0 The SEO Specialist: Your New Best Friend

• SEO
• by Seth Pollins
• 06.09.2022

The SEO Specialist: Your New Best Friend When first learning about SEO, many enthusiastic website owners assume that they can do the work of optimization without the help of a trained specialist. This is an admirable pursuit, and to the extent that this is possible, we support website owners in their quest to optimize their websites. In fact, we write The Organic SEO blog not merely for our peers in the SEO community but for website owners who wish to learn more about natural website optimization.  If you are a website owner, especially a new website owner, we strongly urge you to browse our blog. Learn as much about organic SEO as possible! At The Organic SEO Blog, we also value specialization. For example, this blog is supported by Alex Stepman of SEO SPARTA. Alex is a gifted SEO specialist with vast experience. However, although Alex certainly provides inspiration and ideas for The Organic SEO Blog, he understands that writing is not exactly his strength. For this reason, Alex hires a small team of professional copywriters for this blog and all of his content-driven SEO work. Of course, to Alex, it just makes sense to focus on his strengths and outsource his weaknesses to others. Now, if you own your website and feel you have the time and patience to optimize your website's structure and content--well, more power to you! We share a democratic view of optimization: SEO is a talent anyone can understand and apply. What many website owners do not understand, though, is that the work of an SEO specialist is a full-time occupation. Most of this work is about keeping up-to-date with the changes in search engine algorithms--especially Google's algorithm. To maintain a website's first-page ranking (and any website that employs an SEO specialist should maintain the first-page ranking), an SEO specialist will use his specialized knowledge of search engines, algorithms, website structure, and content to make necessary changes to a website. Changes might be a daily requirement. If you're a website owner, you likely have other problems to worry about, like the quality of your product or offering or the productivity of your employees.   Stay up to date with the search engine algorithm requirements.  "Google's algorithm evolves over time. Over the years, we've seen a few entirely new algorithms and many 'updates.' However, even as Google's experience improves, the algorithm changes might not be apparent to most browsers. For the trained SEO specialist, though, even the slightest change should be apparent." For a view of how often Google updates its algorithm, check out the fascinating Google Algorithm Change History. The site notes, "Each year Google changes its algorithm around 500-600 times." Should an SEO specialist know and understand each one of these changes? You better believe it! Suppose you're a website owner considering performing your website's SEO work (or you're considering giving your "tech guy" the SEO work). In that case, we urge you to take a moment to browse the Google Algorithm Change History. Do you understand what you're reading? If not, you're not alone! Believe me, as a copywriter, I have no idea what I'm reading on this site. Here, for example, is the entry for July 19, 2013, in full: Knowledge Graph Expansion — July 19, 2013 Seemingly overnight, queries with Knowledge Graph (KG) entries expanded by more than half (+50.4%) across the MozCast data set, with more than a quarter of all searches showing some kind of KG entry. Say what? We write The Organic SEO blog intending to simplify SEO. However, we also believe that any website owner who wishes to achieve even moderate success should consult with a qualified SEO specialist. If you wish to learn more about organic SEO from a trained SEO specialist, we urge you to contact our sponsor, SEO SPARTA.

0 Why Updating Your Website is a Key SEO Strategy?

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 04.24.2022

The Internet can be defined in many ways, but the sheer quantity of available experience begs a simple definition. At the Organic SEO blog, we prefer to call the Internet "a dynamic space." Like humanity, the Internet evolves; unlike humanity, this evolution is speedy. To keep pace with the evolving, speedy nature of the Internet, the best websites continually offer new content. The best websites also periodically update their look, feel, and functionalities. Think about your favorite website. How often does your favorite website update its content? How often does your favorite website update its design or layout? The answer to both of these questions is "quite often."   The crucial lesson of organic SEO Optimize your website for both search engines and users. By maintaining fresh and relevant content, you will continue to attract new and returning visitors. You will also impress search engines. Remember, from Google's perspective, the goal is to deliver the most relevant results and ensure the user is 100% satisfied with these results. Beyond content, however, minor changes to a website's infrastructure can make the website more appealing to users and search engines. For example, think about your website's ease of navigation. Improving your website's layout will satisfy your visitors, and when you satisfy your visitors, you satisfy the search engines. To a search engine like Google, change is good. Google, the great beast of the evolving Internet, is always hungry for new information. This information might be new content, but it also might be a new design or development element. Google does not distinguish between types of change; it makes no difference if a change is applied to website content or website design. As long as the website is not outdated, any change is considered new content. If you have not updated your website's design recently, this should be your timely reminder. If you operate an industry-specific website, please remember: that your website has likely been optimized for your specific industry, so any change should be relevant to that industry. Now, SEO is not the only reason to update a website. As a leader in website optimization and online marketing, we strive to make it easy for others to keep their websites up-to-date. Many websites follow our FREE recommendations for organic website optimization, and many websites have used our helpful information to maintain daily online success. Browse our Organic SEO Blog for helpful advice if you're new to SEO. SEO is a marketing strategy applied to the website's visual elements and structure that makes your website discoverable in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing to the point where your website becomes your money-making tool.

0 Drag and Drop Websites: Are They Worth Your Time?

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 03.27.2022

Are you thinking about building your own website? If you're a business owner and hope to make money from your website, a custom-made site is your best option. Custom-made websites are designed and built from the ground up, with the idea to generate online profit and new leads.  Before deciding on who will build your website, you should know your available options.  Content Management System websites (CMS). These websites do not require programming knowledge. Anyone who has access to the website management can add/remove website pages, modify design options to meet your needs, and add/remove website content such as text, images, videos, pdf files, etc. What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) website. A website that does not require programming knowledge to manage the website design and layout. These websites are also known as Drag And Drop websites. They are similar to CMS websites. A custom website is written with the help of the programming languages supported by web browsers. For example, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or any other programming language comes to your mind. These websites require programming knowledge, but they are the best option to meet your current and future needs. The website is not limited to design, layout, features, or functionalities.   What type of website should you choose? There could be multiple reasons why you might want to build a website.  Informational website. The website does nothing but displays information to website visitors. It is information about your brand, products and services, and your business contact details most of the time. Web-based application website. To most internet users, these websites look and feel like simple websites, but these websites do a lot more. A website might collect users' personal information that will be used to tailor products and services to precise people. Or a website might perform complicated mathematical calculations, keep track of inventory, payment processing, email reminders, etc. Because a website serves the purpose of a program, and it is a program that lives online, it got a name - a web-based application. Lead generation website. A website built to gain new customers, profit, and success for your business. Any website can become a lead generation website, but first, website visitors must be able to engage with your website and communicate to you through your website. You also need to promote your website online to start generating leads.   The Pros And Cons of Drag & Drop Websites Drag and drop sites can be a good option for individuals or small businesses with a limited budget and a need for a basic website structure. A drag and drop site easily integrates various elements into a simple template design. With a drag and drop website, you could wake up in the morning with an idea for a website and build your website before lunch! It is hard to decide what website to select with many different options. We will simplify this process by explaining the pros and cons of each website type.   Content Management System (CMS) CMS websites are the best option for those who would like to update their website without programming knowledge. Most Content Management Systems have an administrative area that is password protected. Once logged in, you can change your website theme, colors, font style, add/remove pages, update text, and inspire your website with images and videos.    Examples of the CMS systems There are many CMS systems out there, some of them are paid, and some are free to use. The most common CMS systems are: WordPress Wix Squarespace Joomla! Shopify Progress Sitefinity GoDaddy Website Builder Weebly Drupal Blogger While most CMS systems are meant to be used without programming knowledge, some of the systems extend the simplicity of use by offering drag and drop functionality. For example, you can select an image drag and drop it to the desired location. The same functionality can be applied to any element on the page, be it a text, video, image, or anything else used to design and layout your website.     Benefits of CMS Systems No programming knowledge is required to manage your website. Update website design and layout in minutes by applying a new website theme. Transform your website into a web-based application in minutes. Has basic SEO functionalities to promote your website online. The Disadvantage of SMC Systems Not everything is free. Most premium website themes have an additional cost. Additional functionalities might have a monthly cost to use them. As your business grows, a dedicated website developer will be required to update, maintain and add missing features to the CMS system.   Most CMS systems are not built for your business, and it is inevitable to have system limitations to meet your goals.   What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) website. WYSIWYG websites do not require any programming knowledge. Such websites are usually built with the help of software that is installed on your computer or has a web-based version that performs the same as if it is installed on your computer. Such websites are built by selecting components of your choice, dragging them on your screen, and dropping them in precise locations. WYSIWYG website builders work similarly to photo editing software such as Photoshop. You simply drag and drop elements like rectangular, circle, or text blocks on your screen. To transform a text into a link, you highlight text and apply links to them.    Benefits of WYSIWYG Website No programming knowledge is required to manage your website. Has basic SEO functionalities to promote your website online. The Disadvantage of WYSIWYG Website Builders You can't simply change the entire website theme. You must build a new website to meet your design and layout requirements. Most WYSIWYG editors cannot apply a change to multiple pages of your website. Each page must be updated individually. Most editors will require you to build two website versions, one for desktop and one for mobile use. As a result, you will have to manage two websites. Most editors are unable to build a web-based application or data-driven websites.    A Custom Website A custom website always requires programming knowledge to maintain the design, layout, or additional functionalities that you might need. You may add or remove features to your website, and you are not restricted in any way because the website is not associated with any specific platform or a CMS system.  Additionally, custom-made websites are also SEO friendly, making it much easier to update and promote such a website than any other website you can think of. Unlimited customization options are suitable when technology changes or new things available today that were not available yesterday.   Benefits of a Custom Website Design Bring your imagination to reality with unlimited design and layout options. Unrestricted website functionalities. If such technology exists, it can be applied to your website. Unlimited marketing opportunities. Make your website appear on the first page of search results by optimizing it for search engines. A Disadvantage of a Custom Website Design You need to have programming knowledge to apply any website modifications.  Many web design companies offer template websites to use for various clients. Template-designed websites share a similar look, feel, and functionality. In contrast, a web design company like SEO SPARTA of Bucks County, PA, offers custom designs crafted for each unique brand. We feel these custom-made sites are more attractive and certainly more marketable. If you're considering hiring a design company to build a custom-made website, we encourage you to contact us. We will provide you with a free consultation about website design, layout, and guided milestones to the successful launch of your project.

0 How to Outperform Your Online Competitors

• SEO
• by Alex Stepman
• 02.27.2022

Creating an SEO-friendly website with relevant and quality content can transform a traditional brick-and-mortar business's earning power. Unfortunately, many business owners create websites that ignite earnings and quickly lose steam. Website owners might blame this misfortune on the changing economy, marketplace, or increased online competition. Of course, all of these factors can influence the earnings of an online business.  But why do certain websites in specific industries succeed while others fail? Many industry-specific websites, after all, look and feel similar. And many industry-specific websites have been optimized by SEO specialists to perform for a certain customer-base. If two optimized websites look and feel similar and sell similar products to similar customers, shouldn't both enjoy an equal share of the online marketplace? In theory, yes, both websites should perform equally well. But let's take a closer look at our two theoretical websites. Like snowflakes, no two websites are alike, and even the subtle differences can profoundly influence website performance. Now, to the trained eye, the reasons for success or failure are pretty evident. But for casual browsers, the difference might seem elusive. So what's going on? In the experience of Alex Stepman, an experienced organic SEO specialist, the number one reason optimized websites fail is that the website owner abandoned SEO after the website's launch. And websites that have abandoned SEO share a similar deficiency: over time, they have remained static while other websites in the same industry have evolved. This evolution can be subtle, but it is the benchmark of success. So what does this evolution look like? Well, the very definition of "evolution" is "the gradual development of something," and we're not talking about titanic shifts. Instead, it's the small changes that make a big difference. The best SEO specialists know this simple fact: a well-optimized website is a frequently-updated website. Search engine algorithms place precedence on new, relevant content. The consistent updating of a website's content is the most efficient way to maintain a competitive edge if you're competing in an industry-specific marketplace. If an SEO professional maintains your website, they will continually update your website's content. Keep in mind content is not limited to the written word; it can include graphics, like a new "About Me" tab or relevant product videos. Of course, though, relevant and well-written content is the cornerstone of a website's success. A good SEO specialist will ensure that your content is always fresh and relevant--and preferably written by a professional writer. So what do you do if you do not have an SEO specialist? Well, I think you can guess our first suggestion. Contact Alex Stepman of SEO SPARTA! Most business owners are too busy to perform the tedious work of organic SEO. Why not outsource this crucial aspect of your business? However, if you do not have the budget for an SEO specialist right now, do not despair. You might not know how to change the look and feel of your website (the graphics and navigability), but you might have the capability to make precisely the type of small changes that can keep a website relevant: you can write a daily blog! Today, most websites are equipped with an easy-to-use blog platform like WordPress (Blogger is often associated with stand-alone blogs). If you're a website owner, your daily blog might be the easiest and most cost-effective way to optimize your website with relevant content. All you need is a good idea and a good writer (if you don't have one on staff, you can certainly hire a professional copywriter for a reasonable fee). Your blog does not have to be lengthy--the point is to update daily with fresh content.

0 Content Marketing 101: The Power of Differentiation

• SEO
• by Alex Stepman
• 02.08.2022

What is the Internet? Of the infinitely possible definitions, one that speaks to connectivity and sharing rings true: The Internet is a conversation. Within this conversation, relationships blossom between people and between people and businesses. The best online businesses understand that relationships matter. Build a relationship with your customer, and you will have a customer for life. The online men's clothing company Bonobos understands this simple fact. Bonobos' pioneering approach to engagement transformed the company from a scrappy startup to an incredible asset for Walmart, which purchased Bonobos in 2017 for $310 million. Writing about this purchase for Forbes, Pamela Danziger described the acquisition as "paradigm-shifting," and not simply for the value of the brand itself. With Bonobos, Walmart also acquired significant "human capital" in Andy Dunn, Bonobos' CEO. Danziger quotes Dave Knox, the author of The High Stakes Game of Business Between Startups and Blue Chips, the "guidebook for navigating the changing business landscape," who calls Dunn "a prominent thought leader in the next generation of retail." Read: "Why Walmart-Bonobos Is A Bigger Deal Than Amazon-Whole Foods" Dunn himself described his brand as a DNVB--a digitally native vertical brand founded on the Internet and "aimed squarely at millennials and digital natives." Many DNVB brands exist--and fail. "Here is what most DNVB entrepreneurs get wrong," Dunn writes. "The world doesn't care about your DNVB if you aren't delivering a better product and service bundle than traditional competition. The world doesn't need your DNVB — unless your product as foundation is differentiated." Read: "The Book of DNVB" Dunn's story of carefully-executed differentiation should be instructive for all brands. Beyond its great-fitting pants, Bonobos has created a steady market for its clothing by selling its own unique and often quirky brand. Content Marketing 101: The Power of Differentiation Most online businesses fail at differentiation. Some businesses sell genuinely unique products but fail to market the product's uniqueness. Many businesses, of course, sell similar products but fail at differentiating other vital factors, like cost or service. A failure of differentiation is a failure of communication. If the Internet is a conversation, the businesses that fail are like boring people who avoid conversation, or worse, people who drone incessantly about "the seven things you're not supposed to talk about," like how you've slept or your day-to-day health. Ho-hum! If you own an online business and you're trying hard to create a market for your product, you might begin by asking yourself a simple question: What am I adding to the conversation? The answer to this question might be the make or break factor for your business. If you're not adding something new to the conversation, after all, why are you talking? Differentiation and SEO: Duplicate Content  In the world of SEO, one of the most egregious conversation failures is duplicate content--"substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar," according to Google. Of course, many sites necessarily use duplicate content as a business matter. In 2013, Google's head of webspam, Matt Cutts (now retired), explained that a lot of duplicate content is benign: "We do understand that lots of different places across the web do need to have various disclaimers, legal information, terms and conditions, that sort of stuff, and so it's the sort of thing where if we were to not rank that stuff well, then that would probably hurt our overall search quality..." So not all duplicate content is harmful. The problem, as Google notes, is "multiple pages [on your own site] with largely identical content," or worse, content copied and pasted from other websites. Copied content is everywhere. Many sites sell the same products with the same product descriptions without offering any additional helpful information that might inspire a sale. In these cases, differentiation is vital--especially if you're an affiliate. As Cutts explained: "Hopefully you've got a different page from all the other affiliates in the world, and hopefully you have some original content – something that distinguishes you from the fly-by-night sites that just say, 'Okay, here's a product. I got the feed and I'm gonna put these two paragraphs of text that everybody else has.' If that's the only value add you have then you should ask yourself, 'Why should my site rank higher than all these hundreds of other sites when they have the exact same content as well?'" In the end, duplicate content will harm your business. As Search Engine Land noted in its article on duplicate content and machine intelligence, the dangers of duplicate content include loss of ranking for unique pages that unintentionally compete for the same keywords; inability to rank pages in a cluster because Google chose one page as a canonical; and loss of site authority for large quantities of thin content.  In a way, then, the danger of duplicate content equates to Dunn's notion of what most entrepreneurs (and, by extension, online businesses) get wrong: a failure to differentiate. Content Marketing with SEO Sparta  If you're looking for an SEO company company that understands how to promote websites with relevant content, contact SEO Sparta in our local offices in Bucks County, PA. SEO Sparta combines traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--emphasizing natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective content marketing campaigns.  (Cover Photo Source: Merriam Webster)

0 Google's Mobile-First Indexing: What You Need to Know

• SEO Algorithms
• by Alex Stepman
• 01.09.2022

Two years ago, Google implemented its mobile-first index, the search engine's new system for crawling and indexing the web. In the past, Google crawled and indexed desktop pages first. Now Google prefers mobiles pages. Announcing this change, Google noted the search engine would "eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site's content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results" (Source). At the time of the transition, Google already used mobile content "for over half of the pages shown in search results globally," as the search engine noted, and the numbers have been growing since.  Is your website compliant with mobile indexing? For an easy answer, take Google's "Mobile-Friendly Test." You can also perform a "website performance audit" your site performs well on all devices. If your site is mobile-friendly, you're good to go. If your site is not "mobile-friendly," your rankings may be impacted. As Search Engine Land has noted: "If your desktop pages are different from your mobile pages both in terms of content and structured data, then your rankings may be impacted." In other words, if you've placed undue emphasis on your desktop site, optimizing desktop pages without regard for your mobile site, you should change course. At the very least, as Google continues to move all websites to mobile-first indexing, the search engine will prefer competitor's sites that have been optimized for mobile. Is it Time to Panic?  If your website is not ready for mobile-first indexing, you may feel a sudden sense of anxiety. Will your site lose its spot on the SERP? Will you lose rankings? Probably not. So don't panic. After all, it's not "mobilegeddon." Several years ago, Google made a flurry of announcements about its mobile-friendly signal, warning about "critical mobile usability errors" and urging sites to optimize for mobile. Some SEOs predicted a Mobilegeddon--a dramatic shift in rankings that might destroy any site not optimized for mobile. In the end, mobilegeddon was a "non-event." A few weeks later, Mark Munroe, who wrote an analysis of the numbers, noted: "I have direct access to several sites that are extremely mobile unfriendly to the point of being mobile-nasty. And yet … I can barely discern a difference." In its announcement about mobile-first indexing, Google noted that it only moves a site to mobile-first indexing when it is ready--so the search engine is taking a softer tone this time. Still, the point remains: If you're not mobile-friendly, and you're competing to fulfill a browser's needs with a site that emphasizes desktop pages, you will likely lose traffic--and potentially business. Mobile-First Indexing: What You Need to Know  In the past, Google said the mobile-first index would not significantly affect rankings. However, now this may not be the case (for the reasons noted above). And, of course, mobile-friendliness is not simply about rankings--it's about user experience (which indirectly affects rankings). A website may appear on mobile devices without mobile optimization, but it will look and perform poorly. We're talking about sites that require pinching and zooming to read the content (yes, these sites still exist). The solution to the problem, however, is exceedingly simple. As Google notes, "If your site uses responsive design techniques, you should be all set!" SEO Sparta optimizes all sites for mobile and desktop with a responsive design, which formats a website for every device. Need Mobile SEO Help? Call SEO Sparta  E-commerce is now a mobile game. If you sell a high-quality product that deserves customers, you also deserve a well-optimized mobile website. Do not let the changing search landscape compromise your sales. Now, more than ever, you need the astute wisdom of a professional search engine optimization professional. SEO Sparta performs comprehensive mobile website audits. Call our offices in Bucks County, PA, today to learn how to improve your website's mobile performance: 215-900-9398.

0 SEO in 2022: Is MUM the Word?

• SEO Algorithms
• by Alex Stepman
• 12.11.2021

Forecasting is a significant part of an SEO firm's work. As Alex Stepman of SEO Sparta, says, "On any given day, I ask myself: How will search change in the coming months and years--and how can I help my clients evolve and compete?" Another major part of an SEO firm's work is retrospection. Last year's performance can serve as a guide for this year's performance. A good SEO asks himself: What have we done, and how can we make it better? Goal-setting combines the work of forecasting and retrospection. Taking the time now to set an outline for 2022 can help you execute effectively throughout the year. Part of goal-setting, too, is allocating money to specific strategies--strategies that minimize waste and maximize ROI.Below we offer a few crucial goals for your 2022 SEO campaign. We believe allocating money to these strategies will offer the best ROI in 2022. Content in 2022 Assuming you already have a viable, optimized website, the perennial top strategy for any SEO campaign is always content marketing. The key to assuring an ROI on content is investing in quality--and not necessarily quantity, though quantity works, too, if each piece maintains a certain level of quality. As Neil Patel notes: "The notion that writing more will boost your traffic and rankings only rings true if you don't sacrifice quality." So, what type of content should you produce? Text is still the best content source, and original, articulate, and intriguing writing will likely be your best option for placement on the SERP. The advantages of a text-heavy website also include other factors that affect website performance, like page speed and voice and mobile compatibility. However, with the emergence of Google's new algorithm, MUM, diversity is vital. As the predecessor to BERT, an algorithm that emphasized voice search (see below), MUM is "1000 times more powerful," according to Google, and "can multitask to unlock information in new ways." The new algorithm answers complex searches by analyzing videos, images, and text at once to yield a richer result. As Google explains it: "Eventually, you might be able to take a photo of your hiking boots and ask, 'can I use these to hike Mt. Fuji?' MUM would understand the image and connect it with your question to let you know your boots would work just fine. It could then point you to a blog with a list of recommended gear." Search is changing, and the emphasis on content is not changing. However, to prepare for new frontiers in search, think of dynamic content in different modes: video, images, songs, games, and good old text.  Optimize for Voice Search  As noted above, Google's recent big algorithm, BERT, emphasized the importance of voice search. To meet the demands of search in 2022, you must optimize for today's information-hungry consumers, who search on various platforms, including desktop, mobile, and voice assistants. Yes, similar optimization techniques work for each platform. You don't need to reinvent the wheel to optimize desktop and mobile and voice. But recognizing differences and optimizing pages for the prevailing medium will amplify your ROI in 2022. So right now, optimizing for voice is a good idea. To do so, you must focus on long-tail keywords, as outlined here: "Voice Search: What You Need to Know." Another focus should be featured snippet optimization, as outlined by Brian Dean here. Mobile Optimization  The bulk of searches has occurred on mobile devices for some time now. And Google's transition to a mobile-based index is old news. The search engine now uses mobile content for over half of the pages shown in search results.  In 2022, your optimization efforts must account for the mobile experience. At a minimum, this means each page must be optimized for mobile. Speed is critical, too. In introducing a "speed update" for mobile  in 2019, Google said that "speed" is now a ranking factor for mobile sites. For more information on mobile optimization strategies, read Moz's Mobile Optimization How-To. Organic SEO with SEO Sparta If you're looking for an SEO company that understands how to effectively promote websites with content optimized for voice and mobile, contact SEO Sparta: 215-900-9398. We combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--emphasizing natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective content marketing campaigns. [Cover Photo Source]

0 The SEO Writer: Five Key Skills

• SEO
• by Seth Pollins
• 11.15.2021

What is the difference between a good copywriter and a good SEO writer? A good copywriter has writing talent and marketing expertise. A good copywriter creates succinct, error-free content that broadcasts a specific message to a general audience. A good SEO writer also has writing talent and marketing expertise. Yet, the SEO writer's marketing expertise includes knowledge of search engine algorithms. A good SEO writer creates succinct, error-free content that broadcasts a specific message to a specific online audience. Specificity is critical.  The distinction is like the distinction between traditional and digital marketing. Both aim to attract a specific audience. Traditional marketing broadcasts to a general audience, casting a wide net to amplify a message. Think billboards, radio ads, or newspaper circulars. Success is defined in several ways: by increasing brand awareness, improving brand image, or attracting a percentage of viewers to a product, service, or promotion. Apple's famous "Think Different" campaign, which some credit for saving the company from financial ruin, is a perfect example of how traditional marketing, when performed correctly, can make a brand "deeply recognizably." Traditional marketing focuses on macro-audiences (although the goal may be to engage only a percentage of that audience). Digital marketing, on the other hand, focuses on micro-audiences. The success of any digital marketing campaign is contingent on defining the best keywords and creating relevant, engaging content for that audience. More on keywords: How to Perform Keyword Research  Of course, the distinctions between traditional marketing and digital marketing is unimportant. The term "digital content" is a misnomer: The best content--in traditional and digital marketing--is defined by the quality of the writing itself. However, successful online writing requires a distinctive set of knowledge and skills. A copywriter may or may not understand how to effectively attract an online audience. To attract an audience online, you need an SEO writer. The SEO Writer: Five Key Skills  Researching & Effectively Using Keywords A good SEO writer can help you research and choose the best keywords for your product or service. If you are unsure how to define your product or service, keyword research can help you clarify your offering: Imagine you are Googling your product or service. What keywords would you type? A good SEO writer can use these keywords resourcefully to attract attention to your site--attention that will lead to conversions. A copywriter may overlook the details that make a piece of content work for a search engine. An SEO writer, however, writes with a keen eye on attracting an online audience. By nature, this sort of work is concise. Writing URLs and Meta Tags A page's URL (uniform resource locator) is its web address. A fully-optimized web page will include a coherent, simple URL that humans and search engines can quickly identify. Crafting a relevant URL is a deceptively simple practice perfected by SEO writers. A title tag is displayed in search results as the title of a web page. Once you click on the page, the title tag may or may not be displayed at the top of the browser (Firefox does; Chrome does not). Title tags should be hyper-specific and relevant, yet not spammy--keywords must be used judiciously. Meta tags are inserted into your web pages' "head" area and used by search engines to list your site in their indexes accurately. Every page of your website must have unique meta tags. A good SEO writer optimizes your meta tags to describe the content of your page accurately. Creating an Effective Structure Many writers are enamored with their work--to the detriment of the writing. First, a good SEO writer is a great writer, but they also understand that SEO requires structure. Good SEO writers get picky about details that other writers overlook--details that might supersede the writer's natural inclinations. A good SEO writer, for example, understands the importance of the appropriate number of words, keywords, and links as well as paragraph and article length. To view the picky side of SEO writing, read Neil Patel's article How Long Should Each Blog Post Be? A Data-Driven Answer.  Composing Effective Links The link above (for Neil Patel's article) precisely describes the nature of the link. Many copywriters create articles with arbitrary links ("click here") that have little to do with the actual content of the link. To optimize a link, a good SEO writer creates a precise description of the link's contents. Like URLs, title tags, and meta tags, this detailed description allows the search engine to understand and "index" the link. Again, an adequate link description is a deceptively simple task, yet the best SEO writers have learned the value of outbound links and how to maximize this value effectively. Choosing Images and Composing Effective Image Tags  By now, you might have noticed several themes. First, every aspect of a page needs to be optimized, from the text to the tags. Second, SEO writers are not simply adept at writing--the best SEO writers perfect writing and the technical and design aspects of SEO, including keyword research, URL and tag composition, and structure. Choosing the perfect image for your content requires an eye for design; writing the perfect description requires SEO knowledge and writing chops. In a way, image optimization synthesizes the skills of a good SEO writer. Content Marketing with SEO Sparta  SEO Sparta is an SEO company in Bucks County, PA. We understand how to promote websites with good content. To learn more about how we combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective content marketing campaigns, call 215-900-9398.

0 Content Marketing 101: How to Discover Your Niche

• SEO
• by Seth Pollins
• 10.16.2021

Several years ago, Rand Fishkin posted a video that called for a new wave of content--10x content, as he called it: "Content that is 10 times better than the best...search results for a given keyword phrase or topic." The video, "Why Good Unique Content Needs to Die," was part of Fishkin's WhiteBoard Friday series, a sort of weekly digest for SEO professionals. Since the publication of the video, the term 10x content has become a buzzword for trendy SEO-types, what Sujan Patel, writing for Forbes, calls "a staple term used to define stand-out content within a certain industry or vertical." Creating "good, unique content" is not enough to rank. For new or smaller to medium-sized websites to rank, Fishkin believes, content writers must study the current top results. "What questions are being asked and answered by these search results?" Fishkin asks. "What sort of user experience is provided?" Fishkin's video is helpful but not necessarily prescriptive. Answering these questions will give you an idea of why a piece of content is successful (or not), but it might not help you create great content. Patel spends a great deal of space on "identifying 10x content" as well as rehashing Fishkin's "criteria for 10x content," but when he turns to actually "building" 10x content, he admits, "This is the time to start reinventing the wheel." If that sounds daunting to you, you're not alone. Content is the hardest part of SEO. It's important to note, though, that both Fishkin's and Patel's advice is not necessarily creative but technical. When Patel writes, "with so many businesses taking on the role of publisher, you need to expand into something more akin to an artist," it's clear he's not speaking from experience. "That means incorporating more visuals with your data," he writes, "more interaction, and more engagement." So more visuals with your data? Is that really what it means to reinvent the wheel--to be an artist? Discover Your Niche Is creating excellent, outstanding, 10x, or whatever you want to call it, content enough for a new or small or medium-sized website to compete in the rankings? This is the question Adam Stetzer asked on Search Engine Watch several years ago, and his answer was definitive: "The Google mantra: 'Create great content and it will earn links,' works for big business, but not for small ones." Read: "Come on, Google. Let the Little Guy Earn a Link" Stetzer focuses his discussion on high-quality, relevant links, which work as editorial votes, and are supposed to boost a website's ranking. The problem, Stetzer asserts, is that "small businesses are not going to get links just by virtue of having good content." This assertion is in contrast to Fishkin's claim about 10x content: "If you use this process or a process like this and you do this type of content auditing and you achieve this level of content quality, you have a real shot at rankings." Not really, Stetzer believes: "Google policies are seemingly oblivious to this reality: without links, small businesses get no traffic and without traffic, they get no links." In our view, both are right (and wrong). We happen to agree with Fishkin's assertion that outstanding content can boost rankings and attract traffic. But Fishkin himself makes a critical point that Stetzer overlooks: "Really, where I want folks to go is..10 times better than anything I can find in the search results today. If I don't think I can do that, then I'm not going to try and rank for those keywords. I'm just not going to pursue it. I'm going to pursue content in areas where I believe I can create something 10 times better than the best result out there." And this is a reality of a small business, which by nature is not trying to compete with a large business. A small bookseller, for example, will not try to compete head-to-head with, say, Amazon, the behemoth of online book sales. But a smaller bookseller, like Powell's Books, which originated as a neighborhood bookseller in Portland, Oregon, can undoubtedly discover success. Powell's ingenious way of marketing itself is "The World's Neighborhood Bookseller." If you Google "buy books," Powell's is not even on the first page. Yet Powell's has earned a durable success with unique branding--and, ironically, by selling its books on Amazon. Like many of the best small online businesses, Powell's success reveals an essential truth of online marketing: to compete, you must discover your niche. Stetzer's assertion then is not entirely true. He seems to imply that a smaller bookstore like Powell's should be able to compete with Amazon. He begins with an ideal scenario: "Some would say that the Internet is the great equalizer, that every business, large and small, has an equal shot at page one rankings and with that, web traffic, leads, sales, and growth." But this is not true. And that's OK. Another truth of online marketing: to compete, you must evolve. For a new or smaller business, this means answering the questions that have not yet been answered. Two Questions to Discover Your Niche It's hard to create genuinely inventive content. It's hard even to begin writing. We simplify the process to two questions. Before beginning a piece of content, ask yourself: 1. "What question am I answering?" 2. "What am I adding to the conversation?" Be unique--and specific about your offering. By paying attention to the unique specificity of your product or service, you can dramatically improve your visibility on Google. What question(s) does your product or service answer? Once you've answered these questions (for yourself), compose your answers, ideally adding something new to the conversation. Content Marketing with SEO Sparta If you're looking for an SEO company that understands how to compete with inventive content, call SEO Sparta at our Bucks County, PA, offices: 215-900-9398. SEO Sparta combines traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--with an emphasis on natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective marketing campaigns.

0 How Does Google's Search Engine Work?

• SEO Algorithms
• by Alex Stepman
• 09.12.2021

Each day worldwide, Google's search engine delivers over 3.5 billion search results. For Google, the numbers are not as important as the quality of each result. To ensure 3.5 billion quality results each day, Google uses a complex algorithm to sort and categorize hundreds of billions of web pages.  Many valuable resources online attempt to explain the complexity of this process. Google has even posted a video online attempting to explain the process. Unfortunately, the video is an hour long. Below, Alex Stepman of SEO Sparta offers a summary of Google's video and answers the question: How Does Google Work? Google's Search Engine: The Mission Google organizes the world's information, making it universally accessible and helpful while delivering the highest quality search engine experience.  How Does a Search Engine Work? As noted above, Google's job is to sort and categorize the hundreds of billions of web pages on the internet. When we perform a search in Google, the search engine uses our query to find similar information, apply a filter, and deliver the most helpful information available at that time.  First, the search engine downloads billions of pages of content, scans the language and creates a list of the words and pages where the query can be found, like the index of a book.  For example, if you search for "lasagna," the word appears on 59,000,000 pages. When you type "lasagna" in the search bar, the search engine scans its database to uncover similar downloaded information.  Second, the search engine orders this information on the SERP (search engine results page) with the most useful pages at the top and the less useful pages at the bottom. The "usefulness" (often referred to as "relevance") is based on Google's algorithm. Many people searching for lasagna are interested in recipes. Some want nutrition information. However, a few people may be interested in learning about the life and research of Louis Lasagna, MD. The search engine's software ranks the pages based on numerous on-page and off-page SEO factors, including your geolocation, recent page updates, links to and from the page, whether the word "lasagna" exists on the page's title, and whether the page contains images of lasagna. The algorithm controls the ranking system. A search engine algorithm is a set of rules that determine where and how often a page is exposed in search results. Google's search algorithm delivers high-quality information based on the user's search queries. To Google, high-quality information means the text, images, videos, or ideas added to web pages for public use—content that website owners want people to find and read or watch and learn. Spam Results in Search Engine From Google's perspective, spam is low-quality content artificially boosted in search results. Typically, pages with spam content use artificial intelligence (AI) generated nonsense text, hidden keywords, and highjacked URLs. Google views spam as a never-ending game of cat and mouse. Because website owners are highly motivated to showcase websites on the first page of search results, spammers continue to innovate algorithm workarounds. Google often applies new algorithms to limit spam, but spammers adapt and evolve. To prevent spammers from abusing the algorithm and essentially breaking the search engine, the details of the algorithm and ranking system are not accessible to the public.  Limiting spam is the main reason search engines change their algorithms so often. For example, spam accounted for 40% of all pages Google discovered in Europe last year, and 15% of queries discovered daily worldwide have never been seen by Google before.  How Often Does Google Change its Search Engine Algorithm? On average, Google changes its algorithm six times per day - roughly several thousand times per year. Before Google applies changes, it performs tests—about 200,000 - 300,000 tests. To launch a new algorithm, Google's engineers first need to prove the concept. The engineers decide what results to show based on search queries, but the proof of improvements comes from data. Perhaps due to these experiments, website owners often see fluctuations in website traffic from organic searches.  Search Quality Evaluated Guidelines (Source) From Google's perspective, websites that deserve good search results exhibit expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. The best way to impress Google is by presenting high-quality, informative, and relevant content and the best website performance. To keep search engine users happy, Google has strived to improve performance, ensuring the search engine delivers quality results faster and faster.  How Does Google Deliver the Most Relevant Results in One Second or Less? To deliver accurate results quickly (less than a second), Google uses data centers worldwide to keep downloaded information from the internet. Each data center contains identical information. When we perform a search, the search engine identifies our location and sends the query to the nearest data center for processing. The data center then searches its database and delivers the most accurate results.  Many results in Google search are not relevant to the search query. Google's job is to deliver top-quality results from authoritative and trusted websites. To ensure these results are delivered with blasting speed and accuracy, Google attempts to understand the search query precisely the way it was asked. How Does Google Determine the Authoritativeness of Websites? Every website must explain who they are and where they find their information. If a webpage includes information from other sources, it must provide the source(s) of the information.  How Does Google Deliver the Most Accurate Results? As noted above, the search engine must understand what we are trying to find to deliver accurate results. To help us find the most accurate information possible, Google includes an autocomplete feature that suggests search queries. Many people believe that Google's autocomplete suggests the most frequently searched queries, but this is not always true. The goal of autocomplete is to deliver search results faster by making sure people find what they want without typing the search query entirely. However, this feature is regulated and does not work for many categories or industries. Google intentionally restricts some categories from participating in this feature, including adult websites, websites that sell and promote tobacco or drugs, violent content, and others. The autocomplete predictions are constantly updated to ensure Google's policies are not violated. After processing the search query, Google may be unsure of the user's intent. Then Google suggests a clickable auto-correct feature or additional queries (in the form of links) at the bottom of the search result page. Understanding the intent of user search terms and phrases is more complex than finding similar terms on pages. To solve this problem, Google is utilizing the Natural Language Processing feature and launching a new project - BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representation of Transformers). BERT is a new development of Natural Language Processing that uses machine learning to elevate search to a new level of success. BERT can understand language, recognize words and find similar words, and understand how words relate to each other. BERT also understands "STOP Words" and how they can help to narrow the search intent.  While BERT is one of Google's projects, it is known as the BERT algorithm to marketing specialists. And just like other algorithms previously launched by Google, the intent is to improve search engine results, making them relevant and accurate. Organic SEO with SEO Sparta Are you looking for an SEO company that understands how to effectively promote websites with content optimized for Google? Contact SEO Sparta of Bucks County, PA.   We combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--emphasizing natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective content marketing campaigns. Image Source