The keywords are the nuts and bolts of your SEO campaign. The first step is to get these ducks in the right row. Here are a few things you might be doing wrong while choosing your keywords. Keywords are what makes the SEO world go around, so it’s obviously crucial to get those darn things right. With the wrong set of keywords, you would just be trying out various ways to catch Google crawlers and yet not show up where you want to be. So here are five ‘mistakes’ that you should avoid while choosing your keywords, no matter how right they sound. You might not be an SEO expert or want to be one, but make sure you know what is right for your business. CHOOSING SHORT KEYWORDS It seems like a better idea to choose shorter keywords but the truth is that phrases or multi-word keywords are more likely to fetch you an audience. So from an SEO standpoint, more keywords equal more potential. LACK OF CREATIVITY We are often tempted to use general keywords that define our business as it is. Suppose you are a seller of graphic tees in Delhi, the first reaction is to “graphic tees seller Delhi” as keywords. This is where you get burrowed under the competition. Instead of the above, use a term like “Funky graphic tees seller Delhi” or “Cotton graphic tees seller Delhi”. This is likely to bring more visitors. NO IDEA OF TARGET AUDIENCE It is common to design keywords based on our understanding of our product or business, like fitting technical terms or terms that the target segment is unfamiliar with. What you need to do is to get into the mind of your audience and think from their point of view. This doesn’t mean that you give up jargons totally, but balance them with some familiar words too. USING PLURALS Never make the mistake of choosing plurals as keywords. This is because people seldom search for plurals, and since the search engine is very sensitive it may bury your website. IGNORING GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION A very important but frequently overlooked fact is taking the geographical considerations into account when designing key keywords. The locally used lingo in a country varies across the world. Therefore, it is important to carry out appropriate research to incorporate keywords significant to a geographical location. OVERLOOKING TRENDS The world is constantly evolving, there is increased awareness and the media is constantly feeding new trends to the audience. In such a dynamic environment it is essential that keywords follow the trends. Old fashioned words that are no longer in use will not attract people to your site. So keep up with the time and make sure your keywords do too.your keywords do too. UNEVEN KEYWORD DISTRIBUTION In trying to use popular keywords, there is a tendency to forget keywords that are less used but have less competition. Therefore, it is important to strike the right balance between the two to maximize your results. There you go, with extensive research and avoiding the above-listed mistakes, you are sure to find the right keywords that will open the door to your success.
Author: Payel Mukherjee
Here’s How Brands Used Social Media to Celebrate Republic Day 2019
The feeling of patriotism seems to be at an all-time high in India this year. Whether it is patriotic movies being released or the rediscovery of our past glory, we Indians seem to be revelling in feelings of nationalism and patriotism. Of course, many well-loved brands are using this patriotic fervour to engage audiences to the next level. According to a key concept in Marketing 3.0, brands have moved from focussing on customer’s material needs to understand the causes and sentiments they really feel strongly about. And what can be more appropriate than appealing to people’s sense of patriotism on the 70th Republic Day? After 15th August, Republic Day is the most important national holiday in India, and brands aren’t shying away from the occasion. Here is our pick of the top brand campaigns on Republic Day this year. Nature Valley Keeping India’s energy high one bar at a time! #HappyRepublicDay Posted by Nature Valley on Friday, January 25, 2019 This nature valley Republic Day campaign cleverly combines the brand’s positioning as an energy bar with the feelings of patriotism. It does this by paraphrasing a now-famous line from the recently released movie Uri, based on the Indian army’s surgical strikes. Ixigo Ixigo’s “Train mein hai swag” campaign is hands down one of the best Republic Day campaigns we’ve seen this year. In the form of a really fun rap song, the campaign talks about how travelling by train in India is the new cool thing to do. It talks about everything we love about trains – the childhood memories, the home-cooked “puri bhaji”, and the beautiful views outside our window. The last line of the campaign is “Kyunki desh mein hai swag” which ties in the whole campaign so beautifully with Republic Day. The underlying message is that trains, which epitomize so many things about our country, are the coolest way to travel because our country is now “cool”. This is the must-watch campaign for this Republic Day! Tata Salt We often take for granted the freedom and privileges of living in the largest Democratic Republic in the world. Here’s a salt art tribute revisiting some of the many reasons to celebrate the Indian Constitution #NamakKeWaastey pic.twitter.com/35v7aZjDzD — Tata Salt (@_deshkanamak) January 25, 2019 From its earliest days, Tata Salt has positioned itself as “Desh ka Namak” (The Country’s Salt) and this Republic Day was no different. With its latest campaign, #Namakkewaastey, Tata Salt used a really unique “salt art” campaign to talk about what makes the Indian Constitution unique. Combining extreme creativity with a strong patriotic message, this is one heartfelt campaign. Sony Pictures Network View this post on Instagram Cinema that entertains and binds this great Republic together! ❤️ Here’s wishing all our fellow countrymen a #HappyRepublicDay! ?? गणतंत्र दिवस की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएँ । ? A post shared by Sony Pictures Networks (@sonypicsprodns) on Jan 26, 2019 at 12:42am PST Sony Pictures released a beautiful video on Instagram as part of their Republic Day campaign. This video talks about how cinema is truly a medium “Of the Republic, By the Republic, and For the Republic”. It showcases how the world of cinema comprises artists and technicians from all parts of the country and all communities and religions. And it talks about how the most important part of cinema is the love that it gets from its audience; the billions of Indians all across the country and the world. This campaign is a great example of choosing to use the brand product to shed light on a different kind of nationalism – one which sends a message of unity and brotherhood. Kudos! Axis Mutual Funds Nation building is a collective responsibility of all citizens. Today, as we celebrate 70 glorious years of being a… Posted by Axis Mutual Fund on Friday, January 25, 2019 Axis Mutual Fund’s campaign ties in the concept of a responsible citizen with “a responsible investor”. While a responsible citizen builds the country, a responsible investor plans and manages their money well. And the simple campaign showcases how a good Indian should be both. Captain Zack Happy Republic Day from Capt. Zack and team! Posted by Captain Zack on Friday, January 25, 2019 Pet grooming brand Captain Zack keeps things simple. It has an adorable picture with a catchy caption. With one simple image, it evokes our love for dogs, our patriotism, and a smile on our faces. They say minimalism is the key to an effective brand campaign and Captain Zack shows us it is possible even in today’s digital-first age. Robin Hood Army and Girliyaapa Little Voices We want to be a Robin and we hope that after watching this video you will too. #RobinHoodAcademy #AcademyVoice #CreateTogether #GirliyapaSpotlight We nominate all our followers & friends to volunteer, register with them on www.robinhoodarmy.com/academy Posted by Girliyapa on Friday, January 25, 2019 This one deserves a special mention. Popular Youtube channel Girliyapa collaborates with Robinhood Army to solicit volunteers for the Robinhood academy. Girliyapa, in a simple but very effective video, asks you to volunteer just 3 hours a week at the Robinhood Academy so that underprivileged kids have a better chance at life. And what better occasion for this message than Republic Day? A light, breezy but effective campaign for a very important cause. This was our list of eye-catching campaigns this Republic Day. These are the brands that made it to our list because they effectively combined a compelling story with the value proposition of their brand. If you think we missed out on any great Republic Day campaigns, do let us know in the comments below. Also, don’t forget to tell us about your favourite Republic Day campaign.
5 Local SEO Strategies that Will Help You Rank in 2019
You may have been running your small local business in a traditional manner for many years. But there’s a reason that marketing strategies that worked in the past may not be as effective today. The reason for this is a rapidly changing consumer behavior. The statistics speak for themselves. Four in 5 consumers use online search engines to find local information. Since consumer behavior has changed so much, you will lose out on a lot of business if you don’t change with it. If your potential customers are searching for you online, it doesn’t matter if you’re an appliance repair business or a designer showroom, you need to be online. Luckily for you, it’s only local customers who matter; those who will actually visit your business. There are local SEO techniques that can help you show up on the first page of the results when these customers search for you online. What is local SEO? Local SEO helps small businesses promote themselves within a certain local area. The difference between local SEO and general or organic SEO is that local SEO is for search queries which have “local intent”. Google can easily identify when a particular search query has a local intent, which means the searcher wants search results with local companies. For example, say the searcher wants to go to a yoga class near their home. So they google “yoga classes near me”. Google will immediately give them a number of local yoga classes nearby with their contact information. On the other hand, say the searcher wants to look up yoga asanas they can do at home and they google “best yoga asanas for a flat stomach”, then the results will be from the website which has the best content, even if it’s at the other end of the world. Why is local SEO important? This is simple. As we discussed before, many customers now search for local businesses online. In fact, almost 50% of search queries have local intent. Google capitalizes on this by showing local search results in two ways; through Google Ads as well as through local pack. Image Source As a local business, you can dramatically increase your business if you show up here. Why does local search give better results? This is because local search is much more personalized. Searchers are looking for something specific and they get it in the form of contact information and reviews. There is a high chance that they visit the local business and make a purchase the same day. In fact, a whopping 18% of local searches generate sales on the same day. What are some basic local SEO strategies? Here are some of the basic local SEO strategies that you need to have in place so that you can leverage local searches and maximize your revenue. 1. Make sure your NAP citations are consistent You need to make sure that your business’ name, address and contact number is exactly the same across all of your online assets like your website, social profiles, and Google My Business/Bing listings. The reason is that the Google algorithm looks for consistency in contact information when it is deciding which result it wants to show in the local pack and if your information is inconsistent it may choose another listing over yours. 2. Claim local directory listings Claim all listings on local directories including Indiamart, Indyapages, Just Dial, Yellow Pages India and so on. Make sure you verify the information in the listing. This is a fairly simple step and will give you instant visibility and credibility. 3. Solicit reviews Reviews are the key when it comes to local SEO. Research shows that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations and referrals. You need to have the right tactics and strategies in place that make it easy for satisfied customers to leave good reviews for your business. 4. Localized website content If you are a local business and geography is important when it comes to who your customers will be, then make sure this shows on your website. You can create Geo-targeted service pages where the service areas are specified and have maps on the web pages with your business location on it. 5. Schema markup You should ask your web developer to implement local business schema on your website. This gives search engines a clearer picture of the local information about your business and makes it more likely that you will rank higher in the results. Implementing all of these strategies can seem a bit overwhelming especially if you don’t have the bandwidth and need to focus on your core business. In such a scenario, it’s probably better to outsource your local SEO to a company with the right expertise. In either case, you should get your local SEO in place as soon as possible so that you can appear in the local pack of search results and see a huge increase in your customer base.
The 5 Crucial SEO Trends for 2019
Since the early 2000s when Search Engine Optimization (SEO) first became a trend, more and more companies all over the world are trying their best to rank higher in Google’s search results. At the same time, Google and other search engines are becoming smarter, with newer ways to better their algorithm, provide the best experience to their users, and stay one step ahead of the SEOs. Here’s our pick of the trends that we believe will define the dynamics of SEO in 2019. Speed and Optimization Having a technically seamless website which is perfectly-optimized to keep loading time to a minimum continues to be one of the key trends when it comes to SEO in 2019. A newer aspect of this is that mobile page speed has also become an important factor in mobile ranking for Google. Earlier, only desktop page speed mattered for desktop rankings. For page speed evaluation, Google now apparently looks at two parameters; optimization and speed. Optimization is easy enough to control because you simply need to fix all the issues that prevent your site from loading fast. Speed, on the other hand, is measured via the Google Chrome User Experience Report. This report indicates how your site loads for each visitor which is obviously difficult, if not impossible to measure. As of now, optimization is apparently much more emphasised by Google than speed. However, as the latter is only in the testing stages right now, this could change soon. Brand Mentions Many SEOs keep hypothesizing that link-building is dead. However, both evidence and Google experts say that link building is still very much a critical factor when it comes to page rankings. However, there is another kid on the block; “linkless links” or brand mentions. Google has apparently started giving weight to brand mentions in its ranking algorithm. The more brand mentions there are, the better the search engine knows of your brand as an entity. By then analyzing factors like reputation, trust, advertising, and complaint-solving, Google determines the quality of and sentiment around your brand. This, in turn, affects your website’s ranking. Quality link-building is usually onerous and takes time. Brand mentions is an easier path to getting a similar reputation and credibility for your website. It’s best to mention your brand whenever there is an organic opportunity. Addressing customer complaints and engaging with happy clients are also ways to get high-quality brand mentions. Mobile-First Indexing Mobile-first indexing means that Google will now be using the mobile version of your website to index and rank websites. Google has been doing this migration since March 2018 and has even started informing webmasters about it. Since this project is moving at such a fast pace, it’s very important to make sure that the mobile version of your website is now completely optimized and search engine friendly. Switch to your mobile version as soon as you can, and keep checking to make sure that it has a high loading speed and the right user experience. Featured Snippets There is a lot of competition on the first page of Google’s search results. From Google ads and local packs to knowledge graphs and google images. One of the most prominent new competitor when it comes to the first page is the featured snippet. Here’s an example of a featured snippet. A featured snippet is Google’s way of enhancing the user experience by giving them the one answer it feels will help them most accurately and succinctly. If you want to be top-ranked for certain keywords with your content in the featured snippet, it’s a good idea to put your content in the form of question and answer sequences, especially when it comes to knowledge content. Tables with structured information can also help. Smaller sites also have a good chance of ranking as a featured snippet because the structure of the content is very important in this scenario. Amazon Search Amazon isn’t a universal search engine and has been designed only for a specific purpose; to enable customers to search on Amazon for products they want to buy. Nevertheless, Amazon has literally become the one-stop shop when it comes to people buying products online. 56% of customers go to Amazon first if they have to buy something and 51% check on Amazon after they find something they want to buy. This makes an Amazon SEO strategy a must have for any online seller. Getting the basics right is important. This includes running keyword searches, making items’ title and description user-friendly with adequate keywords, providing high-quality images, tracking customers’ reviews, and addressing customer complaints. It’s important to keep these crucial SEO trends in mind as you prepare for the search engine game in 2019. Being aware of future trends goes a long way in thinking of the right SEO strategies and optimizing well in advance. Which SEO trend do you think will work the best in 2019?
Why is it the right time to market your business through Social Media?
Today, India has gained a top seat in terms of social media users and use. Across popular social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, India has recorded a phenomenal increase in social media use over the past 4 years, edging well past the commercial leader, USA. It is not surprising, therefore, that social media is fast becoming the medium of choice for advertisers across the country. After all, with a large majority of the population hooked on to cyberspace, it has become the natural choice to reach and target potential customers. This comes on the wings of study and research that proves that users often discover new products on these sites. In all probability, your toughest competition maybe creating winning posts/ads right now at his preferred networking channel and potentially whisking away customers! It’s time you took control and set in place a strong social media strategy to accrue maximum value from this burgeoning medium and see your brand going places! Watch the video below to find out why it is time you opened a social media account for your business:
This is why even content marketers need editors
Content has rapidly become the de-facto in how businesses build credibility, implement thought leadership and grow a community of loyal fans and followers. Understandably, the pressure and expectations on the content marketer are increasing by the way. However, when you see that that 27 million pieces of content are created each day, but that 60 to 70% of website content goes unused, it’s clear that content marketing is slowly becoming more about just producing a high volume of content at the expense of producing content that people actually want to consume. Well, you might wonder what’s wrong with that? The answer probably lies in the growing line of difference between ‘producing content’ and ‘writing great stories’. While content marketers are usually great in coming up with ideas and catchy headlines, maintaining quality, consistency and ensuring that your customer doesn’t skim through your blogs without so much as a nod or a note is the job of a skilled Copy Editor. Here’s how an editor brings your content to life: Maintain consistency It is important to remember that your brand is “one of many” in the over-communicated marketplace, and therefore, you have to consistently ‘own’ your voice. Notice how mainline and social media giants such as The New Yorker maintain their unique voice and tone in all their blogs and articles and has therefore been able to wield authority and high recall value through all mediums. Content marketers and writers who are constantly under the microscope for producing winning ideas, may not have the time or ability to phrase and word blogs, posts and articles precisely to company standards and therefore, it is only a skilled editor with sharpened tools of tone, grammar and overall knowledge of category who can dovetail the content to a voice that is associated with your brand alone. Ensure Quality Control Once writers and marketers submit their pieces, it’s time for the editors to employ their refined skills to polish and correct these pieces to show you/the customer in the best light possible. It’s not only about cutting the T’s and debating over the Oxford comma, but a skilled editor is also a key to ensure perfect and easy readability – concentrating on delivering great stories and not just handing out more content into an already overcrowded space. In the light of maintaining quality, the editor is also responsible for implementing brevity and getting rid of any fluff or superfluous explanations and rhetoric – giving readers an almost ‘invisible experience’ while reading a piece from start to end. Implement Strategy If you look at social media champions such as, Hubspot, whose widely-shared blog posts offer authoritative insight on everything from the evolution of Google+ to the psychology of job interviews, you will notice the copy editor’s hand at work in aligning ‘content’ to ‘company objectives’. This is a person who is well-versed in the industry space you are in and can readily identify any gaps in your content that you can fill or any opportunities that are for the taking. Content editors also work closely with writers and subject matter experts as they do with community managers, social media marketing managers with a content strategy and all other key members of the team to accrue the maximum ROI from each post you make on the social media. Conclusion While you might think that your friend or colleague is ‘good enough’ for the ‘little proofreading’ that your content requires, investing in a professional editor may just be the best decision you make for producing really good content. An editor in the house means that he/she can scan through mistakes and errors that can finally damage the quality of your content. Also, an editor can sometimes give you a different insight into the content written, helping you elevate the standard of your content and thus build an engaged and enthusiastic audience.
The Strategic Guide To Writing A Content Marketing Proposal
Content Marketing has emerged as the biggest buzz word in the field of marketing in the last couple of years. To a novice, it is about writing a few blogs and then waiting to see if it attracts traffic. To experts, it is using content as the backbone of all marketing initiatives. Being a specialist agency in Content Marketing, we’ve received all kinds of requests in the last few years. Most times, we have to explain to our clients that there are two words here that make this process happen – ‘Content’ and ‘Marketing’. These aren’t mutually independent and will have to work together if you have to see some magic in the form of traffic, engagement, leads and conversions on the website. Even then, we get requests for plain content writing – because we can churn out high quality content with regular frequency. We generally sit down with such a request and then turn it into a strategy that can help our clients look back six months from now and think that they did the right thing by hiring us. In this guide to writing a content marketing proposal, we’ve tried to outline what’s worked for us when it comes to creating a strategy for different industries and clients. Before you get to it, here’s a quick note – We also have proposal writing guides for Social Media Clients and Search Engine Optimization Clients. These templates and strategy can come handy when you create your next proposal. Now, getting back, here are steps to creating a content marketing proposal that’ll get you a client and also retain them. By the way, this proposal guide will come handy for both agencies and freelancers. The brief gathering process The brief for a content marketing strategy is generally gathered during a personal meet or a mix of a phone and email conversation. Asking a few pointed questions during this process is necessary to set the course of your strategy going forward. Here are two questions that can help you get started 1. What is your main goal behind having a content marketing plan? Universally, marketing has a few clear goals – activities that lead to traffic, engagement, visibility, branding and eventually leads and conversions. Does this percolate into the content marketing plan too? 2. How can content help you achieve your goals? For some businesses like E-commerce, the connect to the sales pipeline is clear. But for others like B2B products which people don’t directly buy online, being able to create a measurable content marketing strategy requires a few additional parameters. Setting goals Once you’ve collected the brief, it is time to translate them into concrete goals. Let’s take a B2C company selling groceries online, for example. Their goal was to “Use content marketing to increase conversions and generate revenue” To achieve this goal, you’ll have to define targeted metrics around it. For example, Metric 1: Generate x% of website revenue from content marketing Metric 2: Create content that ranks on the first page of Google for certain key terms Or another goal example for a B2B company can be Gain position as a leader in their industry The translated metrics for this goal can be Metric 1: Increase newsletter subscribers by x% Metric 2: Increase white paper downloads by x%. Metric 3: Increase content views by x% Internal research task a. Get thorough knowledge of the product / service you are selling: Real engaging content cannot come without understanding the product fully and how it works. Some industries are simpler than others since we may already be using the product every day. But when it comes to B2B, it is best to deep dive into Google and get a thorough research on the product and its categories. Our best bet is to generally spend some time with the product manager in the company. The human insights behind the product actually become its best story spinners. Besides, if you want to create cornerstone content, it can’t be all fluff and jargon but has to be based on experience to a certain degree. If you are doing this as a team, use a single doc to cap ideas: Typically, there may be more than one writer in our team taking up the job. This works well when you need multiple perspectives on the product. We have an internal guideline document that helps writers tether their ideas to the central document which are then viewed by editors and constructed into a coherent flow. Important: Before you move forward At this point, you have all the basic info necessary to take a deep dive and get started. So this is the best time to present a sample piece of content and get an email in place about timelines and approx budgets. But can you set an agreement without completing the content audit? It depends from client to client. For first timers, it is mostly a Yes. You see, the content audit below is a lot of work – and time from your internal team. So it is up to you to decide if you want to take up the full load before you actually bag the client. Whatever you discover from the content audit may have a direct impact on the overall budget. The budget here isn’t the entire cost of the project but more an approximate number that your client can have in mind. Budget discussions are never easy as you thread on a thin line. All agencies out there scream quality – but this can be proven only with time. We showcase ours by sharing case studies and testimonials from previous clients. As a newbie, not doing this has caused quite a bit of heartache for us. You may find only one rotten mango among the pile but it is still best to have a shield and stay prepared. Here’s why. I got duped by a rogue client. Here’s how you can protect yourself from one Content