Search engine Yandex has launched a platform for content creation and distribution, which it calls Yandex Zen.
The post Yandex Opens Up Content Distribution Platform “Yandex Zen” by @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Wednesday 31 May 2017
Google Enhances Knowledge Panels for Art-related Searches by @MattGSouthern
Google is catering to the art aficionados with its latest update to organic search results.
The post Google Enhances Knowledge Panels for Art-related Searches by @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Google AdWords’ Smart Bidding Sets the Ideal Bid for Each Auction by @MattGSouthern
In an effort to help AdWords users get the most out of their advertising budget, Google is introducing Maximize Conversions.
The post Google AdWords’ Smart Bidding Sets the Ideal Bid for Each Auction by @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
How to Growth Hack Your Keyword Research in 6 Steps by @thewillrobins
Aligning your revenue goals with keyword research yields amazing results. Here's how to hit your business and SEO goals.
The post How to Growth Hack Your Keyword Research in 6 Steps by @thewillrobins appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Addressing Similar Content: When to Canonicalize, Noindex, or Do Nothing by @@joshuacmccoy
How do you address similar content: canonicalize, noindex, or do nothing? Let's look at when to use these options.
The post Addressing Similar Content: When to Canonicalize, Noindex, or Do Nothing by @@joshuacmccoy appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Top 10 WordPress SEO Mistakes That Beginners Make by @josephhhoward
Avoid these WordPress on-page optimization mistakes and you'll be on your way to more visibility in the SERPs!
The post Top 10 WordPress SEO Mistakes That Beginners Make by @josephhhoward appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
10 Infographics to Guide Your Content Marketing Strategy
Your brain can identify and retain details of an image in 13 milliseconds. That’s less than a 20th of the time it takes to blink your eyes. So it’s no surprise that visual content is on the rise as attention spans shrink. If you could choose between a consumer spending 20 seconds with a wall of text or 20 seconds with an image, it makes sense to go with the latter.
In other words, people like looking at stuff. As such, infographics are rapidly becoming an essential component of a solid content marketing strategy. Free tools like Canva and Pixlr make it easier than ever to turn your data into compelling visual content.
The best infographics give equal weight to both parts of the word – they combine essential info with stellar graphic design. I could write a whole blog post about how great infographics can be. But, of course, that would defeat the purpose.
Instead, let’s look at ten great infographics with a meta twist: They’re content marketing assets about content marketing! These examples can inspire your own infographic creation while they inform your strategy.
#1: How to Socialize a Blog Post
Creating great content is less than half the battle for marketers. You should spend roughly 20% of your effort creating, and 80% in promotion. What good is awesome content if no one sees it? This colorful gem from DigitalMarketer efficiently illustrates how to make sure your content reaches your target audience. You’ll learn how to create assets that help promote the piece, make your shares trackable, and analyze your results to do it even better next time.
#2: The Top 8 B2B Customer Marketing Trends to Watch Out for in 2017
This piece from Digital Marketing Philippines (via the good folks at HubSpot) really puts the “info” in “infographic.” It’s a good example of just how much data you can pack into a visual asset while still keeping it easily-digestible. The bright colors, solid organization, and statistic call-outs grab attention, while the text provides plenty of value to keep people reading.
#3: What Does It Take to Make a Piece of Content?
Dive into this cool blue infographic for an insider look at how content powerhouse Contently goes from strategy to creation to distribution. This piece is a great counter-example to the design-heavy look of the previous entry on the list. It relies on simple line art to create a cooking metaphor that provides visual interest without overpowering the text. A soupcon of highlighted statistics help make the case for the solid advice they’re presenting.
#4: The Ultimate Content Marketing Strategy
There are plenty of resources out there that explain the “Big Rock” content marketing strategy, but this Curata infographic gets points for thoroughness and nifty graphical interest. Learn how to create a gated asset, slice it into top-of-funnel ungated content that feeds back to the gated asset, then dice it into even smaller gems to share on social media. One nifty trick to steal for your next long infographic: The progress bar at the top that shows exactly how far you’ve read and how far you have left to go.
#5: A Brief History of Content Marketing
Who better to give a primer on the 200+ year history of content marketing than the Godfather himself, Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute? This timeline serves as a reminder that quality content can help build a business, from John Deere’s The Furrow to the Michelin Guide to the Will It Blend? Videos. Wrapped in Joe’s signature orange, this bite-sized history lesson is well worth a read.
#6: 10 Visual Marketing Statistics for 2017
This infographic collects results from a Venngage survey of over 300 digital marketers. It’s a great resource for seeing how the industry is moving toward visual content, and what types of visual content are leading the pack. Compare your progress to the results here, or use it to inspire your strategy, or just enjoy the pink-and-purple visuals.
#7: The Ins & Outs of Awesome Infographics
Fans of marketing, infographics, and pentagons will enjoy this groovy piece from IBM. The simple, clean design work complements the solid advice on offer about how to create memorable visual content. Learn how to choose the right visuals for your data, pick the right layout, and avoid common mistakes.
#8: What Buyers Really Want from Content Marketers
The team at Uberflip demonstrates a lesson well worth learning in this piece: Not every infographic has to be six screens tall. They manage to pack a wealth of data into a fairly small space, distilling the message into something that gets the value across without spraining your scrolling finger. Find out what buyers want marketers to do, and not do, to create content that really resonates.
#9: The Importance of Visual Content
You don’t have to have a team of researchers and designers to create a solid infographic. This piece from kwikturn media is a good example of doing more with less. It’s essentially a stats blog post, compiled from sources around the internet. Add some thoughtful but simple clip art, a slate background, and it’s far more interesting than a text list would be.
#10: The Secret to Creating Scalable, Quality Content and Better CX
Static infographics have more visual interest than text does. But you can take it a step further with an animated, interactive infographic. Some people call these “gifographics.” Those people are wrong. But whatever you call them, they’re undeniably cool. We created this interactive piece on the Ceros platform.
Infographics are an indispensable part of a modern content marketing strategy. Use them to highlight data points from your gated content, replace a list-based blog post, or just to brighten up a how-to post. Just keep the design simple and clean, and the text informative and valuable.
Seen any cool infographics lately? Let me know in the comments.
And if you need help creating your own infographics, check out our content marketing services.
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2017. | 10 Infographics to Guide Your Content Marketing Strategy | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post 10 Infographics to Guide Your Content Marketing Strategy appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
Tuesday 30 May 2017
Can Navigation Location Hurt Your SEO? #AskanSEO by @jennyhalasz
Can the location of your website navigation negatively impact SEO performance? Find out in the latest Ask an SEO.
The post Can Navigation Location Hurt Your SEO? #AskanSEO by @jennyhalasz appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Report: Social Media Examiner 2017 State of Social Media Marketing
The past 12 months have been big for social media marketers. Each social platform has seen significant changes or upgrades creating opportunity, and adding complexity for many marketers.
Facebook introduced live video, Twitter made it easier to fit your message in 140 characters, Snapchat added collaboration features and Pinterest added promoted video.
The question on many marketers minds is: what has truly changed in the way that B2B and B2C marketers approach social media marketing? The new Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Social Media Examiner takes a deep dive into the current state of social media on a granular level.
But how does social media marketing effort and success differ between B2B and B2C brands? Find out below.
Both B2B & B2C Marketers Struggle with Social Media Measurement
According to the study, only 38% of marketers believe that they are able to measure their social activities. This is a decline from 2016 and 2015. Additionally, only 34% of marketers believe that their Facebook marketing is effective.
Varying Benefits of Social Media Marketing
What’s working? Well for most B2B and B2C brands, increased exposure and increased traffic rank high on the list. However, when it comes to developing loyal fans, that’s where the numbers start to differ.
72% of B2C marketers versus 64% of B2B marketers were able to develop a loyal fan base through social media marketing.
However, 64% of B2B marketers versus 54% of B2C marketers were able to gain thought leadership through social media marketing.
Top Used Social Media Marketing Platforms
It’s no surprise that the largest social networking platform in the world is the top used platform for both B2B and B2C marketers. Since 2016, Facebook usage increased 1% while Twitter usage declined 8%.
Overall, B2B marketers are investing more in platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest while B2B marketers focus on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
In past years, LinkedIn was the top contender for B2B brands but has since taken second place to LinkedIn (43% versus 37%)
Facebook Rules Paid Social Media
When it comes to paid social, Facebook is the clear frontrunner. The majority (93%) of marketers use Facebook ads, up 6% from 2016.
B2C marketers are using Facebook ads slightly more than their B2B counterparts (95% to 87%) but it’s close! However, the gap begins to widen when you begin assessing paid social ad usage on LinkedIn. While 29% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn ads, only 10% of B2C marketers invest on the platform.
Are Marketers Really Using Snapchat?
It’s no secret that Snapchat usage has soared over the past year. With over 161 million daily users, it’s clear that consumers (especially millennials) have taken to the platform.
In the next year, 23% of marketers plan on increasing their Snapchat activities to meet that demand. However, only 8% of marketers have actually increased their posting frequency in the past 12 months.
Common Content Types
The type of content that social media marketers post has seen a significant change in the past year. While visual images and blogging reign supreme, live video has made a jump from 28% from 14% in just one year.
The study also found that B2B marketers are more likely to use blogging than B2C marketers (75% versus 61%) and B2C marketers are more likely to use video (30% versus 24%).
What Does the Future Hold for B2B & B2C Marketers?
In some ways, B2B and B2C marketers are on-pace. In others, their approaches are wildly different. As the market becomes more saturated and it becomes harder and harder for brands to stand out, what steps should social media marketers take to catch the attention of their audience?
If you’d like to read the full report, visit Social Media Examiner.
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2017. | Report: Social Media Examiner 2017 State of Social Media Marketing | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post Report: Social Media Examiner 2017 State of Social Media Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
The Amazing SEO Benefits of Discovering Your “Hidden Ranks” by @sejournal
Discover keywords that are ranking in at least the top 100 in a search engine for your website that you are NOT aware of.
The post The Amazing SEO Benefits of Discovering Your “Hidden Ranks” by @sejournal appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Monday 29 May 2017
New AdWords Experience Rolling Out by End of the Year by @MattGSouthern
A new AdWords experience is expected to be rolled out to all advertisers by the end of the year.
The post New AdWords Experience Rolling Out by End of the Year by @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Google Adds ‘Personal’ Tab to Search Results by @MattGSouthern
Google is taking personalized search a step further with a "Personal" tab which has been rolled out in search results.
The post Google Adds ‘Personal’ Tab to Search Results by @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Google Introduces ‘Buy’ Button in Beta Program by @MattGSouthern
Google introduced a Purchases on Google beta program which allows qualifying merchants to add a "Buy" button to search adds.
The post Google Introduces ‘Buy’ Button in Beta Program by @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
7 Tips for Using Pop-ups Without Harming Your SEO by @ab80
Pop-up ads work, and you'd want to continue them despite Google’s interstitial penalty. Here's how you do it.
The post 7 Tips for Using Pop-ups Without Harming Your SEO by @ab80 appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Master LinkedIn’s New Lead Generation Forms in 10 Easy Steps
[Editor’s Note: This is the first post from one of the newer members of our team, Emily Hinderaker. Emily joined TopRank Marketing earlier this year as a Marketing Copywriter.]
The one item that marketers crave above everything else is information about their prospects. Often, there is even a dollar amount assigned to gaining access to a name, email or phone number. In a time where this information is highly coveted, what is one thing marketers can do to make it easy for prospects to convert?
The answer, targeted, compelling, one-click conversions.
According to Stephen Slater, Digital Advertising Manager at TopRank Marketing here’s why:
Lead generation form ads encourage the impulse buy. With one click, you can gain access to prospect information in a way that required little time or effort on their end. The beauty of this approach for advertisers is that you can show your ads to the right audience and receive one click conversions.
Paid social presents a great opportunity for one-click conversions because you’re putting yourself where you audience is already spending time. And thanks to LinkedIn’s new Lead Generation Forms the opportunity just got a lot sweeter.
LinkedIn’s Lead Generation Forms allows advertisers to get even more high-quality leads by automatically filling in customized forms with accurate profile data. You can track campaign CPL, form fill rate, and even segment audience data by profession to get a better understanding of ad performance.
This new tool makes it easier for customers to engage, and saves time by pre-filling information. With this feature, you won’t lose leads due to an exhaustive form. Another benefit is that you also have the ability to download your leads and integrate with your marketing automation or CRM software for more organized, accurate and documented lead information.
Here’s a quick video from LinkedIn showcasing the features of this tool:
If you’re ready to get started, we’ve included a helpful ten step guide below to help you create your own Lead Generation Form ad.
#1 – Choose The Ad Type
Depending on your business objectives, you will want to select the ad type that will help you meet your goals. Advertisers can select Sponsored Content, Text Ads or Sponsored InMail for their ads.
#2 – Select Your Language & Preferences
Enter a campaign name that’s relevant for the campaign and then select the language of your content and what you’d like to happen after someone clicks your ad. Then click “Next >” to proceed with the Lead Generation Forms.
#3 – Choose Update(s) You’d Like to Sponsor
There are a couple options to get started. Option one is to select existing content that will appear as “Sponsored Content” and will be shown in newsfeeds. or create a new post to promote. The second option is to choose “Direct Sponsored Content”, which will send customized messages to your audience segments (you’ll need Company Page Admin permission).
#4 – Create New Form Template
If you haven’t already, you’ll need to create a form template that describes your offer. Simply enter your offer headline and offer deal. Take the time to ensure that your headline and offer are compelling and speak to the needs of your target audience.
#5 – Identify What User Information You Want
Depending on what information your team has determined is most beneficial for your campaign, select up to seven pieces of data you’d like to collect from each prospect.
#6 – Create A Customized Thank You Message
You can also determine what message your prospects see after submitting their form. This is a great opportunity to redirect the user to your company website for more information.
#7 – Define the Call-To-Action
Depending on your goal, you may want a prospect to sign up, download or request more information. Make sure that your CTA properly aligns with your ad message.
#8 – Choose Audience Targeting
In order for an ad on LinkedIn to be effective, you must target your audience appropriately based on your message. You can select everything from locations and industries to specific job titles and even fields of study or skills.
#9 – Choose Your Budget and Start Date
You can choose to either pay when someone clicks on your ad, or pay based on the number of impressions. LinkedIn will also recommend a bidding strategy based on what other advertisers are doing. Typically, it will be best to start out by using LinkedIn’s recommended bid but you should optimize once you see which ads are performing best.
#10 – Review & Optimize
Keep a close eye on the performance of your ads and form completion to identify what is working best, and which ads to pause. That way you can optimize ad performance to increase results.
Test LinkedIn’s New Lead Generation Features
As you can see, LinkedIn’s new Lead Generation Forms offer a way to make it easier for targeted audiences to convert based on your offer. By removing a barrier, these one-click conversions can help fill your customer database and encourage participation from targeted audiences.
Interested in trying Lead Gen Forms? Click here to get started.
Disclosure: LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2017. | Master LinkedIn’s New Lead Generation Forms in 10 Easy Steps | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post Master LinkedIn’s New Lead Generation Forms in 10 Easy Steps appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
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