10 Ways to Audit Your Website to Increase Your Search Rankings

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When it comes to SEO, consistent tracking, testing and measuring is crucial to verify your strategies are effective. This includes auditing your website to ensure there are no errors holding you back. 

Here is a checklist of 10 things to audit on your website that can help increase your search engine rankings. 

1. Make sure your pages can be indexed. 

The most crucial aspect of SEO is making sure your pages can be found. You never want to block important pages by mistake. To ensure all your pages are available to be found you should: 

  • Check your index status on Google. Use the index status report in your Google Search Console to see the number of pages Google has crawled from your domain. You want to see that the page count has continued to increase over time. 
  • Check your robot.txt file. Do this by adding /robot.txt to the end of your domain to ensure there are no pages that are “disallowed.” 
  • Review site and URL errors. This is something you can also do through your Google Search Console. Locate the site and URL errors report and see if there are any problems. 
  • Search your website. Simply do a Google search for site:yourdomain.com and you can retrieve a list of indexed pages. 

2. Secure your website. 

In  a recent update, Google announced that it favors websites encrypted with HTTPS. So if you haven’t already, now is the time to make the switch. HTTPS provides encrypted communication with a web server. You can secure your website with HTTPS using SSL.  

3. Check your meta data. 

When pages are crawled by search engines, Noldex meta tags can occasionally be inserted. As a result, this will block Google. Check the source of a page for the code <meta name = “robots” content =”noindex”> and make sure this does not exist on your pages. 

4. Check your link profile. 

A large part of SEO success depends on earning links from trusted domains. You can conduct a complete backlink audit through Google Search Console, Ahrefs or SEMrush to track your backlinks and monitor your progress over time. 

5. Optimize page load times. 

Every digital marketer is aware that search engines favor faster sites. Not only that, but a slow site increases the likeliness of visitors bailing early. You want to aim your page log time in 3 seconds or less. Here are some tips for optimizing site speed: 

  • Use speed testing tools. 
  • Evaluate WordPress plugins. 
  • Reduce image file size for optimum performance. 
  • Remove any redirect chains. 
  • Speed up your Javascript. 

6. Eliminate any duplicate content. 

Duplicate content dilutes the authority of the primary URL and threatens the capability of your search rankings. Be sure to use canonical link tags to combat things. This lets Google know which is the primary URL to pages containing duplicate or similar content. 

7. Remove low valued pages. 

You want to ensure pages that are indexed by Google contain rich, original content and relevant keywords. You can accomplish this by de-indexing low valued pages. You obviously need campaign-specific landing pages, but if they’re not robust pages, they only harm your search rankings. Remove them from the index and redirect these pages to content-rich URLs by using a 301 redirect. 

8. Generate useful links. 

A well-planned internal link structure brings a number of benefits to your overall search rankings. Here are some additional tips for optimizing your site’s link structure for SEO. Also be sure to use descriptive anchor text, making links that feature the same keywords as the page they link to.  

9. Optimize for mobile. 

Google has been favoring mobile-first site designs for a while now, meaning it’s critical to appear in mobile searches. A few ways to ensure your site is optimized for mobile is by: 

  • Using responsive design. You can update your site to feature responsive design that creates an optimum experience regardless of screen size. 
  • Using Google’s testing tool. The Google Search Console offers a mobility usability report that identifies problematic pages and gives you a score for mobile friendliness. 

10. Master the basics. 

Continue to implement the fundamental SEO tactics, such as: 

  • Using unique title tags. Be sure to write unique title tags that include a keyword phrase to accurately describe the topic of your pages. 
  • Implementing relevant keywords. Always include keywords you’ve selected in your headings, subheadings, body copy and URL appropriately. 
  • Creating meta descriptions. Lastly, indexed pages should always include a meta description that features keywords to encourage readers to click through. 

More from Onimod Global 

Struggling with your SEO or any area of digital marketing? Contact the experts. We specialize in SEO and helping our clients dominate organic search and map results. Learn more about us and contact us today!

6 SEO Techniques to Enhance Your Search Traffic for 2021

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As marketers, we’re always looking for new ways to improve and enhance our strategies, especially when it comes to SEO.  

Here are 6 link building SEO techniques that will not only increase the amount of traffic you drive to your website, but the quality as well. 

1. Create and maintain a strong blog strategy. 

It’s not enough to have created a blog calendar if you’re not sticking with it. It’s essential to consistently post blogs that are valuable and relevant among your audience members. Your goal is to get people to want to link back to your blog content. This is one of the best ways to organically generate inbound links. Ultimately improving your search rankings and generating more traffic back to your website. 

2. Utilize infographics. 

People love consuming and sharing visual content. An easy way to get topics for infographics is from your already created blog posts. There are also plenty of online tools that can make graphic creation easy, such as Canva. The goal is to create infographics with valuable information and data that people will share and link back to you as the original source. 

3. Link back to other blogs on your blog. 

A blog is ultimately a social tool. The more you link to others, especially when you do it in a consistent, opportunity-driven way, the greater the likelihood of one of the other bloggers will return the favor. 

4. Write guest blog posts.

Similar to linking to other blogs, you can shop your best performing blogs around to others it would be a good fit for. If you find a taker, it’s just another opportunity for another inbound link back to your site. 

5. Curate and publish helpful resource lists. 

Resource lists are great link bait and increase your chances of getting a featured snippet on Google. Creating a comprehensive resource list makes it easy for other sites to link back to in their own content. Both which are great for your rankings and traffic. 

6. Consistent brand monitoring. 

Consistently perform searches for your name to see if there are any mentions floating around that you’re unaware of. If you find some in a place you want to be, contact the owner of the site to see if you can turn that into an inbound link. And if you find one that might be negative and unwarranted, get that removed, so it doesn’t harm your reputation or SEO. 

Final Thoughts 

At Onimod Global we understand how vital SEO can be. Search engine optimization is our core attribute and a pillar of our strategy. We develop  organic search engine optimization campaigns that deliver increases in organic traffic through an increase in natural rankings on major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. We are a trusted Google Partner and continually excel with their products. If you need assistance with SEO, or in any area of digital marketing, contact us today. 

Why Google Ads Plans To Limit Search Terms

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Google has started to alert advertisers that it will soon stop showing search queries that triggered their ads when there is not “significant” data.

What is exactly changing?

On Google’s Search Terms Report support page they state, “Starting September 2020,  the search terms report only includes terms that a significant number of users searched for, even if a term received a click. You may now see fewer terms in your report.” In simpler words, advertisers will have reduced visibility into which search queries trigger their ads, even if they register a click or conversion.

Google’s statement from Search Engine Land. “In order to maintain our standards of privacy and strengthen our protections around user data, we have made changes to our Search Terms Report to only include terms that a significant number of users searched for. We’re continuing to invest in new and efficient ways to share insights that enable advertisers to make critical business decisions,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land Wednesday.

What does this mean for you?

According to Seer Interactive, you will lose roughly 28% of your budget’s visibility for paid search.

Prior to the update

  • For every $100K you spent on Google search, you got search term data for $98,700 of it.
  • For every 100K clicks you got, you saw search term data for 98,300 of those clicks.

After the update

  • For every $100K you spend on Google search, you get search term data for $71,000 of it.
  • For every 100K clicks you get, you see search term data for 77,900 of those clicks.

That’s ~$27,000 worth of search term data unseen for every $100K you spend.

Why we advertisers care.

The purpose is to prevent advertisers from having the ability to use minimal query data to identify users or have access to any personally identifiable information users may include in their search queries. Protecting user privacy is important and should be prioritized. However, Google limited query data in Search Console for this reason before the update. The difference is that advertisers pay whenever a user clicks on an ad triggered by a users’ query. Losing this data will have severe financial impact on advertising budgets.

In addition to financial implications, there will also be an effect on the optimization of campaigns and negative keyword lists. Not having any access to this data means that advertisers won’t be able to determine if those queries should be added to negative keyword lists to make their campaigns more efficient.

Contact Onimod Global

For more on this news and other Google Ads late information, follow Onimod Global! Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

How to Optimize Your Website Structure for SEO

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Not all website structures are favored equally by search engine algorithms. A site that is a disorganized jumble mess of pages is unlikely to rank well against a structure that is rigorous and streamlined. To make your site structure SEO-friendly, it has to appeal to users while guiding them to relevant content across your website. 

Learn more about website structure, why it matters and steps to take to optimize yours for SEO. 

What is Site Structure? 

Site structure refers to the way a site’s content is grouped, interconnected and presented to its visitors. Website structure starts with a foundation, its home page, then splits off into other sections, such as the about page, contact page or blog page.

Why Does Site Structure Matter? 

Site structure is one of the most crucial components linked to SEO performance. A well-executed website structure sets you up for SEO success down the road. It also: 

  • Creates a better user experience. 
  • Helps with crawlability. 
  • Provides you with sitelinks. 

How to Optimize Your Website Structure for SEO

1. Plan your site hierarchy. 

The hierarchy of your site is the system that arranges your pages from top to bottom. A website’s structure is similar to a skyscraper. It would be difficult to revise the foundation once you’ve already constructed the middle floors. Which is why it’s best to establish the organization of your website from the beginning. Here are some tips to keep in mind when planning out your hierarchy: 

  • Make it logical. You don’t want to overcomplicate this process for both your sake, your users’ sake and for crawlability. Each main category should be unique and distinct. Subcategories should somehow be related to the main category under which it’s located. 
  • Keep the number of main categories between two and seven. There should only be a few main aspects of your website. If there’s more than seven, you may want to rethink the structure. 
  • Try to balance the number of subcategories within each category. You want to keep it approximately even. If one main category has a large number of subcategories, while others only have a few, the site can become unbalanced. 

2. Create a URL structure that follows the navigation hierarchy. 

URL structure also impacts rankings in Google. Your URLs should follow your website structure, as well as be simple and readable. So if your hierarchy looks like this: 

The URL structure for the Chinatown location should look like: www.kimsrestaurant.com/locations/chinatown 

More developed sites might contain a longer series of folders and subfolders, but the main idea is to create a concise URL with recognizable words.

3. Select the right navigational depth. 

The structure of your site determines how difficult it is to click to a different part of your site. You don’t want important pages of your site to be buried too deep. Shallow paths perform best from a usability and crawlability perspective. With that being said, you also don’t want to go with a completely flat structure. You want a site that proceeds deeper than a second tier of folders, but you want users to be able to get where they need within a few steps. 

4. Establish a header and footer. 

Headers and footers help enhance website structure by making navigation more seamless. Best practice is to display your main categories in your header, but you can also include dropdown features that show subcategories. When you do incorporate additional features, it’s important they have an easy-to-follow design. Basic text links and corresponding anchors are a reliable way to enrich your SEO strategy. Text links perform well because search engine bots can comprehend them. Although images have ALT text, text links continue to deliver better results when it comes to SEO. 

If you have a footer with menu links, be sure they’re duplicated exactly like the main menu links. Changing the order of links or adding additional category listings will complicate the user experience.

5. Include internal linking. 

Internal linking shows the relationship between pages and content on your website. Search engine crawlers move from one link to the next, on-site links give search engines a better picture of what your site has to offer. Placing links organically throughout blogs, product/service pages and other posts forms a grid for users to explore. If there’s a related page or helpful link on your blog, users can continue to traverse your site and come closer to converting or purchasing a product. Internal link structures also help crawlers understand the content you think is most important, which supports differences in ranking on search results pages for similar content. Try to link back to your most popular or important pages to instill more ranking value in them for powerful SEO optimization. 

Final Thoughts 

Site structure is something that can be easily overlooked if you’re not experienced in site building, but it’s crucial when it comes to SEO. At Onimod Global we specialize in both web site development and SEO. You can rely on us for new project development, website maintenance, and more. We build all of our sites with search engines rankings in mind. We analyze data from Traffic Sources and Visitor Flow to establish the routes people take to reach you, the devices they use to get there and what they do on your website. Utilizing this information allows us to build highly engaging, search friendly websites for your business.

Learn more about us and contact us today!

SEO Tips for Beginners

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It’s no secret that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be extremely beneficial to a website’s and business’s overall success. But getting there can be complex, especially for beginners, and it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. A simple Google search for “SEO” returns almost 500 million results, which is more information than anyone could read in a lifetime. On top of that much of the information is now either out-of-date or not relevant. In reality, there are quite a few simple things you can start with to begin a highly effective SEO strategy. Here are 5 SEO tips for beginners. 

Research and use relevant keywords

It makes sense that keywords are key when it comes to SEO success. Think about what your audience would be searching for on your website. What is their search intent? What are they really looking for? Understanding search intent is extremely beneficial when it comes to planning site content and your SEO approach. 

There are a number of tools and strategies to use to ensure we get a good selection of keywords together. Start by brainstorming potential keywords. Just simply write down everything that is relevant., such as services you offer, products you have, close locations, etc. You can also use a keyword research tool to help you identify new keywords. Google offers a tool that forms part of its Ads PPC service, but there are other providers that offer free and paid variations. Lastly, do your own keyword searches on search engines. When you do a search in a search bar, there will be a list of suggestions at the bottom of the page. You can add any relevant suggestions to your list. 

Optimize titles and meta descriptions

Now that you have your keyword list, you can use them to optimize your titles, descriptions and other forms of content. You want to get keywords into the title of pages, but in a natural way. Remember that these show up in search results, so aim to clearly indicate what the page is about and entice users to click on it. Try to include where, what and who if possible. 

Next we want to optimize the meta description. A page’s description doesn’t have as big of an impact on SEO, but it can still help. The meta description should explain the content on your page and further convince a user to click. 

Optimize for mobile

Almost 60% of searches are done from a mobile device. Google favors sites that are mobile friendly. Back in 2019, Google declared that “mobile-first indexing will be enabled by default for all new, previously unknown to Google Search, websites.” This means Google now crawls the mobile versions of sites first, before desktop various. And eventually, Google won’t index your site at all if it isn’t mobile friendly. So how do you go about optimizing your site for mobile? Here are some quick tips: 

  • Keep page load time down 
  • Make reading and navigation easy 
  • Make it responsive to smaller screen size, meaning there’s no pinching or zooming required

Create content, then optimize it

You don’t want to start your content by picking out your keywords and massaging content to match. Write content you’d like to read, things that are interesting, useful, fun and engaging; then optimize the content for SEO. Once you’ve fully written the content, go back and pick out places to insert keywords. Don’t forget to also optimize: 

  • Titles 
  • Descriptions 
  • Header tags 
  • Images 

Build relevant links

Link building carries a bad reputation due to marketers that use black hat strategies for SEO. But when done correctly, link building is extremely helpful when it comes to driving visibility, especially for competitive keywords. Developing this requires having the right kind of links pointing to your site. These links help Google and other search engines determine your relative importance and to order search results using these metrics. Google has commented on this point by saying, 

“Links help our crawlers find your site and can give your site greater visibility in our search results. When returning results for a search, Google uses sophisticated text-matching techniques to display pages that are both important and relevant to each search. Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote by page A for page B. Votes cast by pages that are themselves ‘important’ weigh more heavily and help to make other pages ‘important.’”

This can be the most difficult part of SEO, but there are some strategies to use to gain safe backlinks to help improve your visibility in search results. You can utilize highly credible directory sites, as well as a competitor link analysis to help identify new link opportunities. 

Final Thoughts

Having success with SEO isn’t something you can do overnight. It can take months and even years to create a site and content strategy that a search engine will favor. Often with SEO it is 20% of the effort that will get you 80% of the results and for most small businesses this is a great starting point that will help your site be more visible in organic search.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

 

Audience Context: Why It Matters

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Your content is most likely catered to audience personas, as it should be. All marketers rely on an outlined demographic of the audience you have targeted as potential customers. However, there is no way for a persona to account for your audience context – what is a real person experiencing at the exact moment they see your content?

In a perfect world, 100% of your content would be catered specifically to every potential customer. Thankfully, there are tools we can use to get a better idea of the customer’s headspace to match up with the audience context.

Keyword Planners

Often times keyword planners are used as a crutch to plug in a few key topics and phrases, and overload on content to increase your organic traffic. We advise to rather think of keyword planners as tools to help understand the specific language your readers are using. Focus on the phrases that pose as questions, and answer those questions in your content to give immediate value to your readers.

Google Trends

Once you have your group of keywords and key phrases, enter them into Google Trends to see what else you can learn about people using those search terms. This step will help you to match up your content to fit your audience context. Look into geographic locations, and the time of day, month, or year people access information and searches increase.

Popular Content

Try googling the question you are trying to answer in your content, and see what else is currently out there. Use this to see if you can do a better job explaining the question at hand or fill in missing gaps of information.

 

Now step one is complete. You know what challenges your potential customers are facing. Now for step 2, which is understanding how your customers feel about their challenges and utilize effective emotional writing to strike a chord with this audience.

Show Audience Context, Don’t Tell

The most simple mistake to make when writing emotional content to engage your audience is telling them that you’re doing it. Don’t tell the reader how they feel. Instead, imagine how they would prefer to feel and give them that. Audience context is all about resonating with the reader without exposing your intention.

Resonate, Don’t Exploit

When it comes to audience context, you should evoke, not exploit, emotion in people. It’s quite simple to exploit intense emotions of fear, anger, agitation in our audiences in order to sell. We advise against this strategy and encourage you to instead show the reader you understand their emotions and maybe even share them.

More From Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

The 3 Pillars Of Link Building

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High quality content is the one of the keys to success when it comes to internet presence. Creating high-quality content can strengthen your business’ branding and spark conversions, but not if your audience is never exposed to that content. Link building is your solution to help your content be visible via other websites and in the search results.

Check out this list created by Michael Johnson, sales manager at Page One Power. He explains how to identify relevant linking opportunities, create and leverage linkable assets, and communicate with site owners in a way that compels them to link to your content.

Create audience-focused, linkable assets

Your links will be as good as your content. If you link to a site or an asset of your company that is worthless to the audience you’re selling to, it makes no sense to include in your content. For example, pointing directly to a product page or other pages that provide low-value to your audience of the sites that you target, you will have a tough time converting into paying customers.

Great linkable assets are audience focused and provide informational educational value. Your linkable assets should not be promotional. Johnson specifically cautions against requesting links to lower-value promotional content or product pages because they may come across as paid links, which may also discourage users from clicking through.

Identify relevant, valued and trusted sites for links

Use the following criteria to evaluate which sites are worth including in a link building campaign.

Value for users. The page that you’re interested in getting a link from should provide value to your customers. And of course, be sure the anchor text in the link helps set user expectations when they click through.

Relevance. Your link building should be relevant to the context of which the link is appearing and also match the audience that you want to attract.

Vet every site. Make a thorough investigation on every site. It’s very important that your sources are credible, and that you can be counted on as a trusted source for your audience.  “Always ask yourself the question, ‘In a world without Google, would I still want this link?’” Johnson said, adding, “If the answer is no, then you have to question whether or not that’s an organic link.”

Trust and authority. Always look at the backlinks to the site you’re thinking of incorporating into your content. “If you see that they are linking out to a lot of spam or are posting low quality content on their website, those are red flags that mean you should probably avoid that website.”

Keep the momentum after the link

After acquiring a link, link builders should send a followup communication thanking the site owner. To keep in contact with these brands puts you in a good position of goodwill between brands. Working together to make sure your audience has accurate and reliable information will translate into paying customers for you both.

Johnson also recommends paying attention to the internal linking of the page that earned the backlink. Since product or promotional pages aren’t likely to attract many of their own backlinks, internally linking those conversion-based pages to other pages with a stronger backlink profile will help you to build link equity.

More From Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

4 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Choosing Content Topics

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When choosing content topics, most digital marketers try to write about things they believe is relevant to their audience. While relevance is important, alone it’s not enough. Furthermore, some seemingly relevant content topics may not be a good fit for your brand. 

So, how do you determine which topics are a good fit for your brand and engaging for your audience? Here are 4 questions to ask yourself when choosing the right content topics for you.

1. Is there a need? 

A topic should address an audience’s pain points and provide a solution. One way to identify your audience’s needs are through creating a buyer persona, or your ideal customer. This may require some research, but you want to identify the following: 

Source: https://buffer.com/resources/discover-content-ideas/

Your buyer persona will give you a better sense of challenges and goals your audience has. Knowing your audience’s problems will allow you to come up with content topics that solve those problems. 

You can also use search engines and social platforms for discovering users’ needs. Utilize Google trends to gauge if a topic is growing or on the decline. You can use social the same way. Most platforms have analytical tools to show you how popular a certain keyword or set of keywords are. If you have a social listening tool, this would be the perfect way to incorporate that as well. Once you have a good grasp on what your audience is talking about, you can insert yourself in the conversation where appropriate. 

2. Do you have the credibility? 

If you publish content you don’t have the authority to speak on, you risk ruining the credibility of your brand. You want to use content marketing to strengthen your trust and credibility, not weaken it. So, how can you determine if you’re equipped to speak on a matter? There are generally two main criteria for credibility. Ask yourself: 

  • Am I an expert? Can you or someone else from your company confidently create and cite original sources? Or is the information based strictly on opinion? 
  • Is there data to back it up? If there is data, is it outdated? If there isn’t any recent data, you further risk losing your credibility. 

Find topics where you have genuine interest, as well as a good knowledge base. Content is about taking data and incorporating your own voice into it. But if you’re writing about something you aren’t very knowledgeable on, you won’t have the expertise to go deeper and differentiate your own opinions. 

3. What is the goal of the piece of content?  

You want each piece of content you create to have an end goal for your audience, but you also want it to align with your overall organizational goals. Content marketing is really about producing an action from a potential customer. Do your topic ideas connect with that overall marketing objective? Do they move your reader further along the customer journey? For each content topic you decide on, evaluate it and see how it aligns with your organizational goals.

Doing this will also help you when selecting KPIs (key performance indicators). If your current goal is to generate leads, your content should be focused on moving customers further through the sales funnel. If your current goal is to produce more sales, your content should be aimed at moving the sales needle. This means content isn’t just informative, it also builds trust.

It can be easy to rely on viral topics and expect that to carry your content to success. But if those topics don’t align with your overall business strategy, it’s a waste.

4. Can the message be shared across multiple mediums?  

Content should communicate how and why your perspectives, products and services stand apart from others in your industry. Content marketing takes a good balance of storytelling, educating, convincing and should include a call-to-action. Once you’ve landed on a strong topic, it’s equally important to ensure you’re able to create multi-purpose content out of it. You want to choose topics that you’re an expert on, but you don’t want it to be too niche. This may cause a shortage of material and of those actually interested in reading it. Not only that, but it might also be difficult to share that content across multiple mediums and platforms. 

You want to find the sweet spot between broad and niche. Ideally, you will find content pieces that can be featured in a number of ways. For example how-to content could be created as: 

  • A YouTube video 
  • An infographic 
  • A blog post

You want to be able to then share these pieces of content across social platforms. Having flexible content ensures that all members of your audience will be able to find something they best relate to and be able to find it in multiple places. This also creates less work for you, as you can successfully reuse and share topics. 

Final Thoughts 

Mapping out and choosing the right topics for content marketing takes strategic planning. Learning what content performs best among your audience takes time and experimenting. Continually measure and track your strategy and make changes when necessary. Choosing the right topics is essential to developing and driving an effective coverall content marketing strategy. 

More From Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. If you’re looking for assistance with your content marketing or any other areas of digital marketing, contact us today! 

Tips for Making Your Content Stand Out

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Right now, everyone is shifting the focus of their content to COVID-19. Rightfully so, as it’s impacting everyone and everything around the world. People are looking for answers and businesses feel compelled to respond. This creates a new dilemma, however. The “market” of coronavirus content is now heavily saturated. Consumers are constantly being bombarded with new articles and updates around the situation everyday. From this arises the question for many marketers: Should I continue to create content around the same thing everyone else is?

This is a difficult issue and there’s no simple, one-size-fits-all answer. We do know that content is still essential for long-term SEO success and in a time like this, you don’t want to fall silent. The key is finding a balance between creating relevant content but also standing out among the masses. Here are some tips for doing that: 

1. Focus on your audience’s current and most pressing needs. 

Content marketing is really just about helping your audience solve their problems. Currently, everyone is facing unprecedented challenges. There are no pre-existing rules or guidelines for businesses in this situation, so we have all been continually adapting and shifting our strategies accordingly. Marketers need to closely monitor their audience members, what they’re asking, and what they need. 

Your main focus should ultimately be creating content that helps your current and potential customers. Every time you publish a piece of content, ask yourself “is this helping my customers?” If the answer is no, and you’re just putting out content for the purpose of putting out content, it’s not worth it. 

2. Incorporate reliable research and accurate data. 

There is always massive amounts of inaccurate information circulating around the internet. When sharing or creating content, make sure it’s based on real research. Users want science and data to help them make the best decision, especially during times like these. Having solid evidence that supports your claim is extremely important. 

3. Don’t ask for anything in return. 

The biggest mistake a brand can make right now is appearing like they are trying to capitalize on the pandemic. Strive to deliver value without asking for anything in return. Instead of focusing on promoting your products or services, your main priority should be bringing value to users. 

4. Continue to publish regular content. 

Businesses are concerned that posting regular content will make them come across as insensitive or tone-deaf. While you should be careful with what you’re posting, continuing with regularly scheduled content is important for multiple reasons. The first is that, during this stressful and chaotic time, it’s nice to have tid bits of normalcy or light-heartedness. As long as the content is still sensitive to the current situation, it’s more than ok if it’s not addressing or focusing on the pandemic. The second reason being that SEO is still extremely important, and content is key for SEO success. If you delay or stop altogether publishing content, you’re only hurting yourself. 

Final Thoughts 

Right now, times are strange. Everyone is constantly searching for answers, but comfort as well. Making yourself stand out in an extremely saturated market is difficult, but not impossible. The key is finding balance between relevancy and uniqueness, while still providing value to users. Accomplishing this isn’t easy, but we can help. At Onimod Global we’re experts in social media, SEO, and content marketing. We help brands connect with their customers where and when they need them the most. Take a look at how we’ve helped other companies, and learn more about what we can do for you. 

Improving Your SEO Strategy During COVID-19

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A recent survey by Conductor revealed that due to COVID-19 and the extension of the social distancing guidelines, many marketers anticipate a decrease in their annual marketing budget, but still expect goals to remain the same. How are they expecting to reach their goals with a smaller budget? Shifting their focus to SEO. 

Regardless of the status of the economy, people are still going to be making purchases, and more people are shopping online than ever before. Why wouldn’t you want your brand top of mind when users are making buying decisions? 

Here are 4 tips to improve your SEO strategy during this uncertain time. 

1. Build Trust with Your Content 

Many brands are offering deals and promotions to customers once the pandemic has passed and the world starts to go back to normal. Forrester released a report that found that consumers are doubtful that companies will follow through on the promises they make during this time. In a time of crisis, trust is more important than ever. With so much false information and uncertainty circulating, it’s essential to separate yourself as a brand that’s reputable. 

Another Conductor study reported that consumers find brands that deliver educational content are much more trustworthy than those that don’t. Right now, consumers are looking for answers to their questions from brands they trust. This isn’t the time for salesy content. Focus on creating content that brings real value to your audience. 

2. Make Necessary Changes to Current Campaigns 

If you had any campaigns active before the situation of the world changed, make sure to perform an audit on it and make any necessary changes. Be sure to review any social posts or content pieces you had scheduled out ahead of time as well. You don’t want to come across as insensitive or tone-deaf to the situation. 

SEO is much more than just technical efforts, and this is one of them. You want to be the voice of different customers across the organization. During times like these marketers need to have a heightened awareness of customer sensitivity. Even though it’s difficult to suspend a campaign that a lot of time and resources went into creating, it could be more harmful to your brand in the long run if you keep it running. For example, Corona received harsh backlash via social media when they went through with launching their Coming Ashore Soon campaign for its new seltzer line. 

3. Constantly Manage Your Reputation 

Managing your web presence during times of crisis is another crucial element of gaining and maintaining the trust of customers. Dated or inaccurate information can confuse or even hurt your audience, making you look bad in the process. Here are some tips for managing your online reputation during this time: 

 

  • Update any online listings or hours. Review your listings on all search engines, social media, review sites, and any other platform you may be on. Make sure your listings are updated with any changed hours, service suspensions, or revised contact information for any departments or location.
  • Monitor the status of COVID-19 and respond with empathy. Even in times of crisis, consumers are talking about business online. If you don’t already have one in place, it’s crucial to implement a comprehensive review and response strategy. Adjust your response technique as needed, remembering to be as sensitive and transparent as possible during this time. Ignoring comments and reviews puts your credibility and brand trust at great risk during a time of crisis.
  • Engage with customers across all platforms. Businesses are receiving an influx of questions on all levels across all platforms. Prepare to answer these questions on Google My Business, social, and any other platform with timely and accurate information. You might even want to consider setting up a FAQ on your website or third-party directories if you’re getting many similar inquiries. 
  • Monitor the Google Search Console. Web traffic, especially organic, is a big indicator of where demand for your product or services has shifted. Spikes or declines in traffic may show you what information is most important to your audience and help you decide your response strategy. 

 

Improve Your Security Efforts 

Hackers are trying to take advantage of the current situation and those that are in need. Many are using malicious malware to promote discounts, giveaways, etc. Some hackers are even using branding of trusted companies for phishing attacks, including the World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now that many people are working from home, the threat becomes even greater. From a business perspective, here’s what you can do to ensure your website’s security: 

  • Monitor log files for crawl errors. 
  • Implement Single Sign On. 
  • Implement HTTPS. 
  • Update any plugins or apps being used. 

Final Thoughts 

Everyone is looking for answers right now. If you can position yourself at the top of a Google SERP with credible information, it can have endless benefits, even after the pandemic is over. Trust is what consumers want and need right now. SEO is a needed investment to build that trust. 

At Onimod Global we understand how vital SEO can be. Search engine optimization is our core attribute and a pillar of our strategy. We develop  organic search engine optimization campaigns that deliver increases in organic traffic through an increase in natural rankings on major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. We are a trusted Google Partner and continually excel with their products. If you need assistance with SEO, or in any area of digital marketing, contact us today.