BigCommerce SEO Best Practices: 7 Traffic Boosting Tips That Work

SEO for ecommerce is do-or-die.

If you don’t get traffic to your site, you won’t win customers. No customers, no business.

And since building an ecommerce store can be an intimidating task all by itself, adding that extra layer just isn’t fun.

But thankfully, platforms like BigCommerce exist to try to make both of those burdens a little easier on you.

In this article, I want to examine the capabilities of BigCommerce and share some tips that will help you get traffic if you decide to use it for your store.

First off, let’s look at why you should consider this platform in the first place.

Why Use BigCommerce?

There are quite a few items in the plus column for BigCommerce, so I’ll try to cover them briefly before moving on to specific e-commerce SEO capabilities.

BigCommerce is an online store builder that allows you to customize and design a presence that can sell products through your site, Amazon, eBay, and even Facebook. So if you’re looking for a multi-channel selling platform, BigCommerce should be on your list.

According to self-reported statistics on their website, the brands that use BigCommerce report an average of 28% annual growth. That’s about twice the industry average, so you know that they’re doing something right.

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As for more generalized benefits, you’ll be able to choose from a wide variety of themes when you build your store. You’ll also have access to a broad spectrum of payment options like Stripe, Square, or Paypal, as well as some rather robust marketing tools.

And of course, BigCommerce offers some fairly intuitive product management capabilities, as well as solid online support if you encounter issues.

As for pricing, it’s hard to imagine a more affordable system that delivers on the promises BigCommerce offers. Out of the box, a new business will only be on the hook for $30/month.

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Of course, if you want better conversion optimization (and SEO), you’ll need to shell out $80/month. For some smaller businesses, that may still seem like a steep price tag.

And on top of that, BigCommerce does enforce certain sales thresholds for each of their pricing plans. While you probably won’t have to worry too much about your price if you’re hitting these thresholds, it’s always good to know that they may upgrade your plan for you.

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But all things considered, BigCommerce isn’t a bad choice when considering an ecommerce platform for your business. You can create a simple, clean, and intuitive store from a centralized system that lets you focus on running your business.

Here’s a look at Toyota’s store that they built with BigCommerce:

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So from a broad view, BigCommerce looks like a great option. But now let’s look at it solely from an SEO standpoint.

Is BigCommerce a Good Ecommerce Platform for SEO?

Out of the box, BigCommerce’s SEO capabilities aren’t bad. Much like Magento, they built this platform with best practices in mind, so you can be reliably sure you aren’t setting yourself back by choosing this option.

But SEO will always require more tools and customization, and BigCommerce is aware of that. To help your SEO efforts, they offer a range of tools to help you optimize your site.

They also provide you with a mobile-optimized site that works with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which means your site will be well suited to your mobile audience. With Google’s recent mobile-first indexing, that’s a huge plus to your SEO.

And of course, like other ecommerce platforms, you have a well-stocked app store that can help you expand both your store’s reach and your SEO capabilities.

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So all things considered, the SEO for BigCommerce is very capable. You’ll need to find ways to help it along if you want to beat your competition, but you’ll have plenty of tools at your disposal for that task.

But that being said, there are still certain SEO blind spots that you’ll need to cover to fully optimize a BigCommerce store. For the rest of this article, we’ll look at some tips that will let you do just that.

Tip #1: Prioritize Keyword Research

For BigCommerce, and for anyone trying to rank on a search engine results page, SEO starts with good keyword research.

Keywords are the basic building block for your SEO. If you’re able to optimize a page for words that potential customers search for, then you raise the chances that they’ll find your site.

One of the best starting places is the free Adwords Keyword Planner from Google. By inserting keywords that are relevant to your product or brand, you can find high-volume keyword suggestions that are more likely to bring in traffic.

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Use this tool to find as many keywords as you can to help optimize your site. Of course, it’s always a good idea to use more than one tool to fully flesh out your keyword research.

Some tools offer different data points and suggestions, so it pays to check out multiple different keyword tools.

This will inform and direct your SEO for content, product pages, and everything else on your site. Just keep in mind that some keywords will be harder to rank for, so create good content and fine-tune your approach over time.

Tip #2: Perfect Your On-Page SEO

Some of the biggest points in BigCommerce’s favor are the native tools on their platform that help you fine-tune your on-page SEO. Many platforms force you to maneuver around baked-in settings that you can’t change, but that isn’t the case with BigCommerce.

So when it comes time to work on your SEO, there are four major elements of on-page optimization that you need to look for:

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And thankfully, BigCommerce makes this simple with dedicated SEO fields that allow you to fill in your metadata for each page. Instead of having to edit HTML, all you have to do is add a meta description, keywords, and title (all on-page SEO elements).

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Aside from creating quality content, this is a one-stop solution that will help you cover the basics of your on-page SEO. You’ll need to do this for each page on your site, but the effort will be worth the payoff in traffic and revenue.

Tip #3: Optimize Your Site for Mobile

As I mentioned in the assessment of BigCommerce’s SEO capabilities, Google has transitioned to a mobile-first indexing. What that means is that your mobile site is going to have a bigger impact on your SEO than the desktop version.

So you can see how essential it is to optimize the design of your site for mobile use.

The best way to do this for BigCommerce is to use a theme that automatically makes your site responsive to mobile devices. That means instead of zoomed-out, hard to use pages, you have a scrollable and tappable page.

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One option for this is to use BigCommerce’s default mobile theme, which will automatically make a responsive version of your site. However, if your desktop theme isn’t responsive, there could be issues when BigCommerce makes the transition for you.

A better option would be to use a theme that supports mobile responsiveness from the start. The Stencil Theme Platform comes highly recommended for this, and even has some features that will help with other SEO elements for your store. You can also check out the theme store to find other options that may suit your overall branding better.

Tip #4: Optimize Site Speed

In July of 2018, Google announced that page speed was now one of the top factors in mobile search results. While SEOs had known site speed was important for years, this was the final, official “nail in the coffin.”

That means that from now on, how fast your site loads is a vital aspect of your technical SEO. If you want to win organic traffic, you need a fast site.

To test your speed, you can use one of the various tools available on the Internet.

One solid choice would be PageSpeed Insights from Google. This free tool allows you to input a specific page on your website, test its speed, and get valuable tips for improvement.

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For example, one site we tested came back with a long list optimizations that covered everything from hosting to optimizing images:

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Following this advice will allow you to speed up your site and improve your site’s overall SEO.

Another potential tool you can use is GTMetrix, which works very similarly to PageSpeed Insights.

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This tool aggregates your PageSpeed score and your YSlow score provides exact performance details, and then offers direction on how you can start improving your speed.

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Once you discover how your site performs, your next goal is to find ways to improve the speed. No matter what you’re selling or where you rank, this is always a good idea to improve performance even more.

There are plenty of ways to improve site speed, such as:

• Use better, faster hosting
• Switch to a faster DNS provider
• Use only a few plugins and scripts
• Make sure you use small images
• Use website compression
• Minimalize your site’s code

By lowering load times and improving the overall speed of your site, you’ll be able to see a drastic improvement in your SEO and the organic traffic to your site. Without this step, your product pages may stay at the bottom of the search engine results page.

Tip #5: Use an App to Fill in the Gaps

As previously mentioned, to fill out your SEO you’ll likely want to integrate an app to your store. With any ecommerce platform, this is just a good move, as it gives you a system to fall back on to double check your SEO efforts.

One such app is FavSEO, a well-reviewed and robust SEO platform that audits and scores your overall SEO efforts.

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It also takes care of essential elements like your sitemap and keyword performance, so you can focus on trying to sell your products.

Whatever app you choose from the Bigcommerce app store, make sure that it helps you optimize essential elements like product descriptions and page titles. With the right pieces in place, your traffic will start to increase over time.

Tip #6: Optimize Your Category and Product Pages

When you’re building your site, site navigation is one of the key elements you need to consider for a solid SEO strategy. You want your site to be easy to use no matter where someone enters.

That includes your product and category pages.

The best way to achieve this type of optimization is to first create “silos” for the different types of products you offer. In the image below, you can see how this creates avenues on your site that follow a common logical theme:

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This method has been proven to allow low-authority sites to rank higher than competitors with tons of backlinks. In one case, a site with a domain rating score of 32 was able to beat one of its largest competitors using siloed pages.

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This method starts with solid, optimized category pages. Then, in each silo content should be internally linked up to the category page. This signals to Google that these pages are some of the most important pieces of your site, which boosts their overall SEO.

But that isn’t all you should do. You need to ensure that these category pages and the product pages beneath them are completely optimized. That includes headings, solid content, a good user experience, and keyword targeting.

When all of these elements come together, it’s a powerful SEO strategy.

Let’s look at an example of how this works in real life. Here’s an optimized category page from the Mrs. Meyers Clean Day website:

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When you click one of this category page from the homepage, related products are laid out, and when you click on one it will take you to a product page.

And here’s an example of one of their product pages, which includes a healthy amount of copy, solid imagery, and a variety of options that customers can select.

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Each of these pages display adherence to the on-page SEO guidelines we saw above, and then go the extra mile by optimizing images, copy, and other technical elements behind the scenes.

And since they’re in a single silo, each of these product pages help boost the SEO of the overarching category page.

Once again, every category and product page on your site should get the same level of optimization. It increases the overall SEO of your brand, and improves the possibility that you’ll rank for your targeted keyword.

Tip #7: Strategize Your Internal Linking

I briefly mentioned in the last tip that internal linking helps your SEO when you silo your category and product pages. Let’s dig deeper into how you can approach this strategically in each silo.

Years ago, when Google PageRank scores were still visible to brands, SEO experts discovered that you could shuttle value between pages using internal links. This concept became referred to as link value.

While we can’t see those PageRank scores anymore, it’s still clear that internal linking can be used strategically to boost the SEO of high-value pages on your site.

And when paired with a silo architecture, your internal links can become much more powerful.

The ultimate application of this is to link to best-selling or other relevant products in the copy of your product pages, blog posts, and landing pages.

With proper internal linking, you can pinpoint which pages need the most emphasis for SEO, and thus improve their position on a search engine results page. Here’s an example of how you can execute this from Rocky Mountain Soap:

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As you can see, the page provides internal links that attempt to upsell or cross-sell products. It also acts as a signal to Google that other pages may be more important to the brand than this particular product.

The takeaway is to use internal links carefully and deliberately to enhance your SEO for important products and pages. Your SEO will have more direction, which is much better in the long-term.

Conclusion

Ecommerce may be do-or-die, but platforms like BigCommerce make it easier to stay ahead of the competition.

With plenty of customization, benefits, and growth potential, BigCommerce is a good choice for any business looking to sell online. And with solid SEO potential, it’s easy to see why many businesses are using them.

But as with any platform, you still need to put in some effort to get to the top.

Start by performing some basic keyword research to help inform and direct your overall SEO strategy.

Then, use those keywords and BigCommerce’s dedicated SEO fields to optimize every page on your site.

It’s also in your best interest to design your site for mobile-first indexing, as that will be the biggest signal Google looks for moving forward.

You should also take steps to optimize your site’s speed, as that will directly impact how users interact with your site.

Also, be sure to supplement your SEO with a solid app from the BigCommerce app store. This will help ensure that nothing falls through the cracks, and will start generating traffic over time.

Take the time to work on the SEO of your category and product pages. They need the same effort that your homepage gets.

Finally, build a strategy for your internal linking and stick to it. You’ll be able to direct your SEO and see results over time.

And with that extra traffic, you’ll be much closer to the growth and success that all ecommerce businesses hope for.

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Enterprise B2B Influencer Marketing Interview: Luciana Moran, D&B

The world of B2B influencer marketing continues to grow and we continue to tap the top marketing executives in charge of leading the industry for their insights and experience. In this installment of our Enterprise B2B Influencer Marketing Interview series, I talk with Luciana Moran (@lucymoran) Senior Vice President, Digital, Content & Creative at Dun & Bradstreet. Our mutual connections have only the best things to say about Lucy and in this generous interview you'll learn why. You'll learn about how influencer marketing is organized within the company, tips on handling compliance, campaign structure and favorite influencer marketing platforms. What brought you to the world of Influencer Marketing? I began to get more involved in Influencer Marketing as the scope of my role at Dun & Bradstreet grew to include Content Marketing. I had been exposed to the great Influencer programs that Konnie and others at Dell managed while I was working for Dell, but did not have any direct involvement. However, once I started working with our Content team, I saw Influencer Marketing as an opportunity to expand the reach of our perspectives outside of some of the more traditional tactics of organic search, social & paid media. How is influencer marketing different for B2B than B2C? In my mind, strong Influencer programs should be grounded in the same core principles, regardless of audience. That said, while I don’t have direct experience managing B2C Influencer programs, B2C seems to be a riskier endeavor in some ways. Technology has really simplified the process of finding potential B2C Influencer partnerships, and if you are a brand with limited resources trying to scale for Influencer programs, the potential of putting your brand at risk seems much greater.

On the B2B side, influencers have to be true subject matter experts in their category.

In addition, on the B2B side, influencers have to be true subject matter experts in their category. You want to ensure you align your brand with someone with the right following, but also someone who truly understands your business & can education your audience on the value of your solutions. On the B2C side, influencer marketing is largely based on who is using a product and finding a celebrity to endorse you can easily deliver success. What are 2-3 of the main benefits of collaborating with influencers for B2B companies?

• Exposing your message to a new or different audience than you are currently reaching today, especially thru your website or other organic channels
• Adding credibility to your message by partnering with a trusted voice in the industry

How is influencer marketing positioned within your company? Ex: independent department that serves the brand and departments / business unites or is it more decentralized? What are the advantages of that structure? Influencer relationships are managed centrally thru our Comms or Content & Social teams. We partner with our individual lines of business to help guide our influencer strategy, but the programs are managed centrally. The benefit of this model is that those with the expertise in influencer marketing are responsible for the programs, and we are able to extend learnings across multiple LOBs rather than have those learnings exist in a silo.

We do our homework to make sure that each influencer has substance behind their influence.

There has been some interesting press about influencer marketing in the past year, especially with discussions about better vetting of influencers with fake followers and failure to disclose brand relationships. How does your organization handle compliance and ensuring influencers and their communities are “real”? The influencers that we tend to work with are those that we already have an existing relationship with in some way – either directly thru our team members and/or thru our networks. Like any business relationship, having some connection with a potential influencer can help limit risk. Influencer marketing agencies can help here, as they are able to bring experience across many clients. We also do our homework to make sure that each influencer has substance behind their influence. Things we have been especially cognizant of are influencers who seems to have expertise across too broad of a range of topics and influencers with a large follower base, especially those that seem to not have deep subject matter expertise based on content they develop or share. How do you organize influencer engagement initiatives? Is it campaign focused, always on, opportunistic or a combination? Where we’ve had the opportunity to partner with influencers on a campaign, such as a launch or new initiative, we have done so and seen success. We also have had long-standing relationships with other influencers and work with them as opportunities arrive.

If you are new to Influencer programs and don’t have deep subject matter expertise in-house, consider bringing in an agency to help.

What tips can you share about being more effective about influencer identification, qualification and recruitment? If you are new to Influencer programs and don’t have deep subject matter expertise in-house, consider bringing in an agency to help. Once you have a program up & running, you can then either bring the work inside your organization or continue to partner with the agency. Another way to be more effective at influencer identification, qualification and recruitment is to ask your customers who they follow/read. They are your target audience and you want to be where they are. What characteristics make for a successful influencer / B2B brand relationship? The key here is a relationship- realize that in order to be successful, the work has to be mutually beneficial to both parties. For example, think about how your campaign or program can benefit the influencer – what can you do to help promote them, in addition to them promoting your brand.

Be very clear up front on the goals of your Influencer program and what success looks like.

Also, be very clear up front on the goals of your Influencer program and what success looks like. Do you have a favorite B2B influencer marketing campaign that you can share? What made it successful? We’ve done a series of videos with Michael Krigsman, host of CXO Talk, and some of the leaders in our marketing organization. Overall the content is super engaging – Michael is a great host – and leveraging the video format really drove a lot of strong success on our social channels. What advice can you share about measuring success with influencer marketing? Establish your goals up-front. Don’t go into a campaign or program looking to start an Influencer program because it sounds interesting or it seems like something you “should” be doing. Know what KPIs you want to impact, and what KPIs you actually can impact. What information sources do you rely on to stay on top of influencer marketing best practices and technologies? Marketing blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn. And of course my team & co-workers. I work with a lot of extremely smart people who are focused on building their own influencer profiles. Speaking of technologies, any favorite tools or platforms you can share? One of my favorite technologies that we use related to influencer marketing and increasing the exposure of our content is LinkedIn Elevate. It allows a group of content curators to share content relevant to different aspects of our business, and then employees can easily share out to their networks thru LinkedIn & Twitter.

Aligning your brand with credible & trusted thought leaders will be more and more important.

How do you think influencer marketing will have evolved in the next year or two? What will it look like in 2020? I think Influencer Marketing will grow in importance for brands as they look to explore how to continue to round out their strategies & tactics to meet their marketing goals. Especially with the continued & growing concern around fake news & content, as well as ad fraud & transparency, aligning your brand with credible & trusted thought leaders will be more and more important. I think we will see more technologies that will allow brands to better find new influencer relationships, which seems to be more prevalent for B2C than B2B. What are you most influential about?  Leadership, how to navigate relationships at work, and how to best manage career & family commitments. I would say I do a better job influencing those I have relationships with at work or thru friendships – I need to do a better job at building my influence outside of my network. What are you most looking forward to at MarketingProfs B2B Forum? Of course, I am looking forward to Ann Handley as the event Host, as she is so witty and fun. Also seeing Gopi Kallayil, as I am really passionate about brand marketing, as well as Margaret Molloy, as she is a CMO that I have been following for some time. Thank you Lucy!  If you would like to learn more about B2B influencer marketing from a panel of brand experts, be sure to check out our sesssion at MarketingProfs B2B Forum November 13-15th featuring Konstanze Brown from Dell, Amisha Gandhi from SAP Ariba and Lucianna Moran from Dun & Bradstreet. Here are the details: The Confluence Equation: How Content & Influencers Drive B2B Marketing Success Content and influencer marketing are hot topics for B2B marketers all over the world as two of the most promising strategies for attracting, engaging and converting ideal customers. What many marketers don’t realize is how collaborating with influencers can create even more credible, relevant, and optimized experiences for target accounts. Join moderator Lee Odden and an expert panel of B2B brand influencer marketing executives from SAP, Dell and Dun & Bradstreet to learn how working with influencers and their communities can help scale quality B2B content that gets results.  You'll learn:

• The variety of benefits from B2B influencer collaboration
• How major B2B brands plan, implement and measure influencer content
• About processes and technologies that support influencer marketing success

We hope to see you there!

The post Enterprise B2B Influencer Marketing Interview: Luciana Moran, D&B appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/10/enterprise-b2b-influencer-marketing.html

Stop Gambling with Your Marketing and Go Pro with Tips from Ten Pubcon Pro Speakers

In the fast paced world of search and digital marketing, what separates amateurs from professionals often comes down one simple distinction: marketing as a gamble or marketing as a planned, measured and iteratively optimized discipline.

There are far too many marketing campaigns being implemented simply because “that’s how we’ve always done it”, as a reaction to the competition and as a limitation of the in-house team tasked with execution. Professional marketers go beyond wishful thinking and hopes of “better luck next time”.

So, what does it mean to be a “professional”?

Being a professional in any industry represents a combination of characteristics including:

• Specialized knowledge
• Competency
• Honesty and Integrity
• AccountabilitySelf-Regulation

Marketing professionals represent these things and more:

• Creativity
• Analytical Skills
• Social Skills
• Problem Solving Skills

If you want more marketing success, it takes a shift in perspective, an effort to expand your knowledge and awareness of what’s possible.

There are few “sure things” in marketing, but one thing you can count on is the value of the expertise and advice from the group of 10 expert marketers contributing to the Marketers Go Pro ebook we developed for the Pubcon Pro conference in Las Vegas happening in a few weeks. We polled the keynote and main stage speakers for their best advice based on the presentations they will be giving at the conference. I’m one of those main stage speakers, so I contributed as well.

Here’s a list of the marketing experts who contributed and a taste of the insights you’ll find inside the ebook:

The formula for building a loyal audience looks like this:
– Identify your sweet spot
– Find your content tilt
– Build your base
– Harvest your audience
– Diversify
– Monetize (Tweet this)
Joe Pulizzi, @JoePulizzi
Founder, Content Marketing Institute, Co-Founder, The Orange Effect Foundation

“Today’s clients and colleagues have an eight second attention span. Eight seconds. To break through the noise, you must communicate with more power, clarity and impact.” (Tweet this)
Debra Jasper @DebraJasper
Founder & CEO, Mindset Digital

“Expand your Web reach and diversify your business by targeting an international audience, but avoid launching in too many markets, choosing the wrong web structure or not effectively localizing.”  (Tweet this)
Aleyda Solis @aleyda
International SEO Consultant & Founder, Orainti

“By building internal credibility, activating customers, creating a content collaboration ecosystem and working with influencers, Marketing can improve credibility, influence and trust.” (Tweet this)
Lee Odden @leeodden
CEO, TopRank Marketing

“When it comes to optimizing the customer experience, design for conversation from the start. Remember, the most important thing for the user is convenience.” (Tweet this)
Purna Virji @purnavirji
Sr. Manager, Global Engagement at Microsoft

“Want a higher conversion rate and customer loyalty? Make it easier to do business with you. Reducing friction in every interaction is the path to getting and keeping more customers.” (Tweet this)
Roger Dooley @rogerdooley
Founder, Dooley Direct

“To be successful in SEO we must adapt to and embrace the evolving search engine landscape in both the SERPS and in our organizations.” (Tweet this)
Bill Hunt @BillHunt
President, Back Azimuth Consulting

“Is SEO dead? Whole new worlds of challenges and opportunities exist for SEO because of Google’s 2018 algorithm changes, mobile dominance, speed, and voice.” (Tweet this)
Eric Enge @stonetemple
General Manager, Perficient Digital

“To stay at the top of the SERPs you need an SEO diet of analytics for crucial data, structure fixes, content optimization, link building and tools to gauge results.” (Tweet this)
Joe Laratro @jlaratro
President, Tandem Interactive

“Customers want experiences that are more about them and their needs. To increase customer retention, marketers can use date to deliver on more personal experiences.”  (Tweet this)
Scott Monty @scottmonty
Principal, Scott Monty Strategies

To see the full text of our experts’ advice, check out the full ebook below. You’ll also find the details of when, where and what their keynote and main stage presentations will be about.

Besides me, TopRank Marketing will have several team members attending and liveblogging at the Pubcon Pro conference including our agency social content manager, Lane Ellis and senior account manager, Tiffani Allen. You can follow them at @lanerellis and @tiffani_allen as well as our agency tweets during the event at @toprank.

We hope to see you there!

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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2018. | Stop Gambling with Your Marketing and Go Pro with Tips from Ten Pubcon Pro Speakers | https://www.toprankblog.com

The post Stop Gambling with Your Marketing and Go Pro with Tips from Ten Pubcon Pro Speakers appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/09/stop-gambling-with-your-marketing-and.html

Digital Marketing News: Adobe’s $4.75B Marketo Buy, Google’s 20th Anniversary Neural Matching, & Facebook Lets Pages Join Groups

Adobe’s $4.75 Billion Purchase of Marketo Will Boost Its Ability to Compete With Salesforce
In its biggest purchase ever, Adobe has acquired Marketo, shoring up its B2B footprint and giving a vote of confidence to the marketing technology industry. AdWeek

Google Begins Using Neural Matching to Understand Synonyms, Impacting 30% of Queries
For its twentieth anniversary, Google has rolled out an array of new features, including neural matching artificial intelligence, mobile updates, and search changes including Activity Cards, announced at the company’s two-decade celebratory event. Search Engine Journal

Facebook Will Now Allow Pages to Join Facebook Groups
Facebook has allowed certain Pages to join, comment on, and otherwise interact with Groups, a new test that could lead to filling a need expressed by some digital marketers. Social Media Today

Report: Digital now makes up 51% of US ad spending
Led by search, video, and social, digital has for the first time topped the overall ad spend market, according to data from a new study by Magna. Marketing Land

5 Key Benefits of Word of Mouth [Infographic]
A look at the staying power of word-of-mouth recommendations in digital advertising, spurred by the release of a new book by noted marketers Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin. Social Media Today

Most B2B Marketers Report Positive ROI… If They Know What It Is.
44 percent of some 400 B2B marketers surveyed for Bizible’s new State of Pipeline Marketing report noted they’re unsure of what their average marketing return on investment (ROI) is, among several other study findings. MarketingCharts

Instagram co-founders resign in latest Facebook executive exit
Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger resigned on Monday, the firm announced. The moves follow other recent big-name departures from Facebook-owned services including WhatsApp. How will the departures of its co-founders change Instagram, and what will the two do next? Reuters

What’s driving B2B buyers to e-commerce
A look at shifting e-commerce patterns in the B2B landscape, and how they are affecting what is a $900 billion market in the U.S. alone, as B2B buyers do more total online purchasing. DigitalCommerce360

Google’s Data Studio is now generally available
Google Data Studio, the firm’s data visualization and reporting tool grouped within its Google Marketing Platform, has graduated from beta status and become available to all. Google Marketing Platform

How Marketers Can Be Strategic Influencers, and Why Their Input Is Key for Companies [Infographic]
An infographic look at some of the benefits of making sure that marketing is included at the highest levels of strategic planning. MarketingProfs

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at 360-Degree Customer View by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Here are all of Google’s 20th anniversary Easter eggs — TechCrunch

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — Content Marketing World 2018 – Conference Report — Peter Krmpotic
• Lee Odden — Influencer Marketing: It has changed, have you? — Marcy Massura
• Lee Odden — Tune in October 3 to catch Lee Odden speaking at the AMA Digital Marketing Virtual Conference — AMA

What are some of your top content marketing news items this week?

Thanks for joining us, and we hope you’ll check in again next week for a new selection of the most relevant digital marketing industry news, and in the meantime you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news. Also, don’t miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2018. | Digital Marketing News: Adobe’s $4.75B Marketo Buy, Google’s 20th Anniversary Neural Matching, & Facebook Lets Pages Join Groups | https://www.toprankblog.com

The post Digital Marketing News: Adobe’s $4.75B Marketo Buy, Google’s 20th Anniversary Neural Matching, & Facebook Lets Pages Join Groups appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/09/digital-marketing-news-adobes-475b.html

Power Pages and Best Answer Content: Should You Go Long or Short Form?

Buyers have questions and sellers better have answers that are easy to find, informative and inspiring. This is the cornerstone behind “Best Answer” content marketing strategy. But what qualifies as best answer content? How deep or wide do you need to go on a topic?

Is it better to use short form or long form content for content marketing?

From informal observations like ours on video and social media to formal studies in the marketing industry, much has been said about the topic of content length with some pretty compelling arguments in favor of long form content.

For example, BuzzSumo’s 2018 Content Trends Report says long form content consistently gains backlinks which is great for referral traffic and SEO. Another study from BuzzSumo and AppSumo reported in their analysis of 100 million articles that the longer the content, the more shares it gets. In Backlinko’s own research of 1 million Google search results, comprehensive content significantly outperformed shallow content. In that same study, the average word count of a Google first page result was found to be 1,890 words.

Does this mean you should always write 1,890 word blog posts? Do customers always want to binge on content?

Savvy marketers understand that statistical generalizations can be useful for making persuasive arguments but not always so useful in practice. As a long time B2B content marketing practitioner, here’s what I’ve found to be true when it comes to long form content.

Engagement and reach are intertwined when it comes to digital content. Search continues to be an important connector of brand solutions content with buyers at the very moment they need it. A number of analysis identifying the content types that fare best in search have superficially associated length with “better”.

“The idea that long form content is best can be misleading. Content depth and utility trump length for search engines and buyers.” @leeodden

The reality is that depth is better than length. It just happens that much of the content that covers a topic thoroughly also has length. But it is not the number of words that has merit. It’s the words used, structure, usefulness, citations and associated entities that matter most for search engines trying to understand and rank “best answer” content and people looking for solutions.

Google is essentially an answer engine and if companies want to be the “best answer” for what their potential customers are looking for, they’ll want to invest in content that is comprehensive and engaging on the topic.

For powerful content, publish powerful pages. One of the tactics to become the best answer for topics that are and important to customers and that represent the solutions from the brand are what we at TopRank Marketing call, “Power Pages”.

Best Answer Content works in tandem with the idea of Power Pages, which are encyclopedic treatments of a specific topic and will often serve as the hub of an idea with spokes to tangential and related ideas in the form of other pages or posts. Insights about customer interests, goals, pain points and questions about the topic all inform the creation of relevant Power Pages that meet the demands of customer intent.

The information architecture with Power Pages is very logical with attention to be both search and buyer friendly. Exploration of an issue from what it is, to how it can be solved, to evidence of credibility and triggers to take action can all be found within a single Power Page and it’s ecosystem of subordinate or related content.

For example, the Power Page below from Click Software on the topic of Field Service Engagement has performed incredibly well in search, on social and with customers.

Powerful content drives search traffic. While Power Pages play an important part of a Best Answer Content Marketing Strategy irregardless of how that content is promoted, successful marketers are paying special attention to their ability to attract customers at the moment of need. Of course I’m talking about Search Engine Optimization.

Optimization should be part of your ongoing content process. There are many ways companies are making it easier and more effective for Google to crawl, index and rank brand content. From ensuring pages are fast and mobile friendly with useful, logical content to optimizing for clickthrough in SERPs and adding signals of credibility / authority to content through attracted links from credible sources, influencer quotes and credible content like statistics and cited excerpts, the list of search performance optimization tactics is always evolving.

Optimize for people and search engines. Here is a list of 9 potential places where you can decide to put your target keyword phrase in your (long or short) power page. as long as it flows well and satisfies your brand standards:

1. Title tag – this is also what is often used to pre-populate social shares and used for bookmark text
2. On page title using the H1 tag
3. Body copy of your page – of course
4. URL of the page with words separated by hyphens: firstword-secondword-thirdword.html
5. Image alt attribute – good for usability
6. Meta description to inspire clicks when displayed in search results
7. As synonyms or concepts related to the focus phrase (a must if you cover a topic deeply)
8. In the form of questions that customers might ask – then you can answer them in your content
9. Anchor text to related pages on your site

Remember, these are just options for optimizing your power page – you don’t need to use them all. The first priority should be to use the target keyword phrase with the frequency that will be useful to the reader.

So, is long form content really better than short form content? The answer is that your content should be whatever length and depth that will satisfy customer efforts to discover resources, understand solutions and to take action towards a solution. As questions these criteria are important to answer with every blog post or article:

• What is it?
• How does it work?
• What do I do next?

For some topics, audiences and situations, the best approach might be content answers that go deep on a topic, but are not necessarily long on words. In other situations a topic might require a lengthy treatment in order to satisfy the buyers need to understand, consider and decide. The key is to create and optimize content that fulfills the customer’s effort at discovering, learning and deciding on a solution.

When it comes to long vs. short form content, the lesson to learn is to avoid just checking off boxes that say you need to write 2,000 (or 1,890) words to satisfy Google. Know your customers well enough through data to create a best answer content strategy and content mix that is relevant, optimized for discovery, useful and actionable. Make the length of your content more about the depth of topic necessary to satisfy customers and their search intent and less about fulfilling a generalization about content that might not even represent what your customers care about.

This post was inspired by an article that I was interviewed for on Marcom Insights. 

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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2018. | Power Pages and Best Answer Content: Should You Go Long or Short Form? | https://www.toprankblog.com

The post Power Pages and Best Answer Content: Should You Go Long or Short Form? appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/09/power-pages-and-best-answer-content.html

Is Anybody Out There? How to Get More Eyes On Your Blog Content

What’s more important than creating great blog content? What’s more important than writing with empathy, storytelling, and research? What’s more important than even knowing your audience better than they know themselves? Amplification. Stay with me. If you’re a content marketing writer like me, amplification is the less sexy part of the job. The rewarding part, the part that matters, is writing that amazing, useful content. I’d much rather build glittering cathedrals of words that compel people to read by the sheer power of my prose. The trouble is, there are thousands of people out there writing amazing blogs. There is a ton of wonderful, beautiful pieces of content out there. And the only way people will find your blog is if you bring them to it. Without amplification built into your content marketing strategy, your blog is a diamond buried five miles beneath the surface of the earth. It’s pretty! It’s valuable! But it’s not doing anyone any good. So, how are we content marketers doing with blog amplification? Are we using every channel? Getting the most mileage out of every paid service? Bringing in beaucoup eyeballs for the content we spend so much time creating? Well, no. According to a recent report from Outreach Plus, we all have some room for improvement. Of the 500 business they surveyed, at least half are leaving money on the table. Here’s how to amp up your blog amplification.

How to Unleash the Potential of Your Blog Content

#1: Put Your Social Promotion on Repeat. Also, Put Your Social Promotion on Repeat.

Repetition on social media is key, but it looks like the majority of marketers are holding back. Less than half of those surveyed posted the same blog post link more than twice on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Pinterest. Most marketers are posting to Twitter more than twice, but that platform is the outlier. Photo Credit: Outreach Plus It’s important to remember two key points about every social media site:

1. Your post’s organic amplification is heavily throttled.
2. Your audience’s feeds are full and move fast.

So, don’t be shy about posting your content more than once. You’re not going to overload your audience. Odds are they didn’t see the first one, for either of the reasons mentioned above. Do some testing to figure out the right cadence for reposting on each channel. In addition, vary your text and creative each time. But definitely start thinking beyond a one-and-done. Repetition on social media is key. [bctt tweet="When it comes to promoting your blog content on #socialmedia, repetition is key. Also, repetition is key. - @NiteWrites #ContentPromotion" username="toprank"]

#2: Explore More Paid Channels

The survey also shows that marketers could stand to explore more paid promotion options. Sixty-three percent said they promote some posts on Facebook, while only 29% said they used Google Ads. Less than 2% said they used promoted tweets or LinkedIn ads. Our experience as an agency has shown it’s wise to at least test on every channel. The results might surprise you. For B2B, LinkedIn* is one to bring to the top of the testing list, both through paid ads and as a spot for native-published content. The CPC on LinkedIn can be higher than other channels, but the quality of leads tend to be higher. It’s worth experimenting to see if your most valued audience is there; if you’re B2B, they likely are. But remember, the success of your paid efforts is rooted in your content. The blog content that you promote has to be good, it has to be relevant, and it has to resonate. [bctt tweet="Remember, any blog content that you pay to promote has to be good, it has to be relevant, and it has to resonate. #ContentPromotion" username="toprank"]

#3: Invest in Email

Some 39% of marketers surveyed promote every blog post to their email list. A whopping 22% either don’t have a list or don’t ever use it to promote content, while 39% promote sometimes. In other words, the majority of marketers are missing out. Email marketing is the Helen Mirren of marketing tactics. Yes, it’s older than most of our other tactics, but it’s somehow better than it was even a decade ago. via GIPHY Every marketer with blog content to promote should be building a subscriber list and serving it great, preferably personalized, content. As social media gets more and more stingy about letting you talk to your audience, that subscriber list is crucial. Focus on converting your traffic to subscribers; get them opted-in, invested, and onto your blog.

#4: Get Proactive with Outreach

Nineteen percent of marketers said they never reach out to people or websites mentioned in a post. Repetition is key, so let me type that again, bold it, and italicize it. I’m in awe of the fact that one-fifth of marketers are missing so big of an opportunity. Nineteen percent of marketers said they NEVER reach out to people or websites mentioned in a post. In addition, 41% said they only outreach sometimes. That leaves only 41% who are doing their due diligence with outreach. First, you need to mention people and websites in your post. Use them for third-party verification, credibility, and to highlight the contributions they’re making in your industry. Use inspiring quotes you’ve curated from thought leaders. Maybe, I don’t know, write a blog post about an insightful industry report someone did. ? Once your content goes live, let those people know. You’re paying them a compliment, helping promote their work, and showcasing their expertise. Of course they’ll want to know about your content. Not only might they help promote the post, you might also be starting a relationship that leads to an opportunity to co-create content with an influencer.

#5: Measure & Optimize

Here’s another statistic that should give you a stomachache: 10% of marketers are not tracking their promotion efforts at all. Not even the most cursory glance at Google Analytics. That’s right, one in 10 marketers has no idea how their content is doing. The majority of marketers are only looking at top-level metrics like traffic and social media shares to determine effectiveness. Photo Credit: Outreach Plus There is some value in these so-called “vanity metrics,” especially compared to not tracking at all. But there’s far more value to be had from measuring against meaningful KPIs and optimizing over time. Measure your influencer shares. Use tracking URLs to measure how each influencer’s shares perform. Measure shares from different platforms. Compare paid versus organic. Go deeper than traffic and measure the signals that affect your search engine ranking, like time on page and bounce rate. Measure and report, but don’t stop there. Optimize your blog content that’s not meeting your KPIs. Is the bounce rate high? Adjust your title and meta description to more accurately describe the post. Time on page low? Front-load your content with the good stuff, add a mid-piece CTA, and make sure it’s optimized to pull readers through to the end. Measurement and optimization are not optional. For our team, they’re one of the most critical parts of the process. We want to continually sharpen our marketing, honing in on the combination of tactics, channels, content and audience that gets the best results. Without measurement — and measuring the right things — that kind of improvement is impossible. [bctt tweet="Measure and report, but don’t stop there. Optimize your blog content that’s not meeting your KPIs. - @NiteWrites #ContentPromotion #Blogging" username="toprank"]

Maximize the Potential of Your Blog Content

Despite the content crunch, your organization’s blog is still a valuable place to engage potential customers. But it’s not enough to write great stuff and call it a day. If you’re doing it right, you will likely spend more time amplifying a post than you did writing it. That’s as it should be. With the right promotion, one piece of content can do the work of 10 unamplified posts, educating your audience, building thought leadership, and nurturing prospects throughout their buying journey. Need more ways to make sure your content gets seen? Check out these 50 content promotion tactics from a content marketing master. *Disclosure: LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.

The post Is Anybody Out There? How to Get More Eyes On Your Blog Content appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/09/is-anybody-out-there-how-to-get-more.html

How to Boost Your Content Marketing Efforts By Planning Ahead

They say two heads are better than one, but we say the more the merrier — especially when it comes to bringing you actionable tips and insights to fuel your digital marketing efforts. That's why we're proud to announce our “Collective Wisdom” series. Throughout the series, we'll be bringing you insights, tips, and perspectives from some of the top marketing minds to help guide your content marketing strategy. With each entry, you’ll quickly learn proven methods, taking you from the very beginning of the content planning cycle to post-publication amplification and optimization. Where should we start? At the beginning, of course. In this piece, we explore the crucial planning stage that essential for content marketing success.

Planning Your Content — Get A Jump Ahead By Stepping Back

Having a solid plan in place is the foundation of any successful content marketing journey. There are several considerations you'll want to consider before jumping into creation, helping ensure that you have a well-thought-out and meaningful plan from beginning to end already in place. via GIPHY

Tactic 1: Commit to Having a Plan

As the old saying goes, "A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step." For marketers, that single, first step is committing to developing and documenting your content editorial plan, even if it's not super sophisticated to begin with. Unfortunately, some digital marketers often skip this step entirely. And with 32% of marketers staying organized is a top content planning challenge. Documenting a content plan that you can consistently refer back to will most certainly help. If you don't know where to start, start with reading the DivvyHQ and TopRank Marketing report, which features marketers Michael Brenner, Tamsen Webster, Carla Johnson, Robert Rose, and others sharing methods for creating proper content calendars and involving team members in the content planning process.

Tactic 2: Build and Ask a List of Sharers Before Publication

You know that once you release your content into the wild, you need to promote it. But do you spend time upfront locking down who could help you spread the word? If not, the upfront effort is worth it. You'll have a key next step built in your process, rather than scrambling last minute. Building a list of target sharers is a two-step process: 1) Reviewing your known contacts 2) Researching and qualifying others who would find your content relevant and share-worthy. When it comes to researching newbies to add to your list, EmailField’s Aman Thakur likes to use BuzzSumo to discover people who have a history of sharing content similar to what you plan to publish, by searching for keywords related to your piece. Thakur then recommends looking for relevant BuzzSumo articles that have over 200 or so Twitter shares, filtering the list by people, and exporting them to your sharer-contact spreadsheet or document, a technique he outlined for CMI. Moz contributor Isla McKetta is a fan of using Followerwonk to search through Twitter profile biographies to help build a list of influencers in your niche who may be well-suited to sharing your content, as she details in the Moz guide to content marketing.

Tactic 3: Plan Post Reuse In Advance

Actionable Marketing Guide’s Chief Content Officer Heidi Cohen takes the time to plan out content reuse and even the creation of ancillary works. She suggests:

When you write your post, craft related, tailored pieces at the same time. Present a different aspect of the same topic with each piece. Write two complete posts rather than having a single post in two parts.

Consider where your content will be most likely to fill the needs of those viewing it, and how that will best work when it comes time to reuse and rework your initial messaging. Doing this in the planning stage can both save time in the long run, and ensure that content reuse is done in a well-thought-out manner, instead of possibly being forgotten altogether. Cohen and others recommend fashioning a measured pace for doling out new versions of your initial content over time, each incorporating a new element or perspective on your original content, or perhaps using updated statistical data, all the while considering where new audiences for your work may exist. Our own Caitlin Burgess also explores the advantages of experimentation and the role of creativity when planning content reuse, in her helpful "A Tasty, Strategic Addition to the Content Marketing Table: ‘Repurposed Content Cobbler’."

"If there’s one thing that every content marketer has in spades, it’s a fully stocked content pantry," she says. "From white papers and eBooks to blog posts and original or third-party research, all of that robust and niche content has the potential to be sliced, diced, and repurposed into something new and fresh."

Tactic 4: Use Target Audience Personas to Supercharge Your Content Calendar

Understanding the pain points, needs, and attitudes of your target audience is critical if you want to develop a content strategy that wholly resonates. After all, how can you be the best answer for your audience if you don’t understand what questions they’re asking or what problems they’re trying to solve. Social Media Today Community Manager Emma Wiltshire knows how important it is to create marketing personas well before launching content. Knowing the search queries you want to show up for and how they align with the needs of your target audience should be fully understood before you begin creating new content.

Tactic 5: Find Your Best Distribution Options

Savvy marketers understand that the job has scarcely begun once they've hit publish on a piece of content, and recognize that amplification is crucial. Those who don't build distribution and sharing into the planning process risk losing out on a key element in the planning cycle. As Cathy McPhillips, Vice President of Marketing at Content Marketing Institute (CMI), said:

"You spend so much time creating epic content, so why not spend that same amount of time coming up with a plan for distribution and promotion? It can be a down and dirty spreadsheet — fill in dates, audience, messaging, and what you’re trying to achieve."

But where should you plan to share your content? Heidi Cohen also recognizes the advantages of finding the best distribution options for your content, and the time to make these decisions is before content has been completed. Owned, social, and third-party media all have specific uses, and finding out whether your campaign is best suited to using just one or all three is an important step in the content planning process, outlined nicely by Cohen in her “60+ Ways To Maximize Your Content Distribution” guide. Weigh the value of each publishing platform and channel, and when you’ve chosen those best-suited to your content, it’s helpful to document the plan and share it with all your team-members, so everyone knows what’s expected, including which key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics will be used throughout the lifetime of the campaign to reach your goals.

Don't Just Wish — Gain A Major Advantage By Planning Ahead

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said: "It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan." Take her famous advice to heart, and focus your wishes and goals into creating an actionable content plan. By taking the time to follow these steps — documenting your plan, building a sharer list, incorporating reuse ahead of time, using audience personas, and finding your best distribution options — you'll gain a major advantage over those who skip over some or all of the planning stage. When you're confident in your content planning process, you can move on to the crafting and creation portion of your campaign, and we'll take a closer look at that stage in the next part of our Collective Wisdom series. Stay tuned! Ready to learn more? See Lee Odden present the latest best-answer marketing strategies at Pubcon Las Vegas 2018 on October 16 - 18, and MarketingProfs' B2B Marketing Forum in San Francisco on November 13 - 16, where Ashley Zeckman will also be sharing her digital marketing insight.

The post How to Boost Your Content Marketing Efforts By Planning Ahead appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2018/09/how-to-boost-your-content-marketing.html