In 1996, Bill Gates coined the phrase ‘content is king’, though this was hardly true in the early days of the internet. In fact, up until past few years, one could still write ordinary content, artificially stuff it with keywords, throw some Web 2.0 links and still sleepwalk their way to the first page of Google. It was a time when content farms, private blog networks, and blackhat SEO experts made hay in the sunshine of Google. Those times are now over. Google in 2018 is very different from Google in 2000, 2010, or even 2015 for that matter. Rapid advancements in machine learning and continuous algorithm updates have ensure that Google has now become incredibly good at recognizing and rewarding an extraordinary piece of content. And the famous words of Bill Gates have now finally found their rightful place as the gospel truth of internet. In 2018, the fate of most businesses depends, on their ability to create content which is good enough to consistently rank on the first page of Google. What You Need to Know while Writing for SEO in 2018 1. Write for Humans — and not for Google Google wants you to write content that provides value to the audience. It doesn’t want you to use tricks to impress the bot. Period. A page with an unnaturally high keywords density is not going to help anymore. An overly optimized page stuffed with keywords can even attract a penalty from Google. Mentioning the keyword in the title, description, heading, few times in the introductory paragraph is perfectly fine, but don’t go overboard in your quest to convey relevancy to Google. Write in a language that is engaging and easy to understand. According to Google’s official statements, around 60% of searches are now happening on mobile, where people often read on the go, sometimes even while multitasking. This makes it even more important to write in a conversational tone. You don’t need to display your Harvard academic writing skills on the internet, unless of course, you are writing for the Harvard Business Review itself. Write in a way that holds the attention of your audience, brings them delight, and provides actionable advice. Better writing is going to significantly increase the average time spent per visit on your website, which is understood as an extremely important ranking factor, something that has been proven through a study published on wordstream. Write a stellar opening paragraph You have written an in-depth, well-researched piece of content, but the opening few lines of the article are not good enough to hold the attention of the user. Guess what? You have lost the user already. Simply put, your in-depth article can’t move the needle without an even better opening paragraph. Bounce rate is seen as an important ranking factor by Google, and there is no way to beat it without great content, even if your website loads in nanoseconds and has a terrific visual design. This becomes incredibly important in a world with perennially decreasing attention spans, multi-tasking and an endless supply of content. So how do you write a stellar opening paragraph? Study how the best writers on the web do it. John Morrow from Copyblogger is a great example to follow. Write, Edit, Edit ….. until you hit a complete mental block. Take a break, come back and repeat the process. This is one way to do it. Or hire a top-notch writer with a proven track record 2. It’s Time to Write Long In-depth Posts Instead of writing 20 thin pieces of content that don’t take you anywhere, it is better to write that ‘1 epic piece of content’ that can become the go-to source on the internet for that topic. Not convinced yet? Read on … Brian Dean from Backlinko first coined the term — ‘Skyscraper post’ for an article that is supposed to be 10 times better than the next best article on the web for the same topic. The Skyscraper Post is a sure shot approach to get into the top results of Google, even for a highly competitive keyword. Now, how does one write an article which is 10 times better than the next best piece of content? Let’s say, you see an article titled ‘10 Ways to Beat Anxiety’ ranking amongst the top 3 results in Google for its relevant keyword. And it seems to be a well-researched and fairly well-written article. Now, let’s assume, your goal is to rank above it. Don’t write something that is just incrementally better. How about writing an article titled ‘101 Ways to Beat Anxiety’? Of course, it’s not just about the number of points. The article should also include in-depth description along with each point, eye-catching images, expert quotes, research-backed data etc. It’s almost like writing a well-researched, multimedia-rich eBook and publishing it on the web as a single article. And soon you could find your place amongst the top results on Google, sometimes even without massive outreach efforts. Realistically, it’s not always possible to write something as comprehensive as the above example. Nevertheless, the principle still remains the same. The effort you may want to put in a specific article could be directly proportional to the search volume, competition and commercial value of that keyword for your business. But if you want to shoot for the moon, go for it by all means, for there is a definitely proven way to do it. Why does this approach work so well? A truly ‘epic’ piece of content is likely to work favorably on SEO for several different reasons. An in-depth piece of content could rank for hundreds, or even thousands of similar keywords apart from the primary keyword you are targeting. Such a piece of content is likely to perform as an outlier in terms of on-page factors such as organic CTR, bounce rate, average time spent per visit. All these factors are understood to significantly improve ranking prospects. An epic piece of
Month: June 2018
6 top myths that might be harming your SEO strategy
SEO is one field where changes have been constant. That’s because Google changes its algorithm from time to time – sometimes even several times in a year – to fetch the most relevant results for queries submitted. This only means that the techniques that worked well a few years ago, won’t get you the same results today. So if you want results, you/your SEO team needs to adapt and learn. And therein, lies the confusion. Many marketers do not really know what works in SEO and what doesn’t. And then there are the myths that refuse to die even though they have been debunked several times. These SEO myths have taken a life of their own and keep confusing business owners on what works and what doesn’t. It also leads people to take decisions of stopping investment in SEO. As Phil Frost, the American entrepreneur says, “Successful SEO is not about tricking Google. It’s about partnering with Google to provide the best search results for Google’s users.” To make SEO actually work for you, here are 6 things to do: Understand that SEO surely works if your website complies with Google’s algorithm. Don’t invest in SEO just one-time. You have to work on it constantly to keep up with changing search algorithms and to update content regularly. Search engines take link-building pretty seriously while ranking your site. So don’t ignore it. Rather than stuffing keywords in a bad content, use the White Hat technique to incorporate keywords in good content. Having a secure site or https site is essential for SEO and high ranking. Extra website pages can rank you high only if the content is good and relevant. So, watch this video to trash the SEO myths you believed in till now, and reframe your SEO strategy for that competitive edge! Are you looking for specialized content for your website that can increase your leads and conversions? Get in touch with us Want to read more check the curated list below. Here Is What The Internet Biggies Were Up To In May [Video] Why Exactly Should You Do Content Marketing And How? [Video] 5 Copywriting Sins That Weaken Your Content ROI 5 reasons why supply chain businesses should invest in content
Here is what the internet biggies were up to in May
Did you miss out on what happened in digital last month? There seems to be too much happening with Facebook trying to cover its tracks. Google seems to be on an overdrive with Assistant. And then, there are startups that threaten to create a power imbalance every now and then. Digital is a place where things move at a lightning pace and it can get really overwhelming to keep up with it all. So here’s a concise look at the month of May. After all, we all need fodder for conversations around water coolers! 1. Did you hear the ‘Mhm-hmm’? Google IO happened earlier in May and it is always an event we look forward to. It is one of those surreal places where we take a peek into the future that will be driven by AI and machine learning. Where retinas scanned in India can be looked upon and treated by doctors far far away. Where Google AI will now be able to predict the rate of readmission to doctors 24 – 48 hours before the event, which can drastically alter the course of treatment. Gmail’s new AI composer is going to be fun to see how the auto-suggest works. While not all updates about Google photos were great, we did love the fact that you can click a photo of a document and Photos would automatically convert it into a PDF. The other which allows you to immediately convert a black and white photo into colour saves a ton of time for photobook enthusiasts. Google is going places with Assistant. We know that because usage in India has tripled since its launch. And having John Legend (voice) speak to you is a real plus. The Assistant’s ‘Pretty please’ feature shows how much thought is really gone into a gadget we are putting into our homes, near our children. And it has gone to places where our imagination has still not reached. Assistant can help combine sound and visuals to play out a recipe to you while you are cooking. We were all OMG on how Google’s AI assistant sounded all too real and fixed an appoint with a salon. The ‘Mm-hmm’ is such simple but powerful term that shows how the assistant can and will take over the role of an all-too-real person. The digital well-being initiative is commendable. There is loads of good stuff in there. Here’s some food for thought – everything from search to maps is taking customization to a whole new place. How you see, and experience Google is going to be very different from what the person sitting right next to you is experiencing. Which means, the SEO that works today is going to undergo a radical change in the next couple of years. Brace yourself. 2. Is Facebook really doing enough? Facebook too had its moment with its developer’s conference in May. It has been buzzing with activity after the data beach fiasco. We are yet to see the light at the end of this tunnel. As the month progressed, we saw a series of updates from the social giant. It has re-opened its app review process. It is in plans to develop a ‘Clear History’ feature which will allow users to see and delete data that they’ve shared with apps. Also, in the making is a new tool to detect phishing attacks. The much-needed Analytics mobile app will hopefully bring the ease of management into mobile for ad users. It is also launching a new search engine to help brands find and connect with influencers. Facebook is going the Tinder way and launching its dating feature. It is also parallelly launching a ‘youth portal’ will feature first-person accounts from teens around the world. At this point, Facebook needs to tread with a lot of caution in both these spheres as even a hint of controversy can tip the balance for the company. Group video calling will roll out to Instagram and Whatsapp. It’s own video which will now show additional stats on retention features. 3. Instagram is getting cooler Instagram is experimenting with Music stickers which look kinda cool right now. Instagram is working on adding soundboard-like stickers for Stories Sidenote – sounds like someone at Instagram is a Taylor Swift fan 😉 … get it? “sounds” like pic.twitter.com/N18lPuOK0H — Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 3, 2018 It is also testing native payment options within the app. Going the global way, Instagram too is offering new insights to its usage stats allowing people to now know how much time they are spending on the social channel. Something in line with this is the ‘All caught up’ update which will allow users to know if they have exhausted their Instagram feed for the day. We would say that Instagram is making progress but the wow factor is not as much as we want it to be. 4. Linkedin enabled users to follow #tags Did someone just wake up and smell the coffee at Linkedin or is this a weak an adaptation of everyone is doing it, so are we? #Tags have been a tool preferred by users across other social platforms to connect and view the conversation around a particular topic. Being able to do this on Linkedin is a definite plus if it used well with a set of common industry tags. 5. Whatsapp Thankfully, Whatsapp is progressing in a good direction. Groups will see a series of new features which will allow the admin to set a description of their community and also allow certain members to change the icon or description. The good new feature is that you can now get a group summary from the conversations that happened when you weren’t listening but mentioned you. As far as you not wanting to get ‘Good Morning’ messages in groups, you’ll still have to rely on your good ol’ admin to set the rules. 6. Youtube YouTube Red, the company’s subscription video service is now YouTube Premium.
5 reasons why supply chain businesses should invest in content
“Does content marketing work for an industry like supply chain and logistics? Are these not just fancy words being exchanged by marketers?” Those were the precise words that were asked by the general manager of a large supply chain management company. Till very recently, he admitted, he had not even heard of content marketing. Its only after a young turk, who had been recently hired in the marketing department, suggested that they should invest in content, that my client got in touch with us. In the supply chain and logistics business, tried and tested strategies were preferred, he reminded me. The B2B industry of supply chain logistics, he added, was a different beast. Why did they need content, was his question. “Show me the thinking behind it”. And so I made a case for content and gave him 5 reasons why his business should invest in it. In the end, he signed us up for a 6-month trial. That was a year ago. Today, we have been helping this business do 3 things – Create a better brand awareness Cut down the lead nurturing time and convert faster. Reach out to more clients How did we do this? Well, the answer is content marketing. Let’s understand this a little better When it came to B2B content marketing, we have all the stats in the world to show that it is a proven channel to increase brand recall, traffic, and ROI. Here are some stats that I gave – You may want to ask, how does that happen? Its because, in a B2B business like a supply chain management company, the ‘lead nurturing’ period, i.e. the time since the lead first enters your system until it finally converts, is long with multiple touch points. During this period, a ‘generic’ lead goes to become a ‘verified’ lead (the name, email, phone number etc is validated), the business fit is ascertained, the contact is made over the phone, personal meetings are conducted and then contracts are signed. One of the critical tools that come handy during the ‘lead nurturing’ period is a targeted Content strategy that helps nudge the customer from one level to the next by providing reassurances, testimonials and the brand’s overarching mission that eventually aligns with yours. Content marketing can extend a tangible improvement in results to many of these. Apart from that, content marketing can also help a supply chain business or logistics business establish thought leadership in the sector, create brand awareness and customer loyalty. For those of you who are still not convinced that an industry like supply chain and logistics needs content to push its sales funnel, here are five reasons why you should focus on content to help your supply chain business. Five reasons why a supply chain business needs content marketing. 1. You are more than your product/service You started out as an idea to become a solution to a pressing market problem. To build it, you have assimilated knowledge and talent that makes you uniquely you. Your organization culture is an overarching guideline in everything you do differently from your competitors. Many employees, especially those out there in the frontline of your delivery chain will have amazing stories that become a part of your legacy. Content related to these are not just blogs. They are employee stories, videos, and even photo stories that make you ‘you’. 2. Bring the storytelling aspect The basic truth of how we are wired is that we remember stories more than facts. Content marketers are going big on storytelling. And supply chain companies have stories happening with each product delivery. From a birthday gift order that you went out of the way to deliver on time to the impossibly larger order that you managed to deliver against all odds, to the magnanimous warehouse management that you do every day which is fodder for Discovery’s “How Stuff Works”, there is a story lurking around the corner every day. All you need to do is recognize it and bring it out at the right time, through the right medium. 3.Connect and lead with UGC B2B businesses find it difficult to build on UGC because of the very nature of their business. But it isn’t an impossible proposition for supply chain logistics company. A lot of B2B marketers turn employee content into UGC, which works very successfully. Take the UPS store, for example. Check out their insta and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how they take the content from the interesting shipments they receive and convert into social UGC. Check this one out – it is a perfect capture of what the brand wants to bring out from content on Instagram. Our jobs aren’t glorious every day. But sometimes, we get to go home to our spouses and tell them, “Honey, somewhere out there, somebody is drinking out of a grotesque foot.” We did that. We made that happen. #unexpectedpackandship 69 Likes, 1 Comments – The UPS Store (@theupsstore) on Instagram: “Our jobs aren’t glorious every day. But sometimes, we get to go home to our spouses and tell them,…” 4. Push out thought leadership Challenges faced by logistics companies when doing on-ground expansion is something on another level. It is the one thing that differentiates from the survivors from those who perish under pressure. Keeping focus on ground realities, sharing case studies, creating a sharable knowledgebase that allows the career progress of the talent within the company should be one of the key focus areas for your content. The best part is that you’ll not need to look beyond your office to do this. 5. Your competitors are doing it The thoughts of doing content marketing often drives people to discuss the merits of it. But think for a moment that your closest competitor is already capitalizing on content. Can you really afford to stay back and lose your grip on the game? You don’t have to go in guns blazing, but it is important to
Visual content formats that can triple your content marketing results
OK. We will skip infographics and photos out of the list because it is obvious. Or wait! We will make them more awesome There are several data-driven reasons to use visual content. The facts that our brain’s recall goes up from 10% to 65% between audible and visual content is great. The compounding factor for marketers is also that visual content gets 94% more views at the outset than content without images. While savvy marketers are already into visual content, choosing what type of visual content can work for which content is an important decision. We feel that this will be a key focus area for visual content marketers of 2018. Here are the different types of content you can experiment with (if you haven’t already) and ideas on how to use them. Data-driven visuals There is an innate need that marketers (read people) have to ‘look wise’ and back up decisions with data. Besides, they are so much better than writing data in a long form that no one really has the time or inclination to read. Research backs this up too. Other marketers/customers find data-driven visuals to be the fourth most shareable visual format. Take this visual representation from our Facebook page. Take another example from Adweek. The entire summary of the article is clear from one visual saving you the time and effort to read the whole thing and get to the parts you are interested in. It also makes the content easily shareable on social media. Gifographics Gifographics, as the name suggests are a mix of motion gifs in the form of infographics. They are smaller and give a more engaging feel to the content. With little moving parts, they help you draw attention to the most important parts of the content without being in your face. The ‘How Google Works’ gifographic is a nice example of how you can use one to tell your story and simplify complex concepts. Quotes Let’s hear it from these marketing leaders on how to harness the power of mobile devices in order to build your brand #ContentMarketing #DigitalMarketing Posted by Justwords Consultants on Tuesday, March 13, 2018 Quotes exude power for many reasons. The person giving the quote is someone that resonates with your brand. The quote by itself has a shareable value. The ease of sharing a quote allows you to share your frame of mind about a topic without going to great lengths. Memes Instagram Update #Instagram Update! Now you can schedule your posts anytime you want through third-party social management tools. #AgencyLife #SocialMedia #Meme Posted by Justwords Consultants on Friday, February 2, 2018 Everyone loves a good laugh. It helps show the lighter side of things and even your brand’s sense of humor. The best part is that memes have an inherent quality go viral. If you create a meme format for your brand, it will eventually get recognized as a pattern that your content consumers will look forward to. Videos We are moving to the zone from content is king to video is the emperor. Videos are the medium of choice when it comes to consumption of content across social channels. The good part is that you don’t have to go about brainstorming ideas for a video. Simply take your existing text blogs to check for the best ways to convert them into a video. Check out how we created a quick video about the 101 on content marketing. From a production perspective, both the blog and the video bring their own strengths to the table and we have attracted different types of audience and tailored our content as per their consumption taste. Here’s the video If you have created videos before, think of adding optimized text content for the video which makes a potent mix of discovery and consumption. Screenshots Most marketing how-to blogs do very well with screenshots. This format either works when you have to show step by step instructions or how something looks like and works when you implement it. Chrome’s Screenshot extension is a perfect tool to get this done with ease. Here is an example of how we used screenshots to showcase results from our case study where we increased our client’s traffic by over 140% in a year with targeted content. UGC Who’s the Hero in your life and share with us why you consider her/him to be your Hero? Post a Selfie / Photo of your… Posted by Hero FinCorp on Tuesday, December 27, 2016 91% buyers trust peer recommendations than any other form of advertisement. You also have 20% higher conversions when you have earned media in the purchase journey. 2018 is the year when brands have set out to harness the power of their UGC by connecting it with prospective brand customers and bringing them real stories from real users. The problems that brands used to face with UGC is that brands had to take it with a pinch of salt. We don’t have all ‘happy’ customers and the threat of getting a spillover audience of unhappy customers on your website was a potential PR disaster. To circumvent this, you have brands like Taggbox and Mavsocial that allow you to create a curated wall of social content for your users to consume. You show the good, discard the bad and come out shining bright like the rainbow. What’s not to like? Illustrations In the world of high-res, do illustrations still hold a lure? The answer really lies in the type of brand you are the how you want to shape the content. Illustrations, in fact, may just be that little thing that helps you stand out in the world of blogs filled with photos. It lets you visualize something that may or may not exist in the world around you. From help bots to AI representation for the future, choose illustrations when you want to give a direction to your audience’s imagination At