Infographics - Express Writers

The Big Content Spend: How & Where Are Brands Placing Their Content Budgets (Infographic)

December 31, 2020August 17, 2015 by Adam Oakley

In today’s infographic, we’re taking a look at just how big of an investment companies are putting into content marketing this year. What kind of brands believe in content, and invest in it as a major form of marketing? What kind of investments are being made? With numbers in the billions, the findings may (or may not) surprise you. Read, enjoy, share, comment! Transcript – Revised to Reflect Accurate Budget Statistics 9/1/15 Content Budgets: Why Content Marketing Is A Main Marketing Focus in 2015 And Beyond Just where are brands putting their money? Content marketing (content budgets exist!). Here are some crazy statistics about the importance of content in the marketing sphere for 2015. The average per company content marketing budget is more than $1.8 million (annual). 60% of those who have a documented strategy rate themselves highly in terms of content marketing effectiveness. 27 million pieces of content are shared every day 59% of marketers expect their organization’s content marketing budget to increase spending in the next 12 months for 2015 Marketers invest over 25% of their marketing budget on content marketing 9 out of 10 organizations currently market with content What Types of Businesses Are Investing in Content Marketing? Both B2B and B2C are spending a content budget. Here’s more about that. 55% of B2B organizations and 59% of B2C organizations will increase their content marketing budget this year 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing and 70% are increasing the amount of content they create since last year How Are Big Brands Spending on Content Marketing? If you don’t think content marketing is important, check out these major brands and the value they place on content. Coca-Cola now spends more money creating content than on television advertising. Red Bull employs roughly 135 people for its content marketing & media strategy. 20 community managers and designers create content everyday as part of Nestlé’s digital editorial team. Why Are We Seeing Such an Increase in Content Marketing Investments? Because people finally realize it’s vital to a great online marketing strategy. Content budgets (and big spends) are happening. Also, see below. 61% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that shares custom content. 35% of Fortune 500 CMOs claim that creating fresh content was their biggest challenge in 2014. B2B companies find a 67% increase in leads per month when they create content Content creation is considered the most effective SEO practice. 64% of people say the customer experience is more important than price in their choice of a brand. 4 Signs You May Need to Increase Your Content Marketing Budget Your content marketing is not effective. B2B marketers who feel they are least effective only allocate 16% of their budget to content. Marketers who rate themselves to be most effective assign 37% of their budget to content. You don’t focus on hiring talent. In the next year, 56% of leading business bloggers plan to hire additional resources. You’re not frequently and consistently producing fresh content. 77% of marketers report that they plan to increase content production in the next year. The quality of your content is damaging your ROI. 31% of marketers claim that they need to improve the quality of their content. And… 7 Steps To Guide You To Invest in Effective Content Marketing Hire writers first. Most marketers, when initially entering into content marketing, invest first in a writer. Work with talented writers. The top 3 reason people choose to follow brands on social media is that they share content that is interesting to the reader. Outsource qualified writers. 62% of companies outsource their content marketing to create consistent, quality content. Invest in an effective strategy. 48% of B2B marketers use at least one content marketing strategy. B2C marketers use 12 content marketing tactics on average. A further 35% percent document their strategy and results. Focus on blogs. Blogs help to give websites on average a whopping 434% more indexed pages, highly effective for SEO. Become more effective. Only 32 % of all B2C marketers are effective at content marketing. Invest in visual content. 82% of companies are prioritizing visual content in their content marketing budget (like infographics). Resources Content Marketing Institute | http://buff.ly/1M2JKqn Hubspot | http://buff.ly/1M2JW8Y Amanda Nelson, Exact Target | http://buff.ly/1IDR06t Contently | http://buff.ly/1M2KcVA The Kapost Blog | http://buff.ly/1M2Ksnj CMO Council| http://buff.ly/1Q6nxrI One Spot| http://buff.ly/1Jvmehx

How To Make Sure Your Brand Is Publishing High Quality Content (Infographic)

January 1, 2021July 30, 2015 by Adam Oakley

We know that content quantity and quality go hand in hand these days – without either you really can’t achieve footing in the content marketing sphere. So how does one ensure they are publishing high quality content, in the quantity of it all? Let’s take a look. If you liked this infographic, we’d love to hear from you in the comments – and feel free to share the love! Transcript 73% of people would rather be informed by a series of informing and interesting articles than traditional advertising. Interesting content is the top 3 motive for consumers to follow brands on social media. 78% of people believe organizations and brands that create quality content want to build positive relationships with them. Content leaders who produce quality content receive 7.8 x more unique site traffic than content followers. Creating quality content is the most effective SEO strategy. Google released a new “Phantom algorithm” in April 2015 which places the quality of content as the top priority. 6 Dangerous Pitfalls that Always Lead to Poor Quality Content First, let’s talk about what NOT to do. These six major no-nos will damage the relationship with your readers and tarnish your SEO efforts. Duplicate content will compromize your SEO strategy. Forgetting and not focusing on the user experience reduces the amount readers will share your content. Keyword stuffing & creating content that is not interesting to readers. Content that has spelling and grammar errors damages your credibility as an expert. Link-baiting titles that don’t lead to quality content undermine the trustworthiness of your brand. Failing to meet the needs of your readers will lead to a failure to build relationships with your customers. 5 Steps to Guarantee Quality Content Every Time Marketers spend almost 1/3 of their budget on content marketing efforts. But are they asking themselves if what they produce is high quality? Here’s how you can make sure you’re always publishing high quality content to get the return on your investment. Step 1: Who are you trusting to create your content? If you’re relying on a nobody to create your content, you’re risking damaging your brand with poor quality that doesn’t resonate with your reader. Expert writers not only bring professionalism and experience to content creation in order to create accurate and stylistic writing. Expert writers also have a deep understanding of your niche and can create unique content that genuinely informs and interests your readers, i.e. if you are a legal company, be sure to hire an expert legal writer. Step 2: Know what types of content performs well in your industry Software helps you to identify and analyze what types of content work well in your industry. Buzzsumo helps writers to strategize their content marketing and create content that is statistically proven to work well. Step 3: Plan content that has competitive edge Software (we suggest SEMRush and BuzzSumo) can help monitor content created by competitors. Planning content strategically against the context of competitors’ content gives brands the competitive edge and creates quality content that readers love. Step 4: Utilize the power of content auditing Marketers use content auditing to uncover data that informs effective and efficient content marketing. Content auditing helps brands to ensure that the content they create is always high quality. Step 5: Ensure that your content passes at least two pairs of critical eyes Quality content should always read well, be void of spelling and grammar errors with clarity and concision. Even the most experienced expert writers may miss small errors in writing. Ensure that your content is proofread by professional editors. What Types of Quality Content Can Your Brand Produce? One of the biggest challenges for brands is to consistently create high quality content that remains high quality. Quality content comes in all shapes and sizes. There are many opportunities for your brand to create quality content. Here are just a few types of content your brand can create: Blogs Web pages Infographics Whitepapers Press releases Social media content SlideShare presentations Storytelling through creative copy, etc. Video content Ads & email newsletters References Thomas Smale, Entrepreneur | http://buff.ly/1RC9C1e Chantielle MacFarlane, Unbounce | http://buff.ly/1RC9ZJ7 eMarketer | http://buff.ly/1HBm1bP NewsCred | http://buff.ly/1Mdzhd4 Kapost | http://buff.ly/1MdBjtz Lee Odden, Top Rank Blog | http://buff.ly/1HBtPKx

How to Repurpose Your Content Correctly (Infographic)

June 19, 2024June 29, 2015 by Adam Oakley

In our infographic below, we’re exploring why you should repurpose content, why Twitter should be a major focus, and six easy ways to repurpose content. Plus, four killer tools you can use. Get started on awesome content re-purposing right away! Don’t forget to share if you’ve found our infographic helpful! How to Repurpose Content: An Infographic Like this infographic? Get more tips from Express Writers. Embed this infographic on your own site Copy and paste this code into your blog post or web page: <a href=”https://staging.expresswriters.com/how-to-repurpose-your-content-correctly-infographic”><img title=”How” src=”https://staging.expresswriters.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Infographic.jpg” alt=”How” width=”1000″” height=”7007″ /></a> Like this infographic? Get more tips from <a href=”https://staging.expresswriters.com/”>Express Writers</a>. Transcript Why Should You Repurpose Content? Approximately 15% of Americans listen to podcasts of repurposed content, and the number is growing each year. Tweets with visual content get 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites, and 150% more re-tweets. Repurposed content helps make your content more impactful as 67% of people are likely to be convinced by a presentation that includes visuals. An infographic is 30 times more likely to help you get views than an article. Kissmetric’s infographics received an average of 20,859 likes on Facebook. An average of 62% of podcast listeners surveyed have said they are likely to buy something advertised on a podcast. 70% of many major businesses say videos are a highly effective aspect of their content marketing. Why Twitter Should Be A Focus For Your Repurposed Content Studies show that you’ll get the most use out of Twitter if you tweet up to 30x a day, while small business owners do better around 5 tweets/day. (Kevan Lee) A tweet usually has a “life” of 18 minutes. That’s why you want to tweet often: the more you tweet, the more you will see engagement. (Kevan Lee) Link to your blogs and content, often: 50% of all re-tweeted tweets contain links. (Leo Widrich) Re-sharing your content is vital on Twitter: you can get just as many if not more re-tweets on your second, third and fourth posts of the same blog. (Belle Beth Cooper) Use different headlines as you tweet. Your unique second headline can get double the amount of clicks. (Leo Widrich) Going viral is more possible on Twitter than Facebook because of the immediate traction tweets get. Facebook posts have a shelf life of 5 hours. (Leo Widrich) 6 EASY Ways to Repurpose Content Make a Presentation. Turn your blog post into a presentation on SlideShare. Make a few graphics and put them into the program, and you have new, repurposed content. (Kevan Lee) Turn Old Blog Posts Into Guides. Old blog posts provide a lot of excellent content to be repurposed. Assemble the multiple blogs you’ve written on a topic and turn them into an easy-to-access guide with multiple aspects. (Megan Marrs) Use Your Evergreen Content. One of the best types of content to repurpose is evergreen content. This gives you more topics to work with, and helps you create something that will still be worthwhile in the future. (Kevan Lee) Create Infographics from Written Content. Do you have a favorite blog that you want more people to read? Consider chopping it down into short points and putting them in infographic form. (Arnie Kuenn) Host a Podcast Based Off of a Blog Post. Podcasts are a hot commodity right now, and your written content provides some great resources for one (or several). Look at your popular posts and then host a podcast talking more in-depth on them. (Megan Marrs) Turn Your Content into Powerful Videos. Your existing written content can be used as visual in multiple ways, including video. Brand videos made from content you already have can reach more people and bring in new customers. (Salma Jafri) 4 Great Tools For Repurposing Content SlideShare. This is a great tool to add your visual content to, creating a presentation you can give out to your clients. Try it when repurposing your content for maximum audience reach. (Garrett Moon) YouTube. This is the best channel to share your videos on to reach out to a wide audience. When you repurpose written content into videos, always make sure you have a YouTube channel set up for them. (Garrett Moon) Social Media Channels. Every single social media channel offers you the chance to repurpose content whether it is on Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram. Research different ones to find which will benefit your business the most. (Yael Kochman) List.ly. Lists are amazing, aren’t they? People love lists, which makes this program excellent to use for your repurposed content. Simply break your content down into a list format, update this program, and share with your audience. (Yael Kochman) Full Reference List Kevan Lee, Buffer | http://buff.ly/1eEKhlQ CityRoom | http://buff.ly/1eEKfdY Wordstream | http://buff.ly/1dclaVS Hubspot | http://buff.ly/1eEKjKv Inc.com, Larry Kim | http://buff.ly/1eEKplj Brafton | http://buff.ly/1eEKwxu Salma Jafri, Search Engine Watch | http://buff.ly/1eEKzt8 Arnie Kuenn, CMI | http://buff.ly/1eEKGVy Coschedule | http://buff.ly/1eEKJR9 Outbrain | http://buff.ly/1eEKKVc

The Ultimate State of Content Marketing In 2015 – Infographic

June 19, 2024June 16, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Content is here to stay: no doubt about it. But how is content considered successful today, based on search engine ranking potential and real value-add to readers? The Ultimate State of Content Marketing In 2015 We’ve gathered the top factors of successful content for 2015, based on over 15 top sources (including major content marketing studies) in one comprehensive infographic. Enjoy, and don’t forget to share and comment! (Transcript below the infographic of the content and resource links.) Like this infographic? Get more tips from Express Writers. Embed this infographic on your own site Copy and paste this code into your blog post or web page: Like this infographic? Get more tips from Express Writers. Did You Know? Crucial Content Stats For 2015 95% (9 out of 10) B2B marketers in North America use content marketing. 60% of marketers use content marketing WEEKLY. 41% of marketers confirm content marketing has a positive ROI (Stateofinboundmarketing) 82% of prospects find relevant industry content most valuable (Marketo) Engagement is the most frequently cited objective for content marketing by US B2B marketers. (Curata) Content marketing is now defined as using/creating content that is not promotional but interesting or valuable in itself. (Emarketer) Buyers are most likely to share blog posts more than any other content form. Next most likely shared content form: infographics. (DemandGenReport) Whitepapers used to be one of the most popular content forms (in 2013); now, 95% of buyers prefer shorter content formats. (DemandGenReport) In social media, buyers are more likely to be on LinkedIn & Twitter. (DemandGenReport) Length matters: Blogs that are at least 2,500 words on a 10+ year old domain rank the best in Google. (serpIQ) Content at least 3,000 words gets 2x the amount of shares shorter posts do. Six Key Factors of Content Success In 2015 What makes successful content tick? Let’s take a look. 1. Quality is the number one ranking factor. Although authority and relevance win the rankings (Redevolution), quality is the number one ranking factor for web content (Neilpatel). 2. Useful content posted consistently will succeed. The keyword is useful; if your readers gain something from reading, they will share and engage. Correct SEO copywriting is essential for websites. 3. A lot of time will be spent crafting perfect headlines. Five times as many people read the headline as read the actual body copy. (David Ogilvy) (represent in a statistic?). This means when you write a headline, you spend 80c out of a dollar (also represent in a statistic possibly?) Headline copy is one of the top 5 MOST impactful elements for lead generation. (MarketingSherpa) 4. Content auditing is the best way to monitor content quality. Say goodbye to bad content: embarrassing content and outdated links won’t happen again if you maintain content auditing (Copyblogger). Content auditing tools: a content expert’s human eye, time, SEMRush 5. Content curation is becoming mainstream. Most marketers are now utilizing content curation as a key component of their content marketing strategy. 56% of marketers say that quality content is their greatest content marketing challenge. Curation is a top solution for this challenge. (Forbes/Curata) Curation tools: Scoop.it, Quora, Curata, Storify, Paper.li 6. Creativity will be in demand as content marketers strive to rise above. Today, SEO copywriting isn’t finished when the content is well-written or even useful: the content must also excite the reader. The more creative the content, the more the engagement. Storytelling will be in demand as a top engagement tool to connect audience to content. (BruceClay) Just remember: not everyone is a storyteller. (Wordstream) Examples of awesome creativity in content: Basecamp’s TheDistance.com, Redbull’s Redbulletin.com. Liked this infographic? Buy one, custom-made to your marketing needs, from us in our Content Shop today! Statistics – Full Reference List Marketing Sherpa l http://buff.ly/1EO55AY Neil Patel l http://buff.ly/1yzbM9g Kapost l http://buff.ly/1OlbN2g Dev-Edge Internet Marketing l http://buff.ly/1aBTQPx Copyblogger l http://buff.ly/1cAzSX7 Scoop.it l http://buff.ly/1b2k1zB Redevolution l http://buff.ly/1J8NJ0X Emarketer l http://buff.ly/1Hd7VQw Content Marketing Institute l http://buff.ly/1Hd8qK9 Demand Gen Report l http://buff.ly/1G2a7f0 Forbes l http://buff.ly/1yzB7Qj State of Inbound 2014 Hubspot l http://buff.ly/1G2aLsP Curata l http://buff.ly/1Hdj2Jc serpIQ l http://buff.ly/1b2M9T7 Bruce Clay, INC l http://buff.ly/1b2N6uz Wordstream l http://buff.ly/1G2DKN7

Why & How You Should Create Infographics for Your Company

February 2, 2023January 6, 2014 by Adam Oakley

2014 could be your most profitable year yet! How? Well, we’re loading you up with vital content and marketing information, all designed to increase your company’s exposure and profitability during the New Year. And one of the hottest tools is our topic today—infographics! One of the marketing tools currently said to be marketing gold is the infographic. Have you heard of them and wondered just why and how it might be of use to your company? We’ve dug into the infographic trenches and even tried using a couple of them ourselves. Let’s take a look as just why you should do more than think about trying them out, and how you should implement infographics as a marketing tool. What is an Infographic and Why It Matters for Your Marketing Efforts You’re educated regarding information and graphic marketing. These two marketing types are practically the bread and butter of every successful marketing campaign launched by every successful business for decades. But what exactly is an infographic? It sounds like a combination of information and graphics, doesn’t it? Wikipedia provides the simplest infographic definition. According to the online user-generated encyclopedia, infographics, also known as information graphics are graphic visual representations of data, knowledge or information, created with the purpose of presenting complex information in a quick and clear manner. A great example of an infographic is the weather report, which is a visual graphic depicting information about the weather. Graphs and charts presenting statistical data are another type of infographic. Think of an infographic as visual storytelling; it packs a strong and strongly memorable visual message. Infographics took on a dramatically new meaning for the marketing world with the advent of social media sites. Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, infographics can be seamless and rapidly shared from a single user or business to an audience—and potential customer pool—of millions, worldwide. Why Use Infographics? Forbes sums up the top reason for creating and using infographics using the headline, “Use Infographics to Boost Your Credibility and Traffic.” Business owners are always looking for proven ways to boost credibility and traffic, but just why do infographics get the job done? Let’s take a look: Catering to short attention spans. Let’s be painfully honest, our attention spans are not what they used to be. We live in an information age. It’s streamed to us all the time; on the television, on the web, over our smartphones, on our tablets. We’re constantly bombarded with tons of useful information. How do we sort this information between our “must read” and “it can wait” lists? Simple! We look for the most captivating presentation. An infographic relays a complex message in a short, capturing format. Visualization caters to the brain. Forbes points out an excellent fact. “Human beings are highly visual.” It’s a fact that we absorb visual information faster than written information. We also retain is more easily. Ease of understanding. When infographics are properly created, they allow the audience to absorb and understand complex information in a fun and engaging format. When done right, this is why infographics can boost a company’s profile and website traffic. Going viral. The goal of every serious business is to create a marketing tool that goes viral, meaning it explodes onto the web grabbing thousands of views, tons of new exposure and converts to sales. A good infographic can accomplish this goal effortlessly while simultaneously inspiring writers and bloggers to chatter, creating backlinks, and further company exposure. Our highest converting email campaign of 2013 was our infographic campaign. It generated the most clicks and stirred up the highest amount of excitement and interest in our company to date. Why not tap into this proven marketing tool in 2014 and make it a year to remember as you gain record exposure? 10 Popular Ways to Use Infographics Larger amounts of data and content are the latest trends in online content marketing. According to a TNW Blog article on top ways to use infographics “the biggest question surrounding [this trend] has been figuring out the best way to interpret it all.” Infographics have been like the superhero flying to the rescue. These super powered creations pack a punch. Let’s review the ten most common uses of these power packed creations: A recruiting tool. Designers have used infographics on resumes for years as a way to visually simplify their careers by highlighting their specific skillsets with their own design style. Somewhere along the way, recruiters realized the genius of this strategy and started using infographics as a way to recruit for project management positions. Today infographics are used to effectively communicate the facts about a company and who they seek to hire. A data presentation tool. Statistical and numerical data have long been a bear to present. They have the ability to put the audience on snooze or baffle them completely. Thanks to infographics, data is easier to present in the form of easily readable and understandable graphs and charts. Simplifying the complex. As mentioned earlier, the primary goal of an infographic is to simplify a complex idea or complex information. Infographics are incredible educational tools, particularly when attempting to present an overview versus an in-depth analysis. The visual basis of the infographic helps students and audiences alike grasp complex topics through memorable and easily understandable visual collages. Explaining operations. Not only can an infographic simplify the complex, but it can also reveal the mechanics behind an intricate object with precision simplicity. For example, skilled designers utilize infographics to pull apart and demonstrate how complex products like clocks, cameras, computer components and smartphone work. Such creations can be great additions to user manuals, showing consumers how their product is built and the mechanics at work on the inside. Making startling comparisons. When we compare our business or product to something, we separate points into categories: likeness and uniqueness. Infographics provide an innovative way to display such a comparison in graphic form by creating visual parallels. Sometimes comparisons are difficult to express. Where words … Read more

Infographic: The Copywriter’s Brain

January 1, 2021September 17, 2013 by Adam Oakley

Embed this infographic on your own site

Copy and paste this code into your blog post or web page:

<a href=”https://staging.expresswriters.com/infographic-copywriters-brain/”><img src=”https://staging.expresswriters.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/copywriters-brain.jpg” alt=”Infographic: The Copywriter’s Brain” title=”Infographic: The Copywriter’s Brain” width=”539″ height=”2894″ /></a> Like this infographic? Get more tips from <a href=”https://staging.expresswriters.com/”>Express Writers</a>.

Writers use their right brain, copywriters use both!

Infographic: A Timeline History of Google’s Major SEO Content Updates (An Actionable Retrospective for Users, Publishers, and Content Creators)

December 31, 2020August 13, 2013 by Tara Clapper

This post, a full history on Google’s SEO content algorithm updates, has been updated by our team in May of 2017. Infographic: A Timeline History of Google’s Major SEO Content Updates (An Actionable Retrospective for Users, Publishers, and Content Creators) We’re used to Google updates and announcements now, but do you recall the old days of improved search? Panda, Penguin, and even Mobilegeddon really shook things up for content creators, publishers, and Google users. Content writers have had to adapt considerably: not only do we have to know about past and upcoming changes, we must advise our clients on inbound content strategies that benefit the end user in current times. About Our Google Updates Timeline This timeline shows not only the Google SEO and algorithm updates, but how they affect content creation and content marketing. This list also includes unofficial updates, during which users noticed fluctuations, but there was no official Google statement or announcement. Users affectionately branded these updates “ghost,” “zombie,” etc. Perhaps we’ll get vampires and werewolves soon, too! I did not include each and every unconfirmed update, though I did mention them in some instances. 2017 February-March: Fred What: Analysts noticed search engine ranking changes, but Google remained quiet on the details. Google’s Gary Illyes said the update targeted aspects of already published guidelines, but observers specifically noticed the targeting of low-value content. Other algorithm updates preceded Fred, but details are sketchy and it’s unknown whether they are related to Fred. Users: Better quality search results. Publishers: As always, you need to be on top of your content game. Now is a great time to go back through some mediocre content and improve quality. Content Creators: Work on restructuring and improving previous content to maintain or improve ranking. January 10: Intrusive Interstitial Popup Penalty What: This Google update penalized sites with intrusive pop up ads. Users: Google is more likely to lead users to sites without annoying pop ups. Publishers: Publishers must reconfigure sites to function and funnel traffic without pop up ads. Rely on persuasive content to meet your goals. Content Creators: What is the purpose of the ads formerly appearing on the site for which you’re writing? Consider this strongly when you construct calls to action (CTAs) and the content itself. Use streamlined graphics to accomplish this task. 2016 September 23: Google Penguin 4.0 What: Google’s algorithm began updating in real time and providing page-specific analysis, which was more specific than its previous incarnation. Users: Outdated site changes and website hacks will affect your search results less often. Publishers: Your pages may index faster when you publish or update content. Content Creators: Even if it doesn’t hit Google News, your timely content has more value. You’re still competing with social media, but you can create a live blog that updates as time goes on, just as news sites do during major events. This is creating a liveblogging trend on regular blog platforms like WordPress – it’s not just for microblog sites like Twitter anymore. In September of 2016, many site owners reported penalties and promotions in SERPs (search engine page results) May 12: Mobile Friendly (Boost) Update What: This boosted mobile-friendly sites in the SERPs beyond the existing preference. Users: If you’re on mobile, this will serve you more posts that will display well on your device. Publishers: There’s a further emphasis on mobile. If Mobilegeddon didn’t wake you up, this should do the trick. Content Creators: Mobile-friendliness includes a lot of factors, not all of which are disclosed by Google. Mobile-friendly content contains short paragraphs, bullet lists (when applicable), and immediate information. February 23: AdWords Update What: Google axed sidebar ads. Instead, you got another ad at the top when you search (total four). Users: Be aware of which results are ads (there’s still an ad box to the left of the result to indicate that it’s an advertisement). If you’re on mobile, ads will take up most of your screen initially after your search. Publishers: If you’re not pouring money into advertising, direct your content efforts towards appearing in the Google Knowledge Graph. Content Creators: Aim for the knowledge graph, find out what people are asking and answer their questions, and hone your keyword and content planning strategy. In January of 2016, it’s clear that Google was tweaking and updating their algorithm. This is called the “Ghost Update.” 2015 October 26: RankBrain Announcement What: Google announced that RankBrain has been active for half a year. RankBrain intelligently learned from searches. This artificial intelligence improved the algorithm to get users the information they need. Users: This helps you have a better search experience. RankBrain may not only learn about audiences in general, but you specifically, especially if you’re signed into Chrome as you browse. While that’s creepy, it’s also useful. Publishers: RankBrain means your site needs to be geared towards usefulness, even if you’re selling a product. If you’re selling gardening equipment, your free garden planner and your how-tos should be front and center – NOT your latest sale item. Content Creators: You’re officially writing for the people, not the search engine. You’re not in the race to rank unless you’re also taking the time to be the most useful. There may have been an update/incident on October 15. This was an indication of what was to come – and also of the new normal, which means small tweaks and unannounced algo updates every now and then. People call this one the “Zombie Update.” August: Local 3 Pack / “Snack Pack” Update What: Google began showing three local map results instead of a list of seven. Users: Google’s more integrated with its maps app now, so while you’ll get less results without having to scroll, you can click on any of them and easily navigate or call the business. Google will also tell you the hours of the business and other important info you need on the go. Publishers: If you have a local business and want to know where to spend your advertising … Read more