New York lifeguards save man who collapsed and remained unresponsive for 12 minutes

Lifeguards in New York saved a man who collapsed during a recent beach bike ride and had an undetectable pulse for 12 minutes.

David Plotkin, 50, joined “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday morning to discuss what he could recall from his fall on July 30 of this year.

“It was a beautiful Saturday morning,” Plotkin said during a televised interview. 

“I went for my routine beach bike ride with a good friend of mine,” he continued. “It’s about an hour long, but it was anything but an hour-long bike ride.”

POOLS CLOSE AS LIFEGUARD SHORTAGE HITS AMERICAN CITIES THIS SUMMER

Plotkin said he and his friends had biked for 30 minutes and had already passed their turnaround point when he collapsed not far from a lifeguard station in Atlantic Beach.

“I was about 20 yards east of the lifeguard stand,” Plotkin told “Fox & Friends Weekend.” 

“I collapsed right in front of a retired police officer. He and his wife saw me down and ran over.”

Plotkin said he wasn’t breathing — so the couple started CPR while bystanders got the lifeguard team.

Two lifeguards responded to the scene, according to Plotkin.

“They sprung into action and brought the defibrillators over, and they were working on me for 30 minutes,” Plotkin said.

RETIRED DOCTOR RETURNS TO LIFEGUARDING AFTER 50 YEARS: ‘ONE OF THE BEST JOBS’

John Ryan Jr., the lead lifeguard in the town of East Hampton, also joined “Fox & Friends Weekend” to discuss the lifesaving measures his team took to save Plotkin.

The lifeguards delivered two shocks from the defibrillator and continued CPR on Plotkin for 12 minutes.

Plotkin didn’t have a readable pulse at the time, Ryan confirmed.

“Throughout the whole time, after those first two shocks, [the defibrillator] analyzed and said, ‘No shock advised,’” Ryan recalled.

“And at that point, the heart was not beating, so we continued CPR throughout the whole process, [and waited] to transport him off to a waiting ambulance.”

PHILLY GRANDMA, AGE 70, IS BACK ON LIFEGUARD DUTY AMID SHORTAGE ‘TO HELP THE COMMUNITY’ 

Ryan said Plotkin’s collapse is a “very rare” situation in the world of lifeguarding.

In his own words, Ryan said, “We know that once the heart stops, our job is to continue to do the CPR to continue to circulate oxygen in the blood to the organs in hopes that we can get him to the waiting ambulance, and then they can hopefully administer some drugs that might put the heart into fibrillation and then shock it to get a regular heartbeat.”

Ryan noted that his lifeguards swapped in and out to do two minutes of CPR and compressions.

He said 15 lifeguards eventually arrived at the scene and helped with compressions and ventilations.

“It takes a lot out of you,” Ryan said. 

“Your adrenalin is pumping and you’re doing CPR and we have switch in and out because if you’re not doing effective CPR, the blood flow is not circulating as it should be.” 

How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap in 20 Minutes (or Less)

When it comes to SEO and marketing, I like quick and easy wins.

Even though I’m committed to the long journey of blogging (10+ years and counting), I’d much rather push a few buttons and pull a few levers to get more traffic.

Low effort. Big wins. That’s where I like to be.

And, thankfully, there are some SEO techniques that deliver high value for low effort.

I want to share with you one of those techniques — creating an XML sitemap.

Now before you run away after reading the term “XML sitemap,” let me give you some good news.

Even though an XML sitemap is on the “technical” side of SEO, it’s not hard to make one. And, really, it’s not that “technical” either.

In fact, in just a few minutes you could create a really good XML sitemap. You don’t have to know how to code. You just have to know how to click.

It’s free. It’s easy. It’s relatively simple, and it can improve your SEO.

Ready to give it a try?

What, Exactly, is an XML Sitemap?

What is an XML sitemap?

In simple terms, it’s a list of a website’s URLs.

That’s why it’s called a sitemap. It maps out how the website is structured and what pages the website includes.

(“XML” stands for “Extensible Markup Language,” a way of displaying information on websites.)

That’s what an XML sitemap is, but why should you even have one? What’s the purpose?

What’s the Purpose of an XML Sitemap?

Search engines use crawlers to organize and index information on the web.

Search engine crawler graphic for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

These crawlers can read all kinds of information. But an XML sitemap makes it easy for the crawler to see what’s on your website and index it.

Once it does this, your website has a stronger likelihood of improving its rank quickly.

Essentially, an XML sitemap serves as a table of contents for your website, allowing the crawler to get the essentials and index your site accordingly.

A well-structured sitemap can do even more, however.

Sitemaps tell search engines when a page was updated, the frequency of updates to the page, the relative importance of pages within a website, and how to find and index content that may be found deep within the site’s structure.

Here’s what the information looks like in a sitemap:

  • Where the page is located on the website (its URL): <loc>http://www.example.com/mypage</loc>
  • When the page was last changed: <lastmod>2013-10-10</lastmod>
  • How often the page is changed: <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
  • What priority the page has in relationship to other pages on the site: <priority>1</priority>

These features are important, especially considering the amount of unauthorized syndication that takes place with content today.

If you aren’t using a sitemap, your website could be seen as containing duplicate content, which isn’t good for SEO.

More importantly, however, a sitemap is a fast way to get indexed by Google.

With a sitemap, you can tell Google, “Look, this is my site, and here are the pages I want you to index.”

Within minutes (usually), Google will crawl your site and index your content.

What Are the Benefits of an XML Sitemap?

If you’re wondering, “Hmm. Do I really need a sitemap? Should I go to all that trouble?” I want to persuade you to, yes, do it. It only takes a few minutes, and the benefits are enormous.

Consider these benefits of an XML sitemap:

  • It tells Google to crawl and index your website.
  • It tells Google what to crawl on your website.
  • The XML sitemap tells Google what kind of information is on your website.
  • The XML sitemap tells Google when your content was updated (which could result in more favorable or “fresh” rankings).
  • It tells Google how often your content is updated and how important it is.
  • The XML sitemap helps your website instantly gain indexation for dynamically-generated pages.
  • It helps you overcome the limitations of a website with weak internal linking.
  • It helps your site overcome the challenge of not yet having a strong external link profile.
  • It helps huge sites gain better and more organized indexation.
  • The XML sitemap helps Google crawl your website more effectively.
  • It shows Google all the pages on your website, even if they are deep within the architecture and might not otherwise be crawled as quickly.

If you’re ready to get started on creating your own XML sitemap, we’ll follow a three-step process:

  1. Create your XML sitemap.
  2. Add your XML sitemap to your website.
  3. Submit your XML sitemap to Google.

(I’ll also show you how to submit your Sitemap to Bing and Yandex as well)

The remainder of this article will address each of those points, along with one final step, using Ubersuggest to find potential sitemap errors.

Create an XML Sitemap Using Screaming Frog (for any Website)

You can use Screaming Frog to create an XML sitemap for any website. It doesn’t matter what CMS you’re using, what size the website is, or your website’s age.

In fact, you don’t even need to own the website or have login access to it to create the sitemap.

Is there a cost associated with this? Screaming Frog, the tool we’ll use, provides free crawling for up to 500 pages. To crawl websites larger than 500 pages, you will need to purchase a Screaming Frog license.

About Screaming Frog

If you do not have Screaming Frog yet, you need to install it first. You can do so here.

Screamingfrog main page for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Screaming Frog is a powerful desktop software program that helps with a whole range of SEO activities.

The basic version is free. The full version (with license purchase) costs £149.00 per year (around $180 USD or €170 euro).

Screamingfrog pricing page for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

In this section, I’ll walk you through how to create an XML sitemap for any website using the free version of Screaming Frog.

First, open Screaming Frog.

Then, type your URL into the field at the top.

Screamingfrog URL entry for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Click “Start.”

Screamingfrog start button for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Depending on your website’s size, it will take from a few minutes to a few hours to crawl the site.

Screamingfrog site crawling results for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

For a site like NeilPatel.com (6,600+ pages), it takes a while to crawl, but not too long. I’ve worked on some large e-commerce websites with millions of URLs. These take hours to crawl.

When the site has finished crawling, it will display “100” in the status bar.

Screamingfrog crawl 100% complete for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Now, click “Sitemaps” in the menu bar.

Screamingfrog create sitemaps for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Click “Create XML Sitemap.”

Screamingfrog sitemaps menu for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Next, you’ll need to choose which sections of your website you want to include in the XML sitemap.

Screamingfrog sitemap export config for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

At first glance, this may seem confusing, especially if you’re not sure what “Noindex” or “canonicalised” means.

Here is a brief explanation of each one:

  • Include Noindex Pages: Noindex pages contain HTML code in the header telling the search engines not to include the page in the search index. If your developer has set certain pages as “Noindex,” it is probably with good cause. When in doubt, do not check this box.
  • Include Canonicalised: There may be more than one URL pointing to the same page of content. If you “include canonicalized,” you are telling the crawl tool to include variations of the URLs that point to the same page. If in doubt, leave this unchecked.
  • Include Paginated URLs: A paginated URL is one that includes rel= attributes (rel=“prev” and “next”) to navigate through a series of content on a website. Unless you’re careful with it, pagination can be a bit dangerous for SEO. I recommend that you do not check this box.
  • Include PDFs: You can choose whether or not you want PDFs included in your XML sitemap. Google indexes all kinds of content, PDFs included. I recommend that you do include PDFs in your XML sitemap, as long as the PDFs on your website are important and relevant to users who might be searching for your content.

Remember this basic idea. A sitemap is for SEO. If you want someone to find the page on your website, you want to include it in the sitemap.

For my purposes, I’m going to include PDFs.

Screamingfrog include PDFs in sitemap for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

The tabs “Last Modified,” “Priority,” and “Change Frequency” deal with the date and time that website pages were modified and the <priority> settings.

Unless you have a knowledge of these settings, please leave them as they are by default.

I think it’s a good idea to include images in a sitemap, so I’m going to add those to my sitemap.

Click the “Images” tab.

Screamingfrog sitemap image config for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Then, click “Include Images.” The third box (“Include only relevant Images with up to 10 inlinks”) will automatically be checked.

Screamingfrog include images in sitemap for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Then, click “Next.”

Screamingfrog next button for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

You’ll be prompted to save your XML sitemap on your computer. Find a good place to save it, and click “Save.”

Screamingfrog save sitemap for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Congratulations! You’ve created an XML sitemap!

You’ll now need to upload this file to your website via FTP. You may already know how to do this.

If you don’t know how to upload the XML sitemap to your website, check with a developer to determine what process you should follow for your specific server and/or CMS.

But creating a sitemap is only the first step. A sitemap means nothing unless you submit it to the search engines.

Skip down to the section “Submit your XML sitemap to Google” to learn how to do it.

Create an XML Sitemap Using Yoast (WordPress Only)

Yoast is one of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress. Yoast makes it easy to create and submit an XML sitemap.

I’ll explain how to do it step-by-step, but first, here’s what you need:

  • You must be using a WordPress.org site.
  • You must have the Yoast plugin installed. (It’s free.)
  • Your website must be connected to Google Search Console.

Most websites already have those three things in place. If you’re ready, let’s jump in.

Login to Your WordPress Admin

Note: In the screenshots below, my WordPress admin might look a little bit different from yours. That shouldn’t keep you from being able to follow each step.

What we’re going to do first is make sure that the Yoast plugin is all ready to create a sitemap for you. To do so, we’ll need to turn on Yoast’s advanced settings.

Click on the Yoast Plugin

It has a “Y” icon, and says “SEO.” It should be located in the left sidebar.

Yoast SEO on WordPress sidebar for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Click the “Dashboard” option.

Yoast SEO go to dashboard for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

From the Dashboard, click “Features.”

Yoast SEO features for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

From the Features tab, look for “XML sitemaps” and make sure it is toggled to “On.”

Yoast SEO sitemaps tab for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Now, scroll to the bottom and click “Save Changes.”\

If you want to customize your sitemap, learn how here. For example, you might want to exclude pages that aren’t public.

In general, however, the sitemap Yoast generates tends to be pretty solid.

Now, it’s time to submit this to Google.

How to Submit Your XML Sitemap to Google

Now it’s time to do something valuable with your sitemap — submit it to Google.

To do this, you’ll need to have Google Search Console connected to your website. Check out this Google guide for instructions on doing so.

First, go to Google Search Console and select your website.

From the dashboard, click “Sitemaps.”

Google Search Console dashboard for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Click “Add a new Sitemap.”

Add sitemap in Google Search Console for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Enter the URL where you’ve saved your sitemap. It should end with “.xml” since it’s an XML file.

Enter sitemap URL into Google Search Console for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Click “Submit.”

Then use the Sitemaps report to make sure there are no errors. (I’ll also cover another method below.)

Once that’s completed, Google takes care of the rest. Your sitemap allows Google to quickly and seamlessly index your site, helping to boost your rankings.

How to Submit Your XML Sitemap to Bing & Yandex

Google is the largest search engine — but it isn’t the only one. To get the most mileage out of your XML sitemap, I suggest submitting it to Bing and Yandex. Here’s how:

Submit Sitemap to Bing

Bing is Microsoft’s answer to Google. It has a much smaller market share (just over 6%). However, more than 900 million unique users visit Bing a month. Submitting a sitemap to Bing is a breeze, so it’s worth the few minutes to reach their audience.

To submit your sitemap to Bing, login to your Dashboard in Webmaster tools. Find the Sitemaps widget and click “Submit a Sitemap.”

Enter the URL location of your file, and click “Submit.” That’s it!

Submit a Sitemap to Yandex

Yandex is Russia’s version of Google. In Russia, Yandex dominates more than 55% of the search market. It also provides email, streaming music, and online payment services. Like Bing, submitting a sitemap only takes a few minutes, so it’s worth the effort to reach a wider audience.

Here’s how to submit your sitemap to Yandex:

Head to to Sitemaps files page, and choose your site from the list.

Add the URL of your sitemap.

Click add.

It will take about two weeks for your sitemap to load. You’ll want to check back and make sure it is uploaded properly; if it says “OK,” then you are good to go. If you see “Redirect,” try uploading the file again.

If you see “error” or “not indexed”, you’ll need to troubleshoot. Use this guide from Yandex to figure out what is going on.

Use Ubersuggest to Check Your XML Sitemap Errors

If you follow the steps above, you shouldn’t have any sitemap errors. But just because you shouldn’t, doesn’t mean you won’t.

Here’s how you can use Ubersuggest to check for sitemap errors:

Step #1: Enter your domain name and click “Search.”

Ubersuggest banner for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Step #2: Click site audit in the left sidebar.

Ubersuggest sidebar menu for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

Step #3: Review the results.

Ubersuggest results for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

To find issues with your sitemap, review the data associated with the health check, critical errors, warnings, and recommendations.

For example, when you click on Critical Errors, here’s what you see for my website:

Ubersuggest site audit results for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

There are no issues with my sitemap, but if there were, here’s where you’d find more information. In addition to the issues itself, there’s a learn more button that takes you to:

Ubersuggest additional sitemap information for How to Create an SEO-Boosting XML Sitemap

You can then follow the prompts for more guidance on how to fix the error.

Use Ubersuggest to check the health of your sitemap regularly. Doing so once or twice a month will only take a few minutes out of your schedule, but it can go a long way in improving your website’s SEO.

Conclusion

A lot of small business owners and web entrepreneurs get afraid when they hear the term “XML sitemap.”

It sounds jargony and code-like. If you’re not an SEO nerd or a computer geek, how do you figure out how to create and submit an XML sitemap?

As it turns out, it’s not that hard.

Creating a sitemap using a program like Screaming Frog or Yoast takes ten minutes or less.

If you know nothing about sitemaps, and need to go through the whole process for the first time, no problem. Walking through the entire process from start to finish may take, at most, twenty minutes.

The SEO benefits, however, will be enormous.

If you’ve never created an XML sitemap for your website, my advice is simple: Get one made today.

Then, perform a technical SEO audit to see what other issues might be lurking on your site.

You can do it. I’ve got your back.

What’s your experience creating an XML sitemap? How has it helped your site’s SEO?

How to Conduct a Social Media Audit in Just 30 Minutes

The number of worldwide social media users will surpass 3 billion by 2021.

That’s more than a third of the Earth’s population!

That creates an incredible opportunity to reach online users, and you shouldn’t pass it up.

However, not every platform works the same for every business. That’s why it’s important to review what’s working and what isn’t.

Otherwise, you risk wasting time, energy, and money on flawed campaigns.

Don’t worry. That’s where social media audits can help.

In this post, I’ll show you how to perform a social media audit in just 30 minutes.

The result will tell you if you’re on track to hit it big or if you’re at risk of flushing more dollars down the drain.

Before we get to that, let’s talk about preparing your audit.

How to Prepare Your Social Media Audit

“Auditing” can sound intimidating.

I’ve worked with agencies that charge tens of thousands of dollars and take months to complete a single audit.

In this case, though, yours will be pretty simple. We’ll take a look at each platform and identify a few critical KPI benchmarks to gauge progress.

How often should you perform an audit?

Ultimately, you can do them as often as you’d like to. I recommend at least once a year, but every quarter is ideal.

The point is that you do it consistently and in a way that works for you.

I recommend creating a spreadsheet to maintain all of the information you’ll be recording. Google Drive is a great place to do so since it’s free. Here’s how to do a simple one.

Pull up Google Drive and create a new Google Sheets.

I like using Google Drive because you can share them with your team, partners, and other vendors.

Next, you’ll want to label the columns.

These will be categories that list account information and key performance indicators.

What exactly should your columns contain? Here are some ideas:

  • The username and URL for each platform that you’ll audit
  • The number of followers for each account
  • Engagement metrics
  • Demographic information
  • Popular content

These create a nice base to work off of. Here’s what my spreadsheet looks like now.

Social media audit spreadsheet

It seems a bit empty, huh? Let’s fix that by entering our account information.

Account URLs add to social media audit

I’d suggest that you date your audits or add monthly sections to them. This helps track monthly changes when you audit again in the future.

Since every platform is unique, you could also add columns for network-specific metrics.

With this basic template, you’re ready to use your auditing spreadsheet. Now, it’s time to get to work.

I’ll walk you through analyzing Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. If you are using TikTok or other niche social media platforms, add those to your spreadsheet as well.

Social Media Audit: Facebook

Facebook collects tons of useful data about your Pages and organizes it in one place. You can access it by visiting the Facebook Business Suite.

On that page, Facebook provides valuable insights into both your ad accounts and the business Page itself.

Since we’re focusing on general social media today, let’s first take a glance at the overview.

Business page Facebook social media audit

Right away, Facebook displays information about your Page likes, reach, and the engagement you’ve accumulated. You can filter the results for today, yesterday, the last seven days, or the last 28 days.

Next, click the arrow to the left of your Page to see a breakdown of your best-performing posts.

recent posts on social media audit facebook

This will tell you what type of content is delivering the most engagement and reach. With this information, let’s go back to our spreadsheet and fill it in.

It should look similar to this:

Updated spreadsheet social media audit

As you can see, I’ve entered how many new followers I’ve gained, how much my engagement has improved, and what content performed the best.

What about demographics?

For that, you will need to visit the insights tab. Click on This will give you a report on all of the Pages you run.

social media audit facebook insights audiences

Select the Page you’re auditing and it will take you to an overview.

You can also click “results’ to see how many people you reach (this will also show you Instagram reach if you’ve connected that account.)

You’ll also see:

  • The ratio of men versus women that follow you.
  • The percentage of users in each age group.
  • Which countries and cities your followers are from.
  • What other pages they like.

You have to market differently to every target demographic. Take note of which gender, age groups, and locations make up the majority of your fans.

You can use this data later for tailoring content. But first, let’s input some of this data into our spreadsheet.

Updated spreadsheet 2 social media audit for facebook

With that simple Facebook audit, you should now have a good idea of who your target audience is and what content they enjoy the most.

When you decide to audit your Page again, you can compare these metrics to the updated ones to see how your content performs.

Social Media Audit: Pinterest

Pinterest is a goldmine for marketers.

It’s a platform that heavily rewards quality infographics and visual content. It also offers an awesome analytics page to boot.

Once you’ve upgraded to the free business account, you can select “Analytics” and “Overview” from the top-left corner.

Pinterest analytics social media audit

The overview will tell you your average daily impressions, average daily viewers, and most popular content. These first two metrics are convenient for measuring your account’s growth.

social media audit pinterest pins

As we saw with Facebook, understanding what content performs best will help you offer more of it in the future. This can further increase your engagement and pins.

What kind of content do you notice performs well for your page?

social media audit pintrest pins

To dig into the demographics of your Pinterest follower, you can click the arrow beside “People you reach.”

You will find information about their location, gender, and language.

Clicking the “Interests” tab shows categories that your followers are most likely to be interested in.

Record these in your spreadsheet. In the future, you could publish more content in these categories to see if your followers enjoy them.

You’ll also see your impressions, saves, and clicks on the “Profile” page.

Saves and clicks are arguably the most important metrics here.

Seeing which posts users save the most will tell you which content to focus on and which to dial back.

It also reveals which types of pins are driving the most traffic to your website.

Selecting the “All-time” tab shows you which pins received the most shares and ranked the highest in searches.

Do you notice any similarities between the pins that are receiving the best feedback? Note this in your spreadsheet.

Record any important data in your spreadsheet. By now, your spreadsheet should be filling out quite nicely.

Social Media Audit: Instagram

Instagram is the go-to social media platform for fashion, beauty, and health brands.

Instagram already has over a billion users. Plus, more than 200 million businesses are using it to reach customers, too.

If you upgrade to a business account (and have 100 followers) you gain access to Instagram Insights. This is their native analytics tool to aid you in measuring performance.

It won’t give you insights into content that you posted before you upgraded, but it will give you information about your posts from then on. It can only be accessed from your phone.

Start by tapping the “hamburger” menu in the upper right-hand corner (the three lines.)

access instagram insights social media audit

Then tap Insights.

If you visit the Insights homepage, it will give you a general overview of your Instagram account. It first content overview, including posts and Stories.

There are also three tabs: content, activity, and audience. The audience tab will show you who your followers are and demographics.

Follower demographics social media audit

If you want to find out even more about your followers, click “See More” at the top-right corner. That will pull up two graphs.

One will show you the hours when your followers are most active.

Followers hours social media audit

The other will reveal which days they are most active.

You can use this to find the most optimal day and hour to post.

Audit Instagram Posts

Next, it’s wise to analyze how your photos are performing. You can do this in one of two ways.

The first option is to select an individual post and click “View Insights.”

Likes, comments, shares, and saves will appear at the top. Instagram also tells you how many profile visits the post resulted in and your reach.

Since hashtags are a huge part of marketing on Instagram, take the time to see which ones attracted the most users.

Consider adding that to your spreadsheet as well if you’d like.

Over time, you will be able to weed out the lesser-performing hashtags and replace them with better ones.

The second approach is to navigate to the posts area of the Insights homepage.

Click “Content” and Instagram will display every post from the last year and their impressions.

Insta insights social media audit

You can further filter it by time, type of content, and measurements such as comments or likes.

There are numerous ways that you can take advantage of this.

For example, you can filter by content to discover whether your audience likes photos, videos, or carousel posts the most.

Refine it down to comments and you may notice which captions or questions get the most responses.

Audit Instagram Stories

Have you ever posted an Instagram Story?

For businesses, it’s a fun way to show followers behind-the-scenes action.

With the Insights tool, you can dive into how your Stories are performing. Simply open a Story and click the viewers on the bottom-left area of the screen.

You will find which users viewed the Story, total impressions, and reach. It also documents actions like replies and clicks.

Use this to determine which content followers respond to the most positively with Instagram Stories.

Social Media Audit: Twitter

Twitter advertising is one of my favorite techniques for quickly gaining attention because it’s so simple.

If you visit the Ads Manager, you will gain access to your account’s analytics.

Let’s start by selecting the “Analytics” drop-down menu and clicking “tweet activity.” This will let you view tweet engagement, impressions, and more.

Tweet impressions social media audit

First, Twitter is nice enough to give you a convenient graph of your impressions over the last 28-day period. You can change this to the last seven days or a custom number as well.

Click the “Top Tweets” tab to see which of your tweets in a selected period are the most popular. Twitter determines this based on engagement and impressions.

Top tweets social media audit

Do you notice any trends?

Are certain calls-to-action or styles of tweets doing better than others?

These are questions you should ask yourself to further complete the audit.

Do you know who your followers are?

Well, you can figure that out by visiting “Audience insights” under the “Analytics” tab on top again.

Make sure that you change the selection to your followers.

Your followers social media audit

At first glance, you’ll see an overview with several tabs.

On this first page, you can see information about your followers, such as their:

  • Interests
  • Consumer buying styles
  • Household income categories
  • Wireless carrier
  • Gender

If you click the “Demographics” tab, you’ll see the following:

Twitter demographics social media audit

It’s safe to say that Twitter has a seriously impressive analytics system. It’s convenient, too.

From exact regions to home value, there’s nothing you won’t know about your followers.

Moving along to the “Lifestyle tab,” you’ll get a better idea of what interests them. This is great information to use for tailoring your content.

If you know what they like, you can integrate that into what you post.

They will feel much more connected to your brand when they know that you understand them on a deeper level.

For those of you who are involved in e-commerce, you’ll find a special benefit to the next tab, which is the “Consumer Behavior” tab.

Buying styles twitter social media audit

Twitter shows us what kind of consumer buying style our followers fall under and what kind of consumer goods they enjoy purchasing.

This is a goldmine if you sell products online.

It’s literally telling you how they prefer to shop and what they’re looking for.

Finally, the “Mobile Footprint” tab tells you which carrier and devices your followers mostly use.

What Should You Do With Your Social Media Audit When It’s Done?

You’re sitting back and marveling at your in-depth spreadsheet. Now what?

It’s time to get marketing.

You now hold a great deal of data that you can use to improve your social channels and your business as a whole.

You should start with content.

What type of content does your audience like the most? Try producing more of this and measure the results next week or next month.

For example, you may find that your Facebook fans prefer videos over images. As simple as it sounds, delivering more videos could be the easiest way to increase shares and engagement.

I recently posted this video on Facebook:

neil example social media audit

It was a direct result of a simple social media audit like this.

I’m investing a ton into video marketing because I’ve seen that it produces the best results across almost every platform.

I typically don’t talk about “finding your passion” and that type of stuff. I usually like to stick to nerdy marketing ideas.

However, I’ve noticed that more personal topics like this get an awesome reaction.

Guess what?

I’m adding more topics like this to my content calendar.

The whole reason for producing this content is to gain awareness and increase engagement.

The purpose is not to try and sell anything.

Instead, you want to mix content types and topics to drive the most interest possible.

Then, you can run retargeting campaigns with custom audiences to eventually sell to everyone who’s watching, commenting, and hitting the Like button.

Target a More Defined Audience

With all of the research you’ve performed, you also now know a lot more about the demographics of your fans.

Things like age, gender, and location are much more concrete.

In the beginning, you probably had a rough idea of what your ideal user was like. Now, you know for sure.

I’d recommend searching for market reports based on your target demographics. These will give you further ideas on how to serve them better.

Even infographics like this one from Goldman Sachs on millennials can contain rich nuggets of knowledge about your audience.

Goldman Sachs infographic example how to do a social media audit

Going off of this example, we might experiment by offering free shipping, discounts, or other convenience as the studies suggest.

Once you’ve compiled all of the previous data on your users, it’s simple to find out what works for them.

Reports and similar publications will detail trends and opportunities to take advantage of.

New sales channels and promising promotional strategies are some things to expect.

Overall, you know what your ideal user responds to the best, so you can tailor more content toward that.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

You now also know which platforms are delivering the biggest results.

You can use this information to implement what we call the “80/20 rule.”

It involves doubling down on the social networks that work the best for you.

Perhaps Instagram and Facebook drive the most traffic. If that’s the case, then focus your attention on those platforms.

Putting more energy into just a couple of networks may create more results than diversifying.

This rule also applies to content and advertisements. The data is telling you what works the best, so consider shifting your focus to just a few key areas.

At the same time, you can take this opportunity to test out different platforms. At the end of the day, you’ll never know until you try.

Maybe another social network would perform incredibly well, but you just haven’t tested it.

You can test a couple on a smaller scale and look at the results before you invest too much time into it.

You should also now be setting goals for your social accounts, including:

  • Follower count
  • Engagement numbers such as likes or comments
  • Traffic that you drive to your website

When you perform another audit, you should be able to do it faster. You’ll be much more familiar with the process, which will help you streamline the process.

When you perform your next audit, you can track changes by comparing your numbers to your previous audits.

Over time, you will have a vivid picture of how your social accounts are developing.

Calculate Social Media Ad Budget And ROI

Do you include ads in your social media marketing strategy?

If so, you’ll want to make them a component of your audit.

Ad platforms on Facebook and Pinterest, for example, will record the performance, costs, and other metrics for the ads you run.

Analyze which ad types and creatives are bringing you the best results. You could invest more of your budget into these while dialing back others.

This way, you can avoid spending money on advertisements that don’t deliver the most value.

Even small experiments with paid campaigns can help you better calibrate your organic efforts.

I integrate SEO and PPC for this very same reason.

I run a quick PPC campaign to find the keywords that convert best within an industry. Then, I’ll start building out content and SEO campaigns around this new data.

how to use data from a social media audit

The same applies to social. Run paid campaigns to quickly identify top content, audiences, and so on. Then, tailor your organic efforts around what already works.

Social Media Audit: Frequently Asked Questions

Why are social media audits important?

To understand what is working or what is not in your social media strategy.

How often should I do a social media audit?

Any time you are considering changing your strategy or at least once a year.

Do I need tools to do a social media audit?

No. While they can be helpful, the internal tools on social media can be used in your audit.

What do I do with a social media audit?

Social media audits help you find strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in your social media strategy. Use it to target a more defined audience, improve your social media strategy, and work harder not smarter.

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To understand what is working or what is not in your social media strategy.


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Social media audits help you find strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in your social media strategy. Use it to target a more defined audience, improve your social media strategy, and work harder not smarter.


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Social Media Audit Conclusion

A social media audit doesn’t have to be long or tedious.

If you follow what I’ve outlined in this article, you can complete yours in as little 30 minutes.

Every social media platform offers analytics and insights that you need to improve your social media marketing strategy and speak to your audience in their language.

Preparation and organization are the keys to a successful audit. That’s why a simple spreadsheet is so handy.

You’ll want to keep a record of how these numbers increase or decrease over time. That way, you can draw conclusions about what’s working and what’s not.

Set a schedule to perform your audits, too. You could do them on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.

Don’t be afraid to experiment by trying out new social media networks. You can add these to your next audit.

Set goals based on the collected data, and you’ll be consistently growing your social accounts over time.

What do you think is the most important part of a social media audit?

In Just a Few Minutes of Your Time, Learn All About Avoiding Risky NAICS Codes

What are NAICS Codes?

And how can they affect if you can get funding? We tell you all about NAICS Codes. They could be the difference between getting business money or not getting any money.

NAICS Codes: Some Background

Federal statistical agencies use the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) . The idea is to classify business establishments. This is to collect, analyze, and publish statistical data, related to the U.S. business economy.

The NAICS was developed under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Its adoption was in 1997. The intention is to replace the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. The U.S. Economic Classification Policy Committee (ECPC) developed it with Statistics Canada and Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia. The intent was to make business stats easy to compare among North American countries.

What is the NAICS Structure and How Many Digits are in an NAICS Code?

NAICS is a 2- through 6-digit hierarchical classification system. It offers five levels of detail. Each digit in the code is part of a series of progressively narrower categories. The more digits in the code, the more classification detail.

Details on NAICS Code Structure

The first two digits are the economic sector. The third digit designates the subsector. And the fourth digit designates the industry group. The fifth digit designates the NAICS industry. The sixth digit designates the national industry.

A 5-digit NAICS code is comparable in code and definitions for most of the NAICS sectors. This is across the three countries participating in NAICS. They are the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The 6-digit level lets the U.S., Canada, and Mexico all have country-specific detail. A complete and valid NAICS code has six digits.

Codes and Industries

NAICS industry codes define businesses based on the primary activities they engage in. Recently, the NAICS changed many of its codes as it updated its philosophy. It no longer sets aside online businesses. Now the NAICS no longer distinguishes businesses by how they deliver goods or services.

High Risk NAICS Codes

There is an older NAICS list of high-risk and high-cash industries. Higher risk industries on the list include casinos, pawn shops, and liquor stores. But it also included automotive dealers and restaurants. But this list is from 2014 and does not appear to have ever gotten any updating.

Per the NAICS, various professionals in the banking industry compiled the list. The idea was to use it as a working guide. But it is not an officially sanctioned list. They do not guarantee the accuracy of this list.

Codes and Risk

When considering any aspects of a business, risk must be a major factor. There are inherent issues in every single industry. But some businesses are considered to be risky by their very nature. This is the case even if everything else goes off like a hitch and the business is prospering. Risk is inherent within these business types. Even if your business doesn’t feel risky, it could be anyway.

Learn more here and get started with building business credit with your company’s EIN and not your SSN.

Why Risk Matters

The biggest reason why risk matters has to do with funding. There are several industries where lending institutions are hesitant to do business. In those particular cases, there are stricter underwriting guidelines. But at least a company can get funding.

In some industries, no funding is available at all. As a result, those businesses will need to find other solutions for financing. These solutions can include:

  • Crowdfunding
  • Angel investors
  • Venture capital
  • Business credit building and more

Still, a lot of businesses would rather work with lenders. But where are lenders’ ideas of the degree of risk coming from? One clue comes from the CDC.

Real Injury Risks According to the CDC

The Centers for Disease Control looks at risks in small businesses. Part of the calculation of risk comes from occupational injuries. But the other side of the risk coin is occupations which are high in cash transactions. After all, a pawn shop might not have much of a specific risk of injury at all. But the large amounts of cash normally associated with one mean it can be a tempting target for thieves.

A Look at Some Restricted Industries

These industries (among many others) can get an automatic decline:

  • Ammunition or weapons manufacturing; wholesale and retail
  • Energy, oil trading, or petroleum extraction or production
  • Gaming or gambling activities
  • Loans for the speculative purchases of securities or goods
  • Political campaigns, candidates, or committees
  • Public administration
    1. City, county, state, and federal governmental agencies
  • X-rated products or entertainment

Learn more here and get started with building business credit with your company’s EIN and not your SSN.

A Look at Some High-Risk Industries

These industries (among many others) can be subject to stricter underwriting guidelines:

  • Auto, RV or boat sales
  • Computer and software related services including programming
  • Dry cleaners
  • Gas stations or convenience stores
  • Limousine services
  • Long distance or “over-the-road” trucking
  • Mobile or manufactured home sales
  • Phone sales and direct selling establishments
  • Real estate agents/brokers
  • Real estate developers or land sub-dividers
  • Restaurants or drinking establishments
  • Taxi cabs
    1. This includes buying cab medallions
  • Travel agencies

A Look at Some High-Risk NAICS Codes

According to the older list, the following codes are among those considered to be high risk:

  • 445310 – Beer, Wine, and Liquor Stores
  • 424940 – Tobacco and Tobacco Product Merchant Wholesalers
  • 811113 – Automotive Transmission Repair

How do you choose a better code?

Using a Different NAICS Code

Of course you want to be 100% honest when it comes to selecting your NAICS code. But if more than one can apply, you don’t have to choose the one that’s higher risk. So it pays to check and be careful when making your selection.

Also, if only high risk codes apply, there’s nothing wrong with changing your business. Then you may be able to match a related but lower risk code. There is nothing underhanded or dishonest about doing this.

An Example of How to Switch an NAICS Code

Let’s say your business is automotive transmission repair (NAICS Code 811113). We know this is a high risk code. But 811191 is not on the NAICS list. It covers Automotive Oil Change and Lubrication Shops. So why not offer oil changes and use the lower risk code? It could be the difference between getting funding, or not.

Which Agencies Use NAICS Codes?

The Internal Revenue Service will use the NAICS code you select. This is to see if your business tax returns are comparable to other businesses in your industry. If your deductions do not reasonably resemble other businesses in your industry, your business could be subject to an audit.

The IRS may label some companies as high-risk when they do not choose the right NAICS code. But if you know how the system works, then you can choose the correct code on your first try.

Learn more here and get started with building business credit with your company’s EIN and not your SSN.

Which Agencies Other Than the IRS Use These Codes?

Lenders, banks, insurance companies, and business CRAs all use codes. They tend to use both NAICS and SIC Codes. SIC Codes are the older business classification system. D&B uses both SIC and NAICS Codes.

OSHA uses NAICS Codes for industry identification in its data. These agencies use them to determine if your business is in a high-risk industry. So you could get a loan or business credit card denial based on your business classification. Some SIC codes in particular can trigger automatic turn-downs. You could end up paying higher premiums, and get reduced credit limits for your business.

There Are No Guarantees in Life

Will a better NAICS code guarantee funding for your business venture? Of course it won’t. But at least your business will not be automatically turned down before you can make a case for funding.

NAICS Codes: Takeaways

Industries are defined by codes from the North American Industry Classification System. Codes go up to six digits for the most granular information. Some codes are always associated with high risk. This makes it harder to get business funding. So if more than one NAICS code can apply to your business, pick the one that’s less risky.

The post In Just a Few Minutes of Your Time, Learn All About Avoiding Risky NAICS Codes appeared first on Credit Suite.

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In Just a Few Minutes of Your Time, Learn All About Avoiding Risky NAICS Codes

What are NAICS Codes?

And how can they affect if you can get funding? We tell you all about NAICS Codes. They could be the difference between getting business money or not getting any money.

NAICS Codes: Some Background

Federal statistical agencies use the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) . The idea is to classify business establishments. This is to collect, analyze, and publish statistical data, related to the U.S. business economy.

The NAICS was developed under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Its adoption was in 1997. The intention is to replace the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. The U.S. Economic Classification Policy Committee (ECPC) developed it with Statistics Canada and Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia. The intent was to make business stats easy to compare among North American countries.

What is the NAICS Structure and How Many Digits are in an NAICS Code?

NAICS is a 2- through 6-digit hierarchical classification system. It offers five levels of detail. Each digit in the code is part of a series of progressively narrower categories. The more digits in the code, the more classification detail.

Details on NAICS Code Structure

The first two digits are the economic sector. The third digit designates the subsector. And the fourth digit designates the industry group. The fifth digit designates the NAICS industry. The sixth digit designates the national industry.

A 5-digit NAICS code is comparable in code and definitions for most of the NAICS sectors. This is across the three countries participating in NAICS. They are the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The 6-digit level lets the U.S., Canada, and Mexico all have country-specific detail. A complete and valid NAICS code has six digits.

Codes and Industries

NAICS industry codes define businesses based on the primary activities they engage in. Recently, the NAICS changed many of its codes as it updated its philosophy. It no longer sets aside online businesses. Now the NAICS no longer distinguishes businesses by how they deliver goods or services.

High Risk NAICS Codes

There is an older NAICS list of high-risk and high-cash industries. Higher risk industries on the list include casinos, pawn shops, and liquor stores. But it also included automotive dealers and restaurants. But this list is from 2014 and does not appear to have ever gotten any updating.

Per the NAICS, various professionals in the banking industry compiled the list. The idea was to use it as a working guide. But it is not an officially sanctioned list. They do not guarantee the accuracy of this list.

Codes and Risk

When considering any aspects of a business, risk must be a major factor. There are inherent issues in every single industry. But some businesses are considered to be risky by their very nature. This is the case even if everything else goes off like a hitch and the business is prospering. Risk is inherent within these business types. Even if your business doesn’t feel risky, it could be anyway.

Learn more here and get started with building business credit with your company’s EIN and not your SSN.

Why Risk Matters

The biggest reason why risk matters has to do with funding. There are several industries where lending institutions are hesitant to do business. In those particular cases, there are stricter underwriting guidelines. But at least a company can get funding.

In some industries, no funding is available at all. As a result, those businesses will need to find other solutions for financing. These solutions can include:

  • Crowdfunding
  • Angel investors
  • Venture capital
  • Business credit building and more

Still, a lot of businesses would rather work with lenders. But where are lenders’ ideas of the degree of risk coming from? One clue comes from the CDC.

Real Injury Risks According to the CDC

The Centers for Disease Control looks at risks in small businesses. Part of the calculation of risk comes from occupational injuries. But the other side of the risk coin is occupations which are high in cash transactions. After all, a pawn shop might not have much of a specific risk of injury at all. But the large amounts of cash normally associated with one mean it can be a tempting target for thieves.

A Look at Some Restricted Industries

These industries (among many others) can get an automatic decline:

  • Ammunition or weapons manufacturing; wholesale and retail
  • Energy, oil trading, or petroleum extraction or production
  • Gaming or gambling activities
  • Loans for the speculative purchases of securities or goods
  • Political campaigns, candidates, or committees
  • Public administration
    1. City, county, state, and federal governmental agencies
  • X-rated products or entertainment

Learn more here and get started with building business credit with your company’s EIN and not your SSN.

A Look at Some High-Risk Industries

These industries (among many others) can be subject to stricter underwriting guidelines:

  • Auto, RV or boat sales
  • Computer and software related services including programming
  • Dry cleaners
  • Gas stations or convenience stores
  • Limousine services
  • Long distance or “over-the-road” trucking
  • Mobile or manufactured home sales
  • Phone sales and direct selling establishments
  • Real estate agents/brokers
  • Real estate developers or land sub-dividers
  • Restaurants or drinking establishments
  • Taxi cabs
    1. This includes buying cab medallions
  • Travel agencies

A Look at Some High-Risk NAICS Codes

According to the older list, the following codes are among those considered to be high risk:

  • 445310 – Beer, Wine, and Liquor Stores
  • 424940 – Tobacco and Tobacco Product Merchant Wholesalers
  • 811113 – Automotive Transmission Repair

How do you choose a better code?

Using a Different NAICS Code

Of course you want to be 100% honest when it comes to selecting your NAICS code. But if more than one can apply, you don’t have to choose the one that’s higher risk. So it pays to check and be careful when making your selection.

Also, if only high risk codes apply, there’s nothing wrong with changing your business. Then you may be able to match a related but lower risk code. There is nothing underhanded or dishonest about doing this.

An Example of How to Switch an NAICS Code

Let’s say your business is automotive transmission repair (NAICS Code 811113). We know this is a high risk code. But 811191 is not on the NAICS list. It covers Automotive Oil Change and Lubrication Shops. So why not offer oil changes and use the lower risk code? It could be the difference between getting funding, or not.

Which Agencies Use NAICS Codes?

The Internal Revenue Service will use the NAICS code you select. This is to see if your business tax returns are comparable to other businesses in your industry. If your deductions do not reasonably resemble other businesses in your industry, your business could be subject to an audit.

The IRS may label some companies as high-risk when they do not choose the right NAICS code. But if you know how the system works, then you can choose the correct code on your first try.

Learn more here and get started with building business credit with your company’s EIN and not your SSN.

Which Agencies Other Than the IRS Use These Codes?

Lenders, banks, insurance companies, and business CRAs all use codes. They tend to use both NAICS and SIC Codes. SIC Codes are the older business classification system. D&B uses both SIC and NAICS Codes.

OSHA uses NAICS Codes for industry identification in its data. These agencies use them to determine if your business is in a high-risk industry. So you could get a loan or business credit card denial based on your business classification. Some SIC codes in particular can trigger automatic turn-downs. You could end up paying higher premiums, and get reduced credit limits for your business.

There Are No Guarantees in Life

Will a better NAICS code guarantee funding for your business venture? Of course it won’t. But at least your business will not be automatically turned down before you can make a case for funding.

NAICS Codes: Takeaways

Industries are defined by codes from the North American Industry Classification System. Codes go up to six digits for the most granular information. Some codes are always associated with high risk. This makes it harder to get business funding. So if more than one NAICS code can apply to your business, pick the one that’s less risky.

The post In Just a Few Minutes of Your Time, Learn All About Avoiding Risky NAICS Codes appeared first on Credit Suite.

Advanced Hack: How to Improve Your SEO in Less Than 30 Minutes

I’ve been testing a new SEO hack and it works no matter how old or how new your site is.

Heck, you can have barely any links, and I’ve found it to work as well.

Best of all, unlike most SEO changes, it doesn’t take months or years to see results from this… you can literally see results in less than 30 minutes.

And here’s what’s crazy: I had my team crawl 10,000 sites to see how many people are leveraging this SEO technique and it was only 17.

In other words, your competition doesn’t know about this yet!

So what is this hack that I speak of?

Google’s ever-changing search results

Not only is Google changing its algorithm on a regular basis, but they also test out new design elements.

For example, if you search for “food near me”, you’ll not only see a list of restaurants but you also see their ratings.

food near me

And if you look up a person, Google may show you a picture of that person and a quick overview.

elon musk

Over the years, Google has adapted its search results to give you the best experience. For example, if you search “2+2” Google will show you the answer of “4” so you don’t have to click through and head over to a webpage.

2 plus 2

But you already know this.

Now, what’s new that no one is really using are FAQ-rich results and Answer Cards.

Here’s what I mean… if you search “digital marketing” you’ll see that I rank on Google. But my listing doesn’t look like most people’s…

digital marketing

As you can see from the image above, Google has pulled FAQ rich results from my site.

And best of all, I was able to pull it off in less than 30 minutes. That’s how quickly Google picked it up and adjusted their SERP listing.

Literally all within 30 minutes.

And you can do the same thing through Answer Cards anytime you have pages related to question and answers.

qa example

So how can you do this?

Picking the right markup

Before we get this going with your site, you have to pick the right schema markup.

FAQpage schema is used when you offer a Frequently Asked Question page or have a product page that contains frequently asked questions about the product itself. This will let you be eligible for a collapsible menu under your SERP with the question, that when clicked on, reveals the answer.

faq rich result

It can also let you be eligible for FAQ Action that is shown on Google Assistant. This can potentially help get you noticed by people using voice search to find out an answer!

faq action

Q&A schema is used when people are contributing different types of answers and can vote for which answer they think is the best. This will provide the rich result cads under your SERP and shows all the answers, with the top answer highlighted.

qa rich result

After making sure you understand what these are used for, Google also has additional guidelines on when you can and can’t use these schema’s for:

Google’s guidelines

Google has a list of FAQpage schema guidelines.

Only use FAQPage if your page has a list of questions with answers. If your page has a single question and users can submit alternative answers, use QAPage instead. Here are some examples:

Valid use cases:

  • An FAQ page was written by the site itself with no way for users to submit alternative answers
  • A product support page that lists FAQs with no way for users to submit alternative answers 

Invalid use cases:

  • A forum page where users can submit answers to a single question
  • A product support page where users can submit answers to a single question
  • A product page where users can submit multiple questions and answers on a single page
  • Don’t use FAQPagefor advertising purposes
  • Make sure each Question includes the entire text of the question and make sure each answer includes the entire text of the answer. The entire question text and answer text may be displayed.
  • Question and answer content may not be displayed as a rich result if it contains any of the following types of content: obscene, profane, sexually explicit, graphically violent, promotion of dangerous or illegal activities, or hateful or harassing language.
  • All FAQcontent must be visible to the user on the source page.

And here are the guidelines for Q&A schema:

Only use the QAPage markup if your page has information in a question and answer format, which is one question followed by its answers.

Users must be able to submit answers to the question. Don’t use QAPage markup for content that has only one answer for a given question with no way for users to add alternative answers; instead, use FAQPage. Here are some examples:

Valid use cases:

  • A forum page where users can submit answers to a single question
  • A product support page where users can submit answers to a single question 

Invalid use cases:

  • An FAQ page was written by the site itself with no way for users to submit alternative answers
  • A product page where users can submit multiple questions and answers on a single page
  • A how-to guide that answers a question
  • A blog post that answers a question
  • An essay that answers a question
  • Don’t apply QAPagemarkup to all pages on a site or forum if not all the content is eligible. For example, a forum may have lots of questions posted, which are individually eligible for the markup. However, if the forum also has pages that are not questions, those pages are not eligible.
  • Don’t use QAPagemarkup for FAQ pages or pages where there are multiple questions per page. QAPagemarkup is for pages where the focus of the page is a single question and its answers.
  • Don’t use QAPagemarkup for advertising purposes.
  • Make sure each Questionincludes the entire text of the question and make sure each Answer includes the entire text of the answer.
  • Answermarkup is for answers to the question, not for comments on the question or comments on other answers. Don’t mark up non-answer comments as an answer.
  • Question and answer content may not be displayed as a rich result if it contains any of the following types of content: obscene, profane, sexually explicit, graphically violent, promotion of dangerous or illegal activities, or hateful or harassing language.

If your content meets these guidelines, the next step is to figure out how to implement the schema onto your website and which type to use.

How do I implement Schema and which to use? 

There are two ways to implement it… either through JSON-LD or Microdata.

I recommend choosing one style and sticking to it throughout your webpage, and I also recommend not using both types on the same page.

JSON-LD is what Google recommends wherever possible and Google has been in the process of adding support for markup-powered features. JSON-LD can be implemented into the header of your content and can take very little time to implement.

The other option is Microdata, which involves coding elements into your website. This can be a challenging process for some odd reason, I prefer it. Below are examples of how each work.

FAQpage Schema JSON-LD:

<html>

<head>

<title>Digital Marketing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – Neil Patel</title>

</head>

<body>

<script type=”application/ld+json”>

{

“@context”: “https://schema.org”,

“@type”: “FAQPage”,

“mainEntity”: [

{

“@type”: “Question”,

“name”: “What is digital marketing?”,

“acceptedAnswer”: {

“@type”: “Answer”,

“text”:”Digital marketing is any form of marketing products or services that involves electronic device”}

}]

}

</script>

</body>

</html>

FAQpage Schema Microdata:

<html itemscope itemtype=”https://schema.org/FAQPage”>

<head>

<title>Digital Marketing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – Neil Patel</title>

</head>

<body>

<div itemscope itemprop=”mainEntity” itemtype=”https://schema.org/Question”>

<h3 itemprop=”name”>What is digital marketing?</h3>

<div itemscope itemprop=”acceptedAnswer” itemtype=”https://schema.org/Answer”>

<div itemprop=”text”>

<p>Digital marketing is any form of marketing products or services that involves electronic device.</p>

</div>

</div>

</div>

</body>

</html>

Q&A Schema JSON-LD:

{

“@context”: “https://schema.org”,

“@type”: “QAPage”,

“mainEntity”: {

“@type”: “Question”,

“name”: “Can I tie my shoe with one hand?”,

“text”: “I currently have taken a hobby to do many actions with one hand and I’m currently stuck on how to tie a shoe with one hand. Is it possible to tie my shoe with one hand?”,

“answerCount”: 2,

“upvoteCount”: 20,

“dateCreated”: “2019-07-23T21:11Z”,

“author”: {

“@type”: “Person”,

“name”: “Expert at Shoes”

},

“acceptedAnswer”: {

“@type”: “Answer”,

“text”: “It is possible to tie your shoe with one hand by using your teeth to hold the other lace”,

“dateCreated”: “2019-11-02T21:11Z”,

“upvoteCount”: 9000,

“url”: “https://example.com/question1#acceptedAnswer”,

“author”: {

“@type”: “Person”,

“name”: “AnotherShoeMan”

}

},

“suggestedAnswer”: [

{

“@type”: “Answer”,

“text”: “It is not possible to tie your shoe with one hand”,

“dateCreated”: “2019-11-02T21:11Z”,

“upvoteCount”: 2,

“url”: “https://example.com/question1#suggestedAnswer1”,

“author”: {

“@type”: “Person”,

“name”: “Best Shoe Man”

}

}

]

}

}

Q&A Schema Microdata:

<div itemprop=”mainEntity” itemscope itemtype=”https://schema.org/Question”>

<h2 itemprop=”name”>Can I tie my shoe with one hand?</h2>

<div itemprop=”upvoteCount”>20</div>

<div itemprop=”text”>I currently have taken a hobby to do many actions with one hand and I’m currently stuck on how to tie a shoe with one hand. Is it possible to tie my shoe with one hand?</div>

<div>asked <time itemprop=”dateCreated” datetime=”2019-07-23T21:11Z”>July 23’19 at 21:11</time></div>

<div itemprop=”author” itemscope itemtype=”https://schema.org/Person”><span

itemprop=”name”>Expert at Shoes</span></div>

<div>

<div><span itemprop=”answerCount”>2</span> answers</div>

<div><span itemprop=”upvoteCount”>20</span> votes</div>

<div itemprop=”acceptedAnswer” itemscope itemtype=”https://schema.org/Answer”>

<div itemprop=”upvoteCount”>9000</div>

<div itemprop=”text”>

It is possible to tie your shoe with one hand by using your teeth to hold the other lace.

</div>

<a itemprop=”url” href=”https://example.com/question1#acceptedAnswer”>Answer Link</a>

<div>answered <time itemprop=”dateCreated” datetime=”2019-11-02T22:01Z”>Nov 2 ’19 at 22:01</time></div>

<div itemprop=”author” itemscope itemtype=”https://schema.org/Person”><span itemprop=”name”>AnotherShoeMan</span></div>

</div>

<div itemprop=”suggestedAnswer” itemscope itemtype=”https://schema.org/Answer”>

<div itemprop=”upvoteCount”>2</div>

<div itemprop=”text”>

It is not possible to tie your shoe with one hand

</div>

<a itemprop=”url” href=”https://example.com/question1#suggestedAnswer1″>Answer Link</a>

<div>answered <time itemprop=”dateCreated”datetime=”2019-11-02T21:11Z”>Nov 2 ’19 at 21:11</time></div>

<div itemprop=”author” itemscope itemtype=”https://schema.org/Person”><span

itemprop=”name”>Best Shoe Man</span></div>

</div>

</div>

</div>

When you are implementing it on your website, feel free and just use the templates above and modify them with your content.

If you are unsure if your code is correctly implemented or not, use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool and you can add your code snippet or the page that you implemented the schema on and it will tell you if you did it right or wrong.

Plus it will give you feedback on if there are any errors or issues with your code.

google structure data testing

You can also try Google’s Rich Result Tester. This will give you a brief look at how your structured data will look like in the results!

google rich snippet

Getting results in under 30 minutes

Once you make the changes to any page that you think is a good fit, you’ll want to log into Google Search Console and enter the URL of the page you modified in the top search bar.

add url

You’ll then want to have Google crawl that page so they can index the results. All you have to do is click “request indexing”.

request indexing

And typically within 10 minutes, you’ll notice it kick in and when you perform a Google search you’ll see your updated listing.

Now the key to making this work is to do this with pages and terms that already rank on page 1. That’s where I’ve seen the biggest improvement.

Will Schema get me to rank for People Also Ask and Featured Snippets?

Will this help with People Also Ask and Featured Snippets? So far, there has been no correlation between schema markup and People Also Ask or Featured Snippets and you do not need them to be featured in them.

Optimizing your content for this will not hurt you though and can potentially improve your chances to be on here.

Google has been testing out how they can show these types of Q&A, FAQ, and How-To results and looking at structured data to help understand them.

It’s better to be early to the game and help Google understand your pages, as well as possibly participating in any of Google’s experiments.

snippet

Will this get me on voice search?

With more and more people using mobile devices to find answers to questions, this is a very relevant question!

Especially considering that over half of the searches on Google will be from voice search in the near future.

Answers from voice search get most of their answers from featured snippets.

And adding structured data on your website increases the chances of getting you into featured snippets, which increases the chance of you getting featured on voice search.

Conclusion

This simple hack can potentially increase the visibility of your brand and help improve the authority of your website. It’s a simple solution that can take a single day to implement across your main question, product, or FAQ page.

I’ve been using it heavily for the last week or so and as long as I pick keywords that I already rank on page 1 for, I am seeing great results.

And as I mentioned above, when my team analyzed 10,000 sites we only found 17 to be using FAQ and QA schema. In other words, less than 1% of the sites are using this, which means you if you take advantage now, you’ll have the leg up on your competition.

So what do you think about this tactic? Are you going to use it?

The post Advanced Hack: How to Improve Your SEO in Less Than 30 Minutes appeared first on Neil Patel.

How to Perform a Thorough SEO Audit in Less Than 3 Minutes

They say there are over 200 ranking factors in Google’s algorithm.

But are you going to take the time to optimize your site for each and every single one of them?

Well, you should… but you probably won’t.

See, SEO has changed… it used to be that you could do a handful of things and rank well. Sadly, those days are gone.

Now you have to do every little thing and do it well to dominate Google.

So, I decided to make your job easier and release yet another new feature in Ubersuggest that audits your website for you in less than 3 minutes.

It’s called SEO Analyzer.

Introducing SEO Analyzer

If you want to find out what’s wrong with your website, you won’t have to do it manually anymore.

All you have to do is head over to the SEO Analyzer and put in your URL.

seo analyzer

How SEO Analyzer works

Once you put in your URL, you’ll be taken to a report that looks something like this:

seo analyzer

Once the report loads (it typically takes 3 minutes or less), you’ll see an overview like the image above.

The overview is broken down into 3 main sections.

Overview

overview

The first section shows you your on-page SEO score (the higher the better), your estimated search traffic, the number of keywords the domain ranks for, and how many backlinks the site has.

You’ll also see a message from me that breaks down how many pages were crawled and any SEO errors that were found.

When you click on any of those 4 boxes, it will take you to a more in-depth report.

Clicking on the on-page score takes you to a page that lists out your SEO errors. It looks something like this:

seo issues

Clicking on the organic traffic takes you to a report that shows you how well your site is performing.

traffic analyzer

Clicking on the keywords box shows you all of the keywords your website ranks for organically.

keywords

And clicking on the backlinks box shows you all of the sites linking to that domain.

backlinks

Site health

This is my favorite section of the site audit report. This is where you can really dig around and boost your rankings

site health

You can click on any of the four site health boxes and drill down into more reports.

This is important because you’ll want to first focus on clearing up any critical errors. From there, you’ll want to fix any warnings and then, finally, consider doing any of the given recommendations.

The health check box gives you an overview of the healthy pages and the ones that have issues or are broken or blocked or even redirected. By clicking on this box you’ll get taken to a report that lists all your SEO issues in detail.

seo issues

From there you can click on any of those issues and you’ll be taken to the exact pages that contain any SEO errors and what they are exactly. An example of this is pages with too long of a title tag.

long titles

If you aren’t sure on how to fix any of the issues, just click on “what is this and how do I fix it?” and a box like this will appear:

how to fix

And if you click on the critical errors, warnings or recommendations boxes, you’ll see reports just like the ones above. They will be broken down by how important they are.

hard easy

That way you’ll know which fixes have the greatest SEO impact and how hard they are to implement.

You should first focus on the ones that have the highest SEO impact and are the easiest to implement. And I took the liberty to prioritize the table for you, so all you have to do is start at the top and work your way down to the bottom.

Site speed

Speed is important. Not only do faster load times help boost conversion rates, but they also help boost your search rankings.

site speed

There are two sections to the site speed. The section on the left breaks down your desktop load time and the section on the right breaks down your mobile load time.

Site speed varies drastically by a person’s connection and computer, but the charts give you a rough range of how fast or slow your site loads.

Your goal should be to have your site load in 3 seconds or less for both mobile and desktop.

The report even breaks down which areas are slowing down your site speed.

For example, you could have an issue with “First CPU Idle”… and if you aren’t sure what that means, just hover over the question mark and the tool will tell you.

tool tip

Top SEO Issues

I know I said the report has 3 main sections, but the 4th section is just repeating the site health section.

top seo issues

You’ll see the 3 most important fixes that you should make to your site if you want higher rankings.

If you don’t have the time to fix everything, start off by fixing the 3 issues listed here. Those will give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Conclusion

So, what do you think about the SEO Analyzer report? Do you think it was a good addition to Ubersuggest?

I know I haven’t talked about the SEO Analyzer report much, but we’ve been working on it for 4 months now.

For now, the tool crawls the first 100 pages on your website, and eventually, our goal is to increase the limit to 500 or even 1,000. Technically we can do that fairly easily, but for the launch, I’ve capped it at 100 due to the sheer number of users I have and server load.

Give the SEO Analyzer a try and let me know what you think.

The post How to Perform a Thorough SEO Audit in Less Than 3 Minutes appeared first on Neil Patel.