by Sameeha Junejo | Nov 11, 2019
We’ve compiled a list of the top ten SEO tools to help you master SEO optimization.
1. Ahrefs: SEO Keyword Tool
One of the most recommended SEO tools online. From a competitor analysis perspective, you’ll likely use Ahrefs to determine your competitor’s backlinks to use them as a starting point for your own brand. You can also use this SEO tool to find the most linked to content within your niche.
https://ahrefs.com/
2. Google Search Console: Top SEO Tool
Offered for free to everyone with a website, Search Console by Google lets you monitor and report on your website’s presence in Google SERP. As an SEO checker tool Search Console can help you understand how Google and its users view your website and allow you to optimize for better performance in Google search results.
https://search.google.com/search-console/about
3. SEMRush: Marketing SEO Tools
One of the most popular features of this SEO tool is the Domain Vs Domain analysis allowing you to easily compare your website to your competitors. If you’re looking for analytics reports that help you better understand your website’s search data, traffic, or even your competitors, you’ll be able to compare keywords and domains.
https://www.semrush.com/
4. KWFinder: SEO Keyword Tool
An SEO Keyword Tool like KWFinder helps you find long-tail keywords that have a lower level of competition. The experts use this SEO tool to find the best keywords and run analysis reports on backlinks and SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
https://kwfinder.com/
5. Moz: SEO Software
Whether you’re looking for keyword recommendations or a site crawl, Moz is a full-service powerhouse. You can get great insights into how your website is performing but also how to improve it.
https://moz.com/
6. Ubersuggest: Keyword Tracking Tool
Ubersuggest, developed by Neil Patel, is a keyword finder tool that helps you identify keywords and also the search intent behind them by sho.wing the top ranking SERPs for them. From short to long-tail phrases, you can find the right terms to use on your website with hundreds of suggestions from this free great keyword tool.
https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/
7. Answer The Public: Free SEO Tools
Free SEO tools like Answer The Public allow you to easily find topics to write about for your ecommerce blog. This tool can be used to create content around specific keywords to better rank online.
http://answerthepublic.com/
8. SpyFu: Free SEO Tools
You can easily view the number of times a keyword gets searched each month while easily determining the difficulty to rank for that keyword. You can also do some research on your competitors to determine which keywords they use.
https://www.spyfu.com/
9. Woorank: SEO Ranking Tool
As a top SEO analysis tool, Woorank offers free and paid options to track and report on your marketing data. You can plug in your competitors to discover which keywords they are targeting so you can to overlap with theirs.
https://www.woorank.com/
10. Majestic: Marketing SEO Tools
Majestic is one of the best marketing SEO tools according to experts. It has countless useful features like The Majestic Million which lets you see the ranking of the top million websites. Did your website make the cut? The Site Explorer feature allows you to easily see a general overview of your online store and the number of backlinks you have.
https://majestic.com/
Read more at: https://www.oberlo.ca/blog/seo-tools
by Sameeha Junejo | Nov 10, 2019
cover image from: https://www.singlegrain.com/seo/effective-seo-techniques-that-work/
Want SEO techniques that are easy to implement and will bring high results? This post is perfect for you, especially because all these techniques can be done by yourself!
Optimize Your Titles and Headings
The title tag has the most weight in search engine optimization, so make sure your keyword is there. The closer the most important keyword is to the beginning, the better. After that, you need to add the proper keywords to your Headings as well. The H1 is the most important heading so it should be the first thing on a page. In many cases, it’s the same as the title, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be.
Prioritize Pages in Website Navigation
Navigation is the most important structure element on your entire website. Why? Well, because it’s the first thing linking to your ‘other’ pages and it’s usually at the very top of the page, giving those links a lot of weight. That’s actually one of the reasons the Homepage has such high authority on all sites. It’s because, usually, the logo on every page links to it.
Implement Tracking on Your Site
Tracking is extremely important. If you don’t track your rankings and traffic, you can’t spot the issues with your website. What pages do the users leave quickly? You know you can improve those first, especially if the search volume for them is high! If you don’t monitor your organic search traffic you can’t know if you’re making any progress and, worse, you won’t know if the search engines penalized you or your rankings have dropped. You can use Google Search Console and Google Analytics to monitor your organic search traffic and issues with your pages.
Compress and Optimize Your Images
Images take up the most physical space on your server. That means they also take the most physical space on your user’s device, which means they also take the most time to load. Slow loading times greatly impact your conversions and images really take the longest to load.
Interlink Your Pages with Keyword Rich Anchor Texts
Interlinking is one of the most effective SEO techniques out there. You can use it to link to important pages using specific anchor texts. This has a lower risk than building backlinks on keyword rich anchor texts and, more importantly, you have absolute control over it.
Link to Relevant, Authority Websites
I know you’d rather prefer other websites linking to you, but just as with the social media example, you’ll have to share other people’s content in order to get linked to yourself. This can actually improve your SEO. Why? Well, it’s because Google works on backlinks! That’s how it finds good content and figures out which content is worth ranking at the top. That’s why Google encourages webmasters to link to great content
Secure Your Social Media Profiles
Although you’ll only probably use one or two of them, it’s a good idea to secure as many as possible. Social Media profiles are a great way of getting some initial backlinks to your website. Sometimes you might even lose the name if someone else (like a competitor) registers it before you.
Share Other People’s Content
Also, make sure you share interesting content, even if it’s not from your own website. If you want other people to share your content, you’ll have to share theirs.
Update/Improve Existing Content
If you already have content on your website that’s targeting a specific keyword, don’t start writing something else on the same topic. You’ll get into keyword cannibalization, when multiple pages will be competing for the same keyword (and probably none will be ranking).
Read the full article: https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/20208/effective-seo-techniques/
by Sameeha Junejo | Oct 28, 2019
cover image from: https://info.themezzaninegroup.com/blog/what-does-b2b-mean
Echo Partners is a B2B financial company that was started to give community banks access to the tools and resources traditionally available only to large institutions. Echo Partners has successfully used social media and inbound marketing to drive leads and support support business growth.
Managing director of Echo Partners, Howard J. Lothrop was investing time and money in online marketing from the very beginning of Echo Partners back in 2005. In an interview conducted Lothrop says all he had back in 2005 was a static website that “functioned no better than a digital brochure”.
Moving from Static to Dynamic Online Marketing
When the company started, it focused solely on outbound marketing. They early on realized scaling their business through this method would not be achievable. Recently, they made the transition to inbound marketing by including more dynamic content such as a blog, social media, and search engine optimization.
Understand What Has Worked for Others
It is important to understand what techniques work for other B2B small businesses to improve your businesses social media and inbound marketing plan. Lothrop began by optimizing the company webpage for better search engine optimization results. He set up landing pages to have a method of driving leads, focused on creating content around long tail keywords to increase search engine traffic.
Getting Over the “Getting Started” Hump
Getting started may seem daunting, however Lothrop advises that after taking the time to learn inbound marketing it really is not complicated at all, it’s all common sense. After getting started Lothrop feels the time he invests in inbound marketing is very manageable. By evaluating website traffic and lead sources he is able to focus on the tactics that are creating the best results. It has only been a few months and Echo Partners has successfully begun to generate leads online and increase website traffic.
Inbound Marketing Drives Business Strategy
Lothrop also shared the additional benefits of using social media and inbound marketing, he explained from the preparation of inbound marketing he now has better business intelligence than before. Inbound marketing has strengthened his abilities to emphasize on company strengths and exploit competitors’ weaknesses. Echo Partners now has long term goals and clear steps on how to achieve them.
Advice for a Successful Inbound Marketing
Small business owners need to gain a better understanding of tactics such as social media, blogging, and SEO in order to drive better results by using a combination of tactics rather than just one. Integrating social media tactics and content creation brings outstanding results. Lothrop also advises to track the success of each tactic in order to determine which methods to invest the most effort and time in.
Visit: https://www.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hub/53/file-13222081-pdf/docs/ebooks/small_business_social_media.pdfto read the full article
by Sameeha Junejo | Oct 28, 2019
cover image from: http://www.mergedesignblog.com/email-marketing-and-why-you-should-be-doing-it/
How to capture emails
Sending good emails is important, however it is more important to send good emails to the right people. Your email list should consist of an audience that enjoys your content and are interested in what your company has to offer.
It is strongly advised to not get ready to use email lists, these lists are more likely to put you under the category of SPAM mail. Building your own email marketing list is much more effective.
Below are some tips to build your own email list.
Use a capture opt-in on your website
capture opt-ins are form boxes on your website that invite users to sign up for your email list. There are a variety of ways to display these boxes on your page, at the top, sides or inside blog posts. Your boxes need to be inviting and for a few pieces of information from the user.
Offer content bait
offering free content in exchange for the email address of potential prospects is one of the most effective ways build an email marketing lists. The term “bait” is used as you will use free content to “fish” the email address and work the lead to turn into a customer. The bait can be an infographic, access to a webinar, an ebook, or any other relevant content that can be distributed for free.
Have a capture page
Offer your bait on a capture page, also called a Landing Page. A Landing Page should not have too much information on the page, it should focus on the opt-in to capture email addresses. Put some effort into a title that will grab the attention of the visitor. Keywords to use in a title are: unique, you, exclusive, not to be missed, these words will help you capture the attention of your visitor and their email addresses.
How to use email marketing to have loyal customers
It is much more difficult to attract a new customer rather than convincing an old customer who is familiar with your brand to make a purchase. A loyal customer is more likely to suggest and recommend your product and services to others. Using email marketing is important to convert leads into clients but more importantly turn them into loyal customers.
Segment your user list
Your brand will have different customers, each looking for different sales or information.
Today a sales funnel has three stages:
- Knowledge – when the customer is in touch with your website for the first time while researching a topic
- Consideration – when the user has already identified a problem and is now looking for a solution that answers their needs
- Decision – when the lead already knows the possible solutions and starts to look for companies that provide this kind of service
You need to segment your email list in the stage your buyer is in to allow you to write a personalized message.
Create engaging content
After users subscribe to your list, you need to create content that will keep their interest. Try to structure your content in terms of usefulness and growth. For example create stages. Below is an example of how a fitness blog could structure their content.
1st stage: a blog post with 10 exercises targeting belly fat.
2nd stage: an ebook shows how to correctly schedule these exercises into your daily routine.
3rd stage: a case study showing how a woman reduced her weight 20 pounds by using these exercises.
Email Flow
Spamming your clients will emails will only bother them and may lead to users unsubscribing. To avoid this you need to establish a structured email flow before you contact your clients. How many emails will you be sending and how often?
Consider your product’s selling flow in order to identify the ideal frequency, if you are offering a more complex product you will need to persuade your user more through more targeted content, therefore the cycle is larger and more frequent as opposed to a product that is repurchased without the use of persuasion.
visit: https://blog.hotmart.com/en/how-to-use-email-marketing-correctly/ to read the full article.
by Sameeha Junejo | Aug 25, 2019
The Local U Blog is dedicated to helping local businesses face the many challenges they may come across during the process of starting their business and facing obstacles along the way. The Local U is run by a group of university students and recent grads supporting local businesses that drive the economy.
A student from The Local U interviewed the Co-Founder of local independent business USA Guided Tours. The case study conducted by the student entails the journey of USA Guided Tours. The case study allows other local independent businesses to take inspiration from the steps of Co-Founder Rauf Shakir who built the company from scratch into the reputable and award winning business it is today.
USA Guided Tours is a sightseeing company based in Washington DC, the business offers sightseeing of historic attractions as well as transportation services in Washington DC. USA Guided Tours faced common business challenges that almost all local independent business face; building a customer base, maintaining product quality, building the right team, and adjusting to changes in the market. USA Guided Tours participated in the Locology Engage conference that took place in 2018 in Washington DC in order to improve their team building abilities and online presence.
Building the right team
Recruiting the right team members played a crucial role in the success of the company. In the tour industry employees represent the face of the company, customers are primarily interacting with the employees. Co-Founder Rauf Shakir ensured his team of employees consisted of only talented individuals who would make others feel comfortable. Rauf’s valuable team was the key to achieving steady growth while maintaining service of the highest quality. He kept the company’s focus on the quality of the product rather than the company’s growth, this choice equated to the natural growth of the company.
Changes in the market
The digital age has resulted in changes in many markets. Potential customers in the tour industry are drifting away from the use of traditional travel agents and directly finding tour companies through their own effort. To combat this, USA Guided Tours has put an increased effort into their SEO and online presence. The company improved their online presence through the creation of a user friendly and highly informative site. Through displaying their knowledge and expertise on their website USA Guided Tours was able to grow their customer base and improve their brand awareness. The company also became very active on social media, connecting with their audience on a personal level to display the enjoyment their customers experience on their tours. USA Guided Tours successfully combated the challenges they faced using affordable and practicable solutions.
Learn how to grow your local independent business into an established enterprise.This case study will help you:
- Grow your customer base
- Maintain a quality product/service
- Build the right team
- Improve online presence to create brand awareness
Click below to read the full case study.
https://storage.googleapis.com/wzukusers/user-34842753/documents/5d59bb9ad9132h3c3S6q/USA%20Guided%20Tours-optimized.pdf
