Defining The Causes Of Content Penalties In Search

Do you know the different types of penalties associated with onsite content? With so many potential issues arising from content, it’s worth looking at each type of penalty, be it algorithmic or manual. This post is designed to give you a better understand of how each type of content issue could affect your site’s rankings.

Not so long ago, Content was created by some websites in every way imaginable. Some of this content was useful to users, but a substantial proportion was irrelevant, scraped or just pure nonsense designed to help sites rank for keywords.

The web was becoming populated with worthless spam largely in response to the way search engine algorithms were ranking websites. Since 2011, Google has been addressing this issue by producing a range of algorithmic and human reviewed manual penalties and analysis to help keep the search results clean. The most notable content algorithmic penalty is known as Google Panda and it is regularly updated by the Google Web Spam team.

One of the most common areas of confusion with content penalties is understanding what constitutes as duplicate, spam or manipulative. Once a Webmaster or site owner is aware of how their content will be perceived by Google, they can begin to detect whether they have issues that is losing traffic or could even result in a penalty leading to a huge drop in visibility of the site in search results. This post examines the different classifications of low quality content and the potential risk that they pose to a website.

Duplicate Content

Penalty Risk: Low

Search Visibility Risk: Medium

Duplicate content is text and images that appear on more than one page, either caused by site design, dynamically by a CMS system, product descriptions or by copying content from another website.

Google has regularly stated that duplicate content will not result in penalisation, such as this comment from Matt Cutts via SEL. This means that as long as the site isn’t completely copied from another site or as long as there isn’t a significant proportion of articles that have been taken from other websites, the site is unlikely to be at risk of an algorithmic or manual penalty.

That said, the issue of duplicate content should not be ignored as it can result in key pages not appearing in searches especially if the content is duplicated on a website that is judged to have more authority or another page on your site that Google identifies as more relevant.

One of the biggest sources of duplicate content comes from product descriptions on E-Commerce websites, although this is very unlikely to result in a penalty, a page with a duplicate description may be “filtered” out of search results with more established sites ranking which would naturally reduce the traffic to the duplicate page.

Thin Content

Penalty Risk: Medium

Search Visibility Risk: Medium

Algorithmic/Manual: Both

Site-wide or Section (Partial) Based: Both

Thin Content is where a URL exists on a website that contains almost no content or very little content that doesn’t “add value” to a user. Google believes that users don’t want to see empty pages and to a certain extent, this is usually true as they don’t provide the detailed information that the user is most probably looking to find.

A site with a large proportion of thin content pages are most likely to suffer from an algorithmic penalty such as Panda, which is based on analysing content quality using automated analysis of a site. Google has suggested a few pages of thin content could impact traffic to a site. Manual penalties are unlikely to be given unless the page is deemed by Google to exist to manipulate the search results through doorway or template pages.

Doorway, Template & Automated Content

Penalty Risk: High

Search Visibility Risk: High

Algorithmic/Manual: Both

Site-wide or Section (Partial) Based: Both

Doorway, template & automated pages tend to contain generic content that is replicated across multiple URLs but with minor changes such as a place name, product name or keywords that are designed to rank for specific search queries.

Recently Google announced a crackdown on doorway pages and introduced a “ranking adjustment” (Google Webmasters Blog) that it claims would reduce the visibility of pages that were made clearly just to rank for certain terms.

The images below are a prime example of pages that appear to have been created to manipulate search results; the information provides no real value and location specific pages without the service being specific to each location or the company having separate business locations for London or Manchester.

Scraped Content

Penalty Risk: High

Search Visibility Risk: High

Algorithmic/Manual: Both

Site-wide or Section (Partial) Based: Both

Scraped content is text or even a complete website that has been copied almost word for word from another source. This exists largely as a legacy of previous search algorithms that benefited sites that had more pages with a lot of content on and didn’t necessarily consider it may have been taken from a more reputable website.

As well as being arguably illegal, it is not going to be useful for web users to see multiple websites showing the same content.

If Google identifies this as an attempt to improve rankings, it would be probable that the site would receive a site-wide manual penalty. Even if there is no intent to improve rankings, the algorithm still may identify the site as providing low quality, duplicate content that doesn’t provide value and therefore search visibility would decline.

Avoiding Penalties

It’s important to determine which type of content issue your site faces to identify the real risk that it could cause and the damage it may already be doing to your traffic levels for individual sections or across the entire site. Search engines are always keen to reinforce that blocking duplicate pages through robots.txt is not the best solution to resolving these issues. Instead, where possible, they should be fixed at source by removing low quality content pages & ensuring that dynamic duplication is avoided wherever possible.

For more information on how your site’s rankings may be affected by onsite content issues, speak to Koozai today.

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12 Add-Ons When Setting Up Google Analytics

Google Analytics is useful, and it’s free, but getting the most out of this tool can be enhanced with the following tips.

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5 PPC Tips from ClickZ Live Toronto

To have the best possible PPC campaigns, Finhas Jhaveri of Allstate Insurance recommmends paying equal attention to branded and generic keywords and thinking in terms of different devices.

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15 Creative Ways To Optimize Your Facebook Ads Using Custom Audiences

One of the most effective ways to grow your business in today’s world is reaching the exact right people at the right time on the right devices using laser-targeted Facebook advertising.

BUT, Facebook ads have gotten really complex for most busy business owners to understand and properly optimize.

Our featured post this week showcases 15 fabulous ways you can make best use of what are called “Custom Audiences” on Facebook. Once you know how, it gets easier and easier to create the right audience segments (and similar people!) so you can expand your reach and conversions.

The blog version of this week’s edition of THE SOCIAL SCOOP weekly newsletter follows below! If you’re already subscribed, you’ll continue to receive The Social Scoop via email on Fridays. If you’re not yet signed up and would like to be, please enter your name and email in the box to the right (desktop) or below the post (mobile). Thank you!

Mari’s Top Social Media Picks – June 26, 2015
Issue #155

Greetings! Please enjoy this week’s top articles we’ve hand-picked for you!

1. 15 Ways to Use Facebook Custom Audiences

via StateOfDigital.com

If you’re not using this feature in your Facebook ads yet, you’re missing out on so much opportunity! Check out these 15 fabulous suggestions including, #2 – Email list targeting (e.g. reach subscribers who are not opening your emails), #7 – Exclude buyers or prospects who’ve already signed up for something on your list, #9 – Offer an upsell to your existing customers, and #15 – Reach an audience that is similar to your Facebook fans, email list, buyers, or website visitors.

Are you making best use of Facebook’s Custom Audience feature to optimize your ads? This excellent post by State of…

Posted by Mari Smith on Wednesday, June 24, 2015

2. Facebook Adds Authorship Tag – Bloggers, Take Note!

via TheSocialMediaHat.com

Exciting news! While Google (Plus) took away this feature recently, Facebook is now adding it. What Facebook Authorship means is any time your articles are shared on Facebook, the post will also have a Like button for your fan page OR a Follow button for your personal profile (if you have the follow feature enabled). This could be a great way to pick up more fans or followers. Just add one line of code in the header tag of your site to implement the Author Tag site-wide.

Very cool! You can now add Facebook Authorship to your blog posts! What this means is any time your articles are shared…

Posted by Mari Smith on Monday, June 22, 2015

3. 7 Things Customers Want to See on Your About Page

via Business2Community.com

The about page is one of the first things prospective clients visit on your website. It can really help (or not) in getting new business. Showing your brand’s personality is one part of a successful ‘About’ page and so are the seven things listed in this article. Check it out and see if yours could use some sprucing up!

7 Things Customers Want to See on Your About Page http://t.co/jhObIdsxM1 via @b2community | This is good!

— Mari Smith (@MariSmith) June 16, 2015

That’s a wrap for this week’s issue of The Social Scoop. Here’s wishing you a fabulous summer weekend and a super enjoyable week ahead.

Cheers!

Mari

P.S. Due to popular demand, my awesome friend and course leader extraordinaire, Jeanine Blackwell, is leading her Create 6-Figure Courses Virtual Bootcamp again! Starts June 30th. Find out more here. [Sponsored]

The post 15 Creative Ways To Optimize Your Facebook Ads Using Custom Audiences appeared first on MariSmith.com.

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The 5 Biggest Don’ts of Paid Search

With PPC, there are many things that marketers must remind themselves not to do.

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How to Double Your CTR with a Scientific AdWords Ad Copy A/B Test

How do you to conduct a scientific ad copy A/B test for AdWords and make sure that your test results are statistically significant?

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Measuring The Impact Of Google’s Mobile Update – Mobilegeddon

April 21st 2015 saw a landmark moment for mobile users of the search giant, Google. On this day, a significant update to their algorithm was designed to boost mobile friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results. But what were the effects to businesses around the world?

Mobilegeddon, as it has become known, was predicted to have a big impact on businesses who found themselves unprepared for their websites to be mobile-optimised i.e. ranking well when searched for on mobile devices. Was this true, have businesses found the update more Mobilegeddon and less mobile-heaven? Let’s take a look.

Surveying 4,600 SMEs across the UK (1,000), USA (2,000), Canada (800) and Australia (800), Koozai wanted to find out just how much online businesses have been affected by Mobilegeddon – which highlighted some interesting results.

The inconsistency and unpredictability of Google’s algorithm update has caused concern and confusion amongst businesses. However, not everyone has felt similar effects.

Overhyped, Incorrect and Unhelpful

As indicated in the graph, across the four surveyed countries, over two thirds of SMEs found that the mobile update, and more accurately the notion of Mobilegeddon was not all that it was hyped up to be. This feeling was felt the most, 76%, from UK businesses, and the least, 64%, from Australian businesses.

Effect on Rankings

Whilst the notion of Mobilegeddon may have seemed overhyped by most SMEs across the globe, its effects were still very real – and did indeed have an impact on both rankings and traffic. The graph below indicates how severe these effects have been.

Between 37% (in Canada) and 46% (in USA) of SMEs experienced changes in rankings as a result of the mobile update. Additionally, of those who had experienced changes, a large number were concerned they had seen a drop in rankings of at least three places, and as a result had experienced a drop in traffic, as much as 50% in some cases.

Most worryingly was the percentage of sites that had experienced a drop in rankings even with their site optimised for mobile – between 19% (in Canada) and 27% (in USA).

A SME owner from the USA remarked:

I had my website optimised for mobile months before this update. Before the update I was at the top of Google for some keywords on mobile search. Now I’m three or four places, below websites which aren’t showing the ‘mobile-friendly’ tag!

Stephen Bennet, Director at Stop Procrastinating APP spoke of his dismay at the effect:

Google had warned they were updating for mobile and there were mobilegeddon warnings. However these were aimed at ensuring websites like mine were updated to being mobile friendly, which it was. So I had taken on the warning and so didn’t expect that the update would impact my company. It seems odd that you take the advice from Google, implement it and have a worse experience.

Effect on Sales

Whilst SMEs across the globe have felt some impact on rankings, how does this compare to sales? Well there’s concern across businesses, but also confusion.

As you can see from the graph above most SMEs were unsure about the role mobile played in the user’s final purchase on a desktop. This is a significant percentage, between 49% (in the USA and Canada) and 61% (in Australia); which highlights the shortcomings businesses are facing when tracking sales online, especially across multiple devices.

Even though between 41% (in Australia) and 45% (in the UK) of those surveyed revealed they weren’t worried as their sales come from desktops, a good proportion of businesses were concerned about the impact of Mobilegeddon on sales – 32%, 36% and 37% of businesses in the UK, Canada and Australia and USA, respectively.

Stephen Bennet, Director at Stop Procrastinating App explained how this affected his site:

I realised something was wrong a week after the update was supposed to have been release. I noticed a significant fall in sales and tried to find out what was going on. I discovered that the traffic going to my website from Google searches had literally dropped by 50%. I saw that my website had dropped in the Google rankings and as a result I was not getting as much traffic. I was very angry as I had done everything that Google had told me to do.

Most businesses these days get customers from Internet searches. People look for keywords. In my case, say they will look up ‘website blocker’ or ‘productivity app’ and they will find my website. If my website doesn’t appear on the first page it means I will get very few potential customers visiting the site and few sales, so the impact of my website dropping in search results was dramatic and immediate. If you’re number 1 in Google search you’ll receive about 35% of people searching for that keyword. Then 12% for number two spot and it descends quite rapidly after that, with position 6 only getting 4% of visitors.

Optimised or Not?

Finally, a significant percentage of businesses surveyed admitted that they did not know if their sites were even optimised for mobile; between 12% (in the USA) and 17% (in Canada and Australia).

If your business is unsure as to whether your website is optimised for mobile, speak to Koozai today for a friendly chat – and discover the hidden potential of your online business.

Summing Up

The hype that the Google mobile update would cause carnage in the search engine rankings missed the larger picture. Exaggerating the impact meant that businesses didn’t anticipate that even small changes in their ranking can have a big impact on their organic mobile search results.

The survey reveals inconsistent effects are being felt by businesses, which has resulted in confusion and concern. When a business has optimised for mobile then drops three places, it’s understandable that they feel angry that they have acted on Google’s warnings and yet have still experienced a negative impact.

With more than 200 Google ranking factors, many businesses may have dropped in the organic search results when a competitor optimised for mobile because they were better optimised for some of these other ranking factors.

The survey also uncovered a worrying lack of understanding in the SME community of ecommerce analytics. Many consumers today will research on mobile then go onto purchase on desktop. Many SMEs are missing out on these lead creation opportunities if they don’t know whether their ecommerce sites aren’t giving their potential customers a good experience on mobile.

For more information about our survey and media requests, please contact pr@nullkoozai.com.

Alternatively, if you’d like to discuss the effect of Google’s mobile algorithm update on your website, speak to us today.

The post Measuring The Impact Of Google’s Mobile Update – Mobilegeddon appeared first on Koozai.com

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Top Facebook Business Page Mistakes

This is the transcript from our new video so it may not read as well as a normal blog post would.

Hi there. Many businesses are feeling overwhelmed by the constant changes on Facebook and are finding it challenging to properly reach their fans. If this is you, then don’t worry. You’re not alone. Today I’ll be talking you through the Facebook business page mistakes, top five.

Number one, ignoring comments from your fans. Customers are posting a lot to Facebook business pages when they want to communicate with a brand. Whether this is a complaint, a negative comment, a question, or a positive comment, you need to be making sure that you’re responding to them. Remember, don’t argue with your fans or delete negative comments, otherwise this will come back and bite you. Unless it’s a spammer, of course. You need to be deleting those spam comments.

Number two, overuse of promotional posts. Time after time I see companies overpromoting themselves, especially e-commerce companies pushing out their products. The Facebook algorithm actually changed in January 2015, to reduce the amount your promotional posts are shown. So if your Facebook strategy is based purely on pushing out promotional posts, then you really need to review this and mix up your content.

Posting too often or seldom. Posting too often can really frustrate your target audience and may cause them to actually unlike your page. And vice versa, if you’re not posting enough, then your customers will just forget about your existence online. The recommended amount of times to actually post is about once a day.

Number four, not creating differentiation. Are you articulating what sets your business apart from your competitors? If not, why not? Most people tend to use a tactic called Me Too Marketing, which is where they will mimic their competitors’ posts. Whilst this might work in the short term, you really need to be thinking about long term on how to set yourself apart from your competitors, whether it’s pushing out your USP or just mixing up that content.

Number five, using only the Boost button for paid advertising. Facebook really does encourage you to use the Boost button at every opportunity, and it can be very addictive to use. It’s very good to amplify your content that has done well, but it does have its limitations. Always take into consideration the Ads Manager and Power Editor tool, which gives you the options of that granular targeting, placement and bidding, which may help to promote your content a whole lot better. So think about your Facebook strategy in terms of paid posts before you hit that Boost button.

So there we have it. Those are my top five Facebook business page mistakes. Not every Facebook mistake will be fatal, but most can cause a loss of momentum or opportunity.

So thanks for watching. For more information, please visit Koozai.com or visit any of the social profiles at the end of this video.

The post Top Facebook Business Page Mistakes appeared first on Koozai.com

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6 Ways To Minimise Wasted Crawl Budget

‘Crawl Budget’; you’ve probably heard the phrase many times, but what is it and what does it mean? The Internet is an ever expanding resource for information and as much as Google would love to be able to crawl every piece of content that exists on it, this is somewhat impossible. As such, domains are assigned a crawl budget – something you must to consider for your SEO campaigns.

It’s important to Google (and other search engines alike) to crawl and index ‘the good stuff’ on the Internet and so to ensure they’re doing this whilst making the most of their limited resources, they allocate each domain a certain amount of crawl budget.

The crawl budget assigned to a domain is how much time they (the search engines) spend crawling a domain each day. This budget varies from domain to domain as it is based on a huge number of factors including the authority and trust of a website, how often it’s updated and much more.

Make The Most Of Your Budget

So, as Google allocates your website a finite crawl budget, isn’t it a good idea to ensure they’re able to search your website efficiently? Well, of course.

It’s important that Google (and in turn users) are able to navigate around your site with ease. This increases the likelihood of Google being able to crawl those important pages on your website and improves the experience for users on your website.

There are a number of common errors found across many websites that can really waste crawl budget. I have highlighted 6 of those and ways you can ensure the wastage of your allocated crawl budget is minimal.

1. Internal And External Linking Issues

There are a number of errors to be aware of when it comes to internal and external linking issues. It goes without saying that if Google and other search engines crawl your website and are met with continual link errors, valuable crawl budget is being wasted. Below are two types of linking issues every webmaster should be aware of:

Internal Redirects

As a rule of thumb, redirects should be 301 redirects wherever possible (as opposed to 302) in order to flow ‘link juice’ through to the new page. If 301 redirects are linked to internally, the links should instead point directly to the live source, not through a redirect, as crawlers that flow through the link have to take more time to get to the destination page. This is wasting valuable crawl budget and means search engines spend less time looking at live pages that you want them to crawl.

Whilst reviewing internal redirects, you also want to ensure no redirect chains or loops exist on your website as this makes it a lot more difficult for both users and crawlers to access pages on your website. There are a number of desktop SEO spider tool programmes available that help to identify technical issues including those discussed, such as Screaming Frog.

Broken Links

It is of course important to ensure no broken links exist on your website, not only is this detrimental to a user’s experience on your site, but it also makes it very difficult for crawlers to navigate around your website. If a crawler can’t get to a page, they can’t index it. It’s important that regular link checks are undertaken across a website to ensure any broken links are fixed as soon as they are discovered, regular checks can be done using a variety of tools, such as Google’s Search Console and Screaming Frog.

2. Internal Linking Structure

Meaningful and user-friendly internal linking helps to pass link value and keyword relevancy around your website whilst also allowing users and robots to navigate through your pages. By not ensuring internal links are used where relevant, you’re missing an opportunity to channel users and robots through your site and build keyword relevancy through natural use of keyword anchor text.

By ensuring proper interlinking is in place and pages are linked to where relevant, you’re making the most of the crawl budget that has been allocated to your website, vastly improving site crawlability.

3. Page Speed

Page speed is an important factor for improving site crawlability. Not only is this an important ranking factor, it can also determine whether or not those all-important pages on your website get seen by search engines.

Albeit common sense, the faster a website is at loading, the more time crawlers can spend crawling different pages on your website. Along with increasing the amount of pages that get crawled, improved page speed also provides the user with a greater experience on your website (winning all around). So make sure time is spent improving the speed of your website if not for site crawlability, for the user!

Useful tools for checking your site speed include Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool, Pingdom and Web Page Test.

4. Robots.txt

Blocking

If correctly used, a robots.txt can increase the crawl rate of your website; however it can quite often be used incorrectly and if done so, can greatly affect the crawlability and indexation of your website.

When blocking pages via robots.txt you’re telling a crawler not to access the page or index it, so it’s important to be certain that the pages being blocked do not need to be crawled and indexed. The best way to determine this is by asking yourself; would I want my audience to see this page from search engine results pages?

By efficiently instructing crawlers to not crawl certain pages on your website, crawlers are able to spend their crawl budget navigating pages that are important to you.

Sitemap

As the robots.txt file is one of the first places a crawler looks when first going to a website, it is best practice to use this to direct search engines to your sitemap. This makes it easier for crawlers to index the whole site.

5. URL Parameters

URL parameters are often a major cause of wasted crawl budget, especially with ecommerce websites. In the Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools), you’re offered the easiest way to indicate to Google how to handle parameters in URLs found across your website.

Before using the ‘URL Parameter’ feature, it’s important to understand how parameters work as you could end up excluding important pages from crawl. Google provide a handy resource to learn about this, find out more here.

6. XML and HTML Sitemap

Sitemaps are used by both users and search engines to discover important pages around your website. An XML Sitemap is specifically used by search engines; this is used as to help crawlers discover new pages across your website.

HTML Sitemaps are used by both users and search engines and are again useful in helping crawlers find pages across your site. As Matt Cutts discusses in the video below, it is best practice to have both an XML and HTML Sitemap in place on your website.

Final Thoughts

It is clear that there are a number of ways a website can make the most of the crawl budget it has been allocated. Making it easy for a crawler to navigate your site ensures that your important pages are being seen, by following the 6 tips I have provided, you will be greatly improving your website’s crawlability.

Have any more tips on improving site crawlability? I’d love to hear them, leave a comment below or contact me via Twitter @Koozai_Luke

For more information on site crawlability, contact us today.

The post 6 Ways To Minimise Wasted Crawl Budget appeared first on Koozai.com

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Facebook Dark Posts: What Are They And Why Use Them?

The technical term for a Facebook “dark post” is an “unpublished post.” But, neither term indicates clearly what it is!

Every day in your Facebook News Feed – on both mobile or desktop – you are seeing these very things called dark posts! They are PAID content from businesses that look like a wall post on a fan page… yet they do not appear on the page’s wall. They only appear in the News Feed as paid content (with that wee label of ‘Sponsored.’)

The posts are mostly link posts. But they could be the new “Carousel” posts with up to 5 images.

3 Ways Facebook Carousel Link Ad Spending is Evolving http://t.co/r7HQ3yhTPz via @nanigans | Interesting!

— Mari Smith (@MariSmith) June 15, 2015

Or, my new favorite – VIDEO posts (ads). Here’s a Facebook video I made regarding Carousel ads.  

Facebook recently announced the release of “carousel link ads” for MOBILE APP ads. The carousel format was first launched in June last year, and since then advertisers have seen these type of ads drive 30-50% lower cost-per-conversion and 20-30% lower cost-per-click than single-image link ads. NICE! Given this success, Facebook is now extending the ad format to mobile app ads. So, all ye app developers, take a look. (And, for all other peeps, definitely check out carousel ads available in both Ads Manager and Power Editor). See the official Facebook announcement here:http://ift.tt/1ISXtO2, this post on StitcherAds explains the 3 types of Facebook Mobile App Ads:http://ift.tt/1L5LtLi App Install Ads* Engagement/Retargeting App Ads* New Carousel App Ad********NEED HELP WITH YOUR FACEBOOK AD PERFORMANCE? I’d love to work with you in my brand new online training course, just released! Facebook Business Breakthroughs – save $200 when you sign up by May 22nd! VIP level gets you 1:1 Facebook Ads support with results guaranteed. –> http://ift.tt/1ISXwZW #FacebookMobile #FacebookApps #MobileApps

Posted by Mari Smith on Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Dark posts are really rather genius and highly effective in reaching more of your target market, using granular targeting in Facebook’s Ads Manager or Power Editor for more advanced peeps.

Our featured article this week is penned by Mike Bird, co-founder of digital marketing agency Social Garden in Australia… the article is a guest post on social strategist, Katie Lance‘s website. Definitely worth the read.

The blog version of this week’s edition of THE SOCIAL SCOOP weekly newsletter follows below! If you’re already subscribed, you’ll continue to receive The Social Scoop via email on Fridays. If you’re not yet signed up and would like to be, please enter your name and email in the box to the right (desktop) or below the post (mobile). Thank you!

Mari’s Top Social Media Picks – June 19, 2015 Issue #154

Greetings! Please enjoy this week’s top articles we’ve hand-picked for you!

1. What Are Facebook Dark Posts

via KatieLance.com

Learn one of the secrets of savvy Facebook marketers — place ‘dark’ posts in the News Feed of your fans and other target audiences.

What are Facebook Dark Posts? http://t.co/EJKJ1meNRr via @katielance | So helpful! — Mari Smith (@MariSmith) June 10, 2015

2. How To Write Blog Headlines People Will Actually Click On

via NewsCred.com

“On average 8 out of 10 people will read your headline but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest of your content,” says Copyblogger. This post outlines some of the most important findings in the report Data-Driven Strategies to Increase Engagement by Hubspot and Outbrain.

3. 21 Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make in Instagram Marketing

via MadeFreshly.com

Are you getting the results you’d like on Instagram? Maybe you’re making some of these mistakes. Sometimes the simplest details can make a difference and by changing a few things you can rock your Instagram marketing!

21 Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make in Instagram Marketing http://t.co/ZEkzTyAK3g via @FreshlyRach | Terrific tips!

— Mari Smith (@MariSmith) June 12, 2015

That’s all for this week’s issue of The Social Scoop. Here’s wishing you a wonderful weekend and enjoyable week ahead.

On a personal note, it’s Father’s Day on Sunday! Here’s wishing all the wonderful dads around the world a very special day. I’ll be giving my own father in Scotland a Skype call to connect. He’s 78 and I miss him a lot. So glad we get to visit next month!

Cheers!

Mari

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What Digital Marketers Can Learn From Crowdfunding

More businesses than ever before are turning to crowdfunding to attract investors to their startups. What makes crowdfunding such an attractive option? And what can Digital Marketers learn from this latest online phenomenon? Let’s take a look.

Crowdfunding refers to social lending, peer to peer lending and seed funding. Simply put it’s when individuals pledge money to a company that’s pitching its idea. The financial requirements are made clear for all to see, and once the target is met the money that has been pledged then becomes available to the business.

Why Choose Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding has become part of popular culture. People are no longer purely interested in aesthetic creativity, but also in the interactive element. Crowdfunding uses the Internet to talk to thousands – if not millions – of potential funders.

It gives businesses and entrepreneurs the perfect opportunity to connect with their potential investors. Rather than seeking investments from a few people for a large sum of money, companies are able to reach out to an unlimited number of potential investors for smaller amounts of money. So what can the Digital Marketing industry learn from Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is an effective ways to amplify your business’ message, increase social presence and boost your target audience. By taking the principles used in crowdfunding and using it in their campaigns Digital Marketers can tap into another source of promotion.

Available Platforms

There are various different platforms that businesses can raise funding on. So it’s important to find the right one for your crowdfunding goals and needs. Here are some of the most influential:

Kickstarter is one of the earlier platforms and has experienced strong growth over the years due to its successful campaigns. This platform is best suited to creative projects looking to raise capital through donation-based funding.

Unlike Kickstarter which remains focused on creative projects, Indiegogo approves donation-based campaigns for almost anything – from music and charities, to personal finance and hobbyists. Indiegogo has gained a huge international presence due to its flexible approach to fundraising.

Crowdfunder is best suited for those looking to raise investments, not rewards. It has one of the biggest and fastest growing network of investors of all the platforms. Crowdfunder offers an alternative investment opportunity from the likes of Kickstarter and Indiegogo, giving potential investors the chance to enter a more formal arrangement.

RocketHub is a donation-based platform serving a variety of creative projects. The company’s FuelPad and LaunchPad programs help campaigners connect with potential advertisers and marketers and collaborate for the success of a campaign.

Crowdrise is a great platform for donation-based funding for causes and charity. They have established a large network of fundraisers looking for the next big cause to back. Their unique Points System tracks and displays how much impact members and organisations are making through their donations.

5 Crowdfunding Success Stories & Lessons For Digital Marketers

No crowdfunding campaign is the same and that goes for its results too. A great product or service doesn’t guarantee success. Like any online marketing campaign crowdfunding requires time and effort to succeed.

Here’s 5 crowdfunding success stories, showing you how a small idea can capture the imaginations of millions, and the lessons that all of us Digital Marketers can learn.

Form1

Formlabs raised $2.9m in funding back in 2012 to help make their affordable, high-resolution 3D printer for professional creators a reality. It boasted clear serum and the chance to get some hands-on experience with Form1’s supposedly revolutionary software.

What Next?

After the startup’s initial success came the patent row. In late 2012 another 3D printing firm, 3D Systems, sued Formlabs and Kickstarter for patent infringement over the use of stereolithography. Formlabs and 3D Systems were reportedly in settlements talks, which were then later dismissed when 3D Systems went on to sue over eight more patents. The Form 1 remains on sale, and has been commended for its detail, ease of use and quiet operation.

How Can This Help Digital Marketers?

Utilising Digital Marketing techniques Formlabs have turned a negative situation into a positive one. The lesson Digital Marketers can learn from this startup is to involve your audience. They maintain complete transparency with their backers and are extremely active on social media. Formlabs post campaign and product updates on Kickstarter and actively participate in online conversations with their backers. This has helped to establish a network of advocates, and created an active online community supporting the startup.

Pebble

Pebble raised $10.3m in for their “E-Paper Watch” in 2012 from 68,929 backers, making it the most popular, and most financially successful Kickstarter campaign ever. It’s what most people would describe now as a smartwatch, a category that’s now booming. But back then it was ahead of the curve, hence the spike in investor interest. It promised to be customisable with apps and notifications for compatible smartphones and fitness devices.

What Next?

The first Pebble units were due to be sent to backers in September 2012, but the company missed this deadline, not shipping the stock until January 2013. Since then, Pebble has improved the logistical arm of its business, shipping 400,000 units by March 2014. The second-generation model, the Pebble Steel, has been released and the company has launched its own app store for smartwatch apps on both iOS and Android.

How Can This Help Digital Marketers?

Pebble taught fellow startups about the potential delays involved in crowdfunding. The big takeaway from this startup for Digital Marketers is planning. Every eventuality needs to be thought of. Pebble’s downfall was that they hadn’t probably prepared for the influx in interest and then orders they received. Make sure that your Digital Marketing campaign is rock solid and take the time to ask those all-important ‘What if?’ questions. It could mean the difference between success and failure.

Ouya

Console makers Ouya raised $8.6m from 63,416 investors back in 2012 for its new Android-based micro-console. It promised to provide an open, hackable device with an expansive catalogue of indie games, all available in a basic version for free. The idea was to make it more affordable to make and then play games.

What Next?

Ouya struggled to meet its shipping targets. The first consoles left production lines in March 2013, although not all backers got their unit that month, sparking lengthy complaints online. The console was met with mixed reviews. It was simple to set up and as promised came with a variety of games, but the quality was below-par with rival consoles. It took another round of crowdfunding to get the software and gameplay to the standard it needed to be.

How Can This Help Digital Marketers?

Although Ouya launched their product too soon, they did take the time to identify their key audiences to target. Ouya’s onsite blog  hosts a wide range of informative and interactive posts all created with their audience of developers, gamers and tech enthusiasts in mind. From developer guest posts and  quizzes to company updates and videos, Ouya are placing their audience at the heart of their online marketing strategy. This startup demonstrates the need to ensure that your Digital Marketing efforts connect with your key audiences.

 Oculus Rift

Virtual reality startup Oculus Rift raised £2.4m from 9,522 backers in 2012. Its aim was to raise fund for a virtual reality headset for gaming. Targeting developers for funding they promised early access to the Oculas Rift developer kit. The helmet promised to finally deliver on the past hype of virtual reality headsets.

What Next?

The first developer kits were dispatched and developers started hacking the headset to make it work for existing games, in addition to new virtual reality experiences. The buzz around the product increased as time passed, non-more so than when Doom co-creator John Carmack joined the company as chief technology officer. In March 2014, Oculus released the second edition of its developer kit with improved features. Then in a shock move the social network Facebook bought Oculus Rift for $2bn.

How Can This Help Digital Marketers?

Oculus Rift became somewhat overhyped, but it was in the press for all the right reasons, hence Facebooks’ acquisition of the technology. A major contributor to the startups’ success is  no doubt its separate ‘Share‘ domain which encourages its users and developers to share their creation stories and gaming experiences. This startup clearly identifies the importance of utilising storytelling techniques to create that all-important connection with your audience. It also demonstrates the value of user-generated content which is an incredibly cost-effective way to leverage content.

The Dash

Hardware firm Bragi raised an impressive $3.4m back in 2014 thanks to 15,998 backers for its impressive wireless headphones. The small earbuds boasted a built-in 4GB music player and music streaming and voice calls via Bluetooth. The Dash is also a fitness-tracking gadget, recording your steps, pace, distance, heart rate and other vital statistics as you go on with your everyday tasks.

What Next?

The Dash is the 12th most funded project on the Kickstarter platform to date. However, its early bird backers had their orders pushed back two months. The challenge turned out to be a multi-purpose aspect meaning that there was an 8 week delay in delivering The Dash to their developers. The early bird backers weren’t the only ones affected, in the end some orders were delayed well into 2015.

How Can This Help Digital Marketers?

Despite its logistical issues The Dash was so successful because it tapped into a trend that was booming just at the right time. The crowdfunding buzz about the product and Bragi’s social media presence led to The Dash’s rise to prominence. Throughout The Dash’s Kickstarter campaign and beyond Bragi  kept backers up-to-date with all the latest development across all their social media platforms, and this in turn attracted even more backers. From the offset Bragi have clearly demonstrated their USPs and how they plan to shake up the wearable technology industry and that has been a main factor in their success. They created an opportunity for people to be part of something revolutionary and that sparked the imaginations of thousand of backers. This startup highlights the need to amplify the uniqueness of your product and the benefits associated to it.

Key Takeaways

• Utilise storytelling – You need to provide people with a reason to get behind you product or service. A backstory provides the required buy in to connect with your audience.
• Amplify the benefits – No one parts with their cash without first considering what they hope to achieve by doing so. Detail how your idea could positively benefit them.
• Involve your audience – Give your audience a reason to support you. By actively involving them in your campaign they are more likely to purchase your product or service. This can be in the form of a competition or a simple call to action to share your content with an incentive for inviting others to participate.
• Target key influencers – Getting those key influencers behind you is essential to the success of your campaign.
• Structure your campaigns – Comprehensive Digital Marketing planning can transform your strategy into actions that create a successful integrated campaign.

Crowdfunding may be a relatively new platform, but it’s already proved its worth tenfold. I’m excited to see what further developments the future holds; not only for the innovative projects but for the lessons we can learn from crowdfunding for startups. The possibilities are endless.

Let me know your thoughts on crowdfunding for startups. Do you have any good or bad examples to share? Leave a comment below or tweet me @Koozai_Ruth.

For more information about our services, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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The Most Expensive States for Paid Search in the U.S.

Cities like New York and San Francisco tend to be synonymous with expensive, but CPCs are higher in rural areas, particularly Alabama, while the best deals are in the Great Plains.

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Social Media Tips For Boring Industries

This is the transcript from our new video so it may not read as well as a normal blog post would.

Hello. Today I’m going to be talking to you about social media for boring industries. Now, I know that’s a broad statement, but no matter what you do, no industry is boring. Even if you create cat litter or file taxes or manufacture road signs, somewhere, someone out there is going to be interested in your brand, maybe even excited by it. You’ve just got to know what makes your brand special. What makes it stand out?

What are your USPs? Uncovering your unique selling points and understanding them will help you drive social and content marketing campaigns.

Now the important thing to do is explore different platforms to post these campaigns on. Not every social media is suited to every business. LinkedIn, for example, lends itself better to B2B businesses than it does B2C.

Understand where your audience are is an overused and clichéd sentence, but it’s that for a reason. It works and it’s true. If you can engage on the correct platforms and like get involved in communities, maybe on Google+, get involved in groups on LinkedIn, if your audience are on Facebook and Twitter, feel free to engage them on there. But just remember it’s not the be-all and end-all of social. There are others.

Talking of audience, social is a two-way street. Many people use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+ to post reviews, to troubleshoot, or even just to ask questions. You should be there, actively engaging your audience on a day-to-day basis and posting content for them.

The more content and maybe original or from around your industry that you post for your users and the more you help and engage with them, the better your brand will grow, and the more better reputation you’ll build. Now when it comes to posting original and shared content, I like to think of a 70/30 rule. Seventy percent of the content I would post on a branded page can be from around the surrounding industry. Posts that are relevant to your clients, relevant to your customers, but aren’t created by you. Posts that might help them out with problems they’ve been having. If you’re unsure of where you can find these kind of posts, you can use tools like BuzzSumo or Uprise.io to discover top blogs that are sharing content that your users are interested in or users around a particular theme are interested in.

Speaking of those tools, you can also use them to discover key influencers and sharers and people who are pushing out content around topics that you have a vested interest in. If you can engage with and share with these kind of key players, you might be able to offer them exclusive offers or unique content specially personalised to them.

You might be able to create a brand advocate, and with an advocate on your side you can help drive further shares and boost sales.

Whatever your goals, it’s important to remember:  uncover your USPs, explore different social media platforms, engage with your audience, post content, and interact with advocates. With those tips in mind, no matter what kind of industry you’re in, you should be able to drive your social media platform further.

I’ve been Harry Gardiner, and for more information on social media management and brand management, check out the links at the end of this video. Thanks.

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Social Media Marketing For Boring Industries

For many businesses, social media is a joyous playground of interactivity, rich with B2C communication and countless acquisition opportunities. However, hidden away in the dark, damp corners of social are the ‘boring’ brands; those businesses with such niche followings that they feel separated from the idea of a social media strategy. This needn’t be the case – here’s why.

If you’re one of those brands that believes it’s got nothing interesting to say on social, then this post is for you. It’s time to change your outlook, shake off the doubt, and step into the light that is social.

There’s No Such Thing As A Boring Industry

The first thing to understand is that no matter what you may think, every industry is interesting in its own right. No matter if you create cat litter, file taxes or manufacture road signs, somewhere, someone out there will be interested in, possibly even excited by, your brand.

For example, most millennials would probably consider supermarkets ‘boring’, yet brands like Tesco and Asda are absolutely killing it on social media, and have gained a large following because of it.

You’re only boring to those who aren’t in your target market – Harry Gardiner @Koozai_Harry

Tweet this

Even if people aren’t hanging about around the water cooler talking about your business on a daily basis, there are plenty of opportunities to make your brand noteworthy.

Social media is essentially a free public relations platform that allows you to directly target and communicate with your audience, so why on earth wouldn’t you take advantage of this?

So we’ve established that you’re certainly not boring, but that doesn’t mean you’re not invisible. In order to be heard on social you’re going to need to be slightly different from your competitors.

Find Your Hook

What makes your company special? What are your business’s unique selling points?

If you’re currently sat there thinking that there’s nothing particularly special about your brand, then not only do I feel very sorry for you, I’m begging you to think again.

Take a look at the clip above. It’s a scene from the very first episode of Mad Men, in which the advertising legend that is Don Draper helps giant tobacco brand Lucky Strike find their hook.

“It’s toasted” is a slogan that helped Lucky Strike stride beyond their competition, and completely differentiated them from their competitors; despite the fact that toasting is a standard process for most tobacco.

Another great example of this in action is Blendtec and their ‘Will It Blend?’ videos. A blender, at the end of the day, is just a blender, and Blendtec realised this early on. In order to make their brand noteworthy, they thought outside the box (or should that be blender?) and decided to test whether a variety of products will blend.

They filmed themselves blending everything from a tin of spam to the Apple Watch. Not only does this show off the product’s immense capabilities (is there anything it can’t blend?), the videos are also immensely entertaining, resulting in social gold.

The moral of the story? Identify your strengths, wherever they may lay, and translate them into USPs.

Explore Your Audience

Once you’ve uncovered what makes your brand stand out, it’s time to showcase your USPs to your audience.

Don’t have many followers on social media? Don’t panic! Every business has to start somewhere, and yours should begin by sharing relevant content to those that are interested in your brand.

Use tools like Buzzsumo and Uprise.io to find influencers and key sharers within your industry and explore the content your audience is sharing. Use that knowledge to influence what you share, who you’re sharing it to, and what platforms you’re sharing it on.

And that last part is particularly important. Not every brand is active on every social media platform. Certain organisations lend themselves better to particular platforms. For example, brands that rely on slick visuals to sell their products will be better suited to the visual social platforms such as Instagram, Vine, and Pinterest. On the other hand, B2B-based brands may be better suited to using professional platforms such as LinkedIn.

It’s important to know where your audience are most active, and focus on those platforms.

Stand-Out Examples

So you know what makes your brand strong, who’s got a vested interest in your content, and which platforms you’re going to be using; but let’s take a look at how other brands are using this knowledge to implement truly awesome social media campaigns.

Lowes

The idea of trying to remove a stripped screw, or clean a dirty grill, sounds frustrating and dull, yet they’re problems that almost anyone who’s ever attempted DIY has come across before.

DIY-brand Lowes identified several problem areas such as these, and sought to help their customers by providing easily accessible resources. Instead of simply creating a blog post, they decided to take their efforts to social, and apply their DIY know-how to a series of six-second Vines.

These ‘DIY hacks’ are helpful, easily understandable, and mesmerising to look at. They perfectly showcase how a little bit of creativity can go a long way.

Top Tip: Research forums, page visits and related search terms to discover what information your audience is looking for, then provide the answers in creative, helpful ways via social.

Siemens

It can be tough to keep your social pages fresh and interesting, even for a global brand such as Siemens.

However, Siemens succeed where others have failed by not just concentrating the on the pros and cons of their products, but instead focussing on the positive impact that their brand has on the world around it.

We’re all interested in living a quality, healthy life; and Siemens utilises social to showcase how their brand is helping each and every one of us do exactly that. From questioning what the city of the future will look like to highlighting how their research has helped improve businesses, Siemens are a great example of how B2B content doesn’t have to be boring.

Top tip: There’s more to the world than your brand. Use your social platforms to speak about topics that matter to your audience, as well as the benefits your brand can offer.

Post-it

Do me a favour and take a look at these stats real quick:

• 1.5m Facebook followers
• 19.3k Twitter followers
• 11,490 Pinterest followers
• 5,491 Instagram followers

They’re impressive by any brand’s standards, but to think that these stats belong to a stationery brand – that’s pretty amazing.

3M’s amazing social strategy has helped them take a simple sticky piece of paper, and build a loyal following. 3M understand that there’s a lot of creativity behind the use of Post-it Notes, so they’ve harnessed this imagination in their social interactions. From Instagramming quotes of popular fiction novels (on post-it notes, of course), to showcasing colour charts and sharing user generated content in the form of business stories, the Post-it brand has gone from strength-to-strength.

Top Tip: Your fanbase is your biggest asset. Encourage user-generated content to increase engagement and further build a connection to your audience.

Find Out More

You’ve seen how the big boys do it, and hopefully this has inspired your own plans. Now it’s time to take this knowledge and apply it to your social media.

Got any tips you’d like to share? Comment below, or Tweet me @Koozai_Harry.

Still hungry for more information? Visit our blog for all the latest Digital Marketing updates, or download the below whitepaper for an essential guide to using Twitter to grow your business.

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10 Secrets To Making Your Social Media Marketing Much Easier

Managing your social media activities every single day, staying on top of the latest tech trends, and ensuring you get a decent ROI from the time and money you invest can be a great big headache for so many busy business owners, entrepreneurs and social media managers.

Whether you take care of most of your own social media marketing, or you have a team, our featured article this week is an exceptional read.

The author, Katerina Petropoulou at TwitterCounter walks you through ten clear steps that will help you get your social media way more organized, save time and make your life much easier. Love that!

The blog version of this week’s edition of THE SOCIAL SCOOP weekly newsletter follows below! If you’re already subscribed, you’ll continue to receive The Social Scoop via email on Fridays. If you’re not yet signed up and would like to be, please enter your name and email in the box to the right (desktop) or below the post (mobile). Thank you!

Mari’s Top Social Media Picks – June 12, 2015 Issue #153

Greetings! Please do enjoy this week’s top articles we’ve hand-picked for you!

1. 10 Secrets that Will Make Your Life as a Social Media Manager Much Easier

via TwitterCounter.com

More than likely managing your social media is just one of the many things on your to-do list. Check out the tips here to see where you can save time and effort. One of my favorites? Number 4!

10 Secrets That Will Make Your Life Easier as a Social Media Manager http://t.co/CRnby0zioR via @thecounter | So helpful!

— Mari Smith (@MariSmith) June 2, 2015

2. The Best Typography, Colors and Templates Used in the Highest-converting Social Media Images

via BufferApp.com Our brains can identify images seen in as little as 13 milliseconds. In a recent study observing 100 million Facebook updates, BuzzSumo found that updates with images had 2.3x more engagement than those without. But not all visuals are created equal. Find out why people react to certain visuals more than others with this in-depth post.

In a recent study observing 100 million Facebook updates, BuzzSumo found that updates with images had 2.3x more…

Posted by Mari Smith on Tuesday, June 9, 2015

3. 4 Advanced Facebook Advertising Tactics that Need to be a Part of Your Core Strategy

via SocialMediaExplorer.com

In order to achieve consistent results on Facebook, it’s important to set aside a budget for ads and to invest wisely. Along with getting proper help and education, the four tactics described in this article will help you vastly improve your ads strategy.

4 Advanced Facebook Advertising Tactics that Need to be a Part of Your Strategy http://t.co/BRRcJuYD3n via @smxplorer | LIKE! #fbboost

— Mari Smith (@MariSmith) June 4, 2015

That’s a wrap for this week’s issue of The Social Scoop. Here’s wishing you a perfect weekend and productive week ahead.

On a personal note, I’m super duper excited to finalize details of my UK trip next month! My partner and I will be buzzing around England, Scotland and Ireland for two weeks in July. Wowee!! I’m keynoting this mega event in Manchester. Then on to Edinburgh and Dunfermline to visit my dad, two younger sisters and niece/nephews. Ireland plans firming up, stay tuned. See my full calendar of events, travels and speaking — I look forward to meeting many more of my peeps around the world.

Cheers!

Mari

P.S. Did you know? 90% of Fortune 500 brands are not properly optimizing their Facebook marketing and advertising. Yikes. Thing is, Facebook has rapidly evolved into a big challenge for businesses of all sizes, with several major changes to the News Feed in April this year and also last fall. Organic reach is down to 1-6%. Don’t get left behind – stay on the leading edge of Facebook marketing best practices when you attend my newest online training course. I’ll be sharing insider secrets from my own business and directly from Facebook on how to attract more fans, leads, and sales! Save $200 when you register today.

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Why Digital Marketers Should Have Their Own Website

Before I started out in Digital Marketing, I naively assumed that everyone was a web developer and would naturally have super-flashy, well-optimised super-sites boasting all the latest technologies, so I set about trying to imitate them. Whilst I’ve pretty much got nowhere near that standard, I’ve learned a few things along the way.

Experiment

Your website can be your personal playground to learn new skills and improve on existing ones, whether that be technical, written or otherwise.

There’s nothing more fun than messing around with markup, experimenting with CRO techniques, writing about what you know and love, and testing out what Google’s latest algorithm updates do and don’t like without the fear of messing something up on a client account.

It can also be rewarding to see real-time improvements in traffic and rankings for something that is your own, especially when you’re trying out new ideas and getting results.

Apart from improving your skills, testing things for yourself can be great in other ways. Often findings from a successful experiment can form the basis of a great blog post, so its worth tinkering away to find that one bit of gold-dust and exploit it.

We also know that Google doesn’t tell us everything, so take what they say with a pinch of salt, and try things out for yourself.

It’s a Talking Point

This is particularly beneficial if you are new to the industry, or a student/graduate.

Being able to explain how you have optimised your own site and promoted yourself shows you have relevant skills without having had work experience, giving you a bit of an advantage when it comes to job interviews and networking. You’ll always have at least one good case study.

It also proves to potential employers that you’re proactive and enthusiastic.

You could take advantage of your blog to link out to industry figures, and build new relationships that way. It’s a tried a tested conversation starter when it comes to conferences and meetups.

Build Up Your Personal Brand

The world of SEO is full of famous faces and ‘thought leaders’ (eurgh), and should you want to become one of them it’s probably best to start building up your personal brand.

If you’re ever thinking of working in a freelance or consultant capacity, it’s a no-brainer to have somewhere to showcase your work and really sell yourself. Even the site itself will be an example of what you can do, so you may as well go nuts with the design if you’re technically inclined, or have some top class written work if that’s more your thing.

Showing your work on your own site has much more impact that on any Social Media site. You wont be competing with others for visitor attention and there wont be any distracting third-party branding and restrictions.

Most first impressions happen online now, so if you have a particularly impressive track record or great content (or both), you’ll never be out of work.

Remember, in this industry, you can count on getting Googled a fair bit, so take control of what appears and make the best impression possible.

Monetise!

Who doesn’t like free money?

Ok well it’s not exactly free, but if you are getting a decent amount of traffic, why not use it to generate income?

Depending on the subject matter, there are a tonne of ways to make money from your site. I would list them here if Matthew Barby hadn’t already compiled pretty much every conceivable method in a nice PDF. Go and subscribe to his email newsletter too – well worth it.

Display advertising is the simplest method, if its not of detriment to your site’s UX and design. You could whip up an Adsense account in a matter of minutes and start getting a bit of passive pocket money.

Hand-Code Your Site

Probably the most important point I wanted to make is that; should you decide to take the plunge and learn to develop your own site, the skills you can acquire will be really useful day to day.

By no means am I a good web developer, but I’ve learnt enough to understand where my code sucks, and even with just this amount of code knowledge at your disposal, you can start to streamline tasks and identify problems and opportunities quicker.

For example, CMS’s no longer have limitations, as you are able to manually edit the backend files, and the seemingly unlimited potential of API’s becomes unlocked. You’ll lose that apprehension of not wanting to touch something in case you break it.

These kind of benefits may seem trivial, but it can save a lot of time and hassle going back and forth with a developer when you can just implement changes yourself. Which brings me to my next point.

Developers

Having a good knowledge of code languages can improve your relationships with developers.

No longer will they be able to spew a load of jargon at you and attempt to quash your optimisation suggestions. You might even be taken more seriously as a result.

You could even teach them a thing or two, and get them implementing SEO best practices before the work even makes it way to you.

Content Marketing

If you’re part of the creative content crowd, a bit of code knowledge can add another string to your bow.

Some of the best pieces of content these days are the interactive, long-form, multimedia kind, such as the Museum of Mario, yet they don’t actually need to be as technically complex to be impressive and shareable.

Even a standard written post, marked up and presented in the right way, can dramatically increase its appeal and share-ability. For example, this annual report, which probably started life as a bunch of figures on a spreadsheet, was achieved predominantly with HTML and CSS.

Final Thoughts

Whether its a development project, a blogging project, a career-enhancing tactic, or just for fun, I can’t think of a bad reason to have your own website.

Whatever way you go about it; enjoy.

If you feel I’ve missed something out, or want to share something cool to do with your own site, don’t hesitate to holla @ me: @koozai_jack or let us know in the comments below.

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Your Terrible Website is Ruining Your PPC Performance

Today’s consumers are savvy online shoppers and won’t bother with websites they don’t find user-friendly or don’t trust.

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What Are Doorway Pages and Why Google Penalises Them

This is the transcript from our new video so it may not read as well as a normal blog post would.

Hello. Today I’m going to be talking about doorway pages. In March, Google’s Search Team introduced a ranking algorithm adjustment which targeted doorway pages.

So, what are doorway pages? Doorway pages are pages that are designed specifically for ranking benefits. They consider search engines, but not users.

So there are a number of types of doorway pages. Two commonly seen are cloaking and redirection pages. These are pages designed for search engines to see, but users don’t see these pages. If you click on one of these pages in the SERPs, you’re instantly redirected to a more useful page.

Content rich doorway pages, these have had design slightly in mind, but again the information on those pages aren’t actually useful and they require you to take an extra step to find the information that you’ve actually searched for in Google.

So there’s common confusion between a doorway page and a landing page. A doorway page, again, is a page that requires the user to take an extra step to find the information they’re looking for. Entirely designed for ranking benefits. There’s nothing there for the user to see.

A landing page is a page specifically designed to convert. So an example would be if you’ve got a paid campaign for shoes, the landing page for that paid campaign would be shoes, specifically what the user would want to see.

So why are doorway pages used? Again, they’re for ranking gains. That’s the main purpose. So an example of this would be if you’re a plumber in Southampton, if you want to target different areas but you only have one building, which is in Southampton, you would create, say, plumber in Portsmouth, plumber in Bournemouth, you would create those sort of doorway pages. This is an attempt to sort of monopolise on local searches for your certain keyword.

One thing to be aware of is if you’re a franchise and you have physical buildings in different areas, Google says in their guidelines that it’s okay to have a URL dedicated to those locations. So as long as the information is unique and relevant and useful to the user and you have a physical building in that location, it’s okay to target this sort of pizza shop in Portsmouth or something like that.

Why is Google making a fuss? Well, Google is trying to sell a product. Google’s main objective is to provide as useful information as it can for their users. Doorway pages go completely against this. Doorway pages are just trying to get users to their website, and they require a user to click through to find more information on which they’re originally trying to search.

So what should I do? Well, the first thing is if you feel like you’ve got doorway pages on your website, ask yourself these three questions: Is the information useful to the user? Is the user going to find the information they’re looking for? And are there no unnecessary steps for the user to take on this page?

If the answer is no to all of the above, it’s likely you’ve got yourself a doorway page. I’d remove it. Basically, remove it. Doorway pages are getting penalised, and (a) it’s not worth the risk, and (b) it has a bad representation of your brand in the eyes of both search engines and users.

It’s important to start creating pages that have users in mind and not search engines. Think user, not search engine.

If you’d like any more information on doorway pages or any Google ranking algorithm changes, then please contact me today. I’m on Twitter @Koozai_Luke or contact Koozai today for more information. See you later.

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Uncovering PPC Best Practices With Allstate Insurance

In the lead up to his presentation at ClickZ Live Toronto, Finhas Jhaveri, manager of Digital & Cultural Marketing at Allstate Insurance Canada chats to us about PPC best practices.

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Overcoming 10 Content Marketing Challenges

Content Marketers are passed the very privileged and powerful responsibility of becoming an extension of a particular brand. Not only are Content Marketers responsible for research and ideation, but creating compelling content that works, and getting this content seen by the right pairs of eyes is a crucial part of the job. This multifaceted and exciting role comes with its very own set of challenges and obstacles which must be overcome daily in order to drive success.

1. Being An Effective Brand Ambassador

With this responsibility comes the duty for Content Marketers to align themselves completely with a particular brand, its messaging, ethos and values in order to produce content that works and accomplish the specific goals it has set out to achieve.

Challenge

Whether it’s Social Media management or content promotion, knowing the brand inside out, and being an extension of a brand is key to being a successful Content Marketer.

Content Marketers are therefore tasked with a very real and clear challenge, becoming an effective brand voice whilst achieving established Content Marketing goals as a means of facilitating the entire SEO process.

Tip

A clear and concise balancing act must be achieved here, and Content Marketers must have the ability to shout about a brand without sounding like a broken record.

2. Strategising

The first step of developing a tailored content plan is strategy.

Challenge

Content Marketers must address these crucial questions which set the very foundations of their tailored Content Marketing strategy:

• Which type of content should be created?
• What is the goal for that specific type of content?
• Who is the intended audience(s) for that content?
• How will it be produced and promoted?
• Where will it be marketed?
• When will it be published?

Tip

Addressing these questions at the start of any campaign, Content Marketers are tasked with regularly mapping out strategies which are completely tailored to a specific brand and which encapsulate that client’s overall goals.

3. Ideation

Challenge

Think of an effective idea…go! It doesn’t quite work like that in the world of Content Marketing. Yes creativity is a prerequisite for the role, but ideation and thinking of that exciting content idea on your client’s behalf can sometimes prove to be slightly tricky.

With this in mind, there are numerous techniques Content Marketers use to come up with content ideas which are completely targeted and help achieve the client’s goals whatever they may be.

Tip

Whether it’s increasing traffic, social visits, generating brand awareness or conversions, Content Marketers will not be close to achieving these unless highly targeted and considered content creation ideas have been explored.

Brainstorming methods to assist with content ideation can include:

• Yearly events – Creating content around key dates, events and seasonality related to the specific industry.
• Mind mapping – Mind mapping is an effective way to develop an idea starting from one central theme.
• What? Who? Why? When? Where? and How? – Formulate sustainable ideas focussed on answering these key questions.
• Picture association- This method can assist Content Marketers to come up with inspiring ideas.
• Problems and solutions – Create content which solves problems by offering audiences a solution.
• Word association – This method is a highly creative method of generating content ideas.

Check out the blog post: 8 Effective Content Ideation Methods for more information on how to create compelling content ideas.

4. Retaining an Audience

Challenge

Successful Content Marketers not only create and distribute useful content to a targeted audience, but retain that audience throughout the duration of a Content Marketing campaign and beyond.

Supplying an engaged audience base with consistently valuable content is no easy task, but one that can be achieved through conducting thorough research into audience types associated with a particular brand.

Tip

Understanding that audience’s behaviour and really drilling down to what makes a certain audience tick and how they behave and share content is key in retaining an audience.

Understanding your target audience inside out is the key to delivering them what they want, retaining them on a long-term basis and ultimately influencing that audience’s behavioural habits.

5. Choose The Right Promotion Techniques

Challenge

Choosing the most appropriate content promotion techniques which align to a particular brand and industry are vital elements to Content Marketing.

When it comes to content promotion, is it advocated to channel this through a selection of owned, earned and paid media channels.

It is therefore the responsibility of the Content Marketer to decipher which channels would be most suitable for the client and decide which methods align closest to the overall goals of the Content Marketing campaign.

Tip

Read the blog post: Content What? A Beginner’s Guide To Content Marketing to find out more about owned, earned and paid media promotion techniques.

6. Resonating With Several Generations

Challenge

It goes without saying that the digital world is made up of an eclectic mix of audiences of varying ages.

The scope to tap into multiple generations is evident, however, Content Marketers must create content which not only resonates with these various age groups, but completely mirrors that age group’s expectations, values and experiences.

Tip

Creating compelling content is one thing, but harnessing an awareness of how various generations consume content and share it with others is key in being effective in today’s highly competitive digital marketplace.

Check out James’ video on marketing to Generation Z as well as his slides on marketing to young people in general.

7. A Happy Marriage Of Content And Context

Challenge

Writing content for contents sake is a common trap that Content Marketers could all-too often find themselves falling into.

Tip

It is imperative that Content Marketers immerse themselves in a certain industry, and create compelling, engaging and highly relevant content related to that specific industry.

8. Being An Effective Storyteller

Challenge

A crucial aspect of Content Marketing is the ability to outreach to key industry influencers and sell an idea to promote content.

Cue effective storytelling. It is one thing picking up the phone and contacting a PR or a journalist, but a completely different scenario being able to confidently sell a story to these key industry influencers and publishers.

Tip

Being an effective storyteller from the get-go, and having the ability to attract attention from influencers is a challenge Content Marketers face on a regular basis. But being able to attract attention and promote the unique qualities relating to the content and its offering is an effective way to overcome this challenge when it comes to content promotion.

9. Flexibility

Challenge

Yes, Content Marketers create well thought out and tailored content strategies, but in their day-to-day practises, they are faced with alterations and changes that need to be implemented at the last minute.

Perhaps this is due to a reaction to a breaking industry news story relating to a particular brand, hype on social media, or perhaps an amendment to a press release, change is inevitable and it is the job of the Content Marketer to not only be fully engaged but aware of these changes and prepared to react and adapt to any given scenario.

Tip

Ideas evolve and change, it is inevitable, and having the ability to be flexible and adaptable are qualities that will help any Content Marketer in their day-to-day role.

10. Keeping On Top

Challenge

Keeping on top is a challenge, but by living and breathing the industry you write for, Content Marketers can overcome this challenge.

When it comes to content creation, immersing yourself completely in a specific industry is key. This will not only aid content creation but will help you keep up with industry news and events and what is happening in the world of social media.

Tip

Reading regular blog posts, watching videos and setting up industry-specific alerts will keep you on top of your clients and ahead of the game.

Want To Find Out More?

If you want to find out more about what is it like to be a Content Marketer, and what is involved in this highly rewarding and multifaceted role, get your hand on your free whitepaper: The Complete Guide To Content Marketing Strategy, Planning and Creation

Got any questions? Feel free to leave a comment, tweet me @Koozai_Jenny or Contact Us today.

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