What is good content for your website?

What is “Good Content” Anyway? 繁體中文

by Blogmawebcenters • May 13, 2015 • 0 Comments

“Web surfers have the attention span of drunken gnats.” – Forbes Magazine

People are bombarded by more and more information each day, and our lives are getting busier and busier. Identify the goals of your content to shape the direction you take.

GOAL: INCREASE SALES

• What makes you unique?
• What sets up apart from the competition?
• Have you won any recent awards or been involved in assisting the community?
• What are frustrations experienced by potential customers of your industry? How does your business solve these problems?
• Products
• Services
• Online bill pay

GOAL: INCREASE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

• Online Appointments
• Reservations
• What to bring to the appointment
• Warranties
• Brochures
• FAQs
• More Information

GOAL: CREATE COMMUNITY

• Social Media Engagement
• “Follow Us” or “Connect with Us”, “Get Inspired” etc.
• Repost your clients
• Live Feeds
• Email Marketing
• Stay in touch!

GOAL: AWESOME WEBSITE:

• Rich / Visual / Media Rich
• Original
• Well-written, and updated
• Business Identity
• Credibility
• Easily Accessible Contact Information
• Call to Action

  

What you need to know about Google's Recent Phantom Update

On April 21, Google unleashed its mobile-friendly update on the online world. However, most businesses and entrepreneurs were in the loop and had sufficient time to react and take appropriate measures.

More recently, there have been rumors flying about a new "phantom" algorithm update, which was presumably applied towards the end of April or the beginning of May. As it turns out, if you've been noticing changes to your -- or anyone else's -- search rankings as of late, you aren't out to lunch.

The reason some have been referring to it as the "Phantom Update" is because there was no advance warning with this algorithmic revision, and Google wouldn't readily admit to it either. It did confirm it eventually, but wouldn't provide a lot of specifics on the changes. Google may try to play it down, but the overall impact appears to be significant.

In essence, this new update is a quality update. How Google assesses quality is sometimes a thing of mystery, but we do know that it wants to provide users with the best information possible. By developing high-quality content and websites, you can continue to rank for your terms and drive traffic to your site. It may be worth reviewing Google's post about high-quality sites from when it applied the Panda update as well.

Related: 3 Ways to Improve Conversions on Your Website

With context now in tow, let's take a closer look at what you need to know about this update.

Don't panic!

First, you must realize that Google will be updating its algorithm on a regular basis to serve more quality content to searchers. This isn't really the first time Google has done this -- remember Panda? -- and it's unlikely that it will be the last time.

In other words, if you've been consistently producing content with the best interests of your target users in mind, you're still on the right track. There's no need to make any drastic changes to your strategy. If you do happen to see a decline in your organic search traffic, however, there may be a need to address some of your on-page SEO.

We may not have a lot of new information on Google's quality signals, but we do know what was said in the past. Here are several important things to keep in mind:

• Duplicate content and redundant articles are a no-no.
• Avoid creating thin content.
• Prioritize user experience. For example, too many ads on your site can create a negative visitor experience and have an undesired impact on your rankings.
• Your content should be trustworthy. Visitors that land on your site should feel comfortable giving you their credit card information.
• Are you exercising quality control with your content? Your articles should be free of spelling and factual errors.
• Are you striving to give your target users an in-depth look into the subject matter? Does your content meet their needs?

This is just a quick overview of what Google expects from you as a content creator. From a user experience perspective, it makes a lot of sense. The idea is to answer questions posed by visitors, provide them with the best information possible, examine issues from different angles and share insights into topics you're passionate about.

It's all about content.

Content is really all we're talking about here. If you're still trying to catch your breath from the previous mobile-friendly update, that's all good and well, but if you're already caught up in that regard, then the issue to address now is content. There's no need to focus on anything else at this point in time.

If Google has gone on record to say that certain factors are important to search rankings, it's not likely to change its tune all of a sudden. The most recent update reflects ongoing efforts to rank sites based on the quality of the content offered.

Related: 7 Things You Need to Know About SEO to Remain Relevant in 2015

There are some theories out there about this being a domain-level penalty. In other words, if Google finds low quality content on your site, it'll demote your entire website. However, this is merely speculation. If your website happens to have a significant amount of "low quality" content on it, then you may see a considerable decrease in organic traffic. This wouldn't necessarily indicate a domain-level demotion, because it could be just your lower quality content that's being affected. This would explain the overall decrease in search rankings and traffic.

Build trust.

Is there a reason why some sites can publish a new article, have it crawled and indexed within minutes and have it ranking in search too, while others struggle to do the same? Fundamentally, it's all about trust. If there's anything that's being looked at on a domain-level, it would bethat.

Are you consistently creating and serving quality content to your users? Are you striving to make their experience the best that it can possibly be? Are you building a solid reputation that appears trustworthy in the eyes of Google?

Again, think about what Google is looking for when it is crawling your content. The search giant wants to see original, trustworthy, error-free, visitor-centric, value-adding, comprehensive, substantial content. As a website owner, it's a long-term play, but you have to be willing to invest the time and not cut corners.

You can build towards becoming a recognized authority on a subject, but this is not done by guessing at what SEO plays are going to generate your next viral article. This is done by paying attention to the real human needs that exist in the online world. Future updates are going to take this human element into account more than anything else.

Final thoughts.

If you're interested in finding out whether your site has been affected, make sure to take advantage of our Google Penalty Checker. Google rolls out hundreds of minor changes every single year. Some are major and can have a significant impact on your website's rankings -- sometimes without you even being aware of it.

If your low quality content has been affected, it's time for a new strategy. Quality signals aren't anything new, but you can rest assured that Google is only going to clamp down on inferior content with greater force in times to come.

*Article by Thomas Smale
Contributor/FE Internationals

Sticky Websites

Why People Return to Websites

When you think of the word “sticky,” what comes to mind? A spilled soda, the surface of something you bought after you removed a sticker, or your hands after you peeled some fruit?

In the Internet industry, sticky refers to something that makes a person want to come back to a website. A sticky website stands out above the many thousands of other websites because it offers something unique and valuable.

Here are some ways to make your site sticky:

• Make your site clear and navigable. Have a short paragraph near the top introducing yourself. Make your best pages available with prominent links. Use an image of yourself and have your phone number, email and other contact information in a place the visitor can easily find them.
• Write an FAQ. It stands for Frequently Asked Questions and it is standard on all major websites. Don’t be intimidated, you can have an FAQ too. Think about what most people ask you most often. Write in clear terms and provide plenty of contact information where visitors can contact you for more information.
• Set up blogs and social media accounts. Blogs and social media accounts breathe life into your site, provide fresh information, and engage your readers. Plus it’s a lot of fun. Answer questions, start new discussion topics, and state your opinion about recent news. People will notice, and the search engines will too.
• Make sure your website reflects your personality. Are you a practical joker? Are you committed to your church? Maybe you are dedicated to making your community a better place. Giving your audience a window to your soul will make them want to do business with you.
• Get into video. That new cell phone of yours has incredible video capabilities. A YouTube account is free and super easy to use. Call a friend who will be your videographer and make some two-minute videos introducing your business.

The Power of Infographics

A picture is worth 1,000 words so using infographics can get you more real estate for your posts. We’ve compiled a few tips for you to get started with creating quality infographics:

Define your Target Audience
Many businesses have multiple audiences for their services and products.  To get the biggest response, define a single audience for each infographic you create.

Craft a Clear Message
Is your infographic saying too much?  Define your purpose and then craft a clear message that both offers professional insight / advice while also promoting your product.

High Quality Images & Smart Sizes
Want people to read and share your infographic?  Make it easy to read and share!

Logical Layouts
Break your message out into a logical, easy to read layout.

Brand It
Don’t forget to brand your infographics. You are giving free and valuable infomation to the end-user to build brand loyalty AND to create awareness around a product or service that you offer.

Share It
Don’t forget to share your infographic on your social media platforms, on your website and in your email campaigns. Make sure to include your website link when sharing as this will both drive traffic to your site and  increase your SEO value!

Posted by: Sarah Rose Stack

5 Tips for a Website Makeover

by Blogmawebcenters • August 19, 2014 • 0 Comments

It’s time.  Your website has been outdated long enough and it may be starting to cost you business.  We know it can be overwhelming, so let’s take a look at 5 key points to keep in mind when planning your website makeover.

1.  What’s Your Point?

•   What is the primary focus of your site?
• What is the secondary focus of your site?

2. Who’s Looking?

• Who is your target audience?
• Demographics?
• Where are they located?

3. Social, Social, Social

• Social media is the largest referral network in history.
• Is the content on your site shareable?
• Are you driving your viewers to your social platforms?

4. Call to Action

• What do you want viewers to do?
• Sign up for a newsletter?
• Share something?
• Buy Something?
• Request more information?

5. Plan from A- Z

• Who will write the content?
• Media – Images, Videos, Downloads etc.?
• Who will Design?
• Who will Develop?
• Responsive Design?
• What about Marketing the Site?  (SEO, SEM, Social Media, Email Campaigns)

By: Sarah Rose Stack

SEO Basics for Small Business

SEO for Small Business

Posted by: Dailius Wilson March 13, 2014 in Web Strategies & SEO

Most small businesses starting out on the web have much of their own web responsibilities, and they have heard of SEO, but they don’t know what it is, or how to implement it on their website.  SEO stands for search engine optimization and is an area of expertise in implementing certain techniques and practices to help your site rank as high as possible on search engine results pages (SERPs). Even professional website technicians have heard of SEO, and wish they knew enough about it to do it well, so how can the small business owner stand a chance?

If you keep in mind that SEO isn’t the only component of your website, then it is possible to take a few small, easy steps to start doing SEO on your own.  One of the most important things a small business owner can do is optimize the company website for search engines.  Your content should be the backbone of your website, and positive SEO results will come as a result of this solid structure.

You can spend a lot of time effort and money on SEO, and achieve very few if any results if you do not have the quality content to go with it. As a small business owner, saving costs is always part of the bottom line and few people realize that proper SEO can be learned with little effort.  Some companies even over-optimize their websites which can have little results for the added effort.  Sometimes taking care of the basics is all that is really required.

So where do you begin? Well, one of the first things you can do if you haven’t already done so is to verify your site ownership with Google.  Google’s Webmaster Tools offer a lot of useful features such as email forwarding, which offers you emails informing you of any problems found on your site.  The problems that Google may find could be site inaccessibility, malicious content, and possible broken links.  It’s useful to have this kind of information so that you can troubleshoot your own site.

The next area you can cover is in your content, which should be unique.  You will have to focus on the keywords, or words that will be used frequently in the page text.  A keyword can be a unique word or phrase that is generally used as the subject of the content.  For example, your special keyword(s) or phrase(s) should take up about fifteen percent of the text.  Don’t use the keywords so many times that it has a negative effect on your content meaning and readability. You don’t want to discourage your users, and you also don’t want search engines to tag you as spam.

Another area that you can cover while optimizing your site is to go over your design. A great design can be the key to your success.  SEO and quality content can help push your site up the search engines, but once they’ve found you, you only get one shot. First impressions always last, so make them count.  Remember to interact with your customers online, they are your audience, and your lifeline.  Without them your business will fail.  Answer their questions, interact with them through social media, whatever you do make them feel engaged and an active part of your site and you will be a success.

7 Things your social media plan should consider for 2014

Let’s face it, you simply cannot ignore the fact that social media is here to stay – it’s as an important aspect of your marketing mix, as anything else you have been doing up to this point. Unfortunately, for many businesses it’s still not included as an integral business activity – in short, it’s often an afterthought, something to be done, when time allows.

Your social media goals for 2014

If you don’t want your competitors to leave you standing then 2014 is the year you need to get serious about using social media in your business. If up until this point you’ve simply stuck your toe in the water but no more, it can seem a pretty daunting task, so here are my 7 tips to help you get under way.

1. Know why? – Why are you in business? When you first started what was your passion, what made you decide to set up the business you have – what difference did you want to make to those who use your services? –  Starting here is a great way of re-assessing every aspect of your sales & marketing strategy, this will be important when it comes to communicating, via social media, who you are and what you do.
2. What outcomes do you deliver? – Many businesses make the mistake of only listing on their websites what they do and how they do it. Clients are much less interested in these factors, rather they want to know if you can solve their problems or help them achieve their business objectives. Does your LinkedIn profile communicate this well?
3. Who is your audience?  - Is it time to reassess who your clients are? Are there some who are more profitable for your business, who are easier to deal with and should you be searching for more of these type of clients? Social media sites, such as LinkedIn and Twitter provide free tools to enable you to locate and engage with thousands of potential new clients – you just need to learn how to make best use of these tools.
4. What is your story? – Marketing has changed – the focus now is on building relationships, not driving transactions. Potential clients want to know more about you, your beliefs, attitudes, values, how you’ve helped others similar to them to achieve success – they want to like you and above all trust you. Your job is to share content via social media that has heart, real stories about real people – your clients, your employees maybe? – social media content needs to engage at a human level, it’s not simply about sharing corporate sales messages, no one believes these any more. Establish a connection first and clients will buy, you will rarely have to sell to them.
5. It’s not just about posting – There is a misconception that if you post sufficient information via LinkedIn status updates, in groups, on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook that eventually you’ll attract plenty of new business and yes, you will attract some. However, if you’re not prepared to engage in dialogue with those who view your profile or respond to your posts – if you’re not prepared to engage in discussion forums and Twitter conversations then you’re not being ‘social‘. Engagement is the key to building relationships.
6. Create content that engages – Content is definitely king – when it comes to social media and websites Google takes specific notice of those sites that share great content and that are linked to other sites that share great content. Your job is to create or curate great content (sounds simple doesn’t it?). What is great content? It’s content that your clients want to read, not what you think they should read. Consider sharing industry trends and updates that are relevant to your clients, be an indispensable resource to them. Share positive stories where you have had an influence in helping other similar businesses – be cautious of being too overtly salesy though.
7. Don’t forget the sales element - In the end though, there is no point making all these connections and attracting many followers and likes -sharing wonderfully useful content with them, if they are not going to visit your website or enquire about your services further – you must put your sales hat on. For example, use Google Analytics to assess which of your website pages visitors land on most frequently and make sure that your social media content includes a link, every time, to these pages. When they land on your page, do you have a capture mechanism, clearly identified, where the visitor can sign up to your newsletter or special offer, so you capture their data? You must consider and include an end-game as far as your social media plans are concerned.

I believe that there is much confusion shared on various sites about linking social media activity with sales and marketing – they are linked, in fact they must be linked, otherwise we are all just being busy fools.

Social media is no silver bullet, it may bring instant results and certainly I have seen many examples where it has. However, patience is key here – be prepared to put time in and be consistent – measure and assess your progress – what do people respond well to, what isn’t working and needs to be changed? Social media is a process, it works for those who apply it with consideration and it’s not going away any time soon – you’re competitors are using it and winning, so are you prepared to get in the game and learn how to make it work for you in 2014?

Wishing you a great 2014 and if you would like to learn how my business helps company’s like yours to attract more new clients to your business click here now. Want more tips like this? Sign up to our weeklynews-brief here.

*Article by Steve Phillips (Managing Director/Linkd2Success)