There are many reasons to use Facebook, from personal improvement to business networking. Jo Trizila, a Dallas-based public relations professional, uses Facebook to help her business. She joined a group of PR professionals in Dallas, and everyone in the group has agreed not to steal each other’s business. Instead, they share tips and software for improving their work. The information that they share stays within the group, which is helpful for both businesses and personal growth.
Creating a Facebook Page
When creating a Facebook Page, you will need to select the type of page you want. Whether it is a community, influencer, or business, you will have to choose what category the page will be in. You can also choose to hide your business address, if you want to. After choosing a category, you will need to fill out all of the fields in the About section of the page. Providing as much information as possible will help people find your page.
Once you have created your page, you can start building your audience and brand. Facebook offers many free advertising tools that you can use to reach your target market. You can plan your ads in advance and set your budget accordingly. You can use your Facebook Page to promote your business and increase customer loyalty. Once you have a page, you can advertise it on other platforms. Creating a Facebook business page is very easy, and it doesn’t cost a dime.
Creating a Facebook Group
Creating a Facebook group is an excellent way to engage potential customers. Group members will be more likely to interact with you if you have regular posts and prompts to respond to questions and comments. Keeping your group active is essential to maintaining its growth. There are tools online that will help you schedule posts in advance. Engaging with your group members on a regular basis is key to its growth. Whether you want to discuss a topic of interest or just share your knowledge, posting to your group is always a great way to maintain an active membership.
First, you can add members to your Group by sending an invitation to their official Facebook names and email addresses. When someone accepts the invitation, they become a member. You can write a brief description of your Group, which will be visible to non-group members. It will let them know about its purpose and why they should join. In addition, mention a brand name, which is located on the settings tab. You can also add a custom note that details your business or movement.
Creating a pinned post
Creating a pinned post on Facebook is a useful tool to drive traffic to your website or blog. You can save up to 10 announcements on your Facebook group. Pinned posts can be an excellent way to promote your message, offer, or new feature. The good news is, you only have to create one pinned post for your page at a time. Then, you can rotate the materials regularly to increase market reach and engagement.
A pinned post appears at the top of your timeline and is labelled with ‘PINNED POST’. You can choose what type of post to pin, depending on what kind of content you plan to share and what your audience is most interested in. For example, a fashion house might pin its latest collection, whereas a small physical shop might pin the opening hours of its temporary closure. This way, people who are interested in the products or services your brand offers can easily find it.
Using Facebook Live video
To use Facebook Live video effectively, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind. Generally, your video should be visually engaging so that people will watch it later and be more likely to join your conversation. For example, if your video includes a photo or a cat, you should make sure that your camera is pointed in the direction that you want people to view it. In addition, you can add some widgets, polls, and links to your video. You can also set a description for your video and choose how to cross post it to your other channels. Lastly, once your video is finished, be sure to tag it in the right way.
Once you’ve set up your profile and have a camera, you can go live with your video. You can use your microphone and connect higher-end production equipment if you wish. Facebook automatically directs you to the Live Producer tool after you click on the video button. You can add a caption or co-host for your video. And when you’re done, you can download the video for later use. A livestream will be saved in your timeline and will be available for a few days.
Using Facebook ads
You can set a budget for your Facebook ads. A budget is the amount you’re willing to spend on an ad set. Facebook uses this amount evenly throughout the ad set’s duration. This helps you to get the most bang for your buck while still spending the least possible amount. To set a budget, click the “Set a daily budget” option. Facebook will spread the cost of your ads evenly across each day.
There are several ways to optimize your Facebook ad. The primary format is the collection ad. These are mobile-friendly and allow people to view a series of images or videos before making a purchase. Collection ads allow people to view multiple videos or photos without leaving the social media platform. They focus on one main photo or video and use other images that are listed in the collection. If you want to use a slideshow, you should use a ratio of 16:9 or 2:3.
Reaching older demographic
Marketing to the older demographic on Facebook is an effective way to build a more loyal fan base and grow your business. The younger demographics tend to use more social media sites, but the older crowd is a growing part of the online community. By engaging with this demographic, you can expand your brand in ways you might not have thought possible. Here are some tips to get started:
First of all, it’s important to understand that this demographic is still very active on the site. They enjoy the same activities as the younger crowd, such as sharing photos, videos, and status updates. Compared to younger generations, older people are more likely to share and comment on posts from other sources. They also use Facebook as a source of news and information. And according to Pew Research, television news is declining by 12% over the last year.
To understand how to utilize marketing analytics to drive revenue and profit growth, marketers need to evaluate the current status of their sales pipeline and revenue metrics. Today, many marketing departments rely on reported marketing data analytics at campaign completion. These reports tend to focus on lead conversion, customer lifetime value, and sales funnel churn rate. However, these metrics are inherently flawed, and the marketing department needs to go beyond reporting to truly understand the effectiveness of a marketing campaign.
Business analysis outside of marketing
Although most business analysts specialize in marketing, non-analysts can benefit from the benefits of business analysis. Often, it is simple to apply the tools and techniques used in SWOT analysis to improve marketing efforts. A SWOT analysis is a type of analysis that focuses on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It can be extremely useful to any type of business, from small startups to large companies. There are many different types of business analysts, and all of them can improve a business’s bottom line.
A master’s degree in business analysis is also an option. These are programs that offer formal business analysis training for those with degrees in computer science or business. Most programs include a course devoted to the subject. This way, individuals with a background in either discipline can become successful in business analysis. Besides a master’s degree, a business analyst can also pursue a PhD in a related field. Some people consider business analytics a career path because they are interested in helping companies create better products.
The benefits of business analysis extend beyond marketing to many other departments. Business analytics can also be used to track and measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Business analysts can measure a variety of other factors, including warehouse efficiency, manufacturing information, and sales pipeline. Ultimately, the goal of business analysis is to make better decisions and improve the overall performance of the company. However, there are some specific factors that make it valuable in the long run.
A core role of a business analyst is to help an organization navigate change. They can be instrumental in developing an enterprise architecture, defining and assessing strategic objectives, defining requirements, and supporting continuous improvement in processes and technologies. They also write business cases for projects, which balance time, expense, and risks. This role is critical to the success of any project. It is important to know what it involves, and why it is so important.
Benefits of marketing analytics
One of the most significant advantages of marketing analytics is that it enables companies to conduct advanced analysis to better understand their business. It helps businesses improve their customer loyalty and bottom line by improving the effectiveness of different marketing channels and content. Additionally, it can help identify latest trends in marketing and customer behavior. Marketing analytics is not limited to Amazon or other large companies. It can benefit any company that relies on data to improve its marketing. So, if you’re wondering what marketing analytics can do for you, read on to learn more about the benefits of this tool.
Marketing analytics can also help companies understand their competitors. For example, if one of your competitors is gaining new customers, you may want to investigate how he or she is doing it. Perhaps they are using different marketing channels or strategies. Understanding your competitors’ marketing strategy can give your company an advantage and increase your bottom line profitability. It can also improve your presence in the market. However, these benefits do not end there. Marketing analytics can help you improve your sales and improve your marketing efforts.
With the use of marketing analytics, organisations can become more proactive in anticipating market behavior and responding accordingly. Using data mining methods and predictive models, marketers can develop analytical models to better understand customer behavior. These models help forecast customer reactions to offers and tailor their offers to their preferences. By using analytics, marketers can also make better business decisions and increase profits. These insights can help them identify the most effective marketing strategies. If you’re interested in marketing analytics, make sure you check out SAS Customer Intelligence 360.
As a result of these insights, marketing analytics can help businesses identify opportunities for advanced analytics. By using data analytics, you can determine which marketing channels and messaging resonate the most with potential customers. Marketing analytics can also identify new opportunities for improving digital marketing and launching new marketing campaigns. This information can help you better understand which marketing campaigns to invest in and which ones are not performing as well as they should. With this insight, you can better focus your resources to increase sales.
Cost of marketing analytics
If your business is planning to implement a new digital marketing strategy, you must determine the cost of marketing analytics before you decide on a marketing strategy. It is important to use marketing analytics to gain insights from data so you can make an informed decision. Marketing efforts are meant to improve revenue, leads, and conversion rates, not to rely on gut instincts. Marketing analytics allows you to track and measure the performance of your marketing campaigns to identify areas where improvements are needed.
Many marketers are surprised to learn that a single hour of data analysis can improve the effectiveness of up to 80% of their marketing efforts. In addition to identifying which tactics work and which ones don’t, a well-designed marketing analytics strategy will help you make better decisions based on data. There are many reasons to use analytics, including improving customer satisfaction, improving your PPC ads, and boosting your sales and leads. Whether you’re a new business or an established one, analytics help you make better decisions faster.
The cost of marketing analytics software depends on your business size and scope of use. Some tools are inexpensive, but you’ll need to pay more if you have a larger team. Look for a marketing analytics solution with upgrades and add-ons. Depending on your business size, it is important to assess which features are essential and which ones are just unnecessary. Fortunately, modern marketing analytics tools can improve the performance of multiple channels and improve ROI.
One of the major restraining factors is the high cost of marketing analytics software, but a growing trend in cloud-based technologies is boosting the market. Moreover, COVID-19 outbreak has pushed organizations to take safety measures. Consequently, many product launches and conferences have been canceled. In the meantime, marketing is evolving in the digital sphere, and it’s only going to continue to do so. The growth of marketing analytics software will continue to depend on how the market responds to these crises.
Tools available for marketing analytics
There are a variety of marketing analytics tools available. Most require a monthly subscription fee, and many offer free trials that last only a few days. The disadvantage of these tools is that they typically don’t allow real-time data pulls from digital marketing platforms. The following are some of the most popular tools available for marketers. Listed below are a few of the best. You can start your search with the following three:
MixPanel. This tool lets you track events on mobile apps and websites and displays counts, trends, and information on how users interact with different content. It also lets you analyze user behavior and segment based on it. You can use MixPanel to measure the success of your marketing campaigns or improve customer experience. It’s a popular option for product managers, but it’s also great for marketing teams, too.
Google Analytics. This web analytics tool lets you analyze user behavior, such as the number of visitors, their location, and their activity. It also helps you track the effectiveness of your website ads and social media accounts. More than 50 million websites worldwide use Google Analytics, which has been around since 2005. Its wide range of functions makes it ideal for digital marketers and helps them prove their efforts are worthwhile. And it’s a great tool for digital marketers to track the impact of their marketing campaigns on their business.
Mixpanel. This tool helps marketers analyze website data, including visitor behavior and buying behavior. Its intuitive interface makes it easy for marketers to extract insights from the data. It helps marketers track individual visitor journeys and track full marketing attribution. The tool installs tracking code on websites and makes it easy to track any action that a user takes on the website. Mixpanel is available to marketers of all sizes and types. You can choose a plan that fits your budget and needs.
Cyfe. This tool helps marketers who use several different marketing channels to monitor their success. It helps them track their brand, increase search engine traffic, and keep tabs on the actions of competitors. The tool also gives you an overview of competitors and helps you outclass them in the search results. It also has a basic screener to analyze your rivals’ activity. Once you’ve chosen the right one for your business, you’ll soon be able to see its effectiveness.
You can simply decide that 2022 is your best year yet!
2021 was another challenging year for many business owners and their customers.
While some states opened-up and made it easier for businesses to serve customers, other states chose to invoke strict mandates and punitive measures.
Whether you supported tougher measures or not, we should be able to agree that for a good part of the nation many business owners struggled in 2021. Some even chose (or had to) close for good.
Since 2021 is just around the corner, what are your doing to position your business for success in 2022?
What Will Your Business Success Look Like In 2022?
Having a positive mindset is always a great start. But, what areas of your business will you be specifically focusing on?
Online Presence – What can you do to make your business more findable online?
Conversion Rate Optimization – What improvements can you make to your business website to make it convert better for you (e.g., more calls, more contact form submissions, more purchases, etc.)?
Social Media Marketing – What are helpful things you can do in the social media arena to increase awareness and mindshare?
Customer Follow-up – What can you do to follow-up with previous customers to get them to re-engage?
Social-Proof – What can you do to get more customer reviews from your customers?
Video Marketing – Do you have one or more videos about your business? If so, how are you marketing them? If not, why not?
Paid Advertising – What can you do in the area of paid advertising (Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Facebook Ads, etc.)?
The good news is that you don’t have to take on a new job trying to figure-out how to do each one – take time out of your already busy day to implement each one. Any one of the above items can help lead you to more customers and increased sales. Make it simple for yourself. Pick one. Implement it. Monitor it. Improve it. Pick another one, and do the same.
Click the image above to make your content more findable.
What To Do
For all practical purposes, 2022 is already here. Devote some time to deciding what you want 2022 to look like for your business. Not quite getting to it or simply choosing to do nothing is a recipe for the same results as in 2021 – or worse. Decide on which item to focus on and boldly take steps to implement it. Stay focused on it. Make it work for you.
Discover the benefits of using a chatbot on your business website
How Chatbots Help Businesses
Website chatbots are one of the fastest growing trends in business today. Businesses are using chatbots to engage with their website visitors and to increase business sales.
Keep reading to find out what a chatbot is, how it helps a business, and chatbot best practices.
What is a Chatbot?
If you’ve never heard of them, you’re not alone. In fact, many people still think they are still part of the future (like a personal jet-pack or a flying car). Yet, to business owners in-the-know, chatbots are a reality, and they are growing in popularity.
“Recently released research by Oracle shows that in the next three years, the number of chatbot users will grow exponentially from 70 million to almost 200 million.”
A chatbot is a computer program installed on a website that is designed to simulate human conversation with a website visitor.
The are Rule-based chatbots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled chatbots.
Rule-based Chatbots
Rule-based chatbots use “decision trees” in order to answer questions which can be simple or complex (based on how it is trained/created by its creators). This type of bot can can offer choices, but it cannot handle free form questions where the pattern does not match what has been programmed in to it.
AI Chatbots
Artificial intelligence chatbots can learn from the interactions they have with website visitors. They are made possible through Natural Language Processing (NLP). NLP allows chatbots to intelligently respond to a user’s text input by understanding intent and context.
How Can Chatbots Help?
Companies are using chatbots on their websites as a way to:
Interact with website visitors in order to help the visitors find what they’re looking for
Help increase sales
For any business, chatbots are a great way to offer a level of instant customer service without the cost of human agents. And, the chatbots on-the-job 24/7/365.
Why Interact with Website Visitors?
A new visitor to a business website is typically a prospective customer for that business. For the prospects that are ready-to-go, they’ll just call the business they see on the website, or they’ll fill out a contact form to get things going.
For a prospect who’s not yet at this stage, they’re typically looking for a bit more information about the business. While the website content layout & menu navigation should be done in a way that makes it intuitive to find the information the prospect seeks, sometimes it’s not quite enough or not very intuitive.
A properly designed chatbot can greatly assist a prospect in getting to the information they seek quickly.
“73% of consumers are likely to use a website chatbot”
How Do Chatbots Help Increase Sales?
When a prospect gets to the information they seek about the business, the prospect is that much closer to becoming a customer, client, or patient.
“Website Chatbot Customers are 134% more likely to spend money”
Plus, a feature some chatbots have is to be able to help a prospect book an appointment for a service-based business (e.g., for a dentist, chiropractor, etc.).
Another feature can be the ability for a chatbot to get the prospect into the sales check-out process for an item they’ve showed interest in (e.g., an eCommerce website, an affiliate website, etc.).
Naturally, both of these can lead to more sales for the business.
What are the Best Practices for a Website Chatbot
Nothing is set-in-stone for the use of a chatbot on a website. Yet, it can be helpful to have a set one up so that it can simultaneously be a great experience for a website visitor AND helpful in creating more sales for your business.
The following are some helpful practices to keep in mind when setting up a chatbot for your small business website.
Have a Clear Purpose
Know what you are trying to accomplish. Dial-in your target audience, and understand what they need.
As best you can, define the visitors flow. Consider the following questions:
What functions should your chatbot be able to do?
What have your prospects and customers been asking about?
What information are they seeking?
What have they been looking to accomplish?
How can you help them get what they need?
Can you help them schedule an appointment? Buy a product? Get pre- or after-sale support?
It’s OK not to have answers for all of these questions. But, you should have at least a good starting idea of what you would need your chatbot to be able to do.
Tip – Don’t wait until you think your chatbot is 100% perfect. Otherwise, you’ll likely never get one operational.
Tip – Make use of my 70/20 Principle. Yes, I know about Pareto’s 80/20 Principle. But, my adaptation is very useful for business owners getting a project underway faster. As adapted to chatbots, develop your chatbot idea to about 70%. The idea here is to just get it operational – and tweak it over time from there. Using my 70/20 Principle, you’ll get your chatbot working faster, and you make about a 20% tweak to the bot each time you modify it. Just realize that it will likely never be at 100%. But, you can keep making improvements – 20% each time you work on it’s capabilities.
Keep The Chatbot Simple and Straightforward
Provide quick, easy solutions to common problems or requests. Only add complexity if the situation warrants it.
Include buttons for the choices.
Answer Common Questions
Set-up your chatbot to be able to help with common questions. Direct the visitor to a FAQ section on your website or to a specific section on your website where the answer is discussed.
Tip – Keep responses informative, but a short as possible. Otherwise, an response can scroll off the small window used for chats.
Tip – Add to your chatbot’s answering capability over time, as new or different questions get asked.
Tip – Incorporate a fallback response. When your chatbot can accept free-form input, consider having a creative or light-hearted fallback response in place to handle situations when it gets confused – like:
“Hmmm…that’s a new one for me. I’m not quite sure how to respond. Why not call us now to assist?”
Tone of Voice
Make your chatbot’s tone of voice friendly and welcoming. Be polite & responsive. Make it a conversational tone.
Tip – Consider giving your chatbot a bit of a light-hearted personality or other human-like qualities.
Often, the use of some simple emojis (like a hand waving, a thumbs up, a party-celebration type of emoji can make a computer, artificial intelligence app seem more approachable & helpful.
People typically realize they are interacting with an app. But, some chatbot designs allow you to include a small image to be the persona of the chatbot. I went with w fun robot-look, and I named him “I/O” (for Input/Output). Other business owners choose an image of a real person. This, combined with the ability of some chatbot app softwares to include a brief typing pause between a visitor’s input and the app’s response can make the chatbot seem more human-like.
Tip – Avoid industry jargon unless it actually makes sense to use it. For example, someone suffering from a Temporo Mandibular Joint problem is likely going to have the acronym “TMJ” in their head when their interacting with a chiropractor’s website chatbot. In that case, it can make sense to include “TMJ Relief” as an option that a website visitor is seeking information on. But, just using jargon to be using it doesn’t make sense, and it may hinder visitor interaction.
Easily Noticeable
Make sure your chatbot is easy to find. In the United States, it’s very common for a chatbot to appear in the lower, right-hand corner of the desktop website view in a browser. And, it appears in a similar position on smartphones.
Initially, chatbots appear as just an icon. They may or may not be animated. When they icon gets clicked on, a bigger window pops-up that is more conducive to be able to chat.
Just make sure the initial icon is something that looks like a chatbot icon.
Are We Done?
Let the user know when they have reached the end of their conversation with the chatbot.
When directing them to another page on the website, that’s pretty clear. But, when still within the chatbot app, help the visitor know when the chatbot is done.
Tip – Ask if the information was helpful. Or, do they need additional information. Etc. If more information is needed, provide a support phone number, access to a contact form, the ability for the visitor to get a callback or email response, etc.
Branding
Smart business owners know that company branding is very important in the consumer marketplace. Businesses should always have a congruent “look & feel” between their business website and their various social media properties & related blogs. Think: Colors, images, messages, etc.
Tip – Incorporate your company color palette into the design of your chatbot. This will make it seamlessly fit right in with your website – not look like it was a force-fit, bolt-on afterthought.
Increasing Social Awareness
You can even place one or more social media icons in your chatbot flow for the purpose of encouraging your website visitors to share your website content. If you’ve provided a positive user experience in your chatbot flow, some of the website visitors will elect to share their experience with your website with their friends. This can help bring about additional brand awareness for your business in the social media arena.
Review Chatbot Analytics
Find out how visitors are interacting with you chatbot. Questions to ask yourself:
How many chatbot interactions with visitors have occurred?
Is chatbot use increasing?
What are the top interactions?
For eCommerce & affiliate websites, is it assisting with new sales?
What functionality may need expansion?
What are the Limitations of Chatbots?
Today’s chatbots are very good, but they are apps. They are typically designed to handle first-level questions. As such, they cannot think-on-their-feet as a human can.
AI-based chatbots can certainly help get closer to this, but even they have limits. For example, they typically cannot handle complex queries. They cannot read emotion, but they can determine intent.
Chatbots also typically cannot do customer-retention. They can provide programmed responses, but they cannot decide on-the-spot that it makes sense to attempt to save a customer from leaving by making them a one-off special offer.
Wrapping It Up
Chatbots are being used to answer customer questions, provide service and support, and even drive sales. A website chatbot can save your business money by answering many of the questions that your prospects & customers have, and they can do this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
DonRoberts.com provides website chatbot services for small business owners. Or, you can set one up for yourself.
Content Marketing for Small Business: Tips on how to boost small business sales via content marketing
The Business Owners Guide To Content Marketing
Content marketing is a powerful way to grow your business. Yet, it’s also one of the most misunderstood and confusing topics in the digital marketing arena.
Many business owners have never heard about content marketing. For the ones that have heard about it, they tend to think that it will be too hard or too time consuming for their business to implement. They typically don’t understand:
“How” they can generate enough ideas for the articles
“Where” to start – even if they have one or more article ideas
“How” to write the articles
Keep reading because this article will show you what you need to know about content marketing strategy, tips, & ideas so that you can leverage this incredible strategy to build brand awareness & trust with your prospects, as a well as increase your sales. By the time you get to the end of this article, you will understand:
How to generate plenty of ideas for articles
Where to start
How to write the actual articles
…Even how to use tools to speed up the process
What Is Content Marketing?
And, why is content marketing important? Content marketing is a way to establish authority in your niche. It can help your business increase sales and brand presence. You can use it to get more leads, build trust with prospects, and create an online community of fans that will buy from you time and again. And, it’s a way for your fans to share your helpful content with their friends.
Examples of content marketing can be blog posts, social media posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts. But, before you dive-in headfirst, you really should have a goal in mind – a destination if you will.
Define Your Goal
In business, naturally you should have a goal for the things you do. It’s the same for engaging in content marketing. What are you hoping to accomplish? Some business owners may say they want to get a certain number of new clients a month. Other owners may say they want a certain number of new phone calls a month. Still, some other business owners may want a certain number of new visitors to their website or a certain number of new email sign-ups a month.
What do YOU want to achieve? Make it specific, and make it reasonable & do-able.
Define Your Target Audience
Target your audience or risk ending up talking to no one.
Every seasoned marketer knows that if you try to appeal to ALL people (in an attempt to maximize sales), you will end up appealing to no one (thereby minimizing sales). Do yourself a favor and identify your target audience.
Over time, one or more demographics tend to make themselves known as the primary sales generators. Examples of demographics might be singles in their 20s, homeowners in their 30s making $60K or more a year, CrossFit members in their 40s, etc. This will become your avatar.
So, identify your avatar, and write with your avatar in mind – just like you’re talking with them. It will help you focus your thoughts and flow.
Create content that is engaging and informative for your audience – while also being consistent with your brand’s voice and values
Get Your Content Seen
You can share your content on social media platforms, on blogs, in newsletters, etc. The following might go without saying. But, just in case it’s not, you’ll want to publish your content on your business website first. That’s where you want Google and the other search engines to find it first.
Your Social Media Profiles
It’s even better to also publish your content (or links to it) on your business’ social media profiles. Why? It’s because with so many people hanging out in the social media arena every day – all day, it’s highly unlikely that your target market is not hanging out there. So, get your content in front of them.
It stands to reason that the more places you have information to find, the more people can come across it. Think of the equivalent of having more than one fishing lure in the water to increase your chances of catching fish.
Typical social profiles that savvy business owners make use of are:
If you’re not already posting on your social media websites with some frequency, then you’ll want to read this article on the benefits of posting on social media.
Evergreen Content
What is evergreen content? Let’s start with what evergreen content isn’t.
Some content that a business posts about is meant for one occasion – like a post mentioning a certain date, event, etc. Typically, you’d post this information once on your website & in your social profiles – and be done with it.
But, what about content that can be read anytime of the year and still be relevant to your audience? Think of a chiropractor writing an article about back pain and mentioning treatment options. Think of a pest control company writing about termite infestation, damage, structural damage and mentioning treatment options & structural repair.
This type of content fits squarely into the “evergreen content” category. It applies anytime of the year.
Post Just Once, Right? Wrong.
Did you know that most social platforms allow you to re-post content that you’ve previously posted? Yep, you can – and should. Why?
It’s because someone may miss what you post today, but they may see it the next time it’s posted. Or, the time after that. And, so on.
Also, consumers who aren’t aware of your brand now may come across it in, say, 6 months. Would it be great if they had a chance to see your informative content then?
Posting Manually & Via Automation
Manual Posting to Social Accounts
For the manual approach, you’ll need to:
Keep track of each content page you want to post about.
Keep track of when you posted them.
Keep track of when you’ll post them next.
Actually re-post it.
Then, re-post it after that.
And, so on.
Yep, it’s truly manual. But, it’s certainly doable. And, it’s worth it because you increase your odds of more prospects finding your original evergreen content over time. For this approach, I recommend that you set-up a calendar with alerts – or you’ll likely forget all about it or get so lost that you bail altogether on it.
TIP – Keep in mind that “evergreen” doesn’t mean “set in stone”. You can make changes or updates to your actual content page anytime you want to. Just don’t change the page’s URL, or you’ll break the link connection to it from your social posts.
Automated Posting to Social Accounts
Use automation to post & re-post your content to YOUR social profiles
To me, the automated re-posting route is preferable. Why? Because it saves a lot of time.
One of the online services that will post to your social accounts is MissingLettr. Once a campaign has been set-up, MissingLettr will automatically drip-out each content post 9-times over the course of a year (Day 0, 3, 7, 14, 30, 90, 180, 270, & 365). Think: Set & forget.
When you make a new content post on your business website, it automatically gets picked up the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed that’s associated with your website. You associate this RSS feed with your MissingLettr dashboard (it’s easy), and MissingLettr automatically takes the hand-off.
Once the new piece of content (evergreen or otherwise) is in-hand, MissingLettr initializes a new drip campaign. Note that non-evergreen content can easily be deleted from the dashboard. You simply make a few tweaks to a campaign, then publish it within the MissingLettr dashboard. MissingLettr takes over from there, and you’ll enjoy traffic from new prospects throughout the coming year (365 days).
By now, you’re beginning to realize that sharing your new content in YOUR social media profiles offers you a good chance of your content getting found by more prospects – when compared to just posting it on your website.
Use automation to post & re-post your content on OTHER people’s social accounts.
What do you think could happen if you could arrange for OTHER people share your updates, too? If you’re beginning to think that your content could have a good chance of getting seen by even more prospects, then you’re solidly in the intuitive business owner category.
But, how can you make arrangements for others to see your content updates?
One such way is via Quuu Promote. The online service Quuu will share your well-written, non-sales-y, non-homepage content with numerous other topic-specific, real social accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Quuu Promote will even let you manually re-post content after a certain period of time.
As of this writing, Quuu Promote users have had their content shared over 50 million times – with over 100 million click-throughs to their content. All-in-all, Quuu is an efficient, effective, easy, and automated content promotion platform. Find out more about Quuu Promote here.
Content Marketing Format
Written content comes to mind, but you’re not limited to your content only being written. It can be in the form a videos, audio files, and/or podcasts, too. A combination of them is even better because while some people prefer to read, others prefer to consume content via video. Still others prefer to listen. Why not cover all bases and enjoy enhance brand exposure?
Generating Ideas For Articles
It may seem counterintuitive, but coming up with ideas for articles is easy. The ideas can come from your business, from customers & prospects, and from the search results.
Ideas from Your Business
Some business owners say that they have no idea what they would write about. But, I beg to differ. I ask them about their business – what they do. It turns out that they are pretty familiar with what they do. I tell them to write about that.
For example, while a general contractor may be stuck on what they would write about, their prospects likely want to know about:
How to choose a good general contractor
How homeowners should prepare for a remodeling project
What to expect during the different phases of a project (e.g., remodeling ideas, architectural plans, financing & refinancing, quoting, contract & change orders, communication, payment schedule, demolition, construction, permits, issue handling, clean-up, security, warranty, etc.)
Naturally, a general contractor can write about those things.
The articles should help prospects understand your services or products. Be informative, not sales-y. Your goal here is to establish topic authority & trust – not to make a sale or seem pushy.
TIP – Keep in mind that people like learning about things, especially when finding-out how to solve their problems. They also like to buy things. But, they don’t like being “sold to”.
What People Ask You About Your Business
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) are your friend. Just write out thoughtful responses to FAQs.
Tip – Speaking of writing, I recommend that you use the straightforward intro, body, & conclusion format (i.e., tell what you’re going to tell them about, tell them about it, then recap what you told them). Go wild, and throw in some relevant images, videos, audio files, lists, etc. where appropriate. And, don’t be shy about linking-out to authority resources so that your prospects can gather more information – should they desire. Hint: Google likes that.
How about the questions that prospects ask before they decide to become customers? What do they ask about? Answer these questions. Perhaps, simply start with the most common questions. Then, branch-out from there.
TIP – Once you start thinking about the FAQs that are associated with your business, why not go for a twofer and also create a FAQ section for your website? You’d be adding another way for your business to get found.
What People Search For
Get a wealth of questions that people are asking right now.
I’ve done it. You’ve done it. Countless people do it. We ask Google and the other search engines for answers. It turns out that there are companies that keep track of what people ask about. And, they’ll present it to you – just for asking (no pun intended).
An online service called “Answer The Public” can show you questions people ask about specific things. All you do it enter a keyword phrase into the Answer The Public input field on the homepage, and it will show you numerous questions related to that keyword phrase that people are asking.
For example, I just entered “neck pain”. The response was 384 results – spread out among “how”, “what”, “where”, “who”, “which”, “why”, “are”, “can”, “when”, and “will” questions.
If that’s somehow not enough for you, it also provides 56 prepositions (e.g., neck pain to shoulder, neck pain is symptom of, etc.) and 38 comparisons (e.g., neck pain and dizziness, neck pain and headache, etc.).
And, it’s easily downloadable. All in all, it’s chock-full of things to write about. Find out more about Answer The Public here.
TIP – The phrases output from Answer The Public are also considered to be “keyword phrases” (i.e., keywords used by people using search engines). You can input these keyword phrases into tools that allow you to get an idea of how may people are actively searching every month using these same keywords. You can then decide whether you want to target the higher-traffic, mid-level-traffic, lower-traffic keywords, or some combination of them for use in your articles. After all, if people are using specific keyword phrases, it makes sense to mention them in your articles so that your articles can get found. You can also use these keyword tools without using Answer The Public first – as long as you some some idea of keywords being used. You can also enter URLs of specific pages to see what keyword phrases the they are being found for. And, more. Find out more about researching keywords here.
Content Marketing Funnels
You’ve likely heard of sales funnels. You know – you land on a webpage and decide to buy what’s being offered. As you check-out, you’re presented with an offer for something else that’s typically related in some way with the first thing you bought – or enhances it in some way. Perhaps, you’re even offered a third item. That’s a sales funnel. By getting on to some company’s email list, you’ve entered their funnel, too.
You’re not limited to writing just one article about a topic (e.g., say, just one article on kitchen remodeling). You can create a series of articles on different aspects of a topic (e.g., designing a new kitchen, choosing appliances, countertop materials, etc.). One article can lead to the next one – with the last one making some offer.
Organizing Your Thoughts
Some business owners prefer to organize their thoughts using written outlines. Some may prefer to paste ideas or idea elements into EverNote, OneNote, or other note storing apps. Others may prefer to speak ideas into a recorder – like into the recording app on a smartphone. Do what works for you.
How To Write The Articles
Naturally, you’ll want your content to be consumed. To make this happen, you’ll need a headline that catches people’s attention in some way. And, you’ll want your content to flow so that your prospects can follow along, stick with it, and learn from it.
TIP – Some industries seem to be loaded with jargon and acronyms. A couple of examples of acronyms in my world are SEO & PPC. Even though every online marketer knows those two acronyms backwards & forwards, I’ve found that many business owners have no idea what SEO or PPC mean.
Remember – Just because YOU are familiar with your industry jargon, it doesn’t mean a prospect would be. If you’re going to use an jargon or acronyms in your content, start off by indicating what it stands for and how it’s relevant & understandable to the prospect.
Article Generation
Naturally, you have the option of writing you own articles. Or, you can have them done-for-you (DFY).
Someone Else Writing The Articles – Original Content
For the DFY approach, there are no shortage article writing providers – such as:
It’s likely no surprise that you’ll have to pay for each article. Of course, you’ll pay extra for more authoritative, in-depth articles.
With some of the providers, you have to pay extra to tell them “how” you want the article written. Having articles re-written typically is possible, but it can be a pain & can result in delays. And, you may end up having to edit the articles yourself. That’s generally not a big deal unless you don’t want to do any of the work, or the article is such that you want a full re-write.
TIP – Always look at the writer’s customer reviews. It’s typically best to just go with 4- & 5-star writers. You’re looking at about $20 – $25 for an 800-work article where you specify you want a writer with experience in the niche, the context you want in the article, etc. In-depth collaboration will approximately double the cost of each article. Articles can be written for less money, but the writer is free to write about what they want to write about, how they go about it, etc. It’s worth it to pay a bit more to get what you want.
Someone Else Writing The Articles – PLR
PLR stands for Private Label Rights. Some merchants sell niche-based PLR article packs (e.g., packs of articles about senior care living, packs about chiropractic care, etc.). They typically feature numerous topics within a given niche. And, they may even limit sales to, say, just 100 packs being available. To me, this approach has pros and cons.
Pros
Since the articles have been pre-written, they’re literally ready-to-publish. You might even feel that they are just right “as written”. They’re typically inexpensive. That all sounds good.
Cons
But, it’s not all good. You will likely not be the first person to buy & publish the articles from one of the 100 packs available. While people seeing your social posts may not know the difference, Google & the other search engines will. And, that can be a deal-breaker.
Although the subject is debated in the digital marketing world, a general consensus is that the search engine companies do not like to reward websites with duplicate content in their search results index. That means that if your website is posting duplicate content, it’s likely not going to get favorable search results positioning. And, that means your business won’t be very findable online by the vary people you’re hoping to come across your brand.
Lastly, while one or more PLR articles are about the topics in your niche, you may not really like how they’re worded or the conclusions/recommendations in them.
TIP – In any case, consider running articles you’ve acquired through Copyscape to ensure it hasn’t already been published elsewhere.
Tools To Speed-up The Article Writing Process
By now, you understand that between FAQs & your particular service offering, coming up with ideas for articles is pretty straightforward – in fact easy.
If you’re OK spending a little bit of time with each article yourself (or someone you designate on your team), then there are some tools that can help you streamline the process of article writing. The tools range from what I consider to be just OK – to being pretty darn good.
Content Marketing Tools Of The Trade
The article creation tools in the modern Internet marketers toolbox typically consist of ones that are semi-automated to those that are nearly fully automated. These content marketing software tools can easily be used by small business owners to quickly create articles.
From my experience, some (but, not all) of the tools fall short of generating actual quality content. In fact, some of it can be generic, somewhat awkward to read, and a bit disjointed. Depending on your personal preferences, most will typically require editing.
The good news is that there a couple exceptions that actually come up with pretty decent content – in my opinion.
Article Spinners
One semi-automated tool is an article-spinner. An article-spinner is really more of an article re-writer – than an article creator. And, the output typically needs editing (sometimes extensive editing) to make it read smoothly and to make sense.
One of the multiple article-spinning software apps
How Article Spinners Work
You manually take someone else’s content and place it into the article-spinner. The idea is that it re-writes it to be what the spinner companies claim to be “original content. Sometimes the spinner developers tout that their tool can make millions of combinations of original content available. In reality, it may only be considered “original” as far as the search engines are concerned (because many words are changed). But, the content & flow are still someone else’s.
Article-spinners rewrite an existing article – essentially swapping-out synonyms and occasionally rewriting sentences/paragraphs. You can also get them to reorder sentences/paragraphs. But, content flow typically suffers.
TIP – PLR articles can be run through an article-spinner. Just realize that manual editing will likely be necessary.
Why Use An Article Spinner?
As mentioned above, Google & other search engines do not want to provide favorable search results listings to articles that consist of “duplicate content”. For example, say I write an article and publish it on my website. Then, someone comes along, lifts my article, and publishes it on one or more other websites. The search engines do want to index original, good content. But, they do not want to index the duplicate content.
So, Internet marketers use article-spinners to create topically-related “original” content to be placed on third-party websites that they can then use to link to their topic-related “money sites” (i.e., the websites they really want to get favorable search results ranking for). The marketer will spin an article, run it through Copyscape, then publish the article.
As far as article creation goes, I consider spinners to be “a” way to “create” content. But, in my opinion, there are better ways to get good (even very good) articles.
Should you be interested in finding-out more about one of the more popular article-spinners, click here.
Automated Article Creation
Some newer tools are more streamlined in how they create articles. With these, you simply enter one or more keywords into the tool’s dashboard, and they will “create” entire articles from there. But, in my mind, they still need to be edited before they’re ready for prime-time (i.e., publishing on your business website). They are fast at article creation, and their prices range from reasonable to somewhat expensive.
Find out about the nearly automated content writing tools here, here, and here.
Advanced Tools
A few tools exist whereby you can enter a keyword, and the tools will take a look at top-ranking articles in the, say, Google search results, gather information about them, and present the information to you typically in the form of something called a “content brief“.
You can use the found information to discover additional keywords to use, to create an outline, title, sub-titles, authoritative references, etc. With this type of tool, you’re shown what makes up the content of articles that Google is currently ranking favorably. You incorporate some or all of this found information to help you not only have a more complete article, but also to give your article a shot at ranking well in the search results – where prospects can find it easily.
For information about this type of tool, you can go here, here. , and here.
AI Tool
Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to write your article content, ads, social posts, and video content.
The phrase “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) tends to get a bit over-used these days. Some developers make quite a stretch when it comes to associating AI with their products or services.
But, in my mind one place where it’s not a stretch to use it is a new content writing tool called “Jasper”. It’s developer indicates this tool has been reading the Internet for years and has been “learning” about numerous industries & topics.
How You Use Jasper
The Jasper tool provide varying templates for you to create content from. You enter a keyword phrase into a template, and click the “Generate AI Content” button. Jasper processes your input, then returns written content appropriate for your topic and template.
For this example, I just entered the phrase “how to treat for termites” into the “Blog Post Outline” template. Within just a moment, I received three groups of steps (each group has steps that vary). Here’s one of the groups Jasper gave me:
Find out what type of termites you have
Look for piles of sawdust or pellets, holes in the wood, and live termite swarms
Get a professional to inspect your home for termites
Treat your home with pesticides that are approved by the EPA
Each one of these can be a section in a new article for a pest controls company. Note that I did not edit the steps above in any way.
You can then take things a step further and enter the output into another template. I took the third step above and entered it into the “Blog Post Intro Paragraph” template. Here’s one of the responses it gave me:
“Termites are probably the most destructive wood-destroying insects on earth. The typical homeowner has no idea how much damage a termite infestation can actually do to their house, and this is why it’s so important that you have your home inspected by a professional before any major damage occurs.”
Does that read like a robot wrote it? Or, like it was written by someone who doesn’t have a native grasp for English? Nope.
Within a matter of moments, I’ve got an article outline, and a section paragraph without breaking a sweat. And, they read well and make sense.
Jasper currently has 21 templates available for content creation – ranging “blog post creation” to Facebook & Google “ads creation” to “product descriptions” to “headline/sub-headline creation”. More on in development.
Find out more about more about the Jasper article writing AI software & get 10,000 paid credits for free here.
Wrapping It Up
Smart business owners are seeing to it that they get content created & published with frequency that’s related to what they do. They know that doing so helps expand their brand presence in the marketplace. They also know that it attracts new consumers to their business.
We’ve proven that any notion of “writer’s block” can easily be dismissed. You can easily identify numerous things to write about. You’ve got resources to help you crank out as many articles as you want.
Just Get Started
“Inaction” gets you nowhere. Take the first step. Get started. Keep in mind that “starting” doesn’t mean you now have to commit taking on a second job writing articles every day. Start with an article a month. Just one. It doesn’t have to be perfect – or even the final word on whatever the topic is. Dial-it-in to be helpful to your target audience.
Gather-up info on what you want to write about. Write it. Publish it. And, be sure to link to it from your social accounts. Simple.
TIP – If your business has an email subscriber list, be sure to let them know, too, when you publish a new piece of content. Tease them with a short excerpt of the new article, then encourage them to click-through to read the whole article on your website. This can work well at reactivating customers who’ve become quiet recently for one reason or another.
Then, Scale It Up
Once you get the flow down, up your output to two articles a month. Then, add another one. And, so on.
Be sure to get an “echo-chamber” going with your articles & posts getting re-posted & shared in the social media arena. And, remember those email subscribers, too.
Don’t be surprised when more consumers start noticing YOUR business. Naturally, that can lead to new sales for your business because more & more consumers are finding, liking, and trusting your helpful content & brand.
2021 will be what you make of it. Decide now what 2021 will become.
2020 has been a year that I’m sure a lot of business owners would like to forget. Whether you supported the closures or not, one thing we can all agree on is that the 2020 lock-downs have had a punishing effect on small business owners nationwide. Sadly, many of these businesses have shuttered for good. While that’s been unfortunate for them, other businesses weathered-the-storm and are looking forward to more prosperous times ahead.
Considering that 2021 is just moments away, how are you positioning your business for success in 2021?
What do you want for your business in 2021?
Besides simply having a positive mindset for 2021, what specifically do you want to happen with your business in 2021? How about:
Away to follow-up with past customers and/or new prospects?
Away to build-up more customer reviews?
To get a video made for your business?
To start doing some paid advertising
Other?
Naturally, any or all of the above can lead to more customers & more sales. You just need to decide what you want…then stay focused on it. For those who elect to just sit back & see how things go, their businesses are bound to flounder in 2021 – or possibly fold-up for good.
But, that’s not you because you’re here at DonRoberts.com.
What to do…
The countdown has begun. Take some time as we transition from 2020 to 2021, and decide what things are important to you for your business in 2021. Then, start taking purposeful action. You don’t need everything figured-out before you start. Just get started.
Doing that, 2021 is going to be your best year yet. Dare I say, it will even be awesome!
How Google's RankBrain Impacts YOUR Business Website & Sales
Ignore this important information at your own risk...
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On This Page: Find out what Google RankBrain is and how to take advantage of it for your business.
Why Would A Business Owner Care About What Google Does?
Executive Summary - As a smart business owner, you're going to want to read this article all the way to the end because you'll find-out how a portion of Google's RankBrain technology is likely working against your website and sales. And, while you read, you'll discover several effective ways how you can make it work for your business instead.
You've probably got a business website that you're happy with. When you search for your business name in Google, you see your business listed in the search results. That's how YOU find your business in Google. But, consumers in your local area probably won't find your business the way THEY search. And, Google's RankBrain is going to make that even more of a challenge going forward. Here's why:
Limited Page 1 Real Estate - In most areas of the United States, just about any business has a lot of competitors - more than can fit on to Page 1 of the search results. And, since Google tells us that about 90% of consumers don't go past the first page of search results, those businesses stuck on Page 2 and beyond are largely not even being seen by local consumers.
Generic Search Terms - Consumers who've not heard of your business previously naturally would not be searching Google using your business name. But, they would be using more generic searches for business type + city (e.g., cosmetic dentist fremont ca, dui attorney san francisco, etc.). If your website and content are not optimized for these generic keyword search terms, it's highly likely that YOUR business will not be appearing on Page 1 of search.
RankBrain goes way beyond processing unfamiliar search phrases. It also takes into account how searchers interact with a business website. (original image by Martin420 on WikiMedia)
RankBrain - For the sake of argument, let's say that you invested in search engine optimization services (SEO) - and your website business website has begun showing up on Page 1. But, with Google's RankBrain technology in place, it's now harder to maintain that favorable search results position. That translates to you losing out on those extra customers & sales you've begun enjoying. Keep reading to find out why...
Search Engine Basics
First, let's set the stage with the basic operation of a search engine - in this case Google.
Algorithm - Custom computer program that sorts through billions of web pages, orders them, and displays them for specific search queries or keyword searches.
Hummingbird - This is the formal name Google has given its search algorithm. There are over 200 inputs to the algorithm.
PageRank - This is part of the Hummigbird search algorithm. It covers the way in which Google gives a page credit based on links pointing to it from other pages on the web (think: individual votes of confidence). Google used to provide PageRank information, which provided Internet marketers with strategic information for link-building efforts. Google stopped providing PageRank info in March 2016.
Quick Facts
In addition to the 500+ changes Google makes every year to their search results computer algorithm, they also release major updates from time to time with names like "Payday", "Panda", "Penguin", "Pigeon", and "Fred".
These updates have a significant effect on where your business website (and other online properties) appear in the search results.
What Is RankBrain?
Introduced in 2015, RankBrain has already become the third most important ranking factor in the search results algorithm - according to Google's Greg Corrado. In this article, the word "ranking" is used to denote the order of the search results for a given search phrase. "Ranking favorably" simply means having a listing for your business that shows up on Page 1 of the search results.
In tech-speak, RankBrain is Google's new machine-learning, artificial intelligence technology.
Machine Learning - This is specialized computer programming where a computer teaches itself to perform a task - or set of tasks - without following detailed program steps or being taught by humans.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) - This is highly specialized progamming whereby a computer can end up being as smart as a human - and can carrying out actions with the accuracy and speed of a computer.
Google's Mission
At a high level, Google's mission is to end search. End search?
Yep. Google wants to serve highly-relevant search results its users. At the end of the day, Google basically wants to connect searchers with exactly what they're looking for and as soon as possible - which of course completes their searching. Google figures that will make people want to use Google search again & again - for all of their searches.
What Does RankBrain Do?
RankBrain plugs into Google's search algorithm and helps Google better sort-through, order, and deliver its search results. And, it's a significant way Google will accomplish their goal of providing highly relevant search results.
What Most Are Saying About RankBrain
One of the things RankBrain does is to assist the search algorithm with search queries it has not come across before. If it's not familiar with a certain word or search phrase, it can take a guess at other words that might have a similar meaning and filter the results accordingly. That function can help provide more more relevant search results.
The Bigger Thing Nobody Seems To Be Mentioning
►Pay especially close attention to this part.
The other hugely important thing that RankBrain does is to take interaction cues directly from the web searchers themselves. These cues - or signals - communicate to Google how much - or how little - a searcher engages with a particular website that's presented in the search results. These interaction signals are fed into RankBrain.
Search Engine Optimization experts who know what they're doing can typically get a targeted website page to appear favorably in the search results - that's to say on Page 1 and preferably at the top. Doing this makes a business a lot more findable online, and it's a recipe for a lot more visitor traffic to a business website. Naturally, that leads to more sales.
As you would suspect, Google knows that not all websites are created equal. Some websites have very good content. Some websites are more middle-of-the-road in terms of content quality. And, some websites have low quality content. Some websites have many thousands of pages of content, while other sites have very little content - also known as "thin" content.
Google realizes that searchers are not going to be happy getting served sub-standard search results. That would be a frustrating user search experience and a waste of time. Google knows that's not a recipe for people wanting to continue using Google to find things.
For obvious reasons, Google wants the better quality content showing up favorably in the search results. And, Google figures that the searchers themselves can tell Google exactly what websites & pages they prefer.
Google is also aware that SEO experts try to influence the search results for the SEO firm client's websites. In the early days, simply having a lot of links pointing to a website that also has lots of keyword phrases on the page made it fairly easy to get good rankings. Algorithm updates along the way have made it more a lot more challenging to achieve favorable rankings, but the best website marketing companies are still able to get pages ranked favorably in the search results.
Google's RankBrain technology is looking at these User Interaction Signals
But, what about maintaining the favorable search results?
In the past, getting a favorable ranking generally meant that it would stay there. That's typically no longer the case - in large part because of RankBrain. In fact, unless the favorably-ranked website has good RankBrain signals, that site's favorable search results positioning will likely fade to Page 2 or beyond.
What Are the RankBrain Signals?
Wouldn't it be great if we knew the signals that RankBrain monitors? If we had them at our finger tips, it would be kind of like having a secret decoder ring you could use to help your website gain & maintain favorable search results positioning.
You're in luck because we've been digging, and we uncovered the signals that RankBrain measures. They are as follows:
RankBrain Signals
Brand Search & Brand Mentions
Navigational Search
Click-through Rate from the Search Results
Bounce Rate
Number of Pages Visited
Total Time-on-Site
Traffic Volume
Repeat Visitors
(Every other list item above was bolded only to make the list easier to read.)
A Closer Look At The RankBrain Signals
Brand Search - Are people searching for your brand name? In other words, are people searching using YOUR brand name as part of their search query? As discussed previously, unless YOUR brand is already well-established in your area, consumers are likely not searching for YOUR actual brand name - or YOUR website domain name. RankBrain is monitoring this. To some, this would be a "Catch-22" situation (you need people searching for your brand, but they don't know about it yet). So, what do you do? We use our proprietary system to feed RankBrain. But, you could, for example, do some paid advertising or other promotions in Facebook to get your name out there.
Tip - You could, for example, do some paid advertising or other promotions in Facebook to get your name out there. "Boosting" a post to your local community is easy & inexpensive in in Facebook. You can tweet about things your business is doing. You can post images related to your business on Pinterest.
Speaking of the social arena, is your brand being mentioned in people's social circles? Is anyone sharing info about your business with their friends? Are your customers writing customer reviews?
Tip - Offer great service to your customers in every aspect of your operation - from the receptionist answering the phone, onward. Also, ask your customers to provide reviews from your business on Yelp, Google+, and Facebook. People will share your good deals & helpful information with their friends.
Navigational Search - Navigational? What's that? Simply, are people searching for something unique that is featured on your website? For example, someone may search for "the habit menu" to find the menu that's specifically on the The Habit website.
Another example might be where a smart business owner does a navigational search for "donroberts.com google review link generator" to find the handy online tool that easily creates Google+ customer review form links to share with their customers, clients, or patients. Additionally, you might also have a resources page related to your business - like the "small business marketing tools resources" page we have on our site.
In these situations, people are looking for some information, a tool, or other resource that is specifically findable in the navigation on your website. What useful resource do you have on your website that consumers would like to find?
Tip - You could start sharing your resources in your social media accounts. Tell your followers about your resources, and encourage them to check the resources out. Ask them to share them with their friends. You can also "Boost" a post inexpensively in Facebook to get your resources in front of a lot of people in your local area.
Click-Through Rate - An SEO optimization company may have gotten your website near the top of the search results on Page 1 for a keyword phrase you care about (that's a great thing). But, is anyone actually clicking YOUR result when they get presented with it in the search results? If you're not sure, your website analytics can certainly tell you about this. And, you can be sure that RankBrain is watching, too.
Consider this example: If your website is displayed promiently in the search results over & over, but no one is actually clicking your search listing (or very few are), RankBrain will determine that people - when given the choice - are choosing NOT to engage with your website. That's a bad signal to send to RankBrain - and, it's a recipe for your website getting bounced to Page 2 or beyond. And, that means a lot less traffic to your website - which also means fewer sales.
The click-through rate is a very important signal to RankBrain.
Warning - Whether for brand search - or generic keyword search phrases, don't be tempted by well-intentioned, but misinformed SEO firms who still use spammy automated bots or lower-skill worker services to game the system because Google is on to the schemes & methods used, and they may give your website a slap you won't soon forget. That would make your site less findable and can make you lose-out on sales.
Tip - You can easily ask your customers what things they were initially looking for about your business. If it's missing from your website, get it on there & highlight it. And, considering bolstering the information that you already have on your site.
Bounce Rate - When someone does click-through to your website, but chooses to return to the search results relatively quickly, that person has "bounced" from your website. While being an imperfect measurement (because someone could have gotten the exact information they sought, only visited one page on your site, then returned to the search results), it's still a measurement RankBrain monitors. A high bounce rate is a bad signal to send to RankBrain. Bounce Rate is reduced when website visitors spend time on your website consuming content on various pages.
Tip - An effective way to get people consuming your content is to continue to provide them with helpful, educational content and make sure that your website's navigation makes it easy to find the various content. And, share it in the social arena.
Number of Pages Visited - This may seem obvious, but the more pages a visitor visits, the better the signal. Ideally, you would want people to spend several minutes on each page of your business website consuming content (e.g., text, video, images, & audio). Just make it good quality content. That's a good signal to send to RankBrain.
Tip - At a minimum, make sure you have links throughout your website pointing to interesting, informative, or educational features on your site. Perhaps, have featured blocks of information - or focus areas - that are easily seen.
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Total Time On-Site - The more the merrier, as far as this signal goes. Engaged visitors will typically spend at least several minutes on a site. Time-on-site is improved by having great content to read, watch, and listen to.
Tip - You should certainly offer high-quality articles that inform & engage your site visitors. You also might offer quizzes, polls, or event sign-ups in addition to great articles, videos, images, or audios. Inter-link your posts & pages so that your readers will see links within the content they're reading.
Traffic Volume - Generally, the more traffic your site gets, the more popular it must be. That can be from search traffic, referral traffic, or direct traffic. Referral traffic is traffic from other sites, such as social media sites, authority sites linked to your content, ad traffic, and traffic from business directories. Direct traffic is simply people typing in your actual domain name into the address field and hitting enter. Sites with low or no traffic send a poor signal to RankBrain.
Warning - If your SEO company is building links to your website every month, but there is no traffic coming to your site from them, what do you think that situation communicates to Google? Does it really seem natural that all these links are being built to your site, yet no one is actually clicking the links to actually visit your site? Google is monitoring this...
Tip - Share your site's content in the social arena. Consider "boosting" helpful posts on your Facebook business page. Consider guest-posting articles on local or industry authority websites. Of course, you want a link back to YOUR business website.
Repeat Visitors - Do people return to your website to consume more content? If so, that's a great signal to RankBrain. And, your website analytics can tell you about it.
Tip - Even if your site currently has very little in the way of repeat visitor traffic, there are things you can do to boost your repeat visitor numbers - like engaging in email marketing to have people on your list return to read new blog posts, see new offers, and find out about upcoming events. You can also target people who've visited your website, place an ad in Facebook that specifically targets them, and convince them to click the ad that will return them to YOUR website. See...your numbers are getting better already.
One Last Thing (and It's a Big One)
There's something in the Internet marketing world that would make an SEO agency quake in their boots if they knew about it - and that is the dreaded "Split Test".
Google knows about how many clicks each listing in the search results page should get. For example, the web page listed in Position 1 on Page 1 should get "X" clicks. The web page listed in Position 2 should get "Y" clicks. And so on.
If your website is not in-line with the expected number of clicks Google is anticipating, that can trigger a "split test". In this situation, Google puts your website up against another website. If that site has a better click-through ratio and a better bounce rate rate, your site loses the test and ends up on Page 2 of the serach results and beyond. Say goodbye to findability for your business, and say hello to lost sales.
Tip - Check your website analytics to see how your website is performing because it's likely underperforming and sending unfavorable signals to RankBrain. The good news is you can turn this unfortunate situation around to put YOUR business website in the best shape possible for attaining & maintaining favorable search results positioning.
The Bottom-line
Strategic Google SEO packages can still get your website ranked favorably in the search results. But, favorableuser interaction & engagement are now required to keep it there.
OK...one more Tip. Do the things suggested above to get people engaging with your website. If you'd rather have someone do it for you, check the limited-time offer below.
As a savvy business owner, by now you begin to realize that you need to start feeding RankBrain with favorable signals. Just don't put this off because RankBrain is already at work detecting user interaction - or lack thereof - with YOUR small business website. That is likely already impacting the traffic to your site - and your sales, too.
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Don Roberts
Don Roberts
Don Roberts is nationally recognized as being one of the most effective search engine optimization experts in the business community.
He's well known for customer satisfaction and for creating profitable Internet marketing promotions that significantly increase brand awareness and sales by making businesses more findable online by local consumers.
Don's website marketing services are never canned or off-the-shelf. Rather, each plan is strategically-tailored to the specific competitive situation a business owner finds their business in.Contact Don at (408) 890-6395.
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