Knicks take 3-1 series lead with Game 4 win over Cavaliers

Jalen Brunson scored 29 points, RJ Barrett had 26 and the New York Knicks took a 3-1 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers in their first-round series with a 102-93 victory on Sunday.

Josh Hart moved into the starting lineup and added 19 points and seven rebounds for the fifth-seeded Knicks, who can reach the second round for the first time since 2013 with a victory in Cleveland on Wednesday. New York would host Game 6, if necessary, on Friday at what has been a deafening Madison Square Garden during the last two games that were dominant defensively.

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New York forced Cleveland All-Star Donovan Mitchell into one of the worst games of his postseason career, finishing with just 11 points on 5-for-18 shooting. Darius Garland had 23 points and 10 assists for the Cavs, bouncing back nicely after going 4 for 21 in the Knicks’ Game 3 romp. Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert each scored 14 points.

Barrett was only 6 for 25 in the two games in Cleveland but has been outstanding back at home, where fans chanted his name in the second half. He had five straight points to break the Knicks free from a 75-all tie, then added another basket before Hart scored to push it to 90-81 midway during a stretch when Cleveland could only manage two baskets in more than four minutes.

After limiting the Cavs to the lowest point total in an NBA game this season on Friday, the Knicks led most of the way in this one to reach the verge of the Eastern Conference semifinals for the first time since beating Boston in 2013.

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They’ve only made it back to the playoffs once since then, falling in five games to Atlanta in 2021. But this team is more complete, thanks largely signing Brunson last summer and acquiring Hart from Portland during this season.

Starting together for the first time since they were college teammates at Villanova, that duo combined for 20 of the Knicks’ 30 points in the first quarter, which ended with them leading by seven.

New York pushed it into double digits in the second and Brunson’s 3-pointer midway through the period made it 46-31. The Knicks were ahead 54-45.

But Garland got the first two baskets of the third quarter, set up Cleveland’s next three scores, then had the Cavs’ next two field goals to tie it at 59. His three-point play gave Cleveland a 66-63 lead and he had 11 points and five assists in the period, before Brunson made a 3-pointer with 6.2 seconds left that sent the Knicks to the fourth with a 73-71 edge.

TIP-INS

Cavaliers: Evan Mobley had 12 points but fouled out in the fourth quarter. … Cleveland fell to 7-2 in Game 4s since 2017.

Knicks: Mitchell Robinson had 12 points and 11 rebounds. … All-Star Julius Randle finished with just seven points and two rebounds.

How Can You Increase Your Domain Authority and How Long Does It Take?

So, you’ve been spending time trying to increase domain authority, but you aren’t seeing the success you thought you would by now.

I understand your frustration, since 42% of marketers are looking at a site’s domain authority based on its backlink quality.

It’s no secret that every brand is vying to rank higher than competitors in search results and take that top spot.

Build link equity, but don’t obsess over domain authority. Treating domain authority like a vanity metric will not get you its full benefits.

You can’t fake authority. So, let me help you understand where you can compete.

Sound good? Let’s look at what our research taught us about what it takes to increase domain authority.

What Is Domain Authority and Why Is It Important?

You may have heard this term before, but you still don’t know what it means – you just know it’s important.

Well, you’re correct – it is important, especially in regard to your search engine rank.

Domain authority refers to the quality and quantity of backlinks—links from other reliable websites to your website—that your site has. The link being relevant is key because your score is influenced by it.

When Moz created the domain authority metric, the scoring system was made with the ability to compare websites or monitor the ranking strength of the site as it developed over time.

For some brands, they don’t have to try to be authoritative, it seems.

For instance, Dropbox. It has a high domain authority because of the visual content shared between individuals for personal and business use. This then creates unique domain backlinks aside from total backlinks, boosting domain authority for Dropbox.

Why is all this important?

Despite not being a Google ranking factor, one study found a connection between domain authority and SERP ranking.

The results of this study suggest that domain authority may be a useful metric for calculating the potential volume of organic traffic from Google.

If you want to increase your SEO rankings, think about your strategy to increase your domain authority.

Don’t give up if you don’t start seeing results right away, though.

Establishing authority might take some time.

Why Does Domain Authority Take Time to Build?

As you may have noticed, backlinks are quite important for determining domain authority. Not just that, one of the two most significant ranking variables is the number of backlinks.

Like SEO, the best way to increase domain authority is a slow game – depending on your efforts.

You can optimize your site more effectively when you have a better understanding of the keywords for which you are recognized as an authority.

But, it goes beyond keywords.

The larger your backlink profile, the greater your chances to increase domain authority.

A logarithmic scale is used to determine domain authority. As a result, solo stats won’t always affect the score in the same way. The higher the metric, the greater its impact.

So how does this affect how long it takes to increase domain authority?

The answer is it depends.

I know that’s not what you want to hear, but it’s never fun explaining how you won’t be hitting those top-ranking spots immediately.

Even with good content and a good strategy, you won’t be in your desired position due to the site being new, having no content history, or a limited backlink profile.

Achieving a high rank is possible – I never said it wasn’t. It will just be a challenge.

So, as you’re playing catch-up, let me clear the air around some myths so you know what to focus on to increase domain authority.

What Our Data Taught Us About How Long It Takes to Increase Domain Authority

These concepts are nice, but it’s important to see how they play out in action. To figure out the truth, my team and I did a breakdown on a few sites’ domain ratings and referring domains to see what factors contributed to their domain growth.

We followed three sites from July 2013 to July 2022 to measure their domain growth. After balancing this data against their referring domains and backlinks, we got insights to find potential correlations that apply to increasing domain authority.

Let’s look at our lessons learned from data insights from Netlify, Digital Ocean, and Linode in the cloud software provider industry.

Netlify: Why Referring Domain Quality Is Important

A screenshot of Netlify's homepage as an example of increased domain authority.

According to tools like Ahrefs, Netlify didn’t start seeing a jump in domain ratings until March of 2015 where they hit 25 with a total of 34 referring domains. Over the course of 2015, Netlify increased their domain authority to an astounding 71 with 201 referring domains.

By 2017, they started with a domain score of 70 with 443 referring domains and ended 2017 with a 78 and 1,531 total referring domains. So, here we saw it took them about a year to increase 8 points. They more than doubled the links going to the website, which shows by the massive gains in domain rating.

In 2018, they increased from 78 to 83 with 3,283 referring domains. Again, just a little more than doubled their link-building efforts.

In the beginning of 2020, they maintained their 83 and rose 3 positions to an 86 with 14,479 referring domains at the end of 2021.

To date, they now sit at 88 for their domain rating with 24,423 referring domains.

Their backlink profile consists of 90% being from sites with a 0-10 URL distribution. With a high domain authority at 88, many sites in that range will want to link to them, but it makes up the majority of their backlink profile.

Only 4% of their URL distribution comes from sites with a domain authority of 50 or higher. A variety of URLs with the majority being .com. 88% of their links are do-follow which helps pass on link equity.

One thing to note – the scores of your referring domains, while they are important, are not the end all be all. Focus on quality rather than quantity.

A graphic showcasing year over year increased domain authority for Netlify.

Digital Ocean: The Referring Domain Leader

A screenshot of DigitalOcean's homepage.

From our data pull using Ahrefs, Digital Ocean didn’t see a domain rating score until March 31, 2015 when they reached 12,644 referring domains. Digital Ocean’s starting score was 87 and crept up to 89 at the end of 2015 with 17,878 referring domains.

At the beginning of 2016, and at 18,884 referring domains, Digital Ocean was at 89 for its domain rating. Their domain rating was constant through year-end in 2019.

Digital Ocean was still at 89 in 2017 and gained 25.6K referring domains. It isn’t until halfway through 2018 that we see Digital Ocean gain 1 point and hit the 90 mark with 31,690 referring domains.

Digital Ocean stays at a 90 for all of 2019 and most of 2020. In Sept. 2020, they hit 91 with 57,973 referring domains. Almost doubling their referring domains they had when they hit 90 for domain rating, they closed out 2021 with a 91 and 59.5K referring domains.

At the start of 2020, Digital Ocean dropped down to 90 and dropped to 58.8K for referring domains. This indicates that either Digital Ocean was removed from many pages they were linked on or a site they were linked to is no longer active.

They go back and forth from 91 to 90 and back to 91 a few times over the course of 2021 and end 2021 with 72,344 referring domains.

To date, Digital Ocean has maintained its 91 domain rating with an impressive 86,822 referring domains.

Their backlink profile consists of 71% being from sites with a 0-10. With a high domain authority at 91, many sites in that range will want to link to them but it makes up the majority of their backlink profile. Only 4% of their URL distribution comes from sites with a domain authority of 50 or higher. A variety of URLs with the majority being .com. 73% of their links are do-follow which helps pass on link equity.

A table showing increased domain authority from Digital Ocean.

Linode: Evidence On Site Authority

A screenshot of Linode's webpage.

You see a very similar story here with Linode here as well. They did not start having a domain rating of 85 until March 31, 2015, with 6,824 referring domains. Linode ended 2015 with 9,031 referring domains and a domain rating of 85.

Linode started 2016 still at 85. 2016 came to an end, and Linode dropped down to 84 and racked in 9,967 referring domains.

2018 comes and goes and Linode finally hits 85 again late in the year with 11,572 referring domains.

2019 starts at an 85 for domain rating and drops down to 10,915 referring domains. Linode drops to an 84 shortly after and is working to build their referring domains back up. They hit 11,469 referring domains and finally hit an 85 again in early 2019. Their plateau is broken in mid-2019 and they hit an 86 for their domain rating and achieve 14,546 referring domains. By the time 2019 closes out, they land at 86 and 15,957 referring domains.

2020 was fairly constant but Linode sees some changes the following year. 2021 they start off at 86 and slips down to 85 with a year-end of 19,882 referring domains. 2022 starts off by reclaiming 86 for a domain rating and 20,462 referring domains. 2022 to date still stands at 86 and 23,666 referring domains.

Their backlink profile consists of 92% being from sites with a 0 – 10. With a high domain authority at 86, many sites in that range will want to link to them but it makes up the majority of their backlink profile. Only 3% of their URL distribution comes from sites with a domain authority of 50 or higher. A variety of URLs with the majority being .com. 77% of their links are do-follow which helps pass on domain authority.

A table showing increased domain authority from Linode.

What Lessons Did We Learn from Data About How to Increase Domain Authority?

Based on the data from these three websites, it takes about 23,000 – 25,000 referring domains to be in the mid to high 80 scores for domain rating.

The amount of referring domains does seem to correlate with the higher domain rating score.

Digital Ocean has more than triple the amount of referring domains than its competitors. They’ve maintained a 91 as their domain rating score with an impressive 86,822 referring domains. Compared to Digital Ocean, Netlify stands at a score of 88 for their domain rating with 24,423 referring domains and Linode at an 86 with 23,666 referring domains.

Of the three, Linode had a much harder time building and maintaining its domain rating score.

They lost referring domains more frequently and did not have the same percentage of referring domains that had a domain rating score of 50 or higher – meaning average or good. While Netlify and Digital Ocean had 4% of their URL distribution come from sites with a domain authority of 50 or higher, Linode had 3%.

However, the small difference between Netlify, with 24,423 referring domains and Linode’s 23,666 referring domains, with a 2-point difference can be attributed to Netlify having a higher percentage of referring domains with a domain rating of 50 or higher.

What does this mean?

Having more quality sites passing off their authority to Netlify is what has boosted their domain rating score.

In regards to how much time it takes to grow your domain rating, using Netlify as our example, it takes about 34 referring domains to hit a score of 25. It took Netlify 1 year to grow from a 25 to a 71 with 304 referring domains. Still, for Digital Ocean, it took them one year to grow from an 87 to an 89.

This indicates that the closer you get to a domain rating of 100, the harder and longer it takes to grow your authority.

It is easy to go from 0 –10, but once a site hits the higher domain rating scores, it is harder to improve it year over year.

So, aside from what to do and do well, how can you speed things up?

A chart showing the grand total sum of domain ranking and sum of total referring domains between Netlify, Digital Ocean, and Linode.

Can You Do Anything to Speed Up the Process?

To increase domain authority means being patient through the process.

But there are a few tips that can help get you to your goal faster.

Try starting with a link audit. This process is how you’ll be able to tell which links pointing to your site are legit and not using weak, black-hat SEO techniques.

There are more items to do after that, though. What if I told you there was a tool that let you learn more about your domain score, where the number of backlinks stand currently, and referring domains?

Try out Ubersuggest.

All backlinks are not created equal, but they all have an impact on SEO results because they are links from other websites to yours.

To speed up the process, collect links of high quality. To get started, use the Backlinks feature within Ubersuggest for a free analysis. You will see how backlinks play a role and which websites are linked to your competitors, among other options to speed up an increase in domain authority.

A screenshot of the backlinks feature on Ubbersuggest.

Looking at my site, you can analyze the page authority and domain authority from the source. By taking a look at this information, I can make pivots or double-check anything alarming reports if I see fit.

You can do the same with this tool and see how authoritative your links are.

Common Myths About Domain Authority

Everything about domain authority isn’t always black and white.

However, we can separate some domain authority myths from the facts.

Myth 1: Backlinks really don’t matter that much

This is an interesting one because more links = more traffic leading to better rankings.

Though you will notice even if you have a few quality backlinks, this is better than multiple ineffective ones.

It makes it worth your time when the links are relevant to your niche and known as trusted sources by searchers online.

Myth 2: If a site has a lower domain authority than yours, never get links from them

Domain authority is about all metrics, so getting a link from a page with lower domain authority doesn’t penalize you.

This could be a new site you’re working with. Sites with few links or local links are just fine.

Just because their domain authority is low, don’t worry that they’re going to deliver little to no value or stunt your progress. If they are high-quality sites that also distribute links editorially and connect to other good websites, they are still useful.

Myth 3: Garnering links too quickly could be suspicious

Google zeroes in on spam or spammy-looking links. If they’re triggered by the activity on that page, they’ll take a closer look that could lead them to penalizing the site.

Black hat link building and link buying are among the things that trigger Google that something sketchy is going on.

There’s nothing wrong with speeding up the pace of how many links you gather. After all, it is your goal to increase domain authority, right?

Just make sure the links are coming from good, trusted sites. And never, ever bulk purchase links.

Conclusion

Going at it blind with no plan, trying to increase domain authority could seem challenging.

Though growing your domain authority is possible, it will take time – especially considering the tips you decide to use.

Your rating is affected by a variety of elements, and it may be difficult to evaluate them all.

However, once you understand domain authority, it’s worthwhile to monitor and optimize for it.

You might be able to get a tight grip on your total online presence and website health by including this in your SEO toolkit.

As I mentioned, all metrics count and contribute to your domain authority.

Check your follow or nonfollow links. Notice the audience search intent via keywords using Ubersuggest. Review and revise your content marketing strategy. All these aspects contribute to increasing your domain authority.

The quality of the content you have to share can mean more backlinks, and that material will help grow your domain authority.

It’s easier said than done, but I hope all these insights and data helps you reach your preferred domain authority rank.

If you’ve planned how to increase domain authority, have you been successful? Let us know your methods in the comments.

Pence says he didn't take classified material, calls for 'unprecedented transparency' after Mar-a-Lago raid

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that he did not take any classified information or materials with him after he left office in January 2021.

The comment comes as FBI officials found classified and “top secret” information among boxes of documents during a raid at former President Donald Trump’s private Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago last week. The raid was part of a larger investigation into whether Trump mishandled classified information or potentially violated the Espionage Act.

During an interview with the Associated Press, Pence was specifically asked if he retained any such documents or information.

“No, not to my knowledge,” Pence answered.

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The former president, who some believe could be pursuing the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2024, said he would not rush to judge Trump over the FBI’s findings, however.

“I honestly don’t want to prejudge it before until we know all the facts,” Pence said about the raid. He also called for transparency by the Justice Department for the “unprecedented action.”

“The concern that millions of Americans felt is only going to be resolved with daylight,” he continued. “I know that’s not customary in an investigation. But this is unprecedented action by the Justice Department, and I think it merits an unprecedented transparency.”

TRUMP CALLS WASHINGTON POST ‘FAKE NEWS’ FOLLOWING REPORT CLAIMING HE’S ‘SCRAMBLING’ FOR LAWYERS AFTER FBI RAID

The former vice president also addressed Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney’s primary loss to Trump-endorsed challenger Harriet Hageman. Cheney is a vocal critic of Trump and is one of the Republicans on the House Committee Investigating the Capitol Riots on January 6th.

“The people of Wyoming have spoken,” Pence answered, walking his typical fine line of addressing the issue without speaking ill of his former boss or offending Republicans who supported her. “And, you know, I accept their judgment about the kind of representation they want on Capitol Hill.”

“And I appreciate the conservative stance Congresswoman Cheney has taken over the years,” he added. “But I’ve been disappointed in the partisan taint of the Jan. 6 committee from early on.”

LOCAL GOP LEADERS SAY IOWA’S ‘RETAIL POLITICS’ UNIQUELY APPEALS TO 2024 HOPEFULS

The committee has repeatedly called forth former Trump administration officials to testify on the events on Jan. 6, 2021, to determine if Trump played a role in advocating for an invasion of the Capitol building that resulted in several deaths.

Committee members have also sought Pence’s testimony before they wrap up their investigative report next month.

“Beyond my concerns about the partisan nature of the Jan. 6 committee, there are profound constitutional issues that have to be considered,” he said. “No vice president has ever been summoned to testify before the Congress of the United States.”

The interview came as Pence spent two days in Iowa, a state usually visited by potential presidential candidates as its caucus kicks off primary elections. Winners of the Iowa Caucus typically use that early momentum to bolster fundraising and gain polling leads that will help them in other state primaries. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Off-page Seo: What Is It & How Can You Take Advantage of It

As smart bloggers and content marketers, we usually start with on-page SEO.

However, one of the most important Google ranking factors isn’t found on your page at all. Rather, it’s backlinks from other websites pointing towards your site. The top results on Google have an average of 3.8x more backlinks than the results that appear in positions 2-10.

Off-page search engine optimization is not just about building backlinks though.

It goes deeper than that. For example, brand mentions (your site URL or brand name mentioned on another site without a hyperlink) are an integral aspect of off-page search signals.

Off-page SEO simply tells Google what others think about your site. For example, if you’ve got a lot of valuable links pointing to your pages, search engines will assume that you’ve got great content that provides value for users.

People only cite, reference, and share content they like. Even in a brick-and-mortar business, if your product is helpful and affordable, you’ll get a lot of word-of-mouth referrals from your current customers.

If you’re ready, I’m going to walk you through everything you need to know about off-page search optimization.

What is Off-Page SEO?

“Off-Page SEO” refers to all of the activities that you and others do away from your website to raise the ranking of a page with search engines.

Though many people associate off-page SEO with link building, it goes beyond that. Many activities that don’t result in a standard link on other sites are important for off-page optimization.

On-page search engine optimization happens within the site, while off-page SEO happens outside the site. If you write a guest post for another blog or leave a comment, you’re doing off-page site promotion.

off-page seo ranking factors

Preparing a Site/Page for Link Building

Links are still very important to Google. In fact, it’s almost impossible for Google to determine the value of any web page if there are no links pointing to it, no matter how useful, fresh, or in-depth the page content might be.

Site owners are often tempted to skip initial preparations for link building. But it’s important that you give this top priority because preparing a site will ensure that you’re mindful of the links you sent to them.

So how do you ensure that your web pages are ready for link building?

1. Lay Out Your Internal Pages

Optimized internal pages can make a huge difference in your overall rankings. This includes interlinking your pages using random keywords (with more emphasis on your brand name).

According to Brian Dean’s famous post “Google’s 200 Ranking Factors,” the number of internal links to a page indicates its importance relative to other pages on the site.

Be careful when you do this, however. In a recent study, Semrush found 42.5 percent of websites have broken internal links.

To optimize internal linking, you should have silo pages that connect to your category pages and supporting pages (posts). That way, when you send a link to the homepage, the juice flows through your category and supporting pages, thus boosting your search performance.

off-page SEO - silo pages and internal links

Smart search engine optimization professionals don’t just throw links at a page. Instead, they lay out the pages so that each link will pass SEO juice to other interconnected pages.

None of your internal pages should stand alone. Make each page an integral part of your site and include seamless navigation. This is essential to your site users and your appeal to search engines.

Ideally, pages addressing the same or related topics should be linked together in order to provide a rich experience for the users.

off-page seo: page experience

In search engine optimization, internal pages are often overlooked. Most SEOs and site owners don’t realize that much of a site’s “SEO value” flows from how the internal pages are structured.

This is usually made possible when you have links from high-value pages on the same site. Silo your pages properly if you want healthy link equity between your internal pages.

Remember that it’s no longer only about the number of links you have. The quality of links to your internal pages is as important as the structure of the pages themselves.

In fact, sometimes reducing the number of links pointing to your internal pages could help your SEO efforts.

For example, CMS North America, a manufacturer of 5 axis CNC machines, had an established website with 170 indexed pages. Yet, the site wasn’t generating substantial search traffic.

image35

By auditing their site using the Internal Link Juice Tool, they discovered that the site had 168 links pointing to the homepage.

This was more than best practices called for, which is especially a problem when the SEO juice from those links doesn’t flow to internal pages.

They initiated a new navigation structure and removed some of the links pointing to silo pages, while retaining the links that supported usability (such as “contact us” and support pages). In all, 70 links were removed.

After 6 weeks of re-structuring the internal pages’ links and the homepage, most of the fresh pages and links had been re-crawled by Google’s spider.

The company saw improved rankings for 18 of the 21 keyword phrases the site was targeting. Keywords that were already ranking on page 2 improved an average of 3.7 ranking slots.

2. Do Basic On-page SEO First

On-page search engine optimization is important. After all, you don’t want Google to view your site as a neglected portal.

I’m sure you’ve heard enough about meta tags and keyword density. Yet, there are other important on-page SEO factors that matter and that are often overlooked. This on-page SEO infographic from Backlinko lays many of them out for you:

image15

One of the reasons many authority sites no longer dominate the top organic listings is because they’ve neglected basic on-page SEO.

You want to link to your internal pages using the keyword that best defines that page.

When you create a landing page that you would like Google to rank highly, you should pass more SEO juice to that page from your important pages.

If the search engine giant is seeing a lot of pages on your site for a particular search term and is unsure of which one to rank higher than the others, you’ll struggle to increase your search engine rank no matter how much value you provide.

And that’s what the basic on-page search engine optimization process is all about. There’s no magic secret formula. Just ensure that your pages are well structured, your keywords specified, and signals are being sent to Google in the right manner. This will work towards improving your search engine ranking.

Here’s an example: Daily Mail Online, a popular online magazine that ranks highly for several keywords, failed to dominate the top listings during the 2014 World Cup. Other brands took their spots:

image12

The online magazine missed out on this opportunity to attract thousands, if not millions of search users, given the sheer interest in the tournament (with a spike peak around June 18).

image10

With several brands dominating Google’s first page rankings, Daily Mail Online missed out on the term “World Cup.” Each new article published about the World Cup overlapped with Daily Mail’s landing page, which they desperately wanted to rank better than other pages (shown in pink).

image09

What’s happening here is the search engine giant is seeing lots of pages from Daily Mail Online for this search term, and is unsure of which one should be ranked highest.

This has a lot to do with internal page linking—or the lack thereof.

To capitalize on the trending search term at the time, Mail Online could have linked back to the hub page from every internal page (especially those related to ‘Word Cup’).

This would have been a strong signal to Google that this page was significant and perhaps useful to users.

Sadly, Daily Mail had lots of opportunities to link back to the hub from relevant blog posts and pages, but they didn’t do so.

3. Pick Thematic Keywords, Even for Off-page SEO

Although links are still the icing on the cake, the upshot to SEO that controls every other factor is the keywords you choose.

Keywords are the fundamental building blocks for your content campaign. In the diagram below, the more accurate view of on-page SEO shows that use of related keywords and primary keywords account for 7.5% and 40% of on-page SEO, respectively.

off page seo - keywords

But not all keywords are created equal. If you want to improve the odds of driving organic traffic to your site, then you need to pick thematic keywords.

The word “thematic” simply means having or relating to a particular subject.

So when you’re picking keywords, focus on those that are related to a particular subject. You can’t afford to spread your net too wide. Here’s an example:

Let’s assume that your business delivers WordPress theme customization services. It’s important to find the right related keywords that you can create content around.

Simply plug your main keyword (WordPress theme customization) into the Ubersuggest search bar. Click the “Search” button. Simply plug your main keyword (WordPress theme customization) into the Ubersuggest search bar. Click the “Search” button. Here are thematic keyword phrases that populate in the results:

using ubersuggest for off-page seo keyword selections

Remember that you’re in business to help others. By knowing the words, phrases, and search terms they use in search, you can more easily tailor your content to meet their needs.

You can supercharge the power of your keywords by switching toward branded keywords. In other words, instead of targeting “SEO tips,” you could niche down and include your brand or domain name (e.g., Moz SEO tips, Neil Patel SEO).

Domain or brand-oriented keywords usually bring up several results from the same site in Google search results.

branded search for off page seo

Of course, you have to create useful, high-quality content. When you see several of your pages ranking in Google search results, it doesn’t matter what positions those pages hold – you can pass more link juice to them through any of the link building strategies below:

off page seo link building strategies

Branded thematic keywords will give you an edge over the competition and serves as a leading SEO technique. No matter how many top brands are dominating the top 10 organic listings, you can find yourself driving motivated visitors to your site.

When you’re targeting keywords in on-page optimization, don’t just keep reiterating those primary keywords over and over.

Instead, use synonyms or latent semantic indexing (LSI) terms. LSI keywords have one purpose – to help search engine spiders extract meaning from normal keywords (especially those with more than one meaning). For example, Apple, the computer company vs. apple, the fruit.

Ideally, if you were writing content on a subject related to Apple, the company, Google expects you to mention relevant words and terms that are common to the organization.

LSI keywords for off page seo

Stay away from mentioning your primary keyword (e.g., cheap airline tickets) over and over in your content. Google will view that as over-optimization and may well penalize you.

You might be wondering how you can find these synonymous words. The good news is that there are several tools that you can use to research LSI search terms. Simply follow these steps:

Step #1: Go to Ubersuggest and input your primary keyword (e.g., cheap airline tickets). Click the “Search” button.

Step #2: Click “Keyword Ideas” in the left sidebar.

using ubersuggest for off page seo LSI keywords

Step #3: Review the Keyword Ideas

off page seo lsi keywords - ubersuggest keyword suggestions

Step #4: Choose Keywords

Choose keyword phrases with high search volume, a low SEO difficulty score, and high CPC.

The final step is getting a better idea of what you need to do to outrank your page one competitors.

In summary:

On-page keyword optimization all boils down to researching, choosing, and integrating keywords that you can easily rank for. You don’t want to compete with top brands with higher and stronger domain authority.

That’s why you should also focus on long-tail keywords. You already know how to find and use them to improve your search rankings.

How to Get Relevant, Authority, and User-Friendly Backlinks

In January of 2022, Google processed 12.1 million search queries. Think of all the potential traffic your website could receive if you could capture just a tiny fraction of those searches. How?

As SEOs, content marketers, and bloggers know, backlinks are currently the most important off-page SEO factor.

That’s because natural links from authoritative and relevant websites act as an independent “vote of confidence,” which helps search engines trust your website more.

off page seo, on page seo, and technical seo relationship

When Google’s search spider crawls your site, looking for fresh content (sometimes depending on your sitemap settings), it indexes your new pages and prepares them for search users.

After your pages are added into its vast index to be returned in search results when relevant search queries are triggered, Google uses several algorithm factors to determine where those pages will rank.

In the SEO world, we refer to these as Google’s ranking factors. They’re the determining factors for organic web page rankings. Fortunately, you don’t have to memorize all of the ranking factors. This is great news since there are literally hundreds of them.

But the most important factor as far as SEO is concerned is links. Well, not the links per se, but the impact of such links. Some other off-page factors are:

off page seo factors

In the past, if I generated 100 links to my page, and you had only 20 links, Google would view my web page as more authoritative and valuable than yours.

Link quality wasn’t all that important at the time.

But today, links are perceived differently. A lot of questions arise when Google sees a link pointing to your web page. For example:

  • Where does the link come from?
  • What prompted the site owner to link to you?
  • What is the link quality? (I.e., is it from an authority site?)
  • How fresh is your link?
  • How natural is your link profile?
  • And so on…

When building links to your site or internal pages (which is more ideal in today’s SEO), focus on relevant, authority, and SEO-friendly links.

Ways to Get Valuable Links to Improve Off-page SEO

There are a variety of approaches when it comes to getting backlinks. Here are some of the most common and effective.

1. Broken Link Building

Even though I’ve written tons of posts on broken link building, sadly, not many people do it. Per Semrush, 40.5 percent of websites contain broken links, and you can leverage that by asking websites with broken links to replace the links with valid ones to your site.

Broken link building is easy, faster than guest blogging, and could provide a substantial avenue to earn the right links.

When I launched my nutrition blog, I leveraged broken link building tactics and generated a handful of natural links from trusted sites through that strategy.

The opportunities are just endless when you capitalize on dead links. Because in reality, the internet is broken…literally.

Lots of links that you see on authority blogs are actually dead. As hosting expires, sites are messed up during file transfer or migration or typing mistakes happen and links are bound to break. They lead to 404 error pages, which don’t appeal to users (more on this later).

All these broken links are to your advantage.

There is nothing new or fancy about fixing broken links. This link building tactic will never become outdated or fizzle out, because the internet will always have new broken links that need to be fixed.

If you have too many dead links on your blog, and are wondering whether your search performance will be affected, you don’t have to worry. According to the Official Google Webmaster Central blog, and confirmed by Semrush in 2021, 404 error pages or broken pages won’t affect your site’s ranking.

404s are a perfectly normal part of the web; the Internet is always changing, new content is born, old content dies, and when it dies it (ideally) returns a 404 HTTP response code. Search engines are aware of this; we have 404 errors on our own sites, as you can see above, and we find them all over the web. In fact, we actually prefer that, when you get rid of a page on your site, you make sure that it returns a proper 404 or 410 response code (rather than a “soft 404”).

Although Google likes to see a proper 404 error page, do you think it’s a good experience for the user? Absolutely not.

When people click on your web page from an organic results page, they’re not expecting to see a 404 error page, but rather want to see the exact content they searched for.

effect of 404 errors on off page seo

Imagine how frustrated people will be when they searched for “best digital wrist watch,” only to click on the first result and see an error page.

A few of these searchers will likely mark the site address and vow never to visit again. Obviously, the user experience was poor. And there’s nothing that drives people away more than a poor user experience, which is a natural indication of your overall customer service to the searcher.

The result of this can be disastrous. According to Sacramento Design Network, “85% of your business could be lost due to poor customer service.”

image05

In a nutshell, broken link building breaks down to four simple steps: conduct a backlink analysis on a relevant website, find a broken link, contact the owner, and let them know about their dead links.

pulling broken links for off page seo strategies

Since you’re helping the site owner locate non-functional links, they might do you the favor of including a link to your website. Ideally, offer a replacement link when appropriate.

If I linked to a particular web page from my Neil Patel blog and found the links to be dead, I could easily replace it with another relevant and high-value resource. If that high-value page belongs to you, that’s both SEO juice and a valuable link.

Trust me, you can get it right the first time, and build the right links to your web pages using this tactic. You’ll find these resources really helpful:

Create and Distribute Compelling Infographics

There’s no doubt about it: infographics still work and will likely continue to work in the future.

As of 2020, infographics were the fourth most commonly produced form of content marketing media.

While infographics can still yield impressive results, you have to understand that not all infographics will get the job done.

You’ll most likely agree that my infographics are top-notch. In fact, I spend up to $1,000 to have a single infographic designed.

However, if you’re on a tight budget or just starting out, you may not be able to afford $1000 infographics.

Luckily, you can use sites like Dribbble to find professional infographic designers for half the price. If you decide to use Visual.ly, you’ll get a better design – but their service costs more.

infographics for off page seo

A lot of content marketers use infographics to attract the right audience, acquire authority links, and grow their email list.

For instance, Ken Lyons shared a WordStream case study in which they created a useful infographic that helped a lot of people. Interestingly, the infographic earned a link from CNN and drove loads of traffic to its site.

Ann Smarty, a prolific content marketer, created a useful infographic that generated 10 powerful links in just 2 days.

Whether you’re a B2B or B2C company, you can use visual marketing to drive engagement with your target audience and earn editorial links from the right sites.

I love creating and distributing compelling infographics. Like any compelling content, when you give it sufficient initial promotion, an infographic has a greater chance of going viral.

The good news is that you’ll continually generate organic traffic to your blog when people start to share your infographics.

In my experience, I’ve found that infographics generate 37.5% more backlinks than a typical blog post. This makes creating infographics an irresistible link building tactic that you should definitely try.

If you’re ready to create and distribute infographics to improve your off-page SEO efforts, the resources below will be helpful:

Of course, there are other ways to build quality links to your web pages. For example, you can leverage blogger outreach to build relationships that will yield better links, and use social media outreach to claim unlinked brand names from relevant blogs.

How to Avoid Google Penalties for Unnatural Links

Backlinks are really important, especially if you want to sustain your site’s ranking position. But we can’t talk about off-page SEO without mentioning Google penalties and unnatural links.

The truth is that links can significantly affect search performance – for better or worse.

If you ask pro bloggers which factor they think has the strongest impact on search rankings, many of them will say “links.”

Top brands, small businesses, and blog owners are also into link building. Data from MarketingSherpa’s 2012 Search Marketing Benchmark Report found that 59% of companies have done external link building.

You want to avoid Google’s penalty as much as possible, because recovering from a penalty can be daunting and very difficult.

Many things that used to interest Google, such as links from high PR sites, no longer have that strong impact.

Google is now more concerned about user optimization, user intent, and valuable content. The focus is no longer on the search phrases people use, but their purpose for using that particular phrase.

off page seo- components

A full backlink analysis can help you pinpoint which links are good or bad for your site – and how to stay off Google’s penalty radar.

The search engine giant hasn’t yet clued the SEO community into any step-by-step process for staying safe. However, there are things you can do to ensure that your site isn’t penalized.

These best practices have helped me generate over 700,000 blog visitors to QuickSprout without experiencing any penalty due to unnatural links and over-optimized anchor text.

1. Create Content and Optimize for the Users First

You probably already know what this means. The question is, are you putting your users first?

To truly put users first, forget about mentioning your keywords several times in the post, especially if it doesn’t flow naturally.

Putting users first goes beyond keyword usage. Sometimes you may not outright target any keyword, yet somehow your content looks too promotional.

Users don’t like to be sold. Instead, help them by creating valuable content. As much as you can, integrate data into your blog posts, and use visuals to convey your message clearer.

If you help them with great content, they’ll want to know more about you.

2. Diversify Anchor Texts

After conducting a full backlink analysis and seeing where your links are coming from, you should next work to diversify your anchor texts.

Diversifying your anchor texts simply means using different keyword phrases, brand names, and generic terms so that Google will view your links as natural and not manipulative.

diversifying links for off page seo

After all, if you didn’t do anything fishy to get the links, then your links shouldn’t all have exact match keywords in their anchor texts, right?

When diversifying your anchor texts, make relevance your top priority. Google will analyze your link based on the topic of the referring page and how thematically consistent it is with yours.

You know that it’s impossible to control where you get links from. Anyone can share your content and link to it however they please.

Since you can’t control your anchor texts or where the links come from, you should use your brand name as anchor text more often.

using brand name for off page seo

If you’re a social media expert and you’re interviewed by a car blog, you should use your brand name as anchor text.

That’s because these topics — cars & social media — aren’t thematic or closely related and Google uses the anchor text of external links to the page to judge the quality, relevance and usefulness of any link gotten from there.

Last, but not least, make sure that you get links from high-quality sites, disavow low-quality links from thin pages, blend nofollow links into your link profile to make it natural, and publish fresh content to increase brand mentions.

Off-Page SEO Conclusion

What is off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO includes any signals that tells Google and other search engines that your site is valuable to your audience. Inbound links are one example.

What are some off-page SEO elements?

Links, reviews, company information, video, social media profiles and audiences

How does on-page SEO relate to off-page SEO?

By optimizing your on-page SEO, you increase the value of the page, thus making it more desirable to link to.

How do keywords affect off-page SEO linking?

There are many attributes that go into the value of keywords in off-page SEO links, including user experience, use of the primary keyword, and value/depth of the content surrounding related keywords and topics.

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Off-Page SEO Conclusion

It’s high time to get off your site and to network with other industry bloggers and site owners if you want to increase boost your search engine ranking.

Understand that Google Penguin and other algorithm updates weren’t primarily targeting search results that didn’t have tons of incoming links.

You should always use white-hat link building strategies to improve your off-page optimization.

However, you need to prepare your website to receive authority link juice as you work hard to build and earn links. Make sure your site is easily navigable.

When it comes to creating a better content experience, it all boils down to answering user’s questions. Start by identifying the questions asked by your ideal customers. You can find these questions on Quora, Twitter, and other social networks. Creating high-quality content is a top SEO technique that cannot be overemphasized.

Above all, search engine optimization is not a hit-and-run marketing approach. You should approach it knowing that the efforts you put in today will pay off in the future, ultimately increasing your search engine rank and leading you to the success you desire.

Most of all, be consistent and patient and you’ll gradually climb to the top of Google’s results.

Which other off-page SEO best practices do you think are important for improving organic search rankings? What are your thoughts on the intersection between SEO and your social network presence?

8 Brilliant Content Marketing Examples to Take Your Company Out of the Unknown

If you want to grow your brand, you need a content marketing plan. Why?

Seventy-eight percent of companies that produce effective content have a documented marketing strategy.

That said, there’s no use in creating content if it won’t help you achieve your marketing goals. Instead, you need to know how to recognize great content.

To help ensure your brand doesn’t fade into the background, let me walk you through eight great content marketing examples you can learn from.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is content created and shared for a specific commercial purpose, such as gaining website traffic, increasing brand awareness, or influencing people to buy your products.

A recent survey taken by professional content marketers found the following:

  • 88 percent of content marketers say content marketing is effective for branding.
  • 88 percent of marketers say content marketing is effective at building brand trust.
  • 80 percent said content marketing works to educate audiences.
  • 72 percent said content marketing is effective for lead generation.

The survey respondents said other effective uses of content marketing are driving audiences to events, building loyalty with existing customers, supporting the launch of a new product, and building subscriber lists.

“Content” has a wide definition, including podcasts, eBooks, infographics, and blog articles. Essentially, if it’s a form of media designed to acquire and influence an audience.

How do you know what makes “great” content? One of the best ways to learn content marketing is by looking at real content marketing strategy examples.

My step-by-step guide breaks down content marketing in detail.

8 Content Marketing Examples

While these content marketing examples are all unique, they have something in common: a clear purpose.

Bear that in mind as you read through these examples and you’ll better appreciate how to create successful content.

Without further ado, here’s a look at some amazing content marketing strategy examples.

1. MoonPie: Brand Voice

Content marketing is all about standing out from the crowd. One way to do this is by developing a memorable brand voice.

Why does voice matter?

According to Sprout Social’s research, 33 percent of customers say a distinct personality helps a company stand out on social media, and 46 percent appreciate brands who engage their audiences, so developing your voice is worth a shot.

MoonPie’s Twitter feed is a great example of a content marketing strategy. Not only does every Tweet have a clear purpose, but the brand uses a consistently fun tone to encourage engagement:

Content Marketing Examples  - MoonPie

Here’s another example. Rather than just posting a product link, the social media manager appeals to followers with a quirky tone:

Content Marketing Examples  - MoonPie on Twitter

What’s the lesson here? Refine your brand voice. Here’s how.

  • Revisit your company’s mission. Your voice should align with your company’s values, so make sure you’re clear on what your business stands for.
  • Research your target demographic. What is your audience looking for? What do they care about? Use your answers to refine your voice.
  • Take a look at your most successful content. Figure out what works and replicate this. For example, if your most successful content focuses on, say, your company’s eco-friendliness, create more content emphasizing this value.

2. Gymshark: Video Ad Campaign

Another way to stand out from your competitors is by making video content: 81 percent of marketers believe videos help them increase sales. Let’s break down a great content marketing example from Gymshark.

Gymshark wanted to promote a key message: fitness unites everyone. To do so, they ran the “United We Sweat” campaign, promoting inclusivity, diversity, and overcoming obstacles. They also designed promotional images to accompany the campaign:

Content Marketing Examples  - Gymshark

The content works because it showcases the brand’s core message: uniting people through fitness. The slogan “United We Sweat” is simple and memorable, too, which helps.

How do you learn from this example? First, think about what makes your brand special. Revisit your mission statement and target market if you need a refresher.

Then, consider your campaign goals. Gymshark wanted to move away from its association with super-fit athletes and instead show why it’s a universal fitness brand. Placing “united” and “sweat” together makes sense.

Finally, keep it simple. When it comes to slogans and taglines, less is usually more.

Need some more inspiration? I walk you through how to write business slogans elsewhere.

3. Nadaré Co: Viral Content

Viral content instantly boosts your visibility, spreads your brand message, and generates more traffic, so it’s a worthwhile goal.

Let me use content marketing examples from Nadaré Co, a jewelry company, as an example of a successful content marketing strategy in action.

Nadaré Co’s founder began posting TikTok marketing content to promote the brand’s unique waterproof jewelry. She now has over 91,000 followers, over 1.3 million TikTok “likes,” and videos watched by thousands of people daily!

The secret to achieving this example of a content marketing strategy?

Post useful, highly targeted videos designed to entertain viewers, answer questions, and solve problems. For example, here’s a video on how to find your ring size, so customers know exactly which ring size will fit them before they order:

There’s also a video advertising the jewelry’s waterproof features and worldwide shipping:

Content Marketing Examples - Nadare Co Advertises on TikTok

Here’s what we can take away from this content marketing strategy example.

  • Keep your videos short and engaging.
  • Highlight what makes your brand special in every video.
  • Use relevant hashtags to improve your content’s visibility and reach.

4. Ridester: Long-form Content

To educate your audience, you need long-form posts in your content marketing strategy.

Research shows that in-depth posts typically outrank shorter, less comprehensive blogs, and the average first-page search result on Google has over 1,400 words.

In other words, long-form content is worth your time and Ridester has some great content marketing examples.

After losing a significant amount of traffic, Ridester prioritized writing long-form content to answer the questions readers care about.

In one blog post, for example, Ridester sets out actionable steps for making more money as an Uber Eats driver. There’s no fluff; it’s comprehensive but concise:

Content Marketing Examples - Ridester

After revamping its long-form content, Ridester saw a 487 percent organic traffic increase and improved its search rankings for 16 search phrases. Cool, right? Here’s how you can emulate this success.

  • First, use search tools like Quora and Reddit to discover what matters to your audience and what questions they’re asking.
  • Next, try out Ubersuggest to find the right keywords to target in your content.
  • Do some competitor research. Where are the content gaps? What questions have they failed to answer? Use the answers to these questions to complete your research.

5. Cricut: Influencer Marketing

Depending on your audience, influencer marketing is a highly effective strategy. Cricut, a DIY crafts supplier, illustrates why.

Cricut teamed up with “New Girl” actress Zooey Deschanel to promote its products. Deschanel, a real-life crafts enthusiast, brings authenticity and fun to Cricut’s content:

Content Marketing Examples - Circut

As we saw with Nadaré Co, videos are a great way to bring your product to life and build audience trust in your brand. Now, here are some tips for using influencers effectively in any content marketing strategy.

  • Define what you need help with and determine how an influencer can help you achieve it.
  • Make sure your influencer aligns with your brand. For example, Deschanel works great for Cricut because she’s a real-life crafts enthusiast.
  • To maximize engagement, choose campaign-specific hashtags for the influencer to use to promote your products.

You can find influencers through social media keyword searches and influencer marketplaces.

6. Storiarts: User-generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is proof your products work. You’re not paying a marketing team to write ads or promote an item. Instead, you’re letting your products speak for themselves through satisfied customers. That’s why consumers are 2.4 times more likely to say UGC is more authentic than branded content.

Storiarts does this well. Storiarts turned to Instagram with two goals in mind:

  1. Driving sales of its literary-themed products.
  2. Highlighting the brand’s commitment to ending illiteracy.

Users can post pictures of themselves enjoying Storiarts products on a dedicated hashtag, #committolit:

Content Marketing Examples - Storiarts

How did this campaign work out for Storiarts?

They’ve grown from an obscure Etsy store, into a recognizable brand with over 82,000 followers and counting.

Want to best take advantage of UGC? Here’s how.

  • Create a dedicated hashtag on social media. Keep it short and memorable.
  • Engage with customers who post on the hashtag to encourage participation.
  • Choose a campaign that promotes your brand’s mission to boost your company’s profile.

Got a goal like ending illiteracy? Tell the world about it!

7. Fire & Ice: Product Videos

Want to showcase what’s so great about your products? Successful content marketing examples often come down to high-quality product videos.

When you create videos as a content marketing strategy, you aren’t alone. In fact, 69 percent of marketers increased their video budget for 2022 per the results of a recent Content Marketing Institute survey.

Videos show your products in action and, ideally, they should answer questions your target audience might have about your services.

Fire & Ice made a video explaining how their air conditioner repair service works.

In just a few minutes, the video sets out what customers can expect from their service and how much it costs. Most importantly, it includes a clear CTA (how customers can book an appointment.)

Content Marketing Examples - Fire and Ice

Here are some actionable takeaways from this example of a content marketing strategy:

  • Do some market research to learn what your customers want.
  • Consider repurposing existing content into video form.
  • Break your videos into sections so viewers can jump to the most relevant part for their query.
  • Always end with a clear CTA and include your contact details somewhere obvious.

8. Vienna Beef: Web Content

For our last content marketing strategy example, we’re talking about first impressions.

Why? Because first impressions matter.

In fact, 94 percent of consumers decide whether to browse a website based on its look and feel. In other words, when prospects land on your website, you want to set the right impression.

Vienna Beef, a Chicago-style hot dog manufacturer, knows this. After partnering with a digital marketing agency for a website redesign, they:

  • tripled their website traffic
  • reduced shopping cart abandonments
  • increased sales

Here’s the homepage. It’s optimized for sales without being pushy. It’s also vibrant and engaging, with clear links to product pages:

Content Marketing Examples - Vienna Beef

Scroll down and you’ll find links to hot dog stands and local stockists:

Content Marketing Examples - Vienna Beef Store Locator

It’s easy to overlook website design when you think of content marketing, but actually, web copy and design are among your most important content.

My suggestion? Set clear goals. Vienna Beef knew exactly what they wanted from their redesign which is how they achieved it so successfully.

Then, hire a website designer. Effective website design is an art, and if you’re serious about content marketing and conversion, it’s worth the investment.

Finally, run some A/B testing to check which design elements work best. You might find my A/B testing guide helpful.

Content Marketing Examples: Frequently Asked Questions

What is content marketing?

Content marketing involves creating useful and engaging content across all mediums to organically grow your business, boost your visibility, and increase sales.

How can you recognize a good example of content marketing?

Whether it’s an informative blog post or an eye-catching graphic, all good content serves a purpose. It tells a story and reinforces a company’s brand identity. Great content marketing allows a brand to connect with its audience, so look for authenticity, professionalism, and strong messaging with a clear CTA or desired result.

How can you recognize an example of poor content marketing?

Again, it’s fairly easy to spot. Simply look for muddled messaging, unnatural or “keyword stuffed” writing, and content that lacks any clear CTA or purpose. Poorly-timed marketing campaigns which are insensitive to current news always fall short, too.

How can I best learn from examples of content marketing strategies I come across?

Be intuitive. Explore what you think works (or doesn’t work) and why. If you’re impressed by a content marketing example, consider how you can apply the principles such as engaging visual elements and strong brand messaging to your marketing efforts.

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Conclusion: Content Marketing Examples

If you’re serious about growing your business and getting some brand exposure, then you need a content marketing strategy.

Research successful examples, take what works, and identify how you can implement those techniques in your content.

Don’t forget to track your key metrics, too, so you can see what’s working…and fix what’s not.

Struggling to produce the right content for your goals? Check out my consulting services and discover how I can steer you in the right direction.

Have you found any other great content marketing examples? What did you learn from them?

What is PPC Management and How You Can Take Advantage Of It To Maximize Revenue

When it comes to getting traffic, you have two main choices: SEO or PPC management. Both options are an effective means of driving prospects to your website, and one isn’t necessarily better than the other.

When used correctly, these methods can deliver results. They just have different ways of achieving them.

Ad spending is projected to grow 7.61 percent yearly through 2026, proving companies see the value in PPC strategies. This article teaches you to get the most out of your PPC campaigns.

What Is PPC Management?

PPC management refers to the spending and strategy behind your paid ad campaigns, including:

  • the keywords you target
  • the SEM strategies you choose
  • the copy you use in your paid ads
  • the metrics you track and tools you use to track them
  • campaign optimization
  • A/B testing

You could manage your PPC ads yourself or consider using PPC management software for some areas. However, it’s a complex endeavor, and you may find you’re losing money if you don’t have a precise plan.

Therefore, many businesses choose to work with a digital agency to maximize their spending and conversions.

Once you choose to work with an agency, they take over your PPC management campaign for you and suggest changes to maximize the effectiveness of your ad.

Why You Need a PPC Management Strategy to Increase Revenue

When implemented correctly, your PPC management approach forms the backbone of a successful online marketing campaign; it’s a great way to get your business noticed in a crowded marketplace and generate fresh leads.

However, without a strategy in place, it’s a struggle to attract the prospects that are most likely to convert, but there are other reasons you need a plan.

A well-targeted PPC management campaign:

  • Raises your profile: Whichever niche you’re in, the competition is vast out there. Getting noticed means getting your business in front of the right people, and a well-drawn-up plan can enable you to achieve this.
  • Creates the right ads at the right time: To attract the right people, you need to send your ads to the sites where people are looking for products or services like yours. An effective strategy ensures you know who you’re targeting, why you’re targeting them, and when. This tailored PPC campaign management approach often significantly impacts your success rates. One agency found its client’s CTRs increased by 39 percent, and conversions increased by an incredible 78 percent.
  • Reduces your cost of conversions: When you know who your audience is, you spend less money. For example, when Hootsuite used an agency to assist with its PPC management, it streamlined its strategy and lowered cost per conversion by 28 percent.
  • Discovers new keywords: Whether you’re using PPC management software to discover new keywords or working with an agency, new keywords can equal more business. After some changes, Hootsuite found that 51 percent of its new custom came from additional keyword research.
  • Leads to more conversions: You can considerably increase conversion rates when you optimize your ads.

PPC Management Responsibilities

The main PPC campaign management responsibilities are analyzing and optimizing your PPC ads. This includes analyzing data, identifying trends, and improving the ads.

Other responsibilities cover creating a strategy for paid search, managing budgets, setting up ad groups and keywords, along with bidding strategies.

Then there is:

  • researching and implementing new strategies
  • creating reports on campaign performance and making recommendations
  • completing keyword and competitive analysis
  • keeping track of Google updates
  • managing the budget of campaigns, so they are in line with company goals
  • copy creation and channel targeting

Completing these tasks requires expertise and a wide range of skillsets to achieve the best returns, so some advertisers prefer to use an agency.

PPC Management Strategies to Increase Revenue

There’s more than one way to use ads as part of effective PPC campaign management. Below, we explain some of the most popular approaches, how to use them, and explain why you need them.

Let’s start with A/B testing your CTAs.

1. A/B Test Your CTAs

Not getting the results you want? Then try A/B testing.

A/B testing is the process of comparing two versions of an advertising asset. Aside from your PPC ads, you can split test your emails, web pages, videos, emails, and other types of content to see which one performs better.

As part of your PPC campaign management, you can test your PPC ads:

  • text
  • colors
  • ROI, etc.

However, you want to give special attention to your CTAs to understand which ones get your prospects clicking through and arriving at your marketing page.

HubSpot suggests taking a three-pronged approach to testing your CTAs.

  1. Be specific. You don’t want to run ads with a ton of individual differences, like an array of colors or text. You need to ask yourself some questions first to get meaningful results. For example, do you want to test the wording? Visuals? Placement? Test each ad for one element at a time.
  2. Vary your CTAs. Here, you want similar CTAs that provide the same information but are phrased differently. You could also test components like your CTA placement, color, size, text, etc. Even the most minor changes to a CTA can make a significant difference. Brad Shorr, Director of Content & Social Media for Straight North In Chicago, recently tested the following CTAs:

A. Get $10 off the first purchase. Book online now!.

B. Get an additional $10 off. Book online now.

There’s not a massive difference in the CTAs, but “B” won every time.

  1. Pick a date range, measure your results, and optimize.

2. Use Negative Matching Techniques

An essential part of your PPC management is not spending unnecessary money on ads. There’s a simple way to save money, and it’s called negative matching or negative keywords.

For example, drug development company Nuventra experienced a 70 percent cost savings per lead and a 500 percent boost in conversions when an agency used negative keywords as part of its PPC management.

If you’re not familiar with them, negative keywords are words and phrases you don’t want your ads to show up on. They’re a great way to get super specific with your targeting, and they can keep your ads from showing up on irrelevant searches.

For instance, if you have a PPC campaign for the term “athletic sneakers,” but you don’t want to show up on searches containing the phrase “running shoes,” then add “-running shoes” as a negative keyword.

As Google explains, excluding search terms lets you focus on the keywords most relevant to your customers, and the improved targeting can enhance your ROI.

For a simple way to implement negative keywords, try a free PPC management software tool like WordStream. You just:

  • add a broad term relevant to your sector
  • choose your industry
  • pick your country
  • wait for the keyword list to popularize
  • list any irrelevant keywords

You can also use Google’s keyword planner and the search terms report. Google advises that you “look for terms that don’t fit your business model among the queries where you’ve received traffic or in the keywords suggested to you in the course of planning.”

And, “In addition to reviewing the stats in these reports, also look for the intent behind a search.”

Alternatively, use a tool like Ubersuggest to find negative keywords.

3. Make Sure Your Ads Look and Sound Like Organic Results

PPC ads are often the first impression a customer has of your company. Therefore, t’s important to ensure they’re well-designed, well-written, and sound like organic results.

This means that your ad copy should be written in a natural, conversational tone and should not sound like you are trying to sell something. Further, natural-sounding copy is more:

  • engaging
  • persuasive
  • compelling

However, that’s not all you also need to think about. You need to look at natural language processing (NLP) and the role it can play in your SEO strategy.

NLP is becoming a much greater part of our everyday lives, and by 2026, the sector is set to be worth $27.16 billion. Considering its growth and its application to marketing, you can guarantee we’re going to see more of it, so you can’t ignore it.

If you haven’t heard of NLP, it’s a subcategory of AI; if you use predictive text, search on Google, or use a voice assistant, you’re already using it.

NLP is important to marketers because consumers don’t just use keyword-based questions. They use complete questions, which look more akin to long-tail search queries.

For instance:

U.S. States vs. How many states are there in the U.S?

Reconditioned smartphone vs. Where can I buy a reconditioned smartphone?

Keyword analysis vs. What is the best tool for keyword analysis?

There’s another factor to consider: the surge in voice search.

The growth in smart speakers like Alexa is undeniable. According to the analyst company Canalys, the smart speaker market was set to reach 163 million units by 2021.

This growth makes it even more vital that your PPC ads look and sound natural. Below are some tips to optimize your ads for voice search.

  • use short, concise sentences and phrases when writing your ad copy
  • add keywords that are relevant to what you’re advertising
  • include a call-to-action at the end of your ad copy so that people know what they should do next
  • understand user intent
  • answer your audience’s questions and address their pain points
  • use long-tail keywords

4. Use Display Advertising

Display advertising is a form of internet advertising that has become increasingly popular in recent years and includes text, banners, and images,

Although search ads are the most popular, display advertising is growing. According to research published by eMarketer, display advertising grew 41.2 percent in 2021, with ad spend climbing to $105.99 billion and it will continue to grow.

One of the best ways to include display ads as part of PPC campaign management is to have a detailed plan in place first. Decide what type of ads to run, what keywords to target, and how much your budget is.

If your finances are tight, focus your efforts on the best-performing ads and keywords. This approach allows you to get the most out of your advertising dollars without constantly tweaking your campaigns.

Finally, for this section, here are some best practices for display advertising:

  • include a mix of ad types to maximize engagement with your audience
  • use quality images to draw attention to your ads
  • create a call to action
  • A/B test your ads
  • include keywords

5. Optimize Your Site for Mobile

In 2020, there were 211 million mobile phone searchers in the United States alone. Fast forward to the fourth quarter in 2021, and 54.4 percent of global web traffic came from mobile.

Further, according to research from Adobe, while mobile shopping has hit a bit of a wall, 57 percent of consumers use their mobiles for browsing.

The message is clear: you need to accommodate mobile visitors.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment.

You’re on your smartphone. You click on an email link or a search ad, keen to find out more.

However, the print is so tiny you can’t read it, the images aren’t clear, and you can’t see the information you want to complete the purchase.

What do you do? Wait until you’re on your laptop and click-through then? Maybe. If you remember. Most likely, you click away, don’t go back, and find a competitor.

You see, PPC management doesn’t stop with your online ads. It needs to continue into your landing page, website, or blog, so your prospects have the best experience.

How can you achieve this? By making your prospect’s destination user-friendly and optimizing your site by:

  • creating a responsive website design
  • using a fluid grid and fluid images to make sure content is readable on any device
  • optimizing site navigation so it’s easy to use with one hand
  • making certain text is readable on small screens without zooming in or out
  • ensuring the site loads quickly by minimizing images and removing unnecessary files

6. Create Text Ads

Text ads are the most common form of online advertising. They are usually short, with just a few lines of text and a link to the advertiser’s website.

Google defines text ads as, “a form of marketing communication that advertisers can use to promote their product or service on the Google Network.”

Text ads are shown on SERPs as sponsored links, which have been paid for by advertisers as part of a PPC management campaign and throughout Google’s Display Network (GDN), which includes:

  • websites displaying Google ads
  • mobile devices
  • apps
  • google online platforms such as YouTube and Gmail

To make the most of text ads:

  • include keywords
  • address your audience’s pain points
  • explain the benefits of your product/service
  • include affiliate and sidelink ad extensions
  • add numbers
  • detail the benefits

Finally, use CTAs that get customers to take the next step and purchase, like in this example by Pizza Pizza.

PPC Management Google text ad

7. Create Native Ads

According to the 2021 PageFair Adblock report, desktop adblocking grew 8 percent to 257 million users, while mobile ad blocking grew 10 percent to 586 million users. However, the research also found that Adblock users were more likely to accept less intrusive adverts.

That’s where native ads come in.

These ads don’t impact the user’s experience the same way some other ads do.

Native ads are advertisements that match the style and format of the other content on a website. In other words, they look like articles, videos, website banners, and other forms of content on a webpage. Examples are sponsored posts on social media or “sponsored stories” on Instagram.

Assuming you’re using Google, you can create native ads by:

  • signing in to Google Ad Manager
  • clicking delivery and selecting “native”
  • picking “new native ad single ad”
  • choose the type of ad (guided design editor for programmatic and traditional ads, the HTML and CSS editor, or the Android and iOS app code)

Best practices for native ads include:

  • knowing your audience and targeting them
  • using a compelling headline to draw readers in
  • creating an engaging visual
  • keeping them consistent with your brand
  • providing useful information or entertainment
  • including hyperlinks to drive people to your site
  • using a variety of formats
  • ensuring ads are responsive

PPC Management Frequently Asked Questions

Who should hire a PPC manager or agency?

If you don’t want to wait for your SEO strategy to kick in, then you might want to consider finding a PPC manager or agency to implement a PPC management campaign.

PPC is a proven way of getting targeted traffic to your site. However, even though you can manage various aspects of your advertising, like keyword analysis with PPC management software, you can still benefit from some expertise.

Regardless of the size of your budget, a PPC agency ensures you’re spending your budget wisely and implementing a solid strategy.

Can you manage your own PPC campaigns?

You could manage your PPC campaigns, but this often means a lot of trial and error and perhaps some financial losses along the way. Successful campaigns take skill and strategy and, therefore, may be more successful when you employ a digital agency to implement them for you.

What are the top e-commerce PPC marketing management tips?

You can identify the keywords that will resonate with your target audience; create an e-commerce ads campaign; segment your ads for better targeting; use remarketing; A/B test ads; advertise on a variety of channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to reach new customers and widen the reach of your campaign; and use Google AdWords or Bing Ads for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes.

Does a PPC manager help you decide how much to spend on paid ads?

A PPC manager provides recommendations based on your aims and explains key information like your cost per acquisition, cost per click, and what you can achieve. However, the final decision on how much of your budget you want to assign to PPC is down to you.

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Conclusion: PPC Marketing Management

For many businesses, effective PPC management is an essential part of growing their businesses and attracting qualified leads to their websites.

However, for the inexperienced, PPC campaign management often leads to costly mistakes if you’re unsure of the precise tactics you should be using.

You could use PPC management software tools to find keywords, monitor the results, and optimize when you’re starting.

Nevertheless, you may find it easier to leave the learning curve to others and enhance your chances of PPC success by outsourcing to an award-winning digital market agency.

Which PPC management techniques do you use, and how have they helped your business?

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