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Top 5 SEO Mistakes — According To Yoast

Copywriting SEOOverall, this Top 5 SEO Mistakes post by Melina Reintjens, of Yoast SEO, is great on several levels. It not only covers crucial SEO points that are often missed by web-content copywriters, but it also covers the pushing of your message from the perspective & verbiage of the recipient/target — and that is deep inside my wheelhouse!!

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Copywriting is a crucial element of every SEO strategy. High-quality content is what helps you rank and sets your site apart from all the other sites out there. So, you’ll want to do SEO copywriting the right way. Preferably without making any fatal mistakes. Want to know what not to do when you’re writing SEO copy? Let’s have a look at five mistakes to avoid!

Are you struggling with more aspects of SEO copywriting? Don’t worry! We can teach you to master all facets, so you’ll know how to write awesome copy that ranks. Take a look at our SEO copywriting training and try the free trial lessons!

Top 5 SEO Mistakes #1. Not starting with keyword research

SEO copywriting always starts with keyword research. Now, it may be tempting to skip this time-consuming task and just wing it, but that can seriously harm your chances to rank! You can write tons of awesome content, but if it’s not optimized to rank for realistic search terms that people actually use, it won’t help you one bit. So, always take some time to think about the terms you want to be found for. Take keyword research seriously, it’ll definitely pay off.

Top 5 SEO Mistakes #2. Forgetting about search intent

Before you start writing, as you’re doing your keyword research, it’s also crucial to take a good look at search intent. You need to have a clear idea of the kind of intent that’s behind your keywords. People could be looking for information, a specific website, or they might want to buy something. Why is search intent important for SEO copywriting? Well, for example, if you write a sales-oriented, persuasive copy for a keyword that only has informational intent (rather than transactional) odds are you won’t rank. You simply won’t answer the searcher’s needs. Or, even if you do rank, visitors will likely leave instantly because they’re looking for other types of content. You don’t want that!

The solution: as you’re doing keyword research, analyze the SERPs, so you have an idea of the intent behind the keyphrases you’re targeting. Write your content accordingly, giving some thought to your text purpose, tone of voice, length and call to action, for example.

Top 5 SEO Mistakes #3. Not using synonyms

Search engines these days are incredibly smart: they understand that some words can have the same -or similar- meanings. Use that to your advantage! Don’t stuff your text with contrived occurrences of your exact focus keyphrase. Instead, make sure you use synonyms of your keyphrase. Not only will that help avoid repetition – which makes texts boring and hard to read- but you’ll also increase your chances to rank for related keywords!

In short: don’t make the mistake of neglecting synonyms and related keywords or keyphrases. Did you know that Yoast SEO makes optimizing for synonyms and related keywords a lot easier? The Yoast Premium plugin finds your focus keyphrase, even if the words appear in a different order in the same sentence. In addition, it allows you to optimize your text for synonyms and related focus keyphrases. That makes the plugin (almost) as smart as Google. I guess the real mistake here is not getting Yoast SEO Premium.

Top 5 SEO Mistakes #4. Not thinking about the user’s perspective

Something that often goes wrong in SEO copywriting: content that’s solely written from the site owner’s view, without taking the user into account. No wonder, as it’s very hard to forget everything you know and put yourself in your user’s shoes. Nevertheless, it’s important to try! You’ll soon realize that your user won’t really care about your product-related jargon, or why you think your product is awesome, or your blog post interesting. They want to know what problem of theirs you will solve, or what they will get out of reading your blog post.

Here are two short examples to give you an idea of the difference:

  1. We released Yoast SEO 12.X! It’s full of bug fixes, so we really believe you should update.
  2. The latest version of Yoast SEO, 12.X, is here for you! Time to update, so you’ll get the smoothest experience of the plugin.

Which of the two appeals most to you, as a user? It’s probably the second one, right? Think about that when you’re writing your own SEO copy!

Bottom line: don’t make the mistake of neglecting your visitor’s perspective in your SEO copy. That also includes writing too much ‘I’ or ‘we’ in your content. Make it about your user, not yourself!

Read more: Engaging your online audience: 8 practical tips »

Top 5 SEO Mistakes #5. Writing unreadable texts

A final SEO copywriting mistake that people often make, is that they write posts that are hard to understand. A huge missed opportunity! If you make sure your it’s easy for everyone to understand the message of your text, you’re opening up your content for a wide audience. That’s why writing a clear and readable text is a considerable part of your SEO copywriting strategy. People should be able to understand what you want to tell them. If you create copy that’s easy to comprehend, people will be less inclined to leave your site. They might even want to read your next post.

We know writing is hard. But there are things everyone can pay attention to to write a nice, clear text. Don’t use too many long sentences. Avoid using many difficult words. If you write for more than one region, check if you didn’t make any confusing mixups. Check whether the structure of your text is clear. The Yoast SEO plugin helps you with the readability analysis, which includes the Flesch reading ease score. And there are other tools out there to help you write texts that are nice to read, such as Hemingway. So, there are no more excuses not to write a lovely, readable text!

Conclusion on SEO copywriting mistakes

SEO copywriting mistakes are made when people focus too little on the quality of their texts and skimp on preparation. But your rankings will soon pay the price… So make sure each text has an original idea, a story, that’s well-thought-out, factoring in the site’s visitors. And, your copy should be nice and easy to read. It’s a lot of work, but Yoast SEO can help you get on track! And, if your copywriting is starting to look good, you can check for other common SEO mistakes!

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How Digital Marketing Trends Can Help Your Business

If you are looking for a way to scale up your marketing to have an edge, digital marketing trends help you understand what you don’t want to leave out of some digital marketing tactics. As more consumers continue to make their journeys online to make purchases, knowing how best to utilize the digital marketing strategies available could prove to be most potent at making the best out of the growing digital marketing opportunity. According to the folks at Serpwatch, 48% of consumers start their mobile research with a search engine.

To further highlight the rate of adoption of digital marketing trends, 64% of consumers say that watching a marketing video has influenced their purchase decision in the last month.

The main goal in digital marketing trends is basically a particular form of user action which could be to register on your website or buy a product.

However, owning a small business limits your reach to the area in which the business exists and those who become acquainted with the brand via word of mouth. Exploring digital marketing trends, on the other hand, increases reach. Companies that blog receive 97% more links to their website. 

Digital marketing trends can offer your business some benefits. Here are some of them.

  1. Monitoring of efforts: When carrying out digital marketing, you are able to track your efforts to find out exactly how effective your campaigns are across all media from the very moment a user visits your website, down to when they leave, and even further. By tracking your digital marketing campaigns, you get to see which trends are working and which are not so that you can tailor your campaigns to greater success. This is a clear plus over offline advertising media.
  2. Increase revenue: Within a few months or weeks, it is okay to say that your revenue would increase. However, you must consider every factor so that you stay right on track.
  3. Have a level playing ground: Often, it is difficult for small businesses to compete with their bigger counterparts. Digital marketing eliminates this barrier and places your business in a position to compete online, both nationally and internationally.
  4. Target your ideal prospects: With digital marketing trends, you can be sure that the right prospects are viewing your content. SEO offers you the opportunity to reach prospects who are searching the web for content related to your business. Digital marketing trends allow you to target consumers who are likely to be interested in your content.
  5. Cost-effectiveness: Another plus for digital marketing trends is that they provide an inexpensive marketing stretch that can be adopted by any start-up or existing business. Here, companies of all sizes can take up affordable options for marketing and advertising their businesses. This can often result in a higher return on investment.

Final note

Digital marketing trends presents itself as essential requirements for any business that wants to do very well for itself. If you are not taking advantage of the myriad of opportunities presented by digital marketing trends, you are cheating yourself out of the chance to grow your business online.

7 Trends You Must Know For a Successful Digital Marketing Campaign

Bottom line, digital marketing trends help you focus on a successful online presence, however, the first steps to good SEO, is having a conversation. Contact us today to discover how your business could do better online. Phone chats are always free at 1-888-502-3523 or set up a meeting via our online calendar.

Josh Wardini SkydivingIf you would like to support the author of this blog, you can visit Josh Wardini on his LinkedIn page, or visit his site. Josh is a long-time digital marketer with a focus on SEO. A Python enthusiast scratching the surface of deep learning, machine learning and narrow AI.  Based in Portland, Oregon 3 months per year, inspired by Anthony Bourdain to stay in transit the remainder.

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Entrepreneurship – Are You Built For It?

Are you an Entrepreneur? Do you “get the grind” and you’re naturally wired with grit and tenacity? Do you sometimes fail in your efforts to actually be successful, yet are continuously courageous and take the necessary risks that entrepreneurship requires?

To find out, this quiz is for you — take the quiz below!

If you cannot take the quiz here, you can always find it here! If you would like to book a 20-minute FREE consult, let’s chat… you never know what great results can come from a new conversation and fresh ears.

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Five Marketing Emails That Every Online Business Needs to Send

In a recent survey, when customers were asked why they would unsubscribe from emails, most of them said they were getting too many irrelevant and repetitive emails in their inbox. So if you’re sending lots of emails about sales without much substance, then we’re sorry to tell you that it’s not the customer that caused the break-up, it’s you. Here are five marketing emails that every online business needs to send.

1. Abandoned cart emails

Around 70% of carts get abandoned, costing e-commerce businesses $2 – $4 billion dollars every year. The good news? Statistics also say that abandoned cart emails have an open rate of around 45% and, on average, they convert almost 11% of those lost sales.What that means is that for every $10,000 left in a cart, you can win $1,700 back with an automated email.

What should your abandoned cart email say?
In a survey conducted, it was noted that 55% of users abandon their cart when they are hit with unexpected cost, such as shipping. Tackle this problem by including an offer of free shipping in your email.

Abandon Cart Emails
PHOTO BY MATHEUS VINICIUS / UNSPLASH

2. Order confirmation emails

At their core, order confirmation emails share important information such as the order number, product name, shipping date, tentative delivery date, and a receipt. These are one of the first categories of emails that a brand automates. More often than not, these emails are purely transactional when they can be so much more.

Based on findings published by Conversio, the order confirmation email open rates are at a massive 70%. You have the attention of the shopper and the opportunity to turn that one-time buyer into a repeat customer.

What should your order confirmation email say?
Besides sharing the basic information, give your customers reassurance about the great choice that they’ve made. And if you’re confident about the product and its reviews, then use your order delivery confirmation email to ask for a referral. Referral marketing builds social proof, and when your customer’s audience sees them sharing a positive word about your business, they will be more inclined to buy from you.

3. Welcome emails

Welcome emails are a brilliant opportunity to make a great impression and set the tone and expectations for your relationship. They have 4x the open rate and 5x the click-through rate compared to standard sales emails.Despite such wonderful numbers, a lot of brands don’t send them – which gives a serious leg up to the brands that do.

What should your welcome email say?
Welcome emails are great to set the right expectation from the get-go. Will you send these emails daily, weekly, or monthly? Will they feature exclusive discounts or new products? Be specific, helpful, and build anticipation.
These emails are also a great time to start segmenting your subscribers based on demographics, geography, interest or product preferences. It gives you an opportunity to make your emails more relevant.

Send Welcome Emails
PHOTO BY NEONBRAND / UNSPLASH

4. Newsletter emails

Wouldn’t it be amazing if customers came directly to you when they needed to shop instead of going somewhere else or comparing prices? That’s where your newsletter comes in handy.

A newsletter is a chance to build and maintain a spot in your customer’s consciousness. When done well, newsletter emails build a sense of loyalty and community. It is also a great opportunity to connect with your repeat customers. This target group usually comprises only 8% of e-commerce site visitors, but they are responsible for 40% of all revenue.

What should your order newsletter email say?
A newsletter accomplishes two major tasks: sell to those who are ready to purchase and remain top-of-mind with those who aren’t. One of the ways to accomplish this feat is to pair valuable content with product information.

For example, a newsletter can highlight the following three components:
● A fresh blog post that offers tips and tricks – without selling anything
● New arrivals or best sellers in your store that week/month
● Current promotion with a special discount code

5. Re-engagement/win-back emails

The cost of maintaining an existing customer is much less than acquiring new ones. That’s where win-back emails come into the picture. Moreover, since you already have some data about your subscribers, segmenting and personalizing the message becomes a lot easier.

What should your re-engagement email say?
When sending re-engagement emails, it is important to note that sending just one email might not do it. According to statistics, while about 24% of your dormant subscribers open the first email, 40% open it thereafter.
Be careful and don’t send too many emails or you may end up in the spam prison.

It’s also important to keep the timing and messaging specific to the customer. For example, if your newsletter is sent monthly, you might want to wait for 3 to 4 months of inactivity before you send the win-back email.

Last, but surely not least, be sure that your five marketing emails are done by a professional. By sending your five marketing emails via a professional service — with either automated or a direct personal send — you will be serving your customers and getting the results you ultimately desire. Further, using a professional service, your five marketing emails will generate the data needed to adjust and customize your online efficiency.

If you need further advice, simply contact me here or call 1-888-502-3523. If you want to spend a few additional minutes with me, schedule a 20 minute chat for some dedicated time at no cost to you.

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Brand Colors – How To Pick Your Color Scheme

Picking Your Brand Colors
So you are at the stage of picking your brand’s colors or you have decided to rebrand your business. How do you go about picking the colors for your new brand?

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Regardless of whether you’ve decided to branch out from a company or are launching a game-changing new startup, understanding the impact of color on consumer behaviour will help solidify your brand become a success.

Remember, we buy emotionally and research shows that up to 85% of consumers believe color is the biggest motivator to choose a particular product, while 92% acknowledge visual appearance as the most persuasive marketing factor overall.

How Do People Respond to Brand Colors?

Every color elicits a different response from humans. Having a clear idea about what your brand’s goals are and how you want your target audience to feel will help you hone in on the most impressive colors to choose for your brand.

Colors can be divided into two main categories: warm and cool. Warm colors tend to be associated with energy, while cool colors are linked with calmness and security.

But how do each of the following colors affect us and what does that mean for your brand? Here’s an overview — courtesy of Marketo — of what differentiates each color and how your brand can pick the right mix of them.

Red

Red evokes a passionate and visceral response. It is a color that increases your heart rate, makes your breath faster, and is generally associated with energy, excitement, and passion. It’s one of the colors that is attention-grabbing, while it can also be provocative and excitable.

Color code: aggressive, energetic, provocative, attention-grabbing, passionate

Purple

Purple is a sophisticated yet mysterious color. It tends to be used with higher-end products due to its association with royalty and elegance. Purple’s mysterious element is also linked with spirituality, and it can bring a magical element to your branding.

Color code: royalty, sophistication, nostalgia, mystery, spirituality

Blue

Blue is the most popular color choice for the top brands. It is thought to put people at ease, as it reminds them of the sky and the ocean. Blue is also associated with trust, security, and confidence which make a great combination for the brands that want these elements in their message.

Color code: trustworthy, dependable, secure, responsible, confident

Green

Green is a color that is synonymous with calmness, safety, and freshness. Its various shades can create a unique brand identity for your company. Green tends to be associated with health along with the feelings of peace and serenity.

Color code: Wealth, health, prestige, serenity, generosity, safety

Yellow

Yellow is a popular color choice for brands that want to evoke a feeling of positivity in their identity. Its association with the sun on its different shadows brings out hope and optimism. Yellow also stands out among other colors, which makes a yellow brand identity creative and appealing.

Color code: positivity, light, warmth, motivation, creativity, happiness

Orange

Orange makes an ideal color choice for brands that want to blend the optimism and the brightness of yellow and the passion and the energy of red. It is a creative and cheerful color that evokes a friendly and adventurous feeling.

Color code: vitality, fun, playful, exuberant, outgoing

Brown

Brown represents the earthly simplicity and it is usually preferred to reflect stability and strength. It’s comforting in its simplicity and is preferred by brands that want to be classical and trustworthy, without proceeding to bold moves. Brown is associated with the earth and can also remind people of dirt, so there needs to be a careful use of it, especially if it stands out as the main color for a brand.

Color code: earth-like, natural, simplistic, durable, comforting

Black

Black is another popular color option for brands and it tends to be one of the most classic options. It’s both classic and sophisticated and it can make a brand identity stand out. It seems to work perfectly with luxury products, blending the classic and powerful elements. Black is one of the colors that can be combined with others to add a stronger emotion, without losing the classical appeal.

Color code: Prestige, value, timelessness, sophistication, power

White

White represents simplicity, purity, and also cleanliness. These three make it extremely popular in the healthcare sector, in the cleaning business, but also in the child-related businesses. White can also bring out a feeling of trust by tapping in to purity and simplicity.

Color code: pure, noble, clean, soft

So what is your choice? Need some additional guidance? I love chatting about this kinda stuff, so, for a 20-minute, at no cost chat, visit here!!

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