SEO marketing - Express Writers

SEO Marketing: Your Essential Guide to Putting Together Powerful, Google-Friendly Marketing

June 19, 2024August 27, 2019 by Adam Oakley

SEO marketing is incredible — and more powerful than ever (despite the groans of ”SEO is dead!” that you hear, literally everywhere). Here’s why. Today, 60% of ALL traffic on the internet comes from Google. (Add in traffic from other search engines, and you’ll find about 70% of all traffic, ever, starts with a simple search.) Whoa. Combine that with a simple fact: with the right keywords, topics, quality content, and some elbow grease, you can draw in search traffic from all over the world. All the people that might never have found you otherwise. By creating content around keywords they’re searching, including phrases and topics that matter deeply to them, you essentially become a magnet for buyers (with Google’s help). You pull leads into your orbit without advertising, without selling – without much effort at all beyond the initial strategizing, planning, and creating. That, my friends, is a good, basic definition for today’s term. SEO marketing definition: noun. A series of actions, strategies, and best practices that help your website content rank higher in search results. And, before you ask: Yes, it matters big-time. When you rank higher in search, more people will find your content, read your content, and act on that content. With numbers like “70% of all traffic originates from a search,” needless to say, capturing search traffic is a HUGE deal. If you have an online presence, this type of marketing is essential to master for better visibility and more leads coming in. Need more reasons to invest in SEO marketing? We’ll explore some convincing ones coming up, plus a checklist with marketing tools and techniques to help you ensure success from start to finish. Your SEO Marketing Guide: What’s Ahead in Our Guide to Powerful, Google-Friendly Marketing 5-Step Checklist for Successful SEO Marketing 1. Create Quality Content (With a Case Study: How the Write Blog Nets Over 24K Keyword Rankings) 2. Get Your Website Design & Site Tech Fundamentals Right 3. Follow Google’s SEO Standards for Quality (E.A.T.) 4. Be Smart About Keyword Usage 5. Use SEO Plugins and Tools to Help You Get It Done (Yoast SEO Plugin for WordPress, Keyword Research Tools: SEMrush and KWFinder) 3 Things SEO Marketing Should NOT Look Like 1. Cheating for Rankings 2. Keyword Stuffing 3. Thin, Shallow, Low-Quality Content [bctt tweet=”Have you already invested in SEO marketing and creating site content optimized to rank in Google? In this Write Blog, @JuliaEMcCoy shares killer reasons why Google reigns supreme for traffic sourcing, PLUS a bonus checklist on the best SEO techniques @ExpWriters” username=”ExpWriters”] 3 More Reasons Why SEO Marketing Is Such a Big Deal SEO marketing tools and techniques are good for your bottom line. How good? Ridiculously good. For starters: 1. Rank #1 in Google Organically, Perform 30% Better Besides the fact that Google holds 76.03% of the total search engine market share as of June 2019, there are other reasons to aim for #1 in Google search results. Mainly, ranking #1 in Google is a surefire way to outperform results #2-10 and earn the best ROI. It’s how you ace SEO marketing. According to data from Advanced Web Ranking, the organic click-through rate for position #1 is 30.97% on desktops. Compare that to the CTR for position #2: it gets slashed in half to just 15.29%. The lower you go, the more steeply CTR drops. Position #5 gets a 4.11% CTR. Positions #9 and 10 get just over 1%. That said, even the lowest positions on search engine results pages (SERPs) get a higher average CTR than display AND search ads, including pay per click marketing. This chart with Wordstream data shows what I mean: The average Google Ads CTR is 3.17% on the search network and 0.46% on the display network. Compare those numbers to the average CTR for position #7 and higher in organic Google search results, which is over 2%. In fact, as long as you rank in the top 5 positions, you’ll score an average CTR of at least 4%. PPC marketing seems pretty lame by comparison, especially when you can double or triple your CTR by focusing on organic search results, instead. 2. Leads from SEO Marketing Are More Powerful Let’s add more fuel to our SEO marketing fire with this little statistic: Leads coming in from SEO are far more likely to convert. According to a Marketing Sherpa study on conversion rates for organic traffic, the average traffic-to-leads conversion rate across all industries is 16%. That number is really, really impressive, considering the average conversion rate for Google Ads across all industries is 3.75% for search ads and 0.77% for display ads, via the Wordstream data mentioned above. 3. Search Traffic >>> Traffic from Social Media Another good reason to dive into SEO marketing: Search drives more traffic to websites than social media (via a Shareaholic study). Meanwhile, according to ConversionXL, clicks from social aren’t very high, either. Facebook has an average CTR of 0.72%. LinkedIn draws a dismal 0.06%. Twitter gives you the best shot at clicks with a 2% average CTR. When it comes down to numbers, search is the better bet for pulling in traffic. [bctt tweet=”Why is #seomarketing a big deal? 3 awesome reasons: ranking #1 in Google makes your site perform 30% better, ‍ ‍ powerful leads, and more traffic from search than social media.” username=”ExpWriters”] Your Go-To Checklist for Successful SEO Marketing You get it: SEO marketing is powerful, effective, and SO worth it. It’s time to implement. Here’s a checklist to start with, including 5 basic steps to achieve successful SEO search marketing: 1. Create Quality Content Quality content is everything to SEO marketing results. In fact, I would say it’s THE #1 factor. How do I know? It’s what I’ve seen with our content at Express Writers. Case study time. Case Study: How Our Content Quality Nets Over 24K Keyword Rankings I never pay a cent for ads, I never do outreach, and I never pursue backlinks. Despite that, our content at EW has … Read more

How to Research & Prepare Your SEO Keywords for the New Year

December 31, 2020January 8, 2014 by Adam Oakley

According to Search Engine Watch, a leader providing search engine industry analysis, SEO marketing “finally matured in 2013.” In a single year, over 500 algorithm changes took place, changing the face of search engine optimization forever. In 2014, you’ll need to adapt to change if you expect to hold onto your SERP (search engine results page). In preparation for the New Year, we’ve investigated multiple resources and sorted out the pertinent research that will prepare you for the new word of SEO. SEO Copywriting Is More Important than Ever Newbie webmasters and business owners sometimes falsely believe that SEO copywriting is neither useful nor necessary. Such ideas could not be farther from the truth. In fact, we tackled this topic head on in one of our blogs on SEO copywriting. If you doubt for even a nanosecond that optimization for search engine placement is dying, you had better catch up by reading our post! In 2014, SEO will become more vital than ever. However, it absolutely must be handled correctly, otherwise it will be for naught. And the work you’ve already put into optimization now needs an overhaul, otherwise it’ll be hopelessly outdated and nonfunctional. You want website traffic? You want conversion and sales? You better listen up… Keywords Matter but They’re Not Almighty Over the years, opinions and facts about keywords have rapidly changed. At one time, content was bursting at the seams with keyword after keyword, repetitively stuffed in to gain high search engine rankings. Google put the kibosh on this outdated (and frankly, irritating) method of optimization for ranking in favor of quality content. People aren’t robots; they’ve never “crawled” over content and “indexed” it like early model search engine robots. Instead, audiences the globe over have cried out for the chance to read quality content, not sift through incoherent piles of keywords and phrases culminating in an “Order Now” button. As we wrap up 2013, one of the biggest and most buzzed about changes to SEO keywords is the loss of the Google Keyword tool. Moving forward, what does this mean for you? A Moment of Silence, Please Putting the Google Keyword tool to rest is an eventuality almost all of us have been expecting. For those of us neck deep in SEO research, we understand the transforming fact: users want quality content and a great experience above everything else, and Google has heard their voice. Cut the fluff and educate! That’s what consumers want. Back in 2011, Google started dropping hints to SEO marketers that their models and algorithms were about to change. The Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird updates pushed an attention shift from the almighty repetitive keyword insertion to content quality and relevancy. As we step into the new world of 2014, it would be prudent to take a hard look at your SEO campaigns. It’s time to ensure they’re keeping up with the changes. Otherwise, you’ll be pushing campaigns that won’t push business, and that the last thing you want to do. It would mean a complete waste of planning and funds. SEO Content in 2014 For those of us on the warpath, determined to give our audience of potential customers exactly what they crave, many of the same standards we’ve adopted in the past year are still relevant. For example, we have written on our blog about never sacrificing content quality for rankings. This philosophy is still one of the essential SEO content writing tips and the best policy going into the New Year. In fact, you might say it’s the only policy. Climbing the search engine rankings is about to focus on longer quality content, relevant material and the use of keywords with variations. As the New Year is ushered in, every business owner and marketing guru will meet the change of dealing with new obstacles. Let’s take a look at 3 of the most monstrous obstacles: #1: Traditional SEO Methods Won’t Cut It Remember the days when inserting keywords and variations of those keywords equated to higher SERP rankings? Don’t live in those days because they’re going, going, gone. Mobile searching has taken root, and the almighty Google has made it a point to determine where users are searching from. As a result, SERPs are not static. Google is also tossing customer opinion into the mix. What customers say about you is going hold more weight than other SEO elements on your page. What does this mean for you? It’s time to see beyond an SEO strategy. You’re going to need a local, national, and international strategy so that searchers from any location have a chance to see you. Local search terms are about to be vital for your local SEO success. Customer testimonials will be more important than ever. #2: Static is Out Neither Google nor your market is static. Just because you hold a high search engine ranking today, doesn’t mean you’ll still hold it tomorrow. You have to play defense to keep your rankings high, and you have to expect them to fluctuate throughout the year. What does this mean for you? Ranking competition is fierce. You need a defensive strategy to survive the upcoming competition of 2014. SEO isn’t a one-time deal. It must be maintained and evolve as SEO practices change. If you plan on successfully defending your visibility, traffic and conversions to sales, you need to allocate both money and resources into your budget for 2014. Skimping is out of the question! #3: Quick Fixes Lead to a Quick Death The rule of 2014 is to following SEO best practices. Cutting corners and attempting quick fixes—you know, the “I’ll tie up the loose ends later” approach—is something Google will not tolerate. A quick fix would get you quickly banned from Google! The 2014 SEO Game Plan Now that your head is reeling from the challenges, let’s talk game plan. It’s time to push a positive spin on the new frontier of SEO. After all, it’s entirely possible you already have plenty of best … Read more