So you want to put online efforts and go digital for your business. But there are many types of digital marketing channels out there to choose from. Now what?

Your next step is to start your digital marketing efforts. The good news is, there are several types of digital marketing out there for you to check out and try.

The not-so-good news is, you don’t want to use all your energy trying to make all these channels work for you.

How would you decide which type of digital marketing channel is right for your business? Here’s our comprehensive list of digital marketing channels for you to learn, understand, and try:

1. Organic Search

What do you do when you’re curious to know about certain topics? Where do you look for information about a specific product or service? You Google it, right?

One of the highest converting types of digital marketing channels is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a process of making your website rank better in search engines than your competitors.

Search engine optimization makes it easier for customers to find you. At present, there are over 99,000 Google searches done per second so it’s best that you make use of it to optimize your website and be visible in organic search.

But how can SEO make your product or service stand out from your competitors? How can you get more traffic to your website and get high conversion rates? Here are some of the SEO techniques you need to know:

• Keyword research – this is the most fundamental process in SEO. We do this to determine which keyword will help you rank and get more organic traffic for your website.

However, keyword research is not as easy as it seems. If you want to have an in-depth understanding of what it can do for your business, especially if you have a new website, you can read more about it here.

• Content – your website must have high-quality content. Why? Because not only it will drive readership from your customers, it will also help you stand out.

But how do you drive readership from your customers? It all boils down to your keywords. The more specific and relevant your keywords are to your business, the better.

In addition, when creating content for your website, don’t forget to add your keywords to your metadata. Meta Data provides Google with additional information about your website.

Meta Data includes your website’s URL or web address (Uniform Resource Locator), Title Tag, and Meta Description. Meta data lets search engines know what your website is about.

• Linkbuilding – is another integral task in SEO. The goal of link building is to get links back to your website from either the same website (internal backlinks) or other websites.

Linkbuilding is getting more “referrals” into your website so Google will see you as reputable and authoritative. Links are a huge factor in how Google ranks you. In fact, it makes up your site’s page rank to 42%!

SEO Hacker has an in-depth post on how to build backlinks to your website. You might want to refer to it in case you want to try to do it on your own first.

A quick word though. It may seem easy to build links, but don’t be fooled. Link building won’t give you results overnight. It requires a process that’s painstakingly slow to grow your website’s presence.

The same goes for SEO in general. Not only does SEO takes a huge amount of time, but it also requires immense technical SEO experience to keep up with the search engines’ constant algorithm updates. Google must make these updates to provide its users with a better experience.

Fortunately for business owners, there are SEO and digital marketing services out there that can help. SEO Hacker is an SEO and digital marketing agency that provides the best quality service because of white hat strategies and ethical processes. If you want to know how your website’s searchability is doing, you can try our FREE SEO audit tool here.

2. Website and Content

An infographic from MineWhat shows that 81% of shoppers do their online research first before they make a purchase.

What does this mean for your business? Your website must not only be visible online, but it must also have high-quality valuable content for your customers.

Your website must have all the important information and credentials your customers need. The website and content have multimedia capabilities so you can add variety to educate, entertain, and persuade your visitors.

Some types of content you might want to create are blogs, videos, infographics, case studies, social media posts, e-books, and many others.

To make website and content work for your business, you will need a content strategy. A content strategy helps you outline and define your business’ identity and purpose.

Once you have outlined your content strategy, your next step is to do content marketing. Content marketing is where you will identify which type of content you will create and promote them to increase your website traffic.

Ultimately, your goal is to solve your customers’ pain points when they visit your website.

3. Word of Mouth

To me, nothing beats this most powerful type of marketing because it speaks volumes about loyalty and trust. It reflects how we serve our business partners with their digital marketing needs. In fact, I find this to be my favorite marketing strategy! Here’s why.

Nowadays, consumers rely heavily on what other consumers have to say about the brand. Consumers rely less on the brand’s paid advertising.

A study from Invespcro shows that word-of-mouth marketing drives five times more sales than paid media. In addition, consumers are more likely to trust and buy from a brand recommended by family or a friend over a brand employee.

Contrary to what the majority believe, WOM (word-of-mouth) marketing can also be done in the form of online customer reviews.

It’s likely you’ve done word of mouth at some point as well. When you meet with your friends and you can’t help but rave about a great product or service, that’s a word of mouth marketing already!

The key to achieving successful WOM is to create a top-notch experience and service for your customers.

4. Email

Contrary to what the majority of digital marketers say, email marketing is not dead. When you sign up for any social media channels or websites, what was the first information asked of you? Your email address, right?

Email marketing is still one of the most effective types of digital marketing channels to try. Don’t believe it?

Campaign Monitor shows that 64% of small businesses still use email marketing because it works for them. Not only it is easier than other types of digital marketing channels on the list, but it also offers several opportunities to promote your business.

But, what can you do with email marketing? You can promote your product or services without spending too much on ads! Another reason why email is another great channel is that it lets you build relationships, increase brand loyalty, and gain feedback from your email list.

If you’re going for email marketing, here are some strategies you can apply now:

• Create catchy but relevant subject lines. It’s a challenge to stand out from the typical email noise out there, so it’s best that you come up with subject lines that are catchy, timely, but not too long to cut your pre-header short.

Be careful not to use clickbait subject lines or you’ll end up in the Spam folder.

• Make your message more personalized and engaging. Do you still recall a time when you get snail mails from a friend or loved one? Were you excited? Were you looking forward to their next letter?

That’s how your email should read and feel like. Write your emails as if you’re talking to a specific person in mind. Engage your email list by sharing valuable information about your business or asking questions about how you’ve helped them solve their problem.

• Segment your email list. Keep information relevant to your email subscribers by segmenting your list. It’s best to send different messages to people who clicked, purchased, viewed your product, or were inactive on your list.

Check out our updated comprehensive list of email marketing you can send out to your list.

5. Podcast

Since its launch in 2004, the demand for audio content has gone through the roof. In fact, 57% of the US population listens to the podcast, and the generation with the highest listener shares is the Millennials.

Statista also predicts that there will be 160 million podcast listeners in 2023. That’s a huge potential to meet where your audiences are.

But why you should look into podcasts? Podcasts are a great channel to interact with your audience. Podcast lets your audience listen to your episodes while they’re on a workout, on a morning commute, or on a coffee break. By doing so, you can be more conversational and show your human side to your audience.

If you want to join the podcast bandwagon but don’t know where to start, you may check out BuzzSprout’s step-by-step guide on how to start a podcast. Also, I host The Leadership Stack Podcast where we empower the world’s future leaders and invite feature like-minded professionals as our guests with our episodes.

6. Social Media

There are 4.62 billion people who use social media worldwide in 2022, and its purpose has significantly transformed over the years.

What used to be a platform to build personal connections has become something much more functional. Most B2Cs (business to consumer) invest in this digital marketing channel because customers spend most of their time there.

According to Data Reportal, there are 6 social media platforms that claim more than a billion active users per month. For this report, we’ll include Twitter, Facebook Messenger, and LinkedIn for your reference:

• Facebook – 2.9 billion monthly active users
• YouTube – 2.56 billion potential advertising reach
• WhatsApp – at least 2 billion monthly active users
• Instagram – 1.47 billion potential advertising reach
• WeChat – 1.26 billion monthly active users
• TikTok – 1 billion monthly active users
• Facebook Messenger – 988 million potential advertising reach
• Twitter – 436 million potential advertising reach
• LinkedIn – 790.4 million monthly active users

LinkedIn is the most used and effective B2B (business to business) social media channel. In October 2021, LinkedIn has at least 790 million members which makes it a perfect channel to reach out to business-minded individuals.

As for the rest of the social media platforms, observe how some brands use it to interact with their customers in real-time. Your customers can like or comment on your post, which can help you decide which content gets more engagement.

At the same time, most social media platforms have chatboxes or direct messaging that either quickly answer your customers’ concerns or inquire about your product or service.

Social media marketing is very effective since it offers a two-way conversation between the brand and its customers.

The two most powerful trends marketers use when they interact on social media are influencer marketing and short-form video content.

If you want to get started on social media channels but are clueless about how to do it, this definitive guide is for you. We’ve outlined 12 easy-to-follow steps on how you can boost your social media presence.

7. Paid Search

Another popular word for paid search is search engine marketing (SEM). SEO and SEM aren’t similar in the sense that the goal of the former is to rank in organic search. The goal of paid search or SEM is to increase your website traffic with paid ads. You can make use of this digital marketing channel through Google Ads.

One advantage of paid search is it allows marketers to increase the business’ website traffic by putting a paid ad on top of the search results page. Paid ads are made to appear before the organic results. Look closely and you’ll find there’s an “Ad” label before your searched keyword.

Many digital marketers like paid search because it’s easy for them to create targeted ads. You can easily create ads based on users’ searched keywords and location. It lets you create ads based on your targeted demographics as well.

You can outdo your competitors and step up your game with paid search. If you have a new website and you want to rank for desired keywords in no time, then this digital marketing channel might be for you.

You can either do this on your own or work with a digital marketing agency to save time. Be sure to look for an agency that’ll help you earn numerous times over every click you spend.

8. Display Ads

Display ads are another great way to attract the attention of your potential leads, increase awareness about your business, and convince your audience to take action.

These ads are usually in the form of image, text, or video ads that entice the audience to click through to a landing page and make a purchase.

You can tell the difference between a regular personal post on your social media feed and a display ad when you see a gray text that says “promoted” or “sponsored”.

Unlike paid search, display ads aren’t targeted. With this digital marketing channel, you can reach a larger audience with a wider reach.

Ideally, the goal of display ads is to retarget your audience. In the event that customers visit and leave your website and you want them to return, display ads encourage this.

Display ads come in different forms:

• Banner ads – is a traditional form of a display ad. It usually appears as a banner at the top of the website.
• Video ads – these ads are usually found on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Video ads allow you to reach and connect with your audience on a personal level by telling engaging stories. The length of your video ads doesn’t matter but be sure to make it light and engaging.
• Rich media – this ad is video, audio, and clickable engaging elements combined. This ad offers ways to interact with the audience.

9. Mobile

If you haven’t thought about reaching your potential audience via their smartphones yet, now’s the time to do so.

According to GSMA Intelligence’s latest data, there are now 5.31 billion unique phone users around the world. In addition, unique mobile users are still growing at a rate of 1.8 percent every year.

Furthermore, the rise of voice search on mobile continues. What does this tell you as a business owner?

You have to make yourself visible on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. To do this, you may utilize the following mobile marketing strategies:

• SMS – never underestimate SMS’ (short message service) potential. You can keep your customers updated about your product or if you have any ongoing promotions.
• Mobile-based app – 80% of mobile users spend more time on different mobile apps, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to build your own mobile app.

It’s true that mobile apps are nice to have in businesses. However, you can still promote and create mobile ads that show within third-party mobile apps. Google AdMob lets you create ads not only in mobile apps but also in display ads like rich media, video, and text interstitials.

• QR codes – QR (Quick Response) codes encourage mobile phone interaction and engagement. It helps businesses provide more information about their product or service to their customers’ mobile devices in a jiffy.

Also, QR codes can be added to brochures, posters, billboards, or any advertising material to provide mobile users with more information about your product or offer.

• Instant messaging – it’s easy to sign up for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and Viber accounts. If you want to get in touch with your audience and respond to them in a flash, instant messaging is the way to go.

10. Video Marketing

Still on the fence about where to put your online efforts for your business? You should consider video marketing.

Gone are the days when creating videos for your business is just an option. If you want to be relevant, it’s imperative you dive into it! Nowadays, people are more likely to watch video content from a company they support.

What this also means is that video content helps increase your open and conversion rates, improve your ROI and help nurture your relationship with your customers.

A survey conducted by Statista showed that 60% of their respondents watch YouTube multiple times a day. On the other hand, 54% of their respondents engage with TikTok more than twice per day.

So, which type of video content should you create? You can do the following:

• Instructional or How-To Video – this is one of the best ways to provide your audience information or knowledge about your product and understand how it works.
• Explainer video – this is perfect for products or services with technical concepts. You may also create animated videos to explain in a simple format how your product or service works.
• Live video – this video format proves to be the most engaging type. It encourages audiences to interact by asking questions in the comments section in real-time.
• Brand video – ideal for sharing your brand’s vision and mission, or for showcasing your brand’s products or offer.
• Testimonial video – the best type of user-generated content ever! You don’t have to put a lot of marketing effort into this because your customers will do the market for you.
• Product demo video – this is where you showcase your product’s benefits and features. This type of video should be comprehensive to provide the best user experience.

The best digital video channel to start with is YouTube. Not only because it has one of the largest audience reaches, but also because it’s the internet’s second-largest search engine.

YouTube helps you cast a wide net for search traffic, so if you’re not doing YouTube yet, you’re missing out on a lot. If you want to dive deep into how YouTube can help improve your overall presence and improve your SEO, here’s our definitive guide to YouTube SEO.

However, if you want to showcase your creative marketing side and create short-form videos on TikTok, check out our post about TikTok SEO. Here we discussed why TikTok is an ideal venue for product promotions and what Google is doing to make TikTok videos appear in organic search.

Key takeaway

It is now easier to grow leads and increase sales with so many types of digital marketing channels available. This isn’t to say you should utilize every digital marketing channel discussed here.

This also doesn’t mean you should only focus on one digital marketing channel. In order for any of these channels to work wonders for your business, you need a well-thought-out marketing strategy in place.

I also noticed how omni-channels work wonders for brands nowadays. If you want to stay ahead of the game and keep abreast with your customers’ needs, it’s important to leverage more than one to three marketing channels. Include that in your marketing strategy so you can stay competitive.

The post 10 Types of Digital Marketing Channels to Try [in 2022] appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Looking to expand your marketing capabilities? Then you should know what are the benefits and challenges of going in-house vs outsourcing marketing. Some companies have been working on moving their marketing teams in-house especially as the pandemic wears on, but others prefer to focus on their core functions and hire an external agency instead. The question is, what is right for you and your company?

What is in-house marketing?

In-house marketing is exactly what it sounds like—having a marketing team that is internal to the company. For example, here in SEO Hacker we have our own marketing team that is in charge of promoting the company, so we don’t have to hire an external agency to do the marketing for us.

According to The Drum, 57% of multinational companies have created in-house marketing departments, with an additional 17% considering building one. The pandemic has also accelerated the creation of these departments as companies want to be more cost-effective and practical, especially since companies are trying to be more frugal in their expenses.

Benefits of in-house vs outsourcing marketing

Companies would not be hurrying to build an in-house marketing team if there were no benefits. Here are some of them.

Potentially lower costs for the company

I’m going to be mentioning costs quite a bit in this article, and that’s really because the idea of lower or higher costs depends a lot on a number of factors. When looking at the benefits of in-house marketing, costs can be lower depending on two things: first is the skill set your team already has, and second is how willing you are to spend on building and managing a team of your own.

For example, if you have a small but strong marketing team right from the start, then that could be cost-effective. You can also opt to migrate some employees to a marketing role, but that is if the other teams can handle losing some team members. Then you also have to spend on training and resources for marketing.

If the total of those costs are lower than hiring an agency, then you can say that costs are lower with an in-house marketing team.

Stronger brand familiarity

Simple—your in-house marketing team is exposed to the day-to-day processes of your company, therefore they are more familiar with your brand. And since they are your employees, that means they also know your company philosophy and culture. You have the same (or at least, similar) work processes and they know the best approach for your company because they are embedded in the company.

Faster communication

There is no need to email or coordinate a meeting with an accounts manager because you literally can just walk over to their desks and they can walk over to yours. There is also less potential for miscommunication because the team already has an understanding of what the company wants.

For my company, we just use Slack to communicate with each other. Everyone is one message away.

More transparency and control

An in-house marketing team will be focused on your business only and considering how you already have a similar outlook and they have an in-depth understanding of your brand philosophy, then that translates to more control.

In terms of transparency, you get to really know how the marketing efforts are playing out as the team has more access to company data, therefore they have more transparent reports.

When you outsource marketing to another agency, they can only really give you the data that is showing up on their dashboards unless you will be providing them other numbers, such as your revenue.

Challenges of in-house vs outsourcing marketing

Just like there are benefits, there are also challenges to going in-house vs outsourcing marketing.

More work for the employees

First and foremost, especially if you have a limited budget for your marketing team, is that there is more work for your employees. Marketing is not a one-time or one-strategy thing; there are marketing plans to be made for different platforms, experiments, designs, executions, and monitoring.

For example, there is content marketing, email marketing, Pay-Per-Click, and SEO. These have different functions and need different strategies, and they have their own sets of skill sets that are integral to their success. For example, I update our SEO Hacker blog every Tuesday. I also have a podcast that has its dedicated team of producers, editors, and developers. My subscribers get updated every Monday through email. I also have my personal blog. Lastly, we have a retargeting and remarketing practice to ensure that our leads come back to our website.

So if you’re considering fully moving your marketing in-house, you need to look at the workload for those digital marketing strategies and figure out a way to balance them while ensuring your company is being cost-effective.

Limited skill set

With a limited budget comes a limited skill set. Unless you’re the kind of company owner who has no issues with overworking your team, then you won’t have the same skill set that outsourcing marketing to another agency will get you.

Lack of resources

Another challenge that your company could potentially have is the lack of resources, especially if you can’t afford multiple marketing experts and the tools that are needed for effective marketing.

Marketing is not as simple as creating a graphic and coming up with witty one-liners to catch your audience’s attention. It involves market research, keyword research, and a whole lot of strategizing. These strategies are based on data and not just solely on gut feeling. So if you have no way of getting data and monitoring your results, then effective marketing will be difficult to achieve.

Needing new employees

I sound like a broken record at this point, but marketing truly is an investment, and it’s one you shouldn’t skimp on. At some point, hiring and training new experts will be the investment you need to make. That said, going in-house vs outsourcing marketing can end up becoming more expensive for some companies as they end up hiring more people

What is outsourced marketing?

Outsourced marketing is the exact opposite of in-house marketing. According to Hinge, outsourced marketing is the practice of partnering with an external agency for the company’s marketing needs.

Benefits of outsourced marketing vs in-house

Just as there are benefits to having an in-house team, there are also benefits to hiring an agency.

Companies can focus their resources on core functions

If you aren’t a marketing agency—let’s say, you’re in the construction business—and you’re thinking of having an in-house marketing team, that means you will have to budget your resources on functions that are outside of your business.

When you outsource your marketing, especially if you find a good partner, you get to just focus on whatever your company really does as the marketing portion can be entrusted to someone else.

That is also why in finding an agency, it’s integral that you know how to find a good one.

Access to a specialized team

One of the best things about outsourcing your marketing instead of building one in-house is that you get access to a team of experts at potentially a fraction of the cost. As I mentioned earlier, marketing isn’t a one-time thing. And it certainly isn’t a one-person endeavor.

Hiring an agency means you get writers, developers, designers, and researchers—basically, an entire team of people who live and breathe marketing—to do the work for you while you focus on other things. For example, here’s our team.

More resources for lower costs

Like I said earlier, I will be mentioning costs a couple of times in this post. As you get an entire team when you hire an agency, you also get their resources to be used for your benefit.

Now, some will say that hiring an agency is expensive. It really depends on how you see it and if you do have a workable budget. For example, our SEO services package costs $2,500 to $5,500 per month, with a 12 months lock-in. Yes, that is expensive, but take a look at what’s in the package:

• Site analysis
• Keyword research
• Blog setup
• Quality SEO copywriting
• Link building
• On-page optimization
• Paid directory listing
• Google Analytics reports
• Guest posting
• Monthly reports

And those are just the headers. For example, check out the “Quality SEO copywriting header.”

Here is the “On-page optimization” header:

As you can see, they involve a lot of work, and they involve their own tools and resources to be done right as well. So, yes, it seems expensive, but that’s because there’s an entire team composed of people with various specialties that is working for you.

Imagine if you have to hire people to do all these things, especially if the core function of your business is far from marketing.

Reduced risks

When you outsource marketing to a reputable agency, you ensure that your marketing is taken care of well. The team they assign to you will work hard to ensure that you aren’t wasting the money you’re spending on them on risky endeavors because everything is well-researched. And in the event that they will need to do some experimentation, the results of those experiments are well-documented so they know what’s working and what isn’t.

Challenges of outsourcing marketing vs in-house

There are a couple of challenges that need to be considered when outsourcing marketing vs going in-house.

Communication can potentially be tricky

In this case, the marketing team won’t be a desk or a chat away. They’re completely in a different company, so meetings will definitely need to be scheduled and coordinated. The agency can try to offset this challenge by assigning an accounts manager to your company whom you can contact whenever you have concerns.

Sometimes miscommunication can still happen, but that is why it’s incredibly important to be open and to just overcommunicate instead of expecting that both parties already understand the expectations and concerns of the partner.

Difference in company values

Another challenge that a company can have is looking for an agency that has similar values as they do. You wouldn’t want to end up hiring a company that believes in employing shady tactics or doesn’t believe in transparency.

That’s why when looking for an agency, make sure you check what their current and previous clients have to say about them. Do they take unnecessary risks? Were they difficult to communicate with? Do they see their clients as mere clients, or as partners? It’s important that you and your agency are a good fit for each other so that you can work together smoothly.

It can be expensive if you don’t have the budget

Again, we go back to budget concerns. As I mentioned earlier, outsourcing marketing can be a bit expensive, but that’s because there is plenty of work that comes with marketing. If you don’t have the budget, you can opt to go in-house and start your marketing on a smaller scale.

One thing that some companies do is to work on a hybrid setup. For example, a full digital marketing package from SEO Hacker costs around $3,500 to $9,900. Some of our partners decide to go with our SEO package, or even our email sales automation package which costs around $1,000 to $3,000. They outsource that work to us and work on their own marketing which they have a team for, and we coordinate our efforts to make sure we’re aligned.

For companies that don’t exactly have the budget for a full outsourcing or a full in-house team, a hybrid setup is the perfect solution.

For example, here are our clients, and plenty of them have a hybrid setup with us:

Less access to the team

Unlike if you have an in-house marketing team, you only really get to communicate with the accounts manager assigned to you when you decide to outsource your marketing. In an in-house setup, you get to speak with everybody, but that isn’t possible with an agency unless you specifically request to do so.

Key takeaway

So, should you go for in-house vs outsourcing marketing to another agency? The question here is, as always, what does your company need? And can you afford it?

Whether you build your team in-house or outsource your marketing, there will be a set of benefits and challenges. It could be too expensive, or new employees could be difficult to train. There could be more risks involved or a potential for miscommunication. Or you could find that either one is more cost-effective and practical for you in the long run.

And for those who don’t have the resources to go fully in-house or outsourced, a hybrid setup can be the way to go. It’s the best of both worlds for some, although it could have its own challenges such as coordination and alignment. But at least, that option is available.

Do you think going in-house vs outsourcing marketing is the way to go? Or is it vice-versa, or even both? Let me know in the comments what you think!

The post In-House vs Outsourcing Marketing: The Ins and Outs appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

I found an interesting discussion/argument on Twitter that was sparked when someone mentioned that “Marketing is dead.” Plus there is no shortage of people proclaiming online (every year, it seems) that “SEO is dead.”

I know that content marketing isn’t exactly traditional marketing, but it is marketing nonetheless. I’m not here to argue whether they are dead or not (they aren’t, the fact that you look up stuff on Google is enough proof of that), but if people insist on content marketing vs SEO, then we should look at what they actually are for and if they’re worth the investment.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is the practice of creating and sharing useful and relevant content in the form of articles, podcasts, videos, and such to attract, acquire, and retain your target audience and build a long-term relationship with them.

For example, here at SEO Hacker I run a blog about SEO, digital marketing, and Google updates that I then share to my audience because this is my expertise and I want people interested in these topics—whether beginners or not—to have access to good, well-written, and well-researched information.

Aside from that, we have free case studies that you can download in case you need hard data.

I also have a podcast called The Leadership Stack where I interview entrepreneurs all over the world and discuss business, finance, and leadership. We also answer listener questions on our AMA Thursdays.

All this content, for free.

As you can see, my priority is creating good content and building a relationship with my audience. When they go on my websites, they have a pain point that they need addressed, so I want to make sure that they get the solution from me and even share it with their friends and colleagues.

By doing content marketing, I also set myself as an industry leader—a professional who is knowledgeable in their field. If you’re a potential customer, you would not want to hire someone who has no proof that they know what they’re doing.

What is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of optimizing a website for maximum visibility on search engines to increase organic traffic. By maximum visibility, what I mean is that we work hard to put your website on the first page of the SERPs (search engine results page).

For example, with SEO Hacker we make sure to rank #1 on the SERPs for the keyword “SEO Philippines.” As I mentioned in my previous blog post, if my company can’t even rank for our own keywords, why would you hire us? I make sure that I practice what I preach, which is holistic, white hat SEO that gets me and my clients’ websites on the first page for maximum visibility.

Why the first page? Because nobody ever really looks at the second page of the SERPs.

Although I mentioned that we optimize for search engines, that does not mean we leave people behind. One mistake that some make is to focus exclusively on search engines. You have to remember that it is people who submit their queries, not Google. So a crucial aspect of SEO is empathizing with customers to optimize for their search intent, ease of use, and so on.

What is the difference between content marketing and SEO?

In a nutshell, content marketing focuses on content creation, while SEO focuses on optimization of that content to ensure that it reaches its audience by ranking on the SERPs.

What if I focus on content marketing vs SEO or vice-versa?

Let’s say you wrote this helpful piece on the difference between social media monitoring and listening.

Then you just… let it sit there.

Yes, you’re supposed to write content that is relevant and useful and will generally promote itself through the likes and shares of your readers. However, no matter how good your content is, if it’s not searchable, it’s not optimized both for people and search engines, you don’t reach out to webmasters to build relationships and promote your content, then your efforts in writing awesome content will be wasted.

On the other hand, your optimization will be very limited without informative, well-written content. You can’t just have keywords floating around your webpages and expect to rank. SEO works well because you’re providing answers to searcher’s questions. If you don’t have the content, then why would anyone go to your website for answers?

My advice: Do them together

Instead of pitting content marketing vs SEO, I suggest doing content marketing and SEO.

As someone who is selling a product or service, you have knowledge in that field. You have information and a perspective that not everyone else has, and you can make shareable content off of that.

Then of course, let that content work with SEO to help you become searchable online and visible to your target market. As I mentioned earlier, establish yourself as an industry leader that people come to for answers.

Remember that people who go on Google or other search engines don’t really go there to just pass the time, unlike those who go on social media. These people have a goal in mind, which is to look for information, to purchase a product or service, and so on.

For example, let’s say a CEO is looking to invest in SEO for their company. They know that prices can be a little steep, so they want to know how to maximize their SEO ROI.

Because I wrote an article on that, they can easily find my company when they Google, “How to maximize SEO ROI.” Even if it’s not the first result, I have nine strategies that I’m giving away for free and it’s bound to catch their eye.

Key Takeaway

The question isn’t content marketing vs SEO, because you should be investing your time, energy, and resources on both. The question is, are you willing to put in the work and create good, informative content and use SEO to make them visible to your target audience?

Or, you know—you can hire me to do that for you.

The post Content Marketing vs SEO: Which is the Better Investment? appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Was there ever a time where you click on a website then right before you are able to scroll for the content that you need or select the product you want to purchase, there’s this big pesky pop-up that suddenly blocks your entire screen. Annoying right? We’ve all been there at least once and if it’s annoying to us SEOs and website owners, you can be sure that’s annoying to any other user as well.

These pop-ups are called Intrusive Interstitials and they may be the reason why your website is not reaching it’s full ranking potential.

Intrusive interstitials are one of the signals included in Google’s Page Experience update. It might be new for those who just started in SEO but intrusive interstitials is actually something Google has been looking at for years already and it might be pulling down your rankings unknowingly.

In this post, I’ll dive deeper into intrusive interstitials to not just to help you prepare for the upcoming page experience update but also to improve your website’s overall UX and avoid any negative effects of these on your rankings.

What are intrusive interstitials?

Intrusive interstitials are similar to how pop-up ads work but the difference is, they block most, if not all, content of a single webpage whether it’s immediately after a user enters from the search results or a different page or triggered by an action of a user on the page . It is a type of interruption marketing which can get higher click through rates but can also annoy users a lot.

Uses of interstitials may vary. It can be for newsletters, push notifications, ads, surveys, contact forms, and leads. There are times that they are beneficial to users but more often than not, it ruins the user experience on a website. 

How do intrusive interstitials affect SEO?

If you have intrusive interstitials on your website, it might be pulling down your rankings more than you expect. To give a little bit of a background, let’s go back to 2014 when Google started labeling websites as “mobile-friendly” in the search results. Because of the continuous rise of mobile searches that started overtaking desktop searches in some countries that time, Google wanted to make sure websites prioritize having optimized versions for mobile phones.

In August 2016, Google published an article about helping users easily access content on mobile and in January 2017, they updated this post announcing that pages where content is not easily accessible to users will be ranked lower. This specifically targeted intrusive interstitials on mobile where there is a lot less space to work. Nothing was said about interstitials on desktop but we can safely assume that there is also a penalty for them but not as painful as in mobile.

According to Google, here are examples of situations where interstitials are deemed intrusive and makes it difficult for users to access content:

• Interstitials that obstructs users from seeing the main content of the page or the content that they expected to see coming from the search results or while scrolling through the page
• Redirecting users to a standalone interstitial that users have no options but to see before seeing the content of the page.

• Interstitials that don’t exactly block the content but appear at the above-the-fold portion of a page pushing down the main content for users to see.

It is also important to note that having intrusive interstitials does not mean that your webpage will not rank at all, it may just not rank as high. Pages with intrusive interstitials however can still rank at the top if Google finds the content greatly relevant to users.

You shouldn’t also worry about intrusive interstitials pulling down rankings of your whole website. It will most likely only affect pages that have the interstitial so unless it’s applied sitewide, then you won’t be in too much trouble.

When are interstitials acceptable?

Yes, Google is cracking down more on intrusive interstitials especially when the Page Experience update comes but there are still some instances when interstitials are considered acceptable by Google. Meaning there will be no repercussions if you add them to your website. Here are Google’s examples:

• Interstitials that appear to be in response to a legal obligation, such as for cookie usage or for age verification.

• Login dialogs on sites where content is not publicly indexable. For example, this would include private content such as email or unindexable content that is behind a paywall.

• Banners that use a reasonable amount of screen space and are easily dismissible. For example, the app install banners provided by Safari and Chrome are examples of banners that use a reasonable amount of screen space.

If you’re using interstitials that were mentioned above, you don’t have to worry about being penalized as Google is smart enough to understand the purpose of interstitials in each webpage.

Tips on using intrusive interstitials without being penalized

With all these restrictions in using intrusive interstitials, it’s pretty easy to say that all websites should just stop using them at all. But if we look at Google’s third example of interstitials that are acceptable, we could safely assume that as long as you use interstitials responsibly, there will be no penalty for it.

Here are some tips in using interstitials properly:

• Set the trigger of the interstitial to not appear immediately once the user enters the page. Try setting it to at least 10 seconds or more as long as it gives users ample time to read the content they want to see.
• Having an action that triggers the interstitial with the users’ consent
• As mentioned in the 3rd example of acceptable interstitials, banners should have reasonable sizes and do not block the main content from being seen
• Interstitials should be easily dismissed by users and should have minimal chances of misclicks. 

Should you continue using interstitials?

Using intrusive interstitials to drive leads, show ads, signup for newsletters, etc. is an age old strategy and although it is proven to annoy users, it is also proven to be effective. However, I personally think that websites should start looking for alternatives. 

Mobile-friendliness is already one of the top ranking factors today and intrusive interstitials are hindrances for mobile UI/UX. Penalties from intrusive interstitials may be considered “soft” right now but I think it’s only going to get worse in the future.

The post What are Intrusive Interstitials and How do they Affect SEO? appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Video content is possibly one of the most famous platforms today where numerous people spend a lot of their time-consuming content in different mediums. With decent internet and improved video quality being more accessible as the years go by, videos can definitely attract large numbers of traffic from varying sources. 

This is why improving your video’s visibility is a must for SEOs and webmasters. Especially for the ones that use video as their primary content creation platform. It’s apparent that you should put in effort into making your videos more visible on the platforms mentioned, but it is also important for you to try and take advantage of any other platforms that can effectively market your videos. One specific platform would be Search Engines like Google. Although search engines are not primarily used to look for video content, there are keywords/queries that specifically serve video content since it targets the intent of the user, it’s a more convenient form of answering the user’s questions, and sometimes users prefer watching videos over reading text-heavy pages. That said, here’s what you need to know about Video SEO:

What is Video SEO and How is it Different from Traditional SEO

Video SEO is the act of optimizing your videos to help them be more visible in the search engine results for relevant and beneficial keywords/queries to reach a wider audience base. 

Video SEO and traditional SEO is closely related in terms of their goals – having the optimized page or video be more visible in the search results. The primary difference between the two is that instead of optimizing the factors inside a page, you will optimize various details/facets of the video. These facets include the Title, Description, tags, etc.

While having similarities, Video SEO and Youtube SEO are completely different practices wherein video SEO focuses on ranking your videos in search engines while Youtube SEO focuses, as the name suggests, on Youtube rankings.

Video SEO Keywords

The last thing you have to remember before optimizing your videos is you should be targeting relevant and beneficial keywords. This is one of the most important steps in your Video SEO Process since this will be your foundation to improving your video’s search visibility.

What you need to remember when you’re determining which keywords to optimize for is that the keyword’s intent and type of search results that they have should be a perfect match for your video. You can’t expect to rank your video for a keyword that only has web pages in its search results. At the same time, you can’t expect your video to actually perform well while ranking for keywords that serve a different intent. 

Here’s an example:

When you search for the keyword “Bow tie”, the main focus of the search results would be providing web pages that contain useful information about the object. 

But when you search for the keyword “How to tie a bow tie”, the search results drastically change to be filled with a massive video tutorial, images, and other relevant videos. The traditional webpage-heavy search results only start at the bottom of the page.

This means that the keyword “How to tie a bow tie” has search results that focus on video content. So, if you produce videos related to tying a bow tie, then this would be the perfect keyword for you. This is what it means to target the right kind of keywords for your videos. 

This isn’t anything new since search intent has been one of the most talked-about topics in the industry. As seasoned SEOs, we already know not to produce a text-heavy, informative landing page for keywords that primarily display product categories or specific product pages. This has the same thought process with Video SEO keyword research wherein we pick the right kind of keywords to achieve massive success.

Now that we’ve talked about the foundation of Video SEO, let’s talk about the best practices when it comes to optimizing your videos for search:

Video SEO Best Practices

Update older videos

A good first step in optimizing your videos for SEO is to take a look at your older video content. This would help you see what kinds of videos have been successful, along with videos that might be able to gain more traffic despite them being older. This means updating the title and description to include more searchable terms and keywords and even adding relevant links and tags that you might have missed out on before.

On YouTube, updating your video content is pretty simple to do as the editing system makes the process smooth and hassle-free. This is similar to updating older blogs to keep up with current content. While updating the videos themselves might not be an option, adding annotations and links to an updated video would not only bring in new viewers but also lead them into newer content.

Optimize quality

One of the best reasons why people view content is because of how well-made they are. In YouTube, the videos that get the most views are from channels that commit to putting in quality in their production. This means having good audio and video quality, along with solid graphics and images. Creating quality videos is something that may not happen on the very first video but investing your time and effort would bring in better-looking videos that audiences would enjoy.

While some people might think that you would need professional help to create quality videos, it can be done for much less, especially with much of the things that you need to know available on the internet. Content delivery is one of the most crucial elements of driving more views and traffic and making sure that you are able to refine it are ingredients for success.

Taking Advantage of Social Media 

Social media websites have become the best place to share content on the internet. From Twitter to Facebook, sharing content opens up more opportunities to expand your audience and drive more traffic into a website. Over the past few years, Facebook has been optimizing its website to become a more viable video platform, and that saw a rise in views and led to more users. As you can see, in the Google Videos search results, 3 out of the top 5 videos for my passion project, Leadership Stack, are from Facebook:

A lot of major brands have been making use of video content and taking a look at these would help you create quality videos, and also have an idea of what your audience would like to see in their videos. So, take advantage of social media and post your video content there as well.

Integrate them into the rest of your content

Since we’re on the topic of SEO, blog content has always been one of the best ways to drive organic traffic, and this also means that integrating video content can be something that would help both of your platforms gain more traffic. Adding videos add a new dimension to your content, allowing users to learn more about a certain topic, or even bridge different topics together. Blogs and videos allow more users to discover new websites, allowing more traffic and building more potential connections that can prove to be beneficial.

A lot of users want more interactivity in their content and adding videos to give them another dimension while reading. For example, reading a video game review article also has a link to a review video, allowing you to get to analyze the topic from a different perspective. Along with optimizing the user experience, you would also be able more views to your videos, along with bringing in traffic for your articles.

Key Takeaway

Video content has gone a long way since its start and is now one of the biggest platforms used by millions of people around the world. This is why it’s important for you to ensure that you are taking advantage of its popularity. With the help of the definitions and steps above, you would be able to optimize your videos and skyrocket your growth to new heights.

If you have questions and inquiries about video content or SEO, leave a comment below, and let’s talk.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Video SEO in 2021 appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Before you buy something, what do you do first? More often than not, your answer will be doing a quick search online. This is called Google’s Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).

Nowadays, before people go to the store or purchase an item online, they are most likely to go and search about it first. What are the different brands on offer? What are its differences in terms of price points? What can it offer me that competitors can’t? And the most important question — how can it improve my life?

To be able to win your website’s Zero Moments of Truth, you need to offer your consumers the information they need to finalize their purchase. In this article, I’ll be discussing how you can optimize your pages to win your ZMOT using SEO.

Understand Google’s Zero Moment of Truth

The first step is to understand exactly what Google’s Zero Moment of Truth is. Before ZMOT, the Traditional 3-Step Model involved a Stimulus, First Moment of Truth, and Second Moment of Truth. People would see a stimulus such as a television ad, go to the store to purchase it, and see the results for themselves at home.

With the advancement of technology, search engines are now more accessible and reliable in terms of giving consumers detailed product descriptions. Due to this, Google’s Zero Moment of Truth is now said to be a precursor to the First Moment of Truth. After people encounter a stimulus and before they go to the store, they will first go online to search about it. This new level is crucial as it has led to more informed consumers around the world.

What does this mean for your business? Two things. One, as more companies utilize ZMOT, your landing pages will need to stand out online. And two, you need to be able to let your customers know why your product or service is the best.

Let’s begin.

Find Your Zero Moments Through Search Intent

The first step to optimizing your landing pages is finding your Zero Moments. You have got to know what type of information people are looking for on search engines. Here are some key questions that you can ask yourself:

• How are people finding your landing pages?
• What keywords are they searching with?
• What “need” are they looking to solve?

To get the answers to all three questions, the most important piece of data that you need to interpret is “search intent”. Are your landing pages fulfilling the search intent of your customers?

For example, users that search for “cough medicine” are not looking for Buy 1, Take 1 deals. They’re looking for information about cough medicine and how it can help them.

This is part of the Zero Moment of Truth. Before people choose to buy cough medicine, they want to know about their choices. And now that you’ve discovered your search intent, you can move on to the next step — optimizing your landing page.

Generate Relevant Landing Pages

To win your ZMOT, the information you include in your landing pages should be relevant to the searcher. Think about their context and what information is crucial during their Zero Moment of Truth.

From the previous example, one look at Google’s top ranking results will show you that people are looking for HOW types of medicines can treat different types of coughs.

Let’s say one of your products is dry cough medicine. Is it a suppressant, expectorant, topical remedy, or a lozenge? What does that entail? Is it a temporary or long term solution? Can you get it over-the-counter or does it have to be prescribed? What makes it the best amongst its competitors?

Once you have these factors listed down, plan out your page’s design to make it more accessible and digestible.

Make Easily Digestible Page Designs

Mobile-friendly pages are crucial to Zero Moments. Why? Well, you may not know where people are accessing your site from.

For people at physical stores who want to learn about a product, they will probably use their smartphone. Those who heard about the product from a friend online could use their desktop to look it up. Some may even use other electronic devices such as tablets.

A factor that you should consider is the way that you present your information. It has to be laid out in a way that can be easily read and understood. Avoid long chunks of text as much as possible.

Here’s a sample from a landing page that our team created for a client’s cough medicine.

Not only that, but also take into account your site speed. Those who are in physical stores looking an item up on their mobile phones may find a slow website irritable. This could cause them to leave your site and increase your bounce rate.

Key Takeaway

To win Google’s Zero Moment of Truth with SEO, you will need to generate landing pages with relevant information that can be easily accessed by your customers.

Make sure that your content matches the search intent of your consumers. Do your research to find out what type of information they’re looking for when they go to search engines.

Then generate relevant landing pages with those factors in mind. Don’t forget to highlight the points that make your product or service stand out from its competition.

Lastly, ensure that your page has an easily digestible and mobile-friendly design. This is so that customers in the Zero Moment of Truth can easily and quickly make an informed decision.

These are just a few pieces of advice I have when it comes to winning your website’s Zero Moments. Now that you know about this decision-making change, review your other pages to see if they have what it takes to win.

The post Winning Google’s Zero Moment Of Truth (ZMOT) With SEO appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Page experience will officially be a ranking factor this 2021. This means that optimizing page experience is a necessity for webmasters and SEOs if they want to be successful in the long-run. Page experience used to be a vague topic where the only quantifiable and measurable aspect of it is on how fast a page or site loads. But with Core Web Vitals, specific page elements that affect a user’s experience in your page are quantified and this gives you different opportunities to improve your site’s page experience. Core Web Vitals is split into three major aspects (with minor ones), so with research and enough experimentation, and to be ready for 2021, here’s how you can optimize for Core Web Vitals:

How to Optimize for LCP – Largest Contentful Paint

LCP deals with a page’s loading performance – how fast a page loads. The standard loading time for your LCP to be in the green is for it to load in 2.5 seconds. This is the core web vital closes to site speed which means a lot of webmasters and SEOs already have experience optimizing for this. But there are specifics for this core web vital that you need to know and optimize for.

How to Optimize for FID – First Input Delay

FID deals with the speed at which the page responds to the first interaction a user makes. This means that FID is related to the clickability of the buttons, your drop-down menu, or forms that users need to fill up, etc. Basically, the first action-related aspect of the user on your website deals with FID.  

How to Optimize for CLS – Cumulative Layout Shift

CLS deals with the visual aspect of your page wherein the speed of how visible page elements change its position from one frame to the next is measured. This is given more weight on mobile view where movement on the page is more apparent. An important thing to note is that CLS measures the sum total of individual layout shift scores that happened while the page was open.

Tools to Use for Core Web Vitals

Since Core Web Vitals will be an integral part of the Page Experience update, it’s only right for Google to use these metrics in the tools commonly used by webmasters and SEOs. So, which tools should you use to measure the success (or the aspects that need improvement) of your site’s Core Web Vitals?

PageSpeed Insights

One of the most commonly used tools to measure pagespeed is Google’s PageSpeed insights. Aside from showing your page’s score, they now also include the Core Web Vitals metrics to help users understand how good a page is based on these metrics. Here’s how it looks:

It’s a great tool to use if you want to measure the success of your optimization efforts, but if you use this as the foundation of your efforts to optimize your site’s core web vitals, you’ll notice that there are a lot of important details missing in this tool. Such as, which pages need improvement on which specific core web vital. For that, we head on over to our website’s Google Search Console.

Google Search Console

To get into the specifics of core web vital a particular page needs improvement on, go to your website’s Google Search Console and click on the Core Web Vitals button on the sidebar and you’ll be able to see the report. 

Just click on the Type that you want to check and GSC will show you the pages that are performing poorly, needing improvement, or are already performing greatly. After finding the pages you want to optimize for Core Web Vitals, you can then use PageSpeed insights to check on suggestions for these specific pages.

Web.dev 

Web.dev has a free measurement tool that uses Lighthouse to run an audit on your page and display the necessary improvements you can do to improve your page/site’s performance, Progressive Web App status, Accessibility, Use of Best Practices, and SEO. Here’s what it looks like when you run an audit on their tool:

But the best thing about using web.dev’s measurement tool is that they categorize the tasks you need to do to improve performance, accessibility, or SEO by weighing on how impactful it is to your site’s overall improvement. They even provide guides on how you can do the task properly to ensure success.

Web Vital Chrome Extension

Lastly, a nifty tool you can use to check a page’s real-time core web vitals metrics while you’re on the page itself is the Web Vitals Chrome Extension. It not only helps you diagnose your own pages on-the-go, but it also helps you measure the performance of competing pages that you want to beat. Using this extension helps you save time, adapt faster, and be more efficient. Here’s how it looks:

Minor Web Vitals

Although the LCP, FID, and CLS are considered as the CORE web vitals, there are other metrics you can use to measure and deliver a great page experience to your users otherwise known as Minor web vitals or simply, web vitals. 

These metrics are often used as a substitute or supplement to the core web vitals largely due to the fact that most of these web vitals are in some way, related to the core web vital. Here are some of them:

Time to First Byte – TTFB

Simply enough, TTFB is the time it took for a browser to receive the first byte of the page content. This, in turn, is directly related to FCP since they both deal with a page’s loading aspect. 

Time to Interactive – TTI

A web vital that can impact FID, TTI is simply the speed that the page takes to load its main sub-resources and be able to reliably respond to user input. Since this mostly deals with a page’s interactivity, it’s more related to FID than FCP. 

Total Blocking Time – TBT

TBT is the metric that deals with the amount of time between FCP and TTI where there was a block in the thread that prevented the page to respond to an input by the user. For a more technical and comprehensive description, here’s a snippet from web.dev:

“The main thread is considered “blocked” any time there’s a Long Task—a task that runs on the main thread for more than 50 milliseconds (ms). We say the main thread is “blocked” because the browser cannot interrupt a task that’s in progress. So in the event that a user does interact with the page in the middle of a long task, the browser must wait for the task to finish before it can respond.”

Much like TTI, TBT deals with interactivity issues which is why it’s more related to FID than FCP. 

Key Takeaway

Optimizing for Core Web Vitals is a must if you want to be successful in the SERPs for the years to come. Core web vitals are technical in essence, so there might be webmasters and SEOs that are less knowledgeable in this aspect but there are a lot of developers and skilled technical SEO specialists that can help you in this regard. How are you optimizing for the core web vitals? Let me know in the comments below!

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The post Complete Core Web Vitals Guide appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

PDF downloads are one of the most common conversion methods for websites. Some samples would be businesses allowing users to download their company brochures or product catalogs and education websites that have educational materials for download.

You may be able to track the total number of downloads a PDF file gets by using a plugin but it doesn’t really tell you anything. Any piece of data is important if you want more people to download your PDF files from your website. Luckily, Google Tag Manager makes it easier for webmasters to track PDF downloads across their websites and collect data using Google Analytics.

Before you set up the tag to track PDF downloads, make sure that you’ve already set up Google Analytics page views tracking in your Google Tag Manager. If not, then I highly recommend that you go through that first before moving forward with this guide.

Setting up the Tag

Go to your Google Tag Manager dashboard, click Tags, then click new to start the setup. I named the tag PDF Download but you can name yours depending on your preferences.

Click Tag Configuration and select Google Analytics. It should be the first one on the list.

For Track Type select Event. This means that all PDF downloads will be recorded under Events in Google Analytics.

For the Event Tracking Parameters, you can customize however you want. In this example, I simply labeled Category as Download, Action as PDF Download, and I used the built-in variable {{Click URL}} for the Label meaning Google will automatically use the URL to label the PDF file that was downloaded.

You can use the other built-in variables and Google will automatically label the events for you but personally, I’d rather customize it cause letting Google label them automatically can get messy.

Value is optional. If your PDF downloads have a monetary value for you, then you can add it here.

This should how your setup should look like:

You can explore the additional options but I recommend that you don’t if you’re not quite familiar with them. 

Create the Trigger

After you’ve set up the tag, we’ll now select where the tag is going to trigger. Scroll down and you should see the option to set up a trigger.

Click the Plus button to create a new trigger. Name your trigger then click Trigger Configuration. Select Just Links under Click.

Under This trigger fires on, select Some Link Clicks, and choose Click URL. Now, you have two options here. If you select contains or ends with then just place pdf, the tag will track ALL PDF downloads. However, if you want to track a specific PDF file, then you should select equals and put the URL of the specific PDF file you want to track.

Your setup should look like this now:

Click Save on the trigger settings and Save your tag settings.

Test it on Preview Mode

At this point, don’t submit your changes immediately. I highly recommend that you use Google Tag Manager’s Preview Mode all the time when testing out new tracking tags on your website.

Go to Preview Mode and refresh your website. You should now see Google Tag Manager’s Preview mode on your website. Go to the page where the PDF file is available for download. Click the link or button and the Preview Mode should show that the tag you created was triggered.

If you encountered no problems at all, that’s it! You can now publish the changes you’ve made.

Setup Goals in Google Analytics [Optional]

If you consider PDF files as conversions, you can now set them as Goal completions in Google Analytics. This is optional and this is not required.

Go to Goals, select Download or Print as the template, name the Goal, and select Event.

For the Goal details, use the name that you used for Category and Action in Google Tag Manager. 

As for the Label, since I set it as {{Click URL}}, Google Analytics will use the URL of the PDF file as the Label of the event. If you want to set a Goal for a specific or single PDF file, use the Equals to option and input the exact URL of the PDF file you want to track in Label.

If you want to track all PDF files in the same goal, select Regular Expression which is more flexible. I set this to *.pdf. The wildcard means that Google will count any file download as a Goal completion as long as it ends with .pdf.

Check your Data in Google Analytics

Once you’ve saved the changes you’ve made in Google Tag Manager, all PDF downloads should be tracked immediately and you should start seeing some data in Google Analytics. You should see them by going to Behavior and clicking Events.

Aside from just knowing how many people downloaded PDF files from your website, you should be able to see much more data that you could use to optimize your campaigns. You’ll be able to collect data such as the number of downloads per day, pages user viewed before downloading, location, device, and more.

All these data are crucial for conversion rate optimization. I highly recommend that you do A/B testing to find out how you could further improve the number of PDF downloads in your website. Good luck!

The post How to Track PDF Downloads using Google Tag Manager appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Marketing (SMM) are two of the largest facets of digital marketing today. While some would argue that one is better than the other, combining SEO and SMM can provide excellent results.

Now I know what you may be thinking, a brand’s social media presence does not directly affect rankings on search engines and vice versa, right? 

Studies have shown that there is a correlation between good rankings and having many social media mentions and links. At the same time, you can convert website visitors into social media followers and engage with them more to increase brand loyalty.

You might be asking, can’t I just focus on one?’

Well, it’s a yes and a no. But hear me out.

Look at these numbers from an e-commerce website that is ranking well and has a good social media presence. Both Organic traffic and Social traffic are bringing in users and revenue really well.

You could definitely just focus on one. However, if you remove one, you are definitely missing out on a lot of opportunities to gain more revenue for your business.

Have I convinced you enough that SEO and SMM can work together? Well then here are some tips to get you started based on my experience and from other digital marketers.

Build trust by having optimized social media profiles and website

One of the hottest topics in SEO in recent years is E-A-T (expertise, authority, and trust). Google uses E-A-T to evaluate each website in its index according to the Google Quality Raters Guidelines.

The reason why I brought this up is that Google quality raters use business directories and social media profiles to assess if a website is legitimate and trustworthy. This means making sure that your social media profiles are properly linked to your website and have complete business details can improve your website’s E-A-T rating.

On the other hand, it also helps build customer trust. Maria Grace, owner/Online Marketing Expert at Maria Grace LLC, said that “a strong social media presence validates a business’ website and vice versa”.

She said “oftentimes, a potential customer that finds a business’s website will visit their social media profiles next, and the same is true the other way around. Having a strong presence online through several different channels builds a trust factor between your business and your future clients”.

Publish blog posts that can rank organically and make them easier to share

One of the easiest ways to make SEO and SMM work is to publish SEO content on your website and share them on your social media profiles to get social traffic.

Now the keyword here is posts that “can rank organically”. The reason is why many people rely too much on the traffic that they get from social media. It’s good that you can get a good amount of traffic from social media, however, social media posts decay at a fast pace. You share it today and get traffic to your website in the next 2 to 3 days while your post is at the top of your page. After that, you’ll see a huge dip.

Making sure that your blog posts rank organically allows you to get more traffic as time goes by.

Make sure that you make it easier to share your articles by installing social media share buttons on your website. When a person shares your article, they are most likely associated with other people that have the same interests. This prolongs your content’s visibility without you having to promote it continuously.

Drip feed content to your social media profiles

Drip feed is a strong content strategy that is used by many companies to keep customers engaged. What you do here is instead of sharing your published content from your website to your social media profiles in one go, you release content slowly.

Niles Koenigsberg, Digital Marketing Specialist at Fig Advertising, highly recommends the drip-feeding content to maximize visibility.

He said, “far too often, we see companies put in numerous hours on their blog content to only share the piece once or twice on social media in the days following its publication. Don’t fall into this vicious cycle! Instead, we’d recommend that you slowly drip feed your article on your social platforms throughout the rest of the year. When you drip feed content, you get to maximize the visibility of your blog for a greater length of time and you’ll be able to effectively engage with more followers through those posts.

Connect with other webmasters and build a network

Outreach is a huge part of link building for SEO. But guess what, website owners are also on social media! Building relationships on social media with other authoritative personalities in your niche/industry can go along way. Not only can you get backlinks, but you can also get visibility from their social media audience when you interact with them.

Here’s what Shayne Sherman, CEO of Techloris says: “Guest blogs, partnerships, and genuine content sharing go a long way toward maximizing your SEO strategy. You can drive more traffic to websites linking to yours, but more importantly, you build better connections in your field by being active on social media.”

“If you get a backlink, tweet about it. Tag the journalist or outlet in a Facebook post about your guest article, or a piece you were quoted in. Write your own thought leadership posts on LinkedIn, then use your insights for a future blog post – which you’ll share across social media, of course” Shayne added.

Use social media to keep track of the latest trends

Social Media is the best place to keep track of the latest trends. You can get a lot of social media engagements by publishing articles about the latest trends and sharing it on social media or through Moment Marketing.

Muhammad Mateen, Digital Marketing Strategist at Pure VPN, also shares the same sentiments. He suggested that you can also use this to generate keywords for SEO.

“Make use of social media for topic and keyword research. Pay attention to trending topics on Twitter and Facebook. Keep tabs on your competitors to determine the content that they are sharing and promoting as well as what is bringing the most engagement. Pay attention to keywords and headlines”.

“Then, let your voice be heard. By creating and promoting content on topics that are trending on social media, you increase the likelihood that you will hit the most important social media ranking factors” said Muhammad.

Why is it important to have both SEO and SMM in a digital marketing campaign?

As I’ve mentioned earlier, you can indeed have one without the other but having both makes up a well-rounded digital marketing campaign. One of the things you should take note of is that both mediums have their own pros and cons and that’s why you should diversify your strategies.

Brett Downes, Founder of Haro Helpers, pointed this out.

“SEO takes at least a few months to start producing any tangible results so SMM – paid or otherwise can get your company out there for branding purposes and to generate leads. You can use the demographic data gathered from social media visits to your websites to help guide your content and keyword strategy moving forward”.

“You should never put all your marketing eggs in one basket, having an omnichannel approach allows you to market your company over various mediums.

Not all of your target market will be using search engines regularly, vice versa for social media. Sure, you’ll overlap customers on both mediums – but that’s great for subconscious branding, but you’ll also reach potential customers you wouldn’t have if you just stuck to one medium”.

Abir Syed of UpCounting seconds this. He said, “It’s usually important to have both because different people will come across your product in different ways, and may need additional exposure before they convert. Some products benefit more from the pull marketing of SEO, others more from the push of SMM, but most benefit from both – especially with retargeting. But at the end of the day, the point is that any channel will have diminishing returns, so diversifying to as many channels as possible is a great way to maximize your ROI”.

Digital Marketing and other types of marketing won’t reach it’s fullest potential if you only dip one foot in. If you have the time and resources, I say go for it. I highly recommend that you use different facets so you can reach a wider audience and you don’t miss out on any opportunities for growth.

The post How Digital Marketers Make SEO and SMM Work Together appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

With most of us working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve got a little more time on our hands that we can spend for something else rather than getting stuck in traffic. We have more time to spend with our family, catch up on our favorite shows, and do some home cleaning. As much as it is the perfect time for leisure, it is also the perfect time to sharpen our skills as SEOs. 

There are a lot of free resources online that you could just go right now and finish at your own pace. I’ve curated some of the most notable platforms that are guaranteed to bring value to you whether you are an SEO expert, a business owner, or someone who is just starting out. 

Google Digital Garage

Website: https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage

Google Digital Garage is a free platform by Google that offers more than a hundred free courses. The course topics range from digital marketing to web development and career development. Some courses were created by Google themselves while some are from popular universities. All of these courses are free and there also certification courses that are available.

Inside the Google Digital Garage, there is also a section for webinars that you could register for. Right now, Google Digital Garage is also offering free training for those that are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. You could see it under the “Remote Work” section.

Google Skill Shop

Website: https://skillshop.withgoogle.com/

Google Skillshop is another free training platform by Google but is more catered for people who are looking to learn how to use Google products such as Google Analytics, Google Marketing Platforms, Google Ads, Google My Business, and Waze ads.

These courses are designed by Google product experts themselves and it comes in with free certification that you could add on your resume.

Moz Academy

Website: https://academy.moz.com/

Moz has a whole library of SEO courses for those who are just beginning to learn SEO or those who are already experts and would want to know more. Moz courses cost from 49 dollars to 595 dollars but right now, in an effort to help those that are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Moz has opened its library to everyone for free until May 31. Accessing Moz Academy is easy. Just create an account or use your existing Moz account (you don’t have to be a Moz SEO tool used to access this) and use their promo code “wegotthis” on all of their courses.

SEMRush Academy

Website: https://www.semrush.com/academy/

SEMRush’s free learning platform has courses that are perfect for learning the fundamentals of SEO. SEMRush Academy also includes courses on how to maximize SEMRush tools that is beneficial if you are a SEMRush user. These free SEO courses come with an official SEMRush certificate which is a great addition to your resume since SEMRush is one of the most popular SEO software in the industry.

Shopify Academy

Website: https://academy.shopify.com/

Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the world and they are offering courses on setting up an e-commerce site through Shopify, SEO for e-commerce, and growing your business. 

The COVID-19 pandemic just showed how important it is to have an e-commerce website with most physical stores unable to operate due to quarantine. This is a great opportunity if you are a business owner to learn more about how you could transform your business digitally.

Hubspot Academy

Website: https://academy.hubspot.com/

Hubspot, popular for their inbound marketing, sales, and CRM software, also has a huge library of courses and certifications. You could find a wide variety of topics about SEO, inbound marketing, content marketing, copywriting, sales, and even design. All of their courses and certifications are free.

Hubspot Academy is a great platform if you want to be a well-rounded online marketer and the certifications also help in improving your career. If you are a business owner, inbound marketing is a strategy that you should highly consider in your marketing strategy and training your team through Hubspot is a great way to start.

Yoast Academy

Website: https://academy.yoast.com/

WordPress is one of the most SEO-friendly platforms if you want to build a website and Yoast is one of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress. Yoast Academy has lessons on SEO and how to use WordPress for beginners. Some of the courses are free but some paid courses are accessible as well through a free trial.

SEO Hacker School

Website: https://seo-hacker.org/

I started the SEO Hacker blog to share all of my learnings from my experiments when I was learning how to do SEO for myself. 10 years later, I am blessed to still be writing and sharing my learnings through this blog. But aside from the SEO Hacker blog, our team also created an SEO school if you want more in-depth lessons. We have a lot of free courses available. All you have to do is register and you can access them immediately.

Key Takeaway

All of these resources that are listed are free and easily accessible with your laptop through the internet. These are all self-paced courses that you could finish at your own time. This gives you no reason to make an excuse to learn more and sharpen your skills.

Choosing what we do in our free time is crucial in our personal growth and career growth. We might feel like we have more time in our hands with everyone working remotely, but we still only have 24 hours a day. It is always best that we do something productive with our free time and continue to add value to ourselves.

The post Free Digital Marketing Courses for SEOs appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.