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superspunarticle · 6 years

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How to Make Your Content Powerful in Eyes of Searchers (and Google)

SEO tutorials.

The next coaching was in fact released courtesy of Content Marketing Institute. They almost always supply you with videos of the finest quality consequently they are no doubt one of my current go-to blogs. I think you will find it helpful.

The value of building SEO content is second to none.

However, I’m not merely talking about properly optimized content that has the right meta information, links, keywords, and technical SEO.

Instead, I’m talking about honing powerful content that speaks to readers irresistibly. It’s optimized, sure, but it’s also constructed to be the ultimate read. This kind of content is the equivalent of a best-selling novel – people invest in it and gobble it up.

Powerful #SEO content is the equivalent of a best-selling novel that people gobble up, says @JuliaEMcCoy. Click To Tweet

What happens when you build SEO content with these kinds of superpowers?

This insight comes from my company’s experience in ranking for 16,200 words on Google. The site averages 27,600 in monthly organic traffic, which would cost nearly $96,000 to replicate by paying for those same keywords on Google AdSense.

Here’s the kicker. The content is not only keyword optimized. It provides a lot of value to the readers. Packing your content full of that kind of value, along with SEO techniques, is what brings in real organic results.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Secrets of High-Performing Online Content

1. Create utterly original, standout, creative content

Original content is a must. Most of the 4 million blog posts published each day get lost in the noise. To rise above it, you can’t stop short at original – your content needs to be standout and creative to boot.

How do you give your content extra oomph?

Write for your niche audience persona – Each business has (or should have) a unique value proposition to offer a unique set of customers. To create content that stands out, speak to your niche. Specifically, that’s the audience persona you created when you put together your content marketing strategy.

Find your style – Your business has a unique value proposition (your content differentiation factor), so your voice and style of communication need to match. Alex Honeysett for The Muse has some great questions to help you find your voice, including:

How do you want your customers to feel when interacting with your content?

What images do you want to evoke for them?

What is your voice/personality (or your client’s distinct style), and how can you use that as inspiration, too, to make your content your own?

Image source

Find and write about niche topics – To find them, think about your content differentiation factor and your audience persona(s). Brainstorm topic ideas that appeal to both and write them down. Then, research each idea shell to make sure it’s interesting and relevant for your audience:

Example: In the loose-leaf tea industry, you do a content analysis on BuzzSumo to find which brainstormed topics would be most popular with your audience. In BuzzSumo, click on Content Analyzer (under the Content Research tab), then Analysis. Add your topic to the search bar and hit “enter.”

A results page shows for the topic “loose leaf tea.” Find the gray box, “Add comparison,” next to the topic name. Enter your other topic ideas (how to brew tea, tea brewers, how to make tea, best types of tea) separated by commas.

Hit “enter” when finished.

The next results page has great information to help you choose a popular niche topic. For example, it shows total engagement for each topic over the length of time you specify.

A graph illustrates how the engagement for each topic shakes out over time.

As you can see, “how to brew tea” could be a great topic for your original spin – there is less competition for that topic, but engagements are high.

Don’t forget to click points on the graph to see the most engaged articles during that period. You’ll find great inspiration.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How Topic Modeling Can Strengthen Your SEO and Content Marketing Strategy

2. Find the most profitable keywords for your brand

Next up in your quest for superpowered SEO content – find amazing, profitable keywords.

As you know, keywords are the foundation of organic search. If you target the right ones, you won’t necessarily get a ton of traffic. Instead, you’ll get the right traffic, or what I call the keyword sweet spot:

Find keyword sweet spot, where it’s relevant to business & it’s long-tail, low competition. @JuliaEMcCoy Click To Tweet

If you keep a couple attributes top of mind during your keyword research, you’ll find better keywords for your circumstances, customers, and products/services. These attributes are:

Relevancy

Long-tail, low competition

Relevancy means your keywords are always on-topic, on-brand, and on-industry.

Long-tail keywords are more specific than broad or seed keywords, but they’re often easier to win in rankings because not everyone is trying to target them.

Instead of blanketing your content to a mass of people who may or may not be interested in your brand, long-tail, low-competition keywords let you target who will be interested. Even better, if you target keywords with the right buyer intent, you can attract organic traffic in the form of ready-to-buy consumers.

Plus, if your keywords are low competition, you’ll have a better chance of ranking more quickly.

To find these magical keywords, I often recommend a tool called KWFinder by Mangools. With this tool, it’s easy to analyze results and you’ll get accurate data. Its focus is the same as yours. As it says on its home page, “find long tail keywords with low SEO difficulty.”

A free search on the loose-leaf tea topic gives lots of valuable data:

Check out the “Keyword SEO Difficulty” and the monthly search volume data.

If you’re new to trying to rank for the keyword “loose leaf tea,” you can see that it’s possible, but the level of competition is tough, based on Google AdWords. It scores 100, the highest possible.

Luckily, KWFinder gives plenty of alternatives. A bunch of keywords look more doable for ranking, including “bulk tea” and “organic loose leaf tea”:

Tools like this are indispensable for finding the right keywords for your niche. However, remember no tool alone should be treated like the holy grail of keyword data. Cross-check your findings on another tool to make sure you hit that sweet spot. A few others I like include:

SEMrush

Google search (to find keyword variations plus related/synonymous terms)

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

8+ Tools to Find Related Keywords for Your Content

3 Keyword Research Trends to Reshape Your Content Optimization

3. Focus on strategic keyword placement, not density

Where you place your keywords, including how you write the major pieces of content that contain those keywords, are huge pieces of powerful SEO content.

Here are the major points that count:

Write a multitalented, multitasking headline – Your headline has a lot of multitasking to do. It needs to attract readers and incite their curiosity effortlessly, naturally contain your focus keyword, and not overzealously promise, only to let down the searcher.

Your #SEO headline must multitask – attract readers, incite curiosity, focus on keyword, says @JuliaEMcCoy. Click To Tweet

TIP: To learn to incorporate all three aspects into your H1s, I highly recommend CoSchedule’s free Headline Analyzer. (It doesn’t just score your headline; it also tells you what you might be doing wrong – the stuff that robs your headline of its effectiveness.)

Make subheads matter – Your subheaders (e.g., H2) are only slightly less important than your headline. They:

Help the reader navigate your content

Give Google direct clues about the relevancy of your page

Make your text easier to read

TIP: Give subheads nearly as much attention as your headline to make them useful and readable. Strategically add primary and secondary keywords to almost all of them.

Give subheads nearly as much attention as your headline to make them useful and readable, says @JuliaEMcCoy. Click To Tweet

Connect with related terms and synonyms – Google relies on semantic search to determine the relevancy of your content to user queries. Semantic search relies on related terms, synonyms, and the relationship between terms. Basically, Google has gone native – the search engine is closer than ever to understanding how human syntax works. You need to appeal to this tendency by – quite wonderfully – writing like a human.

TIP: To find related terms, type your focus keyword into the Google search bar and see the auto-suggestion keyword variations. Those are your related search terms.

4. Be thorough, comprehensive, and informative

The final step to add mega value to your content and thus mega SEO power?

Dig deep into your topic and channel your inner nerd. Take your readers’ hands and invite them to follow along:

Research, research, research – If you make a claim, back it with proof. If you provide a statistic, link the study. Add background to your content with relevant news stories, research, polls, and expert insights. Link to every source you cite.

Don’t skim your subject – If your readers want a general overview of any topic under the sun, they can consult Wikipedia. Instead of skimming the surface, go deeper. Think about facets of general topics you can explore, then go down the rabbit hole. Example: “Loose leaf tea” is as general as it gets. Follow this broad topic to a different branch of the topic, i.e., “loose leaf tea” ->> “how to choose the best loose leaf tea” ->> “how to choose the best loose leaf tea for recipes”

Provide high-authority citations, related links, and resources – Don’t use sources you randomly find. Link to sources with high domain authority – they’ll give your pages a boost by dint of association.

Don’t use sources you randomly find. Link to sources with high domain authority, says @JuliaEMcCoy. #SEO Click To Tweet

TIP: Use tools like the MozBar or SEOquake to quickly learn the domain authority of any page. If you use SEOquake, you’ll see the metric under DS (domain score).

Don’t use sources you randomly find. Link to sources with high domain authority, says @JuliaEMcCoy. #SEO Click To Tweet

Ready to conquer the SERPs?

Dominating the search engine results requires more than technically perfect SEO. It also demands value-packed, powerful content that delivers on what it promises.

Focus on writing with your unique angle for your unique audience, targeting profitable keywords, exploring the right niche topics, and deep-diving into your content topic research to take your readers on a ride.

The results from the effort may blow your mind.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

3 Ways to Re-Use Your Content Magnets to Dominate SERPs

Road Map to Success: Creating the Content of Your Audience’s Dreams

Please note: All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team. No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).

Grow your tech skills to better your content marketing. Sign up for updates on the ContentTECH Summit in April 2019 in San Diego.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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How to Make Your Content Powerful in Eyes of Searchers (and Google) was originally posted by SSA-Blogger: CMI+SEMrush+ChrisMarr+CopyPress

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michaelandy101-blog · 4 years

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How to Choose Google My Business Categories (With Cool Tools!)

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/how-to-choose-google-my-business-categories-with-cool-tools/

How to Choose Google My Business Categories (With Cool Tools!)

Image credit: Danny Sternfeld

In creating a Google My Business listing for your local business, making a data-based decision is one of the most important steps you’ll be taking. Just how influential are the categories you select?

Our recent State of the Local SEO Industry 2020 survey found that, out of all factors, GMB elements (which include categories) have the greatest impact on local pack rankings. Choose wisely, and these elements help ensure Google views you as a candidate for possible inclusion as a result for a set of search phrases. Choose wrongly and you can exclude yourself from this vital visibility.

Google categories can also play a role in determining which features will be available to you in your Google Business Profile/Google listing. For example, if you’re categorized as a “hotel”, you won’t be able to use Google Posts. If you’re categorized as an educational institution, you won’t be able to receive reviews. Meanwhile, if you’re categorizing your business in the auto dealership space, you’ll be allowed to have multiple listings for your departments and the car makes you vend.

Categories impact the attributes that will be associated with your business, the menus you can use, whether booking buttons are available to you, and whether you have primary or secondary hours of operation displayed.

In short, your choice of your primary and secondary categories contributes a lot to Google’s understanding and handling of your business. With so much riding on proper categorization, let’s empower you to research your options like a pro today!

When and where to choose Google categories

In creating a brand new Google My Business listing, one of the first thing Google asks you to do is to choose a category:

And, as Google says, you can change and add more categories later. Once you have access to your GMB dashboard, you’ll find your categories by clicking on the “Info” tab in the left menu and looking right below your business name, where the pencil icon will let you edit your categories:

You are allowed to select up to 10 categories. Your primary category is believed to have the greatest influence on your local rankings, and must be chosen with extra care:

You can edit your categories in the GMB dashboard any time you want to, with the understanding that doing so can substantially alter the rankings you’re experiencing for various search phrases.

How to choose Google categories

Here’s your step-by-step workflow for picking the Google categories that are best for your business, with the help of some great tools.

1) Determine your most important search phrases

First, create a list that includes:

The type of business you operate (e.g. “supermarket” “medical center” “restaurant”) and its variants. For example, if you’re an attorney, list out the subtypes associated with your firm, such a “personal injury lawyer” or “tax attorney”. If you own a restaurant, include whether it’s an “Italian restaurant”, a “family restaurant” and other qualifiers. A supermarket might also be a “grocery store” or “natural foods store”.

The full list of goods and services you offer. Your HVAC company offers heater repair, air conditioner repair, etc. Your landscaping company offers tree service, landscape design, yard work, etc. Your clothing store offers men’s clothing, shoes, jewelry, etc.

Next, take your list of keywords and enter them into your choice of free or paid keyword research tools to discover which terms have the highest potential search volume. For example, Moz’s Keyword Suggestions tool within Moz Keyword Explorer can help you determine the difference in search volume between two terms like “Mexican restaurant” vs. “taco shop”:

Note down the search volume for each term on your list.

Finally, refine your list down to a smaller set of terms that combine the highest search volume with being most relevant and important for your company. In most cases, this is the list you’ll move ahead with, although there are some cases in which you would choose to target lower volume search phrases because they are either a) less competitive, or b) a more exact description of what your business is.

2) Determine which categories your market competitors are using for your most important search phrases

Now, take your refined list of search phrases over to Google and begin searching for them in your local market. Your local market is made up of your customers’ locations in relationship to your business location. This could only be as large as your neighborhood, or it could include a whole city or several adjacent cities, depending on:

Your business model

The distance from which customers are willing to travel to get to your business

The distance from which Google believes customers are willing to travel to get to your business

For example, a coffee shop might have quite a small local market if most of its customers arrive looking for a quick, convenient cup of coffee. Meanwhile, an amusement park might have a much larger local market because people are willing to go a greater distance to visit it. Google’s local results increasingly reflect their understanding of intent differently for different business models.

Here’s a screenshot of the market an Internet searcher in the North Beach district of San Francisco might see if they are looking for “pizza near me”:

Meanwhile, a searcher in California looking for a “sports arena” could be shown a market that encompasses more than half the state:

Now, make a list of all the competitors you discovered in your market while searching from the location of your business.

Next, be sure you’re using the Chrome browser and head over to Chrome webstore to download the awesome, free, new extension called GMBspy. Developed by George Nenni of Generations Digital, turning this extension on enables you to go to Google Maps, search for your market competitors and see their categories, like this:

You can look up competitors one by one, or just mouse around on the map to see the GMBspy extension data pop up. Google doesn’t automatically reveal all the categories a business is using and so this little tool saves so much time, and a lot of fiddling around with HTML to access that data. What a great development!

Note down all of the categories your market competitors are using. Pay special attention to the categories being used by the business ranking #1 for each of your refined search phrases.

3) Get category suggestions and leave no stone unturned

Your market might be full of highly active competitors who have wisely chosen the best categories, or it could be a less sophisticated scenario in which other companies are overlooking opportunities you might be able to discover.

Hop on over to PlePer’s GMB Category Helper and type in your business name and up to three comma separated search phrases. If you’ve not yet opened for business, you can just enter the street address of your proposed location instead of a business name. Then, go get a cup of tea or do a little exercise for five minutes and come back for this amazing data:

Based on your lat-long coordinates, PlePer shows you your current categories, the categories being used in your area, a list of category suggestions, and other useful information. Quite cool! The free version of this tool lets you do three such searches per day. Jot down any notable findings that were absent from using GMBspy.

And, finally, just to be sure you haven’t missed any potential opportunities, move over to PlePer’s full GMB category list:

It’s updated at least every 3 days, which is great because Google continuously adds and subtracts categories. Just select your language and country and hit the “fetch” button. This tool can be especially useful if you offer an unusual good or service and aren’t sure whether a category exists for it. Note down anything you feel might be relevant.

Finally, within the GMB dashboard, Google will also sometimes make suggestions about additional categories you might want to consider adding, like this:

In the above screenshot, you can see that our categorizing Moz as a software company is causing Google to suggest that we might also want to select “accounting software company”. In this case, the suggestion is irrelevant for Moz’s business model, but it’s a good idea to see if Google is making any valuable suggestions for your company.

You’ve now got all the data you need to make a selection, based on the categories that are applicable to your popular search phrases and that are being used (or overlooked) by your top market competitors. Well done!

A little extra GMB category savvy

Image credit: Thom Wong

Let’s boost your confidence about Google categories with a few more tips before you fill in your choices in the GMB dashboard. Answers to these FAQs could help you out with common predicaments:

1) How many GMB categories should I choose?

My best answer is: as many as are truly relevant to your business. Never add categories that don’t relate to your business. For example, if you’re marketing a pizza place, you obviously shouldn’t add hair salon as a category, or it can totally confuse Google, your customers, and even harm your rankings.

So long as each category is applicable, you should be fine. In the past, there has been much discussion about whether category dilution (choosing too many categories) could hurt your rankings.Local SEO Colan Neilsen’s recent study demonstrated the opposite — that adding more, relevant categories can positively impact your your visibility, rather than undermine it.

This is a good time to note that the Guidelines for representing your business on Google’s section on categories can be a bit confusing. It contains outdated information pertaining to a bygone era (pre-2013) in which businesses were allowed to custom create categories.

I don’t know why Google has never updated this section to remove the text about writing categories that describe what your business “is” rather than what your business “has”, since you’re automatically confined to choosing only Google’s own pre-approved categories, but, the odd state of this area of the guidelines has personally made me take the other recommendations in it with a grain of salt. For example, Google’s insistence that you should use as few categories as possible is somewhat dubious, though their recommendation that you only pick relevant categories makes perfect sense.

My advice is to experiment with any relevant category and see where it gets you in terms of visibility.

2) What should I do if Google doesn’t have a category I need?

Google has well over 3,000 categories for the US alone, and while this large index covers many business models, it’s not uncommon to find that something you offer isn’t represented. Sterling Sky founder, Joy Hawkins, recently highlighted a case in which a business owner went about requesting a new category from Google the right way, with abundant evidence of why a new option should be added. If a missing category is holding your business back, I recommend studying that GMB help forum thread and then creating one of your own, making the most convincing argument you can about why Google needs to include your category wish.

If, however, you can’t get Google to act on your request, your next best bet is to choose the category that most closely represents what your business is, and then use the business description field, images, and Google Posts to add more nuanced information about your goods and services.

3) How can I know if I’ve chosen the right categories?

This question most commonly arises in troubleshooting ranking failures. You think you’ve done all you can to rank for a particular search phrase in Google local packs/finders/maps, but you’re just not there. While there can be scores of factors contributing to that, it’s always smart to re-check that you haven’t excluded yourself by selecting the wrong category.

Go back to the map and fire up GMBspy again to see which categories the top ranking businesses are using. Do your categories match, or are you missing something?

Also, pay attention to your GMB Insights, Google Analytics and any other analysis software you’re using whenever you add or subtract a category from your GMB listing. If you see a sudden drop in any metric dating to changing your categories, you may have made a poor category alteration choice you will need to correct.

Finally, be aware that you’re not the only one controlling your categories. If you experience a drop in rankings and notice that your categories have been mysteriously altered, it could be stemming from a third-party edit or bad data out there on the local web. Local SEO Nikki Brown tells a scary story about a client whose rankings went from 1st to 31st due to an unexpected edit of their primary category, emphasizing the importance of making a category audit part of any rankings-related troubleshooting you engage in.

4) How should I use categories for a multi-entity business model?

Google’s guidelines allow some business models to have more than one listings for the same physical location of a business. These special scenarios include:

Multi-department models, like a medical center with distinct departments for radiology, pediatrics, and emergency services

Multi-practitioner models, like a real estate office with multiple agents, or a legal firm with multiple attorneys

Multi-brand models, specific to the automotive industry, in which Google allows separate listings for dealerships that vend different makes of vehicles.

The guidelines recommend that each forward-facing department of a multi-department model should have distinct categories, and it’s considered a local SEO best practice to do the same for multi-practitioner scenarios, too. Diversifying your categories for multi-entity listings can sometimes lessen Google filtering some of your listings out of their results because you no longer have more than one entity competing for the same category terms.

A good way to think about category diversification for multi-entity models is that Google’s permission to have more than one listing is giving you the opportunity to increase the number of categories your overall brand can select. Instead of just having 10 categories, your total company could theoretically target 20, 30, 40, etc., substantially improving your potential visibility across a far wider array of search phrases.

5) When and why might I choose a less popular category?

There are scenarios in which you might encounter a set of local rankings you’re having extra trouble breaking into. For example, your physical location might put you just outside the map radius Google appears to be drawing for that search phrase, or your competitors may be discouragingly strong or dense on the ground.

In cases like this, you might want to experiment with going after a category that could be described as low hanging fruit —- something your keyword research and competitive audit showed you fewer people are searching for and fewer brands are employing. The foundational goal of managing Google My Business listings is to drive conversions/transactions for your company. If geography or competition are making it hard for you to win maximum revenue from a most popular category, you might find you can make up some of the difference by choosing a number of less popular categories that enable you to rank more easily or over a larger area of the map.

6) What about choosing categories beyond Google?

There’s a whole world of business listings beyond Google, and each directory or platform has its own system of categorization. Moz Local customers enjoy the tremendous convenience of selecting categories in the dashboard that automatically map to relevant categories across our partner network, but if you’re managing your listings manually, you will need to see what’s available on each site as you go.

To sum up

Your business will be best served by allocating time for the research and implementation phase of filling in the categories on your GMB listings. Don’t rush, be methodical, and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you put in the work to make the best category choices. And check back periodically to see if new categories have become available that could win you new local SERP visibility and increased transactions.

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kennethmjoyner · 5 years

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Some Random Tips for Writing Better Blog Posts

Over the last couple weeks, I have read and reread hundreds of posts from legal blogs. My reason for doing this was to screen the entries submitted in the inaugural LexBlog Excellence Awards contest, before sending the finalists off to the judging panel that will select the winners.

In reading through all these posts, I was thrilled to see confirmation of what I already believed – that there are a lot of legal professionals putting a lot of work and thought into writing high-quality posts – posts that are thoughtful, informative, analytical, instructive and sometimes even funny.

But I also found myself making notes of comments I’d make to some of the authors, had I been their editor. There is no right or wrong way to write a blog post. But lawyers often fall into the trap of sounding like, well, lawyers.

Even setting aside the legalisms we might expect, lawyers often exhibit a rigidity in their writing that gets drilled into them starting in law school. Simple changes to some posts could have made them more readable.

So here are some of the random notes I jotted down, in no particular order. Take them or leave them for what they may be worth to you.

Be catchy in your lede. Your lede paragraph is your opportunity to rope in the reader. Lawyers too often squander this opportunity. Use the lede to tell the reader what you’re writing about and why it matters. And keep it brief and punchy.

Don’t bury the lede. I often see posts that start with something like:

“On June 1, 2019, the Supreme Court decided the case of Smith v. Jones, ___ U.S. ___, on appeal from an en banc decision of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.”

Later – maybe in the same long paragraph or lower in the post — it goes on:

“This is the most important decision ever in the area of widget law and will require manufacturers to make major changes in their business processes.”

Why make me wade through the muck to find the flower. Just flip it:

“A Supreme Court ruling yesterday is the most important decision ever in the area of widget law and will require manufacturers to make major changes in their business processes.”

You can then go on:

“In the decision, Smith v. Jones, the court held that widget manufacturers are liable when … “

Start with why it matters. This is a variation on the last point, but I often see posts that start with legalistic recitations of procedural or contextual formalities. They read more like legal pleadings than blog posts. Give me the meat up front – start by telling me why what you’re writing about matters and then step back and provide the background and context.

Set the theme early. This is yet another variation on the preceding points. Keep in mind that your readers are professionals who are often busy and impatient. What are you doing in this post? Are you arguing a point? Are you providing tips? Are you analyzing a trend? What audience are you targeting? Make this as clear as you can as early as you can.

Consider using a style guide for consistency. Consistency of usage and style makes your writing more polished and professional. To ensure consistency, professional news organizations and publishing houses use style guides. I do too. My preferred guide is The Associated Press Stylebook, but there are others out there. I would particularly recommend this for larger firms that have multiple blogs or for blogs that have multiple authors.

Face it – you have a capitalization problem. Lawyers love to capitalize, even when the rules of grammar say not to. Take time to revisit the rules as you knew them before you went to law school. Not sure whether to capitalize? Then see that stylebook I mentioned above.

Be mindful of structure. One of the basic rules of writing is that every story should have a beginning, middle and end. Tell us up front what your post is about, use the middle to flesh out the topic, then bring it all home in the end, somehow bringing the reader back to where you started.

Use visual cues. Remember that blogs are visual as well as textual media. That means you should think about how your post looks, not just about how it reads. Make it visually easy for the reader to move through a post by keeping paragraphs short and by using visual cues such as subheads and bullets.

Keep paragraphs short. I know I just said this, but it bears repeating. Lawyers have a propensity for writing long, dense paragraphs. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain in readability by hitting the enter key every few sentences. If you’re worried it might interrupt the flow for the reader, don’t. I promise you, it will make your post more readable and easier to follow.

Keep sentences short. Short sentences are more readable. Yet lawyers love long sentences. Consider every comma and conjunction and ask why it isn’t a period.

Check hyperlinks. Nothing worse for a reader than clicking a link and finding it does not work or it points to the wrong source. Before you hit the publish button, check your links.

Footnotes? Really? Avoid footnotes. Use hyperlinks instead. You’re not trying out for law review here.

Don’t assume the reader knows as much as you. Writing instructors teach, “Do the work for the reader.” But legal bloggers have a propensity for throwing around arcane concepts, undefined acronyms, and legal references as if every reader will immediately understand. Look, I understand that legal bloggers are often writing for sophisticated readers – even for other lawyers in their same practice area — but why assume knowledge? It is a simple matter to spell out an acronym on first reference or to insert a clause briefly explaining a concept. Your readers will love you for it.

Personality isn’t poison. Don’t be afraid to inject some personality into your posts. Think of blogging as a conversation with your readers. It’s OK to be opinionated, to be funny, even to be vulnerable. Remember, you’re writing blog posts, not briefs – you’re writing to engage, not to convince.

Don’t sacrifice clarity for cleverness. No one loves a good pun more than me. But I saw too many examples of headlines that were so enamored of their own cleverness that the reader was left clueless as to the subject of the post. And if the reader is clueless as to the subject of the post, then guess what? The reader is less likely to read the post. Write headlines that help the reader decide whether to read the post.

But if you insist … If you simply cannot bring yourself to abandon your masterwork of a clever headline, then at least let the reader know in the first couple paragraphs what the post is about. Don’t assume that the reader is going to stick with your detour until halfway through your post before learning where you’re actually headed. I saw several posts like this, where the author was so taken with the cleverness of an idea that the author just kept at it through several paragraphs, only eventually getting around to bringing the clever idea home to the subject at hand.

Don’t be a minimalist. Another error in headline writing is to be so minimalist that the reader can’t tell what the post is about. The headline is your lure, use it to tell readers your topic – and why it matters.

Remember redundancy. Somewhere along the line, we all were taught to avoid redundancy. Then came law school and beat it back into us. A simple but frequent example is the use of “new.” If you tell us that it was just launched or signed into law, you don’t need to describe it as new — “launched a company” not “launched a new company” or “the president signed a law” not “the president signed a new law.”

Know your reader. It is a cardinal rule of writing, but one too often observed in the breach. Not only should you know who you are writing for, but you need to make sure the reader knows as well.

Who wrote it and when? Drives me crazy when a blog post omits the author or date. Drives me even crazier when it omits both. As a reader, I want to know who wrote a post and when. The “when” is important information, especially when you are writing about developments in the law. For some of the entries in our contest, we had to reveal the underlying markup language to determine when they were published. Do the work for the reader.

Read and reread. Before you hit the publish button on a blog post, stop and read it over. I was surprised at the number of typographical errors, incomplete sentences, missing words, misspelled words, and other simple errors I saw – even right in the first paragraph. For my own posts, I find it helpful to review a draft in preview mode, which lets me see it as the reader will. If you have someone available, it never hurts to have a second set of eyes review it before it goes out.

Consider using editing tools. I typically draft posts right in WordPress, but WordPress lacks sophisticated tools for editing and checking spelling and grammar. For longer posts, or if you’re not confident of your own spelling and grammar skills, consider drafting the post in Word and then pasting the final text into WordPress. In Word, you might even want to use one of the advanced editing and proofreading tools designed for legal professionals, such as WordRake or PerfectIt.

Preview your images. I already mentioned previewing your post as a method of reviewing it before you hit the publish button. But another reason to preview is to ensure that your images will display as you intended them to. Distorted or out-of-kilter images detract from the readability of a page and undermine the professionalism of its appearance.

Make your posts accessible. Speaking of images, there are various simple steps you can take to enhance the accessibility of your blog for people with disabilities. The World Wide Web Consortium provides standards on this. One simple practice is to include “Alt text” with images that describe them for those who cannot see them. WordPress and other blog software make it easy to do this when you post an image.

Avoid legalistic parentheticals. When you say, “the Department of So-and-So,” you don’t have to interject “(the ‘Department’).” When you say, “The Department of So-and-So issued regulations,” you don’t have to interject, “(the ‘Regulations’).” We’re all adults here. We can follow what you’re saying.

Blogs aren’t headnotes. When writing about a case or legal development, don’t feel that you have to cram all the facts or the holding into one lead sentence, in the style of a headnote. Write a brief, catchy lead-in, then expand from there.

Don’t cram in the citation. In the same vein as the last comment, you don’t need to stuff a long case name or citation into the opening paragraph. If the case name is notable for some reason, such as that the case is already well known, then go ahead and mention it. But skip the citation. It’s more important in the lede to describe what happened than it is to name or cite what happened. You can provide the name in a subsequent paragraph or even on a line by itself.

As I said at the outset, there is no right way to write a blog post. The bottom line is to know your audience and to consider how you can make it easy for your readers to engage with your post – and with you.

from Law and Politics https://www.lawsitesblog.com/2019/12/some-random-tips-for-writing-better-blog-posts.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

#law #legal

0 notes

vgblast-blog · 6 years

Text

How To Create A Professional Post In WordPress 2018

https://videogameblast.com/?p=413

How To Create A Professional Post With WP

Its Very Simple To Blog With WordPress, But Creating A Professional Post Can Be More Tricky Then Most People Realize. WordPress is by far my favorite tool in my virtual toolbox. It not only made designing a website myself possible, but made it so easy. When I first started I taught myself how to create articles, and they were about as unprofessional as they come. It took me a long time to figure out on my own what I'm gonna be teaching you here. Hopefully this tutorial will help accelerate the learning process, and steer you towards becoming a Professional Blogger. You might be a complete beginner, or you could be a seasoned veteran looking to step your game up. I will assume nothing of your skill level, and try to write this article so it can benefit everyone. I will be sectioning the post with the use of

's (header 3) to help skimming through easier. This is something the search engines look for that I will be teaching you.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Its one of the most important terms for both WordPress writers and web designers. So why is it so important? Its because the SEO signals you send to the search engines are one of the primary ways that they grade your work. The search engines don't read your post like a human would. Instead they read it like the robots they are, and are programmed through a mathematical science. The better you understand the machine, the better you will be at operating it. There are many search engines out there, but Google and Bing are really on top with much breathing room. I often refer to the Google Bots as the Google Gods. The Google Gods pretty much dictate how the show is ran now. If you appease their desires, they will reward you with bountiful boons and mega boosts. Ignoring the Google Gods can bring famine and pestilence to your post and website. My analogy is a little dramatic, but I'm not kidding. Writers and Webmasters all must please Google if they want to reach an organic audience. Most of use don't have huge ad budgets to afford over $1 a click.

What Is Yoast?

Yoast is a WP Plugin that is owned by Google. Its purpose is to help us create the most professional articles we possibly can. This plugin is one of the most popular on the market, and has pretty much become a standard for every site to use. I don't know to many WP site owners who don't use it religiously. It really helps that much! When I first started using Yoast it only graded on SEO. Now you will find 2 traffic lights that grade your score as you go. The new grading factor is titled Readability, and I will explain it in more detail as we go. You can find the Yoast Box towards the bottom of new post pages. In the Publish Box on the right it provides 2 color changing boxes for SEO and Readability that update live. A Few Of Yoast's Functions

Improves SEO Scores.

Improves Readability scores.

Adds The Keyword.

Alters The URL.

Alters The Meta Description.

Gives Content Analysis.

Gives Readability Analysis.

Alters Facebook Posts.

Keywords & Tags

Keywords and Tags are very similar, and you've probably used tags before on different platforms. Your Keyword, or Keywords, are like tags on steroids. Its the most important word, or combination of words that describes your article. You always want to plan out your keyword before you start your post because Yoast wants you to use it everywhere. Your Keywords and Tags are what lets the ranking bots know how to categorize your post. These are also the main words that they are going to match to peoples search quires. They also use words from your Title, backlinks, and the words from your post. Keywords n' Tags are mucho important! WP tags are similar to YouTube tags. You want to end them with a comma at the end the same way. On YouTube its good to use as many tags as you can. On WP its recommended to use 3 to 5. THEY say using more can cause all of them to be ignored or penalized. I'm not sure if that is a myth, but I use 3 to 5 as a rule of thumb.

How To Start Your First Professional Post

As previously stated, you want to plan your Keyword ahead of time. Adding the Keyword or Keywords to the Title is a ranking factor. Your also going to have to use it in many other locations. Yoast prefers that you use the Keyword more towards the beginning of the Title. Your Title should be well thought out, and be a good length. Yoast will tell you if your Title is to short or long. Having a catchy title is very important. I've heard writers say that they spend half of the time it takes them to do a post coming up with the title. I think that is a little extreme, but goes to show how important your Title is. In Search its going to be the first thing people see, and greatly determines if your getting clicked or skipped. On Social Media the Featured Image is usually the clickbate, but the Title is nearly as important there also. I recommend taking your time with the Title and Keyword. You can do a search yourself to see how popular the topic is. Pay attention to the search bar when you enter your keyword, as what pops up may help with your Tag selection. You can also use AdWords Keyword Planner to help, or there are several other Tag Generators out there.

Heading Tags (This Is A

)

Proper use of Heading Tags in WP is something that often gets overlooked. Using Headers the right way is very important to your SEO and Readability scores. Even though Yoast tells us exactly how we're using them wrong, most of us don't pay attention. Not understanding how to use them correctly can put us in the penalty box. You should always start every post with a Header 2

size, and include your Keyword. I think using a second Header with the Keyword looks kind of tacky, but they're 2 ranking factors that are expected. Somewhere else in your post you also are expected to use a Header 3

with the Keyword. It doesn't matter where, but this is another ranking factor to keep in mind.

Sectioning With Heading 3's

Bounce rate means how fast a viewer exits your post. "Video Killed The Blogging Star!" As videos became more popular, website articles bounce rates increased in velocity. Even the top websites in the world can't help but have a high bounce rate. People have become very picky and lazy due to there being so much variety online. If your article is not easy to read and pretty, most people are hitting back arrow at first glance. Yoast Readability Analysis helps make your post easier to navigate, and helps your grade with the Flesch–Kincaid Readability Tests. You can click that hyperlink to find out more. Unlike writing a book, the object is basically to dumb it down to make it easier to read. A ranking factor to remember: Yoast wants you to section your post off with an

Header at least within every 300 words.

Dumbing It Down

If you took writing classes before you started blogging, you probably gave a WTF to Yoast's Readability at first. You may still be WTF'ing it! Readability is confusing until you fully understand it. You have to understand that the search engines want the opposite of a masterfully written book. Their looking for easy to read and entertaining. Entertainment has become pretty lowbrow, and most writers are at least semi-intellectual. This often clashes with smarty-pants types logic and reason. Gotta dumb it down like that previous sentence, see! This article is a bad example because my paragraphs and sentences are running long. I assure you both lights are still green on the right 1,352 words into this post though. This is more of a recommendation. Try to write shorter paragraphs and sentences. A ranking factor is to keep all sentences under 20 words. Another thing that sounds so stupid to me, but is for real, they want you to use alternative words with less syllables. 2 syllable word are preferred. I try to use shorter paragraphs and sentences either way because it helps with skimming. I also think using to many short sentences looks bad sometimes.

What Is Passive Voice?

Almost everyone is confused at the Passive Voice warning in Yoast's Readability Analysis. To really understand how to avoid Passive Voice, I recommend taking the time to Read This Short Article. Even after you understand how the Passive Voice warning works, its still tricky. Taking the time to improve your sentences as you go, or at the end, improves your grade like a school test. It doesn't have to be perfect to get the green-light, but every bad sentence effects your overall score. If your going for perfection, hit the eye icon in Yoast to highlight the Passive Voice sentences, and fix em'!

What Are Transition Words or Phrases

This is another one that boggles most writers minds. You can click the above image to be transported to Gallaudet's List. Here is an Alternative Transition Word & Phrase List to help you with this challenge. I recommend saving the links to these 2 lists in your bookmarks, and take some time to try to memorize them. You can always refer back to these lists when you need help, but its better to know them off hand.

Onto SEO

Readability is by far more challenging then the SEO factors. Above I have equipped you with all of the knowledge you need to understand the machine. SEO is more centered around the use of your Keyword, with a few extra factors. The Content Analysis system is strait forward, and much easier to understand then the Readability Analysis. Your Keyword can be more then 1 word, but you don't want it to be to many. Here is a list of places you have to add the Keyword or Keywords.

Towards the beginning of the title.

In a

to start your post.

Towards the beginning of your first paragraph.

In a

anywhere in the post.

Several places within your article. It goes by a percentage going off of word ratio.

In your Images Title and Alt Text Fields.

Towards the beginning of the Meta Description.

In the URL

Google is making bank off of AdWords, so of course Keywords are a big deal. They seriously expect you to use the Keyword in all of those places.

Importance Of Labeling Images

As a rule of thumb you always want to take the time to fill in the Title, Alt Text and Description of every image you upload to your Media Library. Not only is this a SEO ranking factor, but Google Images is like its own separate search engine. Taking the time to fill in the blanks on your images can help bring in extra traffic, along with scoring the site extra backlinks. Skipping this step is probably the most common flaw I've seen in everyone I've taught to blog on WP. Though I always have stressed the importance, I guess this is just a step its common to be lazy with. If your striving to create professional posts, then I recommend you take your time and put your heart into it.

Meta Descriptions & Slugs

The Meta Description is the description of the post you see under the Title when viewing that post in search. Yoast groups the Meta Description, Search Title, and URL into a term called a Snippet. You can find an Edit Snippet button above where you put the Keyword. Under the Edit Snippet button there are 3 useful options.

Change the Title of your post for search.

Alter the URL of the post.

Edit the Meta Description of the post.

#1. The SEO Title sets how the Title will look when found in the Search Engine. You guessed it! It should contain the Keyword towards the beginning. #2. The URL is named the Slug. You want to add your Keyword here also. http//:videogameblast/all-lower-case-letters-n-dashes/ - It should appear like that. You can't use stop word like the, and, or it. Your URL also can't be to long. Shorter is better. #3. Your Meta Description is nearly as important as the Title in Search. It should be well thought out, and contain the keyword towards the beginning. It also has to be the right length.

Other SEO Ranking Factors

300 words is the minimum word count for a quality post. The green-light will come on for 200, but 300 is the standard. 300 is still considered low. Its better to aim for over 500. As your article gets longer, it gets increasingly tougher to keep the Readability light green. Google loves long evergreen articles like this one. Backlinks are the links you use in your posts from other sites, that link back to them. This has always been one of the biggest ranking factors. Before the wicked Panda Update the quantity of your backlinks is what mattered. Panda came along and switched it up so the sites quality behind the backlinks mattered. This destroyed many online businesses and entertainment sites. Its not known if the quality of the sites backlinks you use in your posts is a ranking factor. Most of us try to only use quality websites links just in case. Its recommended to use 2 to 5 backlinks in every post. I find its okay to use more with longer articles, and most of the time required. Sometimes you gotta take a hit to your score for your work to come out the way you want it to. Internal Links are links from your site. Most people miss this one. You should always include 2 to 5 Internal Links to every post. You can see how I do it at the bottom of this post, but you can add them anywhere, or in whatever fassion you please. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP-IuObMhcM

Video Source - Dropship Junkie

Dressing Up Your Professional Post To Be Pretty

Nobody likes a dull article. While SEO and Readability help with your structure, they don't suggest what type of media to use. How you dress up your article is your preference. I recommend taking the time to make it look beautiful. A dull post is a surefire way to increase your bounce rate. Here are some types of Media you can use.

Images or Memes.

YouTube or other types of videos.

Twitter, Instagram and other social networks post embed codes.

Digital Product embed codes.

Free Download embed codes.

Free To Play Browser or Mobile Game embed codes.

Audio files or embed codes.

Gifs

In the above video that lovely lady took the time to teach us how to add embed codes through the Text Editor. I recommend adding a space where you want your media to be before entering the Text Editor. Every website has a different process for how the distribute their embed codes. You can usually find them somewhere in the post, or on the media itself. I like to try to dress my posts with 1 piece of media per 300 to 500 words. This is not a ranking factor, but I find it helps add character to your work.

Always Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

Fair Use Policies, the Public Domain, Creative Commons Licences, and many other factors make sharing media pretty liberal. I recommend studying it for yourself. Be pre-warned though, you are going to find a bottomless pit of grey areas. Generally I have a rule for myself. If it doesn't clearly say they don't want it reused, its open to the public. Most creators are happy if you share their work, as long as you give them proper credit.. If someone doesn't want their media shared, they are usually clear about it. If its in the Public Domain, they are usually clear about that as well. I usually like to add a hyper backlink directly under the media to give source credit. Sites like Wikipedia add all of their sources at the very bottom of their articles. There is no rule for how to give credit, but giving proper credit for anything you didn't create is unless stated otherwise is a rule. You can see an example of how I give source credit in the video about how to add embed codes above.

Do You Have To Be A Prize Winning Author To Be A Professional Blogger?

Since the Search Engines want you to dumb down your content, the answer is no. Nearly anybody with a basic understanding of their language can be a Professional Blogger. The use of proper grammar is semi-important. Many who don't speak English natively do not make good bloggers. Most just can't get down the way we phrase our sentences, and their work reflects it. Lets face it, most of the people from English speaking countries are a bit snobbish. We demand a Professional Post, or we will bounce out fast. While your writing doesn't have to be perfect, grammar does matter. Even if you've taken writing classes your grammar probably isn't going to start off perfect. This is something you improve on with practice. As you edit your own work, try to pretend that you are the reader. Be the snob that is looking for mistakes, and be your own harshest critic.

Take Your Time

As you can see, there are many steps to creating a professional post with Yoast (that rhymed). Many bloggers try to develop a skill for speed posting. Sure they have the SEO and Readability process down packed like I do. Its usually obvious in the quality when they don't take their time though. Writing a Professional Post is time consuming. Many sites have an daily article quota. To reach their goals their writers pound out several posts a day. The big sites don't have to strive for perfection because they have massive budgets. The quality of most big sites articles are crap. The little guys are writing the better content, but the big guys can afford to position theirs on top. It usually takes a website consistently doing quality posts for 3 to 6 months for a SEO strategy to take effect. When it finally does the site sees many rewards. Traffic picks up, your world ranking skyrockets to the top, and your stats start increasing fast. SEO is a major term in the industry for a reason. I don't really even need Yoast anymore, but it is has been one of my best teachers.

Gif Source - Giphy

Closing Notes

Even the worse writers who doesn't natively speak the language can create Professional Posts. Most peoples problem is that they simply don't take their time. They don't take the time to fully understand how the mechanic function, nor take their time on articles. If you have Yoast available, it virtually holds your hand as you create your professional grade content. Most fail Readability because they don't understand it. If you took your time studying this comprehensive tutorial, then you should now understand the Google Machine. The best teachers are experience and repetition. Once you comprehend what the Search Engines are looking for, you are on your way. It took me a long time to figure much of this stuff out through trail by fire. Hopefully my contribution to writing class society here will help speed up your personal growth. Blogging is something you get better with as you go. If you don't use it, you lose it. I recommend you learn by experience. You now understand how to write a Professional Post. With a little practice you can start a career freelancing, get a good job, or create your own professional site. You can create a free website on wordpress.com! You can find many step by step tutorials on YouTube on how to create a free website with WP.

Ya'll Come Back Now!

I've always trained new writers personally. Its been very time consuming, and most ended up quitting anyway. Being a writer of any kind takes follow through. Obviously that is a quality that not all modern day humanoids possess. So I tried to make this tutorial as thorough as possible. Did this article help you out? Please come back and drop a comment if it did. If you'd like to learn by doing a guest post on this site, don't be afraid to reach out. If I missed anything, please let me know so I can update. Thanks for visiting VGB, and I hope you found this walkthrough fruitful!

The New World of Warcraft Account Value Calculator

Welcome To The Dojo New Fighting Game TV Show

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lucyariablog · 6 years

Text

How to Make Your Content Powerful in Eyes of Searchers (and Google)

The value of building SEO content is second to none.

However, I’m not merely talking about properly optimized content that has the right meta information, links, keywords, and technical SEO.

Powerful #SEO content is the equivalent of a best-selling novel that people gobble up, says @JuliaEMcCoy. Click To Tweet

What happens when you build SEO content with these kinds of superpowers?

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Secrets of High-Performing Online Content

1. Create utterly original, standout, creative content

How do you give your content extra oomph?

How do you want your customers to feel when interacting with your content?

What images do you want to evoke for them?

What is your voice/personality (or your client’s distinct style), and how can you use that as inspiration, too, to make your content your own?

Image source

Hit “enter” when finished.

The next results page has great information to help you choose a popular niche topic. For example, it shows total engagement for each topic over the length of time you specify.

A graph illustrates how the engagement for each topic shakes out over time.

As you can see, “how to brew tea” could be a great topic for your original spin – there is less competition for that topic, but engagements are high.

Don’t forget to click points on the graph to see the most engaged articles during that period. You’ll find great inspiration.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How Topic Modeling Can Strengthen Your SEO and Content Marketing Strategy

2. Find the most profitable keywords for your brand

Next up in your quest for superpowered SEO content – find amazing, profitable keywords.

Find keyword sweet spot, where it’s relevant to business & it’s long-tail, low competition. @JuliaEMcCoy Click To Tweet

If you keep a couple attributes top of mind during your keyword research, you’ll find better keywords for your circumstances, customers, and products/services. These attributes are:

Relevancy

Long-tail, low competition

Relevancy means your keywords are always on-topic, on-brand, and on-industry.

Long-tail keywords are more specific than broad or seed keywords, but they’re often easier to win in rankings because not everyone is trying to target them.

Plus, if your keywords are low competition, you’ll have a better chance of ranking more quickly.

A free search on the loose-leaf tea topic gives lots of valuable data:

Check out the “Keyword SEO Difficulty” and the monthly search volume data.

Luckily, KWFinder gives plenty of alternatives. A bunch of keywords look more doable for ranking, including “bulk tea” and “organic loose leaf tea”:

SEMrush

Google search (to find keyword variations plus related/synonymous terms)

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

8+ Tools to Find Related Keywords for Your Content

3 Keyword Research Trends to Reshape Your Content Optimization

3. Focus on strategic keyword placement, not density

Where you place your keywords, including how you write the major pieces of content that contain those keywords, are huge pieces of powerful SEO content.

Here are the major points that count:

Your #SEO headline must multitask – attract readers, incite curiosity, focus on keyword, says @JuliaEMcCoy. Click To Tweet

Make subheads matter – Your subheaders (e.g., H2) are only slightly less important than your headline. They:

Help the reader navigate your content

Give Google direct clues about the relevancy of your page

Make your text easier to read

TIP: Give subheads nearly as much attention as your headline to make them useful and readable. Strategically add primary and secondary keywords to almost all of them.

Give subheads nearly as much attention as your headline to make them useful and readable, says @JuliaEMcCoy. Click To Tweet

TIP: To find related terms, type your focus keyword into the Google search bar and see the auto-suggestion keyword variations. Those are your related search terms.

4. Be thorough, comprehensive, and informative

The final step to add mega value to your content and thus mega SEO power?

Dig deep into your topic and channel your inner nerd. Take your readers’ hands and invite them to follow along:

Don’t use sources you randomly find. Link to sources with high domain authority, says @JuliaEMcCoy. #SEO Click To Tweet

TIP: Use tools like the MozBar or SEOquake to quickly learn the domain authority of any page. If you use SEOquake, you’ll see the metric under DS (domain score).

Don’t use sources you randomly find. Link to sources with high domain authority, says @JuliaEMcCoy. #SEO Click To Tweet

Ready to conquer the SERPs?

Dominating the search engine results requires more than technically perfect SEO. It also demands value-packed, powerful content that delivers on what it promises.

The results from the effort may blow your mind.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

3 Ways to Re-Use Your Content Magnets to Dominate SERPs

Road Map to Success: Creating the Content of Your Audience’s Dreams

Grow your tech skills to better your content marketing. Sign up for updates on the ContentTECH Summit in April 2019 in San Diego.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post How to Make Your Content Powerful in Eyes of Searchers (and Google) appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/10/content-searchers-google/

0 notes

a-breton · 6 years

Text

How to Make Your Content Powerful in Eyes of Searchers (and Google)

The value of building SEO content is second to none.

However, I’m not merely talking about properly optimized content that has the right meta information, links, keywords, and technical SEO.

Powerful #SEO content is the equivalent of a best-selling novel that people gobble up, says @JuliaEMcCoy. Click To Tweet

What happens when you build SEO content with these kinds of superpowers?

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Secrets of High-Performing Online Content

1. Create utterly original, standout, creative content

How do you give your content extra oomph?

How do you want your customers to feel when interacting with your content?

What images do you want to evoke for them?

What is your voice/personality (or your client’s distinct style), and how can you use that as inspiration, too, to make your content your own?

Image source

Hit “enter” when finished.

The next results page has great information to help you choose a popular niche topic. For example, it shows total engagement for each topic over the length of time you specify.

A graph illustrates how the engagement for each topic shakes out over time.

As you can see, “how to brew tea” could be a great topic for your original spin – there is less competition for that topic, but engagements are high.

Don’t forget to click points on the graph to see the most engaged articles during that period. You’ll find great inspiration.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How Topic Modeling Can Strengthen Your SEO and Content Marketing Strategy

2. Find the most profitable keywords for your brand

Next up in your quest for superpowered SEO content – find amazing, profitable keywords.

Find keyword sweet spot, where it’s relevant to business & it’s long-tail, low competition. @JuliaEMcCoy Click To Tweet

If you keep a couple attributes top of mind during your keyword research, you’ll find better keywords for your circumstances, customers, and products/services. These attributes are:

Relevancy

Long-tail, low competition

Relevancy means your keywords are always on-topic, on-brand, and on-industry.

Long-tail keywords are more specific than broad or seed keywords, but they’re often easier to win in rankings because not everyone is trying to target them.

Plus, if your keywords are low competition, you’ll have a better chance of ranking more quickly.

A free search on the loose-leaf tea topic gives lots of valuable data:

Check out the “Keyword SEO Difficulty” and the monthly search volume data.

Luckily, KWFinder gives plenty of alternatives. A bunch of keywords look more doable for ranking, including “bulk tea” and “organic loose leaf tea”:

SEMrush

Google search (to find keyword variations plus related/synonymous terms)

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

8+ Tools to Find Related Keywords for Your Content

3 Keyword Research Trends to Reshape Your Content Optimization

3. Focus on strategic keyword placement, not density

Where you place your keywords, including how you write the major pieces of content that contain those keywords, are huge pieces of powerful SEO content.

Here are the major points that count:

Your #SEO headline must multitask – attract readers, incite curiosity, focus on keyword, says @JuliaEMcCoy. Click To Tweet

Make subheads matter – Your subheaders (e.g., H2) are only slightly less important than your headline. They:

Help the reader navigate your content

Give Google direct clues about the relevancy of your page

Make your text easier to read

TIP: Give subheads nearly as much attention as your headline to make them useful and readable. Strategically add primary and secondary keywords to almost all of them.

Give subheads nearly as much attention as your headline to make them useful and readable, says @JuliaEMcCoy. Click To Tweet

TIP: To find related terms, type your focus keyword into the Google search bar and see the auto-suggestion keyword variations. Those are your related search terms.

4. Be thorough, comprehensive, and informative

The final step to add mega value to your content and thus mega SEO power?

Dig deep into your topic and channel your inner nerd. Take your readers’ hands and invite them to follow along:

Don’t use sources you randomly find. Link to sources with high domain authority, says @JuliaEMcCoy. #SEO Click To Tweet

TIP: Use tools like the MozBar or SEOquake to quickly learn the domain authority of any page. If you use SEOquake, you’ll see the metric under DS (domain score).

Don’t use sources you randomly find. Link to sources with high domain authority, says @JuliaEMcCoy. #SEO Click To Tweet

Ready to conquer the SERPs?

Dominating the search engine results requires more than technically perfect SEO. It also demands value-packed, powerful content that delivers on what it promises.

The results from the effort may blow your mind.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

3 Ways to Re-Use Your Content Magnets to Dominate SERPs

Road Map to Success: Creating the Content of Your Audience’s Dreams

Grow your tech skills to better your content marketing. Sign up for updates on the ContentTECH Summit in April 2019 in San Diego.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

from http://bit.ly/2AdetC5

#Online Marketing

0 notes