by Dan King | Feb 16, 2017 | local seo strategy
I’m asked about this quite frequently. It’s this question about how to design a website and ensure it’s set up for the best possible search engine ranking. Because being found on search engines can make or break your online success. So it’s not just a question about ranking high for a certain keyword. It’s about ranking high for the best keywords to drive results.
Before we dig into the details, it’s important to understand that search engine optimization (SEO) success is dependent on two factors. The first factor is on-site design and setup. This has to do with the structure and mapping of pages on your site, the content you offer, and several behind-the-scenes settings. The second factor is off-site promotion. This has more to do with link building and gaining outside credibility for your website. Our focus here today will be with the first of these two factors, on-site design.
The Background
A few years ago, some friends started a new laser engraving business. As they were kicking things off, they knew that the website was going to be a key piece of their strategy. So we got together and built a site around their main keyword of laser engraving. The site did well in ranking for that phrase, and it helped generate several new customers for them.
Over time, the business continued to grow, and the owners gained a better understanding of their niche. Most of the work they are doing falls into two main categories. One type of customer they get is business and corporate accounts looking to get logos engraved onto other products as promotional giveaways. The other type of customer is looking for personalization on keepsake items, such as wedding party gifts.
As they began to expand and focus on those two categories, they also felt like it was time for the website to evolve with them. The good news is that the website was rock solid with terms related to laser engraving. However, it wasn’t anywhere on the radar for terms related to these two categories. The new design would need to capitalize on these niche categories.
Keyword Research (Where a Good SEO Strategy Begins)
When we set out to design a website for search engine ranking, the first thing we need to do is keyword research. I’m a firm believer in following what the data tells me. I never arbitrarily pick a keyword phrase out of a hat and build a website.
We targeted three keyword phrases in order to show up in searches for the best possible audience.
- laser engraving (already ranking well locally for this, and didn’t want to lose it)
- promotional products
- personalized gifts
We selected these phrases after evaluating dozens of options and alternatives in Google’s Keyword Planner tool. When doing this for a local business, it’s helpful to filter results geographically. For example, you don’t want to use soda in an area where it’s more commonly called pop. Filtering geographically will get you the terms people actually use in your area to find what you’re offering. Beyond that, it’s all about finding the terms that have the highest search volume. And it’s a bonus if they have low competition. These terms present the greatest opportunities to capture visitors.
How To Design a Website for Results
Search engines are looking for authority. They want to ensure that the pages they send searchers to are the most helpful resources available. Old SEO methods of keyword stuffing pages just don’t do the trick anymore. So you need to show value. One of the best ways to show value (and authority) is through strong content. And long-form content typically shows higher authority than a few short blurbs. Therefore we built three high-authority pages mapped out like this:
- Homepage (main keyword: laser engraving) – Our target for the homepage is 1500 words of content. Within that content, we have sections with short summaries for the other target keyword phrases. And then we added other general information about laser engraving.
- Authority page (keyword: promotional products) – The target for other authority pages is at least 800 words of content. We used similar keywords, such as promotional items and custom logo engraving, but the main focus was on primary term.
- Authority page (keyword: personalized gifts) – This page has the same 800-word target and used other supporting key phrases like anniversary gifts and personalized wedding gifts.
The new website structure focuses primarily on these three pages. Other existing pages aren’t removed. However, the more we can focus on core navigation for these three pages, the better. Therefore, we add the new authority pages to the header menu and link to them from the homepage. Likewise, the authority pages link to each other and back to the homepage.
Back-End Tactics to Improve Search Engine Ranking
Strong SEO writing is an important part of this process. Additionally, there are some other back-end pieces that to take care of. It’s things like creating strong snippets (using Yoast SEO) that can make a big difference. Not only should a snippet contain your keywords, but it also needs a strong call-to-action.
In addition to this kind of metadata, we make sure other elements are properly addressed:
- Content readability – Yoast SEO does a great job scoring the page content for this. And I like to run all of my content through Hemingway App to help me find and correct difficult to read sentences, passive voice, and other readability factors.
- Link balance – Every page should have links to other internal (your site) pages, but also external links to other websites. Don’t overdo it, but make sure the page’s links are strong and add value.
- XML sitemap considerations – Static pages on the site that provide authority should be set to a high priority for the search engine bots. Additionally, less important pages (like your contact page, etc) should be bumped down in priority or removed from indexing altogether. This helps tell the search engines to determine what content is really important on the website.
Beyond this, if you have green lights from Yoast SEO on readability and SEO, then you should be all set.
The Results
Before this redesign work on the website, laser engraving was already performing well for us in local searches. Usually in the top three, and sometimes number one. The site was not ranking at all for the terms promotional products or personalized gifts. Once Google’s bots got to index the new site changes, we noticed some nice results. The homepage now seems to have a pretty strong hold on the #1 spot for laser engraving locally. And local searches for the other terms are now ranking the website in the top five!
Promotional products is currently ranking the homepage at #5…
Personalized gifts is performing even better with TWO pages ranking in the top five! Here you see that not only did the homepage rank for this term, but so did the authority page…
Other Considerations
These results were achieved without any other external SEO work. Simple, yet strong design strategy resulted in major improvements in search engine rankings.
At the same time, there are a few other tactics which could support (or even improve) strong results like this:
- Link building and other off-site SEO promotion – Building a good portfolio of links pointing back to all of these pages could continue to enhance their credibility.
- Content marketing strategy – Producing fresh and relevant content using related keyword terms can strengthen on-site authority.
- Social media marketing – Providing social proof for these pages by sharing them regularly on social media sends strong signals to the search engines.
- High-performing WordPress web hosting – Making sure that your website runs at peak performance is crucial to any SEO strategy.
There’s definitely a strategy to follow if you want to build a website for great search engine ranking. And the key really is to think through all of the elements of the design and don’t skip some for convenience. If you do a good job with all of this, you’ll see the payoff in increased visibility (and traffic).
by Dan King | Jan 4, 2017 | local seo strategy
Winning in local SEO isn’t about doing some magic trick and spiking yourself up to number one overnight. Remember the story about the tortoise and the hare? The idea is simple. Keep doing the right things consistently over time, and you’ll win. You can increase your organic (not paid ad) Google traffic over time by consistently focusing on a few key tactics. That’s what happened last year with one local business we work with. And I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t have much hope for them at times through this process. If you understand SEO, then you know there are internal and external factors that impact your rankings. Internal factors might include having a strong, user-friendly website design and authoritative content in your area of expertise. External factors deal with off-site issues like having a strong backlink strategy. In order to do really well, both of these areas need to be handled well.
What We Could Have Done Better
It was a year of transition for this local business. Over the course of the year, there were three different Marketing leads to work with. The transitions meant different ideas coming to the table regularly, and a need to move slowly on big changes. For us, that meant we weren’t able to pull the trigger on some bigger website changes we felt needed to get done. In particular, it would have helped our SEO chances greatly if we were able to:
- Update the look and feel of the site to a more modern design
- Restructure and streamline the site for user experience and a strong sitemap
- Bulk up thin content pages to show greater authority
The good news is that it looks like we may be giving these things more attention this year. With this stuff not running optimally, we saw improvements in Google traffic, but not as much as we could have.
The Improvement We Saw In Google Traffic
In 2015, organic search produced 4,333 first-time visitors to the website. In 2016, that number was 6,446 first-time visitors. That’s an increase of over 2,100 more people (48.77%) coming through their (virtual) doors! This chart might not look overwhelming, but remember the tortoise and the hare? Each month this year (blue bar) represents an increase anywhere from 110 to 280 more new visitors per month than the previous year (orange bar). It represents steady, consistent work resulting in steady, consistent results.
What We Did To Get These Results
Early in the year, we did some initial cleanup and link building, which gave us a bit of a boost out of the gate. Internally, there was some cleaning up of meta descriptions (the snippets you see in search results), and other optimization. Externally, we did multiple tiers of link building and social bookmarking. That all gave us a good start, but the real story is in the consistency throughout the year. Here’s what we did, and all within a budget of less than $400/mo:
- Backlink Cleanup – Before we got into building our (good) backlink portfolio, we first needed to get rid of any old backlinks that were hurting us. We were able to uncover several links that held us down and get rid of them (as far as Google is concerned).
- Creating Social Signals – We have a way to sort of mimic the effect that celebrity social media accounts can have when they share something. These social signals usually have a quick impact by showing the search engines that something on your site is of high social value.
- Contextual Links with Guest Posting – The idea here is to get authoritative websites to write an article about a subject related to you and include a link in the article back to your website. The higher authority of the website, the higher value of the link back to you.
- Advanced Crowdsearch – This is a strategic way of creating some of the other signals search engines look at to determine the value of your site (and its content). When search engines see the value, they bump you up in the rankings.
After the backlink cleanup, we just put the other three items on a three-month rotation. Each month we would do just one of them, and target it at the homepage of the website. After we worked through all three of them over a three-month period, we would start over.
Consistency is the Key
It’s also important to note that if the budget allowed for us to do two or three of these things every month, the results we saw would be greatly magnified. You get out of it what you put into it. But more importantly, the key is in the consistency.
Doing the right things regularly paid off by generating more Google traffic to the website. And if we’re doing our job well on the website, then we’ll be converting those visits into sales leads and then into customers. More on that idea some other time… https://twitter.com/FistbumpMedia/status/816826951105216514
by Dan King | Oct 26, 2016 | business strategy
Good website design and management is not based on feelings or personal preferences. Rather it’s based on data and facts that move you closer to your goals. That’s why I love A/B split testing. It’s all about figuring out the correct path for your design based on hard data.
If you’re serious about measuring the ROI of a website, then A/B split testing will help you work towards the best design by allowing you to test different options against each other to discover which is the higher performing design. You start by picking a key conversion metric (like a buy button, a sign-up button, or some other call-to-action or metric), and designing two (or more) versions of the page. Visitors to the page can be randomly served one page or the other, and the tracking tools will measure how often your desired conversion happens on each page. Once you determine a winner, then you can direct all traffic to the final, higher-performing page.
You should also consider incremental design using A/B split testing. Once your initial experiment is complete, you can try again with the same page by changing another element, allowing you to continue improving the page’s performance over time.
There are many tools available to help you with A/B split testing. But everything you need to run a split test experiment is available for free in Google Analytics. Here’s what you need to do to set up your own experiments:
Step 1: Decide What You Want to Measure
The first thing you’ll need to do is to determine what you want to measure. Is it a site metric like pages per visit, or length of time on site? Or is it getting to a specific page like a sign-up form, or a purchase “thank you” page?
As you define your desired outcomes, you’ll need to create multiple versions of the web pages you plan to test hoping to achieve that outcome. Each of these two (or more) pages will have something different in their design. While you can test two pages with completely different designs, it’s best to test smaller elements of similarly designed pages. Test things like placement of the call-to-action on the page, or the colors of sign-up forms, or the wording used in the header text on the page, or whatever other option you want to test. Whatever it is, create the pages with your desired outcome in mind and how you think you can improve conversion rates with your page variation(s).
Once you have your split test pages created, you’ll be able to set up the goals you’ll need to measure their success.
Step 2: Create Goals in Google Analytics
Once you know what it is you want to measure, then you’ll need to set up the Goals so that Google Analytics can track the conversion rate on those events. Goals are good to track regardless, but you’ll need specific goals to use for your split test experiment. Here’s how you set those up in GA:
Go to the Admin tab in Google Analytics- Select the profile you want to add your goal to
- Click on the ‘Goals’ tab
- Click the ‘+ New Goal’ button
- Select the option for either an existing template or a custom setup (most likely a template)
- Complete the Goal Description by giving it a name and selecting the type
- Complete the Goal Details with the desired outcome/values for your goal type
- Click ‘Save’
Once your goals are set up, then you’ll be able to create your split test experiment.
Step 3: Create Your Split Test Experiment in Google Analytics
At this point, you should have two (or more) versions of a web page you’ll be testing, and at least one goal you’ll be using to track and compare the pages. With that you’ll be able to set up your split test experiment in Google Analytics.
Go to the Reporting tab in Google analytics- Select ‘Experiments’ in the ‘Bahvior’ menu
- Click the ‘Create experiment’ button
- Set name and objective for the experiment
- Configure your experiment with the original page and variations
- Insert your experiment code immediately after the head tag for the original page in your test (Google Content Experiments plugin)
- Review and start your experiment
Your experiment will run for a period of time (Google defaults it to 30 days) tracking the goal conversion as it sends visitors randomly to the original page and each variation. After your experiment has run for a sufficient amount of time, you’ll be able to determine a winner.
Step 4: Determine the Winner and Repeat as Needed
Once you determine a winner, then you can direct all traffic to the winning page. Now you can be confident that you’ll be getting the better conversion rate for your goals. At this point you can leave it alone, or try another change on the page. The beauty of incremental design using A/B split testing is that you can constantly be working towards better conversions. The result will never take you backward. If you try another split test, and your new “B” page does not perform better than your “A”, then you keep the existing “A” page. And when a new “B” page out-performs your “A” page, then it takes over as your new “A” page for the next test.
I recently worked with a client on a split test for the highest traffic page on their website (it gets more traffic than the homepage). The problem with the page was that it also had a high bounce rate. So we knew it was effective in getting people TO the website, but not with KEEPING them there. We reviewed the page and rebuilt it with a cleaner design and a nice call-to-action at the top of the page to encourage click-through to another page for more information (lowering that bounce rate). With the newer, much fancier design, we were certain the new variation would be a big hit with visitors.
Much to our surprise, the split test experiment showed that the original not only out-performed our awesome new design, but it beat it pretty decisively. That was a great reminder for me that I should never base design on feelings or personal preferences. Data shows the real impacts.
Use the data available to you effectively, and you’ll reap the rewards of a high-performing website.
Note: This post was originally published on the MainWP Blog.
by Dan King | Oct 18, 2016 | publishing strategy
Thirty-nine. Treinta y nueve. Trente-neuf. Thelathini na tisa.
No matter how you say it, that was the number. After months of hard work and promotion, my first month of sales on my first self-published book netted me the whopping sales total of 39 copies. I wanted to give up. But I believed in the story too much. And I’m glad I didn’t quit. That little book has now reached over 13,000 people and has been #1 on Amazon’s best-seller list for books in Christian Evangelism (multiple times). Better yet, it’s helped me grow my platform and reach many new readers who I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with several authors and dozens of self-publishing projects in recent years. One particular client has about a dozen books released, and some do really well, while others flop. The crazy thing is when we think we hit on an idea that will really resonate with readers, often they flop. Meanwhile, other less scintillating e-books quietly bring in the sales, anchoring an impressive library of content.
I think where some aspiring writers fall short is by giving up too easily or not thinking enough about long-term strategy when it comes to publishing. Here’s the thing…
With that in mind, here are a few pointers which may help you maximize the reach of your message, and build your platform to share whatever it is God puts on your heart next.
(1) growing your e-mail list
Especially with a first-time author project, I usually recommend launching the book in Kindle and PDF format. We get it out there on Amazon to start selling, but the big strategic move is leveraging the project to build a mailing list. Offering the free download get’s people on your list so you can continue to share through your blog what God is putting on your heart.
More importantly, it gives you the chance to continue to market your stuff down the road. You may reach out later to tell them about special Kindle promos, the project becoming available in other formats, additional study and small group resources, and new projects you’re launching.
The ROI of email is typically higher than any other platform, so using the project to get emails should be at the foundation of your long-term publishing strategy.
(2) using the free download to promote paid sales
One of the differences between PDF and other formats of the book is that the PDF should clearly inform the reader that it’s also available on Amazon. PDF is a great way give them the content, but it’s not as convenient to read, especially on mobile devices. So letting the reader know the book is available in a more friendly format (along with the link to go purchase it) is a simple way to drive sales. Many readers will register to download the free version, start reading it, and then when they decide they like it, they’ll go buy it in the more convenient format.
(3) switching to kdp select
Whenever I do the free download, I usually do it for a limited time. The length of time depends on how well it’s driving email subscribers for you. Then at some point, you’ll want to pull it down and switch to a Kindle-only strategy for the e-book. Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) has a program called KDP Select. The idea is that when you enroll your book into KDP Select, you are committing to at least 90 days of it being exclusive (in electronic format) to Amazon.
In return, you’ll get some sweet benefits. One is that it can be made available to Amazon Prime members in the lending library. They get it for “free” as part of their membership, but the author still gets paid a cut of the fund Amazon dedicates to participating books. Sometimes, you even get paid more than the sales price of the book!
Then there’s also the opportunity to stimulate sales with a discounted or free promotion.
(4) using free kindle downloads to increase paid sales
One of the most important factors of success on Amazon is understanding the Amazon ecosystem. You can certainly promote your stuff to the people who already follow you, but your goal is to gain some new audience by getting your work in front of people who don’t know you. There are some key triggers in Amazon that will lead to your book being found. One is the reviews, especially by those with a “verified purchase”. The other is getting into the “customers who bought this also bought” rotation for other books.
The KDP Select program allows you to offer 5 days of free download every 90 day enrollment period. You should use every single one in every single enrollment period!
The math is simple. The more people who get the book in their hands (with a verified purchase), the more likely you are to get reviews on the book. Additionally, when an Amazon customer gets your book for free, they’re still “buying” it. Their purchase price was $0.00, but they still bought the book, which makes it part of their purchase history, which means it’ll build up sales to become part of that “customers who bought this” rotation for other books those readers have purchased.
I regularly see that when we’re not doing free promos, paid sales dip. And when we do the promos, paid sales rise.
(5) never stop selling it
This one is tricky, but it gets down to this question… How much do you believe in the message God has put on your heart? If the answer is “a lot,” then you won’t give up on it. And selling doesn’t have to be an annoying thing. Often it can be done simply by talking about milestones. I’ll share on social media when one of my books hits the top of a sales chart, or when I get a review that fires me up…
Just saw this statement in a new review on The Unlikely Missionary: From Pew-Warmer to Poverty-Fighter over on…
Posted by Dan King on Monday, August 4, 2014
I’ve just seen too many examples of books going completely against the traditional sales spike in the first 60-90 days from launch to think that we should stop telling a certain story after sales settle. In fact, I’ve seen sales rise substantially after 6 months or a year on the market. But it won’t rise if you give up on it.
(6) never stop creating new content
If you’re a writer, then chances are you’re not going to be done writing after you got that one project out. In fact, you probably can’t imagine NOT writing. So keep it up! Keep working on new projects. This is another simple math deal. The more publishing projects you have out there, then more potential “entry points” you have for someone to discover your writing, and to connect with everything else you do. Some will hit big, and some won’t. So just keep moving forward with this as part of your regular writing strategy.
Set a goal for yourself. Maybe it’s one new e-book every 3-6 months. Just set a schedule and commit to it, just like you do with your other (daily?) blogging.
last thought…
Here’s the key to all of this. Too often writers look at getting something published as an end goal. We work to get published so that one day we can make money from our craft. Wrong. We write because we have something to communicate, we have a story to tell. And self-publishing is one of the tools that can be used to help you do that. It also happens to be one that could generate income. More importantly, it’s a tool you can use to share ideas and whatever God puts on your heart. If you approach self-publishing with a solid strategy to guide you, then you can substantially expand the reach of your voice.
Note: This post was originally published on the Allume Blog.
by Dan King | Oct 4, 2016 | local seo strategy
The internet of today is competitive, and having a strong local SEO strategy is a necessity for small businesses. Most business owners know the difficulty of remaining competitive online, but they don’t know where to start. Small businesses owners should consider these local SEO optimization tips.
Stay Compliant With Google Updates
Google rolled out their latest update in September 2016, and it encourages business owners to provide a more useful, relevant experience for searchers. The Penguin update lists a few strategies that can help business owners push their sites to the top of local rankings. Some factors revealed in the Penguin update include domain authority, on-page optimization, and the physical address of businesses.
Create Pages for Local Listings
Another effective strategy is to build local listing pages on directories such as Google+, Yelp, and Foursquare (just to name a few). Business owners should create profiles on these directory sites and claim site ownership. From there, the owner should ensure the accuracy and consistency of the listings. By listing the website on these directories, business owners can rise through local listings.
Sign Up for Your Google My Business Page
By signing up for Google’s My Business, a local business owner can make his or her site more visible on Google+, Search, Maps, and Google Local. When the site owner signs into this service, they can enter or update the business’ address and contact information, and they can also access other apps such as Reviews, Insights, Analytics, and Hangouts. The business search service can be accessed via desktop browser or mobile app, and the app provides notifications when someone reviews the site on Google+.
Add a Blog Page to the Business Website
Putting a blog page on the company website will help the owner improve the site’s visibility. The more posts you publish, the more visitors will come to the site. Writing blog posts allows business owners to target locally-relevant search terms and keywords, and these posts can keep visitors on the site once they’re there. The longer a visitor stays on the site, the more likely they are to turn into a customer. Relevant, engaging blog content reduces bounce rates, which are an important measurement of the site’s search engine ranking.
Optimize Your Site for Mobile Devices
Optimizing a site for mobile users is another important way to improve its search engine rankings. With each Google algorithm update, mobile optimization becomes more important. Updates prioritize sites that display well on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, and these sites rank higher in mobile search results.
Ask Visitors for Positive Reviews
Google gives great importance to online reviews during site rankings. Good reviews build trust in a site and enhance credibility, and that’s why it is important for business owners to gather positive reviews from customers. Owners can increase the likelihood of customer endorsement with emails listing all the major review sites such as Google Places and asking for their input on products and services.
Create Engaging Content
With each algorithm update, it becomes increasingly important to have site content that offers users something of value. It’s quite easy to create engaging, valuable site content. All the business owner has to do is determine customers’ concerns and write content that attempts to resolve them. By solving a reader’s specific problem, a business owner can enrich that customer’s online experience.
Create and Maintain Social Media Pages
Building a solid presence on sites like LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter is critical for a business owner who wants high search engine rankings. Social media also has indirect effects on site rankings. When a company’s fan base increases, more people visit the site. Search engines take site popularity cues from search results, and increased traffic can boost the site’s rankings.
Improve the User Experience
Business owners should focus on an improved user experience (UX) by making sites easy to navigate. Clear layouts, appealing designs, and easy-to-find contact info can go a long way toward a better UX, and these factors can encourage visitors to remain on the site longer. When visitors stick around, conversion and bounce rates improve, and it boosts the site’s search engine ranking.
To dominate search rankings, site owners should regularly update site content. This helps sites in two main ways. First, regular updates keep customers coming back to see what’s new. Second, Google’s algorithm updates tend to favor sites that frequently post new content. By following the tips listed here, business owners can improve their local SEO.
P.S. Learn more about our search engine optimization (SEO) services, and drive more traffic to your site.
This chart might not look overwhelming, but remember the tortoise and the hare? Each month this year (blue bar) represents an increase anywhere from 110 to 280 more new visitors per month than the previous year (orange bar). It represents steady, consistent work resulting in steady, consistent results.
Good website design and management is not based on feelings or personal preferences. Rather it’s based on data and facts that move you closer to your goals. That’s why I love 
Thirty-nine. Treinta y nueve. Trente-neuf. Thelathini na tisa.
The internet of today is competitive, and having a 
