In the ever-evolving landscape of B2B marketing, staying ahead of the curve is essential for companies aiming to carve out a competitive edge. Among the plethora of marketing strategies available, inbound marketing has emerged as a beacon of innovation, offering a nuanced approach to attracting, engaging, and delighting prospects. As businesses navigate the digital realm, the role of an inbound marketing company becomes increasingly pivotal, guiding enterprises towards sustainable growth and lasting success.

Deciphering the Essence of Inbound Marketing Solutions

At its core, inbound marketing embodies a customer-centric philosophy, focusing on providing value and fostering meaningful connections with target audiences. Unlike traditional outbound techniques that interrupt prospects with unsolicited messages, inbound marketing seeks to attract potential customers organically by delivering relevant, timely, and valuable content. By leveraging strategies such as content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and email marketing, B2B companies can establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry while nurturing leads through every stage of the buyer’s journey.

The Multifaceted Role of an Inbound Marketing Company

Embarking on an inbound marketing journey requires more than just enthusiasm; it demands strategic acumen, technical expertise, and relentless dedication to excellence. This is where partnering with a specialized inbound marketing company proves invaluable. These agencies serve as catalysts for growth, orchestrating comprehensive strategies tailored to each client’s unique goals and target audience.

1. Holistic Strategy Development: An inbound marketing company begins by immersing itself in the client’s ecosystem, conducting in-depth market research, and analyzing industry trends. Armed with these insights, they craft a holistic strategy encompassing content creation, distribution channels, lead generation tactics, and conversion optimization techniques.
2. Content Creation and Distribution: Content lies at the heart of inbound marketing. From blog posts and whitepapers to videos and infographics, the agency produces a diverse array of high-quality content designed to educate, inspire, and engage the target audience. Through compelling storytelling and thought-provoking insights, they position the client as a trusted advisor, fostering brand affinity and loyalty.
3. SEO and Website Optimization: In the digital realm, visibility is paramount. Inbound marketing agencies optimize clients’ websites for search engines, conducting thorough keyword research, implementing on-page optimization strategies, and enhancing technical elements to improve site performance and user experience. By ensuring maximum visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs), they drive organic traffic and enhance brand discoverability.
4. Lead Generation and Nurturing: Generating leads is one thing; nurturing them into loyal customers is another. Inbound marketing companies employ a myriad of tactics, including targeted email campaigns, social media engagement, and marketing automation, to attract, capture, and nurture leads throughout the sales funnel. By delivering personalized content at each touchpoint, they guide prospects towards conversion, maximizing lead-to-customer conversions and revenue generation.
5. Analytics and Performance Monitoring: In the realm of inbound marketing, data reigns supreme. Leveraging advanced analytics tools, inbound marketing agencies track the performance of campaigns, measure key performance indicators (KPIs), and derive actionable insights to refine strategies for optimal results. By adopting a data-driven approach, they continuously iterate and optimize campaigns, ensuring a high return on investment (ROI) and sustainable growth.

Elevating B2B Branding Through Inbound Marketing Excellence

In today’s hyper competitive landscape, branding serves as a cornerstone for B2B success. By aligning their inbound marketing efforts with their brand identity, companies can differentiate themselves from competitors, build credibility, and foster lasting relationships with customers. An inbound marketing company plays a pivotal role in this endeavor, helping clients articulate their brand story, values, and unique selling propositions through compelling content and immersive experiences. By consistently delivering value and addressing pain points, B2B brands can position themselves as trusted advisors, driving brand awareness, loyalty, and advocacy within their target market.

Navigating the Inbound Marketing Landscape for B2B Success

As B2B companies chart their course in the digital era, embracing inbound marketing is not just a choice but a strategic imperative. By partnering with a specialized inbound marketing company, enterprises can unlock the full potential of this transformative methodology, driving sustainable growth, and establishing themselves as leaders in their respective industries. In an age defined by personalized, value-driven marketing, investing in inbound marketing solutions is not merely an option; it’s a prerequisite for B2B success in the modern landscape. As businesses continue to evolve and adapt to changing market dynamics, the role of inbound marketing will only grow in significance, shaping the future of B2B growth and innovation.

Looking to partner with a B2B inbound marketing agency? Contact Bluetext.

In the competitive world of cybersecurity, standing out in search engine results is crucial. However, achieving high rankings requires a unique approach tailored to the industry’s nuances. In this blog post, we’ll explore SEO strategies specifically designed for cybersecurity brands.

1. Secure and Mobile-Friendly Websites

Search engines prioritize secure and mobile-friendly websites. Ensure that your site is HTTPS secured, providing a safe browsing experience. Mobile responsiveness is also a crucial factor, considering the increasing use of smartphones for online activities.

When designing new websites for our clients, we subscribe to a mobile-first mentality, ensuring any new website design works seamlessly on mobile devices. Take our work with Securonix for example. Securonix delivers a next-generation security analytics and operation platform for the modern era of big data and cyber threats. They came to Bluetext to evolve their brand and website with a completely new look. One of the major components of the rebuild of the Securonix website was to ensure every part of the website looked and worked seamlessly on various mobile devices across multiple browsers. Bluetext did extensive regression and cross-browser testing to ensure all pages and functionality were rendered and functioned as intended.

2. Targeted Keyword Optimization

Identify and optimize for relevant keywords specific to cybersecurity. Tailor your content to address common queries and concerns in the cybersecurity landscape. Long-tail keywords that reflect user intent can be particularly effective in attracting the right audience.

A key deliverable in any Bluetext website design and development engagement is the creation of an SEO roadmap, identifying keywords to be implemented across the website including headlines, blog posts, and navigation menus.

3. Quality Content with Expertise

Create high-quality, authoritative content that showcases your expertise in cybersecurity. This can include in-depth articles, whitepapers, and case studies. Valuable content not only attracts organic traffic but also positions your brand as a trusted source of information. 

When developing a new website for our clients, we always recommend developing a robust blog program to establish brand credibility and increase SEO on-page ranking. If clients don’t have the resources in-house to create blog content, we’re happy to do so on their behalf as part of our engagement, ensuring the utilization of the correct SEO keywords and topics.

4. Technical SEO Best Practices

Implement technical SEO best practices, such as optimizing meta tags, improving website speed, and enhancing site navigation. Search engines reward websites that provide a smooth and user-friendly experience.

One tool you can utilize is Google’s PageSpeed Insights. You can analyze your existing website and determine ways to improve your technical SEO score, boosting your on-page search results.

5. Backlinks from Trustworthy Sources

Build a strong backlink profile by obtaining links from authoritative and trustworthy sources within the cybersecurity domain. Collaborate with industry influencers, participate in cybersecurity forums, and contribute to reputable publications to earn quality backlinks.

6. Regular Security Audits

Perform regular security audits not only for the safety of your users but also for SEO. Search engines may penalize insecure websites. By maintaining a secure online environment, you not only protect your users but also ensure your site’s visibility in search results.

7. Local SEO for Targeted Reach

If your cybersecurity brand operates in specific regions, leverage local SEO strategies. Optimize your Google My Business profile, include location-specific keywords, and participate in local cybersecurity events to enhance your presence in local search results.

By combining these SEO strategies tailored for cybersecurity, you can not only improve your search engine rankings but also establish your brand as a go-to resource for users seeking reliable and secure solutions in the digital realm. Need support in developing your SEO strategy? Contact Bluetext for help.

In the fast-paced world of modern marketing, orchestrating digital campaigns requires a diverse set of skills and expertise. Just like a symphony conductor brings together different musicians to create a harmonious masterpiece, digital marketing conductors play a pivotal role in coordinating various channels, strategies, and technologies to achieve marketing success. This blog post aims to shed light on the different types of conductors you might encounter in today’s marketing enterprises, each with its unique strengths and approaches to digital orchestration.

From the search maestro who commands the realm of pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization to the social serenade conductor who creates captivating brand symphonies on social media platforms, there are specialized conductors for every aspect of digital marketing. The content virtuoso excels in crafting compelling and valuable content, while the automation maestra leverages technology to streamline processes and enhance efficiency. The experiential composer, on the other hand, creates immersive brand experiences that leave a lasting impact on the audience.

However, the ultimate conductor possesses a rare combination of superpowers from each specialized conductor. They possess the media mix prowess to seamlessly blend diverse marketing channels, the ability to rebalance resources and optimize campaigns across channels, and the holistic view to orchestrate synchronized touchpoints and deliver consistent messaging. This ideal conductor combines the best practices and strategies from each type, creating a marketing symphony that resonates with the audience, drives results, and takes your brand to new heights. Join us in exploring the world of digital marketing conductors and uncover the key qualities that make the ultimate conductor a force to be reckoned with.

Search Maestro

The Search Maestro is a digital marketing conductor who conducts symphonies of success using the search landscape. With brands like Google and Bing in their repertoire, they skillfully navigate the realm of pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization (SEO). They meticulously research keywords, optimize landing pages, and fine-tune ad campaigns to ensure their audience finds them effortlessly. Utilizing analytics, they track search performance, measure conversions, and continuously refine their strategies for maximum impact.

Social Serenade

The Social Serenade conductor is a masterful orchestrator of social media platforms, enchanting audiences with brands like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest. They harmonize engaging content, captivating visuals, and strategic ad campaigns to create a captivating brand symphony across various social channels. Leveraging analytics, they gain insights into audience behavior, preferences, and trends, enabling them to refine their approach and create personalized experiences. Additionally, they embrace the power of micro-influencers to amplify brand messages and foster authentic connections with their target audience.

Content Virtuoso

The Content Virtuoso conductor is a maestro of compelling and valuable content. They compose blog posts, videos, infographics, and more, interweaving brands like Google and Bing to create a harmonious blend of information and creativity. By utilizing analytics tools, they track content performance, measure engagement, and gather valuable insights about their audience’s preferences. Leveraging personalization techniques, they deliver tailored content experiences that resonate deeply with their audience. Furthermore, they understand the power of short-form and 15×9 video strategies to captivate attention in a fast-paced digital landscape.

Automation Maestro

The Automation Maestro conductor is a wizard in orchestrating efficient marketing workflows. They seamlessly integrate automation tools and platforms like HubSpot and Marketo to orchestrate personalized, timely interactions with their audience. By utilizing analytics, they gain deep insights into customer behavior, allowing them to automate lead nurturing, email marketing, and personalized campaigns. They leverage account-based marketing strategies to target high-value accounts and enhance customer experiences throughout their journey. Their expertise lies in utilizing data-driven insights to optimize their automation processes continually.

Experiential Composer

The Experiential Composer conductor is a visionary in creating immersive brand experiences. They compose multisensory journeys that incorporate digital touchpoints with offline interactions, utilizing platforms like Google, Bing, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. They understand the power of personalization and leverage analytics to craft tailored experiences that resonate deeply with their audience. By harnessing the influence of micro-influencers, they amplify their brand’s reach and foster authentic connections. Their strategy includes capturing attention through short-form content, utilizing platforms like YouTube Shorts, and leveraging the emotional impact of 15×9 videos.

Throughout all these personas, analytics plays a crucial role. By utilizing analytics tools and platforms, they gain valuable insights into campaign performance, audience behavior, and content effectiveness. These insights inform their decision-making process, allowing them to optimize their strategies, refine targeting, and enhance overall marketing orchestration.

The digital marketing conductors described above each excel in their respective domains, showcasing their expertise in search, social media, content, automation, and experiential marketing. However, the ultimate conductor surpasses them all by demonstrating mastery in the media mix, rebalancing, cross-channel optimization, and a holistic approach to orchestration.

The Ultimate Prodigy

The ultimate prodigy conductor is a virtuoso in the media mix, seamlessly blending different marketing channels and mediums to create a harmonious symphony of marketing efforts. They understand that no single channel can achieve optimal results on its own, and thus they skillfully combine the power of search, social media, content, automation, and experiential marketing to create a cohesive and impactful strategy.

Moreover, this conductor possesses a keen sense of rebalancing, continuously monitoring and adjusting the allocation of resources across various channels based on performance and changing market dynamics. They have a deep understanding of the importance of staying agile and adaptable, redistributing budgets, and optimizing efforts to maximize ROI and overall marketing effectiveness.

Cross-channel optimization is at the core of the ultimate conductor’s approach. They understand that each channel has its unique strengths, audience preferences, and engagement patterns. By utilizing analytics and data-driven insights, they orchestrate campaigns that deliver consistent messaging, seamless customer experiences, and synchronized touchpoints across channels. This conductor ensures that each channel complements and reinforces the others, resulting in a cohesive brand presence and enhanced customer journey.

Lastly, this conductor possesses a comprehensive view of the marketing landscape and actively seeks out innovative and emerging channels and strategies. They stay updated on industry trends, technological advancements, and consumer behavior shifts. By being forward-thinking and open to experimentation, they embrace new opportunities to connect with their audience and adapt their orchestration approach accordingly.

In summary, while the individual conductors excel in their specialized domains, the ultimate conductor goes beyond by excelling in the media mix, rebalancing, cross-channel optimization, and maintaining a comprehensive perspective of the entire marketing ecosystem. Their ability to synchronize and harmonize diverse marketing channels enables them to create an impactful and cohesive brand presence, deliver personalized experiences, and achieve exceptional results.

Want to learn more about the conductors operating in your enterprise? Contact us today.

In today’s business climate, companies face fierce competition to capture the attention of their target audience. To succeed, it is crucial to leverage multiple marketing channels effectively. Four key components of a comprehensive marketing strategy are SEO, Paid Media, Social Media, and Content Development. Here at Bluetext, the integration of these marketing strategies is known as digital orchestration. In this blog post, we will explore each of these services and discuss the benefits of hiring a marketing agency like Bluetext to manage them in an integrated fashion, maximizing your business’s online presence and driving success.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the practice of optimizing a website to improve its visibility and organic search rankings on search engine results pages. A marketing agency can help businesses develop a comprehensive SEO strategy, including keyword research, on-page optimization, technical SEO, link building, and content optimization. By achieving higher search engine rankings, companies can attract more targeted organic traffic, increase brand visibility, and establish authority in their industry.

Paid Media

Paid media involves running targeted advertising campaigns across various digital platforms, such as search engines, social media, and display networks. Bluetext can expertly handle the planning, execution, and optimization of paid media campaigns, ensuring maximum return on investment. By leveraging data-driven insights, audience targeting, and ad optimization techniques, businesses can reach their target audience, increase brand exposure, and drive conversions effectively.

Organic Social Media

Social media has become an integral part of modern marketing strategies. A marketing agency can manage a business’s social media presence across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. They create and curate engaging content, interact with the audience, monitor brand mentions, and run targeted social media advertising campaigns. Social media management helps companies build a loyal following, increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, and foster meaningful customer relationships.

Content Development

Content development involves creating high-quality and engaging content that resonates with the target audience. A marketing agency like Bluetext can develop a content strategy aligned with the company’s goals, target market, and SEO strategy. This includes creating blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, and other forms of content. Compelling content not only attracts and engages the audience but also supports SEO efforts, drives organic traffic, and establishes the business as a thought leader in its industry.

Digital Orchestration: Benefits of Integrating Marketing Services

By hiring a marketing agency like Bluetext to orchestrate these services in an integrated way, companies can enjoy several key benefits:

 

1. Holistic Marketing Approach: An integrated approach ensures that all marketing efforts are aligned and work together synergistically, reinforcing each other’s impact and maximizing results.

 

2. Consistent Brand Messaging: An agency can develop a cohesive brand voice and maintain consistent messaging across all marketing channels, enhancing brand recognition and maximizing customer trust.

 

3. Efficient Resource Allocation: Outsourcing marketing services to an agency allows businesses to focus on their core competencies while leveraging the expertise of professionals dedicated to driving marketing success.

 

4. Enhanced Data Analysis: A marketing agency can provide valuable insights and analytics across all marketing channels, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions and optimize their strategies for better performance and ROI.

 

5. Cost-Effectiveness: Outsourcing marketing services to an agency can be more cost-effective than hiring an in-house team, as agencies have the expertise, tools, and resources necessary to deliver results efficiently.

An integrated marketing approach that combines SEO, Paid Media, Social Media, and Content Development can significantly boost a company’s online presence and drive success. By hiring a marketing agency that specializes in these services, businesses can benefit from a cohesive strategy, consistent brand messaging, data-driven insights, and cost-effective resource allocation. Looking for an agency to lead the orchestration of your digital marketing channels? Contact Bluetext today.

It’s common knowledge that a strong SEO strategy is key to a successful website, but diving head first into the world of SEO can feel intimidating, especially when it seems like there are so many tactics you need to keep in mind. If you’ve ever felt lost in the labyrinth of SEO jargon, fear not! We’re here to demystify the world of SEO and set the record straight on which tactics you actually don’t need to prioritize.

1. Geotagging Images: Geotagging images, or embedding location data within image files, was once believed to have a significant impact on SEO. However, search engines have evolved to become smarter in understanding the context and relevance of images without relying solely on geotags. They now prioritize other factors, such as image quality, alt text, surrounding content, and user engagement signals. While geotagging images can still be useful for certain purposes, it is not a necessary or primary factor for SEO benefit. Focusing on other aspects such as optimizing image quality, descriptive alt text, and relevant surrounding content will yield better results in terms of image SEO.
2. Frequent Posting: Posting frequency alone is not a major factor for SEO benefit. While it’s true that regularly updating your website with fresh content is important for keeping your audience engaged, search engines prioritize the quality and relevance of the content rather than the frequency of updates. Instead of fixating on posting as often as possible, it’s more beneficial to focus on creating unique, compelling, and informative content that meets the needs of your target audience. High-quality content that provides value and addresses users’ queries is more likely to attract organic traffic, generate engagement, and earn natural backlinks – all of which are crucial for SEO success. Quality trumps quantity when it comes to SEO, so invest your time and effort into crafting exceptional content that resonates with your audience and aligns with their search intent.
3. Link-Building Shortcuts: Search engines constantly update their algorithms to prioritize high-quality and authoritative content and have become smarter at identifying manipulative link-building practices that aim to artificially inflate website rankings. Engaging in outdated strategies, such as buying or exchanging links in bulk or participating in link farms, can lead to penalties and a significant drop in search rankings. These shortcuts also often result in low-quality or irrelevant backlinks that provide little to no value to the user. Search engines have become more adept at assessing the relevance and quality of links, favoring natural and organic link profiles. Building a network of reputable and authoritative links through legitimate means, such as creating valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks, is a more effective and sustainable approach. It’s also important to keep in mind that building a strong online presence requires trust and authenticity. By resorting to black hat tactics, you risk damaging your reputation and losing the trust of both search engines and users.
4. Keyword Stuffing: One of the most common misconceptions about SEO is the belief that cramming as many keywords as possible into your content will boost your search rankings. In reality, search engines can easily detect keyword stuffing. Instead, focus on creating high-quality, engaging content that naturally incorporates relevant keywords.
5. Meta Tags as Ranking Factors: Another misconception is the overemphasis on meta tags, such as meta keywords and meta descriptions. While these tags were once considered important for SEO, search engines now prioritize other factors, such as the overall content quality, user experience, and relevance of the page. While it’s still good practice to optimize your meta tags, their impact on search rankings is limited.
6. Exact Match Domains: In the past, having an exact match domain (EMD) that precisely matched a keyword was thought to provide a significant SEO advantage. However, search engines now place less importance on EMDs and prioritize user experience and content relevance. A memorable and brandable domain name that reflects your business is often more valuable in the long run.
7. SEO is a One-time Effort: Many people mistakenly view SEO as a one-time task or a quick fix. In reality, SEO is an ongoing process that requires consistent effort and adaptation. Search engines frequently update their algorithms, and competition is constantly evolving. Regularly monitoring and adjusting your SEO strategy is crucial to maintain and improve your search rankings over time.

It’s important to stay updated with the latest SEO practices and be wary of outdated misconceptions. By understanding these common misconceptions and focusing on effective, ethical SEO techniques, you can maximize your website’s visibility and achieve long-term success in search engine rankings.

Over 5 million searches happen on Google every minute. With so much valuable potential site traffic to capture, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the best ways to organically grow your brand exposure. Even if your site content is desirable and relevant, if content editors don’t consider key SEO tactics, your site could go unnoticed. Want to avoid being overlooked by Google’s search engine? Consider these 8 key elements of SEO structure to ensure that your content can be easily found by users in search of your solutions and expertise.

Customizing Title Tags

Title tags are brief, informative lines of copy that describe the page content of the URL shown in search engine results, social media posts, and browser tabs. Titles should include unique information about the page, targeted to one specific keyword (more than one keyword can make the title confusing for end users and can negatively impact search rankings).

How long should the page title be?

The title tag should be between 50-60 characters to avoid getting cut off when displaying in search results. If you’re struggling to fit your titles within this character count limit, try to avoid using uppercase letters (which take up extra space), consider removing your brand name from the title, or use symbols wherever possible to save space (i.e., “&” instead of “and”).

Have more questions about SEO Optimization? See our blog here – SEO Breakdown: How Exactly Does It Work?

Adding Keywords to Secondary Headings

While the highest heading on the page (H1) is most important to SEO crawlers, the secondary page headings can greatly improve SEO rankings if they are also optimized to include targeted keywords. H2s and H3s often get overlooked in optimizing SEO for pages, so they provide a great opportunity for your site to stand out to crawlers.

How many keywords can you optimize for on a single page?

When pages focus on a single topic instead of many, they’re more likely to get higher rankings for that topic. With this in mind, a page should have two or three primary keywords that are variations of the main topic for that page. Four or more keywords will be too many to succinctly fit into the title and headings on the page.

Crafting Rich Content

SEO-optimized content should be oriented toward answering the questions that users are posing to search engines. This content should include terms that are meaningfully related to the main topic of the page, and the copy should have an easy level of readability for accessibility and improved user experience.

What reading level should I write my site content for?

To ensure readability, if you write content in Microsoft Word, you can use the spelling and grammar check tool to access Flesch tests. Your site content should ideally score a 7.0-8.0 on the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scale, or between a 60-70 on the Flesch Reading Ease scale.

Specifying Internal Links with Anchor Text

When linking to other content on your site, ensure that the link text for CTAs is clear and incorporates target keywords or semantic terms, not just generic phrases like “Click Here” or “Learn More.” It is best practice to use verbs to indicate exactly what the user should expect to do when clicking the link.

Is it possible to have too many links leading to other pages on the site?

Having too many links could potentially make your page seem like spam, which can negatively affect rankings. From a user perspective, the journey and desired action on the page should be clear and not overwhelmed with choices. From an SEO perspective, links from authoritative sites (such as government sites, education sites, news sites, etc.) can help SEO rankings, but links from spammy sites can hurt rankings.

Validating E-A-T Standards

E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, is part of Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. Some ways to signal that your site has these qualities (to improve your SEO rankings) include showing more about the authors of your content, citing your materials by linking out to high-quality sources, and updating your content regularly.

How often should I be updating my site content?

At least once a month, content editors should review past content to look for opportunities to improve SEO or remove outdated information. Monthly check-ins should suffice to ensure that previous content still aligns with current business goals and SEO targets. For new content, it’s best to aim to add blogs or thought leadership pieces on a weekly basis to show that your business stays relevant in your industry.

Describing Imagery with Alt Image Text

Meaningful imagery can often provide some of the most important information on web pages. Whether the page features infographics, graphs, or impactful visuals, this information isn’t accessible to SEO or visually impaired users unless content editors are diligent about adding alt text to imagery.

Are there character limits to the length of alt text?

While there are not hard character limits to alt text, it is generally recommended not to exceed 100 characters. If the meaning of the image cannot be conveyed within that limit, then the description should be spelled out in on-page content or image captions for the best user experience.

Answering “People Also Ask” Questions and FAQs

Great content will need to anticipate the next questions that a user might ask after their initial query. For the keywords that you’re targeting, be sure to take a look at the SERPs to get an understanding of what related questions people are asking. To address these FAQs, you can add the question itself directly as a heading in your page content and answer the question clearly with a dedicated paragraph or bulleted list below the heading.

Can I use other types of content to answer the FAQs or PAA questions?

Most often, PAA results are text-based, like you would see in a standard WYSIWYG component. However, they can also include tables, graphics, or videos if that content could prove useful to the Google searcher. As long as your content is clearly and concisely answering the question posed, it’s worth including on the page.

Implementing Valid Schema Markups

Schema Markups are code snippets placed on a web page that allow Google search engines to serve items like rich cards, rich snippets, and the knowledge panel on SERPs. While there’s no proven correlation to SEO ranking improvement, including schema markup elements will allow searchers to find relevant information from your site more quickly and in a more stylized format, compared to the basic title tag and meta description displayed in listings.

Are most of my competitors using Schema Markups?

About a third of Google’s search results use rich snippets, while less than a third of websites use schema markup. This means that there’s ample opportunity to get your site’s content to display in the user-centric stylized formatting on SERPs to earn more site traffic.

SEO strategy can take time to strategically plan and develop relevant content, but a digital agency like Bluetext that specializes in SEO can provide the guidance you need to improve your page rankings. Contact us to learn more about how we can take your SEO practices to the next level.

When talking about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), people are quite attuned to focusing on the website content end of things — such as meta text, internal linking, and keyword selection. What is often forgotten or completely neglected, is the rich media’s end of things. SEO strategies span far beyond text and link updates. As video content continues to grow as a medium for web content delivery, Video SEO is becoming an increasingly significant pillar of content optimization that can’t be ignored.

Like other forms of SEO, Video SEO refers to the process of optimizing video content to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) — whether it be Google or YouTube, or Vimeo. The goal of video SEO is to increase the chances of your video being discovered by potential viewers and driving more traffic to a website, or often in the case of video, a specific channel.

Unsurprisingly, the key concepts that underlie Video SEO are not too different than that of other SEO. The principles that form the foundation of SEO can be applied universally to all forms of content — just with slightly different tactics and methods.

Here are some tips and guidelines to improve your video SEO.

1. Create high-quality video content: Above all else, content matters. SEO itself is a measure to improve visibility and discoverability, but it cannot replace the benefits quality content bequeaths. Quality content is ultimately what drives viewership and viewer retention for future videos. Make sure any video content is high-quality, engaging, and ultimately provides utility and value to your viewers. Anything else is simply a waste of money and worse, a waste of time for the viewer. Longer videos tend to rank and perform better, so aim for videos that are at least 5 minutes long.
2. Conduct keyword research: Just like traditional SEO, keyword research and selection are the most important steps to form a solid foundation for all following SEO activity. Use keyword research tools, like Moz and SEMRush to find the most relevant keywords and phrases related to the video content to be optimized. Recall that even the best videos will never be found if the content itself isn’t referencing commonly queried search terms. Incorporate these keywords into the video title, description, tags, and transcript.
3. Optimize the video title: Think of video titles as parallel to traditional metatext. Use a descriptive and compelling title that accurately reflects the content of the video and includes your target keywords. Keywords should be leveraged early in the title, ideally within the first five words, to improve visibility from relevant viewers. Quality titles will not only attract clickthrough, but they’ll also help the video stand out in a sea of competitors. 
4. Write a detailed video description: A detailed video description will not only help viewers understand the video’s purpose but will also help contextualize your video to the ranking algorithms. The video description should provide a summary of your video, include relevant keywords, and include links to relevant websites and social media channels. As the first 150 characters will be present on Video SERPs, these first few phrases should be clickthrough-driven as much as possible. Leverage phrases like “Find out how…” or “Learn more about…” to increase curiosity and drive views. YouTube allows up to 5000 characters, so feel free to leverage the rest of this space to include detailed descriptions of content and the purpose of the channel at large. 
5. Use relevant video tags: While not as essential as in the past, tags still do help with the contextualization of videos. The listing algorithms will use associated tags to better understand the content of a video and offer related recommendations. However, attaching needless keywords to bulk up a video is a losing proposition — YouTube and other major providers no longer use tags as a direct method for rankings — only to build context and understanding for the algorithm. Instead, only Include relevant tags that accurately describe your video content and include your target keywords.
6. Transcribe your video: Accessibility on the web has increasingly become a cornerstone of Google’s strategy in the past few years. Transcriptions for videos, or better yet, timed subtitles for videos, offer a strategic competitive advantage. Not only will viewers with limited hearing equally enjoy the video content, significantly increasing reach and viewership opportunities, but also the transcription provides crawlable content that a crawler can direct parse, compared to the complex nature of a bot breaking down rich media sources like video. Subtitles will also mean that viewers who cannot activate audio (e.g., in a work/office environment), can still equally enjoy the video. Transcribing and subtitles can be very backbreaking work, so this work is best contracted through a transcription specialist, like Rev.
7. Promote your video on social media: Share the video on social media channels and embed it on your website to increase its visibility and reach. Cross-channel promotions will only increase visibility and viewership, especially if the underlying video channel is less mature.
8. Encourage engagement: Encourage viewers to like, comment, and share the video, as this can improve your engagement and retention rates, which can ultimately boost your video SEO. Ask viewers questions directly in the video (e.g., “What do you think about… or Do you agree with…”) to help stimulate discussion in the comments. Creating a two-way street with the viewer is a great way to drive return visits.

 

Again, the fundamental concepts of SEO remain solidly in place for video — albeit tactically in slightly different locations and methods. As video platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram continue to grow, Video SEO will quickly transition from a competitive advantage to table stakes. Implementing these tips as regular actions for video teams will help keep brands and websites relevant on these newer platforms.

If you’re looking for more help or a broader strategy for video, feel free to contact Bluetext for an in-depth breakdown of how video can help your company to grow.

With all the buzz on AI-generated copy and design tools, we’re all wondering the same unspoken question: Can Google detect AI tools? Is this…allowed? Or looked down upon? With more and more companies beginning to leverage AI-powered tools for their marketing needs we are all wondering whether speed and efficiency may come at the cost of SERP rankings. 

The answers to these questions are muddled, but here’s what we do know: Google itself relies on advanced algorithms and machine learning to detect and evaluate the quality of website content. The entire purpose of search engines is to provide users with the most relevant and useful content possible, hence our society has become so search engine dependent on everything from research to daily needs. Google algorithms are designed to identify and flag low-quality or spammy content.

Google’s spam policy stance defines “Spammy automatically generated (or “auto-generated”) content as content that’s been generated programmatically without producing anything original or adding sufficient value; instead, it’s been generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users.”

Historically, auto-generated content generated by machine learning scrips has had a reputation of being lower quality and overstuffed with keywords aimed at manipulating Google’s search results. This has led Google initiatives to detect this type of content and remove it from the SERPs in an attempt to preserve the integrity of its search results for the end user. 

Google Search Central has stated that “scraping content, even with some modification, is against our spam policy.” As well as confirming that Google has put implemented, “…many algorithms to go after such behaviors and demote site scraping content from other sites.”

Prioritizing high-quality, human-generated content on Google results provides a better search experience for users and maintains their credibility. But with the rise of the new AI tools that promise more natural and higher quality outputs, marketers and writers have the opportunity to utilize these tools to generate higher quality, more helpful content for the users rather than an endless amount of spam content. Quality over quantity has become the universal goal for AI generators and users. 

Therefore, the content generated by GPT-3 and other AI language models like ChatGPT, is at risk of being detected as machine-generated and flagged by Google’s algorithms. Like recognizes like, so there’s a good chance that machine learning algorithms will recognize similar machine learning. As far as technology has come, it will never be a complete substitute for human intellect. The writing style, grammar, and sentence structure of AI-generated content are often not as natural or accurate as human-generated content.

Editing has become the name of the AI game. It’s important to make sure that any content generated by AI models like ChatGPT is carefully reviewed and edited by a real person before being published on your website. This helps ensure that it meets Google’s quality standards and policies, and accurately reflects the subject. If you are choosing to leverage AI tools on your website it’s important to make sure that your website is balanced with plenty of original and unique content, so that it complies with Google’s policies in terms of user experience, design, and navigability.

Whether or not search engine consequences currently exist for websites leveraging AI-generated content has not been confirmed, nor denied by Google. For any company seeking to rank high in search engine results, it’s better to be safe than sorry and maintain a close human eye on your SEO strategy, from content to keyword selection. Contact Bluetext for more information on our expert search engine optimization services. 

3 Ways to Optimize Your Website for Voice Search

We’ve seen how much voice as a channel is growing and how beneficial voice marketing can be for consumers and marketers, but if your company isn’t in a position to invest in voice marketing tools quite yet, there are still plenty of ways to keep up and optimize your website for Voice SEO. 

What exactly is Voice SEO? It’s the optimization of keywords and keyword phrases for searches using voice assistants. According to research by Semrush, on average voice assistants can answer 93.7% of all search queries. And based on research from PWC, 90% of people think voice search is easier than searching online, and 89% think it’s more convenient. From the same study, 71% of people would rather use voice search than physically type a search query. With a voice as a search channel continuing to expand, your website needs to account for this new channel of search, too. So what’re the best ways to optimize your website for voice SEO? Let’s dive in. 

1.  Featured Snippet Optimization

Featured snippets are the selected search results that appear on the top of the search result page as the best answer to a query. Because of its location, a featured snippet is also often called position zero, since it’s above the first result. That sounds like the ideal position, right? Well, you can’t buy your way in if that’s what you’re thinking. Google generates featured snippets organically by checking the relevancy of the information pulled from web pages in Google’s index. Common formats of Featured Snippets include descriptions/definitions, steps/lists, and tables. Featured snippets are especially crucial in voice search since the voice assistant will reply to the answer to a user’s question with the position zero content. 

According to SEMrush, “70% of voice search answers come from SERP features”, Featured Snippets being the most important. And a lot of this process can be AI-driven. Check out our tips on how AI could be an aid to SEO. Another Featured Snippet tip – don’t use your brand name in the featured snippet text. Replacing the brand name with general language will give the content a higher chance of receiving a featured snippet since adding a brand name could make the response too specific for the listener. 

2. Structured Markup

Structured markups (added to the HTML) help Google and other search engines better understand and process your content and help optimize your search results.  You can use schema.org structured annotations to allow Google to reliably retrieve up-to-date information directly from your website. A common and effective schema is FAQ. Adding FAQ schema to your FAQ page can expand your Google result with the most frequently asked questions. And the schema can be added to any place on your site that has FAQs, so to better optimize for voice search, add quick answers to the top of highly trafficked pages and top blog pages.  

The more search engines better understand your content, the better. In fact, there’s even a specific voice-search markup by Google called Speakable that’s currently in beta that marketers should definitely keep an eye on. 

3. Conversation-Based Navigation

Voice search equalizes access to information through conversation. Users can ask for what they want, in their own voice/language/literacy level, etc. But they’re asking, and most websites aren’t written or structured for questions or conversation-based navigation. Voice search is direct; people aren’t looking to explore a ton of search results. They’re looking for a reliable, comprehensive answer that doesn’t require further searching. So re-write your headlines as questions, not statements, for a more conversational format. An easy way to do this is by adding “What is” to the heading. Be sure to summarize the answer directly below the header so it’s easy for a voice assistant to read aloud.

Other basic SEO factors like page speed, good domain ratings, having quality long-form content, and being HTTPS secured, all also play a role in optimizing your website for voice search. Follow these tips to help optimize your website for the rapidly-growing voice search, or contact Bluetext today to learn more about our search engine optimization and content marketing services.

Transitioning or just learning to use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) can be a daunting task, especially amongst all the other work and priorities for a business. That said, with the July changeover date quickly approaching, getting comfortable with these tools will be essential for any marketer or website owner to avoid a nasty surprise when Universal Analytics stops collecting data later this year. There’s a lot changing, and even more to come as the platform evolves. Check out Bluetext’s guide to the differences, similarities and how best to implement. 

Thankfully in 2023, there are now several ways to learn more about Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Here are several resources the Bluetext team has found helpful in gaining knowledge & certifications:

Google Analytics Help Center: Being the authoritative voice in GA4 documentation, the Google Analytics Help Center is an unsurprisingly great place to start. It provides detailed information on how to set up and use GA4, as well as best practices for tracking user behavior and interpreting your data. While at times the language may be dense and often lacking examples, the Help Center should nonetheless be the first destination for any GA4-related inquiry. However, treating it like a cover-to-cover read would be ill-advised, the documentation is simply too dense for that kind of approach.

Skillshop Google Analytics Courses: Google has partnered with the online learning platform Skillshop to offer free courses on a wide range of analytics and measurement topics, including GA4. The best part of the Skillshop courses is they offer a wide variety of courses suitable for any engagement and knowledge level, from the absolute beginner to the seasoned analytics expert. The GA4 Fundamentals course (“Discover the Next Generation of Google Analytics”) is a great place to start if you’re new to the platform, while certification is a great goal for marketers who deal with analytics daily. Being an official Google partner will give you confidence that the knowledge you attain will be relevant for years to come.

Google Blogs and articles: There are many blogs and articles that cover GA4 and provide tips and best practices for using the platform. Unlike the official documentation in the Help Center, many of these blogs leverage real-world case studies to offer a more handheld, realistic experience of implementing and troubleshooting GA4. Some good places to start include the official Google Analytics blog, Analytics Mania (which offer some of the most in-depth tutorials), and Simo Ahava’s blog, which offers a great high-level overlook of the newest features within GA4.

Official GA4 Community: Joining Google Analytics community is another great way to learn about GA4. Here you can find many experienced users and experts, who are happy to help and share their knowledge. The massive size of this forum means that it is quite likely some other individual has run into similar (if not the same) roadblocks and needed a workaround. Topics are also helpfully gathered into relevant topic tags, like “Implementation” and “Reporting”.

It’s worth mentioning that GA4 is relatively new, so many resources and best practices are still evolving and being developed, so it’s important to stay up to date with the latest developments in the GA4 space. While these resources are among the best as of January 2023, the speed at which GA4 develops may also bring about newer communities and information sources that can and will supersede the resources listed today.

If you need help or consulting regarding GA4 and you couldn’t find a solution through these resources alone, contact Bluetext about our GA4 consultation and implementation services. Bluetext’s project management team takes pride in staying up to date on the latest certifications, including GA4, to support their client’s needs.

A Leading Google Analytics Agency

Bluetext is a leading Google Analytics agency with clients across the US and worldwide. We help companies of all sizes understand what their users are doing so they can be where their customers are. Whether you need help migrating to GA4 or tracking keywords on organic search, our team of strategists can help you optimize your digital presence to help you achieve your marketing goals.