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TOP 10 SEO MISTAKES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM WHAT ARE KEYWORDS AND WHY DO I NEED THEM?
THE BUYER’S JOURNEY HAS REDEFINED MARKETING
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WHAT’S INSIDE 03 07 12 Content Marketing
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The Buyer’s Journey Has Redefined Marketing
Top 10 SEO Mistakes & How to Avoid Them
How to Get Started with Content Marketing
THE BUYER’S JOURNEY HAS REDEFINED MARKETING Buyers no longer depend on a sales person or 30 second commercial to find solutions to their problems. Now they research solutions online before even approaching a sales person.
As a father of three girls, I’ve had the opportunity to watch them grow from infants into young women. During this process, I’ve had to change the way I communicate with them many times. When they were infants, I simply made funny noises to make them laugh. When they were in elementary school, I used simple words to get my point across. But when they became teenagers, I had to speak to them in a completely different way. I quickly learned that speaking to a teenager like you speak to a 5 year old simply doesn’t work. While we instinctively change the way we speak to our children as they grow up, we don’t often think of speaking to our buyers differently as they “grow up.” That’s why many companies still have a one-size fits all approach to their marketing. But times have changed and buyers have too. In this post-digital age, buyers go through a journey before making a purchase. They no longer depend on a sales page 3
person or 30 second commercial to find solutions to their problems. Now, they research solutions online before even approaching a sales person. In fact, research indicates that 57% of a prospect’s buying decision is complete before that prospect’s first contact with a supplier. That’s good news and bad news for marketers today. The bad news is that customers are responding less to traditional forms of marketing like cold calls, TV commercials, and radio ads. The good news, however, is that you have an opportunity to reach your prospects and influence their decision-making in a whole new way. The key is for marketers to recast their approach with the buyer’s journey in mind. So what does this mean?
1. Keep your focus on the buyer Today’s market realities demand that companies replace their sales-driven marketing funnels with the customercentric buyer’s journey. Customers want information, not a sales pitch. They want to know that a vendor cares about their problems, and not just about selling them a product. And they want to build a relationship with their vendors based on trust and collaboration. However, a recent report indicates that only 50% of marketers say their companies are customer-centric. That means half of all companies are still focused on their product or their sales approach or their marketing strategy rather than the customer.
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stage, and instead focuses on trying to sell them something. But a more effective approach would Focusing on your buyer isn’t the same as saying be to offer prospects information that helps them “the customer is always right.” Sometimes the identify the problem and its possible causes. buyer is wrong. And you have to be assertive Instead of trying to push your product or service enough to say so at times. onto a prospect, build a relationship with them Instead, focusing on the buyer means providing through relevant and timely content. your prospects with relevant content throughout the buyer’s journey. Whether it’s in the form of During the consideration stage, prospects have eBooks or white papers or webinars or a live demo, identified the problem (and its cause) and are your content will help answer the questions that researching all of the available approaches and methods to solving the problem. Using our previyour prospects are asking at each stage. ous example, the prospect knows that sales are 2. Map the buyer’s journey to define down and they know that it is due (at least in part) to the lack of qualified leads. So what does it mean to focus on your buyer?
your marketing
In general, prospects progress through three stages of the buyer’s journey. They begin the process in the awareness stage, then proceed to the consideration stage, and finally end up in the decision stage.
Again, what the prospect needs at this time isn’t a sales pitch, but more information. They need to know about solutions and tools to address their specific problem.
It’s certainly appropriate to introduce your products or services as possible solutions, but do so careDuring the awareness stage, prospects know fully. At this point, the prospect is still not ready to that they have a problem, but they’re unable to buy. Instead, your content should help them navispecifically identify the problem or its causes yet. gate to the final decision stage. For example, they know that sales are down, but they aren’t sure exactly why sales are down. During the decision stage, prospects have identified the problem and possible solutions and now The prospect’s primary focus during this time is must choose which solution they are going to to learn more about their problem. They want to purchase. So they research data, benchmarks, and know what’s wrong and why. endorsements to make a final decision.
The problem with traditional marketing is that At this time, your content should be fully about your it fails to meet the needs of the prospect at this company and your products or services. You’ll want page 5
to differentiate your company by emphasizing the unique benefits and features that your products or services provide. You’ll also want to share case studies with your prospects so that they’ll know how you’ve helped others solve similar problems.
3. Adapt your content for every stage of the buyer’s journey
According to DemandGen leads nurtured with targeted content produce 20% more sales opportunities. So what type of content should we offer at each stage?
and video presentations have proven most effective at this point. You’ll just want to be certain that your content focuses on solving the prospect’s problem. If your company offers sales training, then emphasize how your training will help to address the prospect’s lagging sales figures. If your company sells marketing software, be sure to highlight how that software will help to increase leads and conversions.
It’s not enough to simply provide content to today’s customer. Your content must also be target- Once the prospect reaches the decision stage, it is ed to where the customer is in the buyer’s journey. time for them to make a final decision. However, it’s likely that they’ll have a list of available vendors According to DemandGen, leads nurtured with or products to choose from. So this is the time to targeted content produce 20% more sales really differentiate yourself from your competitors. opportunities. So what type of content should we offer at each stage? By using vendor and product comparisons, case studies, and live demos, you can convince As stated previously, the awareness stage is when prospects that your products or services are the prospects research a problem. So you can help best choice. them identify their problem (and possible causes) with analyst reports, eBooks, expert content, and Conclusion white papers.
Today’s market realities demand a different approach to marketing. The customer must now be the focus of your marketing efforts, not your products or services. This means that you must understand the buyer’s journey and how to create relevant content for every stage of the buyer’s journey. By doing so, you’ll build trusted relationships with your customers, who in turn will become loyal As prospects reach the consideration stage, you’ll promoters of your products and services. want to focus on available approaches or solutions to their problem. Expert guides, live interactions, It’s important to keep this type of content educational in nature, however. Avoid making this type of content about your products or services. Focus on educating prospects and empowering them with new information. At that same time, you’ll also want to be moving them to the next stage of the Buyer’s Journey.
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TOP 10 SEO MISTAKES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM You can have a beautiful website with amazing images and flashy graphics, but it won’t do much good if you ignore what’s under the hood.
Several years ago, I purchased a 1962 Ford Fairlane. The previous owner hadn’t driven the car in years and said that it might need a little work. So the first thing I did was to have the car professionally painted. The new paint job made the car look great. Unfortunately, it did nothing to make the car run better. Within a few days, I noticed the car was leaking oil, then the ignition switch went out, then the brakes began to fail, and then, well you get the picture. In other words, I had a great looking car in my driveway, but it couldn’t get me from point A to point B. I learned that when it comes to cars, there’s more to consider than just the exterior. You also have to think about what’s under the hood. The same is true for websites, as well. You can have a beautiful website with amazing images and flashy graphics, but it won’t do much good if you ignore what’s under the hood. In other page 7
words, if people can’t find your website on search engines or if they can’t navigate through your site’s pages, it won’t really matter how beautiful your website looks. You’ll simply have a pretty website, but it won’t be increasing visitors or bringing you customers. That’s why form and function must be included in every website design. In this article, we’ll cover 10 SEO mistakes that contribute to a poorly functioning website and learn how to avoid them. So strap in and get ready to learn how to not only have a beautiful website, but a beautiful and properly running one as well.
1. Not including SEO when auditing your website
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Top performing pages (in terms of traffic and conversions)
2. Failing to identify and include the right keywords One of the most common SEO mistakes is using keyword-stuffing to rank higher on search engines. Since Google launched its Penguin algorithm in 2012, websites are punished for using too many poorly placed keywords. However, this doesn’t mean that you should ignore keywords. It just means that every page and every post on your website should focus on the right keywords.
As a rule, each webpage should have a single focus Whether you are a business owner or marketing keyword. And you should only use the keyword a specialist, you should be auditing your site on a few times naturally in the page content. Also, be regular basis. It’s easy to think that if your website sure that the keyword is included in each page’s looks great, then it must be running great as well. meta description, page title, and H1 text. But as stated previously, there’s a lot more to a When choosing keywords, you might want to use website than just looks. the Google AdWords Keyword Tool or HubSpot One of the biggest SEO mistakes is not consider- Keywords. The HubSpot Keywords tool can track ing the many factors that make a website run well. your progress for a given keyword over time and Here are some key metrics to keep in mind when give you tips on how to rank higher next month. The tool can also tell you the difficulty score for auditing your site: each keyword you enter. • Number of visits and visitors • Top performing keywords (in terms of rank, 3. Having duplicate title tags and meta traffic, and lead generation) descriptions • Total number of pages indexed • Number of inbound links By using duplicate title tags and meta descriptions page 8
on your website, search engines will not be able to index your pages correctly. Furthermore, it will be more difficult for readers to know what each page is about. Title tags are one of the most important on-page SEO factors. So it’s important to follow a few best practices. • • • • •
Place keywords at the beginning of your title tags Keep your title tags between 40-60 characters to avoid them being cut off by search engines Use pipes (|) to separate keywords Don’t use your company name in title tags (with the exception of your home page) You should also make sure that your meta descriptions are unique and contain the page’s keyword as well. Make the description as clear and concise as possible within the 160 character limit.
4. Forgetting to include outbound links You can increase page views and keep visitors on your site longer by including links to other pages on your website. For instance, you can put a link on your home page that takes visitors to your services page or to one of your offers. If you have an older blog post that is still getting a lot of visits, you can add a link on that post to an updated post on a related topic.
5. Failing to use proper URL structure If your site includes lengthy, indecipherable URLs that don’t align with your pages’ content, then restructuring your URLs should be a priority.
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As a general rule, use dashes (-) between words instead of underscores (_). Google treats dashes as separators, which means it can return results when you search for a single word or a group of words that appear in a URL. In addition, make sure your URL structure contains the page’s keyword and avoids stop words (a, and, as, for, to, this, he, she).
6. Not using 301 redirects A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to another. Setting up a 301 redirect is crucial if you’re switching domains, restructuring your URLs, or consolidating content as part of a website redesign. By using a 301 redirect, you’ll be transferring the SEO authority of that page to a new page. Failure to set up a 301 redirect can result in visitors encountering a 404 error (a.k.a. “Page Not Found”) when clicking on an old page. Before doing any 301 redirects, you should create a URL outline of your old site using Excel. Begin by creating a tab for each section of your main menu. List the old URLs in the first column and list all of their corresponding URLs in the second tab. Mark off each URL that you redirect without leaving any pages behind.
7. Not allowing your website to be crawled A silly issue that causes big problems—and happens more often that you would think—is failing to unblock robots from crawling and indexing your website. This issue typically occurs after a website launch. Most page 10
web designers block search engines from indexing a site while it’s under construction. So if your site has recently been launched and it’s not showing up on search engines, just double check that it’s not being blocked. You can do this by checking your robots.txt file or going to Google Webmaster Tools.
8. Not using responsive design Google now prefers sites that use responsive design as opposed those that use a separate, mobile-only site. With responsive design, all of your webpages can be clearly viewed across all devices. The only thing that changes is the styling.
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Which keywords resonate with prospects and lead to conversions Which online ad is the most effective Where people leave the site What search terms people use
This information will enable you to monitor the effectiveness of your website so that you can grow and optimize your site.
10. Failing to write quality content
Content is still the leading indicator of SEO success. Your website may have the best title tags and meta descriptions, use keywords and 301 redirects Responsive design makes it easier for Google to effectively, and utilize the best analytics tools. But crawl your webpages and retrieve your content. As if your content isn’t relevant and engaging to your Google states, “This improvement in crawling effi- readers, they’re not likely to visit your site again or ciency can indirectly help Google index more of the take the next step to becoming a lead. site’s contents and keep it appropriately fresh.” In order to produce quality content, follow these 9. Forgetting to include analytics on best practices:
your site
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Make sure blog posts are at least 300 words Keep sentences/paragraphs short and easy to read Limit each page or post to one topic Use original content
One of the biggest and most egregious SEO mistakes is forgetting to paste the analytics code • into your website. It’s pretty difficult (if not impos• sible) to audit your site or measure the success of your keywords without any analytics tracking. These 10 SEO mistakes can have a harmful effect on your search engine rankings, your website trafGoogle Analytics provides a wealth of information fic, and the effectiveness of your website’s content. on your website, including: •
Content is still the leading indicator of SEO success. Your website may have the best title tags and meta descriptions, use keywords and 301 redirects effectively, and utilize the best analytics tools. But if your content isn’t relevant and engaging to your readers, they’re not likely to visit your site again or take the next step to becoming a lead.
By following a few best practices, you can have a Where users come from and what do they website that not only looks great, but performs do on the site great as well. page 11
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH CONTENT MARKETING Content marketing is one of the most important components of an inbound marketing strategy. So follow these steps to get started with content marketing.
Content marketing can be a difficult and frustrating task. You can spend hours producing a blog post, only to find that a few people even read it. And you can spend a month producing a few eBooks and white papers, only to find that two people even bother downloading them (and one person was your mom). Then you have to explain to your boss why he should allow to you to keep spending your time on a seemingly ineffective strategy. However, content marketing is one of the most important components of an inbound marketing strategy. So follow these steps to get started with content marketing.
1. Align content marketing around your buyer persona You must have a detailed picture of your target page 12
Content Marketing
audience in order to create optimal content for During the awareness stage, customers are going them. Your target audience is also known as your online to research a specific problem or opportubuyer persona. nity. They’re not ready to compare products or to make a purchasing decision yet. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on real data and Blog posts, eBooks and white papers are parsome select educated speculation about custom- ticularly effective for customers in the awareness er demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, stage. However, it’s important to remember that and goals. your content should be relevant and informational in nature. It should not focus on your company or It’s important to develop your buyer persona be- your products and services. Rather, it should adfore launching a content marketing strategy. dress the goals, challenges, and plans of your buyer persona. Some of the questions that will help you develop During the consideration (or evaluation) stage, buyer personas are as follows: customers are researching all of the available • Who are your ideal customers and pros- approaches/methods to solve their problem or pects? opportunity. • What are their biggest concerns, needs, and Comparison white papers, expert guides and live interests? • Where can you reach them – on search en- interactions are most effective in this stage. Thus, gines, social media, or blogs – and what you might want to consider publishing a podcast or video that explains your approach. kinds of content do they prefer? Instead of just putting content onto the Internet and hoping the right people find it, buyer personas are going to help you know exactly what content will resonate with your ideal customers.
2. Brainstorm content for every stage of the buyer process
During the decision (or purchase) stage, customers seek out data, benchmarks and endorsements to make a final decision. That’s why product comparisons, case studies, and free trials are particularly effective at this stage.
Therefore, whenever you brainstorm content, it’s important to ask yourself if your buyer persona has all the information they need at each point of Once you’ve created your buyer persona, it’s time the buying cycle. to brainstorm your content so that it reaches customers in every stage of the buying cycle. page 13
3. Stick to an editorial calendar
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Make note of important dates for specific topics or types of content. For example, retailers could highlight major holidays such as Christmas, Halloween, or Mother’s Day.
Once you know your buyer persona and understand what type of content you need to have for each stage of the buying process, it’s time to create These simple tips can help you get started with an editorial calendar. content marketing. But this is only the beginning. All great content marketing plans have an editorial calendar that people within the company can see In order to have a truly effective content marketwhat content is being published and what dates ing strategy, you’ll need to learn how to write high quality content, promote that content effectively, that content is going live. and measure the ROI of your efforts. An editorial calendar is like a road map for content creation, showing you what kind of content to create, what topics to cover, which personas to target, and how often to publish to best support your inbound marketing strategy. Here are some suggested steps for creating yours: •
Create a Google calendar or spreadsheet. Ideally, you should plan your content for the next three months.
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Fill your calendar with specific dates and publishing tasks, such as updating blogs or social networks daily, posting new videos or podcasts each week, publishing an eBook or hosting a webinar each month, and so on. For each date, list the topic, the title of the piece, and the target persona.
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Note the SEO keywords, the stage of the buying cycle, the calls-to-action, or other inbound marketing goals that each piece of content must address.
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All great content marketing plans have an editorial calendar that people within the company can see what content is being published and what dates that content is going live.
IF IT’S NOT GNU MARKETING, IT’S OUTDATED MARKETING. Let us walk you through how inbound marketing can transform your business, and why it’s the proven method for doing business online. Request your free assessment and learn more about what we can do. Call us today at (360) 241-5799 or visit www.gnucreations.com.
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