The Optimized Publisher: Structured Data Markup

In the old standard “Over the River and Through the Woods,” a trip to Grandma’s house exposes our noses and toes to the elements over an arduous journey by sleigh. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a shortcut to Grandma’s that allowed us to get there faster without exposing us to frostbite?
In 2009, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Yandex introduced schema.org, a shortcut for search engine spiders on their way to indexing your website, to help them better understand the location and attributes of the content on your site. This shortcut relies on “structured data markup language” and can be found in the HTML code of a website to explain the products and content to search engines. Quite an important shortcut indeed!

As an SEO factor, “structured data” is probably more on the advanced side. But there are specific items for the publishing industry that make this an important factor to consider implementing.
Structured data markup is still fairly new, and many of the independent publishers that we reviewed have not integrated it into their code (only two of our participants are currently using it). That is the reason for such low scores for this SEO Factor (an aggregate score of 1.4, or an “F” grade). Fortunately, there are some great tutorials to help you add this shortcut to your site and book catalogs.

How the Structured Data Markup Shortcut Works
When schema.org was created, Google and the other search engines defined a “vocabulary” that would apply to information found within a website during indexing. This vocabulary was integrated into search engine algorithms to help them better understand the information on the page, enabling them to correctly categorize the content on the page in their indexes. For example, one of the schema.org items is “creative work,” such as a book or a song.

An item matching the vocabulary can be easily identified by a search engine and, through the use of structured data markup language in the website code can provide further information in the results. Some information can even be displayed in detail on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), improving your individual results and your click through rate (CTR) for your website pages. How does it do this?

By identifying a book as a creative work or book in the structured data markup, you now have access to additional signifiers that help further define the book and its attributes in the search engine index. Per schema.org, a search engine can find book details such as author, title, number of pages, genre and much more as long as the information is “marked up” and marked up correctly. This helps search engines identify your books as books and potentially gives users some extra information in their search results.
Structured Data Markup Examples from Our Participants
As I stated above, only two participants in our analysis of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for book publishers are currently using structured data markup (as of the date of our analysis). I hope these examples from Xist Publishing and The Doomsday Kids will show that providing a shortcut for search engines is worth the investment. You will probably need to get an SEO expert and/or a knowledgeable developer to implement structured data, but it will be well worth it.
The Doomsday Kids website uses the creative works schema for the books in its catalog and integrates the attributes for “book” into its HTML code. For the title Nester’s Mistake, the structured data markup includes title, author, book formats, ISBN numbers, publication date and additional information. We’re going to get a little technical here and look at the actual code for the page. I’ve bolded the attributes that are defining the book on this page for the search engines.

Google has provided a tool that will let you test the structured data on your page, which can be found here.

While it’s great that Doomsday Kids has taken the time to implement structured data on its book page, when we run the page through Google’s tool, it comes back with five errors that it found in the structure of the code. Looking at the code, however, there are actually more than five. So Kudos to Doomsday Kids for implementing structured data, but its developers need to go back and fix the code.
The page is shown in the search results as:

For this title, the structured data markup identifies the item as a book, letting the search engine know to classify the item as such and not another sort of creative work or product. It also tells the search engine the attributes of this book (author, title, etc.). However, one thing that is missing is the presentation of the information in “rich snippets.”
If you look at another SERP listing for the book, you will see the following search result:

Rich snippets present specific attributes of your books within a search result. In this case, you can see the added review stars, rating and the number of votes for the review—attributes that might help a user interested in this book make a decision about clicking on the link and then purchasing it. Google currently supports rich snippets product information and reviews (among other areas), which can contribute greatly to CTR for a website. A 2011 report shows that businesses that present structured data markup in rich snippets saw a 30-percent increase in revenue.

Xist Publishing features the book Mi Gato Es Gordo/My Cat Is Fat in the fiction picture books section of its website. To make this book page easier for search engines to read and understand, Xist is using structured data markup in the HTML code. But instead of using creative work, Xist identifies the book as a “product,” which comes with its own set of possible attributes, including:

This book appears in the search results in the following format:

As you can see from the example of the HTML code and its SERP listing, Xist is using the structured data markup to signal a shortcut for the search engine. It also displays some rich snippets: the price and availability are listed in the result description. However, by identifying the schema for products instead of creative works, Xist is missing out on a lot of attributes that they could include in its code that may then be featured in the search result: author, genre and book ratings, for example.

The Knowledge Graph
Another possible benefit from using schema.org and the corresponding structured data markup is something called a “knowledge graph.” Using data gleaned from indexing and user experience, Google and other search engines can take that information and present it as a separate section within the search results (usually found on the right-hand side of the page). This additional “search result” is perfect for independent book publishers whose potential customers are searching by author or subject name.

For example, searching for Mark Twain brings up a lot of information about the author: images, lifespan, a short bio and a list of books written by/about him. This includes Letters from Hawaii, a book by one of our evaluation participants, University of Hawaii Publishing. Clicking on the links provided in the knowledge graph could bring potential customers one step closer to purchase.
So how can a publisher take advantage of the knowledge graph? Follow structured data markup and schema.org integration on your website so that search engines know your book catalog and roster of authors .

Note: It should be mentioned that not all authors show up in the knowledge graph. A subject/author must be a known entity in order to appear.

Schema.org: Shortcuts for the Right Reasons
Search engines are not able to make the same decisions as people and/or come to the same conclusion or solution. Using schema.org and the corresponding structured data markup gives search engines the best directions available to locate information on your site and present it to potential customers. Without these shortcuts, books can be categorized incorrectly, possibly not even as books at all, with the information essential for purchase relegated to the bottom or back pages of SERPs (exactly where you don’t want your books to get lost).

Google has some great tools for integrating structured data markup into your website code, as do the other search engines. However, some of these changes to books in your catalog may be complex and will probably require the assistance of an SEO expert and your developers. Still, based on the benefits of structured data markup language, it is a worthwhile investment that helps search engines find your content more easily.

Our next post takes possible shortcuts to the extreme. I’m talking about page load speed next and the importance of giving search engines a quick route to your site pages. Please join me on our next road trip to SEO success.
Article Source : digitalbookworld

Have you implemented any structured data on your site? If so, let me know in the comments below.

Google Opens Access to Machine Learning

A saying remind us that artificial 
intelligence is totally different
from Human Mind

Google runs some of the most advanced computing systems in the world, running everything from its search engine to its many other projects. Now Google is opening up its computing power to all by making its machine learning software open access.
Google made the announcement Monday that they will be allowing anyone access to TensorFlow, their newest machine learning system. The software is an artificial intelligence that gradually learns to recognize patterns, helping it to identify things it has not yet seen. For example, after seeing pictures of cats, it may learn to recognize a picture of a cat it has not seen before based on general characteristics.
Google currently uses machine learning to run different applications like Google Translate, Google Photos, and speech recognition for search. Now, individuals, researchers, and other companies will be able to use the power of Google’s software for their own projects. Instead of others trying to create their own machine learning software, they can instead work on applying the software to problems in the real world. Others may also be able to make improvements to the software, making it better for all, including Google. In the past, others have tried to make their own versions of Google’s software, but they may not have gotten everything right. They would have spent time and energy trying to fix problems that Google had already solved in their software. By simply releasing their software to everyone, Google gets past this duplicate work to allow the industry to grow.
The software will be scalable, so that a hobbyist can run it on a smartphone while a researcher harnesses the power of a group of computer servers. The idea is that researchers could use the power of machine learning to advance research into protein folding, astronomy, and anything else that involves huge amounts of data.
Other groups, including researchers at New York University, had already developed and released machine learning software to the world. However, Google’s is considered the most advanced system.
Before those that work in search engine optimization get too excited, Google is not revealing all its secrets. They are still withholding parts of their software as well as the hardware that runs it. This means that people will not be able to use Google’s software to game the system and rank higher in search engines. However, it does open up the ability to crunch data, which could help people like internet marketers better target their site.
Machine learning, or deep learning, involves using hardware, computer processors, that act similarly to neurons in the human brain, linked by the TensorFlow software. The machine can then use these different “neurons” to process huge amounts of information. Once they are fed huge amounts of words, they begin to recognize sentences and understand what is being said, for example. The machine can then learn how to have a conversation with someone. While the machine’s abilities still remain below that of a child, the technology is always improving. With more people working on the basic software and making improvements, the technology may be able to improve even faster.
TensorFlow is the software that runs Google’s applications, such as their newly-released Smart Reply. Announced last week, this software analyzes email in a Gmail inbox and automatically writes three suggested replies. If all looks good, the user can just hit send instead of having to type a reply from scratch. Email can take up a disproportionate amount of time during the day, and Google is hoping their Smart Reply can help users save time replying to mundane emails. As a user continues to use the system, it will gradually learn patterns that it will help it create better email replies.
Source : jilard

The Fundamental Guide To SEO In 2016

Are you using the same SEO tactics and strategies as you did last year, or the year before? If so, it may be time to re-evaluate your strategy. We’ve some seen fairly significant shifts over the past year when it comes to search engine ranking factors, and success with SEO doesn’t happen without the ability to quickly adapt to changes in the industry.
This guide will provide everything you need to know about fundamental SEO in 2016. We’ll cover:

• Keyword research: Is it still necessary in 2016?
• On-page SEO: How do we incorporate keywords into our content?
• Site-wide SEO: What structural elements are necessary to achieve organic search visibility?
• Mobile SEO: Which elements are necessary to rank in mobile search?
• Link building: How do inbound links affect SEO, and how do you acquire them?
• Content marketing: How do content marketing and SEO intersect?

Keyword Research
In my Definitive Guide to SEO in 2014, I made the following statement: “Although much has changed over the past year when it comes to SEO, the principles of keyword research have remained relatively stable.” To some extent, this is still true today.

The fundamentals of performing keyword research have not changed. We still want to find words and phrases that our prospects are using to seek out our business and products. There are a variety of ways we can do this effectively:

• Using keyword research tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, SEMrush and Searchmetrics’ Keyword Analysis tool to find popular keywords and phrases that aren’t hyper-competitive.
• Analyzing your website analytics to find out which keywords are already generating traffic and sales. You can use this data to find new, related keywords, or to build additional content based on these terms.
• Looking at your competitors’ top-ranking pages to determine which keywords they’re targeting
• Focusing on long-tail keywords as natural language search becomes more popular and pervasive.

While these strategies can all be very effective at finding relevant keywords, we have definitely seen a shift away from the one-to-one relationship between using these keywords and achieving high rankings.
Google has become more sophisticated, and instead of looking at search queries solely in terms of keywords, those queries are analyzed in terms of user intent. So, what does this mean in terms of keyword research?
When performing keyword research, focus on finding relevant topics and themes to structure your content around. Instead of going through the process in order to choose one or two words or phrases to write about, use your findings to learn more about your audience and their needs and interests.
Further reading:

• The Rise of the Long-tail Keyword for SEO
• How to Identify Long-tail Keywords for Your SEO Campaign
• 5 Tools for Finding High-Value Long-tail Keywords
• Why Your Keyword Strategy is Incomplete without User Intent

On-Page SEO
So, if this one-to-one relationship between specific keywords, user queries and search rankings is gone (or at least significantly diminished), how does on-page SEO work in 2016? Without keywords, which on-page strategies and tactics are still relevant?
Searchmetrics’ 2015 Ranking Factors report provides us with important insights into how we should be structuring our content in order to rank. Following are some key findings from the report, along with how you can incorporate them into your own content.

Word Count: We have known for some time that Google shows a preference for longer, more comprehensive content. According to the report, the average word count for top-ranking content is in the range of 1,140-1,285 words. This is up from 902 words in 2014. When creating content, focus on providing comprehensive coverage of your topic, rather than writing shorter content that only brushes the surface of your topic.

Proof and relevant terms: These are terms that support and ‘prove’ relevance to the main topic of your content. Using them indicates to Google and to your readers that you’re comprehensively covering the topic. Proof terms are words and phrases that essentially must be used for a particular topic; for instance, ‘search’ will almost always be used when writing about ‘SEO’. Relevant terms, on the other hand, are words that are often used alongside a primary keyword in order to provide holistic coverage of the topic. When discussing ‘SEO’, relevant words might be ‘Google’, ‘Panda’ or ‘rankings’.  Years ago, SEO professionals used the term “LSI Keywords” (Latent Semantic Indexing) to refer to these types of keywords, but I haven’t seen that term used widely in a couple years.

Keywords within content: Keywords should still be incorporated into your content; especially in the title, header and subheaders, introduction paragraph, and conclusion paragraph. Overall, according to the Searchmetrics report, top-ranking pages saw an increase in the total number of keywords used in the body of the text; however, this did not apply to the very highest-ranking pages. Continue to use your desired keywords throughout your content.

Internal links: The number of internal links on high-ranking pages has increased since 2014. According to the report authors, the number of links you include in your content isn’t as important as optimizing your overall link structure: “What counts is not the total number of internal links, but rather the optimization of the internal structure and page information so that the user (and also the search engine) is optimally guided through the provider’s content and to ensure that the user stays on the page and is satisfied.”

Use of header and meta-tags: 99% of top 10 pages had a meta-description, and 80% used an H1 tag. While the meta-description won’t necessarily help your content rank higher, it does act as a sort of ‘ad copy’ in the search engine results (SERPs). As much as possible, ensure your H1 tags and descriptions are unique and accurately describe the main topic of your page.

Site-Wide SEO
Ensuring each piece of content is properly optimized is key; however, without the proper site-wide elements in place, your on-page SEO won’t do much good. This section will cover important site-wide elements you should have in place in order to rank well in organic search results.

A mobile-friendly site: Since Google’s mobile-friendly update earlier this year (commonly referred to as Mobilegeddon), mobile-friendliness has become a significant ranking factor. If you haven’t already, ensure your site uses a responsive design, or that you have a dedicated mobile site or app in place.

Quick loading times: Your site needs to load quickly on all devices; however, with the significant increase in mobile usage, it’s particularly critical your site loads quickly on mobile devices. Searchmetrics found that the top-ranking pages loaded in an average of 1.16 seconds for desktop results and 1.10 seconds for mobile. Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool can help you figure out how quickly your site is loading (just keep in mind this tool works on a page-by-page basis, not on a site-wide basis). Pingdom provides another reliable tool.

Proper content structure: Structuring your content in a logical way is great both for rankings and for user experience. There are a number of ways you can provide an optimal structure for your content:

• Use interactive elements such as menus and buttons
• Use unordered lists (bullets) to break up content into manageable chunks
• As already mentioned, use internal links to guide users and search engines through relevant content on your site. Using external links may also be beneficial, since it may align your site within what Google considers to be a good or relevant neighborhood of similar-themed sites.

Mobile SEO
We’ve already touched briefly on the importance of optimizing your site for mobile. It’s no longer enough to optimize for desktop and ignore mobile users. In fact, Google recently announced that more searches happen on mobile devices than on desktop devices. So if you ignore mobile optimization, you potentially alienate over half your site’s visitors.

Apart from having a mobile-friendly, responsive site design, what other factors are important for ranking in mobile search? This next section will provide some key insights from Searchmetrics’ 2015 Mobile Ranking Factors report.

File size and site speed: Not surprisingly, these are both important factors for ranking in mobile search. Mobile pages need to load quicker, and should be smaller in size than their desktop counterparts.

Mobile-friendly format and structure: Because mobile users are often accessing the web while ‘on the go’, your content should be structured in a way that makes it easy to read and understand. Using bulleted lists can help with this, as can using slightly larger font sizes (top-ranking mobile pages used an average font size of 15.63 above the fold and 11.44 in central areas).

Keywords in content: As with desktop content, continue to incorporate your keywords into your content. Proof and relevant terms are also important for your mobile content, although their usage is slightly lower than in their desktop counterparts. This is likely due to the fact that desktop content is typically longer than mobile content.

Word count: Generally speaking, mobile content should be shorter than desktop content.The average word count for top-ranking mobile pages in 2015 was 868, compared with just 687 the year before. However, these numbers are far lower than the average word count for top-ranking desktop pages.

Ads: If you’re using ads within your mobile-optimized content, keep in mind that high-ranking mobile pages tend to have significantly fewer ads than their desktop counterparts. Ads can slow down loading times even more significantly on mobile devices, so keep your ads to a minimum.
Further reading:

Link Building
The old school concept of link building – reaching out to other webmasters to exchange links, manually submitting your site to web directories, posting links to your site in articles on Web 2.0 sites that have no editorial review process, and leaving spammy comment and forum links – is long gone.
Most savvy business owners know that these link building tactics are not only ineffective, but that they can cause ranking penalties to their site. However, the emergence of evidence that non-linked mentions and citations (so called “implied links”) are considered in the ranking algorithm has changed the perspective across the industry on link building; it has become apparent that building a brand results in the kind of links that bring the most value from an SEO perspective. Rather than building links, business owners and marketers should be working towards earning links through publishing high-quality content.
In their ranking factors report, Searchmetrics articulates this shift nicely: “For many years, links formed the absolute basis for search engine rankings, for SEO’s, and for the analysis of ranking factors. This was also the reason for the highly tactical manipulations in this sector over a long period. These times have largely passed. We are also convinced that links will continue to lose relevance in the age of semantic contexts and machine learning with a user focus. For search engines it is a question of ranking the best and most relevant content. In the capability to determine this, they are continually improving – especially Google, as the data in this study shows.”
While the significance of links as a ranking factor is changing, they remain a significant ranking factor.  In a recent analysis performed by Moz and BuzzSumo, they were able to identify the content types that are most likely to accumulate a high number of links. These are:

• Research-backed content
• Opinion forming journalism
• Long form content over 1,000 words
• List posts (‘listsicles’)
• ‘Why’ posts

My full analysis of their findings can be found here.
So, what tactics remain viable for link building aside from publishing great content and then hoping it attracts links?

Guest blogging remains an effective strategy, not only for building inbound links, but for reaching a new, targeted audience.
Promoting your content on social media is also an extremely effective strategy, but not for the reason you might think. You may have heard buzz around the term ‘social signals’. This is the idea that likes, shares and retweets on social media count as links, and therefore pass on ‘link juice’ to your site and content. However, Google has explicitly stated that they do not count likes and shares from Facebook or Twitter as links.
So, does that mean getting traction on social media is useless in terms of SEO? Not at all. As I detailed in How social signals really affect your search rankings, there is most definitely an indirect relationship between social likes and shares and high rankings. Excellent content that gets liked and shared gets in front of a larger audience. As more people see and appreciate that content, it begins to accumulate more links. And content that gets more links still tends to rank higher in search.
There are many other tactics for link building, such as broken link building, submission-based link building, and even setting up a scholarship then conducting outreach to various colleges to promote your scholarship (with a link back to your site). PointBlankSEO has a nice guide that includes plenty of other tactics. Neil Patel’s advice on link building is also worth the read.
See how great content attracts links? Those last two links are proof-in-the-pudding examples!

Content Marketing
I would be remiss if I didn’t touch on the importance of content marketing for SEO. More than ever before, content is at the very heart of the practice of achieving high rankings in search. Neil Patel called content marketing “The New SEO” as far back as 2012.
Tactics that used to be effective at achieving rankings – such as writing short content with a very high keyword density – no longer work. The key to high rankings in 2016 is publishing long-form, comprehensive content that meets the needs of users. Above all, it must provide value. For a checklist of whether your content is high-quality, see The 12 Essential Elements of High-Quality Content.
This type of content will often naturally rank well in search results, because it attracts shares and links. Additionally, content that does a thorough job of covering a particular topic will naturally incorporate many of the elements that we know are important for rankings; they will naturally use proof and relevant terms, they will tend to be longer, and they will incorporate helpful internal and external links.
With a proper distribution strategy for your content, your content is far more likely to gain traction; through social shares, links and through increased search rankings. Creating useful, thorough, well-optimized content is key, but so is having a plan in place for getting that content in front of a wider audience.


Conclusion
I hope you’ve found this SEO guide helpful, and that you can use these strategies to boost your own rankings. But perhaps even more importantly, I hope you can use these findings to inform your content creation process; providing the best possible user experience, while naturally gaining increased traction and rankings for your content.
Article Source : Forbes

6 Organic Content Promotion Channels That Really Work

If you want your prospects to find you online, creating compelling content is a must. In fact, quality content lies at the foundation of effective content marketing strategies for thousands of successful companies.
But content doesn’t promote itself. Even the most compelling written, visual and multimedia content needs help attracting readers and viewers who will hopefully enter your sales funnel.
This is where organic content promotion comes in. Like paid content promotion, organic promotion is designed to boost the visibility and effectiveness of a content marketing campaign. Unlike paid promotion, it doesn’t involve direct payments for ad space, “boosts” or sponsorship.
However, organic promotion does still require a substantial investment of time, effort and creativity.These six organic content promotion strategies can boost traffic to your content, improve lead generation statistics, drive conversions and enhance key revenue metrics.

1. Learn and Follow SEO Basics

Every organic campaign for written content starts with search engine optimization. Also known as SEO, search engine optimization makes blog, website and even social media content more attractive to search engines such as Google and Bing. Numerous factors influence a given piece of content’s SEO value, including:
– Inbound link quality
– Keyword placement
– Headline length and quality
– Technical factors, including website navigation and load time
– Directory submissions
Effective SEO can boost your content’s position in search rankings, increasing the likelihood that people searching for relevant keywords will find and click on your result, not a competitor’s.

2. Network With Thought Leaders through LinkedIn

You can probably think of some peers and competitors you look up to and emulate. These people are your industry’s thought leaders, and they’re great people to know.
The most effective way to network with industry thought leaders and become a thought leader yourself is to build a formidable LinkedIn presence by:
– Actively connecting with thought leaders
– Joining or starting relevant LinkedIn groups
– Sending personal messages that tout your capabilities
– Publishing high-value content that establishes your own thought leadership credentials
– Sharing said content with other thought leaders
Of course, your thought leadership content shouldn’t be limited to LinkedIn. Every high-quality piece of content that you create should be published in parallel on LinkedIn and your company blog.

3. Perfect the Art of the Press Release

An SEO press release is a great way to tout your company’s achievements and capabilities without coming across as overly salesy. Make sure your releases strike the right balance between news and self-promotion. Although distribution is likely to be limited by your budget, make sure to spread your release across as many news wire services as possible. However, optimized press releases are also great organic promotion tools: Simply repost your release on your blog and social media pages to boost your reach!

4. Invest in Media Outreach

SEO press releases can be powerful, high-ROI tools in your digital marketing campaign. Under the right circumstances, going one step further and investing in media outreach may achieve an even greater payoff.
You don’t need to pay a PR firm to network with journalists: Simply build a mailing list of bloggers and reporters who cover your niche and reach out to them directly with press releases and personalized inquiries.

5. Forge Guest Posting and Content Licensing Partnerships

Guest posting and content licensing partnerships aren’t always organic. Although the practice isn’t as common anymore, many such partnerships involve a financial exchange.
On the other hand, many publishers are only too happy to host your content in exchange for a reciprocal link. Like self-starting media outreach, building a guest posting and content licensing network requires a mailing list and a lot of friendly outreach.

6. Get People Talking

While influencers undoubtedly help raise your profile, they’re not the only people capable of giving your content marketing efforts a popular boost. In fact, grassroots organic content promotion is often a far more authentic, positive and appealing approach.
Depending on what you sell and which buyer personas you’re targeting, your prospects and customers may prefer to learn about your products’ benefits from a friend or neighbor. Hearing from a VIP in a suit doesn’t necessarily do it for them.
With this in mind, make sure your content is as engaging as possible and distributed throughout social media. Not every piece of content is going to get a million hits, but highly engaging content is much more likely to be shared and reposted than not-so-engaging content, even if the “boring” content is just as useful.
Remember, every organic share that comes from a random social media user, regardless of whether they’re a current customer of yours, is a share that you don’t have to pay for or organize on your own. It’s also an opportunity to spread awareness of your solutions, generate leads and convert undecided prospects.

Get Started Improving Your Digital Marketing

Thanks to ongoing algorithm tweaks by Google and evolving best practices by leading marketers, the rules of the game are always in flux. What works one month might not necessarily work the next.
Source : B2C

The “Write Good Content” Myth

There’s a common misconception among many business owners and some marketers that SEO has become easier the past couple of years – that “good content” can substitute for, or replace, search engine optimization (SEO).

Although this idea has been around for sometime, it understandingly gained momentum and traction in late 2013, after Google introduced the Hummingbird algorithm.

It has since been perpetuated by countless blog articles, ads, and social media discussions – like the one below from an Insurance Marketing Google+ community.
Just to clarify – I’m a strong proponent of using content, particularly blog posts and video, to market your business online – blogging and video are among the best SEO tools available to most small businesses. In addition, Brett’s suggestion of creating content around client questions and interviews is great advice, particularly in light of hummingbird – but it should be as part of an overall SEO strategy, rather than in place of it.

Suggesting otherwise either reveals a limited understanding of SEO – this is not meant to be a criticism of Brett, Joey, Jason or Brian (from above discussion), they are insurance experts trying to help each other market their businesses – or worse, represents an attempt to mislead the reader.

Why “Content” Alone is Not Enough

1. Competition: More businesses are waking up to the importance of content creation for marketing and are producing more content everyday. Assuming that some of your competitors are also capable of creating “good content”, what is going to differentiate you in the eyes of the search engines? It will be ranking signals such as keyword choice and use, meta data, authority signals, and technical indicators (loading speed, mobile friendly, etc) – all part of Search Engine Optimization.
2. Backlinks: While Google has become better at identifying high quality links – disregarding or even penalizing the low quality backlinks that were so abused a few years ago – backlinks are still the most powerful signal of a website’s authority, and “authority” is an important ranking signal.
Proponent’s of the “Good Content” myth counter the backlink argument with these two points:

1. Good Content will Attract Backlinks: this is Google’s stance, and while a nice thought, it does not reflect the reality of most industries. Within the marketing/SEO industry, many writer’s link out to other content, creating backlink signals for that content. However, how many advisors, realtors, or plumbers, link out to other authors or blogs? Not many, in fact a very small number of people create the majority of links within most industries. Rand Fishkin labeled this group the “linkerati“, and it is important that you identify and attract the attention of this group, or develop your own community, to build/attract backlinks to your content.
2. Social Media Signals: there is a lot of confusion around social media and SEO. Although social media can be a great marketing tool, one that can indirectly benefit your SEO, social signals (likes, +1s, shares) are not ranking signals, nor are social media links the same as other backlinks. Social media cannot substitute for an SEO strategy.

3. Website vs. Blog Content: Many discussions around SEO and Content focus on blog content. While blog articles can be an important source for broad or long-tail keyword optimization, internal linking, and link building, they are not the only content on your website. The pages on your site, particularly your homepage and Product/Service pages, need to be optimized for search. They usually represent your business/industries broadest and most competitive keywords. For the majority of websites, the homepage is the most authoritative page – relying simply on “good content” is a very risky strategy on these pages.

4. Local SEO: For any business that relies on local foot, phone, or web traffic for revenue, local optimization is a must. Local rankings are highly reliant on very specific signals. Although “good content” can support and amplify these signals, the signals must be in place.

5. Technical SEO: Technical SEO has increased in importance and complexity over the past couple of years. From helping to determine what pages to include in your site, to making sure that site loads quickly and is mobile friendly, to managing user experience, and creating content silos, SEO solves issues that ‘write good content” doesn’t address.

6. Google is amazing, but . . . : Yes, Google is definitely getting better at identifying related keywords, understanding context, and determining a user’s intent, BUT . . . its still far from perfect.
For example, a real estate site that I’m helping currently ranks 14th for Henderson Property Management, but 43rd for Property Management Henderson, two terms that use the exact same 3 words and describe the same service, yet Google doesn’t see them the same. I see this all of the time with Finanical Advisor sites as well. An advisors site might rank high for Financial Advisor, but not for Financial Planner, or visa versa. Google is still dependent on keyword selection and optimization for ranking.

Conclusion

I’m not suggesting every blog article needs to be the result of keyword research, or that your writing should be stuffed with keywords. You may identify and target some specific keywords that you want to rank for, but ultimately your content should address the interests and needs of your readers. In doing so, you will naturally cover the topics that are important to your industry and readers, and address many different keywords that will help draw traffic – but don’t stop there. Developing “good content” is a time consuming task – don’t waste your time or content. Use search engine optimization to amplify your content, website, and products/services to the search engines and your audience – good content alone is not enough.
Article Source : business2community

2016 SEO Checklist to Maximize Revenues from Content Marketing + SEO

Change is the only certainty in the world of search engine optimization. To succeed in the ever-evolving SEO landscape, hoteliers should adopt a proactive approach to content creation, marketing and optimization.

SEO continues to play a critical role in hotel digital marketing success, with at least 30% to 35% of hotel website revenue generated as a direct result of organic search engine referrals to the hotel website. Every year, Google's algorithm changes more than 500 times. This past year was no different, with Google throwing a major curveball to mobile sites with the Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Update in April 2015, a change that resulted in a 21% decrease in non-mobile-friendly URLs appearing on the first three pages of search results (BrightEdge).
In 2016 and beyond, hoteliers and digital marketers should make data-driven, analytical decisions based on measurable results and research. They should stick to proven best practices, updating these tenets as needed. And they should think of search engine optimization (SEO) as a living, breathing, ongoing effort.

1. Create conversion-minded, hospitality-specific content.
Hotel websites are inherently different than common retail sites, demanding unique approaches to copywriting, content marketing, and SEO. A hospitality website should inform and inspire the travel planner, educating them on the value propositions of the hotel and the destination as a whole. A hotel website should create engaging content that targets a specific subset of users: conversion-minded, qualified users in various stages of the travel planning process.
In addition to supplying the information readers seek when shopping for a hotel, high-quality content leads to more robust user engagement: longer website visits, more pages visited during each session, and fewer single-page bounces from the site. These user engagement metrics send positive signals to search engines, which rely on these cues to decide which pages to rank prominently.

2. Inform your content strategy with user engagement insights and traffic metrics.
Creating high-quality content is a critical first step toward generating visibility and traffic via organic search. Utilizing rankings visibility tracking, user engagement insights, and organic traffic to gauge the success of that content and additional optimization opportunities is the second – and equally important – step.
Adopt a proactive approach to performance tracking via an array of analytics tools:

• Drive content creation and optimization decisions with consistent monitoring of keyword ranking visibility on a platform such as BrightEdge.
• Stay current on organic traffic and user engagement trends by consulting industry-leading analytics platform like Adobe Analytics.
• Conduct technical SEO spot checks and assessments using Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Perform regular, ongoing inbound link profile assessments using a fresh web explorer such as Moz Open Site Explorer.

3. Devise a plan for proactive, ongoing SEO and content recommendations and updates.
In order to keep up with Google's consistent flow of algorithm updates and changes, a proactive, ongoing approach to SEO is a near necessity for hoteliers dedicated to driving direct bookings. The centerpiece of these efforts should always be the creation of high-quality content that informs and interests users.
In addition to focusing on producing engaging content, SEO efforts should prioritize quick and effective reactions to shifts in search engines' algorithms, user search demand, and the competitive market. Monthly reporting and recommendations, weekly data-gathering, and ongoing optimization efforts should be placed at the forefront of any hotel digital marketing strategy to maintain organic search traffic, conversions and revenue.

4. Utilize an industry-leading search visibility platform.
A robust performance and search visibility platform lies at the heart of any effective SEO strategy. One such platform is BrightEdge, a multi-faceted SEO analysis tool centered on tracking the organic search performance of digital content. The service allows the hotelier and digital marketing team to identify high-performing pages, search visibility opportunities and successes, top traffic and engagement sources, along with in-depth performance analysis versus a pre-set group of competitors.
A hotel digital marketer should take into account a number of factors, based on the results shown in their search performance platform. For instance, BrightEdge provides the streamlined information necessary to make data-informed content recommendations and optimization suggestions. By targeting high-value keyword terms, tracking performance on an ongoing basis, and continually assessing past optimization efforts, it's possible to improve visibility, traffic, and ultimately revenue via organic search.

5. Ensure content complies with Google's new Mobile-Friendly Algorithm update.
Mobile search is here to stay. A high-impact and fast-emerging traffic channel, the mobile web now accounts for 32% of website visits across HeBS Digital's hotel client portfolio. Mobile and tablet traffic combined were responsible for nearly 45% of all visits, nearly 21% of all bookings, and more than 17% of all revenue, portfolio-wide.
It's easy to miss out on this critical source of traffic and revenue: Google's stringent Mobile-Friendliness Algorithm update – rolled out in spring 2015 – left many slow-to-adapt hotel websites lacking for traffic and searching for answers. Meanwhile, sites that relied on Google-compliant content management technology enjoyed traffic bumps as a result of additional mobile search visibility.
Hoteliers and digital marketers should remain attuned to the latest developments in mobile search. The ability to adapt via rapid-fire CMS updates or content strategy shifts will pay off in the form of visits, bookings, and revenue as the mobile channel continues to expand.

6. Secure key local listings and ensure the consistency of online citations.
Maintaining a uniform local search presence is one of the most important components of a comprehensive SEO strategy for hoteliers. A high priority in 2016 should be correcting any inconsistencies within the hotel's local search presence, reducing duplicate directory listings, and ensuring streamlined and optimized local search information.
Maintaining these online citations is a key piece of satisfying ranking algorithms across both Google and Bing/Yahoo. Citations from well-established portals aid in increasing the degree of certainty that Google and other search engines have about your business's contact information and category. Local search optimization efforts should include verification and maintenance of local profiles across a variety of listing platforms. These outlets include high-visibility services like Google My Business, Yelp, and Bing, as well as local citation sources such as CitySearch, Superpages, Yellow Pages, 411.com, and more.

7. Adopt a proactive defensive link management strategy.
Search engines learn more about specific pages and sites by conducting sophisticated analysis of the links pointing to the page or domain. If a page or site has been linked to from trustworthy, high-value sources – such as .edu, .gov, or popular editorial sites – the search engine will take a hint from these link sources, deeming the site valuable ranking it prominently in search results.
On the other side of the coin, search engines may consider links from non-trustworthy, spammy, or low-quality sources a negative ranking factor, detracting from a site's overall ability to rank highly. This became relevant with the advent of Google Penguin in 2011, and remains a focus of Google as it refines its algorithm. Adopting a strong defensive link management strategy to avoid the negative impact of these links is a crucial piece of the search marketing puzzle. Hoteliers should perform inbound link audits to gauge successes, discover opportunities and isolate any potentially harmful links. Once low-quality link sources are weeded out, link disavowal can be performed.
Learn more about defensive SEO and link evaluation.

8. Utilize content management system (CMS) technology to make on-the-fly content and technical SEO updates.
A content management system (CMS) can be a hotelier's best friend or his or her worst nightmare. Ideally, the hotel content management system is tailored for the hospitality industry specifically, rather than operating as a more general publishing platform.
The CMS should offer the ability to author on-the-fly updates to on-page content, meta data elements, special offers, photo galleries, home page promotional tiles, and other critical pieces of the website's role in the property's digital merchandising strategy. On-site staff members or dedicated agency personnel should be able to easily make updates within minutes, ensuring the site stays current from SEO and content management perspectives.

9. Take a holistic approach to SEO, paid search, and digital marketing as a whole.
SEO is just one element hoteliers face when laying out budgets and allocating their attention. Other hotel digital marketing initiatives – paid search, banner advertising, email marketing, reservations retargeting, and more – play complementary roles in turning a hotel website into a revenue-generating machine.
Hotels that boost paid search spend while investing in ongoing SEO efforts can see measurable benefits. In one case, a hotel took its paid search campaigns from dormant to 40,000 impressions over the course of six months and saw its organic search traffic ride a similar trajectory. In that case, the hotel's organic traffic grew by 116% over the course of nine months, growing organic bookings initiated by 161%.

10. Content should go beyond "hotel website copy" to inform and entice the visitor with insightful area information.
A hotel website should go beyond providing basic information about the property. In-depth descriptions of the attractions and activities surrounding the property help to position the hotel as a champion of the destination and a beacon of local know-how and knowledge.
Robust area guide content pages and dynamic "What's Nearby" interactive maps can turn website visitors into bookers and indicates to search engines that a site is worthy of ranking. Thin, boilerplate-style area guide content – often included on brand.com hotel websites – does not do users any favors, does not send positive signals to search engines, and does not generate any of the incremental search visibility or traffic generated by a high-quality vanity site.

Updating Web Content For Best SEO Results

Yes, at its simplest, a business website can be like a marketing brochure for your company, but at its best, it can be a powerful tool, establishing your place as an industry thought leader and enabling visitors to know and trust your brand. Remember that updating content not only prevents a website from becoming stale, but it is a valuable SEO strategy that cannot be forgotten.

Updating your web content regularly is a SEO strategy you cannot ignore.
93% of online experiences begin with a search engine, so making sure your business website is as optimized as possible is a necessity in this competitive landscape. Search engine algorithms are being updated all the time—even bringing artificial intelligence into the mix now—but achieving placement on the front page of the search engine results pages (SERPs) has less to do with backend finesse and more to do with the true human value of your website.

• Do you shape your articles around a single repetitive keyword or a thoughtful portfolio of keywords and key phrases?
• Is your content brief or in-depth?
• Do you write for web crawling bots or for people?
• Do you let old articles disappear into your website’s history or do you use internal hyperlinks to show the continuing value of your carefully crafted content?

According to Moz’s 2015 Search Engine Ranking Factors Survey, “freshness of content on the page” is a major influence on search ranking. Search engines use web crawlers to review websites. Websites with static (unchanging) content are crawled less frequently; however, websites with dynamic (changing) content are crawled more often. In other words, if you want to show the search engines that you are relevant, in-touch, and at the top of your game, continually updating your website’s content can do that. But more pages alone won’t help your SEO efforts. Quality writing is essential.

Where Can You Update Your Web Content?

• Blogs & Articles – You are an expert in your industry, so why not share your knowledge with your visitors? Whether it is a series of how-to articles, product reviews, or a regularly scheduled blog, becoming a resource is a simple way to prove your value, gain trust, and build an ever-expanding web content library.
• Frequently Asked Questions – People ask you questions all the time, don’t they? Perhaps you have your quick answers over the phone or even over email, but why not save everyone some effort while enhancing your SEO efforts at the same time? A FAQ section is a great place to be fluid with your content, adding new questions and answers as they arise.
• Company News – Whether it’s new developments, new employees, recent events, or up-coming sales or shows, there’s a lot happening in your business every day. Why not share this news with the world?
• Portfolio – Don’t let the portfolio on your website remain the same one you showcased at the time of your website’s launch years ago. When you’re doing wonderful work, don’t forget to show it off.
• Testimonials – If your customers love you, let the energy of their words invigorate your web presence. Again, don’t just create an initial list of quotations and forget about it. Updated reviews add to your value on multiple fronts.
• Basic Content – Sure, your “About,” “Services,” “History,” and similar pages aren’t places that you need to regularly update, but remember to give them at least an annual check-in. Add internal hyperlinks to recent blogs, and update or expand the language where it’s needed.

Even if you don’t think you can compete with the big names in your field, remember that 59% of consumers use Google every month to find reputable, local businesses. Optimizing your website for search engines can put you at the top of that list, and fresh web content is one way you can make your business stand out from your competitors.
Building a powerful website and being thorough in every detail of its search engine optimization is important. But if that awesome website just sits there, it becomes a bit stale. A powerful web content strategy isn’t easy, but it is essential if you want to stand above the rest of the crowd. And standing out above the rest is the end goal, isn’t it?

Forget Everything That You Think You Know About SEO

SEO is an important part of marketing your business. If you want people to find your website, you have to ensure that they can find your website when they’re using Google and their other favorite search engines.

However, what you have to realize is that search engine optimization has changed a lot over the years. Gone are the days when stuffing your content full of the same keywords over and over was actually a successful method of optimizing your site for search engines.
Honestly, SEO is now easier than it has ever been. However, before you can be truly successful at it, you’re going to need to forget everything that you think you know about SEO. Sticking to the same bogus forms of search engine optimization is only going to harm your site and isn’t going to allow you to get ahead.

Forget Keywords
The main and most important part of search engine optimization is using keywords, right? Wrong. All of those fancy keyword tools aren’t going to help you now like they once did.
The truth is, people are searching for things differently now than they used to. No longer are people typing in awkward keywords. Now, more and more people are typing in entire sentences, such as questions that they might be curious about the answer to. Some people are even speaking these questions into their mobile phones and other devices.

Now, Google is on to all of us. That’s right — Google knows about all of the silly keyword tools that you’ve been using. It knows about all of the clever ways that you weave keywords into your content. The gig is up.

This isn’t a bad thing, though. Now, as long as you focus on creating interesting and informative content about your industry, you’ll do well. You can use content targeting — such as by finding out what people are searching for on search engines — to help point you in the right direction, but there is no need to weave keywords into your sentences. Just write normally, and Google will figure it out.

Stop Worrying About Backlinks
Once upon a time, people paid to buy backlinks to their sites. Then, people started figuring out that Google didn’t like that, so they started creating their own, usually in a semi-clever way, such as through guest blogging or article directories.
Stop focusing on this.
In fact, guest blogging can even be harmful to your site’s SEO if it’s done the wrong way. For example, if you post a guest blog with a link to your site on a website that is totally unrelated, Google will know what you’re trying to do, and it won’t reward you for it.
However, you can build natural backlinks — just don’t think about doing it. Instead, focus on building a natural following through forums, social media and websites that are related to yours. Stop counting backlinks and thinking about Google; instead, only post links to your site from other sites that might bring in an audience the natural, old-fashioned way.
Stop Focusing on Computers
Obviously, people search for things and look at websites on their computers. You might be using a computer right now. However, you shouldn’t assume that all — or even most — of your viewers are using computers to access your site.

The truth is, more and more people are getting online, searching, browsing, reading and interacting on social media from their devices. People love their smartphones and their tablets and their other similar Internet-ready devices.

You have to be ready for this, or Google will penalize you. In fact, Google’s latest update was all about targeting websites that aren’t catering to a mobile audience. If your website isn’t mobile-ready, it might not show up in the search engine rankings at all. Obviously, this is the last thing that you want to happen when you’re focusing on search engine optimization.

Stop focusing so much on computers. Obviously, you’ll want to check your site on your computer and perhaps on a few different browsers, but most blogging and website platforms like WordPress will work just fine on computers.

Instead, put some focus into making your pages mobile-friendly. This isn’t just about ensuring that your page loads and can be navigated on mobile devices, either. It’s also about things like breaking up your content into smaller paragraphs that can be easily read on mobile screens without people feeling overwhelmed. Keep your images at a smaller size that will look nice on mobile devices. These types of things can make a big difference for your mobile users, and believe it or not, Google will appreciate it as well.

Get On Board With Other Marketing Strategies
In the past, search engine optimization was probably the single most important way of marketing a website. You might still believe this, but you shouldn’t. Search engines are obviously still important, but if you’re building and marketing your site properly, then the search engine rankings will come. That is the beauty of Google’s newest changes — natural sites that are doing it right are going to rank, and sites that are trying too hard to rank aren’t. It’s that simple.
This means that you have more time to put into things like social media marketing, blogging, building ad campaigns and more. In no time, you’re sure to dominate all of these marketing arenas.
As you can see, things are changing fast, and they’re changing drastically in the world of search engine optimization.

Why Your Business Marketing Is Incomplete Without SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a tool to increase your visibility in the digital space. It is treated with high regard in the online marketing sphere because it increases your chances of reaching relevant prospects and proves to be an efficient marketing strategy by targeting the user intent. If you delve deeper into the science of SEO, you will surely find it to be very effective and proficient tool which brings good results in no time if implemented well.

When we compare both outbound and inbound marketing services, we get to the conclusion that inbound marketing tends to bring in interested parties who are looking for information based on your business. This is exactly what SEO tends to do. If your business is looking for more ROI with minimal investment, ensure that SEO forms the part of your marketing initiatives. Rather than embracing outbound techniques that are interruptive in nature, SEO is customer-centric and the message is only presented to the prospects when they need them.

Here are 5 reasons that will prove why your business needs the best SEO services:

SEO Brings Traffic

Within 3 months of consistent and high-quality search engine optimization efforts, your business could see an unbelievable difference in the way your online visibility gets positively affected. The main aim for any SEO initiative is to help you in gaining valuable rankings on search engines that could result into more click-through-rates and more traffic.

SEO also focuses on on-site optimization that brings greater visibility on search engines. It is beneficial to have optimized tags and web pages to help you in increasing the click-through-rate for your website. More relevant traffic to your website means more conversions and revenue.

Measurable ROI

SEO offers quantifiable results for all kinds of business' sites. So, you don't have to worry about measuring the ROI of your SEO. The agencies providing search engine optimization services are capable of scaling almost all the aspects of their SEO campaigns, such as traffic, conversion rate, revenue and more.

Detailed analytics report helps in getting accurate information of all the visitors of your site and their journey in the conversion funnel.

In the case of e-commerce websites, SEO agencies helps by short-listing people who used a particular keyword that you are targeting.

SEO is Cost effective

SEO has earned the reputation of being one of the most reliable and cost-effective marketing strategies due to the simple fact that it only targets relevant visitors who are searching for the goods and services or any information that you are providing.

In complete contrast to outbound marketing, where you target several people you don't even know whether they are interested in your brand, SEO methodology only targets interested audience and that's why it is cost effective as it saves you from spending hugely on outbound such as newspaper ads, tele-commercials, billboards, cold-calling and more.

The traffic generated by SEO is more qualified than other marketing strategies.

Increased Site Usability with SEO

When you implement the various factors of SEO into your website, it will make your website user-friendly and the focus would be on making it more navigable. Not only does the user will find it easy surfing through your website, but it will also help you in getting a better ranking on search engines.

The principles of SEO tend to rearrange the website's links and architecture and this will make your website user-friendly. The users find it easy to find out more information on your website, which boosts the engagement rate of your website, lessens the bounce rate, and could increase conversion rates for your website.

Brand Awareness

SEO is the most cost effective way to enhance your brand awareness. Undoubtedly, SEO will help you in gaining more exposure and click-through-rates, but the best things that SEO could do is to redefine your brand with some great content. You could definitely try and get better rankings with extensive SEO, but what will retain the visitors on your website is your content.

Search engines factor the quality of your content in their SERPs and have released some strict algorithms that help them in considering only those websites that fulfill the user intent.
Source : lifehacker