Top SEO Mistakes to Avoid in 2016 and beyond

SEO Mistakes

SEO is all about making efforts to gain ranking and visibility benefits on the internet. Websites that abide by the rules, updates, and guidelines set by search engines often gain rich rewards, while those that do not go on lose their relevance in digital space. It’s therefore important to be on the side of those standard instructions issued from time to time by search engines.  
 
Your search engine optimization activities should never resort to any means deemed unethical or unnatural. As a search marketer, you should never strive to bend the rules and gain some mileage out of it. As stiff penalties culminating in downgraded rankings and visibility are there, no website can afford to make mistakes with its optimization activities.

Let’s look at some of the top SEO mistakes you should avoid in 2016 and beyond:

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing once helped many websites tweak rules and gain ranking benefits. As search engines did not have a sophisticated algorithm in place, such deliberate instances were not caught. Now that semantic search capabilities have gained prominence, keyword stuffing has gone redundant. These tactics won’t fetch any visible results and rather run the risk of bringing penalties to your site.   

Keyword Research

Not using keywords at all and expecting the natural write-ups to fetch ranking and visibility benefits is a mistake. You’d need to do keyword research and then do writing based on that, as queries will follow the same route. Replacing descriptive phrases with generic terms would work. More so, long-tail keywords will also help, especially if they are well-researched.   

Content Quantity 

There was a time when content quantity did not work as a major determinant in SEO rankings. It however does today and it means, you can’t live with only 300 words posts at all. The long-form content strategy has to be there to gain optimization benefits. Don’t expect much of headway if you can’t get 1500-word posts written and posted across channels.   

Duplicate Content

Websites with duplicate content remain obscure in digital space. Neither will they get any traffic nor visibility benefits. You can’t go on doing a “cut-and-copy” job and expect to gain better SEO results. Let about any result, not only do you run legal risks but may also face severe penalties from search engines for copying content from different sources.    

Spammy Backlinks

Going for spammy backlinks is a mistake that would continue to impact your site’s performance in a big way. Trying for unnatural links is sure to bring a penalty on your door, or notification, or a downgrading of the site’s rankings or performance. Make sure you do only the natural way of building the link profile to be on the right side of the guidelines. 

Content Marketing 

Not having a proper content marketing strategy would be a big mistake. You got to be regular with blog posts and the distribution of content across channels. The more you add to the tide of the web, the more visible your brand becomes. Make sure that your content strategy is robust, regular, and inclusive.   

Analytics 

It’d be a mistake to not measure or evaluate the website data and be in the dark about site performance. How can you expect to benefit from SEO when you are not bothered a bit about the performance? That’s why not using analytics or webmaster tools may cost you dear. 

Conclusion

It’s obvious that you can’t afford to make SEO mistakes as its implications run deep. You have to be careful about each and every aspect of optimization to maintain a safe distance from unethical ways of gaining rankings on the internet. The best strategy would be to have some patience and let SEO results materialize at the pace they are known for.


Abhilash Tyagi
Hi, I am Abhilash Tyagi an SEO specialist with years of experience in the domain. Currently, I am employed with Mind Digital Group where I consult and guide brands on the planning, execution, and implementation of the best SEO services to help them with rankings and visibility.

SEO is all about making efforts to gain ranking and visibility benefits on the internet. Websites that abide by the rules, updates, a...

5 Tips to Produce Big Results from Pay Per Click Ads

PPC Advertising

Paid advertising is an extremely competitive field. There are big guns and pros spending thousands of dollars every month, and these things can intimidate a small business with real financial constraints.

In this article, I’m going to lay out for you 5 tips to help you see improvements in your PPC advertising.

In the face of increasing competition, decreasing margins, and decreased profit, it’s natural to feel in over your head. With these tips, you’ll be able to not only stay afloat but see an increased profit from your PPC.

1. The Sales Funnel

If you’re going to have any long-term success with PPC advertising, you need to have a sales funnel in place. This is the framework in which you should evaluate your marketing. It’s the process that takes visitors from new customers to repeat buyers.

To goal is to take a bunch of people who are maybe interested in your product, maybe not, and to send them down through the funnel so that, by the end, they’re taking your desired call to action.

Let’s start at the top of the funnel, the widest portion. The first category of customers is Leads. These are people who are aware of your company or whom you decide to pursue. Most likely, leads are going to be coming in from PPC advertising.

This is why your funnel is so crucial. You need to be able to take leads generated by PPC ads and send them down your funnel, all the way to the sale.

Paid Advertising

The next category down the funnel after Leads is Prospects. The definition of Prospects within your business model will vary from other businesses. Generally speaking, a Prospect is a person who is in touch with you and who is interested in what you’re offering.

Next is Customers. Clearly, Repeat Customers are ideal.

Sales funnels are not a new idea, but, the Internet has definitely made them a whole lot easier to build.

Without a sales funnel, PPC is kind of like wandering in the desert, hoping to stumble across a water source. Probably not going to yield the best results.

While the basic premise of a sales funnel informs your marketing, you also need to adapt it to work for you. You need to understand what the customer value is and how many clicks you need, to bring about profit for your business.

As a business owner, you need to know what percentage of people move from one group of funnel to another. This will inform your marketing, and allow you to make adjustments where needed.

Having a sales funnel in place assures you that people will become aware of your product, and will, therefore, need to decide whether or not to take the plunge. Your goal is to take people and move them in the direction of a sale.

2. Great Copy

Though your PPC ads may be short and sweet, they’ve got to pack a punch. For someone who has no idea what you’re about or what you’re offering, you’ve got to get them to take the bait.

And by taking the bait, I don’t mean using promises and superlatives, to get customers to click on your ad, only to find you can’t deliver on your promises.

Your ad must coincide with what you’re actually offering. The last thing you need is people clicking the ad, and finding out that your product is not what they gathered from your ad. This is a waste of investment, on your part.

Craft a stellar headline, and provide information in the body of the ad, which informs, but also leaves a reader with unanswered questions, wanting to know more. Consider also including stats and maybe even a dose of humor.

A well-written ad goes a long way. Work and re-work your ads. Get input from those on your team.

A clear call to action on the ad is absolutely essential. You’ve piqued their curiosity, and now make it hard to resist clicking through to your landing page.

3. Engaging Images

A great image is also crucial to creating high-performing PPC ads. The platform you’re operating on really affects whether or not adding an image to your ad would be beneficial.

A crisp image of a person or a cartoon or an infographic can really bump up the overall effect of your ad. This is something you need to play around with. Avoid cheese, and again, get input from others. There is a fine line between cheesy and effective when it comes to images.

This is something you may consider outsourcing. Having a good quality image created by a graphic designer to fit your ad, will give you a polished look, as opposed to a messy, unfinished-feeling ad.

4. Remarketing

Most people need to see an offer more than once to make a purchase. You know this is true for your own purchase history.

There’s a never-ending supply of options, and many become paralyzed by just knowing that all the options exist. Even though you may be doing everything right, and have a smooth operating process, buyers sometimes need a little prodding.

This is where the beauty of remarketing (or retargeting) comes to play. By adding a pixel to your website, you can target those customers who have already skimmed or searched for your product.

Imagine you own a brick-and-mortar store that sells vacuums. Instead of sending out a salesperson to knock on the door of a customer who glanced longingly at the latest Dyson model, Google and Facebook will do that work for you.

By adding a pixel to your site code, you can then retarget visitors to your site on Facebook and Google.

In addition to retargeting a visitor, your ads can tailor ads to propose offers, free trials, and promotions, which yields high conversion rates.

Here’s an example. Someone checks out your tutorial but doesn’t end up submitting their e-mail on your landing page. Then they click on Facebook and skim their news feed, only to find a compelling ad taking them back to your landing page.

In my experience, this is sometimes all it takes to get that buyer to commit.

5. Evaluate

The key to successful marketing is a commitment to consistently evaluating how things are going.

Herein lies the benefit of marketing on social media like Facebook and Google. All the numbers and stats are at your fingertips.

I get it. The majority of business owners and entrepreneurs have entered a field not involving numbers. And now I’m telling you it's all about the numbers.

But the passion for your product or service will die out if you’re not informed and on top of your numbers. You can do all the work in the world, but if it is not informed by all the steps that got a Prospect to Customer, it's in vain.

Analyzing is not a one-time action. It is an ongoing process. Trends change. People’s behaviors and keyword searches will change over time.

It is vital to regularly check the numbers so that you can make necessary changes, and even just do more of what is working.

Smart marketers are constantly A/B testing various ads. What is producing the greatest profit for your company? Why is one ad doing better than another?

You’ve got to be committed to knowing your stats, and your numbers, and making the necessary changes for improvement. Unless you're some super-human, you’re never going to get it right the first time.

Conclusion

Pay-per-click marketing is an exceptional way to increase your return on investment. It's key to most online marketing.

Applying the principles I’ve discussed will be sure to inform you as you invest in marketing and also bring big results.

How about you? What do you recommend doing to see bigger results for PPC?


Ricky Law
Ricky Law is a blog editor and general marketing guy. He is also a freelance writer and marketer based out of the UK.


Paid advertising is an extremely competitive field. There are big guns and pros spending thousands of dollars every month, and these ...

Best Strategy to Launch Mobile App

Mobile App Marketing Tips

You and your app are not alone. Right now, there are more than 1.5 million apps in the App Store. Creating a great app is not enough to make it the next Angry Birds, Candy Crash, and Google knows it.

However, in order to be sure of success in the business with your mobile app, it’s imperative that you build a solid marketing strategy to get your app into the hands of the users who are looking for it on the app store.

A strong marketing strategy needs to be initiated long before the release of the app and it should continue after its release. It should happen not because it is right, but because it is expedient. So, first of all, you need to develop a pre and post-detailed plan to promote your app in the Market. Otherwise, your work could be wasted and you may face loss from a lot of money and effort. 

The best marketing for Mobile & Web App includes strategies for both pre-launch and post-launch which can be defined into two forms such as organic and paid app marketing. We have described them in a more insightful way below.

Pre-Launch Marketing Strategy

There are a few steps you need to follow to take before you go to launch your app:

1.    Select Important Keywords
2.    Choose a Good Name
3.    List Your Competitors
4.    Choose the Right Category
5.    Create an Amazing Icon
6.    Take a Good Screenshot
7.    Create a Great Video

1.   Select Important Keywords

A keyword represents a term that a user will use to search and recognize what your app does. To make a successful mobile app marketing strategy, you need to understand the keywords that match what it does. Selecting strong keywords related to your business for your app is the key to success. You can use keyword tools such as MobileDevHQ and AppCod.es.

These keywords tools make it easy to tell you which keywords will be good for your app and you will also learn how often those keywords are searched within app stores.

2.   Choose a Good Name

“Names have power.”  Your app name should be unique, simple, and memorable but it should also contain the keyword. An App name matters a lot in the app store. The right name can help your app get popularity in the market.

3.   List Your Competitors

After selecting keywords and app names now it’s time to research your competitors. What they are doing in-app marketing? Which apps are ranking highly in the app store? Make a list of 4 and 5 potential competitors based on similarity to your app and business.

4.   Choose the Right Category

Choosing the right category for your app is a whole science in itself. Calculate risk for yourself and your app and understand the pros and cons of each category and choose the right and more relevant for your app to drive its success.

5.   Create an Amazing Icon

“The first impression is the last impression.” Just like your name your app icon matters. Your app icon tells the story, purpose, and style. It is the first interaction your audience will have with your app.

Make your icon unique, and amazing so users will be most likely to click and download it after searching it on Play and app store.

6.   Take a Good Screenshot

Experts say that screenshots are an essential tool to turn your audience into users. Make sure your app screenshots are well captured, informatively useful, and memorable.

7.   Create a Great Video

Video marketing is an effective medium to promote your mobile app. Because it not only attracts people to see and understand your mobile app but also encourages them to use it.

Post-Launch Marketing Strategy

There are a few steps you need to follow to take after launching your app:

1.   Sign up for App Store Analytics
2.   Use Social Media
3.   Build a Website
4.   App Store Optimization

1.   Sign up for App Store Analytics

To track the app's progress accurately, you need to first sign up for an analytics tool. There is a number of tools available that can perform a subset of functions, however, the two AppAnnie and MobileDevHQ are considered to be most worthy to be trusted.

2.   Use Social Media

“Words of Mouth.”  Increasing social sharing for your app is another one of the most important ways to a greater reach. Building a relationship with social media followers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumbler, and Instagram platforms where your audience is active is important. Share relevant content with your audience on a regular basis to keep them updated.

3.   Build a Website  

I always use this term in my presentation on mobile marketing “Mobile is great and Apps are amazing but the website still matters.” Whenever a user searches Google for your app they will find both your app’s detail page and your website home page. If users land on your website page, it will be a great tool to convert them into potential users.

4.   App Store Optimization

It is much like optimizing your website for search engines. Your App also needs to be optimized for the App Store. It is very important to make sure your app has the right Title and description so the user can easily find it. Including ASO in your marketing strategy will boost your app growth.

Share your app marketing tips with us and also what app marketing strategies have worked for your business. Happy to know more from you!


Mozrif
Mozrif is an analytical and versatile digital marketing evangelist, consultant, and content writer at WeDigTech. A hub of Skilled Mobile App Developers focused on helping businesses from domestic to MNCs.




You and your app are not alone. Right now, there are more than 1.5 million apps in the App Store. Creating a great app is not enough t...