Don’t fret.

If you don’t have an SEO company at your disposal, it’s alright. You will live. But to save you from misery, we wrote a few mistakes common to rookies. You might be guilty of them too.

1. Not Knowing Which Type of SEO To Use

There are two types of SEO: Black Hat and White Hat.

We don’t know where they got their names, but we understand how they work.

White Hat SEO operates on methods and techniques that follow the search engine’s guideline to improve the ranking of the website. Most companies and websites with long-term, stable and sustainable goals use this. It provides growth steadily and gradually for conversion.

This squeaky clean SEO technique includes high-quality content development, website HTML optimization, and restructuring, link acquisition campaigns supported by high-quality content and manual research and outreach.

Black Hat SEO is the naughty one. It exploits the weaknesses in the search engine algorithms to have quick and short-lasting growth in rankings. It uses techniques and methods in conflict with the search engine guidelines. Some techniques of the Black Hat SEO are link spamming, keyword stuffing, cloaking, hidden text, and links. However, using these techniques may end up penalizing your website.

If you are using a combination of the two, then you are wearing your Gray Hat. Most SEO companies employ a mix of both techniques to deliver results to their clients. Gray Hat SEO also allows companies to offer affordable services because costs are less when questionable methods are involved.

There is no wrong and right way to do SEO, but it’s better to know and be aware of the types and the risks involved when dealing with them.

2. Not Utilizing Links

Links can either be a follow link or a no follow.

What does that have to do with anything?

SEO is all about putting yourself out there and having links pointing to your website earns you brownie points. Google keeps track of how many links are on a page, and if a lot of pages link to that particular page, then that page is valuable.

A follow link also allows Google to crawl on the pages. It gives your site a higher chance of appearing in the SERP. Google also has a metric for calculating link points. Link points or link juice can flow through the sites. If your site from a reputable site, you’d get a fair share of link juice. Large boosts in link juice give a higher ranking.

3. Not Checking for Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is having the same content on multiple URLs. You may be caught up on filling your website with details and information, but it’s best to do it in an organized manner. Google won’t be ranking a site with a bunch of duplicate content.

Before adding a new page to your site, check if there’s already an existing one with the same content. You can use no follow links, 301 redirects or the canonical tag to fix this.

4. Not Setting Up Landing Pages

Having designated landing pages for each keyword minimizes the probability of having duplicate content. At the same time, it increases the traffic to your site, and it puts everything in perspective. It is useful to direct users to the information they need or to the things you want them to see.

5. Targeting The Wrong Keywords

Choosing the appropriate keywords for your content is crucial for SEO. At most, choose high-value keywords that are relevant to your brand, company, product, and service. It’s best to go for keywords that are unique. Some keywords belong to a competitive niche. You will have a hard time directing the users to your content if thousands are doing the same thing.

Here’s an alternative, optimize your content for Rich Answer. Rich Answers are the results that appear on top of organic search results. It’s the first thing users will see upon searching for their query. It makes them think that information in there is reliable and highly recommended.

6. Expecting Results Overnight

SEO is an ever-evolving process that requires an enormous time investment and plenty of hard work.

Anytime someone offers you or tells you of instant results, don’t be fooled. A high ranking is not possible without influencers, capable webmasters to navigate the algorithms and understand analytics, and a [content marketing] plan.

We hope you picked a thing or two on the mistakes SEO rookies are bound to make. You may have committed a few of these, but now you know how to deal with them. Remember, SEO is a concept not set in stone. It’s always better to keep learning and stay up-to-date on the changes to the search engine’s algorithms. You will learn to catch up, eventually.

The post SEO Rookies are GUILTY of these Mistakes appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

Among all the social media platforms, LinkedIn is considered as the leading avenue to connect with other industry professionals. Those who work in the digital industry are even more encouraged to utilize the platform to further their connections and find more opportunities for employment and partnership.

Sadly, only a few manage to use the full potential of the platform. Aside from providing one’s primary professional credentials, LinkedIn can also be used in publishing written content relevant to whatever field of expertise you have.

If you want to start posting, then these tips will help you boost your content’s overall value.

Refine your targeting

Before writing anything, your first job is to identify the specific profile of your readers. You cannot expect to gain high response if you attempt to impress everyone in your content. That’s just not possible. The best way to go is to create a clear profile of your readers. What is their demographics? What type of content do they need? What is their age range?

All of these questions will be helpful in narrowing down your topics to things that matter to your readers. Anything that falls outside of their interest must be taken out of your editorial calendar.

Reread some of your past content

Just because you’ve published about something does not mean that you cannot use it again. To propel future posts, you can always use them as your reference and create an improved entry using the information.

There is a higher chance that your new connections have not yet read your past entry. Do them the favor of writing about it again using a different angle.

Have a look at your posts’ analytics

Just like other social media networks, LinkedIn also has its analytics. Utilize the tool to get a clearer assessment of the performance of your posts. This should tell you the number of likes, comments, and shares that a particular post has.

By understanding the analytics, it also helps you find out what type of content appeals to your readers better.

Learn from the experts

Since you are trying to share content to co-professionals, might as well learn from those individuals who are considered as an authority in your field. Search and connect with them on LinkedIn and see what type of topics they share with their network.

You can use them as the reference in crafting your editorial calendar. Plus, you will get the chance on knowing other personalities who might be among your target reader based on a post’s response.

Focus on topics you have expertise at.

Lastly, provide content on topics that you have mastery on. Whether you admit it or not, your expertise in a certain field will be reflected in the kind of content you produce. The tone of writing or delivery will also be reflective of your knowledge on the topic you wish to write about.

It’s always an advantage to go for topics you are familiar with especially those which you have hands on experience.

Aside from being an avenue to meet new people who work in the same industry as you do, LinkedIn can also be a chance to establish your professional credibility by publishing written works about your area of specialization. One may not find it as efficient as starting an official website, but considering the quality of people who are likely to read your content, it is safe to say that you’ll have the better chance of boosting your credentials on your field.

Target your readers well, learn from the masters and start creating your content!

The post Tips to Create Better Content in LinkedIn appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

Social do’s and don’ts

Do’s

Post often

Although this greatly varies on the social platform, the goal is to be the top-of-mind brand, website or blog through the content you publish. In Facebook, you need to post twice daily on both weekdays and weekends. In Twitter, you need to tweet 14 times on weekdays and 7 times on weekends. In LinkedIn, post at least once per day on weekends, no weekends.

Share own and others’ contents

Strike a balance between publishing original and curated content. Never flood your Timeline or other people’s news feed with purely curated content. Your primary content strategy should be sharing your own content. When sharing other’s content, though, make sure that you read the entire post first to ensure that it is indeed valuable to your readers.

Share various posts

Also, don’t publish the same content and the same type of content over and over. There are many different types of share-worthy social content such as infographics, content with images, and interactive content. If you need to share a particular link within one day, space it out or else, people will think you’re a spammer. You’ll only annoy your audience and alienate them with your purpose.

Share niche-relevant posts

Be wary what you are sharing with your target market. We can only say that it’s a valuable piece of content if your audience will learn something new or find something useful from it. Definitely, this will depend on the goals of your social media marketing. It would be best to define your goals first and make it realistic as possible.

Be grateful

Let your audience know that you are serious about building a lasting relationship with them. Follow back. Comment back. Someone tagged you in a post, comment. Thank anyone who shares your post. Engage your audience through encouraging interactions. You can start conversations with asking questions or opinions. This will not only lead to relationships and goodwill but also gets your brand more exposure without forcing it.

Don’ts

Overshare

Again, learn the basics of posting frequency on each social platform you are at. Don’t share other people’s content too frequently. It will only confuse your audience as to which brand you are promoting – yours or theirs. Don’t publish an update with too many hashtags on it, too. Maintain the right balance and healthy mix of posts.

Share irrelevant information

One tendency is sharing filler content pieces just so you have something to post. No. It would be best to have a social content plan at the start of the month that you can work or build upon. In this way, you won’t struggle on what to post next.

Be inconsistent

Consistency is key when doing social media marketing. Never publish or share too many posts in one week and only a few the following week. This only ruins the expectations of your target audience. Eventually, they will disengage with your business altogether.

Solicit engagement

Never buy followers, likes, and subscriptions. These things offer no real value so it’s just a waste of marketing budget that you should’ve invested on other important things such as creating original posts. Also, numbers of shares, likes, and the likes are just vanity metrics that are punishable by Google once it confirmed that these came from link farms.

Don’t forget these basic rules. A winning social media strategy is all about value, consistency, and balance. If all else fails, let us leave you with a Think Before You Post diagram created by Hootsuite. This flowchat is not the panacea, but a great guide nevertheless when contemplating on what social posts to publish.

The post Do’s and Don’ts of Publishing on Social Media appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

Social media outreach

What better way to promote strategic contents than doing the social media? Social media is both powerful and instrumental in getting contents right in front of the right audience at the right time and using the right device.

On Twitter:

• Share your post at least 2 times on the same day that the blog is published.
• Promote the post visually by using a related and interesting image.
• Promote the post by writing compelling teasers with each tweet.
• Shorten the URL to give space for re-tweets.
• Send a DM (direct message) to the individuals, groups or brands you mentioned on the post.
• Use appropriate hashtags. One to two hashtags is acceptable.
• Pin your tweet about the post on your profile page.

On Facebook:

• Share the post on your Facebook page on the same day that it is published.
• Attach a related image to the post.
• Share the post on your timeline, too.
• Join various relevant groups. Share your contents on these groups.

On LinkedIn:

• Share the post on the company’s official LinkedIn page.
• Do share the post on your personal profile, too.
• Join relevant groups. Share your contents on these groups.
• Create a group if there is none in and about your niche. Start conversations.
• Repurpose the content. Post it on the site’s publishing platform.

On Google+:

• Share the post on your company’s official Google+ page.
• Share it on your personal profile. Encourage other employees to do the same.
• Attach a compelling image to the post.
• Use relevant hashtags.
• Share the content on relevant communities.

Email outreach

Promote your contents on email as well. Relationships formed through email are deeper than those formed through social networks, well, in most cases. Think of email as an important channel in your content promotion strategy.

• Share the URL of your post to your email subscribers. Put a short introduction or an excerpt.
• Put an image to your email message.
• Encourage your subscribers to read it and share the contents with others.
• Give them options by putting social widgets on the blog post itself.
• Send personal emails to business partners, colleagues, clients and prospects who might find the content useful.

Paid promotion

This will depend on your budget. If you are a startup company, you might as well stick to the free services first before venturing into the paid ones. Notably, paid promotion is highly suitable for those that offer premium contents like e-books. Almost all social networking channels offer paid promotion services.

• Promoted posts on Facebook. Facebook makes it easier to promote contents through its filters including demographics and even devices used.
• Promoted tweets on Twitter. Aside from the option to pin a tweet, Twitter can be also setup to promote individual tweets at a time that you find most convenient.
• Sponsored updates on LinkedIn. Posts can be promoted on your company’s official LinkedIn page. Nonetheless, even those who hadn’t liked your page yet will get to see the post.
• Post ads on Google+. Company pages with over 1,000 followers are able to post ads. However, the ad will not run on the platform, but on other websites.

Evidently, you have many choices when it comes to promoting your contents and win more readers in the process. You just have to know where to start. The social networking sites offer both free and paid options. Whichever you choose though, your main goal should be write to read first and not write to rank. Good luck!

Image credit: BeautyholicsAnonymous.com

The post How to Win More Readers? appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

On LinkedIn

LinkedIn has:

• 120 million active users daily
• 63% female users and 37% male users
• 1.2 million products and services featured on Company pages

LinkedIn is a professional platform. So, as much as possible, your updates should be purely related to your respective industry. When updating your page though, use first person so that people would know that it specifically refers to your brand.

When sending a connection request, personalize it by telling why you are connecting with him or her. Send a welcome message if the person connected with you. Through this, you can build a — hopefully — strong relationship with your new connection.

Never employ a recommendation or endorsement request blast. It is blatantly annoying.

When using groups, aspire to contribute relevant information to the group members. The groups are not intended as an advertising platform thus keep your promotions at bay.

On Google Plus

Google Plus has:

• Google+ Pages intended for non-individuals
• 540 million active users monthly
• 63% male users and 37% female users

Google Plus is a platform that allows its users of formatting posts. With this, make your post as reader-friendly as possible.

When commenting on a post, always mention the name of the user using a + before his or her name.

When sharing another user’s work, give credit to the owner or original source. That is, give credit where credit is due. It would be okay to comment on the person’s work before sharing it on your stream.

Organize your friends and followers. You can make your posts more targeted by choosing the right group or circle to share them with.

On Facebook

Facebook has:

• Facebook Pages intended for non-individuals
• 757 million active users daily
• 58% are female users and 42% are male users

Updating your Facebook page several times a day is okay. However, make sure to space out the posts. Don’t bombard your page users with the same posts throughout the day as well.

When posting, you can use a hashtag. One or two hashtags are okay; ten is not.

Respond to all kinds of comments whether they are good or bad.

Refer to your brand in first person plural (i.e. we).

Inform the users first. Entertain them. Convincing them to purchase should come last. After all, Facebook is a social platform.

On Twitter

Twitter has:

• 100 million active users daily
• 64% female users and 36% male users
• 46% of users use it once daily

Twitter is the originator of hashtags. Use them wisely.

When composing tweets, don’t exhaust the 140 characters. Give enough space for followers to re-tweet.

Respond to all tweets especially to those asking questions as quickly as you can. Time is of the essence, and a 30-minute delay in your response may mean doing business with your rival.

No need to follow every person who follows you. Also, don’t follow many people at once. Twitter may regard this as spam and block you or suspend your account.

Keep your tweets positive. Avoid tweeting personal information on the official (for business) account.

Make your logo as the business’ Twitter profile pic.

On Instagram

Instagram has:

• 75 million active users daily
• 54% female users and 46% male users
• 1.2 billion photo likes daily

Never solicit follows. Also, don’t ask users to use your hashtag(s). Use brand-appropriate hashtags only.

Don’t over-gram. No user would want to view their feed from a single user.

Make your posts relevant. No selfies, please.

Interact with others by engaging with their photos. Don’t re-post a photo unless you have permission from the owner. Mention the owner or the original poster by using @ before the user’s name.

On Pinterest

Pinterest has:

• 16.1 million active users daily
• 80% female users and 20% male users

Give credit to the original poster. The goal is to pin directly from the original source. Link back to it.

It’s a sin to use low quality [and super low quality] images.

Don’t spam by using images that do not relate to the click through content. The practice will not earn you valuable pin or click.

Spread the pins out throughout the day.

When joining a group board, introduce yourself to the creator of the group first. Then, relate your intention to join.

A business is a business. Being in a social sphere, however, does not mean you will only think of yourself. After all, the business page is created to connect and interact with the users. Think about them first. Cater to their needs. Entertain them. Doing business with you will come next.

Image credit: KickStartYourJourney.com | MySEOIsSocial.com | AdEspresso.com | ShopifyBuilder.com | SkillCrush.com | VivaBellaEvents.com

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