Content-Relevance-for-SEO

Content Relevance for SEO

Content Relevance is used to point out how relevant a website is in relation to a particular search topic or term. Topic relevance is of absolute importance for SEO.  The better the content of a page matches a search query, the more likely it will achieve a good ranking.

July 22, 2019 Science No comments yet

Content is King #4: Can Online Reviews Impact Your SEO

I guess that you’d would stand up and either pat yourself on the back if your business has a strategy already in place for getting reviews and managing your online reputation.

Online reviews are important for a number of reasons, and have significance through their ability to affect:

  • Your rankings in search engines
  • Which search results actually gets clicked on
  • Consumers purchasing decisions

This means reviews online as critical to your SEO as building reference and on-site optimisation.

 

How Do Consumers Use Online Reviews?

Before I get started about data surrounding and how online reviews are used by consumers and how it impacts their decision, it’s vital to consider where it all fits into the purchasing cycle for services and products.

Usually, by the time someone has started looking at a review, they’ve already know their needs/wants, how a business might fulfill that need/want and are now are ready to select a business.

The important thing to now is that the mental gap between reading a review and making a decision to purchase from a business is very small, and results in a yes/no decision almost straight away. So as a small business, your reputation online can directly influence your business.

But, how many people actually read reviews? According to a survey conducted by BrightLocal, roughly 83% of consumers reported reading online reviews.

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But, how many reviews do potential customers they read before making up their minds? The survey also has an answer to that. About 65% of consumers will read 6 reviews or less before they form an opinion about a given business.

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Meanwhile, another survey conducted by Dimensional Research found that 90% of their respondents claimed that positive online reviews influenced their buying decisions, while 86% had responded saying that negative reviews impacted their decisions.

 

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Hopefully this helps you understand at least from a customer’s perspective how important online reviews are in helping push their purchasing decisions.

 

Why Reviews Matter For SEO

All search engines love online reviews for one reason, customers love online reviews. They are in business of providing consumers on the go or at home with the most accurate information to help them make decisions around their purchases. The faster you do that, the more customers will turn to them time and time again. Have a look at the below screenshot of results from Yelp for the keywords “boutique fashion Toronto.”

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According to MOZ’s Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, reviews make up 10% of how Google decide to rank search results. Here’s chart they provide to break down the different parables:

 

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Preparing a Review Strategy

Before you start on creating a review strategy that works for your business, it’s a good idea to have some thoughts on which review platforms would work best for you’re business.

To figure out that, start by going to Google and doing the following search, “[Industry] + reviews” and see which sites pop-up on the first page. For example, have a look at what shows up for “shoe store reviews”:

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Something else you can do is click over the leading search results and you will see two arrows pop-up that help you to open up what Google refers to as the “Knowledge Panel” for that business and look at the sites listed under “more reviews.”

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Something else to keep in mind before we show how you can obtain more reviews is understanding the different review policies all platforms have that you should stand by. For e.g. Yelp forbids any small businesses from approaching online reviews and will act quickly if it detects something off. Meanwhile, other platforms don’t really have any issues with businesses making the ask.

Here are some review guidelines for some of the most critical review platforms:

Once you’ve had a look through, here are some hints and tips to help you start:

  • Use this “Review Handout Generator” by Whitespark and Phil Rozek that helps you create handouts for clients to give clear instructions on how they could leave you a review on Google.
  • Link to your review profiles from your website.
  • Create a Google+ page and invite customers to leave a short positive review.
  • Create print or digital materials that list all the different sites customers can review you’re business.
  • Request a “Find Us on Yelp,” if you haven’t gotten their “People Love Us On Yelp” sticker.

We hope this has helped a little in understanding the importance of online reviews.

 

 

April 8, 2015 Google, SEO Comments Off on Content is King #4: Can Online Reviews Impact Your SEO

Content is King #2: Is SEO Dead?

is-SEO-dead

SEO isn’t dead; it has evolved and now requires descriptive keywords, as well as engaging content to help your online marketing succeed.

Quality content is very important when it comes to today’s marketing online. But it hasn’t replaced search engine optimisation (SEO). What has happened is that SEO doesn’t work without good, quality content. Your website and its content still needs to include rich keywords that your target market uses to search for your services or products, but stuffing your pages with keywords will see your page penalised by Google, which means it will rank low.

What we really should title this blog is: “Keyword Stuffing is Dead, Long Live King Content!”

Search engines i.e. Google, look for content based on the words the online user enters and then returns what it thinks deems most relevant in the search results. These results are still based on programming and algorithms.

So to optimise your website’s, you still need the proper keywords as well as engaging, well-written, well-researched and informative content. But, you can’t just write great and informative content, with a few keywords and hope for the best.

What you need to do is create content that converts your readers into actors, readers that do something, react to your content. Some ways are to make them to sign up for your newsletter or download your free e-book, in exchange for giving you their e-mail address so you can send them newsletters, and possible marketing e-mails. They could share your video from their social media sites, so that you can hopefully reach more people and possibly get more followers. They may even – buy from you.

Here are some ideas to get your customers to act:

  • Have you ever though of going back through some of your old posts and see if you can re-link them to newer posts. (This is best to do this with your most popular older posts). Doing this can help your readers of older posts read newer posts, plus Google really loves it when inside links do this.
  • Look carefully at your calls to action headlines. Check to see if any links are getting clicked on. Then possibly tweak the calls to action of those pages where the few people act.
  • Your page load should be no more than three – four seconds. These days people have exceptionally short attention spans. If you want people to click a link on a page or give you their e-mail, they have to stay on your page. “Long” loading time means people could leave your site.
  • Use your old content in new ways. Take your posts and maybe turn them into an e-book, or any case studies. If you have a long post on an interesting topic, think of re-writing it into two or three posts.

SEO isn’t dead. It’s just changed. For the better we think. Google has forced marketers and SEO companies to do what they should have been doing from the start: provide engaging, informative, and trustworthy content.

 

March 18, 2015 Google, SEO Comments Off on Content is King #2: Is SEO Dead?

Content is King #1: Video – The future of content marketing

content-is-king

There is no doubt Content is King! Are you stuck for ideas and content for your online platforms?

Whether it be updating your blog, creating new Facebook posts, tweets, Instagram posts or LinkedIn updates, just to name a few, we have learned in conversations with our clients we have learned that coming up with content is one of the toughest (and most time consuming) aspects of online marketing.

For the next couple of weeks we are going to write a different blog to help you, and our clients in learning about writing quality content for their website. This week we are going to look at how video can really boost your SEO performance.

Let’s begin…..

Not only did video kill the radio star, it’s now aiming for online marketing. Already a key entertainment and information medium, studies predicts video will account for 75 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2018. Video IS the future of content marketing, and the future is now. This now means it’s no longer a luxury, but more of a necessity for all businesses to include it in their marketing strategies i.e websites, Facebook, Twitter, etc .

Here are some more reasons why your business needs videos:

Effective information tool

Constantly writing content is unavoidable these days. This means you have to hit the nail of the delivery if you want your message to stick. Video makes that much easier. 85 percent of Internet users remember watching a video in the past month.

Perfect for decision making

Potential customers don’t have time to look through heaps of text. They want to know what is important so they can make their decision and move on to the next. According to Forbes, 75 percent of executives will watch work-related videos at least once a week. And 65 percent visit the marketer’s website after viewing the video.

Powerful reach

Content marketing’s purpose is getting a message in front of your potential audience. And video is the quickest way to get your message in front of as many people as possible. Video content gets shared like no other, with audiences larger than any other. YouTube alone receives more than 1 billion unique visitors every month. You won’t reach everyone, but with the right content, you can reach the right audience for your business. The goal is to create something that your viewers will want to share with their friends or customers. Engage viewers and they will engage others, fueling organic and meaningful brand interaction.

Quickly establishes personality

Your website should display personality and culture, but it probably takes reading through a few articles and a handful of posts before your customer gets a good sense of what you are about. Most people don’t have the time these days. But with video, it’s immediately laid out in front of their eyes. The script you use, the way it’s shot, the aesthetic you promote — it all reflects your company’s personality and culture in a matter of seconds. And if folks like what they’re seeing they’re that much more likely to invest elsewhere in your website.

Made for mobile platform

Worldwide, more users access the Internet via their smart phone than any other kind of device, and that gap is likely to grow. So, clearly, the content you produce should be made for mobile. Today’s consumer is an impatient bunch. With video, all you have to do is hit play. You can consume on the move, pause if you need to, rewind if you want. Exactly the freedom you want on your mobile device.

 

March 11, 2015 Google, SEO, Video Production Comments Off on Content is King #1: Video – The future of content marketing
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