business blog ideas

4 Tips for Brainstorming Business Blog Ideas Your Audience Will Love

Would you like to have 67% more leads? What about an average of 434% more indexed pages for your website?

If so, then you don’t have to spend a ton of cash on marketing gimmicks or spend hours in Photoshop editing images and postcards.

Instead, all you have to do is start a business blog. You can do it for free on your own, or hire a freelancer to write your posts to keep costs to a minimum. Not only does blogging allow you to prove your industry expertise and let customers know about upcoming products/services. It also improves your website’s overall search engine ranking.

Need a little help coming up with business blog ideas?

If so, then read on to learn all about some of the best blog topics to keep visitors coming back week after week.

1. Your First Blog Post

Your introductory blog post is one of the most important ones that you’ll write.

In it, you need to focus primarily on making a connection with your target market. In other words, your readers need to be able to see themselves, their problems, and their priorities in your post. You should also strive to create an emotional response in these readers — because that’s what keeps them reading.

Remember, the longer people stay on your page, the higher your SEO score climbs.

In your first blog post, talk about why you started your business, and how you fill a need that your competitors haven’t. The more personal you’re willing to be here, the better — honesty and vulnerability go a long way towards establishing brand trust.

Briefly discuss your company’s values, the industry you work within, and casually mention a few standout products/services (but make sure it doesn’t read like an ad.)

You should be sure to follow up with any blog comments that readers leave you, and always encourage them to share the post on social media.

2. Check Out Online Forums

Your blog topics should primarily focus on answering some of the most common questions that your target market has about not just your business, but also your industry as a whole.

What’s one of the best ways to find out exactly what kinds of questions they’re asking?

Visit an online forum website like Quora or Reddit.

Here, you’ll be able to search for questions within your industry and pick out which questions you see asked over and over again. You should also read the answers that others have left, so you can have the chance to clear up misinformation if needed.

You’ll likely get at least three blog topics all focused on providing easy-to-understand, brief, and genuinely helpful answers. Not only will you prove that you know you’re stuff, but you’ll also prove your value to consumers.

3. Research Popular Keywords

Do you still need to come up with engaging business blog ideas?

Why not use popular keyword search tools (try this free one to get started) to help you learn what your market is talking about?

For example, let’s say you run a catering company, and you find that one of the popular keywords for your industry is “best catering company near me.”

From that simple keyword phrase alone, you can write about numerous topics.

Try what to look for in a catering company, how to find a last-minute catering company, the top questions you should ask a catering company, and the most in-demand foods that catering companies provide.

This isn’t just beneficial because it helps you to come up with things to write about. It’s also a wonderful way to give your SEO score a quick boost. Just make sure you avoid keyword stuffing — or risk turning off clients and being penalized by Google.

4. Your Competitors

What’s one final way to figure out the kind of content your blog should — and shouldn’t –contain?

By researching the topics your competitors are writing about.

First of all, this will prevent you from creating blog topics that are practically identically to the ones that your competitors have already covered. The last thing you want is a blog that’s just the same as everyone else’s.

But looking at your competitors’ blog posts will also help you to identify common themes, popular topics, and even the kinds of posts that generate a good response from readers.

Take a look at the comments sections in particular.

Are readers asking questions that you know you can answer?

If so, why not write a post about it? After all, it’s a great way to jump on a popular topic without coming across as a content copier. You can also figure out how to put your own spin on a hot topic your competitor has written about in the past.

After all, everyone wants a second opinion.

Generating Business Blog Ideas Is Simple

Whether you love writing tutorials, reviewing popular products within your industry, or sharing new business developments with your readers, we hope these business blog ideas have you feeling inspired.

Of course, once you have a strong list of topics, you’ll need to include excellent internal and external links in the content to increase your SEO score. You’ll also need to optimize the content with keywords, images, and the right kinds of promotion on social media or e-newsletters.

If you’re curious about link building, in particular, you’re in the right place to learn about buying and selling backlinks, starting affiliate programs, and much more.

Make sure to explore the rest of our site so you don’t miss out.

copywriting vs. content writing

Copywriting Vs. Content Writing: Know The Difference

For more than 3,500 years, Aesop’s Fables have used storytelling to teach lessons to children. 

The Tortoise and the Hare fable teaches that it is better to be slow and steady than it is to be fast and over-confident. The Lion and the Mouse fable illustrates that you can still help someone or something much larger than yourself, no matter how small you are. 

Storytelling is so effective at conveying a message that people still use it to this day, but it has a new name: 

Content Writing. 

When done well, this type of writing draws its readers into a world of their own and helps them to understand how a brand or product can affect their lives for the better through a story. 

When done exceptionally well, content writing interweaves copywriting throughout the story to convince the reader they need something and calls that reader to action. 

For this reason, it is important to understand what both types of writing are, how they are similar, and how they are different. To help you with that, this article gives you a rundown of copywriting vs. content writing. Read on to learn more. 

What is Content Writing? 

The modern era has made it easy to learn anything you want. All you need is a computer and an internet connection, and you have a compilation of the world’s knowledge at your fingertips. 

Add to that the fact that everyone wants something for nothing and you have the backbone of content writing. 

Content writing provides useful, often actionable, information to people through story. The lessons learned and the information provided is often free. The hope is that this free information plants a seed of trust that causes them to come back when they need more information. 

YOU Make Content King

At first glance, you might think the headline has a typo in it, but you would be wrong. Content is not made king by you the writer, it is king because of the word you. 

Content writing is so powerful because it brings the reader into the story. It makes them a part of what they are reading and it does so with the use of the word you. 

When you use the word you in your content, you are giving your readers the power to imagine themselves with your product or service.

Content writing is suggestive. It plants an idea more than it convinces. 

What is Copywriting? 

Copywriting is less storytelling and more direct selling. It tells the reader what you want from them and asks them to do it. 

You see copywriting every day, but if it is done well, you won’t even realize that’s what it is.

It is the button that asks you to subscribe to a newsletter. It is the last paragraph of an article that tells you to click a link and read another post. It is the headlines that convince your readers to continue digging through your content.

Copywriting is your call to action, in whatever form that takes. 

The best way to be successful at copywriting is to hide it naturally within your content. 

Where Does SEO Come Into Play?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is what helps your readers find their way onto your website. Setup your website with quality content that follows certain standards and you increase the chances of your audience finding you. 

There was a point in time that a website’s primary goal was to stuff as many keywords and links on their webpages as possible. Most of the links led to irrelevant or spam-filled websites. But doing this would cause their website to rise to the top of a search engine result page. 

There were few websites with any valuable information on them, and it was hard to find legitimate websites with reliable information. 

Google founders Sergey Brin and Lawrance Page saw this and realized people were not finding the quality content they deserved. In 1998, they published The Anatomy of Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search.

Soon after, search engines began to use algorithms to help them identify useful content and promote it. Website developers found they had to up their game if they wanted people to find their sites.

Since then, SEO remains a part of copywriting, but for your website to get pushed to the top of search engine results, it must meet certain quality standards.

Enter Content Writing. 

Copywriting vs. Content Writing

Since 1997, Google has redefined the way people use the internet. As algorithms improve, so must the content found on websites.

In a way, it is a lot like the experience you might have at a library. 

By using certain standards, the Dewey Decimal System allows library-goers to locate specific books by subject, author, or title. SEO does the same but on a much broader, more complex scale. 

Once you know where to look for your book, you inspect the cover. The front of the book jumps out and grabs your attention over all the others. The back of the book gives you a hook that makes you want more.

This is the book’s version of Copywriting. 

Then you get home and read the story, or content. 

It draws you in and you find that you can’t put it down. You want more. You read the excerpt about the author and the next day you find yourself at the library looking for more books by that writer.

Now you find yourself in that author’s “sales funnel.” This method is similar to SEO. Google acts as the Dewey decimal system of old and the book is the website that it leads you to.

How Can an Affiliate Program Help? 

As SEO algorithms improve, the line that divides copywriting and content writing gets thinner. It is no longer copywriting vs. content writing so much as it is copywriting AND content writing. 

One of the elements SEO algorithms look for are links to other websites with good, quality content. Backlinks.com gives you access to those links and pays you for it. 

We have two ways to earn: As a Publisher or an Advertiser. 

When you sign up as a publisher, you sell links to your website through the Backlinks brokerage. 

When you register as an advertiser, you use your website to sell access to the links provided by Publishers. 

If you have additional questions, please check out our FAQ’s for Link Buyers and FAQ’s for Link Sellers or use the comments below. 

 

local listings management

Local Listings Management: Your Guide To Local SEO

Everywhere you look in the marketing world, people are talking about search engine optimization. Prominent and successful SEO is the digital equivalent of having an inflatable gorilla in front of your store to attract foot traffic: it’s all about grabbing attention.

Getting profitable web traffic isn’t just about numbers. It’s about quality.

Not only do you want to attract new readers, but you want readers who are likely to become customers. That means you need local users, and your local SEO makes that happen.

Because local listings are among the most crucial aspects of your SEO, you don’t want to miss these local listings management tips.

Go Hunting and Claim Everything

The first step to managing your local listings is finding those listings in the first place.

Scour the web to find your listings on every directory you can find. Many of these platforms let you claim and verify your listings so you can manage them, so that’s the next step.

As you hunt, make a spreadsheet. Include URLs for all the listings you find, and note whether you’ve claimed them.

When you’re done, go through that list and make sure you have listings on the most popular sites. That includes Google My Business, Yelp, and YP. Think about any major directories in your field too.

If you don’t have listings on those major sites, create them yourself. Sometimes you need to go through one process to create the listings and a separate process to claim them.

Look for Accuracy

As you find and create all those directory listings, check all the data for accuracy. Most listings will include your website, address, business name, phone number, and business hours at a minimum.

For any listings that have incorrect or incomplete information, update them. Having consistent information gives you a more credible online image and ensures that customers can reach you no matter where they find you.

Any time your business’s details change, you’ll be glad you have that spreadsheet. It makes it easy to click into each one and update the information.

Schedule in Your Local Listings Management

Most local listings allow customers to post reviews. For many businesses, the hardest part of local listings management is keeping up with those reviews.

Some directories will send you an email when a customer posts a new review on your listing and some won’t. Never assume you’ll get a notification. As busy as you are, all you need is a few minutes every couple of weeks to check for new reviews.

Set up a recurrent note on your to-do list every two weeks. With that spreadsheet in hand, all you need to do is click into each listing to check for new reviews. If you don’t have time, it’s an easy task to delegate too.

Respond to Every Review

Speaking of reviews, starting today, respond to each one.

For positive reviews, all you need is a quick note to thank the reviewer for their kind words and to say that you look forward to serving them again.

Negative reviews are more tricky, but business owners tend to overthink them.

With negative reviews, don’t go into details or get into a keyboard fight. Be compassionate and voice that you’ve heard their concerns. Then invite them to contact you to discuss the issue further or let them know that you’ll be in touch.

When you’re responding to reviews, remember that other potential customers will read it. In fact, your response is more for them than it is for the reviewer. You want to send the message that you’re listening and you care about making customers happy.

Take Advantage of What Your Listings Offer

Every directory has its own set of features and if you don’t use them, you’re leaving opportunities on the table.

For example, Google My Business allows you to publish posts, similar to social media posts.

Take the time to get to know each of your local listings and how to best take advantage of them. Creating posts about your latest blogs and new services can provide helpful links to your site.

For some listings, you can pair them with your social media profiles. For others, you can enable a messaging option which lets customers connect with you directly on the listing.

As you do this, prioritize your time. Start with directories that get high traffic like Google and Yelp. Dedicate plenty of time to these listings and work your way down to the lesser-known ones.

Consider All Your Options

Managing your local listings is one of those situations in which you get out of it what you put into it. Making the most of every listing takes a lot of time, upkeep, and attention.

If you don’t have room in your schedule, you always have the option of hiring a professional. There are SEO professionals and tools to focus on any specific area you choose, including your local listings.

Becoming a Local Legend

We won’t lie: improving your local SEO is a big task. It takes work on your own site and on other websites like local directories. Like your general SEO, it’s an ongoing job that requires upkeep if you want to keep your results.

Consistent and thoughtful local listings management is one of the most important things you can do for your local SEO. The tips above will help you find and make the most of all your listings.

Still, local listings are one piece of the larger puzzle of SEO. To continue boosting your web presence, start buying text links and furthering your knowledge about SEO with our tools.

types of links

A Guide To All Types Of Links You Need For Link Building

Most websites you read about types of links and their effect on search engine optimization are wrong. Since the Google Hummingbird update, Google uses big data and machine learning to rank up websites. It goes by suitability and popularity.

The old days of having one type of link being better than another are over, at least in search engine ranking terms.

Climbing the search engine results is not about getting a certain number of backlinks or achieving a certain percentage of keywords. It’s about making your website more popular for a certain target audience. Here is a guide to all type of links you will need for link building and search engine optimization.

The Famous Followed Link

Followed links are still popular because they used to be a big part of Google’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization). People wanted followed links from popular websites because it told Google that their website was also popular, which helped rank websites up.

Followed links are no longer part of Google’s ranking algorithm, but they are still very useful. The biggest reason they are useful is that other search engines, apps, and online tools still use them to rank websites.

Another reason why followed links are popular is that they draw traffic to your website. A popular website has more visitors, which means there’s a higher chance they will generate clickers who will travel over to your website.

Followed links are also easier to track, which means the linking websites are usually informed about the link via their analytic programs. This generates goodwill and may even result in reciprocal links.

Unfollowed Links

There are plenty of good reasons why you should have unfollowed links, such as helping to keep certain links off search engines and when you are advertising or linking to something that has nothing to do with your website.

Unfollowed links are harder to track, which means the whole reciprocal link notion is less likely. However, unfollowed links can still generate traffic and traffic makes your website more popular and ergo helps rank up your website.

Traffic alone can be tracked through Google’s Chrome browser and through the use of cookies and affiliate advertising clicks. That’s why both followed and unfollowed links should be a strong part of your SEO link building.

Are Inbound Links and Backlinks The Same?

A link to a web page on your website can be called a backlink and an inbound link. The word “Backlink” covers any sort of link coming from another web page, even if that web page is on the same website.

An inbound link has to come from another website. A link from another website is still called a backlink, but is also called an inbound link.

• Inbound Link – A link coming from another website
• Backlink – Any link coming from another website or another web page
• Internal Link – Any link coming from another web page on your website
• On-page link – A link from one page to the same page (also known as “Jump To” links)

As you can see, it’s not about inbound links vs backlinks. It’s just a good idea to have an intuitively-linked up website internally and to have a healthy number of inbound links coming from other websites.

A Rundown of Different Types of Links

Generating a good link building strategy with plenty of inbound links is not only about getting links from websites and social media. There are actually many types of backlinks you can work to generate.

Blog Comment Sections – They used to be a ranking factor with Google, but not anymore. However, the clever use of blog comment links can be amazing for generating highly targeted traffic.

Optimized Anchor Text from Press Releases – As part of a viral campaign, they may have some effect. In most cases, however, they’re lost in the background noise that is press releases.

Article Directories – Getting links from article directories on popular websites has a very good long-term effect on your SEO and your link building campaign as a whole. This is especially true in an age where writers simply rewrite the things they read on Google to produce more content, and article directories are common hunting grounds for lazy writers.

Guest Posts – Assuming you’re posting top-quality content on popular websites and assuming your links are useful for the reader, then guest posts can generate popularity and traffic for years.

Guest Post Signatures – They don’t have any SEO impact directly, but very popular writers may find people following their guest post bios to different linked websites.

Embeddable Widgets – For some websites, these are very long-term and very valuable backlinks. If your website has a purpose that is easily embeddable (such as currency exchange rates, price checkers, etc.), then backlinks from widgets offer a great ROI.

Infographic Embeds – As part of a branding strategy, an Infographic embed is great. It means people come across more of your branded content when they search for you on search engines.

User Profile Pages – Not so hot for Google’s SEO, but other online tools, apps, and search engines seem to pay attention to links from user profile pages.

Forums and Forum Signatures – Similar rules apply as with blog comments and blog signatures. However, where a blog comment link may generate traffic for years, a forum may only generate traffic for as long as the topic is open or available for public viewing.

What About Social Media?

The types of links you get from social media are temporary. Nobody goes over somebody’s Tweets for the last five years unless they’re looking for dirt on that person.

If you’ve incorporated social media links into your link building strategy, then you need to keep your social media account active by posting at least once per month, and you need to post links on a semi-frequent basis because older links will be forgotten in time.

Linking It All Up

Your link building campaign should contain a good variety of the different types of links. Analytics will help you to understand which have the greatest impact.

Want to know more secrets about backlinking, SEO, and website management? You should try the other posts on the BackLinks.com blog.

corporate memes

Corporate Memes: Benefits Of Memes In Social Media Marketing

There are countless memes floating around the internet every single day.

Some memes are meant to be funny. Others help spread political messages or educate people about a certain topic.

Memes can be a powerful marketing tool. They’re so effective, they can be used to influence buying decisions and political opinions.

Read on to find out what a meme is, how they work, and how you can create corporate memes to market your business.

What is a Meme?

A meme (pronounced as ‘meem’) is anything that spreads. The phrase was coined in 1976 by author and biologist Richard Dawkins. In his book, The Selfish Gene, he said that an idea could repeat itself and enter the mainstream the way that genes spread and multiply.

Fast forward about 40 years and memes have taken over, and at times, broke the internet. In the late 90s, The Hampster Dance dominated the world with its silly hamsters and annoying music. Yet, there was something about it that went viral before going viral was a thing.

The Dancing Baby meme (remember that?) and Grumpy Cat became global sensations overnight.

A meme is powerful because people remember them. Social media posts have an awfully short shelf life compared to other forms of marketing. You literally have a split second to make an impression as someone is scrolling through their feed.

Let’s see how long social media posts last. On Facebook and Twitter, they last about three hours. You’re also fighting among a ton of other content to get traction.

Facebook and Instagram have been notorious for limiting engagement once they reach critical mass. That lack of engagement forces everyone to purchase ads.

If you want to be seen organically without spending a ton of money on ads, corporate memes are the way to go. Here’s how you can get started.

Using Memes in Marketing

When memes are done well, they can add to the conversation and give your brand some credibility.

Ruffles successfully used a meme to encourage grillers to show off their grilling disasters. It showed the funny side of the brand. It also reminded people that Ruffles are a great compliment to any grilling situation – success or disaster.

When done poorly, you look like a 45-year-old trying to fit in with the 22-year-old kids. It can come across as disingenuous and do more harm than good to your brand. It shows like an older person hanging out in mom jeans.

Some of the worst corporate memes were companies like IHOP, which was trying to be ‘on fleek.’ Another example was Toshiba encouraging its users to twerk at work.

Yeah, that didn’t work at all.

You definitely don’t want to be like that when you use corporate memes.

Successfully Using Corporate Memes

How can you use corporate memes in your marketing? There are some things that you can do as part of your marketing strategy to create fantastic memes related to your business.

What is Your Brand About?

Marketing always starts with your brand and your niche audience. Your brand is the emotional connection that people have to your company. You need to know how you want people to feel about your company.

For example, if your business is a pet store, you would people to think about the love that they have for their pets when they think of your brand.

This is important to know because you want to make sure that your memes apply to your brand.

Be a Good Listener

The next thing you need to do is to be a good listener. You want to monitor the conversations that happen online related to your brand.

Let’s say that you have a political consultancy. You can monitor hashtags like #demdebate and see what people are saying. You also want to watch out for trending hashtags on Twitter, Instagram, and whichever channels you use the most.

Be Relatable

The reason some memes are successful and others aren’t is because the successful ones are relatable. Everyone can relate to leaving things on the grill for too long.

Even if your brand is a serious corporate brand, you can still be relatable. Everyone who works in an office can relate to certain things. They can relate to the guy who has to call a meeting over every little thing. They can relate to having silly, useless reports to do.

Your job is to find the humor in various situations and show people that your band can relate to them.

The Timing of Memes

When you’re listening to various online conversations, you want to make sure you time your meme right. For up to the second trends, you must get content out the door immediately.

If you’re timing your meme with an event or trend, you need to get the content out at that moment. A day later is too late.

However, if you’re capturing an everyday moment, like a water cooler conversation at the office, you can be more flexible when you send them out.

Corporate Memes to Boost Your Business

Whenever you are using social media marketing to boost your business, be smart about it. Everyone is on social media, and it’s a tough challenge to be seen.

You want to use memes sparingly. Otherwise, your brand will look like you’re trying to fit in. You also want to make sure that they’re relevant to the conversation and your brand. Constantly posting memes that are off-brand won’t do you any good.

The best corporate memes are fun, engaging, and create conversation. They also get people to link to your site, which can be a boost for business and other marketing efforts.

Do you want to know more about link building? Sign up for a free link building consultation today.

best youtube thumbnails

Why YouTube Thumbnails Matter for SEO

YouTube visitors watch over one billion hours of video every single day. Even with this staggering amount of traffic, it can be a challenge to draw eyes to your videos. One of the most effective methods is to create great YouTube thumbnails.

A thumbnail is an afterthought in most mediums. But on YouTube, it’s a visual representation of both the content and quality of your video. If you don’t have the best YouTube thumbnails, it can lead to fewer views, a lower ranking, and terrible YouTube SEO.

Give your videos an SEO boost. Here’s how and why your thumbnails can lead to drastically improved YouTube traffic.

The Importance of YouTube Thumbnails

You’re no doubt familiar with some of the tactics Google uses to rank websites on its search engine. But what you might not know is Google also has a complex ranking algorithm for YouTube. So how does it work?

When a majority of your viewers watch your entire video, this tells YouTube that your content is valuable. YouTube also prefers videos with a high amount of comments and social media shares. And just like in search engine optimization, keywords can play a big role in the ranking of your video.

But there’s one factor I’ve neglected — and this is where thumbnails come in. Your video’s click-through rate plays a big role in YouTube SEO. When people search for a specific keyword and choose to watch your video, that increases your click-through rate.

And YouTube loves videos with a high click-through rate. The thumbnail is the most effective way to convince viewers to choose your video amongst all the rest.

Ergo, great thumbnails lead to a higher click-through rate. And a better rate leads to an improved video ranking and even more viewers.

Does your company use YouTube? It’s a key component of any digital marketing campaign.

How to Make the Best YouTube Thumbnails

So now you know that YouTube thumbnails are a key component of any video. But how do you make the most effective YouTube thumbnails? For the best results, you’ll need to do more than take a screenshot of your video.

But it’s less time-consuming than you might think. Here are five guidelines for making the best YouTube thumbnails.

1. Include Text

Have you ever heard the expression, a picture is worth a thousand words? Yeah, that’s not true for YouTube thumbnails. Text is an essential component, even if you only include one word or two.

It adds additional context to the picture. Many companies create YouTube videos to offer expertise or provide a solution to a problem. A picture will not make it immediately clear that your video is a tutorial.

And that’s where the text comes in. Choose to go bold, and don’t include more than you have to.

2. Create a Brand

Thumbnails are an excellent way to brand your company. That may sound ridiculous at first, but it is a matter of consistency. Once you decide on a thumbnail design, every video should copy that style.

This means the color, layout, font, and more should be consistent across all your videos. Not only is it professional, but viewers will be able to easily identify your videos by the thumbnail alone.

Not to mention, it’s way easier than redesigning your thumbnails every single time you upload a video.

3. Contrast Colors

Since thumbnails are small, it’s important you make them pop. Everything in the thumbnail should be identifiable and easy to read. The best way to achieve this is to contrast colors.

Do you have yellow text on a white background? That’s a design sin. It’d be difficult to read at full-size, but squished into a thumbnail? Forget it.

Utilize a traditional color wheel to choose contrasting colors. Since orange and blue are opposed on the color wheel, this means they have high contrast. Use one color for the background and another for the text.

Even at a small resolution, viewers will be able to make out all the components of your thumbnail with a single glance. Avoid using white, red, and black. These colors are part of YouTube’s design scheme and are more likely to be overlooked.

4. Don’t Mislead

Neither your text nor thumbnail should ever promise something that doesn’t appear in the video. Clickbaiting once had a time and place on YouTube, but those days are done.

If your thumbnail is not true to your content, your viewers will quickly abandon the video. This will result in viewers watching very little of your video, which will hurt your YouTube ranking. Plus, viewers will become wary of your content over time and will learn to avoid it entirely.

Don’t make crazy promises. It doesn’t work for search engine optimization, and it certainly isn’t a good choice for YouTube’s ranking system.

5. Be a Mascot

A popular addition on any thumbnail is an image of an actual person. Of course, this is only an option if people actually appear in your videos. Viewers enjoy thumbnails that feature real people.

Why? These videos appear more genuine. From Linus Tech Tips to Buzzfeed’s Worth It series, it’s clear that viewers seek unique personalities. Be sure to show them off.

A disembodied voice doesn’t have the same effect.

Don’t Disregard the Thumbnail

You just spent hours filming and editing your newest video. The thumbnail can seem like an afterthought but remember it is the first and last impression you have to draw in viewers. The best YouTube thumbnails aren’t easy to create, but once you land the perfect style, you’ll enjoy a better ranking and more views.

Another great way to boost your ranking is to rely on a link building agency. Enhance your YouTube SEO and buy links from BackLink.

what is keyword density

The Ideal Keyword Density for Ranking

what is keyword density

Is there an ideal keyword percentage to meet Google’s needs?

The right keyword density for SEO is not an exact amount. There are no clear rules that define keyword density or how many keywords a content should possess. Google has no data you can rely on when it comes to using the right keywords in a webpage content.

What is keyword density, and why does it matter in the digital era?

Below is all you need to know about keyword density

Keyword Density

Keyword density is a term used to describe the number of times a keyword shows up at a given webpage or in a given piece of content as a ratio or percentage of the inclusive word count. Keyword density is sometimes referred to as keyword frequency. It is, therefore how frequent a specific keyword shows up in a webpage.  

Keyword density can be calculated. To conclude how frequent a keyword appears on a webpage, you divide the number of times the specific keyword is brought up by the total number of words on the page.

A more advanced keyword density formula known as TF-IDF. TF-IDF means term frequency and inverse document frequency. This advanced formula is used during information retrieval or text mining. 

It acts as a way of determining how significant the specific word is to the content of the webpage. Search engines use deviations found in TF-IDF as a way to quantify the relevance of the content in the page to the queries of the users.  

Blackhat Links

A review on blackhat links has explained how search engine rankings can help you improve your searching with Google. Many are confused about whether blackhat links building services from SEO forums work or not. 

Honestly, it depends. It depends on factors such as the number of cases, the type of services, the number of websites, the number of niches and the number of keywords targeted.  

Quality backlinks 

Learning how to get quality backlinks is considered one of the best and oldest ways for effective SEO tactics. Links are used by search engines such as Google to attest whether a website is trustworthy. Links are important for search engines to rank a website.  

Search engines use links to vote for which websites to trust because of the quality of their content. Readers trust in your content if your website is cited by other sites.  The more outside links you have pointing towards your site, the more reliable your content becomes. 

The quality of backlinks rather than the quantity is more important when measuring the credibility of the webpage content. This means, therefore, rightfully earned links from an authorized trusted site will give you a more positive review than numerous purchased links from spam sites. 

Using links from spam site increase the chances of lowering your rating. Using links from spam sites reduces your visibility chances in search results. Google, for instance, punished websites in 2015 for using link schemes to manipulate its algorithm. 

Manipulating its algorithm came as a result of selling or buying links, using automated programs to create links, using excessive link exchanges, and using article marketing campaigns on a large scale.

Link Building Companies 

2019 has shown that there are link building services that actually work. Here are link building services that actually worked as reviewed in 2019: 

Infographic Design Company 

It is a company that creates visual contents and infographics. It works by creating a topic for you, helps you find relevant data, and helps you design the infographic. 

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) 

This is a service that journalists use to find expert information through quotes. If your website has the relevant information they can use, you can get a backlink from them. 

Blogger Outreach Services 

This is an individual or agency that helps you market your content through the building of blogger outreach or building manual links. 

Guest Posting Services

This work by hiring an agency to help you publish guest posts on behalf of your website. It creates backlinks to your site. 

The agency helps you find sites that would accept guest posts, help to make a pitch, finding you editors, and even help you write your posts. Guest posting services are often considered time-consuming.

Content Marketing Agencies 

This is where you hire an agency to produce content for your blog. It works by paying a monthly fee to an agency to produce several articles per month. Other agencies, however, charge a fee per article.

PR Agency 

This is an agency that helps your company get mentioned in the press. It works by helping you come up with a newsworthy story that can be bought by media outlets. A newsworthy story can either be something you sell or information you share on your website.

SEO Agency 

This is an agency that caters for all your SEO needs, including the building of links. It works through having the agency optimize your webpage for search engines. It features some sort of link building components.

Niche

Making the best out of your site involves creating the best market for your product. Here is a quick look at the most profitable niches on the internet: 

  • Fitness and weight loss 
  • Personal finance
  • Health 
  • Dating and relationships 
  • Self-improvement 
  • Gadgets and technology 
  • Pets
  • Wealth building through investing 
  • Make money on the internet 
  • Beauty treatments 

You can get money from niche site ideas. Niche marketing is important for financial understanding. Here are four main ways you can earn from niche marketing:

  1. Pick the best niche that goes with your products 
  2. Explore the possible affiliate networks present in those niches. 
  3. Study the present online businesses in the niches and see what they are doing. It should also help you understand how to market your products to your niche. 
  4. Once you understand the present businesses, model your business to those who seem successful.

What Is Keyword Density?

What is keyword density?

Keyword density and link building remain one of the most effective ways to get ranked and drive more traffic to your site. With this information, you can easily make sure your website shows up higher than all competitors do.

Check out this page for more information on SEO.

writing blogs

Blogging for Business: The Do’s and Don’ts of Writing Content

Statistics show that about half of the people aged between 18 and 49 years rely on the internet to get daily news. These stats further show that 77% of internet users are avid blog readers.

Additionally, about 70% of potential clients prefer knowing more about a brand by reading an article other than seeing an ad. These stats prove that the more content you have, the more the traffic to your website, hence focus on writing blogs.

How Can You Increase Your Content?

Writing blogs as a content marketing strategy can be one of the most powerful and effective tools but let me stress this – when done correctly! Unfortunately, many people lack the motivation and excitement to produce powerful content.

If you fall under this category, there’s still hope to make a difference. Applying the following tips used by successful digital marketing influencers will help you out of your comfort zone. Soon, you’ll start creating content that will bring you traction, increase your leads, sales, and ROI.

  • Allocate more of your time to writing other than reading other blogs
  • Have strategic use for every blog post you write
  • Put to use what you learn; you’ll end up being a good leader
  • Set your standards and always challenge yourself to create engaging and useful content
  • Always create a positive relationship with your readers by offering solutions to their problems

The Do’s When Writing Blogs

Although there’s no specific formula for writing killer blogs, there’re several tips you can use to create authoritative content.

Do Identify Your Target Audience

Before you start creating content, make sure you recognize your target audience and what they are looking for. Carryout industry research and competitor analysis to help you make a well-informed decision about the needs of your audience. You can try using keyword research tools to help you understand what’s trending in your target industry.

Do Create a Head-Turning Title

The title of your blog determines whether your reader will read the rest of your blog or not. Make sure your headline sparks an interest that will lure the audience to read further to learn more about the topic.

If you want to write a good title, make sure it has the following qualities;

  • Eye-catching
  • Believable
  • Should be in Active voice
  • Easy to read
  • Accurate
  • Direct to the point

Do Have High-Quality Backlinks

Link building plays a great role in search engine optimization. Including quality links from authoritative sites increases your Google Page Rank. If you aren’t sure how to create quality links, you can always seek link services from a link building company.

Why It’s Important To Practice Quality Link Building

Knowledge of SEO and link building is important when you want to launch a solid content marketing campaign that will help increase your sales. By working with a link building agency, you get to enjoy the following benefits;

  • Get quality links than increase your blog’s visibility
  • Traffic increase from websites that are linked to you
  • Have high-quality links, hence, making your site be viewed as valuable
  • Your site gets indexed quicker in search results
  • Do Create a Hook That Catches Your Readers Attention

Hook Up Your Audience with the Introduction

The first sentence of your article determines whether the reader will continue reading or move on to something else. Make sure the sentence keeps your reader hooked and smoothly introduces your first point.

Do Post Frequently and Consistently

One way to grow your audience is ensuring you have new content regularly. Consider creating a content posting schedule and stick to it. That way, you will always have something new to your readers even if you have another job. Posting daily is recommended as you’ll be casting your net widely and attract a larger audience.

Do Provide Value

When writing blogs, make sure your content is valuable to the reader. Create content that is either answering a question or offering a solution to a certain problem. Remember that there’re tons of useless blogs out there and you don’t want to end up like them.

Blog Writing Don’ts

Blogging the right way can make your blog get more audience and increased sales. There are also several things that you can do and make you fail miserably as a blogger. Here are some blogging don’ts.

Don’t Write for Search Engines

Many people make the mistake of writing for the search engines forgetting about the audience that will read their content. Any potential client who visits your site will tell whether you’ve written to please Google and Bing or you have your reader’s interest at heart. If you have written for the former, all your audience will leave your website before converting.

Do Not Plagiarize

It’s acceptable to get ideas from other people’s blogs and creating better content than they have. What’s unacceptable is copying other people’s work and using it as your own. Plagiarizing can even get you in hot soup with the owner.

With so many bloggers out there, it’s only fair to try and build each other instead of bringing each other down. Always respect the work of others and understand that they put as much effort into growing their blogs as you do yours.

Do Not Spam Links

When creating links for your content, make sure you only include quality backlinks to avoid the penalty of creating too many low-quality links. You can avoid low-quality backlinks by using various link building styles. You can also consult with SEO link building services to help you come up with links that don’t look unnatural to the search engines.

Improve Your Blog Authority With Our Link Building Package

Now that you know the do’s and the don’ts of writing blogs, focus on utilizing those tips to increase your traffic, sales, and profits.

However, if you are like many bloggers, you may be having trouble coming up with quality backlinks for your content. Before you give up, consider trying our link building services and choose a link building package that meets your needs.

Don’t forget to check out our blog for more insight on SEO and link building.

finding your niche

Unearthing Your Niche Audience

Finding a niche market does not happen overnight. Good niches must be carefully crafted, and this requires your effort. As an entrepreneur, a product or service is not good enough if you can’t identify the niche market.

You have to answer questions such as who is the target market? Who is the target audience for the advertisements? Instead of falling into the mass marketing trap, consider focusing on the most profitable fit for your product. Finding your niche does not have to be a difficult exercise for you.

Here are eight guidelines that will help you find your niche market and nail your target audience.

1. Identify the Areas of the Business You Are Passionate About

Being an entrepreneur is not easy. The business will test your ability to endure the challenges of running your own company. In these tough situations, if you are not passionate about what you do, it will be easy to let go. In finding a niche market, the same criteria apply. List all the products and services your business offers. Choose the product you are most passionate about. Brainstorm ideas on how this product can be customized to meet the needs of different people. Each idea can become a potential niche market.

2. Research on Your Competitors

The presence of competitors can be a sign that the niche you have found is profitable. Researching on their services will help in the quest of finding a niche in the market. Identify the gaps they are leaving in their sales process. What would you, as a consumer desire that they don’t provide? Find ways to fill these gaps, and you will gain a competitive advantage.

3. Online Reviews

Online review platforms give customers the chance to express their needs and desires. Going on such sites will give you an idea of what the customer wants. What are the customers complaining about? What do they want to be incorporated or removed from a particular product?

 Implementing their complaints and comments into your product will solve their problems. They won’t need to go online and complain. The product will meet their deeper needs. By solving a problem, you will find a niche market.

4. Customer Surveys

Apart from relying on online reviews, you can engage your customers too. Contact them and ask about their preferences. Build quality backlinks that lead to interview or review forms for clients to fill on your site.

Conduct customer surveys and polls both online and offline. These polls will help determine which customers are most satisfied. These customers are your target market. Direct communication will help you understand your customers’ needs from their perspective. As you collect this data, customer engagement will increase. The customers will feel valued. A stronger relationship that may lead to a loyal client base is built as a result.

5. Social Media as a Tool for Finding Your Niche

We live in the digital age, and most of the population has access to social media. Social media platforms can be a big help when searching for a niche market and target audience.

Other than the fact that customer surveys can also be done here, trending topics can give you an idea for a niche market. What people are talking about can be an indicator of the niche markets that are to come up in the future.

 Use their curiosity as a way to launch a profitable business for a niche market. Also, social media likes and reviews can help determine your target audience. Increase your engagement with this specific group of people who follow your products. 

Answer their questions and keep them informed. This is key to nailing your target audience. Also, ensure your posts have a backlink to your products to keep growing the target audience.

6. Keyword Research

Find a unique and competitive keyword that attracts searches. This keyword will tell you what most people are looking for, and it may give you an idea for a niche market. It is easy to determine the local and global search volumes of selected keywords on google.

The idea here is that people look for information on what they don’t know. By having an idea of what they want to know, you unlock a niche market that you can exploit.

After finding the right keyword, enlist the help of link building services. They will include your keyword into your backlinks. The presence of a consistent keyword in your links will ensure consistency in your online presence. This consistency ensures that your business becomes recognized as the provider for the products or services needed in your niche market.

7. Synthesize

At this point, you have read the customer reviews, found a suitable keyword, researched on competitors, and found your passion. The idea has started to take shape in your mind.

 Do you want to create something new? To find the most suitable fit, review the idea based on these five qualities of a good niche. It should be in line with your vision. 

The product or service is needed in the market. The execution of the idea should be well planned. It should be the only solution to the problem identified. The product or service should be able to evolve for long-term business success.

8. Test Then Put in Place

Give your target audience a chance to try your product or service. Not free samples; give them a chance to actually buy the product. The test shouldn’t be expensive if that is your niche market.

Niche Markets

A product developed for a niche market focuses on fulfilling the needs of a particular group. The business markets to this particular group since it is the target audience.

Finding a niche market is a major challenge for most entrepreneurs. But, we have shown that it doesn’t have to be hard. There are many approaches to finding your niche market. It all depends on your business and audience. This is because some approaches may work better than others based on individual circumstances.

Find your niche market today, get quality backlinks that will help you reach your target market.

backlinking

15 White Hat Backlinking Hacks for SEO

Did you know that the United States alone spends a lot in search engine optimization (SEO)?

After all, it’s expected for the country’s businesses to spend $80 billion within the next year. It will grow from here, as businesses become more competitive with their online presence.

Expect to spend money too, especially if you want to beat the competition. Fortunately, you don’t need to resort to black hat SEO techniques to gain an edge. We’ve got a great list below showcasing effective white-hat techniques, from proper backlinking to video tutorials.

1. Internal Linking

This method is big but often overlooked by most businesses. It helps you transfer links through your pages while maintaining link control. It makes a natural profile of links that Google can use to crawl your website faster.

2. Ask for Credit

Regardless of what you do, ask credit from both your clients and partners. The best time to do this is when your clients are happy with your service. Make the whole process easier by putting the link on their website or make a snippet they can embed using HTML.

3. Ask Suppliers and Distributors

Do you buy products or services from a supplier? If so, you can ask them to spare a link to your website. Your suppliers will want you to succeed, meaning they’re more likely to oblige to your requests.

4. Make Message Board Signatures

When using the forums, make sure to put a link to your website in your signature. Most of it are “no-follow”, but it can still bring a decent amount of visitors to your website. That will helps ensure you keep up your site’s natural link profile.

5. Use Directories

You can submit your website’s link to niche directories or local business directories. Be wary of general web directories since they’re often filled with low-quality links. You don’t want to get associated with these since it will lower your Google rankings.

6. Make Video Tutorials

Did you know that a lot of people say that product videos help them decide what to buy? In a recent study, it’s shown that about 90% of viewers’ buying habits get influenced by videos they watch online. Once you make your tutorial video, you can share it on forums where people get a link back to your website for more information.

7. Guest Blogging

You can connect with popular bloggers and pitch them an idea for a blog post. If you aren’t a big firm, use guest blogging networks as a starting point. With guest blog posts, you can get some backlinks from high-quality sources.

8. Write Testimonials

Businesses are at their happiest when seeing clients use their products or services. You can endorse the suppliers you use and write great reviews about them. Once you’re done, you can ask them to share this testimonial on their website, linking back to you.

9. Comment on Blogs

This tactic won’t earn you backlinks in most cases. Most blog comments will only net you some no-follow links, but it still helps people check you out at least. Also, you might find that some blogs will allow do-follow comments.

10. Join Communities

There is no limit to the communities you can, whether it’s a subreddit or a business hub. It’s still a great way for you to drive more people to your website and get some good links. It’s important to remember that these links are usually no-follow.

11. Answer Online Questions

You can go to websites like Quora and Yahoo Answers to answer questions related to your field. This will help you garner more website traffic from people impressed by your expertise. With that, you can build your own credibility as a thought leader in your sphere of interest.

12. Do Some Giveaways

One of the easiest ways to earn white hat backlinks is to give something away. A good way to start is to give influencers some incentives in exchange for a product review. But it’s important not to go overboard with the charity, or you’ll find yourself losing money faster than you like.

13. Convert Unhappy Customers

No matter what industry you’re in, there is a chance that you’ll get some negative comments. You’ll find some reviews or articles lambasting your brand, regardless of your service excellence. But that isn’t the end—do what you can to convert them by helping them solve their problems with your business.

14. Make Sure the Links Point to the Right Page

You can try using tools to track if your links are pointing to the right page in your website. Don’t wait until you get too many 404 errors since that will damage your link profile. The good thing is that you have some easy approaches when this happens, such as:

  • Inform site owners to repurpose the link
  • Use 301 redirections to another page

This will ensure that your link integrity holds up no matter how much you change your website.

15. Get Your Competitors’ Backlinking Profile

Do you have a competitor with a higher ranking in the Google results page? If so, you can use tools to find their links using their website URL. That way, you’ll get inbound link data like the number of links, referring domains, and more.

Start Backlinking Today!

If you want to get easy backlinks, you can use these tips to build a legitimate link profile. Black hat SEO tactics might tempt you since they offer immediate results, but it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Remember, Google often updates its algorithm, and it’s gotten better at detecting illegitimate ways of growing link profiles.

Stick to white hat link building tactics, and you will have a sustainable means of growing your online presence. If you need more means of becoming noticeable online, you can read our guide here. It’s a complete beginners’ guide to on-site SEO—perfect if you don’t have prior experience.