“What? Google My Business?”
Yeah, hopefully. If your customers wanted to leave a review for your or point you out on a map when their relatives from out of town come to visit, you are going to want them to find you, and if you like making money, you are going to want to make that process as painless as possible.
So what if I told you that Google themselves provides a free tool that allows you to manage your business’s online presence across all of Google, including Maps and Search?
There are a few concepts that are central to content marketing. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and blogging are right at the top of that list. SEO is an important blogging practice, and blogging is likewise important to effective SEO, even in a time of ever-evolving search algorithms and indexing criteria. So how can you make the most of SEO blogging? By knowing what Google looks for, of course! Below, we have broken down the most important content marketing and SEO blogging practices so you can implement a winning SEO strategy.
Frequent updates tell Google that your site is alive and kicking, and that your business is still around. But it’s not enough to add new blog posts every once in a blue moon.
The blog on your website should be updated at least weekly with fresh articles. Likewise, any outdated or irrelevant articles should be updated or pruned to keep your blog healthy and active in the eyes of Google. This could mean updating expired source or attribution links, changing keywords, or culling seasonal content whose time has passed and republishing with a fresh spin when it comes around again.
It’s not just your blog that needs refreshing to remind Google you’re still out there. It’s your pages, your metadata, and your site functionality, too. Google indexes frequently-updated sites more often, which means more traffic, more leads, and more sales. Your copy and static page content have to be optimized in the same way you would optimize a blog post, including monitoring for keyword shifts and any performance issues with Google’s tools (and a professional SEO audit to help you focus your efforts).
There are four primary ingredients to creating and maintaining content that will make Google swoon (or, at least, send tons of traffic your way): Keywords, Links, Images, and Quality.
Keywords are the bread and butter of SEO blogging. These frequently-searched terms and phrases (a keyword can be – and often is – more than one word) are what search engines like Google look for in your content. They should accurately reflect your target audience’s pain points (like “tips for buying a home” or “Idaho real estate”, for example) and they should be all over your content (title, slug, metadata, headings, image subtext, etc.).
SEO blogging is about more than just making your voice heard. Linking to sources in your text is a surefire way to bolster your credibility with readers, and Google knows it. It also pays attention to how many times your site is linked to, including in your own posts. Linking to relevant blogs and multiple pages in a post is both a subtle (and effective) marketing technique and an SEO blogging staple.
Google’s Image Search isn’t the only thing looking for pictures. It’s search algorithms and indexing crawls are designed to optimize the user experience, and Google knows that people like pictures. Including at least a featured image, and ideally, a couple more, are excellent ways to make your content more appealing to visitors, be it in a blog or on your “About Us” page. Plus, the HTML image subtext is a great place to strategically insert a targeted keyword.
There is a reason that keyword-rich, but poorly-written, content doesn’t rank very high for very long. Google doesn’t just look for certain words, it looks at all of them. Don’t fall into the trap of sticking in keywords and backlinks where they don’t belong just for the sake of density (or using a generator to spin content into unique, but nonsensical, gibberish). Unique content and keyword density are important, but quality content is what people, and Google, are really looking for.
If this seems like just too much to keep track of on your own, you’re in good company. Many small and medium business owners – from real estate agents to breweries to manufacturing startups – need an experienced SEO blogging guru on their team to turn so-so copy and lackluster blogs into traffic and ranking superstars. That’s why content marketing firms like Little Egg Solutions exist: to leverage our expertise for your financial benefit. Contact us today to find out more about our SEO blogging services!
In our last Social Agency article, we discussed the benefits of using Facebook for Real Estate agencies and how to make the best use of the platform. This time, we’d like to talk about an often-forgotten social media platform with tons of perks, specifically for businesses: Google Plus. At first glance, it might seem like creating a Google Plus account for your Real Estate business is a waste of time. But Google is the king of search engines, and the benefits of using their platform for promotion outweigh the tediousness of adding yet another account to your social media presence.
One of the reasons that Google Plus is severely underrated is that it’s an entirely different social media concept from giants like Facebook and Twitter. You can’t compare one to the others, just as you can’t compare Yahoo and Tineye simply because they both have a search bar. The second reason is there’s a misconception that no one is on Google Plus.
Google Plus, as of 2012-2013, had between 135-300 million active users. That is a massive userbase, and the numbers vary by what you define as “active”. Why? Because many people have a Google Plus account simply by having a Gmail account. Their circle is their email contact list. And you can reach their list by harnessing this unique native connection through Google.
With the native Gmail connection, Google Plus influences the search results for anyone logged in to their account. Now imagine you have 500 connections on Google plus (like, say, your email list). Now your content has priority treatment when they search for local realtors or property listings. It’s a built-in white hat SEO advantage, just because you are already on their contact list.
Google Authorship also adds a distinct benefit for real estate agents on Google Plus. When your search results get boosted for your contacts, or when they show up on their own, your Google Plus profile picture and details show up too. Along with a link to more pages authored by you, which, if viewed for a certain amount of time, automatically returns more results when the searcher returns to the SERP. It’s a double-whammy of SEO benefits that need only your use of Google’s proprietary social media platform. It’s almost like a reward for doing what you were already going to do, because you’re flattering Google in the process.
Joining Google Plus is much like joining any other social media platform. And, with characteristic care for user experience, Google will walk you through the process of creating your page and completing a profile. After that, add authorship to your posts to reap the benefits thereof and begin the work of expanding your circle (your email list is a good starting point for this) and joining communities to reach more people. Reciprocity is the key to any social media dynamic, so be sure to +1 and share content from connections. Finally, add checking in to your schedule (at least once a week). The volume and pace of Google Plus make it much more manageable to deal with than oversaturated networks like Twitter.
Via SEO Link Building | Flickr
We know what you’re thinking: “But Little Egg, I have a full plate already with just the social media accounts I have.” We get it. Adding another social media platform to your overall content marketing strategy can feel like piling dirt on top of an already-growing mountain of tasks and it may seem like a landslide is imminent. That’s why we’re here: to take the shovel and shoulder that burden so you don’t have to. Contact us today to find out how!
