How to Create Ultimate Guides to Drive Leads, Traffic, and Conversions

Ultimate guides are everywhere. You’ve probably read your fair share, and maybe you’ve even written a couple.

They can be a great way to get traffic, build links, and increase your authority, but they’re far from easy to create. The issue most people run into is the sheer amount of content out there nowadays. How do you create an ultimate guide if there are already tons of posts on your chosen subject?

In this post, we’ll look at the steps to creating the ultimate guide on just about anything.

What Is an Ultimate Guide?

What turns a lengthy blog post into an ultimate guide? Well, there are a few things that almost every in-depth guide has in common:

It goes very deep into a pretty broad topic.
It contains several chapters that look at the topic from a variety of angles.
An industry expert or researcher writes it.

Apart from that, what you put in your ultimate guide and how you design it is up to you.

Why You Should Create an Ultimate Guide

If you didn’t know how powerful ultimate guides are already, here’s why you should start creating them right now.

Rank for Many Keywords

The length, depth, and authority that go into ultimate guides make them a fantastic weapon in your SEO arsenal. The fact that they are so detailed means they should rank for a huge number of keywords. Including internal links to your other blog posts boosts their rankings, too.

Get Backlinks

A big, in-depth resource like an ultimate guide can be a fantastic source of links. Not only can you use it to go out there and request a backlink as part of your link-building process, but other sites naturally start linking to an authoritative resource, too. So much so that your ultimate guide can continue to attract links for years to come.

Build Your Authority

There are few pieces of marketing collateral better at positioning your brand as an authority in your industry than an ultimate guide. This is your opportunity to showcase how much you know about your subject to the world and go above and beyond what has previously been written about your topic.

How to Pick Topics for Your Ultimate Guide

Picking a topic can be a huge stumbling block for many aspiring writers. Don’t get bogged down overthinking it, though. Here’s how you can find the perfect topic quickly.

Choose a Topic You Know About

This first point is obvious, but it needs to be said. You need to know your topic inside and out if you want to write an excellent guide. That doesn’t mean you can’t use a freelance writer to help you out, but you should give them a thorough brief and create the outline of the guide yourself.

Choose a Topic With High Search Traffic

Not every guide needs to be written with the express purpose of ranking in Google, but it can seriously help drive traffic and generate customers. That’s why I recommend you enter your topic ideas into a tool like Ubersuggest to see the keyword volumes of the main topic and the volumes of every other related keyword.

Don’t just pick the topic that has the main keyword with the highest search volume, however. You may find another topic has so many more related keywords that it could actually generate more traffic overall.

Choose a Topic That’s Trending

Ultimate guides are successful when they’re written about trending topics. When people are excited about a topic, they want to consume all the information they can find about it. Your guide should be a part of that, too.

That’s not the only reason you want to focus on what’s trending, though. The newer your post is, the better it might do in search results if someone is searching by posts made within the last week, month, and so on.

How to Create an Ultimate Guide

With your topic picked, it’s time to get to work creating your guide. Here’s how I recommend you go about it.

1. Consume as Much Content as You Can

Even if you’re an expert in your field, you’ll still want to read blog posts on your topic before you start writing. Doing so will help you understand the level of content currently out there, the common threads writers pull, and the things you need to mention.

Pay attention to the results that Google serves up, too. You’ll find that specific formats are more popular than others, and you’ll want to try to mirror these when it comes to writing your content.

2. Identify What’s Missing

While you’re reading other people’s content, make a note of everything that’s missing from the posts. If you’re writing a how-to post, be sure to go through the steps yourself after reading posts by others.

Then, jot down things you notice during the process that others might have missed or not explained thoroughly. It also might help to sit down with someone who is unfamiliar with your topic and see what questions they come up with.

3. Do Research

You can write an ultimate guide off the back of your expertise alone—but you can make it stand head and shoulders above everyone else’s content if you conduct your research.

For some, this is a case of canvassing their colleagues and contacts for their opinion on a certain topic. Others might want to commit to more detailed research and partner with a market research company that’ll carry out a study on their behalf.

The more effort you put into the research, the more valuable and link-worthy your ultimate guide will become.

4. Put It All Together

To create your ultimate guide, simply combine the basics plus the additional details you found were missing from other posts and your research. This way, people coming across your guide as the first piece of content they have read about a topic will get all of the basic information, and people who have read many other guides will be wowed by all of the missing pieces that you included.

5. Promote, Promote, Promote

An ultimate guide is no good if no one reads it. Considering the amount of time and energy you have spent on your ultimate guide, you owe it to yourself and your readers to promote it well. Do so by:

Sharing it on all of your social networks: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are the best. Promote it on your personal and business accounts, if possible.
Sharing it in groups on social networks: LinkedIn, for example, has some great groups on particular topics. Facebook has some as well, although many are full of spammers who are just there for their promotions. This will expand your guide’s exposure from just your network to all of the members of the groups you select.
Emailing your list: If you have a mailing list, let them know about your latest and greatest piece of content.
Repurposing your content: If you can turn your ultimate guide into an infographic, video, slide presentation, or PDF document, you can spread it on even more networks.

4 Tips to Create an Awesome Ultimate Guide

If you want to take your ultimate guide to the next level, bear in mind these four tips when writing.

Write Clearly and Format Appropriately

You don’t have to be Hemingway to write a great ultimate guide, but take a lesson from Ernest regarding clarity. Short, clear, punchy sentences win out here, especially when writing thousands of words on your topic. Long, convoluted paragraphs may help you get your message across, but they’ll only cause the reader’s mind to wander.

Formatting will also help in this regard. Clearly labeled titles and subheadings will make your guide much more digestible. Short paragraphs will, too. Don’t forget that most of your audience will be reading your advice on a screen, so consider how they might skim it for the information they’re looking for.

Include Images and Screenshots

One thing I sometimes find missing from other ultimate guides is good screenshots. Take yours using your account of the topic as opposed to generic stock photos. This will make it easier for others to follow along and visualize the process.

Use Real-Life Examples

Once you have the basics and missing pieces down for your ultimate guide, look for some good examples of your tips in action. If you’re talking about creating great timeline cover photos, then include some examples from pages in different industries.

If you’re talking about using Pinterest to drive traffic, then link to top Pinterest users who are doing things right. Think about your target audience and find examples that they can easily relate to so they feel they must follow your advice to be successful.

Don’t Break Up Your Hard Work

There is a lot of advice out there suggesting you should take long posts and break them up into a series, so you can get people to come back to your website over and over again. However, I find that if someone hits a piece of content that says 101 Tips on ___, and the post only includes steps 1–20 with the promise of more to come, they move on to find everything they’re looking for elsewhere.

People want to consume information now, not wait for it. When they read the words ultimate guide, they’re going to expect to get everything in one chunk, so unless you are planning to write 5,000+ words on a topic, keep it in one piece.

Examples of Great Ultimate Guides

There are a lot of great ultimate guides out there, but here are some of my all-time favorites.

The Ultimate Guide to Startup Marketing

Examples of Great Content Guides - Neil Patel

If you’re looking to grow your startup, I’m pretty sure you’ll get a huge amount of value out of my ultimate guide on the topic.

How to Design a Logo: The Ultimate Guide

With 12 chapters and virtually every angle covered, there’s no reason to read another guide before creating your logo.

The Ultimate Guide to Cart Abandonment

Examples of Great Content Guides - Cart Abandonment

If you’ve ever wondered why shoppers are leaving your website at checkout, this mammoth guide by VWO will answer all your questions.

The Ultimate Guide to Writing & Illustrating Your First Children’s Book

Examples of Great Content Guides - Guide to Writing Your First Children's Book

Ultimate guides don’t have to be about marketing, as this guide by Eevi Jones proves.

How to Pick a Career

While Tim Urban hasn’t called this an ultimate guide, you’re unlikely to find a more thoughtful or detailed blog post on picking a career anywhere online.

Further Resources on Ultimate Guides

This blog post isn’t exhaustive by any means. If you want to dive deep into creating high-quality long-form content, then check out these five resources:

How to Create an Ebook From Start to Finish by HubSpot
The Ultimate Guide Template by Copyhackers
Your Ultimate Guide on How to Write an Ultimate Guide (Infographic) by Express Writers
The Ultimate Guide to Creating a True ‘Ultimate Guide’ by Search Engine Journal
The Ultimate Guide To Content Promotion by Marketing Insider Group

How to Create Specs for an Ultimate Guide

You don’t have to write your ultimate guide yourself. If you’re hiring a freelance writer to write your guide for you, here’s how you can create a spec they can follow with ease.

Give an overview.
A top-level overview can help a writer quickly get to grips with the topic and goals of the ultimate guide.
Create a clear structure.
Take the initiative and write an outline that includes all of the major points you want the writer to talk about. This makes sure all of the gaps you identified in other pieces of content get covered.
Include keyword research.
If improved rankings are one of your main goals, then highlight the keywords you’re aiming to rank for.
Note or record your expertise.
Where appropriate, make notes for the writer to help guide them. Alternatively, you can record yourself talking about the topic.
Provide additional resources.
Highlight a handful of top-quality resources your writer can turn to for inspiration.
Set a deadline
Expect an ultimate guide to take a fair bit longer to write than a standard blog post.

Ultimate Guide Frequently Asked Questions

How long should my ultimate guide be?

There isn’t a defined length for an ultimate guide, but most are at least 3,000 words in length.

How do I distribute my ultimate guide to my target audience?

You can use social media and email to get your ultimate guide in front of your target audience.

Should I create more than one ultimate guide for my website?

Absolutely. Ultimate guides offer a lot of value in terms of SEO and building your authority, so you should write as many as you can.

At what part of the funnel are ultimate guides most useful?

Ultimate guides can be used at any part of your funnel, but they’ll be most useful towards the top. They are great at attracting users into your funnel and converting them to email subscribers.

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How to Create Ultimate Guides Conclusion

Ultimate guides are an incredibly valuable marketing resource. I’ve used them to generate huge levels of traffic, build my reputation as an authority in the industry, and improve my site’s SEO.

Follow the advice I’ve given above, and you’ll be on your way to achieving your content goals while sharing valuable insights about your chosen topic.

Have you created an ultimate guide on your website or blog? What other tips would you add to making your ultimate guide a success?

How to Create Unique Gift Guides for E-Commerce Content

Whether it’s for a loved one or a colleague at work, getting a gift for someone is never easy.

One reason is there are billions of options to choose from. The other reason is most people don’t have the time to look through millions of catalogs to pick one.

That’s why if you run an e-commerce store, you should make it easy for your customers to select one of your products as a gift.

To do that, you must equip your customers with a gift guide to help make the selection process easier.

Why Should You Create Gift Guides for Your E-Commerce Site?

Besides making it easier for your customers to decide which of your products to buy as a gift, gift guides serve many other purposes. Here are a few more reasons why you should create a gift guide for your e-commerce site:

Gift Guides Boost Brand Awareness

One of the most significant reasons to create a gift guide is to help boost brand awareness. Particularly during holiday seasons, holiday gift guides are a popular form of content. Because they’re helpful in inspiring purchases, consumers are likely to share them with their networks. As a result, you’ll enjoy a boost in brand awareness.

Gift Guides Can Increase Sales

Every business-related activity you undertake must ultimately have an impact on your bottom line. That’s exactly why you must invest in a gift guide for your e-commerce store. A well-designed gift guide is an effective tool in helping you increase sales on your e-commerce store.

Gift Guides Provide Blog and Social Media Content

Another reason to invest in creating a gift guide for your e-commerce site is gift guides provide you with engaging content for your blog. They also make for excellent social media posts. As a result, you’ll be able to maintain high engagement rates with your target audience.

Gift guides are also able to help you achieve many of your marketing and sales goals.

How to Create Unique Gift Guides for Your E-Commerce Business

Now that you know what a gift guide is and why having one on your e-commerce is essential let’s dive into how you can create one.

1. Identify Your Audience

Audience research is one of the most critical steps in creating a gift guide. That’s because knowing your audience is key to developing accurate buyer personas.

Audience research plays a critical role in developing effective gift guides.

For your gift guide to be appealing, you must understand your target audience enough to create personalized recommendations.

Here are a few tips:

Collect Demographic Data

Demographic data refers to your target audience’s physical attributes. Examples include:

age
gender
marital status
occupation
geographic location

Understand Your Audience’s Psychographic Data

Psychographic data is information about your target audience’s:

values
attitudes
interests
personality traits
beliefs

Both demographic and psychographic data are essential to understanding your customers’ needs, pain points, and aspirations. As a result, you can tailor a gift guide that will be relevant by offering personalized product recommendations.

2. Choose Items to Include in Your Gift Guides

Once you understand your audience, the next step of creating your gift guide becomes easier: choosing the products to include in your gift guide.

Though you may be armed with rich customer data, choosing the right products to include in your gift guide can be a daunting task. A few tips to guide you in choosing unique gift ideas include:

Look at Your Sales Data

The most effective way to choose items is to look at your sales data. Your data will give you insight into:

buying trends and habits
popular products
unique segments

Besides your own sales data, you can also leverage tools like Google Trends to identify emerging opportunities in your niche.

Ask Your Customers

Another effective way of figuring out what to include in your gift guide is to ask your customers. The best way to do this is to leverage interactive content like surveys, polls, and quizzes. These will give you insight into your audience’s preferences. To leverage interactive content, you can invest in an interactive content tool. Alternatively, you can create polls on your favorite social media channels.

Consider Creating Gift Bundles

Not sure what to include and exclude in your gift guide?

Then consider creating gift bundles.

Gift bundles are an excellent way of showcasing your product range. For your bundles to be effective, you must get the right mix. Tips for getting the right mix include bundling:

complementary products from your product range
products you’ve succeeded in cross-selling
fast-selling products with slow movers

You can also consider collaborating with other brands that target a similar audience to yours but don’t sell the same products you do.

Consult Your Suppliers

Your suppliers are another avenue you can leverage to know which products to include in your gift guide. Ask them which products are moving fast in their inventory or those they anticipate to be buzzworthy.

The success of your gift guide lies in knowing which products are relevant to the season. Invest time in ensuring the products you include will resonate with your target audience.

3. Craft Headlines for Your Gift Guides That Evoke Emotions and Inspire Action

Like all other types of content, your gift guide depends on a powerful headline for success. Take your time to craft one that:

Evokes the Readers Emotions

Gift buying is usually an emotion-driven endeavor. When your customers shop around for a gift, they do so (in most cases) for someone they have an emotional connection with. Hence, they want a gift that will have an emotional impact.

That’s why your gift guide headline must evoke your target audience’s emotions.

To craft such a headline, use personalization. Speak directly to your customer by using the word “you.” You can also create emotion-evoking headlines by using words that trigger an emotional response in your readers.

Inspires Readers to Take Action

Your gift guide headline must also inspire readers to take action, preferably purchasing one of your products. To do this:

use active voice and avoid passive voice
use power words
paint a picture of the benefits of reading your gift guide

A well-written headline is essential to hooking your target audience and getting them to browse for the perfect gift for their loved one or colleague.

4. Find Quality Product Images

Once your customers click through into your gift guide, you must immediately grab their attention. The best way to do that is to use high-quality product images. Here’s an excellent example from Brightland’s gift guide:

Gift Guides - Find Quality Product Images

Besides attention-grabbing, images also help:

Give instant information: Human beings are visual creatures and process images faster than text.
Make your gift guide easy to scan: Images are an excellent way of helping your readers scan your gift guide.
Images encourage sharing: People love sharing helpful stuff they find on the internet. Those who love your gift guide are more likely to share it if you use high-quality images.

Getting the images to use in your gift guide is quite easy. Your first port of call would be to get your manufacturer’s product images. However, a better option would be to hire a professional photographer and take your own images. Doing so allows you to place your products in a setting of your choice, resulting in personalized images.

5. Determine the Format of Your Gift Guides

Gift guides come in all shapes, sizes, and styles. As you plan on creating your own, you must determine which is the best format for your guide. Examples of the gift guide formats include:

blog post
slideshow
infographic
video
social media post (like Instagram posts)

How do you know which content format to use?

There are a couple of factors you can use to guide you on the best format for your gift guide:

Your Audience

When deciding which content format to use, the first port of call must always be your audience. Check your blog and social media analytics to see which content types perform well with your audience.

The Platforms You’ll Market Your Gift Guide On

The platforms you use to market your gift guide are another factor determining the format of your guides.

Your Niche

Finally, another essential factor that impacts the format you should use for your gift guide is your niche. If you’re in a visual niche, your gift guide may not need as much text as one in a niche where info plays a bigger role in driving conversions.

6. Market Your Gift Guides

With your gift guide ready, it’s time to show it to the world.

How do you get eyeballs on your gift guide?

Here are a few tips to help you market your gift guide to the right audience.

Share It on Social Media

One of the best marketing channels for your gift guide is social media.

Market your gift guides on social media to get it in front of more people.

With over 3.6 billion monthly active users, social media gives you access to over half of the world’s population.

That’s not the best part.

Particularly when you run paid ads, you can hyper-target your campaigns to reach people who match your ideal customer profile (ICP).

Send It to Your Email List

Another excellent marketing channel for your gift guide is email. Although it’s one of the oldest and most basic digital marketing channels, email is still one of the best when it comes to marketing your gift guide.

One of the best advantages of email marketing is most of the people on your list are already interested in what you have to offer. The chances of them knowing other people interested in being gifted with your product are also high.

Another advantage of email is you can segment your email list, enabling you to create personalized messaging. You can also consider making a personalized gift guide for each segment, increasing the chances of conversion.

Leverage SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is still applicable to marketing your gift guide. While basic, it’s easy to forget to implement best practices like:

keyword research
adding tags to your images
strategic linking
focusing on user experience (UX)

Make it easy for your customers to find your gift guide when they’re looking for gift ideas. Having an effective SEO strategy is exactly what you need to do that.

Creating your gift guide is only half the battle. Getting it in front of the right people’s eyes is the other half. With your well-designed gift guide and these three gift guide marketing tips, chances of your gift guide succeeding in driving sales.

FAQ: Gift Guides Best Practices

Shopping for gifts is never easy. It becomes a more difficult task if you have a long recipient list. That’s why your customers appreciate a helpful gift guide. While we’ve covered how you can create a unique gift guide for your e-commerce site, you probably have a few questions regarding gift guide best practices. Let’s quickly answer a few before we wrap up.

Do Gift Guides Really Help Boost Sales?

There are two main reasons gift guides work so well. The first is people don’t have time for gift shopping—yet they have to. The second is there are just too many products to choose from. Gift guides solve both problems by helping your customers find and decide on what to gift their friends and loved ones.

How Do I Improve the Chances of My Gift Guide Converting?

One word: data.

Before getting started with your gift guide, you must gather all the data you can about your target audience and market. Scour your sales records, and use competitor analysis tools and any other data collection tool you can get your hands on. Use these to mine every piece of data that will help inform the design and creation of your gift guide. Doing it this way will ensure you create a hyper-targeted gift guide.

Conclusion

Creating a gift guide is a must if you run an e-commerce business. They don’t just boost your sales during holiday seasons; gift guides also help raise your brand awareness.

Gift guides are the perfect marketing tool as they attract high-intent shoppers.

That’s why you must include them in your marketing strategy. However, for them to work, you must ensure yours is unique and well-crafted. Use the tips above to create your first (or next) gift guide for the next holiday season.

Have you ever used gift guides to boost sales on your e-commerce store?

Get Your MBA in SEO with These 10 Guides, 5 Courses, and 1 Tool

Are you interested in using SEO to build your brand? Or do you want to use SEO to get more leads and sales?

Most importantly do you want to avoid the common mistakes that hold back rankings?

Well today, I thought I would do something a bit different.

I wanted to break down how you can get a crash course in SEO.

Best of all I wanted to do so without you having to spend a dollar.

Today we are going to examine 10 guides and 5 courses that you can rely on to improve your SEO knowledge. Although some guides and courses have a similar title and focus, the information and advice provided in each one are both unique and valuable.

Let’s get started!

10 SEO Guides

1. SEO Made Simple (A Step-by-Step Guide) – Are you new to the world of SEO? In this case, a beginner’s guide is exactly what you need (more of these to come).

This is why I wrote this guide:

It truly is for beginners, leaving advanced technical details out of the equation.
It’s broken down into easily digestible sections, with each one providing a primary focus.
It’s full of screenshots, videos, images, and infographics, all of which paint a clearer picture of what is needed to succeed.

2. SEO Periodic Table – This guide is a little bit different than most. It’s more in a visual format where it breaks down the elements of SEO.

It’s important to know each factor that can impact SEO because every little bit adds up.

Unlike other marketing channels, SEO is one where you have to do a lot of little things right to get traction.

3. Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide – If you could learn SEO from one person or company who would it be? Most people will overlook the obvious answer: Google.

Everybody wants to rank higher in Google. After all, it’s the search engine of choice for the majority of the world.

If you are new to SEO and you want to learn from the top dog, this starter guide will be your new best friend.

The primary benefit of this guide is that you don’t have to worry about whether or not the information is accurate. You know that every point of advice is spot on, being that it comes from the master of all search engines.

With 32 pages of advice, ranging from SEO basics to mobile optimization, there is a reason why so many new marketers keep this guide close by at all times.

Just because you are new to SEO does not mean that you can afford to make mistakes. Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide helps you get up and running in a fast, efficient, and effective manner, all while avoiding common mistakes that have plagued millions before you.

4. The Beginner’s Guide to SEO – Moz created one of the first guides ever on SEO. And they tend to update it every year as well.

There are 10 chapters that make up this in-depth guide, starting with “How Search Engines Operate” and leading to “Measuring and Tracking Success.”

In between, you will pick up advice on why search engine marketing is important to your business, how to build links without being penalized, and common myths and misconceptions about SEO.

You can read the guide online or download the PDF.

The Beginner’s Guide to SEO deserves to be read from start to finish. Even if you have some knowledge of SEO, this guide can help sharpen your skills.

5. The Blogger’s Guide to SEO – No two people share the exact same goals for their website. For example, a blogger may not take the same approach to SEO as an e-commerce store.

And with over a billion blogs on the Internet you should know SEO when it comes to blogging specifically.

SEOBook goes above and beyond in providing information solely for bloggers.

Make sure you also read the section on “Why Blogs Are Different Than Static Websites.”

You may already know the difference, but those who are new to this may be confused. Here is an excerpt from the section, showing the targeted yet simplified nature of the guide:

SEO for a blog is different than SEO for most other websites, largely because of the social elements baked into blogging technology. SEO for blogs is more focused on giving people something to talk about and creating something worthy of attention.

As a blogger interested in SEO, you want to rely on advice that most closely matches your wants, needs, and goals. This is why this guide from SEOBook is a must-read. It’s meant to give your blog’s SEO a shot in the arm.

6. Everything You Need to Know About SEO – You won’t be an SEO beginner forever. When you are ready for the next step, this advanced SEO guide is a good place to start.

Here is how I describe the guide:

The Most Extensive and Detailed Guide of Advanced SEO Techniques That Exists Today.

Every guide on this list is solid. Every guide should be read, when you have time because the information is presented in a unique manner.

But when it comes to the most in-depth and actionable information on advanced SEO techniques, I think this guide takes the cake.

It’s not so much about the length (nine chapters), as it’s about the depth and use of examples. Here is what I mean:

The guide doesn’t just tell you to create an SEO-friendly title. It doesn’t just tell you how long your title should be. It gives you actionable advice on how to make changes for the better. On top of that, the screenshots give you a “visual” on exactly how you can make this happen.

There is a lot to learn when you get into the advanced details of SEO. This guide makes sure that you don’t overlook something that could make or break your rankings.

7. The Complete List of Google’s 200 Ranking Factors – I mentioned above how in SEO you have to do every little thing to get rankings.

It isn’t enough to just build links.

It isn’t enough to just writing amazing content.

It isn’t enough to just optimize your meta tags.

See, everyone is doing the main aspects of SEO. But what most site’s aren’t doing is every little thing correctly.

Now just imagine if you did every little thing correctly? Your rankings would be much higher.

I recommend that you go through each of the 200 ranking factors.

8. The Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce SEO – ecommerce sites are very different than traditional sites.

The pages you want ranking high on Google typically are listing pages or product pages. Because these are the type of pages that will drive you sales.

What’s unique about this guide is it teaches you everything you need to know about SEO for ecommerce sites. Because link building, content creation, schema markup, and even optimizing for load time are all different on ecommerce sites.

Also it works for all platforms. It doesn’t matter if you use Shopify or Bigcommece or even Wix, it works for all of them.

9. 19 Advanced SEO Techniques to Double Your Search Traffic – As I’ve mentioned above a few times, every little thing adds up with SEO, especially because it is so competitive now.

Just doing the basics isn’t enough. You have to go well above and beyond your competition.

That’s why I would read this guide that breaks down 19 advanced tactics.

Each of those tactics are very effective in increase your SEO traffic, but before you implement them you’ll want to consider doing the basics.

Because without doing the basics, the advanced tactics won’t have much use.

For example, if your URLs aren’t SEO friendly, which is a beginner’s tactic, Google may not be able to crawl your site. So no matter what advance strategy you use, it wouldn’t have much of an effect.

10. Link Building Resources That Work – links are the cornerstone of SEO. Think of them as votes.

The more votes someone gets, the higher they will rank.

But not all votes (links) are equal. Ones from authoritative sites like CNN or Yahoo have more effect. And the more related a link is to your site, the better off you are.

So how do you get links when you have little to no resources or money to spend on a big SEO firm?

Well, this guide breaks it down. It goes over all the different ways you can build links.

From creating free tools, to writing guides, to even doing manual outreach… There are many possibilities and you’ll be able to learn them all from this guide.

5 SEO Courses

1. SEO Unlocked – This is a 7-week course on SEO. But don’t be scared, by the 7-week number, each video is short and actionable.

You’ll find a total of 21 videos broken down over 7 weeks. Each video ranges in length from 5 to 15 minutes.

And accompanied with each video is cheatsheets, worksheets, and templates to make SEO easier to implement.

That way after you learn a specific SEO tactic or strategy, you’ll be given documentation on how you can use it and implement it.

2. Ecommerce SEO 101 Video Series – Here’s an SEO course from the largest ecommerce platform, Shopify.

This isn’t a course for just someone with a general interest in SEO. It’s a course for online store owners who want to improve rankings as a means of driving traffic to increase revenue and profit.

There are seven videos in the course, all of which are free to watch. Some of my favorites include:

Why is Your Store Not on Google?
How Does Google Rank Your Ecommerce Store?
Keyword Research: Which Search Phrases Should You Rank For?

The videos aren’t so long that you get bored, but they are long enough to provide an inside look at the subject matter.

Online store owners understand that the difference between success and failure can rest solely on their ability to generate organic traffic. If you want to improve this area of your e-commerce business, the Shopify video series is a good jumping-off point.

3. SEO Training Course by Moz – Moz once again finds itself on the list, this time with a training course offered through the Udemy platform.

This free training course teaches the tips and tricks that you need to implement a successful SEO strategy.

Think of this course as an extension of the company’s beginner’s guide to SEO. With five lectures and more than one hour of video content, you’ll leave the course feeling better about how to rank your website.

The titles of the lectures are as follows:

Building a Monthly SEO Action Plan
5 Ways to Use Your Social Profiles for SEO
Keyword Targeting gets Tough!
Link Building with Twitter
Mapping Keywords to Content

This course is designed for marketers of all levels, so take the time to sign up and dive in. It’s free, so you really have nothing to lose.

4. Free Download: On-Page SEO Template – It’s hard to categorize this as a traditional course, but it definitely fits the mold in some ways.

The On-Page SEO Template is available for free from HubSpot. It was designed with the purpose of helping marketers track on-page SEO elements.

With the template, you will have an easier time:

Tracking changes in one place.
Organizing your on-page SEO strategy.
Implementing SEO elements that drive results.
Coordinating keywords and pages without confusion.

As a free download, you should at least see if this template from HubSpot can provide you with any SEO value. You will probably find that it’s good to keep nearby as you make on-page changes.

5. Local SEO Unlocked – If you are a local business this course is perfect for you. It breaks down local SEO down into 2 weeks.

The course contains 6 videos as well as worksheets, cheatsheets and templates so you can implement what you have learned.

And similar to SEO Unlocked, each video is short and to the point.

Here’s an overview on what you’ll learn:

Overview – an overview of local SEO.
Local SEO signals – what impacts local rankings.
Google My Business – how to use it to rank higher on Google.
Content – how you can create local content that ranks.
On and Off-Page SEO – the main elements of SEO that you need to optimize for.
Secret Recipe – the key ingredient to ranking well on Google.

SEO Tools

There are a lot of SEO tools out there that can help with improve your rankings.

I maybe a bit biased because I created it, but I would start off with Ubersuggest.

The reason I would recommend it over other SEO tools because you can get started for free.

From rank tracking, to site audits to link building, to keyword research… you can do all the aspects of SEO for free.

Here’s a preview of the Ubersuggest site audit report.

I recommend that you get started with Ubersuggest by first running a site audit. Just put in your URL here.

And after that I recommend that you create a project so you can track your SEO progress. This will allow you to track your rankings and be notified when something good or bad happens with your SEO or even when your competition does something new.

If you want to get the most out of Ubersuggest you should read this guide.

Conclusion

Even if you don’t have the time to go through everything, just pick one or two courses or guides to start off with.

Something is better than nothing. And you don’t have to do everything in a day as that would be unrealistic.

If I were you, I would start off by creating an Ubersuggest project and then go over the SEO Unlocked training course.

From there you can go over the other courses and guides in any order. But that is where I would start.

There are also a lot of paid options on the web, but I would start with the free options above as it will give you enough to start getting results.

What are your thoughts on these guides and courses?

How Google Local Guides Improve Visibility

As a business owner, you know reviews and fresh content are essential to your success.

Suppose you’re passionate about promoting your business. In that case, you likely spend a lot of time creating new blog articles, crafting social media posts, or developing video content to keep your audience engaged.

But there’s another, more passive promotion method that can help grow your business and boost your local search results: Google Local Guides.

Launched in 2015, Google Local Guides—also known as Google Guides—took over where Google Cities left off. If you’re unfamiliar with it, the closest comparison is the Yelp! Elite Squad.

Google Guides allows users to add reviews and other content in exchange for various perks ranging from storage space to clothing.

Since its launch, the Google Guides community has proved hugely popular. There are 120 million local guides, spanning 24,000 cities and towns.

There are several potential benefits of Google Guides for your business and its online visibility.

Let’s take a closer look at the Guides system.

What Are Google Guides?

The idea behind Google Guides is simple. It uses user-generated content (UGC) to enrich the information available on Google Maps.

Or as Google explains it, Guides are:

… a global community of explorers who write reviews, share photos, answer questions, add or edit places, and check facts on Google Maps.

Guides’ additional content can increase your business’s visibility and make it easier for consumers to get the information they need.

Becoming a Local Guide is simple. Potential Guides sign up through their Google accounts, choose their locations, and be ready to go.

Once signed up, members of the Google Guides community receive points for each action they take.

All Guides start with zero points and work their way up through 10 levels, earning various perks along the way.

Creating Lists

Once Guides reach level four, they can start to add lists. These lists may consist of favorite places, destinations the guide plans to visit, and saved locations.

As you might expect, each list a Google Guide adds must meet specific requirements. To be eligible for publication, Google state a Guide’s list must:

have a title (i.e., a custom list, not be included in Want To Go or Favorites);
include a minimum of four places; and
be shared publicly.

Google Guides Perks

One aspect that makes Google Guides appealing to its members is the perks. Although these can vary from time to time, examples of the incentives include:

early access to new Google products
free music trials
discounted video services
storage space
partner perks
digital newspaper subscriptions
t-shirts and socks

Other bonuses include invitations to the Google Guides convention or Connect Live events, which are open to a limited number of community members.

There’s also an active online forum that helps fuel the community feeling and allows guides to share tips, favorite images, and other information.

How Do Google Guides Points and Levels Work?

Community members start at level one and can work their way up to level 10, which offers a maximum of 100,000 points.

To try to ensure that Guides play by the rules, Google will close an account if a Guide violates the program’s policies.

Some violations that may get a guide removed from the program include:

participating as a business
duplicating reviews
spamming the site
posting offensive content
adding inaccurate information
including unnecessary keywords

How Does Your Business Benefit From Google Guides?

Since you can’t take part as a business owner, you might be wondering how Google Local Guides can help you.

Let’s start with one of the most crucial elements for businesses today: getting found online.

Increased Visibility

With most consumers heading online to search for local businesses, and mobile search on the rise, increased visibility is more critical than ever before.

This is where the content Google Guides compile can prove invaluable to your business and potentially help your local search rankings.

A Google my Business Insights Study revealed that high-quality images are vital to your listing.

The survey revealed that profiles with more images receive increased clicks, queries, and inquiries for directions.

Let’s look at the stats. Businesses with over one hundred images received:

520% more calls than average
2,717% more direction requests
1,065% more website clicks

In addition, the research suggests several search benefits from image-rich Google My Business profiles.

Businesses with more than 100 images received:

960% more search views
3459% more map reviews
1038% more direct searches

Although Google Guides and Google My Business are different products, they’re closely correlated, with both providing information for Google Maps.

This insight means the more detailed information about your business on Google Maps, the higher the likelihood consumers will find you online—and offline.

The Ability to Keep Your Profile Updated and Accurate

As we explained at the start, Google awards points for editing listings.

Making sure your details are updated is imperative because inaccurate information such as out-of-date phone numbers or an old address reduces the likelihood a customer will find your business offline.

Besides editing listings for errors, Google Guides can correct omissions. This added detail is essential in attracting new customers.

google guides local listing error review example

Statistics from Google show that 67% of your listing visitors would not feel the need to conduct further research if the profile includes essential information such as:

opening hours
locations
images
consumer reviews

The same study shows that 41% of users who come across an incomplete profile would continue with their research and leave the business’s profile, possibly depriving the business of an opportunity to gain a new customer.

Online Reviews

You know positive reviews inspire customer trust, but they can also help you get noticed online.

In an increasingly digital world, this online validation for your business is vital because:

93% of consumers say online reviews affect their buying decisions
91% of consumers value online reviews as much as personal recommendations
90% of consumers will read reviews before visiting a brick-and-mortar business

Google is the first place consumers go to read reviews these days.

The search engine leads the way in online reviews, with over 60% of would-be buyers heading to Google when considering making a purchase.

Although there has been some debate about just how critical reviews are to SEO, Google confirms they play an indispensable role in local search:

High-quality, positive reviews from your customers will improve your business’s visibility and increase the likelihood that a potential customer will visit your location.

Additionally, research from Moz confirms the importance of online reviews to SEO. Their 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors report found reviews account for 15% of local ranking factors.

Dealing With Negative Reviews

No matter how dedicated you are or how well you run your business, getting a negative review at some point is almost inevitable. It can hurt you personally, and you may be concerned that it can harm your professional reputation.

Let’s try to put this fear to rest.

Despite what you may think, your business needs negative reviews. Negative reviews allow consumers to make informed decisions. They also enable buyers to understand what could go wrong during a transaction, helping manage their expectations.

Instead of worrying about potential low reviews, your best approach is to positively and objectively respond to reviews.

Ask yourself:

Does the reviewer have a valid point?
Is it an issue you can address to make the experience better for the next customer?

All that said, there’s one type of negative comment that may concern you more than any other: the fake review.

Unfortunately, getting unwarranted negative feedback removed from Google Guides isn’t as easy as it could be. If the review violates Google’s terms, it will likely be removed.

But there’s no reporting option for fake reviews.

The best option may be to approach a Google Guides moderator. However, that doesn’t solve the problem of potential reputational damage over fake reviews.

Business owners can expect to, but this process is often time-consuming and frustrating for business owners who’ve experienced it.

How to Get Google Guides to Engage with You

You now know the benefits of Google Guides for your business. But how do you get them to find you and engage with you?

If you want to get more actively involved, that’s an option.

Here’s how to approach it.

Take Part in Meetups

Businesses are welcome to partner with local guides for meetups, and even offer special discounts to them. Getting to know local guides is an excellent way for your business to engage with them and build relationships.

However, you’ll want to make sure that your company and the Guide adhere to Google policies. This means:

Local Guides mustn’t accept sponsorship in return for a positive review
Guides can’t accept payment for hosting the meetup
if your business sponsors the meetup or provides goods or services, Google Guides must clarify this in their meetup descriptions.

Also, Google Guides at level three and up qualify to host meetups, but they must get approval first.

Optimize Your Google My Business Page

Despite the apparent advantages of optimizing Google My Business, research has found over half of local businesses hadn’t claimed their listings.

Optimize Your Business Map’s Listing

Optimizing your map doesn’t just make it easier for locals to find you; it also makes it easier for Google Guides to discover your business.

To make your site stand out, optimize your Google map listing by:

adding imagery
responding to reviews
completing your profile
keeping your profile updated

Stress the Importance of Reviews to Your Business

There isn’t anything wrong with explaining to your customers how important reviews are to your business. However, be careful about the way you approach it.

If you need some basic guidelines on getting more reviews, Google has these suggestions:

Begin a conversation with your shoppers about reviews.
Make leaving feedback easy.
Share positive reviews.
Respond to online feedback.

Conclusion

Google Guides can help you attract new interest in your business. But you may be unaware of the potential advantages of being profiled by local guides.

Businesses with an increased amount of user-generated content (UGC) stand to benefit from increased consumer confidence in their brand, enhanced trust from Google and potentially improved local search rankings.

As a result, your business may experience an increased number of queries, enhanced visibility for your goods and services, and more visits to your offline store.

Do you have experience with Google Guides? Feel free to comment below.

The post How Google Local Guides Improve Visibility appeared first on Neil Patel.

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