offering. Review the autosuggest results to see what keywords Google thinks are relevant. This is a great way to find long tail keyword opportunities . Make sure to start/keep a list of potential topics and keywords that you discover during this process. 02. Analyze the top results for these queries. The idea here is to identify commonalities amongst the top-ranking results. As a starting point, consider: What type of keyword intent does Google seem to associate with this search? (In the example below, it is very transactional.) What keywords do the top results use in their titles? How are these keywords used? Are there any special search features in the results? For example, a shopping carousel is a telltale sign that Google thinks the query is transactional, as where a knowledge panel may suggest informational intent. You can also look into the “More to ask/People also ask” section of the SERP (if it’s present for your keyword) to find additional relevant topic opportunities. Whatever type of content you decide to create, ensure that the search intent aligns with the purpose of the content. As you can often deduce what search intent Google associates with a given query, you can tailor your content to match what Google would likely expect/want to rank for that particular query. That particular type of content (e.g., listicle, blog post, product page, etc.) is also usually aligned with what your potential customers will expect. 03. Take note of the most relevant content (from competitors in the search results). Your content should always be original, but you can still draw inspiration from what’s already out there and find ways to improve on it within your own pages. This is a manual process, but it’s also free. Keyword research tools are helpful to automate certain steps and find opportunities that you might have missed. Note: Wix users have limited free access to Semrush’s keyword research capabilities from within their Wix dashboard. Breaking past the basics: Seasonality The popularity of certain keywords might fluctuate over the course of a year. You can think more sustainably about keyword research by considering how this might affect your audience’s search behavior. For example, if you’re in the golf niche, you might want to target keywords related to equipment maintenance or training programs during the off season, for example. It’s important to remember that seasonality is still evergreen, as seasonal topics represent large, regular opportunities (e.g., Black Friday/Cyber Monday occur every year). “For businesses or websites that hold annual events around awareness days or holidays, keeping a single page live all year round is valuable. This means you don't have to create a new page every year, and you can keep users, and Google, up to date in the off season.” — Crystal Carter , head of SEO communications at Wix On-page optimization The point with on-page optimization is that it supports the content you’re creating. First and foremost, make sure the content is unique, relevant, and helps users fulfill their goals—whether that’s to buy a product, learn about your brand, or seek out other information. Once you have a list of keywords relevant to your most important offerings, it’s time to incorporate them strategically. It’s best to plan how you’ll use your keywords before the page goes live, but there are also a few on-page optimizations you can still make after publishing. Of course, there are nuances to this, but the point of evergreen SEO across this article is to be efficient and set things up well so that they can benefit you over the long term. The main on-page optimization areas involve: The page’s URL slug. A URL slug refers to the final part of the URL, which actually informs you what that specific page is about. Continuing from the floral wedding dresses example I started earlier, the URL slug above clearly targets the relevant keyword. It’s easy for users and search engines to understand the purpose of the page based on the URL slug alone, which is what you want to do as well. Try to keep your URL slugs short and to the point, without going overboard by adding as many keywords as you can (because that’s spammy). Title tag. Title tags help search engines understand what the page is about, and Google might also display them to users in the search results. Like the URL slug, the title tag can be very straightforward. Notice how the exact same keywords are used for both the URL slug and the title tag. This is significant because the consistency here makes it clearer to search engines that this particular page is specifically targeting floral wedding guest dresses. Meta description. The meta description displays underneath a search result and provides potential visitors with a description of what they can expect to find if they click through to the web page. Meta descriptions can be manually set, but Google can also rewrite these (especially if a meta description hasn’t been set for a page). Meta descriptions aren’t search ranking factors, but they can influence click-through rates. Try to keep these descriptive and enticing for users to incentivize them to click on your result. Header tags. The primary purpose of headers is to help you organize your content for readers, but they also serve that same purpose for search engines as well. To that end, it’s best practice to use your most important keyword in your H1 and supporting keywords in H2s. In the example above, there is a clear H1 that also uses the same keyword as the URL slug and title tag. In addition, there are also H2s that are product names. These are relevant to the floral wedding dress category but also perform double duty as internal links to individual product pages. Images and other relevant media. Uploading optimized images is always a great idea, but it’s an absolute necessity in some industries, like eCommerce. The images above include alternative text (alt text) that describe what the image is about. As an eCommerce website, this is crucial for leveraging product photos that can be found on other places across the web, such as Google Images. And, it’s simply invaluable for many customers to help them make buying decisions. Breaking past the basics: Structured data Schema markup (which is used to communicate structured data) is a type of code that you can add to a web page to provide search engines with more context about that page. For example, you can use it to tell search engines that a certain web page is a recipe, which could make it eligible for rich results . Rich results are search results that include additional information (beyond the typical URL, page title, and description; as shown above). They generally feature some sort of visual enhancement or interactive features. There is relevant structured data available for many different types of content, from “how-to” articles to FAQs to product and “about” pages. Identify the ones that are likely to make the biggest impression on potential customers and add it to your content creation workflow. Note: By default, Wix site owners have access to a range of structured data markup options, some of which are automatically added when you create a certain page type (Wix Stores product pages, Wix Bookings services pages, Wix Blog posts, Wix Forum posts, and Wix Events pages). Internal linking This is the definition of the 80/20 rule: You’re already creating the content. Next, all you need to do is funnel the SEO equity from the backlinks you’ve already earned across your content. This helps potential customers navigate through the buyer journey and helps Google understand the importance of your different pages and their relationship to one another. The easiest way to approach internal links is by simply linking relevant pages together. For example, an eCommerce category page will link to products within that category. Whatever your most important pages are, try to include them within the navigation bar in your website’s header. That way, they’re constantly accessible to visitors. For eCommerce websites, this might be your highest-selling/margin category pages. For services businesses, this might be your most popular service page(s). Breaking past the basics: Topic clusters When it comes to blog content, link relevant content together and focus on what would be contextually valuable to your site visitors. Topic clusters are a sophisticated, widely accepted strategy that can help you stay organized while improving your topical authority. E-E-A-T Over the last few years, Google has been raving about E-E-A-T , which stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. This is essentially how websites can convince users (and Google) that they’re the real deal. That means you need to think about whether your content displays these traits—not just for Google, but for your target audience. You can convey E-E-A-T on your website by featuring a thorough “About” page that covers how long you’ve been in business and showcases your team. If you have a blog, displaying authors on blog posts and creating author bio pages can also help you show off your credibility. And, you can also provide your contact details to show that you’re a legitimate business. E-E-A-T can happen off of your website too. If you are linked to/mentioned on other websites via quotes, bylines, as well as expert interviews, or podcasts, those sources can provide strong signals to Google about your credibility within your niche. Breaking past the basics: Structured data E-E-A-T can be strengthened with structured data . On blog posts, for example, you can use BlogPosting or Article schema, incorporating an Author field which covers who wrote the piece. Within your structured data, you can provide more context and E-E-A-T signals by using the about tag to link together concepts and topics that your content is about. In the example above, I used structured data to associate the term “SEO” with the Wikipedia page for search engine pptimization. Implementing your evergreen SEO strategy Prioritization is essential for an effective evergreen SEO strategy, otherwise you’ll end up focusing on the wrong things or allocating more resources than you need to. Which tasks and areas of your website you’ll prioritize will vary depending on your industry. While the homepage is typically important for just about every type of website, websites in different industries often have different needs. Here are the most common SEO focuses for some common types of businesses: Local business — Service and location pages, as well as navigation menus Online store — Category and product pages Personal professional page — Portfolio section Blog — Blog posts (prioritize each blog post as that is the crux of your website) These are some of the more common niches, but for other types of sites, identify the main thing that attracts visitors to your site and prioritize those. Remember that the best practices from the high-impact SEO tasks section still apply for these page types. Track progress with automation You’re already investing resources into an SEO strategy , so why not track to see how it’s performing over time? You want to see if your “20%” effort is actually getting you “80%” of the way towards having an optimized website that performs for your business. Many content management systems have their own built-in reporting/automation. Wix site owners have access to traffic data via Wix Analytics , and those that have a GSC account can link their Wix account for additional metrics from Google Search . Keeping up-to-date with SEO trends and opportunities For better or worse, the job’s never finished. SEO evolves frequently and there are always new things you can learn and implement. However, you might not have the time to delve into social media and/or read every new blog or documentation that Google releases. You need to be efficient at identifying what’s changing and how it impacts your website. There are a couple of ways to do this: Set Google Alerts for related terms in your niche. Get Twitter notifications for official Google accounts . Read authoritative publications dedicated to SEO news, such as Search Engine Land , Search Engine Roundtable , and Search Engine Journal —although the content they publish is written for full-time SEO practitioners, their stories can help you better understand the changes Google makes. Evergreen SEO is effective, but eventually you’ll still need to adapt The guidance above can help your pages rank and may even enable you to sustain those rankings for a very long time, depending on your competition. But, nothing lasts forever, so be prepared to revisit this workflow when your industry changes, new competitors enter your market, or you introduce new business offerings. For the best results, take comprehensive notes so that you can iterate on my tips to form your own SEO strategy, which will have the benefit of your experience (as the SEO or business owner) and will already be tailored for your business model. Itamar Blauer - Senior SEO Director at StudioHawk Itamar Blauer is the senior SEO director at StudioHawk, a specialist SEO agency. He is an SEO trainer, speaker, author, and host of the "SEO Unplugged" podcast, sharing tips and case studies across various SEO topics. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: Vinnie Wong In the pursuit of scaling your content marketing , you might have created “thin content” without realizing it. While that may sound relatively harmless, the detriment happens further down the line, in your search rankings, organic traffic, and ultimately conversions. Fortunately, understanding thin content and how to avoid it is relatively easy. Let’s break down what thin content really means, how you can spot it, and how to effectively beef up your content strategy so that thin content doesn’t hold back your brand or business. Table of contents: What is thin content? How thin content can hurt your SEO What search engines and users actually want 6 examples of thin content Incomplete content Repetitive or duplicate content Raw auto-generated content Syndicated content Low-quality affiliate pages Doorway pages What word count is best for SEO? How to identify and fix thin content Run a site audit Use canonical tags Optimize underperforming pages Consolidate or prune content Share your experience or expertise on topics What is thin content? Ever come across articles that feel like they’re just ticking boxes for Google but don’t really tell you anything useful or new? That’s thin content for you. It’s the kind of writing that stuffs in keywords to please search engines, but ends up offering nothing but fluff to the actual human user. “Thin content is like a mirage. Imagine a searcher is meandering through a desert and they see a mirage. When they get up close, they feel disappointed because it’s not what they wanted—it’s bare and has little use. Instead, your content should be an oasis. Create helpful content that gives searchers what they’ve been looking for, because that’s what search engines want to reward.” — Debbie Chew , Global SEO Manager at Dialpad Google coined the term “thin content” after the Google Panda algorithm update in February 2011. Before that time, SEO was a much less sophisticated practice and the internet was rife with sites cramming keywords into every sentence (and, in some cases, I mean every  sentence). By definition, thin content not only fails to satisfy website visitors, it actually works to frustrate them by failing to provide what the user came to your website for. To improve its overall user experience, Google updated its search algorithm to weed out pages that were simply built to rank high for search queries, but didn’t provide much value beyond that. Fast forwarding to modern-day SEO, the most blatant old-school tricks might be gone, but thin content hasn’t vanished. Even now, many businesses unintentionally fall into this trap, not realizing how it diminishes their search visibility and undermines their revenue. How thin content can hurt your SEO Producing superficial content may not seem like it will do much harm. However, it’s a trickle-down effect and centers largely on rankings and your user’s experience.  High bounce rates When visitors land on a page with thin content, their dissatisfaction is immediate. This dissatisfaction quickly translates into high bounce rates, as users leave in search of better, more informative and relevant content. SEO is intimately connected with user experience, and this relationship is often shown through high bounce rates—a clear signal that the content does not meet the audience’s needs or expectations. The impact of high bounce rates  extends beyond immediate traffic loss. It affects the site’s conversion potential. If visitors aren’t engaged or finding value, they’re less likely to interact further, impacting your site’s ability to achieve its goals, whether that’s sales, sign-ups, or engagement. Now, high bounce rates on their own sometimes aren’t a bad thing. If a page answers all of the user’s query, it’s okay if someone lands on the page and leaves without further action. However, for most business websites, high bounce rates and little time spent on the page usually indicates deeper and more serious underlying issues. Thin content could be one of them. Bounce rates vary by industry. One study  suggests that a bounce rate of 90% and above is high for blogs, whereas 45% might be considered high for eCommerce websites. Don’t fixate on those specific figures, though, as (again) your industry and how your website works can influence your bounce rate. Instead, monitor bounce rates for your high-value pages and find ways to decrease it from there. Diminished search rankings Thin content is inherently less competitive in the search results because it omits key information that your audience is seeking out. As Google continues to usher website owners to create helpful content , it also seeks to eliminate thin or spammy content from the search results. So, if your content doesn’t rise to the level that the topic requires and/or isn’t comparable to your SEO competitors ’ content, you can expect poor rankings and very little traffic. What search engines and users actually want The age-old question in content creation: write for search engines or for users? While some SEOs might say these two goals are now one and the same, the key is to aim for both, focusing more on the user while meeting SEO needs. At the heart of this balance is understanding the search intent  behind each query: “People search because they want to change something (even when they don’t know it). To satisfy search engines and users, content needs to inspire or empower the specific change the reader needs. For example, the person searching for ‘Productivity hacks for busy professionals’ might not explicitly realize it, but they may be looking to change their daily routine and habits to achieve a better work-life balance. Content that satisfies this search term should go beyond providing a list of generic productivity tips. Instead, it should tap into the deeper desire  for a better work-life balance by tying the tips it shares back to the root challenges faced by busy professionals.” — Lily Ugbaja , Head of Marketing at Marketing Cyborg To get an idea of what Google considers to be robust content, analyze top-ranking pages for the queries you’re targeting to gain insights into structure and content style. Then, differentiate your piece by weaving in unique perspectives that demonstrate Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) .  Successful content fulfills search intent while showcasing your depth of knowledge. You’re aiming to become a go-to source for users. Thin content undermines these efforts, and there are different types that you could be publishing. Let’s explore some examples. 6 examples of thin content Sometimes it’s easier to show rather than tell. After all, you may have understood the characteristics of thin content so far, yet it can still go unnoticed on your own website. There are several types of thin content to look out for: Incomplete content Repetitive/duplicate content Autogenerated content Syndicated content Low-quality affiliate pages Doorway pages Incomplete content Incomplete content is like a story that’s missing important details. Could you imagine watching a Marvel film where you’re thrown in the middle of the action, but have no idea who is fighting who or why? Then the film ends, and you’re left wondering why you paid the entrance fee.  Incomplete content is much the same. Here’s an example from an article about the basics of gardening. Compared to other high ranking articles, this seems incomplete to me as it only contains links to relevant information, rather than a guide where I can learn the basics in a quick read. I also noticed the page doesn’t even mention or have a guide about the tools you need, while all the high ranking pages at least mention them briefly. This lack of depth and context is a common issue with such content, and leaves the reader with more questions than they started with. This shortfall in content depth directly affects user engagement. Visitors encountering such incomplete information are likely to exit the site quickly, contributing to high bounce rates. This not only represents a missed opportunity for meaningful engagement, but also potentially harms SEO performance. To avoid falling into this trap, it’s crucial your content covers topics thoroughly. In the case of the gardening basics article, I’d flesh it out and write at least a few paragraphs under each point. You can use information from other articles and link to them to direct a reader there if they want to learn more, but you need to suss out what the user’s search intent is. A good place to start is in the search results. If you notice the high-ranking pages for [gardening basics] talk about certain topics at length, it’s a good idea to mention the same topics in your own content. Repetitive or duplicate content When you read the same word or phrase over and over, it loses all meaning and you’ll get sick of seeing it again (it’s called semantic satiation, in case you ever wondered). Repetitive content on different web pages has a somewhat similar effect on users. It’s like when you’re scrolling through a digital marketing blog and you spot the same advice about “boosting Your SEO” or “social media engagement hacks” across several posts. The issue is there isn’t any change in the content, meaning the advice you’re reading isn’t nuanced, fresh, or relevant to that context.  This is what we mean by duplicate or repetitive content . Why does this matter for your site’s SEO? When search engines see these copy-paste jobs, they get confused about which page to show people in search results. This mix-up can make your site less visible in search results. Plus, let’s be real, it’s pretty boring for your visitors to read the same content again and again. They might start thinking your site doesn’t have anything new to offer and look elsewhere. So, what can you do? Make sure every page or post on your site targets its own unique keyword(s) with content that’s sufficiently distinct from your other pages. Even if you’re covering similar topics, try to bring a fresh angle or new info to the table. Regularly checking your site to spot and fix any copycat content is a good move, too. For example, if you’ve published a bunch of articles about email marketing, each one should dive into different aspects. Maybe one talks about crafting catchy subject lines, while another covers the best email tools. This way, each article brings something different for your readers. Raw auto-generated content A survey last year  showed that a majority of U.S. adults are aware of ChatGPT , and many digital marketers are well aware of its content creation capabilities. Yet, relying heavily on AI for content, without editing or adding insights, can lead to thin content.  “Thin content is the generic stuff that leaves you with more questions than answers. It typically offers little in terms of novel opinion, insight, or research... Content written largely by generative AI, with little supporting research, or without the input of a subject matter expert will feel flat and generic.” — Ashwin Balakrishnan , Head of Marketing at Optmyzr AI content often recycles information without adding new insights. For example, here’s a ChatGPT article on healthy eating that’s factually correct but lacks depth, sources, and nuance.  Newer AI tools can generate templated articles, like “10 Best [Product] for [Year],” yet these lack genuine product evaluations (after all, “experience” is the first “E” in Google’s E-E-A-T). The worst cases involve scraping and stitching together content from various sites, resulting in inconsistent and jarring articles. Google’s algorithms focus on people-first content , regardless of whether it was originally written by generative AI or a human writer . So, take the time and necessary steps to enhance your content to address real audience needs, which is especially important if you’re leveraging ChatGPT (or similar technologies) for content creation. Syndicated content Syndicated content is when you take content that’s already published somewhere else, like an article or a blog post, and republish it on your own site. It’s a widespread practice that can carry huge benefits when done right. But, here’s the catch: If your site only or mostly contains syndicated content, search engines might not see your site as offering unique value.  That’s because Google loves originality. If a bunch of sites all have the same article, Google needs to figure out which one to prioritize in the search results. More often than not, it’ll choose the original source. So, if your site is full of content that’s available elsewhere, you’ll likely find it hard to climb the SEO ladder. Low-quality affiliate pages Affiliate pages that focus more on sales than quality content were one of the types of thin content that the Google Panda update (and the more recent Reviews update ) targeted. Affiliate pages can be a really helpful resource for shoppers who need more information about a product. But in an effort to make a quick buck, some affiliate marketers will create pages with “product reviews” that lack the comprehensive advice, insights, or experience users look for.  If your content aims only to promote products, you risk your reputation and may incur a Google penalty for thin content . Such pages offer minimal value and can negatively impact your site’s SEO performance. For example, here’s a recent article from a reputable domain about headphones. As well structured as the article is (and as pretty as the visuals are), I felt it lacks any useful information that an average reader needs. The quote from the sound producer doesn’t add much, and the article doesn’t go into any depth to show that the authors even own their own pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones. As a reader, how can I trust the product recommendation when you don’t show any experience using the product under different use cases? I also noticed the number of affiliate links to product landing pages , but none to any individual reviews of the recommended products. On the other hand, I found this website (shown above) to have useful product reviews. After spending some time on their site, I felt more confident checking out their recommendations from similar roundup pages because I know they take the time to review each product themselves. All of their product reviews share pros and cons and several pictures of what the product looks like in use, along with the dimensions of the person wearing it so you can gauge if it’s a good fit for you. I particularly liked the timeline they share at the end of each review, as it indicates the reviewers didn’t base their conclusion on a single use but over a period of time. Now, this example of a high-quality affiliate page isn’t scalable or practical for everyone to do. Instead, the lesson to learn for these types of content is that a little effort spent sharing your experience with a product can go a long way in terms of transforming your content from thin to substantial. Rather than just listing product features, list practical applications, offer balanced reviews, and share insights that inform your readers. Offer honest reviews that discuss both strengths and weaknesses, helping readers build trust in your website and make informed decisions. Quality content should serve the reader first, with the promotion of products as a secondary goal. Doorway pages Doorway (or gateway) pages are a bit like the misleading turns in a maze. They’re designed to catch the eye and pull users towards other revenue-focused areas of your site.  These pages are often stuffed with a whole bunch of keywords, hoping to convince search engines of their relevance, but they fall short in giving users what they actually need. Like Debbie Chew mentioned earlier, you’re shown a mirage when you need an oasis. Google’s not a fan of these pages, and for a good reason—they don’t meet user needs and muddle up search results. In practice, this could look like a site with several individually indexed pages that all have the same content on the page, except a few differing words here and there. For example, a site might have several pages like “Best food for dogs in Texas,” “Best food for dogs in Houston,” and “Best food for dogs in New York,” all leading essentially to the same content or product. While this approach worked in the past, it’s frowned upon and your site could be penalized if search engines detect that you have doorway pages. This tactic might yield some ill-gotten clicks and conversions, but it won’t win any trust or loyalty from your audience. What word count is best for SEO? So for your own blog or site, how much should you write? Thankfully, there isn’t a magical formula:  “It depends. I know that’s some sort of SEO joke, but it really just depends. Being thorough and succinct is an art form that pays dividends. There’s ‘clearly too little’ content and ‘clearly too much fluff’ content. Finding the happy medium is the key. Writing as if you’re speaking to a human is the best way to find that happy medium.” — Tess Voecks, VP of Operations at Rickety Roo If you’ve been following along so far, you’ll have noticed that search intent is a common theme. On a very fundamental level, the basic intent behind many search queries is that the user is looking for an answer. How long should the answer be depends on the breadth and depth of the question being asked. For example, if you were in conversation with someone and you asked, “What’s the speed limit in California?” you’d expect a brief answer (65mph on a multilane highway, 55mph on a two lane undivided roadway, in case you needed to know). If the other person spent 20 minutes talking about California’s history, you’d be taken aback by this information overload. Likewise, if you asked which is the best country to live in, which is a subjective and broad topic based on multiple factors, you’d be surprised if someone responded, “The USA. It’s the best.” These are facetious examples, but if you treat content the same way, you’ll have a better idea of how much content you need to answer a search query in full. How to identify and fix thin content There are several ways to tackle thin content and shore up the gaps to improve your SEO. Run a site audit First things first, you need to figure out where the problems are. Running a site audit  is like doing a health check for your website and can help you pinpoint areas you need to address.  Use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to scan your site for thin content. These tools can highlight pages with low word counts or duplicated content across your site. Each tool will have their own interface and pricing plans, but you want one that can show you a content or SEO gap analysis . Use canonical tags Canonical tags  help you tell search engines which version of a similar page is the “main” one. Let’s say your site has multiple pages that are similar in content. Without canonical tags, search engines might get confused about which one to prioritize, leading to SEO issues like diluted page authority. By using the rel="canonical" tag, you effectively say, “Hey, this is the main page I want you to pay attention to.” Alternatively, where you have duplicate content that serves a purpose for your users but might not be ideal for search engines, consider using the noindex tag. This tag tells search engines not to include these pages in search results. After you’ve done a major content overhaul, especially if you’ve addressed issues like duplicate content, using canonical tags is a good way to let Google know. You can do this through a reconsideration request via Google Search Console . This step can be important if your site received a penalty in the past. Optimize underperforming pages Found some pages that aren’t pulling their weight? It’s time to give them a content refresh . Look for pages that have high bounce rates or low engagement and spruce them up.  Refreshing content doesn’t just mean republishing it with a new date. It’s about making meaningful updates. This could include:  Analyzing competing URLs to see what they’re doing differently Finding new rich snippet  opportunities Identifying relevant keywords to expand your content Updating screenshots and videos Revising time-sensitive data like stats and dates Updating your CTAs  and forms to align with your current conversion strategies How often should you refresh content? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but a general guideline is the 25% rule. If you’re adding new content regularly, try to focus about a quarter of your efforts on updating existing material. This approach helps ensure a balanced content strategy, keeping your site fresh and relevant. Consolidate or prune content Sometimes, less is more. If you’ve got several short blog posts on similar topics, each one is like a puzzle piece, offering a bit of the picture but not the whole story. Consolidating these posts  creates a comprehensive guide that not only provides more value to your readers but also strengthens your SEO. While SEO should not be the only consideration when merging content (business considerations come into play as well), if your content is cannibalizing keyword performance , then it’s certainly something you should look into. On the flip side, if you’ve got content that’s outdated or no longer relevant, it might be time to prune it. This helps keep your site fresh and focused. Think of it as tending to a garden—you want to nurture the plants that are thriving and remove the ones that aren’t. Both consolidation and pruning are about optimizing the quality and relevance of your content. By consolidating, you enhance the depth and value of your content, and by pruning, you refine your site’s focus and clarity. This approach can not only improve user experience but also aligns with search engines’ preference for comprehensive, high-quality content.  Remember, in the world of content, it’s not just about quantity—it’s about the richness and relevance of what you offer. Share your experience or expertise on topics Nothing beats a personal touch. If you’re knowledgeable about a topic, don’t hold back. Share your experiences, insights, and personal stories. Search engines actively reward and prioritize pages that demonstrate expertise.  Where you can, you want to convey E-E-A-T. To that end, treat your content the same way you’d share information with someone to show you’re knowledgeable and trustworthy. For instance, if you’re writing about travel, don’t just list places to visit—add stories from your travels, tips you’ve learned, and insights only you can offer.  There are many ways to signal E-E-A-T , but perhaps one of the most potent for your overall SEO might be to build links  to your most valuable content. Users don’t care for thin content—write with them in mind Thin content can easily fly under your SEO radar, but left unchecked, it could cause deeper issues and knock-on effects that become more difficult to fix. Remember, Google’s not trying to make life harder for website owners. It’s just championing the cause of valuable, rich content that serves readers. Whether it’s avoiding the pitfalls of duplicate content, optimizing your underperforming pages, or bringing a personal touch to what you write, the goal is the same: provide real value. Vinnie Wong - Founder and Chief Strategist at Content Cartography   Vinnie is a content expert with over 5 years of SEO and content marketing experience. He's worked with Ahrefs, Empire Flippers, and is committed to crafting exceptional content and educating others on the symbiotic relationship between content creation and effective link building. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Cari O’Brien Roles abound within content marketing , from the junior copywriter to the content marketing manager all the way up to the chief content officer (in some organizations). Each role carries its own core responsibilities, preferred qualifications, and qualities—all of which should be considered when you’re on the path to advancing into a managerial or strategy-focused role.  In this article, I’ll explain what businesses typically look for when onboarding a content marketing manager. If you’re considering this role or something similar for your career, read on to learn what the role requires and how to achieve success.  Table of contents: What is a content marketing manager? The 7 core content marketing manager responsibilities Preferred skills and qualifications The average content marketing manager salary How to become a successful content marketing manager What is a content marketing manager?  Content marketing managers (CMMs) are responsible for driving a business’s overarching content marketing strategy and ensuring it aligns with the company’s goals. The CMM is also often the direct manager of the content marketing team, overseeing the daily efforts of:  Content strategists SEO specialists Copywriters Editors Social media marketers Etc. It’s up to the content marketing manager to ensure their team employs tactics that deliver the desired results. This ranges from building a strong brand to driving qualified leads across the content spectrum (e.g., email, website, paid ads). The CMM will determine which channels to focus on, plan the content calendar, and implement workflows to make it happen.  In addition to collaborating with their team to compose and apply the ideal strategy for the business, the CMM also works closely with management and usually reports to the chief content officer, head of marketing, or chief marketing officer. The CMM tracks and analyzes all content marketing campaigns and creates reports  on those campaigns for management. The CMM is then responsible for extracting insights from those analyses and adjusting campaigns accordingly. What’s the difference between a content marketing manager and a content manager? You may find job postings for content managers when searching for content marketing manager positions. While the two roles are pretty similar in name, they can be vastly different in scope and scale. Generally speaking, here are some key differences between the two: Content marketing manager Content manager Core responsibilities Strategy and goal-setting Brand alignment Team management Data analysis Content creation Editorial and optimization Publication and distribution Project management Key qualities Strategic thinker Strong leader Clear communicator Creative Organized Collaborative Preferred skills Audience development Competitive analysis Strategy development Budget management Performance analysis and reporting Writing and editing Keyword research Content optimization Social media marketing Content distribution and promotion Measures of success Return on investment (lead generation) Content quality and engagement In summary, a content marketing manager leads the strategy for the content team while the content manager implements that strategy.  The 7 core content marketing manager responsibilities After reviewing content marketing manager job descriptions on various job boards and company websites, it's clear there’s a set of core competencies that span most listings. Here are the seven content marketing manager responsibilities you should expect to see as part of any position you apply for.  01. Content strategy development Core responsibilities: – Crafting a compelling content strategy that fits the company’s brand  – Aligning content with overall business objectives – Determining key performance indicators (KPIs) As a prospective content marketing manager, your work largely centers around the ideation, creation, and execution of the company’s overarching content strategy. This strategy should include all channels of content that matter to the company, from copywriting to search marketing, podcasting  to video marketing, graphic design to email marketing, and more. “When I was managing content at Codementor, I would regularly remind our team that content was really 20% copy and 80% distribution. Don't just spend time on crafting good content—you have to work on getting it in front of your target audience. If good content is the tree that falls in the forest and no one sees it, is it really good content?” — Debbie Chew , Global SEO Manager at Dialpad Most importantly, the CMM must know how to align the content strategy to the company’s growth goals. You’ll need to have a keen ability to see the big picture while also being able to create a measurable path forward. This includes identifying the primary metrics by which to measure success . 02. Competitor and audience research Core responsibilities: – Conducting competitor research  – Defining the ideal audience(s) to target with content You need to be crystal clear on the audience you’re pursuing and understand where the business stands in the competitive landscape to create a worthwhile content marketing strategy.  The CMM will lead the way in competitor research and ideal audience definition. That research then serves as the basis for content planning and execution. 03. Content planning Core responsibilities: – Selecting marketing channels  – Setting budgets Once the CMM creates the strategy and defines the competition and audience, the next step is to provide detailed direction regarding which channels to pursue to reach the brand’s audience. Having identified the channels and the scope of work for each channel, the CMM then sets the department budget accordingly and keeps track of expenses to stay within budget. 04. Team management Core responsibilities: – Creating job descriptions and setting performance expectations – Hiring and managing team members The content marketing manager’s responsibilities include hiring and managing their own team, so proven leadership skills and management experience are prerequisites. This team could be a team of one or a multi-departmental team of numerous specialists within various departments. “Success in content marketing is deeply intertwined with collaboration. Every time I get on a call with my manager, we feed off each other and brainstorm or validate ideas we can implement for the Moz content team. I encourage new managers to build relationships with other team members, including the wider marketing team.” — Chima Mmeje , Senior Content Marketing Manager at Moz Since the CMM determines the content marketing strategy, they are crucial to identifying the team members needed to implement the strategy. The CMM will craft job descriptions, run performance reviews, lead the team in group meetings, one-on-one conversations, and everything in between. 05. Content oversight Core responsibilities: – Creating efficient content marketing processes – Ensuring high-quality content creation that aligns with company goals and branding The CMM not only oversees the teammates implementing the content strategy, they also oversee the work itself. The CMM will build the processes necessary to implement the strategy (e.g., writer selection, publishing cadence, editorial workflow, periodic reporting, etc.), emphasizing brand standards and working towards the business’s overall goals. 06. Search engine optimization Core responsibilities: – Implementing SEO best practices  in content creation – Monitoring and adapting to search engine algorithms Every content marketing manager should be comfortable with search engine optimization. It’s imperative that the CMM stays up-to-date with SEO best practices and emerging trends (e.g., generative AI ) and can translate that knowledge into actionable tactics. “SEO is the primary distribution channel I invest in for most of my clients, it’s also the channel I understand most and I can’t overstate the importance of it. However, basic SEO knowledge may be sufficient for some content brands. Let’s say you’re creating a new category, people need your product but they don't know what they should be searching for. In that case, basic SEO best practices would suffice while you focus your attention on awareness content on discovery platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn.” — Lily Ugbaja , Founder and Head of Marketing, Marketing Cyborg 07. Performance analysis and reporting Core responsibilities: – Using analytics tools to assess content performance – Generating reports and adjusting strategies based on data – Presenting data and results to leadership A CMM’s success ties directly to the success of the strategy and tactics they set in place. So, a skilled content marketing manager must know how to use analytics  tools to gain insights into which tactics are working (and which aren’t).  The CMM must also regularly interpret analytics data for the company’s leadership and identify how to adjust efforts when the results aren’t as expected.  Preferred skills and qualities for content marketing managers “ Every content marketing manager has specific experiences, but in my case, the skills that served me well (thus far): – Curiosity (constantly asking questions and wondering why things are) – Asking good questions – SEO – Writing – Knowing how content ties into business goals – Knowing how to give feedback on drafts” — Si Quan Ong , Senior Content Marketer at Ahrefs Knowing what content marketing managers are responsible for helps you gain clarity around which skills and qualities would make you a strong candidate. Let’s walk through several content marketing manager skills you’ll want to emphasize on your resume. Hard skills   Here are a handful of hard skills mentioned across numerous content marketing manager job descriptions and why they matter. Research: To create a comprehensive strategy, you must know how to research everything from your company to your competitors to your audience. You need to know how to find information quickly and how to use that information to gain a competitive advantage. SEO:  You’ll need a solid understanding of search engine optimization. Show that you have experience with various keyword research tools and website CMSs and that you’re comfortable with various aspects of optimization, including both on-page  and off-page efforts . Analytics and reporting: The CMM reports on content performance to leadership. In this role, you must be comfortable and confident with using analytics tools (e.g., search engine analytics, email marketing analytics, social media analytics, etc.) to gauge ongoing performance. Writing and editing: Strong writing skills are a necessity, whether you’re writing all the copy or only a few thought leadership pieces each year. You’ll need to be able to differentiate between good writing and bland content, both during the hiring and publication processes. You may also be in charge of editing content, so having an editing portfolio is also a good idea. Soft skills While hard skills are imperative to your success as a content marketing manager, they can be taught. Soft skills, on the other hand, can only be developed—they can’t build from nothing. The following soft skills will put you ahead of the pack when applying for CMM positions. Leadership: While management experience may not be a prerequisite for a content marketing manager role, leadership skills are. You need to convey yourself as someone who can influence, direct, and define processes and people. Communication: Excellent communication skills are paramount. These include clearly communicating information to others and actively listening and soliciting input. You’ll need to show you’re a good communicator in writing and orally and that you can communicate well with all stakeholders (e.g., leadership, direct reports, clients, strategic partners, etc). Problem-solving: Content marketing managers must consistently review the team’s efforts and make adjustments on an ongoing basis. Your ability to think critically, analyze situations, identify potential solutions, and make informed decisions will undoubtedly help you stand out from other candidates. Adaptability:  From the release of new marketing platforms to expanding privacy concerns to groundbreaking new technologies , the digital marketing industry changes constantly. You must be comfortable with change and have the ability to adapt your approach to keep your strategy relevant and effective. What is the average content marketing manager salary? The average content marketing manager salary can vary greatly depending on location and experience.  According to Payscale , the average salary is just over $74,000, whereas Glassdoor  says the average is just under $88,000 annually. Both platforms suggest that the low-end annual pay is between $51,000 and $65,000, and the high-end ranges between $105,000 and $113,000. How to become a successful content marketing manager  Here are some steps you can take to maximize your chances of success as a content marketing manager. Some may take much more time than others, but they’re each worth your time and effort.  Get a good education A majority of employers prefer candidates with a bachelor’s degree (or higher). If you can invest in a college degree, do it. While some employers prefer candidates with marketing degrees, many others don’t state a preference. If a four-year degree is out of the question, you can also gain the necessary education from hands-on experience. The more years of experience you have in content roles and specific areas of content marketing, the more you can show a proven track record of success, and the less important a college degree becomes. Write, write, and write some more Writing and publishing your own work is the bread and butter of content marketing. This will help build your reputation as a thought leader in your niche. It will also help build your portfolio to show prospective employers your strong writing and editing skills.  Ghostwriting can be as important here as writing under your own name. With ghostwriting, you can show your ability to adapt your writing to different voices, platforms, and industries. This versatility can be just what you need to ensure your application stands apart. Learn SEO and analytics A growing number of content roles require experience with SEO and analytics tools. Start to play with these tools in your free time if you don’t use them for your day job.  There are numerous places you can start your journey, including right here on the Wix SEO Learning Hub . There are also numerous guides and courses online to help you use search analytics tools like Google Analytics  and Bing Webmaster Tools. Take advantage of these resources to help build your hard skill set.  Get familiar with popular marketing tech tools Aside from SEO and analytics tools, you’ll also want to become familiar with popular tech tools that companies rely on to market their products and services. With over 11,000  marketing tech tools available to you, there’s no way you’ll be comfortable with everything. However, it’s a smart idea to get familiar with a tool or two within each of these primary areas:  AI content generators (e.g., ChatGPT , Jasper) AI image and video generators (e.g., Dall-E 3, Synthesia.io ) Research (e.g., Qualtrics, BuzzSumo) Collaboration (e.g., Microsoft Teams, Slack) Content management system (e.g., Wix, etc.) Document and file management (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox) Image and graphic design (e.g., Adobe Photoshop, Canva)  Project management (e.g., Asana, ClickUp) Email marketing (e.g., ActiveCampaign, MailChimp) Social listening and brand monitoring (e.g., Brandwatch, TweetDeck) Social media marketing (e.g., Hootsuite, SproutSocial) Video marketing (e.g., Streamyard, Wave Video) Build your personal brand and network The more you get your name out there and the more recognizable you become, the easier it’ll be to land the job. Publishing content on your own blog or popular platforms like LinkedIn or Medium is a great start, but there’s so much more you can do. Consider making networking a regular part of your schedule. Attend industry conferences, join a professional association, and reach out to close connections on LinkedIn every once in a while. And, if you’re not afraid of public speaking, apply to present at a local event or national conference.  Seek leadership opportunities  If you have limited management experience, there are still many opportunities to showcase your leadership abilities. Consider starting small at your company by asking for a special project to take the lead on. Spearhead a local initiative in your community. Volunteer for board service.  No matter how you gain leadership experience, understand that being a leader means more than delegating work. It means showing you can act with integrity, empathy, conviction, passion, and positivity. It means being a positive role model who doesn’t shy away from doing the work or making the tough decisions. Get comfortable with change Digital marketing is ever-evolving, and you must also be willing to evolve to remain relevant. Stay up to date with what’s happening by reading industry publications such as blogs and newsletters. Adjust your processes and tools as needed to stay current. And always approach this work with an open mind and keen curiosity.  It’s also a good idea to keep a record of how you’ve successfully navigated industry changes in the past, as potential employers may look for that reassurance. Opportunities abound in the world of content marketing When it comes to defining what a content marketing manager’s role is, not all job descriptions are the same. However, nearly all require strategic planning, team management, campaign direction and oversight, and performance monitoring and reporting. Some (especially smaller companies) require content creation, publication, and distribution, as well.  Regardless, there’s a strong demand for individuals who can provide the direction and management needed to develop a robust brand, define and implement a strategy, and drive sales-qualified leads.  Cari O'Brien - Chief Word Nerd & Founder at Custom Content Solutions   Cari O'Brien is Founder and Chief Word Nerd at Custom Content Solutions , a digital content agency. She’s the creator of the Connection Copywriting Method and the online course, Write That Site. She’s a frequent speaker on branding and copywriting. Twitter  | Linkedin

Author: Miriam Ellis The low-code revolution of recent years has quietly but profoundly changed how local businesses market themselves online. Just a decade ago (when I was still hand-coding websites in HTML and CSS for small- and medium-sized brands), a need for basic programming brought many business owners to my agency. Companies struggled to achieve a professional digital presence without substantial help from designers and programmers, and if budget drove them to a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) content management system, the available solutions often lacked essential SEO capabilities. This could create a cycle of failure for the owner, whose poorly optimized website wouldn’t be able to achieve their organic search visibility goals or contribute to their local search rankings. Ultimately, that would mean fewer opportunities for revenue, which could become a major cause of business closure. Gradually, and without much fanfare, that dynamic has changed completely. For someone like me, a local SEO consultant, the big shift has meant transitioning from website design to consulting. For local business owners, this evolution can best be described as moving from a challenging place of needing to know code to a softer spot of needing to know tools . The learning curve has become much less steep, and today, we’ll look at the two major causes of this metamorphosis, and provide you with a useful tutorial on the three foundational elements it takes to succeed in the modern SEO and marketing of local businesses. Why low-code platforms are great for most local businesses The first thing all local business owners in search of success should do is clearly define the amount of revenue they will need to earn to call their venture a winner. This figure will be unique to each situation/business. For example, I live in a rural part of Northern California, where many of my neighbors succeed at earning a little pocket money by selling vegetables or eggs at honor-system roadside stands. Their revenue goals are so modest that no phone number is needed, no website has to be built, and no SEO is required. They simply hang a sign at the end of their driveway to start enjoying microbusiness-sized rewards. Talk about low-tech! For most small businesses, though, revenue goals will be higher and achieving them will require some investment in online marketing. The surprising thing is how few assets you actually need to begin winning customers. Two key factors are the chief contributors to this low-code phenomenon: 01. Easier, better content management systems As discussed earlier, older content management system (CMS) solutions often produced low-quality websites lacking basic SEO components. Today, there are multiple platforms with excellent website development software that enable small business owners to publish and publicize an online presence that not only looks professional, but that can be substantially optimized for maximum search visibility . The low-code revolution has helped level the playing field in this regard. Putting programmatic needs behind the scenes allows SMBs to focus on telling their unique stories and communicating with their customers, instead of trying to become programmers in their very limited spare time. 02. Google has cemented a low-code approach to local search marketing In 2005, Google launched its local search offering—Google Maps. Since then, it has grown to become the solution of choice for most customers navigating the local commercial scene. Google Business Profiles (listings of local businesses in Google’s search results) now drive more local business leads than organic results—as much as six times more leads in some industries . Business owners don’t need to know any code to create and optimize a Google Business Profile, and they only need tiny snippets of code to fully track performance. Even more than improvements in CMS SEO capabilities, GBP’s centrality to local business revenue goals has cemented the low-code approach to local search marketing. Unless your business plans to custom-develop apps or other high-tech solutions, your SEO and marketing plan will rely substantially on three major components, and we’ll look at these next. The three SEO factors of local business success Achieving visibility for your local business means you must ultimately understand and fulfill the intent of searchers in your area. It can be useful to think of this activity as consisting of three buckets that work together like the parts of a water wheel—continuously in motion, contributing to one another with a unified purpose. Bucket #1: Optimize your website for customer intent As mentioned above, a modern CMS removes the burden of needing to know code or hire programmers in most small business cases. Just be sure that the solution you choose doesn’t limit the amount of content you can publish and enables you to optimize all of the following elements: Page URLs Title tags Menus/ internal links Header tags Meta description tags Alt text and tags Images Sitemaps (Note: Wix automatically updates and optimizes sitemaps for users) Robots.txt configuration URL status codes (300 and 400 codes) Your CMS should make managing each of these elements possible with a few clicks, but it’s what you actually do with these elements that can influence how many leads your business receives from the web. You may not need to know code, but you do need to become skilled at using these two approaches to understand and fulfill local intent on your website: Market research Polling and surveying the community you serve is the most direct method of discovering exactly what they need and want . If you have already grown a social media following on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok, regularly poll your audience to discover unmet needs and grow your products/services to include them. If you do not yet have a social following and have never conducted a poll before, some options include: Handing out survey cards at your place of business Embedding a survey on your website with a small reward for participants Conducting an email-based survey (if you have begun to establish an email database) Starting a phone- or text-based survey campaign Hiring a company like SurveyMonkey to conduct a professional survey for you (provided your survey group can have geographic limits placed on it) Keyword research You will want to take all of the data from your polls and surveys and combine it with formal keyword research . There are good free keyword research tools like Answer the Public and Google Keyword Planner , as well as a variety of sophisticated paid tools. The only drawback of standard keyword research tools for local businesses is that they cannot be accurately refined to a limited geography (like a smaller city). If you live in a major city and want to know how many people are searching for organic vegan tacos san francisco , the numbers keyword tools show you may be somewhat accurate, but if you’re doing business in a small town, volume estimates will not be reliable. Instead, the best practice is to do your keyword research without geographic modifiers (like city names, neighborhood names, or zip codes) to get an overall sense of demand. Then, add back in those geo-modifiers when you optimize your website for these terms. The key to deriving the most benefit from both types of research is to pay attention to exactly how potential customers talk about and search for the goods and services you offer (or may offer in the future). These are the terms you will use to optimize the URLs, titles, tags, internal links, and text of your website. While little or no code may be needed, outstanding knowledge of your community is a necessity! Bucket #2: Optimize your Google Business Profile for success To build a powerful Google Business Profile (GBP)—one that’s not hindered by novice mistakes—you should familiarize yourself with Google’s guidelines for representing your business . These guidelines determine your eligibility to be listed in Google’s local platform, and tell you what you can and can’t do with the various components of your listings. Local businesses looking to compete should fill out every possible field in the new merchant experience editor. GBPs bring us to one of the key moments in the low-code scenario, because in order to track the performance of your listings, you will need to know something about URLs and Urchin Tracking Models (UTMs) . When you add UTMs to specific elements of your listings and a user interacts with those elements, it will be recorded in your Google Analytics for analysis. For the best tutorial on all the places you can utilize UTMs on your Google Business Profile, watch Claire Carlile’s excellent presentation . Beyond this, no code is absolutely required, and there are five crucial elements of your listing that directly impact its rank in Google’s local results: Business title Google’s guidelines state that you should list your business by its real-world name with no additions (with some special rules for scenarios like co-located businesses and multi-practitioner firms). However, because the name of the business has been shown to influence its local search rankings, local business owners may be tempted to add extraneous keywords to their business titles . If detected, Google may remove these words from the title. The best practice is to follow the guidelines. If, however, your business name is in some way holding you back from achieving your visibility goals (as in the case of a business named “San Diego Tacos” opening new branches in multiple cities), you always have the option to formally rebrand your company. Categories Your keyword and market research should inform the categories you choose for your business . Miscategorization may result in invisibility in Google’s local packs, finders, and Maps. To that end: - Read Google’s tips for choosing categories - Use a browser extension like GMB Spy to see all the categories your local competitors are using - Select as many categories as are relevant to the business while avoiding redundancy For example, if you are marketing a Mexican restaurant, there is no need to use “restaurant” as well as “mexican restaurant” for your categories. The more specific category is generally the better choice. Website When filling out your GBP, you have the option to link it to a page on your website. Typically, the homepage of a small business website will have accrued the most authority and is the best choice to link to from the listing. However, there are cases in which multi-practitioner or multi-location brands will link from each listing to its respective page on the website to provide a more streamlined user experience. The fact that the website URL contributes to local search rankings strongly highlights how crucial it is for small businesses to have a professional, SEO-enabled website. Services One recently discovered local search ranking factor relates to the services that Google auto-suggests to certain businesses while the listing is being created. This is not to be confused with geographic service areas. You can read more about adding services to your listing in this Google support doc , and it’s a best practice to select as many of the suggested services as are relevant to your business model. Reviews The number of reviews a business earns has been shown to impact rank. Current thought leadership in the local SEO industry asserts that the first ranking impact can be seen when a business earns its first ten reviews, with diminishing returns following that. It’s theorized that there is a subsequent benchmark which could possibly be achieving 100 reviews, but this is a matter of debate. The ideal approach to reviews is to avoid any of the forbidden tactics outlined in Google’s prohibited content guidelines , and to receive a steady drip of reviews over time (rather than a big wave all at once). Getting too many reviews too quickly can cause Google to flag them. Taken altogether, these five factors will go far towards contributing to your lead and revenue goals, and the last factor is of such importance that it goes in its own bucket below. Bucket #3: Acquire and manage reviews Google-based reviews not only impact Google’s local search rankings, they are also an SEO and conversion factor . On the SEO side, Google excerpts language from reviews and displays it within the local search results in a feature known as “justifications.” So, if a searcher is looking for great food near me, and one of your reviewers has written “great food!” (as shown above), Google may embellish how your business appears in the local packs by including that review language in a highly visible spot in the local pack. From a conversion standpoint, a recent large-scale survey I conducted at Moz found that 96% of US consumers read local business reviews and 86% say reviews are either the most important or a somewhat important contributor to whether they give a specific business a try. Reviews can become strong contributors to meeting your revenue goals when you take the following approach: 01. Understand that excellent customer service is required to earn positive reviews. What happens in your store and on your website is what customers will write about when they review your business. Investing in customer satisfaction via staff training and generous consumer guarantees are essential for earning a positive, lucrative reputation. 02. So long as it does not violate the guidelines of the review platform, actively ask for reviews at the time of service, or via email or text shortly thereafter. 03. Respond to all reviews . In the survey mentioned above, I found that the majority of reviewers want to hear back from you within two or fewer days. In the case of negative reviews, the quicker you respond, the better. An apologetic, problem-solving owner’s response to a negative review can salvage your relationship with the customer and your good name in the public eye. 04. Promote your best reviews . Republish them as Google Posts , social media posts, on your website, and on in-store signage. I’ve found that only 11% of the public trust what brands say about themselves as much as they trust what consumers say, so put your customers’ praise everywhere you can. Low-code is the best of both worlds for local businesses With all three buckets on your water wheel feeding into one another, your local business will have covered all the elements essential to succeed in search. And you will have done it all with little or no knowledge of code. The journey isn’t over, though—you need to keep your water wheel going to ensure you stay ahead of competitors and continue to reach new audiences. Miriam Ellis - Local SEO Subject Matter Expert at Moz Miriam Ellis is a local SEO columnist and consultant. She has been cited as one of the top five most prolific women writers in the SEO industry. Miriam is also an award-winning fine artist and her work can be seen at MiriamEllis.com . 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Author: Krystal Taing Your business’s website and its Google Business Profile are considered the mainstays of local SEO . But, simply covering the essentials leaves a lot on the table for your competitors to take advantage of. Extending your local business’s online presence to Apple Maps enables you to create an entry point in one of the only digital ecosystems that rivals Google’s. Whether you’re new to Apple Maps or eager to learn more about how to better optimize your listing with Apple Business Connect, my goal is to equip you with the knowledge and strategies you need to attract and convert more customers on Apple. Get ready to dive into everything you need to know to harness the power of Apple Business Connect and make your mark on Apple Maps. Table of contents: What is Apple Maps? Apple Business Connect and its place in your local SEO toolkit What makes Apple Maps unique for local SEO? The launch of Apple Business Connect A guide to Apple Business Connect for local businesses Creating your business with Apple Business Connect Apple Business Connect features: Completing your Place Card Measuring your success on Apple Maps with performance data What is Apple Maps? Launched in 2012, Apple Maps is a feature-rich navigation app that is available on Apple’s iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS operating systems. In addition to providing driving directions, Apple Maps includes a variety of tools to help users plan their routes and explore their surroundings. Users can search for nearby restaurants, shops, and other businesses, and view ratings, reviews , and photos from other users. Similar to other search engines and navigation sites (e.g., Google Maps, Yelp, Tripadvisor, etc.), you should ensure that your business information (address, phone number, hours of operation, website URL, etc.) is accurate and up-to-date on these platforms so that it is easier for potential customers to find you. Apple Business Connect and its place in your local SEO toolkit It’s never been more important to meet shoppers where they are. That having been said, there are many platforms to choose from when determining where to focus your local SEO efforts. In terms of search market share, Apple Maps has been the default navigation app on all iPhones and iPads since 2012. This accounts for a potential active user base of over one billion devices worldwide and makes Apple Maps one of the most widely used navigation applications in the world. With the number of users searching on Apple Maps every day, ensuring your business profile appears accurately and is engaging is imperative. “Apple crossed the 1 billion active iPhones milestone [in 2021], after selling its billionth iPhone in 2016 and then hitting 900 million active iPhone users in 2019.” — Tom Warren, The Verge Apple Maps has continued to innovate its features over the last 10 years, with a focus on improving user experience. The launch of Apple Business Connect is in line with this trend and delivers more relevant information to searchers and provides a much improved experience for businesses as well. The level of effort to claim, update, and publish your business on Apple Maps for a single location is fairly minimal, but the potential impact is high. As an additional local citation , Apple Maps should definitely be one of your top considerations. What makes Apple Maps unique for local SEO? The ways in which a consumer may search for a business or product information depends on where they are in their buying journey. At its core, Apple Maps is a navigation application, which sets it apart from the likes of Google, Bing, and Yelp (which are search engines). This means that when users go to Apple Maps, they typically have some type of destination or action in mind, and are ready to plan out their trip. At this stage though, there is still an opportunity to present searchers with information that can have an influence on their buying decision. This is why it’s critical to complete your business listing on Apple, as potential customers are in a critical buying stage. One limitation, however, is that Apple Maps currently only supports brick-and-mortar businesses. Local businesses that provide their service at their customer’s locations, and do not display their address, are not eligible for a listing (e.g., landscapers, electricians, etc). The launch of Apple Business Connect In January of 2023, Apple launched Apple Business Connect , making it easier for businesses to claim, manage, and optimize their Apple Maps listings. The much anticipated launch of Apple Business Connect replaced what was previously known as “Maps Connect,” which was a more rudimentary interface that allowed businesses to update their basic location information. Although Maps Connect has been available for businesses to manage their location data, Apple Maps also relies on data from third-party partners like Foursquare, Yelp, and Tripadvisor to provide business information, ratings, and reviews. Apple will continue to maintain its integration with Yelp, which allows customers to see Yelp photos and reviews in the business details (also known as “Place Cards”). Apple Business Connect takes this even further, allowing you to enhance your business listings with important details that were previously lacking and providing you with performance data (more on this below), enabling you to create better optimized and richer listings. A guide to Apple Business Connect for local businesses Apple has been gathering and publishing business data for years, so it’s entirely possible that your business information already exists on Apple Maps. Business Connect makes it easier to take control of that business information, further enhancing your profile with all of the details you want to share with customers. While the availability of features may be limited by region, Apple Maps is available in over 200 countries around the world, so the majority of businesses globally can use Apple Business Connect. Apple Business Connect also supports businesses of all sizes, whether you have one location or thousands. Creating your business with Apple Business Connect Apple categorizes businesses into two types in order to get started on Apple Business Connect. You can either be: One business with fewer than 25 locations One/multiple businesses with more than 25 locations For businesses that fall into the second category, Apple Business Connect offers the ability to delegate profile management to a third-party. This means if you are leveraging an SEO agency or third-party tool to manage your listings, you can continue to do so on Apple Maps as well. The agency or third-party just needs to be approved as an API partner and then you can delegate (or share) your business with them to manage on your behalf. When you’re ready to configure your accounts and listings, proceed to Apple Business Connect and select the blue “Get Started” button. 01. The first thing you need to do is log in or create an Apple ID that will connect to your business on Apple Maps. Once you’ve created and logged into your account with your Apple ID, you will be prompted to begin setting up your business. Be aware that Apple requires some information in order to verify your affiliation with the business. To begin, you need to provide: Your business’s legal name (this does not have to be the customer-facing name if that differs; you will have the opportunity to set your display name once your business is verified.) Your business’s country or region Your business’s physical address Your business’s phone number (used for verification) You should also add more details about your location (including descriptions, images, and so on) once you’ve created and verified your business. 02. Once logged in, Apple will prompt you to select your business type. Your options are: a. Small Business — As mentioned above, these can be individual businesses or franchise-style businesses with between 1 and 24 locations. b. Enterprise — Businesses with 25 or more locations. c. Third-Party Partner — This category is for tools and agencies that manage Apple Maps listings for other Small Businesses and Enterprises. 03. Next, Apple Business Connect will walk you through the five-step process for creating your business. You will need to search for your business to determine if it already exists on Apple Maps. If you find the correct business, select it and proceed to the next step. If it doesn’t already exist on Apple Maps, select “Add a new location with this name.” 04. Next, you will fill out or confirm the rest of your business details, as well as confirm the location of your entrance (on the map). 05. You will then be prompted to add your operating hours, including holiday and secondary hours. These hours (as well as any additional details) will not be published to your Apple Maps Place Card until you complete all steps and verify your business. It’s still important to ensure this information is accurate as Apple will review your information during the verification process. 06. Once you have completed these steps, you will be prompted for verification. Based on the information provided, Apple may give you a few options. You can: Skip verification — You will be taken to the Business Connect portal where you can continue adding information about your business. However, you will need to return to complete verification at a later date in order to publish this information. Verify your business by phone — Apple will provide a verification code to the phone number you provided earlier, so make sure this is a phone number you have access to in order to receive the call. Verify your business by uploading documents — You will be prompted to upload legal business documents (such as a lease or utility bill). In order to be eligible, these documents should have the same legal name and address you provided in the first steps of setting up your business. Otherwise, you may risk failing verification, which will delay publishing your information to customers on Apple Maps. Apple states that the verification process may take up to five business days. Once your listing is verified, it will begin to show on Apple Maps to searchers and potential customers. Apple Business Connect features: Completing your Place Card Once your business is verified (or while you wait for the verification process to complete), you can begin optimizing your listing, or Place Card. ' Much in the same way that you might invest time to optimize your business details on other sites and search engines, you want to add as much rich detail about your business as possible so potential customers have everything they need to make a decision. Review Apple’s photo and text standards and guidelines prior to completing your Place Card to ensure that your data complies with Apple’s standards. Place Cards allow you to publish the following information about your business: Place card header: A business photo and logo Display name: The real world name of your business Call to action: Buttons that allow users to take an action. You should choose the most relevant calls-to-action to add to your business profile. The options include: “Add Photos” “Add to Favorites” “Add to Guide” “Call Now” “Get Directions” “Rate Us” “Save as Contact” “Share this Place” “Website” Showcase: You can add special offers and events to your profile that will stay published for 30 days. Showcases can include: A brief title or headline (up to 38 characters) A description of the offer or event (up to 58 characters) An additional action button About: A description of your business and this specific branch/location Photos: Additional photos of your business, service, or products Address: Complete address of this location (which may be the same one you used to verify your account) Phone: The direct phone number for this location Hours: The hours this location is open for customers Website: The website for this business or specific location App: The link to your app in the App Store Categories : The type of business this is (you can find the full list here ). Good to know: You can select applicable attributes from the list below. Wheelchair Accessible Street Parking Parking Garage Pets Welcome Accepts Credit Cards, Contactless Payments, Accepts Apple Pay Status (whether the location is open, permanently or temporarily closed) For official documentation about completing your Apple Place Card, review the Apple Business Connect User Guide . Measuring your success on Apple Maps with performance data Referred to as “Insights,” performance data about how users interact with your business on Apple Maps is a new feature of Apple Business Connect. This can inform the types of information you publish by cluing you into the details that are more (or less) important to users, as well as other success indicators. Apple Business Connect Insights include data for search and the Place Card. Insights are not available until up to three days after a location is verified, and data remains available for up to 12 months if the listing was previously published on Apple Maps. If you just created and published your business on Apple, the Insights data will begin reporting after that date. Insights from search includes data on two core metrics: How many times a business was tapped on in search results What users searched before selecting your business. This is broken into the following categories: Name or Brand Searches (a name or brand associated with this location) Category Searches (a product, service, or business category related to this location) Other Searches (basically all other types of searches either related to an address or city, as well as anything that doesn’t fall into the brand or category searches) Place Card Insights (shown below) show data about what happens once a user views your Place Card and the types of actions they take. You can see the number of views and taps to action buttons on your Place Card. This data is likely the most valuable of the Insights as it shows how many potential customers you are driving to your business. Remember, local SEO doesn’t just happen on Google What happens if your business’s Google rankings start to decline? Investing heavily in one search ecosystem has its benefits, but smart businesses know to cover their bases so that their success doesn’t hinge upon a single platform or algorithm. That’s why it’s important to continuously monitor and refine your listings to ensure accuracy and effectively engage potential customers—whether they’re on Apple Maps, Yelp, Google Maps, or another local platform. Now that you’ve gotten started, continue analyzing the performance of your listing and adapt your strategies as needed to stay ahead. By staying proactive and responsive, you can maximize your business's local SEO potential. Krystal Taing - Global Director of Pre-sales Solutions, Uberall Krystal Taing is the Global Director of Pre-sales Solutions at Uberall. She is a Google Business Profile Platinum Product Expert and faculty member at LocalU. She helps brands at managing hybrid customer experiences. Twitter | Linkedin

Author: Judith Lewis Communicating your value to decision makers or potential investors can feel like trying to hit a moving target—after all, pleasing everyone involved with the project is crucial, but different roles will care about different aspects of your work (i.e., implementation, results, etc). So, to demonstrate the great work that your team does, your reports need to communicate the right information to the right people as effectively as possible.  In my experience, the more senior-level stakeholders you report to, the more they focus on the bigger picture. I once presented a report to a group of vice presidents; what they focused on and asked questions about was completely different from what the subject matter experts asked about. While you might take a lot of interest in the minutiae of your data and results, a more senior-level stakeholder could find this irrelevant, distracting, or a waste of time. To create reports that hit the mark—regardless of who you’re delivering them to—you’ll need to: Create an organizational chart Share insights that align with business impact Demonstrate success via KPIs Customize reporting to reflect the C-suite’s vision Make your stakeholders look good Include an executive summary Consider creating tailored reports Put additional data and details in an appendix Create an organizational chart  Before you begin your report, work with your stakeholder (the person who you report to) to create an organizational chart that helps you understand who might view the information.  An organizational chart is a way of positioning your stakeholder within the company at large. Whether you are in-house or at an agency, map out who you are reporting to as well as their manager (or whoever they report to). You may report to a marketing manager, brand manager, etc. who then needs to report to more senior-level decision makers. By understanding everyone’s roles, you can determine who is likely to read your reports, which enables you to reflect their priorities in both your campaigns and your reporting. Share insights that align with business impact In your reporting, focus on delivering unique insights and recommendations that will have a business impact.  Why? Because any tool can tell you how your rankings or traffic changed this month. What you (as an expert) are delivering is insight into:  Why those changes happened What you’re going to do to keep improving Future opportunities and risks  You are the expert and this is where you will shine. If you share your reports with subject matter experts (SMEs), they’ll often require more data around actionable insights. These insights need to be specific and tied to business outcomes.  That means that if, for example, the business has specific targets for volume of sales, leads, etc., then you should focus on them in your reporting. These data points should cover a specific reporting period and illustrate the value of your SEO work.  Use KPIs to demonstrate success Subject matter expert reporting should focus on agreed-upon key performance indicators (KPIs) that: Measure outcomes that result from the specific actions you take and the specific way in which they are implemented. E.g., the rankings and traffic gains from title tag optimization. You can even contextualize your KPI by analyzing it against (in this case) the time it took to A/B test  the new title tag structure and compare that against the revenue impact of having not made those positive improvements. Track the progress you (or your client) are making towards business goals.  When KPI targets aren’t met, you’ll know that you need to adjust course. For example, when I optimize a web page for a client, a key performance indicator would (for some clients) be an increase in traffic and/or an increase in keyword rankings. If the page decreased in rankings or traffic (and no other factors were to blame), that indicates that the actions I took failed to meet the target KPI. KPIs may seem stressful or difficult, however they are an excellent way to agree with your manager or client on a minimum definition for “success.”  Focus your SME reporting  on the agreed key performance indicators. While you can include some of the detail behind your approach to meeting (but hopefully exceeding) target KPIs, this is not always necessary or useful within the main report (but, you can include some of these details in an appendix, which I’ll discuss later ).  When reporting on work in-progress, you can still demonstrate your progress using the same KPIs. In house or agency, do not be afraid to challenge, reset, or add more KPIs in order to ensure you’re able to demonstrate success. Customize reporting for your C-suite For stakeholders at the executive level (such as the CMO, CEO, or similar), your report should focus on the bigger picture of the overall business and how your work fits into those objectives. So, you need to design your reports differently for this higher-level view of the business.  While KPIs can be helpful for reporting back to the CEO or similar, this is not always practical as they may be too specific to one business unit, without a clear enough picture of how important that metric is in the grand scheme of the business.  Work with your stakeholder to establish what the business goals and desired outcomes are, then identify how your work feeds into these goals to demonstrate success. Sometimes reporting to the owner of a business can feel like reporting to a CEO, and sometimes it is like reporting to someone who believes they’re a subject matter expert. Whatever the situation may be, it’s on you to understand the business, discover what the stakeholder (or client) wants, and create reports that work for them so that you can get the recognition you deserve. Make your stakeholders look good Remember, your job is not just to do great work and brag about it in your reporting—you also need to make your stakeholder contact look good to their boss. If you’re in-house, this can help you secure more buy-in in the future and advance your career; if you’re at an agency, this can help you maintain a client over the long term, which can be crucial depending on your agency pricing model .  To do this, you need to understand the KPIs, OKRs (objectives and key results), and any other metrics by which your stakeholder is measured.  For example, I once had a B2B client whose key performance indicator for his annual bonus was tied to how many subscribers he could gain for a mailing list. My team used white papers and paid media to direct more people to the landing page and managed to gather more new subscribers to the mailing list than at any time in the company’s history.  That made the stakeholder look good in front of his boss and got him his annual bonus, but was only a small part of the work we did.  It can be very advantageous to understand your stakeholders’ key performance indicators—not just KPIs for the campaign overall.  Include an executive summary Reports might get read months after they were created or used to bring new staff up to speed. This means that your reports can be read entirely out of context, without you, and possibly out of order. To ensure that the reader has some context for your efforts, include a table of contents as well as an executive summary. I really cannot overemphasize the importance of an executive summary that references business imperatives so that someone unfamiliar with the report can read and understand it.  An executive summary is a paragraph or two that concisely summarizes the contents of the report. It should not simply regurgitate what is in the report, but rather shine a light on the overall outcomes.  In some cases, though, there may be reason to include specific data. For example, I had one client who suddenly, in one month, doubled their visitors to one specific page. This warranted a call out in the executive summary not only because it was abnormal, but because we built backlinks  to that page, which helped drive that performance.  Generally speaking, the executive summary should not be too specific, though. Show how your results tie into individual and business objectives and ensure that the KPIs are clearly stated with their relevant metrics next to each one.  The executive summary is just that—a summary, and it needs to reflect its purpose. After reading the executive summary, stakeholders should be able to glean the essence of the report and, most importantly, possibly make important business decisions after reading only it. Consider creating tailored reports In certain circumstances, it might be useful to create different reports for your key stakeholder, the subject matter expert within the business, or the senior stakeholder that sits above the person you’re directly in contact with.  Certain clients that work with different agencies for different channels may also ask you to work together. In this scenario, it’s useful to create a specific, larger “all-hands” type of report that is then used by other agencies to present to several stakeholders. If your clients tend to outsource their digital marketing , website, social media, etc. then a template for this style of report could certainly save you time. This will not often be the case, as the reports you create should be digestible for all stakeholders with only small adjustments. Ideally, your reports can be read by almost anyone who is senior enough to understand the key business objectives of the company, as well as a little bit about your deliverables. Put details in an appendix Simplify and focus your report on elements that have a business impact. I have said this before, but it is really important to confine the minutiae of the report to an appendix. Do not clutter slides with detailed graphs or words. If you really need those graphs, put them in the appendix. The appendix is your friend.  I promise you, some of my appendices are longer than the main report, so I am not practicing what I preach every time. One presentation I did for a CEO had more than double the slides in the appendix than in the main body of the presentation. Why? The appendix enabled me to present detailed charts, detailed data tables, and detailed results that were excessive in the main body of the report.  The appendix gave me what I needed to back up all the assertions in the main report. That meant I could be efficient with the content I delivered to the client, but could still answer all questions without needing to load up a tool and take forever to get the required data set up and displayed. This does not mean I am advocating for appendices that are longer than reports, only that I am saying you can do it if you need to.  Multi-stakeholder reporting makes more people aware of your success A good report clearly communicates the results of the work undertaken. A great report adds context to that data and tailors it for the person reading it, whether they’re an SME or a member of the C-suite.  It may sound like a lot of extra work and consideration to compile your reports this way, but it’ll pay off when it's time to review your performance (or renew your contract), as everyone involved will feel like you understand their priorities and accounted for them in your efforts. Judith Lewis - Founder CEO at Decabbit Consultancy Judith is a renowned international speaker and digital media consultant, specializing in digital technologies to help businesses innovate and optimize. With over 25 years of experience, she runs her own consultancy delivering actionable business insight for M2B, B2B, and B2C companies. Twitter  | Linkedin