Why Long Form Content Is Great for SEO
When it comes to content marketing, it seems that every marketer under the sun has their own opinion about what works and what doesn’t. Some say that posting frequent short content pieces, such as blog posts, works the best. Others swear that long-form content, or articles and blog posts over 2,000 words, works the best. Who is right?
Long Form Copy Produces Better Organic Traffic
A firm called SERPIQ analyzed the search engine results position (SERP) for more than 20,000 keywords and discovered something very interesting. It seems that the length of the content had a direct correlation on a web page’s search engine results position.
Here’s a summary of their findings:
- All of the top 10 positions were dominated by posts with 2,000 or more words.
- The average word count for the top position was 2,416 words.
- Most posts averaged around 2,200 - 2,400 words.
Our Take on Long Form Copy
From my own research, I’ve concluded a few interesting facts about long-form content. I write a popular home and garden blog, Home Garden Joy, and include a “free gardening guide” section filled with long-form posts on topics gardeners want to learn about. The section is new, but growing. My goal is to add one long-form content piece each month.
Last month, I added a long-form piece on composting - How to Make Compost. I haven’t done much to promote it except send a special email out to my subscriber list to announce it and announce it via Twitter and Facebook. I decided to schedule some automated posts via HootSuite to share the link during peak traffic times on Twitter.
Almost immediately, a popular gardening website aggregator picked up on the link and included a blurb and link to my long-form content prominently on their website. Several shares on social media also increased visibility for the new guide. At last count, my site’s inbound links increased from 42 to 63. Not all are going to this content page, but I think the increase is partially due to the long-form content.
What Makes Longer Articles Appealing?
What makes long-form content so appealing? Long-form content appeals to website visitors seeking more than a cursory look at a topic. If the content is well-researched, it adds value and depth to the information, and makes your blog, website or article worthy of bookmarking or sharing.
By its very nature, long-form content also requires site visitors to spend more time on your website, another clue for search engines to use to gauge the value of your site. Longer, well-written and intriguing content naturally holds visitors’ attention longer, and if you include thoughtful links to related content on your site, you’ve also increased the time spend on your site even more.
Long-form content is great for really diving deeply into a topic. Some topics don’t lend themselves to long form content; others, however, naturally need more room to develop the thesis and explore the many nuances around the topic. Anytime you dive deeply into a topic, you’re adding value to the reader’s experience, which develops your relationship with the end-user and creates a favorable brand impression.
What Is Long Form Content and Why Does It Work?
I saw some fascinating research today on long form content. For those not in the marketing world, long form content refers to longer online articles and blog posts. Many people think that longer stuff doesn't work - that people skip over and don't read it. Research shows, however, that the opposite is true. Well-written long-form content gets two thumbs up from readers, especially business readers.
What Is Long Form Content?
Ask any two marketers what long form content is and you'll get two different answers. There's no industry standard definition. I'd put long form content at 1,000 words or more.
Long form content depends on several factors to make it work online:
- A broad enough topic so that you can get plenty of "meat" into the content;
- Great primary research. You can't fake good long form content.
- A solid outline. Like building a skyscraper, you need steel girders under it!
- Written to be formatted for the web. Because long form conveys a lot of information, the information needs to be written with formatting in mind. Plenty of white space, breaks, lists, subheadlines - you get the idea.
- Formatted for easy reading. You can't just plunk down thousands of words of text on a white web page and call it a day. Long form content has to be displayed for easy reading on mobile devices and screens. That means links, jump links, pictures and so on.
Why Does Long Form Content Work?
It works because it conveys information, plenty of information, and it gives readers tremendous value.
Wordstream offerred insights into why long form content works via several graphs. The interesting thing about long form content is that it increases reader engagement and time of visit, two important signals that Google and other search engines use to assess the value of website content. The longer people stay on your blog or site, the better. Long form accomplishes this admirably.
Why Don't More Companies Use Long Form Content?
Company owners have also bought into the myth that "people don't read anymore." My question to you is this: what people are you talking about? Do YOUR customers read?
Let's look at two of my niche areas: gardening and business. In both niches, people can and do read. They crave information. Gardening tends to rely a lot on pictures, but the business world? People love facts, figures, case studies, illustrations and more.
Long form is harder to write. If you're used to just dashing off any old thing for your blog or website, the idea of creating a 1,000+ article can be daunting. Most casual writers can't craft a solid outline, and they sure as heck can't create readable online copy. That's where long form content separates the men from the boys or in my case, the women from the girls; it's where the better writers excel, and the weaker ones flounder.
I love writing long form content and offer it as my area of specialty to interested business owners. If you're intrigued by the thought of adding some longer guides, articles and blog posts to your website but still uncertain whether or not they work in today's fast-paced world, check out the following articles:
- Forbes: Why Long Form Content Marketing Works and Why It Doesn't
- QuickSprout: How Content Length Affects Ranking and Conversion
- KISS Metrics: Why You Should Create Long Form Content (and How to Do It)
- Search Engine Watch: What Type of Content Should You Create
Surprising New SEO Developments You Must Know
I was trained in the wonders of SEO (search engine optimization) as part of my onboarding for a company I freelanced for in 2008. As a new freelance writer, I attended numerous online classes in the mechanics of SEO. I had to master a keyword search tool the company subscribed to; I had to learn countless formulas on how to use keywords in headlines, in the body copy, and more. There seemed to be rules and regulations for every aspect of search engine optimization. The most sought-after writers were those, like me, who could take any keyword phrase, no matter how awkward, and worm it into a sentence gracefully.
Now flash forward to 2015. Seven years later, we're in an entirely new world of SEO...and I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief.
Why? Here are some surprising ways that SEO has changed - and why it's better for your online content marketing AND for your customers.
5 Surprising SEO Developments and What They Mean to You
1. Search engines understand intent, so you don't have to be a slave to keyword phrases: Remember the days of trying to write copy for keyword doozies like, "Jeremiah Bullfrog Song who wrote"? In the early days of SEO, search engines relied upon exact, word for word phrase matches to serve the answers to user queries. Today, search engines are much better at matching a person's intent behind a query as long as your text answers the overall question and contains enough related content to alert the search engine that yes, this copy is relevant.
The current keyword inclusion method focuses on:
- Intention - does the keyword phrase used match the intention of the searcher?
- Authority - does the page of information related to the question have authority?
More about the authority issue in a minute....
2. Titles, headlines and descriptions should still include keywords: Okay, so I told you in point 1 that keyword phrases do not need to be exactly matchy-matchy, the way ladies matches shoes, purses and belts in bygone years. But keyword phrases are still important. While you don't have to match everything precisely, appropriate keyword phrases should still be used to tag the title of your content, the headlines within the body copy, and the meta data behind the information. The old formulas may be gone, but the concept behind it remains the same.
Don't write for search engines. Write for READERS.
3. Focus your content: Don't write for search engines or to arbitrary word counts. Write for readers. Focus, focus, focus on a niche topic. Niches work. The tighter your focus on a concept within the content, the better.
4. Mix up your content: Long content ranks better with search engines, specially if it's well-written. Break up long content, however, into short copy blocks, subheadings and more. Add jump links and a table of contents with links deeper into the page for super long form copy. Use call outs and illustrations to make sharable points. All of this makes your online content more interesting for both your human readers and search engines. But don't neglect short form content. Both rank well now!
5. Quality counts: I mentioned earlier about making sure you have an 'authoritative' site. Authority is calculated by the powers that be at the search engines using their usual secret formulas, but content marketers are pretty good at guessing what goes into the secret formulas. My own guess is that links are an integral part of those formulas. Links from external authoritative websites pointing into YOUR site are a great badge of authority. For my gardening blog, Home Garden Joy, having a well-known home and garden website, a university extension site, or a magazine site point into my site is a great way to enhance the site's overall authority. Another way I believe that authority is calculated is based on social signals; how many times is your content shared, and by whom? All of these online actions build a comprehensive picture that search engines are growing increasingly smart about reading.
Creating appealing content for search engines and for human site visitors is both an art and a science. Gone are the days when an easy, formulaic approach worked like magic. Instead, content is developing into more of an organic, holistic approach that has both writers AND readers rejoicing.
This article was written by Jeanne Grunert, a content marketing master and president of Seven Oaks Consulting. Jeanne helps grow business and brands by producing expertly written articles, guides and ebooks and online content that builds authority and engagement. For more information, please visit Seven Oaks Consulting.
Professionalism Among Freelance Writers
No, I don't write in my pajamas.
The best freelance writers exhibit professionalism - and that includes treating freelance clients with RESPECT. I show respect for my clients by rising each day, entering a my office, and behaving in a business-like manner.
Professionalism Among Freelance Writers: Why Don't We Get Any Respect?
I'm fed up - truly sick and tired - with advertisements online for freelance writing websites, job boards and coaching programs that show a woman twirling madly on the beach, blonde hair flying, arms outstretched, so happy she is free from the corporate grind that she is WRITING on the BEACH. On the beach!
Or the advertisements that claim you can "write in your pajamas" and "never get out of bed!"
Talk to your physicians, your attorney, your accountant. I'm betting they get up, shower and dress before tackling their work for the day. Why would anyone assume writers are different?
The Assumptions and the Realities of Freelance Writing as a Business
The reason these advertisements make me so angry is that there's an underlying assumption that freelance writing is easy. Freelance writing isn't easy. Neither is owning your own business, and that's what you're doing when you decide to hang out your shingle as a professional freelance writer. You're an artist, but you are also an entrepreneur. You wear many hats. None of them are sun visors to keep the glare of the sun from the ocean waters away from your eyes.
The assumptions I see daily about freelance writers include:
- Anyone can become a freelance writer
- It's easy to make six figures a year (or if you buy a proven formula or take a class, you can make six figures in a year)
- You don't need any special training to own a freelance writing business
- You can work from home in your pajamas all day
- You can make as much money as you want
The realities of owning and running a freelance writing business are:
- Anyone can become a freelance writer, but few people have the talent, skills, experience, education and innate creativity and curiosity to make it happen. Freelance writing for a living is more than stringing together words to form sentences. You must be able to find new clients, pitch ideas, and successfully sell the ideas (and your skills). You must understand basic accounting and business practices, basic copyright and business law, and basic website design, build and programming. You must be able to juggle multiple projects simultaneously, speak confidently, communicate effectively, and hit every deadline, ever single time. Are you ready for that?
- Is it easy to make six figures a year? Zero is a figure. So yes, it's easy. Is it easy to make an excellent income as a freelance writer? No. Can you make a living wage as a freelance writer? Yes, if you are good at what you do, treat it like a business, and focus on your most profitable writing services.
- Of course you don't need any special training, licenses, degrees or certifications to own a freelance writing business. But if you lack the credentials, it will be all the more difficult to sell your services and to run your business. At a minimum you need a high school diploma, preferably a college diploma in English. You need basic business skills, which can be obtained by taking adult education courses, online courses, reading books, or self-study. But you do need to constantly refine and add to your skills as new technology, new communications methods become available.
- Sure you can work in your pajamas all day. Some do, some don't. But the idea that you're going to lounge around in bed or on the couch all day watching talk shows while the money pours in is just ludicrous. You will need to interview people by telephone. You will need to attend local meetings and video chats, and please don't think you can do so in your jammies. I find that when I dress professionally, I act professionally. I have a dedicated home office with a separate business telephone line, a business fax machine, and a door that closes so that I can have quiet when I am on the phone with clients. When you treat your work professionally, clients sense it.
- Can you make as much money as you want? Ask yourself: what will I trade for that money? Money represents a trade, whether you're trading goods for money or time for money. So yes, if you are willing to invest all of your time, energy and talents into your freelance writing business, you can make as much money as you want. You can write your own books and sell them at a profit; you can write a blog that eventually earns a good income; you can hustle and gain dozens of clients. The trade off, of course, will be time.
If you are a business owner seeking a freelance writer, please do us all a favor: don't make your pitch to us as if we're lazy bums lolling in bed all day casually tapping at a keyboard. And if you're a freelance writer, please do the profession a favor, and treat the profession like a professional. Show up on time, submit your copy by the deadline, treat your clients as you would like to be treated, keep good accounting records, comply with business laws and regulations, and treat your business like a business, not like a hobby. If you want to write as a hobby, by all means, do so. Write poems, plays, novels, short stories, blog posts, or anything that makes your heart sing. But when you begin to sell your time and talent to paying clients, get out of bed and get to work. In the end, it will show in the quality of your work.
Jeanne Grunert is the president of Seven Oaks Consulting and a popular magazine columnist, blogger and book author. She did not write this article from bed. She is seated at her desk, as you can see, below.
Retention and Loyalty Marketing Strategies
Today on my Blog Talk Radio Show, "Words That Work," I'll be speaking about retention and loyalty marketing strategies. In the world of direct marketing, there are three phases of direct marketing: acquisition, retention and loyalty building. I like to apply these concepts to the world of content marketing.
Most businesses spend a tremendous amount of time, money and attention to the acquisition phase of the business cycle. They emphasize bringing new customers and new business into the firm, and spend princely sums on wooing new customers in the door. The problem with that model is that eventually you do run out of new customers. Worse still, it's difficult to bring in new customers if you haven't put any emphasis on retention or loyalty-building strategies.
Your best marketing is conducted not by some fancy advertising or marketing agency, but by satisfied customers. Consider the following statistics, all gleaned from 7 Surprising Facts About Customer Referrals:
- 5% of new business comes from referrals – New York Times
- 92% of respondents trusted referrals from people they knew – Nielsen
- People are 4 times more likely to buy when referred by a friend – Nielsen
Given these statistics, focusing on retention (keeping a customer for the long term) and loyalty (keeping long-time customers happy and eager to be your "brand advocates") makes good sense.
Encouraging Happy, Loyal Customers and Brand Advocates
Over the course of my 20+ year career as a marketing executive, I've found that the following 10 ideas and concepts will help any business grow their base of happy, loyal customers, customers who are eager to become your brand advocates. See if you can implement any of the following ideas:
- Reward existing customers first before offering deals to new customers: Satellite TV and cell phone companies are notoriously BAD at doing this. They offer great discounts to new customers but treat their existing customers badly, raising rates, hiking fees, and charging for every little thing. Instead of giving great discounts to your new customers, reward your longest and most loyal customers with surprise savings. Waive fees for them. Give them coupons, discounts, special gifts not available to your new customers. Let them know you value their loyalty.
- Surprise and delight your long-time customers: This is a corollary to item one, above. Surprise and delight your long-time customers. Waive a monthly service charge. Give them one thing free.
- Say thank you: This may sound corny, but in an age of fast-paced digital everything, an old fashioned, hand-written thank you note may really surprise and delight existing customers. This is especially good for service-based businesses. Let customers know you DO appreciate them.
- Ask for their opinions and ideas: Engage your long-time clients in customer panels, surveys and discussions. Call them and ask them what you can be doing better. They will be flattered and honored that you are asking for their opinion!
- Change only what's broken; don't change what you are doing right. You're obviously doing something right if you have customers loyal to your company for many months or years. Don't noodle around with what's working. You can add product or service extensions, but avoid the "new Coke" trap and don't mess with what's working. People DO like classic things and don't always crave the new!
- If you do add something new, offer it to your long-time clients first: If you do add a product or service, let the old timers know first. Make them feel like they are part of an inner circle of advocates by releasing new product information to them first.
- Go the extra mile: Set up a special hotline for your long-time clients. If they have a problem, prioritize your customer service by loyalty, giving special attention to customers who have been loyal to your company for a long time.
- Send a token gift: A small gift to say thank you may be appreciated by your customers.
- Share information freely with them: Add rich content to your website that continually strives to help your customers solve problems, learn new things, or interact with your brand. Make the content free. In the long run, you will reap new sales from existing customers that will more than pay off your investment in long-form, rich content.
- Integrity builds loyalty and trust: When all is said and done, it is professional integrity that builds loyalty and trust for your brand. All the free gifts in the world won't make up for a company that misses appointments or deadlines, sells products that break, or doesn't live up to its brand promise. Make your word and keep your word to build long-term loyalty.
This post was written by Jeanne Grunert, president of Seven Oaks Consulting and author of Pricing Your Services: 21 Tips for More Profit. Please feel free to share a link to this content via your favorite social media outlet. Thank you.
B2B Content Marketing for Customer Acquisition
I generally think of marketing in three phases: acquisition, retention and loyalty-building. Content marketers tend to focus on the tail end of that three-phrase cycle, loyalty building. B2B content marketing is ideal for building brand loyalty. Magazines, long-form content, case studies and similar content marketing strategies are often used to great effect by B2B marketers to boost loyalty. However, B2B content marketing for customer acquisition can be equally as effective if it’s done well.
Why Are Customers Looking for Your Products or Services?
All good marketing programs, including content marketing programs, begin by answering the question, “What do my customers want or need?”
People shop for products and services based upon needs. Those needs may be physical needs; you need milk for your cereal, so you go to the store to buy it. Needs may also be psychological. I made an appointment with my favorite hair salon a few weeks ago, and the first words out of my mouth to my stylist were, “Blonde me.” I needed a psychological “lift” for the new year, and my naturally ashy blond hair had turned dark brunette over the past year. An hour or two at the salon and I left with lighter hair and a lighter spirit. In that case, my needs were psychological.
Before crafting your content marketing programs, know what your customers want or need. Conduct surveys, listen to their comments on social media, visit with them, hang out with them, but do understand what they need. That understanding flows into the first segment of a three-step acquisition program.
Good B2B Content Marketing Begins with Education
Once you understand what your customers want or need, you can begin to think of how your products and services might fill that need. But don’t rush right into an advertising campaign disguised as content marketing. Instead, educate them first on how your products or services solve that need.
How do you educate customers via B2B content marketing? You have many choices:
- Educational content: This type of content tends to revolve around industry facts. Statistics, facts, data, product information are all forms of educational content marketing.
- How-to articles: Teach your customers how to tackle simple tasks that solve their problems and win their attention and loyalty. How to choose an accountant, how to tackle a computer-based task, how to do something smarter, better or faster are all great how to article types for B2B content marketing.
- Advice: I like using personal advice from an authority or expert to educate customers. This works best when your brand is already well-known or you have a strong ‘voice’ in the industry. I’ve used this successfully with manufacturing clients and those who have a very unique, specialized area of expertise. Customers are hungry for advice from a true ‘expert’ in their industry, especially industries where products are more prosaic and functional.
B2B Content Marketing as an Acquisition Funnel
All steps along your B2B content marketing program should act like a sales funnel, gently leading and guiding prospects to make that final decision to call, contact, or complete a sales action. Once you educate prospects, it’s time to introduce solution-focused content. Such content takes the educational information shared in step 1 and introduces your firm as a solution for whatever problem led them to your content in the first place. By helping, advising and guiding instead of hard-selling them on your product or service, you can share useful, actionable information without clubbing them over the head (figuratively, of course) emotionally with hyperbole charged rhetoric. Instead, you’re selling to professionals in a manner that appeals to them as business people.
Jeanne Grunert is the president of Seven Oaks Consulting, a content marketing writing and services firm based in Virginia. She hopes you found this article educational and informative.
Project Management Tips: What to Do When Deadlines Slip
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams
What to do when deadlines slip?
First, don't panic. Next, gather your information, take a deep breath, and get ready to do some quick thinking - and acting.
Love them or hate them, deadlines are a part of life. As a freelance content marketing writer, consultant and marketing teacher, deadlines are as much a part of my life as a cup of strong coffee in the morning; in other words, I need them to survive.
When you’re working with a group of people on a project, however, deadlines can be tricky to navigate. The larger the group, the more difficult it is to get everyone on the team to adhere to a schedule and meet deadlines. Even when the willingness is there, conflicting priorities, unexpected delays, and life events like someone coming down with the flu can derail the best project schedule and make deadlines impossible to meet.
What then? What to do when deadlines slip?
Here’s a short primer on what to do when you see a deadline slipping on a critical project. Of course, your reaction to the problem may change depending on how critical the project is, your role on the team, and whether or not someone else can fill the gap and help meet the deadline. Only you or your project manager can decide which of these methods will work for your project and team.
5 Project Planning Tips to Help Teams Meet Deadlines
- Make sure all parties understand the reasoning behind the deadlines: Many years ago, I was brought into a marketing agency as a consultant to help the agency understand why their direct mail pieces were being delivered after the offer expired on them. The client was justifiably angry that their mailings were a waste of money, since by the time customers received the offer, the coupons inside had expired. When I spoke with the creative and production departments, the issue wasn’t that they didn’t understand deadlines, it was that the mailing client itself didn’t understand the time requirements for direct mail. The coupon vendor was submitting projects without adequate time for the production team to meet the deadline; even by working around the clock to design and mail the coupon-filled envelopes, the way the United States mail works they couldn’t possibly get the coupons into the customers’ hands on time. By working with both the client and the account managers to help them understand the need for more flexible deadlines, the problem was solved. Make sure that your team members not only understand what the deadlines are but why they’re critical, especially when factors such as mailing times are completely out of your control.
- Allow adequate time for each project component to be completed: Another problem with meeting deadlines is under-estimating how long each task on a project plan will take. If you’re not sure, find out from previous project documentation or other team members how long this or a similar task took in the past. Then use that figure as your baseline.
- Build cushion time into a schedule: Always build more time than you think you need into a project schedule. A little cushion goes a long way to helping teams meet deadlines.
- Check on the progress of project milestones as well as the overall progress: One way to ensure that deadlines don’t slip is to check project milestone completion. Milestones, or small sub-goals leading to a larger goal, are a good way to ensure that projects stay on track. It is also helpful to spot issues in a project or individuals who may be over burdened and unable to complete their tasks in the future.
- Don’t over commit. The biggest flaw in any project plan is over committing people’s time. It’s a common flaw, especially among top performers. When someone is good at what they do, managers tend to fight for their time, which ends up overburdening them and over committing them to too many projects. Then deadlines begin to slip and projects fall behind. Spread the work out and be sure to check with other managers before scheduling someone’s time to ensure they have adequate time to work on your needs, too.
What to Do When Teams Miss Deadlines
When a deadline starts to slip and you noticed project milestones lagging behind, ask:
- Will more people working on it help?
- Can the project component be cut without sacrificing the quality of the project?
- Can you make up time in the schedule in other areas?
- Can the task be outsourced to someone else?
- Can the task be broken into smaller portions and handed off to several people?
- Does the person adequately understand the task itself?
Many years ago, my marketing department was working on a major marketing plan for a new product launch. Our advertising coordinator kept missing his deadlines on the project. It turned out that he was both over committed and unsure of his next steps on his deliverable. I worked with him to re-negotiate his work load and priorities, as well as to break down his task into smaller, more manageable milestones. Another team member, eager for a project to help her add to her resume for a potential promotion, asked to tackle a portion of the advertising work, so she was able to help, too. We were able to guide the project back on track and meet the deadlines with a little team work, quick thinking, and trust.
Such a scenario only works with the last item - trust. Your team members must trust you enough to ask for help or guidance when it is needed. They won’t come to you to tell you that they’re missing a deadline if they feel you’ll get angry with them or that help isn’t forthcoming. As a manager, earning your team’s trust comes from consistent management practices and a calm demeanor. When a project plan starts slipping, your team members will then feel confident enough to come to you to ask for help rather than hiding the fact that they might miss a deadline.
Online Marketing Trends
Today on the Words That Work podcast on Blog Talk Radio, we'll be discussing visual-based content marketing and storytelling: using photos, images, and videos to tell your brand story. Image-based content marketing remains a hot topic, and a good image-based marketing campaign can really boost your visibility, brand presence, and organic search engine optimization.
While researching a few facts for my show today, I came across a great article I wanted to share. Online Marketing Trend Are Moving Towards Visual Assets by Amber Alvi offers excellent insights and links to good content marketing resources. Find it on the Online Marketing Institute.
The podcast of today's "Words That Work" show will be available for all to listen to free at any time. Visit the Words That Work show page on Blog Talk Radio for more of my internet and content marketing related podcasts.
Image Optimization SEO
What is image optimization for SEO? It’s using various textual aspects of your online images to make your site more attractive to the search engines seeking to match online content to searcher queries.
You may know that search engines cannot “see” images. They “read” text; the words, phrases and letters used on your web pages, in your headlines, and tagged to images and pages throughout your site. They also use a variety of other on and off-page factors to determine how well your webpage content matches a user’s query.
Many bloggers note that visitors find their website from Google image search. I’ll never forget the time that my husband was walking out in our yard and was stung by a strange-looking caterpillar. We ran upstairs to the computer and began searching online to find out if the sting was poisonous, and how to treat it at home if it wasn’t. Although our description of the insect was fine, Google’s image search feature helped us narrow down the culprit. We clicked through from the image, not from the search term, to read the article. Many of your readers may find your website content or blog posts using this method, too - although hopefully, they weren’t bitten by a stinging caterpillar. (Hubby was fine, by the way. It was no worse than a bee sting.)
Image Optimization for SEO
Among the many factors used for search engine optimization, images are often the most frequently overlooked. That’s a shame, because by tweaking your images so that they’re better tagged with keyword phrases that match your site contents, you can improve your site’s visibility and traffic. I’ve heard anecdotal evidence from members of a blogging group that I belong to that they’ve doubled, even tripled their site visits by simply using these tips to boost their image’s search engine appeal. Image optimization for SEO really works!
The following tips can be implemented immediately by you or your graphic designed to boost use images for SEO more effectively on your website or blog:
- Use appropriate and relevant keyword phrases to name your images. I’m often guilty of this mistake - I forget to rename my images, and end up with uploads that have the creative moniker of “IMG 123” or something like that. If you’re guilty of such mistakes like I am, you’re missing an easy image optimization trick for SEO. Just rename your pictures so that they are tagged with relevant keywords.
- Use the “Alt” field for images, and tag that with both keywords and descriptive phrases. The ALT tags on images display text when the image won’t display for some reason. It is considered a best practice to tag your ALT fields with image descriptive phrases, but if you can tweak those phrases so that they’re reflective of keywords too, so much the better.
- Resize your images appropriately. This is a tricky bit of advice, but one that I have found useful. For certain types of content - retail sales, craft blogs, cooking blogs, gardening blogs - larger images are better, especially if they are unique and original images that you created. Larger images are more eye-catching than smaller ones and tend to be shared more frequently via social media sites such as Pinterest. You may need to test various image sizes to find the best ones for your needs.
- Make sure that all of your images serve a purpose and further your online marketing goals. Decorations are nice for parties, but every image posted to your blog or website should help you further your goal. Images can be funny, evocative, reflective or artistic, but they should be on your website to serve a purpose, and that purpose is usually to drive traffic to a site, sell products, or brand your company with its chosen image. Make sure that all your images are working for, not against you.
- One last word about images: learn the legalities about using images online. Blog Legally has some great information on the legalities of online image use.
Take time today to tweak your images. I’d love to hear from readers on how image optimization for SEO may have helped your website traffic.
© 2015 by Jeanne Grunert writing for Seven Oaks Consulting. Like this post? Contact us about our content marketing writing services, marketing consulting, and marketing training and seminars for business owners.
5 Project Planning Tips to Keep All Stakeholders Happy
These 5 project planning tips may not necessarily help you herd cats, but they will impress your boss once you get a stalled project up and running again or get a project back on track.
As a marketing manager, you’ll often be tasked with project planning and project management. Effective project managers are also good project planners. They know how to ask for, and gain, consensus. They know how to manage diverse talent and opposite personalities to get the job done. Part diplomat and part shepherd, they ensure that projects run smoothly from start to finish.
To make your new marketing projects run more smoothly this year, use these five project planning tips written especially for marketing managers.
Project Planning Tips for Marketing Managers
- Always start with the end goal in mind, and keep the goal visible and quantifiable. Without a clear-cut goal, projects tend to flounder. People lose interest. By creating a clearly defined and quantifiable goal for every marketing project you undertake, you’ll proceed with the end point in mind at all time. I used to write goals on big sheets of paper and post them at the front of the room during project meetings so that we could always point back to the goal when someone at the table agreed or disagreed with an idea presented. If the goal is visible and clear from the start, it helps focus the project and keep it on track.
- Identify key stakeholders, and then ask those stakeholders if they think everyone is at the table. Allow them to delegate someone else if they don’t have the time to work on the project or if they feel someone in their department is better qualified to work on the project. This also helps secure buy-in for the project, an important component for success.
- Use cost-benefit analysis or ROI to determine BEFORE you start a project if it’s valuable, useful and important enough to merit the team’s time. Show these figures to the team at the kickoff meeting or during the buy-in phase to make your case that they need to be part of the project. Not every great idea merits follow-through, and a cost-benefit analysis will help you weed out the time wasters from the potential projects on the marketing department’s slate.
- Scope out the project carefully, and include measurable milestones with details of who will achieve them on the team, how, and by when. Keep a running list of these details and follow up with team members frequently to ensure they’re on track.
- Communicate first, now and always. Just when you think you’ve communicated enough about a project, someone will complain they don’t know what’s going on. Communicate up to your supervisor about the project and communicate down to all the team members so they know what’s going on. You don’t need to write War and Peace every time you need to send a project email out; a short weekly follow up meeting where each team members speaks for 1-2 minutes and updates everyone on the project’s progress is fine, or consolidate weekly update emails into a bulleted digest email to share with team members. But do make sure that both the key stakeholders and the key approvers on the team are informed of the progress of the project.
Notice something missing from the list? Project planning software. While I’m not against great project planning or project management software, it’s not on my list because with even the best software in the world, people still need to manage projects, processes and other people. And that manager is you! If you’re a marketing manager, you will learn quickly that managing projects is mostly managing people and their divergent, creative, quirky personalities.
For more tips for marketing managers and business owners who handle marketing for their companies, listen to my free weekly podcast on Blog Talk Radio, Words That Work. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter too.
This post is by Jeanne Grunert writing for Seven Oaks Consulting. Like this post? Contact us about our content marketing writing services, marketing consulting, and marketing training and seminars for business owners.