How to Become the World’s #1 Expert in Your Niche
Whether you’re a brand, a webmaster or a solo blogger, it’s essential your audience takes you seriously.You need to prove you know your stuff.
But in a world that’s become increasingly saturated with self-appointed “gurus,” it’s become incredibly difficult to separate yourself from the masses.
That’s why authority and credibility have become the name of the game.
How do you achieve authority and credibility?
It’s not something you can buy. It must be cultivated, and that takes time.
You can’s just go from being an unknown to being a top industry expert overnight.
But I’ve learned over the past decade that there are several ways to expedite the process and attain expert level status within a reasonable amount of time.
In this post, I would like to share with you some lessons I’ve learned, top strategies I’ve used as well as some specific tools you can use to become the world’s number one expert in your niche.
You need to be all in
Before you do anything, you need to make sure you’re truly interested in and passionate about the niche you’re focusing on.Let’s be honest.
It’ll be an uphill battle if you’re only lukewarm about the topic you are choosing.
Talking about it, writing about it, vlogging about it will inevitably become a chore, and you’ll lose momentum.
I can’t tell you the number of projects I’ve abandoned over the years simply because I wasn’t fully invested in them.
I lacked the passion.
And as Gary Vaynerchuk would say, “Passion is priceless.”
What I’m saying is before you get in too deep, make sure the niche you’re focusing on is something you’re deeply interested in and passionate about.
This is the key to sustaining you for the long haul.
Quite frankly, this has been a huge factor in my success.
It’s not by chance that my niche is digital marketing.
I truly love it. I eat, sleep and breathe digital marketing.
Talking about it all the time doesn’t feel like work. It’s fun.
That’s how I’ve been able to write over 4,000 blog posts over the past 10 years.
I would have never made it otherwise.
The bottom line is you need to be all in before anything else.
That’s a prerequisite.
And here’s a little slice of advice.
The smaller your niche is, the quicker you can build influence.
In fact, a study by Technorati found,
more than 54% of consumers agree that the shorter the community size, the greater the influence.
Keep it in mind because “niching down” is often a good idea when you’re seeking to attain expert status in a hurry.
Make learning a habit
Before you can share your knowledge with others, you need to accumulate your own pool of knowledge first.The quickest way I’ve found to build a solid body of knowledge is to surround myself with the topic I’m interested in.
In other words, you need to get in the habit of learning continuously.
Fortunately, the Internet is the ultimate vessel for building your knowledge.
It’s simply a matter of finding the best possible resources for research and learning.
This usually starts with blogs, slideshows, infographics, etc.
But I have a little trick for streamlining things and finding some of the top resources quickly.
Here’s what you do.
Let’s say you want to become an expert in urban farming.
First, go to BuzzSumo.
Type in a search phrase.
Then click on “Content Analysis.”
Now click on “Search.”
You’ll get a bunch of results.
Next, scroll down to the section called “Most Shared Domains by Network.”
You’ll be able to see which websites, blogs and publications are receiving the most shares.
For instance, it’s clear that inhabitat.com is killing it in terms of shares relating to “urban farming.”
It’s definitely a site I would want to check out.
You can also scroll down to the bottom to see the top 10 pieces of content for the moment.
I’ve found that BuzzSumo is absolutely perfect for identifying key resources for research.
Build a hub
There’s a lot I love about content marketing!But what I love the most (besides increasing sales) is that it has allowed me to build my reputation and establish a loyal audience.
When it comes to boosting your authority and credibility, I can’t think of a better way than simply creating great content around your niche.
It’s the perfect way for putting your money where your mouth is and proving you truly know what you’re talking about.
Create your personal “hub,” where you use a variety of different mediums to discuss your niche.
Allow me to use NeilPatel.com as an example.
I use it to show potential clients I’m legit in a few different ways.
First, there’s my blog.
I make sure it stays populated with high-end, in-depth posts on everything digital marketing.
Next, there’s my collection of videos that I refer to as “Neil Knowledge.”
Here, visitors can watch brief videos where I share my knowledge on a variety of digital marketing topics.
Then, there’s my podcast that I call “Marketing School.”
At the moment, I have nearly 350 podcast sessions that run the digital marketing gamut.
This is a model I suggest you follow because it’s your key to being recognized as an expert.
Building a hub such as this gives you an opportunity to cover your niche in great detail and share your knowledge with visitors who are eager to learn.
This isn’t to say you need to use the same mediums I do.
In fact, I recommend experimenting with different formats to see what works best for you and what resonates the most with your audience.
Here are some ideas:
And the more high-quality content you accumulate, the more seriously people will take you.
Connect with other influencers
At this point, you should have chosen a niche, learned everything you can about it and created a hub where you can share your knowledge.The next step is to start forming relationships with other influencers in your niche.
Why is this important?
This is one of the best ways to get your name out there and to increase your brand equity.
Being associated with other major players enables you to siphon off some of their “street cred” and get your audience to take you more seriously.
Let me give you a quick example.
Awhile back, freelance writer Jorden Roper launched her website called Writing Revolt.
It serves as an online hub for talking about everything related to freelance writing, including ways to thrive in a competitive market.
She was an up-and-comer and had some loyal followers, but it was a fairly small following.
She connected with Bamidele Onibalusi of Writers in Charge, one of the most popular resources for freelance writers.
Bamidele talked about her journey, the way Jorden created a nice living for herself through writing and her tips for making it as a freelance writer.
Just like that, her brand equity skyrocketed, and she gained a massive amount of respect as an expert in her niche.
To me, connecting with relevant influencers like this is the quickest way to gain recognition and have your name associated with a particular topic.
After all, if a trusted name in your niche gives you their stamp of approval, it will inevitably have a positive impact on you.
How do I connect with influencers?
For starters, let me suggest an incredibly old school yet (sometimes) effective tactic.And that’s to simply get in the habit of consistently leaving high-level comments on top blogs in your industry.
You might be saying, “Neil, that seems so primitive and antiquated!”
Perhaps it is.
But it can still be a great way to get on someone’s radar.
Here’s an example of a comment from one of my top commenters, J. Ustpassing:
Besides potentially building a relationship with a key influencer, you can also gain the attention of their readers.
And as long as your comments are legit, they will elevate your authority.
Another brilliant way to find influencers to connect with is to use BuzzSumo.
In fact, the “Influencers” feature is one of the top features on this platform.
I won’t cover the entire process here because I’ve already went over it before, but you can find all the details in this post.
For more on influencer marketing, I suggest checking out this article.
Leveraging Quora
Finally, I would like to point out how great Quora is for building credibility.This is one of the most high-end question-and-answer sites, and I’ve used it extensively.
At the moment, I’ve answered 287 different questions, and it’s helped me gain 8k followers on Quora and 47k answer views this month alone.
I’m telling you, Quora gets results and can be incredibly potent for you to position yourself as an expert in your niche.
I find it ideal for imparting my knowledge.
You can learn how to use Quora in this post.
Conclusion
I’ll be the first to say there’s no magic bullet that can turn you into a top expert in your niche overnight.It’s very much a process that takes time.
Fortunately, you can accelerate that process significantly by following the formula I covered here.
With the right approach, you can gain serious recognition and make your name synonymous with your niche.
This, of course, can yield a host of benefits, e.g., increased brand equity, continual leads and higher conversions.
Which niche would you like to achieve expert status in?
Do you want more traffic?
Hey, I'm Neil Patel. I’m determined to make a business in your city successful. My only question is, will it be yours?
SEO vs. PPC: Which Should You Focus on First?
by on August 9, 2017
Here’s the scenario.
You’re just launching your marketing campaign and want results.
Not only that, you want the most bang for your buck.
You want to make sure the time and money you’re putting in will bring a large volume of high-quality traffic primed to convert.
In other words, you want a rock solid ROI.
While there is a plethora of different avenues you can take, it often boils down to one of two choices: SEO or PPC.
Both are tried and true and will drive targeted leads to your site.
But which option makes the most sense for your campaign?
More importantly, which should you focus on first?
In this post, I highlight the pros and cons of each option, drawing on my personal experience.
By the end, you should know with certainty which path to take.
I find I tend to make better choices when I take the emotion out of it and simply look at the numbers.
So, let’s take a look at some recent statistics from WebpageFX regarding both SEO and PPC.
If you plan and execute your campaign correctly, you will get qualified leads, and a reasonable number of those leads will convert.
And while the outcome is essentially the same, the way you get there is completely different, depending on the path you take.
Let’s now go over the pros and cons.
The bottom line is you’ll pay a lot more for your traffic with PPC than with SEO, especially if you handle it in-house.
Just look at what the average CPC is like for some of the top industries:
The legal industry is hands down the worst with a whopping $5.88 CPC.
It takes a sizable budget to get a PPC campaign up and running.
And if you’re new to the game, you have to deal with the inherent learning curve, which means it can take awhile to get your CPA and ROI to where you want them to be.
SEO is much cheaper and involves more of a time investment than a financial one.
If your marketing budget is minimal, SEO may be your only option.
Another benefit is the long-term results marketers tend to get.
Here’s a chart showing the difference in long-term performance between organic and paid traffic:
Notice that SEO starts off slowly initially, but over time it grows tremendously.
This makes SEO far more sustainable than PPC, potentially resulting in high-quality, organic traffic for years to come.
Finally, you’re likely to have a higher ROI with SEO.
Just think about it.
Every single click you get through PPC comes at a price.
The only way you can drive traffic to your site is to pay for it.
This inevitably diminishes your ROI.
But with SEO, it’s pretty much straight profit.
Because you’re acquiring your traffic organically, the returns are inevitably higher.
Even if you “take your foot off the gas,” you’re still going to drive traffic to your site.
This basically means free traffic.
Right off the bat, you can bring qualified, ready to buy leads.
Better yet, you can specifically target keywords with buying intent.
This makes it perfect for new businesses with little to no brand equity.
PPC helps you drive traffic and boost your brand’s visibility in a hurry.
If you want nearly instant results and don’t have the luxury of waiting, PPC is your best option.
Another plus is the conversion rate.
While you may end up spending more overall, paid search results are 1.5x more likely to convert.
And this makes sense, considering advertisers can customize and optimize their ads and specifically target high-intent keywords.
I also think there are way more PPC opportunities today than in years past.
While Google AdWords has had and continues to have the lion’s share of business (almost 80% of companies focus on Google for PPC), there is now a buffet of other options available.
For instance, Bing Ads are starting to catch on, and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter offer paid advertising.
The bottom line is you’re not stuck with AdWords.
One of the top complaints marketers have with SEO is the fluctuation of search engine algorithms.
In fact, “40% of marketers say algorithm changes are the biggest challenges to SEO.”
Over the years, major updates, such as Panda and Penguin, have caused serious disruptions to the SERPs, and many marketers have felt the negative impact.
So it’s important to point out SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy.
It requires plenty of maintenance, and you need to stay updated on current trends.
Just recently, some sites saw their traffic decline by as much as 90% with Google’s “Fred” update.
Not to freak you out, but penalties can happen even if you have the best intentions and would never dream of engaging in any black-hat SEO tactics.
The best way to keep your site safe is to always follow ethical, white-hat techniques and put emphasis on creating the best possible content rather than trying to capitalize on the next big thing in SEO.
I also recommend staying up-to-date on SEO trends, especially major algorithm updates.
It simply isn’t a strategy that will deliver major progress overnight.
I don’t care how experienced you are and how many epic backlinks you’re able to generate, you can’t expect instant miracles.
Simply getting Google to index your content can take a considerable amount of time.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how long it takes, but I’ve heard it could take up to four weeks for Google to index new content.
And it can easily take months before any real impact becomes evident, so you have to be in it for the long haul to thrive with SEO.
Get your content on page one for your targeted keyword phrase.
That’s the name of the game.
But this is obviously harder than it sounds, with no guarantees.
Even if you do everything right, there is a nearly infinite number of factors that determine where your content ends up in the SERPs.
And failing to reach page one is very disheartening because it’s almost like being invisible.
Considering “75% of users never scroll past the first page,” you won’t be raking in traffic if your content misses the mark.
If you want to quickly see how you’re ranking for various keywords, here’s how you check.
First, go to SEMrush.
Type in your URL.
Click on “Start now.”
Scroll down to “Top Organic Keywords” and click on “View full report.”
Check the position of the keywords you rank for:
And that’s usually the biggest issues marketers have.
Just take a look at some of the most expensive keywords at the moment:
“Insurance” is a ridiculous $54.91.
That’s insane!
And the scary thing is PPC costs are increasing.
As more and more marketers compete for traffic, most platforms are inevitably raising their prices.
Google AdWords can be especially cutthroat.
In some cases, the money you spend to acquire traffic will outweigh what you’re generating from sales.
If you’re a new startup with a shoestring budget, PPC may simply not be in the cards from a cost perspective.
Just learning the basics takes time.
Fully optimizing your ads to minimize your CPC and increase your CTR takes even longer.
It’s a fairly arduous process even for experienced marketers.
This means you may end up spending more than you should until you get the hang of things.
The second you stop funneling money into your PPC campaign, you bring zero traffic.
Of course, this means you’re also getting zero sales from PPC, which is definitely food for thought.
While other marketing tactics—such as SEO, social media, content marketing, etc.—require maintenance and upkeep, they should still drive traffic to your site even if you take a break.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with PPC.
To maintain your traffic and leads, you have to continually “stoke the fire,” putting money into your campaign.
Like any other area of marketing, each has its pros and cons.
Before you commit to either, look at all the angles and figure out which strategy best matches your short-term and long-term needs.
In this scenario, it’s about investing time rather than money into your marketing campaign.
It’s by no means an easy path, but you should eventually see a favorable ROI over time, and it may look something like this:
It’s like trying to get a huge boulder rolling.
There’s a lot of initial effort involved, but once in motion, it continues to gain momentum. After a while, it’s a force to be reckoned with.
To me, it’s well worth the effort.
As your campaign develops and your archive of optimized content grows, so will your traffic, leads and sales.
Staying the course in SEO is what has enabled me to bring in huge traffic for highly desired keywords like “content marketing.”
Sound SEO practices helped me outrank even Wikipedia for this term:
It’ll take time to get legitimate results, especially if you’re a new brand.
But if you don’t need mega results right away and are more interested in the long game, SEO totally makes sense.
Here’s what you can expect by engaging in an SEO campaign:
The first month’s results are probably going to be pretty puny.
But things typically start to heat up at around the six-month mark.
That could be considered the tipping point.
If you’re in a position to wait a bit until big leads pour in, SEO is usually your best bet.
You should A) have a sizable budget and B) be looking for lightning quick results.
Once you launch your campaign, choose your keywords, choose your budget and set up your ads, you’re likely to get a significant influx of traffic.
Sometimes, this can happen in as fast as 24 hours.
Just like that, your brand is exposed to your target audience with minimal heavy lifting on your part.
As long as you follow best practices, you should see a favorable ROI with PPC.
Although it’s probably going to cost you more than it would with SEO, the payoff is much quicker, and you can save yourself a lot of time and energy.
If you choose to go the PPC route, I should point out you’re by no means stuck with Google AdWords.
Don’t get me wrong, AdWords is still viable and can definitely produce results.
But I’m seeing more and more marketers opt for Bing Ads these days because it’s less expensive than AdWords and can help marketers reach a different demographic.
And as you can see with this quick search for “camping tents,” there’s plenty of prime real estate for your ads on Bing.
Facebook now has a robust advertising platform as well, and with two billion monthly users, you’re practically guaranteed to reach your audience.
Check out this post I wrote to learn more about Facebook advertising.
For more ideas on alternatives to AdWords, refer to this guide from PPC Hero.
Both can get results, but they accomplish it in two very different ways.
SEO is all about planting a seed and waiting for the fruit to grow.
It takes awhile, but your brand can be positioned well once you gain favorable rankings in the SERPs.
The best part is the exponential growth many brands experience once they get over the SEO hump.
PPC, on the other hand, is all about an instant payoff.
It requires a larger upfront investment, but the results are almost immediate.
You can essentially go from being a no name brand with zero sales to crushing it with PPC overnight.
The only issue is it will cost you, and it lacks the sustainability of SEO.
I wish I could tell you which tactic is best for every single brand 100% of the time.
But things are seldom this black and white.
Choosing which tactic to focus on first depends on several variables and specific goals you have for your marketing.
However, examining the pros and cons, while looking at all the angles, should give you a good idea of what’s best for your brand.
If you were launching a new campaign, would you be more likely to go with SEO or PPC?
You’re just launching your marketing campaign and want results.
Not only that, you want the most bang for your buck.
You want to make sure the time and money you’re putting in will bring a large volume of high-quality traffic primed to convert.
In other words, you want a rock solid ROI.
While there is a plethora of different avenues you can take, it often boils down to one of two choices: SEO or PPC.
Both are tried and true and will drive targeted leads to your site.
But which option makes the most sense for your campaign?
More importantly, which should you focus on first?
In this post, I highlight the pros and cons of each option, drawing on my personal experience.
By the end, you should know with certainty which path to take.
By the numbers
By now, I am sure you know I’m a huge fan of statistics and data in general.I find I tend to make better choices when I take the emotion out of it and simply look at the numbers.
So, let’s take a look at some recent statistics from WebpageFX regarding both SEO and PPC.
2017 SEO Stats
- 93% of online experiences start with search engines
- 70% of clicked search results are organic
- 14.6% of all SEO leads close (as opposed to 1.7% of outbound leads)
- Google fields more than one trillion searches per year
- 89% of marketers say SEO is successful
2017 PPC Stats
- PPC visitors are 50% more likely to buy than organic visitors
- 65% of all high-intent searches result in an ad click
- Search ads increase brand awareness by as much as 80%
- 32% of companies use PPC to sell products directly to consumers
- On average, businesses earn $3 for every $1.60 spent on AdWords
If you plan and execute your campaign correctly, you will get qualified leads, and a reasonable number of those leads will convert.
And while the outcome is essentially the same, the way you get there is completely different, depending on the path you take.
Let’s now go over the pros and cons.
The advantages of SEO
Perhaps the biggest reason marketers choose SEO over PPC is its cost-effectiveness.The bottom line is you’ll pay a lot more for your traffic with PPC than with SEO, especially if you handle it in-house.
Just look at what the average CPC is like for some of the top industries:
The legal industry is hands down the worst with a whopping $5.88 CPC.
It takes a sizable budget to get a PPC campaign up and running.
And if you’re new to the game, you have to deal with the inherent learning curve, which means it can take awhile to get your CPA and ROI to where you want them to be.
SEO is much cheaper and involves more of a time investment than a financial one.
If your marketing budget is minimal, SEO may be your only option.
Another benefit is the long-term results marketers tend to get.
Here’s a chart showing the difference in long-term performance between organic and paid traffic:
Notice that SEO starts off slowly initially, but over time it grows tremendously.
This makes SEO far more sustainable than PPC, potentially resulting in high-quality, organic traffic for years to come.
Finally, you’re likely to have a higher ROI with SEO.
Just think about it.
Every single click you get through PPC comes at a price.
The only way you can drive traffic to your site is to pay for it.
This inevitably diminishes your ROI.
But with SEO, it’s pretty much straight profit.
Because you’re acquiring your traffic organically, the returns are inevitably higher.
Even if you “take your foot off the gas,” you’re still going to drive traffic to your site.
This basically means free traffic.
The advantages of PPC
Hands down, the biggest advantage is the immediate surge in traffic you often get:Right off the bat, you can bring qualified, ready to buy leads.
Better yet, you can specifically target keywords with buying intent.
This makes it perfect for new businesses with little to no brand equity.
PPC helps you drive traffic and boost your brand’s visibility in a hurry.
If you want nearly instant results and don’t have the luxury of waiting, PPC is your best option.
Another plus is the conversion rate.
While you may end up spending more overall, paid search results are 1.5x more likely to convert.
And this makes sense, considering advertisers can customize and optimize their ads and specifically target high-intent keywords.
I also think there are way more PPC opportunities today than in years past.
While Google AdWords has had and continues to have the lion’s share of business (almost 80% of companies focus on Google for PPC), there is now a buffet of other options available.
For instance, Bing Ads are starting to catch on, and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter offer paid advertising.
The bottom line is you’re not stuck with AdWords.
The downside of SEO
To be fair, it’s not all puppy dogs and rainbows all the time.One of the top complaints marketers have with SEO is the fluctuation of search engine algorithms.
In fact, “40% of marketers say algorithm changes are the biggest challenges to SEO.”
Over the years, major updates, such as Panda and Penguin, have caused serious disruptions to the SERPs, and many marketers have felt the negative impact.
So it’s important to point out SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy.
It requires plenty of maintenance, and you need to stay updated on current trends.
Penalties
Just the thought of an ugly penalty is enough to make many SEO marketers squirm.Just recently, some sites saw their traffic decline by as much as 90% with Google’s “Fred” update.
Not to freak you out, but penalties can happen even if you have the best intentions and would never dream of engaging in any black-hat SEO tactics.
The best way to keep your site safe is to always follow ethical, white-hat techniques and put emphasis on creating the best possible content rather than trying to capitalize on the next big thing in SEO.
I also recommend staying up-to-date on SEO trends, especially major algorithm updates.
It takes time to see results
If patience isn’t your strength, you may find the SEO process very frustrating.It simply isn’t a strategy that will deliver major progress overnight.
I don’t care how experienced you are and how many epic backlinks you’re able to generate, you can’t expect instant miracles.
Simply getting Google to index your content can take a considerable amount of time.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how long it takes, but I’ve heard it could take up to four weeks for Google to index new content.
And it can easily take months before any real impact becomes evident, so you have to be in it for the long haul to thrive with SEO.
Reaching page one is no guarantee
What’s the primary goal of SEO marketers?Get your content on page one for your targeted keyword phrase.
That’s the name of the game.
But this is obviously harder than it sounds, with no guarantees.
Even if you do everything right, there is a nearly infinite number of factors that determine where your content ends up in the SERPs.
And failing to reach page one is very disheartening because it’s almost like being invisible.
Considering “75% of users never scroll past the first page,” you won’t be raking in traffic if your content misses the mark.
If you want to quickly see how you’re ranking for various keywords, here’s how you check.
First, go to SEMrush.
Type in your URL.
Click on “Start now.”
Scroll down to “Top Organic Keywords” and click on “View full report.”
Check the position of the keywords you rank for:
The downside of PPC
I already mentioned PPC comes with much higher upfront costs.And that’s usually the biggest issues marketers have.
Just take a look at some of the most expensive keywords at the moment:
“Insurance” is a ridiculous $54.91.
That’s insane!
And the scary thing is PPC costs are increasing.
As more and more marketers compete for traffic, most platforms are inevitably raising their prices.
Google AdWords can be especially cutthroat.
In some cases, the money you spend to acquire traffic will outweigh what you’re generating from sales.
If you’re a new startup with a shoestring budget, PPC may simply not be in the cards from a cost perspective.
Optimizing your ads can be difficult and time consuming
It’s not like you can just slap up some ads on a PPC platform and instantly get a high volume of highly targeted traffic.Just learning the basics takes time.
Fully optimizing your ads to minimize your CPC and increase your CTR takes even longer.
It’s a fairly arduous process even for experienced marketers.
This means you may end up spending more than you should until you get the hang of things.
Your traffic ceases when your campaign ends
Here’s the real downer.The second you stop funneling money into your PPC campaign, you bring zero traffic.
Of course, this means you’re also getting zero sales from PPC, which is definitely food for thought.
While other marketing tactics—such as SEO, social media, content marketing, etc.—require maintenance and upkeep, they should still drive traffic to your site even if you take a break.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with PPC.
To maintain your traffic and leads, you have to continually “stoke the fire,” putting money into your campaign.
Examining all the angles
At this point, I’ve covered the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of both SEO and PPC.Like any other area of marketing, each has its pros and cons.
Before you commit to either, look at all the angles and figure out which strategy best matches your short-term and long-term needs.
When you should focus on SEO first
If you’re working with a small budget, PPC may not be feasible, so SEO is the obvious choice.In this scenario, it’s about investing time rather than money into your marketing campaign.
It’s by no means an easy path, but you should eventually see a favorable ROI over time, and it may look something like this:
You’re looking for long-term sustainability
Here’s how I view SEO.It’s like trying to get a huge boulder rolling.
There’s a lot of initial effort involved, but once in motion, it continues to gain momentum. After a while, it’s a force to be reckoned with.
To me, it’s well worth the effort.
As your campaign develops and your archive of optimized content grows, so will your traffic, leads and sales.
Staying the course in SEO is what has enabled me to bring in huge traffic for highly desired keywords like “content marketing.”
Sound SEO practices helped me outrank even Wikipedia for this term:
You don’t need instant results
As I mentioned earlier, SEO is all about the long-term vision.It’ll take time to get legitimate results, especially if you’re a new brand.
But if you don’t need mega results right away and are more interested in the long game, SEO totally makes sense.
Here’s what you can expect by engaging in an SEO campaign:
The first month’s results are probably going to be pretty puny.
But things typically start to heat up at around the six-month mark.
That could be considered the tipping point.
If you’re in a position to wait a bit until big leads pour in, SEO is usually your best bet.
When you should focus on PPC first
The way I see it, a PPC-first campaign needs to have two components in place.You should A) have a sizable budget and B) be looking for lightning quick results.
Once you launch your campaign, choose your keywords, choose your budget and set up your ads, you’re likely to get a significant influx of traffic.
Sometimes, this can happen in as fast as 24 hours.
Just like that, your brand is exposed to your target audience with minimal heavy lifting on your part.
As long as you follow best practices, you should see a favorable ROI with PPC.
Although it’s probably going to cost you more than it would with SEO, the payoff is much quicker, and you can save yourself a lot of time and energy.
If you choose to go the PPC route, I should point out you’re by no means stuck with Google AdWords.
Don’t get me wrong, AdWords is still viable and can definitely produce results.
But I’m seeing more and more marketers opt for Bing Ads these days because it’s less expensive than AdWords and can help marketers reach a different demographic.
And as you can see with this quick search for “camping tents,” there’s plenty of prime real estate for your ads on Bing.
Facebook now has a robust advertising platform as well, and with two billion monthly users, you’re practically guaranteed to reach your audience.
Check out this post I wrote to learn more about Facebook advertising.
For more ideas on alternatives to AdWords, refer to this guide from PPC Hero.
Conclusion
When a brand is initially launching its marketing campaign, two strategies that usually receive first consideration are SEO and PPC.Both can get results, but they accomplish it in two very different ways.
SEO is all about planting a seed and waiting for the fruit to grow.
It takes awhile, but your brand can be positioned well once you gain favorable rankings in the SERPs.
The best part is the exponential growth many brands experience once they get over the SEO hump.
PPC, on the other hand, is all about an instant payoff.
It requires a larger upfront investment, but the results are almost immediate.
You can essentially go from being a no name brand with zero sales to crushing it with PPC overnight.
The only issue is it will cost you, and it lacks the sustainability of SEO.
I wish I could tell you which tactic is best for every single brand 100% of the time.
But things are seldom this black and white.
Choosing which tactic to focus on first depends on several variables and specific goals you have for your marketing.
However, examining the pros and cons, while looking at all the angles, should give you a good idea of what’s best for your brand.
If you were launching a new campaign, would you be more likely to go with SEO or PPC?
How Knowing Your “Why” Can Revolutionize Your Digital Marketing Strategy
by on August 7, 2017
Many digital marketers carry out their daily tasks in a furious frenzy.
They send out email blasts, update social media, perform keyword research and so on, trying to accomplish as much as possible.
Working hard and staying busy makes us feel we’re being productive.
But how many people stop to think about why they’re doing what they’re doing?
Of course, you want to generate leads, increase brand exposure, improve conversions, etc.
But what’s the underlying purpose of your digital marketing?
What specific goals are you hoping to achieve?
In this post, I talk about how knowing your why can help you optimize and ultimately revolutionize your digital marketing strategy.
I’ll explain some specific reasons why this is worth your time.
In addition, I’m going to provide a basic formula to help you figure out your why so you can start seeing immediate benefits.
He pointed out that some of the world’s most successful brands and leaders had something in common.
I believe he specifically mentioned Apple, Martin Luther King and the Wright brothers.
The overlap among them was they understand why they do what they do.
While everyone knows what they do, and many know how they do it, very few know why they do it.
He breaks this all down into what he to refers as “The Golden Circle,” which is illustrated like this:
Knowing why means you understand your purpose.
You’re not merely going through the motions and haphazardly completing tasks each day.
There’s a distinct purpose that’s driving you, which is important for three key reasons.
Here are just a few components you might integrate into your digital marketing strategy at any given time:
If you’re not sure what you’re trying to achieve, you won’t be very effective.
There’s just no way around it.
In fact, the brands lacking a purpose are often get caught up in a so-called spray-and-pray mindset, where they tinker with this and that without thinking ahead.
Taking this type of approach seldom yields favorable results and usually wastes time and money.
When you know your why, you have a clear vision of what you’re looking to accomplish and what your purpose is.
Having clarity inevitably helps you pick and choose specific digital marketing strategies and lets you know which metrics you need to measure.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say your goal is to increase leads to your website by 25% within six months.
This would provide you with a sense of direction.
All of a sudden, you know why you’re choosing certain strategies and which actions you need to take to give yourself the best possible chance of reaching that goal.
For instance, you might do the following:
Let’s say you were getting the bulk of your leads from SEO, YouTube and long-form content, but the rest of your tactics were having minimal impact.
With this knowledge, you would know you should place a bigger emphasis on SEO, YouTube and long-form content and spend far less time on the other areas.
This is basically following Pareto’s Principle (or the 80/20 Principle), where focusing on a few vital tasks allows you to achieve the biggest results.
In turn, this would make your digital marketing strategy much more efficient and enable you to hit your goal of 25% more leads more quickly and with less friction.
Everything should have a purpose, and there should be no wasted motions.
Knowing your why is critical because it enables you to plot and plan and develop a strategy.
It lets you know what data to analyze, which topics to research, which competitors to assess, which trends to capitalize on, etc.
This all boils down to giving you a tremendous tactical advantage over most of your competition.
In many cases, it can even revolutionize your digital marketing strategy.
Now the question is, “What steps do you need to take in order to know your why?”
There are a few different ways to go about this, but here’s the formula I recommend.
It involves asking yourself a series of questions and letting your answers dictate the direction of your digital marketing.
At the end of the day, finding your why is simply identifying the goal/purpose of your digital marketing strategy.
What is your number one overall goal?
The trick here is to be as specific as possible.
In the example I used earlier, there was a specific goal of generating 25% more leads in six months.
It wasn’t just to “generate more leads.”
Being specific will help you develop an intelligent approach and allow you to measure your progress along the way.
In other words, you must know your target audience:
You probably (and should) have at least a basic understanding of this, but if there are any questions, you need to answer them ASAP.
I won’t go into all the gory details here, but check out this guide for more on this topic.
It will help you figure out your target audience in a hurry.
Once you have a clear idea of what you’re trying to accomplish and whom you’re trying to reach, you need to figure out which avenues you’ll take to do so.
I recommend evaluating your existing techniques/channels as well as researching other possibilities.
For instance, let’s say you’re trying to figure out which social networks to focus on.
You might want to see which networks are most popular according to your target audience’s age group:
Or you might want to see which social networks produce the most shares in your industry.
You can find that out by using BuzzSumo, which you can learn more about in this post.
For a basic overview of the leads coming to your site and how they’re getting there, you may want to use Google Analytics.
To check the status of your SEO campaign and to see how many backlinks you’ve acquired or which keywords you’re ranking for, etc., you might use SEMrush or Ahrefs.
And to see how your social media campaign is coming along, you might use Hootsuite Analytics.
You get the idea.
The point I’m trying to make here is that measuring your digital marketing strategy every step of the way enables you to make the right adjustments and capitalize on opportunities to increase the likelihood of your goal being actualized.
But it’s incredibly important on many different levels, especially when applied to your digital marketing strategy.
Understanding the underlying purpose of your strategy ultimately dictates what you do and how you do it.
It provides you with a clear direction.
I know I have come to some amazing revelations after taking the time to ponder my why, and these epiphanies have contributed directly to my success as a marketer.
If you take the time to know your why, I can practically guarantee it will positively impact your digital marketing strategy and provide you with the necessary framework to get the results you’re looking for with minimal setbacks.
What’s the primary goal of your digital marketing strategy?
They send out email blasts, update social media, perform keyword research and so on, trying to accomplish as much as possible.
Working hard and staying busy makes us feel we’re being productive.
But how many people stop to think about why they’re doing what they’re doing?
Of course, you want to generate leads, increase brand exposure, improve conversions, etc.
But what’s the underlying purpose of your digital marketing?
What specific goals are you hoping to achieve?
In this post, I talk about how knowing your why can help you optimize and ultimately revolutionize your digital marketing strategy.
I’ll explain some specific reasons why this is worth your time.
In addition, I’m going to provide a basic formula to help you figure out your why so you can start seeing immediate benefits.
The golden circle
In 2009, author, speaker and marketing consultant Simon Sinek delivered a TED Talk called How great leaders inspire action,He pointed out that some of the world’s most successful brands and leaders had something in common.
I believe he specifically mentioned Apple, Martin Luther King and the Wright brothers.
The overlap among them was they understand why they do what they do.
While everyone knows what they do, and many know how they do it, very few know why they do it.
He breaks this all down into what he to refers as “The Golden Circle,” which is illustrated like this:
Knowing why means you understand your purpose.
You’re not merely going through the motions and haphazardly completing tasks each day.
There’s a distinct purpose that’s driving you, which is important for three key reasons.
1. Clarity
Digital marketing is a wide umbrella.Here are just a few components you might integrate into your digital marketing strategy at any given time:
If you’re not sure what you’re trying to achieve, you won’t be very effective.
There’s just no way around it.
In fact, the brands lacking a purpose are often get caught up in a so-called spray-and-pray mindset, where they tinker with this and that without thinking ahead.
Taking this type of approach seldom yields favorable results and usually wastes time and money.
When you know your why, you have a clear vision of what you’re looking to accomplish and what your purpose is.
Having clarity inevitably helps you pick and choose specific digital marketing strategies and lets you know which metrics you need to measure.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say your goal is to increase leads to your website by 25% within six months.
This would provide you with a sense of direction.
All of a sudden, you know why you’re choosing certain strategies and which actions you need to take to give yourself the best possible chance of reaching that goal.
For instance, you might do the following:
- look for an analytics tool that provides in-depth insights on website traffic
- identify which three strategies/channels are bringing the bulk of your traffic
- put more of your effort into optimizing those three strategies/channels
- continually examine key metrics to spot areas of improvement
- consistently strive to improve those areas until you reach your goal of 25% more leads
2. Efficiency
Following a step-by-step approach like this is much more efficient than a spray-and-pray campaign, lacking any forethought.Let’s say you were getting the bulk of your leads from SEO, YouTube and long-form content, but the rest of your tactics were having minimal impact.
With this knowledge, you would know you should place a bigger emphasis on SEO, YouTube and long-form content and spend far less time on the other areas.
This is basically following Pareto’s Principle (or the 80/20 Principle), where focusing on a few vital tasks allows you to achieve the biggest results.
In turn, this would make your digital marketing strategy much more efficient and enable you to hit your goal of 25% more leads more quickly and with less friction.
3. A tactical advantage
I’m a firm believer that finding success in digital marketing requires you to be a master tactician.Everything should have a purpose, and there should be no wasted motions.
Knowing your why is critical because it enables you to plot and plan and develop a strategy.
It lets you know what data to analyze, which topics to research, which competitors to assess, which trends to capitalize on, etc.
This all boils down to giving you a tremendous tactical advantage over most of your competition.
How to figure out your why
At this point we’ve established that knowing your why is incredibly beneficial.In many cases, it can even revolutionize your digital marketing strategy.
Now the question is, “What steps do you need to take in order to know your why?”
There are a few different ways to go about this, but here’s the formula I recommend.
It involves asking yourself a series of questions and letting your answers dictate the direction of your digital marketing.
What’s my goal/purpose?
I don’t see the need to overthink it or make things more difficult than they have to be.At the end of the day, finding your why is simply identifying the goal/purpose of your digital marketing strategy.
What is your number one overall goal?
The trick here is to be as specific as possible.
In the example I used earlier, there was a specific goal of generating 25% more leads in six months.
It wasn’t just to “generate more leads.”
Being specific will help you develop an intelligent approach and allow you to measure your progress along the way.
Who’s my target audience?
At the core of any successful campaign is a digital marketer with a clear understanding of whom they’re trying to reach.In other words, you must know your target audience:
You probably (and should) have at least a basic understanding of this, but if there are any questions, you need to answer them ASAP.
I won’t go into all the gory details here, but check out this guide for more on this topic.
It will help you figure out your target audience in a hurry.
Which digital marketing techniques/channels allow me to reach my target audience?
This is where things start to get interesting and where knowing your why begins to pay off.Once you have a clear idea of what you’re trying to accomplish and whom you’re trying to reach, you need to figure out which avenues you’ll take to do so.
I recommend evaluating your existing techniques/channels as well as researching other possibilities.
For instance, let’s say you’re trying to figure out which social networks to focus on.
You might want to see which networks are most popular according to your target audience’s age group:
Or you might want to see which social networks produce the most shares in your industry.
You can find that out by using BuzzSumo, which you can learn more about in this post.
Which tools should I use to measure my impact?
Finally, you’ll need a way to track your progress and determine which areas need your attention.For a basic overview of the leads coming to your site and how they’re getting there, you may want to use Google Analytics.
To check the status of your SEO campaign and to see how many backlinks you’ve acquired or which keywords you’re ranking for, etc., you might use SEMrush or Ahrefs.
And to see how your social media campaign is coming along, you might use Hootsuite Analytics.
You get the idea.
The point I’m trying to make here is that measuring your digital marketing strategy every step of the way enables you to make the right adjustments and capitalize on opportunities to increase the likelihood of your goal being actualized.
Conclusion
I’ll admit that “knowing your why” sounds a little bit like something you might hear from a cheesy motivational guru.But it’s incredibly important on many different levels, especially when applied to your digital marketing strategy.
Understanding the underlying purpose of your strategy ultimately dictates what you do and how you do it.
It provides you with a clear direction.
I know I have come to some amazing revelations after taking the time to ponder my why, and these epiphanies have contributed directly to my success as a marketer.
If you take the time to know your why, I can practically guarantee it will positively impact your digital marketing strategy and provide you with the necessary framework to get the results you’re looking for with minimal setbacks.
What’s the primary goal of your digital marketing strategy?
The Latest SEO Trends You Should Ignore
by on August 4, 2017
Given that Google changes its search algorithm 500-600 times each year, it’s not surprising marketers get confused sometimes.
Speculations about the latest SEO trends run rampant and are a breeding ground for many myths.
For this reason, it’s sometimes difficult to tell fact from fiction.
Of course, the Internet provides the perfect framework for misinformation to spread at an alarming rate.
As a result, many marketers waste their energy and resources implementing useless tactics that don’t get any results.
Or worse, some implement harmful techniques that get them penalized.
It’s a bad deal either way.
In this post, I’d like to address some particular SEO trends I see many marketers fall for that are really nothing but a waste of time.
Here we go.
Kind of like this monstrosity:
It made for some lackluster content and provided very minimal (if any) real value to readers.
Thankfully, those days are long gone.
Panda put an end to that back in 2011.
Since then, any SEO marketer in their right mind made sure they weren’t doing any keyword stuffing.
But here’s the thing.
It left a lot of questions regarding proper keyword density.
Obviously, keyword stuffing is a bad idea. That’s a given.
But many SEO marketers still seem to think that keyword density is a huge ranking factor.
They end up putting a lot of time and effort into getting it just right.
Just hit that perfect keyword density, and you’re good to go.
But this isn’t the case.
While it is true that keyword density is a ranking factor, it’s by no means as important as it once was.
There’s no reason to stress about it.
It’s something that you should be conscious of, but it shouldn’t command all your attention.
In other words, there’s no need to drive yourself crazy trying to reach the optimal keyword density.
This line from Backlinko summarizes it perfectly:
And that’s the idea that you should use only exact match keywords.
Let me reference the red apples example one more time:
Beyond the annoying keyword stuffing taking place here, take a look at how every use of the keyword is an exact match.
It sounds ridiculous and unnatural!
That’s not how humans talk.
If it’s unnatural, it’s not adding quality.
And if it’s not adding quality, it’s not contributing to the user experience.
The bottom line is you should use exact match keywords only when it makes sense and sounds natural.
If it makes your content sound clunky, you’ll want to ditch it or use a variation of the keyword.
The concept of always using exact match keywords is extremely antiquated and dates back to when keyword stuffing was acceptable.
But neither has a place in current SEO best practices.
Here’s a snippet from the Google Webmaster Blog regarding this update:
The primary purpose was to provide a better experience for mobile users, ensuring their browsing doesn’t get disrupted by ungodly pop-ups like these:
This created an uproar in the SEO community with people being deathly afraid to use any type of pop-up on their sites.
And it’s easy to see why.
Why would you want to risk it?
It was an update for which Google gave a warning several months in advance, which in and of itself is pretty rare.
I even wrote an article in late 2016 called “What Are Interstitials, and Are They Hurting Your SEO?” to give my readers advanced warning.
At the time, it seemed like a very legitimate concern.
But now that some time has passed and the dust has settled, it appears it’s not that big of a deal after all.
Most experts agree:
And I can’t even begin to tell you the number of pop-ups I still get hit with whenever I’m exploring the web or doing research.
In fact, I’m a little disappointed because I hate being disrupted by mindless pop-ups when I’m in the zone and trying to find important information.
Apparently, having pop-ups on your site isn’t the kiss of death.
But if you do decide to use them, be responsible about it.
Don’t go out of your way to interrupt the user experience, and try to make pop-ups as seamless as possible.
I’ll be the first to say a great looking link profile is a thing of beauty.
But it seems too many marketers are too fixated on just inbound links and forget about outbound links.
Of course, you want authoritative and relevant sites to link to you!
But don’t ignore outbound links:
I mentioned in a post on NeilPatel.com that “outbound links or links that point to external web pages from your own site can actually impact your blog authority. Make sure the pages your links point to are relevant, useful and have good standing with Google.”
And there are plenty of experts who agree.
In fact, Backlinko listed outbound link quality as #31 of Google’s 200 ranking factors.
That’s fairly high.
But isn’t it a disadvantage when people exploring your site are directed to an external site?
Wouldn’t it adversely affect your bounce rate and average time spent on your site, not to mention your conversions?
Well, as we all know, Google’s top priority is an awesome user experience and great content.
If you include super helpful outbound links that expand on a topic, you’ll be rewarded.
What I’m trying to say here is all links are important.
Instead of focusing solely on acquiring inbound links, you should link out to awesome resources as well.
Make it a habit.
Note: make your outbound links open in a separate tab. This increases the chance that readers will return to your site, and I find it creates an overall better user experience.
What website owner/blogger wouldn’t want to cash in on them?
It’s one of the most efficient ways to get a nice payday with minimal energy expended.
Don’t get me wrong, I like affiliate marketing. I really do.
In fact, a lot of people completely crush it with affiliate marketing.
Just take a look at what Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income made in a single month:
This isn’t to say that making over 80 grand in a month is the norm.
But it does go to show the potential affiliate marketing has.
So, of course, some people will go overboard and stuff their content with affiliate links, assuming it’s no big deal.
And this might have been the case a year ago.
But if you’re familiar with the Google “Fred” update that took place in March 2017, you know going crazy with affiliate links is tempting fate.
Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land took the time to analyze roughly 100 sites affected by the update, and here’s what he found:
I would say experiencing a 50-90% drop in traffic is cause for concern, and you should proceed with caution for the foreseeable future.
This isn’t to say including a few affiliate links here and there will kill your traffic, but it’s definitely something to be aware of.
Having an abundance of affiliate links signals to Google that making affiliate sales is the main purpose of your content, which could negatively affect your rankings.
SEO can be maddening at times.
There are always some kind of adjustments being made to Google’s algorithm.
Some are major; some are minor. But this constant tweaking often leads to speculation.
This speculation leads to rumors, and rumors lead to persistent myths.
That’s why I thought I would clear the air about some of the most pervasive SEO trends that are actually quite useless.
I hope that putting things into perspective for you will help you focus on what really matters and help you avoid investing your time and energy into tactics that won’t bring any results.
It should also reduce your odds of incurring any ugly penalties.
In your opinion, what’s the biggest SEO myth that marketers continually fall for?
Speculations about the latest SEO trends run rampant and are a breeding ground for many myths.
For this reason, it’s sometimes difficult to tell fact from fiction.
Of course, the Internet provides the perfect framework for misinformation to spread at an alarming rate.
As a result, many marketers waste their energy and resources implementing useless tactics that don’t get any results.
Or worse, some implement harmful techniques that get them penalized.
It’s a bad deal either way.
In this post, I’d like to address some particular SEO trends I see many marketers fall for that are really nothing but a waste of time.
Here we go.
Keyword density is a huge ranking factor
Remember the days when jam-packing content with a targeted keyword phrase would send it soaring to the top of the SERPs?Kind of like this monstrosity:
It made for some lackluster content and provided very minimal (if any) real value to readers.
Thankfully, those days are long gone.
Panda put an end to that back in 2011.
Since then, any SEO marketer in their right mind made sure they weren’t doing any keyword stuffing.
But here’s the thing.
It left a lot of questions regarding proper keyword density.
Obviously, keyword stuffing is a bad idea. That’s a given.
But many SEO marketers still seem to think that keyword density is a huge ranking factor.
They end up putting a lot of time and effort into getting it just right.
Just hit that perfect keyword density, and you’re good to go.
But this isn’t the case.
While it is true that keyword density is a ranking factor, it’s by no means as important as it once was.
There’s no reason to stress about it.
It’s something that you should be conscious of, but it shouldn’t command all your attention.
In other words, there’s no need to drive yourself crazy trying to reach the optimal keyword density.
This line from Backlinko summarizes it perfectly:
You have to use exact match keywords
There’s another keyword-related myth I would like to put to rest.And that’s the idea that you should use only exact match keywords.
Let me reference the red apples example one more time:
Beyond the annoying keyword stuffing taking place here, take a look at how every use of the keyword is an exact match.
It sounds ridiculous and unnatural!
That’s not how humans talk.
If it’s unnatural, it’s not adding quality.
And if it’s not adding quality, it’s not contributing to the user experience.
The bottom line is you should use exact match keywords only when it makes sense and sounds natural.
If it makes your content sound clunky, you’ll want to ditch it or use a variation of the keyword.
The concept of always using exact match keywords is extremely antiquated and dates back to when keyword stuffing was acceptable.
But neither has a place in current SEO best practices.
Pop-ups are an automatic deal breaker
In January 2017, Google launched an update known as the “Intrusive Interstitial Penalty.”Here’s a snippet from the Google Webmaster Blog regarding this update:
The primary purpose was to provide a better experience for mobile users, ensuring their browsing doesn’t get disrupted by ungodly pop-ups like these:
This created an uproar in the SEO community with people being deathly afraid to use any type of pop-up on their sites.
And it’s easy to see why.
Why would you want to risk it?
It was an update for which Google gave a warning several months in advance, which in and of itself is pretty rare.
I even wrote an article in late 2016 called “What Are Interstitials, and Are They Hurting Your SEO?” to give my readers advanced warning.
At the time, it seemed like a very legitimate concern.
But now that some time has passed and the dust has settled, it appears it’s not that big of a deal after all.
Most experts agree:
And I can’t even begin to tell you the number of pop-ups I still get hit with whenever I’m exploring the web or doing research.
In fact, I’m a little disappointed because I hate being disrupted by mindless pop-ups when I’m in the zone and trying to find important information.
Apparently, having pop-ups on your site isn’t the kiss of death.
But if you do decide to use them, be responsible about it.
Don’t go out of your way to interrupt the user experience, and try to make pop-ups as seamless as possible.
It’s all about inbound links
We all know links are super important.I’ll be the first to say a great looking link profile is a thing of beauty.
But it seems too many marketers are too fixated on just inbound links and forget about outbound links.
Of course, you want authoritative and relevant sites to link to you!
But don’t ignore outbound links:
I mentioned in a post on NeilPatel.com that “outbound links or links that point to external web pages from your own site can actually impact your blog authority. Make sure the pages your links point to are relevant, useful and have good standing with Google.”
And there are plenty of experts who agree.
In fact, Backlinko listed outbound link quality as #31 of Google’s 200 ranking factors.
That’s fairly high.
But isn’t it a disadvantage when people exploring your site are directed to an external site?
Wouldn’t it adversely affect your bounce rate and average time spent on your site, not to mention your conversions?
Well, as we all know, Google’s top priority is an awesome user experience and great content.
If you include super helpful outbound links that expand on a topic, you’ll be rewarded.
What I’m trying to say here is all links are important.
Instead of focusing solely on acquiring inbound links, you should link out to awesome resources as well.
Make it a habit.
Note: make your outbound links open in a separate tab. This increases the chance that readers will return to your site, and I find it creates an overall better user experience.
Jamming your site with affiliate links is no big deal
Ah…affiliate links.What website owner/blogger wouldn’t want to cash in on them?
It’s one of the most efficient ways to get a nice payday with minimal energy expended.
Don’t get me wrong, I like affiliate marketing. I really do.
In fact, a lot of people completely crush it with affiliate marketing.
Just take a look at what Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income made in a single month:
This isn’t to say that making over 80 grand in a month is the norm.
But it does go to show the potential affiliate marketing has.
So, of course, some people will go overboard and stuff their content with affiliate links, assuming it’s no big deal.
And this might have been the case a year ago.
But if you’re familiar with the Google “Fred” update that took place in March 2017, you know going crazy with affiliate links is tempting fate.
Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land took the time to analyze roughly 100 sites affected by the update, and here’s what he found:
I would say experiencing a 50-90% drop in traffic is cause for concern, and you should proceed with caution for the foreseeable future.
This isn’t to say including a few affiliate links here and there will kill your traffic, but it’s definitely something to be aware of.
Having an abundance of affiliate links signals to Google that making affiliate sales is the main purpose of your content, which could negatively affect your rankings.
Conclusion
I’ll be honest.SEO can be maddening at times.
There are always some kind of adjustments being made to Google’s algorithm.
Some are major; some are minor. But this constant tweaking often leads to speculation.
This speculation leads to rumors, and rumors lead to persistent myths.
That’s why I thought I would clear the air about some of the most pervasive SEO trends that are actually quite useless.
I hope that putting things into perspective for you will help you focus on what really matters and help you avoid investing your time and energy into tactics that won’t bring any results.
It should also reduce your odds of incurring any ugly penalties.
In your opinion, what’s the biggest SEO myth that marketers continually fall for?
Think You Got Hit by the Google Fred Update? Here Is What to Do
by on August 2, 2017
Arguably, the biggest Google algorithm shakeup of 2017 occurred on March 8.
Of all things, it was called…Fred.
The sheer randomness of the name and the massive drop in traffic that many sites experienced have left a lot of marketers scratching their heads.
What happened, who was affected and why?
More importantly, what steps do you need to take if your traffic took a plunge?
In this post, I’m going to cover all the details of the update, explain how to recover from its negative consequences, and talk about what you need to do to avoid future penalties.
The first thing you’re probably wondering about is how this update got its name.
We’re used to cute, cuddly animal names such as Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird, so Fred seems a little bizarre.
Well, here’s a screenshot of some Twitter dialogue between Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land and Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, Gary Illyes:
As you can see, Illyes jokingly dubbed this update “Fred,” and it stuck.
So, there you go.
Many sites took a major hit.
Some even saw their traffic decline by as much as 90%! That’s crazy!
Here’s the deal.
Google is secretive as usual, but according to research from multiple experts, the Fred update primarily targeted websites guilty of three types of offenses:
Barry Schwartz:
And I can’t say I’m surprised.
We already know Google’s mission is to provide its users with high-quality content.
If it’s clear a website is attempting to use manipulative techniques, create thin content and/or load it up with excessive ads/affiliate links, I can see why it would be penalized.
When it comes to generalist content—content written on numerous topics with little, if any, value—Google has been combating it for years.
Rehashing content and trying to cover a wide range of subjects, without any specialization, isn’t going to do you any favors with Google.
The same goes for low-quality backlinks.
I’ve written in-depth about the importance of a strong link profile, where your site receives inbound links from credible, authoritative and relevant websites.
2017 research found that “high-quality backlinks account for 30% of your overall page score in Google.”
It’s not a surprise the Fred update went down the way it did.
It’s basically Google’s way of maintaining its quality standards.
The first is to assess your website in terms of ads and/or affiliate links.
If you were affected, there’s a good chance you’ve gone overboard on advertising.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s totally fine to incorporate ads on your site and sprinkle in a few affiliate links here and there.
Some top brands do it.
But it’s pretty obvious when it’s excessive.
Here’s an example of Mashable using ads the right way:
Notice there’s just a single ad in the bottom left-hand corner.
It’s noticeable but doesn’t dominate the content in an obnoxious way, blending in with the rest of the page.
In other words, it doesn’t interfere with the user experience.
Here’s another example from Gadget Review:
Again, the ad is plainly visible, but it doesn’t dominate the rest of the content.
As for affiliate links, you may want to delete those that are:
You can use several different tools for this.
One of my favorites is SEMrush.
The only issue is that the free, basic version is a little limited for analyzing backlinks.
However, the paid version offers all the data you could possibly need.
There’s also Moz’s Open Site Explorer.
It will provide you with some pretty solid information so you can see who’s linking to your site and tell if there are any problems.
Here’s what you do.
First type in your URL:
Click on “Search:”
Look for the “Inbound Links” section.
Click on “all pages” under “Link Source:”
Then click on “only external:”
This ensures you’re only seeing inbound links from external sites as opposed to internal links coming from within your site.
Here are some of the results I got:
These all look good.
Social Media Examiner, Backlinko, The Content Marketing Institute and Buffer are all high-quality sites relevant to Quick Sprout.
But if I see anything questionable (e.g., low-quality and/or irrelevant sites), I would want to investigate further.
Let’s say you’ve spotted less-than-ideal links.
What do you do?
This is somewhat of an involved process if you’ve never done it before, so I can’t adequately cover it here.
However, this post from NeilPatel.com will fill you in on the details and explain how to use Google’s disavow tool correctly.
Your goal is to get rid of any problem links by disavowing them.
In turn, this should improve your link profile and should help you recover.
Cutting back on ads and affiliate links is pretty easy. You just have to make some minor adjustments to your existing content.
And, of course, be conscious of how many affiliate links you include in your future content.
I would suggest including a maximum of three affiliate links per post.
However, you may want to go even lower just to be safe.
When it comes to generic content, that’s not always an easy fix.
The only remedy is to put in the time and energy to produce epic content.
This usually entails long-form content because it tends to be more in-depth than your run of the mill 500-word post.
And, of course, there’s an undeniable correlation between a higher word count and higher rankings:
This is not to say that simply writing longer content is a magic bullet, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
I also recommend sticking to the subject matter you genuinely know and are passionate about.
You may need to “niche down” to ensure you’re not creating generalist content people can find anywhere.
But as long as it offers real value, has an original angle and isn’t piggybacking off a million other articles, you should be in pretty good shape.
As for low-quality backlinks, the best thing you can do is get in the habit of routinely checking your website’s link profile.
This will alert you to any unsavory sites linking to you.
And once you learn how to disavow links, you can quickly remedy the problem and maintain a rock-solid link profile.
And that’s fine with me.
I like to know that, when I’m doing research or shopping for a product, the sites I land on are the cream of the crop.
I don’t want spammy, generic, low value content that’s only going to waste my time and prolong my search.
The Fred update is just another example of how Google is constantly fine-tuning its algorithm and supplying its users with great content.
That’s how it maintains its position at the top of the ladder.
If your site was adversely affected, it’s probably a sign you’re not abiding by Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and changes need to be made.
By following the steps I mentioned above, you should be able to get things back on track and work your way back up the SERPs.
It may take a little time, but you’ll get there.
Just make sure you’re following best practices from this point on to prevent additional penalties down the line.
Did you experience any setbacks from the Fred update?
Of all things, it was called…Fred.
The sheer randomness of the name and the massive drop in traffic that many sites experienced have left a lot of marketers scratching their heads.
What happened, who was affected and why?
More importantly, what steps do you need to take if your traffic took a plunge?
In this post, I’m going to cover all the details of the update, explain how to recover from its negative consequences, and talk about what you need to do to avoid future penalties.
Why was it called Fred?
Let’s start from the top.The first thing you’re probably wondering about is how this update got its name.
We’re used to cute, cuddly animal names such as Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird, so Fred seems a little bizarre.
Well, here’s a screenshot of some Twitter dialogue between Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land and Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, Gary Illyes:
As you can see, Illyes jokingly dubbed this update “Fred,” and it stuck.
So, there you go.
What happened?
This is definitely one of the more humorous names for an update, but not everyone is laughing.Many sites took a major hit.
Some even saw their traffic decline by as much as 90%! That’s crazy!
Here’s the deal.
Google is secretive as usual, but according to research from multiple experts, the Fred update primarily targeted websites guilty of three types of offenses:
- excessive ads/affiliate links
- generic content offering little to no value
- low-quality backlinks
Barry Schwartz:
About 95 percent of the sites that got hit were ones with content that looks to be written for ranking purposes and then has ads and/or affiliate links sprinkled through the article…they seem to have content on a vast array of topics that are not adding all that much value above what other sites in the industry have already written.Sreelal G. Pillai of TechWyse:
Affected sites also have low-quality backlinks in common – meaning that the sites that link back to them all have low domain authority.That’s the gist of it.
And I can’t say I’m surprised.
We already know Google’s mission is to provide its users with high-quality content.
If it’s clear a website is attempting to use manipulative techniques, create thin content and/or load it up with excessive ads/affiliate links, I can see why it would be penalized.
When it comes to generalist content—content written on numerous topics with little, if any, value—Google has been combating it for years.
Rehashing content and trying to cover a wide range of subjects, without any specialization, isn’t going to do you any favors with Google.
The same goes for low-quality backlinks.
I’ve written in-depth about the importance of a strong link profile, where your site receives inbound links from credible, authoritative and relevant websites.
2017 research found that “high-quality backlinks account for 30% of your overall page score in Google.”
It’s not a surprise the Fred update went down the way it did.
It’s basically Google’s way of maintaining its quality standards.
I was affected. What should I do?
There are two specific actions I suggest you take right away.The first is to assess your website in terms of ads and/or affiliate links.
If you were affected, there’s a good chance you’ve gone overboard on advertising.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s totally fine to incorporate ads on your site and sprinkle in a few affiliate links here and there.
Some top brands do it.
But it’s pretty obvious when it’s excessive.
Here’s an example of Mashable using ads the right way:
Notice there’s just a single ad in the bottom left-hand corner.
It’s noticeable but doesn’t dominate the content in an obnoxious way, blending in with the rest of the page.
In other words, it doesn’t interfere with the user experience.
Here’s another example from Gadget Review:
Again, the ad is plainly visible, but it doesn’t dominate the rest of the content.
As for affiliate links, you may want to delete those that are:
- not necessary (e.g., not bringing any money),
- detracting from your content or
- likely to be deemed as spammy in any way.
You can use several different tools for this.
One of my favorites is SEMrush.
The only issue is that the free, basic version is a little limited for analyzing backlinks.
However, the paid version offers all the data you could possibly need.
There’s also Moz’s Open Site Explorer.
It will provide you with some pretty solid information so you can see who’s linking to your site and tell if there are any problems.
Here’s what you do.
First type in your URL:
Click on “Search:”
Look for the “Inbound Links” section.
Click on “all pages” under “Link Source:”
Then click on “only external:”
This ensures you’re only seeing inbound links from external sites as opposed to internal links coming from within your site.
Here are some of the results I got:
These all look good.
Social Media Examiner, Backlinko, The Content Marketing Institute and Buffer are all high-quality sites relevant to Quick Sprout.
But if I see anything questionable (e.g., low-quality and/or irrelevant sites), I would want to investigate further.
Let’s say you’ve spotted less-than-ideal links.
What do you do?
Disavowing problem links
If you find you’ve got links from questionable sites, your best bet is to disavow them.This is somewhat of an involved process if you’ve never done it before, so I can’t adequately cover it here.
However, this post from NeilPatel.com will fill you in on the details and explain how to use Google’s disavow tool correctly.
Your goal is to get rid of any problem links by disavowing them.
In turn, this should improve your link profile and should help you recover.
What you need to know moving forward
So we’ve established that any backlash from the Fred update is most likely due to one or more of the following:- excessive ads/affiliate links
- generic content that offers little to no value
- low-quality backlinks pointing to your site
Cutting back on ads and affiliate links is pretty easy. You just have to make some minor adjustments to your existing content.
And, of course, be conscious of how many affiliate links you include in your future content.
I would suggest including a maximum of three affiliate links per post.
However, you may want to go even lower just to be safe.
When it comes to generic content, that’s not always an easy fix.
The only remedy is to put in the time and energy to produce epic content.
This usually entails long-form content because it tends to be more in-depth than your run of the mill 500-word post.
And, of course, there’s an undeniable correlation between a higher word count and higher rankings:
This is not to say that simply writing longer content is a magic bullet, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
I also recommend sticking to the subject matter you genuinely know and are passionate about.
You may need to “niche down” to ensure you’re not creating generalist content people can find anywhere.
But as long as it offers real value, has an original angle and isn’t piggybacking off a million other articles, you should be in pretty good shape.
As for low-quality backlinks, the best thing you can do is get in the habit of routinely checking your website’s link profile.
This will alert you to any unsavory sites linking to you.
And once you learn how to disavow links, you can quickly remedy the problem and maintain a rock-solid link profile.
Conclusion
Google is on an endless quest to improve the quality of its SERPs.And that’s fine with me.
I like to know that, when I’m doing research or shopping for a product, the sites I land on are the cream of the crop.
I don’t want spammy, generic, low value content that’s only going to waste my time and prolong my search.
The Fred update is just another example of how Google is constantly fine-tuning its algorithm and supplying its users with great content.
That’s how it maintains its position at the top of the ladder.
If your site was adversely affected, it’s probably a sign you’re not abiding by Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and changes need to be made.
By following the steps I mentioned above, you should be able to get things back on track and work your way back up the SERPs.
It may take a little time, but you’ll get there.
Just make sure you’re following best practices from this point on to prevent additional penalties down the line.
Did you experience any setbacks from the Fred update?
I am sure that this is going to help a lot of individuals. Keep up the good work. It is highly convincing and I enjoyed going through the entire blog. Cheers!
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