Think You Got Hit by the Google Fred Update? Here Is What to Do

by Neil Patel 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.

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

Here are a couple of quotes from experts that shed a bit more light on things.
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.

The second thing you’ll want to do is check your link profile.
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

You’ll definitely want to avoid these transgressions moving forward.
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?

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How to Combine Native Advertising with Content Marketing to Maximize Your Traffic

by Neil Patel on July 31, 2017

Despite the proven effectiveness of native advertising, it’s a concept that remains a little murky for many marketers.

Copyblogger performed a study on native advertising, asking people whether they knew what it was and how knowledgeable they were about it.
Here are the results:

Clearly, it’s still an ambiguous concept to many.
Simply, native advertising is a tactic that blends promotional content with the rest of the content—native content—of a page.
Here’s a good example:

When compared to more traditional advertisements such as banner ads, native ads tend to be more effective:

consumers interact with native ads 20% to 60% more than they do with standard banner ads.

That’s probably because they don’t stand out like a sore thumb.
Furthermore, we’re seeing significant growth in the use of this strategy:

In the US, the native ad market is expected to grow to $53 billion by 2020.

More and more marketers are catching on and seeing the potential of this approach.

The problem with content distribution

An interesting phenomenon is taking place in regards to content marketing.
More and more content is being created, but it isn’t translating into audience growth.
This image visualizing data from a Nielsen and BI Intelligence study puts things into perspective:

Notice how the amount of content being produced has grown significantly while the audience size has basically plateaued.
The reason for this, of course, is that there is a far bigger supply than demand for content.
There aren’t enough people to consume all the content being created.
Just look at what happens every single minute:

And that’s just on four major social networks. This doesn’t take into account blog posts, articles, infographics and so on.
This means that it’s no longer enough to simply create great content.
You need an effective means of distribution, enabling you to reach your audience on a larger scale.
This tweet from former BuzzFeed Vice President Jonathan Perelman hits the nail on the head:

Native advertising is the perfect solution to this problem.
It’s an excellent way to distribute your content and extend its reach by leveraging the exposure and brand equity of other publishers.
It’s also one of the smartest ways to connect with consumers and get them to engage with your brand.
And if you play your cards right, you can use it to drive a huge volume of traffic to your site.
In this post, let me offer some basic strategies for using native advertising in tandem with content marketing.

Do extensive research

For this tactic to work, your content must fit in perfectly with the style, tone, theme, etc. of the publisher’s site.
It needs to be seamless.
To ensure it flows smoothly, you need to understand the publisher inside and out.
Here are a few questions to answer to help you with that:

• who’s their target audience?
• what kind of themes and subject matter do they cover?
• what type of content does their audience respond to?
• what kind of editorial style do they use?

The native advertising platform you choose should have a creative team to assist you with this and provide you with direction.
But I recommend putting in the extra effort so that you know precisely what type of content to create and how to create it.
The more knowledge you have, the better your odds of having success will be.

Align your content

Once you have a firm grasp of the publisher’s site, you’ll want to base your content around it.
Keep in mind that today’s Internet users are incredibly adept at sniffing out promotional content and dodging it.
That’s why native advertising is becoming so popular.
It’s able to get much higher click-through rates (CTRs) than standard display ads.
According to Marketing Land,

the average CTRs for display ads have fallen over time to 0.17%.

However,

the average CTR for native ads on Adnow is 1.5%.

But CTR this high doesn’t just happen on its own.
Your content must align perfectly with the publisher’s site.

How do you do this?

It’s simple.
Create high-quality content matching the publisher’s, based on the research you performed.
Center it around a topic their average visitor is interested in, and style it accordingly.
Just treat it as if you’re guest-posting, keeping in mind that it’s essential that your content conforms to the publisher’s style and guidelines.
Here’s an example of Dell pulling this off perfectly:

They wrote an article in The New York Times regarding millennials and their collective distaste for the traditional 9 to 5 lifestyle.
Read through it, and you’ll notice that it uses the same style and tone of pretty much everything you’ll read in The New York Times.
An untrained eye would have a hard time detecting this was an advertisement.
And that’s a good thing.
When you think about it, the ultimate goal of native advertising is to advertise without people even realizing they are looking at an advertisement.
I like to look at it as just content marketing as usual.
It relies on the same concept of creating high-quality content for a specific audience.
The only difference is you’re paying to have your content featured on a publisher’s website.
It’s a quicker, more efficient means of distribution so you can reach a larger audience in less time.

Look beyond articles

When considering which type of content format to feature on a publisher’s site, the first thing that probably comes to most people’s minds is a conventional article.
It’s the obvious choice, right?
I can definitely see why this would be the popular choice.
And quite frankly, it tends to make the most sense when you’re testing the waters with native advertising.
But gaining any real traction can be difficult when you’re doing what everyone else is doing.
It’s harder to stand out that way.
Fortunately, you’re by no means limited to conventional articles. You have a buffet of options to choose from.
Just take a look at some of the top B2B content marketing tactics:

Now, I’m not saying you should create off the wall content just for the sake of being different.
What’s most important is that you base it around what resonates most with your audience.
For example, here’s a breakdown of the consumption habits of consumers, depending on their ages:

If you were trying to reach a younger demographic of 18-24-year-olds, videos and infographics would be potential choices.

Optimize your landing page as well

Let’s say you nailed your research, figured out the perfect style to use and created brilliant content that visitors to the publisher’s site absolutely ate up.
That’s great, and you’re likely to see a great CTR.
But your job isn’t done yet.
You still need to ensure that your leads are arriving on a well-designed landing page poised for conversions:

Just think about it.
It won’t do you much good if you do everything else right but fall short with your landing page.
You’re just throwing money away.
Now, landing page optimization is a whole other topic in and of itself and one that I’ve covered extensively in the past.
I’m not going to explain all the details here, but to learn pretty much everything you need to know about it, check out this guide.
Let me just point out that it should be designed with the purpose of moving prospects deeper through the sales funnel post-click.
Ideally, it will build upon the content that prospects just digested and provide them with additional information to encourage them to buy.

Don’t forget to do A/B testing

I won’t go on a rant about the importance of A/B testing.
I’ve already mentioned before that only 22% of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates.
Considering that this is a practice you want to implement into many other areas of marketing, it only makes sense that it should be done with native advertising as well.
There are several different elements you can test, including:

• type of content
• positioning on the publisher’s site
• headlines
• images

Let’s be honest.
It’s not realistic to nail it the first time around. You’ll need a fair amount of experimentation to get it right.
A/B testing is the best way to quickly optimize your efforts and work out the kinks.

Conclusion

Native advertising gets real results but isn’t necessarily on the radar of every content marketer.
But it should be!
It’s the perfect way to solve the ongoing distribution problem many content marketers are facing.
It can be a godsend if you’re a new brand hungry for exposure.
By combining native advertising with content marketing, you’re speeding up the process of reaching your audience.
But like with any other marketing tactic, you need to follow best practices, which primarily involves researching the publisher, aligning your content with their website and tailoring your content around the preferences of your core audience.
If you can do that, you can expect a rock solid CTR and plenty of targeted traffic to your site.
For information on potential native advertising platforms to use, check out this post from Entrepreneur.
Have you experimented with native advertising?

6 Comments

Should You Be Worried About The Next Google Algorithm Change?

by Neil Patel on July 28, 2017

“Everything changes and nothing stands still.”
In this quote, Heraclitus of Ephesus was referring to life and the fundamental order of the cosmos.
But he might as well be referring to Google’s chronic algorithm updates, even if he was a few centuries early.
See, Google makes roughly 500 – 600 changes each year.
Some are major, some are minor.
Some are confirmed, some are unconfirmed.
But Google is cranking them out left and right.
Even on the low end of 500 changes each year, this means 1.36 changes occur every single day.
Google is basically tweaking its algorithm all the time.
Here’s a chart that highlights some of the more serious changes of the past six years:

Of course, only a fraction of algorithm changes create any real stir.
Most of you don’t even know they happen.
But this constant flux is enough to put a lot of marketers on edge.
Even if you reach a top ranking position for a great keyword, there’s no guarantee you’ll stay there.
A single update could send you plummeting into no man’s land.
I understand this can be a little unnerving.
But is this fear really justified?
Should you be worried about the next Google algorithm change?
In this post, I offer my input on this topic and explain how you can protect your site from incurring Google’s wrath.

The frequency of major updates

Okay, so we’ve established that Google is constantly making adjustments.
It’s how it continues to dominate the search engine market:

If it remained stagnant, a competitor would inevitably overtake it.
But what we really need to know is just how many updates are major.
By major I mean resulting in a serious shakeup where hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of sites are affected.
According to Link Assistant, there have been nine major updates since 2011.
They are as follows:

1. Panda – 2/24/11
2. Penguin – 4/24/12
3. Pirate – 8/12
4. Hummingbird – 8/22/13
5. Pigeon – 7/24/14
6. Mobile-Friendly Update – 4/21/15
7. RankBrain – 10/26/15
8. Possum – 9/1/16
9. Fred – 3/8/17

That means we’ve had 1.5 major updates per year in the last six years.
This isn’t to say minor updates can’t or won’t impact you, but there are only about 1.5 a year that are cause for any real concern.

Average traffic that comes from Google

Kissmetrics performed a study on over 18,000 small to medium e-commerce sites.
They found that “30.5 percent of all traffic was coming from organic searches on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.”
Considering that Google has 77.43% of the search market, this means that roughly 23.6% of small to medium e-commerce sites’ traffic comes from Google.

In other words, just under a quarter of all traffic comes from Google.
I would say that’s significant.
Of course, this isn’t true for every website.
But this is what you can expect on average.

Should you worry?

Now we know the frequency of major updates and how much traffic Google sends to the average website.
But is this cause for alarm?
If Google decides to unleash a major update and you get penalized, would it put you in a full-on crisis situation?
Well, it depends.
The way I look at, there are three different factors you need to examine to determine your risk level.

Factor #1 – Your Google traffic

If your site is an outlier, where you get only a small percentage of your traffic from Google (say less than 10%), even the most brutal of algorithm changes shouldn’t have a major impact.
But if Google is your bread and butter, and you count on it to consistently send highly-qualified leads to your site, you could definitely be in trouble if you’re adversely hit with a big update.
This could send your traffic volume and sales plummeting.
It could look something like this:

Not good.

Factor #2 – User experience

At the end of the day, Google is interested in one thing: providing its users with the best experience possible.
If your website delivers a great user experience, you should be in pretty good shape.
No matter what Google throws at you, there should be a level of stability, and it’s unlikely that your rankings will see a dramatic drop.
Now, I realize that delivering “a great user experience “ is a wide umbrella open to plenty of interpretation.
But here are a few key elements that heavily contribute to it.
As we all know, Matt Cutts loves great content.

This should be your top priority over anything else.
You also don’t want to have any spammy or manipulative links or barrage visitors with obnoxious ads.
Next, there’s functionality, which includes:

• fast-loading pages
• mobile-friendliness
• intuitive navigation
• clean interface
• no disruptive popups

Factor #3 – “Schemey” SEO practices

It seems there’s always some “latest and greatest” SEO strategy popping up.
The promise is if you do X, you’ll be able to capitalize on some loophole and see a huge spike in your rankings.
While this approach may pay off initially, it often ends up hurting you in the long run.
I’m a firm believer in the “big picture SEO,” where you focus on the quality, user experience and fundamental SEO best practices rather than trying to game the system.
If you’re doing anything bordering on black-hat or even grey-hat SEO, it’s probably going to come back to haunt you.

But if you keep your nose clean and maintain your integrity, you should be good to go.

How to protect yourself

Here’s the deal.
The next big Google algorithm change is imminent.
It’s going to happen.
It’s not a matter of if but when.
So you need to make sure your site is protected when the next major update inevitably rolls out.
But how do you do this?
Well, you can never completely predict what Google’s going to do next (they’re about as secretive as the CIA), but there are several measures you can take to prevent unnecessary penalties.
Here’s what I suggest.

Diversify your traffic sources

First, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Digital marketing has evolved to a point where you now have a buffet of options to choose from.
Organic search traffic is huge, but there are plenty of other ways to generate high-quality traffic that’s primed to convert.
Here are just a few ideas:

• guest-posting
• social media
• videos
• slideshows
• podcasts
• Quora
• influencer marketing
• email newsletters
• PPC

Monitor your link profile

The links pointing to your site can make or break you.
Recent research suggests that “high-quality backlinks account for 30% of your overall page score in Google.”

I can’t stress enough how important it is to keep tabs on which sites are linking to you.
Low quality, irrelevant or spammy sites can be the kiss of death.
One tool you can use to see who’s linking to you is SEMrush.
Just enter your site’s URL in the search bar:

Then click “Start now:”

Scroll down to the “Backlinks” section:

Click on “View full report” for more details:

You’ll then get a list that looks like this:

From there, you’ll want to browse through the list and check for anything questionable.
You can also use the Google Search Console for checking links, which you can learn about in this post.
If you need to eliminate any links, use the Google disavow tool. Learn more about the process of disavowing links here.

Create “future proof” content

Like I mentioned before, epic content is what Google is looking for when determining rankings.
If you can provide it, you’ll have a buffer against the impact of the next big algorithm change.
I realize this is easier said than done, but check out this post for 14 examples of truly epic content.
The basic recipe I use consists of the following:

• long-form content (at least 1,500 words)
• plenty of visuals
• plenty of data
• references to authoritative resources.

As long as your content hits its mark, there’s no need to live in perpetual anxiety of the next algorithm update.
For more on how to protect your site from Google penalties, I suggest reading this post from NeilPatel.com.

Conclusion

With so many brands heavily depending on Google for their traffic and ultimately sales, I see why so many people worry about algorithm changes.
The idea of your sales tanking because of an update is scary.
If you’re implementing the wrong approach and tactics, you’re putting yourself at risk, and there’s a strong likelihood your rankings will suffer at some point.
But if you understand Google’s logic and follow SEO best practices, there’s no reason to worry.
Sure, algorithm changes will come.
But you’ll be ready for them.
This way, you can keep things flowing and maintain a steady volume of traffic with minimal disruption.
What’s your experience with algorithm updates in the past? What do you do about algo updates now?

12 Comments

How to Use Social Listening to Create Viral Content

by Neil Patel on July 26, 2017

Viral content is inherently unpredictable.
You could have two similar pieces of content—with one receiving thousands upon thousands of shares and the other languishing in obscurity.
In that regard, there’s no magic formula that will enable you to create viral content on command.
It’s not like you can just flip a switch and get mass exposure.
It doesn’t work like that.
But there are several things you can do to increase the chances of your content going viral.
That’s what I want to talk about in this post.
More specifically, I’m going to explain how you can use social listening to your advantage.
Social listening, defined as “the process of monitoring digital conversations to understand what customers are saying about a brand and industry online,” is most commonly used for evaluating customer feedback and identifying their pain points.
But I’ve also found it to be absolutely perfect for predicting what my audience is craving and what’s most likely to go viral.
The way I see it, social listening is perhaps the best way to predict virality.
Here is how you can utilize it to your advantage.

Effectively analyzing content

There’s a popular expression:

the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

Although this can be debatable, depending on the context in which it’s used, you’ll want to follow this line of thinking in this instance.
Like I said earlier, you can never say with 100% certainty that a particular piece of content will go viral.
But what you can do is see what’s resonating the most with your audience at the moment.
If you notice that a particular topic, angle, theme, etc. is completely killing it, there’s a good chance you’ll see favorable results if you cover it as well.
But how do you know what’s popular and what’s resonating with your audience?
That’s where social listening comes in.
The key to effective social listening is knowing which tools to use.
I’m going to cover a few of my favorites you can use to discover trends and identify topics that have the potential to go viral.

Google Trends

Let’s start from the top.
I use Google Trends quite frequently for market research and for gauging people’s interest in various topics.
But I find it can also be helpful for identifying the hottest topics at any given moment.
For starters, you can simply go to the Google Trends homepage.

Start scrolling down to see the top trending stories:

Sometimes, this can give you some potential ideas to work with.
Of course, the trending stories aren’t narrowed down by niche or topic, so you’re dealing with a wide variety of subject matter.
But sometimes that’s all it takes.
If you see something that interests you, click on it:

You’ll then get some of the most relevant articles, which should provide further clarification on what’s popular at the moment:

In this case, a lot of people are talking about Snapchat’s new “Snap Map” feature.
Therefore, this could be something I would want to investigate further and a potential topic I could cover.

Using Top Charts

Another useful feature is called “Top Charts.”
From the Google Trends homepage, click here:

Then click on “Top Charts:”

Here’s what you’ll see:

Scroll down to look at all the different categories.
Or you can search for a relevant category by clicking on “All Categories” and choosing the one you’re looking for:


Once you’ve found your category, you can click on “More” for more detailed information:

The logic here is that you can use up-to-date data from Google to see what people are most interested in at the moment in your industry/niche.
Google Trends is by no means a be-all and end-all social listening tool, but it can serve as a nice starting point.

Inbound.org

This is only applicable to digital marketers like myself.
But if this is your area of focus, it can be a potential gold mine.
Here’s what you want to do.
Once you’re at the Inbound.org homepage, scroll all the way down to the bottom.
You’ll see this:

Click on whatever sub-category you’re interested in.
I’ll go with SEO:

Here’s what I get:

Scroll through the list, looking for ideas.
Inbound.org does most of the heavy lifting for you by curating the top stories.
Many have received a high volume of shares, so you know the interest it there.
Also note once you sign up, you can create your own feed to streamline the process even more.
This way the stories come right to you.

BuzzSumo

Now, let’s bring out the big guns.
BuzzSumo is a beast when it comes to finding out how much engagement content receives.
And since engagement (shares in particular) is the ultimate indicator of virality, this is one of the best ways to capitalize on trends and increase your odds of creating viral content.
Here’s what you want to do.
Type in a keyword you’re looking to base your content on in the search box of your dashboard.
I’ll use “SEO” as an example:

Now, set your filter date to a time that sounds right to you.
Because we want to capitalize on current trends, I recommend going back no further than six months.
However, the past month or week is ideal.
You can even set it to the last 24 hours, but you’ll usually have limited data.
I’ll set mine to the past week:

Once you do that, BuzzSumo will populate your screen with the top content according to total shares.
Here are the top results I got:

Now all I have to do is browse through the content and look for two things:

1. content that’s relevant to my industry/niche
2. content that’s received a significant number of total shares and/or links.

This post from Search Engine Land about testing accelerated mobile pages (AMP) for WordPress caught my attention:

Not only did it get 1.5k shares in the past week, it also got 41 backlinks.
This lets me know that my audience is obviously interested in this topic.
And if I created an article that was bigger, better and more epic, it would have a reasonable likelihood of going viral.
This is the formula you want to use with BuzzSumo.
It doesn’t matter what topic you’re covering.
Following these steps will let you know what people are responding to and give you very specific data to base your decisions on.
Let me say that the Pro version is ideal because it gives you a lot more data.
That’s what I used for this example.
However, you can do a limited search with the free version, which can still be useful.

Other tools

So far I’ve provided you with three different resources for social listening.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
There are several other tools you can experiment with, many of which are free.
Check out this list of the top 15 free social media monitoring tools from Brandwatch for info on other tools.

Taking what you’ve learned and running with it

At this point, you should have a pretty good idea of which topics are popular at the moment and what your audience is responding to.
That means you’re not basing your content on a hunch. You’re basing it on tangible data.
Your job now is to create the best content possible around that topic.
Now, I’m not saying you should blatantly rip someone off.
What you want to do is put your own spin on things.
Look for a way to expand on it.
And, of course, it needs to be awesome.
It needs to be epic.
Just think skyscraper technique.
Hitting the mark in terms of quality and value is absolutely essential if you expect for your content to go viral.
I’ve already covered this extensively in the past, so there’s no need to talk about it here.
But let me point you to a couple of articles I’ve written that should be helpful.
There’s this one from NeilPatel.com.
It’s a guide for writing epic content that will go viral.
And there’s this one from Quick Sprout, which is about the anatomy of virality.

Conclusion

Social listening is useful for many different aspects of marketing.
Using it to gauge your audience’s collective reaction to various topics will give you a good idea of what type of subject matter is most likely to go viral.
This gives you valuable knowledge to guide your content creation.
In turn, you can “scratch your audience’s itch” and give them what they’re looking for.
And just think of the competitive advantage this gives you over other brands that simply slap up content at random without giving it any real thought.
While there are never any guarantees that something will go viral, following this formula increases the chances significantly.
What do you think is the main contributing factor for content going viral?

8 Comments

How to Use Surveys to Hook More Customers

by Neil Patel on July 24, 2017

What’s the number one goal of content marketing?
Besides the obvious answer of generating leads and making conversions, it’s maximizing engagement.
Content marketing thrives on engagement!
You want your audience to take an active interest in your content and interact with your brand.
This typically comes in the form of likes, shares, comments, etc.
But there’s a new format that’s really picking up steam, and that’s surveys.
They’re especially big on Facebook right now.
Here’s an example of one Jeff Bullas used to figure out what his audience’s goals were when using LinkedIn:

When done correctly, surveys are excellent engagement boosters because:

• they’re inherently interactive
• most people have a natural desire to compare themselves to their colleagues and peers
• most people enjoy offering input and providing their opinions on the topics that matter to them

Surveys ultimately enable you to raise the collective interest in your brand and attract a larger portion of your target demographic.
By building this interest, you can get people to pay more attention to your brand and hook more customers.
But there’s an added perk: market research.
Surveys are absolutely perfect for gaining intel on your audience’s interests, preferences, likes, dislikes, etc.
And that’s incredibly important!
You can use this information to improve your marketing, fine-tune your offerings and so on.
What I’m trying to say is that surveys accomplish several important things all at once.
Not only are you increasing engagement and building interest in your brand, you’re reeling in leads and doing market research at the same time.
It’s a win-win-win situation!

Effective strategizing

But here’s the thing.
There’s a lot more to it than just slapping up a survey and waiting for the sales to start pouring in.
Like any aspect of marketing, it requires the right strategy and an understanding of how to make your surveys appealing to your audience.
Otherwise, no one is actually going to respond.
In this post, I’m going to explain how to use surveys the right way, how to increase your response rate and how to turn respondents into customers.
I’ll also highlight some platforms you can use to get started.

Don’t be a nuisance

Let me start by saying you need to use tact when asking people to participate in surveys.
Each time someone goes online, they’re bombarded with deals, ads, offers, promotions, friend requests, etc.
To cope with this onslaught, people have to pick and choose what to participate in, which often makes them reluctant to take part in surveys.
After all, it takes time and effort.
Even if there are only a few questions, people have to take time out of their days to fill out a survey.
So it’s super important that you’re not being a nuisance when asking people to participate.
You need to go about it the right way.
Here’s how.

Approach the right demographic

Ideally, you’ll target individuals who are already familiar with your brand and have proven they have an interest.
It’s much easier to get someone to participate if there’s some level of built-in loyalty already there.
Research from SurveyGizmo found there was a huge disparity between external (people who are unfamiliar with your brand) and internal (people who are familiar with your brand) surveys.
Just look at the difference in response rates:

It’s more than double.
When you’re just getting started, I recommend targeting Facebook followers, email subscribers and so on.
Go after those with whom you already have a level of rapport and who developed loyalty to your brand.
Here’s a good example of IKEA hitting up its Facebook followers with a survey:

As you can see, it got a nice number of votes at 286.
Believe me, it’s much easier to get these people to take action than those who have never heard of you.
If someone already has a vested interest in your brand, they should have no problem supplying you with their feedback.

Keep it brief

Most people are willing to answer a few questions.
But not many are willing to answer a dozen or more questions.
The longer the survey, the lower the response rate will be.
For instance, most people wouldn’t want to bother with a survey like this:

Or this:

It’s just too big of a time commitment and requires too much mental energy.
And quite frankly, it’s a little intimidating.
But responding to a survey like this is no big deal:

A quick click, and you’re done.
Keep this in mind when deciding on the number of questions to ask.

Incentivize it (sometimes)

In most cases, most people have a “what’s in it for me?” type of mindset.
Maybe they’re unwilling to participate in a survey as is.
But you can always sweeten the deal by incentivizing things.
Here’s an example from Artifact Uprising:

Here’s another from Babies R’ Us/Toys R’ Us:

Earning $10 or being given a chance to win a $250 gift card is a pretty strong incentive.
This would definitely pique the interest of many people.
But you know what?
Your incentives don’t necessarily need to be over the top.
In fact, deals like these aren’t in the budget for everyone.
But I’ve seen many brands do quite well and increase their survey response rates significantly by including a promotional code for 15% off shipping on the next order.
And think about it.
An offer like this also encourages people to buy.
Here’s what I recommend.
Do some A/B testing offering a survey without an incentive and then one with an incentive.
See how big of a disparity there is, and use this data to decide whether or not to use incentives for future surveys.

Timing is everything

There’s also the issue of timing.
It’s imperative you offer surveys at the right time, when people are most likely to respond.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say someone just subscribed to your newsletter.
You wouldn’t want your first email to be asking them for their input.
It just wouldn’t make sense and would be annoying.
A better approach would be to occasionally target subscribers who consistently open your emails after they’ve had a chance to get comfortable with your brand.
They should be a lot more receptive to such requests and willing to participate.

Survey platforms

We’ve established that surveys have multiple uses and can be used to hook more customers.
We’ve also discussed some fundamental strategies for pulling surveys off effectively and maximizing their response rates.
But how do you get started?
I suggest first checking out Facebook’s survey tool.
Start by going to “My Surveys” on Facebook.
Click on “Get Started Now:”

Enter a title for your survey:

Click “Continue:”

You’ll then come to this screen:

From here, you’ll want to add your questions by clicking here:

Enter your questions, choose the question type and include images if you want:

Rinse and repeat until you’re done.
At the end, you’ll be able to preview your survey and finally publish it.
Facebook is a good place to experiment with surveys if you have a sizable audience already familiar and comfortable with your brand.
You can create surveys that are quick and easy to answer, and they can be integrated seamlessly with the rest of your posts.
I also like Facebook because their surveys aren’t really obtrusive.
If one of your followers is interested, they can instantly participate.
If not, they can simply keep scrolling through their feed.
No big deal.

Other platforms

When you’re looking to create surveys for your website, blog, email, etc., there are several different platforms to choose from.
One of the most popular is Survey Monkey.
I find it to be straightforward and easy to use.
You can also create some really professional looking surveys with virtually zero design experience.
The best part is the basic version is free.
You’re limited in terms of the number of questions you can include and the number of responses, but it should be enough to get the ball rolling.
If you want more features, you can always upgrade later.
Here’s a screenshot of the different plans available with Survey Monkey:

If you’re looking for reviews on other survey platforms, I recommend reading this post from WordStream.
It will tell you pretty much everything you need to know and give you the rundown on some of the top platforms.

Conclusion

Surveys are nothing new.
They’ve been used for thousands of years.
But using them as a content marketing tool is fairly new.
They’re gradually becoming more popular but have yet to be used on a massive scale.
This means there’s plenty of opportunity if you know how to use them correctly.
As I pointed out before, surveys offer a means of accomplishing three important things:

• improving engagement,
• hooking more customers and
• performing market research.

All three are huge for your bottom line.
And once you get the hang of the process, you can use it time and time again.
How often do you participate in surveys?