From web development to branding and design, there are plenty of moving parts when launching a new website, but your SEO strategy shouldn’t be an afterthought.In fact, your SEO strategy should be one of the primary considerations before you even start your website. To take things a step further, the best case scenario would be that your website structure is fully built based on the SEO strategy you already have in place. Doing this from the get-go saves lots of headaches for things like web development, content formatting and design, URL structures, and more.

How to Prep Your SEO Strategy for a New Website

New websites have no indexed pages, don’t have backlinks, and thus also have no authority.As time presses on, Google starts to sniff out and apply changes as your website matures (assuming the SEO strategy is done right), and you’ll soon see that there are some other websites to contend with.A new website can start by focusing on longtail, low-competition keywords until it works its way up. Over time, with proper SEO strategies, your new website can grow to compete and even overtake the strongest of competition.

Why is SEO valuable for new websites?

The right domain name is associated with SEO equity, so aligning your company and brand name with your domain name is critical. When you have a new domain, you’re essentially starting your SEO from scratch.

1. Pick the right domain name (you can’t change it after!)

The average user won’t wait longer than three seconds for a website to load, so ensuring an excellent host is the first step of your SEO strategy.

2. Choose a high-speed website hosting provider

It’ll provide you with tons of that that you need to achieve SEO success. With Google Search Console, you can check things like:<ul><li>Page speed issues</li><li>Organic keywords that bring in website clicks</li><li>Your average click through rate (CTR)</li><li>Sitemap submission</li><li>Crawl and index errors</li><li>Page performance</li></ul>

3. Set up Google Search Console

When analyzing and making a list of your competitors consider these questions:<ul><li>How is their company similar to yours? How is it different? Check out their unique selling points.</li><li>What topics do they write about?</li><li>What keywords are they already ranking for?</li></ul>Every business has product and service competitors, but that doesn’t mean they have an SEO strategy that’s worth trying to outperform. The key here is to identify who sells similar stuff, writes similar content, and is piling up top keyword rankings. Those are your “SEO competitors”, and they’re who you want to beat.

4. Study your SEO competition

Keywords connect search queries to your content listed in the SERPs.Google’s goal is to use the keywords used in search queries to identify & present the most valuable information to searchers, aka “search intent”.Longtail, low competition keywords that exactly match what you’re selling, are your direct path to ensuring SEO has a major impact on your revenue & long-term profitability.Understanding search intent plays a major role with buyer journey stages, so ensuring that you’re crafting content that’s appropriate for buyers in the awareness, consideration, & decision stage is crucial.

5. Research keywords and create your keyword map

<ul><li>Prioritize sections of your keyword map: Such as product or service pages, as those have the highest likelihood to result in conversions and generate revenue for your business.</li><li>Optimize your content: Don’t forget to use keywords in the H1, URL, and metadata. </li><li>Track your keyword rankings: Once you publish content, keep an eye on how it’s performing. Content can move up over time as Google perceives your content to be trustworthy, you provide a good user experience, & your Domain Authority increases. </li><li>Post consistently: Publish at least 4 new website pages per month. </li></ul>

6. Build a strategic content calendar (and keep posting)

Putting keywords in your URL is super important for ensuring that your content is being set up properly.In the words of Rand Fishkin, “if there’s other keywords you haven’t used, or URLs you haven’t targeted with certain keywords, you do so during this process. This way you’re covering your tracks, making certain there are words and phrases that are covered early on.”

7. Ensure an optimized URL structure

Just like you go to check your core vitals at the doctor, you should do the same for your website to steer clear of any unnecessary issues.SEO is no longer just about putting keywords in the right places, it now also involves content format, design, page load speed, as well as user behavior — like time on page and bounce rates.In a nutshell, sustainable SEO success no longer ends with the click, you have to wholeheartedly satisfy your readers while they’re on the page in order to consistently rank.

8. Review Core Web Vitals and page experience

Accessibility simply means how easy it is for users (and search engines) to access the information on your website. This element is taken into consideration as a ranking factor. You want an accessible site for everyone, right? Of course, you’ll want to make sure that your content is being indexed and crawled correctly, but you can also take these steps to ensure that happens:<ul><li>Optimize alt text in images (for screen readers)</li><li>Use enough contrast (make sure your colors are easy on the eye)</li><li>Correctly label elements like buttons</li><li>Make your font size big enough to read</li></ul>

9. Observe accessibility

Whether for SEO or not, your website content shouldn’t just be published and sit there. The phrase “build it and they will come” is completely untrue when it comes to SEO.You have put in the effort to create your content, so it deserves to be shown to your audience. Think about where you already have a strong presence and harness that.

10. Promote

Your SEO strategy should be one of the primary considerations before you even start your website. Instead of fighting to make your website SEO-ready later on, start with this holistic SEO checklist for new websites and save yourself valuable time and resources

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

Breadcrumbs are website links that allow users to track where they are on a website & how far they are from the homepage.They're usually under the navigation bar.Recent changes in Google have made them even more important – because now they can impact SEO directly. Google now displays breadcrumbs in the search results & uses breadcrumbs to categorize information in the search results.

What Are Breadcrumbs in SEO?

<ol><li>Hierarchy-Based Breadcrumbs (a.k.a., Location-Based Breadcrumbs) E.g. Home > Resources > SEO Guide</li><li>Attribute-Based Breadcrumbs E.g. Home > Shoes > Hiking > Womens</li><li>History-Based Breadcrumbs E.g. Home > SEO article 1 > SEO article 2 > Current page</li></ol>

3 Common Types of Breadcrumbs

<ol><li>Breadcrumbs Improve UX Breadcrumbs make it easier for users to navigate a website & encourage users to browse other sections of the site.</li><li>Improve Site Ranking Acc to Google, they use breadcrumbs to categorize & contextualize content. In 2018, Google added breadcrumbs to the SERP, making them even more important than ever. Breadcrumbs in the SERPs also help users understand where that page is on your site.</li><li>Keep People Onsite Longer Bounce rate might not be a direct ranking factor, but it still can help SEO. High bounce rate can indicate problems with UX – which breadcrumbs can help solve.</li></ol>

3 Benefits of Using Breadcrumbs for SEO

<ol><li>Breadcrumbs Should Be Easy To See, But Unobtrusive</li><li>Don’t Just Repeat Your Navigation Bar</li><li>Don’t Ditch Your Navigation Bar in Favor of Breadcrumbs</li><li>Use the Right Type of Breadcrumbs</li></ol>

4 Common Mistakes When Using Breadcrumbs for SEO

Breadcrumbs are a navigational feature for your website, and they can have an awesome impact on SEO and user experience. There are still a ton of websites that don’t implement breadcrumbs – which is a huge mistake, not just because they impact SEO but also because they are pretty easy to implement.

Breadcrumbs are website navigational elements used to create a better UX and improve crawlability. Discover how breadcrumbs impact SEO.

What Are Breadcrumbs & Why Do They Matter for SEO?

Content pillars are an essential part of a brand’s content strategy and they serve a fundamental purpose: they provide a comprehensive, authoritative exploration of a topic that a reader can get everything they need on that subject in one place.

Building High-Performing Content Pillars

Pillar pages provide a substantive amount of information that can be divided into numerous formats such as ultimate guides, longreads, hub pages, & more. It is an opportunity to create a better user experience & be rewarded by search engines with high-level, authoritative content.The content pillar is the center of your content hub, where cluster pages are interlinked with the pillar. It can be dissected & repurposed into smaller pieces of content that you can promote to your audience - social media posts, emails, landing pages, gated content, or other channels where you market your brand.

What Are Content Pillars? What Is a Pillar Content Strategy?

Depending on your content marketing goals, there are three main types of pillar pages: the “Guide”, the “What Is”, and the “How-To.” We’ll look at examples of each type and see how they work.

What Are the Key Elements of Content Pillars? What Are the Examples?

For the “Guide” format, this webpage should provide an authoritative overview of the topic with various elements and pages that link to support it. The subtopics and supporting elements, whether they are blog posts, links to resources or products, related questions, FAQs, or videos are clustered around the pillar page’s main topic. Think of the pillar page as the “head” of your content marketing strategy, and cluster topics are the legs, arms, and torso that support your overall goal.

The Guide

Long-form blogs can be excellent candidates for the “What Is” pillar page that covers a subject in great depth. If the subject matter is complex enough, you can break down the themes or subtopics into chapters and segments.

The What Is

The How-To can be a powerful content asset for your brand, and an opportunity for you to position yourself as a subject matter expert. It can also be the ideal format if you’re targeting an audience with informational and transactional intents.

The How-To

As the great Sun Tzu famously said, “Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” While we are not discussing the art of war here, the importance of strategic thinking in content creation is essential in achieving the desired outcome of any marketing effort. Content without structure and purpose will ultimately fail for your brand, your customers, and search engines.

How Do You Develop a Pillar Content Strategy for a Website? 

Identifying the core topic & keyword should both satisfy the user intent as much as it should attract search engine algorithms.Identify the primary keyword or topic, & make sure it’s substantial enough to build a hub around. Look at:<ul><li>Search volume</li><li>Competitiveness of the topic</li><li>Relevancy to the audience & the product offering</li><li>Potential of becoming evergreen content</li></ul>Analyze SubtopicsCome up with a list of subtopics to form the cluster pages & create the structure for the pillar page. The pillar page should touch base on all of these subtopics & link to the relevant articles uncovering them in detail.

1. Identify your core topic and keyword

Performing a content audit of the website will help determine whether you already have existing pages that could be modified, repurposed, & optimized for the pillar content strategy, & help identify whether you already have a candidate for a pillar page, or better yet—that you already have plenty of articles that could be restructured into a central pillar.By updating and optimizing your existing content, you can avoid the pitfalls of cannibalization or duplicate content on your website.The audit process allows you to re-evaluate your internal linking structure.

2. Audit the Existing Content on Your Website

If you’ve identified a topic that you want to become an authority on, chances are you have competition vying for the same space. Next, you’ll want to do competitive content analysis on what their content marketing looks like to identify gaps, opportunities, & other areas for pillar content.One of the best ways to leapfrog the competition in search is to find areas where you can improve what’s already existing & build a more authoritative guide. By analyzing the subtopics covered by your competitors & finding content gaps, you’ll be able to build a better content pillar.

3. Take a Look at the Competition

Map out the Structure of Your Pillar PageThe next step is to collect all possible questions your pillar page will strive to answer and use them to design the structure of the article.

4. Create Your Content Pillar

Interlinking your cluster content to your pillar page is an essential part of the information architecture. If you want your pillar content to rank, you’ll need to optimize your links (both internal and backlinks from external sources) to start getting traction.Remember that the pillar page is the hub where the user can get access to all the information they’re seeking all in one place. Additionally, since you want to promote your pillar content as an authoritative resource, you’ll want to have a strategy for acquiring backlinks from high-quality sources, too.

5. Interlink, Promote, and Distribute Your Pillar Content

Content pillars are an essential part of a brand’s content strategy and they serve a fundamental purpose: they provide a comprehensive, authoritative exploration of a topic that a reader can get everything they need on that subject in one place.

Explore this guide to learn what are content pillars, how to successfully build them in your company, and what are some of the best industry examples.

Building High-Performing Content Pillars: Your Ultimate Guide

Inclusive content is any form of media (such as a blog post, a video, an image, etc.) that speaks to a broad and diverse audience without excluding anyone.When it comes to blog posts, that means the words do not hurt or divide, the images represent as many different people as possible, and the structure makes the content as accessible as possible (through clear fonts, image alt tags, etc). Inclusive content is NOT a political statement or a personal take on social justice topics.

What Does “Inclusive Content” Mean?

There’s a lot more to gain when you write in a way that includes as many people as possible.For one, it can grow your business. You significantly widen your target markets by opening the door to previously marginalized communities.At the same time, it raises the profile of your brand with everyone. More than half of consumers want to purchase from companies that prioritize diversity and inclusion, according to a report by Zendesk.Millennials are even more loyal to inclusive brands. Seventy percent of them will choose a brand that demonstrates inclusion in its marketing efforts.

What Are the Benefits of Inclusive Content?

Inclusive content sells better, too.The Psychology of Inclusion and the Effects in Advertising by Microsoft Advertising found that the purchase intent of the most inclusive ad in their study was 13 percent higher than the next most appealing ad and 23 percent higher than the average.Finally, creating inclusive content demonstrates your brand’s commitment to change. Fail to do so, and you’ll look like a brand unwilling or unable to learn or grow (or worse, paint your brand as one that doesn’t care about social issues).

What Are the Benefits of Inclusive Content? (contd.)

Having a target audience may help narrow your focus and improve your PPC campaigns. But a customer persona rarely fits every potential customer. If the language & imagery you use only appeals to a specific demographic, you risk alienating potential new customers.Writing for a wider audience will make your content more thoughtful & appealing. Most marketing efforts still lack diversity & inclusivity, esp. when it comes to content marketing. Just identifying & fixing your blind spots can breathe new life into your efforts, & help you build important relationships with a variety of stakeholders.

1. Look for Blind Spots

Start by making your entire site accessible.Ensure the following:<ul><li>screen readers can interact with every page on the site but esp. your blog. Alt text on the images & captions on videos is relevant. & not just used to stuff keywords into your article. Screen readers rely on alt text or captions to describe pictures, videos & other visual content.</li><li>the website is navigatable by keyboard</li><li>reduce excessive motion in design elements</li><li>the site doesn’t ignite physical triggers</li><li>improve the website’s color contrast</li><li>the site works with all browsers and accessibility tools</li></ul>

2. Make Your Content Accessible

The words you use matter. They have the power to inspire, but they also have the ability to divide and exclude. When it comes to creating inclusive content you have to be careful about the language you choose.Adopting gender-neutral language should be the bare minimum. Instead of words like “mankind” and “salesman”, use “humankind” and “salesperson.” You should also avoid making gender-based assumptions. Politicians are not always male. A parent is not necessarily a woman. A gender-neutral pronoun like “they” is the safest bet in these scenarios.

3. Use Inclusive Language

Encourage and embrace feedback. The more you discuss your work openly & invite readers to have their say, the quicker you can start creating genuinely inclusive content.It’s not just your audience you should consult, however. A sensitivity reader can be a huge help when reviewing your writing for poor phrasing and insensitive language.

4. Ask for Audience Input and Additional Help

Stock images are known to often feature middle-class caucasians. It’s not enough to just write in an inclusive manner. People will identify with your company & product more when they see people like themselves included in your content marketing efforts. It also makes it clear that you are writing for them specifically.Make your blog posts more exclusive by including photos of people from different backgrounds. That can include people of color, non-traditional families, & people of different sizes & abilities.

5. Use Diverse Images

The format and structure of your writing can also exclude readers. Flowery language and complex clauses aren’t going to cut it if you’re writing for laypeople.Instead:<ul><li>Use short words & short sentences.</li><li>Keep paragraphs short and use lots of subheadings to make it easy for readers to skim your content.</li><li>Avoid industry jargon, abbreviations, & other specialized terms that the average consumer won’t understand.</li><li>Use bullet points to break down lists of information.</li><li>Write in the active advice to keep your writing as concise and clear as possible.</li></ul>

6. Write in an Accessible Way

The last thing you’d ever want to do is exclude a person or group of people through your marketing. Yet many marketers and writers have made this mistake. Divisive & exclusive words & phrases have become so baked into our language that many of us don’t realize when we use them or the harm they cause. This article, explains what inclusive content really means, why you need to be creating it, & how to do it in a meaningful way.

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

How to Create Inclusive Content for Everyone

Marketing funnel is a system that helps you attract consumers, turn them into leads or prospects, and finally convert them into paying customers.

What is a marketing funnel?

While marketing funnels is the broader term that covers various use-cases, there are several types of funnels you’re like to come across:<ul><li>Lead magnet funnels</li><li>List building funnels</li><li>Webinar funnels</li><li>Social media marketing funnels</li><li>Video sales funnels</li><li>Email funnels</li></ul>As you can see, other than the marketing channel your funnel’s based on, your funnels can also have different goals, e.g.:<ul><li>selling a product or service</li><li>building a list of contacts</li><li>promoting an event</li></ul>Naturally, you might just as well use funnels to collect survey answers or have people sign up for a live demo of your platform.

Types of funnels

Using a funnel and the AIDA model helps marketers visualize the stages and tasks advertising campaigns should fulfill first before the consumer makes a decision to buy a given product or service. If you’re not convinced, take this sales funnel template as an example.Marketing and sales funnels will help you keep your campaigns organized and drive your target audience strategically towards action.For each stage of this so-called customer journey, marketers can choose different tools and marketing tactics to help their consumers advance down the funnel and towards the buying decision.

How marketing funnels work

At the same time, for each of the stages, marketers will be using different metrics and KPIs to report on their campaign progress.To give you a better overview, here are a few examples of metrics you’d likely report on across the three key areas of your funnel – Top of the funnel (TOFU), Middle of the funnel (MOFU), Bottom of the funnel (BOFU).

How marketing funnels work (contd.)

Your audience isn’t yet aware of your brand & your products/services. To change that focus on lead generation.Build a landing page, create a lead magnet, & drive traffic to it.Use social media ads, Google ads, add banners to your pages, send an email to your existing email list (this has to be a target email list consisting of people who you potentially convert at a later stage), sponsor a podcast, or partner up with another business.Remember to pick the right lead magnet for your audience. Not everyone will be interested in an ebook or a checklist.Retarget those who’ve engaged with your ads.

Marketing funnel strategies - Awareness

To help them realize that what you’re offering is the right solution to their problem create an autoresponder email cycle that’ll discuss the different aspects of the topic your subscribers are interested in. Emphasize the strengths of your offer & why your brand should come up naturally when they’re thinking of the topic.During this process, you’ll want your prospects to engage with your brand & products.To step up your game, try email automation. Send them in response to your subscribers’ and users’ actions. You’ll soon see why triggered emails outperform regular emails multiple times.

Marketing funnel strategies - Consideration

To convert your email subscribers into paying customers your email communication should motivate your audience to take action & commit.Emphasize the reasons why they shouldn’t waste any more time. Use the language that works for your audience. Overcome the hesitation by using testimonials, customer reviews, & case studies. If you’re selling an item with limited stock – this is the time to make this clear. If you offer a money-back guarantee, easy or free-returns, a free trial period – all of this should be emphasized in your email sequence.

Marketing funnel strategies - Action

It’s not about driving any kind of traffic to your landing page or squeeze page. It’s about driving the right traffic.Focus your efforts on identifying the audience that’s likely to convert.This means narrowing down your segmentation when setting up social media ads, using lookalike audiences, and observing which users perform your desired action.If you’re seeing that some groups, in particular, are visiting your site and not converting, it’s probably best to remove them from your target group or tweak your ads to fit their needs better.

Marketing Funnel Best Practices - 1. Drive traffic effectively

Your website, landing pages, and emails should be optimized for all types of devices.At the same time, if for some reason the mobile experience for any of those assets isn’t working, ask yourself whether you want to target mobile users at all?See whether mobile users are converting and if not, make a strategic decision whether you want to include them in your targeting.

Marketing Funnel Best Practices - 2. Optimize your communication for all devices

The same lead magnet won’t work for everybody. That’s why you need to understand who you’re targeting and then test your gut feeling.Perhaps a checklist is going to win over an ebook? Or an email swipe file over a 1-on-1 consultation? Evaluate each lead magnet, but don’t just focus on money.Sometimes it’s about how quickly your audience can benefit from the lead magnet and not how comprehensive it is. Ever downloaded an ebook you never actually read because it was too big? That’s what I mean.

Marketing Funnel Best Practices - 3. Choose the right lead magnet

The whole idea behind marketing funnels is targeting customers with the right type of content at the right moment. Don’t ask for a commitment right away.You hint at the address of your order form for those who already arrived with the ‘I’m ready to buy’ mindset. For others, you’ll have to nurture them first.

Marketing Funnel Best Practices - 4. Nurture your leads

This is something we as marketers often get wrong. What we’re looking at are vanity metrics. But what we’re interested in are actionable metrics.Are you really interested in how many people visited your page or how many of them converted? Are you interested in how many people opened your email or how many of them clicked through to your upsell offer?Write down your objectives and then make sure you’re focusing on the right metrics – the ones you have an influence on and which bring you closer to business growth.

Marketing Funnel Best Practices - 5. Get your objectives and metrics right

Even if you know your target audience very well, chances are that you’ve got more than one idea on how to approach them best.Rather than going with your gut, you can evaluate your ideas by running A/B tests. For example, test your squeeze pages or follow up email sequences.When doing so, change:<ul><li> the color of your CTA buttons</li><li>the copy</li><li>the placement of your signup form</li><li>the placement or type of social proof</li><li>videos</li></ul>& more – these elements can help you improve your conversion rates & grow your business, too.

Marketing Funnel Best Practices - 6. Experiment and increase your conversion rates

Do you know what marketing funnels are and how they can help you increase your sales revenue? In this article, you’ll find the definition, examples, and best-practices for creating a high-converting marketing funnel that’ll transform your business.

Marketing Funnels Beginner’s Guide: Best Practices & More

NFT stands for non-fungible tokens. They are digital assets that can be bought and sold, just like any other piece of property. Each NFT is “tokenized” which means it has a digital certificate of ownership that makes it unique. That ownership token is stored in a digital ledger, called the blockchain.

What Are NFTs?

NFTs aren’t just taking over the art world. Plenty of big brands are using this technology to drive their marketing strategies. Here’s six ways brands are using NFTs to drive brand awareness and profits.

How Can Marketers Use NFTs

Looking to take your brand awareness campaigns into the metaverse? NFTs can help brands expand awareness.Marriott is leveraging NFTs through its Marriott Bonvoy travel program. The brand partnered with three artists to create three different NFTs based on travel experiences. The NFTs were unveiled at an event during Art Basel, a premier modern art show. A drawing was held to raffle the NFTs off. Winners got their own NFT, along with 200,000 Bonvoy points.The event helped increase brand awareness by leveraging NFTs and built excitement around the brand and the experiences offered by Bonvoy.

Build Brand Awareness: Marriott

Looking to expand your audience and reach new markets? Facebook lookalike audiences aren’t your only option.Bicycle, one of the oldest card-making companies. Founded in the 1800s, the brand has been a staple in the card printing industry for more than a century.Bicycle wants to reach a younger audience, many of whom are interested in new technology like NFTs.They recently announced their first-ever NFT collection. In addition to purchasing NFTs designed by artist Adrian Valenzuela, owners will also gain access to exclusive events, presales, & access to a physical deck of NFTs.

Expand Audience Reach: Bicycle Cards

While smaller brands don’t have to worry much about knockoffs, legacy brands are leaning into NFTs as a way to protect their brand image.Robert Mondavi Winery has also jumped on the NFT bandwagon, but is leveraging it in a whole new way. Rather than using it to expand their audience or build their brand, this well-established brand uses NFTs to protect their wine’s providence.Worried about the growing marketing of knock off vintages, they partnered with artist Clay Heaton to create a collection of wines featuring porcelain bottles and NFTs to authenticate the wine.

Protect Brand Image: Robert Mondavi Winery

Consumers want to support companies that give back. In fact, 84 percent of millennials say they prefer to support brands that are transparent with values and a culture they can trust. They don’t want promises, they want action.Kinetic Sand, a popular brand of squeezable, moldable sand, is using NFTs to raise money for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), to expand their arts and creative experiences programs.The NFT collection was created in collaboration with artist Dan Lam.

Support a Good Cause: Kinetic Sand

Are you looking to promote in-person events? Take a page from AMC & consider offering NFTs to the first few attendees.When tickets for the new movie went on sale, they offered the first 86,000 AMC investors who bought or reserved a ticket the opportunity to receive a free NFT. If users purchased a ticket and did not attend the movie, they would no longer be eligible to receive an NFT.So not only did users have to be a member of the AMC rewards program, but they also had to actually show up to the theater in person to watch the movie.

Promote In-Person Events: AMC/Spider-Man

Gary Vaynerchuk is well known for his infatuation with NFTs. He loves them so much, he decided to use them to promote his newest book, titled Twelve & a Half.It’s worth noting this isn’t his 1st book—there is a good chance the book would have sold well even without the NFTs. Regardless, the book quickly racked up more than a million pre-orders in the first day—which is no small feat.Here’s how it worked: for every 12 copies buyers purchased in a 24-hour period, they’d earn 1 NFT. Based on the results, the NFTs definitely made some waves.

Drive Pre-Orders: Gary Vaynerchuk

You’ve likely heard of NFTs already. But did you know they can be used in marketing?NFTs are taking the art and technology world by storm. What, exactly, are NFTs and why should marketers care? Here’s what marketers need to know about NTFs, including how you can leverage them to grow your business.

crypto

Cryptocurrency

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

Comprehensive Guide to NFTs for Marketers

Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is a free online tool by Google consisting of a series of dashboards showing you how your site is performing on Google.It allows you to access a wide range of important data about your website. For example, you can:<ul><li>see how your page is performing in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) for various keywords</li><li>find out if you have any problems with content appearing on Google (or indexing, to use the technical term)</li><li>check out what sites are linking to your content</li><li>see how your website is performing by the device used</li></ul>

What is Google Search Console?

Setting up Google Search Console is quite easy. Head over to its welcome page and log in with your Google credentials.After signing up, you will be asked to enter your web address in one of two boxes. The left-hand box is for a Domain Property and the right-hand box is for a URL Prefix Property.

Setup Google Search Console

Most people using Search Console select the domain property option. You’ll get the information on how your whole website is performing on Google. This includes all the URLs, subdomains and web protocols (http://, https://, www).In the past, you had to verify all the protocols separately but thanks to the domain property option, all you need is to enter your domain and all the variations will be included.

Domain Property

You should use this option if you only want to cover an exact URL format. For example, if you enter https://www.website.com/blog into the required field, only this URL format will be tracked. This option is often used for targeting a specific language mutation on a multilingual website, e.g. https://en-gb.example.com

URL Prefix Property

There are three different permissions levels in the Search Console:Owners: This will probably be you. Owners can view all the site’s data and use all the tools. They can also give other people access to the Search Console. You can also create delegated owners, who have the same control over Search Console as you.Full Users: Can view all site data and use most of the Search Console tools. They can’t change permissions. Neither can they share access to other G-suite accounts or change the web address.Restricted Users: Can only view Search Console data and generate basic reports.

Users, owners and permissions

The Overview Report is the first page that loads when you access Search Console. The dashboard contains a snapshot of key information about your site.<ul><li>Site performance report: How many people have clicked on your website from Google</li><li>Coverage report: Information whether your pages are indexed properly on Google</li><li>Enhancements report: Provides information about enhancements (such as AMP) you’ve made on your site</li><li>Manual actions report: This will show you if Google has given you a manual penalty</li></ul>

Overview

There are 3 main sections you can adjust or click on to show the data you need:<ul><li>top filter</li><li>4 main metrics</li><li>data tabs</li></ul>The various variables you can add include:<ul><li>Search: Choose to filter the results by web, image, or video</li><li>Date: Filter the results by date range. You can also compare date ranges.</li><li>Query: Filter by specific keywords, or even exclude keywords</li><li>Page: Select a page that you want to focus on</li><li>Country: Filter search results by country</li><li>Device: Filter search results by the device used</li><li>Search appearance: Filter by looking at Rich Results and other variables</li></ul>

Performance report

There are four metrics above the graph:<ul><li>Clicks: number of people who visited your site from Google</li><li>Impressions: total number of times your content was seen on Google</li><li>CTR: what %age of impressions resulted in a click</li><li>Position: avg ranking your content has in Google SERP</li></ul>There are 5 tabs you can select:<ul><li>Queries: keywords your content is ranking for</li><li>Pages: how pages & blog posts on your site are performing on Google</li><li>Countries: how your website is performing by country</li><li>Devices: what device do people use to access your website</li><li>Search appearance: whether your structured data appear in the search results</li></ul>

Performance report (contd.)

The index report shows the total number of pages that appear in the search results. If everything is green then things are good.The red box is where problem pages are displayed. You want the number of problematic pages to be as low as possible, ideally zero.Under the details section, you can sort issues by status, type, validation, & pages. If you notice sudden spikes or drops in your indexed pages, there’s probably a technical problem.It’s important to keep on top of these problems and resolve them quickly. Issues with technical performance will affect your visibility on results pages.

Coverage report

A sitemap is an XML document that outlines how your website is structured. Your sitemap will help Google crawlers navigate your site. This helps Google find and index your content quickly.You can tell Search Console where your sitemap is located on your site by entering the URL.An extra benefit to providing a sitemap in Search Console is that you’ll be alerted of any issues. These include differences between the structure of your site and what Google sees.

Sitemaps

The Enhancements page allows you to view the enhancements you have made to the site.There are many reports you can find under Enhancements, and many of them will appear only if you have the specific feature implemented on your site.The 3 most basic reports:<ul><li>Mobile usability report: how your site works on mobile</li><li>The Accelerated Mobile Pages report: AMP are stripped-down versions of a page designed to load very quickly on mobile</li><li>Structured data report: Structured data allows you to present additional information in Google SERP</li></ul>

Enhancements

Hopefully, you will never have to view this report. By default, it will show No issues detected. If a manual penalty has been applied to your site by a Google employee, then the penalty will appear in this tab.Google will apply manual penalties to your site if they think you have been doing anything shady. For instance, you might get a manual penalty as a result of buying backlinks.A penalty from Google can harm your search rankings or result in your site being de-indexed. It is crucial to resolve any manual link penalty if you want to avoid SEO problems.

Manual actions report

You can view the backlinks pointing to your website. From the table, you can see the pages that have the most internal and external links.You can see the top linking sites and anchor texts.The report is a great starting point to find:<ul><li>which pages of your website have the most links</li><li>what websites link to you the most</li><li>what are the most common anchor texts</li><li>what pages have the most internal links</li></ul>In the Top linked pages report, you can click on a specific page to see who links to it.

Links report

These are some features from the old Search Console. They are not available for domain property so we won’t go into much detail here.The legacy tools include:<ul><li>International targeting – you can set a specific target country (used for hreflang)</li><li>Removals – you can remove URLs from the search results</li><li>Crawl stats – you can view and regulate the frequency of crawls by Google</li><li>Messages – messages from Google</li><li>URL parameters – you can let Google know about various parameters you use</li><li>Web Tools – access to other tools</li></ul>

Legacy tools and reports

Google Search Console is an essential SEO tool. Yet, some people find it a little bit scary and complicated at first sight. Here's everything you need to know about Google Search Console.

Every SEO should use Google Search Console. Read this simple beginner's guide to learn about all the features of this tool.

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The metaverse is “an expansive network of persistent, real-time rendered 3D worlds and simulations.” The metaverse is a currently hypothetical version of the internet that supports online 3-D virtual environments. This is done through personal computing (Second Life game), VR & AR headsets. Users have virtual avatars who can interact with their virtual environment and other players.Games like Roblox & Fortnite form the basis of what many consider the future of metaverse. Users can purchase merchandise & accessories, to personalize the experience.

What Is the Metaverse?

An NFT, or non-fungible token, is anything digital that cannot be replaced as it doesn’t have a tangible value. The most common forms of NFT today are digital art like animations. However, within the metaverse, an NFT can become so much more. With the increase in virtual avatars, the demand for virtual fashion will skyrocket. The need to personalize oneself within the digital space is undeniable and fashion is one of the easiest ways to do so. Just look at the success of markets found on Fortnite and Roblox, virtual games with an avatar.

Metaverse and NFT: How Are They Related?

If you haven’t considered how the metaverse will impact marketing, then you’re already behind the curve. The metaverse isn’t an “if” but a “when.” That is, it’s an inevitability. The metaverse will impact marketing in many ways, some of which you can begin to implement now.

How Will the Metaverse Impact Marketing?

From product development to the sale of existing products or services, virtual reality enables you to bring your customers into the fold. They can play an active role in all stages of the process. Who says “no” to free product research? Even more, many customers will seek out such opportunities as opposed to hiding from them like they do with online advertisements. The generations coming of age now and in the next 15 years, largely Generations Z and Alpha, will feel more at home within these environments than any other generation before them.

Virtual Reality

Unlike virtual reality which takes over your vision, augmented reality just adds elements to it. Think of “smart glasses” or the popular AR games. These devices take note of your surrounding environment & then enhance it by adding images, animations, or data over the top of it.From trying on a pair of glasses or a dress to test driving a new car, augmented reality brings the shopping experience to another level. In an augmented environment, customers can interact with products without leaving their homes.

Augmented Reality

In-store experiences can benefit from the metaverse. Since augmented reality is an overlay on the real-life environment, you can use it in stores to share in-depth information, display additional features and use cases, etc. Think of it as a parallel marketing experience.

Augmented Reality (contd.)

As the metaverse grows, so too will branding and advertising opportunities. Including virtual message boards, billboards, merchandise, and even the virtual clothing avatars wear.NFTs will play a big role, too. With the ability to personalize avatars and spaces like “homes” and storefronts, you can create branded virtual content for your customers. This enables you to break into merchandising spaces you don’t currently work in, such as virtual apparel and digital art.

Branding in The Metaverse

Whether it’s products or services you’re selling, a virtual popup gives you the opportunity to share your brand on a larger scale. It is a chance to network, advertise, & sell your products & services. While popups in a physical location may limit attendance, a virtual popup helps you to reach a larger audience. The virtual location will not only benefit attendance numbers, but it will also have less impact on the bottom line. With no need for employee travel & lodgings, & no need to rent out physical space, you can cut costs & perhaps even decrease the end price for users.

Virtual Popups

With so many live streaming & pre-recorded video platforms, virtual training & classes are already a big part of the corporate world. While many virtual trainings & classes will likely continue in their current form, metaverse creates a space for them to expand. E.g.:<ul><li>training course on your product</li><li>use case walkthrough for your services</li><li>product demonstrations with potential customers</li><li>troubleshooting sessions with your current clientele. </li><li> in-house onboarding & training, emergency preparedness, diversity & inclusion, employee orientation, etc.</li></ul>

Virtual Training or Classes

In this post-COVID world, it’s easy to imagine the continued need for virtual meeting spaces. From family get-togethers to concerts to non-profit galas, the metaverse has no limits on who you can meet up with and when.With events like this becoming more popular, especially with Generations Z and Alpha, metaverse events won’t just be a tool you can use but a necessity. As your target audience changes, so too will your marketing efforts.

Metaverse Events

Technology is ever-changing and, because of that, so is marketing. The evolution of the metaverse is just one recent development in the world of technology, but one that will have a huge impact on the human experience as we know it. While digital marketing has seen many advances over the last few decades, the metaverse is one that has stumped many companies and marketers. How can they use the metaverse to their advantage so they aren’t stuck in the dark ages?

A Marketer’s Guide to the Metaverse

The anatomy of a standard search snippetThe standard Google search snippet has changed over the years, but in essence all the key elements are still there:<ul><li>The clickable title or headline of the snippet (in blue)</li><li>The description of that page (about two lines long)</li><li>The URL path (used to be in green, now it is black)</li><li>On a mobile device, there’s also a tiny logo next to the URL (Google will use your site favicon when deciding which image to show next to your URL.)</li></ul>

The anatomy of a standard search snippet

These days, Google will do its best to show the meaningful URL path (almost like a breadcrumb) instead of simply the URL of the page. This consists of:<ul><li>The domain: Domain name may impact clickthrough (if you do a particularly good job picking a snappy domain name that intrigues) & you do have full control over this part of the snippet. </li><li>The breadcrumb or the truncated URL: You can use breadcrumb schema to force Google to use breadcrumb instead of the URL, & watch your Search Console to see if that helped clickthrough.</li></ul>

URL path

Google used to rely on the page title to generate the title of the search snippet, but it has been rewriting that part more and more often recently.That being said, it is still recommended to optimize your title to include keywords and entice more clicks — and hope Google will keep it intact.

Title

Google has been generating the search snippet description for years without using the associated meta description: recent studies show that Google ignores meta descriptions in about 70% of cases.You may still want to create meta descriptions in case Google needs some clues, but expect them to figure this part out on their own.Another way to try and trick Google into using your chosen snippet description is to create concise summaries of the content and add it at the beginning of the article.

Description

Rich snippets are search snippets enhanced with some additional details. Web publishers can control rich snippets by adding schema markup, so they are thus under website owners’ control.FAQHowTo schemaVideo schema

Rich snippets for content-based pages

Structured snippets are less popular than rich snippets, even though they are very common on search.Structured snippets import tabular data to formulate a more informative search snippet.All it takes to qualify for this type of a snippet is to create an HTML table. It is a good idea to use tables for summaries, feature comparisons, lists, etc.

Structured snippets

Google search result pages are becoming more diverse and even interactive. How much control do writers and content creators have over how their content is represented in search? As it turns out, they do have quite a few options when it comes to optimizing their search snippets!

SERPs are becoming more diverse and interactive, making any CTR study out there much less reliable, because no two sets of search results are ever the same. So, how much control do content creators have over how their work is represented in search? As it turns out, quite a bit!

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