Category: Uncategorized

How To Craft An SEO Strategy for Your Website

by Rachel, posted in Uncategorized

Driving traffic to your website is essential to increase the visibility of your business and brand. Appearing at the top of search engine results can help to bring in the traffic you are looking for, but to get these results, you need a great SEO strategy. At one point in time, keywords were the quintessential element of search engine optimization. Search engine rankings hinged on using the right keywords in the right frequency. Though keywords definitely still matter today, there are other factors that affect your search engine rankings. Read on to learn more about how to craft an SEO strategy that will drive the traffic you need.

Why SEO Matters

As a marketer, you want to make your brand as visible as possible. Optimizing your site for search engine visibility means adding elements to your site that tell search engines that you’re a trusted resource, providing people with the information they’re looking for. It’s a search engine’s job to help people find what they need as quickly as possible, so it’s up to you to prove to the search engine that you have that information.

SEO is key to staying competitive in a tight marketplace. A solid strategy gives you a leg up on other businesses and can increase your leads and sales. It may seem like a challenging topic to tackle, but really, it’s all about knowing what works for your site. With a little research, you can start incorporating SEO elements into your website to improve your traffic.

How SEO Is Changing

At one point in time, SEO focused mainly on keywords. However, SEO strategies have begun to change as users refine their search engine habits. For example, the number of searches containing the words “nearby” or “near me” have been on the rise. People are using search engines to find local businesses on the go. Also, more people are conducting voice search, so your SEO strategy should focus less on keywords and more on using natural language. It’s important to stay relevant by considering the following factors.

  • Content – your content is still key, however, there’s less focus on keywords, and more focus on content that flows in a natural, informative way. Although it’s still necessary to include keywords in your text, focus less on the density of the keywords and more on creating informative, easy to read content.
  • Link structure – backlinks are still important as long as they’re from a relevant and trusted source. Google has learned to pick the bad links out from the good and will rank you in part based on that. Keep track of how many links you have in your content and the quality of the links. Remove links that are spammy or poor quality.
  • Mobile-friendly layout – around half of all web traffic is viewed on mobile, and it’s likely that stat will keep increasing, so it’s absolutely essential to have your site optimized for different devices. If your website isn’t optimized, it’s going to be hard to view on anything other than a regular computer monitor so Google will rank your site lower.
  • Reviews – reviews are an important factor in search engine rankings. Not having any is nearly as damaging as having bad reviews, so encourage customers to leave reviews of your business or service on sites like Yelp, Facebook, or Google.
  • Other factors – alt tags, heading tags, images, anchor text, and site encryption are also elements you should consider. If you’ve tried all of the other suggestions on this list and still aren’t seeing results, it’s time to look at the back end of your site and adjust the above elements.

A Strategy That Works For Your Business

Finding an SEO strategy that works for your business doesn’t have to be a headache. Start by really analyzing the content that’s already on your site. Is it structured in a way that makes the content easy to navigate and read? Have you included important keywords?

Create Excellent Content

Creating the type of content that customers want to read is important, and be sure to research before you write. Don’t assume that you know exactly what your customers need and want. You may be an industry expert, but using jargon instead of the words that people are actually searching for can be detrimental. Keyword research can help you determine the keywords that your potential customers are using. From there, you can start to craft informative and effective content, while being sure to release it consistently. Be sure to freshen things up at least once a month, as consistency is key.

Topic Clusters

It’s important to consider the rise of the topic cluster model. Topic clusters are pages that are structured around a central “pillar page.” The pillar page usually focuses on a wider topic and then links to individual pages that delve deeper into different elements of the topic. For example “Healthy Eating” may be your central pillar page’s topic,  and then “Healthy Recipies For Kids,” or “How To Eat Healthy While Traveling,” might be two individual pages that link back to the central page. This type of SEO tends to align more with how people are using search engines. Because voice search has become more common, many searches are more conversational, which means that your content has to have the same quality.

Know Your Competition

Check out how your competition is ranking on Google. If you see that they’re ranking higher, they must be doing something correctly. Take a close look at their content to see what they’re doing differently. Is their site structured more clearly? Do they produce more regular content? Read their reviews and study their social media engagement to see what their customers are saying about them. Keep these elements in mind when redesigning your site or creating new content.

 

The Easy Way To Monetize Your Blog

by Rachel, posted in ecommerce, Uncategorized

The internet is a great platform for anyone looking to sell products. If your blog has a strong following, you may be interested in making a little money selling some branded items like t-shirts, mugs, hats, or stickers. Or maybe you want to compile some of your best blog content and sell it as an ebook on your site. But setting up an e-commerce store can be a complicated process, especially if you don’t know anything about programming or web framework. In order to have a usable store, you’ll need to list your products in a clear and organized fashion, and have the ability to take credit card payments, and store customer data securely. While this may seem like a daunting task, using WordPress to set up an e-commerce site is a quick, easy and user-friendly way to get your business going, and you don’t have to be an expert!

Can I Add A Shop To My WordPress Blog?

WordPress was originally set up to function as a platform for bloggers to easily create custom websites to house their blogs. Over time, it’s developed into a popular content management system. In other words, you can create and control a powerful website that can do almost anything even function as an e-commerce store. Using WordPress for your shop is a great idea because you’ll have full control over all aspects of your site. If you’ve been using WordPress for a while, you already know how customizable it is. You can build out detailed product pages, and make your store both beautiful and functional.

WordPress is perfect for starting small and will grow with you. You’ll need just a bit of technical knowledge, but it’s not anything that will take you more than a few days to get the hang of. Using other e-commerce platforms like Shopify can include fees, but using a WordPress site won’t charge you for transactions or bill you for any monthly fee, so it’s perfect if you don’t have much of a budget to keep your shop going. In addition, your fanbase already knows and love your blog, so hosting your shop on your existing site makes sense.

Getting Your Shop Up and Running

To start, you’ll need a domain name and host for your site. If you have a blog on your own domain, this is already taken care of. While large e-commerce sites tend to need a lot of storage space, since some shops offer hundreds or even thousands of products, if you’re starting small with just a few products, you won’t need to worry about increasing your storage space just yet.

Next, you’ll need to find a WordPress e-commerce plugin. Another great thing about WordPress is that there are plugins that can add just about any function to your website. Your site needs to have product pages, a shopping cart function, and a checkout that can process payment. A great e-commerce plugin should feature all of these. The most popular one is WooCommerce, for good reason. WooCommerce is easy to use, versatile and has a helpful and active community of users. In addition, it’s great for search engine optimization (SEO). It’s a free plugin, but if you want to add some advanced functionalities, you’ll need to pay for extensions. However, if you’re just setting up shop for the first time, the free plugin should be all you need. Of course, there are tons of other e-commerce plugins, but WooCommerce has stood the test of time, and consistently gets the highest marks.

In your WordPress site’s dashboard, navigate to “Add New Plugin.” From there, simply search for WooCommerce, and then install and activate WooCommerce by WooThemes. You’ll be prompted to install the plugin with a wizard that will set up the initial settings. Walk through the setup and choose the appropriate choices along the way.

When setting up the payment option, the easiest way to get started is by using PayPal (you’ll be given this option during setup). You can explore other payment options later, but PayPal is quick and easy, and your store will be up and running sooner. From there, you may need to install a new theme on your site. If you have chosen a theme that is more relevant to blogging, you may need to find one that’s compatible with WooCommerce, and use one that works better with the functions of your shop.

Within the plugin, you’ll be able to design product pages with descriptions, pictures, and prices. It’s important to include really high-quality photos of the products. The better the pictures look, the more people will want to buy! You can also sell virtual products like ebooks, online courses, etc. WooCommerce is customizable, so you can easily choose settings like where you are located, which countries you can ship products to, and enabling tax calculations.

Start by creating a test product, just to see how the page looks and feels. If everything  functions smoothly, you can start adding real products. Because you set up PayPal earlier to handle payment, you will be able to start selling immediately, and you will be able to accept both credit card and PayPal payments.

If you are a blogger who already has a solid following and are considering monetizing your blog, selling products is a great option, and can also help to get the word out and market your blog. You know people already love what you have to say, so offering up an ebook or another digital document is a great way to start selling. If you’re feeling creative, it’s easy to get your logo or branding printed on different products that you can sell. Since you already have a WordPress site, it makes a lot of sense to simply add a shop to your existing blog, instead of hosting it on an external site, and plugins like WooCommerce make it easy to start selling with just a little setup time.

Are Keywords Still Relevant For SEO?

by Rachel, posted in Uncategorized

At one point in time, keywords were the quintessential element of search engine optimization. Your search engine rankings hinged on using the right keywords in the right frequency. Though keywords definitely still matter today, there are other factors that affect your search engine rankings. Read on to learn more about these elements and how to use them to your advantage.

Keywords Matter, But…

SEO strategies have begun to change as users refine their search engine habits. More people are using tech like voice search to find what they’re looking for. So instead of searching for “Mexican restaurants in Philadelphia,” users may ask their digital assistant “What should I eat tonight?” Optimizing your content for these kinds of searches may mean a few changes in your SEO strategy, but it’s important to stay relevant by considering the following factors.

  • Content – your content is still key, however, there’s less focus on keywords, and more focus on content that flows in a natural, informative way. Although it’s still necessary to include keywords in your text, focus less on the density of the keywords and more on creating informative, easy to read content.
  • Link structure – backlinks are important as long as they’re from a relevant and trusted source. Google has learned to pick the bad links out from the good and will rank you in part based on that. Keep track of how many links you have in your content and the quality of the links. Remove links that are spammy or poor quality.
  • Page structure – the latest SEO trends point towards higher rankings when you use the “topic cluster” model. Topic clusters center around a pillar page, which highlights a high-level topic, and then each of the linked topic cluster pages delves into an aspect of the pillar page.
  • Mobile-friendly layout – around half of web traffic is viewed on mobile, so it’s absolutely essential to have your site optimized for different devices. If your website isn’t optimized, it’s going to be hard to view on anything other than a regular monitor so Google will rank your site lower.
  • Reviews – reviews are an important factor in search engine rankings. Not having any is nearly as damaging as having bad reviews, so encourage customers to leave reviews of your business or service on sites like Yelp, Facebook, or Google.
  • Other factors – alt tags, heading tags, images, anchor text and site encryption are also elements you should consider. If you’ve tried all of the other suggestions on this list and still aren’t seeing results, it’s time to look at the back end of your site and adjust the above elements.