Category: Writing

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When it comes to search engine optimization, content is key to success. The thing is, while technical SEO does exist (and even plays a teeny-tiny factor), Google has stressed it time and again: All you really need for Google to like your site is publish high-quality, useful content. But what exactly is perceived as a sign of high-quality content?

Here are five content-related ranking signals Google is using to determine whether a specific article deserves to appear on top of Google.

1. Highly-Linked Content

A backlink profile is Google’s oldest ranking signal. Ever since Google launched, backlinks were at the core of its ranking algorithm. And while Google has repeatedly added dozens — and even hundreds — of other signals, backlinks have remained the most powerful one.

It used to be very simple: the more, the better.

When website owners figured it out, Google’s search result pages were heavily manipulated, so Google had to up its game. It’s all very complicated now, to the point where I doubt there’s a single person working for Google who completely understands how it works.

There are good and bad links, there are natural and unnatural links, and there are high-authority and low-authority links. One group may be balancing the other. Some links may be dragging you down, and some may be driving you up, and it’s not always possible to tell one from the other.

Now, this all comes down to one thing: you need as many editorial and natural links as possible. In other words, we need to create linkable content.

This is where the content creator can play a crucial role: it is actually in our power to create content that attracts links.

What is linkable content?

There is no single definition to linkable content, as there is no single type of link. Educational content attracts links from teachers, bizarre content drives links from popular media outlets and discussion boards, and innovative content may get links from niche journalists.

There are no set rules here, so it will be up to how well you do your research, and for the most part, up to your luck.

When working on an article, check out Buzzsumo to get an idea of which content attracts most links on your topic. Buzzsumo allows you to filter results to see recently published content and evaluate the current linkable trends:

2. Relevancy

Actually, this one should be #1, of course. I put after links only because it is a more recent signal — the one Google is still figuring out.

Years ago, adding a specific keyword several times in an article or on a page was enough for Google to consider that content relevant to the matching search query.

Obviously, this was a very easily-manipulated signal, so Google has been working hard on improving its relevancy signals.

Yes, there’s no single signal here, so, like with backlinks, we are talking about a group of signals. But as copywriters, we have more control here, as we actually create the content.

One of the biggest improvements to Google’s relevancy algorithms has been implemented thanks to the introduction of semantic mapping, which helped Google understand each query in context rather than matching the exact sequence of words to the indexed documents.

Semantic research can help publishers create better-researched, more relevant content, similar to how it helps Google algorithmically calculate relevance.

Text Optimizer is a great tool that helps you create a more relevant context to better match Google’s and its users’ expectations:

Text Optimizer will also score your content relevancy and point you to all possible areas of improvement.

Other improvements to Google’s relevancy algorithms which are not so easy to put into practice but still are good to be aware of include:

• Google Hummingbird update
• Google BERT update

3. Content Length

This is one of those search signals that keeps causing lots of debates and arguments in the SEO niche. In truth, we will ever know the definitive answer, even though multiple research studies (including this one) seem to show that Google favors long-form content.

It is rightfully argued that long-form content may be generating more backlinks, and hence it tends to rank higher.

Either way, whether it is a direct ranking signal or simply a way to create more linkable content, long-form content seems the way to go.

Always use your own editorial judgement, but as a rule of thumb:

• If you have a choice between writing one 1000-word article or three 200-word articles, choose the longer option.
• However, if you feel like your article is turning into a 5000-word book, it is time to consider breaking into a series by breaking it into more specific angles and subtopics.
• Finally, if you feel like you have fully covered a target question in your 500-hundred article (this often happens when you address very specific / narrow queries), don’t force it. A useful article that clearly answers a question is better than a long-form content that was written solely for word count.

4. Exact Keyword Match

While Google has moved beyond exact-match keywords and can now understand relevancy beyond word strings, including your target keyword is still important.

The same study mentioned above found that “the vast majority of title tags in Google exactly or partially match the keyword that they rank for”. Note that most titles didn’t have exact-match keywords but rather some variations of those.

This does tell us that Google is still looking at keywords, so keyword research and optimization is still important. Here’s a helpful list of best keyword research tools out there, updated for 2020.

5. Content Engagement

To the best of my knowledge, Google has never confirmed that they use on-page engagement (what people do once they land on your page) as a direct ranking factor.

I can see why it may be a difficult decision for them. If users leave right away, does it mean the content was useless? Or does it mean it is so great that people found an answer right away, totally satisfied with what they read?

The above question makes both “bounce rate” and “time on page” metrics questionable signals of content quality.

However, for the search giant to totally ignore user satisfaction signals would be a huge oversight, given that they also own Google Analytics, which gives them plenty of data to peruse.

There are educated theories that Google uses some user engagement metrics as a ranking single, but those signals are evaluated differently from SERPs to SERPs, and they are never absolute metrics. Instead, they are being compared for top-ranking sites, allowing Google to quickly identify possible anomalies.

There’s not much content creators can do to impact user engagement, apart from creating genuinely useful content. But it is always a good idea for content creators to view site analytics and track content performance.

Finteza is the modern web analytics platform with a huge focus on conversions and engagement monitoring. You can use Finteza to better understand which of your articles are read in full, which of them send the users down the sales funnels, and which send them away from your site.

Conclusion

Of course, there are many more search signals that help Google serve up the most relevant search results. It is likely there are hundreds (at least 200) search signals at play any time a user clicks the “search” button. Many of those SEO factors can be handled through plugins. But content is still the foundation.

A content creator cannot influence all the aspects of search engine optimization. There are still technical elements to figure out (including the most important ones like site architecture and internal linking). And there are powerful ranking signals that are beyond an optimizer’s reach, like personalization and localization.

What you, as a content creator and content marketer can do is lay the important foundation for a high-ranking asset.

The post 5 Google Ranking Signals Content Marketers Need to Know appeared first on Content Marketing Consulting and Social Media Strategy.

https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-produce-high-quality-videos-for-social-media/

Need to do more with social video? Wondering how to increase the quality of your videos? In this article, you’ll discover practical tips to produce polished videos that perform well on social media. #1: Look Better on Camera I’m sure you’ve seen many social media videos where the person is looking down at the camera, […]

The post How to Produce High-Quality Videos for Social Media appeared first on Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner.

https://www.rohitbhargava.com/2020/04/how-to-present-a-virtual-keynote.html

Six weeks ago every event got cancelled, postponed or moved to virtual. Like many professional speakers, I started delivering my talks virtually. But taking a 45 minute talk and doing it over Zoom doesn’t work. It’s too long, tech gets in the way and it just feels boring.

I knew I had to get better at this.

So I started researching. At first it was YouTube videos. I watched a 34 minute overview on selecting the right cardioid microphone. I took notes from a masterclass from a Hollywood lighting pro on techniques like loop and butterfly lighting. I consumed hours of videos on acting techniques, professional studio setups, and product demos. I also asked for advice from some professionals in the entertainment business from my network and read what my friends and fellow speakers were sharing on social media.

And I started writing a book all about everything I was learning when it came to presenting virtually, working more effectively while remote and building trust with people without being in the same room (or perhaps without ever having met in real life. This week, I’m launching that book as a free download (get it here!) and throughout the process of writing and researching it, I kept presenting and experimenting.

Over the last three weeks I have learned a lot and gotten better. Though I’m continuing to do presentations and getting better at virtual storytelling, I thought I’d share some of the biggest things that I have learned which will help you get better faster, and perhaps skip watching hours of YouTube videos in order to do it.

1. Don’t fear the tech.

I realized over the past month that I have been completely spoiled at events by working with a professional AV crew. At home, it’s just me. And when faced with complex technology, my tendency has too often been to claim ignorance. I was, after all, an English major. But in a professional setting, when you are on your own without an IT department, technical problems just end up making YOU look bad. There’s no one else to blame. So skip the excuses, watch some YouTube videos yourself and conquer your fear of getting technical. This isn’t like programming the Mars rover. You can do this.

2. Get dressed.

It’s a beautiful thing that we can now present in our pajamas. But I don’t. In fact, I usually dress the same way I would if I were presenting from the stage. For me, it helps me to bring more energy in an artificial environment where I don’t get the benefit of audience feedback. So I don’t look the same in every video, I also try to wear something different for each talk.

3. Embrace the unperfection.

Most of us don’t have a professional studio at home. It’s ok. In fact, it might be better. When we see each other’s homes in the background, or some of our personality – we feel more connected. So let it be a little bit unperfect and focus on being authentic instead of perfect.

4. Face the window.

All of the light tutorials I watched on YouTube were great, but complicated. You can buy ring lights or hook up web-enabled dimmers to your phone – but the real secret to how I’m getting pretty good light on all my calls comes down to three words: face a window. When your face is to the window, you avoid backlighting (the biggest lighting problem most people have) and odd shadows too. The picture below is me in my home office with NO additional lighting. I literally just turned around to face the window instead of putting it behind me. Of course, this won’t work if you’re in a room with no windows (or at night) – so if that’s the case, get good lighting from the front (a ring light works for this) and start with that.

5. Invest in sound.

If you are going to spend money on anything to improve your virtual presentation, make it a high quality microphone. Headsets generally are a great way to get good sound and avoid background noise. The problem is you end up looking like a call center operator. The alternative is a good cardioid microphone (a microphone that mainly picks up sound from the front). The microphones to avoid are omnidirectional (they pick up ambient sound from around the room).

6. Play with the tech.

Whenever my boys encounter something new, they want to press all the buttons. As they get older, they still do that. We can use some of that same mentality when it comes to using videoconferencing platforms. Do you know what all the buttons do? Try them out. On a Zoom call, using the space bar is a shortcut to go off mute. Skype has similar keyboard shortcuts. The best way to get better at using the tools is by playing with it … and pressing all the buttons.

7. Skip the apology.

We all know that virtual meetings aren’t seamless. Sometimes people are hard to hear. And your WiFi may be slow. It’s tempting to always be apologizing for this, or even worse, apologizing before anything even goes wrong! Instead, go with the flow and adapt to the difficulties. If they persist, be decisive in what to do about it – whether it’s asking everyone to log out and then back in, or the worst case scenario of rescheduling the meeting. People may not like it, but they will definitely appreciate it more if you didn’t waste 30 minutes trying to get everything working before finally canceling.

8. Speak to the camera.

When you are on a video call where multiple people are sharing screens, you will want to look at them. The problem is, doing this appears as if you’re looking sideways. The only way to offer the appearance of eye contact is to speak to your webcam instead of to the images of the people. This is logical, but very hard to consistently do because it feels unnatural. To be honest, I haven’t found an easy way to do this, apart from asking everyone else to turn off their video screens. So I’ve just been practicing ignoring their videos and speaking to the camera instead.

9. Use props.

One of the nicest things about presenting from my home office is that I can have all the tools I usually use right next to me. So while I used to share a picture of a stack of books that I read from the stage, now I can actually SHOW people the stack. Props are a great way to break up the monotony of a talk and bring your personality too.

10. Update your website/profile.

Everything is changing, but a lot of what we see online seems to have been created before Covid-19. As a speaker, I wanted to be sure to let event planners and potential clients know that I’ve adjusted what I do, so I changed my homepage and my speaking page to focus on virtual events. If you want to show potential customers or even your colleagues that you’re adjusting too, consider updating your site (if you have one) or your professional profiles too.

Want to see all of my best insights as well as learn from the experiences of more than 50 experts who have contributed to share their best tips with you?

Download a free copy of my latest guide and ebook, The Non-Obvious Guide to Virtual Meetings & Remote Work.

Download here >>

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When it comes to search engine optimization, content is key to success. The thing is, while technical SEO does exist (and even plays a teeny-tiny factor), Google has stressed it time and again: All you really need for Google to like your site is publish high-quality, useful content. But what exactly is perceived as a sign of high-quality content?

Here are five content-related ranking signals Google is using to determine whether a specific article deserves to appear on top of Google.

1. Highly-Linked Content

A backlink profile is Google’s oldest ranking signal. Ever since Google launched, backlinks were at the core of its ranking algorithm. And while Google has repeatedly added dozens — and even hundreds — of other signals, backlinks have remained the most powerful one.

It used to be very simple: the more, the better.

When website owners figured it out, Google’s search result pages were heavily manipulated, so Google had to up its game. It’s all very complicated now, to the point where I doubt there’s a single person working for Google who completely understands how it works.

There are good and bad links, there are natural and unnatural links, and there are high-authority and low-authority links. One group may be balancing the other. Some links may be dragging you down, and some may be driving you up, and it’s not always possible to tell one from the other.

Now, this all comes down to one thing: you need as many editorial and natural links as possible. In other words, we need to create linkable content.

This is where the content creator can play a crucial role: it is actually in our power to create content that attracts links.

What is linkable content?

There is no single definition to linkable content, as there is no single type of link. Educational content attracts links from teachers, bizarre content drives links from popular media outlets and discussion boards, and innovative content may get links from niche journalists.

There are no set rules here, so it will be up to how well you do your research, and for the most part, up to your luck.

When working on an article, check out Buzzsumo to get an idea of which content attracts most links on your topic. Buzzsumo allows you to filter results to see recently published content and evaluate the current linkable trends:

2. Relevancy

Actually, this one should be #1, of course. I put after links only because it is a more recent signal — the one Google is still figuring out.

Years ago, adding a specific keyword several times in an article or on a page was enough for Google to consider that content relevant to the matching search query.

Obviously, this was a very easily-manipulated signal, so Google has been working hard on improving its relevancy signals.

Yes, there’s no single signal here, so, like with backlinks, we are talking about a group of signals. But as copywriters, we have more control here, as we actually create the content.

One of the biggest improvements to Google’s relevancy algorithms has been implemented thanks to the introduction of semantic mapping, which helped Google understand each query in context rather than matching the exact sequence of words to the indexed documents.

Semantic research can help publishers create better-researched, more relevant content, similar to how it helps Google algorithmically calculate relevance.

Text Optimizer is a great tool that helps you create a more relevant context to better match Google’s and its users’ expectations:

Text Optimizer will also score your content relevancy and point you to all possible areas of improvement.

Other improvements to Google’s relevancy algorithms which are not so easy to put into practice but still are good to be aware of include:

• Google Hummingbird update
• Google BERT update

3. Content Length

This is one of those search signals that keeps causing lots of debates and arguments in the SEO niche. In truth, we will ever know the definitive answer, even though multiple research studies (including this one) seem to show that Google favors long-form content.

It is rightfully argued that long-form content may be generating more backlinks, and hence it tends to rank higher.

Either way, whether it is a direct ranking signal or simply a way to create more linkable content, long-form content seems the way to go.

Always use your own editorial judgement, but as a rule of thumb:

• If you have a choice between writing one 1000-word article or three 200-word articles, choose the longer option.
• However, if you feel like your article is turning into a 5000-word book, it is time to consider breaking into a series by breaking it into more specific angles and subtopics.
• Finally, if you feel like you have fully covered a target question in your 500-hundred article (this often happens when you address very specific / narrow queries), don’t force it. A useful article that clearly answers a question is better than a long-form content that was written solely for word count.

4. Exact Keyword Match

While Google has moved beyond exact-match keywords and can now understand relevancy beyond word strings, including your target keyword is still important.

The same study mentioned above found that “the vast majority of title tags in Google exactly or partially match the keyword that they rank for”. Note that most titles didn’t have exact-match keywords but rather some variations of those.

This does tell us that Google is still looking at keywords, so keyword research and optimization is still important. Here’s a helpful list of best keyword research tools out there, updated for 2020.

5. Content Engagement

To the best of my knowledge, Google has never confirmed that they use on-page engagement (what people do once they land on your page) as a direct ranking factor.

I can see why it may be a difficult decision for them. If users leave right away, does it mean the content was useless? Or does it mean it is so great that people found an answer right away, totally satisfied with what they read?

The above question makes both “bounce rate” and “time on page” metrics questionable signals of content quality.

However, for the search giant to totally ignore user satisfaction signals would be a huge oversight, given that they also own Google Analytics, which gives them plenty of data to peruse.

There are educated theories that Google uses some user engagement metrics as a ranking single, but those signals are evaluated differently from SERPs to SERPs, and they are never absolute metrics. Instead, they are being compared for top-ranking sites, allowing Google to quickly identify possible anomalies.

There’s not much content creators can do to impact user engagement, apart from creating genuinely useful content. But it is always a good idea for content creators to view site analytics and track content performance.

Finteza is the modern web analytics platform with a huge focus on conversions and engagement monitoring. You can use Finteza to better understand which of your articles are read in full, which of them send the users down the sales funnels, and which send them away from your site.

Conclusion

Of course, there are many more search signals that help Google serve up the most relevant search results. It is likely there are hundreds (at least 200) search signals at play any time a user clicks the “search” button. Many of those SEO factors can be handled through plugins. But content is still the foundation.

A content creator cannot influence all the aspects of search engine optimization. There are still technical elements to figure out (including the most important ones like site architecture and internal linking). And there are powerful ranking signals that are beyond an optimizer’s reach, like personalization and localization.

What you, as a content creator and content marketer can do is lay the important foundation for a high-ranking asset.

The post 5 Google Ranking Signals Content Marketers Need to Know appeared first on Content Marketing Consulting and Social Media Strategy.