strategy - Express Writers

Why Keyword Search Volume Doesn’t Matter When You Choose Your Keywords (& What Does Matter)

January 1, 2021July 18, 2017 by Adam Oakley

If I asked for a show of hands to see who researches their keywords by highest search volume, I’d see a pretty unanimous answer. If you’re a true nerd / geek / SEO’er, you might have even had dreams of climbing the search results to #1 by optimizing for those keywords. (Kind of like a new pop artist who hopes to crack the Billboard Top 100 with their first single.) When you pick a keyword, what do you go by? Are you using the best metrics? Every business wants to show up at the top of the SERPs (search engine result pages). But knowing how… that’s a skill that involves, at the core fundamental, knowing how to pick out a great keyword. And not everyone has that skill. Keep reading for an in-depth guide on what matters most when you’re choosing best opportunity, high-ROI keywords. (The answer, surprisingly, is decidedly not keyword search volume.) Keyword Search Volume: The Skinny Everyone wants that coveted top organic #1, #2, or #3 hit in Google. However, what you may not realize is top brands have already cornered those keywords. This includes multi-million-dollar corporations. These are brands you are not going to be able to compete with, especially if you’re a small business. What do those top-ranking keywords look like? Nine times out of 10, they’re broad keywords – short phrases that aren’t specific. For example: “cake,” “baking,” and “baking cakes.” If you’re a small-town baker and you try to rank for these terms, you’ll be out of luck. Instead, you may find yourself competing with the likes of Cooking Light, Food Network, and Epicurious. Let’s face it – you’re never going to win, here. So, what can you do, instead? What’s the smarter strategy? For good results for your particular business, you don’t need high traffic from high search volume keywords. Instead, you need the right traffic. Forget Search Volume – Get the Right Traffic with High-Converting Keywords Throw search volume out the window for now. Yes, it was once the be-all, end-all of keywords, but nothing in this world is static, right? I’m not saying search volume is completely irrelevant. But, I am urging you to look at other avenues for driving people to your site. Let’s start by defining what we mean when we talk about the “right” traffic. You’ll have an easier time converting customers if they’re in an ideal state of the buying process. This is the “right” traffic – the people who are looking for you, but don’t yet realize you exist. If they knew you existed, they would be ready to jump on board and fish for their wallets. Broad keywords do not drive this kind of traffic to your site. What will? Long tail keywords! Long tail Keywords: Specificity and Relevancy for Search Long tail keywords are just that: longer, more specific, and relevant to the customer’s needs. For instance, a person who needs a specific type of cake will not search for “cake.” Instead, they might search for “wedding cake chocolate swirl Rhode Island.” Or, “birthday cake yellow with sprinkles.” A search string that is becoming even more common might look like this: “Where can I get a yellow birthday cake with chocolate frosting in Rhode Island?” All of these have a few things in common, though they vary in subject matter. The people searching know what type of cake they want and where they want to get it. If you’re a baker and you optimize your site for long tail keywords like this, you’ll strike gold. Why? Because long tail keywords have less competition than their broad counterparts. You have a far better chance of ranking for “wedding cake chocolate swirl Rhode Island” than “cake.” Plus, customers use long tail keywords like this when they have a higher buying intent. They know what they’re looking for, what they need, or what they want. If you have it, there’s a very good chance you’ll close the deal. Basically, these keywords fall right into your sweet spot for driving traffic. Take a look at the brands who have successfully ranked for the above long tail keyword example. There’s only one multi-million-dollar corporation on this list (Ben & Jerry’s). The rest are small bakeries or boutique shops. That’s the power of the long tail keyword in action. How Do You Choose the Right Long Tail Keywords? According to Search Engine Journal (SEJ), one of the keys to driving conversions from search results is to engage people at the perfect time. It’s a two-way street. Their intent needs to match up with the keyword, and the keyword needs to be relative to their intent. This is that sweet spot we mentioned earlier. Hit it, and you’ll see ROI. Here are some other keys for choosing the best long tail keywords for you. They have to do with relevancy and uniqueness. 1. Relevancy, Relevancy, Relevancy When a keyword is relevant to you, it ties back to your particular brand. This includes what you do, who you are, where you’re located, or what you sell. The relevance of your keywords is the brunt of what makes long tail types work. If you’re not using relevant long tails, you won’t be taking advantage of their conversion power. 2. Use What Makes You Stand Out (Your Differentiation Factor) A highly unique keyword could net you a buyer every time someone searches for it. Wow! That’s a BIG deal. At the same time, that particular keyword could have next to no search volume because of its uniqueness. Fact: this is common for keywords with good opportunities. In other words, it’s not a problem because the conversion value is so high. The more unique your keyword, the more you’re targeting a specific buyer – the one looking to pull the trigger and make the purchase! These types of keywords don’t work well for everyone – but they work great for you. The opportunity is personal, and that’s a big bonus. Why Broad, Short Tail Keywords Are on the Way Out Short tail … Read more

A Data-Driven Answer on Where to Publish Your Content, & the Downside of Being Everywhere

June 19, 2024March 15, 2017 by Adam Oakley

From the moment we wake up, we consume a crazy high amount of content. It’s nuts. In just one minute: 7 million Snapchat videos are posted. Over 2 million Instagram posts get “hearted.” Facebook gets over 4 million likes. Nearly 350,000 tweets happen. Google translates 69 million words. (Contently) In one day: almost three million blogs are posted. So it only makes sense that you should share your awesome content on all of those platforms in order to have the greatest reach. In a world of endless options for publishing content, we should publish anywhere and everywhere, right? (FOMO!) Not necessarily. Let’s keep talking. Where to Publish Content: Why The Answer Starts With Where NOT to Publish One of the challenges we face as content marketers is the rise of social media platforms and the fact that readers don’t just start there – they never have to leave. We use social media for news, to keep up with trends, to connect with other people, and to follow our favorite brands, which means we’re more engaged than ever before. But we also run the risk of getting stuck in a rut with the billions of others who are plugged in worldwide. From Statista Your content may be magnificent, praiseworthy, and top-notch. But that doesn’t mean you should utilize every blogging and social media outlet known to the internet in order to share it. The more content you publish, the better, but where should you sink all your valuable content marketing efforts into? Here’s Where to Publish: 3 Areas of Focus We Recommend When you are ready to share amazing content, here are three of the best places to create and publish on. 1. Your own blog and site Honestly: this is your real best content publishing real estate. Upkeeping a blog is key. Look at these stats: 1) B2B marketers that use blogs receive 67% more leads than those that do not. 2) Marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI. 5) Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website. 6) Blogs have been rated as the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information. Hubspot Treat it like your #1 content hub. Grow and expand it, weekly if not daily. Here at Express Writers, we publish the majority of the content on our site. The combined abilities of our experienced writers allow us to create quality content that brings in revenue while also helping our audience. We post once a week minimum, with posts between 1,500 and 4,000 words. Once a month, a Twitter chat recap in our dedicated chat section is also created and shared. Our content is consistent, well-researched, and published following a specific timeframe. Topics are planned and thought out with care. Our branded content has ended up being a major, major source of our entire company revenue (to the tune of 99%). More on that in my case study. Your blog content can be an amazing resource for your audience. Here’s why: Blogging can increase your search engine optimization (SEO), especially when you use keywords in the right way and create content in long form. Blogging gives you content to promote across social media channels. Blogging allows you a space to put valuable calls-to-action, which have the potential to generate leads and grow conversions. A. How to write a strong blog post? Hubspot offers some simple tips on how to write a blog post that begins with understanding your audience and ends with choosing a catchy title. You can read more about that here and grab some free blogging templates while you’re at it. The best blog posts always have a clear topic and engaging title; the audience is drawn in and stays engaged because they have been captivated by the introduction. The content is well-organized and relevant to the issue being addressed. Experts across the industry craft quality blog content for their sites, including: Neil Patel – co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and KISSmeterics Barry Feldman – speaker, author, and creative copywriter Seth Godin – author and founder of Squidoo B. How often to post? You may be wondering how often to publish on your company’s blog. While every company is different in size, strategy, and industry, there is some research that can help us answer that question. In one study from HubSpot, the results showed that B2B companies that published over 16 blog posts per month received more than 3 times the amount of traffic as compared to companies that only published 4 times per month. For B2C companies, those 16-times-per-month rate saw over 4 times the amount of traffic. In another study, over 90% of Hubspot’s blog leads and more than 75% of post views came from old posts. Posting quality content multiple times per week may be just what your readers are looking for, and if it’s awesome content, they will keep coming back for more. Read more about how to write content for a blog over here. The time, effort, and work put into your own content makes your blog site YOUR real estate. [bctt tweet=”Why publish your best on someone else’s real estate? – @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] 2. Guest blogging in your niche Before you decide where to guest blog, you should set a goal for your blogging. These goals could include anything from setting yourself up as an authority in your industry to driving readers to your own site. Check out how we achieve results from guest blogging: my content, for example a column I keep with 2 posts/week on SiteProNews, has netted us a lead worth $5,000. When you begin with this sort of focus, it can help narrow your scope as you write. Guest blogging in your niche is a great opportunity to share your authoritative view on a number of topics, but you must find platforms where your audience is already located. You may find opportunities by searching for blogs that invite guests to post – just do a keyword search using words from your industry combined with “guest … Read more

Using A Content Combination Strategy To Maximize Your Content Marketing

December 31, 2020August 11, 2015 by Josh McCoy

Alecs is a Client Accounts Manager at Express Writers. Peanut butter would never be the same without jelly. In like sense, combined strategies make for a much richer experience. In your daily life, I’m sure you can come up with at least five things without even thinking too hard about them that work well together. The same goes for content marketing. Some things just function better together and work towards accomplishing an overall goal. The strengths of one particular type of marketing covers the weaknesses of another. Just like a well-prepared team, using content marketing methods that overlap make for a much better overall experience. The Power & Synergy of A Content Combination Strategy Content combination strategy is the plan by which you make these individual content management strategies work as a team. What the strategy does is figure out which individual strategies cover the most amount of exposure for your target demographic. From there you can develop distribution plans for each of those vehicles of exposure. Thus, if your initial exposure medium was blogging but you saw a need for outreach on social media and print media, then you would incorporate those types of marketing into your overall marketing plan. Using a content combination strategy allows you to adjust your content to suit. Blogs are great for long-form content but if you operate on social media, for example, those users tend to favor images over long form narrative content. Combining the content you produce and matching it to the relevant medium for distribution allows you to increase your outreach and develop more high quality content that will encourage users to come visit your page. Understanding Content Synergy Dynamics Some things just work very well together. Take, for example, email marketing alongside offering a free e-book to readers. Email marketing by itself can be a hit and miss affair. Some users actively avoid ending up on mailing lists. However, when combined with the prospect of a free e-book, email subscriptions soar. People always enjoy the thought of something for nothing and that’s why free e-book marketing tends to net far more email subscriptions than any other type of strategy. The combination of these strategies sees the utilization of the email address as the object you need to obtain. With an active email address you can add the user to your email list and send them good content and information that they can use to better their lives, interspersing it with offers for products they may be interested in. In order to ensure that the email is active, you send them a copy of your e-book that they want, opting in to your mailing list to get it. It’s a novel idea that balances the user’s greed with an entry point for marketing to the customer at a later date. Not all content pairs are as synergistic as that one. Modern methods of social media make it easy for interaction to take place and utilizing it in tandem with a product that a company offers in order to win free merchandise is something many small businesses have adopted. This sees the use of a widespread media outlet and user generated content alongside free marketing in terms of the product being visible on the user’s picture which is then shared and liked in order for them to win the prize. Extending Effectiveness and Outreach Most content marketers run blogs. It’s their major source of production and distribution of content. The problem with blogs is that they are usually limited to a particular location in the hierarchy of modern media. Blogs are considered places where people go to share ideas and discuss things at length. On the opposite end of the perception spectrum is social media. Social media serves as the place where people go to interact with their friends and close acquaintances. It’s here that the majority of consumers exist. The numbers show that worldwide, there are over two billion users on social media. How many of those do you think take time to visit a blog? The answer is quite a lot, depending on it shows up on their feed. Blogs and websites have realized that utilizing social media in tandem with their regular posts can lead to an increase in their popularity and overall positive KPI’s. Social media networks like Facebook make it easy to create pages that are linked officially to blogs so that users can benefit from their massive user base when creating content. Sometimes, it works the other way around. Some Facebook pages have become so popular that they’ve forced their owners to build blogs around them in order to capitalize on their success. A good example of this is SciBabe on Facebook. Originally a page made to rant against the anti-science point of view of the popular Food Babe page, the owner eventually expanded it into an entire website dedicated to fighting misinformation on social media (a noble pursuit, but ultimately futile). Research in Multiple Formats: How to Appeal to a Wider Audience Content marketers already know the power of infographics. They are among the most popular ways of spreading information to people in a single, easy to share image. Infographics themselves sometimes represents a compilation of work from various research outlets. Statistics and facts are gathered and put into cool, flashy graphical representations to make the facts fun to read and easy to internalize for later use. The infographic is the modern successor to an older type of research distribution material, the white paper. Although infographics are the new kid on the block, white papers still have quite a bit of a following. Older copywriters have told me about the days when they would be tasked with creating white papers that were a couple dozen pages long from information given to them by a particular company. What a white paper is, for those of us who grew up in the digital age, is a report that is written to offer factual information on a … Read more