1. Add Internal Links to Your Holiday Pages 

PageRank is a Google ranking factor. It is important to add links from relevant pages or websites on your website to boost your ranking on SERPs. It is also important to audit your website so that you can fix broken links or redirects. One way to include internal links organically is to include a shopping guide in your company’s blog. You can include links to sales pages and links competitor sites for price comparing. 

2. Discover Seasonal Topics

Search for holiday-specific keywords that you can include in your content for your landing pages. Keywords relevant to a holiday don’t have to include the actual name of the holiday. It can be related to the person whom people are buying for like “for dad” and “for mom.” Think about all the people your target audience may need to buy for and search for keyword those demographics may be interested in. Once you have a good list, include your keywords into headings, body copy, and meta descriptions. 

3. Update Old Seasonal Content

If you are short on time, simply update old landing pages and content. Most of the holidays stay on the same day every year, so you can pre-schedule content updates on your website and social media. Keeping seasonal pages active all year round could also help build authority for those pages which will help rank on Google. When the holiday nears, go through your content, and update new item suggestions, recommendations, and photos with new meta descriptions and alt tags. 

4. Optimize Your Google Business Profile 

This is especially important if you have a brick-and-mortar business. If you haven’t already claimed your Google Business Profile, do so. When consumers type in “______ near me”, you have a higher chance of showing up in Google Maps. Optimize everything and add your holiday hours. Share updates, offers, and events related to your business. They will appear in a carousel near the bottom of your Google Business panel. Use this to share any deals and offers for the upcoming holiday season. Here are more tips for posting straight from Google. 

5. Use Free Product Listings on Google Shopping 

Google Shopping brings in 1.2 billion monthly searches. If you are an ecommerce business, you will want to have items from your product pages listed here. To show your products in Google Shopping’s organic listings, you will need to have a Google Merchant Center account. This will help bring traffic to your product pages by showing your listing to places like Google Search, Maps, YouTube, Shopping Tab, and Images. 

6. Improve CTRs for Holiday Pages 

Higher click-through-rates means more visitors and more sales. Make sure your holiday images have optimized alt tags and meta descriptions. On you holiday pages optimize your titles with keywords and calls-to-action. Include interactive elements and videos on your landing page to increase viewer retention. Then, utilize Google Ads in combination with your landing pages. Google Ads will give you click data on what title and meta description combinations work best for a particular page.      

Improve your website’s SEO for the holidays today. Call 248.528.3600.

The post 6 Holiday SEO Tips to Boost Traffic to Your Business’s Website  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Keep the Number of Fonts Used at a Minimum

Resist using more than 3 different types of fonts for your website. If you use too many it runs the risk of looking like a broken site, which in turn, leads to high bounce-rates. Usually there is one font used for heading, one for body copy, and one for your main home display image. You may have seen fancy websites that have a bunch of fonts and look cool, but those clusters of fonts are usually images and are not meant to be read. They often don’t have any important info about the company’s product or service. 

2. Use Standard Fonts 

If you are wondering “how can you tell what type of fonts you can use for web?” Well, Google Web Fonts and Typekit have you covered. They have downloadable fonts that are guaranteed safe for web usage. Whether you are custom coding or using a web template from a site like WordPress these fonts can be integrated. Keep in mind the other rules mentioned and not get too crazy with downloading too many fonts. 

3. Limit the Number of Lines 

If you have a have a lot of content you want to share, make sure to limit the number lines of text. A wall of text can easily tire out a user. A general rule is to break up paragraphs every 6-8 sentences and break up paragraphs with supporting graphics. Different types of fonts can also eat up width space so before going live test out your website on different browser, screens, and mobile devices.  

4. Choose a Typeface That Works Well in Various Sizes

Sometimes all you need is one font that comes in regular, bold, and italic. Find a font that has different weights, and you can use it for your body copy and headings. This will allow for easy contrast, and you don’t have to worry about mixing up fonts. 

5. Use Fonts with Distinguishable Letters

Certain fonts make letters too indistinguishable. Take the word “Illusion”. Can you tell which the capital “I” and which is the lowercase “l”? If your target market has vision problems or doesn’t use English as their first language you may want to find a clearer font. You are more likely to find fonts with distinguishable letters if your search for “serif fonts”.

6. Avoid All Caps

If you have a short headline or one word that you to emphasize using all caps it is fine. Avoid using all caps for any sentence longer than 3 words. Not only is it hard to read, but it looks like you are “yelling” at the user. Depending on what you are selling this can be a huge turn off. For example, you are selling psych services for people with anxiety. Which sentence looks more inviting:

“We here to help you calm down. Our company deals with patients with anxiety get back to living their lives.”

Or

“WE HERE TO HELP YOU CALM DOWN. OUR COMPANY DEALS WITH PATIENTS WITH ANXIETY GET BACK TO LIVING THEIR LIVES.”

7. Have a Reasonable Space Between Lines

In paragraphs spaces between lines, it is possible to be too tight or too far away. Usually, your template or code will default to even spacing, but you still want to check on mobile and other computer devices. If lines are running into each other or are too far away that they don’t look like the info is together, then this will negatively impact the user experience. 

8. Have Color Contrast

No light text on a light background and no dark text on dark background. If your logo or brand colors involve hard to read colors incorporate a neutral color (black, white, grey) into the web design. Neutral colors rarely destroy brand consistency. It is very important for text, especially if you want users to read it, to be in color that the majority of the population can see. 

9. Avoid Coloring Text in Red or Green

Speaking of hard to read text colors, red and green. Individuals that are colorblind cannot read red or green text, especially if it small. Avoid at all costs for body copy. You might be able to get away with large headings if your background is white, but it is best to avoid these colors. If these are your brand colors, incorporate them into the graphics instead. 

10. Avoid Using Blinking Text

While it fun to use flashing text for social media marketing or online ads, it is best to avoid on your actual website. Flashes or flickers can cause headaches or worse trigger seizures in certain individuals prone to seizures. Users want to able to read important info without interruption.   

Let us create a type-friendly website for you. Call 248.528.3600.

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How Do You Identify Content Spam?

1. Analyze Ranking Losses
2. Conduct an SEO Audit 
3. SEO Analysis to Narrow Down Problem 
   • Auditing your domain
     • Analysis of backlink gains or losses
     • Backlink audit
   • Auditing competitors 
     • Analysis of backlink gains or losses
     • Analysis of competitors’ content
   • Check your on-page SEO & technical SEO
     • Site Audit & technical issues
     • On-page check (page titles, subheadings, etc.)
   • Check for Google Updates

How Google Detects Duplicate Content 

Google is great at identifying duplicate content and detecting on which pages the content appeared first. So why do so many spam sites rank? John Mueller of Google provides some insight to why that might be:

“But even if we know which one is the original and which one is the copy, sometimes it makes sense to show a copy in the search results…And one of the situations where I have seen this happen consistently is if a website is of lower quality overall, where when our systems look at it they’re like, well we can’t really trust this website. But if a higher-quality website were to take some of this content and publish it, we would say, well we know more about this website and actually maybe we should show this content in the search results.”

— John Mueller, Google Web Trends Analyst, June 2021

Translation: Google believes that copied content should sometimes show up in search and may work better on some else’s domain rather than the original website. So, making sure your website is updated in design, function, and content is extremely important. Spammers duplicate the original content until the original page ranks worse and destroys the original website’s authority. The original site usually has fewer backlinks and is often overall smaller that the, while the spammed content aims for ranking on a national level. If you find your business’s website is under this spam attack, Google provides a dedicated form for reporting spam websites. In addition, if the spam site is spreading malware or aims to steal data, you can report these phishing attacks through Google Safe Browsing.

How is Stolen Content Used on Content Spam Websites?

1.7 million websites, 1.5 million images, and more are imported into the hijacked Search Console via the sitemap. The hacked page was also can be accessed via a WordPress to exploit. Once a site has been hacked, a thorough expansion of subpages begins. For Example, 25,800 Google results for a small pipe cleaning website that is distributing dangerous malware attacks on hacked websites. Spammers’ websites use plagiarism to not only place is search results, but in post snippets for easy SEO wins on social media platforms as well. 

They use backlinks alongside known, relevant text content in social media linking to completely different domains to boost these domains and entire sentences are taken from third-party content to post on Facebook to enhance their own content. Sometimes text content is taken from a webpage with a top 3 ranking and appears on a competitor’s Facebook profile. 

OnlySpams.expert by Seybold found 17% stolen content on a website at the top 3 Google SERPs Page. That may not sound a lot, but for a 10,000-word article, 17% is 1,700 stolen words. When attackers’ websites are removed from the index after a webspam report is sent to Google, rankings may recover, but a complete recovery under continued DDoS attacks and restoring an online store’s top rankings can take up to 7 months with considerable SEO skills. That is a lot time taken away from authority and brand building. 

Avoid negative SEO tactics and create an ethical SEO strategy with us. Call 248.528.360 

The post How to Detect & Combat Negative SEO Tactics appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Title Tags 

Title tags appear within the search engine result below the URL and above the meta description. Create on-brand and eye-catching titles with optimized keywords. Target 51-55 characters for the best odds that Google won’t rewrite your title tags. Try to use the language of your target audience with an exact-match keyword. Make sure it matches the intent of your audience. Also make sure it is descriptive of the content because if inaccurate your bounce rate will increase instead of decreasing. An example of an effective title tag might be if a manufacturing company searches “web design near me and your title reads “Stunning Websites for the Industrial Market”. 

2. Detailed Snappy Headings

Putting target keywords in page headings and subheadings is a simple, but a surprisingly forgotten way to optimize your page’s search results. Your H1 should be crafty, compelling, clear, concise, and front-loaded with keywords to draw your target audience into the main content. Utilizing descriptive keywords in your H2s and H3s is also a great way to break up long content, making it easier for the user to find what they are looking for. Any and every type of page can benefit from optimizing subheadings, including templatized pages like ecommerce product detail page and other standardized listings, not just information websites. 

3. Rich Content (no matter the length)

On Page SEO relies on semantic search and natural language processing. Great content should answer the query, anticipate the user’s next questions, and answer those in advance. Make the most of shorter content by being intentional with every word. Make sure your content is rich with terms semantically related to your target keyword. Try swapping out pronouns like “it” for words that are more descriptive. Make sure your writing is easy to read by people and machines. Resist fragments and run-on sentences.  

4. Internal Links with Optimized Anchor Text

Internal links are easy high impact on-page SEO optimization. It anchors text to a destination page and facilitates a path to purchase. Optimize anchor text with your target keywords or semantic terms. Also choose link placement wisely because links with related content will reap more benefit to your target landing page. 

5. E-A-T Signals 

E-A-T is a way Google measures the value of your content and stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Add high-quality external citations to informational content, long-form articles and other sources with an author that is reputable. E-A-T signals are not only there for users but for quality Raters, awards, testimonials, and studies that can all add value for your target audience. Establishing beneficial purpose and demonstrating trustworthiness is important for rankings, conversion, and thus overall lead generation. Visitors are more likely to choose to company that looks like they know what they are talking about vs one with no expert opinion. 

6. FAQs & “People Also Ask” Content 

Research on SERPs and the People Also Ask (PAA) box based on your target audience. PAA allows Google to increase the number featured on Snippets, which means answering an important question will increase the chance on SERP longevity. Target PAA that have weak answers that can be improved upon. If the current PAA results are accurate and you don’t expect to unseat the current ranking page, you should still incorporate these questions in your content to be seen as an authority. Directly ask the relevant questions in subheadings and answering in list or paragraph format as appropriate. For long form articles, put this directly in an H2. For ecommerce pages, create a dedicated FAQ section.

7. Descriptive Image Alt Text 

Make sure your alt text is optimized and falls into the “truly essential” grouping. Descriptive alt text is always critical for visually impaired users, especially if they rely on a e-reader. This does not only apply to photos, but infographic as other flat images as well. Google and other search engines value descriptions due to its ability to target a wide range of users.  

8. Valid Schema Markup 

Schema Markup is a collection of code snippets that can be placed on any page of a website. It is used to call out specific aspects of the page in the search results. Pages with structured data tend to receive higher click-through rates than those without, as the snippets are more engaging and attractive to searchers. A good example are recipes. Google any recipe and the top will show a photo, link, rating, time, and mini description of the subject. This is very important to ecommerce business as it will entice more users to click on your partner. 

Need help with your on-page SEO strategy? Call 248.528.360 

The post 8 Essential On-Page SEO Factors for Fast Impact  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1.  Content Ideas & Identify Target Keywords

Focus on conversion first, then client consideration, and lastly awareness. In the conversion phase use long-tail keywords. They have a lower search volume but have higher purchase intent rate. Ask these 3 questions when coming up with content ideas in the client consideration phase:

• What are our customers’ pain points?
• Which of those pain point topics can we write compelling content about that puts a spotlight on our product or service as a solution?
• Which keywords match those topics? 

Lastly, for awareness, start with popular local keywords, then expand based on growth or the next area that your target audience is located. 

2. SERP Analysis 

Inserting the target keyword into your title tag and subheadings is a good start, but it is not enough. Research the types of content that ranks already. Is it “how to” articles or landing pages or quick list for Google’s scheme? Are there any subtopics being discussed these popular articles that you didn’t think of? Think about how you can improve the articles on the top results page. If you can come up with a winning article with search intent in mind users will spend more time on your post, click into things, and thus display “on page behavior signals” that tell Google’s algorithm your piece is useful. Google is more likely to rank you higher and the searcher is more likely to feel your brand understands their needs, increasing the chance your product will convert. 

3. Structure Your Article 

First think about the type of post your content is going to be. Is it a guide, list, or how to, etc. Look at what users are typing into Google to answer their question. Using the SERP analysis think about the improvements to information currently out there. From a reader’s perspective, it was difficult to tell what the differences were between products, and which one would be the best fit for them. Include subtopics needed to rank and be specific in how you sell your product or service by incorporating how it can solve the problem the client is searching for to solve. This will help you stand out from other products that user generic fluff words. Create a list or outline using this info in mind. Structure like this: 

• Header (main topics)
• Sub header (subtopics)
• Paragraph 1 (problem) 
• Paragraph 2 (Solution) 
• Recap
• Conclusion with Calls-to-action

4. Write the Content 

Make the time to write the content thoroughly and edit it. If you are a busy business owner, you might not have the time to do this. You have 2 options if you can’t accomplish this task yourself. One, hirer an internal team consisting of a researcher, writer, editor, and social media manager. Two, hirer an agency who has all these positions and other professionals to help you out. You and the agency can develop a content marketing strategy that covers your website, social media, and any other marketing material your business needs to operate. You can update the strategy every time you have a new business goal you need to accomplish. 

5. On-Page SEO

Go through or have professional go through and check or edit alt tags and meta descriptions. Google’s algorithm is favoring websites and content that accessible-friendly. This will also help potential clients that use e-readers understand your content as well as boost you Google SERP ranking because you are reaching a wider range audience. Also check back links within your article to see if they are active. Broken links can hurt SEO, so it is important that those a functioning. Make sure the layout is attractive and easy to read. If your article is dense, break up the photos with images or visual aids.

Need help developing an excellent content strategy?  Call 248.528.360 

The post The 5-Step Process to Write Excellent SEO Content  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Focus on User Intent 

“In 2022, the SERP (search engine results page) will pay more attention to the search intent,” co-founder of RevenueGeeks Adam Wood says. Search intent is Google’s way of understanding the intent behind a user’s search. The pandemic impacted worldwide human behavior, including search behavior. Consumers were home-bound, they turned to Google for product information instead of on-site salespeople.

“Because of this shift in customer search intent, SERPs returned more comparative and informational articles instead of product pages,” Wood adds. He believes brands who understand this trend will succeed in dominating organic search. “The problem will be in knowing the users’ needs and meeting them.” Wood predicts educational material will be a significant growth driver in organic search this year. Business should research what themes to cover, how to structure content, and what content type to use for a particular query.

2. Produce site-wide quality content

It is crucial to pick the proper search terms to target and analyze the competition that is currently ranking for those terms. “Look at what’s ranking in terms of length, quality, site speed, and whether it’s a well-known website,” Jeff Campbell, owner of multiple websites and six-figure-earning blogger, suggests. “For a new site with a relatively low domain authority, it’s best not to go after phrases where the top search results are well-known websites.”

He also suggests making your article 20 percent longer than the top search results if that added length is comprehensive and not fluff. “Go deeper into the topic, include original research or statistics, and Google will reward you with better rankings.” Continue the process to ensure that you are producing the same quality of content site-wide instead of having a few quality content assets. This strategy will help boost your search position for a range of terms.

3. Consider localizing content

Local SEO is increasingly important. Optimize your site content for maps and local search. It holds a powerful position in driving traffic to your website. The following tactics can help you rank for local search terms:

• Solicit and respond to reviews. 
  • Authentic customer reviews 
  • Star rating is the most crucial factor in determining a business’s quality.
• Set up and optimize your Google Business profile. 
  • Optimize metadata 
  • Ensuring your contact information is 100 percent correct everywhere on the web
  •  Link to your contact information or “about us” page on both your Google Maps and Google Business Profile.
• Visibly display your business name, address, and phone number. 
  • Local indicators should be prominently displayed on every page of your website, like on your website’s footer. 
  • Ensure that these identifiers are consistent everywhere you place them so that search engine crawlers can connect all the pages where they appear.
• Create location-specific content and product pages. 
  • Create location-based pages for each area you service. 
  • Add optimized header tags that include the search terms locals use to look for the services you’re offering. 
  • These tags will help your readers and crawlers understand the flow of the page and what to expect. 
  • Include landmarks, city, and street names in the content of these pages to optimize them for local SEO further

4. Pay attention to quality rater guidelines

Google primarily uses search bots (artificial intelligence) to scan and rank the millions of web pages on the Internet. However, it has recently implemented human review. These people are called “search quality raters.” They are actual human individuals who look at Google search results and determine if the websites truly solve users’ problems or questions. Google then uses those insights to better understand if its core algorithm is working as intended. No additional optimization measures are needed for quality rater guidelines. Quality raters are there as a secondary measure to ensure Google’s algorithm serves up the best results for its users.

Need help implementing these steps? Call 248.528.360. 

The post Actionable Steps to Organically Rank Content & Beyond appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Who are you?
   • How did your company start?
   • What is your story?
   • How was your product or service created? 
   • Write a small synopsis about you company & link to the about page. 
2. What are you an expert in?
   • Include a FAQ
   • Include preview and a link to blog 
   • Talk about your market and how your product or service affects it
3. Who do you serve?
   • Research demographics and competitors 
   • What images and language create relatability? 
   • Include keywords from SEO plan into content 
4. How can I (the visitor) benefit from your services?
   • What problem is your product or service solving?
   • Use emotion and practically 
   • Example: lotion makes you feel good and gets rid of your dry skin
     • I can purchase online, or I am informed on how to find way to contact your business
5. What do I do next?
   • Strategically place calls-to-action at the top, middle, and bottom on home page
     • Examples of calls-to-action:
       • Call Now
       • Purchase 
       • Contact Us
       • Find Out More
       • Order Now

Update your home page. Call 248.528.3600.

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1. Keyword Research 

2. Great Content Writing 

3. Content Re-Optimization 

4. Audio/Visuals in Blog Content

5. Pillar (landing) Pages 

6. Pop-Up Form 

7. Sticky Sidebar 

8. Inline Subscribe CTA 

9. Dedicated Newsletter Sign-up page + Nav Link

10. Downloadable Content & Webinars

11. Surveys

12. New Layout for Better User Experience

Need help implementing these steps? Call 248.528.3600. 

The post 12 Actionable Steps to Drive Newsletter Growth with SEO Content appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Pick 3 to 4 frequent problems your product or service solves.
2. Pick 1 theme per week of the month. (ex. 1. How to, 2. Client case studies, etc.) 
3. Write 1 blog article per week about each theme (helps boost SEO) 
4. Build your social media audience.
5. Share industry news stories on your social channels.
6. Do NOT build a specific day-to-day or week-to-week calendar. (Be adaptable for industry standards or business changes) 
7. Incorporate holidays & events.

Need help with implementing these tips? We can help! Call 248.528.3600

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 Slow site speed

 Missing page titles

 Missing meta descriptions

 Broken links

 Duplicate content

 No XML sitemap

 No HTTPS security

 Poor indexation

 Poor mobile optimization

Need help fixing these issues? Call 248.528.3600

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