Entries from October 2013 ↓

Video marketing is a must these days, which means it’s time to get to grips with YouTube.

And that means planning your YouTube strategy.

Once you’ve done that, it’s time to create and share great video content that’s valuable and relevant to the audience you want to attract. That’s all well and good, but what kind of video content do you need?

If you follow this blog, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of Social Media Examiner. Whilst researching this subject, I came across a post on their blog that basically sums up the kind of strategy you need to make a YouTube impact.

I’ll give you the link in a moment, but to give you a flavour of what to expect, they come up with 5 styles of YouTube video that will get you the results you want:

1. Trailer video
2. Videos that share stats that matter to your audience
3. Share a customer success story to establish a good reputation
4. Answer commonly asked questions to position yourself as an expert in your field
5. Create a ‘how to’ video to teach your audience a valuable skill

OK, here’s the link I promised you – Simple YouTube Strategy

It really is worth a look, so grab a coffee and have a read.

For many, Google+ is a bit of an enigma.

They know they should be using it (after all, it is from Google so it’s got to be beneficial), but have no idea how to use it.

Brian Clark of Copyblogger just happens to be in one of my Google+ circles and one of his updates caught my eye.

He was talking about a post on his blog that offers 64 Google+ content strategies through a fantastic infographic, so I thought I’d share it with you here:

The post also offers 10 tips for effective Google+ing, such as:

1. Link Google+ to your blog
2. Build strategic networks with circles
3. Offer live video chat with Hangouts
4. User hashtags to make your posts search friendly
5. Link to your blog posts to rank higher in Google+ and Google search
6. Use ripples to add influencers to your cirlces
7. Write long posts inside Google+
8. Use direct connect so people can add you to circles from Google search
9. Use tags to reach out to people and brands
10. Display your photo in Google search results

Have a play with it.

Like this infographic? Grab a proven framework for content marketing that works from Copyblogger.

Is it really worth adding a META Description to your blog posts and other web content?

These tags are chunks of information about a web page that the search engines use to suss out what the page is about. There’s a lot of conflicting information about these, so this post will make the current situation clear.

These tags are not used by search engines to rank a web page. That said they are still a very important element that should be included on every blog post and page.

Why?

The search engines always show a description of the page in the search results, so why not make sure it’s something relevant?

If left blank, the search engines will pick something based on the search term used. But you always include well-written descriptions Google (and the other search engines) should use them.

Think about your own search habits.  When faced with a list of websites you automatically read the tags to see which result is the most relevant to you. So if you want your web page to get the click, make sure you write a stonking tag.

How to write a good description

The following tips will help you create great descriptions:

• Write for your readers, not the search engines. Although it’s important to include keywords, don’t stuff them.
• You’re limited to about 150 characters so think carefully about what you want to say.
• If you use WordPress, use one of their SEO plugins to help you.

Think of the META Description as your 60 sales pitch. Use it to tell your reader what the page is about and how it will help them.

A well-written tag will dramatically increase your chances of getting that all-important click. So next time you write a blog post or create a new web page, think carefully about how it will help your reader and tell them in the tag.

Remember, the META Description won’t affect your ranking, but it will help drive search traffic your way.

Author: Sally Ormond, Copywriter and MD at Briar Copywriting Ltd. Follow her on Twitter and Google+

A blog is nothing without traffic.

Getting more people to your blog is a constant battle, but one that must be fought. So how do you go about it?

What can you do to encourage more people to read your blog?

1. What do they want?

The only way you’ll get people to stop and read is if you’re offering them what they want.

Yes, that one is obvious, but there are still a lot of bloggers out there who write about stuff that interests them rather than thinking about what they’re readers want.

You can spot hot topics by watching what trends on Twitter, or common themes that appear on Facebook. A more obvious one is to just ask them.

2. Promotion

Make your blog social.

By incorporating the social sharing buttons after each post, you will encourage your readers to spread the love by telling other people about your content.

You can also promote it by having a link to your blog in your email signature, email marketing and newsletters.

3. Niche

Making your blog niche specific will encourage more readers. As people get to know what you write about, you’ll soon become the ‘go to’ blogger for that subject.

4. Guesting

A great way to encourage new streams of traffic to your blog is getting some good guest bloggers on board. Check out other blogs in your niche and see if you can persuade them to write for you.

Not only will you get great content, you will also attract their fans, opening up your blog to a whole new audience.

5. Titles

The titles you use on your blog posts are everything. They are what will draw people to your blog so perhaps its time to rethink them.

People love ‘best’, ‘top tips’, ‘how to’ and that sort of thing, so use them.

6. Frequency

The more often you blog, the more people you’ll attract.

7.  Authentic

Being authentic and writing about things you’re passionate about will bring readers your way.

If you’re just writing about something because it’s the thing to write about, people will pick up on it because your writing will lack conviction and emotion.

Writing a blog is a labour of love. But if you want it to be successful and attract readers it’s important to think about who you are writing for, why you are writing and what your readers will get out of it.

Author: Sally Ormond, Copywriter and MD at Briar Copywriting Ltd. Follow her on Twitter and Google+

Google has a tendency to play God – or at least that what some online marketers believe. 

A quick tweak of their algorithms can make your traffic plummet over night, but it’s not always down to the big bad search engines.

Panda and Penguin caused pandemonium for many website owners. Forums were filled with rants about how these updates were killing their businesses because their traffic vanished.

But was it really down to these little fellas?

Not necessarily.

Granted, a lot of websites took a hit when the updates happened, but not all the traffic dips can be attributed to these algorithmic changes.

Understanding if you’ve been hit by Penguin and Panda

No one wants to see his or her traffic reduce or vanish.

When this apparent dip coincides with a Google update it seems logical to point the finger in their direction. But they may not be the cause.

If you notice a dip in traffic the first place you should look is your analytics. Take a look at your traffic sources. If they have dipped across the board (i.e. Google, Yahoo and Bing), the chances are it has nothing to do with Google.

So what’s causing it?

It’s more likely to be your search engine optimisation strategy.

Sitting back isn’t an option

When you started out, you probably had a rigorous SEO strategy in place. But, as time moved on and you got busy, the strategy probably took a bit of a slide.

But you were still getting traffic and business, so all was good.

The problem with sitting back and resting on your laurels is that, every day, a new kid will appear on the block. This fresh website will be working hard on its SEO and so will stand a good chance of ranking higher that you.

As soon as your traffic starts to dip, it’s a warning sign that you need to up your game.

But relying 100% on the search engines for your traffic is a disaster waiting to happen. Which is why it’s essential to diversify your traffic.

How to diversify your traffic

If you put all your eggs into your SEO basket, things will go wrong at some point.

That’s why it’s important to spread your traffic by using:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• YouTube
• Blogs
• Pay Per Click
• Email marketing
• Newsletters

All of these will help you drive traffic to your website without relying on the likes of Google, Yahoo or Bing.

If you want a successful online marketing strategy, make sure you diversify.

Author: Sally Ormond, Copywriter and MD at Briar Copywriting Ltd. Follow her on Twitter and Google+

Image courtesy of artur84/FreeDigitalPhotos