TRULY USEFUL LINKS ABOUT LOCAL SEO IN ONE HANDY LIST
If jumping into and mastering local search engine optimization (local SEO) is your New Year’s resolution, look no further for a curated list of useful links, blogs, and other resources on the topic. We made sure to gather information that was published in the last 12 months. So bookmark this page, you’ll be referring to it frequently!
LOCAL SEO: IT’S NOT ABOUT SIZE; IT’S ABOUT GETTING FOUND.
Local SEO Tools
Every list about local SEO tools should start with the platforms that provide listing management services. These platforms partner with data aggregators to build citations — mentions of your firm on third party websites — as well as build links to your site via a plethora of directories (you may want to know those that offer follow links if this is of interest). Citations help your business rank higher for local search (see the blog section if you have a boss who needs convincing).
Perhaps the biggest benefit of using a local SEO platform is the convenience. As an entrepreneur your time is best spent building your business and selling to customers, not faffing about with manual, piecemeal submissions of your company information to directories. If you ever move, change phone numbers, rebrand, etc you will not have the nightmare of submitting 100 corrections to 100 different entities as a good platform will ensure that all changes can be centralized or, at the very minimum, reduced.
There are five local SEO platforms that are perhaps the best known in the US:
- Yext has one of the broadest service portfolios, including business pages and beacons.
- BrightLocal has over 1,600 sites in its network.
- Moz Local is an affordable investment at $84 a year if marketing budgets are very tight.
- WhiteSpark covers 42 countries which is a fantastic detail if you have a presence internationally.
- LocalEze is one of the three data aggregators supplying information to directories and search engines, and is generally credited with having the best distribution.
There are as many opinions about the best local SEO platform as there are directories to submit to — our humble opinion is, it depends on your needs, objectives and budget. Some information to check out for due diligence:
- LocalSEOChecklist displays the major players in a handy grid.
- Reddit’s SEO subreddit is worth joining, if only to lurk around discussions like this. Or this. Candid conversations and reviews by actual users: Priceless.
- SIM Partners’ white paper, Local SEO Platforms Buyer’s Guide, has a handy checklist of questions to narrow down vendor choices. (The company has its own local marketing automation platform which, to their credit, they didn’t flog in their guide.)
Local SEO Hacks and Guides
So you’re all pumped up to start. The following are pretty substantive sources that can offer a good macro view of the entire process or just one part, provide comprehensive advice to a specific sticking point, or just even serve up a local SEO topic that hasn’t been discussed before.
- Normally, pieces that advertise themselves as being ‘definitive’ fall disappointingly short, but The Site Edge’s Brian Niebler stays true to his word with Local SEO: The Definitive Guide 2016. It is a beast. Must-read!
- To demonstrate how their enterprise platform helps track rankings, SERPs also wrote a pretty meaty local SEO guide.
- Want to go totally DIY? Phil Rozek’s excellent site, Local Visibility System, has a list of local search citations that he’s collected over the past four years. He has lists for the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Another one for the DIYer: N.A.P. Hunter is a Chrome extension that sniffs out citations for deduplication and cleaning.
Keyword research is essential in order to create a solid foundation for your local SEO efforts. Again, there are a thousand and one opinions on the usefulness of keyword tools, but Globe Runner uses these on a daily basis:
- SEM Rush and SpyFu to find out competitors’ keywords and how they rank for these terms.
- Google Keyword Planner to determine search volumes and competition.
- Moz’s Keyword Difficulty Tool to compare/contrast their competitive figures with those of Google’s Keyword Planner — the differences can be striking and Moz has its theories on why.
- Keyword Tool to find long-tail phrases and questions people type into their browser while searching.
- Authority Labs to monitor keyword rankings for our clients and their competitors.
Local SEO Blogs to Follow
Your inbox will be nice and full everyday with these great resources on local search. And you can pick out factoids that will convince your boss that local SEO is the way to go in 2016.
- Phil Rozek’s blog on Local Visibility System is chock-a-block all about local SEO.
- The Local Search Association shares member news, statistics, industry developments and analysis pertinent to local search. Subscribe to it for excellent information such as this infographic on the top 142 categories consumers search for.
- MediaPost’s Search Marketing Daily has a roundup of the day’s SEO news from all around the web, including local SEO-focused pieces.
- Search Engine Land is always among the first to report any Google activity that could potentially impact local SEO.
- Often confused with the previously mentioned site, Search Engine Watch also has a local SEO section, albeit less frequently updated.
- Rand Fishkin’s blog on Moz is not specifically focused on the subject, but most of his marketing posts have implications for local SEO practitioners. Like this post on 2015’s keyword research tool universe or this one on Google Suggest.
Local SEO Events to Attend
You’ve read some but want to learn more about local SEO by attending conferences or meetups with fellow enthusiasts. Or you’re looking for more advanced information. Just three among the national events about local SEO to catch:
- MozCon Local 2016. The creators of Moz Local should have lots of useful information to share. February 18-19 in Seattle, WA.
- LocalU Advanced. For more experienced practitioners, here’s a conference to learn the latest on local search, mobile, analytics, web design and more. March 5 in Williamsburg, VA.
- SMX Advanced. The Local Search Advantage Workshop is a full-day dive into various advanced topics such as driving and tracking online-to-offline conversions. June 21 in Seattle, WA.
Find more national and international SEO events on this thread over at Inbound.org.
Closer to Dallas Fort Worth, Globe Runner’s home, Loco For Local will be held January 27 at La Hacienda Ranch in Grapevine. This local SEO workshop was organized for local businesses in Fort Worth, but non-FW businesses are more than welcome to drop by and exchange notes. Bill Hartzer will talk about local SEO best practices, useful tips and insider secrets.
Got any more to add? List them in the comments section.
NAVIGATING THE .WINE AND .VIN NEW GTLD DOMAIN NAMES
Since the beginning of the Internet, Americans have primarily used three main Top Level Domains (TLDs) for our websites: .COM, .NET, and .ORG. There are other TLDs that have been introduced that we’re all familiar with, such as .EDU and .GOV. It’s been fairly easy for us to register .COM, .NET, and .ORG domain names. You have to be associated with an educational institution or a government entity to secure a .EDU or a .GOV domain name. And then there’s the others that have been available for quite some time now, such as .INFO, .BIZ, and .TV. Most consumers in the USA are typically are used to the top three, .COM, .NET, and .ORG.
In countries outside of the USA, the Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs), are widely accepted and in fact often the default option. Country codes include .co.uk (United Kingdom), .es (Spain), .com.au (Australia), .ca (Canada), and .it (Italy), and are always two letters long.
Depending on the location of your business, a ccTLD makes perfect sense as an alternative to .com. Since January 2014, there are literally hundreds of new Generic Top Level Domains (New gTLDs) becoming available, and many are already available for registration.
Keyword Rich Domain Names
It is widely thought that one way to potentially gain some search engine marketing advantage is to buy a keyword rich domain name that includes the TLD as one of the main keywords. This strategy has been said to not matter when it comes to search engine ranking advantages in Google, though. In March, 2012, Matt Cutts, a representative from Google, addressed a myth about the new gTLDs. Specifically, he said:
“Google has a lot of experience in returning relevant web pages, regardless of the top-level domain (TLD). Google will attempt to rank new TLDs appropriately, but I don’t expect a new TLD to get any kind of initial preference over .com, and I wouldn’t bet on that happening in the long-term either. If you want to register an entirely new TLD for other reasons, that’s your choice, but you shouldn’t register a TLD in the mistaken belief that you’ll get some sort of boost in search engine rankings.”
So, buying a keyword-rich new gTLD domain name apparently does not carry any extra weight when it comes to actual search engine rankings, at least not in Google’s organic search results. However, at Globe Runner, as Search Engine Optimization experts, we have seen many cases where keyword rich domain names that include the keyword in the extension. They appear to help a website’s SEO and overall search engine visibility.
Based on our ongoing research study, using a keyword rich new gTLD domain name in a Google AdWords Pay Per Click campaign has its benefits.
.WINE and .VIN New gTLDs
Two new domain name extensions that are becoming available to wine enthusiasts and the wine industry are the .WINE and .VIN TLDs. Domain names in these extensions will be available for registration by the public starting at the end of January 2016.
Important .WINE and .VIN Dates
Globe Runner has teamed up with the Wine Guy, Chris Campbell, and created the definitive guide to the .Wine and .Vin new gTLD domain names. Our guide, titled “Navigating the .WINE and .VIN New gTLD Domain Names”, includes everything you need to know about Early Access, What Trademark holders need to know, and what Brand owners need to know. We also cover issues like how to choose a .WINE or .VIN domain name, and include a checklist for moving your existing website to a .WINE or .VIN domain name.
Here is the table of contents of our guide to navigating the .WINE and .VIN new gTLD domain names:
What’s Inside
About the Authors
Introduction: New gTLD Domain Names
.WINE and .VIN
Keyword Rich Domain Names
Application Process and Key Dates
Important .WINE and .VIN Dates
.WINE and .VIN Early Access Program Registration Fees
Domain Pricing Examples
Brand Owners: What You Need to Know
ICANN and the Trademark Clearinghouse
The Central Registry
Contention Over .WINE and .VIN TLDs
Regulatory Climate
Intellectual Property
Uses of .WINE and .VIN
Choosing a .WINE or .VIN Domain Name
Google Analytics
Online Keyword Research Tools
Moving to a .WINE or .VIN Domain Name
Checklist for Moving to a New gTLD Domain Name
Pre-Move
Pre-Planning
On Moving Day:
After Moving Day
Conclusions
Resources
Whether you’re a brand owner, a trademark owner, a domain name investor, or simply someone who enjoys a great glass of wine, you’ll want to download this guide.
WHAT EVERYONE OUGHT TO KNOW ABOUT REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
by Jenna Yoder
Have any of the below happened to you?
- You or your business have scathing reviews on sites like Yelp or TripAdvisor
- Your business or product are the recipients of fake Amazon, Facebook or Google reviews
- When someone searches your name, all the links that come up on page 1 are from negative articles
These are just three instances where online reputation management (ORM) comes into play. You can think of ORM as a specialist subset of SEO that deals with the strategic handling of negative search results.
Not all agencies offer this service, so it’s critical that anyone shopping for it knows what’s involved. Below are some key facts about the process that everyone should be aware of:
1. Reputation management can’t remove negative links
What a good ORM program does is push negative content down to less frequented search pages by creating positive content optimized to rank higher than the negative links. Studies on search behavior, such as this one from GoFish Digital, show that 50% of searchers don’t go beyond page 1 of search engine result pages (SERPs) while only 36% venture onto page 2 or 3.
FINDINGS FROM A 2015 GOFISH DIGITAL STUDY SHOW THAT ONLY 13% OF SEARCHERS MAKE IT TO PAGE 4 AND BEYOND.
However just creating content, any content, and throwing it up on the Internet will not automatically push bad content to page 3 when someone searches. A good ORM partner will sit down with you, determine the extent of the damage, and design a campaign that incorporates the best types of content for your needs.
At the onset, your partner should create a spreadsheet of all links that turn up on SERPs. Highlighting these links green for positive, red for negative and neutral links yellow will ensure that you are on the same page about what should be pushed down, what should be retained and whether the links are moving week to week.
2. Reputation management takes time
Be ready to invest a significant amount of time in addressing reputation management issues. At a webinar on how to bury a Ripoff Report review, ORL old hands BrandYourself said it can take from 9 to 12 months to start seeing solid results, a time frame that Globe Runner finds accurate. Any vendor who tells you that it can be done faster is either overly optimistic or unfamiliar with the amount of work involved.
The content creation alone takes a lot of time. Most reputation management campaigns will require setting up strategic microsites, social media accounts and other properties that carry or link to positive content. The infrastructure and keyword strategy will need tweaking as links start showing movement. Like good SEO, there are no short cuts.
3. Reputation management is not always about maintaining an open dialogue
We’ve all been taught to address negative comments the minute they surface. Social media is rife with examples of how businesses or individuals ignored unflattering remarks online only to face a veritable tsunami of bad publicity when they woke up the next day. Nipping a situation in the bud and engaging with complainers is generally a good social media policy.
In reputation management, exceptions are made for protracted dialogues with a party intent on destroying reputations, not resolving the issue. This is especially true for Ripoff Report complaints which are notoriously hard to remove. If you suspect that a competitor, disgruntled employee or the like are behind a Ripoff Report complaint that is patently untrue, avoid getting embroiled in an all-out flame war.
Instead, take the advice of Ripoff Report’s lawyer, Maria Crimi Speth: Consult your public relations and legal advisers before jumping into the fray. Aim for arbitration instead of a prolonged social media brawl. And don’t discount the benefits that a structured online reputation management campaign brings. As Speth said, “Redouble your efforts in legitimate and positive PR. Robust and favorable content about your business will be especially valuable when a bad issue strikes.”
Jenna Yoder is an account manager for Globe Runner specializing in online reputation management. Photo by Max Mayorov on Flickr.
RANKBRAIN: GOOGLE’S AI ALGORITHM
On October 26, 2015, Google unveiled its newest algorithm, RankBrain.
What is RankBrain?
RankBrain is an artificial intelligence (AI) system that sorts through Google’s indexed content and provides the most relevant websites for particular queries. RankBrain is one of many algorithms that make up Google Hummingbird. Hummingbird is Google’s overall search algorithm that consists of Panda, Penguin, RankBrain and others.
How does RankBrain work?
RankBrain is just one component of Google’s search algorithm, but its goal is to answer unique queries that Google has never seen before.
Now, according to Danny Sullivan, Google answers 100 billion searches per month. That equates to over 3 billion searches a day. On top of that, roughly 18% of daily search queries have never been asked before.
Therefore, 500+ million searches/day have never been seen before. Answering those queries has been a difficult process, but this is RankBrain’s strength.
RankBrain’s purpose is to interpret queries that may not contain the exact words/phrases that the searcher is looking for. Essentially, it attempts to re-route misguided searches.
How important is RankBrain?
According to Greg Corrado, a senior research scientist at Google, RankBrain is the third-most important ranking signal contributing to the result of a search query. That’s huge!
Google has over 200 hundred rankings signals, all of which are unknown, but highly speculated. For a Google employee to say outright that it’s the 3rd most important ranking signal is big news.
SOCIAL MEDIA ROI: HOW TO TELL IF IT DRIVES TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE
by Claire Parker
The subject of social media ROI is a vast, complex area that we won’t get into — there are far more substantive sources out there on the topic.
What we do want to share is how you can tell if your social media posts are driving traffic to your website. It will however require viewing Google Analytics. If Analytics hasn’t been deployed on your site, make sure it is so you can follow along.
(These would be the most straightforward instructions for creating a Google Analytics account and installing it, with pictures of the process for all of you visual learners out there.)
Let’s say you shared a blog post via social media. On the left-hand menu, go to Behavior –> Behavior Flow –> Site Content –> Landing Pages. Cut and paste the URL path name of the blog post into the search field, then enter.
So for example, we want to see whether our social media shares of https://globerunner.com/a-free-customizable-content-calendar-for-2016/ were effective. You will only paste /a-free-customizable-content-calendar-for-2016/ into the search field. The table that shows up will show the number of visits attributed to this blog post. In this example, we see that the content calendar post was the source of 1,113 visits.
To find out which social media platforms were behind the visits, click on the Secondary dimension drop down menu on the menu bar. Select Social –> Social Network to see the specific platform. In our example, the top network was Reddit, followed — rather distantly — by Facebook.
What is ‘(not set)’? Good question. According to Google, there could be many reasons for getting this value, but it’s generally due to a session having no page or screen views. Other reasons could be bot traffic or the visitor not allowing a cookie to be placed.
One way to get more clarity is to click on the Secondary dimension drop down menu again and choose Acquisition –> Source/Medium. Source would be the originator of the traffic and medium is the method. You should see some social media platforms among the sources.
This appears to be a more substantive view in that you can see visits via mobile which are identified by the ‘m’ before the platform.
Having said that, it’s better to be pro-active rather than reactive.You must’ve noticed that when you share newsletter content that arrives in your inbox that the URL contains UTMs? These were created using Google’s URL builder. Use this tool to generate URLs for your social media posts that will show up in the Campaigns section. The generator will create a unique URL for you showing the source, medium and name of the campaign.
In this example from a client’s campaigns, you will see that Facebook posts drove 66 visits to the website while a video on YouTube resulted in two visits. Identifying these social-sourced visits in a campaign allows you to find richer data along their customer journeys, whether that be downloading a gated piece of content, filling in a contact form or, in the case of e-commerce, ending in a purchase.
Claire Parker is Globe Runner’s account manager for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB). Determining whether your social media efforts result in site visits is just one metric that SEO can teach social media or public relations practitioners. Read more about what SEO can teach PR and vice-versa.
13 MUST-HAVE MARKETING TOOLS
At Globe Runner, we’re constantly presented with marketing tools to review and hopefully adopt. As we soon discovered, there are hundreds of marketing tools for every conceivable purpose but only a select few are the ones that we just can’t live without. Following are the marketing tools that Globe Runner has perpetually open on browser tabs:
AdWords Editor
PPC Lead Stephanie Bradam says AdWords Editor is “constantly open” on her browser. The tool allows users to make changes in bulk and across multiple accounts, even offline. Apart from the convenience, it’s free — instant brownie points.
Asana
This task management tool is perpetually up on our screens. Asana acts as the central nervous system for the agency, the platform from which we assign tasks, determine work capacity and record time. “It’s great for listing and tracking tasks as well as figuring out what’s going on,” said account manager Jenna Yoder. One fun feature of Asana is the occasional unicorn that appears when a task is checked off.
Canva
“Just about the easiest way to whip up banners, collages, social media headers and what-have-you” is how director of brand strategy Alicia Kan described Canva. The platform offers excellent pre-sized templates, easy drag-and-drop functionality and, if you’re lacking pictures, the option to buy good looking visuals for $1.
CODA2, Dreamweaver and Atom
Our web developers Daniel Edwards, Johnny Rodriguez and Jeff Baker use these “integrated development environments” (their words) on a daily basis. “All of them are like multiple programs rolled into one,” said Johnny. “It’s just a matter of preference on which tool to use. Since a visual interface is easier for me, I tend to use Dreamweaver.”
Google Analytics
Given that Globe Runner’s core competency is SEO, Google Analytics is always one of the first tools we check everyday to look at the status of clients’ websites. Their performance on Google Analytics tells us whether the strategies and tactics we’re employing are working, whether that be visitors to the blog or sales from e-commerce. Installing Google Analytics on a client’s site is always the first priority whenever we onboard a client, in order for us to work from a common baseline and to provide tangible metrics going forward.
Google Sheets
Sorry Bill Gates, but the sharing capabilities of Google Sheets give it the edge over Excel. “You can share [files] in real-time, with hardly any need to send emails back and forth,” said Ashley Bonner, quality manager. We’ve used Google Sheets for various purposes, from silo documents to content calendars like this one we made for 2016.
Hootsuite
According to Globe Runner’s head of content Zain Haidar, one of Hootsuite‘s main benefits is the functionality for planning and rescheduling social media posts across multiple accounts. “You can plan posts weeks in advance which is great,” he said. (Now if only Hootsuite could improve a rather clunky interface, our joy would be immeasurable.)
Moz.com
Apart from having various tools for 0nline marketing, Moz has an excellent video series we follow called Whiteboard Friday (usually over a Friday team lunch, like the one we’re having in the picture). Topics covered in the videos range from the latest ranking trends to male programmer dress tips.
Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO is still one of the best introductions to the field to be found. Which is why Globe Runner staff are tasked with reading this guide as part of their onboarding.
PandaDoc
A fairly recent addition to our favorite marketing tools list, PandaDoc eliminates the drudgery and hours involved in proposal writing. The tool allows users to create a library of commonly used content, create templates and automate sending. “It makes it easy for me to collaborate [with others] on a proposal,” explained Globe Runner CEO Eric McGehearty. “It also organizes my sales pipeline.”
Passpack
Before Passpack, we were like every other business: Storing passwords in a common file that could be accessed by multiple internal users. After one too many ‘who changed the password!?’ conversations, we settled on Passpack to be the official repository. “Whenever I forget a password, it’s Passpack to the rescue,” said digital strategist Donnie Hanes. Not only is it convenient, but Passpack’s two-step login gives us an additional, reassuring layer of security.
RGB to Hex
Ever had to recommend colors for websites? Recreate palettes using online logos? Using Pantone colors as a guide is great for print but when it comes to websites, hex codes rule. So if you and your developer can’t agree on the exact shade of blue, use hex codes as a common basis for discussion. RGB to Hex is a simple calculator where you enter the RGB values and it spits out the hex code.
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is an SEO tool that crawls websites for data such as title tags, meta descriptions and external links. The data is served up in spreadsheet form so a user can easily find errors and issues at a glance instead of manually combing through a site. It’s especially useful for larger sites with hundreds of pages. Screaming Frog is an essential part of every SEO audit we do for clients.
SEM Rush
A must-have for any SEO, SEM Rush shows a site’s organic and paid traffic, keywords it’s ranking for, backlinks, competitive set and more. “It’s invaluable in researching keywords and identifying keyword opportunities,” said quality team lead Brian Meller. SEM Rush also allows domain comparison for up to three properties for quick top-level competitive analyses.
What marketing tools are must-haves in your position? Share them below as a comment.
SEARCH MARKETING STUDY: HOW NEW GTLDS ARE BEATING .COM
SEARCH MARKETING STUDY: HOW NEW GTLDS ARE BEATING .COM
Since May 2014, Globe Runner has been actively researching and studying the Search Engine Marketing (PPC) effects that the New gTLD domain name extensions are having on the industry. The results of our first initial deep dive into real-world data was released back in September 2014. We then provided an update 8 months later. Originally, the .COM beat out a new gTLD domain name when it came to quality traffic: but .COM traffic was more expensive. However, one year and four months later, the tide has changed.
New gTLDs convert much higher than .COM. Conversions on .COM continue to deteriorate.
Back in May 2014, we found that domains of new extensions were converting at about 34 percent, and .COMs were converting at about 52 percent. It cost more to advertise using a .COM than a new domain extension. However, over a year and a half later, that has all changed. New domain extensions are converting at about the same rate–but .COM domains are converting now at a record low, of nearly 20 percent. It still costs more to advertise using a .COM domain name than using a new domain extension. Here are some quick stats from our updated research:
Results: Average CPC
3Carat.Diamonds: $.77 Sept. 2015 vs $.69 in Jan 2015 vs. $.77 in May 2014
3CaratDiamonds.com: $.83 Sept 2015 vs $.82 (vs. $.81 in May 2014)
Conclusions:
23% Conversion Rate on .COM, 35% on .Diamonds in September 2015.
Previously, January 2015: 31.76% Conversion Rate on .COM, 29.11% on .Diamonds
Previously, May 2014: 52% Conversion Rate on .COM, 36% on .Diamonds
New gTLDs convert much higher than .COM. Conversions on .COM continue to deteriorate.
According to our re-running of the testing during January 2015, the conversion rate of the .COM was very close to what the conversion rate on the .diamonds was–only a 2 percent difference between the two. Back in May 2014 the .COM converted a lot better. But that wasn’t the case in January 2015. The New gTLD domain name was converting the same as a comparable .COM domain name.
In September 2015, however, the conversion rate of the .COM has continued to go down. It’s now at an all-time low. Yet the conversion rate on the .Diamonds domain name has remained about the same (it’s actually up 2 percent over May 2014’s data).
Our overall goal when setting up these tests was ultimately to determine whether using a .Com domain name or a new gTLD domain name is better when it comes to search engine marketing and Google AdWords. Back in January 2015 we were not totally convinced that one is necessarily “better” than the other. However, our view of this, after over a year and a half of looking at the data and running test, we have changed our tune.
Ultimately, if we had to decide whether to use a New gTLD domain name extension or a .COM domain name for our Google AdWords campaigns, we would choose to use a New gTLD domain. The prices for clicks (CPC) haven’t changed much over time. They remain fairly consistent. However, it appears that the overall relevance for the .Diamonds TLD has gotten better: we’re seeing a better Average Position than what we did back in May 2014: an 18 percent increase! This could be because Google has ‘tweaked’ something in the back-end that makes .Diamonds domains more relevant because the keyword is in the domain name extension, but we can only speculate.
Globe Runner’s goal is to be totally transparent with the results our Search Engine Marketing research, so we have included all of the data, as well as our detailed analysis, in a white paper. Use the form below to download the latest results of our testing.
A FREE, CUSTOMIZABLE CONTENT CALENDAR FOR 2016
When multiple clients have multiple content needs, it can get hairy keeping track of everything. At Globe Runner, we developed an annual content calendar on Google Sheets that allows content producers to view the entire year at a glance and plan content as far ahead as possible. And we’re sharing it with you.
How to use this content calendar template:
- If you can open it, then it’s saved onto your Google drive. To save your own copy that you can edit, simply go to File –> Make a copy to have your own. There is no need to request us for access to use the sheet. Repeat: There is no need to request us for access to use the sheet!
- Navigate the months using the tabs at the bottom of the screen.
- US Federal holidays are highlighted in blue. Weekends are highlighted in pink. Just so you don’t mistakenly schedule a blog post for the weekend.
- Key dates for the months are listed in Column C-D. We deliberately added a generous helping of silly days (hello, Barbie Day on March 9), famous birthdays and today-in-history entries for the occasional moment when we run out of clever things to say on social media. You can change these of course to the type of content that makes sense for you.
- This calendar was completed in September 2015. Obviously a lot of things can happen between then and 2016. We encourage you to check other sources in case you’re building campaigns around sports and other special event dates.
Ready to start planning content for 2016? Go.
3 THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGES FOR MOBILE SEO
Images are like the helpful elves of content: They can aid your mobile SEO efforts by increasing engagement with users and boosting your presence on search engines. To do that however, they need to be in the best condition possible to assist you.
Here are 3 simple things you can do now to optimize images and make them fighting fit for mobile:
1. Resize your images to a size that suits mobile
It’s estimated that images make up 65% of an average page’s total size. A mobile user waiting minutes for a site to load due to 5,000 pixel pictures will navigate away to find faster alternatives. It’s critical to scale down the size of your image to allow pages to load faster.
This can be as simple as resizing images using the image preview function of your computer or using the save-for-web function in Photoshop. You can also find different tools online to resize images for social media, web pages and other purposes, or to resize/crop in bulk.
The objective is to get to as near as possible to the ideal site load speed of 1 second. Even 5 seconds can be the kiss of death for retailers.
2. Rename your files to make them more descriptive
Surprisingly a lot of people still upload photos without renaming original file names. Renaming can seem like a time waster but it actually isn’t: Many people now use Google Images to conduct a search, and we’re certain none of them involved searching for IMG688. But they are searching for the service, solution or object that your site is about.
In renaming your image files, use descriptive words and include keywords only if these are natural, not contrived.
3. Add alt text to your images
Alt text or alternative text is an attribute that allows web users to determine the contents of an image — think of it as tagging your picture with information that is helpful for viewers who can’t see it. You’ll see alt text in boxes where an image ought to be, but was stripped out.
Why add alt text? Originally alt text benefited sight impaired individuals, but now their applications have become mainstream. Like descriptive file names, alt text helps users searching for your product or service. Alt text can act as flares for your content, pointing users to your page.
You can add alt text to images and shapes very easily by right clicking and adding copy in Microsoft Office. Daunted by the prospect of adding alt text to lots of pictures? You can batch process them using tools like FastStone for PC and PhotoMill for Mac.
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