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Convert to HTTPS by October 2017 or Lose Rankings

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UPDATE – 19th August 2017: Google is now warning webmasters to switch from non-secure HTTP to HTTPS, or risk losing traffic. The deadline is October 2017.

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a way to make your website secure and protect ‘the integrity and confidentiality of your users’ data’ (Google).
Way back in August 2014, Google announced that changing the security certificate of your website to HTTPS/SSL (also known as ‘HTTP over TLS’, Transport Layer Security) would be used as a ranking signal, albeit a weak one. At the time Google predicted that switching from HTTP to HTTPS would positively impact on less than 1% of global queries.

In fact, in a Google webmaster hangout, Google’s John Mueller said that HTTPS is far from a ‘magic bullet’ that would cause a visible change or noticeable SEO benefits, although making your site more secure does make sense in the long-term for user peace of mind.

Back in 2015, HTTPS was only a minor ranking signal that didn’t make a huge difference to your overall rankings, however, Google has continued to look at ways to improve and prioritise website security. The search engine wants to make sure that the websites people access via Google are secure and what they say they are.

Latest Information from Google: 19th August 2017
Google Is Forcing You to Switch to HTTPS by October or Lose Rankings

Google is now sending out emails to Search Console users saying that if you don’t switch from your non-secure HTTP website to HTTPS, then you risk losing traffic and have a “NOT SECURE” notification pop-up on your website for all Chrome users. The deadline is October 2017.

Here is a copy of one of the emails that were sent out:

Google HTTPS Security Warning

HTTPS is safe, HTTP is not

The reason for Google’s push towards HTTPS is website security. Earlier in 2017, Google sent out notifications that secure-data must be secured. This includes, but is not limited to sites that collect customer data such as credit-card information and even personal information. HTTP basically allows unauthorized people to tap into your computer and steal all of your valuable information. Google wants to avoid that by strongly encouraging the shift to HTTPS.

 

Convert to HTTPS by October 2017 or Lose Rankings

 

HTTPS Everywhere

When presenting the ‘HTTPS Everywhere’ campaign, Pierre Far from the Google Webmaster team and Ilya Grigorik from the Google Developer team explained why Google believes that every website should be secure.

Their position is that a single search may not reveal much about a person but, cumulatively, the websites we visit, the searches we make, the articles we read and even the music we listen to online can all reveal a great deal about our personalities, our likes and dislikes, our location, belongings, holidays and much more. Google says that its priority is secure searching and protecting the privacy of web users against malicious attacks.

In the HTTPS Everywhere presentation (which is worth a watch if you have a spare 45 minutes), Far and Grigorik explained that switching to an HTTPS certificate helps with:

  • Authentication – Is the website visitor on the site they think they’re on?
  • Data integrity – Is the data safe when transferred?
  • Encryption – Could someone be eavesdropping on the website visitor?

HTTPS stops malicious attackers from impersonating the destination site, tampering with data or listening in.

You can read a full guide on how to secure your website with HTTPS here. Different 2048-bit TLS certificates are available for commercial and non-commercial websites, as well as single host certificates and multi-domain certificates.

Need a Guide to Stress-Free HTTPS Migration? Take a look at the following from Search Engine Journal

Google Chrome

In December 2014, the issue of secure browsing came to the forefront of SEO conversations again when Google developers working on the search engine’s Chrome browser proposed warning people their data is at risk every time they visit a website that does not use the HTTPS system (you can read the proposal here). When implemented, initially planned for 2015, web users will see a message that the connection they’re about to make to a website ‘provides no data security’ or they may simply see a red cross through the padlock symbol at the start of the web address.

In 2015 only 33% of websites used HTTPS, this number has grown and today the average volume of encrypted internet traffic finally surpassed the average volume of unencrypted traffic. When Google does begin to flag up warnings on non-secure HTTP websites we are likely to see a much bigger swing towards HTTPS across the board.

This may initially cause confusion for website users who may not understand the difference between HTTP and HTTPS and worry that there is something wrong with a website they have previously used without hesitation. People tend to assume that websites and emails are private but creating an indicator that this isn’t the case will challenge that assumption.

Webmasters will face the initial challenge of moving a website over to HTTPS but supporters of Google’s HTTPS Everywhere campaign feel this will be a good thing for the Internet and Internet users in the long-term.

Are you concerned about this latest update?

Are you now thinking about moving your site to HTTPS? Or have you already moved your site? Are you concerned about this update? Please let me know in the comments below – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Free SEO Checklist

Find out how to create a website that Google and your customers love with our SEO Checklist

Discover how to:

  • Optimise your website for higher rankings in Google while also providing a good user experience for your customers.
  • Build site credibility and increase influence so that Google ranks you even higher and your potential customers find and trust you
  • Create unique and authentic content to drive conversations and fuel online searches leading to more quality leads, inquiries, and sales.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE SEO CHECKLIST

 

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The Top 10 Google Ranking Factors: what does Google want now and in the future?

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What are the Google ranking factors that will get my site onto the first page of Google? What does Google want now and will that change in the future?
These are the big questions for webmasters and businesses everywhere. Even the most SEO-conscious may find themselves floundering as Google adjusts and refines its algorithms to return the best possible results to search engines searches.

No-one knows with 100% certainty what the Google ranking factors are that will secure a website number one ranking for any given search term. As well as understanding that Google considers over 200 ranking signals, search results are influenced by factors such as your location and your search history.

And let’s not forget that different Google ranking factors affect different types of websites. A website selling clothes, for example, might be ranked based on factors such as being able to make secure payments, featuring unique product descriptions, the range and number of products, and product reviews by customers, as well as social signals. A medical information website, on the other hand, may be ranked around whether the content is accurate, trustworthy, supported by reliable sources, and with high-quality backlinks.

Google also looks at factors such as layout, code compliance, site architecture, internal links, high quality copy, different types of media/content on the site, unique meta data, structured data, and pages such as an About page, Contact Us page, Policy page, and Terms and Conditions page that prove yours is a real business.

Then, just when you think you’ve got Google sussed, you have a sense that the ground has shifted – or is about to shift – under your feet. Search engine optimisation advances at such a rate that it can feel like a race to keep up.

The Top 10 Google Ranking Factors

Why does Google keep changing and refining its algorithms?

Ultimately, Google is a business. Its customers are those of us who use the search engine and its main function is to answer our questions. As for any business, quality matters. Google is constantly developing savvier, more sophisticated ways to understand how people search and return the most relevant, high-quality results possible, so that its customers can find what they need in a matter of seconds.

With good search engine optimisation, we can help Google to locate, index and return our website to the people who will get the most value from its content. Although we must think about what works today and what will drive enquiries about our business, we must also try to stay a step ahead by understanding where Google will focus more of its attention in the future.

While many businesses still attempt to game Google with keywords and backlinks, a far more sensible, ethical and effective approach is to keep Google’s main function in mind. If Google wants to return high quality search results that add value for the searcher, your main task is to create a website that is built around the user and meeting their needs with well researched design and content.

But let’s get specific – what are the top Google ranking factors now and what will be the top 10 ranking factors of the future?

 

  1. The user experience

The red hot SEO phrase of the moment is ‘user experience’. It makes sense that this is where Google is focusing its attention. After all, the search engine needs to know that customers are having a good experience on the websites it’s sending them to. If they’re not, then it reflects poorly on the SERPs and on Google.

Generally speaking, if you have a website that offers a fantastic user experience, high-quality unique content, easy navigation, and answers searchers’ questions with well-researched information, then the chances are high that Google will reward your efforts with better rankings. Although the user experience is only one of many Google ranking factors to consider, if you’re looking for a starting point to review your SEO, user experience is it.

What’s harder to define is how Google determines how good the user experience is on any given website.

There are several signals that are important. Initially, Google will look at the click through rate (CTR) you get through to your website from SERPs, i.e. the percentage of people who see one of your pages in search results and click on the link to find out more. By creating a unique and inviting title tag and meta description, you can help to create a call to action that entices visitors to your site.

Of course, just because visitors click through to your website doesn’t mean they will stay. This is why Google will then look at your bounce rate, i.e. the percentage of people who arrive on your site and click straight away from it without reading deeper into the content, and the time spent on the site.

If you have a low bounce rate because people are looking at two or more pages per visit and a longer visit time because visitors are sticking around to explore your content in more detail, these are two really strong signals to Google that you’re providing a good user experience and providing content that’s relevant to your target customers.

Actions to take:

  • Check the bounce rate and average time on site in Google Analytics

Google Analytics will show you the bounce rate for your website and average time spent on the site, as well as where people are most commonly entering and leaving, and where they’re spending their time. These are all statistics you should keep a close eye on.

If people are arriving on a page and then immediately bouncing away, now is a good time to explore why.

  • Can people see what you offer at a glance?
  • Are you talking directly the customer and focusing on them rather than you?
  • Is the website visually appealing?
  • Are the images unique and do they reflect your offering accurately?
  • Is your website easy to navigate?
  • Is there a strong call to action that lets people know what they need to do next?
  • Is it easy to contact you?
  • Does the site load up quickly?
  • Do you answer common customer questions?
  • Can people read deeper into a topic if they want to?

The answers to these questions can all help you to improve the user experience for visitors on your website.

  • Make sure each page of your website has a unique title tag, meta description and focus keyword

 

  1. Mobile friendliness

I’ve talked in-depth on this blog in the past about the importance of creating a mobile friendly website. In August 2015, Moz announced the results of its biannual Search Engine Ranking Correlation Study and Expert Survey – Google Ranking Factors: The Future of Search. Within that study, 88% of the SEO experts surveyed predicted an increase in the impact of mobile-friendliness on rankings. In fact, it was predicted to be the most important factor for the next two years.

Mobile searches have been on the upturn for some time and, in December 2014, finally outstripped desktop searches on Google. In April 2015, Google started giving mobile-friendly websites a ‘mobile-friendly’ label in mobile SERPs, so that customers would know that they were clicking through to a website that gives a good mobile user experience.

The ever-increasing use of mobile phones and devices means that people are moving away from keyboard/typed searches in favour of voice searches. And when we use voice searches, we tend to ask questions rather than just stating keywords.

Actions to take:

  • Look at your website from a mobile user’s perspective.
  • Is it easy to navigate?
  • Is the website responsive or do you have a dedicated mobile site that offers the same experience as your desktop site?
  • Does your website load up quickly?
  • If people ask questions to find your website, are those questions reflected in the content and will searchers quickly find the answer they’re looking for?
  • Does your website have a mobile-friendly label in mobile searches?
  • Go to Google’s mobile friendly test to see how mobile friendly your website is.

Mobile friendliness is one of many Google ranking factors

 

  1. Authority and perceived value

One of the challenges Google faces is deciding which websites contain accurate, well research content and which websites are claiming incorrect information as ‘fact’. As mentioned in the example in the introduction of this article, being able to trust that information is correct is especially important for medical or reference websites, but even with opinion or commercial websites, Google wants to send its customers to relevant, reputable sites.

In a recent article – Seven ways you can influence your website’s Domain Authority – we looked at different factors that can help you build trust in your website and grow your reputation and authority.

If, for example, lots of websites link back to yours as a place to find more information about a specific topic, this will boost your site’s authority. If you write a blog article that is widely shared on social media, this will act as a flag to Google that people want others to see your content too.

Google will now consider mentions and citations as well as direct links back to your website as a vote of confidence about your site’s authority.

Actions to take:

To build the authority and perceived value of your website, you can take steps such as:

  • Regularly adding a high quality, well-researched blog to your website, supporting any facts with the source material
  • Building your social media presence
  • Disavowing bad links
  • Developing the internal links on your website so that it’s easy for visitors to find related articles

 

  1. Quantity and quality of instant answers provided in SERPs

As mentioned above, the increase in mobile searches and the use of voice search – plus the fact that we’re all becoming increasingly time poor – means that people often scan SERPs for an instant answer to their questions in the meta descriptions listed.

An extension of this is the Google Answers Box, which is a relatively new Google feature that you may already be familiar with. Most commonly, a Google Answers Box appears when a searcher types in a question beginning with ‘What’, ‘Why’ or ‘How’ – see the example below for the question ‘What is SEO?’

Google Answer Box
Google Answers Box – a relatively new Google feature.

If your website answers a commonly asked question and you have used a structured data markup, such as Schema.org (see point 5 below), you may be able to secure a feature in a Google Answer Box with a prominent listing at the top of page one of Google with a link back to your website.

Actions to take:

  • Add a frequently asked questions page or even add service- or product-specific FAQs to the relevant pages. Think about the questions your customers most commonly ask.

 

  1. Schema/Structured data

Google defines structured data markup as ‘a standard way to annotate your content so machines understand it. When your web pages include structured data markup, Google (and other search engines) can use that data to index your content better, present it more prominently in search results, and surface it in new experiences like voice answers, maps and ‘Google Now’.

Why do we need to use structured data markup?

When a person visits your website, they can usually tell at a glance what it is about from the information, images, etc. on the page. However, search engines may need more help deciphering the meaning of your content. An oft-cited example is a website about ‘Jaguars’ – human visitors can see at a glance that we’re talking about the cars, not the big cats, but a search engine would need more help to make that distinction.

Structured data markup is a way of showing Google what your content is about. If you have product reviews, event information, recipes, products, book reviews or other features that you would like Google to highlight in SERPs, structured data markup will help you achieve more visibility.

Schema.org is a collaboration between Google, Bing and Yahoo to help webmasters – even those who are non-techy or have limited coding knowledge – add structured data markup to a website.

Actions to take:

 

  1. Association with mobile apps and app popularity

In Moz’s Google Ranking Factors: The Future of Search study, 64% of the experts surveyed said that we should expect that businesses with a mobile app may well see an increase in their rankings, especially if the app is achieving lots of downloads. It makes sense that, with the growing use of mobile phones for searches, companies that provide an added user experience or present important information in a mobile app will have their efforts recognised by Google.

Action to take:

  • Consider whether an app could be created that would add to the user experience, and complement your business and website

 

  1. Site speed

There’s a strong case for arguing that the single most important technical factor for SEO purposes is site speed. In the Google Ranking Factors: The Future of Search study, 58% of the experts surveyed said they thought site speed as a ranking factor is set to increase.

Having a fast running website is essential because it dictates how users interact with it. If someone visits your website and it is slow to load, it will only take a matter of seconds for the visitor to decide to click back to Google and look for a faster-running website. The only exception might be if yours is a particularly niche site that contains information that is not easily found elsewhere.

According to stats by SEO expert, Tyler Collins, the top ten ranking sites for various search terms he looked at had an average load time of 0.99 seconds.

Actions to take:

  • Check out your website’s load speed with the Google PageSpeed Insights tool.
  • Follow the subsequent recommendations from Google to improve your site speed.

 

  1. HTTPS

Back in March 2015, we looked in detail at How your website security and HTTPS could affect your SEO. Although HTTPS, compared to the many other Google ranking factors, is a minor ranking signal at the moment, the consensus is that its impact is set to increase over the coming years.

Although information sites may not store and use our individual data, the HTTPS Everywhere campaign explores the fact that, with each website we visit, we can help the orchestrators of malicious attacks build up a picture of who we are, our likes and dislikes, our hobbies, our jobs, our holidays and much more.

If, as proposed, Google does start warning people that they’re about to go on to a non-secure/non-HTTPS website, we are likely to see a big swing towards HTTPS websites across the board, rather than for just e-commerce sites or sites that collect consumer data.

Action to take:

 

  1. Understand the importance of Universal Search

 

universal search - one of many Google ranking factors

Universal search is an important concept to wrap your head around. When someone carries out a search in Google, the search engine doesn’t have enough information to know exactly what content the searcher is looking for. Do they want an article, a video, pictures, a white paper, recent news, a PDF download or something else altogether?

To cover its bases, Google tries to return a good mix of results across different types of media. This is why you can narrow down the SERPs pages by categories such as Web, News, Images, Maps, Videos, and so on (see the picture above).

The concept of the universal search is that every query deserves diversity. If you are able to create a mix of media that your customers will love, this can positively impact your rankings. Google would love a page that contains links to videos, podcasts or audio files, images, related images, a white paper or free download, recent news, a PDF, and links in the content, all around a particular topic.

Actions to take:

  • Add a mix of media to your website. If you have popular articles about a specific topic that’s of interest to your customers, can you enrich this with videos or a podcast, or add a free download to support the topic?
  • Make sure that any media added to your website is optimised properly with the focus keyword for the page on which it will appear, tags, alt text, etc.

 

  1. Social signals

There is ongoing debate about the importance of social signals as one of the many Google ranking factors. How can Google count and measure signals from a platform as fast-moving as Facebook or Twitter, for example? Google maintains it does not directly use social signals as a ranking factor. However, social media and social signals should not be overlooked.

In reality, if you can build your profile on one or more of the main social media platforms by encouraging people to comment on and share your content, it is probable that you will boost the amount of traffic coming through to your website via social media. Once people are on your website, having come there to read a blog article or access a free download, the chances are that they will stick around for a while to do what they came to do. This can help boost the average time spent on the site, lower the bounce rate, and show Google that you have a strong stream of traffic coming in via social media. In turn, this is a signal that your website features content that people want to explore and digest.

If you also add a mechanism for sharing content from your website on to social media, this is another signal that people want to share what you have to say with their network. Google potentially sees this as a vote of confidence about your knowledge and authority.

So, while Google won’t rank your website higher in SERPs because you’ve got 100 more Facebook likers than a local competitor, if you’re getting more traction for your content, this is likely to boost your visibility in SERPs.

Actions to take:

  • Regularly share your content on social media platforms
  • Add social media sharing options on your website, so people can post content they find to their social networks
  • Remember that social media can help you build brand awareness and drive organic traffic to your website

 

A word about traditional ranking signals in the present time and beyond

In addition to the ten Google ranking factors above, it’s fair to say that some traditional ranking signals will continue to be important as SEO moves forward. While most SEO experts agree that paid links and anchor text are largely set to decrease in value, the ranking signals around links from high authority websites and URL structures look set to stay the same. If you’d like more help with building the high-quality links that Google loves we created The Ultimate Guide to Backlinks and How to Get Them which was recently published on the Huffington Post.

We would also recommend that you review whether you’re using your keywords in the right places. The Google Ranking Factors: The Future of Search study found that placing your focus keyword for a page in the title tag has the highest level of influence.

So, these are our predictions for the top 10 Google ranking factors now and in the future. Do you agree or disagree with our list? Is there anything you would like to know more about in a future blog? We’d love to hear your thoughts – please add a comment below.

 

A Free SEO Checklist to Help You.

Grab your free copy of our SEO Checklist and uncover the essential requirements to creating a website that Google and your visitors love.

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6 WordPress SEO Plugins To Help You Dominate The Search Engines

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There is no doubt that SEO is hard work, especially if you’re new to it. A successful SEO campaign requires a mixture of technical knowledge and networking flair and it all takes a lot of time. Luckily for you if are undergoing an SEO campaign and your website is built with WordPress then your life is about to get a whole lot easier.

 

WordPress SEO Plugins To Help You Dominate The Search Engines

WordPress takes a lot of the headaches out of editing your website and there are some great plugins available that can really benefit your SEO campaign. If you aren’t comfortable with the more complicated aspects of editing the code of your website or using FTP then these WordPress plugins can be a god send. Here are 6 of the bestWordPress SEO plugins that you should definitely include in your SEO strategy.

 

SEO Plugin 1: Yoast SEO

The Yoast SEO plugin is the go-to for all the basics that are needed to optimise your website. Once installed you can easily edit the Meta Tags on each page and post through a handy editable box at the bottom of the page.

You can also add your social media pages to the plugin which will make it easier for Google to index them. One of the best features of the Yoast SEO plugin is its ability to allow you to upload an XML sitemap easily without having to use FTP.

 

SEO Plugin 2: Redirection

If you have recently updated your website or are going through a rebrand then the Redirection plugin will save you a lot of time and effort. Broken links can lose you potential customers, as they drop will off your website and it also has an adverse effect on your overall SEO.

Redirection allows you to simply state the urls of the page you want redirected and the new destination page. So if you are optimising your urls to make them more SEO friendly then you can easily redirect the old one to the new version.

 

SEO Plugin 3: Broken Link Checker

As discussed broken links can be extremely detrimental to any SEO campaign and so Broken Link Checker is perfect for finding and easily fixing broken links within your website. This plugin makes it easy to spot broken links within your content by highlighting them for you. You will also get email alerts whenever a broken link is found which makes it harder for you to forget about them. Once you have spotted the broken link all you need to do is go to the plugin page and you can easily edit all them there without having to go into each individual page and/or post..

 

SEO Plugin 4: SEO Friendly Images

Images are often overlooked when a website is being optimised and with the SEO Friendly Images plugin you don’t need to worry as it will take care of it all for you. Title and alt text are important pieces of information that search engine robots look for when crawling your website and now they can be automatically added to all of your images. You will probably still want to optimise some images to include specific keywords but if you have a website that is constantly uploading new images then it can save you lots of time.

 

SEO Plugin 5: OptinMonster

It isn’t enough to drive traffic to your website, you need to convert that traffic into paying customers otherwise there’s no point to your digital marketing efforts. OptinMonster is a very useful plugin that lets you collect the email address of those who visit your site. This allows you to future these potential customers through targeted email campaigns to increase their awareness of your brand and grow to trust it.

You can create forms, pop-ups, header, footer and sidebar calls to action that are great at grabbing visitors’ attention and enticing them to provide their details.

 

SEO Plugin 6: All In One schema.org Rich Snippets

How your website is displayed in the search engine results is very important as that can be the deciding factor to whether someone clicks on your result or a competitor’s result. If you have rich snippets within your search result then you will greatly improve your chance of earning a click through into your website.

A rich snippet is an area where extra information about your website that the use may find useful is listed. They can include, review ratings, opening times, offers, prices etc. and they also extend the size of your listing which is a proven bonus for increasing the click through rate.

 

To conclude…

Using these WordPress SEO plugins is by no means a quick fix, you will still have to work hard and keep up to date with this ever evolving industry but they will allow you to implement changes more easily and allow you to perform mundane or technical tasks with a lot more ease.

If you don’t have a WordPress website then don’t panic, there are other plugins available for a wide range of CMS’s, you just need to do some research to find the best ones.

Do you have a favourite WordPress plugin that makes your life easier? We’d love to hear about it – simply let us know in the comment box below.

 
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Never run out of blog content ideas again!

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Over the past couple of weeks we’ve looked at why blogging and content creation are good for business, as well as ways to spread the word about your content to drive traffic to your website and generate social shares.

One of the common concerns we hear from our clients is, ‘That’s all very well but how do we keep coming up with fresh blog content?’ or ‘What if we run out of things to say?’ Never fear, in this week’s blog we’re looking at some of our favourite tools, techniques and strategies for coming up with fresh content week in and week out.
blog content ideas

  • Write about what you know

As we’ve discussed in the past, your business blog is an opportunity to talk about what you know in more detail. If you sell products, you could feature blogs that talk about:

  • Sourcing the products
  • Your suppliers
  • Key ingredients – their benefits and why you use them in your products
  • Tutorials
  • Equipment
  • Number lists for key events in the calendar, e.g. Five products that should be on your Christmas list, or Ten Mother’s Day gifts that show you care

If you sell services, many of the above approaches would still work. You could also blog about:

  • Your business story – why the businesses started and what you’ve learned
  • How the services you offer help clients
  • Client spotlights

 

  • Listen to your customers

When it comes to creating blog content that will be read, your customers may well be telling you what they want to read without you even realising. When you receive new enquiries, are there questions that people often ask? If so, you could write a series of blogs answering common questions.

When you post on social media, what are the topics that seem to strike a chord and get people talking?

A business coach who works with self-employed mothers with young families might notice that her customers want to know how to be more productive, how to make the most of their limited work time, how to price their products and services, how to manage their workload if one of their children is suddenly ill, and so on. All of these topics would make great blogs for that coach.

When you notice a topic that creates a buzz with your target audience, it’s a good idea to make a note of it. How do your products or services fit into this topic? What knowledge do you have that your customers would find useful?

If there’s something about your business that customers often praise in reviews, you could put a spotlight on this element of your service in a blog article. Why did it come about? How does it help customers?

 

  • Target specific keywords

Google Analytics and Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) can both be great sources of blog topic inspiration. Is there a keyword or phrase that you would like to rank well for but that sits slightly outside of your main website keywords? Is there a keyword or phrase that customers often use to find your business?

By understanding what your potential customers are searching for, you can brainstorm some potential blog topics that fit with these keyword searches. A property management company, for example, might find people are searching for how to secure a rental property with a guarantor, what insurance a private landlord needs, rental property maintenance or how private landlords are regulated. These would all make great blog topics that the property management company already knows people are searching for.

 

  • Track what’s happening in your industry

One way to position your blog as an authority within your industry is to blog about the topics, big and small, that are currently affecting your industry and your customers. Has new legislation been passed that will impact on businesses or clients? What do you think about it? Can you help customers understand the legislation?

Perhaps there’s been a celebrity news story that connects with your industry, or new technology has been launched that could change how products or services are made or sold?

What are people talking about in industry groups in LinkedIn? Are there articles from people you view as influencers in your sector? This can give you a steer on the issues shaping your industry right now.

Again, these questions can all lead you to potential blog topics.

 

  • Use Google Trends

This brings us to Google Trends, which can be a powerful decision-making and content ideas generating tool. You can track the big topics that are trending worldwide as well as more locally; you can also explore within categories such as Business, Entertainment or Sports. In addition, you can ask Google to notify you about how specific keywords or phrases are performing. For example, you might want to know if people are talking about your business, your suppliers, your industry or your competitors.

 

  • Keep a swipe file

Copywriters, journalists and other writers often keep a swipe file. This can be a physical or virtual folder in which they store articles they’ve read and enjoyed, headlines that have inspired them to click through, inspirational content, how-to guides and much more.

A swipe file can be a powerful source of ideas but it’s important to never just copy and paste from your swipe file as you should always be striving for unique content to avoid a duplicate content penalty from Google and because plagiarism is never OK.

 

  • Try a topic generator

There are some fun topic and headline generators online that you could try out for inspiration. Portent’s content ideas generator has been known to hit gold, as has Hubspot’s blog topic generator.

 

  • Follow-up on successful posts

If you have had a blog that really took off in the past, attracting more social shares and website visits than most of your other articles (you can find this information in Google Analytics), then you might want to think about how you could follow up on the blog. Could you explore the topic from another angle or add more detail? Has your knowledge changed since you wrote the post? Are there any facts that need updating?

Your past successes can be a good steer on what your customers would like to read about on your blog.

 

  • Feature guest blogs

Back at the beginning of 2014, there was a lot of panic around the concept of guest blogging when Matt Cutts published an article on his blog entitled, The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO. When Google took action against the MyBlogGuest website two months later, many people worried that featuring a guest blog on their website could impact negatively on their SEO.

In our opinion, your website can do without poorly targeted, low quality guest blogs written and featured strictly for SEO purposes. However, if you know someone in a field that relates to your business and who has information and knowledge to share with your customers that they would find of value, a guest blog could be a perfect way to reach a new audience or increase the scope of the content that you are able to offer. It’s also a good way of shaking up your content and keeping it fresh.

If someone blogs for your site, you might also want to talk to them about writing a reciprocal blog to be featured on their website.

 

Of course, generating new blog ideas takes time. Try to store all of your ideas in a central place and create an editorial calendar, so you know what topic or topics you plan to cover on your blog each week. If you’re short on time or ideas, why not speak to us about Optimised Content Package for high quality, SEO-friendly articles that are unique to your business and carefully researched to appeal to your customers?
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Why blogging and content creation are good for business

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Having had a few weeks earlier this year when we didn’t publish a new blog article because we were busy with client work, I was determined to get momentum around the SEO+ blog back up and running.

Having posted a new article a few weeks ago – Our 10 favourite free SEO tools to optimise your website – and several since, I noticed a sudden and significant surge in enquiries. When I checked my Google Analytics, I found that this one article had increased traffic to the SEO+ website by 238.51% (with most of the traffic coming from Google and social media). Visitors were staying on the site for an average of 11.94% minutes longer and visiting more pages. There had also been a 75.58% increase in people visiting our Contact page.

The stats don’t lie and reinforce my belief that blogging and content creation are not only an essential part of good search engine optimisation but also fantastic for connecting with potential customers.

 

blogging for business

 

The benefits of blogging and content creation

Before you write a new article, it’s important to understand who your customers are and what they would like to know more about. What would give them extra value? How can you help solve a problem? What do they want, not just need? What do you know about that inspires your customers? These are all questions to ask.

Writing a blog article gives you a chance to talk about a topic in more depth than anywhere else on your website. This has several benefits:

  1. You can give customers more information about something that interests them.
  2. Customers find themselves thinking, ‘If you give this much information away for free every week/fortnight/month, I would get so much more from working with you’.
  3. You can build your reputation as an expert in your field.
  4. You can link to other content of interest and drive traffic to other areas of your site, to increase the number of enquiries or sales.
  5. You can demonstrate your relevance to your customers, showing that yours is the right business for them and that you’re talking their language.

 

As the stats above show, there are clear SEO benefits of blogging and content creation too:

  1. Posting free content to your website encourages the search engines to re-crawl and index your site.
  2. Blog articles take longer to read than most web pages, which increases the average time people spend on your website.
  3. If people come to your website to read an article, they are less likely to bounce away from it, while links to further information within the article may take them to other pages, also decreasing your bounce rate.
  4. The factors above show Google that your website is well maintained and that you care about providing content that your customers will find useful. These are all ranking signals.

 

Blogging, content creation and social media

Blogging and content creation are integral to a successful social media strategy because they help give your customers fresh content and set you apart as an expert.

If someone reads and finds value in one of your blog articles, they’re likely to share it with their social media network. You can help facilitate this by adding social sharing options to each article (the GetSocial or Flare plugins are great for this if you have a WordPress website) and by sharing a link to each new blog on all of your social media platforms. In next week’s SEO+ blog, I will be looking at how you can promote your content for maximum visibility.

 

Consistency is the key to blogging success

Once you make a commitment to blog, it’s important to be consistent. We would advise that’s it’s better to blog just once a month and do it consistently, if that’s all you have time for, than to randomly blog to no schedule. Ideally, you want your customers to know when they can expect new content from you because then they’ll look out for it, reading your blog as part of their routine.

If you have time to blog more regularly – once a week is typical for many businesses – then you have weekly content that you can share on your social media pages. You can also use your blog as inspiration for Facebook statuses, Tweets, memes, LinkedIn posts, or set up a Pinterest board that features all of your articles.

Another way to get value from blogging is to use your weekly articles as the focal point for a free e-newsletter that you send out to your customers (we’ll talk about this in more detail next week). Again, people will come to expect a weekly correspondence from you, keeping your business at the forefront of their inboxes and their minds.

As you can see blogging and content creation have many SEO and wider business benefits. If you think blogging would be great for your business but you’re stuck for time or not sure where to start and would like to know more about how SEO+ can help, please give us a call on 01626 270 085 or take a look at our Optimised Content Package.

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