Marieke van de Rakt
Marieke van de Rakt is the founder of Yoast SEO Company Academy and CEO of Yoast. Her favorite SEO Company topics are SEO Company copywriting and site structure. A blog can be a great marketing agency tool for your eCommerce site. It gives you the possibility to tell readers all about your brand, products, and company. Plus, by blogging on a regular basis you’ll increase the chances of your site ranking in the search results. That being said, coming up with new ideas can be difficult. In this post, I’ll discuss 5 topic ideas that will help you maintain an awesome blog on your eCommerce site! Want to start writing, but not quite sure how to write copy that users and search engines will love? Our practical and complete SEO copywriting training is what you need! This training is part of our Content SEO training subscriptions. So, why should you blog?It might seem like a lot of work, but maintaining a blog on your eCommerce site is definitely worth your time. A blog allows your audience to learn more about your brand and products. You’ll be able to tell the story of your brand and products from your own perspective and inform your audience about new ideas or plans you might have. This builds trust between you and your audience and increases their engagement. But that’s not all! Maintaining a blot contributes to SEO Company as well. Every time you publish a new blog post to your eCommerce site, you’re adding fresh content. Which Google loves. You can use these blog posts to answer questions your potential customers have (and for which your products offer a solution). Or use them to show your expertise on topics that are related to your business. By blogging regularly and using the right keywords, your blog will help increase the overall rankings of your eCommerce site. Including your product pages. Read more: The ultimate guide to blogging » 5 blog ideas for eCommerce sitesSo, a blog can help your audience find you online. But maintaining it can be hard. You’ll have to keep coming up with new and unique ideas for your eCommerce blog. Above that, you’ll want to create awesome content to make sure that your audience keeps returning to your site. So, let’s start with a first and quite essential step in creating and maintaining your eCommerce blog: keyword research. 1. Input from keyword researchYou can write about whatever you want on your blog, but before you start, it’s important to do proper keyword research. Keyword research will help you understand which search terms your audience uses, and therefore which search terms you want to be found on. You might have an idea of the search terms you want your site or products to be found on, but make sure to research them to make sure you’re using the right ones. Who knows, your audience might use a totally different word for a product you offer, and this can mean that you’re missing out on potential customers by focusing on the wrong search term! You can Google the keyword you came up with to check the searches Google suggests (while you’re typing). Or use tools such as Google Trends to research how often your search term is used compared to similar terms. But keyword research is so much more. And if you spend the time to do it properly, this will pay off by providing you with a list of focus keywords that will help you rank for the right search terms. Keep reading: Keyword research: the ultimate guide » 2. Current events and newsA great way to come up with new topic ideas for your eCommerce blog is by following current events and writing about them. Keep an eye on different news sites and write posts in which you give your view or expertise on news in your niche. To make sure you don’t miss anything, you can even set up alerts for specific topics. And if a holiday or event is coming up, write a post about how your products could be used during that holiday or event. Current events give you input on topics to write about, and the fun part is that you’re writing about something people are interested in at that moment. Because it’s happening now. And if it’s an important event in your niche (or in general), that means that your audience will be probably want to read more about this topic. To give an example of how we do this at Yoast, a while ago Google announced Web Vitals – a new set of metrics to measure speed and user experience of websites. And because we know our readers will want to know more about this, as they are often concerned with optimizing their site, we’ve already written different blog posts explaining what these Web Vitals are and what impact they can have on sites. 3. Audience questions or commentsIt might seem a bit scary at first, but giving readers the possibility to leave comments on your blog is a great way to get input for new posts. Inviting people to leave comments on your blog, means you will probably receive feedback and questions. Which you can use to determine what subjects your audience wants to know more about and what you can write your new blog post on. Also, this interaction is a great way to connect to people and make sure they’ll come back to your site. If you’re still a bit hesitant about allowing comments on your blog, we have a post that will help you handle comments on your blog. 4. Blogs with a personal touchWriting blog posts allows you to add a personal touch to your site, and with it your brand and company. Even a large company or brand can really benefit from a blog that appeals to people on a personal level. One way to do this is by showing the authors of your blog. Let your readers get to know the people who write your blog posts and their expertise. And if it’s possible, let your CEO (or experts in your team) write about their own view on the market or the ways they use the products your company sells. By giving your blogs a personal touch, you’re giving the company and your brand a face that people can relate to. That helps people connect to your company and might even convince them to return to your online shop. If you’re having trouble standing out in a sea of similar eCommerce blogs, this article about staying unique in a competitive niche might help you find your tone of voice. Which will make it much easier to add this personal touch to your blog posts and connect to your audience. 5. Stories about your productsYour product page might be the perfect place to describe your product, but your blog is a perfect place to share stories about your product. If you sell cleaning supplies, write blogs about which stains are best removed with which one of your products. If you sell kids clothes, write blog posts about children playing while wearing your clothes. And don’t underestimate the importance of photos, so make sure to add lots of them! If you don’t have any, try to add images that are related to your business or brand to liven up your posts. Tell stories about the different ways people can use your products and make these stories informative and entertaining. Don’t make these blogs too salesy. Show people why they should buy your stuff instead of telling them they should buy it. Another great way to do this is by asking your customers to share their stories. Ask them about their experiences with your products and if they have photos you’re allowed to share on your site. With the permission of these customers, you can write beautiful blog posts based on their experiences. Or you could ask your clients if they would want to write a guest blog. Read on: How to use storytelling in a blog post » Let’s get blogging!As I said in the introduction of this post, a blog can be a great marketing agency tool for any eCommerce site. And should, therefore, be part of your eCommerce SEO strategy. It will allow you to get more people to your site, increase their engagement, and present your brand and company the way you want to be seen. But blogging takes time. I hope these 5 blog ideas for eCommerce sites will provide you with enough input to start and maintain an awesome blog! Keep on reading: 5 tips to write readable blog posts » Via http://www.scpie.org/5-blog-topic-ideas-for-your-ecommerce-site/
7 Comments
There’s hardly another constant hot-button issue as intensely debated within the search industry as search engine penalties. Leading SEO Company outlets maintain their coverage of that touchy subject from a uniform angle, reinforcing the subjective view that seemingly all but a few websites are penalized. Yet despite this ongoing barrage of information, it seems that more misconceptions are being disseminated than certainties. Consequently the situation only amplifies unwarranted fears among website operators. This opinion piece, strongly influenced by the author’s personal experience while working for Google Search including penalizing websites, is an attempt to clarify why and how leading search engines approach penalization. The focus here is on key search market players. The article does not aspire to provide a comprehensive overview including all search alternatives, such as DuckDuckGo or Ecosia. While they all contribute a valiant effort to enhancing, what otherwise may appear as anemic competition and only sporadic innovation, their individual approaches towards penalizing websites don’t change the gist of the key message: For the most part, search engine penalties are not to be dreaded. Why penalize at all?Search engines are first and foremost commercial enterprises. Their main goal is revenue creation. Towards that objective, cost of operation must be kept low, while user happiness maintained at a constant high. At the same time it is important to remember that search as a product is immensely complex. The data torrents required in the initial steps of crawling and processing, let alone the processing power needed for ranking solutions are tremendous and constantly growing. At any given time approximately 20% of the globally available data is about to vanish, while another 20% is in the process of changing and yet another 20% is brand new and just coming into existence. Paradoxically flUX is the only constant factor in search. Therefore, it is little surprise that scalable, algorithmic solutions are much preferred. Here’s where one of the most common misconceptions with regard to search engine penalties takes root. Countless articles and first-hand reports describe sites affected by search engine ”algorithm penalties”. All of them are fundamentally wrong. No website ever was or is affected by an “algorithmic penalty”. How could they, given that algorithms are purely input-driven mathematical formulas designed to calculate information and return results based thereon. If search engines worked ideally, and their algorithms were close enough to perfection to adequately read all input, then that was the end of the story. There were, in this utopian scenario, no actual penalties. We know it isn’t the case however and that’s because algorithms -even tried and tested ones- are prone to fail occasionally. When that happens, that’s when penalties become a reality. Unlike algorithms they are exceptions to the rule. Because of their motivations, primary objectives and cost awareness, search engines are rather reluctant to issue penalties. In the first instance, these tend to be costly, individual, limited in scope, barely or not at all replicable and worst of all contributing little to improving the core product. Search engines are averse to penalties because there’s very little gain in them from a purely business standpoint. Contrary to popular notion, legal concerns are not at all a reason why penalties are issued relatively sparsely, all facts considered. After all, no individual or organization has thus far managed to successfully litigate against a search engine and to recover their rankings based on court order. Search engines and their indices are private, proprietary property. Why different approaches?In a nutshell, penalizing is the manifestation of a small scale system failure, which requires resource allocation and bares no promise for gains of any kind. This helps to explain why most major search engines are reluctant to commit serious ressources to the endeavor. Among the former giants Yahoo! serves here only as a historical example, referring to another era way before it’s sad slide into search oblivion. At a time when Yahoo! still did enjoy a market share it opted for a rather strict if not completely either-in-or-out strategy. Websites found to be in violation with respective guidelines were either demoted or in case the identified transgression were egregiously entirely removed from the index. These so called Judgements were collected in a database internally referred to as EDB in perpetuity. That database wasn’t identical with the WoW or “worst of web” longtail index, reserved for merely low quality content. Websites included in the EDB did stand a chance to recover. A number of dedicated forms referring to situations such as “Site disappeared from Search Results” or “Improving Site Rank for specific Keywords” promised remedy for repentant website operators. Later the Yahoo! Site Explorer did provide similar two-way communication and resolution opportunities. More recently Bing and in-particular Google seem to embrace a more nuanced approach. Bing’s response to their Webmaster Guidelines violations requiring action is initially an attempt to mitigate the undesirable impact black hat SEO Company techniques have. If that’s not practicable or effective, the offending site is either demoted or ultimately entirely removed from Bing search results. There’s however no preemptive warning to be expected from the Bing Webmaster Tools. While ultimate Bing penalties seem to last for eternity, there is however a ray of hope for site operators willing to repent. Bing does engage in two way communication through a Support Form. While no turn-around time is guaranteed, the fact that website operators can inquire about their individual websites penalties is laudable. In time and with some effort Bing penalties can be lifted. Google embraced an even more refined approach, issuing granular, selective and specific penalties depending on the type of transgression identified. And proactively highlighting these to respective website operators via their Google Search Console. Despite the confusing naming the messages are not warnings, since there’s no time to prepare for the penalties impact. At the point of receiving the Google message, the penalty highlighted is already in place, even though it may not be felt acutely yet. Google allows manual penalties, which are officially referred to as manual spam actions, to time-out albeit after a prolonged period of time. And, unlike their competitors, Google has a formalized process for site owners who wish to abide by Google Webmaster Guidelines going forward to get back into good graces, called the Reconsideration Request. Here it is important to point out that the set of documents previously referred to has nothing to do with Google Rater Guidelines, which are used exclusively by hired contractors to assist engineers with evaluating algorithmic experiments. While the reconsideration request process is worthy of a deep-dive to foster better understanding, in this instance it is merely important to acknowledge that while no official turn-around time exists. In some cases, several months pass before a response is received. Google nonetheless chooses to commit experienced employees to manually review each and every reconsideration request sent. Even with the scant information provided via Google Search Console and utilizing the Reconsideration Request all Google manual penalties can be expunged, as long as the violation has been eliminated. Why do search engines care at all?Despite this substantially more labor intensive and significantly more accommodating approach towards website owners demonstrated by Bing and Google, the interested public perception frequently highlights a seemingly harsh, even vindictive actions on search engines part. The fact that 99.9% of all escalations of “penalized” websites vented about on forums refer to sites that fail to live up to the site operators expectation due to poor SEO Company signals is barely known. Most of these discussed cases refer to sites that have not actually been penalized. The constant lamentations suggest however to the online industry that search engines may care for individual websites. Somehow the notion of passionate, loving or hating search engines has taken root. That is fundamentally wrong though because search engines are utterly indifferent towards individual websites or their respective performances in organic search. Their only concern lies with their user satisfaction. Individual websites’ visibility for a given query is of no consequence. This is why search engines allocate only minimum resources towards penalizing websites. Or to lift previously issued penalties. There’s an upside to that dispassionate attitude. It not only allows penalty removal and recovery but it also prevents vindictiveness. Websites are never penalized because of their mere association with known offenders and they can grow in organic search visibility upon their recovery way beyond previously reached highs. What to make of penalties?Penalties must be seen for what they truly are: stopgap measures. They are occasional, almost exceptional in the scale of things. For search engines, they are a sore point rather than a hot button issue. Something to deal with swiftly but most definitely not the main theatre of operation. That search engines choose to allocate resources, however limited, to address penalty issues to a small special interest group like online marketers deserves some credit. Yet because they are relatively rare, it appears that penalties have been for far too long receiving unjustified attention within the webmaster community. Rather than dreaded, search engine penalties should be considered as a fact of online life and commerce. Similarly like a driver does not expect to catch a flat tire when getting into the car, his or her driving usually isn’t determined or permanently affected if they actually do catch a flat tire. Some, even skilled webmasters and website owners will have dealt with a search engine penalty at some point in their careers. Few may even experience several penalties over the course of their professional life. Still, these are unlikely to be the defining moments in any way. They are mere bumps on the road of an exciting journey. And the experience gained while dealing with penalties often bears the potential of a virtue out of necessity, ultimately culminating in unprecedented growth and online prosperity. Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here. About The Author
Kaspar Szymanski is a founding member of Search Brothers and well-known search expert specializing in recovering websites from Google penalties and helping websites improve their rankings with SEO Company Consulting. Before founding SearchBrothers.com, Kaspar was part of the Google Search Quality team where he was a driving force behind global web spam tackling initiatives. He is the author of the ultimate guide to Google penalties and part of the Ask the SMXperts series.
Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/search-engines-penalize-websites-but-why/ In May, Google announced it would sunset gallery ads and move forward with image extensions . On Wednesday, the company officially launched an image beta. It has also added dynamic countdown functionality to responsive search ads. Image extensions in Search adsWhen enabled and activated on an ad impression, image extensions show a single right-justified image alongside your text ad. The beta is open for both responsive search ads (RSA) and expanded search ads (ETA), Dynamic or manual. There are two image extensions options. You can either upload images relevant to your ads or allow Google to pull images dynamically from your web site. Images should be square at a recommended size of 1200 x 1200 pixels. Eligibility and results. To find out if you’re eligible, ask your account rep if you have one. Google says image extensions have shown to improve both conversions and click-through rates. Hugo Boss, for example, saw a 2.5x lift in ROI and a 5% increase in click-through rates using image extensions with responsive search ads, according to Google. FYI, if you’re running campaigns with Microsoft Advertising, that platform has supported image extensions since 2015 at the account, campaign and ad group levels. I don’t know if image extensions are compatible with Google Import tool yet but will be looking into it. Countdowns in RSAsNow you can inject dynamic ad copy into your responsive search ads with countdown ad customizers. Countdowns allow you to inject a sense of urgency into your ads by dynamically showing when a promotion is ending. The syntax — triggered by a curly bracket — is the same as it is with ETAs. Simply set your end date, the number of days out the countdown should start and whether it should reflect your account’s time zone or the ad viewer’s time zone. (Consider that if you select the viewer’s time zone, they could be seeing the countdown after your sale or promotion ends.) Why we careBoth of these new features available for responsive search ads indicate Google is continuing to invest in the format. In other words, it’s not going away any time soon. If you haven’t been testing and experimenting with RSAs, it might be time to take another look. RSAs may not always outperform ETAs, but these features give you more flexibility. You can also use them as a testing ground for new ad copy variations. Pinning top performing headlines and/or descriptions can also be a useful tactic with RSAs. Google also announced feature updates for Smart Shopping campaigns on Wednesday. About The Author
Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, marketing agency Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing agency experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.
Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/google-opens-image-extension-beta-adds-countdowns-to-responsive-search-ads/ Google announced several updates for Smart Shopping campaigns, which run across Search, Display, YouTube, and Gmail, on Wednesday. Here’s a look at what’s rolling out and what’s coming later this year. Shipping annotationsStarting Wedesndsay in the U.S., Smart Shopping ads can include annotations such as free or fast shipping. Google has long showed annotations, or flags, on standard Shopping ads to highlight price drops and shipping offers. With consumers shopping online more and higher demand continuing to cause shipping delays during the pandemic, highlighting fast or free shipping offers in your ads can be a real draw. The annotations appear dynamically and pull from your product feed and Google Merchant Center account. New customer optimization in Smart ShoppingAlso starting Wednesday, advertisers can optimize Smart Shopping campaigns for new customer acquisition with conversion goals. “Conversion value for new customers is the sum of the purchase value and the new customer value you set. The combined value is attributed to a purchase made by a new customer,” explains Google in its help page on the topic. Google will capture new customers in one of two ways. If you have conversion tracking set up to track purhcases, it will automatically set up an audience based on the last 540 days of campaign activity and tracked purchases. You can also add your own tagging for more control over which customers Google counts as new versus returning. Immersive ad format and videoGoogle also announced it may start displaying Smart Shopping ads in a new format starting later this year. “Just as Smart Shopping campaigns can optimize bids and placements, the format in which products are displayed will also respond to customers’ needs. We’re adding more visual features to help customers easily discover more retailers, explore options and narrow down who they want to make a purchase with,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land. “For example, let’s say a customer is browsing around for furniture ideas across websites and apps. They may see a video Display ad from a retailer’s Smart Shopping campaign (the sample image on the right) to help showcase relevant products in that moment. After more research, the customer narrows down their choices and starts searching specifically for ‘side chairs’. They may see a more immersive, browsable experience with a carousel of multiple retailers’ most relevant products. (the left and center images),” the spokesperson added. Why we careAs with the updates to responsive search ads that Google also announced Wednesday, these updates for Smart Shopping indicate that machine learning-powered formats and campaign types are where everything is headed. Advertisers will have to understand how to leverage controls such as the new customer acquisition conversion value to further inform automation and make them more effective. About The Author
Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, marketing agency Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing agency experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.
Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/smart-shopping-campaigns-get-shipping-annotations-new-customer-bidding-control/ Augmented reality starts driving sales: AR product engagement increased mobile purchases at eBags7/15/2020 Despite billions of dollars spent over a period of years, virtual reality is still not mainstream – and may never be. Augmented reality (AR) is on a different path however. Snap filters and Pokemon Go introduced many consumers to AR. And over the past few years, AR features have appeared in numerous brand and retail apps, such as L’Oreal, Wayfair, Crate & Barrel, Gucci, Ikea, Lowes, H&M, Macy’s, Adidas, Amazon and many others. To date, these have mostly been experiments or novelty features. 3D-AR toaster on Macy’s app A year ago Google introduced 3D images into search results. It has also rolled out AR enhanced walking directions in Maps and recently expanded the availability of its 3D Swirl Ads format. Conversion and revenue impact. AR is proliferating and becoming more familiar. But to date there have been few case studies showing a revenue impact. However, Chris Seahorn, SVP of marketing agency and Merchandising for eBags, told me that shoppers interacting with 3D-AR features on the site are converting at much higher rates. The company saw a 112% increase in mobile conversions and 81% on the PC when people interacted with 3D-AR-enabled products. Equally important, Seahorn told me that there were lower return rates for products with the 3D-AR feature. Samsonite-owned eBags recently deployed 3D and augmented reality to showcase selected products on their websites, using technology from Vertebrae. The feature allows users to spin and digitally examine products from all angles as well as “view in room.” The company initially deployed the technology on only a few core products and is now expanding its use. 3D product engagement on eBags website The technology is not unique and is being used by others, but what’s seemingly unique is the real impact it’s starting to have on eBags’ revenue. Seahorn says that 3D-AR complements product thumbnails, video and other features on the site to showcase products. He says he doesn’t have the data yet but suspects that those who engage with 3D-AR are going to show more frequency and lifetime value than other shoppers. Bringing more ‘real-world’ context to virtual shopping. Seahorn explains eBags was trying to make it easier for customers to experience the product in a more complete way, as they might in a store. And he believes that more AR and immersive digital experiences will be common among retailers as they lean more into e-commerce and close stores. Major retailers in the U.S. are closing store locations or going out of business as the pandemic takes its toll on traditional shopping. At the same time, e-commerce has seen triple-digit growth in many categories. Seahorn asserted that the post-COVID future of retail looks very different than its past, with fewer stores and smaller retail footprints. He also argued that early adopters of these technologies will have a “first mover advantage.” Why we care. The AR showcased in the eBags example is a simple (even pedestrian) but practical use case. It brings some of the “physical experience” of the product to digital and gives consumers a better sense of what they’re buying. But ads will be the next and arguably more interesting frontier for this technology, as Google, Facebook and other platforms seek to bring more vitality and immersive engagement to advertisers and consumers alike. About The Author
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.
Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/augmented-reality-starts-driving-sales-ar-product-engagement-increased-mobile-purchases-at-ebags/ We all know how valuable audience personas can be for marketers. They outline demographic information and pain points for different types of customers, and can help us picture our customer. However, there is no way for a persona to account for context – what is a real person actually experiencing at the moment they encounter our content? If we’re to produce campaigns that truly connect to our audiences, we must go beyond personas and get specific. In an ideal world, we’d write 100% personalized content for every potential customer, but in the real world, we have to settle for using tools to better get into their headspace. Here are tools to help:
Knowing what challenges your audiences face is only step one to developing campaigns that connect. Step two is understanding how your customers feel about their challenges and utilizing effective emotional writing to strike a chord.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here. About The Author
Ryan Brock is the founder and CEO of Metonymy Media, an agency of creative writers dedicated to helping businesses and organizations communicate effectively for growth and success. A full-time writer, editor, and entrepreneur for nine years, Brock’s professional focus is on creating fulfilling career opportunities for creative writers while empowering genuine brands to tell powerful stories that connect with audiences on every level to create powerful customer experiences. Brock has edited a number of books and publications, and is also the co-author of Nothing New: An Irreverent History of Storytelling and Social Media.
Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/why-audience-context-matters/ Since its inception in 2015, the Search Engine Land Awards have annually recognized two outstanding individuals as Search Marketer of the Year — one male and one female. The goal was to ensure that there was ample and equal opportunity for women in search to be nominated, made a finalist, and — for one outstanding individual — win the coveted title. We’re proud to announce we achieved that goal in 2019, with female nominees actually outnumbering male nominees. This milestone got us thinking about other ways we could bolster our initiatives of diversity and inclusion. Therefore, after much discussion here at Search Engine Land, we have decided to remove the binary distinction associated with this particular category. Moving forward, Search Marketer of the Year nominees will belong to a combined category regardless of gender identity — from which top marketers who have demonstrated exceptional, measurable results in search marketing agency via organic and/or paid channels will be selected. As the 2020 Awards have already kicked off and are currently accepting submissions, any nominations already submitted for Search Marketer of the Year will be ushered into the new category. Business owners, executives and managers are encouraged to nominate key team members and/or account leaders who have produced laudable results within their organizations and made a positive impact on the search marketing agency community. Individuals are also encouraged to self-nominate, if they choose! (Don’t be shy… tell us why you rock!) Please note: You don’t have to work with someone in order to nominate them. You’re invited to nominate anyone in the industry who you feel deserves recognition for their professional accomplishments or who is an exemplary member of the search marketing agency community. Secondly, we will soon unveil a brand new category for the 2020 program that honors organizations that have done exemplary work in bettering the search and marketing agency fields for minorities and the LGBTQ+ community. Applications for this category can be submitted free of charge. More diversity and greater inclusion were the motivations behind these two category changes, and we let those initiatives guide us when selecting the recipient of the 2020 Search Engine Land Awards’ charitable donation: COOP Careers. We’re excited and proud to support COOP and the crucial, admirable, meaningful work they do every day. (We encourage you to read more about their mission!) Finally, we have heard your requests for more time to complete your applications due to massive interruptions in workflow, team and organization structures, and client relations as a result of COVID-19. Therefore, we will be extending the submission deadlines to the following dates:
We know many of you have worked hard on your submissions, and we kindly ask for your patience while we allow others from the search community to do the same during these challenging times. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. About The Author
Katie Jordan is Search Engine Land’s marketing agency Coordinator and has been a member of the Search Engine Land / Third Door Media team since 2013, first joining as a Community Intern and later joining the marketing agency team full time in 2016. Katie coordinates the annual Search Engine Land Awards, works with our Editorial Team to generate the Search Engine Land, marketing agency Land, and MarTech Today Daily Brief newsletters, and works with the marketing agency team on the many projects across Third Door Media brands.
Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/important-update-changes-to-the-2020-search-engine-land-awards/ Effective content writers bring quality to your content that can increase your search visibility, traffic, conversions and help to distinguish your brand from competitors. Unfortunately, finding the right author for your audience and organization can take a considerable amount of time, and that time investment may double if the candidate doesn’t work out. Knowing where to look and what to look out for can help you set the foundation for content marketing agency success. Below, agency owners, content writers and strategists share their most useful guidance on how to source and vet potential candidates. Finding the right content writerBefore you turn to your network. Referrals are a common way to discover writers, and this method can enable you to learn whether the candidate has a history of meeting deadlines or is receptive to feedback before you even approach them. However, relying too heavily on your own network may result in missed opportunities. “I am cautious of relying solely on referral networks because of a ‘flock’ mentality,” said Shannon K. Murphy, chief strategist at Shine Content Strategy, “We’re not adding diverse voices or thoughts to our branded publications if we only pull from within our networks.” With racial equity taking center stage in the Black Lives Matter movement, brands should consider diverse voices at all levels of the organization. Perpetuating homogeneity can also result in overlooking and missing out on valuable alternative viewpoints. Leverage social media sites. Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook can provide you with an abundance of candidates, and knowing how to go about your search can help you sift through potential writers. “Go on LinkedIn and do a targeted search,” Carol Tice, founder of the Make a Living Writing blog and Freelance Writers Den community, said during our session of Live with Search Engine Land focusing on how to find and foster relationships with content writers, advising that employers search for the exact type of writer they need (using a query like “freelance Seattle technology writer,” for example). “What LinkedIn will return you is the people you’re connected to — your connections will rank at the top, so it’s a way of doing the referral network, but in a bigger lens,” she said, recommending that employers also look into job boards specifically for writers. “If you’re looking for a particular type of writer, I go to niche Facebook groups and try to find writers that way,” said Jessica Foster, SEO Company copywriter and content strategist at Keys&Copy SEO Company, adding, “If they’re very active, they’ve branded themselves professionally on either Facebook or LinkedIn, then to me, that’s a good sign.” A writer’s LinkedIn recommendations or their Facebook business page may also provide you with useful information on potential candidates. Scope out industry publications. “When looking for writers, check out publications in your field that you like and admire, chances are these blogs are using freelance writers who are subject matter experts,” Murphy said, noting that this method can help you cut back on time spent educating writers about your industry and enables you to get a peak at their work. If there’s a potential match, you can then search for the writer on Twitter or LinkedIn to see if they’re open to working with you. This strategy can also save you time even after you’ve attracted the right talent. “Collecting publications and articles you admire is an oft-neglected but vital part of the content strategy process — you need to be able to show writers examples of the style and tone that you’re trying to emulate,” she added. Incentivize writers to come to you. You can increase the likelihood of writers coming to you first by providing them with equitable compensation and development opportunities. “I came in to do blogging, [but] I’m looking for a chance to write an email sequence around a post or offer, to do a free product for subscribers, to do case studies, white papers, special reports, e-books,” Tice said of the growth opportunities that she, as a writer, looks for when working with clients. “I’m not going to be interested if I don’t see there are more lucrative and high-visibility projects included,” she said. “Producing the kind of content we want to see from content writers has been hugely helpful in attracting the caliber of candidates we’re looking for,” said Devin Bramhall, CEO of content marketing agency agency Animalz, “It’s a bit more of a long-term play when it comes to sourcing talent, but it works, because you become the place great writers aspire to work for.” Vetting your prospective writersYou need more than published samples. Writing samples are one of the most common ways to evaluate a candidate, and while they do provide you with more information to work with, they should not be the only thing you assess. “Existing clippings get them in the door, but given that published blog posts and/or articles can be edited (sometimes heavily) from others, it’s not always a good reflection of a writer’s capabilities,” said Bramhall, “We ask candidates to choose a piece of content marketing agency and evaluate it, as well as submit a short writing project.” Bramhall’s agency also provides clearly defined role descriptions and expectations to facilitate their own evaluation process. “Ask them to give you raw drafts instead of their finished ones,” said Tice. Requesting the first submitted draft provides you with a glimpse of their writing before the editing process and would reveal whether their published samples were heavily edited. Your writers need to be trainable. “The [writers] that are a little bit self-effacing . . . they’re the ones that I think, ‘Now this is somebody that can be coached and mentored to learn that other stuff’,” said Mel Carson, CEO at Delightful Communications. The honesty and attitude that candidates display can help agencies and brands determine how successful their relationship is likely to be. To mitigate the risk of onboarding an underperforming writer, employers can start their writers off on a trial basis, Heather Lloyd-Martin, CEO at SuccessWorks, recommended. “If they can’t handle edits or constructive criticism . . . that’s not somebody that I can work with because, in my head, they’re not trainable for my firm,” she said. Watch the full Live with Search Engine Land session for more insights on finding and fostering relationships with content writers. You can also view our full list of Live with Search Engine Land sessions here. About The Author
George Nguyen is an Associate Editor at Third Door Media. His background is in content marketing agency, journalism, and storytelling.
Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/how-to-source-and-vet-content-writers-video/ Free Webinar | July 28: NerdWallet CEO Shares How He Grew an $800 Investment into a $500M Company7/15/2020 Join us as we speak with Tim Chen, CEO of NerdWallet, to discuss best practices to start and grow a successful company. Grow Your Business, Not Your InboxStay informed and join our daily newsletter now! July 16, 2020 2 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Some of the most successful businesses are started in a downturn. Mark your calendars to hear how one such leader did this after being laid off from Wall Street as a result of the 2009 financial crash. This C-suite leadership series is hosted by Comparably co-founder/CEO Jason Nazar as he sits down for a virtual fireside chat with Tim Chen, co-founder/CEO of NerdWallet — the go-to informational website that helps consumers make the smartest decisions on all things personal finance. Chen started the fintech company with only $800, and it is now valued at over $500 million with more than 150 million unique visitors on the site annually. The conversation will center around practical “If I Knew Then…” leadership advice, personal life philosophies and guiding principles, and the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs in today’s landscape. Other topics that will be covered include:
Jason Nazar is co-founder/CEO of Comparably, a leading workplace culture and compensation site that provides the most comprehensive and accurate representation of what it’s like to work at companies. Under his leadership, the online platform has accumulated more than 10 million employee ratings on 60,000 U.S. companies to become one of the most trusted third party resources for workplace and salary data since launching in 2016. Tim Chen is co-founder/CEO of NerdWallet, a consumer finance website and app dedicated to providing clarity for all of life’s financial decisions. Inspired by his own passion for personal finance, he got the idea for NerdWallet when his sister asked him for a credit card recommendation and he ended up compiling an Excel spreadsheet based on hundreds of hours of research. Since then, Tim has set the strategic vision for NerdWallet, spearheading its growth from just that Excel spreadsheet to a go-to financial resource that offers actionable insights and tailored recommendations on credit cards, credit score, student loans, mortgages, car insurance and more to more than 100 million people every year. Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/free-webinar-july-28-nerdwallet-ceo-shares-how-he-grew-an-800-investment-into-a-500m-company/ July 15, 2020 8 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. This morning I spoke with a friend I met 10 months ago in Chicago at the first Next Global Impactor event. The event was a competition for impact-driven individuals from around the world. I was a team coach and speaker. Hunter won first place for her nonprofit organization Chemo Buddies For Life, a cancer support group that provides support for patients dealing with any variety of cancer. The organization provides support to patients and those who care for them during treatment and beyond. A resident of the greater L.A. area in California, Hunter is a survivor of cancer. She’s also a survivor of abuse, having escaped 19 years ago from a bitterly unhappy marriage with her four children, now grown. Now re-married, she exudes a feminine energy. But she’s also a force to be reckoned with, which the team of hackers who took over nine of her social media accounts this week learned the hard way “It was like a scene out of ‘WarGames,’” she said as we laughed about the worst moment, as she battled a hacker in real-time to change the password on one of her three Facebook accounts faster than the hacker could keep on changing it back. But what she’d dealt with in the 24 hours before our visit was no laughing matter. A social media hacking could happen to any of us, and potentially already has — a Harris poll by the University of Phoenix says that two out of three adult respondents with social media accounts report knowledge of their accounts being hacked) In fact, the Harris survey continued, more than 70 percent of hacks at the time of the survey (in 2016) were propagated manually, by social media users unwittingly sharing and forwarding posts that come with malware attached. Most of us have already been victims. The increasing prevalence of #WFH makes us even more vulnerable as many remote workers who’ve been displaced quickly during the health crisis aren’t being sufficiently protected by home wireless when the protections from workplace firewalls are gone. Hunter is especially vulnerable. Thanks to her showing in the Next Impactor contest, which was decided in large part by donation and votes, she’s amassed a massive following on her primary social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. All three were hacked. Worse still, she maintains not one but three separate accounts on each platform that represent her personally as well as two charitable organizations and initiatives she leads. That’s nine accounts, all of which the hackers were weaponizing to steal her identity and information to collect money from the many people who trust her. Related: Your Identity Could Be Used in Online Dating Scams. Here’s How to … How did she stop them?Hunter’s first clue came at “zero dark thirty” on June 24, 2020, when a key member of her team called to alert her to a LinkedIn message they’d received that was clearly not coming from her. She checked it out. Sure enough. Then the messages started pouring in from users on Instagram and then Facebook. It was a full-on assault. Hunter is an especially appealing target to hackers since she has a large following, and a philanthropic profile, so is regularly inviting followers to contribute to different causes. In other words, a request for money wouldn’t be out of the norm. But what could she do? There were three accounts on each platform, all being attacked. There were nine logins, and one of her. What do you do when your social media is hacked?Adrenaline kicked in quickly. Hunter’s first move was to change the passwords on each affected account, thus setting off the speed test with the hacker repeatedly changing them back. Pausing to breathe, she thought “What can I do right now that a hacker couldn’t?” Two things, it turned out — first, she could quickly request two-step authentications on every account, meaning any password change would need to be confirmed with a passcode the platform could send to her phone via text. Voila. With new passwords in place she could revert back to the single-step and the hacker was stopped. Second, she could do a live post to her followers, as her image and voice was something the hacker couldn’t replicate. Immediately, through a quick video, she alerted followers on all platforms about the hacking attempts, told them not to respond, and asked them to report any fraudulent message. Stunningly, the hacker was brazen enough to be following her Instagram account from the phony Tamara Hunter account they’d created. The hacker was disguised as Hunter while watching her every step. So she blocked and reported the fake Tamara. Finally, she reported the attacks on all three platforms. Reporting on Instagram was especially problematic as each time she submitted, she was able to get only partway through the report before the platform would drop her connection, requiring multiple attempts before the submittal would finally “take.” Then she alerted the FTC, with ample evidence in her hands at this point. Twenty-four hours later, all three platforms have reacted and the fraudulent accounts on all three platforms are gone, with any longer-term remedy in the hands of the FTC. Thankfully, the hackers were thwarted without loss of funds for Hunter or any of her followers. Related: 5 Types of Business Data Hackers Can’t Wait to Get Their Hands On What would a hacker get by impersonating a charity?Plenty, it turns out. According to Wired, one of the most typical approaches of hackers on Facebook is to use phishing attacks to learn a charity’s password and quietly install themselves through a phony account as an administrator to the charity’s page. From there they quietly sit until they deem the time is right to begin making posts that announce the charity is now “raising money for animals displaced by wildfires,” for example. They direct donations to an outside link, such as a fraudulent GoFundMe page. In the case the Wired article outlines, the entrepreneur unwittingly made things worse by simply deleting the fraudulent posts as they happened. This only served to embolden the criminal further. She was successful in getting the fraudulent GoFundMe page taken down and the $1,500 collected returned to its donors. But the hacker continued to attack her charity pages again and again, under new identities. Months later, weary of the harassment, the entrepreneur finally quietly settled by meeting the hacker’s demand that she repay them the initial $1,500 they’d taken through an anonymous PayPal account. In Hunter’s case, the hacker(s) were apparently seeking the phone numbers of her followers to make a bid that for a fee, they could obtain grants for the followers to help them create and succeed in their own philanthropic organizations. Because she has multiple accounts on each platform and many thousands of followers, all aligned in their philanthropic interests, she became a rich target. So how did they obtain her information? Yes, it is possible a hacker was able to “sniff” her wireless access. But as research shows, the even higher likelihood is that Hunter or one of her team may have inadvertently clicked on a phishing campaign or shared a story or post infected with malware that allowed the hackers to obtain or guess the information they needed to log in. She was lucky. But given the prevalence of social media hacks, what should every entrepreneur know and do? Consider the following:
Finally, you can go to FTC.gov to view additional input on how to avoid being hacked and what to do in the event that it happens. If you determine anything has been stolen, you can report the theft and seek redress through the steps recommended at IdentityTheft.gov. Related: How Hackers Take Advantage of a Crisis Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/they-messed-with-the-wrong-gal-what-to-do-when-your-social-media-gets-hacked/ |
About USIf you yourself are not an IT person however is enthusiastic about constructing a powerful Web marketing agency Company, then perhaps it's time for you to hunt around for some leading brains in IT to employ as specialists and staff for your Online marketing agency Company. ArchivesNo Archives Categories |