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When I was just a wee lass and HubSpot was first starting to make a name for itself, inbound marketing was a brand new idea. Marketers were learning that they couldn't just publish a high volume of content -- it also had to be high-quality and optimized in ways that made it as discoverable as possible through search engines.
And once upon a time, that content was largely limited to the written word. Eleven years later, that's no longer the case -- a comprehensive content strategy includes written work like blogs and ebooks, as well as media like podcasts, visual assets, and videos.
That last part -- video -- continues to be on the rise. According to the 2017 State of Inbound, marketers named video as a huge disruptor. "I mostly write content right now," one respondent said, "but I'm afraid it may begin to diminish more and more with video." 
And with the rise of other content formats comes the need to optimize them for search. One increasingly important place to do that is on YouTube, which is a video distribution website used by the masses (HubSpot included).
But how does that work? What are the steps you need to take to optimize your YouTube channel for search? We've outlined some major tips below. And if you're short on time, no problem -- check out the video summary here.
7 YouTube Search Optimization Tips 1) TitleWhen we search for videos, one of the first things that our eyes are drawn to is the title. That's often what determines whether or not the viewer will click to watch your video, so the title should not only be compelling, but also, clear and concise.
It also helps if the title closely matches what the viewer is searching for. Research conducted by Backlinko found that videos with an exact keyword match in the title have a slight advantage over those that don't. Here's a linear representation of those findings:
So while "using your target keyword in your title may help you rank for that term," report author Brian Dean explains, "the relationship between keyword-rich video titles and rankings is" weak, at best.
Finally, make sure to keep your title fairly short -- HubSpot Content Strategist Alicia Collins recommends limiting it to 60 characters to help keep it from getting cut off in results pages.
2) DescriptionFirst things first: According to Google, the official character limit for YouTube video descriptions is 1,000 characters. And while it's okay to use all of that space, remember that your viewer most likely came here to watch a video, not to read a story.
If you do choose to write a longer description, keep in mind that YouTube only displays the first two or three lines of text -- that amounts to about 100 characters. After that point, viewers have to click "show more" to see the full description. That's why we suggest front-loading the description with the most important information, like CTAs or crucial links.
As for optimizing the video itself, it doesn't hurt to add a transcript of the video, especially for those who have to watch it without volume. That said, Backlinko's research also found no correlation between descriptions that were optimized for a certain keyword and the rankings for that term.
Dean is careful not to encourage ditching an optimized description altogether, though. "An optimized description helps you show up in the suggested videos sidebar," he writes, "which is a significant source of views for most channels."
3) TagsYouTube's official Creator Academy suggests using tags to let viewers know what your video is about. But you're not just informing your viewers -- you're also informing YouTube itself. Dean explains that the platform uses tags "to understand the content and context of your video."
That way, YouTube figures out how to associate your video with similar videos, which can broaden your content's reach. But choose your tags widely. Don't use an irrelevant tag because you think it'll get you more views -- in fact, Google might penalize you for that. And similar to your description, lead with the most important keywords, including a good mix of those that are common and more long-tail (as in, those that answer a question like "how do I?").
4) CategoryOnce you upload a video, you can categorize it under "Advanced settings." Choosing a category is another way to group your video with similar content on YouTube.
It might not be as simple as it looks. In fact, YouTube's Creator Academy suggests that marketers go through a comprehensive process to determine which category each video belongs in. It's helpful, the guide writes, "to think about what is working well for each category" you're considering by answering questions like:
Your video thumbnail is the main image viewers see when scrolling through a list of video results. Along with the video's title, that thumbnail sends a signal to the viewer about the video's content, so it can impact the number of clicks and views your video receives.
While you can always pick one of the thumbnail options auto-generated by YouTube, we highly recommend uploading a custom thumbnail. The Creator Academy reports that "90% of the best performing videos on YouTube have custom thumbnails," recommending the use of images that are 1280x720 pixels -- representing a 16:9 ratio -- that are saved as 2MB or smaller .jpg, .gif, .bmp, or .png files. If you follow those parameters, it can help to ensure that your thumbnail appears with equally high quality across multiple viewing platforms.
It's important to note that your YouTube account has to be verified in order to upload a custom thumbnail image. To do that, visit youtube.com/verify and follow the instructions listed there.
6) SRT Files (Subtitles & Closed Captions)Like much of the other text we've discussed here, subtitles and closed captions can boost YouTube search optimization by highlighting important keywords.
In order to add subtitles or closed captions to your video, you'll have to upload a supported text transcript or timed subtitles file. For the former, you can also directly enter transcript text for a video so that it auto-syncs with the video.
Adding subtitles follows a similar process, however, you can limit the amount of text you want displayed. For either, head to your video manager then click on "Videos" under "Video Manager." Find the video you want to add subtitles or closed captioning to, and click the drop-down arrow next to the edit button. Then, choose "Subtitles/CC." You can then select how you'd like to add subtitles or closed captioning.
Google has provided great instructions on how to do that here, as well as in the video below.
7) Cards and End Screens CardsWhen you're watching a video, have you ever seen a small white, circular icon with an "i" in the center appear in the corner, or a translucent bar of text asking you to subscribe? Those are Cards, which Creator Academy describes as "preformatted notifications that appear on desktop and mobile which you can set up to promote your brand and other videos on your channel."
You can add up to five cards to a single video, and there are six types:
For detailed steps on adding a card to your video, follow these official steps from Google, or check out the video below.
End ScreensEnd screens display similar information as cards, but as you may have guessed, they don't display until a video is over, and are a bit more visually detailed in nature. A good example is the overlay with a book image and a visual link to view more on the video below:
There are a number of detailed instructions for adding end screens depending on what kind of platform you want to design them for, as well as different types of content allowed for them by YouTube. Google outlines the details for how to optimize for all of those considerations here.
It's important to note that YouTube is always testing end screens to try to optimize the viewer experience, so there are times when "your end screen, as designated by you, may not appear." Take these factors into account as you decide between using either cards or end screens.
It's Worth It to OptimizeThese factors may seem a bit complicated and time-consuming, but remember: The time people spend watching YouTube on their TV has more than doubled year over year. There's an audience to be discovered there, and when you optimize for YouTube, your chances of being discovered increase.
Of course, it all begins with good content, so make sure your viewers have something high-quality and relevant to watch when they find you.
How have you optimized for YouTube search? Let us know in the comments.
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We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.Say you needed to hire a new senior marketing executive for your business, and you need to do it fast. This is a pivotal moment for your business; choosing a top marketing leader with the right skills and leadership can completely transform your organization and drive better marketing ROI for years to come.
If you're a marketing leader, you probably have an idea of the kind of person you need to bring in.
But what if you're a CEO, President, Owner, Head of HR, or someone else without a close perspective on marketing? Do you know where to start?
Hiring a new marketing executive can be a complicated, risky venture; that's a major reason why CMO turnover is so high. Without truly knowing how marketing has changed over the five years and the power of modern marketing team and what it can do for your business, it's impossible to write an effective marketing executive job description, let alone confidently recruit the right person.
Fortunately, business leaders have a valuable resource that can minimize the risk of a weak hire: marketing executive search agencies. If you work with an executive search specialist who has actual, hands on marketing experience themselves, you'll get access to critical perspective and experience that puts you in the best position to recruit a leader capable of growing your business.
Fortunately, business leaders have a valuable resource that can minimize the risk of a weak hire: marketing executive search agencies. If you work with an executive search specialist who has actual, hands on marketing experience themselves, you'll get access to critical perspective and experience that puts you in the best position to recruit a leader capable of growing your business.
Why It's So Hard to Define the Right Marketing Executive for YouMarketing has changed more in the past five years than it did in the previous fifty. This has made it hard for top marketing executives to stay current and virtually impossible for non-marketing executives. If you are not current on marketing, how do you hire top talent?
That's the core of what makes describing a senior marketing position so difficult and finding someone to fill it so risky. Marketing is changing fast; how can someone outside of marketing know what to look for? There are so many hard questions to answer:
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
The Secret Weapon Business Leaders Have for Defining Marketing Leadership RolesNeed help describing your ideal marketing executive? There's one valuable resource that often goes overlooked: retained executive search firms.
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Webcast, June 6th: Achieving More with Less: How Grammarly's Lean Growth Team Delivers Outsized Results
Of course, a top executive search firm can help you hire an executive. But they can also serve as a resource for explaining what a good marketing leader is capable of and evaluating the kind of person who would be best suited for your business. A top marketing executive search professional might even be willing to consult with you on this for free, without any additional obligation.
If you choose to work with a marketing executive search partner, make sure to look for these traits:
Finally, some silver lining.
You might not know much about what's going on at the cutting edge of marketing. That's okay–it's not your responsibility (though hiring a strong marketing executive certainly is).
Most people in charge of running a business–even extremely successful executives–have little experience with marketing. For instance, take a look at this report on what background Fortune 100 CEOs come from. Marketing isn't even close to the top of the list. Like many business problems, you just need a best-in-class partner to help you overcome an uncommon challenge.
Image from N2Growth
These people are no doubt bright, driven, successful leaders. But you certainly wouldn't expect someone with a career in Finance or Operations to understand how to measure and improve customer experience, or maximize the value of Search Engine Optimization, or develop a social media campaign that drives new sales.
However, you would hope that they'd have the wisdom to understand when they're out of their element and know when to get help.
Author: Mark Miller Mark Miller is Marketing Manager for MarketPro, a marketing recruitment firm. He writes about marketing career growth and development, marketing job hunting advice, and trends that affect the day-to-day work of marketers. He also creates content oriented towards business managers on how to hire marketers, how to build high-performing teams, and how… View full profile ›
The internet has changed the way we discover and consume information. Think about the year 2000 — you put a keyword in the search bar and websites with the highest keyword concentration were the ones that appeared on top. Things gradually changed with the Panda, Penguin, Pigeon and other updates. The focus was more on quality of content. The search industry was further revolutionized with the introduction Google's Instant Results around 2010. People were excited to see how the search engine offered relevant results just by reading the first few letters of a keyword.
Fast forward to 2017, the search engines have become even smarter. Their only focus is at offering the most relevant and useful information based on user preferences. Enter content discovery! Marketers are now keen on making brand content discoverable to ensure better awareness and traffic.
But what is all this buzz about content discovery? Let us take a look.
What is Content Discovery?
Content discovery is the art and science of using predictive algorithms to help make content recommendations based on how people search. Search engines and various other platforms are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to understand customer preferences and interests. This helps users to find content that's most suitable for them.
To understand what content discovery is all about, let us review some examples. Social media sites such as Facebook have content discovery features integrated into its algorithms. Consider the News Feed offered by the social platform. The content that appears in an individual feed is offered according to each users past behavior and personal preferences. In fact, a survey carried out by Forrester Consulting found social media to be the most preferred source of discovery for news and information among online adults between the ages of 18 and 55. The survey also revealed that a young millennial follows an average of 121 publishers on the social media.
Similar to Facebook, YouTube's "Recommended for You" section is another example of how user activity and preferences fuel content discovery.
Why is Content Discovery Important?
Content discovery has become more important than ever. This is because the amount of online content is increasing exponentially. Almost every brand is creating content to offer value for their audiences, which means it's even more difficult for people to find the information they are looking for. Content discovery allows people to find information that is highly relevant and personalized. In fact, content discovery helps both consumers and online marketers. Here is how:
Content discovery, helps people weed out irrelevant and unimportant information. The next question is how can brands, publishers and advertisers benefit from content discovery?
How Content Discovery Helps Brands, Publishers and Advertisers
Marketers spend time creating high-quality content, sharing it across various channels but often fail to get the desired attention they seek. Why? There are high chances that the content gets lost in the deluge. So what can marketers do to ensure content gets seen? Here is what leaders are doing to get attention and expand their reach.
Brands, publishers and advertisers are leveraging various content discovery platforms such as Taboola, Outbrain, Curiyo, Renoun, and others to expand their reach and improve ROI. The content discovery tools allow the marketers to offer high-level engagement (through high-quality and relevant content), which offers them with ample opportunities to monetize and capitalize on the user engagement levels.
The platforms analyze user behaviors by considering a number of metrics such as time spent on a specific site, the path taken to reach a specific content source, search habits, preferences and others. These useful insights can be used to target content and advertisement campaigns and ensure better lead generation.
Content discovery has become even more important for brands as consumers prefer information on their mobile devices rather than on their PCs and laptops. According to Statista, the number of smartphone users across the world has increased from 1.5 billion in 2014 to 2.17 billion in 2016. The number of smartphone users are expected to rise up-to 2.87 billion by 2020. Moreover, about 20 percent millennials are no longer using their desktop to access the Web.
Source
With a number of content discovery platforms available to the marketers, publishers and advertisers, they need not worry about a user leaving their site/blog to find further information on their preferred topics.
Here are some quick tips that will help marketers present the most relevant content in front of their targeted audience:
1. Offer Users Quality Content
Marketers must focus on providing their audience with a lot of high-quality content instead of focusing on creating just a one-off piece. Different types of content appeal to different audiences, so you have to make sure you cater to a larger audience. There have been instances when a single piece of content has gotten a huge amount of attention and helped the brand to grow immensely, but that is only momentary. By creating quality content you can reap benefits for a longer period of time.
2. Focus on Multi-Channel Strategies
Facebook can help you get a lot of attention, but the audience it caters to is not multidimensional. To expand your reach, you need to think about leveraging other channels as well. So, by designing a comprehensive content marketing strategy that includes search marketing, Facebook marketing, Twitter marketing, Instagram marketing, etc., you can benefit a lot. Once you get started you can measure how each channel is contributing to the campaign and tweak your strategies accordingly.
3. Help Others and They Will Help You
Marketers often make the mistake of promoting their own content only. By sharing high-quality content from other sources or publishers, you can offer variety to your audiences and they will be more likely to come to your site when they need information. As the saying goes, "you get what you give," there are chances where other publishers will also be willing to share your content or mention it on their blogs/websites which will help in increasing your reach.
4. Create Content That Your Audience Will Love
Who does not love instant success? But when it comes to content marketing you can never expect overnight success. The secret is to create content that your audience will love for years to come. With a long-term content discovery strategy, you can ensure more benefits. Once your audience is engaged you can move over to measuring the performance of your content and make adjustments accordingly to ensure better results.
5. Strategic Organization Aids Content Discovery
Content silos are harmful for your overall content marketing since it creates dead ends in your engagement path. Content silos form when you group content by date or type (blog posts, videos, etc.). It is a must that you organize your content by topic, since it makes content discovery easier.
While you can make your content discoverable by using search bars, internal links and a content recommendation engine; strategic organization helps users find the most relevant content quickly and easily. Moreover, organizing content by topic, persona or account helps you measure the performance and engagement level easily by using project management tools such as Trello, Workzone, Basecamp and others. This will help you identify which content performs the best, so you can leverage it further. For instance, if a blog post does extremely well, you can then make a video, slideshow and an infographic to get a better momentum.
6. Offer Variety
Do you focus on creating textual content only? Think again. In the modern day, people consume information on the go, so they might not have the luxury to read through all the extensive articles. By offering a mix of content in your feed you can help your audience consume information in the form they prefer the most. This means you need to repurpose your content and convert it into videos, slideshows, podcasts, infographics and other forms. This will help you leverage a variety of channels and reach out to a larger audience.
Create high-quality content and use various content discovery tools to reach out to your targeted audience and maximize your ROI.
Future of Content Discovery
Attention spans are becoming shorter, so people want quick access to relevant information. Therefore, brands need to focus on delivering personalized and focused content to ensure better engagement. By gearing towards this new search model and leveraging the content distribution platforms, brands can fulfill a user's desire to access quality content within moments.
However, this is just the start for content discovery. Content discovery is still evolving and improving so it is still not ready to replace the generic search completely. A huge number of people still prefer the traditional way to discover their desired content. But with changing user preferences, traditional search will soon become outdated and will be replaced by the modern techniques of content discovery. Therefore, marketers must be prepared to adapt to the changes and satisfy the needs of the customer.
Conclusion
User preferences are changing quickly. Users now want to access relevant and useful information as quickly as possible. This is not possible with the traditional search model since the users need to scour through numerous sources to find relevant information. Thus the rise of content discovery! It helps users find content at the nick of a time.
As content discovery becomes even more popular, more platforms need to be explored and tested to evaluate how they can further benefit the businesses. Online marketers should start integrating content discovery into their content marketing strategies to make sure they can retain their customers and keep satisfying them for a longer period of time.
Author Bio
Pratik Dholakiya is the Co-Founder of E2M, a full service digital marketing agency and PRmention, a digital PR agency. He regularly speaks at various conferences about SEO, Content Marketing, Growth Hacking, Entrepreneurship and Digital PR. Pratik has spoken at NextBigWhat's UnPluggd, IIT-Bombay, SMX Israel, and other major events across Asia. As a passionate marketer, he shares his thoughts and knowledge on publications like Search Engine Land, Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, The Next Web and the Huffington Post to name a few. He has been named one of the top content marketing influencers by Onalytica three years in a row.
Evolution in SEO:
In older days online companies and stores are focusing on country and state wise pages and gets traffic for those local terms after making efforts. The game start changing when some websites created city wise pages and gains their traffic and conversions without making any effort on off page SEO. The greater number of internal pages for a specific domain is also one of the main ranking factor in search engine optimization. These city wise pages can also be used for local seo link building which includes resource links, business listings etc. which is included in white hat techniques.
People Behavior Over Local Searches:
It has also been revealed that people prefer to shop online to their nearest stores as they can easily change their product (in case of fault) or they can get their product as soon as possible.For creating these local pages there is no need to find keywords from the google keyword tools, you just have to create city wise pages under state web page. Once the search engine will start indexing your pages you will find the major changes in the web traffic and search visibility. There are many success stories for this type of local seo strategy.
Less Stress More Results:
It would be a very positive point for the website that has old age domain with high PA and DA. The older age domains and higher DA need very little efforts to rank higher in search engine. If you have the older website so the game is in your hands you only have to create the subpages and start indexing them via little efforts of link building. Once the search engine robot start crawling it they will start appearing on t he first page of the search engine and hence the online business conquers their target market.
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We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.Content Marketing Stats: The State of Content Marketing in 2017 [Infographic]This infographic from our friends at MarketingProfs uncovers top content trends for B2B and B2C marketers in 2017. You'll find insights on everything from top channels to budgeting and content goals. (MarketingProfs)
Twitter is Offering Advertisers More Tools to Engage Consumers With Direct MessagesTwitter's new Direct Message Cards that can include as many as four CTA buttons that will send users to specific content. The cards can also be used in organic tweets and are designed to encourage one-on-one conversations, making it easier for brands to connect with their audience. (AdWeek)
Hello Google Attribution, Goodbye Last-ClickMarketers around the world are rejoicing after the announcement of the new Google Attribution tool. While the tool is still in beta, marketers will soon be able to measure performance across devices and channels all in one place, for no additional cost. That means that marketers will soon have a better understanding of what marketing tactics are most effective at moving prospects through the customer journey. (Google Adwords Blog)
Introducing Location and Hashtag Stories on ExploreFor users interested in what's going on around them, Instagram now displays stories happening based on your location. Additionally, users can also search interest based hashtags to find groups of stories related to that specific topic. (Instagram Blog)
Snapchat Adds Collaborative Stories, Which Could Help Boost Exposure Through the AppStory collaboration on Snapchat just got a whole lot easier. Snapchat's new custom stories features lets users invite other people to contribute to a story without having to host a takeover. The stories will remain on the Stories page until no one has added for 24 hours, or the creator deletes it. (Social Media Today)
Bing Launches Bots for Local BusinessesMicrosoft has started integrating chatbots into search results to make search more interactive. For now, this feature is only available to restaurants but Microsoft envisions rolling these bots out broadly in the future. The bots will answer common customer questions, be available across multiple channels and requires virtually no technical requirements from business owners. (Search Engine Land)
Promoted Video Gets Even Better on PinterestPinterest introduced promoted videos less than a year ago, and are already releasing three big enhancements. They have added an autoplay feature, better accessibility to video content (search and feeds) and improved reporting through a new partnership. (Pinterest Business Blog)
Google is Speeding Up Search Ads With AMP TechnologyGoogle is speeding up AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) for search in two different ways: a new beta where advertisers can use AMP pages as landing pages and the entire Google Display Network is getting hit with AMP technology. (Search Engine Journal)
Thanks for watching and reading our weekly news roundup. Please feel free to share your favorite stories of the week in the comments below or send us a message on Twitter to @toprank.
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In 2016, 96% of Google's revenue came from paid search (or pay-per-click) advertising. Clearly, marketers are taking advantage of AdWords, but what does a great PPC campaign even look like? How do you ensure it drives ROI for your company? How do you even do a Google AdWords campaign?
To help you get started the right way, we're breaking down the basics of how to use paid search below.
The following is an excerpt from the ebook How to Use Google AdWords, just one of the resources included in The Ultimate Free Google AdWords PPC Kit we created with our friends at SEMrush. The kit includes the full ebook, a template, and a checklist -- everything you need to manage keywords, campaigns and ad groups successfully. If you'd like to access the full kit, click here.
All too often, companies -- small businesses especially -- think that if they just pay to be on a search engine, they don't have to invest time and resources in search engine optimization to rank higher organically.
It's important to make clear that paid search is not a replacement for anything, but should instead be used to complement other inbound marketing strategies. Paid online advertising takes a lot of time and effort, a lot of resources, and a lot of management, and it's something you really need to invest in.
Let's take a look at some of the useful things you can do with paid search.
Landing Page TestingOne great way to use paid search is for testing and optimizing your landing pages. So, for instance, here's the search engine results page for "cat food for older cats", and you see some paid results for this specific search query:
You can take that one ad and actually set it to go to two different destination URLs, and therefore, to two different landing pages.
So for a cat food ad, you could have one ad going to a page with one offer (a guide on feeding techniques for your older cat), and the other to a page for another offer (an actual product page for cat food).
You could also have the ad go to two different landing pages that are for the same offer. For example, if you wanted to test a feature of your forms, you could have two versions of the same landing page, each with a different form layout, and send the ad to each of those. This is called A/B testing, a very important and highly recommended practice for optimizing your landing pages.
Paid search is a great way to do landing page A/B testing because it allows you to direct traffic to your choice of pages, split this traffic to different pages, and ultimately find the pages that convert at the highest rate.
Finding New KeywordsIn addition to landing page testing, you can also use paid search to find new keywords for your campaign. Google AdWords generates a Search Terms report that displays all of the keywords for which your ad has been displayed.
In other words, if you are bidding on the keyword "red shoes", Google might serve your ad when someone searches "red tennis shoes." Even though you did not bid on the exact word, the keyword "red tennis shoes" will be included in this report because that's what the user searched. The report also contains information about the performance of each of the keywords, so you can determine if it's worth adding that keyword to your campaign.
Below is a sample Search Terms report. On the left hand side is the list of keywords. The ones that show the green "Added" box next to them are the ones that are already in this paid search account.
The keywords that don't say "Added" next to them are not currently included in the account. Again, this is a list of the keywords that people are actually typing into the Google search, so it is extremely valuable information.
Take, for instance, the keyword "search engine optimization tutorial'" from the list above. That is an excellent keyword for my campaign, and I'm not buying it yet. Not only that, but I wouldn't have known about that keyword unless I had generated this report! And to top it all off, I'm able to see that when somebody searches for this keyword and clicks through to my ad, they convert on one of my offers at a rate of 21%.
Now, this high conversion rate tells me not only that I should be buying this keyword, but also that maybe I should consider using this keyword for search engine optimization as well. Maybe I should make a landing page geared toward this keyword, or an offer built around this keyword.
You should use the information in these Search Terms reports, and also in Google AdWords' Keyword Planner, to discover new keywords that will help you further optimize all of your SEM campaigns. For more information on keyword research, check out this blog post: How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner's Guide and the Ultimate keyword research checklist.
Getting in the GameAnother great way to use paid search is to, as we say, "get in the game" and rank higher than your competitors. Let's look at PetSmart.com, which holds the number one ranking in the organic search results for the phrase "cat food".
For the phrase "dog food", they don't rank number one, but they're still above the fold, meaning that you don't have to scroll down to see the result when the page comes up. This is great, of course, but their high rank for these keywords does not mean they shouldn't bother running any paid search ads.
If you do a little research, you'll find that "pet food" is also a big keyword in this space, and PetSmart ranks far below the fold for it. On top of that, they're not running a paid search campaign with Google AdWords either. But their competitor, Petco, does have a paid search campaign, and so their ad appears on the results page, while PetSmart does not. So this is a sample instance where running a paid search campaign makes a lot of sense.
When you think about how you should use paid search, one of the best ways to think about it is to use it as a complement to your inbound marketing efforts. You can use paid search to maximize your coverage on the search engine's result page (SERP).
For instance, here we have the search term "inbound marketing." You'll see that there's an organic search listing for HubSpot that ranks second on the page (just after Wikipedia), but we're also buying the keyword "inbound marketing," which displays our paid search ad for it.
So now we have that natural search ad, the paid one, and, if you scroll down the page, you'll find yet another organic search listing for HubSpot via SlideShare. This widespread coverage on the search engine results page for "inbound marketing" helps to establish HubSpot as an authoritative figure for inbound marketing, and drives more traffic to our pages.
The good news is -- you can do this for your business as well! Take the opportunity to establish your company as a leader in your industry by increasing your presence on search engines with paid search campaigns.
Ready to get started with the full ebook, template, and checklist? Click here to access the complete Ultimate Free Google AdWords PPC Kit.
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We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.SEO, SEM and enhanced online listings help multifamily property management companies stand out and attract more renters
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Yardi� announced the addition of a new marketing offering for residential property management. RENTCaf� Reach includes an advanced set of marketing services designed to attract qualified prospects to multifamily properties through search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM) and enhanced online property listings on RENTCaf�.com.
Property marketers can use RENTCaf� Reach to maximize the visibility of their properties in search results, no matter how renters are searching.
Previously available to select clients, RENTCaf� Reach has already driven success for multiple brands. One company recently reported a decrease in bounce rates and 32% increase in organic traffic portfolio wide.
RENTCaf� Reach is part of the Yardi Marketing Suite, a mobile system that supports the entire prospect and resident lifecycle. This integrated range of solutions and services cant be found elsewhere in the industry through a single vendor.
?Everyone knows the way to reach renters today is online, but prospects are finding properties in multiple ways. With vacancy rates edging upward, property marketers need to stand out in todays highly competitive digital marketplace to win more customers. The three distinct services available through RENTCaf� Reach allow our clients to maximize their impact at every level of the search process, said Mark Klionsky, director of RENTCaf� Marketing Services at Yardi. ?Complete integration with their existing property marketing platform yields total transparency and measurable results.
Contact us to learn how you can increase web traffic to your rental properties.
About Yardi
Yardi� develops and supports industry-leading investment and property management software for all types and sizes of residential and commercial real estate companies. Established in 1984, Yardi is based in Santa Barbara, Calif., and serves clients worldwide. For more information, visit yardi.com.
ContactsYardi Systems Inc.Leah Etling, 800-866-1144 x1207Leah.Etling@Yardi.com
Related Keywords:Source:Copyright (c) Business Wire.. All Rights Reserved
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Now more than ever, brands are looking to maximize ROI for their marketing spend. Yet when discussing holistic search strategy and planning, I often get: "Everyone talks about holistic search, but no one's doing it." This always surprises me for three reasons:
For these reasons, holistic search should be a central part of any campaign. Below are the five areas that I believe are essential to crafting a successful holistic search approach.
1. One purchase funnel, one shared keyword setUnderstanding the consumer and their search behavior is essential. This provides the insight that allows us to build a comprehensive picture of both the path to purchase and the consumer's informational needs at each step of the purchase journey. From here, key topics and themes can be identified and extensive keyword lists developed.
Keyword research is often an area of duplication across both paid and organic channels, resulting not only in an inefficient use of time, but also varied keyword sets across the purchase funnel. A holistic approach eliminates these issues.
With a detailed purchase funnel and shared keyword set in place, performance across paid and organic search can be mapped out with the coverage gaps highlighted.
2. Optimize overall search performanceWith the coverage gaps identified, they can be prioritized based on search volume, competition, purchase funnel stage and contribution to sales. If the gaps sit toward the top of the funnel, the search terms may not be direct sales drivers but will drive significant traffic volume; consumers research their purchases, which in turn increases the likelihood of making it onto the consideration set and fueling sales growth later in the purchase journey.
At this stage, position within the funnel, combined with short-term versus long-term growth targets, plays a key role in channel focus. For short-term growth, paid search should be deployed for instant impact to build search visibility. However, if focusing on mid- to long-term growth opportunities, paid search can be tested to validate the viability of the relevant keyword group. If the test proves successful, an organic search campaign can then be deployed to develop overall search visibility.
3. Share performance insight for quick winsCross-channel insights provide a wealth of quick wins that can drive incremental performance gains. Paid and organic search teams should be analyzing and discussing performance on a continuous basis, exploring areas such as:
It's vital to look at search holistically to understand the impact of each channel on overall search performance. It is even more vital that this is done using a single data source, i.e., site analytics, to ensure fully de-duplicated data. At a minimum, the measurement framework should review traffic and conversion performance by channel and for search in total.
Brands often review performance for paid and organic search in silos; thus, performance increases and decreases are taken out of context. For instance, if a competitor starts bidding on brand terms, triggering a response to protect performance, this could reduce organic search performance but maintain overall performance.
It is important to ensure both paid and organic search teams are using consistent reporting data to ensure the dots are connected across channels.
5. Communication and processCommunication and process are the absolute key to a successful holistic search approach. If paid and organic search teams aren't collaborating and discussing performance on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, then failure is guaranteed. In contrast, if there are clear processes in place with regular catch-ups, then the right data gets analyzed and the best insights surfaced. This will drive performance gains for search overall.
In summaryImplementing a holistic approach is essential for driving overall search performance. By fostering collaboration across paid and organic teams to develop a single consumer-centric planning process and measurement framework, we can increase efficiency and make better, more data-driven decisions. However, it is communication and process that will ultimately dictate the success of the holistic approach.
Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
About The Author David, is Business Director – Owned Performance at Ecselis, Havas Group and is responsible for leading and developing their propositions and service solutions, specifically around SEO, Content and CRO in-order to deliver long term strategic results for clients. David has over ten years' experience in delivering business growth across start-ups to multi-national enterprise level clients, as well as launching brands' web presence in new markets. Having worked client side across paid, earned and owned media and held senior SEO agency side roles, David brings thought leadership from multiple viewpoints and a leading performance-driven approach. David was named the 12th most influential search marketer in The Drum's Search Top 50 in 2014. In addition, David speaks at conferences such as SES and Search Leeds.
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Specifically, a Capital One survey of 400 small businesses — its Fall 2016 Small Business Barometer Survey — found that only 56 percent have a company website. And only 53 percent of those were mobile-optimized. In other words, fewer than 30 percent of businesses surveyed had a mobile-optimized website.
Further, there is a fair argument that websites are no longer as effective in the local market. Technology and cost certainly are no longer barriers given the availability of subscription options for even the least sophisticated users and slick DIY platforms for those who don't want to hire a freelancer or agency. Instead, the challenge is that websites must compete for relevance in a market with many other media platforms — social media sites, directories and review sites — that are often viewed as proxies for the face of the franchise.
Today, social media is dominating SMB attention, a survey conducted by the Local Search Association (my employer) has found. Almost 43 percent of SMBs surveyed said that it would be the media of choice if they could only select one form of online marketing to use. That was the top choice by a large margin, with SEO ranking second at 25.6 percent. This preference explains why social media pages such as Facebook pages are increasingly used as the primary public-facing "landing page."
Other "proxy" home pages include directory listings that are sophisticated enough to contain virtually all the key information customers are looking for. Third-party sites can integrate multiple functions such as e-commerce, online booking and reviews and attract a bigger and broader audience than an individual website. And even Google profiles, knowledge graphs and snack-pack listings can suck huge amounts of traffic away from a website.
All in all, median click-through-rate (CTR) from a #1 result on Google is down 37 percent over the last two years, according to a study by Wordstream. That seems like pretty strong evidence fewer people are visiting websites and are instead relying on other media.
While these reasons are seemingly enough to persuade some that third-party-owned pages are a sufficient and simpler alternative to maintaining a business website, other data reveal a different story. Below are five reasons why every business needs a company website for local search marketing.
1. 63% of consumers use websites to find or engage with businessesAccording to LSA's (Local Search Association) April 2017 report, "The Digital Consumer Study," that examined digital media use in 12 US cities, websites were the second most-used media to find local businesses. Only two forms of media were used by the majority of consumers when looking at "past week" usage trends: search engines and company websites.
Consumers use websites to find or engage with businesses 63 percent of the time. And while the perception is that the variety of media available to consumers would decrease website use, LSA's numbers show something different — 2016's weekly website usage rate of 63 percent was an increase over 2015's 60 percent rate.
These numbers show that despite the growth of other media, the value of websites has not diminished – in fact, it continues to grow. While Wordstream's study showed a decline in CTR from Google SERPs (search engine results pages), consumers are finding and clicking through to business websites from other sources such as Yelp, YellowPages.com and Google My Business listings.
2. The top 10 local organic factors for SEO are related to websitesOnly 5 percent of consumers surveyed by BrightLocal in 2016 never used search engines to find local businesses — which means 95 percent have. And 69 percent reported searching for a local business at least six times per year. So SEO is a big deal.
According to Moz's 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors, the top 10 factors for appearing in organic Google search results are related to a business's website or domain. These factors include how authoritative your website is, based on who is linking to your site, how many third parties are linking to you and the quality and relevance of your content, to name a few.
While arguably, these factors can be fulfilled on a Facebook page, realistically, that doesn't happen. For one thing, a major factor — authority of the site — is difficult to achieve on a social media site, since Google doesn't consider social signals such as likes or followers in weighing influence. I performed a few test searches on Google of snorkel gear, ski equipment and pool supplies in Plano and Frisco, Texas, and found only two Facebook pages of local businesses — and they were deep into the search results. In both cases, the Facebook pages appeared many results after the respective websites of those businesses.
Note that I'm not talking about searches in which a business's name is specifically typed into the search box. Those results commonly return Facebook pages, Yelp listings and Groupon offers. However, since finding new customers is the top marketing priority for businesses, according to a Unity Marketing survey last year, businesses can't count on folks who already know their name and proactively search for it.
Maintaining a website that has quality and relevant content that is consistently referenced and linked by other reputable third-party directories, sites, articles and posts is critical to being found when customers conduct research online and are looking for products and services to buy.
3. Local snack-pack and Google map results are influenced by websites, tooAccording to Moz, the biggest impact on local pack ranking factors is your Google My Business (GMB) profile and the proximity of your business to the searcher. Yet having a complete and rich GMB profile does not guarantee you will show up in Google local finder or map results. Businesses often make the mistake of assuming that you'll automatically show up in searches for your business category (as listed in your GMB profile) in your geographic area.
Despite the fact that proximity, physical address and GMB business category rank 1, 2 and 3 in Moz's local pack ranking factors, Google often lists businesses that are not in the initial search area while omitting results that would otherwise match the search, deeming those other results more authoritative. It's not just new or small businesses that are affected, either; big brands can struggle with this, too.
Some of the factors that affect organic SEO rankings — such as backlinks, domain authority and clicks — are also essential to ranking and appearing in Google local finder and map results. Also, I've found that having location-based information on your website and linking to that source from your GMB profile can help boost local search results.
4. 30% of consumers won't consider a business without a websiteJust because someone looks at your Facebook page or reads reviews on Yelp doesn't mean they don't also want to see your website. In fact, consumers typically rely on multiple sources to gather information before making a purchase decision.
Research by YP and LSA found that, on average, consumers use approximately three sources before making an individual purchase decision. And 30 percent automatically strike a business from consideration if they don't have a website.
Thus, those businesses that don't have a website experience a significant loss of ready-to-buy, high-intent potential customers.
5. 46% say a website is the biggest determinant of whether they trust a companyConsumers may find you on Facebook, Google Maps or Yelp, but one big part of your online reputation comes from your website. Research conducted at Stanford in 2002 (PDF) found that 46 percent of consumers made their decision about a website's credibility based upon its design, layout and typography.
Listings may provide business details, and reviews give other customers' opinions, but on a website, prospective customers hear directly from you about you. Facebook and other social media provide a partial view of your business, but the ability to personalize the design is extremely limited, and your information is presented in a format that's the same for everyone.
A website is a storefront that reflects your identity and allows your consumers to form opinions on the quality of your products or services, the trustworthiness of your business and whether you are someone they want to buy from. It is especially important for services. According to a study from the e-tailing Group and Oracle (PDF), 75 percent of consumers say the quality of product images is essential in selecting and purchasing products online. For services, a website is your product image.
Closing thoughtsIt may seem easy as marketers and agencies to just do what our clients want. Yet marketing decisions that SMBs make may be based on incomplete or out-of-context information. For example, an SMB may look at the time consumers spend on social media and quickly conclude that its marketing resources should be spent in proportion to that social media use. Or an SMB may make an even bigger mistake and decide that it can rely solely on social media.
I'm not bashing social media as a marketing tool. However, it behooves us as marketers to educate our clients and make sure they understand the context of data they use to make decisions. We should help our clients look deeper into consumer trends and come away with better insights to make good decisions. One of those is to avoid sacrificing websites in favor of social media or other media in local search marketing. Websites remain a critical part of local search and are essential for attracting the customers necessary for business growth.
Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
About The Author Wesley Young is the Local Search Association's Vice President of Public Affairs. He blogs about the industry on the Local Search Insider blog.
