#boosting content

[lunarian-22]

Here's something that's helped me actually reblog more posts.

What sometimes hangs me up about reblogging or other equivalents of boosting content is/was tagging. It seemed like Big Task because I was trying to add every tag that applied to the content, like it was some kind of quiz or essay test. Now I limit myself to five tags.

Five tags!

It's not as difficult for me to figure out, and Tumblr search only looks at the first 5 tags anyway, I think. So I'll never be able to find the dang post on my blog again if I put the most memorable tag/tags tenth in line.

I think about how I'd search for the content later, and I'm starting to think in sorting labels instead of just tags. Folder and file, sort of, but things can live in multiple folders.

So that's my idea. And it's really helping me. Hope you find it useful too!

[promotingmedia-blog]

What are Google algorithms and how to understand it?

New Post has been published on http://www.promotingmedia.com/google-algorithms/

What are Google algorithms and how to understand it?

Each day, millions of users type keywords into Google algorithms. Within seconds we have thousands (if not more) results at our fingertips. What you don’t see behind-the-scenes is Google algorithms. These are robots that scan the internet for the most relevant sites related to your keyword. But what are these algorithms and how do they work?

First, there is Panda. This algorithm was introduced in 2011 to assist in filtering high-quality sites. It’s meant to distinguish these sites from websites that may be lower quality. Lower quality may have broken links or misspelled words, for instance, which would push them down in search results. This is the algorithm that crawls your website. It looks at your keywords, whether you have duplicate content, or if you have star-quality search engine optimization. If the page does not offer value to readers, or simply not enough information, the search engine algorithm may choose not to index your site altogether.

Penguin, a Google algorithm that was introduced in 2012, examines all the links within your site. Google checks your broken links, checks to see if you have any back links and checks to see if you’re using links in any unethical way. If you can get authoritative and credible sites to link to your site, this is going to boost your search rankings with Google algorithms. This tells Google algorithms that you are using trustworthy and reliable information. But, if you skip over this, your rankings will plummet to the bottom of page 25. Nobody wants to be there.

Along came Hummingbird in 2013. While Hummingbird utilizes some aspects of Panda and Penguin, it has changed how Google indexes websites. Google algorithms now place more emphasis on the website owner using SEO and keywords in order to improve their website ranking. It places more accountability towards the website owner, which is how it should have been all along. Content with specific keywords is more likely to soar in the rankings, as opposed to that content that has generalized keywords—or, no keywords at all.

So how do you find favor in Google algorithms and soar to the top of page 1? You have to play to win, and you have to play hard. Keywords are important. Research keywords for each piece of content you place on your site. You can’t simply throw words out there. Researching keywords are going to give you an idea of what searchers want and give you more of a chance at getting web traffic. Also, research your competitors. Play by their rules and you may have an opportunity to overtake them in the search engines.

Your website in general, too, is important. Is your website mobile-friendly? These days people are on devices of all sizes. A phone, tablet or computer could be anywhere from four to twenty-seven inches. You have to make sure your website is going to look sharp and perfect on each of them. You also want to make sure your site is clean-cut. Don’t make your readers search for your blog, products page or contact form. Have all these located in one area? And finally, test your site speed. Too many ads, photos or videos will slow it down.

Google algorithms are tricky but they are easy to figure out. Have a user-friendly site, proofread your content and fix all your links. Your rankings are sure to improve over time.

[promotingmedia-blog]

How to effectively research website keywords

New Post has been published on https://promotingmedia.com/effectively-research-website-keywords/

How to effectively research website keywords

Google and Bing are currently the top search engines. These search engines crawl your website looking for quality content. But if you have broken links, misspelled words or missing relevant keywords—it may prove difficult for these search engines to find you at all. Today we’re only going to address the research website keywords. These are words specific to your blog content. Let’s look at ways you can effectively research which words are best for your site.

First and foremost, make a list of relevant topics. Try to come up with 5-10 research website keywords that are relevant to your niche site. These are what people will type into Google or Bing to find the majority of your content. Let’s say your blog is centric to music education. Your keywords could be relevant to composers, instruments or a specific type of music. If your blog niche is gardening, keywords could be centered on types of plants or the specific type of garden which you grow.

You want to then go directly to Google or Bing. Research website keywords and write down any keywords that come up in the search results. If you type in violin, for instance, here’s some keywords you may see: cricket violin, acoustic violins, or electric violins. If you type in gardening, you would find DIY garden projects, a wide range of garden club websites, and sites for gardening workshops. Keep the research website keywords that are relevant to your own site while discarding the keywords that have nothing to do with your business.

Don’t forget to check out your competitors. How are they using the keywords you have chosen? More importantly, where are they using the keywords? If they use the keywords in an advertisement, for instance, indicate that somewhere on your list. If they hashtag the keywords (#electricviolins), note where they use it and how often. Obviously what they are doing is bringing them success. You deserve the same level of success so don’t sell yourself short!

Another way to research website keywords is to study your competitor’s backlinks. These are links that link directly from one site to another. Most sites will strategically choose which words they backlink. It may not be apparent to the reader, but these backlinks are keywords for that website. For instance, a niche site on music education can backlink an article on electric violins. This places an underline beneath electric violins and places it in a different color. It stands out and drives traffic from the site to the site that is linking to it. So, if CNN back linked an article that they found on Los Angles Times—both CNN and Los Angeles Times would get web traffic.

Finally, find ways to implement long-tail keywords into your search engine optimization. These are keyword phrases that have at least 3 to 5 words. They are generally more specific than your other keywords and will persuade your readers to purchase your products. Using these keywords, too, may make it possible for you to attract more organic search results. Instead of just using electric violins for a keyword, for instance, your keywords could be electric violins and sheet music. Searchers that are serious about their music would likely be searching for both. It’s going to push you up in the rankings because your keyword is no longer generalized but much more specific and narrow.

Use these tips and see how it improves your search engine optimization. If you feel as your site is struggling with rankings, these tips are going to help you get back on top. It’s time you were back on your A-game.

[promotingmedia-blog]

Free website audit tool for your blog

New Post has been published on https://promotingmedia.com/free-website-audit-tool-for-your-blog/

Free website audit tool for your blog

Settle in and get your coffee. It may be helpful to download a Kindle book while you wait. A website audit tool is nothing easy. It’s a long process that takes an in-depth and thorough look at each page within your website. It scans it for broken links, keyword usage and anything that would drive you up (or down) in the search engine rankings. This is an important task to do if you’re a website owner so which tools are there to help you with this process?

First and foremost, I recommend seoptimer.com. This is a free website audit tool that will analyze your website in seconds. All you do is enter your website address. Then, once it’s finished, it’s going give you a lot of information. It informs you of how tight your security is, for instance, or how much you are present on social media. It analyzes your keywords and your meta tags, as well as title tags and meta descriptions. This tool grades each section from letters A – E (not quite sure what E means), and gives you a list of things you could improve. Quite helpful!

SEO Report Card is another free website audit tool. It provides analysis of your entire website. This audit tool lets your know where you rank among your competitors. It looks directly at your keywords and compares them to those of the key players in your industry. It compares your content and social media to the levels of your competitors. It knows how to do this because you have entered a competitor’s domain alongside yours. This website audit tool is going to be really helpful if you’re struggling to make a splash in your industry. You can find it here: http://app.upcity.com/free-tools/seo-report-card.

Hubspot’s Website Grader, too, is a worthy free website audit tool. This tool looks directly at your SEO within your website. It tells you how sharp your SEO is, or how you can improve upon it. Likewise, it looks at your page speed and the size of your website. Is your website mobile friendly and how often are you shared on social media? Through the detailed analysis, you’ll be able to discover answers to both these questions. In addition, it’s going to inform you of how secure your website is. You hear about websites being hacked so easily these days; make sure you’re up-to-date on the latest security features.

Finally, don’t forget to check out Google Webmaster Tools. This is a beneficial website audit tool if your main focus is search engine optimization. It’s going to tell you how many of your pages are indexed in Google, as well as giving you a full list of content that has been seen by the popularized search engine. It’s going to indicate what problems your site has with page titles, meta descriptions or keywords. And, Google Webmaster Tools will tell you if any of your content puts you at risk for a penalty.

Take advantage of all these free website audit tools and your website will be up to speed. They’re all going to give you the upper hand against your competitors.

[promotingmedia-blog]

5 Types of social media analysis

New Post has been published on https://promotingmedia.com/5-types-of-social-media-analysis/

5 Types of social media analysis

Digital marketing trends are changing how we purchase items. It used to be industry standard to publish advertisements in newspapers or print publications, as well as broadcast them over radio or television. But then came the birth of the internet. Social media analysis and e-mail soon followed. And now we have a firestorm that is digital advertising—a method of advertising that allows brands to survey the internet like the Wild west and publish advertisements anywhere they can find their audience. But today we’ll scale it down and just focus on social media.

In order for social media analysis, you need to break it down into bits. We can’t look at the big picture, but rather we have to look at it in sections. Let’s look first at our audience. Unless you utilize paid advertisements, your audience will grow at a steady rate. Paid advertisements give you the opportunity to target your audience by demographic, age and geographic region. It also targets your audience by their occupation or interest. This is super helpful because it informs you of who exactly is looking at your content.

You also want to analyze how much of your audience is engaging with your content. This is considered reach and engagement. While your content is reaching your audience, it either doesn’t relate to their needs or they are not your target audience. In each audience, there’s a handful of different people. Once you learn to recognize these types of people, it’s going to help you post better content and analyze your social media much better.

The first audience member is known as a lurker—a person that monitors content but does not interact in any way. This will be most of your audience unless you post something so outstanding that it causes the lurkers to take action. The next type of person is influencers. These individuals have extremely large audiences which they influence well with each post they share. And, the third type of person in your audience is an engager. This person likes and/or comments on your posts. Sooner or later you’re going to recognize these names.

You also have to analyze your social media content. This is going to be very different for each social network; however, the main types are text, video, and picture. Text content can be updated, information about giveaways or just sending your audience well wishes for the weekend or holiday. Video may be behind-the-scenes footage of your company or how a product is made. It may even be a tour of your company. Photos may be quotes, behind-the-scenes of the company, products and so forth. Try to have a good mixture of content. If you’re getting engagement on the content, make sure you engage with that person. They are your target audience and acknowledging their presence is going to give you points in the win column.

On another note, do what’s known as a sentiment analysis. This is where you analyze any mention of your product or company. These may be positive or negative reviews, but using analysis tools can help you view there is a problem with your product. Take the negative reviews to heart. This means that you have an unhappy customer and that your product or service needs improvement. After you have made the improvement, contact the customer and try to win them back. Social media analysis gives companies more leverage in improving customer service; take advantage of it.

Finally, analyze one-on-one conversations. This means that you have stepped out from behind your logo and connected with your audience. Once you do this, people realize that you are humanistic and approachable. If they are happy (or unhappy) with a product or service, they know they can come directly to you. As a company, you want to drive customer service. Customers drive your sales and, without the sales, you would not have a business. These are not the only tools you can use to analyze your social media but they’re a good start. Once you start social media analysis, you’ll soon catch up with your competitors and be on your A-game.

[promotingmedia-blog]

Unconventional social media SEO tips

New Post has been published on https://promotingmedia.com/unconventional-social-media-seo-tips/

Unconventional social media SEO tips

Social media SEO is only getting bigger and better. It has to be mastered if you’re a business. It’s a necessity that you meet customers in their social space. These days offline marketing is not enough. You can’t get away with just advertising on tv, radio and in print form. Rather, you have to digitally advertise across the board via the internet and social media SEO networks. Target the six major social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, Google+ and LinkedIn) and you’ll be set.

One way to do this is to build an organic following. Organic followers are those that are unique and human. I say human because social media SEO networks have bots (non-human followers) that join pages just to join and unfollow later. These bots do not interact, comment or share posts. In opposition, the organic followers interact in any way possible. They will retweet your tweet or share your Facebook post. They will comment on your post via Instagram or Google+. Should they comment, use the 24-hour rule. This means that you respond within 24 hours to their interaction. This shows your humanistic side and that you care about them. If you don’t do so then it shows you are not very approachable as a business.

Similarly, get to know your customers. If you see that Hayden or Jane has shared or commented on your content, reach out to them and say thank you. Appreciation can go a long way. This is going to build loyalty and trust within your brand. You can also ask their thoughts on future products (or current ones as well). What types of content or products would they like to see? What problem do they have that you could solve? They may have been struggling with editing their book, for instance, and you offer a service editing novels. They may be searching for a life coach and that may be your specialty. Getting to know your customers one-on-one makes you more personable and this is going to make the customer spread a positive message about your company.

If you have a physical business (which customers can locally visit) best social media SEO is to, post it in online directories. Two of my favorite directories are the Yellow Pages and Yelp. This is where I find most of the businesses I visit. People can leave your business a rating and a review. You want their honest feedback. It’s going to help you improve as a business owner and grow your customer base. Make sure you include your website, contact info and anything else the customer would need. You can even include behind-the-scene pictures or a menu (if your business is a restaurant). Likewise, if you post your business in Google, those businesses with the highest reviews rise to the top of the list.

On another note for social media SEO, you have to be better than your competition. Study your competition like you’re studying for a test. Have a better website than them and have better products. Be competitive in your prices and how you find your customers. Are your competitors going to trade shows within your industry? Make sure you’re at the next trade show. Research the keywords that your competitors are using and apply those to the content on your own website. Study the content on their website. How does it compare to yours? Make notes and try to be much better than they are. You have to rise above them and stand out.

Finally, give each of your products its own web page. You see this in stores all across the internet. You’ll click on a book via Amazon and it’ll only be one book on the page. This is how your page should be. It allows you to post details about the product, any reviews that are related to the product and similar items. Additionally, it allows you to post pay-per-click advertisements. This also tells Google and Bing that this is a product page. It indexes your product with the keywords you have inserted and makes it much easier for searchers to find. SEO is not always easy, but with a few clicks, it can easily be done. Take time to learn it and your sales will greatly improve.

[promotingmedia-blog]

Trends that dominate social media marketing

New Post has been published on https://promotingmedia.com/trends-dominate-social-media-marketing/

Trends that dominate social media marketing

Do you want to rise to the top of social media marketing? I would hope the answer is an enthusiastic YES! If it was, then you have landed on the correct article. Social media is where it’s at for businesses. Businesses realize that they have to meet customers in their social space. Long gone are the days of only advertising on television, radio or in print sources. Since the birth of the internet, digital marketing has taken off like a firestorm. Social media marketing is only a small fraction of the fire, but it’s a technique that’s going to make sales and win over customers.

First, you must—you must—do some type of video content. This can be live video via Periscope, Busker or Facebook live. Comments appear on the screen and you answer them in real time. Or, you can create a video and post it to Youtube. Viewers that then leave comments and you can answer their comments directly below their question. Video content shows your personal side to your customer. It makes you more relatable and they believe that you are more approachable. This is opposed to those brands that do not step away from their logo, but rather have a contact form and then you have to wait for them to get back to you—some never do. Don’t be this brand.

You also have to interact with those that follow you. Never wait longer than 24 hours to get back to those that leave comments, likes or share your content. Waiting any longer tells the customer you are aloof and don’t really care if they are there or not. But, when you acknowledge their presence, it’s recognition that you do care. It does matter if they support your brand and their opinion does influence how you run your business. A quick note about feedback, specifically negative feedback: don’t ignore it. So often customers complain about the customer service within a company and don’t receive a response. Don’t ignore these customers but do right by them. Give them coupons or refund their money. When you do something it’s stepping away from your brand and showing you care about them. But, when you don’t—well, you’re not that great of a company.

Also, remember that good content is vital to your social media marketing network. Post content that is relevant to your company’s niche. Let’s say you’re a gardening company. You can post links to garden walks in your area. Talk about common pests that intrude on gardens, or talk about a specific type of garden. Don’t forget to vary your post type. Post videos, blog content, polls, and quizzes. Post different types of images. You may want to include posts with quotes, while some do not have quotes at all. Watch what your audience responds well to and feed off of that. What they enjoy is what you should post.

These days you’re going to find that your content may not be getting a lot of views. Why? Facebook especially doesn’t like to promote the content of business pages. Rather, they want you to boost your content for $5. This is all well-and-good if you have a budget for it but what if you don’t? You have to share your content via other social media marketing networks. Instagram, too, I have noticed is starting to go this way. If you want more eyeballs on your content, set aside some money and boost 1 or 2 posts for a week. What was the result? You want to look for conversion rates. Did the customer go to your website? Did they buy your product? If not, tweak your keywords and go at it again.

And finally, brands are using messaging apps to directly connect with their customers. This gives a whole new meaning to customer service. Let’s say John’s Fedex order arrived broken. Roger, from the company John ordered from, sends John a message via Facebook Messenger, Twitter or Instagram. It wouldn’t be any different from a live chat you would do with a company via your computer. So why are you so surprised when the company meets you (the customer) in your social media marketing space? Like I said in the introduction, digital marketing is a firestorm. We may never put out the fire—but do we really want to?