Organic SEO Archives | PearlyWrites.com

January 13, 2023

How to organically rank a website

There are a variety of tactics and strategies that SEOs use, and this is dependent on a few factors:

What is the niche of the website?

The type of business can help with the approach of SEO tactics. For example, if the business is a local house cleaning service and the competition is low, then deciding on where to focus your organic efforts would be different if the business was an online game design company where you probably wouldn’t be listing yourself for localized results (well maybe in the Metaverse).

Who is the competition?

Most marketers will perform a website or business audit. Within this audit, there is a competitor analysis that will show where the business appears. At one point, a lot of local businesses weren’t using Google Business listings or listed in Maps.

For a local business to be found by local searchers, is a straightforward approach. Imagine tourists from another country visiting and looking for the best seafood to eat. Most will grab their phone and ask this question and the results populate in less than a minute!

Beyond Google, where else do the competitors appear? Are they optimized on Instagram or Facebook?

Is the technical SEO of the site built correctly?

There are tools SEOs use to run technical audits that allow us to see if there are technical items needing fixes. Besides Google Search Console, there is SiteBulb, ScreamingFrog, SiteImprove, and WebPageTest.org; to name a few.

If you are unsure of how to fix a site, a quick search of technical SEOs can be of help.

Who is the target audience?

Some marketers will call these Personas but it comes down to who is the site targeting. If there is no idea of the target audience, then your path to purchase and UX design won’t be as successful as it should be.

Is this site answering the user’s query?

With tools like SEMRush, SearchMetrics, and AlsoAsked, you can see how people are searching and how your site stacks up to the competition. Through the analysis of this data, you should be able to determine whether the site answers the searcher’s query.

What type of outreach is done?

Outreach can be online PR, link earning, or collaborations. Ultimately, is outreach being completed, and is the business gaining the exposure and results from the efforts? Tracking the performance through tools like Buzzstream or Meltwater can track the conversation and the success rate.7. Which type of content performs best?

When creating content, this can be any type of content: written, video, audio, visuals, or a combination. But either way, reviewing your content and the content of your competitors to see which performs the best and making recommendations to the content teams is one way to gain higher rankings.

Don’t forget to address the visitors who come to the site through mobile. Consider how the page is designed, for easy access and ADA compliance.

Supplying the content teams with data and analysis, and being involved from the brainstorming beginning and throughout the review process, ensures the content will be optimized. Some tools to help with measuring content performance are SearchMetrics, SEMRush, and Moz.

These are only a few questions that an SEO asks themselves, as there are many approaches to SEO depending on if it’s an eCommerce, publisher, or lead generation site.

July 24, 2017July 24, 2017

How to Use Google Voice Search for SEO

When Google updates their homepage, switches how the search results are shown, or adds a stronger focus on voice search, as an SEO, I am never quite sure how it will affect my sites. Sometimes there is no change in our analytics, other times there is a slight bump and then there is doubling traffic month over month consistently for five months.

Some may know, I launched a personal finance website for the cannabis community a few years ago with my business partner. Through many phases, we settled on MarijuanaRates.com which is a free search comparison tool for consumers with analysis completed and delivered through editorial.

With cannabis not being federally regulated, banking can pose a challenge though each legalized state has come a long way with new merchant companies for the cannabis industry, to enable their service to be used in transactions; making it a bit safer for cannabis employees. Having a mainly cash business is a problem and hasn’t been fully solved, but there are many smart, determined individuals in the industry working hard to solve the dangers of this process. Also due to the federal laws, no paid search is allowed which means all our traffic is through organic rankings and outreach.

Voice Search Results

It was a Friday night in March, while I was discussing with my husband about how our traffic jumped up and couldn’t pinpoint the exact channel since it kept showing direct. He decided to “ask Google” about the prices of coffeemakers. Yes, we tend to have multiple topic conversations as we needed to buy a new one…. Google “gave” the answer about the Black & Decker coffeemaker price and visualize the lightbulb above my head turning on.

I screamed, “Ask Google How much is an ounce of Sour Diesel?” and BAM, Google’s answer to us, “According to MarijuanaRates.com…”

I screamed again (not that I couldn’t ask Google myself), “How much is an ounce of OG Kush?” Again! “According to MarijuanaRates.com…”

This went on for easily an hour, asking all different questions and I screamed with excitement. Our daughter thought something was wrong as I explained to her, No, it’s just mommy and daddy’s business doing something amazing!

We knew we had captured the Google Answer boxes months prior for much of our editorial pieces, but didn’t realize that when voice search began increasing, it also meant we were the site who gave the answer to the searcher’s query verbally! Not only in Google but all voice search in Siri, Bing and Alexa (yup we checked!).

In the past few months of monitoring our captured answer boxes, we have seen a few changes:

Our featured image has been shown, then not shown, then shown again.
Recently, Google is showing images from other sites but using our data and information for the answer.
Originally the answer box was showing our charts aka rate tables for the answer and have switched to grabbing the actually written editorial as the answer. Not the rich snippet.
Depending on the day, time of day, week, location; sometimes we hold the top ranking but Google doesn’t show the answer box.
Sometimes the answer box will pull information from a different amount blog posting and then fix itself.

How do we use Google voice search in our SEO strategy? Continue to analyze what our community searches for and answer their queries through continued data acquisition, content creation and outreach. By working our cannabis business, where the main source of traffic has to be organically driven, taking the experience and knowledge and applying it has been the greatest gift to us.

We are grateful for the many users and visitors to MarijuanRates.com. With 20k+ sessions, 18k+ users and over 105k+ page views since March, we continue to grow as the cannabis community welcomed us and we continue to build more consumer friendly tools to help with their budgeting needs. We wanted to share from March to present day, we have a great community, who spends time on our site and visits many pages, getting their questions answered and we couldn’t be happier with the results.

If you are a business interested in advertising on MarijuanaRates.com, please contact us and we can discuss our packages.

April 4, 2016May 21, 2016

Directing Users to a Conversion Action

How many times have you been on a website and clicked back because there was no direction to the design madness?

A users first action is to search for an answer through Google, many times through mobile, and when the results populate in the SERP’s, the marketing copy seems to answer their inquiry so they click. Once they click, it’s a 50/50 shot that they actually receive the answer they were looking for. Or at least pointed in the direction where the answer may reside within the website.

Grabbing the User

Recently I was searching for a swim team for my daughter (who is quite the fish) so did a search for “swim team in Delray Beach“. In the SERP’s, my question was answered within seconds by the results.

I clicked on the first result since the meta description answered my question, as well as had a local confirmed listing with the local map in the right rail. As a user, I felt this business was legit.

When I arrived at the website, I was happy to find a call to action, above the fold, scrolling module which advertised the latest programs and newest announcements. The site was up to date! There even is an offer of a free week all within seconds of landing on the home page of FLASwim.com.

Accessibility & Trust

Then I stayed on the site to find the information about swim team for my daughter, the days, times and costs all from the top navigation. The site isn’t cluttered or directing me into 20 different places. The mobile version is using the same positive aspects so the consistency between both the desktop and mobile versions brings a trust to the user.

Of course my favorite part I saw, below the fold, are their multiple Twitter streams and Facebook community!

If I was to do a Content and Social Media assessment on this site, I would suggest not directing their Twitter community to their Facebook page, but create content that directs the community to their site and add a G+ page to build up that community. But just my two cents…

Of course the next thing I would complete is a search on the business and reviews from other clients. If all this checks out and looks good, I will be a new client of this business.

It takes a few items to make a user feel trust when wanting to convert them into a client. It starts with:

findability,
answering the users question,
not having too many paths or choices,
directing the user to make a call or sign up.

When the presentation draws the user to stay on the site, it allows for building trust and the visitor to click around. Advertising your business online should be focused on converting the lead to take action. Make the user feel comfortable to transact.

Connect with Lisa Weinberger on Google+.

April 4, 2016May 2, 2017

Interview: SEO and Social Media in TechRepublic

In the past few months, I have traveled to both coasts as well as overseas, and in between was asked by Nicole Nash for an interview about what I have been doing for a living since the mid-90’s, digital marketing. I had the pleasure of presenting at SMX West and PubCon NOLA about integrating SEO into your Content and Social Media tactics and strategies which was fun.

Interview at 30,000 Feet

In between all the business trips and flying, the interview was conducted. We spoke on the phone, questions were emailed to me while home for a few days, and after flying to California and back, the interview was finally completed and emailed from high up in the air over the Rockies.

The day I presented at PubCon NOLA, to my surprise, the interview on TechRepublic about my integrated marketing approach was published. Knowing Nicole since 2005, she and I not only grew together as colleagues, but as friends.

My Twitter notifications were blowing up and I wasn’t sure why.

Then when I saw the interview was published, and read what Nicole wrote, I was brought to tears. She was able to paint a picture of the trials and struggles I dealt with as a content business, holding to my high standards, back when clients wanted crap content. No one else but Nicole could have captured and recollected my experience the way she did.

The Past to Present

PearlyWrites started as a freelance writing project, and quickly turned into a full time business where we not only fulfilled content requests from clients but created and executed eLearning curriculum development, SEO, Content and Social Media strategies where still today, we train and support our clients. (As Nicole reminded me in the interview, we would call it “Organic SEO“.) We developed our network of reliable contractors when specific requests were made like building the GoHappyGoHojo(TM) website with a points of interest search function.

We continue to maintain our network today and still love to make connections amongst each other.

Read the full interview on TechRepublic about my SEO and Social Media approach.

A huge thanks to Nicole Nash for allowing me to share some of my knowledge and relive the beginning stages of my business.

Connect with Lisa Weinberger on Google+.

April 2, 2016

Content Promotion

To follow up to a comment we received about content promotion, I was asked about what doing offsite content promotion did for a reader’s energy efficiency blog.

They created a link wheel aka “Linkie” or “Super Duper Wheelie”, posted content on some directory sites, did a PR or two and received 50 back links to his blog from these efforts. If you figure from writing a few articles, making sure each are different and posting the articles throughout the Web to build your offsite links, the time you spent completing these efforts will help not only promote your content but also help with increasing your SEO ranking.

What other items have you found helped your content promotion efforts?

April 2, 2016

Content Promotion and Syndication

Are you aware that once you publish your content onto your website, blog or a directory that you have an opportunity to now promote and syndicate your words of wisdom? For many, the challenge is to write a daily blog, hence why we are in business providing this service, but once the blog is posted, now what?

What is next in the series in the big bad world of online content promotion?

Do you expect anyone to just find your posting?

Do you think the Google trolls will just choose your content because it is so amazing that no one else has EVER written about that exact topic? (sense some sarcasm…)

No matter how large or small your website is, once you post content whether it be copy or media, you should have a plan of action on how to promote or market your content. Whether it be through directories, links, press releases or emails, unless you have a HUGE subscriber list, we all need some push to get people and search engines to read and view our content.

Social media has been a blessing for content producers because with all the social networks focused on specific niches, it has now allowed promoters to promote their content directly to the audience who may be interested. Through social media, between groups and lists, customizing which piece of content you want to share with a specific group of people has now made it easier than the earlier days of content promotion.

For example, you are a hospitality ezine whose focus is on helping the hotel owner by giving online marketing tips and insights to users online behavior. The challenge is what will make you stand out from the crowd? Are you trying to capture visitors searching for lodging within your city or town? The content should be focused around these answers so you know the audience to target and where to promote.

What are some other techniques you would like to share that you use to promote your content?

April 2, 2016

Online Content Publishing & Marketing

In the past few months I have been fortunate to work with a few amazing minds in a full time capacity focusing on SEO and online marketing. I guess I never thought of a formal name of what PearlyWrites provides but we do provide online content publishing strategies and solutions for all sized businesses. Not only do we provide this service but add in the 12 years of online marketing and SEO experience and no wonder we can rank our clients websites so strongly in the search engines.

I am also realizing as a business owner I need to be more verbal by sharing the accomplishments we have had. As a person I have always been hidden in a sense that what I do is not shared by me to many people and in the online content creation and publishing world, I DO need to share. I need to share online!

Yes, I have been involved with social media and SEO since 1999 but never overly pushed my name or the business name. Of course PearlyWrites is our branded name on all the social media networks but then I realized when I meet many of my followers in person and we start discussing things they are always surprised with the amount of knowledge and experience I have.

So with all this information I have buried deep inside my brain from 11 years of being in business and working in the online publishing and marketing field, I am going to put my best effort forward into making it more known the amount of experience PearlyWrites has. When clients increase their revenue by $150K per month from strategies that I created and executed or a client increases their revenue by $50K a year, these are all accomplishments which I am realizing I need to be sharing with others.

Til next time…

April 2, 2016

Website Design from the Past

WOW! Wow! WOW!

I can’t believe I just found a Website for a brick and mortar business in New Jersey that has the most horrid Website! I mean the Website looks like one of my first attempts at Website building back in the 90’s! Yes, that is how bad this is AND the business caters to high-class, high-end celebrities!

What type of message are you showing to a visitor when your services are costing easily a few hundred up to a few thousand a spa session and then you visit the Website and it’s just horrid! Don’t you want to show how you take the money you are making and put it back into the business to portray your upper class services? Isn’t that the first rule of being a business and having an online presence?

With the branding that Josh Gilmore did for PearlyWrites, everything from our print marketing collateral to our Website is all cleanly designed. When pictures and links are thrown about, it doesn’t help the visitor, no matter how well known you think you are.

Remember you have a few seconds to keep your visitor on your site and direct them with call to action statements and guide them to contact you via phone or email. BUT only a few seconds! I guess from having celebrity pictures all over the pages, visually they are trying to show they have famous clients and I get that BUT the site isn’t optimized or even ranking! Could you imagine what an amazing amount of more potential business could come if this celebrity spa actually got found in the search engines organically?

The copy on the site which is non-existent could be such a great push for this spa. SEO friendly copy targeted for their keywords would be the basics of Organic SEO that they can do. Maybe one day when the celebrity pull seems to slow down business, they will look at their unoptimized, badly designed Website and realize it’s time for an upgrade.

April 2, 2016

Why Stop Your Marketing?

It is all over the news, the economy is bad. Yes we know thank you for telling us over and over again because we quite didn’t hear it the first, second or thirteenth time. By the way, did you know the economy is bad?

But what does this mean in terms of a businesses marketing budget? As we all know the first budgets to be cut are always the marketing budget. Why? It seems since the new business is far and few between, the all mighty powers that be feel that marketing isn’t too important as the existing customers will stay customers and why bother to try and pick up new customers during a down economy?

The reason to not stop your marketing is when the economy begins to pick up, the first companies or products which are going to be remembered are the ones who didn’t stop their marketing efforts. And (yes I used an And to begin a sentence) there are people and companies who are still making money and not feeling the downside to this economy. They are still spending money and going about their lives as if nothing has changed. Think about this population and target them!

This is why I ask the question, “Why stop your marketing?”

With all the new ways to market your business, why not open your mind up to the endless possibilities. It’s just not about print or radio anymore! Video optimization, content creation, podcasts, webinars, online article marketing, social media marketing and online press release distribution, oh and blogging; don’t forget blogging, are all great tools to use when you want to continue marketing to reach a different or new audience.

So ask yourself should you stop all your marketing efforts? When this economy begins to turn around, think about who will be ahead (competition) of and who will be left behind (you).